>> 5:29. temperatures are still running above normal but may feel a little chilly compared to the heat that we've had over the past week and relatively mild temperatures yesterday. 48 now in westminster, 46 glenwood. we've got 51 showing up in glen burnie and edgemere and up towards he -- elkton. satellite and radar, rain encroaching from central pennsylvania. heavier bands in northeastern ohio and this stuff sliding in our direction. we expect rain to roll into the area, during the course of this afternoon but it's really about the clouds that start to build up, though we start with the range of 45 to 50 we're not going to move much, by this midday, 54 degrees, showers developing and we'll try to hit 55 this afternoon. once that light rain begins to fall temperatures will halt progress. 55, below normal and it will feel chillier with the chance of afternoon rain so take a light jacket.

>> traffic moving smoothly as folks are getting up and out on this tuesday but there are some issues. 695 and liberty road, you can see the roads looking pretty good, traffic building but still moving pretty freely. there are some problem areas, whitemarsh, a report of an overturned vehicle, 95 southbound at whitemarsh boulevard. and a crash at 95 and the 695 split, two of the four southbound lanes closed. back to you. balloons and confetti filled the annapolis floor but every tick up to the stroke of midnight, there were talks and compromises and deals being made. from the cell phone ban while driving to tightening up sex offender laws. linda so is here with the final hours of the general assembly. >> lawmakers scrambled to get final pieces of legislation through in the final hour. when the confetti finally dropped at midnight some significant new laws were put in place. lawmakers voted to ban handheld

cell phones while driving blue tooth devices are still aloud. and lawmakers voted to toughen penalties for sex offenders, the minimum sentence from five years to 15. as lawmakers mark the end of this year's session they are looking ahead to the election, especially the rematch between o'malley and ehrlich. >> it's going to be a close election i think, at the same time, 250,000 new democrats, two more democratic congressmen affecting a million and a half voters. bob ehrlich, despite this new temperature, tea party and everything else, is going to have a tough time defeating martin o'malley >> reporter: republicans disagree. they say the session was marked by election year politics. in the studio, linda so, abc2 news. 5:32. new this morning, federal prosecutors charged 13 people with being part of a prison gang. they say was dealing drugs. officials say the black gorilla family gang tried to take over

the heroin trade in baltimore. the associated press reports todd duncan is accused in the search warrant of affidavit of running the gang's baltimore operations while also working as a youth counselor in a federally funded program aimed at preventing violence. police in muskogee, oklahoma, arrested two teenaged boys in connection with the deadly weekend mall shooting. one person killed, five others wounded. the search conditions for weapons and more evidence. at least three people killed in the crash of a navy plane, just missed a house, went down in a wooded area two hours north of atlanta. the search underway for a fourth person believed to have been on board, no word yet on what may have caused this accident. 5:33. controversy surrounding some video that is just released. >> this is police brutality, pure and simple. things in the video that concern me. >> what appears to be police

beating a man, caught on tape. we'll show you the video. 5:33. 51 degrees downtown. 40s outside the beltway, so cool morning. the clouds rolling in and some rain shortly behind that. we'll show you maryland's most powerful doppler radar coming up next. right now 5:34. let's check the mta with mark jones. >> good morning. dealing with the westbound delay on metro subway, presently 10 minutes late. light rail on schedule. marc showing no delays for the start. on the buses, heavy volume of passengers on the 19, 5 and 36 bus lines but no delays or major delays. (announcer) we send them off each day.

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>> the space shuttle discovery astronauts getting down to business. this is a live picture courtesy of nasa. the astronauts already finished installing a storage tank outside of the intertbhacial . the next big chore to put a virtually empty tank on board discovery so it can be -- heck, i don't even empty the garbage. discovery will leave the space station saturday and return to earth on monday. >> amazing. we've been enjoying springlike temperatures here but look at this. some folks out west are dealing with winter conditions. a storm dumped about five inches of snow in the mountains above lake tahoe. of course several ski resorts will remain open another week or so. however, alpine meadows on the tahoe west side does not plan to close until may 16th. the resort reports snow measuring 14 feet at mid-mountain. >> i don't want to see pictures of it. >> no. >> i don't want to hear stories about it. just move on. >> justin likes it.

>> you like that stuff huh? in may they can ski with their shorts on. that's a good time. we look at maryland's most powerful doppler radar. all that talk of snow stuff not here. five complete sweeps across the chesapeake as we switch to the regional view you can see rain beginning to move through western maryland. it a appears as if some of the light rain will reach western sections by late morning. most of us will stay dry but west on 70 to frederick there's a possibility you could run into sprinkles in the morning hours. currently 51 baltimore. 45 easton. 39 york. 54 by lunchtime and only 55 as our 2-degree guaranteed high. again, the chance of light rain builds in late morning through this afternoon and evening.

it will not be heavy but enough to make things wet and hopefully take a lot of this pollen out of the air. >> congestion on the east side and west side of the beltway. drive times look like this -- 95 southbound, 695 to 895, six minutes. 95 southbound, 895 split to fort mchenry, five-minute ride. and key bridge to 9 , nine minutes. a incident, three cars involved, one overturned vehicle 95 southbound at whitemarsh boulevard. rescue vehicles on scene. so you might want to make sure you avoid that area. back to you. lawmakers did a lot on the last day of the legislative session to change our driving habits and keep our

kids safer. >> new taxes and new fees to try to balance the baltimore city budget. i'm sherrie johnson. i'll tell you about higher parking fees, coming up. ñ

"good morning maryland" news time 5:44. the general assembly finished its session last night. linda so is here to tell us what new laws will affect us most. >> reporter: the one that will affect all of us, the ban on handheld cell phones while driving. a busy final hour before confetti dropped at midnight. lawmakers also voted to toughen penalties for sex offenders. the minimum prison sentence went from five years to 15. that law was prompted by the death of 11-year-old sarah foxwell on the eastern shore. she was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a registered sex offender. there are also new rules to increase child support payments. the governor says he feels good about the session and is hopeful the economy will rebound soon. >> i'm hopeful we'll start bursting with that positive monthly job creation zone. in the next few months, but

everything that we can do to accelerate it is what this general assembly has been about. >> reporter: but republican would disagree. they say the session was marked by election year politics, democrats waiting to make the unpopular decision to raise taxes until after the election. in the studio, linda so, abc2 news. >> thank you. we want to put up some of the other issues lawmakers tackled. a mediation bill was proved. and lawmakers endorsed changing the slots policy. trying to entice a bidder to the west maryland location. as linda said the handsheld creme phone and child support -- cell phone and child support imloins all new. more at abc2news.com. when you go out in baltimore city, -- sherrie johnson is live in fells point

with changes that could be coming. >> reporter: good morning. we're here in fells point, right now the baltimore city mayor is trying to balance the budget and this means that we're going to be looking at higher parking fees at our parking meters. any time you try to park downtown. basically what this means is $70 million in cuts and $50 million in new fees. the mayor says it affects everyone from big non-profits like hopkins to the guy drinking a soda with his lunch. but all the taxes, it's parking that irritates many people. under the proposal parking would jump 100% from $1 an hour to $2 per hour. [no audio] downtown area. >> people coming to the city to park, it's cheaper to keep it out of the county where you don't have to pay. i will not come to the city to

pay extra parking. it's crazy. >> reporter: with -- even with all the cuts we're still talking about 250 jobs in the city that will be lost as well. but there will also be no property tax increase for city residents. none of this is set in stone. it's still has to be reviewed by the city council. sherrie johnson, abc2 news. 5:47. there's controversy surrounding a maryland police department in what appears to be a beating caught on tape. on the video university of maryland student john mckenna is singing a cheer, celebrating maryland's basketball win over duke. when he comes face-to-face with the park police mounted officer. he stops and actually backs up. from this tape it appears he was knocked unconscious by prince george's county police officers. mcken why's lawyer says there's only one way to characterize what happened. >> this is police brutality,

pure and simple. >> however, charges against mckenna alleges an assault against a police officer and disorderly conduct. it claims mckenna was kicked by the horses and sustained minor injuries. prince george's county says their office will begin an immediate investigation into the video and what happened. >> there are things in the video that concern me, brad. we're going to take a look at it. >> federal investigators will also be looking at the tape to determine if civil rights violations occurred. still holding 51 in baltimore. 5:48 on the clock. we have widespread temperatures from mid-40s to the lower 50s. it's cloud cover that will dominate today. the next weather system already showing up impressive rain returns coming from northeastern ohio and back in through western pennsylvania. this initial band of showers

looks like it's not going to survive the trip across the mountains but it will help to moisten the atmosphere. we have the clouds rolling in, clouds dominate today holding our temperatures down and that northwesterly flow will continue to drag in the moisture. it appears as if we should have rain rolling into the western sections of our viewing area. by this afternoon, maybe even sooner. this is just one computer model view of what might happen but it does appear as if we have at least have light rain during the course of the afternoon through the evening. we should try to dry things out overnight. tomorrow, looks like a major improvement, wack to normal and more sunshine carries us through thursday with temperatures back close to 70. for today, a cool day, you will likely want to take a light jacket with you because the temperatures this morning, will be close to what we have this afternoon. 55 degrees downtown baltimore. there will be the chance of showers and temperatures fairly similar, back towards the northwest, calling mid-50s from westminster back to parktonton. hop across the eastern shore, temperatures maybe a little milder but still a chance of

rain, grasonville 58. 58 easton. tonight, temperatures range throughout the 40s. if we clear out on the north side, could drop to low 40s by daybreak. there's a chance things clear up through tomorrow morning. tomorrow should turn out to be a partly cloudy to mostly sunny day. one of those days where probably you'll find more clouds in central and southern maryland, actually, with the clearing of that departure of that system but overall we expect temperatures back to normal levels, 63 degrees. slow warming trend through the rest of the week. we get up to 712 degrees with sunshine on thursday. we should stay to low to mid-70s on friday. there will be the chance of late-day showers, maybe a thunderstorm and the next weather stm comes back with another cooldown. not a lot of variation after getting through today's cool weather but we will knock it back into the mid and lower 60s with spotty showers leading on through next weekend. 5:50. let's check the roads with

troy. >> thank you. top side of the beltway near whitemarsh in a moment. drive times -- 95, outer loop, belair road and providence road, six minutes. 95 southbound, whitemarsh boulevard, you see it from the yellow, to 695, six minutes. and 695, outer loop, 83 to the jfx, one minute. 695 and harford road, traffic is flowing pretty freely but you might want to be on the lookout, 95 southbound, that earlier accident in whitemarsh, three cars involved, one overturned, rescuers on scene. so two right lanes and shoulder are blocked. slow traffic from the harford county line so you might want to avoid that. if you use pulaski or belair road as an alternate instead of getting on the beltway. severn, 97 southbound at dorsey road, disabled vehicle, no impact on traffic. more coming up as more "good morning maryland" continues.

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ukraine decided to give up its weapons-grade uranium. the president says the decision is historic and the u.s. will be offering technical and financial assistance to help make this happen. a federal team of inspectors are beginning to look at an investigation into

last week's mine explosion in west virginia that killed 29 men. federal investigators are trying to piece together what caused the worst u.s. coal mining disaster since 1970. >> and long night for state lawmakers, they resolve two high-profile measures cracking down on sex offenders before late-night ending. and longer sentences for sex offenders. and a bill-signing ceremony will be in annapolis later this morning. 5:55. here's some of the other stories happening today. more than 125 baltimore county students will become leaders for a day by simulating the u.s. congress. also, the state comptroller will open returns as the tax deadline quickly approaches. the 2010 census road tour comes to baltimore. and we had franchot yesterday here. opening up a letter and it was a return -- what was it, disiewrn 7 million? -- $7 million? personal check? >> i cannot magic.

>> i can't. >> started with a report. >> fueled by a comment. >> if he's not prepared to embrace the truth - >> the massachusetts priest speaking out in the remark by a vatican official that has escalated the sex abuse allegations involving the pope. >> and an adoption controversy involving one family and two countries. how it may be more of a moral issue than a legal one after a tennessee couple did with their adoptive son. >> advertisers used to sub-- tasers used to subdue suspects but one deputy used it on another for the wrong reasons. >> 5:56. we have a chilly day on tap. we start near 50, we only get to mid-50s with light rain this afternoon. tomorrow, the sun comes back, seasonable day. then push low 70s on thursday and friday before more rain coming in by the weekend. more details including a look at maryland's most powerful

doppler coming up. 695 and harford road, traffic moving freely on the mdot cameras. an issue at 95 southbound at whitemarsh boulevard. rescuers on scene, two right lanes and shoulder blocked. slow traffic from the harford county line. use pulaski or bel air roads as an alternative. your drive times -- 95 northbound, route 100, to 395. nine minutes. 29 -- route 70 to 32, nine minutes, 695, outer loop, 70 to 95, six minutes. 

this is police brutality, pure and simple. >> at least one fan says police got physical after the duke game. if the job is finished in annapolis. now,