here's michael jones with today's "health minute." >> reporter: as people age, muscles get weaker and many older people, especially women, have a tendency to lose their balance and fall. some end up with serious injuries requiring long hospital stays. now, a new study finds exercises taught at home seem to improve balance and walking and help high-risk elderly women avoid falling. researchers looked at 160 women, half assigned to an exercise group, the other half to a control group. women in the exercise group were taught balance, leg strengthening and impact training exercises once a week for six months in their homes. the control group was simply told exercise is good for you. both groups were followed over a three-year period. the researchers found women in the exercise group had a 17% chance of suffering from fractures due to falling. the control group had a 52% rate of injuries due to loss of balance. according to the authors, falls are responsible for 90% of all hip fractures. exercise builds muscle and bone mass and can strengthen even older bodies, teaching seniors the correct

michael mundaca, assistant treasury secretary for tax policy. here to question him is kim dixon from reuters and martin vaughn from dow jones. >> michael, i want to start out by asking you about the proposals that the president put forward, the tax proposals to stimulate the economy. one of those was that he wanted to allow businesses to immediately write off 100% of their newly commit purchases in 2011, the aim being to free up cash to invest higher. what we're leading -- what we're hearing is that cash is not the problem. the issue right now is that folks are worried about the economy neck getting better, continuing continuing to stagnate or getting worse. in that light, how much good can you do by simply offering people a tax cuts if they are just worried about the economy not getting better? >> that is a good question. i think we need to put this in context. these are one not -- these are not one-of proposals. -- these are not one-off proposals. proposals. there has been made to states. these proposals now, these targeted proposals with respect to investment here in the united states, are meant to pull some of the cash that is on the sideline

. >> reporter: michael douglas, accompanied by wife catherine zeta-jones turned up for last neat's premiereeet. the actor was all smiles and all business despite an ongoing battle with throat cancer. >> he's a wolf. good strong family and friends. >> reporter: douglas did not talk on the red carpet but in recent times he spoke of the grueling battle. he is undergoing daily radiation treatments for the next two months and suspect he will not be able to eat or speak in two weeks. he said sores start forming in your mouth, then lesions. then you can't swallow. >> it's hard, difficult. he wants to do some good for this disease. >> reporter: douglas only learned of his illness in late july and first spoke about it with david letterman last month eye got cancer. i found out about it three weeks ago. >> reporter: determined to fight his disease, douglas' biggest fear is weight loss, especially dangerous for a person in his condition. >> he's dealing with it extremely well. >> that's the measure of a plan when you got a challenge like that. >> reporter: at last nit's premiere, the actor known for h

michael jordan is the best basketball player. but when you cbine the sports, neither can match the talent of john jones. the teenager shows off his basketball hole in one. the video doesn't appear to be altered, but you bthe judge. that's a look at your sports today p.m. >>> who is getting boued out of japan? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. >>> plus, it's getting to be at time of year and the pumpkins are getting ready for their close up. you're watching "early today." >>> a good wednesday mornin temperatures will be in the 80s and 90s up and down the eastern seaboard today. another day to turn the air-conditioning on. chicago is a little cooler today. yesterday we had those thunderstorms and rain roll through. look at thursday. the heat returns to chicago and the east coast is going to be up around 90 degrees once again in washington, d.c. sothe summer that never ends keeps going. if you'reatching us onkare in memberships, minnesota. if you thought legos and politics don't mix, wrong. check out the model of the minnesota state capitol made of 75,000 leggons of the capitol

as for reverend jones, his next move is anyone's guess. michael hearstenberg for cbs news, gainesville, florida. >>> well, closer to home, changing gears here, weather wise, it's beautiful. it was beautiful and sunny, really wasn't much fog even yesterday, at least for much of the day in the city and of course it's been beautiful all over the bay area. two more days of this? >> there you go. that's your forecast. >> back to you! that's me! show us some pretty pictures. >> i'll show you pictures. you pretty much hit it on the head. gorgeous day for today, much like yesterday. no fog to speak of this morning. it will return beginning of the work week. taking a look outside right now, we can see we were joshing. >> just kidding, it's there! >> at the golden gate, looking elsewhere across the bay, pretty clear, but obviously it is close, as the golden gate seems to be the demarkation line for the fog, as it often is this morning. it will give way to mostly sunny skies there. taking a look elsewhere around the bay, we'll find a bit more sunshine to che

our guest is michael mundaca, assistant secretary for tax policy. here to question him, martin vaughn of dow jonesand kim dixon of reuters. go ahead, ms. dixon. >> just a follow-up on the r & d credit. what about paying for it? what's the strategy? i know that you need to work with lawmakers on capitol hill, but -- >> as the president said, this is supposed to be paid for. there are a number of revenue raising provisions that the president has proposed in our budget, more than enough in dollar amounts to cover the proposals he put out. we do look forward to working with the legislatives who are interested in moving us ahead as well as this community has a big stake in this as well. we want to hear from everyone, all the stakeholders in this as we move ahead. >> you've had some proposals on the international tax system that congress recently passed dealing with foreign tax cretities -- credits and ensuring that more -- a greater share of the foreign profits, multinationals, are brought under the u.s. tax system. but the larger proposals on that still remain. is that an example of something that cou

michael jordan, the best basketball player, but had you combine the two sports, neither can match the talent of john jones. the teenager shows off his skills with what he calls a basketball hole in one. pretty cool stuff. the video doesn't appear to be altered, but you be the judge. >>> that's a look at sports talk "early today." >> very nice shot there. >>> who is getting bounced out of japan? who got eliminated from "dancing with the stars"? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. >>> plus, it's getting to be that time of year and the pumpkins are getting ready for their close up. >>> you're watching "early today." >>> welcomes back on this wednesday morning. flash flood watches issued for much of arizona, new mexico and the four corner region. disturbance coming through. heavy downpours today and tonight especially that could deal with flash flooding maybe even in the cities themselves. as far as what we're deal wig elsewhere, turned out to be a nice late summer, early fall day. 90 in vegas today. cooler for you. medford looks nice. a peek into thursday. most locations okay. the

. >> reporter: michael douglas, accompanied by catherine zeta jones turned up at prepare me for the movieleeps." the actor was all smiles and all business despite a battle with stage iv throat cancer. >> he's a wolf. he's got a good, strong family. good strong support system. good group of friends. cancer picked the wrong guy. >> reporter: douglas did not talk on the red carpet but he spoke of a grueling battle with his disease. the actor is undergoing daily radiation treatment for the next two monltss and expects he will not be able to eat or speak in just two weeks. of his constant pain, douglas says, sores start forming in your mouth, then lesions and then you can't swallow. >> he's tired and it's hard. i think, to some degree, he's buoyed by the reception, the recognition and wants to do good for the disease. >> there's fortune to be made. >> reporter: douglas who reprises his role of gordon gekko in the "wall street" sequel learn odd his illness late july and first spoke about it with david letterman last month. >> i've got cancer. found out about it three weeks ago. >> reporter: det

tiger woods is arguably the best golfer, michael jordan, the best basketball player but when you combine the two sports neither can match the talents of john joneslls with what he calls a basketball hole in one. that's a pretty cool shot. video doesn't appear to be altered but you be the judge. i'm mario solis >> that's pretty impressive. >>> now for another quick look at the weather. here's nbc medical examiner bill karins with the weather forecast. do you think he's a really good golfer or a bad basketball player? >> i believe he's really good photoshop editor. >> you think it was altered. >> i just can't believe that would be true. so hard and the guy's arms were already up. we'll find out. let's take a look at what's happening. bring your umbrella in buffalo. looks like syracuse and utica will get hit with rain too along with upstate portions of new york and up towards burlington, vermont, the rest of the forecast looks dry and warm. that's from d.c. all the way up to boston. temperatures today are going to be about 10 to 15 degrees warmer than yesterday. talking 91 in d.c. today, 88 in philadelphia. the humidity won't be too bad but 86 in n

>> reporter: michael douglas, accompanied by wife catherine zeta-jones, turned up at last night's premiereeps." the actor was all smiles, and all business, despite an ongoing battle with stage four throat cancer. >> he's a wolf. you know, he's got a good, strong family. good, strong support system. good group of friends. and cancer picked the wrong guy. >> reporter: douglas did not talk on the red carpet. but in a recent interview with the "l.a. times" he spoke of a grueling battle with his disease. the actor is undergoing daily radiation treatment for the next two months. and expects he will not be able to eat or speak in just two weeks. of his constant pain, douglas says, sores start forming in your mouth, then lesions, and then you can't swallow. >> it's hard, difficult, and i think to some degree he's buoyed by the reception he's gotten, the recognition for this. and wants at the same time to do some good for this disease. >> you know there's fortunes to be made. >> reporter: douglas, who reprises his role of gordon gekko in the "wall street" sequel which opens friday, only learned of

what did catherine zeta-jones and michael douglas do to prevent people from crashing eir wedding?ve any wedding guests at all, or invited the president and his secret service. i bet the wife would probably know this. >> i think c. >> c. >> wife didn't know this. that's all right, because everyone has a story. >> so the correct answer is they requirethe guests to bring their wedding invitations? >> yes, all the guests had to bring wedding invitations. on top of that, the invites were printed with holograms. so when you wked into that wedding, they knew whether you were really invited or not or if that was a fake one and you were trying to crash it. that was a big wedding, at the pla, had something like ten-tiered wedding cake, six feet tall, thousands of sugar flowers, huge bash. >> back across to kathie. >> couple from shamrock, texas. what is the theme of this year's "today" show wedding series, fall romance, modern love, forevertarts today, romance on the plaza? >> it is a, fall romance? >> oh, stop it. i'm having a great day. here you go. >> here is the funny thing. i don't kno

. >> michael douglas walked the premier of his new movie, accompanied by his wife, catherine zeta jones was all smiles. he didn't talk to reports last night, but he found plenty of support from costars. >> the wolf, you know, he has a good strong family, good strong support system. good group of friends and just cancer picked the wrong guy. >> he's tired and it's hard. to some degree, the recognition to this. >> wants to do some good for this disease. >> douglas reprizes his character. >> a lot of people talking about this movie. >> he can't do the european tour at all. it is tough. >> all right, beautiful day. temperatures right around 80, which is average. now fall is going to arrive tomorrow night. it will feel more like summer, especially thursday and friday. the next three days, sunshine tomorrow, a few clouds late in the day. a slight chance, again a slight chance of a shower or storm. upper 80s and 90 on thursday. slight chance of a storm. 90 on friday. slight chance of a shower overnight on friday. a couple systems that are going to roll through the metro area. they don't have m

his wife actress catherine zeta-jones says she's furious that doctors didn't diagnose it sooner. >> michael. >> reporter: michael douglas appeared on television last night, speaking candidly about throat cancer. >> i found out three weeks ago. i finished my first week of radiation and chemo. it hurts. it comes in waves. >> reporter: the 65-year-old academy award winner, appeared to be in good spirits. openly discussing the walnut-sized tumor that doctors found on the back of his tongue weeks ago. >> i had a sore throat, early in the summer. and i actually went through a litany of doctors and tests. they didn't find anything. got a biopsy. they analyzed it. it's a stage 4, which is intense. so, they've got to go at it. >> reporter: he said that his hard partying past may have contributed to his illness. >> i smoked cigarettes and i drank. and this particular type of cancer is caused by alcohol drinking. >> reporter: douglas and zeta-jones decided not to hide his illness from their two children. 10-year-old son dillon and 7-year-old daughter, karis. even taking them to his chemo. they compare

michael douglas. that will be good. very good. >>> do you hear this song? ♪ waited until i saw the sun >> you know that song. don't know why by aurora jones.ding to matt coast it is the best song to test your car stereo. he says her song is natural and centered and also tops is hotel california because of the opening guitar solo and boom boom p.o.w. by the black eyed peas will get the base going. get the top ten at wusa9.com. got favorite songs you like to listen to. >> boom boom p.o.w. happens to be the favorite song more my daughter. >> sometimes i have to go to the classical station to chill out. >> up next, two great weekend evens in six minutes. a great place to save money and in 12 minutes a preview of the national boost book festival tomorrow on the national mall. right now howard bernstein has the focus on virginia's weather and traffic. >> a warm, muggy morning across virginia. charlie in catlett said it felt like a warm august night last night and we have muggies this morning. a touch of fog between culpeper an manassas. what we are expecting today is any low clouds and fog to burn off quickly and then we are off. temperatures wi

jones is trying to get around tillman. tillman, a good job to bring him down after a gain of two. here is curt. >> curt: michael starting at quarterback for philadelphia. opening series of the game. desean jackson, hooking up with him. experiment looking good. already up 7-0, philadelphia on top of the lions in the first quarter. joe, troy and pam? >> troy: some fantasy owners are probably happy with that one. >> joe: i guarantee you. a head coach while he is watching that happen and andy reid is thinking, okay, now i have another set of questions to answer. as vick plays well. we saw him do in the second half of last week. penalty flag comes in, as felix jones loses three. urlacher, the first guy there. >> troy: kyle kosier was pulling to lead on that play and he got beyond the defender and then just tackled him. >> joe: urlacher doesn't want the bears to accept the penalty. he is screaming over at lovie smith who said take the penalty. >> referee: holding offense. number 63. ten-yard penalty. first down. >> joe: look at urlacher. he is hot! said i just brought down felix jones for a loss of three and now you'

jones talk to their kids? >> they talked about how open they are with their children. michaeler now. and i'm going to have to get treatment. and he actually decided to take the children to eliminate the mystery, eliminate the fear of the unknown, take them to the medical center where he's being treated. >> how did they handle that? >> it sounds like, from what catherine said, it sounds like they weren't scared by all the machines. they thought it was sort of neat. michael said they liked the star wars element. >> anything to make it more palatable dent hurt. his oldest son is serving five years, i believe it is, for dealing drugs. how did he find out? >> he wasn't able to get to cameron so cameron found out from a fellow inmate in prison that his dad had cancer. michael was planning on visiting him in person and telling him, and he did visit him a few days later but an inmate told him first. >> he talked about what a rough year this has been and now with this diagnosis. is there any concern that it was caught too late? he sensed something for a while. >> well, he was remarkabl

jones is carrying a gun after receiving more than 100 death threats. he is also arming himself with the u.s. constitution, which protects his right to free speech. michael hertzenberg for cbs news, gainesville, florida. >>> the future of california's furlough fridays now rests in the hands of the state supreme court. today attorneys for the governor and for union workers delivered their arguments before the justices in san francisco. the court will decide whether governor schwarzenegger has the authority to furlough more than 200,000 state workers to save money. there are three furlough days each month amounting to a 14% pay cut for each employee. >> the governor's authority to furlough state employees stems from his implied and inherent powers as the chief executive officer of the state of california. >> we think the governor violated state law and the labor contracts when he unilaterally imposed unpaid furloughs on state employees just took money out of their checks and locked them out. we think that violates the law and the contracts. >> the governor issued his first furlough order in february 2009. the supreme court is going to rule within 90 days,

pastor jones never met with iman rauf or the organizers of the when he did travel to new york. so, why did he go to new york? finally, listen to what new york mayor michaelrg had to say about city's first attempt at using electronic voting machines. >> we have been told at some polling sites that opened two to four hours late. that is a royal screw-up and it is completely unacceptable. >> new york ditched its old lever machines for ballot scanner bus across the city, voters complained the type was too small and the ballots too hard to feed into the scanners much the city's board of election says they will work on fixing the problems in time for november's general election. wow. >>> coming up, will tea party victories like christine o'donnell in delaware actually energize democrats? they need something to rev them up, of course. should they be happy today or be care half they are wishing with for? this is hard ball, only on msnbc. hey what's going on? doing the shipping. man, it would be a lot easier if we didn't have to weigh 'em all. if those boxes are under 70 lbs. you don't have to weigh 'em. with these priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal se

jones, the green party candidate in illinois. wow, the races are shaping up to be fascinating. we will be back next wednesday with more results with "time" magazine. thank you, michael> a tropical storm could cause problems far away from the tropics. we will have an update for you. >>> and think world war i ended 92 years ago? well, think again, because it is not over until this weekend, and we will tell you why. stay with us here in "the situation room." >>> kate bolduan is monitoring the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. hi, kate. what is going someone. >> hi, wolf. u.s. military relations with china are quote back on track. the pentagon made that declaration today following u.s. and china talks in beijing. military relations have been on hold since last january when the obama administration unveiled a multibillion dollar arms deal with taiwan. they have scheduled two more meetings, and the pentagon says it is possible that defense secretary robert gates could eventually visit china. >>> and tropical storm nicole has lost power over the straits of florida. and it could bring six inches to the northeast and mid-atlantic states. earlier it drenche

michael goodwin's piece is appearing this morning in the new york post. cindy saying paul is joining us from new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning. i'd like to say that the dema minister jones created could have been solved very easily by arresting him for endangering american lives and inciting disorder and rioting. then he could have tried to burn the koran from his jail cell. host: thanks for the call and the comment. and for all of you, again, if you want to read more you can log on for the comments. there's also a related editorial about 9/11 that just came up in the weekly standard website. it is sunday morning, september 12. we'll be back with our roundtable discussion. and later, a look at unemployment and underemployment in the u.s. and the impact in the american economy. we'll be back in a moment. >> the bottom line is that we need our borders secured and we can't afford all the illegal immigration. >> it's hurt us. it's hurt arizona's economy seriously. >> with the mid-term elections about 50 days away, follow campaign 2010 on line at the c-span video library with debates from key races across the country. it's easy to follow the candidates and issues any time, a