Transcripts For WMAR News 20100312 : vimarsana.com

rescuers. haven t seen anything like this since daisy may. why this grandma was forced to use the force. we ll tell you all about it. meantime, good friday morning. thanks for joining us. i like that granny reference. it s good. how are you feeling out there? oh, man, the rain. here s justin with a look at the weather today. good morning to you. at 5:30, we ve got ourselves a little situation. remember that blizzard? well, remember both blizzards we had last month? well, all that snow melt has raised the water levels. yes, it saturated the soil. and we picked up about a half inch of rain this morning. there s more on the way tonight through tomorrow prompting a flood watch. yes, over 4 inches of rain are possible. this will be a doozy. you ve heard about severe weather in the deep south over the course of this week. our severe weather will come in the form of heavy rain and flooding. add in an east wind and we have the potential of flooding along the western shores of the chesapeake bay just from the high water levels. and yes the heavy rain now pushing through harford county and maryland s most powerful doppler radar. 56 degrees, but a heavier batch of rain arriving tonight through saturday. it is 5:31. let s check on the wet and soggy area roads. here s kim brown. reporter: yes, indeed they are wet and foggy. the earlier crash we had 95 southbound approaching 195 in the final stages of being cleared. all lanes open add you make your way southbound there. if you look around the area, drivers are taking it easy. some increased volume as you make your way southbound here on 95 headed through the white marsh boulevard area. not looking too bad in terms of congestion. traffic is moving around well. no real problems at this time. just take your time out there, guys, because it is kind of tricky as we make our way out for the friday commute. megan, jamie, back to you. this morning, recovery teams will resume to try to pull a body out of a frederick county lake. crews worked all day in lake linganore trying to recover the body. there were too many dangerous currents. the swift water rescue team are also helping with this recovery effort. there s no indication about who this person is. we have been taking tips that have been coming in all day long. crews only have a couple of hours before the heavy, heavy rains move in this weekend. no doubt about it, the numbers are really surprising, 4,000. since 1995, that s how many people have died on our state roadways. it s the number victim families and lawmakers want to see go down. linda so live now with how they make that a reality. reporter: when we get behind the wheel, we all want to get to where we re going. sometimes bad things happen, and if they do, you want a law on the books to protect you and your family. some say right now that law isn t tough enough. for families who have gone through the pain of losing a loved one there is a push to toughen the vehicular manslaughter law. right now, they only have to pay a fine or appear in traffic court. two bills seek to increase the penalties drivers would have to pay. even under the legislation, killing someone with the car would in most cases still be a misdemeanor. edward and kathy coles support the changes. their son conner was killed by a reckless driver. anyone with a single child, a beautiful child and loses them can imagine the sense of emptiness and loss of direction. we were blessed, and now we feel like we don t know what we feel. reporter: the driver that killed conner had three suspensions on his record. he walked away with nothing more than fines. we re live in towson. linda so, abc 2 news. at 5erb 33, he ended up being just as comfortable tackling a wall as he was tackling a quarterback. merlin olsen part of the fear some foursome and a tv star died early yesterday near los angeles after battling cancer. he still is the rams all-time leader in career tackles with 915. we have new details this morning in the death of actor corey haim. in 2006, haim admitted to having an addiction to valium. that coincides with the coroner s findings that he had pulmonary congestion and enlarged heart at the time of his death. the coroner has not determine what had killed corey haim. the break for first responders settling a multimillion dollar lawsuit. for some the money won t change the quality of their life. i m 52 years old, and they tell me i ve got lungs of a 90- year-old man. the man we just heard from is one of about 10,000 that the city of new york will pay for their heroic efforts on september 11th. new york city has agreed to pay up to $657 million to the lawsuits filed by ground zero rescue and response workers who say that they were sickened by the world trade center dust. the deal is still needing to be approved by a judge and workers themselves. police say an ohio state university janitor who shot two supervisors before killing himself was armed with more than 50 rounds of ammo and two handguns when he opened fire. nathaniel brown recently received a bad job evaluation, was upset that he was about to be fired. remember the story two people posing as a pick and strolling into the officers. and the decision now regarding a huge lawsuit. all right, listen. i know it s impossible to put the pacific on the east coast but they tried to do it yesterday in washington. first, our rain with justin berk. oh, yeah it s out there and it s coming down. how about the spray from the cars in front of you? yeah, it s going to slow you down in your commute. no doubt it will be a slow friday. we ve got more heavy rain. a second batch to come in overnight and saturday. more on that flooding coming up with 50 degrees this morning with an east wind at 14. let s see what s happening while you are waiting for the bus at the mta. reporter: good morning. slowing up the buses so do allow extra time as you travel by bus. we have a delay on the number 12 bus running 25 minutes late. your light rail and metro subway are on time and out there on the m.a.r.c. train system, brunswick train 870 running ten minutes late. for the mta transit team, i m mark jones. hey thunder, lightning.what s the problem? oh, just watch. did you have a good breakfast? no. well here, try this. .jimmy dean breakfast bowl. mmmmmmm. booooooommmm!! disomeone call for rain? fight the morning fade with sausage, egg and cheese breakfast bowls jimmy dean. shine on. hi, 5:39. we re watching a loop here over the last two hours and showing the heavy rain in yellow and orange. yeah, doppler radar is decked out for m.s. awareness week as we re pushing through hartford county, havre de grace along i-95. we ve got hefty rains and localized ponding that could cause maybe some slippery roads. no doubt there s going to be slippery roads. it does taper off a little bit. there could actually be some breaks in the rain as we head through the latter part of this morning and definitely into the afternoon. we start off with 50 here in baltimore. going to 56 with spotty showers throughout the day with heavy rain returning tonight. here s kim brown with more on our traffic. reporter: thanks, justin. yeah, the roadways are foggy and soggy. take time and allow extra braking space between you and the commuter in front of you. we have a couple of new crashes to let you know about. the drive times are not looking too bad here. 895 southbound between the 895 split, that is an eight-minute ride to 295 split. on the outer loop between route 70 and 95, that is an eight- minute trip. another crash at 32 eastbound at telegraph road, woo he have a crash. sherrie johnson s in the studio with the latest on the slots issue. sherrie? reporter: yes, there could be a setback in the plan to build the slots parlor in arundel mills mall. i m sherrie johnson. i ll tell you what the hold up is noach now. all right, we re back. this is march 12th. a year from today, will you go into a slots parlor somewhere in the state of maryland? doesn t look like arundel mills mall will be one of those stops. sherrie johnson joins us now with what s going on. reporter: good morning. the issue of slots has been an ongoing battle. those who need wanted the slots needs over 18,000 signatures and by thursday, that reached just over 19,000. the baltimore s cornish company wants to build a casino in the parking lot of arundel mills mall. it filed a lawsuit alleging many of the signatures are fraudulent. the maryland jockey club believes a casino would be a better idea than arundel mills. if the arundel mills plan is voted down in november, laurel park plans to apply for the slots bid again. i can understand that but i think you have to take a look at the will of the people. obviously, from our perspective, we d like to have it come back here. a lot of people don t believe it belongs at the mall. the cordish company plans construction on the maryland live casino this fall and then open it in 2011. we contacted the company about putting the issue on the november ballot and a possible delay in that process and did not get a response. live in the studio, sherrie johnson, abc 2 news. today in annapolis a bill that would increase the dropout age of 17 to 18 will be voted on. some lawmakers were worried about the price tag because putting this in place is expensive. the bill would cost $48 million in the first year. proponents argue that the state would save money on services for delinquent use. the world war ii memorial in d.c. was the gathering place yesterday for veterans of that war to hear a special message from steven spielberg and tom hanks. it was to kick off the hbo mini series called the pacific. with no nightly tv show to do, conan o brien is taking his act on the road. the former host of the tonight show announced a 30-city international tour. the legally prohibited from being funny on television tour. he will be in d.c. at constitution hall on june 8. all right. uncle stevie made the list on forbes magazine the richest billionaire in the world. the ravens owner is the only marylander to make the cut. dan snyder and the 1.5 billion net worth puts him at 655 on the list. maybe can you make that list if you are feeling lucky. you may want to go out and buy a powerball ticket. the jackpot has now climbed to $200 million. the multistate game arrived in maryland a little over a month ago. the next drawing is tomorrow. good morning at 5:47. we ve got the luck or unlucky draw, especially western maryland with over 2 feet of snow on the ground and expecting 2 to 4 inches of rainfall. the flooding that we do expect to have taking us through the entirety of the state will be much worse back into the mountains. the state highway department is working to clear the drains. if will be a major issue. it is something to pay attention to over the course of this weekend. we have our own problems because we have the saturated soil, high water levels from our recent snow melt and along the susquehanna that is still dealing with snow melt and pa draining down to the dams, harford, cecil county and topside of the bay. the bay itself is dealing with high water levels. there s a whole lot of stuff going on. 50 degrees this morning, and we ve already had rain push through. on average, about a half inch across the region. still raining heavy in harford in cecil county up 95 and along the bay itself and on into the easter shore as well. queen annes, caroline county, we re wet. they are lingering showers and will probably break up for a few hours today. main storm system sitting back to the west will be pumping in a little more moisture. it will be this batch and a redeveloping area of low pressure off the coast that will re-energize and stall across our region. check out the heavy rainfall forecast from our adonis model with breaks returning this evening and overnight. you wake up tomorrow morning with heavy rain around the potomac. this swings its way through the morning hours and by afternoon pushing to our northeast. this could drop before it is done over 4 inches across the area. here we go today. rain this morning tapers to showers, 56 degrees. the rain comes back tonight and will be heavy through tomorrow morning, 48. we ll check out the weekend forecast in just a bit. right now, here s kim brown with the latest on the wet commute. we do have limited visibility on the roadways this morning. the roads are going to be very, very slick. keep in mind, there are fog warnings in effect at the bay bridge. none at the key bridge. we do have an accident in odenton, 32 eastbound and telegraph road. one still remains at cherry hill road. drive times will be up a little bit as drivers are taking their time through the slick conditions. southbound 195 will take you 12 minutes or so to get from 140 down to the beltway. as we take a peek around the area, we re looking good in terms of traffic. not a whole lot of volume here on the northeast corner of the beltway at harford road. traffic appears to be moving at a really good pace. megan and jamie, back to you. senator harry reid rushes to the bedside of his wife and daughter after a serious car crash. we have the latest on their conditions this morning. when you put the words fighter and hard worker together, you get florence, and we ll introduce you to this 90- year-old and what she encountered at work this week. how about a bedtime snack? yay! come here. favorite. perfect. put your milk in. okay. whoa. okay, that s good. [ female announcer ] at the end of the day, a bowl of rice krispies. what do you hear? i hear. pop. i think it s saying, night night. [ female announcer ] .sounds pretty good. all done. good job. mustache. [ female announcer ] childhood is calling. our future leaders. explorers, great thinkers. they re the future of america, so let s bring them up right and give them our cheese. american cheese. kraft singles. put it in their lunch boxes. heck, put it right in their mouths. it s made with milk, never oil like some other slices. a country is only as good as its cheese. good thing ours doesn t have a bunch of holes in it. kraft singles - the american cheese. mmm. hot fudge sundae. ooh! frosted blueberry?!? over 25 flavors of kellogg s pop-tarts®. and they re all for fun and fun for all. pop-tarts®. made for fun™. we re back here at 5:53. here are top stories on this friday morning. acorn has voluntarily dropped a lawsuit that showed employees giving advice to a pair dressed up to a pimp and prostitute. they say the audio portion was obtained illegally because our state law requires the consent of both parties when you talk about private conversations. acorn s attorney says the activist organization is still planning its legal strategy and likely will refile the lawsuit. one of the defendants has since been charged with trying to tamper with senator landrieu s new orleans phone office. if you don t want slots in your county this may be the jackpot. the proposed slots in arundel mills mall is looking like it will end up on the november ballot for to you vote on. it appear these have 19,000 signatures for a referendum. the cordish company sued the board saying it s overlooked fraud and blackened plans for that facility. rahm eman y all seize they are getting towards the end in trying to work out an agreement on health care reform. they avoided a long struggle for abortion which was the principal hangup. the wife of harry reid and daughter are in the hospital after a broken neck, back and nose. officials say the accident happened on interstate highway in suburban virginia. the daughter, lanna, was released from the hospital late last night. at 91 years young, florence will tell you she is one tough lady. oh, yeah. the mother of two, grandmother of seven, great-grandmother of 13 is tough enough to take a punch from a young thug who tried to rob the aid where she work. he bought a candy bar and then it happened. when i went to give him the change, he put his hand in the register to grab the money, so i grabbed him. then he hit me in this area on the side. i had a mastectomy, okay? so the side where he hit is full. with all that happening, it still doesn t bring her any closer to retirement. good for her. tough lady. she wrote a thrort president obama. and then became the face of the health care debate. it s something that came true a lot sooner than i ever thought it would. the woman who finds herself now in the hospital and without insurance. we hear about deadly crashes almost every, single day in the news. a new report is that we ve been hearing less about them over the past year. severe weather is causing all sorts of problems this week. we ll take you to florida where it s anything but the sunshine state. you already heard about the rain today, rain tomorrow comes with some thunder and the possibility of over 4 inches of rain before this whole storm is done at the end of the weekend. definite flooding across maryland and gets worse the farther west you go. temperatures actually falling to the 50s but a little above normal. needless to say, this is a serious situation. we have potential major flooding on the way for the weekend. more on that and more on the roads coming up. stick around. there s a whole hour of good morning, maryland coming up after this. hey thunder, lightning.what s the problem? oh, just watch. did you have a good breakfast? no. well here, try this. .jimmy dean breakfast bowl. mmmmmmm. booooooommmm!! did someone call for rain? fight the morning fade with sausage, egg and cheese breakfast bowls jimmy dean. shine on. captions by: caption colorado, llc (800) 775-7838 comments@captioncolorado.com overnight rain soaked much of maryland. what it means for all of the snow that s left over lodged in gutters and how it will affect your morning commute. but i think you have to take a look at the world of the people around arundel county. the plan for slots in arundel mills mall suffered a huge setback. where the power now lies. this weekend you will lose one hour of sleep. hang on to it while you can. good morning. the rain and we lose an hour of sleep? that hurts. how are you feeling this morning? we ve got friendly sons luncheon tomorrow at the shart be. and the st. patrick s day parade in baltimore will be held at 2:00 on sunday. we ve already canceled the one in dundalk. justin berk says the race is still on. if not, i will show up and be by myself on sunday. some of us actually like to run in the rain. it can be soothing. the rain will be worse tomorrow than on sunday. that s the good news. we expect a washout this weekend. a flood watch across most of the