tv News 4 Today NBC July 15, 2012 6:00am-8:00am EDT
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it happened again, but why? for the second type in less than 24 hours, this weekend, a system shutdown stops metro trains. >> new this morning, a look at the wild weather that swept through parts of virginia. could we see another round any time soon? that doesn't look pretty. good morning. welcome to news4 today. i'm richard jordan. >> i'm angie goff. >> it's a muggy start. >> at least it's dry. yesterday was a gloomy day. >> yeah, at 5:30, all of a
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sudden, out of nowhere, a black cloud. >> heavy rain for you and the sun was out here in washington. >> amazing. then we got a pretty rainbow after. >> in fact, it was just in time for the weather on the 6:00 news last night between 6:15 and 6:30 as we were here giving you the updated forecast yesterday afternoon. we had a beautiful rainbow to finish out. you're off to a very muggy start on your sunday morning now. once again, just like yesterday, plenty of clouds out there. so we'll have a little bit of a sunshine challenge first thing this morning. there are rain drops to contend with across the area. temperatures generally speaking are on the mild side. 77 degrees in washington right now. that's how mild it is inside the city limits. even into western and northern suburbs are not a whole lot cooler. generally in the low 70s. rain drops from hagerstown, and winchester. nothing all this heavy but enough to get you wet and make you mad first thing this morning. so just be on the lookout. northern montgomery, northern
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loudon county, might get showers in the next little bit. we are not done with our rain chances for today. but fewer numbers of showers and storms today than yesterday. yesterday, a 70% chance of rain. today we have a 50% chance of rain. just a little less chance. >> okay. thanks, chuck. right now, we begin with a developing story overnight. metro stopped trains across the system. a news4 employee was at the branch avenue location when station managers were told to hold their trains. it's the second glitch in less than 24 hours. now the work starts to figure out how it happened. darcy spencer has the impact the problem's had on riders. >> reporter: for at least 45 minutes saturday afternoon, metro trains were grounded. held in place after a major computer system went down. >> it took an hour just to get from pentagon city to chinatown. it's, you know, half our day
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already to get to ben's chili bowl. >> it affected the computers at the operations control center. officials were unable to track the 44 trains that were in service. so out of a concern for safety, all trains were directed to the closest station and held until the issue was resolved. officials are trying to figure out what went wrong. >> metro on the weekends it's not worth it to take it on the weekends unless you have a lot of train if you're transferring. so yeah, we're -- we took the metro, it worked out. but we might have it back later. >> reporter: this is the third major incident affecting metro in just the last couple of weeks. on july 6, a heat kink caused a train derailment. forcing dozens to evacuate through the tunnel. there was a power outage and riders got out and walked out of the station in the blistering heat. these incidents do shake their
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confidence in the system. >> i think it's why people are going to start taking alternative methods around the city. >> reporter: darcy spencer, news4 today. >> the computer glitch comes as they do track work this weekend. now in the blue and yellow lines, reagan national is closed. trains are single tracking on the red, green and orange line and all service is scheduled to be back by normal by tomorrow's morning rush. this morning, the police need your help in solving a murder mystery. a man was found dead last night in langley park. police say someone shot and killed him in the hallway of an apartment building. no word yet on the motive or the victim's identity. new this morning montgomery county fire crews are looking into what caused the fire in gaithersburg. firefighters were called out the the 700 block around 10:30 last night. they found a detached garage on fire. about 55 firefighters battled the blaze for close to an hour.
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no reports of any injuries. this morning, d.c. mayor vincent gray is keeping up with the busy schedule despite an ongoing investigation. he'll speak at the mount gill ad baptist church. earlier this week, a former aide pleaded guilty to running a $650,000 shadow campaign for gray. several have called for the mayor to step down, and others say calls for the resignation is premature. president obama is back at the white house this morning after a two-day trip through virginia. the president will be in d.c. until tuesday. he'll then head for events in san antonio san antonio and austin. yesterday, he ended his day with a speech at centerville high school. he told the crowd that trickle down economics simply doesn't work and that the middle class needs to help in order for the country to turn around. >> i believe in a middle out
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economics. a bottom up economics. i believe that when hard working americans are doing well, everybody does well. that's why i ran for president. to fight on behalf of the middle class and those who are striving to get into the middle class and that's why i'm running again for president of the united states. >> the president also touched on mitt romney's attack ads. he says the ads against him quote, have a scary voice, but that's all they have got. end quote. the republican presidential candidate has done tv interviews for all of the major networks and now, he's on the record with the former queen of daytime. romney and his wife sat down with oprah winfrey friday. the interview will be published in o, which is oprah's magazine. last election, oprah voiced her support of obama. romney is in new hampshire for
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family vacation, but is planning trips to pennsylvania and ohio this week. romney continues to face pressure to release more of his tax returns, meanwhile. but now some of the calls are coming from his own party. alabama governor robert bentley said if you're running for president, you should be willing to release anything and everything. romney has repeatedly said he isn't planning to release any of his tax returns. one of romney's former opponents is running against him for president. dr. jill stein won the nomination yesterday. this is first election that the green party qualified for federal matching funds which stein says will help them spread their message. stein came right ahead of comedian rosanne barr who came in second place. remember her? >> hard to forget her. >> this weekend's computer glitch is another black mark for the transit agency. >> but a bit of good news for some train riders. we will tell you about that
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coming up. plus, the rain is moving out, but the humidity is moving in. chuck bell will have what it's going to feel like. that's next. when the president was elected, he talked about hope and change. whatever happened to hope and change? now it seems he's just coming right out of the box with these old-fashioned, negative ads. by starting negative, by going extremely tough and extremely hard, looking conventional, and frankly running ads that are inaccurate. barack obama's campaign and allies
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when used regularly, pronamel can re-harden softened enamel. it makes your enamel more resistant to the effects from acid attack. so it gives you the confidence to eat those healthy foods day in and day out. welcome back to news4 today. it's just after 6:00 on your sunday morning. plenty of clouds outside for now and rain chances are lower today than yesterday, but yet, they are not down to zero just yet. outside, take a check of it. plenty of clouds first thing on your sunday morning. there's plenty of blue sky to be found out there. temperatures are on their way up very, very quickly. the fact that we're starting off so much milder this morning than yesterday means it's going to be a warmer afternoon as well. 77 balmy degrees at 6:00 a.m. on
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a sunday morning here in washington. dew points are back up over the 70 degree mark. so it feels extra sticky out there. 88% relative humidity. winds out of the southwest, averaging six miles per hour. nearly 80 in annapolis. 77 down into st. mary's county. a lot of lower 70s across much of northern virginia. 73 in bristow and manassas this morning. we have showers on the radar. plenty of heat and humidity coming our way today. yesterday, we topped out at 88 degrees. today, three or four degrees warmer than that. most locations getting up over the 90 degree mark today. light rain showers on the eastern shore right now and sprinkles to be found across the panhandle of west virginia. nothing all that heavy first
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thing this morning, but just enough to get you wet. make a couple of swipes of the wipers necessary in hagerstown and martinsburg. and a little patch of rain is drifting east to northeast. not a whole lot. downstream from us here in the washington area, not much going on just yet. there will be an opportunity especially west and southwest of town today to get a little bit more in the way of showers and thunderstorms. high pressure anchored down off the southeastern coast is funneling all that deep, tropical moisture out of the deep south and into the mid-atlantic. you'll notice the change in the temperatures here over the coming days. so today, humid with some showers around this morning. with all the humidity, a little trough of low pressure. that's what the black line stands for. that may focus showers and thunderstorms later on this afternoon. things quiet down overnight tonight. mild and muggy again by your monday morning. then tomorrow afternoon, right back in the heat we go.
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temperatures tomorrow with just an isolated scattering of thunderstorms around. back up into the low and mid 90s tomorrow. upper 90's coming after that. so today, plenty of clouds around. showers likely this morning. a chance for some thunderstorms this afternoon. highs, upper 80s. tomorrow, warmer, fewer storms, into the 90s for sure tomorrow. if you're headed to the beaches, not the best beach day. but the coastline will be improving. here's our seven-day forecast. rain chances are diminishing as we get into monday and tuesday. back again by wednesday. but by wednesday, that could be an ugly, hot day. 98 degrees on wednesday. heat index well over 100. be ready. >> all right. we will. thanks. turning to sports now the nationals go for the series win today and the orioles get some extra-inning magic. >> we have all that and more in this morning's sport's minute.
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>> good morning. your sports minute starts with the nationals visiting miami last night. geo gonzalez showing why he's an all-star dominant at times, striking out nine over six innings, but the nats fall to the marlins 2-1 as john buck comes through with the base hit to right center. as the marlins win it. in baltimore, os taking on the tigers. 13th inning, second at-bat of the season for taylor tea garden. it's a walk-off tea garden party. os win 8-6 over the tigers. in michigan for the third round of the u.s. senior open, it was all about bernard langer who hit nine birdies on the day. eight in the first 12 holes. he's now atop the leaderboard leading by four strokes at 10 under headed into the final round coverage which you can see today right here on nbc4. that's your sports minute. have a great day. well, next up, reporters
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notebook. >> we'll be back with your sunday forecast. >> i'm aaron gilchrist. we have our panel, joe, jerry, dave. we'll start in the district that everybody is talking about. the district i saw on cnn last week. nationally, people are looking at the mayor's office and looking at the controversy surrounding vincent gray's 2010 campaign. we saw this week another person who worked on that campaign, who pled guilty to some federal charges. where is this going to end up? where is this going? >> well, of course, that's the very big question. you get into the old watergate question, what did the mayor know and when did he know it? it is now reported he did have a meeting about the subliminal campaign if you want to call it that, the stealth campaign, the unregulated money coming in, with one other other people in it and what they talked about specifically we don't know. but we do know that there was a conversation about that. the mayor has not disclosed
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anything publicly. there's a lot of questions. some people now three people on the council want him to resign. the d.c. city council want him to resign. this obscures a lot of his supporters a great record. the city is clicking on all four channels. the budget is balanced, agencies are working. but all we're talking about is the mayor. the question is whether he's guilty or not. it becomes a distraction. is it going to become a distraction that harms his ability to govern? >> well, mary shea, one of the three persons asking him to resign, called him a good man. quote/unquote. and that's what people say on the street. that people really like vince gray. they're still saying he's a good man. a lot of people say, well, i don't believe that he knows anything. but he's a good man and the fact is that a lot of people feel you have to wait until all of it unfolds -- anybody can make a decision. before anybody can say, hey, look, give up your job, quit now. we don't know if he should quit
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or not. >> we do have a district attorney who clearly is very dogged. he is going after them, and he did say this week if i'm not mistaken it is better that you come forward now, come to me now than us having to come after you. but, you know, it's interesting. i don't think we can assume one thing or the other. and here's what i'm pointing out. a lot of times campaign staff people will keep things away from the candidate. so that the candidate doesn't go into office knowing all these types of things. now, does that happen? of course it happens. should it happen, but here's what is going to hurt vincent gray and that is the buck stops with him. >> right. >> it's his name that's on the campaign. it's not the other -- his staff. it's his name on the campaign. but if i were him, i don't think i would resign right now.
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>> you would not? >> oh, i don't think so. i think you have to wait at least -- wait until the charges are out there. >> there's growing pressure on him to level. to disregard the advice of his great attorney, mr. bennett, who everyone agrees is a great defense attorney. his supporters are telling me, sources i'm picking up from, look, sit down, have a fireside chat type of thing, explain what happened, what i did in it, what i didn't do. what it really is. take your chances in court because the court of public opinion is already starting to form opinions. >> you made the point that the city is firing on all cylinders in terms of making sure that the city government is doing what the people needed to do that may raise the question for some, does this matter really? as long as i as a citizen getting what i need from my city. >> you raise an issue that could take us a two-hour program for us to -- but to talk about d.c. politics. i'm not going to go there. >> but just to wrap this up, are people on the hill talking about this? members of congress watching the
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district government now? >> there's a buzz among staff and among members in private, but for they're not talking publ public publicly. i checked with issa, the oversight committee, speaker boehner, minority leader pelosi, all of the big power players on the hill are keeping mum. they want to see what happens. they don't think that's enough to talk about yet. they don't want to make any conclusions. they're not saying anything. but that will not continue a whole heck of a lot longer if something doesn't change. >> let's move into virginia. we have an election coming up in november and we're looking at the presidential politics and at the senate as well. you've got barack obama and mitt romney spending a lot of time and money in the state of virginia. what do you make of that? >> it's a swing state. >> yeah. >> it's -- i always remember the election of barack obama was when virginia went blue.
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that was it. that' that sealed it. i think a lot of people are hoping that doesn't happen this time. which speaks to another issue that no one is talking about and that is their attempt with these voter i.d. laws. that's an attempt there to disenfranchise a lot of potential voters. the bottom line is, it's a swing state. it may or may not break whoever runs for president of the united states. >> well, they're spending an awful lot of money, $13 million for the fall air time. that's a lot of money going into that state. but joe is right. being a swing state. then again, virginia is a very, very unique situation. being a divided state. northern and southern virginia, southwest virginia. all of that has to come into play. that's the reason that the candidates are spending a lot of money. you talk about blue state. we don't know where that's going now. >> but we have to remember in virginia, this campaign of kane
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and allen is intertwined with romney and obama. if romney or obama surges that will help their surrogates that is to say, if romney surges that will help allen. if obama surges that will help tim kaine. they're largely dependent on each other. this is where coattails and where reverse coattails could have a big effect. the fact that virginia is a battleground state is extraordinary and yet the fact remains it's all tied into presidential and national politics. the economy goes up, it helps obama, well that helps kaine. >> and also one of the reasons we're being inundated with and these ads now where kaine is being criticized for being out of state, doing everything he -- >> working for the dnc. >> as if that's not what a chairman does. but it will hammered home. hammered home.
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so the opposition to kaine, we're going to link you to president obama. >> exactly. >> to some degree, some have reported that kaine has moved away, distanced away. >> pardon me, a good point. president obama says folks making under $250,000 a year should get the expiring bush tax cuts, kaine isn't so sure. he thinks it should be a higher income level which is interesting. so he's trying to distance himself in a -- perhaps a more moderate nuanced way. >> we can kick this around until october. and when october comes, we'll get some better answers as to which way virginia might go. >> well, we'll take a break and come back with more reporters notebook right after this.
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was passed last session and we know will be on the ballot in november as a referendum item. they came up with another signatures on the petition to make that happen. the board of elections certified the issue. they needed 56 some odd thousand -- >> 55,000. >> to make it happen. >> it should tell you something about the people who signed but the fact is if you go back to january when in issue started, you know, they were talking about how much they needed. 55,736 signatures. will they be able to get this? i remember everybody saying, well, i don't know if they'll get this or not. they got almost triple. it says a lot about people signing. but on the other hand, do the signers vote? that's the big question. >> that's true. certainly if i were a person that wanted to knock out the law i'd be very encouraged about the people, but i wouldn't take
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anything for granted. i would go and work the crowds. and keep the issue going strong. go to the churches, go to where you think your strength is. an awful lot of work to do between now and the election because polling shows that same-sex marriage is becoming more and more acceptable to more and more people. the question is has that affected the african-american community, the church community of the african-americans, catholics? people like that who traditionally have been against this kind of thing. and you just have to hope that this is a harbinger of good things to come. but boy, i wouldn't put my money in the bank on it. >> when you say that virginia is a strange state, maryland -- prince georges county, baltimore. and then frostburg. and you have got -- a whole different group of people. but let me go back to something dave pointed out and that is e the -- and from folks who call
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my show, i can tell you the african-american community is not crazy about same-sex marriage. look to what the naacp went through. this will be contentious and i think the -- i think the african-american community may be the tipping point. >> let me ask you -- >> i think that's the tipping point. >> we saw the president came out on a personal level in favor of same-sex marriage. the naacp chairman said in a statement, supporting the folk's right -- same-sex couples right -- >> they took the civil rights -- >> from the legal perspective, not the faith perspective. will that resonate with the black community? >> i think the faith perspective is going to override everything and you're going to see the bishops, the ministers, the imams, they're going to be a
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major player in this debate. >> that was the platform before, not only with propertestants. and the catholics. >> the biggest issue overall in spite of this is jobs and the economy. and someone who's worried about a -- losing a job or out of work and not getting a job, that's their main focus. you have to wonder how much will they be paying attention to this issue, how much will they be willing to support one side or the other? that's uncertain too. >> the governor has his work cut out for him. because he's full throttle on this one. so this is going to say a lot about his political ability to turn out the vote. >> on the other hand, if people get turned off by the national elections and don't vote, which they say this influx of all this money coming in does tend to turn people off, so much campaign money that could have an effect too. >> in the last minute i want to go back into the district if we can.
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we saw the d.c. council voted on this taxi cab issue and we're now going to see tv monitors, credit card machines and gps technology in taxi cabs. >> welcome to the 21st century. >> i feel like i'm in new york. >> i'll catch a cab now. >> hey, you can watch -- >> in the cab. >> all my friends in southeast, now i can go there and not worry about what the cabbie is saying, i don't go that way. >> or you don't have to worry that i went all the way and. that's the good thing. >> that was the point that some of the drivers protested. the fact that they were going to put the gps devices in and be able to monitor if the drivers were taking the long route from point "a" to point "b." >> let it be understood that the gps vice will only work when the fare meter is working. >> cabbies say they know the best way to get from here to
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there, they'll give you the best ride. the fact is they don't take detours to make more money, but they sometimes have to take detours because of traffic issues. they don't want a big brother technical thing telling them what to do. >> i like big brother. not when the guy says i'm not going that way. >> i'm with jerry on this. i like being able to watch channel 4. >> oh, yeah. >> from the back seat. >> i watch wnbc in new york. >> full disclosure, veriphone has the contract to put them in the taxis. news4 continues in a moment. good morning.
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welcome to news4 today. i'm angie goff. >> i'm richard jordan. we were dodging some showers yesterday and it looks like you can't put the umbrella away just yet. >> here to tell us more, chuck bell who joins us from live outside on our brand new patio where you were just having a ball yesterday. >> oh, yeah. having a great old time out here. a beautiful morning to be outside here on the front lawn of channel 4. plenty of clouds overhead, but in the background the beautiful satellite dish and the purple crepe myrtle in bloom. it will be a fine looking july afternoon around here. it will be hot. that's what people think of the month of august. a lot of people assume that august is warmer than july. that's not true. july is our hottest month by quite a margin. about two or three degrees warmer than august on average. right now, it is cloudy and man, is it kind of on the steamy and sticky side out here. 73 is the current dew point. 77 is the current temperature.
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and as you can see here on the current temperatures, generally speaking in the 70s everywhere. 79 in annapolis and st. mary's. 74 in waldorf. the bulk of the showers are in northern maryland and eastern west virginia and into parts of the eastern shore. a couple of sprinkles near shadyside. martins to hagerstown, all getting on in the sprinkles as well. there's your sunday planner. we'll get more sunshine than yesterday, as a result, we'll be warmer. all that sunshine will lead to another chance for thunderstorms today. the coverage won't be as much as yesterday. but just like yesterday, if you get underneath one of the summer soakers you can get a quick inch to two inches of rain. keep that in mind as you make your plans for sunday. back to you. >> thanks. now to metro's rail line. overnight, train service stopped for a second time in less than 24 hours because of a systemwide failure.
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a news4 employee was at the branch avenue metro station when metro told station managers to hold their trains. metro stopped trains for 45 minutes. a computer system that monitors the trains at the operations control center went down. metro could not track 44 trains that were in service and the shutdown frustrated metro riders. >> it took an hour just to get from pentagon city to chinatown and that's, you know, half our day already. just to get to ben's chili bowl. >> metro eventually restored service. they're still investigating to find out what went wrong. some good news if you take the metro downtown during the week. the transit agency announced this weekend it will soon end midday track work for the year. trains have been caused to single track in the morning and evening rush and now they'll concentrate on doing it overnight an on the weekends. d.c. police are
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investigating a deadly pedestrian accident. this one happened around midnight in the 3600 block of new york avenue northeast. police say a private tour bus hit an adult male. he was taken to the hospital where he later died. the driver of the bus did stay on the scene. outbound new york avenue at bladensburg was shut down for three hours. one woman is dead after a pedestrian accident in prince georges county. police say the woman walked into the eastbound lane of university boulevard and was hit by a tow truck last night. she was then hit by another car. she was not in the crosswalk. the tow truck driver stayed on the scene, but the other driver sped off after the incident. d.c. police are on the hunt for a man who sexually assaulted a woman at gun point. police say a man attacked the woman and the victim said he pulled a gun and sexually assaulted her. he walked into a nearby atm and forced her to withdraw money.
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this morning, police are looking for a man who shot two people at a spa in howard county. the shooting happened last night at the nail and hair care spa on richards valley road. they say a man walked in and shot a woman who work there is. he also shot a man that was there with her. both are listed in critical condition. the shooting appears to be a domestic dispute. a notesville, virginia, man is behind bars for impersonating public officials. he is accused of showing a badge and saying he was a fire marshal. he's also accused of impersonating a police officer at a concert in 2010. he could spend up to three years in prison. penn state continues to make changes to its campus in response to the latest allegations in the sex abuse case. the artist behind a mural showing joe paterno with a halo has removed that halo. michael polado added it after
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paterno died but he said he felt like he had to remove after last week's freeh report. he added a blue ribbon to paterno's lapel which symbolizes support for child abuse victims. he removed sandusky from the mural. a russian rocket with a u.s. astronaut aboard is on its way to the international space station. >> liftoff. liftoff of the soyuz -- >> astronauts anita williams is part of a three-person crew on the rocket. she joined a japanese astronaut and a russian cosmonaut for the trip. the crew will travel two days to reach the space station. nasa relies on other countries to spend astronauts to space because the shuttle program was retired last year. mitt romney is coming off vacation and gearing up for a big week decision in 2012.
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>> president obama is keeping up the political attacks. we'll get a look at how it's affecting the presidential race from "meet the press" moderator david gregory. he's headed to join our studio next. wait until you see what or should we say who ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection.
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right now, decision 2012 is zeroing in on the battleground states. president obama focused his re-election campaign in virginia while mitt romney is preparing to head to the key state of ohio. >> meanwhile, romney's time at bain capital has come into question. "meet the press" moderator david gregory joins with us with more. david, my first question, it looks like both sides are up in arms about this whole bain issue. but the bottom line is does these are nate -- does this
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resonate with voters? >> well, mitt romney as a former business executive you have to look at the totality of what bain did, what it was engaged in. what they're doing try to do, look bain was exploitive of middle class workers and made decisions about outsourcing that he was part of, et cetera. that should be part of what people evaluate. all of this sort of knocked down this credential and create real questions about romney at a time when there's a lot of questions about the economy and the president's leadership and in the course of the week the president sort of changed that dialogue after a bad job report. >> people are hearing bain capital, but do voters know what it means? is it going over everyone's head? >> i don't think that's the kay. no question thus far in the polling that mitt romney's
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business experience seems to be a net negative, but there's a lot of people to your point who have not really absorbed all of this. so that's an opportunity on both sides to sort of elaborate on the record. and that's still no question that people evaluate mitt romney and say, you know what, we think he has better ideas on how to turn the economy around. so he's benefiting from that. if you're president obama and his re-election team what they're trying to do is say to voters this is not plausible alternative to the leadership. he's not somebody who understands you. he's not somebody who understands the concerns of middle class voters and they'll try not only to use the bain experience, but the fact of his wealth, won't provide tax returns. he's secretive about bain and they're trying to turn this into a character issue. >> and gaining steam is the veep
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stakes and matt drudge said that condi rice is at the front. but we've heard others dismiss that. >> that's part of the parlor game. i think condoleezza rice is unlikely to be on the ticket. she's indicated that. it is certainly -- >> isn't that pretty typical of someone being vetted, they say, no, i'd never been on the ticket? >> it's different in her case and the way she dismisses it. look, it's still possible. the reality is there are a couple of people who actually know what's going on in this case. but all of the hype surrounding condoleezza rice was overblown. this was put out there in a way inconsistent with how they're running this search. i think that it doesn't deserve the credence that it's gotten over the last few days. >> and the president actually has the edge over romney in virginia. 50 to 42%. how vital do you think virginia is going to be?
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>> you know, one of the key states for sure. president obama won in 2008. the fact he's at 50% in that poll will give the obama team, you know, some confidence. but they understand how hard fought virginia is going to be. and, you know, this is one that'll go down to the wires. everybody will be watching it closely. >> what's coming up? >> well, we'll talk more about the maine -- the bain controversy. and we'll talk about it with the senator dick durbin as well from illinois. and senator john kile and bob costas is talking about the penn state scandal. >> and on press pass? >> sigourney weaver from "political animals." talking about the life of the clinton family, so interesting discussion with her. >> cool. all great stuff. >> now the weather. >> that's right. off to a muggy start already. let's find out if we'll see
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repeat rain like we saw yesterday. here's chuck bell. >> hey, you guys, yes, we are under the gun for at least more chances for rain today. will it be as much as yesterday and what about the week ahead? we'll give you all that information when you come back in two minutes. when the president was elected, he talked about hope and change. whatever happened to hope and change? now it seems he's just coming right out of the box with these old-fashioned, negative ads. by starting negative, by going extremely tough and extremely hard, looking conventional, and frankly running ads that are inaccurate.
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here we are in langley. tornado is trying -- >> this morning, people are cleaning up from a tornado. take a look at this video a viewer shot yesterday afternoon in virginia. you can see the tornado form. it tore down trees and power lines. it also lifted up cars. no injuries have been reported. >> i'm not -- that white -- >> white lowering there. >> usually they're darker. i haven't seen it so light like that. >> exactly. they're like any other cloud,
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they come out white, but the thicker they are or more dirt or debris they pick up, that turns the tornado from the milky white cloud cover to the dark colors people are normally used to seeing. accimack county, it's just below the county, worcester county, and they had a lot of bad weather out at the beaches yesterday. it was a good day to drive to the beach, but not be at the beach. today, better for you. today, sunshine have a hard time finding it way to the ground through all the cloud cover we have outside first thing this morning. but there's rays of sunshine making it into your sunday afternoon. once again, we'll have a chance for some rain showers coming up, but a lower chance today than yesterday. and chances drop even further as we get into your monday. your sunday off to a mild start.
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77 already at 6:00 a.m. here in town. winds out of the southwest at six miles an hour. everybody in the 70s this morning. yesterday, we had a lot of 60s out to the west of washington. not the case today. and the fact that we're starting the day a couple of degrees warmer means we'll finish the day a couple of degrees warmer as well. yesterday, our high was 88. today i'm forecasting well up above 90 degrees. 82 by 10:00 this morning. there are some showers to contend with first thing. we'll get a break in the action. all that will bubble up a few more thunderstorms to contend with. if you're driving down to the beaches another day with thunderstorm chances today. rain chances diminishing at the beaches tomorrow. as we get into the middle of the week looks like good beach weather indeed. ocean water temperature 78 degrees. that's some of the warmest i can remember seeing. for this morning, rain showers in central delaware and in eastern west virginia and
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sprinkles in northern maryland out to the blue ridge. be on the lookout for some rain drops first thing this morning. no severe weather to worry about in the front half of the day at all. these shower are drifting eastbound. northern montgomery county, be ready for some rain drops over the next couple of hours. not much in the way of rain chances across for verne virginia. that will be changing with daytime heating. high pressure pumping all of that in our direction. so humid with a chance for some showers and storms cooking up later on this afternoon. lower chances for rain tomorrow after a muggy and mild start. looks like tomorrow everybody up into the mid 90s. mostly cloudy, highs today 87 to 93. back to work tomorrow. more sunshine, warmer. as a result, fewer storms. here's the extended forecast. 50% chance of rain today. then the real high heat comes
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back for tuesday and wednesday. highs, upper 90s. heat index over 100. another chance for rain brings in some slightly cooler weather which we will appreciate, richard and angie. >> thanks. 12 days away from the opening ceremony of the opening games in london. >> the village has welcomed 17,000 athletes. >> and it contains more than 3,000 apartments. >> so storm 4 meteorologist doug kammerer was lucky enough to visit london this summer. >> but a particular employee of news4 didn't get to go along, but lucky enough for doug he snuck him over. >> i knew my trip to london would be great. but i knew it would be better with a friend. dan and i had a great time. we did everything together. like shopping at the famous
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store. >> 250 pounds. >> you've got this, right? >> we got our picture taken together wherever we went. >> dan, aren't we having the best time? we met people from all over the world, and we got to hang out with one of the most famous icons, david beckham is we're hanging out with the coolest people. one of the best things we did was going up in the london eye. pretty cool. >> this is. >> checking out some of the city's main attractions. today you see big ben right there. but when you come back in a few weeks you'll head down to olympic park on the other side of the city. that night we decided to hit the town, but first, dan said he needed to freshen up a little bit. i think i'm okay but i know somebody who needs a lot of help. >> oh, yeah. >> there's not going to be nearly enough. in order to go out in a fashionable city like london, dan and i had to find some new
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clothes. dan, i found something good for tonight. what do you think, are you ready? oh, the smile says it all, buddy. all in all, our trip was amazing. by the time it was all over, dan was feeling and wearing the pride of england. >> oh, it's fun because when those guys walk around here in the newsroom that's the same response that dan does give doug. >> just that blank stare? >> no, i'm kidding. they're real buds. i think the tiger look, that was nice. >> yeah. i need a cardboard of you to carry around. >> no, you don't. >> why not? >> because you'd throw it into the potomac or something. >> no, i wouldn't. >> we have an entire section devoted to the olympics. not only can you watch profiles of u.s. athletes in our area, but check out cool stuff like two apps you might want to download now that we'll let you watch the games on the go which
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is pretty cool at your fingertips. >> yep. all right, despite metro's computer programs, the agency is lacking for singers, dancers and poets to perform live at metro stations. they'll hold auditions for the metro performs talent program. the auditions will happen tuesday night from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at metro headquarters. selected artists will perform for free from july through september. they'll get invited to perform as part of the music on the mall program. >> you can see a fire breathing dragonflying inside the verizon center. i met one in person outside the news4 studio. can you blow me some flames? wow. he's getting there. >> he's getting there. just baby. >> the baby dragon he is cute. part of dreamworks how to train your dragon live spectacular. going on this week. it is based on the oscar
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nominated film. the show brings dragons and wizardly to life. the show starts july 19th and runs through the 22nd. he's very gentle. >> yeah. he was trying to give you a kiss or something, i think. >> the viking that was with him, sig, he taught me the trick to train the dragon. but there's 27 of those dragons. that's a baby one. there's one three times his size and they actually fly and they spit fire. really, really entertaining. >> cool. >> so moving on, are you single and dating? >> well, there's help on what to do or not to do when it comes to dating. today.com and match.com teamed up for a love bites survey to help all the single ladies and men. 70% of women say it's a big turnoff when their date drinks more than they do. 23% of men and women say it's a turnover when their date has nothing to drink at all. 90% of men prefer dinner for a
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first date and 62% do not want to split the check. you can't make everyone happy. either you drink too much, not enough. come on. >> yeah. don't text on the first date. >> yeah. >> at the table. >> no texting. >> that's a no-no. big no-no. well, there's still more news4 today after the break. more on the weather too. >> we'll have news4's view point. that's coming up ahead. stick with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point
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of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. it's the perfect match for the perfect moment -- oreo the dunkin' way. introducing the new oreo coffee coolatta and new oreo vanilla bean coolatta. taste the fun today. america runs on dunkin'. hurry in to dunkin' and try the new oreo coolatta and donuts today. ♪ i'm teaching performance. here's what they'll need. ♪ get your backpack, your hoodies, harajuku, ♪ ♪ turquoise kinda purple orangish sorta blue. ♪ ♪ backpacks, yeow, ♪ to put their stuff in.
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good morning. welcome to news4 today. i'm angie goff. >> i'm richard jordan. it's sunday, july 15, 2012. let's see if we can squeeze out sunshine this morning. >> there was a rainbow yesterday. >> yeah, around 6:30 last night. we had it on the city cam. you could see it live as we were closing out the show. today, we can squeeze out a few rays of sunshine. the proof is in the picture. look. one, two, three -- it's at least three rays of sunshine that i can count. >> partially heavenly. >> temperatures are on the balmy side already. 77 in washington. 78 in annapolis.
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a few sprinkles not too far from the state house there in annapolis. mainly down to the south around the anne arundel line. and a few more showers out into west virginia. not a whole lot of rain in and around town yet, but with the clouds out there do be ready for a few sprinkle possibilities here first thing this morning. then we add some daytime heating. get temperatures up above 90 degrees. yesterday we topped out at 88. above 90 will lead to a better chance of thunderstorms. not as many as yesterday, but still with all that moisture in the air, if you get underneath one of them some spaces down near fredericksburg, nearly three inches of rain yesterday. if you get under one it will get you wet. >> thanks, chuck. looking at the top stories, overnight, train service stopped for a second time in less than 24 hours because of a systemwide failure. a news4 employee was at the branch avenue metro station when
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metro told station managers to hold their trains. yesterday afternoon, the computer system that monitors trains went down. forcing metro to stop rail service for 45 minutes. d.c. police are investigating a deadly pedestrian accident in new york avenue northeast. a private tour bus hit an adult male. he was taken to the hospital where he later died. the driver of the bus did stay on the scene. montgomery fire crews are looking into what caused the fire in kent oak mews. it took around an hour for them to control the blaze. no one was hurt in the fire. those are some of the stories that's making the news today. next, nbc's viewpoint. >> of course we'll have another update. hi, welcome to view point. i'm aaron gilchrest. we'll talk about guiding eyes for the blind. helping to make sure folks who are visually impaired can live
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full lives with the help of incredible dogs. i want to introduce you to the guest this morning. first, we have terry nettles and her guide dog with her. this is ed win. edwin is very calm, terry. he's doing a great job today. next to me is gillian mitchell, she is the representative and a volunteer puppy raiser and paul, a volunteer puppy raiser along with sake who's in the program and is going to be a guide dog. >> correct. >> help folks to understand what it is that guiding eyes for the blind does. >> guiding eyes for the blind is an amazing organization. it was started in 1954, so it's almost got a 60-year history of training and raising guide dogs for the blind, for visually impaired. giving them so much more freedom and independence they might not have had otherwise.
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>> this is an organization and a program that is huge. i mean, a lot of dogs, a lot of area you cover. >> a lot of area. we are in -- our headquarters is in new york. in york town heights. we have regions of volunteers throughout from maine to north carolina. we have about 11 -- i think we're opening a new region soon. we have volunteers in all those regions and a regional manager who sort of keeps us going and keeps us on top of all the new training methods and everything. since the inception of the organization, we have placed over 7,000 dogs. >> wow. >> and with -- with blind and visually impaired. it is exciting. >> where did the idea come from? obviously i guess there was a need out there that somebody saw and wanted to figure out how to meet it? >> there was a big need and there still is. there's a growing need, to be honest. you know, we know dogs are smart. they're amazing. and people have wonderful relationships with their pets.
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i guess when they were discovering that, they're capable of doing more than we realized. i think that is how it pretty much came about. you know, we're one of the leading guide schools in the country right now. we are regional in the sense from maine to north carolina, but we place dogs all over the world. >> that's wonderful. terry, you know firsthand what it means to have dogs like edwin. i think you said 30-plus years you had guide dogs. >> 33 years. he's my fifth guide. >> fifth guide. what do the dogs mean for you? how do they impact your life? >> well, they make me feel free. sort of like you can see when i'm walking, i can walk free down a busy street. i can weave in and out of traffic and busy city streets with pedestrians and he takes me from point "a" to point "b" in a safe manner and in a very smooth manner. >> and i would imagine that they sort of become a part of not
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only your family, but almost literally you. >> absolutely. when something happens to them, it's very, very hard on you. very -- you know, very sad. i know that people who have pets get very attached to their dogs, but could you imagine putting -- putting your life in these dogs' paws -- four paws. they take you from day to day and they take you into all types of situations where you are pulled out of literally of the way of moving vehicles or open elevator shafts which has been the case with me, with one of my previous guides. i was in a building and they were working on the elevator and i told the dog forward and she wouldn't go. and i was wondering why. and next thing you know she dropped down in front of me and someone yelled, ma'am, that's an
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open elevator shaft, please don't go. that was amazing. so yeah, you put your full trust in these guys and they take you from day to day. they're a huge part of my life. >> that is awesome. i'm going to ask you in a moment to tell me a little bit. sort of walk us through a day and tell us about how you and edwin interact. but julia, first, that's i would imagine why you do what you do. >> it just is so exciting to hear that. when you've raised a puppy from this day or younger, eight to ten weeks and poured yourself into this process and to see what you're doing, it makes it so worthwhile. that you want to start raising another puppy right away. >> that's fantastic. paul, you're doing that. you're raising sake who is being very good there on your lap in all this time. how long have you two been together? >> actually, sake is being raised by one of our younger raisers. bridgette kennelly. she's a senior in a local high
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school. robinson high school. she is raising sake who's four months old. i'm raising another dog by the name of davis who's older. they wanted us to show case one of our little guys today. >> okay. >> that might -- the one i'm raising is actually 14 months old. and he's my second guide dog. and as julia mentioned earlier about providing dogs to visually impaired folks throughout the world, my first dog that i have is working with the gentleman up in canada. >> wonderful. i'm going to ask you what it means to raise one of these special dogs and we'll get into terry's story in a second as well. right now, we'll take a quick break here. as we go to break, i want to show you how to get more information. these websites are the place to go if you want more information about getting a guide dog or about helping to raise a guide dog and viewpoint returns after this. [ obama ] i'm barack obama, and i approve this message. [ female announcer ] every woman who believes
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decisions about our bodies and our health care should be our own is troubled mitt romney supports overturning roe versus wade. romney backed a law that outlaws all abortion -- even in cases of rape and incest. and that's not all. i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. [ female announcer ] for women, planned parenthood means life-saving cancer screenings and family-planning services. but, for mitt romney... planned parenthood. we're going to get rid of that.
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welcome back to view point as we continue our conversation with the good folks from guiding eyes for blind and some of the beneficiaries. let me ask you about the guide dogs that you seek out to be guide dogs. help us understand how that process starts. >> well, we're one of few schools that -- guide schools that has their own breeding program. >> oh, wow. >> so we breed all the dogs that we place because we want to know everything about them. we have 24/7 veterinarian care. we have researchers so we know what we're getting all the time. and it's mostly labs. black and yellow labs. so we know right from the beginning what kind of personalities they are. we're breeding dogs that we know will be successful. if we have a dog that goes through the program and she's
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produced a lot of dogs we'd like to breed her again to get some more good dogs. we breed for temperaments because all vision impaired people have different lifestyles so some dogs have more energy. some have less. so the dogs themselves are taken care of and tested right up to -- >> so you breed them and then you go out and you look for volunteers to help raise them, right? >> we do indeed. >> and paul is one of those folks. >> paul is one of those folks. i hope there are people who are watching who would be one of those folks as well. >> so tell us, what is it about paul? what type of people are you looking for to work with your dogs? >> what is it about paul? it's -- well, first of all, it is -- it's more rewarding than you can imagine. it's hard work, it's sacrifice. but you will -- it will change your life as well as someone else's. >> is this really something that anybody can do? >> almost anybody can do this if they put their heart and soul into it and they're willing to do the training, coming to the classes, having the dog in their home.
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dogs -- they need to work everywhere, so they're placed in different homes, in apartments and things like that. it takes patience. it takes consistency. it takes a family oriented individual. paul's whole family is involved. not just when -- it's everybody. everybody is training the same way. not the one time of saying you can get on the sofa, no. but we really want dedicated people who will love the dogs, care for them. be willing to do these kinds of things and paul is definitely one of those. >> well, paul, you're doing a great job handling sake. starting to show some of the puppy energy. >> no pressure. >> when you bring one of these puppies into your home, you have done it twice now, what are you doing? what's a day -- a normal day like for a puppy raiser? >> well, they become part of your family and as julia mentioned everyone in the family is involved.
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my wife and i, when the children visit, the kids, they come back in town, they know to follow the different commands that we're using for our pups. and, you know, on any given day, you know, you get up and they get up with you. and at this young age they're full of life right from the beginning. even from the manumaleuundane t feeding the dog or taking him out to get busy, we try to be consistent. before he eats, we make him sit or lay down, we'll make him stand. these are all commands that, you know, we continue to reinforce throughout their little puppy lives. and same thing when we take them outside. we use the term to get busy. so they know so that when they become a guide dog that they can't do their business any time they would like. >> right. terry mentioned -- her story
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about the elevator. how does that sort of skill get taught to one of these dogs that they would know how to signal stop here? >> right. well, actually, our role as a raiser is to teach them social skills and house manners. and to -- in order to do that, we and the pups go to closes together. okay. and we try to expose them to different elements of life. okay. traffic, riding an elevator, taking stairs in different locations. you know, riding a bus or, you know, the metro. we try to expose them to all those situations. after we raise them for approximately 16 months or so, then they go back to the organization up in new york and that's where they get the harness training and that's where they learn the more specifics of street, you know, crossings, elevator, you know, when to say no. when to disobey.
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>> gotcha. okay. so julia, we have to take a break here, but total time for training, the time that -- from when they get to the puppy raiser to the point they graduate takes how long? >> about two years. it's a long, solid process. >> all right. we'll take a quick break here. again, as we go to break, i want to show you how to learn more information about how to become a volunteer puppy raiser. there are the websites on the screen. when the president was elected, he talked about hope and change. whatever happened to hope and change? now it seems he's just coming right out of the box with these old-fashioned, negative ads. by starting negative, by going extremely tough and extremely hard, looking conventional, and frankly running ads that are inaccurate. barack obama's campaign and allies will run more negative ads against this republican nominee in 2012 than have ever been run in the history of the world. whatever happened to hope and change? [ romney ] i'm mitt romney, and i approve this message.
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i'm angie goff. here are some of the stories we're following this morning. overnight train service stopped for the second time in less than 24 hours because of a systemwide failure. a news4 employee was at the branch avenue metro station when metro told station managers to hold their trains. yesterday, the computer system went down, forcing metro to stop rail service for 45 minutes.
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montgomery county fire crews are looking into what caused a house fire last night. firefighters arrived to find a detached garage on fire. it took around an hour for the crews to control the blaze. no one was hurt. and a deadly bed pedestrian accident. a private tour bus hit an adult male. he was taken to the hospital where he later died. the driver of the bus did stay on the scene. we'll have more news in 15. as we continue our conversation with guiding eyes for the blind and helping you learn how you can become a puppy raiser, or if you need a guide dog how you can make that happen. terry, you have been with edwin or edwin has been with now for two years. >> 2 1/2 years. >> walk us through your day together. how does edwin impact your life
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from the beginning of the day to the end? >> basically, 6:00 a.m., get up. it can fluctuate, but basically 6:00 a.m., get up, take him out, feed him. i do obedience exercises which is exercises that consist of sit, down, come. or actually heel, i guess now because they have changed that a little bit. and this -- by doing that daily it keeps your dog tuned up to, you know, from being distracted so much when you're out on the street. because it's very important that a dog not be distracted while you are crossing intersections or out on the metro. we -- once i do that, i groom him every day, brushing him. then i'll start my day. there are days i used to volunteer at alexandria hospital, answering the phones. so we did that. >> so in terms of your need for him, not necessarily around the
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house. you know your home, but it's when you go out, right? >> for shopping, running errands and i'm in the potomac harmony chorus which is a chorus, and we took the metro, and we took the bus, then we cross the street and went up. it's great because now the training is where you can tell the dog, to the door, they'll find the door for you. find the stairs. >> that's wherever door, no matter where you are, they'll find the door. >> right. or to the bus. if i'm trying to find a door, a specific -- you know, if i'm right near where i'm supposed to be, i'll say to the door. to the curb, to the stairs. he'll find -- like when i'm in the metro, for example, if i say to the stairs he'll take me to the es collator. >> wow, that's amazing. paul mentioned being disobedient when necessary.
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what's the term for? th -- for that? >> it's called intelligence disobedience. >> tell us about that. >> if you're crossing an intersection, for example, let's say a car makes a right-hand turn on red, the dog will not go. it could pull you back. the incident with the open elevator shaft, the dog will not go. or -- >> so a lot of that is instinct? it just knows that's something dangerous that could be in front of you. >> that's correct. >> you know to follow that direction. >> that's correct. that's correct. when they do disobey you, it is up to us -- like, for example, if i were to say forward and he wasn't going. i thought that i was at a curb, it could be a man hole cover that is open or could be a situation where it's not safe. it's up to me as the blind person to check my surroundings to see if it was not safe or not. first of all, by feeling the curb, then you're supposed to -- and still seems okay to you, then you say forward, they still
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don't go, you're to take your hand and to sort of put it out in front of you. because it could be an overhang also. >> julia, we look at edwin down on the floor. he's so calm. >> yeah. >> you train dogs to sort of behave differently. to have different temperaments, right? >> well, they have the temperament. we're puppy raisers. the actual raisers are the ones that can teach them to do the things, to go around the cars, do the intelligent disobedient thing. that's very specific and specific trainers for that. >> if you have someone who wants -- who needs a guide dog who is older, you know, if you have someone who is 70 and you have a dog with a temperament that might match that versus someone who is 20 and might have a more active lifestyle. >> yeah, the trainer determines that. does he have a strong pace or
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pull? what is his temperament, what is his style? and then they'll match them with people like that. does he work in the city well, would he work in an urban area better? those are the kind of things that we ferret out as they do the harness training at that end. >> i can say too that the school actually -- a trainer will come to your area and do home training. so part of the matching process for you getting the dog, they now actually use a gps and so that they clock your speed of which you walk which is comfortable to you. they also -- they do what's called a juneau walk where they hold part of the harness and you hold the handle. the trainer walks with you. >> so you're able to match your speed. >> right. how fast are you able to stop. do you need -- can you stop on the dime right up to the curb? there are dogs that do that automatically. some don't. that's how they use that as part of a matching process. >> that's great.
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welcome back to viewpoint. i want to turn to julia who's the dominion regional manager for guiding eyes for the blind. you need volunteers. >> we always need volunteer raisers. >> tell us what you need and the requirements. >> the requirements. the requirements are a big heart and some time. it's a volunteer, it's a 24/7 volunteer kind of thing. we invite you go to the website and check out everything involved. you will have to fill out an application and they'll get back to you and figure out exactly what part of that you want to do. there are training classes for -- training classes you need to go through as a raiser first. but we do need volunteers to raise puppies. we'd love to have more people involved and we'd accept donations. we go on donations totally.
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we're a grant funded organization. >> your puppy raisers are volunteers. for folks like terry you provide the dogs. she's not paying to get one of the guide dogs. right? >> no. she applies to guiding eyes for the dog to be a student, to get a guide dog. then she'll live there for about a month with the trainers, and they'll match her with a dog and work it out so she can go home with the trained dog and they work together as a team. there's no cost involved. the volunteers are all volunteers. we do get some support financially from the veterinarians. it's wonderful to have the local vets who have done so much work for us. we have the vets in new york who are doing it. but it's all volunteer. we have done a little bit of study and determined that the value of this dog from birth to by the time they're placed with the blind person is approximately $45,000. >> wow. >> that is -- and that's no cost
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at all to the visually impaired person who is going to get this dog. >> that's wonderful. paul, you said part of the reason you volunteer is because you know you're helping something for someone who needs it and they're not going to pay for anything. >> absolutely. not only is it a benefit that way, but personally i found it's comforting and a benefit to me personally too. and to the family. we love to have the dogs around. >> you mentioned once the dog has worked, they retire. >> yes. >> they do. >> the families that raise them can then have the dog in retirement, right? >> there's an option for that sometimes. many times, the visually impaired person would like to keep that dog as well as have the new working dog. so -- >> building families too. >> it's great family. a great family of volunteers and pups and we would love to have some more volunteers. >> terry, i keep looking down
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there at edwin and realizing that, you know, he's there and he knows that he's there to protect you and to help you, right? >> yes. exactly. he knows this is his job. i want to say also really quickly that the -- how much i as a graduate and other graduates appreciate the hard work that goes into with these puppy raisers, what they do for our dogs. if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have them. >> that sums it all up. we appreciate you coming in today. the organization is the guiding eyes for the blind. terry is with the dominion region. if you'd like more information, the websites are on your screen right now. or go to guidingeyes.org and learn how to become a puppy raiser or how to -- >> to donate. >> donate to the organization or to get one of these dogs to help you live through a great life
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with a puppy or a dog. all right. thank you all for coming in. we appreciate it. thank you for joining us for view point today. stay tuned. news4 today continues shortly. good morning. welcome to news4 today. i'm angie goff. >> i'm richard jordan. a metro system shut down is one of our big stories this morning. >> trains had to be stopped on two separate occasions, frustrating passengers. all trains arep and running. back to normal. we'll have much more on this glitch straight ahead. but first, we want to get a check on your forecast. let's go to meteorologist chuck
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bell. he's outside in the storm 4 weather patio with details. >> good morning. good morning, everybody. outside under a mostly cloudy sky. a nice breeze first thing this morning but i think the first thing you're going to notice on your way outside is how mild and how muggy it is. temperatures are in the middle and upper 70s in many locations. 77 downtown. 84% relative humidity. temperatures in the 70s pretty much everywhere. 78 degrees down to hunting town, maryland. and up into west virginia we go. martinsburg all in the low 70s. couple of sprinkles northern and western parts of frederick, maryland. on the whole though not a lot of heavy rain in and around the city. our best chances for heavier showers will come up later today. you can see a patch of thundershowers. so a few passing showers this
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weekend. temperatures above 90 degrees today. that will lead to thunderstorm chances again later on this afternoon. not as many as yesterday. but still, if you get underneath one of those thundershowers you can pick up a quick inch of rain. most picnics will be fine if you can finish them up by 4:00 or 5:00. >> thanks. now a developing story on metro's rail line. overnight, rail service stopped for a second time in less than 24 hours because of the systemwide failure. a news4 employee was at the branch avenue metro station when metro told station managers to hold their trains. derrick ward reports the initial shut down left metro riders very frustrated. >> reporter: it happened at about 2:00 p.m. according to metro a computer at the central control went down. they could not see where the 44 trains operating on the system were. now, the system that controlled signals, speed and proximity of trains to one another was not a
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factor. passengers did experience delays of 20 to 25 minutes. >> i experienced complete chaos. the trains are at no running due to the computer system. i have been downstairs, i'm here at the american university station for over 20 minutes waiting on a train. i was just alerted there's no train service due to the computer system being down. so thank god they have, you know, cabs and buses that are still running. but for us relying on the train system, it puts a damper on our day. but it's saturday. >> it stopped for about 25 minutes. in between stations. just going from bethesda to tenially town, it took me almost half an hour. >> how long does it normally take? >> five minutes. >> and operators were notified to proceed to the next station until the problem was resolved half an hour later. metro's computer glitch comes as at the transit agency also does track work this weekend which already means
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delays for riders. reagan national and crystal stations are closed. and trains are single tracking on the red, green and orange lines. all service is scheduled to be back to normal by tomorrow morning's rush. one man is dead in a bizarre armed robbery. it started off when three masked men with guns came up to a group on oat street in fairmont heights and demanded they get on the ground of one of the men laid down in front of a car. one of the women in the car got startled and pressed the gas and ran the man over and killed him. d.c. police are investigating a deadly pedestrian accident involving a tour bus. it happened around midnight in the 3600 block. police say the bus hit an adult male and he later died. the driver of the bus did stay on the scene.
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more than 50 firefighters battled a massive garage fire in montgomery county late last night. crews arrived on the 700 block of kent oak mews to find a detached garage ablaze. they got it under control. they're trying to figure out what caused the fire. and d.c. police are looking into the death of a man in dupont circle. he was found at the corner of 17th and pea streets and police are still trying to determine how he died. this morning, d.c. mayor vincent gray is keeping up with the schedule despite an on going investigation. yesterday, he spoke in northeast washington. earlier this week, a former aide pleaded guilty to running a $650,000 shadow campaign for gray in 2010. three d.c. council members have called for the mayor to step
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down and others say calls for his resignation are premature. now to decision 2012 where president obama is back to the white house for a short time. he'll travel to texas for events in san antonio and austin. yesterday, he continued his trip through virginia with stops in richmond and clifton. including a stop at centerville high school. he spoke to a rain-soaked crowd in glenn allen. the president once again hammered mitt romney for reportedly outsourcing jobs. >> he invested in companies that have been called pioneers of outsourcing. i don't want to pioneer in outsourcing. >> the president also said that the middle class is the key to rebounding from these tough economic times. and that government should be doing more to help out middle
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class families. mitt romney is in new hampshire right now on a family vacation. he is scheduled to travel to battleground states pennsylvania and ohio this week. meanwhile, his interview blitz continues with the former queen of daytime tv. romney and his wife sat down with oprah winfrey friday. that interview will be published in o, which is her magazine. last election, winfrey voiced her support for president obama but doesn't plan to campaign for him in the upcoming election. president obama continues to attack mitt romney's business record, but could romney's experience actually be helping him? we talked to "meet the press" moderator david gregory earlier this morning an he says the president has a tough task convincing the public that romney's experience is a bad thing. >> i think the larger charge that the president's team is making is that if you're going to evaluate mitt romney's time as somebody in the private sector, as a former business executive, then you have to look at the totality of what bain did.
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what it was engaged in. and there's still no question that people evaluate mitt romney and say you know what, we think he's got better ideas on how to turn the economy around. so he's benefitting from that. >> it's a busy morning on "meet the press." dick durbin and jon kyl square off and ed gillespie stops by. a d.c. man who spent 23 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit has been based by dna evidence. now the justice department is reviewing hundreds and maybe even thousands of cases where dna evidence could clear felons wrongly convicted. here's nbc's pete williams. >> reporter: police in washington, d.c. were looking in 1981 for a man who raped a woman at gun point. when they saw someone they thought resembled a sketch drawn from the victim's recollection.
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kirk odom spent 23 years in prison. >> they sent me to hell really. to be honest with you. they sent me straight to hell. >> reporter: at his trial an fbi lab technician testified that a hair found on the victim's clothes was so himicroscopicall similar it was indistinguishable. on friday, at his 50th birthday, a judge declared him innocent. a dna test showed it could not have been odom. now a u.s. attorney in washington said he suffered a terrible injustice. >> the jury was left with the misinterpretation of how strong the link was, the evidence link and the defendant to the actual crime scene. >> reporter: the fbi is going through thousands of other cases from the days from the days before dna testing to see whether witnesses or prosecutors exaggerated the significance of the fbi's hair analysis. the fbi insists that the science
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itself is sound, that it's possible to say whether hairs from a suspect bear a microscopic resemblance to hairs recovered at crime scenes, but a government science panel said there are no uniform standards on how many hair features must agree for a match to be declared. >> it's entirely subjective, so the examiner subjectively evaluates the sample. >> reporter: and now congress is considering national standards to prevent what happened to kirk odom, found guilty by a hair. the time is 7:40. how the olympics are helping dreams come true for a teenage cancer survivor. >> this morning we're looking at a new credit card settlement that could mean a different price when you use plastic. matters. pioneers in outsourcing us jobs supports tax breaks overseas. insourcing. industry and favors bring jobs home. it matters.
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i'm barack obama, and i approved this message. i hate getting less. but i love getting more. i'd trade a lot less for a little more. or a little less for a lot more. either way, when it comes to having more, i want a lot more of more and a little less of less. ♪ and that's exactly what you'll get at embassy suites. more free breakfast, more for my money, more deliciousness, more hearty guffaws... [ guffaws ] because more than enough more is never enough more. more coffee? what do you think? [ female announcer ] free breakfast. more room.
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welcome back. the "today" show is next on nbc4. starts at 8:00. >> jenna wolfe has more from new york. >> coming up on a sunday morning on "today," the u.s. is experiencing its worst drought in 25 years. why you'll be paying more for everything from hamburgers to gallon of milk. also, new developments in the case of missing soldier kelly bore due. new information from the registered sex offender who was with her the night she disappeared. the latest on the investigation. there's been another deadly shark attack this weekend. this morning the search is on for what is being described as a massive white shark. then, a couple who truly believes that less is more. the proof, their tiny and we mean tiny apartment. only 240 square feet. two people. 240 square feet. we'll see how they make that work. those stories and much more when
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lester and see you later. >> how do they go to the bathroom? >> i have no idea how they do anything. >> there's not even room for a bucket. >> wait till you see it. >> we'll leave it at that. >> thanks, jenna. >> i'm still -- okay. it could cost you more to use your credit card thanks to a settlement. businesses could pass a surcharge on to you. nbc's michelle franzen explains why cash can be king. >> reporter: with we're used to it at the pump. one price for cash, a higher one for plastic. but later this year that credit card surcharge could be coming to stores and even doctor's offices. it requires merchants to pay credit cards up to 3.75%. but for years, merchants haven't been allowed to pass that on the to consumers. this week, visa and others
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agreed to a settlement case and that gives businesses the right to charge more for using plastic to off set the swipe fees. now that merchants have the green light to pass on surcharges to the customer, the big question is, will they? experts say it's risky. >> the second they start putting on the fees for product and charging the customers more, that's going to anger their customers. that's the last thing they want to do. >> reporter: even if they do, customers can pay cash or use a debit card. >> it adds up when you pay your bill. >> if people start charging to use credit card, the atm will be my best friend. >> reporter: ten states including california, new york and texas have laws prohibiting merchants from passing them along. many big chain stores have the ability to negotiate lower fees with credit card companies and may not pass along the
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surcharge. but for small business owners like ann bonner, swipe fees add up. >> i have such a depreciation for my customer's business that i feel apprehensive about approaching them for picking that up. the bottom line is to keep them coming in and be able to do what i'm doing because i love it. >> reporter: business owners looking at a different bottom line. michelle franzen, nbc news, hoboken, new jersey. a big shopper like you? >> i never carry cash on me. do you anymore? >> i'm very cashless. i carry an emergency $20 bill in my wallet. >> we know who to go to when we want a snack out of the smack machine. >> try putting a $20 in the snack machine. when the president was elected, he talked about hope and change.
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whatever happened to hope and change? now it seems he's just coming right out of the box with these old-fashioned, negative ads. by starting negative, by going extremely tough and extremely hard, looking conventional, and frankly running ads that are inaccurate. barack obama's campaign and allies will run more negative ads against this republican nominee in 2012 than have ever been run in the history of the world. whatever happened to hope and change? [ romney ] i'm mitt romney, and i approve this message.
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some bugs are making a comeback this summer. there's a couple things you can do to keep those pesky critters from bugging you. >>. >> reporter: they're creepy and crawly and ear wigs and japanese beetles are everywhere. >> this seems to be the summer the dennisons of the dirt. we are seeing the ear wigs and the japanese beetles. >> reporter: this man is a professor of entomology and he said the mild winter could be to blame. the ear wigs have a good and bad side. why they do kill some of the pests in the garden, the japanese beetles are bad.
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>> they'll feed on more than 300 different kinds of plants. >> reporter: that's why japanese beetle bug bags are in so much hot demand. folks are buying all kinds of products to protect their homes and gardens and ants are a big problem. >> ants are attracted to moisture. especially when it's dry like it has been this spring, they tend to come in more. >> reporter: there is some good news this summer. one bug we won't see as much of -- the stink bug. chances are, you're not going to need these products. why? >> it seems like some of the natural enemies, these are the good bugs that eat bad bugs. we think they may be catching up with stink bugs. some people think that extremely hot weather may be detrimental to stink bugs. so these are a couple of the thoughts behind it. but it will take a few more years of research i think to really put the answer on this question.
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>> reporter: there's no real explanation as to why lightning bugs continue to make a come back. such a pretty summer favorite, do we really need the answer? this morning, people on the eastern shore are cleaning up from a tornado. take a look at some of video a viewer shot yesterday in accomack county, virginia. you can see it form. the tornado tore down trees an power lines. no injuries have been reported there. and nbc's own luke russert snapped this picture of dark clouds over the corridor. he tweeted it out last night and check this one out. alicia from alexandria sent us these pics. a rainbow over the district after the storms. you should pull over to take those shots. near the 14th street bridge. if you have more pictures to
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share, tweet us at news4today. >> she was the passenger in the car. >> okay. i wanted to make sure. we did see the same rainbow in virginia. >> it was a good shot. very good shot yesterday. we have another chance to see a few rainbows around later on this afternoon. so that is the upside of getting these afternoon showers. especially once they occur really late in the day. you have to be within about two hours or so of sunset in order to get the sun angle down just right to maximize your rainbow potential. we'll have a chance for some more coming up later on this afternoon. as a result of more rain chances coming our way. i don't think we'll see quite as many showers or thunderstorms as we saw yesterday. but that being said, i wouldn't turn your back on mother nature coming up later on this afternoon or evening. not looking for severe weather either. but you need to -- when you hear thunl thunder roar, you need go indoors.
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lightning can be a dangerous thing indeed. 77 degrees right now in washington with 84% industrial-strength humidity outside first thing this morning. that's going to stick around for the remainder of your sunday. 73 now in frederick and new market, maryland. 73 gaithersburg, all the way down to bethesda. chevy chase at 75. 75 degrees down towards culpepp culpepper, virginia. quantico, virginia, the marine corps base down there, up to 94 degrees by about 3:00 this afternoon. any time after 3:00, chance for showers and thunderstorms bubbling on up. things settling down after the sun goes down. back down to 83 by 11:30 this evening. if you go to the beach now, another chance of thunderstorms at the beach today. an isolated chance of showers tomorrow. turning hot. temperatures back up near 90 degrees as we head to the middle of the week. water temperature, bath water for this far north in the atlantic ocean.
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78 degrees the current water temperature. a few light showers to the north of frederick, maryland. more light showers out across the mountains of west virginia. and these are tracking off to the east. there you see frederick, maryland, getting a little rain drop or two this morning. sprinkles out to romney, west virginia, right now. heavier thunderstorms down across eastern kentucky. those are headed into central and western parts of west virginia and eventually those might graze the western parts of skyline drive, the northern end of the shenandoah valley. high pressure centered over the deep south, warm, moisture laden air is going to stream into the area making for a hot and humid day today. increasing temperatures with plenty of humidity around. so humid, with some shower chances early this morning. some thunderstorm opportunities coming up later on this afternoon. just keep a weather eye to the sky. i'll be here to keep you posted
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on any other stronger thunderstorms this afternoon and this evening. clear skies for most of the overnight. muggy and mild to get your monday started. then in the middle and high 90s. be ready for real summer-like weather. today, partly to mostly cloudy. some showers likely in the front half of the morning and a chance of thunderstorms later this afternoon. highs, upper 80s to low 90s. sun goes down at 8:32. more sunshine as a result. warmer. highs tomorrow up into the mid 90s. for tuesday and wednesday, i think tuesday and wednesday are the worst of the week. finally starting to trend back down closer to average. if you want to stay ahead of the weather, follow me on twitter and i'll keep you posted. >> all right. thanks, chuck. we are 12 days away from the london olympics now, but plenty of excitement leading up to the
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games. >> the u.s. men's and women's basketball teams are both in the area paying respect to the troops that serve our country. >> three. there's one. >> around 3,000 service members and their families filled the d.c. armory for the hoops for troops event. in addition to the lessons from the women's team for some lucky young ones, the men's team scrimmaged for the crowd. fans were thrilled to see some of the best basketball players in the world up close and personal. >> i think this is absolutely outstanding. the fact that they would come here and do this for service members is incredible. you know, before they go off to london. >> awe sew. really is. for us to get a chance to see the guys where we might never get to see them, it's truly awesome. really is. >> the u.s. men play tomorrow at the verizon center against brazil. a teenage cancer survivor is getting the wish of a lifetime right before the olympics.
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15-year-old tim born camp is a volleyball player and he got to hang out with the u.s. men's volleyball team thanks to the make-a-wish foundation. he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer when he was just 13 years old. >> it's just amazing to meet the people you watch on tv and that you want to become when you're older. >> he has been cancer free for a year. remember, nbc is your home for the 2012 olympic games. the opening ceremony is coming up on friday, july 27th. so really soon. >> i know. what's so awesome this year, there are two different olympic apps you can download and watch the events as they happen live right on your smartphone. or ipad. >> favorite sport? >> i love basketball. this basketball team, a lot of people are asking is this better than the 1992 dream team where we had ewing, stockton, jordan, magic?
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