i'm tracee wilkins. joe, back to you in the studio. >> thank you. >>> police in montgomery county are looking for information about a vehicle seen near the home of brian betts around the time he was murdered. the d.c. school principal was shot and killed inside his silver spring home last thursday. detectives say a vehicle was seen leaving an alley next to betts' house around the time of his death. >>> crews are searching for 11 workers aboard an oil platform that sank in the gulf of mexico. the deep water horizon had a massive explosion on tuesday night and sank yesterday. rescuers say there was a slim chance that the missing workers did survive. >>> a new report shows that more than 0 senior staffers at the securities and exchange commission were caught looking at pornography during the workday. according to the report obtained by the associated press, some of the staffers viewed explicit content for up to eight hours a day. some of the executives were at a senior level, earning more than $200,000 a ye

tray is tracee wilkins joins us live with more. what happened?>> reporter: when they say no smoking on a plane, they mean it. then if you're going to try do it, it's best not to joke around with crew members about it, it appears that's what this passenger did yesterday. it caused a major security scare in the air last night. a united airlines flight took off from reagan national airport to denver, when a passenger complained about smelling smoke from the bathroom with a passenger inside. when a crew member asked the passenger in the bathroom about the smell, he joked saying i was trying to light my shoe, an assumed reference to the shoe bomber. turns out he was putting out a cigarette on the sole of his shoe. the passenger is identified as mohammed al madadi, a qatari diplomat, living in washington. he is in his early 20s. the qatar embassy says he was flying on international business. air marshals took the man into custody, when he landed he was handed over to officials. passengers say even though all of this going on, it was still a calm proces

tracee wilkins joins us from the newsroom with more. good morning. >> reporter: two brothers charged in this week's shooting and a shooting that happened last week were in custody. could have been taken off the streets before they had a chance to kill but weren't. orndo carter is charged with the murder in the drive by shooting that left four people dead and several more people injured tuesday night. carter would not have been on the street the the u.s. attorney's office signed off on a warrant for his arrest the week before. police wanted to charge carter in the murder of 20-year-old jordan howe. orlando carter's brother is also accused in the murder of jordan howe. the office of probation and parole tried to keep sanquan carter off the street but the judge put him in a i had inteensity supervision program. he was to attend an orientation for that program on march 23rd. phil mendelson saidole didn't drop the ball. >> they were on top of the retaliation before it happened. they were trying to prevent it. that's what we want from our pol

in alexandria, i'm tracee wilkins.ou. >>> teachers in our area have seen a jump in pay over the past decade. according to the "washington examiner" d.c. teacher salaries jumped by 40%. a new proposed contract give top performing teachers an opportunity to earn $150,000. maryland suburbs received the largest pay raise. montgomery county long serving teachers with master level degrees earn more than $103,000. only fairfax county, virginia saw salaries decline. that county has inflation adjusted salaries. >>> today is the last day of the maryland general assembly session and legislators have their work cut out. they need to agree how much solar energy utilities should be required to buy and a fee nor not complying. they need to zion new rules for sex offenders and bridge a gap for new child support guidelines. on maryland senators pass ad measure to legalize medical marijuana. the session ends at midnight. >>> the two week easter break is over for congress farns order of business today a battle over extending unemployment

tracee wilkins is live in our news room with details. >> reporter: police accused these two studentsg officers on horseback, on friday those charges were dropped and on monday, this video surfaced showing some disturbing new details. let's listen in as the attorney for the two students narrates the video. >> jack will come into view here. he's actually dancing on the sidewalk. we know from another video, he's singing a fight song. we know from the other video, he doesn't say a word to the officers. they don't give him any orders. and you can see what they do. >> attorney christopher griffith said these images show what happened to his client, 22-year-old university of maryland student, john mckenna. griffith said the injuries that he photographed included a head wound which required zaples. he said these photos are of another client, 20-year-old ben bennett, when students spilled into the streets of college park. both students were charged with assaulting mounted police officers. charging documents claim the men struck the officers and their horses and that both men were kicked then

as news4's tracee wilkins reports, it was a frustrating morning for the dog's owner. >> reporter: condoronth-old doberman. rare specialist with the norwegian army. >> working dog. patrol dog. >> reporter: condor and his handler flew into dulles airport last wednesday to attend a special dog training course here in northern virginia. her original flight home to norway was canceled after the volcano in iceland produced ash clouds over much of europe. she and her dog were offered a flight on an airline last night and he somehow escaped from his crate. >> yesterday we drove around and showed me places were he had been spotted. it was dark. the fog was coming. >> reporter: frustration. >> reporter: dulles international airport, i'm tracee wilkins, news4. >> we thank you for watching "news4 at 5:00." coming up, new developments in the mass drive-by shooting in the district. >> jim vance and doreen gentzler with that on "news4 at 6:00." >>> funeral services held today for d.c. school principal police in the meantime are trying to find whoever killed him. >>

tracee wilkins is live in northwest washington. >> reporter: protesters were right outside of the hilton just a little while ago. they have moved on down connecticut avenue. things are back to normal here. today they were here sending a national message. that being disabled shouldn't equal being institutionalized. their early morning arrival caused some traffic backups downtown as more than 300 disabled protesters made their way up pennsylvania avenue. >> keep your promise? >> their destination, they had a special message for speaker of the house nancy pelosi who was attending the american hospital association conference. >> we are going to be after her until she continues -- or until she comes around and supports us. >> reporter: these activists are members of a national grass roots disability rights organization. as it stands, the state has to pay for nursing care for people who qualify or are disabled. these people say money should be going toward an in home care it's a bill they want nancy pelosi to support. >> what we want is people to be able to stay in their own home and get the s

tracee wilkins is live in our newsroom and has more on this. trac tracey. >> police accuse the two students of assaulting officers who were on horseback. ob friday those felony charges were dropped and yesterday, new video surfaced showing some disturbing details. >> jack will come into view here. he's actually dancing on the sidewalk. we will know from another video he's singing a fight song. actually stop. he doesn't say a word to the officers. they don't give him nel orders and you can see what they do. >> attorney christopher griffiths says these images show what happened to his client, 22-year-old university of maryland student john mckenna. griffiths says these injuries included a head wound that required staples. he says these photos are of another client, 20-year-old ben gonat who claims to have received similar treatment by police the night of march 3rd when students spilled into the streets of downtown college park after maryland's men's basketball team beat duke. both students were charged with assaulting mounted police officers. cha

i'm tracee wilkins live this morning in southeast. barbara, back to you in the studio. >> thanks, tracee. stay with news 4 throughout the day for continuing coverage of this mass shooting. you can check out our website, too, nbcwashington.com, for the latest information. take a look outside. >>> the mayor presented his 2011 budget to the city council this morning. they face a $555 million budget gap and that means there could be major cuts on the horizon. news 4's megan mcgrath has more on that. >> we will work hard with each and every one of you to try and adjust the budget. >> reporter: mayor adrian fenty briefed the council on the budget this morning. there are deep cuts, hundreds of millions worth, and there will be layoffs. speaking on news 4 this morning, he said hundreds of government workers will be affected. >> there are some things that will be cut within the budget. they absolutely have to be. there probably will be in excess of 500 to 600 positions that will be eliminated in the government. that's just the types of tough d

tracee wilkins joins with us more now. >> mt. vernon metro stations closed. we've had several buses rerouted thuout washington, d.c. streets have been closed, as well. as you can see behind me, this is one of them. we're right here at massachusetts and 11th. you can't go any farther than this into this little area they have cordoned off to make sure all of this is secure for folks participating. nonetheless, we're hearing from officials that everything has gone pretty smoothly today. folks who didn't get the message found themselves trying to work around detours in downtown washington. there were a few minor backups at some of the street closures for the president's nuclear security summit but most folks knew, today was the day to avoid driving downtown. >> that's why i took the train. >> so you took the train because of the summit? >> yeah. >> by and large, i think people heeded our advice. we really want to thank those people that tell commuted or took alternate routes or transit. it was a much easier commute. >> people who ride the subway every day say the

news 4's tracee wilkins is live in crystal city with details.ch a bizarre story, tracee. >> reporter: it is. no one likes getting telemarketing calls. imagine receiving 47 of these calls in the past four days. >> hello. >> tamira abrams phone has been ringing so much, we were able to capture a number of unwanted calls during this short interview. >> i got called at 1:15 a.m. and then somewhere around 3:30 and then at 6:00 when i finally got up. >> reporter: a phone number with a wyoming area code has been ringing her home day and night. when she answers, no one is there. when she calls back, this is what she hears. >> your call cannot be completed as dialed. >> reporter: abrams blogged about the problem and found out a lot of people in this area have experienced the same problem including this group of neighbors. >> people are really angry. 800notes.com, there's 380 posts on that thing, almost all from arlington and all within the last couple days. >> reporter: through their own research, residents say they have traceed the problem to a carrier

where news4's tracee wilkins joins us more with a warning for students this morning. >> good morning. a lot of the students uncomfortable here on the howard campus understandably so with what happened thursday morning. ten armed robberies in this area by ten armed robbers. they were going after electronic devices and also phones. this robbery spree spanned two police districts in d.c. but all within northwest. >> to hear that happening is kind of like a throwback to me because i'm on campus you. know what i mean? it's supposed to be a safe environment. >> around 3:30 thursday morning, three students inside the school of engineering on howard university's campus were robbed. according to university officials, the robbers made off with the students' belongings. and slapped one of the students before heading out the backdoor on to georgia avenue. >> to hear now they were robbed in the actual building is surprising to hear. >> there were four robbers but police say this was only the beginning. d.c. police believe these robbers were a part of a gang of ten who committed at least ten violen