must-sees in white house. the white house, the capitol and of course the hope diamond. now you can see the world's most famous jewel naked. >> wow. that's something to see. >> gorgeous. how are you feeling out there? thursday? >> good. i love it. >> let's get some weather with justin berk. >> good morning. 5:29. our our wake-up window at the bottom of the screen highlighting we've got another warm day underway and yesterday turned out to be warm, 84. we broke out with sunshine, the showers i thought would move in, in the afternoon didn't move in until 5:00. you see rains near the hereford zone and pennsylvania line pushing its way through baltimore, harford and cecil counties. that allowed the pavement to get wet. and in the city in through portions of anne arundel county. a little patchy fog this morning, but look at the temperatures. 71 baltimore. 72 easton.

we'll have a partly sunny sky. that will allow the numbers to get back up to the lower to mid-80s. and spotty showers again in the afternoon. a better chance of showers this evening and tonight and then we begin to slide downward on the thermometer into the weekend. more coming up. 5:30. let's check the roads with kim. >> thank you. if you're coming from harford county southbound on 95, pretty smooth to the whitemarsh area. no problems towards the beltway and tunnels are incident-free at this time. in catonsville though, south rolling road and wilkens avenue remains closed in both directions, crews attempt to clean up the earlier crash that has downed wires and poles in the road. be aware of that. downtown baltimore today through monday at 4:00 p.m., expect east mount vernon placality st. paul street -- at st. paul street closed because of the book fair. and a fire at west 41st street and jfx, 41st is

blocked. back to you. 5:31. it's going to get interesting, acorn hit with criticism after hidden camera videos caught staff members giving advice about tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution. now the organization is suing the makers of that videotape. sherrie johnson is working on this story this morning. >> reporter: good morning. yes, acorn is firing back trying to defend its tainted reputation. the organization filed a lawsuit in maryland against a conservative activist behind the undercover videos that led to many problems. this lawsuit comes after the irs recently ended its relationship with acorn. the census bureau also cut ties with the group and the house and senate cut off federal funds. acorn faced criticism after videos from hidden cameras caught staff members giving advice about tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution to james o'keefe and hanna giles. the pair were wearing disguises as pimps and prostitutes.

acorn said it would sue o'keefe and others in maryland district court. again, o'keefe and g it's les say they are not -- giles say they are not discouraged and there are more videos come out. city hall rocked by layoffs and furloughs. 27 city employees will be out of a job and others will have to take at least five furlough days. mayor sheila dixon says as many as 400 employees could have been fired if not for the furlough plan. >> i would rather do that than see somebody get laid off. if that's what it takes during these tough times everybody's got to do their part. >> this gap that we have to face and decisions we have to make really impacts all of us. >> the city is still negotiating the fire department for possible furloughs. police are except by contract. we want to read a statement

from the state's attorney patricia jessamy -- it reads in part "our office will honor the furlough days designated by the mayor. i want to assure the public our operations will not be affected." time now 5:33. the city is not the only local government suffering right now. it's hit the state as well. but, there's approval for maryland's first slots parlor and that could lead to some much-needed money. a slots panel voted unanimously to approve the slots at the ocean downs racetrack on the eastern shore. the track owner is now able to proceed with his plan for 800 slot machines. he says if things go as planned the slots could be operational by memorial day of next year. it's september 24th -- governor martin o'malley is set to cut the ribbon for the baltimore county's emergency coming coming -- communications tower. we thought your wedding

ring was big but, hey, the largest blue diamond in the world and today you're just 45 minutes away from seeing it in person. for the first time the famed hope diamond is on display without its ornate setting. officials at the smithsonian lifted the cloth yesterday in washington. the nearly 50-karat walnut-sized diamond will be on view by itself for several months while a new fitting is prepared. the universal language for all kids is playing. >> this little one in china probably won't be playing one of the world's most popular games again after this happened to him. hey, kids! >> hear the cougar war. we sit down with courteney cox arc yet about the show. ---- are a ket. 70 this morning. temperatures near 70 as we say

good morning to the faculty and maybe some of the students getting up at cockeysville middle school. went there yesterday. had a great time. we'll recap that in the neck half-hour. warm, patchy fog, dry day expected. now the mta and mark jones. >> heavy volume of passengers on the 13, 7, 23 and 5 bus lines. look for the number 44 bus diverted in the area of york and belvedere due to construction. light rail and metro subway on time. marc train off to an excellent start. no delays. for the mta transit team, i'm mark jones. ♪ take me home ♪ take me home

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it's 5:39. good morning. >> let's find out the weather with justin. >> overnight, we had moderate rain move through just north of the city. that rain coming through was a delay from a few hours. we expected some of that to build in during the afternoon. instead we got ourselves a few bonus hours of warm temperatures and dry weather yesterday. the rain came through overnight and looks like we may have a repeat today. some wet pavement, some patchy fog, but otherwise a partly sunny sky, 71 in baltimore.

68 up towards york. for the people that hale in hagerstown 74 degrees out there in the mountains this morning. we go from near 70 to a high of 84 this afternoon. that's our two-degree guarantee. there will be some passing showers but i think our better chance is this evening and diswroafort. that will pass -- and overnight. that will pass the warm air off the coast and bring us a big cooldown tomorrow into the weekend. 5:40. back to the roads with kim brown. >> good morning. traffic moving along at a nice pace on 95 as you approach the whitemarsh boulevard area making your way down towards the beltway and towards the tunnels. no problems to let you know about on the inner loop or outer loop this morning. in catonsville south rolling road remains closed in both directions at wilkens avenue because of the overnight crash that had poles and wires down in the road. avoid that intersection if you can. downtown baltimore, east mount vernon place between cathedral and st. paul street closed throughout the weekend, actually closed until 4:00 monday afternoon because of the

baltimore book festival. be aware of that. and we have fire activity, two buildings on fire, west 41st street between falls road and jfx that has the lane blocked there. and jfx at north avenue, traffic quiet and running smoothly in both directions. back to you. a 5:40. >> two men heard a crash. >> and they ran over to help the man in trouble. they are being called heroes. i'm linda so with an exclusive up next. you've got a strawberry pop-tart,

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a crash overnight. not your typical car crash. >> the car driver lost control and flipped over a little after 2:00 this morning in catonsville. >> linda so joins us this morning to tell us that the men could literally get college credit for what they did. >> reporter: you can say that. the guy that's helped the man are both students at catonsville community college and in the process of becoming police cadets. this is exclusive video shot by our overnight photographer pete "on the street" o'neill. the crash happened on rolling road and wilkens avenue. the driver apparently trying to avoid a car that swerved into his lane when he lost control and crashed. the two college students who helped the man were heading home with the group of friends. they stopped and ran over to help the victim after seeing the car on its side. one of them grabbed a tire iron to free the man but stopped after realizing if they pulled him out they could hurt him

even more. the students say they are just glad they could help. >> i guess the first thing in my mind was help the guy out. make sure he was all right. >> i like doing this. hopefully turns out to be my career. >> reporter: both terrance and matt are studying to become police officers. they say it runs in the family. one mother is a retired officer. the other is a state trooper. in the studio, linda so, abc2 news. a look now at some of the other top stories. they said they would fight back and they are. the community group acorn filed a lawsuit now against james o'keefe and hanna giles, the pair who posed as a pimp and prostitute at several acorn offices around the country including here in baltimore. in the meantime the irs says acorn will no longer be included in the volunteer tax assistance program. earlier this month the house and senate voted to cut the ties after employees were caught on video helping the two commit what ultimately could amount to tax fraud. the census bureau also shut out

acorn for the 2010 national head count. 5:45. today massachusetts governor duvall patrick will name an interim replacement to fill the vacant u.s. senate seat held by ted kentucky. sources close to the family say kennedy's sons want patrick to nominate chairman paul kirk. zina pierre, the democratic nominee for annapolis mayor called it quits for good. she was in the run be to the city's first african-american mayor but bowed out after details of legal and financial troubles came to surface. also this morning, the international medical community rejoicing over its newest findings. for the first time an experimental vaccine cut the risk of infection from the hiv virus. the u.s. military and thai health officials said in a news conference in bangkok that the vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with hiv more than 31%.

the result came after the world's largest aids vaccine trial of more than 18,000 volunteers in thailand. taking a look at news around the world now -- 5:46. floodwaters gushing through cities and villages in northern turkey killing at least one woman. officials say several other areas of the black sea coast were hit by several rainfall and flooding and the rain began wednesday morning and intensified into late last night. talk about being stuck between a rock and hard place. a 3-year-old boy was rescued after his head got stuck between two concrete load-bearing pillars, this is china. he was playing hide and seek with friends, squeezed his head into the space and couldn't get it out. rescuers used chisels, a plastic belt, lubricating oil and electric saw to get him out. he's ok this morning. great news because that video is hard to watch. >> there he is. come on. all right. you remember monica gellar. but forget about her.

we're talking about the character from "friends." well, courteney cox arquette is back, on the small screen with "cougartown." her character is nothing like "friends." >> joce sterman talks to cox about what it really means to be a cougar and why there's a label for all ladies. >> you see that young gentleman there? love to lick his body. >> that's my son. >> reporter: courteney cox back and on the prowl this time playing newly divorced mom jewels in cougartown. but don't let the clip fool you. >> i think it's a woman in her 40s who, like you said, has the knowledge and experience and confidence to be able to go out with someone younger and teach them things. >> reporter: it's a role cox is comfortable playing considering she's got seven years on hubby david arquette. but with cougartown her character is coming to terms with being single in totally different times. >> she's trying to get back out there and learn how to not just stay home and play scrabble.

>> reporter: jewels gets a little nudge into the dating pool from her friends and from a hunky next door neighbor also recently divorced. he's got her character on the offensive proving she's still got what it takes. >> hey, kids! ow! >> reporter: cox says her character is feisty and fresh, a relatable woman dealing with her own issues as she tries to raise a son and find her own way. and being called a cougar is nothing but a label. >> if you're in your 30s you're a puma. 40s, you're a cougar. 50s you're jaguar. there's all different kinds of animals out there. >> reporter: with "cougartown" abc is saying welcome to the jungle. joce sterman, abc2 news. 5:49. 71 degrees. we got some heat and steaming up around the bay and most of

the metro area this morning. it's going to feel like summer for one more day. we've had showers come through overnight. that has actually helped to provide moisture to make it feel more humid, to actually make fog form in portions of the county. we're looking at a partly sunny sky otherwise for today. pull this back wider and hires the deal -- here's the deal, southeasterly flow continuing, shifting to the southwest today. this system will take over. a system that has been meandering around the south for two weeks. will finally get a lift from the upper levels of the atmosphere and push through and a charge of more moisture from the gulf but first we get the push of one more warm day, cooler air is going to try to slide southbound before we can get the approach of that weather system. in between we'll have ourselves, something like this, partly sunny, still a chance of a shower, temperatures up to 84 and that is the mark we hit yesterday in baltimore. we'll take it up to the north, a little cooler but still expecting about 80 or 81 in westminster. 82 parkton. mid-80s as well on the eastern shore.

again, not a washout, just a chance of a shower. yesterday we missed it until the evening. i think it will be like that today as well. the frontal boundary slips through, we'll drop through the mid-60s and probably continue to cool off even further tomorrow morning. during the day tomorrow itself, looking for a high of only 74 so about 10 degrees cooler and we'll shave off even more on the thermt they are weekend as -- thermometer this weekend as temperatures stay in the 60s with rain arriving late saturday. 5:51. let's check the roads with kim. >> if you're headed down towards the dc area and the capitol beltway 95 southbound is a very smooth ride in howard county. no problems to let you know about here. the bw parkway also running with no problems. if you're taking route 29 into montgomery county that too is running incident-free. in baltimore county, in the catonsville area, still dealing with south rolling road and wilkens avenue remaining closed in both directions because of that overnight descrent. try to avoid that if possible. downtown today and through the weekend ending monday

afternoon, east mount vernon place and st. paul street closed for the baltimore book festival. also, a fire west 41st street between falls road and jfx that has west 41st blocked off. we have video of the fire at the top of the 6:00 hour. as we look at the jfx at 41st street traffic doesn't appear to be impacted at this time as you make your way southbound headed to downtown baltimore this morning. back to you. still ahead -- mary's little lamb followed her to school and looks like these little piggies are doing the same thing. it's the cutest thing. we're going to show you the video, when we come back. and coming up all new at 6:00, an italian job kind of done with a twist of swiss. the heist that has international police on alert this morning. / ♪

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is in your jea with the special k challenge™s than ever. jeans don't lie. go to... the new specialk.com to design your plan. we've all heard the nursery rhyme about the three little pigs. even the one that went to the market. >> this is not the nursery rhyme you've heard but it's the story of the morning. in north carolina, a small town, four pigs showed up on school grounds sometime on monday. the pigs are eating up all the

grass land and it's apparently gotten so bad that teachers had to cancel recess. a jogger who saw the pigs thinks it's actually ironic. >> with the so-called swine flu, pigs at school, sorry but it is kind of funny. >> but as quick as the sheriff's deputy showed up the little pigs took off. they were out in the woods, look at them go. they are not wasting time. pretty cute. let's round it up as we head to 6:00 but first, some weather. >> swine flu the coop? >> ah. >> thank you. we're looking outside at one more warm day, 84 degrees. a shower late in the day and better overnight. we're dropping to 74 tomorrow. 60s over the weekend. it will come with rain arriving late saturday. sunday we'll push back to 78 with more rain. then look at next week. looks like we're going to have an extended cooldown which

tuesday and -- by tuesday and wednesday. more to come including a recap to our visit of cockeysville middle school, in the next half-hour. stick around.

training to become cops. two men passed the test. we take you to the pop quiz on wilkens and rolling road. seems to be taking forever to get the slots up and rolling. how close we're rooting for three women? and no more hide and seek. you're it. in fact you are the video of the day. good morning, maryland. i'm jamie costello. >> i'm megan pringle. thank you for joining us on this thursday morning. before we get to those stories and more, we go to justin berk with a check of the first forecast. >> good morning. it's 5:59. approaching 6:00 and as we start our day here it looks like a map that we would show you in early july. 69 perry hall, 68 monkton and