u.s. geological survey laying waste water wells from fracking to earthquakes shake rattle and roll could fracking because of the earth to move in california some believe the controversial hydraulic fracturing is not only bad for the environment it's also dangerous we explore just ahead. it's thursday july fifth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r t well the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks shaking things up again the web site has started a serial files section they began publishing what they say are over two million e-mails from the syrian government rebels and companies they do business with that do business with syria so far they released dozens of files and they plan to keep releasing them over the next two months and at the site's founder julian assange says he hopes the documents could show shed light on what's really going on inside the country a country that has been ravaged by a brutal civil war that has left fifteen thousand people dead since the conflict started over a year ago now to talk more about the syrian files and. the impact these documents coul

u.s. geological survey confirmed that louisa county, virginia. sustained yet another earthquake. 2.4 magnitude earthquake. it happened about 12:43 morning. about a year ago last year in august that was the massive earthquake where it sustained significant damage to schools and churches out in that county. again 12:43 this morning 2.4 magnitude earthquake confirmed by the u.s. geological survey possibly an aftershock but still waiting the hear on that -- to hear on that. >>> all right we are looking warm this morning have a few thunderstorms off of the northern neck into the bay given up some lightning. they're drifting slowly east. we have the threat for a few more showers and storms at times today. best chances will be blue ridge and points by the way as temperature rise to the mid and upper 80s. hotter to the end of the week. monika? >>> 395 here at seminary road. running smoothly it's a good example of 395 inside the beltway between the beltway and the 14th street bridge. i'll be back with more traffic coming up at 5:01. back to you guys. >>>

u.s. geological survey plans to map underground faults, wrong video there come a using a plane carrying instrumentst will measure magnetic pole over virginia. >> we want to turn to the debate over same-sex marriage. maryland voters will decide whether to uphold the law which was signed by the governor in march. >> opponents were notified they succeeded in petitioning to get the measure on the november ballot. 55,000 signatures were required to force the public bovote. >> an episcopal priest will be allowed to conduct services blessing same-sex couples. that was approved yesterday in indianapolis. >> clergymen there's -- clergy members cannot be coerced or disciplined for refusing to do so. they say the same sex blessing is not a marriage ceremony. there is a new twist in the campaign scandal surrounding d.c. mayor vincent gray. a consultant has admitted a role in what is called a shadow campaign. jeanne harris pleaded guilty to charges she funneled $650,000 in illegal contributions to his 2010 came -- 2010 campaign. other staffers pleaded guilty to lying about paying to attack a then-mayor adrian f

u.s. geological survey. that quake hit at 12:43 this morning not far from mineral, virginia, central virginia. it was a 2.4 magnitude earthquake. people in the towns of luns is a and kent store report they felt the rumble inside their homes. no reports of injuries or damage right now. this quake was just about 4 1/2 miles east of the epicenter of last year's powerful earthquake. >>> this is the map right now of where that magnitude -- 2.4 earthquake hit right there in the epicenter near mineral county. this is the same area last year where that 5.8 magnitude shook that city and was felt throughout the east coast. >>> time for weather and traffic on the ones. tom kierein is here to talk about the difficult's forecast. >> no reports of rumbling around here. we had the sky overnight partly cloudy to mostly cloudy. right now it's partly cloudy right over the po triver. it's near 70 in the suburbs and rural areas. low to mid 60s now in the mountains. low and mid 70s around the bay where they're getting downpours.

u.s. geological survey says it plans to map the fault between now and july 20.will allow the agency to better determine our region's earthquake risk. >>> a group in fairfax, virginia, that helps low income families is thanking the folks who just came through with nearly $5,000 in emergency donations. the organization is called our daily bread. it sent out an s.o.s. asking help for families who lost food to spoilage. the response, overwelming. >> this community, despite all the issues that we faced, you know, no power, not been able to get out of your house sometimes. that they would take the time to take care of one of their neighbors in need in addition to dealing with their issues. it just makes my heart sing. >> you can make their heart sing more. the website, odb fairfax.org for our daily bread. can't imagine the frustration, if you are talking about families who already have so little to watch food spoil and go to waste. >> she's right. couldn't drive around, couldn't do anything. >> good to hear those donations came in. we have a couple thunderstorms on ra

u.s. geological survey satellite picture. >> the soil will protect the crop from drought, hold the moisture in the soil. >> chris ray and a colleague, tony renato began a model of protecting trees on farmland. their work was picked up among others by world vision which produced this video. farmers were employed to spread the word. >> translator: we began using this technique in 2006 and it has worked well for us. >> one of the key goals was to dispel a commonly held notion that the payback is years away. >> even in the first year you need to start pruning. so that the tree develops a trunk and starts developing a canopy. even in the first year, you already have some benefits by leaves and some twigs that women can use as fire wood in the kitchen. by year two or three, certain trees will be taller than you or me. >> the leaves form life stock fodder and trap moisture in the soil. improved soil fertility can mean better harvests and some villages have surpluses. the surpluses have been gathered into a bank in about 20 other villages that are part of the pilot projects. drought took a severe t

u.s. geological survey hope to find out more about what trig triggered a quake a year ago in our area. 59.8 magnitude quake was centered in louisa county. >>> straight ahead on the news edge, flag map. one town's controversial decision to ban american flags at grave sites. >>> the guilty verdict for a wall street millionaire was too much to swallow. news about a little pill that led to his death in seconds. >>> we're watching a couple of showers and storms out to our west. the good news is they seem to be diminishing. looks like this evening is going to be storm free around the area. i'll let you know how we're looking as we head toward the weekend. >> dave, it was fun baseball. >> sure was. the all-star game has come and gone but our nats made an impression on the big stage. later in the show the top three bryce harper moments of the first half the season. trust me, it's worth the price of admission which of course is free. we're back in a moment.  >>> changes could be coming to metro's service. it would allow 15 minutes it trains in peak periods. there are talks of cutting service

u.s. geological service just reported a 3.8 magnitude earthquake near los angeles. the just 20 minutes ago that would make it just after 3:00 l.a. time. right now no reports of damage. stay tuned throughout the morning on news 4 for updates. >>> look at this. a giant iceberg breaking off of a glacier in greenland causing a tsunami. an australian tourist hired a boat and crew to check out sites. one of the tourists caught that big wave on tape and posted it on youtube, of course. you can see the wave caused the boat to sway a lot. nobody got hurt. it's been so warm, the rain on the ice sheets has jumped from 47% to 94% since july 8th. >> if i had seen that i would be jumping for a life jacket. people are taking a picture. >> priorities are not what they used to be. >> 6:41, time for weather and traffic on the 1s. tom, a beautiful day. hope it will last. >> you will notice a dramatic change as you step out the door this morning. temperatures are in the 60s in most locations, accompanied by low humidity. right now 73 at reagan national. milder by the bay. hometown fore

u.s. geological service is reporting an earthquake in northern california. it happened at 8:52 and was centered in the water in humble county. the latest data indicates it had a magnitude of 5.1. >>> the fog we had this morning cleared out and we still have mostly clear skies. right now the main fog bank is toward south and south of monterey bay. as far as the forecast model we will take this into saturday morning and we will have some clouds regroup. especially south of the golden gate bridge from the golden gate to pillar point and a few patches elsewhere. you can't see temperatures not a big change here. low to mid-50s. san francisco 52, livermore 55. key headline we are warming up. that trend will continue so easily into the 70s to right around 80 degrees around the bay. look what happens inland. the warmest locations back up into the 90s and the hottest spots will be quite hot in the upper 90s, 97 to 98 degrees. tomorrow will be the warmest day of the weekend. coming up how much cooling you can expect for sunday. >>> some contra costa county residents a

u.s. geological survey says the eastern shore are the areas hardest hit by drought conditions. the lack of rainfall only made worse by extremely high temperatures. >> the ground and plants are dry so that's an increased risk of fire. >> that's why nearly a month after the fire started it's contained but still burning. >> you can't extinguish all the fire. because of the drought conditions we have across the state it's difficult and these fires get deep seated. >> the threat of brush fires aren't the only problem. >> right now agoriculture is being most effected by these dry conditions. >> it's plants, soil moisture. >> farm ers are also feeling the pinch. >> even as late as june 25th we probably had as much potential has we've ever had for a big crop. just in the last three weeks we really took a turn for the worst. >> i would imagine a lot of the water they put for irrigation is going to evaporate because it's been so hot. >> reporter: because of the drought watch state leaders are asking everyone to conserve water. >> thank you. complete broughte -- drought catch continueses

u.s. geological survey confirms a 2.4 magnitude earthquake hit near mineral, virginia just before 12:45 this morning. if you will recall, that is the same location as last august, 5.8 magnitude earthquake that was felt up and down the east coast that damaged the washington monument and the national cathedral. >> very active area down there. >>> the aclu wants police in 35 states including virginia to explain what it does with information collected from license plate readers like speed and red light cameras. they're concerned indefinite storage of the information violates' drivers' privacy. >>> you've heard of distracted driving. now, there is a concern about distracted walking. that happens when people are more focused on their phones and tablets than paying attention on where they're walking. last year, more than 1100 people were treated at hospitals nationwide for injuries related to distracted walking. the aaa mid-atlantic spokesman says the solution is creating laws and enforcing penalties. >> this is a widespread problem in the district of columbia. the council for court excellence issu

u.s. geological service is reporting an earthquake in northern california. it happened at 8:52 and was centered in the water in humble county. the latest data indicates it had a magnitude of 5.1. >>> the fog we had this morning cleared out and we still have mostly clear skies. right now the main fog bank is toward south and south of monterey bay. as far as the forecast model we will take this into saturday morning and we will have some clouds regroup. especially south of the golden gate bridge from the golden gate to pillar point and a few patches elsewhere. you can't see temperatures not a big change here. low to mid-50s. san francisco 52, livermore 55. key headline we are warming up. that trend will continue so easily into the 70s to right around 80 degrees around the bay. look what happens inland. the warmest locations back up into the 90s and the hottest spots will be quite hot in the upper 90s, 97 to 98 degrees. tomorrow will be the warmest day of the weekend. coming up how much cooling you can expect for sunday. >>> some contra costa county residents a

u.s. geological survey plans to map that fault within the next ten days and that will allow the agency toetermine better the region's earthquake risk in years to come. >>> 5:35. time for another your money report. >> consumer news time. what do we start with? >> we're talking about ticket scams. tickets to the hot summer concerts can be incredibly difficult to snag. consider this. floor seats for madonna's world tour at some venues are going for thousands of dollars each on stub hub and itself disration to get those in demand tickets can lead consumers to some pretty bad places. we're talking companies or websites where they wouldn't otherwise be doing business. you may be unfamiliar with the rules or you could respond to online classified that are often buyer beware. the national consumers league is urging ticket shoppers to avoid getting starry eyed over what looks like a great deal. here are some considerations to keep in mind before you click that buy button. note the url before making a purchase. scammers can set up fake websites. buy tickets with a credit card for added fraud protec

u.s. geological survey says a 2.4 magnitude quake hit around 12:45 this morning. the epicenter is about 80 miles southwest of washington. no reports of any damage and you probably remember august 23rd of last year. that's when a 5.9 magnitud

u.s. geological survey shows pointing towards the mine site. >> the usgs mapped it as far as the southwest end of lake clark, and from there it's about another 15 or 20 miles to the mine site. so that's where that's the big question mark here, is-is what happens in that 15 to 20 miles. >> narrator: pebble maintains that the fault either terminates or bypasses the mine site. >> we did a sort of electromagnetic flying of that fault, and actually it turned out to go in a different direction than people thought it did. so we have mapped that. that fault has not been active for, i think, over 11,000 years. so we really don't think it's a threat. >> narrator: still, pebble says they are designing their structures to withstand a magnitude 7.5 earthquake on the lake clark fault. >> survey all these little beach features, river features, and so on... >> narrator: but critics like higman point out that pebble won't release the more sophisticated mapping data that might support their claims. >> so if they design a facility with very optimistic ideas about seismic hazards and it turns out they are wro

u.s. geological survey satellites showed a virtual desert.sident issoufou said niger must address desertification if it is to get beyond the chronic food emergencies. >> ( translated ): that's why we have created the 3-n initiative- - nigeriens helping nigeriens. it's a structural response to the food crises that are consistently linked with our recurrent droughts. we are convinced that drought does not need to mean famine. >> reporter: a key part of the 3-n program is to expand a greening initiative that was actually begun more than two decades ago. this year, across niger people have been given temporary jobs to tide them through the so called hunger season, the lean period until the harvest arrives-- in normal years in september. a major goal of such public works projects is to reverse desertification. >> they give us food to dig these holes. we get four kilos of maize and six kilos of beans. this land is very dry and they told us it will have trees and we can have better crops and fodder for our animals. >> reporter: the shallow, half- mo

u.s. geological survey confirms a 2.4 magnitude earthquake hit near mineral, virginia before 12:45 this morning. that's the same location as last august's 5.8 magnitude earthquake that was felt up and down the east coast. that quake caused significant damage with the national cathedral and washington monument. not so this one. >>> police investigating a deadly shooting in the district. >> three shootings in less than 30 minutes in different locations. our own sherri ly is live in northeast at one of the scenes. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. just in the last half hour -- [ no audio] -- in northeast. we have the officer who -- [ no audio] -- on this side of the street looking around the car, in the bushes and the area, really focusing over here. we know the victims in two of the shootings overnight did survive. but this one here was deadly. police say the man was shot at 47th and brook street in northeast. the bullet hit him in the back, killing him. this morning an investigator returned walking the crime scene, taking measurements and photos trying to figure out what happened here. wh

u.s. geological survey fa. previouslynk im boy ds seem new faults appear and marv fertel, the one in maryland? >> touchÉ. i grew up in the central valley which i was tolde're hqkero,y noweisvered the whole man tell of the earth is made up of cracks in the crust and this, that and the other and it's something to be concerned about. but the ability of scientists to understand it better is also provedratilly,u' goiohrgh oceiin owdge. the key thing is to use all the technology you have at the moment you have it, don't drag it out over time as some people i think are guiltyf doing in order to rush to judgment d not get all the answersou anheakeio >>hould the nuclear regulatory commission pay more attention to earthquakes? >> they are paying a lot more attention to it. to be honest they were paying attention but probably not on lee path or sed jim wouldav ag ttti f renewal.s like i sd we ought to learn to deal with new information in real-time. not make it part of re newell or a ten-year cycle. do it when you get it.

u.s. geological survey of a great shakeout in california, which simulated a massive earthquake and the problems that could be faced, they discovered that there would be a shortfall of building materials. sand and gravel, madam chairman. if there was a major earthquake causing significant damage in the l.a. basin and surrounding areas. . twice in california and once in minnesota. mineral production is a key economic activity. supplying strategic for health care, manufacturing, transportation and the arts. more specifically, minerals and metal alis are critical components to aerospace. minerals, madam chairman, are also necessary to satisfy the basic requirements of the individual's well-being and that includes food, clothing, shelter and a clean and healthy environment. so we should not limit ourselves today by narrowly defining what a strategic and critical and that's precisely what this amendment does and i think that's the wrong approach. with that i'd urge a no vote, and i understand that the gentleman yields back his time, is that correct? the chair: the gentleman is correct. mr. tonko: mad

u.s. geological survey to establish an inventory of critical minerals in the united states and to set policies to help us develop those minerals. so what is the impact? well, excuse me -- the u.s. chamber of commerce in march of 2011, in march of 2011 undertook a study. in that study, they looked and determined that there are more than 350 energy projects that are being held up because of inability to get permitted or regulatory burden or other hurdles and roadblocks. in that study, they determined that if these energy projects -- again, more than 50 energy projects, could be green lighted, it would be generate $1.1 trillion, $1.1 trillion in additional gross domestic product. and 1.9 million jobs a year. 1.9 million jobs a year just in the construction phase for those energy projects. so this legislation isn't just about energy for our country. it is about energy. it is about a comprehensive approach. more than 13 different pieces of legislation, many of which have already passed the house. it is about a comprehensive approach to get development of our energy resources underway in a big, big

u.s. competitiveness. it would benefit the energy industry by providing sovereign rights to the seabed resources, 200 miles off our coast. a certain geological criteria met could extend to 600 miles or the so-called continental shelf. a proper delineation of the extent of the continental shelf could bring an additional 4.1 million square miles of ocean floor under u.s. sovereign rights, an area larger than the lowest 48 states and the international body that determines the claims in the arctic keep to the sky and there are going to be a lot of international recognition for u.s. rights in these areas and defending against be unreasonable claims of other nations is vital to the economic prosperity of the nation. the telecommunications industry needs the treaty to codify the right to maintain underwater cables and the oceans of the world. it also means them to provide stronger protection for cables against damages by other parties. a wide range of domestic industries including aerospace defense and consumer electronics needs the treaty to enable access to the new sources of mineral resources including rare earth metals as the senator indicated