chilling bomb plot. sources tell what they found inside the colorado shooting suspect's apartment. >> one of the victims, a university of maryland student shot four times. >> she's not really even supposed to be alive. >> tonight, her incredible story of survival. hello, everyone, i'm vic carter. >> i'm denise coken. here's what people are talking about tonight. >> new details about colorado shooter james holmes and his booby trapped apartment. deputies say it was calculating and deliberate. >> reporter: designed to kill.

that's how authorities described james holm's aurora, colorado apartment. police responded there after taking him into custody when he gunned down dozens inside a colorado movie theater, killing 12. what they found was a booby trapped disaster, waiting to happen. >> this would be one of the first times we have seen, what we can describe as a house bomb in the united states. some of these things do exist overseas. >> reporter: according to a law enforcement official who watched recordings from inside the apartment, the space was rigged with more than 30 homemade grenades, and 10 gallons of gasoline. it was all carefully orchestrated to maximize the strength of a blast. investigators say holmes stockpiled weapons and explosives for months. >> he is expected to be formally charged next week. >> while the accused gunman

faces the law, the shooting victims struggle to recover. one of them is a university of maryland grad student. her survival is nothing short of a miracle. >> reporter: petra anderson's story. she was excited about her upcoming graduate studies at the university of maryland. now she is in the hospital after being shot four times, including once in the face. >> doctors did tell us initially that she's really not even supposed to be alive because of where the injury is. she's not only alive, but she's walking around, and talking to people. >> reporter: the bullet went right through her nose, and through her brain, but because of a birth defect, she doesn't have major damage. it followed the path of that defect, a tiny channel of fluid, running through her brain. she can speak, and move, and is

likely to continue her music career. >> it's quite crazy. she is a hardcore composer, that's what she likes to do. >> reporter: the community is pulling for her. >> i know a lot of people here who are grad students. everyone from here, i feel for those people. i can't imagine what they're going through. >> reporter: anderson's sister made a video, asking donations for her care. >> thank for standing with us, and letting this joker know he may have intended it as his story, but we're taking it back. >> reporter: her mother is by petra's side right now, praying for a full recovery. so far, people are donated more than $100,000 for her recovery. at the university of maryland college park, wjz eyewitness news. >> for a detailed account of anderson's recovery, log onto wjz.com.

a major court ruling could put thousands more weapons in the hands of marylands. right now, the state hand gun permits for people who don't have a suitable reason to needing one. they are ordered to relax rules starting next month. thieves swipe 10s of thousands of dollars in copper wiring from anne arundel county schools. it's the latest in a rash of copper thefts across maryland. >> reporter: wjz has been effecting copper thefts for months. now the latest victim? schools. the friday night lights may not be shining at several anne arundel county schools. thieves shimmied up high in the air to rip the copper wiring out of stadium lights at north county, old mill, and broad neck high school. >> people will do anything for a dollar these days.

>> reporter: thieves also stole copper from mobile classrooms at shipley's choice, and high point elementary school. leaving the school system in the lurch. >> we're working hard to replace it, so students can take part in their athletic programs. >> reporter: more than 400 people arrested in just the past two years. a wjz investigation uncovered how brazen thieves can be. this surveillance video shows two men ripping down copper gutters outside a maryland home. last month, four employees were charged with stealing more than $80,000 in copper from the aberdeen proving ground. in may, this copper suspect held a four hour standoff with police. the problem so pervasive, baltimore county has formed a metal theft task force. >> the number of metal thefts has more than tripled since 2009. >> reporter: as to the school

theft, police are reviewing surveillance tape, hoping to shine a light on these bold bandits. the school thefts happened between july 7 and july 23. old mill senior high school was hit twice. all right, thank you. the school system has ordered replacement stadium lights and hope to have them installed before the first games of the year. baltimore loses another nativeson. brandon pepper died when his unit came under attack. this was his first tour in afghanistan, but he also served in iraq. he's been posthumously awarded the bronze star, purple heart, and four other medals. with the olympics starting, troops are sent to london to

guard against a possible attack. commandos are patrolling the water way. anti-aircraft missiles are also set up throughout the city. the state of maryland releases an invasive pest into the wild on purpose. thousands of weaveles are being unleashed across several counties to battle against a destructive weed. more on this unusual strategy. >> reporter: that's right, denise, the state believes the best way to fight this weed is by using a small insect with a voracious appetite. the state highway administration says it's no friend to maryland's environment. >> some of the envasive species look pretty. there's one that has a purple flower that looks nice, but it's not very good for the

wetland. >> reporter: meet the solution. a tiny multilegged insect known as the weavele. workers released the bugs in several wetlands around the state. now they're letting nature take its course. >> suppressing populations of mile a minute weed invasive vine. >> reporter: you might find this interesting, the state doesn't want to eradicate the mile a minute weed, rather, they would like to keep enough around to have a weavele population. the state says the mile a minute weed preproduces quicklyk and blocks other plants from getting sunlight. >> it would be very costly, and time-consuming and harmful to the environment. >> reporter: the mile a minute weed can grow as much as 6

inches a day. a simple plant can provide as many as 2,000 seeds. the state has been using the weavele program for a few years, and this is an expanded version of it. crews are laying down hundreds of rolls of kentucky blue grass between the match up of two of britain's premier teams. >> i love the weaveles near that shot. a group of tourists gets a look at a glacier collapse, and falling ice wasn't all they had to worry about. >> a woman abandons her baby in a shopping cart. we'll explain why, coming up. >> the storm knocked out power for thousands for days. now the president of bg and e

sits down with me. that's coming up next.

♪[ music ] it is clear and 79 degrees in central maryland right now. the complete forecast is coming

up. first, a boater off the coast of greenland comes close to a glacier on the move. a mini tsunami towards the boat. no one was injured. scientists say satellite observation shows greenland's ice is melting at its fastest rate in more than 30 years. an ominous warning. helicopter gun ships shelled parts of damascus as president assad tries to regrain control of the capitol. syria has threatened to use chemical weapons if foreign troops try to invade. there is concern those stockpiles could fall into the hands of terrorists. a surveillance video shows two sisters confronted by store security. the mother is seen running away, and leaving her child in the shopping cart.

the child's mom also flees without the baby. police arrested the girl the following night at a dance club. the child is in the care of the county. the man convicted of killing three members of singer jennifer hudson's family is sentenced to life in prison. william balfour was convicted in may. jennifer hudson and her sister were at today's hearing, but they did not comment on the sentencing. he played one of television's most memorable characters. tonight, the entertainment world is mourning the louse of george helmsley. hemsley started his career on broadway. he was 74 years old. the mbta have added guy

lines to close the bridge during powerful wind gusts. this comes after a tractor trailer was flipped on the bridge. while many marylanders are still trying to repair damage left by that storm across the state, others are reiterating the response. speaking exclusionively with the -- exclusively with the man at the center of the storm. >> reporter: the storm rolls in, stripping power from a million customers in 30 minutes. >> it was clear this was a storm of historic proportions, unlike anything i'd ever seen.

friday night, june 29, hunkers down at home, glued to the radar on his computer. >> it was a scaled equivalent to a hurricane, but without the warning. >> reporter: immediately he directed bge to deploy across the state and called in reinforcements. for some, the hours without power turned to days. >> was there a moment when you began to have some panic when it was so hot you knew you had customers with power out. and vulnerable customers. >> i feel the pressure personally. >> reporter: important enough that lawmakers including governor malley called for investigations and possible fines. >> criticized bg and e's response to this crime. >> i understand they're reacting to the feedback they hear from their constituents. i understand the need for us to

be evaluated. i do believe though, it is inappropriate to simply say, a knee jerk reaction, let's punish the utilities. we're working hard to do the best job we can to restore service quickly, and we are continuing to make very significant investments in improving reliability. >> is it time to take a serious look at burying power lines? >> today, bg has almost 65% of its system is underground. we've been putting in lines underground since 1969. but we still have 9500 miles of overhead lines. if we replace 200 miles of them a year, that's a 50 year project. i'm willing to do that, but we also need to have an honest conversation about if we do that, what's going to be the impact on customers costs. >> reporter: do you think that bge's response to the storm was adequate, or inadequate? >> we're in the process of evaluating our performance. >> just your gut reaction.

>> i think given the circumstance with no warning, and the magnitude of the problem, this performance compares actually better than what we did even in hurricane irene. this storm was everywhere. that's what makes it different. that's what makes it difficult. >> bg and e is aggressively hiring lineman. it was a storm of some magnitude, that's for sure. bob. >> hopefully we won't be dealing with anything like that anytime soon. let's take a look at temps right now, it's cooling down, and beginning to dry out with a west-northwest wind at 10. the airports had a drop today 79. the barometer way back up. 2.975inches. right now, 76 eel ins. still warmer to the south, 82

in d.c. 64 in oakland. to our north, the dew points are back in the 50s, we're still at 70, so there's a lot of dry air beginning to head into our regions. tomorrow, is going to be a very nice summer day. very comfortable compared to this afternoon. 76, 77, 79. a few spots reporting some low 70s. particularly, where it rained up in the northern sections of baltimore county. the showers really came down hard for a few minutes. northwest winds now beginning to turn, that's going to drive a drier air into the region, but it looks like it's only going to last maybe one day. on thursday things begin to turn around again. the average, now 87. 67 the record. 2010, 101. and in 1985, 55 degrees. to the southwest, hot, humid weather sits right down here. the front that came through the area will come back as a warm front on thursday. so enjoy tomorrow. less humid air, stays with us

for the day tomorrow. but late tomorrow night, the front begins to move to our region. we get to the heat and humidity. scattered thunderstorm possible later thursday, temperatures mid- to upper 90s. friday, a little cooler, but a risk of scattered thunderstorm activity with the front hanging up across the region. west winds becoming northwest. sunrise 6:01. look at that front as it moved through the area. the big thunderstorms to the north of us. this is where the next air mass is coming in. look how that cleared out beautifully this afternoon and evening, once the storms moved off shore. the rest of tonight, comfortable, yeah. upper 60s, clear skies. tomorrow, sunshine, and less humid conditions. 88degrees. next five days, 98 on thursday. 93 on friday. scattered thunderstorm possible, even into saturday

90, and 90 on sunday. one really hot day, then a little bit cooler, and a little drier, we think by the second half of the weekend. thank you bob. coming up, the orioles fight to keep playoff hopes alive. >> back home for a critical series against tampa bay. ,,,,,

the best job in broadcasting, mark with the ravens all day, gets to talk about the orioles. he's here with the sports report. >> it is season overlap, and you need a good car. we'll start at the ballpark, where the orioles have reason to be pleased they are in playoff contention, but reason for concern as well. they're not scoring runs consistently. that makes for nervous times while they try to keep postseason hopes alive. a beautiful night to start a home stand.

these fans might be too far away from a souvenir, but adam jones gives it a shot. a long shot. into the upper bullpen. 445feet away. 1-0 orioles. jones has 23 home runs this season. all right, chen pitching for the orioles, and he pitched very well, except for this delivery to brooks conrad. conrad crushed it. a home run to the seats in left field. that put tampa bay on top 2-1. the o's had no answer, because of their struggling offense. hellerson strikes out davis. the o's managed just 3 hits in the game. they struck out 10 times. they did get two runners on in the 9th inning, but the threat ends with a matt wieters strike out. the second straight game they've scored just one run. the ravens kicked off

training camp at owings mills today. just the rookies and a few veterans did take park. one of those two took part was matt burke. his 15th year in the nfl. training camp for matt burke? yeah, it's a working grind. he's been through this many times. >> you embrace it. it's particulate of the process, and also to your biological clock i guess ticks this time of year. late july, august. as a football player, you're supposed to be sweating on the football field. >> all veterans supposed to report tomorrow, with the first full squad workout on thursday. matt also has five kids so getting to practice might be a good getaway. coming up, the new push to allow pole dancers to chase their olympic dreams. ,,,,,,,,,,

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a group of people believes pole dancers should be allowed to go for the gold. they want to make pole dancing an olympic event. believe it or not, they have an international federation, even a rule book. the pole dancing championships are held in london this week, what a coincidence. maybe some will decide to take [ male announcer ] we've made verizon fios

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