welcome to "news4 this week." hi, everyone, i'm veronica johnson. we're going to show you some of the more interesting loyal stories making news this week. among them, you tell us how to save. viewers share their simple and even unusual tricks to save big bucks. blast fat in 20 seconds. we'll check out the workout class that might show you a more efficient way to sweat it out. and a prom dress surprise, how a budding fashion designer's dream came true, along with a $25,000 prize. first, though, we're looking at ways to slash your monthly bills, and you don't have to be a financial expert to know what it takes, liz crenshaw talked to

viewers who took simple ways to make cuts. >> polo pants i got for $7, shoes here for $6 and a john henry shirt for $5. >> how did he end up with an entire outfit for under $20? he shopped at this thrift store, it's not any thrift store, it's located at fort myer, a military base. what you may not know, it's open to the public. >> i bought all kinds of things. >> on sale, everything from china, furniture, furs, from the closets of military families who lived around the world, and the deals, well how about this super bowl team nfl jacket. >> extra extra large, $28. >> leslie mcfadden says she needed to slash her monthly bread bill. >> i decided to start making bread. i found that i was spending $4 per loaf at the grocery store with a family of six, we were going through two to three loaves a week. >> baking her own bread, leslie

says she spends only $1.50 a loaf. >> we save about $400 a year in savings. >> need to fight the high price of food? cheryl wrote on our facebook page, one week every month she only buys fruits and vegetables at the grocery. it slashes that week's bill and forces her to eat the meat she has in her freezer. want free spending money and clear clutter at the same time? kelly writes she goes to amazon.com and sells her used books, movies, and electronics. amazon pays for the shipping and sends her a gift card in return. this mother of six slashed her monthly bills by cancelling her online movie subscriptions. >> and i started going to our loyal library, because you can rent movies there for free. you get to keep them for a whole week. >> cutting out $22 a month, she saved $260 a year and sets it aside. >> something always comes up, somebody needs new shoes, new uniforms, always something, so it's kind of good to have the money sitting there when i needed it.

>> this is the night stand that i got for free. >> jacqueline of alexandria, virginia, credits her community list serve to helping her find expensive kid stuff at no cost. >> for free, i've been able to receive my son's crib, his mattress, changing table, changing pads, stroller. his booster seat right now. >> jacqueline estimates she saved at least $1,000. liz crenshaw, news 4. >> all those little things that add up all the time. so we just heard those ways to save some money, now some parents are in danger of losing money because their kids were late for school. school officials have charged mark and his wife with a misdemeanor under state truancy laws. they say their three kids have disrupted the learning process for fellow students because they've been late for class 30 times this year alone. mark says rounding up those

three kids can take a whole lot of time, and he encourages his children to get ready on their own, so kind of slow in the morning. but they face a possible $500 fine for the misdemeanor. for an 11-year-old, winning the science fair is a big, big deal, but getting to show off the invention to the president at the white house, it doesn't get much cooler than that. erica gonzalez met some very smart kids who did just that. >> top science fair winners of all ages from across the country were invited to the white house to showcase their inventions. >> if we are recognizing athletic achievement, then we should also be recognizing academic achievement. >> it's the second science fair in the president's educate to innovate campaign, highlighting the importance of science and technology. >> as you've got a responsibility to use your talents in service of something bigger than yourselves. >> that's exactly what these 11-year-olds had in mind.

>> there's underneath the helmet that will harden on impact. >> jack dudley and sydney crafted this helmet to protect soldiers and athletes from traumatic brain injuries. >> regionals, nationals, then you're invited here. >> where they shook hands with the president himself. >> you guys inspire me. it's young people like you that make me so confident that america's best days are still to come. >> in his final budget proposal before the november election, the president says it will include programs to help new math and science teachers, as well as help meet what he calls an ambitious goal of graduating 1 million more americans in the areas of science, technology, math, and engineering. at the white house, erica, news4. >> good for them. well, it's a dream many fashion designers don't achieve at an early age, but one high

school senior in fairfax did it, she designed a prom dress that beat out thousands of others in a nationwide contest, but she didn't know it until she got a huge surprise at her school. >> we're here because sam has won our contest. >> 17-year-old samantha bryant's life changed today. the w.t. woodson high school senior designed a prom dress that beat out the dresses of others in a nationwide contest. >> when i sent in that sketch so many months ago, i had no idea i'd be here right now, it's amazing. >> david's bridal and "seventeen magazine" were the judges. bryant is a devoted art student. her day begins with art classes at woodson, then she spends the second part of her day taking

fashion design classes at the fairfax academy for communications and the art. >> every night she is up to the wee hours of the morning spending time on this dress and her academy classes for art. her entire life is art. >> her prom dress ran addition of van gogh's starry night will go on sale in david's bridal stores. >> we felt the color was right, blues and brights are so big in the fashion world right now, and especially in prom fashion. >> i didn't think i would actually have anything of my own in stores until i was in my 30s or even later. i always assumed it would take me so long. i'm 17 and i have a dress in a store that's mine. >> pat lawson, news4, washington. >> starry night, what a pretty dress. still ahead, doctors are finding strep can cause more long-term problems, including

ocd. plus this. >> you've been saying this is one of the best games they've seen in dnv history. >> a rising basketball staff star talking about what's next after pulling off a thrilling game-winning shot. he started a craze. how one ♪ it's the way you bring out the sun. ♪ sunny d! ♪ it's the way you make it all fun. ♪ know who makes the day sunny? my mom and sunny d! i love the taste. mom loves the vitamin c. and now it has 40% fewer calories than most regular soda brands! sunny d! ♪ make today a sunny day! find out more at sunnyd.com

thanks, man! that's what i'm here for. ( palms slap ) man: do your simple return with the turbotax federal free edition, and now, get our free, one-on-one, expert tax advice, live by phone or chat. get the federal free edition, at turbotax.com. can i have the definition? swapportunity: the opportunity to swap a higher calorie snack for a yoplait light. can you use it in a sentence?

mmm. swapping a 300 calorie donut for this 110 calorie strawberry shortcake is a good swapportunity. that's not a real word. oh haha it's real. [ female announcer ] delicious, creamy, yoplait light. over 30 flavors each around 100 calories. do the swap today. and there she goes. first lady michelle obama, she busted out some dance moves along with thousands of middle schoolers in iowa. it was part of the pep rally of her let's move campaign. that campaign works to get kids exercising and eating healthy to help lower the childhood obesity rate. wow. well, you don't have to be a basketball fan to appreciate when a player beats the odds and the opponents with a last-second buzzer-beating shot. some of those shots have made history, and now one such shot has turned one local athlete

into a rising star. trevor price has more. >> march 1992, two seconds left, christian hits the improbable turn-around jumper as duke beats kentucky in the eastern regional. may 2004, .4 seconds left, derek fischer throws up a prayer, answer, lakers beat the spurs in round one of the playoffs. who will ever forget this one, simply called "the shot." michael jordan breaking the hearts of the cleveland cavaliers. comparing those three games to a local high school game might be a bit odd, but with time writing down, patrick holloway decided he'd show the world this is what a game-winning shot looked like. >> people i talked to after the game, you know, people who say

don't try to give me a big head or say this is one of the best high school games they've seen in the last ten years or in history. really to be a part of that is a big thing, but more so to make the last shot is a bigger thing for me. >> when it left his hands, i already had my hands raised, i had confidence in him. if he didn't, i did. >> because of that shot, holloway, who isn't a blue-chip recruit, but earned a full ride to george mason is now the most popular guy in fairfax. >> getting texts, everybody wanting to be my friend that night, you know what i'm saying? attention felt really good. i embraced it and enjoyed the moment. those don't happen too often, but at the end of the day, i realized just like that shot went in, it could have went out. >> he and the rest of the panthers deserve the extra attention. >> what's great about it, they earned it. we always talked about that,

when i first got here a couple of years ago, my first recruiting class were now seniors and we talked about raising the level of the program to the top 25, had this be a goal, because the tradition hasn't been that, so you have to earn it. i'm proud to see where we come from and where we are now. >> how many more of these will we see when you're in college? >> that's a lot of stress. hopefully not too much of them. hopefully the game doesn't come down to the last play every time. >> number one ranking in the conference, patrick holloway and the panthers hope there's many more big shots in the future. for news 4 sports, i'm trevor price. coming up, how doctors are treating a form of ocd that may be linked to a common childhood illness. and the workout that packs

in news for your health now, strep throat is a common

infection, but it's causing a more long-term problem past the sore throats and fevers, doctors are finding in some children, strep bacteria may lead to obsessive-compulsive disorder and some kids can't function. >> a bad dream, but it wasn't. >> emily lawrence said the nightmare started four years ago when her then-10-year-old daughter samantha woke up in the middle of the night a totally different child. >> she wanted to touch everything, it was like a literal immediate onset of severe ocd. >> soon she developed tics where her whole body would spasm. for nearly eight months doctors struggled to figure out what was wrong, and soon her other daughter started acting strangely too. her symptoms started after being sick with strep throat. >> i didn't think anything of it, okay, just strep. by thanksgiving, she was no longer able to do her

schoolwork. >> sometimes i have to do stuff over and over. it just wasn't good enough or right or something. >> the girls were finally diagnosed with p.a.n.d.a.s associated with strep. researchers believe it happens when strep antibodies attack a part of the brain that controls behavior and movement. >> these kids are acutely aware there's something wrong with their brain. >> pediatric neurologist elizabeth has treated cases in the d.c. area and says doctors still don't know why some children develop the conditions and some do not. it could be genetics or possibly a severe strain of stress. >> these kids are very, very sick, they do extremely impulsive thing. >> it usually starts suddenly. symptoms include severe ocd, tics, separation anxiety, separation problems, and obsessive thoughts. the good news is doctors can

often cure pandas. they give antibiotics, steroids, and treatments to clean out the blood. >> today in dr. lattimore's office, molly is undergoing another deal. listening to her talk about pandas, you can hear it's impact. >> i was like no, pumping in my ear like that. it was really not good. >> her mother says molly is finally starting to recover. >> hopefully, she'll get through this. we'll clear out, clean out the body of all this. you have to have hope. >> news4. >> another interesting piece of the story here, dr. elizabeth lattimore says the cases often appear in clusters and right now there's a big one in richmond, virginia. they are not sure why, but know there's a lot more research that needs to be done. well, what if you could burn lots of body fat by doing just

20 seconds of exercise? there's an interval workout that claims to have those results. advocates say it's one of the most efficient methods of exercise. we checked it out and asked them what's your workout? >> come on, you can do anything for 20 seconds, right? >> tabata is a high-intensity workout. how we work the tabata workout is 20 seconds on, ten seconds off. >> five, four, three. >> the idea is you go really hard during your 20 seconds, then you chill out, relax during the ten, then go super hard again and get your heart rate super high. you do this eight times, then move on to the next exercise. >> three, two, recover. >> one benefit is when your heart rate gets so high, it never comes down, so you couldn't work at that high intensity for two minutes, but when you break it up into you

work out at a different level. a lot of people have muscles understo underneath everything, but when you work out in intervals, you look sleeker. jump rope, squats, lunges. it's really individualized. >> each week it's different, so it's a challenge and you can go at your own pace. >> i feel tired but energized. i feel like i got a lot of suitisuite i sweating done. >> i think i've been doing it for maybe five weeks, and i definitely feel the difference. i'm not as tired after the classes, not as sore, and i feel better as a whole. >> everybody can do the workout. get in here, get your body moving and i can absolutely tailor it towards you. >> 20 seconds on, ten seconds off. tabata is being offered at sport and health in tyson's corner. if you want to learn more about

tabata and what it's like, head to our website, nbcwashington.com and search "what's your workout." next, the poses that are creating international buzz for a great cause.

heir harriet tubman unveiled in wask in downtown washington. some of tubman's descendents were on hand for the unveiling. tubman was born into slavery, she escaped in 1849, but later returned to lead a countless number of slaves to freedom via the underground railroad. you may have seen a lot of photos of people flexing recently. that's because it's become an overnight symbol for the fight against cancer. the university of maryland's

basketball manager is battling brain cancer. recently, he did his best strongman impression from his hospital bed and now zaccing is everywhere. angie goff has his story. >> reporter: at the university of maryland, zac is the big man on campus, not for his size, but for his heart. the 18-year-old student first beat cancer at age 11. seven years later, it returned. >> when you hear cancer, obviously, the first thing that runs through your mind is death, chemo, obviously, hospitals, terrible things, but dr. carson put it in a good way, he said another opportunity. i thought what a great way to put it. >> two weeks ago, doctors removed a cancerous tumor from zac's brain. >> i'm drugged up, i make the muscles and say dad, take a picture. >> his father posted the picture on facebook. his cousin saw, struck the same

pose, and declared tebowing out and zacing in. online, everyone from marines in california to police in howard county were zacing, sushi chefs, fraternity guys, darryl from "the office," and even a naked cowboy in time square. governor martin o'malley got word and made a call. >> did you get the governor to do any? >> no, maybe i will, but we talked about how the hospital stay went, how i'm feeling. i told him i'm feeling as good as ever. >> offline, the support just as strong with fundraisers like this one to support zac and others with cancer. >> everybody coming together to show their support just makes this ordeal a little more palatable. >> after surgery, zac, a student manager for the basketball team, is back on court butknow s chemo

is a few weeks away. >> zacing in my mind represents we're strong, we're together, and we're going to make it through. >> angie goff, news 4. >> zac, this one's for you. everybody, get busy zacing and post it on your facebook. that's all for news 4 this week. i'm veronica johnson, thanks for joining us, have a good one, until next time, see you back. so, this is delicious

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