week." hello. i'm pat lawson muse. today we're going to show you some of the more interesting stories making news in our area this week. among them, life in the white house. former college basketball star reggie love gives us an inside look at what it's like to be the president's righthand man. classroom or time machine, the unique lessons that have earned a local teacher one of the most prestigious education honors. and we'll show you one of the defense department's sweetest secret, but first today, news that could keep extra cash in your pocket. two out of three consumers are pressured to buy an extended warranty. that's according to "consumer

reports," but are the warnt wars worth the extra money? >> maybe you should have a home warranty because a renter is not going to take good care as you would as the owner, and i thought, well, okay. >> pam owns and rents out this townhouse in florida. she decided to buy a home warranty for peace of mind because she resides in springfield, virginia. so she went online and found an insurance company and for about $400, she bought a year-long home warrant they promised to cover appliances in the home, everything from the dish washer and clothes dryer to the heating and plumbing systems. so when her tenants later called to say the refrigerator was not working golida thought she was covered. >> i thought, oh, great. okay. good. i'll give them a call. so i called and the number's been disconnected. i e-mailed them. i had an e-mail. no response. >> when golida looked further

into the company she found the better business bureau gave it an f and consumers gave the company bad reviews, posting the company denies every claim, lied and never covered anything. so golida dished out another $4 huven to have a repair man come and fix the fridge. >> home warranties get my blood boiling particularly. we hear it too often, too many times from too many people. >> david butler with consumer's union says there are many loopholes tied to extended warrantes. >> people purchase these fly by night extended warranties for homes and other products and when the problems do happen and they should be covered and the paperwork says they should be covered, they can't find the company, and it's easier than ever for companies like this to just disappear. >> many products, appliancappli cars, come with a built-in warranty, but buying an extended warranty --

>> most products will be okay during the period of the extended warranty. if it's a three-year extended warranty the chances that it will break are very, very rare. that's why we tell consumers in just about every case, don't do it. so what case is the exception? if you buy a computer or laptop. the only way you may be able to get tech support is through an extend warranty, but when it comes to other electronics, appliances, vehicles and homes. >> extended warnts are notoriously bad deals. unfortunately i learned a very expensive lesson. >> liz crenshaw, news 4. in news 4 your health now, the story of a local girl whose mother believes she was cured of autism. doreen gentzler introduces us to a parent who says the music of mozart made a difference. >> early on when she was a baby

i just saw some developmental issues. >> before ashley ruben was even 2 years old, her mother sharon already sensed something was wrong. >> she had pretty much zero vocabulary. >> doctors ordered speech and hearing tests for ashley. her hearing was fine. ruben says the problem that was her 18-month-old daughter warrant listening. that's because ashley had autism. >> we all just have these dreams for our children, and i just saw them snuffed out right away. >> ruben says she believed the root of ashley's problems was the inability to interpret sound. so she enrolled her in a form of therapy called auditory integration training. here she spent hours listening to the music of mozart through headphones as she ran around and played. mozart's songs contained different sound frequencies, so by passively listening to them for long periods of time, ashley could process the sounds better. >> they don't have to pay

attention to the music, it does everything for itself. >> by the time she was 4 years old, doctors no longer believed ashley had autism. ruben was so convinced that the auditory training was responsible, she created her own system called lollipop listening therapy where they listened to a group of mozart songs for 16 beengs each week, songs are slightly altered to highlight the different frequencies. >> the communication changes. rubens had the music preloaded on an ipod or cd. she'll go into schools to work with other types of special needs children. the whole experience is documented in a book called awakening ashley, but some doctors aren't convinced that mozart really cured ashley. >> this is not a proven treatment, that this is something that somebody has developed and it may have

coincided with this individual child getting better, but that doesn't mean cause and effect. >> lauren kenworthy is the director for the center of autism spectrum disorders at children's medical center. research shows auditory integration training doesn't really hurt. it won't harm a child, she says, but it could cause parents to have false hoerngs but ruben says the evidence lies within her own daughter who is 12 years old. she's an honor roll student these days who has won dozens of awards in swimming and academic achievements. >> total metamorphosis. she grew into a butterfly. >> doreen gentzler, news 4. >> doctors advise patients to avoid systems by those that don't have a background in autism or related field sgloos when you're talking about a hall of fame you are usually talking about athletes but there is a

teacher's hall of fame and a local man is about to join it. news 4's julie carey is about to introduce us to this hands-on historian. >> step into jim's room and you get the immediate impression this is no ordinary u.s. history class, no ordinary teacher. >> literally from the first day that i was in his classroom and everything he said kind of came to life. >> since he started his teaching career 31 years old ago, his mission has been to bring history to life, to make it personal for his students so they can relate to the past. >> what i try to do is to get them to see the interesting thing about people they might not think is interesting. >> history textbooks, they mostly stay on the shelves. they use lots of primary source documents. students read dwight eisenhower's inspirational d-day speech to the troops. >> every soldier, sailor, pilot,

paratreerp involved in the allied invasion of normandy got a copy of this. >> but they also see the handwritten speech eisenhower would have delivered if d-day failed. the mystery it solved, why does it bear the wrong date? >> how are you going to be feeling the night before the invasion takes place? you're going to be what? >> nervous. >> next he turns to some of his famous props to show how eisenhower dealt with the stress of war. >> dwight eisenhower drank each day 40 cups of black coffee and smoked four packs of unfiltered camels a day. >> it's this kind of interactive teaching that earned him many awards over the years, the national teach hall of fame honor is just the latest. he also gives his students a dloons live history through an applied history course. through it, students intern at historic sites across the washington area. he turns to the words of one of his historic heroes, dr. king to

restore the passion. >> she talks about wanting to be remembered for living a committed life and that's what i want to be remembered for for being someone who was really interested in people both in the past and in the present, to sort of hospital future in a creative way. >> jim will be inducted into the teacher's hall of fame on june 17th in kansas. he'll turn over some of the teaching props and in return he'll get a trophy and a super bowl-sized ring. julie carey, news 4, springfield, virginia. >> still ahead on news 4 this week. your next haircut can help the environment. our own dan hellie shows us how. plus this -- >> wield hate for the public to not enjoy this next year. >> why is it in danger of lexus holds its value better than any other luxury brand. ♪ intellichoice proclaims that lexus has the best overall value of any brand.

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america's diner is always open. ♪ ♪ & an historic building in washington is getting a second lease on life. some people close their eyes and think they can still smell the wonder bread that used to be baked at 6th and f streets near downtown washington, but the old bread factory has been closed for 25 years. developer doug jamal now plans to repurpose the space for retail and residential use and it's already been recycled. the factory recently hosted a party to mark the 40th anniversary of the d.c. preservation league. when you think of a hair salon, lots of colors could come

to mind, blond, brunette, black, but green? we're not talking about hair dye. in this case, dan hellie takes us to a salon that's taking the environment first. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> do i need a model waiver or anything? >> don't be fooled. i would never trade in my time on the sidelines for a trip to the salon. >> but every guy needs a trim from time to time, so this is where i unwind. michael hodges has been cutting my hair for years now. >> what do you think about all of these hairs coming out of helmets in football games? >> when we're not talking sports, he's doing his part to help mother earth. aveda salon and spa on 14th street is completely green, from the products used on people's

hair to the ground they walk on. >> we wanted to incorporate as many things into the salon that we could from the green floor which is is bamboo, and the furniture which is bamboo as well as the paints and the led lighting which is a low-emissions lighting. >> each bulb costs about $20 and they last about 2500 hours. all 5400 square feet here are built from natural materials. >> we also go into regions of the world where we're helping bring back their culture by having them made -- for instance last year's first boxes were made by paper by the women in the tribe. >> all of the makeup sold here is organic, the same goes for what they use to lather up. being so organic and natural for the harrel be more luxurious to the touch and less drying for

the everyday person's hair. it's also made from ingredients that promote shine and from avocado oils to jo jo bahs. >> just a few reason to feel good about paying to look good. coming up, where to get a taste of the treats that can make homecoming sweeter for the troops. and white house assistant reggie love shares the sharpest criticism that he's ever gotten from president obama.

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>> in 2001 he won the championship as a member of duke's basketball team. now ten years later he's the president's righthand man. lindsay czarniak talked to reggie love to find out more about his success on the court and in the white house. ♪ ♪ former dukes forward reggie love has trancinged from playing for mike krzyzewski, one of the most revered college coaches to

assisting one of the world's powerful leader. he makes life easier for president obama and sometimes that includes taking a little ribbing. >> some of you may know that my assistant reggie love used to play for coach k at duke. reggie played on the 2001 national championship team and he was a team captain in 2005. in fact, reggie was so excited to see his old coach today that i had to make him come out and run some sprint drills just to calm him down. >> how are your leadership styles similar and what makes them different? >> they're very straight-shooting, loyal individuals. >> what's the toughest feedback you've gotten from the president? >> i think he made a comment to me that, you know, you are a representative of me. i'm working very hard all of the time. you need to make sure that you're working as hard as i'm working. >> are they pulled aside to say, reggie, what are you doing?

they questioned me and i think i may have worn flip-flops on to the plane or something one day. he said, i would be willing to bet that you're the first person to wear flip-flops on air force one. >> does that mean you don't do it again? >> i think that means you don't do it again. >> now from presidential policy to pickup game, he's the man keeping the commander in chief on track and the guy with whom the president unwinds. >> tell me about basketball in the white house. >> we came to the conclusion that basketball was lucky. >> got it. >> we played in iowa on caucus day. they had come down for the actual caucus day and since they're so close, we went to new hampshire and we didn't play. you guys didn't play basketball on election day and we didn't play basketball from there on out.

obviously, i think basketball wasn't responsible for the outcome. it did give me peace of mind. not only did you make the phone calls that you could make, did you run the right advertisements. did you also play basketball? >> i know he said you were the best athlete that he's played with. do you feel any pressure to go ease owe him if you're in that situation? >> he said that before he played, with lebron and dwayne wade, but, he's -- he would hold it against you if you took it easy on him. >> if it's one of the best kept secrets within the walls of the pentagon. it's a chocolate shop that caters to the armed forces. they're making homecoming celebrations for the troops even sweeter. >> it looks like a typical candy store with an array of mouth watering treats, but the small

business caters to those with a top secret clearance. only the d.c.-area location is in the pentagon. >> it's very special for our family and being able to provide chocolates for the military and, you know, it's become very popular here inside the pentagon. our shop over the last year between the holidays, valentine's day, you have a line out the door. >> master sergeant was picking up some last-minute goodies with eight deployments under his belt, he's excited to be home with his family. >> it's tremendous. between all of the running around, the traffic, to be able to stop and grab some sweets on the way home, it's awesome. >> the chocolate eggs aren't the only specialty here for the business that's remained in the hands of four generations using -- >> these are hand-dipped strawberries that we hand dip every morning. it's one of the most popular items. >> they were once aides in the bush administration leaving politics to become chocolatiers.

leaders setting up shop in the world's largest office building, 23,000 department of defense workers who were occupied before. a far cry from the candy store's modest beginnings in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, in 1914. >> i think they would be very excited and overwhelmed just to see what they started, a small little shop in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. actually making candies on the street corner for a living to survive and turning it into a fifth-generation business, i think they would be wowed by that. >> not only is the pentagon a perfect fit for the chocolate store, it's a perfect fit for the pentagon. it's a political kind of treat. >> we have put hillary clinton's seal on chocolate. we have -- we've been mentioned with sarah palin. she loves our peanut butter meltaways. >> everyone loves chocolate. whether you're a republican or

independent, everybody loves chocolate. the number one focus is their military customers who come away armed with candy. >> it's bad for me and my waistline. >> in arlington, jane watrel, news 4. up next, you'll want to take advantage of one of d.c.'s most popular nature attractions popul[ male announcer ]ons washington, d.c. a landmark of liberty and opportunity. at bank of america, we live and work here, with thousands of employees and hundreds of branches and atms. every day, we're working to help set opportunity in motion... from supporting the arts and howard university to helping revitalize anacostia and downtown d.c. because when you're giving, lending, and investing in more communities across the country,

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♪ and tempered by 125 years of legendary performance. introducing the all-new 2012 cls from mercedes-benz. where the world's greatest automobiles take shape. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. national arboretum is one of the most prized spots to visit in washington, but one of the its biggest attractions is in jeopardy because of budget cuts. tom sherwood has more on how friends of the national arboretum are trying to help. >> original columns from capitol hill make a stunning site even on a rainy day in northeast washington, but the 30,000 azalea plants and their spectacular spring blooms draw thousands of visitors unmatched anywhere in the washington

region. >> we get about 100,000 visitors during a six-week period in april and may to come out here just to see the a zale kwas. there are several good collections around atlanta and in the carolinas. >> anything comparable? i don't know. >> this spectacular collection of azaleas is in danger. federal plans to care for the plants are not enough and some may have to be removed to allow the care for others. >> we will always have azaleas at the arboretum, but the impact of the scale of this large of a collection would be, in part, lost. >> we would hate for the public to not be able to enjoy these beautiful -- these beautiful azaleas next year. >> the friends of the national arboretum have begun a million dollar fund-raising campaign to pay for experts, volunteers and materials to save the robust collection. >> and that would provide for gardening assistance, maintenance, the year-round effort to maintain this whole 40-acre hillside of azaleas.

>> tom sherwood, news 4, washington. >> the national arboretum is open every day except christmas from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. that's "news 4 this week." i'm pat lawson muse. thanks for joining us. have a great day. see you next time.

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