The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:
ROLLING THUNDER RETURNS
Motorcyclists are planning to honor fallen troops ahead of Memorial Day. The annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle ride is scheduled to begin at the Pentagon parking lot in Arlington, Va., Sunday morning. The route will take bikers across Memorial Bridge into northwest Washington to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. D.C. police say several streets along the route will be closed until about 4 p.m. Ride organizers say they will pay respect to fallen troops and remember prisoners of war and those missing in action. They say the event is a demonstration _ not a parade _ to ask for a full accounting of the rights of all POWs, MIAs and veterans.
(WTOP)
MARINES AND SAILORS COME HOME
Navy Hospital Corpsman HM2 (FMF) Chris Schumacher walked off a bus Saturday evening into a sea of people waiting for the local Marine reserve company to return home. Waiting for him was his son, Jonathan, who was born a month and a half after he deployed to Afghanistan last fall. "There's no way to describe it," Schumacher said of holding his baby for the first time.
His wife, Christy, said she was nervous about Jonathan getting upset when the buses pulled up and everyone started yelling. But Jonathan was well-behaved when his father held him for the first time. "He kept it together, he was good," Christy Schumacher said. "I cried, Chris cried, but Jonathan didn't, so that's all that mattered." The 117 returning Marines and sailors of the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion's Company B were greeted by more than a thousand relatives and friends at the Elks Lodge. The Marine Corps League and more than 20 local civic and veterans associations paid for food, drinks, a moon bounce and more to make the day special for the Marines and sailors and their families, said Sgt. William Wolbert, who helped organize the event.
(FREDERICKNEWSPOST.COM)
SNATCHED TEEN FOUND IN FLORIDA
Police have found a teenage girl who was thought to have been abducted from a busy shopping area in Stafford County, Va.
Her family dragged her into their minivan -- kicking and screaming -- because she was trying to avoid a move to Florida, the Stafford County Sheriff's Office said. The scene was caught on surveillance tape around 11:25 a.m. Saturday at the Target near Warrenton Road, just off Interstate 95. The tape shows the 17-year-old walking through the parking lot in front of the main entrance when suddenly a dark mini-van pulls up next to her with its sliding door open. A man then jumps out of the driver’s seat and grabs the girl. He pulls her into the van with the help of two women while she kicks and screams. Several witnesses called 911 right away, and authorities issued a nationwide Amber Alert. The van was found around 12:20 a.m. Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville Police said the family stopped in Stafford County on the way to a move to Ft. Lauderdale. The girl apparently didn't want to go, and her family forced her into the van so they could continue their trip, police said.
(NBCWASHINGTON.COM)
BEACHGOERS WARY ABOUT OIL SPILL
As the summer tourism season begins this weekend, fears are rippling along the oceanfront that oil from the Gulf Coast spill could foul beaches here. Experts say the Virginia coast shouldn't see more than a few hard tar balls, if anything. But even that would be too much, said Mike Cuthbertson, general manager of the waterfront Sea Shell Motel. "If oil came to Virginia Beach in any verifiable amount, even a small amount," he said, "it would be devastating to the tourist industry."
(RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH)
