commissioner meko: i had some questions for commander at but crenshaw. -- commander crenshaw. >> not as of yet, but i am willing to look at this. commissioner meko: we have two commissioners who represent the neighborhood, as well. i have been waiting to get an appointment with chief gascon for several months now. i passed -- i asked teresa sparks to help, and there was a meeting that was canceled just before the meeting was to take place. no one on this commissioner.-- commission has had a chance to talk to the chief of police. >> i think i will be able to help you out with that. commissioner meko: i had questions for the commander. i am a commissioner who represents the neighborhood and the city, and that is why i was talking to the police about this issue. >> and as it relates to the work group, i was designated to work with the neighbors, so i was working specifically with them, -- commissioner meko: you work with city lights. if you could have a seat. you really cannot speak for the commission. >> i was only responding to the asian -- issues. commissioner meko: that is a whole o

crenshaw.s was a reaction to the weekends incidents, -- weekend's incidents, and we talked about how to further professionalize the industry and avoid these things in the future. it has been a tough summer, as you know, and the mayor showed a commitment, i think, to this by spending more than 1.5 hours reaching for his cell phone at all and was completely attentive, discussing best practices and ways in which the city, including the police department, the entertainment commission, and his office, could step up to promote a safer night live, in general. the mayor asked for a draft document of best practices by the first of september, and a small group of us, including myself and some members of the command staff and a few industry representatives it, have been meeting to create that draft, as well as a short list of what they are calling recommended security-related conditions that they intend to present to you at the entertainment commission for your possible discussion and action. -- for your

liz crenshaw has a quiz from savingadvice.com that may help cut down your power bill. >>> ♪ >> reporterif the television is on an average of seven hours a day, how much does it cost to run that tv every month? any idea, $12.50, how much a month. >> $17.50. >> reporter: th answer is $17.50 a month. here's the next question, what is the family's largest hot water expense? is it doing laundry? doing dishes? bathing? or watering the garden? what's your largest hot water expen? >> bathing. >> reporter: for most households bathing is the single largest use for hot water. now your next question. you have a refrigerator at home, i presume. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: how about ts, each additional refrigerator or freezer that you own adds how much to your energy bill every year? $48 to $ 4, $ 4 to $180, $180 to $240 or $240 to $350? how much mo money does an additional freezer or fridge add to your house. >> i think $48 to $84. >> right. >> reporter: actually it's $ 4 to $184 every year. i second freezer or fridge in your gage it pays to plug it in it's empty. now to the next question. cooking is us

liz crenshaw joins with us those friday answers. good friday to you. great to see you.e've got a question from jessica in college park, maryland shelf wants to know if it is okay to put dish washing liquid in the dishwasher. she said it would be cheaper. >> we did contact the association of home appliance manufacturers, and the american cleaning institute. both say you cannot use dish washing liquid in place of diswasher detergent. they require special conditions under which they have to work. plus, too many suds will smother per water action in your dishwasher. not to mention you'll have a risk of overflow of suds which will damage both the machine and the floor around it. it would be kind of a lucille ball program. you would be like lucy, ricky, ethel. >> we had on of those, too. our nextuestion come from timmy in d.c. she feels like she gets called r jury duty more often than most folks. e wants to know how people can be osen for jury duty? >> we checked with several county and state courts for this answer. the courts all said that the law varies state to statend eve

find out by takg liz crenshaw's energy quiz. >>> and lindsay czarniak takes former wizards' star, ron butler, to one of her favorite lunch spots. her mom'souse. any vacation we want? with our chase ultimateewards we can go anywhere. how about snorling? how about camping? anywhere. welcome to ultimate rewards. maybe skiing? the rewards ogram that lets you go anywhere... let's go there. anytime. no black outs. no restrictions on airfare and hotels. ultimate rewards is available on chaseredit, debit and business cards. chase what matters. >>> driveners alexandria won't need to dig for change to fund the parking meter. are coming to old town and they'll take credit cards. drirs will also pay more for parking. the city council's approved the 75 cent rate increase. it means drivers will pay $1.75 per hour to park >>> well, we know saving energy is good for the environment, but it's of course also good for your wallet. and you may not realize that some things aound your home are eating up more energy and money than you realize. liz crenshaw has a quiz from savingadvice.com that may help cut

nbc's liz crenshaw shows us how it works and what to look for on your bill. >> $19.95 you tend not to notice it. >> reporter: but it adds up click. he linked the mystery charges to a popular website where he said pop-up ads surface. >> you're trying to click off the darn thing and by clicking off, you're agreeing to something. >> reporter: he did not know he joined some type of subscription or membership. the charges are known as bill cramming. small unauthorized charges that appear on his statement once a month. it's more common than consumers think. >> talk to you later. >> reporter: bruce operates his own business out of his home, he noticed an unexplained $35.12 charge on his phone bill. >> i opened it up, i start making phone calls, i said, we're not paying this. they claim i signed up for some type of web service. >> reporter: when you reached this company, it said somebody in your company signed up for this? >> yes. >> reporter: could somebody in your company have signed up for this? >> not in my company. it's me. that's it. >> reporter: running a one-man show, how did this una

liz crenshaw with more on this. >> most people have no idea their cell phone has a special number. i'm no talking about your phone number. this is a number that measures how much radiation your phone emits. san francisco wants consumers to kno that number before they buy the phone. which raises the questions, what's the number mean? and do i need to worry about it? >> i ki of get some anxiety when my cell phone i taken away from me. >> reporter: we're a cell phone addicted society. >> i text a lot at work. i wish i could stop. it's hard. >> reporter: we spend hours on our phones, talking, texting, e-mailing, tweeting. while most experts agree there is no conclusivevidence that cell phones are dangerous to our health, cell phones do emit radiation. >> the cell phone radiates energy in the form of electromagnetic waves. >> reporter: peter paris is an electroengineering professor at george mason university. he says cell phones emit the same nd of radiation that your microwave oven uses to cook food. but what comes out of your cell phone is much less powerful than a microwave. >> a cel

we have almost a rapid response scenario around crenshaw high school. we work on crenshaw high school with the university of southern california's roster of education, with the bradley foundation. we have a governorance structure around the school. within the model we focus not just on education, but employment, safety, housing. the safety element is incredibly important. with coordinate with lapd, the sheriff's deeptpartment, the ci attorney, so anything that happens around the school, there's an immediate response. it was off the campus. it was immediately handled by the sheriff's department. >> help me push forward on this, blair? i was exposed to ha lot of gang activity as well. are things looking better going forward, you think? >> if we don't pay attention to it, in the areas where we're not paying attention it's worse. the gangs are recruiting young kids in the 6th and 7th and 8th grade. >> wow. >> that is horrific. that is something our nation should be shaken awake by. it's unacceptable. it's bad enough to recruit high school kids. when it gets

. >>> i'm liz crenshaw. hate dropped cell phone calls? find out which wireless carrier scored best ad which scored worst in our region. >>> which cell phone carrier has the best service in our area? >> is a 3,000 mile oil change rule really a myth? liz crenshaw is here with details on these stories. >> we begin with used car sales, the recession has csed used car prices to sore. with new car sales down, there are fewe late model trade-ins and that affects supply and demand. dealers are keeping older vehicles on their lots, rather than sending them to auction. when drivers keep cars longer rather than trading them in, dealers must pay top dollar for used car inventory. speaking of keeping your used car running smthly, how far should you drive before changing the oil in your car? break that habit of every 3,000 miles. it's a myth and ss because of technological advances, an average car's interest val is aroundp 7,800 miles now. the porsche can go 20,000 miles before an oil change. service centers and deers use the 3,000 mile change as a mar

. >>> i'm liz crenshaw. bargain buys. are they safe? find out why safety experts wa against counterfeit electrical items. coming up. equals chi's $20 dinner for two. like our famous texas cheese fries. then choose two freshly prepared entrees from 14 chili's vorites, like our chicken crispers with new sweet & smoky sauce, our new slow-smoked honey chipotle baby back ribs, or grilled all-wte meat chicken fajitas served ovea bed of sizzling peppers and onions. grab a friend and get one appetizer plus two entrees with chili's $20 dinne. >>> this was 65. not the temperature but theroll that we're on. >> that's right. we're still working a record here. >> we're trying really hard to break this record. the record is 67 days at 90 degrees or better. tomorrow wille 66. >> we need one more day. >> all we need is -- i don't think we're going to get there. let show you what's haening outside. first offering with do have some showers out there, as a matter of fact. maybe even a little rumble of thunder. parts of alexandria. temperature in the lower

crenshaw to go over the documents hopefully in front of you off -- in front of you, and then we have a few more speakers behind him. >> i just wanted to give you a brief history of how we got to this point. a originally, this came from meetings from director bob davis and subsequent meetings with the commissioner joseph and an interim director kane, but, basically, i knew there was a need for us to address several issues in regard to violence at several different venues throughout the city, since the beginning of this year, several homicides, shootings. i thought it best that we convene another summit. i attended one personally in 2003, i believe, and i found to be pretty impactful, editor hopefully steered us in the right direction. i believe we got away from that, so after speaking with commissioner joseph, some discussions with her, she gave me some tips on some real keen industry people. she introduced me to some people, wrote and these are people who have been in the industry for several years and are very knowledgeable. and we had an expert bring this proposal to you as you see

. >> i'm liz crenshaw. continuing our education nation coverage, school bus safety. what sdents, parents and drivers need to know is coming up. male announcer ] looking for a complete picture of your money? meet pnc virtual wallet. it comes with a money bar that shows what's scheduled to go out, what you've put aside... and how much you really have available, right now to spend on the things you want. and you can free up money with a simple slide. it's built to help make your financial life a whole lot easier. experience everything virtual wallet has to offer at pncvirtualwallet.com. pnc. for the achiever in us a. >> announcer: you're watching news 4 at 5:00. >> the education nation summit takes place in new york city this week. it's education nation week here on nbc. >> school bus safety, how to gain homework success and what to ask during parent teacher conferences. liz crenshaw is here totell us what you need to know. >> reporter: we begin with school bus safety. about 23 million students nationwide rely on school buses and every year children are killed or severe

although we have very little notice at that time, about 70 promoters attended and listened to commander crenshaw, vaj again ellie and myself to discuss night life safety. so a following meeting was planned at that time and we put it on the books and it's planned for thursday of this week september 16 and we're hopeful to get more promoters to that meeting than we did with the first because we obviously had a good list from the last one to discuss further safety related issues, legislation procedures, and other relevant topics that are going to move us closer to as much nighttime safety, health and vitality we can get so we're really looking forward to that and i wanted to let you know that was happening. the staff and office update, this meeting includes the fact that staff motor with san francisco fire marshal barbara shultice last friday and she actually reached out after the mason street incident that was very unfortunate and we got together to talk about a couple things including new changes in the state fire code and to begin discussions of how to identify and educate people who run and own

. >>> i'm liz crenshaw. why you may not be able tell the difference between enhanced salmon and the real thing. >>> and tired of sitting in traffic and waiting for metro? aew way to get arou >>> heads up if you're heading to tyson's corner. crews closed another ramp at leesburg road and dulles pike. the new exit from route 123 will divert traffic from frontage road south of international drive. from there y can access leesburg pike. the new pattern will stay in effect until the end of the year. >>> on two wheel getting around town got a bit easier. starting today you can rent bicycle in the district at arlington. >> it is part of the capital bike share program. traceeilkins has more on how this woks. >> reporter: beginning today, a new form transportation norfolk in the washington area who are looking for a quick trip and a little exercise. capital bike share is an expansion o d.c.'s smart bike program with a few differences, including folks to ride over into arlington if they ike. the capital bike share is

liz crenshaw joins us now with more on her exclusive story. most people have no idea that their cell phone has a special number. no, i'm not talking about your phone number. this is a number that measures how much radiation your phone emits. san francisco wants consumers to know that number before they buy a phone, which raises the uestion, what's the number mean, and do i need to worry about it? >> i tend to get some anxiety when my cell phone is taken away from me. >> we're a cell phone addicted society. >> i do text a lot at work, i wish i could stop, it's hard. >> we spend hours on our phone, texting, e-mailing, teting. most experts agree, there is no conclusive evidence that cell phones are dangerous to our health. cell phones do emit radiation. >> the cell phone radiates energy in the form of an electromagnetic wes. >> reporter: cell phones emit the same kind of radiation that your microwave oven uses to cook food. what comes out of your cell phone is much less powerful than a microwave. >> a cell phone transmits on the order of -- up to

. >> list crenshaw for nbc news. >> is such as cleaning products.he national product association started giving it seal to personal-care products such as cosmetics, shampoo, and soap, a couple of years ago. >> more than 1300 museums will offer free admission on saturday, september 25, to celebrate the sixth annual smithsonian magazine museum day. you'll have to download and print the official ticket from our website to get in for free. you can find a complete list of all the museum's opening their doors for free. just go to wbaltv.com. we continue to follow our big story of the day, an unbelievable scene at johns hopkins hospital. a distraught man should the doctor and then barricaded himself inside his mother's hospital room, leading to a murder-suicides. >> this ravens van was the big winner in a national fantasy football league talent, and she football league talent, and she is hopin my commute home to the eastern shore every night only takes an hour but that's more time than congress spends reading massive spending bills, it's crazy. that's why

liz crenshaw is here with what it all means for local travelers. this is ambiguobik news for fly >> the airlines kept it quiet. southwest will acquire air-tra for $1.4 billion. the sale will bring southwest to reagan national airport where air-tran serves currently. it will offer 11 daily flights from reagan national. the sale will increase southwest's presence at dulles and the deal will put southwest into atlanta, the busiest hub in the nation. bwi is the closest hub to us that southwest serves. though they are known for affordable rates industry experts say you may not get the deals y expect in the future. air-tran out of the discount carrier mix does mean there is less competition. soit's a good news/bad news thing. >> so we can plan on playing more to fly southwest? >> jetblue is another disunt carrier. it flies from dulles and reagan, but by combininging the two airlines there could be a question of whetr the fares go up. >> wh about baggage fees, liz? we know air-tran charges. southwest gives us a break. >> southwest says it will eliminate a

liz crenshaw will tell us how this happen and h we can stop it. >> it is called bill cramming. recently we've received an influx of e-mail complaints from viewer wanting to know why they're seeing these false charges. people are being charged and get nothing in return. and it is happening every day. >> 1995. you tend not to notice it. >> reporter: it adds up quick. he said he discovered at left a six months worth of 19.95 on his bank statement. he linked the mystery charges to a popular website where he said po-up ads surfaced. >> you're trying to click off the darn thing. by virtue of clicking off, you're agreeing to something. >> reporter: he did not know he joined some type of subscription or membership. the charges are known as bill cramming. small, uuthorized charges that appear on his statement once a month. and it's more common than consumers think. >> talk to you later. bye-bye. >> reporter: bruce operates his own business out of his home. he noticed an unexplained $35.12 on his phone bill. >> i opened it up. i start making the phone calls. i said we're not paying this.

liz crenshaw is here with some advice for us. >> jim it's days li today that make you wonder what isnsurance going to cover? so we talked to the insurance information and it did give us answers. >> if our home is damaged, will it be covered? >> this kind of thing, there is not a straight answer for this kind of question. at you need to understand is how insurance companies classify damage. if the water comes from the sky, rain leaking in your roof, essentially if it comes from the top down, it's cored. the damage from that kind of water is covered by your simple homeowners insurance. if the water, though, comes from the ground up, like a swollen creek rises or the rain pools and seeps in to your basement, thatis not, it is not covered. insurance companies typically consider this floodwater and flooding is neve covered under a normal homeowners policy. you actually have to buy federal flood insurance to have that kind of floodwater covered. >> so below or above, the distinction. >> from the top down, you're okay. bottom up, it's considered flood damage. >> interesting. next question,

liz crenshaw has more. >> "natural," "pure."es it is better. >> does the word "natural" attract you to a product for any reason? >> definitely. >> why? >> because it doesn't have additives. it is not something people are adding chemicals to. >> really? are you sure? just about anything. in cleaning products the word is not defined, not regulated. >> anyone can use the word in terms of marketing. granted, it is supposed to be truthful and not misleading. >> so the natural products association tried to clean up the natural aisle by writing its own definition. the nonprofit n.p.a. has set strict standards. if a prukt meets those standards, it gets a special seal consumers can clearly see. >> we want to make sure it has meaning, so we want to make sure it has a standard behind it to back that up. >> to earn the seal, 95% of the product must contain natural ingredients, excluding water. they cannot contain ingredients with a potential health risk. and it prohibits additional animal testing beyond regular ti requirements. finally, the

. >>> i'm liz crenshaw. busted by backpacks. overloaded backpacks are weighing kids down and causing pain. what parents and stunts need to know. >>> kids carry a heavy load these days and an overloaded backpacks are no exception. >> they are weighing kids down. doctors and parents are concerned about just how much kids are carrying. liz kren saw shaw joins us with more. >> reporter: children carry the weightf the world on their shoulders and much more. textbooks, notebook, lunches, musical instruments, they all weigh more than you think. and it's sendingyoung students to emergency rooms and doctors' offices across the country. >> it weighs down my back. like makes an arch. >> reporter: overloadd backpacks are weighing down some of today's youngest students. like most middle schooler, 11-year-old ross mortson carries a backpack to and from school every day. >> it's a relief to take it off. >> i'm thinking it couldn't be good for his back and his gomtd. >> reporter: while doctors say there's no evidence of heavy backpacks causing