possible break-in. and the african-american festival is in towson this weekend. we'll tell you about this story and more coming up on "good morning maryland." good morning. thank you for joining us. i'm megan pringle. >> i'm jamie costello. let's find out about our glorious weather. more today? 5:30. we've got ourselves a brand new half-hour here and we've got the last warm day of the week. hope you enjoyed yesterday's 81 degrees. we should jump a little higher today, we start at 612 in baltimore. 93% humidity. and yes, there are some areas of patchy fog. so more than we had yesterday. there may be a little obscured visibility in some of the places north and west of the beltway. 62 in baltimore to 63 easton. we may find some 50s but otherwise we jump to 81 by noon. increasing clouds, 85 our two-degree guarantee later today. 5:30, let's check the roads with kim. >> the overnight construction projects are in the midst of being picked up but if you're headed out in the next few minutes you may or may not see them. 95 southbound lanes on the righthand side of the screen, a little bit of building volume down towards the 695/895 split. on the outer loop at security boulevard that exit ramp remains closed, it will probably reopen in the hour. inner loop at edmondson avenue the two left lanes blocked due to construction. westbound span of the bay bridge closed for construction. two-way gets by on the eastbound span. downtown, getting word of a gas main break between saratoga between, between north calvert and st. paul place, the area is closed. your alternate is east pleasant street. jfx, traffic moving at a nice pace. back to you. 5:31. this acorn tape floating around the internet has the senate pretty ticked off. >> so much so the funding stopped to the community organization. sherrie johnson joins us now live in our studio with more. >> reporter: acorn prides itself on going up against predatory lenders and greedy banks on behalf of the poor and defenseless. right now it's under fire after three videos surfaced showing acorn workers offering advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute. yesterday the u.s. senate voted to block hud from giving grants to the community organization after the video surfaced. in the latest video two people walk into an acorn office in new york looking for help setting up a fictitious brothel using underaged girls. residents called the police. staff members advised the couple on how to hide their income and commit what could amount to tax fraud. an acorn spokesman calls it a right-wing setup. >> it's an orchestrated sham. they are tempting to -- attempting to create news rather than report the news and are doing so in a deceiving, not genuine way and trying to trick people who are trying to help people. >> reporter: four employees have been fired. two in baltimore, two in washington, dc. the new york employees have reportedly been suspended and the bloggers behind the hidden camera video could face charges since it appears they broke maryland law by taping the interaction without the acorn employees knowing about it. live in the studio, sherrie johnson, abc2 news. here's a look at what is happening on this september 15th. annapolis, democratic voters are going to the polls to select the new nominee for mayor. and parents, you're urged to make sure your children are seated, safe and secure, part of a national child passenger safety week. we lost a third person in as many months along a deadly stretch of road in howard county and it prompts an appeal for the state to do something. the accidents have involved people trying to turn in and out of their neighborhoods along route 32 north of i-770. the latest -- i-70. the latest crash, brian emery was sent in the path of an oncome truck. the howard county executive called governor martin o'malley that same night asking him to restore money for upgrades cut from the budget. >> we made this our top priority for safety. we sent that letter to the folks at mdot so we've been working hard on this. then to find out there'ser in tragedy -- there's another tragedy of someone who lives in that neighborhood, who has been active in the effort really hit everybody hard. >> neighbors plan to appeal. the maryland transportation secretary for changes to the road during a meeting, that is coming up thursday at 7:00. that will be held at the howard county board of education right there on route 108. time now 5:34. a special honor for a maryland woman who led hundreds of slaves to freedom. the harriet tubman underground railroad state park on the eastern shore is receiving a nearly $1.2 million grant from the national parks service. maryland expects to begin the development at the 17-acre site last next year, will finish by 2011. tubman was born in dorchester county where she spent nearly 30 years as a slave before escaping in 1849. the rich history and culture of african-american will be celebrated in baltimore county this weekend. the 13th annual african-american cultural festival this saturday, at the towson court plaza in the heart of towson. the event will feature health and wellness vendors, dance performances and a performance by jazz artist kim waters and r & b singer kenny lattimore. the county executive jim smith says the festival celebrates diversity. >> in baltimore county we know that diversity is among our community's greatest strengths. the histories, cultures and traditions that make each of us so unique make our communities that much more exciting. and when we celebrate our various backgrounds and invite our neighbors to learn and share in those traditions it brings us all together. >> it will be this saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. he made you believe after seeing "ghost." >> and ladies loved his good looks, charm, passion. >> today we'll look back at the life of hollywood actor patrick swayze. plus, a walk in the park turns into a brawl, with a bear. for one man. find out who is credited for saving his life. first, let's go to justin with a check of the weather. >> 5:36. let's take to you the bus stop where we are expecting to have a pleasant morning. there are some spots that do have patchy fog but otherwise dry. 59 in the cooler spots. 68 in some locations along the chesapeake bay. we have a wide spread but overall a comfortable start to the day, that should be dry. we have rain around the corner. we'll talk about that coming up. 5:36. here's mark jones. >> good morning. on light rail look for a southbound delay running five to 10 minutes late. metro subway looks good. marc on time. on the buses, number 40, diversion at cooks and valley brook due to construction. number 17 bus diverted in the area of corporate drive and international, construction still on the scene. for the mta transit team, i'm mark jones. ♪ the best way to tell how great you look... is in your jeans. drop a jean size in two weeks... with the special k challenge™. with more delicious options than ever. jeans don't lie. go to... the new specialk.com to design your plan. ♪ take me home ♪ take me home ♪ to my family ♪ ♪ i need to be surrounded by ♪ the ones who care for me softness you can feel. tide with a touch of downy. ♪ take me home welcome back. 5:39. rally for ridgeleigh today. 12:30 to 2:00 at the towson courthouse. these parents are upset because when it gets hot their school is like a boiler. they say they need air conditioning. they are going to try to get something done today. at least we have ourselves a pretty decent day today. nice breeze. this will be the last warm day of the week but it will be a relatively warm day. this morning, in baltimore county, showing you monkton at 68 degrees. 96% humidity. we jump to 68 dundalk. as we mentioned earlier there's a wide spread across the area. some spots in the upper 60s, along the bay. edgemere 67 degrees. ellicott city, at the middle school there, down to 57. a 10-degree spread. we average it, low 60s, patchy fog. a partly cloudy day that turns mostly cloudy this afternoon with a warm high of 85. 5:40. let's check the roads with kim. >> we have a pretty smooth ride so far this morning on southbound 95 as you approach the whitemarsh boulevard area. no problems to let you know about at either the tunnels, the beltway checking in ok. we have an incident downtown where we have a gas main break that has saratoga street closed between north calvert and st. paul place. just be aware of that. east pleasant street is your alternate. in carroll county, animals in the roadway, in westminster, that is going to be in shock road and young road, reports of cows in the road. in manchester, route 84 at uniontown road, horses in the roadway. definitely use caution there. as we look at the jfx at northern parkway, traffic is light and moving along pretty nicely at this time. lets update with linda so in the studio. >> a johns hopkins student using a sword to defend himself against a burglar. i'm linda so. why this ended deadly. ♪ ♪ you can never be sureas what you're walking into, until now! nice! with new air wick compact imotion, you get concentrated freshness continuously and it has a motion sensor so it lets out extra freshness when you need it most. with even the tough places covered, yo air wick freshmatic compact smells great. with imotion. air wick, it's good to be home. 5:44. apparently one student had enough. >> his home broken into twice and the second time decided he was not going to be a victim. linda so has the exclusive details. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. we're talking about a johns hopkins student using a sword to confront a burglar and he ended up killing him. here's how it played out. this is video from our our overnight photographer pete "on the street" o'neill. it was shot around 2:00 this morning near east university parkway and university place. sources say between 7:00 and 8:00 last night a burglar broke into the home of three hopkins students and stole some video games. then a few hours later, around 1:30 this morning their home was broken into again. when the students heard the noise they confronted the burglar in the backyard. one of the students grabbed a sword and cut off the suspect's ear and hand. that suspect died at the scene. all three students have been taken in for questioning by homicide detectives. it's unclear at this point if they will be charged or if this will be considered self-defense. neighbors do tell us though there have been a rash of burglaries in the area over the past several months. live in north baltimore, linda so, abc2 news. it's 5:45. a look at some of the other top stories we're working on this morning. baltimore city police say investigators believe a man fired at a off-duty police officer -- authorities say off-duty officer simply unlocking the door of his home, the the 19-year-old suspect put a gun to his back, told him to step inside and lay on the floor. the 19-year-old is in critical can -- condition, the officer on administrative leave. a woman behind bars accused of stabbing her husband. viviana -- vivian green faces attempted murder and assault charges. police say it happened sunday night in the 1700 block of judy way in edgewood. green reportedly stabbed rodney preston in the chest. preston is in serious but stable condition at shock trauma this morning. millions of movie fans are mourning the death of actor patrick swayze. his butly cyst says he -- his publicist says he died peacefully with his family by his side. he had been battling pancreatic cancer for two years. he made famous movies like "dirty dancing" and "ghost." he was 57. the university of maryland says the number of students who reported flu-like symptoms since class started two weeks ago climbed to over 500. a spokeswoman says that many have already recovered and the number indicates the suspegged cases of swine flu. but six - a cecil county teacher accused of fondling a 15-year-old boy will be back in class next week. authorities dropped the charges against jeffrey mccool after a thorough investigation. police say that the boy first claimed that mccool touched him and put his arms around his younger sister but in a follow-up interview with the boy and his father the boy told police he made up the story to avoid getting in trouble for crossing the street. mccool is a teacher at northeast middle school. again, he'll be in class next week. if you're going anywhere near aberdeen proving ground don't be worried if you hear loud explosions. the test center plans to conduct several large explosions which will be heard or felt, they bounce off the bush. they are scheduled to be set off through the end of the week. there's another possible candidate in the race for governor. republican larry hogan says he plans to launch hogan for maryland committee today to begin gauging support and see what is possible. however, he said he would support former governor robert ehrlich if he decides to run in 2010. delegate patrick mcdonogh and his attorney mike pappas are also running for gop nominations for the governor's race. took a quick breath and then i got hit on the back. it felt like somebody just kicked me extremely hard. >> that kick came from a 300-pound bear. the hero who saved that man, his dog, dakota. wild kingdom met mike strickland and his dog 15 minutes before they began walking on a nature trail. mike says he ran, played dead, covered his head and held his breath. strickland's dog dakota stepped in and somehow scared away the bear. he only suffered minor bruises and cuts. speaking of cuts, budget cuts are coming to the maryland zoo in baltimore. they are taking a bite out of your admission discounts. typically if you visit the zoo on a weekday or buy tickets on-line, adults get $4 discounts, seniors, $2. but to help offset recent cuts at the zoo the adult discount has been cut back to $2. seniors, $1. the children's price will not be changing. the changes kick in september 21st. no ifs, ands or buts. beginning october 1st the two companies, avis and hertz will become the first two cars to ban smoking in the entire north american fleet. officials say don't even think about lighting up. they plan to impose a cleaning fee of up to $250 on customers who spoke in their cars -- smoke in their cars. the reason behind the new campaign? its number one request by drivers is to have a smoke-free car. >> we've been there. the state of michigan is no stranger to winter weather. >> but what about falling ice, in the mid-80s out there? what happened to one motor city homeowner over the weekend, he thinks the ice chunks came from a plane hovering nearby. and now the faa is investigating. the ice did leave a gaping hole in the roof. 5:50. 62 degrees, a little patchy fog. it becomes more prominent as we head on in through mid to late september, october and november. this is the foggy season. we're surrounded by the big chesapeake bay so it's possible we have to deal with it this morning. otherwise high pressure still in control, we have clear skies. this is when it gets interesting. pull this back wider and as high pressure slides off the coast we've got a little convergence going on which basically means two systems coming together on top of baltimore. we've got this developing area of low pressure -- actually, it's been sitting and stuck across the deep south for five days. slowly trying to pull to the north. we've actually got this cool front that i will with be sliding out of new england. thin ribbon of clouds across new york now. all balancing across the mid-atlantic, slow-moving wet pattern developing. so we're expecting to have a few wet days. enjoy today, this afternoon, partly cloudy to mostly cloudy, temperature of 85 degrees in downtown baltimore. you'll notice a stretch on down towards the south from about 82 degrees in column quarks turning mostly cloudy -- columbia, turning mostly cloudy, some spots 84 in annapolis. tonight we'll slip back to 66. mostly cloudy skies, maybe throw in fog because the winds out of the east off the ocean will actually help to moisten up the atmosphere. 72 degrees and developing showers tomorrow. that is going to be a sharp pullback from the last couple of days. you'll notice we'll pull back lower to 66 thursday, near 70 friday. both days with a chance of rain. kim, how about the traffic? >> it's off to a great start. no problems to let you know about here on 95. a smooth ride from about the hazelwood overpass to the 695/895 split. both tunnels are incident-free. no problems on the beltway so far. if you're traveling downtown we have a gas main break that has srg street closed -- saratoga street closed between north calvert and st. paul street. use east pleasant street. in carroll county animals got loose on the roadway, be aware of that. in manchester, shock road and young road, cows in the road. and westminster, route 84 and union town road, horses in the road. look out for the cows and horses running wild in carroll county. jfx, traffic looks great in both directions. back to you. the swift kick in the kanye continues. find out how a radio station is now paying kanye west back. and coming up new at 6:00 -- he's overseas but his girlfriend is still taking him everywhere with her. and she's getting a lot of attention. we'll be right back. (announcer) "new simply cookies from pillsbury. simply wholesome ingredients and nothing more." how e between chy and soft tacos? why don't we have both? old el paso. hard n soft tacos. mexican style. a chattanooga radio station. payback for the performance in new york. >> well done! well done. good job. >> the contemporary hit radio station interrupting all kanye west songs and replacing them with taylor swift tunes. as you probably know by now the rapper interrupted taylor swift's acceptance speech for female video of the year on sunday. jay -- west did apologize to her several times. >> jay asking what would your mother think? >> he broke down. >> what would your mother think? let's look at weather and then we'll tell you about the 6:00 news. pretty good-looking day today. we start in the low 60s. 85 this afternoon. watch the pullback here because we're going to set back to about 72 tomorrow. with some develop showers. and the chance of rain will continue. i think we may have wind thrown into the mix thursday with a high of only 66 degrees. you'll notice the low of 63 really not much of a variation there, when we have an east wind and a lot of moisture around. chance of rain continues friday, near 70. we'll try to break it over the weekend with drier weather and back into the lower 70s. we've got so much more to come so if you can stick around. we'll be right back after this. today i'm making a classic sweet potato pie... everyone can enjoy, cag delicious lactaid milk. aos] ]eítfoló 100%eal milk that's lactose-free... so it's easy/+ welcome back to the table. love it with lactaid. true professionals, always ready when they hear the call... guys, pancakes! because when it's pancakes everyone's in it together. a hopkins student pulls a sword and violently ends any chance of getting robbed. this is a "good morning maryland" exclusive story. from "dirty dancing" and "ghost," we got great moments in the movies. more on the passing of patrick swayze this morning. and acorn is struggling this morning, embarrassed on tape and now their government allowance is being cut. these stories and more. in the meantime, good tuesday morning, thank you for joining us. i'm megan pringle. >> i'm jamie costello. here with the weather, meteorologist justin berk. >> good morning. we are just about to hit 6:00 on this