talk with the reclusive leader kim jong il. >> we were shocked but we knew instantly that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. and now we stand here home and free. >> reporter: the reporters had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for entering the country illegally. the pair say they were told they would immediately be going to a meeting. the two walked through the doors to find former president clinton. president barack obama offered his praise to mr. clinton as well as to former vice president al gore. >> i want to thank president bill clinton. i had a chance to talk to him for the extraordinary humanitarian effort that resulted in the release of the two journalists. i want to thank vice president al gore who worked tirelessly in order to chief a positive

outcome. >> reporter: her sister journalist lisa lee says the family is grateful for their release. >> we're all so relieved. it's been difficult -- [ ininaudible ] >> reporter: the journalists were separated nearly their five months in north korea and fed bad food. laura ling says she's egg ear to taste fresh food because she had been fed rice with rocks in it. >> here at home joy and relief in the korean community on the safe return of those two women. local community leaders say they hope this will open the door to better relations with the korean government and its leader. but now with the safe return of the journalists, there's hope for resumed talks with the north. >> i hope that this isn't -- that this may contribute to some extent to relieve the

tension between north korea and america and south korea as well. >> coming up at 6:00, more local reaction on what this means for the future of relationships with north korea. does the release of the journalists change your view of north korea? log on to abc2news.com to vote in our on-line poll located on the right-hand side of the home page. new details about the man who went on a shooting rampage last night at a gym outside of pittsburgh. authorities say the suspect planned the crime for a long time because he was apparently angry and resentful over his inability to attract women. he unleashed his rage on a room full of women in an exercise class killing three and wounding nine before killing himself. behindlindsay davis has the details. >> reporter: only moments after class started, the suspect walked in and turned the lights

out. at least 36 gunshots. >> we heard this loud boom. all after sudden i realized, you know, it was shots, like someone was shooting a gun inside the gym. >> reporter: jodi was 38. heidi 46 with a 15-year-old son. >> i wish i was there to help you. >> reporter: mary, the aerobics instructor was shot once in each shoulder. >> he just -- [ inaudible ] >> reporter: she survived. four people including the shooter did not. >> it was crazy. almost something out of a movie. to see something like n. blood everywhere. the young girls are screaming. they don't know if they'll live to see another day. >> reporter: aerobics brought them together. this man is believed to have ripped their lives apart. the shooting went just as he planned it in his blog sometime ago. he wrote, "planned to do this

in the summer but -- [ inaudible ] he complained about not having a girlfriend. police say he had four handguns, used three and ultimately shot 12 people. authorities say he didn't have a relationship with anyone here at the l.a. fitness center, but he did have a schedule at home with a latin impact class. lindsay davis, abc news, ridgefield park pa. anne arundel police have arrested a man for a murder last month in glen bernie. he's charged with first and second-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old lamont gordon, jr. police found his body july 15. according to police, he shot gordon to death and escaped to miami. he was arrested on unrelated charges in florida and extradited to anne arundel county. a new trial date has been set for baltimore mayor sheila dixon. at a court hearing this

morning, the judge postponed her trial on perjury charges for november the 9th. her trial had been scheduled for september the 8th. it includes new evidence against the mayor and brings back some perjury charges that were thrown out. dixon's attorney say they plan to file a new motion arguing state prosecutor has abused the grand jury process. >> we're going to get a little bit more discovery under the new charges and once we go through that, we expect that we'll be filing a new motion, at least with respect to the grand jury as well as some other issues that we'll be filing. >> i fully anticipate that the defense will bring up any motion they can. it's not surprising. >> so a hearing is now scheduled for september 30 on any new motions and dixon is accused of stealing gift cards from the needy and failing to report gifts on ethics forms. a u.s. senate committee has approved a measure that would allow states to conduct cell phone jamming in prisons. maryland senator barbra

mikulski is a supporter of the bill. supporters say it's needed to prevent inmates from setting up crimes while in prison. critics say jamming technology could interfere with cell phone use by residents nearby. it appears nothing can be done to save towson high school. a lawsuit has been dismissed say the school of archdiocese broke promises to students by deciding to close. the archdiocese says the school is being closed because of dwindling funds and low enrollment. maryland's public pension fund has fallen by more than 20% over the past year. the stocks and other investments held by the maryland state retirement and pension system hit a high of $40.9 billion in 2007 but state officials say it dropped to $28.5 billion as of june 30. the dip could force the state to dedicate additional money to cover employment retirement

costs. it's still not too late. governor martin o'malley wants your input on proposed budget cuts. so far's' received -- so far he's received thousands of comments on a state website. he's set an august 10 deadline for comments and is encouraging everyone to submit their suggestions. last month the board of public works approved about $280 million in cut, a step toward addressing a possible shortfall of more than $700 million. a very humid day today but not as hot as we have been experiencing. right now maryland's most powerful radar not indicating any precipitation around the region. there are some showers way out to the west of us over sections of west virginia that we could see later on tonight. right now looks like we'll go almost precipitation free. your forecast for the next couple of hours, partly cloudy. a few showers are possible but not really likely. our temperatures will hold right around 78 to 80 degrees for the next couple of hours. we've got some cooler air coming in for a couple of days. and then a return to the heat. we'll tell you all about it coming up.

a water main break at the corner of northern parkway and falls road in north baltimore is still causing traffic problems tonight. the ten-inch main broke shortly before 4:00 yesterday afternoon. we're told the public works crew had fix add leak in the clamps that were used to repair the break and other concrete needs to be replaced so you can still expect traffic delays in that area. the initial break affected about 20 houses in the neighborhood. the field was just installed last year and now it's been scorched. who investigators say set fire to this maryland high school field and what it means for the upcoming football season. plus, more people in the state are dying in boating accidents. some times to make sure you stay safe on the waters. we all know kids can be expensive. a look at just how much it costs to raise one child these days. taking a look at the temperatures now. 81 degrees. norm is coming up with the full forecast.

we're just weeks away from the start of the high school football season. they're already practicing. but at least one area school is going to have to repair its gridiron. the state fire marshal arrested three 17-year-olds in frederick after the agency part of middletown's new turf burned. this was all discovered monday morning at middletown high school in frederick county. brian kuebler shows us the damage. >> reporter: a black mark on the record for the middletown knights. the state fire marshal says three soon to be seniors at nearby brunswick high torched part of this mere million dollar field on sunday. by mid week they were all arrested. >> that occurred early this morning, probably around 2:00

a.m. is when they were able to wrap up the case. >> reporter: the three will start their senior year fighting charges of first degree malicious burning and destruction of property. in addition to this burn mark, the fire mar shl says they destroyed the game -- marshal says they destroyed the game clock and part of the scoreboard. >> i think they're surprised, upset, maybe a little bit of anger which is probably expected. but again i think they'll rally together and we'll move on and have a great season, a great year. >> reporter: but not before this is cleaned up. damage estimates figure to be near $20 thousand. repairs to -- $20,000. repairs to a reason vision last year that cost $850,000. school officials say the damage should be cleaned up by the first home game sometime in september. students say those home games might have a little bit more juice to them now. >> there's a little bit after rivalry going on here. >> reporter: what perplexes soon to be senior casey smith is that brunswick has never really been a bitter rival in

the past. >> i was really surprised because we're friends with a lot of brunswick people, a lot of me and my friends are. it was just surprising it was the brunswick kids. >> reporter: middletown high school says its football team has other fields to practice on, practice to take on a surprising new rival. in frederick county, brian kuebler, abc2 news. >> the three 17-year-olds accused of burning the field are now back at home after being in the custody of juvenile services. it's an experience of a lifetime. the putty hill panthers youth baseball team left for puerto rico today for the world series. they're one of six u.s. teams to compete for club level teams. the boys are 12 and 13 from baltimore county, city and harford county. many of them have never been out of the country before. they play their first game of the series tomorrow. we wish them well.

a pretty decent day but very humid today. very humid. but the temperature -- at this time last night i thought we'd see a 9 on, 91 today. last -- 90, 91 today. last night i saw some things changing. we revised our forecast for a daytime 85. that's basically where we'll end up but it sure feels sticky. big changes in the air mass coming for a couple of days and more heat will roll back in. we'll tell you all about it in just a second. your shot from harbor cam overlooking the pavilion. people walking the properly made having a nice evening -- promenade. having a nice evening. wind currently from the northwest at 9. the pressure falling 29.90. here are the temperatures across the area right now. it's 28 in york. 82 in downtown. hagerstown 81. it's cool out in oakland, 68 degrees. over in ocean city, man, the heat is on on the boardwalk. 92 degrees right now. 85 in dover and easton right now at 86 degrees.

satellite picture, this looks a whole lot worse than what it actually is. the satellite is looking down from 22,300 miles up in space. so the light thin overcast we had throughout the day shows up as kind of like a total overcast. it wasn't that bad of a day. we did have some showers activity out to the west. it's trying to make its way in our direction. we're seeing some showers gradually making their way through central portions of virginia. looks like the majority of the showers are going to run right through this region right here. we could see one or two pop up here in the baltimore area a little later on this evening but quite frankly the majority of of the rainfall will be missing us down to the south. on the largest picture, sections of arkansas, down into mississippi and sections of louisiana and tennessee got hammered with showers and thunderstorms. but here's that little system trying to make its way across the mountains. there's a lot of moisture being fed into the region causing the shower and thunderstorm activity that will be moving into and through the region tonight and also during a portion tomorrow. nothing showing up on

maryland's powerful radar. we could see one or two showers. not a big deal. 82 in towson. 83 edgemere. 79 up in the westminster area. rock hall 87 degrees. annapolis right now at naval academy 83 degrees. here's your forecast for tonight. the showers out to the west of us, the majority of them pass to the south of us. we could see one or two showers here and again the same kind of a situation tomorrow. but again the majority of the rainfall is going to be down to the south of our region. here's your forecast for the overnight period. mostly cloudy. a chance for some showers late tonight. 70 degrees for the overnight low. during the day tomorrow it's going to be a mostly cloudy day. again a few showers but the majority of the rain south of us. high tomorrow 81 degrees. the extended outlet for the next -- owe outlook for the next seven days, tomorrow and friday 85 degrees. saturday a chance for scattered showers with a high of 85 degrees. all things considered, though, look at the heat coming back in. for sunday and monday with

highs about 90 degrees both days continuing to tuesday. don't forget you can always go to our website to abc2news.com to check out our on-line radar. you can do it yourself. right now there's nothing showing up around the baltimore area but if you doom back a tiny bit, you see the shower activity in virginia. you can scroll around and see rain in jacksonville right now. in cape canaveral and also down in the florida everglades. again it's available at our website abc2news.com 24/7, 365. >> thank you. a seven year-old entrepreneur in california is out of business but don't feel too bad. the third grader started running a lemonade stand to raise enough money to go to disney when the stand got shut down by the city of fresno. but that lemonade turned out to be sweet after all because after seeing her story in the paper, a local radio station gave her family four two-day passes to disneyland in exchange for 30 glasses of

lemonade. they are getting a jump start on reading at health centers throughout baltimore city all thanks to the reach out and read program. congressman john sarbanes was in rare form this afternoon at bel air edison. he read two books, one of them "five little monkeys jumping on the bed ," one of my favorites. reach out and read provides books for children age six months to five years old. >> we're making sure that children have appropriate literature, books that parents -- [ indisseenible -- [ indiscernible ] >> there are 53 reach and read sites. the program has been around for 20 years. surges -- surgeons at two washington, d.c. hospitals has performed a record seven kidney transplants. they were performed at georgetown university hospital and washington hospital center

over a four-day period in july. surgeons used a process called plasma exchange. during the process, machine separates antibodies that can cause organ rejection from a patient's blood. it virtually eliminates the possibility of rejection. >> the sacrifices that these people made i really believe will never be forgotten because this will forever change our fear of transplantation. >> of the 80,000 people on the kidney strand plant -- transplant list, 36% are african-americans and only 15% of living donor kidneys go to african-american patients. in your health tonight, new research finds that a hormone produced by fat may help explain why we reach for food when we're not even hungry. dr. timothy johnson explains in tonight's medical minute.

>> reporter: as any dieter will tell you, the desire to eat does not always stem from hunger. sometimes food just looks too delicious to pass up. a new study helps to explain how lepton, a hormone produced by fatty tissue in the body influences that motivation to eat. by delivering leptins to certain parts of the brain, researchers were able to reduce the desire leaving the rats to eat less and reduce weight. the study shows that it also affects the appetite by influencing our desire to reward ourselves with food, even when we are not hungry. some people may overeat comfort foods as a way of filling a desire deficit. researchers hope that boosting the levels in the brain my fix this deficit and make it easier to resist tempting foods. with this medical minute, i'm dr. timothy johnson. caught on tape. a man tasered by police.

why officers were the ones who got the shock of their lives. baring it all. an accused burglar leaves something important behind at his crime scenes. what he's accused of taking and leaving.

they have alzheimer's and heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and they've heard that biomedical research offers hope -- that it could control, maybe even cure, their disease. senator barbara mikulski understands the importance of innovative biomedical research for patients, their families, and our economy here in maryland. call senator mikulski today. tell her thanks for protecting the promise of biomedical research and the maryland jobs it provides. it's not just the future. it's life.

here's a look at what we're working on for you all new at 5:30. the boating season is three months if being over and we're on pace to set a record and it's not a good one. we'll have the details. a seven-year-old gets behind the wheel. a surprise of where their parents were and what they were doing. norm is in the storm summer with baltimore's most accurate

forecast coming up at 5:30. >> thank you. a look at news around the nation takes to us michigan. check out this huge ball of fire. a field storage facility went up in flames exploding barrels of fuel. it forced firefighters to back off. homeowners several miles from the site were forced to evacuate. pretty amazing. well, it's a a drive-thru restaurant but this isn't what they had in mind. police in south florida say a hit-and-run driver hit another car sending it crashing into a north miami beach taco bell. no one was hurt. maybe the suspect made a run for the border. head to get that in. nashville police shocked this man with a taser multiple times with little effect. the officer asked the suspect to get on the ground outside of a restaurant but when he refused, they faced him -- they

tased him. it temporarily affects him but he gets up. three times still no affect. he eventually walked into the restaurant and in the end another powerful weapon worked. >> thankfully talking in diplomacy if you will worked. the officers did not have to go hands on. they did not want to have to fight him. >> he was arrested and charged with stealing fr the restaurant. he's now serving a year in jail. a burglar is behind bars in pennsylvania tonight. michael victor is accused of breaking into two apartments stealing women's underwear and then leaving the scene in the buff. the surveillance camera caught his getaway during a break-in on friday. his attorney says his client has some severe issues to deal with and is very sorry. >> he's upset and he's embarrassed. he's apologetic. >> he's a custodian with a school district.

he's expected to be charged with indecent exposure. some county workers in florida will have to pay to smoke. how much they'll have to shell out on abc2 news in 5:30 which starts in just two minutes.