and good morning. welcome to today on a friday morning. i m matt lauer. and i m meredith vieira. this is the fourth straight day storms have pounded floiowa. ames has been hard hit, flooding so severe there the city has been forced to shut down its water supply to about 56,000 people. we ll have a live report from the scene straight ahead. also ahead an nbc news exclusive. general david petraeus spoke with nbc s david gregory overnight. his first interview since taking command of u.s. and nato forces in afghanistan. he is onboard with president obama s july 2011 date to begin pulling traps out of the region or is he not? we ll get a live report from kabul just ahead. also ahead, lindsay lohan is only 24 years old. she s had more than her share of trouble with the law and addiction. right now she s in rehab for the fourth time. this time it s been ordered by the court after she served a couple of weeks in jail. how did her once promising young life seem to unravel? w
the cover of maxim magazine and in a controversial new movie. we ll talk to dina lohan about that and some other things in just a couple of minutes. you have young kids and i do, too, three kids under the age of 16, buy plane tickets, bypass security without showing i.d., hop on a flight from florida to tennessee all without their parents having any clue. it doesn t seem like it should happen. it really doesn t. so did the airline do anything wrong by letting them fly? we ll take a look at that. and then later if you want to take advantage of some historically rock bottom mortgage rates, we re going to show you some open houses from texas to michigan, from north carolina starting in the $200,000 range. we have a lot to get to. let s go inside. ann is a little bit off today, taking time off. a little bit off? natalie is over at the news desk. i m a little bit off today, also, natalie. i know you said it was mon y monday. good morning to you, matt and al. more