chris papst, abc 7 news. kellye: we have breaking news from montgomery county where firefighters are on the scene at a town house fire. the fire department tweeted out these photos. you can see smoke coming from the fourth floor of the building. there is heavy damage. it is believed the fire started on a deck. most of the fire is out but crews are working to put out the hotspots. new tonight, a swimmer is dead after suffering an apparent heart attack during an event this morning. fairfax fire and rescue say the man was taking part in the lake audubon swimming event pre--- event. he later died at the hospital. so far it has been pleasant, humidity is starting to creep in. devon lucie joins us for the forecast. devon: temperatures getting warm up -- getting warm enough. we are starting at first national harbor. the brees has picked up a little bit. lots of sunshine here today and temperatures in the low to mid 80's. real-time attempts around 80. this humidity with $.30 40's. it is the best measure of humidity y

chris papst, abc 7 news. kellye: the diocese of maryland has named a replacement for the deposed bishop. cooke was maryland second-highest ranking it piscopo leader when the police say that she hit and killed a bicyclist in december. her trial is scheduled for next month. a new study shows a surprising number of public charter school students in the district are heading further from home for their education. many students travel an average of 1, 2 miles to school, nearly half travel outside of their ward. more than 1600 students from other parts of the city chose to attend public charter schools in wards seven and eight. the new leader of the university of d.c. is making his presence known on campus. ronald mason junior was introduced this week. prior to his introduction, mason met with mayor muriel bowser. she told him of a reversal of plans to cut $3.5 million to the school budget. >> she asked me to let you all know that she decided to put the money back into the budget. [applause] so that is a win for thi

chris papst, abc 7 news. kellye: a sheriff in texas is calling a gang related shooting one of the most gruesome crime scenes he has ever seen. at least nine people died in the shooting. it was between rival biker gangs. the fight began with punches then escalated to knives and chains and then guns. that same officer said it was a miracle that no innocent bystanders were killed. and a few hours, service will be back to normal on the northeast corridor. the first dip archer from philadelphia will be at 5:33 a. m. travel in this portion had been suspended since tuesday evening when train 18 eight derailed killing eight people and injuring more than 200. today, a wake for a maryland man who lost his life in the crash bob gildersleeve, who lived in elkridge. he was memorialized today in his hometown of new jersey. he was the eighth and final victim discovered in the wreckage. his funeral is tomorrow. the u.s. naval academy in annapolis said a final goodbye to justin zenzer, who was heading home to visit family whe

i'm chris papst. coming up we will t leon: breaking news. sources are confirming the man accused killing chandra levy will get a new trial. we will have more and what happens next on "abc7 news at 6:00". alison: meanwhile, prince george's county mother yanked her child out of school saying something in building is making her second grader sick. in the last few weeks the 8-year-old has been rushed from the school to the hospital three times. "7 on your side" investigator chris papst dug into what is happening. chris: when any parent sends a child to school they expect the child to be safe. but this woman believes something inside the building is making her second grader sick. she doesn't know what it is. but until he is finds out -- she finds out her daughter is staying home. for past week the dining room table has been goodwein's classroom. the second experience she never wanted. do you like going to the school? do you like your friends? >> yes. >> don't want to send her back there. chris: there is the elementary school in prince george's co

i'm chris papst. we tell you how the prince george's school district sent the e-mail to alison: "7 on your side" with an update tonight. a prince george's county mother who pull her child out of school who said mold in the building was making her daughter sick might have been right. this is a story you first saw abc7 friday. now chris papst obtained a document that the district accidently released explaining how mold could possibly have been in the school. tell us about it chris. chris: in the age of spreadsheet and word documents it's easy to see how someone could send the wrong attachment in an e-mail. in this case, the wrong attachment included information that the prince george's school district did not want public. >> for now, all the 8-year-old can do is talk to her friends. through a fence. >> for the last two weeks the second grader remained at home. her mother will not allow her back inside samuel chase elementary school after the young girl kept getting sick inside the building with headache

live in northwest d.c., chris papst, abc7 news. leon: thank you, chris. as many as 25 metro stations are on track for improvements. all due to increased -- meant to increase ridership. they identify 25 stations that are underused and say adding the features around the stations will draw people in. on the table are additional bike lanes new sidewalks walking trails. right now the officials are wrapping up the grant work to get money for the improvements to coordinate with metro on how to put everything in place. if you want to know your stop is selected for improvement visit wjla.com. we'll tell you there. alison: a lot of people will be traveling for holiday weekend. let's check on the traffic situation. jamie: a lot of people are out there getting ready for the long weekend. seeing red behind me. let's talk about virginia. 395 heading out will take you 30 minutes to get from the 14th street bridge continuing to the beltway. outbound on 66. through false church and getting to fairfax. this is a heavy stretch for us. this will take you 15 minutes to get fr

chris papst, abc7 news. alison: all right, chris. people talking about the weather, beautiful temperatures out there. doug: we'll give you a full screen shot of the beautiful camera view from alexandria from the torpedo factory. gorgeous afternoon. 56 at reagan national. 68 in fredericksburg. staying on the school side. we have a little more warming for the weekend. satellite and radar shows low clouds stubborn hanging on the north and west. that will change tonight after sunset. beautiful day on tap for tomorrow. overnight 42 to 52 with the clear skies. through the day tomorrow. nice warmup expected in the lower 70's. mid-to-upper 70's friday with the high pressure in charge. over the weekend the high pressure heads to the east coast and to the atlantic. that will allow the temperatures and the humidity levels to warm. whether he go from the 70's to the mid-80's saturday and sunday. with more humidity. chances of afternoon storms straight through monday. big weather day and a bigger sports night in washington. tim brant? tim: no que

chris: chris papst abc7 news. leon: coming up "abc7 news at 5:00" -- they say a picture is worth a thousand words. be you may be speechless when you hear how much this one sold for at auction. alison: but first -- president obama: i am a black man who grew up without a father. i know the cost that i paid for that. alison: the president tackles poverty and class segregation at a conference in when you own a small business there's a never-ending list of small things to do every day. appointments... orders... deadlines... every one of them matters. so you need internet you can count on. verizon fios is really fast with 99.9% network reliability because when everything is running right, all those small things you do every day can turn into something big. team up with fios for this great limited-time offer. alison: a husband and a wife attacked inside their home took the stand against the alleged attack herbs. brianne carter is in fairfax county with new developments in this case. brianne: alison those proceedings are

i'm chris papst. i'm one of five reporters on the team. my focus is tax dollars. if you have a concern about medicaid medicare how tax dollars are spent. give me a call. i want to hear from you. call me at 703-236-9220. alison: first, medical marijuana. now puppy pot? well cannabis product for canines are popping up online. you can find some on amazon. leon: "7 on your side" consumer investigator kimberly suiters has a closer look for us. what is this? kimberly: this is not medical marijuana. this is hemp-based and it's marketed to healthy dogs like mine here. i'm going to let her have one. it's marketing to dogs who have different kind of medical conditions. because this is considered schedule one narcotic. >> good boy. >> her 10-month-old puppy mo has an expensive habit she needs to feed. >> it has a slight aroma. that you might recognize from the college days. >> mo takes cannabis capsules. he was born with water on the brain. despite having surgery, the seizures continue. >> when he was really ill, it with auz full-on seizure. he would lose control of his blad

. -- "7 on your side"'s chris papst looked into the case. chris: twice a day mary uses the inhaler. she says her breathing problems with dozens of her neighbors began in 2010 when the capital view tower was demolished by the d.c. housing authority. you can see in the abc7 video how a cloud of dust consumed the houses along southern avenue. a blanket of debris covered everything. the residents breathed it in. >> i never put two and two together until i started to talk about it. chris: a recent lawsuit filed d.c. superior court was dismiss by a judge saying the neighbor failed to prove the breathing problems were related to the demolition. we contacted the housing authority for comment which said the failed lawsuit speaks for itself. >> there has to be a catastrophic event that the number of people suffering from the breathing problems. chris: randy is picking up the case saying dozens of people with sudden breathing problems can't be a coincident. >> it's not beyond the realm of possibility that after living in the environment for years you suffer from some breathing problems. >> the

chris papst is following the story and he joins us with an update. what is the latest? chris: the images out of texas are simply eye-opening. one person in the state is dead. two in oklahoma. of now 12 people are missing and a number of them are children. now, with all the rain that has fallen an untold number of homes have been damaged in the state. 350 have reportedly been destroyed. some are gone. leaving many families homeless. bridges are washed away. rescue workers are using helicopters to pluck stranded people from buildings surrounded by floodwaters. the death toll includes a firefighter swept into a storm drain while drying to save ten people. more rain and flash flooding is expected in oklahoma and texas. where a few inches could prove devastating. rivers and creeks are way above the flood stage. and the ground is saturated. leon: i kept calling -- >> i kept calling over and over. are you okay? he was like i don't know if i'm going to make it. chris: the firefighter who died was a 20-year veteran but the water was so high he couldn't see the storm drain which h

chris papst has more. chris: investigators say they have to reconstruct the plane to figure out what caused it to go down. that could take some time. the small single engine plane ran into trouble this morning shortly after taking off from a georgia airport. 12 miles northwest of atlanta. i crashed in a busy median along the highway. there were four people and a pet on board and none survived. identified a father his two adult sons and a woman who was engaged to one of those sons. it could take upwards of two weeks to reconstruct the plane and six months to a year to figure out what caused the crash. as of now the investigators don't know if the pilot made any emergency calls can after taking off. that crash did leave major traffic backups all throughout northeast atlanta and the surrounding suburbs. >> we're going to look at everything. laundry list of items i'm going to look at the maintenance that was last done on the aircraft. from what we understand the airport just fueled over at peach tree dekalb. we

abc7 watchdog investigator chris papst explains. s: in the near future the skyline of georgetown could look a bit different if some city leaders get their way. a gondola will cut through the sky. >> i think it sounds awful. >> i think it would be perfect. chris: the proposed gondola would span the potomac river from georgetown to rosslyn. right now there is no metro stop in this part of the city. so the only way to get over there is by that bridge. so people who favor the gondola say it will make it a little bit easier and a little bit quicker to travel. >> a feasibility study for the gondola costing $200,000 has been proposed. in the latest $13 billion spending plan d.c. would pitch in $35000. the georgetown business improvement privately raised $130,000 from businesses on both sides of the river. the $200,000 figure is now within reach. >> it would make georgetown and arlington stand out. come and see how beautiful the city really is. chris: but any construction is still far off. the study would take a year to complete. >> we have

a story you will see only tonight at 11:00. "7 on your side" investigator chris papst found an officer that appeared to catch nap behind the wheel. the engine were running and so were the blue lights on the roof. the officer was part of the police protecting president obama's motorcade. now the officer will be investigated. however, due to d.c. law and the employee privacy rules the public will likely never know what happens. >> it is a problem. when police disciplinary records are held from the public it's hard to tell if the police chief and the police department is doing a good job when it comes to disciplining police doing poor service or are corrupt. leon: tonight at 11:00 we will show you what happened when we woke the officer up. coming up next on "abc7 news at 6:00" -- >> the if the state picks up the tab for widening the beltway it could pay off for taxpayers down the road. >> chief meteorologist doug hill breaks down what the break in heat means for memorial day weekend. warn you about the worst time to hit the road for the holidays. the "7 on your side" i-team is take your c

alison: the government watchdog investigators chris papst pulled all the contracts of superintendents across the region and found eye-opening comparisons. he joins us now with more. chris? chris: this is what we are talk about right here. the contract of 29 local school superintendents in the past few weeks. we read through all of this. light reading to find out exactly what you are paying for. within the contracts we found that two school ceo's get $12,000 a year for a car allowance, even though one of the school districts is considering charges parents to bus the kids to and from school. this is story you will only see tonight at 5:00 on abc7 news. we also found the average school ceo salary is about $195,000 a year. now they are public servants. but that is more than other public servants make like the governor of virginia for example who makes $175,000 a year. or the governor of maryland who makes $150,000 a year. that is a comparison that some find hard to accept. >> who can justify a superintendent making more than the governor of the state of virginia? that is an outrage! chris

chris papst shows us how "7 on your side" helped fix the mistake. >> i was lesedment. chris: the first time we spoke to him his move was different. >> i can't pay $130,000 electric bill. chris: he had just received a giant elec trig bill and he called "7 on your side" for help. two weeks ago i was looking at the account which said he had $130,000 bill. looking at it now he has a $781 credit. >> to see the results that "7 on your side" got for me was great. chris: he tried unsuccessfully for two months to get pepco to address the crippling bill, which was clearly a mistake. two days after the story aired the company called him. the meter at his home was replaced. the $130,000 balance was removed. he even received a partial credit for his three previous bills. "7 on your side" reached out to pepco gin and received this statement. "the balance was reviewed and the issue has been resolved." which for him means life can return to normal. >> now i'll check my bill every month. if i have more problems i know who to call. chris: chris papst, abc7 news. scott: still ahead here a

leon: investigator chris papst broke the story last night and is joining us with an update for us. story -- the story focused on officers and employees working and were diagnosed with cancer. i spoke to a man who retired and said he was never warned by the county there could be a problem and he has cancer. >> i was lucky they caught mine early. chris: john lawson diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago. he spent 14 years as a police officer at the francona police station in fairfax county. >> it was always zil liability. -- civil liability. chris: he awe the report where 13 people battled the disease with three losing the fight. known carcinogens were not tested. he said he has never been contacted by the county or warned of the possible problem. >> i would like to have the information put out. tell retirees to get tested. >> a lot of anxiety when you have a diagnosis. chris: the fairfax county health director is leading the investigation. her team is in the process of solving the mystery by first analyzing current employee medical records. once more is known, the investigation could sp

chris papst found one officer who apparently did not find that job that is citing and is now -- did not find a job that exciting is now under investigation. chris: it is one of the most famous, recognizable motorcades of the world, drawing spectators almost everywhere it goes. shortly before this per session down suitland parkway, 7 on your side found one officer who looked like she was catching some shut eye. excuse me. are you one duty? are you one duty right now? her badge read officer a. white. her engine was on and so were her blue roof lights. if you are not on duty, when you doing sitting here? you are not asleep? no, i'm not. your eyes were just shut? >> no, they were not. chris: a short time later, president obama came through with officer white directing traffic. police chief cathy lanier said this is the focus of an internal investigation. >> we have policies to specifically address in officer's conduct on detail. chris: this is not the first time a d.c. cop was found appearing to be asleep. a passerby snap this video of another officer in 2012. we never learned if this offic

chris papst, abc 7 news. leon: still ahead, competition for amazon prime. alison: and, for the first time bill cosby speaks. what he has to say about the allegations against him. steve: i'm steve rudin in the weather center. on alison: for the first time since allegations of sexual abuse surfaced bill cosby speaks exclusively with abc news. cosby is asked what will you tell a young person when they ask is it true? >> i am prepared to tell this young person the truth about life. i'm not sure that they will come like that. i think many of them say, you are a hypocrite. alison: you can hear the rest of that interview tonight on nightline, and also tomorrow on good morning america. seven is on your side with health matters tonight. some surprising news about sunscreen. consumer reports tested 34 versions and they found that almost one third of them did not meet stf claims on the label. they found that natural sunscreens are not as effective. if you want to find top brands for kids and adults, we posted the report on wjla.com. leon: seven is on your side with a

our chris papst is following that element of the story and he's live now with how police are raekeacting. chris, what are you seeing and hearing? chris: leon the president of the baltimore police union said today the charges were "appalling." and an attorney of the police union said with great confidence that these six officers did nothing wrong and these charges were politically motivated. now, that man's name is michael beatty. as i said, he is an attorney for the police union. and he said in his 36 years of practicing law, he's never seen second-degree murder charges filed after just two weeks of an investigation. now, he stated that all the officers acted reasonably and in accordance with their training. he said no officer at any time harmed or injured freddie gray and that will eventually come out. he says lieutenant rice, for example, is a 17-year veteran of the police force who devoted his life to public service and he should not have been charged with manslaughter. here's what the president of the union had to say in defense of his officers. >> our officers like every other ameri

alison: our "7 on your side" investigator chris papst joins us now with what he found. chris?is: for a police officer in d.c. there is possibly no greater assignment than that of protecting the president of the united states. we found an officer who didn't take that job or at least didn't find it very exciting. this is a couple of weeks ago we weather on the parkway and noticed a large police presence. we noticed one officer on the post was inside the car and it looked like she was asleep. the engine was on. so were the blue lights on the roof. we got video and gave it a few minutes to see if she was sleeping. she didn't move. her eyes never opened. we knocked on the window and woke her up and asked her some questions. excuse me. are you on duty? are you on duty right now? coming up at 11:00 we will show you the rest of the impromptu video and tell you why the internal investigation in this officer going on right now we likely will never find out the result. scott: all right, coming up next at "abc7 news at 4:00" -- new problems stemming from the diana diana mayweather-pacqeuo

live in the news room, chris papst. alison: thank you. scott: we couldn't have asked for anything better weatherwise than what is coming up. alison: today is the start and it's been beautiful. how does it look for the whole weekend? brian: the weekend looks good. sunday we will warm up a bit. monday we feel heat and humidity. that is an unofficial start to summer. 78 degrees. it's comfortable out there. 78 in the city. 74 in the city. 73 in andrews. 76 in fredericksburg. in the evening, temperatures in the 70's. falling in the 60's. it will usher in cooler air. tonight, low 40's in fredericks. 46 in andrews. it will be a chilly night. but the temperatures will start to rebound and it will a nice day. mid-70's on monday. similar temperatures in virginia beach. water temperature mid-to-upper 70's. virginia beach, upper 60's. look at ocean city. 60 degrees. you may need a wet suit up there. but a day at the beach is always money. i love it. i hope you are, too. alison: we are. developing now investigators are trying to figure out what caused

reporter: chris papst abc7 news. alison: thank you. new survey by the american association of state highway and transportation finds clearing roads this winter took a big toll on state budgets. survey of 23 states reported spending combined $1 billion on winter maintenance operation from october to march. cost to taxpayers could be higher if you factor to the states that did not respond to the survey and the cost on all local municipalities. leon: we go from snowplow to the sun. alison: beautiful. leon: gorgeous. doug: very warm. warm week and possibilities of thunderstorms tomorrow am and wednesday afternoon. but looks like a good week. on the warm side. coverage of a time lapse. this begins after sunrise from the boardwalk in delaware. low cloudiness early. the skies clear and turned into a beautiful day. a lot of people on the boardwalk for may 4, monday. the temperatures got up to 70 there. of course, here, far away from influence of the cooler ocean water very mild. in the 70's by midday to the low to mid-80's now. beautiful on th