mother, a prominent political figure in her own right told judge john bates i humbly and passionately plead for mercy for my son. thomas himself said what is wrong? i broke the law. i humiliated my family. i humiliated my mother. he said i took this money because it was a sense of entitlement. my needs ahead of everyone. thomas pleaded guilty in january to two felony counts after several years of siphoning city money intended for youth programs he championed. he also resigned the council seat his father once held before him. judge bates, who neated thomas's earlier positive work with young people agreed with prosecutors that thomas led the scam that cheated city children. this is a case of betrayal the judge said. these programs were to benefit under privileged and needy children. most of the stolen money was used for lavish personal purposes by thomas. the former council member could have received 51 months in prison. he left the courthouse again without speaking to reporters. mayor vincent gray whose 2010 campaign is under federal investigation said the thomas case is, quote, an important reminder that public officials must never forget they must be guardians of the public trust. now fed federal bureau of prisons will be sending a letter to thomas telling him when and where to report to start serving his sentence. at the federal courthouse in downtown washington i'm tom sherwood news 4. thanks. we are hearing the 911 calls from social service workers who are trying to stop a mother from killing her baby in baltimore. quinisha thomas was on a supervised visit at the department of social services last week. that is when she suddenly laid her child down on a table, pulled out a kitchen knife, and stabbed the 8-month-old baby. william purnell short threw a chair at thomas to get her to stop. dana hays ran to call the police. she was so frantic it was hard to understand her. >> i can't hear you. >> the security -- [ inaudible ] >> today governor o'malley and baltimore's mayor made a surprise visit to commend short and hayes for helping save the child. the baby's name is pretty diamond. she is expected to recovery from her injuries. thomas has been charged with child abuse, assault, and weapons violations. some neighbors in montgomery county consider a 4-year-old girl lucky to be alive. she fell from a screened window today on the second floor of an apartment building in aspen hill. jackie bensen is there now with more on why this danger could exist for children across the area. jackie? >> reporter: well, doreen, this happened in an instant. the little girl came tumbling out of a second floor window. it was a shocking sight. >> we saw the baby come out. >> reporter: eleanor hopkins was walking toward a small playground in the pepper tree apartment complex when she heard a strange sound and saw a child falling through the air. >> i just parked the bike right here and i went over to make sure she was all right and the grandmother came out the door but the screen looked kind of strange. it was bent this way and the little girl come that way. so how did that happen? luckily the 4-year-old landed on the grass instead of the pavement or patio. she was examined at the scene by pa paramedics then take bin ambulance to a local hospital. >> we know this is unfortunately not going to be last one year. >> reporter: he says now is the time to child proof windows. >> although it provides a nice view don't put beds, dressing tables, changing stands, any type of furniture next to a window that a young child whether a toddler or up through an 8 or 9-year-old might get curious and look out the window to yell to a friend. the screen just does not provide that protection to hold the weight of a child from falling out the window. >> reporter: safety experts say you should also try and use those cordless blinds at any opportunity because small children can strangle themselves if they become wrapped in that cord. reporting live in aspen hill, jackie bensen, news 4. a high school in memphis, tennessee evacuated today after a home made chemical bomb exploded in the building. police say somebody called in a bomb threat to craigmont high just before noon. moments later the bottle exploded and smoke filled the hallway. nobody injured but an assistant principal went to a hospital after inhaling some fumes. two suspects have been arrested. authorities describe the incident as a prank. a mother in prince william county is going to go to jail for 18 months for barricading her three young children in a room by themselves. a judge today handed down the sentence to christina moore. last march moore and a man named john robi kept their 1, 2, and 4-year-old girls behind a six-foot sheet of drywall in their house in bristow, virginia. robi was sentenced to three years in prison. lawyers claim the couple is struggling with drug addiction. the kids are being cared for by relatives. at the john edwards corruption trial today another aide described the former presidential candidate's efforts to hide his affair. john davis testified in court in greensboro, north carolina. davis said that he had a run-in with edwards' mistress at a detroit hotel during the 2007 campaign. he said rielle hunter knocked on his door and said she and edwards were in love. the next day edwards denied it. davis also said he overheard a phone conversation between the two discussing her pregnancy. prosecutors are trying to prove that edwards illegally used campaign donations to hide the affair. now to decision 2012 and the republican presidential race. mitt romney is spending a second day in the key battleground state of virginia. he is campaigning there with virginia governor bob mcdonald who is said to be on the short list of possible romney runningmates. romney also picked up a key endorsement today from one of his former rivals. steve handelsman joins us live from capitol hill with more. hi, steve. >> thanks. >> reporter: this was more evidence that republicans, even those proudly on the right wing of the party, are coming around to romney. >> he will win. >> reporter: congresswoman michele bachmann never won a primary and she quit the race for the white house in january. but she was a powerful voice for the tea party and for republican women and she spoke out today in virginia to endorse mitt romney. >> president barack obama, president mitt romney. you decide. >> another beautiful lady. how are you? >> reporter: what women decide could determine who wins. polls show romney trails the president with those voters. many in the tea party movement dreamed of one of their own with the nomination, santorum, gingrich, perry, michele bachmann, not mitt romney. >> what mitt romney has going for him is the deep and broad antipathy to barack obama on the right among conservative women and among tea party types. he can capitalize that to compensate for his own short comings in appealing to them. >> reporter: another issue for romney is choosing his runningmate. florida senator marco rubio is being mentioned. rick santorum. those two topped today's reuter ipso's vp poll of republicans. there's virginia governor bob mcdonald who hosted romney today and got a tryout taking on president obama. >> remember three and a half years ago we heard that tune about hope and change? and now what do we have? we have recession and division and malaise. it's time for a change. don't you think? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: one possible gop vice presidential nominee. but mitt romney could pick a vice presidential nominee to specifically help him with tea party conservatives or with independent women voters. on capitol hill, i'm steve handelsman. the white house tonight is side stepping questions about the fate of a blind chinese activist who is looking now to leave china and find asylum in the u.s. he escaped from house arrest last week. he took refuge at the american embassy in beijing. he was arrested for exposing chinese human rights violations. earlier this week he left the u.s. embassy after being assured that he and his family were safe in china. but today he changed his tune and said he was afraid for his family safety and he wants to leave that country. the u.s. ambassador to china said that could be difficult now getting outd of the u.s. embassy. >> we have to sit down and talk with him and review the options. they'll have to make a decision. >> reporter: secretary of state hillary rodham clinton was in beijing today for previously scheduled meetings on energy and environment. she did not specifically address the chen case. we just learned the identity of a bicyclist struck and killed by a car in olney this morning. police say a driver hit 48-year-old diane whitman who was riding her bike near the intersection of route 108 and zion road. the victim lived in montgomery village. the driver stayed on the scene and was taken to the hospital for minor injuries. police are still trying to figure out what caused the crash. plan for crowds, delays, and possible confusion this weekend as the series of big events in washington coincide with metro track repairs. every metro line will be affected in some way because of the work and that combined with the caps playoff game and nationals game and avon breast cancer walk has a lot of riders planning ahead. >> several hours early. yes. several hours. if it's going to be one tracking because i do ride the subway. >> this is not routine track maintenance. this is the first time that metro, now at 36 years old, has ever had to go through a massive rebuilding effort. >> reporter: four stations on the green line from fort to then to green belt will be closed. the only trains operating on the yellow line will be between mount vernon square and huntington. kind of like summer time out there today. any storms around, doug? >> we got a couple storms back to the west. we'll talk about those right now. most of us though on the dry side and that is how we'll remain, on the dry side. yes, very summer like. 81 right now with a dew point of 64. that's a very high dew point for early portions of may. a lot of you saying hey it's just too humid too early. winds right now out of the south at 6 miles per hour. here are the temperatures. 88 in cumberland, maryland. 87 in charlottesville. 81 here. only 68 out toward annapolis along the water there. a little cooler to the east. here's where the storms are right around portions of west virginia and even a severe storm right now down around stanton, virginia. i'll update you on where the storms will go and what to expect tomorrow. may see more of them coming up. also coming up the fears of osama bin laden have been revealed in some newly released documents. the family of a drum major killed allegedly in a hazing incident are making a new demand that will impact a famed college marching band. sometimes when the door bell rings, it's not always the avon lady. it can have dire consequences. watch how this firefighter got real small to keep from getting mugged in his own home. i'm pat collins. the story coming up. >> reporter: and a picture perfect moment at the final writings of osama bin laden suggest he still dreamed of another blockbuster attack on the u.s. some of his correspondence has been declassified now and placed in the public domain. michelle franzen has our report. >> reporter: the compound in pakistan where osama bin laden lived in secrecy and died after u.s. special forces tracked him down is gone, destroyed without a trace. but documents, letters, and other evidence seized the night of the raid left a trail showing the al qaeda leader still had aspirations to attack the u.s. >> as a former professional intelligence officer there is nothing i would like to have more than the capacity to read my enemy's mail. and in this case we're actually reading ten years of osama bin laden's mail. >> reporter: the intelligence community and the public are getting a snap shot look at some of the documents analyzed over the past year at west point's combatting terrorism center. the west wing gave west point the green light to publish 17 documents and letters on its websi website -- originals written in oishic and translated into english dated from 2006 to april, 2011. bauecause of the renewed interest on this anniversary in the mission that led to bin laden's demise, that this was deemed an appropriate time to release them. >> reporter: terrorism experts say it shows bin laden focused on grand plots following 9/11 including an outline to assassinate president obama and then nato commander general david patraeus. >> there is no question of his aspiration here. he wanted to kill the president of the united states. >> reporter: the documents also exposed cracks within the terrorist organization worldwide. >> this shows an organization in decline, under siege, and really feeling the pressure. >> reporter: the threat of al qaeda diminished with bin laden's death experts say but not gone. michelle franzen, nbc news. new york. >> the family of a drum major who died in a hazing incident wants florida a&m university to disbandits famed marching band. robert champion was beaten to death five months ago. 13 people are facing hazing charges in connection with his death but none has been charged with murder. >> so i know i did not get what i anticipated for my son's murder. i did not at all. so, no, i was not happy with it. felony hazing. of course, there again, that word hazing just don't fit. i've always said that. >> champion's mother says the only way to stop the hazing is to clean house and disband the marching band until further notice. for now, the marching band had been suspended and a hazing task force was set up. a student at the university of san diego says he was thrown in jail and then forgotten in a jail cell for days. he has now sued the agency for $20 million. daniel chong was put in a cell after a drug raid at his apartment complex last month. he admits he was smoking pot with his friends. he says dea agents told him he was not being arrested. but chong was put in a windowless cell. he didn't hear from another human being for days. >> i kicked the door many times. even my neighbors i guess were getting annoyed at me. told me to shut up. about the third day i was completely insane. >> reporter: he said he tried to carve a suicide note into his arm with his broken eye glasses. on the fifth day an agent opened the cell door. he was taken to a hospital suffering from signs of kidney failure. the dea issued an apology. >> it was a race against the clock. a miner was buried under ten feet of coal today. he was standing on the pile of coal when it sank under his feet and suddenly buried him. firefighters found him with only his head and arms sticking out. they quickly shoveled the man out before he sank any further. took about 15 minutes to free him. he was taken to a local hospital and is expected to be okay. la nina is over. the national weather service has declared an end to the weather phenomenon. la nina is caused by the cooling of the central pacific ocean in the winter and usually triggers drought in the southern u.s. and more rain to the northwest and often means more summer hurricanes in the atlantic. so over forever or for this season. >> for now. normally they're about a year cycle. this was a two-year cycle. now we're going into what is called neutral which for us means expect average conditions for summer. a lot of people thinking it's going to be a hot summer i don't think we'll see that. temperatures should be about average. i also think the trend is for us to go back toward an el nino. that could mean some fun stuff for the winter. >> okay. >> all right. we didn't have any fun stuff this year. i want some fun stuff for next year. you know what i'm talking about right? >> here we go. all right. out there right now plenty of sunshine across the area. not a bad day at all but a lot of you are saying hey it's just too humid. 81 degrees the high temperature today. 56 the morning low. a fairly cool start to the day today with very low clouds but the clouds got out of here ickly and right now we're sitting at 81 the high today. yeah on the humid side i asked you on my facebook page and twitter what do you think? a little too hot and humid? 80% said too hot, too humid too quickly. well, get used to it. that's what we'll see again tomorrow. 81 right now in washington and in gaithersburg. look to the west. 90 in cumberland the high there. 88 martinsburg. 8 # winchester. 88 in charlottesville. only 68 in annapolis and 69 down toward pax river. the easterly component to the wind along the bay kept you cooler. 81 is the current temperature with winds oust the south right now at 6 miles an hour. dew point is 64 so it is quite high as is the humidity. the humidity is going to stay high throughout the rest of the evening. currently 84 in martinsburg. 82 manassas. 83 in fredericksburg. still cool along the chesapeake. 68 degrees in annapolis. ocean city by the way if you're thinking it's nice and warm let's go to the beach, 59 degrees in ocean city, maryland. storm 4 radar right now showing the shower activity in through the panhandle of west virginia and then right along the blue ridge here. we'll take a couple stops for you. one right around martinsburg where you can see we are dealing with some showers around hedgesville and then around shepherdstown. this did have lightning and thunder a little earlier. not seeing that now but you can still hear some thunder probably around the shepherdstown area. cloud-to-groundstrokes. a little shower around strasburg trying to make its way over the blue ridge toward front royal. front royal may see a quick shower. this is about it. this is part of a little boundary moving down to the south and east. bigger storms associated with the boundary in pennsylvania but it moves down the mountains around roanoke. heavy rain there so if you're thinking of traveling i-81 the rest of the evening you may run into a few showers and storms there. there is the boundary. cooler air to the east. warmer air to the south and west. and tomorrow the warmer air will be in. tomorrow a little bit better chance of thunderstorms i think for just about everybody along the i-95 corridor. 5:00, that is when the showers and the storms could move through. ahn they could be strong tomorrow. maybe severe with the potential for some heavy rain. maybe some hail. then on saturday best chance of showers back toward the mountains. right now i think most of the weekend should be on the dry side and most of it should be rather warm too. this evening partly cloudy. warm and humid with isolated storms. mostly to the west. 69 to about 75 degrees. tomorrow morning a nice morning. i do expect some low clouds especially from washington to the northeast but the rest of us just partly cloudy with temperatures in the low to mid 60s. tomorrow afternoon mixture of sun and clouds. warm. a bit humid once again with showers and storms. some of those storms could be strong. high temperatures 80 to 85. although a little warmer once again down to the south and west. saturday and sunday, looking pretty good. 82 on your saturday. 73 on sunday. monday 74 and then getting back to around the 80-degree mark on wednesday and thursday. i want to show you one more graphic here. i know you've been waiting for this. we're getting ready for backyard weather. >> wow! >> all summer long. >> summer can't be far away. >> not far at all doreen. if you want us to come to your back yard send the pictures to weather@nbc washington.com. >> you're bringing the burgers. >> a lot more than that. >> thank you, doug. coming up tonight the legend of the goat man. alive and well in prince george's county. now going to the big screen. a man who was supposed to preserve the national archives will now go to jail for trying to make a deal on e-bay. 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