where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your rheumatologist how you can defend against and help stop further joint damage with humira. cal ripken, jr. is speaking for the very first time. he is pleading for help to find a man who abducted his mother. you're going to hear from him first this morning on abc. helping people in need, that is the mission of catholic charities, but right now there is a stand going on here in baltimore taking their good name to get your money. and a near collision with three planes, this happened at reagan international airport.

the new audio reveals this could have been a huge disaster. so details on that story on this friday morning. thank you so much for joining us. i'm megan pringle alongside lynette charles who's going to tell you about your weather for the weekend and lauren cook with a look at traffic. >>reporter: we're dealing with a few break preaks still. more on them coming up in just a little bit. in breaks seem to the theme lately as does the extreme heat. people want a cooldown. >> i know, they want a cooldown. it's going to cool down next week, but the humidity still around. that's what's making it feel so much worse out there. let me show you what's going on in terms of temperatures as you step out the door this morning. we are cooler in york. we like that 66, right? again, you put in that humidity and it feels muggy outside. we have 71 degrees in hagerstown, 68 in fredrick. we're seeing another 60 in winchester. so let's zoom in a little bit closer to home and i'm choosing

joppa this morning. 74 degrees right now. that humidity is at 88%. dewpoint 71. you know when the dewpoints get into the 70s, we are really feeling it. winds right out of the southwest, they'll pick up a little bit more as we go throughout the day. we also have a tropical storm to talk about. those details coming up. let's get a check now of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. water main break for you. >>reporter: yes. that's something you will want to watch out for if you are headed to that big baseball card convention today or even through the weekend. light street remains shut down between lombard street and baltimore street, definitely stick with hopkins place instead. do expect congestion on 895 as well. one northbound lane is blocked right at the steel bridge due to all of that ongoing construction. as we check in and take a live look here at the west side of the beltway at baltimore national pike, everything shaping up nicely. no delays, just 11 minutes on that outer loop from 795 down towards 95. and as we pull up some other drive times you'll notice everything up to speed on the jfx. you're looking at an 11-minute ride as well traveling from the

beltway all the way downtown to east fayette street and 95 at the fort mchenry tunnel in great shape as well, just eight minutes to travel from the beltway all the way to the toll plaza. megan, over to you. we've seen her over the years by her son's side, cheering him on in the stands. so when cal ripken's mother was abducted, we all wanted to know what happened, but nobody wants answers more than the ripken family. and today cal ripken, jr. will talk about this and he's doing it first here on abc 2. sheree johnson is live with what we can expect to happen today. >>reporter: we are here at camden yards. at about 10:00 this morning cal ripken, jr. will address reporters about his mother's abduction and return. he's also going to appear on "good morning america" later this morning, about 7:30 to talk about this case as well. he's trying to put pressure to try to find this suspect and bring this person to justice. basically police still do not have the suspect in custody. on july 24th, violet rip dr. parikh ken was found and

abducted from her hartford county home if her car for 12 hours by an unidentified man and returned home. police released a surveillance video and sketch of the suspect on tuesday. it was taken the same day that she was kidnapped. it shows the tall man walking in and out of a store. >> clearly the abductor did not have his heart in this. he took a lot of risk, doesn't look like he got much out of it other than perhaps inflicting fear on the ripken family for a number of hours. >>reporter: now, aberdeen police have not offered a motive in this case, but they are offering a $2000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. once again that news conference starts at 10:00 this morning and also cal ripken, jr. will appear on "good morning america" about 7:30 this morning. reporting live from camden yards, sherree johnson, abc 2 news. they take care of the poor, the hungry, the needy, children and elderly people in our community, but catholic charities doesn't charge you to pay for your electrical bill.

catholic charities right now is speaking out, saying that someone is making fake posts on facebook and craigslist, calling people promising them to pay off their overdue bge bills. all you have to do is give them $150. this is not legitimate. your bill will disappear today. catholic charities says don't fall for it, it's a scam. someone is trying to take advantage of people who have fallen on hard times. catholic charities does help people in need pay their electrical bill, but they never ask for donations over the phone. they don't solicit people over facebook either. so something to keep in mind this morning. a lesson in what not to do when you get upset. you gotta see this video. an angry farmer used a massive tractor to flatten more than half of a fleet of a police department in vermont. take a look at this. seven of the vehicles were flattend in the department's parking lot. police say roger pellon was arrested after a slow speed chase. he had been arrested last month for marijuana possession. he got angry and he took his anger out on those vehicles.

a new mexico ice cream shop right now feeling sweet relief. monday night the shop owner put this guy out, the inflatable mascot, curly the cone. it was right in front of their dairy queen. shortly after a person grabbed him and ran off. but thursday the cone was outside the store, slightly deflated but doing just fine. even an apology note was on it. the owner bought curly a month ago to help with the competition and she says she's just glad to have him back. if you have a facebook account, you're over 160 million members, but are you really? listen to this. why the company is now saying that there are millions of bogus accounts out there on their site and what this could mean for potential advertisers. plus it held the crown for about 50 years as the greatest film of all time. this morning "citizen kaine" gets moved out of that number one spot. pooches and puppies, we are fed up

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thanks for joining us this friday morning. facebook has about 955

million members but not all of them it turn out are real. the company reports around 83 million people are on the social networking site are actually bogus accounts. they're either duplicates of other profiles, accounts that have made things for other people or accounts made specifically to distribute spam. now we're going to take a live look at new york city this morning. we're going to head up there for a look at the latest business news happening today. >>reporter: good morning. topping america's money, mixed signals on the economy. ahead of this morning's july unemployment report, the weekly jobless benefits applications report showed a little improvement. retail sales last month were better than expected but mortgage rates are up. the company whose software glitch issued millions of buy and sell orders in just about an hour is now fighting for its life. the mistake is costing the broker major customers as well as $440 million, most of its money. there also could be legal action. the irs may have given more than $5 billion in tax refunds

to thieves who filed fraudulent returns. one address in michigan was used for more than 2000 tax returns last year. and a little gorilla marketing at the olympics. popular head phones and beads were given free to athletes, leading to a major protest by paying sponsors, but few complainlts from the athletes themselves. that's america's money. i'm rob nelson.

5:42, thanks for joining us. "citizen kaine" is no longer rated the greatest film of all time by a group of movie criticles. it came in second to alfred

hitchcock's "vertigo." the magazine says the choice of vertigoa reflects the change in culture away from movies of great art. we did a quick check in our studio, our film critics here, "fried green tomatoes." "breakfast at tiffanies," "remember the titans," and "it's a wonderful life." we want to know what your favorite flick is. join our facebook conversation. we are looking at a humid day on tap, a very hot day on tap. let me take you outside right now in bel aire where you can see a few clouds mixing in. we're also starting to see that sunrise, that's a good thing. we will have that sun/cloud mix throughout the day. not too busy on the roadways as of now. but we're looking at temperatures in bel aire coming in at 72 degrees, dewpoint coming in at 69, the winds light right now out of the south. high pressure will start to slide off across the coast today and with that, well, we will start to see more of a

southwesterly flow. we are going to heat things up as we go into the afternoon. let's get a check now of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. if you are heading to the ravens free practice tomorrow, do expect heavy delays on 895. it's all due to that ongoing construction along the northbound lanes at the steel bridge. of course, we are still dealing with that water main break in downtown baltimore that shuts down light street. that's right between lombard street and baltimore street. use hopkins place instead. here's a live look at the northwest corner of 695. everything up to speed here at old court road. no problems to report whatsoever heading down to intersate 70 -- interstate 70. that's a look at your abc 2 time saver traffic. stay with us. there's much more coming up on "good morning maryland." having triplets is such a blessing. not financially. so we switched to the bargain detergent but i found myself using three times more than you're supposed to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide.

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it was a very close call at reagan national airport on tuesday. the faa is investigating how three commercial planes packed with passengers ended up on a course to collide. brings us the actuallies with the air traffic control recordings just moments after that disaster was averted. take a listen.

>> we worked through the river back there. what happened? >> stand by. >>reporter: the federal aviation administration is trying to figure it all out too. investigators want to know how three planes came dangerously close to colliding at reagan national airport. heavy rain in the washington d.c. area tuesday forced air traffic controllers to make some changes to the direction of departures and landings. during a switch in operations, the faa says there was a miscommunication and those changes were not related to everyone who needed to know. as a result two planes taking off and a plane coming in did not have the appropriate distance between them. >> that miscommunication should not have happened. >>reporter: at the last second an air traffic controller realized the mistake and collisions were averted. you can hear the confusion over the radios. >> approved as requested.

>>reporter: the faa and the ntsb are both investigating. >> we will get to the bottom of this, and we will take all appropriate action to prevent similar miscommunication in the future. >>reporter: i'm elizabeth coreadin reporting. news time right now 5:49. five things you may want to know before you head out the door this morning. president barack obama will celebrate his 51st birthday. he's going to be celebrating the birthday tomorrow, but they're the president says his birthday wishes probably involve electoral votes. president obama is expected to keep a low profile on his birthday, spending the weekend at camp david. despite the struggling economy and down housing market. according to a survie by real estate website zillo, you could get a preak on a purchase home in less than two years in certain areas. first lady michelle obama will be campaigning for her

husband today. she will attend a fundraiser at the basketball hall of fame. that's in springfield, massachusetts. and get your powerball ticket because nobody won on wednesday and that means they pull the numbers tomorrow and you could win $181 million. then you could buy a house. the jackpot has been building since the end of june and has grown, it's quite large. more than 2000 children are going to be going to the maryland disploo with their parents this morning for a big graduation. it's the summer graduation day for kids and the super kids and read to succeed plus camp. the reading and math camp is open to city public school students for grades second through the fourth. and it's only the olympics that would relax the rules to allow animals to compete then we would have something like this. take a look at this. lynette, this is for you. a record-breaking kitty. that's the cincinnati, the 11- year-old cheetah is now the world's fastest land mammal. the big cat ran 100 meters in

5.95 seconds beating the 2009 record, that's 61 miles per hour. it takes the fastest human olympian 9.58 seconds to run a clear distance. no wonder they don't allow animals to compete. >> very impressive. i love my animal stories. >> and you love the olympics. >> i love the olympics. 2-2 for today. let's talk about what's going on this morning. as you step out the door, you're going to be driving. we do have reduced visibility in some spots. eight in baltimore, three in york, three in fredrick, five in hagerstown. these numbers really haven't budged too much. now, the satellite not picking up on a whole lot. we're just at the ground we're dealing with those clouds and those will begin to burn off as we go throughout the day. we are seeing plenty of clouds as we take you to the tropics and we do have tropical storm ernesto as of now. and where it's going, well, the coordinates are moving to the west at about 21 miles an hour. you can see it right here and

it's already pushing toward the winward islands. it's going to make its way into the caribbean and once it does that, well, we're waiting to see if it does strengthen. this model actually showing that it becomes a hurricane as we go into tuesday and wednesday of next week, and then it could enter the gulf of mexico. so things are still a little bit iffy that far out, but definitely going to keep you updated on this information. the winds now sustained at about 45 miles an hour. so it is a low grade tropical storm, but still a tropical storm nonetheless. right now temperatures here at home 73 degrees in baltimore, ocean city at 75 degrees. the further in you go, temperature in altoona coming in at 64 degrees and 67 in pittsburgh right now. seven-day forecast, well, it looks like this, as we go through time, we still have the heat and the humidity. it will linger as we head through the weekend. also a chance for some showers and thunderstorms as we go into the weekend as well. temperatures will drop off, though, as we head into the first part of the week and as we go into the afternoon time frame, we will continue to have those isolated showers and storms in the forecast. let's get a check now of the

abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. if you are heading into the city, there are a few things you'll need to watch out for. there's a sinkhole on the east side that continues to shut down monument street. that's going to be between wolf street and patterson park avenue. if you are in the area, definitely stick with orleans street as your alternate route. we are dealing with two water main breaks, one in northeast baltimore that has shut down kirk avenue at abbottston street. if you are in that area stick with harford road or loch raven boulevard instead. an easy ride getting through the fort mchenry tunnel. 895 a little congestion expected later this morning, all due to that ongoing construction northbound at the steel bridge. megan, over to you. there is no doubt that this year's severe drought is taking a toll on farmers. we're going to hear from a hog farmer in canada who's offering up to keep her herd and herself alive. she has a deal and you can get involved in this. we have details on "good

morning maryland" when we come back. [ buzzing ]

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grass looks, but this drought has been really tough, especially on farmers. it's so bad that one hog farmer is actually looking for sponsors for her pigs. barbara schaefer owns a herd of rare black pigs. you have to see this video because they're so cute, and she doesn't want to sell them because many of them are for breeding. but the cost to feed those pigs is skyrocketing with the drought. so this canadaian farmer is asking for a sponsor for her pigs to help pay for their food. when the animals are ready for slaughter, she says she's going to pay the sponsors back with meat. >> this is keeping me alive or hopefully will keep me alive for the next several months. where we go from there i do not know. >> if you're curious, it costs $1500 a week to feed those pigs. if more rain doesn't fall soon, then schaefer says she may be forced to sell her prized herd. since he was 5 years old, he wanted to be an eagle scout. now he's decided to give back the medal he worked so hard for his whole life. the controversial policy that

made him change his mind and why he doesn't want to be associated with the group anymore. plus a car almost got swallowed up by a huge sinkhole in the ground. what officials say may have caused the street to open up in the first place. at sleep number, individualizing your sleep is at the heart of every innovation.

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