Transcripts For WRC Today 20110927 : vimarsana.com

chest pains after taping of her show, then later jokes with her audience. the paramedics were strippers i had called. and says she s totally fine. today tuesday, september 27th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m ann curry. and i m lester holt in for matt this morning. you said, say what? the president was probably wondering the same thing. a guy gets up and says will you raise my taxes. the president wants to raise taxes on wealthier americans and what he heard was music to his ears. we ll get more on the renewed calls for governor chris matthews to jump into the race. he has been insisting he wouldn t run but would he consider being a running mate. opening statements in the criminal trial of michael jackson s personal physician and the singer s oldest son, prince, is on the prosecution s witness list. will he be called to testify about his father s death? we re live at the courthouse coming up. that s right, lass man da knox is back in court after a gruelling day on monday where she was blasted by one lawyer involved in the case. the latest in a live report from italy as well. we ll talk exclusively to the parents of a 14-year-old new york boy whose tragic suicide is casting a spotlight on teen bullying. why they refuse to let their son s death be in vain. before we get to all of that we begin to with the presidential politics. chuck todd, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. all of the presidential incumbents are scattered around the country raising money this week. it s chris matthews who is raising eyebrows this morning. hello, l.a. reporter: the president s gone hollywood for one night headlining a fund-raiser monday at the hollywood house of blues. four more years! reporter: $250 a person to get in, $10,000 to get a picture with the president. if all of you are willing to press on with me, i promise you, i promise you we will remind the world why america is the greatest nation on earth. reporter: mostly the president is raising money for his re-election campaign hoping to pull in about $148 from this three-state tour but also sneaking in campaigning for his new jobs plan. both audiences are notably friendly. would you please raise my taxes? reporter: using the job networking site linkedin for town hall meeting he heard from retired google executive doug edwards who said he wanted more spending on job training, education and phrain structure. i appreciate the fact you recognize we re in this thing together. reporter: rick perry s coming to the capitol today to raise money. still regrouping from his poor debate performance, perry s camp takes comfort in a new cnn poll still showing him ahead of romney but republicans uneasy with both perry and romney have launched another effort to convince new jersey governor chris matthews to run, although he continues to maintain he doesn t want to. you don t feel that deeply in your heart that it is, then you have no business asking anybody for their money or their vote. reporter: but christie has a schedule that rifles any presidential candidate hitting three key states including a speech today at the reagan library, nancy reagan personally extended the invitation. this is enormously flattering, it enhances his prestige, his position in the party. it certainly doesn t hurt his chances of being picked as a running mate, and then finally, it elevates his stature down the road if he decides to run for president in 2016 or 2020. reporter: there s a lot of tea leaf reading going on with chris matthews and whether he would jump in. former new jersey governor tom caine says the governor is thinking of it and the title for christie s speech at the reagan library real american exceptionalism that s the speech title that a presidential candidate might give, lester. chuck todd, thanks. nicole wallace is a political strategist and served as white house communications under george w. bush and author of a new novel it s classified. the book is called it s classified it s not classified. not anymore. clhris christie says he s no reading his lips. the danger is that independent voters are truly up for grabs in a way that they haven t been in the last two presidential cycles and if we continue to disparage or field we run the risk of turning them off. talk to me about rick perry, a couple of uneven shall we say performances in debates, he lost, came in second in the florida straw poll despite xheeting thexheet in competing there. people s central problem with rick perry he isn t enough like mitt romney. he isn t smooth enough. he hasn t smoothed out the edges which are revealed when anyone steps on to the national political stage for the first time but the problem with that judgment of him is that mitt romney s problem for the last five years is that he doesn t have enough of perry s guts or straight talk or feistiness, so i think we re really in this quagmire of wanting what we can t have. is the party looking between the two guys like who else is out there? we keep hearing chris christie. would it the party welcome a centrist? i don t think so. i think that s a long shot at best but i this i ththink the p is to looking for agaging in se behaviors saying i m not interested in the candidates. it was called polarizing trends costing us the ability to execute even the most basic functions of government he talked about politicians forced to play to hard core elements of their base. is this what we re seeing in the republican race right now? is the voice of the independent simply not being heard? it reminds me a little bit of what was the defeat of hillary clinton. she was an establishment in the contest. the democrats went for someone more exciting, more to the left on foreign policy and other issues and i think you hear a lot of people certainly in this town with a little bit of buyer s remorse. plenty of time on your hand, now out of the white house, to write books. it s classified as your second, sequel to 18 acres which featured a female president. this novel gets at one s fitness to serve, a female vice president who is hiding a debilitating mental illness from the white house staff and the president and it s about really how washington becomes engulfed in the hunt for the truth about this woman s fitness for office. all right, nicole wallace always great to have you. thank you so much. now let s get a check of the rest of the morning s top stories from natalie morales. good morning, everyone. a federal government shutdown has likely been averted after senate leaders agreed to a compromise that would keep the country up and running through november 18th but the move forced the senate to abandon plans to replenish disaster aid funds, instead a smaller aid package will move forward. protesters camping out on wall street got an unexpected visit last night from filmmaker michael moore. the protest against corporate greed is in its second week. protest called moore s visit a moral boost. some video released of a police officer using pepper spray on women during that standoff saturday. the nypd calls the officer s actions appropriate. and now let s head to wall street, a government watchdog says billions of dollars of settlements between fannie mae, freddie mac and bank of america were not supervised. courtney, good morning. good morning. the inspector general for the federal finance agency is saying freddie mac wasn t aggressive enough when it came to reviewing loans. critical of a january settlement between freddie and bank of america that resolved $1.3 billion worth of loan claims, the fhfa says that freddie mac may be passively absorbing billions of dollars in losses that it could have avoided in an attempt to maintain business relationships with bank of america and other large clients. natalie, back to you. courtney regan, thank you. a peruvian tv station has claimed it has obtained video of joran van der sloot claiming yes to killing stephany flores. van der sloot would be willing to confess to a simple homicide charge. van der sloot is a long time suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of american teen natalee holloway in aruba. paramedics were called for ellen degeneres tight pains. i woke up in the middle of the night, chest pains, something was heavy on my chest and it was a cat so i moved it. i still felt tightness, and that s because there were two cats. let me just say, i m fine, i m fine and the paramedics were strippers that i had called, and so she went on to thank those paramedics for caring so much. good thing she took it seriously. 7:11, let s turn it back to ann, lester and al. better to be safe than sorry. she tweeted thank you for your concern. i wasn t feeling great so i called the paramedics. the mouth to mouth was fine but totally not needed. meantime mr. roker is here. the upper level low will not upper level low that will not get out of here. it s still sitting and spinning around there. the rainfall amounts anywhere from one to two inches of rain, nothing too horrible and nothing but a pain. we will show you we have showers making their way into the pacific northwest. and cooler conditions through the midwest. chicago, only getting up in the upper 50s with showers and more rain down in the southeast, and a risk of strong thunderstorms along the southeastern coast. here is what is happening in your neck of the woods. cloudy and humid. temperatures around 70 now. on radar we are getting passing showers from south to north. good morning. i am tom kierein, and we will have this with us from time to time much through the morning and in the afternoon. before you head off to work and school grab an umbrella, you will need it later today. passing showers and thunderstorms into the evening and highs near 80. that s your latest weather. lester? al, thanks. it s another emotional day at the murder/conviction appeal of amanda knox a day after one lawyer used harsh words to describe the american college student. nbc s keith miller is in perugia where he s followed the case every step of the way. keith, good morning. reporter: good morning, leather. in these final days of at peel the actual gloves are off with both the prosecution and the defense trying to deliver a knockout blow. the result will be amanda knox and her co-defendant being set free or spending the rest of their lives in prison. the intensity of the closing arguments is taking a toll on everyone. amanda knox entered the courtroom looking exhausted. this morning, attorneys for raffaele sollecito, knox s co-defendant launched their closing defendants. they will hammer away at the prosecution s dna evidence which independent forensic scientists call unreliable. the prosecution says its theory that knox and her former boyfriend murdered meredith kercher in a sex game gone wrong is rock solid. on monday lawyers for the civil plaintiffs attacked knox s character. the lawyer for a man falsely accused by knox of being the murderer called her a she devil. the college student from seattle, her eyes cast down, was described as a spell-casting witch, who devoted her life to sex, drugs and alcohol. knox s father, sitting nearby, was visibly upset. the all-out assault on adm a amanda s character and who she is was so over the top it was incredible. i mean it was tough to listen to and it was tough for amanda to listen to as well. reporter: the lawyer representing the victim s family failed to clear the court. there was a gasp in the courtroom which is always clear to the press before grew some pictures are displayed. one woman broke down in tears, another called the prosecutor evil, and was escorted from the courtroom. the civil lawyer, francesco maresca apologized for the lapse but said the photo illustrated his point that more than one person murdered kercher. a verdict could come within a week and we re told that the family of the victim will prafl here to perugia to hear the decision of the two judges and six jurors. lester? keith miller, thanks. it is 7:15. once again here s ann. laster thanks. if you find you have to leave home earlier and earlier just to make it on time you re not alone. a new report says rush hour is hardly living up to its name and costing us a lot of money. tom costello is in potomac, maryland, with the story. good morning. reporter: good morning. aside 270 behind me. we re spending five hours less in traffic than we did six years, the poor economy and less traffic on the road are the reasons but still all the waiting that we do is costing us more than $700 each, each year. folks would like to double their speed this morning. no can do. reporter: from the left coast to the right, rush hour these days amounts to six hours of going nowhere fast. i just hate it. i mean, what s more to say about traffic than you hate it in. take a deep breath, i m going to be stuck in traffic, nothing i can do, out of my hands and try to make the most of it. reporter: turns you the he and we are in good company. look at this, in 1982 the average computer spent 14 hours waiting in traffic. by 1992, that was up to 28 hours. today, it s 34 hours of lost time. but when the competent recovers, we could all be facing another three hours of delay by 2015 and seven hours by 2020. that s 41 hours stuck in traffic each year. researchers at texas a&m did this study. we talked to tim lomax via skype. we haven t built enough system, whether it s roads or transit to handle the population and employment growth we ve seen over the last decade or so. reporter: the top ten worst commuting cities, metro washington, d.c., with 74 lost hours per year, chicago follows with 71, l.a. with 64, then houston, new york metro, baltimore, san francisco, denver, boston, dallas and minneapolis, and here s an interesting factoid, 40% of the delays occur in the midday and overnight hours. i drive around like 10 or 20 hours a week, i m stuck in traffic all the time. reporter: one contributing factor, the condition of our roads and bridges. one in nine bridges are deficient, every second of every day an american driver crosses a deficient bridge in bad need of repair. reporter: that s 69,000 bridges. meanwhile the economic cost of all this congestion, $100 billion. slow drive on the 405 from about roscoe up. reporter: a slow drive indeed. all right, one way that we could address this issue, one way would be to allow businesses to modify work schedules for employees, a lot of them have come in earlier or later, so hopefully you can free up the highways. 4:00 a.m. as a work time start time might not be a bad idea, right, ann? that s right. we kind of know about that don t we. listen, you really don t want to know about that. tom costello thank you so much this morning. close to home. some pretty frightening new video, showing what it was like to be inside the washington monument when the earthquake struck the d.c. area last month. it shows people including a park ranger at the top of the monument racing for the stairs, as you can see the building started to shake quite violently. nicky williams was the park ranger on duty that day. good morning. good morning. there you were somewhat 500 feet up, the mortar is starting to fall from the building. there isn t any audio on this surveillance tape but can you tell us what it sounded like, t high during this earthquake? it was very frightening and you see the video that i almost instantly look at the camera that s filmi because the metal apparatus for the elevator began to zing and shake. you have people crying out screaming. i eventually make the decision we re going to run down the stairs, i start shouting out go down the stairs, that s when you see the group of people follow me down the stairs, very loud, very noisy but eventually everyone s working together with me. nicky, what did you think was happening, washington, d.c., terror is on your minds. was that the first thought you had, this was some sort of attack? that was the first thought i had, some sort of attack, but i figured whatever was happening the best place was not at the top, but the bottom of the monument. my next thought was to get out of there. in terms of how long it took to you get out, you also helped an elderly woman get out. sounds as though it took you a little bit longer than it took the others. how long did it take you to get out? well we were fortunate, of the 20 people up there, the rest of them were able to rush down the stairs. when i assisted that woman down it took us about ten minutes and it was about two minutes into the whole ordeal is when finally it comes across my radio that it is an earthquake, it was not an attack. i was able to comfort myself and the woman i was helping down the stairwell. meantime, plenty of cracks they discovered in the monument itself. i hear they re going to rappel down and take a closer look today. yeah, they re going to go out all four of the windows and rappel fun all four sides. we can see from your eyes a degree of relief that it was just an earthquake. would you rather than a terrorist attack. would you say you have any issues of going back up inside the monument to do your job? if they can guarantee me that it is going to be stable and secure i will go back. okay, well there you go, they ve got to guarantee it s going to be stable and secure. thanks so much, nicky, for joining us. good luck and congratulations on doing the right thing up there. thank you. for all of our friends on the west coast discounting that quake look at the video. pretty scary for a lot of people. coming up the manslaughter trial of michael jackson s personal physician gets under way today. will the singer s oldest son be called to testify about what he saw the night of his father s death? we ll get the latest and also hear from jackson s brother, jermaine. first, this is today on nbc. 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of coffee every time. keurig brewed. look for the only mark of genuine keurig quality. i am a face unclogger. i am a nose coach. i am a throat untickler. i am a human cough suppressant. and i am the sniffles worst nightmare. i am a target pharmacist. ask me about cold and flu remedies. the world needs more energy. where s it going to come from? that s why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what s it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we ve got to be smart about this. it s a smart way to go. good morning. seeing a lot of congestion in our area. here is a look at 270, and you will see delays in both directions, no accidents to report. 395 at duke, those lanes are packed and delays continue as you head towards the 14th street bridge. another news update in 25 minutes, but now we will go back to the today 7:30 now on this tuesday morning, september 27th, 2011. pretty happy looking crowd this morning gathered outside in rockefeller plaza. despite some dreary weather we re happy they woke up early to spend time with us and give them time to wave to their families back home. i m ann curry alongside lester holt in for matt this morning. so great to see you. coming up the ongoing search for answers in the death of an american on a border lake in texas. david and tiffany hartley were jet skiing. david body has never been recovered. coming out his wife will speak out in a live interview. a brave woman. a criminal investigation is now under way in connection with a suicide of a 14-year-old new york boy, jamey, who took his own life after his family said he was victimized by bullies online and at that school and now that boy s parents are preaching a message of tolerance. we ll hear from them exclusively coming up this morning. later on we ll try to lighten things up and show you how to get creative with coupons. one family who trimmed their grocery bill by $1,000 a month will reveal their secrets for big savings. $1,000 a month? that s what we ll start doing. start clipping. we begin with the manslaughter trial of michael jackson s personal physician dr. conrad murray. nbc s lee cowan is outside the courthouse in los angeles. good morning. reporter: good morning, this is certainly going to be a highly publicized trial. all of it starting today will be televised, the jury made up of seven men, five women. half of them already told the judge they re michael jackson fans. still this isn t michael jackson s trial, it s his doctors. if the defense has his way the king of pop is going to be on trial, too. reporter: it was one of the last rehearsals of his life. his brother says the superstar was anything but the superstar of oweld. i couldn t believe he was the same person. reporter: different how? he was a skeleton. reporter: the this is it tour start was three weeks away and in an effort to battle chronic insomnia, jackson had started using proepofol as a sleep aid. two days later we have a gentleman here, he s not breathing. reporter: michael jackson was gone. we re trying to pump him but he s not, he s not okay. reporter: the cause? an overdose of propofol administered prosecutors say by jackson s physician, dr. conrad murray. former prosecutor now defense attorney robin sachs. they ll look at the fact he administered propofol in a home, no the a hospital setting. reporter: he insists he s not to blame. your honor i m an innocent man. reporter: pled not guilty to voluntary manslaughter. jackson s brother who wrote about his feelings in a new book with a lot of questions. we need to find out why, why, why. reporter: the prosecution will focus on conrad murray the doctor, the defense is expected to focus on michael jackson the entertainer. reporter: jackson s fans remember a shining career that spanned a lifetime from child phenon to the king of pop but jackson s extreme talent had a dark side, too. his odd and sometimes controversial lifestyle, the marriages, the surgeries, his acquittal of child molestation charges had taken their toll. the defense will try to paint jackson as a man under so much pressure to deliver a successful tour that drugs were his only hope. linda deutsche is a veteran reporter of celebrity trials. the defense will argue he was under great stress, he couldn t sleep because of the stress and that he was demanding more and more drugs to get him to sleep. reporter: so much his defense team says it may not have been murray who administered the fatal dose of propofol, it might have been jackson himself. that michael jackson could have been the one to take it himself, that in and of itself could amount to reasonable doubt. reporter: but that could be a risky strategy. you can t blame the victim for his own death. you can try, but whether a jury will accept it is another question. reporter: ann that jury could be in for the long haul. the trial is expected to last up to five weeks. the jury is not sequestered. the judge warned they have to try to stay away from the publicity but in a case like this a lot of people are worrying that may be just shy of impossible. thank you so much. lee cowan. savannah guthrie, and star jones, good morning to you two. good morning. the charge of involuntary manslaughter basically raises the question, was the defendant reckless or negligent and did someone die because of that. in this particular case the prosecution talking about whether conrad murray should have been using the drug propofol in a nonsurgical setting. propofol is state-of-the-art when it comes to anesthetics right now. no one uses it outside of a surge cat setting, i ve not heard any doctor say that s acceptable much less in someone s home without monitoring equipment, life saving equipment and some sort of anesthetist nurse. we ve heard from lee s report the defense will be talking about how michael jackson was an addict and that he may actually have administered this drug to himself at times. it sounds as though the victim is going to become the person on trial here. in some ways that s clearly what the defense wants to do. the judge limited what the defense is going to be able to present in terms of michael jackson s past drug use, his lifestyle, but some of that will come in and eventually some of the defense s argument, it wasn t dr. conrad murray who administered the fatal dose of propofol, it was michael jackson himself. however the issue of involuntary manslaughter is whether or not this doctor deviated from the standard of care, whether it was gross negligence and the prosecutor also make an argument using propofol, the powerful anesthetic in any other context but inside a hospital room will amount to that negligence. one of the people on the list it to testify it michael jackson s son, prince, and that speaks to the fact that he was called into the room when all this went down. most people don t realize that the child does not just play a part as the son of the victim. he is an actual eye and ear witness to behaviors immediately prior to and following his father s death. he will know what the room looked like. he ll be able to give his own keen observations. one of the concerns is, as a child, will they allow cameras to cover his testimony, and i understand that the lawyers are going to be arguing that at the very least no cameras will be trained on him while he s testifying. just the specter of this case, the jurors acknowledged they were once fans of michael jackson. i was. i know very many in my age group that are not. that is the problem finding a jury that hasn t heard of him. and a lot of the jurors have heard about the prior criminal allegations against michael jackson who was of course acquitted of accusations of child,. yes i think half of the jurors said i used to be a fan of michael jackson. they ll know about this entire person and i think they have vowed and taken an oath they can set aside their prior feelings about him and judge the case on its facts. some think the legacy of michael jackson will be on trial. we have this fantasy of who our icon is, when the covers are peeled back i m really afraid from a fan s perspective we re not going to feel the same way. we ll find out what happens, it s just getting started. thank you so much, star and savannah. now let s get a check of the weather from al. thank you so much. let s see what s happening out there, we have a nice group of folks, still a little on the humid side. temperatures, 90s through southern texas, on into the southwest, 60s around the great lakes, move into tomorrow the 60s start to make their way a and the 60s start to make their way further east, and then as we move on into thursday, can you see the cooler weather stretching from the plains into new england. the heat continues down in texas. more wet weather in the pacific northwest and showers continue in the northeast and we have the upper level low in the great lakes and wet weather through the gulf as well, and that s what is going on around the country and here is what happening in your neck of the woods. cloudy and muggy this morning, temperatures around 70. showers advancing southwest to northeast from loudoun county through parts of fairfax and the district of columbia, prince georges, calvert, these are advancing off to the northeast and will continue to be with us throughout the day, maybe with thunder and lightning. and perhaps a few more this evening. and then much smaller chance, wednesday, thursday and friday. don t forget, check your weather any time of the day or or not, go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. a wife s quest for justice, nearly a year after her husband was shot on a u.s./mexico border lake. she ll be speaking out exclusively in a live interview coming up right after this. 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[ female announcer ] nutri-grain one good decision. can lead to another. with real fruit, more of the whole grains your body needs, and a good source of fiber. nutri-grain can help you eat better all day. back now at 7:43, this friday marks one year since american david hartley was killed on a texas border lake while jet skiing with his wife. his death described as an attack by mexican pirates. in a moment we ll talk to david s wife exclusively but first nbc s janet shaleyan has more. as the investigation drags on, david hartley s body has yet to be found but tiffany remains committed to bringing him home. david and tiffany hartley had one more adventure planned in texas before moving back home to colorado, a sightseeing trip, jet skiing on a reservoir separating mexico and the united stat states. a routine traffic stop captured david s final hours. where are you headed to? after visiting an old church on the mexican side the couple was headed baaing to the u.s. shore when their lives changed forever. mexican pirates on speedboats started firing at them. david was shot in the head. tiffany tried to save her husband but the barrage of bullet was relentless. she made a heartwrenching decision to leave david behind, her life hanging in the balance. after reaching safe ground, tiffany called 911. are you sure that your husband got shot? yes, in his head. was he thrown out of the jet ski, he s in the water or something? he was thrown off the jet ski and i couldn t pick him up to get him on mine. we just plead we get him back. reporter: mexican officials began casting doubt on her story. she never wavered. i don t have anything except for my word. reporter: a private tragedy, an international incident. shining a bright light on the violent mexican drug war. mexican police searched for david and the investigation honed in on zetta drug cartel members. two weeks into the case the investigator was brutally murdered. with the search called off for david s body tiffany final i had had to face back moving home alone? how are you going to go on, going to start a new life back in colorado without david. how? i don t know. i just know i ve got god s grace behind me and i know he has a plan and that s all i can stand on right now. reporter: a plan that has included speaking out, reminding everyone just how dangerous the border can be. the cartel members are taking over mexico, and they re killing anyone in their way. reporter: almost a year later, the investigation into david s death moved slowly. the heart of the investigation is continuing, we have not stopped. it s ate matter of trying to coordinate between two countries. reporter: just last week, tiffany and david s mom returned to falcon lake, they continue the fight to bring david home. honey i miss you so much. reporter: as they still wrestle with their grief. you ll always carry a place in our heart forever. according to the state department 111 americans were killed in mexico last year, nearly half near the texas border and none of the crimes have been solved. tiffany hartley is with us exclusively. thank you for being here. talk about the trip back to falcon lake no, justice over the last year and you don t have david back. tell me about the sense of emptiness that you re feeling. well it was definitely a hard day to go back. there was still a little bit of joy of us at the time in august and enjoying the lake. it s a beautiful lake but it s, the hardest part for me was leaving the lake, because i felt like i was leaving him all over again, and there s nothing i could do to get him home. so much of the important work should be taking place on the mexican side of the border, we noted the investigator in the case, the lead investigator was murdered. do you feel that was the point that the search really ended? yeah, yeah, i think after he was murdered, they kind of ended the search. you know, the cartels, they put threat into you and they threaten the military and the police, local police, so. do you on some level understand what they re going through or is there still a sense of frustration that they ve dropped it on all levels? i understand what they re going through but at the same time i feel like our government could also do more. i mean we do more when the, like the i.c.e. agent, when he was killed, the government did more on that and i think they should do more with us. the local sheriff has been active in texas in the investigation. is that where you re getting most of your information? yeah, he s been a real help. really outside of that, we don t have much communication with anyone else. the mexican authorities at one point early on doubted your story. what was that like to have people question your story, and even suggest that maybe you had something to do with david s death? it was hard, but i, you know, i ve stood in my truth and i was there that day, so i know what happened, and i had to just rely and believe god would take care of me and bring people forward to say what they heard that day, like the people who heard the gunshots that day. you ve been very public in sharing your story, you ve testified at numerous occasions speaking out about border security issues. what is driving you here? is it your own quest for personal justice or is there a cautionary tale here you want told? i think there s a little bit of both. i think it s, you know, finding justice for us, getting david home and on top of that there s a bigger issue that david and i and the situation that we are in there is a bigger issue, there is a bigger light to this whole story of what s going on the border that america doesn t know and i feel like i need to do that, i need to be their voice, i need to be the people who can t speak out. i need to help them be able to say what they want to say, about you they haven t, because they fear for of their lives. ann called you brave a few moments ago. you certainly are, and we thank you for coming on and talking and i know what s a difficult time for you. appreciate it. thank you very much. tiffany artley. we ll take a break and be back with more in a moment. 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[ man ] still love that wind in my face! talk to your doctor. don t kid yourself about the risk of heart attack and stroke. if lipitor s been working for you, stay with it. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month with the lipitor co-pay card. terms and conditions apply. learn more at lipitorforyou.com. announcing shipped for free, guaranteed to last. no minimum order. no end date. from l.l. bean. good morning. we have 71 degrees right now. it s 7:56 on this tuesday, the 27th of september. another ugly woman. no harm meant to anybody watching. let s go to tom kierein to look outside. sure beats the inferno we had last summer, to put it in perspective. and closer to washington, we re getting light showers in prince georges county and into calvert county, and a few other showers in montgomery and loudoun county as well. later today, maybe other passing showers and thunderstorms this afternoon, with highs near 80. a smaller chance on thursday good morning. traveling the inner loop of the welt way in prince georges county, those delays continue as you make your way across the woodrow wilson bridge. you can see these cars are bumper to pumper. and head into virginia, those delays continue. you are traveling at 36 miles per hour. joe, back to you. that looks tough. another news update if 25 minutes. minutes. look at that, someone just gave me a special aruban shell, that is. and they say, that if you put it to your ear, you can actually hear the sound of the sea. wow that s. it is ! it s amazing ! you really. you can hear the sea ! it s. it feels so real. it sounds like you re almost there. ya know ? it s amazing. hello ? 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, it s the 27th day of september, 2011, right around 70 degrees here in midtown manhattan. however, the clouds are an indication it could rain later. we ll find out from al what the story is about that. outside on the plaza i m ann curry and lester holt and the aforementioned al roker. an important topic in the next half hour, a story about a 14-year-old boy, his name was jamey rodemeyer, he was tormented in school, come tout to say he was gay and fought back against the torment becoming an activist against bullying even making a video for the it gets better project but jamey took his own life a week ago, his parents are vowing to carry on their son s work and they re joining us. there they are on the sofa this morning to talk about this exclusively coming up. brave folks, good to have them here also having an ongoing conversation in new york at nbc about education, how to fix our nation s schools and one of our guests today former first lady laura bush will offer her thoughts on what it will take to improve our educational system. that s right. later on an inside look at the world of extreme couponing, one family is going to share their secrets. they use coupons and slash their monthly grocery bill by $1,000. that is just remarkable. you re bon dwondering how they that. a lot of organizing and discipline. maybe that s a road map for the rest of us. a check of the weather, are we going to have some rain? we are. are we going to go the news first? oh, that s right, oh i m so sorry. natalie, forgive me. thanks for remembering me, al, lester and ann, good morning, everyone. president obama tours a high school and he talks up his jobs bill today in denver. last night at a hollywood fund-raiser he told supporter s people are wary and the energy of the campaign will be handled in a different way. new jersey governor chris christie is speaking today at the reagan presidential library in california, as republicans try to draft him for a presidential run. the appeal of american college student amanda knox convicted of stabbing her roommate to death in italy on monday the victim s family shocked the courtroom by pronging gruesome photos of the victim. defense attorneys will attack the prosecution s dna evidence. knox is expected to testify later this week. the united nations security council will hold a formal meeting tomorrow to consider the palestinian request for full recognition as a state. the u.s. threatened to veto any statehood bid arguing that direct talks between the palestinians and israel are the only route to lasting peace. fatherhood may be good for man s health. the largest study to date of men s fertility dads are less likely than childless men due to heart related problems. and the u.s. postal service is ending its long time rule that stamps cannot honor people that are still alive. a person had to be deceased for several years before they could appear on a stamp but now the post office is taking suggestions from the public on which living legend to live first. the change came so honorees could see their stamps. trend of what you are talking about ontyn, the dead sea scrolls are a hot topic. israel s national museum and google put five of the scrolls on monday along with english translations. the scrolls found more than a half century ago include the oldest known surviving copies of biblical documents. according to tmz warner brothers will pay the fired two and a half men star $25 million and another for syndication rights. you might call that winning. bad buzz for jersey shore governor chris christie has blocked a tax credit for the show because he says it hurts the state s image. it is 8:04 right now. back outside to al with a check of your weather. today s weather from education nation s learning plaza is brought to you by microsoft. who believes every student has the right to a quality education, and that technology can help. and i am back here at nbc s education nation plaza. it s the nbc news education nation experience, and what s kind of cool among the activities here, we all have these words probably on our refrigerator wall, we ve got a giant version. how will you help create an education nation? you can come in and change a lot of these words around from knowledge, economy, community, country, all great words, to help you inspire and leave a message on this wall. let s ch wall. let s check your weather and see what is going on. we ll show you for today, we are looking at the pick city, t toledo, ohio. you can see the upper level low just spinning around the great lakes. it has been taking its own sweet time getting kicked out of here and will eventually get kicked out by the week. we have showers in the pacific northwest. the sunshine continues from the southwest on into southern california. 87 degrees today in los angeles we re looking at showers here in the midwest, and that s what is going on around the country and here is what is happening in your neck of the woods. cloudy and mild, muggy, temperatures around 70 or so. the radar showing scattered showers from western maryland to the panhandle of west virginia, and getting one shower there in southern loudoun county into maryland. and further south and east into calvert county, those are heading north and east. temperatures around 80. a few more passing showers, today is actually the final day of our education nation experience, so if you re in the new york area come on down to rockefeller plaza and experience it all. you want more information? go to our website educationnation.com. lester? al, thanks very much. up next the tragic suicide of a 14-year-old boy, leading to renewed calls to end bullying. we ll talk to his parents and hear their message after this. 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[ male announcer ] join the members of aarp and tell washington to stop cuts to our medicare and social security benefits. back now at 8:10 with the tragic death of a new york teenager that s getting worldwide attention. earlier this month he was found dead outside his own home of an apparent suicide. we ll ta you can to jamey s parents exclusively in a moment but first the powerful message jamey leaves behind. here s nbc s kate snow. reporter: at his funeral an outpouring of love, family, friends, complete strangers, all paying tribute to jamey rodemeyer, all hoping a tragic loss can send a message of tolerance. hey, jen. just want to say i love you, and how amazing you are. reporter: like a lot of 14-year-old boys, jamey was quiet and insecure one moment, joking around the next. his online videos were part diary, part empowerment. his family says he was a victim of bullying and he often talked about it. you should give for everyone, gay, straight or bi, transgender. reporter: hindsight from may of this year just after jamey came out to friends and family. i m just here to tell you it does get better. reporter: he recorded this video for the it gets getter project a nationwide campaign to tell gay teens that life does eventually get better but jamey clearly struggled with comments people made about him. it would be like faggot, fag and taunt me in the hallways. i felt i could never escape it. reporter: september 8th he commented i always say how bullied i am but no one listens. days later post aid lyric from a lady gaga song don t forget me when i come crying to heaven s door. the day before his death he sent lady gaga a message on twitter bye mother monster. thank you for all you have done. september 18th jamey was found dead outside buffalo home, a victim of suicide. let s do this one for jamey. reporter: over the weekend lady gaga dedicated a concert to jamey rodemeyer asking fans to take a stand in his memory. she tweeted bullying must become illegal. it is a hate kroo im. this must end. our generation has the power to end it. about the singer spoke with president obama on sunday at a fund-raising event in california. the two talked briefly about the president s anti-bullying campaign. hold your head up and you ll go far, because that s all you have to do, just love yourself and you re set. reporter: jaimy rode mire s cry for help went unanswered. but his mother has vowed to carry on jamey s work, standing up for bullied teens. it was so important to him and it took him away from our family, way too early. reporter: kate snow, nbc news, new york. jamey s parents, tracy and tim rodemeyer join us exclusively now. i know he died just a week ago. he was buried just last weekend, our condolences, everyone watching is sorry for you. thank you. he had some pretty ugly comments posted online to him, i m going to read a couple of them to you because i know you re here because you want to make a difference so let s talk about that. some of the comments were jamey, you re stupid, gay, fat and ugly. he must die. another post read i wouldn t care if you died, no one would, so just do it. it would make everyone way more happier. these comments, is it true, continued even after he died? yes. yes, it was the first day of his wake, and my daughter, we let her go to the school dance because it was homecoming week that jamey was really looking forward to, and we thought it would be great for her to be with all her friends and she was texting that she was having a great time, then all of a sudden a lady gaga song came on and they call started chanting for jamey, all his friends and whatever, and then the bullies that put him into this situation started chanting you re better off dead, we re glad you re dead, and things like that and my daughter came home all upset, and you know, it was supposed to be a time for her to grieve and have fun with her friends, and it turned into bullying even after he s gone. tim, what explains this in your mind? this hate toward your son? i can t grass. in my mind. i don t know why anyone would do that. they have no heart. basically what it comes down to, to me. there are more than 4,500 suicides committed by people ages between the ages of 10 and 24, last year, in the united states. do you see, and many we don t know how many but some of those kids, perhaps a lot of them, a significant number even perhaps, are gay kids. do you see that this could be part of a bigger problem? oh, definitely. i mean, jamey s been talking about bullying as a whole since he was in fifth grade, and it s just as time goes by, we re hearing, you know, more and more stories, just in the couple days of his wake and the day of his funeral, all of the parents and kids that have come to us and seen, you know, just telling us about what is still happening out there, and what is happening, all of them saying oh my kids were bullied, they were bullied for three years or i m a kid and i ve been bullied for the last two or three years and all the same story and it s just got to stop. do you think our churches, our politicians and other adults who adhere to an anti-gay message enable some of this hate? yes, i think it does. people have different views on things, and if you believe in homosexuality is right or wrong, that s your right as an american, but it s no reason to bully someone, and hate them. and make them feel worthless. i know you were very i m going to point out you re wearing a bandana that jamey wore, says gaga on this. he made this and said he was going to wear it every day of the school year. you re wearing a shirt that says it gets better wearing fwa ga on your arms, and you re pointing out lady gaga because as we saw in the piece she dedicated a song to him, said jamey, i know you re up there looking at us, you re not a victim, and also ricky martin tweeted his 4 million followers saying how many lives do we have to lose to finally stop the harassment, hatred, bigotry and abuse? only after his death did you see what he had posted online, jamey, he said i always say how bullied i am, but no one listens. what do i have to do so that people will listen to me? did he confide his feelings to you? did you wish he confided more? back in fifth, sixth and seventh grade he used to talk about it openly. he had a rough three years. eighth grade went pretty darned good but it was more sticking up to are other people and this year everything seemed to be going wonderful for him. he asked him every day after school, you know, what s going on? are you getting bullied, and he just kept it in, and was putting on the brave face for everybody, and had he said it once to me, you know, because i asked him, has it followed you to high school, and he said no to us. had he once said it but you don t want that brave face to be the last part of the story. you say you don t want him to die in vain. what is your message to parents listening right now, some of whom are parents of gay children, some of whom know their kids have been bullied in the past, and who want to protect their children from this kind of feeling of worthlessness that your son felt after all of this bullying. what do you want to say about it? my message to the parents is badger your kids and make them talk or get them the help they need. there s lots and lots of other people that maybe they ll talk to. there s a lot of organizations out there that maybe they ll talk to, but get them to talk. we try to get jamey to talk to us constantly, and he just kept it in. he just put up a brave face but just don t let it go, if you know they ve been bullied in the past, keep on them, go to the school, do whatever you have to, to make sure that they re getting the help they need. you had a beautiful boy. yes, he ll forever be in our hearts. and i can see that you are firmly committed to making sure we remember who he was and what he stood for. yes, and basically we say we can t do this on our own but we are going to carry on jamey s mission and everyone across america, across the world, whatever anybody can do to stand up for everybody, everybody else. tracy and tim rodemeyer, thank you so much. thank you. thank you. we re so sorry for your suffering. thank you very much. we ll be right back. do we have aflac. aflac. and major medical? 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[ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. apply online or at a bank of america near you. today s money is brought to you by bank of america. this morning on today s money inside the coupon craze, how would you like to feed your family for pennies a day? tlc s popular show extreme couponing profiles the lives of couponers and reveals their secret for snagging incredible deals. good morning april and joan. joan you have a family of nine. an average how much do you spend per month? about $200 and get about $5,000 of groceries and donate will 80% of that. april, you have seven teenagers. what are you forking out? seven teenagers and an infant to we do about $400 a month but that includes feeding other members of our parish, about 200 people we feed on the weekends. both of you are helping other folks with the couponing craze. this is a bunch of items you got with coupons at extreme discounts or in some cases free, a huge va irrelevariety. i get it s $1 off or 50 cents off. the artificial sweetener made it free. every time i bought one i made $1.50 in store credit so i bought $100 and used the $150 t mulch my yard. do clerk freak out when you see them? a lot of times they get excited, with he bring our coupon entourage when we re donating to shelters and they ll septemb set up a line for us. we stay within the guidelines get and and donate it. this is a huge organizational thing, where do the coupons come from, more than just the sunday paper. for me in particular i don t have time to go through the newspaper and clip so i go to clipping services and order coupons that way, i can get in and get out, see what my specials are, get my coupons organized and they send them to me so i don t spend too much time. joni huge time xhismecommitm? if you are doing it yourself. coupons.com, redplum.com, blogs, i have a blog, freetastesgood.com, shows you how to get the matches and the frees. there s a lot of things you can use. other people want to do this. it can be done. fascinating story, joni and april. the new the new season of extreme couponing premieres more on tlc. 8:26 is your time now on this tuesday, september 27th, 2011. good morning. i am eun yang. let s go to tom kierein for a look at the forecast right now. it s still cloudy and muggy, too. we re in the low 70s throughout much of the region. we had a few passing showers. the areas of moving color are light showers. right now, there s a little bit of light rain in northern s shenandoah valley. and the highs will be near 80, and then a smaller chance of any more rain on wednesday, thursday more ra[ female announcer ]rsday can a health insurance company be ahead of the curve and still completely behind you? dave thinks so. he s putting two kids through college. and aetna s payment estimator lets him compare in-network specialists and out-of-pocket costs. so he knows what to expect before getting the bill. money saved. see the savings. aetna.com. aetna. know more. get better. oh, won t you be good to yourself? and don t you feel like coming home? it ll be like coming home [ male announcer ] some rooms feel like a fish bowl. but in our roomy suites, you can spread out and live a little. with breakfast, dinner, and drinks included, you ll feel right at home. la la-la-la-la la la la good morning. just a few minutes ago we had a bus collision that occurred in southeast minnesota avenue and nash place. expect some delays and there are reported injuries there. route 4 southbound just past the beltway, there s an accident blocking your center lane. more news, weather and traffic in 25 minutes, but for now back to the today show after the short break. we will see [ female announcer ] at verizonfios.com, you can choose your channel package. you can choose your own internet speeds. you can even choose to chat with a live person. and you re always guaranteed the lowest prices online. so don t wait. try, compare and buy at verizonfios.com today. because there s never been a better time to build the perfect fios bundle. 8:30 now on a tuesday morning, it s september 27th, 2011, good morning, everyone. our crowd is in a good mood this morning, donating school supplies to communities in need for our education nation campaign, and that s our good friend jianna dilorenzo pitching in. if you go to our website we ll tell you how you can donate to a school in your own community. former bush lady is stopping by our plaza for a live interview. as a mother and former teacher, she ll share her thoughts with us and what she s doing to try to get our schools on the right track. when giana is done collecting education supplies she s going to be heading back up to our kitchen, making her favorite chili recipes including a chili recipe that calls for chocolate. hey now, that s what i m all about. yes. all right, also coming up if you have a half sibling out there, would you want to meet them? two young women connected by the same anonymous sperm donor who found each other online, share their emotional story coming up. first, now i can throw to the weather. all righty. for the last off hour we forgot forgot about me. let s check your weather. a wet weather in the northeast, and showers in the pacific northwest, and wet weather stretching down through the gulf coast, and as we move into tomorrow, the upper level low slowly makes its way out of the country. we will look at more rain in the southeast, and into the panhandle of florida. western two thirds of the country, sunny, mild, down right hot from texas on into interior sections of nevada and california. that s what is going on around the country, here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. another cloudy, mild and humid morning. right now it s in the low 70s throughout much of the region and the radar showing this area of color light showers. thunder and lightning moving into garrett county and western allegheny county in maryland. and in the south, some showers. occasional showers and maybe thunder later today. a don t forget you can check your weather any time of the day or not, go to the weather channel on cable or online. now let s check in with uncle willy scott. hey, uncle willy. i love the name agnes, my name was agnes mcintosh and she puffed up rolled dough. let me get my glasses while the jam jars spins around for your happiness. oh, agnes chartier, she is from leawood, kansas, i don t know that i ve been there, i will someday, 104, looking forward to getting 104 cards on her 104th birthday. ruby streets of west branch, iowa, 102, the fair loves to play all kinds of games, bingo is her favorite, receives fl flowers all the time and likes to bowl. not on top of the flowers but you no he what i mean. frederick petzold from oshkosh, bygosh. 100 years old today, was an avid, i mean avid fisherman for years at 100 and loves to volunteer and help people in the neighborhood where he lives. here s william cox jr., he is from warner robins, georgia. how about that. anyway, loves to drink wine. he s a very nice wine connoisseur, a little ripple, that s a good year. esther volk of carry, north carolina, 100 years old today and loves to give great advice. she s the guru of swami in the neighborhood, down on the swami river, and bernice lockhart of jacksonville, illinois, 100 years old today, still reads all the newspapers and she doesn t need glasses. wish i could say that. back to new york. still ahead a live interview with former first lady laura bush. first this is today on nbc. education nation today is proudly brought to you by university of fee mix because we believe an educated world is a better world. so we ve made our way to the set of nbc s education nation and we re now joined by former first lady laura push and she has made education her signature issue during her husband s administration and she s carrying on her work through the george w. bush presidential center in dallas. mrs. bush, what a pleasure. good morning. good morning, ann. welcome back to our broadcast. thanks. you have spent so many years as an elementary school teacher, as a librarian, but now when it s possible for you to rest on your laurels, you re still working on education. why are you still working on this challenge? because i m still interested in education and i think it s very important for everyone to continue to work on education and talk about education, and it s never over. it s something we have to work on every year, because there s a new class that comes in, or there s a new group of teachers that start teaching for the first time, and it s really important for our children and frankly, for our whole country that we try to really make sure children all over our country get a great education. one of the initiatives from the bush institutes specifically focuses on principles. that s right. training principles. now why this focus on principles? why are principles so important? principals structure the schools, they have a way to help their teachers and children succeed. they re the ones who can change the curriculum, if they see what they re doing isn t working, so it s really important. there are also only about 90,000 principals nationwide. there are probably 6 or 7 million teachers. principals are the ones who can make sure that every year children have an effective teacher. we know that what really makes children have a good education is if they have an effective teacher every single year, and principals can make sure that happens. they re the leaders. they re the leaders of the schools and so what we ve announced is called arol, the alliance to reform educational leadership. we re working with preparation programs around the country, working with the colleges of education, with large school districts, with state school districts and looking at all of the different ways principals are prepared and recruited, and then what we want to do is help other school districts in other states really figure out instead of reinventing the wheel really figure out the ways they can make sure their principals are both prepared to be great leaders and to structure really great schools, and also that their principals have the authority aligned with their responsibility to make sure their schools are excellent. how widespread is this effort to train these principals? how many principals do you hope to train? what s at goal? our goal is in ten years to have half of those 90,000 principals certified in some sort of certification or training. it s a very big and audacious project. right now we re just at the stage where we re working with all these different groups who do principal training and principal recruitment to figure out the best, what are the best practices, and how can we get those best practices out to school districts everywhere. meantime i need to ask you, just last week, the education secretary arouretary arne dunca there would be adjustments in the no child left behind policy. with 20/20 hindsight is it possible adjustments make sense now, it s time to look at no child left behind? absolutely. we know that on any legislation that as time goes on it s a good exami idea to examine it, to see what s working in legislation and what can be changed and i think that s what has happened. they ve looked at it and they had these ideas but one of the things they say that we certainly agree with is that accountability is very important. if we don t measure and assess our students progress, then we won t know how they are progressing, and what we can do to change to make sure we re addressing the needs that they have, and that s one of the things that accountability does. it gives us the chance to diagnose the problems in education and then to come up with the solutions or the right curriculum or the most effective way to train teachers to take care of those problems. you talk about coming up with bright solutions but we re living through such a contentious time as you know miss first lady. do you believe that we can actually solve these problems of education, given these times? i do. i think it s something that we ll work on forever. it isn t something we ll finish tomorrow but i do think we can. it s not a zero sum game. there s not just one way to do anything. there s a myriad of ways to do it, and we know that. we can tell that charter schools are successful in many cases, that all boys education or all girls education and many public school districts especially large urban school districts are trying to offer their children in their districts a myriad of possibilities. magnet schools that just emphasize science and math or the arts are other ways to help children be successful, and then to really be able to graduate a high school with a good job opportunity or a chance to go to college. all right, we re going to continue our conversation here at education nation, but now we re going to say good-bye to our audience at the today show and tell you that you can watch more of this conversation if you d like on educationnation.com and msnbc.com. meantime much more coming up on the today show. this is today on nbc. [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose to make the world a safer place. that s the value of performance. northrop grumman. we re back now at 8:45, cooking with giada de laurentiis, making short ribs topped with shaved chocolate. i pause but it s you. i know. before we talk about the beef what s going on here? what are you it putting in it? this is a bit of a departure for me, it gives it a rich and smoky flavor to this chili. we have ancho chilies, and new mexico also known as anaheim chilies. these are spicy. you can take the seeds out and just make it a mild but smoky chili. got it. you chop those up, put them in hot water for five minutes to soften them and puree them in the blender so it looks like this, gives it body. brown the short ribs, i m using beef short ribs, nice big thick cuts, lots of meat and tender. brown them, season with salt and pepper and brown them. take them out. in that fat you see in there, which is good stuff, you can skim it off later. add red onion, garlic is that coffee? it is espresso? no kidding. is it going to have a molee taste? exactly. it gives it a nice kick and technically in northern italy we do a lot of espresso chocolate and beef, not necessarily with the chilies but sort of a combination of southwestern italian dish. a little oregano and cumin and beef broth. this goes in the fat that comes off the beef. and add the beef short ribs back in here, put them in the oven covered for two and a half hours, slowly kiss integrates and falls apart? it s better over time? you put it in the oven at 350 and forget it for two and a half hours and it s even better the next day. that s the great thing about chili. this is what it ends up looking like. you add all of the meat back in there, take the meat out there and shred it off of the bone. you add the black beans as well and you add if you want a little more of a smoky kick chipotle, chipotle peppers in a can, puree them. that s optional. it depends. on the more spice you want. you take this and cut, this was hot, you d have to let it cool down but cut it in chunks or you can shred it, add the meat back in, and let it simmer in five minutes. how are we going to serve all this? so moving all over here, look at the colors. i like to serve it over creamy polenta with corn. this is not your typical bowl of chili. this is giada version. it s working for you. i like to set up a topping bar, scallions, bacon, chilies, lime. pick your topping and i ll pick mine. okay, all right. i m going to, can i just do it with my fingers? there s a spoon. it s just me and you lester, all good. i want to put the scallions and i like the bacon. typical. just kidding. i want to try the chocolate. what is that going to do? sweet and smoky. i ll get my spoon. a little scallion because it looks so pretty. a little shot of that, poleta. look at lester goin . you no he what? the chocolate works. you like it? it does have a molee kind of taste and flavor. the chocolate gives it a little bit of sweetness. we need to move back. because if you don t like beef i got a great vegetarian chili verde. this is what we do in a pot. tomatios, peel them and clean them, sort of like tomatoes, onions, yam. almost out of time. show us what it looks like when all of this is done. this is what it looks like and i serve it with cornbread. and i ll take a quick bite. or dip it with the cornbread. excellent. excellent. giada de laurentiis always fun to have you here, chocolate on your chili. still ahead, the hottest fall fashions. first this is today on nbc. [ cow mooing ] [ female announcer ] there s no need to produce foods yourself to be sure they re 100% natural. now there s open nature foods from safeway. no preservatives, no artificial anything. all within budget. a wide choice of natural foods that meet your high standards. open nature. only at safeway. children are conceived every day with the help of anonymous sperm donors. when they re older how much should they know about where they came from and what rights do they have to meet potential half siblings? a new document dear from the style network called sperm donor tells the story of half siblings who find each other. i m flying out to arizona to surprise karas on her prom. people might say well your family is your family, blood doesn t matter, but to me it does matter. hi. hi. oh, my god! hi! hi. wow! surprise, oh my gosh. yeah, surprise. i can t believe you re here. yeah, i flew out. wow, hi. adrian van volkemer-brown and karas feldman, good morning to you. thank you. that was the first time you met karas your half sister as it turns out. you had been talking, communicating on facebook and found yourself through the donor sibling registry. right. what was that moment for you, to finally meet her? i was so nervous before it all happened. i just thought what if she doesn t like me? it s going to be so awkward, i m really shy, but we just clicked instantly, and she, you know, she s so outgoing, she just jumped up and gave me a hug and it was great. karas you weren t expecting that. you knew about her but weren t expecting the visit getting ready for your prom. it was such a surprise. i never expected to have the opportunity to meet adrian in person. did you recognize her immediately? i did. we contacted each other on facebook a few months prior to that. i found out later her parents thought that her showing up at my prom might traumatize me, but that didn t turn out to be the case. quite the opposite, a good thing. back to your respective chooi childhoods. adrian at what point did you decide you wanted to find out who your biological father was? i was 18 my freshman year of college and i just decided that it would be a good thing to know for sure. that was quite traumatic. you grew up with a traditional family, your father turns out i have a great dad, yeah. it ourturns out he wasn t yo biological father. they used a spoeerm donor. had to be a difficult moment. it was bittersweet because upset about i thought for sure he was going to be my biological father. there was some question there, but you know, after the initial shock of it all, i realized i m going to have half siblings out there, and i m going to have people who can connect to me and are like me and it s been just that, it s been great. look how rewarding it is, you met karas but turns out you both found out you have other half siblings, about eight of them that you know of right now. there are eight of us total. i know you ve been active in trying to meet them as well, right? um-hum. adrian your situation, did you want to find out who your bi biological father as well? i definitely did. i had a bit of a different childhood growing up. my mother passed away when i was 7 and i was adopted and my adopted mother passed away when i was 13 so i had curiosity as to who my biological father was and i was imagining the possibilities about meeting him, asking him questions and when i finally had solid information to look for him off of the donor number, i was able to join the donor sibling registry with the intent of finding him. i didn t even consider i d be able to meet half siblings. it raises a lot of questions about regulation i think when it comes to the possibility of sperm donation, so we re going to be following your story. ladies thanks so much. a great documentier, adrian and karas. catch the premiere of sperm don donor tonight on the style network. just ahead, answers to your diet questions. we re back after your local news. it raises questions to the 8:56 is your time now on this tuesday, september 27th, 2011. i am eun yang. let s go to tom kierein with our forecast. is there rain in the forecast? yeah, we had a few scattered showers in the last couple hours and now they are beginning to cross the bay. and further to the north along the pennsylvania border, and into the panhandle of west virginia, around washington, a few light sprinkles scattered around and clouds will be with us the rest of the day. and a passing shower is possible later. a small good morning. traveling in southeast d.c., still seeing the bus collision. this is on minnesota avenue and nash place, just before you pass 295. checking cameras in that area, it s not slowing you down too bad. but we are seeing red in the outer belt loop, and new hampshire avenue, cars are driving slowly. those delays as you make your way towards georgia avenue and 66, delays start heading east at germantown road inside the beltway. more news, weather and back now, more of today on this tuesday morning. it s the 27th day of september, 2011, a little humid this morning, isn t it, for a fall morning. we ve got a great group of people outside. they don t seem to be minding kicking off their day here in rockefeller plaza. i m ann curry along with lester holt, al roker and savannah guthrie. matt has the morning off this morning. meantime in this half hour a health scare for a popular talk show host, ellen degeneres, who called paramedics after feeling some tightness in her chest on monday. she s laughing about it now, during her show but it wasn t a laughing matter when she felt that tightness in her chest. wasn t a laughing matter then but she has some pretty good material out of it actually. in our diet s.o.s. joy bauer is answers questions, why indulging in our favorite sodas won t necessarily ruin our diet and the type of oatmeal to avoid if you re diabetic and the time of day, does it matter when eating high calorie treats. our biology, are we making food choices based on our biology or actual sex? some people say that s why men tend to prefer meat and women tend to crave desserts and chocolate. hmm. i must be in touch with both because i love meat and dessert. we ve always accused you of being in touch with your feminine side, that s funny. jill martin is here with fashion and function, high-tech gadgets and the high-tech boots for the winter so you can get your pedicure and let the nail polish dry. who knew we needed that? in february. we we get our manny pedis we know that. natalie morales, good morning. ai federal government shutdown has likely been averted after senate leaders agreed to a xro he miz to keep the country up and running through november 18th but the move forced the senate to abandon plans to replenish disaster aid coffers. a smaller aid package will move forward. amanda knox, american student accused of killing her british roommate in 2007. the prosecutors called her a diabolical she devil pushing her life sentence in prison. knox denies the charges against her and hopes to be released after four years in jail, expected to address the court later this week. some dramatic new video from inside the washington monument shows the terror during last month s earthquake, about 500 feet in the air, no one was hurt amazingly. the park ranger seen on the video helping to get tourists out thought they were under attack. crews are expected to rappel dune t down the exterior to survey the damage. looking at the long-term effects of caffeine on mood disorders, coffee may lower a woman s disk of depression. the study by the harvard school of public health followed 50,000 women for ten years. those who drank two to three cups of coffee a day were 15% less likely to develop depression compared to those who drank one or less each day. ellen degeneres is laughing off a scary moment on her talk show set, when paramedics were called after she began suffering chest pains. i woke up in the middle of the night and feeling the tightness on the chest, felt like something heavy was on my chest, and it was a cat so i moved it, then i still felt the tightness and heaviness, it was another cat under those cat, there were two cats on my chest. i m fine, let me just say i m fine. [ cheers and applause ] and the paramedics were strippers that i had called, and so she went on to thank those paramedics for caring so much and as you heard, totally, she s totally fine. you might think that beer and unicycles just don t mix but put dozens of beer bottles in a row and you ve got a record breaking stunt. a ger ran unicyclist rode over the bottle force 30 feet. he took his show on the road riding his unicycle across the alps. i see something for our senior producer don nash to work on. let s go to al with a check of the weather. today s weather brought to you by advil, make the switch to advil now. we are here at our nbc news education nation experience and we want to remind you that we re trying to do something to help schools all across the country, especially in need of school supplies. it s our school supply drive, all week we re collecting notebooks, pencils, rulers, crayons, anything that you can use in a classroom to help out schools that are in need. for more information go to our website, today.com, and get more information. let s check your weather for you. today we have got the upper level low spinning around the lower great lakes. we re trying to get it kicked out of here so we can get rid of the showers plaguing the great lakes in the northeast. and then more showers move into the pacific northwest. cooler temperatures through the great lakes. temperatures nice and warm under the ridge of high pressure out west. 83 in salt lake and 81 in billings. look for a high of 101 in phoenix, arizona. that s what is going on around the country and here is what is happening in your neck of the woods. cloudy and temperatures in the low 70s now. it s quite humid. we have a few passing showers. there s one batch of rain coming into the lower shenandoah valley. they are getting a light rain now and that may make its way in the metro area in the next couple hours. and passing showers are possible with highs around 80. and that s your latest weather. savannah? sending out an s.o.s. al, thanks, this morning on joy s diet s.o.s. answers to your daily diet dilemma. joy bauer talking about everything from getting your soda fix to the healthiest time to eat oatmeal. good morning, savannah. right to the skype lines, annette in indiana this morning. what is your question? good morning. my question is that i m 47 years old and i want to lose ten pounds but my biggest downfall is i m a huge pepsi drinker, and i tell myself all the time that i m going to cut down or just stop, but i never do. so i m desperate. can you help me? okay, joy, yes you probably know i am totally anti-soda, but i could also understand how difficult it is to give up the things that we love and everybody has their own personal thing and yours is clearly the soda, so i think this is the perfect compromise. give yourself one can each day of your pepsi, and don t waste it with your meals because your taste buds are already excited by the food, instead drink it either after lunch or after dinner. if you do that, one can is only 150 calories, you re not going to feel deprived, not going to prevent you from losing weight and i think it s a perfect middle ground. all right annette. you can do this! maybe sparkling water if you like the fizzy feeling in your mouth. the one daily can and other than that, sparkling water. next question, lindsay on the phone from duluth, georgia, lindsay, good morning. caller: good morning. what is your question? caller: i was wondering, is it better to splurge either on a meal or a single high calorie item early in the day so you can work off those extra calories or does it really matter? it doesn t make a difference. when we are strictly talking about weight loss, we re not talking about blood sugars or bloating, just about weight loss, all your body is concerned with are the collective calories at the end of the day so whether you eat that chocolate doughnut for 500 calories at 9:00 in the morning or evening, it s not going to affect weight gain or weight loss so selectively splurge and when do you account for the calories and plug it in at any point during the day. lindsey, i liked where you were going, eat earlier in the day and work it off. caller: thanks, joy. no tricks. e-mail from stacie in pennsylvania, does instant oatmeal have the same nutritional content as regular oatmeal? instant oatmeal and old-fashioned has the same nutrition. 150 calories per half cup dry, both the soluble fiber which helps to lower cholesterol and both whole grains. the only downside to the instant oatmeal is that it s rolled super thin to cook quicker and because of that, it increases the glycemic index so what that means is you ll have blood sugars that rise higher and quicker after the instant oatmeal versus after a longer cooking oatmeal and the best oatmeal for diabetics are the steel cut oats because it has the least impact on blood sugars. for people with diabetes and having an issue with the blood sugars you re better off with the longer oatmeal. for others, go with which ever you want. they have the same nutrition. melissa in atlanta, i m working out with a trainer to slim down and lose body fat, i m 42-year-old, 5 7 , 156 pounds and work out four times a week. i eat 1,000 to 1,100 calories on non-workout days and 1,100 to 1,200 calories on workout days. is this too low? probably not but i worry if it s sustainable. 1,200 to 1,600 calories, you re eating enough to get the right nutrition, you don t have fatigue issues, don t get so hungry you feel like you re going to binge. if she feels okay between 1,000 and 1,200 calories it s fine to continue, a personal issue. joy bauer thanks. thanks, savannah. still to come, surviving the college crunch, advice on picking a school that fits your student budget. and everything from fall footwear to personalized party favors. what s that? we ll find out after this. 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[ male announcer ] take action. take advil®. 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? covergirl trublend has skin twin technology. other makeup can sit on your skin, so it looks like.makeup. but trublend has skin twin technology to actually merge with your skin. how easy breezy beautiful is that? trublend.from covergirl. i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i ve always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. even well-fitting dentures let in food particles. super poligrip is zinc free. with just a few dabs, it s clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you re more comfortable and confident while you eat. super poligrip free made the kiwi an enjoyable experience. [ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip. [ guy ] ring, ring. progresso. i love your new loaded potato with bacon. that s what we like to hear. ring, ring. progresso. .switch our phone service? .no, i think we re pretty happy with our phones. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. hush, little baby don t you cry soon the sun is going to shine [ male announcer ] toyota presents the prius family. walk if i want, talk if i want [ male announcer ] there s the original one. the bigger one. the smaller one. and the one that plugs in. they re all a little different, just like us. give me everything tonight this morning on jill s fun finds all about faction and function. today us weekly contributor jill martin is here with contributions. good morning. what s wrong with you? here is the after, here is the before. let s talk about tights. tights as we are seeing are very cool. we have things for men but we re going to start with women obviously. obviously. the way to change your outfit from day to night through tights. emile yo vavalini and pretty polly have great options between $20 and $30 and amazing way to dress up that little black dress. have fun with your tights. next all weather boots, you need a care this time of year. these are good ones you found? nobody knows how to look chic in the rain. what do i wear? these are $55 available at kohls.com. you don t look like you threw yourself together with these. very preppy. these are an interesting idea. he looic to get our p we still like to get our pedis in the fall. i love the name, bootypies.com. wear them like this on the way to the pedicure, when you re done, push them down. bootypies.com. i love that. socks, you can have a lot of fun with your socks, the moostache socks. always fun to wear a fun pair of socks. i know a lot of men who wear fun socks. al likes to have fun with his socks, he likes the argyle. it s sockittome.com, and 80% of the designs are submitted by consumers so you see the different patterns here and you can really have fun if you have a muss cash it s perfect, for the holidays, there s toast, bicycles, glasses, there s low ones and high ones for boots, $9 for each. good. for your kiddies i love this. okay, this three for the price of two, from spacecadets.com. babies always lose one sock so you have a third and still have your pair. great idea. comes in packs of three. brilliant. i have a million stocks with just one pair left. josh and luke probably a long time ago. exactly. now these little shoes? these are new and unbelievable as a gift and for fall from striderite.com. look at shrek. the little yoda. oh, is that what that is? cookie monster and all of the ones for toddlers and for kids as well. so $28 at stride rite. very cute. next over here to keep their head and fingers warm? matching sets. how cute this, boden usa. a lot of people can t find cases from the iphone 4. casemate.com, water resistant and the monster patterns for kids and adults. when your child says i want to use your iphone everyone s like ahh! what do i do? it s called the woogie, this is griffintechnology.com and it protects your iphone. throw it around and nothing happens. i get a lot of e-mails people saying how do i clean my ipad, my iphone, my itouch. you clean it with a smartcloth. $9.99 to $19.99. any random jane dot-com, write on it, it s reversible, put it in a frame, for kids dress up pictures or give a gift of wine and you can personalize it. personalize it as well, personalized gifts, too? foryourparty.com, napkins, match boxes, we put that there for today show. rubic s coup? i m a big fan, these are coasters. i love this $19.95, spacecadets.com, the the encyclopedia of immaturity how to never grow up, a great gift or how to spice up your party, how to balance a spoon on your nose to how to fake a cold. we all need that at one point in our lives. coming up next, actor producer seth rogen is back to talk about the movie 50/50. flexpen comes pre-filled with the insulin i take and i can dial the exact dose of insulin i need. i live my life on the go and need an on-the-go insulin. i don t need to carry a cooler with flexpen. novolog is a fast-acting, man-made insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes. do not inject novolog if you do not plan to eat within 5 to 10 minutes after injection to avoid low blood sugar. tell your healthcare provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions, including if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. the most common side effect of novolog is low blood sugar. other possible side effects include reactions at the injection site. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions, body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat or sweating. ask your healthcare provider about novolog flexpen today. learn more about the different insulins available in flexpen at myflexpen.com. flexpen, insulin delivery that goes with you. the recommended amounts of whole grain and calcium. that s where their favorite cereals can help. general mills big g has the only leading line of kid cereals with at least eight grams of whole grain and a good source of calcium. help them grow up strong with general mills kid cereals. and a good source of calcium. what is that? it burns! it s singeing me! woman: i can t see! it s the sun. get out of the office more often with chili s $6 lunch break combos, featuring texas toast half sandwiches. chili s lunch break combos you can t change the way banking works. just accept it, man. free ? doesn t close at five ? try nature. it s a bank. what do you want, a hug ? just accept it. hidden fees, fine print, or they ll stick it to you some other way. stay with the herd, son. accept it. just accept it. accept it. just accept it. accept it. if we miss this movie, you re dead. if you re stuck accepting banking nonsense, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. back now two of the stars of the movie 50/50 gordan levy and seth rogen, also producer of the film called 50/50. seth, you fresh off of hosting the fourth hour of the today show, you survived. still recovering i think, yeah, a little piece of me left in there i think, yeah. it was fun. and this a personal story for you because one of your friends will reiser wrote the script, when he developed cancer. six years ago, we had been good friends for a little while, he had a massive tumor in his spine and he got better thank god and afterwards we realized we couldn t think of a movie that kind of represented how we experienced that. he didn t lose his sense of humor, still wanted to go to bars and still dated girls and humor just came from how everyone reacted to what was happening to him, so we thought it would be cool to make a movie that represents our experience. joseph, you may of course his friend the cancer patient. yes. this is a story that there s a lot of comedy, but drama as well involved here. what do you want people to know going to see the ifily tsunami. for me it was an honest story. we weren t trying to make it funnier or sad, just trying to tell the genuine story of what it was like for phil and the humor comes naturally. that s okay. the truth is even in horrible circumstances sometimes horrible things happen. you say the character is the worst version of yourself reacting to these really trying circumstances. yeah. again what we found is like people just don t know what to say and the truth is there is really no right thing to say but what we did, we used humor to deal with it probably because we are comedy writers but laughter is the best medicine. 50/50 opens friday. 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 and i m feeling good more people choose weight watchers than any other weight loss plan in the world. because it works. join for free. 9:26 is your time on this tuesday, september 27th. let s check the forecast now. meteorologist, tom kierein is in the storm center with the latest. this morning, of course another morning with clouds but we also had passing showers earlier, and they settled down now. and we have rain riding up through the southern blue ridge and maybe coming into the metro area in another couple hours. and still humid tomorrow, and again, near 80, but a smaller chance of any showers and sun in and out and then smaller chances on thursday and friday, but cool and dry for the good morning. still seeing delays in the outer loop of the beltway in maryland. still very slow as you make your way passed georgia avenue. and the view on 270 at falls road, these cars driving pretty slowly. and as you head towards the s.p.e.r., it s not so bad. and taking the 14th street bridge, still seeing congestion in the area as well. more news, weather and traffic for you in just 25 et? i m not gonna write you a love song cause you asked for it cause you need one you see i m not gonna write you a love song that is grammy nominated singer song writer sar sara bareilles, from eureka, california, now a judge on sing-off and will be guest hosting for the today show in our fourth hour. we re going to look at why gender determines which foods we crave and how you can make the right choices maintaining a healthy weight. you re just a meat and potato eater, right? more meat. that s why we all love sweets, too. one of the hardest decisions a lot of families have to make which colleges to send their children to, one of the big questions for parents, of course, is how are we going to pay for it? we ll have some advice on finding the right fit for your student academically and also for you financially. if you re still a parent of the pre-college set like a lot of us are we ll help you choose the best toysor your tots from building sets to hot wheels, the new hot wheel track that goes on the wall, some award-winning toys that our kid and mom approved. natalie and i were talking about, probably going to end up getting that. i have hot wheel tracks all over my house. me, too. really? when you said your son wanted a hot wheel track i said i kind of want it too, it looks cool. there you go, kind of like ours. we are expecting to se chec weather. for today we are expected to see plenty of sunshine out west. will stay hot there. shou showers in the pacific northwest. tomorrow we will finally start to see the upper level low moving out but still rain in the northeast and also around the gulf coast, the western two thirds of the country going to be a little on the warm side, plenty of sunshine. that s what is going on around the country, and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. cloudy, mild and muggy. radar showing showers across the bay on the eastern shore. those are advancing north and east. and further to the west, out in berkeley, morgan, and into allegheny showers getting showers as well as along the blue ridge and the shenandoah valley. and passing showers are likely this evening, but a smaller chance on wednesday, thursday, weather. thank you. let s say hello to debbie lounge, first contestant to have the scales tip against her on the biggest loser. good morning. it had to be disappointing but you re continuing the weight logs at home. how is it going? going very well, lost 23, 25 pounds and working out five to six days a week at joust fitness in ann arbor with my trainer melissa, pushing me just as hard as anna did. we wanted to ask you, because anna kournikova is the new judge. she saw things i didn t see in myself. she told me i was an athlete and i didn t appreciate it until i got off the show and i realized what she meant, what i was capable of doing. you re getting ared to run a marathon. i am. did you ever think you d be doing that? never in life, no, no, i never did but i m up for it and i may have to take some knee pads with me or some roller skates or something but i m going to complete the marathon and i m getting really excited about it. you re running, getting your mileage up there? i am, i am, not running, i m jogging, i m jogging, at best walking. you can probably beat my time so that s your one thing. i ll think about you when i m out there. that s good. it s an at home competition, you re off the show but still have an opportunity to win a big prize. i do. that s another thing melissa and i will work on after we finish training me for the marathon is focus on the weight loss. i ve had a tremendous change in my body already so i m looking forward to it. looking great. goal weight of 160. that s it. this is the lowest i ve been in my adult life. debbie, you re always a winner. thank you, i m a loser. the biggest loser, the battle of the ages airs tonight at 8:00, 7:00 central on abc. coming up what you eat apparently is gender specific. as it is delicious. (woman) the flavor is fantastic. (man) that s turkey? this is amazing! it s juicy. (man #2) it s very surprising, the flavor is really good. (man #3) i think people will love it. (ancr) enjoy your burgers cooked thoroughly to 165 degrees. i gotta get some of these. it s time for a better burger. so get on board and make the switch. look for jennie-o at a store near you and join us at switchtoturkey.com. that didn t just hide your breakouts. but actually made them go away. neutrogena skin clearing makeup has our proven blemish fighting formula so it clears your breakouts. now that s beautiful. neutrogena®. [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ laughs ] that s awesome. you can read that? [ female announcer ] the accufit digital system, exclusively at lenscrafters. is about 5 times more precise than manual measurement techniques. lenscrafters. than manual measurement techniques. uh oh. i gotta go. 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[ male announcer ] hidden valley ranch. mix it up. from centrum. omega-3s go beyond heart health. probiotics go beyond digestive balance. and fruit & veggie has antioxidant properties. new pronutrients from centrum. help make nutrition possible. 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 morning on tooled s health the role gender plays in our diet, one of the main reasons why women supposedly crave chocolate and we men supposedly prefer meat. here with insight today diet and nutrition editor madelyn fernstrom and psychiatrist dr. gayle saults. i don t know, the whole theory, i think if you look at people, do they really all fall intocat? really in nature biology plays a role. when you re trying to lose weight your gender with k make a difference. there are stereotypes of difference but nowadays behavior trumps a lot of the biological issues gayle when we talk about gender-specific foods what are some of the examples? in this country overall, men tend to be bigger meat eaters, and women tend to be bigger sweet eaters, and there are several reasons for this. evolutionarily, it may that be men were the hunters, the reward was meat, they needed the bigger muscle mass so they needed to eat more meat and women were back at home and the treat sorts of things if you will was more okay for them. but now i would say we ve evolved into the stereotypes where it s manly to have a big steak and it s feminine to eat a bag of chocolate kisses. right. and maybe it s harder to make the crossover because it feels like you re giving up a bit of your gender if you do that. madelyn, is there a biological component to this? there is a biological component but that s only in survival mode. when we were hunter/gatherers, men would hunt and it would be meat is the reward. in supermarkets food is everywhere so it s important to switch this around and behavior is going to override most of the biological signals. there may be some biological differences still, men s and women s brains are wired different. a beer for instance might be more appealing for a womaman, b the pinks could me might be more appealing. men like fat/salty combinations, and women the sweet/fat. notice the combination with fat. a guy goes out and orders a fish and salad, they re thinking what s up with you and a woman orders a steak, people think what s up with her. maybe you re trying to be on a diet, trying to lower your cholesterol so a salad or fish is a good thing to order but if you re feeling the guy also give you a hard time or even if they aren t giving you a hard time but in your head your own voice is saying this doesn t feel very manly you re not going to order that. it has nothing to do with how manly with how you are. i argue it s more manly to take control of your diet how do you incorporate it to make sure you re eating a healthy lifestyle? there is discomfort. so people eat for taste. you have to like it. you have to retrain yourself to say it s fine, everyone should have fruits and vegetables, man or not. women who need two iron and b12 could use a little red meat. not locked into this but be open and be an omnivore, eat of all of the good foods. like in a family people want their kids to be better eaters. if dad is eating a big steak and mom is always on a diet. you have to think of putting gender in a life enjoyable to you. plate sharing. chop some wood, al, and then have some fish. i ll find a forest right now. dr. gail saltz and madelyn fernstrom. coming up we ll help you answer some college questions after these messages. so fresh my knees grow weak inspired by fine chefs in rome gourmet soups you make at home [ male announcer ] introducing new bertolli frozen meal soup for two. like chicken minestrone with crisp vegetables, white meat chicken, al dente pasta. [ chef ] fresh tasting restaurant style [ both ] bertolli soup s in the freezer aisle [ male announcer ] new bertolli meal soup. being sent to the back of a freezer. and it s all because someone said tacos. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican. where d ya go? there you are. there you go. [ female announcer ] you always went for the tall, dark, handsome types. so who d have ever thought the love of your life. would be short and bald? having a baby changes everything. 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! ything i needed to lose weight right in my hands. sophomore year, started weight watchers online, the weight started coming off. ahh! oh my gosh! [ laughs ] we re college kids, we go out all the time. having my food tracker on my phone, i can figure out what i m having at the restaurant. i lost 73 pounds with weight watchers online. i don t think i ve ever smiled this much in my whole life. it kind of hurts my cheeks. [ female announcer ] join for free today. hurry, offer ends october 15th. weight watchers online. finally, losing weight clicks. education nation today is proudly brought to you by university of phoenix, because we believe an educated world is a better world. this morning on education nation choosing the right college. for students it s about the classes and campus and for parents it s about affordability. how do you sort it out? janet shamlian is a mother of father facing college soon so we sent her on the campus tour. reporter: it can feel a little like being in college again yourself. welcome to the university of michigan. do you give credit for a.p. test scores? reporter: a walk around the ivy colored walls. this is how schools like the university of michigan put their best foot forward to attract new students. this area is called the diad. reporter: from the cafeteria food to the dorm rooms. this is your pretty average size student double. reporter: it s a full blown sales job, start to finish. see this big building here the michigan student union. reporter: first impressions generally come from school websites which offer the basics on how many students are enrolled, what type of specialty is offered and social activities, and the big one for parents, how much does it cost? how much of a factor is financial aid, scholarship, all of those money decisions? well, it s huge certainly, needs-based scholarships and academic scholarships certainly play a big part in any decision. reporter: to narrow is down students and their families visit an average of three or four schools. there s college students walking around and it just feels like a campus. reporter: parents like harry and carol want input but want the decision to be their daught daughters. trying to point her in the general direction. reporter: alina knows the decision is hers. at the end of the day it comes down to fit. reporter: that s assuming you are submitted to the school you love. how many applications do you think you ll get this year? around 40,000. ted spencer is director of admissions. 80% generally end up in enrollment. reporter: studies show most students make their choices based on a school s academic reputation and this all important visit. academic rigor is really one of the top things that i look at in a school and the food has to be great because i do like to eat a lot. reporter: it s a decision that can be a nail-biter for both students and parents, selecting a school, and then hoping it selects you. looking forward to applying and seeing if i get accepted. reporter: for today, janet shamlian, nbc news, ann arbor. jacques steinberg senior of the new york times education blog. good morning. there are some questions every student and parent should ask when examining colleges. the first on your list is academic rigor. what do you mean by that? how intense an academic experience are you seeking? make sure you re not going in too far over your head if you re in the necessarily a great scholar maybe the university of chicago might not be the best fit for you. a lot of this is feel. i know your next tip is to think about location, location, location, because not every school is for every student obviously. there are huge differences in terms of the size of the class, the size of the freshman class and also whether you re in a rural or an urban set so long you really have to ask yourself what sort of experience are you seeking in that regard. another issue of course is curriculum. does the school offer the classes i m interested in? sure, lots of kids don t know going into college what exactly they want to study and i think it s important to know that it s okay to not know what you want to study but if you are really interested in marine biology you should probably make sure the college you re applying to actually offers that. for a lot of parents this is issue number one, cost. sure, i mean, college is more expensive every year, some colleges are cutting back on financial aid. you really need to understand the two kinds of financial aid, need-based aid which is obviously based on your family s ability to pay and merit aid which may not be based on aid but on what sort of student you are and what sort of talent you have. the last tip is a tough one. you have to be realistic about whether you can get into the college of your dreams. i don t want kids to sort of sort themselves out of particular colleges, leave that to the admissions office. you have no idea what exactly they re looking for. you may be pleasantly surprised. on the other hand, if your s.a.t. scores or a.c.t. scores are well below the range in a particular college, you want to be realistic. i want to at least know is there something else you might offer to that school that they might find appealing but also can you handle the work. jacques steinberg, thank you. coming up next, award winning toys for kids of all ages, they re here in the studio but first this is today on incoming. nbc. this morning on parenting today the best toys for all ages, the op.en heim toy portfolio is handing out its 2011 platinum awards. stephanie op.en heim is here to unveil some of the winners, kid tested mom approved. absolutely. let s unveil the winners starting off with the toddler toys. what should we look for, for toys in this age group? this is my favorite day of the year because we are launching our awards for toddlers, looking for things for all ages that are fun, engaging but also age appropriate. this toddler tower from international playthings is perfect, it s safe enough, the balls are big enough. toddlers love to do things they can do again and again which breanna is doing perfectly. it builds her sense of confidence. this is peek-a-shoe. drop the ball in, where does it go? not the green, oh, it s under, there it is so you re talking about color concepts in a real way. and little dolls are always great. the puppets are great for preschoolers. for them you want to be encouraging pretend play which helps them develop language skills, underpinning for being great readers and writers later on. this is a new puppet sent from manhattan toy, there s jake and enjoying the puppets, and i love these new puppets from north american bear, so cute, nesting puppets and you want your kids to retell the story, important for them to tell the stories in sequence. jake likes the little pigs. and to be creative as well. what are some favorites as well, the platinum winners in every age group, every price range. a huge trend if i was going to talk about one innovative toy it would be the leappad explorer, the graphics are wonderful. this is a better choice than handing you have your own ipad. it s developmentally appropriate for your child. glasks will please the most savvy 4-year-old, 100 app games to add to them depending on where they are in school, the built in cam camera, video cam, $99 you can t beat that. games the big trends as well. more big game winners, this is obstacles from eboo, you need to get from point a to point b and be silly. i love the new connect four, we were playing this with the launching pads. the girls are playing. we ve all played very good we all played connect four vertically. hasbro added launchers so it s a little tiddly winks game, too. adults have been playing with it, i like it. this is tic-tac-turn from briar patch, you play on three dimensions and you can turn it to block someone from getting four in a row. challenging game to play. the number one requested kit from our testers and the boys are working on the new alien mothership. excuse me for one second. the big news about this is that it has a rotary piece. lego zoonne. big alienate sound. more importantly because my kids are all over this and want this already. i dreamed of having this toy. stick them up on the wall. let s run it down the track. how cool is that? 100 more toys on the website. check out toyportfolio.com. singer songak good morning, everybody. i am barbara harrisons. it s not something you see every day. inspectors are getting ready to try and work with this repel down the side of the washington monument. this is a live look at what is going on up there right now. they are assessing the damage from last month s earthquake. we had a few morning showers, but thankfully for the work on the monument for the next couple hours it should be dry. we could have showers around noontime. and then in the afternoon, highs near 80 and maybe some lightning in the afternoon. how is traffic? we are busy on the outer loop. coming up, we will talk to a local lawyer that climbed the highest mountain in 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. captions paid for by nbc-universal television not going to write you a love song cause you asked for it cause you need one okay. it is booze day tuesday, september 27, 2011. you re listening to love songs by sara barellis. we should point out what you love but, number one, you re here, you re excited and you re enjoying a little wine. and you showed up with some friends. i did. i like someone who travels with her college friends who happen to show up sometimes at the news desk. who do we have? who is over here? mona on the left. jeffrey and shasta. they are being very reserved. they are much crazier than that. before the show i saw them freaking at you going, what s going on? you re like let s mic up your friends and put them behind the news desk. we ll get back with you later. the beauty of that song, you were not interested in writing it. what s the story with that? at the time i had been instructed i need to keep writing music before i could get the green light to go in the studio. i submitted a bunch of songs. no one was into them. i started getting frustrated and was listening to the radio being, what are they asking for? then basically that song was catharsis for me. i was angry and frustrated and totally convinced they would hate that song. the lyrics are, i m not going to write you a love song cause you asked for it. too bad. if you watch the sing-off and i know you do, it was great last night. these are a capella groups. you re voting them off or the people are. let s watch in case you missed it. singing from the heart sing it out for the one sing it for the world what s it like sitting in judgment of these singers? you have to judge these guys. it s hard to be critical sometimes. i see that now as i m watching the show as it airs. i remember feeling self-conscious about wanting to point out places where they need to make improvements or what are the weak spots. that s sort of your job as the judge. find a way to articulate that that doesn t feel like you re being a jerk. this is north shore. these are guys all over 60, right? late 40s. they re all from boston. they ve been singing together 35 years. they are absolutely they will make you fall in love. i fell in love with them. the winner of the sing-off contest has a recording deal? recording contract with sony music, $200,000. of course this amazing platform to be seen all over the network. i ve seen you perform in front of people. you always have this, it s beautiful, but there is a shyness about you. you get out there, you say a few things and you want to get busy playing and singing. how are you feeling now? you re out there, you re on the show, you re on this show. you re out there more. i tell you what, i ll tell you what helps me. take a nice big sip. i think it s something that has progressed over time. i ve gotten more and more comfortable on stage. now i d say the stage is one of the places i feel the most comfortable. really? and i like sort of expressing my personality, which is part of the reason i was excited to join sing-off and get opportunities like this. i want to get to be myself for people. my music is authentic that way, too. i feel this is a window into who i am. take it or leave it. loving it. you have a new song out. it s on video. this was produced by directed by jonah hill. let s watch. how am i going to get over you i ll be all right just not tonight some day i wish you want me to stay what a fun video. it was so fun. i was so sore. from the dance thing? oh, my gosh. i had two days of dance rehearsal, which maybe they put a real dancer there. but yeah, i was so sore. i still feel like i happen a hip injury. that wasn t even that difficult, i don t think. are your buddies singers, too? oh, yeah. all of them. come up here for one second. yay! i want proof this is true. come here. i want everybody to see your posse. we have a little keyboard. can you do something with that? good luck. just touch it and see what happens. do you want to do the chorus of going to get over you. ooh how am i going to get over you i ll be all right just not tonight hey i wish you would stay you guys are terrific. she s been raving about you. i wanted to hear you and see you. they are in a band called raining jane. jeff is in a new production called peter and i. an offbroadway show. we are excited for you guys. thank you for coming to see us. thank you. excellent. by the way oh, my gosh. you did write this on your twitter or something. you said, move over, kath yes lee, for the day, i m taking over the fourth hour with miss hoda. i m trying on my hosting skills. i will be drinking chardonnay. you re doing that. hold on. and you said you re going to be hula hooping with the best of them. what was that about? i felt like this is the happy hour. you do all sorts of crazy stuff. i didn t know what we were going to do. so i picked hula hooping. let s play that song, the video. since we have the hula hoops. i didn t know this was going to happen. do you know how to hula hoop? no. you don t? why did you say? you said you did. this is not even my thing. you have to crank it up loud. no. i want to be next to her. careful. don t fall off. ready? go. you did what you said you were going to do. come on over here. sit back down. oh, my gosh! what s going on? kathie lee has been off a couple of days. she is in seattle. she is working on this terrific musical called saving aimee. she sent us this picture. there she is in front of the fifth avenue theater. you can see up in the marquee it says saving aimee because it s really happening. we so want this show to come to broadway. she s been busy because friday she made a cameo in the show called hot in cleveland. let s see what happened here. looks like the b-roll of the view. there is kathie lee doing her thing. we ll see hot in cleveland when she comes back. i ve got a couple questions for you. would you rather would you rather look old and feel young? this is for everybody at home too. or look young and feel old? which would you rather? for me, this it s a no-brainer. i would rather look old and feel young. i think it s all about what you feel. maybe we need to discuss the parameters. do you want to feel 7 years old? do you want to feel 25? or maybe young to some people is 45. you don t know. i agree. i think i wouldn t mind feeling older if it wasn t so old. wait, you wouldn t mind feeling older? no. you want to look 25 and feel old? yeah. yeah, exactly. tell me the weirdest place you ever texted from the bathroom stall? you know you have. i have. gross. i do, too. the dinner table? yeah. movie theater? doing the today show right now. tweet that we re whooping it up. here with hoda. just hula hooped. let s give a quick hello to our sara haines. she looks stunning, by the way. look at sara. people love having sara here. first of all, there was a lot of switching from seth to her was a good whiplash. you have crazy boy energy and now more of what we are used to. you should have made seth wear a dress or something. he would have. he would have done it. how scary is that? coming up next, gloria estefan is here with a sneak peek of her newest video. 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! [ female announcer ] everybody loves that cushiony feeling. uh oh. i gotta go. [ female announcer ] and with charmin ultra soft, you can get that same cushiony feeling you love while still using less. charmin ultra soft has extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. so you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. ah. [ female announcer ] using less never felt so good. we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft. 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 love to hear percussion the queen of latin pop gloria estefan. her countless hits earned her a mantle full of emmys. now she has her english singing album, the first in more than eight years. it s called little miss havana. we have her new video from her brand-new single. hey, hey, hey now the heat is on cause the beat is on now the heat is on hey hey hey hey everybody everybody got the rhythm like the women when you see their body moving with the beat hey hey hey welcome, gloria. how are you? thank you so much. thank you for getting the title right, by the way. everybody says little miss havana. i say, of course, what s the first thing you come to mind when you see me. we were just talking about your album. it makes you want to stand up and dance what made you come out with this one? i know going to the studio planning to do something for william, for everything he s done and all the productions. i ve got an idea for you. he brought me this song miss little havana. i want you to do this project. we clicked big time in the studio. it flowed out. it was so good, my husband mr. havana steps out and produces four hardcore dance tracks like you re in the club. she was so cute. she was freaked out you re on today. why? i m a massive fan. i am a fan. my daughter covers your songs. she doesn t cover any of my song. she plays on the record. that s cool. she is in the family. she is the best musician of all of us, i ve got to say hands down. my son was involved in the webisodes. i always listen to my kids because they know what s happening. one of the songs was with the artist black dot, a haitian artist. he loved her and asked her to do a solo and it s amazing. what made you decide to do an english language album? four years ago i did the spanish grammy-winning album, which what is happy to do. it s perfect timing. it just worked so well. i was reddy. reminds me when we came out with primitive love and let it loose back in the day. that chemistry is so hard to find. it s so exciting. yes, it is. you ve got to have it. you ve written songs for other people, j. lo. now you re doing. let s get loud. the cover of the cd was little pieces of my past. there s the hair from the gloria album in 98, the face that showed the attitude and libo did amazing artwork for it. and let s get loud was a tune i had done for that album. i didn t think it fit the package. you know when you listen to a record you listen down. joe low walked in the studio and fell in love with it. i went, yes. of all the people to fall in love with it. exactly. she made it a massive hit. thank you, j. lo. it is a great cd. sara and i both loved it. thank you for coming to see us today. thank you. love you, love you. i love you, too. you can see the entire music video klg and hoda.com. sara is going to take us to a part of the city few people go after this. [ male announcer ] heard this one? listen to this. three out of four americans don t get enough vegetables. so here s five bucks to help you buy v8 juice. five bucks. that s a lot of green. go to v8juice.com for coupons. you can count on us. we ve combined conditioner with a weightless nutri-oil treatment. to give 3x the internal nourishing power of our regular conditioner. new dove daily treatment conditioner. make friends with your hair. [ tea kettle whistle ] [ male announcer ] beat your worst flu symptoms. theraflu max d contains the most powerful medicine allowable without a prescription to fight your worst flu symptoms. theraflu max d. serious power. to fight your worst flu symptoms. hershey s drops. a lot of hershey s happiness in a little drop of chocolate. pure hershey s. [ 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. 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 you may notice something a little different about eggland s best eggs. now, in addition to the taste and nutrition you and your family love, eggland s best will proudly be displaying its support for susan g. komen for the cure®, the world s largest breast cancer organization, in its promise to end breast cancer forever. eggland s best. better taste. better nutrition. and a greater commitment to what matters. because part of being the best is doing good. . it is time for sara in the city where we send sara haines to try some of the coolest jobs in the big apple. i m psyched. everyone named sara is trying out a new job today. yes, indeed. there is a company in new york called manhattan by sail. twice a day one of its historic ships called the clipper city sets sail. it holds up to 150 passengers. last week i took my turn cruising around the city. today i m in downtown manhattan at the south street seaport. i get to learn how to sail a boat. i was enviesing a little sailboat. you see this massive boat? i m going to be sailing that. my first task, recruiting paying passengers for our sailing excursion. do you like sail boats? come sail away. would you like reading material with your lunch? selling sailing isn t my forte. i couldn t wait to meet captain chris. with t-minus 60 minutes, captain chris put me to work with a couple of chores. log the book. single up the rope. this rope is disgusting. then something a little more challenging he calls removing the wraps. you got it. on captain chris cue, our courageous customers arrive. welcome to clipper city. first time on a boat. can you swim, sir? gang way! with that, we head into the soaring swells awaiting us. welcome to clipper city. i ve never been on a sailboat, but i m going to be driving today. i hope you all feel really comfortable with that. nobody s driving! we proudly raised our today flag high into the sky and raised the glasses to our lady captains of our ship. one is named after you. is this the skipper sara? we passed lady liberty and headed back toward the city. between the skyline and the drinks, we kick things up a notch. i m going to wake up in a city that never sleeps and with that, it was time to pack up the sails and call it a day. we re back! let s get ready for the next one. look at chris lounged out there. chris, we have captain chris here to deliver our own speciality drink. how you doing? i m doing well. what is that one? that is the skipper sara. you re asking me? then there is the hoda. and this is kathie lee s drink. should i keep it for her? no. let sara drink it. still to come, guys, the best things to wear into the fall. mom: you want to play with some trucks ? younger boy: yeah. yeah ? okay. show mommy how to do it. you are exactly one of a kind mom: nice driving, very good ! mom: yaaay ! older boy: see that ? mommy, watch- he s gonna get some gas. mom: okay. dad: hi bud ! hi ! mom: nice ! we were made for each other more. for always more. stop ! [ male announcer ] that onion after taste after you again? new crest complete with scope dual blast technology blasts away bad breath germs and food after tastes. new crest complete with scope dual blast. blast your way to fresh breath. new crest complete with scope dual blast. 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! happening right now, inspecting the washington monument. workers are hanging ropes so they can repel down the sides looking for earthquake damage. and good morning, i am barbara harrison 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. who cares if you disagree you are not me who made you king of anything we are back on this booze day tuesday. my good friend kathie lee is out today. we enlisted a little help from singer/songwriter and sing-off judge sara bareilles. i think we are about to learn how to win an argument. we are. global editor and chief of life is here with tips. we were saying when we argue we get hot and bothered. not in that way. don t be weird, hoda. emotional. emotional. it s important to keep your emotions in check. that is a big problem for women especially. we don t like conflict. one thing that helps is to refrain the idea of an argument. remember, an argument is not fighting. you re not trying to win, you re trying to solve a problem and sustain a relationship. that s really a helpful way to look at it. a good argument solves a problem. you want to get to a place where everybody agrees and is on board with the same idea. if you re arguing with a spouse or with your daughter or whatever the deal is, whether he keeps leaving his shoes out or whatever she does wrong, you hear these arguments are circular and they go on and on and never get resolved. what is the key to resolving them? anybody who has been through marriage counseling as i have, do you not want to say, you always do this, you never do that. focus on the future, not the past. say, how will this help us? how can we do something that will help us solve this in the future? that helps. you also want to stay monotone. monotone? also it helps to hold somebody s hand. mirror their body language but hold their hand. you cannot stay mad at your spouse if you hold their hand. how do you argue when you re i upset? i want to cry. my initial reaction is that i get a lump in my throat and i want to burst into tears. i learned with business relationships that crying makes everyone really uncomfortable. that s a no-no. sometimes it s to just take a deep breath. practice ahead of time. one thing i learned, when you feel like you re making headway, stop talking. especially women. we tend to go on and on. stop talking. it puts the other person a little on the defensive. a friend of mine who works on this show, a producer here said one of the things she does is she just quietly sits and lets the other person babble on and on and on. that is a good technique. remember, this idea of you don t want to ever scream at anybody, right? you don t want to get into that hot and bo it s okay to gives yourself a time-out. i m getting upset, i m giving myself a time-out. i m going to walk around the block. this is not helping us get to a solution. all g thank you for that. we learned something. next, the best boots for fall. 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[ male announcer ] we ve always made it right. and now we ship it right. announcing shipped for free, guaranteed to last. no minimum order. no end date. from l.l. bean. which shirt feels more expensive? that one s softer. actually, it s the same t-shirt. really? but this one was washed in downy. why spend a lot of money when you can just use downy? [ female announcer ] new ultra downy with silktouch, it s an upgrade in a bottle. i d like a decaf 360 calories please. i ll have a triple iced 410 calories please. you know what. i ll have this instead. [ female announcer ] swap one thing a day for a yoplait light at around 100 calories. it will add up to amazing. . it s time for today s style with a look at the hottest boots it s sad to say, unless you re living way down south, it s almost time to step out of your flip-flops into your uggs. isabel gonzalez is in style s fashion feature editor. this is a fun time of year to get to the store and buy boots. i always say the best thing about fall is shopping for boots. there are a lot of options. there s something for everybody. miss sara bareilles walked in with cute these are my little rock star boots. we have a variation of those on the table. tell us about the stacked heel. this is a throwback to the 1970s. this is a trend you re seeing now. this is a very beautiful boot defined by a structured upper and thick heel that goes great with mid-calf skirts that are popular and looks great with jeans tucked into them. there is a versatility to these boots. i like these lace-up. those are fun. this is for a less rugged look. they are a feminine look, harkens back to the victorian era. this is great as a counterpoint to the menswear trend. when you re wearing menswear jacket, this is the boot. would you wear that with a trouser? more with a tight-fitting or cropped trouser. you want to expose the lace. i love the lace-up. what about these next boots. they look so comfy. these are slouchy boots. these are about a relaxed look. it might not be something you wear to work. what we like about these, you see them in a lot of different style heels. you could have a higher heel, a wedged heel. these are flat heels. cool. very comfortable. you would wear these with jeans or bare legs. i would totally wear these. no baggy pants with these. what s going on with the wedge? i love anything with the wedge. they are easy. they are super comfortable. this is a fashion forward look. this is a look that has a lot of bulk. it s got heft. you want to deep the rest of what you re wearing streamlines, a leaner silhouette or it could compete too much for the attention of the shoe. are these for younger, older? anybody can wear these. you can wear these with a shift dress. they come in all kinds of price. these are from kohl s. i do. sometimes i don t think i pair things correctly. i like these. these are a nod to what sara is wearing. these are a motorcycle style boot. these are a lot of fun. we love all the embellishments of the hardware. this is not something you want to wear something too loud on top with. you wouldn t pair this with a motorcycle jacket. that s too much buckle action. these are simply vera by vera wang. what are the price points? these are under $100. wow. these are shoes at great prices that will take you throughout the season. i m getting into these riding boots. i ve got a pair. these are classic. these are ultimate timeless boots. they generally come in black, dark brown. we even have these from banana republic with black and brown. these are rain boots, too. and they are not obviously rain boots. what s nice, a lot of times these have these buckles and elastic so they can give a big span for your calf. sometimes the calf fitting is not easy. thank you so much. coming up next, say cheese. how to look perfect in every photo shoot. hershey s chocolate syrup. stir up a smile. i love it. not wash. power wash. ok. whoa. [ female announcer ] life comes with headaches. excedrin extra strength gets rid of them fast. in fact, for some, relief starts in just 15 minutes. excedrin. for life s headaches. [ female announcer ] pillsbury chocolate chip cookies with hershey s chocolate chips. for a moment of warm, gooey, togetherness. chocolate chip cookies. from pillsbury. we ve combined conditioner with a weightless nutri-oil treatment. to give 3x the internal nourishing power of our regular conditioner. new dove daily treatment conditioner. make friends with your hair. if you think occasionalnt 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! how many times have you had your picture taken only to find out what has been captured is your double chin or your flat hair? a lot of times. the folks at in style makeover gathered six tips to help you never take a bad picture again. here to share it all is the editor of in style makeover. we want to get right to this. you say start with a sexy scrunch. what are we talking about here? this is interesting. one of the things we found out is the camera makes your hair shrink and appear flatter. it does? quite opposite to your body. the boy gets bigger, hair gets smaller. one thing i ve seen models do for year, before the camera, they go like this and add a little bit of volume because it gives them just the right amount of movement. okay. you say master the signature smile. i think sometimes, i know me, i smile too big, that is so weird, it looks crazy. right. everybody wants to find their blue steel. the idea here is sometimes bigger is not necessarily better. especially if you have a fuller face. do a smaller coy smile. if you look at celebrities when they first come to hollywood, they have these big yearbook smiles. in a few years you see they mastered the perfect smile. that s mean. i m with you on that. i like when people didn t look coy and like they re pretending. you know what i mean? it s about being natural. the most important thing about taking a picture is being able to be yourself. a lot is developing the confidence of knowing who you are. i think sometimes it s how your body, when you take one that s flat-on you look much bigger. that is another thing you say, turn to an angle? right. this is red carpet 101. if you look at any celebrity on the red carpet, you ll see they are standing at a 3/4 angle with their foot in front and bodies facing forward. it cuts your waist in half. tell me again. leg in front and twist your hips. you re standing at a 3/4 angle. your shoulders are facing forward. the hand on the hip is a big thing. it gives you a very streamlined silhouette. very feminine, i think. men, not so much. no. let s not do that. the double chin issue. a lot of people have that. i get that sometimes, too. how do you get rid of that? the key is you want to hold your head up a little bit. don t put your chin down. that s when you get the double chin. you want to be careful about how people are taking your picture. don t let someone take a picture of you from below. that s going to be unflattering and cast shadows that make your face look fuller. position of the camera. it should be above eye level or right at you. eye level or above. definitely not from below. sometimes you ve taken so many pictures and you re sick of it and your face looks like it. you can get out of that mode, too? exactly. one of the great things about now with digital cameras, you can edit anything that doesn t work. snap out of that zoned-out face, what do you do? what photographers often do on set, they tell someone to do something silly. shake their head around, wisk your hair. one thing i remember from photographers, because you get self-conscious for somebody not so comfortable getting my picture taken, shake your head around or say something to make you laugh. then those natural moments are the most beautiful. the best thing to do is think of something funny. look at her. she s hilarious in the middle. we ll go to the red carpet and figure out how to do it right. all right. you go first, sara. what s the deal. do the side thing. thin down. get in here. cozy up. you ve got your foot forward, hand on the hips. face up. and your coy smile. over here, over here. look at you. thank you, thank you. coming up next, we ll talk with giatta. just got her flu shot, like a champ mom! taking on the master of disaster, the flu! it s the fight of the season! your flu shot s next, champ. let s do this. flu shots. every day. no appointment needed. most insurance accepted. get a $5 cvs gift card if you re not covered. find us at minuteclinic.com. i m jack, and i took the flu down. [ zapping ] there goes dwayne s car. oh, man. there goes dwayne s house. whoa! whoa! and there goes dwayne. man, that thing does not like dwayne. [ male announcer ] state farm s got you covered. nice landing. it was. [ male announcer ] get to a better state. if you re a football fan, you ll love with giada has up her sleeve today. a complete menu for the next time your tv room is filled with sports fans. a lot of ucla bruins in the house. we ve got you guys and your posse, backup singers. all right. hi. we are making tailgating food? yes. drum sticks chicken adobo. chicken broth, everything gets dumped in here. vinegar, soy sauce, parsley, lemon juice, arrow root, it s a thickener like corn starch but made from a real root so it s better. garlic. brown sugar. two bay leaves for a nice herby flavor. spice it up with red pepper flakes. mix it all together in here. then you pour it right into the chicken you ve already browned. do this with whatever you want. i like the drum sticks, but you can do thighs, wings, whatever. you cook it about 35 minutes and it ends up looking like this, nice and glazed. that looks delicious. twice baked potatoes. hollow it out. then you saute mushrooms with onions. i add all the potato filling back in here. add cheddar cheese. then what you do, why don t you help me. do you have any cooking skills? no. spoon it right in there. spoon it in there and then you top it with a little proscuitto. bake it in the oven. these are great next day, whenever. those do look good. this is the finished product here. nice. that looks really good. my hokies are 4-0. they are 4-0. what s a hockey? look at the picture here. because i said so. that s what my parents always said. whatever. these are the cookies. these are my singing buddies from before. in case you were wondering, these are all of sara s friends who went to school with her and they are in a singing group. we are all here together. 30 seconds. cookies. your school colors. dig in. all the bruins cookies are gone and virginia tech ones are still there. a big thank you to sara bareilles for joining us today. you were so much fun. and a big thank you to the backup singers. hit it kids. take us out. good-bye! captions by vitac www.vitac.com sean stockton will be here. love giada. [ mom ] hey guys. guys. [ female announcer ] pillsbury cinnamon rolls with cinnabon cinnamon are an irresistible sunday morning idea. nothing calls them to the table faster. sunday morning ideas made easy. in 15 minutes, [ female announcer ] you call that bread? you can serve some warmth with your bread. and some flavor with your bread. and some layers with your bread. if you re serving bread honey, then serve it. grands! dinner ideas made easy. i m a curious seeker. i am a chemistry aficionado. diphenhydramine. magnesium hydroxide. atheletes foot. yes. i m a people pleaser. if elected, i promise flu shots for all. i am a walking medical dictionary. congratulations virginia. inflamed uvula. i m virginia. i m a target pharmacist and i m here to answer your questions.