local rest areas fall victim to virginia's budget shortfall.

could a change in a federal law keep themopen? that story in just a moment. first, it has been a beautiful weekend. but big changes are on theway. we begin with an update from steve villanueva in the storm center. i hate to hear this, steve. >> yeah, after seeing such a wonderful weekend we are going to start to see a change in the pattern as we head into the work week. it's not going to be awful. it's just going to feel a lot more humid. let's go to the maps. talk about what's going on right now. 76 in the district. cooler out towards the eastern shore. currently 66. this is the key. these numbers were really comfortable this weekend. now they're going to start to climb. we're going to see basically a persistent southeasterly flow which will bring in a lot of tropical moisture and with that moisture in place it will feel more humid and also seeing showers and thunderstorms. of course we're going to give you all the details coming up in just a little bit. now to a story about a potential abuse of police power.

we're expecting to learn more tomorrow from authorities about local officers being investigated for allegedly taking money to protect a gambling ring run by drug dealers. the "washingtonost" reports five officers are in prince george's county. one is with d.c. police, another former d.c. housing authority offic officer. according to the "post," phone records and surveillance connect most of the officers directly to the game operators, who are known drug dealers. authorities are investigating whether any of the officers are linked to slayings connected to the ring. no charges have yet been filed. the economic downturn has hit the common wealth of virginia rd. starting this week, two area stre areas willselon c in i a foef to save money.fo tesatre a on eastbound i-66 inre masssa wilsl clo to cars tud trucks. es ry e athtesren oti-95 in dale city will close for cars but remain open to trucks. that's where we find darcy

spencer tonight. what are travelers telling you? >> reporter: you might not be surprised but every single traveler we spoke to tonight said they were against closing these rest stops. they say when you've been out on the road for long periods of time it's very important to get off the road and take a break. when you're traveling with kids, it's a necessity. sarah anne dewitt is traveling from north carolina. dewitt, nine months pregnant, rest areas have been a lifesaver. she says a pla to close rest stops in virginia is a big mistake. >> it's sad. people use it to rest. if you're tired, you need to rest. if you need the restroom, you need to do that. kids need to get out of the car occasionally. >> reporter: starting tuesday, 19 rest areas around the state will close to help shrink a state budget gap. it costs the state $500,000 a year to operate each rest stop. the governor is asking for federal permission to allow the rest stops to be commercialized so they won't have to be shut

down. how important would you say these stops are to people who use the interstate? >> i'd say very important. >> reporter: hope wallace stopped at the rest area on 95 while returning to richmond from d.c. with her three children. she's hoping the governor will find some other place to cut funding. >> i love governor kaine but i think they are very critical to the safety. for you to just take that break when you need it. >> reporter: travelers s the rest areas are important pit stops for interstate drivers. they need a place not only to use the restroom, also to rest their eyes and trech legs during long road trips. it's a great stopover for those with pets who may not be welcome at gas stations and restaurants. the state officials say once these closures are in place, the rest stops will be roughly two hours apart. some say that is too far. hhh is saying the plan is downright dangerous. it could put more drowsy drivers

out on the highways. >> $500,000 for each one? >> that's what they're saying, and saying they need to save this money. it's do or di time for the president's health care reform efforts. he wants it done before lawmakers go on vacation in august. some republicans are betting that the president's plans will fall apart if democrats go home and hear from their constituents. brian moore is on capitol hill tonight. >> good coverage people can afford. >> reporter: the ad characters who helped kill president clinton's health reform plan are back -- this time helping president obama. >> a little more cooperation, a little less politics, and we can get the job done this time. >> reporter: but the senate's two republican doctors say the president's got the wrong prescription. >> the care's not going to be

there and the results aren't going to be there. >> reporter: the health care reform battle is heating up on tv and the internet as the fight comes down to the wire on capitol hill. with the august recess and the president's deadline looming ahead. >> there's a really good reason why the president wants to do it. he knows he can't sell it if the debate lasts very lg because it is so expensive and costly. >> what we hope to do is have enough time here for people to truly understand what's going on. >> reporter: the congressional budget office said this past week health care reform might not contain costs. even after spending $1 trillion. the white house is playing that down. >> they have an initial report on one of the initial bills that says, in the long term, this doesn't bend the cost curve enough. >> i think people are sort of reaching judgment about who's going to win the marathon based on who's ahead at mile 19. not a good way of judging things. we're making a lot of progress. >> reporter: still, not good news for a president hoping to fast track health care reform. the biggest roadblock right now

is infighting. as democrats try to turn at least five competing plans in the house and senate into one that will work. u.s. military is now denouncing video of an american soldier captured in afghanistan. this video has surfaced on the internet. it's the first sign of privathe private since he disappeared three weeks ago. we're learning about the idaho native who in the states was a barista at a local coffee shop and active in ballet. he says he was captured. that conflicts with military accounts that he walked off the base with three afghans. in the video, you can hear his captors prompting his comments. >> i'm scared. scared i won't be able to go home. it is very unnerving to be prisoner. >> the taliban's perspective, this is a minor victory in the battle for hearts and minds. any time you can put out a video

of an american soldier held hostage, giving an anti-western diatribe, they believe that helps their cause. >> u.s. military says the video is taliban propaganda that violates international law. a college student's house party in sterling ended with the ooshng death of aoo 19-year-old man. happened outside a home in the lowe's island communit two men, guillermo alvarado of barriville and rasheed nurse of herndon are charged with second degree murder. how den county sheriff's deputies say alvarado and the victim got into an argument at the party, the dispute spilled outside where nurse allegedly shot and killed the victim. the young man who hosted the party said the shooting happened minutes after he started telling people to go home. >> i took off my shirt. i put it on his wound. we prayed. we did our best. our condolences go out to the family. >> the party host says he did not know the victim or the

suspects. an oak hill teenager is in critical condition after falling from the back of a pickup truck. the incident happened in south riding. the how den county sheriff' office says the 19-year-old man was riding in the bed of a pickup. he apparently fell from the moving vehicle. the teen remains in critical condition while authorities try to figure out what led to his fall. federal investigators say the operator of a light rail train that crashed yesterday switched to manual control before he should have. 48 people were injured in the san francisco crash. four of them seriously. the ntsb says the operator flipped from automatic to manual mode just 24 seconds before the crash. the train rear-ended another one that was stopped. investigators say the train would have slowed down if it were on auto pilot. the operator was among those injured. still ahead tonight, the new battleground in the separation of church and state debate.

the capitol visitors center is now at the center of a lawsuit. plus, bike riders beware. thieves have made a run on bikes in our area. whether they're locked up or not. if you need a vacation right now, you might be able to afford your dream trip if you can wait a little bit. why experts say now is the time to book. coming up in sports, soccer star abbe wambach has good reason to smile in her hometown. nationals manager jim is brutally honest. and tom watson talks about heartache at the british open. (bell ringing)

woo-hoo!!!! woo-hoo!!!! woo-hoo!!!! woo-hoo!!!! kobak. mr. miller

(announcer) everyone's heading to arby's for the official $5 combo of summer. featuring arby's new bbq bacon cheddar roastburger with curly fries and a drink for only $5. big on bbq taste, it's the $5 combo done better. astronauts have run into an unpleasant problem many of us face here on earth, except we can open the yellow pages and call a plumber. one of the outpost's two multi

million dollar toilets flooded today. it comes at a time when there are more people together in space than ever before. 13 astronauts in all. with no plumber available, it fell to two of the astronauts to put on goggles, gloves, and a having to try to fix the problem. some injured french workers got a surprise visit from madonna today. eight workers were injured while building a stage for one of the material girl's concerts in france. two people were killed when the roof of the stage collapsed. madonna visited the marseille hospital where some of the injured were taken. tonight's scheduled "sticky and sweet" concert were scheduled because of thursday's accident. pulitzer prize winning author frank mccourt has died. best known for his memoir "angela's ashes," he came to fame later in a life after a career as a public schoolteacher. "angela's ashes" earned him the pulitzer. he'd been suffering from

meningitis and died of skin cancer. he died this afternoon at a man hat hospice. now is the time to book -- by car or plane, prices are going down. you can fly round trip to dozens of cities from d.c. for less than $100. an end to this beautiful july weather, sorry to say. steve's in with the work week forecast. hmmm... well... naaa... yeah! calculating for getaway. ♪ find your way to a perfect destination at busch gardens... and water country usa... where family-fun surrounds you... and world-class rides astound. start at buschgardens.com.

it's the all new sesame street forest of fun... at busch gardens in williamsburg. with four family-friendly rides... and everyone's sesame street friends. ( elmo giggles ) ♪ big and small! there's fun for all! ♪ an atheist group is suing to keep god off the walls of a building. the house voted to engrave the words "in god we trust" at the capitol visitors' center. a group called freedom from religion sued to block the effort arguing lawmakers are trying to force their religious beliefs on the 15% of u.s. adults who do not believe in any

kind of god. people who have put off vacations this summer could be in for great deals. that's because sum are 2009 is shaping up to be a washout for theirline and travel industries. hoping to drum up business for the fall, hotels, resorts and airlines are offering some of the deepest discounts in 13 years. bestfares.com says if you're traveling between august 18th and november 28thhere are 12 cities with flights to las vegas for $98 round trip. and 40 cities to dwi for $98 as well. there are some big deals to europe. as long as you're traveling after the middle of august. >> it's when everybody in america has to goo either back to work, kids are going back to school, family travel's over. the only folks out there are going to be out there, maybe some retirees. >> some hotels are already offering deep discounts like $49 for a las vegas resort, and $109 at the waikiki sheridan in

honolulu. police in the district in northern virginia are warning bike owners to be on guard against thieves. those familiar with the problem say bike stealing is similar to auto theft with chop shops and stolen bikes that are resold in other cities. one bike rider says he caught someone cutting the lock off his wheels in adams morgan two weeks ago -- i was at a friend's house swimming. peeking to make sure everything was okay, i saw them going at the buying lock with a grinder. >> there a bike theft racket that goes up and down the east coast. someone will steal a bike in d.c. and ship to it philadelphia, baltimore, new york city, where the same thing will happen. it will go to a chop shop, people will take it apart, put it back together and sell it. >> bike shop employees say there's no foolproof way to protect against thieves. but using a u-lock, or two of them, is a good start. you may want to find some air conditioning this week and an umbrella rather than riding

your bike. >> i would recommend holding on to your umbrella all week long. it's going to rain at times. it will rain possibly every single day this week but it won't be a washout. there are going to be plenty of times where it's going to be nice and dry. we'll also have popup showers and thunderstorms. otherwise, the other thing you'll notice is that the humidity will come back. it's been very comfortable this weekend. that's going to start to change as the winds turn south easterly and this in turn will start to bring in tropical moisture. all right, so let's take you outside. talk about what's going on. and here's what it looks like outside. we do have high clouds drifting overhead. that's about it. but we're going to start to see an increase in cloud coverage. an increase in cloud coverage, espeally going into tomorrow. 75 right now. mostly cloudy. wind is light. today we hit 83. tomorrow we're going to hoffer in that general ballpark, lower to mid 80s. temperaturewise, mid 70s in the district. a bit cooler across the pooed piedmont and shenandoah valley,

temperatures in the 60s. dew points in the 50s. these numbers will start to climb as southeasterly winds start to bring in low-level moisture. 75 locally. 77 in raleigh. much cooler from cincinnati back up to chicago. now notice, there are plenty in the way of clouds off toward the than effect. offshore, a big bubble of high pressure. in fact, this aa of high pressure's going to get even stronger. the return this year, higher pressure will create that southeasterly wind which will start to bring in all that tropical moisture. we're going to start to feel the increased humidity and it's going to start to go up starting tomorrow with dew points starting to climb. offshore, here's the current setup. a frontal band, eventually this front will backtrack. with the front in place, with all the moisture in place, add in the daytime heating and a little disturbance that will slide across the ar. i think by tomorrow afternoon, we could have some showers. and possibly some thunderstorms. this would be the general setup for most of the week. the front's not going to go anywhere. it's going to hang out here

keeping us in and out of the clouds and keeping some showers and thunderstorms in the forecast for a good part of the week. with that said, here's the forecast come tomorrow morning. we're going to start off with partly cloudy conditions. temperatures in the suburbs could be cool with temperatures in the 50s. in the district we start off in the mid 60s. as the day goes on we'll start to see increasing cloud coverage by the afternoon hours. i think we can start to see some showers pop up. so keep the umbrellas on standby. it's not going to rain all of the time but it will rain at times all week long. so yes, the seven-day looks a lot more ominous than it actually is. each day there is a chance of a shower or a storm. but we're not going to see a washout at any point. temperaturewise, basically lower to admit 80s for a good part of the week. by the middle of the week we'll really start to notice the humidity. that's when it's going to be at its peak. >> we've seen the best of july, i'm afraid. >> i think so. why abbe wambach is all

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at least somebody's smiling. >> we'll start with golf. tom watson walked into the press conference and he said, this ain't a funeral. at least he's able to have some humor. after the kind of weekend tom watson had, anybody that was going to beat the 59-year-old at the british open was going to be seen as a bad guy. today it was stewart cink who defeated watson by six strokes and a four-hole playoff after watson missed what would have been the winning putt in

regulation. 59-year-old tom watson here looking out over turnberry, made this one of the most exciting britishpens ever. he was on pace to make history on the 11th hole, watson with the birdie to go 3 under. trying to become the oldest golfer ever at 59 to win a major. but 35-year-old stewart cink was mounting a charge, starting on 13, going for birdie. look at that, circles the cup and goes in. he's 2 under there. he had never won a major. then, on 18, cink after falling to 1 under with a bogey on 16 needs this putt to stay in it. this is the phenomenal read. cink moves to 2 under par. but still, even at this point, the tournament was in the hands of tom watson. on 18, watson at 3 under would win the british open if he makes this par putt from eight feet. he has made a million of these shots before. but he knows right there he missmis missed his opportunity. he can't do it. because watson did that,

four-hole playoff between he and stewart cink. here's where tom watson would end up losing some steam. he said it was not age catching up with him. take a look on 17. the tough out. he was a disappointing 4 over through the four-hole playoff. you can see it in his eyes, watson disappointed. cink clinched it on 18 with this putt. stewart cink, the 2009 british open champion. despite hoisting the trophy, the story still focused back on tom watson's amazing weekend. >> i'm usually the guy that the crowd, you know -- they appreciate but they don't -- they're not behind me 100% of the way. you know. th aren't. so, you know, that's the sort of the role i've been, you know, cast into my whole career. it was a hell of a story, wasn't it. >> it would have been a hell of a story. it wasn't to be. and yes, it's a great disappointment. it terse at your gut as it

always has torn at my gut. what do i take from this week? i take from this week just a lot of warmth, a lot of spirituality in the sense that, you know, there was -- there was something out there, i still believe that. >> tom watt southern certainly made it a magical ride. he came within eight feet of winning the british open. the nationals have cut reliever julian taveras. they play starting pitcher scott olsen on the 15-day disabled list with back injury. they've called up j.d. martin from syracuse to make his major league debut tomorrow night against the mets. the nationals are still going for their first win after being swept by the cubs this afternoon. nationals park. a decent outing for garrett mock until the fourth. chicago's jake fox, hot shot

under the glove at shortstop. alberto gonzales. that is not supposed to happen. that was the beginning of the end for the nationals. that error really caused the snowball effect for this team. next batter, the former national, alfonso soriano who nailed a home run last night that made a difference. a repeat performance today. takes the mock fastball to left field. that's gone. soriano's 16th home run of the season made it 3-2 cubs. now we're still in the same inning. the guy at the plate, jake fox. he's back. yep, everybody in the chicago uniform batted in the fourth. this time fox sends it over the head of alberto gonzales and into left field. derek comes around to score. nationals lose 11-3. jim riggleman was blunt after the game. >> it was a step backwards. you know. just -- a breakdown all wait around on the ball club, all of us. you've got to fight to win a ball game. as i've told the ball club,

losing's easy. winning's what's hard. that's the challenge. it's hard to win. >> jim riggleman looking for his first win as new interim manager of the nationals. other baseball news, orioles beat the white sox 10-2. washington freedom superstar abbe wambach recorded her 100th career goal today in front of her hometown crowd in an international friendly against canada. let's go to rochester. late in the second half. the kick worked up to cheney with the smooth pass. up and und to wambach. wambach digs in, from the right corner, delivers off her left foot. the game winner. her 100th goal in international competition, done in her hometown in front of her mother and father. usa beats canada 1-0. it's a cool story because she grew up the youngest of four boys. she plays on the boys' soccer team when she was little. those guys taught her how to play the game at an early age. >> was she ever little? >> she was very t