anyte. no black outs. no restrictions on airfare and hotels. ultimate rewards is available on chase credit, debit and business cards. chase what matters. good morning. high alert. a failing levee prompts an evacuations in wisconsin. now hundreds are being hold it could be up to a week before they're allowed to return home. bracing for impact. passengers get the scare of their lives as the landing gear malfunctions forcing pilots to make an emergency landing at new york's jfk airport head down! stay down! >> this morning the harrowing moments captured inside that plane. and education nation, america, the most powerful country on earth, but our students rank 24th in the world in math, 17th in science, and

every 11 seconds an american child drops out of school. what's wrong with the system? what can we do to give our children a better future? we're live at the white house to ask those questions to president barack obama today, monday september 27th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on this monday morning. i'm matt lauer live at the white house. ann curry is actually back in new york kicking off education nation over in the learning plaza. ann, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. and you should take a look at what we've done to the place. we've turned this entire area, matt, into a learning plaza, and

we're bringing together today some 300 -- >> ann, thanks very much. every single american president says they want to become the education president. studies show that the situation over the years has actually gotten worse. 12th graders who were tested for reading levels in 2005 actually scored lower than 12th graders tested for reading in 1992. 70% of our students graduate. that means that every year, 1.3 million students who should get a diploma simply do not. they drop out. and what about teachers? where are they going? well, according to some studies, roughly half of all teachers leave the profession in the first five years of teaching. and a new movie, "waiting for superman," lays out in dramatic fashion the problems facing our education system. the question, of course, is, can we fix those problems? we're going to ask those questions to president barack obama in an exclusive, live, 30-minute interview coming up in our 8:00 half hour. ann? >> thanks a lot, matt.

and i'm sorry if you couldn't hear me earlier, but we've turned this entire 30 rock area into a learning plaza. we've got lots of teachers coming out to speak, also parents and government technology experts. talking about what we can do to fix the problem. also coming up from new york, we're going to be speaking to that megachurch pastor who's accused of luring young men from his congregation into sexual relationships. he'll be speaking out first time about the allegations. and also, we're going to meet the man who survived a very scary crash. we have some pictures of that very scary crash when a guardrail sliced right through his suv. he survived, and he'll be talking to us about that coming up this morning. now, matt, back to you at the white house. >> thanks very much. we've got a lot to get to. first, let's go back inside studio 1a. tamron hall has all the headlines. we began with more flooding in parts of the midwest. a levee is leaking in portage,

wisconsin. some people have been evacuated. officials say if more evacuations are needed residents will have to get out by boat. people in minnesota are also dealing with major flood damage. today a panel appointed by president obama starts its investigation into the bp oil spill in the gulf of mexico and the administration's response to it. hyundai is recalling more than 139,000 sonata sedans sold in the u.s. because of potential steering wheel problems. the recall involves 2011 sonatas built before september 10th. with the summer driving season now over, gas prices are holding steady, according to the lundberg survey. the average price for regular, now $2.69 a gallon. comcast chief operating officer, steve burke, will become ceo of nbc universal. when comcast takes majority ownership of the company, which is expected by the end of the year. burke will replace current ceo, jeff zurich, who is stepping down when the deal closes. overseas markets are higher

higher after the big gains on wall street on friday. erin burnett is on wall street. >> optimism really the focus. we're talking about the best september since 1939. we'll see if we can hold through the end of the week, but that's what we're looking at. and this week we can hear about the government's plan to get out of the insurer aig. taxpayers put about $200 billion into aig. it's still possible aig could make good on that money. and elsewhere, companies doing deals. you've got walmart buying the biggest retailer in south africa. and again, nearly $4 billion. today, confidence is our headline. back to you. in the effort to rescue 33 miners trapped more than seven weeks in chile, heavy pipes that will eventually be used to make a earlier a rescue capsule that will hoist the men up one by one also arrived.

it is now 7:05. back to ann. >> tamron, thank you so much. we're going to go outside this huge learning plaza to al with a check of the weather. >> we're in one of the pods, these multimedia pods, centers, where you can listen to interviews, get information, interact with computer information all about our education nation. but as we take a look at what's going on now, we have got some big problems, good thing these things are covered because it is going to wet from tallahassee to d.c., hail, heavy rain, rainfall, you can see heavy rain now moving through central georgia, it's all pushing to the north. for today, we're looking at the heaviest rain along the coastline, anywhere from three to six inches of rain, but one to three inches generally, tomorrow that heavy rain lifts to the east and north, moves into new york on into new england. that's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of t no rain here. just 8 lot of heat.

a beautiful shot looking at the bay bridge. the sun is coming up and dechltures are nice, but it will be a hot day. the hottest day of the week. some areas getting into the 100 degree range. great air quality later this week. today very bad air quality. if you can carpool or find alternate transportation. 101 in concord and 101 in livermore and 103 in fairfield. very much, now to politics and countdown to the midterm election now about five weeks away. president obama will hit the campaign trail a little later today after our conversation in the 8:00 half hour. the president's going to try to recapture some of the campaign 2008 magic with a big rally on a college campus in wisconsin. this as congress decides to hold off on a very contentious vote over taxes. >> reporter: five weeks until

election day, the president leaves today for a three-day campaign swing. while on the sunday shows it was clear the biggest fight in washington will likely not be resolved until after the midterm, whether to extend the bush tax cuts for the middle class only as the president wants, or for all taxpayers, even those with the highest income. >> we're absolutely going to get this done before the end of the year, we may well take it up before the midterms. >> reporter: desperate for an election season advantage, the white house has been ratcheting up the pressure on the gop. >> they're going to have to explain to their constituents why they're holding up tax cuts for the middle class. >> the administration wants to extend the tax cuts for middle class families but not those making more than $250,000 a year, saying to give the wealthy tax breaks will add $700 billion to the deficit, but the republicans are holding out arguing not even the highest income taxpayers can afford a

tax hike in this struggling economy. >> if we leave here this week and adjourn for the election without preventing the tax increases on the american people, lit be the most irresponsible thing i've seen since i've been in washington, d.c. and i've been here a while. >> reporter: with five weeks to go, many analysts think democrats will lose control of the house this fall. the senate is a tougher hall. but senate minority leader mitch mcconnell was expressing optimism sunday. >> we're competitive in a lot of places. will we win them all? who knows. the delaware primary was interesting. new candidate, fresh face. i think she has a good chance to win it. >> yet more video surfaced of delaware candidate christine o'donnell courtesy of comedian bill maher, this time from october 1998 on the subject of evolution. >> evolution is a myth and darwin -- >> evolution is a myth? have you ever looked at a monkey?

>> why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans? >> reporter: and in a sign of her growing national pro sfil, o'donnell was parodied on "saturday night live" which had fun with her comments that she had once dabbled in witchcraft. >> and live from new york, it's saturday night! >> speaking of elections, this could be the week we hear whether white house chief of staff rahm emmanuel is moving on to run for mayor of chicago. every indication he will the only question is when and who will replace him. >> savannah guthrie at the white house. it's now ten minutes past the hour. let's go back to ann in new york. lawrence o'donnell is the host of "last word" with lawrence o'donnell. five weeks before the midterm election, just how much trouble is the democrats in?

>> this time in 1994 when we had the huge shift where the democrats lost the house and the senate, at this point in the process, no one knew that was going to happen. there were no polling indications that that would happen, no pundits predicted. the situation we're in right now according to the polling is the worst the democrats have ever been in. >> so with the news this morning in "the washington post" that the president's team is putting him on college campuses in a series of appearances to try to bring in those surge voters from 2008, would you characterize that as a hail mary pass? >> what it really is a move back to things that worked in the past. we have seen the president go into the town hall venue, didn't work so well, having people ask him questions, so now they're putting him back on stage in that celebrity mode. remember what obama's problem was? he was a celebrity, that's when he was the most popular, so now they're going to put him back in that giant arena with all these fans and try to re-create that feeling.

>> let's take a look at what he's up against. last week, a couple bits of good news for republicans. one pew research poll found 41% of independents are likely to vote for a republican. also at the same time last week, we had these young guns come out with their touted pledge to america. how effective do you think these two bits of news were in changing the spotlight? >> well, footnote on the young gun republicans, they range in age from 40 to 47. so a nice definition of a young gun. the young gun stuff that they're advancing, the policies that they're advancing, people aren't really hearing it, what's controlling this is the unemployment numbers. the unemployment was bad in 1994 when the democrats lost everything. it's 50% worse now. so the economic conditions control this outcome more than anything else. history tells us that. >> people say we want a different kind of change.

they don't want these unemployment numbers. they want to move. >> this kind of economy creates a vote for change and unfortunately for the democrats, since they're in control, the word change appears on the ballot as the word republican in a two-party system. >> all this attention about christine o'donnell, we heard about this videotape that emerged over the weekend. >> we are not related if that's your question. i think kelly's related to her, maybe nora is, i don't know. >> what i want to know is, is the delaware seat as important as all the attention that she's being given? >> absolutely, because if the republicans could take the delaware seat, they could probably take the senate. and if this nomination by the republicans is what loses it for the republicans, i'm afraid the phrase senator o'donnell, which i have been dieing the hear my whole life, will never be heard. but you can tell "saturday night

live" because they gave the cpat to a regular cast member, and that means they want to use them again and again and again. >> good luck to you on your broadcast. it's great to have you here this morning. and "last word with lawrence o'donnell" is on at 10:00 p.m. eastern time on msnbc. back to matt at the white house. a scarey scene at jfk airport over the weekend when the crew of a delta connection flight was forced to make an emergency landing after the landing gear on that plane failed to deploy properly. now some passengers aboard the plane actually used their cell phone cameras to capture the tense moments. tom costello covers aviation for us, tom, good morning to you. >> good morning, the crew was getting an awful lot of credit for keeping their cool and making it very clear what the passengers should do as they came in for a very dicey emergency landing without all the plane's landing gear.

>> reporter: from inside a regional jet saturday night, final harrowing moments as the pilot tells passengers to prepare for an emergency landing. >> brace for impact. >> reporter: and the warning from a deadly serious flight attendant. >> heads down! stay down! >> one lady in front of me is in tears. another lady is panicking. >> reporter: among the 60 passengers on board, chase and alsondra returning from a business trip. >> it became surreal once the flight attendant was yelling. >> heads down! stay down! >> reporter: delta connection, flight 4951 was flying from atlanta to new york's white planes airport when the plane's right landing gear refused to come down, realizing they may need a bigger airport, the pilots diverted to jfk and ask controllers there to clear a run way. >> the right gear is stuck up, the other two are down.

>> right gear is stuck up. okay. would you prefer 31 left or 31 right? >> when the landing gear is not coming down, you know you're going to have an accident for sure. the plane is going to swerve in the direction of the retracted gear. >> reporter: the delicate balancing act, putting the plane down on two of three landing gear. these images from a cell phone captured the sparking flying as the plane's wing dragged on the cement. despite fuel in the wing, no fire. once out of the plane safely, relief. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: and praise for the pilot who pulled it off. >> no complaints from me. >> reporter: and from one curious passenger, a question about his interrupted trip to white plains. >> do we still get frequent flier miles?

>> reporter: all about the miles, right? atlantic southeast airlines praised the professionalism of the crew saying he was very proud of their actions. these days getting a landing gear stuck is rather rare, though it is mechanical, you can get malfunctions, the ntsb will be investigating to see why the gear didn't come down in the first place. >> tom, lucky it turned out the way it did. tom costello in washington. thank you very much. let's go back to new york and ann. as we have been reporting this morning, this week nbc news is going to be taking an unprecedented look at the state of america's schools. we'll be having a live interview with president obama for a full half hour coming up this morning. we have got nbc's tom brokaw here to set all things off on learning plaza. good morning. >> good morning, ann. i've been covering this subject for 40 years, a lot of documentaries for nbc and other outlets as well. there has never been a time in america when education is a more critical issue and understand the magnitude of this issue, you simply have to look at the

numbers. >> reporter: today, american 15-year-olds rank 24th in math, 17th in science, tenth in literacy. more than a quarter of american students don't graduate from high school. those that do, only half are prepared for college. in just one generation, we have dropped from number one to number 12 in college graduation rates. >> pretty stunning numbers. and as you have been just mentioning, 40 years, what have you seen in terms of what has changed? why are we in this situation? >> there's been a sea change in terms of attitude, everybody understands that president bush's 43, no child left behind, this president's race to the top, the hedge fund industry, the silicon valley bail theirs are now getting deeply involved. they got to where they are because they were highly educated. they look at the future of their business and know they have to

have an educated constituency to get workers and be able to compete against india and china who are pouring money into education and sending lots of their students abroad to get good educations here so they can go back to india and china and compete against us. >> tom brokaw this morning. it's fantastic that you're going to be lending your perspective as we take a look at this all this week. >> we're going to have mark zuckerberg on later who founded facebook who gave $100 million to newark. >> let's go back to the white house with matt lauer. >> all right, ann, thank you, and tom thank you as well. politics took center stage this weekend during the season premier of "saturday night live," just in case you missed any of it, here are some highlights. >> now the latest polls have you trailing, but that's because of the media's fixation on trivial things, like your talking about dabbling in witchcraft on bill maher's show. >> you guys, i was 16.

>> is there anything else you can think of from your past, anything at all that might be problematic? >> no, nothing. >> this race is going to tighten up and when it does, it's going to be a real dogfight. >> please don't tell me about dogfights, i know all about dogfights. for your information, gentlemen, i used to run a business staging dog fights. >> we probably shouldn't be hearing this. >> exactly, you know what? the people of delaware don't want to hear about it either, they want to hear about the future and taking back the country and restoring the founders' vision. things like that. >> the honorable david paterson. [ cheers and applause ] >> this has gone on long enough. working in albany is just like watching "saturday night live." there are a lot of characters, it's funny for ten minutes and then you just want it to be over.

>> finally on a serious note, nbc universal's ceo jeff zucker announced that he will be stepping down this winter. and i just want to take a chance to express my -- >> they take no prisoners, do they? >> they do not. oh, well. very funny i thought on saturday night. >> still ahead from here at the white house, our exclusive half-hour long interview with the president. he has said that the success of our students will determine success of this country in the 21st century. so how do we fix our schools? we'll talk about that with the president at 8:00, but first, this is "today" on nbc. [ male announcer ] barbara boxer. she fought to get our veterans the first full combat care center in california. her after school law is keeping a million kids off the street

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coming up, how early should

you start your kids in school? i'll take you to a kindergarten class to take a look at some of the challenges facing students and their teachers. and we'll take a look at whether lindsay lohan will go back into rehab. that's coming up after your local news. [ female announcer ] "i can't believe it's not butter" with no trans fat and 70% less saturated fat than butter. butter taste, better health.

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or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. dean will never forget what he went through. don't take your health for granted. [ male announcer ] have a heart to heart with your doctor about your risk. >>. >> good monday morning. it is 7:26. i'm laura garcia cannon. mike has a look at the morning. >> electric at this. an accident at the dublin interchange and i told you at the end of the broadcast, still affecting lanes and that causes the back up. what happens is a lot of folks bailed. highway 84 is cutting down to 680. they'll join up with 680 before the express lane that will add congestion like last monday. they are trying to get adjust and it shows you you start to slow more. shadowy and bright sun at the

top. the heat looks like i can tell from the shot it's hot. >> wow. you can come over here and do this as well. our air quality is not great. mike was talking about trying to cut down on traffic. you can find somebody to carpool with. dent have good air quality at all. the forecast highs will be hot. right now is feels okay. reaching 101 in concord.

>> this morning. police officers on the peninsula are cracking down on drivers in and around school zones to make them safer for children walking or riding bikes to school. agencies are taking part in operation safe passage. officers will be enforcing traffic violators where schools are locationed. they will keep an eye on driver who is speed, make violations and who fail to yield to pedestrians. another local news update in about a half hour. the show returns in less than a minute.

7:30 now on a monday morning, it's the 27th day of december, 2010. you're looking at a live shot of the white house in washington, d.c. on what is a rainy morning here in washington. just a reminder, in just 30 minutes, we'll have our exclusive live half-hour-long interview with the president on the state of education in this country. i'm matt lauer at the white house, leaving the blue room here at the white house. making my way into the green room. a little different than the green room we have in studio 1a, ann, but a nice place to start the morning. good morning. >> good morning once again, it looks terrific. lucky you, i hope you're not having to keep your voice down so you don't wake up the family.

>> no i think everybody's up and getting ready for school. coming up, we'll continue our look at the state of education in our country. many feel it's in a crisis mode right now. if you really want to know what's happening in schools, you've got to get inside classrooms. all week long, meredith, al, ann and i will take you to schools across the country. ann? >> thanks a lot, matt. also ahead this morning, a much different subject, a pastor of a georgia megachurch is speaking out for the first time about allegations that he used his influence to coerce young men into sexual relationships. we'll talk to him coming up. and also, we're going to meet a man who survived this frightening accident when he fell asleep at the wheel and impaled his suv on a guardrail. but we begin with actress lindsay lohan, she's checking herself back into rehab.

after friday's drama, that saw her ordered to jail without bail, only to be freed hours later. >> for lindsay lohan from trip to court to jail to rehab and back again is becoming a well-worn and tired path. her fans, her directors, the courts, everyone it seems, wants the merry-go-round to stop. on friday, a few weeks after getting out of rehab, lohan found herself back in court. high fashion matching the high drama, she failed yet another drug test. before meeting the judge, a message on her twitter page read, substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn't go away overnight. the judge, though, seemed hardly sympathetic. he ordered lohan locked up without bail for four weeks. >> the lesson was, you've had enough chances, i have to get your attention here. i don't care if you're a celebrity. you're going into jail and then we'll sort things out. >> but no sooner had lohan been cuffed and taken away, her attorney filed an appeal through a supervising judge, who allowed

her to post bail. freedom cost lohan $ 300,000 and once again she has to wear that not-so-fashionable monitoring bracelet. any trust she's built up is gone. lohan spent 12 hours and ten minutes in custody. while most agree that jail is certainly no place for treatment, freedom isn't making her any better, either. >> the beginning of treatment, really is surrendering and accepting the fact that you need help and you can't trust yourself to always make the right decisions. >> for now, her vicious circle continues, with more rehab likely and possibly even more jail time. she's due in court for a probation hearing next month. where the whole process starts all over again. for "today," lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. and now let's get a check of the weather from al roker. hey, al. >> thanks a lot, ann. we've got our friends out here, raining. we've got some moos from minnesota. my golly. you got your christmas ornaments and everything? >> we're ready.

we're ready. >> it's like moosele-toe all over again. could this be nicole? we're watching the tropics, 30% chance of development. this thing right around the eastern caribbean. we're looking to see, it may actually work its way up into the gulf across florida and along the eastern seaboard. we'll see. week ahead, we've got above-normal temperatures along the east coast, but it will be wet in the eastern third of the country. much above-normal temperatures out west. much of the western two-thirds of the country with more wet weather along the eastern seaboard. as we move toward the latter part of the week, more rain along the east coast, but we've had a bit of a drought, so we could use the rain. above-normal temperatures in the western half of the u.s. well above average for us today with a hot forecast. beautiful look this morning with treasure island and the bay bridge. a lot of sunshine is forecast.

temperature this is morning, by 4:00 today it is going to be very hot. 101 in concord and 101 in livermore. 85 degrees in san francisco and 89 in oakland. as we look ahead with the seven-day forecast, this is the hottest day of the week and things are cooling starting tomorrow. check your weather any time of the day or night, go to the the weather channel on cable or weather.com on line. ann? >> al, thanks. now to the scandal that's rocked one of the country's biggest megachurches. bishop eddie long addressed his congregation sunday, vowing to fight allegations that he coerced young men into having sex with him. our nbc affiliate in decatur, georgia with the story. ron, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, eddie long got a hero's welcome at sunday's services so there's a mix of opinions of whether he should stay or go. he made it pretty clear which option he's taking. the welcome was warm for pastor eddie long, hand in hand sunday

morning with his wife. accused of pressuring young male church members into sex, long told his 25,000 congregation that he isn't leaving them unless they are leaving him and he left little doubt about his future. >> i'm not the man that's being portrayed on the television, that's not me. [ cheers and applause ] >> that is not me. i am not a perfect man. but this thing, i'm going fight. >> after denying the allegations through an attorney last week, long broke his silence about the spate of lawsuits filed against him by three former members of long's atlanta-area congregation. 21-year-old anthony flag, 23-year-old jamal paris and 23-year-old maurice robinson. robinson was charged this year in connection with a burglary at long's church, he's yet to enter a plea. a fourth lawsuit was entered friday by 22-year-old spencer lee grand, a former member of a satellite church in north carolina. >> by a counsel of my lawyers,

they've advised me not to try this case in the media. i am not going to try this case in the media. it will be tried in the court of justice. and dealt with in the court of justice. and please understand, because it's the only place i think i'll get justice. >> the men claimed long, who travels in first-class style, rolls royces, private jets, proximity to presidents, showered them with gifts, jobs and special attention as teenagers. calling them spiritual sons before coaxing them into sexual acts after they reached the legal age of consent. an outspoken critic of homosexuality, long also sent young church members pictures of himself. >> when i heard the story and i saw how they acted and saw how they said it and did it all privately and individually, it's like the gut feeling you know. and any jury is going to know they're telling the truth. >> nationally-known public relations professional terry williams said she was struck by what long didn't say. >> what's most important is the

notion of a young person having their innocence taken away and being traumatized. whether he confesses to that or not, that's an issue that i think should be on the front burner. >> whatever the truth, long appears ready for the battle of his life. >> i feel like david against goliath. but i got five rocks and i haven't thrown one yet. >> now prosecutors here in dekalb county, georgia say they don't plan to open a criminal allegation as all of the accusers were of the legal age of consent at the time of the alleged sexual contact. ann? >> ron mott, thanks. coming up, matt goes to kindergarten to find out what works best to prepare our children for a lifetime of learning. and later matt will sit down with president obama live at the white house for a candid white house for

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the national reading proficiency standards. according to a lot of educators the problem is that many kinder ga gartners are already behind. i recently visited a school in boston where they feel they have a solution. before you got here, you had to start somewhere. and for most of us, that was kindergarten. blocks, finger paints and learning your a-b-cs, but what about words like curriculum, assessment, academic achievement.

these are no longer foreign words to a kindergartner. it's a standard. >> is everybody ready for the first day of kindergarten? >> the first day of kindergarten in boston is filled with themes happening all over the country this month. excitement, a few tears, even by parents. what's different about this class is their age, most of these kindergarteners aren't five, they're four, and they're part of a growing trend to get children started on their educational journey early in life. here in boston they call it kindergarten 1 or k-1. most know it as pre-k. >> tracey griffith became principal at the elliott four years ago, it was so important to have pre-k in her school, she said she wouldn't take the job without it. >> we're fully immersing our 4-year-olds in a school day and

getting together with the routines and rituals of being a student, being a learner, and starting earlier. >> see, i hear you saying fully immersing 4-year-olds and i start to get a little bit nervous. are you immersing these kids at the cost of fun? >> no, we're immersing them in fun. >> we have a special game "today," it's a guessing game, who knows who this is? >> spider-man! >> this is spider-man. who is this? >> big bird! >> even if the fun was at my experience. >> you might know it, this is a man. do you know what his name might be? >> maybe peanut butter? >> you think it's peanut butter? >> he's going to come and visit us. >> hi.

how are you? >> peanut butter? >> one of the differences between pre-k and nursery school is the qualification of the teachers. at the elliott, pre-k teachers must have their masters degree. >> a hat? a heart, sure, where do you want it? you want it right here? >> you want a big heart or a little heart? >> the statistics are there to support the case for pre-k. student who is attended pre-k were 36% less likely to be held back in kindergarten, passed a literacy test at a 34% higher rate and were 34% less likely to repeat a grade later on. >> if you get a 4-year-old in the program who's not emotionally ready, do you suggest that that child not be here? >> no, i make sure that he's here. because if he's not ready, he needs to be here.

>> it sounds a little like tough love? >> tough love? >> just that you'll get through it, don't cave in to the tears, you'll get through it, you'll be better in the end. >> i never thought of it as tough love, i think of it as love. >> according to the most recent study about 75% of our nation's 4-year-old do not have access to a pre-k program and the basic reason given is funding. coming up, our exclusive live interview with barack obama on the state of education of in this country right after these messages. with blackberry torch i can have multiple tabs going, scroll over to it -- there it is. i call it a "future phone." [ laughs ] i use maps if i need to find an obscure address. it's awesome. and it really makes me feel like this is my city, you know? [ laughs ] ♪

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this call to action for education nation has a lot of us thinking about our own education and i was wondering if your parents actually went to college. >> both were high school graduates. >> and my father and mother did not go to college until i did. my mother and i went to college together. we were the first of our family to ever graduate. >> if we want our children to be able to do that, obviously we have got to fix this. >> we have been talking about how to fix it. we have an exclusive live

interview with president obama half your local news. [ animals calling ] ♪ [ pop ] [ man ] ♪ well, we get along ♪ yeah, we really do - ♪ and there's nothing wrong - [ bird squawks ] ♪ with what i feel for you ♪ i could hang around till the leaves are brown and the summer's gone ♪ [ announcer ] when you're not worried about potential dangers, the world can be a far less threatening place. take the scary out of life with travelers insurance... and see the world in a different light.

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you want to replant a forest? maybe you want to rebuild homes for those in need? or, maybe you want to help improve our schools? whatever you want to do, members project from american express can help you take the first step. vote, volunteer or donate for the causes you believe in matrs beecemojprt.com. take charge of making a difference.

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per. >> it is 7:56 right now with mike who will take us to oakland. >> east bay is a major roadway with slowing. not too major, but it's the beginning of something big. look at the folks gathering and the volume bumped up. the maps show you the reason for the 25-minute drive and 40s as you head out to 13 or oakland. a 45-minute drive to the berkeley curve. speeds in the 20s and 30s and livermore calling out again. causing more back ups and over 50 minutes out of the pass. hot too. >> yeah. boy things are going to heat up. this morning we have nice

temperatures, but they are not going to last long. by 4:00, we are going to forecast 101 for livermore and 103 for fairfield and 101 in concord. 85 degrees in san francisco. even the beaches will be hot. a look at the seven-day forecast. stick around for laura.

the first man set to be executed in almost years is

waiting for a ruling. an attorney filed an appeal after a district judge cleared the way for executions to resume. they have been suspended since 2006 when the death penalty was declaired unusually cruel. the state overhauled lethal injection procedures and san quentin have been rebuilt. they cause concern about legality. brown is on death row for the 1980 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl and scheduled to die on wednesday. another local news update in about a half hour. the "today" show returns in less than a minute.

from nbc, this is education nation. an interview with president barack obama live from the white house. here's matt lauer. >> and good morning, everyone. i'm matt lauer live at the white house on this monday morning, kicking off a week long initiative here on nbc universal, we're calling education nation and i thank you for watching on all the different networks of nbc universal. it's important that we give our kids a good education and yet it seems very difficult to plich. a recent poll found that 67% of

you feel that the education system in this country right now is in crisis. the most important question of course is can we fix it. i'm joined now by the president of the united states barack obama, mr. president, thank you for your time. >> thank you for being this program, there's nothing more important than the issue we're talking about today. >> a third of our opportunities in this country continue graduate. a third aren't college ready when they get their high school diploma and 35 percent of 12th graders are proficient in reading. how did it happen? >> it's been a long time coming. historically, when we first set up the public school systems across the country, we were leaps and bounds ahead of the vast majority of the countries around the world, that's not true anymore. they're surpassing us in math and science.

it ahappened over decades. but part of the challenge is to understand that how well we do economically, whether jobs are created here, high end jobs that support families and support the future of the american people is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools. >> when it comes to crisis in education, it's not just a money thing, but it's a money thing. can we spend our way out of it? >> we can't spend our way out of it. when you look at the statistics, our per pupil spending has gone up in the last few years. ev they don't have up to date textbooks, they don't have computers in the classroom. so those who say money makes no difference are wrong, on the other hand, money without reform will not fix the problem. what we have got to do is combine a very vigorous reform

agenda that increases standards, helps make sure that we have got the best possible teachers inside the classroom, make sure we're clearing away some of the democratic underbrush that's keeping kids are learning. >> one of the ways you want to accomplish that is with your initiative called race to the top. states will compete for money that goes into their education system at the state level if they bring about reform in their communities. while some are applauding it, some have criticized it because it's a competition, it's kind of a march madness surrounding this money when we should be funding all the states. >> the federal government provides assistance to all states under a formula system, especially to help poorer school districts so they can buy

supplies, make sure they can hire supplemental reading instructors and so forth. so that hasn't changed. but that money because it was in a formula, everybody was getting it no matter what you did, wasn't really a catalyst for reform. so what we said is let's set aside a small portion about $4 billion and let's say you've got to compete for this and you've got to compete around things that reformers know make a difference. high standards, accountability, really training teachers effectively, making sure low performing schools are being boosted up. 34 states already have changed their laws, where previously all that stuff that was stuck in state legislators, now suddenly they're starting to make changes. it's probably the most powerful reform in a century. >> why $4 billion sounds like a lot, but it is a fraction, why

not make more federal funding dependent on the kind of reforms you just talked about. >> what we want to do is make sure that we're still helping poor school districts that just don't have enough money. but it turns out that $4 billion, although a small fraction of the money that we spend on school is enough to get people's attention. i'm not going to lie to you, there's going to be resistance as we move forward, a lot of members of congress say to themselves, if my state loses the competition, i don't feel as good about this, even if i initiated reforms. >> how do the kids feel if their state didn't compete as well as another state, they're out of luck. >> that's why we want to make sure that every state is getting help from the federal government. there's no state that can't win this thing is because all they have to do is say we're going to take seriously those things like making sure you've got a terrific teacher in each classroom and making sure we have got high standards and

accountability, every state can accomplish that it's just getting through the resistance that often times builds up in these states. >> there are some good and great teachers in this country, there are also some mediocre and poor teachers in this country. can real reform take place unless you identify those mediocre and poor teachers and remove them? and when i say remove them, i don't mean shuffle them from school to school or put them in a room, i mean fire them. >> first of all i think everybody who looked at this said the single most important ingredient inside the classroom is the quality of the teacher and there are some terrific teachers out there. my sister teaches and when you hear stories about how hard they work when they come home from school, they're still doing lesson plans, often times in tough schools serving as mentors.

one of the things i want to do is lift up the teaching profession to honor the way it needs to be honored in our society. and by the way, when i travelled to china for example and i sit down with the mayor of shanghai and he talks about the fact that teaching is considered one of the most prestigious ones and a teacher is getting paid the same as an engineer, that, i think accounts for how well they're doing in terms of boosting their education system. having said that, what is absolutely true is that if we can't identify teachers who are sub par, give them the opportunity to get better, but if they don't get better at a certain point saying these teachers should not be in the classroom, if we don't do that, then we are doing a disservice to our kids and the school system has to be designed not for the adults, it's got to be designed for the children. >> there's a new documentary out there right now that's called waiting for superman.

they're saying that teachers iss unions are set up to protect their members and protect those mediocre and bad teachers and getting in the way of real reform. is that a fair assessment in your opinion? >> here's what is true, oftentimes teachers unions are designed to make sure that their membership are protected against arbitrary firings, i am a strong supporter of a notion that a union can protect its members and help be part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem. what is also true is that sometimes that means they are resistant to change when things aren't working. to their credit, you have had a lot of unions who are now working with states on his reform plans that include things like charter schools, include things like pay for performance

and higher standards and accountability for teachers and so we have seen states be able to work with teachers unions to bring about reform as opposed to resist them. >> if you could speak to the membership of the two most powerful teachers unions right now and tell them what they must do starting today to be a legitimate partner in reform. >> as president i can speak to them and what i have said to them is that we want to work with you, we're not interesting in imposing changes on you because the truth of the matter is that if teachers aren't feeling god about their profession, they're not going to do a good job in the classroom, but you can't defend a status quo in which a third of our kids are dropping out, you can't defend a status quo when you've got schools across the country that are dropout factories where

more than half of the kids are dropping out. in those schools you've got to have radical change and radical change is something that's in the interest of the students and ultimately in the interest of teachers. the vast majority of teachers want to do a good job, they didn't go into teaching for the money, they went into teaching because they want to make a difference. we have got to identify teachers who are going well, teachers who are not doing well, we have got to give them the support and the training to do well. and if some teachers aren't doing a good job, they've got to go. >> you want to identify the l lowest 5% of schools and turn them over to charter schools. that could double the number of charter schools. are you worried that you would dilute some quality in charter

schools? >> charter schools are not a panacea. one of the things when you're looking at school reform, it turns out there are no silver bullets here, reform is hard, it's systematic, it takes time, but we know that there are some charters who have figured out how to do a very good job in the lowest income schools with the kids who are two, three grade levels behind and yet they can achieve 95% graduation rates, boost reading scores and math scores very high. what we have got to do is to look at the success of these schools, find out how do we duplicate them and make sure that we are still holding charter schools accountable the same which we are all the schools. we shouldn't say just because a school is a charter they're an excellent school, because there are some poor performing charters. what i'm interested in and what my secretary of education is interested in is fostering these

laboratories of excellence. if we lengthen the school day here, or we give them a little more home work there, or we're setting aside time for personal development for teachers here, or we're building a culture of excellence among kids at that school, that works, once we find out something works, we want to import that into every school not just charter schools. >> i think people are going to be talking about a documentary, they talk about the lack of choice that people, you mentioned charter schools in those very bad neighborhoods, the lack of choice that people in our poorest of neighborhoods have, if there's a low performing school and there's a charter school, the number of applicants for the few positions at that charter school can be enormous and so what happens by law is that the kids are put into a lottery and literally and figuratively they future is down

to their name being drawn out of a hat. >> it's heart breaking and when you see these parents in the film, you are reminded that i don't care what people's income levels are, their stake in their kids, their wanting desperately to make sure their kids are able to succeed is so powerful and it's obviously difficult to watch to see these parent who is know that -- our goal is to make all schools high quality schools, make every classroom one where if a kid is showing up, taking the responsibility seriously, doing what they're supposed to do, they're going to be able to succeed, they're going to be able to read and have high math scores. what we now know is that there are schools that the work even in the toughest circumstances

and once we know that, it's inexcusable that we don't make sure that every school is performing at that same level. >> we ask parents to give us some e-mail questions. we had bethany who wrote us, one of our biggest concerns in education is that parents are rarely held accountable for their children's education t blame for failing test scores always falls on the teacher. the responsibility of education should be shared by teachers, administrators and parents. why doesn't anyone ever hold parents accountable. >> there has not been a speech i have made on education over the last five years in which i haven't said the exact same thing. if the kid's coming home from school and the parents aren't checking to see if they do their home work or watch tv, that's going to be a problem. and that's by the way true here in this white house. malia and sasha are great kids and great students, but if you gave them a choice, they would be happy to sit in front of the tv all night long every night.

at some point you have to say, your job right now, kid, is to learn. and i'm going to check with your teachers and i'm going to make sure that you're doing your home work and you're not doing anything else until you've done your home work and that kind of attitude, i think makes a huge difference at every level. one thing i want to point out is that there's no doubt that the schools in the toughest neighborhoods and the poorest neighborhoods are often times the ones that are poorest performing, they are in crisis. but one of the things that everybody needs to understand is that across the board, in middle class suburbs in schools that are considered actually pretty good, you are still seeing a decline in terms of math and science performance and one of the things that we are very excited about because we need to focus on math and science, my administration is announcing that we are going to specifically focus on training

10,000 new math and science teachers, we have got to boost performance in that area. we used to rank at the top, we are now 21st in science, 25th in math. that is a sign of long-term decline that has to be reversed and so we're going to be putting a big emphasis on math and science education and part of that means getting better teachers, but part of it also means parent understanding that their kids need to excel in those subjects in particular. >> you're going to make a lot of friends or a lot of enemies here. mr. cohn's sixth grade class in cincinnati, president obama, we understand there are discussions regarding the idea of attending school year round, do you think we should attend school year round? if so why? >> we now have our kids go to school about a month less than most other advanced countries. and that month makes a difference. it means that kids are losing a

lot of what they learn during the school year during the summer, it's especially severe for poorer kids who may not be -- may not see as many books in the house during the summers, aren't getting as many educational opportunities. here's an example of where you've got a good idea, make sure our kids are in school longer, that means the school is open, you've got to pay teachers, custodial staff, et cetera, but that would be money well spent. >> kelly burnett on our plaza, she's from nassau county, florida, kelly, good morning, what's your question for president obama? >> thank you for taking my question president obama, as a father of two very delightful and seemingly very bright daughters, i wanted to know if you think that malia and sasha would get the same kind of

education at a d.c. public school compared to the elite private academy that they're attending now. >> thanks for the question, kelly and i'll be blunt with you, the answer is no right now. the d.c. public school systems are struggling, they have made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform. there are some terrific individual schools in the d.c. system. and that's true by the way in every city across the country. there are some great public schools that are on par with any public school in the country. a lot of times you get tests in, or if the lottery pick for you to be able to get into those schools and so those options are not available for enough children. i'll be very honest with you, given my position, if i wantsed to find a great public school formal leah -- for malia and

sasha to be in, we could probably maneuver to do it. but for a mom and a dad who are working hard but who don't have a bunch of connections, don't have a lot of choice in terms of where they live, they should be getting the same quality education for their kids as anybody else and we don't have that yet. >> kelly, thank you for your question. >> one more question, how do you inspire those teachers you talked about, the ones that are so important, how do you inspire a young college student who's considering going into teaching, who sees budgets being slashed, seeing teachers have to dip into their own pocket book for classroom supplies and now sees new pressure to get their kids to perform in a system that a lot of people think is broken, how do you inspire the next generation of teachers? >> first of all, there is nothing more important than teaching, i genuinely believe this.

i don't know a teacher who can't look back and say, you know what? here are so many lives that i have touched, so many people who i have had influence over and each of us have memories of some great teacher who steered us in the right direction. what i also want to make sure is that if they go into teaching, they can stay in teaching, they can afford it which means that we have got to raise teacher pay, and to professionalize it if you want to be a master teacher, you can make more money. that's true of any profession. we have got to make sure they have a structure around them in which they can succeed and if we do those things, i think there are tons of kids who want -- the teach for america program, you see some of the smartest kids in the country applying and often times having to be on waiting lists to get in. the problem is that we can't attract great young people to go into teaching, the problem is

after two or three years they start dropping out. they feel discouraged because no matter how hard they're working in the class room, they just can't afford it once they start trying to raise a family, particularly in urban area where is the cost of living is higher and they don't feel they're getting enough support from the principal and the school district. >> so you reform that system and they will come. >> they will come and anybody who's watching, we're going to have to fill about a million teaching slots around the country and i want young people to understand that there is not a more important profession for the success of our economy over the long-term than making sure that we have got great teachers in the classroom. >> some other topics, recently the poverty rate in this country was announced, it's at 14.3%. that means roughly 44 million americans are living at or below the poverty level. the poverty level is $22,000 a year for a family of four. so consider a family of four making $30,000 or $40,000

they're not living the dream either, they're struggling every single week. how can a president hear those numbers and not decide to declare this some sort of national emergency. >> we have gone through the worst recession since the great depression and although the steps my administration has taken to stem the crisis and stabilize the situation, we're still in the midst of the after effects of that, when you've got a lot of people underemployed, it means that the poverty rate is going to go up. that means taking the steps that i've been pushing for, making sure we have tax breaks for companies investing here in the united states, making sure that the small business bill that i will sign today makes sure they encourage investment, building

infrastructure so we are improving our ability to perform internationally, all those things are going to make a difference because the single most important anti-poverty program we can initiate is making sure there's enough job growth out there. >> last time we sat down you said that the recovery would not be a jobless recovery. it seems to me i'm listening to more and more economists who don't agree with that. >> here's the challenge. it's not that this is a jobless recove recovery. we have seen eight months in a row of private sector job growth. we're actually seeing more job growth so far in this recovery than we did in the last recovery back in 2001. the problem is we just lost so many jobs because of the crisis that we have got a much bigger hole to fill and that means we're going to have to accelerate job growth and we have got to do everything we can to focus on that and that means making sure that anything we do,

we're spending that money wisely, and one of the major disagreements i have got with the republicans right now has to do with tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. you and me. you and i, matt, we're not likely to spend any additional tax cut because whenever we need for our families we can afford right now. what we need are tax cuts for the middle class who are struggling and if they get a tax cut, they're likely to spend it, which means that a small business is potentially going to get a customer and we're going to see job growth. so we can't spend $700 billion on a tax cut that is not going to spur job growth. we can spend money on things like infrastructure, on things like school construction, on making sure that small businesses are getting loans because those are the things that are more likely to generate the job growth we need. >> you remember velma hart, who

was a woman who said she was one of your biggest supporters, and she was exhausted defending you. it seems to me what she was saying and i have heard others say as of late, mr. president is that there's a feeling that in some way you have lost touch with the struggles of the average person on the street. i say it with some sense of irony because you began your career in public service as a community organizer, that is all about getting in touch with people on the streets, so how can this criticism be coming up? >> velma i think subsequently was interviewed and she talked about the fact that she said look, the president's really trying, a lot of things i think are right, but it's just not happening fast enough. everybody's feeling that frustration right now. i feel it, acutely. and, you know, the fact of the matter is that as long as unemployment is as high as it

is, as long as we haven't recovered as quickly as we should have, people are going to be hurting and even if they think that i know they're hurting, what they're asking is, when are you going to be able to do something concrete that allows me to get a job or make sure that i can pay my bills or make sure that i don't lose my house, and all i can communicate to the american people is that every single day, the thing that i wake up and the thing that i go to bed with is the fact that there are too many people out there who are doing the right thing, working hard and are having a tough time in this economy, we're doing everything we can to make sure they have an opportunity to live out the american dream. >> we have five weeks before the midterm election. you said in a speech recently,

you said the republicans, they're treating me like a dog. former president clinton said he doesn't think that democrats and you included have been rigorous enough in pushing back against some of the republican attacks. mr. president, do you intend to change your tone or your emotion in terms of your pushing back. >> well, i think that you have heard me speak around the country over the last several months, i think that it's clear, i have got a very sharp difference on a lot of issues. when i say republicans, i really should say republican leadership, i think there's a lot of wonderful people out there who consider themselves republicans or independents who have maybe some criticisms of my administration, but basically recognize we have got to solve some big problems, we have got to be serious, we have got to base our decisions on facts.

what i'm seeing out of the republican leadership over the last several years has been a set of policies that are just irresponsible and we saw in their pledge to america a similar set of irresponsible policies, they say they want to balance the budget, they propose $4 trillion worth of tax cuts and $16 billion in spending cuts and then they say we're going to somehow magically balance the budget, that's not a serious approach. so the question for voters over the next five weeks is who is putting forward policies that have a chance to move our country forward so that our schools have improved, so that we have world class infrastructure, so that we're serious about helping small business, we're serious about getting a handle on our spending and who's just engaging in rhetoric, and if that debate is taking place over the next five weeks, we are going to do just fine. >> rahm emanuel, your chief of

staff is considering a run for the mayor's office in chicago. a lot of people think his time is getting short to make that decision. has he communicate his decision to you? >> i think that rahm will have to make a decision quickly because running for mayor in chicago is a serious enterprise. >> has he told you what he wants to do? >> he hasn't told me yet. >> would you support him and endorse him in that race? >> i have said i think he will be an excellent mayor, but until he makes that decision, i'm not going to be to speculate -- >> some of you wil rurnet to reo

8:30 on a monday morning. it's a wet morning in the northeast. look at these people who are still with us in rockefeller plaza.

a huge structure has been built temporarily for a call to action over our current education system, what needs to be done to fix it. we have got al roker and tamron hall out here in the rain. and we'll be talking with mat after his interview with the president. we're going to meet a man who survived a very frightening accident when he fell asleep at the wheel and impaled his suv on a guardrail. >> september is prostate cancer awareness month, what are the warning signs? at what age should men start being screened? we have got some important life saving information coming up. >> and the five best places to retire, interesting topic "today."

>> tamron does not like to be outside in the rain. >> i like the rain. > one of the stars of nbc's new show. >> nice to see you. we have jason vitter on just last week. he's an adorable young man. he doesn't know the plot, he doesn't know where this thing is going, but rumor has it you know where this thing is going, is that true? >> yes, i have all the secrets. i can't divulge anything. >> at the end of last week's episode, there's a lot more to tell. >> there's so much more to reveal tonight in episodes two and three and we're having a blast making the show wonderful,

writers, directors, producers. >> a blog looking at people and their theories, everyone wants to know what's going on. so if you want people to love it, they are. >> that's great to hear. >> what's really cool is that the part of sophia maguire is actually written for a man and she's a tough go get them. and they changed it so that you could -- and that's very cool. >> they had originally talked to me about another part and i wasn't so keen on it and they said what if we turn this character to a woman and it's such a juicy figurative -- i cannot say anymore. >> all right, we can't wait. >> thank you so much and good luck to you, not that you need it. you can watch an all new episode of "the event" tonight at 9:00,

8:00 central time here on nbc. >> we know it's raining, what else can you add? >> it's raining up and down the east coast. our pick city of today, kwoc. temperature of 68 degrees "today," and as we look at the rest of the country, you've got that wet weather, that's the big feature, from tallahassee, florida, the heavy rain lifts up into new england tomorrow. we have got strong storms along the mid-atlantic states. plenty of sunshine over the western half of the a live look outside of san jose. a lot of sunshine is really going to heat things up today. morning temperatures have been nice. we're going to warm up significantly, in places like concord and livermore to at least 100 degrees this afternoon. as we're looking at the forecast today, less of an onshore flow.

beaches are going to be hot as well. 98 degrees today in santa rosa. today is the hottest day of the week. a cool down arrives tomorrow. >> and as we kick off ore special look at education in new york, our friends are showing a special education challenge. john hayes from american express, good to see you. tell us about this challenge. >> first of all, i'm pleased to announce that american express will donate $1 million for school supplies if we can get 100,000 people to come to members project.com/pledge this week and pledge to do something good for their local school system. >> why are you putting that challenge out there. >> because we want to get as many people as possible involved in education, education is the future and we believe it is important and members project is about giving back to the community. >> how long do people have to do

this. >> they have until october 1, so they have until friday of this week to go on to members project.com/pledge and pledge to make a difference. >> thanks a lot, al, and coming up next, we're going to be talking about how to p promise me low prices.

and stick to it. like seriously low prices. [ male announcer ] at safeway, we made a promise of low prices. and we're keeping it. [ female announcer ] with club card specials like beef cross rib roast, just $1.99 a pound and crystal geyser water only $3.99. i need to know that when i'm here, the low prices will be too. monday, tuesday, everyday. i'm a big fan of everyday. [ male announcer ] and with thousands of everyday low prices, you'll save all over the store. [ female announcer ] low prices you can count on. at safeway, that's our promise. that's ingredients for life. what were the facts? fact: march 7, 2000. brown asks voters for new mayoral power to appoint school board members. he gets it, and promises better schools. but the drop out rate increases...50%. the school budget goes into a 100 million dollar deficit.

the schools become so bad...the state has to take them over. it was "largely a bust," he admitted. jerry brown. failure as governor. failure as mayor. failure we can't afford now. "today's" health is brought to you by dannon activa. september is prostate cancer awareness move, a disease that affects one out of every six man. and as one new york man found out, early detection can be the dishes between life and death. >> i'm a lot yearses old, i was

diagnosed with prostate cancer when i was 55 years old. i was totally shocked that i had cancer, i lived a charmed life until then. i was active playing softball, i was a basketball player, i did everything outdoors, i was always knock on wood healthy. i wasn't in my family history either. around the time i turned 50, i started to see a doctor more regularly. he saw that there was a little elevated psa, a psa is a part of the blood test that they take a reading for. initially it was over 6, when i went to the doctor it was over 4. they couldn't feel any growth or any swelling in the area so he suggest they would do the biopsy at that point. the biopsy determined that i had the beginning stages of cancer. my family was probably as astonished as i was when i was diagnosed. i don't think they would have

ever thought it because i was always the little league coach and the soccer coach and the guy on the sidelines that's always around. there are no symptoms for prostate cancer, there was no difference in any lifestyle other than the fact that they said that i had it. and if you didn't believe them, you would think, geez, i'm still the same person, but if i ignored it, i wouldn't be here as long as i am right now. >> joining us now is the a urologi urologist, a chief of robotic surgery and he also treated howard. tell us about what is prostate cancer? >> prostate cancer is a tumor of the pros fate. and we see this in younger and younger men. it's known as the silent killer. so there are no symptoms, howard had no symptoms, so it's found by checking the psa, and lz the

physical exam. what we saw with howard is that i see these kind of patients coming through the office all the time and i feel i'm privileged to be in a position to save their lives, but there are families behind these prostates, so we're not just taking care of the prostates, but their quality of life also. >> are there certain males at risk more than others? >> if the first relative's father, brother, uncle has prostate cancer, americans are 3-1 at higher risk. certainly screening helps starting at the age of 40 and every year after that. the key is not necessarily to act on that number, we want to have the psa, but look at the velocity of the rise of that. no doctor will ever act on just the number. look at the whole patient, look at their history and see how it's going up and based on that you can make a good recommendation to your patients. >> and i was kind of surprised to hear you say that you should start getting screened at 40? >> it's interesting, because in

the last 3,000 surgeries that we have done, about 10% of them are young men. as we see in howard's case, he's around 55, but we see patients in their early 40s where they have a significant prostate cancer. you're acting like a detective who really see who has an aggressive cancer, who has a low risk prostate cancer. >> and the good news is if this is caught early, it's 90% curable. >> what's interesting is that in 2010, we have many options, we have radiation, we have surgeries, my work is mostly robotic surgery which we have focused on saving the quality of life, which is a sexual function. these patients are only spending a day in the hospital, going home early with no blood loss. but the take home message is find the experienced surgeons because technology the hands of people who are not qualified can actually hurt the patients.

so the centers of excellence where they do a lot of these cases those have good outcomes and we're talking about national education week, if as a surgeon "today" you constantly look at your date and you're constantly looking to make it better and better for your patients. >> are there steps that men can take to lower their risk for prostate cancer? >> exercising, a healthy diet, checking up every year with a physical exam and psas absolutely will lower the risk. but you have the genes and as we get older, we have higher risk of prostate cancers, those are not really avoidable. >> and we'll be back in a moment, but first this is [ bell rings ]

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martin fletcher has covered

the middle east for more than 340 years. all 110 miles of it from lebanon to banza. the new book "walking israel" a personal search for the soul of a nation. martin, good morning. >> good morning, thank you. >> having seen you for so many years, going so fast, covering every thinkable, unthinkable disaster, war, familiar anyonnee you the idea to slow down and walk? >> i needed to slow down and also i needed to look at israel from a fresh perspective. i did a two week walk and i did another week of -- i wanted to look at not only the country at war that i had reported on for so long, it's another country there. it's a country of incredible achievement and wonderful people and excitement as you know.

that's what i wanted to show in my book, the view of israel, a country that -- certainly people used to call me and say is it safe to come and visit israel? and then i would say sure it is, then a week later they call me and say it's a great place, i had no idea. so i wanted to write a book about that great place that people had no idea about. >> still you also had a surprise or two ahead. you're a man who knows the story, both sides of it and you're restricted because of the needs of news to look at only one side of it, in other words the intensity, the difficulty, the war, so what was surprising to you? >> well, you know, it didn't surprise me, actually, because i knew that this was a different place than the one -- we only look at it from one perspective. so what i enjoyed so much about it was the people in it. and the extra dimension

reporting on the place. >> for example, rogers cafe, the men there, you immediately laughed, what was it that you learned from them? >> when i went through there, i thought this was a boring place. and then i went to this cafe to begin my coverage every morning for coffee and i went around chasing the bombs for weeks. and in this cafe, i met some people, who came from other countries and they all said the same thing, which i have heard many times before, by the way, if it was up to us, we would make peace with the arabs in five minutes. they went you better win, you better kill as many as you can. it was a revealing place to be. because all these people were having coffee in the morning. it just showed you how resilient

these people are. >> what about the lesson which you're intimating about the idea of living together. was there hope that you had found that you hadn't found before about the possibility of peace? because this is one for decades we have won, but you've been reporting on the possibility of ch. >> one reason i stayed so long in israel reporting was because i always believed in the peace process. i thought i want to be here because this time it is going to work. and i have been wrong every time. what you see when you walk along the coast of israel, especially in the north, with 70% of israelis live in the coastal plain of israel, we don't report on those people. a million arabs are actually israeli citizens and they live side by side with israel, not in perfect world harmony, but they get on well enough. and it shows you if there was a peace agreement there's no reason at all why jews and arabs can't live in peace.

>> there is such a close genetic connection, there ought to be peace. >> cousins. >> cousins, the book is called "walking israel." martin fletcher, thank you so much this morning. we're back in a moment. mm,y wat!

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back at 8:51 p.m.. >> a man was driving back to his college in idaho when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed impaling his suv into a guardrail. >> not a scratch? >> one scratch, maybe a few bruises, but that was about it. >> you are a lucky man, this guardrail pierces your car, pierces the engine block, makes its way into the passenger compartment, when you woke up and you realized what happened, how long did it take you to realize how lucky you were? >> it wasn't until after everything was done when i was getting my stuff out of the car that i was actually able to figure out how close i was to getting hit by the guardrail and

how wonderfulfully blessed i was to come outen ska eunscathed. >> you were actually 2/3 into the long drive. what do you want to say to those sclej students who have to make that long drive? >> i just want to tell them that you shouldn't drive alone, if you do drive alone, get plenty of sleep before hand and, like, with my accident, i would have been completely okay if i had had a passenger with me because i could have switched off with them or they could have taken the steering wheel when i fell asleep or something. >> this is a big problem, people driving while fatigued, falling asleep. what precautions are you going to take so something like this doesn't happen again? >> every time i go on a big trip, i'm going to get plenty of

sleep, see if i can get somebody to drive with me and take basic precautions of the seat belt, make sure everything on the car is working okay. >> do you think it was the seat belt that saved your life? >> the seat belt and the air bags as well. >> we're glad to have you here and stay safe and i think you have given somed a advice this morning. still help ahead, i know a lot of people, something that adam is not going to be thinking about for a long time. but for those of us who are getting closer -- >> what are you talking about? >> the

our state has a huge deficit. meg whitman's plan will make it billions worse by eliminating the capital gains tax for wealthy investors, including herself. economists say her plan will "rip a hole in the budget" and is "deeply flawed". analysts for the l.a. times say whitman's plan is a "pure handout" to the rich creating a "huge risk" to schools and public safety. jerry brown's against this unfair giveaway because it will take billions from our children when we can least afford it. get california working again-for all of us. good morning to you. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> there is no outbound at the muni subway service. the inbound service is operating on manual so it's going to be very slow.

the outbound service, there are shuttles to take over. you'll find a lot of con gegs, especially heading through counsel town san francisco. typically slowing for 880 and 101. look at all of these scattered access on and off the roadway. 85, again, having big problems like we did earlier. [ male announcer ] the turn changes everything. ♪ the turn will make you think. ♪ make you re-examine your approach. change your line. innovate.

and create one of the world's fastest-reacting suspensions, reading the road 1,000 times per second. it's the turn that leads you somewhere new. introducing the new 2011 cts-v coupe. from cadillac. the new standard of the world. san francisco is talking about toys and fast food meals. the committee considers an ordinance today that would set nutritional standards for meals that come with toys. if the meals that too many calories, too much salt or sugar, the restaurant will not be able to give away a toy with it. the restaurant industry opposes that plan. another local news update for

new 30 minutes. the "today" show returns in about a minute. enjoy your monday morning. this week nbc is launching education nation. helping americans build the finest education system in the world. i'm susan shaw, editorial director. as critics challenge our schools and teachers to do better, we encourage parents to do better. we parents are the primary role models for children, there's first teachers. nbc bay area believes what happens in the home sets the tone. guidelines from california's top teacher and parent organization encourages families to show an interest in what is being taught, discuss ideas, problems, and consequences, agree on a schedule for homework and quiet

time, show enthusiasm for our children's efforts and meet with their teach ters. that's a start. to learn more about education and connect with schools in your nbcedi nbceditorial.com. page back now with more "today" on this monday morning, 27th day of september, 2010. as you can see, a damp morning here in rockefeller plaza. so we have to thank the people who stuck around outside to see us with their umbrellas. hopefully some of them are going inside. it's wet out there. i'm ann curry along with al roker. matt is in washington, d.c., where he spent half an hour with president barack obama talking about a critical issue for all americans. that is the crisis of education in america. it's part of our week long education nation initiative on the networks of nbc universal.

the president told matt becoming competitive in education is about reform and getting the best possible teachers into the classrooms and that you can't just throw money at the problem. so you're going to hear more what the president had to say coming up in a few moments. >> that's right. also ahead, if you're lucky enough have to saved enough money to stop working and getting ready to hang out your hat we're going to check out money magazine's top five places to retire, good cost of living or create medical care, five great cities for you to consider. lindsay lohan is facing the prospect of more jail time after a failed drug test. we'll get the latest coming up. let's get a check at the news. tamron hall in for me at the news desk. >> good morning, everyone. president obama said there's nothing more important than education. he spoke with matt in an exclusive interview at the white house as part of nbc's education nation. for the recent survey indicating 67% of americans say the

education system is in crisis. the president said it will take more than money to fix the problem with schools. >> we can't spend our way out of it. i think that when you look at the statistics, the fact is is that our per pupil spending has gone up over the last decade even though results have gone down. money plays a factor. obviously already some schools where money plays a big factor. they don't have up to date text books. they don't have computers in a classroom. those who say money makes no difference are wrong. on the other hand, money without reform will not fix the problem. what we have to do is combine a very vigorous reform agenda that increases standards, helps make sure that we've got the best possible teachers inside the classroom, make sure that we're clearing away some of the bureaucratic underbrush that is reventing kids from learning. we have combine that with deploying resources effectively. >> the president also told matt he backs a longer school year in

the u.s. saying it could make a difference in performance. emergency officials are keeping a close watch on a levee that began failing sunday in central wisconsin. 300 people have been told to evacuate their homes in portage, wisconsin, where water seeping through the leve, already cut off road access. in minnesota a massive cleanup under way after extensive flooding there. the pastor of a powerful georgia church vowed sunday to fight allegations he lured four young men into sexual relationships. thousands packed the new birth missionary baptist church to hear bishop eddie long make his first public comments about the scandal which he called painful and difficult. bishop long is an outspoken opponent of gay marriage. the ntsb is investigating a rough emergency landing at new york kennedy's airport. 60 passengers aboard the delta connection flight from atlanta were told to brace for impact. the plane landed safely with two-thirds of its landing gear deployed and sparks flew up as the right wing scraped the

ground. hyundai is recalling 140,000 2011 sinada sedans sold. in the u.s. some of the cars have steering wheels not popperly connected and could result in loss of control. critical hardware arrived at the site of the mine collapse in chile. trucks delivered pipes that will form on emergency tunnel and rescue capsule designed to slide through the pipes like an elevator car. wall street: money never sleeps took over the top box over the weekend. the michael douglas film took in $19 million. "legend of the guardian" took seco second. "the town" was third. i want to see the -- the money, wall street thing got very much. the al thing -- >> i think there's a lot of reason to go to the box office.

>> the least being that music. >> i travel with my own band. >> thanks, cameron. appreciate it. ♪ >> whatever floats your boat, baby. >> let's check your weather, see what's going on. we got severe storms today from florida, the panhandle of florida all the way to washington, d.c. could be some hail, strong gusty winds. and heavy rainfall. that rain is making its way to the north. in fact, rainfall amounts could up to 6 inches of rain before it's all over. in the next 48 hours. but generally 1 to 2 inches not unusual. plenty of sunshine up and down the west coast. the heat is on throughout parts of california. 106 in los angeles today. as well as phoenix, arizona. cloudy and cool througho a very sunny golden gate bridge this morning. morning temperatures have been very nice but today we are forecasting some very hot afternoon temperatures. check it out.

101 degrees today in concord. 101 in livermore. 99 degrees, san rafael, 85 degrees even for the city. not much of a sea breeze today. we'll see a very strong offshore flow. it will be hot pretty much everywhere. it's the hottest day of the week. things are cooling down tomorrow. >> and that's your latest weather. actress lindsay lohan is a free woman this morning. she was taken into custody after testing positive for drugs. that's a violation of her probation. but she didn't spend even one night in jail. >> reporter: for lindsay lohan, the trip from court to jail to rehab and back again is becoming a well worn and tired path. her fans, the directors, the courts, everyone, it seems, wants the merry go-round to stop, and yet the cycle continues.

just a few weeks after getting out of rehab, lohan found herself back in court. with high fashion matching the high drama, she failed yet another drug test. a message on her twitter page read substance abuse is a disease which unfortunately doesn't go away overnight. the judge seemed hardly sympathetic. the judge ordered her locked up without bail for four weeks. >> the lesson was, you have had enough chances, i have to get your attention here, i don't care if you're a celebrity, you're going into jail and then we'll sort things out. >> reporter: but no sooner had she been cuffed and taken away, her lawyer filed an appeal. once again, she has to wear that not so fashionable monitoring bracelet. any trust she built up is gone. in the end, lohan spent 12 hours and ten minutes in custody. and while most agree that jail is certainly no place for treatment, freedom isn't making her any better either.

>> the goal of treatment is surrendering and admitting that you need help. >> reporter: for now, her vicious circumstanle continues. she's due in court for a probation hearing next month where it all starts all over again. >> courteney cox is a correspondent for the todayshow.com. there are reports that lindsay lohan is voluntarily checked herself into a rehab right now. >> there are a lot of sources within the lohan circle saying that's something she's going to do before a court orders her to do so, that's part of faking responsibility. but at this point, everyone is so tired of the routine, there's not going to be any tide change or shift in perspective until she does clean up and gets back to working and proves she can be a responsible adult. >> this is another example of a

celebrity being treated differently than an average person. is that the case? is there any indication that that's the case? >> yes and no, if the law doesn't allow for the judge to reverse that decision, it wouldn't have been reversed, speaking about the one that landed her in jail for only a matter of hours instead of until october 22, that he saw on friday. if the law didn't allow for that, they wouldn't change it even for a celebrity. but if you have certain attorneys that are running in circles, they have the judge's ear more than another attorney or they have the money to keep throwing at this situation. >> is it likely she knew she was getting out within 12 or 24 hours when she was arrested? >> i think it was likely that she knew her attorney was going to move mountains to ensure she's out if that was the case. i think also at this point, shaun chapman holly is part of the problem. you've got a woman that's --

it's not just failing drug tests, it's not just partying too much. she actually goes out and breaking the law. she's gotten arrested for getting into accidents with innocent people because of her behavior. this is a dangerous situation, and at some point you need to quit doing everything you can to put her out on the streets. >> and what was she reportedly doing last night. >> last night lindsay lohan tweeted that she had gone to a teen outreach center in los angeles where she was signing autographs and i don't know that she should be going to a teen outreach center and acting like some sort of example at this point in time but it's obviously a publicity move. >> does she have a good friend that can be there for her? >> no, as a matter of fact she does not. the people closest to lindsay don't recognize that she has a problem and those that do try to help, she steps in and says that's it, you're out, you don't understand me, you don't get me. it's a sad story, this is

happening all over america, this isn't just one celebrity that's suffering from this. but at the end of the day, it would be great if she could be an example for what to do when things go really wrong and how you fix it. >> she's filming this biopic on this linda love lays. >> part of the problem here is every time she has a sort of error, she's able to get work. if you're a normal person, your job doesn't keep giving you chance after chance after chance, normal people don't say you think i have a problem, but, hey, i'm on the cover of vanity tear. >> we're all talking about promoting the movie. >> we wouldn't be talking about linda lovelace if -- up next the five bestitie cs

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the top five places to retire, from a low cost of living to improving your education or your golf swing are all factors you need to consider before hanging up your hat. what was your focus this time around? you guys do this every year? >> and every year we look at a different type of community, and this year we did college town, specifically towns that allows

seniors to continue learning, so they can take anything from history, long, arts, religion. retirees love these programs because they use them to expose themselves to new things they wouldn't otherwise or they can fill in the gaps from their jun undergraduate years. >> hanover, new hampshire. >> what makes hanover so unique is that there's so many rural new england villages that have beauty and nature and you can go hiking and kayaking and so you have the outdoors, but on top of that, you have an intellectual and cultural life that's like you're in a major metropolitan area because of darth mouth, there's a local opera, dances, ballets, lots of good restaurants, so hanover is a unique blend of both brueauty a

brains. >> but you have to deal with the rhode island winters. >> dartmouth's program is one of the largest, there are over 1,500 members, you can choose from over 100 courses per year. >> let's go south to lexington, kentucky where there are a lot of opportunities at the university of kentucky. >> you can also audit courses with the undergrads if they're not filled and a lot of retirees say there's really fun. and there's a great downtown apgs. and you can always take a buf drive through the horse countryside. >> what about the cost of these courses? >> most of them are membership based course where is you pay an annual fee, maybe $80 a year, and then you'll pay something

like $50 per course, but they're membership programs where you can participate and take a course and then there are also volunteers or member who is teach the courses as well. so if you have a lot of interest in churchill, you can teach a course in churchill if you want. >> let's head to the pacific northwest, which is a great area. this is bellingham, washington between seattle and vancouver. >> exactly, it's sort of tucked between puget sound and the cascade mountains so you have access to two major metropolitan areas, but at the same time, bellingham has it's own distinct community. it has a vibrant water front, with the harbors, restaurants, a farmer's market. there are a lot of other retire yis there, that's partly do to the fact that the state has no income tax. >> 30% of the folks there or

over the age of 50? >> that's probably at least some of the reason why they're there. >> durham, north carolina, part of the tri-cities there in the north carolina area. >> duriham along with chapel hill -- you get all four seasons, which is something that a lot of retirees like yet sort of milder versions. the winters aren't going to be quite as frigid as they are in new england. the median home price is only about $160,000 and durham is a former tobacco town, which is sort of emerging as a cultural haven, there's no art museums, the american dance festival happens there every year. >> very nice. and nowinally we're going to go to the southwest. prescott, arizona. >> prescott is about 100 miles north of phoenix. so people would be surprised to know that because their elevation is just over 5,000

feet, they actually get all four seasons as well. which is again something that retirees look for. and you can go hiking in prescott national forest. there's a beautiful courtyard plaza, there's a constant rotation of arts and craft fairs that are going on. one retiree told us, if you get board in prescott, it's your own fault. >> i should say it used to be kind of pricey, but since 2007, the median home price is down over 35%. so it's more affordable "today" than it was a few years ago. >> thank you so much. >> coming up on "today," a taste of fall with two deliciousseasnl season treats from the cake love man himself. "today's" wedding, a sweet

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coming up on "today," an easy way to make a traditional mexican meal.

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sometimes you gotta make compromises, man. [ male announcer ] no you don't, man. pepcid® complete works now and works later. good morning to you. it is 9:26 right now. i'm laura garcia-cannon. i want to check the commute again. >> there's a delay for cal tran. 220 is making all of the stops delayed in the southbound direction out of san francisco. now, in san francisco, also an issue for mass transit. canceled because of problems with a cable, you'll have a bus shuttle taking place and the south bay in general very slow. we have continued slowing for 580 and still tough today. >> what a rough morning and it's monday. air quality is very low.

people could use transportation because we have unhealthy air. especially in the east bay and in the santa clara valley. on top of all of that, a hot day is forecast. 101 in livermore. 103 in fairfield and 101 in concord. mid-80s for san francisco and 90s in santa cruz. laura is back your local news. [ female announcer ] 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. and these are the ones you'll love on a school night pillsbury ham and cheese crescents with just a few ingredients, you have an easy to make dinner. they're crescents for the other 364. try them tonight. the california budget deal could be announced in the next few days. it will come early this week. california has not had a budget for nearly 90 days. the tentative deal is said to include the suspension of corporate tax breaks which has not even taken effect yet and selling off more than $1 billion of state buildings. it also reportedly relies on more federal funding. more and more californians seem to be getting on board with proposition 19. about 49% of people say that

they are inclined to vote yes. this is the proposition to make marijuana legal. 42% are planning to vote no within the margin of error. it's a big change from july when the proposition was trailing by just 4 points. equal lie zags may change the way that people vote on proposition 19. they said that it could generate legalizing $1.4 billion in tax revenues. now we're not sure what legalizing pot could bring. it could take years to implement this system. if proposition 19 passes, right now, all of the proposition leads to local government to tax and regulate marijuana. i'll have another local news update in half an hour or so. the "today" show returns in less than half a minute. have a great monday morning. [ female announcer ] jerry brown and oakland's schools. what were the facts? fact: march 7, 2000. brown asks voters for new mayoral power to appoint school board members. he gets it, and promises better schools. but the drop out rate increases...50%. the school budget goes into a 100 million dollar deficit.

the schools become so bad...the state has to take them over. it was "largely a bust," he admitted. jerry brown. failure as governor. failure as mayor. failure we can't afford now. yeah, what's your favorite subject? >> math. >> that's my worse subject. i was horrible in math. >> that's al going back to elementary school. it's part of "today's" week long look at education in america. tomorrow on "today," we'll see what al learned when he hit the books with the pint-sizeded set. so how was it? it's great to go back, suspect? >> yes, but in a sense, you realize how much smarter they are "today."

. >> and even what they're learning, it seems beyond what i learned in fourth and fifth and sixth grade. and the pressure is even higher on these kids. >> but coming up in this half hour, as we continue to make a look at the state of education in america. we're looking at the class of 2020, this morning natalee morales takes a look at what's on the mind of one little girl as she startses the new school year. >> we are making two seasonal treats to celebrate fall. cranberry apple cobbler -- >> apple cranberry cobbler. >> i guess because there are more apples than cranberry. and sweet potato cake. or potato cake that's sweet. >> i'm curious what the difference is between cobbler and pie.

>> one has a crust, the other doesn't. >> there you have it. that's something i didn't know in cooking "today." we're also going to show you a classic mexican dish. but first, al who knows all things. >> i don't know all things, but i do know about a buy's got a crust. >> pie as a crust on the bottom. >> cobbler, cobbler doesn't have a crust. >> let's take a look at show you what's going on. and i wasn't mocking you. as i watch the tropics, 30% up development there in the caribbean, and it may cause a problem from florida on into the east coast. wet weather for the east, much above normal temperatures in the pacific northwest. midweek period, wet again along the east coast.

and as you look at the sunshine today, beautiful conditions across san francisco, blue sky and that means heat. even for san francisco. yesterday we saw very strong onshore flow. today, not so much. that means san francisco, 85 degrees. 90 in santa cruz. 101 in concord. given the heat today, slowly cooling down tomorrow, all the way down to 93 degrees. weather continues to improve this week. >> the debate continues. >> a third grader knows the difference between a cobbler and a pie. >> that 's terrible, al, thank you.ne,next, speaking of third grade, we're headed back to the third grade as we check in with one member of the class of 2020. it also works wirelessly with your tv.

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bankamericard cash rewards credit card. apply online or at a bank of america near you. bankamericard cash rewards credit card. i'm george duran and this is the hunt's crash kitchen tour. hey, chief, how you doing? i'm here to cook you guys some lasagna. that's what i'm doing. not with this you're not. what you doing to my tomatoes? hunt's is the only leading brand that uses flashsteam and that gives it that backyard garden fresh taste. wow. look how bright that is. alright, i think we're good. hey, guys, come and get it. this is delicious. [firemen cheer] guys, you need your strength! isn't it time to take a fresh look at your tomatoes? whoo-hoo! i drove the '92 camry. i drive a 2007 camry. i was expecting the 2005 camry, and my sister got it. i was driving the '94 toyota camry, and my dad surprised me with a 2005 toyota camry. [ julie sighs ] i drove all of them, but i drive the 2009. [ interviewer ] why camry? reliability. yeah. affordability.

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as we take a close look at kids and schools this week on education nation "today," it's time to check in on our class of 2020. we're following a group of students from their first day of kindergarten to their high school collage situation. graduation. we wanted to go back to where the series started and catch up with our first member of the class of 2020. >> how are you? >> good? >> summer is over and 8-year-old lauren is up early to start the new school year. >> what do you think is going to be different about third grade? >> much harder.

>> really? >> you think you can handle it? i think you can too. >> reporter: the 2007, we woke up with 5-year-old lauren on her first day of kindergarten. she started the morning with a few dollars from the tooth fairy and a special necklace from her mom. >> they're called mommy and me pendants, even though it's a big day and we'll be separated, we're always in each other's hearts, right. >> i need help with the tie. >> "todatoday no one would know lauren is wearing the necklace, but she'll keep it close to her heart. >> she said i really want to wear any heart necklace, i said it's not going to show up with your tie, but she said i know it's on. >> as independent a child as she is, it's really nice for me to see that side of her every once in a while to really know that we're still really connected and

that she needs her mom. >> welcome to the third grade, whooo! >> third grade is under way and it's time to say goodbye to mom and dad. >> here's my goal, my goal is to help you grow up. lauren's new teacher says there are no rules in her classroom, but a lot of expectations. >> why would it be helpful to raise your hand? >> because somebody else might have been rasing your hand but you just shouted out and they were going to say something also. >> so it's about being fair, isn't it? >> so you have to listen to me answer your question. >> reporter: today's first assignment to illustrate cooperation. and bullying. >> no bossing me. >> very good. so this would be an example of

bossing or bullying, right? >> reporter: as the first day of third grade draws to a close, the teacher gives the kids a chance to get to know her and 150e67 other. >> i wanted to be a mechanic. >> it is mckenzie and her dream is to be on a tv show. >> her dream is to be a famous singer. >> lauren uses the opportunity to find out more about natalee her friend, but also the rest of the world. >> what's the thing that happened to me, i went to manilla for a trip. >> manilla? >> the philippines. >> when they were driving, and she kept asking me questions. why, why? and i said, why do you want to know why? she said, i want to know everything. >> the class of 2020, stusdents

completed their mandatory te testing and we're happy to report that lauren did very well. >> up next a simple to spice up that same old chicken with mexican mole. right after this. . night after night, i sat up. sprayed up. took a shower... or took a pill. then i tried drug-free breathe right advanced. and instantly, i breathed better! i slept better. it felt...better. thank you, breathe right! [ male announcer ] breathe better, sleep better, feel better. now try new breathe right advanced for free... at breatheright.com. [ woman ] it's my right to breathe right. isn't it your right, too? [ female announcer ] granola nut clusters from nature valley. 100% natural nuts and granola in bite-size clusters. it's a little bit of nature... a little bit better.

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to cookies just out of the oven. to the morning bowl of cereal. and to lactaid® milk. easy to digest and with all the calcium and vitamin d of regular milk. [ female announcer ] lactaid®. the original lactose-free milk. this morning on "today's" kitchen, spicing up your chicken dinner with mole, host of the cooking channel has a recipe you can pull off in no time. mole can take a couple of days? >> and anywhere between 20 and

40 ingredients. >> who's got the time. >> that's exactly the point as to why i'm making the recipe that i'm making. >> you tall this a shortcut mole? >> i'm not intending to pass this off as a traditional mole. it's a mole -- the objective of this easy, easy recipe, and again, so that people don't get mad of me. >> who would get mad of you. >> people get mad, especially when you're getting a traditional dish that has so much tradition, you show a shortcut, people get really upset. we've got tomatoes, we have got some onion and some garlic, and the reason for coming up with these real shortcuts, jalapeno,

that has been dried and smoked, so it's nice and smoky. we have got some raisins, again, this is my own doing with the raisins. so let's pretend that this is all cooked down. >> for about how long? >> about ten minutes, until it's soft, 20 minutes. we have it in here, we're going to add two cups of chicken stock and then we have got some add to peanut butter. again, why peanut butter. give me a hand al, thank you. buy peanut butter? generally the mole has different nuts that you have to roast. everybody has peanut butter in their pantry. some cinnamon, some chile powder and now we're going to blend, blend, blend, very quickly. and just cover this. we don't want accidents on your beautiful pink tie.

>> are we ready? >> you're ready. there you go. oh, i think we're done. and now only because this is tv. we have got the sauce ready to go. and, again, you know, why create these really big shortcuts? because if you decide, if you have never had a mole, and you look at a recipe that has 40 ingredients and days of work, if you have never tried it, why would you do it? so this is a way of introducing it. now here comes what makes a mole, dark chocolate is about an ounce and a half, we have got it already fully cooked here. >> what else did you have in here? >> this is what we're going to put right now on our beauty plate and on our pot, these are pumpkin seeds, a little bit toasted, grinded and we put

these on top. so, again, it's all healthy ingredients in the recipe. and the kicker is going to be a little bit of orange zest. if you are the kind of person that dint lioesn't like to bite orange zest. i like the color and the texture on top. but again, it's a very personal thing. so this might get you inspired, if you make this recipe from beginning to end shouldn't take more than 25 minutes. then the next time you have five days off and time to go to 20 supermarkets, by all means please do. >> what else have you got here? >> we have got our delicious mexican corn soup. actually this month was mexican bisin sen yal and it's also mexican -- and the corn soup is supersimple. corn tortillas, fried dough and

we're going to do a little bit of parsley, a little bit of bake kbake -- bacon. >> you had me at fried dough. >> coming up next, classic nd what's and wh's the defencre b our state is in a real mess. and i'm not going to give you any phony plans or snappy slogans that don't go anywhere. we have to live within our means.

we have got to take the power from the state capitol and move it down to the local level, closer to the people. and no new taxes, without voter approval. we have got to pull together not as republicans or as democrats but as californians first. at this stage in my life, i'm prepared to do exactly that.

this morning on "today's" kitchen, back to basics, fall favorites with apple picking and we're easing into the season with two tasty treats warren brown has recipes for every state in the nation. so we're making a cobbler and al

said crust. >> i agree with you, definitely. >> i'm right. >> a cobbler can have a crust on the bottom, but for me, that just is a lot of extra work, so i usually do mine without the crust on the bottom. but it can have that. >> so i'm right, so let's get to this amazing recipe. >> apple cobbler, one of my most favorite things in the world. i would start with peeled apples. >> use any type of apple? >> a variety of apples. i like the ones you just like to eat. but if you want to get some that are tart like granny smith's, you can do that. i have the topping, the crust, that's my favorite part. and we have got butter and sugar, dark brown sugar, salt and a little bit of baking powder. >> is there a way to make this low fat? >> you can do things if you want to try to make it a multigrain.

i like to do it with a rolled oats sometimes. you can even do a little flaxseed at times. make sure to grind it. so egg and rum and over the vanilla. and you just want to add a little bit. and the thing is, you have to make sure that it's clumping up. i have already brought all the butter in there. so when you clump it up, you're adding the egg, and you do it a little bit at a time. >> the finished products to make these pattys. >> we're going to lay them across the top. and when we do that, let's expand a little bit. and if you have any that's kind of gaps in there, you can take some of the extra and just sprinkle it down. >> how do you make it crispy? >> you can't add too much egg, if you add too much, it's too wet and soggy. but that will be really the right amount. if you want you can add a little bit of extra cinnamon across the top.

and even some freshly grateded nutmeg. >> that reminds me of the holidays. >> so you have extra syrup from the apples. i like to take those and put it on some nuts of any kind. you've got blanched almonds here. >> toast them anded a them. so can i taste the finished product. >> hi, al, good to see you. >> nice to see you. >> i think a cobbler can have a crust on the bottom. >> tell me about this. >> sweet potato cake. >> and this is my favorite, with cream icing, we can go for any of these right now if you would like. >> i would like to have some ice cream. chef warren brown, thank you for proving that i'm right. >> does that one have a crust at the bottom. >> no crust at the bottom. oh, look out! wow!

coming up, the latest celebrity buzz coming up. whether it has a crust on the bottom or not, it is good. and he's got pie and ice cream. >> it's all coming up after your local news and weather. promise me low prices.

and stick to it. like seriously low prices. [ male announcer ] at safeway, we made a promise of low prices. and we're keeping it. [ female announcer ] with club card specials like beef cross rib roast, just $1.99 a pound and crystal geyser water only $3.99. i need to know that when i'm here, the low prices will be too. monday, tuesday, everyday. i'm a big fan of everyday. [ male announcer ] and with thousands of everyday low prices, you'll save all over the store. [ female announcer ] low prices you can count on. at safeway, that's our promise. that's ingredients for life. good morning to you. it's 9:56 right now. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> in the express lane it's

slow. first, the san mateo bridge, we have a crew that just jumped on to the westbound direction. they just made their way at the top of the screen you can see it. looking for slowing and it hasn't happened. now we see slowing at the express lane and also cars reported in the roadway. so that might be contributing to the spectator slowing. but this has been going on since 7:00. very slow coming down out of pleasanton. slow off of 580 but not so bad overall. a lot of sun is there, jen. >> it looks great. a lot of sun is going to heat things up. it's going to be the hottest day of the week. 101 degrees in livermore. 93 in fremont. even the area beaches see very hot weather. offshore flow is very strong today. look at the seven-day forecast, it's slowly cooling down. it was a hot one, laura. >> we will break for it. thank you very much. in court today a suspect will be

there for a shooting of an officer. he's charged with being an accessory in an attempted murder of todd young three weeks ago. he and another officer were trying to make an arrest. the officer is still in the hospital after regaining consciousness a few days ago. the police are looking for answers after two men walked into the airport carrying assault rifles and then walked out after no trouble. they started plightly asking questions and no one called police or airport officials. they were actually from livermore lab and were waiting for a traveler to arrive. they are working out protocol guidelines now. under normal circumstances, law enforcement is supposed to give notice when they are going to be picking up someone up and will be armed. have a great morning.

the "today" show returns in less than half a minute. [ female announcer ] 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. does it feel like home, day yet? in our new house!

we'll take care of that. ♪ feels like home ng. [ male announcer ] grands! biscuits. now we're home. [ male announcer ] it's just not home without 'em. from nbc news, this is "today" with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. hi, everybody. it is fun day, the 27th of september, and we're hoping you had a wonderful weekend. it is starting to feel like fall around here in new york. >> it is. we have got our big education plaza set up outside. it is shocking to watch how the plaza was transformed from -- >> just over the weekend. >> there are huge tents, all kinds of things. >> it is going to be a week-long thing. >> and it is all about kind of focusing on education and they

say it was just coincidental that this waiting for superman document -- >> really? that seems incredible to me. >> that's what i said. but i heard that from jeff zucker himself. >> we have our secretary of agriculture here. >> secretary vilsack will be with us. >> we'll ask him that very question. because i have grown to be extremely cynical since i got here. >> you have? >> i don't think there are that many coincidences in life. i believe jeff, but i want to hear it from the man himself, mr. vilsack. >> we'll find out. how was your weekend? >> it was slow. i'm glad i didn't go to the giants game yesterday. i watched it at home. oh, my gosh. >> what? >> i was on the treadmill, i had to turn it off, not the treadmill, the tv, several times. that would hurt if you suddenly turned off the treadmill. that was ugly and a lot of lack of sportsmanship which i can imagine mrs. mara in the booth was furious. this guy lost the game for them two times he was called for 15 yards. >> whatever his name is, but we know. >> he knows who he is, and i'm not the coach, but that's the

one thing i would never, ever allow. >> any kind of unsportsman-like conduct. the most heart breaking game and since we're talking football is the saints, in overtime, and i love the kicker and my heart broke for him. 20-yard kick, and i know that -- it is a head game and he missed it. god love him. i can only imagine what he's feeling today and the falcons ended up winning which was a joke because the saints are going to go all the way again. >> not that you're biassed in any way at all. you went to a big concert last night. >> cheryl crow was playing at -- ♪ change will do you good >> she was playing at radio city, got up on stage, had her microphone, i couple of pictures. i took bootleg video but apparently we're not allowed to show it. >> completely illegal, hoda. >> everyone is doing it. >> secretary vilsack is here. he has other people on speed dial. if i were you, cool it with the bootlegging stuff, hoda.

>> most people aren't watching the concerts. it happens here on the plaza often. they're taking pictures -- they're not actually enjoying it. >> it is not illegal on the plaza. >> they're documenting it instead of listening to it. i found myself doing the whole thing. >> i watched the gosselin go on a picnic instead of taking a picture with your own family. >> paying too much attention to other people. >> i had an interesting weekend because i spent it reading a particular book. >> i'm a little -- >> besides the bible. another book. >> i'm a little -- okay, i have to say, okay, this is my book you're talking about. >> mm-hmm. >> coming soon! i have a question -- >> i think you can order it right now on amazon. >> do you have an issue with it. i think you might have an issue. >> we'll discuss it when it comes out. >> what is the issue? >> did i not text you and tell you congratulations? >> yes, no, no, but i would like to know what it is. >> i don't think you went on and on about me enough, but anyway -- >> there are only three chapters. >> do you think i'm a pain in

your royal something? >> sometimes. sometimes. >> you are in mine as well but i neglected to put that in my book. and the difference is you would know that had you read my book. enough said. enough said. >> what else is going on? >> amy poehler. >> the guest host on "snl." we have been talking about, there is a controversy with katy perry and "sesame street". she did a skit with elmo on "sesame street" and they decided not to air that version. so "snl" decided to spoof the katy perry/elmo situation. >> it was a slow newsweek. they have to. [ applause ] >> who cares if kids are looking at boobs. boobs feed babies. i turn on "csi" the other night and there is a guy with worms in his eyes about the we can't look at boobs. >> you do your thing at the

library, you go for the books. >> katy perry is adorable. >> we were in the makeup room earlier this morning. we had one of these guys on who is called a supernatural entertainer i guess you call him. >> or mentalist. does not want to be called a magician, because it has nothing to do with what he says tricks. >> he did a trick in the makeup room. >> he doesn't call them tricks, hoda. >> i do. because it freaked me out. i asked him to think of a number and he wrote it down and it was the right number. anyway, come on in. his name is leor shushard. >> nice to see you again. >> we have a couple of seconds. show us a trick. >> something. >> something. >> i'm going to ask you to think of something. >> okay. >> close your eyes. >> me or kathie lee? >> and i want you to think about something that nobody here knows. think about your first kindergarten or -- >> first grade teacher. >> is it anybody here who knows this name? >> can i open my eyes and look

around? >> keep your eyes closed. >> i don't think so. >> one second. is it mrs. or miss. >> mrs. >> give me your hand for a second. there is no chance anybody here knows this, right? >> no. >> keep your eyes closed. >> okay. but what is the -- >> miss anderson? anderson? >> no. >> anderson? no, no, no, really? is it close? >> peterson. >> you saw how close it was. >> you're creeping me out. i'll tell you why -- >> let me tell you why. this is jim. i met him a few seconds. can i borrow your glasses for a second. i'll move you a little bit to the side. >> these are not going to be the same -- >> don't worry about it. i need you to help me here. put your hand on my right hand like this. >> which hand? >> your left. >> you two are getting very close. >> your right on my left. look at the glasses in the center.

. >> what happened? >> they moved a little bit. >> where's the string? >> what happened? >> i told you it is not tricked. it is moved with your power. >> our power had so much to do with it. >> we're going to visit with you in a little bit. we need our floor director to have his glasses. >> thinking positive. >> okay. we have to survive around here. shall we go to our esteemed secretary of agriculture. >> i'm thrilled to have him with us, aren't you? secretary tom vilsack is with us. secretary vilsack, come on us. >> big week around here. >> absolutely. >> what a pleasure. we're hosting a lunch with you a little later on today and we're talking about school lunches, which are in desperate need of -- >> historically and traditionally they have been one of the worst offenders in terms of our children's health? >> we have recently done a study, too much sugar, too much sodium, too much fat, not enough whole wheat, low fat dairy and vegetables. we're going to try to change that. >> not enough of any of the good stuff. >> well, some of the good stuff,

but not enough. not enough. we have two issues here. we have about 17 million children in the country today that live in food insecure homes. so school breakfast and school lunch -- >> they're hungry kids. >> maybe the only meal they get. >> wow. that's unbelievable in the richest country in the world. >> on the other hand, we have a third of our youngsters obese or at risk of being obese. this is an issue we have to deal with when youngsters may receive a third to half of their calories at school. >> you think about a school meal costs $1.31, what we'll do at 12:30 is have chefs come in and come up with ways to make $1.31 meal healthy, delicious and -- >> and according to fda standards. this is personal for you because you grew up challenged with your own weight. >> a little challenge. >> a little picture of you. >> you were cute. >> you were adorable. you look like spanky. >> some very serious research here. >> we are nbc news, that's hard to believe when you're standing next to me, but anyway.

>> investigative reporting, i didn't realize i was going to have that today. >> we look forward to our lunch time with you. so hopefully people will tune in on msnbc at 12:30. >> we're also following up on what you all are doing. we're having a chef's contest and recipe contest as well. >> and school kids will determine the winner. >> that's right. top 30 recipes go into a cookbook and they'll all be on the web, so cooks around the world and around the country can take advantage of them. >> excellent. thank you very much, sir. >> we'll see you in a little bit. >> in a bit. thank you so much. favorite thing time. >> favorite things. you go ahead, you start. >> i always bring a thing in for my favorite thing and this time i decided to bring a photo of a person. and that's my friend karen, who i visited this weekend. i was in boston. i have to tell you, there are certain -- >> is that catherine? >> that's catherine, a few years ago, but she loves this picture, so i put it back on. we sat on the couch from friday,

i think at 6:00, and got off the couch maybe twice during our whole weekend. her husband was so sweet. >> you needed that. >> yeah. >> has she read your book? >> not yet. not yet. >> she comes off great. >> so do you! wait, are you serious? >> no, no. >> you really don't -- >> guess what, two of my real friends are here, two of my dearest friends, they have -- they're going to be with us a little bit later. they are -- they have been in the american vernacular forever. it is the lenin sisters. kathy and janet lenin. i've been in this business for 45 years and i don't think that of everybody i've ever met, and i've known forever and ever, nobody has been more consistently the nicest two people you'll ever meet in your life. i was playing -- there i am with them on stage in branson, missouri. >> oh, my gosh. >> i've been playing with their paper dolls since i was a little girl myself. to become friends with them was such a thrill in my life. the latest thing they have, the two little dolls they played with. >> best pals. >> called best pals. these are the new ones you can

get -- >> in a suitcase. >> this one is kathy, a little nightgown with it, and a brand-new little cd that only comes with this one. and the other -- it comes in this darling little kit. guess what, one of these is for hannah. you want kathy or janet? >> now i'm going to -- i don't know. they're both here. i'd like either one. >> i'm going to gift other one to isabella at my house. >> you pick. i'll take whichever one. >> you pick. >> thank you. thank you. >> and those are only available on qvc. darling little suitcase. sara, what is your favorite? >> mine is this laptop cover from looped works, it is all upcycled material. the company does really cool things and each piece is completely unique. but i just love the fact that they're trying to stop filling land fills and it is cool. it is made out of scuba, scuba suit. >> you're kidding? >> yeah. >> those things. >> next time you dive with your laptop it totally safe!

>> cool. >> are you mad about the book? >> no, stop. >> okay. >> not much. >> okay, up next, it is not an event without miss laura innes. i watched it. >> find out why 11 million other people watched it too. they'll always remember this christmas. so will i, when we get the bill. oh no bill, we planned ahead with kmart layaway. for $5, plus a little down - i spread the payments over 8 weeks with no finance charges. kmart layaway. there's smart, and there's kmart smart. mmmmmm. mmmmmm. wow! you have got to be kidding me.

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>> is that a threat? >> you wanted the truth. i'm giving it to you. >> mm. >> that's laura innes, one of the stars of nbc's new show "the event" where she plays a mysterious sophia maguire and it is getting lots of people watching. >> the former "er" star traded in her stethoscope for handcuffs. >> you kinky woman. >> i get to keep those so -- >> a lot of people watch the show, but the promos caught your attention because everyone kept going what's the event, what's the event, what's the event. we still don't know, right? >> still don't know. my 9-year-old daughter is like what's the event? we cannot tell. it is a big secret. >> i read that, depending on what you play on this particular show, you know more than your co-workers. like jason ritter knows nothing. all he knows is his fiancee disappears and he spends the whole series looking for her. >> you taped all separately?

>> you know what they did when they were casting the show, they gave us secret dossiers, and it contains information about our character, but not the other characters and we're not supposed to, like, peek and look at each other's secret. >> you might play it differently. >> play it differently and it is also, i don't know it kind of fun. it creates this little sort of game of it, and it has been very fun to work on it. it is such a different genre than "er" that it has been really a pleasure. >> how was it when you all came together to watch the first episode because you probably didn't know -- >> we saw the premiere at evan katz, our executive producer's house, but we saw the pilot as a cast in the spring. and when we read the script we all loved the script. but, like you said, we were never filming at the same time, so when we all sat down to watch it, we were so happy and relieved and we were all just, like, wow, this is really cool. it works. >> when you have to spend that many hours on something, you better be passionate about or

your attitude can change really quickly. i read you didn't -- you first were interested -- somebody wanted you to play a different role and you were not interested in that one. and this was originally to be a man, your character. >> yeah. i read the script and i loved the script. the writer is a young guy named nick waters and wrote this very, very tight script and they had called me about a particular part. and it wasn't that interesting to me, but i said, great, good luck. so they said, wait, what if we change this character into a woman. and that was very, very intriguing to me because she's sort of the hub. >> you're like the angelina jol jolie. >> they did that for her. >> that's power. >> it was wonderful because that's the way the world works sometimes. sometimes the male parts are a little more juicy. >> imagine that. >> imagine that. >> if you miss it, is it a combination of "lost" and "24," people say it seems like a combo platter of the two. >> that's a pretty good way to put it. we're basically a 99% political conspiracy theory.

so a little more of the "24" but 1%, 10% of the mystery. and it is really fun. it is very much a fusion of a lot of different genres. >> a tad of supernatural. >> a little bit of that. >> it is terrific. it is terrific. i enjoyed it so much. you can catch "the event," though not the entire event, tonight at 9:00, 8:00 central time here on nbc. up next, a guy you have to see to believe and you might even have some questions after that. that's right after this. the lil zoomers spinnin' sounds speedway. yeah. where he can put fun on the fast track. ( happy baby ) ( raceway sounds ) thanks to his great motor skills even his littlest touch can set his whole world in motion. ( raceway sounds ) ( giggles ) way to zoom jacob ! ( tire screech ) guess who just reached the finish line ? the lil zoomers speedway. ( cheers ) only from fisher-price. play. laugh. grow. ♪ fresh butter taste ♪ yes, that's here ♪ no hydrogenated oils ♪ so there's no trans fats here ♪

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okay, benjamin franklin once said believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see. >> but in lior suchard's case, you may not believe any of what you see because lior is a mentalist who can do some pretty darn crazy things. >> yes. >> you watched it, you experienced it. >> not yet. >> the glasses i got, i kind of got the glasses flipping. >> can you bend, like -- >> all of those at one time? it is hard to do this but we'll try an experiment. i asked a few -- to bring a few people inside. can we call them? >> come on in, ladies. >> come in quickly. we never before correctly. you're here. i will try to do some experiments. >> okay. >> first of all, quickly think about your favorite number from 1 to 100, don't say it. ready? 1 to 100, yours is 10, correct? weird. >> a little bit. >> you're not thinking of 10. when she said 10, you think half of it, you think of 5. >> what?

>> yes. >> see her smile over there. what's your name? >> lorraine. >> by the way -- >> how come you didn't know that? i'm just asking. >> because i'm trying to concentrate on specific stuff here. >> i'm not good for that. >> i want to do something on you. >> sure. >> more complicated. by the way, would you swear you didn't tell me anything, correct? >> swear. >> correct. 88, correct? >> yes. >> now that's impressive. >> i know. now the things i do i deal with people's mines. i enter their thoughts, influence their mind, crazy stuff. i'm going to ask you because people are very skeptical, they think something is set up. you're here to be witnesses. i would like you to think in your mind of a memory, something funny, don't tell me anything. >> you asked me this before the show, down in my dressing room and i did it. >> but didn't tell me anything, correct? >> no, no. >> it is important to tell everybody nobody in the studio knows this, correct? >> right. >> look into my eyes.

christmas. it is in christmas. >> yes. >> yes. and something funny, you were dancing or something? >> no. >> something with your clothes. >> yeah. >> wait, wait. >> you don't have clothes. >> that's right. >> i don't want to continue because that -- yeah? >> yes. >> you were naked at christmas? >> naked at christmas, yes. >> what's the story? >> a very spiritual thing in our home. i was a little kid and i was so excited for christmas morning, i came running down the stairs without pants on and my daddy had the video camera going. >> what? >> had to go back in time like 20 years into the past when she was -- >> oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. now i like you. okay. >> see more of this, next month -- >> what is going on here? >> you're going to be at the palms in vegas. >> in the palms in vegas. i'm going to bend some people's minds over there. >> let me see the -- i want to see the spoon first. i don't know if i believe it. >> look what is happening. slowly. >> would it work if it was on our --

>> wait, we didn't see if it was a real spoon. hold on. >> check this spoon, check this one, check this one. >> why only this one? >> i want to check this one. >> would it work if it were in our hand? >> of course. check this one also. >> did you switch it? >> yes. >> close it like this. and are you ready? tell me if you feel something -- come close. tell me if you feel something strange. ready? you feel it is getting to be more and more plastic. >> is it? >> a little bit. >> feel it a little bit? >> you can see it moving. >> i see it moving. >> see how it is trying to -- like, the molecules inside are moving more and more. >> we have ten seconds, where are you going to be? the palm? >> the palms hotel in las vegas. >> the palms in las vegas. >> there you go. you've got a strawberry pop-tart,

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new best tasting activia ever! ♪ activia now you can join the fight against breast cancer every time you enjoy an activia. give hope with every cup of activia. good morning to you. it's 10:26 right now and i'm laura garcia-cannon. it's getting easier with the commute? >> overall, yes. no out bound subways. underground work interrupted that because of a busted cable they can't get that running. buses are in place for those lines. the freeways we taked about, they are moving lightly. south bay, still slowing going on for 101 and 85 both having trouble. the express lanes are the

problem there. it's going to be sunny and very hot. the air quality is very bad. 101 in livermore. 103 in fairfield and 101 in concord. even the city will be in mid-80s today. 90 in santa cruz. a slow cool down does start tomorrow. temperatures back into the lower 90s. and then the mid-80s and getting 90s. and then the mid-80s and getting t 90s. and this flu season, and getting t what would you pick for your flu vaccine? a shot in the arm? or a spray in the nose? i pick my nose. i pick my nose. i pick my nose gracefully. flumist. it's the only flu vaccine that starts fighting the flu in the nose, where you usually catch it. in a study of kids 2 to 5 years of age, flumist cut the risk of getting the flu in half compared to the flu shot. i picked my nose. she said i could. flumist may not protect everyone. flumist is not for people allergic to eggs or other vaccine ingredients or for children and teens taking aspirin or products containing aspirin, or for anyone who's had life-threatening reactions to flu vaccines.

health conditions including guillian-barré syndrome, a weakened immune system, diabetes, pregnancy, or heart, kidney, or lung disease may exclude you from getting flumist. your doctor will decide if flumist is right for you. common side effects include runny nose or nasal congestion, sore throat, and fever. talk to your doctor to find out if flumist is right for your family. and visit flumist.com. sure is nice to have a choice.

the giants are off today but key decisions could be made today. six games to play in the season, the final three game series is against the padres. award winner tim not rotation play against san diego. he played earlier in the week. manager could decide today to give him an extra day rest so he's ready for the padres. miss opportunities this morning against the cardinals. in the final seconds of the game, the regulators nudged on the field and a 32-yard field goal by sebastian. he missed three field goals last night, not a good thing for the highest paid kicker in the nfl. will they soon demarcus russell back on the field? forced to watch football with no

team affiliation again. i'll be back tomorrow morning starting at 5:00 a.m. thank you so much for joining us. the "today" show is back in a minute. have a great day. we're back and this fun day with today's buzz and the entertainment news that anybody can handle for one day. >> we're talking tinseltown and beyond. with us are bonnie fuller, editor in chief of hollywoodlife.com and gossip gram's roseanne coletty. so, lindsay in jail again and then bonded out. >> kept us busy all weekend. first in jail, than $300,000 of bail, out of jail, then she went to rehab her image. went to a homeless shelter on saturday night, and was signing autographs and handing out purses. >> how is that going over? that?

homeless shelter signing, book signing. >> anything she can do at this time would be good. >> don't you think it is kind of transparent. it seems like at this point going to a homeless shelter isn't what people want to see. >> we want to see her going to rehab, stay long enough to actually get cured and come out and do all the good work she can. >> the word out of her camp is she's investigating rehabs now in the l.a. area. >> just pick one of them. you know what i'm saying, i love what the quote was, she's now starting to take her rehab seriously. >> yes. and she has said that so many times. >> it is about time. long overdue. >> it is so troubling, especially when pictures like allegedly come out today. >> on tmz, from 2007, they show somebody, you can't really i guess tell 100% who the person is, we don't know if it is lindsay lohan or not, but it shows supposedly -- >> injecting drugs. >> which is seemed to be heroin. >> very disturbing.

>> and into the back as well. that's a serious allegation. >> if it is lindsay that would show the depth of her addiction and why everything has been so problematic. but don't know for sure. >> there is another one as well where she's supposedly -- has paris hilton sitting on her lap in full makeout mode. >> that's not surprising. they were partying together all the time, they both have been you know, caught kissing other women. >> there is pictures of me and hoda out there, let's be honest, but it comes with the territory. in light of this other, you know, it just -- >> it is so -- and how in the world did she get the insurance paid on her to go forward and do this motion picture they're waiting on her to do. >> they're moving it up. they're moving up the date, moving the location. >> a million dollars to get her insured to do the picture. >> the thing is that supposedly they're moving the shooting to l.a. so they can still do it and yet people are not very hopeful about this movie. it is not getting a lot of positive prebuzz. >> and it would have to be an

x-rated movie because it is a life of the porn queen, linda lovelace. >> the thing is, you look at the weekend box office and you have a movie called "easy ace" starring emma stone and she's the new lindsay, a red head, a disney star, it did fantastic and lindsay has to look at that -- >> no issues. very low key. >> has a private life. >> i'm surprised that movie did that well. i saw it, i was surprised. >> i didn't like the way the christian kids were portrayed so incredibly stereotypical as completely hypocritical and completely geekish and i think that's incredibly offensive to a huge amount of kids out there that are not like that at all and really do live their lives with integrity. and that was a cheap shot. >> well, the thing is, though, the movie did very well, apparently only cost $8 million to make and now she is being talked about as a potential star in "spider-man". >> she was terrific in it. she was terrific in it. our point is not -- is off

subject, but still we have been wanting to make it. >> good point. >> "wall street," too of course was a home run. >> i thought it would do more. $19 million. i thought it would do better than that this weekend. >> it is his biggest movie he's ever had, his biggest opening. >> really? >> still consider it to be a very good opening by the industry. >> ben affleck is doing well. >> let's get to demi and ashton. that's been on the front cover of magazines, is there cheating? what's the story? >> any evidence there? >> they have been doing their best to keep the rumors at bay. they went party hopping with their daughter tallulah on sunday. they were very lovie dovy. they were sitting, you know, being very affectionate. >> they tweeted, demi tweeted a picture of herself and ashton in bed on their fifth anniversary, which i believe was thursday or friday, and showing them

snuggling together. >> that's too much information too. that seems a little in your face, you know, like see, see, we're still -- she doesn't need to do that, does she? >> exactly. they were at the global initiative on thursday and they were all holding hands. all over each other, again. >> it is interesting is this britney jones, who has these tweets apparently, is claiming she's also friends with demi. >> the alleged paramour. >> the alleged paramour. >> i hope it is not true. i like them together. >> i hope it is not true about anybody, except for me and hoda. >> exactly. coming up next, how involved you should be in your child's school work. did you know

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it is day one of education nation here at nbc news. where all week long we'll be raising your awareness about the state of education in our country. today we begin with basic skills. >> we all know reading, writing and arithmetic are essential to success in school and in life, but what many people don't know is how to help your struggling student. sarah picard taylor is with columbia university and joseph alameda is a sixth grade math teacher at a charter school here in new york city.

we're delighted to have you both here today. >> you hear the numbers, we were talking about today where it says a child drops out of school every 11 seconds. if you think about right now and in ten more seconds, you know, you can't believe that's happening. what is the essential issue or problem do you guys think? >> i think one thing we all need to think about is partnering together. parents, teachers, administrators, community advocates, so that 11 seconds doesn't happen anymore. we all need to come together. >> i have a friend, won't name names at all, whose daughter just dropped out of high school, to go at night, from 7:00 to 9:00 because she was bored out of her mind at school all day long, and probably getting into some trouble as a result of that. why are the kids so bored? >> the content needs to be stimulating for students. and if the content isn't stimulating and the teacher doesn't know how to make the connections for the students, i think that's where the boredom comes in. knowing what your students' interests are is very important. >> sometimes i think that

parents, my kid just doesn't like it when we haven't really asked them what are you interested in reading, do you love dinosaurs? let's get you some dinosaur books. >> you found a way to tap into a math portion, and sometimes that's difficult to get kids interested in math. >> sure was for me. how are you doing it? >> one of the things that makes math a lot of fun is we incorporate a lot of songs into our curriculum. one thing i'm interested in is helping kids understand the basic parts of imagimathematics. if the kids don't have the one to one correspondence where they're counting objects or the kids don't understand how to do a certain computation, then they're not going to be set up for success if they can't add, subtract, multiply and divide. >> are we passing children who should not be passed and just making it so much more difficult along the line? sometime somebody has to say you didn't learn the material, you can't go forward.

why do we keep letting kids passing? >> a couple of things parents want to keep in mind. when they see their child struggling, go to school, get involved, know who the players are before that happens. know your child's teacher, go to curriculum night, so lines of communication are strong from the beginning. >> so your child sees -- i guess when your child sees you and the teacher together -- >> she's on to me. >> they also get so discouraged if it isn't done quickly. it is a snowball effect and they give up, despair of it. >> we have a couple of parents, carol, who is just in our studio from chicago, out in the rain and came in to ask a question. hey, carol. >> carol from illinois. and my question is how do we keep our students engaged in math and science so that they can pursue careers in those fields as adults? >> i can see that's tough to keep them interested, sometimes it is not fun. >> i think one of the things that makes kids turn off to mathematics is hearing from their parents that i wasn't good at mathematics myself. i think having a positive

attitude with learning is really important. the other thing is in the classroom, i have a hip-hop institute that i conduct and i'm teaching the kids mathematics, so we're building the excitement there in teaching them and it is not just about numbers. >> not every kid is supposed to be a mathematician, isn't that true as well? shouldn't we be teaching our children more to their own strengths earlier in their life s s so we find out what they like and get strong in that. >> if you see a child loves building, show them career paths on that track. >> they'll need to know math. >> it is also about giving them the problem solving skills early. to get them used to it. >> that was my problem, i never had hip-hop. >> you guys are doing great work. we can't thank you enough for coming on our show. and hi to your mom too. >> up next, the icarly star about to educate us. we love this kid, about healthy

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time for "today's kitchen" and we're getting saucy with reed alexander. he was here before, we barely got through it. what can this kid possibly know about food? a lot. you'll be surprised. >> reed is serving as champion for the empowerment movement, working to combat childhood obesity which is why we asked the entertaining actor to stop by and visit us. >> and find us healthy recipes your kids will not want to trade. let's get started, big guy. >> let's start cooking. healthy delicious school lunches and snacks, let's get in here, be a team, chicken nuggets, they're not deep fried. that's the trick. i need you to handle the spices and you're going to handle the herbs, please. i'm adding crushed up corn flake cereal, panko bread crumbs. i'm going to put the coating

together. all that salt. >> all the salt? >> a ton of different herbs, really setting these apart. basil, margarine, parsley, so delicious. >> what is this? >> black pepper. >> dump it. >> yes, absolutely. >> what is that? >> that's just garlic powder. simple staples. there is our coating. i'm pretty tricky in the kitchen. >> i know you are. >> we have some white meat chicken. i cut this into little chunks just like our nuggets. i'm dipping it into egg whites, not deep frying this. that's why we made our coating. our egg whites are our glue. this is going to be super christie, nchri crispy, not deep fried but pan fried. nonstick, we're browning both sides, searing in the flavor and the juices. >> sounds like it is going to be awesome. >> thank you. we'll try it in just a moment. i want some feedback. we have some -- hoda, take these out for these, put them on my baking sheet, 12 to 15 nuts. >> did you say please?

>> yes, please and thank you. >> of course. >> 350 degrees, 12 to 15 minutes. >> cook them all the way through. >> cook them all the way through. >> don't want any chick then th isn't all -- >> now it is really crusty. that's the trick to getting that crunch. >> then you put it in. >> then you bake it. bake it, it is 100% cooked. see how easy that is. >> hello. >> great to throw in the lunch box, perfect to serve room temperature. you will love this. >> okay. >> if you're looking for a great snack, why turn to a potato when you can make hot apple pie fries instead of french fries. >> apple pie frys? >> yes, i know. i want you to try this. >> hoda loves her french fries, reed. >> what are we pouring in there? >> cardamom, cinnamon, all pi spice. >> on your days off from "icarly," this is what you do? >> i'm so glad to be sharing it you guys. >> one of our favorites, reed

alexander. >> thank you. >> they said you were a little crazy, but we didn't believe it. >> i'm a little nutty. >> nobody enjoys life more than you. >> thank you. i enjoy it when i'm here with you guys. >> not on the set of "icarly," huh? >> it is so much fun. we have an amazing time. we're all really passionate about it and, you know, we're just so glad people enjoy the show. >> they love it. it is a huge hit. >> come on. >> let's taste this stuff. >> taste this, you guys. if you're looking for a great dessert to go with this chicken, and the apple pie fries, i'm good, i'm glad, thank you, this -- >> wow. did you like it? good. try this popcorn. this is peanut butter, honey, for the chicken, light oriental dipping sauce, what's easier? >> this kid is amazing. >> oh, thank you. >> reed alexander for president in 2030. we'll be back with my favorites, the lennon

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everyday i eat your soups instead of going out to lunch, i save a lot of money. that's great. so, your delicious rich and hearty soups have made me, rich and hearty. that's funny. well, i'm rich because... i know, i get it. i laughed. and i'm hearty because of your juicy steak, your potatoes, your pearl onions. well, you know, everything you want to eat for lunch is right in there. so you're really, rich and happy. yeah see, i like rich and hearty better. [ male announcer ] progresso you gotta taste this soup.

♪ i know >> hear the song? if you remember it, you're as old as my mother, frank and the twinkie. if you don't, chances are your parents or grandparents will because the lennon sisters were hitmakers in 1956. >> they made their debut on "the lawrence welk show" and 55 years later, they're still going strong and celebrating. look who's with us. >> i remember when you called me and said, can you believe it it is going to be 50 years this christmas and now five years later and you're still going strong. >> on christmas eve, 55 years since we debuted on "lawrence welk". >> you were what age? >> i was 9. >> and 12. >> was that the only audition you ever had was for "lawrence welk". >> the actually only one. >> we were on for 13 years after that, every saturday night. it was incredible. >> a big family too, wasn't it? >> that was just it. it was a family time, it was an innocent time, it was a special time in television. >> television was brand-new, you know, and people sat every

saturday night and watched. >> every kid across america wanted to either be peggy or d.d. or janet or kathy and we all had our paper dolls. there is nothing i can think about -- now it is like dora the explorer or something like that where little girls want to be that other little girl. it was a sweet time. you had such an incredible family life away from television, when you see stuff like going on with lindsay lohan now and it is the antithesis of the lennon family. >> we were blessed at that time for us and our family kept it that way. we come from a family of 11 children. we would sing on "the lawrence welk" show and come home, change the babies' diapers, brothers and sisters' diapers, did our homework, went to school. >> we had to do dishes at night. >> were you ever enticed or do something -- now you to do something really, really terrible to get noticed, but were you ever -- >> we were on movie magazines all the time. and it was always things like the night janet became a woman, she turned 16 years old and we gave her a surprise party.

>> janet did a few things in her life, you know, believe me. >> we love these dolls, by the way. >> these are the originals. >> the originals. >> these are the originals. >> who gave them to you, do you remember? >> our mom and our nana made them for us at christmas time when i was 3 and kathy was 6 and they were hanging out of our stockings. we loved them so much, we took them on the road with us. >> they're winning awards at toy fairs. people are coming back to what we love so much when we were little, something that is -- doesn't talk necessarily, doesn't have, you know -- >> it is imagination, you snow. >> that's the word i was looking for. love you. love you. >> now we hope to see some of you in branson, missouri. >> come to branson. >> guess who is with us tomorrow? >> phil collins. >> i know. have a great day, everybody. ♪

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