basara. we will check the traffic and weather together. a warm start, huh? >> that's right. not surprising. all week it was warm. >> we are getting used to it. >> the first part of july was unusually cool and rain-free but now we have rain chances. if you will recall wednesday we had a threat of rain. we were thinking strong storms and it didn't pop here in the baltimore area. we have a similar situation coming up this time and we have a forecast that is calling for possibly strong storms. there is rain in western maryland now, garrett county. this storm system has had a history of producing severe weather so we will try again. it is the end of the month so we will see what happens. we do need to catch up a little bit. we are an inch and almost 2/3 short. we will see what happens going out of july. now let's check the traffic. >> we have good news.

that accident in finksburg is cleared so that is good news. but that is the only thing we had going on so really not much to talk about. the speed sensors show that everything is moving just fine. we are in the green on the major roadways across the area. we are up to speed. park heights avenue there on the northwest side things are moving fine on inner and outer loops. 895 at harbor tunnel it is smooth in and out of the tunnel. not many on the road. 95 checking out and 83's good as well. that is the latest on "traffic pulse 11". back to you. >> our big story the popular cash for clunkers program was geared to get rid of gas guzzlers and get consumers in more fuel efficient vehicles. it did but the government says the funding is running out. melissa carlson has more on the story. >> it was aimed at helping out

those struggling auto makers whose sales were down 35% at the beginning of the year. this boost may have busted the government's pocketbook. from florida to california the cash for clunkers program has been a hit. >> a program like this is heaven sent. >> increased business probably about 30%. >> it allows people to bring in gas guzzlers and trade them for a credit up to $4,500 toward a new fuel efficient car. antwerpen stayed open for fear it was about to end. >> we had no idea how much pent-up demand there was. >> even the government seems surprised at the speed at which the program has taken off. there are rumblings that in less than a week it may have gone through its budget. benefits were slated to be available until november. as of wednesday an estimated

23,000 cars were sold and nearly $96 million spent. some dealerships have expressed concern that the government may not have the cash to pay them back for the quick sales. others say they are not worried. >> we are reimbursed from the government, so all we really want is the government to keep giving us the money, customers will keep coming and we will keep selling cars. >> the question is whether or not this program will continue. if you are wondering thinking maybe it will continue and you would like to get rid of your gas guzzler, your car has to get less than 18 miles per gallon. back to you. >> that brings us to the water cooler question of the day. should the federal government increase the funding for the cash for clunkers program? you can e-mail watercooler@wbaltv.com. friendly and thoughtful conversation is how president obama described his meeting with professor henry louis gates jr. and police officer james

crowley. the president with vice president biden shared a beer with the two in the rose garden. the meeting was inspired from the debate over racial profiling when the professor was arrested at his home. president obama says he is confident that all of the men and the entire nation have been able to draw a positive lesson from the incident. crowley and professor gates have agreed to disagree about the events. >> new rules regarding food production may come. house of representatives voted last night to pass the food safety bill. proponents say it will help protect people from illnesses caused by food and give the f.d.a. the power to recall contaminated food. it now heads to the senate. >> much of the controversial surrounding mayor dixon revolves around cash used to pay a large shopping bill and source. i-team lead investigative reporter jayne miller explains

where the money allegedly came from. i apologize. that is the wrong video. we will switch to stan. instead i will take over this one one. anne arundel county people are asking for your help for a man responsible for a burglary. >> authorities say a man -- no picture. he broke into a -- there it is. he broke into the sunoco station in the 1400 block of annapolis road after 1:30 in the morning last wednesday. if you have information on who he is or where he may be you are asked to call 1-866-7-lockup. a group is calling on howard and carroll county officials to make route 32 safer. the group says thousands of cars travel that stretch of highway from i-70 to the howard county

line and more needs to be done to insure safety and prevent future tragedies. they call for red lights or creation of passing and no passing zones. the time now is -- we will get it together. >> 74? >> 77 degrees at 5:36. still ahead, plastic surgery could be the new form of treatment for migraines. >> could researchers be close to a cure for obesity. to a cure for obesity. the skin - hey, buddy. - hi, dad.

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>> welcome back to "11 news today." it is 21 before 6:00 and it is 77 downtown. a couple of degrees cooler away

from the heat of the city. mostly cloudy right now. we will see sun breaks today and we will continue to feel a lot of humidity out there. we will also probably experience some thunderstorms. a few storms passed south of us overnight and on the left side of the screen you see a new area of of rain coming into western maryland. reaches back in the ohio river valley and it has been producing severe weather. so, that is a possibility this afternoon. more on that in a minute. >> we will try to get back to the jeanne miller story. much of the controversy around mayor dixon revolves around cash used to pay a shopping bill the. in april of 2004 sheila dixon was looking for helping according to the indictment against her to pay her american express bill. the minimum payment due $7,514 largely the result of a shopping

trip to chicago. the indictment spells out where at least some of the help came from on two different occasions developer ron lipscomb her boyfriend at the time gave her cash when she asked for it. $2,000 to $3,000 in one payment. $1 $1,500 to $2,000 in another. the details came from lipscomb. he is now cooperating with prosecutors but he has said those payments make up all of the cash he gave to the mayor. at least un answeranswered wher rest of the cash may have come frchlt according to the indictment there were deposits totaling $8,000 to dixon's accounts in the weeks before and after the big american express payment was due. if at most lipscomb gave her $5,000, the remaining $3,000 had to come from another source. the indictment doesn't identify one. sources familiar with the case say it is a question that hasn't been answered. we tried to ask the mayor about the money today. her only reply was ask ron

lipscomb. we asked one of her lawyers and he wouldn't answer. part of the bill was paid by dixon's driver with cash he alleged -- she allegedly gave him to put in his own account. >> one legal expert says if convicted on all counts the mayor could face 70 years in prison but that it is unlikely she will get a jail sentence. >> researchers say they have been able to turn skin cells into brown fat. those cells burn fat and turn it into body heat. scientists long thought it was only present in newborns to keep them warm and disappeared. but recently there is evidence of brown fat in adults. researchers were able to convert mouse and human cells that brown cells by turning on certain genes. it burned calories at a high

rate suggesting it could combat obesity. migraine sufferers are visiting plastic surgeons. botox has been able to freeze migraines. but it wears off so some surgeons have removed the muscles for a permanent fix. a year later migraines were eliminated for more than half of the patients who received the surgery. >> coming up, ducks race in chicago for a special benefit. >> a downtown baltimore hotel is renovate and reopened. we will go on a tour. >> this is a live picture from the sky cam overlooking the downtown area. up next an update of traffic and weather.

>> good morning, kim dacey with a look at the "traffic pulse 11" report. we have picked up an accident in district of columbia at route 175 and tamar drive. police are there so watch out for that. we will give you some live drive times. 895 northbound between 95 south and harbor tunnel we have nine

minutes. beltway outer loop from 795 to i-95 top side 11 minutes. 95 southbound between the beltway and route 100 six minutes. so, it is moving just fine. no delays yet so that is good news for this friday morning. this is the beltway on the west side at baltimore national pike moving just fine both inner and outer loops. harrisburg expressway north of the beltway looking fine, even south toward the city 95 checking out ok as well. that is the latest on "traffic pulse 11." now let's check in with kurt kronc kroncke. good morning, kurt. >> good morning, kim. have a great weekend. we are looking at a few bus delays. five is 20 minutes and m-2 with 20 minutes delay. no delays on the marc trains. both light rail and metro on schedule. why put unnecessary mileage on your car when the marc train is available for the commute from baltimore and washington?

call for scheduled information. for the m.t.a. transit i'm kurt kroncke. back to john collins. have a great weekend, john. >> we wind up the week with more warm and humid weather. close to hot today. we will see more cloudiness today than yesterday. thunderstorms over ocean city this morning has pulled out to sea so it is drying out. most of the rain in maryland is west of harrisbugerstown and jun shower activity at this point. but it is a large area of of rain. no thunderstorms at this stage but this has had a history as the front has been moving across the midwest to produce severe weather. so as it gets closer to us our chances of rain will increase. wednesday we had a similar situation and the rain really kind of concentrated itself in western maryland and pennsylvania. i think today the chances are stronger that we will see activity. let's look outside. we mentioned the warm humid

conditions. annapolis 77, downtown 77. easton 73, gaithersburg and hagerstown also 77. west of hagerstown they have rain shower activity. the dew point temperatures are in the 70's and that makes it tropical. they are in the low to mid 70's at this point. not quite as humid but way up there. 69 new york, 68 westminster. showers in oakland and technically dropped the moisture content. atmosphere a little bit. it is 61 at oakland right now. here is the map. thin clouds over us so there are breaks in the clouds and we will see a little sun today. but as the front gets closer. right now it is in the ohio river valley. the top end is near detroit. low pressure center over and west of louisville. that will move in today. it is that drier air, the jetstream right here bumping into all of this tropical

moisture and you get thunderstorms. there is a slight risk of severe weather up and down the eastern seaboard from new england to north carolina. also in the plains states. the primary threat is wind, but with the way the jetstream is set up you could get an isolated tornado or a little bit of hail. today mostly cloudy. best rain chance in the afternoon and evening. it is quite likely and we mentioned possibly severe. south to southwest winds 10 to 15. uncomfortable because of all the humidity. future cast shows the rain coming in this afternoon and this evening and then things taper off by 10:00 or 11:00 at night. saturday looks like a dry day with rain to the south of us. but as we move from saturday that sunday, especially this morning and late in the day sun we could see more activity coming our way. ocean city, thunderstorms today, later on this afternoon, tonight. saturday looks dry.

today upper 80's, mid 80's saturday. but sunday stuff coming up from the south so rain chances increase sunday. so, saturday looks like the better day of the bunch if you have a three-day weekend. 88 today, afternoon thunderstorms, less humid. fairly decent weather saturday. 87. rain chance up sunday, down monday. toys with us tuesday and wednesday with a pop-up thunderstorm here and there. humid at the end of the week with more thunderstorms by thursday. >> tens of thousands of rubber duckies have been dropped into the chicago river. they are part of the fourth annual windy city rubber duck derby for special olympics illinois. each has been adopted for $5. they support training and competition for more than 22,000 special olympics athletes in illinois. the owner of the duck that makes it to the finish line first wins a seven-night trip for two to the dominican republic.

>> if you can't get your dog to go outside on hot days you could take one texas woman's approach. a treadmill. a dog trainer suggested it after the dog wouldn't go out when the temperature was above 100. cody sea cody seems pretty happy and patricia says she knows nothing will replace out dodoor exercis. from exercising dogs to a cow with two heads. get this, quite a bizarre creature. jennifer was born last friday in columbia. the farmer says while it has two heads it only has one brain. a brace has been built for jennifer could can't stand on her own due to the weight. but to the dog and treadmill have you ever tried that? >> i'm not sure my dog would stay on a treadmill. >> eventually you have to have a tv with monitor and piped it music. spritzer.

it gets involved. >> like the pet airline. >> 5:51, still much more ahead on "11 news today." >> we will look at some of your answers to our water cooler question of the day. >> look at last night's winning maryland lottery numbers.

>> this just in, baltimore isaso are investigating a deadly shooting that happened shortly after midnight. we are told a man was shot in the head. no word on the identity of the victim or suspect or motive. >> an historic landmark in baltimore has been restored and transformed into a luxurious hotel. the hotel monaco combines old

with new. rob roblin was there for the grand opening. >> it is the newest and in a way oldest boutique hold. it occupies the old b&o at baltimore and charles street. >> they wanted to build something that reflected the power and strength of the b&o railroad and this was baltimore's building. it was the comcast center, philadelphia's comcast of the day. the legg mason building of its time. >> you can see how spectacular it is from the original tiffany weekends dose to the seven kinds of marble. >> this is all authentic. all we have done is polished it, made it beautiful and we are bringing it to the monaco and bringing it to the baltimore market. >> from the old to the new. up one floor it is the lobby living room where modern furnishing and a beautiful fireplace. there are 202 guest rooms in the

hotel all beautifully done with the history of the building in mind. >> if you look at the carpeting you can see the classic blue and gold colors and it looks like railroad ties. then if you look at the side pieces and bed they look like traveling trunks. it blends the old and new with the history of the b&o and bold and exquisite decor. not only are the rooms spectacular but you get special baffe bathrobes. this is the leopard print. this is the zebra print. and this is the giraffe print. i think this is me. what do you think? you notice this is, well, rather lo long. look at the sleeves. >> we try to tailor our experience and there are guests of larger stature and with that comes the larger robes. >> on the first floor a

beautiful restaurant. this is a one of a kind hotel. >> the giraffe is not working for me. seen i think rob -- >> he fits right in. >> we asked should the federal government increase the funding of the cash for clunkers program. one says we are a week into the program and it was supposed to right hand until november and they are out of money. now they want to manage your healthcare? be very, very afraid. of keep e-mailing responses to watercooler@wbaltv.com. we will read more it the next hour and post all of them on the front page of our website. >> here is a look ahead of the next hour of "11 news today." >> a small village has an unusual ritual to promote healthy babies. some carroll county kids get the chance to shop with authority and make sure they get all the back-to-school supplies at 6:33. >> a man climbs all wait up the

wall. what he used to stay suckstione to it. >> i think we will have thunderstorm activity in today's insta-weather forecast.

>> the emergency brake may be pulled on the cash for clunkers program. >> president obama's rose garden meeting on race. that story is up next. >> the insta-weather forecast as "11 news today" continues right now. [captioning made possible by constellation energy group] >> good morning, everyone. i'm sarah caldwell for mindy basara. >> i'm stan stovall. thanks for joining us.