dramatic start to the memorial day get-away. a man on the side of the bay bridge. jonathan: at one point in the rescuers were sitting with him for minutes. they got a harness around him and they lifted him back up on the bridge. even the firefighter who climbed down appeared to take a moment to soak it all in as far as what had just happened after the man was up safely. this emergency was tying up traffic, though, all morning. trying to head to the beach. michelle: just adding to the long delays on the road for the holiday rush. we have live team coverage from bay bridge to other backups. jonathan: chief meteorologist doug hill is monitoring the beach, bay and mountain forecast for us. let's start off with the maryland bureau chief brad bell. brad, man, that rescue on the bridge, that was heart-stopping and great work by the rescuers to just comfort that guy and talk him off the ledge. brad: yeah, you know what? that is right. i have been covering the area for a long time. i have never seen that exact rescue happen before. we understand that firefighter was from a specially trained

to talk to us because we are told it was a police event. you know what? memorial day traffic we have seen in recent years has picked up. thursday. not necessarily friday. that was a tough start this morning. when that distraught man took a seat on the bridge. the episode started when the police spotted the pickup parked mid-span of the bay bridge and then they found the man himself on a gritterer under the bridge. you can see him swinging his legs. news chopper 7 is there as a technical firefighter from the jones station firehouse goes over the edge himself. he shakes hand with the man and begins a conversation. these people are walking on the bridge. >> i'm okay with sitting here as long as he gets down safely. we were jamming out, dancing in the middle of the

happy ending as the firefighter eventually coaxing the man into a harness. then he and the other firefighters pull him to safety. back live, you can see no delays either on the bay bridge or leading up to the toll booths at this point. this memorial day holiday is expected to be a very busy travel weekend. triple-a estimates that some 38 million americans are going to take to the highways. the most since 2005. gas prices are way down. 30 cents a gallon less than last year. we are out taking a look at the roads. not just me. my colleague brianne carter is out in mobiletrak7. i understand taking a look at the roads in and around d.c. brianne: well, brad, just trying to get out of d.c. or across the bridge. look here. we are at a standstill approaching the bridge coming just off of

around over the bridge in toward the city. it's a standstill. just bumper to bumper traffic that we are seeing here as people are starting to merge in. now i understand that there is already an accident on 295 at this hour. that is only going to tie things up. this comes as the transportation planning board here in region said that this would be the key problem area. tonight would be the focus or traveling. a.a.a. echoing that saying between 5:00 and 6:00 tonight is expected to be one of the worst times to try to get away for your holiday. so if you are packing up the car and planning to head out tonight, stay tuned. we will continue to monitor the roads throughout the evening. reporting live, brianne carter, abc7 news. michelle: we are already seeing it look pretty dicey. we are saying gosh, if you can stay in town and you didn't have plans, this is headache free to stay there. jamie: or 10:00 tonight. if you don't mind traveling in the middle of the night, that

we're talking about the backups. brad bell was at the bay bridge. he said hey, it looks good. it does. getting there though from route boulevard this is where we see the heavy traffic filing in. another issue that brian nearby mentioned i-295 southbound in district at malcolm x., all lanes are currently blocked with an accident. we are starting to see the backup to the 11th street bridge. we have more on this and the other delays coming up. >> all right. thank you very much. jonathan: that is the way to the drawbridge there. the traffic is not too bad. but there are a lot of people with the same idea as you. approaching to ocean city, that is one right there we are looking at. will the perfect weather hold through the entire holiday weekend? we bring in chief meteorologist doug hill. he has the forecast for us. we couldn't ask for better today. this is gorgeous. doug: ask me the question again. jonathan: will the weekend be perfect? please. doug: no. back to you.

but as we get through late sunday/monday at the beaches, things may change. go full screen to show you the boardwalk at rehoboth beach, delaware. 67. it's hot here but the winds are coming off the atlantic and the sea water temperatures only in the upper 50's. it is chilly. if you are going to beaches, gorgeous saturday. in the 70's. increasing cloudiness in the evening or the late day showers, 70 degrees. monday highs of 68. if you are along the eastern or the western shore of the bay, beautiful weather saturday. 82 and sunshine. good weather sunday. late day storm. 79. monday not so good. 74. showers and storms. the mountains are nice until we hit late sunday night or monday when the showers or the storms are possible there. so much more to discuss about the weekend weather. i will share it with you coming up in a couple of minutes. jonathan: look forward to it. thanks. stay with abc7 for traffic and weather updates. we have it on the go. sign up for the text

wjla.com/text. you can choose exactly which notifications you want sent from the newsroom to your phone. it can be news or weather. how about this? you talk about a weather situation. ours is key, maybe a few clouds. massive twister in kansas yesterday. on the ground and it was there for 90 minutes long. at times this thing was a half-mile wide destroying everything in its path. michelle: the center of the country is again under severe weather threat. with large hail, damaging winds, possibly even more tornadoes. meteorologist josh knight shows us the massive tornado that touched down in kansas. josh: recovery in america's heartland residents pick up the pieces after several tornadoes hit across three states. one in abilene. officials are calling catastrophic. he lost his home but he made it through seeking shelter in his basement. >> i survived it. i didn't hide.

good lord, my wife and i. josh: 20 more homes were damaged or completely obliterated. the big one here in kansas reported to be a half-mile wide. the twister on the ground for an hour and a half. in tennessee, damaging winds and rain were enough to flood streets and topple trees. >> it's crazy. sounded like the buildings was shaking a little bit. real loud. josh: across the nation it's the case of extremes. hail in the plains and heat and humidity across the northeast. josh knight, abc7 news. michelle: one of our viewers in fort royal -- front royal, that is, took this video which is a pretty wild scene. those are bears. jonathan: imagine looking out the window and seeing those two guys. i don't if they were fighting or playing. they were tearing stuff up.

danielle took the video in front royal and told our "good morning washington" crew this. >> i thought they were playing but i'm not sure if they were fighting or playing. >> they were having a nice time. walk us through what happened and how you found out this was going on in your backyard. what you heard. >> it was around 5:00 a.m. i heard some banging on the sliding glass door. i was just one bear sitting there at the time. i sat there for a couple of minutes and watched. then the other one came up. it was like they were fighting on who was getting on the patio. >> these things also look huge. >> one took off running broke through a metal gate and bent it in half. >> i'll be honest. i thought it was costumes of people in bear costumes. they are so big. >> yeah. how big would you say these are? >> my goodness, i don't know. they were at least 200 to 300 pounds let's say. they were big. we usually get, like last y

bears around the chestnut tree. we live next to skyline drive. >> oh, girl. >> a reoccurring thing. i have never seen them like that. jonathan: okay. you have bears that big when they are bending fences. you just stay in your house and let them play until they go away. michelle: need backyard furniture now. i'm sure all of it is a total loss there. jonathan: they are just going to get on that and break it too. make hardwood benches out there. michelle: thank you for sending us video. awesome. donald trump reached the magic number of delegates to clinch the republican nomination. 1,237. so that means he will become the nominee in the first vote at the republican national convention in cleveland this summer. also today, plans for donald trump-bernie sanders debate in the work. here is how trump responded to the request. >> i said i'd love to debate him but i want a lot of money put up for charity. if we can raise $10 million or $15 million for cha

amount, i understand the television business very well. i think we would get high ratings. hopefully we'll raise money. this is money raised for the party. i think we are going to have a tremendous success. i'm continuing to fund big portions of my campaign. michelle: that was donald trump in the press conference. he took on more questions about funding for his campaign. we should point out in regard to the debate he said the money would go to women's health issues or something of that nature. as for sanders he just tweeted not long ago let's do it in the biggest stadium possible. jonathan: interesting part about that is hillary said she would not debate sanders. so trump said last night i'll take him. they want to do it before the california primary. michelle: interesting. jonathan: it's interesting to see if they do it and if they raise money. that is great. video from norfolk, coast guard helicopter landing after two f-18 hornets collided off the coast.

two pilots in each plane. all four were recovered. injuries are minor and all four are in high spirits given they just crashed the two planes. coming up for us at "abc7 news at 4:00" -- >> i was shocked. and floored. of how it happened. jonathan: why sorry is not nearly enough for one mom. what she is demanding after her special needs son was photographed half naked. michelle: and flags in at arlington national cemetery. the memorial service tradition honoring the fallen service men and women straight ahead. jamie: getting to the bay bridge is not terrible now as you cross. but again, getting there is a rough spot. we talk about this heavy traffic coming up. michelle: look at this. this is not a good combination, folks. jonathan: seriously? michelle: more of this ahead.

michelle: quite a set of lungs for this newborn by the way. several months over. it's one of the biggest babies they've seen. 19-year-old gave birth to this 15-pound baby girl. she is

average newborn and she weighs as much as an average 4-month-old. jonathan: she is a big baby. she is nowhere near the world record, though. we did checking. according to guinness, it is still held by italian baby in 1955 weighing in at colossal 22 pounds. michelle: no one is ready for that. jonathan: they interviewed the mother she had relief all over her face. i can't imagine why. michelle: i wonder if they go back and have another child -- jonathan: 22-pound baby? i'm done with that. thank you very much. michelle: a woman expecting twins went into labor on the side of a highway in new york city. she was on the expressway when this happened. jonathan: perfect place for it. several good samaritans stopped to help. so did paramedics. they got there as well. one baby was born on the side of the road. the other at the hospital. everybody is healthy here. that is always fun. michelle: very nice. a blockbuster revelation by tech billionaire peter field. jonathan: alison, i unde

behind the campaign to derail gawker and fund the lawsuits that have been going against them. alison: that is right. we are talking about a lot of money he is putting toward this. he told the "new york times" why he shelled out $10 million for the courtroom takedown of gawker. after gawker published the 2007 article outing him as gay he told the times "i saw gawker pioneer a unique and incredibly damaging way of getting attention, by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest." thiel put a plan in case to secretly fund cases in hopes of crippling the website. the paypal founder says it is less about revenge and more about specific deterrents, explaining why he decided to help. they usually attack less prominent, far less wealthy people who can't defend themselves. even terry, millionaire and famous and successful person didn't have the resources to

>> they picked the wrong guy this time. alison: hogan spoke about his invasion of privacy lawsuit and huge win in march. >> i knew we were doing what was right. even if we would have lost it would have been good because everybody would have known what gawker is all about. because i exposed them and what they do and how they look at the world. to me is very, very scary. alison: it's unclear how thiel became known to hogan and if he is the only unknown backer. it's also unknown if thiel will see a lot of proceeds won by hogan. gawker is appealing the ruling. jonathan: one ruling they were handed down the court knocked it down. so they have to pay him the money. adon't think he cares -- i don't think he cares about the money. alison: i think you're right. jonathan: thanks. time now for a

jamie sullivan, this is a big day. this is where everybody wants to get out of here and think they are beating the traffic. not so much. jamie: no, they are not beating it. especially if you are trying to go to the beach. we have seen photo and video of everyone crossing the bay bridge without a problem. you don't have an issue there. it's before the point here. route boulevard to the -- rowe boulevard to the severn river bridge. you pick back up and you are up to speed. it's just closer to the severn river bridge we are seeing an issue. this is closer to home. along the capital beltway a few slow spots. those are typical. in d.c. we are seeing heavy volume as well. this is crossing the american legion bridge. this is pretty typical. we always see this heavy traffic. now we have mixed in everyone trying to travel. southbound malcolm x., we had all lanes blocked. one lane gets by. southbound 295 at malcolm x. 8 miles per hour is what you see south from the 11th

if you are planning to travel out of town, northbound 270 is slow. maryland on 95 trying to get closer to the baltimore beltway 45 minutes to take you. southbound on 95 in virginia. slowing as well. so we are seeing it starting to build in now. back to you. michelle: all right. thank you. all the drivers have to have the a.c. cranked up stuck in the traffic. doug: absolutely. last segment we talked about the beach weather, the weather around the bay and mountains. now let's talk about your backyard. we start with a look at the beach. this is a time lapse. the view from the second street and the boardwalk in ocean city, 69 degrees. with the ocean temperatures running between 58 and 63 and the winds across the ocean, that is why december pit a full day of sunshine it's chilly there. temperatures will warm up a little bit getting to saturday. winds are southwesterly. but it's not particularly warm at the beaches. this is another feature we have been following. the national hurricane center will send a h

aircraft to this area of developing of low pressure in the atlantic. computer models suggest this thing will become a tropical storm. 70% chance at least right now as we head through late sunday and monday. then make a push monday, tuesday to the coast, carolina. that is something to watch. without that the winds develop in the next few days. southeasterly winds to the coast will bring us cooler air here and bring us more moisture, clouds and showers and storms. now for your backyard pool and the neighborhood pool this is what we have saturday. beautiful. sunshine of 85. some sunshine 82 on sunday. still pretty good. late day shower or storm. we think cooler in the 70's with the showers and thunderstorms becoming likely for the day on sunday. so, monday there will be the big day for shower and storm chances. 60% chance. still in the 70's on tusday with more showers and storms. they could linger to wednesday. it all depends what happens with the storm center. how long into next week we have to deal with the showers and storms.

time for the trivia question. today, when is the last time washington, d.c. reached 90 degrees in memorial day? was it 1999? 2008? 2012? michelle: we locked in our guesses. doug: in minutes we'll find out. michelle: thank you, doug. it's a tradition to honor fallen service men and women. jonathan: they call it flags in. one for each grave marker at arlington cemetery. there are hundreds of thousands of them. mike carter-conneen is at arlington national cemetery. this is something they do every year. but this is always emotional for the service men and women in particular who take part. but really it's for all of us, everybody who sees this. mike: i have covered this a couple of times and i get chills just talking about it. being in this space. in fact, i'm going to have our photographer chris pan over to show in this -- i'm going to be quiet for a minute here. remarkable, the chirping bir

i'm speaking quietly out of respect. you see the soldiers that wrapped up after a few hours of work here that started at 1:00. a thousand soldiers from the old guard year after year they come out here and put out this year more than 230,000 flags for each of the headstones. it really is remarkable talking to the young men and women. many of them newly enlist who had are just getting into the military. and talking about their perspective. as they go to grave after grave and paying respect to each of the men and women who have died for our country and paying respect to them. to show how it works each of the soldier take 300 flags in their backpack. they come up to each grave and they measure with the length of their boot. the military loves precision and uniformity. so each and every flag with great respect an uniformity is placed. i asked what if a female surgery is smaller

male soldier next to her. they do the same soldier along each and every row. one more thing before we go. here we have a medal of honor recipient. throughout the cemetery whenever the soldiers come across one of these graves they stop the normal procession, grave after grave, they move fairly quickly. they pause and salute this grave. a remarkable scene. beautiful day and poignant event. we'll have details coming up at 5:00 on abc7 news. you go to the facebook page. we have a live stream that we had earlier today behind the scenes how it all unfolded. a lot of heedia. a lot of soldiers. beautiful event. back to you. jonathan: all right. thank you. nice they do that. michelle: reminding us of the true meaning of the holiday. jonathan: no question about it. >> pull it down. reach up. >> pull it down. there you go.

there you go. [laughter] michelle: how do you spell, "so cute"? ahead at 4:00. a trip to national spelling bee to see how those in the area are doing. jonathan: a new weapon in the fight against zika. the company that creates mosquitoes that don't bite and why they

morning noon or night there's always a moment to discover visit annapolis and create your moment

horace: welcome back. i'm horace holmes in the "7 on your side" help center. we have a panel of experts to answer your phone calls. we will open up the lines in a couple of minutes. the issue today is something near and dear to me. i deal with it all the day. when people get ripped off for one reason or another. another we don't like to use the word scams but scams in essence. directed toward the elderly in particular today. 703-236-9220. norse in general, also. teresa here from the -- horace: in general, also. teresa is here. >> any abuse of scams applying to seniors. we will tell them how to identify, recognize it and report it. horace: thank you. 703-236-9220. 703-236-9220. we will be here from now until 6:30. back to you. jonathan: what a great resource. thank you. ahead on "abc7 news at 4:00" -- the battle against zika. there is a

but one group is trying to fight mosquitoes with mosquitoes. we will explain how they will do this. >> well, the week for the scription national spelling -- scripps national spelling bee. we know the kids can spell. can i? probably n (rothat cigarette smokingght just messed up your lungs. i never thought that at only 45, it would give me a heart attack. my tip is, do your heart a favor and quit now. (announcer) you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit-now.

announcer: you're watching "abc7 news at 4:00". on your side. jonathan: the national spelling bee final tonight. if you think some of us struggle with spelling, i do. our producer mike, great guy, he is not afraid to admit he is not the best speller either. michelle: local contestants to made it to the final day. jeff goldberg is at national harbor. they are really young and really smart. jonathan: they can spell. jeff: really smart, real hi -- really young, they can spell well. a lot of things i can't do. if you come to the event at national harbor you wonder how would i do on stage in is the scripps mock display here. linda, becky, jacob will give me a test. what is it going to be? >> eclectic. >> e-c-l-e-c-t-i-c. eclectic.

let's go inside the hall and show the real contestants the real ones who can spell in this event. this week started with 284 contestants from all around the country. six different countries in addition to the u.s. this morning 45 started out with the finals. we are down to ten tonight for the grand finale, seven boys and three girls. even for contestants who did not win they are walking away with terrific life lessons. >> if you study for a long time and you get something good out of it that is rewarding. >> try your best. things don't always out the way you want it to but keep on going. jeff: good way to look at life. i did not know the word before, correct? at least i got it right. i'm happy about that. good job. thank you, linda. coming up in an hour we'll introduce you to a local contestant with a very, very

that took place this morning. a really interesting story. that is coming up about an hour. until then, jeff goldberg, abc7 news. back to you. michelle: well done. you didn't even ask for it to be used in a sentence or any of that. went right for it. jeff: i went right for it. that's right. >> jonathan: way to go. michelle: thank you. we have trivia. a lot easier than spelling. doug: memorial day weekend coming up. we are expecting the temperatures in the upper 70's on memorial day. so the question is when is the last time that washington, d.c. reached 90 on memorial day? 1999? 2008? 2012? jonathan: 2012. michelle: i'm going with 2008. doug: it was 2012. michelle: congratulations! doug: here is something interesting. on memorial day the year before, 2011, it hit 96 degrees at reagan national airport. let's get you started and talk about the weather conditions moving toward the memorial day weekend. we start off

day. driving away from the area in a couple hundred mile radius either direction. sunshine through the day. the temperatures climbing locally in the upper 80's. there could be late-day thunderstorms. especially the farther west from the district. even downtown it could happen. going to the beaches, partly sunny day. temperatures lower 70's. cool on saturday. clouds will increase sunday. highs near 70. we could see rat some point showers or thunderstorms. cooler day with a high of 68. the mountains look terrific. sunshine 85 on saturday. partly cloudy. 82 on sunday. chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. little better chance of showers and storms or period of rain and 75 degrees for day on monday. meanwhile look at the weekend locally. the best weather day is saturday. partly cloudy sunday and 82. as we get to memorial day on monday, 77. showers and storms. showe

storm brewing. we will talk more about that. steve rudin back with you in a few minutes. michelle: thank you. yammer with the warm summer -- alison: with the warm summer weather it means mosquitoes. now to battle with the zika virus. the makers of genetically modified mosquitoes are pitching the plan to congress. this is as the new products that claim to protect against the insect hit the market. red hot debate over what to do about zika as mosquito season kicks into high gear. congress now hearing a new approach how to battle the bug. genetically modified mosquitoes. a company testifying wednesday claiming they can reduce the bug population by 90% in urban areas. by releasing modified male mosquitoes that don't bite, to breed with females. that would produce offspring that die after hatching. it would kill off the next generation of mosquitoes before they eve

to bite. the company says their mosquitoes will not hurt humans. >> it's more or less capable of doing anything else than the normal mosquitoes. there is no difference. >> but some worry it could backfire. >> we don't want to be lab rats. >> concerned americans desperately looking for products to fight the bug but just this week the federal trade commission took one to task. the marketer of mosquito shield ban agreeing to fork over $300,000 after the f.d.c. said they peddled the ban without the science to know if it truly bites. the company fired back saying they had data to show it works and said it never claimed to protect against all mosquitoes amount it didn't take advantage of the consumer concern over zika. back to the hill, congress is still struggling to reach an agreement how much should be spent to battle the virus. the senate passed a bill providing $1.1 billion in funding and a house version provides $622 million.

jonathan: all right. thanks. the "7 on your side" help center is open for business. the phone lines are open now. a.a.r.p. helping address scams against the elderly. if you have questions or you think someone may try to scam you give us aal call. 703-236-9220. we are here now open until 6:30 this everything. well a photo that went viral for the wrong reasons. high school students bullying one of their classmates. the 18-year-old that they were bullying has a severe learning disability. so today, his mother is speaking out demanding something be done. montgomery county reporter kevin lewis explains exactly what happened here. kevin: it's startling how fast content can spread on social media. in this case, a half naked photo of a damascus high school special needs student using the restroom posted to the smartphone app snapchat. today we spoke to mother of the 18-year-old male victim

who are not identifying. the teen was born with cerebral palsy and autism. when he urinates he often lowers his pants to his knees. last week a fellow student took a picture of the victim standing up next to the urinal, his full buttocks exposed. it went viral. the female student disgusted by the bullying notified the administrators who made the photo-taking student write apology letter. but the principal won't say what if any other punishment has been handed down. >> when he learned about a kid laughing, he's humiliated. it got to the point he wouldn't go to the restroom at home. i had to tell him it's okay. go to bathroom. nothing will happen to you. kevin: this teenage victim is refusing to return to class, half confused and half mortified about the incident. at 5:00 i will tell you how police are stepping in. reporting in montgomery county

michelle: still ahead on "abc7 news at 4:00" -- breaking records at lake brad doc high school. meet our team player of the week and find out how close he is to reaching olympic goal. jonathan: next for us at "abc7 news at 4:00" -- pentagon is coming under fire for the computer system that run and control the nuclear weapons. the flimsy computer tool still used you haven't seen in decades. in fact, it's museum ready. we'll explain.

vo: for dominion, part of delivering affordable energy includes supporting those in our community who need help. our energyshare program does just that,

ergy-saving upgrades. it's more than helping customers, it's helping neighbors. ♪ stand by me

michelle: a regular trip to the bathroom for a man in thailand turned into its own violation when he was attacked by this. nine-foot python. jonathan: every guy hearing this story is going to cringe. i did. guy is on the toilet and that is when the python came through the pipes and latched on to his private parts. it did. that triggered not a couple of seconds or couple of minutes. this was a 30-minute tug-of-war between the man and the snake. literally. his neighbors came to his aid because this guy was screaming because he had -- well, you get it. michelle: yeah. jonathan: it went on for 30 minutes. michelle: rescue workers removed the snake from the toilet. you see them doing it there.

the man suffered an eight-inch cut but he is expected to be okay. jonathan: expected to be okay? he will be traumatized for his life. michelle: so close to the neighbor. imagine getting the call. can you help me with this? jonathan: he had a python that grabbed on to his privates. michelle: he's alive. jonathan: he will be traumatized. you have to see this video. i need a second the recover. look at this. you can't make it up. kitty cats and crocodile. these are all pals. the strange part is that this is on somebody's bed. this is australia. now it makes sense. believe it or not, the person that shot the video owns the cat and the croc, they are all buddies and pets and they hang out. here at least curiosity did not kill the cat. the cool part, though, is that the cats go out there and start a fight with him. hey, i got a croc at home. can you take care of this for me? michelle: i wonder if the owner and all of them sleep together. jonathan: nobody who owns a crocodile i'm sure it takes a rugged type of person

michelle: yeah. you mean, that person ought to watch the story we just showed before with the python. jonathan: i never want to see that story again with the python. michelle: okay. now for this. this is wild. in a different way. maybe throwback thursday but for folks at the pentagon some of the technology that they use every day in old school. jonathan: there are kids in college we'd point to that and you wouldn't know what it is. go to early 1980's, the floppy desks. the computers ran so slow. government auditors found this is the technology that the nuclear weapons division is using. michelle: say it again. jonathan: nuclear weapons division is using floppy disks to control things. it's horribly outdated. we are talking 1970's era. the floppy disk system is so slow. when it's moving you can hear it. it makes a crazy noise. they are using the technology. it's deemed obsolete. i was deemed obsolete by the late 1980's. the upkeep for the outdating

part -- is costing you the taxpayers $60 billion a year. this is the pentagon. >> yeah. we need updates. fast. jonathan: you might want to upgrade the system a smidge. michelle: next for us at "abc7 news at 4:00" -- metro safetrack plan, speaking of upgrades, begin before you know it. uber is trying to ease congestion for a modest price. the service it wants you to take advantage of ahead.

great time for a shiny floor wax, no? not if you just put the finishing touches on your latest masterpiece. timing's important. comcast business knows that. that's why you can schedule an installation at a time that works for you. even late at night, or on the weekend, if that's what you need. because you have enough to worry about. i did not see that coming. don't deal with disruptions. get better internet installed on your schedule.

comcast business. built for business. ♪ with usaa is awesome. homeowners insurance life insurance automobile insurance i spent 20 years active duty they still refer to me as "gunnery sergeant" when i call being a usaa member because of my service in the military to pass that on to my kids something that makes me happy my name is roger zapata and i'm a usaa member for life. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

plan to stay for life. michelle: the countdown is on. metro's safetrack plan starts in seven days. uber announced it is making an investment in the d.m.v. to help computers through the massive overhaul project. sam sweeney explains how it could ease congestion. sam: good afternoon. the d.m.v. braces for the metro safetrack program, uber is investing $10 million in our community to help ease your troubled transit pain.

it's not looking so bad. the trains are three, four, five minutes out. but the a couple of weeks it will look different. how about 20, 25, 30 minutes out if your station is even open? well, yubeer says when you look for alternative transit choice they hope you join them. >> uber is doing great things. >> it's the service where you ride in uber to a stranger going to similar destination for reduced cost. it will use technology to watch realtime outages and incentivize drivers to go to the area. the big take-away is uber will reduce the fares for the riders in the areas where metro shut down or reduced service. >> provide it's for riders outside the option it will pair people going to similar

so we can take the total number of cars off the road, reduce congestion and help ensure more people take advantage of the affordable option. sam: seems like a win-win for all of us. more money for uber drivers and lower fares for riders. reporting in east falls church i'm sam sweeney, back to you. jonathan: all right. thanks. after failing to find success in soccer and basketball, this athlete turned to track. michelle: two years later she is dominating the sport. erin hawksworth introduces us to this week's team player. erin: she might only be a grune your but e is making wave -- junior but she is making waves. >> it's a drive you have. erin: she was featured in this week's strait of "sports illust" for running the anchor leg in philly and the fourth best finish in meet history. >> that was the neatest time for me to run a fast

erin: she is 5.7 off from the olympic trials time which she hopes to achieve this summer. >> it sounds like a lot but if you are in a competitive race and you are competing, i think i can get it. >> earlier this month kate also ran the fastest 1600 in the u.s. this season and broke nearly every track record at lake braddock. >> she has another year. who knows where she will end up. erin: her goal? >> olympics four years from now. 2020. that is everyone's dream to get to that level. erin: erin hawksworth's abc7 sports. jonathan: good luck to you. the best start. did you notice the coast, we have her for another year. michelle: really going to get her in shape! all right. weather looking nice. steve: great as we move in the holiday weekend. a lot of folks are already taking their holiday

a lot of folks are going to grill out. no problem. on the warm side. 82 degrees, 7:00. sunshine. 8:00 the sun will still be up but setting a little after 8:00. we will see the temperatures in the upper 70's by 9:00. the beach travel forecast. no problems at all. you may see a few showers and thunderstorms move in the late afternoon and the early evening hours. the chance of showers are limited. 30% risk. this weekend at the beaches, 74 on saturday. 70 on sunday. we may see showers on monday with the cloudy skies. upper 60's. strawberry festival in virginia, middle 80's on saturday. lower 80's on sunday. if you are heading to the mountains it looks good. cooler. lore 80son sunday -- lower 80's on sunday. the pools are opening on saturday. temperatures in the middle

80's. daytime high in the lower to the middle 80's. may see showers and thunderstorms. check on this afternoon's rush hour commute. a lot of folks are getting out of town early. >> they are. of course, they will be sitting in the heavier traffic. take a look at the waze map. this is the traffic on 50 heading outbound. this is the severn river bridge. not even the bay bridge. this is the heaviest stretch. if you get closer unfortunately we will move to the maps. back to the bay bridge. you see that heavy traffic is still there. past that it gets better. brianne carter is in mobiletrak7. check in with her. brianne: it's very slow-going. to give you perspective of how far we have done in the past 60 minutes, it has only been five miles in the past hour. 295. look at mobiletrak7. you can see it's very slow

be throughout the evening. along 295. looking for an accident earlier. but it appears that it has cleared at this point. but still, for this delay and it's pile on. a.a.a. saying this will be the time as we approach 5:00 to 6:00 that is the worst get-away time for the holiday get away. we will continue to check on the traffic throughout the region. throughout the night. back to you. jamie: we are seeing a lot of that heavy traffic. i want to run through northbound 270. jammed up if you are trying to head to hagerstown and head to pennsylvania. 95 northbound in maryland. heavy traffic on the b.w. parkway. both congested. michelle: thank you. next on "abc7 news at 4:00" -- a family bound and gagged during a home invasion. but the terrifying afternoon didn't end there. we will tell you wh

alison: men on the run. two men bound and gagged in a home. suzanne kennedy has what happened next. suzanne: a total of four victims were bound and gagged by duct tape tuesday afternoon in broad daylight in their home here in the west gate neighborhood. authorities say it happened around 2:00 in the 10,000 block of king georg

ages 33 and 19. the older woman was sexual assaulted. authorities say there were two children in the home ages 5 and 14 who were also tied and gagged. there was a 1-year-old baby in the house at the time but that little girl was unharmed. today in front of her home one of the victims talked with a neighborhood. the two not speaking each other's language because physically describing what happened in the attack. >> i feel scared. my daughter go to work and i'm alone. i don't know what to do now. i'm just so scared right now. not safe anymore. i have been here a long time. suzanne: police tell us the victims may have been drugged during the attack so they weren't able to give a good suspect description. all authorities would say right now is they are looking for two african-american men. in manassas, suzanne kennedy, abc7 news. leon: tonight. when an apology won't do. >> i think this child needs to be punished. leon: a

her special needs son after a bathroom photo goes viral. heroes at the bay bridge. as the great holiday get-away gets underway. super spellers with great attitudes. >> things don't always turn out the way you want it to but keep on going. leon: how three local competitors fared. and something you don't see every day. how a virginia woman wakes up to a back porch disagreement. announcer: "abc7 news at 5:00". on your side. leon: it may sound like a high school prank but not many people are laughing. 18-year-old special needs student from montgomery county has not been back to school since someone snapped a picture of him in the bathroom and posted it to snapchat. kevin lewis has a story you will see only on 7. >> when i heard about that, it of course made me upset instantly. kevin: last week a m

student took at picture of her special needs son using the urinal, his bare buttocks exposed and posted to snapchat. the photo went viral. >> the kids today post things for a reason. we want something out of this. that is what i would love to know from the child, what was the child looking for? kevin: half confused and half mortified the victim with cerebral palsy and autism is frightened of returning to class. >> you want protect your kids and do what is right and tell them everything will be okay. social media yaw can't just go online and grab it and take it off. kevin: the photo taking teen wrote this apology letter saying he takes full responsibility, knows it was morally wrong and also asking for forgiveness. >> this child needs more than a slap on the hand. kevin: the victim's mother says words of remorse take make up for taking and then