darcy spencer joins us on the phone. you're heading up i-270. what are the conditions like there, darcy? >> reporter: wendy, pretty bad. we left the station and came up river road, basically stop and go traffic. we took river road to the beltway. [ no audio ] >> sounds like we've just lost darcy spencer there on i-270. reporting in the midst of a downpour. >> flooding. this is a picture of downtown frederick, maryland, where it is -- they have closed off some of the streets there, obviously, because of conditions are just that bad as doug was telling you earlier. and he will be back to update us in just a moment. >>> but let's head out to california and the duke and duchess of cambridge wrapping up their visit to canada and heading to hollywood. prince william has visited the u.s. but his wife has never been here. gena kim is in beverly hills. >> reporter: the royal newly wed's first official trip to the united states begins today and has host city los angeles in the throes of royal fever. >> i haven't really heard of royalty coming to america,

. >>> darcy spencer is in tyson's corner with more on this story. darcy? >> reporter: jim, for many teenagers, their driver's license is their most prized possession. officials are hoping the threat of them losing that license for a year will keep them from drinking and driving. if you're under 21 and you get caught drinking and driving in virginia, starting friday, you could lose your license for one year. >> fines too often are rendered meaningless by the parents writing a check. but there's no teenager on the planet who wants their mother driving them on a date and it's the driving sanction that's going to do it. >> getting caught drinking one beer, they could get convicted. drivers could be forced to pay a $500 fine and perform 50 hours of community service. and it's a misdemeanor on their record. >> i'm hoping that they'll see it being onerous, as i think they will perceive it, and hope they'll make the right decision which is to not drink and then get behind the wheel of a car. >> the zero tolerance stands on underage drinking ask driving. instru ins

darcy spencer joins us now with more on this. darcy? >> reporter: wendy, four years in jail doesn't sound like a stiff enough sentence, if you believe casey anthony is guilty of murder, but the judge gave her the harshest punishment available to him. he gave her one year, the max, on each of four charges, and ran them consecutively. angry protests outside the orlando courtroom, where casey anthony was sentenced today. she was acquitted of murder charges in the death of her 2-year-old daughter and could become a free woman for the first time in nearly three years next week. >> both sides ready to proceed? >> reporter: a judge sentenced the 25-year-old to four years in prison for lying to investigators. >> i will sentence you to one year in the orange county jail, imposing a $1,000 fine, all four counts to run consecutive to each other. >> reporter: but anthony will get credit for time served, and for good behavior. that means she'll be out of jail on wednesday. jennifer ford, the first juror from the trial to speak publicly about the del

darcy spencer there with the latest. what is the situation there now, darcy?reporter: wendy, we were able to see black smoke billowing into the sky several blocks from the scene as we were on our way here. we basically followed the smoke to the 900 block of decatur street here in northwest washington. this is a block of row houses. the main fire is happening in the middle of this block. and from what i can tell from my personal view here on the scene is that it is involving at least three units. and there is a lot of heavy smoke in this area. once in a while it comes back and blows towards us. very difficult to breathe. earlier the smoke was black. now it's more of a gray smoke. but it's blowing throughout the block here there is a lot of people gathered around to see what happened. again, at least three houses from what i could tell were involved with a lot of heavy smoke. and you can see the firefighters going up on ladders, breaking windows in several units, making sure that the smoke and fire is able to get out of the building, they're able to put it out,

darcy spencer is on the scene with more on this. >> reporter: a u.s. park police helicopter crew that was returning from a mission apparently was the first to spot the smoke and flames. they called it into d.c. fire and shot this spectacular video. this video taken by u.s. park police helicopter camera shows thick, black smoke and flames engulfing four row houses in the 900 block of decatur street northwest. the flight crew apparently the first to spot the fire that also left more than a dozen people displaced on this holiday weekend. >> when we arrived on the scene, we had pretty heavy fire conditions. it was well advanced and already from the basement up through the roof essentially already spreading through the neighboring houses when we got here. >> reporter: the flames broke out around 4:45 in the afternoon. meadow meadows, who is hard of hearing, was inside his home in an upstairs computer room. someone banging loudly and persistently on his door saved his life. >> i heard banging. most people know i don't hear well. whoever did that, i came out

darcy spencer has the story. >> reporter: this cell phone video shows a young black bear devouring the seeds in a bird feeder in the backyard of a bethesda home. >> we have five, six foxes that come up, about a pack of raccoons about six or seven of them. you name it, we have it. but not bears, that's a new one. >> reporter: dave calvin took the video. he said the bear drank water from the bird bath before knocking it over. >> i was kind of shocked and couldn't even think to get a shot of it and it ran off when it saw me and i thought that was the end of it, and then about ten minutes later it came back. >> reporter: it was about 4:00 in the afternoon, dave was standing here in the sunroom when he turned, looked behind him he a black bear just a few feet away from the other side of the glass. that's what he grabbed his cell phone. took photos of the bear and called the department of natural resources but he wasn't happy with their response. >> they basically told me, we live with bears. >> reporter: there have been other bear sightings in the region including leesburg where residents h

news 4's darcy spencer talked with one man who saw the bear outside his home window. >> reporter: this cell phone video shows a young black bear devouring the seeds in a bird feeder in the backyard of a bethesda home. >> we have five or six foxes that come up, a pack of raccoons, about six or seven of them, you name it, we have it. but not bears. that's a new one. >> reporter: dave colvin took the video. he said the bear chewed holes in the feeder and drank water from the bird bath before knocking it over. >> i was kind of shocked and couldn't even think to get a shot of it, and it ran off when it saw me. and i thought that was the end of it. and then about ten minutes later it came back. >> reporter: it was about 4:00 in the afternoon. dave was standing here in the sun room. when he turned and looked behind him, he saw a black bear just a few feet away on the other side of the glass. that's when he grabbed his cell phone. colvin also took photos of the bear and called the department of natural resources, but he wasn't happy with their response. >> they basically told me we lived with

darcy spencer is there now. dars? >> reporter: several firefighters told me you could see the thick black smoke from the fire from as far away as the verizon center downtown. they got the call here just before 5:00 this afternoon in the 900 block of decatur street in northwest washington. apparently the fire started toward the rear of one of the row houses in this block in the middle of this block, and then spread to additional units. let's go ahead and show some of the video that was shot by a d.c. firefighter here on the scene this afternoon. again, this started at one row house and spread. we believe to at least two additional row houses. as i mentioned, there was heavy smoke in this area. that also extended into several of the houses here in the middle of this block. it appeared that the bulk of the fire was toward the rear of this building. i was able to speak to one woman who lives here in the block. she said it seems like the fire just came out of nowhere. >> i was out back on my deck with my little cousin. and

in northwest washington, darcy spencer. >>> d.c.mployment services is reviewing its workplace policies after sexual assault accusations from two teenaged girls. the teams are in the summer youth employment program. investigators say they charged an employee after the first incident this past wednesday. police say the second case happened yesterday. a 19-year-old from anacostia. >> anthony: said she was groped by a file clerk with the department of employment services. d.c. officials call the incidents isolated, but still want to reemphasize safety with employees and teen workers in the program. >> we want to make sure that the young participants are very aware of hair surroundings, that the host supervisors are always looking out for them, and just think we need to heighten the sense of awareness about who they're interacting with and making sure that we are providing a safe environment. >> the employee who was charged is currently on paid administrative leave. charges are pending against the second worker accused in the latest case

after that trip, "atlantis" will join the shuttle s darcy spence and "e -dad, why are you getting that? -that's my cereal. is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. is it a robot? no. is it a jet plane? nope. is it a dinosaur?] [ male announcer ] inside every box of heart healthy cheerios are those great tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that c help lower cholesterol. stickers? uh-uh. a superhero? ♪ kinda. [ male announcer ] and we think that's the best prize of all. ♪ >>> leaving out with some of the best fireworks from all over the country. happy fourth. tonight, jay

sheena darcy works for the international eucharistic congress. >> i've seen young people come bak tonow god's love i'veeen young people get more involved in the church. >> they're also searching for the basic things, belonging and love and, you know, acceptance and tolerance and all those elements go together in a spirituality. >> yes, there's been an ak a knowledgement that what happened was dreadful. it was absolutely dreadful. however we do also -- we do need to move on. >> whatever happens, the cath liblg church in ireld has already chang irrevocab. >> i do believe catholicism will continue, survive in ireland. i do believe the clerical church will not. that doesn't mean there won't be priests, of course there will be, but i don't think as a force it will ever again, in my lifetime certainly, will never have the power it had when i was a child. and i think that's a good thing because it abused its power massively and it became, i mean, a dictatorship in a democracy which was answerable to nobody. >> i still have the view that, that what's happening is actually something quite health

. >> darcy pfeiffer and her husband and baby boy live here. he works, but can't afford the rent.renda rutecki's husband died a year ago. she had no income, couldn't get a job, came here while she attended school to become a certified nursing assistant. >> you can't get a job if you don't have a phone. you can't get a job if you don't have a car. you can't get a job if you don't even have an address. so this is like our holding spot. we're all good families. we're all good people, but you've got to have a start, and that's what they give us. >> one of the first things the millers did was create a park next door to god's love just for the homeless. having a homeless shelter and a park near the center of town was not exactly pleasing to local businessmen. but toby dewolf, owner of bert and ernies, says any opposition has faded away. >> i've been here 25 years, and i have never seen a better run shelter. i don't think there's a problem. i don't think that anybody has seen an issue with any kind of violence or crime or anything by any means with having a shelter down here. >> the mill

more of previous reports are from inside india or of course online view any time you want to darcy dot com including how to dial up the catch of the day india trawl agrees five things transform their livelihoods with a different kind of network and to illustrate what karting section it all falls story for inspiration have a look at all dot com. now at the mercury knowledge ng forty degrees in moscow but memories of last summer's snow covered city leaving a chill in the air. reports now on how the wildfires have back spreading fear as well as flames. and whiff of smoke and moscow's in panic again the toxic cocktail of beads smoke wood smoke and exhaust fumes that filled the capitol last august is still the lead in people's memory intense speed book fires and the record heat waves were blamed for the dense smoke that sent pollution levels soaring ten fold the authorities swore they would be prepared this year to find a place like this you don't have to go far from the capital this mode is familiar to everyone who was in moscow last summer back then doctors said breathing in the smoke tha

this is darcy and on the way some ladies you wouldn't want to mess with. go as it turns out arm wrestling is not just for the guys here in russia's north caucasus lore and more women are getting in to be active and we managed to wrestle the secrets of some of the sports super women. a police officer has been killed and two others wounded in a gunfight with militants in russia's republic of chechnya the exchange of fire happened when the group broke away after being tracked by security forces official say at least twelve armed militants xscape and docile to have fled into nearby mountainous forest areas been sealed off with additional troops seeking to close in on the assailants the number of terror attacks in russia's caucasus region has gone up by a third in the last few months meanwhile special operations by government forces have killed over two hundred militants this year. and right now let's check some other world news in brief the syrian president has signed any official rate attempts to abuse and he regime demonstrators tried to twenty four people a

you know where darcy planned ahead for you in their programming clean using revealing the words. the unique russian observatory sent into orbit to study galactic on jets. and find out why some are russian girls are showing that support for who's in ahead of next year's presidential elections by taking your clothes off. now the lifting of the crees that sank in russia's volga river last sunday killing around one hundred thirty people may take up to several days the vessel first one has to be moved off its side in what is one of the operations most difficult stages the recovery could play a crucial role in finding all says as to why the ship went down tom barton is following developments. we're up here on the volga bank about three kilometers from where the recovery attempts are taking place in the distance behind me police and authorities have been trying to stop journalists getting any closer to the recovery efforts and that's because late last night one of the cables holding the ball guerrier snapped and they were trying to at the time to right the ship before lifting it now the

and darcy mcnick old from, he was turn of the century flathead.ome of the writers who are also very capable of saying little with, saying a lot with few words, um. scott momaday has a brilliant novel, very difficult. took me three tries to get into it. so those are -- and they are, those are fairly well known writers. but most of us aren't, you know, the thing is that there are some -- it's a world of token writers that you hear about a few, and there's only room for a few. it's like when -- it's like applying for a job and saying, oh, we already hired an indian, you know? it's not like whether you're a writer or not. it's like, oh, we're not thinking of you as a professional, we're thinking of you as an ethnic whatever. and, um, it's the same way in the writing world. it's like, oh, we've already got our, you know, our token writers. and so the other many good writers go unseen, unheard. >> host: linda hogan, you've used both the terms "native" and "indian." what's the current thinking on the use of "indian" as a term to describe native americans

in northwest washington, darcy spencer. >>> two d.c. city workers are accused of sexually assaulting two teens. they charged an employee after the first incident this past wednesday and then just yesterday a 19-year-old said she was groped by a file clerk with the department of employment services. d.c. officials call the incidents isolated but still want to reemphasize safety with workers and teen workers in the program. >> we just want to make sure that the participants are very aware of their surroundings, that the host supervisors are always looking out for them. and i just think we need to heighten the sense of awareness about who they're interacting with and making sure that we're providing a safe environment. >> the employee charged is currently on paid administrative leave. charges are pending against the second worker. >>> former imf head dominique strauss-kahn is a free man for now at least for a little while. the new york district attorney agreed to release strauss-kahn from house arrest after new questions arose about the cr

good morning to you, darcy. what is your question? >> good morning.a university. when he was a freshman i got a parent plus loan and my payments are $180 a month but i pay $300 a month. and what i want to know is, all of the extra is going to interest only, so my mom says it's not worth it for he me to extra. i want to know what you guys think. >> is she doing the right thing by paying extra? >> i got a few things for mama. first, tell your mom, a parent plus loan is about 7.9%. a little pricey. it's pricier than student loans. it is in your best interest to put more money towards it. even though a big chunk of it does towards interest. i did the math for you. $12,000 loan at $180, putting $180 a month towards it. it would take ten years to pay off. you're putting $300 a month towards it, that will save you $4,000 in interest and you have the loan paid off in a little more than three years. well, well worth it. >> all right. doing great then. all right. david, carmen, unfortunately that's all the time we have for you this morning. thank you. to be con