[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> wildfires continue to rage in southern california. you are taking a live look at a

picture of what firefighters described as a war zone. dozens of homes have been claimed, more have been threatened. good morning, everyone. more than 100 homes have burned so far in california, where eight major wildfires continue to burn out of control. the biggest is 15 miles north of downtown los angeles. >> nearly 6000 firefighters are on wildfire duty throughout california and today. more than half are assigned here, to the station fire in los angeles county. the largest of them all, still growing. >> it has grown to over 121,000 acres. it grew 15,000 acres during the night. >> thick smoke cast an eerie orange gloom over the skies of los angeles.

the fire destroyed more than 60 homes and cabins, thousands more remain in the path of the fire. >> we are the furthest up into the canyon. the fire is touching this house first, coming downhill after that. >> two firefighters died as they tried to flee from the parking flames. one of the firefighters was expecting the birth of his first child in the next few weeks. two try to survive the fire in their hot tub. firefighters warned that it will not be much progress in the next few days. >> fire activity but be similar to last few days. >> officials estimate that it will take a few weeks before it gets under control. >> the fire is burning away from the mountain, where many radio

towers serve multiple stations throughout california. >> the man accused for his role in the beating death of a crop in team was in court today. try robinson and another team were accused in the beating of christopher jones. we are joined live from can run all county with the latest. >> this was a dispute over someone possibly saying someone -- something negative about someone else. they talked about how senseless it was. robinson apologized, saying that he never intended it for -- intended it to be like this. he did not admit guilt but accepted the fact that his actions led to the death of 14- year-old christopher. jones was riding his bike, prosecutors say that he was hit

twice in the head. another teenager through the second punch. prosecutors say that as jones rode away, he collapsed. he suffered blunt force trauma to his head. his mother asked that robinson be rehabilitated, confined, and punished until he is 21. the judge said that he only had the ability to confine him to juvenile detention and ask that he be placed in and out of state facility. >> speaking from my heart, i am a for giving person. i am reading a great book right now called for giving the unforgivable, which my brother got me. honestly, i know that he killed my son. i know that he played a big part in his death. but he is still a child. i feel for him inside. i hope that one day i can

forgive him. >> the judge asked if this was the end of the road for him. then he said he hoped not. he told robinson that it depended on what he did with his life right now. reporting live, barry sanders. >> and baltimore teenager pleaded guilty in a violent escape from a detention center. he was accused of attacking guard at the victor cohen center. victor told the judge that he grabbed handcuffs from one of his guards, he has been sentenced to 18 months at the adult detention center. two maryland teenagers are dead in a baltimore police officer is recovering after an accident over the weekend. hundreds of students gathered to remember the couple at their high school last night. the teenagers were riding with

jones' father during a rainstorm when there was a crash. last night that it does family spoke about the tragedy. -- last night the victim's family spoke about the tragedy. >> i am lost for words right now. he had a bright future. right now i am at peace with everything because me and my husband did a good job of raising him. he was a good kid. he was kind. unfortunately things went in a different direction. >> she was a beautiful person. she was outgoing. she made everybody laugh. if he was sad, she would try to make you happy. >> funeral services portion equal are scheduled for saturday. jones' role arrangements are not yet complete. a robbery, masked men approaching a victim's car at the bank of america.

they threaten the teller with a gun and demanded money. -- a threatened the victim with a gun and demanded money. anyone with information is asked to call the county police. >> a gorgeous afternoon out there, comfortable as well. temperatures in the 60's in most locations. 69 at the airport, 68 in annapolis. beautiful conditions prevailing, 7275 later on this afternoon. the wind is low up there, temperature dropping with clear skies overnight. potentially upper 40's in the outlying suburbs. i have got more on your extended forecast as we had to the first week of september. >> thank you.

the interview has led even aired, but kurt browning is already backtracking on a statement that he made to larry king. the challenge is becoming greater for soldiers in afghanistan. why does the military say that they need more help? carey is here to answer your plant and gardening questions. e-mail him

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the new icy hot medicated roll. with the roll, pain's under control. >> firefighters were busy in kentucky last night after a massive fire at the state fairgrounds. the fire destroyed their rounds, the fare is closed on sunday and fortunately there were not any courses in the barn at the time. so far there is no word on what caused the fire. representatives for chris brown are trying to clear up the record after he claimed and misha in the beating of his girlfriend. clips of his interview aired saying that he does not remember assaulting her. in a statement that he posted, he said that the 32nd fled does not reflect the original answer to his question. he says that he misspoke. >> that night, i wish that i could take it back. i really regret it and i feel totally ashamed of what i did.

flax he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months of community oriented labor. the entire interview airs tomorrow. kerry angle is here to answer your plant and a gardening question. you can e-mail us your questions at wbaltv.com. >> the top commander in afghanistan is calling for more troops after the deadliest month. >> nothing but money of sunshine up and down the east coast. -- nothing but plenty of sunshine up and down the east coast. how long will it last? i have got the answer for you, co

>> some of the children evacuated from london during the start of the second world war were honored today. 2000 of the evacuees marked the 70th anniversary of the evacuation.

they were shipped to towns and villages just before britain declared war on germany. good news from the front line in the war on afghanistan. we ended the deadliest month in the deadliest year of the war. asking for more troops, we have more from washington. >> the goal is clear, to disrupt and to dismantle, defeating al qaeda and extremist allies. >> the enemy is getting smarter, more americans are dying. at least 47 troops were killed in august alone, the deadliest month since the war began eight months ago. >> we are going into areas where the taliban has been unchallenged for a number of years, meaning that our casualties will be higher. >> despite the success of elections, forces are building a bigger bombs.

ied attacks are up 100% from last year. the top u.s. commander in afghanistan as asking for a new strategy and new troops. >> we will have to look at the availability and the cost. >> president obama listed forces by 21,000. but the white house says that winning this war will take time. >> you cannot turn it around in a few months after years of neglect. >> general mcchrystal says that the war is winnable and is looking to foreign partners for help, adding to the 37,000 foreign troops already there. the general's report is making its way up the chain of command. officials will add recommendations after showing it to secretary gates and the president. no word on when that happened.

>> despite the grim news today, the u.s. special envoy to afghanistan and pakistan are insisting that progress has been made. richard holbrooke credited the u.s. with disrupting the drug trade. this afternoon's consumer alerts announced a break for people behind on their taxes. 300,000 people have a two month amnesty period in hopes of collecting the overdue money. taxpayers can file penalties -- file papers to shed a good chunk of the interest. you can even make plans to spread out payments. >> i would hope that we would be able to raise $10 million or more. >> this is vital revenue that would allow west -- allow us to

help out in difficult times. >> an amnesty plan in 2001 brought in a lot of money. if you would like more information, bought on to our website, wbaltv.com. there is a link under project economy. >> hopefully you were lucky enough to have lunch outside today. all of the clouds and moisture, well off in the atlantic. this trend will last through today and tomorrow, but all the way through the labor day weekend. 71 degrees downtown, 71 at the airport, 60's in pennsylvania. in the mountains today, it will only get up to 59 degrees. here in baltimore, mostly sunny skies. you will be hard pressed to find

a cloud. looks like we're going to keep the winds steady. we are looking at 76 down by the shore, ocean city at 20 miles per hour. not enough to warrant a small class advisory, decent day, one to 2 foot waves. we are going to be looking at this 53 degree record low. we could still get there. 61 as the average for this time of year. looks like upper 40's to near 50's. 59 downtown. beautifully clear skies with the stars twinkling. high pressure will dominate today in the rest of the week. pretty much across the rest of the u.s., with the exception of those raging fought -- raging wildfires in california, the

wind will pick up later this afternoon. continuing to move to the north, affecting the baja peninsula. it has got -- it is on the verge of a category 4 hurricane. we are still monitoring a disorganized patch of showers and storms near the windward islands. fairly conducive for development, that could be our next depression. in the meantime, we will be stable and quiet and comfortable. mostly sunny skies, for your labor day weekend we will be in the low 80's, right where we should be at this time of year. >> thank you. carey is here to answer your

plant and gardening questions. we should say about combat. >> there was a bit of foot surgery, i have a bid to go but nobody will be filling in right now for me. >> welcome back. what did you bring with you today? >> this house plan, we paired it with our others. we planted and put it in the ground, fall is a wonderful time to plant perennials. the ground is so warm, it gets a real chance to drop in before next year. >> you were saying that it was too early to be your planting, but that it was a great time to plant other things? >> exactly. some of your later plants, i would wait for those. wait for some of the other things, let it cool down a bit more. >> bright weather ahead. >> it would be wonderful for

pulling weeds. we have a few questions. i had a few chances for blooming this christmas, but what did i need to do? >> make sure that you give it 14 hours of darkness and 10 hours of light per day. if you happen to have a room in your house where you do not have a lot of like, put it in there. or in a closet. >> i cannot believe that lasted this long. they did a great job. what are the best and worst times to create and cultivate rosebushes? >> christmas through the middle of march or so. you could also go in the wintertime. let them bloom in to do their thing now. they will put out new growth, which can get taken down by the

cold weather. waiting until later in the year can work. >> which plants will not suffer from extreme weather conditions? >> you can get a lot of your evergreens in overtime, as well as any deciduous plants. we talked about it on "the sunday gardener." >> that is right. saving money just in time. great to have you back. if you have a plant and gardening question, you can e- mail us wbaltv.com -- e-mail us at wbaltv.com. up next, your maryland lottery midday pick three and picked four numbers. one more check on the forecast as well. first,

>> to nine at 5:00, about 1.5 million americans are going to lose unemployment benefits by the end of the year. for one-third of them the benefits are going to end at the end of the month. what should you do if you are dependent upon unemployment checks to make ends meet? now, your maryland lottery pick three and picked four numbers. >> let's see what we have got here. take three, your first number is 0, the second number is four, and your final number is two. 0,4,2.

here are our bodies with an important lottery message. >> what do the ravens and the maryland pottery have in common? >> a scratch off fantasy. >> go to the web site for a prize and all of the details. >> ago ravens. moving right along to pick four, here is what we got. that is a nine. followed by zero. the next number is 7. the last number for your pick four is five. 90 ,7,5. you want to visit our web site to let yourself play. >> it is so beautiful. >> incredible. gorgeous. get out and enjoy it. it was like 73 degrees today.

a chilly night ahead, we are down to about 50 in the suburbs. on thursday we are back up to 80. check out that nice, long labor day weekend. we are doing something right. >> absolutely fantastic. you can do anything that you want to outside. thank you for joining us at noon. >> have a great day. they have alzheimer's and heart disease, diabetes and cancer. and they've heard that biomedical research offers hope, that it could control, maybe even cure, their disease. senator barbara mikulski understands the importance of innovative biomedical research, for patients, their families, and our economy here in maryland.

call senator mikulski today. tell her, thanks for protecting the promise of biomedical research and the maryland jobs it provides. it's not just the future, it's life. this fiber? i'd had my fill. then i found miralax. announcer: miralax is the only brand