i'm tracee wilkins, live this morning in bethesda. tracee, thank you. >> it is national zoo keepers week. every day we have a very special morning person, kristin clark has worked as an animal keeper at the national zoo since the summer of 2005. kristin is best known as being a big cat's keeper at the lion and tiger house, but in this photo she's with one of the zoo's smallest animals. that's a prairie dog. we're told the prairie dog's social structure is like humans. they live in family groups which cluster in neighborhoods. they have cul-de-sacs and they have weekend barbecue. >> minivans. >> if you -- the kids play soccer. if you know someone like kristin, e-mail their story and a clear, close-up picture or video to morning person@nbc. >> a crime caught on tape at some texas business owners going bananas. the video shows what appears to be a monkey burglarizing their story. that's right. the primate is the prime suspect in the latest break-in. the owners are convinced that a monkey has been trained to sneak in and steal several hund

i'm tracee wilkins live this morning. barbara and joe, back to you in the studio. >> thank you. >>> in other news, a maryland man brutally beating in a church parking on on christmas eve is speaking out for the first time since that attack. wayne williams had just dropped off his wife for choir practice in college park when 28-year-old shannon washington attacked him with a baseball bat. he was left severely beaten and his wallet and car was stolen. >> i can't see out of my right ey eye. i have seven plates in my face. >> washington was arrested two weeks later and faces up to 28 years in prison. >>> police are looking for clues after a body was discovered in a burned out car in downtown bethesda yesterday found early yesterday morning in the 4900 block of bradley boulevard. inside police discovered a woman's body in the driver's seat. she was later identified as a 45-year-old from takoma park. the cause of death has not been determined. >>> alexandria's police chief will find out if he keeps his job after his drunk drivi

i'm tracee wilkins, reporting live outside the courthouse. to you. >> thank you. >> thank you, tracee. >>> marion barry currently serves on the d.c. council. coming up in just a few minutes we'll talk to d.c. mayor adrian fenty in our "connecting with the mayor" segment and hear what he has to say. >> a tragedy for two families in virginia after two fathers were drunk in a hit and run driving accident. thpeis hapned tuesdayn ig h i n the beltway. police say a jeep struck the men's pickup truck andd fceor it over a guardrail and down a ravine. 39-year-old gradys mendo and 37-year-ol fcednkn mnanzanares were killed. police say the driver of the jeep, kelli loos, drove on to virginia where she hit another vehicle and was arrested with dui. >> how can you mess with beautifu families like this? >> you're mad? >> very mad, of course. >> took our families away. we can't even go see them. e.ohe t, last sente s oo lisnoolain j i iai frfax county on a dui chargenow. she's expected to be extradited to maryland where she will face additional charges. >>

tracee wilkins has the data. >> reporter: good morning, joe.a long workweek with lots of overtime. and at the end of the year, that's how much time you have spent in traffic if you are top average d.c. commuter. it is not good news. we'll take a look at the numbers. here's what the latest report is saying. in 2007 the average u.s. driver spent 36.1 hours in traffic down from 36.6 in 2006. but in d.c. drivers spent 62 hours in rush hour traffic. 62 hours, almost twice as much in 2007. up three hours from 59 hours in 2006. here's what was wasted at the end of 2007 in the d.c. metro area sitting in traffic. 2.8 billion dollars in productivity and also in gals gas and 90 million gallons of gas. this report conflicts with a report released a couple moments ago that found congestion was slightly improving in the area. regardless, both reports say d.c. is among the worst in the nation when it comes to traffic. this report rates our region second to l.a., which is considered the most congested. when they come to talk about making this better, the botto

i'm tracee wilkins, live atta coma station. ack to you in the studio. >> thanks, tracee. >>> transportation officials in the district say drivers will notice a change in the traffic pattern, it will affect outbound traffic from the city into arlington. work crews will adjust the construction barriers and restripe the roadway to create a separate lane for traffic turning onto route 123. currently traffic turning on to 123 heading on to gleeb road share a single lane. these changes are part of the on going chain bdge project that began last month. >>> an investigation into black market kidneys and counterfeit hand bags led to a sweeping corruption probe in new jersey. 40 people were arrested yesterday including three mayors, two state lawmakers and several rabbis. federal prosecutors say the investigation initially focused on a moneyaundering network that operated between the u.s. and industrial. one of the suspects trafficked in black market human kidneys. >> the list of people we arrested sounds like a roster of a meeting for co

tracee wilkins is on the scene now with the latest on this. >> reporter: i asked police at what point will you go ahead and storm the house and call it quits and ends the stand-off? they are saying that point will not come. they will see this throughout the end. and let it play itself out. little has changed this started at 6:30 p.m. yesterday. except for the fact they are now communicating with someone inside of the home although they won't say who. in the meantime, this neighborhood has been turned upside down. >> spent last evening in a hotel. we were told to park outside the neighborhood and drive down and pick up a few things. >> reporter: 24 hours later, neighbors are making other plans and there are more police shift changes at this falls church neighborhood as it remains the center of a police stand-off. >> we have invaded this community over 20 hours. it has been -- pretty tough work for all of the negotiators and people involved. we have not reached a successful conclusion yet. our mission, of course, is to -- to get everyone out of that house alive. >> reporter: it began la

news 4's tracee wilkins joins us live from northwest washington this morning with more on this. morning, tracee. >> reporter: good morning. that was a $60,000 contract that barry awarded. he's been holding a series of press conferences all week, and during one of them, he brought up or his spokesperson who was representing him brought up the fact that they had awarded this contract. and while the d.c. government is saying that this is something that they want to look into, barry's still focusing on his arrest. d.c. council members plan to meet today to discuss donna watts-brighthaupt being hired by barry to run a ward 8 program. according to "washington post," brighthaupt tells the post she was awarded the contract two months after she and barry started dating. the paper says vincent gray will enlist an independent law firm to look into the contract. watts-brighthaupt is a 40-year-old woman at the center of the stalking allegations that led to barry's arrest. charges were dropped, but during a press conference barry held yesterday, the arrest was still his focus. >> mr. morales a

tracee wilkins is live with the latest on the story you saw first on 4. good morning, tracee. >> reporter: one of the students infected is going to be a junior here next year, but the 22 students here took off for china and are now learning how serious the chinese government is taking the swine flu. the students seen here just before they left attended several schools. a week ago they took off for a language emersion program. on the plane, one of the boys had a temperature and it turns out he had the swipe flu. soon other students became sick as well. nearly half the group has been tested and a majority have tested positive. those who have not are isolated in their hotel. of course, the parents have it the hardest with their children sick a world away, but most are focusing on the bright side. >> it is not exactly what they had originally planned, but they have seen a lot of -- they see how the chinese health care system works, they have had a real chance to bd as a group, and that is just terrific because none of them had met prior to being chosen for thi

. >> tracee wilkins is here now with more. >> everybody is having relief, except us.o the latest study, take one long workweek with lots of over time, and that's the equivalent to the amount of time you have been stuck in washington traffic by the end of the year. in 2007, the average u.s.ri drve spends 36.1 hours in traffic, down 36.6 hours in 2006. in d.c., drivers spent an average of 62 hours in rush hour traffic and 2007 up three hours, from 59 hours in 2006. so here is what was wasted in all of the traffic in 2007. $2.8 million in gas and productivity, and 90 million gallons of gas. this new report is done annually by the texas transportation institute. it was done in a report a few months ago. both reports do declare d.c. is among the worse in the nation when it comes to traffic in that report rates our region second to l.a., which is considered number one in congestion. so we ask commuters in our area, what do you think can help ease some of this. >> there is just a lot of roads that need to be expanded, but we are not going to get that done anytime soon. and w

i'm tracee wilkins, live this morning in dale city. >> okay, tracee, thanks very much. >>> before you head out the door an alert for metro riders. you can expect delays on the red line through at least thursday morning. there are fewer rush hour trains on the red line and that's operating -- it's also operating slower than normal. the ongoing investigation into last month's accident near the ft. totten stop is the reason why. passengers are being advised to add at least 30 minutes to their rush hour commutes. >>> and metro wants to hear from riders who walk or bike to their metro station. metro needs feedback for a new study. the goal is to make more stops more accsible to the growing number of pedestrians and buy sick lifts. metro is holding a workshop this wednesday at 5:30 in the evening at its headquarters in northwest washington. anyone who wants to share their input is encouraged to attend that meading. >> we could lea more today about an investigation into local officers caught on the wrong side of the law. the group is being inv

i'm tracee wilkins.to you. >> thanks very much. >> a big development this morning in gm's battle in bankruptcy and major electronics retailer's going green. cnbc's courtney reagan joins us live with those stories and more. good morning. >> reporter: hi. good morning. futures look like they're going to kick us off lower. wall street, of course, coming back from the holiday weekend with no trading on friday. so it could be a bit of carryover from thursday's employment report which showed that 467,000 jobs were lost last month. that was more than forecast. investors are also gearing up for earning season. it fishingly kicks off on wednesday with alcoa's results. so far, markets around the world were lower overnight, and europe is in the red as well. the economic calendar this week is a bit lighter with reports on jobless claims, import prices and the trade deficit, but today we'll get a read on health of the nation's services sector. the dow's at 8280 after falling 223 points on thursday. the nasdaq lost 49

i'm tracee wilkins, live this morning at shady grove.studio, joe. >> tracee, thanks very much. metro says that investigators say that a train operator was not on her cell phone before last month's deadly metro crash. 9 people were killed and 80 others were injured in that crash. so far, six lawsuits have been filed. one of the plaintiffs is seeking up to $25 million in damages. experts predict the damages could run into the tens of millions of dollars and if negligence is proven that number could stretch into the hundreds of millions. transit officials say most of the costs would probably be covered by insurance. >> police have arrested three men in connection with the slayings of a wealthy florida couple known for adopting children with developmental disabilities. byrd and melanie billings were shot to death inside their home last thursday while 8 of their 16 children were asleep. police have since arrested two men on murder charges and another for tampering with evidence. officers say one of the men tried to paint over and hide damage

tracee wilkins has been following the story and is live on the scene. >> reporter: we want to stress this is a possible shooting suspect. police are not saying for sure that this is the man who shot this woman. what they are telling us is that they are watching this home very closely and will have changed since it started yesterday evening. but what has changed is that now they are communicating with someone inside of the home but at this time they won't say who. this all began last evening around 6:30 when police say a 36-year-old woman was shot on fisher drive in falls church. the witnesses reported seeing a man run from that scene and into a nearby home. that led to a stand-off, fairfax county and state police that is still ongoing. we are told that there are other people inside of this home but we don't know how many. police say they are communicating with someone inside of the home but they won't say who. >> police are continuing to negotiate with people inside the home. certainly the job of negotiator is a time-intensive one and takes time to build the relationship and build th

today members of his family reacted to that incident and tracee wilkins has their story. >> reporter: police say 27-year-old kellen anthony ad dyanne, isdy m thean that was shot and killed by u.s. capitol police yesterday. capitol police spokesman say white shot at officers first after a traffic stop. >> a routine traffic stop the officers and capitol police were trying to initiate hardly even got a chance to do that because the suspect's vehicle began to take off immediately. >> reporter: family members say that's not the kellen they know. >> we wish to extent our deepest sympathies those injured during yesterday's unfortunate incident. and we are certain that none of the injuries that were inflicted were intentional and as the matter is being investigated, we shall refrain from making any further comments at this time. >> reporter: shortly after 5:00 p.m. yesterday u.s. capitol police officers say they attempted to pull white over near union station. they say he sped away ee radically in the white mercedes-benz he was driving. here he nearly ran over two officers. police claimed whi

tracee wilkins reports. >> reporter: traffic on the beltway in alexandria backed up as far as crystal county after a tanker flipped over near van dorn and burst into flames and happened just before 7:00 a.m. traffic was a nightmare. >> i was coming from maryland and when i got like off the bridge, it was so backed up i just took route 1. it is ridiculous. >> reporter: police say the tanker's driver hit another car park order the side of the road for repair after he admittedly fell asleep behind the wheel. >> drifted off the road, sideswiped the disabled tractor trailer and causing it to overturn, and saddle bag ruptured diesel fuel spilled and ignited. >> reporter: the cab of the tanker was completely ripped from the rest of the truck and crushed. the police say the driver escaped with only minor injuries. at one point, the beltway was completely shut down near the accident. then for hours, several lanes remained off-limits in both directs as the department of transportation opened and closed lanes in nearby ramps so that emergency vehicles could get to the scene. >> there was a diese

tracee wilkins live in falls church. craig, back to you. >> thank you. >>> a loudoun county woman has been indicted in a $50 million mortgage fraud scheme. the loudoun sheriff's office said diane frederick took advantage of more than 100 home buyers in northern virginia. they say that she fraudulently inflated her clients' income, putting them into homes they couldn't afford. the authorities say the losses from this will affect all homeowners. >> case unfortunately that there are a lot of victims involved here. homeowners, those who may have put everything they had into a home and ended up getting foreclosed on because there was no way they could afford tonight the first place. of course, t mortgage companies that are out possibly $50 million as well. that's something that gets pass order to anybody that owns a home. >> investigators belief atari fled the country and working with interpol to find her. >>> the federal government and two dozen states are going after companies accused of taking advantage of homeowners in fi

tracee wilkins, live this morning. >>> good evening. bob ryan, storm center 4. earlier we were under a severe thunderstorm watch. now all of those watches are gone. no reports of any thunderstorms and, unfortunately, hardly any rain in the immediate area. few sprinkles and that's about all we have seen here. there's the one cell that's moved through southeast washington and heading towards suitland and that's about it. and there are still some watches out. tornado watch even for the tide water area of virginia. and there are some nasty storms down there. and there may be a few more as we go through the evening and u can see some in west virginia. that's about it. later on tonight, can't rule out completely 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, cool frontomes through. you may see a few more showers or a chance for some needed rain. great weekend coming up. tell you all about it when i join you. >> thank you, bob. >>> we are following a developing story out of indonesia tonight. so far no claim of responsibility for last night's suicide attack in jakarta. two suicide bombers posing

i'm tracee wilkins, live this morning outside the wilson building. back to you. >> thanks very much. >> thank you, tracee. >>> the court hearing for the suspect is in last month's deadly shooting at the holocaust museum has been pushed back again. 88-year-old james von brunn is accused of gunning down a security guard. he was scheduled to appear in court today, but his doctor said he could not show up. von brunn is still recovering from being shot in the face by guards who returned fire. he remains at united medical center in a lockdown ward. another hearing has been set for july 30th. >>> and police are searching for three men who attacked a couple in prince william county. it happened monday night in lake ridge while the couple was out walking their dog. the couple says three men came out of nowhere, demanding money. when they said they had none, the man says he was punched and tasered. >> next thing i know, i heard the pattering of footsteps behind me, and somebody grabbed me by the shirt collar and put a gun to my head, and said give me the mone

. >> news 4's tracee wilkins joins us live in the studio with the very latest on this. >> good morningis was an amazing experience. passengers say they literally looked up and saw a hole in the plane, deep and large enough for them to see the sky. the hole is described as a one foot by one foot hole in the rear of the plane that was, again, visual from the cabin. passengers boarded the plane at nashville. about 30 minutes in the flight, the aircraft started losing pressure. at 6:10:00 p.m., the plane made an emergency landing in west virginia. passengers were flown in on another plane to bwi airport last night. there were 126 passengers on board, along with five crew members. this passenger thought to take a picture of himself after his oxygen mask came down. he then later explained what it felt like on the plane after landing at bwi. >> all of a sudden, the loudest noise i ever heard came out of nowhere. there was no pop, no creek, no explosion-like noise. it was just a loud roar. took me a couple seconds to kind of wake up. i got the baseball cap out of my face and i look up, and the

tracee wilkins is here, more on the anticipation surrounding the service.ng. >> good morning. a lot of anticipation. it will be an all-star tribute to michael jackson this morning but there are still few details about the program or about the private family service that could be held before today's memorial. it's been 12 days since michael jackson died and today thousands will say good-bye in person and millions from afar. >> michael jackson. i love this man. >> the chosen few. >> charlie and the chocolate factory. >> reporter: more than 17,000 fans who won a spot inside the public memorial for michael jackson began picking up tickets and wrist bands yesterday. >> if you can watch it happen, u you'll see all these people up there. >> reporter: there is now a partial list of those who will participate. it includes stevie wonder, mariah carey, lionel richie, jen hifr hudson. part of an overwhelming lineup, even by hollywood standards. also overwhelming, the fans. more than 1.5 million who registered but didn't get a seat. >> i'm coming with or without a ticke

tracee wilkins is joining us live from capitol hill with more on precautions being taken. d morning, tracee. >> reporter: there's a class of city patients here on capitol hill and five of them have been isolated from other pagers, lawmakers and staff because they are demonstrating flu-like symptoms, possibly the swine flu. there was a message senate to tarrance gainer who said the five existing companies help out with cases like this. the cases for swine flu have not been confirmed as the test is too uncomfortable and won't alter necessary information for the patients. now, the pages are typically high school juniors who work on capitol hill during the school year and also the summer. the sergeant in arms is an opportunity to remind lawmakers they need to prepare themselves and their staff for the upcoming flu season. make sure you are also ready to get going if things move too quickly. >>> a man was vacationing on north carolina's outer bank and was struck by lightning and killed. matthew was jogging along the shores monday night and found unconscious along the shoreline.

tracee wilkins is live at the tacoma station now on this story. >> it seems as long as the ntsb is doing the investigation, some of the investigation coming out is scary. the bottom line is they want to find out all the problems they can associated with the accident and any other problem and fix them. >> more problems are being detected on metro. one month after the accident that killed nine people on the red line. investigators with the national transportation safety boa are continuing to focus on the circuit that since this train on the tracks stopped them and runs them in automatic mode. the investigators have already reported a bond on the circuit replaced five days before the crash malfunctioning. officials say the problem was not so bad that the circuit could not detect trains. >> we have not found any failures. we are going through the records to insure that there were no failures during that time. if we find cases where we failed to detect the train, you will hear this from us. >> the ntsb have asked for records to see if anything was missed by operators. from once every 30 days,

and tracee wilkins joins us with details. >> reporter: tomorrow's memorial service is expected to be a celebration/concert tribute to the king of pop. thousands of fans are expected to come together in the same arena that jackson spent his last nights. the night before jackson's death he was rehearsing at the staple center for the ylong-awaited comeback tour. and 1.6 million signed up for the random drawing for the tickets to the service, but in a lottery, fewer than 9,000 people were given two tickets each. and the odds of getting a ticket were 1 in 183. and the other ticket holders will be seated in the neighboring nokia theater. and police have locked down the surrounding area. anybody that doesn't have a ticket and a fitted wrist band will be turned away, which makes the lucky few that do have a lucky ticket feel that much more privileged. >> it's overwhelming that we will be there and help celebrate his life with other fans and family. it's such a mn occasion. >> he was a master entertainer. i cannot think of anybody that comes close to what he was able to give to the public. >>

tracee wilkins, live in bough thez nau, back to you in the studio. >>> another story we are followinglosely, here the watergate hotel is on the auction block right now. and megan mcgrath is at the auction house and told us the bidding began 15 minutes ago. and the opening bid was $25 million. we are hearing that was a cash bid. we should know the winner any moment. we will bring you the information on any new owner as soon as we get it. we understand there has been a break in the action there. a pause in the bidding at the moment. but once we find out more about the bid, we will let you know. >> all right. right now, let's check the weather. we could see much-needed rain this afternoon. chuck bell is up inhe storm center with details. >> i am disappointed, i am $20 million in the checkbook, and now i am already out of the bidding. >> only cash, your checkbook is not good. >> if i have checks, i have money. isn't that the way it works? temperatures are climbing in the upper 70s and low 80s. 80 in fairfax county. and 79 degrees in leesburg, and frederick, maryland. and doppler shows not

. >> reporter: i am tracee wilkins live in largo. >> thank you, racee. we will haveive cofere ag the memorial service startinge t 1:00 this rnteafoon, andte it wl be streamed live on the website at nbcwashington.com. >>> a very important meeting happened this morning between president obama and prime minister vladimir putin. and brooke heart has the latest on the meeting from capitol hill. >> reporr: president obama smiled and his body language with putin was relaxed and engaged. >> we may not agree on everything, but i think we can have a tone of mutual respect and consultation. >> reporter: prime minister putin, the former president is seen as russia's power center. many of the fans have putin's name on them. president obama told students in moscow, nato is not aimed at russia. and he said a u.s. missile defense system is not aimed at russia. >> this system is directed at preventing a potential attack from iran. it has nothing to do with russia. >> reporter: the president's goal to defuse russian fear. >> but if a threat from iran's nuclear missile pro

i'm tracee wilkins in bethesda, news4. >>> not long ago a group of students from silver spring found themselves involved in a similar swine flu scare. students from the barry school went to china in may and were quarantined for a week. news4 was there as the students came home and were reunited with their families at bwi thurgood marshall airport. none of those students ended up getting the swine flu. >>> the father of a 4-year-old boy rescued from a burning suv spoke out today. the boy's mother was driving an suv in milwaukee, wisconsin, when she hit a tree and that suv flipped over and burst into flames. heroic bystanders qui will i pulled the woman and her two 2-year-old daughter to safety. as the flames spread, two firefighter brothers managed to rescue d.j. harper from the melting car seat today. and his father talked. >> first want to take a minute to thank the firefights and all the brave citizens helped get my son out of the vehicle. and especially john and joe, the brothers that got my son out of the vehicle. >> reporter: doctors said today that the boy has been upgraded to

tracee wilkins was the first reporter on the scene and is there now. >> reporter: over my shoulders, they are towing the tanker. and this is a process that is still continuing. traffic on the beltway in alexandria backed up as far as prince george's county this morning, after a tanker flipped over and bursts into flames. traffic was a nightmare. it happened just before 7:00 a.m. >> when i got off the bridge, i just took route 1. it was so ridiculous. >> reporter: a driver hit another truck parked on the side of the road after he admittedly fell asleep at the wheel. >> he sideswiped it and caused it to overturn, and the fuel spilled and ignited. >> the cab of the tanker was ripped from the rest of the truck and crushed. the driver escaped with only minor injuries. at one point the beltway was completely shut down, and then for hours several lanes remained off limits in both directions as they opened and closed lanes and nearby ramps so emergency vehicles could get to the scene. >> there was a cleanup crew that has been called. the vehicle overturned has to be up righted, and the recov

tracee wilkins outside of the d.c. courthouse. back to you. >>> as tracy ju tracee just men barry hired watts to do the work after the two started dating. the project was worth $60,000. watts was paid through barry's taxpayer funded budget. >> we have investigatory bodies that look at things like this. i think the council and the mayor would say we welcome any investigations from those bodies, not just in this case, but any other case. >> mayor fenty responding to a question about this case earlier today. a barry spokesperson has said that the contract was given to watts because she met the criteria and the qualifications for the job. >>> break news now from metro, the transit agency has just announced a new zero tolerance policy that cracks down on distracted train drivers. those caught using any mobile device during the operation after train or bus will be fired. this comes after grong concerns for metro to fire a train operator caught texting on the job. more than 17,000 people have seen this video on youtube. taken june 5th on

tracee wilkins just spoke to one of white's f

news4's tracee wilkins joins us with more from alexandria. >> reporter: the program has some critics but the federal government is hoping that in addition to jump-starting car companies, it will also help to clean up the environment. chrysler, fresh off a bankruptcy, is seeing an opportunity to sell some cars. and why not? since you may be able to make some money if you decide to get riof your old car and buy a new, more fuel-efficient one. >> people are really excited about it because it seems like a good idea. >> reporter: under the new government program beginning today, if your old car gets 18 miles to the gallon or less, provided you owned it for one year, can you qualify for a new car but it must be more fuel efficient which at least four miles per gallons for cars, 2 miles per gallon for suvs. you can get up to $4,500 depending on the gas you during the trade-in. some say this is a failed attempt that's costing taxpayers $1 billion too much. >> what began as a reasonable idea to get clunkers off the road and try to move some more efficient vehicles in their stead has been hija

tracee wilkins. we will have that report coming up at 5:00.you can expect on the red lis thiweekend. t xxxxc >>> welcome back to "news4 at 4:00." meteorologist chuck bell. update your rainfall potential as we head into our friday afternoon and friday evening. here is a check of doppler over the last hour. the good news is that our severe weather risk is starting to dinish. the national weather service dropped all of our metropolitan counties that were under the severe thunderstorm watch until 5:00. now all of that watch area has been trimmed away. but that does not mean we are completely done with the thunderstorm chances. another cell developing here just down towards the franconia-springfield area. southern parts of fairfax county and capitol beltway. we will keep an eye on this over the next hour or so. could expect a couple of rumbles of thunder and brief periods of rainy weather in and around downtown washington. by and large, no widespread severe weather is occurring and we are not expecting any more. but can't rule out the chance of

tracee wilkins, live in prince george's county. back to you in the studio. >>> 4-yearld girl survive ad 25-foot fall from a second-story window today. it happened on home acre terrace in beltsville. the officials say the little girl was leaning on a window screen when the screen gave way. she landed on the back deck and taken to a children's hospital and is expected to be okay. >>> it was an emotional day in the courtroom for banita jacks as her mother took the witness stand today. she was called as a witness for the prosecution but ended up speaking out in support of her daughter. pat collins was in that courtroom today and joins us now from northwest with the latest. pat? >> reporter: craig, the mother on the witness stand, the daughter on trial, and tears in the courtroom and testimony begins in this bizarre case. mame jacks the mother o banita jacks, calle as a prosecution witness today. but in court, under oath, she had good things to say abouter daughter. she said that banita took excellent care of her children. that she neve

tracee wilkins joins us live with why. >> reporter: you are right.ular is a good way to explain how this program has taken off. the idea was, of course, to help t the environment, getting some of these older cars off of the roadways and replacing them with more fuel efficient cars. they knew it was going to be popular but they did not tnk they would run out of $1 billion in just a week. it appears that's what has happened as of wednesday. the federal cash for clunkers program aided in the purchase of more than 22,700 new vehicles. the program offers owners of old cars and trucks, $3,500 to $4,500 toward a more fuel efficient vehicle. they notified congress that the program would need to shut down because of low funz. the white house is getting involved in reviewing the program. they are saying they don't want it to shut down on be suspended. they are looking at other o options. we also have some dealers who are worried that some of the deals that they have made may fall through. we understand that an additional 25,000 customers at least are waiting f