let's go back to matt and meredith. that doesn't look like a happy job. >> not at all. >> that can't be fun. it really can't. ann, thank you very much. we appreciate it. let us get a check of the weather this morning. mr. roker has taken my place at the white house. al, what's going on? >>> yeah, except you were inside. i'm outside. [ laughter ] >> you should go knock on that big door behind you. >> oh, that one >> the storm is pulling away and things are quieting down now. there could be snow showers and flurries for those of you watching in the northwest suburbs and mountains. for most of us, a mixture of clouds a >>> and that's your latest weather. meredith? >> al, thank you very much. and still ahead, we'll have much more of matt's exclusive interview with the first lady, including what was the best and worst part of her day on tuesday. >>> still ahead, "today" goes inside the o.r. to watch brain surgery live. dr. nancy snyderman is there. hey, nancy. >> reporter: meredith, today we're at mt. sinai medical center. d

i'm a huge meredith vieira fan. laodicean.ing what? >> oh, geez. >> jimmy: "a," cluttered, "b," indifferent, "c," young, "d," deceptive. >> was this honestly -- this one was, too? >> jimmy: laodicean. >> deceptive. >> jimmy: is that your final answer? >> yes. >> jimmy: you can't laugh at me when i'm being serious. i'm acting. wrong! >> what was it? >> jimmy: the answer is "b." do you yell wrong at people? indifferent. [ laughter ] wrong! >> i'm not nasty. >> jimmy: yeah yeah. >> i just tell them, "i'm so sorry, you stupid." [ laughter ] no. oh, this is humiliating. >> jimmy: all right the last one. question three for $75,000. category sousaphone. >> we don't have a $75,000 category. >> jimmy: i made that up. [ light laughter ] but this is a real question. >> sousaphone? >> jimmy: sousaphone player, damon bryson, a member of the late night hip-hop band the roots is fittingly known by what nickname? is it "a" tuba gooding jr. -- [ laughter ] "b," donald trumpet, "c," mean banjo green or is it "d," harmonica fella. >> is it reall

meredith? >> quite a mess. al, thank you very much. >>> now to the economy and the new worries on wall street that led to the market's worst disaster day since last april. new unemployment numbers that come out later this morning not likely to ease the minds of investors. jim cramer is the host of "mad money" on cnbc. jim, good morning you. >> good morning, meredith. >> dow dipped below the 10,000 mark yesterday. what happened? >> well, we are in a chain-reaction mode. other countries, much smaller than ours -- greece, portugal, spain -- doing terribly. people worried they will default, and that selling has been imported here. >> so, it's what's happening overseas -- >> yes. >> -- that's causing what's happening here in the market? >> i don't think things are that bad. i've been known to say not to sell. i'm not saying that. there are figures coming out that could be up import to our market. >> which numbers are you tack talking about? >> the unemployment number. >> due out today. >> yes, people are antsy. we'v

meredith? >> all right, matt. that sounds very good. we'll check in with you again in a bit. you talk about the warm weather there. a very different story here. let's get the latest on this powerful storm making its way to the east coast, the second big storm in less than a week. we have three reports for you this mornin starting with the weather channel's janel klein in chicago. janel, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, meredith. day two of a three-day storm here in chicago, and it is expected to be a big one. ten inches planned for today in addition to the four inches already on the ground, and wind will also be a factor. 40-mile-an-hour gusts that could create ground blizzards and whiteout conditions in some areas. but as tough as driving conditions are, air travel not a whole lot easier. 300 flights canceled out of o'hare airport here in chicago yesterday. dozens more were delayed. and now southwest airlines is saying it is canceling all of its flights out of midway airport. but as to

i'm meredith along with matt, ann, al and natalie. and just ahead, all the olympic action from what was a very eventful day 13 of competition, including a surprise medal for team usa in short track speed skating after the south korean team, which came in first, was disqualified. we're going to tell you what happened there. >>> also ahead, there is a very big event tonight here in vancouver, hockey, women's hockey, canada versus the u.s. for the gold medal. a lot of people are going to be watching that, and we're going to show you the story of a true hockey mom. it's jenny potter, a four-time olympian and mother of two on the u.s. team. she's going to tell us how she's managed the balancing act. >>> and it is happy hour somewhere, and -- yeah! >> don't say anything. >> did i say anything? >> no, you didn't. >> i did not. >> no. >> anyway, it's happy hour somewhere. we're going to sample two very unusual drinks, and popular drinks, right here in vancouver. >> yum. but first, ann has a wrap-up of the latest olympic activity. >> i do. as

i'm meredith vieira. >> and i'm matt lauer. and we have more inclement weather, as ann curry joins us as well here at grouse mountain, our home away from home. it has started to sleet after a night of snow here, but it's kind of fun. we've got a good crowd. speaking of figure skating, south korea's kim yu-na was pretty much the odds-on favorite to win the gold coming into the competition. she is still in great shape to win the gold tonight. we're going to have more on that. meanwhile, it was a wild night for the usa on wednesday night. >> erin pac and her teammate have won gold and we'll talk to them about their experience. very excite bed that. >>> however, it does not look like u.s. women's skiers will win a medal in the downhill after lindsey vonn's crash in the downhill on wednesday it actually caused problems for julia mancuso, skiing after, also from the united states. we're going to have more on what appears to be a tense relationship between two of our country's best skiers. but we want to take a quick look at the medal

meredith? >> al, thank you very and still ahead, we'll have much more of matt's exclusive interview with the first lady, including what was the best and worst part of her day on tuesday. >>> still ahead, "today" goes inside the o.r. to watch brain surgery live. dr. nancy snyderman is there. hey, nancy. >> reporter: meredith, today we're at mt. sinai medical center. dr. ron alterman right behind me doing brain surgery today for a gentleman with a tumor. ben is on the table, and the important thing today, meredith, he is awake. we will check back in here with him, patient and the doctor, in just a little while. >> amazing. he's awake. i'm going to pass out cold in about 30 seconds. >>> us, a new arrest in the case of baby gabriel. >>> 7:26 is your time now, 33 degrees, good morning, on this wednesday february 3, 2010. we have breaking news this morning out of soueast washington. three children are in critical condition after an early morning fire in the 1900 block of nailer road. it appears the f

marianne williamson, thanks so much, meredith dodson thanks so much. you can log on and find out how you can give back, how you can help n light of that discussion we just had, wolf blitzer, you're getting ready to handle the special coverage for us. whether it's reform with regard to insurance company or reform in policies to help feed our children, today is a very important day. >>> thanks very much, kyra. even in a time slot known for mellow dramatic soap operas you've probably never seen anything quite like what could be a political soap opera set to unfold on daytime tv. we're only minutes away from a emotionally climactic moment in the health care debate. the white house health care summit. right now you're looking at live pictures inside the blair house, that's across the street from the white house, where this event will take place. here's the cast. the president of the united states and his democratic allies up on capitol hill. and republicans led by the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and the house minority leader john boehner. the dem

. >> reporter: our other participant, meredith clark, had her own concerns. >> there's, of course, the huge possibility of crashing and burning on tv. >> reporter: but turns out it's real life that presents the greatest challenges. >> being in the office is difficult, especially in a newspaper office because we believe in eating and eating well and eating a lot. >> reporter: and schedules. >> the workouts themselves aren't really difficult. what i find hard is managing my time to fit the workouts in. >> reporter: but she's fitting it all in. walking around the parking lot at work. exercising with the help of a trainer. early morning kettle bell classes. she's even spinning on her own. for both triathletes, the journey ahead will be long but doable. >> there's only 150 days left. so it makes me want to kind of ramp up my effort. >> i feel stronger all the time, but i feel like once i can get this done, i thinkky close that chapter. i can put that breast cancer behind me, and i'll feel like it's over, and i've conquered it. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting. >>> we have amazi

particularly of our coalition partners to have been in the fight with us< there has been an unfortunate meredithleadership -- unfortunate narrative in washington focused on the american leadership, sometimes to the detriment of the wall or coalition forces have played. we are trying to bring voices of that -- from the field, ranging from dutch commanders in afghanistan, general van loon, commander of command south in afghanistan. general david mcnielleill, commander of isaf. and the former pakistani chief of staff. we are very pleased to host jonathan vance today, one of canada's leading counterinsurgency practitioners. a specialist. in one of the interviews i read before the event, he referred to himself to a chief cheerleader, to a chief mourner, to a general manager. he is an infantry officer of yhuri he has experience, having deployed in croatia in 1994. he deployed in support and operation of the not in 2003. he took the -- the first -- operation athena in 2003. task force kandahar also includes about 1000 u.s. soldiers. he deployed to afghanistan in the wake of the man report that demanded

it's up to you to make sure you give that counter meredith and counter the education. spec there's a gentleman over here in the corner. raise your hand again, sir, what you? >> i'm from the israel center. what i wanted to know from your experience about the dilemma between civil liberties and the need for security for the homeland because it's something i think you didn't address in your speech and in israel it is a very big issue if we speak about the biometric database we start to implement and israel. how do you address when was the limit between the need for security and the need for civil liberties? >> welcome you know, this is an issue that is raised pretty frequently, and there's no question there are times you have to make some judgments about the trade-off between security and civil liberties. but i have to say a lot of times what is presented as a false choice. in other words what is viewed as a trade-off actually isn't much of a trade-off and i will use the example biometrics or fingerprints. i think the use of biometrics is a way to identify people or the u

it's up to you to make sure you give that counter meredith and counter the education.raise your hand again, sir, what you? >> i'm from the israel center. what i wanted to know from your experience about the dilemma between civil liberties and the need for security for the homeland because it's something i think you didn't address in your speech and in israel it is a very big issue if we speak about the biometric database we start to implement and israel. how do you address when was the limit between the need for security and the need for civil liberties? >> welcome you know, this is an issue that is raised pretty frequently, and there's no question there are times you have to make some judgments about the trade-off between security and civil liberties. but i have to say a lot of times what is presented as a false choice. in other words what is viewed as a trade-off actually isn't much of a trade-off and i will use the example biometrics or fingerprints. i think the use of biometrics is a way to identify people or the use of secure identification, which some people view

evers' work, meredith was awarted to the university of mississippi.ned home just after midnight from a series of naacp functions. and he was leaving his car with a handful of t-shirts that read "jim crow must go." when he was leaving his vehicle he was shot in the back by an assassin. his wife and children, who had been waiting for him, found him bleeding to death on the door steps some 40 feet where he was gunned down and shortly thereafter he died. the death of mr. evers helped prompt president john f. kennedy and others to ask congress to pass a comprehensive civil rights bill, and in 1964, the civil rights act was signed into law. in the years following his death, a number of songs, books and movies paid tribute to mr. evers' sacrifice and his peaceful pursuit of and equality for all americans. mr. evers is quoted as saying, "when you hate, the only one that suffers is you. because most of the people you hate don't know it and the rest don't care." he also continued to advise that violence is not the way. his life serves as an inspiration to ameri