apartment fire. these are live pictures from ellicott city. we are told three buildings are burning there. and that 45-mile-per-hour winds are complicating the firefight there. apartment workers were apparently able to evacuate everyone. >> the i-team is breaking news about more potential grade inflation in d.c. schools. >> since the item broke the story of the grade tampering at ballou high school, the d.c. leaders said they believe other schools may have similar problems. and now we have evidence that shows they were right. >> i-team investigator nathan baca is revealing about what we are learning about faking the grade at the columbia heights education campus. >> the test scores rose but we have attendance and the records that show a different story. >> whene

students grade six through 12, the columbia heights education campus or chec for short is the second largest in the school system and prides itself for having the largest number of the schools in the advanced placement classes. the item has thousands of places of the individual attendance and transcript records showing the students passing required courses despite 60 unexcused absences. >> if we are trying to cut corners and not do what we are supposed to do to prepare for adulthood we are letting them down. >> the i-team showed this to the education committee. >> i'm not surprised to hear it's a high school. >> ballou high school objected to being singled out for grade inflation. they have a point. the seuss' own investigation

investigation is focusing almost exclusive to ballou high school. >> my reaction is i'm not surprised. i cannot for the life of me understand the reluctance to an independent investigation. >> the item is not revealing the name of the students on the record. >> the a's mean absence and the n mean no excuse. this means that they passed the government course to keep them on track to graduate. >> the policy says the student with ten unexcused absences receives a failure absence grade. 30 in a year result in the failing final grade. >> there are several more examples of this one of the students passing classes in an apparent violation of the policy. and the records show it's haen

the public school investigation. >> in northwest washington, nathan baca, abc7 news. >> the public schools responded to the i-team that the d.c. public schools look forward to receiving results and taking steps to ensure every student comes to school to learn and leaves high school prepared for college, career and life. >> the "7 on your side" i-team uncovered the story. they covered a tip sent to the newsroom. if you know grade tampering, false attendance reports of other inappropriate behavior in a school let the item know about it. send us an e-mail. tips@wjla.com. give the tip line a call. >> if you still have salt covering the car it will be washed away. that rain could stick around long enough for rather tricky commute.

stormwatch7 weather center. josh: predominantly the heaviest rain is tomorrow morning through lunchtime. so it might make the friday start off a little on messy side. let's talk now. we have a really nice evening. 58 degrees for you in d.c. 55 for gaithersburg. the rain is still a few hours off for most of us. sprinkles trying to move in. the district staying dry until closer to 8:00 or 9:00 tonight. a few more hours and the rain stretching here, that is moving our way tomorrow morning. red trip for the bus stop for kids and a drive to work tomorrow. get rain gear ready. we stay mild tonight and we are mild tomorrow. there is a big drop in the temperature. >> show you a chance for snow next week. we will time that out coming up. nancy: developing now, terrifying images of the mud slides in ca

look at this. that is a car. there is a desperate search for survivors. the human toll is the devastating damage. 59 homes destroyed and 400 more homes seriously damaged. >> i'm here. >> adding to the danger of the mud scenes like this one destroy the gas line exploding to flames. >> we didn't even, we thought it was the fire. >> the family ended up trapped and had to be airlifted out with nothing more than the lives and their pets. michelle: two teenagers hurt and a third behind bar after a

happened after the morning bell at central high school in capitol heights. it began when a student pulled a knife in a fight. student turned himself in. >> college park historian faces decade in prison for stealing history. prosecutors say dehayes was stealing from national archives. most of what was taken were dog tags taken from service member killed in combat. once belonged to a tuskegee airman that crashed in germany and most were traded to give them access to off-limit museum exhibits. nancy: a crime alert from the district where two similar burglaries caught on surveillance video. you are looking at video from two break-ins. one in december and the other on sunday at benson's jewelers. the thief breaks in through the glass door and smashes the cases and swipes jewelry and gets away in a stolen van. is there we are pretty sure that the first robbery in december, those

committed the second robbery. >> which is why we are showing you the side-by-side video. the m.o. is the same. the police say thanks to the video they are close to arresting the man thought to be responsible for the burglaries. >> the teacher arrested after asking questions of the school board breaks her silence. what she says we all need to know. the special welcome home for the little by who survived a texas church massacre.

nancy: look at this dramatic hug. they just lead police on a high-speed chase. the final moment before the couple was arrested. true love there. michelle: only on 7, images from inside the red eye flight forced to turn around midnight. headed from charlotte to london when four hours in a passenger began screaming. trying to choke another passenger and then tried to open a door. four passengers pinned the woman down. sitting on her. until they landed in philadelphia. called a medical problem. nancy: new development on a plane hijacking. 30 years ago. the f.b.i. has ren

for fourheimersheimers who were convicted of hijacking pan am flight and killing people. they captured the men and sentenced them to death but the sentences were commuted and they were released a decade ago despite objections from the united states and india. the picture is what they might look like today. the information could lead to a regard if it leads to their -- reward if it leads to their capture. michelle: that is 5-year-old rylan ward returning home from the hospital the little boy shot five times but was saved from the stepmother who shielded him with her body.

dog saved from the brink of death. michelle: but first, the teacher arrested for speaking out to the school board speaking out again and what she says we should be concerned about next at 6:

michelle: a louisiana teacher is speaking out about her arrest in a school board meeting. in the meeting, hargrave asked why the school superintendent was getting a raise while teachers weren't? authorities say hargrave spoke in a segment that was reserved for public comment. today he is told her side of the story. >> by silencing my voice they have taken away or trying to take away my first amendment right. to speak. i'm appalled at this. you should be too. michelle: hargrave will not face criminal charges. the school system is receiving death threats. >> it's been a chaotic week at howard university after the scene, burst pipes that sent water flowing flowing from the g and covering windows and steam and icicles. many students returned from the winter break by the time the campus was h

tonight with the update on how the school is helping students. >> warmer temperatures made things much easier for crews working at the howard university. this afternoon we learned that the classes will start on tuesday january 16. following several days of disruption due to weather related damage to boilers and pipes. >> at this afternoon's town hall, students express a variety of concerns as they prepare to be flexible in the next few weeks. roughly 350 sections will have to be moved the different classrooms that are untraditional spaces that have not been used in the past. the university is now doing planned maintenance shutdown to fix portions of the fractured steam tunnel. chief operations officer says the university will not go back to, quote/unquote, normal for quite some time. even though all heat has been restored to residence hall. >>e

year's worth of renovation. damage certainly in the tens of millions of dollars. >> i'm really baffled about how it happened in the first place in terms of the may want of the building. >> the university using insurance to cover most of the expenses "associated press" with the weather related damage. we will have more at 10:00 on newschannel8 and 11:00 on abc7 news. anna-lysa gayle, abc7 news. michelle: caught on video a woman wearing only a hospital gown abandoned outside the hospital by the security guards. today the city's mayor pew expressed outrage over the incident. the university of maryland medical center says it takes responsibility. it's investigating and isn't ruling owl firing the person or -- ruling out firing the person or persons involved. nancy: a story that broke tuesday. montgomery county officials rying to announce new tenants to the

communications building. it will be vacant next year when discovery moves headquarters to new york. how to fill the ten floors to accommodate 2,500 workers? there is no shortage of potential tenants. >> housing technology or media or sorts. >> this isn't a time to cry and say what went wrong? this is when you say this is time for something new. >> they may approach the f.b.i. about moving headquarters to the discovery building. michelle: a month ago this week a truck crashed in the bridge that carries maryland route 355 over the river. the repairs were expected to take 60 days. nancy: update on an million abuse case in fairfax county. look at max, a dog found near death a month ago. now max looks like this.

fairfax county officers yuring the black retriever back to health. max gained 20 pounds since last month when he was found with urine burns and severely underweight. they hope to find openers to find out what happened. michelle: glad to see max is on the mend. we have rain coming our way? josh: yes. rain coming our way. most of the evening is dry. which is great. because it's mild outside. nancy: nice. josh: you can get out there and not worry about bundling up. but by the weekend it's a different story. we have 58 degrees at reagan national. winds from the south and the cloud cover together really working to keep it nice and mild. if you take a bigger picture there are light showers working to our area. but in general not a lot to come out of this for tonight. when we get to tomorrow morning this will rap in our way. that is when we see the hea

the first half of the day on friday. then this close to the cold front is moving through friday to saturday morning. give you a closer view. look at the difference of the temperatures. moving through st. louis. 36 degrees there. 60 to salem in the middle of the state. so there is big temperature swings on the way. this is the line that will move through for us around 2:00 in the morning on saturday. so unfortunately the weekend setting up to be a colder one. 50 to 55 for us overnight with the scattered showers. light. but i want to start off tomorrow. 6:00 a.m. with the future cast. there the cold front. the wintery weather to the west side of the front never makes it here for us. it's colder but we will see all rain out of the system. we are dealing with the rain for the drive to work tomorrow. shortly after that when the kids are on the way home we are looking at drying out. this is the prime

tomorrow. mid-to-upper 60's for a lot of us. after that at we get later friday evening here we are at 9:00, the cold front will start to push in the next round of rain. some is heavy. it's not out of the question to hear a rumble of thunder but not looking for the strong thunderstorms. but something for january a little out of the ordinary. the cold front will move through. the cold air will really push in behind it quickly. it's windy and chilly for us working our way throughout saturday. tomorrow high of 66. friday to saturday is when the front will come through. to give you a breakdown on saturday. windy. 2:00 in the morning in the 50's. we are in the low 40's by 6:00. falling through the 30's. the wind chills will feel colder than that. the chance of snow is a slim chance but one we will watch for tuesday and wind next week. not expecting more than a few

cold weather is the rule. break in the warmth just a little bit. michelle: thank you. >> good news for maryland basketball. erin: they have been great so far. terps won eight of the last nine games but super freshman bruno fernando led maryland to a precious road victo "what if" more of the energy we used came from renewable resources? "what if" the electric grid could detect, fix and even prevent power outages? "what if" our grid were less vulnerable and more secure? "what if" all these "what if"s became a reality? well, they are. at dominion energy, we're completely transforming our power grid and the way we think of energy... ...to move from "what if" to "what's next."

erin: the maryland men's basketball team went 2-1 in the first week of 2018. the terps look to make a statement tonight with a road victory over ohio state. now bruno fernando was rewarded for the career high over iowa sunday with a big ten freshman of the week honors overall. now head coach mark turgeon has been pleased with the team's effort. >> bruno gets better every game, every practice. i think you see checko coming on. i think we are feting better and we are confident. we won eight out of nine. we have gotten better. even though we have had injuries we have gotten better. that is a good sign. erin: it is a good sign! d.c. own two division champion lamont peterson takes on the undefeated welterweight on january 20 at the bar

now lamont will turn 34 later this month. but he has won four of the last five outings. even though he is considered the underdog in this fight, he doesn't see it that way at all. >> i know it happens. but i feel like i could probably, you know, honestly. i don't feel like i took any back step. if anything i'm going for it to learn to prepare for a fight much better. >> a special night for the peterson family as lamont's younger brother will fight on the undercard. check it out on showtime to support the local fighters. >> cool. erin: you should see his son. 15 months old. i put on the twitter. he is hitting the bags. michelle: impressive. nancy: thanks. michelle: looking at tonight? josh: rain moves in but it's light for us. the heavier rain here tomorrow morning and then still mid60's and a nice afternoon tomorrow and co

michelle: all right. "world news tonight" with david muir up next. nancy: join us at 11:00. have a good ni

tonight, the president's profane attack. president trump in the oval office, talking about immigration, suddenly asking why are we having all of these people from blank countries? using an expletive we cannot repeat. tonight, the outrage already. also breaking at this hour, the massive winter storm. 120 million americans, heavy snow from the midwest to the east. and a very dangerous day tomorrow. freezing rain and black ice on the roads. the stunning video tonight, the sheer force of the deadly rain and mud smashing into those homes. were there no alerts until after the mudslides began? the republican governor on the rise, now under fire tonight. the former