>> this is bruce leshan from channel 9. we are running a test with the director. >> it never got to the 911- center. it stopped right there. >> fairfax county's 911 director blames a verison data and switching center in arlington for the breakdown. and verison blames damage to multiple facilities that took out both primary and backup systems. >> just like that out of a clear blue sky, it was down. >> at the height of the crisis, emergency workers were urging people to go to their nearest fire station, flag someone down on the street to get emergency help. >> this is the nation's capital. we cannot be without protection. and we cannot have people calling 911 and getting no response whatsoever. >> emergency managers do not believe that anyone died because they were unable to get ahold of 911. but they fear that if it happens again, someone could. in fairfax county, bruce leshan, 9news now. >> this is far from the first time that verison failed to route 911 calls through 911- centers. during last year's, 10,000 emergency calls

bruce leshan tells us no one was injured thanks to some local heroes. >> reporter: i'm bruce leshan in district heights from blocks away a police lieutenant sees a column of smoke rising. he and a corporal rush into this burning building to rescue a half dozen people who have no idea they're lives are in danger. >> i think it's human instinct. >> reporter: lieutenant scott finn and ricki adey say they'll never forget what they found. >> this is where the dogs were out on the balcony. >> reporter: flames roaring across the back of the building from the first floor up through the roof. >> when i got here, i could hear screams of people. then i heard these bloodcurdling screams and yipes and yell:s and -- yelps and didn't know what it was. >> reporter: then the two officers rushed around to the other side of the burning building to get more people out. investigators know that the fire started here on the outside on the first floor, but there's still -- but they're still not sure what sparked it. dozens of people are homeless just trying to salvage what they can. in district heights, bruce

g bruce leshan, 9news now. >> i'm more concerned about that cheese steak. that is a spoiler.y the way, we want to know, you can get into the spirited debate about the spoiling on our facebook page, but from now on, we are not blasting out the actual results on our twitter feed. you'll have to come to us. if we put it on the air, we'll warn you first. how about that? >> okay. >> speaking of warnings, thunderstorm warning situation is good, but we need some water. >> i know. we have -- i'll show you one thunderstorm on radar. tomorrow, derek, the chances increase a little bit and even more so on wednesday. let's start with live doppler 9,000. before this storm disappeared, we will zoom out north and west. this is in loudoun county. not way out there, but right there in loudoun county. it's pretty hefty as you go out route 7. rain fall rates of an inch an hour. you see green toward waterford. the storm itself, we'll put this into motion. it's drifting off to the north and to the west. it's going to weaken a little bit, but some significant rain west of leesburg. and up toward hi

in silver spring bruce leshan, 9 news now. >> now pepco sent us a statement about 15 minutes ago but still seemed a little confused about what is going on on chartwell drive. the statement says the line was not energized at the time of the incident and that the wire in the customer's yard was not energized, but as you saw, it is energized now and the line is still down on the house. >> wow. >>> coming up on 9 news now at 7:00 the rising temperatures, thousands still without power. we keep an eye on the effort to get everybody's lights back on again. >> also ahead in this half hour, derek, president obama hits the road on his reelection campaign, first stop ohio, more on the betting on america tour is ahead. >> plus look at this. a sinkhole so large it swallows a passing car with people inside. those stories and more are just ahead. [ mosquitoes buzzing ] ♪ [ female announcer ] repel mosquitoes without spraying your skin. try off! clip-on repellant. in minutes, its fan surrounds you, head to toe with effective odorless protection. whether it's at a game, enjoying family, or just relax

. >> i'm bruce leshan in district heights from blocks away, a police lieutenant sees a column of smoke rising. he and a corporal rush in to this burning building to rescue a half dozen people who have no idea their lives are in danger. >> i think it's human instinct. >> the lieutenant and corporal say they will never forget what they found. >> this is the area right here behind us where the dogs were out on the balcony. >> flames roaring across the back of the building from the first floor up through the roof. >> when i got here, i could hear screams of people, then i heard these blood curdling screams and yelps. i wasn't sure what it was. >> nobody could do anything, oh my gosh, that dog was screaming and hollering. >> to get more people out. investigators know that the fire started here on the outside on the first floor, but they are not sure what sparked it. dozens of people are homeless, just trying to salvage what they can. in district heights, bruce leshan, 9news now. >> and new information out tonight on the man accused of shooting dozens in a colorado movie theater. police sour

and as a report of bruce leshan explaning that the 43-year-old victim said she was only 12 when rick curl started grooming her for sexual abuse. >> this guy should be in jail and not center stage at the olympic trials. >> reporter: kelly curan says it is the lead up to the olympics that finally lead her to speak up. >> that's where he was, front and center at the olympic trials. >> reporter: they now initiated an emergency hearing on the allegations against rick curl and it could suspend his membership. the coach allegedly performed oral sex on curan when she was his 13-year-old swimmer at the georgetown prep school. by 14 he had sexual intercourse with her at the office. >> and in my 14-year-old mind, 13-year-old mind when it started, i loved him. >> you're saying that this 33- year-old man was having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl? >> yes. he could have told me to do anything and i would have done it because i trusted him. >> reporter: she fears that there might be other young victims. >> as a coach's relationship, i mean, especially to a little girl. >> reporter: this

. >>> i'm bruce leshan. more than two decades ago that kelly curan agreed to remain silent as a part of the $150,000 settlement with rick. but now headed to the olympics, she says she could no longer remain silent. >> that guy should be in jail and not center stage and at the olympic trials. >> the u.s.a. team swimming has now initiated the hearing on the allegations against them. and it could suspend their membership. and the coach, they aledly performed oral sex when she was the 13-year-old swimmer in the georgetown prep pool. by 14, he allegedly had sexual intercourse with her at the office at the school. >> had in my 14-year-old mind when it started, i loved him. the coach asked me about that relationship and it happened here, especially to the pre- investigating story. >> reporter: but the washington post reporter who broke this story, they got them on the phone. and they said that they hung up on them. >> reporter: bruce leshan, 9news now. >>> the it nfl is launching acomprehensive wellness program for

bruce leshan reports, there is new fallout from the allegations that rick curl had sex with one of his young swimmers 23 years ago and then paid her to keep quiet about it. >> sources tell us that local law enforcement is following up on these allegations even though the alleged abuse dates back so long ago. >> we followed up what we deem historic or cold cases in the past with successful results. >> still, no answer at the door of rick curl's $1.5 million home in vienna, although it is clear someone is home. it is unclear if curl has gone off to help coach at the olympics in london despite the sex abuse allegations against him. kelly curen says the swim coach had sex with her for years starting when she was about 13 and he was 33. >> the guy should be in jail and not center stage at the olympic. >> u.s.a. swimming, which governs the american olympic swimming effort is also investigating, but they did not get back to us yet about the status of that investigation today. bruce leshan, 9news now. >> and maryland lawmakers will head back to annapolis to try and resolve the issue of expande

in friendship heights, bruce leshan, 9 news now. >> from dominion power joining us by telephone is dan gwinnett. what does that mean by tuesday night? >> we're looking at having 80 to 85% of our customers back on. 540,000 were out at the peak and now we're down to 232,500 down now. >> you've cut 50% of your power outages. that's good news for a lot of folks. now the fail pure of power in verizon's 911 routing center was a real headache in northern virginia and as far as we know, manassas and manassas park still don't have 911 service. what went wrong there? and shouldn't there have been redundancies in place so that shouldn't happen? >> we don't control those systems. i can't really address that. i know that there were power issues at some of those facilities. all that power has since been restored. >> let's talk about the crews you use to fix these power lines. power companies everywhere seem to be counting the same crews of finite workers and send them around wherever they're needed. this time because several states were hit hard it seemed like there are not enough workers to go arou

. >> i'm bruce leshan, from blocks away, a police lieutenant sees a column of smoke rising. he and a corporal rush into this burning building to rescue a half dozen people who have no idea their lives are in danger. >> i think it's human instinct. >> the lieutenant and corporal, rickie, say they will never forget what they found. >> this is the area right here behind us where the dogs were out on the balcony. >> flames roaring across the back of the building from the first floor up through the roof. >> when i got here, i could hear screams of people, but then i heard blood curdling screams. i wasn't sure what it was. >> nobody could do anything for that dog. that dog was screaming. >> the two officers rushed around to the other side of the burning building to get more people out. investigators know that the fire started here on the outside on the first floor, but they are not sure what sparked it. dozens of people are homeless, just trying to salvage what they can. in district heights, bruce leshan, 9news now. >> turning now back to those deadly shootings inside the movie th

bruce leshan is out there to show wlaws the problem is. bruce. >> reporter: yeah, bruce, check this out. this is a major commuter route. take a look. there's a pole down theerks crown of a pole. there is another pole that's down back here. there's a huge tree back there. then a quarter or half mile back up there's several more trees. look, there's no sign of anybody doing any kind of work here at all. no promise of anybody coming here any time soon to do any work, and all the traffic is being pushed from the inbound lanes to the outbound lanes. it is a scary situation. >> nobody is getting through, not this. and they've got sang gal lane going up that way? i wouldn't want to be going this way in the morning. >> so this is really going to be crazy on monday morning, because you are going to have three lanes of traffic coming down from olney, coming down from ashton hill, and look at this. i mean, these people are all trying to get over, i'm trying to get over. everybody's got get on the wrong side of the median right here, then drive down th

bruce leshan reports, the issue goes way beyond prince georges county. >> by some counts, there are as many as 120 million cats. and studies sited by the american bird conservancy suggest those cats kill as many as 4.1 billion birds and small animals every year. >> want to wake up? >> in a bethesda office where a half dozen former alley cats roam, a group called alley cat allies has been pushing a unique solution on local governments for years. >> you humanely trap cats. you take them to a veterinarian. they are neutered and they are returned to their home, which is their colony. >> when the councilwoman proposed to save her county's neutered cats from death in the shelter -- >> there were 6,111 animals put down in this county. that is nothing to brag about. >> she ran into a storm of criticism. >> the neighborhood kids are using them for target practice or getting in our garbage. critics are worried not just about the birds, but their own health. >> i went to intervene and i got scratched. my hand got bit. it swelled up double the size. >> we had in excess of 20 to 30 cats. >> how did

. >> bruce leshan is live in rockville with more on their efforts tonight. and bruce, oh man, you got a lot of damage behind you. >> yeah, what's amazing is that we have seen more of these guys. these are tree workers and they have been working to get this huge tree off this poor guy's house on old georgetown road. but the other thing that is surprising here is some of the folks that have been the harshest crickets of pepco over the years. the politicians, the regulators, and so forth, right now are given pepco time to deal with this surprise hurricane force storm. >> can't do anything until pepco comes through. even the verison guy was waiting on a crew. they are showing remarkable patience in the face of adversity. brad lost his home to a tree, so he's willing to offer pepco a break. >> i mean, they are doing the best they can. it's a tough situation. there's a tree on a house. >> is it too early for you to judge their performance? >> it is too early. >> montgomery county council president, roger berliner has been one of pepco's fiercest critics. he's waiti

bruce leshan spent the day trying to answer that question. he is live in bethesda with what he found out. somebody is working there, bruce. >> yeah, derek. the funny thing is, we have seen a lot whole more of these guys out working on places like this house. we have seen pepco crews. another surprising thing, which is that a lot of the folks that you would expect to be punching pepco at this point with all this heat and humidity and no power, well they are actually saying hold on, let's give it a little more time before smacking the utility for poor performance. >> can't do anything until pepco comes through? >> even the verison guy was waiting on a pepco crew. people across the region are showing remarkable patience. brad's next door neighbor lost his home to a tree. so he's willing to offer pepco a break. >> they are doing the best they can. i mean, it's a tough situation. there's a tree on a house. >> is it too early for you to judge their performance? >> it is too early. >> montgomery county council president, roajer berliner has been one

bruce leshan, 9news now. >> what can you do to mike sure your kids are safe and what signs can you look for if you suspect your child is being abused? watch peggy fox's story on that very topic at wusa9.com. derek. >> lesli, maryland's governor is calling the legislature back into a highly unusual special session, all to resolve the issue of expanded gambling. it will happen on august 9, and scott broom is in annapolis tonight where the focus is on the relentless push to put a vegas style casino on the banks. >> at stake for prince georges county, as many as 2,000 permanent jobs and as much as $69 million a year in revenue to help solve the county's unending budget crisis. >> i feel good about the construction of what is coming out there. i feel confident that the citizens of prince georges county will vote overwelmingly for six cycles because they understand. >> baker was gambling. who sought the entire state budget held hostage by the gambling debate in april, forcing a crisis special session in may. he vowed never again. >> when we adjourned, that was kind of a low point in my servic

. >> reporter: i'm bruce leshan with a family in silver spring that hopes pepco will turn off the wire. >> you're telling me these wires are hot? >> they're hot right now. they're charged. >> reporter: a pepco crew restore power to a silver spring neighborhood sunday. >> you're looking at a combination of the power, the main power supply to our house. this right there is the main power. be careful because it's live. >> reporter: but the crew did nothing about the electrified wires that a branch ripped down and draped across his metal gutters. >> i have been calling pepco since 10:30 friday and they've laughed at me, hung up on me accident told me that they didn't have -- me, told me they didn't have any report. >> reporter: the family called 911 and firefighters said all they could do was but up caution tape until pepco shut down the power unless, of course, the house caught fire. then the firefighter said they could do something. >> the gutter could sever right through the casing of this and it could spark up again and catch our house on fire. >> as we told you, it's not just folks in

. >> reporter: i'm bruce leshan in college park where we're getting new details of an unbelievable gunbattle. >> this is my son. i think he's smoked some pcp. >> reporter: antwonette harris did her best to stay calm as her 21-year-old son was going crazy. >> does he still have the gun in his hand? >> yes. >> can you see it? >> reporter: mccoy comes out, a .40 caliber handgun in his own mom's back. mom sees the officer, runs for it and then mccoy engages in a kind of running gun battle with the officer here who shoots him and he keeps going. >> oh, my god. >> oh, holy [ bleep ]. >> reporter: university of maryland students were upstairs videotaping the whole thing. he tried and of failed too escape in one police cruiser and -- and failed to escape in one police cruiser and jumped in a second. eight to 10 police officers finally subdued him. >> all of our officers acted courageously and bravely. >> despite being shot, tased and hit with batons authorities say andre mccoy is in good condition in the hospital. authorities charged him with trying to murder a police officer and a lot of other crim

companies to get the lights back on, but could it be soon to offer so much complaint about pepco if bruce leshan is in bethesda and he answered that question. bruce. >> yeah, derek. that is one of the big, big questions here. three days after the storm, it seems like pepco is falling behind the other utilities in the area in terms of trying to get people back online. the big question, one of the other big questions tonight is whether regulators, the people that can really punish pepco have had enough. >> you know, everywhere you look, the crews are running around. >> people across the region are showing remarkable patience in the face of adversity. the next door neighbor lost his home to a tree. so he is willing to offer pepco is break. >> they are doing the best they can. it's a tough situation. there's a tree on a house. >> is it too early for you to judge their performance? >> it is too early. >> montgomery county council president, roger, has been one of pepco's fiercest critics. he is willing to wait and see on this storm. >> one of them is their efforts to apply additional crews. when did

and bruce leshan is here with details. bruce. >> derek, here is the report, 69 pages of pepco arguing that its response was fast and effective. the public service commission will look this over. it will hold hearings, but one state delegate says the verdict is already clear. >> it is comical that pepco claims they couldn't have been ready for this storm. they sat in front of my committee 18 months ago saying they would be ready for anything. obviously they weren't. >> delegate tom of montgomery county said the pepco report is chocked full of pretty pictures and excuses, but sorely lacking in solutions and accountability. >> everyone knows that we have a huge problem. we have one of the least reliable utilities in the country. >> pepco claims forecasters had the storm stalling over the appalachians. but when it defied meteorologists and knocked out power to nearly half a million pepco customers that saturday night, the utility insists it responded quickly, restoring electricity to 99% of its customers by friday and bringing

. >> sources tell bruce leshan that montgomery county police opened an investigation into the charges against rick curl by a woman who abused her more than a quarter century ago when she was just 13. bruce joins us now with more. >> yeah, anita. rick curl still not talking, these allegations are shocking to a lot of people. police are paying attention, even though these charges are so old. still no answer at the door of rick curl's $1.5 million home in vienna. it is clear someone is home. and it is unclear if curl has gone off to help coach at the olympics in london, despite the sex abuse allegations against him. kelly corn says the swim coach had sex with her for years, starting when she was about 13 and he was 33. >> the guy should be in jail and not center stage at the olympics. >> sources say police are following up on the allegations. the sex abuse allegedly started in an office at the pool on the bethesda campus of georgetown prep. curl's swim club was leasing time at the pool. montgomery county police are now very careful in describing what they are doing about her allegations.

i'm bruce leshan.he story coming up. >> but first, an expedition to solve one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. can they succeed? >>> so, what happened to the legendary pilot, amelia err amelia earhart when she disappeared? they are trekking from honolulu to a remote island where they hope to find wreckage of earhart's plane. this is based on years of research. she vanished while trying to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. >>> when i say andy griffith, what comes to mind? >> it has to be that whistle. >> looks back at the life of the actor who died early this morning. ♪ [ music ] >> who doesn't hear the whistle and remember the andy griffith show? from 1960 to 1968, it was a huge hit. and the star, andy griffith, played the show's man. >> i didn't charge him nothing. >> i meant something for the joy of giving. >> i enjoyed it. >> i love playing straight because you get to see the show and be in it at the same time. >> andy's life parallelled his show in many ways. he was

as bruce leshan tells us, no one was hurt all because of some local heroes. >> reporter: i'm bruce lessahn in district heights from blocks away a police lieutenant sees a column of smoke rising. he and a corporal rush into this burning building to rescue a half dozen people who have no idea their lives are in danger. >> i think it's human instinct. >> reporter: lieutenant scott finn and corporal rikki adey say they'll never forget what they found. >> this is the area behind us where the dogs were out on the balcony. >> reporter: flames roaring across the back of the building from the first floor up through the roof. >> when i got here, i could hear screams of people. thnl i -- then i heard these bloodcurdling screams and yelps. i wasn't sure what it was. >> the dog was just screaming and hollering. >> reporter: then the two officers rushed around to the other side of the burning building to get more people out. investigators know that the fire started here on the outside on the first floor but there's still not -- they're still not sure what sparked it. dozens of people are homeless. ju

i'm bruce leshan, this story coming up. >> but first a stranded bald eagle and the dramatic rescue that may well have saved the life of our national symbol. those stories and more at 6:00. >>> preparations in the works to release a young rescued bald eagle back into the wild. the stranded bird is undergoing rehab thanks to the dramatic actions of a boater in long island. jennifer blowing an has that -- logan has that story. >> reporter: mitch kramer and dodge jesse have never made a rescue like this before. responding to a towboat call they saw something struggling in the distance. they were 10 miles from shore. mitch said his heart was racing. >> as i got closer, i saw a bird. i couldn't leave it there. so i decided to give it a shot and see if i could grab it. >> reporter: the exhausted frightened bird turned out to be a 1-year-old bald eagle, the venerable symbol of our nation sick and stranded in long island sound. >> it had about a 6-foot wingspan. it was very intimidating. >> the bald eagle was a lot bigger when i pulled it out of the water than i originally thought it was. >> rep

although bruce leshan says he might have messed you up a little this weekend. >> yeah, we're sorry. we thought people wanted the news right away. we thought we were doing people a favor. >> the web center sent out bulletins by e-mail. any time news broke from the olympics. >> very negative. it got dozens of threats to unfriend us in return. never again -- >> i'm going to face a facebook when the results come out, but give people whether or not the people want to see the results. >> at the food trunks where people like their meals hot and fast. >> i got the cheese steak. >> olympic fans seem to fall into two different camps. >> they can put it live on their cable network and then they could play it on prime time if they want the ratings for a replay, but it's more important to get the broadcast live. >> those who blame nbc for taping the most popular events and broadcasting them later. >> absolutely. they could put it on live in the middle of the day. i'd watch it. >> and those who do not want to know until the evening. >> no, i'm not following on my phone. i watch it at home. >> if

. >> reporter: bruce leshan, 9 news now. >> what an odyssey. authorities charged mccoy with attempted murder of a police officer, first degree assault, use of a handgun in a felony and malicious destruction of property. >>> tonight we've got new information about that 12-year- old ft. washington boy accused of killing a 2-year-old little girl who lived in the same home with him. maryland's department of human resources is reviewing this case to make sure the rules were followed when they placed the foster child, the 2-year- old, in that home last november. our own kristin fisher has been following this story since it broke yesterday. you're telling me this is not a family anybody expected something like this to happen to. >> not at all, far from it. in fact, actually spoke with the little girl's biological grandmother this morning. she's obviously very upset. she didn't want to talk on camera, but she did tell me she was really very fond of this foster family. she said she'd met the parents on several occasions and really liked them. in the eig

bruce leshan reports some of the people they saved had no idea their lives were in danger. >> i think it's human instinct. >> corporal rickie say they will never forget what they found. >> this is the area right here behind us where the dogs were out on the balcony. >> flames roaring across the back of the building from the first floor up through the roof. >> when i got here, i could hear screams of people and i heard blood curdling screams. i really wasn't sure what it was. >> the whole building looked like it was in flames. nobody could do anything. oh my gosh, that dog was screaming and hole larking. >> but the lieutenant tried toe climb up and tossed the pit bull and puppy from the burning balcony. >> you touched it for a second? >> reached out and my handmade contact, and that's how hot it was. >> the two officers rush around to the other side of the burning building to get more people out. >> a couple times when i banged on the door, they asked what i wanted and i told them their building was on fire and they said, what for. i proceeded to kick in the door and told them they nee