Transcripts For WRC News4 At 6 20170222

Nonlifethreatening injuries. Two dogs were rescued. Two other pets died. The news that stellan was playing with a lighter deepens the sadness here. Heartbreaking to hear. Im just so sorry for the family. Its certainly a shock. Reporter Fairfax County firefighters returned today to canvass the neighborhood, asking each homeowner if they have working smoke detectors and urging them to have a frank conversation with their children about playing with fire. We try to hit everything we can possibly think of to give the citizens their best shot of avoiding any type of bad emergency. Reporter people who live in this lorton neighborhood have started a gofundme page to help pay funeral expenses for little stellan. Thats the latest from lorton. Jim, back to you. Tha six months after a murder in the district, police say they have arrested a suspect. Police arrested 46yearold herman cook yesterday. Hes accused of shooting another man behind the Recreation Center on Georgia Avenue back in august. Drug enforcement officers arrested cook in baltimore. Immigration. Transgender rights. And those angry town Hall Meetings playing out across the country. Tonight, the white house is weighing in as new poll numbers show more than half of americans are not happy with President Trumps Job Performance during his first few weeks in office. Many fear we could be on the brink of war. Tonight were covering all the angles. We start with julie carey, gathering new reaction to the president S Immigration policies. Julie . Reporter doreen, it was a day of celebration here at mt. Vernon as immigrants from some 31 countries became new u. S. Citizens. And they quickly exercised their free speech rights, some of them te to the trump administrations new policy on immigration enforcement. Others say they think some tightening up might be needed. Among this countrys 51 newest citizens, linda came to this country from guatemala 17 years ago. She works in a cafeteria at a woodbridge elementary school. This ceremony left her in tears. Thank you so much, im so emotional and crying. Reporter those tears, tears of joy. But linda and some others here today saddened by the trump administrations new immigrant enforcement policy. It broadens the type of undocumented immigrants that can be arrested. No longer will criminals be the sole target. Im very sad because the people come here for better opportunity to find a good job and support their family. Reporter new citizen khan served in the iraqi army as a dental officer before he came to this country as a refugee, joining his wife. He weighed in on the trump executive order that stirred controversy and lawsuits last month, the travel ban on seven muslim majority countries, a policy now being reworked. His experience as a translator for refugees during the Obama Administration convinces him that some tightening might be needed. I was very surprised some refugees were let into the country, because they were the same people i ran away from iraq to avoid. Reporter he says hes interested to see the revised plan expected by the end of the week. If this is going to make america safer, i am totally with it. I totally support it, you know . But the problem is i dont see i dont see the plan. I dont know what is the plan. Reporter now, that r travelers and refugees, that is expected by the end of the week. But omar khan tells me he does have concerns too. He thinks all of the talk surrounding these issues, the hate speech, he said, is further dividing americans. Im julie carey, back to you in the studio. Thanks, julie. Our Team Coverage continues now with more republican lawmakers facing angry taxpayers. Some voters are worried about changes to their health care plans. Others are demanding a deeper investigation into russian meddling in the recent election. Tracie potts on capitol hill with news on another major policy change that could ignite even more anger. Tracie . Reporter jim, the president has been focusing a lot on immigration and security at the border. Now the administration also takes a look at a key social policy and reversing that policy already. Reaction from the Human Rights Campaign calling it a b cruel attack on young children. President Trumps Administration is taking on what had not been a campaign priority. Transgender bathrooms. In fact here is what he said last spring about caitlyn jenner. You would be fine with her using any bathroom she chooses . That is correct. Reporter but today, the president S Administration is expected to reverse obamaera guidelines that allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice. Hes a Firm Believer in states rights and that certain issues like this are not best dealt with at the federal level. Eporter gay Rights Groups call it discrimination. Conservatives argue washington should stay out of it. Really an abuse of federal powers, to say that it should be one of the attorney generals top priorities, to police bathrooms. Reporter policing tax dollars, thats President Trumps focus today, meeting with his budget team. Unfortunately the budget that were inheriting, essentially inheriting is a make washington leaner, more accountable. We wont let your money be wasted anymore. Were going to run government smoothly, efficiently. Reporter Congress Approves that budget, with republicans under attack from angry taxpayers at town Hall Meetings. Raucous. Thats all right. Were learning how to be aruba us in t raucous here in the midwest. Were going to have to Pay Attention. Reporter and Pay Attention to a president who says he wants to do more with less. Like paying for that wall, that border wall, which even republicans here have said could cost 15 billion taxpayer dollars. Jim . Thanks, tracie. The majority of americans, in fact 54 according to an nbc surveymonkey poll, disapprove of the job President Trump is doing. 79 say its important for congress to c personal principle. 52 have a favorable view of the Affordable Care act. Thats against 45 who have an unfavorable view. As for foreign policy, 80 of those polled say membership in nato is good for the u. S. And 66 are worried that the u. S. Will become part of a major war in the next four years. The conservative Political Action conference known as cpac is now under way at National Harbor. The conference is sponsored by the american conservative union. The annual gathering is attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the country. White house Senior Adviser steve bannon will address the Group Tomorrow afternoon. Vice president pence will make a speech tomorrow night. And President Trump is scheduled to speak to the group on friday morning. Last year, trump angered them by cancelling his appearance a day ahead of time. He said his time would be better spent on the campaign trail. Centered on an invitation to right wing firebrand milo yiannopoulos. His speech was cancelled after a video gained widespread attention because it seemingly showed him defending child sex abuse. The uproar also cost yiannopoulos his job at Breitbart News and a major Book Publishing deal was cancelled. Yiannopoulos apologized but says his comments had been misinterpreted. President trumps daughter ivanka and his granddaughterar abel granddaughter arabella were spotted at the u. S. Supreme Court Watching an oral argument at the invitation of one of the justices. Boo ao bao is in china, saf and sound. We received this picture after the 16hour flight that took her there. Were told the p slept for the entire ride. She will spend the rest of her days at a conservation and Research Center for giant pandas. Shell spent next month in quarantine, getting adapted to local bamboo and chinese bread. Eventually shell join the Panda Breeding program. You weup next, improving re times for critical 911 calls while trying to keep you from having to foot the bill if you need an ambulance ride to the hospital. Reporter a double daylight shooting. The victims two construction workers on their way home from work. Friends are talking, neighbors are talking. Youll hear it all. Transforming parking lots into parks. Thats the idea in one local city. Tonight, a closer look at the plan. Were ending the day on a beautiful note. Temperatures today in the 60s. Look at this sunset. Wow that is just and it kind of tells you whats coming your way. One man is in critical condition, another is recovering after police say a masked man opened fire on them. The person responsible is still out there. Southeast dc. News4s pat collins is there with reaction from a friend of the victim. Pat . Reporter doreen, they were at work. They say they got called home for an emergency. Here on alabama avenue, gunfire. Right across the street from a church. Two construction workers shot in broad daylight on alabama avenue. Today i talked to a friend and coworker of the victim. He asked not to be identified. Its depressing, almost heartbreaking to actually just try to come to grips with it. I just saw them this morning. We take the same route to work every day. Reporter the friend says he and the victims all work on a capitol Hill Construction site. He says the men were called home for an emergency. And as they were walking down alabama avenue, gunfire. The two men hit. One of the victims went for the victim running to a nearby church. It was at the church that he encountered this man, a good samaritan. He asked not to be identified. He fell inside the church and said, ive been shot. He told one of the Church Members to call his mother. Reporter homicide detectives are on the case, working the scene and collecting evidence. The shooting happened across the street from the community of hope church. Julie taylor is the youth minister and she says shes not surprised by this violence. Its not uncommon. Its been happening quite a bit lately, in the last probably six months weve had a few things happen. Weve had something happen right in the alley a couple of months ago. So its not surprising. Reporter tonight, the victims are in the hospital. One is sao condition. So far, no motive. No suspect in this case. Jim, back to you. Thanks, pat. News4 broke the story last night. Pcs fire chief acknowledging that response times for the most critical 911 calls have not improved. Today, he and the mayor released their plan to improve those times. Mark segraves has our report. Reporter today chief gregory dean said his crews spent too much time transporting people who are not having an emergency but want a ride to a doctors appointment. One way hes proposing to reduce those calls is to place a nurse at the 911 call center who can screen calls and determine what is actually needed. The departments medical director led the team that came up with the proposal. These calls are neither limb nor lifethreatening. These patients can better be served in an Outpatient Care setting. Reporter another proposal announced today is legislation that would require insurance costs for those ambulance transports. It requires Insurance Companies to cover 100 of the costs associated with emergency ambulance and prehospital services. Reporter after todays announcement, macy othomas questioned the mayor about what increasing the cost to Insurance Companies would mean to residents insurance premiums. Insurance companies dont like to give away money, generally. Ive got this, and im going to read it, but i think thats an interesting question. What do you do to protect residents . We have an insurance commissioner. The parameters for the Affordable Care and what Insurance Companies can spend on services and what they get in profit is very clear. So the Affordable Care act itself is a protection for consumers. And we wouldnt do anything to disadvantage our health. And so hearing them talk about reducing the nonemergency calls, i think is extremely important. Reporter mark segraves, news4. The cost of the president s frequent trips to florida have drawn a lot of attention. A new Analysis Shows President Trump is on pace to outspend president obamas entire time in office, eight years, in just one year. Chris lawrence is here with a closer look, hi, chris. Reporter hey, doreen. Remember, this is an estimate, so theres still plenty of time to cut back on the cost. But some of these numbers are pretty staggering. Lets start with President Trumps travel so far in comparison to his pretty assede. Some folks have started calling maralago trumps winter white house. His three trips there have cost the treasury about 10 million. The post based that number on the Government Accountable Office and its travel now, it doesnt include any of President Trumps other travel or the overseas business trips that his sons have taken. Remember, they receive secret Service Protection as well. So lets compare that to president obama. His travel expenses varied depending on what was happening in the world. But on average, it cost the government about 12 million a year. And over his eight years in office, it totaled 97 million. If you assume that mr. Trump will keep to his current travel schedule, hes on pace to outspend president obama in just one year. Now, its a little ironic, considering that mr. Trump frequently criticized president obama about his trips. He once tweeted, the president s vacations are costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Unbelievable. Of course President Trumps trips have not been billed as vacations. Hes not only conducted official business from florida, hes made major appointments and announcements well. Vance . Thanks, chris. Nearly a third of Public High School students in virginia are doing college work. Virginia has the sixth highest percentage of High School Students doing collegelevel work. Nationwide, that number is 2. 1 . The most popular ap courses among virginia students are english and u. S. History. Still to come tonight, news4s iteam working for you when it comes to your childs safety in school. Tonight, what some say needs to be done in maryland. A big project under way in virginia as crews turn back time to give tourists a glimpse into a president s child. Reporter next on news4, i gotta say, doug, todays weather was even nicer than advertised. Good for you. Oh, thanks, man. Pat yourself on the shoulder. You look surprised. Were only at 62. If there was a little more sunshine than i thought we were going to have. Okay. Good. Youre going to love tomorrow, then. Were predicting 74 degrees and sunshine. Then we get to even warmer on friday. The weather has been amazing. Springlike weather. In the last couple of years, weve gone from winter right to summer. Now it looks like spring has come early and wants to stick around. 54 degrees at 9 00, 53 degrees at 11 00. On the cool side tonight, but not too bad at all. As a matter of fact very nice for this time of year. The average High Temperature is 49. We may not even get there tonight. 61 degrees the current temperature in leesburg. 60 in charlottesville. Notice annapolis right along the water, always colder because of the Chesapeake Bay water being cold. Thats the one cool spot. No rain or snow to talk about. We did see shower activity to the south earlier today. But it was all to the south. Around fredericksburg, st. Marys county, sprinkles, thats about it. All part of a much bigger system that is just bringing us the cloud cover. We saw one pass to the north, one to the south. This one to the south, its a monster of a storm system, down to the gulf of mexico, wrapping itself up, giving florida tremendous amounts of rain. We would love to see the rain. This is normally their wildfire season. And weve actually seen quite a few wildfires here due to the fact that we are now in a moderate drought. We have a chance for showers overnight. Not many. Here we are around 1 00 a. M. A few showers, 6 00 a. M. , no problem there. Notice by around 11 00, again, were seeing some sunshine tomorrow. That helps us to warm. But then were going to track a little system back to the west, a little frontal boundary will bring shower activity well west of i95 towards the blue ridge. It wont amount to much. Any rain is good rain right now. High temperatures right now, 64 st. Louis. 71 nashville. 70 in raleigh. The warmer air will be moving in our way. High temperature tomo partly sunny, nice and warm. A few showers or sprinkles off to the west. As we move on through the next couple of days, one thing we need the rain for is pollen. Were talking about it in february, high as far as tree pollen is concerned. Wednesday through friday, a little bit higher. Saturday coming down a little bit. It will come down on sunday as well see a good chance for rain on saturday afternoon and evening, maybe even a couple of thunderstorms. Three more days in the 70s before the 50s come back in. Were not done with the 70s yet. Were done with them at least for the month of february. And i promise, these days will be just as advertised, doreen. 100 beautiful out there. All right. Its good when its a little nicer than advertised, doug. Yes, thats the way to go. Thank you, doug. Are you looking to make the most of this mild weather in february . Take a look at the top ten road trips, all less than 100 miles from dc. Just open app during the break and search day trips. Coming up, Mgm National Harbor shattering records in maryland but taking new steps to promote what they call responsible gambling. What would you prefer . To be able to feed the meter and park your car or be able to park yourself at a green space in a new park . Im adam tuss. Ill tell about you the debate. Also a major announcement from nasa. Scientists discover new planets raising new questions about the possibility of life. Creating a cleaner environment by using cleaner Energy Sources weve reduced Carbon Emissions by nearly 25 , which is the equivalent of taking close to two million cars off the road. Cleaner air and cleaner water. Its good for all of us. Dominion. Depend on us for more than energy. Now a suggestion. When you gamble, use your game sense. Thats the message from mgm resorts. Game sense helps people to recognize their own financial and mental limits when it comes to gambling. Tracee wilkins is at National Harbor with more on this message. Tracee . Reporter this says something that the British Columbia Lottery Commission has been doing for some time. There the government actually works to deal with gaming addiction within its casinos. Mgm says, hey, its a good idea. And they want to start doing it in america. They made the announcement about two hours ago. As you said, this is a program that is called game sense, that already exists in canada. Mgm casinos across the country including here at National Harbor. Theyre also going to be contributing 1 million in gambling addiction and Research Money as well to see if they can try and figure out where all of this comes from and to help the folks who have been studying this for some time. When you go into an mgm casino, theyll have kiosks there, people inside of the kiosks to answer questions about gaming addiction and to help gamblers figure out when theyre going too far. Theyll ask them questions like, are you here having fun or are you now doing it for other reasons . This is something that surely some of the organizations in maryland looking into this will be happy to hear about, considering that the state has often been criticized for not having the resources that some gamers need. Just in january we got the report that more than 1300 people have signed up to exclude them casinos because of gaming addiction. We know there are well over 150,000 people in maryland with gaming addiction issues. This is something that mgm is hoping will help out for issues for folks across the country and here in maryland. It should all take shape by the end of this year. Live in National Harbor, im tracee wilkins. Jim, back to you in the studio. Thanks, tracee. A final fiery show of defiance. Protesters evicted today from the encampment at the dakota pipeline access site in north dakota. They set fire to tents they left behind. They were given a choice, there were a couple of free busses, one would take them back to bismarck or another would take them to jail. Most people decided to go back to bismarck. Some chose jail, though. Demonstrators have been at that site since august trying to block the pipeline. They say the project threatens Water Resources and the land of a sioux tribe. President trump in his first week in office ordered work to resume on that pipeline. Think its tough to park in downtown bethesda right now . Well, an effort is under way to turn hundreds of key Parking Spaces into parks. Our transportation reporter adam tuss looks at what could happen if those spaces go away. Reporter okay. You take your pick. On a Beautiful Day like today would you rather have something that look like this or would you rather have Something Like this . This or this . Here in downtown bethesda, debate over Parking Spaces versus green parks. I actually like the idea of more parks down here. A lot of people drive around here. We need places to park. Reporter Amanda Farber is leading the charge as part of a grassroots effort to turn Parking Spaces into parks in bethesda. We need more fields for kids to dog park. Reporter she calls bethesda the brick oven, because there is so much pavedover space here. But to get green space, you have to lose hundreds of Parking Spaces, 500 to be exact. There are four countyowned lots off bustling wisconsin avenue that this group wants to change to parks. That would translate to five acres of new parks. Montgomery county Councilmember Hans reamer explains why. If youre waiting for the value of property to be so low that they can afford to buy it, theyll be waiting a long time. You have to look at what land you have and make the best use of that. Reporter if the Parking Spaces end up going away, the county says they could be replaced, possibly putting parking under new parks that are created or relocating the parking in bethesda. The next step, finding the funding to make this a reality. In bethesda, adam tuss, news4. Fascinating stories of this day. Scientists have nasa and some in europe say they have identified seven earthsize planets orbiting a single star. Among those planets, they say three of them are in what they call the goldilocks zone. That refers to the sweet spot, if you will, of an orbit, where a planet could potentially support liquid water, an essential key to life on our planet. This is our first chance at actually learning about a potentially habitable system. And the closest step we have to finding a true earth twin. Those planets are nestled in the constellation aquarius. Thats about 40 lightyears or 235 trillion miles away. It would take a little while to get there. Scientists are hoping future telescope launches will analyze the surface of those planets. Well have more on that on nightly news, right after this broadcast. George washington called this place home as a child. Decades later, an incredible discovery. The powerball climbs past 400 million. The drawing is tonight. Doug, kind of looks like we hit the jackpot with this weather, huh . Yeah, but you dont need to buy any tickets for this. Were all on board this train as we make our way through the next couple of days. Thank you for reminding me to go get my powerball ticket. On what would have been George Washingtons 285th birthday, were getting a first look inside his boyhood home. Its in frer county, virginia. As Northern Virginia reporter david culver shows us, youll soon get a chance to stand where mr. Washington once played. Reporter open land along the rappahannock river. What do you envision here . A subdivision of homes . Maybe a Big Box Store . A few years ago both of those were being considered. Because of that, local preservationists banded to it and preserved this land. Reporter most historians always believed this to be where a young George Washington came of age and where legendary stories might have happened. But for years, no physical proof, at least not until the George Washington foundation took over, and archeologists started digging. I couldnt breathe. Because i knew my life was going to change. This from here down reporter in july of 2008, david and his team confirmed this to be the foundation of the washington familys home. He l age 22. And so the formative years are here. Reporter today its a construction zone, or rather a reconstruction. They made sure that everybody in the town of fredericksburg could see it. Reporter crews are about a year away from finishing, working patient. Every detail considered. Theres only a certain number of craftspeople that can work on the house, that know the 18th century techniques, that can make it work. Reporter theyll build the nearby structures like slave quarters, all aimed to recreate what was. There are not many people able to do such work. Reporter those working this project, absorbing its significant. When i put my hands on those stones and know that a young George Washington probably did the same thing, it sends a little chill down my spine. The more i see of him as a person, the more i admire him. Reporter in stafford county, david culver, news4. Its enough mone your life and the lives of everyone you love. Tonights Powerball Jackpot has reached 403 million. If you take the cash option, well, thats just under 244 mil. Tickets are on sale until 9 59 tonight. The drawing is an hour later at 10 59. Good luck who are you trusting to protect your kids when you send them to school . Coming up, the news4 iteam investigation into thousands of student arrests and what some schools are not doing that could be putting childr en this video of a former School Resource officer in South Carolina slamming an 18yearold student to the ground before handcuffing her shocked and angered a lot of people in 2015. That student refused to leave her seat after she was accused of disrupting her class. That deputy was eventually cleared of criminal wrongdoing. But the incident did bring attention to how common classroom discipline problems could quickly escalate to a police response. Its also led to calls for stricter guidelines on what Law Enforcement officers should and shouldnt be doing in our schools. The news4 iteam found thousands of local students are in schools that doesnt have clear guidelines for how officers should interact with children and teens. Scott mcfarland takes a look at how a National Group wants to change that. Good morning, guys. How you doin . Reporter School Resource officer steven radke starts his days at school with a lot of hellos. We mayor many hats in this job. The majority of this time when theres an issue going on, you walk in and deescalate the situation and it goes through pretty easily. Reporter radke says for him arrests arent common while hes on duty in Frederick County Public Schools. Ive never had to put handcuffs on a student in a School Setting or anything like that. It typically doesnt reach to that point. Theres so much intervention before that were to even take place. Reporter but it does reach that point in other schools. Thousands of times a year. The news4 iteam pored through the most recent numbers available from the u. S. Department of education and discovered 65,000 arrests in schools nationwide during the 20132014 academic year. A lot of those arrests are happening in maryland. 19th in School Enrollment size, maryland was 10th in the nation for the number of students arrested. Thats a problem according to the head of a National Group that trains officers to work in schools. We have to make sure that our officers understand that the way a schoolhouse is policed, it is far different from those strategies that you use on the street. Reporter don bridges works as an officer in Baltimore County schools. Its also president of the National Association of School Resource officers which holds courses to teach officers how to serve as mentors. If there is something of a criminal nature that occurs within the school, we handle it. But that does not mean that that has to lead to criminal charges. Reporter bridges also says schools and their Police Departments have to have clear guidelines for what officers should and should not be doing in schools. They have to have what is called an mou, a memorandum of understanding. That becomes your playbook. Reporter an example of an mou from bridges Organization Includes guidelines that call for friendly contact with youth and educating students about Law Enforcement and letting the schools handle School Discipline issues. If you dont have this stuff done appropriately, it is a disaster. And that is what you dont want. Reporter last ought, the Obama Administration issued this memo to schools nationwide, urging them to get some sort of mou in place. We asked more than a dozen of the largest districts in our area if they have an mou for officers. These districts do. But Prince Georges County Public Schools couldnt provide such documents when the news4 iteam asked them preempted. Theyre working to draft a memorandum of understanding that will be in place this spring. Do you feel bad about what you did . Were you just angry and didnt know what to do . Reporter officer radke says he went through specialized training to work in Frederick County Public Schools, one of the districts that does have an mou. Ill check in with you later, the kids dont see you as just an enforcer. Youre putting a hat on as a counselor, a friend. Reporter bridges says those hats are just as important as an mou. We Work Together for the good of kids. Thats the bottom line. We have a much deeper look at policing in our schools. See how many arrests were reported in your School District and how it ranks nationally in our nbc washington app. If you or your children have had an experience with a School Resource officer you want to share with us, tell us about that too. All is under vexinvestigations jim and doreen. Surprising information. Big numbers. Thank you, scott. Doug is back with more about our weather, and more on good trends for us. Yeah, if you like warmer weather, these for sure. If its not going to if its going to be cold its not going to be a nice snow. If its not going to be cold or snow, it might as well be warm, right . Nobody likes that. If you look outside i finally got there, didnt i . You did. Took me a while. All right. Out there right now, looking pretty good. Temperatures in the 60s across the region. Right now sitting at 56 degrees. Were not going down all that much. The winds out of the south, cloud cover across the area. Temperatures will not fall that much. Riv riverdale coming in at 60 degrees, bladensburg, cheverly. 60 towards leesburg, 58 towards centreville, chantilly. Reston looking pretty good there too. Rain . No. Storm team 4 radar has been dry. Weve seen showers, a couple of sprinkles overnight. We still have a storm system over the region right now. Tomorrow we clear out during the day. We see some sunshine, a mix of clouds and sun at times. That sun is going to do a lot to warm us up. It will actually give us a chance for showers, back to the west tomorrow, back towards the blue ridge. I81 to about5 think well go. They may try to come farther east then theyll die out as the sun goes down. If you catch a shower, count yourself lucky, we do need some rain. Noon, get out for lunch. Its going to be beautiful. 74 at 4 00. Record warmth. We could set a record at Dulles Airport tomorrow, 69 degrees with showers to the west around that 7 00 hours. The highs tomorrow, this is ridiculous, this is maylike temperatures in the 70s. 74 in dc, 76 in culpeper. The next few days, 74 in your thursday, 72 on saturday. Saturday is the day to watch, could see storms to the north of the dc metro area. That whole system cools us off sunday towards monday. Thank you, doug. We got sports coming up. Some people might consider bryce harper a living legend. So why would he be talking with Carol Maloney about the walking dead . Hes swinging around a zombiekilling bats. From zombies to a wor ldse for years, fios has been promising fast internet to small businesses. But for many businesses, its out of reach. Why promise something you cant deliver . Comcast business is different. We deliver superfast internet with speeds of 150 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than fios. We do business where you do business. Sharons got sports tonight. With the temperatures what they are, its appropriate were talking se weather. Particularly down in florida. Tray turner having to do jury duty today before coming back to practice. But it has been a full week of spring training now for the nationals. Today we finally got to sit down with nationals star bryce harper. Theres been chatter about his future with the ball club. But today harper focusing on the present, speaking with Carol Maloney. Reporter i asked dusty what he knows about the difference with you coming into spring training. He says youre a man now. I know youre 24, youre all grown up, we watched you as a kid come into this manhood. You start at 17 years old, being able to grow and do things in this organization that are possible, its been a lot of fun. Theres been a lot of fun times, a lot of good and bad as well. Thats part of the process of growing up and you are as a team. Ive had a lot of fun. Hopefully there will be more in years to come. Reporter if you could make the last out in the world series, how would you like to do it . Probably the easiest fly ball i could get. I think just a little pop fly to me would be great. No topspiners or anything with a gap. If its a gap, i aint trying to go there. Reporter do you dream of a moment like that . I think everybody does, you want to win a trophy to take back to your city. You always dream that. Reporter the barbed wire bat got a lot of attention. I know you said walking dead. I dont really watch it. Its heavy, its like a heavy bat. I have a heavy bat at home in vegas that i use this one just has barbed wire around it. Ill take it. Reporter hes swinging around a zombiekilling bat. Any zombies coming to nats park, i got em. He probably gets to keep his space safe in the clubhouse. No one will go near him. Wizards are back at practice for the First Time Since the allstar break. The team will look a little different. The wizards making roster moves ahead of the deadline. The team has traded for nets. Bogdonavich is number 44, hes averaging just over 14 points a game this year. He and mccullough will help the team get off the three games in a row once this season. They want to keep it that way. They take on the flyers after losing two. Theyre looking for their first w since the byeweek. Since january 1st, the caps have scored 50 more goals than their opponent. Yes, 50. The last two games much closer, both losses. While many cap fans enjoy it on cruise control, Justin Williams thinks this Team Benefits from the battle. Im liking and enjoying that were in a couple of tight games before the break, winning by two goals, three goals sometimes. Its not really ideally what a playoff game is going to look like. Getting us accustomed to closer games i think is good for us. That game tonight against the flyers 8 00 p. M. On nbc sports. The harder the fire, the harder you dont want to peak too early. Thats true, were familiar with that. Weve done that in the past. The team getting hot at the end those are the ones that ride it in. Thanks, sharon. Nightly news coming up next. We hope to see you for news4 at 11 00. Creating a cleaner environment by using cleaner Energy Sources like solar, wind and natural gas. Weve reduced Carbon Emissions by nearly 25 , which is the equivalent of taking close to two million cars off the road. Cleaner air and cleaner water. Its good for all of us. Dominion. Depend on us for more than energy. Tonight, fiery act of defiance. Protesters set their damp ablaze as police move in. A dramatic end to a standoff thats captivated so many. Hostile homecoming. Angry crowds erupt, confronting republican members of congress across the country. Amazing discovery. Stunning announcement from nasa. Seven earthlike planets. Are we the closest yet to finding life beyond earth . Was a killer caught on camera . Two teenage girls found dead and police say whats on their phone could help catch their killer. Heartburn and acid reflux medicines, dangerous complications when patients dont follow