hack a huge deal. today we're learning exactly how huge it was. the numbers are astounding. hackers stole 19.7 million social security numbers of americans who went through federal government background checks. they took another 1.8 million from the applicants' friends and family. the data had been stored by the office of personnel management, essentially the human resources department for the federal government. the hackers swept up addresses, education and employment history along with mental health, criminal and financial records. more than 1 million americans' fingerprints were stolen. some victims received letters from opm alerting them to the breach. they offer credit monitoring and other services. the government says there is no evidence yet the stolen information has been used for identity theft or other financial crimes. on the streets of d.c. there's little trust in that assurance. >> i want to feel more secure about what's going on. i just want to feel more comfortable when this does happen. >> reporter: james lewis is one of many cyber security analysts who blame the hack on china. >> they'll have a long time to work figuring out how to use it for recruitment, how to use it to maybe coerce people with relatives in china. they'll find a million ways to use this. none of them will be good for the u.s. >> reporter: republicans like colorado senator cory gardner are calling for the obama administration to publicly name china and lodge a diplomatic complaint. >> why doesn't this administration call in the ambassador? why don't we have a conversation and point this act out that it is unacceptable? >> reporter: late this evening virginia's democratic senator mark warner called for the opm director to step down calling her response to this crisis slow and uneven. garrett haake, wusa9. >> sounds like a mess. we'll note senators from maryland and virginia also introduced bills today that would expand identity theft coverage for those affected by this breach and provide millions of dollars in insurance if it is needed. d.c. police and the fbi say they have broken up a sex trafficking operation involving kids. they say a lot of the illegallive was centered around the 3800 block of south capitol street in southeast. officers made two arrests so far, 28-year-old jarnice harris and a 35-year-old man authorities are not yet naming because it would hurt the investigation which is ongoing. tomorrow d.c.'s mayor will sign a new law making it tougher for convenience stores and gas stations to sell the synthetic drugs police say plague this town. whether you live in d.c. or not you may think what does this mean to me? debra alfarone joins us live from northwest with some answers. >> reporter: you may have never measured of k works spice or scooby. you may think you don't know anyone who does these type of synthetic drugs, but experts say they're being done here by kids as young as 13 years old and done on streets like this that you'd never even think of. >> this is in every neighborhood, of family. it doesn't matter. where. >> reporter: they're called k works scooby and spice, they're synthetic drugs, teen and are filling more headlines and treatment centers. police say the man who stabbed 24-year-old kevin sutherland more than 30 times aboard a moving metro train july 4th was spiraling out of control with a sun threatic drug problem. horrified passengers -- synthetic drug problem. horrified passengers were left to watch. arlington deputy police chief dan murray says he's seen similar situations. >> it takes multiple fairly large fairly strong police officers to be able to control somebody who is not feeling any pain and who has this superhuman strength in some way shape or form substance induced. >> reporter: this cbs staffer illustrates how easy it is to buy fake pot and bath salts. what makes them so popular? they're cheap. the packages are colorful and a drug test can't detect them. this is what they do to you. >> a manic like state, just too much energy, thoughts racing, paronoia and people can become very irritable and reacts active -- reactive in that setting. >> reporter: this doctor has seen users morphing into a zombielike state or even having heart attacks and he has a special message to parents. >> do not assume that because they have a good kid they aren't doing bad things. >> reporter: the doctor says communication is so important. he's urging every parent to talk to their kids about k2, spice and scooby. debra alfarone, wusa9. >> as part of that new law d.c. mayor muriel bowser wants to give the police chief authority to shut down any business found selling synthetic drugs for 96 hours as police investigate. the confederate flag spending its last night on the grounds of the south carolina statehouse. late this afternoon south carolina governor nikki haley signed the bill removing the flag and its pole from the capitol building. the move to take down the flag gained momentum last month following the murders of nine black parishioners at the emanuel ame church in charleston. >> the action of nine individuals laid out this long chain of events that forever showed the state of south carolina what love and forgiveness looks like. >> barricades have been erected around the confederate flag ahead of its removal tomorrow morning at 10:00. the flag will go to the state's confederate relic room about a mile from the capital building. meantime the questioned -- capitol building. meantime the confederate flack was a point of contention on capitol hill in washington. the republican controlled house scrapped a vote on legislation that would have allowed the confederate flag to fly at cemeteries housed by the national park service. pelosi forced the issue asking house speaker john boehner to remove any flag, state flags included, but they are to refer the resolution to committee. >> here we or a day when the state of south carolina by -- we are on a day when the state of south carolina by an act of legislature and the governor will be taking down the flag. the republicans in the house of representatives are voting down any discussion even of battle flags, confederate battle flags, in the capitol of the united states. >> i actually think us time for some adults in congress to actually sit down and have a conversation about how to address this issue. i do not want this to become some political football. it should not. >> so tonight some are asking is removing the confederate flag the route to a slippery slope, to a revision of american history? our mola lenghi is live in our stat center with more on what's next. >> in this case the slippery slope argument may not be so black and white. the slippery slope argument now applied to the confederate flag debate. some say first the flag, next road, schools and monuments named after anything confederate. others say yeah, so? >> means schools, bridges, roads, i think if it's a slippery slope, that would be in the right direction. >> reporter: the daily show's jon stewart quipped. >> the next thing black children won't have to go to schools named after men that wouldn't let them learn how to read. >> that's not an up common thing to happen -- uncommon thing to happen. >> reporter: molly hemingway cautioned it's great we're aiming to be an anti-racist society, but it's bad to not remember how to dislike without seeking its total destruction. >> that's history. you can't change history. >> i think it's a stupid argument from people who are trying to protect who they are and where they've been. >> reporter: in commentary magazine historian max boot calls for more than just the flag. he says it could eventually result in taking slave holders such as george washington off our currency or renaming our national capitol, but washington also helped create this country in spite of being a slave holder. boot said men like washington would be recognized for the good they did which far outweighed the bad. bill crystal on twitter, the left agenda expunging every shred of respect, but not all conservatives are down with keeping the flag up like this commentator who warned about moving too quickly. they're coming down in a rush. we will probably overshoot as we are want to do in stampede to eliminate of relic of the confederacy. not every statue has to be smashed mebanished. the stars and stripes u.s. military newspaper recently polled readers on whether military installations with confederate connections should be renamed and 88% of the readers said no. >> the pentagon say they center no plans to re-- they have no plans to rename military installations named for confederate generals. our first alert chief meteorologist topper shutt is here now. >> tell you what. i think most of the weekend will be okay, but the model is getting more aggressive each time. this is 8 a.m. on saturday. we've advanced futurecast to saturday. if you see a lot of showers, even red and orange, pretty heavy thunderstorms possible. this may be a little far north. generally i-66 and route 50 will be as far north as they get. the good news is they won't affect everybody and should be out of here by afternoon. by 9:30 we're still looking at showers and thunderstorms across much of the immediate metro area down to fredericksburg and by noon they pull out to the south. they could become rather intense in terms of rainfall into southern maryland and by 2:00 most of the showers and thunderstorms pull east and south of 95. we'll come backtalk about how much of the weekend we can salvage, look ahead to tomorrow and have your 3-degree guarantee. ronald hayes pleaded guilty to killing two women but never said he was sorry for it. hayes plowed into a minivan full of women and children while running from the cops in capitol heights in 2013. he did eventually plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter, but at sentencing today when given the chance to apologize to the families, hayes said nothing. the judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison, far more than the recommended time. >> i didn't see not a tear, not a frown. i didn't see anything that showed i'm genuinely sorry. >> brittany everett and britney queen were coming back from a birthday party when hayes blew through a red late. two bodies have been found missing from stafford county. the massive search got underway late last night when a friend reported the pair didn't come back from boating yesterday. their 17-foot boat was found early this morning with music playing, food on the table but nobody on board. coming up the fbi said it thwarted potential terror attacks leading up to independence day. >> plus we take you to he oning day of comic-con. -- to opening day of comic-con. >> but first what happened to grandma's birthday flowers? they didn't now we turn to a battle to get grandma her birthday flowers or at least a refund when the delivery is a no show. here's investigative reporter russ ptacek with call to action. >> this is a problem even flowers can't fix and if you want to stay off our radar, don't mess with anyone's grandmas, especially on their birthdays. francis winfrey lives in suitland, maryland. it's a long way from the south carolina home of her grandmother. she smiles just describing the girl friendlike conversations they share. >> hi, sugar, how you doing? >> reporter: troubles began when she tried to make her nana's 85th birthday special. >> just sending you love. that's all she says. so i figured i'd send her my love with some flowers from 1- 800-flowers. >> reporter: but despite this e-mailed order confirmation when she called nana that special day -- >> did you get the flowers and she said no, i didn't get any flowers and i said oh. >> reporter: 1-800-flowers explanation, the day of nana's birthday we couldn't find a local shop. the company e-mailed her claiming it issued a full credit. despite this pile of e-mails and four hours on the phone no refund and no explanation. >> no one ever got back to me, nothing. i'm beside myself. at this point i said i need someone to help me navigate this issue. >> reporter: this documents the moment she decided she had to wusa9 call -- had to call for action. >> call for action did the job. i was elated. i literally checked my paypal account. here's my refund. >> reporter: 1-800-flowers apologized saying their policy is to stay in constant contact with a customer when there is a followup on a special day. francis said had they just done that, she would have never had to call for action. >> if you've got a problem, go to www.wusa9.com. click on the call for action button or call 301-652-help. tonight we're learning why the feds issued those special security alerts leading up to the 4th of july. fbi director james comey says authorities were able to thwart multiple attacks isis and its sympathizers were planning for july 4th. the plotters were among the 10 people arrested in the past few weeks across the country. >> a small time player with the right weapon can do great harm, can do large to our economy, can certainly kill dozens of people. >> the fbi director says the people arrested had been recruited by isis over the internet, but he also offers this grim statement. authorities have not been able to track down dozens of other suspected isis recruits in this country because now they're using encrypted communications with isis. house speaker john boehner is the latest republican to distance himself from gop presidential candidate donald trump's controversial comments about mexican immigrants. in downtown d.c. this afternoon politician, union members and regular folks were out demonstrating their disgust outside the site of trump's next luxury hotel. several companies have already severed ties with the business mogul including two famous chefs who planned to open a restaurant in temperature's d.c. hotel. demonstrators -- in trump's d.c. hotel. demonstrators are calling for his name to be removed from the hotel and worldwide properties and tv shows. >> we want to hit him where it hurts worst in his pocket. we are a big part of the united states and we count and we want >> even the head of the republican national committee asked trump to tone down the rhetoric. trump plans to campaign this weekend in arizona and nevada, both states with large latino populations. sun, sand and 72 degrees, all the reasons to visit san diego. if you needed more, how about comic-con? the mayor kicked off the convention this year with help from darth vader and a few storm troopers. over the next few days more than 130,000 pop culture fans are expected to unleash their inner superhero pumping an estimated 135 million bucks into the city's economy. always watching always tracking, wusa9's first alert weather, d.c.'s most accurate. >> da da da da da 3-degree plan. >> we're back on the horseback on -- man. >> we're back on the horse, back on track. we're two off, but that counts. tomorrow i have another few minutes, 41 minutes or so. i'm going 88 or 89 tomorrow. right now it's still 85. that should tell me probably keep it at 89. dew points have finally fallen below 70. it's still a very tropical evening, winds southwest at 9. a nice finish to the week, a shower possible south and west of town tomorrow, just nothing heavy, no storms, maybe a sprinkle in culpeper and down toward fredericksburg about it. showers possible late friday night but well after all your friday night plans unless you're like wild and crazy. if you want to barbecue, no worries there. on saturday showers and thunderstorms at least in the morning, nice on sunday. if you want a safe day, pick sunday. tee times, i would say maybe saturday afternoon. 5:30 a.m. tomorrow partly cloudy, 70s, maybe upper 60s in gaithersburg and rockville and bowie. by 9:00 it's 77 downtown, low to mid-70s elsewhere, 75 in la plata. by 1:00 we're back in the 80s, a couple light sprinkles and by 5:00 85 downtown, 83 in manassas and leesburg. then we'll take you to 10:00. we're dry through 10:00, 11:00 tomorrow night, showers possible overnight. then we'll advance to futurecast again. this is 8:00 in the morning saturday. this may be a little overdone, maybe a little hog wild. we'll have some showers and even thunderstorms at least saturday morning in parts of the metro area. day planner 77 at 9:00, 80 at 11:00, 83 at 1 p.m. saturday, showers again more south, 86, night sunday, pretty nice day, a little hot by dry. next seven days monday we're getting warm, low 90s, mid-90s tuesday and wednesday 80s going into next thursday. a reminder, the nats are up in the beltway series. you can watch the game tomorrow night and sunday. some folks think it's a preview to the world series. >> we heard that last year, too and it was close. both of them need to get back on track a little bit. >> wishful thinking maybe. >> that would be nice. a day off for the nats before they wrap up the first half of the season, but will we see max scherzer pitch the all-star game? >> tonight we mourn the loss of an nfl renegade. sports is next. now wusa9 game on sports with kristen berset brought to you by xfinity. >> sad news to report from the nfl, former long time oakland raiders quarterback ken stabler has died. stabler was the face of those bad boy raiders and gave us some of the most memorable comebacks in history. he was exciting on the field and very colorful off the field. nicknamed the snake, stabler was named league mvp in 1974 when he led the league with 26 touchdowns. then he led the raiders to a super bowl victory in '77 over the minnesota vikings. stabler started as a backup to joe namath at university of alabama. he died of complications from colon cancer. stabler was 69 years old. nationals pitchers max scherzer would be a shoe-in to pitch in tuesday's all-star game, but the chance to see him on the mound is very much up in the air. jordan zimmermann is scheduled to pitch saturday, but his wife is due with her second child soon. if he gets bumped, scherzer would be available to pitch sunday's series finale against baltimore. if that's the case, he would not be available for the all- star game. we have to wait and see. gio gonzalez will be the first to take the mound against the birds tomorrow night when the nats open up that beltway series in baltimore. you can see the game here on wusa9 at 7:00. serena williams' first professional event she played in was 1994 at age 14. now at 33 she's playing the best tennis of her career, one win from another serena! holding all four grand slam titles at once. she faced familiar foe sharapova today and walked away victorious, her 17th straight victory over sharapova. a wimbledon title would keep her in the calendar year of grand slams. this is a cricket match from australia and england from the this really hurts file, english skipper, alistair cooke taking a shot in a rather unfortunate area. he was out of the match for 40 minutes. what's worse is his teams mate seem -- look at them laughing. they seem so very much amused that their teammate is down. you can't help but hide those smiles. he did return, but it just looked very painful. he got airborne on that one, too. >> his voice somewhat higher when it was all done. >> his teammates probably still laughing. >> he'll never live that down. ♪ southwest is having a sale because when there's a reunion every cent should go to a killer dress. ♪"never gonna get it" by en vogue ♪ and heels. and a blowout. mani/pedi. three weeks of tanning. facial. a backup dress. bronzer, lip gloss... book for as low as 73 dollars one-way now at southwest.com. that's wusa9 news for tonight. you have a great evening! [beeping] ooo come on everybody, i think this is my grandson. [lip syncing] ♪little girl you look so lonesome oh my goodness. ♪i see you are feeling blue ♪come on over to my place ♪hey girl ♪we're having a party happy birthday, grandma! ♪we'll be swinging ♪dancing and singing ♪baby come on over tonight is there an elk in your bed? with sleep number now there's an adjustment for that. only at a sleep number store. don't miss the final days of the lowest prices of the season. save $300 to $700 on selected mattress sets. ends sunday! know better sleep with sleep number. why are we watching this again? i pay for all these channels, so i make myself watch them all. joey, i'll watch anything except this. except this. go back, go back, go back, go back, go back, go back. fios custom tv lets you pay for the types of channels you want, not the ones you don't. 100% fiber optics is here. get out of the past. get fios. now for $79.99 a month. go online or call. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v (siren blaring) (crowd chatter) first on the scene? yup. what we got? victim's coming out of the synagogue here. some guy on a motorcycle rode on the sidewalk shot him in the head and rode off. csu and mli just arrived. witnesses? one. the man sitting on the steps. he's the rabbi. son of a gun. (garbled radio transmission) cover him up, okay? sure thing. i think i recognize this guy. (siren blaring) rabbi? yes. detective reagan and baez. you mind if we ask you a few questions? sorry. you know... he was my good friend. herman kleiner? judge herman kleiner, you know? judge kleiner from the bronx, yeah. that's right.