good morning, new scare, three more homemade bombs found overnight at los angeles international airport. one exploding near a parked plane. deal or no deal? a plan to end the shutdown and avoid a national financial crisis may pass the senate as so as today. >> we made tremendous progress. >> i think it's safe to say we made substantial progress. >> but will house republicans go along. call for help, police release the 911 tapes after a woman is trapped on a railway bridge. >> we need to bring this bridge down now. i don't know how much longer she is going to be able to hold on. >> an amazing story of rescue,

today, tuesday, october 15th, 2013. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. live from studio 1-a in rockefeller plaza. and good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a tuesday morning. i'm savannah guthrie. >> i'm matt lauer along side natalie morales and al roker. it's like you drew up the show today because you love technology. >> oh, man. >> we have things on the show, later on we'll talk about break through inventions that will change your life and could change the world. and then another guest. >> i see your break through inventions and raise you one bionic man. we have a bionic man in the studio. this is as far as science can go to replicating a human body. he can do a lot of things. we'll check him out. >> he looks like he is asleep. you have to wake him up.

>> we'll wake him up. he's not a morning program. for the second straight night, emergency crews at l.a.x. are dealing with homemade dry ice bombs. tom could sstello is on the stor us. what can you tell us? >> they found dry ice bombs inside a plastic bottle like this one. it had gone off underneath a plane sitting at 148. two other devices also found in a restroom but did not explode. this time there were no evacuations, no injuries and airport operations were not effected. this follows sunday evening when dry ice exploded inside a restroom that only employees have access to. that was in terminal two. no injuries and no significant damage although it temporarily shutdown a tsa checkpoint and delayed flights.

they're now investigatiing incidents. >> have they said anything about whether this could be related to international terrorism? >> our sources don't believe that at all. after sunday night's event they thought it was a prank. keep in mind, making a dry ice bomb in a plastic bottle has been a junior high school gag for decades. it's simple. you put dry ice in a bottle. you put in water and close it. the carbon dioxide warms inside the bottle and explodes. it can happen quickly if you're not careful or if you're too close you can get hurt. why anyone would do this a second night after the police and fire response on sunday has police wondering what the motive might be in this case. >> and at an airport. thank you, appreciate it. a possible end to the government shutdown could be in site. peter alexander is at the white house with more on that. hi, peter. >> reporter: hi, matt, good morning to you. and end to the shutdown and to the ability to borrow money both in the works here. senate insists congress is the

closest it's been to a deal. senate republicans will get a look at the plan a few hours from now. they could vote within 24 hours but the real hurdle maybe house republicans that are going to discuss the negotiations this morning as well. the third week may finally be the charm. with the u.s. expected to run out of money to pay it's bills in less than 48 hours and americans bracing for a possible default to old senate adversaries closed in on a deal to avoid an economic disaster. >> we have made tremendous progress. >> it's safe to say we made substantial progress and we look forward to making more progress in the near future. >> reporter: senate sources tell nbc news the agreement would fund the government for three more months through january 15th and would extend the nation's ability to borrow money until

early february. still up in the air whether john boehner and house republicans will be on board. with one conservative already saying it's the senate surrender cauc caucus. >> we stand a good chance of defaulting and defaulting would have a potentially devastating effect on our economy. >> reporter: across the nation's capitol frustrated tourists are all but ignoring the shutdown marching around barracades at the national monuments. still an end to the crisis can't come soon enough for furloughed workers and contractors, like this single mother that filed for unemployment benefits last week and is looking for a new job. >> things are going to be extremely tight for the next few months. it's going to take me months to overcome, you know, missing out on three weeks of a paycheck. >> reporter: again, the biggest potential obstacle here is any mass protest by house

republicans and, remember, even if this all goes well, matt, this budget deal would only reopen the government for about 90 more days. unless the two sides reach a bigger deal soon, we could be back here early in the new year. >> nobody wants that. peter alexander, thank you very much. chuck todd is nbc's political director and chief white house correspondence. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> optimism coming out of the senate but as peter mentioned what can be in the bill that will give john boehner political cover to take it to a vote in the house? >> the best thing to give him the cover is if it's 80 votes in the senate. if it's some big number. if you remember the end of the year tax deal in 2012, fiscal cliff, there was more than 80 votes in the senate. what that gave john boehner was saying more than half of the senate republicans voted for this, guys, i'm putting it on the floor and i'm going to let everybody vote for it but i'm not convinced they're going to get that big vote out of the senate. the only thing that can give boehner the cover to throw it on to the floor and let democrats

bring this home is if it's just the calendar. if we're starting to expire. >> given what members of congress heard from the public over the last couple of weeks t fact that they can't agree, are we more or less likely, given temporary measures, to see the same battle down the road? >> we're more likely to see the same battle. >> even though they know how the american people disapprove of this? >> this is not -- i think what's going to happen here is you're going to have a fight inside the republican party. it really has split the republican party. j john boehner has done his best to keep it from blowing up and that's why you'll see some sort of potential shutdown again. >> when we talk about political fights in this country we often talk about the political center and the common wisdom has been that there is 40% on the right, 40% on the left. 20% somewhere in the middle. >> somewhere in the middle. >> maybe they're wishy washy about things. we did a survey and it's

startling what it found. >> it is. a majority of the country is in the middle. 51% is in the middle. the wings, the dominant part in washington is in between the 25 yard lines. but the vast majority of the country, a majority of the country is in between the 25 yard lines. >> when you look at these people in the 51%. >> i wouldn't call them independents. >> this is the center and they're not wishy washy on politics. they have strong views. >> it's just that some of them are supposedly liberal and some of them are supposedly conservative. this is people that live their every day lives and look at politics through their own lives. they don't look at it with a blue jersey or red jersey. >> let's see some of the things they believe in. where do they stand? all right. on the issue of government legislating how people behave in their personal lives, guns, abortion, marriage, marijuana, look what they say. >> large majorities are

pro marijuana, pro-gay marriage. they're like get out of my life. don't tell me what to do. >> how should the u.s. handle itself in terms of foreign affairs. >> this is where you see the war weariness. this is folks that are basically saying we don't need to be patrolling the world. they're for defense cuts. again, this is a majority of the country and amajority of the middle. >> a majority want taxes raised on people that earn more than $1 million a year. >> but they're antiregulation. they don't want government in the way of oil drilling and things like that. while their economic pop yulousn this stuff they're against it. whether it's on marriage or college admissions. >> tweet us using the #where i

stand and we'll check in with tamron in the orange room on that subject in a few minutes. thank you so much. one of the world's most wanted al qaeda leaders is expected to appear in court today one week after his capture in libya and the decision to bring him to new york is a controversial one. richard engle has more on that. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. it has been a long road to get here for abu anas al libi. much of what he told his interrogators will not be admissible in court but u.s. officials believe they have a strong case against him for allegedly planning the 1998 bombings of u.s. embassies in east africa. he allegedly has the blood of more than 200 people on his hands. a key al qaeda planner, u.s. officials say, indicted for the bombings of american embassies in kenya and tanzania 15 years

ago. this is his only confirmed photograph, a passport snap of abu anas al libi. one of al qaeda's founders, a freeman until two weekends ago when he was ambushed by u.s. special ops in libya and whisked to a u.s. warship in mediterranean. without miranda rights he's been held and questioned until a pre-existing medical condition. his family says it's a severe case of hepatitis, lead his captors to transfer him to u.s. soil. in new york al libi has rights including the right to remain congress. some members of congress say he should have been shipped to guantanamo bay, an off site prison where he could have been

interrogated more fully. >> we should have been able to keep him as long as we had to to get that intelligence. because he's on the american mainland it has to stop. >> reporter: but now he is here. al libi, one of the most senior al qaeda members ever brought to u.s. soil. a defendant 15 years in the making. of the 21 men indicted for the 1998 embassy bombings, only three remain at large. >> richard engle at federal court in manhattan, thank you very much. natalie is here with the rising death toll from a powerful earthquake. >> good morning, guys. they're searching for survivors after the massive earthquake in the philippines. at least 85 people are dead. hundreds of others are injured. the 7.2 magnitude quake knocked down buildings, cracked roads and caused fires. rescuers tried to free victims from rubble and debris. today is a muslim holiday and most schools and offices were

closed and that may have reduced the number of causalities. >> there's a new report this morning that the nsa is collecting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail aaccounts around the world including americans. pete williams is in washington with the latest on this. what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning, this comes from documents in the washington post from nsa leaker edward snowden and they show that the nsa gathers address books and contact lists from e-mailers and instant mess messengers. they're from foreigners and not americans. now the nsa says it uses the day to look for connections focussing on what it calls valid foreign intelligence targets like terrorists, human traffickers and drug smug letters and the agency says it's not interested in personal information about ordinary

americans. still, the program does capture the address books of potentially millions of americans but the nsa says it follows rules to minimize gathering, using, or disseminating that data, natalie. >> pete williams, thank you, pete. the supreme court will consider today whether a michigan ban on affirmative action is discriminatory. it focuses on a 2006 voter approved amendment prohibiting universities from using race as a factor during admission. following the law, african american and latino enrollment declined. now several civil rights organizations are challenging the ban. john bon jovi made a super fan's dream come true this weekend when he showed up to walk her down the aisle in las vegas. she was begging the star to do the honors. his tour was in town and it was

the same chapel where bon jovi got married in 1989. >> i'm not sure if you're the groom if you feel up staged. >> yeah, actually snafu got married to bon jovi. >> i can't believe we did this. exactly. >> meanwhile, you're out fishing and enjoying yourself -- >> this is what happens. this is just outside of dallas. look at that, boom. about 200 feet off the bow. they had seen the thunder heads rolling in and decided to get into port but not before that happened. unbelievable stuff. boaters are the number one fatalities when it comes to lightning strikes. good news, new york state paying for lady liberty to be open. if you're heading to new york check it out the next three days. maybe showers tomorrow. otherwise, partly sunny skies. our top weather story today, we have a big storm system coming out of the plains. it's bringing snow into parts of the dakotas where they saw it

yesterday. we'll continue to see heavy r rain. we have the left over of tropical storm octave and we'll be looking at two to three inches of rain from khan academy is a not-for-profit with a mission of providing a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. if you look at a khan academy video, they cover everything from basic arithmetic to calculus, trigonometry, finance. you can really just get what you need at your own pace. and so, bank of america came and reached out to us and said, "we are really interested in making sure that everyone really understands personal finance." we're like, "well, we're already doing that." and so it was kind of a perfect match. we are starting out with some fog and some low cloud cover.

we will see a mix of clouds and and that's your latest weather. >> thanks, al. >> thank you very much of. we told you about the woman in florida that found herself stuck on a raised bridge dangling over the train track and now we're starting to hear the 911 calls that came in. >> the tapes are telling the frightening story of a rescue in real time. >> oh my god. she is stuck up there. >> the 55-year-old woman got about halfway across a railroad drawbridge when it rose 22 feet in the air to make way for boat

traffic on the waterway below. >> she is on the tracks on the bridge. the bridge is open. >> the bridge is open and she's on there? >> she's on it. she couldn't get off and the bridge opened. >> they scrambled to get to the scene with stunned witnesses watching in disbelief. >> honestly, i thought it was probably a stunt or something. it was just that unbelievable. >> reporter: as the drama dragged on, callers begged for someone to help. >> she is holding on tight. on to the beams. >> okay. >> we need to bring this bridge down now. i don't know how much longer she is going to be able to hold on. >> reporter: after holding on to the train tracks for nearly 30 minutes, some worried how long she could last. >> she's trying to hold on but nobody can reach her because it's too high. >> reporter: rescuers were finally able to use a fire ladder to bring the woman down to safety. she was visibly shaken but not injured. it's still unclear why she crossed the bridge marked with no trespassing signs. now florida east coast railway

is waiting to decide if they'll press charges for the woman' trespassing. >> it's amazing that she could hold herself up there for half an hour. what a frantic situation. >> right. >> let's swing over to the orange room now. tamron is covering for carson over there and is tracking how people are responding to that nbc news esquire new american center survey. tamron, good morning. >> good morning, guys. people are responding to this quiz. in interesting ways, for example, brent dixon says yes, most americans are actually libertarians. i have a few others, chris says i'm a dem through and through but liberal policies are not always right. it's important to to be open minded. i have another that says, i'm right in the middle and it's exactly as you said, i just want a fair country for everyone. hashtag is where i stand.

right in the middle, there's something called the mba middle. so if you take the quiz, you'll see where you fall in this spectrum. interesting note, we asked the middle who they trust, guys, the most and the answer is president obama and oprah winfrey. the most trusted people according to those that fall in the middle. >> sorry about that, guys. >> you thought we were in the running? >> didn't workout. tamron, thank you. >> there's the ticket for 2016. >> could be. coming up, madeleine mccann's parents speak out in a rare interview in the wake of a possible break in the case of their daughter's mysterious disappearance. but first, on a tuesday morning, this is "today" on nbc.

as a group we like to think we've been there done that but every once in awhile something

comes in the studio and has us slap jawed. so coming up, he walks, he talks, he even breathes. >> say hello to our little friend, the incredible bionic man. we'll see him in action. >> i've got some competition. we'll see him in action. >> i've got some competition. robert redford is here live for as your life changes, fidelity is there for your personal economy, helping you readjust along the way, refocus as careers change and kids head off to college,

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down to a science. you're the reason we reformulated one a day women's. a complete multivitamin that now has extra b vitamins, which help convert food to energy. energy support for the things that matter. that's one a day women's. energy support for the things that matter. the pain started up and wrapped around to the front. i couldn't play my bassoon because of the pressure that i felt throughout my whole head. the blistering and the rash was moving down towards my eye. the doctors at the emergency room recommended that i have it checked out by an eye doctor.

there was concern about my eyesight. when i had shingles the music stopped. >> good morning. i am stan stovall. here is a look at one of our top stories. the trial begins today for the city police veteran accused of shooting a trainee in the head during a training exercise. facesr william kern assault and reckless endangerment charges and the accidental shooting of cadet raymond gray. in februaryy that -- prosecutors say that in february he improperly used a firearm to scare gray away from a window.

in the incident and is filed a lawsuit against the city for $5 million. here is sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. thereot of problems out for your tuesday morning. let's bring you up-to-date at emerton road. we have an accident just in. belair road and bradshaw wrote in kingsville, watch for possible delays due to a crash. , we have annue accident, pedestrian-involved. just past i-70, we have a crash in the center lane. backing up traffic heavily on eastbound 70, 36 miles per hour on average making your informatics bill. southbound 295, watch for closures due to a crash. frederick or southwestern, much better than. -- much better bet. at amity bankked stadium. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. >> overall it will be a nice

day. there is a little bit of fog and low clouds and some neighborhoods, mostly in the western suburbs. if you have that near your house it will burn off quickly. 49 at the airport, 49 in jarrettsville. you may want to take a light jacket to start the day. it will be nice and mild this afternoon. partly to mostly sunny skies later on high temperatures either side of 70 degrees third it will be mild again tomorrow. a front comes through thursday night and friday morning with a chance for a few rain showers and that will holdings off a little bit over the weekend. little bit over the weekend.

when you're struggling with your mortgage, your home feels like a burden.

. it's 7:30 now on a tuesday morning, 15th day of october, 2013. take a look at that sunrise over the nation's capitol. and we want to see what the morning looks like where you are, live. tweet us using #todaysunrise. that's the outside of the studio. some of the imagines of sunrises around the country. inside studio 1-a i'm matt lauer with al roker and savannah guthrie and natalie morales. senate leaders are set to be closing in on a deal to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. we'll see if the house goes

along. a homemade dry ice bomb exploded at los angeles international airport for the second night in a row. two other devices were found but did not explode. police are investigating. the nsa under fire again. documents reveal the agency has collected millions of contact lists from personal e-mails and instant messages. some of them belonging to americans. coming up, did you guys love the $6 million man as much as i do? we have the real bionic man in our studio. we're very excited to make his acquaintance. tell you all about it. he is really pushing the limits of science and we'll tell you what this is all about coming up. >> can he deliver coffee? robert redford is here to talk about being a sailor. he speaks a dozen words in this movie but a lot of oscar buzz. >> when you think about iconic actors, we've already gone down the line.

>> butch cassidy and the sun dance kid. >> butch cassidy. >> a lot to choose from. >> speaking of, tomorrow on today we catch up with the one and only brad pitt to talk about his new movie and more. >> we begin with the mysterious disappearance of madeleine mccann. michelle is in portugal where she disappeared. good morning. >> reporter: it brings back all that happened here in portugal. the parents were persons of interest and then cleared and the case closed after one year. now even six years later in a few moss, the british police reopened it and there is real progress. the bbc's program focussing on the may 2007 disappearance of madeleine mccann has a detailed time line of what happened that day and night. having dinner with friends 150 feet away from their rented

apartment here checking on the children regularly. at 10:00 it was kate's turn. >> they were closed and then i could see that the window had been pushed open. i knew straight away then that madeline had been taken. >> police say this bears the ha ha hallmark of a planned abduction. they ruled out this earlier sketch but made these two sketches of another man seen about the same time kate discovered 3-year-old madeline was gone. >> reporter: a family saw him walking here down the hill with a child fitting madeline's description in his arms. about 5 minute walk from her apartment carrying the child toward the beach. >> i believe there's a possibility that she is alive and even if that chance is just .1% we will continue to fight for her. >> reporter: investigators say there was a rash of burglaries

in the area during the time in which windows were used and have more sketches of one or two men seen lurking in areas around the apartment and men going around asking for money for charity. now police and this family are asking for help. >> these cases can get solved. that's what the public needs to think about. >> please, please, have the courage and confidence to come forward now and share that information with us. we can unlock this whole case but please come forward. >> reporter: even right after the program aired police said the response was overwhelming. as of right now they've had more than 1,000 calls and e-mails and they said that two people called giving a possible name for the man spotted carrying a child and each of those two people called separately but gave police the same name. that is an incredibly positive response for police and also gives them more work to do and more leads to follow, savannah. >> let's hope for a break in the

case. michel michel michelle could say s michelle, thank you. >> let's get the weather from mr. roker. >> today's weather is brought to you by edward jones. face time and think time make a difference. >> as we look at more of the pictures you're sending in, #todaysunrise, gorgeous sunrises out there. temperatures changing as we look at the maps. starting off today, it will be fairly moderate and we'll see a shift coming as you see wednesday we start to see the cooler air making it's way into the east and the great lakes. the warmer air is suppressed to the south and by saturday we're looking at really the only warm air. it will be out in southern california and on into southern florida. gorgeous day up and down the eastern seaboard. low pressure bringing rain and wind back through the plains and the upper midwest. heavy rain again down through central texas. two to three inches possible and a gorgeous day out west. seattle, sunshine and aat

>> good morning. it should turn out to be a nice day today. there could be some fog and low clouds to start the day. any time you need to update your weather go to the weather channel on cable, weather.com online. >> thanks. >> coming up on trending, how often do you wash your jeans. is that a personal question? feels like it. one fashion mogul says your answer should be never. >> what? >> wow. >> remind me to avoid that fashion show. up next, the world's first fully functional bionic man takes over studio 1-a. functional bionic man takes over studio 1-a. that's r

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back now at 7:40, we all remember that song. we have a remarkable project three years in the making. different artificial body parts combined to make the first bionic man. >> we'll check him out in a second but first, how the bionic man came to be. >> gentlemen, we can rebuild him. we have the technology. >> reporter: move over steve austin. you've got competition. >> the bionic man is a show case of how far bionic technology has come. >> reporter: it's a nearly bionic man assembled from prosthetics and artificial parts already in real use in real people. >> artificial heart, artificial bionic hand. artificial eyesight. implantable kidney.

biotic skeleton. >> reporter: 28 parts in all together for the first time. a swiss social psychologist hosts it. he has a bionic hand and a model of his face was used for the bionic man. >> it made me freak out when i saw it for the first time. >> reporter: there's still science left to go. mainly, the bionic man lacks a brain. >> you still need a human in the center to make all of this work. so we're very far away. >> reporter: but with a little help he's able to take a walk down broadway giving even new yorkers something they have never seen before. a little glimpse of the future. the first step toward better, stronger, faster. and he's with us now along with

the first fully functional bionic man. nice to have you here. >> good morning. >> more than 1 million sensors, 200 processors, 70 circuit boards and 26 individual motors. why? why did you do this? >> we wanted to find out how much of the human body we can replace already today. what if we got all the different spare parts that we already have today and put them together in one piece, what would it look like? well, it looks like this? >> what can it do? >> we can make him walk a step. shall we try. >> sure. >> let me pick up the external pump for his heart here a little bit and have him walk a step forward in his exoskeleton. >> he makes me a little nervous when he starts leaning like that. >> yeah. >> think of this as the wheelchair of the future as a device that's supposed to

restore the ability to walk. >> artificial heart circulates artificial blood. it can walk as we have just seen. clearly to brain. so there's an artificial intelligence here. no, that was something we couldn't find a replacement so we went out to the internet to find the best software one can have a conversation with today but it's still very limited. >> in other words you program a conversation. >> well, with the software we used during the program you can have a free conversation without prescripting it. at least you're supposed to have that given that you accept the fact that you're supposed to talk to a 13-year-old boy from the ukraine. >> you have a more personal connection to this device. if we notice here, you have a bionic hand as well. you were born without a right hand -- >> left hand. >> left hand. excuse me. i'm turned around. >> my model is the newer one. he is wearing last year's model and this is this year's model.

it's come so far this technology. i would have never have imagined to have something like this. if you hold on to the mobile phone t built in pressure sensors in the hand understand the shape of the object that you're holding and adapt the grasp so it gives a completely natural grip of the object and well, there's a party trick, you can rotate 360 that's not useful in every day life but it shows that bionic limbs can make you do things that natural limbs cannot do raising all sorts of interesting questions. >> ethical questions. >> what happened ifs the technology evolves. >> and the face of this man was modelled after your own face. >> it was modelled after a 3-d scan of my face. >> i didn't know that. >> but you find it handsome don't you? >> honestly, it still freaks me out quite a bit. >> well, thank you so much for bringing him here. we really appreciate it. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you, bionic man, we're happy to have you here.

>> you can see more sunday night on the smithsonian channel. coming up, an incredible actor, robert redford on the movie that could land him his first acting oscar. and has america soured on orange juice, tamron sipping on and has america soured on orange [ female announcer ]g on we take away your stuffy nose. you keep the peace. we calm your congestion and pain. [ man ] thank you. thank you. [ female announcer ] you rally the team. you guys were awesome. [ female announcer ] we give you relief from your cough. you give them a case of the giggles. tylenol cold® helps relieve even your worst cold and flu symptoms, so you can carry on with your day. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol cold®. i got this. [thinking] is it that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he's saving.

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with new campbell's skillet sauces. we're back. tamron has invited us into the orange room to talk about, what else? orange juice. >> only appropriate that it would attract a story about orange juice. do you drink it in the morning? >> love it. >> on the weekends. it's a sweet treat. >> it's interesting. orange juice sales, lowest level in 15 years. when you break down the numbers, last ten years, orange juice sales drop over 30%. that's a big number. when you look at the reasons behind it, this will catch your eye. 2003, orange juice, $4.40, 2013, $6.20 and that doesn't include what you pay at the high end grocery stores. >> al roker senior used to water

it down. >> yeah. >> when we weren't looking. >> it will last us an entire month. >> haven't we had this about a month. >> why is it watery? but we're asking our audience to #orange juice room. >> but that's what a lot of people are drinking soda and things like that. >> on the weekends at my house we have momossas. >> you and the dog? >> don't describe miloy lonely life. nevertheless, sales are down. so what are you drinking? >> full disclosure, savannah saw my reeses pieces in the orange room and show what you did. >> let her have some of those.

>> thank you so much. >> is your own body actually the best way to predict the weather? we'll talk about it. >> then at 8:15, robert redford on going it alone in his new movie. [ female announcer ] with mccafé,

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>> this is the wbal tv 11 news in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. here is sarah caldwell. >> busy rush out there. lots of incidents. and high falcon road, for those of you traveling in the reisterstown area, watch for delays. suppan 29 just passed i-70, singling close by an accident. up traffic from west friendship. 27 miles per hour there. maiden choice lane, want to warn you of down wires there.

frederick or southwestern boulevard a better bet. northbound crain highway near 450, another accident of note. 30 minutes your drive time on the north side. 22 minutes on the west side. andhbound 83, j.f.x. harrisburg expressway experiencing delays. this is what it looks like on the north side of hard for. really heavy on the outer loop. those delays stretching back from 95 to the towson region. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. >> overall it is a nice start this tuesday morning. there has been sick fog in the western suburbs. that is about to burn off in the next few hours. satellite imagery showing high, thin clouds off of the mountains. we will see plenty of sunshine and maybe some of the high, thin clouds will comment later on today. current temperatures on the chilly side. it will warm up fast. early fog in the western suburbs .

high temperatures range between 67 and 72 degrees. above average this time of year. we will be hanging around 70 the next couple of days. thursday night and friday morning, a front comes through. chance for a when our little girl was born,

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it's 8:00 on today, coming up, murder in utah. did a respected doctor kill his wife to hide his affairs? >> robert redford all alone on the big screen. is this the film that finally lands him the acting oscar. >> put it on today? you ready? >> and a high school football coach redefines what it means to win. >> we don't get the opportunity to see our children like everybody else does. i'm going to cry. >> today, tuesday, october 15th, 2013.

>> today is my 70th birthday. >> we travelled 1,774 miles to celebrate my aunt's birthday on the "today" show. >> where's al? come here al. >> oh, you're sweet. >> there you go. >> hello, virginia. and good morning, everyone. welcome back to "today." great day out on the plaza. i'm savannah guthrie along side matt lauer, al roker, and tamron hall. we have a movie star in our studio this morning, robert redford. my favorite movie is all the president's men. >> what did you say earlier? >> butch cassidy? >> which is also great. >> not only is the sting my favorite movie he ever made it's maybe my one or two favorite movies of all time. >> his new movie is great.

we'll hear all about it. >> we'll have him in the studio in a second. meanwhile, you know the expression taking one for the team, this young lady broke her arm so she could put an orange cast on her arm. what's your name? >> paige how did that happen? >> i was roller skating and i -- fell. >> feel better paige. >> natalie, good morning to you. >> good morning, everyone, senate leaders say they have made substantial progress toward a deal to extend the nation's borrowing limit. sources tell nbc news the agreement would fund the government and extend it until early next year. the big question is whether house republicans would go along. documents from fugitive leaker edward snowden reveals the nsa collects e-mail and instant messaging contact lists for millions of people around the

world including americans. the vast majority are foreign citizens. the data is used to search for links to terrorism, drug smuggling and other criminal activity. >> jury selection gets underway for a high profile murder trial in utah. a 57-year-old doctor is charged with using a cocktail of deadly drugs to murder his beauty queen wife to continue an affair with his mistress. >> reporter: her death has never been ruled a homicide. undetermined was the latest listed cause after she was discovered dead in her own bathtub in april 2007. but her daughter says she waited six agonizing years for prosecutors to finally charge that it was her father, dr. martin mcneil that used prescription drugs to murder her 50-year-old mother. >> we know what happened and we support the prosecutors and hope for justice for our mother. the motive, to protect his continue ago fair with his

mistress who after michelle's death was convicted along with dr. mcneil of fraud and identity theft. he pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. his lawyers calling his wife's death an accident and the result of natural causes. >> reporter: they were a beautiful couple with four biological children and adopted four others. some of his own children now poised to testify against him. prosecutors say that michelle, a former beauty queen might not have been mcneil's only victim: alleging that the 57-year-old mcneil talked about drowning a younger brother and attempting to kill his mother. this trial, though, the first in utah to be televised will be about the death of michelle mcneil. >> this is about my mother. we want to help the prosecution in anyway we can. >> the trial is expected to last around five weeks ending just before thanksgiving. the heart problem

experienced by former president george w. bush in august was more serious than initially reported. a clogged coronary artery was 95% blocked. doctors inserted a stint. the former president resumed some of his normal activities including biking and golfing. a japanese couple took a journey monday and returned home as man and wife. they held their wedding aboard a tokyo commuter train and their vows were broadcast over the speaker system. they chose the unusual setting because they used to take that train when they first started dating. very sweet. 8:05. let's go back outside to matt and savannah. >> come on down. >> thank you very much. taking photos. >> keeping busy. >> we have nice friends here. the alzheimer's walk this weekend. >> yeah. >> and then, you're 70 years old today. very nice.

let's check your weather, shall we? hey, let's look at st. louis, missouri, sun is getting ready to come up. rain today, showers on thursday, wednesday looking pretty good. plenty of sunshine. the rest of the country, though, heavy showers and thunderstorms. part of a storm system making it's way through minnesota. wet weather all the way down to texas where we may see another two to three inches of rain. beautiful up and down the west coast as high pressure dominates. we have nice weather making it's way through the mid-atlantic states. rain down through texas. >> what's your name? >> sandy. >> where are you from? >> good morning. we are starting out with some fog and some low cloud cover. we will see a mix of clouds and

and that's your latest weather. >> all right, al. >> thank you, coming up, who had an imaginary friend as a kid? >> well, guess what, it could make you better a adult. we'll hear why coming up. let me say one more time, 8:15, oscar winner robert redford on what some are calling the performance of his career. >> a look at the world of jim

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all right, back now with what's trending today at 8:11. trending from the wall street journal, this is something a lot of us suspected for awhile. we're not trying to blame anyone at all, but scientists have now found a link between our aching bodies and the weather. >> that's right. it's a whole science called biomebi biometeorology. >> really? >> let's give people some examples here. >> just trying to one up you. >> lightning leads to a 31% increase in migraines and headaches. cold weather increases --

increases heart attacks 7%. and falling air pressure causes joints to swell. >> absolutely. >> so when we feel it in our joints we really do. >> yeah, that's why some people are literally living barometers. >> another story that grabbed our attention, why imaginary friends are not just child's play. anyone here have a pretend friend as a kid? >> just as a kid? >> well, actually it maybe something helpful later in life. these imaginary friends can actually help us. this is from the journal of experimental child psychology. turns out talking outloud to yourself. >> yeah. >> there's your imaginary friend. >> what's his name again? >> i don't know. luis. help improve your performance when you're facing a challenge. i guess syke yourself up. you know how you in the mirror

every day say you're great matt? you can do this? >> yeah, i don't get in front of the mirror because you're always right in front of it. >> wow. a little testy today. >> trending on google, it's an age old question, how often do you guys wash your jeans? >> i never do. >> you never do? >> you're not supposed to. >> you're not supposed to wash your jeans. >> this designer says he actually never washes his jeans as well. >> you just stand them up in the corner? >> no, they just walk away after awhile. >> sometimes they get too broken in and they get saggy and bagging. >> if broken in means smelly. >> no, if you don't want to wash them put them in a plastic bag in the freezer for 24 hours. it gets rid of the bacteria and the odors. >> but they also have a jean spray now that you spray and it freshens your jeans. you're supposed to buy your jeans as tight as you can possibly fit and then they break

down. you only wash them when you get a stain on them. >> #that's stupid. >> we have an alarming level of knowledge about jeans here. >> wow. >> trending on youtube, is there anything sandra bullock cannot do? the oscar winner showed off yet another skill on a british talk show when she was challenged to perform a hip hop classic. check this out. >> i need some beats. give me some beats, yo. [ music playing ] >> very good. she says she learned the song -- i've got to listen to this a little bit more. ♪ >> she learned the song back in high school to impress a guy. >> she impressed us. >> yeah. >> she even had the moves.

>> she is officially the queen now. >> yeah. >> she washes her jeans. >> okay, then i'll wash mine. on monday, we introduced you to yvonne and dion. they're the loas vegas couple that decided to have another baby but instead of one baby they had quintuplets. the story ended up trending but apparently the thing that caught the eye of our audience members, these motorized baby swing cradles for children. we got so many questions. so here's some of the answers. the swing is made by the company called for mom. it's sold at babies are us, target and bye bye baby. they received theirs as a gift from steve harvey and i have a special guest with me today. it's baby olivia that's only two months old. we'll see if it works.

i'm going to buckle you in. aunt tamron wants you not to cry. [ baby crying ] >> it's okay momma. it's okay. let's see. okay pumpkin. okay. it's okay. aunt tamron's here. here we go. here we go. shh. >> it's okay. it's okay. [ baby crying ] >> tamron, thank you, nice job. >> oh, cool. and that is what is trending

today. just ahead, a football coach found a very touching way to inspire his entire community. but first, the legendary robert redford. he is an actor known for classic rolls in butch cassidy and the sun dance kid and all the president's men and won an oscar for directing ordinary people. his newest movie is an adventure at sea featuring redford as a single nameless and nearly wordless character. take a look. robert redford, good morning, nice to have you here.

>> hi, matt. >> when's the last time you excepted a roll in a movie that had a script of 30 pages? >> this year. >> very little dialogue and the good news is you don't have a lot to memorize. the challenging part is this is all you. it's you on screen alone, in silence, tight shots of your face. what were the challenges? >> yeah, i'm surprise the audience still stayed. >> it's incredibly compelling. what i loved about the story is for all the years you have been doing sun dance, the film festival, all the up and coming and aspiring film makers you've been around, this is the first time that one of them actually said mr. redford, would you be in my movie. >> that's right. he didn't call me mr. redford but he said would you be in my movie and i thought, well, that's interesting. all the people i supported over the years, nobody has ever come forward and asked me to be in the film. i would have taken it just because he asked. >> why do you think that is?

do you think it's like the pretty girl in high school everybody assumes she is already going to the prom or too busy to say yes. >> no, i never related to the pretty girl in high school. >> come on. really? that wasn't in your frame of reference at all? >> not my frame of reference. >> this character is nameless. the audience never learned his name and we don't know really anything except a little of a letter in the beginning or comments made about his back story. so as an actor i was always told that's what you need to get your arms around a character. to know a little bit. what did you cling to? >> i loved it. i loved it because to me it was more pure cinema. it wasn't reliant on specific effects or digital. it wasn't going to be heavy in postproduction. it was just pure. i love that. as an actor i like the idea of there not being any interference between you and the experience of the audience. dialogue, voice overs, things like that. that was rare and for me it was

extremely attractive. i was drawn to that. i loved it. >> i was read a little bit about your other reasons for taking it. you like these situations, robert, when incredible circumstances strike someone and it gets so dyer that a lot of people would simply quit yet some people don't. they percesevere. >> you hit it. at what point do you keep going when others would have stopped. when the odds are impossible and you say i can't go any further so i won't and then other people just keep going than for no other reason than just to continue and that's always fascinated me. >> you are getting a lot of great reviews for this movie. let me read you something. i'll embarrass you. >> i'm already embarrassed. >> a film critic wrote "all is lost" is amazing, deeply moving, and harking back to an age when

the best mainstream films might be the best pictures america made. it's an adventure and an epic with one person, robert redford. do you like reading things like that? >> no. >> why? >> they're embarrassing. >> you don't have a big ego after all of these years? >> well, i must or i wouldn't be in this business. but there's areas that i stay away from them. that's one of them. >> let me embarrass you again then. >> you're doing great. >> thank you. there was a time when if you asked people in this country to write a list of sex symbols and you say give me three choices you would have fallen at the top of every single list written. what was that time like for you as an actor and a person? >> you know, i'll tell you what it was like. i got really nervous early on when there was overreaction to something i had done, something i wasn't expecting and i got really nervous about what my life would be if i played into that. so i put three signs up for myself about the word object.

one was you're being treated like an object. that's the first stage and the second stage is if you aren't careful you'll start to behave like an object and the third and final stage is you will become an object. so those were my cautionary tale. avoid that. don't look back. don't look in your rear-view mirror or career as anything that gained momentum overtime. just focus on the future and don't look back. >> when you do look at your career now without looking back too much and you look at an oscar for ordinary people and a lifetime achievement oscar and no individual acting oscar and people are saying this movie might be the movie, would it be important to you? >> not necessarily. awards don't come into my mind. they never have. i'm surprised when they come but that's not what is on my mind. i always liked the climb up. that's the exciting part. not standing necessarily on the

top. >> well, i had a chance to watch this last night and the performance is extraordinary. >> did you stay with it? you're a sailer, right? >> i'm not a sailer but i have a boat and i found myself thinking a lot about the solitude and putting myself in your characters position. it's incredible. nice to see you. >> nice to see you. >> come back and see us. >> all is lost opens in new york and los angeles and friday and goes nationwide on october 25th. >> matt, thank you very much. now to a touching story, a high school football coach measuring wins in a whole new way. here's nbc's gabe gutierrez. >> reporter: in sports there are often moment of pure joy, but rarely quite like this. >> we don't get the opportunity to see our children like everybody else does. i can't believe i'm crying. >> reporter: to understand why these parents are crying and their children, levi and austin

are smiling, you need to meet coach scott hamilton. >> i like to make an impact on people. >> reporter: he worked at this high school near atlanta for the last six years but out of all the students in the crowded halls, two seasons ago he decided to pick at least one player of the day for every home game. each of them with special needs. >> what do you think this does for these kids? >> gives them a chance to be part of something they normally don't get to be apart of. >> reporter: this time he surprised two, austin and levi. >> how much do you like coach over here? >> i like him because he's good to me and the players. >> you going to put it on today? are you ready? >> reporter: just like the rest of the team, they get to wear a jersey from the pep rally to the workouts to getting on the bus to the pregame dinner. for the other players, the scoreboard isn't the only measure of victory. >> trying to show these boys how to be men. you can be a tough guy and still have a compassionate side.

>> he's opened these players eyes. >> even more for our boys it's for these kids. >> honestly i don't think coach hamilton realizes what it does for them. and us. >> and us. >> reporter: because while levi and austin stand on the sideline, they are now part of the team. >> it's the highlight of my day every day to watch them come out through the tunnel. >> reporter: a highlight before the game even started. >> i want my tombstone to say scott hamilton, a good man. >> a great man, actually. >> robert redford just walked out of the studio and they said you asked him about his time as a sex symbol and we both think he is still. >> security had to get involved. >> she was on him like white on rice. >> someone took a picture with

him. >> yeah. >> who wouldn't. >> never been here in studio. >> we had another star in our studio coming up, octavia spencer. she is a delight. wait until you hear about her next project. but first, your local >> good morning. i am mindy basara. let's get a final check of the morning commute with sarah caldwell. >> still a lot to watch for for your tuesday. let's bring you up-to-date on the latest accident. it is for rosedale drivers to watch for a long rossville boulevard and franklin square drive. another one and reisterstown at high falcon road. be careful and wilkins avenue and maiden choice lane. still some closures due to down wires. 33 minutes on the north side. very heavy traffic. same situation on the west side as delays begin just prior to 795. 26 minutes just to that stretch.

northbound crain highway, watch for the right lane closure. another one indianapolis region at route 50. 97 is showing some delays in the southbound direction coming down from crain highway. intermittently, delays on the ramp from 95 to russell street. s lane closed in each direction on russell street right near m&t bank stadium. that is ongoing roadwork that just went into effect overnight. tony, overview. had pretty thick fog in the western suburbs early this morning. it is beginning to burn off now. if you still have fog in your neighborhood, it will take another hour and that will be gone. otherwise, beautiful morning. plenty of sunshine. high, thin clouds in the mountains. those may drift in later this morning or afternoon. temperatures in the upper 40s and low 50s right now. it will warm up fast. mild this afternoon. high temperatures range between 67 and 72 degrees per that is above average this time of year. sunset at 6:27.

keep that trend going for next couple of days. the temperatures will be hanging around 70 on wednesday and thursday. there could be some rain coming in thursday night and friday morning before quills off going into the weekend. >> we're back with another update at 8:56.

8:30 on a tuesday morning. it's the 15th day of october 2013. glorious fall day here in new york city. a nice crowd gathered. all the way down there.

>> i'm matt lauer with savannah guthrie, al roker, tamron hall and natalie morales. >> coming up, move over nancy drew, there's a new detective in town. she is a ninja detective from brooklyn. it's all with that lady there, octavia spencer. we'll catch up with her in a few moments. >> also new and award winning technology. how would you like to control your computer with the wave of your hand or serve eggs with a bionic hand as we saw earlier? >> good stuff. >> few people served the world like jim henson. willie geist catches up with his friends at a look at a new life. >> and delicious fall recipes for us this morning. but first i know we have bridget jones fans around here. >> of course. >> ever wonder what she would say about your relationship

issues? tomorrow we'll get the chance to find out. author helen fielding is taking over our today show book club account and she is going to answer your questions from bridget's perspective. i love this. use the #wwbd which stands for what would bridget do. haven't we all wondered? >> yes, let's find out what mr. roker would do. >> he would give you the weather. let's see what we got for you. wet weather makes it's way from the upper midwest into texas. gorgeous out west and along the east coast. everywhere in between on the wet side. then for tomorrow, the rainmaking it's way into upstate new york. up across the upper ohio river valley. into central and southern texas. out west, gorgeous up and down the west coast. rainy in the upper plains. it will be snowy in the central rockies. >> good morning.

it should turn out to be a nice day today. there could be some fog and low and that's your latest weather. >> all right, al, thank you so much. well, octavia spencer is trying something new. she has written her first book. it's called randi rhodes ninja detective. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> we know you're the oscar winner, the red carpet mavin, are you a bookworm? >> i'm a bookworm and armchair detective. >> you have been since you were a little girl. >> i always loved books. i've not been the best reader

but i loved books. so this is up my alley. >> was this your chance to workout wanting to be a detective to solve a crime? >> absolutely. when i was young they called it nosey little kid. now, you know, it's just the inquisitive mind. but yeah, this is really my passion. >> tell me about randi rhodes. she is an interesting character. she is a ninja. >> she is a practicing martial artist. she is going through a different change in her life and not only has she lost her mom, she is moving to a different town, a small town and there's very little to do so she has to solve some mysteries. >> she has a whole gang of friends and they're from all different walks of life. it seems like that was part of the message of the book. >> absolutely. you don't have to look alike to like one another or love one another and that's what is great. the kids are all very different. the thing they have in common is they feel like they don belong

or they don't actually fit anywhere but they fit together perfectly. >> you grew up in alabama. you mentioned how you were as a kid. you came from humble begins. you talked about that a lot. is it sinking in how much life has changed? i remember us first meeting in 2012. you were just about to get the oscar. does it ever just stop being a thing where you're pinching yourself all the time? >> no, i know i'm very forn fortunate. i feel like i got the golden ticket to the chocolate factory and i'm having a great time sampling the chocolate. >> you have a great movie you're working on, right? >> i just walked on a movie called black and white and i'm about to do james brown. >> okay. what else are you up to? you still reading a lot of books? >> i'm reading a lot of books and solving mysteries in my spare time. >> are they finding you? >> i stumble upon one every now and again. >> it's a great book. it's the first of two. you'll have a second one too.

>> yes. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up next, cutting edge innovations including texts and tweets with a twist of your wrist and what would life be without bert and ernie, cookie monster and big bird? we have a look at

we're back now with cutting edge products. they're included in the november issue. jim is the editor. nice to see you. >> nice to be here. >> you're seeing the innovation. >> so many of them came from big global companies and we're seeing small start ups coming up with brilliant technology. >> we have a lot to cover.

let's get right to it. talk to me about the watch you're wearing. >> this is the pebble watch. it's a better way to control everything that goes on on your phone. if you get a text or if somebody calls you when you're in a meeting, you don't have to take it out of your pocket. you can control music. so, you know, normally you'd have your head phones on. >> that's unbelievable and this is inexpensive. >> only about $150. >> you hear about google glass, this is similar but less expensive. >> wearable technology is one of the big things. >> this is called the oculis rift and we're talking about virtual reality. >> these are the first virtual reality goggles. >> i don't need them. >> you put these on, you're immersed in this world. this snowy world. >> wow. >> it's snowing. >> you can look in every direction.

>> in the plaza. >> this is going to be great for gamers, people that love video games. what are some of the other practical applications? >> so some of the things you can see is right now it's really aimed for gaming but in the future it could show you what it's like to walk around on mars and even has applications in health and psychology. >> i love that. that's fantastic. let's move on here and introduce me to this young man here. >> he is modeling, basically, it's a fingertip for computers and robots. computers have been able to hear and see but not touch. so you can see how he can grasp something delicate like a plastic cup. in the past, that wouldn't be possible. this little fingertip actually senses the gripping and even the temperature and texture of objects and this opens up a whole new world for robotics. >> is this technology ready now? >> they're looking in a lot of fields to find applications for

this. >> look how sensitive. you can do even an egg. that's incredible. thank you very much. we appreciate it. coming back here, this is like your entire arm becomes almost like a computer mouse. >> exactly. this is the myo and what it does, it goes on your wrist and as you can see, he done have to touch the keyboard. what this shows is we're moving toward a future where you wear a lot of technology. you interact with computers without touching keyboards and touch screens. >> is this here now? >> yes it is. >> so this is ready. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. >> all right. have willie over here. a little fact, willie used to be a landscaper. so the development of this next product is right up your alley. >> three summers. i have been driving it around. it's so quite. i can't get over how quite it is. >> it's the tesla of riding mowers. >> cub cadet zero and it's all

electric, charges overnight. no emissions, no fuel. environmentally friendly future for lawn mowers. >> does it do a good job cutting the grass? >> absolutely. it can cut about an acre on a charge. >> so it's early in the morning and you don't disturb the neighbors anymore. that's fantastic. well done. >> a plus. >> just be careful because we have something coming at you here. >> this is boosted board. they turned the skateboard into a green form of transportation. it's an electric skateboard and it can go up to about 20 miles per hour and it's good for commuting to cities like new york and san francisco with a lot of bike paths and we love the way this takes different technologies and puts them together. he has a wireless controller in his hand. >> right. >> and wouldn't have any fears about this in a place like new york city. >> be careful. >> it's like a bike. you have to be careful but you can carey this into your office. you can carey it on a subway.

it has a lot of practical applications that other forms don't. >> popular mechanics magazine. things we'll be seeing changing our lives and our world very soon. jim, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> up next, the muppet master, a look at the life and irreplaceable jim henson. but first, this is "today" on nbc.

it has been 23 years since the world said good-bye to jim henson but long after the creative genius passed his iconic characters still entertain us and stay in our hearts. a new biography lifts the curtain on henson and willie caught up with those that knew him best. >> all of us have been touched at one time or another from the world of jim henson.

his characters and their educational but always irreverent style are as strong today as when he dreamed them up decades ago. they are some of the most iconic faces in entertainment. >> welcome to the muppet show. >> reporter: colorful creatures, garbage dwellers, unlikely love birds. and they are all, of course, the brain child of jim henson. >> jim really celebrated and wanted people to not take things too serious and not take even him too seriously. >> reporter: the author captures the life of henson in a new biography. >> they still do muppets for sesame streak and still build costumes. there's drawers of eyes and hair and teeth. >> he seemed to be the kind of kid, he was when he got into this business, that knew what he

wanted to be early on. he was on tv as a teenager. >> yeah, 17. when a local tv channel advertised for puppeteers to perform, he went to the library and taught himself to build and perform puppets and auditioned and got the job. >> by his freshman year in college he got his own show on a local nbc affiliate. >> he survived sam with all of these vague abstract characters including an early version of kermit the frog. >> reporter: so the muppets were born. like many creations the characters evolved. kermit the thing became kermit the frog. this monster would lose his teeth and gain an addiction to cookies. in the 1960s, jim found regular working commercials and made frequent talk show appearances, including here on "today". >> this is kermit. >> this is sam. >> reporter: but henson's success was cemented when a broadcast by the children's

television network came looking for his muppets to liven up the show. >> all we did was screw around with each other and have fun. >> reporter: frank was just 19 when he became one of henson's first hires for his young company muppets, inc. their friendship lasted three decades and gave us the most iconic duos in history. >> there's a great relationship. bert and ernie and miss piggy and kermit the frog. is there some of your relationship in there. >> you hit it right on the nail. people can't grab the characters and perform them. it's not just the characters. it was us. jim was easy going. me i was always fighting up the river and this was bert and earn ernie. >> reporter: with the success of sesame street came another project.

>> the muppet show was sophisticated human that didn't mind being silly. >> jim was annoyed as i was when people thought the characters were cute. hated that. >> reporter: he sums it up in two works. >> anarchy. >> reporter: with a series of successful films henson always had an eye on the next big thing. but his life was cut short. >> jim henson, the creator of the muppets, dead of pneumonia at age 53. >> reporter: family, friends and colleagues celebrated henson the only way they knew how. jim henson's legacy, the unforgettable characters he brought to life. >> he wanted to make the world a better place. and damed if he didn't. one man. >> thank you, kermit.

>> frank oz who you heard from was the voice behind so many of the characters we loved. bert, fozzy, miss piggy and yoda from star wars. i asked what he would be working on today. he said at time of his death he was obsessed with computers and something like pixar would have been right up his alley. >> it's amazing to see that body of work. we all became five years all again. >> sesame street and the muppets. >> i was watching by consequence last night. my 6-year-old daughter was watching and i watched her laughing at the characters he created in his mother's house in the 1950s. what a legacy. >> willie, thank you. appreciate that. coming up, lydia is here to give us common sense italian recipes that are perfect for fall, but first, this is "today" on nbc.

so, um, do you want to come up for a coffee? yeah.

'kay... uh... good. so... so, uh... you make yourself at home and i'll be... yeah. right back. sure. (gasp) oh, i th... i thought we were... (deep inhale) (coffee grinder whirring) ooh... with authentic, expertly crafted roasts and legendary brews, eight o'clock is the coffee for those who put coffee first. this is nice. >> announcer: today's kitchen is brought to you by macy's. >> we're back at 8:52 with today's kitchen. lidia bastianich has easy fall recipes from her new cook book called lidia's common sense italian cooking. >> pleasure being here. >> you think entertaining family and friends one of the most important things we can do. a lot of people go in and get

intimidated right off the bat. >> that's the whole idea. be comfortable and get in the kitchen and use your common sense. >> take chances too. >> a recipe, this is a perfect example. simple chicken. just a little bit of flour and -- are you ready to get in here? >> sure. absolutely. >> you're a common sense kind of guy. >> absolutely. sometimes too much. but that's okay. >> all right. >> so dredge them in flour a little bit. >> and put them in here. you notice here i put a little bit of oil and butter. low temperature. a lot of people cook things at very high temperatures, especially chicken and it gets tough. >> all right. while that's cooking -- that's not going to take long. >> it's not going to take long. just flip them over. here we have some onions. oh, there's more butter right in there. here we have red onions and we get the chicken, sauteed chicken. >> we'll pretend that's done. >> exactly to expedite things.

you want it nice and caramelized. >> you're going to add flavors that are contradictory. >> what's so contradictory about this? >> just the olives and to rang and things like that. >> this is sicily. >> well, this is actually not sicily but that's all right. >> this is about sicily. >> okay. take me to sicily with you. >> come on. loosen up. >> what's this over here. >> fennel powder. >> a lot of people love it. a lot of people don't. could you leave it out or is it necessary. >> you could leave it out. you could substitute it. let's say that you like, i don't know, instead of fennel you like whatever. this is what common sense is all about. i give you a recipe but you can make it your own. you don't like fennel? >> i do sometimes. but not all the time. >> but like this, mill like that in a spice mill? >> i probably would but in seed form it's tougher. >> exactly. a little bit of wine. there you go. >> i'm right with you.

how long will this cook now? >> just a few minutes. just reduce it. bring it up and reduce it, a little bit of salt. get a little salt. >> got it. >> as much salt as you like. >> could you make this sauce in advance? would it hold in the fringe? >> absolutely. but the chicken -- it's your pot. you're going to have this for lunch. >> i'm not waiting until lunch by the way but that's all right. >> don't put the chicken in the refrigerator but the sauce you could have. you bring it hot and sauté the chicken and put it in. >> what a pretty presentation. it looks beautiful. >> it's simple. just a little bit of that. >> bring that over. >> absolutely. right here. >> common sense italian dessert now. >> eggs. we have custard. there's about six eggs in there. we'll make a bread pudding with pears and they're in season but you can make witt apple or anything else. let's put a little bit of cream. keep whipping. we're not finished yet. >> you're a tough task master,

do you know that? >> some milk. some sugar and again, here, you know, i put a little lemon, a little vanilla but you can put cinnamon. what you feel that you like the flavors or whatever. and old bread. >> does it have to be old? you can't use fresh bread? >> it's a great way of using old bread. >> does it absorb better when it's older? >> yes and here i have whole wheat. any bread that you have is great for this. you let it soak up a little bit. this is the wbal tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. the baltimore city crash team and trying to figure out what caused the deadly crash in northwest baltimore on monday. a man riding a motorcycle hit an suv around 4:30 monday afternoon at belvedere avenue.

a man of the motorcycle died at the hospital. the suv driver suffered non- life-threatening injuries.

>> it should turn out to be a nice day. if you have a fog in your neighborhood, it should be burning up shortly. this afternoon, high temperature around 70 degrees, and another nice day tomorrow. >> thank you for joining us. back with another weather update at 9:25.