Transcripts For WJLA ABC 7 News At Noon 20140717

It is about time. We could use resources in better places. Many we spoke to were either indifferent or excited. If alcohol is legal, why should marijuana be legal . It is less harmful. It means people caught with the drug will not be arrested or face jail time, just a fine that is less than a parking ticket. Yesterday, the same offense meant a 1000 fine or six months behind bars. Opponents are worried the new policy means more children might start using the drug. Uthmy concern is that more yo get into it. This park is federal jurisdiction in dupont circle, which means you can be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor, but behind me, right across the street, it is just a civil penalty with a 25 fine. They will have to make sure they communicate that to people because to me that seems like it could be setting people up for more trouble. Another cause for confusion from Law Enforcement they cannot take action, even if they smell the order odor of the drug. The metropolitan Police Department says the following reporting in the district, jeanette reyes, abc 7 news. Staying in the district where another law could change, the house looked to block virtually gunof bcs d. C. s control laws, some of the strictest in the nation. An amendment to the house opposed spending bill eliminate the gun regulations. We will have much more on the latest gun at deflation coming up right here on abc 7 news at 5 00 p. M. We want to take a live look outside at the capitol this afternoon. We are enjoying another day of sunshine and cooler temperatures. Much cooler. New route is Eileen Whelan is here with a look at the first forecast. Where did the humidity go, not that we are campaigning complaining. Tell me about it. Great hair days. Low temperatures across the region, dipping down to 55 in gaithersburg, 59 in frederick. It is mid july. 55 in dallas had 66 at Reagan National dulles. 66 at Reagan National. From the rooftop camera, beautiful. The humidity is very low for this time of year. Temperatures elsewhere, 73 in gaithersburg. Bwi. A nice breeze generally out of the north, northwest, anywhere between five and about 10 miles an hour. The northerly breeze is ushering in the drier air. You can see the remnants of the cold front that moved in tuesday, but well offshore. Pretty quiet on the weather front. Afternoon temperatures in the 80s. To middle no problems in and around the midatlantic and up and down the east coast today. Where you will have travel problems likely in oklahoma and texas where there is some storms. The big question, how ng will it last, and coming up from the belfort furniture weather center, in about 10 minutes, i will let you know. A shooting at a d. C. School this morning turned out to be false. D. C. Police responded to Meridian Charter School on 13th street in northwest washington, searching inside and outside, but found no active shooter. They are investigating where the original call came from. To Prince Georges County now, where a new plan is receiving mixed feedback from Fort Washington residents forced out of their homes after a hillside collapsed in may. Under the plan, 22 homes would be saved, six would be bought and torn down. The plan was announced during a meeting last night. Some residents are not satisfied, arguing that all of the homes should be saved. We are looking for a plan that will allow us to remain in our homes before, during, and after the construction. Fix piscatawayld drive and provide a new water and sewer line to the neighborhood. Are trying to repair block ofe on the 3600 stan wrote. The water main has been repaired to service has been restored customers living near that road. Big changes are coming to the eyenew i66 court or. Virginia transportation officials held a meeting to announce the new plans. John gonzalez has the story. Traffic seems to be getting worse on interstate 66, part officials spent the much anticipated Board Meeting with transportation secretary aubrey layne with a discussion on this highway. There will be additional lanes in each direction, and keeping three free lanes in each direction all of the time. Additional lanes where we will call the managed or toll lanes. If you do not want to stay in the backup, you can pay to get off and speed along at a higher speed than setting in the lanes. The expansion of light rail and transit are in the works, but virginia delegates are expressing concerns about how much congestion will be alleviated. What will be the benefit for motorists on 66 questionnaire we did not hear the answer today. Environment 66 . We did not hear the answer today. Environmental analysis will begin, and construction is set to begin in 2017. People will demand this. It is necessary. People get tired of sitting on a road like it is a parking lot. With the expiration of the Highway Trust Fund looming, the question was raised how much of an impact this will have on taxpayers. Toll revenue will more than likely cover much of the project, which is expected to cost between 2 billion and 3 billion. There will be tolls, but always a free alternative. I66, john gonzalez, abc 7 news. Speed cameras near the university of maryland will soon run 24 hours a day and the College Park City Council Approved a change, and in the policy that limited the use from just 6 00 in the morning until 8 00 p. M. On weekdays. The move comes after three pedestrians were hit and killed along route one earlier this year. Other improvements include lowering the speed limit and installing a fence to deter pedestrians from crossing outside of the crosswalk. Two gunman and one of their caught this afternoon. Three suspects still a big employee suv and shot a police. The man then kidnapped three female hostages, italy will Bank Employees and one customer. Police chased the suspects for nearly one hour at speeds of up to 100 Miles Per Hour all while taking heavy gunfire. The suspect had mass amounts of any nation either taped to were strapped to their bodies. Right there at all three suspects were shot, two of them fatally. The Bank Customer was also killed in the shootout. It appears the suspect used her as a human shield. We want to rejoin Network Programming now as they continue their special report on the Malaysian Airlines flight that has gone missing. I want to go straight to martha raddatz. All we have for Malaysian Airlines so far is that they lost contact with the plane. We see the plumes of smoke right ,here where the plane went down but this is the first named official saying that it was shot down. One of the things here, george, is they will know fairly quickly if this plane was shot down. Is a conflict zone. You will have satellites overhead. All sorts of reconnaissance airplanes are watching the area, so if something came up towards that airplane this is unlike the malaysian airplane that disappeared. This they will probably know fairly soon with some certainty what brought that airplane down, unless, of course, it was mechanical, and that could take some time. I want to go to the former adviser to the pentagon, now an abc news consultant. Steve, take us through this plane believed to be flying at about 33,000 feet. That would be out of range of a shoulderfired missile, correct . Andhat is correct, george, if in fact and the result long way to go before we get to those conclusions if in fact it was shot down by a missile, it was probably radarguided. It would take a fairly big missile, something used for air defense, something both the russians and ukrainians have, but it would not be some sort of shoulderfired missile that a terrorist might have erred this would be a deliberative might have. This would be a deliberate act. And of course, we have a denial from the militants who have been fighting the Ukrainian Government, denying any involvement in an attack on this Malaysian Airlines jet. They say we simply do not have , howeverfense systems 3000have a firing range of to 4000 meters and passengers fly5 jets five at at a much higher altitude. At this altitude, what could bring a plane down . There are plenty of weapons in the russian and ukrainian inventory. Missiles would be fairly big. They would be radarguided. They would lock onto an airplane. We have to remember in the past few days, if not weeks, there have been two ukrainian airplanes shot down, and ukrainians have directly blame the russians for shooting down those aircraft, shooting from russian territory into ukrainian territory. We have not been able to verify either of those shoot downs. The accusations have been made. We need to be very careful here. There is a conflict going on and there are still plenty of other theories that would be possible ofthis came down by force man. I want to go to our aviation consultant. 777, similar to airlinesng malaysian plane that had not been found. This plane had a good safety record. A superlative safety record. It has been one of the most spectacular, safe launches of any jetliner in the history of jetliners. Is are still, always possibility something completely unprecedented could happen, but there is no reason to believe this triple seven is the type of airplane that would, part in fight that would come apart in flight. Everything is on the table. You are absolutely right. The data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder will be found and can be debriefed. On top of that, when we figure fromhe dissent profile 30,000 feet, we will know. Jon karl is standing by at the white house. What does the president know . The president has been briefed on this. He is on his way to delaware. This comes just after the president announced a new round of sanctions against russia because of russian activity in stevee, and as you heard mentioned, two planes have gone down over ukraine airspace. Monday. Argo plane on wednesday, a fighter jet. The Ukrainian Government has placed the blame squarely on the russians, saying they were shot down from russian territory and that is something under active investigation right now. Over the last several weeks, russianicant buildup of forces and equipment on that border with the ukraine. This plane went down is right in the heart of where the Ukrainian Military has been battling those prorussian separatist for the last several months, and the rhetoric between the ukraine and russia has been building over the last couple of weeks. Nato has said they have seen 12,000 Russian Troops building up on that side of the border, and certainly something everyone that is looking everyone is looking at is whether the equipment allegedly provide to the prorussian separatists would have been used in Something Like this. We received a tweet from boeing who says our thoughts and boards are with those on 17 and we stand ready to provide assistance. A tweet from the Prime Minister bymalaysia i am shocked reports that a Malaysian Airlines plane crash and we are beginning an investigation immediately. The United States does not have any confirmation of cause, individuals on planes. The United States government did issue an order in april to all american air carriers about flying over this zone. Or two portions where it was really heating up. This is a standard route from europe into asia, up over russia. I have flown it myself, and i imagine you have, too, many times. What could have happened a number of possibilities. A surfacetoair missile, a shoulderfire missile, and it could be a jet fighter from either side. In 1983, russian jets shot down a passenger plane with congressman Larry Mcdonald from george on board. They thought it was a spy plane from the u. S. And they shot it down. This is unusual, but not particularly unprecedented. And of course, the United States in 1988 took down the air any passenger the year and he ni passenger jet. With an update signature or a squat signal . What the United States would be doing to confirm this and what they might do in response. Certainly, you have to see if there was any intent, whether this was an accident, not a whotive i cannot imagine would intentionally targeted passenger jet, a malaysian passenger jet if it was at altitude. That would have to be a pretty ,owerful surfacetoair missile and who has that. The United States probably is right now looking at satellite trying to figure out what happened in those moments right before the plane crashed, whether there are signals of missiles going up. That is what they will be doing, and diplomatically they will be consulting with the russians, the ukrainians, everyone working together to try to figure out what rock this town. And the advisor to the ukrainian interior minister suggesting this was brought down by a buk missile launch, which has a range of about 22,000 feet. Steve, are you there . I am here, can you hear me . Steve. Ost i want to go back to brian. Of course, this comes on the heels of the malaysian flight about 171went down days ago now, still a mystery. Still a mystery, and it will not be a mystery here because of the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorders. They will be recovered and that will probably give all the information they need to figure out what happened in the last moments when the plane went down from the height of 33,000 feet. You see that plume of smoke. I want to go back if you can bring up a picture of that boeing 777. Jim has covered aviation for many years. Alk about the boeing 777 it is one of the workhorses, especially of International Flights, and for these large, international airliners. It carries anywhere from 305 to 440 passengers depending on the configuration. It is a twin engine plane. It has Long Distances, and he usually travels, in cruise mode, in the 35,000feedrange. You can also travel a recorders of mach speed. This, of course, is a model of one. 777. Is an air india as you can see, it has a twin engine. It is used for Long Distance and often International Flights. You rarely see them in the United States flying domestically. Most of the time they are for International Flights because of their Long Distance, and they have an incredible safety record. There are very few instances with the 777. It is a plane that has been in service for many years and very little trouble. We received a statement from the ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and i will be given full this is the third incident. We do not exclude that this aircraft was also shot down and we stress that the Law Enforcement of the ukraine did not commit any actions. Raddatz, we do not exclude that it was also shot down. That is a statement there, and it would be hard to assume this ise safety record, the first thing they will look at. Martha, this comes one day after president obama announced tougher sanctions against the russian government targeting defense firms, banks, energy firms. The americans knew they were stepping this up, and this could be some sort of kelly a shift from russia. Again, it is hard to know exactly right now who or what might have been responsible for this, but there had been feared that the tensions here could lead to some kind of retaliation. But this would be an incredible retaliation. It is hard to imagine they would have done this on purpose to target a passenger plane from probablytraveling at 30,000 feet with all those innocent people on board. If you would be almost incompatible. Jon kyl at the white house, more on the sanctions . The president had a conversation with Vladimir Putin this morning before this news broke, and he is also warned his Intelligence Team to be in close touch with ukrainian officials and he wants to be updated throughout the day. He will be traveling from delaware and then on to new york. At the appropriate point, the president would want to be in direct contact because the most important thing here is you would not want some kind of an accident, a terrible accident to cause things to spiral out of control. That is precisely right. When he had the call with Vladimir Putin about these sanctions, it is a high point in u. S. Russian tensions. You could be sure when the things hes looking to do is to bring this down, investigate, find out what happened. If this was an action that came from ukrainian rebels, the russian side, clearly, the hope would be this would be a mistake. Theres nobody here suggesting in any way this was an intentional act in terms of taking down a civilian passenger jet, but the president has moved this to the top of his agenda. I want to move back to steve. We were talking about if the plane were truly fine at about 33,000 feet, it would be out of range of shoulderfired missiles. The advisor to the ukrainian interior minister suggests that it was brought down by a buk missile launcher, which they say could hit at about 22,000 meters. What more can you tell us about that Missile System . At this point it is not worth thinking about what kind of missile other than we know the ukrainians have the capability, as do the russians, to bring down aircraft. Brian also brings up the good point that there is a possibility of a fighter shooting down a civilian aircraft. It is almost out of the realm of belief, but you have to go back 007 where a of kal 747 was brought down. There is a lot of investigations that have to go on here. If it is a surfacetoair missile, it would have been locked on by a radar system, and a radar system would have seen the airplane up there. As brian noted, there was transponder code, an electronic code, that wouldve said this is a civilian aircraft, and whoever shot this down would have seen that code. We know that have been deliberative, provocative actions, we believe, by the russians come in the past days and weeks to shoot down ukrainian aircraft. Could they have mistaken us for ukrainian aircraft . It is possible. Tell us about the kind of weaponry built upon that order. The state department put out a fact sheet of accusations of the type of weapons they say russia has been provided to the ukrainians then provided to the ukrainians, and that includes portable rocket launchers, that kind of thing. This is the type of thing the Obama Administration has been worried about accusations that the russians have been providing the rebels in ukraine with significant amounts of heavy weapons. If this was a shootdown, and it came from the russian side of the border, is difficult to say if it was the rebels or somebody else. And brian and steve talked about the terrible accident of korean air lines in 1983, and of course, in 1988, the notice its also mistakenly shot down an i aircraft. They thought it wasnt raining jet fire and it turned fireo be an iranian jet. It was just a mistake. They mistook the radar image. When small arms fire was being exchanged. It was a heated time and in the heat of the battle that mistake was happening made. Were coming up on 12 20 5 12 25 p. M. East on the east. A flight took off at 6 14 a. M. Eastern time this morning. It flew for about five hours, lost contact, according to Malaysian Airlines. They lost contact with the flight when it was over eastern ukraine. We see the scene right there. We see the smoke in the area where it would have been five hours into the flight. We have had condolences from the head of Malaysian Airlines. They have confirmed they lost contact. An advisor to the ukrainian suggestingnister this was brought down by russian rebels cant we have no confirmation of that. All we have is that they lost contact with the plane. President obama has been briefed on the matter. U. S. Officials are struggling to confirm, figure out what happened as well. We know there were 295 people on board. 280 passengers along with 15 crew members. Is the second Malaysian Airlines flight that has gone down in the last several months. 370ysian Airlines Flight went down 131 days ago, and it is still a mystery. In large part because they cannot find the wreckage. Here, they know where the wreckage is. They were able to recover the key data, recorders, typepad recorders, the voices of the pilots, the blackbox. That will tell a lot about what happened in the final minutes. The ukrainian president also expressing condolences to the families on that plane, saying he cannot exclude at this time, martha raddatz, that this plane was shot down. One of the key goals of u. S. Officials will be to make sure the authorities do not go out of control, although this is something the United States has been very worried about in the last several days with the president announcing new sanctions yesterday. Exactly. The new sanctions worried about any sort of retribution. Hard toid, it would be imagine that anyone would take a step like this intentionally, but they will look to see if it was accidental. They will have to try to calm everyone down in the region. What you probably have happening right now is people rushing to the scene to see, in the unlikely event cap there are any survivors. Diplomacy is in full force, trying to calm people down, trying to figure out what possibly happen, and you will get the blame game for hours and hours. And it comes at a time we are looking at the flight path again, at a time when the United States and president obama are juggling so many different foreign crises at the time. Not only the 10 situation between the ukraine and russia, but of course the fighting between israel and the palestinians in gaza, the continued advance of islamic militants in iraq, they have had a summer of crises. No doubt, and you can add the coming deadline on Iranian Nuclear talks, concerns in the South China Sea about aggression. It is a perilous time in terms of foreign policy. The president came out to the Briefing Room yesterday to talk about several of those issues and offer reassurance that he is keeping a close watch on all of them. Right now, this issue, martha hit it on the head it is about making sure this is not escalate any further. Directive right now to his National Security team is to be in close contact with ukrainian officials. You can bet a big part of that is insuring there is no overreaction to this, insuring that the first thing that happens here is a careful and not spurring countermeasures by the ukrainian there is have a concerns about russian involvement. That is why you saw the new round of sanctions. As i mentioned earlier, you had two ukrainian planes that have gone down this week, one on monday, one on wednesday, accusations from the Ukrainian Government that they were shot down by the russians. States has not confirmed either was shot down by the russians, but they are investigating. Now comes this, a civilian airliner, i say a much bigger escalation the kind of thing they have been worried about. Is an area where military equipment has been built up for the last several weeks and months, which could make the investigation quite difficult. For the immediate concern of trying to get to the wreckage site and trying to recover those black boxes. It is going to be one of the compensating factors. It also remains to be seen, you know, whether the ukrainians and these prorussian rebels will actually play nice in the situation in terms of being able to get to that area and do some sort of recovery of the crash site. Let me go to our counterterrorism consultant Richard Clarke in washington, and i believe you are serving in thegovernment both when the United States shut down the iranian aircraft in 1988, and won the russians shot down the korean Airlines Flight in 1983. I was, george, in both cases, and i investigated both cases. The parallel here is to the 1983 incident where a 747 filled with people, including the United States congressman, a 747 operated by korean air lines were shut down by the russian air force. In that case, the decision we had to make and made relatively quickly was whether to reveal that nsa was listening to the Russian Air Defense command, and the decision was that we needed to reveal the medications