that is the kind of campaign that i was running. that's the kind of campaign that i supported. >> mayor gray on news channel 8 this morning not able to go into detail about what he knew and when surrounding a shadow campaign of illegal contributions that helped him get him elected. >> i talked about those things that i can. those that i can't related to this investigation. >> can i speak to you for a minute? >> mayor grade traveled to ward 8, avoiding reporters questions. >> i kept to my schedule and i continue to keep to my schedule and i'm going to continue to do that. >> can i answer anymore questions? >> i answered all the questions that i can answer at this time. >> in ward 8 in southeast, where it has been reported 80% of the voters elected him into office are talking. >> it's a sad day. i think the mayor should resign. >> did you vote for him? >> yes, i did. i voted for mayor gray. i think it was a mistake. >> we have to give him a chance. >> two long-time friends couldn't be more polar

opposite. >> let's get real. >> i beg to differ because the campaign was huge. behind the door, you don't know what's going on. >> whether it was a sit down format or here on the streets, mayor gray refused to go into detail about his campaign scandal. but it seems eventually, he'll have to answer those tough questions. >> i'm done with this. >> in southeast, surae chin, 9news now. >> 9news is breaking more news on why some local utilities are able to charge you even when you don't have power. investigative reporter discovered the program wasn't intended for following storm outages. instead, it was intended to encourage energy efficiency. >> according to interviews and documents we reviewed, the order that allows this billing was designed to encourage energy conservation to help electrical companies manage the dips in billing when customers use less electricity because of

energy conservation. this is the official maryland public service commission order that put the charge into law in january. and take a lock at this wording. right there on the original intent of this payback, it was to encourage utilities for energy efficiency. montgomery county officials were some of very few who spoke against utilities using the order supporting energy conservation, to reimburse utilities when no energy is going through your meter. >> it adds insult to injury. to say to a customer, you lost power for six or seven days. you thrown out all the food in your refrigerator and being told you'll pay extra because pepco lost money because they weren't delivering any electricity. >> montgomery county argued the bill stabilization adjustment eliminated the incentive for them to restore lost service. the order did limit the reimbursement to cover only the first 24 hours. prior to that, it was open ended. allowing pepco to get nearly

$1.4 million for july 2010 blackout. delmarva, more than 35,000. and bge, more than $81,000. in a statement tonight, pepco emphasizes that you're not being charged for the electricity that you didn't use. one consumer advocate put it like this, you are sharing the billing for the amount of electricity the utility companies didn't distribute. everybody paying a small share. a state spokesman says that could be anywhere between 8 and 12 cents a customer extra. i'm investigative reporter, 9news now. >> the maryland public service commission is weighing pepco's request for a 4% rate increase. his decision is expected to come between now and next friday. for the first time since that wind storm hit us two weeks ago, executives with pepco come before a governing body to talk about the widespread power outages and the utility's response. tom graham spoke moments ago at a public hearing held by

members of the d.c. council. he talked about the damage he went through. >> wires down, trees crushing cars. i saw this in northeast and northwest. i saw it throughout our entire service territory. something through my 26 year career, i had not seen to that extent. so i know it had to be devastating for those families in the communities that experienced that. >> we'll have much more on gram's comments on 9news now at 11:00. luckily, no storms rolling through our area this afternoon, but top, that could change sometime soon? >> yeah, it could change over the weekend. but a nice evening. we're looking at breaks in the clouds and comfortable in terms of humidity. there are a couple showers to the west of us, but for the most part, nothing heavy and nothing in the immediate metro area. they have been hovering along i- 81 all evening. a couple showers up into pennsylvania. that's really just about it. for the temperatures, look at

this. 86 downtown. it is 79 in gaithersburg. fireworks tonight by the way. 79 in leesburg. 82 in manassas and 84 in fredericksburg. tonight, partly cloudy, mild, isolated showers or storms. lows between 66 and 74. winds out of the south at 10. we'll come back and talk about when the heat rolls in and with that heat brings the prospect for more big storms. >> firefighters had to rescue more than a dozen people this morning after a fire trapped them in their apartment. it took more than 100 firefighters to put out the flames at the wood lake apartment on castle boulevard in burtonville. now more than 70 people are looking for a place to spend the night. >> i'm armando trull where the american red cross is helping dozens of residents displaced by an early morning fire that flaired up a second time in the early hours of this afternoon. hours after this early morning three-alarm fire, was apparently extinguished, firefighters had to rush back and do it all over again.

cleanup crews had been trying to salvage anything they could. >> instead, they had to scramble to safety a second time. firefighters tried to douse the stubborn pockets of fire under the rubble. the original fire began at 7:30 this morning in this resident's apartment. dozens of people were trapped on their balcony's and had to be rescued by firefighters. >> we didn't have her off of the balcony and a minute later, the balcony was engulfed in flames. >> i had to be helped because it was too much fire. >> in burtonsville, armando trull, 9news now. a young d.c. man charged in a series of hammer attacks could one day be ruled mentally fit to stand trial. that's what we are hearing from doctors who examined 19-year- old michael davis. he is charged with murdering one man and injuring others hitting them on the head with a hammer. for now, davis is considered mentally incompetent to stand trial. but doctors suggest he is

making progress. another hearing on his mental state is set for september. still to come, tv stars take center stage as thousands of fans flock to see their favorites at day two of comic- con. but first, maryland's governor hints at when he may call lawmakers back to talk gambling and a possible casino at national harbor.

we should know soon if maryland will hold a special legislative session to discuss expanded gambling. the governor says he will decide in the next week or so if he'll call lawmakers back. he told reporters in williams burg, virginia, that the odds are 50/50. o'malley and lawmakers face an august 20 deadline to pass a proposal if they want to get it on this year's billion lot. in virginia beach, president obama kicks off a two- day campaign. he is trying to repeat his speech from 2008 when he became the first democrat to carry the state since 1964. but the latest polls in virginia show president obama and republican candidate, mitt romney, locked in a dead heat. today, the president tried to swing support his way by calling out gop lawmakers. >> 33 votes to repeal the healthcare bill. all it would take is one vote to make sure this all of you don't see your taxes go up next

year. you tell me what would be a better use of time. >> one thing the president didn't attack was mitt romney's time at bane capital and accusations the gop candidate outsourced jobs. that is getting plenty of play in his latest campaign ads. romney fired back in an interview with cbs news. >> what kind of a president would have a campaign that says something like that about the nominee of another party? this is reckless and absurd on his part and something which is beneath his dignity. i hope he recognized that fellow democrats have said that. look, the president needs to talk about the direction he would take the country. >> the bane capital issue doesn't look to be going away any time soon. polls show the ads attacking romney's records seem to be working in the swing state. steamy temperatures and stormy weather return just in time for the weekend. topper tells us what to expect. his full forecast is coming up. but first, the white house

weighs in on complaints that some team u.s.a. olympic uniforms are made in china. ♪

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save with a shake. feel good about your decisions. two weeks from today opening ceremonies will kick off for the 2012 summer games in london. the talk continues to center on some of the uniforms for team u.s.a. specifically the opening ceremony uniforms created by team outfitter, ralph lauren.

all of them made in china. that has some members of congress outraged. >> i think the olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. i think they should be embarrassed. i think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them. >> they represent the very best. so excellent, it's all so beautiful and they should be wearing uniforms made in america. >> now the white house isn't joining in the criticism. a spokesman says the uniforms aren't a government decision, making them in the u.s. should be considered for future olympics. so far, the designer, ralph lauren isn't commenting on the controversy. today we caught up with the man who has been printing the logo for the u.s. olympic swim team for the past 24 years. as peggy fox reports, these suits were made in portugal, but printed in northern virginia. >> these are the guy suits for this year's olympic team. phelps, and all those guys like the new ff3. >> bob york, owner of aired

vascular ardvark swim. >> these suits are made in portugal but printed right here. >> this is one of the girls laser elites. >> preheats it to a certain degree. >> in years past, he would receive them so late from speedo that they had to work like mad to get the suits to the games in the nick of time. >> stuff you are watching on tv could have been in this shop two or three days prior to that. >> they don't only do the printing, but have an art department and have actually designed some of the olympic swim team logos over the years. >> amy who was on the cover of the washington post and u.s.a. today, we designed this suit here at ardvark. this is one of the suits i brought back from the '96 olympics. >> tom dolan donated his full body suit. those are now banned. in the retail store, you can see the history of the suits,

most are not made in the u.s.a. and bob york takes issue with the current controversy. >> i think it's ridiculous to start whining that our olympic outfitting was done by ralph lauren and made in china. make it more conducive to have it done here in the united states. >> peggy fox, 9news now. >> he has been a swim team coach since the 1970s and has a team with 600 swimmers. fully transparent, peggy's children swim with the york team. the largest rover sent to planet mars will try to land. prepare to learn more about the red planet. and learning is what mars day is all about. a workshop for kids held each year at the national air and space museum. we'll let the martian tell us about today's fun. >> we have all our museum scientists out on the floor talking to visitors about the mars work they do and about mars in general.

we have activities for the kids. we have minirobots that they can drive. we have an art activity for the kids and we have story time. >> a lot of nasa folks were on hand talking about the rover that sets the land on mars and what new discoveries it might make. tv shows took center stage at day two of the annual comic-con out in san diego. plenty of colorful characters roaming the floor. but the big hype went to stars of tv. one of the biggest draws, america's highest rated comedy, the big bang theory. they held a special panel for fans. of course, you can catch the big bang theory right here on wusa9. the show's sixth season premiers september 28 at 8:00 p.m. speaking of a big bang. fireworks will be lighting up the sky over gaithersburg, maryland, tonight. the city is holding its july 4 celebration at the montgomery county fair grounds. the original display had to be canceled due to storm damage.

now the music performances. the fair grounds are near lake forest mall off route 355. is tonight going to be a god night for those? >> some clouds around. but should be no problem. >> nice. >> and no big storm. >> what about this weekend? >> that will change. heat is going to roll in tomorrow, but we get a taste of heat on sunday and monday and with that will come the chance of big storms. let's start with a live look outside. it's pleasant out. 90 was the high. this is a live look at the white house, obviously. our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. low 60s, manageable. relative humidity 44%. that's okay. winds out of the west at 8. pressure steady over the past hour. here's a welcome at live doppler 9,000. a couple sprinkles west of frederick. a couple sprinkles west of hagerstown. notice there's no yellows or reds or anything on this map. it is all light activity and most of it is well west of town that.

said, an activity to the south of us and could see showers and storms now that they are entering southern virginia. they could roll in tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon. so much better chance of storms and showers tomorrow. right now, low 80s in some spots. upper 70s in some spots. but 79 in gaithersburg. that's nice. 78 in reston. 79 in fairfax. even 79 out in leesburg. 84 at old town. still 85 in college park and 82 over in laurel. so the heat will return. no doubt about that. a few showers possible tonight. almost hot tomorrow with some storms. in fact, a much better chance of scattered storms across the board tomorrow. strong storms, and very hot next week. maybe some triple digits. right now, i resisted putting triple digits on the seven-day. mild. isolated shower or thunderstorm. 66 to about 74. winds out of the south at 10. now saturday morning, don't change your tee time, a couple showers are possible even in the morning. partly sunny and warm.

70s and 80s and by afternoon, much better chance of scattered showers and storms. partly sunny, almost hot. high temperatures around 90. so let's go ahead and break it down for you. if you're an early morning riser, 83 to 88 by noon. and then 88 to 92 by evening with scattered showers and thunderstorms. now the next three days, 9 weather alert codes go green, yellow, yellow, because of the heat and storms. 93 on sunday. some strong storms possible. 95 on monday. less in terms of coverage. but some of those storms on monday also could be rather hefty. next seven days, days, mid and upper 90s. near 100 on wednesday. back to the mid 90s on thursday and low 90s next friday, but there's a bolt each day. primarily just an isolated storm tuesday through friday and the nats are back in town tuesday. >> sunday is the day to watch. >> sunday and monday the day

of storms. >> up next, if you thought the water skiing squirrel was impressive, wait until you meet zipper who is hitting the road high on the hog. okay, we're not going to show him to you yet. we'll introduce you after the break.

over the years, we've seen whiplash, the rodeo monkey riding a border collie. even goats. but now a new animal pulling off a stunt to top them all. allen campbell introduces us to little zipper, the motorcycle riding squirrel from west ashley, south carolina.

>> when the motorcycle pulls up anywhere, she perks up. thinks it's hers. and she'll fight over it. >> move over water skiing squirrel. there's a new act in town. >> occasionally she'll put her paws over the windshield to check out the scenery. but it depends on the speed that i'm going. >> zipper has been riding motorcycles for years. ever since she was a baby. >> i think it's cool. i'm not making her do anything. if i put her down in the grass, she runs to the bike and gets up on it. >> zipper's owner got the squirrel at a young age and has bottle fed and taken zipper everywhere with her. >> does she have any tattoos yet? >> not yet. >> zipper even has her own business card. refer to as a squirrel with a real attitude who has been the cause of a few accidents. >> we've had three wrecks. cars running into another car. people stop me and go, do you know you have a squirrel? it's running around.

yeah. she has a leash on. >> whenever the reason, zipper is drawn to the loud engine or that red squirrel helmet, the relationship between zipper and suki could only be described in a nutshell. >> we were so bonded, she went everywhere with me. it's a lot of trust there. >> okay, that's very cute, i'm going to say, she's not, zipper is not steering the motorcycle. >> zipper is wearing a helmet and she's not, which is interesting, too. >> i still think the rodeo monkey, that's more animal skill. >> and skate boarding. but this is kind of cute. that is our report. topper is i will be back here tonight at 11:00 and don't forget, you can log on any time to wusa9.com. follow us as well on facebook and twitter. see you later. [ male announcer ] it would be easy for u.s. olympian meb keflezighi

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