but as a matter of fact, it was stafford who was -- it was tom stafford who came to me, said he had a friend in los angeles who was experimenting correcting this menieree's problem surgically. and so i said, gosh, that's great. i'll go out and see him. so, he set it up. went on out there. fellow said, yeah, we do. what we do is we make a little opening there and put a tube in so that it enlarges the chamber that takes that fluid pressure, and in some cases it's worked. and i said, well, what if it doesn't work? he said, well, you won't be any worse off than you were, but you might lose your hearing, but other than that. so, i went out there under an assumed name. >> what was the name? >> oh, it was polis, i think, victor polis. and the doctor knew and the nurse knew, but nobody else knew that -- and so victor polis checks in, and they run the operation, run the surgery. and it's not that traumatic, obviously, because after about a day, i was out of there. of course, it was obvious when you look at the big ball of stuff over my ear when i got

tom stafford writes that the same basic design that does sixth-grade dropout, riley post, used in developing the space suit in 1934, it is the forerunner of the modern space suit. the same desires, visit revisited premise. my only guiding force is that every five books, i want to write about someone that no one has heard of. for example, if your ears back -- a few years back i wanted to write about a lady named kate bernard. the only thing we have named for her at oklahoma is a little halfway house. it turns out she was our first commissioner of charities impressions. not only that, a little 5-foot 9 inches dynamite woman who was the only ones spoke at the constitutional convention. and she was the first woman elected to statewide office in america. it was incredible. of course, no one heard about her. she died and how many children -- she was unheard of. she didn't have a tombstone for 50 years. so i wrote a biography that made her famous -- kind of made her famous, and she ended up with a wonderful bronze statue of her sitting in a bench in our state capital. every fifth book, i'm going to

tom roussey reporting from stafford. >> a soldier from virginia has been killed in the war in afghanistan. the 28-shell road captain died on sunday from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. jesse was from prince george, virginia, and was based in oklahoma. >> justice department investigating two agents who may have hired prostitutes. in prostitutes federal agents say it's not related to the secret service incident last month. a dozen secret service employees and u.s. military personnel were implicated in that incident. >> and assistant treasurer for d.c. mayor vincent gray's 2010 campaign as a plea agreement hearing today. thomas gore was charged yesterday with making a pay off. he reached a plea deal with prosecutors. the charges against him represent the first criminal case to emerge from a yearlong probe into vincent gray's campaign. >> a commercial rocket headed to the international space station for the first time with food clothing, and batteries. >> and launch!. flexed it went off at 3:44 this morning from cape canaveral, florida.

tom? >> they produced torrent of heavy rain between midnight and 3:00 a.m. at prince william and staffordnty. as we reset, go back in time. the area, orange, yellow, thunder and lightning that came through, slow moving, three to four inches fell in prince william county from near manassas all the way down toward woodbridge and quantico and stafford county. and now it's all dissipated. southern maryland, parts of st. mary's, northern neck getting showers driftsing east there. right now, just low clouds, but the cloud cover is beginning to break up a little bit. we ought to get sunshine breaking out here as we get through the morning hours. temperatures now in the 60s. from the mountains to the atlantic beaches, including montgomery, prince george's county, arlington, fairfax, and the district. it's in the low to mid 60s. here's your day planner for this tuesday. ought to have sun this morning through midday. then, be prepared when you're heading back home for showers, maybe some brief, heavy down powers, thunder and lightning. highs near 80 before that happens. another look at radar in ten

another gray stafford pleaded guilty to charges related to the investigation earlier this week. tom sherwood will have the latest on the hearing on "news4 at 5:00." >>> mayor barry says he's sorry about comments he made about fill pane owe nurses in the last few months. barry apologized during a joint news conference in southeast d.c. asian american advocacy groups stood with barry as he addressed the media. >> i apologize efor any hurt or harm i did to anyone. apologies are not enough if you are going to continue to do it. and so i -- raise myself in leading this community, highest standard in everybody, and that would be very, very careful about my words and about any group of people. >> barry came under intense scrutiny in april after he said the district had to do something about, quote, asians coming in and opening up businesses in dirty shops. later in april, barry also made controversial remarks about the number of filipino nurses in area hospitals. today barry said he hopes to make ward 8 a model of diversity and inclusiveness. >>> new polls in three pivotal presidential bat

tom? >> mercifully. good morning at 6:4167. pavement wet. looking at the radar, we have spotty green near forecast, stafford county, heading northeast into charles southern prince george's county. st. mary's and calvert and eastern shore getting light rain, too, from cambridge to easton, toward dover. that's heading to the north and east. in the wake of that, a mild morning. in the 60s. 66 at reagan national. and later today, might have sunshine breaking out here mid morning. will be near 70 by then. cloudy noontime, mid 70s. by mid-afternoon, mid to upper 70s. we have an increasing chance of rain moving back in. maybe thunder and lightning, too, by late afternoon. a look at big changes on the way for thursday into the weekend and a look at next week, your seven-day outlook in ten minutes. danella? >>> right now not seeing accidents to report. i am seeing a lot of delays in our area, let's start with i-66. very slow from the bypass as you make your way to centreville. it is kind of like a slow crawl. as you make your way past 50, slow again as you continue to the beltway. you're under speed on 66 the entire way. driving at about 35 miles per hou

tom? >> this morning, we have got some more rain than we had yesterday morning. so prepare for a complicated commute, let us say. probably going to be a snarled commute with rain in prince william, stafford, spotsylvania, southern fauquier county, south and east of fredericksburg. getting closer to the metro area now. getting some moderate rain in bethesda, northwest washington. pockets in montgomery county. the really heaviest rain now is in sound loudoun county from leesburg to -- in southern loudoun county from leesburg to sterling, across western and central fairfax county. another pocket of moderate rain north of quantico. that is moving north and east heading toward alexandria. we will have pocket of moderate rain through the morning hours and during the afternoon, maybe thunder and lightning, highs reaching the upper 1997. we could pick up -- upper 70s. we could pick up an inch or two. danella? >>> traveling northbound on 395, just as you approach seminary road, you had an accident in the right shoulder lane. again, the pavement is wet. give yourself extra time this morning. heading over to maryland, this time eastbound on i-195 at washington boulevard, have a crash in the area. t

tom? >> good morning. we've had some thunder and lightning and heavy rain passing over washington the last couple of hours. heavy rain in stafford county and lightning in king george county, now again in southern charles county. this is the second wave for charles county. heavy rain, thunder and lightning there from waldorf down la plata, port tobacco. farther east, getting a lot of lightning in st. mary's county. solomon's down to pax river, lexington park, a lot of lightning, heavy vain moving across the bay and heading east. farther north, getting moderate showers. this area in dark orange, that's in southern, southwestern, southeastern i should say prince george's county into extreme southern anne arundel. northern calvert. farther to the northwest of washington, just light sprinkles in fauquier county, prince william into loudoun county, and northern prince george's county. and the temperatures are mild. we're in the 60s now. later today, we'll climb into the 80s with afternoon temperatures in the upper 80s. we also have threat of strong storms developing later this afternoon into early evening. some of which could produce

and as tom mentioned, i'm seeing a lot of lightning along i-95. so i want you to be aware of that. coming out of staffordu're jammed making your way to the occoquan. at the occoquan, travel speeds not bad yet as you make your way to the beltway. i'm seeing wet pavement and electricity -- lightning. so i want you to use caution this morning. slow down, give yourself extra time. right now, traveling at 61 miles per hour. tough commute already. now back to you. >> thank you. >>> 5:54. this morning it is easier for victims of pit bull attacks to file a lawsuit against the dogs' owner and others in maryland. the maryland court of appeals declared pit bulls as an inherently dangerous breed. that means owners are strictly liable for damages if their pet attacks someone. a landlord is also liable if the attack happens on his or her property. animal adoption advocates say behavior, not breed, should determine whether a dog is dangerous. >> our concern is that we will see an increase in pit bull abandonment here at the shelter. and in addition, fewer pit bulls will be adopted. there are pit bulls that are in lovin

tom? >>> as aunt katherine used to say, it's raining pitchforks and hammer handles. coming down hard where you see the pockets of orange and yellow. coming down hard in charles county and across the potomac, into staffordotsylvania, the northern neck getting mart showers. maybe even a rumble of thunder, fairfax county and arlington, getting some of the heaviest rains. right now just crossing the potomac, heading into washington. this is the heaviest rain shower right now. watch out for the ponding of water at arlington. some of the low areas in washington as it moves off north and east. also some moderate to heavy rains now across western fairfax county, from fairfax city to mclean, great falls, across the potomac toward potomac, maryland, heading toward rockville and gaithersburg, moving north and east. drying out to the west. here are the rainfall totals i'm expecting by the time this ends by late this evening. this area in lavender and red, this is the zone that could get one to two inches. generally the lighter blue, a half inch to an inch of additional rain. we already had a half inch yesterday. throughout the day, morning showers coming through from time to time here with some moderate downpours