sam ford the numbers. what are you finding? sam: well, allison, you have heard the old phrase that the room for improvement is the biggest room in the house. certainly that is the case for d.c. public-school. i'm outside watkins elementary them which was renovated and rejoined the city's list of schools today, and officials used to that occasion to release some improved numbers on test scores. mayor bowser came to the newly renovated school this morning for two reasons, to cut a ribbon officially declaring it open, and to deliver some good news about d.c. standardized tests, called the protests. mayor bowser: you are seeing an increase of 2% in math and an increase of 4% in the english language arts, which is very good news for our schools. sam: those numbers were for d.c. ps and charter schools. this time charter schools english and math, but still up for the 10th straight year. d.c. public schools sort of this time, up 6.4% in english, 3.5% in math, up for all races, all grades. here at watkins, the chancellor himself gave th

reporting live from northeast washington, i'm sam ford. abc7 news. nancy: thank you. martin shkreli has been convicted on federal fraud charges. prosecutors said the 34-year-old ran two hedge funds and a drug company like a ponzi scheme. in a separate case he is notorious for price gouging scand where will he raised the cost of a hiv and cancer drug by 5,000%. jonathan: attorney general jeff sessions today speaking out about the leaks from the white house and other departments that has been plaguing the government ever since president trump took office. penalling the department of justice is ramping up the efforts to find leakers and not afraid to send jail. >> the department tripled the active leak investigation compared to the number pending at the end of the last administration. >> this has been on an ongoing investigation so far. four people have been criminally charged. >> changes coming to d.c.a. the national airport in the middle of a massive renovation right now. the old airport authority headquarters are coming down and in the place is a new terminal for the

reporting live from northeast washington i'm sam ford, abc7 news. jonathan: scary moment. a car slammed through the door. one person was hurt. displays were overturned. shattered glass seen everywhere. but just one injury. nancy: the search is on for the driver who slammed right into an apartment building in southeast early this morning. the s.u.v. hit another vehicle before plowing into the side of a d street apartment building. police tell us a man and a woman who was pregnant both inside at the time. the woman taken to the hospital as a precaution. 20 people were evacuated. jonathan: we are getting new details about a high-speed chase involving a motorcycle in rush hour on i-66 in fairfax county. they arrested 25-year-old ruden puckett of tennessee after he sped off and at times was going over 100 miles per hour. that's when the police tried to pull him over. he lost control. he crashed on a ramp that ran into the now for a third straight day the storms are bubbling up. we are stuck in a pattern. doug hill has more. doug: we had a couple pop-up. one turned severe. this

they have reason to be optimistic. >> i'm sam ford. >> we need citizens to be involved. >> save lives. >> some of the neighbors are still on the rooftop. >> flooding will be very slow to recede. ♪ >> dad, i love you. jonathan: right now at 6:00, unprecedented disaster. america's fourth largest city. filled with the scenes. michelle: within the hour we have learned of one more death in southeast texas. we have team coverage. stephen tschida tracking the local rescue response. chief meteorologist doug hill tracks the storm. >> let's start off with the lana zak live with the latest. lana? lana: >> good evening. the need is profound. the air and the water

sam ford reports those who live and work in the area are concerned that the crime is making a come back. sam? sam: you may remember that captain lanier had road blocks and they made her stop doing that. some argue that the area changed. but residents behind this house, popular home improvement contractor was killed on the job by robbers. 34-year-old fuentes married, the father of two children is dead after neighbors say men approached him as he worked behind a house here. presumably to rob him. the gunman killed him, presumably shot him in the head. he had done repair in the neighborhood for years and for his customers and friends the news was horrible. >> i'm upset they haven't been caught and that it was brought daylight. it's 1:30 and 2:00 in the afternoon. he didn't have any money on him. that is the other thing. i don't know if they killed him because he didn't have money or they were out to kill somebody that sam: they have lookout in the case and we are more at "abc7 news at 5:00". we hear from others working in the home improvement industry that worry in certain neighborhoods. i

bureau chief sam ford who spoke with critics today. sam? sam: i'm on the campus of howard university the week before classes actually start. there were a lot of people here today with a lot of opinions. it's freshman orientation week at howard university. students are looking at what happened last week in charlottesville, where the university of virginia is located, saying they feel for the minority students there. there we feel safer and more comfortable here. to speak our views and not get attacked. >> minority students at u.v.a., they haven't gone back to school yet. that must feel awful knowing that is the school. that is where you are paying to attend and you don't feel safe there. >> one of the family members is going there. scared for her, because she is a freshman. >> at university of virginia? >> yeah. >> for these students, looking at the klan and the nazis marching around is frightening for some and hard for international students to apprehend. >> i have never seen this in my life. >> students spoke of a young woman killed by a m

reporting from greenbelt, maryland, i'm sam ford, abc7 news. larry: well, now to a developing story from the national institute of health. politico is reporting today is the agency drops all references to climate change from the website. now it uses the word "climate." and links to a fact sheet on climate change and human health were removed. they scrapped a study on the health impact of the mountain top mining in the u.s. alison: tomorrow, the secretary of the interior is expected to announce which if any national monuments will be down sized or eliminated. they have been reviewing the 27 sites in four months. larry: how high will it go? what the last minute powerball sales mean in the jackpot. alison: the dangerous dash and some local kids trying to cross a busy road to get to the pool. >> across the river. after years of problems and how prince george's county is working to make sure every child on the right school bus this year. >> check this out. pieces from the cathedral damaged in the earthquake. we have a your brain is an amazing thing.

sam ford is live with a closer look at the numbers. sam: i am outside watkins elementary school. a double celebration here for the renovated school and test scores from standardized tests taken last spring. with that countdown, the mayor and kids cut the ribbon officially reopening watkins elementary after it was closed for a year for $39 million. >> it is worth it. is a great school, and now we have a good building. used themayor also occasion to mention the test scores. >> watkins elementary school, a 12% increase in english slang the charts sam: those results for watkins were in the direction of decent bs in general. dcps in general. map was up 3.5%. asians up the most in english and math followed by whites, blacks up aslacksup a well. >> none of this has happened by accident. 10 years in robust commitment to change in our schools. past, itared to d.c.'s is way up. compared nationwide, only 31% of students are proficient in english, 27% in math. for the folks at watkins, it was a great day. good scores and a new school. >> i love it. everything i need. we are resourceful. scho

bureau chief sam ford with the developing story. with the amount of cameras out there, do we know whether the vandal was caught on video? sam: the parks perp spokes pan did not say whether they saw anyone on video but said video is among the tools they use to catch vandals here. the graffiti was discovered at 4:30 this morning. expletive perhaps directed at law enforcement. the park service says this was the third time since 2013 someone defaced the memorial. in this case, it was marked on a column at the back of the west side of the the people are. the park service spokesman says they are in the process of cleaning off the graffiti. >> a mild architectural paint stripper. leave it on for a while. rinse it off. take a look. reapply as many times as necessary. it's a federal offense. vandalism of a monumented of federal property -- monumented of federal property. michelle: all right. we want to turn to breaking news. president trump live from trump tower addressing questions about charlottesville. let's listen in. president trump: you

sam ford spoke to people in d.c. who are concerned about what happens next. sam? sam: i'm on howard university campus here in northwest washington where we talked to a number of people here. but we also talk to people in the surrounding neighborhood of northwest d.c. at wanda's on 7th, barbershop and hair salon -- >> i don't feel protected as a person of the country, woman, black woman or citizen of d.c. sam: many opinions on the events of the last several days in charlottesville and the way president trump responded to that. >> i think they are taking sides and cover up what he really is. sam: the shop owner says it's been a major conversation among clients. she finds it distressing. particularly the death of heather heyer. >> the woman lost her life. ran over with a car. terrible way to die. all the people injured. that was hurtful to see it today. sam: among a number we spoke to, disappointment about president trump. >> trump being president to me is one of the biggest jokes. not a good joke. like a terrible joke. almost a tragedy. zach for blacks a traditional

bureau chief sam ford is reporting that delegate eleanor holmes norton's annual job fair at the convention center features employers from d.c. and other big cities. sam: girlfriend and boyfriend for three years, the couple came to the job fair together. >> i'm always the pusher. i push him to come here. i want more. >> we both just want better for each other, long story short. sam: she is working at jimmy johns and he is unemployed. at the d.c. police booth a recruiter gave her a lot of attention. potential employers range from police and corrections agencies to starbucks. this job fair while certainly busy, it does not have the massive turnout that we have seen at some of the events in the past. this is our video from 2011. 4,000 cape then versus ode. >> this is unlike job fairs we have had in the past. where there was a lot of unemployment. there is a lot of unemployment in d.c. relative to the region. but not relative to what we had a few years ago. still, serious recruiters like the philadelphia police department. >> anyone with a career, interest in law enforcement we have an opening

i'm sam ford, abc7 news. kimberly: coming up, i'm consumer investigator kimberly suiters and "7 on your side" has a warning about a fake phone call that may play on your fears of flooding after hurricane harvey. nancy: then later with a deadline looming, "7 on your side" to find out why bis owners in the path of the purple line say they are shortchangedded in the deal. larry: but first, breakthrough that could change the game when it comes to curing can nancy: now even though the rain has stopped, the deluge of analysis tushing images from texas is still coming in to the newsroom tonight and it could be years before recovery is done. sonya is live from richmond, texas. can you tell us what you are seeing tonight? has it changed significantly in the past 24 hours? reporter: well, you know, we are seeing so many people, te 30,000 in shelters in the area that had to leave neighborhoods like this one. they are so grateful to be in the shelters because the homes often times look like this. i want to give you a loo

mayor giving them free metro.n bureau chief sam ford explains and the extra security in place for the reporter: the mayor rode the news conference, one stop away, to emphasize her programs ande safety as school begins next monday. >> having additional adults schoolon the route to and from the metro stations and in metro stations to remind of the decoruml that is required. history: she listed the of problems, where she's sending city workers to be the eyes and ears of the police during the first week of school. >> we just want everyone to feel who theble, know arecers are, who the staff reporter: among the places are the metro station. the idea is to make young people, if feel safer. incoming freshman kani finds that comforting. be here watching and report it. reporter: this junior wonders effective. >> certain kids not gonna listen. they're gonna do what they want gonna listen to adults nowadays. reporter: the mayor also 70,000 publict charter students are eligible to ride free. payments can be loaded into the d.c. one card that use for i.d.'s. it saves the family about $600 a year fo

bureau chief sam ford takes us inside. what did you find? m: if you look here at this house, right now, actually the people have come to repair. there are people on the roof of the house. we are outside the house on where the mother and three children live in a section 8 rental. they say it's literally making them sick because of the mold. workers were repairing a roof today. they say it has been leaking so badly for so long that the walls and much of the rest of the house are filled with mold. she lived here three years. ask d.c. housing to move her but to no end. her 11-year-old son suffers migraines. 14-year-old daughter asthma attacks. mold is on the walls, the furniture. she says she complains to d.c. housing that the land lord makes cosmetic repairs that don't fix the problem and housing so far has accepted. >> i keep this here to stop the wood. >> it's so bad i can't cut on >> when they filed the report on the 17th of august that the d.c. housing acted right away. cited the land lord and gave the land lord 30 days to make repairs. the

bureau chief sam ford is live at 8th and f street in northeast where it all happened. sam? sam: we have all seen fire scenes where people are in a hurry. equipment is every which way. trucks this way, hoses that way. as one firefighter put it to firefighting involve more than just running into a burning building. d.c. firefighter dane smothers age 28 is listed in critical condition after medstar washington center following surgery. he was hit by a fire truck. he arrived on engine three. the truck on the left. jumped often of it and he was hit by truck seven, crushed in the upper body. the engine three firehouse where he was based expressed much concern today. >> when we have an emergency incident, sometimes particularly the younger members get focused on the incident versus everything else going on around them. sam: major crashes are investigating what happened. it was busy overnight for the d.c. fire e.m.s. in addition to f street there were house fires on buchanan northeast and van buren street northwest. a car into a house on d street southeast. at smo fire house closest

and in the "spotlight on education" sam ford shows us why this year could be different for teachers. >> at many d.c. high schools, lunchtime is basketball time. >> it helps the summer loss. >> the mayor, the school officials and the school officials use today. >> we sat down with them over the course of many weeks to come to term on the agreement. >> a lot of complaints about the early school year. >> this gives me a chance to graduate where i'm supposed to graduate in january. i am ready to get on with my life. >> it's an alternative school. for many a second shot at diploma. >> it's hard. the idea is keep them busy. several come here after summer job program and after the school year ends will go back to the next one. >> get it over with. get it over with. >> so the extended school year, 102 other schools open next month. >> from abc7 news, this is a breaking news alert. michelle: there is reports that a man tried to sexually assault a woman at the shopping center. alison: and stephen tschida is joining with us the details he is learning. stephen: there is an active situation going

bureau chief sam ford is live at one of them where they are fighting back against crime. sam in sam: -- sam? sam: we are wondering how it will turn out after we just heard clap of thunder. it's dry right now. the d.c. recruits are cooking hamburgers. you can see on this open air grill. a lot of smoke. you can see number of the residents in the southwest washington who are coming out to get the food on this national night out evening. they pull out the stops and bringing in the helicopters. officers on horseback to the fascination of young people like this 7-year-old elijah. >> my dream is to be a jockey or police officer to ride horses. sam: d.c. had a rough weekend. ten shootings or stabbings in the city since saturday. three fatal. overall crime in d.c. is down year ago. the mayor and the chief say this is a way to encoo it heading in right direction. >> this is a great opportunity for law enforcement and the community to get together. >> what we'll do as a police department, i know the community will work with us hand in hand. we have a challenging weekend like in the p

sam ford takes us back to school with the mayor in the district. >> one, two, three dashes >> the mayor launched a searches 'sed marie reed likes in northwest. 13 others opened early. >> you should be skipping. celebrating. horns. >> the charter schools make up 33% of the public school students. >> we are so happy that everyone is back. the goals are the same. >> it's prek through 8th grade. the students like dean were not that happy to be back. >> you want to keep playing. >> this is eclipse day. a lot of the first day of school was the solar eclipse. >> at this school in southeast, a teacher commandeered 300 pairs of glasses. they were enjoying the view safely. abc7 news. alison: a fun activity on the first day of school. jonathan: sad. alison: very honest. >> the school year may have started in the district. the schools started back on august 9. fauquier county open august 16. jonathan: share your back to school pictures. upload them straight from the phone by going to burst.com/wjla. you can look for some of the pictures on the air at wjla.com. >> coming up next at "abc7 news at 4:0

memorial, i'm sam ford, abc7 news. alison: thank you. one more related note here. national park service still searching for the first of the people who wrote these messages on the lincoln, the world war ii and the d.c. world memorial in february. they were about j.f.k.'s assassination. they were found on the washington monument and the trail signs of virginia. right now there is no indication the cases are related to today's incident. larry: breaking news in the last hour, as president trump spoke about the backlash over the comment after the charlottesville attack. nancy chen at the "live desk" with some of what he had to say. he had quite a bit to say. naps he did, larry. this was supposed to be a press conference on infrastructure. be he opened it up to question and the flood gates over. he went back to the original statement from saturday and started to defend it. president trump: when you say, "alt-right" define it to me. define it for me. let's go. >> excuse me. what about the alt-left that came charging as you say the alt-right? do they have any semblance of

i'm sam ford. i'll be back to show you what they are doing. celebrating natio fios is not cable. we're a 100% fiber optic network. and with the new fios gigabit connection... you get our fastest... internet ever. with download speeds up to 940 megs - 20 times faster than most people have. switch to fios gigabit connection with tv and phone for $79.99 a month online for the first year. for two years, all with a two-year agreement. and switching has never been easier. get out of your contract with up to a $500 credit to help cover your early termination fee. go to fiosgigabit.com salmonella must see video out of illinois. would-be burglar taken down the door of a home and it's all caught on in-home security system. the man stops to see if he can see anyone inside before continuing. upstairs a 16-year-old had locked herself in her room as he walked up the steps. the girl's mother described what happened next. >> she screamed bloody murder at the top of her lungs. it scared him to

reporting live from northeast washington i'm sam ford, abc7 news. larry: thank you. we have this in the newsroom. they say this man facing aggravated sexual battery charges after touching children at an in-home daycare. claudio vargas lazo was arrested after an 11-year-old reported being touched inappropriately and then they found a 9-year-old making the same claims. he runs a licensed in-home daycare in fairfax. anyone can concerns should there. he is looking at his phone. but police say they want to talk to this man about using that phone to take pictures up women's skirts in metro stations. kevin lewis has the developing story. kevin? kevin: this happened wednesday evening. the young suspect cycled up and down escalators repeatedly using a cell phone and placing it up women's skirts. >> that is disrespectful. violation of personal space. >> a wanted man used the pitch of the columbia heights metro station escalators to collect photos and videos of random women skirts. >> i would have been shocked. then a reflex to hit him. >> they released a want flyer, showing th

rick tyler, elease jordan, harold ford jr., sam stein and columnist at the washington examine er examinered but are fascinating for a number of reasons. first of all, it's the lowest numbers ever in the cnn poll that he's ever had before. you're going to be talking about many harts of it. somebody tweeted last night six months approval ratings. trump 38. he ra sell -- really is -- not being facetious, he really is in a league of his own age 38. there's always somebody in the organizati organization. >> i just couldn't figure out why we kept talking about his base was stronger than ever. all the tweets yesterday. >> then he goes on and talks about the rally. it seems to be following a great deal. >> that number, joe, and i don't think the trust far, haven't had many peter wrote for mr. trump there is no vacation for greek and white house while president trump shows 38% approve of jim emsick points where while nearly half, 47% strongly disapprove. despite the presidenter than ever before, the polls show just 59% of republicans say they approve strongly. that is down 14 points since february.

with us we have mike barnicle, e leez jordan, sam stein, harold ford junior, steve schmidt, and phillipthe big story in the post this morning. we'll start with the report that says president trump overruled his closest advisors including family members when it came to the initial response to the new york times story about a meeting between donald trump junior and a russian attorney back in 2016. now, those advisors reportedly pushed for full transparency, but were overruled at the president's personal direction. "the washington post" citing multiple sources with direct knowledge. reports that the misleading four-sentence statement was personally dictated by the president flying home from the g-20 summit on july 8th. according to post, presidential advisor, son-in-law, jared kushner's lawyers knew how damaging the e-mail could be, exple explicitly about white house and the campaign. hope hicks huddled with lawyers and advocated for a more transparent approach. in one scenario they said kushner's team talked about sharing everything, including the contents to the e-mails with a mainstream

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sam sweeney at the white house for us this morning. coming up-- saving sessions. the attorney good news after weeks of critisism. is he finally off the hot seat? the ford summer sales event is in full swing. it's gonna work, i promise you, we can figure this out. be... little help. -hold on, mom. no, wifi. wifi. . take on summer right with ford, america's best-selling brand. now with summer's hottest offer. get zero percent for seventy-two months plus an additional thousand on top of your trade-in. during the ford summer sales event get zero percent for seventy-two months plus an additional thousand on top of your trade-in. offer ends soon. today & late tomorrow - chance isolated strong-severe friday - much cooler pattern next week today: partly cloudy, hot and humid, pm showers and thunderstorms (30%) highs: 87-92 winds: south 5-10 mph tonight: partly cloudy, areas of fog lows: 67-75 winds: south 5 mph friday: partly sunny, pm to late showers and thunderstorms (30%) highs: 88--93 winds: south 5-10 mph a fiery blast tears building. and not every