good morning, everyone. welcome to news 4 midday. i'm barbara harrison. it's wednesday, august 22nd, 2012. ntsb investigators are holding a iefing into the train derailment in ellicott city, maryland. two young college students died in the accident. chopper 4 flew over the scene this morning where friends created a heart-shaped memorial out of rocks. melissa mollet reports on the investigation. >> the cleanup here in ellicott city continues. lots of questions still this morning. the most pressing, why did this

train derail killing two friends who were supposed to be heading back to college. below the bridge, heavy equipment, tactical crews and firefighters this morning cleaning up further down the tracks, too. more movement as they work to clear these spilled coal and masses of twisted metal. here you can even see part of two coal cars buried. george miller's company was called in yesterday morning to replace some of the rails. >> we were told 1:00 this morning, but now they're doing some investigation. >> reporter: the train was coming through just after midnight on tuesday when it derailed. 21 of the 80 cars overturned. 19-year-old elizabeth nass and her friend, 19-year-old rose mayr were sitting on the bridge tweeting out pictures just before the accident. both were killed and found buried under coal. >> my heart goes out to the girls' family and they're doing

what they can to get things taken care of but just tragic. >> reporter: the friends attended mt. hebron high school. mayr at the university of delaware. the crash also crushed vehicles under one section of the bridge. the ntsb is now heading up this investigation and they say, though, no one onboard the train pulled the emergency brake, it automatically kicked in once the train began coming off of the track. >> the three crew members onboard i've reviewed their statements and all their statements indicate that they felt nothing and they saw nothing before emergency braking occurred on their train. >> reporter: nothing out of the ordinary. investigators will also look at a camera, as well as an events recorder that were onboard the train. >> by a long shot this is the biggest mess that i've seen. >> just at the wrong place at the wrong time, you don't know what is going to happen. >> reporter: we do expect additional information from the ntsb within the next 30 minutes.

melissa mollet, new 4z, back to you. >> at this point, there are still lots of questions. the most pressing, why did the train derail killing two friends who were supposed to be heading back to college. . and just ahead, the one-year anniversary of the earthquake that rocked d.c. we are learning it did not cause the washington monument to sink, as a lot of people had thought. they surveyed the city's tallest structure. the lead surveyor called it surprising, but attributed it to the monument's original engineers. the monument is currently closed for repairs and not expected to reopen until 2014. tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the quake. and we all remember it, don't we, tom? >> can't believe it's been a year. >> isn't it amazing? >> i remember when it hit i was standing in my kitschen and i saw my refrigerator going like

this. >> you remember, i was in my kitchen shooting a story for the news with a cook. in fact, we have a surprise coming up tomorrow, i won't tell you what it is. but tune in for the anversity tomorrow. >> no earthquakes today. a gorgeous summer morning under way. temperatures around the region under a partly cloudy sky. you're now climbing into the 70s. tale of two skies in the satellite and team 4 satellite radar image showing clouds southeast and west and north, it's all sunny and we might have one little shower trying to get going just to the southwest of fredericksburg and those areas in orange, near 80. that's around areas just east of washington and eastern suburbs and around the bay and areas in green 60s across shenandoah valley and this morning in the 50s. so, for the rest of the afternoon, some sun west, clouds to the east and southeast and just a slight chance of an isolated thundershower popping

up maybe late afternoon. before then, we ought to make it into the mid-80s by mid-afternoon. a look at the rest of the week and the weekend. your seven-day outlook that's coming up in just a couple of minutes, barbara. >> all right, tom, thank you. let's head out to the roads with mike and he joins us with what things are looking like as folks try to get out on the roads out there. >> things looking pretty good right now on the interstates. let's zoom in in virginia. a bit of a delay on the dulles toll road in each direction inside the beltway inner loop anouter loop between gw parkway and all of your travel lanes are open and much better on the beltway in maryland looking fantastic. ten-minute ride from i-95 to the inner loop. >> thank you, mike. after today, your cab ride may start to look a little different. the taxi cab commission is starting to update all the city's taxis with high-tech smart meters today. not everyone is happy about

these changes. news 4 tracee wilkins is in the northeast with a look at the new technology. >> we're talking an easy way to take care of credit card payments, gps and, yes, even a tv screen that offers intertainment as you ride throughout the district. one here in northeast and this is also where mayor vincent gray held his press conference today to introduce the new smart meter system. d.c. mayor vincent gray introduced the smart meter system today during his weekly press conference. the cabs are also equipped with screens that provide gps so you can see where you are and also where you're going. customers can also view news, weather reports and current events on mini tv monitors, nbc news and nbc 4 will provide the tv content for the taxis. the mayor says it will take 90 days to install the $35 million system in the city's 6,500 cabs. gray says this is not only a

major step towards improving the convenience of cabs but also the safety. >> because it will substantially reduce the extent to which this is a cash system. and we'll protect not only the passengers, but even more so the drivers who will be less vulnerable to being robbed by somebody who knows that they're carrying cash. >> the city has a $1.3 million contract with verifone systems to have the smart meters installed. the two companies that wanted to win the bid are appealing. council member marion berry initiated legislation that will help appeal process along and stall the installation, but the mayor says he wants to keep his schedule and will start installation as planned. he doesn't expect to have any problems with this appeal process. in the northeast, i'm tracee wilkins, news 4. in just a few more months driving the beltway should be a quicker trip in beltway county. tested out the 495 express lanes

that will run between the dulles toll road and springfield interchange. those lanes will have variable electronic tolls based on real-time traffic conditions and buses, motorcycles and vehicles with three or more people will ride free. construction officials say that they should be open in december, just in time for the holiday shopping in that area. this afternoon, lawmakers for the former uva lacrosse player convicted of murder will ask for a new trial. lawyers for george huguely say that there were mistakes before and during the original trial. in february a jury convicted huguely of second degree murder in the 2010 death of his ex-girlfriend yeardley love. he faces up to 26 years in prison. a man is in the hospital this morning after being shot in the head. the shooting happened around 10:30 last night along the third street area in southeast d.c. the victim was unconscious when offirs found him. at last check, he was listed in critical condition.

so far, no arrests have been made. eight minutes after 11:00. coming up, congressman todd atkin explains why he refused to drop out of a race for senate despite pressure from high-ranking. we'll sit down with the superintendent of montgomery county schools. is he worried about overcrowding or teacher shortages?

a washington state man is behind bars for e-mailing a threat to president obama. the secret service says they intercepted the e-mail sent to a general government address around 2:00 yesterday. they traced it to 31-year-old antwan calore and stormed his home just outside seattle. his mother is floored by the accusations.

>> i don't know, i don't know a whole lot. how would you feel if your son was just arrested and was in the military and has a college education and i'm just a little bit upset. and shocked. >> police say when they arrived he was armed with two guns and mentioned explosives. the bomb squad did a sweep of the apartment, but found nothing. the pressure is mounting on todd atkin to step down and now some republicans are worried his miscues could cost them a majority in the u.s. senate. atkin has refused to drop out of the senate race despite the national committee pulling his funding. atkin did release an ad apologizing for his comments that legitimate rape almost never causes a woman to get pregnant. this morning on "today" show he told matt lauer that staying in the race is the right thing to do in his mind. >> this is not about me. this is not about my ego. but it is about the voters of

the state of missouri. they've chosen me because of principles that i stand on and putting principle over politics. i believe they stand with me on a whole host of issues. >> atkin told matt that he got a call from paul ryan asking him to step down. ryan's pick as romney's running mate may have little effect on the race so far. that according to a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll out this morning. that's relatively unchanged from last month's 49% to 43% spread. when asked specifically about ryan, voters are nearly evenly split. 22% say ryan makes them more likely to vote for romney, while 23% say the ryan pick has the opposite effect. vice president joe biden is planning on doing a little party crashing next week, it seems. he plans on visiting tampa as the gop opens their national

convention in that city on monday. biden joked with reporters at a campaign stop in minnesota that he's planning on being one of the speakers as the event opens when they nominate mitt romney as their candidate for president. security crews at the rmc already being put to the test this morning. tampa police say they confiscated suspicious items from a building about a mile from the convention site. among the items bricks and pipes. they think protesters were planning to use those items during the demonstrations, that's what police are thinking. protests aren't the only threat the gop may be facing next week. a hurricane barreling down on florida. right now tropical storm isaac is 200 miles east guwad loupe and it is expected to reach cuba as early as sunday and reach part of florida by monday. by then it is expected to be at least a category 1 hurricane. tom said the outlook isn't definite yet, but the convention

could see high winds and heavy rains from the storm. gop officials say they have plans in place if a hurricane should hit. and look for live coverage of the republican national convention all next week right here on news 4. news 4 julie carey and aaron gilchrist will be in tampa all week long and reporting live from there. we have him right here, tom kierein joins us here and ask him about the hurricane possibility in florida. what do you say, tom? >> it will affect part of florida. which part, we are not sure yet. it may affect our weather here by the end of next week. stay tuned, we'll keep you posted on that. the latest track for isaac right here. right now take a look outside. a gorgeous summer day under way around washington. we have had a gorgeous morning. there was the live view earlier this morning from chopper 4, as the sun was coming up. you see a little bit of a faint veil of light fog over the

landscape. chopper 4 caught this iridescent sun rise right around dawn on this wednesday morning, the 22nd day of august. and there is the sky over the washington monument. now, the jefferson memorial got the sunshine and reagan national now near 80 degrees and the dew point up to 64. that's not too humid. a very light northeasterly breeze and temperatures else where a lot of sun to our west and mid and upper 70s around the blue ridge and shenandoah valley and many locations in west virginia and maryland and western maryland this morning down into the low 50s but now climbing into the upper 60s near 70 there. closer to washington and our eastern suburbs around the bay, near 80 degrees and southern suburbs from prince jorgeorge's county and prince william and the loudoun county in the mid and upper 70s and frederick counties in maryland. here's the view from space and lots of sunshine just to the west of washington and a few clds as well as south and east of the area and upper level flow

southwest to northeast and slowly creeping a bit to the east. latest satellite view of isaac still just kind of a very disorganized tropical storm and the wider view showing isaac is still just now about to enter the eastern caribbean and looks like it is passing south of puerto rico. here's the latest track isaac. winds at 45 miles per hour and moving west at about 21 and does not look like a major hurrican maybe a category 1 for a while when it's just south of puerto rico next couple days and then regain strength as it passes over to the north of cuba, but maybe as it comes into western florida now, the latest trends on the track is further west and maybe more towards the gulf of mexico and this is by monday morning, a category 1 hurricane maybe right near ft. myers, florida, by then. but the general trend is the track is creeping further west and there's tampa right there. not good news for tampa, but doesn't thankfully look like a major hurricane, even if it does hit near tampa, just some wind

and some rain. sun to the west and clouds to the east and a slight chance of a thundershower. make it into the mid-80s by mid-afternoon and late afternoon down to the mid-80s as you're headed back home from work and this evening beautiful clearing and mild and near 80 early evening. great night to be out and moving down to the mid-70s by midnight and by dawn tomorrow another cool morning starting off thursday morning, the low 60s and updated forecast for tomorrow, we might have a little greater chance of a thundershower that i was thinking earlier this morning, but, still no severe weather and isolated thundershower on thursday morning and thursday afternoon into the upper 80s and as we get into friday, saturday and sunday, you wonder how much longer will our luck hold out. how about seven days. does look pleasant all the way into tuesday. each day warm afternoons, cool mornings, not too humid. can this be august? can this be washington? >> sounds like the beginning of fall to me. >> keep it going.

>> college students riding to american university and really feels like fall around here. >> get ready for football, too. >> can't wait. we'll check on the mid-day traffic now. let's talk to mike who joins us with the latest on the traffic scene. mike? >> thank you, barbara. right now outer loop and inner loop, just a slight delay near 123 and all your travel lanes are open and looking good right now. 95 inirginia no serious problems as you're heading towards the beltway and 395 also looking great. let's take a live look. no construction at the 14th street bridge and northbound 395 from the beltway to the bridge at 55 miles per hour. barbara? >> all right, thank you, mike. it's 11:20. still ahead on news 4 midday, the ultimate fight, woman versus jelly fish. why the first dog may be a little disappointed at meal time. first, here's a look at [ male announcer ] since 1996 welfare recipients were required to work.

this bipartisan reform successfully reduced welfare rolls. on july 12th president obama quietly ended the work requirement... gutting welfare reform. one of the most respected newspapers in america called it, "nuts!" saying, "if you want to get more people to work, "you don't loosen the requirements -- you tighten them." mitt romney's plan for a stronger middle class will put work back iwelfare. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

the financy strapped barnes and noble getting a reprieve thanks to "50 shades of grey." the trilogy has topped the best seller list for most of this year and boosting book store sales all around. barnes and noble reported a drop it sold 25 million copies in the united states. endurance swimmer diana nyad visited the "today" show. she made it 50 miles before weather and jelly fish stings were just too much to take. >> the only part of my body that is open is my lips and they come across. the tentacles come whipping across. savannah, you have no idea what the pain is, searing pain. if it was just the pain even, i would be willing to suffer

through that. but it's not. you start trembling and you start going into peroxisms of inner systemic difficulties. how are you supposed to do something that is already so difficult with your body debilitated like that. to me, it's a mystery. i feel i threw the kitchen sink at it and i do not know how to combat them. >> nyad said she doesn't know if she'll make a fifth attempt with that historic swim. the first family is taking the let's move campaign home with them. that dog bo, you know, their dog is on a diet now. the nearly 4-year-old portuguese water dog has put on a few pounds in the last few months. the president leaked the news during a surprise appearance at the kids state dinner on monday. he asked the kids, be sure not to drop any scraps on the floor because bo eats anything he sees. mrs. obama made solving

childhood obesity her goal as first lady including a campaign and planning a white house organic garden. coming up in the next half hour, ntsb just held a briefing at the site of that deadly howard county train derailment. we'll tell you what investigators had to say. plus, we're going to sit down with superintendent of montgomery county schools. what parents and students can expect come first day of school. and the sun is out right now. tom kierein lets us know what we can expect for the second half of this week. stay

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students in maryland's largest school district head back to class on monday and this will be just the second year for montgomery county superintendent joshua starr. he joins us this morning with a look ahead at what parents and students can expect this year. >> thank you so much for having me. >> are you excited? >> always, always. it's great when the kids come

back. can't wait to see them on monday morning? i think kids get excited but teachers, everybody feels a little excitement about school starting. >> absolutely. i run into a couple teachers in the grocery stores, you feel the energy. parents want the kids back in school, we know. >> we know that. >> i know my wife is feeling that way. but we're ready. >> what is your biggest goal for this coming school year? >> you know, we really have this incredible opportunity in montgomery county and we have done so well when it compares to any other district out there when it comes to the academic skills. how do we make sure kids are problem solvers and they're creative and those are the kind of things we're really working on and we'll engage our whole community and have that conversation. >> now, your school system has always been a growing school system. 2,500 students a year. how do you keep up with that? >> we just keep building. we keep hiring people and we just keep building new schools and adding on to schools when need be and we take anybody that comes through our doors. we love the fact that people want to come to montgomery

county for the school system. >> it is considered one of the best school systems in the country. >> it is and we will continue to be so. >> what about teachers? how do you keep up with those? >> people want to come to montgomery county and they know how much we invest in them and their professional developments and cutting edge work with kids and to equity and to excellence and we're able to recruit pretty competitively and folks love to come to work for us and we just have to make sure that they stay happy and we keep doing that through our relationships with our teachers and our unions. >> we hear how great you are. one of the states to maryland that has began to waiver in that no child left behind law. why? >> you know, the state applied for the waiver in order to kind of get released from some of the conditions of no child left behind. quite frankly, no child left behind is dying a slow death. we realize that it takes a very limited view of what kids actually need to know and be able to do.

we don't measure ourselves quite frankly by the state tests solely. we looks at things at a much higher level skills. so, we're glad the state got the waiver, but it is not at the forefront of my thinking about what we need to do. >> you are not big on standardized testing, are you? >> no, i'm not. >> tell us why? >> standardized tests are not equal to the profit and statement that some people want us to believe. they help us ask better questions and what you need to do is look at what kids are doing in the classroom. what are they doing for 184 days of the year. what kind of tasks are we asking them and how are they learning and growing. standardized tests are a good starting point, but really the collaboration amongst the teachers and what is happening with kids in classes that tel us whether they're getting what they need to be successful. >> how would you like to go to a pass/fail system, especially in high schools? >> i think there are some limitations in grades, as well. you know, if you look at writing. if someone is writing for a

newspaper, you have to constantly revise and not just get a grade. constantly revise and how does a child get feed back on what he's doing. we have to develop that, as much as we have to give grades. >> you have students from 164 different countries speaking 184 different languages. how do you manage that? >> you know, it's such an opportunity for us to have this incredibly diverse school system. people don't know that we have more poor kids in montgomery county than d.c. has kids. right. we have all different kinds of kids from so many different places. it creates this wonderful opportunity for us to be the microcosm of america and for our kids to be able to experience that. it is what attracts people to montgomery county, both to work, as well as send their kids to schools. >> it sounds like you're getting ready for a big year. i know you have to kick off things this weekend. you have a back to school fair. >> we do, from 11:00 to 2:00 at carver center up in rockville.

we have transportation sites at 12 different transportation sites all around the county. it's all over the web. we expect 10,000 to 15,000 people and they should come out for information, as well as a lot of family, fun, games and entertainment and things like that. >> get everybody all excited about heading back on monday. >> that's right. >> good luck with this year. i'm sure it will be, as always, a challenge, but a lot of fun, too. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you for coming. today, nasa engineers hope to test drive their mars rover. nasa scientists want to drive curiosity forward ten feet, make it turn and move it backward. if everything goes as planned, the one ton rover will make its first tracks today. engineers switched the rover software from landing mode to surface mode but haven't had a chance yet to drive it around. curiosity landed on mars earlier this month. you'll remember tom kierein has been watching and he wants to go up there, too, on that rover. tom? >> it's so sophisticated.

that is a miracle of our modern civilization getting that thing up, yet alone all of the wonderful science it will do. here i'm joined by my storm team 4 cicadas. the sounds of summer all around the metro area and the cicadas are getting loud around much of the region and the sun out now, it's a gorgeous summer day. we have the beautiful blue sky here and off to the west, nothing but blue sky and off to the east, a lot of high cloudiness and there's the live vau from our hd city camera overlooking the monuments now and right now in washington, temperatures are right near 80 degrees. there is the view from space. you can see the clouds streaming in southwest to northeast. west and north, no clouds right over washington south and east a lot of kracloudiness but that w come and go throughout the afternoon. just a beautiful summer day, not too humid. perfect beach and pool weather. right now near 80 around the bay and eastern shore at the atlantic beaches and out of the

mountains, great for hiking and the blue ridge and out in western maryland and highlands of west virginia, still, only in the 60s there. we'll take that in august and this wonderful weather pattern continues for the next several days. we'll have afternoon highs, mid-80s, just a small chance of an isolated thundershower and later today, as well as tomorrow afternoon, this great pattern with highs in the 80s and morning low 60s and not too humid and continuing each day with a partly cloudy sky saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday. that is the way it looks, barbara. >> all right, tom. thank you. we'll see you, again, shortly. help is on the way to prevent flooding in some d.c. neighborhood. this past july heavy rain caused water and sewage to gush into homes in bloomingdale. mayor vincent gray and city officials formed a task force for short-term solutions by december. the city is working on upgrading the storm drain system and it will provide financial help to

install flood barriers. >> what is even worse is the emotional toll that it takes on families. the emotional strain. it's just unreal to have to be scared of rain. to have to be scared because it's cloudy outside. >> the temporary improvements could be in place for years. a massive new sewage system won't be ready until the year 2025. we'll check on our mid-day traffic now and mike joins us with the latest. mike? >> thank you, barbara. outer loop of the beltway eastbound dulles toll road just slow after the beltway and looking great right now on 66. no serious delays to worry about and fairfax county parkway, things are looking fantastic and let's take a look at 66 and nuttily. no serious delays and construction there and inside the beltway, looking good. seven-minute ride from 495 to glebe road. the alleged colorado theater shooter had reportedly seen at

least three mental health professionals before that deadly massacre. according those siciiologists were all associated with the -- that mailing was recovered after he was arrested. it's unclear the extent to which he was treated, though. but legal analysts says this shows that the university was aware of holmes before the shooting. holmes is charged with opening fire during the showing of the new batdman movie. killing 12 people. so, what should happen to that movie theater? the city of aurora, colorado, is asking its residents to weigh in on that. the century 16 theater has not reopened since the july 20th massacre. the city has a link on its facebook page to an online survey. suggestions for the site include tearing the theater down and replacing it with a memorial or reopening the theater with a new name.

the theater chain that owns the building has not commented. new information just into our newsroom about the search for a second suspect accused of leading police on a deadly high-speed chase. police are about to issue an arrest warrant for neil from ft. washington. prince george's county police are just announcing the name of one other person under arrest for the chase, which killed officer adrian morris. that person is 25-year-old kenneth mitchell of northeast d.c. mitchell faces one charge of auto theft. they stole a car and then led police on a chase and that chase ended, of course, with the death of officer morris. right now on news 4 midday, crews are in place ready to clean up coal that spilled when a train derailed in ellicott city, maryland. crews removed 18 of the 21 cars that jumped the track in the downtown historic district. two young college students died in that accident. just minutes ago, the ntsb

investigator in charge wrapped up a briefing on the cause of the derailment. news 4 melissa mollet is live and she'll tell us now what she's learned. melissa? >> well, good morning to you, barbara. here's what investigators just told us. they still cannot say with any degree of certainty whether the teen's presence on the bridge had anything to do with this accident. the ntsb says they'll inview a three-man crew later in person today. the train will undergo inspections and we also know the train was traveling 25 miles per hour at the time. the brakes were not applied by the engineer. the event recorder shows there was a brake in the air line and that's why the emergency brakes kicked in. now, the train was coming through just after midnight tuesday when it derailed. 19-year-old elizabeth nass and her friend 19-year-old rose mayr were sitting on inbridge and both were killed. the ntsb will continue with the

removal of the wreckage including removing big quantities of coal. some of the coal ended up in the river and also reconstructing the rail. they say it is a slow, but productive process. >> ntsb investigators worked through the night and will continue to work throughout this day. this is the well orchestrated industrial and it's an incredibly challenging location. unlike any other i've seen. >> now, the ntsb said they were on the scene here conducting an investigation for the next day or two. it could take months before they tell us exactly what happened here. live in ellicott city, maryland, news 4. back to you. >> thank you for that report. a 3-year-old girl is in the hospital this morning after being shot. she was one of three people hurt monday off 19th street. police say two men opened fire on a group of people. the toddler was shot in the

foot. two other men were both shot in the leg. one of the men who did not want to be identified told us the little girl is his stepdaughter. >> we were just standing and talking and i looked up and things didn't look right, basically. then we were fired upon. i don't really like what happened and i didn't like that my stepdaughter got hit. >> the victim says while he was at the hospital, police ram sacked his home, treating him like he was a suspect. police say they had a search warrant issued by a judge to search for evidence. a maryland soldier has been killed in afghanistan. 24-year-old sergeant david v. williams died on saturday in kandahar. williams was from frederick and joint based mccord in washington state. the cause of death is under investigation. this was his first deployment to afghanistan. 11:42 is our time now. still ahead on news 4 midday, bad news for federal workers. plus, what to do if your

child refuses to go to school. help parents deal with back to school anxiety.

president obama is extending a two-year pay freeze for federal employees until at least next spring. the freeze will stay in effect until a spending plan is passed. it makes it unlikely that that will happen before april. congress reached a short-term deal to fund the government until then. the administration estimates the two-year pay freeze will save more than $60 billion. union leaders are calling the decision unwarranted and unjustified. americans bought more homes in july than in june. i guess that's a good sign. let's check in with cnbc hampton pearson joins us with more on that and the rest of the day's business headlines, as well. good morning. >> the housing is a good sign.

but major markets trading in negative territory after declines in the european and asian stock markets and a kind of flat report on existing home sales. here in the u.s. right now, the dow down 60 and the nasdaq down a 5 and the s&p down 4 points. july home sales increased just 2.3% to 4.47 million units. it is an increase, however, of 10.4% from a year ago. that's according to the national association of realtors. the median home price is now $187,300 down slightly from june and, again, up 3.9% from a year ago. this afternoon we do get the minutes from the latest federal reserve meeting. market watchers looking for any hints of upcoming moves to stimulate the economy. greece is, once again, asking for more time to meet its debt reduction targets. a meeting with euro zone leaders is scheduled for later this week. stocks making big moves today. dell down 52% after

disappointing third quarter earnings and lowering profit forecast for the year. on the flip side, william sonoma up 9% after the kitchen and home store chain reported a 10% increase in profits. finally, the head of the national urban league is urging not to sell the new lebron james shoe. it tracks how high you can jump and how far you can run. it is expected to retail for more than $300. nike says there will be other less expensive versions of the same shoe available, as well. but urban league president says he's received plenty of calls and e-mails from consumers about rising prices. barbara, back to you. >> all right, have a great day. >> you, too. well, whether your child has started school or will be starting school in the next few days things you should know to make things easier transitioning from summer and back to school. a few things to ask you about.

i'm sure a lot of parents are worried. you say there are some dos. >> there are some dos. now is the time to start talking about what the plan is going to be for next year. you wraunt to talk to your kids about the commitments they have for next year. you want to see whether your kids are overscheduled, overcommitted. i think one thing that you want to do is you want to make sure that these kids are not doing so much that they are not able to get enough sleep. the other thing that you want to do is get them back into their routines. so, now is the time to start getting them to bed earlier and get them waking up closer to what time they need to get up for school. also, talking to them about what your expectations are going to be regarding things like screen time. this is a big problem in a lot of households. lots of fights occur over this kind of stuff. >> especially when they've been watching tv all summer long. >> they're in this pattern of playing video games six hours a day and watching lots of tv. get them away from that. the final thing is that you really want to prioritize sleep. this is probably the most important thing i'll talk about

today. sleep is just so critical, not only for your mental health and your physical health, but also for learning. at night, when you're sleeping, that's when your brain is processing the things that you learned during the day. so, you're at a much better, a much better chance of remembering the information that you learn at school if you get a good, solid night's sleep. so, generally what we're talking about here is that elementary aged kids need 11 to 12 hours and middle schoolers need 10 hours and high schoolers need 9 hours and unfortunately, the vast majority of kids are not getting adequate amount of sleep. >> how do you make them go to sleep? >> i think you can have a lights out time for the house. you want to make sure that they're not playing video games or any electronics, at least an hour before bedtime and you want to make sure that on the weekends they're not sleeping until 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon because that has a tendency to cause them to get their sleep schedule out of whack. those are a few things you can try. >> let's go to the don'ts.

you start with minimize feelings. >> don't minimize feelings. i was talking to my daughter last night about how she's nervous about school and new teacher and new kids. you don't want to say everything is okay and is going to be fine. just try to understand how they feel, to legitimize how they feel. and to express back to them what they're telling you in your own words. so that makes them feel like you really understand how they're doing and you don't have to feel like you need to solve them their problems orgive them advi advice. i asked my daughter last night, do you want me to give you advice or do you want me to listen. she said she wanted me to listen. you want them to share their anxieties but be careful about sharing your anxieties. you want to avoid sharing your own anxieties. you want the best for your kids and have ton of friends and do well socially and academically but you don't want to talk about all the fears they have for you.

>> like i hope you get a good teacher this year. you don't want them to think there is anything but a good teacher. >> you want to make sure that you keep a lid on that because kids, particularly elementary school aged kids they take their cues of anxiety from their parents. >> more problems. >> i don't want parents to ignore problems. one of the most common problems that can occur early on in the school year is nat kids can start refusing to go to school. this occurs in about 5% of kids. you do not want to just take a lets wait and see how things go approach to this. you want to jump on that problem immediately and get in touch with the school, the pediatrician, a mental health professional because the longer these kids go without going to school, the harder it is to get them back in. >> yeah, so, you got to get them there. >> you have to get them there. even if it's -- even if it's a few hours. even if they're kicking and screaming. even if you have to bring them in their pajamas. but you want to get the school helping you because it's a really tough thing to do. sometimes physically having to

hold your kid down and throw them into the car and you might need a friend's help, as well. >> i've been there. i know. bring them in their pajamas, haven't thought about that. so, thanks a lot. great to hear that. good luck with your kids getting back to school. >> thanks, thanks, barbara. it's now 11:53. can they keep it up? the nationals beat down the braves and if it can continue let's watch what they do. le[ 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.

former redskin running back clinton ports is retiring. the team announced that they will host a retirement news conference. report is tomorrow. the runningback hasn't played since the redskins released him two years ago. remembered as one of the team's best backs. he is the second leading rusher in team history and posted 126-yard games in his seven seasons here. tonight the nationals are looking for a sweep of the atlanta braves. last night strasbourg struck out ten last night over six innings of work to lead the nats to a 4-1 win over the braves. desmond came through at the

plate with another home run. his 19th of the season. the nats now lead the braves by seven games and strasbourg may have as few as three starts left before the team shuts him down. well, coming up this afternoon on new 4z, beginning at 4:00, reaction to those surprising naked photos of prince harry partying in las vegas. back to school season brings a series of medical issues. our get healthy for life report. then at 5:00, they call it the viper. the unusual tool that's helping people get stronger and thinner. it's coming up on what's your workout later tonight. be sure to join us at 4:00. time now for a final check on the forecast. here's tom. >> great weather for outdoor exercise and fun. we've got a wonderful weather pattern going to continue here for the next several days. just a few clouds south and east of the metro area, otherwise a lot of sun around. temperatures approaching the noon hour are now near 80

throughout much of the region and 70 shenandoah valley and later today the mid-80s and small chance of an isolated thundershower this afternoon and again tomorrow afternoon, otherwise, a beautiful pattern through the weekend first part of next week, not too hot, not too humid. highs 80 and morning low 60s. have a great afternoon, we'll see you tomorrow morning. >> all right, tom, thank you. that's news 4 midday for today, thank you for being with us. invite you to tune in for news 4 at 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00 and 11:00. celebrate the earthquake anversery tomorrow with a surprise for you. have a great day.