department is asking for a hike in water rates to increase fill range. a public hearing is set for the end of june. first tonight, they had been floating belly up by the thousands along the bay in anne arundel county. it's been a massive fish kill. don harrison spoke with scientists today to see what's behind it. >> reporter: off the shore of marley neck you see them floating by the thousands and the smell is 1,000 times worse. to wonder why the fish are dying off, we have to go back to last fall and the back-to-back soakers in irene and lee. they washed large amounts of nitrogen into the a tap co-- patapsco watershed.

>> it reaches a higher temperature where it no longer can survive. >> reporter: when the algae dies off it uses up the oxygen in the water, leaving the fish to fight for their lives. >> this bloom is very microscopic. it turns the water a mahogany color, so we refer to it as mahogany tide. >> reporter: the number of dead fish is approaching 100,000 and more than a dozen species are affected. warnings have been put up on marley creek. he is in scientist but he sees the difference in the water and is concerned. >> yes. they've been saying they've been cleaning it up for years and years, but i don't see it. >> reporter: with thal jip bloom starting off early, they hope this doesn't continue to be this

excessive as the summer goes on. >> reporter: i'm in marley creek, don harrison, abc2 news. all right. hate to see those fish kills but we'll get this cleaned up. take a look. the big storm, the big cluster of storms actually continues to be along the eastern shore receipt out of talbot county getting let with pretty good downpours, route 50 west out on to tillman avenue, downpours, northern caroline county getting fairly heavy rain out of this and another cluster moving out of d.c. and northwest toward the i-270 corridor. hit and miss storms all crows the state -- all across the state. we'll keep the chance alive. 70s. we'll talk about how much longer the thunderstorm threat will re main high and how hot it gets by

memorial day. all that coming up in just a minute. new at 5:30 tonight baltimore city police are sending out a warning to local users of internet commerce sites like craigslist. the website has been used to lure unsuspecting biers to areas in -- buyers in the city. victims looking to buy coins were med midday in northwest baltimore where they were robbed of several thousand dollars. police say when using craigslist, it pays to do some research. >> in the state of maryland, we have pretransparent criminal records process. you can go to maryland judiciary case search, a website online, type on an individual's name and gets their criminal history. do these transactions in very well populated, well lit areas.

>> you should also pay with a bank check. that ensures that no one is carrying cash. was there inside information available to certain people ahead of facebook's stock offering last week. some suspect there was. now the ipo is the subject of a lawsuit. the complaint alleges the two entities failed to disclose that to be was experiencing revenue growth reduction due to the mobile device use. here's t.j. winick. >> reporter: you might say facebook's status has been troubled since its initial public offering last week. not only is the stock down 20% but there are serious questions surrounding fairness over the much talked about ipo. today u.s. regulators want to know if big time investigators at jpmorgan chase were tip -- morgan stanley were tipped off.

the state of massachusetts has subpoenaed the bank. >> if people with more power and money to invest got a different set of facts and information than the average retail investor, then, yeah, that's troubling. >> reporter: troubling because investors with inside information might know to sell stocks. >> they suddenly found themselves on friday with something they bought at $38 which was rapidly dropping in value. >> reporter: regulators may also be asking if facebook sold 25% more stock than they said they would. officials at facebook declined to comment. morgan stanley released a statement saying it follows the same procedure with facebook as it does for all ipo's.

t.j. winick, new york. there's some bad news for parents traveling with their little ones. united airlines will no longer allow them to board early if they're flying coa. the airline joined a handful of other carriers, including american airlines. united said the change mr. make the boarding process easier. the airline still alolls passengers -- allows passengers in first class to board early. if you're planning a trip to dhis ni -- disneyland in california, expect to pay more. a one-day ticket is now up $10 to $87. the biggest jump is the premium annual pass which includes parking. it is now $649, $150 more than

last year. and disney added new attractions and expanded one of the parks but the company wouldn't say if that is the reason behind the hike. you better start saving. most brides worry if ith -- it's going to rain on your wedding day but one couple had a tornado. what they had to slay about their big day. and the dancing is done and donald driver is going home with another trophy. this time it's the mirrored ball trophy. we'll give you the highs and lows of "dancing with the stars."

a toddler in china takes his toy motor bike for a spin on a busy street and it is all caught on tape. there he is moving slowly. the boy weaved through traffic but avoids being hit. a police officer spotted him and made sure he got out of the street. he was reunited with a frantic grandfather who said he went to the bathroom and the by had taken off. a school bus filled with virginia middle school students flipped over. the bus driver was distracted by

a student. 13 were taken to the hospital as a precaution. the bus driver was charged with reckless driving. a kansas wedding gives new meaning to the vow "in good times and in bad." this couple did not let the twister stop their wedding. it was seen eight miles away. animals on the loose caught on tape. this one out of columbia, south carolina where one man dischooferred huge snake -- discovered a huge snake wrapped around its tree. experts say it's a rattlesnake. fans were snapping photos of a soccer game when the ball went out of bounds. an alligator caught it. this one was more than 13 feet long and weighed more than 900 pounds. that is a huge alligator. you know, when we're on

vacation, we all want to eat the local fare what you need to know before you make that trip. and the season of "dancing with the stars" wrapped up last night. what could be in store for the fall.

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after a season of rumbas, tangos, "dancing with the stars" crowned its winner -- another sports star. >> donald and peta. >> reporter: donald driver won the mirrored ball trophy. >> i was on fire, so i had to roll around and get the fire out. that's what it was. >> reporter: driver and the two

other runnerups, katherine jenkins and william levy took an overnight flight to be on "good morning america." goodman praised him for hanging in there. he didn't get a perfect 10 until the final week. >> it's great. when you go through so many things and len continues to knock me down, i'm always up for the challenge. >> reporter: the three finalists were barely up but still dancing on adrenaline. >> i think we're all relieved, happy and lots of emotion. >> dad, i love you. you're my winner. you're number one. >> reporter: it turns out christian driver wished his dad -- >> telling him that he can do it. he can win.

>> reporter: the season officially ended with each finalist dancing the last dance. now casting begins for next season featuring the best dancers and biggest characters from past seasons. reporting from new york. >> they're already talking about next year. there's speculation that they'll bring back some of the veterans, maybe j. r. martinez, car son cressly and others. all right. take a look maryland's most powerful radar tracking hefty thunderstorms reaching into queen anne's county.

still getting lightning flashes into graysonville and extending out toward centerville and south of rock hall getting storms there. also, northern baltimore county healthy thunderstorms getting ready to cross i-83 north toward and a beg cluster continues to cycle on top of themselves over the d.c. area. commuters coming out of washington having to deal with that. all right. right now, just cloudy, looks stormy. right now we were don't see anything on the radar. 78 now. the current air temperature. through the day it's been a mix of clouds and sunshine but at times we see those ominous storm clouds as we have here at summit ridge. in towson not so dry -- or not so wet. we've been dry most of the day. we've seen more ominous skies.

the storm in north eastern harford county crossing into buccaneer bawfnlgt temperatures running in the upper 70s, 60s to the north. with the humidity levels, which are now pushing 80%, even 100% in dover, the heat index value downtown, 84, so feeling pretty warm with that heat, humidity combination as it does in cambridge right now. there are the scat -- scattered thunderstorms. to the west, that's where most have the rain has been today but some of this has gone into maryland. south of us sitting over the carolinas and virginia. a slow mover tment will drift a little bit tomorrow, keep the hot humid hair around and will -- air around and will keep the threat of a thunderstorm, especially as we get the heating of the day, 3:00, widely scattered showers and storms. into our friday maybe some

isolated activity. it looks like minimal rain chances friday and saturday. overnight 62, partly cloudy, a chance for storms. tomorrow 82 warm, variably cloudy and the chance for more scattered storms. tomorrow night 65, maybe an isolated shower. seven-day forecast, as we look ahead you can see things will warm up and dry up. we'll keep the chance friday and saturday. better chance sunday no monday. this will be getting much hot are by the second half of the weekend. back to you. now to democracy 2012 voters in florida seems to be split on the choice for president but they are sndzing mitt romney a strong message. tory dunnan joins us from washington. thank you for joining us. what is that message tonight? >> reporter: the message is think long and hard about who you want the running mate to be.

florida is a battleground state. with that said, mitt romney may want it take a look at the recent poll. you'll see romney in the sunshine state has a six percentage point over obama. backtrack, it was earlier this month he had a 1% lead. this was give on it registered voters, a hypothetical ticket between mitt romney and marco rubio. it's 49% to obama's 41%. kelly, what we have to consider is rub yes has said he wants to remain a senator. more recently he has not closed that doors to the vp slot. >> so, romney has been out of the spotlight the last couple of days kind of holding private fund-raisers. he appeared with the latino group.

what is that, courting votes? >> reporter: right, the latino voters. >> make no mistake. when i'm president you won't wake up every day and wonder if the president is on your side. >> reporter: it's estimated that 22 million latino voters will be eligible to vote in this election. this is where mitt romney has a lot of work to do. the latest poll shows he's trailing obama by quite a bit when it come phos support with that griew. obama is 65% and romney is at 24%. that's a big difference. >> thanks for that live report from washington. we'll see you tomorrow. an unusual item is up for auction. the seller claims to have a glass vile of dry -- vial of dried blood from ronald reagan. it was taken after he was is the and wounded by john hinckley.

it was from someone who worked at the lab. it contains reagan's patient i.d. number at george washington hospital. the ronald reagan noun dation has threatened legal action to stop the sale. reagan died at the age of 94. kind of creepy. >> i'm jamie costello. they are looking at an increase of 9% and they're not happy about it. what people in baltimore are saying about their water bills and why the city says they will have to raise the cost of water. the countdown is on for the scripps national spelling bee. those stories and more coming up at 6.

you know, when you're on vacation, trying out local foods can do more harm than sat fie your taste bused. >> the best way this get a feel for the culture is to taste it. she's going to try to whip up some vote familiar piece key seen -- cuisine. food experience range from classes like this. >> are you dpois ready to roll? >> to touring. >> it's impossible to separate food and culture. people sign up for cooking

classes, for culinary tours. >> reporter: many travel websites suggest it but to make sure your taste buds are up for it, do your homework. >> make sure it's going to be appropriate for you. >> reporter: most importantly, come hungry. >> you're never forced to eat anything but i really challenge you to try this. you might be surprised. >> joe carter reporting. lots of people are planning a trip for the holiday weekend, but what if they don't know where they're going to go yet? we'll take a look at how you can take a mystery vacation. that's coming up on abc2 news at 6:00 with jamie costello which starts right now. >> how much water can i use? >> a small house with a big water bill. we'll tell you why some city residents are outraged that dpw wants to raise the rates again.

>> we have to run this guy's picture again. there's a good chance you might have seen him playing the role of a cop and that has the real police angry. oh, my goodness, somebody fix the sky, will you? we had nothing the -- fog in the mooring and -- morning and it broke free. we have another picture in northern baltimore county right now where we have an active thunderstorm crossing 82 headed toward pretty boy reservoir south of new freedom. commuters, once you get north of cockiesville you'll run into a hefty storm just beginning to cross west to east. d.c. under heavy thunderstorms in the central mart