of louds of smoke over dau as a fire burns. hot lanes are put on hold. the money just is is not available. "news4 midday" starts right now. >> this is news4, midday. good morning, everybody. welcome. i am barbara harrison. >> good morning to you, i am joe krebs. on this tuesday, it's the 18th

day of august, 2009. in the news, we begin with breaking news. in northeast washington, rescue workers pulled a worker to safety after he fell down a th ro.af sneeg b the scene began arounan g in t a morning at a half finished building on 1st and k streets in northeast. firefighters say a worker on the eighth floor lost his balance and fell down a shaft about three feet by four feet wide. authorities say if there were not a piece of plywood that fell in front of him the situation could have bench worse. >> fortunately debris fell ahead of him, a piece of plywood, in this case, which blocked his fall. had that piece of wood not fallen ahead of him, he may have fallen as much as 60 or 70 feet. >> firefighters rescued the man by bringing him down an interior elevator. he was breathing and conscious.

authorities say the worker was seriously injured, but is expected to recover. now to a developing story we are following out of montgomery county. fire investigators are looking into a series of morning fires as possible arson. there was a total of seven fires. four hey fires, and three mailbox fires. and they were burning near kings valley road. the fires have been fully contained now, but we are told there is still smoke lingering in the air in that area. a 14-year-old girl is recovering after being shot twice in the back. this all happened while he was inside her own home in the unknown shooter was outside. the gun fire rang out outside. megan mcgrath talked with the girl and her family and joins us

from the neighborhood with more on the story. >> reporter: good morning, joe. you assume you are going to be safe inside your own home. that proves not to be the case for one family in southeast washington. they were home late last night, a mother and her three children, and they were inside their town house, and there was a commotion outside and somebody opened the fire. some of the bullets pierced the walls of the town house, went inside some of the rooms. a 14-year-old girl upstairs was shot twice in the back. she points out one of the bullet holes in her living room. last night her town home was hit by a hail of gun fire. the bullets pierced the wall and entered the house. her 14-year-old daughter, who was upstairs, was hit twice in the back. because she is a minor, we are disguising her face. >> it just struck me in the back.

>> did you know you had been shot? >> i thought i had been glazed. >> how many bullets came into your house? >> nine. nine. but two struck her. and two was in her pillow, pulled out. they said if she was laying on the bed on her pillow, she would have been shot twice. >> reporter: this is not the first time the home has been hit by bullets. this is from another incident that happened four months ago. nobody was hurt at that time. young people gather in the corner and at the park across the street, and when the guns are drawn, her house is in the cross fire. >> i think they were shooting at the boys outside. there was a beef outside. at the playground there, it's still coming our way. >> reporter: an increased police presence was seen in the neighborhood. residents say this last week has been particularly bad. >> i paid market rate for my

home, over $300,000, and i have had bullets come through my window, and my friends' car windshield has been busted, i can't sleep, all kinds of gun shots. >> that woman we just heard from said a year ago bullets went in through the front window of her home. nobody was hurt in that incident fortunately. in terms of last night's shooting, no arrestsave been made. police are hoping somebody will come forward with information about who may been out in front of the street in front of the home. the 14-year-old girl shot in the back, as you can see from our piece, she was dng well. she was treated and released from the hospital. obviously very shaken. police are still looking for the suspects in last night's incident, and also leads in a series of burglaries that have been happening in the neighborhood as well. seven in the last week, all throat the henson ridge

community. they are looking for the people responsibility well. back to as well back to you,ck>>nkha vu,yo >> eaol15 a 15-year-oldr- girl was ck taat in tarhe home off ofrff o route ff she triedo tea s w she wokep u m aovtoan cg er up to h.mo the teen wasblf and he ranmo tanay he ran teeen has a nyseui heonnd ar,bon a dy uises on her, ands abodynyhat y may have seen athsin ig asked to call the fredericksburg police. we are connected to your commute. a major development on the highways of virginia. it looks like virginia is putting the breaks on plans to ild hot lanes on interstates 95 and 395. tracee wilkins joins us live in our studio about what this means for commuters. >> the plan was to ease congestion in virginia in one of our areas busiest r ioad. but they say it's not the r ht economic environment to support

the costs of the construction. the hot lanes would have run from the pentagon to an area. and now they are not sure the funds will be available. this will not affect the construction already uer way on 395 and 95. hot lanes are free to car pulls and buses, but drivers that don't meet the high occupancy requirements are supposed to pay tolls. they are telling the "washington post," the plan has been delayed but not abandoned. fewer people are taking metro this summer. ridership of metro rail fell 2.3% in july compared with the same time last year. that's according to the "washington examiner." and there was an increase in ridership in june, and this drop

comes after the june 22nd crash, in which nine people were killed. the spokesperson says he does not know if the decline in ridership is due to the crash or economy. looking outside right now, it's going to be another hot summer day. >> let's get our first look atth hewe e weather from veronica johnson. >> joe and barbara, hot and humid today. we have been on a roll since sunday, and we are going to continue with highs in the 90s for about another two days here. take a look at esburg, virginia, and folks in louden county. and reagan national, i just sought temperature jump some 4 degrees over the last hour. and virginia, showing the 90s already. ridge point, down south, 55% the relative humidity, and college park up to 86 degrees. we have ver few clouds.

mostly sunny skies. mid-80s, but it looks like we will be back in the 90s with more haze across the area. as far as thundershowers go today, that's west of the area. i will detail the locations a little later, and we'll get you updated on what is going on with hurricane bill still out in the western atlantic. barbara and joe? >> thank you very much. >> thank you, veronica. let's check in with jerry edwards. >> the midday construction not so much, but morning commute, yes. and the hot lanes under progress will continue that are in progress now, and crews continue to build em. this is 95 southbound as you head on down towards woodbridge, and continue on down to the au a occoquan. not bad at the wilson bridge. both the inner loop and outer

loop are doing okay. the top part around college park and silver spring is doing fine at this point. back to you. >> thank you. kids in our area are heading back to school. and here at nbc 4 we are doing our part to make sure they are prepared. we are holding the annual backpacks for kids drive, it's an effort to get the students in need the supplies they need. good morning, pat. >> reporter: good morning, barbara. summer passes so quickly. it's hard to believe it's time for the kids to get back to the books. we are collecting backpacks for kids. donations are being made. these backpacks are filled with supplies for kids at area schools, and schools around the region. this morning we have got principals and representatives of some of the schools joining us. tell me your name and school. >> i am the principal in fairfax

county. we just want to say thank you so much to nbc for especially in these tight economic times. this means so much to our families and students. >> i am jennifer conner from montgomery county. we want to thank all of you for your donations in getting ready for school. >> reporter: how critical is the school? >> it's a big need, especially with the economic situation with many of the families. >> reporter: you are? >> this is such a tremendous opportunity and a big help f our parents and our students that they are going to come back ready for success this year. >> reporter: who are you? >> i am from the bilingual public school. we are glad the children are being supported by the community in this way. >> we are extremely excited.

we are able to help fill the void of the tremendous need of the students whose parents will not be able to provide basic necessities. >> we are happy to provide help for you and the kids you represent. >> reporter: you go to the cv s store and buy a backpack. they are $12.99 plus tax. you donate the backpack at the store. go online and make a credit card donation online. that d avi b a backpack for childristf o t li ca s tilo o athellthe oing rticippaing cvs stores. you can buy a backpack here or bring your own stuffed backpack here and help us get the year started for a lot of kids in this area. >> joe and i will try and stop

by later. thank you, pat. police are taking no action in the case of michael jackson's death, but that might not stop the pop star's mother from taking her own legal steps. we will have the latest on that coming up. plus, new information from the makers of a new swine flu vaccine. the number of donations that will be available are now in question. and now, making history and counting cash

the big story right now are the nats. there was a record contract last night. and he will make more than $15 million over four years. all that money is guaranteed as well. that's a record for a draft pick. they negotiated right up until the midnight deadline. the team's gm said the deal got

down with 75 seconds to spare. it has been nearly two months since the death of michael jackson. to this day we still don't know how the pop star died. now there is word his mother may file a wrongful death lawsuit. >> some of the final images of michael jackson's days before his death. there may be a wrong death lawsuit because of her son's demise. >> dr. murray's name has been floated because he is under criminal investigation. >> reporter: police are also looking into actions of other doctors, who had been treating jackson and the role

prescription drugs may have been played in his death. asked whether concert promoter, aeg may also be involved in the lawsuit. that's also in question. they paid his rent and hired murray at the singer's request. >> there is a link between aeg and concerns that we have about the deseed yent's demise. >> the judge delayed until friday, a decision on a traveling exbigs of jackson memorabilia after hearing objections from katherine jackson's attorney. >> we could lose or have lost because of the delays caused by

jackson's objections. >> a judge approved a movie to be made using footage from the final footage. we are getting a look at michael jackson's memorabilia that is about to go on the auction block. we will look at weather now. >> veronica joins us here. >> and we are not going to need umbrellas today. tomorrow a different story. today, pretty quiet across the area, just hot and sticky today. >> hello, summer. >> yeah, exactly. >> have not had much in the way of 90-degree temperatures this summer. here we go again today. two more days with highs in the 90s to deal with. let's take a look outside and see what is going on.

it's mostly sunny midday right now. mostly sunny conditions. we will pick up haze later this afternoon. and as far as temragotus re i our winds direction, the d win out of the east. 70eg drees the dew point. alrey relative humidity is up to 61%. factor in the moisture and it feels like 90 degrees out there, 90 already the heat index. let's look at radar right now on digital doppler, and see what is going on across the area. few in the way of any showers. today a few light showers across the maryland line. and around the higher terrain, we are coming up from charleston in west virginia, showers driving northeastward. and some of that, later

tomorrow, moisture will pull northward from what was left of claudette? remember claudette down in the gulf of mexico? an 89 in dulles. 84 degrees in manassas. and 82 in culpepper, virginia. and the dew point creeping up there already, up to0 degrees. at is the point of all that? we talk about it during the summer. very humid conditions for the area. that's what we have to deal with today and tomorrow. but look at that. miami, florida, feeling like 99 degrees. imagine what it's going to feel like later this afternoon. again, what is left of claudette, a lot of the moisture really dispersing and breaking up down through the gulf of mexico. it's continuing to pull northward. meanwhile, we have ana, and its gone too, its remanence moving maybe across southern florida. and elsewhere, hurricane bill is

still strengthening out in the waters of the atlantic. and then it's due to move west northwestward. and sometime on saturday, bermuda, moving to the west of bermuda, before making a hard turn back to the north. it's hurricane bill with winds up to 104 miles per hour. back to the northeast quarter we go. hazy skies today. any shower activity, i think it will be mainly the higher terrain today. thundershowers, too. and the next cold front may come sweeping in tomorrow. we will have a good chance for more widespread showers and thundershowers across the area. and with some of the tropical moisture over us, a good chance we could have moderate rains t rhry tounsghheouheai rthr t to. and look at today, isolated showers, winchester area. 89, 90 degrees. and your

four-day forecas today, 93, and afternoon showers and thundershowers most of the week with the exception of today. it may be west through the high spots in the mountains. cooling down too, this weekend, especially on sunday. >> i like the sound of that. >> thank you, veronica. let's go back to jerry edwards and the news4 traffic network. >> 95 northbound, we told you about the roadwork. now we will show it to you. live and in living color here. slow going. slow going, it's a zigzag pattern. the left blocked and then the right side. that's keeping traffic slow. crossing over the wilson bridge, not too much of a delay at all. topside of the beltway between college park and silver spring, both directions moving along nicely. back to you. 85 degrees now at 11:23.

the wife of mark sanford is talking for the first time since she moved out of the governor's mansion. what she had to say about the first time she realized her husband was having an affair. plus, counting the fat. food labels can be tricky to leave, especially when they are marked with the percentage of fat in the product. d ilto avoid being lista aoflodo kemoth filled the skhas wattand fk ooha wt is

more news this morning about the swine flu vaccine. the government says there will not be nearly enough to go all

over. there should be 45 million doses by the time, however after that they do expect 20 million more doses will be ready every week. the delay is being blamed on manufacturing issues. if you are counting calories, the grocery store has plenty of low-fat options, but how can you tell if they are good as they claim to be. when it comes with a percentage of fat, you may be getting more than bargained for. for for example, the meat contains 50% fat. this could sabotage your diet. >> they can consume more product, which means more calories. >> pay attention to the label on the back of a product, and not

the numbers on the front of the product. 11:28 is the time. 85 degrees. coming up in the next half hour, we will have an update on an overnight shooting that injured a 14-year-old girl. she was hit twice by stray bullets, and her mother says this is not the first time her home was hit by gun fire. and mark sanford's wife talks about the much publicized affair, and how she felt when she found out. l > and a man found that a cel e one

three bail box a construction worker was seriously injured after falling down a utility shaft in washington. it happened near 9:00 this morning near 1st and k streets. the man fell 15 to 20 feet before a piece of plywood broke his fall. they say the worker has serious injuries but is expected to be okay. a 14-year-old girl is out of the hospital after being shot at her home, shot in her back before midnight. police do not have a suspect nor motive. theotf he gr oethirl says the home was hit by gun fire four months ago. a plan to build hot lanes have been put on hold. they were to run between the

pentagon and mass pawn yikz. they put those plans on hold fearing there would not be enough money for construction. the wife of governor, mark sanford,eas opened uperorut h an s sbs d'infidelity. ecalls being shockedhen she found evidence of the affair st january. she said she could notst belie the man she married would do something like this. it was against his morals she said. until now, jenny sanford has been made for her statements about her husbasbanhusband's af she also has been praised for not denying the affair. president obama is sitting down with the president of egypt

visiting the united states. a new twist in the health care debate this rning. the white house insists the president is not dropping plans to provide a government insurance option. at a town hall event the president suggested the final bill may not have a public option in it, and the president's own party disagrees. they argue the public option is something the government has already been doing for years with programs like medicare and the va programs, and they say without it nothing will really change at all. >> you cannot do health care reform without it. the health insurance companies put enormous pressure on patients and doctors over the year. people are losing their health insurance and cannot get it back if they have a preexisting health ndition, and sometimes they get kicked off if they become sick.

>> crowds continue to protest. new polls show the number of americans that have confident in the current health system fell last month. and tropical storm claudette dumped heavy rain and knocked out power. this morning, though, all eyes are on hurricane bill, now a category 2 hurricane. he is getting stronger and heading west in the atlantic. we will take a look at today's weather now with veronica johnston, who is standing by. >> hurricane bill is days away. as i mentioned earlier, some of the moisture from claudette will interact with the weather fronts west of the area today up over the ohio valley. 85, the temperature right now. sunday we hit 92. monday we were up to 91 degrees. highs the next couple days, 90 or greater. this will be the longest stretch of consecutive 90-degree days we have had this summer.

we are going up to 90 or higher today. look at the satellite and radar loop over the last couple hours. mostly clear skies all the way up into new york. and you can see the train of the moisture up into western west virginia, and the weather front west of that area, parkerburg wet. and we could have showers on thursday, and thundershowers. and west of the area, i think the higher terrain around 81 is where there could be an isolated thundershower today. we will see a high of 93. and then we take on the rockiesa it will be hot and sticky, and maybe sure you have water and your baseball hat on. >> always ready for that. >> thank you. montgomery say police say they nabbedro cress-dg cross-dr thief with a taste for classy clothes. after questioning, investigators

connected him to a shoifting w. saypo he ran away, but not before attacking a security guard with pepper spray last week. jerry edwards is in the studio. >> let's head south and look at the approach of the wilson bridge. traffic is moving well. and construction before you get to the wilson bridge, right side of the roadway will be blocked. all in all it looks like things are moving well in both directions. if you are heading there you a good to go on the wilson bridge. elsewhere, 395 northbound, looks like moving along pretty well over the potomac river. and then the outbound side of 395 coming off lower 14th street across the bridge, no worries there. look for the construction on

both ways 95 in woodbridge. >> thank you, jerry. 11:38. it's back to school time. we want to make sure that all students have the tools for success. that's why we are holding our annual backpack for kids drive. it's an effort to give school supplies to students in need. right now, we are joined live from cvs. >> reporter: the backpacks we are collecting will go a long way towards helping thousands of kids in schools around the region. i have schools and representatives from some of the schools around the area this morning. >> i am so glad that cvs and nbc 4 are here to provide the back packs for the children. >> tell us about the need at your school and prince george's county. >> we have a great need.

some of the families are having economic times that are hard. pencils and pens, paper, it can help our parents and students. >> i am so excited about the opportunity, because it will insure the students are prepared and have the resources they need to be successful this year. we are located off martin luther king boulevard and southeast washington. >> i am representing a school in maryland. this will help our students so much because there are so many kids, and it will help them to come to school and have a nice backpack. thank you so much. >> i am the principal of friendship charter school at 19th and bening road in northeast washington, d.c. we would like to thank you for this venture. it will help our students

tremendously. our students will be looking forward tremendously, when schools starts on the 24th of august. >> reporter: he mentioned cvs, because they are our partner for the fourth year. this has been a tremendous effort so far. >> pat, this is going well. i want to emploer everybody to come down here. the bin is almost full, and the bin can overflow, that's okay. we are not near our goal yet. we need everybody to come down. i had an opportunity to meet with all the principals a few minutes ago, and it helped to drive home the need for this. >> reporter: thank you so much. you can get more information about locations and you can online. they are only $12.99, the back packs. we will be here all day until 6:00. come down and see us. back to you at the studio. >> we will be there. ank you, pat. see you soon. >> it makes it feel like school is ready to start, doesn't it? >> yeah, a little squeeziness in

the stomach going on? coming up, we will look at early trading and why the stock market is expected to rebound today. >> and an up close look at the germs you are carrying around with you. oh, thanks for

a major indictment in what could be the largest identity theft scheme every prosecuted in the u.s. albert gonzalez and two unnamed russians are accused of stealing more than 130 credit and debit card numbers. they stole the numbers from five major corporations between 2006 and 2008. if convicted, each suspect faces up to 35 years in prison. we are looking at a possible rebound on wall street today. >> we will check in with cnbc's courtney reagan. she joins us live with that and

the rest of the day's business headlines. >> we are trying to make a comeback. the dow up about 74 points. we regained some of the losses from yesterday when we had a big selloff that was triggered about concerns about the consumer pulling back and derailing the economic recovery. and most markets did close higher, and europe is also higher. things are looking better today than yesterday. and june's numbers were resized to show a 6.5% gain. and target shares are higher after the retailer reporter better than expected profits for the second quarter. perhaps good news for the consumer. people are at least shopping at target. retailers could get a much-needed boost overall, because many americans put off their back to school shopping. the national retail federation says the average family finished 40% of their shopping while 1/3

has yet to start. coupons are determining where people are shopping. the back to school season is the second biggest selling season after christmas. they pay close attention to those numbers. the next page for reader's digest is bankruptcy. circulation is now less than half as consumers migrated to magazines catering to more special interests. back to you. >> thank you, courtney. >> have a great day. >> you, too. >> thanks. we all know cell phones can do more than just make calls, but one man's phone had one feature he did not sign up for. it turns his oven on. he said one day his broiler turned on heating up to 500 degrees. the man could not figure out what happened, and he realized his cell phone had been sitting

nearby the counter. so how did the phone do it? what do you need to know? it's a story we will have a full report on at news4 at 11:00. >> that's very disturbing. 11:47 is the time now. 85 degrees. meteorologist, tom kierein will be back with another check of the forecast coming up. >>re> aoowe lking for people at ttheakhe day speci in thee early-morning hours. if you kno ebom sody like that e- sto aryomirhend story and a close-up picture your

good morning. welcome back. video games could be bad for your health. a new study from the cdc focused on adult rather than the teenager typical gamer. playing games is associated with various health risks. women who regularly employed video games reported symptoms of depression than those that did

not pla them. and male players had higher body mass problems than those that did not play the games. they are comfortable and covers in things that you don't want to touch. flip flops. we have a warning that might make you think twice before slipping on your favorite pair. >> reporter: nothing says summer. dangerous footwear. >> do your parents know where your fliplops have been? >> not always, sometimes. >> reporter: you got secrets? >> yeah. >> the flip flops have the go-anywhere and walk through anything main stay. wear them in the city or to the white house. but do you know what could be lurking inside them? the new york "dailey news" made them seem not so fun any more, and they tested a few and found

a nasty staph infection. we had the mobile flip-flop lab. >> reporter: you think that's normal? do you have to guess what is growing in some of shoes? f fungus. >> and infek shus germs, and the bacteria that causes yeast infections and diaper rash. >> i will throw them away. >> all of them that we tested were carrying foul companions, some that live side the intestants, and drug resistant bacteria. >> if you got an infection, it could be rious. >> as long as your skin is intact, and you use common sense and don't overly expose yourself, you should not be

alarmed. even though those nasty things have been out there, they always have been out there but we have not always been looking for them. >> you can protect yourself or clean the disease-ridden shoes of pandemic doom with soap. >> don't lick your flip flops. guess what i have got on? >> there you go. >> let's find out some of the stories coming up later today. >> coming up, facing addiction on facebook. some are turning to the social networking site when everything else fails. and then a local brewery is going green.

and then the latest backpack for kids campaign. all these stories and the day's latest news, join us at 4:00. hhfoforecast, wit veronic johnso standing by. >> five consecutive days where we have gotten the temperature, the highs, 90 degrees or higher. blue skies and haze this afternoon, and more heat is on the way. as far as any showers or thundershowers go, i think that will be mainly in the higher terrain, west of i-81. and remanence of claudette is picking up and moving northeastward. and parkersburg, also has moisture. and it's in the upper 80s already. the dew point temperature is up to around 68 to 70 degrees. already feeling like 90 to 94 degrees. d.c. over to dulles and springfield and clinton, too, and down there through maryland,

isolated showers and thundershowers today. the cold front, it will start to move eastward more. it will stall over the area, too, towards the end of the workweek. i think the best chance of showers will be tomorrow coming up during the afternoon. more widespread, too. could have moderate to heavy rain with it tomorrow. today, isolated showers west. and tomorrow, another hot one and steamy with more humidity, and maybe some rain for the afternoon and early evening. ex then things will quiet down by the time we get towards the end of the workweek. 93 the high today. martinsburg. winchester, the high, 89 degrees. here is a look at the four-day forecast. throh thursday, the heat and humidity. cooler by the end of the week on friday. could see showers on friday, but cooler with the high of 86 degrees. overnight temperatures in the low and mid-70s. as far as the upcoming weekend go, if you are plannin that far

ahead, showers for for saturday sunday sunshine and drying out. joe, barbara? >> thank you. >> thank you, and have a great day. it's not the kind of music you typically hear at the ballpark. but now the national's park is getting ready to open its door to the opera. they will offer a free screening on september 12th. opera fans will get to watch the video while taking in everything the park has to offer, including concessions and games and prices. this event is intended to make the opera more accessible to everybody in the washington area. great idea. >> it certainly is. that's "news4 midday." thank you for being with us. we invite you to tune in at 4:00, 5:00, and 6:00 and 11:00. >> we will be back in the morning. wewe we hope yojoin us th. until en, weopeou hav a terrific day. >> we will see you in the morning.

>> bye.