good morning. good morning. palin's power. sarah palin's favorite candidate in the alaska senate primary possibly on the verge of pulling off a dramatic upset, as her former running mate, john mccain, keeps his political career alive, holding off a strong challenger. i've been through hell. tiger's ex-wife, elin nordegren, speaks out for the first time about what happened the night her husband crashed his car. why their marriage couldn't be saved, and where she and the kids will end up now that the divorce is final. and horsing around. one race, two horses with very unusual names. and a memorable call. >> into the final furlong, my wife knows everything, the wife doesn't know, they're one-two.

of course they are. my wife knows everything in front. outside the wife doesn't know. my wife knows everything. the wife doesn't know. >> so who won? well, if you're married, i bet you already know the answer today. wednesday, august 25th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television i love that horse race. we'll tell you more about that later. welcome to "today" on a wednesday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> and i'm ann curry in for meredith this morning. good morning, everybody. moving on to another topic, this looks like a major upset brewing in alaska this morning in the republican senatal primary. >> tea party candidate joe miller, a lawyer who has drawn the support of former governor sarah palin is leading lisa murkowski. the polls had shown her with a pretty big lead just a few weeks

ago but now it is still too close to call. we'll have more on that and other key races across the country coming up in a couple of minutes. some more tough times wall street because the dow dipped below 10,000 on tuesday. so the big question is are we headed for a double-dip recession or even possibly worse. jim cramer will be joining us and of course he has thoughts about that. a developing story from the world of entertainment overnight. lindsay lohan released from rehab after only three weeks even though a judge originally ordered that rehab should last three months. we'll find out why she's getting out early and what's next for her as well. and romance is in the air, matt, because you know you've met the four couples hoping to tie the knot right here on the plaza, letting you plan all the details. you have now voted and we have a winner so we're going to reveal the winning couple in just a few moments this morning. >> all right. but let us begin on a wednesday morning with the dramatic primaries across the country. nbc's kelly o'donnell following all the overnight action for us.

kelly, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt. we expected to talk about john mccain's big victory here in arizona after a bruising primary, and he delivered. what we didn't know about was the potential upset in alaska, where a sarah palin pick, a tea party conservative, gulf war veteran that very few people had heard of is actually leading senator lisa murkowski, a two-term republican incumbent. >> what do you think this vote -- >> reporter: boosted by sarah palin in their home state, republican senate challenger joe miller. >> what i think they're saying is that, look, alaska and this nation have got to take a new direction. >> reporter: miller is a former judge and tea party conservative who took on alaska and washington establishment in senator lisa murkowski. palin had defeated murkowski's father before and recorded robo calls for miller. >> he's got the backbone to confront obama's radical agenda. by contrast lisa murkowski has voted with the democrats more

than any republican up for re-election this year. >> reporter: trading in the label vulnerable incumbent for victorious republican nominee. john mccain beat back the tea party threat of former congressman j.d. hayworth. mccain tempered his success with a pledge to prove he's heard voters' anger at washington. >> i will do my best to prove worthy of the honor. i have never and will never take your support for granted or feel i am entitled to your trust without earning it. >> reporter: a disappointed hayworth had hammered mccain on immigration and pushed the senator to move hard right, also an arizona political nauf it is, ben quayle, won his first race for congress. his father, the former vice president dan quayle, vented anger monday over rival businessman steve moaks' devastating ad. ben quayle admitted he had written for a website about

local night life but called it fictional satire. >> is this the type of behavior we want from our next congressman? >> reporter: dan quayle wrote to supporters, i have never in my 35 years of politics seen such an ugly, slanderous assault in the closing days of a campaign against a fellow republican. in florida, a democratic political family is celebrating. miami congressman kendrick meek won big, taking the democratic senate primary. son of a popular former congresswoman, meek defeated billionaire jeff greene. >> i am here, i'm prepared to work for every vote in the state of florida, need it be democrat, republican or independent. >> reporter: come november it's a three-way race. he faces charlie crist and tea party republican marco rubio who won the gop nomination. >> i am running for the u.s. senate because i think washington is wrong. >> reporter: so those senate candidates in florida are all currently public office holders,

the establishment. in the race for governor, the republican nomination goes to a wealthy outsider, rick scott, who poured millions of his own money into his campaign to devote the state's attorney general, bill mccullum. so it will be scott versus sal -- alex sink in november. it is venting the voters' anger. that worked well for some incumbents, a couple of outsiders and in alaska it may take some time. we may not know the outcome for another week with lisa murkowski behind right now and joe miller on the national stage. >> kelly, as always, thanks very much. nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd is also our political director. chuck, good morning to you. >> reporter: well, good morning or good evening, as they might say this alaska. >> exactly right. let's start there. that's where the drama is this morning in the race between joe miller and lisa murkowski. it's too close to call. about four percentage points separating them right now. how long is this going to go? >> reporter: look, this could go a week.

it took more than a week when about 3,000 votes divided the u.s. senate race that ted stevens, the late senator, ended up losing. he had about a 3,000-vote lead at about this time the day after the election. then all of the vote came in from the most rural and remote parts of the state. perhaps murkowski had the resources to contact those folks and miller didn't. but there's a bigger thing going on here and that is contrast lisa murkowski and how she ran versus john mccain and how he ran. they both have similar resumes. i've gotten a lot done in washington, this or that. john mccain didn't bother to tell people about his biography, he made his opponent completely unqualified. lisa murkowski talked about what she had done and instead the voters went with somebody else. >> you talk about john mccain. just what was it, a few months ago we were saying that he was in dire trouble, that he really had a problem on his hands. he managed to turn things around. of course he did the support of his former running mate, sarah

palin. did she factor at all into this? >> reporter: did she factor? probably not so much. she would have been a bigger factor had she gone against mccain in that respect. but what really happened with mccain is that he is going to be the model, the playbook, if you will, for any incumbent running in november. that is he went negative early all the time, basically peeled the paint off. i was talking to one operative yesterday who said any democratic incumbent that doesn't examine what john mccain did this last three months, which is, you know, again, he didn't talk about his own record. he sat there and said this isn't about himself. he made j.d. hayworth completely unqualified and that is what's going to happen this fall, matt. this is going to be the most negative fall campaign we have seen all around the country because it's the only way incumbents are going to survive. >> down in florida i think kelly did a really good job of setting up what happens after kendrick meex' victory there. it's a three-way race in the fall. if you're charlie crist and you're weeking up this morning, are you trying to figure out how to hold on to what you thought

were a bunch of democratic voters who were leaning in your direction? >> reporter: that is what the crist campaign is doing. they are rolling out the endorsement first thing this morning of many of the local teamsters. so they're trying to roll out union endorsements. they're hoping to get a bunch of jewish democrats in the southern part of the state. they think that maybe they can get joe lieberman and michael bloomberg to come down from connecticut and new york to campaign with crist. so for crist the game is all about finding slices of the democratic electorate. he's going to need them if he finds the 38% that he's got to put together but this for crist is all about taking democratic votes away from kendrick meek. >> a long night for you. chuck, thanks for getting up early, we appreciate it. it's nine minutes after the hour. here's ann. the economy will be front and center in the november midterm elections and right now the news is not good. some dismal housing numbers came in showing sales of existing

homes dropped to their lowest level in 15 years. that pushed the dow below 10,000 points briefly before it bounced down a little. it ended down almost 134 points. jim cramer is the host of "mad money" on cnbc. let's look at these numbers. existing home sales fell more than 27% last month compared to the month before. why, jim? >> we had a gigantic tax credit that amounted to a lot of money, i'll call it interest free for your first year of buying a house. that ended. people should have bought during that period. it took away demand. >> solutions, what can the government do? bring back that tax credit? >> this is about jobs. frankly the whole housing issue is about jobs and we confuse it. we talk about mortgage rates, we talk about the idea of too much inventory. we get jobs going, you're going to wish you bought a house. >> because that's a long-term solution as opposed to this tax credit. >> we need to create jobs. you want to -- you'll feel like how did i miss the bottom when jobs are created.

>> yesterday house minority leader john boehner said the obama administration's entire economic team should resign. he said they look, quote, real world hands-on experience in creating jobs. your reaction to that. >> i think that there are some problems creating jobs. i don't think president obama has been imaginative enough. he didn't come out yesterday. people own homes, where was he? >> do you think they should completely resign? >> no. i wish there had been more focus and hands-on by the president. tim geithner, he won the world series of finance last year. you don't fire the manager seven months after he saved the western world, that's just not smart. >> so don't get rid of everybody. >> no. they're doing a good job but we've got to create jobs and that's what this is about. >> a lot of people worried after yesterday -- a lot more people are worried about a double-dip recession. how are you doing about that? >> okay. i think if you own companies that pay good dividends that are rising and you own some gold, i'm not saying you won't feel it, but i've got to tell you that's better than owning a 2.5%

ten-year treasury or cd. you can't make it back with that. >> jim cramer, thanks so much. you can catch "mad money" at 6:00 and 11:00 eastern time. now let's get a check of the top stories for carl quintanilla. >> good morning, everybody. firefighters in oregon and california have been busy battling two raging fires. in ashland, oregon, tuesday, a wildfire destroyed 11 homes and damaged two others. one fire official said it looked like a war zone. no injuries there. other fires are burning in california. a fire northwest of los angeles burned some 1300 acres and threatened homes. former president jimmy carter arrived this morning in north korea. he is on a private humanitarian mission to win the release of an american sentenced to prison for entering that country illegally. this morning in iraq, multiple car bombings killed more than 60 people, wounded 250. two of the bombings targeted police stations. today iran said it successfully test fired a new generation of short-range

surface-to-surface missiles. iranian tv showed the missile being launched, then apparently hitting a target on the ground. officials in china trying to find out what caused a deadly plane crash tuesday. at least 42 people were killed when the plane crashed and burned while trying to land in fog. more than 50 others survived but were injured. today the planes' black boxes were recovered. another tragedy, this one in santa barbara, california, where an out of control truckloaded with gravel flew down an embankment and crashed into the home, killing three members of one family. for the 33 miners trapped underground in chile, heavy equipment, a massive drill has now arrived outside the mine. it will be used to carve out a tunnel just wide enough to pull them out one by one. drilling that hole will not start for a few days and it could go on for months. the justice department says it plans to appeal a judge's ruling this week that temporarily blocked the expansion of embryonic stem cell

research. and it was not a very grand entrance for one member of an army parachute team before a texas rangers game on tuesday. he got stuck on a flag pole but was later able to get down okay. it is now 7:14. if you listen closely, you can almost hear him go don't! >> i look at it differently. a few more feet and it could have been a lot worse, a lot worse. >> oh, my. >> but we're not going to do it. >> we're glad he's okay. >> carl, thank you for that. we appreciate it. and with a laugh, we like that. how are you doing? >> okay. let's see what's happening. first of all, out west the heat continues. no relief for the firefighters out there. bakersfield 108, heat advisories for northern california.

as we movento the pacific northwest the heat continues. portland 91.mo temperatures 5 to 15 degrees above normal. out east and we've got rain showers. low pressure backing toward the northeast coast and that's bringing rain from boston to new york and keeping temperatures low with the easterly-northeasterly winds. we'll see temperatures only into the low 70s to the upper 60s with high surf advisories for a real mess here in the northeast. but the weekend is looking muc and here's a view from san bruno mountain, looking off to a mostly sunny san francisco. hazy skies this morning. look at our temperatures around noon. i think lunchtime is when we'll see the warmest temperatures of the day around the peninsula and the coast as the sea breeze turns stronger later on, san francisco and the coast start to cool off. the inner bay starts to cool down, inland, though, still making a run at the 90s, above 100 degrees for places like livermore. tomorrow that sea breeze will wake up to cooler temperatures, morning clouds, much cooler inland temperatures as we approach the weekend.

and that's your latest weather. matt? this morning lindsay lohan is out of rehab much earlier than the court had ordered. her doctors advised the judge lohan could serve the rest of her sevntence on an outpatient basis. nbc's lee cowan is in los angeles with more on that. lee, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, matt. ndsay lohan served just 23 days of that original 90-day sentence and some people are saying getting out this early could be an indication doctors think whatever was ailing her may not be as serious as some people thought. either way now comes the hard part, taking responsibility for staying well. it's the first time lindsay lohan has been a free woman since walking into court last month. back then the judge slapped the troubled star with 90 days in jail plus 90 days of rehab, six months' punishment for violating her probation in connection with the dui arrest in 2007. but a little more than one month

later she's out. first, lohan's jail term was cut from 90 days to 13, largely because of jail overcrowding. and now her 90-day in-patient rehab sentence at ucla has been reduced, too, to just 23 days. a surprise? >> a huge surprise that lindsay lohan has gotten out after three weeks purely because we've all been told for so long just how dire her situation is. >> reporter: doctors who had been watching her case unfold say from a health perspective her early release is a good s n sign. >> hopefully what that suggests is she's actually doing better. >> reporter: but her treatment for addiction, he cautions, is likely far from over. if lohan continues as part of an outpatient program, the onus is on her to get it done. >> once she's released, a lot of the burden falls on her shoulders. she has to get up in the morning. she has to get to individual treatme treatment. if there's medication involved, she has to take that. >> reporter: lohan is no stranger to rehab or relapse. her strint at ucla was her

fourth attempt at getting well. but appearing on "today" earlier this month lohan's mother dina told matt this time the results will be different. >> has she changed? >> yes. she's grown up considerably. >> do you think she is capable of going through rehab this time no matter how long it lasts and coming out a changed person able to handle her surroundings? >> absolutely. >> what gives that you confidence? >> age. just living life and growing up. >> reporter: lohan was scheduled to begin shooting her next movie next month, a starring role as porn star linda lovelace. the outpatient program would likely still allow her to do that. >> it means that she has a schedule that she's going to go straight into which is going to really help keep her on the straight and narrow and keep her in work. >> reporter: a change of scenery might help as well. lohan's mother hinted she may take her to new york. different city, different

friends, perhaps a less tempting environment than here could make a big difference. mat senate. >> lee cowan, thank you very much. to be continued. coming up, even as tiger woods practices this morning for a big golf tournament, the barclay's over in new jersey, his ex-wife breaks her silence. elin nordegren finally opens up about the night of the infamous accident, what she really knew and where she's going from here. b-a-c-c-a-l-a-u-r-e-a-t-e.

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now normally we don't cover horse races on this show, but when the two horses racing neck and neck to the finish line are named my wife knows everything and the wife doesn't know, we figured it was okay to make an exception. it happened at a track in emergennew jersey on sunday. take a look and a listen. into the final furlong, my wife knows everything. the wife doesn't know.

they're one-two. of course they are. my wife knows everything in front. to the outside the wife doesn't know. my wife knows everything. the wife doesn't know. my wife knows everything. more than the wife doesn't know. >> bottom line, i think we all knew the women of the world knew who would win, my wife knows everything won. >> those horses -- there's no connection between those horses. pure coincidence. that was larry doing the play-by-play. a bachelor, by the way. >> unless the whole thing was fixed by my wife, right? >> there you go. i don't know. you don't hear that very often. it was pretty cool. >> a third one was, my husband's an idiot. >> really. >> my husband doesn't know anything. coming up, more and more americans are taking on second jobs. >> that's right. so also we'll be talking about your favorite among the four wedding couples. we'll reveal this morning who actually won. this season, jackets required. show-stopping. refreshing.

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good morning, everybody. time now, 7:26. i'm brent cannon, checking in, and tag teaming with mike. he's got a new accident in hayward. >> there is an accident, hayward, 238, westbound, just north of east 14th street, approaching 580. you can see the slowing that's causing there. take a look at your maze too, there's an accident eastbound 580 -- i'm sorry, westbound 580 approaching 880, where you can see the slowing going through the maze. a lot of backed up and red lights and backup going through there, all the way through the maze. a look outside as you make your way across the bay bridge at the toll plaza, things are starting to backup, but the sun shining bright today. more on that from rob. >> it's already pretty warm outside right now, felipe.

a lot of spots in the 70s. by lunchtime, look at the numbers. probably getting a high temperature we hope around noon. as we factor in a sea breeze, there's some cooling at the coast today. one more day today of heat. we start to cool offhe big-time gadin tar heading toward the weekend. more news after the break. ow

firefighters have made big

progress this morning on that wilefire burning at the base of mt. diablo. it's been called the curry fire and it is now 80% contained, which is an improvement from late last night when they had it 50% contained. about 375 acres have burned so far. one firefighter also sprained his ankle. most of the homes in that area are no longer threatened. there was a minimal threat anyway, but now they're pretty safe. more local news coming up in half an hour. the "today" show returns in half a minute.

7:30 now on a wednesday morning. it's the 25th of august, 2010. starting to feel a little bit like fall here in the northeast. cool temperatures, rainy conditions, raining cats and dogs overnight. some people out there no matter what with their umbrellas. we're happy about that. ann will get outside in just a little while. >> let me at them. >> i'm matt lauer alongside ann curry filling in while meredith takes some time off. coming up, the breakup of tiger woods' marriage. he was practicing early this morning for the barclay's golf tournament over in new jersey, but, for now, it is his ex-wife who is grabbing the headlines. she's kept quiet for nearly a year but now elin nordegren is finally opening up about what she really knew about her husband's affairs, whether she

hit him the night of that infamous car crash, and how and where they'll raise their children. we're going to have more on what she has to say in just a couple of minutes. >> also ahead, matt, the death of a beautiful young pro golfer. now authorities say they know what happened but also say the case isn't closed just yet. we're going to get the latest on this story and later that amazing survival story. remember john mets, the man we introduced you to last summer. we talked to him days after he sawed off his own arm after it was stuck in a furnace. his doctors say his bravery saved his life. we'll catch up with him to see how he's doing with his new arm and guess what, matt, his wedding plans. >> that story still gives me chills. plus the fifth anniversary of the catastrophe known as katrina just a few days away. al and i are going to be in new orleans for a special broadcast on friday morning talking to former mayor ray nagin, michael brown, former first lady laura bush and the iconic musicians of

the area like harry connick jr. that's hurricane katrina five years later. with tiger woods' ex-elin nordegren finally breaking her silence, we'll meet the "people" magazine writer who got the exclusive. first an update from nbc's peter alexander from the ridgewood country club in paramus, new jersey, where tiger is getting ready for a tournament. >> reporter: tiger woods will begin a practice round here at the barclays a short time from now. this will be his first tournament as a newly single man. he'll have a chance to speak to reporters afterwards if he chooses. his ex-wife, elin nordegren, has been remarkably silent about the scandal for the last nine months. but now she is speaking out for what she says will be the first and only time about that scandal saying she has no interest in being a public person but needed to set something straight.

"i've been through hell." that's what elin nordegren told "people" magazine in an exclusive interview conducted for 19 hours over four days. the swedish-born 30-year-old says the stress of the relentless tiger woods sex scandal was all consuming, causing her insomnia and weight loss and in the days before the divorce was finalized this week, she says she began to lose her hair. as for her first reaction to tiger's betrayal and the parade of reported mistresses, elin explained, absolute shock and disbelief. i felt stupid as more things were revealed. how could i not have known anything? the word betrayal isn't strong enough, she added. i felt like my whole world had fallen apart. it was a world this shy and private former model and nanny said she never had any intention of being a part of. but elin told "people" everything changed when she met tiger. i loved him. we had so much fun, she said, and i felt safe with him. she insists there was never any violence in their relationship

and last november on that night of tiger's mysterious crash, elin says she was trying to get her husband out of the locked car. the speculation that i would have use add golf club to hit him is truly ridiculous. >> this time i have a prepared written statement which i shall stick to. >> reporter: still, on "saturday night live" and elsewhere, the late night comedians had a field day. these days elin admits laughing at those parodies. pretty hysterical, she says, even if they were totally untrue. elin says she and tiger tried for months to reconcile before she concluded that a marriage without trust and love was good for no one. aside from shared parenting of the couple's two young children, 3-year-old sam and 18-month-old charlie, the details of the divorce may never be known though some estimate elin may have received upwards of $100 million. she wouldn't address the agreement but explained money can't buy happiness or put my family back together. still, elin acknowledges it is

making some things easier like the ability to devote her time to her children and to completing her bachelor's degree in psychology. despite that exclusive $2 million waterfront estate she recently purchased in stockholm close to her family, elin says she plans to raise the children in florida near their father who told "people" elin is a wonderful mother. i know that the two of us will do everything we can to help our children adjust to this new family situation. and despite all those tournaments greeting her husband with a kiss at the 18th green, elin admits one more significant change since tiger's scandal broke. i have not watched one minute of golf. elin also says she doesn't plan to date anytime soon, telling "people" it's going to be just me and the kids for a little while but i believe in love because i've seen it. i've been there. ann, after all this time, she is still tremendously resilient. >> peter alexander this morning, thanks. sandra westfall wrote the cover

story for this week's "people" magazine. good morning to you. so did elin reach out to you or did you actually reach out to her? >> she did. she and her team approached "people" magazine. she was interested in maybe once and one time only getting her side of the story out and telling a little bit about who she was and then it was a little back and forth. she was not immediately certain that she wanted to do it. it was tough. she has been silent more than the nine m she has been silent more than the nine months.on she's been silent for all the t. sh time she's known, dated, and been married to tiger woods. >> and yet she gave you 19 hours over the four days. there was a message she wanted to get out. what was it? >> she wanted people to get to know a little bit of her. there has been so many stereotypes out there. so much misinformation. she said if i'm going to do this one time, let's really spend the time to make it right. >> so who is she then? what is the take-away? what are the highlights in terms of her message? >> she really wanted people to know three things right off the bat. she's not violent. she's never hit him.

she had no idea that any of this was going on as embarrassing as it is for her to admit that, she never suspected. she was busy being a mother. and lastly that this is a real marriage for her, that she believed that they were in love and that they were going to be a family forever. >> and she also talked about how hard this was for her. >> one can only imagine the crucible she has been in with all of the headlines, you know? relentless headlines. and yet she, you know, carried on with the business of being a mother. she said she stayed strong for her kids and that it was only at night she would, in the privacy of her own bedroom, break down and be alone with her feelings. she spent a lot of time journalling on her computer. she likes to write. she finds that therapeutic and as a psychology student, she took an academic approach to her healing and sought counseling, intensive counseling, she said.

she was not embarrassed to admit that. she says she doesn't think there should be a stigma. she went through hell and she needed help. >> interesting she would reveal so much, given how quiet and protective this family has been of its privacy. what wouldn't she talk about? >> she didn't want to get into details about what happened on thanksgiving night. you know? there's a police report and that's going to speak for itself. she only wanted people to know that she never hit him and she's never committed an act much of violence. she didn't want to talk about obviously the details of the divorce settlement. all she would say is money can't buy happiness or put my family back together. this was never about money. >> but she also acknowledges the settlement involved more than $100 million, is that right? >> she never talked numbers. >> oh. >> it's been estimated and reported out there it was more than $100 million. nowhere near the $750 million number that's been out there. but she is very unself-conscious

about the fact, yes, she is going to be a very wealthy woman. it will make it easier for her to get through this because she can stay home with her children. she doesn't have to go right out and get a job. and she can travel to take her children back to sweden to visit with their cousins and grandparents. but she has every intention of having a job some day. she wants to get her masters in psychology and put that to work in some way helping children of broken families. >> interesting. is this something that is new, this idea of psychology and broken families, or is this something she has been wanting to do for some time? >> you know, that's something. it's interesting. she has been a student since she married him. she has been taking college classes down in florida, usually night classes, so that it's after the kids have been fed and gone to bed. and she's been chipping away at her degree. she has about 40 credits left to get her bachelor's in psychology. so all this time the world has known her as former swimsuit model and nanny, she has actually been a college student and mother of two. >> and so when you take away from all of this, it sounds as

though this is a woman who has gone public now finally to kind of set right the course that she wants to take from here for her children and for herself? >> absolutely and she says being a private person is the only normalcy. i've been able to give my kids given that they have such a famous father, but she is stepping out one time and then she plans to return to being a completely private person. she said i'm not a celebrity. i don't want to be. >> do you know what the -- i think we do know what the living arrangements are, do we not? i mean, she is going to be staying in orlando, is that right, to ray the children? >> tiger had -- they've been building that dream house for the family down in southern florida, and so his plan has always been to occupy that house. and she's going to move down there with him. she's not with him. she's going to buy her own house. she said she looks forward to being in a house where all the kids want to hang out. so she's going to do that. committed to what's best for her children, move down closer to where he'll be so that they can maintain a relationship. >> all right. well, that certainly seems like

it would be the best thing for the children. >> a remarkablstrong woman. >> thank you so much for joining us this morning. congratulations to you and "people" magazine for having the interview. now let's go outside for a check of the weather. thanks a lot, ann. it's drizzling and breezy. whose birthday? >> mine. >> 29 again? >> yes. >> very nice. you keep doing it until you get it right. >> absolutely. >> hey, you like matt but al we like you way better. no, no. we're all good on this show. we're all equal. but i like your hat. it's very nice. oh, sorry.ka let's check your weather see what's going on. the latest on hurricane danielle, 700 miles east of the northern leeward islands. 85-mile-per-hour winds. it became a tropical storm overnight and now is back to a hurricane, west-northwest at 17. track of the storm now moving a little west so we can't rule out a strike within that cone of

uncertainty with beuda with 100-mile-per-hour winds. we'll have to keep an eye on it. another strong tropical wave of africa 200 miles west-southwest of the cape verde islands. this could become earl within the next 72 hours. here's a look at a very sunny san francisco right now, waiting for the sea breeze to turn stronger, but not really seeing a whole lot right now. you can see the flag barely moving around. show you the temperatures as we go hour by hour today around noon, probably seeing the warmest temperatures of the day, right around san francisco and oakland, but later on this afternoon, as the sea breeze picks up, the inner bay and coast should start to see a little bit of cooling, but the more significant cooling for inland areas, to get us out of the 90s and 100-degree the temperatures happens tomorrow and into friday and much cooler heading into the weekend. and don't forget you can check your weather any time of the day or night weather channel on cable or weather.com online. ann? thanks. up next, with the economy struggling more and more white

collar professionals are moonlighting. is it right for you? and later, you've met our four happy wedding couples but only one pair can be the winner. we'll reveal which love birds you picked to get married live on our plaza. [ girl ] bye mom! bye sweetie! you'll do great. [ laughs ] this is it! [ all ] 10...9...8... a new school year has so much potential! any resolutions? my resolution is the same as always; keep her full and focused with my fiber. [ all ] 3...2...1... happy school year! [ 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... here, take the card.

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but when it's hard or hurts to go to the bathroom, there's dulcolax stool softener. dulcolax stool softener doesn't make you go... it just makes it easier to go. dulcolax stool softener. make yourself comfortable. back at 7:45, blue collar workers are no stranger to juggling jobs but the dismal economy has forced many white collar workers to begin moonlighting as well. cnbc's carl quintanilla is here with more on this story. carl, good morning again. good morning, matt. in this shaky economy with wages being cut and near 10% unemployment, around 7 million americans have second jobs. and today more and more of them wear white collars. joe has a full-time job working at a financial services economy but when his day job is over his work is only just beginning. >> probably like an 8:00 to 5:00 gig with a day job and then kids

to bed 7:00, 7:30 and i'm in my office until 1:00, 2:00 in the morning. >> joe opened his own business with his wife jennifer, an urgent care clinic in paramus, new jersey. >> my wife runs the operations for the center. she is here most hours of the business. yes, we're open seven days a week. i'm more on the operational side handling the financials. a lot of that stuff can be done after hours. >> it's called moonlighting although moonlighting is traditionally thought of as juggling two hourly jobs. more and more white collar workers are taking on second jobs, too. >> i grew up in a household where my dad worked two, three jobs, whatever it took to provide us with a comfortbling living and i feel the same way about my family. >> a recent study found among white collar workers 9% of 4,500 surveyed have taken on a second job to make ends meet. another 19% said they intend to do so some time in 2010. and although it often takes a delicate balancing act, joe says

he doesn't have any regrets. >> it's certainly not easy but it's well worth it. i love what i do. i enjoy putting smiles on my kids faces and i'd like to know i'm doing the right thing for my family and that's the best feeling you can have in the world. >> while the extra money is nice, it's a juggling act for these workers who only have 24 hours in a day. >> carl quintanilla, thank you very much. a career specialist for encore.org and author of "one person: multiple careers." nice to see you. joe's story is going to become much more common place. >> it sure is. it's been that way for a while and i think it will continue. >> people are doing this because of necessity. the majority of the people who take on a second job don't do it because they just love working. they do it because they need to put food on the table and pay their rent. it comes with enormous sacrifices, doesn't it? >> it sure does as you saw with joe. when is he seeing his kids? they spend some time, put the kids to bed and he is back at a

new job. >> so how do you know when you strike the right balance? you have to pay the rent but at some point do you weigh the risk and reward? if it's causing problems in your marriage, if it's causing problems with your children, if it's causing problems with your health, the loss of sleep and things like that, how do you figure that out? >> you hit it right on the head. i think you should listen to your loved ones and listen to your body. those are two really good things to keep in mind here and if something's off it may not be that the whole moonlighting thing isn't working for you but it may be the combination you chose isn't the right one. >> in other words, you haven't found the right fit. the two jobs you're choosing -- >> he is kind of -- we didn't know what his day job is, right, but corporate/entrepreneur may not be the right combination. >> let's say you decide you either want to or have to take on this moonlighting situation, how do you approach your, shall we call them your primary employer? >> right. >> do you divulge that to your primary employer? >> that's a big, big question and it's a case-by-case

situation. there are some employers that have an absolutely no moonlighting policy, so if you work for a company like that obviously you're going to have to be on the sly. >> because they're worried you're not going to do your job during the day if you're too tired from your job at night. >> or you may do some work that's a conflict of interest with what they do so that's a big worry and concern for an employer. >> if you work for coke don't get a job for pepsi? >> exactly. >> so you say comply with your employ employer's conflict of interest policy. >> no computers, no documents, no reports that you produced for your day job to help your consulting clients at night. >> always use your own personal e-mail when dealing with that second job. >> always. and i would not even recommend using your personal e-mail on the company's computer. if you have an independent blackberry or a device, a smartphone, use that. really, you shouldn't be doing your side work on your employer's time. >> yeah. >> do your side work -- so what i say the ideal slash for

somebody who is doing this is something that's virtual or flexible. so web design, something you could do at any hour of the day that doesn't have to be confined to a specific location. >> good advice and something we're going to see more and more of. thanks so much. i appreciate it. >> thanks, matt. 7:50. the tragic death of a young golfer and the doctor in trouble with the law. where? it's really good. do you see it? it's called hope. hope? yeah. hope. i don't see any hope. i don't see any hope in here. you can't see it there, but you can see it here... '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. ♪ we get double miles on every purchase.

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good morning, everybody. time now, 7:56. checking your morning commute, felipe has a new accident in oakland. >> start you out in the maze area, a real mess. oakland, westbound 580 approaching broadway, six cars involved in that, causing major slowing. westbound 580, another accident eden canyon radioed blocking two lanes. and if you can see out there in alamo, north and southbound flowing significantly there. saying a tree's down, blocking a couple of lanes that's causing a major backup as you make your way up and down 680. a look at your south bay commute, which is also a mess, as you can see, coming up and down 280, lots of slowing as well as an accident southbound 85, just north of 87. there's some slowing there as well. just a real slow commute. let's get a check on your weather from rob. >> we're seeing a really slow commute in spots this morning and probably some slow cooling. we'll call it that as we head

through the afternoon. lunchtime, kind of hot inland. we should see 90s around the bay area, but what should change, later on this afternoon, as a sea breeze starts to pick up, the peninsula and coast starting to see some science of cooling today and then everyone starts to cool down tomorrow. as we get into the weekend, that is more typical of the summer we've had so far. we're talking 70s inland for highs. 50s and 60s out along the coast. time right now is 7:57. more news after this short break.

two people are in the

hospital with injuries after a boating accident in vallejo. it happened yesterday evening at the glen cove marina when a boat caught fire. it took about 20 minutes for firefighters to put o that fire. one man suffered burns over 60% of his body, and a woman who was with him was also badly burned. investigators say that that man was burning excess fuel when his boat went up in flames. more local news coming up in half an hour and the "today" show returns in less than a minute.

we're back at 8:00 on a wednesday morning, the 25th day of august, 2010. take a look. those are our final four wedding couples hoping to brighten things up here on a rainy day in new york. the final couple will be chosen in a couple of minutes. they will tie the knot on the plaza in a few weeks but only one of those couples can win and we're going to find out which one in just a little while. >> we just got to meet them. they are all wonderful. we're going to dive right into the wedding planning right afterwards. we're going to be looking at the four choices for what they're wearing for the wedding and there's nothing like letting thousands of strangers make that

decision for you. so all of these couples are very brave to let us do that for them. >> we'll get to that in a second. an update on a story we brought you a couple months ago, fascinating and really kind of nerve-racking story. jon metz, the guy from just outside hartford, connecticut, working in his basement one day trying to clean out his furnace got his arm stuck in there, ended up stuck for three days, infection set in. he attempted to cut off his own arm to save his life and free himself. jon is doing remarkably well. he's going to give us an update on his condition and some exciting news for him in just a little while. later on on "today's money 911" our panel of experts will help you reduce your debt to mortgage questions. all that and more coming up on "today's money 911." we have a lot to get to. >> we, we do. >> let's go inside. carl quintanilla filling in for ann at the newsdesk. he has the headlines. good morning to you, matt. good morning, everybody. thousands of uncounted absentee ballots could hold the key to tuesday's biggest primary surprise.

the alaska republican senate primary. sarah palin backed underdog joe miller, a slim lead over lisa murkowski. in. >> announcer: senator john mccain surviveded a tough challenge by j.d. hayworth. also in arizona ben quayle, the son of former vice president dan quayle, won his republican primary for a house seat. and in florida congressman kendrick meek clinched the democratic nomination for senate over a wealthy political newcomer setting up a three-way race for this fall. more hot, windy weather could intensify the wildfire danger in western states. one fire outside ashland, oregon, 11 homes were destroyed tuesday before it was brought under control. wildfires are also burning outside san francisco and los angeles. search teams this morning recovered the flight recorders from a chinese passenger jet that crashed tuesday night killing at least 42 people and injuring 54. officials said the plane overshot the runway at a new airport while trying to land in heavy fog. in pakistan desperation is growing one month after flood

began there. a scuffle broke out tuesday as people lined up for water. the united nations is appealing for more helicopters to reach ç 800,000 flood victims who can only be reached by air. an update now into the investigation into the death of a promising young golfer. police near las vegas have now confirmed that erica blasberg did commit suicide but the doctor who found her body has been charged with obstruction of justice. more from nbc's miguel almaguera. >> on the par 3 7. >> reporter: on the golf course erica blasberg had the swing of a champion. in front of a camera, the beauty of a model. the 25-year-old seemed to have it all but in may the lpga golfer with so much promise and potential was found dead inside her las vegas-area home. >> i need to report a suicide. >> reporter: police say this man, dr. thomas hess discovered her body and called 911. >> i came by to check on her last night and she had a couple of drinks. i came by to check on her now

and she's dead. >> how did she kill herself? >> she put a bag on her head. >> reporter: the coroner's office has ruled blasberg's death a suicide saying she died due to asphyxia, a plastic bag over her head and a potent cocktail of medications in her system. but police say her suicide note was missing. investigators say dr. hess admitted to taking the suicide note left behind by erica and also stashing away prescription medications found in her home. investigators say the doctor also stopped working with detectives. erica's parents are left looking for answers. >> the real question, what happened to erica before that night seemed 100% fine can't be answered because the only guy who has the answers is this dr. hess. and i'm not sure we'll ever get them. >> reporter: investigators have ruled out any foul play, but tuesday they charged dr. hess with obstruction of justice, a

misdemeanor, after posting a $637 bail, he was released from custody, contacted by nbc news, his lawyer had no comment. details of dr. hess' relationship with erica remain unclear. >> thomas, how did you know her? >> i knew her from the golf club. >> his improper, unethical relationship with my daughter has now threatened his career, his marriage and his social standing. >> reporter: we may now know how erica blasberg died but the circumstances behind her relationship with dr. hess and why she took her life are still a mystery. for "today," miguel almaguera, nbc news, los angeles. a programming note, tonight on cnbc, an update on bernie madoff, the mastermind of the biggest ponzi scheme in american history and what life is like for him in prison. "american greed: madoff behind bars" tonight at 9:00 on cnbc. and an intrepid florida lifeguard has entered the final two weeks of training for her

bid to paddle board nonstop from cuba to key west. cynthia agalar says the 130-mile trip to raise money for the make a wish foundation should take about 36 hours with no sleep. good luck to her. let's get another check of the weather with al. thanks very much, carl. we're out here with members of the navy. that's right. and what are you sailors doing here? what's going on? >> how are you doing, sir? >> petty officers and chief petty officers. we're taking them on a tour. >> all right. very nice. thank you very much. do you know whose father was in the navy? ann curry's dad was in the navy during world war ii, one of the men, one of the greatest generations. big bob curry. that's right.

>> that's what we were always taught. >> the navy gets the gravy. let's check your weather and see what's happening. record highs as we head on toward friday. it takes more of a slide north and that means more heat brought throughout more of the country. showers over the northwest but heavy rain along the gulf a a s morning. san francisco, temperatures just after 8:00, look at those numbers. already close to 80 in fairfield. san jose, 76 degrees. it's not even 9:00 yet. temperatures at lunch time, a stronger sea breeze and then that should take an edge off the

area around the coast. tomorrow, a much more cooler and breezy weekend ahead. ♪ anchors away they're still going but something else coming up, a serious story about a man who nearly cut off his own arm to save his life but he has some good news for us this morning coming up right after this.t

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and don't stop collecting. because sunnyd and i will award hundreds of books to the ten schools with the most lables. go to sunnyd.com open a bottle of sunshine... and help us make classrooms sunnier. and we're back now at 8:12 with "today's update." in june we brought you the story of john metz, the 31-year-old man who made an agonizing decision to cut off his own arm after getting it stuck in his basement furnace. we'll talk to jon and get an update. first a look back at his incredible story. it was late in the evening on june 7th when jon metz went down to his basement to do some routine maintenance on his boiler. while cleaning out the soot between the boiler's fins he reached inside to retrieve a tool he had dropped. his left arm got stuck between his shoulder and elbow. when you realized i can't get my arm out of here, what went through your mind?

>> panic is -- doesn't quite convey what was going through my mind. terror, i think maybe, would be a better word, because i could see what was happening and the blood dripping down into the heating box. >> bleeding badly, jon screamed for help but his screams went unanswered. 12 hours into his ordeal, infection started to set in. >> as much as i didn't want to look at it, it is what i needed to see to move on to the next phase of the plan. >> looking around the basement, jon thought what would macgyver do. he made the painful decision to try to cut his arm free using his own saw blades. >> i was so convinced that i was going to die that i began actually -- and the blood splattered on the boiler trying to write a note to my family and my fiancee. >> jon drifted in and out of

consciousness and drank boiler water to try to stay alive. >> i tried cutting a little bit more, hit another nerve and, again, lightning bolt-like pain and that's when i just said, i can't do it. i can't finish the cut. >> after three days trapped in his basement, his friend stopped by the house and when jon didn't answer the door, he called 911. >> i'm sitting outside my friend's house. no one has heard from him in a couple of days. >> police and fire crews arrived at the house and using heavy tools freed jon's arm from the boiler. jon's doctor said his courageous decision to try to cut off his own arm actually saved his life. >> we want to get you using this. >> two months after his accident, jon has been fitted with a new prosthetic arm. he's learning to use his new left hand and even went back to work in his basement workshop. jon metz is here along with his

dr. scott elner from the st. francis medical center. how are you doing? >> i'm doing well. >> yeah?ç >> yeah. >> you got this new arm, a new prosthetic arm and you were showing it off to me a little bit, a second ago. you've only had it a week? >> more or less in the final configuration about a week. >> how are you doing with the controlling of it? >> well, it's -- pretty good. i think the technology is just astonishing and, you know, to think about less than three months ago not even having an arm at all and now, you know, here i am. it's just fantastic. i can't describe how much it means. >> he's making great progress, isn't he? >> absolutely. for somebody who went through such a terrible ordeal to respond within three months he's done incredibly well. and using his arm already to woodwork and he's going to go back to work shortly back at his original job. >> one of the things i remember from our interview a few months ago, you told me about phantom

pain, that you definitely had it. you even talked about waking up in the morning and starting to use that arm to turn off your alarm clock before you had to remind yourself it wasn't there. phantom pain still a part of your life? >> it is, much less so. what i experience now is more of a phantom sensation. i can feel the limb, the residual limb, but it's not as painful. >> is that pretty typical? >> yeah. after a while, once the prosthesis gets placed, it goes from actual pain to just sensations that occur intermittently. jon will get used to that over time. >> what about emotionally, jon? it occurred to me last night when i was thinking about you showing up here this morning that ever since this happened, you have been on a bit of a roller coaster. i mean, from the very first day there were guys like me sticking cameras in your face. and i'm wondering, have you allowed yourself the time to grieve for your loss, literally and figuratively? >> i have. in fact, really it was the two

or three weeks between when i got out of the hospital and the initial euphoria of just living wore off and before i was healed enough to start working on the prosthetic arm where -- >> you allowed yourself those days where it was just depressing and devastating? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> and you've moved on from those? >> i still have some of those days but, you know, this is giving me a lot of optimism. >> you don't have any problems going back down in that basement, which i think surprises some people. a lot of people would think the ordeal you went through over those three days, i'm going to lock that door, i'm never going back into that room, and yet you're down there woodworking. >> i told you, i think, when we spoke last time, that it's therapeutic for me. it was before and is starting to be again. the boiler is gone and that was the one thing that i wasn't ready to see again. >> by the way, you're doing nice work. this is a little chest you made for dr. elner, right?

>> i just got married last month and as a wedding gift jon and his wife, mel, presented us with this gift about four weeks ago after the injury and this is quite amazing piece of work as you can see. very solid. >> considering he's used the prosthetic or one hand and a prosthetic to do it. by the way, congratulations on your marriage. and you're getting married to melissa in november? >> november 13th. >> weddings are always emotional but that has to take on even more significance after what you've been through. >> yeah. my brother's wedding, a few weekends ago, was any indication, it's going to be an emotional experience for everyone. but a happy one, too. >> congratulations. we're happy to see you doing well. doctor, good to see you. >> good to see you, matt. >> good luck to you. >> thank you. and up next, the waiting is over. one of these engaged couples will find out that you voted for them to get hitched live on our

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look in the glove box. [ children laughing ] suitcase? huh? ♪ where do gummy bears hide? under the seat. look! yeah! ♪ [ telephone rings ] [ male announcer ] the all new chevy equinox. [ man ] guess who? dad! [ man ] enjoy the trip! okay, daddy! [ laughter ] [ male announcer ] a consumers digest best buy. with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. it takes you farther... and brings you closer. >> announcer: today's wedding modern love is brought to you by chevy. every model is backed by a $100,000, five-year power train limited warranty. ♪ here is love this morning on "today's wedding modern love" the winning couple. monday we introduced you to four sets of love birds hoping to get married live on the "today" program. after nearly 60,000 of you voted

we are now ready to reveal the winning couple that will be married live right here on the plaza in just a few weeks. by the way that 60,000 number, matt, is more than any vote since like last year even. it was a big number. let's say hello to all the couples. >> couple number one lauren ulatowski and greg merante. number two, melissa mcmillin and jeremy gebhardt. he is serving in afghanistan. couple number three shatera kennedy and marcus allen from texas. and couple number four genevieve tallarico and david mckay from florida. hi, ladies and gentlemen. >> welcome. >> great to have you. >> how was your trip in? everything okay? show of hands, who has been to new york before? >> oh, okay. >> a couple of first-timers. that's great. this is going to happen very quickly. we're thrilled to have you all in the studio but because we have so much to do over the next couple of weeks, we're going to

pick the winning couple right off the bat so this is going to be a very happy moment for one couple. a little disappointing for the other three couples. are you ready to do this? >> yes, sir. >> in this ring box we have the names of the winning couple. and, ann, take it away. >> all right, you guys. prepare yourselves. here we go because none of us know. and the winner is -- the winners are. we've got melissa mcmillin and jeremy gebhardt. >> congratulations, melissa. >> congratulations. >> and jeremy is watching live from afghanistan. jeremy, congratulations to you as well. melissa is already crying. >> i'm sorry. hi. >> jeremy, what do you have to say? >> thank you very much. >> they look pretty happy. >> when is the last time you guys saw each other? >> it's been an amazing experience from the get-go and i'm so happy for melissa. this is amazing.

i don't know how to tell you i'm so excited right now. >> melissa, when is the last time you actually saw jeremy? >> i saw him the last week in february, so it's been a good six months. >> he's coming home when? >> he's coming home next week. >> oh, terrific. so that's good news you're getting. >> very, very, very soon. >> we're thrilled that you're the winning couple. we're sorry for the other couples but we're not going to send anybody home empty-handed. as a matter of fact, for the rest of you, we loved your videos. we loved getting to know a little bit more about you, and so pages, come on out. >> you're not going to believe this, you guys. >> we're sending the rest of you to st. thomas, the ritz-carlton has been generous enough to give you a four-day, three-night stay at their hotel, accommodations in the presidential suite, a sunset sail aboard lady lindsay, the resort's 53-foot catamaran, candlelight dinner on the beach, snorkeling excursions, massages and more. so enjoy your time in st.

thomas. >> thank you. >> we really appreciate it. >> and melissa and jeremy, we're going to pick the wedding bands. we'll get right into it. good morning. it's 8:26. we've got an alert now in. >> out in tracy. it's westbound 580. you can see the backup there. one or two lanes are blocked and there's a lot of slowing. an alert for the next -- it should be ongoing as they clear up that accident. into the south bay, there's a whole list of things going on. southbound 280 north of 880. northbound blking lanes. 101 causing major backup there in the south bay as far as weather. here is rob. >> fortunately, there's a lot of red on those maps m you can see red on mine as well. it's not even 9:00 and we're

getting close to 80 in fairfield. 67, san francisco. needless to say, another hot day inland. but for the coast and peninsula, we're going to see a sea breeze cranking up. the sea breeze turns stronger and we'll cool down for the rest of the week. time right now is 8:27. more news right after the break.

twizzlers. the twist you can't resist. u.c. berkeley and teams are

cutting down on crime. the move follows an increase in violent sexual assaults and homicides in that area. extra police will also be added before and after home football games. officers will be cracking down on underage drinking and noisy parties. fines can be up to $2500. more local news in the next half hour. the "today" show returns in less than half a minute. have a great morning. see you in a bit.

♪ and you always think we're back now at 8:30 on a wednesday morning, the 25th day of august, 2010. it is a four umbrella day. we should stand far enough apart we can all hold our own umbrellas, that's how bad it is here on the plaza. you're going to have to widen way out here because this is one of those days if you're sharing an umbrella you're getting soaked by the guy or lady next to you in this case. it's pouring out here. >> where is the ark? >> we have this low-pressure

system actually backing up and it's spinning all this rain from boston all the way to new york. >> when they go in reverse toent they normally go beep, beep, beep? >> they do. >> so this month has been a little hot and cold. >> yes. kind of like katy perry. >> kind of like katy perry. thanks very much for helping. like the katy perry song. that is my lame way of reminding you that on friday morning katy perry is going to be here as part of our summer concert series. al has promised a better -- actually, it's supposed to be beautif beautiful. >> it will be real and it will be spectacular. >> she is turning out to sing some of those for us here on "today." >> that will be fun. also coming up in this half hour, talking about our wedding couple. we just met them. they are melissa and jeremy. they will be saying "i do" in front of millions on september 30th. so now is the time to get busy and help them choose their wedding bands. that's up next. >> once they get married they may need some hem decorating their new home.

nate berkus will have some answers and you're not going to believe where he's getting the materials to do it. >> that's right. >> want to give me a hint? >> i have no idea. >> from the curbs of other people's houses. he actually says you can find jewels. you can find wonderful things curbside. >> all right. >> and later on "today's money 911. waegs we'll be telling you how to get out from $50,000 in credit card debt to ways in these difficult times to really put away cash. >> great. before we get to all of that, let me go two umbrellas to my right and ask for our weather forecast from al. i think we know what's going on here. let's take a look and show you what's going on around the rest of the country. out west record highs up and down the west coast. rain through florida. for tomorrow we've got more sunshine throughout much of the country. rain will continue, though, along the gulf coast. windy conditions in the pacific northwest. leftover showers in new england.

here's what is happening right now. san bruno back to san francisco, 67 degrees. we'll be waiting for the sea breeze to pick up. hopefully that camera is bouncing around a little bit this afternoon. that will hint at cooler temperatures. high temperatures around lunch time today, expecting a midafternoon return of the sea breeze. it will not put a didn't in the inland temperatures, at least as we expect today. but more 90s tomorrow and friday and the weekend, big time cooling. stronger sea breeze. and when you have crummy weather like this you want to check the weather channel three, four, five times a day. weather channel on cable or weather.com online. now let's head down to washington. hopefully the weather is better for big willie scott. glad to be with you. don't forget to help the animals in the gulf of mexico. they're making great progress on other things but they need some money to help clean them up and take care of them. please do that. the red cross, salvation army,

anybody takes the money. happy birthday. take a look, if you will, please, we have katherine aliesky, 103 years old. owns several beauty shops. says she never got married but is thinking about it. and we have dan donofrio, became a barber and still cuts hair. attributes longevity to drinking wine and being a don juan. here comes elizabeth. always love that classy name. elizabeth macfarlane, 100, a retired teacher who worked with partially sighted children for so many years. happy birthday. what a good cause for you. and gertrude ebeling, portland, oregon. lives on her own and cooks for her family and friends. never misses an episode of "american idol."

we could put a crew on that show. they've been idle for 40 years. chester coffin milford, delaware. 100 years old. mason. loved the ma sonic order. cut his own lawn until about a year ago. how about that? eleanor mcconkey, keeps busy researching her family tree. mormons will help you do that. i'm sure she knows that. they're big on that. that's all. now back to new york. willard, thank you very much. coming up next, we'll put you to work planning melissa and jeremy's wedding and we'll check out the choices for wedding bands.

we are back and ready to get down to business on "today's

wedding: modern love." let's put a ring on them. melissa and jeremy will get married live on our plaza in a couple of weeks, september 30th. now we start with our first vote, the wedding bands. admiral graham, the executive fashion and beauty he heditor i here. averil, good morning to you. melissa and jeremy joining us live from bagram air base in afghanistan which has to be a real kick for him, kind of surreal, i would imagine. anyway, before we talk about this, are you okay? have you come to terms with the idea that you're going to have basically no control over this process over the next several weeks? >> i'm excited about that. i'm excited to see what other people are going to choose for me. i don't really care. i'm just so happy. >> even when we get down to something like this, what you're going to wear for the rest of your life? >> yeah. it's our wedding. why not? go big or go home. >> that's great. and, averil, not only in their

situation because this is accelerated, a couple getting married, how quickly or how early do they need to start picking out wedding bands? >> i think straight away, as soon as possible. it's some of your biggest expense at the end of the day and something you'll wear forever so you have to get it right. it's a huge responsibility choosing this for you and i really wanted each one to have a story behind each one. and our first one that i went with was from a company called brilliant earth and they are a very green, eco-conscious company, and they wanted to be sure, well, they do in their line, make sure everything is ethically mined, recycled platinum. so they ensure every stage of the jewelry making is all conflict free and eco-conscious and absolutely green. >> and actually they donate a percentage of their profits each year to causes that are very great. >> to communities in africa affected by bad mining practices. so that's a really good one. >> looking at these, the guy's

band is beautiful and the woman's -- the bride's band is a little bit more elaborate. >> you'll be able to see this closer up on the website and on facebook. it's a scrolled vine, lots of diamonds, absolutely beautiful. >> next is mia lane, very popular guy in hollywood. >> absolutely. i'm on the show talking how fabulously he dresses everybody on the red carpet. he knows about style and elegance and he dresses everyone from barbra streisand to gwyneth paltrow. he's a celebrity jeweler so glittery, 116 diamonds and three sides on this particular band. >> can you see jeremy wearing that band? >> i could. >> it's signed by neal lane. this is a sparkly celebrity number. >> next diamonds for a cure. tell me the story behind this company. >> this is founded by a cancer survivor. and she wanted to -- she

obviously makes gorgeous jewelry and this particular setting seven beautiful princess cut diamonds set in platinum and even your husband-to-be will have some diamonds in his ring. there are three set in his, too. and she really wanted to think about diamonds are precious and so is life. and so, again, proceeds of every sale she has from her line go towards a cure for cancer. so, again, anyone who has been affected in your family, you know you're giving something back. >> and laser etching of the logo on each piece. >> inside each one. gorgeous. >> they're beautiful. my gosh. >> your accent will fit perfectly with this next one. go ahead. >> this has a royal connection. this one is an english brand and they have had a great connection with royalty since queen victoria in 1862 and she had a long and fabulous marriage to her husband. they currently have a warrant from no less than his royal

highness prince charles, asprey. there's a connection there, too. prince harry also, son of prince charles, fought in afghanistan, too. there is a connection. and on this one you're going to be getting sapphire and diamonds. >> beautiful. >> each of these stories there's something quite interesting behind each of these brands and they're really gorgeous. >> you're not allowed to tell me what is your favorite. that's taboo but you're happy with the selection? >> they're all beautiful. it's more than i could ever ask for. you did such a good job. >> jeremy, i know there's a big de delay to afghanistan, but have you been able to see any of this and what do you think? >> yes, i have the printouts right in front of me and they're all absolutely gorgeous and, like you said, they all go for a good cause. any one of these would be more than i could ever ask for and it also goes out to help other

people across the country, so they're all beautiful. >> so easy to get along with. he's great. that's terrific. >> easy going, yes. >> this is something you're going to wear for the rest of your life, all of these things. it's a big responsibility for us. >> you're getting a little ahead of yourself. let's get them hitched first. >> that's the next thing. >> thank you so much for the selections. we appreciate it. melissa, we can't wait to see you more in the coming weeks. jeremy, hang in there. we'll see you in a couple of weeks as well. to vote, go to our website at todayshow.com and you can vote for the set of wedding bands you want to see jeremy and melissa exchange vows in on their wedding day. you can text in your votes to 622639. next one for brilliant earth, two for neal lane, three for diamonds for a cure, and four for asprey. also go to facebook.com/todayshow and don't forget to like us on facebook to follow our wedding progress. we already have dedicated

staffers checking our page for your comments and votes. we'll reveal the winning rings next wednesday. later this morning, the latest wedding favor trends. next up nate berkus shows you how to pick up great design elements at a local garage sale or even

this morning on "today's home" turning trash into treasures. if you're driving down the road and a piece of furniture left on the curb catches your eye, maybe you want to stop and check it out. at least that's what nate berkus says and he says with a little creativity and elbow grease it could turn into a perfect accessory for your home. he's an expert and host of the upcoming "nate berkus show." great to have you here. >> so happy to be here with you. i've been playing in the garbage, ann. this is what i've been doing. this is what i love to do. >> turning garbage into jewels is something not everybody can

do. >> no. well, actually it is something everybody can do and my hope is to inspire everybody to do it. this is a signature segment on "the nate berkus show" where i find things by the side of the road or at a friend's house if they're not using it anymore and with a few quick steps turn something you'd never want in your house to something that will be something everyone wants in their house. >> we can do this if we know how to do this. for example, you have several things you picked up. this is an example of a night stand. a picture we have here of something you found. this is on a curbside? >> absolutely. this was by the side of the road on one of my trips this summer. and i brought it back to new york and i'll show you what it looks like now. this is actually -- >> tada. >> this has a new marp top. it's been painted black. i took off some of the details on the bottom to make it look more modern and two new knobs which transform this piece. if you saw this in a store it could run up to $500.

$300 to $500. >> how much did it cost you to redo this? you want to not spend a lot of money. >> absolutely. >> this looks expensive. >> it looks expensive. i did it for under $300. and not because i used a marble top but you could just paint the top without the stone and you do it under 100 bucks. >> and it still would have been really nice. the knobs were the problem here. also difficult to know what to do. you got this also from a friend. >> this i stole from billy bush. i was at his office. it's a "b" so i thought it was fun for me, too. this was in his book case. i don't know what this is worth. i guess there's lots of billy bush fans so we could put it on ebay. i put it in an ikea frame for under 20 bucks and it's a cool thing too much in the house. >> now you have a story to go with it as well. so how do you decide then? i think that's an interesting thing. not everybody would decide that they would want this, not everybody has a last anytime that starts with "b." nevertheless, you looked at this and said this is something worth saving. what was your criteria?

>> everyone is always asking me, what do i put on my walls? we have blank walls all across the country basically and it doesn't have to be expensive art. it can be a page torn out of a book, something that, you know, a friend gives you. it can be a note somebody wrote you. so an inexpensive frame. you mix it up, do a claj on the wall. this piece has a lot of graphic to it. it's very bold. and so, to me, if you like something, if it speaks to you, frame it and hang it. >> so you can like something, maybe not like everything about it, lose the things you don't like, and keep the things you do like about it. and you like this rocker which was found for you by a friend. >> katie lee found this for me. i sent her out on a segment for my new show and she went with all the trash collectors in new jersey and i did not like this. this was great watching her on the back of the truck, glamorous ka katie. she found this and she brought this back to me. i said, what am i going to do with that? that looks terrible. very quick fix. fabric, one yard for under $13.

made a little cushion. i had the whole thing painted and now it's adorable. >> it looks like a good rock earp for a newborn. >> and the bottom line you want to choose something that still works. >> maybe give it to the wedding couple. >> you're way ahead. i think you are. they're just getting married. >> you know, maybe they'll have a baby soon and we can help them with the nursery. >> how do you decide what to do? i would never necessarily pick gray. you said, okay, let's go exactly against type or are you picking colors for your own home? >> it's my job to know about all the design trends and what's interesting so, truthfully, you're seeing a lot of gray furniture, a lot of -- and never underestimate the power of paint. the ecot fabric is a bright, bold choice. you can do this with an old dress you're not wearing anymore and sew up a cushion. to me this feels modern now, fresh, and it would work in any kind of interior. >> the interesting thing is you're preserving something rather than -- it's very eco but

also the other idea is that, you know, some of these things may eventually actually be worth something because they were saved. >> absolutely. it's great. i'm actually collecting all of the things that i find across the country from celebrity friends on the side of the road, garage sales, flea markets, and i'm going to make a huge donation at the end of my season. i'm assembling a catalog. >> on that note, nate berkus, thank you so much. the show is called "the nate berkus show." congratulations to you. coming up next, why smart technology can help make people act stupid out in the wilderness.

if you're heading to a national park before the end of summer, you're going to have a lot of company. yellow stone, for example, is playing host to record crowds. >> and those visitors are toting more technology than ever. digital cameras, smart phones, gps locators. as george lewis found out, all those gizmos can sometimes lead to trouble. >> did you see a deer? >> reporter: the park ranger runs emergency services at the grand canyon. his mission is to keep park visitors safe, and there are plenty of those. >> on average we've been doing about 4.5 million visitors each year. >> and these days those visitors come laden with technology. the young woman from france with

her iphone, the guy from japan balancing video and still cameras. and plenty of americans eager to share their pictures with folks back home. here's the old point of view shot over the rim as we come close to the edge. >> reporter: but while people are carrying smart phones, they're not always doing smart things. i can use gps to find out where i am at all times and if i get so absorbed in this gadget that i forget the basics of safety, i can get in a lot of trouble. just ask kathy hayes whose brother-in-law donald spotted a bison in yellow stone. kathy, sensing the perfect youtube moment, followed, camera rolling. >> we'll get a shot of donald getting gored by the buffalo. >> reporter: when he got angry and charged, it was kathy not donald he went after. >> no! it was a traumatic experience. so, yeah, just don't do what i did. be smart, people. >> reporter: ken phillips says while rescue numbers remain constant, one of his technical

pet peeves is a spike in false alarms sent by people with emergency beacons like the kind skiers use in avalanches. here, most of the last dozen alerts have been for trivial problems like bad tasting water. >> there were only two where people sustained an injury that required an emergency response. >> reporter: so the message from the rangers, enjoy the park, take home lots of digital memories, but just remember the safety rules. >> he may not be playing. >> reporter: for today george lewis, nbc news, the grand canyon. >> don't back up. >> note to self, do not approach a bison. it's a bad thing. coming up, now that her divorce is final, tiger woods' ex-wife elin shares her side of the story. >> we'll get details about that and more.

good morning, once again, the time right now is 8:56. checking in with rob and a peak at the forecast. >> already here it's 80 and it's not even 9:00. we're going to be warming up very quickly. high temperature closer to lunchtime, as we head to the rest of the afternoon, as the sea breeze turns stronger,

still, another day of 90s to above 100 degrees. tomorrow and for the rest of the week things finally start to cool off as we head towards the weekend. is ow is 8:57. more news right after the short break. advantage topical solution treats dogs... ( barking ) but destroys fleas. so ask your veterinarian for advantage, the flea specialist for gentle, but effective, flea control.

a crime that allows convicted sex offenders to be locked up for life is now heading to a vote in the assembly. it would increase penalties and sentences and make treatment necessary for dangerous offenders. chelsea's law was approved unanimously by the senate and if it approves the assembly, governor schwarzenegger says that he will sign it.

the "today" show returns in just about half a minute. have a great morning. we'll see you here in just a bit.

we are back now with more of "today" on this wednesday morning, the 25th day of august, 2010. it is a nasty, rainy day here in the northeast. but, you know what? >> what? >> we haven't had rain in a long time. we need this. it's going to pass in time for the weekend. >> it sounds like you're trying to convince yourself. >> were you heresunday? >> we've had a few days. the summer has been hot and dry. give me a break. >> mind over matter. >> inside the studio, thankfully, i'm matt lauer along with ann curry, al roker, and msnbc's tamron hall. she's been silent for the past nine months -- not tamron hall. we're talking about tiger's ex-wife, elin nordegren. well, now she is speak iing out for the first time about the scandal that ended her marriage. what really happened the night

of that infamous crash. did she have any clue about his infidelity? she sets the record straight in an exclusive interview with "people" magazine. we'll have details on that coming up in just a little while. and coming up later expert advice on your money matters. should you dip into your retirement savings to buy a home when prices are this low? also tips for getting the best interest rate if you're trying to tig yodig yourself out of cr card debt. melissa mcmillin and jeremy gebhardt found out they won the chance to get married live on the "today" show. you can see jeremy is serving in afghanistan right now, but he's going to be here for the wedding on september 30th. our viewers have a lot of planning to do starting with the ring already today. look how cute they are. >> melissa is going to cry on her wedding day. >> everyone might be crying. look how cute they are together. hopefully that news is sinking in to them and everyone else. coming up, a look at the hottest

trends for wedding favors. things to give out. isn't that what a wedding favor is? i'm not into it. >> you will. >> let's get a check of the top stories with carl quintanilla filling in for ann. good morning. good morning, everybody. arizona senator john mccain is among the big winners in tuesday's primary as mccain won arizona's republican primary and will face democrat rodney glassman in november. mccain is trying for a fifth term. ben quayle, the son of former vice president dan quayle, was nominated for a seat in the house. in florida kendrick meek won the democratic senate primary. he will face governor charlie crist and republican marco rubio in the fall. and in alaska, the republican senate primary between sarah palin backed underdog joe miller and incumbent lisa mur kkowski too close to call. former president jimmy

carter arrived this morning in north korea. he is on a private humanitarian mission to win the release of an american sentenced to prison for entering that country illegally. this morning in iraq multiple car bombings killed more than 60 people, wounded more than 250 others. two of the bombings targeted police stations. officials in china trying to find out what caused a deadly plane crash tuesday. at least 42 people were killed when the plane crashed and burned while trying to land in fog. more than 50 others survived. today the plane and black boxes were recovered. firefighters in oregon and california have been busy battling raging fires. in ashland, oregon, tuesday a wildfire destroyed 11 homes and damaged two others. one fire official said it looked like a war zone. no injuries there. other fires are burning in california. a fire in northwestern los angeles burned some 1,300 acres and threatened homes. and dramatic scene in brazil where a wildfire sent a tornado of fire swirling high into the

air. weeks of drought have led to dozens of fires across brazil. it is three minutes past the hour. back to matt, ann, tamron and l al. incredible pictures. >> amazing. they call it a fire devil. >> i have never seen one of those. >> it's not a storm. it's just from the heat. heat generated. >> it generates and you can see the updraft and the fire gets sucked up into it. >> it looks like a special effect. incredible. >> thank you so much. and mr. roker, how about a check of the weather? >> and then a tasmanian devil. we have a front bringing showers and thunderstorms from eastern great lakes back down into te s. not a lot of heavy activity. we've got low pressure that's working its way back to the northeast coast bringing more rain, heavy rain in northern new england. showers and thunderstorms here in the east. cooler than normal temperatures but out west record highs giving no relief to the firefighters in northern california and on into southern california. cooler back through texas.

sunny skies and pleasant weather from v of re's sunnyw v oakland. it's 9:00. take a look at the temperatures. it's surprising. almost 80. san jose, 76. 86 in fairfield. 78 in livermore. by lunchtime, well into the mid-90s out towards the tri-valley. this evening, a stronger sea breeze will take place. a big time temperature drop getting started tomorrow inland. and that's your latest weather. since the crash that led to reports of multiple affairs, tiger woods has spoken out publicly about the scanndal. but elin nordegren has been silent, a model of silence until now. she's speaking out for the first time on the end of her marriage with "people" magazine. first, nbc's peter alexander is

in ridgewood country club in paramus, new jersey, where tiger is preparing for a big tournament. peter, good morning. >> reporter: tamron, good morning to you. even as we speak tiger woods is playing a rain soaked practice round here at the barclays, his first tournament as a newly single man and he's expected to have a chance to speak to reporters after today's round if he chooses. for her part, his ex-wife elin nordegren has been remarkably silent during the course of their marriage, really, and certainly the last nine months of this scandal. now she is speak iing out for wt she says will be the first and only time saying she had no interest in being a public person but needed to set some things straight. "i've been through hell." that's what elin nordegren told "people" magazine in an interview conducted this month for 19 hours, over four days. the swedish-born 30-year-old says the stress of the relentless tiger woods' sex scandal was all consuming causing her insomnia and weight

loss and in the days before the divorce was finalized this week she says she began to lose her hair. as for her first reaction to tiger's betrayal and the parade of reported mistresses elin explained absolute shock and disbelief. i felt stupid as more things were revealed. how could i not have known anything? the word betrayal isn't strong enough, sheep added. "i felt like my whole world had fallen apart." it is a world this former model and nanny said she never had an intention of being part of. elin said everything changed when she met tiger. i loved him and i felt safe with him. she insists there was never any violence in their relationship and last november on the night of tiger's miss tysterious cras elin says she was trying to get her husband out of the locked car. the speculation that i would have used a golf club to hit him is just truly ridiculous. >> this time i have a prepared written statement which i shall stick to.

>> reporter: still, on "saturday night live" and elsewhere the late night comedians had a field day. these days elib admits laughing at those parodies. pretty hysterical, she says, even if they were totally untrue. elin says she and tiger tried for months to reconcile before she conclude that had a marriage without trust and love was good for no one. aside from shared parenting of the couple's two young children, 3-year-old sam and 18-month-old charlie, the details of the divorce may never be known. though some estimate elin may have received upwards of $100 million. she wouldn't address the agreement but explained money can't buy happiness or put my family back together. still, elin acknowledges it is making some things easier like the ability to devote her time to her children and to completing her bachelor's degree in psychology. despite that exclusive $2 million waterfront estate she recently purchased in stockholm close to her family, elin says she plans to raise the children in florida near their father who

told "people" elin is a wonderful mother. i know that the two of us will do everything we can to help our children adjust to this new family situation. and despite all those tournaments greeting her husband with a kiss at the 18th green, elin admits one more significant change since tiger's scandal broke. i've not watched one minute of golf. and elin also says she doesn't have any plans to date anytime soon telling "people," quote, it's going to be me and the kids for a while. i believe in love because i've seen it. i've been there. tamron? >> peter alexander, thank you. sandra westfall wrote the cover story in this week's "people" magazine. sandra, good morning. >> good morning. >> it's incredible that you were able to get this much time, 19 hours over four days with elin. no agents, no publicists. how did that happen? >> it was just the two of us and the kids and she really wanted me to get a feel for who she is because this is going to be the

one time she is letting people in and showing the world the kind of woman she is. >> we heard so much about the prenuptial agreement perhaps having a clause that would not allow her to speak publicly and not allow her to share her story. obviously that was not the case to some degree. >> we didn't get into that. i have no idea what the details of any of that are. all i know she came to the door and let me in and shared her story. >> what kind of feeling did you get from her? i mean, she still believes in love. she says money can't buy happiness but there has to be a lot of pain there, even embarrassment. >> she said one of the first things she wanted people to know she had no idea any of this was going on and she, frankly, in retrospect feels stupid and embarrassed about that. how could i not? but she in the 3 1/2 years when most of this was going on, she had two pregnancies, she had two little toddlers at home. >> she was also in school. >> she was taking night classes after the kids were kind of fed

and put to bed. so she is very busy at home and he was off at his golf tournaments and traveling and she was home with her family. >> in the interview, sandra, it seemed as if it was very important for her to share that night, what happened on that infamous night at their home and that she did not hit tiger. >> one of the hardest things about listening to the chatter these past nine months and reading the headlines was that there was this impression out there she was a violent woman, that she took after him, chasing him out of the house, and she said it wasn't that way at all, that he left, i was concerned about him, and i just did everything i could to get him out of that locked car. >> what did she have to say about the reaction? i mean, their situation has been parodied on "snl" and other places, late night talk show hosts have talked about it, did she take any of this in stride and see why it was such fodder around the world? >> she said it was hard and that she would not watch television because she did not want to

instantly be blind sided by a story so she would gingerly click around on the internet where she could control watching clips, pausing clips, or ignoring them. but she won't turn on the tv. so she did a couple months after the "saturday night live" and "south park" parodies check them out on line and had to admit i found them hysterical even though they weren't true and she is latching a lot more easily these days. >> she has been very silent about the situation, silent completely and prior to the scandal. she didn't talk very much, not a lot of access to the media. was she responsive at all to questions about the mistresses who -- alleged mistresses who have been very vocal about their relationships with tiger? >> we didn't get into it. we wanted to talk about her feelings and what she's been through. and really sort of rise above, as she has, handled herself throughout, rise above the muck of the scandal. >> and how are the kids? in the interview you had, she says that sam, their daughter, the 3-year-old daughter, says where is your boo-boo, and she

says in mommy's heart. >> they're very sweet. the children seem resilient. i was there when tiger brought them back from staying over at his house and they were bouncy and, mommy, mommy, and just very sweet, very resilient children. >> in her own words, it's interesting she is opening up and women may relate to what she has to say. thank you, sandra. thank you again. coming up on "today's money 911" from first time home buying to paying off college loans, we have answers to your money emergencies. and later from varicose veins to cellulite and stretch marks, skin solutions for women. a few years ago i got a wake up call. a heart attack at 57. that was a rough time. my doctor told me i should've been doing more for my high cholesterol. ♪ you should've listened. you're right. now i'm eating healthier and i trust my heart to lipitor. [ male announcer ] when diet and exercise are not enough,

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♪ spread a little joy and see ♪ need a little happiness to be ♪ ♪ living the life with me 911. >> 911. are you ready? this morning on "today's money 911" questions from students and teachers looking to pay off student loans, parents who want to save for college. here with our advice, personal finance expert car men wong ulrich, sharon epperson and melissa lee, host of "fast money" and "options action" on cnbc. good to see you ladies. first, public schoolteacher randy in boston, massachusetts, on the phone. good morning. what's your question? >> well, i'm 29 years old and, as i said, work as a public schoolteacher. i have about $160,000 saved including retirement, about $7,000 in student loan debt and expect to receive a pension when i retire. even though i have money set

aside my income is still relatively small to afford a mortgage payment because of the area in which i live unless i were to put a majority of my savings down. is this a smart move or will i have to wait until i'm 35? >> randy has great intentions and good for her. >> you are amazing. 29 years old, teacher's salary, probably saved up more than 80% in terms of cash. it's a buyer's market. yes, you can get a lo interest rate but you're right to question buying a home right now because you don't have a lot of income and you have to put all your savings in. buy a home when it's right for you not necessarily the market says to you this is the time to buy. so, randi, sock as much money away as you can. when you look at mortgages, you are going to have to look at a mortgage that fits within your budget or even lower so that raises the chances you can actually keep the home. >> you think she should hold off? >> absolutely hold off. >> randi, good luck this school year. >> thank you. now we have a graduate student, erica in oregon. she is on the line. good morning, erica.

what's your question? >> good morning. i'm a graduate student going into my final year and i'm in quite a bit of debt because of grad school. every time i receive a dispersement check for my student loans and scholarships, i immediately put it away in a personal savings account. i have been doing this in order to have a contingency plan should anything happen. if i wanted to pay off my student loans today using the money in that savings account, i, unfortunately, would only be able to cover about half of what i owe. are there any suggestions you guys may have on how to capitalize the money that is sitting in that savings account? >> sharon? >> it's never a good idea to take that loan money and put it into savings. when you look at every thousand dollars, she is only earning $20 and is paying 7.9% interest. that's $79. that's a net loss every year of $50. she should put it in a high yield savings account. better yet, look for a rewards

checking account. they have a lot of stipulations. you have to make a certain number of debit transactions but you can get 4% to 5% interest with a rewards checking account. that may be a good place to keep the money, keep it liquid. she will need money to be liquid until she finds a job. >> now an e-mail from a teacher from texas who writes my credit is good, i have several credit cards. my parent were in a bind with their business so i used my credit card to help with their bills. they went out of business and i have $50,000 in credit card debt. the interest is causing a major burden. i'm a teacher taking all of my monthly income to pay all of these bills. i pay into a teacher retirement. should i find out if i can withdraw from the retirement to pay off these debts? i don't have any extra money. please help. melissa, what's the answer here? >> all right. first of all, credit card rates are at nine-year highs. job number one for you is to reduce the amount of interest you're paying across all of your credit card debt. make a list of all your loans and credit card debt, knock

those at the top off. get rid of the highest interest rate. pay those down or negotiate to get a lower rate. card issuers are more willing to talk to you and work with you to afford it. either that roll that interest rate down into a lower interest rate credit card and consolidate that. as for the retirement, do not tap your retirement. you're paying that money into your retirement tax free. when you tap that, you're going to be on the hook for penalties as well as taxes. you might think you have a nice nest egg. if you tap that, it will be a lot less not to mention you are losing the value of time in terms of compounding that savings over time. that's something you cannot make up down the road. >> and now to skype. got a video question. this is christina from el paso, texas. christina, good morning. what's your question? hi, christina. can you hear us? okay. i guess we're having a little problem with christina. christina, can you hear us?

>> yes, i can. >> okay. what's your question? >> about three years ago my husband and i opened up a savings account for our two oldest children and have since then had two more children. my question is, is there any kind of investment that we can transfer our money that we're putting into the savings accounts that will help us accumulate more interest? >> carmen? >> a good question, christina. i know you've started about $25 per paycheck putting that money away. a couple of things you have control over, time. time is on your side. also you have to think where are you putting this money? to educate, put it in a 529 so the interest can go tax free. here is the other thing, add more money in, invest it wisely because where you're at now, only halfway where you want to be when those kids get to the age of 25 which is what your goal is. make sure you're putting more money in and look up a 529, go to savingsforcollege.com.

>> carmen wong ulrich, sharon epperson and melissa lee. ♪ ♪ da da-da, da, da, da-da ♪ da-da, da, da, da ♪ da, da, da-da-da, da, da-da-da, da, da-da ♪ [ female announcer ] there's a place called hidden valley where kids not only eat their vegetables, they can't get enough. ♪ hidden valley ranch. makes vegetables delectable. discover four more ways to make vegetables delectable with farmhouse originals from hidden valley. ♪ [ female announcer ] nutri-grain -- one good decision... ♪ ...can lead to another. ♪ ♪

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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. so in preparation for his host, jimmy fallon is asking his twitter followers to send in their ideas to introducing celebrities. we decided to turn the tables and ask you to tweet us suggestions for introducing jimmy when he joins us live here tomorrow. >> there you go. so tweet your ideas to "today" show. natalie and i will be live in los angeles on monday with a

wrapup. >> meanwhile, coming up our newly selected wedding couple will check out thend weddfag vors. [ female announcer ] you use the healing power of touch every day. ♪ now the healing power of touch just got more powerful. introducing precise from the makers of tylenol. precise pain relieving cream works quickly to activate sensory receptors. it helps block pain signals fast for relief you can feel precisely where you need it most.

precise. only from the makers of tylenol. good wednesday morning to you. it's 9:26. you've been very busy in the weather station theses days. >> yes, living in wine country. it's almost 80 degrees in san jose but fairfield is 86 right now. just after 9:00, you can see those temperatures, 70 in san francisco. to show you the numbers as we go hour by hour, right around lunchtime, still 90s. a big drop in temperatures thanks to our friend, the old air conditio, that big time tomorrow. more news right after this break.

do ministers have to answer

to a higher law? that's the controversial question under way in napa. violating the laws of a church when she married 16 gay marriage couples. in the eyes of the red word presbyterian, she violated the constitution, which says that marriage is between a man and a woman. >> i'm hoping that it will be a step on the way of allowing clergy to marry the same gender couples as they do heterosexual couples. >> the trial will wrap up tomorrow. she could have her corn nation revoked. an suv jumped a sidewalk at the corner of san bruno yesterday morning. right now two victims are lifted in critical condition and the

other three in serious condition. the 24-year-old female driver told investigators that her brakes failed as she was coming down the hill on san bruno. san francisco mayor gavin newsom will announce a new option for green drivers this morning. he will unveil the new plug-in hybrid toyota. another local news update in half an hour or so. the "today" show returns in less than half a minute. have a great wednesday morning.

♪ shut up and put your money where your mouth is ♪ talking about pop princess katy perry, the hit song "waking up in vegas." friday she will close out our summer concert series. come on down. katy perry is engaged. she is planning her wedding to russell brandt. >> we might get some tips for us. one couple that won't have to do their own planning on their own are newly crowned wedding couple who will tie the knot on the plaza later in the month, melissa and jeremy. it will all be picked by you, the viewer. >> awesome. one thing the couple will be checking out this morning, the hottest trends when it comes to

wedding favors. some couples like to give money to charity, and others want more offbeat thank you gifts for their guests. we'll ask bobbie about it, is it something new? people would give out gifts to the wedding party. >> 150 guests, what can you give away? napkins. paper plates. >> my goodness. and also coming up, we'll get to that and talk about advice for people who are suffering from aggravating skin problems such as stretch marks or cellulite or varicose veins. there are some solutions that we're going to get to the experts. >> also, it's time to send your kids back to school. some kids already in school in some parts of the country, i think. if you want to get out of the peanut butter and jelly rut, giada de laurentiis is here with suggestions they'll actually eat. imagine that. >> always has some great ideas. you have some great weather forecasts. looks like a wet one today. >> yes, we do here in the

northeast. out west, though, the heat conditions. record breaking highs up and down the west coast. cooler conditions through texas. fantastic weather great lakes back through the plains. tomorrow some lingering showers in new england. wet weather through the gulf coast. it's going to be windy and cloudy in the pacific northwest. a lot of heat and sunshine, mild around the great lakes. in our neck of the woods it looks hot. this morning, oakland, hazy skies and temperatures already climbing into the 70s and 80s. topping out inland. another hot day. 90s to above 100 degrees. hottest places should be around livermore and as you head towards the evening, the coast should start to trend cooleder. and then tomorrow inland spots will get in on the cools spots. this wraps up the work week and heads on into the weekend. and that's your latest weather. >> al, thanks. up next, some solutions with

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[ female announcer ] sc johnson. a family company. this morning on "today's beauty" solving your skin problems from varicose veins to stretch marks and cellulite. it's not all hopeless. there are ways to minimize and treat them. dr. deborah wattenburg joins us. good to see you. >> morning. >> these are tough topics people don't like to talk about but they want to get to the bottom of some of these issues. let's start with stretch marks. >> stretch marks are small little scars that form in the skin as a result of the skin being overstretched. and what happened is this scar forms intention lines as a result of rapidly stretching skin and they become red or purple because little blood vessels form or break in those areas and cause them to develop. >> and it's almost always in the same few parts of the body, right? >> most commonly on the hips, on the buttocks, the abdomen in pregnant women.

it's very common. we see them in teenagers who are greg very quickly or people who have gained a lot of weight in a very short amount of time. the time frame is very important. people who do things very slowly don't tend to get them as much as when the change occurs rapidly. >> how treatable are they? >> stretch marks can be treated sometimes. the over-the-counter creams don't work that well. you want products with retinol available by prescription. there are products that will help to improve the texture, the color, but there are new laser procedures incredibly helpful to change the color and some real promise in eliminating stretch marks. it's expensive and you need a lot of treatments but they do work. >> the technology is coming along? >> technology is improving. >> how about varicose veins? what are those? >> varicose veins are the large, sort of palpable veins or vessels that you see on the backs of legs or the sides of legs and they're usually purple

or blue and usually you can see them or feel them. >> they actually have more to do with what your heart is doing than your leg is doing and there can be pain involved, too? >> correct. when the valves and vessels become sloppy or aren't working properly, the blood will actually back up and it will pool in your legs and cause these blood vessels to form because the blood isn't getting up to your heart as well as it should. >> what about the treatment? >> the treatments are effective. we can treat them with an injection therapy and there are new solutions that are available that are a lot less painful that were recently fda approved. >> even surgery is an option. >> exactly. we can strip the veins, remove them with minor surgical procedures. >> varicose veins are different than spider veins, right? what's the difference? >> spider veins are much more common. those are a cosmetic nuisance. those are the red, star burst lesions.

those are not anything to be concerned about except from a cosmetic perspective and those can can be treated as well with injection therapy. >> i want to save time for cellulite. i don't think men or women like it to talk about. what are the causes and cures? >> cellulite is universal in most post adolescent women, 70% to 80%, 90% of women have it and it's caused by the way the fat cells connect with the tissue bands in the skin and it causes a dimpling effect on the abdomen, again, on the buttocks and hips most get it whether they're overweight or not overweight? >> massage, caffeine creams, do those work? >> the caffeine creams are helpful but temporarily. they redistribute the water in the fat cells so the skin can look smoother temporarily. massage is helpful but costly and repetitive treatments are necessary. some of the new laser techniques that are developing now and i think the technology is on the forefront are getting better and better. right now any of those techniques can make it look worse or better and you don't

know until you have the procedure done. >> good advice for just about everybody who knows something about these things. deborah, thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> up next our "today" wedding couple checks out the hottest trends in wedding favors for their big day. t 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. two complementary fragrances alternate to keep things... fresh day after day. and not just for 30 days -- but for 60. it's our longest-lasting plugins freshener. s.c. johnson. a family company.

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>> announcer: "today's wedding modern love" is brought to you by chevy. every model backed by a 100,000-mile, five-year powertrain limited warranty. this morning on "today's wedding modern love" wedding favors, from do it yourself gifts to charitable donations, modern wedding couples are breaking all traditions when deciding what presents to give their guests. today's style editor bobbie thomas has the hottest trends and is joined by melissa mcmillin and jeremy gebhardt who just found out about an hour ago that they'll tie the knot live on the plaza in front of their family, friends, and millions of viewers who feel like they know and love them. good morning all. thank you. congratulations. >> thank you so much. >> are you walking on sunshine even though it's raining? >> yes, i can't believe it. it's unreal. >> we are all here to help you plan this wedding. >> thank you. >> i would like to share with

you this first idea that couples today are doing good with their favors, which i really like. you can give donations and whether you go to a professional printer or make them yourself, a charitable donation at the table. >> a wedding favor is something that's a part of the wedding cu culture now, you give out gifts to your guest sfs. >> it's a way to say thank you for participating and it's a great way to give back celebrating love. i love this eco-friendly idea of pine tree seedlings and you can give them out to guests and ask them to plant when they take home. they're pretty and decorative on the table. an alternative idea and a really popular idea, pun intended. i will ask you to pop this balloon. okay. you would ask the guests during a toast to do the same and all these random acts of kindness would fall out and you ask the gifts to do the random acts of kind ne kindness.

>> my heart is still racing. it's cute. >> really think about something somebody can take home. ladies, i know you want to put your bridal logo but try to resist and think about something that can be used again. i like the eidea of this websit called littlethingsfavors.com. everything is under $1 which is so great. you can use these mini photo frames, coasters, but then you can take it home and use it on your night stand. i like the boxes that you can buy. this is my favorite, chocolate. >> and you can put something in it for later. >> and for a location wedding these candles actually melt down into a hand cream and they can be personalized. >> lovely. what's the next category? >> diy. i love diy because you can share a family recipe, cost effective but creative. i got inspired by dylan's candies where you can cut back on the flowers and do great centerpieces. modern families are inviting the children. and of course do a candy bar for

everyone to take bags of candy home. but very important this last category are my dream favors. melissa, we want you to really pay attention to the dream favors. you're going to get to decide nothing else but one of these three favors for your wedding. isn't that great? it's a tough job but i had to make some calls. it was really fun actually. this camera from sony is not even available here in the u.s. it's the world's smallest 3-d camera takes panoramic cameras. kodak offers this pulse frame. it has its own e-mail address that links directly to facebook and your guests can send you the pictures from your wedding to create a memory book. and i like the idea of possibly going with an instant flashback from polaroid. they're instant classics to help you hold the moment in your hand. >> and others can participate because they can capture moments you don't see and share. >> that's so neat. >> you get to think about these three. >> that's exciting. >> jeremy, how do you feel? are you okay, jeremy?

are you overwhelmed? >> yeah, i'm glad i'm sitting down. this is unreal. >> it is. >> well, congratulations. melissa says she is willing to carry the heavy load until you get back and then you have to help out here. >> yes. >> congratulations. >> she's adorable. good choice of a fella. good choice. we'll update our audience later to let them know what you and jeremy decide as your picks and favorites. thank you, bobbie. thank you, melissa. up next, giada de laurentiis has packed some great back-to-school lunches. risk for sudden cardiac death.t i was 23 years old, i wasn't overweight. i never dreamed this would happen to me. when the doctor told me i had three blocked arteries, i felt like i was punched in the gut. i found out that one in three women die from heart disease.

how did i not know that?

this morning on "cooking with giada" getting your kids to eat a nutritious lunch. sometimes it can take nutrition. packing it in a cool container can help seal the deal to success. chef giada de laurentiis is here with some creative and yummy

ideas. giada, good to see you again. >> good morning rlt. >> you like cotton and reusable for bringing stuff to school. >> i do. we need to get rid of some of those mrplastic baggies we thro away. be good to the environment. so this is one of my favorites, the one i use for jade, and it's very easy and light and you can clean it easily and it actually keeps food pretty fresh in there. it's not refrigerated or anything but it's cute and easy for young kids. my daughter is 2 1/2. >> this is a cute tote. >> this is a cute tote for an older child. not too much older, maybe kindergarten. it has a little baggy inside that snaps off. >> nice. >> and you can wash it. it makes it easy. for younger children it's really easy to handle. >> this looks utilitarian. >> this we're getting into a little older. this is basically inspired from asian field workers so it's -- >> like a bento box. >> it's cool looking, modern, and opens up like this. there's three different

compartments. >> neat. >> it keeps the food fresh. you said your son loves sushi. >> if your kid has a really big appetite -- >> this is for an older child, but this is really cool. it has five different compartments, you can see with a water bottle, and it snaps shut. it keeps everything nice and cold and you just put this whole thing in here. >> very neat. >> you can wipe this clean. it keeps cool. >> to put in the lunch box -- >> it makes eating more fun for kids. mac and cheese cupcakes. >> you made something like this before. this is a terrific idea. >> i think kids -- at least my daughter loves cupcakes so the idea is you make it savory. you cook the pasta, the ground turkey or chicken and assemble it with the cheeses and bread crumbs and then you kind of line up the vegetables so i've already cooked asparagus, broccoli and tomatoes. you put everything together into the little cupcake holder and the kids can decide what they want to put in it.

if you let kids cook and be creative, they'll be more interested. >> a little bit of every food group. >> bake them off, 15 minutes, 375, and you just run a little knife all around them and they should pop right out and put them right into the little container they can have for lunch. >> meatballs. >> every kid loves meatballs. >> who doesn't? meatball slider. >> i put all of these ingredients together. i use cornflakes. kids love cornflakes. it gives it texture and feels like they're eating cereal. >> you can put whatever you want. cornflakes is my favorite. i take these little hawaiian rolls which are really soft -- >> kind of like slider buns. >> and you put them in there. come on in, you guys. and then a little bit of ketchup. and i just pushed out -- i love these because the kids can get them in their mouth. it's kind of fun. >> wagon wheels. >> which are fun. my daughter loves them. europe good to go. >> very nice. >> can you make these in

adult-sized portions? >> portion control. you get a couple of them. >> giada de laurentiis, thank you so much. still to come, hoda's special guest host john rich of big and rich. >> just saw him in the hallway. [ indistinct conversations ] [ female announcer ] this is not a burger. it's better. because with 57% less fat than regular ground beef, it's better for you. you see, this is a morningstar farms® meatless griller. that's right, meatless. and it tastes as good as it looks. so you can still enjoy that grilled-burger taste you love... and everything that comes with it. morningstar farms® grillers® original. [ indistinct conversations ] now that's more like it. [ ding! ]

they had 30 people and an idea. meg's job was to make it happen. it took leadership. focus. and the ability to bring people together. meg whitman delivered. named one of america's best ceo's by harvard business review, she grew ebay 15,000 strong and made small business dreams come true. now meg has a plan to create jobs. fix sacramento. and deliver results. meg whitman. for a new california. good morning to you. 9:56 right now. i'm laura garcia-cannon. rob has been talking about something that the bay area -- what, instant air conditioning? >> yes, signs of it are starting

to show up around the shore. look at that. low clouds on the approach. hinting at some cooling today. the coast and around the peninsula, i still think we're going to hit high temperatures around lunchtime. then as we get towards 4:00, the bay will start to cool off. inland spots still hot for one more day. and then the cooling pushes inland for tomorrow. we get the morning clouds again and then we have a cool and chilly weekend. inland temperatures in the 70s. laura? >> what a cool down. thanks, rob. we're getting a look at what a stadium in san jose may look like. just released digital photos of the hp-pavilion. the stadium appears to have an open outfield, which visitors outside the field may be able to catch a home run ball. the giants still own territorial rights to san jose. students are making the grade on the state exit exam.

the examiner reports that more sophomores are taking and passing the exam. they have five chances to pass the test before graduation. in san francisco, 185 students in the 2010 graduating class didn't pass the test in time. that's down from last year. however, the percentage of san francisco students who passed on the first try is lower than the statewide average. san francisco mayor gavin newsom will announce a new option for green drivers. he's unveiling the new target hybrid. it will be at 11:00 at the pacific center plaza across from san francisco's city hall. it's 9:58. we're going to continue with another local news update in half an hour. the "today" show returns in about half a minute. have a great morning.

all right. it's wednesday, august 25th, 2010 and country star john rich is here. the song in the background, aptly named, "sable course." >> got to love it. >> john rich is here from big and rich. how you doing? >> i'm doing great, thanks for having me. quite an interesting experience, hanging out in kathie lee's cresting room this morning. >> blake shelton was in kathie lee's pants. >> he tweeted that. >> i found a pink strapless in

there, it looked great, but it was a little tight in my shoulders. >> this guy sings a lot of terrific music. there's a song that's brand-new, it's out. it will make you get up off the couch. it's called "country done come to town." . let's roll it. ♪ ♪ ♪ i lay my muddy truck ♪? a high-falutin club ♪ >> where did you shoot this? >> at my house. >> the mechanical bulls in the house. i call it the house that country music built. all the country music fans, everybody over the years giving me a big house. we shot the video there. >> what was it, mount richmore?

>> named after you? >> just having some fun with it. i'm a soppingwriter, i always got to flip the words a little bit. >> you were married in 2008. have a new baby. >> his name is cash. >> after? >> johnny cash. the greatest country singer of all time. and so his name, i figure someday he'll look at me and he'll go, god, my dad's so uncool. and i'll go, yeah, but don't forget, i gave you a cool pickup line, my name is cash, cash rich. >> if you're a big fan of college sports, there's an anthem on espn, on college "gameday." and the song is called "coming to your city." >> it's been the anthem for college football games for going on five years. >> listen to it, it's pretty cool. ♪ ♪

>> it's cool. >> and college football is kicking back off, i'm pumped. >> you live where, nashville? >> grew up in texas, but i live in nashville now. and football, i don't know, if anybody out there -- when football season is over, it's like a funeral. it's terrible. and i'm going to be down in panama city done a concert this weekend, at the world's largest tailgate party kicking it off. >> who is your favorite team? >> since i'm from texas, i'm a horns guy. but -- i love it. >> we want you to feel at home. we had martina mcbride yesterday. she insisted on tequila. she's a tough cookie. >> martina is one of the coolest ladies you'll ever meet. >> i know it. and we had blake shelton on there, and he was drinking governors. >> turpentine. >> your drinking choice is? >> i think? a nice little crown royal and coca-cola. >> welcome to our show.

>> this might be the coolest thing ever. >> after three more of those, i'm going to look petty handsome to you. >> there's another wonderful member of your family that everybody is buzzing about. maybe more favorite than you. your granny. >> granny rich, she is watching this morning, she lives in ashland city, tennessee. that's her and i a while back. she makes all of my stage clothes, anybody that's ever seen me play, i have these rhinestone jeans and modern grand ole opry-looking stuff and granny rich is my exclusive tailor. >> she's a good old texas girl and she's kind of everybody's country granny in country music. >> you can do a song like that and you can just come up and play with something. do you have your guitar? >> i sure do. i was thinking about this challenge, i knew i was going to be sitting here, thinking of you. i've written a lot of songs for some of the greatest women in country music.

faith hill recorded several of my songs. gretchen wilson, "red-necked woman." and i thought, somebody has got to write a song about you to make something happen. with hoda. i was thinking, what rhymes with hoda. and i was sitting on the plane and i came up with this, it goes -- ♪ i met a pretty woman on the tv screen and i asked her her name ♪ ♪ she said it's hoda, h-o-d-a, hoda ♪ ♪ i got to give a shout-out to kathie lee ♪ ♪ for letting me sit up here with hoda, h-o-d-a, hoda ♪ ♪ can i get a hoda hell yeah ♪ h-o-d-a, hoda >> i love it. >> pretty cool. >> you got a couple of fun little tidbits to talk about. we were in the dressing room this morning and there's something that people are labelling the best horse race

ever. let me just tee it up. there was a race in jersey, two horses were out in front. one was called, my wife knows everything. and the other was called, my wife doesn't know. and for some reason, these two horses were neck and neck at thend. let's watch the call at the tape. >> into the final furlong, my wife knows everything. the wife doesn't know. they're one-two. of course, they are. my wife knows everything in front. to the outside, the wife doesn't know. my wife knows everything. the wife doesn't know. my wife knows everything. more than the wife doesn't know. >> and the winner of course is -- >> my wife knows everything. >> i think it's great that tiger woods finally got both of his horses in the race. >> there you go. >> he's in there in the race world, right? >> you're in truouble, big trouble. this is not me saying it, but the announcer said that this pay have been the most memorable thing he ever said.

even more memorable than the time he had to announce the horse silky nuts had to be scratched. [ laughter ] >> that was from the richard simmons stables. >> careful, careful. >> sorry. you bringing cocktails at us, what you going to do. >> a little later in the person, we're going to have a wonderful person from "people" magazine talking to us about elin, tiger's now-former wife. she spoke out for the first time. i think it will be interesting to hear what the "people" magazine folks have to say. this is kind of interesting, "people" were asked did she know about ha happened. she said, about the mistresses, she said, absolute shock and disbelief. i felt stupid as more things were revealed. how could i not have known anything? the word betrayal isn't strong enough. and she added, i feel like my whole world has fallen apart. she said she had no idea.

>> at the end of the day, it's not anything to joke about. the family, it's just tearing them apart. and being in the spotlight like that, you just say, hey, he's definitely, definitely, he screwed it up. to see the pain going on there. it's pretty heavy-duty. >> it's hard enough, a lot of people have gone through these terrible situations in their personal life without anybody else peeking in or looking at you or feeling sorry for you. you having to hide from cameras and all that stuff. >> it's just rough. >> people cut jokes about it, including me. but at the end of the day, it's pretty serious. >> i'm glad to hear that she's been able to speak her piece. >> she can speak her piece. we want to say something about southerners. there's something about texting and talking on cell phones. >> okay. >> it seems as though southerners talk more on cell phones than people in other parts of the country. new yorkers rank near the bottom of conversation. we only talk 713 minutes per month. people in in the gulf coast states and southerners talk the

most -- 800 minutes. >> you know why that is? >> because in the south, you know, you pick up the phone and you call somebody and you first thing you say is, how you doing? how's your momma and them doin'? how's johnny lee? how's sally sue. and pretty soon, you're like i forgot what i was talking about, i'll talk to you later. >> and in new york it's hey, yo. >> we're in and out, we don't mess around, there's not a lot of chit chatting here. >> what do you think about lindsay lohan getting out of rehab. >> how long was she in there? >> i think it was two weeks, was it? three weeks. >> i mean -- i worry about her. because, you know. there's no shame in going to rehab, there's so many people have problems that they need to go to rehab. it's not like she's the only person in the world that it could ever happen to. but i think you ought to stay there long enough to at least

need a new haircut. that's not very long, two weeks. i didn't know you could get fixed up in two weeks. i wish her the best. i hate seeing that. what you going to do. >> let's see some folks on facebook might have some questions for you. >> melissa said please can you tip your hat back for a second, we can't see your gorgeous eyes. >> okay. >> and amy wants to know, other than your own music, who is your favorite country singer and your favorite songs? >> i would say my favorite singer is johnny cash. and the first song i ever sang was folsom prison blues. i was in kindergarten, and you should have seen my teacher's face when i sang ♪ i shot a man in reno ♪ just to watch him die they didn't find that real funny, it was a christian school. >> all right. we're going to check back with you in a little bit. coming up next, with her

divorce from tiger woods being finally done, elin speaks out to "people" magazine. and we're going to talk to the folks of "people" right after this. did you know

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what a difference a year makes, almost no one would have guessed last fall that the picture-perfect marriage between tiger woods and elin in order nordegren would crumble. >> and "people" magazine got an exclusive interview with the

ex-mrs. tiger woods. i'm surprised she talked at all. you never really heard her speak early on with the tiger relationship. and afterwards, i was shocked that she decided, why did she decide to talk? >> it's interesting. because a lot of people have said this is her first interview since the divorce. but really, this is her first interview -- ever. as mrs. tiger woods, she rarely spoke to the press at all. this is the first time she's ever sat down to talk about not just her life in the past nine months, but her childhood, her time with tiger. really letting the world know who she is. >> we talked at the top of the show, thought it was interesting that she was saying that she was blindsided by the multiple affairs. and it may have been because he was, i guess he was gone a lot at tournaments and came home. so maybe not -- >> right. he was gone a lot. she was home with two young children, she was very devoted to her family and staying at home with them. she wasn't traveling to tournaments with him as much. that was very important for her to make clear. you know, there were a lot of

misconceptions out there over the past nine months. one of them, that she was very adamant about setting the record straight on, was the idea that she had maybe somehow known something was going on and turned a blind eye. that was not the case, she was completely devastated. had no clue about what was going on. >> she wanted also to set the record straight on she did not hit him with the golf club. she wanted it to be very clear that she's not a violent type person. >> she said point-blank, there was never any violence in her marriage, in either direction. that he was never violent, she was never violent. there was no physical violence at any point in time involved. >> what did you think reading about that? >> i think the point that's made, that was a big thing to get across. to say there's no violence. it wasn't right. but that didn't happen. i think it's great she gets to set the record straight from her perspective. >> what about for the kids? she was saying she wants to live near tiger so he can be part of

their lives. >> it's interesting because tiger and elin have very much committed to raising their children together. and elin herself, is a child of divorce. that's one of the reasons why she so much wanted to keep her marriage together and she attempted to save it. but it's also one of the reasons why she feels confident that she and tiger can raise their children together. and that they can still have a stable upbringing. because she herself benefitted from that when her parents split. >> she didn't want to talk about the conditions of the divorce. but it's been reported, i remember it was reported that she was going to get $700 million. and it's gone to $100 million. >> no, and the terms of the settlement of confidential and private. clearly a number likes $750 million, that's almost tiger woods' entire network. that's not even remotely accurate. >> there's nothing in the agreement that said she couldn't talk. i was assuming that when you have a divorce agreement and you settle for some money, in there it would also say, by the way, we're going to keep mum on this.

>> yeah. i mean she's very clear that she does not want to talk about tiger's feelings and what tiger may or may not have done. tiger is grown man and he can speak for himself. so while she's not going to discuss the terms of the settlement and she doesn't choose to discuss what tiger has said or done in the past nine months, she's free to discuss what she has been through, what she is feeling. what she thinks going forward. it's all fair game. >> were there any parameters, other than she didn't want to talk about the divorce agreement? >> she didn't want to have her children photographed. and clearly she's trying very hard to maintain their level of privacy. >> in the papers today, i guess there were some shots someone must have taken with a cell phone camera -- >> it's going to be very, very hard, she'll be spending more time in sweden, which is a place for her to have some degree of privacy. but clearly, it will be hard to keep everything out of the spotlight. >> we didn't know anything about her until today, really. >> we're seeing wedding photos for the first time.

this is not a couple that sold their wedding photos when they got married. this is the first time you're seeing a glimpse of what her life was like and what it's become. >> kate, thanks very much. coming up next, a second coming for "avatar." did you see "avatar"? >> absolutely. three times. >> they added some new scenes. actor steven lang is with us. 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. ( music stops, gasping ) mother nature's no match for tampax pearl compak. with a 40% smaller applicator, it's full-size protection... only cuter. ( click )

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♪ everybody say hey, hoda ♪ ♪ we're going to talk about how to talk ♪ ♪ everybody say hey hoda ♪ hey hoda >> we're going it talk about "avatar," let's go to a click and we'll talk in just a second. >> as head of security, it is my job to keep you alive. i will not succeed. not with all of you. >> oh, that is actor steven lange, he plays a military

colonel in the highest-grossing movie ever, i think. "avatar," of all time. and what's cool about this -- thanks for joining us. but what's cool about this is, if you've seen "avatar" already, it's actually being rereleased with a few added scenes, is that right? >> pretty much from day one there's been this clamoring from people all over the world to know more about the world of pandora, that jim cameron has created. so i think he was really delighted to put, to restore some of the stuff that i think was extremely painful for him to cut in the first place, you know. and having seen the footage, it's gorgeous. >> i think that's terrific of the because this 3-d film, they get bumped for the next one. so there were people, i know you saw it and i saw it, too. but some people who never really got a chance to see it. >> and the reason that it left in the first place, was because "alice in wonderland" was coming in. but the fact is that "avatar" was still being sold out when it

left. so it felt like it closed prematurely. >> what was it you loved about the movie. >> well, first of all, you. you're such a nice guy, but you're the meanest you know what i've ever seen in a film. killing all the blue people. unbelievable. >> i don't kill all of them. >> many of them. >> you're swinging the big machine. i'm going, this dude is awesome. >> and you've got another film coming out. you play a tough guy in the next one, too. >> i just finished "conan" as in the barbarian, in bulgaria. which is where one goes to film "conan." and i play a pretty blackhearted character in that, as well. >> you play interesting -- you've got another one. what's the other one. you've got three films. there's another one coming out. >> i'm about to star in another picture, with marcia gay hardin

called "later on this pay will be useful to you." i pay kind of a schlub in this one, kind of a change for me. >> when will "avatar" be back? >> it will be back on friday, there's some new creatures that no one has never seen before. there's a naavi love scene, which is quite erotic, but chaste. >> thank you, stephen, good luck. coming up, he's a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. we'll play "who knew" after this. and we'll talk aut millionaire matchmaker patty stenger is here. 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!

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he's just as important as he ever was. ♪ good morning to you. 10:26. i'm laura garcia-cannon. there was an earthquake this morning. >> yes. it's a 2.2 earthquake about a mile north of oakland. it's three feet deep. so that's maybe why you didn't feel it. northwest of oakland, just before 10:00 this morning. the hot weather is what you'll feel. already 84 in san jose. thank to a sea breeze, one more hot day inland and then the sea breezewe as ls things up as we cool off into the weekend. more news right after the break.

weather is definitely too hot for some to handle it. they sweated out of class without air conditioning. the scorching three-digit temperatures cause some schools to cancel after-school sports. the key to keeping cool is using commonsense. replace your body with appropriate minerals and wear cool clothing. if you have to exercise during the day, make sure to pace

yourself and use the buddy system. moving without packing a single box sounds great but residents in one neighborhood are not too thrilled about it. santa clara county is in the process of turning unincorporated land into cities. one of those cities is between san francisco and campbell. neighborhoods protested with san jose officials. they said that they would rather become a part of campbell. so far, no official decision has been made. 49ers taking a campbell on the california lottery. they are teaming up for the first time ever to offer scratcher tickets, part of the 25th anniversary celebration for the california lottery. if you buy a 49ers scratcher, you can then enter your nonwinning ticket and get a second chance of prizes and games and autographs from current players as well as

v.i.p. tickets. i don't think anybody won the mega million. it's going to be up to $133 million. so good luck to you. thanks for joining us. the "today" show is up next. and we're back on this wi winesday with our "who knew" trivia show. we thought we'd stay in the spirit and test your knowledge on, that's right, country music. today's guest host john rich is across the street at the msnbc digital cafe. if they answer the question correctly, they get $100, if they don't, they get kathie lee's new cd. >> i want to know where i can get $100. >> that's where john is let's go to john. >> okay, we got karen and charlotte from massachusetts. and the question is, country music legend garth brooks also performed under which of the following alter egos?

>> chris gaines. >> chris gaines, you're the winner. >> i like it. >> you get $100 american express card, darling. >> chris gaines, i would have never known that. >> i would have gone for garth crooks. but back in 1998, what most people don't realize is it was a big part of a movie that never materialized that he was going to do called "the lamb." so he wasn't out of his mind. although for a while it seemed like it. he did do some music as chris gaines. >> let's go back across the street to john. >> so we have rita from virginia. how you doing? >> hey, fine. >> here's your question, based on nielson sound scan, which country music album has sold the most records of all time?

>> let me see -- >> shania. >> yeah, you're right! >> wow. we gave away $200 so far. wow, over johnny cash, garth brooks and the dixie chicks. >> that's impressive. garth brooks is actually the highest-selling artist of all time. but shania twain has sold over 15 million "come on over" albums. and in all genres only second following metallica's "black" album. >> she crosses over, too, doesn't she? >> she's great, beautiful and rich. >> back across to john rich. >> we've got ron from utah out here. ron, you doing good? >> yeah. >> here's your question, in addition to its catchy hook, this big and rich song offers some very interesting advice. let's listen to the clip and you can finish the lyrics. ♪ i made a lost noise

♪ tell the girls they are so pretty ♪ ♪ riding up and down broadway ♪ in my old studly roy ♪ and -- >> ♪ ride a cowboy >> cowboys only produce about half the methane of a horse, true story. >> thank god they knew that, that would have been bad. back across to john. >> we got jackie from virginia. jackie, taylor swift has sang with all of the following artists except for one. who is it? >> my daughter says madonna. >> your daughter is right, it's madonna! >> i think we should give the money to your daughter. >> i think so, too.

>> the kids, the young kids who know every lyric to taylor swift's songs and no doubt know the correct answer to that is amazing. >> it's impressive. and john mayer, people have seen her. but t-pain, that's the funny one. t-pain was from the cmt 2009 music awards and they did a thug story. kind of a take on her "love story." and that's where she got her nickname, t-swizle. >> back across to john. >> rachel from connecticut. let's hear a clip from one of the most recognizable stuck in your head country songs of all time and you guess the singer. ♪ don't tell my heart ♪ my achy-breaky heart ♪ i just don't think it would understand ♪ ♪ and if you tell my heart ♪ my achy-breaky heart >> got it? >> i know it, it's -- i can't think of it. >> it's billy ray cyrus, she got it, she got it.

>> that hurt. >> okay. we've actually seen the 180 on that. >> it's his birthday today. >> billy ray cyrus' birthday. >> 1982, "achy-breaky heart" a big year for him, that's when miley cyrus was born. and it gave birth to the mullett. >> we've got eddy from new york. which country artist has not performed during "the today show's" summer concert series? >> you're right. >> the zac brown band. >> you're right. >> this is a rare day, on this particular day, i think we got every single one right. >> is that the first time? >> i think it may be the first time that we've gotten every one right. zac brown band, we've got to make an appointment with them.

>> the ten-year overnight success story. >> thank you so much, you were terrific. >> good luck with the "top 20" on nbc. we've got another perfect segment for you, john. you're not done. >> thank you.ls [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time... 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 liquid gel. zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®.

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are. if there's time to let the wardrobe do the talking, it is now. >> it can't hurt to pick update tips with your husband. >> we have the creative director and bravo's millionaire match maker. i have love this segment. each of you are going to tell us your perspective on what we should be wearing for the first date. do you think you are going to agree or disagree. >> a lot of times we agree. i felt he nailed it and i nailed it. we had the inhouse wardrobe. he didn't know that. >> the best part is the individual opinions. it's about personal style. >> we are going to start with josie. what to wear on a first date. josie, you have elin. >> we all know relationships are complicated enough. the last thing you want is what to wear into that equation. my favorite is day into night.

you may have to go straight from work. you want to look good, not corporate. >> leather pants? >> they are faux leather. >> okay. >> swap out the blouse for a cool t-shirt and the foe leather pants and you are comfortable for the date. >> it's hip. >> no accessories, you don't clan k in the movie. >> patty, you have a different look. >> dinner and a movie, especially in new york is more fashionable. i love the navy dress. it's a take on the "sex and the city." you have the golden band. look at the shoes. she's rocking it with the leather. >> john, you are the judge. which would you rather take out? >> mine has cleavage. >> can i take both out? i can't make up my mind. >> next one. here is the next one. we are going with weekend brunch. this is tough to know what to wear. joe, tell us who you have?

>> tracy, believe it or not, this is my idea of demure. it's a daytime date. you don't want to look good or too casual and you don't want to look too nighttime, either. knee length. it's not black. it feels sexy and feminine at the same time. >> is it pricey? >> no. it's really, really inexpensive. >> patty, let's see what your take is. >> i went black on the bottom. it's got the juice. i'm all about the signature. look at her shoes. they are amazing. it's the hip glade yea tor look. she's saying i'm sexy but you are not going to see the goods until you give me the ring. >> these shoes are debatable. i want to know if guys like or dislike them. we are wearing them all the time. john? >> i'm going to say -- i'm going

to say, i like those shoes if we go out to the club. i don't know about brunch. >> look at him. >> it's down home. she's a really sharp looking country girl. >> okay. well, i have a theory on this. i don't usually like things that cut off the ankle. that's what men look at. in this case, it works because of the zebra look. >> okay. next. what is the next look? this is cocktails and clubbing. this one, you don't want to go too far overboard. you want to be comfortable. don't go on a date and be high maintenance. my whole thing is about wearing a shoe that you can move around in. that's what this is about. we did the wedge, the gladiator thing. it's comfortable achbd sturdy.

>> patty, what did you choose? >> i'm loving the highway with the skinny. it shows her body off. it's the draping and the blue. shows the arms. legs are showing. she's ready to rock it. she's not showing too much. >> i think there can be. should you show cleavage or should you wear sleeveless and cleavage? >> pick one asset. it's the arms and legs for her. >> is that two pieces or one? >> it's one piece, okay. but, it's like she's showing the arms and showing just enough skin. you overdo it at the club with too much skin. >> if there's too much skin, it leads to a fistfight. some of the guys are all over your date and you are like hey, buddy, you need to back off. i think they are on the money. i love the shiny bling. >> he went right to that. >> i kind of base what y'all are

wearing on can you two-step in it. >> bring in all the models, thank you. >> patti, thank you. >> thanks, guys. coming up next is big time. make sure your child's backpack isn't doing permanent damage. this is a strawberry pop tart. but this is warm, fresh-baked strawberry toaster strudel. [ music ] see the difference? pillsbury toaster strudel, the one kids want to eat. rich fudge over a warm, chocolate brownie like nothing you've ever had before ready made sweet moments in the refrigerated section

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shopping for back-to-school supplies is often a pain for parents, those supplies are almost always literally a pain for children. >> sometimes kids, they load up the backpacks with so much stuff that it actually outweighs their bodies. >> so here with some tips on finding and packing the best bag for your child is elizabeth shaw, the executive editor of "parenting" magazine. kids have so many more books now, right? >> and tons of books, carrying them back and forth. and if they don't carry them properly or if they overload their backpacks they're going to have a lot of back and neck strain. >> what's the general rule with

how heavy a backpack should be? >> 10% of their body weight, which is actually not a lot. we loaded up a backpack here and we're just going to weigh it. and it's -- there we go, there we go -- it's we have about eight pounds, so that's an eight pounds, three ounces, that's the max. >> let's find the right backpack and the way our kids should carry them. >> the best traditional backpacks are two straps, lot of wide padding. this backpack from lands' end has a nice feature, a sternum strap which gives more support. this one from old navy is a great affordable option. >> is there a place they should sit on your body?

>> ideally it should be above the curve of their lower back. this one is a little big and did should fit tightly across their back. a lot of kids like to wear them loose, because it's kind of cool. >> or on one shoulder. >> or one shoulder is -- really -- is a total no-no. >> okay. i can't believe we're still lugging so many books around. especially with all the technology, you think there would be an ipad version of this. >> one mom said just the three-ring binders adds a lot of weight. >> all right. so now we're talking the wheelie bags. >> the wheelie bags are great options for kids if they have tons of books to lug back and forth. they might be a tougher sell, no the quite as cool. what's nice about this one is it has some hidden backpack straps. they can wear it the traditional way. >> some kids don't like those because of stairs and other things. >> stairs, tripping others, it gives you both options. and it's great for a weekend trip.

>> and our last two? >> hudson has got a very cute messenger-style bag. >> very dapper. and what's great about this is it can be worn across the body with one strap. but this one is wonderful because it also has the two-strap option, which is perfect. >> and what's right here? >> big kids love these cool, bling, bags. >> turn around so we can see what's going on. >> again, not quite as ideal as the two-strap, but wear it diagonal, watch the weight and it will be fine. >> excellent, good job, guys, you guys all do very well. congratulations you're on tv. we'll be back with more of "today" on nbc.

you're a good man, but you have a secret.

new favorite song? ♪ well i met a pretty girl on the tv screen ♪ ♪ i asked her her name ♪ and she said to me, my name is

hoda ♪ ♪ h-o-d-a, hoda ♪ >> i have some questions for you. >> aside from that song, amanda wants to know what is your favorite song to perform on stage? >> well i got to tell you there's a song i wrote about my grandfather who had six purple hearts in world war ii. and it's a song that's really never been on the radio, never been a big hit but i play it every concert. it's called "the good lord and the man." >> and you have some predownloads. >> time is so tough and people are like i can't spend the money. i've written so many songs that will never be on records, why not just start giving a few of them away. go to johnrich.com and right on the top of the page go to free downloads. >> we had so much fun with you today. >> i had a blast. have me back any time. >> guess who is going to be here tomorrow? >> trisha yearwood. venus williams will be by. we'll have a crazy show, come

back and visit. >> thank you, darling. i appreciate it. >> have a good day. i appreciate it. >> have a good day. see you tomorrow. -- captions vi wwvitac.com