departments in our region, all of those responded to our questions, they've notified all of their officers to be aware of the possible problems, most of the agencies are proactively inspecting their fleets and some departments -- here in the district not only is npd checked out of all of their suvs, they've inspected the health records of all of their pol

been any reports of illnesses that could be connected to carbon monoxide. they say they found none. in a statement a spokesperson for ford tells news 4, ford will cover the cost of specific repairs in every police intercepter utility that may have this concern regardless of age. mileage or after market modifications made after purchase. now montgomery county police say it has not disrupted public safety or the number of officers patrolling the street. they're they're all being checked out as precaution. >> all right. mark seagraves. well, right now on storm team 4 radar, we've got some storms popping up and this could be happening all afternoon. >> doug standing by in the storm center. sunshine and humidity not exactly cooperating tonight. >> we've seen this three days in a row now with temperatures into the upper 80

developing into prince georges county, parts of fairfax county, montgomery and back towards the west in parts of northern virginia, as well. the heaviest storm that i'm watching is right here, right around buoy. you see what's happening here, this is 50 here and then 197 as you move out of buoy up towards the laurel area, very heavy rain. a lot of lightning associated with this towards prince georges, heads up there, i was about to say, no severe thunderstorm warning with that one, we'll have to wait and see where that one is, tracking, let me check this out for you, tracking a storm right now, that one, a small storm, not a very big storm, we'll continue to watch that one, too, also tracking storm system back to the west, this one right over the charlestown area, i'll zoom on into this area right here and you see some heavy rain around the charlestown region, too. that severe thunderstorm warning was up there, it is for prince georges county. let me go back to that and show you where that is. it does

i'm going to take the radar off so you can see it, right here, severe thunderstorm warning now in effect -- this is along 50 and right along 301 that severe warning most likely going until 4:45, i'm checking on that right now to make sure. we're continuing to watch these storms as they develop throughout the day. not everybody is going to see them. when they do, they could become strong possibly severe as this one does. it does go until 4:45, once again and prince georges county. i'm going to continue to keep you posted on everything right here from the storm system. >> all right. doug. as we track the storms, remember you can get the power of storm team 4 sent right to your cell phone, sign up for breaking weather alerts in nbc washington app. >> here at the live desk, we've got to warn you about a major traffic headache shaping up for the afternoon commute. chopper 4 is over the scene where crews are trying to remove a large power

this is near the crossing shopping center, right now, that line is literally draped across columbia pike near blackburn road. earlier this afternoon a power pole snapped in two and the road is closed for hours as the crews try to get the line moved out of the way. several apartment buildings have lost power. pge does have crews working on the situation. we'll update just as soon as we hear more. live desk, chris lawrence, news 4. >> thanks, chris. right now, well wishes, prayers and support on social media for dc firefighters who was critically injured on the job. >> comes from a family of firefighters and he'd only been on the job a few months. late last night a fire truck hit him as he was working a row house fire in northeast. >> news 4 megan fitzgerald is in that neighborhood now and he's got more on how he's doing this evening. megan, what's the latest. >> reporter: f

us that he's suffering from severe tro ma. investigators also say because of the injuries he sustained right over here at this corner, they tell us, he had the potential of ending his career. >> when we came in this morning, it was kind of a somber environment. >> there's no doubt about it, things aren't the same here at engine company three. crews are standing by and helping -- ready to help the community at any moment, but many say it's hard to stop thinking about 28-year-old dean smother. >> it makes everyone closer when you experience a traumatic event like that. >> last night engine company three responded along with other units to a house fire in northeast. fire officials say, smother was on scene pulling out a water hose, but another truck turned the corner slamming right into him. >> everybody is here to, you know, lean on everybody else to

>> now, leon and pat have mentioned, fighting fires run in smothers. you have two uncles that are in the department here in dc. in fact, we're told one of them was out here when he was struck last night, back to you. >> all right, thank you, megan. let's hope for the best here. at least 75 firefighters battled that fire on f street last night. here is what we're learning about what happened, the call came in, rather, around 11:30. firefighters found heavy flames there and fought them on the first floor and back porch as well. cause still under investigation. >> now, to a story that so many of you have been sharing all day online, a bizarre and sad case. deputies say karim moore held his girlfriend and his two children in captivity in the house for more than two years. tonight the woman and children are finally free and he's in jail. northern virginia bure

more how they escaped and how they got out of the house. david. >> reporter: pat, how? that's the real question in all of this. it's an unsettling mood. you look at the house and you see it's a small ranch-style home, 1,200 square feet, sits on four acres, it's a good size property. a lot of it as you can see is pretty secluded. when police arrived here, deputies from the sheriff's office and as they came to the home, they were talking out front with moore. as they were speaking with him, they said at some point he became evasive with them. they noticed out of the side of the home, that's when his girlfriend and two kids rushed out. you heard it there. more than two years inside that house according to deputies. they weren't allowed to leave. they are shocked. a lot of them say they passed this house every day. >> i think

most insane things i've heard in a long time, especially around here, two years. >> we don't normally have any problems around here. i've been here for like 19 years. >> we know that his girlfriend is in the hospital. we know the two kids are with extended family members. as of now, still a lot of questions remain unanswered, pat. >> can you help us understand a little more about what happened here. their neighbors, did they not see anything. did they wonder why they never saw anyone and who was it that called and sent police there to do the welfare check? >> reporter: first, the latter of the two questions, i can tell you that's a question we put to deputies. we're waiting to hear back to who that someone was. in regards to why nobody knew, may have something to do with the geography. as you can see here we're right off a busy road, it's kind -- this is the only access to the homes, now you see these homes over here, yo

couldn't they have seen what was going on here, they had a separate entrance and exit to their own neighborhood, a lot of them seem to kept to themselves. they didn't concern themselves what was going on here. >> very unfortunate, thank you, david. breaking news, now, the "wall street journal" is reporting that special counsel robert mueller has impanelled a dc grand jury to investigate russia's interference in the 2016 election. nbc news is working to confirm this report and we'll have more on the story throughout the afternoon. >> there's no shortage to talk about it now. let's get to the escalating blame game, president trump targeting members of congress and even the military for recent policy failures. all of this coming as the white house deals with yet another leak and lawmakers head out of town for summer recess. blayne alexander standing by with all the new developments tonight. >> reporter: leon, all of the things we're watching as president trump

out of town later this evening in west virginia up into the next couple of weeks with congress on recess, washington may be feeling a little bit more empty, especially since president trump and his staff are preparing to be displaced for two weeks as the white house under goes renovations. summer break has officially begun in washington. today the senate getting out of town after an extra week at work and not much to show for it. but not before a parting jab from president trump on twitter. our relationship with russia is at an all-time and very dangerous low. you can thank congress, the same people that can't even give us health care. >> why does president trump have a different view of russia, that's going to keep people asking questions? >> reporter: meanwhile the white house dealing with the embarrassment of yet another leak. transcripts of the president's contentious conversations with the leaders of australia and mexico. also, questions raised by

president trump is frustrated with the pentagon strategy in afghanistan, suggesting the top commander there, general john nicholson, should be fired. today even members of the president's own team defending the general. >> i can't imagine a more capable commander in -- on any mission. >> this coming on the same day as news of two u.s. soldiers killed in a suicide attack in afghanistan. >> i think we have a huge investment in afghanistan. what we don't want is for it to once again become a strong hold for isis or any other terrorist group. >> inside the white house president trump unvailing a new plan for better health care, for those who fought in afghanistan and all veterans. >> the death of a young woman in ocean city is still one of the biggest downloaded stories on our app. what we're learning now that a beach violation likely led to

also first at 4:00, a former local doctor accused of going too far with his patients. how his alleged victims are trying to get justice. plus why you might think twice about your seat belt the next time you get in someone else's car. >> and we're working for you, even during the break. >> that's right, check

once again, prince georges county right here around buoy over towards, a lot of lightning associated with this. heavy rain fall, right now right along 50 and 3:01. i'm going to be back with the latest on storm team 4 radar. i'll see you back here in less than five minutes. >> thanks rg doug. >> first at 4, new questions how a texas woman found buried alive on the beach in ocean city. the chief medical examiner said she died of suffocation. she somehow wound up in a deep sand hole early sunday morning. her death has been ruled an accident. but police say it's not clear whether she fell in or whether she jumped in. >> now, sand deaths are actually more common than you may think. that surprised us to learn this. study at the new england journal of medicine found there were more than 50 cases of sand

burials nationwide. a lot of it has to do with how quickly you can suffocate in sand, brain damage can kick in as quickly as three minutes after being buried. ocean city has rules about how deep these sand holes can be. >> megan from our news partner wtop is with us this afternoon and megan, let's start with that, the rules, i wasn't sure there were rules about digging holes in the beach in ocean city. >> a lot of people don't know about it, apparently, it's a long-standing rule, i spoke with the beach patrol and they say there's no question a rule was broken here. i spoke with investigators who say it will be weeks before they know if ashley o'connor was under any kind of influence, if she was under drugs or alcohol, but regardless of that someone doug a hole that she fell into you're not suppose to do that in ocean city. life guard patrol and make sure that holes aren't too deep you can't get out. the rule, if you want to know it, it's the person who is the smallest person in your group, your hole cannot be taller or deeper,

knees, that's the idea so the kids can crawl out of these holes so they don't find themselves trapped. >> i've seen probably a thousand times, any time we've taken a trip to the beach. >> they're not trying to stop anybody from having fun. o'connor was on the beach. she was last seen walking on to the beach at 2:00 in the morning. lifeguards call it a day at 5:30 in the afternoon. it is a rule. unless they're there to enforce it, they -- >> but they are looking at surveillance photos and surveillance videos from the beach to see if they can figure out who dug that hole and when it happened. >> looks like they may have broken some rules here. >> thank you. >> i did not know that. watching fredericks nt

most likely once again until about 5:00. let me check the timing on this for you, prince georges county, as well, and now we have that severe thunderstorm warning back into portions of jefferson county, west virginia, as well as washington county and frederick county, that, yes, until 5:00 tonight. you can see that storm right there, that's the one i'm currently watching. let's go ahead and show you the overview here as we zoom on in. i want to show you what's happening around the buoy area, i'm going to pause this real fast. you can see these storms once again from our tower cam. we showed you some of these yesterday. look at the very dark clouds and notice the rain coming down right out of these clouds. here is what's happening now around our region, we're looking at the showers and thunderstorms developing. when they do, we do see them pulse briefly strong and that's why they're severe and they also decrease in intensity just as fast. when they do that, we can actually see strong winds come out. that's something we're watching. here is the one stormig

that severe thunderstorm warning is for this storm right here, but you notice, there's another storm to the north and around this area and another storm that has developed around savage and laurel. we'll be watching these very closely. we could see other storms forming in this area, then you go back to the west. first off, here is the boundary and here is the boundary of the severe thunderstorm warning for buoy right along this river. this is route 50 and this is also 301. if you're thinking about driving that way, watch out because that storm means business. here is the new storm, the new warning tracking this storm all the way from frederick county virginia end up crossing the west virginia and now it's crossing into maryland, heads up around shep pard's town. this is just south and east of union, you're probably seeing the lightning and thunder there. this storm is starting to develop pretty good just south of gaithersburg. they're seeing storms three days in a row and you've got them again today with lightning and thunder coming in, that's why we're now, we've got

area. could we see more, yes, looking at this one, this guy just popping up, i'm going to zoom back in, i'm looking at this one here into prince william county, this will come right back through manasas, we have some storms developing. most of us, again, today are on the drier side. this is something we'll watch and you can see the darker skies around our area. winds out of the south at about 12 miles per hour. now, tomorrow another hot and humid day, another day with scattered showers and storms. but then, see the weekend, i've got to get out of the way, right. how about this, temperatures in the low to mid-80s, much less humidity. it's fantastic before we see another round of rain and storms coming up during the day on monday. most of next week, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, high pressure overhead and gets gorgeous. tracking the storms right now, i'll continue to notify you of anything. >> you shop at amazon, well, amazon is going to swi

up for you, make it easier for you to send stuff back, but not everyone is happy about this. and the best of the best, we now know which celebrities are going to be

. young woman from fairfax county, she's just been named the first african-american female to lead the cadets at west point. it's a position they call first captain. now she has a lot of leadership experience. she graduated from fairfax high in 2014. she was class president. and she was captain of the volleyball team and founder of the black student union. northern virginia bureau chief julie carey met with her proud mother and sister today coming up in the next hour. >> got a lot of reasons to be proud. >> yes, indeed. >> riding in the backseat could give you a false sense of security so you decide not to buckle up. in this graphic video you see here, this drives the point home big time. that's not a good idea. people have been sharing this video on facebook and twitter. this is from the insurance high link institute. this highlights the dangers of being unbuckle

the backseat. you can become a human missing, especially the driver and they're twice as likely to die when backseat passenger goes flying forward. do you buckle up when you're in the backseat. in our flash survey, an overwhelmingly amount of you said yes. not in taxis or ride shares, never, good idea. every time folks. >> for the first time ever, a hip-hop artist is going to become kennedy center honor ree. so this year's class of honorees were revealed today. dancer and choreographer car men, singer, hip-hop artist and actor, ll cool j. tv writer and producer norman and singer, composer lionel rich richie. >> the 40th year of the awards will be presented in

surprising it took that long. >> should have done that a long time. >> not just television, but the culture. >> yeah. >> yeah, jeffersons and good times and the country having conversations this country never had before. >> yeah. >> congratulations. >> all right, now, imagine spending thousands on precious jewelry while you're on vacation you come home and find out it's worth a quarter of what you paid for it a couple is fighting to get your money back and we'll see you what you need to know before you buy those vacation souvenirs. >> disturbing allegations, they claim their doctor went too f

this has been the case, we saw it on tuesday, wednesday, we're seeing it today. may see it again tomorrow. tracking a couple of strong to severe thunderstorms. we're in red mode. when we're in red you know some things coming down. we've gotten a couple of warnings, another one back into frederick and washington county, as well as jefferson county, we'll zoom on this area first, the warning, it's a small warning for this storm right here, which is right now right over buoy, again, if you're in and around the buoy area and you

inside, you can see around the savage maryland area and around laurel this storm is zoom on in just a little bit more between buoy and over towards this area, that's where we're seeing this storm. another storm back around just south of gaithersburg, you can see where that warning is right there at 50 and 301 that's where we're seeing the heaviest rain. this warning that's moved towards maryland and in towards washington county and into fredericks county. around the area, we'll continue to see these storms rumbling on through the area over the next couple of hours. i'll be on top of it, though, for you. >> new at 4:30, class action lawsuit just filed against kaiser permanente, a patient claimed she was sexually assaulted by a former doctor. prince georges county bureau chief tracy wilkins is live with more on the allegations and what kaiser did in response to these allegations, tracee. >> well there was one plaintiff named in

lawsuit, but the attorney who filed it said that he's expecting dozens more to come forward, especially after this doctor was investigated by the maryland board. this all revolves around -- let me take you back to who was involved in this. this is a doctor who worked for kaiser from 2010 until 2014. he worked at both largo and kensington locations. his name is brian williams. again, he worked there for four years before he was dismissed in 2014. now, he's an anesthesiologist and a pain mediator. and according to what this attorney is saying, he's sexually assaulted dozens of patients, according to their allegations. and has been investigated and has lost his license by the maryland board of physicians. hear now what this attorney has to say about this. >> we all love our doctors. we all trust our doctors. and when that trust and love is

by the people who we trust and who we go to to solve our problems and in this instance, to solve our pain, it is particularly outrageous. >> kaiser permanente released this statement saying in this case we terminated the position and reported him to physician licensing board in maryland, virginia and the district of columbia. we have also reached out to reach person who has raised allegations against doctor williams and sought to address their concerns. now, again, in 2014 that he lost his license to practice and kaiser permanente -- or it was in 2014 kaiser permanente dismissed lost his license to practice. this attorney is convinced that there are more victims out there. we have seen that there have been other civil suits filed but in all of this time, it doesn't appear that there that have been any criminal charges filed against him. reporting live, i'm tracee

wilkins, back to you all in the studio. >> for the past two years, the news 4 i-team has been investigating sex abuse cases involving teachers around the area, including them allowed to keep their licenses for years after pleading guilty to assaulting students. >> tonight another failure, this time involving a local child protective service who did not alert a school district about its findings. scott mcfarlane joins us about a story. >> it involves a teacher who was pulled from the classroom in 2013. he quit his job at clairmont elementary in arlington, soon after police investigated and said there wasn't sufficient evidence to charge the man with a crime. the teacher denied the accusation throughout and still does. child protective services investigated and found he had engaged in a level 1 sex offense, the most serious kind. should have ultimately lost his license and placed on a state child abus

unable to teach public schools again. we found he ultimately found assistant principal where he's worked for three-and-a-half years until early 2017. >> and how in the world did that happen. >> there's a series of issues here, both mistake and loophole. our investigation will show the mistake was by arlington county child protective agency. they didn't notify about what they found as they're required to under state law. we found a loophole, allowing some accused teachers to return to the classroom for months even years after the accusation before their case is fully closed. >> what should we expect in your report coming up. >> a lot of stake holders. we'll hear why mistakes like this are being made, could it put kids throughout our region at risk and parents at the middle school, they had some surprises we talked to them. they're not happy. they've got questions about why they weren't promptly notified by the school itself. they have questions about the

what's suppose to happen to keep after they're accused or admit to abuse. >> scott mcfarlane, disturbing story. >> breaking. amazon, the company is now changing its return policy to make it easier for you to send some items back. but sellers say this could put them out of business. now, here is the plan, starting in october, october 2nd, buyers will automatically be authorized for returns and you can actually printout prepaid shipping label so that you can mail items back without going through the seller. sellers, though, are upset about this because under this new policy they won't get the chance to discuss the return with their customers and then perhaps offer alternatives before being forced to pay for that refund. continuing to track strong storms around our area. prince georges county really under the gun, back towards staring to see pop upt

fios is not cable. we're a 100% fiber optic network. and with the new fios gigabit connection... you get our fastest... internet ever. with download speeds up to 940 megs - 20 times faster than most people have. switch to fios gigabit connection with tv and phone for $79.99 a month online for the first year. plus hbo for one year and multi-room dvr service

and switching has never been easier. get out of your contract with up to a $500 credit to help cover your early termination fee. go to fiosgigabit.com

e. governor terry mccollum announced the passing of his little one. the family's heart broken to have lost best friend. he was only about a-year-old. he had his own instagram account. vids t visitors would see him out there playing on the yard. spokesman for the governor is not saying exactly what was behind the dog's death. >> so sad. >> sad. >> nbc 4 is working for you in the community to support our schools, summer is quickly coming to a close, so we want to thank everybody who came out to our backpacks for kids' drive in alexandria today. news 4 erica was there all day accepting school supplies and donations and apple federal credit union and you can still donate, go to the nbc washington app and search backpacks for kids and there you can

that money to buy school supplies for kids in our area. >> it's daybreak to see people coming up there with armloads for supplies for kids. people looking out for each other. and looking after the kids. >> looking after the kids, way to go, folks, like that. >> all right, now, we all like to pick up a souvenir or two when we're out on vacation. one local couple of thousands of dollars jewelry that was -- we're working for you and for them about what you need to look out for. >> and more showers and thunderstorms, team coverage for your afternoon, your evening and

did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything.

that's up to 16 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to faster downloads with internet speeds up to 250 megabits per second. get fast internet and add phone and tv now for only $24.90 more per month. our lowest price ever on this offer. but only for a limited time. call today. comcast business. built for business.

weather radar and the storm team -- storm center is just jumping big time. >> and they've got our meteorologist jumping, doug, amelia. >> we're tracking the storms and they'll come on through.

the next couple of hours. we saw it tuesday. >> it's ground hog day, we're dealing with storms not only during the afternoon but in similar locations we've been seeing. >> we've been talking about this for the last couple of days. you see where the storms are, the biggest storm in through prince georges county, but now moving to the north up towards the baltimore area, more storms in through northern virginia and up towards -- that storm is diminished take a look first, this was the area that was on, but that severe thunderstorm warning able to expire from this storm right here around buoy, but notice, northern prince georges county get in pretty hard here between laurel area and down towards buoy, a lot of rain in this area, watch out for any potential flooding, we could see some flooding in some of the localized area, up 95 and around the baltimore area. watch out if you're traveling this afternoon. back towards 270, thunderstorm activity really diminishing here, you can

any more, just some rain, back to the north. this was the storm that prompted severe thunderstorm warning earlier, but that severe thunderstorm warning has been cancelled, that storm around this area, moving in towards and right along the washington frederick county border. more storms down to the south, again, watching that area right around the rockville and region, we could see this area fire up again, so that's something we'll be tracking and then more storms firing right now over towards the fairfax area, manasas back towards front royal. this is probably one of the bigger or stronger storms in our region, a lot of lightning the last ten minutes. so a lot going on here, we're going to continue to watch it as we see another round potentially tomorrow. that one mostly coming tomorrow evening. as we look off towards the day. 89 degrees tomorrow. sun and clouds, warm and humid, possible storms late in the day. we think they'll be late in the day. full forecast, 85 at noon.

pool day. storms around 4. we think they're after that time and that's of course your friday, what about your weekend, the weekend right now, doesn't look -- looks like it gets any better than what we're expecting, does that make sense. >> yeah, i know. trying to say the weekend looks beautiful. >> there you go. >> take a look at how the weather is going to impact your weekend. it is low humidity. temperatures in the 80s, plenty of sunshine. nationals at home this weekend. perfect baseball weather. you have the barbecue saturday evening, the kids birthday party, nearly perfect, doug. brunch is looking great. out in the garden, rain likely on monday, good chance in the rain on forecast. >> we're tracking that for sure. i was trying to say doesn't get much better than this on the weekend. >> there you go. >> there's the rain on monday and then look attitudes, wednesday and thursday, really nice weather. so most of the ten-day period looking pretty good out there. continuing to track storms, they'll continue to develop right out through the rest of the evenin

tracking. >> thank you, doug. a young woman from fairfax county makes history at west point. >> that's right, wendy and chris standing by in the newsroom with more on this story coming up at 5:00. >> her name is simone, she just became the first african-american female to lead the cadets at west point, quite an achievement. >> that's an under statement. it's something this young woman has been groomed for her entire life. julie carey met up with a proud mom and sister. we'll hear from them tonight. >> absolutely. also you've been sharing online all day, man holds his girlfriend and their two children captive for more than two years. >> yeah, tonight, he's the one behind bars and they're free, david learning more about the amazing escape. >> also, i am going to introduce you to -- it's a creature from the arctic circle. >> yes. >> and it's a new exhibit and smithsonian history

it's called the unicorn of the sea. i'll tell you all about that. >> made it sound like you knew it. >> once you see it, you feel like you know it personally. it's that kind of a guy. >> how about that. >> all right. >> really cool name. thank you. >> sure. >> we'll see you in a bit. >> we are working for you. when you go on vacation, you want to shop, maybe buy a few souvenirs. >> one local couple invested quite a bit of money and jewelry. only to come home and be told by an appraiser they didn't get exactly what they paid for. >> that's when they reached out to nbc 4 response. susan hogan is here to tell us how it all turned out. >> you get caught up in that moment right here on vacation, you've got the beautiful sights and sounds. they baug some jewelry and their experience -- they bought some jewelry and their experience is one they won't soon forget. >> they're both

lost their spouse. the two found each other a few years ago and they've been together ever since. >> i said all in good time. >> the couple recently vacationed on a cruise with royal caribbean. during their travel, the ship stopped at belize city, the couple not knowing where to shop, they said the cruise line made recommendations from where to buy jewelry, a place they said diamonds international. >> go to diamonds international. you can trust them. they're reliable. you'll get the best deal. >> so they went. and it didn't take long for her to see something she liked. this ring. more than two-and-a-half carats. >> when i saw it the stones, it popped out at me and that's the one i wanted. >> so he agreed to pay $2,008 for the. >> it's a commitment ring. >> that's when the salesperson showed clyde anden

bracelet and necklace. i thought oh my god, i was caught up. two years, no interest, they opened a credit card with diamonds international. so i did it. i bought the whole thing. i thought, can't go wrong. he spent a total of $12,000 that day. he says the company guaranteed the jewelry's value, would only appreciate. when the couple returned home they had the jewelry appraised. >> when we got the appraisal back, we were -- this is ridiculous, this can't be. >> all three pieces only appraised for $3,000. >> we paid way too much for what we got. we thought we had an investment. we felt like we got ripped off. >> he went back and forth with diamonds international hoping to get his money back. >> i wanted them to take the necklace and bracelet back. >> they wanted to keep the ring since it now had sentimental value. he would not get the refund he wanted, so he called

response. >> well, i watch your show and i knew that that could be effective. >> we reached out to diamonds' international and a couple of phone calls they agreed to let him return the bracelet and the necklace. they told us 100% customer satisfaction, which in this case was to provide mr. baker with a refund. we also contacted royal caribbean. the cruise line says it works with a third party vendor and told us that vendor remained in constant contact with the guest and diamonds international and worked with both to reach an optimal resolution. he received a refund totaling $10,070. >> you are a lifesaver. you are amazing. >> you shook them up. >> well, diamonds international told us that tanzenite is hard to appraise. if you have a consumer problem you need help

know. give us a call or you can go online at nbc washington.com/respond. >> just a question, i mean, should you just avoid shopping -- buying jewelry when you go on these cruises or do you engage in some tough negotiation. >> oh, pat, you absolutely right. you want to negotiate. don't avoid going. if you want the jewelry, you've got to go with your eyes wide open and you've got to know when you're at these places they've got you coming and going. you're in that mode. you're on vacation you get sucked into the deal and swept up. right, so, you just have to kind of realize, okay, let's take a breath and walk away. >> don't buy it unless you like it. >> right. >> no matter what. >> oh, yeah. >> yeah. >> thank you. >> there's something fishy going on. nice work. >> sure. a woman convicted for urging and encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide through text message. i

many of you. >> that's right. now that young lady learns her fate an

it's a case that has turned words into weapons in massachusetts. >> today a judge sentenced a woman to 15 moonnths in jail fo encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself by text message. >> michelle carter may not do any jail time because she's already appealing the sentence. >> please stand. >> in court michelle carter stood and listened to her sentence. >> two-and-a-half years at the health of correction, 15 months of said sentence shall be deemed a committed sentence. >> the judge that granted a defense caution to stay the sentence. earlier carter sat quietly while the family of conrad roy discussed their anger and their loss. >> i'll never get over thisai

>> >> carter's attorney citing his client's struggle with mental illness pleaded for leniency. >> the goal is not punitive but yet rehabilitative. >> in june, michelle carter wept as the judge convicted her of voluntary manslaughter manslaughter, her boyfriend, 18-year-old conrad roy to commit suicide. case evidence included text between the two just hours before his death. in july of 2014, roy, who had attempted suicide before drove to his k-mart parking lot and filled his grandfather's pickup truck with carbon monoxide. he was found dead the next day. he waved right to jury leaving the decision solely in the hands of a judge. and now, carter remains free pending appeal. the tragic story that's not over yet. dan, nbc

>> local firefighter badly injured at a scene. and what we're learning about the young man involved. >> a mother and her two children have topped it for more than two years. tonight we find out how they escaped. >> and the carbon monoxide concerns for some local police vehicles that resulted in them being pulled off of the streets. >> first at 5:00 tonight, the warnings have been dropped but there are some storms out there on the radar. >> that's right. welcome to august, doug. >> this is what we've seen the last couple of days, hot and humid. scattered thunderstorms developing. extreme northern howard moving into the city of baltimore, so once again i-95 is going to be a mess north of dc running up towards portions of howard county seeing some storminess there. tracking that storm, one storm right here. this is right between laurel and buoy around the city seeing some of the heavy rain

another storm that has developed now, this is one i'm watching closely because this one has just kind of blown up over the last ten minutes. this is in and around the centerville area. it's traveling right up 286 and that's going to move up towards preston. if you live and around this is coming your way in the next ten to 15 minutes. more storms up to the north, more shower activity and even more developing down towards quantico, we still have a ways to go. we'll continue to keep you posted if this guy goes, we'll bring it to you right when that happens. >> thank you, doug. >> a dc firefighters just out of the training academy is now fighting to survive. >> an entire community of first responders is rallied around and its department. last night smothers was working a fire in northeast dc when a fire truck ran into him. he tweeted some of news source reporting -- megan, are you finding out any more about how