iran is breaking rules that all nation must follow. >> president obama and the leaders of britain and franc tell iran to open a secret nuclear facility to international inspectors. who to to blame? concerns remain about fire hydrants after a fire destroyed a home.

a d.c. councilman says the chief is the problem. and news4 midday begins right now. good moerpg morning to you. >> it's friday, september 25th, 2009. we begin with breaking news from pittsburgh. a dramatic start to the g-20 summit. and allegations came in a joint statement with the leaders of britain and france. the white house says iran kept the nuclear facility from weapons inspectors, but the u.s. had long known of its existence. president obama called for action. >> iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow,

endangering the that proliferation regime, and threatening the stability of the world. it's time for iran to act immediately to restore the con if you duns of the international community by fulfilling its international obligations. >> the president says iran had until december to fully disclose its nuclear ambitions or it will face nuclear sanctions. the r explosive allegations at th summit came after clashes of protesters and police. and police say they arrested about 25 protesters in pittsburgh. street protest have become the normal at g-20 meetings.

and chief ruben is answering questions about fire hydrants and water supplies for hydrants. this comes afterhe fire storms a home for a prominent washington man in washington, d.c. we have more on this. good morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning. the fire chief and the command staff in charge of the scene of the house fire, they are under the gun here and being blasted by members of the d.c. council. this fire, if you will recall, happened back on july 29th. firefighters had extreme difficulty getting water on to this fire. they had to run hose lines for thousands of feet to find hydrants that would give them enough water so they could begin to battle the blaze. meantime the mansion burned the ground. they said they had a old clogged

pipe they were working with, and that was the problem, they could not get enough water out of the pipe. a hearing is under way as to exactly what happened. the councilman says he does not believe it was an infrastructure problem. he said firefighters tap into the too many hydrants causing a flow problem, and they used poor tactic problems early in the response to the fire, and they said fire and ems made critical mistakes in battling the blaze. >> we need to be clear in the discussion that any issues regarding the july 29th fire lie not with the water supply system, and instead, i believe fems is using the problem as a smoke screen for the real problem, poor leadership. >> they are not interested in finger-pointing or playing the blame game, but they want to know what is being done to

insure the lives and property is being kept safe and secure. >> reporter: firefighter chief dennis ruben said his office is working with officials with low flow problems, and he said on october 8th, there will be training for members of his department, in how to read the maps of the infrastructure. that training will get under way in the beginning of october. and chief ruben did not respond to the criticism that there were mistakes that were made, that there is an issue with the command at the fire department, he did not get into that at all. this hearing is still under way, however, and we entered the question and answer phase. we are sure to hear more abo that. the story will be continuing to follow. back to you, joe. >> thank you, megan.

new at midday, an appears court is hering mu uy's case. he is accused of helping to plan the 9/11 attacks. and he is saying the guilty plea should not stand because the government withheld evidence. the appeal was heard back in january and one of the judges retired before the case could be decided. home grown terrorists bent on attacking targets in our area. that's what authorities are calling a group of men arrested in north carolina. investigators say the men had ambitions of attacking the marine base. and we are joined live from fbi headquarters with more. >> those indictments and arrests happened this summer. all of the men are in a virginia

prison. their so-called ring leader, daniel patrick boyd, is awaiting facing the charges. and there are additional charges. that's what is new. initially the charges were these were planned attacks on international targets, and now we are learning there may have been a domestic target. a virginia military base. the justice department reports the target, is the marine base kwanco in virginia. boyd grew newspaper northern virginia and attended tc williams high school. and now they allege boyd, the 20-year-old son zac and another man conspired to murder. they obtained maps of the base. >> now we know what the target was. the marine corps base at kwanco.

and we are talking about automatic weapons, and things likethat. could he have killed people? certainly. >> that it was at risk does not prize wash tonens on their way to work. >> absolutely not. those soldiers down there, they try to do a good job. so you kn, they are at risk. >> we let our guard down and we get too relaxed and let things just go and think everything is going to be okay. >> in this case, the personnel worked closely with the ncis and fbi to assist in the investigation and protect personnel. in july, boyd, two of his sons and five other men were charged in north carolina with attempting to execute terrorism plates in foreign countries. >> there are opportunists for radicalization in the united states.

they are few and far in between. this is not a braurder trend. >> the sidewalk talk was about being safe from terrorist. >> on a scale of 1 to 10, i feel we are at an 8 or 9. >> well, with the attacks, i feel like we are safe. >> reporter: the fbi said its agency received 22 guns and many rounds of armor-piercing ammunition that could have done serious damage down at kwanco. that did not happen. it was an attack that was foiled and these charges are new. as of last night, the indictment says the plan was certainly to attack americans. it did not happen. reporting live at fbi headquarters, kimberly suitors at news4. a jordanian citizen accused

of plotting to bomb a skyscraper was arrested today. he was 19-year-old. that was yesterday when he was arrested. they say he placed a decoy car bomb near the 50-story office building. investigators say he was not associated with other terrorists or terrorists organizations, and was acting as what the fbi call a self jihad. prosecutors say najibullah zazi, and at least three other people bought gallons of chemicals at denver area beauty supply products. those chemicals could be combined to make the same bombs used in the london bombing in 2005. he faces life in prison if convicted. and his father and the other man

were released on bail yesterday. thousands of people were expected to gather around the u.s. capitol building today for a muslim prayer service. it will take place at 1:00 this afternoon. the event could cause serious traffic problems. while there are no street closures just yet, officials said they will shut down streets if the crowd gets too large. it could affect the areas around pennsylvania avenue and maryland avenue and first street. let's look outside and see what it's looking like. we still have the clouds out there. we have had rain through the morning, and whether we have some right now i am not sure. that's the question. >> here is tom kierein and he can tell us about that and the weekend. well, we are drying out after the morning showers, and taking a look at the view from space. the high resolution image is showing thinning in the clouds across howard county and a weak sunshine breaking out north of baltimore. in frederick county we have drier air pushing in.

and right now on the radar, still getting a few sprinkles here in prince william county, where charles county meets the potomac and parts of the east shore getting sprinkles as well as west of chaur shar let'sville. we are in the mid and upper 60s now. in dau mass kus, they are at a school 64. the low was 59. and out in the mountains, it's in the mid-60s. low 60s on the eastern shore where they are getting some of the lingering showers that continue to move off to the south and east. as the afternoon progresses, we may see sunshine breaking out. certainly cooler than yesterday. highs near 70 with light northeast breezes and a cool start to saturday as well. we could have more rain over the weekend. details on that and a look at next week. that will come up in a few minutes. barbara, and joe? >> thank you, tom. thanks, and let's go to steve and the news4 traffic

network. find out about the latest on any roadwork or any other problems right now? >> good morning, barbara and joe. we start with a map if you look towards the top of the screen. there was an accident on southbound 95 before you get to college park 212. watch for a bit of a backup if you are heading south on 95 from baltimore or bwi national airport. you might consider the parkway instead. and it's friday, and we'll see what springfield looks like on the right side of the screen. so far not too bad with no roadwork scheduled yet on 95 north or south. back to you. quite a mess in hyattsville today, that's where a car went kau reining into a building. chopper 4 was above the scene on baltimore avenue shortly after 8:00 this morning. the car was towed away but nobody was injured. five u.s. soldiers are dmild afghanistan. the latest from that region coming up.

and a supreme court justice taken to the hospital. new information at this hour on ginsberg's condition. and the chief of staff accused this morning o bribery charges. we'll have details. lines are forming already to the tickets for the michael

snifrmt

u.s. supreme court ginsberg is out of the hospital after she was feeling sick in her chambers. she felt faint and light-headed yestday. about an hour after receiving treatment of iron deficiency. and ginsburg was taken to the hospital as a precaution. she had undergone surgery for pan kr pancreas cancer earlier. and the actress that admitted to killing sharon tate has died. she was brought to the parole board on a gurney and slept through the hearing. survivors of the victims of the

infamous manson family murders argued against the release. three soldiers died yesterday in afghanistan when their vehicle was struck by a bomb, and a marine and another soldier was shot during the attacks. this is the deadliest year of the war for international forces. today the state of massachusetts will get a newest senator. massachusetts governor patrick, named the democratic party chairman, to fill the seat. kirk will be sworn in this afternoon and only will be senator for a few months. a special election for a permanent replacement will be held in january. kirk says he will not run for office during the special election. well, the race for governor in virginiaightened up.

creigh deeds will not get a boost from the man that used to hold the position. he cited deeds's opposition to a law that restricts gun purchases. this is seen as a slap to obama and tim kaine. wilder did say he thinks deeds and republican candidate bob mcdonnell are honorable men and well-suited to be governor. let's talk about the weather and tom is here to tell you what you can expect the rest of the day and into the weekend. >> put away your palm street shirt now and flip the switch. we went from summer in september to autumn-like weather. and it will be 20 degrees cooler than yesterday afternoon. let's take a look at our sky and see how it has been behaving this morning.

this is the time lapse. over the last couple hours, it's watching the gray clouds come in from the north and northeast. that has been bringing in the much cooler weather. over the last hour or so the overcast has begun to brighten a bit, and we may see a little bit of sunshine after the morning sprinkles came through. as we look at the dive view, we see the sky has brightened considerably at this hour. as we look at the view from the 60 camera, it has brightened a bit, too. still, the gray waters of the potomac reflecting the overcast sky. right now at reagan national, it's 67 school degrees and the rain since july 1st there is over five inches below average. right now, as we look at the radar, the morning rain pretty much is breaking up. we still have a lingering few sprinkles here in southern prince william county, right

here along the potomac river in charles county. certainly as we look here at this satellite, we are seeing thin spots. sunshine in the northern part of the eastern shore. and howard county. elsewhere, further south, it's still quite cloudy. and the temperatures under these clouds, they are still hovering in the mid-60s to upper 60s. and we only climbed three or four degrees to where we are right now. fairfax is at 63. the dew point, a cool 57. a northeast breeze there. a little over 1/10 of an inch fell this morning. and then low 60s there. over the last six hours, we have seen the rain exiting and heading off to the east and drying out as we get cool winds coming from the north.

and boston, a chilly 61 right now. and as we look at the wider view, other showers. a complex of fronts with an area of low pressure. that will continue to drift our way here tomorrow. this low will be drifting into our region by tomorrow afternoon and bringing in a chance for more rain. as we go forward over the next 48 hours, we will have this dry air in for while this afternoon, and then the low pressure and the frontal system from the midwest, arrive tomorrow. it will head out on sunday. for the rest of this afternoon, we will have temperatures holding steady in the 60s and perhaps near 70 by early afternoon, with a little sun breaking out and a breeze coming out of the northeast. partly cloudy tonight for all of the high school games and temperatures in the 60s. 50s tomorrow morning. and then maybe a little sun on saturday morning. the college games could be wet tomorrow afternoon with scattered showers coming through. and it should end by then.

and then partly cloudy on monday. feeling like autumn, tuesday and wednesday and thursday. and sunday is fiesta d.c., celebrating latin culture. sunday should be a good afternoon for that. a parade and all kinds of festivities. >> sounds delicious. let's go to steve now with an eye on the road. >> we are not dealing with too much roadwork today, but if you are heading inbound on new york avenue, and into northeast, a work ze on new york avenue near west virginia, montana avenue, and blocking the right lane of three. you will move over to the left as you head into the district on your way downtown. elsewhere, if you are traveling on the beltway in maryland right now, it looks good. inner loop and outer loop near river road. no problems there. and then the interchange getting

heavier on southbound 95 on the right hand side of your screen, and leaving the springfield area. through the books and stories of the late tim russert. now his father has died. timothy joseph russert sr died yesterday. in addition to being a father and grandfather, the family says he was a patriot and a friend to many. big russ was 85 years old. still ahead on news4 at "news4 midday," a man leads police on a high-speed chase in prince georges county with a 3-year-old child in the vehicle. why police say he ran. and an actor and his wife skipping out on the hotel bill. we'll have more on that. >> and the cookie diet, does it really work? first here is what is hot on

nbcwashington.com.

welcome back. randy quaid and his wife are free after spending several hours in a texas jail. authorities in california say the couple skipped out on a $10,000 hotel bill in santa barbara county, california.

the two were booked in the west texas town on felony wards on fraud and conspiracy. and they were released after posting $40,000 bail. it's being billed as one of the last chances to see the king of pop. dozens of fans are lining up in los angeles for tickets to the new jackson documentary. it's called "this is it." it's a behind-the-scenes look at the pop star for the concerts to be held in london. tickets won't go on sale until early sunday morning. fans already in line will probably be waiting for days. the film opens nationwide on october 28th. coming up on "news4 midday," we will continue to follow breaking news on the g-20 summit. president obama warns iran about a nuclear facility in that country. and plus bribery charges.

apparently the uninsured are not the only ones drowning in medical bills. the results of a new study. and the latest on the cooler weekend ahead. st

let's take a look at what is happening right now at 11:30. president obama is accusing iran of hiding a secret nuclear facility. he made that announcement this morning at the g-20 summit in

pittsburgh. president obama says iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow and is calling for an investigation by the international atomic agency. and an event could cause serious traffic problems. while there are no street closures yet, so officials say they will shut down the streets if the crowd gets too large. d.c. council members are firing the chief for the fire that destroyed a house this summer. the fire department struggled to get water on the fire. that home burned to the ground. fire officials say they were working with a old clogged pipe. but a council member says it was the fire department's fault, and technical errors were to blame for the inability to fight the

fire. barbara? bribery in city hall. those are the accusations facing a d.c. council member's chief of staff. he is facing federal charges because of taking money to promote taxi legislation. chris gordon reports. >> reporter: fbi agents executed a search warrant in the offices of city council member jim graham, and focusing on the chief staff's desk and computers. he is accused of promoting legislation favorable to taxi caps. >> we fully believe once all the evidence has been put in front of a jury he will be completely ven dau tatd. >> reporter: the indictment charged him with accepting a

$1,000 bribe on june 19th, with a individual seeking moratorium on taxicab license making them more available and granting him and his associates an exception. that individual met with councilman jim graham that said he would introduce the bill the next day. on july 10th, he presented a copy of the taxicab legislation presented to the person identified in the indictment as individual number one that said this is for you, and thank you very much. individual number one-handed $500 in cash to lowsa, who is voted as saying, you know i need it, and that's why i take it, you know. and councilman graham placed him on leave. >> have you consulted or hired an attorney with any of this? >> i was very concerned about the allegations, which i heard recently. so i did consult with an

attorney. >> you feel nothing was done on your behalf? >> no, nothing -- i was engaged in no way in any part of this. i was not knowledgeable about it. there is nothing -- there is no impact of these allegations on any legislation. >> reporter: this is chris gordon, news4 today. >> graham says losa did not work on legislation. and many people in the d.c. government are asking whether the investigation will grow larger. joe? a man is in jail after leading prince georges' police on a wild car chase. the incident began with a routine car stop. after several collisions it ended on new york avenue near the d.c. line. the suspect through a bag of drugs into the anacostia river and was trying to jump into the river himself before officers stopped him. the suspect's 3-year-old son was in the backseat of the van during the entire chase. he was not hurt. a late night commute lasted

longer than expected for a ndful of metro riders. several people called uls early this morning to say they had been locked in the van dorn metro station in alexandria. the station manager locked up before the last train arrived. it took 45 minutes before somebody could come and let them out. metro has not commented on th incident so far today. metro fired carla procter. and the woman survived but has injuries. and the driver had two other accidents on the job according to court records and was let go on monday. and now the death of a u.s. census worker was found hanged from a tree from the woods. and federal investigators are now getting involved in the case.

public reports indicate the word "fed" was on his chest when he was found dead tied to a tree in southeastern kentucky. friends became worried with fear when the man missed an apartment at school. >> when he did not show up, we knew something was ong. he did not call or show up. we said, hey, something bad wrong. they are trying to determine if he was targeted because of government hatred. the government has suspended door to door canvassing in the area until police uncover more clues. >> this is one of the investigations that is very difficult because we are unable to rule out or discredit of the rumors that are going around about this.

>> a resident near the scene says he told an investigator about ominous sounds coming from the woods days before sparkman's body was found. >> he was hollering, and a few nights before that, 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. >> and sparkman enjoyed teaching and enrolled in college at age 47. >> for those of us that become teachers, become a super teacher. brick walls cannot hurt you. it's too important in the life of a child. >> investigators are trying to figure out whether there is a connection to the date that sparkman was killed. they believe he was killed on september 11th. police and fbi agents in fairfax county say they busted a massive mortgage fraud scheme that involved as many as 200 homes worth the total of more than $100 million. people have been arrested in

connection with the scheme. the masterminds found unqualified straw buyers and padded their bank accounts so they could get large home loans. and they would purchase the homes and they were torn down and rebuilt as man shunned and the homes were turned into boarding houses for a dozen or more people. >> these individuals saw a weakness. they saw the ability to milk the financial institutions, and worked on it and worked on it and they were very successful. >> the two-year investigation started when neighborhoods started to complain about overcrowding at some of the properties. the masterminds could spend up to 30 years in prison. the morning rain we had is pretty much dissipated.

there is the gray sky over the region. and there is the view from space looking down on the tops of the clouds. in fact they thinned out a bit to the north and montgomery county, and they are getting a little sun as is the panhandle of west virginia and maryland. and a few sprinkles right near charles town as well as in prince william county, and parts of the southern county, and all around the region they were in the low and mid-60s. now 67 in washington. over the last six hours, pretty much the last of the rain is now heading out over the lower eastern shore, remaining most cloudy throughout the afternoon. and right back down into the 60s by late in the evening. mostly cloudy to partly cloudy at times for tonight's high school games. for tomorrow's games, college and high school, maybe it will be wet. passing showers are likely during the evening tomorrow. another cool day. highs in the mid-60s. and then drying out and warming

sunday afternoon and into monday. we will be back with one more update in the next few minutes, barbara and joe. >> thank you. steve has the latest conditions on the roads out there. let's check in with them. steve? >> we have autumn-like temperatures and autumn-like traffic patterns now. we are in springfield waiting for the delay to form, which is not just yet. it's good leaving sprinield on i-95. no roadwork today, so not a problem heading south. northbound is looking good as well. and over to the american legion bridge starting to stack up on the outer loop head into virginia, but so farhe lanes are reported open just heavy traffic heading down towards tyson's corner. back to you. the health care debate won't affect you because you have health care coverage? think again. even if you have health care coverage you can end up

thousands of dollars in debt if you get sick. >> i have a bill for $17,000, and i am trying to dig my way out a bit. >> reporter: a bill and you have insurance? >> yes. >> reporter: a bill for medical treatment that says he did not need. how did that happen with insurance? >> i am on a copay type of situation. once that is maxed out, and then you are hit for everything else. so it's a difficult situation. >> reporter: a doctor was one of the researchers that said in 20072. >> many people have insurance, and that leaves them exposed to large medical bills when they get sick. >> some reasons those with coverage end up owing money, high copays and no limits on out of pocket expenses, and services not covered.

high deductibles. >> we have a high deductible plan of $4,000, and after we pay the $4,000, we only have to pay 10% of the bills. because of the high deductible plan i have not gone to the doctor. >> she does not go for preventive health care, and same with her friend that has a $2,000 deductible. >> i hope i don't get sick. >> exactly. >> the doctor says some medical plans don't have limits, so if your insurance companies pays 80% and you pay 20%, your out of pocket expenses may just keep climbing. there is word this morning that spanking your child may cause more than temporary pain, it may hurt their brain development. research shows children that are spanked have lower iqs. and dr nancy snyderman says the

finding is not entirely conversation. >> if i continually spank or hit, we know that that's a stressor. what are the two things we want our kids to do? go to school and do well and be kids. if children are fearful they cannot do either one. those stressors have an absolute hit on brain development. >> the study tested the iqs of a group 6 young children and retested them four years later. the kids spanked had iqs three to four points lower than kids not spanked. still ahead, home sales are up. we will look a the how wall street is reacting to that this morning. new at the movies. a musical remake. stay with us. we'll be right back.

numbers on new home sales are released this morning. >> apparently they sound good. let's check in with courtney reagan, and she joins us live on that and the rest of the day's business news. >> good morning to you both. stocks are a little lower. the dow was down about 10 points. and from what we heard last night from research in motion, they are the blackberry maker and reported disappointing earnings last night. and government reports showed a surprised drop in existing home sales last month.

t we have new home sales today and they were much better. good news there. we saw a small rise. good news for the housing market after yesterday's disappointing data. and that kind of surprised economists who had been looking for a small increase. the housing data was better today than what we saw yesterday. leaders of the world biggest economies have agreed not to pull back stimulus measures until a real recovery has taken hold. and a statement in g-20, the leaders say when they do it it will be a coordinated effort. and they want to introduce international roles into discourage financial firms from taking excessive risks. in many small businesses, they seem more optimistic about growth aspects than others. and 80% have moderate or aggressive plans to grow their business and expand to new

markets. and nerly half say they are hiring. some 27 million small businesses operate in the u.s. accounting for 40 million jobs. and it's very important to the american dream. >> have a great weekend. >> you do the same. thank you. often when you diet you have to cut out the sweets. this is called the cookie diet, but does it work? roxanne vargas finds out. >> reporter: the cornerstone of the diet which she started in may here. >> for years i tried everything out there and been on the roller coaster of gaining weight and was at a point where i was heavier than i had been in my life. >> she follows instructions of eating six special cookies in the day, and then has a lean

dinner with vegetables. >> so far i lost 27 of the 50 pounds. >> reporter: the creator says his diet works because the cookies suppress the appetite. everybody loses wait when you eat 1,000 calories a day. no failures at 1,000 calories a day. >> so if somebody needs to lose a few pounds for a wedding or cruise, or whatever, and this is something that would appeal the to them. >> but the doctor believes the lifestyle change is needed too. >> ultimately it will fail because at some point people will stop using the product. >> the cookies come in several flavors, chocolate, oatmeal raisin, and banana and coconut. they could be taught at tyson

corner's mall or a line. and new movies in the theaters this weekend. plus, tom kierein will be back with another check of the forecast. we are looking for people that make the day special in the early morning hours. if you know somebody like that, e-mail their story and a clear close-up picture or

welcome back. a busy weekend at the box

office, dominated by science fiction and a re-make of an old favorite. >> robotic circuits combine the durabilities with the great and beauty of the human form. >> bruce willis is back in the new film "surrogates." it's rated pg-13. another another sigh si-fi film. the movie stars dennis quaid. it's rated r. well, no thrills here. just another a dance moves. "fame" hits theaters this weekend. it's a re-make of an

oscar-winning film. "fame" is rated pg. the french film also debuts. it follows the life of the founder of the famous fashion house fm her humble beginnings. it's rated pg-13. let's find out about some of the stories in the works for news4 this afternoon. >> and we have a preview with pat. >> the cookies are supposed to work the opposite way. the more you eat the less you way and the smaller you get. change your cookie bran. coming up at 4:00, trapped in a metro station. passengers got off a train last night and discovered that the station had been closed and locked up for the night. and they had nowhere to go. they will tell their sto today at 4:00. and then at 5:00 this afternoon,

tanning dangers. now at fall is setting in, some people may turn to tanning beds to get the bronze glow. we will tell you how the addiction can turn into a serious mental and health threat. for those stories, ask liz and the women of the reliable source. join us at 4:00. lay off the cookies, joe. >> i will. see you later. let's get a check on the forecast. >> the overcast brightened after the overnight showers dissipated from the region. the sky watch camera showing the overcast thinning out a bit. temperature is now 67 in washington. on radar, a few sprinkles in southern parts of the maryland, and st. mary's county. and then just a few scattered sprinkles. where the sun now began to break out a little bit in frederick county, it's at 70 degrees. when the sun breaks out, it

should make it briefly into the low 70s. we have a drying trend into the afternoon, and remaining quite cloudy and cooler than yesterday. highs near 70 with the northeast breeze and dropping back down into the 60s this evening. should be good weather for all the high school games tonight. by dawn it will be in the 50s, maybe cloudy in the afternoon with a likelihood of passing showers for all the high school and college games tomorrow. looks like a wet and cool afternoon in the mid-60s. and then sunday morning, perhaps lingering showers in the 50s. and sunday afternoon, clearing up for fiesta d.c. 11:00 to 7:00 on sunday. partly cloudy on monday and maybe an afternoon shower, a small chance for that. dry and cool into next week. thank you. >> thank you, tom. well, a horse is a horse of course, of course, unless that horse can spell his own name. meet lucas, mr. ed, he is not,

but maybe the world's smartest non-tv horse. he can spell his name. he can count to five. and he can even play catch. he used to be a race horse but retired from the sport about eight years ago. now he is the spokes horse, which is an aarp of the horse world. >> thank you for joining us. >> barbara and i will be back