michael vick spent 18 months in prison, several more months on house arrest, but today he got the news he wanted to hear. he was told he will be able to return to the nfl this season. good evening. >> nfl commissioner roger goodell announced vick's reinstatement today, one week after vick completed his federal sentence on dogfighting charges. for more on this, let's go to lindsay czarniak. >> wendy, now it's really a question if any nfl team is willing to take a chance on michael vick. the conditional reinstatement means that vick can be signed by any nfl team. he is able to immediately take part in practices as well as preseason games, but he will not see immediate regular season action. michael vick will have to wait until game six of the regular season to play. commissioner roger goodell will evaluate vick after week five. meanwhile, former colts head coach tony dungy will act as a mentor to michael vick. in this instatement, roger goodell said that he had to be fully sure that events of the past would not repeat themselves. the commissioner spoke a few minutes ago about his conversation with the former falcons quarterback. >> he was disappointed in himself. he was direct about the fact that he lied to me about his involvement in dogfighting. i accept his apology. i understand. i don't like being lied to like anybody else. but this is something that we have to go forward. we have to move forward. and michael understands that i am judging him on his activities going forward and the words that he said to me and the conduct that hopefully will support the seesprdo m texpressed to me .akicic v sepely >>hael vick released this statement through his agent. he said i fully understand that playing fonba ill the nfl is a privil ae,ot n i right. i am truly thkfulor the opportunity i have been given. as you can imagine t l tas twot years have given meewoim t to re malimteuay telife, mature asn individual, and understand the terrible mistesak i've made in the past andha west type of lifi must lead moving forward. also, roger goodell talked about how thorough the process had been. he said he will make a decision on full reinstatement by week six of the regular season, jim. >> thanks, lindsay. a couple of teenagers were shot in the district this e-ivdrbyly aas drive-byti. police say the two ngngti policeay the two kids were li found on atlantic southern avenue in southern avenue in southeast. they were shot at a gas station a few blocks away. according to the police, one of them was shot in the abdomen. the other was shot in the back. police believe there may have been some witnesses to that shooting. they're looking for a tan suv with maryland agricultural tags. they believehat that vehicle may be connected to the shooting. an elderly woman escaped injury after a tree fell on top of her home in vienna. firefighters said it came down on the house just before 4:00 this afternoon. they're blaming heavy rain that softened the ground. the woman inside was not hurt, but her home was. today, in massachusetts, the police released the 911 tapes in the case of a harvard professor who was arrested while trying to get into his own house. that arrest sparked claims of racial profiling. >> reporter: the day after the caller came forward to say she's the one who called police about the possible break-in at henry gates' house inca mbridge, city officials reasedhe t 911 tapes. >> they kind of had to barhe in. thnd a ey th they finally got in and i wten litther closer to the house a s already in the house.liwa iotwoiced t suitcases.ed i'm n ur sme if these two rdividuals actulyd wke the -- i mean,ed l ivthere. >> you think they might have been breaking in? >> i don't know because i have no idea. >> reporter: the 911 openle c c race of thewo ten m. the two men. >> they were two largeren. on looked kind of hispanic but i'm not really sure. >> reporter: turned out, gates' front door had jammed. he and his driver had to unjam it. by that time, police sergeant james crowley was dispatched to where a tense encounter occ he >> the gentleman says he resides here, but keep the cars coming. >> reporter: the cars did keep coming. gates was taken >>away, charged with diaysorderly conduct. setting off a national debate racial il racial profiling with the president in the forefront. crowley, though, denied race had anything to do with the arrest. city officials are satisfied with that, but will establish a committee to review race relations in cambridge's police department. >> while this has been a trying time for cambridge, we are confident that we can ultimately come out stronger and more unified. >> reporter: meanwhile, the white house says the meeting where gates, crowley and the president will sit down for a beer might happen this week. >> the passer-by who reported the possible break-in also told the 911 dispatcher that he was calling on behalf of a concerned neighbor. the disorderly conduct charge filed against professor gates has been dropped. police in montgomery county prs investigating after a body waunfo in a bur unrng morningar on liton road and bradley boulevard in bethesda. darcy spencer has more. >> wendy, montgomery county police have now identifiedhe victim who died in that incident. he was a 45-year-old who lived seven miles away from the scene in takoma park, maryland. police are trying to figure out was this some sort of crash or was he the victim of foul play? it was an unusual sight for workers and residents in bethesda this morning. a minivan on fire, a body inside. >> my girlfriend and i walked down here all the time to use the grocery store and get a coffee and bagel. and usually see families and, you know, everyone out for the weekend. just after a nice weekend and this early in the morning, to see something like this is pretty shocking. >> reporter: the gold-colored minivan was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived before 4:00 this morning. when they put the blaze out, they discovered a burned body in the driver's seat. >> there were no immediate signs of foul play at this scene. however, our detectives are open to all possibilities at this stage of the investigation. >> reporter: police say t o van was found partially on a median trip on bradley boulevard at arlington road in bethesda. joe mcdonald says witnesses told him the burning van actually came to a stop at his extra fuel station on the corner. >> the vehicle rolled on to the property across the street on fire, on the inside ofhe vehicle. apparently the gentleman was still in the car. when they discovered the body was apparently pretty chard. they pushed the vehicle back away from the gas tank, into the road, and put the vehicle fire out. >> reporter: police tell news4 the circumstances are unusual and suspicious. they're not sure if the driver died from the fire or some other way. and they're investigating whether the van caught fire because of a mechanical or electrical problem with the van or if there was foul play. >> and right now we are conducting a joint investigation with montgomery county police major crimes detectives for the death, the fire marshal's office for the fire, and our montgomery county police collision reconstruction unit to understand whether or not there was a traffic clision involved in this fire and death. >> the intersection was clogged for several hours this morning because of that investigation. traffic is moving smoothly now. this incident does remain under investigation. reporting live from bethesda, darcy spencer, news4. >> thanks, darcy. police are investigating a suspicious death when they found the body of a 223-year-old woma. investigators say there was no obvious sign of trauma to the body and an autopsy is being performed to determine the cause of her death. there's some evidence of a rebound in the housing market today. the commerce department is reporting an 11% increase in new home sales in june. that is the largest month-to-month increase in nearly nine years. it's the third straight month that home sales have increased. houses are still selling for much less than they were this time last year. the median price was $206,000 in june. that compares to $234,000 last june. that positive news for home sales and a rally for bank stocks spurred some fairly modest gains on wall street today. the dow picked up 15 points. it closed at 9,108. the nasdaq closed about 2 points higher. the s&p was up three points. when we come back, astronauts from the shuttle "endeavour" wrapping up their final space walk at the space station today. one other thing for the media, our new governor has a very nice family, too, so leave his kids alone. >> sarah palin with some parting words for the media as she officially steps down as the governor of alaska. we don't t, dical bills wi wipe out theisavings. if we n't act, she'll be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. and he won't get the chemotherapy he needs. if we don't act, health care costs will rise 70%. and he'll have to cut benefits for his employees. but we can act. the president and congress have a plan to lower your costs and stop denials for pre-existing conditions. it's time to act. it quiet on the home front-- not a lot of activity. you read the news. and yet, some people need to sell and other people want to buy. this is a moment of challenge and opportunity. fortunately, re/max agents have the experience to help you meet the one and recognize the other. thanks. because the future's counting on us. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. crew members from the "endeavour" breezing through their final space walk today. they rewired the tv cameras and installed a porch. they got through the work so quickly, they had time to do extra chores around the space station. "endeavour" will spend three more days in orbit before returning to florida friday morning. the struggle over health care reform has some lawmakers looking for compromises now. one of the options being discussed, the so-called coops. steve handelsman has our report. >> jim, thanks. good evening from capitol hill. the so-called coops might appeal to conservative lawmakers. so concerned now about the cost of insuring the eninsured that they're holding up the process. president obama focused on china. health care reform is off the fast track the president had demanded. no votes until september. rib ll groups are alarmed this new ad out today. >> now the republicans say congress should slow down? that's because when something goes slow enough, it's easy to kill it. >> reporter: republicans say they're holding out for a plan that cuts deeper into health care costs before anyone's taxes go up or way up. >> but what really concerns me about this plan is washington's history of underestimating costs of expensive plans like this. >> reporter: democratic leaders don't have the votes to roll over the republicans because conservative blue dog democrats still agreet with the gop. >> the amerin people expect us to squeeze every dime of savings that we can out of the current system. >> reporter: government insurance is in trouble. some senate democrats are talking about cocops, insurance exchanges. the uninsured would get a policy in a pool. some conservatives oppose coops and the public option. >> either way, the government is going to give its program especially advantages that are not available to private insurance. the government is going to increase the cost of private insurance. >> reporter: the white house is non-committal. >> i don't believe that the president has come down one versus the other in terms of denoting coops equal to or above public option. >> reporter: but insurance pools now look like plan "a." the obama health care reform plan moves more slowly now through congress. president obama still steering clear of specics believes it's the outcome that matters. lower cost, better care, everybody covered. i'm steve handelsman, news4, capitol hill. leaders in the senate say there are not enough democratic votes in the senate to get legislation passed. nancy pelosi says there is enough support in her chamber to keep things moving. sarah palin is no longer the governor of alaska. she left office this weekend. sean purnell was sworn in as the new leader. thousands of supporters showed up to hear palin's farewell speech. she's avoiding petty politics and blasted her opponent as well as members of the media whom she claims have treated her family unfairly. >> one other thing for the media, our new governor has a very nice family, too. so leave his kids alone. >> palin's future plans include speaking engagements and a book. defense secretary robert gates is ruling out a military attack on iran over its nuclear weapons program. however, israel is not. gates met with his israeli counterpart in jerusalem today. israeli defense minister insisted that israel has the right to do whatever is necessary to keep iran from getting a nuclear weapon. he said al options are on the table including a military strike. secretary gates urged israeli leaders to give diplomacy more time. >> try and persuade the iranians to reconsider what is actually in their own security interest. >> saturday gates said iran will face tougher international sanctions if that country does not agree to negotiations. meanwhile, iran is blaming the u.s. for recent plane crashes in that country. the latest crash killed 17 people in northeastern iran on friday. iran's aging airline fleet is in serious need of maintenance. that country's foreign minister says financial difficulties caused by the u.s. sanctions have made it difficult for the country to make necessary repairs to its aircraft. iran has grown to rely on russian planes, which are old and also more difficult to repair. north korea made an apparent about-face on its decision to hold talks about its nuclear program. pygya pyongyang's foreign minsty wants to engage in talks with the u.s. the regime has not been so willing to engage in diplomacy in the past. north korea's defense minister says a military attack from the u.s. and south korea would be "unimagable." the u.s. and china have a responsibility to curb nuclear proliferation in iran and in north korea. as today's high-level talks got under way, president obama said the two countries are ready to make steady progress on some of the world's most pressing issues, including the global economic crisis. >> the united states and china will agree on every issue. nor choose to see the world in the same way. this was already noted by our previous speaker. but that only makes dialogue more important so that we can know each other better and communicate our concerns with candor. >> secretary of state hillary clinton and treasure secretary timothy geithner also spoke optimistically about the possibility of a stronger relationship between the u.s. and china. the relationship between china and taiwan may be improving. the presidents of those two countries met today for the first time in 60 years. that was when taiwan and china split in the civil war. china and taiwan usually communicate onlyhr tough semiofficial channels. the leaders expressed wishes to work together in peace for the best interest of both sides. even though they separated, beijing still claims thiland of taiwan as part of its territory. now details about the sobriety test giving to alexandria's chief of police. there's new research about the link between stomach prps and autism in children. and we have a steamy july day. >> yes, we do. >> over the weekend something happened that hadn't happened all summer. two 90-degree days in a row. the first time. >> we had a lot of sprinkles of rain coming through. >> we did. it's still overall a dry july. outside today, here is our sky watch. now showers, no thunder showers around us. get friends out at the beaches for this weekend, they're saying this is not the monday i was expecting. 88 degrees or was hoping for both saturday and sunday. the first time we've had two 90-degree days in a row. it's a reflection of what's not been a very hot summer. we've got the sky out there with clouds getting a little build-up, but nothing on radar. i'll show you. 85 degrees. the dew point, 66. so the heat index is 87. not too bad. nor is it really hot anyplace around the east. caribou, maine, they've had a wet, stormy summer in maine. buffalo, too. 74çó degrees. even back to our west, not all that bad. the dew points in the mid-60s. when we get into the low 70s, you really notice it. there's not much of a heat index. there's the jet that is off the coast. that's the reason that there have been nasty storms. look at the last couple of days. all the way from maine, wind damage down especially in the eastern parts of the eastern shore. again today, the eastern parts of north carolina, that was a watch which is now going down for you folks in the northern neck, but it's still up for parts of the lower eastern shore where there had been some nasty storms. boy, look at that area of rain that continues north into ocean city and even up near rehoebth. right around us, not anything going on. look at the ocean city today. over an inch and a half of rain. the temperature right now is 79 degrees. more rain continues. that's newborn, north carolina, where it's been cloudy and wet. over five inches of rain now with some very,eryñi heavy rains, soaking rains. again, down to our east and south. that's where the heat has been. portland, oregon, the heat advisory is out. their temperatures have been in the 90s. they've had nine 90-degree days this month of july while we've only had a couple. so that's where the heat has been, out west. overnight tonight for us, we'll continue to see any of these clouds break up. tomorrow, once again a general southwesterly wind. we'll see the humidity. there is a little wave in the atmosphere that as we get into wednesday, will be moving to our west. with that, it brings the increasinging risk of showers, thunder showers. by wednesday, wednesday afternoon into wednesday evening. tomorrow, just a hot one. feeling like july. into the low 90s. tomorrow, our average high is 88 degrees and in four weeks it's 85. so for the remainder of the evening for us, it will be just partly cloudy. sunset, 8:24. we've lost about 30 minutes of daylight since way back in june. heading toward the tail end of summer, believe it or not. overnight tonight, the clouds will dissipate a lot. still some around in the morning. warm and muggy. temperatures about 70 degrees as they were this morning. and then tomorrow there's a risk of some pop-up variety thunderstorms. by and large, just mostly sunny here. temperatures near 90 into the low 90s. it will be for your friends on vacation out at the beaches. a bit of a drier day at the beaches. there could be more pop-up variety showers or thunder showers. tomorrow, just a risk of one or two, especially for folks out toward the blue ridge and spots like this. here's how things shape up. increasing chances to get our own needed -- still needed because many spots are dry -- shouz or thunder showers. especially wednesday and even into thursday and friday. there is that chance of a typical afternoon shower or thundershower with temperatures into the high 80s to near 90. and still no sign, by the way, of any real building heat wave, anything like that. we've had plenty of summers "american ido mid-90s but not yet. coming up tonight, we have new information about the arrest of zaalexandria's pole chief. a car smashes into a house today on a busy road in arlington. there's something big happening at pizza hut. - woooh, nice! - that's a lot of food! now get big meals like our stuffed pizza rolls, pizza mia, the p'zone... and our 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