we want to get you caught up on the news. a harford county preacher is in police custody at this our charged with a child sex offense. backup preacher frank small is on the sex offender register. small's probation means he's in the allowed to have unsupervised contact with any child. if you have information about him, call the harford child advocacy center. a former city police officer is preparing to stand trial for the murder of his neighbor. he's also been child with child pornography. court files found charles "pete" richter is facing charges of child pornography when police found evidence in his home while investigating the murder of his

neighbor. nobody won last night's drawing, so the total is still growing. it will be coming up friday night at 11:00. you have until 10 that night to buy your ticket. taking a live look at harbor cam, things have changed. the sky's grayer. we've been seeing rain and thunder. let's check in with wyatt everhart to see how long this will last. it was a very quick looking line. you can see some lightning being picked up south of the d.c. area, heavier downpours in calvert county, st. mary's county. there is still a is spreer thunderstorm watch -- severe

thunderstorm watch. you see manchester, the sky is dark. 60s, maybe a scattered shower south. we'll talk about the rest of the week coming up. this is a national magazine. it selects wmar for having launched the i-streaming. so props for our apps, national publication giving us props. this month of march is brain injury awareness month. thousands suffer traumatic injuries to their head. recovery can be slow for those who survive and many are never the same. tonight roosevelt leftwich introduces to us a pennsylvania woman whose life has changed, changed five years ago on a baltimore county road. >> at 21 brittany pollock said

she felt inde structable. a few months before her 22nd brgt, doctors thought she would never walk again. she had to fight hard to get it back. when you have a toddler you're always picking up something. brittany's 16-year-old likes to make a mess and this keeps her busy. no one expected her to survive the night let alone be a mom. >> i took my seat belt off and fell asleep. when the accident happened, i hit the console. >> reporter: the suv brittany was riding in hit an embankment about 50 miles an hour on greenspring road. her head was splet from her eye to her ear. she was in a coma for three weeks.

everyone expected she would never be the same again. such an injury meant that the road ahead would be along. >> my mom handed me a rag and said can you wash yourself. i held it up. what is it. i had to learn everything. the things you teach infants that they don't intrinsically know and to learn to walk, talk, my distance, deputy perception. >> reporter: with the help of her nurses at kern nan hadn't and loving family and friends brittany slowly came back it brittany. five years later she's slowly recovering. she gets terrible migraines and says her words zoo come out. she says she's still here. she has a loving husband and son and there are no scars on her

soul, just the ones that she cover with the swoop of her air. >> ever changing. it's a learning thing every day about myself, about life, about everything. >> now brittany said the type of injury that happened to her could happen to anyone. many people under the age of 30 suffer traumatic brain injury. she considers herself very, very lucky. roosevelt leftwich, abc2 news. >> what a story. all right. 12-year nfl veteran chris draft got a special tour of the kimmel center. chris draft said he's happy to bring awareness to the work being done there. you see, he lost his life throt disease last december.

rutledge was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. draft says she had never smoked, lived a very healthy life stie. although there's a huge amount of work to be done, draft says he has seen tremendous progress. >> when you look at some of the numbers, it might not be that different from say 30 years ago, but there's a lot of things changing. there is hope for people. >> there is hope. addition to bringing attention to it, he is also an ed block courage award winner. the protesters are back out in front of the u.s. supreme court. inside the focus went to what would happen if one part is

declared unconstitutional. yesterday some of the justices indicated they might strike down portions of the law. in 2014 states would -- some argue that should ab state's rights issue. so whatever the justices decide, we won't find out until june when that ruling comes down. a bus goes up in flames. it had about 26 people on board. why the driver had no idea about the fire. what started out as a peaceful protest turned destructive.

a greyhound bush, 2 -- bus, 26 people onboard. somebody started smelling something. another driver saw the flames and tried to get the bus driver's attention. >> how did it catch on fire, sir? >> i don't know. >> how did you know was on fire? >> somebody from behind me came

up. >> luckily, the flames were put out quickly. the driver said the fire was probably cause bid a mechanical failure. a protest for trayvon martin turned into a riot. dozens of students ran into a walgreens and started trashing the shelves. no arrests have been made. police investigate every single day. it's not every day that a piece of stole -- stolen object is a piece of history. are newt gingrich's presidential hopes in trouble? he'll have the latest on -- i'll have the latest on his presidential shake-up.

we better not see this thing

pop up. authorities out in california are on the lookout for whoever is behind the theft of a bronze tore ralph -- lorax statue. we have the latest on how the guardian of trees could have used someone guarding him. >> the lorax statue sat here for decades. sometime saturday night someone grabbed the 200 pound bronze statue. this is the statue that disappeared saturday night or sometime after that, dr. seuss' lorax. >> did you chop down this tree? >> i think he did it. >> i thought it was one of those pranks that people pull on television. i said, okay, you guys, where is it. >> it wasn't a prank. someone stole it from the la jolla backyard of the real dr.

seuss, theodore geisel. >> this is the access road. >> the property manager showed the path the thieves took with the statue. it was at least a two-man job. >> they pushed it over the fence and dragged it down here. >> reporter: the bronze statue is irreplaceable. the mold was destroyed after this one was made. it sat here for 12 years under the tree out of the public's eye, something that makes him think the thieves have been here before. >> it's somebody who's been on the property. i don't know. >> reporter: bronze statues have been stolen before to be melted down. >> my only thing is we want it back. >> reporter: he said they won't ask any questions if it's returned. >> i tell you, if we find it in

your garden and the police are involved, we're going to prosecute. >> you have been warned. >> reporter: a warning from the guardian of trees and the guardian of his statue. all right. had a decent round of thundershowers, the rumbles of thunder but now you can see most of the activity very spotty and in southern maryland, now south of cambridge some showers in the southern tip of the state toward lexington park. out toward manassas, the shenandoah valley, lightning detected. things are clearing out nicely in the center part of the state. right now outside some sunshine

back out. that's nice. 71 at bwi. what a change from the cool weather we were dealing with yesterday. through the day it's interesting. lots of downpours. storms rumbling through and the sunshine popping back out and same deal in annapolis. storms took longer to show up and were quick to depart. you can see a beautiful blue sky. winds from the south and southwest. that's a warm breeze, so no rapid cool off with that boundary swinging through. there's some gusts near 33 in the western part of the state. it will be breezy tonight and through the day tomorrow looking quite breezy. right now temperatures low 70s. subtract a solid 10 or 12 degrees. that's where we are tomorrow

closer to 60. you can see the most intense weather much further west. we got a heavy cluster of storms in west virginia back down through the va va area in -- virginia area in short order. we'll see a few scattered showers the rest of the evening. this boundary will bring in rose rose-- breezy weather. the very humid conditions have stayed bottled up south. that's why here in maryland even though we had thunderstorms, they have never had the fuel to intense time of the through the day thursday, a mix of sun and clouds. a new system moving in toward saturday that could bring some showers to kick off the weekend. overnight 52, mild, breezy. 62. somewhat cooler but this is still above average.

tomorrow night down to 37, posely clear -- mostly clear, breezy and cooler. chance of showers, a mild day, warmer sunday as we push up to near 70 to kick off the early part of next week. >> now to democracy 2012. newt gingrich is making some drastic changes to his presidential campaign including slimming done the staff and refocusing his strategy. tory dunnan joins us to tell us what's behind the changes. >> reporter: this really all boils down to a lack of campaign cash. there are a lot of changes at play. he will be cutting one third of his staff. there's a new campaign manager in place. newt gingrich's schedule will become less intensive. the focus will now be on the

convention. his team realizes they're in the going to get the number of delegates. so now they're going to be talking to individual delegates. here's what gingrich had to say about all of the changes. >> downsizing. so we're doing the appropriate things to be able it campaign. >> reporter: it's still going to be a long road ahead for the former speaker of the house. you have newt gingrich with 136 delegates. he's behind santorum and further behind mitt romney. but this might get worse for newt gingrich. the new poll just came out it. shows 60% of republicans feel it's time for newt gingrich to bow out of the race. despite all of this, he says he's staying in. >> let's go to november.

it's suggesting the president is in pretty good shape what can you tell us about this? >> they probably looked at the numbers and thought too bad the election isn't today. you have obama versus romney. obama wins. obama versus santorum similar story but a bigger margin of victory. his job approval number in january 47% and now we see a number at 51%. >> great work. thank you. a spokeswoman for mitt romney's campaign said he will be getting a big endorsement from george h. w. bush. it will take place at an event in houston. former governor jeb bush

endorsed him. coming up all new for you tonight at 6:00, portions of the patapsco river all shut down and harvesting shellfish in the bay have been shut down because of a sewage spill. if you're planning to spruce up your home it probably includes paint. we have tips on what colors to pick out. now, here's a preview of what's ahead on world news at 6:30 with diane sawyer. >> coming up a brand-new scam. are thieves pretending to be your children, grand children, using sphoob to trick you out of thousands of dollars. see how they do it on world news. [ male announcer ] for making cupcakes

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you like them. you really like them starbucks is the most liked fast food chain on facebook. the daily meal website said the chain has more than 29 million likes. facebook users who like starbucks often get discounts and special offers. with the good news comes bad news. vegetarians were told the strawberry rapid cream frappuccinos were real. apparently they've been using dye made from crushed bugs. starbucks said the additives are safe. united airlines is still trying to work out the kinks in their reservation system

following their merger with continental. you started complaining about strange balances and other frequent flyer account. united said it's still working to fix the problems. we'll show you the different locations and prices. abc2 news at 6:00 starts right now. a harford county preacher is in jail, charged with sexually abusing a young girl and why no one knew he was on the sex offender registry. parts of the patapsco river have been shut down. the megamillions jackpot is up to a half a billion.

we want to start you off at the beltway. at least it looks sunny after a line of storms rolled through. what does the rest of the week look like. meteorologist wyatt everhart has your first forecast. >> it's a quick moving line. you probably heard that rumble of thunder. some scattered showers, storms coming through. you could make out the lines, some storms coming through, especially northern virginia. that's where the main threat was all day. here's the humidity values, want there to fuel some. you can see maryland's radar, southern maryland south of calvert cliffs and cambridge. that's really about it. as we take a look at the watches and warnings,