started cloudy. watch the clouds disperse leaving us a mostly sunny day. i was lucky enough to be down at the inner harbor yesterday evening and it was beautiful as baltimore showed off its fine colors. we had clouds try to roll in overnight. check out the scenery as we have the early morning temperature now at 63 in owings mills. we see the northeast view showing the glimmer over the eastern sky. the clouds look so much more impressive on the satellite than they really are. we've jumped out of the mid- 50s to adjust the wake-up temperature. it's 6:30 and here's kim brown with traffic. >> reporter: we are watching outside of the beltway. we're looking good on all of the major roadways so far. volume's light and starting to build a little on the inner loop lanes as you head toward

95. for the most part, all lanes open around the area as we look on the west side 695 to i-70. as we look at our drive times, all looking good from bel air to providence taking you about five minutes. on the outside on the outer loop between the 83s, only one minute so far. the accident we were talking about in loathian, southern anne arundel county, route 48 closed on mount zion and marlboro road. in howard county, we're working a car fire in clarksville, route 32 at linden church road and a structure fire at assateague drive. megan and jamie, back to you. you already have it on your calendar, the ravens first preseason game at 8:00 ravens/panthers at the bank. before that happens, m & t bank will be filled with another football. sherrie johnson is here to explain.

good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, jamie. looks like another international soccer match is coming back to baltimore again this summer. later this morning, we'll have a news conference to explain the details. last summer, more than 70,000 fans packed the stands for the international soccer game between ac milan and chelsea. fans from all over the world turned out for the match. this type of event means big bucks for baltimore. it's great exposure for the city and can shed a positive light on baltimore. that news conference start as the 10:00 here and organizers will explain all of the details about the soccer match. sherrie johnson, abc 2 news. it could be a plot for "oceans 14." a man breaks into an art museum overnight many paris and steals as 123 million in paintings. sounds difficult bust a broken

alarm system made it easier. he clipped a padlocked door, smashed a window and took five paintings out of the frames and right out the door. the heist took about 15 minutes. three security guards say they heard and saw nothing. the security camera did capture some video of him. let's look at news around the nation. it may annoy you when your kids text at dinner time, but text messaging may have saved one man's life. a 911 ditch patcher in tennessee received the call about a fight but then the cell signal was so bad, he couldn't hear it. so he texted him and it worked. the caller texted the location to the dispatcher. don't let your kids get a sweet treat from this ice cream truck. 37-year-old guy from mission, texas, was using it as a cover for his drug business. do you believe that? he got caught when he was pulled over for drunk driving. then police became suspicious

and searched the truck. take a look for yourself. do you see a refrigerator or even ice cream? nothing in there. here we are in miami. that is a train with onlookers. a heavy duty crane helped hoist the 39 ton american airlines aircraft into the air. then it was wheeled to the nearby george t. baker aviation school where students say they usually work on smaller aircrafts and choppers. training on the $6 million plane will be a unique experience. >> we have no pond. how does this disappear? my goodness. this is scary. >> an alligator was spotted in this atlanta neighborhood got an unusually scary visitor. the 6 foot gator was spotted near the swimming pool.

shocked residents could not believe their eyes and snapped pictures. police and animal control officers kept everyone at a safe distance away. animal control wrestled it and brought it back to where it came from. trying to go for a swim. listen, if your child's too young for school right now when she does go to school, she may never know who harriet tubman is. before you make that cup of joe, you'd better check out that coffeemaker. if you bought it at wal-mart it might not be safe.

good morning. 6:38. we've got a partly sunny sky.

how about this mild start. many of us, temperatures pushing into the 60s. we're holding at 59 at bwi marshal. a light wind out of the west- southwest at 3 mile-per-hours. that will continue to pump in as the storm to our west slowly works its way in our direction. we'll see how that will impact our weekend weather coming up. we had no problems around the beltway. we are working around anne arundel county with a road closure. megan and jamie, back to you. it might be a good time to start talking to your kids again about talking to strangers. >> abduction attempts in annapolis have you on edge. >> it happened to two girls this month. what police say you need to lack out for. less, outrage on the big oil -- plus, outrage on a big oil leak. we'll go live to key west florida for the latest.

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good morning, i'm megan pringle. >> i'm jamie costello. oops, i guess we had it wrong from bp. you are looking at the new underwater plume of oil and gas spewing in the gulf of mexico now. >> now it turns out that bp agrees with what experts have been saying all along that the daily flow exceeds 5,000 barrels a day. we'll have a live report in florida on the cleanup effort. first, we'll check on the weather. let's send it to justin. >> good shape here. clouds keeping us mild. here's the hd cam showing the clouds. sun will get through it.

that's the milky white skies. let's take to you gwynn oak where we have the thin veil of clouds. gwynn oak waking up with 64 degrees. here's kim now with the traffic. good news in loathian and anne arundel county at mount diane marlboro road has been reopened from the serious crash but police will be on the scene. aside from that, we're look going around the major roadways. we'll get a check on the drive times in a few minutes. megan and jamie, back to you. it happened twice and now you're holding your child's hand a little tighter this morning. here's the area where you are going to see police patrols this morning. take a look at the map on your screen. again, we're talking anne arundel county. linda so is here to tell us what we should be looking for. linda? >> reporter: in both instances, police say a man approached two

girls near the bates middle school. police will be in the area patrolling school bus stops and neighborhood where's students walk to-and-fro from school. one girl reported may 5th, a man pulled up next to her as she was walking on the 200 block of boxwood road and asked if she wanted to go for a ride. then two weeks later, another student said a man grabbed her arm as she was walking to her bus stop at fairfax road and forest drive. the man drove off in his car and she was able to get away. at this point, police don't know if these incidents are related but anyone with information should call police at 410-268-9000. in the studio, linda so, abc 2 news. >> thanks, linda. a convicted child sex offender is headed to prison after making a stop in his neighborhood wal-mart. a judge had previously given the westminster man a second chance after pleading guilty to molesting a young boy 15 years

ago. but when charles perdom accompanied another child to the store he violated his probation. a police officer recognized him as a sex offender and the wal- mart security cameras provided the proof. the fact that the child's mother was nearby and accompanied them to the store make nose difference at all. >> the individual had been complying with registration and giving a current address and was being monitored, but this trooper saw him in a commercial establishment in the presence of a young child. >> he wasn't supposed to have any contact with children under 18. and 270 measures in his last scheduled bill signing of the year. among those signed into effect include a bill to help state residents facing foreclosure.

another gives a tax credit to anyone buying plug-in electric vehicles. the one that bans the use of hand held cell phones while you are behind the wheel. drivers pay $40 for the first offense and $130 for other violations. the battle over proposed slots parlor in the arundel mills mall is headed to court. the company claims the board overlooked the petition drive in the proposed slots. a library and its patrons got their beloved pet tarantula was returned safe and sound after a brief abduction. the spider named chilly rose was stolen from the westminster library wednesday afternoon along with the flower pot that she uses as a hangout. after tips, police found the pet with 27-year-old randy humple.

he was arrested fort crime and also booked on drug charges. library workers say they are just glad to have chilly rose back in the library. >> chilly rose is cute. it appears rumors of the beverage tax demise were premature. wednesday, a group of baltimore city council members said the alternative to the controversial 4 cent tax on most beverages sold in the city. now it turns out that the beverage tax is not only still on the table it was never off the table. the problem with many of the alternatives is that they don't raise enough money. the beverage tax is projected to bring in $11 million a year gobbling together the replacement to provide much of the difficult council members than they thought. >> i'm prepared to support just about everything before us right now because we need the money. >> the 4 cent per beverage tax is projected to bring in $11 million a year. abc 2 learned council members

have to reduce that number, for example, 2 cents per beverage could bring more than $5 million a year. that would still go a long way towards closing the huge budget gap. all new this morning, jpmorgan chase in frederick says that it's going to close possibly the credit card center. they might be laying off 600 people. the facility was filled with mainly delinquent accounts. the spokesperson says the decision was based on diminishing account volumes and need to increase efficiency. they said the operations will be moved to another location. before you make your coffee, check your screen. this coffeemaker is reportedly overheating and catching on fire. this was sold exclusively at wal-mart. a consumer product safety commission is recalling thousands of the storage trunks sold at target. the commission says that there

are at least two reports of injuries involving young children. after the chunk's lid suddenly snapped shut. if you'd like more information, we've posted all of it for you. all you have to do is head to our web site, abc2news.com. when you get there, there is a news tab for recalls. all right. ten minutes away now from 7:00. >> a major vote, jamie, today in texas will affect your child's history textbooks over the next ten years. a texas board is voting on curriculum changes and they reflect politically conservative viewpoints and don't represent african- american and hispanic culture. the board decided to add president barack obama's name to a high school history class rather than referring to the election of the first blass president. the change -- first black president. it came only after a debate whether to include obama's middle name which is hussein. hey, kids, come up with an idea on how to stop the leak.

then you see johnnie's idea throwing golf balls and mary's idea of using dog hair. bp and politicians are getting pounded. in the middle of it all is jeff who is in key west. we should be worried about casting lines instead of tar balls. >> reporter: right now, bp may want to talk to johnnie and mary. they are saying there's way more oil coming out than you guys were letting on. the scientists did an estimate and saying there could be 800,000 to on the high end 4 million gallons of oil and methane spewing out each day. bp says they will have a fix by next week. on thursday, oil did reach the wetlands in louisiana. some of the wildlife there turned up dead because of the oil. >> jeff, you were by the boats. are they worried about it in key west? is this the talk on the street?

>> they are extremely worried in key west because tourism is the big thing. people come for the watter that's behind me. if the oil taints the water, that would be a concern. in the gulf, you've got the main chunk of oil that's moving in a westerly direction. that's why louisiana is in danger right now. here in florida, what we're looking at is a bit of the oil that's been pulled off by the loop current and being brought down the western start. key west would be the first place to get to but it's not the full chunk of oil that florida's worried about. they are worried about tourism, though. >> i want to you go to malarry square to find somebody who has a better idea to stop the leak. >> sounds good. >> megan? >> thanks, jamie. 6:52 right now. michael phelps is finally diving back into the pool and headed to compete in the paris open. it is the first time the olympic champ has competed in france in nearly a decade. that meet kicks off on june

26th. the crowds will be shoulder to shoulder at m & t bank stadium. it's not to see ray rice or michael orr. soccer will be coming. we'll discuss the details surrounding the match. and milan will play manchester at m & t bank stadium. this will happen weeks after the fin initial south africa. last year, they played between 71,000 fans. that match is july 31st. put your car keys down. time to put on your bike helmet. >> that's right. today is the day to pedal to work. the baltimore metropolitan council is sponsoring bike to workday. this is video from last year's event. it is an initiative to promote clean commutes to work. if the commute is long, all mta buses are equipped with bike racks so you can hop on the bus as part of the trip to work and ride the rest of the way.

all right. good morning. it's 6:53. special good morning to the kids that won the awards handed out yesterday at the maryland science center. we are talking air quality that has been good all week. most of the spring has been good. we're looking at moderate air quality as we head into today. we have allowed the pollutants to build up in the atmosphere. it's 59 in baltimore. low 60s from philly up towards new york. basically, we have a string of clouds here with a warm front pushing in the air. farther back to the west, the remnants of the storm that dumped numerous tornadoes in oklahoma and kansas and flooding rains on wednesday with large scale hail outbreaks. this will weaken and still produce severe weather in the south still pumping in more of the heat. yes, more moisture. notice an increase in the humidity in the next couple of days. this weekend is not a washout.

there may be showers popping around the bay 10:15 through 3:00 in the afternoon. that will try to develop as we head in through sunday. gorgeous day with a two degree guarantee under partly cloudy skies. as we head to this weekend, 70s. showers saturday with a little more rain and not a washout sunday. kim? you know the crash i talked about earlier on the income emergency turnpike? the northbound lanes are still closed. if you head up to new york or new jersey, they don't plan to reopen that until 9:00 a.m. it was a crash involving three contracts so it's very, very serious. fortunately, we have nothing that serious around our area. traffic is building on the beltway of harford road slowing down as you make your way towards providence and belair road. 95 southbound four minutes from white marsh boulevard to the

beltway. no problems from owings mills boulevard to 695. that will take about you five minutes. still working one situation in jessup at assateague drive. there is a structure fire so you will see emergency crews on the scene there. megan and jamie, back to you. coming up next on "good morning america," scientists announced what they call a major step forward in the quest to create artificial life. they produced a living cell powered by man made dna. dr. richard betsa breaks down what it means. can i hear you scream? >> aaaah! >> there you go. jonas brothers will be on stage. >> this will be jamie, by the way, during "good morning america" and i'll look at his desk and he'll be like this. >> with the hearts around his face. >> that wasn't kim or me screaming, by the way. all right. watching the jonas brothers

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