Transcripts For WRC Today 20100818

good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on a wednesday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> i'm meredith vieira. rod blagojevich may not have much time to celebrate after being found guilty on a single count in his corruption trial. >> the prosecution to try the case again. allegations that he tried to sell president obama's vacant senate seat. what went on inside the jury room? why couldn't the jury reach a decision on the other, more serious counts? we'll ask the jury foreman in a few minutes. also more on the death of the accused craigslist killer. he left behind a message for his ex-fiance. and a disturbance on a flight as a flight attendant took a crying baby away from her parents after she saw the mother slap the baby in the face. we'll have details on the story. >> and a shocking statistic. hearing of teenagers. are ipods to blame? let's begin with rod blagojevich convicted on just one of 24 counts he faced at his trial. john, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt. this morning we are learning surprising new details about what went on inside the jury room during those 14 days of deliberations. after the verdict, rod blagojevich talked like a giant-killer. >> the government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me on every count except for one, every charge except for one they could not prove that i did anything wrong. >> reporter: the lone guilty verdict -- lying to the fbi back in 2005, a verdict blagojevich plans to appeal on 23 more serious charges including racketeering, extortion and bribery, the jury was deadlocked. >> we have a prosecutor who wants to spend tens of millions of taxpayer money to keep persecuting me, my family, take me away from my little girls and take my home away from us. >> reporter: the result was a blow to prosecutors who claim to have halted a political corruption crime spree when they arrested blagojevich in september 2008. >> the most appalling is the fact that governor blagojevich tried to sell the appointment to the senate seat vacated by president-elect obama. the conduct would make lincoln roll over in his grae. >> reporter: jurors were evenly divided on some charges but as close to 11-1 for a guilty verdict on others including the one on the senate seat. >> everyone understood it would be pointless to deliberate any longer. >> reporter: a last-minute switch by an unnamed juror derailed a second charge dr attempted extortion of rah rahm emanuel. >> like i said, i don't feel that way. we did everything in our power. it is what it is. >> reporter: prosecutors pledged to retry blagojevich but defense attorneys mocked the idea. >> we didn't put on any defense, none, zero, zip, nothing. and they still couldn't get a conviction. >> reporter: because both blagojevich and the campaign fund paying his legal fees are both broke, in a retrial, u.s. taxpayers could be paying for both the prosecution and the defense. meredith? >> john yang, thank you very much. the jury foreman is with us. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning to you. >> yesterday after the verdict, rod blagojevich said this was a persecution, they threw everything they could at me, the jury agreed the government did not prove its case. is that how you see it? >> personally, no. i saw it as the prosecution did prove its case. there was a difference of opinion and interpretation of the evidence and several people voted not guilty on several counts. as was mentioned there was the 11-1 for a few of the counts. >> that one holdout we understand was a retired woman. what was her argument against convicting the ex-governor? >> the argument was that he was a politician. he was talking to other politicians. sometimes his fund-raiser, sometimes his chief of staff or deputy governor, and he was just talking. she thought that no crime was being committed. it was just political talk. that was her position. we -- all of us, as a jury, respected her position and her right to have that opinion. >> yeah. >> it differed from ours. >> how would you describe the atmosphere in the jury room? >> there were times, especially later on, where the frustration level went up and there was tension, but it was always a feeling of respect for other people's opinions. so there was no shouting. there was no fighting. it was fairly amicable, our deliberations. there were times where there was anger and frustration, but overall, i would say we did respect each other. >> you know, you say the government did prove its case but only got a conviction on one count. what do you think was the major flaw in its case? >> the major flaw was probably the complexity of the case, the amount of information that we had to digest, the length of the judge's instructions to us that we had to learn legal terms, we had to learn the law and how to apply it to the evidence that was given to us either in witness testimony or in wire-tap conversations. >> would you like to see the prosecutors retry the case and, if so, what advice would you give them? >> personally, i would. if possible, to streamline the case, concentrate on areas where they have more information and not rely so much on witness testimony which was sometimes weak. that's where we split the most. the vote could be something like five guilty to seven not guilty or it would flip. sometimes it would be 9-3. so it was all over. i think it was a testimony to the jurors that they were deliberating on the basis of evidence and not through bias or discrimination or whatever they heard in the media. >> you know, you sound like somebody who is pretty much exhausted and glad this is over. we really appreciate you joining us this morning. >> thank you. you're welcome. >> now let's bring in the former federal prosecutor who succeeded ken starr. good morning. >> good morning. >> you were also a friend of patrick fitzgerald. you heard the jury foreman. would those words encourage you to go for a retrial? >> i think they would be cautionary. if you have on the one hand a one juror holdout, that's encouraging for a ree tritrial think the result might be different. on the other hand, the foreman said it best. there are troubling aspects of the government's case as well and if there is going to be a retrial it needs to be streamlined, the trial needs to be tighter and probably the list of charges needs to be trimmed. >> usually the federal government brings its full resources to bear. particularly in chicago they win. >> there was a conviction -- >> one out of 24. >> but it's a felony, false statements to the fbi. that's serious. so the jury did find that a crime was committed. it just didn't find the core of the case which related to whether he was attempting to sell his office, was, in fact, proven and there is a legitimate argument on the other side of was it just politics or was a crime committed? again, weighing the question about whether or not to retry, prosecutors are encouraged to be zealous and to be strong advocates and to strike hard blows but not foul ones. so i think that's going to be a factor in their consideration about whether or not to retry this case and how to retry it. >> the minute the verdict came out, fitzgerald jumps up and says, we're going to retry this case. that's going to cost millions and millions added to what's already been spent and it's on the backs of the taxpayers. there are people out there probably saying, you tried once and you failed. >> if public sentiment doesn't support a retrial that's difficult. you still have to pick a jury and the community is listening. it couldn't help but listen to what's happened here. if public sentiment through jurors is not prepared to convict in another trial there is no reason to think the result would be any different in a retrial than it was in the first. >> thank you so much for your perspective this morning. >> thank you. thank you for being here. >> here's matt. thank you. aid is slowly trickling into pakistan. can't come fast enough for millions of people forced from tlar homes. to give you an idea, this is a nasa satellite image of pack staj taken a year ago. and now the blue areas are water that's taken over parts of the landscape. ann curry has made her way to the capital of islamabad. ann, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt. 21 days since pakistan's catastrophic floods began, the u.n. today said it has finally secured half of what's needed for the emergency response. this as millions of people on the ground are still waiting for any kind of help at all. one of the 20 million affected, this family struggles to survive. without food, electricity, clean water or any outside help. we have nothing, his wife is saying. this baby i held in my arms. i pulled that child through the waters. i thought only about saving my children. she saved all five though nine months pregnant. serbalan was at work and found them days later, stunned the entire family, including the grandparents survived. the nation is turning to anger. with a fifth of the country flooded and thousands on the move, they say the zardari government has done nothing. only pakistan's army which rescued 600,000 people so far, including this boy today, escaped the fury. >> dictatorship is best than this democracy in pakistan. >> reporter: this man and his son lost everything save a few family photos. >> my brother. >> reporter: and some dishes. still, they have offered all nine members of this family a place to sleep and what little food they can find. one family of flood victims helping another in the epic struggle to save pakistan's future. today, i asked a lot of people in the flood zone what they would say to americans who fear that donating to flood victims would end up supporting extremists. they say it is a lie to say they support the taliban, for example. they say the taliban is against everything they believe in. the disaster is great here. the need is great. there are a lot of recognizable charities working here on the ground, matt, including save the children and doctors without borders. back to you. >> thank you very much, ann. that's ann curry in islamabad. to learn more about how you can help flood victims head to our website, todayshow.com. and now a check on top stories. natalie morales is covering for ann at the news desk. good morning. >> good morning, everyone. we begin with president obama on the road again today, trying to help democrats. nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd is in columbus, ohio. chuck, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, natalie. well, it's day three of the president's cross country fund-raising and campaign tour. while he saw some of the friendliest crowds he's seen yet in seattle the question looms, do the stops help or hinder his fellow democrats? >> you remember our slogan during the campaign "yes, we can"? their slogan is "no, we can't". >> reporter: the president was clearly testing new lines of attack against republicans. >> i bring this stuff up not to relitigate the past. i just don't want to relive the past. >> reporter: outside a fund-raiser for embattled democratic senator patty murray a crowd gathered angry about obama administration policy, while inside the president appear to acknowledge that his position on the mosque near ground zero is not popular. >> i have pollsters. [ laughter ] >> i know when things don't poll well. but i wasn't sent to washington -- you did not send me to the oval office to just do what was popular. you sent me there to do what was right. >> reporter: the latest nbc news wall street journal poll shows a growing disconnect between obama and the public and there is debate about how helpful he can be to candidates. dino rossi see it is president as a help to his campaign. and it cuts both ways. sarah palin is being used to raise money for democrats and fire up their base. this week the abortion rights women's group emily's list unveiled a new campaign for candidates she refers to asthma ma grizzlies. >> sarah palin, you don't speak for us. >> reporter: aids tell me, look, the president may not be the biggest asset to woo voters to the polls but he is going to be a huge fund-raising asset. worst case scenario, you will see him raising money constantly between now and november. >> that will be a lot of dollars. chuck todd, thanks so much. today, funeral services being held for ted stevens, killed in a plane crash last week. vice president biden and sarah palin are among those attending. earn burnett is at the new york stock exchange. lots of news about housing. >> we just got the numbers that the average rate on a new mortgage in america is 4.6%. even the year record lows aren't getting americans to buy new homes. at a conference hosted by tim geithner yesterday, one of the biggest investors in the country bill gross said everyone with a mortgage in good standing should be allowed to get a 4% fixed rate mortgage believing house prices in america could go up 10%. housing is all that matters for wall street and main street. >> erin, thank you. famed homerun hitter bobby thompson has died. it was the shot heard round the world that won the pennant for the giants in 1951. many consider it to be the most dramatic play in baseball history. some amazing rescues in china where flood waters swept people away as others tried to save them. they were all eventually pulled from the raging water. in washington state, a 15-year-old girl was rescued tuesday after falling over the side of a cliff. a navy helicopter was able to pull her to safety. and a stunt pilot is safe after a frightening incident in argentina. take a look when one of the plane's wings breaks off mid-air. the plane came down with a parachute about 500 feet away from spectators. later, it burst into flames. fortunately the pilot walked away. he's said to be okay with slight burns on his feet. i tell you, that's unbelievable when you see the footage, that he walked away from it. >> we have another story in the next half hour about a pilot at an air show from canada. incredible stuff. watch what happens to him right as the plane hits the ground. he will join us f good morning. i'm tom kiernan. we have flooding now occurring in fairfax, arlington, the district, as well as montgomery and prince georges county due to very heavy rains falling here over the last couple of hour. we've had a couple of inches of rain just in the last hour and a half. temperatures around the region now are in the 70s. we'll hold steady in the 70s throughout the day, peak near 80 with a chance of heavy downpours into the evening and perhaps flooding. drying out thursday. >> reporter: saturday. and that's your latest weather. meredith? >> al, thank you. now to an incident on a southwest airlines flight. a flight attendant took a 13-month-old girl from her mother after saying the woman slapped the girl in the face. >> reporter: somewhere in the skies between dallas and albuquerque the crying began. but to one southwest flight attendant it wasn't the noise that was troubling. it was what she said the baby's mother was doing to stop it. according to a police report the flight attendant, beverly mccurly saw the mother strike the child with an open hand on the face. that's when police say the flight attendant took the child and walked to the rear of the aircraft. once there the flight attendant said she noticed the little girl, just 13 months old, also had a black eye. troubling enough for southwest to call ahead and have police waiting for the parents on the ground. >> the local paramedics checked the child out, extensive interviews were conducted with flight crew, with the parents, with witnesses from the plane. >> reporter: the mother admitted to police while standing in the jetway that she did strike her child but didn't do anything wrong. "i popped her when she kicked me," she said, "and that was it." the dog bite, she said, was from a dog bite. the family was allowed to board the next flight out. a tough call. >> i wouldn't want any harm to my child. at the same time i wouldn't want someone to necessarily say my discipline style is incorrect. >> it's really hard to criminalize bad parenting. >> reporter: experts say whether charges were filed or not the southwest flight attendant probably did the right thing. >> if you're deciding whether to report or not it's better to err on the side of what could be best for the children. >> reporter: just part of a flight crew's training. southwest said, our flight attendant offered to hold the baby to soothe the child. authorities were called only as a precaution. at 30,000 feet, taking control in the cabin is often priority number one. for today, lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. still ahead, chilling new details on the death of alleged craigslist killer. first this is "today" on nbc. still ahead, one in five teenagers now suffering from hearing loss. why their headphones could be to blame. also a pilot ejects seconds before his jet crashes and bursts into a massive fireball. he's lucky to be alive. we'll talk to him, but first these messages, your local news and weather. you talk to these guys. they go through every car and truck we make with a big fat red pencil. because they know a family's going to be inside. a teenager. a guy on the way to the job. the engineers of chevrolet. just another reason why we can offer a 5-year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. and another reason why a chevy's a chevy. mommy. mom, the back to school list is here. looks expensive. graphing calculator, flash drives... that was easy. [ male announcer ] get back to school and back to savings on everything on your list at staples. [ female announcer ] wisk is about to change the way you look at stains forever. discover the power of our stain spectrum technology in the new red bottle of wisk. in stores now! good morning. 7:26 on this wednesday, 18th day of august. i'm joe krebs. a flood warning in effect. right to tom kiernan with the latest on this. good morning, tom. >> right, joe. we have flooding occurring now in fairfax county, district of klum, southern montgomery and prince georges county. a pocket of heavy rain in northwest washington now. rain drifting off to the north and east. rock creek itself out of the banks, many locations along beach drive. many area creeks and streams out of the banks due to the heavy rain falling for the last couple of hours and will continue do so throughout the day of we'll have highs reaching near 8 oh drying out after that. mr. thanks very much, tom. a lot of reports of high water on roadways. we'll check traffic after this. stay with us. good morning. poe tejs potentially dangerous with flooding. colorado avenue, for example. the capital beltway. problems at 123 because of flooding. also the dulles toll road exit now closed. we'll keep you updated. >> stay with news4, weather and traffic updates throughout the 7:30 now on this wednesday morning, august 18, 2010. another sunny morning in new york. our crowds better enjoy it because al says we have possibly thunderstorms headed our way. the full forecast in a moment. i'm meredith vieira along with matt lauer. coming up, the words accused craigslist killer philip markoff wrote in his sell before taking his own life. >> and a pilot lost control of his jet and managed to eject just seconds before his plane crashed and burst into flames. wait until you hear what song was playing over the loudspeakers at the air show grounds when the crash occurred. he's going to share his story in an exclusive live interview coming up. plus, are ipods and other mp-3 players to blame for the startling hearing changes in teenagers? first on the accused craigslist killer. jeff, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you. this morning we are getting our first look inside markoff's cell. to paint the picture, police say he had photos of his ex-fiancee spread out all over. it appears it was the last thing he was looking at before committing suicide. after he stabbed himself he wrote messages in blood to a place where he could see it but she couldn't. it was her name and something else which may be a secret message. sitting in jail on what would have been his one-year wedding anniversary, philip markoff was thinking about megan mcallister, the fiancee who dumped him after his arrest. now chilling details of his final moments. boston tv station wfxt obtained images of the sell after the suicide. spread out on the table, several pictures of his ex-fiancee megan. on the wall markoff wrote megan's name in blood. below megan he wrote the word "pocket." the meaning still a mystery but investigators believe it could be his special nickname for her. in the cell markoff was in macgyver mode creating a primitive scalpel out of a pen and a sharp piece of metal. a deadly weapon used on himself. >> he inflicted small puncture wounds and incisions on his body including his neck, arms, wrist and ankles. he hit several veins and the carotid artery in his neck. >> reporter: the accused craigslist killer placed plastic bags around his head and feet to suffocate himself and catch the blood. he climbed to his cot and put the blanket over his head. to guards it looked like he was sleeping. even as he died, his final message to megan on the wall. >> this is his way of saying, you may have broken off the marriage, we may never be together again as a couple but in spirit you will never leave me. the word "pocket" will likely turn out to have special significance. his way of reaching out from the grave to grab her, to manipulate her, to be in control one last time. >> reporter: the clean-cut medical student was accused of leading a double life. by day the all-american boy engaged to megan, planning a wedding that never happened. by night, the craigslist killer, attacking women he found online. prosecutors say he killed one of them in a boston hotel room. juliisa brisman, a massage therapist. her family will never get the chance to face him in court. >> mr. markoff died at his own hand. it should not obscure the overwhelming evidence against mr. markoff or the brutality of his crimes. it is, in no small way, the ultimate indicator of consciousness of guilt. >> reporter: and for megan mcallister, the woman who loved markoff and registered for wedding gifts with him, this begins another difficult chapter. >> his former fiancee has to be strong enough to say, he's responsible for his death, i'm not. she needs to move on with her life. >> reporter: much easier said than done. we should mention megan mcallister is now in the caribbean in medical school. so far no comment from her or her family about the latest developments and the message he wrote in blood in his cell. the question now, why wasn't markoff on suicide watch? he had tried to kill himself before. the d.a. said yesterday, "we are look at what was done and what was not done and we will reach a conclusion." meredith? thank you very much. now a check on the weather from al. >> all right. thanks, meredith. we have severe storms out west from central and southern minnesota into south dakota and participates of nebraska. we see supercells developing. already seeing strong thunderstorms between duluth and minnea good morning. a flood warning in effect for much of the region this morning, it includes the district of columbia, arlington, fairfax, montgomery and prince georges counties from very heavy rains coming through this morning. we have other pocket of rain, north print william. heaviest rain that came through washington causing flooding along rock creek. reports of cars strands and accidents around the region. the flood warning in effect until 10:00. could get more flooding rains later today. that's your latest weather. don't forget. you can check your weather all day long and all night long on the weather channel or weather.com online. matt? >> if music is the soundtrack to your life, one canadian pilot could not have picked a more appropriate song to be playing during his miraculous survival from a fiery crash. we'll talk to him exclusively, but first his story. when canadian forces captain brian bews took to the skies last month in a cf-18 fighter to practice for an up coming air show "staying alive" was playing for spectators on the ground. ♪ >> reporter: no one could have guessed that would foreshadow what was about to happen. he was practicing an alpha pass when the plane hit turbulence and began to plummet. with moments to spare he hit the eject button and was thrown from the plane. just four seconds passed between the time bews ejected from the cockpit and the time he hit the ground. luckily, the wind carried him away from the wreckage of the jet. the veteran pilot said his training and instincts saved his life. >> i knew where the jet was going and i didn't want to be there with it. i knew my only chance at survival was to pull the ejection handle. >> reporter: despite the crash bews only suffered compression fractures to the spine. doctors say he should make a full recovery, but as the bee gees say, bews is lucky to be "staying alive." ♪ >> captain brian bews is with us now exclusively. how are you? >> hi, good morning, matt. >> you have been flying for a long time. you trained extensively for emergencies. i'm curious. when we watch the footage we've all shaking our head. did it go as planned? did the training kick in calmly or is it a blur to you? >> well, everything went pretty quickly. but, no, the training did kick in. it became obvious what i needed to do. i was well trained for it. it was a matter of pulling the handle and going for a ride. >> you say it became obvious what you needed to do. what were you attempting to do and when did you realize that jet was in serious trouble? >> well, i was performing a high alpha pass which is a slow speed pass with the nose raised 25 degrees. i tried to accelerate away from that which normally the jet climbs straight away. on that day when i added power it turned to the right, started sliding through the air and the nose dropped. when i started feeling the jet sliding to the right i knew there was a problem. i tried to fight it for a second or two and the jet was not responsive to whatever i was doing to it. >> you are trained that if the jet is not controllable, you get out of the jet. but ejection is not for sissies, captain. you go out at 5,000 pounds of thrust. what was it like? >> it was quite a ride. i remember the whole thing. i remember pulling the handle. the canopy jetsons sjeti sons a. it was surreal. >> you didn't land far from the fireball of what was once your jet. were you aware of that? were you worried that even after you were on the ground you weren't safe? >> well, i knew i was landing close to the fireball, but i had so much other things going through my mind that it didn't really occur to me that i could get pulled into the fireball. once i was being dragged away from the fireball then i knew that was better. then i was just trying to get out of my parachute. >> i'm curious. i understand you watched the video we're all seeing alone in your hospital room. when you watched it, did it kind of send off an alarm in your head? did you fully realize how little time occurred between you getting out of the cockpit and the plane hitting the ground? >> yes. it was quite compressed from what i remember. i remember the sequence of events leading up to it which seems to be longer in time than it actually is. when i looked at the video, it was quite clear to me when the problem started, how long it took to develop and when i pulled the ejection handle how quickly everything happened after that. >> yeah. four seconds between the time you pulled the ejection handle and you hit the ground. that's not a lot of time. >> no, not at all. it was a wild ride. it was fast and furious. that's for sure. >> a lot of attention being paid to the song on the loud speakers. "staying alive" by the bee gees. how did you feel about the song before and how do you feel now? >> it was a challenge, but i had to get a little bit of discointo my routine. it's a great song. i didn't expect it to come out this way but it's quite fitting. >> quickly, any reservations about flying again, captain? >> oh, absolutely not. i would get in a jet today and do the same routine today if i could. doctors won't allow me to for another month or two. no problems getting back into the jet. >> when you get back in, bring the bee gees cd with you. >> i'll do that. >> we're happy you're okay, captain. thanks for talking to us this morning. >> thank you very much. good to be here. >> just ahead, why hearing loss is soaring among teenagers. we'll talk about that right after this. ♪ [ female announcer ] wake up to black silk fr folgers. bold flavor. exceptionally smooth. sure, but let me get a little infortion first. for broccoli, say on for toys, say two. ys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 ceral standard time. he's in control. gobye. even kids ow it's wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with an endless automated system. yocan talk to a real person 24/7. it's just the right thing to do. [ female announcer ] kids who don't eat breakfast may not be getting the nutrition they need to keep their bodies strong. ♪ a nutritious start to the day is essential. that's why carnation instant breakfast essentials supplies the nutrients of a balanced breakfast. so kids get the protein and calcium they need to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start. we are back at 7:45. this morning on today's health the rapid rise in teen hearing loss. according to a study one in five teenagers has lost at least some of their hearing. a rise of around 30% in just around a decade. dr. nancy snyderman, good morning to you. >> hi. >> one in five, 20% of adolescents. that's serious. >> i think this is for real and it is serious. what teenagers forget and we forgot, too, at rock concerts is once you damage the nerve of hearing, it is so fragile you cannot operate or give a medicine for. this is permanent damage. the mp-3 or ipod generation, it's easy to ramp up the sound beyond what you conceive of as dangerous and the damage can be serious. >> researchers didn't look into the reasons behind the hearing loss but you are suggesting it's the mp-3s among other things. >> they raised the question, well, what could it be? i will take the stance that i don't think it's genetics. i don't think there is suddenly a change in the human animal over ten years that can explain it. what can explain it is the technology that once upon a time you put earbuds in or put on headphones and you could hear the person next to you. now there is really no bleed of the music. so it goes right against your eardrum, right into your middle ear, inner ear into the brain and the acoustics are so extraordinary that we crank up the sound. there is so much post production in music that what you can hear is extraordinary. when you crank it up, you can hear it better. it's too tantalizing. >> i'm amazed at the decibel levels for mp-3s at maximum level is 115 decibels. how does it compare to what's normal, healthy. >> a jet engine is high. rock concerts, and this is how we grew up could be 150 decibels. a jet engine on a commuter plane, it is loud. then look at the ipod or mp-3 player at 110 decibels. it's not much difference. that means you get one minute at 110 decibels at maximum level before you can have permanent hearing. normal conversation is 60. so we are in a noise polluted environment these days. but that is one area of our lives that's controllable. >> kids won't turn off the ipods so what is a safe level to listen to music? >> on every mp-3 player, ipod you can look at the bar and see if it's above 50%. it shouldn't be, no matter what. as a parent if you can hear what your child is listening to, it's already too loud. if your child is having trouble in school, grades dropped, doesn't seem to hear you, suddenly it was society seeming to have problems struggling. talk to your pediatrician about getting a hearing test. sometimes a piece of paper to say, look, you have already lost hearing, is enough to have it change a child's behavior. and the hearing loss is what we call the higher frequencies. so the first thing kids can't hear are women's voices, mom, and in crowded restaurants can be difficult to converse. it's for real. >> kids say "i can't hear you, mom." >> it's exactly right. >> thank you very much. >> you bet. >> still ahead, the popular restaurant salads that are just as fattening as big burger meals. but first, these messages. 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[ female announcer ] this school year, make a resolution to give your kid kellogg's frosted mini-wheats cereal. an excellent source of fiber from 100% whole grain. that helps keep them full so they can focus on the day ahead. keeps 'em full... keeps 'em focused. keeps 'em full... there's oil out there we've got to capture. my job is to hunt it down. i'm fred lemond, and i'm in charge of bp's efforts to remove oil from these waters. bp has taken full responsibility for the cleanup and that includes keeping you informed. you may have heard that oil is no longer flowing into the gulf, but our spotter planes and helicopters will keep searching for any oil. we use satellite images, infrared and thermal photography to map and target the oil. we're finding less oil every day, but we've still got thousands of vessels ready to clean it up. local shrimp and fishing boats, organized into task forces and strike teams. plus, specialized skimmers from around the world. we've skimmed over 35 million gallons of oil/water mixture and removed millions more with other methods. i grew up on the gulf coast and i love these waters. as long as there's oil out there that could make it ashore, i'm gonna do everything i can to stop it. bp's commitment is that we will see this through. and we'll be here as long as it takes to clean up the gulf. or use it to run across the planet. the fun, the fast, the solid glk. see your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial. we are back now at 7:51 with a slew of shark encounters that have some calling this the summer of the great white. here's nbc's martin fletcher. >> reporter: a beautiful corner of the australian coast, paradise, but this is all that's left of nick edward's board. he died tuesday, victim of a great white shark. friends were shocked. >> i imagine the shark was looking for a seal. >> reporter: it shredded his leg. rescuers used a rope as a tourniquet but couldn't stop the blood. edward's father, too, was warned by his mother to, please, stay water. >> he said, mom, i love it. i love surfing. he said, if i go out there, i will die doing something i love. >> reporter: in the same place six years ago a great white bit a surfer in two. they are the predators of the sea immortalized in the movie "jaws". >> you're going to need a bigger boat. >> reporter: this summer beaches at cape cod have been closed after sightings of the great white, but the great whites may need protecting. they are protected in u.s. waters. chuck patterson was beyond excited when he spotted one last week. he paddled out with his camera, risked his life to get these pictures. >> i definitely have a little fear, i can't lie. but at the same time i was really intrigued just to see it do its swim and cruise around me, i was really excited but also didn't want to fall in. >> reporter: luckily, he didn't. we are fascinated by the great whites, scared, too. for "today" martin fletcher, nbc news, london. >> scary. >> very scary. >> still ahead, has teen fashion become too adult for young girls? >> what a parent can do after your local news. here, take the card. you go to the shops... i'll meet you at the gate. thanks. please remove all metal objects out of your pockets. with chase freedom you can get a total of 5% cash back. fun money from freedom. that's 5% cash back in quarterly categories and an unlimited 1% cash back everywhere else. and this too. does your card do this? i'm going to need a supervisor over here at gate 4. sign up for this quarter's bonus today. chase what matters. go to chase.com/freedom. look in the glove box. 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[ female announcer ] lyrica is not for everyone. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior or any swelling or affected breathing, or skin, or changes in eyesight, including blurry vision or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. i found answers about fibromyalgia. then i found lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. our time is 7:56. 67 degrees. look that the reason out there this morning. in fact a flood warning in effect for d.c. and for many of the suburbs. good morning. i'm joe krebs. 7:56 on this wednesday, 18th of august. let's go straight to meteorologist tom kiernan to find out perhaps how much rain we'll see today. tom? >> well, we've already had a couple of inches of rain. it's been raining moderately to heavily for the last three or four hours in the district of columbia. we have flooding along rock creek, as well as along beach drive there. many areas of beach drive that closed. getting other pockets of moderate rain in lauden county, northern fauquier county drifting to the north and east. the rain has tapered off to just moderate rain, not the heavy rain we had in washington. but there's one pocket of heavy rain along the beltway where it meets route 50 in prince georges county. and this is going continue off and on through the day with perhaps more flooding but we'll dry out tomorrow into the weekend. joe? >> thanks very much. all of rain causing problems on the roadways. stay with us. traffic is next. good morning, everyone. difficult commute. live pictures of the beltway on left side in virginia. looks this way inner loop and outer loop with multiple areas. partially blocked off because of flooded conditions. elsewhere, we'll look along rhode island avenue, parts of new york avenue, 16th street, beach 8:00 now on a wednesday morning. it's the 18th day of august, 2010. we have stepped outside to join our friends on the plaza under cloudy skies here in the northeast. maybe a little rain later in the day, but you know what, it's cool out. 73 degrees. actually comfortable. by the way, we'll let you know that daughtry will take to the plaza as part of the summer concert series friday morning here on the plaza at 8:30. outside now i'm matt lauer along with meredith vieira and al roker. coming up, when you see some of the outfits tweens walk around in, it makes you shake your head. >> if you have gone for back to school shopping -- and a tween is 9 to 14 -- wearing things on the runways of paris or milan look like a hooker to be honest. what message is it sending to kids? >> also ahead, if you're watching your weight, you go to a restaurant and say, i'm not having a burger and fries, i'll have salad. uh-oh. some of the salads have more fat and calories than the big burger meals. we'll tell you what you should order and more importantly what you should not be ordering. >> mr. spoilsport. and later on, are your college students money smart? we're going to show you how to teach your teenager money smart ways to get on campus and whether or not it is a good idea to cosign for a credit card. >> i would think the answer is yes. >> debit or credit card? >> credit. >> okay. lots to get to. let's go inside. ann is on assignment in pakistan today. natalie is at the news desk with the headlines. good morning. >> good morning, matt, meredith and al. former illinois governor rod blagojevich will appeal tuesday's conviction on one felony count of lying to federal agents. after 14 days of deliberations, the jury deadlocked on the other charges including the most sensational that blagojevich tried to sell president obama's former senate seat. the judge set a hearing to consider the prosecution's call for a retrial. a major egg recall this morning. more than a quarter billion eggs have been linked to salmonella poisoning. federal health officials say the eggs distributed under 13 different brands nationwide are possibly to blame for 200 cases of food poisoning in june and july, mostly in california, colorado and minnesota. the united nations said it is now making progress raising money for flood relief in pakistan. the world body has been pressuring donors to stop a spiralling humanitarian catastrophe since the flooding began there three weeks ago. a court appearance for a south carolina mother who police say suffocated her toddlers before placing them in their car seats and faking an accident. nbc's ron mott has more now. good morning to you. >> reporter: police say the 29-year-old mother tried to make it look like an accident but the sheriff said almost from the start the case had the stench of foul play. the mother who allegedly killed her two toddlers before putting the car in neutral and rolling them into a river was more troubled than even she knew, said the sheriff. >> i believe she was fed up with her mother telling her that she couldn't take care of the children or she wasn't taking care of the children. she just wanted to be free. >> reporter: now the 29-year-old mother is in jail, charged with murder. she initially reported an accident. >> people that were in the car, did they get out or are they in the car? >> the driver got out, but the kids, two kids, still in there. >> reporter: police say she admitted suffocating the boys after clashing with the children's grandmother with whom they lived. she also has a 5-year-old daughter who was unharmed. officials say her story didn't add up from the start. >> she didn't show any remorse. >> reporter: for one, police say, she walked almost a mile from the scene before asking anyone for help. she was dry and there were no obvious signs of an accident, leading police to suspect she got out of the car on a boat ramp and let it go. the deaths brought back memories of 1994 when susan smith strapd her young boys into their seats and drove the car into a lake. at first she claimed they were carjacked but essentially she, too, confessed to killing her kids. >> reporter: the arraignment is scheduled for later today. authorities conducted autopsies on the children. the coroner says the 2-year-old had defensive wounds indicating that he put up a fight for his life, natalie. >> such a horrific story. ron mott, thank you. the secret service questioned the piemt of a small plane who flew through restricted air space tuesday during president obama's visit to seattle. the air national guard scrambled two jets. the pilot and passenger were returning from vacation and were clueless and harmless, in their words. >> went from sunny to cloudy like we said it would. >> like al said. here with a check of the good morning. we've had flooding this morning in the district of columbia, arlington, fairfax, montgomery, prince georges county, and now in anne arundel county. bands of steady rain that have passed through in central prince georges county, north central, a band of heavy rain mitchellville, drifting into anne arundel county. moderate to heavy rain in fauquier. as the day progresses, temperatures hold steady in the 70s through the rest of the afternoon. highs reaching near 80 with more heavy rain likely. this guy came to see al rooker. you added an extra o there. so you can't spell -- anyway, back to you. >> it's the thought that counts. >> yeah, it is. >> coming up, are today's fashions for tweens sending the wrong message and crossing the line? 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[ male announcer ] hurry in to your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for 1.99% financing during our certified pre-owned sales event through august 31st. during our certified pre-owned what's inside this little dial? how about three mascaras in one. almay's new one coat dial up mascara takes your lashes from full, to fuller, to fullest. so you can go from daytime to dazzling in three clicks. new one coat dial up mascara, only from almay. time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a new liquid gel. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. it has two layers for softness and an inner layer for a luxurious experience you can see and feel. in fact, it may inspire you to make all the things you touch ultra plush. quilted northern ultra plush. luxury you can see and feel™. and if you're not delighted, we'll give you your money back. to get more of the fiber you need every day, try fiberchoice. with the natural fiber found in fruits and vegetables and 33% more fiber per serving than benefiber. go to fiberchoice.com to get savings and rewards. we are back with an issue so many parents wrestle with. what is appropriate for young people to wear? tween fashion is a huge business but are today's designs too much too soon? that's the focus of a recent article in new york magazine. here's nbc's mara schiavocampo. >> reporter: the trend for tweens is practically everywhere you look. in blogs, music videos -- ♪ >> reporter: -- and on tv shows. >> what? >> reporter: young girls dressing like much older ones. >> how old are they? >> 13. >> reporter: now, just in time for back to school shopping you're seeing it in schools. >> they're 6 years old wearing clothes that seem like they should be on teenagers. short-shorts, tank tops. >> i don't want my daughter thinking she's got to be grown before she needs to be. >> reporter: these days the junior department is looking more like the women's section with retailers offering the same racy clothes adults are wearing in kid sizes. the tween market is worth $43 billion so retailers focus on taste even if it is not age appropriate. >> everyone wants to look in the peak of sexuality, the peak of desirability. this is a big, big industry. there is a lot of money to be made here. >> reporter: macy's new material girl line designed by madonna and her 13-year-old daughter lourdes is a juniors collection featuring cloths like this strapless corset mini dress and skinny jeans. the material girl said it's all about creative ing them. >> reporter: nancy says like most 12-year-olds her daughter morgan wants to wear what's cute and trendy, but she says just because it's in stores doesn't mean it will be in the closet. >> kids should be kids. i think at her age, 7 to 16, they should not have short-shorts because, to me, they look like hot pants. >> it's hard. i know she's the mom. she knows best. so i just have to stick with that. >> reporter: a debate countless mothers are having with their own tweens -- how to wear what's in style and in good taste. nbc news, los angeles. >> with us is the editor in chief of redbook magazine and the mother of two tween girls. good morning. >> good morning. >> how did we reach a point where we have an industry that caters to kids 9 to 13 years old with padded bikinis and hot pants. everything looks to be designed to sexualize little girls. >> we all saw the video of little girls gyrating to "single ladi ladies." i think it's true that parents really can be the limit-setters. kids really look to us for that. >> your daughters are 8 and 10. what criteria do you use? >> i have a few different appropriateness criteria when we do back to school shopping. the first thing is, is this a skin show? my kids are little girls still. they shouldn't have what's not even cleavage yet showing. they shouldn't have super short skirts on. we discussed that and my kids get it and appreciate when i say, look, you don't want to sit down and have everybody see your underpants when you cross your legs. we talk through that. the other thing is cost. every family has to figure out what's appropriate for them. lastly, can you run around and be a kid in this? tiny mini skirts and heels? not so much. that's important. >> some of the people they are looking at like miley cyrus, for example, or taylor monson from "gossip girl." they are obviously older girls and the clothing might be appropriate for them, you could argue that, but it's not for kids. how do you strike a balance with your child? >> well, you talk it through with them and you find your comfort level. there is so much you can say yes to. it's really nice to encourage, as madonna talked about in the clip, to encourage creativity and individuality. my 10-year-old has been dressing herself since she was 3. she went to school, you know, wearing halloween costumes basically at some points. but never anything that was really inappropriate. that's what's important. let them have fun with fashion. let them be creative. let them do their dress-up thing as much as possible. help them find boundaries. >> we have all gone through this in our lives where we want to push the envelope as much as possible. tweens are in a funny position. they're kids but not quite, but they are not adults either. they are trying to find a space that's right for them. >> girlhood is a precious, precious time. you don't want to rush them out of it and have them acting and dressing like women before they are women. it's really important to preserve that time to be kids. >> all right. thank you very much. i hope the kids are listening. the last kid in the piece was so sweet. >> adorable. >> you want that one. you may not get that one. up next, restaurant salad shockers including one that has the same amount of calories as a double whopper cam bo aombo and chocolate shake. to wind myself up just to get out of bed. then... well... i have to keep winding myself up to deal with the sadness, the loss of interest, the trouble concentrating, the lack of energy. if depression is taking so much out of you, ask your doctor about pristiq. (announcer) pristiq is a prescription medicine proven to treat depression. pristiq is thought to work by affecting the levels of two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and norepinephrine. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, teens and young adults. pristiq is not approved for children under 18. do not take pristiq with maois. taking pristiq with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. tell your doctor about all your medications, including those for migraine, to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. pristiq may cause or worsen high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or glaucoma. telling your doctor if you have heart disease... or before you reduce or stop taking pristiq. side effects may include nausea, dizziness and sweating. (woman) for me, pristiq is a key in helping to treat my depression. (announcer) ask your doctor about pristiq. to treat my depression. there's oil out there we've got to capture. my job is to hunt it down. i'm fred lemond, and i'm in charge of bp's efforts to remove oil from these waters. you may have heard that oil is no longer flowing into the gulf, but our spotter planes and helicopters will keep searching. we've still got thousands of vessels ready to clean up any oil we find. we've skimmed over 35 million gallons of oil/water mixture. i grew up on the gulf coast and i love these waters. we'll be here as long as it takes to clean up the gulf. [ female announcer ] wisk is about to change the way you look at stains forever. discover the power of our stain spectrum technology in the new red bottle of wisk. in stores now! [ female announcer ] this is not a prescription. this is diane. diane, who has diabetes and a daughter who could use a little perspective. diane, who worked with her walgreens pharmacist to keep her blood-sugar numbers in check with a few changes to her diet. ♪ diane, who's showing her daughter the world's a bit bigger than 8th grade. expertise -- find it everywhere there's a walgreens. it's a good snack. you're welcome. they grow so fast. [ woman ] i know. they do, don't they? why is carol sitting all the way over there? carol almost told evan that there are vegetables in the chef boyardee. nearly ruined their favorite after-school snack. so she's in a time-out. i hope she learns from this. [ female announcer ] chef boyardee micro beef ravioli microwave cups. an after-school snack with a full serving of vegetables. just don't tell them. shh. we're back at 8:20. ♪ >> i don't know what that music is. up next on "eat this, not that!" if you think ordering salad is always the healthy option, think again. david zinczenko is the editor in chief of men's health magazine and is the author of the "eat this, not that!" series. >> good to see you, matt. >> lettuce isn't fattening, but it's the salads today and all the extras where the fat and calories are. >> it's the extras. they fry this stuff. it's dressing. you go, get the salad, think you're making a sacrifice. hey, make fun of me friends, that's okay, i'm losing weight. they don't realize in some cases it's like the incredible hulk. >> the laugh is on you. you have five salad shockers here. the first is applebee's oriental chicken salad. this is a doozy in terms of fat and calories. >> if that's an oriental salad i am foo man chu. that's a kfc salad. they fried everything. >> 1300 calories, 93 grams of fat and 2,000 grams of sodium. >> it's a miracle they didn't fry the let sus. it's the equivalent of a mcdonald's double quarter pounder, fries and a coke. >> but they have a better option. >> go with the paradise chicken salad. you're cutting out 1,000 calories, 90 grams of fat. it has too much sodium at 2,000 milligrams. that's what you should get in a day. i guess paradise is a salt mine, but it is a big savings over what you would have eaten. >> a healthier option. wendy's blt cobb salad with croutons and classic ranch. i think the croutons and the dressing are the problem. >> the croutons are stale sponges that soak up oil. the creamy dressing doesn't do you any favors. bacon, lettuce and maybe tummy for blt. this is the equivalent of two bacon cheeseburgers at wendy's. it's not much of a savings there. it's still a big salad with a lot of calories and fat. >> okay. wendy's has a healthier alternative. the apple pecan chicken salad with roasted pecans and pomegranate vinaigrette. let's go to quizno's. equal opportunity offenders here. the chicken caesar flatbread salad. 920 calories, 66 grams of fat and 2,090 milligrams of sodium. >> exactly, matt. this is the equivalent of having these three white castle sliders, bacon, cheese sliders, and three chicken rings. >> think about it. you have gone in to be healthy and this is technically what you are consuming in terms of fat and calories. >> it's a day's worth of calories. if you go to quizno's and don't want that thing, you can have the raspberry chipotle chicken salad. you will save 600 calories and 50 grams of fat. >> it's a little smaller. >> it's a good portion. it makes sense. >> this is tgi friday's santa fe chopped salad. 1,800 calories. >> i mean, any mexican-themed salad, stay away from. >> what's in there? >> it's this thick, creamy dressing right here. it's all the fried tortilla bits. it's just like, i don't know, let's make a deal with mexico. keep your salads, we'll keep salma hayek. [ laughter ] >> don't ever get a mexic mexican-themed salad. >> he works hard on these. he also works in the catskills on weekends. >> it just came to me. this is the calorie equivalent of a burger king double whopper, fries and a chocolate shake. >> the frosty? >> that's over here at wendy's. >> oh, great. >> and the healthier alternative? >> a cobb salad. >> you save 1,300 calories. >> it's your only option on that menu. >> california pizza kitchen's waldorf chicken salad with blue cheese dressing. that's a mistake right here. >> this is a fat farm. this has 1600 calories, almost a day's worth. this is the equivalent of this half pound double with cheese, fries, a medium frosty. the good thing about california pizza kitchen is you can make substitutions. if you get the half moroccan chicken salad you will save over 1,000 calories. this is the leaner half of the salad. >> what's our deal with mexico again? >> we're keeping salma. >> thank you. >> thanks, matt. just ahead, teaching your teesh teenager to be money smart as they head to college after your local news and your local weather forecast as well. 8:26 is your time. 68 degrees. a flood warning in effect for a large part of the metro area. be careful driving. there have been more than a dozen water rescues around the area. good morning, irp eun yang. right to tom kiernan to find out what's go on with all of the weather. good morning. >> we've had -- 2 to 3 inches of rain in an hour. pockets of rain in fairfax county, loudoun county, northern montgomery county around poolsville. these are drifting to the north and east. also northern prince georges county and anne arundel county. other heavy downpours later today. temperatures holding steady near 70. >> we have wet and flooded roads out there. that m . good morning, everyone. we take a live look at capital beltway on the virginia side. looks this way no matter what way you're going. interloop change, tyson, off the 270 spur multiple problems including a truck that lost its hood on the inner loop. 270 southbound, crawling. flooded-out roads including beach drive and rock creek parkway. 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[ male announcer ] amtrak guest rewards members earn up to 9,000 bonus points this summer. details at amtrak.com. ♪ 8:30 this wednesday morning the 18th of august, 2010. no surprise here. we have another fantastic crowd in rockefeller plaza. if they come back in 48 hours they could hear the hard-rocking band daughtry live on stage. we have another great show a week from friday as well. >> also coming up, we have a woman who knows how to put the icing on the cake. i will give you three ingredients, what can you make with them -- butter, sugar and vanilla? oh, buttercream icing. we'll find out how to do it with martha stewart. >> also ahead, college money savings. this is the first year kids going to college cannot automatically get a credit card unless they have a job or get a parent to cosign. how do you teach your college kids smart finances? we'll get into that in a few minutes. >> we're going to spend a day in the life of a 13-year-old spelling champion. we're going to find out what it takes to become a wizard of words. >> as long as she doesn't put us to the test. also, then things that are ruining your skin and simple remedies you can try coming up. >> but first, mr. roker with a look at the weather. >> let's show you what's happening as we look ahead to the weekend. saturday going to be beautiful up and down the eastern seaboard. gulf coast to the ohio river valley, we've had flooding rains this morning. flooding occurring in the district of columbia and fairfax, montgomery, arlington, as well as prince georges county and anne arundel counties from bands of moderate to heavy rain where you see pockets of yellow coming down harder. fairfax, louden, northern fauquier, northern montgomery county and northern prince georges county. this is going to continue off and on through the day and into the evening with more flooding likely. temperatures in the 70s. highs here 80 by midafternoon. drying out thursday into saturday. that's your latest weather. you can get your weather any time day or night on weather.com or the weather channel on cable. we have a birthday? >> both of us. >> what are your names? >> joe and joseph. >> that's a law firm, i think. you have that birthday every year? you better. keep it up and you will be with this guy, uncle willy. >> got my muppet tie on. i'm ready for back to school. some people have already gone back to school in some places. happy birthday to you. the year has flown by. we had winter, summer and that was it. we have harold bergman from jacksonville, florida. sat behind einstein in college. he buys a fish filet at mcdonald's every day. i love those. eva himes of duncannon, pennsylvania. retired sunday school teacher. celebrated her 100th birthday camping with her family. how about that? scratching all night if she camps like i do. amelia cochran of gibson island, maryland. that's pretty. is it a bay or a river? well, i thought it was -- maybe it's a river. anyway, began modeling when she was 99 years old. how about that? walking down the runway. and we have margaret ingram, laguna woods, california. works part time at the country store near her home. happy birthday. how sweet. and we have charles burroughs of camden, south carolina. i have relatives there. 100 years old today. lives independently. retired railroad driver and a former jockey. enjoys bird-watching. lots of birds in south carolina. neil malloy, a nice boy, boca raton, florida. tributes his longevity to a dry martini just to clear the throat. speaking of dry martinis, back to new york. >> thank you, willard. coming up, martha stewart shares her favorite frosting recipes. this is "today" on nbc. ♪ we are back at 8:37 this morning on martha on today, the icing on the cake. from basic buttercream to chocolate ganache, martha has four frostings to make your next cake irresistible and they are in the september issue of "living." >> we have a man on the cover. >> how about congratulations? it's about time. >> kevin sharkey. he lives, you live. >> we have to do this quickly before david zinczenko bursts in to ruin this for everybody. >> buttercream. three simple ingredients, butter, sugar and vanilla, that's all it takes. >> this is confectioner's sugar -- 10-x as my mother called it. it's ground up granulated sugar with corn starch added for lightness. this one is just basically -- this is a lot of frosting. it will do a lot of cakes and cup cakes. six sticks of unsalted butter. >> softened first. >> right. room temperature. where is our power, guys? and one cup of confectioner's sugar to it. all together eight cups. sift your sugar. no lumps. then you get a light, fluffy frosting. then add one and a half teaspoons of vanilla. >> say the mixer were working -- >> there we go! [ applause ] >> hooray! >> how long would you mix that? [ . >> you may want to pull the eject handle like the pilot. get out of this thing. >> mix it until it's light and fluffy. i'll do other ones while you do these. >> would you put food coloring in it to change the color? >> you could, of course. but as you said, buttercream looks so good natural. >> just the way it is. >> with a sprinkle of sugar. >> now cream cheese is a very nice frosting using butter, too. >> good on carrot cake. >> red velvet. two sticks of butter, two pounds of cream cheese. >> can you use low fat cream cheese? >> yeah, but i go for the real thing. mix it up together with, again, more confectioner's sugar. don't you love these mixers? >> that's not going either. >> not our day. >> but this has vegetables. >> i have no idea. it's ge, believe it or not. >> you can ice this cake. >> thank you. >> it looks really pretty and it's tasty. >> okay. now to the ganache. >> this is the easiest frosting in the world. all you do is heat up cream. this is one and a quarter cups. you add a little bit, one tablespoon of corn syrup because that keeps the ganache shiny and malleable. into the cream and the cream is already warm. you just pour the boiling cream into your chocolate. >> got to be hot enough. you were showing me the way to do the chocolate is with a serrated knife. >> on the short side it's easier. watch how easy. see? >> can i show you something? is there even a cake under there still? >> she wants frosting! >> that's beautiful. >> this is easy, too. >> put it on a rack and you can have a tray under it. pour the ganache over your beautiful chocolate cake. not a lot. you don't need a lot. this is also delicious. >> we can do this later and have somebody pour it in your mouth. >> that, too. >> yum. >> what are you talking about? >> this one is -- angelfood with a great lemon glaze. >> a glaze. confectioner's sugar, four and a half cups and a quarter cup of fresh-squeezed lemon juice. >> you just whisk it. don't have to worry about that blender. >> no, you don't. >> and i think a little cointreau. >> just a tad. you don't need much. you just want to flavor it. that gets into a nice smooth -- that's it. you just use a spoon and pour it over like an angelfood cake. it looks thick. ooh, not too much! a little bit -- >> that will look like meredith's. >> we don't want it to look like meredith's. >> whoa. [ laughter ] >> this is going to turn ugly. >> i don't want it on me! >> i don't have a dog in this fight. >> they are getting into the icing fight. i thought you were adults. >> you thought wrong. >> but this is the fun stuff you can do -- i got her! >> thank you. >> martha, thank you very much. all the recipes in the issue of "martha stewart living." al, hold her one more time. we are back in a moment. this is "today" on nbc. this morning on our special series, back to school today, credit card smart. how teenagers can deal with finances before they head off to school. carmen, good morning. this is the first year where college students cannot get a credit card without proof of a job or having a parent or guardian to cosign. the idea was so they wouldn't amass a lot of debt. >> right. >> but it can be a bad thing for them. >> i am of two minds here. yes, credit card companies went too crazy marketing college kids, extended too much credit, but enabling parents to continue to be shackled to their adult grown children until they are 25-plus, i have heard from too many 25-year-olds with full-time jobs not able to get one credit card because they couldn't establish their own credit in college. this is what's going to happen. this is the future. >> they get out of college and want an apartment, a car, a loan, whatever. >> and the parents have to continue to cosign. this is a bit drastic, so you have to take measures, plan it out better. >> let's talk about options out there. first of all, it's a secured card, what is that? >> think of it as training wheels on a credit card. you put cash money on the card. you have to prove income. if you have a work study or part-time job this could be the card for you. you build off that money, your cash is on the card. they will extend you credit eventually. you want to make sure they report to the credit reporting agencies to build your credit. >> also, you say you can cosign your child. >> yeah. i'm never a fan of cosigning. it's like codependency. but if you cosign on a new card you're both equally responsible for the balance and also for your credit report. but because your college student doesn't have credit history you will get a low limit. this limits the damage to your credit report and score and your wallet if you get footed with the bill. it's good to do that. once you graduate you have to be in it together in terms of closing the card. that's something you want to do to cut the apron strings. >> if the kid is responsible you have to go to them saying i want to close this but i want your permission which is weird. >> it is strange. the limit is low so it limits the damage to you and your credit score. >> you can authorize your son or daughter to use your card, an existing card. that sounds dangerous. we did it. >> you did that. >> i'm not sure it was the smartest thing. >> times have changed. because they don't have access to credit. the problem with authorized users is it doesn't build up your credit score. if you have a student who's not very responsible handing them plastic isn't very responsible. they know you get the bill. and you have a big credit limit. the damage to your credit score and cash could be substantial. be careful. >> how about forgetting the credit card and going for a debit card? >> here's the thing. that could be a good situation if you have -- talking about limits. in college you're learning about limits to your money. make sure if you get a debit card that it doesn't have overdraft protection. there is nothing like going to the register and being denied to teach you something. also, too, it's not going to build credit. i want you to build your credit before the age of 25. try to handle both a debit and credit card. >> if you had to pick one, what's your advice? >> go with the secured card or cosign and a debit card with a limit in term of cash finances there. be careful about budgeting. remember, not just books but meals. is it cafeteria, pizza budget, transportation. there are a lot of expenses that can creep up, especially if your kid is a freshman and not prepared for it. budget now. >> keep the money conversation going with kids. >> it's an important thing. i tell you, when the bills come, you're tempted to pick up the phone and yell and be stressed out. don't have the conversation once a month. have it continuously when you talk during the week. how's the pizza budget? is there anything going over budget or under? let's adjust a little bit. how is the credit card going? keep talking so don't do it when they owe you something because they will be hiding things. >> and understand they will make mistakes. >> we all go on pizza benders. >> thank you so much. pizza benders, yeah. still ahead, how to get the family organized for the school year. first, this is "today" on nbc. >> reporter: back now at 8:51 with a young girl who's developed a real love for spelling. sarah, good morning. >> good morning, matt. if you have seen "spellbound" you know some kids take spelling seriously. i had a chance to meet an eager 13-year-old with a fierce passion for the art of the word. like a lot of girls, anja loves dancing, soccer and just hanging out with her family. what gets her excited -- >> [ spelling word ] >> reporter: -- letters. >> i have always really liked language. i like to read. i like words. >> reporter: her official love affair with words began two years ago when she entered her 6th grade spelling bee and won. did you expect to do that well? >> not at all. >> reporter: she began the road to regionals. with more unexpected wins, her spelling saga began. >> this is the official dictionary. it weighs 14 pounds. this is the medal i got for winning regionals last year. >> she always wanted to be in a spelling bee. she's found her thing. >> reporter: almost every young word whiz wants to make it to nationals for a chance to compete in the world's most famous spell-off, the scripps national spelling bee held every year in the nation's capital. for anja this meant training with dad every day -- a rigorous, inspiring routine. >> it's given her the confidence to get on stage in front of 400, 500 people. >> reporter: at the national spelling bee, first a success. >> kanban, k-a-n-b-a-n. >> absolutely. >> reporter: and then. >> c-a-r-a-c -- i-o-s. [ bell ringing ] >> reporter: -- a stumper. >> you know when they don't look at you you've missed. there's always next year. >> it's pretty amazing. >> reporter: what's the most difficult part of it? >> words from some languages have really weird spelling patterns. languages like russian, portuguese, things like that, they have different spelling patterns than you're used to. >> reporter: i struggle with words more than five letters. so i get you. this fall, 13-year-old anja begins 8th grade. she's got big dreams ahead. what do you want to do? >> i would like to be an engineer or astrophysicist. >> reporter: she's living in the moment, preparing for the national spelling bee next year. one word at a time. >> fescue, f-e-s-c-u-e. >> reporter: anja will keep practicing. the last time she'll be able to enter. you can't be beyond 8th grade to compete. i'm sorry. i apologize. >> there were so many b's in that. >> is anybody a good speller here? onomatopoeia. seriously. do it. we tried it yesterday in the office. no one could spell it. >> o -- >> yeah. >> n-a -- >> no. that's what i went with. >> m -- >> it's hard because you have to see the word. >> you can see it and then you can spell it. sure. they don't do that in a spelling bee. >> please spell onomotopeia. >> i have one for you. how do you spell revenge? i will get to that. taking a live look outside on the roadways. all this rain this morning is making a mess of your commute. traffic in just a moment. good morning, i'm eun yang. a lot of problems outside now. emergency responders have been busy. joining us on the phone is pete with d.c. fire and ems. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. it's been a busy couple of hours for us. >> we understand you're doing a lot of rescues. tell us about that about. >> it all started before 7:00. we've probably assisted in rescued about a dozen people or so so far in about six or seven different incidents. the area along rock creek, which you might expect, broad branch road, brandy wine street, we assisted several people. now we finished up along canal road, fletcher's boathouse, arizona avenue. we had more on water side drive, rock creek, potomac parkway. we are had a couple of trees down. expect wires and that sort of thing. in the, say, two-hour period from 6:30 to 8:30, we handled about 7,500 calls. it's away busy period for us. >> pete, tell us what seems to be the problem. are the roads flooded and people haven't heard the warnings? roads aren't closed off yaef yet and you're rescuing people from the vehicles? >> we weren't expecting flash flooding. we did bring it -- we had good planning, we brought in resources, three additional swift water rescue teams. we're seeing areas susceptible to flooding typically half flooded and in some cases -- in all of the cases we assisted people, for whatever reason they got into the water and stalled vehicles out. no serious injury. we have a serious situation at southern avenue and owens road, 7:45, an adult and child struck by a vehicle. they have serious injureieinjur. of course a downpour at the time. pedestrians and motorists watch out for each other. it's going to be dangerous. >> thank you. speaking of treacherous roads, right to jerry to take a look at what it looks like out there in the canoes. >> good morning. not only a frustrating commute, as pete mentioned, life threatening dangerous. we've had a lot of water rescues and roads closed. 395, 14th street bridge, it's at a crawl from well before the capital beltway across the bridge span, part of the issue, again, as we have been saying in construction zones. water has a difficult time receding. the gw parkway is loaded up as well. the trip along interstate 270, crawling on down. at this hour from hyattstown to the beltway. toward the american legion bridge, authorities sent over to check reports of an accident. a stretch of canal road closed off earlier at arizona avenue at fox hall road. it's moving along well. but again, the general rule of thumb is basically right now we're just really jammed because of all of the problems. we have a truck that spilled its load over on the capital beltway in northern virginia. badly loaded up leaving springfield on the inner loop all the way on up. give yourself extra travel time heading out. 95 coming out of prince william county looking at lingering delays. we'll keep you updated all day long. >> thanks. we'll take a quick break. your forecast is next. welcome back. continuing to follow flash flooding and problems caused by it. live at little south parkway, massachusetts avenue in bethesda. what's the situation there, elaine? >> reporter: within last ten minutes, maryland state police shut this road down. you can see that they put some road flares there, a sign, barrels, just to keep cars from coming done this way. very recent. and just take a look down the road. you can't see anything past that curve in the hill but we're told by officers there is a whole section of flooded at the bottom of the hill. they're trying to keep people from coming down this road. on the side of the road here, let me take you this way, we'll show you how fast this water's moving, this is a creek here. on the other side of 0 the creek is capital crescent, the capital crescent trail to give you an idea where we are. you can see water is moving quickly. that creek is swollen. so one of the many areas in the region that have sort of flooded the area, making the commute a very difficult one. this is, again, one of dozens of very difficult spots in montgomery county. and across our region. so we'll continue to stay on top of it. we'll bring you more video as the morning progresses. >> little falls parkway is closed to traffic? >> reporter: it is closed to traffic, yes. they're moving on to other areas. >> elaine, thanks so much. let's go to tom kiernan. busy morning for you, too, tom. >> yes. we've had heavy rain, since about 3:00 this morning coming through in waves. another wave coming into montgomery county. the latest wave has been tracking off to the north and east, out of fairfax in loudoun countys. moderate to heavy rain. areas of yellow, a little bit harder, southern louden count. montgomery county, southern part, getting heavy rain from gaithersburg to rockville, kensington, wheaton, bethesda, silver spring. this area slowly drifting off to the north and east, unloading perhaps another half inch of rain on top of maybe 2 to 3 inches of rain that fell this morning. so much of montgomery county's going to be experiencing a fresh round of flooding and around our region we're going to continue to see this off and on throughout the afternoon. and maybe temperatures in the upper 70s. swendsing tonight. >> thank you. stay with news4 for weather and traffic as the flood warning in effect until 10:15 a.m. back to the "today" show in progress after this break. tennessee. some of the storms dropping lots of rain, isolated areas of hail. anywhere from one to two inches of rain. the rest of the country looking at beautiful weather out west. 73 in seattle. 80 in portland. 85 in los angeles. look for a risk of strong storms through minneapolis to iowa. we have showers from the good morning. we have another surge of rain out in kentucky, that will be coming in later this afternoon. at this hour, we continue to see moderate to heavy rain especially montgomery count. southern part of montgomery county, southeastern montgomery county, silver springs to aspen hill, this area up to gaithersburg, moderate to heavy rain moving into northern prince georges county. will continue to track off to the north and east. heavy rain in loudoun county. this should and now today's money 9-1-1 where we offer advice for pressing financial questions. our team today jean chatzky and the author of "money 911." new to the panel, ceo of the financial assurance corporation. welcome. looking very sharp. and a personal finance expert. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> here we go. we have a question now. we're going to skype. holly from vernon, connecticut. good morning. >> good morning. >> what's your question for the panel? >> my husband and i are both successful professionals and as a result we have about $150,000 in student loan debt. we have consolidated our loans but we still have four payments every month, two federal and two private, which total about $1250. although we have good credit we feel we don't really have many options since they don't recommend that we consolidate private and federal student loans. i was wondering if there are options to decrease our overall student loan payment every month? >> a couple of things. they're right about that. you don't want to mix federal and private together because you lose some of the hardship provisions and should you hit hard times you may need those. what you want to look at are the private loans. they are most likely the more expensive of the two. you look at stretching out the payments on the federal loans and seeing if you can just hammer, whale on those private ones, bring the interest rates down and if your credit score is really excellent, close to 800 you may be able to bring it down. the only other alternative -- and i want to hear what these guys think about this as well is do you have equity in your home? do you have a substantial amount of equity in a home? holly? >> not enough. especially when we purchased our home two years ago it was right before the market started to come down. >> for anybody looking at that, that's the cheapest way to refinance a student loan these days. home equity loans. >> pay off the loan? >> if you can. you have to be careful. you don't want to go on some sort of bender, use the money unwisely. if you're very disciplined it can be decent. >> it does also remember if you declare bankruptcy you cannot get rid of the student loans ever whereas if you use equity in the home and you have enough and it's cheap, then that's the case if you fall on hard times you could take care of it. >> let's get to the phone now. i knew a gal from kalamazoo, michigan named ruthie. good morning. what's your question? >> caller: good morning. i'm 57 years old, retired with a pension. my husband joe is 58 and plans to retire in four to seven years. he currently contributes the maximum allowable amount into a 40 401-k account and we have no credit card debt. our mortgage is 3.75% and we have seven years remaining on the mortgage. my question is after all our monthly bills are paid we often have extra cash we'd like to do something with. is it better to put the extra money into an investment or savings or is it better to pay down on the principal of the mortgage? >> you guys are retiring very, very young. that's one thing that concerns me here. with a 5% interest rate you don't have to be in a huge rush to pay off the mortgage. you have a long stretch of retirement ahead of you. i would much rather you put the money to work and make it work hard for you in a real diversified portfolio. i know he has a retirement savings but you can open up another ira. i wouldn't worry about the mortgage and house. you will be free and clear shortly. >> and 5% only costs you 3.5 with taxes. >> invest it. >> and a happy life, ruthie, good for you. >> happy long life. >> good for you. now to a viewer e-mail. this was sent in anonymously from a viewer in montana. "my parents are in their 50s in debt to the irs for a total of $200,000. they have little savings and a lien on their home. we have talked about the ads on television for attorneys to consolidate debt. is there a way to have it reduced? >> they want to confirm first that the debt is theirs, that the total liability is their total liability. you know, the irs has been known to blunder a bit and perhaps bluff folks. once they confirm that, then i would encourage them to seek perhaps some abatement for the penalties, getting the penalties waived or reduced. often times a big debt like that has lots of penalties and interest. >> you can negotiate? >> they will put you on a payment plan and she asked specifically about the ads on tv. we can get rid of your debt, cut it in half. avoid them. be careful. >> let's go to skype with jennifer from ann arbor, michigan. good morning. >> good morning, al. >> what's your question for the panel? >> i was watching the "today" recently -- >> that's very, very good. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> i was watching "today" recently and it was recommended that people look into refinancing. now, i have looked into refinancing, but no one will actually take a look at us. we're upside down on the mortgage. due to the housing economy, but we are up to date on our bills. it seems to me that only the people who are not making their payments can actually refinance, or people who are first time home buyers can get the great rates. do you have any differing information that could help us? >> carmen? >> there is a little bit of a mix up. it's not refinancing you're talking about. refinancing is only for folks with equity in their home, and a lot of equity. at least 20% or more. basically buying your home again at a different rate. if you're under water you're talking about a loan modification. this is different. this is when the bank adjusts the terms of the loan, lowers your interest rate, lowers the monthly payment. you may pay more in the end or they extend the loan from 20 years to 30. you have to get help and it is true that loa lot of banks aren helping unless you fall behind. go to makinghomeaffordable.org and talk to a hud housing counselor to talk about your chances of a loan mod. >> lots of great advice. jennifer, good luck with the refinance or home modification. >> thank you so much. still ahead, getting your kids organized as they head back to school. we have tips for a productive school year. up next, ten things that are ruining your skin and how to protect yourself, right after these messages. well, max, first day... moh-ohm. -do you have your lunch? -yes. and you know where your classroom is? uh huh. mom, i can walk from here. what about your... mom, i got it. ♪ [ female announcer ] they're never too big for a little something sweet. kellogg's rice krispies treats. for a little something sweet. activia has delicious news for dessert lovers. often, the best part of a meal is the dessert. but sometimes after a busy day and a heavy greasy dinner... my system needs some tlc. now there is something new. introducing activia dessert. rich, silky, smooth yogurt with desserty flavors like strawberry cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake, and peach cobbler. and because it's activia, it helps regulate my digestive system. mmm. works for me. ♪ activia new activia dessert. 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[ female announcer ] maxwell house gives you a rich, full-flavored cup of coffee, so you can be good to the last drop. this morning on today's health, ten things ruining your skin. aging is inevitable, but you can slow down the pace. here are skin remedies is dr. susan taylor, dermatologist. good morning. >> good morning. >> we know the damage the sun can do. harvard medical school says it is still the biggest cause of damage to the skin. >> people don't realize exposure while driving in the car, while walking down the street is significant. the rule is you have to apply sunscreen every day and you have to apply it every two hours because it wears off after two hours. don't forget to use spf 30. no excuses. there is a sunscreen for everyone. if your skin is dry, you can use a moisturizing sunscreen. if it's oily, use gel. there are sprays, sticks. >> even sensitive skin, you name it. >> right. >> we know stress is a big skin-buster. what can we do to alleviate that? >> first of all, find out what's right for you. it might be yoga, exercise, meditation. so it's going to be different for everyone. what you have to realize is that when you're under stress the body releases neuropeptides. they can act on the skin making acne worse, eczema worse, psoriasis worse. also adrenaline is released causing blood vessels to constrict depriving the skin of oxygen and nutrients. >> everything flares up then. >> you need to relieve it. >> compounded with stress is lack of sleep. >> that's right. >> one other thing to do is trying to get more sleep. >> you need seven to eight hours of sleep. that's hard for many people. if you get six, try to add another 30 minutes. that's a real simple thing to do. what you have to realize is that stress can have profound effects on the skin. it can cause skin cells to reproduce abnormally. that could lead to precancers for example and shorten the life span of cells. >> 15, 30 minutes makes a big difference. >> goes a long way. >> okay. let's talk about dehydration. if you're drinking alcohol or if you're even washing your face with too much hot water, that can dehydrate the skin. >> or drying soaps or cleansers can dehydrate the skin. that can ruin your skin, so moisturize. there are many moisturizers available. this one has ceramides in it. those are lipids that help the skin hold onto water. apply moisturizer a couple times a day if your skin is dehydrated. and be mindful of the cleansers and soaps you're using. >> in the summer people don't like to moisturize because they think they will break out. what can you do? >> there are many moisturizers that are noncomedegenic. they won't break you out. >> i know people are addicted to lip balm and it turns out overuse is making your lips drier. >> it can, depending on the ingredients. there are ingredients or dyes that give it a bright color that can irritate the skin and produce extra dryness. if that's happening to you, look for a balm that just has petrolatum, think of it as vasoline. apply it several times a day. your lips will get better as opposed to drier. >> we know there is serious damage tanning salons can do. everyone recommend it is self-tanners, but often the application isn't easy. how do you keep from getting streaky. >> first of all, self-tanners have come a long way. they're terrific now. if you're applying one on your legs, shave beforehand to remove dead layers of cells. when you apply self-tanner it won't streak. you could even use a loofah sponge or buff-puff. >> ex-foal yat first. >> you could use a lotion and then the self-tanner goes on smoothly and evenly. >> for people with problem skin who break '02out a lot, they te to overuse products. >> it causes redness and irritation. the rule is select one product. use it for six to eight weeks. that's how long it takes to see improvement. if you don't see improvement after that time see a dermatologist. >> benzoperoxide and salycilic acid. >> don't combine them. >> and tobacco is terrible for your skin. >> smoke releases free radicals which damages your collagen and elastin in the skin. so stop smoking. you can't reverse all the damage. some of it you can. if you have deep wrinkles and folds and a sal low skin tone, go to your determine knormatold. there are things we can prescribe. >> thank you very much. still to come, keeping your kids organized as they head back to the classroom. first, these messages. 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[ female announcer ] do you know scott? mmmmmm. mmmmmm. wow! you have got to be kidding me. 80 calories? light & fit has 80 calories versus 100 in the other leading brand. light & fit. irresistible taste. fewer calories. i love light & fit. still to come on "today," a lesson in organization for parents as your kids head back to class. how planning now can lead to a more successful school year ahead. plus, crowd pleasing cakes from today's kitchen. two award winning chefs mark and clark are here. after your local news and weather. tivia is better than ev! hey, you guys. want to try activia's great new taste? today is your tasty lucky day! sure, why not? isn't this the yogurt that, you know... helps regulate your digestive system. ooh, i think i'll pass. no, no, no! trust me. it is beyond tasty. okay! mmm! wow! i can't believe it, i love it! mmm, this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! taste it, love it, or it's free! ♪ activia [ water runs ] [ female announcer ] new chef boyardee whole grain beefaroni. [ whispering ] now with whole grain pasta. shh. 9:26 is your time. 68 degrees. look that the horrible traffic out there. flash flood warning in effect until 10:15 as heavy rain falls throughout the region and causing big problems on the roads, as you can see right there. good morning, i'm eun yang. joining us on the phone, dan schmitt, fairfax county fire and rescue. good morning. >> good morning. >> tell us what you're dealing with now in your area. >> we've got several flooded areas in the county. we just did a water rescue up in the great falls area. the intersection of swings mill road and george town pike. we had to pull a woman out of her vehicle because it was up over her hood and we got her to safety. >> wow. sounds like a close call. >> it was. several areas in the area that, you know, have a lot of water in the low areas, and people just need to stay away from them, take a different route, and not take the risk of getting stranded or swept away. >> are there a lot of road closures, as a result of the flooding, to warn people not to go that those areas? >> yeah. several areas in the hunter mill area, great falls area, that, you know, that have been blocked and, you know, trying to push people way to different areas. >> what about damage this morning from trees and power lines, that sort of thing? seeing any of that? i know winds haven't been heavy. >> not too much there. sometimes water will cause damage, push away part of the road, or even part of a bridge. so people have to be careful. they've got to be very alert and aware and, again, not take unnecessary risk. >> dan schmitt with fairfax county fire and rescue. thanks so much. be safe out there. >> i busy morning on the roads for drivers and rescuers. take a look at broad branch road in northwest washington. officials tell us between 75 and 100 emergency calls. in many cases drivers got to flooded streets and cars stalled. department brought in water rescue teams before the morning's storms in anticipation of rescues. beach drive near connecticut avenue in kensington. the flooding leads to rock creek park, the warts flooded. that road has been shut down as well as other roads in montgomery county. jerry edwards now. he's got the latest on the traffic. a big mess, jerry. >> very, very difficult commute and dangerous, as we mentioned in many locations. capital beltway, virginia side, inner loop. showed you the outer loop a few moments ago. not much relief from springfield all the way up to 66 on the inner loop. along the way, of course, the high water. then the truck lost its load earlier and a couple broken down vehicles. at moment, lanes are open. typically, this is a slow stretch. things haven't improved. i-270 in germtown. that is loaded up. prince georges county had multiple problems over on the capital beltway throughout the morning. we've had accidents, broken down cars and, of course, high waters. we're still looking at delays. several stretches, as you travel between the woodrow wilson bridge and i-95 interchange in maryland. and dealing with roads, it's going to be very slick. be cautious. >> we'll take a quick break. tom will be back with the forecast. stay w i'm meteorologist tom kiernan. we continue to see the rain falling but rain fall rates have slowed down. we don't have nearly the very heavy rain we had earlier this morning. but right now we are still getting some moderate rain, where you see areas of green in montgomery county, northern fairfax, southern loudoun county, moderate rain there. there's one pocket of heavy rain, though, just right near green belt, up through laurel, just east of interstate 95 in northern prince georges county county. that is slowly tracking off to the north and east. we'll be going into northern anne arundel. breaking up into lighter showers. this is a respite. another surge of heavier rains this afternoon and this evening. as another surge of moisture comes in out of the southwest. before then we actually may break out with temperatures getting up to around 80. but it's near 70. finally drying out tomorrow into saturday. >> thank you. and stay with news4 for weather and traffic updates throughout the morning as the flood warning is in effect until 10:15. back to the "today" show in progress. good play guys. hey, mikey. mikey, come on. go get 'em, tiger. guys look good! set...hut! run it out. that's it. go! go! go! get it! 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[ male announcer ] these medicines make you choose. pepcid® complete doesn't. it's fast acting and long lasting. pepcid® complete works now and works later. this morning on back to school today, the importance of being organized. after the first school bell rings your home will be flooded with homework, books, binders and projects. teaching kids to be organized now can lead to a more successful school year ahead. wendy welsh is a psychologist, mom of two and an expert for momlogic.com. what else, wendy? >> this is a big hurdle for parents to be organized and keep kids organized. >> there are so many bits and pieces with children. when a newborn comes to the house they bring 40 pounds of laundry. when it's school it's homework, clothes, art projects. >> really important to let them start off on a good foot for the school year. >> in order for the brain to learn, we need to have an organized environment. it helps us internally organize by organizing our environment. >> i can't concentrate unless everything is clean. >> i clean my desk before i work. >> exactly. that's what kids are doing as well. let's talk about basic tools starting off first with homework time and creating an atmosphere that's going to lead them to want to sit down at the table and do that. >> our homework is down here. what we have is they come in backpacks. these are great ones from lands end and l.l. bean. they have a pile of paperwork. first i pull out the stuff for me that needs to be signed, needs a check, a permission slip. i have file folders and one is always called mom. i take out my own first. i make sure their homework goes in files in their slots. when i hear later, "where's my homework" they know where it is. it's labeled and color coded. >> how often do you clean and throw away? >> ideally, every day. believe it or not, there are day of handouts you have to get back. signing the reading list or what have you. you have to go through the backpack every day. i know every mom doesn't especially if you have three kids at different schools and all kinds of stuff, but try. >> this is a battle in a lot of homes. the wardrobe wars. that's where we are over here. >> oh, yes. i have a prima donna drama queen entering 2nd grade. she changes four, five times and has tantrums if things aren't write. sunday we take out ziploc bags, label them monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday. everything from the shoes to underwear to socks. the full outfit is there and there are no changes allowed in the morning. that's the outfit. that keeps it from -- you know how suddenly it's p.e. day on wednesday and the uniform is in the wash? this helps. we negotiate. we have time on sunday. we negotiate and work through. >> also, keeping kids organized. a lot of it has to do with you keeping your calendar organized and their schedules together. >> we are all blackberry, iphone computer people. it's wonderful to have the schedule hidden away. kids can't take responsibility for their lives or reminding us what they need unless we have a visual reminder. there are great mom calendars out there. they come with color coded stickers with each kid and their schedule. i think getting kids in the habit of working through with you and this should be on the fridge. this makes it fun and at a glance you have a visual reference for the day without logging onto the kpurnd opening the program. -- computer and opening the program. the kids can count the days to the birthday party and remind you to get a present. >> i wish my kids would. half the time i'm running to the store. >> exactly. >> to keep them motivated what are other tools or things to keep them going. >> starting with younger children it's a matter of doing more for them and slowly falling back a little bit. i like to say if you do your job well, you have worked yourself out of a job as a mother. you're trying to train them. the older ones, give them responsibility. i give rewards, not allowance. you don't get paid for it being friday. i reward itunes songs. >> good songs. >> not explicit songs. that's the one my kids like. or video game time. >> wendy walsh, thank you. good advice. up next, classic crab cakes from maine right after these messages. love activia light? 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(announcer) it's more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. we can't wait to get you home. i love you mom. i love you too. we'll see you soon. choosey moms, choose jif. to get more of the fiber you need every day, try fiberchoice. with the natural fiber found in fruits and vegetables and 33% more fiber per serving than benefiber. go to fiberchoice.com to get savings and rewards. ♪ sitting in the morning sun this morning in today's kitchen, a classic crowd pleaser -- crab cakes. mark and clark keep it simple by using fresh ingredients. they are chefs in maine. good to see you guys. you're not going to use that on me, are you? so we have fresh crab cakes. >> absolutely. you can buy the crab meat, but you can tear off the top of the crab, the knuckles and claws. clean out the gills, just like with soft shell crab. you don't want to eat that stuff. >> how many crabs do you need to make them? >> you probably need a dozen to get enough meat. >> so you clean it out, and you've got a big bowl of crab. yeah, that's what we're talking about. >> this is what you want. this is the good stuff. >> here, all done. we have been working on it for hours. >> all day. what goes into this? it's pretty simple. >> my thing, i believe -- and mark -- we love to put the fresh lemon juice right on here. using really fresh crab it brightens it up really nice. add that and we have bread crumbs that have been sauteed and not browned, as you can see. >> what do you saute them in? >> whole butter. >> you want to be careful buzz you don't want the crab to break up. >> a little bit. it won't hurt. you don't have to be super careful, but don't beat it into submission either. then a little bit of sour cream. well, a lot. >> okay. >> that's on the don't eat list, so we won't talk about it too much. a little bit of flour. you can always add more to make them form appropriately. but this is pretty good. >> do you throw in any salt or pepper? >> yeah. why don't you add a little bit of that? >> you can always use the nice kosher salt, sea salt. and a little bit of freshly ground pepper. i think these are going to form up. there we go. a little bit more flour. >> the flour is the binder? gets you the right consistency. >> you can put it all in, but less is more. >> definitely. >> i noticed you coat them before -- in a little flour? >> just a little bit of flour. >> there we go. takes a few minutes and these are beautiful. >> there we go. these are almost ready. >> thanks. >> now, we're going to make a nice tartar sauce? >> exactly. a remoulade which is perfect with crab cakes. >> that sounds better than tartar sauce. >> absolutely. you can make your own mayonnaise or buy an organic with olive oil and nice things in it. essentially you're adding shallots and chopped pickles, mustard. we add different things, a thai sricha chili paste. this is so easy especially if you buy the mayonnaise. it makes it even easier. we have a little bit of vinegar for a kick. we like a little kick in the crab cake. >> how's the crab season in maine? >> it's been really good this year. it's been a good season all around. lots of crabby tourists and nice tourists. just lots of them. it's been a great year. >> the weather has helped out this year. >> last year was a horrible -- >> hideous. we were all ready to shoot ourselves. it was the worst ever. it rained for 30 days in june. it was cloudy in july. everybody was afraid they lost all their money. that looks really good. i will stick my finger in and taste it. clark has crab cakes just about ready there. >> oh, man. this is pretty darn tasty. >> isn't it good? >> it is. >> you can use maine peketoe crab. >> that's fun to say. >> it really is. if you have the patient to pick them. they really are a pain. they're not that cute. they're cute to look at. >> so you put a little bit of the -- >> put the remoulade right on. >> or a lot of it. >> just dip it. >> pick them up and eat them. >> i didn't know it was finger food. >> it is now. >> oh, man. >> lots of crab meat. not much stuff to interfere. just enough to hold it in here. >> natalie will be here in a minute. >> does she like crab cakes? >> she does. we'll be right back, but first this is "today" on nbc. ♪ natalie's still on the cowbell. look who stopped by. >> we came to visit and have crab. >> i need this. >> yes. >> we are going to be talking about a lot of things. there are so many more teenagers, young girls getting botox. >> really? >> yeah. >> and girls as young as 8 getting bikini waxes. our facebook lit up like crazy. >> it's disturbing on many levels. >> botox, many of them are trying to beat the wrinkles or change the shape of their faces. >> what does an 8-year-old -- >> that's -- >> geez. >> also more coming up. >> we'll talk about that. >> and a movie called "lottery ticket." what would you do if you won $300 million? how would your life change? >> bye-bye! moving on. >> and much, much more of course. >> we'll see you in a little bit. >> who knew? >> and who knew? >> after your local news. duct system as the lungs of the house. expulsion of air. dust and dirt that helping the house to breathe. say i'm a doctor. not a doctor either. suction. ♪ call 1-800-steemer 9:56 is your time. 68 degrees. tough commute this morning. looking at a live picture of 495 at old dominion drive in northern virginia. and the heavy rains have caused a lot of traffic problems throughout our area. jerry will have the latest in just a moment. good morning, i'm eun yang. wednesday august 18, 2010. river road just south of wilson lane in bethesda, maryland. you can see here, cars are slowly getting by in one lane to the right side because there's a huge puddle on the road on to the left side, as you can see. that high standing water is creating backup on river road there, as you can see. this is the situation throughout the area. high water and flash flooding, causing roads to be closed and then the backups are creating backups on the side roads as well jerry edwards has more on commute. >> good morning. a lot of the problems this morning on the secondary roadways but we had our fair share of issues on the interstates including here at the capital beltway in virginia. both inner loop and outer loop, as you can see, crawling from the 270 spur, most of the way down to springfield in both directions. last report, all lanes were reopened for earlier issues. again, weather's been a major, major factor. let's head on over, take a live look. just coming into us now, 17th street, u street northwest, you can see the fire department on the scene, checking reports of smoke coming from a manhole over there. be aware you might be detoured. along the i-270 corridor, southbound at this hour, still well below the speed limit most of the way from clarksburg off and on down toward the beltway. appears more than a few folks postponed their trip to avoid the height of the rush hour which may not have been a bad idea. if you're getting ready to he head on out, be aware. secondary roads closed off and scattered power outages do remain. >> thank you. and to give you another look at what it's like outside, this is a scene on beach drive near connecticut avenue in kensington. high water as well. and that section of the road has been closed this morning because of the flooding. cars not allowed in there. that's leading into rock creek park and that's swollen. fire and rescue crews from montgomery and fairfax busy responding to emergency calls a lot of vehicles are hitting the high-standing water and having their cars stall out or getting stranded and in great falls, fairfax county tells us they had to rescue a car, a person from a car, and water had come up to the hood of the car. so dangerous out there, be careful. broad branch road in northwest washington. d.c. fire officials tell us they've had between 75 and 100 emergency calls this morning. and many cases drivers got to flooded streets and cars stalled, as i just mentioned. the department brought in water rescue teams before this morning's storms in anticipation of the rescues, and they have been busy this morning. we're going to take a quick break. actually, let's go right to tom kiernan to get more on the forecast. >> good morning, eun. over last five or six hours we've had waves of heavy rain coming through, but thankfully now the rain is beginning to taper off. we just have scattered heavy downpours no not the widespread ones we had earlier. right now we have still light to moderate rain in northern fairfax county around great falls where there was a big water rescue earlier right along georgetown pike and elsewhere into montgomery county now. thankfully where they had another wave of heavy rain the last hour, that has tapered off to light to moderate rain. areas of green where it's raining moderately from poolsville to potomac and near rockville and across 270 at gaithersburg, lleytonville. another area of moderate to heavy rain falling in northern anne arundel county. that's in going to be crossing the bay over the next hour or so. there's another very heavy downpour around huntingtown in calvert county. that's unloading a lot of rain. may be even a bit of thunder associated with that. and this is all continuing out of the southwest heading northeast. we may see another surge coming in out of the southwest later on this afternoon and into the evening. so we're not done with this yet. we could get more floodings in. drying out thursday into saturday. >> thanks so much. stay with news4 throughout the day as the region is getting hit hard again with wicked weather. live team coverage on news4 midday at 11:00. back to the "today" show, already in progress, after the short break. kids before 12 are getting botox so that they will never even have wrinkles in their life. it's so self-absorb and narcissistic. we should be out playing with paper dolls, you know what i'm saying? r responses. valerie in oregon says i was actually thinking about waxing my 9-year-old's underarms, so she wouldn't have to shave. am i just crazy? >> yes, you are. >> if there's nothing there, don't do it. don't make her even be thinking this way, yet. >> look, there are certain things that make us all self-conscious. if it's bad, you got to do something. >> why not shave it like we've done for years and years. >> a thing they do in egypt, which is kind of a cool thing, they want to get rid of all the hair on your arms, okay? the way they do it is they take sugar, water and lemon, cook it on the stove. cook it slowly, it turns into a gummy substance. they actually sell it. and they put it on your arms and they just rip it. >> just like waxing. >> and they sell it like crazy. >> does it smell good? >> they believe in like get rid of it all. just all of it. >> all of it. >> and how egyptian are you? >> i'm just about 100%. >> so kate says, delicate subject, because they're too young emotionally, but their bodies are telling them a different story. >> that's the key to the whole thing. if we are indeed maturing at a faster rate and kids are entering puberty earlier and earlier, i feel sorry for them. the deal is, kids don't deserve grown-up problems, they're already dealing with so much sexuality coming up in the media messages, they're bombarded and they haven't even had a chance for a childhood yet. people who don't have successful childhoods, go on to have really bad adulthoods, they're trying to fix everything that didn't happen properly in their developmental years. >> as a kid, the kids who are getting botox at this early age. i mean these are young girls in their teens, who are choosing to get injected because they want to either beat the wrinkles before they come. or they want to change the shape of their face in a way apparently -- >> that's -- they say it relaxes a part of your face. i think the idea, parents are possibly paying for this, i would imagine. and i do think that if you, if your child's self-esteem is what needs fixing, that's not the doctor you ought to be seeing. you should go to see a shrink or a community service person, or someone in your church. someone other than the doctor. because there's going to be something tomorrow. >> there's going to be something else they're not happy with and it's not just children, hoda. who need help. >> what have you been talking about? >> we've been following this story for quite a while. >> which one? >> here goes. >> and now, a moment with mel. >> he lost control of the 2008 maserati, going about, i don't know, pretty fast at 8 p.m. in a malibu canyon road. >> he crashed the car. they said didn't have any alcohol in his system. >> no drugs. >> that was a moment with mel. >> that dentally was -- >> and that was a moment with mel. >> we like it. we like it. >> we just don't have all the kinks worked out. we're going to work on that. >> this is under -- >> this is a story that was one of those, this morning when you saw it on tv, you couldn't believe it happened. there was a flight attendant who was on a southwest airlines flight and there was a baby who was flying. >> why is it always southwest? >> i love southwest. >> apparently a woman with her open hand slapped her 1-year-old daughter in the face. and on the plane. >> she said she pumped her. >> that was her quote afterwards. but she hit her in the face. the flight attendant saw and volunteered to take the baby for the duration of the flight and keep her away from the mother. >> she didn't take three beers and go down the chute? >> she did not. >> interesting. >> they looked on the child's face and the child had a black eye. so the flight attendant and the crew on board was concerned enough to call police so when the flight landed, the police were waiting. and they asked the woman, did you hit your child. and her answer was, yes, i popped her after she kicked us. >> she's one. by the way. i popped her when she kicked me and she explained the black eye was a bite from a dog. and the people, the police allowed that family to board another plane, and proceed on their way. >> the flight attendant handled it beautifully. but you wonder what the woman, if she's willing to smack a child, in front of so many witnesses -- it really causes concern about what she does perhaps when nobody is around. so i think they were right to check it out. >> i think it's a weird thing. let's say you're in a store and you see someone smack their child. >> i always get very upset about it. >> do you do something? or do you not. do you step in and say, what are you doing? >> you know what i usually say, can i help you? do you need some help with your child? >> they're usually so surprised and they're sort of caught that they're not handling it well. and no, no, i'm fine. it just reminds people that you're in a public place. >> i think it's always better to say something than not. >> you're the one who doesn't say anything to anybody. >> but when you see a kid getting hit, well, beaten. but i think the tendency is to just say, i think people explain things away. >> people don't get involved, but when it's a child, should. >> hi, sarah, what's going on, darling? >> the waxing is coming back up. but we're talking about the flight attendant right now. and lindsay would agree with you, she said, if i were a flight attendant, i would do the same thing. even if it were a misunderstanding, i would rather have someone looking out for my kid. and suzanne said the baby kicked the mother, where do you suppose she learned it? >> if she's one, kids kick. >> but if they hit at one -- >> this is a day after the tragic story in south carolina, the woman who suffocated her two chid and there's an incredible organization called child help. child help. 1-800-4 a child. call them before you hit. >> coming up, we are rapping with none other than ice cube. he's in a big movie called "lottery ticket." what would you do if you won $300 million? he's going to tell us, right after this. 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[ female announcer ] kellogg's® wants to make kids happy one tummy at a time. because 9 out of 10 kids don't get the fiber they need, that's why froot loops® and apple jacks® have 3 grams of fiber in every yummy bowl. they're the cereals your kids love and the fiber their tummies love... which makes for a whole lotta happy. froot loops® and apple jacks, an oh-so-good source of fiber. kellogg's® makes fiber fun. ice cube helped define gangsta rap. and now the guy has collected a long list of credits and a film called "lottery ticket." a film about what happens when one neighborhood guy wins $350 million and tries to keep it a secret. >> and he is here with us. and it takes place over the fourth of july weekend, right? >> yes. >> so we have three days it has to keep it a secret from his family. >> the time before he can really cash the money in. so everybody knows he's rich, but he's not actually rich. >> how do they find out if he's trying to keep it a secret? >> you know, it's the neighborhood. you know what i mean? once one person knows, everybody knows in about 20 minutes. >> you're not the lottery winner, you're just sort of the guy who's the wide old sage. >> i'm the old dude that, you know, has seen everything going on in the neighborhood. and wants to change. and he pulls bow wow aside and tells him what he should do with the money. >> how did they make you look a little older? >> they kind of grays you up a little bit. >> they had to do a whole lot of work to make me look that bad. >> i don't think you look that bad. >> how is it working with bow wow, he used to be little bow wow and now he grew up. >> he did. >> i did a movie called "all about the benjamins." and he did a little role in it. and to see him now take the lead in star-studded cast. >> he carries it. >> yes. he does. >> what's the lesson in this movie? >> the lesson is, you know, remember who was there before you were successful, you know? that's basically the lesson. it's not about all the new friends that come along when you get something. it's about the people that was there before you had something. >> in the beginning. you're still keeping up with your music, aren't you? >> yes. >> hard core gangsta rap, isn't it? >> yes. >> you're not a gangster? >> of course i am. i'm a businessman. >> married with kids. >> you're a family guy in the superbs now. >> come on now, you know. >> and you, you on your own kind of lottery, buddy, didn't you? >> yeah. >> how has it changed you? >> it's gotten me to think about more than myself, you know. i got to think about my family, i got to think about their future. and you know, it just puts everything in perspective for me. >> when is your next cd coming out? >> september 28, called "i am the west." it's a good record. >> how is it different from the other records you put out? >> what's different is -- it's just, it's just progression and you know, when you've been doing it as long as i have, you're always looking for new topics, new things to talk about. >> give us an example, what would be a new topic? >> i got a song called "'hood robbing." you know the story of robin hood. rob from the rich and give to the poor. now "'hood robbing" now it's like everybody robbing from the poor and giving to the rich. everybody losing their house. >> relevant to the times. >> thank you and good luck with the movie. >> no problem. i hope every go see "lottery ticket" this friday. >> it opens this week. >> yes. >> we're not going it say no to the gangsta, now everybody you'll want to make for college, easy. she's got those gloves on again. >> we'll be back with julie in a minute. 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'cause every time you get a happy meal or a mighty kids meal some of the money goes to ronald mcdonald house charities. to help lots of kids and families. hope's good! happy meals. the simple joy of helping. ♪ one woman who never stops, she is the accidental housewife. julie adelman, and she's here with everything your college student is going to need to make paving the way as comfortable. >> cozy and clean. >> i am accidental, so this will be clean enough. >> it's the way you roll. >> it's the way i roll. which brings us to laundry. which, as you know, kids at home throw it all over the place. >> and they do it all at once. >> which is very cute. we've got great little graphic designs on them. but the trick here is, the fact that unless you give them underwear for three weeks or four weeks, which is a good idea, it's going to get smelly, smelly. so if you put a little bit of arm and hammer baking soda right in with their laundry to get rid of the yucky smell. >> really? >> yes. and they can dump the whole thing in the washer and it's okay. now these are terrific, too. you know how at the end of the year, you put up hooks in the college room dorms and you're paying extras for all the damage. these are command hooks, they're adhesive, they go on, within a few hours, they dry, they stick up to 75 pounds they can hang. and they don't damage the wall, you can use them again, just get new adhesive. the shower, we know that won't be cleaned, if ever. >> so many diseases. >> they do, so cloths are cool and now they make shower sandals, adidas, nike, they're not expensive and the water goes over the top, so they don't absorb and they are very fast-drying. >> wear those in the shower? >> yes. >> in the shower. so you wear them in. they walk back to the room. you know how you usually just chuck the flip flops in the corner, mold begins to take up residence, this will help. >> i didn't know they were just for the shower. >> they're called shower sandals. and your little caddy. again you want one that's event la ventilated. >> and that one? >> if you're lucky enough to have your own shower, this is a suction one or you can put it on your head and carry it there. >> i've seen that. >> the beds. >> we don't know who our kids are sleeping with. don't get worried, don't get worried about cody. i'm talking about dust mites and things like that. these are called allergy-blocking sheets and casements, you put them all over the mattress, if they're lucky enough to have box spring, you put them over that. these beds have been used over and over and they also make a pillow that you just chuck that pillow, it's an allergy-blocking pillow. you chuck that right into the washing machine and wash the whole pillow. which is probably easier than the case. >> what are you getting rid of? >> the dust mites. >> microallergens, it's called some kind of technology that the pores are this small, the dust mitings and their doo-doo. >> now -- storage space is a real problem. these things are terrific. these are just, you know, risers, you get them five inches, and it will riser it up. so -- >> you can put more under there. >> more storage space, or if you make a surprise visit to cody and that's girl, he can throw her under here. >> hoda and i -- >> coda? >> i'm good. coda goes to college. anyway -- >> these are terrific. these are for storage. these are on wheels which is great so they can slide them in and out. if you want something a little bit more decorative, these are great by jacqueline smith, they zip up and you can put cedar blocks in. also so if there's moths hanging around, they won't bring them home. >> are these risers sturdy? >> yes, they are. >> there you go. >> now these are not -- yes, it feels, they prkt our manicures, these are great in college they're spending half of their lives over the computer, eating, drinking, press that bill baby down, it's called cyberclean. press it down, it will lift all the stuff in the nooks and crannies. and it's idiot-proof and i'm not talking about us. >> what is up with julie today? >> calling you an idiot? >> calling you an idiot. >> i said us. >> this will turn from yellow to a darker color. >> microwave. it's easy, idiot proof for us, all the things they need, popcorn, pizza. >> thank you very much, julie. >> we'll be back. more basketballs. soccer balls. and a museum! [ growls ] more basketballs. soccer balls! more books. yeah. like just a ton of books. [ girl ] and books about soft things. soft and slimy. [ female announcer ] now clip double box tops for education. from totino's pizza rolls and party pizzas. and make their school a better place. from totino's pizza rolls and party pizzas. guys remember, we're a solar system. mars is down...and... um, it's only 10am. who hasn't had their jimmy dean breakfast this morning? mmmm! now lets orbit i feel awesome. you're all awesome. jimmy dean breakfast sandwiches, fight the morning fade. flooded roads, stranded mod mortists and long commutes. a large part of our viewing area, the rain could be a problem. good morning, everyone, i'm barbara harrison. also coming up, a new, independent poll of the mayor's race in the district. the results and what it could duct system as the lungs of the house. expulsion of air. dust and dirt that helping the house to breathe. say i'm a doctor. not a doctor either. suction. ♪ call 1-800-steemer ♪ we're back on this winesday with some "who knew" trivia and today it's all about very familiar voices on commercials that you kind of know that but you just can't place. kathie lee is across the street at the msnbc.com cafe and it's good to see you. they'll see commercials and try to guess whose voice is on it. those with the right answer get $100 and those with the wrong answer get a kathie lee music cd. >> how do you think people are going to do? >> i think they're pretty smart, i think they'll get it. >> let's see if you're right, let's go across the street to kathie. >> first up, you're from wisconsin. let's watch this visa commercial for the winter olympics. >> a mighty flame will soon ignite bringing people everywhere together. to celebrate the power and the grace. >> oh, give it away. >> morgan freeman. [ eers and applause ] >> that voice is so distinctive. >> he's so human and he is god, after all. he played it in a movie. >> what visa did in the commercials is they wrote scripts for every possible contingency. and whoever won, they pulled it out and it seemed like morgan freeman was really there. >> that's genius. back across to kathie. >> a group of people from vermont. next, a commercial for mercedes benz, okay? >> what drives us to create a hydrogen electric car and to build a vehicle that earned the world green car award. and engineer blue tech, the world's cleanest diesel technology. >> this one is kind of tough. who do you think it is in. >> i think we're getting the cd. >> lucky you. >> who do you think it is? >> i have no idea. >> just take a mad guess. >> i got nothing. >> morgan freeman? >> no, not morgan freeman. >> john hamm. >> john hamm, from "mad men" who is completely sexy. >> john hamm, who plays an advertising executive, is doing that commercial, but he is using the same seductive voice that he sells his clients with. i'm mad that he does drive a cadillac. >> does he? >> yeah. >> okay. back across to kathie. >> lovely ladies visiting from south africa. let's see if you get this. we have a clip from a commercial for pizza hut. do you like pizza? >> yes. >> pizza hut's new buffalo chicken pizza. all white meat marinated in a zesty buffalo sauce. >> whoopi goldberg? >> no. >> and the voice on the commercial is the singer and actress who performed in "chicago" and "hairspray" and her name is queen latifah. >> she livens up everything. she's known for animated characters. and even if you don't get who she is, there's something special about her voice that just makes you happy. >> i like hearing her. >> where are you from, odessa, texas. >> let's watch a clip from our next commercial from budweiser, okay? >> these days, it's out with the old, in with the new. true, it didn't have a water dispenser or an ice-maker. but it does have is plenty of room for what's really important. >> got any ideas, i can give you a hint. want a hint? >> he played roles ranging from batman to bank robber. >> i see his face, but i don't know his name. >> glover? >> ladies,is an hour show. >> i don't know. >> you're going to love my record. >> the answer is the sexiest man alive most years, george clooney. >> george clooney. even if you don't get that it's george clooney, there's something special and majestic in his voice, so that you know the commercial is more important and it will give you a kick to figure it out and you'll go, wow, when you realize it. >> do people buy more things because they love the person behind the voice in. >> the jury is out on were they even know. but it does bring some -- >> the thing is, it brings acting rather than announcing and that's where advertising is going now. >> back across to kathie. >> a lovely couple from oregon. listen to this lovely voice. >> nine out of ten of the largest european telecom carriers and three out of five of the largest u.s. cable providers, what are these companies building in their business? >> i love the way he says "business." who is that? >> sean connery? >> yes, it is. >> yes, indeed. one of the most recognizable voices, isn't it? >> absolutely. he bring as level three to it and he's the international man of mystery. what he's selling is mysterious, it is all working. >> a couple of homegrowns, guys from new york. let's check out this commercial for pure water. all right, guys? >> hey, it's me, water. so you want me to be super-amazing right from the faucet. but you think home filters could be a pain in the bubkus. >> you might know him from the show "scrubs" or not. >> zach bratt. >> he's the new kind of announcer, you sort of thing you know him from television, he's not an old-school announcer, he brings a lot of humor and personality to what he's saying. >> they get a lot more than the bread and butter announcers, it can go up to millions for a big name. >> you're kidding? i guess that's all the time we've got. kathie lee is going to come back. thank you so much for being with us today. >> up next -- just because they're small, that doesn't mean that their bark is bigger than their bite. we're talking about our animal kingdom babies. to delight bailey's senses.and e don't i? [ barks ] because i think food speaks a language of love. that's what inspired me to rethink dry dog food. [ female announcer ] chef michael's canine creations. [ chef michael ] mmm. tender shredded pieces made with real meat... and crunchy garnishes to enhance the mealtime experience. yes, bailey-- just for you. 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[woof woof] v8. what's your number? takes care of 33 loads. tide stain release only handles 11. and clorox 2 gets rid of tough stains right before your eyes. clorox 2. find it next to the clorox bleach. that's why i got them pillsbury toaster strudel. warm flaky pastry with delicious sweet filling my kids will love. plus i get two boxtops for their school. toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. ♪ you know, it's time for, today's "call of the wild." that means one thing, kathie lee son this side. >> they're the little babies with us today. here with some of the cutest of the animal kingdom is dave from the national wildlife federation. you brought some cuties even hoda will like. >> the national wildlife federation just launched a partnership with johnson naturals, which is all about getting kids and families connected with nature. i thought in celebration of that, i would bring all wildlife babies. this little guy here is a common marmoset. you don't want to touch, it is a wild animal and he has teeth even though he's a little baby. he's only about three months old. >> we don't need to see you, we just need to see him. this guy is adorable. and what he's doing right now is clinging to me like he would to his mom. and they live in family groups, just like our kids rely on our families, our parents to take care of them. this little guy lives in a social group and his parents will look out for him. >> where are his parents? >> i'm stepping in for them. he lives in a social group. how cute is he, right? >> how big is he going to get? >> only about twice the size of this. they're very small monkey, they live in south america and they eat tree sap and insects and fruit. >> let's go on to our next little guy, we're going to step over here, come on over. >> this is an african leopard. we got her on a leash, too, because she's a little rambunctious and i have a toy here. these guys are beautiful, wild cats. >> are they on endangered species shall. >> yes, because of their beautiful coats, loss of habitat. >> she's not liking her little leash here. >> these guys, she's going to grow up to be one of the stealthiest killers. unleak cheetahs that chase down their prey or lions that hunt in packs, these guys hang out in trees, they stalk that i prey silently when full-grown, she might only be 100 pounds, but can take animals twice their size, drag them up into trees. >> she can drag it all the way up a tree? >> you can see what she's doing with a toy here, is simulating what she would do with prey. >> even when kids, when they go out and play, it prepares them for real life. >> right now could she go after prey? >> there we go. >> she's a little bit too young. so -- there we go. that's what we were trying to get her to do. >> so, our next animal, i'm going to have jamie hang on to. because she's a little skittish. this is a cookaburra. >> can you guys roll your "r"s? >>. [ r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r ] [ bird jungle sounds ] >> you guys are lucky, this is a juvenile bird, just starting to make the call. these cookaburras live in australia and they have this laughing call. you guys just heard it. i'm impressed, these guys are predatory birds, what's neat, if you live in australia, you know how you could put up a birdhouse and get a chickadee to live in it. if you live in australia and put up a big-enough nesting box, this could be a bird that lives in your back yard. >> this is wild. >> let's try to get through the next couple of animals here. >> this is an adorable little -- let's step over here to the table. to see if he'll move around. these guys are not super-big. but this animal is going to be about four times the size. they live in south america and they don't have tons of eggs. they only lay about ten eggs. because of that -- >> during the course of their lifetime? >> no, at a time. because of that, animals that don't reproduce quickly -- >> they disappear. >> right. >> these guys -- >> this is a different kind -- >> we remember your -- >> it took a while to get the smell out of the studio. >> this little guy is covered in quills here. to protect him from lions and leopards. i got poked, these things can actually do some damage. she'll get to be about four times the size as well. they get to be pretty big. the second-largest rodent in the world. >> thank you, dave. thank you for all that information. >> up next, drop the tissues, we'll tell you how to get over a bad break-up and get on with your life. ♪ special k protein shakes -- ♪ a truly great-tasting breakfast shake. with 10 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber, it's the creamy, delicious way to satisfy... your hunger to help you lose weight. ♪ so you can kick the tin can habit. try special k protein shakes today. 100% natural nuts and granola in bite sized clusters. it's a little bit of nature... a little bit better. and nature approves. granola nut clusters from nature valley. introducing venus embrace disposables, the only one with five blades surrounded by a ribbon of moisture. it's our closest shave for your closest moments. venus embrace. reveal the goddess in yo it's called hope. hope? 'cause every time you get a happy meal or a mighty kids meal some of the money goes to ronald mcdonald house charities. happy meals. the simple joy of helping. ♪ more beautiful than he would have ever sent. and i wrote a little empowering note on it that said, girl, don't even turn a another tear. i thought turned into a huge movement with you. >> and that's why. i had a simple gesture. of taking action and every day that i saw it, it gave me a boost. and i started thinking about all the different ways i could encourage women, all the different things we could do to inspire each other. >> friends do it for you. >> sometimes you just don't know what to say to somebody. >> or how involved you should get. >> we have everything from emails, which are little action stuff you can take each day. text messages. >> tell us the website so people know where to go. >> pinkkisses.com. >> we went to the plaza and found some people with break-up stories and jeff, you're going to weigh in and help us out here. >> i'm the wing man. >> let's go to the first one. i was dating this guy for a year and a half. and we were really in love. and then we broke up. we needed a break. so he just started trash-talking me on facebook and like over text message. and then three weeks after we broke up, he got a new girlfriend, which he lied to me about. and i found out about over facebook. >> jeff, why don't you grab that one. >> did she waste a year and a half with that guy? >> yes, she wasted a good year and a half, but she also, i hope learned from it. and this is what we're talking about, taking the power to be in control of her life. she didn't know this guy was going to do this stuff. that was a gift he gave her, by letting her know finally what was going on. but this had been building up for quite sometime. and even playing her for the fool. but now she's free. what is she going to do about it? >> say hoda has a bad situation. which you know -- she may. so say i send hoda -- what are the three you can get? feisty -- >> classy or sassy. pick your attitude. >> she's classy. what kind of gift would you send her? >> why am i involved in this conversation? >> you could do it about me. >> you could get text messages that say, girl, you're beautiful. you deserve better. >> and when your heart's broken and you get a random message, it's just like ooh, sometimes you feel in the weeds and you can't get out. >> it's surprising what these little messages can do to kind of boost you. and we have our better-than-sex truffles you can send. we have flowers. >> and we also have life-coaching, which is for more getting to set a new goal and action steps to get there. >> let's get to another one of our people that need your help. >> her boyfriend broke up with her out of the blue from her perspective. she was very shocked by it. and didn't have any idea it was coming. so anything i can do to help her move forward, i'd love to do. do you have any advice for me? >> yeah, absolutely. be a friend, but be a friend who tells her what it is that she needs to know. and not what she wants to hear. from her perspective, it was out of the blue. i bet you everyone around her knew there was something up with this guy. there was signals, red flags that were going on. and be honest with her. though it may hurt her. that's what i like what you're doing. when you send those empowering little emails, if she can own those, and begin to incorporate those, then it really gives it a power and empowers her to be able to do better next time. stop being the victim. >> and i think it's amazing what friends can do for you. just by being there. just a phone call every once in a while. or going over to watch a movie. >> we're glad you're into the happy endings. >> i bet he misses you. >> i bet he does. >> he's a jerk. >> i pity the fool. >> we'll be back with more of "today" on nbc. erin from san luis obispo. there's a woman in full-body leopard print, we should be showing the picture -- there we go. >> no, that's dave masejewski's mom. >> come back tomorrow. trey is going to perform. >> come back tomorrow. trey is going to perform. bye-bye. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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