. a lot of people just didn't understand what was going on this morning. >> i just felt like the whole house shook, like really scary. >> just loud. just a loud rumbling. you know, i kind of just dismissed it. >> reporter: the epicenter was in germantown, around the corner of forrestbrook road and ebb tied circle. a 3.4 earthquake had residents shaking in the bed. >> things were shaking. it shook enough that my dog, who

sleeps on the edge of the bed, she fell off the bed this morning. the bed was shaking. the dog fell off. it was unnerving. all around the area, people are talking about it. patricia fortune never dreamed she would be near the epicenter of an earthquake, not in germantown. at 5:00 a.m., her house was rattling. >> it was so intense. the house shook. it is like somebody grabbed you and it was over. >> not surprising that it fell. the earthquake helped it along. >> reporter: over on davis mill road, gary moezman surveys some minor damage. this dead tree was slated for removal. this morning's earthquake brought it down early, right on top of this fence. >> it was just any normal morning. we started hearing a rumbling sound. i thought it was the washington machine out of balance. it started getting louder and louder. i realized after a few seconds, it was not the washington machine.

i thought maybe a plane was coming really low and heard a loud bang. >> reporter: in downtown bethesda, miles away from the epicenter, they felt too. quite a way to start the day. >> it was just trembling, the lights were shaking, the walls were rumbling. it was trembling. >> reporter: what were you thinking? >> right off the bat, i thought, an earthquake. >> i heard the house shutter first and then i felt a little vibration going through the house and sort of sensed like a truck, a big truck was going by. >> this was felt over a wide area at the station. we started getting calls almost immediately after it happened. folks calling from as far away as west virginia and frederick. everybody wondering exactly what had happened. some folks who have experience with earth quakes. they had an idea, an inkling of what was going on. a lot of curiosity. a lot of people talking about it today. back to you in the studio.

>> megan mcgrath in germantown this morning. megan, thank you. >> i'll take one or two questions. >> reporter: did you feel the earthquake, mr. president? >> i didn't. >> more proof that the quake is the talk of the town. that was president obama responding to a question at this morning's briefing. the president did not feel it but we certainly did in the studio. you felt it in the "newsroom" you didn't realize it was an earthquake? >> i heard the rattling of the windows and the air-conditioning ducts in the "newsroom." i have my own personal theorys on what it was. i quite loudly said, it's not an earthquake, because we never have earthquakes around here. outside on a friday morning, only if the earthquake could have cooled things down, that would have been nice. it did not.

meteorology and size seismology are quite different studies. a heat index already reaching 100 degrees in brandy wise. cross junction, virginia, a temperature of 90. 63% relative humidity. the heat index in alexandria, already 102. that intense heat index value is what's caused the weather service to issue the heat advisory for the remainder of the day. a couple of thunderstorms firing up in far western, western virginia. we may have a chance at getting a few thunderstorms. probably not until after 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 this evening. by then, you will have already sweated the day away. >> i hope it cools things down for us. >> just a touch over the weekend but not much. >> chuck, thank you very much. more now on our top story. this morning's earthquake. people with the u.s. geological survey have received more than

14,000 reports of the tremor across the region. tracee wilkins is live in virginia where she sfoek with o one of the experts. >> reporter: we spoke to a senior scientist who tells us that he slept through the earth this morning. his wife heard it like a truck going past the house. he said it is a great thing we had everything in our home strapped down four our 18-month-old. it could have been bad had this taken our house and something fallen over. while we don't see ourselves as earthquake country in the d.c. area, we do have faults in this area. that's what created all of our mountainous areas here. it was long, long, long before any of us even existed here. of course, lots haof our structures here as well. while we may not be california, we do have faults. i asked, what about these folks that live out in germantown, do they need to move? here is what he had to say. >> this was a very small

earthquake, possible there will be one or two additional quakes. they will be very small. from a practical standpoint, it is a reminder, we should think about all hazards, being prepared and ready should an event occurred. >> what did you think happened? my daughter was up. i said, did you hear that? she said, yes. i said, was it an earthquake? i heard it on the radio just now. >> you said your husband felt it. >> he felt it this morning. it woke him up. he thought it was a car accident or a plane or something shaking. >> where do you guys live? >> in fairfax. >> you felt something? >> i wasn't sure what it was. i just felt that. it was nothing big at all. >> what did it feel like? >> a little shaking, nothing really too much, just a little shaking. >> reporter: what did you think it was? >> i thought it was just -- i

didn't think it was an earthquake or anything like that. i just thought maybe our house was -- my husband was working on something or i don't know. >> reporter: that's exactly what they want to hear from folks at the usgs. they want you to logon to the website and explain how it felt to you where you lived. most of those folks that ran into them at the vienna metro. these are folks who are of course farther south than the actual earthquake. these are people who are saying this is how it felt in my home. this helps them to actually measure the size of the earthquake and the intensity of it. now, they are saying there is no way to predict when an earthquake is coming because of the very nature of quakes. they are saying that they have a general idea of how these things work. the answer to the question is, no, the folks who live over there in germantown. they may be feeling it. the brunt of this thing, the excitement of it all, we have felt the worse of it.

we don't have any faults in this area. according to the experts large enough to get a name. >> thanks so much. we have a lot of traffic out there. nothing to do with the earthquake. jerry you had war jerry edwards has the latest. >> i will be excited to see what the dog has done around the house. i live in germantown. oi voi, it will be interesting. we have a couple of things to deal with. an accident involving a truck moved out of the roadway on the inner loop of the beltway at the american legion bridge. for a while, only a couple lanes were getting by. the lanes are open. we r looking at delays from north of tysons corner to the bridge span. the outer loop, typical, heavy and slow. no lanes were ever closed, just rubbernecking delays there. let's head over to virginia. 95 southbound after you get through the work zone between newington and lorton, which is really jammed up, we are looking

at heavy traffic to and from the occuquan river. it is your typical friday getaway. we will keep a watch and let you know. the two democratic candidates for d.c. mayor faced off in a public forum. current major, adrian fenty and vincent gray are just wrapping up the event at the renaissance hotel in northwest washington. it came one day after the two got into a heated debate on wpfw radio. tom cherwood served as moderator at the forum. kwame brown and vincent orens, the two candidates for d.c. council chairman also debated. d.c.'s same-sex marriage law with stood another challenge. opponents filed suit when the d.c. board of elections rejected their initiatives to put same-sex marriage up for a public vote by a referendum.

they ruled that the judge ruled lawfully. major fenty signed the law after it passed the council in december. president obama says there is finally good news in the gulf. here is a live look under water. no new oil is flowing into the gulf. we still don't know if the cap will hold. the president says scientists and experts worked overnight and into this morning trying to analyze the data. nbc's kristen dahlgren reports from venice, louisiana. >> reporter: it is a sight so many had waited for, a stop to the geyser of oil that's been shooting into the gulf for almost three months. >> i am incredibly ecstatic about it. >> reporter: it was yesterday afternoon when engineers shut down the new capping system closing off the flow. though the pictures appear to show a cap that is holding back the crude, bp was quick to warn it is still just a test and may still be temporary. >> i have to stress, we have to manage our expectations, depending on what the results are, could depend on what

happens next. it is possible if the pressures are low that we will have to reinitiate the flow. >> reporter: engineers will monitor those pressures for up to 48 hours watching to see how the well holds. >> i think it is important to know whether the well has leaks or not. it could be an important issue for them to watch while they are doing the kill operation itself. >> that kill operation, the relief wells remain the ultimate solution for permanently closing off the wells. with so much oil already in the gulf, an end to the flow is by no means an end to the fight. >> i think you know the battle is still out there, you know, the beast is still out there. it has already gotten into the water. >> into the water and everything else here. >> now, we can stop -- now that it's stopped, we can start the healing process. >> reporter: a process that is just beginning. even if the new cap really can end the leak. >> tests will continue until saturday if they don't run into any issues.

at that point, they plan to do a seismic study to make sure there were no problems. at some point after that, officials will decide whether to leave the flow of oil shut off or siphon most, if not all, of the oil to the surface. kristen dahlgren, nbc news, venice, louisiana. up to 184 million gallons of oil have spewed from the leak since april. 11:13 is your time now. 96 degrees. rattling windows and jostling dishes. the magnitude 3.6 quake struck just after 5:00 near germantown. a far-reaching new banking and consumer protection bill is awaiting president obama's signature. folks at appl

the thought the house was coming down. >> right off the bat, i thought, an earthquake. >> it felt like something rumbled. a minor earthquake shook residents awake early this morning. police in the district received a lot of called but no immediate reports of injuries or damage. they are the stiffest restrictions on banks in wall street since the great depression. it gives the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy and create a new consumer protection

agency. nbc's tracie potts reports. the american people will never again be asked to foot the bill for wall street's mistakes. >> reporter: no more bailout, a lookout for firms at risk and a new agency to protect consumers. democrats say they had to put the brakes on wall street. >> had we not done this, it would have happened again. it is only a question of time. the yeas are 60. the nays are 39. >> reporter: only three republicans voted for it. one democrat voted against it. it protects against hidden fees for credit cards and mortgages but buyers will have to prove up front they can afford the loan. republicans call it a legislative monster. >> this bill, i believe, is a job killer and will saddle americans with billions of dollars of hidden taxes and fees. >> reporter: it doesn't touch mortgage giants freddie mac and fannie mae whose lending contributed to the crisis. the bill passed as the

securities and exchange commission announced goldman sachs will pay $550 million for misleading investors. the agency says, let that be a warning. >> there will be a heavy price to be paid if firms violate the principles fundamental to the securities law. >> reporter: new laws now aimed at preventing another financial crisis. president obama plans to sign the new law on wednesday. tracie potts, nbc news, washington. virginia's governor will name an ally as a temporary success sul to robert byrd, who died after more than half a century in the senate. governor joe manchin will announce his pick. he has picked 36-year-old carter goodwin, according to the press. lawmakers are considering that proposal in a special session. now, it's 11:18. boy, talk about steamy. it is 96 degrees out there

already. you said the dew point just went up. >> it is continuing to climb across the area. our dew point is now in the mid-70s out there. that will make the heat index even higher. the heat index is essentially the retardation of evaporation off of your skin. those are complicated words. when you have dry air, you can sweat more effectively, because the sweat evaporating off your skin is what makes you feel cool. you can evaporate moisture for effectively in dry than moist air. dew points in the mid-70s, that is moist, indeed. 87 degrees with 65% relative humidity at 11:00 a.m. a light, southeasterly breeze. it is 90 in st. mary's county, 88 in la plata and waldorf. 85. annapolis getting a slight hint of a bay breeze. martinsburg, west virginia, is in the upper 80s. height index in the mid to upper

90s in many neighborhoods. clinton, maryland lon, heat index, 98 degrees. dover, delaware's heat index, 101. a ribbon of rain showers rolling through pittsburgh, pennsylvania, part of an ever-so-weak weather front. showers and storms in far western maryland and the west virginia mountains. can't completely rule out the chance of a shower in the far western suburbs of the washington area by 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 this evening. by and large, most of us are going to stay dra fy for the remainder of the day. 73, the dew point in atlanta. the combination of heat and humidity has heat index values in the high 90s to near 100. the weather service has had to issue a heat advisory for the i-95 corridor. in anticipation of heat index value between 100 and 105 during

the peak of the afternoon. we will spend most of the day in the frying pan. what little shower chances we have will primarily be late this evening and into the overnight hours. may trigger one or two lonesome showers. high pressure is large and in charge of our forecast. the heat advisory goes until 9:00 tonight have the a few thunderstorms and outside possibility. certainly, no tt a likelihood. highs today, mid to upper 90s. not as hot on the other side of the weather front. uncomfortably warm. if you are doing any boating or sailing on the bay, might have a scattered shower on the weekend. temperatures at the beach. mid-70s. unbelievably ocean waters. 90s, 90s, 90s, 100.

you are getting the feeling it is going to continue to look at feel like july. no real widespread chances of rain coming up. a chance of showers tonight and monday. >> it's july. i'm from this area, i'm used to it. >> we are going to blame the heat on the quake. let's check on the mid-day traffic. we have the latest. let's head out and update you what's happening at this hour. this is the inner loop of the capital beltway, to and beyond i-66. it will be that way most of the way to the american legion bridge because of an earlier accident. there are a couple spots that the pace picks up but not much at all. the accident is out of the roadway. 395 northbound, we still have the work zone in the far right lane of the 14th street bridge. two lanes get by.

backed up to boundary channel drive. not terribly. annoying enough, especially in this heat. eun? 11:22 is your time. an announcement could mean a fix to the problems with apple's phone 4, plus, free cupcakes. a look at what's new at the movies this weekend. what's hot on nbcwashington.com.

owners of the coveted new iphone 4 may finally get the answers they are looking for. the popular tech company is scheduled to hold a news conference to discuss the phone's antenna and hardware issues. chris clam emreports. >> reporter: when the folks take center stage it is not for a big announcement but for a surprise problem with the phone 4. critics say just getting apple to admit there is a problem is difficult. they first blamed the problem on users holding the iphone the wrong way. >> we don't think you should have to pay to solve apple's problem. they are posting their dreaded, not recommended rating on the iphone, because of this problem that apple is expected to say it

can be fixed by wrapping a bumper around the phone. it worked for consumer reports. >> with the bumper on, it doesn't seem to suffer the signal loss we reported earlier. >> reporter: owners might be asked to return the phones for a hardware fix. in either case, critics say consumers shouldn't have to pay. >> any cost required in fixing it is apple's burden to bear. >> long lines meant iphone 4's debut last month. complaints soon followed that led consumer reports to its conclusion about a smart phone that it still calls superior to all others. >> this is a phone that deserves to be recommended. >> chris clakken, nbc news. there is no such thing as a free lunch but there is such thing as a free cupcake. georgetown bakery is giving away free cupcakes to celebrate the premier of the new reality show.

the first episode of d.c. cupcakes airs tonight. today only, every person to visit the store will receive a free chocolate or vanilla cupcake with butter cream icing. 11:28 is your time now. 96 degrees coming up on "news 4 midday." did you feel it? a 3.6 magnitude earthquake hit our area this morning. we will have reaction. a mother hopes someone will come forward with information on the murder of her daughter. if you take metro, we will have details on that. chuck bell is back with a serious heat and humidity day. "know the species, know the stain." lanolin-free coat, i know it's an alpaca. walks in here, looks says "hey look, it's a llama!" cleaning the stain like he would a llama stain. time he's wasting. ♪ call 1-800-steemer

when i got up, as i was about to leave my house, i felt the building shake. i thought it was just my imagination but then my wife came running out the bedroom. she said, oh, my god, i think we are having an quake. so it was really intense there for a second. >> i was in the subway. i felt a rumbling overhead. i was thinking, okay, the trains don't run overhead. the trains run on the platform where i was standing. i was kind of puzzled. but i didn't think it was an earthquake. >> i felt it at the door. i thought we were under attack.

everything was shaking. it felt more like an explosion. since we are not used to quakes, it is hard to tell what it was. >> right now, people are reacting to this morning's quake, the 3.6 magnitude quake was the strongest to hit within 30 miles of d.c. since the u.s. geological survey began keeping records. the quake hit at 5:04 a.m. people with the usgs have received more than 14,000 reports of a tremor across the region. tracee wilkins is live in western virginia where she spoke with one of the experts. tracy, good morning. >> reporter: i learned a lot about earthquakes. it is so important that they get those e-mails and phone calls from folks to share what they experienced this morning, no matter how minor it may be. they want to hear that information so it can help them to rate this earthquake and learn more about it. for sure, as we've been saying, the experts say this was an earthquake and it was a major one. as you said, the most major quake that we felt in this area

since they started recording quakes in this area. i can tell you for sure, it was a very busy morning for the folks over at the usgs. >> it was felt from germantown to miles around with some reports coming in as far as frederick maryland and as far south as virginia, an quake in the d.c. area. >> they do happen. just not very frequently. >> reporter: david applegate, senior science advisory for the u.s. geological survey says while we may not be considered earthquake country, we do have faults in the washington area buried deep within our ground. >> what we don't have are a lot of active faults the way we have out in the west coast where you think of things like the san andreas fault or things like that. these old faults can relieve stress and we can get small earthquakes as we had this morning. >> reporter: there are some experts who say that because of all of our severe climate change that some faults that have been dormant for years may now become

active because of what's happening to our earth. i will ask our expert, is that the case? is that what happened here in washington, d.c.? could germantown become an epicenter. he thinks what happened here is that an old dormant fault moved on its own, shifted on its own. he is saying that that can happen and does happen. this is so dormant and so far beneath the ground it is not important enough for them to name. of course, they will be studying it. he says he believes the folks in germantown are in the clear. they may feel some aftershocks. the worst of this is over. i'm tracee wilkins, live this morning, back to you in the studio. that's a relief, tracy. thank you. our other stop story, progress in the gulf. here is a live look. no more oil is blowing into the water. it is still unclear whether the cap will hold. bp's tests on that could last into the weekend.

there is the risk that oil could seep through the new cracks in the floor. the president is cautiously optimistic. the new cap is good news. either we will be able to use it to stop the flow or we will be able to use it to capture almost all of the oil until the relief well is done. >> bp says the relief well should be finished in august. the weather at this year 's british open has caused interesting playing conditions. there were high winds so strong golf balls were blowing on the greens. the tournament is taking place at st. andrews golf course, the birth place of golf, known for its unpredictable weather. they had ideal conditions in the morning and rain and wind hampered the play of jaafternoo groups. tiger woods just started his play in the afternoon.

lewis ausua currently leads the term. i don't know if i pronounced his last name correctly. i hope i did. in the british open, everyone says it is so hard to predict because the weather is so wild. one player has a great day one day and not the next day. >> you have the influence of the north atlantic and the north sea. it is just crazy. you can go from sunshine to driving rain in about five minutes and have the sun back five minutes later. what we wouldn't give for a little rain around here to help cool things down judge a smidgearonny. it is 98 degrees in montgomery village. heat index at 98 degrees there. only. stafford, virginia, 93 for a current temperature and in college park, maryland, 93 now with a heat index of 99. zoomed in a little closer on the doppler so you can see those are showers now getting very close to far western maryland that may

have a stray shower or thunderstorm primarily west to have the blue ridge today up towards the northern shenandoah valley. otherwise, just going to be steamy for the rest of today. it's going to be hot and sticky over the weekend too. today is far and away the worst of it from a heat and humidity combination standpoint. >> we can get it over with then. out to the roads now with jerry edwards to see if there are any mid-day traffic problems. hi, jerry. >> a couple of problems affecting commute on the capital beltway. had an accident on the outer loop. police in the process of moving that over to the shoulder. look at this. here it is, 11:30 in the morning. 20 to 12:00 just about and it is jammed from new hampshire at least headed west over towards silver spring. catching more than a few folks by surprise. the beltway in virginia, very, very tough as well. traveling the inner loop back to

i-66. outer loop looking much, much better. eun? >> thank you. if you are going to be traveling on metro, you might want to add a little time to your trip. there will be work on the red, yellow and blue lines. on the red line, delays between new york avenue and the rhode island brentwood stations for bridge maintenance. there will be delays between shady grove and the twin brook stations. delays between braddock and van dorn and between braddock and huntington on the yellow line. met metro suggests that you add 30 minutes to your trip. it was a frustrating evening for travelers at reagan national airport. they came to a stand still after a huge power outage forced security screenings and ticket counters to shut down. airport officials think a fire in the electrical substation prompted the outage around 11:45 yesterday morning. long lines wrapped around the "b" and "c" terminals while crews worked to restore passengers. scores of passengers couldn't

get through security for an hour. those that didn't arrive with their boarding passes in hand had to wait even longer and many missed their flights. >> pretty frustrating, when if i had done my boarding pass from the hotel, i could have just got on the plane. >> power was back on line in the terminals by 2:00 p.m. many offices were still in the dark. the ripple effect of the long lines lasted into the evening. this morning, a mother hopes someone will come forward with information on the murder of her daughter. vanessa famili vanessa fam was killed more than two weeks ago. darcy spencer talked with her mother and the agency handling the investigation. >> reporter: i feel angry. julie is the mother of the 19-year-old fashion design student at the center of a murder mystery that's baffling detectives. >> i work but i cry all the

time. >> reporter: she was found dead in her car june 27th in the middle of the afternoon after leaving the fairfax shopping center. her toyota was captured on surveillance video minutes before she was found dead. so far, these clues have not been enough to catch a killer. >> the detectives here and their supervisors are phenomenal, the amount of extra hours and time. they are not going to stop. they to be tenacious. >> reporter: major sean barrett, commander of the fairfax county police department's criminal investigations bureau appealed to the public to case. >> she was a very nice young lady. we are just trying to determine if someone saw her then or knows anything that may be of interest to us in this investigation. >> reporter: police believe fam was killed in a ten-minute window and left the shopping center at 3:24. her car was found in a ditch nearby at 3:34. her cousin says she updated her facebook profile at 3:09 to indicate she had taken a nanny

job. minutes later, she was dead. >> i'm confident the detectives are going to keep working on this case and it will be closed. >> reporter: that can't come soon enough for a grieving mother left with memories and photos of an only child with so much tall enent and promise. darcy spencer, "news4 today." police were on a mission to take back the streets two days after a shooting in the middle of the day. d.c. police raided several places, recovering seven guns, crack cocaine and marijuana and a kilo of pcp as well as $6500 in cash and several vehicles. cathy lanier talked about the arrests after several departments executed dozens of search and arrest warrants. >> if they want to hang in front of the rec center and sell drugs and walk around with guns in their waist band, those are the people we targeted. in this area, we got ten of them i think that's a pretty good

take for today. >> this comes after two young men were shot at the intersection of seventh and "o" streets. the victims were hit in the legs and expected to survive. new today, police are looking for a guy who held up a gas station in prince george's county, this video comes from the sunoco on the 6300 block of livingston road in oxen hill. the robber walked in last wednesday around 4:30 in the afternoon. there is git with the hat on. the thief pointed a gun at the clerk and told him to empty two registers. he demanded cigarettes before running away. the robber was between 25 and 35, police say. if you recognize this man, call police. 11:42 is your time now. 97 degrees. stocks ended narrowly mixed in the latest session. we will look at how stocks are trading right now. a look at what's new at the

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shortly after 5:00 a.m., an quake hit in montgomery county. >> it was unnerving. >> people as far away as pennsylvania and west virginia reported feeling the quake. it sparked a lot of phone calls to police departments in your o area. there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. consumer prices fell for the third straight month providing some bargains to american

shoppers. let's check in with cnbc's courtney reagan for the latest. good morning, courtney. the financial landscape has really been altered as of yesterday. congress putting the final touch on the landmark regulatory reform. the senate voted to pass the reform bill after some months of wondering whether or not that was actually going to happen. president obama now will sign it into law on wednesday. what it does is create this consumer protection agency for investment products like mortgages as well as some other things that consumers use a lot and helps with transparency, the terms and conditions should be a bit more clear. so it increases competitiveness in the marketplace so consumers can shop around and compare terms. it regulates complex investments known as derivatives in hopes of avoiding what we went through a couple of years ago. stocks are lower. the dow is 186 points when we wrap up the trading week after

falling somewhat slightly yesterday. asian markets fell overnight. consumer sentiment dropped last month causing stocks to falter today. consumer prices fell just a tenth of a percent in june. general electric, which is the parent company of nbc universal, all beat wall street. we got all of those numbers today. important to mention, goldman sachs has agreed to pay a record $550 million fine to settle s.e.c. charges that it misled investors. they admit they made a mistake about not disclosing the role a hedge fund manager played in the developme investment deal. they originally wanted goldman to pay $750 million but there was no talk of management changes. back to you. >> courtney, thank you. have a great weekend!

a couple of nunbskulls have made their way into history. vince and larry are the iconic crash test dummies that taught us to wear our seatbelts. they are the newest addition to the smithsonian's national museum of american history. >> reporter: no one ever accused vince and larry of being very bright. >> we are the dummies, that's not true, busting our heads us j the for you. >> reporter: but their message was brilliant. >> you could learn a lot from a dummy, buckle your safety belt. >> reporter: from 1985 to 1998 rs these two happenless crash test dummies were whiplashed from one car wreck to another. a slack stick public service campaign that became one of the most successful ever. in the early '80s, hardly anyone ever buckled up. serious warnings about seatbelts were ignored. so co-creator, joe maycheck

turned to humor. within weeks, they were part of pop culture. >> there was some magical formula. people were paying attention and buckling their safety belt. >> reporter: now, 25 years after their first spot aired, vince and larry's costumes are being inducted into the smithsonian along with a pile of head, arms and legs. they are the poster children for car safety in the '80s and '90s. >> americans were finally accepting seat belts after many decades of resisting them. seat belt use jumped from 14% to 79%. saving some 85,000 lives. david strickland runs the national highway safety administration. >> they made a huge difference in every american's life in terms of how you approach traffic safety and wearing your belt. >> reporter: seat belt usage has risen to 84%. >> thousands die every year

because they don't buckle up. >> vince, we are dummies, we don't wear safety belts. >> reporter: not a bad con trin bugs for a couple of dummies. tom costello, nbc news. >> vince and larry characters were voiced by jack burns, who you might remember as deputy warren ferguson on the andy griffin show and lorenzo music. some amateur video out of japan shows the cruelty animals face. it shows a dolphin that jumped out of its tank at an aquarium. it was sent to the trainer for the flipper tv show who now works to set captive animals free. he says the video shows an animal under stress. the manager says the doll fphin fine and their treatment is consistent with aquarium guidelines. it is now 11:50. 98 degrees. george clooney causes a commotion outside an

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the superguarantee® shield. you'll get the job done right, or we'll step in and help to make it right. so, protect yourself with the superguarantee® from supermedia. on its way-- the new verizon® yellow pages with larger, easier to read print. new today, actor, george clooney has testified at a fraud trial in milan. three people are on trial accused of using his name to promote a fashion line. dozens of celebrity watchers packed the tiny courtroom. clooney told the court pictures

showing him with two of the defendants were doctored and his signature on the documents was forged. after his 90-minute testimony the judge thanked him and said the session, quote, as lasted as long as a movie. a local couple accused of spying for cuba were sentenced. kendall and quinn myers were accused of spying. kenda kendall myers to life in prison without parole, his wife to 81 months behind bars. they passed information by short-wave radio and swapping carts with agents in d.c. supermarkets. he is a former state department employee and has collected over 200 classified documents on his computer. a popular sportscaster, secretly taped while in several hotel rooms is now suing the hotels. espn reporter, erin andrews, filed the $1.2 million lawsuit against seven hotels and michael

barrett, the man who made the tapes of her in two different hotel rooms. the lawsuit alleges that the hotels gave barrett information about andrews' hotel room without her permission. he rented hotel rooms next to her and he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in march. andrews i hoping the suit will convince hotels to better protect their guests. mind-blowing magic takes over the box office this weekend. a live action version of a beloved cartoon and a new leonardo decricaprio film where intervenes in someone's dreams. a modern day classic on the source certificater's apprentice. it is rated pg-13.

>> leonardo dicaprio uses a different sourcery in the sci-fi film "inception." he steals secrets from subconscious minds while they sleep and create different dr m dreamscapes for different jobs. it is rated pg-13. let's take a look at some of the stories we are working on. jim handly joins us in the "newsroom" with a prehave you. hi, jim. >> we have a busy afternoon for this steamy friday coming up at 4:00. we will have the latest reaction to the earthquake that had much of our region shaking and rattling. we will find out if the cap is still holding back the oil from the spill down in the gulf. an emotional day in court as members of the casey anthony family see each other for the first time in months. anthony is charged in the murder of her daughter. anthony's mother and brother are being forced to testify now.

at 5:00 tonight, still finding a fix, metro crews continue to work on those broken escalators. we will tell you what you can expect if you are planning to ride the rails this weekend. those stories plus we are grilling on this day. that's coming up. it is really going to be cooking at 4:00 and 5:00. eun? >> thanks so much. we will see you soon. chuck bell knows all about this weather that is cooking out there. no day to be out trying to climb stairs or do any kind of physical activity. they have one escalator going in the up direction which helps a little bit. you don't want to do 120 steps straight up in this kind of heat. going to be an ugly one out there today. hot and humid. heat advisories have been posted by the national weather service for everywhere east of the mountains, including d.c., baltimore, philadelphia metro areas. there may be one or two stray cooling thundershowers late today and into the evening hours. most of that will stay out west

of the blue ridge into the mountains of west virginia. partly sunny, not quite as hot tomorrow. low to mid-90s. breakaway weather for the beach. get on down to the beach. slight chance of a shower down to the beaches. most of your weekend will be rainfree. >> that's a relief. that does it for "news 4 midday." thanks for joining us. be sure to tune in to daily connection at 2:00 for "news 4 at 4:00," 5:00, and 6:00. i'll be back monday morning starting at 4:30 a.m. have a great day and a great weekend. we will see you monday.