you can catch that tonight at 8:00 here on nbc 4. right now brand new models coming in showing where hurricane sandy could be headed. this morning preparations ahead of the storm. >> good morning. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> and i'm eun yang. welcome this friday, october 26th, 2012. we're going to take a live look outside at 5:00 a.m. 63 degrees. nice weather to start our day. how much longer is it going to last? >> tom kierein is tracking sandy this morning. tom? >> good morning. what are these models? actually, they're math mat mall locations. we take all of the information about the atmosphere, put them in occasions. here's the latest with sandy. it is a weak tropical storm. it's north of the bahamas now, and it's traveling north.

over the right and the rest of the day into saturday evening and sunday, unfortunately, getting closer to our region. this is a position here by tuesday, 2:00 a.m. right near the mouth of the delaware bay, the center of circulation. actually may be gaining strength by then. still a category 1 hurricane, could have hurricane force winds sunday night into tuesday as it does track north of us. it could come anywhere in this zone. there's quite a wide area of possibility. right now the greatest chance is it's going to be coming close to our region. philadelphia, new york city, all the way up to boston, going to be affected by this storm. snarling travel, power outages. right now we've got low clouds with an east-southeasterly flow. temperatures in the 60s throughout much of the region. that's going to be with us through the rest of the day today. hour by hour, storm team 4 forecast by noontime, upper 60s.

near 70. a lot of clouds around. sunrise 7:29. sunset 6:14. i'm back in ten minutes with another look at sandy and our forecast. eun? >> thanks so much. 5:02 now. hurricane sandy is moving out of the bahamas. the category 1 storm is leaving a path of destruction in its wake. sandy hit the island yesterday morning knocking down trees, destroying buildings, and flooding streets. the storm is now setting its sights on the u.s. sandy has the impact. >> metro gearing up for the heavy rain and possible flooding. crews will put sandbags around the system where high waters are possible. workers also checking drainage pumping stations. additional support personnel are scheduled to work through the storm. >> and power companies in our area are working to prevent power failures.

do minu dominion virginia are stocking power supplies. pge has put more than a thousand crews on stand by. your first 4 traffic report. let's start with the rails. if you're taking metro, marc, or vre, they're open with no reported delays. let's start with the roadway. i-270, nice and clear. a live look as you make your way through germantown, southbound and northbound. clear to rockville. again, no incidents in that area. heading over to the dulles toll road in both directions. between reston and the beltway, you are accident free. travel lanes look open in both directions on the toll road. at least 40 people are dead in a suicide bombing in northern afghanistan. the explosion happened outside a mosque in the town of maymanah as people are gathering to start a four-day religious holiday.

the governor of the province and the town police chief were both inside the mosque at the time. neither was hurt, though. no word yet if any group has taken responsibility. >> election day may be a week away, but mitt romney plans on delivering what his campaign calls a closing argument today. the republican presidential nominee will give the major speech in iowa. he'll head there from ohio. romney made three stops in the buckeye state, including this rally in worthington. president obama is back in washington after his grueling 40-hour campaign trip. he returned late last night. today he'll return to georgetown university to tape a tv special with young voters. as candidates look to make a push towards election day, one poll gives romney the momentum heading into the final days. the abc news tracking poll gives romney a 50-47% lead over the president. it's the first time in the campaign the governor has reached the 50% mark, and the

economy may be to thank for that. when asked who do they trust the most to handle the economy, likely voters gave romney a 52-43% advantage over the president. it's the first time either candidate has had a clear lead on that issue. another poll shows that some of the most important swing states are still practically in a dead heat. in colorado, the president and romney are now tied at 48%. that's according to a new nbc news/wall street journal/marist poll. and that means gains for romney who trailed there by 5% last month. while in nevada president obama is holding a steady lead, 50-47% right now, thanks in part to support from latino voters. 5:05 is your time. today the virginia man accused of shooting a security guard at the family research council will be in court. earlier this week, 23-year-old floyd lee corkins was charged with terrorism for the acan at that -- attack. it's the first time anyone has been charged under this act.

corkins has already pled not guilty in the first set of charges he faced. this morning a man involved in a chase that killed a police officer in prince george's county is charged with vehicular manslaughter. kevin neal was charged on that, along with fleeing and eluding place. the officer crashed his car in august. he was chasing a man on i-95 they thought may have stolen a car. today family and friends say good-bye to i aprince george's police officer killed in a car crash. kevin bowden died last thursday after an suv collided with his cruiser in clinton. st off duty at the time. the first viewing is tonight at 6:00 at lee's funeral home in clinton. he'll have another viewing tomorrow morning in temple hills before his funeral. a mystery this morning for prince george's county police as they try to figure out who set nine cars on fire in less than 24 hours. people in kettering, largo, bowie, and upper marlboro, found their vehicles destroyed by fire

wednesday and thursday. police think it's a serial arsonist, but they're not sure they're burning cars to cover up break-ins or just burning for the sake of burning. they heard their car alarms burning just moments before they saw flames. >> my wife just woke me up. she told me your car alarm is going off. she said, oh, look, it looks like there's fire. there's fire. >> so far no one has been hurt. police want you to report any suspicious behavior immediately, and they're advising people to leave an extra light on at night. today snow plows will be hitting local streets. that's right, snow plows. don't worry about snow this morning. it's just a drill. prince george's county is conducting annual county-wide snow and ice dry run. more than 200 snow and emergency vehicles went out at 4:00 this morning to do a run-through of sorts before winter actually gets here. more than 400 personnel are participating. just want to get ready. >> that's what we've got to do. it is 5:07 right now.

caught red handed. the disturbing crime a homeowner captured when he set up a camera outside his house.

if you are looking forward to some apple picking this fall,

you may have already missed your chance. the apple harvest has all but come to an end in virginia. farmers say warm temperatures in february and march led to an early bloom and harvest. you'll still find plenty of apples at farm stands, and virginia apples are in demand in other states hit hard by the summer drought. you could see prices drop on peanuts and peanut butter at your local grocery store. a huge peanut harvest expected with farmers bringing in two-thirds more peanuts than they did last year. peanut prices could fall 10% or more because of that harvest. >> so fewerapples, more peanut butter. >> which works for me. i love peanut butter. >> i like apples and peanut butter together. tom kierein, you're a busy man. you've got sandy to track, our forecast. what's going on? sandy is a category 1 hurricane over the bahamas. pretty disorganized but packing winds of 80 miles per hour. the pressure is going to be dropping as it gets closer.

category 1 strength, heading off to the northwest today and tomorrow. taking a northwest turn and coming very close to our region by monday into tuesday. out ahead of that, we'll begin to feel the effects sunday. i'll have detailed on that coming up in just a second. chance of a drizzle this morning. low clouds near 60 degrees. hour by hour, storm team 4 forecast for the afternoon. a lot of clouds up around 70 degrees. and back by late afternoon into the upper 60s. i'm back in just a few minutes with another update and the impact sandy may have on us. danella is here with a report on traffic. in our first 4 traffic report, pretty quiet. still checking the area for accidents. prince george's county, checking the clinton area, accokeek, brandywine. local roads in that area. i'm not seeing any reports of incidents. if you're about to head out of the house, good for you. you're looking nice and clear. let's head over to 50 in maryland. annapolis, as you make your way towards 301, very light volume. nice and clear on 50 in maryland

between 301 as you connect to the beltway and head into the district, you're accident free. i'm back in ten. aaron and eun, over to you. >> thank you, danella. 53 degrees. a special celebration happening today for thousands of people running the marine corps marathon.

i'm storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein. sandy is going anncr: which do you believe? what mitt romney's tv ads say about women? or what mitt romney himself says? mitt romney: do i believe the supreme court... should overturn roe v. wade? yes. and it would be my preference that they, that they... reverse roe v. wade. hopefully reverse roe v. wade. overturn roe v. wade. planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. anncr: no matter what mitt romney's ads say. we know what he'll do. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message.

welcome back. 5:16. packages, letters, even gift cards are being swiped from front swoopes and mailboxes in one d.c. neighborhood. one camera caught the man red

handed. you can see the mail person drop off the package in cleveland park. a short time after, a man arrives, opens the box, steals what's inside, and leaves the empty package behind. some say the area is an easy target. >> we're adjacent to rock creek park. it's easy access. it's a quick grab and a quick take and a quick run. >> police are stepping up patrols in that area, and some neighbors say they may start going to a store instead of going online. a local swimming coach rick curl turned himself in to montgomery county police. a former swimmer says curl sexually abused her in the '80s starting when she was 13. she says some leaders at usa swimming knew about the abuse by covered up. the organization banned curl for life last month and it began its own investigation of the allegations as soon as it surfaced. curl faces up to 15 years in prison. a judge has ordered that a new york city police officer should be held in jail after a

disturbing alleged cannibalism scheme came to life. valle has been charged with kidnapping conspiracy. that's according to the fbi. he was planning to kidnap a woman and kill her by cooking her body. investigators say they have recordings by him describing his entire plot, including how he would fit the woman in his oven. lawyers for valle say it was just a sexual fantasy and no one was hurt. prosecutors say the six-year nypd veteran was close to carrying it out. a disturbing discovery made by a mother inside her luxury new york city apartment last night. she returned home to find two of her children murdered allegedly by their own nanny. that nanny then stabbed herself. she was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. the two children were 6 and 1-year-old. there's no word on why this may have happened or how long the nanny may have worked for the family. police say the mother had been at a swimming lesson with a

third child when all of this happened. the names of more alleged clients of a zumba teacher accused of running a prostitution ring will be made publiced today. she made money for charging people for sex in kennebunkport, maine. two weeks ago a list of 21 alleged johns was released, including a former mayor and a high school hockey coach. a rare stop to violence in syria is expected to begin today. the syrian army agreed to a cease fire to mark the muslim holiday. the temporary truce is expected to run through monday. the army will respond to any rebel attacks, but the country's main opposition group says they will abide by the cease fire. yesterday four people were killed in damascus and rebel groups reported heavy tank fire just outside the capital.

angry ford workers in belgium set one of the company's cars on fire a day after they found out they would lose their jobs. ford announced it would close its plant by the end of 2014. it's one of the car maker's main european plants. it employs 4,500 workers and 25,000 subcontractors. ford is also closing two plants in england. the company expects to lose more than $1 billion this year in europe. hurricane sandy is moving out of the ba many hamas right . the category 1 storm has its sights set on the u.s. it is set to make a major impact on the east coast up through new england starting this weekend and into next week. the storm is being blamed for at least 21 deaths, 11 of them in cuba. sandy hit the island with sustained winds of 110 miles per hour. she left a trail of destruction in the country's second largest city, santiago de cuba. trees were knocked down, and there was massive flooding.

raul castro is expected to assess the storm today. it's already whipping up big winds and waves in southern florida. by this afternoon, meteorologists expect to see wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour. right now parts of the sunshine state are already under tropical storm warnings. people being warned to get ready, to be ready. same thing for folks who live in this area. >> 5:21. time for weather and traffic on the ones. meteorologist tom kierein tracking sandy. right now sandy is a category 1 hurricane north of the bahamas, and it's continuing to track to the north as a category 1 strength. it will maintain that strength moving to the north/northwest now, making a turn as a category 1 hurricane. then this is where things begin to turn dangerous for us because the latest track does show it's going to take a northwesterly turn beginning on sunday and into monday and tuesday, coming very near our metro area.

here's washington, here's baltimore. center of circulation may be right over southern pennsylvania, lancaster over to harrisburg. we're going to be close enough to it. we can't track over this zone. the most likely track is over this line. it's going to be right near the metro area. into monday and tuesday. unfortunately, the impacts may begin to be felt on sunday. southeast of washington with the red zone with wind and rain. we may get passing lighter showers sunday into monday. this is when the strongest effects will be able to go here. strong winds, coastal flooding, maybe some inland flooding. the biggest effect from the storm are going to be the winds causing extensive power outages that may last for several days, unfortunately. as we get into the rest of the day, we're off to a cloudy start. highs reaching upper 60s to near 70. a little cloudy.

might have more drizzle. saturday cloudy, afternoon highs upper 60s. storm team 4, seven day outlook as we get into sunday, monday, tuesday. that's when the biggest effects are felt here. cooler temperatures. highs near 40s with gusty winds and rain on tuesday. little sun back on wednesday and thursday as winds diminish. i'm back in ten minutes with another update. danella with another look at traffic. >> let's make it all about the bridges in our area. traveling the wilson bridge, nice and clear. american legion bridge, the beltway between the wilson bridge and american legion bridge, your travel lanes are open. on the outer loop, you're getting by quite nicely. let's head over to key bridge. inbound and outbound, nice and clear. no accidents and no incidents to report. i'm back in ten minutes. we'll check the rails again. eun, over to you. 5:23. the marine corps marathon is not only one of the most popular runs in the country. it is also considered one of the best for beginners. tonight those rookie runners will be honored.

the marathon is holding a first timers pep rally at the hyatt regency northwest. about a thousand first time runners who bought tickets will be able to talk to experts and win giveaways. more than 11,000 of the runners on sunday will be first timers. it's also day two of the marine corps marathon health expo at the d.c. armory. more than 200 items are on display. the expo is free and open to the public. the marathon takes place sunday at 7:55 a.m. and metro is getting ready for the marine corps marathon as well. it's opening early, 5:00 a.m. on sunday morning. you can face some delays, though, trains will be single tracking on parts of the red, orange, blue, and green lines this weekend. on the red line, trains will share a track between grosvenor. on saturday only, blue line

trains will single track between franconia, spring, and dorn street. people visiting the big apple will have a famous view of the skyline to take advantage of once again. after a year of renovations, the statue of liberty's crown will be open to the public again starting sunday. the construction addressed safety concerns, and the newly reopened area gives a little better view of the famous skyline. if you want to see it, it's only open thursdays through sundays, and you do need reservations. can you believe it? black friday is just four weeks from today. this year more shoppers are getting an early start on some of those deals. it's the official kickoff to the holiday's shopping season. experts say the black friday fad is fading. a new poll found that 40% of shoppers have already started and only 12% wait until black friday. >> i think a lot of consumers have realized that you don't necessarily get the best deal on black friday.

one day that people go shopping. people are much more savvy about getting deals and much more cautious about their money. >> stores are catching on, launching deals for consumers earlier this year. it will likely pay off. half of shoppers say they expect to increase their spending by $250 or more this year. i wait until, oh my god monday. >> that's a good day. >> that's christmas eve. that's how i do it. >> the best deals, though, come after christmas. that's when everything gets marked down. that's when you get some good deals. >> i love that logic, but you would not accept a deal after christmas. >> i would. if you're so inclined, i will accept your gift after christmas, aaron. >> duly noted. >> i have a long list. coming up, aides weigh in on colin powell's endorsement to president obama and not fellow republican mitt romney. president obama: there's just no quit in america...

and you're seeing that right now. over five million new jobs. exports up forty one percent. home values... rising. our auto industry... back. and our heroes are coming home. we're not there yet, but we've made real progress and the... last thing we should do is turn back now. here's my plan for the next four years: making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting american-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where... we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward.

i'm barack obama and i approve this message.

good morning. i'm eun yang. >> and i'm aaron gilchrist.

welcome back to "news 4 today" on this friday, october 26th. >> right now hurricane sandy is moving out of the bahamas. this is a satellite image from the international space station of the category 1 storm. so far sandy is blamed for at least 21 deaths, 11 of them in cuba. sandy hit the island yesterday morning knocking down trees, destroying buildings, anded f d flooding streets. the storm is now setting its sights in the u.s. sandy has the potential to make a major impact anywhere from virginia to new england starting this weekend. power companies up and down the east coast are on alert. dominion virginia are stocking supplies. pepco is on a freeze mode, meaning workers are not allowed to travel. bge has put a thousand crews on stand by as well. metro gearing up for possible flooding as well. crews will put sandbags around the station where high water is possible, and they're checking the pumping station. personnel scheduled to work throughout this storm.

everybody is starting to understand how serious this is and getting ready now. >> our storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein tracking sandy, letting us know what's going to happen here. tom? unfortunately, the last day, the last 24 hours, we've seen that track for sandy getting closer to us. right now it's passing north of the bahamas. it's a category 1 hurricane. looks like it's going to maintain that strength tonight into tomorrow. then it goesorth during the day on saturday, then sunday takes a turn to the northwest. this is the latest track updated 40 minutes ago. yes, it may be right north of the washington metro area. this is as of wednesday. so when it does come inland, it's going to slow way down, coming inland monday into tuesday, and then just kind of hanging out, giving a strong gust of wind, bands of rain from time to time, during that time from sunday evening all the way into wednesday. low clouds around now. it's a cool morning. temperatures are right around the low 60s much of the region. here's the storm team 4 four day and hour by hour forecast.

four-day outlook coming up. noontime temperatures upper 60s. during the afternoon, around 70, clouds around. i'm back in ten minutes. danella with your first 4 traffic this morning. >> good morning. still very light volume in this area. still taking the rails, nice and clear. no reported delays on the rails. if you're traveling to 29, i'll give you a live look as you make your way 29 at 32. nice and clear in both directions. continuing southbound towards bridge chaney. nice and clear over towards the beltway. aaron and eun, over to you. 5:32. mitt romney continues his tour of battleground states. the republican presidential nominee will fly to iowa where he'll deliver a major speech on the economy. president obama will reach out to young voters while staying here in washington. nbc's tracie potts is live on capitol hill wh more. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: hi, eun. good morning, everyone. the president is back here and taping a 30-minute interview

with mtv today. after that, he's hopefully expecting to get some rest before he hits the campaign trail again this weekend. the president has been on this whirl wind tour of a number of battleground states. both he and governor romney were speaking in separate locations at the same time in ohio. governor romney says his campaign has the momentum, and we've seen that with some of the recent polls. one of the most recent has his um him up by three percentage points, essentially a tie, but a change of momentum. in virginia, president obama losing his voice, wrapping up what it been a tour of eight states in two days. >> and you notice my voice is getting a little hoarse, but i'm just going to keep on -- i'm just going to keep on keeping on. until every single person out

there who needs to vote is going to go vote. >> this sends a message not just across ohio, but across the whole country. this momentum is building. we're taking back america, and it's coming soon. >> reporter: now the latest nbc/marist poll of battleground states, have the candidates in a statistical tie. still a very tight race. >> tracie, thank you. the makers of a film about the raid that killed osama bin laden say they are not playing politics. conservatives are furious. the made for tv movie is set to premiere on national geographic's channel two days before the election. "the new york times" is also reporting it was recut to strengthen president obama's role. the channel ceo says editors did recut the film but they did so to show less footage of the president. 5:34. former white house chief of staff john sununu seems to be

backing off statements he made that general colin powell's endorsement of obama was driven by race. sununu made the comments on cnn's "piers morgan live." powell saluted the president for reversing the economic downturn and his work on other issues, including health care reform and national security. hours after his initial comment, john sununu released a statement saying he respects powell's endorsement. this election is shaping up to be the most expensive in american history. nations for president obama and republican challenger mitt romney have passed the $2 billion mark. that number is for mostly private donations. it also includes funds from political committees that have come to be known as super pacs that have flooded the airways with political advertising. here's an interesting thought. when it comes to campaign spending to get your vote, the campaigns each spend about $5. the federal election commission

says the campaigns spend more than $2.3 million every day during election season. when you tally up the number of registered voters, that means the obama campaign spends about $5.33 for each voter while the romney campaign spends about $4.81. the fairfax democratic committee is issuing a warning. they say they've received several reports of voting machines malfunctioning and switching ballots to the opposing candidate. according to "the washington post," community leaders say between 8 and 15 people have come to complain about the problem. they believe it's a glitch and not a voter fraud scheme. fairfax election officials say they're aware of two such cases, but they believe both cases were human error. they advise any voter concerned that something's gone wrong is ask an election officer for help before submitting their vote. congressman jim moran is talking about the comments that forced his son to resign from the campaign. hidden camera video from the

group veritas shows patrick moran talking about how someone could vote illegally in virginia. the congressman says in a statement, "i know that my son's intention was to deflect the line of questioning by this trained political operative bent on goating him into a specific response. i know patrick will come out of this tough situation a better man for it." police in leesburg are investigating a suspicious death. officers found the woman inside an apartment along edwards ferry road northeast just before 1:00 this morning after the woman's family could not get in touch with her for a few days. we're told the victim was in her early 20s. police are not saying how she died. >> news 4's melissa mollet at the live desk. update on the suicide many booing we've been following for you this morning. we have brand new video just into the news room a few minutes ago, if we can roll that for you. this video was taken just moments after the attack. you can see the dust settling

and people kind of limping away. this attack happened in northern afghanistan. reports now say at least 41 are dead, 5 of them are children. dozens are critically injured after this attack the aa mosque. they were graeathered to pray o the first day of the muslim holiday. the governor and police chief were there, but we also hear they were not injured. at the live desk, melissa mollet, news 4. 5:38 is our time right now. our big story today, of course, hurricane sandy. brand new models this morning bring it closer to us. tom is can traitracking the tim this system. what makes the sleep number store different?

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"and what do you do?" "oh, i sell insurance like no one else." "oh, that's nice." "thank you." now, that's progressive. call or click today. good morning. time for weather and traffic. storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein with the latest on sandy. it's a category 1 hurricane now moving north of the about ham as. it has winds of 80 miles an hour, traveling northwest at 15 miles an hour. it will stay at that strength and that track but then take a turn northeast during the day tomorrow. then sunday, monday, tuesday, and wednesday taking a turn north and west, coming very close to our region and bringing wind and rain that will likely cause scattered power outages. expect extended power outages through much of the week next

week. here's our hour by hour forecast for the day. up around 60 still by 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. and clouds and maybe patchy drizzle l. then by noontime, cloudy, upper 60s. maybe near 70 briefly during the afternoon, still staying mostly cloudy through the afternoon. a look the asandy's impact and seven-day outlook in ten minutes. now a look at traffic with danella. good morning. >> good morning. first 4 traffic looking really good. roads starting to slow down. looking good as far as no accidents, but seeing just a bit of volume 270 southbound near 109. getting close to clarksburg getting slow. let's head over to i-66 heading eastbound at the bypass picking up volumes. no major delays. clear to centerville. and fairfax county parkway trying to make your way to the beltway, nice and clear. 57 miles an hour. we may be bracing for a hurricane, but one area is getting ready for snow. [ male announcer ] if barack obama is re-elected,

what will the next four years be like? one: the debt will grow from $16 trillion to $20 trillion. two: 20 million americans could lose their employer-based health care. three: taxes on the middle class will go up by $4,000. four: energy prices will continue to go up. and five: $716 billion in medicare cuts that hurt current seniors. five reasons we can't afford four more years of barack obama.

i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

and this is maryland. of barack obama. teacher: this is west virginia, pennsylvania, delaware. every year marylanders spend five hundred and fifty million gaming at casinos in these other states. question seven will build a new casino and bring table games to baltimore... generating hundreds of millions for schools. and that money has to go to education. it's the law. so vote for question seven. so we can stop spending all that money here, and keep maryland money in classrooms like mine.

tracking hurricane sandy. right now the storm is moving out of the bahamas, and she is heading this way. sandy has the potential to make a major impact to the east coast from virginia up through new england starting this weekend. for the latest on hurricane sandy and what your family needs to know to prepare, download our weather app. search nbc washington weather on itunes or the android market. we've been talking so much about sandy that it's almost easy to forget that winter is around the corner. that's why you might see plows on the road today long before

the season's first snowflakes actually fall. news 4's megan mcgrath joins us live from prince george's county where crews are getting ready. >> good morning, aaron. a lot of folks in prince george's county are going to be doing a double take. they're going to be out at the curb grabbing a newspaper and see one of these. one of the large plow trucks. you can see they're fully outfitted this morning. they're doing a dry run. there's no snow in the forecast. they do this every year, kind of a practice run before we actually get into the snow season. they want to make sure that everything is operational, everything is in working order, and that's what they've been doing here this morning. then the drivers go out on their actual runs. they do their normal routes just to make sure that everything is okay, that there aren't any potholes in the way, that there aren't any manhole covers that might hook on the plow. just want to make sure that everything is a-okay. and they're also doing something a little bit different this year. i'm joined by susan hubbard, spokesperson with the department of public works. kind of talk about, first of all, what today's exercise is

about. >> today's specific exercise is to allow the staff to get refamiliar with their routes, to check the communication equipment that we have, to make sure that our new abl, which is an automatic vehicle locator system, to make sure that it sends the information back to us and just make sure everything is ready so that we can service the roads. >> very quickly. you're looking for hot spots with respect to sandy too, right? >> absolutely. it's interesting that this folded into this, but it's working out great for our staff. they're identifying any problems -- storm drains, trees, or anything -- even though staff has been working for the last day or two to address those things. it worked out great for prince george's. >> all right. thanks so much for joining us this morning. they are out on the roads now. don't be surprised if you see a plow in your neighborhood. reporting live in prince george's county, megan mcgrath, news 4. aaron, back over to you. people in favor of expanded gambling in maryland will rally today at the proposed casino site.

yesterday a group proposing the plan held a rally in forest heights. supporters say the campaign against question 7 is misleading. supporters of the d.r.e.a.m. act are trying to drum up support on college campuses. they held a rally at university of maryland and prince george's community college. the d.r.e.a.m. act would allow all maryland residents to pay instate tuition regardless of immigration status. supporters say it will create more highly educated residents who will earn more and pay more in taxes. some opponents say they can't afford to give instate tuition to that many students. today family and friends of former senator george mcgovern will say their final good-byes. funeral services for the longtime south dakota senator and one-time presidential candidate will be held in sioux falls. yesterday joe biden attended mcgovern's viewing followed by a prayer service. mcgovern died at the age of 90.

louis farrakhan will be in our area today. the longtime leader of the nation of islam is set to speak at bowie university. organizers want to challenge the students' ideaologys. and one group wants to protect deer in rock creek park. the group in defense of animals is going to court to prevent the national park service from killing white tail deer. the population can be controlled without having to kill any animals. the park service plans to use sharp shooters and bow hunters to thin out the population. consider this when you get behind the wheel. sometimes it can be tough. there's a lot of traffic. >> yes, that is the case. let's talk about the weather. or do we want to talk about deer? are we still talking about deer? your odds of hitting a deer. >> apparently, the odds of hitting a deer is in 1 in 114 in maryland. you're more likely to hit a deer in virginia, 1 in 102.

in d.c., you're more likely to hit a opossum than a deer. >> if you didn't know, now you know. tom kierein has the forecast. >> good morning. we are tracking sandy. storm team 4 on it. we'll be here all day long. i'm here through the morning hours until noon. and through the afternoon into the evening, veronica and doug will be here. since you went to bed, we've had three track updates. i'm going to show you the very latest one. right now it is north of the bahamas, packing winds of 80 miles an hour. category 1 hurricane maintaining that strength today off of florida. taking a bit of a turn toward the northeast following the gulfstream. then unfortunately, this is the very latest track. this is as of wednesday a position here. it does look like it's going to come our way here and feeling the effects of it beginning sunday. then it's going to slow ray down as it gets inland. then it's just going to kind of sit here and spin away with gusty winds and gusts of rain,

and that extended period, unfortunately, is going to bring us big problems. this is the timing. sunday this is the red zone of potential strong winds and heavy rain. it it does look like southern maryland, lower eastern shore, southeastern virginia. then sunday evening, that risk zone of the high impact zone coming right over our metro area. most of virginia, most of maryland being affected as it does move inland. and the biggest effects of this storm are going to be in the storm of strong winds. we have continual gusts off and on for 60 miles an hour for days. that will bring down tree limbs and power outages. right now low clouds around the region. little patchy drizzle. watch out for that. areas in light green 60s. so much of the region in the 60s. not going to warm up with a lot of clouds around. storm team 4 four-day forecast into the weekend.

cloudy saturday. up in the upper 60s. should be good for aids walk washington and then sunday for the marine corps marathon. in the morning, a few showers, then the heavier rains and heaviest winds sunday night, off and on monday, monday night into tuesday, and gusty winds, turning much cooler next week. a look at first 4 traffic with danella. good morning. >> good morning. thanks, tom. let's start off with a look at the rails. checking travel speeds of the rails, not seeing any reported delays. if you're jumping on the rails this morning, good commute for you, nice and clear. heading into virginia, let's talk delays. they're minor. good news. heading northbound from triangle. sluggish in that area, it is stop and go. as you get closer to 234, nice and smooth. crossing the occoquan river bridge, that's where you're starting to see many volume as continue northbound. in this area, as you get closer to the beltway, volume is increasing. you're getting by without major delays. let's talk about them. you're at 48 miles per hour,

just a bit under speed. 29 minutes from quantico to the beltway. traveling i-95 in maryland, nice and clear between the baltimore beltway and capital beltway, both directions. eun, no incidents to report. >> danella, thank you. the volatile facebook stock may be in danger of taking another tumble. on monday, the social media giant will get to sell shares of the stock when the company went public. that has the potential to spark a big selloff. facebook stock dropped sharply following public offering in may, but it's stabilized in recent weeks around $20 a share. one of the country's largest cell phone companies lost hundreds of thousands of customers in recent months. sprint/nextel said it lost 423,000 subscribers from july to september. millions switched to other carriers when the company failed to sign them onto the sprint network. 5:54.

a big day in the technology industry as microsoft rolls out its newest operating system. cnbc's shartia brantley has more on that story. microsoft is rolling out its new operating system, windows 8, today. and one of the company's biggest product launch ins years, microsoft is opening 32 temporary pop-up stores just for the holidays to promote and sell windows 8, which features faster boot-up times and connection to wi-fi service. windows 8 is designed to run off a variety of devices such as pcs, laplaptops, smartphones, a the new surface tablet. more than 1 billion pcs worldwide currently run windows, but 90% of consumers and businesses may wait at least a year before making the switch to windows 8. and apple stock could lose some of its shine today. the company reported quarterly earnings last night that missed wall street forecasts.

apple sold nearly 27 million iphones, but ipad sales fell short of expectations. the company's holidays forecast is also well below analyst estimates. that may be due partly to the fact that apple is now producing several devices, including the ipad mini and the ipad 4, and manufacturing costs are outpacing what it's making off of those items. we'll keep an eye on that. >> shartia brantley, thank you. it's one of the highlights of the holiday season. boo at the zoo kicks off tonight. this is the 14th year for the halloween festivities at the national zoo. it allows kids a safe atmosphere to trick or treat and see animals at the same time. don't feed them candy, though. they're not allowed to have any chocolate. boo at the zoo runs today through sunday 5:30 to 8:30. tickets available online or at the zoo. proceeds go to friends of the national zoo funds. while we're talking about halloween, nbc has a treat for

you. >> i didn't mean for me to be a surprise. >> i meant for you to be a surprise. >> it's the munsters. they're back in mockingbird lane, a remake of the classic 1960s sitcom. this 2012 version does not feature the laugh track you may remember from way back when, but it does feature a whole lot of special effects. this one features jerry o'connell, portia di rossi, and eddie izzard. >> should be fun. getting ready for halloween. >> coming up this morning at 6:00, he lives in one of the most popular addresses in the district. we'll show you what some locals think president obama is ignoring them.

we're keeping a close eye on hurricane sandy. right now the category 1 storm is moving out