this is wjz tv, wjz dt, and wjz ..com, baltimore. >> from the cities to the counties to your neighborhood, now complete coverage on wjz 13, maryland's news station. remembering the times. family friends gathering this hour in los angeles preparing to say goodbye to the king of pop. >> hello, again, i am don scott. >> and i am mary bubala. here is what people are definitely talking about today. crowds are streaming into the staples center for one of the biggest memorials in u.s. history. a live look at the scene in los angeles. we are just now an hour away from the start of the star- studded tribute tore michael jackson. complete coverage begins with

terri okita. we are live in the staple center with more on what is going on right now. >> reporter: not an overstatement to say we have never seen anything like this before from the thousands of fans who turned out here to the private memorial service in los angeles to logistics and organization it took to put all of this together, it is a tribute fit for a king. the jacksons left their family home today to say farewell to the king of pop. their private ceremony is at forest lawn cemetery. then los angeles police escort his casket to the downtown staple center so fans have a chance to say goodbye. >> an experience. you don't get too many opportunities to do something like this. >> a celebration. we want -- we just want to remember him as he was. >> reporter: an impressive list of entertainers are performing at what is expected to be one of the biggest celebrity sendoffs of all time, steve wonder, usher, mariah carey. >> a great celebration, the great artists who have a lot to

express? >> reporter: about 17,000 fans have tickets to the tribute, but police are expecting fans to pack the streets outside the arena. >> and some of the reason for that, we really have no idea what will be the size of the crowd. >> reporter: memorial will be broadcast live around the world and in theatres across the nation. one person not attending, jackson's former wife debbie rowe. she backed out fearing she would be too much of a distraction. close friend elizabeth taylor will also mourn in private. her twitter feed says what she feels for jackson is not a public event. but for fans worldwide, their chance to remember and celebrate a legacy. the jackson family has not disclosed where the pop icon will be laid to rest. despite his troubles in the past, michael jackson was beloved around the world and millions globally are expected to tune in for this memorial. in los angeles, i am teri okita. now back to you. >> thank you. reporting live for us.

for those of us not on the scene but wanting to experience the memorial with a crowd. here is your chance, the enoch pratt free library will be streaming the memorial service on big screens at their central locations beginning at 1:00. or you can keep your tv right here where it is. wjz will bring you extensive complete coverage beginning at 1:00. katie couric will lead our coverage live from los angeles again at 1:00. just a few programming changes to tell you about because of our coverage "the bold and the beautiful" a air following us at 12:30. thence the jackson memorial coverage after that "guiding light" will follow at 2:30. and then "dr. phil" at 3:00 and then our news. the other big news, the death of raven quarterback steve mcnair. we are getting the timeline of events that led up to his death. sally thorner has more. >> reporter: police still aren't calling this a murder- suicide but it is looking more likely that is what may have

happened. we just learned that steve mcnair met 20-year-old sahel kazemi at restaurant where she worked in nashville. police say mcnair, who is married, began dating kazemi soon after as kazemi told her family that he was planning to divorce his wife to be with her. but just this last thursday she purchased a handgun from someone she knew. that same handgun was found at the scene but ballistics tests are penning to see if that gun killed mcnair and kazemi. >> mcnair was not with kazemi when she bought that pistol. more questions than answers in the death of two lutherville teens found on the light rail tracks over the weekend. weijia jiang is live with developments in the case. good afternoon, weijia. >> reporter: good afternoon, mary and everyone. crews are still on the scene collecting evidence, taking measurements, but the mystery of how the boys got here and exactly what killed them is growing. the beloved one of the two 17- year-olds found dead on the

light rail track near the lutherville station not knowing why they died is agonizing. peterson's family tells wjz that an autopsy showed he died from blunt force trauma. he was taken by a medical chopper to shock trauma we died. kyle wankmiller died sunday and yet to determine a cause of death for him. the two boys lived together like stepbrothers. on sunday they were bored so they took their bikes for a ride. police haven't mentioned whether they have recovered the bikes and how they got to the tracks is a mystery. >> they were found lying inside of the tracks. and so generally when someone is struck by a train, they are knocked aside or something else. we are trying to understand the circumstances that got them in the middle of the tracks there. >> i feel like it was foul play and somebody just kind of dropped them off back there. >> how did they die? right. see what i am saying. were they shot or thrown on the tracks? >> reporter: connor's sister lives with the boys and kyle's moth. we love them. we hope someone can come forward so the family has

closure. and mta authorities say they have found markings on one of the train and have been very careful not to confirm that it hit either of the boys. we will have more later on today. live in lutherville, weijia jiang, eyewitness news. >> weijia, thank you. kyle would have been in 191th grade at dulaney high school. connor just recently finished his ged. 19-year-old cedric hart of dundalk jumped into cheek creek across from bear creek and planned to swim across it. he likely had a seizure that caused him to drown. he was taken to john hopkins medical center. an autopsy is stilled planned. a baltimore city teenager charged in the shooting of a 5- year-old girl should never have been in that area according to police. 17-year-old lamont davis was under home surveillance for another crime and cut off his

ankle monitoring bracelet. he went to southwest baltimore. got into a fight. left the area and returned and sprayed the area with bullets. the little girl named raven was struck in the head. she is still on life support. back to work for 240 workers at the gm transmission plant in . white marsh. the plant makes pontiac six- speed transmissions and high- speed engine. the factory had to be shut down for two months because plants they provide were closed. washington metro officials are considering a multimillion dollar project on the red line. but the branch not directly deal with problems uncovered in last month's deadly crash. instead, officials say the $177 million project would fix the public address system, closed- circuit tvs and update the station. the work will be done on the stretch of track where the crash occurred, but the project does not address trouble with the data transmitter that failed before the crash. and another beautiful july day all across the area. take a live look outside right

now. sunny and warm, and, of course, the big question always is, how long can we expect it to stay this way. and here is a person who might be able to answer that. eyewitness news has s live with first warning weather center. bernadette woods north weather center, bernadette. >> good afternoon, don and everyone out there. when i show you first warning doppler radar and what is going on, it is nothing and n our area, however, when we open up this the front passes by and most of the action is off to the north. the front is draped just near -- we are going to draw it down for you and show that you as it pushes off to the south, it is going to clip us. there is a chance to get a shower or thunderstorm out of this, but a very small chance as you can see most of the action will bring it to the north. temperatures are warming up. we are getting our first estimate on how many people streamed into ocean city for the holiday weekend. officials say an estimated 322,000 people filled the resort town. that is about 4,000 fewer than

last year. actual figures aren't expected to be released until september when officials analyze tax revenues from the weekend. still to come on wjz eyewitness news at noon, a killing spree stops. how police were able to stop a bloody killer working across state lines. computer virus warning. microsoft says they know about the problem but still don't know how to stop it. and please take another live look outside this noon and enjoy. and stick around, your complete first warning weather forecast is still coming up . as we go back to the break, another live look at the scene in los angeles. this is the service for michael jackson right now at forest lawn cemetery. we are coming right back.

the man who officials say terrified gaffney, south carolina with a killing spree is dead. police say they fatally shot patrick burris responding to a home invasion across the border in north carolina. burris pulled a gun on officers and they had no choice to shoot him. he had a long rap sheet leading some to ask why he wasn't

already in jail. >> look at this. this is like 25 pages. at some point the criminal justice system is going to need to explain why this individual is on the street. >> police say burris killed five people in six days. it is believed he shot at the people at random. he says i am not a -- she says i am not a quitter. i am a fighter, the words from alaska governor sarah palin. in interview with many of the networks pails says she might not she may not have any political power when she resigns at the end of the month but insists her decision was the right one. she previously said she didn't didn't want to turn into a lame duck governor for the last year and a half of her term. well, at this hour, am president obama is in russia looking to heal u.s. relations with the country. he just met wildfire prime minister vladimir putin wrapping up a two-day stay in russia. among the issues on the agenda how to rid the world of nuclear

weapons. >> while i know this goal won't be met soon, pursuing it provides the legal and moral foundation to prevent the proliferation and eventual use of nuclear weapons. >> president obama also pressed for a more democratic russia, but said he would not try to impose any kind of governing system on another country. a warning for microsoft today -- [ inaudible ] -- million of computer users. the company says hackers are exploiting a security flaw in its internet explorer browser and effects people using windows xp and windows server 2003. but microsoft said they have not been able to build a patch and questions all users not to click on any links in any suspicious e-mails. >> got it. a live look outside and stay tuned your updated first warning weather forecast with bernadette is two and a half minutes away. but first, a look at the midday stocks and as we go into this break as well. one more look out in los

angeles at forest lawn cemetery where michael jackson is being laid to rest or a service there.

now first warning weather, complete forecast and the first warning of severe weather. >> welcome back, everybody. a beautiful day out there so far, and we are warming it up this afternoon. we are up to 85 degrees already president wind has turned around to the west ahead of the front that will pass through the area. temperatures around the area also warming up. most of us have gotten into the 80s. even in the mountains, but down

to 78 degrees in ocean city because of that cooler water and that is having that influence today with the wind off of the water and not off the land like it has been lately. here is the wind picking up ahead of the front out there and the front is just off to the north. we have seen some clouds. and it is moving into dry air and it doesn't have a lot of moisture with it anyway, so we are not expecting much from this front, but there is an outside chance that later today, we could see a shower or thunderstorm as of this boundary moves into maryland. here is how it works out when we draw it on there for you. here is the front coming our way. it pushes off to the south by tomorrow putting us back in the cooler air behind it. that will stick around through thursday before the next round of weather comes our way. the next round is going to be behind a warm front out here. we are going to see clouds out ahead of it on thursday, but then went warm front passes us, we will warm it up as we head toward the weekend. the forecast look likes this today. upper 80s. we bumped up our high temperatures to 88 degrees.

mix of clouds and sunshine and that outside chance of a late- day shower or thunderstorm, and, again, most people are not going to see anything. the humidity is still very low for today. partly cloudy and comfortable. tomorrow, partly cloudy. the humidity remains low and only goes to 84 degrees tomorrow opinioned and then a chance of heating it up as we head toward the weekend, but still nothing all that extreme and this is july. it is. it is unbelievable. >> we are all liking it. >> this morning out own my live shot, i think i said i am a little chilly. >> did you? >> yes. i am not kidding. >> whoa. >> i got confirmation from the photographer i was with, which is remarkable for july. >> just remember that in january. >> i know. but i wasn't complaining. i was just saying it is so nice. still to come on eyewitness news at noon, researchers answer a breast cancer mystery that could make the disease less deadly. and remember wjz is always on. the story we are following on our web site at this hour. for constant updates of the te's news and the first warning

weather forecast. ( crack of bat, cheering ) not playing with the kids? not on these legs. poor leg circulation. doctor says it's p.a.d. peripheral artery disease? hmmm. more than doubles your risk for a heart attack or stroke. so i hear. better ask your doctor about plavix. plavix can help protect you from a heart attack or stroke. plavix helps keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots, the cause of most heart attacks and strokes. my cousin the m.d. call your doctor about plavix. (male announcer) if you have a stomach ulcer or other condition that causes bleeding, you should not use plavix.

when taking plavix alone or with some other medicines including aspirin, the risk of bleeding may increase so tell your doctor before planning surgery. and, always talk to your doctor before taking aspirin or other medicines with plavix, especially if you've had a stroke. if you develop fever, unexplained weakness or confusion, tell your doctor promptly as these may be signs of a rare but potentially life-threatening condition called ttp, which has been reported rarely, sometimes in less than two weeks after starting therapy. other rare but serious side effects may occur.

in today's eyewitness news health watch. many americans take statins every day. new research show they could be harmful to some of us. 10% to 15% of the people taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs have minor muscle aches and weakness. those with serious muscle aches show muscle fiber damage even after they stopped using the

drugs. experts stress that people not experiencing any pain should keep taking those drugs. the government has released new rules regarding federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells. the final guidelines increase the number of stem lines from 20 to more than 700. they require documents showing the cells were donated. we may be closer to getting to understand why breast cancer spreads. scientists say they have discovered key signals of how breast cancer cells survive in the bone marrow of patients who undergone treatment, the finding could lead to new treatments to prevent the cancer from turning. you will want to check in with eyewitness news at 4, 5 and 6:00. back to the newsroom for story. sally. >> don, contaminated foods. new rules that will keep your food safer. wjz and eyewitness news will bring you complete coverage of the tribute to michael jackson starting at 1 p.m. including a live report at 4:00

with local fan reaction. join us for all of these stories at 4:00 after "dr. phil." >> thank you very much. the five-day forecast with

. welcome back. the five-day forecast. the upper 80s around 88 degrees. we bump up that high for today but tomorrow back down to 84. 82 on thursday.

84 on friday. and looks like we will warm it up as we head to the weekend with a chance of a pop-up thunderstorm on sunday. >> it looks beautiful. bern, thank you. a special cbs primetime line-up tonight. tonight at 10:00, a special "48 hours." michael jackson, the last dance. that will immediately be followed by eyewitness news at 11:00. and don't forget, wjz is bringing you extensive coverage of the jackson memorial beginning shortly at 1:00. katie couric will lead our live coverage from los angeles again at 1:00. the race is currently continue to name the next seven wonders of the world. 261 nominees have been announced including this item in malaysia. it is said to have a pretty good shot of winning because diver have voted it the best dive site anywhere. le be decreed in 201 is? >> that looks beautiful. >> time to go on a trip. >> the new thing, they are doing it more often, correct?

>> yes. >> it used to be set in stone for a long time. >> centuries. >> that is our report. thanks for watching, mary bubala. >> don scott. >> i am bernadette woods.