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good morning. thursday -- friday eve, july 30th. thank you for joining us. i'm megan pringle. >> i'm jamie costello. let's get right to the news. >> we're going to start with the top stories >> reporter: i'm not going to stop one beat and continue with the progress of the city. that's what the focus is. >> saying she will not be deterred by new criminal charges sheila xon vows to press as on the corruption probe presses on. we have the latest the president, the officer and professor all sit down today for a nice cold one in washington. no swimsuit consolations this time. michael phelps breaks another world record in rome. good morning, i'm jamie

costello. >> megan pringle. we're going to get to the news in a second but first, justin berk for a quick peek at the weather. >> just a peek here. we're starting with the low 70s in most spots. last night, big storms rolled through. it took all day, now we had storms roll through anne arundel county and eastern shore hitting severe limits in the afternoon. then we had to wait for the evening for most of us to get wet. that's what happened on the west side 11:00 last night with a thunderstorm rolling through howard and carroll and northern baltimore county. that blowing through the area left us with clearing skies though it doesn't look like it on the satellite imagery. most of us will clear out, mostly sunny start, 70. two-degree guaranteed high of 89. with some scattered showers and storms popping up yet again during the afternoon. 4:59. let's check the roads now with kim brown. >> good morning. i'm getting word there's a tree down southbound york road right afr old york road. that has york road closed there so be aware of that. also, overnight construction

around the beltway, exit ramps closed 695 at security boulevard and 695 at liberty road. both of those exit ramps remain closed at the inner loop. that is just for overnight. they should be reopening this morning. 8 5 northbound is -- 895 northbound is closed for construction. that reopens later this morning. two-way traffic gets by in the southbound tube at this time. this is going to be 695 at liberty road. you can see traffic is flowing nicely at this hour. back to you. 5:00. if you live in the city you're worried about crime, property tax and the way city hall runs. >> the mayor has been indicted again. abc2 news cheryl conner live to tell us what this means and what it's all about this time. >> reporter: good morning. mayor sheila dixon insists these new charges will not stop her. she went on with her schedule yesterday evening saying she never intended on cancelling her appearance at the women's business forum in baltimore even after a grand jury handed down new indictments against

her. a judge dismissed perjury and misconduct charges against her earlier. the state prosecutor re-filed the charges arguing the mayor failed to disclose expensive gifts given to her in 2004 by her boyfriend at the time, developer ronald lipscomb. the new indictment details several purchases the mayor made on a trip the couple took to chicago. the prosecutor says dixon failed to include any of the gifts on her financial disclosure form. >> i'm going to stick to my schedule. i mean, that's a commitment that i make. >> i think it is very serious. she's got the best defense team out there but she's probably going to need it. >> reporter: mayor dixon's attorney released a statement saying "the new charges are as flawed as those that were previously dismissed and we expect they will meet the same fate. " that's for the charges the mayor stole gift cards intended for the needy. those were never dropped

earlier this summer. so basically the case is back where it began when the original indictments were handed down in january. we're live in downtown baltimore, cheryl conner, abc2 news. the other big story we're watching -- the beer summit in washington. >> plenty of bud lites, blue moons, red stripe for the president as the president and two others. sherrie johnson has more. >> reporter: a summit takes place at a picnic table behind the white house. the beer summit. the follow-up to the president injecting himself into the middle of an arrest in cambridge, massachusetts. president barack obama's friend, a black professor at harvard was arrested by a well regarded white police officer. the white house hopes a few cold beers calm what became a heated racial disagreement. dr. henry faith junior was arrested two weeks ago at his home. gates forced his way in when a lock jammed. a nearby woman called 911 concerned about a possible

break-in. sergeant james crowley arrived at gates' home, arrested him for disorderly conduct. the charge was dropped but tensions escalated over whether crowley treated gates differently because he was black. after president obama weighed in and said the cambridge police acted stupidly he then suggested the men talk over beers. >> to the extent that my choice of words didn't illuminate but rather contribute to more media frenzy i think that was unfortunate. >> reporter: professor gates says he wants an apology from sergeant crowley and the sergeant says he's not a racial profiler. as far as what they are drinking? well, the president will drink a bud lite, gates likes red stripes and sergeant crowley will have blue moon. violation of first amendment rights and wrongful filing, what journalism students are saying is going on at morgan state university after six years the supervisor,

denise brown was fired last night. she said it was after pieces were published in the school newspaper in february. students say funds were taken from the student budget. the president wanted to meet with students individually to examine their evidence. in june brown said her contract wouldn't be renewed until the matter was resolved. a week later she was fired. now seeking legal action. >> just the fact you want to meet with them by themselves speaks or suggests intimidation so therefore, when you have me out of the way you'll tree to speak to those students. >> we want to stand up to the university and say you cannot railroad the students. >> a spokesman says it's a personnel matter not directly related to her duties as media adviser. there are issues adhering to morgan state policies. he never got an ovation

like that. one of the youngest pitchers gave us a peak of what is to come. chris tillman took to the hill yesterday making his major league debut and backed by a home run from adam jones. third straight game. in the first inning he's hit it. he's done that and he keeps doing it. chris tillman threw well. pitched into the fifth inning, gave up three home runs, pitched kind of like a rookie, right? we'll take it. markakis singled to right scoring two, giving the orioles the lead, 7-3. it's a 12:35 game today. michael phelps had another swimsuit issue but it didn't slow him down this time. he bounced back with a stunning loss with a world record in the 200-meter butterfly. now the baltimore native holds more than 30 world records. 5:05. coming up, you better watch where you step in the lone star state. plus, your waistline is under attack and maryland researchers say fast food is

the culprit. a look at the studies, when we come back. we're ready to attack another thursday here in town. 71 degrees now. justin berk will be back with the forecast. and here's mark jones with a check of the trains of buses. >> the commute start is good on light rail and metro subway. both operating on time. marc train, on time on the camden, penn, brunswick lines. and if your ride is on the buses, number 17 bus is diverted at nursery and winterson due to construction. for the mta transit team, i'm mark jones.

so

warning to "good morning maryland" on this thursday morning. >> it was on this date in 1729 baltimore was founded. >> really? >> yes. i remember it was a little cloudy, overcast day. >> really? >> about 17 people assembled. justin berk with the weather now for today. >> and you're the reason why we have such longstanding records of weather in baltimore. i appreciate that. we all do. yesterday, had storms roll through during the evening hours, especially west and north of town. this morning on maryland's most powerful doppler radar, we're sounding the all clear. in fact i notice a full star-lit sky on the way in. maybe a little patchy fog but we have some sun to be expected this morning. and the temperatures, warm 71 in baltimore, 73 easton.

that ocean city thermometer, i think we need to knock that a little bit, 82 seems oppressive but that's what they are reading now, and today we go for the low 70s this morning and sunshine. we'll increase the clouds with just spotty thunderstorms this afternoon. two-degree guarantee of 89. here's kim. i'm getting word of trees down in the area. a tree down greenmount avenue after north avenue. that has the intersection blocked there. southbound york road after old york road blocked because of a tree down in the roadway. use caution if you have to go in those directions. a couple of overnight construction projects that are soon going to be wrapped up, inner loop at security boulevard and liberty road. both exit ramps closed, they should be reopening probably in the next hour or so. looking at the outer loop, this is 695 at liberty road. we have a little bit of building volume on the outer loop causing some slowing as you make your way towards the baltimore national pike but no real delays at this time. back to you. 5:10.

the swine flu, who gets the vaccine first and how soon it is available? and a police chase, when a pint-sized driver refused to go to church. ( sighs ) ( music throughout ) hey bets, can i borrow a quarter? sure, still not dry? i'm trying to shrink them. i lost weight and now some clothes are too big. how did you do it? simple stuff. eating right and i switched to whole grain. whole grain... studies show that people who eat more whole grain tend to have a healthier body weight. multigrain cheerios has five whole grains... and 110 calories per lightly sweetened serving. more grains. less you. multigrain cheerios.

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in today's business news -- foreclosure data from realtytrac shows a third of foreclosure closures

in the first half of 2009 came from cities concentrated in the nation's sun belt. nearly 34% came from nevada, florida, california, and arizona. meanwhile, the stock market appears to be holding up but not pressing head. as fears remain about the pace of economic recovery stocks had their fourth straight day of minimal moves on wednesday as commodity prices slid and orders from big-ticket items fell. investors will keep an eye on earnings reports today from exxonmobil and walt disney, the parent company of abc. good news for anyone interested in traveling this summer. domestic airfare dropped more than 9% in the first quarter of 2009. compared to the last quarter of 2008. the biggest quarter-to-quarter drop on record. and those are your business headlines this morning. we're starting to see some good signs in the arrows and numbers department when it comes to the economy but still have a lot of work on unemployment. the bureau of labor statistics released new information and shows that maryland's

unemployment rate jumped to 7.5% for june, just up from 4.4% last june. here's where the numbers are really shocking here -- the government revealed that 224,000 marylanders are looking for a job. that's taking bel air, towson, westminster and frederick and combining it all in there. that comes as a reported 32,000 jobs were lost in baltimore. charm city was among 98 metro areas to post job losses. and "2 your health" a few weeks ago university of maryland researchers did experiment to see exactly what fast food does to our body, our blood and how quickly it strikes. the results stopped everyone in their tracks. remember that? well, now, abc2 news yunji yunji di nies is going back for seconds to learn more. [no audio]

ok, looks like we're having a technical problem with that story. we'll try to work on it. in the meantime, let's go to jamie with the information on the h1n1. we hear it's coming but we -- will we have enough shots in the arm? those in charge of our medicine cabinet are making sure we have enough swine flu vaccine. the experts recommending that pregnant women, health care workers, children six months and older should be the first to get the shots. the vaccine should be available coming up in october. 5:16. yesterday's high up to 86 degrees. we held off the rain for a good chunk of the day. with added sunshine we pushed 92 degrees in philadelphia. 94 in norfolk. there was heat to be found around. you may have heard about the all-time record heat in the pacific northwest. they cracked 103 in seattle. the first time ever. we're just trying to get back to normal. 86 is what we hit.

87 where we belong on this date. records range from 56 in 1997 and 1998. the high mark set back in 1940. sun coming up at 6:05. we'll start acting on the temperatures this morning. low 70s for the most part. very humid once again and we will continue to have that chance of showers and storms. we had them evolve yesterday and just like pinwheeling spokes of energy coming through. we'll get a break. we have in our one swinging through this afternoon. and then on in through this evening and tonight. you can see we expect to have clouds coming in. the high clouds off of the storms in the south and again there will be another wave of energy trying to reach us. it's just a matter of the timing of this thing. it will be tough to really pinpoint. showers probably going to be locked out into the mountains but there may be renegade storms head of this, this afternoon. chances of storms go up this evening and into tonight. tomorrow morning we could have showers. more showers and storms linger throughout the day tomorrow as well. what we see is what we get. it can happen any time.

it don't mean it's going to happen for all of us at any time. 80 degrees, partly sunny with a scattered shower or thunderstorm. tonight 73. and showers towards morning. once again tomorrow showers and storms, near 89. we've got a smooth ride on 95 southbound as you make your way out of the whitemarsh area headed to the 695/895 split. we have trees down in the area that are blocking key intersections. york road after old york road is closed in both directions because of the tree in the roadway. in the city, greenmount avenue at north avenue, there's a tree that has the intersection closed at this time. outer loop, no problems to let you know about on both loops of 695 at liberty road. though we see a little slowing in the distance, no delays at this time. back to you. we have a little technical glitch with the story we wanted to bring you. fast food and what it does to your body. here's yunji. >> reporter: in our first visit to the university of

maryland's medical centering, the producer john garcia and i binged and found out the hard way just how bad fat can be. how are you feeling? >> still sluggish. still tired. still head hurts. >> reporter: we ordered from some of america's most popular chain restaurants and each packed away over 6,000 calories. and more than 10 times the amount of saturated fat recommended by the government. two hours later that fat was chugging through our veins. this is fat basically. but you challenged us to see what would happen if we ate right. so, we went back. hello, again. nice to see you. with a much healthier meal from the very same restaurants. time for lunch this. time we're starting with soy beans, then moving on to grilled salmon, veggies, rice and ending with apple pie, that we're splitting. this meal had about a thousand calories and three grams of saturated fat. two hours later, another test and the moment of truth.

we're looking to see a difference between the blood that was drawn earlier and the brooklawn that was drawn now. >> reporter: john's blood after eating looked almost fat-free. >> it's only a slight difference. you can't really see the fat. >> reporter: remember last time the fat in his blood was undeniable. this time his two samples were almost identical. >> the food was healthy. didn't raise the blood fat levels. and therefore likely not to have an abnormal or unhealthy effect on the arteries. >> reporter: but my results were so extraordinary they surprised even the doctors. not only was my blood clear my arteries actually expanded. i was healthier after i had eaten the salmon. >> we've seen that with people eating fish. this was a lot healthier meal for you and it actually made your arteries healthier. >> reporter: so much healthier doctors said that one meal had the same effect on my

art -- arteries as if i had just gone for a run. >> the great news is you can go to virtually any restaurant or fast food chain and find a healthy food choice. >> it's not so much what we shouldn't do. it really is how we should live. what is really good for us. 5:21. national headlines now -- police near boston say an unborn baby who was taken from its mother's womb has been found safe. officials in worcester say the woman who took the baby tried to pass her off as her own. the newborn's mother was found dead earlier this week in her apartment and police say the suspect who was an acquaintance was arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder. authorities are keeping a close eye on this massive sinkhole. that opened up in a remote part of texas. the huge crater is 70 yards long, 70 yards wide, about 50 feet deep. luckily though, no one has

fallen in. we told you yesterday about the utah kid that got behind the wheel of his parent's car because he didn't want to go to church. >> we have video to show from you overnight. sheriffs' deputies say the 7-year-old took his dad's car and kept pretty much good control of it, staying in the lines. we're hoping to show you the video and not just talk about it. the dash cam video they released, the deputy followed the car, eventually it came to a stop. >> the big surprise came when the door open and the little boy -- we have video. it's something to see but he did stay in the lines. see those video games are worth something? >> i bet he's grounded. just because they are on summer break doesn't mean some morgan state university students aren't paying attention. >> the morgan state students are heated about what they call misuse of funds and wrongful firing. i'm sherrie johnson. i'll have the details coming up. you've got a strawberry pop-tart, but i've got a warm, fresh baked strawber toaster strudel.

see the difference? mmmm. i do. (announcer) pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. kids are hungry after school. that's why i always have totino's pizza rolls. big pizza taste. in a bite size roll. kids can't resist their delicious pizza flavor. totino's pizza rolls. the pizza way to snack. with a look at the past 24 hours on royal caribbean's liberty of the sea.

charles fuller enjoyed his first cup of the day on his morning swim. baby guitierrez and his dad jonathan pumped some iron. merle buckmire hung ten with a little help from a friend. and finally, erwin and edwin serenaded the ladies on deck 12. that's the news. i'm emily hill cruising with royal caribbean, why aren't you?

5:25. lets head to new york and get the latest in "tech bytes" from jeremy hubbard. >> reporter: in today's "tech bytes" -- a new push to ban texting while driving. several senators introduced legislation wednesday that would require states to outlaw texting and e-mailing while driving within two years. if the states don't comply they would lose federal highway money. 14 states already have laws against texting and driving. a study published this week found it far more dangerous than even drunk driving. new signs of facebook's growing importance.

1-800-flours.com launched a first store on facebook. it was the first merchant on aol in 1994. you can bet it won't be the last to set up shop on facebook. thousands of other businesses already have fan pages. the technology behind digital cameras is shrinking. olympus is releasing a new camera next month, the size of a point and shoot with the quality of big professional cameras. called the ep-1 pen and "new york times" sam grobart tested it. >> it takes fantastic photographs in broad daylight. far better than anything you would ever see from another point and shoot. there's a but by here. it doesn't have a flash. it will come out looking a little grainy. maybe not as grainy as a point and shoot but still kind of grainy. >> it costs $800 and you can read a full review of it on the "new york times" web site. finally, think you have what it takes to be a big-time video gamer? the new web site called bring it lets you put your money where your mouth is. challenge other gamers for money, playing on the wii,

playstation or x box. betting starts small but can go as high as $500. it's legal in 39 states because it's considered a game of skill, not a game of chance like poker. for information on all these stories log on to the technology page of abcnews.com. those are your "tech bytes." i'm jeremy hubbard.

5:29. i'm jamie costello. good morning. >> good morning. i'm megan pringle. thank you for joining us. thursday morning, almost to friday. before we get to your weekend forecast we're going to get you updated on the stories we're working for you overnight. are students rights being violated at one baltimore university? hear from some and what they ha