28-year-old officer kevin bow there is den was off duty yesterday afternoon when witnesses say he was hit by an suv at the intersection of branch avenue and surratts road in clinton. the crash sent his car into a utility pole. witnesses say he may have been cut off in traffic. bowden is the second officer from that department to die in a crash in recent months. back in august, adrian morris was killed during a chase on i-95. >> this is a tragedy. it's unfortunate. it's very sad. yet again in the past two months, we've lost another officer, and all my members are basically hurting, trying to heal through this process. >> at southern maryland hospital last night, fellow officers held a vigil to remember the fallen officer. bowden was a father of two and a six-year veteran of the prince george's county police force. the driver of the other vehicle was taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. we are approaching 4:31 on this friday morning. turn to storm team 4

meteorologist tom kierein. saw quite a bit of rain last night cross the area. >> i ran into fog coming in along with the sprinkles. >> and lightning too. and some hail. we had all kinds of things going on. actually, high water too in a few locations in montgomery county. watch out for that. that's where a lot of the heaviest rain fell. right now storm team 4 radar showing most of the rain gone. we still have the possibility of a few scattered light showers. rye now you see patches of green. those are some sprinkles now after the heavier downpours have come through the next couple of hours. just lingering sprinkles in fairfax county, loudoun, western, and northern prince william county. parts of northern fauquier and into the shenandoah valley. northern shenandoah valley had some hail last night. still a few lingering showers panhandle of west virginia and western maryland. there's one here shady side up toward annapolis. that's heading across the bay north and east now. temperatures on the milder side. patchy fog around this morning. it's in the upper 50s near 60.

much of the rural areas in maryland and virginia and west virginia, it's into the 50s. 66 now at reagan national. hour by hour, it will be drying out gradually. still need an umbrella for another couple of hours. a little sun breaking out for your lunch hour. mid-70s in the afternoon with increasing sunshine. i'm back with the hometown forecast in ten minutes. now with your friday commute, first 4 traffic with joe fox. good morning. >> good morning, tom. we are looking at smoothly flowing traffic around the beltway this morning. however, we did just have an accident clear. that was the 95 southbound exit ramp to 123 in woodbridge. once again, the accident has cleared. you will find freely flowing traffic 95 southbound and northbound. as you can see, 95 northbound flowing well into the beltway. your commute in prince george's and loudoun looking clear this morning. >> let's head over to melissa who has breaking news from the news 4 live desk.

at least 13 soldiers and 13 al qaeda militants have been killed in an attack on an army base in southern yemen. two militants drove an explosives filled car onto base killing themselves and ten others. later they attacked the base by sea, and more were killed. the u.s. has stepped up drone strikes, and militants have increased attacks on army targets. at the live desk, melissa mollet, news 4. now to the race to the white house, president obama heads to battleground virginia today after a stop in new hampshire yesterday. the president will speak to a crowd at george mason university in fairfax county. this is the second trip to that campus in as many weeks. after his rally, the president will head to camp david to prepare for the final presidential debate. that will be held monday in boca raton, florida. another event will be happening near the george mason campus. if you're headed that way, expect a lot of congestion and a lot of detours in that area. starting at 10:00, vehicles that are bigger than suvs will not be

able to drive down route 123 ox road. details include braddocks and roberts road as well. the people holding a rally in daytona beach on the same day as biketoberfest. they joked to a local paper that romney is going for a biker vote. just 48 hours after their contentious debate, president obama and mitt romney traded jokes with each other over dinner. the two shared the stage at the alfred e. smith memorial dinner in new york, a white tie event that raises money for needy kids. both the mr. obama and romney took jabs at each other while making fun of themselves about the debates. >> find the biggest available straw man and just mercifully attack it. big bird didn't even see it

coming. and in the spirit of sesame street, the president's remarks are brought to you by the letter "o" and the number 16 trillion. >> some of you may have noticed i had a lot more energy in our second debate. i felt really well rested after the nice long nap i had in the first debate. >> they are now just 18 days before the general election. the race for virginia's u.s. senate seat is getting more heated as we get closer to election day. tim kaine and george allen squared off last night in their fifth and final debate before voters head to the polls. that debate got personal as well when the candidates discussed succe sequestration. virginia could lose thousands of defense jobs if congress can't real a deal on ending the deficit this year. >> i have a son who just started a career in the military. i'm not going to do things that will hurt the troops or hurt defense. >> we have 200,000 jobs at risk here in virginia, and they

shouldn't be used as a political bargaining tool to raise taxes on job creating small business owners >> right now kaine, a democrat, hold a slight lead over the republican allen in most polls. police in colorado looking for any leads in the jessica ridgeway murder are asking the public to come forward about another attack that might be related. police say a man tried to abduct a woman jogging at kechner lake in may. it's less than a mile from jessica's home. the 12-year-old girl disappeared earlier this month. investigators found the dismembered girl's body. police have yet to find the killer. boy scouts of america coming clean about allegations some of its leaders abused children for decades. the organization released thousands of documents yesterday detailing that abuse in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. the files reveal that more than 1,200 scout masters and volunteers nationwide were accused of molesting children. the documents were evidence in a

civil lawsuit filed in oregon two years ago. the state supreme court there ordered the documents be made public. jerry sandusky wants a new trial. the former penn state assistant football coach asking a judge inform overturn his child sex abuse convictions. he says his attorneys did not have enough time to prepare for trial. he also says the statute of limitations on some of the charges on which he was convicted have expired. a jury convicted sandusky in june of abusing ten boys. a judge sentenced him two weeks ago to 30 to 60 years in prison. more than 1,000 female service members will gather at arlington national cemetery tomorrow to honor women who died while serving. organizers say the event will mark the 15th anniversary of the memorial honoring military women at the cemetery. officials from the pentagon and department of veterans affairs will be there, and the participants will hold a candlelight march tomorrow night, crossing the memorial bridge from the lincoln

memorial. track work means delays on the red, orange, and green lines. on the red line, buses will replace trains between grovesnor and friendship heights. on the orange line, in trains between east and west falls church. and on the green line trains will single track between greenbelt and college park. the time right now 4:38. good morning, everyone. ahead on "news 4 today," why smuckers is recalling its popular uncrustable sandwiches. and the crime at ballston mall that has police reviewing a surveillance video.

major cleanup across parts of the south this morning after severe storms rolled through causing pretty heavy damage there. strong winds, heavy rain damaged buildings, knocked out power for thousands of people as well. the national weather service reports at least four tornadoes swept through mississippi. so far, though, only one reported injury. >> and around these parts of the area, we're waking up to wet roads, some fog, a little bit of everything. this after overnight we saw thunderstorms and definitely rain and wind in the air. >> still some ominous clouds in that picture. time for weather and traffic on the ones. tom? things are settling down thankfully. we didn't have any wind damage. we had pockets of really heavy

rain and thunder in shenandoah valley. now as we look at storm team 4 radar, much of the activity has settled down to scattered light showers across northern virginia, northern and western subshalurbs into the mountains, we'll have that possibility in la plata. that's the storm in there. in the afternoon hours, some sunshine breaking out there, climbing into the upper 60s. here's the regional forecast. for the whole area today, we'll have drying gradually through the morning hours. noontime, near 70 through much of the area. sunshine breaking out. increasingly sunny during the afternoon. highs reaching mid-70s by midafternoon. clearing out by late afternoon and into this evening. we'll take a look at the evening forecast, the weekend, as well as into next week. that's coming up in about ten minutes at 4:51. now a look at traffic with joe fox. good morning. >> good morning, tom. we're looking pretty good around the beltway right now. closer to town, all roads are moving well. you may just find puddles through the construction zone in

the hot lanes on the inner loop of the beltway. 270 coming out of frederick county, you're looking good. 109, traffic is moving well, as well as farther down at shady grove road. we do have construction northbound 95 not causing any delays, but your right lane is blocked at the intercounty connector. aaron and angie, back to you. still to come this morning, google's gigantic mistake that now has wall street opening on a down note this morning. and the fight to save a nursery in old town a take away his toys and he'll play with a stick. take away their bikes and they'll still find a way to get where they're going. but if take you away early childhood education... slash k-12 funding... and cut college aid for middle class families ... they won't go far. yet that's exactly what mitt romney wants to do... ...to pay for a $250,000 tax break for multi-millionaires. if mitt romney wins, the middle class loses. priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising.

this morning the boston common mall will reopen after a man threw a molotov cocktail inside the food court. this is video you only see on news 4. it shows arlington police taking a man in custody near the courthouse metro station. his name has not been released.

this morning fbi and atf agents say they're just trying to figure out why he dropped a molotov cocktail from the third floor to the basement level food court yesterday afternoon and then ran away. we talked to people who heard the crash. >> i was going down the escalator, and all of a sudden glass just splattered all over down the food court. >> about five minutes after that, i saw police and bomb sniffing dogs. >> no one was hurt. police evacuated the mall for more than five hours while they searched the building. they found three more bottles. the fbi does not believe he is connected to any terrorist organizations. >> 14 before the hour. the man accused of trying to bomb the federal resefb building in new york city may have targeted maryland too. court documents show that in july quazi nafis talked to a military agent about attacking a building in baltimore. nafis wanted a target that caused more destruction.

he was arrested on wednesday. his family insists he is not a terrorist. police are trying to find a man who secretly recorded two women in their own home. take a look at this video of a man setting up a camera. this man dressed in uniform likely broke into the women's apartment in june to set up the camera. they say he returned several times to point the camera toward the bedrooms and bathroom. police are not sure how he got into that apartment because there were no signs of forced entry. the maryland transit authority will now be recording video and audio of people on board buses. mta buses already have cameras on board with signs telling riders they're being recorded. this week ten buses also got fitted with audio recording devices. critics call it an invasion of privacy, but mta officials say the audio will be used in the case of an accident or incident on the bus. the mta operates several bus routes in the d.c. area. there is a fight to save a historic nursery school in old

town alexandria. this small yellow building used to be a school for black children during world war ii. it later served as an american legion post. now the owner of that building is selling it for $700,000. residents are a bit concerned it will become another residential complex. >> one of the reasons we have a historic district is to protect them from condominiums and developments because we're near the king street and braddock road metro stations. >> struck a deal with the developer to take a two-year period before it would be considered for redevelopment and try to find a buyer who would buy it and preserve it. >> the greater alexandria preservation alliance says, if a buyer is not found, that building could be torn down in february. a peanut recall now has schools across the country double-checking their supplies. smuckers is advising schools to pull its uncrustables peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. they contain peanut butter made

by new mexico based sunland incorporated whose products were recalled because of salmonella contamination. smuckers tested its products and found no problems, but are recalling out of an abundance of caution. officials say the fungus from a nationwide meningitis outbreak has also been found in unopened bottles of steroid medication. it was in one case of vials made by new england compounding center. they are at the center of a national investigation. two people have died in virginia. one in maryland. this morning at least 257 people in 15 states are sick. wall street keeping a close eye on google stock today. investors want to see how it recovers from its free fall yesterday. shares of google plummeted 9% yesterday when a disappointing quarterly earnings report accidentally got released early. nasdaq suspended trading of

google temporarily. the stock recovered a bit when trading resumed. google is blaming the financial printer that handles its earnings reports for the early release. university of phoenix will shut down more than 100 of its campuses around the country and lay off 800 employees. 13,000 students expected to be impacted by that. they'll either have to attend classes at another campus if one is nearby or continue their studies online. a vast majority, 70% of phoenix students, already do their course work on the web. it may not be what you want to hear, but the official start of winter now just about two months away, and forecasters are already making their predictions. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration says the west will have a dryer, milder winter which could intensify the drought. here in the east, they say be ready for anything. they say it could be mild like last winter or be very wet and cold. let's go mild. >> i guess that's not an exact

science. >> no. >> they're okay either way apparently. >> storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein is here. you've given us a similar warning this winter might not be as pleasant as last winter was for some people. >> a little slower based on an el nino pattern. it's tough predicting 24 hours ahead let alone a whole season. we start out this morning drying out and certainly look like autumn. look at this gorgeous photo in anne arundel county sent in by one of our viewers. and some gorgeous color showing up in castleton, virginia. this sent into weather@nbcwashington.com. gorgeous yesterday morning. this was yesterday morning too in shepherdstown, west virginia, sent in by dane konop. there are the storms that came through last night with the heavy downpours and the thunder and lightning. now just a few scattered showers, northern virginia, northern western suburbs.

just a few scattered light sprinkles. there's one cluster of moderate downpours, little thunder and lightning way down here on the virginia-north carolina border. that's traveling northeast. that may get toward the northern neck, perhaps southern maryland over the next couple of hours. few passing showers still out in the western mountains of western maryland and eastern west virginia where temperatures there and this blue zone are in the 40s. all the areas in green are in the 50s and 60s. right around 60 degrees in the suburbs in washington right now. reagan national at 66. for the morning commute, you may need an umbrella. just a small chance of a passing light shower. sunrise at 7:22. we'll be in the low 60s or so for another couple of hours. by noontime for your lunch hour, climbing up to around 70 and sunshine breaking out. we'll get increasing sun during the afternoon. by late afternoon, after we reach the mid-70s midafternoon, back down to near 70 by 6:00 p.m. clearing, mild, southwesterly breezes will shift into the northwest overnight and a nice evening.

here's your evening planner for this friday evening. by midnight under a clear sky, back down near 60. by dawn on saturday, the upper 40s. beautiful day tomorrow for outdoor activities. partly cloudy, into the mid-60s during the afternoon. really chilly sunday morning. down around 40. by sunday afternoon, the mid-60s. bright and sunny, crisp autumn day. beautiful sunday, and getting back to work and school, monday through midweek next week, we have a mild trend developing and dry weather continuing. now with our traffic on this sunday morning, here's joe fox. >> good morning. we do have breaking news on the inner loop of the beltway. we're looking at a single vehicle tractor-trailer accident with a fuel spill. we're looking at the inner loop of the beltway live. you can see traffic is not going anywhere because all lanes are closed. you'll be forced to exit at old georgetown road. but my suggestion f you're co, coming up from potomac, take the western spur. if you're on the inner loop of

the beltway, you'll once again be turned around. so you have a fuel spill. all lanes closed and probably will be for some time. inside the beltway in virginia, we're looking a lot better. 395 northbound flowing quite well from the beltway up to the 14th street bridge. aaron and angie, back to you. the time right now 4:54. coming up, car damage like you've never seen before. next, what punctured a sedan's bumper leaving it riddled with tiny holes. coming up at 5:00 a.m., why

today you can enjoy the white house gardens without having to face cold temperatures. you can follow the white house on google, twitter, or google plus. you can get a live tour of the rose garden, jaclyn kennedy garden, and the south lawn. it's beginning to look a lot like christmas, at least in one dance studio. the world famous rockettes held a rehearsal to preview this year's christmas spectacular. the dancers, known for their height and precise high kicks have a big anniversary. it's the 85th year for the christmas spectacular. it's starts november 9th and runs through december 30th in new york city. if you have a dog, you know that sometimes they like to chew on things and shred them up a little bit. there's one dog that got into more than just a shoe. take a look.

that is a car. there's a woman in new mexico who says she went outside this week only to see a stray dog had chewed up the front end of her toyota. the car is still drivable, obviously, but it's covered with teeth and you claw marks. she thinks somebody spilled something like a slushy near the car, and that attracted the dog. the person who owns the dog could face criminal charges actually for this. >> those are some choppers. happy ending in alabama to the search for a missing boy with special needs. the 10-year-old boy with down's syndrome wandered off while he was watching tv. when family members realized he was gone, a frantic search began, and the boy's mother and the family's dog eventually found him in the woods because of who he was with. their dog's four young puppies. >> i heard the dogs barking again and followed them down in and started hollering for the puppies, and he hollered back. he was in the creek. i imagine those little puppies kept him warm at one point, but

it was rough. >> the boy was wet and wasn't wearing any shoes but was otherwise fine after the 18-hour ordeal. >> always amazing. it's nice to see a happy ending like that, to see he's okay. >> absolutely. the fact the boys led them back to where the boy was. it's amazing their instinct. >> stay with us. "news 4 today" continues right now at 5:00 a.m. breaking news on the beltway. all lanes of the inner loop closed at georgetown road. the latest on our first 4 traffic report straight ahead. this morning new numbers in decision 2012 that show a very close presidential race in two batt battleground states. and overnight rain rolling out of the region, but the storms are leaving behind wet roads as you head out this morning. >> good morning, everyone. i'm angie goff in for eun yang. >> and i'm aaron gilcis