we showed you a snowball fight in paris. we split the difference here. we just got cloudy skies and temperature of 48 degrees in baltimore. not too shabby. in fact that is a reading at the airport where most of us actually started today in the 50s. 52 the official reading at the airport in easton. 56 degrees in beautiful hagerstown. why are you chuckling? 44 up there in york. again, we've had clouds roll in. we'll have mostly cloudy skies but it will be a warm one today and there will be sun slipping between the clouds. we'll get up to the low end of the 2-degree guarantee at 75. 6:30 on the clock. let's check the roads with kim. >> thank you. just quickly, traffic is starting to build on the northeast corner of the beltway at harford road as you make your way towards the top side. no delays or incidents at this time. that is always good news. getting word of a disabled vehicle on northbound 95 at pulaski highway. that does block the left lane. also a disabled vehicle blocking the right lane on southbound 95 at 695 in arbutus.

southbound route 170 at 195, the left lane continues to be taken away because of a emergency work zone. a fire still on the scene downtown baltimore at broadway and lombard. reports of debris in the road, honeygo boulevard at ebenezer. use caution. jfx at cold spring lane, traffic looks pretty good southbound, building volume but no delays or incidents. back to you. news time 6:31. he was 18 years old look how loved walter brooks was. >> the former north county graduate died of complications from the swine flu. abc2 news linda so has more on a midnight vigil that drew hundreds of people. >> reporter: walter brooks was one of those guys who was everyone's friend and he can make a roomful of people laugh. a huge crowd turned out for a midnight vigil at north county high school in glen burnie. the 18-year-old graduated from the school in may. his parents got what appeared to be a cold last weekend and it got worse quickly. walter was taken to the university of maryland medical center. he never recovered.

doctors had to amputate his legs. friends who gathered at the vigil say he was more than a friend, avenues -- he was a person who loved everyone. >> a friend is somebody you can lean on. somebody who will never turn their back. somebody who will forever be there, like family. >> he would talk to anybody on the street. he would see someone looking sad or something he would go right over to them. he didn't care who you were. >> doctors told his parents walter had in fact been infected with swine flu and it crippled his immune system, allowing another infection to take hold. walter was in his first year at anne arundel community college. his parents say he wanted to be an actor. in the studio, linda so, abc2 news. a marine corps sergeant will spend a year and a half in jail for faking a posttraumatic stress disorder and pretending to be an injured hero to get free tickets to concerts and sporting events. sergeant david biewd boudoir

pled guilty to the charges yesterday. he said he didn't earn eight medals and ribbons when he wore his uniform. he said he was never deployed, never injured and will now be dishonorably charged from the marine corps after released from jail. 6:33. a move that could help clear the way for slots in baltimore. the baltimore city board of estimates approved a land development and lease agreement with baltimore city entertainment group for a voter approved video lottery terminal facility. this would be built in south baltimore. listen. >> hoping for a first-class facility which we expect to deliver to the citizens of the city. it will have thousands of machines. there will be a substantial economic impact for the city. roughly rough -- a tax

reduction of 8 cents. >> according to the agreement by the fifth year the facility will generate an estimated $25 million for baltimore city. a feisty feline had a close call after getting stuck in a car engine. it took rescuers several hours to get the cat out. police released these pictures of the rescue efforts. the driver of the car rode for two miles with the cat in the engine. he didn'teries the animal was there. >> he was like amazed. he thought he had killed the cat but when he seen him move he was amazed. i just tried to keep him calm, pet him, he scratched me, bit my finger. yeah, he was really scared but he was really stuck in there. >> amazingly the cat is ok after being pulled from the engine. police still don't know how he got stuck there in the first place. she educates them and teaches them about life lessons. qqthe hairstyles the students sported were more for the fun of it. the meaning behind the actions. >> it's entertained your children for 30 years but a popular attraction at the inner harbor could be leaving.

6:34. we got mostly cloudy skies this morning. temperatures in the mid-50s on average. and we are looking at another warm day before some rain comes in. we'll talk about that next. 6:34. kim brown with traffic. >> no problems so far on 695 but we have some disabled vehicles in the area, two different sections of 95. full details coming up. first, a check of the buses and trains with mark jones. >> good morning. on the marc train camden train 845 is presently 10 to 15 minutes late. the other trains of marc are on time. on the buses, number 5 is 15 minutes late. the 5, 6 and 13 and 35 buses eastbound taking a diversion at monument and washington. and look for a heavy volume on the 13, 7 and 19 bus lines. for the mta transit team, i'm mark jones.

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6:38. students at one elementary school donned wacky wigs and costumes wednesday. >> in an effort to support their teacher's battle against cancer. >> reporter: from mohawks to buzz cuts. to something in bright red. >> it's not my hair. >> reporter: the kids at piney elementary school in green bay know the fun has a serious side to it. their speech teacher, beth hibbert is fighting breast cancer. >> the students think it's a fun awesome day and love to help. >> reporter: crazy hair wig day was the idea of the student board. besides styling their hair in all shapes and colors. >> blue, purple and pink. and red and green. >> reporter: kids brought a dollar or whatever they could afford to tonate. >> i have kids that say my grandma had cancer, it was tough so i want to help you out. it's been very overwhelming. >> reporter: the money

given to beth's favorite charity, the ribbon of hope. crazy hair and wigs raisings over $400 for a teacher these kids are crazy about. coming up next -- he was a north county star. this morning he's being remembered for his kind heart and his spirited personality. >> walter brooks was a healthy 18-year-old and now they are mourning his sudden death blamed on swine flu. and i'm linda so. we'll take you to a midnight vigil to remember the teen. 6:40. really interesting morning here because temperatures are actually ranging in the mid-50s in some spots. this is 52 degrees in fallston. yet nearby bel air at 47. we've got a mild start to the day. another warm afternoon. complete forecast and much more news and traffic after this.

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he got along with anybody and everybody. he befriended everybody. >> he had 1,395 friends on facebook. he has many more watching here this morning.

as we remember the life of walter brooks. also ahead, o'keefe, the new wordward and bern teen, two undercover filmmakers continue to go after acorn. and the inner harbor carousel is close to calling it a day. before we get to weather i want to bring this up. earlier in the show we were talking about ranking of the cities with the ugliest men. hagerstown was number two. i looked up the best-looking, bethesda was number one. though i think hagerstown has plenty of good-looking people there. >> thank you. justin berk, you've gone through hagerstown before, right? >> i kept going, but a short ride between -- i've never stopped by. i've just been via the interstate. maybe we should just talk about weather and get off this topic. hopefully they are not picking us up on the cable this morning. 48 degrees. listen to what linda so had to say an hour ago.

different story. 48 cockeysville. 52 edgemere. on the south side look at the difference here from 50 in annapolis, 46 bowie, 44 ellicott city. wide spread of temperatures, yes, we had clouds roll in. part of a much larger storm system that is lingering back across the central plains. they had snow in denver, colorado and the injection of the tropical moisture from what was once rick that hit western mexico a couple of days ago, now being infused across the deep south. flooding rains in eastern texas continues across the deep south. the storm winds its way up and cranks up wind here. we'll pull up warmer temperatures with the wind through the next couple of days. the moisture today mostly in the form of clouds. downtown baltimore will get up to a mild 75 degrees. though we'll see more clouds than we had yesterday, we take to you carroll county, westminster 72. yes, you go a few miles west to beautiful hagerstown and they will have clouds and temperatures there about 70 to 72 as well. let's check the roads with kim. >> we have heavy traffic

early on southbound 95 between whitemarsh boulevard and the 695 split. top corner of harford road at 695 traffic beginning to build but still moving pretty nicely at this time. we still have a disabled vehicle blocking the left lane, that is northbound 95 at pulaski highway so stay to the right there. that earlier disabled vehicle we had in arbutus, southbound 95 at the beltway has been cleared. fire equipment still at the scene in downtown baltimore at broadway and lombard. and debris at northbound honeygo boulevard at ebenezer in the whitemarsh area. other cameras, jfx at cold spring lane, traffic moving nicely. back to you. 6:46. words cannot express the love in the air tonight. walter, you're the only person i know that can bring that many people together. >> it's never going to be a goodbye, just see you soon. i know you're watching down on us and making sure each of us shines as bright as we were meant to. just some of the words from a facebook posting of walter

brooks. he passed away and he's now being remembered. linda so has more. >> reporter: hundreds came out to say goodbye to a friend who left his mark in so many good ways. walter brooks was one of though -- those guys, everyone's friend. a midnight vigil was held in glen burnie. the 18-year-old graduated from the school in may. his parents he got what a -- say he got what appeared to be a cold and got worse quickly. he was taken to the hospital, doctors had to amputate his legs. >> he'll do anything to make you laugh. he'll walk up to a random person and be just like, i love you. he loved everybody. he never wanted to see anybody with a sad face on. he just wanted everybody to smile and just love each other, he just loved everybody. >> reporter: there's a facebook page dedicated to walter. so many people have left messages. here's one. "walter had such a beautiful

spirit. he opened my eyes to so many things and made me not stereotype people. walter in his first year at anne arundel community college, he wanted to be an actor. his father says he hopes to put pressure on politicians to make murder of the swine flu vaccine available. in the studio, linda so, abc2 news. >> you just reported on yesterday the government calling it the young person's disease. it's scenarios like this one we just heard that parents are seriously concerned out there. new information out yesterday doesn't help. the government is reportedly behind schedule in getting out the vaccine. not just a little but by millions of doses. a top official in the obama administration promised more vaccine is on the way. >> it's something that is very serious in that just the idea that there's not enough to go around, is very worrisome. especially with people, with kids and pre-existing conditions. >> health officials insist there are no shortages of the vaccine, just delays.

fake swine flu medications are popping up all over the internet. it may look like a person could have tamiflu at their fingertips on-line but doctors say you need to be very careful about buying it or anything else that makes promises about treating the swine flu. >> you purchase it from the internet, we don't have that reliability, you can't verify it certainly. and when you get the product you can't guarantee what is in there either. >> the fda found that many sites did not require prescriptions. some pills didn't arrive fast enough to treat sun someone if they were -- treat someone if they were actually sick. they warn there's absolutely no secure way of knowing what you are putting in your body unless you talk to a doctor about medications. 6:49. we have a 14-year-old robbery suspect clinging to life after being shot by police. this all went down before 8:00 last night in the 700 block of west lexington. police say the officer involved was on his way back to headquarters when he saw a robbery going down.

the victim is a medical student, riding his bike home, the officer saw the teen holding a gun to the victim's neck. turns out to be a bb gun. neighbors at the scene say the 14-year-old lives in the gilmore homes community. the medical student was not hurt. the search for a missing girl could now be a murder investigation. detectives searching for a missing 7-year-old summer thompson found the body of a young child in a georgia landfill. the body has not been positively identified at this point. however, summer's parents have been told of the discovery and the father says a birthmark on that body seems to be the same birthmark on his daughter. last night hundreds of people gathered outside the thompson home for a candlelight vigil for the little girl. >> for helping me, for looking for my baby, thank you. thank you, everybody. >> at this point police do not have any suspects right now. summer disappeared monday when she was walking home from school. we've seen sketches and

computer-generated pictures before but nothing like this. baltimore county police created a facial reconstruction in hopes you might be able to identify a woman that was found dead 13 years ago. her skeletal remains were discovered on falls road south of the gunpowder road. this is back in march of 1996. last week a forensic artist created this model using the skull that was found and police say the woman is african-american, believed to be between the ages of 17 and 23. about five feet tall. they say she had a small blemish on the right side of her skull. it may be a hereditary trait, may be caused by surgery or accident, we don't know. if you know anything call police right away. acorn back in the news. a republican lawmaker calling for a justice department investigation into the community group. the association of community organizeses for reform has been under fire for some time. the group is under investigation in several states including ours. this comes after hidden camera video surfaced including one shot in baltimore. they apparently show acorn staff members advising a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute

how to cheat on their taxes. >> acorn is a corrupt criminal enterprise, that is the conclusion of the july 23rd report but we couldn't crack into that without hanna and james because they had the insight to go in those buildings and present themselves as, i'll just say, a pimp and a prostitute. and we got to look inside acorn to see the character and culture behind those doors in five cities. >> both congress and irs have severed all ties with acorn and so has the bank of america. 6:52 now. baltimore's historic inner harbor carousel could be going on its last ride. baltimore development corporation is considering replacing the carousel with a more modern attraction. the vintage carousel has been around since 1981 but falling ridership leaves the city wondering where the magic went and how they can get it back. >> i think it's not so much that anyone's not happy. it's a classic jewel, a historic carousel but i think they are looking to the future

and looking at maybe having something, maybe more than one attraction in this area that can actually revitalize the inner harbor and really restore some of the luster that the inner harbor has and get people back here again. >> since the ride doesn't have a lease for 2010 the decision must be made before the end of the year. we will of course keep you posted. 25 years ago today three firefighters lost their lives on the job and today marks the 25th anniversary of the furniture store in dundalk that caused all this. three firefighters died fighting the flames and today they will be remembered in a service at the dundalk fire station. this will take place this afternoon. the fire was the deadliest in baltimore county in their fire service history. maryland's unemployment rate went up last month but not by much. we went up from 7.1 in august to 7.2, still lower than the national average. maryland employers cut about 3,600 jobs in september. significantly less than the average monthlylous of 4,700 jobs this year through the

month of august. some encouraging news though. more than a thousand jobs were added to the construction section. the first gain in construction employment in almost 18 months of declines scene. seen. >> in linthicum, baltimore hires is holding a job fair now at the holiday inn in elkridge road in anne arundel county. resumes can be handed out to several companies including enterprise, wal-mart, mutual of omaha. this is from 11:00 to 2:00 this afternoon. coming up on saturday we got our chance at harborplace and the gallery. we're supposed to get as many people as we can get to do michael jackson's thriller dance. >> can you do it? >> yeah. >> here we go. >> this is miami. same thing going on there. he got a thrilling tribute. students from the new world school of arts broke into the dance to the late king of pop's thriller. there they go. the flash mob dance has been

popping up all over the world ever since michael jackson died. miami didn't rank too high on your list, did it? >> not my list. >> we're still talking about that. we're looking at downtown baltimore today, 2-degree guaranteed high on the low end of what we called last night 75. that is just because of added cloud cover. despite that we've got one more warm day on tap and enjoy it. today we slip back to 55. showers could roll in tomorrow morning. the graphics look wet but it won't be a compete washout. just periods of rain tomorrow, 65. it looks like a period of heavy rain on saturday possible, windy but not all day rain event. monday and tuesday, mid-50s to near 60. we're looking good on the major roads so far. just traffic building around the beltway. a little bit of traffic building at the harbor tunnel thruway in the southbound lanes

as well but really no problems to let you know about on the harrisburg expressway. or on 695. we still have a disabled vehicle blocking the left lane on northbound 95 at pulaski highway. use caution there. fire still on scene downtown at broadway and lombard street and some debris in the road in the whitemarsh area, northbound honeygo boulevard at ebenezer. as we look at the jfx, this is at cold spring lane, traffic is getting heavy as you make your way towards downtown but no incidents to let you know about at this time. we are going to send you up to new york for "good morning america" but we hope you'll join us for "good morning maryland" at 9:00. we have a lot to talk about. we're going to talk about holding on to history. a baltimore woman is making sure we remember charm city and all the historic gems that it has to offer. >> are you complaining about a lack of concentration? are you moody? yeah? what about it? we're going to talk about it today at 9:00. you may have something to -- you're not moody. >> what were you talking about? i thought it was crazy feeding in the fall.

i always feed in the fall. but, it's the best time. feed your lawn in the fall. the fall feeding makes all the difference in the world. what the fall feeding does is build the roots. that's when the roots sorta want nutrition. i give my lawn scotts winterguard. it's like a root building machine. it builds your lawn from the roots up. next year you get this! the stronger the roots, the stronger the lawn. all year long. the best time to feed is when it will do the most good. there is no substitute for the fall feeding, trust me. it's the best thing you can do for your lawn. i use scotts winterguard.

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