you might want to leave a little bitterliy this morning if you take -- a little bit early if you take the jones falls expressway. road closures and congestion could mean long waits and sherrie johnson is live with more. what's going on, on i-83. >> reporter: good morning angela. right now, traffic is starting to pick up just a little bit here. take a look. i am at the north avenue mount royal exit here off and you know i got to tell you, traffic is start being to pick up a little bit. still, no backup right now. but, hey, it's early. this is a first true test for the jones falls expressway closures. the left lanes at 28th street in both directions were shut down on friday for repairs. now, the lane closures are needed for emergency repairs to collapse drainage pipes underneath expressway. the department of transportation says you need closures for safety reasons. and as you can imagine, these closures will mean serious

traffic congestion especially during rush hour. now we talked to drivers who are planning alternate routes and many are looking at liberty road, falls road and charles street. >> take either liberty road which is the furtherrest west i brie -- fartherest west you can go or falls road and those things are helpful. >> maybe 3 will be a -- 83 will be a challenge so there's charles street and falls road. >> reporter: now the repairs and the lane closures are expected to last for about 6 to 8 weeks. and the department of transportation says depending on how the construction goes, they are trying to have everything wrapped up and completed in about 8 weeks. reporting live in downtown, sherrie johnson, abc2 news. this -- >> this going to affect a lot of you. so go to abc2news.com and click on the traffic tab and you can find alternate routes to avoid the congestion. it's likely along the jfx. 5:31. best buy announced which stores it will be closing in hunt

valley and inner harbor will close soon. starting today ring both stores will put -- today, both stores will put sale prices in place. county officials are urging residents to exercises extreme caution. sunday they lifted the burn ban. rest he dents and businesss are asked to be very careful and mindful while burning outdoors and they are adviced to never leave a fire unattended. windy and dry conditions prompted a national weather service to issue the fire warning throughout the mid-atlantic region. big news from preakness. we are going to see a race of arabian horses on the third saturday in may. abudabu is involvedch it's 14- horse ray they signed an emergency bill allowing them and the marylanding commission is expected to -- maryland racing commission is expected to approve this. the president's back home from south america this morning

and he spoke out for the first time about the secret service sex scandal. this morning members of congress are vowing to investigate the allegations. mr. obama's secret service agents solicited prostitutes and making preparations for the president's colombian visit. we have details. >> reporter: those men and women entrusted with protecting the president prided themself on professionalism and discipline. 11 secret service personnel and five u.s. military servicemen face ep embarrassing allegation of heavy drinking and soliciting prostitutes. president obama commented on the scandal for the first time late sunday while attending a summit of the americas in colombia. >> if it turns out that some of the am gation -- allegation that is have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course i will be angry. >> reporter: members of congress called the alleged behavior outrageous. the house oversight committee chairman vows to investigate. >> it would be about how did this happen and how often has

this happened before. things like this don't happen once. >> reporter: the incidents alleged loy kurd days before president arrived. last wednesday, officials at hotel were said to be irritated at heavy drinking and loud partying by the security detail. sources say local women were coming in with the agents. the alleged scandal might have remained secret if not for an argument between the agent and a prostitute. >> police have not come to -- if police hadn't come to ask her to leave. she wouldn't leave until the agent paid money she said was owed to her. >> reporter: none of the agents were assigned to protect the president but many believe it threatens the president's safety. >> security was compromised the fact they were in the compromised position where they could be blackmailed. >> reporter: the 11 secret service agents were placed on administrative leave and sent home. the agency investigates what happened. the coast guard called off

a search for four missing yacht racers overnight after covering5,000 square miles. the boat was taking part in a race when it encountered a large series of waves. there were eight people on board, one passed away. three others survived. three helicopters, two patrol boats and a cutter as an ac130 airplane were all involved in the search efforts. the coast guard says the temperatures of the water only 50 degrees. detroit dog owner is reunited with her dog emma after she says she was robbed at gunpoint. listen to this. a elizabeth says that two men came up to her pointing a gun in her face. they demanded cash and told her they were going to take her dog. a few hours later she received a call that she would have her dog returned for 50 bucks. she says it was a small price to pay for her best friend. >> they weren't that greedy about how much it's to pay and secondly it was more important that she has not been injured.

>> police believe the suspects may be connected to other similar crimes in the area. stay with us this morning. some of the rock and roll's greatest musicians came together in honor of the newest inductees. >> one person noticeably absent. who it was and the fan's reaction as the band mates were honored coming up in a bit. can't get enough of harry potter? there's a new website. where to get your potter fill. >> and the lows are already where our highs should be. how high will it get. details coming up. >> reporter: and if you travel south of the city on i-95, seeing some minor delays. we will let you note best route to head towards the -- know the best route to head towards the capital beltway. maybe you can be there;

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now "good morning maryland." 5:39. many of the top draws in the music world got together in cleveland this weekend at the rock and roll hall of fame. 17 groups and individuals were inducted into the 27th annual ceremony cling the red hot chili peppers and guns and

roses. he's promise,ed axle rose was no show but other celebrities did show up and there we there to -- they were there to help honor inducties. are you -- inductees. are you suffering from harry potter withdrawal? there's an online hub for fans of the boy wizard. it's opened for all to join. use kers can play digital gauges -- users can play digital games and talk magic with other harry potter fans. after signing up for the site you will get a signed with specially chosen by a compatible wandi knew two parts harry potter and the writer. >> the producer of the show, i can guarantee you has logged on to the website this morning. >> charter member. >> she is. she is a mug neil she' mited it to -- she's a muscle. >> she admitted it. organizers are in boston are doing all they can to keep

the runners safe. >> why some are encouraged to stay at home and skip the race. >> also some say it looks like a war zone. the latest on the death and destruction in parts of the midwest after tornadoes swept through the neighborhoods there. what'll it be? i'll have blueberry pancakes. uh huh. actually, make that glazed pecans... ok. with chocolate... no... caramel sauce. whipped cream? uhhhhhhh, yeah... but on the side. introducing build your own pancakes. only at denny's.

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and welcome back. it's 5:43. lawmakers will return to dc and the house and senate will be back after a two-week vacation. both parties forcing symbolic votes in the week on a due in tax plan to affect millionaires and small business owners. they have time to vote with a eye on tuesday the federal income tax deadline. they plan to vote on a democratic bill inspired by buffet rule imposing a 30% tax on wealthiest and republicans are expected to vote against it. we have a consumer alert this morning. if you've bag of dole salad in your refrigerator you may want to make sure it's not recalled. the company is recalling about 756 cases of the bagged salad because of salmonella. it involves the company's 7 lettuce salad with a use by date of april 11th. that date has come and gone but double chick for sure. they were sold in 15 states including here in maryland. so far no illnesses have been

reported. buying a home is not a decision to be taken lightly. and it looks like if you are buying in the baltimore area, forbes says it's smart choice. charm city is one of the top five cities for homeowners right now. to determine the best places to invest in real estate and m, realtor -- and purchase now, realtor.com has 140 metropolitan areas and baltimore came in 4. average price was $239,000 and the unemployment rate is at 7 1/2%. tucson arizona is the best place to buy a home. we are down to two days for tax preparation before the filing deadline. did you know the state of maryland will do this for free. there's several locations set up where you can walk in as long as your federal return is completed. this is on -- we saw an assembly line of people processing the returns. 25% of taxpayers need to mail

it in. if you need help here's useful advice. >> come into any one of the 12 branch offices around the state. and bring a copy of the completed federal return and their w-2s and we have i file the return for them. >> the branches opened at 8 today and tomorrow. and before the tuesday deadline, we have a link to our website, abc2news.com and you can find a enough to -- number to call if you have quick questions and to find closest locations to you. all right. organizers of the boston marathon are telling some of the runners that they should skip the race today. they are worried the runners won't do well in the 90 degree temperature. the weather that's forecasted for today is expected to be very hot. they are trying to encourage runers to stay home and allow qualifications to carry over to next year. for those who do run race organizers say they are prepared. >> we have begun the process of ramping up more water, more ice along the course, more medical

treat buses, increasing the sizes of medical tents. >> 2004 was the last time hot weather was a factor in the boston marathon. that year more than 1100 runners became dehydrated. experimental warning system is credited for saving livesthroughout the midwest after a dozen tornadoes swept through. look at this. two forming at once right next to each other. that is a huge atmospheric push. this caused parts of the state of oklahoma for under tornado watches and warnings throughout the weekend. the national weather service says wichita kansas office used a new warning system giving graphic terms to warn residents of potential harm. we teased this a few days ago lynette. >> exactly. you know, my biggest concern is that people need to get a weather -- noaa weather radio because if the sirens don't go off and sometimes they don't because of the tornadoes and severe weather that they are getting, and if you have that weather radio, that's going to help you at nighttime when you

sometimes those tornadoes come rain wrapped and you can't see them. and that will wake you up and keep you alert and keep you to a safe place. that's what we are looking at as we go through time. but for today, we are looking at the fact this severe weather threat is becoming a little less potent than what we saw over the weekend. that's good news. we are seeing showers and thunderstorms. a strong line of thunderstorms now are pushing into louisiana and arkansas at this time. and the big concern for today across the area is going to be the flooding. we do, meaning western maryland, is going to be in a slight risk for severe weather. the storm prediction center has that area in that for today. but not us. we dealing with a couple clouds out there this morning. we will get sunshine in here as we go throughout the day as well. and with that, the temperatures are really going to soar as we go into the afternoon. so speaking of the temperatures, right now, we are quite warm. 65 degrees in baltimore. more of the same in dc right now. we are looking at 63 degrees in easton along the eastern shore.

and we are seeing more 60s all across the board. and we will see temperatures close to record temperatures. but we are going to be very warm. all this courtesy of an area of high pressure off into the atlantic pumping in the southwesterly flow. and we need the rain and there's a slight chance we could getsome later this evening into early tomorrow morning. our next chance will work et cetera way in here as we go into wednesday. but our hour by hour forecast takes us to 87 degrees today. the record was set in 2002 and it was 90 and we will see if we get to that or go over it. let's check the traffic with angela. good morning. >> reporter: good morning lynette and everyone. it's relatively calm out there for the moment. you could have commuting hassles especially if you take the jones falls expressway. coming up at 6:00, sherrie johnson will join us live with an update on the traffic flow on i-83. elsewhere, a lot moore people -- more people joining the drive on the beltway on the top side right now. we are moving without any major delays or hassles. here's a live look at harford

road on the top side. moving well between the east i- 95 interchange over to the harrisburg expressway. speaking of i-95, a good choice coming in from bel air. a live look at 95 and maryland 15 #. no early days. it will -- # 152. no early delays. tornado alley lived up to the reputation. more than 100 tornadoes were reported saturday evening into sunday morning. kansas weather much of the -- weathered much of the stom. we will go to wichita kansas this morning to our sister station where they have a lot of cleanup going on. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. >> all right. so give us a situation what's behind you and what is it like there right now? >> reporter: we are in a neighborhood southwest of mcconnell air force base. it's incredible the damage left behind after the ef-3 tornado. this wire fen was ripped from the post -- fence was ripped from the post and rapid around

-- wrapped around the tree. the wall was ripped from the living room at this house. around mere are toasters and softballs, anything you can imagine are in the lawns. it's just day two of cleanup. so they will have a lot to do. but we have residents we are looking forward to meeting and hear the storiesch the home, there's nothing really left there. the insulation covered everything. >> you know -- you have any idea how prepared people were in the area for the storms coming. have you talked to anybody saying we have had an idea what was happening and we left? >> reporter: yes. we have heard those stories. and, of course, it was because of the days of warning the national weather service gave this time around. and i do want to mention they have a different system this year. they are using different vocabulary. and the folks here in kansas are saying maybe that's what prevented fatalities here in wichita. they are saying things instead of tornado warning, they are saying things like catastrophic

events, deadly events. they are warning about possible car overturns on highway or maybe a mobile home being destroyed. so, they are saying the very specific things. this time around it's just an experiment. so, they are hoping and they are seeing that it is helping. >> all right. sounds like it's working. beth vaughn reporting live from wichita, kansas. thanks for checking in with us. news time 5:52. what if you could take your dvds and combine them into one easy to operate online movie library. >> sounds good. >> sounds great. >> what wal-mart is helping customers do. it starts today. we will explain how the whole thing works. and the munish -- punishment begins for the saints head football coach. his one year suspension starts today and more details are coming up in a bit. having one of those days? tired. groggy. can't seem to get anything done. it makes for one, lousy day. but when you're alert and energetic...

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the new orleans saints head football coach one year suspension without pay begins today. he's wrapped up the pay for pain scandal with saints players what bounty system to take out opposing players. joe vitt will be the saint interim head coach.

dream works is teaming with up wal-mart to convert the old dvds noor online movie companies. it allows consumeers to bring in the dvds and blu-ray disk and pay 2 dollars per movie to access the movie. >> getting your lawn done for spring cab daunting task. -- can be be a daunting task. >> this morning -- can be a daunting task. >> how to avoid being ripped off by people who say they can do the job. and he was arrested on drunk driving charges. this morning bobby brown face as judge. >> live coverage of the deadly tornadoes that ripped through parts of the midwest. >> clouds out there this morning but no rain. details ahead. >> reporter: and no early incidents but we will let you know where you may run into delays on the monday morning drive.

you are watching the station that works for you "good morning maryland." >> a live look at traffic on the jfx with lane closures and construction. i am sherrie johnson. i will have a live report on your morning commute. >> the uva lacrosse player found get every killing his exgirlfriend will learn more today about when he will be sentenced. >> deadly tornadoes cut through the southern plains in the midwest. why one tornado warning was never heard. details on