this is 9 news now. tragedy in the skies. a helicopter crashes on a maryland interstate killing all four people on board. good afternoon. i'm j.c. hayward. the helicopter owwent dn at 10:30 last night on i-70 near e frnticeredk ercounty,

onshgtin county border. itgttruck power lines and it burst in to flames on impact. we have team coverage of is po tragedy starting with suray chin. she is joining us on the phone from hagerstown. >> reporter: the ntsb just ended this press conference at the hagerstown regional airport moments ago. here's what is new at this hour. maryland state police have released the victims ' names in the crash and they are kim felix of new market, maryland, jeffrey nordis of columbia, and. investigators say those on board were leaving the hagertown airport heading to frederick when the crash happened. they came to the airport to take part in a youth foundation event to raise money for charity and help troubled kids in need. the event ended 98:00 last night. the pilot delayed takeoff because of inclimate weather. the fiery crash happened at 10:30 last night killing all

four people on board. no one on the ground was injured and the three men were flight instructors. the fourth female was a female friend and passenger. what if any power lines we are trying to figure out if that played a role and weather. it is not clear if the chopper was on the way down when it hit the lines and the chopper was seen flying slow. here's what higgins had to say. >> based on witness reporting given though maryland state police the helicopter was flying east over interstate 70. it impacted power lines a that i understand were about 70 feet above the ground before hitting the ground. witnesses reported that the aircraft was flying very low. that they saw sparks flying before the aircraft hit the ground and then a post-crash fire. >> now as you remember last night there was heavy rain and

some fog that limited visibility at the time of the crash but the ntsb just arrived in the last hour for the investigation. it is early on. recorder and no communication with the tower because it was closed. so we hope to find out more details as the day progresses. stay with 9 news now and always on wusa9.com throughout the day for the latest developments. sacramento c.? >> thank you dc -- j.c.? >> thank you. three people who worked at the crash is working for the same company. >> this company is advanced helicopter concepts. it sells aircraft and does aerial photography maintenance and provides instruction. it is a small company and lost three flight instructors. the company president today not talking about the incident just issuing a written statement

calling this incident a huge loss. and saying our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of those who perished in this tragic accident. the company advanced helicopter concepts deals and trains in robinson aircraft, which is the type of helicopter that crashed on last night. and the company operates and supports a youth foundation, advanced helicopter youth foundation to support at-risk youth by turning them on to aviation. we're not sure and we're asking for comment whether or not it was that youth foundation that the group was flying yesterday was working with over in hagerstown. we are trying to find that out but it is a stunning loss for the employees and friends who had any association with advanced helicopter concepts. >> thank you very much. testimony resumes this afternoon in the banita jacks

murder trial but testimony has led to a dc police internal investigation. the police department is investigating sergeant s mejame lafund-raise. he said he fid lean inaccurate report about s t d sivito sithe jacks home. the visit happened before jacks four children were found dead in the home and at issue is why thse rrgnteaeported that he saw nts jackeldest daug . he testified yesterday that he ne ver saw her. isjas ck accused of killing r he four daughters and leaving their bodies in her southeast washington home. the four major professional sports league and the ncaa plans to sue delaware to block the state from offering sports betting. congress banned sports betting in ' 92 but it grandfathered four states including delaware. the suit will reportedly claim that delaware's plan would violate the ' 92 law because such betting was never

available before. quite a scene outside of the state department. a group of international youth rally to secretary of state hillary clinton to rejectened u.s. dependence on fossil fuel. tar sands are naturally occurring deposits that are rich in oil. they are found in sand and clay deposits in canada and venezuela. they are now being mined and converted in to synthetic petroleum. president obama is standing by his comment that police acted stupidly when they arrested a harvard scholar trying to get in to his own home. he was arrested outside of his cambridge, massachusetts home last week and he was charged with disorderly conduct. after a neighbor reported a break in at the home. it turns out that it was gates who was having trouble getting to his jammed door. the charges were later dropped, but it was the comment by the president that drew strong reaction from the cambridge

police department and the law enforcement alliance of america. >> politician who should know better, in this case the president of the united states comes out and says something that is flat out wrong and by his own admission based on no information, no knowledge and no investigation and yet basically it would appear that there's a white police officer and a black subject and now we have a racial component and that comes from the bully pulpit of the white house and that's wrong. >> i support the president of the united states 110% but i think he is way off base weighing in on a local issue as he stated before knowing the facts. >> president obama said sergeant crawley is an a outstanding officer but thinks cooler heads could have prevailed in this incident. jobs can be tough to come by but if you get one as of today it may pay better because minimum wage went up today. digital correspondent lindsey

mastis talked to some of the people who are getting the pay hike and some of the people paying for it. >> half of the pls oyemeeatempl ge. re rae th te . the rate will go from 6.55 to 7:25 an hour. general manager clinton terry says that's fine. >> as everything goes up, the cost of living and such they need to make more money. >> reporter: this is the final wage increase approved by congress, raising the federal minimum wage from 5.85 over two years. at the time there was no recession. >> everybody is starting to feel the crunch and therefore everyone pays for it. >> reporter: terry says he won't be able to allow much overtime but most importantly is keeping menu prices the same. >> probably more absolve it. it will take six months before we figure out how many hit it will take. >> they say they knew the federal minimum wing was going up so they prepared. this bagel shop started to pay

employees more a while ago. >> we knew at the end of the year about the minimum wage increase so we started to prepare and hire people at minimum wage already. >> and we are not making any changes on prices. >> in old town, alexandria, i'm lindsey mastis, 9 news now and wusa9.com. employees in maryland and virginia will get that increase. the minimum wage in dc is actually more than the increase. because those workers already earn $7.55 an hour. did the weather last night keep you up or ruin your evening plans? storm weapon through our area and they brought rain, win and lightning. in fact one man was struck by lightning yesterday at congressional country club. it happened around 2:30 in the afternoon and sources tell 9 news now that rathe man has bee identified as danny shance she a golf pro at the club and kenneth armstrong saw the

strike and he told us exactly what happened. >> the lightning hit over my head, right and i was trying to get off the course and i heard a guy got hit. that's all. pretty scary stuff. >> reporter: i understand that danny shance will be okay. a 6-year-old boy is listed in critical condition after almost drowning many a loudoun county pool. this happened at la loons down area day camp that is run by dmv sports. according to police, a life guard did what he was trained to do. >> the child was located in the deep end of the pool. a life guard became aware he was at the end of the pool and brought him to the surface and began rescue on him. >> in a couple of days ago a life guard pulled a 7-year-old girl from the bottom of a pool in arlington county. she was breathing and conscious by the time the emergency crews got there. well, wall street has been

on quite a roll. coming up next, see where the market is headed on this final day of the week. and the cash for clunkers program officially begins today. but when will you be able to take advantage of those benefits? we will have we we come back. (female narrator) from jennifer: a microfiber sofa bed for just $299, only at jennifer. $299. jennifer: the only place to buy a sofa bed.

it's been quite a week on wall street with the dow soaring to the highest level of the year. so far today the market is fairly flat. the dow is join 15. the nasdaq is down nearly 20 points. well, the government's cash for clunkers program begins today. the auto industry calls it a win-win situation. but figuring it out, if you qualify is the first step.

alexis christoforous walks through the program. >> reporter: the government hopes the cash for clunkers program will get drivers to trade in their old gas guzzlers for new fuel efficient models. it is offering up to $4,500 off the purchase. car shoppers in new york say what's not to like? >> try to go green a little bit and save everyone a little money. >> anytime you can get money off of a car is always excellent. >> read the fine print. there's a lot of it. trade in as to be between ' 84 and 2001 and has to have a fuel efficiency of 18 miles a gallon or less and you need paperwork to prove it's been insured and registered to you for least the past year. >> it gives a shot to people who historically held older cars longer, now all of a sudden there is incentive for them to come in. >> the auto industry is banking on it. july has been slow and they are hoping it is because they were

waiting to cash in clunkers. chrysler is sweetening the deal with incentive. offering $4,500 off of most of the 2009 chrysler, dodge or jeep models. you get that deal even if you don't qualify for the cash for clunkers trade. if you do qualify you could get up to $9,000 off the sticker price. dealers say it's worth it. >> we are excited about the fact it will bring traffic in to the dealerships today. >> reporter: this government has a website, cars.gov which lays out the rules and while consumers are doing their home work dealers are dusting off the inventory. cbs news, new york. coming up next, why it snowed in one of the driest places on earth. kim has our forecast. the latest pollen report just came in. something has changed and went sky high since yesterday's rain. we will talk about those details looking at the weenu ar

good afternoon. we're shopping for car insurance, and our friends said we should start here. good friends -- we compare our progressive direct rates, apples to apples, against other top companies, to help you get the best price. how do you do that? with a touch of this button. can i try that? [ chuckles ] wow! good luck getting your remote back. it's all right -- i love this channel. shopping less and saving more. now, that's progressive. call or click day.

a snowstorm in the desert. a cold front brought snow to an area considered one of the driest on the planet. we're talking about the chilean desert. look at that. temperatures dropped to 14 degrees. and heavy snows also blocked a mountain pass, which is the main border crossing for trade between chile and argentina, paraguay and brazil. >> let's remind our viewers when it is summer up here, it is winter down there. now the video makes more sense. >> okay. because boy oh, boy, yes, ma'am. >> okay. >> so pretty nice outside. >> very nice. >> i like what i experience on the weather terrace. it is great to see you. this noon i have the weather ready to go. something changed since the pollen update.

trees and grasses are low but we had the rain and there's the mold, went sky high on us. if you are sneezing that's probably it. today we will reach for 87, isolated thunderstorms. not as many as yesterday. that was crazy. 92 tomorrow. it will be a hot weekend with scatter storms on sunday. stay in the 90s. the net lands carillon a view of the monument and no rain drops and the potomac river is looking good. a great day for a row and they do not yell stroke stroke stroke over again. that is a myth. northwest winds are blowing at nine miles an hour. a few little flips around west virginia, central pennsylvania may pop an isolated shower but yesterday had a front come through and that allowed more organized thunderstorms that really opened up the heaviens. look at how much rain we have got. andrews air force base picked up an inch and a half the last

24 hours and same for dulles. in frederick 2 1/2 inches of rain over the last 24 hours. it is 78 at annapolis. andrews air force base, leesburg is 2 as are the folks in fredericksburg. it is 72349 cumberland and hagerstown, of course all eyes are up there with that helicopter crash. 78 degrees right now. so if you are heading to the beach this afternoon we should be in good shape. the area beaches, ocean city to lewes, delaware, low to middle 80s. the water temperature is 74 and the weather should be partly sunny. highs in the middle 80s to around 90. big cluster of storms passing through minneapolis. it will be in chicago later this afternoon toward this evening. other than that pretty quiet. over new england they are going to kick this rain up in to eastern canada and hopefully get drier weather up there. this front is off shore. that means most of our rain

today if we get anything will be off shore. look for upper 80s this afternoon. this is the average high temperature, heading to buffalo 74. 70 in boston. lows tonight will dip in the upper 60s to the lower 70s. as we look ahead tomorrow this is when the 90s make a comeback. we will have them tomorrow and on sunday and quite possibly in to next week. we are looking to have a heat wave, which we get when we have three days or more of 90s in a row. you want to see that seven-day forecast, here it is. 92 tomorrow, everybody. 91 on sunday. and monday. so there we go. isolated stuff coming our way in this form of thunderstorms in to next week and we stay hot. we are not done this noon. we will be back for more 9 news now. grab your lemonade and we will be right back. b@

we have breaking news now from calvert county. a collision has occurred between a sheriffs deputy and another vehicle sky 9 is over the scene as you can see. we are taking live pictures right now. we have been told that one person has died in the accident. it occurred at the intersection of route 4 and apple way in dunnkirk, maryland. we will have the latest information on you are website at wusa9.com. and of course on inevg ing newscast. in our friends friday daton i'm so excited about saluting a local attorney. because she and her daughter decided to reach across the atlantic ocean to bring about change in africa. i'm talking about robin and her daughter montana stevenson.

they sided decided to form an organization called the women's microfinance initiative which gives loans to african in small rural areas so they can start their own businesses, women in particular. where did you get the idea from. >> we were working on a project with our church, bradley hills presbyter yaian. we built a maze mill and the women said it is great but we want to get loans of to support our family. >> here's a picture of the villagers and boy are they happy. >> they are very happy. >> i'm going to hold it so everybody can see. where did you get the money. >> we raised it here locally, most in the washington, d.c. area with pot lucks, donations and several local foundations supported us and once we started the initiative in january of 2008, the women paid back their loans immediately and then it began to grow because of the 100% loan

repayment rate. >> isn't that wonderful. now, montana, you went to africa with your mother. >> yes. >> what was that like? you went to uganda? >> yes. >> what was that like. >> it was an incredible experience. the women were welcoming, warm, intelligent, very excited we were there to give out the loans. >> and you are a college student at the university of virginia. what do your friends say. >> they say it is cool. some have become interns with me this summer. wweitekweek with wmi. me four >> that's wonderful. you are big time lawyer. i mean you didn't have to do this. >> don't overdo it. lawyers make a lot of money and life a great lifestyle and for you to say i'm not going to do that anymore. >> i was done. i set a goal for myself. i was lucky to be involved in cellular industry and had some seasonals i was working with and i sold it and said now it is time for me to do something for someone else. it is not all about money but

helping other people. >> i congratulate you. i thank you. i hope there is someone out there listening and maybe they will be encouraged to do a little more. but congratulations. >> thank you so much. >> thank you for being on my show. have a great weekend. come back and visit us at h 5:o bye-bye. the distance from the field to your table just got shorter. because at safeway, there's always... freshly picked local produce at great prices. it's 100% guaranteed to be fresh and ripe, every time. so hurry in for delicious s goodness, all right down the street. that's ingredients for life. that's safeway. right now, get locally grown platinum sweet corn --

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