Transcripts For WTTG 20091126 : vimarsana.com

into what happened. let s say a preliminary investigation points to a mistake at a security check point. here is what we know at this point. you re looking at the video of this couple of fauquier county arriving at the state dinner last night. they re well known for their ownership of oasis winery and a rumored role in the upcoming real house wives of d.c. the secret service now admits they did not have an invitation to attend last night s event. a statement says initial findings identified a secret service check point which did not follow proper procedure to ensure that the two individuals named in a washington post story were on the invited guest list. it is important to note hat these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of security. this is the couple s facebook page. they have osted pictures with vice president joe biden, the chief of staff and cbs news anchor katie couric among others. a post says that she they were honored to be at the white house for the state dinner in honor of india with president obama and our first lady. obviously this investigation is just beginning. we have tried to get in touch with the couple for additional comment but have not heard back. no word on whether they could face charges. of course we will stay on top of this story and bring you more as get it. thanks very much. to another big story we re following. the suspect in the murder of this 9-year-old boy found dead in his jail cell today. jose pena was arresadd eek ago for shooting arrested a week ago for shooting this little boy through his apartment door. reporter: he used a sheet to take his own life. tonight an investigation is now underway at the jail. officials confirm pena was operated from other inmates at the time. the big question tonight is when was the last time someone checked in on this high profile alleged child killer. in the neighborhood of 9-year- old oscar fuentes, the news that his alleged killer was found hanged in the d.c. jail was met with mixed reaction. they should have watched him. it s a big case. they should have kept an eye on him. with any big case like this, somebody should be watching him 24/7 because we don t know how high his risks are in doing whatever. look what happened to today. reporter: he is the suspect accused of killing the fourth grader in his home. police say he shot through the door. according to the jail on wednesday, he committed suicide by hanging hielf. residents say another death makes no one happy and offer no, sir closure. it would have been better to go through the court process to see the family have some justice the right way. i think it s devastating to the community. not only do we lose a child but we also lost another person that was probably a lost soul. reporter: he had been in the jail since his arrest eight days ago. the jail says he was housed in a special management unit which requires enhanced security for inmates. officials would not say when was the last time anyone checked on him. [ foreign language ] reporter: in spanish, the uncle said the death of his nephew was sad. the apparent suicide did not sit well with some members of the community. he should have faced what he had to go through. he should have faced the consequences instead of taking his life away. reporter: a spokesman with the jail tonight confirms he was in his cell by himself and was being checked by guards every 30 minutes. he was due back in court december 1. prosecutors say he admitted he had a gun in his waste and he said it accidentally went off as he walked up the stairs in the boy s building. a county worker was electrocuted and another critically swrurd. they we removing a metal light stand when it hit some live power lines. a 59-year-old was killed. in the trenches and through the night, i was with him last night and enearly this morning. the criewses were working to too to maintain water pressure. crews found more cracks in another section of the people today. people who live in that area are being asked toen come serve water by holding off on laundry and taking shorter showers. roads clogged earlier today by drivers trying to get out of town early. the weather not helping matters. now we re under a fog advisory. when can we expect things to clear ?up. i think by the time the sun comes up tomorrow, the fog will be getting better. give it till 9:00 or so. that s when the dense fog advisory that has been issued for our area is set to expire. it s not terribly foggy yet but in a couple of hours we ll be seeing the visibilities drop around the region. if you re taking off early in the morning, fog may be a problem for you. all the counties you see filled in gray there and the cities from frederick to leesburg and then then and shenandoah and char lotslle may see visibilitying dropping down to zero. the measurable rain is out of here, but later earlier this afternoon and evening, we had some breaks in the clouds and that allows that fog to get going. we are seeing that. now, if you are going to be traveling out toward the chicago area, we re watching a big area of low pressure spinning out there. that is also heading in this direction. it will bring us a few showers late on thanksgiving day. and just a little quick shot of some of the snow that is beginning to fall across portions of iowa and into wisconsin. by the way, speaks of winter storm watches, we have a few. out for our western, grant, allegany and mineral county. several inches of snow possible there and maybe some snow showers closer in. we re talking about thanksgiving in detail and black friday forecast coming your way in a few minutes. thanks very much. traveling by air or on the roads, we ve got you covered tonight. roz plater live at reagan national airport. bob barnard is live in northwest and we are going to start our team coverage with the great getaway with bob. how is it looking on the roads tonight, bob? reporter: laura, i guess it depends on where you are. there is a massive humanity on the move tonight, not too much of it here on wisconsin avenue. and not any major roadway accidents to tell you about, just sheer volume. this was interstate 95 heading out of washington. it s 5:00 and the going is slow. listening to different cds and talking. reporter: heading southbound the traffic it better. we re coming from chronton, pa scranton, pennsylvania heading to south carolina. the traveling hasn t been bad. reporter: the journeys north haven t been as easy. where is home? new jersey. reporter: that s a bit of a trip. 13 hours so far. traffic put as damper on things but we ll get through it. reporter: we visited the pre- thanksgiving crowd at a rest stop near laurel. it s a busy place with a purpose. how you holding up? good and i ve got to go to the bathroom. reporter: if you need a pick me up here, a vending machine is the best you ll get. it s a mocha chocolate coffee drink which i need since i ve been driving forever. i am with the peace corps. i was in costa rica for a very long time and now i m back and ready to see my family again. reporter: for many on the road the reunions ahead will be sweet. i was laid off and have a new job and i finally have some vacation time. i m able to get out and see my mother. this is the first year my brother is home from iraq. we ll be home with him and his kids so i m really excited this year. reporter: sergeant ernest petis is back home from new jersey from his second tour in iraq. it s tough. they come back and finding job placement is hard. he s keeping his spirits up and that s what we re happy about. reporter: for everyone else on the road, there s reason to celebrate for the fact that traffic is moving more smoothly in both directions on i-95 on this traditionally worst travel day of the year. if your travel plans have you hitting the road early tomorrow morning, there s really no way to tell you how traffic is going to be except to advise you to turn into fox 5 morning news starting at 5:00 a.m., brian. bob barnard live night in northwest. great getaway isn t just on the highway. of course some travelers saved the time, spent a little extra cash and are flying home. roz plater has a look at how things are going at the airport. reporter: the good news is the only sign of a backup is really at the cell phone waiting lot where there are a limited number of spaces and an awful lot of folks coming here to pick up friends and family. other than that, travelers tell us, it s been rather hitch free. there s a slowdown at the security check points but if you re a frequent plyer, you may flyer, you may not think it s that bad either. air travel is down an estimated 5% this thanksgiving over last. that s mostly due to the struggling economy. also, there are fewer flights because of airline cutbacks and we re blessed with mostly good weather, especially in the northeast corridor. all together that means fewer delays, less congestion on what is supposed to be one of the busiest travel days of the year. passengers say things are looking a lot more like an average travel day. maybe the economy, maybe people are just being smarter travelers and taking the days off earlier and flying out then. money i think. people are staying home. we re using miles. reporter: it may also be that travelers are starting to embrace that whole trickle out of town earlier approach rather than waiting for the day before thanksgiving holiday instead of waiting the ediction, though, is things will be a lot more hectic on sunday where everybody will try to get home on the same time because their kids are due back in school on monday. oh, yes, the best is yet to come. thanks, roz. one woman s laptop stolen. so you think it s been for good? think again. the high-tech way one man was able to track down its exact location. toyota issuing another major recall. turns out a potentially deadly probl has nothing to do with those floor mats. plus, find out what brought one would-be robber to tears coming right back.  what laptop swiped by a thief but that s not the end of this story. turns out it was tracked down to a local house by using software available to anyone. will commas is live in the newsroom will thomas is live in the newsroom with how it all went down. reporter: if you re not tech savvy, the ability to track a computer might be hard to believe. we discovered it s not only possible but it allowed a local woman to recover her stolen laptop. you think who did this, you know. then the second thing you think about, i just want to pack up and move. i don t want to be here anymore. reporter: a single working mom burglarized earlier this month. v.a. lens ya valencia jones home the target. a laptop gone. but her computer was also a work computer routinely monitored by an i.t. expert. that expert was able to remotely access her computer and launch a gps program that provided an address in this upper marlboro neighborhood. police responded and her stolen computer was recovered. thank you so much. i mean, i can t say how much that service was beneficial. i completely control everything going on in that computer from here. reporter: anyone can locate another compute we are software like log me in or go my pc. if the missi computer is being used on the internet, the i.p. address can be located through the internet provider, much like the gps program installed by valencia s i.t. tech. the i.t. support person would have taken the program and moved a copy of it from his computer to the remote computer and in this case the stolen computer. and then turn that program on so it began to broadcast the location of where the computer was operating from. reporter: essentially it is like a bea bee con. that like a beacon. that signal sent the i.t. guy and the police to an address where they found the stolen laptop. the man caught with her computer says he didn t steal it. someone gave it to him. at last check police were going to search his home. very interesting. two delivery drivers are be be hailed for pouncing on a carjacking suspect and holding him down until police got to him. it happened in the 3100 block of 14th street in northwest yesterday. police say the suspect tried to carjack a man. when the drivers intervened a second suspect got away. a massive new recall from toyota after a deadly crash. forget the floor mats the company first recalled to keep the gas pedal from getting stuck. now toyota says the pedals are the problem. in many of the cars. fox s rick leventhal has the details. reporter: a tall order for toyota. the automaker announcing plans to fix almost four million cars, including the camry, the number one selling passenger car in the country and the popular prius, best selling hybrid in the u.s. this all stems from a massive recall announced back in september. toyota telling millions of motorists to take out their floor mats because the gas pedals had the potential to get jammed. the recall was prompted by this fiery crash in august that left four people dead, including a california highway patrolman. our accelerator is stuck. we re on 125. reporter: now the company has come up with a solution albeit temporarily. starting in january mechanics at dealerships will shorten the length of pedals. that will givetoyota time to create new accelerators but those aren t expected till the spring. in a statement the company says in part, toyota has and will continue to thoroughly investigate and take appropriate measures. the accelerator fix comes just a day after toyota recalled more than 100,000 pickup trucks because rust problems could cause the vehicle frame to collapse. in new york, rick leventhal, fox news. you typically think of bank robbers as hardened criminals, tough guys, but not this one. thisan cried while robbing a california bank. he handed the teller a note asking for $4,000. then he talked to her while she was getting him the money. he told her he had cancer. he never threatened anyone, never pulled a gun. just cried and walked off with the cash. some would-be car thieves crashed a pickup truck into an oregon convenience store to steal the atm. they quickly found out the machine is bolted to the floor. no matter how hard they tried t wouldn t bunch. eventually they did give up, left with nothing and those suspects are still on the loose. we re getting a new look tonight at the september 11 attacks, this time through pager messages that were sent that day. plus, another local victim at the fort hood rampage laid to rest. how h inspired so many. plus, new swine flu warnings. the new health threat it s posing. well-informed people are considering chevy malibu. are you a cop? no. you didn t hear it from me, but this malibu, it offers better highway mileage than a comparable camry or accord. estimated 33 highway. i saw that on the epa site. so how come the malibu costs so little. it s a chevy. you have cop hair. now during the chevy red tag event, get an 09 malibu with o percent apr for 72 months. see red and save green. now at your local chevy dealer. here s to discovering that the little things in life are often big things and the time well spent doesn t always mean money must be spent people everywhere are building their lives on more solid ground through sound choices and a smart approach to their finances and they re turning to suntrust for easy ways to save money and take more control over it live solid, bank solid. suntrust. the mourning other the victims of the fort hood shooting goes on. major lavardo caraveo was laid to rest today. tom fitzgerald reports. reporter: in arlington national cemetery, section 59 at grave number 92, you ll find a temporary sign and flowers marking the two day old grave of army lieutenant colonel wanita warman killed in the shootings at fort hood, texas but just two days after lieutenant colonel warman burial grave 93 was readied to army major libardo caraveo also killed at fort hood and now will rest in arlington s hallowed grounds. caraveo was one of 13 slain preparing to deploy to afghanistan. his accused killer fellow army major nadal hasan faces 13 counts of premeditated murder. he leaves behind his wife angela, their six children, and many questions from his family about how he was killed. it s really hard on her, hard on all of them. reporter: amy taylor was a friend and colleague who says caraveo s wife is still waiting for answers from the army investigation still underway. she says she hasn t gotten any answers, any information. she doesn t know where he was shot or anything. reporter: major caraveo was only 52 years old and had lived in prince william county, virginia. he was not born in the united states but rather came here as an immigrant from mexico. he went on to earn a doctorate in psychology and put that doctorate to work helping soldiers in service in the united states army. it was a life say his friends dedicated to helping others and a legacy his family will have to remember him by. tom fitzgerald, fox 5 news. more than eight years after the attacks of 9/11, new messages from that day have been released. a social activist group publicized the messages intercepted from pagers. they range from personal and emotional to official instructions. some may have played a role in action taken by the government like a message saying air force one was a target. keep in mind these were intercepted prior to 9/11 legislation authorizing overnment monitoring of messages between citizens. the countdown is on. black friday sales just over 24 hours away. want to knowhow to score the best deals? our money team has you covered. unemployment soaring, families forced out on to the streets. tonight we re taking you inside the effort to bring thanksgiving to those facing tough times. family, friends and fans all remember abe pollin. we have some of the untold stories of how he touched the people of washington, d.c. cong up. (dial-up modem) remember when connections to the internet sounded like this - when high speed internet was out of reach of most american families and small businesses? as recently as the year 2000, only three percent of american families had high speed internet. then competition drove innovation - spurred private investment, and the internet took off - at record breaking speeds. at at&t we re taking the lead - investing some thirty-eight billion dollars in our wired and wireless networks over the past two years. last year alone we invested more than any other public company in america. and at at&t we support a national plan that makes high speed internet available to every american family in the next five years - because we know that now is not the time to stall momentum or to stifle innovation or investment. the future is at stake, and at at&t, the future has always been and at at&t, the future has always been our business. at&t. your world. delivered. tough economic times making it hard for some families to get thanksgiving dintory the table this year. dinner to the table this year. 11.9% unemployment. but hundreds will have a happy thanksgiving thanks to one local group. wisdom martin here now with that story. reporter: in ome cases it s so bad that these families are struggling to get through just in hopes of having a good thanksgiving meal and they wouldn t have it if it wren t for the efforts of a local group group. on the eve of thanksgiving, there is a lot of heavy lifting andprepping for a giant feast but this is not your typical gathering n. is feast organized by the knights of columbus that will feed hundreds of needy people on thanksgiving day. we work this way into the main freezer. reporter: this holiday tradition started 25 years ago. john funstein has been a volunteer on this project since the very beginning. in the beginning we were making everything from scratch. reporter: back then they only had 15 to 20 turkeys. at that time we may have been purchasing the turkeys ourselves, cooking them ourselves and distributing the food to the people. reporter: now they have more than 100 donated turkeys and dozens of volunteers. there are between 1 a 50 to 200 150 to 200 people doing everything from carving to making deliveries. we have volunteers saying i m here next year. this is where 90% of our turkeys will be stored for now. reporter: they ll deliver dinner to 1500 needy people in the area and at least 300 will come in and eat at the facility. i ve already gotten the cranberry sauce ready for tomorrow. the tomatoes will probably get sliced tonight. the pies will all be taken out of boxes ready for tomorrow. reporter: the volunteers have been working on this thanksgiving meal since monday and they are working well into the night. here s the other news, the other part of this story, as they re starting at 4:00 in the morning thanksgiving day to get ready for a meal at noon. what a wonderful effort. hats off to them. thanks, wisdom. the first family meantime rolling up their sleeves today to pass out thanksgiving fixings at a d.c. food pantry. president obama serving pumpkin pies downtown while the first lady and their daughters and mrs. obama s daughter bagged up veggies and stuffing. the families that came through received turkeys as well. president obama faithfully performing another of his presidential duties today, pardoning the white house turkey. the national turkey federation has presented a bird to the white house since 1947. president george h. w. bush was the first leadtory officially par leader to officially pardon a turkey. president obama joked about going against courage and putting this turkey on the table instead. i was planning to eat this sucker but thanks to sashi. courage will be spared this delicious fate. another turkey named carolina was also pardoned. she s serving as the alternate in case courage can t perform his duties. before the bird is even stuffed, the sales are on. no mar waiting till 6:00 a.m. friday. some of the sales start tonight. fox 5 s money reporter melanie alnwick has a look at what s marked down and when. reporter: rushing to the stores the day after thanksgiving, trying to score a super deal is a uniquely american tradition. this year shoppers are getting a head start. just search black friday deals and you ll find links to almost every retailer s leaked ad. for the past several years retailers have been fighting with people who have been stealing these circulars, pulling them off the printing press and posting them online. it s happening because consumers are desperate for the information. reporter: now retailers are posting their own sneak peeks. wal-mart is posting maps so you can find this samsung camcorder right away. there will be specials like 50% off v-tech games. some online sites are starting their sales enearlier. sears will start at 9:00 p.m. wednesday. sam s club 11 p.m. wednesday. on thursday toys r us.com goes live at 12:01 a.m. best buy.com at 2:00 a.m. and wal-mart.com 3 a.m. there s a lot of competition and limited disposable income. reporter: that means cmpetition among shoppers, too, for the door buster deals. best buy is expecting a big demand for its flat screen tvs. checking the online ad early will tell you how the process will work and how many items each store will have. i think by providing mor information to the consumer, they re going to create a better shopping experience for everyone. reporter: a little hope work now can save you a lot of headache later. it will be a make or break month for some retailers t. really depends on how well they did with planning their inventory. the national retail federation is forecasting a 1% drop in sales but compared to last year s 3.4%, they say it s not as bad as it was. for your fox a money report, i m melanie alnwick. there was one place today where you could not avoid long lines, the grocery store. some parking lots were so jammed earlier today, traffic cops were there to keep the peace. six officers were brought in to help direct traffic at this wegmans in sterling. inside it was just as packed as shoppers stocked up on the last- minute items. some people say they didn t intend to do this last-minute shopping. because we were going to go out of town. and we decided that we couldn t do that because one of the family was sick. reporter: so you re stayi home and have to cook. we re staying home and now have to cook. procrastinating. the way of life. the parking situation just as crazy at the whole foods in bethesda. cars lined up down the street today as officers worked to keep things in order. late senator edward kennedy s widow speaking out for the first time since he lost his battle with brain cancer. plus, new worries about h1n1. the one-two punch the cdc says you need to know about. it started like this but what happened next certainly wasn t in the plan. see for yourself coming up.  trying to take the fear out of the swine flu vaccine. there s noafd the vaccine is no evidence the vaccine is causing side effects, despite the claim by a family that claimed their child developed paralysis from the shot. vicky kennedy gave her first interview since her late husband s death. her son, edward, jr., joined her in an appearance on the oprah winfrey show. when her husband promised at the democratic national convention in 2008 to be there for the inauguration of barack obama, he meant it. there just wasn t a question about it. he was in training to be there in january. serious training. he was exercising every single day to be strong enough to be there. after the senator died in august, there was talk of vicky running for his seat. she says she s not interested and one senator kennedy in the household was enough. millions will line the streets to get a glimpse of the macy s thanksgiving day parade. we ll give you a glimpse of the balloons and floats that will march down the route tomorrow. they ll have decent weather. maybe a little cloudy and early morning fog but no big winds. that s good news for the big balloons. what about our thanksgiving day weather? we ll have the forecast coming up right after the break. this is a honda pilot. and this is the chevy traverse. it has more cargo space than pilot. and traverse beats honda on highway gas mileage too. more fuel efficient and 30% more room. maybe traverse can carry that stuff too. now during the chevy red tag event, get an 09 traverse with 0 percent apr for 72 months. see red and save green. now at your local chevy dealer. wizards owner abe pollin will be remembered at his funeral on friday and a public memorial service in two weeks. he made important changes in people s lives on a very personal level. reporter: curtis was just a kid when he walked up to abe pollin at a d.c. school and told him he wanted to be a washingtobullets ball boy. pollin gave him a jersey and a job. he hired me as a ball boy. i was right there alongside of these people who i admired. reporter: he remembered pollin entering the locker room after a big win over the lakers. i was by the front door of the locker room. he came in and instead of going past me [ indiscernible ] he hugged me. he gave me five. what a way to go. and as a ball boy, i was really impressed because i m like, who am i? i m just a ball boy. but he showed enough class and spec reporter: he now works with kids in shah, the neighborhood where in shaw, the neighborhood where he grew up and makes memorials for people who die too young. he says if abe pollin hadn t taught him to believe in himself, life would have been different. i probably would have failed and been incarcerated [ indiscernible ] reporter: is there a chance you would be dead? six featured. reporter: six feet under. reporter: this woman was in a fifth grade class at seat pleasant mel meantry when elementary when pollin told 60 kids wee pay for their he would pay for their education. i can t remember exactly how it happened. i just remember my mother saying, you know what? your college education will be paid for. okay. at that time i wasn t thinking about college. i was thinking about baby dolls and recess. reporter: in may she got her degree but meeting abe seems li just yesterday. he asked me what i wanted to be when i grow up. i said i want to be a doctor. he said will you fix my ear ache? i said sure i will. reporter: today she counsels young people and tries whenever she can to be a little more like abe poll lynn. beth park pollin. he s a legend in this city. let s hope somebody else picks thawp mantle. hint up that paintle. mantle. hint, hint. he was such a great guy. his reputation is well deserved. he will be missed and di so much for penn quarter and all we re down there all the time. it s so fun. let s get this rain out of here. it s a little misty now. that s the big problem, laura, is the fog. sometimes that can be worse. we can t see a lot of fog in any of our traffic camera positions as of yet. but i still believe that s going to happen. the national weather service has issue add dense fog advisory. what it is a matter of the temperature cooling off another couple of degrees to match the dew point and bingo, presto, it s cooked faster than your turkey the fog will be here. that means visibilities may drop below a quarter mile later tonight. and it does include a wide area. especially travelers late tonight, you re the ones that are going to have to watch out for that fog. the drizzle and most of the measurable rain, the drizzle is still going to be around. we do have a weak front that s going to come through but it may not be strong enough to get rid of that fog until the sun comes out. otherwise we re just finding spotty showers here and there, especially up to the north and east. as we mentioned for the macy s parade, it should be cloudy and 50 degrees but the best news is light winds. there s rain which chicago rain in chicago and snow developing on the back side. this is an important storm in our forecast because the front attached to that storm will cross here tomorrow afternoon and evening and will bring some showers into the region by about 7:00, 8:00 tomorrow night. so most of our thanksgiving will be dry. temperature wise not bad, but we are finding cooler temperatures out to our west. skies have cleared. so we ve noticed culpeper dropping to 34. martinsburg 39 and hagerstown 46. the fog again will begin to develop but the clear skies are actually one ever the ingredient of the ingredients needed for fog to develop. all across the country not terribly cold, but you can see the kind of cold air that s coming behind our front. that s what s behind this big area of low pressure where chicago is 38 degrees. denver 28. lincoln, nebraska 33. in our region tonight where those skies have cleared, it has gotten a little bit cooler but in the city and most of the metro area, we ll be watching for fog. a little bit of mist and drizzle time. d.c. should drop to about 47 degrees. your thanksgiving forecast not bad. once we burn off the fog there could be some sunshine certainly before noon. clouds will build back later in the day. i think the showers hold off till after 7:00. 57 to about 60 degrees. basically tomorrow we re between two storms. there s going to be an area of low pressure off the coast. this is our chicago storm that we ll be watching. the front will come swinging on through. but what is interesting is that with that batch of cold air and blustery conditions that will come in behind the front, we know the lake effect machine is going to get turned on a bit. not a horrendous event but we could see snow showers in this area. not just the mountains but even our area friday afternoon. they re not going to cause any problems but you might see your first snow flakes even in the metro area before the weekend is over. we ll show you what we re seeing. 7:00 a.m. clear skies. not seeing fog of course but fog will be out there. showers hold off till between 7:00 and 8:00. western suburbs. they roll through the district about 10:00. the snow goes in the mountains. we have the winter storm watches for some of those higher slopes out there, western grant, allegany, mineral. friday at 6:00 north of baltimore we re going to see some snow showers and a few of them spinning especially east of the city friday afternoon and evening if our max hd futurecast is right. so either way it shouldn t cause any problems but for those of you going out on black friday, it will be blustery and only about 49 degrees. thanksgiving day itself we talked about. 58. not bad. maybe we get another 58-degree day out of it on sunday. both of the travel days look nice coming back into town. next round of showers holds off till monday afternoon or evening. great. thanks, sue. a man jumped out of a plane this morning with a jet powered wing strapped to his back. after about five minutes of soaring through the air, the fun came to a quick end. he plummeted out of the sky and into the ocean off the coast of spain. his sponsor claims the wing malfunctioned possibly due to engine failure. he wasn t hurt. a difficult struggle for a young woman who survived the horrors of war. she made a new life in the united states but an unexpected influence is what made all the difference in her world. fox s cynthia smoot has the story. reporter: it started with watching the dolphins at clearwater marine aquarium. she could hardly believe it when she saw the trainer slide the prosthetic tail on a little dolphin named winter. whoever can do this for her that has such a difficult stump which is her tail, they must be able to help me. reporter: help her find a way to walk without pain. maya grow up in the former yugoslavia. then the bosnia war broke out. she was 16 years old, chatting with friends in a courtyard when a mortar shell exploded a few feet away. next hing you know, it s just big, black smoke. i was choking and i couldn t breathe and i didn t know what happened. and then when the smoke cleared out, i looked around and my friends were all killed and i was injured. reporter: life-threatening injuries that mangled her right leg and cost her much of her left. 16 years later maya volunteers at the aquarium where a few months ago she got to do something few people ever do. swim with the dolphin who like her is an amputee. it s almost like you look at her and she looks at me and it s like, yeah, i know what you re talking about and she s like yeah, i know what you re talking b. it s there s that connection. it s a dream come true, a surreal experience. reporter: an experience and story so compelling she and winter are featured in october s reader s digest. maya says the publicity hasn t changed her life but meeting winter has. the same gel used to make winter s tail possible is also making a huge difference for maya. i do tennis, wind surfing, running, golf. you name it, i ll do it. reporter: now maya wants to spread the word that what winter has done for her could make life pain free for other amputees. she s really changed my life. it s amazing how a dolphin could change your life. reporter: i m cynthia smoot action fox news. smoot, fox news. coming up next on the edge, we re continuing to follow a story. a virginia couple crashed last night s state dinner at the white house. a 13-year-old boy with autism finally found. wait till you hear what he did during the 11 days he was missing. the skins will find themselves between a rock and a hard place this weekend. alex ovechkin does something he d only done once previously in his entire career. obviously it s not scoring. the great eight and more coming up on the news edge at 11:00. (dial-up mupem) remember when connections to the internet sounded like this - when high speed internet was out of reach of most american families and small businesses? as recently as the year 2000, only three percent of american families had high speed internet. then competition drove innovation - spurred private investment, and the internet took off - at record breaking speeds. at at&t we re taking the lead - investing some thirty-eight billion dollars in our wired and wireless networks over the past two years. last year alone we invested more than any other public company in america. and at at&t we support a national plan that makes high speed internet available to every american family in the next five years - because we know that now is not the time to stall momentum or to stifle innovation or investment. the future is at stake, and at at&t, the future has always been and at at&t, the future has always been our business. at&t. your world. delivered. don t miss the kmart blue friday five-hour sale! girls dresses, only $7.99, 100% cashmere sweaters, $29.99, and genuine leather ckets, just $49.99! there s smart, and there s kmart smart. nothing but family fun tomorrow for the macy s thanksgiving day parade. the blue high school majestic marching knights will make d.c. very proud. we re told to look for them after the ronald mcdonald float. reporter: how cool is this? the studio is where the thanksgiving parade [ indiscernible ] what am i talking about my buyhood boyhood hero. you re still my boyhood hero. christmas is coming up. reporter: there were children present getting a sneak peek at the parade that tomorrow w