screaming and yelling outside of the house. identified as a 24-year-old man, they said he was suffering from smoke inhalation and burns, yelling that there were two kids. firefighters nicheuated firefighters initiated a rescue. they have now been stabilized. they were taken to a nearby hospital and at this point, the caws of this fire is unknown. take a listen to what a neighbor said moments ago. >> come home to this? this is too much. i need to find my family. >> back out live, we're being told the grandmother of these children did show up on scene, identified as a 54-year-old woman. she did collapse. once she saw what was happening, she was also rushed to the hospital. we are being told she is doing all right, but you can imagine some of the emotion out here from witnessing this out here. police are on the scene. fire officials are on the

scene. fire investigators are on the scene. everybody trying to figure out what caused all of this. all three identified as being in critical condition. back to you. >> ken, thank you. a major mixup today that could have had deadly consequences. a d.c. man was mistakenly mailed an assault rifle instead of the flat screen tv he thought he ordered through amazon. it's against the law to mail or register an assault rifle in d.c. so now, city police are looking into this one. kristin fisher with more on how this could have happened. >> even as i opened it, there were metal parts. i thought oh, maybe these go with the tv and of course as i opened the foam up further, it was a huge shock to see that this was a military grade rifle. >> seth is still trying to process how a ups driver could drop off such a deadly weapon on his doorstep. and in a city where these kinds of guns are illegal. >> how could this happen? how could this mixup happen? >> the ups label did have

horvitz's name and address on it, but the inbox was made out to a gun store in pennsylvania. seth didn't know what to do. he knew simply having this gun was illegal in d.c. he also knew it is illegal to drive with it in your car. even if you're driving to a police station. so seth called police and they came out to his apartment. >> not something that you encounter every day for sure. >> police confiscated the weapon and they are still investigating how it ended up at seth's apartment. turns out it was a top of the line cig 716. a high caliber semi-automatic rifle that sells for over $2,000. seth got it for free. but he doesn't want to keep it. he just wanted a new tv. but now, he wants something else. >> i would like to know how this type of mixup could take place. especially with what's going on recently, these mass shootings. you know, i don't want to be in a situation where this type of weapon can just show up on

someone's doorstep accidentally. i would like to see more precautions taken. >> now so far, no one is taking responsibility for this. not ups, not amazon, and not the third party seller that he got it from. just imagine if this package that was left sitting in seth's hallway, just imagine if it had gotten into the wrong hands, especially when there is a kid's dance place just one door down. in northeast washington, i'm kristin fisher, 9news now. >> of course, where is that television? >> well, there's more fallout tonight from the controversy over actor, charlie sheen's high speed escort. the police who was escorted has now filed a $12 million whistle blower lawsuit. hilton says he was punished for testifying to the city council that high speed police escorts were a common practice. that contradicted statements from the police chief, kathy lanier, who said the sheen

escort broke department protocall. we talked with the former commander, hilton burton. >> i lost my rank, lost my pay, been pretty much exiled off the police department. so here i stand. >> so far, no comment on the lawsuit from chief lanier. she is on record, however, saying burton's emotion was about his job performance, not his testimony. >> new developments tonight in that federal probe into d.c. mayor, vince gray's 2010 campaign. d.c. tax collectors filed a lien against the company. she is the pr executive who pled guilty last month to using her firm to funnel donations to an illegal shadow campaign. the washington times reports her firm owes more than $100,000 to the district in taxes, interest, and penalties. so far, attorneys had nothing to say about the lien. if you have been caught by a red light speed cameras, we are warning you now the state of maryland may soon get its

first stop sign camera. that is if the mayor has her way. mayor debra has requested the technology because of frequent violations at a key intersection in her town. andrea mccarren shows us what's happening in glen echo. >> no wonder there's confusion over what constitutes a stop. if you look at maryland's code, it doesn't specify whether that means a full second or even longer. but according to aaa, all wheels of a vehicle must come to a complete stop. >> it's terrible. we should know what is a stop, most people don't. >> even with our news camera in plain view, again and again, cars rolled right past the stop sign without even braking. that despite a nearby speed bump, a warning sign painted on the road, and a reminder that children are at play here. >> 70% of all crashes in this country occur at intersections. and we know that 40% of all

traffic brutalities occur at stop signs. >> now, glen echo wants a stop sign camera at this intersection, where more than 2,000 cars pass through every year. it leads to the clara barton national historic site. >> if it makes it safer, it's a good idea. >> people shouldn't be rolling through. they do need to stop. but i don't like cameras. >> los angeles put six of the con from veer issue stop sign cameras in place last year, raking in more than a million dollars in fines in just the first six months. >> i guess we'll have to get used to them. >> but motorists are fighting back. and have filed a class action lawsuit because the state of california never authorized the use of stop sign cameras. >> d.c. already has plans to get stop sign cameras. right now, it is determining which vendor will provide the technology. in glen echo, andrea mccarren,

9news now. >> what do you think? a stop sign camera, really? a spitten on the sidewalk camera, or it's all worth it if it makes us safer? the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. maryland's growing drought now has governor martin o'malley asking for federal help. today he sent a request to the u.s. department of agriculture. he wants a disaster designation for 13 counties in the state and that would bring in federal drought aid. the request includes the entire eastern shore in anne arundel, charles, calvert, and prince georges county. farmers lost up to 54% of their crops. today, helping drought conditions, but it is not helping those drought conditions, but it is causing storms to pop up. so, we have another yellow weather alert. top, what's going on? >> the storms are few and for between, they have brought relief to parts of the area. let me show you live doppler

9,000. the strongest storm was in upper montgomery county. it is on the east side of 270 north of gaithersburg and northeast of clarksburg and it continues to move off to the east. the storm also just north of 50, north of chantilly. that is weakening. it will move off to the south and east. that is about it for now. but at least some folks did get some rain. temperature wise, it's not so bad. it's muggy. 86 downtown. 88 in frederick. 86 in leesburg and 84 in manassas. so, for tonight, we're looking at an early thunderstorm possible. some heavy, lows 68 to 76. winds light southwest 5 to 10. we'll come back. people talk about things heat up tomorrow and we'll talk about a very strong cold front that approaches the metro area on friday. we'll tell you what that means as well. >> thank you, top. still to come, president obama and mitt romney in a dead heat in the race for the white house. one strategist says he knows the key to victory in virginia. coming up, the group the candidates need to be

targeting. but first, one maryland lawmaker wants to put a stop to utilities charging customers when the power goes out. how he plans to pull that off coming up next.

lawmakers in maryland now taking a welcome at the proposal that would expand gambling in the free state. governor martin o'malley released the details in the plan last night and it calls for adding table games at all casinos. o'malley hopes to include enough concessions to get the state to pass the issue. >> i am so sick of this issue. i just want to get it behind us. this bill before the general assembly has been formed by the process all along here. it has incorporated suggestions from the house of delegates and i'm hopeful and optimistic that the general assembly wants to move beyond this issue. >> lawmakers could also have to tackle more than just

gambling. he is introducing a bill to keep electric utility companies from billing customers during storm related outages. right now, state law allows utilities by charging customers a fee for the first 24 hours. the rule of no work, no pay, aught to apply to utilities just like everyone else. >> well, our steamy hot weather is back, but will it stick around for a while? topper knows the answer. he will be here to give us the update. but first, new polls show president obama and mitt romney neck in neck in three key swing states. that has candidates catering their messages to get more support. that story is up next.

90 days from today, american voters will head to the polls. president obama continues his election push. a new cbs news poll did not have good news for the president. he trails republican mitt romney by 5 points in the rocky mountain state. however, he still holds an edge with female voters and he is hoping his two day visit may keep it that way. >> when it comes to a woman's right to make her own healthcare choices, they want to take us back to the policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century. >> that new polling also showed the economy remains the top issue in three major swing

states. voters there trust romney more to fix it. but today, the gop hopeful was hammering the point home in iowa. >> he said if we let him borrow, he would keep unemployment below 8%. it has not been below 8% since. >> one of those swing states was virginia and found that 49% of likely voters would pick president obama if the election were held today. 45% would choose romney, but 5% of virginia voters are undecided. >> election could come down to one group of people. asian american voters. the same strategist who helped win over that group and win the election is now helping romney. those undecided voters could be the key to a gop win in november. >> there he is. right there. >> a die hard republican, we found her shopping at the center in falls church where many vietnamese business owners

are backing mitt romney. >> i have been divorced. >> here at the barbershop, he'll find pictures. governor's campaign stop in 2009 was part of a strategy to win the asian vote. >> there he was in the barbershop. >> he has those pictures helped mcdonnell win the election with nearly 60% of the asian vote in northern virginia. he is hoping asian voters will be the key to a mitt romney victory. >> with that foundation built by governor mcdonnell, governor romney has already initiated, taken the first step to engage the community and his team has been holding biweekly meetings. >> here's a picture of romney and mcdonnell at a meeting in sterling a few weeks ago. inbetween them is a vietnamese human rights activist who voted for obama four years ago. now he plans to vote for romney. >> i'm very impressed. i believe that i voted for him

and i hope that he will win. >> of course the asian american population is extremely diverse with different allegiances. the indians are considered strong democratic voters. the votes up for grabs are the east asian votes. >> i think obama republicans, i think they are playing too many games. >> who are you supporting and why? >> obama. >> obama inherited a bad economy and needs more time to fix it. in falls church, peggy fox, 9news now. >> and asian americans own 7% of all businesses in virginia. an 11 asian american delegates from the commonwealth are headed to the democratic convention and that's the largest number ever to do so. if you have a pricey electric bill last month, there's a reason for that. your ac was working overtime and what is officially the hottest month on record for the lower 48 states. the national data center says

the average temperature, 77.6 degrees, that is more than 3 degrees warmer than the centuries average and it breaks the old record of 1936. that's a few years back. topper was not born. >> our average temperature was 84 here. our second hottest july last year was a little hotter. >> was it really? >> yes. >> okay, wait. i'm a little confused. clear that up for us later. >> actually, we go to our website and look at our blog. >> we have a couple thunderstorms out there. we had more rain fall to spread around. let's start with live doppler 9,000. look at the big picture, what's he talking about? you have to look carefully. we'll zoom in. a couple storms. they are on their way out, no doubt about that. but we have a couple showers out in fairfax county and out toward manassas and prince william county. by far and away, this is the biggest storm. now it's on the east side of 270. we'll zoom into this storm and pretty good rain.

this is state highway 420 and this is the ocean road right there. that's where the heaviest rain can be found. the red indicates an inch per hour. so some pretty good rain. right now, no hail. nothing severe. just some much needed rain fall in parts of montgomery county. live look outside. this is brought to you by michael and son. high was 91. right now 86. dew points in the upper 60s. relative humidity 55%. pressure has not budged all afternoon. 29.94 inches of mercury. temperature wise, 85 in great falls. not too bad. 82 in vienna. rain cooled 70s in reston and fairfax. 86 in college park. 83 up in laurel. all right, so we are watching very carefully a cold front on friday. that's going to be a big event late friday afternoon and friday evening. isolated storm possible tonight. hot and humid tomorrow. some storms possible tomorrow, but the real deal is going to be friday. severe storms are possible on friday. right now, we are code yellow.

we may have to increase that to code red. we'll keep you posted. for tonight, early thunderstorm possible, some heavy. more to the south. lows 68 to 76. so most folks in the 70s tonight. tomorrow morning, almost hot by lunchtime. 72 to 92. should stay dry. cannot rule out an isolated shower. air quality code orange. if you have respiratory problems. isolated storms, some could be hefty. high temperatures near 95 tomorrow. next three days, we'll keep code yellow, then saturday will be code green. warm with early showers. temperatures back into the upper 80s. less humid on saturday. next seven days, upper 80s on sunday. not too bad. next week, okay. around 90 on monday and tuesday. a couple isolated storms possible. right now we will keep wednesday dry with temperatures in the low 90s. so again, friday will be watching that carefully. >> thank you, sir. we'll be back.

in the mail bag tonight, the debate already raging over on the wusa9 facebook page regarding the possibility of a stop sign camera being installed at an intersection in glen echo, maryland. christopher was fairly typical when he writes, big brother is watching, red light cameras, speed cameras, graffiti camera. some that can record your conversations. you know, that's a good question. rickie says maybe never. when are they going to put cameras in bathrooms to make sure. make sure people don't j walk. when are they going to put up a camera to make sure people hold open doors? too much is too much. elio cruise has the anecdote for these concerns. if folks wouldn't roll over stop signs, then no cameras would be needed. that's true as far as it goes, but couldn't you say that about

almost any activity? to quote benjamin franklin, those who give up, deserve neither liberty nor safety. i'm hoping we deserve your thoughts in mcginty's mail bag. the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. that is our broadcast. i'll be back at 11:00. log on any time to wusa9.com. we'll see you a bit later. bye bye. ♪

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now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. are jennifer and justin over? what we know about the new headline. was she expecting a wedding proposal that never came? then, robert pattinson out of hiding. his planned tv appearances. will he open up about the cheating scandal? plus, kristen's other man out with his wife. and getting peppered by the pap razi. randy travis, the new mug shots, the story behind the country star's latest arrest after being found naked on the road. then, jennifer lopez fights back against her former driver. plus, from cruise to letterman, the celebrities who have been target of extortionists. plus, gabby douglas gets a big surprise from the stars of her favorite show "vampire diaries."