welcome to "news4 this week." >> hi, everyone. i'm veronica johnson. we're going to show you some of the more interesting local stories making news this week. among them four months of leave fully paid. sounds good. a plan that's getting a lot of support in the district but not everyone is happy about it. >> the right place the right time, situation. >> the mystery man who saved the life of a baby on the side of i-270. we speak to the good samaritan who was in maryland to honor his father. ways to watch the innovative new system that d.c. is using to create electricity and save you money. but first, we're going to begin with a wave of pushbacks from drivers over plans to add tolls to part of i-66. virginia has been holding public

meetings on the proposal that would turn i-66 inside the beltway into hov lanes during the morning and afternoon rush and commuters aren't happy with the price tag. tolls could add up to $17 a day round trip. to put that in perspective, it would add up to $85 a week, $4400 a year or about what you would need to pay off an $18,000 car on a five-year loan. now this wouldn't start until the summer of 2017 and that is a peak toll for drivers who do not meet the hov requirements. nine month old baby girl has a lot to look forward to in her life. she's alive thanks to a montgomery county police officer and a good samaritan. we now know who the second life saver was and as darcy spencer shows us, he is no ordinary good samaritan. >> reporter: this is baby kenzie may in her hospital gown doing just fine. her mom and dad breathing a huge

sigh of relief and thanking the police and firefighters who saved the 9-month-old baby girl's life. she was riding in the car with her grand patients on i-270 on sunday when she became unresponsive. her granddad pulled into the median where officer james herman had made a traffic stop. her grandma rushed her to the officer who began cpr. reviving the little girl within minutes. >> it was amazing how fast the baby came back, the eyes came back, the baby became responsive, started tracking our fingers. >> reporter: during those chaotic moments an emt had also stopped to help. he was returning from a fallen firefighters memorial service. no one knew who he was. fire officials in montgomery county used social media to track him down. firefighter emt in little rock, arkansas, his father a fallen firefighter who died in the line of duty last year, was being remembered at that memorial

service. >> it was meant to be. right place right time situation where, you know, like i said i could assist the officer in what he was doing and save a life. >> reporter: her parents grateful for the he roquic actions that saved their little girl who previously had heart surgery. they're hoping she'll make a full recovery. >> i certainly hope so. well this story had a lot of you talking on our facebook page. d.c. could soon have the most generous family leave policy in the country. a bill introduced this week would allow almost all d.c. employees paid leave for 16 weeks to take care of a newborn or an elderly parent. it's supported by a majority of the council right now, but business groups as you might imagine are fighting back. >> it's unfair to d.c. businesses and what i'm concerned about, it's going to make us not competitive regionally. it goes further than anything else in the country. >> we can work together through this process, we'll have a hearing, there's no emergency

and get to a point where we think it will be fair and advantageous to the business community. >> the council will hold public meetings on the plan before taking a vote. an out-of-this-world experience for students at robinson elementary school in fairfax county. they were hooked up live to the international space station and spoke with astronaut kel lingram a 1991 school alumnus. demonstrated some of the difficulties of living without gravity and told students about his opportunity to talk to actor matt damon who is touring the nasa facility for the movie "the martian." you got to see that. >> so we called one of our friends that was actually escorting him at jpl and they handed the phone over to him and that was really cool, to get to chat with him. we saw pictures later and talked with our friends and they said he was excited to talk to us. >> that was cool. lingren has been on board the space station since july and is

involved in hundreds of scientific investigations taking place on the spacecraft right now. usually some of the strong guests we have in this area of wind aren't enough to keep a criminal from getting away but mother nature is being credited for helping stop a kidnapping suspect trying to cross the chesapeake bay bridge tunnel. as reporter jason mark shows us from virginia's eastern shore wind restrictions kept the man from getting away. >> reporter: this was a bad situation that could have got a whole lot worse. >> reporter: every day thousands of cars and trucks come through the chesapeake bay bridge tunnel. >> we've got to be on our a-game, 24/7. >> reporter: sunday the game got a little help from the weather. the cbt had high wind restrictions as the truck from maryland came through. >> no indication there was a problem. >> reporter: police made the truck pull to the side because of surf boards in the bed weren't tied down. officers say the man driving was philip timmens. they didn't know he was in the car with his ex-girlfriend,

maryland deputies tell us he kidnapped her at gunpoint. back at the toll plaza, tim monds pulled the truck over and went to check on the surf boards. >> once he got out of the vehicle, that was her opportunity to make a move. >> reporter: police say the victim started driving away and timmonds jumped in the truck bed. it caused plenty of commotion. >> the officer went out and someone standing in the back of a pick-up truck and trying to intervene in what was going on. >> reporter: the woman told police she had been kidnapped. officers searched timmonds and found a loaded gun. he was arrested. the victim was unharmed. police say for once, it actually paid off to have high winds at the tunnel. >> at that point unaware of anything that had happened and that vehicle would have just paid its toll and gone across here. >> wow. the suspect is behind bars in virginia beach and faces a long slew of charges there as well as in maryland. it's catching eyes on game nights where this football viewing party is popping up and why neighbors say it's more than

welcome. and controversy on the virtual gridiron fantasy sports company under the microscope and facing questions about if the games amount to gambling.

no surprise, another big honor for bethesda's own olympic gold medalsist katie la deck ki, the first woman to be usa's swimming athlete of the year three times in a row, ties ryan lochte and mike barrowman as three-time winners. expect to hear more about he deck ki during the games in rio here on nbc just about 300 days away who's counting. some d.c. residents found a unique way to watch football and it's catching the neighborhood's attention. check out their setup on v street northwest. these two guys decided to project monday night's game on their neighbor's wall. they say it's not the first time that they've done it. they've even enjoyed some movie nights on the roof deck.

>> a few folks on the street were watching it and everyone always stops and says hey, nice setup. way to go. can we join you? >> a neighborhood blog calls it pop up building monstrosity and applauds the men for making good use of it. history is around us in this area and that includes your street. when "news4 this week" returns a new addition of our popular "meet your street" series and you flush it and forget about it but now the stuff that leaves your house as waste is being turned into power and saving us turned into power and saving us all a whole lot of money.

i was at my shop tied up with a customer when i realized the time. i had to get to the bank before it closed, so i made a break for it. when i got out it was almost closing time. traffic was bad. i knew i was cutting it close. but it was ok. i use td bank. it's got the longest hours and stays open an extra ten minutes every day. i'm sid. and i bank human at td bank.

okay. i know you might be setting your lineup right now, but those fantasy sports games you play every week are under the microscope. there are allegations that two of the largest fantasy sites have taken part into what amounts to insider training and now there's a debate heating up

over whether fantasy sports should be considered gambling. as jim hanley found out in most of the country the answer is no. >> reporter: step up to the plate at draft kings.com, fan duel's league. >> reporter: the target audience young men who know their sports or like to think they do, so much so, they're willing to place a wager on stats or how an individual player performance. on your cell phone you can play any time any place. >> it opens up a whole other app on your phone and then pops up and it's like you can never escape it. >> reporter: the two biggest daily fantasy contests are draft kings and fan duel. >> i like it a little better than traditional football because it gives you a chance to reset something new every week. >> reporter: arjan plays on his cell phone. >> last year i spent more than i wanted to so i've set myself a limit of no more than like $20 for the season this year. >> reporter: jerron wants to try

it. >> i'm interested in winning a couple million dollars or 100, 200, 300, anything to help out my pockets. >> reporter: is it a game of skill or chance? the websites contend it's all about skill so it shouldn't be considered gambling. critics argue that doesn't matter. chance would make it gambling, skill means it takes talent, a deep understanding of the sport and rosters. even with an assist from those spread sheets filled with stats. the websites argue it's like the stock market. those who participate do their homework, but some who trade and study gambling adtickets say there's potential for the daily contest to lead to an unhealthy addiction. >> it certainly meets our clinical definition of gambling which is wagering or risking something of value on an event whose outcome is uncertain. there are many forms of gambling that take skill. people bet on golf, people have tried to define poker playing as a game of skill, rather than

gambling. even skilled games, there's an element of uncertainty. >> reporter: so far, 45 states have declared the websites and their contests legal. courts and congress have yet to weigh in. we reached out to the fantasy sports trade association. they tell us there's no reason to call these websites gambling. it's unfortunate that the maryland center for excellence and problem gaming would unfairly characterize the fantasy sports industry in a manner that is not supported by the facts or the law. today's fantasy sports contest represents a natural evolution of a skill-based competition that fans have enjoyed for decades. >> i'm worried about it a little bit, but i feel like you're not putting too much out there. but you have so much more to gain. >> i guess in a way it is gambling, but i would hesitate to call it like traditional gambling or legally gambling. i think there's a lot of things on-line you can put your money towards games of chance or skill or whatever you want to call it. >> jim talked to a lot of young men in our area for the story,

but stats show that women use the sites too, about one in every three users are women. you can learn more, a lot more, about how much money people spend in fantasy sports and the people using these sites. it's on our nbc washington.com. well you see the signs every day but how do the streets that you drive on get their names? we look at two roads starting with tonlaw road. melissa has the story in this installment of "meet your street". >> any thoughts? >> it could be a famous senator. >> do you have any idea? >> absolutely none. >> maybe a governor. >> tunlaw after a law? >> not a bad thought. >> no idea. >> clueless. i'm stumped. >> war veteran maybe. >> reporter: "a" for effort there, but no. >> what do you believe is behind the name tunlaw road? >> backwards for walnut. >> who told you that? >> one of my husband's friends.

>> do you believe him? >> yes. >> reporter: an article from 1897 talks about tonlaw farm sand said that swath of land was named for a walnut tree on the property. the farm bought at auction and subdivided in 1890 and according to a 1916 article in the "washington times" here the famous old tree was cut down to be used for gun stocks for the british army. fun fable or fact it's a tricky way to get a name. down the street to reno road, named for fort reno, which was once called fort pennsylvania. the fort was built during the civil war, the winter of 1861, and renamed for a major general jesse lee reno after he was killed in a battle the following year. and did you know this, at 410 feet above sea level fort reno here is the highest elevation in washington. this highest point was the perfect vantage point to guard what we now call wisconsin avenue and spot enemy movement near the northern part of the city. no argument with how this name

came to be, but down the street, relief, finally an answer, maybe. >> how do you feel now that you know? >> educated. >> enlightened. >> absolutely educated. makes a huge difference. >> reporter: in northwest washington, melissa malay, news 4. >> and also why the naval observatory is around that area way up high. see all of melissa's mini history lessons on the nbc washington app search "meet your street." we all need a hug sometimes but are you willing to pay for a hug? when local business is betting you are and opening up a cuddle shop seriously. we take a visit next on "news4 this week."

♪ hand-crafted...layer by layer.

the new macchiato from dunkin' donuts. experience the flavor of fall with a new hot or iced pumpkin macchiato. most of us think what we flush down the drain or runs through our sewer is waste but now every time you flush your toilet you will be creating clean renewable energy that will save you money and make our environment a whole lot cleaner. mark seagraves shows us how d.c.

water is leading the world in this new technology. >> reporter: every day here at the blue plains treatment plant in southeast, 300 million gallons of water passes through. >> a lot of that is sewage and poop but also everything else that goes down the drain and it's been considered a waste. >> reporter: after that water is cleaned and treated 1200 tons of the leftover biosolids or sludge is trucked away at a huge expense to d.c. water customers. >> 60 tanker trucks every single day. >> reporter: thanks to science, what was once considered waste, can now be converted to power. this is the largest waste conversion plant in the world and the first in the united states. it heats the waste until it combusts and then they add bugs, tiny micro yorgisms that cause a reaction which create methane gas and that is then converted into electricity.

and clean energy isn't the only byproduct of this plant. by the end of the process this is what they're left with. it looks like perfectly good soil, but if you add it to this discarded shredded currency from the bureau of printing and engraving you end up with perfect soil for growing. >> so we reduce greenhouse gases, reduce ours costs on trucking and power and we will have a clean, nutrient organic-based fertilizer that comes out. it's a wonderful project. >> reporter: d.c. water hopes to be selling their super clean fertilizer in the near future. in the meantime this plant will reduce the pollution generated here by a third. at blue plains treatment facility, mark seagraves news 4. okay. that story we can embrace. how about this one. who you pay money to cuddle with a complete stranger? well i guess if they're a stranger they're a complete stranger. businesses in maryland, there's one in particular, betting on the fact that a lot of people

will. the state's first cuddle shop is exactly what it sounds like. clients can go to get a tender embrace and hire a professional cuddler. it will costere anywh as little as $40 to as much as $500 for a therapeutic session an it will be opening soon in maryland. >> 25% of men over 45 are clinically lonely. if we can help in any way, without providing the medical type of help, then that's what we're here for. >> this isn't a new thing. one of the contestants on this past season of "america's got talent" was a professional cuddler. that's all for "news4 this week." i'm veronica johnson. thanks for joining us. as always, we're going to leave you with the wind swept rain that soaked ocean city where i was last weekend, a nor'easter and hurricane joaquin as it stayed well out to sea. be safe, be kind, be happy. bye-bye, everybody.

welcome to "redskins chronicles." i'm larry michael at redskins park. each week here on "redskins chronicles" we take an in-depth look at a piece of this team's storied legacy today we'll hear from one of the greats to ever wear the burgundy and gold, the always classy big owens. the redskins take on the falcons in atlanta on sunday. they are 4-0 under first-year coach dan quinn and the redskins, 2-2