Transcripts For WRC Today 20110928 : vimarsana.com

i thank you for what you re saying, and i take it in and i m listening to every word of it and feeling it, too. is he now reconsidering joining the gop field? own too hot. r rihanna turns a video shoot in ireland into an r-rated affair running afoul with the farmer who owns the property. what she did to get the boot. today, wednesday, september 28th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to today on a wednesday morning. i m matt lauer. that s right, nice to have you back. good to be back thank you. i m ann curry. even seasoned court watchers were surprised how fast the trial started. several members of the jackson family were in the courtroom to hear arguments. his mother brought to ears tear some of the evidence brought to bear. the high profile, as one high profile case gets under way another is winding down. amanda knox s verdict is going to be handed down possibly as soon as saturday. her father will be with us this morning. nasty rumors in one town with v residents in an uproar and blaming it all on a very controversial website. we ll explain in a moment. the stuns first day of court in the trial of michael jackson s doctor. jeff rossen is outside the courthouse. reporter: good morning to you. prosecutors wasted no time. in minutes of opening statements the prosecutors dropped a new photo of michael jackson we ve never seen before and then an audio recording played for the jury in open court of michael jackson, like we ve never heard him before. with a deep voice, incoherent. even by hollywood standards, complete with a specticle outside, the shocker in court came early. the evidence in this case will show that michael jackson literally put his life in the hands of conrad murray. conrad murray repeatedly acted with gross negligence. reporter: and prosecutors brought visuals showing the jury the side by side photos, on the left, june 24th, michael jackson alert and dancing during rehearsal. on the right, just 12 hours later, michael s lifeless body on a gurney at ucla medical center, a photo never made public, until now. what happened during that time frame is that the acts and the omissions of michael jackson s personal doctor, conrad murray, directly led to his premature death at the age of 50. reporter: but the biggest surprise was yet to come. dr. murray had recorded michael jackson on his iphone, a month and a half before his death. why, why reporter: on the tape you hear michael drugged up, prosecutors say and barely making sense, talking about his upcoming tour. when people leave my show, i want them to say, i ve never seen nothing like this in my life. go. go. and what does he do with that knowledge? what does he do with that information? on may 12th, he orders another shipment of propofol. this is one lethargic, barely able to compose a sentence, sounds completely loaded and the doctor is going to say i used good judgment in giving him propofol, hard to overcome. strong for the prosecution. best piece of evidence i ve seen so far. reporter: dr. murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter, facing four years in prison, accused of giving a lethal dose of propofol to michael and in court the jackson family came to see it all including mother katherine, jermaine, latoya and janet. dr. murray broke down in tears as his lawyer laid out their defense. i m not saying abandon your heart at the door, i m saying listen to the science, and you will know the truth. reporter: the defense, says murray, was trying to wean jackson off propofol but they say the morning of his death, jackson was begging for the drug and dr. murray reluctantly gave him a small dose but the real centerpiece of their argument is that michael jackson later gave himself a higher dose. the scientific evidence will show you that when dr. murray left the room, michael jackson self-administered a dose of propofol that, with the lorazepam created a perfect storm in his body that killed him instantly. reporter: in court tuesday, the first witness on the stand is in that light reporter: kenny ortega, director of the comeback tour who wrote an e-mail to the tour s promoter worried about michael s health. as far as i know there is no one taking responsibility caring for him on a daily basis. reporter: prosecutors say the audiotape, michael s only garbled words, proves it. it s amazing, he s the greatest entertainer in the world. reporter: by the way, latoya jackson was tweeting inside the courtroom and a couple of things she wrote seeing his lifeless body laying there on the gurney is heartwrenching and also this is all a big conspiracy and the doctor knows exactly what happened. another big day here in court, michael jackson s employees will be on the stand, including his personal assistant. all right, jeff rossen thank you so much. samantha guthrie today s legal correspondent, star jones, former prosecutor and nancy, thank you for being here. first of all what it stands for, here you hear michael jackson in that courtroom sounding so slurry, so intoxicated and two days later this doctor is purchasing massive quantities of propofol but opening statements are the chance for the prosecutor to make first impressions and introduce the characters in the trial. number one i thought the tape made michael jackson seem extremely sympathetic. it was heartbreaking. jackson comes with a lot of baggage with the allegations against him but this was a sympathetic figure we heard in the courtroom. number two if i am a juror i m wondering what on earth that doctor was doing recording michael jackson in this state. that s more interesting for the prosecution. what can the prosecution make of the fact that it was the doctor who is the source of this tape, star? dr. murray appears to want to protect himself before he basically even begins treating michael jackson. he s acting as if he needs to stave off liability later on. that s a charitable interpretation. i m being kind about that. if he also wants to have some blackmail ability for michael jackson later on, it s on the opposite end so there are some nefarious reasons he could have taped his patient, none of them i could come up with is a good reason. and the defense didn t explain it, didn t try to explain it. we ll find out what happens in the course of the trial. nancy, what should it have told dr. murray? that s not propofol slurring. it washes out of the body one to three minutes and it s the kind of medication that has to drip slowly. if you push it through a syringe, that s when you can really put someone in harm s way. so this sounds to me like an anti-anxiety drug or a valium kind of drug, and probably multiple pills, to allow him to cohesively think of what he wants to say but not be able to execute the language. okay, that said now, the crux of this case seems to somewhat be on whether or not michael jackson could have self-administered propofol, because it is, seems pretty clear that he was alreadyez these anti-anxiety drugs, including lorazepam. if you re on this kind of drug is it even possible? any good junky can tell you you can shoot up if you know how but propofol requires an iv, some sort of catheter. the question would be why would he have an iv in, why was his medication given at 9:15 in the morning, which is not a normal time people sleep, even though michael jackson was a night owl. they ll have to demonstrate how you would self-administer propofol which is not something that the average person would be able to do. yes or no, dr. conrad murray was incompetent? he s incompetent for one huge reason, while giving propofol he left the patient s bedside and when the patient arrested did not put that body on a hard surface and could do a thorough cpr. from those two points absolutely incompetence. does it prove involuntary manslaughter with i erer which recklessness and negligence? savannah? the standard is a gross deviation from care. it s criminal negligence, it s not just malpractice. certainly incompetence would qualify but of course prosecutors are alleging something more. prosecutors laid out 11 different ways this doctor deviated from the standard of care that any reasonable doctor would have given. some might make the argument giving propofol at all outside a hospital context which dr. murray has already acknowledged amounts to the recklessness. it s not a sleep aid. it s not for sleep. without life saving equipment, without an assistant there to help administer it, propofol is what they use to take out your heart, and i know that from experience. it s a great outpatient drug. it s not a sleep medication. the defense was saying that michael jackson died so fast, he could not have saved him, that he didn t have time to close his eyes. that s going to be a battle of the experts. the prosecution s experts are going to say with life-saving equipment, there was açó chance that he could have been saved. he may have died so fast but the question is could they have prevented the death andçó i thi that s the bigger question. nancy, star, savannah, to be continued, thank you so much. more on the trial later on. 7:12, here is matt. now to politics and the 2012 presidential race. last night new jersey s republican governor chris christie had a chance to end all speculation that he s reconsidering a run for the white house, but in some ways he managed to fan the flames even a little bit more. nbc s chief white house correspondent chuck todd is in washington. chuck, take me through it. well, let s go back to 1991, then new york governor mario cue wo cuomo left a plane on the tarmac before deciding whether to run or not. for chris christie, he appeared to be definitive about not running and left those hoping he ll change his mind something to cling to. can you tell us what s going on here? are you considering or are you standing firm? reporter: it s the question on everyone s mind, and chris christie had some fun with it. poking fun at his audience, because it was the second question asked. you folks are an incredible disappointment as an audience. [ laughter ] the fact that that took to second question reporter: with speculation at a near frenzy, tough-talking new jersey governor chris christie got a bit cute in his latest attempt to deny interest in running for president. everyone go to politico.com, it s on the front page, i m not going to bore you with it now. click on it, those are the answers. no way. not going to happen. i m not running. i m 100% certain i m not going to run. christ reporter: at the reagan library a speechñi sounded likee was presenting his case for the presidency. we have watched as we drift from conflict to conflict with little or no resolution. we watch a president who once talked about the courage of his convictionsñ@cut still has yet found the courage to lead. we watch a kncongress at war wi itself because they re unwilling to leave campaign style politics at the door. reporter: the audience would not take no for an answer. i mean this with all my heart, we can t wait another four years to 2016. we need you. your country needs you to run for president. i hear exactly what you re saying and i feel the passion with which you say it, and it touches me. fact of the matter is, that anybody who has an ego large enough to say oh, please, please, please stop asking me to be leader of the free world [ laughter ] it s such a burden. if you could please just stop. it s extraordinarily flattering but by the same token, that heartfelt message you gave me is also not a reason for me to do it. that reason has to reside inside me, and so that s what i ve said all along. my answer to you is just this. i thank you for what you re saying, and i take it in and i m listening to every word of it and feeling it, too. so here s where things stand, matt. i m told by someone close to the governor we should definitely interpret those last remarks as the governor giving a candidacy serious reconsideration. the reality is, though, they only have about two weeks before the first deadlines to get on actual primary ballots staring them in the face, couldn t come at a worst time for republicans actually running trying to raise money because everything is now frozen. chuck todd in washington this morning, thank you very much. nbc s tom brokaw is here with his take on the state of the presidential race. good morning. wow he s good. when you listen to the way chris christie answers those questions, when you hear it coming from the heart, it sounds spontaneous, he s funny and charming. is that why people like this guy so much? he s not an ideologue. a heavy set guy with a new jersey accent. a lot of this started last summer, not an advertisement for myself, i interviewed him at a conference in sun valley, all off the record and i ve rarely seen a candidate light up a room which included a lot of democrats and it was because he was candid and self-depricating and played outside of the lines of the republican party. a lot of people talk about how charming and spontaneous he is but according to articles in the past week a lot of conservative republicans loving the fact he s a fiscal conservative perhaps aren t going to like his stand on other issues like immigration, gun control and education reform. have they taken a close enough look at this guy in. i do think that is an issue. the question is who is going to run the republican primaries? right now, the dialogue is being dominated by the tea party but there are a lot of other republicans who say we ve got to play outside of the tea party playbook and this is a guy who can do that. chuck brings up an interesting point at the end of his. piece, what would it be like to be one of the declared republican candidates now, a mitt romney, rick perry, or ron paul, you pick it, and hear this constant deafening drum beat for someone else to run? you know, this has been going on all summer long before perry got in, there was the same drum beat, how can we get him in, then he loses the florida straw poll to herman cain and a lot of people were having doubts about his ability to handle himself in a lot of positions he s taking. this is not unusual at this stage. four years ago, we had hillary clinton way out in front of barack obama, but he was coming up fast on the inside track. we re in what i call the pre-super bowl scrum at the moment. and rudy giuliani was the front-runner, john mccain who eventually got the nomination was this third. david axelrod has said the president is facing a titanic struggle to get reelected in the face of this economy. is he stating the facts or trying to make barack obama an underdog? no, i think he s stating the facts. i was in another seminar over the weekend and we all agreed the referendum next year will be on barack obama and the issue of jobs and the economy. it s not getting better at a pace everyone expected it to. a lot of people are worried about a real double dip and what s going on globally and it all comes down to the desk in the oval office when you go into an election after you ve been in office for four years so he s got a very tough road ahead of him, matt. tom brokaw good to see. always good to see you. 19 minutes after the hour. savannah doing double duty at the news desk. natalie is on assignment. listeria laced cantaloupes from colorado have sparked the deadliest outbreak, 13 have died and 17 others infected. 18 states reported illnesses. the cdc traced the tainted cantaloupes to jensen farms. photos and videos taken of osama bin laden after he was killed could damage national security if released. a lawsuit under the freedom of information act is calling for the release of images taken from the raid on bin laden s compound back in may of this year. tensions are escalating yet again between israel and the palestinians after israel gave the green light to construction of 1,100 new jewish housing units in east jerusalem. the palestinians condemned the action and secretary of state hillary clinton called the action counterproductive to negotiations. planned parenthood provides a variety of health services and the country s largest abortion provider. republicans are investigating whether taxpayers are unknowingly paying for terminating pregnancies which would be a violation of law. democrats say it is regularly and publicly audited and republicans are trying to shut it down. to wall street, cnbc s courtney regan is at the new york stock exchange. good morning to you. good morning, investors continue to watch for headlines out of europe as the region s debt crisis continues and markets waiting for another vote on the eurozone s bailout fund. there is some concern disagreement between european leaders over greece s bailout terms could temper stock market gands again today. the dow lost nearly half of the day s gains in the last 90 minutes of tuesday s trade. courtney reagan on wall street, thank you. tv s favorite krcrumudgeon officially ending his run. he ll no longer be a regular on 60 minutes. now age 92, andy rooney has been a regular contributor on the newsmagazine since 1978. it s 7:22, back to matt, ann and al, a grumpy fixture we ll all miss. he s an iconic figure. you re going to continue until you re 92. look at these two anchored that have gathered on my desk, someone wearing green, the other, well, what the heck. mr. roker, what s happening? well mr. roker, what is happ? we have the low pressure system we have been talking about. trd ophelia. it may threaten bermuda as a category 1 hurricane. and then the low pressure still spinning around the great lakes. and today on the east side of chicago bringing in more rain. some areas interior parts of new york and pennsylvania may see in anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain. and there are flash flood watches up from pennsylvania up to new york state. i am chuck bell. clouds with rain and thunder move into the washington area right now. temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s. you can see on doppler radar that push of moisture come into the city right now with embedded thunder and lightning, and so be ready for a quick hit of rainfall from mother nature. and this is as shower activity will be and that s your latest weather. matt? al thank you very much. just ahead how is amanda knox feeling with the murder conviction appeal just days a y away. we ll talk to her father in a live and still to come this morning, how salacious gossip spread on the website that lets users he main anonymous is ripping one small town apart. more good morning. i am joe krebs. it s 7:26. we have storms move into the area. let s get to our meteorologist, chuck bell. hey, joe, good morning to you. cloudy skies and rain showers move into the city right now. looks like we will be under the gun for rain, thunder and lightning for the next hour and a half to two hours or so. the first area of rain will be out of here and we should be dry by late this morning or early this afternoon but there will be another chance for thunderstorms, and today s highs are up near 80. rains likely for tomorrow and turning cooler for the weekend. we will tak good morning. traveling 270, you are jammed as you approach the accident at route 124. i will give you a live look at father hurley. back to you. we ll have another 7:30 now on this wednesday morning, the 28th day of september, 2011, plenty of crowds to begin today in manhattan. look at this, the crowd is smiling bright despite the umbrellas, waving to their loved inside studio 1a i mñi ann curr along mr. matt lauer. we missed you. it s good to be back. and coming back in the middle of a couple of billing triag trial. no kidding. knox and her murder conviction appeal is nearing. her father just met with her in prison this morning, he ll be speaking outñi in a live intervw straight ahead. when gossip goes too far, rumors and lies spread online got son out of control in one missouri town some residents decided to move. the story on that is coming up. really kind of crazy there. also much more on the trial of michael jackson s personal physician, it s already provided plenty of drama on day one so will it become the next so-called trial of the century? we ll address that coming up. let s begin this half hour with a check of the weather from mr. roker who ventured outside. a little misty out here, the gens girls, where are you from? eureka, kale iccalifornia. cool. texas. all right, so bad. texas! there we go. don t mess with texas. we will show you the afternoon temperatures, 60s, 70s in the northeast, and back through the great lakes under the upper level low. look at the temperatures, 80s and 90s. and 67 in seattle today with plenty of sunshine. showers along the gulf coast. more rain here in the northeast. some of it could be heavy at times, and look for a few showers in the central great lakes. here is what is happening in your neck of the woods. good wednesday morning. i am meteorologist, chuck bell. embedded thunderstorms coming into the area this morning. the rain extends from the panhandle of west virginia into portions of maryland. and so we will have a break in the action coming our way for late this morning into the early afternoon hours. with the daytime hitting we may have another chance for strong to severe thunderstorms later don t forget you can get your weather any time of the day or night, go to the weather channel or weather.com online. ann? thank you so much. to washington state where child welfare officials placed the children of missing utah woman susan powell with susan s parents. the boys had been living with their father until he was arrested on child porn charges. reporter: josh powell told a judge his children belong with him, that he and his two boys would no longer live with his father, steven powell, charged with 14 counts of voyeurism and child pornography. reporter: last month police raided his home hauling away boxes of evidence. although josh is not a suspect in the child porn case authorities say he s under investigation as they go through 15 computers found in the home. mr. powell is the subject of that investigation and that s the concern that the department has. reporter: susan powell vanished in 2009, on the same day josh told police he took his boys camping overnight in a snowstorm. police have named josh a person of interest in the case, but josh has denied any involvement in his wife s disappearance. joshua powell has not cooperated with law enforcement. reporter: in court, a lawyer for susan s father indicated that the boys may know something about their mother s disappearance. those kids may know something and he sure has tas the dickenst want the kids talking to anybody who could help identify what it is they do now. reporter: miguel almaguere, loss a nbc news. the verdict trial of amanda knox, keith, good morning to you. reporter: it s been extraordinarily interesting throughout the trial from she devil to jessica rabbit amman do knox s character has been at the center of the appeals in the trial and massive contradictions and is she in fact the all-american girl or as the prosecution says is she evil? who is the real amanda knox? it appears in these closing arguments that lawyers hope that by revealing the character they can win their side of the appeal. on tuesday, defense lawyers argued knox has been unfairly portrayed by the prosecution. the judge and jury were told not to mistake tenderness with sexual obsession. she is no diabolical maneater declared the defense but more like the character jessica rabbit from the movie cartoon with the memorable line, i m not bad, just drawn that way. it was one of the few light moments in a gruelling summation that has both sides going for the knockout in the appeal. representing raffaele sollecito who was convicted along with knox of murdering meredith kercher, lawyers shredded the prosecution s case, the tna found unreliable by court appointed experts and pointed out inconsistencies in the circumstantial evidence. lawyers for knox are telling the family they are confident the guilty verdict will be overturned. but knox is clearly suffering from the stress of not knowing her future. her hair is visibly thinner and she s not eating or sleeping properly. you feel nauseous all day long. it s this, you can t settle. you can t relax, and amanda s not sleeping. her first day was here, i remember looking at the back of her arms and she has had hives everywhere. reporter: knox was just 20 years old when she was arrested for murder. defense lawyers told the court knox was immature and naive back then, but no murderer. the chief judge is trying to push this appeals trial along, hoping to wrap everything by friday. if that is the case in and fact we could get a verdict as early as saturday. matt? keith miller in italy for thus morning, keith, thank you very much. how is ammaanda knox holdin up? we re joined by amanda s father, curt knox. good to see you. good morning. good morning to you. i can only imagine what she is thinking in prison right now, in a couple of days she will either have great news or terrible news. how would you describe her emotions? well, today at visitation she was very anxious. she knows she s innocent but to be just a couple of days away from having somebody determine your future that you have no control over is extraordinarily hard on her, so we re hoping that she stays together all the way through the arest of this and that we get the right outcome we re looking for. it s been, curt, a very, very difficult week or so in court. amanda has sat there listening to lawyers for the prosecution, and a lawyer in a civil trial not only go over what they see as the facts in thisçó case but really launch a personal character assassination against your daughter. how did she handle that? well, you know, listening to an all-out assault and describing you as somebody that just doesn t exist was extraordinarily hard on her. i watched her wince a number of times, you know, when certain names are being called and especially by people that have, you know, never even spoken to her, have no idea who she is, so it was very difficult, but you know, defense arguments are now beginning so i think things are going to look better for her. over the last four years you ve become what of a student of the italian legal system. the jury is made up of six lay people and a judge and assistant judge. are you worried that they will be swayed by the kind of emotional testimony that was presented in this court this week? you know, i would like to believe that they re going to focus on the actual evidence that was presented during the appeals trial versus the actual emotion of it, because you know there were some things that were done specifically by the kercher family lawyer in showing, you know, pictures of meredith that i thought were flat disgusting and you know, it leads me to believe that there s a bit of desperation from the prosecution side on how this verdict will actually come out, but we re hoping that it comes out the right way. amanda will get her chance in court either on thursday or on friday to make a statement. who s working with her on the crafting of that statement? is it something she s working closely with her attorneys on? i know she s an avid writer. does she want this to be in her own voice? well she absolutely does. i mean she s been working on it for over three months and it s going to be truly heartfelt and to be very honest be very painful to listen to, just because you ve got a 24-year-old kid that s essentially fighting to are her life and this is her last chance to actually tell the judge and jury that she truly had nothing to do with this horrific crime. i was reading something this morning, curt, where you gave an interview and saying at a recent visit with amanda in prison, she asked you a question, and she said, what are the ten things you want to do when i get home? and i think one of the things you mentioned was celebrate your 21st birthday, because as a family, you missed that. but you thought the question was important, why? well, you know, it leads you to believe that she s looking forward and hopefully seeing that she s going to be able to come home with us this time, and we hope that will take place. curt knox, i know it s an anxious time for you and your family and obviously for amanda and i appreciate you taking the time this morning to talk to me. thank you for having me. up next, the small town that s being torn apart by gossip spread on a controversial website. that s right after this. -with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. it s 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. that s 1% cash back on oscar. .tony. oscar! 2% back on whatever she ll eat. 3% back on filling up this baby. 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[ male announcer ] play now. because this year, 1 in 4 wins. with 125 million winning game pieces for cash and great prizes, the odds are irresistible. monopoly at mcdonald s. the simple joy of. [ woman ] i won! [ woman ] my heart medication isn t some political game. [ man ] our retirement isn t a simple budget line item. [ man ] i worked hard. i paid into my medicare. [ man ] and i earned my social security. [ woman ] now, instead of cutting waste and loopholes, washington wants to cut our benefits? that wasn t the agreement. [ male announcer ] join the members of aarp and tell washington to stop cuts to our medicare and social security benefits. and tell washington to stop cuts happy birthday. go, go it s your birthday. we gonna party. cause it s your birthday. got lots of presents just for your birthday. and this is for you. back now at 7:44, it s been said nothing travels faster than goss gossip. thanks to a gossip website the gossip in one missouri town has taken a nasty and public turn. here s nbc s kevin tibbles. reporter: in small towns across the country it is to the local diner people come for a cup of coffee and a little goss gossip. at dee s place in mountain, missouri, gossip has gone too far. causes a lot of trouble. reporter: nasty stuff? nasty stuff. reporter: so nasty it became the subject of a new york times cover story, some of the town s 4,000 residents have taken to using a website called topix to dish their dirt. cyber terrorist, that s what i believe, they are cyber terrorists. reporter: they post often salacious accusations about others and do it all anonymously. they said a whore with aids. reporter: it s awful. right, very untrue. reporter: after reading what jennifer james says is a bunch of lies she s uncomfortable leaving her home. to come into town and to see people stare at me and give me looks, sometimes dirty looks, it felt like i was being talked about. reporter: lorraine kusior, a former family counselor. look at, lorraines sex club. reporter: now sees herself on topix being described as running a sex cluck. i can t go anywhere without somebody saying i read this about topix, what s going on with you? i don t really need to talk about my personal life with anybody. reporter: topix says it s the best place on the internet to logon and talk about your town, and stands by its decision to allow posters to remain anonymous. it s really important especially civic discourse in a small town to be able to put your point of view across without getting punished for it. reporter: but the website does not condone personal attacks. we re not so happy about seeing things where people are talking smack about each other, and when people inform us of things that go over the line we take care of it. reporter: topix did remove all of the hurtful postings about jennifer james but the damage has been done. i want to move. i want to be out of here by the first of the year. reporter: back in quaint and sleeping mountain grove, the mayor, who s also been a target, says a handful of people are giving his town a bad name. topix is a place for cowards that ñiis, are afraid to stop y on the square and say i ve got a problem with you. reporter: and it s left a lot of locals wishing those anonymous posters would just take their gripes to a table at dee s. for today, kevin tibles, nbc news, mountain grove, missouri. coming up next an irish farmer confronts rihanna after she goes topless on his property. that video coming up after this. 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[ female announcer ] find the tide that s right for you at tide.com. so al, if you were driving by your own field up at your house and you saw rihanna there basically half naked, what would you do? i would give her about an hour to get off my property. [ laughter ] well, apparently alan graham, 61, owner of a farm in ireland where she was shooting a video didn t like it. he s an alderman, has four kids. put yourself in his shoes. i tried to, imagining it for a while. he literally said he s deeply religious and didn t want her there. she did ask for and got permission but it sounded like he didn t know exactly who was on his property or maybe he didn t have access to google because he was shocked to see her in such a state of undress. what i like is he instructed her to bush up on her bible reading before he let her go bye-bye. anyway, much more coming up including this michael jackson trial after your local news. major medical, boyyyy! 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[ female announcer ] could your i want become i can ? talk to your doctor. orencia reduces many ra symptoms, like pain, morning stiffness and progression of joint damage. it s helped new ra patients and those not helped enough by other treatments. do not take orencia with another biologic medicine for ra due to an increased risk of serious infection. serious side effects can occur including rare but fatal infections. cases of lymphoma and lung cancer have been reported. tell your doctor if you are prone to or have any infection like an open sore or the flu or a history of copd, a chronic lung disease. orencia may worsen your copd. doctors have prescribed orencia for thousands of patients. talk to your doctor. see if you can change i want to oh, yes i can! good morning. it s 7:56 on this wednesday morning. i am joe krebs. and we will get the forecast from meteorologist, chuck bell. we have rain and thunder and lightning as well. temperatures in the upper 60s to 70 degrees right now. and you can see the progression of the rain showers and thundershowers right now. and light rain showers lingering south along i-95. another chance for thunderstorms later today, and some of those could be severe. and today s high near 80. [ male announcer ] combine a pnc cashbuilder visa credit card with a pnc performance select checking account and get up to 1.75% cash back for just about every purchase. learn more and apply today at pnc.com/cashbuilder. pnc bank. for the achiever in you. good morning. local roadways are wet and very congested. here is a look at 270. your delays start at father hurley. and then making your way on the beltway, you are traveling at 36 miles per hour. and robinson terminal, also seeing those delays there. they start at i-95 and continue to i-66. right in this area you are traveling at 24 miles per hour. and 395, big delays. they start at et sul and continue to the bridge. 8:00 now on a wednesday morning, 28th day of september, 2011, 70 degrees and overcast on the plaza this morning. we had showers earlier, we understand there will be more of those later today. these nice people paying us a visit. thank you very much, i m matt lauer with ann curry and al roker inside studio 1a. the trial of michael jackson s doctor has a lot of people talking. will it captivate the country the way o.j. s criminal trial did? we have his famous family inside the courtroom and fans gathered outside. we ll talk with a couple of people used to dealing with these things in a couple of minutes. that s right, matt. on a very different note, like a lot of parents, i m becoming one of these people making care packages for my daughter who went off to college but the repertoire is very limited, rice krispie treats and chocolate chip cookies that come in the bag. who is here none other than martha stewart to help us make better care packages for our kids. how to make your kid s fashion sense work for you at any age. lot to get to. let s head over to the news desk, natalie is on assignment and we have samantha guthrie. michael jackson s personal assistant testifies at the trial of jackson s doctor, conrad murray. prosecutors played an audio recording from murray s phone from what they said was a drugged up jackson. two days later murray placed another massive quantity for propofol. the defense claims murray was trying to wean jackson off of that jack and jackson himself self-administered the fatetal dose. much more coming up. president obama wrapped up his three-day western swing tuesday urging the audience at a denver high school to call their members of congress and urge him to pass his $450 billion jobs bill. in the meantime new jersey governor chris christie appeared to leave open the possibility for running for the presidential nomination. christie cited his own record as an example of how to solveñi washington s problems. a fugitive hijacker married a woman in portugal, raised two children. from a new jersey prison where he had been serving time for murder and two years later he and other militants hijacked a jet in miami, demanded that fbi agents strip down before delivering a $1 million ransom, and then they flew to algeria. congress has sent the president a bill to keep funding going for government research on autism. it authorizes nearly $700 million over three years for research into the causes of autism and treatments for it. now for a look at what s trending today, quick roundup oc what has you talking online. as we mentioned earlier, fans are googling rihanna s run-in with an irish farmer. she had permission to romp through his field for a video shoot but when rihanna dropped her top he blew his stack and asked her to leave. hallmark is generating buzz with its expanded line for those losing a job. and check out this viral video forñr rosh hoshanah, the jewish new year that begins at sunset. the spoof of party rock anthem was shot in the old city in jerusalem and urges young people to partyñi like it s 5772. it s 8:04, back to matt and ann very inventive, 5772. so much i had to throw my pen i was so excited. hold yourself together, savannah. party like it s 5772. savannah thank you so much. let s head outsigh for a check of the weather from al. friends from the friendship collegiate academy. where are you located? washington, d.c. whoa, good looking group, very nice. good looking guys, thank you, and gals. let s check your weather, topeka, kansas, nbc 27, sunny, . sunny, warm, 54 degrees. it s i should say 84 degrees. as you can see, we have the upper level low spinning around the great lakes and a few showers in the northeast and could be thundershowers moving in. beautiful day in seattle. 67. 85 degrees and morning fog down in los angeles a lot of heavy rain along the mid-atlantic coast, and could be flash flooding from central pennsylvania on into interior new york state. fit for algebra, yes. my seventh grader is doing algebra and i have no idea what she is doing whatsoever. that s what is going around the country. temperatures are in the upper 60s and low 70s, but here you can see on doppler radar the first area of rain showers with embedded thundershowers across parts of maryland, and even a few rumbled in southern parts of d.c. and we will have another chance for and that s your latest weather. ann? thank you so much, al. coming up next will the trial of michael jackson s doctor captivate america the way the o.j. simpson criminal trial did? we ll talk about that after this. 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[ male announcer ] it s always having a reason, from the smallest details to the big decisions. and putting everything through everything before we stand behind anything. doing things right has always defined what we do. and now it defines how we ship. announcing free shipping. no minimum order. no end date. from l.l. bean. we are back now at 8:09 with the trial on more of michael jackson s personal physician, held in the same city and same courthouse as o.j. simpson s high profile trial. will this case become another trial of the century? here s nbc s lee cowan. the mere mention of o.j. simpson outside the l.a. courthouse tuesday brought groans to journalists old enough to have covered that trial. slow down just a second. reporter: on the very same sidewalk back in 1994, day in and day out covering o.j., a legal groundhog day like few others. there s a temptation already to compare that circus with this one. the trial of michael jackson s doctor, conrad murray. even the courtroom scenes look eerily similar. the impersonators, banners, t-shirts and messages even in the sky. some say that s where the similarities end. this will probably be the trial of the year. i don t think it will be the trial of the century. reporter: the o.j. case was an obsession for some, there was intrigue, mystery, a tragic whodunit, but the death of michael jackson is either a case about medical negligence, as the prosecution contends or a self-inflicted overdose, as the defense maintains. in the o.j. simpson trial, there were camps, is he guilty, is he innocent? there were arguments, there were racial divisions, there were class divisions. in this case, it s just sort of a fascination about michael jackson, his life and his death. reporter: there s no glove that doesn t fit, no expensive shoe prints no, missing murder weapon. still there is a flair for the dramatic. prosecutors have already showed the jury a picture of jackson s lifeless body and played his recorded voice, too. they say under the influence of drugs. when people leave my show, i want them to say, i ve never seen nothing like this in my life. reporter: at the very least we may have learned something from the case. the jurors in the conrad murray trial are not sequestered like the simpson jury is in part the judge says so they won t feel trapped. how can they avoid this? was it an accident, you wait until you call 911? reporter: tv coverage is wall to wall just like o.j. but in this new age of smartphones and social networking sites, conrad murray s trial is showing up in places that o.j. simpson never imagined. all i want to say is that they don t really care about us reporter: after all, jackson was the king of pop and also the king of spectacle. while the case may not divide a nation it does have a nation very curious. for today, lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. msnbc s martin bashir interviewed michael jackson in 2003, lola ogua committee, does this compare, could it rival the o.j. simpson trial, martin in. me first? yes. i don t think it will, because i think that the prosecution have played their most effective card on the first day. they showed two things, one, a shocking and disturbing series of photographs of mr. jackson when he was alive the day before and then suddenly deceased on a gurney, and the second thing is, they played that sound tape, which was also equally disturbing. i don t know what else they have apart from the arguments about medical negligence. lola, what do you think? i don t this i it will be the trial of the century at all. i believe it will be the trial of the year. maybe not even. who could rival casey anthony? right. the trials tend to get a lot of play because they re basically reality shows at large. you say about his final days. this isn t a trial about conrad murray. this is a trial of michael jackson. if you asked 100 people what s the guy s name who is on trial in the michael jackson case? i would say 50%, 60% probably don t know his name. that s why this trial is not so much about the content, it s about the legacy of a cultural  icon. people will be fighting over the memory of this man, and it will either give gris tt to the viewe used drugs persistently? this going to harm the legacy of the pop star? the defense has to paint him as an insomniac junkie who went doctor shopping. people came to rediscover michael jackson after his death as an artist, celebrated entertainer performer. controversial. controversial but came to appreciate his music. now we have to hear the tawdry details of a career that was just undergoing rehabilitation. michael jackson s family will be in court quite often. and tweeting and latoya jackson has been tweeting inside the courtroom. i don t know if all of them will be in court every single day becausele this be a complex and probably prolonged series of legal arguments. i think that will have an effect but also remember this is a character. people keep saying oh well it s going to be like casey anthony. casey anthony s status was defined by the trial. michael jackson is a cultural icon way before this trial, 30 there was a waiting list. that s the status of jackson. 250,000 people wanted to buy tickets. martin bashir defending the today show, there is the headline. thanks very much. up next, martha stewart teaches ann how to bake cookies, seriously, right after this. one s new cash rewards card gives you a 50 percent annual bonus. so you earn 50 percent more cash. if you re not satisfied with 50% more cash, send it back! i ll be right here, waiting for it. who wouldn t want more cash? [ insects chirping ] i ll take it. i ll make it rain up in here. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what s in your wallet? sorry i ll clean this up. shouldn t have made it rain. [ gasp ] [ mom ] my husband he thinks it s a 3-sheeter. i say 1-sheeter. bounty can clean the mess with less. [ female announcer ] in this lab demo, 1 sheet of bounty leaves this surface as clean as 2 sheets of the bargain brand. dance cooking? bring it. super durable. super absorbent. super clean. bounty the 1-sheet clean picker-upper. and try bounty napkins. [ 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. with two children and no way to support them. i put myself through nursing school, and then i decided to go get a doctorate degree. university of phoenix gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people s lives. my name is dr. kimberly horton. i manage a network of over a thousand nurses, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world. martha on today is brought to you by macy s, the martha stewart collection is now available only at macy s and on macys.com. this morning on martha on today, care packages for your college students like many moms when my daughter left for the first time earlier this month i started a whole new chapter in my life and i m a baker but every week i d whip up a batch to send but i m only sending two recipes. martha stewart here and has her cookie app. did ma kenzie complain she was bored? no she didn t but you can only make rice krispie treats and bounis from packages so many times. we created the cookie book and the cookie app available for the ipad. it s so good. you re making the heart sandwich cookie. this is a beautiful cookie, oatmeal and whole wheat flour. some healthiness. filled with nutela the hazel nut cream or any jelly. it looks hard. roll out between two pieces of parchment, makes it a much easier thing, they won t stick and you un, take off the parchment, larger than two inch and you can cut. if you make, the heart is a sweet message, but it s for your, sort of feeling homesick maybe? just use a little offset spatula. cut them all close, don t waste any. then you bake them on parchment and it s easy to bake, just at 325 for 20 minutes and when they come out they look like this. here s the love nutella. she she like nutella? i don t know of any kid that doesn t. it s a sure winner. they like jam and jelly. spread this, put two cookies together and let it harden and ready to pack up in a box. they look sturdy, easy to pack. i was going to move on but obviously you re going to make me finish this. i m glad, there you go. one on the tray. that thick? that thick or thinner, doesn t matter, a hearty, good dough. here is another bar cookie. the whole half is divided into chewy bars, flat, crispy, and so this is a peanut butter dough. press that down flat in the pan. my hands are clean, i just washed them. we don t want another matt lauer thing. this looks like it would be easier because you wouldn t have to cut them all out right? this is so easy. press that all out into all the corners, then you spread jelly on top of the peanut butter dough. and bake them with the jelly on top of it i? spread the jelly that, looks good. they can be a little rough. spread the jelly on top? yes, you can do that. a little spatula here. mmm. all right. spread that. that s a nice strawberry, preservy thing. love the chunks. get a little bit more dough and crumble this over the jelly and then peanuts like that. and then you bake that on top. let s see how they come out in front. those are beautiful, you slice them up, easy to package. couple minutes left keep going. to make cookies the same size use an ice cream scoop and press hard and get a nice ball, roll it into a ball and put it on the baking sheet. use, over here, okay. and press with the bottom of a glass. look at that. i ve oiled the bottom a tiny bit, you can put a little butter on the bottom. that gives them the right shape. the nice thick, this is like a shortbread with lots of pecans, simple four ingredients. they come out looking like these, the pecan sandies. chocolate chip look at this. oh my lord. sent in a tin like that. i m worried about packaging these up and how they re not going to break. the secret for packaging in a tin you put a little piece of parchment and bubble wrap. i see bubble wrap between them. put it like that and another piece and your cookies will, then you cover them. the tighter they are the better but don t press down and put this inside another box with lots of bubble, two inches of packing material around, recycle, nice little package like this can go right to your daughter. you used newspapers. stuff from another package. we re all ordering online we get a lot of packing materials, don t throw them away. save. look at this x and o a kiss and hugger your children. put them into sill feign bags, pack them in a tin, another box with bubbles. your daughter will be happy. yeah, martha, thank you so much. i m so excited. your daughter will love this. more after this. we have more after this. 8:26 is your time now on this wednesday, september 28th, 2011. good morning, i am eun yang. let s go to meteorologist, chuck bell, in the storm center for a check on the forecast. already had one patch of rain showers push through the area and probably will have another round late this afternoon and into the evening. right now temperatures in the upper 60s into the 70s. and that first push of rain coming through the area. most of the stronger storms are now out on the eastern shore of maryland, but we have the back end of the rain move into fredericksburg now. and a little daytime heating will destabilize us and we will have another chance of strong to good morning. taking the outer loop of the beltway at gallos road. delays start as you take a look 8:30 now on this wednesday morning. the 28th day of september, 2011, and right now our crowd is getting an up close and personal look at emmy winning actress meredith hargitay. we re asking people to bring pens, papers and calculators to give to students who basically will have them and teachers who won t have to spend their own money to buy them. to learn more how you can take part head to the website at today.com. also a makeover for a minnesota school that was heavily damaged by a tornado. jenna bush hager teamed up with george oliphant to share a story about their community. did you realize americans drink 400 million cups of coffee every day? i just did that. have you ever wondered where does the coffee come from and why does the double latte cost too much? and if a train leaves pittsburgh anyway, we ll take an opening eye at that. also a new survey on our website, we re asking the key question how strong do you believe your marriage is? so you can come on, take part in the survey. i understand it is anonymous and we will go through the results next week on the show. it s always useful on that topic. let s interrupt what we re doing and talk to nick offerman, plays ron swanson on nbc s parks and recreation. nick, great to have you here. thanks for having me. are kind of inyou re kind o of tammys. it s more dangerous than the bermuda triangle. your mother in this sitcom is named tammy, first wife is named tammy and second wife s name is tammy, yes. i long for the comforts of the bermuda triangle, when i see the tammys coming. you get audited by the irs on top of everywhere else. ron swanson s ultimate nightmare. you have ever been audited in real life? not yet. what s your social security number? it ends in 72. does it? that s all you re getting. talk to me a little bit about working with all of the ladies, these funny ladies. one of whom is your real wife in real life. and my comedy hero. it was unbelievable. i don t know what i did right to be cast as a guy who could have one magle mulally, patricia clarkson. it s only in a comedy could i be married to these beautiful women. congratulations and not only did you host the television critics association awards, you actually won one of the awards. thank you, yeah, it was a slow year. i got in. are you sure you won or did you get to read the name on the envelope? i did not get to read the name. no? but i did tie, i came in, in a tie with ty burrell from modern family. a tie for ty. we shook hands and remained friends. thanks for making us smile, here this morning and also on your show. great to have you. nick offerman, thanks. catch all new parks and recreation tomorrow night at 8:30/7:30 central time right here on nbc. let s get a check of the weather from mr. roker. today s weather from education nation s plaza is brought to you by microsoft who believes every student has a right to a quality education brought to you by microsoft, who believes that every student has a right to education, and technology can help. that s what is going on around the country and here is what is happening in your neck of the woods. a rainy morning so far, and the rain showers showing signs of tapering off for now. we will be dry around lunchtime and into the early morning hours. and then the second round of thunderstorms may be a little on the strong to severe side, so we will keep an eye on that and don t turn your back on mother nature today. and then headed up towards the baltimore and that s your latest weather. nbc news, as we ve been telling you all week, education nation has been focusing on america s kids and the importance of early childhood education. how do you make sure your kid gets a great preschool experience that they deserve? cornelia drummond is the executive director of the first five years. good morning. good morning. what should parents look for when looking for a preschool? a number of things they can look for. first of all children learn through relationships so they want to try to take a tour of any early childhood center that they re considering. look for the interactions between the teacher and the children. children need to feel secure, respected connected, are things at eye level in the classroom, you don t want more than 20 kids in the classroom, need to be two adults there, is there professional development opportunities for the teachers to get ongoing training. it s not just baby sitting. how do you get your kids ready? you read to them all the time at least 20 minutes a day starting when they re young, talking to them, even before they can talk to you. cornelia drummond, executive director of the first five years fund thank you so much. thank you, al. let s say hello to uncle willy scott. ahh, the wheel of life spins on. all of my birthday buddy, ought to get together and see who is next on the other side of the jar, get my glasses. this is methylmccroskey in portland, org organiegon, 103 a loves to do exciting games and also loves to read, secret to longevity? never, never, never ever lose faith. good line. good line. i love this, sabina burns, isn t that romantic, sbabina burns of palm harbor, florida florida, 101 years old. avid reader, 400, 500 books she read one time i think in a couple of months, scrabble, reading, all sorts of mind things. keep the mind sharp. roger arthur, great name for a news man of lebanon, ohio, 100 years old today, proud world war ii vet and he likes to read, too, finishes i think an average of 15 books a month, it says. can you believe that? i m not a great reader, i wish i were. too bad, anyway, lillian, ah, lily, lily. lillian anderson from hicksville, new york, 100 years old today and she loves to bake. and she absolutely adore it is. 2002 was the last year she worked as a volunteer in the home. and stella curts of frankfort, indiana, not kentucky. 106 years old and she loves to work on jigsaw puzzles, another thing to keep the mind sharp and still likes to read. she s got a great sense of humor, she d have to, to watch our show. anyway, joe rudolph, he s from lauderhill, florida, 100 years old today and he loves to sing and he likes to write songs. how about that, you can t beat that combination. well that s all for right now. i m going to go clean my glasses and see you in a minute. will, thank you so much. coming up next, jenna bush hager on pitching in and giving the school badly damaged by a tornado a fresh lieu look but first this is today ñr education nation today proudly brought to you by university of phoenix because we believe an educated world is a better world. we re back now at 8:40, this morning on education nation today, a makeover with a real message, and it was badly needed after a tornado at the end of the last school year tore apart a are the chaer school in northern minneapolis. today contributing correspondent jenna bush hager is here with details oen this. good morning. good morning, matt, with he teamed up with george oliphat from lxtv s george the rescue in order to give these kids a new place to nourish both their bodies and their minds. it was late last may when deadly tornadoes crashed through northern minneapolis, homes were destroyed, trees uprooted and for the 350 students at the k through six charter school sojourner school academy classes came to an abrupt halt. the roof was damaged and the irtire gym flooded and i got sad and felt like crying. reporter: in less than a minute 90% of the roof destroyed and interior flooded leaving behind half a million dollars in damages. the tornado hit the school and we didn t get to finish the school year and i was kind of sad. reporter: and yet, they considered themselves lucky, in one very important way. since it was sunday, the school was closed. we had over 90 windows in the building break. it would have been a tragedy not just a disaster. reporter: tell me a little bit about this community here. to this community we re in north minneapolis, a vibrant community, lots of different races living together but it s also a community that has seen its share of difficulties. reporter: so for some of these students, school is their safe haven. we ve got a handful of kids that are homeless in shelters now, some of it s due to the tornado and some of it s just whatever situation they re in. reporter: what s it like for those kids? it s nice for them to have a space like school to come to, with where they want to come and they enjoy it and know when they walk in the doors they re valued and cared about and their teachers love them. reporter: while insurance covered most of the repairs there was work to be done. we joined forces with george oliphant to fix one room essential to any school building, the cafeteria. what are we going to do? floor to ceiling renovation, rip down the floors, new ceilings, new light, no paint. it s hot. got to throw in air conditioning. one, two, three, rescue! reporter: two two weeks george and his team worked on reforming this room located into the basement for a multipurpose for lunch and learning. teachers are going to be able to use this in so many ways. it s awesome. so we got a little distracted while working. i love myself a power tool. perfect. you think right here? reporter: awe you had. waste, bottles, cans, plastics. reporter: for the finishing touch we ll stop by this second grade class to pick up second grade arts. this is where the tree lit my house? reporter: did you have to move? let s build a school. your art in the brand new cafeteria. what do you think? we can hear the kids. yeah, this is when your heart gets going, get excited. reporter: i kind of have butterflies. one, two, three! yeah! reporter: you re on tv. we ve been through so much especially with the tornado and to have something brand new, i can t even imagine how they must feel. awesome! this is like, like heaven. reporter: keep learning. you can learn even in this room. enjoy it, all right? reporter: yeah! guys, thank you so much. reporter: whoa, whoa! the smiles on the kids faces say it all but there s actual research that confirms that the way a school looks and feels helps give the kids the confidence to learn and grow. it s not just superficial, if you like your surroundings, you will be encouraged to spend more time there, and enjoy your time there more. exactly. we obviously have to thank the man that did it all. how much time did you spend there, george? three weeks, three weeks at the school. it was amazing walking down the halls every day, doing high fives with the kids. i felt like i was back in school, so it was such a rewarding experience and then jenna came in and brought some pop to the project. came in for a little pop. came in for a little pop. okay. got it. a power tool she s great with the drill, she can be on the rescue any time. i will hold you to that. thank you very much. watch the entire project unfold this season on george to the rescue check your local listings on that and up next we re going to catch up with law and order svu s mariska we re going to catch up with law and order svu s mariska hargitay, bu in one day, i could have three auditions. and, it s really important that you go in looking like the role. i go straight to t.j.maxx. i find what i m looking for. done. it s amazing to find so many gorgeous designer clothes. i m like dut, dut, dut. yes, yes, yes. and, it also works with my somewhat unpredictable paycheck. fashion direct from designers. savings direct to you. this fashionista. is a one-to-watch maxxinista. t.j.maxx. let us make a maxxinista out of you. it s easy to spot a capital one bank. the most branches and atms in the dc area. one near you. [ all ] what s in your wallet? looks like it s bumper to bumper on the interstate. i gotta get to cleveland! remove your belt, your watch, your shoes. i wonder what gas costs today. seven dollars for a pillow! an extra bag costs what? i hate traffic! [ child ] the train is now arriving. [ male announcer ] the train has arrived indeed. amtrak guest rewards members earn double points this fall for any trip on amtrak. details at amtrak.com. i love that tune. it is now 8:48, we re back with emmy winning mariska hargitay, stars as detective olivia benson on nbc s law and order svu in its 13th season. this week the special unit must uncover the truth about a well respected basketball coach accused of sexually abusing his star players. take a look. most of these kids get one chance at a future. i m in a position to help them. we get very close. that s a lot of power. my foundation, my whole life is about helping these kids. you think the law can t touch you, coach? ooh, good morning. good morning. i love this about your character, she s so strong. if i can be really honest, why i think this show has lasted, what, 13th season, women want to see strong women i think in prime time. you really fit that bill but this show is changing now because chris maloney is no longer partner. he was my partner for 12 years, it was devastating and a huge, huge, huge adjustment. i missed him and had a couple of really rough months but you know the show is in a very exciting place. there s so much newness to the show, new characters and new show runner so everything feels very fresh and there s all kinds of new dialics going on and as an actor it s exciting. how is it changing the story? how is that moving the story? well you know, for example, with me olivia is in a different place, somebody who was, you know, focused on the victims and completely compassionate and i think we re seeing a very different olivia that has different issues to deal with, and so that s been fun and challenging again as an actor and with the new characters coming in, brings a whole new set of circumstances. you re feeling there s a chance for olivia to sort of grow into new directions which is exciting. absolutely. i want to ask you about something else because as we keep talking about that, but i want to ask you about this joyful heart foundation because this has meant something to you. you started this, it s basically after you received fan mail talking about rape victims after dealing with male sexual abuse. this happens one in every six cases of rape it s a man? the foundation started, i started the foundation in 2004 because people were, in fact, disclosing to me and i felt like i loved that the show was so courageous in dealing with sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, all issues that people don t want to deal with, and obviously women are the most violated in terms of statistics but this show and the reason i was so excited to come on the show is to promote the show tonight because not only is it an extremely powerful episode, but it deals with male sexual assault, which is something that people just don t talk about. which is really scary and we need to talk about is it s a perfect way to start a conversation, and as parents what we want to do is teach our children how to protect themselves and how to see the signs if something happens and one of the things that s so upsetting about male sexual abuse with children is that oftentimes it is indeed somebody, a role model, somebody you trust, a teacher, an uncle, a priest, whoever it is, so it s really exciting because it s something that happens and tonight is a great way to introduce the subject. mariska hargitay thank you so much. we want to mention the joyful heart foundation we have more information on our website and catch law and order svu tonight at 10:00/9:00 central time on nbc. that s right, first this is today on nbc, boom, boom! had your morning cup of coffee yet? has it become something exotic and expensive? cnbc s scott wapner is here with his new documentary the coffee addiction. did you have your coffee today? i did. i did as well. colorado, to see how a coffee bean makes it all the way into your cup. it s a passion, an addiction, a shot in the arm for a nation short on sleep. there you go, have a good one. reporter: and a drink that spans generations. when you have two little kids you drink coffee. when i get up in the morning mommy has to have a cup of coffee. reporter: americans drink up to 400 million cups of coffee a day but as you sip your morning cup of joe, you probably never give much thought to how it gets to your cup. coffee is an amazing product. reporter: phil beattie thinks about it all the time as a coffee buyer outside of seattle. most of the time i m traveling around south america, south africa, the pacific to find the very best coffees. reporter: we accompanied b t beatty to the jungle of peru where the supply chain begins. we ll cross this river and begin hiking to the coffee farm. our six-mile hike is grimy and grubby, with mud so sticky and deep, you could lose a shoe or your sanity. that was no joke. here s the coffee right here on the trees. coffee beans actually come from trees that take about five years to bear fruit, and thrive in this jungle climate. this cherry has two coffee beans. i like to see a lot of ripe cherries at the same time. this will have most of the sweetness. it will take these same coffee beans two months and 4,000 miles to reach the states, a costly price for phil beatty. the price goes up to $3.83 per pound after the shipment. after they are pokaged the cost is now $7, add in marketing and distribution cost and he s up to $10.50. finally after accounting for overhead and profit, the retail price of phil beatty s high quality coffee beans comes to $14.70 a pound. the stakes are very high, the competition among u.s. roasters to find the very best coffee is very tight and if i m not here i guarantee you somebody else will be to get the best coffee for their customers. 8:56 is your time now on this wednesday, september 28th, 2011. good morning. i am eun yang. let s go to chuck bell to look at the rainy day forecast. we get a break coming up later this morning into early this afternoon before a second round of thunderstorms show up later this afternoon and evening. right now humid and soggy outside. and you can see this first area of rain showers lifting mainly north of the d.c. metro area and the last of the rain drops around fredericksburg. they will be out of here in the next couple of hours. a break or two of sunshine allowing temperatures to warm up to 80 degrees, but all the heating may [ 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. good morning. taking 270, you have an accident in the right shoulder lane. police are on the scene and you are still seeing delays from father hurley as you continue south towards the spur. for now, back to the today we re back now more of today on a wednesday morning. it s the 28th day of september, 2011. and it s kind of a dreary morning here in the northeast, but we ve got a nice group of people gathered outside our studio window and we thank them for that. i m matt lauer along with ann curry and al roker and coming up, we ll have more on the trial of michael jackson s personal physician, dr. conrad murray is on trial for involuntary manslaughter, on day one of the trial, the prosecution played an audiotape of the pop singer, seeming incoherent just weeks before his death and also showed a picture of michael jackson after he passed away, so what s in storer today and the future? more on that coming up. totally different note we re talking about your financial emergencies, in today s money 911 our expert team weighs in on everything from putting your life and finances back together after bankruptcy to paying off the balance of your debt with savings for retirement. and speaking of savings, we ll try to help you save a lot of money. things you can do with your home now that could save you as much as $20,000 down the road. we are a news organization, we are on top of everything, so if you look at studio 1a here this morning you will see that it is september 24th! 2011. no, not quite. we re only off by four days. that s okay. we ll catch up we promise you. you know it s a leap year. natalie is off today. samantha guthrie has the headlines. good morning. in the news today more testimony today in los angeles in the involuntary manslaughter trial of michael jackson s doctor, conrad murray. on tuesday, chilling new revelations as the trial got under way and nbc s jeff rossen has more. jeff, good morning to you. hey, good morning to you. dr. conrad murray, houston cardiologist, never starred in a movie or tv show but make no mistake this is a full on hollywood trial broadcast from coast to coast, even some of the local stations here in l.a. are having gavel to gavel coverage, and within minutes, prosecutors dropped two big bombshells. even by hollywood standards, complete with a spectacle outside, the shocker in court came early. the evidence in this case will show that michael jackson literally put his life in the hands of conrad murray. conrad murray repeatedly acted with gross negligence. reporter: and prosecutors brought visuals showing the jury the side by side photos, on the left, june 24th, michael jackson alert and dancing during rehearsal. on the right, just 12 hours later, michael s lifeless body on a gurney at ucla medical center, a photo never made public until now. what happened during that time frame is that the acts and the omissions of michael jackson s personal doctor, conrad murray, directly led to his premature death at the age of 50. reporter: but the biggest surprise was yet to come, dr. murray had recorded michael jackson on his iphone, a month and a half before michael s death. why, why reporter: on the tape you hear michael drugged up, prosecutors say, and barely making sense, talking about his upcoming tour. when people leave my show, i want them to say, i ve never seen nothing like this in my life. go. go. and what does he do with that knowledge? what does he do with that information? on may 12th, he orders another shipment of propofol. this is someone who was letharg lethargic, barely able to compose a sentence, sounding completely loaded and that doctor will be able to say i used good judgment in giving him propofol? that s going to be hard to overcome. strong for the prosecution. best piece of evidence that i ve seen so far. reporter: dr. murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter, facing four years in prison, accused of administering a lethal doels of the power of then dose of the anesthetic propofol. murray says he was trying to wean jackson off of propofol but they say the morning of jackson s death jackson was begging for propofol. the argsment is th the latest argument is that michael jackson gave him another dose, a lethal dose. it will show michael jackson self-administered a dose of propofol that with the lorazepam created a perfect storm in his body that killed him imassistantly. reporter: but it is that audiotape, michael s only gar e garbled words that left its mark on day one. i ve never seen nothing like this, go. it s amazing. he s the greatest entertainer in the world. reporter: tough to hear that tape. by the way, the jackson family, mother katherine, jermaine, latoya, janet all here in court yesterday to see and hear it all. latoya was tweeting from inside court saying seeing his lifeless body laying on the gurney is heartwrenching and this is all a big conspiracy and the doctor knows exactly what happened. another big day in court, two of michael jackson s employees will be on the stand including his personal assistant. jeff rossen at the courthouse in los angeles, jeff, thank you. other news, listeria contaminated cantaloupes from a farm in colorado led to the nation s deadliest food borne outbreak in a decade. at least 13 people have died and 72 others have been infected by this bacterial strain. so far 18 states have reported illnesses and the cdc has traced the tainted cantaloupes to jensen farms. a stunning sight on top of the washington monument. engineers tuesday began the process of inspecting cracks caused by last month s earthquake, perched 555 feet aboveground they set up a rope system for repelling down the now closed monument and spend the next few days looking for kraxz and other damage. it is now 9:07 and here is al with a check of the weather. thank you so much, savannah. as we show you what agency going on f going on for today, we are looking at more storms, but first we have tropical depression ophelia back again. it s moving northwest at 3 with 45-mile-per-hour winds. could become a hurricane by sometime late saturday and brush just past bermuda, and in the continental of the united states, we are looking for flash flood watching up from central pennsylvania to central new york, and showers along the gulf coast, and sunshine in texas and the southwest. it is a very cloudy and soggy start to a wednesday here in washington. i am news4 meteorologist, chuck bell. temperatures hovering in the upper 60s to 70 degrees, and you can see the first push of morning showers and thunderstorms lifting north of the area. a break in the action down across central virginia. we will have dry hours coming our way. and another round of thunderstorms likely late this afternoon and this evening. some of those could be severe somebody call 911, sure the fire burning on the dance floor now to today s money 911 from prioritizing expenses to boosting your credit score our expert panel has your answers. jean chatzky, author of money 911 and david bach author of debt free for life and looking collegiate today and carmen wong ulrich, personal finance expert and the author of the real cost of living. good to see you. good morning. good morning. let s go to skype, erin from groton, connecticut. good morning, what s your question? good morning. i m a newlywed, my husband and i are working to align our finances so ensure we re saving properly. today we make $160,000, i have $140,000 in law school loans with an interest rate of 7%. we don t have any credit card debt and credit scores in the high 700s. we have a good amount in savings but not much toward retirement and other investments. our current plan is to put my entire salary which is about $3,500 toward the student loans. are we making the right decision to repay the loans faster or putting more towards savings, investments and retirement? thank you, counselor. what do you say? i would say you re not doing it right, unfortunately. i think you need to be putting more of that money into your retirement plans and into your savings. 7% not a great rate, but you could possibly do significantly better particularly if you can get watching dollars from any employer through a 401(k), whether it s yours or your husband s, and then if that money grows, you could do significantly better so i d say pay off those student loans on time, add a little bit of money if you can but prioritize retirement. thank you. great question. to the phones heading down to st. augustine, florida, and patty on the line. good morning, patty. caller: good morning, al. what s your question? caller: well, i m 47 years old, single, no kids, renting. i went through a bankruptcy the first of this year. at the time i cashed out all my retirement and savings. i now have nothing. i earn anywhere from $45,000 to $55,000 a year. my question is where do i start again? i m starting with nothing. i don t want to work until i m in my grave. what do i got to do? sorry about your bankruptcy. you got a clean slate with bankruptcy. hard to go through bankruptcy but you don t owe anybody any money. you need to rebuild two things, emergency account and your savings account. i want you to do the following, go down to the bank, have them withdraw money automatically from your checking account when you get paid, move that directly into an emergency account that you will not touch. whatever that is, you re making $45,000 a year, you ought to be able to save a couple hundred bucks every two weeks emergency account and ask them to give you a secured credit card to build your credit off of that emergency account and the last thing is you have to sign back up for your 401(k) plan but put more into the emergency account for the next 12 months, put a couple percent in your 401(k) plan but get at least three months of emergency savings set up and go fully fund that 401(k) plan. patty you got a plan. good luck. caller: thank you. thank you. now let s get to an e-mail from kimberly in dallas, texas, she writes i m trying to improve my credit score to purchase a home with my husband who has great credit. i previously had horrible credit with multiple delinquencydelinq. around two years ago i paid everything off in full. while my credit score improved to 653 how can i get the negative information off of my report to see a bigger increase? think of the credit report as your grownup report card. you got a d the first semester and fourth a bunch of as. the ds stay on the report card. same thing with credit, as long as it s not fraudulent or a mistake you end up having those things on the credit report. as time goals by as you continue to manage your credit well it will lose its power with your credit score. also kimberly you re really young. it s impossible to be in your 20s with a perfect credit score. you may not be able to buy that house this year but within another year or two you ll be well on track to 700 plus. if anybody tells you they can get that negative information off, they re lying. be careful because it can t happen. go back to the phone one more call, pam on the line, in chicago. good morning, pam. caller: good morning. and your question? caller: my husband is 70 years old, and he has just been laid off. can you tell us if we should keep his money with his company or move it to a roth i.r.a. or something else? the benefit of moving money to a roth at age 70 is if you think you re never going to need to pull it out, a roth allows you to maintain it and pass it on to the next generation, but the tax benefits of doing it at age 70 are pretty minimal. i d look at roolg intolling int traditional i.r.a. where you have more control over the investments. caller: thank you. you re welcome. thanks for your question. thank you so much. thank you. thanks. still ahead small fixes that could save you big bucks on your home, got a fall checklist for you. later say good-bye to the mom jeans. oh, no, what am i going to do? how to take style pointers from your daughter. first these messages. 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. but you go in pieces. [ female announcer ] you can t pass mom s inspection with lots of pieces left behind. that s why there s charmin ultra strong. its diamondweave texture is soft and more durable so it holds up better. fewer pieces left behind. charmin ultra strong. [ 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. 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. this morning on tooled s home a fall fixup checklist, taking care of some issues now, you can save more than $20,000 in repairs later. lisa lee freeman the editor in chief of shopsmart magazine. good morning. you shouldn t procrastinate when it comes to minor house repairs. you might see a small leak in your house, something that doesn t look important and it can turn into many thousands of dollars in repairs. you really have to take care of it. the fall is the time to do it. the fall leaves. make sure all of the leaves are gone before the winter comes because they ll attract critters and then end up in your house. you don t want that. also, those leaves can actually damage your lawn and that could result in lots of damage obviously. what s your best method to get rid of the leaves? a lot of people break their back raking up the leeflz aves, hire expensive services to come in. our advice use a lawnmower with the mulching mode, it breaks up the leaves, feeds your lawn and you won t have to bag up it the leaves. clogged gutters, why take care of it now? the water in the winter could freeze or pill over and destroy your foundation and that can end up very expensive job, and there are some very inexpensive do-it-yourself systems for $50 that you can put in to prevent the leaves and debris from clogging up your gutters and you could hire a professional for a couple hundred dollars to do that for you. one of the systems we like is amer amerimax it s called. and check your roof, don t want your roof leaking. one easy way to do it, get a pair of binoculars and check your roof, looked for curled shingles or any cracks and get a professional if you see anything that looks suspicious. after the thaw and freeze cycle kicks in, you get ice damage, you get a much bigger roof problem and once you have to, once the leak starts and the rafters start getting damaged, then you re looking at possibly tens of thousands of dollars in damage. major repairs. yes. the other tip is close your hose. the idea is if the water is in there, it can get frozen once the cold temperatures come. that s right, and that could crack your pipes, and cause a flood in your house. you want to find the valve that shuts off the hoses onthe outside, on the inside of your house and what you want to do is turn the spigot and get all that additional water out of the spigots before the winter comes, just to make sure there s no water in there. you say watch for air leaks. you can have a professional come and do this but you can do it yourself, too. absolutely on a windy day, close your doors, close your furnace, put the bathroom fans on, house fans and take an incense stick and put it near the doors and windows and see where the smoke goes. if it goes out the door you have a problem and that could cost you a few hundred dollars a year, all of the hot air going out the door. good one to remember, replace furnace filters. i always procrastinate this one. a lot of people do this regularly but if you don t and they re clogged they could end up hurting your furnace and that ends up being an expensive repair as well. and our last one, clean your chimney. this isn t necessarily a do-it-yourselfer, though, right? to. you want someone to come in and check and make sure there s not a big buildup of creosote, the black crud that is in your chimney. it is highly flammable and could cause a fire in your house. it s essential. get a certified chimney sweep, go to csia.org to get a recommendation. lisa lee friedman from shopsmart thank you for your advice. you re welcome. coming up they ve got delicious fall recipes in the kitch kitchen, we ll eat them right after these messages. is with a little something extra. so every bite can be uncommonly good. my walgreens pharmacist recommends bubble gum flavor. and patience. mine recommends antacid tablets and only one taco. [ female announcer ] walgreens pharmacists also recommend you try walgreens brand health & wellness products. they have the same active ingredients as other brands and cost less. and now you can save big on walgreens brand pain relief products. through october 1st, buy one, get one free. walgreens. there s an everyday way to well. vegetables picked at their peak 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. now?! [ female announcer ] crest whitestrips two hour express. in just two hours you can have a noticeably whiter smile that lasts for months. hi. hi. [ female announcer ] two hour whitestrips from crest. life opens up when you do. [ female announcer ] pillsbury chocolate chip cookies with hershey s chocolate chips. for a moment of warm, gooey, togetherness. chocolate chip cookies. from pillsbury. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] don t just moisturize, improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula goes beyond 24-hour moisture. it s clinically proven to improve your skin s health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. for healthy, beautiful skin that lasts. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy, beautiful hair, try nourish plus haircare. only from aveeno. coming up, why now is the time to pack your bags. we have hassle free, affordable getaways and a fabulous fall feast from our favorite family of chefs. a lot of fs to say. be careful. first your local news. be careful. i know! once you ve lost your enamel it s gone for good. pronamel iso-active is different, it s new, it s a toothpaste in a can. it starts off as a gel, transforms into a foam and actually surrounds your teeth and gets into all those nooks and crannies. dentists recommend pronamel. pronamel iso-active rehardens enamel and helps protect against the effects of acid erosion. 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. 9:26 is your time now on this wednesday, september 28th, 2011. good morning. i many eun yang. is it going to rain all day, chuck? no, not all day, but we have had round number one of the rain showers. the rest of the showers moving to southern fairfax county, and a few more in kcoal pepper couny as well. we will have breaks of sunshine in the early afternoon hours and that could lead to severe weather this afternoon. we will take good morning. if you are traveling 3 and 95, there s an accident in the left lane. police are on the scene. so far two vehicles are vovrld. on 395, still seeing some delays as you cross the 14th street bridge. the outer loop of the beltway, very slow. new hampshire avenue, your delays continue to the mormon temple. you are traveling at 21 miles on 495. we will take more news and traffic for 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. no stopping me, can you take it to the top for me i just want to love you baby always thinking of you baby singer, dancer, actress, ashnte, a pile of top ten hits. she s working an a new album, we ll catch up with her tomorrow on today. meaning while the importance of having great teachers. we all have that one teacher an inspiration to us but with budget cuts and union battles, teachers around the country are feeling under siege. in some cases we ll hear from some of the teachers. updating your mom s style. why am i looking at you for that? what do you know about mom s style? some moms like to steal inspiration from their daughter s closet, age appropriate that are still hip but cute, age appropriate. in today s kitchen the first family of italian cookies, the scottos, john scotto is wearing his mom s jeans. that s a whole other segment. i think he said john wore his mother s shoes? jeans. maybe both. jeans. before we get into any more trouble how about a check of the weather? okay. tooled 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 the technology a check of the weather? okay. as we show you what is happening for today, we have got some showers and thunderstorms along the mid-atlantic coast. wet weather around the central great lakes. and heat continues from texas into the southwest. tomorrow, heavy rain in northern new england and northern new york state. flood watches and warnings will be up. the heat is continuing out west. and windy conditions around the great lakes. looking for nice color around the great lakes and northern new england. that s what is going on around the country and here is what is happening in your neck of the woods. cloudy skies and rain showers lifting out of the washington area right now. temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s. you can see the last of the rain showers move into southern foulk county. a little bit of sunshine late this morning and early this afternoon will help destabilize us a little bit and lead to another chance of thunderstorms, one or two which may be strong to severe by late and that s your latest weather. this year at education nation we featured three teams of early entrepreneurs hoping to make their classrooms more engaging and effective. new school s inknow vention fund, teams competed yesterday, tuesday i should say to win the $100,000 city innovation and education prize. we re joined by sam chowdry and leon don, the winners and the judge carlos. carlos, what are you looking for as a judge? we re looking to are unique ideas, something that isn t out there yet, something that hasn t been discovered but that there is a need for that consumers wanted so that that conceptual part was very important to us, you know, is this practical? is it something you can do? and we are so excited about it. next year we re doing it at a national level, the whole country will compete. it will be online voting and what we want to do is get a national dialogue, get some passion around innovation. let s talk about sam and liam s project which won $75,000. tell us about what you guys did. yes, so we talked to 100 teachers before we started doing anything and asked them what we could help them with. we said we want to build behavior in the classroom. we have class dojo, a digital tool which runs in the class. how does it work, liam? so it works in the classroom, the teacher can hold a smartphone or tablet and give positive recognition to a student which pops up on the projector or white board in the front of the class. everybody likes a pat on the back especially al. we give you a pat on the back for stopping by and telling us about it. appreciate it. thank you, too. up next, taking some style cues from your daughter to update your look, right after these messages. thank you! phew! 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[ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. the difference between hiding my skin and showing it off? jergens ultra healing moisturizer. even my driest skin looks healthier, instantly. jergens is the difference between i m here, and here i am. jergens®. the beautiful difference. 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! this morning on tooled s style getting fashion inspiration from your door. parhartek from shape magazine, good morning. good morning. some moms tread carefully, want to borrow the daughter s look but be age appropriate. the key is you want to dress for your body type, that s what we always preach at shape. today we made four women look fantastic with their daughter s style secrets. mom bev likes how her daughter looked in jeans, let s show her daughter so we can see the inspiration we got from leah, let s bring out bev and tell us about her outfit. so bev wanted to look fabulous and effortlessly chic in a pair of jeans but she wears mom jeans. we put her in these amazing flare jeans which leah would totally rock, form fitting, hitting all the right places and look great on her body. on top the floral feminine blouse plus a sophisticated blazer from zara and of course that amazing chunky necklace brings a whole look together, this is something that leah would wear when she s shopping and bev can totally rock this look as well. leah will be stealing this look from you, bev. thank you so much. on to our next mom/daughter combination, sarah goes with the college bojo look. what do we do with diane mom? she wanted to look dojo chic, loves the way sarah brings the flo flower look. we put diane in a flowy printed peasant dress, hits at the waste, draws attention to her beautiful legs. this pulls the whole look together and she s usually wearing stilettos but for fall the wedge booties totally downtown chic, bring the entire look together and thes messenger back, how much more boho can you get. and let s bring out our next mom, samantha, a magazine publicist and got that cool office look, and so her mom wanted to to rock something similar. nancy come on out. nancy s daughter, samantha usually wears sleek, sophisticated classic looks. she was wearing sleeveless, so nancy is about to turn 60, you wouldn t know it looking at her but didn t want to draw attention to her arms, we put her in this cap sleeve and of course wearing black, which is slimming for everybody and this long necklace hits right at the waist so it s going to give the entire look a slimming effect. i like the shoes, a little bit of rebellion there. these are snakeskin. she has fantastic legs and they draw attention to the legs and the animal print look we re about to tell you next. great segue nancy. let s bring out next mom, lily ann and she went with the jungle chic trend that her daughter, no, lillian is the daughter, patricia is the mom. patricia, come on out, showing your daughter. this is patricia, and p patric patricia s daughter lily ann likes jungle prints and wild looks. so does patricia but wasn t sure how to incorporate that into her look without looking too young. when you re older, use small prints that makes you look sophisticated and mature. she has a pencil skirt, a pop of color and bringing that chic wild print in with this amazing sophisticated blazer, it s got this leather trim detail as well and all of the amazing jewelry that these ladies are wearing is from the sassyshopgirl.com. let s bring all of our moms out one more time for one last look. all of you i think your daughters are going to be asking you for style tips. thank you for being here. thank you. coming up next are american children falling behind in the classroom? why teachers say they re under fire. and later, a delicious fall meal from our favorites, the scottos. first these messages. oh, those are dad jeans for sure. we ll talk to you about that. f! sorry buddy. even with bath tissue. that s why i buy new charmin basic. it s very reasonably priced. and it holds up so much better than the leading competitive brand. new charmin basic has a duraflex texture. that s soft and durable. plus, it s two times stronger when wet versus the leading competitive brand. new charmin basic works for my bottom line. and my bottom. we all go. why not enjoy the go with new charmin basic? it s a new totino s pizza stuffer. [ male announcer ] give your kids the new totino s pizza stuffers. new, minimum mess, maximum fun! have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don t drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then get lunesta for $0 at lunesta.com. there s a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. hershey s drops. a lot of hershey s happiness in a little drop of chocolate. pure hershey s. had your kraft macaroni and cheese stolen. now there is a policy that covers you in the event of macaroni and cheese loss: macsurance. an insurance policy for mac and cheese? talk to me. i have a policy with kraft that covers me in case a grown-up eats my share. with kraft macsurance you have piece of mind in an unsafe world. coverage feels good! [ male announcer ] gooey, creamy, delicious kraft macaroni & cheese. you know you love it. with two children and no way to support them. i put myself through nursing school, and then i decided to go get a doctorate degree. university of phoenix gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people s lives. my name is dr. kimberly horton. i manage a network of over a thousand nurses, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world. back now education nation today, and this morning taking a look at teachers, between budget cuts and threats against seniority and pensions, teachers have certainly been a hot button issue in the public debate over education funding. kristen dahlgren sat down with three teachers to talk about why it takes more than test scores and salaries to judge their performance. today is your first day of? kindergarten. reporter: for michelle teper there was never any doubt. i got into teaching because my first grade teacher was so inspirational to me. fill in the bubble. reporter: michelle hamburger was 7 when she found her inspiration. i knew when i was in class i wanted to be a teacher when i was in second grade. i thought you were just clapping because you like me, oh well you do like me. you do like me. thank you. reporter: eddie lampell thought he might go into sports psychology or physicaler this by but friends and counselors told him he was born to teach. what is it that makes you so passionate about teaching? i m content, i m satisfied, i know i m doing what i m supposed to be doing. i go home and ask myself did i do everything i could for these kids today and the answer is inevitably yes. reporter: this isn t the only question being asked of teachers these days. are american kids falling behind the rest of the world and are bad teachers to blame? principals have their limits. these are teachers who are chronically bad. reporter: the documentary waiting for superman shows how hard it is for some kids to get rid of bad teachers. in new jersey governor chris christie is taking on teachers unions. you do not represent the best that teachers have to offer. reporter: while in wisconsin, teachers and union reps marched on the state house earlier this year, in a battle over collective bargaining and pension cuts. a lot of times the budget cuts are affecting really good teachers, that should be here in public schools. reporter: lample sees promising new teachers get pink slips based on seniority. he and his colleagues say the union protects good teachers, too. they fight for us, no, no, no we ll have this many students in the class. reporter: what do you think people don t know about teachers? tend to think we re glorified baby sit hes. that s not the case at all. teaching i believe is truly an art and you either have it or you don t. reporter: tepper says the it factor can t be measured by test scores alone. the black and white data is what they feel is the best thing, but you re not looking at the whole picture. reporter: that picture includes growing class sizes, shrinking budgets and more students with special needs. but for hamburger, there s no greater feeling than watching a child learn. all of the sudden, it makes sense to them and their eyes light up and their face changes and their bodies change, and they get it. reporter: those are the moments that can t be measured by test scores or teachers salaries and why these three keep coming back for more. i m still bringing it everything day, as an ex-athlete as we say. do you believe in me? yes. because i believe in it shall. you. we re going places, yeah, moving on up. for today, kristen dahlgren, nbc news, los angeles. good teacher makes such a difference. mine was mrs. eleanor friar, st. catherine, taught all six roker kids, just a terrific lady. a teacher can make a difference. for me first grade teacher mr. hunt in tucson, arizona, and i think there s something about that age, the first year you go off to school full time and he was young and fun and he played the guitar. thanks to our teachers who have made such a difference. absolutely. up next the scottos cook a hearty fall meal. they re teachers of sorts. oh, thank you very much, eighth grade, st. catherine. as cute as ever. oh, no! oh, yeah! ha! still has the hair issues. okay. today s kitchen is brought to you bykraft macaroni you know you love it. today, easy as one, two, three, it s autumn in new york with the scotto family. we have got marianne, john, anthony and elena of fresco by scotto. al. what are you doing? this is for you. that s nice. you were doing a cute segment. he has my genes. let s get started, mom. as opposed to gnoki, this is gnuoo ty, this is in ravioli, manicotti and lasagna. today we blended it with spinach and some cheeses, and we re boiling it for about two minutes. you roll it out first and cut it into these little we rolled it out, al, we cut it like in about inch and a half. um-hum. you know everyone loves the filling. right. this is double love. this is like having your own filling, like dessert almost. well it s not dessert, because it s not sweet. savory. you put salt and pepper and when it comes up john, it s ready for you. when it floats to the top we now have a pan with butter. so it s twice cooked in a way. twice cooked, butter and olive oil, cook it up. right. we had some parmesan cheese! mmm! right to the top, a little lemon. yes. what are you doing? and then, al, the piece de resistan resistance, fresco, come visit us. pork scallopini. this is a one-pan dish, we ll talk about reductions easy to do also. scallopini is the pork. we ll pound this. i thought you were pounding. you got to make it thin. once we ve done that, use plastic wrap, won t stick to thr bottom of the wood, we ll saute it with a little flour. what s in there? just olive oil. you brown this, set it aside just a minute or two and then we ll start with our components, the components are ginger, black currants. aka raisins. and pears. okay. put a pat of butter, really just a pat, to thicken it up, because you already have the flour in there, which will help thicken also. salt, beef stock, you can buy this out of a can, not a big deal. marsala. i like the sound of that. and to finish a little amaretto. you re reducing the wine, this wine stock a few times. this is the big reduction everybody seems to worry about. can you overreduce? , you can t overreduce. you want to just let this sit. it will thicken all on its own, probably every two or three minutes on a heavy pan that s really going and that s it. what you re going to do is take that reduction after it s done and place it right on top of the pork and that s what it s going to look like. looks delicious. elena and desserts. pear is in season right now. yes so this is the if you will the sophisticated sister of the pineapple upside down cake. xa icompared to him everybod the sophisticated sister. no joke. sift the flour, savannah would you like to join in? yes. i have the baking powder and these are all spice, nutmeg, and then give it a little tap. we have the dry ingredients. wet ingredients, we ve already started, sugar, butter, now we re going to add some molasses and we re going to add milk, and then amaretto, and we re going to mix it all together, and we re going to alternate with the dry ingredients. so you end up with this? yep, that s what we end up with, and now we put it over our pears, which have been nonstick spray in the pan. you could also use butter if you re not afraid of butter. we re going to bake this for about 40 minutes. ahhh. to turn it upside down let it cool and use a knife and here s what you wind up with. fantastic. and top it with just a little whip cream. great recipes, marianne, john, anthony and elena thank you so much. the recipes at today.com. coming up t good morning, everybody. i am barbara harrison. 9:57 is the time. we will go straight to our meteorologist, chuck bell. the first round of rain showers coming to an end, the last cluster of showers moving through western fairfax and headed up into loudoun county. and the second round of thunderstorms are possible and some could have severe weather. we will keep you posted on that. barbara, back to you. we will check and find out with traffic. earlier we were jammed. still seeing congested but not as bad. here is a look at new hampshire we will hear about that in the next bump. why bing drinking is not just a problem for teens and college students. we will tell you about that. we hope you plan to from nbc news, this is today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. live from studio 1a in and hoda kotb. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. captions paid for by nbc-universal television go, relax, let s go slow it is winesday, september 28th, 2011. the reason you re listening to this oldy but goody, shawn stockman. one of the men now. no longer a boy. i can be sometimes. can you harmonize with yourself. take my clothes off, too, yeah get in there. ooh, ooh all right. that s it. so good. so good. we wanted you to feel at home. because we felt like you were missing some of your boys and your men. we brought a few of our own. they ll give you a little backup. come on. giddyup. let s hear it. this is all we got. i am so sorry. you guys didn t rehearse much, did you? that s all we had. nice. okay. shawn, shawn, what do you think? it s the best we could do. well, i appreciate it. i appreciate it. they are boys. they are boys. our crew. i appreciate it. practice. first of all, what you should know about boyz to men is you are the number one r & b selling group. which is just astonishing. you sold i think you were number five in the number of records sold. beatles and some of the other great groups are ahead of you. but you guys continue to be hot. well what s going on there? man, listen. i m just grateful for i thank god for the fans that we have who basically held us down for all these years. it s been 20 years this year. we re celebrating this year. 20? yes. 20 years. that s unbelievable. that vareally unbelievable. it s been a long time. we still enjoy it. a friend of ours by the name of terry lewis told us a long time ago, when it stops being fun, stop doing it. so we re still having fun. you love to sing whether you re actually singing on a record or just sitting in the make-up room or sitting here with me. you just like to let it go. singing is my life. i love to do it. it s what i guess i was born to do. you guys have probably seen him most recently on the show called the sing off. it s the acappella singing competition. we had sara bareilles on yesterday. i love it. i love it because it gives me a chance to discuss music for hours with other talented musicians. as you see the show, it s a lot of talent in the whole show. great contestants. awesome vocalists. my good friends friend sara bar i m so sad i didn t toast you. you asked for mimosa. we delivered. what did you think about the 10:00 a.m. sippy sip? this is different. i like it. is this how it goes down every morning? if that s the case, i ll be here tomorrow. we expect to see you, then. you have your old songs we all know and love. we were talking about a couple of them. they re so sweet. they take you back to another place. one sweet day is a song actually mariah and us, the group, actually wrote. she originally had. we came in off of a tour and just wrote it and just did a song later on. it s still the longest number one single in billboard history, 16 weeks. it s beautiful. so beautiful. congratulations, mariah and nick on on your babies. on your twins. i got twins, too. by the way, i got to say, we saw your kids. these are your twins. they re both 8. look at little brooklyn. she s 19 months. you missed the cutest baby contest. we re so bummed. because oh! come on. that s gi juice juice. look at her cheeks. shawn s on the road all the time. i didn t realize you guys were still touring as much as you do. 150 shows a year. beyonce came out with this song so song. it s called if i were a boy. remember this one? yeah. wait. shawn came back with his own version of hang on. we re going to have you sing it s sort of your answer to beyonce. yes, yes. well, it it s one of those things where i don t want anybody to think it s like a dis or anything. i m too old to dis anybody. it was a song a lot of people loved and a lot of women kind of backed because it kind of speaks to the woman s plight about their relationship with men. i feel like there aren t too many songs that represent the fellas. i took that template. you made it what? if you were a boy. give me a little where are the lyrics? for the record, when i write songs, i don t write anything down. once i regurgitate it, it s over. go. it kind of goes if i remember, it goes if you were a boy, you d understand, how it feels when she says your best ain t good enough and you know you re doing all that you can and it goes you go to the bar, drink a few shots of pitron, so you can deal with a woman who makes you feel unwanted in your own home it s speaking for the fellas. you know what i mean? and how the fellas feel in certain situations and relationships. are you saying sometimes women aren t easy to get along with in relationships? yeah. you ve been married ten years, though. a long time. i ve been married ten years. we ve gone through our shares of ups and downs and things in that nature. it s a way of life you re going to go through issues in your relationships and the hardships but it s about understanding each other. and moving forward. that s it. you have a new song out. it s called twenty. and the new single is called more than you ll ever know features ch featuresing charlie wilson. there it is. that s charlie wilson. sometimes i want you you guys check it out. it s a beautiful record. doing quite well. thank you for all the support. all our soldiers out there. we call our fans soldiers. we love that you re here, shawn. we re going to get to a couple topics. first of all dancing with the stars said good-bye to one of its dancers last night. elisabetta, one of the former girlfriends of george clooney got the lowest votes. she s been bounced. the bottom three were chaz and david arquette along with her. it s going to be fun to see who gets kind of kicked off later on. we ll see what happens. you know, the whole premise of celebrity and star, i honestly these days don t really get. no disrespect to elisabetta. but be honest. i didn t know who she was. mm-hmm. until they said who she was. then i said, oh. oh, okay. so she s a star. yeah. dancing with the stars. because she was with a star. osmosis. getting close. is that what that is? it s all about osmosis. is that what the kids call it these days. that s what the kids call it. this is kind of an interesting thing. it did have shawn riveted. today we saw some video that rihanna was shooting a video in northern ireland. she was shooting for a new single. we found love. she s kind of you can tell scantily clad. i guess as the video continued she became less and less clad. the man, the irish farmer who was allowing them to shoot on their farm thought it was a little too risque. he s got kids and stuff. he asked her to pack it on up and get on out. it s his house. you know. do you think it s too risque? well, in comparison to a lot of things that s going on today, i mean, it s not like she actually showed the full frontal. she did cover herself. she kind of did. okay. she s covering it. and she s jumping. so she s happy about it. and so are you. but, i mean, it s the guy s house at the end of the day. you got to just follow his rules. you got to respect that. or at least tell him you re going to take off your clothes before you all right. here we go. you have kids. you ve got twins and you ve got a little 19-month-old. here s the question. a lot of kids, parents are noticing, are cursing more. more, at least, than they were cursing when they were that child s age. right. and when you hear a curse word come out of a little kid s mouth, i only remember this because i was babysitting once. i m babysitting this little boy named todd. i m tucking him in. he blurts out the f bomb. they re going to think i taught him that! it wasn t me. it is scary about your kids or other kids picking up these kinds of words. did you have any issues? kids are more accessible to things we weren t. you have the internet. you have television shows. you have cartoons that use the f bomb. what if you hear your kids? my kids don t do that. uh-huh. they don t. if you guys haven t noticed out there in the country, i m black. you know, black folks, we have a different type of code when it comes down to cussing in front of our parents. what happens? we get spanked. bottom line. the thing is, i know that s not a popular thing in the united states and seems to be very controversial. it seems to have workfoed for m. i came out pretty good. my mother didn t play that. i kind of carry on the tradition with my kids and say, oyo, i don t play that. there s none of that? not at all. i don t worry about that. not in my house. we had our bleeper on. we weren t sure what kind of we weren t sure. no, no, no. my kids are perfect. my kids are [ bleep ] perfect. there you go. talk about perfect kids. i think we might have them. you guys have asked about our cutest baby contest. we received 37,152 entries. we selected ten. how we did that, who has any idea. but here are the ten finalists, you fwis. peyton from new mexico. then we have let s go nice and slow. brayden from tennessee. trinity from arizona. wyatt from florida. looks like a model. again, our ten finalists, alia from michigan. very cute. beautiful. look at the twins! william and harrison from georgia. double your fun. come on. adorable. that counts as one, by the way. abby from new york. and look at andre. oh, look at andre. he loves dad. he sure does. good boy. and we have berkeley. gosh, looks like a grown-up. she s a grown woman. she s ready for the big screen. she is. oh, come on. coen. i could die. could you not die? he does look like he should be delivering the newspaper. you guys, those are our ten finalists. here s the deal. starting today, you are going to go on our facebook page and vote. you re going to pick of the ten we have to narrow it down sadly to five. those five are going to come here on the today show and they re going to be part of a modeling segment for little babies. baby models. very nice. we re going to pay for the trip and all that. i want to give a shout out. last night i went to this thing called women s night out. albany, new york. a great breast cancer event at the ellis medicine foundation. met some terrific people. it was a great crowd. i want to thank everybody. these little earrings, by the way, the ones i m wearing if you can see them very pretty. they came from sandra who i felt really lucky. got some great stuff going. how you doing so far? i m great so far. let s make one more toast zbr i got to get a fresh one. i got a little bug. just drink it. next, why actor patrick wilson is a gifted man in more than one way. let s hope some stuff is just meant for women. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego. prego?! but i ve been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i ve made? [ 80s dance music plays ] [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. [ 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. that s why i buy new charmin basic. it s very reasonably priced. plus, it s two times stronger when wet versus the leading competitive brand. new charmin basic works for my bottom line. and my bottom. new charmin basic. those five food groups sound a whole lot better when you put them in a taco shell instead of a pyramid. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican. patrick wilson has earned the title triple threat thanks to his nominations for a tony and emmy and a golden globe. but there s this gap commercial here with claire danes that got him a whole lot of attention. patrick s got a couple other things on his mind. including a new movie and a new tv drama. it is called a gifted man. how is it watches that old commercial, patrick. you know, it was fun. it was one day several years ago. i love claire. you get a lot of scripts, i would imagine. let s keep dancing. there you go. you get a lot of scripts coming your way.called a gifted man. i guess you could call him an arrogant surgeon. you could call him that. what drew you to this role? if it s successful, at least i wanted it to be a real conflicted guy. something i could sort of find my way around. you know, this guy on the outside was pretty hard-edged and arrogant. i knew he had this other side going on, especially with the presence of his ex-wife who comes back in his life who we find out pretty soon actually, we did last week that she has died. you re wondering if it s a ghost, if he s going crazy. all these things were made in a very complicated person. there are so many medical dramas out there. there s grey s anatomy. there s a ton of them. this one seems a little unique. i think because of the presence of this other spiritual world that s going on. you re constantly questioning, and we keep trying to have them butt heads with the scientific world versus the spiritual world. there are problems that i can solve, figure out, and there s some things i just cannot control. actually, i have a question. because i have a lot of friends that are actors and ak tregszs and things of that nature. i was always fascinated about how certain actors prepare for a role. like, so, what did you need to do to actually prepare for this character? med school. i m actually a neurosurgeon. it was a long summer. but i got it. i m good. that sucks. i m good. you guys have something else in common, the two of you. this one s a singer. and i m reading about you and your singing. you say you re singing the national anthem at the yankees game? i sang last sunday for that. it s a blast. as you know, it s the most probably nerve-racking and thrilling experience. being a huge sports fan and baseball fan it was fantastic to do. hearing your delay you know how you call somebody and for some reason on the phone you start to hear your voice echo. i have to stop talking now. that s right. singing is like that in a stadium unless you get a monitor or in-ears or something. usually it s acoustic. trying to hear yourself and an echo about a second later is you sang on broadway? i did. what were you in. the full monty and oklahoma! you have a movie. the young adult coming out. charlize is unbelievable in the movie. for someone that s so likable as a person, to watch her on screen, she s so beautiful, then you see she s a pretty dismal person in the movie, you spend the time going i want to root for you but man you re acting really terribly. just again, real quick, back to the cbs show you re doing, the fact they were going to shoot this thing in l.a. you said you couldn t do it because you ve got a family, wife and kids here. they moved the whole deal here to new york for you. i was completely humbled by that. my son, cal, hi, cal, who started kindergarten a few weeks ago, my family s back here, my other little boy. there s my wife. yes. it s one of those things certainly with the schedule, you know, you re always moving around on movies and sets. for me, if i was going to do a tv show, i wanted it to be here. we wish you good luck with the show, the movie and everything. best wishes, man. thanks, patrick. catch patrick in a gifted man on friday nights. up next, sara s here with those photos that you make you say what? that s right after this. you re good to go, for whatever the day brings. new crest complete. unlike ordinary toothpaste, you feel a deeper clean. it s a signal that tells you your whole mouth is clean. you re also protected. because most of life happens outside the bathroom. feel it working, know you re covered. with new crest complete, life opens up when you do. i can t believe any pizza hut pizza is now just ten bucks! it s like we re both having a fantasy! [ male announcer ] our ten dollar any deal is back! delivery, carryout or dine-in. only 10 bucks! add pepsi and breadsticks for five bucks more. only at your pizza hut. why you gotta be like that? don t be like that cause i deserve better than this did i catch you playing up like that? [ jones ] if your dry hair has a mind of its own, tell us about it. and you could star in the next dove hair commercial. go to dovehair.com/friends and learn how you can make friends with your dry hair. 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. have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don t drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then get lunesta for $0 at lunesta.com. there s a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. we re back with one of our favorite segments called what the what? i ve heard about this. where sara haines takes other people s photos that make you say what? and shows them to other people. you caught right on. so kathie lee right now. wait until you see today s collection. our first photo is from antonia from massachusetts. these are pretty crappy toys. the recession is hitting everybody. it s a whole new approach to getting kids to think chores are fun. look at this. is that what that is? yeah. it s working. totally. our next photo was sent in by chelsey morse. where are you supposed to throw it? that s disgusting. i don t know if that s a typo, but i ve heard some people have asked. i heard someone who shared a story that someone came to their house and asked should you throw the toilet paper in the toilet. where do you put it? in the trash can. that s when you go rogue and do it anyway. julie caplan from stewart, florida. what an odd deal of the day. walk out with a free cat with any $5 purchase. they have a lot of cats out there, i guess. clearly it s a surplus. ashley down from mineral, washington. fun for the whole family. we don t encourage it unless you buy it at a family store. liquor isn t fun if you don t share it with your son. okay. all right. that s a wrap. just keep going. stephanie guy in anchorage, alaska. we have this one. that is just nasty. i wonder what that tastes like. it s a bucket of butt. how do you prepare that. what do you put on a bucket of butt. steam it and grill it. otherwise a butt s just really fattening. we love you, sara. coming up, you know what you re doing, honey? you re going across the street. yes. all right. you re going to play who knew? it s a musical thing. it will work out. when to let your child s teachers and coaches know how you really feel and when to just butt out. all right. we ve got to feed shawn. we ve got a great chef in the house. macsurance. an insurance policy for mac and cheese? talk to me. i have a policy with kraft that covers me in case a grown-up eats my share. with kraft macsurance you have piece of mind in an unsafe world. coverage feels good! [ male announcer ] gooey, creamy, delicious kraft macaroni & cheese. you know you love it. 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 that will change your life. for the first time ever. a toothpaste. crest 3d white. if beauty editors notice, who else will? crest 3d white toothpaste. life opens up when you do. crest 3d white toothpaste. 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! crews at the washington monument are watching the weather. if winds stay calm they will soon repel the monument to inspect for earthquake damage. good morning, everybody. i am barbara harrison. okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that s yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i m yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn t i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it s a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? [ 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. that have earned the keurig brewed seal of approval. the keurig brewed seal is our commitment that the coffee inside will deliver a delicious cup of coffee every time. keurig brewed. look for the only mark of genuine keurig quality. and we are back on this winesday, wednesday. we re ready to play who knew? in the spirit of our co-host, we are dedicating this game to song trivia. shawn stockman has 100 bucks for those who answer the question correctly. to those who don t, they get a copy of kathie lee s cd. lucky them. in that case, everybody wins! over in the studio is bill wordy from billboard magazine. ready to have some fun? i m so ready. let s go across to shawn. check it out. now, the first question is this. first we have to find out who s going to answer this question. hello, how are you beautiful? shirley barino. where are you from? tampa, florida. originally atlanta. a town. all right. first question, hopefully you ll get this, who sings the original version of this following song? do you remember when it was hot, september okay. all right. since your friend answered the question for you, what is it? earth, wind & fire. she is right. give it up. 100 bucks out there. bill, earth wind and fire. come on. in the 70s they became the first african-american group to have both a number one album and number one single on the billboard charts. they led the way in integrating music in a big way. and without water. earth, wind, fire and water. what s up with that? that one element. you re too smart for the room. back to shawn. what s your name? dora batista. where you from? florida. who s this young lady. my daughter. from the same place? yeah. here we go, finish the lyric to this classic greenday song. summer has come and passed, the innocent can never last i don t have options? no. i don t know. i m sorry. you didn t get it. wake me up, when september ends there you go. all right. the connect end to that. beautiful. wake me up when september ends. that wasn t easy. not easy. she was really into her ice cream there, too. i understand that. greenday did the unthinkable. american idiot won two tony awards is will be made into a movie. generally when rock bands or other bands do catalog musicals they re uniformly terrible. what s your name and where are you from? tina from england. jolly ole england. which billie holiday song has been covered by 100 different artists? a, b, c or d? 5 seconds. c. oh! i am so sorry. i am so sorry. the answer is b. autumn in new york. shawn, you ve got to give them the choices. oh, oh. which letter do you like? i messed up. what is your favorite letter of the alphabet. the correct answer is c. i ve got my love to keep me. the compoter who wrote autumn in new york also wrote april in paris. i have in my mind a guy with this failed ideas. winter in dubai. sweetheart, what s your name? i m francesca and i m fit for algeb algebra. yes, you are. as your shirt says. finish this lyric to this boyz ii men cover. when i fall in love you re on. till the end of the road yeah. i m sorry. as much as i m flattered, that s the wrong answer. it s actually a nat king coal cover. it s when i fall in love. sing it, shawn. sing it, shawn. sing it, shawn or i ll never fall in love, oh shawn, we love you. love you, shawn. good job, guys. bill? the only thing she can do, she sang the only boyz ii men song she had there. it is a nat king coal song. before that doris day made it a top 20 billboard hit. you know it all. coming up next, when to confront your child s teacher and when to butt out. we ll find out right after this. 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[ male announcer ] hey, have you heard? it s bring your happiness to work day. campbell s microwavable soups, right where you work. in three minutes, the deliciousness that brings a smile to any monday. and soup has what you need at work, to work. make any place, your happy place. campbell s it s amazing what soup can do. [ girls ] good. thank you! phew! [ ernie ] we make our cookies the way only keebler elves can: with a little something extra. so every bite can be uncommonly good. time to dish out advice in our series parenting today. it s no question you are the most important person in your child s life. principals, coaches and scout leaders can also shape your kids. but when your kid hits a bump in the road, should you intervene or should you let your child handle it? yeah. with three kids of my own, this is information i can use. linda fears is editor in chief of family circle magazine and harriet cole. you want to get in there and fix the problem. when should parents jump in? depends on the situation. as you say, if a child feels a teacher is, say, not paying attention to them or a coach is benching the kid, those are situations where your kid should advocate for himself. you as a parent can coach your child. what should you say? think about what you want the outcome to be in this situation. you want more playing time? you want to be able to raise your hand more in class? then help your child pick the right time to talk to the teacher or coach. not right before the big game. not right before class starts. sure, right. not in front of other children. i think it s better when it s private. exactly. because the teacher could feel, you know, oh, i m exposed if i say yes to you. then every child wants the answer to be yes and it can t be. i have a question. now, how much of the is the curriculum, like, something the actual teacher chooses? is it something that s school based or does the teacher themselves, like, create the curriculum for the classes? how do they, like, choose what they re going to teach the kids and how? i think it depends on the school. public school, we know, the big debate it s all often very specific teach to the test. although not in every school. private schools, it s very different. i would say teachers individually are not usually simply making the curriculum. it s broader than the individual classroom. if your child comes home and says, look, i m having a problem, you re not 100% sure exactly what s going on. either the teacher is, a, intentionally dissing your child. b, the teacher has no idea your child is there and thinking about it. you need to know what the m.o. is. you need to establish a relationship with the teacher in the beginning. that the parent and the teacher know each other s faces. that you say i d like to check in with you from time to time. i do agree with you. have your child first advocate for him or herself. if there s a question, i think the issue is that of tone. you don t go in angry. you don t send the angry e-mail or demand a meeting right away. if you re on the field, you don t scream. you as the parent need to have the tone of authority and understanding that you want to find an answer. don t you worry there might be repercussions. go to the teacher, my child is feeling x. i m not doing anything to your child. sorry they re sensitive. there are three types of adults that deal with children. one is like a partner. that s the person that will want to listen to your point of view, that really wants a good outcome for your child and will collaborate with you. one is more of a pushover. those are kind of the clueless adults who didn t realize. they had no idea but they really don t want to fight about it and want it to go away. the one you re talking about is more of a tyrant. we all know this kind of adult. they re right no matter what. they re going to argue with you. you kind of have to know before going in which type of adult you re going to be dealing with and how to handle it. that adult might say to you, girls are all so sensitive. you know then you go to the person over them, that person. that s when you go to the supervisor. that s the difference. if you feel like your child is being, you know, mentally abused or, you know, any sort of abusive situation is when the parent should step in. okay. all right. good advice, ladies. thanks for coming to see us. coming up next, what the shoulder season is. you re going to want to know about this. you re going to want to take advantage of it. all you ll need is some luggage. where we going? it s right after this. thin. 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! these things are for real. so is excedrin migraine. it starts relieving migraine pain in half an hour. that s not all. gets rid of sensitivity to light and sound.everything. [ male announcer ] number one neurologist recommended. hershey s chocolate syrup. stir up a smile. we know how to tighten our purse strings. sugar salmon flakes! sorry buddy. even with bath tissue. that s why i buy new charmin basic. it s very reasonably priced. and it holds up so much better than the leading competitive brand. new charmin basic has a duraflex texture. that s soft and durable. plus, it s two times stronger when wet versus the leading competitive brand. new charmin basic works for my bottom line. and my bottom. we all go. why not enjoy the go with new charmin basic? time for today s travel. we ve got shoulder season getaways. we re going to explain that. that s the time between labor day and the start of the christmas holiday season when the large crowds of tourists have left but weather is still pretty good in parts of the world. here to tell us where those places are is mark murphy, travel expert and ceo of travelliance. parents are back at work, kids are back at school. they want to fill rooms. take us to the uk. you re saying it s a great time to go to britain. you can get to britain now $899 round trip air. that also includes six nights in a hotel, on the ground, and six breakfasts. actually cheaper than the air fare alone just six weeks ago. you can hop on london sightseeing tours. go around. it s a few pounds a day. what you do is jump off. talk about theater, right? how about shakespeare s globe theater? 1599 when it was originally constructed. the only thatched roof structure in all of london. get a tour with an all actor that will take you around and show you what it was like to do the special effects back then. 400 years ago they did special effects. there s no steven spielberg. they had to do pretty crazy stuff. awesome city. if you like shakespeare, head out to shakespeare s birthplace and see romeo and juliette getting busy. why is it a particularly good time to visit new orleans? it s always good in new orleans. it s cooling off but heating up. get out and do a swamp tour. how many people think about doing a swamp tour? those are fun. i got an airboat with captain lou. total character. he has the chaw going. he talks about where the pirates base themselves, go out, loot the ships, bring the booty back, bury it. he said you can try to find it but alligators might get you. let s talk about mediterranean cruise. we are at the tail end of hurricane season. mediterranean, a lot of ships over there, it s the end of the season. go on a norwegian cruise line ship for seven nights sailing, venice to rome, $400 starting price. are you kidding? wow. the ships over there are going to reposition back to the caribbean. carnival has the carnival magic. 15 days, 16 nights. $800. cheaper than eating lunch at rockefeller center. you can take advantage of a repositioning cruise. can you explain what that is? that s exactly what that is. the ship that s over there, carnival magic is going to come to galveston, texas. when you re on the carnival magic coming back, the megaship and rope courses and other things you can do onboard. they did a concert and did a whole deal with all your people. did a boyz ii men cruise. miami to the bahamas. all inclusive things are always attractive to people. what do you have in that department? look at the economy. nobody wants to go over budget. all inclusives are booming. deals are great. hard rock punta kana. $2,000 resort credit for spa, golf, everything else. you might have to battle with your wife or husband over the spa credits if he s not a golfer. couple resorts. four properties in jamaica. 41% off published rates. new sandals emerald bay. former four seasons. $14,000 honeymoon suite. $10,000 off the week of october 3rd. wow. you better act on it because it is a tremendous property and a great value right now. mark, thanks for joining us. always terrific. coming up next, we re taking you to napa. we re going to head into our kitchen. first, this is today on nbc. [ screaming ] [ 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. time for today s kitchen. we are getting saucy with check michael chiarello from napa valley. he s in town for new york s wine and food festival. what are you going to whip up for us today? we have some figs from the napa valley. i took a little blue cheese. a little proscuitto. wrap them up. do anything. this time of the year, we call this the shoulder season. between summer and fall. we just talked about that. first time ever hearing of this. you wrap them up like that. if you re a vegetarian, take a thin zucchini or something. wrap it with another fruit. how long do you they just want to get a little caramelization. you want the fig to be cool on the inside. flip them around. warm on the outside. that s it. shawn, you re a vegetarian? i just don t eat pork and shrimp. i m a jew, so. okay. that looks delicious. that s all you have to do. what are these leaves here? those are fig leaves. i brought one for you. oh, they re fig leaves. i have his and hers. you decide the size. you are you are i ll let her do it. we have trouble here today. why don t you scoot on down here. all right. since we re talking about uh-oh. what s happening? those are brown. you want to turn them over? that s how they re supposed to be? i have gniocchi, it s tomato season, still. still fall and cool outside. how do you bridge these two? do some crisp gniocchi. we ve boiled some up. buy them at your deli. potato. hoda, you re all natural. look at you. go on, girl. flip them, girl. put a little butter in there. flavor at the very end. okay. just so i m clear, you boil them, then you stick them in here? then you kind of we say crispy. we never say fried. crisp them up. we crisp them up. then we take then we take our little spider over here. take a few out. and you put them this is how you take a salad dish and turn it into an entree. tell us about the tomatoes. you have a wide variety of these. these are heirloom. we have salt. we have pepper. you want to put some pepper on that for me? i would love to do that. uh-huh. shake it, girl. shake it, girl. take a little bit of this is like creamy mozzarella. a little balsalmiy caviar. it s a little balsalmic vinegar we do a little hocus pocus to. basil oil over the top. beautiful. i made his and hers. where s my fork? okay. there we go. thank you for coming. we re going to come see you in napa. we promise. i ve got napa juice for you over there. i bet you do. shawn, thank you for visiting us. tomorrow, your buddy nick lachey is going to be here along with a ashanti. captions by vitac www.vitac.com 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.