killed. and good afternoon, i'm barbara harrison in for pat lawson muse. >> i'm judge jim handly. the victims have been identified as elizabeth nasa, a junior at james madison used and university of delaware student accident rose mare. then sitting on the ledge of the are bridge when that derailment occurred. police say they were facing away from the csx train. investigators are looking into twitter photos that appear to show the girls damaging their feet over the bridge just before the crash. authorities believe they were posted by one of the girls. a long stretch of main street in baltimore county is still shut down right now. news4's megan mcgrath as more on how the accident happened. >> reporter: it was just after midnight when the sound of screeching brakes shattered the peace. >> i heard this tremendous noise. and it really frightened me. so i thought, oh, my gosh, the train just derailed. >> reporter: it happened on the railroad bridge that crosses the

main street. two people were on the bridge at the time, just what they were doing there in the middle of the night is part of the investigation. both were pinned beneath the train and died on the scene. 21 rail cars, all carrying coal, jumped the tracks. some flew off the bridge and landed on parked cars down below. residents here are used to the sound of passing trains, but this was quite different. >> it is the loudest i had ever heard the train and it was straight screeching. and i thought to myself, it sounds like it's derailing. and i went to bed. my coffee table was like shaking. and i was just like, okay, that's not normal. but this is awful. >> it just looked like mass mayhem. it looked like when i was a little kid and i would run the train off the track and everything just ran every which way. >> reporter: police have closed off a long stretch of main street, and it could be a day or two before they reopen it megan mcgrath, news4. police now have the car

believed to be involved in a police pursuit on i-95 yesterday that killed a prince george's county police officer. the car accident a silver acura was found in the 400 block of st. louis street in southeast washington. investigators are questioning the occupant of that car. so far, no charges have been made. 23-year-old police officer adrian morris died yesterday after being ejected from his cruiser. he and another officer were following a vehicle suspected of being involved in an attempted robbery at a gas station. dug the but suit accident the officer's cruiser veered off the highway near powder mill road and crashed. more republicans are blasting congressman todd akin and his controversial remarks about rape but he refuses to leave his senate race. democrats are using the controversy to raise doubts about mitt romney's running mate. here's steve handelsman. >> reporter: refusing to give up the missouri senate race, todd

akin bought time to apologize for saying some rapes are not legitimate. >> the words i said -- not in the heart i told, i ask for your forgiveness. >> reporter: but republicans are ganging up on akin. >> everyone is on the same page. you have seen complete unity. >> reporter: missouri ans said - >> smarter for him to say that he grieves for women who have to go through that. >> reporter: and already trailing in national surveys of women voters, the romney-ryan campaign could be in jeopardy, say some worried republicans. a week before the national convention, this is not what the gop wants to be talking about. they want to be talking about those moms out there who are still trying to balance budgets. >> reporter: but in tampa today, site of the convention, where the republicans hope to widen their appeal, the gop platform committee was considering a ban on abortion. mitt romney said he won't be bound by that.

>> in the case of rape and incest and the life of the mother at stake and those circumstances, i think abortion may be appropriate. >> reporter: but democrats rushed t point out, paul ryan, who opposes abortion for rape victims, worked with todd akin in congress. and the republican majority. to tuoughen the definition of rape, to that, of, quote, forcible rape. >> not only has paul ryan co sponsored these bills, but 232 other republicans share this point of view. >> a hot new issue, because of one candidate's stumble. conservative activists put absolute abortion bans on the republican platforms of 2004 and '08 and the nominees, george w. bush and john mccain, ignored it. like mitt romney says, he wou i'm steve handelsman, news4. president obama is on his way to reno, nevada right now. earlier today, the campaign took him to ohio. in remarks at capital university

in columbus, he criticized his republican's opponent's vote for education. >> putting college education in reach for families doesn't seem to be a big priority for my opponent. governor romney said, if you want to be successful, if you want to go to college or start a business, you can just -- and i'm quoting here -- borrow money if you have to from your parents. >> the president also criticized the budget plan put forth by romney's running mate, congressman ryan. he noted the budget would eliminate pell grants over the next decade. ryan was getting in his own digs today. he took a verbal jab at president obama during an appearance in the pittsburgh area. ryan referred to a comment mr. obama made at a san francisco sunday razor years ago. taken out of context, it appeared to people in small towns in pennsylvania cling to guns and religion. >> i remember this other time where he was caught on video saying people like to cling to

their guns and their religion. hey, i'm a catholic deer hunter, i am happy to be clinging to my gu and my religion. >> ryan moved on to suburban philadelphia from there. mitt romney campaigns in iowa tomorrow. he and paul ryan are covering a lot of ground in the run up to next week's convention. and stay with news4 for convention coverage. we'll have live team coverage from the republican convention next week. aaron gilchrist and julie carey will report from tampa. and live coverage from the democratic national convention in charlotte next month. firefighters battling three of idaho's largest wildfires are not getting a break in mother natu nature. thunderstorms brought gusty winds, fueling the blazes, and more storms are expected tomorrow. 100 members of the national guard were deployed to the area yesterday to help with evacuations. they brought in several helicopters to help with the firefighters. national fire managers say the trinity ridge fire has burned

68,000 acres, the highest priority wildfire right now. this is what the western wildfire zone looks like from space. nasa released new pictures taken by one of its satellites. you can clearly see the smoke from the trinity ridge fire. fires are also burning in california, oregon and nevada. it's estimated at least 70 wildfires have erupted across 13 states west of the mississippi. clear skies over us, low humidity. we could get used to this stuff. >> really. meteorologist doug kammerer joins us now to talk more about this day. and are we having anymore rain coming our way? another one tonight? >> it doesn't look like that. it looks like we're going to say a fantastic evening. if you have plans this evening, get out and enjoy them, because it is going to be a beautiful 84 degrees out there right now, dew point only 55. humidity is low. and the winds right now are calm. you cannot ask for a better afternoon in the middle of summer like we're dealing right now. 81 in gaithersburg, 82 in

forensic, martinsburg and hagerstown, 79 degrees. we do have areas of shower activity, mostly south. and i don't think we're going to see too many from this. a few showers to the south of la-ray. also to the east of charlottesville, southwest of frictionburg. and one in calvert county. now out of here. the wider version, we have shower activity to the west and down to the south. but i think that is where it's going to stay. our chances of rain dwindling just a little bit. a little bit of a chance tomorrow. we'll talk more about that coming up. but through the restf the night, let's head to loudoun county and leesburg. temperatures there this evening, 77 degrees around 7:00, 68 by 11:00. waking up to a temperature of 58 degrees back into central loudoun county. kind of a cool start when you wake up on your wednesday. i'll have your complete forecast and let you know about the rain and also about those temperatures coming up in a minute. >> nice, cool start to this morning. and everyone is back to school morning for students in our

area. in maryland, schools reopened in calvert county. in virginia, kids went back to school in spotsylvania county. in class with a new superintendent. schools reopen tomorrow in culpeper county and sait. mary' county, as well. >> count on lots of company if you plan an end of summer get-away. aaa is predicting 33 million people will hit the roads over the last weekend of summer that's up nearly 3% from last year. and marks the highest number of travelers for the weekend since the beginning of the recession. 85% will travel by car. 8% are expected to fly. the white house party crashers. remember them? they are officially divorced now. a judge okayed the split yesterday between tariq and salehy. he filed for divorce after his wife ran off with the lead guitarist of the band journey. according to tmz, the couple had a prenuptial agreement that quickly divided their assets. tariq told the website he wishes

mchale the best and now plans to focus his efforts on his run for governor of virginia. >> whoa. news4 just getting started. "the hunger games" out on dvd and still setting records. michael j. fox makes a return to tv in a series based on his life. and later, nature proved to be too much for a 62-year-old endurance swimmer, trying to make a record swim from cuba to florida. [ male announcer ] you paid in to medicare for years.

every paycheck. now, when you need it obama has cut $716 billion dollars from medicare. why? to pay for obamacare. so now the money you paid for your guaranteed healthcare is going to a massive new government program that's not for you. the romney-ryan plan protects medicare benefits for today's seniors and strengthens the plan for the next generation. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

michael j. fox is coming back to tv. fox has agreed to 22 episodes of a comedy based loosely on his life. it will premier next fall in 2013 here on nbc. fox has been taking a break from tv in recent years and focusing on fund raising for parkinson's disease. fox was diagnosed with parkinson's back this 1991. talk show king's jay less

thanno and david letterman getting direct competition. the jimmy kimmel show will move to the 11:35 p.m. prime time spot in january. "night line" is moving an hour later. the news program will air in prime time in march. abc says the shift is to take advantage of kimmel's recent jump in ratings. executives say they believe they can make more money with kimmel airing right after the late local news. it looks like fans couldn't wait to hand over their cash for copies of "the hunger games." the dvd is on blu-ray sold while on sale, more than either of the "twilight" releases, a series also aimed at teens and young adults. dvds are usually released on tuesday, you may know, but the studio that owns "hunger games" and "twilight" put them on sale on saturday for young people to line up for their copies.

maury povich on wheels, trashing homes on purpose. and why you should be careful about posting you're out of town. >> hot 99.5 is here. we have a warning for parents. you want to tell us about a new website kind of like facebook with a twist. >> a big twist. this is something you need to know about if you have younger kids who go online. the age to sign up for this is 13. however, the twist on this whole website, which used to be called "my yearbook" it shows your gps location when you check in. several parents have reported when they came home they didn't know where their children were. and they checked the computer. the history says meetme.com. the website they were on. and it shows you geographically what friends are talking to, where they're at, how far they are from you, how long it will take to get to them. which obviously the only reason you want to know that is if you wanted to visit them. and if you look at the photos, they have a reputation among the

younger end adults as being a little more racy than facebook and somewhat looser rules. >> kind of scary. >> a warning. >> a warning. >> a different heads up for parents. there is a truck roaming around new york, cain, actually offering dna testing. tell us about -- what are they calling it -- who's your daddy truck? >> it's the who's your daddy truck. it's an hv, and this gentleman drives around, he's got his medical license. people flag this down like a cab. >> whoa. >> taxi! can i get a dna test? this is if you don't know who your parents are. one mother actually wanted to know who the parents of her six kids were. so she just simply walked outside. the truck pulls up, you get in, you get your dna tested and get the results. >> the mother wanted to know? >> yeah, who the father -- she didn't know. several possibilities. >> that doesn't sound -- let's talk about this new party that's being -- >> yes. >> you go to trash somebody's

house? >> the idea behind this is, if you have a foreclosed home and want to make sure no one else can enjoy your home, you hold a party. and the idea is spread through facebook and twitter and what happens is there is broken doors and holes kicked through walls. but everybody gets a sharpie when they show up at the house. >> whoa. >> i guess you could see some of the damage on the walls there. >> sign their destruction. >> exactly. these are a huge thing in california right now, where in one weekend, one county responded to six sharpie parties on foreclosed homes. >> it's not even good graffiti. making a mess. >> paint it. >> usually ends in more damage. >> also a new website out there, cain, that claims to be doing a public service by showing the dangers of posting your vacations when you're out of town. tell us about "we know your house. ". >> yeah, this is scarier than that. basically, if you take one thing

from this segment is you're posting a lot of information online. you may not know it. using twitter, there is a site that ago gates any time you write, happy to be home. happy to relax at home. we know your house.com will take public information and compile basically a profile of you. and have a map of your house. it's using a google map so you'll see the airline view. it works for instagram and other websites, as well. people are freaked out when they log on and realize, oh, i didn't realize i was broadcasting that information. you can change your twitter profile not to broadcast any info about where you are. under the settings panel. but they say basically whatever you do, do not broadcast that you're home when you're home and don't check in from the house. >> pretty scary. what is the value of that? >> i was wondering the same thing. who is this being made for? possible thieves? >> the creators of the website did not want to be identified. what they said, they wanted to have an experiment where they could show normal everyday

people that you're really sending a lot about yourself out when you tweet and when you facebook. that you may not know. >> the gadgets are gone. >> i got an old-school rotary phone. exactly. >> tomorrow. >> tomorrow on the cain show we want to send you to vegas, to the iheart radio festival. it's two days. >> who will be there? >> me! well, rihanna and more. tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. are your two chances to go to vegas for two days, vip courtesy of the cage. >> and you're definitely going, right? >> yeah. and then we're off to a sharpie party. >> we want your job. >> i want your job. >> we could carry your luggage. >> perfect. >> see you back here next tuesday. >> check him out every morning starting 5:00 a.m. bright and early. >> thanks, guys. coming up on news4, those late-night study sessions, are they worth the caffeine and no-doze? we'll hear the results of a study. and are you happy with your vehicle, the results of a new savings survey out and good news

you're lucky if you can get out today. it's beautiful, you're telling us. >> it is absolutely gorgeous out there.

here we are in the middle of -- end of august, and temperatures today still below average. once again, plenty of sunshine. just take a look at the pictures out there right now. you see a few clouds over the capital right now and over the potomac, partly to mostly sunny as we make our way in and around the region. current temperature right now sitting at 84 degrees. it is gorgeous out there with that dew point of 55. humidity only 37% so you know it's nice and comfortable. and our winds right now are calm. what are we seeing out there? temperature wise, looking at 82 in leesburg. 81 in culpeper. 81 in fredericksburg. to the south, a couple showers trying to move in towards the culpeper area so heads up down there. also around the charlottesville, east, a thunderstorm there. so if you're traveling i-95 south of fredericksburg, you may run into a couple storms but that's about it. the wider view showing the cloud cover moved off the coast and we just this h that scattering of

clouds and scattering of showers back towards the west. so for us, a little bit of a dry slot here. i think we're going to stay in that dry slot through the rest of the evening hours. but heads up well down to the south, as i mentioned. we're watching that area of low pressure that has been to the south the last couple days. it's been a stalled out frontal boundary. the front stalled to our south, created waves of low pressure. tomorrow we'll see that area move up to north and east a little bit. i think a better chance of a few showers tomorrow in and around the district and metro area. but most of us will still see a beautiful day. as we make our way through the day on thursday, another area of low pressure begins to take hold. but this one will once again be far enough to the south that we see plenty of sunshine and our great weather just continues. and we ride that wave right on into the weekend, i think. if you're out and about this weekend, i think you're really going to enjoy it. a few clouds, just gorgeous this evening. temperature, 76 to 81 degrees. overnight tonight, dipping down into the 50s. 54 in some of the coldest suburbs, talking about you folks in winchester, towards

martinsburg, loudoun and montgomery county, over towards the suburbs. that's where you're going to be the coolest. a great start tomorrow. 67 to start off in the city. tomorrow afternoon, partly sunny, continued nice. isolated showers. temperatures, 83 to about 88 degrees inside the city. as we move through the next couple days, you know, just take a look at this. great weather tomorrow with just that slight chance of rain, and then it just gets nice. 87 on thursday. 89 on friday and saturday. not too bad as far as humidity is concerned. we do move into the low 90s, though, next week. but once again, a fantastic stretch of weather and after the summer that we've had, we really do need to see it. so here it comes. >> we do. thank you, doug. we'd like to take a moment now to thank all of our generous viewers who helped contribute to our backpacks for kids drive today. this year, we took our collection boxes to fairfax county. >> people dropped off new bags with cool supplies all morning long. those supplies will go to needy kids throughout the region and help them succeed in the school year.

and it's not too late to help. we're collecting donations through our website, nbcwashington.com. find more details by searching backpacks. we're following a developing story this evening on news4 at 4:00. federal safety officials are about to hold a news conference regarding that train derailment overnight that ended in the deaths of two teens. we will have the very latest. a stroke of bad luck for the swimmer trying to make history in the straits of florida name and joe paterno's final interview. the sports writer who conducted it tells what the penn state coach told him about the swex coach told him about the swex abuse scandal at the university.

i'm barack obama and i approve this message now mitt romney's attacking the abusepresident on medicare?sity. the nonpartisan a-a-r-p says obamacare "cracks down on medicare fraud, waste, and abuse and strengthens guaranteed benefits." and the ryan plan? a-a-r-p says it would undermine medicare and could lead to higher costs for seniors... and experts say ryan's voucher plan could raise future retirees costs more than six thousand dollars. get the facts.

and now from washington's leading news station, this is news4 at 4:00. and welcome back at 4:30, everybody, i'm jim handly. >> i'm barbara harrison in for pat lawson muse. police have found the bodies of two teenagers killed in the

overnight csx train derailment. the victims have been identified as elizabeth nas and rose mare. they were sitting on the ledge of a railroad bridge facing away from a train carrying coal. investigators found their bodies buried under the coal as it poured out from the derailed train cars. the national transportation safety board is investigating. and, in fact, the ntsb is holding a news conference right now. we want to go to that live and listen if we can to what investigators are saying this afternoon. >> 9, 60 trailing tons. the train was traveling approximately 25 miles per hour and he was authorized to travel at 25 miles per hour. the three crew members on board, i've reviewed their statements. all their statements indicate they felt nothing and they saw nothing before emergency braking occurred in the train. i will be following up with the crew tomorrow. so far in this investigation, we

have been conducting a thorough, mechanical inspection of all train equipment, and that includes the locomotives. the search in the parking area east of the bridge has been completed. and the rail cars in the area of the parking area are also being removed. we secured the quarters on the train and also the video recorders on the front of the train. and they will be looking at the downloads and the content and analysis will be done in our laboratory in washington, d.c. we continue to review the signal systems, communication systems, and continue to inspect and document and photograph the track in the derailed area and before and after the derailment area. the ntsb has a staff, a team, including myself of nine people

on-scene, nine investigators. some of those investigators will work through the night to continue their efforts on this investigation. we continue to work closely with the federal railroad administration, csx, and the local authorities on this investigation and they have all been cooperative and very helpful. i want to emphasize, this is day one of the fact-gathering of this accident investigation. again, these accidents happened very quickly. a matter of seconds, sometimes. but their investigations are quite lengthy. and that's on purpose. and that's to be thorough, cover every stone, kick every can, look under every rock. we're investigating this accident to determine not just what happened, but also to try and determine why it happened so that we can make recommendations that will prevent similar incidents from occurring again. >> you've reviewed the statements of the three crew

members. and you said they saw nothing and felt nothing before the emergency brake. so with t-- was the braking automatic or did they pull the brake? >> no, it was an automatic function of the air brake system. and the derailment forces, there is a separation in the airline which causes the emergency brakes. >> reporter: do you believe there was a car derailing? >> from the derailment, there was a separation in the a air line, yes. >> reporter: so there must have been a separation from the car -- >> yes, from the derailment, the air hoses were separated somewhere in the train line and that causes an emergency brake application. >> reporter: nobody actually did a manual brake -- >> at this time, there is no evidence of that yet. we're still doing downloads of the event recorders. >> reporter: do you have any information of the presence of these two ladies on the ledge that caused this derailment. >> let me emphasize again. we're looking at every single aspect of this occurrence, okay?

rail, track, witness statements, event recorders. video equipment. all of this is going to be looked at in depth. to find information we need to determine the cause of these injuries. >> reporter: can you say now whether there was any determination as to the presence of those two young ladies? >> it's stillhe first day. we're still doing fact-gathering, okay, still working with the faa and other authorities to gather that daty and cyst through and find out what's factual and what we have. >> reporter: how long do you expect this operation to take? >> these cars were pull cars. and a lot of them dump their loads. we're working with bridges, so most of these cars are being removed empty. okay. it is quite a long process. it's in a very difficult area. so they're taking utmost care for safety to remove the cars. very carefully, very -- it is a very slow process.

i do not have details exactly how long that will take. >> has not the event recorder been viewed yet? >> the event recorder has been downloaded and we're doing an evaluation of the download now. [ inaudible question ] >> the video information, the components we have taken from the train, will be taken to washington, d.c., to our laboratory there, to be downloaded and evaluated. >> reporter: i know it's too early to know exactly what happened. but what are the -- [ inaudible ] how did this happen? >> right now we're -- again, we're in the fact-gathering. we're gathering the evidence and the information. we're not going to speculate ever, okay? there's tons of information from the downloads, there's tons of information from the -- the inspections we've done on the cars. we have a track expert up there looking at track. so all this information right now is being gathered, is quite

a lot of information, which is why it takes some time. so, again, this is day one. >> reporter: earlier it was recorded -- [ inaudible ] they were in fact struck by the train. is that the case? >> that's not information that i can put forth requirement now. there might be some information from the county authorities. but all of this is stuff we're still looking at. information we're looking at. >> reporter: the emergency brake you said deployed after the initial derailment. >> let's not make that determination. we had an emergency brake application which generally shows that there has been a brake in the air line somewhere in the train, a separation, okay? each of these cars have air hoses and air systems on them. when there is a break in the connection or break in the brake pipe, either from the derailment forces or whatever it may be that, will cause the trains to go to an emergency braking. >> reporter: what can you tell us about the air, sir? [ inaudible ] >> the only information i have

right now that i know for sure is we have an engineer, conductor and a trainee engineer. and that's all i can tell you right now. >> reporter: can you tell us the process what they have to do? they have to -- what's the process? what are the steps involved? >> the first step is we complete all of our investigations. that we have going on. nine people here. critical to this would be the track, of course, the components, the equipment, that's looking at all of the wheels, looking at all of the cars, all of the trucks, all the assemblies, quite involved. it's looking at the information. it's looking at the locomotives themselves. it's looking at the track, at any relationship there. the operations of the trains, signal systems, communications, everything. and it takes quite some time. [ inaudible question ] >> reporter: this is the third incident involving csx this month. can you comment on that at all? >> this investigation will be very wide range. right now, my concern is gathering facts and evidence of what occurred here today. >> reporter: what type of ride was it that caused the rupture?

>> that i don't know right now but we know from the download we have an emergency application that was not induced on the front end. >> reporter: what cut the line? >> it has to be brake pipe. >> reporter: no words of the type that controls the brake? >> yes, the brake pipe is charged with air and a break in the brake pipe or break in the hose causes a rapid discharge of air which triggers the control valves on the braking system -- i don't want to get into details -- to go into emergency application. it sets the brakes on the car. >> reporter: does it cause the other cars to derail, tip over? >> i can't really answer that right now until i see more data about how they derailed and what cars and what -- what cars were first off. >> reporter: did the engineer apply the brakes himself or did those go off automatically? >> the brake application i spoke about was an automatic brake application. >> reporter: in terms of progress made from this point -- in terms of reloading and that kind of thing -- what progress have we made up to this point?

>> up to this point, we have got our people on the ground here. they've all started to conduct the investigation and gather that multitudinous amount of information i spoke about. okay? involved in that, is downloading information, documenting, photographs, video, drawings, digital photography, all kinds of things. that progress is ongoing right now. we've been here all day. we'll be here tomorrow. and we'll be here tonight and tomorrow, as well. >> reporter: in terms of the trains -- [ inaudible ] >> one of the first things we did was take the train that did not derail and moved them away from the site for a separate inspection. >> reporter: when you say a wide-ranging investigation -- >> we're looking into the maintenance of the tracks, we're looking into the maintenance of the equipment, maintenance of the locomotives, everything you can think. >> reporter: you pulled away the trains not derailed. and what did you say? >> we moved them away from the derailment site for an inspection done on them

separately. okay. so they're not up there. they've been moved. we looked at the locomotives, they're probably moved at this time. the rest of the equipment is probably still stationary. >> reporter: what are they doing? >> i'm not sure where the coal was going. but we had to move the coal to be able to get into some of the areas to look in the parking lot. >> reporter: did you say that the brake application was not -- [ inaudible ] >> no. i did not. i don't know where the -- i do not know where the break in the train was at this time. >> reporter: you said it wasn't at the front -- >> it wasn't -- the brake application, the emergency application, was not initiated by the locomotive engineer. it was as a result of a break in the brake line and the train line and the air brake line in the train. don't know at this point where exactly. >> reporter: would it be accurate to say -- it was a mechanical derailment? >> i don't speculate on that right now. there's tons of information we have to sift through to make a determination. we haven't ruled anything out yet. [ inaudible question ]

>> i don't know anything about that at this time. and it's just another part -- another one aspect, one area of what we're looking into. >> ntsb investigators on the scene there in maryland. you heard there from the investigators that the crew of three saw nothing and felt nothing when that train derailed. we'll continue to bring you the latest information as it comes no news4 throughout the evening. more to come on news4 at 4:00. along for the ride, testing the new technology that may save you from a vehicle accident.

the challenges of swimming from cuba to florida have once again proven to be too difficult for diana nyad to overcome. >> we'll bring you updates on news4. as mark potters reports, the obstacles were just too great

this time. >> reporter: the problems came to a head overnight when diana to be pulled from the water to protect her from a fierce storm. after the storm was over, she and her crew talked and they decided she was just too exhausted, had been stung too many times by jelly fish and faced too many other threats, including sharks, to continue on. and so the trip was officially concluded. she will now be brought here to key west on a boat by her crew. she is expected to talk publicly about her ordeal and about her disappointment. she left cuba on saturday afternoon, expecting to arrive here in key west early this morning. but that never happened. she only made it about halfway before ending her fourth attempt at a historic swim. mark potter, nbc news, key west. >> bet she'll try it again. >> i bet she will too. >> she has a lot of determination. when news4 at 4:00 returns, when news4 at 4:00 returns, what rhe's made his choice.at

but what choices will women be left with? just like mitt romney,

paul ryan would get rid of planned parenthood funding. in congress, ryan voted to ban all federal funding for planned parenthood and allow employers to deny women access to cancer screenings and birth control. and both romney and ryan backed proposals to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest. for women... for president... the choice is ours. i'm barack obama, and i approve this message.

and hello, i'm meteorologist doug kammerer taking a look at what we have seen today. and that is just simply a gorgeous afternoon. 84 degrees out there after a very nice start to the day. plenty of sunshine right now. winds are on the calm side. as we look toward the temperatures around the region, 80 in reston, dulles at 82, rockville, 83. college park at 84 degrees. and towards kansas springs at 80 degrees. so a very nice evening. a great night to get out and about. most areas will be dry. if not all of us. however, we are watching a few showers to the south coming through spotsylvania county south of fredericksburg. these may continue to grow and actually may intensify a little bit as they make their way across the river towards portions of southern maryland. that's going to be about it. if you're down in the southern sections of our viewing area, may see a couple storms. other than that, though, not too much. the next couple days looking very good. 87 tomorrow, 87 on thursday. great all the way through the weekend. temperatures around 89 to 90

degrees as we head into early next week. so enjoy this great weather while it lasts. >> all right. >> thank you, doug. rosie o'donnell says it was a very close call. the talk show host revealed yesterday that she suffered a heart attack. >> in fact, today o'donnell says it's a miracle she is still alive. mara skeef owe cam poe reports on the right move she made that may have saved her life. >> reporter: though she is known for being funny -- >> what am i, a clown for you? what am i -- >> reporter: rosie o'donnell had a very serious message for fans monday, announcing for the first time that she had suffered a heart attack last week. in a post on her blog, o'donnell writes, "i am happy to be alive." o'donnell says she started to feel sick last tuesday after helping a woman get out of her car writing, quote, i had an ache in my chest, both my arms were sore. i became nauseous. i was very, very hot. i threw up. though she googled the symptoms for a heart attack, o'donnell didn't go to the doctor until the next day.

that's when she found out one of her arteries was 99% blocked. >> 200,000 women die every year. the symptoms are not always typical of men. >> reporter: o'donnell credits awareness with saving her life last week writing that after her symptoms started, quote, i took some bayer aspirin. thank god. saved by a tv commercial. >> bayer low-dose helps prevent one out of three heart attacks. >> it was powerful and compelling. made you stop and think, gosh, what would i do in that situation? now i actually might know what to do thanks to rosie o'donnell. >> reporter: o'donnell dealt with her share of stress. this spring, her short-lived talk show on the oprah winfrey network was cancelled. >> all i want to say is thanks to the people who watched. thanks to oprah. >> reporter: and she recently announced her fiance had been diagnosed with a rare medical condition. but early this year, o'donnell spoke publicly about her efforts to get healthier. >> every piece of food i have put in my mouth since that moment i have had a conscious thought about. and that has never happened in

49 years. >> reporter: announcing she had started dieting and exercising more and had lost 15 pounds in the months leading up to her 50th birthday. >> i do actually feel better. i feel healthier. i feel like a more responsible person. >> reporter: heart disease is the number-one cause of death for all women in the u.s. prompting national awareness campaigns, like go red for women day. >> you may have noticed a lot of us are wearing red today. >> reporter: "today" contributor star jones is a national spokesperson. >> it's been almost two years that i had open heart surgery myself. one in three women die from heart disease. >> reporter: and rosie is now urging women to, quote, know the symptoms. save yourself. strong words after a very close call. >> in her blog post today, o'donnell says she had a stent placed in her artery. her rep says today she is now resting comfortably at home. we wish her well. >> we do. still ahead on news4,

still ahead on news4, pimping rides to avoid we sent him there to fix it, but somewhere along the way, pisomething went horribly wrong. george allen voted for trillions in debt while voting to raise his pay four times, then voted to keep special tax breaks for oil and gas companies and took over a half-million from them. worse, allen went to work for them.

this takes road safety to an all-new level. a test program is under way to see if cars can actually talk to each other on the road and prevent caches. nbc's tom costello got a sneak peek at this new technology. >> reporter: what if there were a way to warn you that another driver was about to blow right through an intersection? or warn you of a crash ahead, or ice on the road? now, researchers at the university of michigan, the d.o.t. and eight car manufacturers are launching a one-year pilot program involving nearly 3,000 vehicles, testing the latest, high-tech crash avoidance systems. and we got to test drive it ourselves as a car nearly broadsided us. [ beeping ] >> wow. i had an l.e.d. screen across the front to warn me, my seat is rumbling. >> it's called vehicle to

vehicle communication. here's how it works. each car, truck or bus on the road would constantly transmit a 360-degree status report, via a sort of wi-fi system to every other car on the road. constantly updating its position, its speed, whether it's turning or braking. if a car is in your blind spot, you get a flashing light in the side mirror. if you signal you want to turn, alarms go off and the seat even vibrates to warn you of danger. >> i feel this rumble really catches your attention. the rumble in the seat. >> yeah. and that's the threat, to let you know somebody in the right lane. >> reporter: the system can even determine if a car isn't yet in your blind spot but is approaching too quickly for you to change lanes. >> they're all transmitting the exact same message. so position, vehicle speed, acceleration. >> reporter: and watch again what happens when i pull up to an intersection where i have the green light, but an oncoming car blows right through the red. >> if i hadn't hit the brakes, he would have t-boned me.

>> exactly. this is one of the most fatal crashes out there. >> we're hearing we could see this in our cars sometime in the next five to ten years. next at 5:00, a live update on the train derailment that killed two teens. and breaking news on the police officer who died in a car crash yesterday. a deadly scene. two teenagers killed when a freight train derails, burying them under car loads of coal. tonight a community is reacting as investigators try to figure out how this happened. good evening, i'm wendy re reegerireeiegerieger. >> it happened along a main street. tonight, just what happened. darcy spencer joins us live from the scene where a news conference has just wrapped up. darcy? >> reporter: well, jim, national transportation safety board investigators have been here all day. they're indicating this is going to be a lengthy investigation. let me show you where everything is happening.

this is the bridge over main street. that's where authorities are saying the teens were hanging out in the midnight hour. and the train came through and derailed. and that's how they were killed. during the press conference that just wrapped up a couple minutes ago, ntsb official was indicating the operator did not pull the emergency brake. that was a big question. did they pull the brake because they saw the teens and caused the derailment? at this point, they're saying the operator did not pull that emergency brake. the emergency brake activated as -- because that derailment was happening. so we still don't know what caused this train to derail. howard county police say two 19-year-old girls, rose mar and elisabeth nas, were sitting on the edge of a bridge over main street when a coal train came through and derailed just after midnight. the girls were killed. their bodies were located still on the bridge, buried under the coal that spilled when 21 of the train's