autria: a d.c. police officer is being honored today more than a year and a half after he stopped the washington navy yard shooter. jummy: he received the congressional badge of bravery. jeanette reyes is in baltimore with the details. jeanette: in a touching ceremony this morning, officer dorian desantis accepted the congressional badge of bravery for his life saving measures during the attack. officer desantis was one of many officers who responded and he fired the shot that killed the

gunman aaron alexis after taking a bullet in his vest. congressman elijah cummings chief of police talked about the bravery, quick thinking and humility of the officer. >> talk about people needing your help. trust me it's much more rewarding to help people than to be on the other side of the door. >> he is, as you can see he's very quiet and humble about everything. >> he put his life on the line and he saved so many lives. jeanette: the officer is eligible for retirement but tells me he's in no rush to leave just yet because he loves his job that much. reporting in baltimore, jeanette reyes, abc 7 news. jummy:estigators say a young boy started the fire that displaced dozens of people in a prince george's county apartment building. firefighters were called to that apartment building in suitland last night. everybody was able to get out safely. investigators believe the fire

was started by a boy under the age of 10 playing with a lighter. boy will now be entered into a program for juvenile fire setters. a massive fire destroyed part of an oregon high school this morning. four alarm blaze started in the cafeteria. firefighters were still battling the fire more than seven hours later. neighbors reported hearing a loud explosion right before that fire started. no one was hurt. despite the sun, we won't get quite as warm as yesterday but warmer weather is headed our way tomorrow. doug hill is here with a look at the first forecast. hey there, doug. doug: one good thing about this time of year we'll turn colder and we were in the yesterday. not that much warmth around today. here's the key, when we get cooler this time of year we have highs in the 50's. a month ago we had highs in the 20's. we're sitting pretty here. live look from the rooftop camera across the river. currently, 50 degrees at reagan

national airport and 46 in gaithersburg. 48 at winchester. but we'll do a little better than that as we go through the day tomorrow. the numbers right now, anywhere from 14 to 18 degrees colder than noontime yesterday. we're in a nice pattern here 58 with the sunshine today and as we look forward towards the end of the week, in the 70's will return starting tomorrow. may have some rain on good friday and we'll take a peep at the easter sunday weather. all that just ahead on abc 7 news at noon. jummy? jummy: see you then. around the world, iran nuclear talks have resumed in switzerland hours after abandoning the deadline to reach a deal. three of the six foreign ministers left the talks and the chances of reaching an agreement remain uncertain. they're working on a deal that would curb iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. israeli's prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the concessions would endanger, the middle east and peace around the

world. >> evidently, giving iran's murderous regime a clear path to the bomb is negotiable. this is unconscionable. jummy: a new abc news/"washington post" poll found that by a 2-1 margin americans back a movement that would lift the ban of economic sanctions in exchange for restrictions that will make it harder for iran to produce nuclear weapons. security forces have achieved a magnificent victory over the islamic state group in tikrit. the iraqi troops have ridden saddam hussein's hometown after a month long battle. it's seen as a key step towards eventually driving them out of mosul, iraq's second largest city. jummy: new investigation into the plane crash in the french alps. we are learning more about the cell phone video reportedly taken in the plane's final moments. as abc's marcy gonzalez reports, it comes as the airline admits

it knew about the co-pilot's mental health problems. marcy: today, new chilling details about a video reportedly recorded on board germanwings flight 9525 in the final moments before it crashed. two european publications describe a shaky video with screaming passengers. loud metallic sounds. the wing scraping a mountain before the 15-second clip ends. one french official calling it a fake. another saying if it does exist, it needs to be handed over so investigators can analyze the sounds and images that were reportedly found on a memory chip among the scattered wreckage. a scene where crews are still at work and where lufthansa's c.e.o. laid flowers today. >> will take a long long time for everybody, all of us to understand how this could happen. marcy: adding to the questions, a stunning admission from the airline. lufthansa revealing it first learned the co-pilot accused of

intentionally bringing the plane down suffered from severe depression while he was still in their pilot training school. after a leave of absence in 2 2009, andreas lubitz shared his medical records revealing his depression but still was allowed to become a pilot. >> it's egregious. there's just really no apparent explanation for that decision. marcy: but lufthansa's c.e.o. has defended the airline's decision to let him fly saying he had been medically cleared. marcy gonzalez abc 7 news. jummy: police in los angeles are investigating the death of the heir to a vast oil fortune. 47-year-old andrew getty was found dead in the bathroom of his hollywood hills home yesterday afternoon. the coroner's office says his death appears to be accidental or of natural causes. getty was the son of billionaire gordon getty and grandson of john paul getty founder of

getty oil. autria: duke university officials are trying to figure out who hung a noose outside of a building. the center is home to several offices including the center for sexual and gender diversity and the center for multicultural affairs. university officials say whoever hung it will be held accountable. in the meantime the governor of indiana admits he mishandled the state's religious freedom law and he vows to fix it. governor mike pence says legislation could be moved this week to make sure that the law e businesses the right to deny service to anyone. right now it says the government can't "substantially burden a person's exercise of religion." arkansas also passed a similar bill this week. the governor there is expected to sign it into law as many large retailers such as wal-mart and the gap speak out against it. jummy: federal prosecutors are expected to charge senator robert mendez with corruption today. the new jersey democrat is accused of using his senate office to push business interests of a friend and donor in exchange for gifts.

people briefed on the case say mendez may turn himself in before a planned court hearing tomorrow. he says he's done nothing wrong and acted in accordance with the law. prosecutors plan to drop in on members of congress today including florida senator marco rubio. the nonprofit d.c. vote claims that rubio is improperly meddling in local d.c. affairs. this after the senator co-introduced a bill to invalidate d.c.'s gun control laws and ban officials from enacting new ones and they will visit presidential hopeful senator ted cruz who had disapproved two district laws in the past. autria: staying in the district. a d.c. mom is outraged this noon after she says an elementary school in southeast washington sent her son to the hospital by himself. john gonzalez explains what happened and what the school had to say. >> then he went into a panic attack because he couldn't catch his breath. john: it sounds like a bad april fool's joke. this mother gets a call from her

son's school saying they put him in an ambulance by himself. >> left him in the school's care. john: the principal later called to apologize profusely and made it very clear this is not school protocol. >> i talked to my staff and reiterated what our policy is and i wanted to talk to you because that's never been the way that we have dealt with any of our situations with students who we called an ambulance for. john: it was yesterday morning here at stat on elementary in southeast d.c. ly school called her at work he was choking and having an asthma attack but he didn't have asthma. she said she was on her way but on a bus and it could take a while. >> he's 8 years old. that's my only child. what do you mean no one went with him to the hospital? john: the mother asked for an incident report to what happened yesterday. she was told she couldn't have one. she was referred to the security

office that handles the schools. she says she's not satisfied with that strongly considering pulling the child from a school. a school spokesperson told me on the phone she is looking into the matter but added the priority in the situation like that is getting the child to the hospital as quickly as possible. >> no administrator, sent by himself with no book bag, no coat, no nothing. john: in southeast, john gonzalez, abc 7 news. jummy: coming up at noon a 12-year-old boy home alone when a burglar breaks in. the terrifying 911 call and how that brave boy and dispatcher helped nab the thief. autria: and how does your commute compare to the rest of the u.s.? what a new study reveals about our d.c. traffic. jummy: and those maryland blue crab cakes are big business and a culinary staple in the region. you might be surprised to find out what many are actually made of. autria: and much warmer weather is headed our way. doug is back with when it will get here and how much rain we could get.

jummy: terrifying moments for a 12-year-old locked in his home with a burglar. he was alone at home at the time but he had one person helping him through the ordeal. >> luke did you see did he have a weapon in his hand or anything? >> i don't know. jummy: that was dispatcher t.j. detullo talking to luke fornier who locked himself in his mother's bedroom after a man smashed a window and came inside

that home. he was whispering so he couldn't be heard. that's when the dispatcher came up with an idea. one for yes, two for no. are you in a room? is it a bedroom? >> i decided to go to the silent call procedure and just continued asking the questions. that way to try to make him more comfortable. jummy: this went on until police arrived. when they got there, the suspect was gone. not for long. his description led police to the suspect that you see right there. officers arrested him finding various items they believe were stolen during break-ins at more than one home. autria: high and dry. a local woman says she paid more than $6,000 to a contractor who never finished the job. as abc 7 trouble shooter horace holmes found out, that is at the center of one of our investigations not once but twice before. horace: a contractor who we've

seen here before. robin ford and her husband were desperate to make a major repair on their home. they found a buyer for. when they hired their contractor, they say they got more than what they had bargained for. she was moving quickly towards the date of the closing but nothing would be finalized until she was able to correct a sinking foundation. she hired a local contractor referred by a family member and paid him $4400 down payment. it was supposed to be a simple fix. this is what she said the contractor ended up doing to her kitchen floor. then she says he asked for more money to finish. >> we gave him the $2,000 and then he didn't do anything else. horace: when ford called us, we discovered her contractor had been the center of previous "7 on your side" investigations and wait until you find out what we found out this time around about him. we'll tell you that and we'll tell you who he is tonight on abc 7 news at 5:00.

autria: "7 on your side" tonight with things that you need to know to avoid becoming victim of a scam. we're opening up the phone bank in the 4:00 hour. you can call in with your questions and we'll show you about the red flags you should be looking out for. jummy: do you think d.c. traffic is bad? a ranking of u.s. cities with the worst congestion by the navigation company tom-tom, you might be surprised to learn that we barely made the top 10. mike conneen tells us which cities outrank our region. mike: we're currently traveling northbound on i-395 and when you look out the front of your car and see brake lights like we're seeing right now it's hard to imagine that we're not even in the top five but according to tom-tom, out of 60 major u.s. cities washington ranks ninth nationally. worst of all is los angeles ranked number one followed by san francisco, honolulu new york and seattle. and get this when compared to major cities around the world, we only rank 74th. meanwhile, mexico city is

considered the worst in north america. now, there was some interesting statistics in this survey by tom-tom. from 2013-2014, researchers say that congestion here in our region increased by about 3%. also they say that for a 30-minute commute that drivers locally face 78 hours of delays each year. they also say that the best commutes during peak periods meaning if you have to drive during rush hour here in our region are on friday morning or monday evenings and they say that the worst commute times in our region are tuesday, wednesday and thursday mornings. and thursday evenings are also particularly bad according to these researchers. one last note they say that the most congested day in 2014 was on april 30th which is interesting because we went back and looked at the archives of stories we covered at sporting events, weather events. nothing stood out to us as being a cause of bad traffic that day. it just goes to show you how unpredictable traffic can be. reporting in mobile track 7 on

39d 395, mike conneen. jummy: you know what i see when i look ought that windshield? sunshine! doug: you don't mind the sun even if it's cooler. yesterday in the 70's. today in the 50's. tomorrow back in the 70's. we're on a good roll weatherwise. we'll give the time lapse. this just before sunrise. look at the left-hand side of your screen and say welcome sun! here it comes! up it goes. and we'll keep climbing until we get until about 7:31 tonight, set in the west. it should set in the west. usually does. clear skies all pleasant temperatures albeit a bit cooler than yesterday. right now, 52 degrees in stafford. 47 in germantown and the winds generally with the northerly flavor. that's bringing in the cooler air but the winds are not strong and gusty at all. last night, we were in the wind advisory and had gusts close to 50 miles an hour. the biggest complaint is somewhat cooler than yesterday. 14 degrees cooler at the noon hour than this time yesterday.

same number at elkins. 13 degrees cooler in richmond. tomorrow will be somewhat warmer because of a change in the wind direction. what we have right now is high pressure building in and that's the circulation getting northerly and northeasterly winds bringing in the cooler air but providing a lot of sunshine. this high will move east of the area during the day keeping us mostly sunny and mostly clear and cool tonight. also, what will happen tomorrow is the high pressure moves off and the winds won't be out of the north anymore. they'll turn around and come back out of the southwest and start to get breezy and temperatures back to 70 with a lot of sunshine. we'll keep an eye on the next cold front. it will be warmer friday into tomorrow even though we're going to end up with a lot of clouds. we'll get showers developing in the afternoon. maybe even by midday. some of them could be heavy. maybe an isolated thunderstorm and continue friday night. looks like it should taper off and end by saturday morning. then another clearing trend through the balance of the easter weekend. this afternoon, 53. 52 later this evening.

tomorrow, we'll start with the day with 40 degree temperatures and clear skies. through the day, we'll make a nice recovery back to 70 degrees with the sunshine and gusty winds. you can see the temperatures even warmer for the day on friday despite a lot of cloudiness and showers. we'll keep the rain times friday evening. they begin late in the day and could begin some thunderstorms. showers should end early on saturday morning. partly sunny breezy upper 50's. easter sunday lower 60's with sunshine. 64 with partly cloudy skies for the nationals home opener. maybe some showers on tuesday. autria: perfect for the home opener! doug: don't see 30's there anymore. autria: thanks. you may know country singer kristian bush from his work with the band sugarland much he's gone on his own and you have a chance to win a v.i.p. experience with him at a concert in atlanta. you'll spend a day with him in his studio. to enter go to wjla.com/contest and you have until april 12th. good luck! coming up here on abc 7 news at

noon seafood fraud. the new allegations about one of the region's most iconic meals. jummy: new backlash against "the daily show's" new host. the controversial tweets that have many saying he's the wrong man for the job.

jummy: a new report finds something fishy with your maryland crab cakes. they're supposed to be made from locally caught blue crab. but the research group oceana collected crab cakes from 86 restaurants around maryland and the district. they say 38% of them mislabelled. those cakes were not blue crab and contained imported substitutes. autria: the new host of "the daily show" is responding to backlash over his controversial

tweets. trevor noah is a 31-year-old biracial south african comedian. his tweets were posted between 2009 and 2014. the graphic tweets targeted women, jews and middle america. in one tweet, noah says "to reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn't land is not a true reflection of my character, not my evolution as a comedian." comedy central is standing by him. jummy: all right. warmer weather headed into the holiday weekend. autria: doug is back with a final look at the forecast next.

autria: a michigan woman who became the subject of a cool internet name is getting help from a stranger. the woman was driving a friend's doorless van. her friend amanda maxfield is a mother of five. van was involved in an accident and maxfield couldn't afford to get it fixed. the man saw all the mean social media comments and decided to fix the van for her for free. that's what viral photos should do. doug: very nice. autria: the weather nice. doug: that's very nice too. sunshine today a little cooler than recent days. mid to upper 50's this afternoon. as we head through the day tomorrow, it will become warmer. near 70. low 70's with rain friday. ending saturday. we're out of time. see you at 4:00. jummy: thanks for joining us. autria: have a great day!

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