[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm sarah caldwell. the standoff between french police and a self-proclaimed al- qaeda militant accused of killing seven people came to a dramatic end this morning. gunfire echoed through the streets of toulouse as a special forces entered the apartment of the 24-year old. >> the 30-hour siege now seems to be over. and number of police officials

are confirming that the police assaulted the house and that the gunman, mohammed merah, fired at them, the police fired back, and in the garage, mohammed merah rock is dead. there are at least two wounded police, one shot in the foot and the other suffering from shock. we did hear bursts of machine- gun fire in close proximity. we saw police scaling nearby balcony's. preparing to move in, and at the time, to see if the gunman was dead or alive. we know now clearly he was alive and he came out guns of blazing. there had been no contact or signs of life since yesterday evening. do remember, mohammed merah himself told police he wanted to die with his guns in his hands and it looks like now he had his wish, even though the police said consistently they would have preferred to have captured him alive and bring him to justice. nbc news, reporting from

toulouse. back to you. >> here at home, at a shooting suspect in edgewood is behind bars. police arrested neal aaron turner and abingdon area, held without bail for the shooting of a 22-year old. he now faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, assault, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. homicide detectives are investigating a deadly shooting in west baltimore. officers responded to the 1600 block of traction street when they found a man suffering a gunshot wound to the head. the unidentified man was taken to shock trauma. the controversy surrounding baltimore's word of bills and bubbling over as resident claimed to have been overbuild. commissioners have admitted to overbilling. there were in deficiencies in

the city system for keeping track of how much water people actually used. according to the audit there were no actual meter readings for over four years, and the bills' lead to 57 properties being sold for their tax bills. >> i am concerned that our residents could potentially lose their homes because our system is not billing them correctly. dpw officials say they are making changes to improve the system. >> we had a lot of fog this morning. visibility in some cases down close to zero. things improving considerably now. still a bit of haze in the atmosphere. some clouds showing up. a couple of hours' worth of satellite imagery showing the cloudy areas we have.

it should be shrinking. what we are going for is a little sunshine to break through this afternoon. it did not happen yesterday. that should bring temperatures up to the 70's. we will give a forecast details in just a few minutes. >> the house of delegates will work on the state's $35.9 billion budget today. the house has scheduled two sessions today as it considers amendments to budget measures. one includes the scaled-back version of an income tax and the other would phase in a split of teacher pension cost with the counties in three years instead of four. they will work on resolving differences before the legislative session ends on april 9. marilyn's senior senator barbara

mikulski celebrates another milestone -- maryland's senior barbara mikulski. >> the longest serving female member in all of congress. [applause] >> you just heard a fellow baltimore native and house minority leader nancy pelosi speaking as members of congress recognize senator mikulski as the longest serving woman in the history of the united states congress. one by one, they hailed her tenacity and feistiness. she accepted cray's with herb mixture of humor, self depredation -- she accepted her honor with a mixture of humor and self-deprecating and. >> she was democrat -- she was elected to congress in 1976 and won her senate seat in 1986. today is a 12,893rd day in office.

today the road to the white house is focused on 485 miles of an oil pipeline president obama wants fast track as part of his energy policy. his plan includes a gas fields in new mexico and nevada solar power plants and oklahoma to take that have blind men to get oil more quickly to refineries. republicans running for the white house say it is not enough. >> apparently, the slipping poll numbers have convinced him to announce the law were half of the pipeline. if we can get his poll numbers a little lower, we may be able to get the other side then, too. >> republicans won the pipeline to extend from canada, a plan the obama administration be laid in january, citing a need for more time for review. still ahead, we are enjoying the summer like weather but some retailers are not. how it is affecting the economy and the businesses actually profiting off of the great weather. but first, calls for it

sanford's police chief to step down after the shooting of an african american by a neighborhood watch and. and we have falls road animal hospital

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man for a strange and on senate. crime. officers say jordan brooks amos was caught on security camera dumping what they say is human waste from the occupy protesters inside a city 80 in building. the man also allegedly dumped the waste outside a j.p. morgan to is building any now chart -- is charged with several charges, including possession of a weapon, due to a stun gun. the kicker, he was in charge of bringing food to some of the occupy protesters. no fallout from the deadly shooting of trayvon martin in florida, including calls for the police chief to resign. at a thousand people to to the streets in the dark wednesday in memory of trayvon martin, who was gunned down by neighborhood march and judy neighborhood watchman george zimmerman when he was walking through the neighborhood with a foot. protesters ask for the police

chief to step down and the board of commissioners passed a no- confidence vote. >> i believe that this point, he really should tender his resignation. the ms. zimmerman maintains he fired in self-defense. an on-line petition to bring him to justice top of the 1 million signature marks thursday morning. it he has yet to come of publicly. still to come -- fairly easy to detect but many children born with heart defects often did not get the treatment they need. in the medical alert, what johns hopkins doctors suggest and statistics on infants and congenital heart disease. >> an impressive storm spending to the west. we will eventually share with the storm is doing, coming up. we will be telling all on the forecast. the sun is shining in ocean city along the boardwalk. the beach looks great. adjusting in a month or two it will be crowded with people. here in town at bwi marshall,

temperatures up

>> in today's medical alert, heart abnormalities are the most common birth defect in newborns but doctors warn not enough physicians and screening for them. doctors at johns hopkins children's center say hundreds of babies are born with heart defects each year but only half will be diagnosed before they leave the hospital, meaning they could end up with a brain damage, work and failure, or death. simple tests include all church down -- ultrasound and tests that measure blood oxygen levels. it turns out where mom lives may

affect the behavior for children down the road. a study of pregnant women living in inner-city found those with the highest exposure to air pollution during pregnancy were most likely to report behavioral problems in their children. now to our consumer alert -- just the start of spring and it already seems like summer. you can't control the weather but the weather can control revenue streams for some businesses. meghan mcgrath explains. >> at this hardware store, they are packing up the ice melt. sales were pretty bleak. it did not sell many snack -- snow shovels and sleds, either. they are stacked up outback, bound for storage. >> we have always had snow, an average of a fork or snow, always one big one, to get rid of merchandise. it was a down year. sales were really low.

now we have to start recovering. maybe spring and summer will get us back into operation again. >> as hardware stores scramble to pull out but grills and flowers, cafes are doing a booming business. it seems like everyone wants to eat outside. >> people loving the weather. if we open at 7:30 a.m. and people sitting outside and we close late at night and people are sitting outside. >> it is great. we love it. i just put away my long underwear a few days ago. >> well this warm weather last? this is march, after rock. a false we spoke to say they are not so sure but they plan to enjoy it as much as they can. >> it was not a rough winter at all. so, we should not complain. we should just enjoy it. >> 150 degrees, that is what i am scared of. but it is awesome weather. >> now your insta-weather plus

forecast with meteorologist john collins. >> have not heard too many complaints about this winter so far. but keep in mind, though, right now, 56 is a typical high for the time of year. yes, it is still march. we will not be near the 56 but it is something to keep on the back of your head. we have clouds overhead but not producing any precipitation at all. off to the west, yes, there is a weather system, a cold front generating things in the mississippi valley. as we get to the weekend, the storm out west will affect us but until we get back, we are in good shape. the yellow areas are primarily getting into the 70's right now. we see in eastern shore, some yellow, the sun popped out a little bit sooner. they are warming up a little more quickly than we are where -- as opposed to the rest of the area where there is cloud deck. close to 70 in oakland right now, so they are getting

sunshine. look at the pollen -- the trees have been really busy. although today, the pollen count is only in the moderate range. here is the cloud deck overhead. it is beginning to shrink a little bit. there was a lot of called earlier but it pretty much dissipated right now. some of the visibility was below a 16th of a mile, like an arm's length. we pulled of the picture back a little bit. this is what eventually will be affecting our weather. right now getting a nice southerly breeze, the warm air flow out ahead of the big storm system. as it comes in and rolls over us, it will lower the temperatures and increase chances for rain as well. you can see the effects, the stormy weather out west. the cooler air is the green and blue -- blue indicates temperatures in the 40's and the 50's and yellow and green indicates 50's, 60's, and in some cases close to 70 now.

here is our forecast for today. upper 60's to los 70, a temperature range. a mixture of clouds and sun. the readings are above average for the time of year, which is the be 6 degrees. here is what we expect for the afternoon. in many cases, mid 70's but the highs. it will be dependent on how much sun you get into the picture. in the bay, the winds are not that strong. the ins to whether futurecast shows dry conditions although tomorrow morning probably some low clouds and a patch or two of fog. probably not as extensive as today. but saturday, and again sunday, the weather system comes in with a fairly high chance of rain. the forecast is 70's today if we did enough sun. if you may be stuck in the 60's. near 80 tomorrow. a little more sunshine. but we call them an increase rain chances both saturday and sunday, with highs in the 60's. next week looks dry but we will stay in the 60's 4 highs.

>> dr. patrick allen from falls road animal hospital is here to answer your pet questions with nugget, the cutest little chihuahuan. but she is feisty. >> she does not like to be messed up -- with too much. she is a little four-month old chihuahuan. don't need to take them out a lot. they can be house trained. >> how about some questions? i rescued a sheltie who was neglected and she is terrified of things about her like a ceiling fan. >> anxiety issues can be tough. there are a lot of different little things we can do it mostly behavior modification is the key -- it can be either with an obedience trainer, to your house. there are great web sites where you can pick up a lot of tips. and in extreme cases, sometimes

we do have to use anti anxiety drugs like prozac. >> that really works for animals in that condition. i have a three year old black lab mix who has patches are around her ears and legs were here is not growing. any ideas? in a few different things. it could be mange, ringworm, infections. i would take them to the vet and have them look at it to see what is going on. >> all right. unfortunately, we are out of time. always nice to see you. if you have a pet questions, you can email -- coming up, your maryland lottery midday pick 3 -- pick 3 and pick 4 numbers, another check of the forecast, but first a look at how wall street is performing

>> another literary phenomenon tries for box office success and the anticipation is similar to the era of harry potter and twilight. a look ahead at of the film debut of "the hunger ganmes." >> screaming fans of one predictor, book sales are another.

>> of the fervor we are seeing already for this film certainly mimics what we saw of the very first "twilight." >> that vampire romance series also spring from a succession of best-selling books, ones with a largely female appeal. and while "the hungerford games" has a teenage heroine, romance takes a back seat to action. >> this is a dystopian world where teenagers are pitted against each other in a fight to the deaf that the televised nationwide. >> "entertainment weekly" says the darker, and your story line will likely get more males into the theater. >> it could become a exponentially bigger film. >> on-line ticket site says it has already sold out screenings nationwide, the most ever for a non-sequel. >> we called a four-quadrants movie. over 25 and under 25, male and

female. >> hollywood.com analyst says that will mean summer blockbuster-type business this weekend. >> the last "twilight" opened with 138.1 million and i think it's good do better. >> the box office chase begins with a midnight screenings tonight. wbal-tv 11 news. >> lot of excitement for that permitted it tonight at 5:00, downtown baltimore lost nearly 10% of this jobs in 2011. as the city announces the state of downtown, we want to find out where the jobs are going and how to get them back. a popular ruler site -- roller rink closing and pinks lime, 11 news at 5:00. now your pick 3 and pick 4 numbers. >> maryland lottery. time for the pick 3 numbers. 3.

7. the final member for pick 3, 8. of next, pick 4. but first, when you play monopolist redtop you win instantly to play on line. -- monopoly scratch-off bank. although bob simon. pick 4. 7. 8. 2. the final number -- 5. 7825. new mexico maryland lottery, let yourself play. >> nice and mild. >> thank you. and thank you for joining us for a 11 news at noon.