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under pressure. amarillo county's top cop suddenly steps down. >> what this could mean for his misconduct case. >> hello, everybody. i'm denise koch. >> and i'm kevin carter. >> chief james steer has been linked to sere allegations against the county executive. mike helgren explains why this came just weeks before trial. >> reporter: james tear made the sudden announcement that

he's retiring amidst a cloud of scandal. he angered some hen he refused to testify about ha he knew about allegations that his boss misused security detail, including being lookouts while he had sex in a parking lot and using the criminal database to dig up dirt on his political enemies. >> there's an air of corruption, and we need to get past all that. we need to provide for the citizens of our county. >> reporter: the county executive named pamela davis to replace him. she's the first woman to lead the department. >> reporter: lee poled faces misconduct charges. the chief was never charged, but was the subject of a state probe. it is now important, he wrote, to resolve this matter. their office believes this resolution in s in the best

interest of the citizens. >> i don't know what his testimony will be, but i suspect he's he'll be among those called during the case against the county executive. >> instead of stonewalling and playing games and not complying with our public records request, it's time for the county and police departments to come clean. >> reporter: mr. lee poled thanked for the -- lee -- lee leopold thank the chief for his service. a playground is destroyed by a fire. you can see the crew putting out the flames. it's now an arson investigation at the our house community center. investigators say the fire started on the playground's padding. a promising high school

athlete killed in a crash. friends and teammates are remembering the swimmer. >> reporter: alex rodriguez dreamed of going to the injury your nationals. but that dream ended in tragedy on monday night. >> reporter: alex was known for his prowess in the people. >> he had that can-do attitude. he had it. he had the entire package. >> reporter: but monday night, his young life was cut short. police say she was driving on greenspring avenue when me spun out a curb an slammed into a true tree. he died in maryland shock trauma. >> speed was a factor in this case. >> reporter: the deadly crash happened at a particularly dangerous time for teens. according to triple--- according to k a aaa, 16% of all crashes for teenagers occur in july and august.

>> they have more time on their hands, they spent more of their time bind the wheel. >> reporter: over a third of crashes happen between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. >> reporter: coaches say the teen had competed in his final summer swim meet just hours before the crash. >> reporter: alex swam for the north baltimore aquatics club and was a senior at the mcdonough school. he spoke with wjz last summer about his business making art from duct tape. those close to him said his dedication was inspireing. >> all the guys knew he was going to be there. he was the quiet leader by example. >> reporter: now the pool feels empty, for the first time alex not. >> reporter: alex has been swimming since he was six years old. both of his parents and his two brothers are also swimmers. reporting life, megan mccorcal,

wjz. >> in lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations to swim america. coach joe paterno defends his football legacy from beyond the grave. pennsylvania to know writes that his abuse of boys should not tarnish penn state's reputation or take -- that jerry sandusky's abuse of boys should not detract from the school's football history history. the report will be released tomorrow at 9 a.m. city and county leaders had tough questions for local utility companies after the storms left thousands without power for a week or longer. monique has more on what customers want changed. >> reporter: heavy rain and hurricane-like winds destroyed homes and left millions without

power. >> it was hot, it was terrible. >> reporter: bowers lost service for several days, but on this neighborhood, the damage was worse, and homeowners were in the dark for a week or longer. >> people who drove around said this looked like it was the epicenter. >> reporter: now city and county leaders are asking them one main question. >> what else can they be doing to prepare us better when these instances occur? >> reporter: baltimore county xekstive kevin cammanat is pa part of one of north carolina's largest commissions. they ask the pfc to prep the companies on several issues. >> reporter: because most of the outages were caused by falling trees, one of the most important things they need to look at is the idea of burying power lines in certain neighborhoods. >> we would like to have better information from bge as to where outages have taken place so we can send our resources

out there to offer assistance. >> reporter: county leaders say while they know burying lines is an expensive option, they still think it's something that needs to be looked at. >> governor o'malley has also sported investigating buried tower lines. prison tazed a man to stiphim from running around naked. officers found 36-year-old james frederick brown partly nude on the highway this morning. place say he threatened officers, resisted arrest, and it took several officers to arrest him. he was suspected of carrying pcp and crack cocaine. a ruling will allow landlords to evict tenants who have pit bulls. >> reporter: the situation is far from resolved. this letter from the attorney general's office may give pit

bull owners brief peace of mind. >> reporter: when the court of apiece ruled in april that pit bull and mixed pit bull breeds are dangerous by nature, it angered pit bull owners and threw many into a pan ping. >> in my apartment complex, they're just trying to protect themselves. >> reporter: the court's ruling was put on hold after a request to reconsider it. the attorney general's office has clarified what that means for pit bull owners. many worried landlords would force them to get rid of their dogs. yet in a letter, katherine rowe wrote, it is our view that the decision is not currently in effect. >> dog owners across the state will be ree leaved right now that if they are facing eviction notices, they will have this legal opinion on their side. >> reporter: timothy zonasky was attacked by a neighbor's pit bull and almost died. they filed a suit against the

dog owner's landlord, citing negligence. that case is at the heart of the ruling the high court has to make. animalled a have ats say it's important to distinguish between the breed and bad owners. >> for the the time being, pets and people are protected. people don't have to choose between their home or their animal. >> reporter: and right now, a jointd task force on pit bulls is working to have an impact on the high court's ruling. >> animal advocates would like to find a solution before the next legislative session. time to check the attic. when one ohio family it d, they discovered a baseball card collection worth $3 million. these 700 cards are being called the most significant find in history. they date from 1910 opinion the kisnr family pay tree yash packed them away and forgot about them. are you interested? they'll be acted off here in baltimore next month at the spores collector's convention.

>> i have a ted williams rookie card. i wonder if it's worth anything. >> can you auction it off. let us know. coming up, a near-disaster. how these wooden poles went straight through a car and how the driver managed to drive it. >> and a boat sank on long island, killing three children on the fourth of july. >> reporter: and why these two red light cameras at this intersection were shut off. that's just ahead on wjz, eyewitness news. >> it will get warmer and more human as we head toward the weekend. we'll have your first full forecast coming up in a few moments. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

partly cloudy and 77 degrees in maryland right now. flames shooting 73 feet in the sky after a freight train accident in columbus. 83 cars cayrying thousands of gallons of ethanol derailed, which led to several spectacular explosions. firefighters had to let the fires burn out. a woman in washington state comes within inches of being killed in a bizarre traffic

accident. cousins of wooden poles went through her car, trapping her inside. she crashed into the back of a trailer when a truck in front of her slowed down to make a turn. a capsized boat that cost 3 children their lives was lifted up. the boat sank july 4 with temperature 27 people onboard. invest gatedders hope the recovered vessel will help them determine how it capsized and if overcrowding played a role. the president is out. florida a & m's leader resigned in the wake of the death of drum major robert champion, and his parents named the school in a massive lawsuit. he said he resigned after considerable thought and i tospection. champion's parents called for him to resign and for a house cleaning at famu.

their son died as part of a hazing ritual that including beating. the city of westminster has decided to remove most of its red light cameras. as andrea fujii explains, they may have been causing more accident than they were preventing. >> reporter: the red light cameras are now turned off. the city council voted monday to deactivate them. >> these cameras were not in a break even mode. they were costing the city taxpayers' money. >> reporter: they were meant to make the intersection safer and generate revenue, but police said they've done neither. >> reporter: police say there have been 11 serious crashes at the intersection and 35 fender benders. >> reporter: in 2010, stt installed 5 red light cameras, and within the year, they took

down two, an now they've shut off two more because of the low number of criations and high number of clicks. drivers have mixed feelings about the decision. >> i'm not saying i'm going to run a red light, but if i'm late, i'll do whatever i can to get to school. >> i guess it's better if they have them. >> reporter: the one remange camera is at 97 and nursery road, the only one police say is working like it should. >> reporter: and we're told there are no plans to add any more cameras. in westminster, andrea fujii. >> a red light camera cost the city more than $2200 a day to operate. from red light cameras to speed cameras, in baltimore county, four more will become operational in the following school zone. seven oaks elementary, and

bayos yakos middle school. drivers who exceed the speed limit by 5 or more miles per hour will be issued warnings for the first 45 caydays that encry datings after that. one of the most successful clients of helping dogs lose weight is mable. the 67 pown beagle was enrolled on the canine fat camp. after three month, she lost 30 pounds. she will soon be able to fit through that doggy door, and probably the human door too. >> my dog wolves her food, but how do you slow it down? give her one piece at a time? i don't know. >> mable lost 30 powns. >> i know, i'm worried for mable. >> there's just so many license. i can't think of any of them right now. we can probably sweat some of those pounds off of mable

with some of the temperatures we have coming into this coming weekend. temperatures will go up to 90 degrees, which is where we got today. 70 is your overnight low last night. into tonight, we will be in that same range. we are on target for the average highs and lows this time of year. 88 is our average. and we'll be pretty much on target. what we notice, the temperatures and humidities will go up just a little bit as our high pressure has been in control of our forecast, and it starts to move a little bit. we'll show you how that plays into our forecast in a second. right now, 77 degrees. the dew point at 50eu6, it's a little hiemed out there, 65% relative humidity. the winds are out of the southeast at 65 miles per hour. temperatures around the region, 64 in oakland, 72 in elkton, 71 on the shore, and the temperature has been coming off the water pretty much all day

with that southwesterly flow. the winds from the southeast are coming with a round of high pressure just to our north. the position of that high is bringing in the seau south and southeast flow. it will allow for very humid wind to tap into some very warm temperatures to our south. the front changed our weather dynamics this past week is stalled to our south. it goings back to texas, and moisture is riding along that front as it moves offshore. that's the reason we have the clouds that we have now, and just an occasional shower or two. as the high continues to push off, twharym, more humid air will stay with it. we won't have a washout of any of your days heading into the weekend. we could have a pop-up shower

or thunderstorm. typical garden variety stuff. the way it all plays is out is sun vise tomorrow at 5:41. there's at southeast wind staying with us, it will be seasonally mild, patchy clouds, for thunderstorm, 90 degrees, and very warm with clouds and suns. for the next five days, 90 on friday, 90 on sunday, and overnight los down around 70. >> thank you, tim. coming up,-star festivities are over. >> now adam jones and the orioles look ahead to the rest of the season. mark has more in s,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,

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orioles part two. mark is here with our sports report. >> one day of rest tomorrow, and then it's back to business for the birds. with a winning record and in playoff position halfway through the season, you might think the orioles are snide

with where they stand. far from it. they faltered into the all-star break and are busy looking for reenforcements. all-star adam jones has been the mvp so far, their only healthy outfielder and by far their best hitter. the os have plaid 85 games and were in first place for 30 weeks straight. now they're in second place and looking to come back. >> we will let the big boys get all the attention and we'll stay under the radar and then at the end of the day, shake the manager's hand. >> jim johnson was rewarded with his first all-star game. we'll hear from him tomorrow at 5 and 6 tomorrow. and if you tuned in to the radio tonight, you heard from ed reid, who's been sending

signals through twittedder about his uncertain status for the upcoming football season. he skipped mandatory training camp, and say he's still thinking it through. reid says the only way a player can protect himself is by holding out. he's due to receive $7 million if he plays this season. bouncing over to basketball, where steve national is taking his talents to l.a. to play for the lakers, traded for top draft picks. nash says the lakers give him the best chance to win an nba companionship. ray allen won a companionship in boston and will be looking for another as a member of the miami heat. he was introduced in south florida today after signing a 3- year free agent contract. kobe and coach k are part of team u.s.a., which which

includes lebron james. today, they split the squad and scrimmaged. probably the toughest competition they have is each other. they are heavy favorites to win the olympic gold. their first opponent will be france. they've got to beat the french, right? >> and you have to wonder what kind of advice coach k gave kobe. still to come, a unique still to come, a unique business ,,,,,,,,

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