horace: and i'm horace holmes in the "7 on your side" help center. are you renting or a landlord in our area and having some problems? our phone lines are open. our panel of experts are here. 703-236-9220. we'll have more coming up next on abc 7 news. as a small business owner you wouldn't deliver just half of what you have to offer to your customers. so why are you settling for half-fast internet? only verizon fios comes with speedmatch - uploads as fast as downloads so files go out in a snap. don't miss your last chance to get $200 back when you upgrade to fios internet and phone $99.99 a month with a 2-year agreement and get $200 back. hurry call now it's your last chance. this offer ends march twenty-first. alison: and "7 on your side" now with an update on the sink hole that swallowed a fire hydrant in district heights. neighbors say they'd been complaining for weeks about the issue at mason street and district heights parkway. well, today, abc 7 found wssc crews on the scene. they spent the day working on that hole and fixing the hydrant, too.

. >> i'm horace holmes. coming up a little bit later on on abc 7 news at 5:00 our "7 on your side" story takes us up into the attic of this dumfries home and we'll find out what would cost $10,000 for the home owner to rid herself of something up there. and why she called "7 on your side" after she got your bill. >> first, spacing out the shots? why some parents are asking pediatricians to change the schedule for their kids' vaccinations. >> but here's a look now at what's coming up tonight on abc in primetime. >> "7 on your side" now with a health matters report. there may be some new fertility options for women who are battling cancer. one of the long term side effects of chemotherapy includes ovarian failure where women can no longer conceive. there's a new study that finds the hormone blocking drug may prevent that. in fact researchers say women given this drug during chemotherapy, it prevented ovarian failure and promoted successful pregnancy. so on the heels of the big debate over vaccinating children,

horace: horace holmes, abc 7 news. kimberly: that is backbreaking work. a d.c. icon affected by the snow. how this year snow could affect the cherry blossoms. and another round of winter weather. >>kimberly: this year's frigid weather could affect the cherry blossom trees. they could reach peak bloom later than normal. next month's temperatures will also help determine when the blossoms come out. peak bloom typically happens around april 4. the weather service will release a full forecast tuesday. that makes sense, slowing down the blooms. steve: peak bloom is when it is puffy white. a few days before that, that is about a month away. so there is light at the end of the tunnel. even though it will be yucky tomorrow -- kimberly: is that a meteorological term? steve: that is one of my technical terms. the temperature near 25 degrees. i hate it, everyone, let's get through tonight and tomorrow and we will look forward to the next seven days. 33 degrees was the daytime high. we normally have high temperatures this time of year in the lower 50's. the average low, 34

horace holmes has more. horace? horace: the office of personal management says it is simply a mistake. somehow the wrong message was recorded on its voice mail. workers calling in to see if the federal government was delayed because of the weather heard there was a two-hour delay. as you know, it did snow this morning but as you can see the roads were clear and there was minimal accumulation in the immediate d.c. area. none of the school systems in the immediate area were closed or open late. but here's the message that was on the o.p.m. voicemail. >> federal agencies in the washington, d.c. area are open under two hour delay and employees have the option for unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework. horace: the o.p.m.'s website had it right but the voicemail message again was wrong and the feds say sorry, it was just a mistake. no word on what will happen to workers who heard that message and came in late. reporting live from the newsroom, horace holmes, abc 7 news. maureen: shortened work day for some of those. d

horace: i'm horace holmes live in the "7 on your side" help center. panel of experts here to answer your calls about landlord-tenant issues. leon: "7 on your side" tonight to help you with issues that you may be facing with your landlord. alison: beginning at 5:00 tonight, we'll open a phone bank to take your tenant and landlord questions. trouble shooter horace holmes joins us with the help center with more today. hi, horace. horace: hello, guys. 703-236-9220 is the number to call. phone lines will open -- phone bank will open up at 5:00 so you have that number ready for you and handy. 703-236-9220. you can see our experts are here ready to answer your phone calls from all jurisdictions around our area we have also legal experts. we have tenant advocates here to answer your questions. if you have a problem a landlord/tenant issue, give us a call starting at 5:00. issues like rhiano had that ran into trouble with her apartment complex on her move-in day. >> i could not use the loading dock and i couldn't use the freight elevator. didn't have the key f

horace holmes is doing just that somebody else is driving. in mobile track 7 they've been out there for the last five hours on the roadways. where are you now? what does it look like? >> we're in gaithersburg at this point on 270 and the snow has stopped. but the plow operators still have a lot of work to do as you can see, in this part of i-270, a lot of snow still on the roads. they're going to have to get through here plow this stuff out and get that chemical down on the roads because the temperatures are dropping and the concern now is for the freeze so again, folks, if you don't have to come out on the roads, we've been saying it all afternoon, please stay off the roads and let these guys do their work. reporting live from gaithersburg horace holmes abc 7 news. >> there's new information in. metro bus will suspend all service at 9:00 p.m. because of hazardous road conditions. metro access service will remain suspended tomorrow morning. taking a cab is not going to be cheap because of d.c.'s snow emergency, cabs are charging a $15 surchar

that's when horace holmes stepped into investigate. horace: we're working on a story that will air tonight at 5:00 that we call on moving mess. this woman right here shannon plieth hired a local moving company to move her family from frederick to west virginia and as you can see it didn't go as she would have liked. e she was confident when she hired a rockville based mover to take the belongings to her new home that everything would go smoothly. she says when she started unpacking, she found nearly half her mother's crystal collection broken, furniture damaged and a 60 inch tv missing and her c.d. collection inside her outdoor grill. the move she says cost her $10,000. it will cost her at least that much to replace what's damaged, she adds and she called "7 on your side" because she wasn't happy with the moving company's plan to make good. >> these people did not care. >> she says she lost what she calls a lot of precious items in that move. we'll hear more from her tonight on our "7 on your side" story that we call "moving mess." i'm

next on abc 7 news at 6:00 -- horace: i'm horace holmes in the abc 7 on your side help center. our lines are open. 703-236-9220. about 20 more minutes, landlord tenant issues. give us a call. maureen: and looks pretty nice outside right now but wintry weather is coming back. chief meteorologist doug hill updates us on when and when we'll see. tim: coming up in sports, take you to columbus, ohio for the latest on the maryland terrapins. georgetown plays tonight and how about the upsets this afternoon. buzzer-bea horace: welcome back, everybody to the "7 on your side" help center. boy, have we been busy in here answering your phone calls on landlord/tenant issues. i'm with one of the fine people that have come in to be one of our experts today. what kind of calls have you been getting? >> we're taking calls from tenants who are having problems with their landlords, specifically landlords who are not making repairs after the winter that we've had to damaged units. we've even had landlords call us with information on how to evict tenants. horace: thank you so much for being in here

horace: i'm horace holmes at the national mall. it's not at all unusual to see people down here taking pictures at the various me morms. well there's one that was taken here that is causing quite a bit of talk across the country. we'll show you the photo and tell you what it's about coming up next. alison: we're counting down to the first pitch for the nats this season. as of today, just 12 days to go. we'll be right back! leon: trending now, a photo of two kids along the national mall. alison: this picture didn't show them taking in the monuments. they're actually climbing on one of the me morms. it's the vietnam women's memorial, in fact, and it's just down from the wall and the lincoln memorial. horace holmes went to the national mall today to get raekdz. horace: albert wright a vietnam veteran here from san diego to see the memorials was offended. >> i think it was disrespectful. horace: "it" is this picture snapped by the cleveland photographer matthew munson while on a visit to washington to the war memorials that's caused so

horace: i'm horace holmes. the earth opens up and swallows a fire hydrant in this district heights neighborhood. but wait until you hear how long ago this happened and why residents are so upset. we'll tell you coming up next leon: "7 on your side" tonight as the neighborhood fights to get back their sense of safety and protection. people living near mason street in district heights parkway contacted abc 7 after their fire hydrant sank into a sink hole. "7 on your side" trouble shooter horace holmes is there live tonight with a look at the problem that many of the residents there say is being ignored. horace what's the story? horace: and leon it is a big problem because, as you can see, it is a very big hole that swallowed up this fire hydrant. but wait until you hear how long the residents here have been waiting to get this fixed. one day in early january, residents of this district heights neighborhood say the earth opened up. >> looked out the window and there was a geyser coming up. horace: it had sucked in

horace: i'm horace holmes. a local family's move out of state turned into a nightmare when they opened their moving boxs in their new home and that's when they called leon: a move to a new city can be stressful under the best of circumstances. one frederick family says their move turned into a nightmare when they opened up the new boxes in their home when they found items damaged and in some cases missing. alison: they tried to settle with their moving company. they called "7 on your side" trouble shooter horace holmes. horace: when shannon hired a company to move her family. >> movers who care. horace: from frederick, maryland to the west virginia-pennsylvania border. >> almost over half of her crystal baskets got smashed. horace: she says she had no idea. >> i found c.d.s in my grill. horace: the move would turn into what she calls an eight month nightmare. >> these people did not care. horace: the moving company two men and a truck deny her claim that much of her belongings were scratch, dented or destroyed

horace holmes live in the neighborhood to show us how things look right now. horace? horace: well the problem is not necessarily the sink hole but what the sink hole swallowed up. take a look over there. that's a fire hydrant. took the fire hydrant right down. this is on district heights parkway in district heights, maryland. this happened way back in mid january, early january and residents say they need some answers. the sink hole is right in front of lee jones' district heights home. he's been complaining about it since it opened up. he said crews came and turned off the water from the fire hydrant and secured the area around the hole. neighbors say they have called repeatedly asking for this to be fixed but nothing has happened. >> when i came home from church i saw kids jumping up and down on these planks. what if a child falls through one of those planks. horace: so there's concern about these planks as he calls them that's covering the hole. there's concern about the fact that there's water in the hole and there's concern about the fact that this is a fire hydr

abc 7's horace holmes is checking on the roads from mobile track 7. horace, where are you right now? >> we are north of frederick right now on i-70 and you can see a plow there on the side of the road. finishing up the work. great news out here and this part of the world is the snow has stopped, completely stopped. just light flurries just a few minutes ago and no snow coming down and look at the roadways. look at the job that they've done out here. absolutely snow free out here on i-70. you can see another snow now -- plow as we approach. good news is the people have been listening to our warnings and stayed off the roads. that's why these guys have been able to do such a job of clearing the snow out in this part of frederick county as we flip back around and we head back into towards d.c. on i-270, a different story. as we get closer into the washington area in germantown damascus and down into the rockville area, it's still a lot of snow on the ground, on i-70. we went into german town on the side roads and it was slick and still snow covered. out

. >> let's check in with horace holmes live in mobile track 7. how is it looking out there right now? >> not too good alison, as a matter of fact. the photographer and myself have been on the roadways. we're just pulling at this point on to i-270 in germantown all the way from damascus. the plows, we saw an army of plows a little while ago hitting 270 and they've done a good job but it's still a little slippery. we took a detour into germantown a moment ago and listening very closely to kevin lewis' story shot earlier in the day with the spinouts in the area and things have not gotten better on the roadways since he filed that report. earlier in the day. but the good news is as you can see from mobile track 7 our cameras out here as we're looking at 270 at least going in this direction north towards frederick, there are not too many people on the roads. coming on the southbound area back into d.c. there are a number of people in the roads and that's not what the snow plows want to see. they want to see these roadways cleared as the snow continues

horace: and i'm horace holmes. a local motorist said one of these construction barrels nearly cost her her life and she was driving down there on 395 just about to head into the third street tunnel. what happened? we'll tell you coming up next on abc 7 news. leon: scary morning for some students near philadelphia. take a look at this. a school bus slammed right into a house. students on board that bus told police that right before the crash, the 58-year-old driver started hyperventilating and then hit the gas pedal. he was taken to the hospital for evaluation. the students on the bus are ok and the three people inside the home it turns out were not hurt. alison: wow. one woman was left really shaken up after a barely came off a bridge right over 395 and damaged her car as she drove on the street below. she doesn't think this is an accident. leon: horace holmes spoke with that driver and he's live in northwest with her story. horace? horace: well she said it happened so fast she was driving down there when suddenly

reporting live in the newsroom horace holmes abc 7 news. >> let us know horace. a local teenager is being recognized as one of the brightest science minds in the entire country. michael hoffman winer of north bethesda won the first medal of distinction at the talent search. the 18-year-old beat out nearly 1800 applicants with his study of sound particles. the award earns him $150,000. >> wow! >> how about that? >> wow! way to go. let's take a look ahead and see what's coming up tonight at 6:00, the criminal charges against two area firefighters who were arrested just days apart. plus a stabbing victim left way more than 40 minutes for help. what's being blamed for that slow response and the simple change that residents say could have made all the difference. and we'll break down a lawsuit by a major organization that's pushing for hillary clinton's e-mail to be made public. we'll have that for you new tonight at 6:00. >> first get another check of the weather as things are getting milder and milder. >> we like the sound of that doug. >> you know where to keep tem

horace holmes is live in dumfries to explain this interesting tale for us. horace? >> well alison and leon as you maybe can see there aren't many mature trees. practically no mature trees in this neighborhood. folks around here haven't seen much of squirrels so what is in rashita merrick's attic that would cost $10,000 to get rid of? she contacted seven environmental solutions to find out what was making so much noise in the attic of her home. noises so bad, it would wake her in the middle of the night. she says a representative came in took a look and said squirrels had settled in up there and they could get rid of them so merrick signed a contract agreeing to pay $12,000 for the extermination. they wrote them a $3200 deposit check and then -- >> costs that much. have to pay, you know. and then a lot. >> she called "7 on your side." we got involved. what is in her attic? we'll tell you tonight on abc 7 news at 5:00. i'm horace holmes reporting live in dumfries. >> all right. gout -- you got it horace. another sign that little bao bao is growing up. >> big changes a

horace holmes is in the newsroom with what we've learned so far about this. horace? horace: we are told that the three men were working on a high rise construction site in downtown raleigh. they are about 11 stories up on the charter square building. the three were on a platform and we're told they were dismantling scaffolding. witnesses say they were on their way down when something went wrong. the entire portion of the scaffolding came crashing down. the three who were up on the building were killed and another worker on the ground was also injured so that's the situation about what we're told is going on right now in raleigh and an investigation is under way. at this point, no word of what happened 11 stories up to cause that scaffolding to come leon: thanks horace. the future of afghanistan is a focus of a meeting taking place near camp david. the council team is holding with the afghanistan team. scott thuman has a look at what's expected from today's meeting. scott: just behind me a critical meeting taking place between afghanistan's president and president oba

reporting live at the vietnam memorial downtown horace holmes, abc 7 news. alison: ok horace. we want to know what you think about that photo. you can comment on our abc 7 facebook page. leon: a break in last month's shooting at frederick high school. police announced two arrests in the shooting that wounded two teenagers. john gonzalez has more now on the investigation. john: this afternoon, frederick county police say these are the young men who caused so much terror here at frederick high school back on february 4th. that night, there was a shooting out here in the parking lot while a basketball game was going on inside. police and school officials made the big announcement just moments ago and the commander-in-charge made it very clear this investigation is not over. they still want to do some follow-up interviews and there are possibly more suspects and more arrests. but today these two men are behind bars facing a grand jury indictment. 21-year-old brandon taylor and 19-year-old chandler davenport both live here in frederick. police say tyler was the shooter that night.

reporting live in northwest, horace holmes abc 7 news. alison: keep us posted on that one. the u.s. will keep just under 10,000 troops in afghanistan through the end of the year. president obama made that announcement during a news conference with afghan president ghani at the white house. ghani requested a slowdown in the withdrawal of u.s. troops. he says security forces are dealing with the spring fighting season and recruitment by the islamic state as well. the white house said troop levels in 2016 will be based on conditions on the ground. well, the u.s. future in afghanistan will be among the key issues discussed tonight. in our latest roundtable on the new terror threat. we're also going to take a look at the threat posed by isil as well as the current u.s. relationship with israel and iran. all of that tonight at 7:00 on our sister station, newschannel 8 and also on line at wjla.com. leon: still ahead on abc 7 news at 5:00, what's being blamed for a sink hole that swallowed this car and when d.c. will begin its own blitz against potholes. alison: a warning. after four holdup

horace holmes is live in northwest washington tonight. he's got a look at your pothole rights. hey, horace? >> hi leon. it's a good question because there are so many of these potholes popping up like this one here on 16th street northwest. they are all over the place and look what we found in the area just around this pothole. these are wheel covers evidence of cars that have been damaged by the potholes. they are easy to find. next to impossible to avoid. >> one that makes the loudest noise. i've ever heard. >> if you have a head-on encounter with one of the monster potholes that are growing around our area. >> i was driving on 16th street and hit a huge pothole. my right front tire basically exploded. >> you can wind up this like man we found in his car off the side of busy 16th street. he's looking at hundreds of dollars of damage to his car. it's his car but the upkeep of his roads is the responsibility of the government of the jurisdiction where it's located. >> to some extent we'll have some responsibility for taking potholes. >> who should really pay for this? david tom

horace holmes is in our newsroom with the latest on what witnesses told police. hello, horace. horace: hello, leon. that accident shut things down on the b.w. parkway for several hours. we have video. take a look at it. police say a lincoln collided with a mustang and that caused that mustang to flip, spin off the road and catch fire. then witnesses say the people in the lincoln got out of their car, left the scene before police arrived. now, when police did get there, they shut down the northbound lanes and that caused a mess on the parkway for the rest of the morning. >> just all the way down. there was one accident that wasn't reported. and then obviously, all the rubber necking on the northbound side. horace: police were able to clear the scene and open up the parkway by noon. the driver of the mustang died and the other vehicle involved in the crash, the lincoln was recovered. but the driver and the other occupants are still out there and police are asking for help. if you know anything, give them a call. reporting live in the newsroom horace holmes, abc 7 news. alison: d.

reporting live in the newsroom horace holmes, abc 7 news. back to you. kimberly: thank you, horace. more than 3,000 sun trust bank customers in virginia could be eligible for payments from a national settlement. claim forms are sent out yesterday to customers who lost their homes to foreclosure between january 1 2008 and december 31, 2013. the $550 million settlement for alleged foreclosure and mortgage violations included $40 million in payments to more than 45,000 customers nationwide. alison: the controversy over the redskins name is boiling over. but it's at a school district in new york state. despite protests the lancaster school board voted to do away with the redskins mascot and nickname. this came after three districts with native american students cancelled lacrosse matches with the high school. >> come to this point that you know, it had to be acted on because couldn't linger even wanted to thing this to fester. we got our point across. it's a no win situation. alison: a team of students now tasked with coming up with a new team name and mascot. school officials say there

in fairfax, horace holmes, abc 7 news. >> let us know how 7 can be on your side. call our tips hotline. you see the number there. you can send us your story ideas at tips at wjla.com. >> now to an abc 7 update on a story that we've been following all day out of prince george's county. "7 on your side" is also working to get results for some apartment residents in oxon hill. they also were stuck without hot water for more than two weeks. the property managers at the oaks at park south are now taking action and the residents we're told should have hot water flowing later tonight. we will let you know how that goes. >> all right. now you may think that folks in california are basquing in the sun and laughing at us as we suffer through the long winter. a freak hail storm coated hunting beach yesterday afternoon. that's southern california. temperatures were cool enough to let that stick around for a while so the beach goers usedt to build some hail men instead of the usual sand castles out there. the dogs had to be freaking out. they've never seen snow. >> exactly. i

reporting live in the newsroom horace holmes abc 7 news. >> learn something new every time horace shows up. >> we do. heard it all now horace. thank you. coming up here at 4:00 a "7 on your side" consumer alert about vehicle sales today. what's being credited for the higher demand for big trucks. >> we have an update on the chase that took social media by storm. learn what it was that took two llamas and sent them on a wild chase. >> we invite you to have fun with our question of the day on our abc 7 facebook page. fill in the blanks. march comes in like a blank and goes out like a blank. however, don't use the obvious words lion and lamb and keep it clean. we're going to share some responses coming up in a minute. >> who can forget the two llamas going viral last week for running through the streets of arizona after escaping their handler? well, folks, now we're hearing from a man who was holding one of those llamas when that drama began. >> the llama drama? he is 82 years old and he had invited those animals to his retirement community as therapy for the other residents there. karen b

reporting live from the district horace holmes abc 7 news. >> oh, my goodness. thanks horace. >> everybody is really happy to see this big break we're getting from the snow. unfortunately, though, we do have to get ready for some rain. >> all right. rain we'll take. keep the snow away. we'll take the rain. chief meteorologist doug hill here now with the word on when we'll need some umbrellas. >> weather words here in the next few days is drip drip drip. that refers to the melting snow, the rain that's coming and possibly your chief meteorologist is a drip. you never know. that's the story. rain is not on the horizon yet. melting is. look at the potomac. right before your eyes, the ice is melting. there will be a whole lot more of that around the area. temperatures like this. 62 degrees at reagan national now. 59 at washington dulles. 54 in frederick and nighttime temperatures will stay well above freezing. in fact we're going to run probably a good five straight days and nights at least if not longer with temperatures above freezing. so everything is gone and me