students, escorted a safe distance away from the school where many parents were waiting. there were a lot of hugs, a lot of tears, a lot of worry. >> she's brand new in this school, and this is her first experience with high school. she heard shots -- >> i don't know what it was. first we heard it, and then as soon as we heard it again, i grab my stuff and ran out. >> they came over the intercom and said code red. he was not joking, it was serious. we were all scared. they made us go in the corner and crouch down. we had to sit there for probably close to an hour. >> reporter: they say the 15-year-old used a shotgun as he fired off the first round, the recoil caused him to fall off-balance. a guidance counselor took advantage of that, and managed to pin him near some vending

machines, but that shooter got off one more shot. no one was hit by that. >> the suspect who acted alone is in custody, and he in fact has been interviewed at this point in too im. >> reporter: perry hall is the largest in baltimore county. there are 2200 students enrolled here. it took quite an effort to get everybody out of harms way. the wounded 17-year-old is said to be a special needs student. police say he wasn't targeted, that he was a random victim. the cops are looking into the possibility that shooter brought the gun in pieces into the school and then assembled it inside. live in baltimore county, i'm pat collins, news4. now to our other big story tonight, all eyes are on tropical storm isaac and where it will make landfall s veronica

johnson is tracking the storm. >> all day long, even yesterday have been hammering florida. you can see it right there. it's winds are a at 75 miles per hour, and the latest information takes it aschori somewhere near new orleans. as possibly a category 2 storm with winds of 96 to 110 miles an hour. that's how strong the system could be, a category 2 hurricane. you can see the raider right there down toward ft. lauderdale, coming very close to new orleans. >> thanks, veronica. just about an hour ago, volunteer from the red cross in

fair packs packed up and shipped out to the gulf coast to lend support. news4's keith russell is following the develops from the newsroom. keith? >> we just found out 78% of the oil production in the gulf of mexico has been stopped. it will resume after the storm passes. meantime, good news regarding flights. some news not so good. let's take a look. united has said it will stop all operations at midnight tonight. it says it plans to remains closed tomorrow and wednesday as well in the cressants city. southwest has announced all the flukts are -- flights have cancel. in florida things are starting to get back to normal yesterday isaac canceled more than 8 a flights, and new orleans is

bracing for the rain, wind and storm surge, isaac is expected to bring. .mayor of new orleans and governor of louisiana have both declared emergencies. guys, we are all over the story, right here on -- and also on nbcwashington.com. you know, i have some friends in new orleans. they keep say, keith, here we go again, please not again. all we can do, guys is say let's keep our fingers crossed. >> they definitely do not need this. as isaac continues to pull away from the tampa area, there's still a threat for heavy rain and tornadoes, and today the republican national convention officially got under way, but with a modified schedule. aaron gilchrist and julie carey are covering the convention, both in tampa. we begin with you, aaron. >> good evening, part of that

modified schedule has some of the bands practicing behind us, but this is a convention that's seen one change after another, largely -- really been whipped by winds and rain. it's been happening in spurts all weekend long. now, had everything gone according to plan, the floor would be packed with people who were here for eight hours worth of convention activities. instead there was this earlier this afternoon. reince priebus gavel the convention into session at 2:00, so a most lid empty convention hall. it officially went into recess until about 2:00 tomorrow. this was less a concern about tampa being hit by isaac and more about a potential storm surge and closed bridges from some of the hotels further out. now, for the most part, this handle a typical muggy florida rainy august today, so protests

around the city went on mostly as they were planned. police think about 200 demonstrators gathered as a park today about a mile from the tampa bay forum here. the original plan was about 5,000 people from labor unions, immigrants rights groups, students, all calling them the coalition to march on the rnc, demanding good jobs, affordable education, health care, equality and peace's weld. those delegates tried to fill their day for the most part with other activities. there was one delegate in the virginia delegation getting a lot of attempt. my college julie carey has more on him. >> his name is evan drain. he lives with his mother, dad and mom, he doesn't even graduate from high school until next year, but already he's been

drawn to politics in a big way. >> elect a younger face for the grand old party. >> reporter: it may be wordy for a slogan, but it did the trick for evan drain. at just 17, the teen is the younge delegate at the republican national convention. he defeated six other more entrenched party activists to represent virginia's 8th congressional district, and he did it the old-fashioned way. >> i reached out to pretty much everyone who was registered to attend the convention, phone calls, to make them know i was a serious candidate. >> reporter: he's at st. agnes school in alexandria. he says his grandparents -- >> i view my political involvement, and especially my involvement in the conservative movement as a way of preserving the american families that my

family came to the united states for. >> reporter: as a delegate, evan's latest gold is to support the romney/ryan ticket and convince other voters that the republican party can represent their interests. >> a lot of young people are known for want been to be independent and make their own decisions. we should expect the same independence and freedom from our government that we expect from our parents and other authority figures at this age. >> evan says the way he's been embraced by party elders has just cemented his loyalty. >> regardless of the age, i found people in the party that i can hang out, talk to, and have given me support in all the activities i'm doing at the convention. >> reporter: evan says he is really looking forward to casting his ballot in november. he will have turned 18 by then. at 6:00 we'll stop by the virginia delegation meeting and show you why they're getting the star treatment this time around. >> reporter: and the sound check continues inside the tampa bay forum. we are also going to spend --

that is here in -- for we send it back to you. i'm going to go dance or something. >> go dance with julie. >> all right. this wednesday, august 29th, nbc nightly news will be airing half an hour early at 6:30, so we can bring you the redskins preseason game. that starts at 7:00. nbc coverage of the republican national convention that will including paul ryan's speech will immediately follow that game. two northern virginia mothers are in jail on child neglect charges after a toddler walked around alone and naked over the weekend. sheriff deputies arrested them yesterday. they say a store employee called police after they -- when they found their house, it was full the rotten food and animal waste. they took al craig's three kids and lance's five children.

they were now living with their grandmothers. animal control also took away seven dogs and two kittens. hundreds have been saying farewell to a fallen prince george's county police officers adrian morris was killed last week on a high-speed chase. >> reporter: wendy, they stood in line in the hot sun to let officer moreries' family knows how much his sackry files is appreciated and how he will never be forgotten. >> reporter: crisply pressed uniforms others with somber suits with a badge on a chain around their necks. >> when you lose a police officer, especially in this type of senseless death, that you

really -- you feel it in your heart. i grew up in prince george's county. >> adrian moreries was killed last monday when he lost control of his cruiser on i-95 while pursuing two men suspected of stealing purses from cars at gas stations. officer michael rischer in the passengers seat was injured, but survived. mourners including rank-and-file officers and officials from around the area. >> the best way we know to honor him is taking care of his family. his mother and grandmother, his fiancee. this is when policing is at its finest, when we're the prouders of our profession. >> reporter: coming up on "news4 at 6," we'll tell you how this young man that people are here today to honor truly represented the best face of a changes prince george's county. reporting live, jackie bensen.

still ahead on "news4 at 5," hearing from the construction worker hailed as a hero after his followed the empire state building shooter and led police right to him. as college students start the semester, buying textbooks can be quite expensive. ways to save cash at 5:45. up next, a look at the new first new school in montgomery county to open in se

the opening bells rang for the first time in montgomery county schools. >> tracee wilkins looks at house one of the country's top school systems is getting bigger and better. >> this is a very exciting day for me, not her. >> reporter: donna has moved here from indiana, entering her two kids into the montgomery

county school system. while work brought her to the washington area, the reputation of the schools brought her here inch what i've read is press awesome. that's why i moved to this area when i relocated. >> reporter: school officials say the system grows by 2500 students per year. what do you do with all the kids? build new schools to hold them. >> it's a great thing in our neighborhood. we were saying how the neighbors transformed, everyone is walking to the school this morning. >> it's the first new school since 2009, and it was needed in this community. >> satellite school is really nice, but we just had too many kids for the space. it's wonderful to have this new school. >> reporter: there's a report enrollment this year.

33% of its students are on free or reduced lunch. that means there are more disadvantaged in this school system that this some systems have total students, yet the test scores, college prepareds in and minority achievement is higher here than most systems in the country. >> they do better than that are counterparts in the nation and state, but they don't do as well as our white and asian kids, so we're work fog interventions. do they have what they need? >> that's why donna says she's confident moving here was a good choice. >> i did that for five or six year, paid for private in indiana. so it's a big difference for us here, being able to get into a good public school system. >> reporter: the superintendent says one of his focuses will be his work to continue to close the achievement gap. he has a plan to do that.

he waunds to pull in the xhurcht for more help, and also look to the students who need help and find out what their individual needs may be. in montgomery county, i'm tracee wilkins, news4. we're going to take you to d.c. and louden county classrooms at 5:30. right now we'll head down to new orleans. >> as we talked about a few moments ago, this is probably the first big test of the levees since katrina, and at the looks like it will continue to strength unup until the time it makes landfall. so maybe not just a category, but perhaps a category 2 so that's a lot. >> >> again it all kind of depends on where it's -- for some of the hef yes bands of

rain. we're talking good more than 24 hours out. that's exactly what today has, but i think be this time tomorrow, the humidity will be heading down. 87 degrees in many of those locations around the green belt. right back to the west. down through even areas. that's associated with the cold front which would be coming through here tomorrow, so you'll need the umbrella.

now we're seeing some of the early bands of rain starting to touch. while this would be a big system, we cannot left areas of mississippi and alabama out, because those areas will be getting quite a bit of wind and rain as well. when we talk about early wednesday, that's around 1:00 a.m. the impact for those costs will be a lot of rain. this is all the rain that comes in with them. right down around a -- no katrina, but still a very strong storm. that will be even early on.

it's high pressure after that. so high temperature for tomorrow after a fair ly and going to be feeling very nice on wednesday and thursday, we're back to some heat at the end of the week, and we'll stalk about when we could see moisture from isaac locally here, which is quite possible. >> not much of a cold front coming through. more like a warm front coming through. >> thanks ver conka. still ahead, speed cameras bring in big bucks, but the hefty ticket fines could be headed downward. while robert griffin iii is safe from the cut list, he's still on the team, find out which redskins are not as lucky. tonight at 6:00, a new galaxy

president clinton: this election to me is about which... candidate is more likely to return us to full employment. this is a clear choice. the republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper-income... people and go back to deregulation. that's what got us in trouble in the first place. president obama has a plan to rebuild america from... the ground up, investing in innovation, education... and job training. it only works if there is a strong middle class. that's what happened when i was president. we need to keep going with his plan.

president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message.

this is what the preseason is all about. >> let's go back out to dan. how ugly was it out there is it. >> reporter: you know, wendy, i don't think there were any huge surprises today. this is the first round of mandatory cuts, you have to get down from 90 to 75 players, so 15 cut waived or traded. the biggest move i guess is neil rackers is cut. for everybody. even if you've made the team, cutdown day makes you a little squeezy. >> you make friends, and then a lot of them don't get kept. >> the same time of feeling, and

it's hard, you know, you work so -- kind of a dream coming through, and somebody tells you you're not good to be here, soits very humbling. auer all auditioning. >> it's never easy. whenever people ask about the envelope, that's the first thing i kind of reveal to them. it's cutthroat. it's not like college or high school. in college and high school, if you played poorly, you get benched. here in the nfl, if you play poorly, you get sent home, so the reality is totally different. >> reporter: what won't be different. neil rackers has been cut and the job once again belongs to graham ga know. >> i've trained well, so i'm

happy to have this opportunity. >> he will kick in the fourth and final preseason game on wednesday, but the rest of the starters won't be playing, meaning rg3 and company have almost two weeks under their next game. >> it gives us stwra time to work on stuff, so it will be a fun time. but we'll make sure we stay focused. that way we can -- >> it's nice to have that extra day or two to let everybody heal, but in a game like this, you get a chance to look at almost a normal game situation with your second and third team. people competing for a position on your football team to see who lines up to get more playing time in the season. >> you never know, but you have to continue to prepare as if you're going to play. that's what we're going to continue to do throughout the year.

>> reporter: the point is you have people fighting for jobs. you can't see players playing harder than all season long, because they are literally playing to put food on the table. guys? >> thanks a lot, dan. coming up next, we are live in in accordance, as tropical storm isaac gets ready to make landfall. >> the man who chased down the empire state shooter. and big date for the louding

president clinton: this election to me is about which... candidate is more likely to return us to full employment. this is a clear choice. the republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper-income... people and go back to deregulation. that's what got us in trouble in the first place. president obama has a plan to rebuild america from... the ground up, investing in innovation, education... and job training. it only works if there is a strong middle class.

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parents worried about safety after a student opens fire with a shotgun. one student was hit, a

15-year-old was taken into custody, tackled by a guidance counselor. two mothers are now in jail on child neglect charges. deputies arrested crystal craig and amy lamb at their home on sunday. the children were taken away and are now living with their grandmothers. today, family, friends and was killed last monday. >> there was a viewing this afternoon at a funeral home, and a second views at 7:00. the funeral is tomorrow. let's fast-forward to the weather. >> hey, we had some rain this past weekend, and in fact some heavy storms that produced more than a foot of rain. take a look at what's been happening in florida, close to 13 inches of rain, and palm city, all from the outer bands

of isaac. hey, reynolds? >> you know what's interesting is that if you has been tore one of those people and stepped out today, this would easily be the -- temperatures in the 80s, 90s, but overall a beautiful day. you have no idea there's this monstrous storm. the interesting thing about it is there's been a stark history here all preparations have been made. just to give you bearings for a moment, right behind the camera lake pontchartrain and right behind me some of the vaughned levee system.

the big threat that we have in the storm is although the winds are expected to be stronger than katrina, the big threat, of course, will be the heavy rainfall. there's some places obviously where the rain will come down for a span of 24 to maybe even 36 hours. with that levee system, and granted it could do a great job holding back storage surge, one of the issues we may have is when you have flooding inside the levee system itself, and flooding, i can tell you, if it stays on this track, flooding is all by a certainty. we have video from all around louisiana. they have this down to a science. i've been told by the mayo to please evacuate farther to the north. they will activate all the roadways, and be able to evacuate north.

>> just for the folks who haven't had to evacuate left, just how anxious or nervous are there as isaac coming in as a possible category 2 now? >> that's the fascinating thing. you'll find some people that are nervous about this. some take it in stride. the people here have strong resolve. there's a great sense of civic pride. they're going to help each other out and do the very best they can to handle whatever isaac brings. >> thank you. >> you're looking at a snapshot of tomorrow, with a high of about 88 to 90, thunderstorms expected early afternoon tomorrow. back to you guys.

kids in d.c. today packed up their lunches and jumped on the school bus for the first day of school. the new school year means new improvements. 12 of the schools got major upgrades including bruce monroe. fresh paint, making it a better learning experience. >> it's like being in a new place. i was amazed with the kids, with the lights and new colors, and the classroom, we told them they don't to leave. they want to look around. the new school year brings additional funding. grant money helps top extend the school day. schools in louden county went back to school as well. more families are moving into that county. news4's tony tull joins us now with how the first day of school

unfolded. >> it went pretty good. with the recent increase in pop laition. including rezoning students. >> what shape do you think he's going to -- >> for many schools it was the first day of school, including louden county, the third fastest-growing county in virginia. >> i was one of those create parents who had to walk her through the class and when she was doing her own thing, i almost broke down. >> now she's excited, she's happy and wants to come back. it turned out good. >> reporter: bruce and jennifer's kids are attending frederick douglass, a new two-story elementary opened this year. and judging by this reaction, some are glad thinks officer.

>> go home. >> now that the first day of school is over, the typical worries set in. let me introduce you to clarity. parents, the. >> clarity is a tool we used for our report cards. this year a parent port at will open. parents will be able to monitor their child's progress. >> you can see in real time what the child is doing, if they're turning in their assignments in, what grade they have. it's just another communication tool. it's transparent and a parent should know where their child is. >> clarity went through a successful pilot program at loudoun county schools last year. >> i talked to school officials about how they plan to deal with the increased enrollment and in the classrooms. and welcome. >> this is tony, his first day on camera.

he's been working behind the scenes for the last week. >> thank you very much. it's a great crew and everyone has made me feel welcome. >> you know how they kids felt, it's kind of like the first day of school. >> i've got to tell you, i grew up in maryland, so i've had quite a few first days of girls, but i'm coming from san diego, so the humanity, i've got to get used to it. if you see me sweating, feel free -- >> at least you got here now, not in june. >> i heard. >> it's been ugly. >> i heard. but welcome. >> thank you. a woman runs a daycare off her virginia home. what she did that got her arrested. there are lots of angry drivers furious over the high drivers furious over the high came he's made his choice.

but what choices will women be left with? just like mitt romney, paul ryan would get rid of planned parenthood funding. in congress, ryan voted to ban all federal funding for planned parenthood and allow employers to deny women access to cancer screenings and birth control. and both romney and ryan backed proposals to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest. for women... for president... the choice is ours. i'm barack obama, and i approve this message.

a dramatic end to the case of group peterson. today prosecutors rested after entering a letter from his third wife, who wrote she feared he would kill her. peterson is accused of murdering his wife kathleen savio in 2004. she wrote the her to a county prosecutor during bitter divorce proceedings with peterson. he was charged after his fourth wife, stacy, disappeared in 2007. a daycare provider is facing child neglect and abuse charges tonight. police say she made a 4-year-old girl stand in a closet with her hands tied behind her back for ten minutes. it happened last week at york's home in woodbridge. investigators say other kids were present at the time but there's no evidence of any other victims. she's currently being held without bond. up next, a push to lower the fines from those speed camera tickets. and gabby douglas opens up

on why she almost quit the sport. i'm liz crenshaw. college textbooks may feed the college textbooks may feed the brain, but they also take a but somewhere along the way, something went horribly wrong. george allen voted for trillions in debt while voting to raise his pay four times, then voted to keep special tax breaks for oil and gas companies and took over a half-million from them. worse, allen went to work for them.

the good news is today there are more ways for college students to spend less. liz crenshaw is here to explain. >> it used to be you bought new or maybe you bought used, but that was it. today you can rent books, you can download ebooks and there's a textbook monday to be saved. shopping for books. it's a hassle. books are expensive. >> it's really confusing, and i'm a little afraid about how much money i'll be spending. >> college textbooks aren't cheap. the average student spence close to $700 a year on textbooks, to save many are giving buying the boot. >> the big thing that's happened in the last two years is the rental program. that's the biggest trend. >> antoine is the director of howard university stores, howard university partners with a renting service called chegg. students have their textbooks to hold, but return them like a library book. >> we were talking about

probably saving anywhere from 60% to 65% discounts off the list prices. >> reporter: if students want to own it, but don't need to handle the pages, they can buy downloadable e-books. >> a lot of my professors recommended the e-books. >> reporter: how much can you say? a brand-any french language textbook costs $137.99, rent a book through chegg and pay $33.99, a savings of more than $100. if you downhold the same as an e-of book it costs $77 p 50. a savings of more than $60. this chemistry textbook cost $247.99 brand-new. to rent the same hardback for one semester, $67.49, a savings of about $180. download the same chemistry book

from amazon and pay about $121. students still save more than $126 compared to buying new. while price matters, so does preference. >> some people prefer thof those e-books. i prefer to have the hard copy. >> if it's a book i want to keep, i will download it. >> reporter: in spring 2012, 27% of students rented one or more printed textbooks. 14% bought one or more e-textbooks. >> i do like to compare. you want the most for your money. >> parents and legislators have complained for years about the high cost of textbooks. options are cutting costs. >> the problem is they keep updating the books. >> that's right. they used to say you've got to buy the new one, but now you can buy the new eh one or resident

it. >> yeah. veronica has a check on the weather. we're going to need to pop it up. right now high humidity and temperatures still in the mid and upper 80s across the area. where do we go from here? some clouds out here. we dropped to 78 by 11:00 p.m. to 74 degrees for 5:00 and 7:00 army, and yes some isolated showers will be around the area early tomorrow morning. here we are at 11:00 p.m. here's the showers coming through in the morning. and then that front will make its way down to the south and east, but with afternoon heating and some humidity in the air, i think there will be some scattered showers and maybe even a thunderstorm or two before that humidity drops on the other

side of the front. by wednesday, that front is far down to the south through north carolina, and isaac is -- the system, the tropical rains will be making its way northward, and eventually getting here by the time we ghent to sunday. tomorrow your 90 degrees. maybe even a thunderstorm, and then it's nothing but sunshine for wednesday, thursday and friday. we're back in the low 90s by the end of this week. perhaps some of the rains then from isaac making its bay here late sunday and monday of next week. >> thanks veronica. the d.c. government collects tens of millions every year from speed cameras on city streets. the mayor wants to add dozens more cameras in the coming year, as tom sherwood records, one

councilman thinks the fines are too high. >> reporter: with fines that start at $75 and jump to as much as $250. even people who agree that speeding is dangerous mostly think that city fines are too high, far above those in the suburbs. any other jurisdiction, the district is half the price. >> yeah, absolutely. i think that over $100 is much too high. >> i can understand why the city wants to put speed cameras in. that makes sense, i don't necessarily agree with the finds. >> tommy wells agrees, he's holding the hear tuesday with a broad group of transportation advocates to discuss those fines and to propose lowering them. >> really the ticketing situation in d.c. has gotten out of hand. there's no need for the

souped-up fines. the police chief says they don't have to worry about speed cameras if they're not speeding. council member wells says this, but he says cameras are much about revenue raising as much as public safety. >> the cameras help us stop that behavior in order to be safer, but the size of the fines have gotten to be a way to balance the budgets. >> reporter: the meeting is said for 3:00 p.m. tuesday at the wilson building. tom sherwood, news4. here's a look at some of the stories trending online today. >> gabby douglas says she limb quit gymnastics because she was bullied at school. she opened up to oprah, and she then moved away to train and won the gold medal in the all-around. >> showed them. snooki is a new mom, and she's keeping her fans up to date on twitter.

on sunday morning she gave birth to a baby boy. snooki took to twitter today n her words, it's dly get any so worth. can't you see her saying that? >> i can't see her doing anything. here's a look at what's up next. >> the construction worker hailed as a hero. coming up tonight at 6:00, we have new video, showing conditions getting worse in isaac's storm pattern. apple wants samsung products pulled from the shelves. and some kids in

the shooting near the empire state building in new york on friday happened in front of the construction worker named brian dylan. he's being called a hero for what he did next. we get the story from our sister station wnbc in new york. >> had to do what i had to do. >> reporter: he was determined to catch the gunman out of the empire state building. >> the 44-year-old worker was working on a loading dock when he witnessed jeffrey johnson. >> i saw someone get executed in

front of us. he just calmly turned around and walked away. >> reporter: dylan concerned the well-dressed gunman would blend into the crowd and get away, following him onto fifth avenue, despite screams. >> i knew when he made the left, i was i knew they would be there. >> reporter: >> reporter: nine bystanders -- instead focusing on the thousands of people who are gathered outsided eischenic skyscraper. >> i feel like someone else could have died. that's not supposed to happen. get up in the morning, go home at night. he shrugs off any suggestions he's a hero. >> i feel like i did the right thing. i feel the police are the bunz

that confronted the guy. i didn't confront them. >> reporter: lori board nerro. >> today the commissioner ray kelly called the shooting appropriate, since the officers had just been told the gunman killed a former co-worker. next at 6:00, we are live in tampa at the republican national convention. we're tracking isaac, the storm could make landfall. on the anniversary of hurricane katrina. republican national convention officially kicked off today, but weather is already a factor. and it was a violent start to the school year. while most kids brought back packs and notebooks, one student brought a shotgun. first tonight, all eyes on isaac. that tropical storm did massive widespread damage in haiti.