you're watching nbc 4, live from the area's leading news station, this is news 4 at 11:00. surveillance video just released shows an armed robbery at a bar in the district. it happened in the middle of the afternoon. good evening. i'm doreen gensler.

>> and i'm jim vance. that robbery happened at nellie's sports bar on u street at a time when deliveries are normally made there. craig is there now. >> reporter: good evening to you here at the corner of ninth and u, nellie's is a very popular sports bar. monday afternoon, the owner was inside getting ready to open when robbers stormed in. take a good look. d.c. police say these are the two men who robbed nellie's sports bar on u street in broad daylight. they robbed the place just after 1:00 monday afternoon. >> two individuals followed in behind an open rear door. one of those individuals produced a handgun and demanded money. there was a struggle and the victim -- there was a bit of an assault involving the victim. >> reporter: the robbers made off with about 300 bucks and the manager wag fine, but it could have been far worse. >> seems violent.

you can see the one individual was wearing a baseball cap and has dreadlocks and appears to have a firearm and points it directly at the victim. >> reporter: d.c. police say they believe this was an isolated robbery and not part of a pattern. they say they're confident they'll be able to find the robbers. >> based on some of the angles that the camera caught the suspects coming up the stairs and also as they're entering the establishment, you get good facial shots. >> reporter: also tonight a warning from d.c. police. >> you should always be aware of your surroundings and make sure we don't give any criminals any opportunities. >> reporter: now, police say the guys who robbed nellie's got away in a white 1996 honda accord with a rear spoiler. they're also offering a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest and subsequent conviction. if you know anything, call police. live in northwest d.c. tonight, craig melvin, news 4. >> thank you, craig.

a federal air marshal is charged with raping a woman at gunpoint while wearing his badge. the incident happened at a hotel near seattle/tacoma international airport on saturday. police say that he threatened a woman with a gun. investigators say he forced her to have sex telling her he was a u.s. marshal. the transportation security administration says settles has been fired. students and teachers from shaw middle school in the district went to manassas for a viewing for their principal. police believe he was murdered a week ago tonight at his house in silver spring. there's still considerable pain for those who saw him every day. jackie bensen has our report. >> reporter: they arrived at the funeral home by the busload. hundreds from montgomery district and the county. the characteristic liveliness of young teens was replaced by a

grace and gravity beyond their years, a tribute to the man they came here to say good-bye to. >> we're extremely proud of our kids. we always have been. brian's vision was build relationsh relationships, believe in kids, set high expectations and they'll meet those expectations. they demonstrated that today. >> reporter: much too young to have suffered such a loss, students at shaw middle school bravely endured the emotionally overwhelming experience, to show their principal's grieving family how much he was loved and respected. >> they definitely showed his family a ton of love and sympathy and, you know, that was very nice of all of them to do that for them. and you know, the family was very grateful. >> reporter: he was found shot to death in his silver spring home one week ago. the investigation into the murder continues. police have now corrected some earlier news reports that betts held a gathering at his home that evening. >> there wasn't really a barbecue that night. mr. betts may have grilled a

burger, but there wasn't a gathering. >> reporter: an educator for nearly two decades, the 42-year-old betts had recently taken on the challenge of his life as principal at shaw middle school at garnet patterson. a private funeral service for betts will be held thursday. jackie bensen, news 4. house majority leader steny hoyer was questioned today by an ethics committee looking at the timing of harassment complaints against former congressman eric massa. massa resigned last month after allegations of sexual harassment from several male staffers. the house ethics committee cannot investigate former staff members or former members of congress. instead its probe will focus on when other members learned of massa's conduct and what they did with that information. where is cornhizer and the bandwagon when you need him? we all need to jump on the caps

bandwagon. this was a good one. >> the capitals took care of business with a 6-3 win over the montreal canadiens giving the caps a 3-1 lead in the series, meaning they have the chance to verizon center. friday at the they had to come from behind in this one. caps trailing 2-1. canadiens on the power play looking for more. poti says g here. throws it ahead to gordon. a two on one situation with mike knuble. knub knuble beats p s carrey price. alexander semin over to alex ovechkin. and ove takes care of the rest. the capitals beat the canadiens 6-3 and take a commanding 3-1 series lead. >> the big message is that it's not over. you know? and we can't sit there and start looking at what's happening in

other series and taking the games lightly thinking that we're going to win. because i know some of the players on that team. they've got a lot of pride. >> all right. the next game's friday night at verizon center. coming up in sports, we'll hear from the players. ahead, an oil rig continues to burn in the gulf of mexico while the search continues for 11 missing workers. they've lost billions. now airline executives are questioning the length of that ban on air space and flying in europe. we'll show you what can happen when two cows get loose on a college campus. >> how about the weather? >> the rain is over. tomorrow couldn't be better. the weekend? one of the sog jest we've had in a long time.

the search continues into the night for the 11 workers missing off the louisiana coast. it's not quite clear what caused

a massive oil rig to explode in the gulf of mexico last night. it is still burning 24 hours after the explosion. in addition to the 11 missing workers, three are in critical condition. family members of the nearly 100 other workers who made it off the rig safely are waiting anxiously for their loved ones to return to shore later tonight. >> tears coming out my eyes, wishing that my daddy's okay. i can't wait to see him. i know he's okay. i'm praying that he's okay. i can't wait to see him. >> the rig's owner, transocean, says there were no signs of problems before the explosion. officials with the airline industry say because of that ban on flying in parts of europe because of volcanic ash, they stand to lose $1.7 billion. and they're questioning whether the length of that ban was necessary. 102,000 flights were canceled throughout the world as a result of that volcanic ash. today some of the top airline executives are wondering

publicly why airplanes needed to be grounded from thursday until late monday. some of them want european governments to compensate the airlines for the money they lost. planes were flying again at all of europe's major airports today. but it could take another week to clear the backlog of standard passengers. still to come on news 4, a new biopsy that eliminates waiting time for patients. the latest census has washington moving up the list of the biggest cities. veronica says we'll clear up tomorrow.

some news for your help tonight. when doctors find a suspicious tumor or growth, waiting for the test results can be awful. but now a new kind of imaging is giving patients instant answers.

>> when the result came back that i had a rather large polyp and of the type that can become cancerous, of course i was really concerned. >> finding out that you might have cancer is alarming news for anyone, but for 66-year-old eric, that polyp in his colon was especially worrisome. >> my dad died of colon and rectal cancer. he was only 72, but he was diagnosed about the same age that this polyp appeared in me. >> after doctors removed the growth, he waited days before he could find out the results of a biopsy. he didn't have cancer, as it turned out, but he would need to come back in three months. he says he wasn't looking forward to a second biopsy. >> you are waiting for the results. you are hoping for the best. but each day they don't come. and takes a week or so. and, of course, you don't call

it trauma, but you do call it concern. >> but when he went in for the next test, he got a pleasant surprise. doctors used a new device. and they were able to tell him that day that there was no more precancerous tissue left. he was in the clear. and he didn't have to undergo another biopsy. >> usually when we see something during the endoscopy, we have to take a biopsy, lend it to the lab, then talk to the patient after the week or so and tell them what the results are. here we can immediately look at the tissue, see what it looks like. >> georgetown university hospital gastroenterologist is using a new device called cell vizio. it's a flexible microscope inserted into the body during routine procedures like colonoscopies. it can magnify tissues up to a thousand times allowing doctors to instantly detect whether there are any cancerous or

precancerous cells. >> here we can decide immediately if we can do something, sample more, take it out. >> that can save patients from unnecessary procedures and the stress of waiting for test results. >> knowing this all right at the time is great for one's mind and also great to find out you don't have to go back in. >> eric still needs to be screened regularly. but for now he's resting a little easier. >> you feel better. any thoughts of dieing too young disappear at least for a while. >> right now doctors are using cell vizio to look at growths along the gi tract, the stomach and esophagus. they open to start using it in other areas of body including the lungs. new census figures show that washington has passed atlanta in population. almost 5.5 million people, the d.c. metropolitan area is now the eighth large nest the

country. fueling that rise in the area of population is the growth in the suburbs, especially loudon and faulkner counties in northern virginia. new york, los angeles and chicago remain the three most populous cities in the country. >> sometimes it seems that all those people are on the road at once. >> same time. >> veronica, we've got some positive changes for tomorrow, huh? >> that we do. in fact, doreen and jim, tomorrow it's going to be probably the warmest day since friday of last week. so the cool weekend, first part of this week has been a little on the cool side, too. tomorrow, you're going to like it. we've got to get through some of this mist that's left throughout the area. for the most part the rain is out of the area. 54, that was the low, the high only 57. so where did we go? nowhere today. the average high is 58. the coolest since the bottom of march, that's the 30th. so there can be some pockets of

fog forming with the calm winds. as far as our rainfall today, almost a quarter of an inch of rain. that puts us at 0.88 of an inch. you can see where some of it is left in delaware and southern new jersey. right now dover and east of oxford. so when we picked up nearly a quarter of an inch of rain here, just over that in quantico a half an inch of rain you folks in frederick, maryland, and culpepper as well. light rain today. scattered showers. nothing too heavy. things will change by the beginning of the weekend. the skies are clearing. even though we'll start the day with fog, i think we'll clear out quickly as the wind starts to pick you. meanwhile, there's a big storm moving through the west. that storm will be leaded this way. a severe weather outbreak is likely on friday as the storm system moves to the east. it starts feeding on moisture

coming out of the gulf of mexico. right now, severe weather looks as though it will be from texas up toward nebraska over to southern illinois and down to mississippi. then we could see some thunderstorms here on friday. i don't think we'll have any severe weather. but thunderstorms are something we haven't seen much of. the reason is because there hasn't been a lot of moisture coming out of the gulf of mexico. that's energy that storms need and tornadoes, too, to form. our count for 2010 only 94 nationwide. 94 reports compared to 362 in 2009 and back in 2008 we had nearly 500 reports of tornadoes to date. next 48 hours, low pressure moves away. we'll start with sunshine tomorrow. mostly sunny conditions. we'll have continued clearing and dry and upper 60s probably by noontime. then low to mid-70s by 2:00 tomorrow. by friday, a few clouds move back in. guys, get the grass cut the next two days because it will be wet

for the weekend. not too chilly. then quickly rising to 75 degrees. a little breezy but pleasant when you look at the weekend. the wet weather starts early on saturday. temperature about 63 on saturday. rain again likely for the entire weekend. 70% chance of showers on sunday. the high 66. and right now even the first part of next week is looking wet. so while we've had a reallytively dry pattern for a while, now we'll be turning wet for the weekend. >> better find a way to make the most of tomorrow it sounds like. >> for sure. still ahead tonight, the ceo of spirit airlines defends the carry-on baggage fees that have travelers and lauwmakers so angry. in sports caps put a whooping on the canadiens.

don't you love it when a plan comes together. >> yes, it worked according to our plan. >> all three of us said this very thing would happen earlier today. >> bring it home and win it this week. >> on friday. the caps have won 17 goals combined in their last three games. all three wins, by the way. tonight a victory over montreal to put the caps one win away from advancing to the conference semifinals. it wasn't about goals as much as it was goaltending, semyon varlamov spectacular between the pipes. smelling salts wakes him up. doing the job. yeah, smelling salts, gets them going. had to wake up. been resting all day.

look at that shot there. ovechkin beyond carey price. second period, montreal leads 2-1. on the attack, tomas pleken itch. don't even bother with this shot. semyon varlamov. man, cat-like reactions. he stopped 20 of 21 shots in the final period alone. tom poti sends it ahead to boyd gordon. gordon over to knuble and knuble scores. that tied the game at 2 just before the second intermission. in the third period now. still knotted at 2. alexander semin pokes it ahead to ovi. nice move. his second goal of the game. 6-3, the final. capitals be s beat the canadien. after wards the guys talked about being motivated by a mediocre second period performance. >> the second period, we didn't

play well. it was a little bit frustrating. certainly come on strong and win the game. >> you're pretty fortunate to get two out of the building, played really well. so just one of those games. played good third period. it's nice to come out here and get that win. >> not an easy place to win two in playoff times. but we'll be looking forward to the verizon center on friday. should be bonkers in there. >> look at the game one, game two they should have one. probably should have won it in first two periods. i would be frustrated if i was them. but i would believe that they're going to come into our building, they've won there before. no reason they shouldn't be able to win there again.

>> bruce boudreau and the capitals will be back at the verizon center on friday. a quick look at the major league baseball stats. pudge rodriguez, the nationals new catcher leading the league. then there's livan hernandez leading the national league with an e.r.a. of zero. matt capps also a league leader. the major league leader in saves. he got his seventh of the season tonight. yeah, we're talking about the nationals. bottom three. nats. this will help his cause. down the right field line. here comes nyjer morgan. then ryan zimmerman will slide home safely. a two-run double for dunn. he finished 2 for 4 on the night. game tied at 4. nieves is at the plate. he drives one deep to left center field. this will help things, too. josh willingham comes around to

score. the nationals take a 5-4 lead. fast forward to the top of the ninth. two outs and the aforementioned closer matt capps in to take care of business. gets ian stewart looking to end the game. that was nice. how about the general manager, mick rizzo liking that. that's a new club record. nationals win 6-4. also jason marte has been placed on the dl. an elbow problem. >> next a new look for the $100 bill.

the head of spirit airlines is defending a fee for carry-on bags. the ceo spoke on the "today" show. passengers on spirit will have to pay up to $45 for each carry-on bag that goes in the overhead bin. many passengers were outraged at the idea of that fee. he says the airline is making up for it by cutting airfares. >> you lose it because if you pay for a bag now on spirit, your total ticket price is going to be the same or a little less than before. if you don't carry a bag and help us get our planes out faster, you will save $40 or more on your ticket. >> new york senator chuck schumer has ensured commitments by five airlines to make sure they won't follow spirit's lead. he wants to impose additional taxes for airlines that charge

for carry-on luggage. there's a new hundred dollar bill coming our way. the new bills unveiled here in washington, d.c. today. they should go into circulation next year. high tech features will help thwart counterfeiters. a blue 3-d security ribbon is embedded with images that move up and down and side to side when that bill is tilted. ben franklin's portrait remains prominent in the new design. there were some strange scenes at ohio state university today. two cows were running loose on campus. one student got run over by them. local police and animal control officers had their hands full with one of the cows. it's not exactly clear where these cows came from or how they ended up on the campus. that student that was run over was not

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call the verizon center for customers with disabilities we say good-bye to our temporary set tonight. >> why don't we say good riddance? >> okay. from "community,"