and now, from washington's leading news station, this is news 4 at 11:00. >> tonight strong storms slam parts of our region, and we're

not done yet archlt woman sexually assaulted a whole foods. could it be linked to a string of similar attacks? the vice president tries to clarify his remarks after a rough day in virginia. plus a husband and wife hit with a surprising diagnosis. doctors say they've never seen anything like it before, but the couple, they can't stop laughing. but first, they've been debating for hours, and there's still no decision. maryland lawmakers are at odds over plans to allow table games at state casinos and clear the way for a new gambling facility on the potomac. shomari stone is live with the 11th hour debate. >> reporter: doreen, they are still debating tonight right now as we speak. this bill would allow las vegas-style table games at state casinos. we're talking about an $800 million las vegas-style casino in prince george's county. >> it's one of two locations. it's national harbor on rosecroft racetrack. >> reporter: senate president mike miller wants one for one reason.

>> jobs, jobs, more jobs in this economy. means approximately 7,000 jobs. >> reporter: governor martin o'malley introduced the bill which would allow table games like blackjack. the senate introduced it this past week in a special session. tonight they want leaders to allow the issue on the november ballot. but opponents say not so fast. there are already five licensed maryland casinos. >> we have three sites that are open, two that aren't up and running yet. i think it's premature for us to change the rules. >> reporter: out here at national harbor, folks tell me that they're concerned about traffic. this is fleet street on a tuesday night. aren't a lot of cars. but they fear if a casino comes here, it would be nothing but gridlock. >> if i wanted to live near a casino, i would have moved near a casino. >> i could double my money. >> reporter: that's assuming you win. now, the house is continuing to debate right now. the senate which passed a bill last week will look at the house's changes and decide whether to reject or approve

them. earlier this evening the house amended the bill to help veterans organizations. they would have five instant pull tab gambling machines at their facilities. and maryland live at anne arundel county, remember that place? they would get tax breaks that would offset the competition that would come from the new casino. the president tells me a decision will come by tomorrow morning. you can follow the latest quup updates at nbcwashington,.com. severe weather rolling through parts of our region. the worst appears to be gone, but there's still the threat of more bad weather tomorrow. doug's standing by with the details. >> the severe weather threat really diminishing for most aft area. up around baltimore, i-95, heads up there. very heavy rain continuing down to the south and east. this is down around southern culpepper county. ornl county, madison county.

we do have rain right around fredericksburg in through stafford county, but this area here has really seen a lot of rain. two to three inches in the last three to four hours. this rain just continue to fall as these storms just continue to form right over the same area. this is the last two hours. you notice continuing right around the locustdale area around orange, the culpepper region. if you are driving in this area, expect to see flooded roadways in that area, expect to see some type of flooding. i would really make sure, turn around, do not drown. do not drive through any of these streets. because again you'll potentially have some problems there. where are these storms going? off to the north and east. i'll show you what i expect for the day tomorrow. could we all see severe weather or will it just we some of us? we'll talk about it coming up. people out west are being forced from their homes as wildfires rage out of control. here's the scene in washington state about 80 miles southeast of seattle. to give you an idea just how big

this fire is in just a matter of hours the fire spread from 2800 acres to 28,000. it's already consumed 70 homes. right now 600 firefighters are working around the clock to try to get the upper hand. now to the race for the white house. campaigns for both president obama and mitt romney are in full swing. today romney traveled to ohio while his new running mate paul ryan spoke in colorado. the president had stops in iowa and vice president biden, who stopped in virginia, is getting some flak tonight for controversial comments. biden told voters romney and paul want to put them, quote, back in chains. he then referring to a gop push to get rid of new wall street regulations, but the romney campaign called the biden comments unacceptable. and tonight his statements are drawing fire from republicans. >> first hundred days, he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. unchain wall street.

they're going to put you all back in chains. >> i've never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as manytupid things. i mean, there's a real fear if god forbid he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he has the mental capacity to handle. >> tomorrow the vice president will speak at a campaign rally in virginia tech. a surprise for state employees in virginia. they'll be getting a 3% bonus in december. the governor's expected to make an official announcement tomorrow. but sources tell the associated press tonight the state saved more than $100 million through the first half of this year. virginia has already had a surplus for the past three years. a detailed admission of failure from verizon tonight over the outage that kept people from reaching 911 during the derecho storm last june. in a new report out today, verizon says two backup generators failed at its facilities in alexandria and fairfax. this report also says emergency procedures weren't followed and

staffing may have been insufficient. verizon meets with loc authorities tomorrow to go over how they'll prevent future outages. the fate of a man accused of murdering his stepdaughter is now in the hand of a maryland jury. david hang is charged with first degree murder. prosecutors say he stabbed 12-year-old jessica nguyen more than 40 times in their home in gaithersburg last year. hang was in the process of divorcing jessica's mother. prosecutors allege the marriage was part of an immigration sham. arrested and accused of sexually assaults a shopper at a whole foods store, police say frank bouknight groped a woman as she pent over to pick up a bottle of wine. it happened off wilson boulevard in arlington over the weekend. it's not clear if the suspect is connected to similar assaults in the same area. a northern virginia couple married for 55 years are facing a new challenge together. they have both been diagnosed with breast cancer. but they're not letting this disease bring them down.

erica gonzalez is here in the studio with their story. >> reporter: hi. well he's going fishing in alaska, then she's headed to play the slots in atlantic city. life goes on, and with a few jokes, too. >> wait a minute. what's a hoot? is that texas for -- >> i think she called you an old coot. >> oh, that's better. >> reporter: colonel bill and betty dagness are as lively as they come. friends first, then companions, the alexandria couple has raised four sons is. >> i told you i had a lot of honeymoons. >> reporter: and a brood of grandkids. after 55 years of marriage an unexpected first for them. both were diagnosed with breast cancer. >> and i immediately went to my family doctor. >> reporter: first betty in 2008 and, as luck would have it ts past june, so did bill. >> yeah, that's what he said, you have breast cancer. >> reporter: what was your reaction? >> pretty much like you look

right now. whoa, what is that? >> reporter: after chemo and a lu lumpectomy, betty is cancer-free. >> i came out of it whole. >> reporter: bill is having chemo now and already had a m t mastectomy. >> she never told me it was contagious. >> reporter: after the shock wore off, paurt was simultaneous. >> whenever i went for chemo or radiation or whatever they were doing he'd be there for me. i'm doing the same for him. >> reporter: he quickly took to e-mailing his friends. particularly men. >> he told them don't ignore the lumps. >> reporter: they're winning this rare battle together, one laugh at a time. they are, by far, one of the most incredible couples that i have ever met. according to the national cancer institute, men of any age can develop breast cancer, but it's typically found among those 60 to 70 years of age. male breast cancer makes up less than 1% of all cases of breast cancer. jim, doreen? >> erica, thank you.

the man at the center of the penn state sex abuse scandal is writing a book to tell his side of the story. apparently his wife is working with him on the account. so much paperwork has been going back and forth between them, that sandusky is no longer allowed to receive mail from her. a jury found sandusky guilty in june on 48 counts of sexually abusing children. he's in the centre county jail awaiting sentencing. a ticking timebomb and crazy as hell, that's how the stepfather of the suspect in the shooting near texas a&m describes him. police say thomas caffall had several weapons when an officer tried to serve an eviction notice yesterday. he immediately opened fire killing the officer and another man and wounding four others. officers responding killed the suspect. a race car spins out of control and tumbles down a cliff, but the driver walked away unscathed.

youtube video shows a terrifying crash at the pikes peak international hill climb in colorado this past weekend. you can see that car run off the road at a sharp turn just barreling down a cliff. does at least a dozen somersaults before coming to a crushing stop on the side of the

mountain. both the driver and his passenger had to be airlifted to an area hospital. incredibly they were both released without a single broken bone. even among the safest cars on the road there could be room for improvement. the front end collision tests rammed a corner of the car into a structure in an attempt to answer a question that's been baffling the experts. >> why so many people still die in frontal crashes despite the fact vehicles are performing well in our crash tests and they're performing well in the government's crash tests? >> reporter: of the 11 midsized luxury cars tested only three, the acura tl, the volvo s-60 and the infiniti g earned a good are or acceptable rating. mercedes c class were all rated poor in this test. lexusmaker toyota and audi both say they're working to improve safety. mercedes disagrees with the test and says its c class vehicles

are safe. a huge mess to clean up in nashville. the faa says the gulfstream jet, the larger plane was being towed on the ground when it broke loose and hit a parked turboprop plane. no one was hurt but the repair bill could hurt. the used gulfstream jet like this one can sell for about $30 million. she says she stared death in the face. now a woman from southwestern virginia is talking about her ordeal surviving a freak lawn mower accident. a 600 pound riding lawn mower malfunctioned and flipped over on top of 81-year-old martha mitchell last month. she was outside her rural home in washington county. mitchell's leg was trapped. with nobody around to help, she spent hours digging a trench underneath her leg to escape. >> a voice spoke to me and said, martha, no one's going to come. the tractor was smoking. i wasure it would burst into

flames. i kept digging, digging, digs. five hours i was there. >> reporter: she calls her survival a miracle. she's recovering from a broken hip, ankle and bruised organ. a landscaping project that could save live. crews with the virginia department of transportation began removing potentially hazardous trees in the great falls area. last month a rotted 40-ton oak suddenly fell and killed a driver on georgetown pike. since then residents have v-dot identify 60 other trees that could pose a similar risk. have you bought yours? powerball fever is sweeping our area tonight thanks to a jack pot that could top $320 million. it's jumped $15 million since yesterday. pack your patience if you're heading out to buy a ticket before tomorrow night's drawing. virginia lottery officials tell us they expect to sell more than 2100 tickets per minute during

peak times tomorrow. >> i'd wait in line for a few minutes for $320 million. >> we can get doug to wade in for a few hours. >> my wife and i like to wait till a jackpot gets high enough. >> totally stacked against you. >> now's the time to buy. >> go for it. >> give it a shot, why not? >> we are all like that. so storms still out there menacing some of us, huh? >> here's the interesting thing. we dodged a bullet up here tonight because up towards baltimore they're getting inundated with three to four inches of rain. they've had four tornado warnings and flash flood warnings around baltimore. we again just missed this. we did have severe thunderstorms come through frederick, maryland. and now still seeing some rain in our southern counties. we'll show it to you in just a minute. but 90 degrees, that was the temperature earlier today on this tuesday yet again hitting 90. seems fairly easy. any time you see the sun this

time of year, 0.2 inches of rain today all came early between 4:00 and 7:00 in the morning around the d.c. airport. still 8 inches below average. so we still need to see the rain. some of you continue to get pummeled with rain while most of us continue to stay on the dry side. some areas still under a moderate to severe drought in our region. 81 degrees the current number with winds out of the southwest at 3 miles an hour. so a very warm atmosphere and very soupy atmosphere, too. we still have a chance for strong storms in and around virginia. 74 in virginia, 80 at patuxent river. cooler around wind chester and martinsburg, temperatures there in the upper 60s. here's where the rain is now. you can see a ton of lightning. these storms have not been moving a whole lot. two, three, even four inches of rain. we still have rain in towards anne arundel county. southern portions of -- or just to the north of howard county. southern portions of howard county.

then down toward the south we're looking at rain down here. stafford county, prince william county, pepper county all seeing heavy rain. this area of rain has just continued here to produce thunderstorms, one after the other. they're really not moving very much. this is madison county here and over towards orange county. 2.4 inches of rain, 3.7 ichbl i of rain. if you're driving south of culpepper, watch out for flooded roadways. most of us should remain on the dry side, but the frontal boundaries are actually back here to the west. we'll still have that to go. we still could see some more through the evening and the overnight hours. that frontal boundary will move through tonight and be just off to our east tomorrow. that's where the best chance of storms will be tomorrow. the northern neck, also the delmarva. we can see some around the i-95 corridor. a chance of thunderstorms around the region, but by thursday that whole thing moves out of here.

nice and warm. guess what? we see sunshine, we get back to 90. that's what we're forecasting, 93 during the day on friday. partly cloudy, a nice start tomorrow. could still be shower activity around. 63 to about 72 degrees. best chance of showers right along the chesapeake. then tomorrow afternoon we'll see those numbers back up. 84 to about 89 degrees. sun and clouds. a few chances of storms, best chances to the south and east. your next couple of days, there's that 90 on friday. 93 -- or rather 90 on thursday, 93 on friday. cooler toward the weekend. temperatures this weekend only in the lower 80s. if you're thinking about heading towards the beaches, you could see rain out there during the day on saturday. i'm going to try to go there, but its f it's raining, i might just stay home. >> watch that forecast. >> i got somebody i know that can help me with that. >> thanks, doug. still ahead tonight on news 4 11, why one player says this

team is more focused than ever.

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this is the xfinity sports desk. back from a long day at camp, huh? this is the last chance for the public. it's over. >> that's what the end of training camp means. it's not for the players. it's for the fans. good-bye ashburn, we'll see you tomorrow, but the fans will not. redskins training camp has officially wrapped up. that just means the team is down to one closed practice each day. the players, they're not going

anywhere. at least they hope they are not. first cutdown day is two weeks away. one guy we'll not see any more unfortunately backup tackle chris neil out with a torn acl. bummer, huh? trent williams participated in only half the team drills today still nursing that sore foot. chris chester was also limited with ankle sprain. who could worry about the o-line when so many players were generous with their post time practice. the guys stayed and signed away. but it was what happened during the last few weeks that most impressed barry co-field. >> i learned that we got a very focused group. a group that we practice at 3:00 every day. it was hot. guys could have easily mailed it in, but i think we had good practices 99% of the time. coach shanahan would let us know if he wasn't happy. but mostly he was happy. a group that understands that the way we finished last year isn't good enough. >> also today reporters were allowed in the locker room for

the first time this season. a crowd of media types gathered around robert griffin's locker. we've been asked not to show you the pictureses of his locker. inside were action figures and inspirational slogans. griffin told me that he'd like to keep it private. he said, some things are for show, some things are just for us. we couldn't help but look. they're now 4-0 against san francisco thanks to the laugher in the opener last night a 14-2 win. the highest scoring game of the season. tonight in good shape, keep going. jordan zimmerman on the hill, 3-0 in his last three starts versus the giants. first batter, we're going to see you later, angel pagan. nice start to the game for zim. but bottom two, giants get to him. belt belts this one easy, makes it easy for us. deep to left. hunter pence comes in to score. belt would be thrown out at third, but he gives san fran, a

1-0 lead. that's your score in the fifth inning. red sox and orioles, chen on the hill for the o's. and he gets help from manny machado. ciriaco lays down the bunt, but gets him at first. only his fifth game. he's looking like a veteran. speaking of vets, mark reynolds at the dish. already a solo homer. this time he'll bring some friends in with him. a three-run shot to left hut putts the o's up 7-1. we got it all in. i'm so excited. ten games above . 500, red sox 3

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a raccoon family is back together after being trapped in an arlington, virginia, chimney. a raccoon mother set up house with her four babies in this chimney in july. humane wildlife services easily rescued the mother and two of the babies but two others got trapped after falling down in the furnace area. they hadn't nursed after four days. after being rehydrated they were placed in a box with their siblings. the hidden camera showed the mama raccoon returned for her babies and hopefully moved all of them to a safer location. >> like raccoons, puppies are known to eat just about anything in sight, but one picky pooch should probably be in paula deen's house with his reaction

to a low-fat treat. take a look at this. >> don't you want the jerky, man? >> not having any of it. the guy who owns this 6-month-old lab says his dog eats everything, but you can clearly see it has no interest in some low-fat lamb jerky. the dog runs away, even tries to swat it out of his owner's hands. after a day on youtube, it's already been viewed half a million times. he just wants it battered and fried. >> get that thing out of my face. >> tha

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