jquery removing html element from variable

I suggest this approach

var itinerary = $('.events_today')
                .clone(true)       /* get a clone of the element and from it */
                .find('#myButton') /* retrieve the button, then */
                .remove()          /* remove it, */
                .end()             /* return to the previous selection and */
                .html() ;          /* get the html */

Try this:

itinerary.filter(function() { return $(this).not("#myButton"); });

Just locate the element by it's id and remove:

$('#myButton').remove()

Then get your itinerary:

var itinerary =  $('.events_today').html() ;

// The above will remove the button from the DOM. To just get the html without having the button taken out of the DOM you can do:

var itinerary = $('.events_today').clone(true).find('#myButton').remove().end().html();

Find the element in the collection and remvoe it.

$('.events_today').find('#myButton').remove();

Edit: After realizing I might've misunderstood the OP, this might work (although not exactly very beautiful).

var html = $('.events_today').html();
// Parse the html, but don't add it to the DOM
var jqHtml = $(html);
// Find and remove the element with the specified id.
jqHtml.find('#myButton').remove();
// Get the new html without the myButton element.
var result = jqHtml.html();

Update: Based on @Fabrizio Calderan's answer you can do what I did above much more nicely with jQuery methods.

Try this:

var html = $('#myHtml').clone(true).find('#elementThatYouWantToRemove').remove().end().html();