>> and the winner is embracing hope. >> reporter: embracing home is what visitors to the smithsonian have been doing for decades. in washington, betharker, fox 5 news. >> it is magnificent. the news keeps coming. here's brian now with the news edge at 11:00. first she's in. then she's out. then back in. and now annapolis mayor dom knee says she's drop -- nomin ys she's dropping out of the race and this time she means it. the former white house aide calling it quits. will thomas has the news edge on maryland now. >> reporter: the stakes were high. the mayor's seat in annapolis potentially a historic outcome but questions about the personal finances of democratic nominee persisted. today she bowed out. >> trust me, zina pier will be -- pierre will be back. we'll be even stronger and we're going to win. >> reporter: her strongest supporters didn't want to hear this from their democratic nominee for annapolis mayor who was poised to become the city's first black mayor. >> i regret that i will respectfully step down. >> reporter: to understand why zina pierre dropped out, you have to go to the morning after she won the primary september 15. multiple reports began to surface outlining pierre's financial history and that's not all. the reports citing official documentation claimed creditors took legal action to claim un-- to collect unclaimed debt against her. she admits that. the reports show she allowed a home to go into mother closure. she would only admit she has been late on mortgage payments in the past and there are inconsistencies about where she lived, for how long and whether she even met the legal residency requirements for candidate. pierre maintains she met those requirements. >> but i will be back stronger. >> reporter: pierre offered no specific explanations, refused to take questions and says she believes the allegations are misdirected and personal. >> the late sarah carter said that when you sling mud at someone, always remember that there will be some mud left on -- [ inaudible ] >> reporter: local democratic party officials are now preparing to name a replacement for pierre in the general election. >> we will meet friday night here in annapolis to consider other candidates. we have until october 2. >> reporter: and whoever that designee will be, it does not automatically going to the runner-up in the primary. party leaders will open it up to pretty much anyone who is interested. they can hand in their resume like anyone. zina pierre may be out but she says she wants to play an active role in local politics and left the door open to run again. i think there's a good chance she just might do it. community activist group acorn is suing the people who made a hidden camera video in its baltimore office. the video as you know by now shows acorn employees giving tax advice to a man and a woman posing as a pimp and prtitute. acorn says the audio was obtained illegally because maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings. also today the i.r.s. says it is cutting ties with acorn and will no longer include the group in its volunteer tax assistance program. prince george's county police are on the hunt for two bank bandits. the suspects were caught on surveillance video at a convenience store. police say the man with the white jacket there in the ball cap is the one going into the banks demanding money. the man seen here with the white short sleeve shirt is believed to be an accomplice. three banks have been hit so far. two in the new carrollton area, one in bowie. a bit plea from a man who -- [ inaudible ] >> reporter: he admitted in court to marijuana possession and five counts of burglary. he was wanted for the burglaries at the time of the august 2008 standoff and handover, a standoff that lasted two days. he could spend 25 years in prison but his defense attorney wants him to be treated for a mental illness. investigators back at a yale research lab where a student was strangled, her body hidd in a wall. they say they're looking at new evidence but won't say what. meantime an ex-girlfriend of murder suspect raymond clark says he was controlling telling her what to wear, where to go and which friends she could keep. investigators now expanding their search in a terror probe involving a man allegedly linked to al qaeda. authorities are now reinterviewing people they previously spoke with and looking for new potential suspects. two colorado men and a new york muslim cleric arrested as part of the probe expected back in court tomorrow. two controversial world leaders taking center stage at the u.n. general assembly today. libyan leader moammar gadhafi appeared in front ever the word body for the first time. he criticized the u.n. but called president obama an historic leader. mahmoud ahmadinejad also addressed world leaders criticizing economic policies of the u.s. and western nations. >> the time has come to an end for those who define democracy and freedom and set standards while they themselves are the first to violate fundamental principles. >> obama met with the russian president to discuss iran's nuclear ambitions. while president obama spends the week meeting with world leaders, vice president joe biden is picking up the health care push. he pitched the president's plan at a montgomery county retirement home today. the vice president told the seniors the insurance reform being proposed would not hurt medicare. >> all of us qualify for medicare are going to be better off under reforms we're proposing, not worse off. >> the vice president also said if reforms are not passed, medicare would run out of money in less than a decade. tomorrow morning massachusetts governor duval patrick will announce his choice to fill the late senator ted kennedy's seat. state lawmakers gave final approval to a bill today allowing the governor to name a temporary replacement. kennedy's sons have urged the governor to pick former democratic party chairman paul kirk. voters will choose a permanent replacement in january. the district is getting nearly $3 million in federal stimulus money earmarked if fighting wildfires. why? there are no forests in d.c.? exactly why some western lawmakers are burning mad. they say they're struggling to get dollars to fight wildfires in their home states while the forest service is giving d.c. $3 million of their money. the cash will be used to restore local parks and watersheds, part of an effort to create green jobs. tonight a news edge investigation. catching poll cheaters in the act. a new policy forcing them to pay up. starting to get hit with the overdraft fees some good news. which banks are revamping their rules. some of the stories we're working on on the news edge. hump day wednesday. halfway to the weekend. back in two. if you're watching us from maryland, you are in the rich estate in the nation. for the third year in a row, the census bureau says marylanders bring down bigger paychecks than any other state. the median household income, $70,545. shaun shaun with your fox 5 top five. >> we begin with one of the best ways to fight the flu. mask, medications and quarantines all help prevent the spread of viral illnesses like the flu but washing your hands ten times a day may help keep the flu away. they recommend people using a combination of preventive measures to keep from getting sick. number four, a small setback in the development of an aids vaccine. international researchers say the virus can hide out in cells in the brain and the drug used to combat h.i.v. cannot get into those cells meaning the drugs will not be entirely effective at depressing h.i.v. number three may be the time to get your kids a game system for a discount. nintendo may slash the price of the wie by $50 to $200 starting this weekend. both the xbox 360 and ps3 have already slashed prices. they're hoping the discounts will oos number two, check your old lottery tickets. $250,000 of a megamillions jackpot has not been claimed. it was sold at a 7-eleven in suburban richmond back on march 27. there are some numbers on your screen. the ticket has to be turned in by 5:00 thursday or the cash goes to the state literary fund. two major bunks are -- banks are cutting overdraft fees. bank of america will not charge customers who overdraw their account by less than $10 starting next month but will charge you 35 bucks if your account isn't balanced within 45 days. chase also eliminating fees for accounts overdrawn by $5. you can check out tonight's top five on myfoxdc.com. just click on with web links. >> thank you, shawn. toll cheaters beware. a new high-tech trap is catching drivers who speed through local tollbooths. our news edge investigation is coming up next. did you see it? who fist bumped the dalai lama. the bizarre caught on camera moment straight ahead. more and more, the quality of our lives depends on our connections. access to high-speed internet, at home and on the go, is no longer a luxury. it's how our children access education. it's how we find jobs, discover information, and connect with family and friends. it's e spark that drives innovation, creates investment, and builds a stronger economy. to shape a better tomorrow, at&t is investing in america's future working to create an internet that's smart, mobile and safe. last year at&t invested more than any other company in the u.s. and we're continuing to invest this year, to expand and enhance our wireless and wired networks. we support a national plan that ensures high speed internet access and enables adoption by all americans, over the next five years. adoption by all americans, over the next five years. the future is our business. at&t. your world delivered. if you plan on using maryland's new intercounty connector, it's going to cost you. you don't have to worry about bringing cash with you. tolls will be collected electronically using ez pass transponders. if you don't have one of those, a picture will be taken of your car. you'll get a bill in the mail but you'll have to fork over a $3 surcharge. $5 million, that's how much one state in our area says drivers owe in unpaid tolls. for years drivers who forgot their quarters or just didn't want to pay had a good chance of getting away with it, but new technology will make you think twice at the next toll you cross. fox 5's tisha thompson has our news edge investigation. >> reporter: at the dulles toll road, you can hear a symphony of buzzers, drivers flying through the toll plaza without paying. >> if y violate, we want you. >> reporter: for the toll plaza boss cindy ward t does not matter if you couldn't find a quarter or do you it every day. if you cheat, you cheat. >> it hurts all of us. it hurts all of the transportation users. it hurts every customer who's out here every day who's honestly paying their tolls. >> reporter: our cameras caught alarms going off every two or three minutes. to catch the cheaters, virginia installed cameras two years ago. >> takes a picture of your back and front license plate. they go through a vigorous filtering system to make sure the violation isccurate. if it's proven accurate, then you will be issue add notice of violation. >> reporter: along with a $25 administrative fee. if you continue to ignore the fine, the state will take you to court and suspend your registration. for just the dulles toll road, virginia has tried more than a thousand drivers so far this year but could not tell us how much money those drivers owe. maryland on the other hand claims to know about every dollar you neglect to hand over. >> you're talking about roughly around $5 million. >> reporter: baltimore's fort mchry tunnel has the most violations in the state. bill henny says his team goes after what he calls chronic violator, people who intentionally go through the tolls day after day without paying. we found one driver owes the state more than $22,000 in unpaid tolls. companies which often own multiple vehicles are even worse with one owing more than $100,000 good good afternoon, sir. >> reporter: to fight back, maryland sends out the maryland transportation authority police who have caught at least 35 of these big time toll cheaters since february. they credit their success to their license plate recognition system. >> we could flood this plaza with officers and they would miss license plates that we have registered. >> reporter: here's how it works. if you don't pay the toll, the cameras at the plaza will snap a picture of your license plate. do it enough times and your tag number goes into a database. and into officer anthony dickinson's computer who uses cameras mounted on each side of his unmarked suv to capture every license plate that drives past him on interstate 95. do you cruise up and down the ride or do you park? >> i'll mix it up. most of the time -- i think it's more effective if you're sitting stationary. >> reporter: when the computer find as match, it freezes the picture and the officer is off to pull you over. >> the officer is going to take your license plate. going to have to have the vehicle towed and then you'll going to have to explain to a judge why you haven't been paying your tolls and why you're driving on a suspended registration. >> reporter: it will make you think ties because even though you think you might have gotten away with it, when it comes to paying tolls, cheaters never win. tisha thompson, fox 5 news. >> both maryland and virginia say the number of their toll violators has dropped to less than 1% since they started using those cameras. soon the calendar -- sue, the calendar is one thing. the thermometer is a whole different story. >> they're not close together at all. we've got some thunderstorms out there tonight, too. some with heavy downpours beginning to affect montgomery county. we'll start with trueview. you can see what's been going on for the last three hours. most of the activity has been north of frederick moving east into the suburbs of baltimore. but now we're starting to see some development here closer to the germantown area. so we'll get in a little tighter on that with our live radar picture. you'll be able to see this just a little south of boyds moved to the east at about 15 miles an hour. but it does seem to be growing. it's sure going to have some real heavy downpours as it gets ready to cross 270. right over my house, too. we need the rain. settle the dust a little bit. then one or two lighter showers. this one could drop a good quarter inch of rain as it moves on boy and it has been growing. let's talk about temperatures and it's still very mild out there. 77 degrees at d.c. dulles 78. baltimore 74. so we're going to be real mild tonight. it won't get much cooler than about 67, 68 degrees in the northern and western suburbs. 70 for d.c. fredricksburg 73 degrees. mild indeed but tomorrow we're going to see a cool front arriving. it will be a very slow process but tomorrow i think will be cloudier than today was. still warm, still humid. but we'll wait until probably 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon for the front to get closer. it could pop another shower, maybe some thunderstorms but they will definitely be spotty. heading on into the weekend, we have another round of showers to watch. looks like the time frame for that will be late saturday into the first part of sunday. we'll focus first on thursday, though. tomorrow morning 8:00 a.m. a mix of clouds and sun, 73 degrees. perhaps a little bit on the cloudier side. at noon warm and getting up to about 81 degrees. by 5:00 if we see some showers, that would be the time frame. that's right around when the front will be getting through. 83 degrees. tomorrow night i think you're going to notice that humidity dropping after that front gets through. then we head on into the weekend. friday looks pretty good. it starts out cloudy. it gets sunnier by the end of the day. but here is the weekend forecast. this will be saturday. we're going to have this area of low pressure. that's part of the problem that they've had down south. that area of low pressure has been cut off from the jet stream. it gets closer to us on saturday so we'll include showers later in the day. cooler, too, from this high pressure system. saturday only 70 degrees. sunday 76. maybe starting out with some showers and getting sunnier as we go through the end of the day. so spotty shower or thunderstorm tomorrow, 85 degrees. a little bit cloudier. 76 and a fairly nice day on friday although cloudy to start. sunnier to end. saturday we reverse it. we start sunny. we end with some showers and thunderstorms. probably not thunderstorms, just showers. sunday 76 degrees. monday dries out. you know what? next week of all things looking rather fall like, emily as we get into the middle part of the week. temperatures only in the 60s. don't go anywhere. that's a wrap on your weather but we're far from over on the news en. dave feldman up with your sports edge. virginians are asking lots of questions about bob mcdonnell's "thesis." how old was he when he wrote it? mcdonnell was 34, married and attending pat robertson's law school. and what did the thesis say about women? a lot... abortion should be outlawed and birth control should be restricted-- even for married adults. then as a legislator he introduced 35 bills to restrict a woman's right to choose. learn more. i'm creigh deeds, candidate for governor, and my campaign sponsored this ad. it gets an epa estimated 32 miles per gallon, and was named an iihs top safety pick. all for just $179 a month. and like all new volkswagens, it comes with 3 years or 36,000 miles of no-charge scheduled carefree maintenance. it's all part of why the jetta is the top-selling german engineered sedan in america. good evening. i'm dave feldman. the redskins don't like being booed at home but they do understand the fans have the right to do it. an then elridge back. he could play this week in detroit. chad reinhart and wil montgomery competing. those are your headlines as the skins prepare to take on the lions. the rookie quarterback led detroit to a 10-0 lead over the vikings last week and then vikings took over. minnesota won 27-13. today i asked jim zorn if the lions were a desperate football team. >> they've got a young quarterback but he has tremendous talent. it just takes longer in that area. that would be the only thing they're probably still trying to get up to their level. >> we're all desperate for a win win. >> amen to that. the eagles host the chiefs on sunday. michael vick eligible to play in his first n.f.l. game. he sat out the first two games of the season as rt of his penalty for his role in a dogfighting ring. coach andy reed is uncertain what vick's role will be on sunday but vick just happy to be back. >> it's very exciting to have the opportunity to go out there and just play football regardless of my role, regardless of what i'll be doing this week, just to suit up and be able to go out and play in the game when it counts. >> only a dozen games left on the season everyone would like to forget. what's left for the nats to play for? i can think of 99 things. dodgers in town. bottom of the 6th, nats trail 3- 0. no hit until ryan zimmerman turns on a breaking ball. deep to left field. a three-run blast. his 3 1st home run. we're tied at 3. game tied at 3. moving to the bottom of the 9th, tied at 4. runners on the corners [ inaudible ] the nats defeat the dodgers 5-4 avoiding a 100th loss for now. ollie kolzig is calling it a career. retiring after 14 seasons in the nhl. 13 of which he spent in washington. he retires with most of the caps goal tending career record, including games played, 7-116789 wins at 301 and 35 shutouts. es a' two-time all-star. the ps hosting the black hawks in preseason. caps lead 1-0. alex ovechkin, nice move, rips the slapper for the second of the game. came second period, caps lead 3- 1. check out the passing. caps beat the blackhks 6- 26789 they're now 3-1 in the preseason. the caps open the regular season october 1 at boston. i'm dave feldman. brian is back to wrap up the edge right after this. there's nothing more important than our health. so when it comes to health reform, we need a solution that works for all of us. now the president and congress have a plan that combines the best ideas, from democrats and republicans, business owners and workers, doctors, nurses and patients. a plan that keeps bureaucrats out of your health care you choose your own doctor, make your own decisions, and you can't be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition. that's reform we can all feel good about. taking the edge off tonight with an unconventional greeting for an unconventional yet extraordinary extraordinary man. [ inaudible ] >> i always wanted to say hello, dolly. >> that's the dalai lama getting a lesson in fist bumps from the mayor of memphis. his holliness is in memphis to receive the freedom award. he didn't seem to mind the informal greeting at all. kind of put his own little twist to it. now you have the news edge. we're back here tomorrow. op