nathan baca, abc7 news. michelle: "7 on your side" will continue to push answers on this.lay a role as well. if you see school let us know about it. alison: now the opioid crisis. nancy: montana is the 12th state to sue drug company for the role in the crisis. but it's not just state us going after big pharma. so are hospitals in alabama and mississippi. >> they are struggling because of the huge burden dumped on them. nancy: it targets a dozen drug manufacturers to accuse them of deceptive marketing and selling highly addictive dangerous opioids. the companies deny they have done anything wrong and work ing to help those districted. >> a push for the emergency funds to fight the opioid epidemic. woodbridge supervisor is asking for $200,000 in funding. he says that the money is desperately needed to boost the treatment for those michelle: a washington state couple has a memorable story to tell about the engagement. the couple on the way home after the happy moment. when they saw a building on fire. the groom-to-be a volunteer firefighter jumped into action. >> we both look

kimberly: but first, nathan baca investigation. nathan? nathan: kim, you have three different investigations in the ballou high school and the district wide policies. the chancellor and the mayor office lining up the witnesses. some are the former ballou teachers that spoke to the i-team about the allegation of the grade inflation. ballou has one of the highest turnovers. we spoke to a teacher. >> i had kids in jand i didn't see them until march. there was a lady that missed almost a first quarter. >> a visual arts teacher until he was terminated and the question if there were no art teachers left who was giving the students passing grades? >> if it was so urgent something april 13,

we have what that means with nathan baca. >> i'll going to try to explain the net neutrality in a nutshell. say you like to watch the youtube videos on your phone. verizon -- excuse me, google owns youtube. this i so they are competitors so today's action is verizon could slow down if they wanted to google video in favor of their own video service. >> wi knead to ache a break recess. >> but before the vote unusual interruption. hearing room cleared. because of an anonymous threat. police found nothing. >> outside, dozens of protesters made noise to get attention of the commissioners. >> this is public agency serving private interests rather than the public. >> we will be suing the f.c.c. and edging the member of the congress to rally the public. >> after the vote we talk to the f.c.c. chairman. what will the action do >> they have told us that the rules are standing in the way of them building out the network. >> don't expect the internet to change immediately. if you heard about the threatened lawsuits. there may be an action from congress. alison: snow is on the ground and winter is in f

reporting live in northwest washington, nathan baca, abc7 news. larry: meanwhile maryland governor larry hogan plans to meet with the naacp next week to talk about the grade issue and the branch -- graduation rates in prince george's county. according to the investigation more than 5,000 students had the grade changed. alison: most parents continue to support adult children after they leave home and a it could cost them big retirement. a new study that reveals 80% of parents paid for their child's living expenses. more than half cover grocery bills. 28% paid for at least some college tuition. or loans. experts say parents would have nearly a quarter million dollars more. >> a loveable dog. larry: meet the hero dog saving lives in fairfax county. >> seniors who use the senator in northeast washington say it is a nice place but it's not big enough. they gave the mayor an earful today. i'm sam ford. that is next on abc7 news. alison: ahead, new at 6:00, look at this. risking his life to save a sea turtle. the man who dove off a pier to rescue the end

at the white hall nathan baca, abc7 news. michelle: breaking news from rockville. skytrak7 over washington street in rockville where several people are evaluated for possible exposure to carbon monoxide. brad bell just arrived on the scene. what can you tell us? >> south washington street a lock or two away from the courthouse in the center of rockville. a fairly substantial response. they were called here over here. the white frame house that used to be a dentist office. dentist retired and now a number of people live in the home. what happened is their carbon monoxide detectors went off. the carbon monoxide detectors alerted them to a possible problem in the house. they got out. the fire department was called. sure enough they got here. they did measurements and they found the c.o. level was elevated. you might have noticed the trucks in the driveway. they are attributing the problem here to get some work today. nine people in all evaluated. they are fine. they refused the transport. but the bottom line here this is a good news story. last week i told you about a

this is the "7 on your side" watchdog nathan baca. nathan: they have one of the highest rate of teacher turnover. she was an english teacher and she spoke to us about the experiences at ballou. >> i started in january and i didn't see the kids. i did not do for months. i remember there was one young lady that missed a quarter. only came the first and the last of the quarter. able to graduate. >> he was a visual arts teacher until terminated last spring. if there were no art teachers left who gave students passing grades. >> if it was urgent, april 13. the teachers have to get out of here. what happened to the students grades. >> the students who passed the courses and disgraduate to my understanding there is no substitute in my room. >> we asked who is to blame? >> everybody has a higher up nowhere. >> if you are the prince ball, you -- if you're the principal, you are the principal. >> there are grade fixing allegations at the d.c. schools. if you have seen something that you think is wrong or suspicious at the school, do let us know.

for two weeks the government watchdog investigator nathan baca reported on ballou high school and joins us live at the washington teachers union headquarters with the internal school document obtained by the i-team. nathan? nathan: we obtained the internal school documents. written by ballou high school guidance counselor written to assistant princ they list students up to 105 unexcused absences. list them as on track to graduate. the internal ballou report color codes students by name. green is on a track to graduate. they are not revealing the names but we identified several students with more than 50 unexcused absences still marked on track. >> we had teachers indicate they are fearful to report the policy or the practices in the schools because the impact performance school will take a dive. >> we showed washington teacher union president elizabeth davis the internal documents we gathered. >> my thoughts on what happened to the students who give false sense of success who graduate assume they prepared to enter into a college or campus and they can't cut the d.c. schools chancellor a

nathan baca is live outside the d.c. government headquarters. >> they had suggestions and i finished to talking to the public school chancellor who went through questions from the d.c. council and this meeting has been going on for seven >> the students came after the abc7 reported on internal documents revealing over students graduated with 100 unexcused absences. >> the principal believed in us when everybody else didn't. >> students and a teacher called for the return of the former principal, loosening attendance policies. >> the 80/20 states if a student misses one class period it will mark them absent for the day. it's absurd. >> we know who is to blame. white america built racist education system with the intent to ensure failure of the african-american communities. >> they confirmed that hardy hall i hall is no longer so if they arrive late they are no longer counted absent. >> the chancellor said he was never a fan of that. it's not good for education so he put an end to that. we learned from the superintendent o

the grade fixing and attendance problems. "7 on your side" i-team government watchdog reporter nathan baca has an update on his investigation faking the grade. you caught up with mayor bowser moments ago. what is she saying about this? nathan: we talked to mayor bowser in northwest washington and she stands by the growing investigation now including an outside auditing firm looking into not only ballou high school but also the dcps attendance policy. the principal is out. it is considered temporary pending investigation. we are told that they are learning things by the hour about ballou high. they expect to present findings december 18. mayor bowser expressed support for the new principal. mayor bowser: obviously, the interim principal, we want him to have every success. we want families to be supportive. we want the children to be mindful of all he says and does because he has their best interest at heart. we are rooting for them to finish the year strong. nathan: now we organizations, the deputy mayor, deputy chancellor and now awe auditing firm. reporting live in northwest, nathan baca,

abc 7's nathan baca-- with the message the catholic leader... had for the world.heart-warming two men in hawaii who've been best friends for decades recently found out they're actually biological brothers. alan robinson and walter macfarlane have been best friends for 60 years. walter never knew his father, and alan was adopted. walter searched for answers for years through the internet and social media with no luck. that's until ancestry-dot-com. turns out - the men shared the same birth mother. the two revealed the discovery to friends and family at party on saturday. walter and alan say they plan to travel and enjoy retirement together. this has to rank up there among cutest christmas videos we've seen. in china -- penguins sported santa costumes at a polar theme park. the penguins wandered around "mini snow town". it's 5: and time for a check on weather. - dry & cold for post-christmas shopping & travel today - cold sticking around for a while - still monitoring snow chances heading into the last weekend of 2017 today: partly to mostly cloudy. highs: 36-41 win

nathan baca was there and has more. quite a day. nathan: it was. suspenseful day. had bomb-sniffing dog to look at the people's belongings in the room. nothing was found but would say nothing more about the anonymous threat. it's very cold morning. dozens of plo testers gather -- protesters gathered outside the lifting of the net neutrality regulations. protesters say service providers don't slow down websites of the competitors. the vote was interrupted after unanimous security threat but in the end it was 3-2 with the republican commissioner voting for what they called restoring internet freedom rule. what will this do for options? >> it will release a lot of the infrastructure. >> you came out of the meeting. what is your reaction? >> this is a crime against the public. the public has come out in the millions to say they want net neutrality. nathan: do not expect internet services to change immediately because we are talking about threatened lawsuits and congress may also get involved. reporting live in southwest washington, nathan baca, abc7 news. nancy: thank

here to sort it out is "7 on your side" nathan baca.han: montgomery county homeowners willing to do math this week could be able to safe hundreds or thousands on the property taxes next year. by 7-1 vote, montgomery county council voted to allow people to prepare next year's property taxes. it's in response to the t plan. the montgomery county new law will save hundreds of dollars. >> for those of us who spent time thinking about it to take the extra 20 minutes to do back of the envelope math and make sure we have the ability to prepay taxes early will help the bottom line. >> retirees and those who own the house out right or those with the high value homes will benefit the most. >> they need to get it in before january 1. we are encouraging pime to mail it -- people to mail it in. >> those who listen to the tax experts are confused how much the new law would help. >> almost all the group can benefit from this if we can figure out the right numbers. >> councilmember craig was the lone opponent of the property tax prepay option saying it

what he is typing nathan: i'm nathan baca in rockville. i will show montgomery county homeowners what they need to do to stay hundreds or thousands -- save hundreds or thousands on the property taxes. nancy: coming up tonight at 5:00 -- a young shoplifter caught stealing a teddy bear in the stocking but those items weren't for him. how two officers showed the teen unexpected kin announcer: you're watching "abc7 news at 4:00". on your side. michelle: president trump signed the tax reform bill on friday but today reports of people lining up at the fairfax government center to prepay next year's property taxes. in montgomery county lawmakers cleared the way for residents to do the same. "7 on your side" nathan baca headaches a look at whether it makes sense for you. >> homeowners could save thousands on the property tax but you have to act quick. the deadline is this saturday. they voted 7-1 to allow prepayment of the property taxes because the new tax law that congress passed caps the deduction of people can take off property taxes. so the c

nathan baca is here and apple says it is a feature. nathan: they do. in october i reported on a study that says apple is not intentionally slowing down the phone. now another testing group uncovered new evidence that apple is admitting to slowing down older iphones. the testing group confirms in part what people suspected for years. the iphones get slower with age. >> what we found was that starting with software update, apple started to limit the use of the phone. >> most people use the phone battery on the screen but there is a life span. that is in m.h.a. >> when the battery is no power to operate at the peak performance it scales that back. >> apple says the iphone 6 and the 7 slowdown pretend the older iphone from suddenly turn it off. we caught up with the apple loyalists outside the georgetown store. >> i never had a problem in the past. i only kept it for two or three years. >> i had to replace it with a new iphone. it makes sense. yeah. interesting study. >> to find out your battery life span search for battery checkers on the app store. it is

nathan baca is live where the students have been testifying all day long. what have they been saying? >> this says six hours and it's round two where the parents, the teachers and the opportunities are coming here to make the voices heard. the counsel heard from two dozen high school students and they supported the former principal now transferred while they investigate the allegations. they called for flexibility to take the class attendance, the staggered start times and return of the principal. >> we have difficulties but with the teachers quitting it's difficult to believe in themselves and have students come to school. >> the schools confirm a policy change in a sense, what is going on. and has to do with the party hall that used to be at the ballou high school. before they would go to the tardy hall but now they come to class and may not be considered absent. >> if you have something you want i-team to look into, send us an e-mail or call the hot line. number on the screen. jonathan: coming up at 4:00, spacex making history. we will show you how. nanc

investigation in the ballou high school attendance problem. "7 on your side" government watchdog nathan baca breaking news in the i-team faking the grade investigation all week long. he is live in southeast washington this afternoon. a number of them say they were compelled to give students grades they didn't deserve. this is the investigation in the grade irregularities and the attends dance high school. th allegation they are pressured to improve the teacher evaluation scores. >> we talked several times since the story broke and we shared information with ballou with the previous administration before now with some of the same information you now have. however, nothing was done about it. coming up at 5:00, the i-team obtained new documents from ballou high school that show what one assistant principal knew about failing students. lisa: if you know about manipulating absentee information or grade information let us know. e-mail us at tips or call the hotline. jonathan: that story is blowing up. coming up next at 4:00" -- this went viral for the wrong reasons. the officer trying to find the