looks. traveling 66 out interest haymarket, so far nice and clear, not seeing any road work. checking for construction, no accidents, no incidents to report. as you continue traveling 66 outside the beltway, it's clear inside. the same story to tell. here is a live look at the parkway. your drive time eastbound. let's do that right now from the beltway, the g.w. parkway is an 11-minute drive. we'll check the rails in ten minutes. happening today president obama makes a big speech at one local college. the president heads to prince george's county where he'll talk about his affordable care act which right now is in the cross hairs of a lot of lawmakers on capitol hill. news 4's megan mcgrath is in largo. meg megan, good morning. >> reporter: the affordable care act is set to kick in october 1. it's controversial. there's been a lot of political wrangling surrounding it including efforts to it defund

it. today president obama is going to take his message to the people and give a speech here. during that speech the president will outline the key components and explain what it means for middle class americans. now the speech isn't for several more hours. at 6:00 the white house is expected to release more information about the specifics of what the president will touch on during that speech that, again, will happen at 6:00 this morning. we will bring you those details coming up at 6:02. reporting live, megan mcgrath, news 4. eun, back to you. meantime lawmakers this morning getting ready for a plan to pass a budget and avoid a government shutdown. last week the republican-controlled house passed the budget that virtually defunded the new health care law. with that bill expected to fail, the house now drawing up a new plan that would instead raise the debt limit. that, though, could only delay some problems.

lawmakers have another deadline october 17 where the country could default on its loans. this could be a historic day in the u.s.' relationship with iran. secretary of state john kerry will meet with the foreign minister in new york. they're supposed to discuss restarting talks over iran's nuclear program. these will be the highest level talks between the two countries in years. ir iran's new president has said he would like to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program in three to six months. 5:03 now. this morning republican can ken cuccinelli and democrat terry c mcauliffe both say they won the debate last night in mclean. they clashed on several issues. our northern virginia bureau chief julie carey and i both moderated the debate. >> it's been analyze d and foun to fwroe about 58,000 jobs if we can fully implement it. it will include lowering the personal income tax to 5%.

the business income tax to 4%. >> we've all seen the nuls. we know what his tax plan would do to the local community. what it would mean to fairfax county to be losing this revenue, what it would mean to sharon and fairfax county the loss for teachers, in a time we should be investing in our teachers. >> the candidates will square off next month at virginia tech. the libertarian candidate was not part of the debate last night. our northern virginia bureau reporter david culver did speak to robert sarvis. he said they can did little more than recite talking points. neither offered any ideas or solutions to the challenges facing virginians. much more on nbcwashington.com. you can read exactly what the candidates said. we've spoposted a complete transcript on the main page.

our tom sherwood will be there when mayor vincent gray pick the next cfo. tom was the first to report the mayor is choosing this man, jeff dewitt, a cfo of phoenix now. if the d.c. council confirms him, dewitt will succeed natwar gandhi. the c fo is in charge of overseeing the district's $11 billion budget. parents, you might want to pay attention to how much caffeine your kids are consuming. too much could stunt their growth. plus, a developing story this hornung in los angeles after an arsonist targets several businesses. also ahead, a little too close for comfort. the dramatic scene after lightning strikes at a busy football stadium. good morning. storm team 4 radar showing a few sprinkles well south of the metro area. probably going to say south of washington this morning. washington this morning. areas that might get a f

i'm terry mcauliffe, candidate for governor, and i sponsored this ad. for 30 years i've worked as an obgyn, my job is to protect the health of women. so i'm particularly offended by ken cuccinelli. cuccinelli wants to make all abortion illegal ... ... even in cases of rape and incest.

... even to protect a woman's health. i want a governor who's focused on schools and creating jobs, not someone who wants to do my job. who's ken cuccinelli to interfere in the lives of women across virginia? in news for your health this morning, a new study says caffeine could be keeping your child's brain from developing properly. of swiss scientists say young adults' caffeine consumption has soared over 70%. they believe it alters a child's sleep and their brain. researchers say adolescence is a time when problems in

development with lead to schizophrenia, anxiety and drug use as well as personality disorders. this next story is for anyone who has been on a diet. you may get thinner but it may be detrimental to your mental capacity. according to harvard university obsessive calorie counting clog up a dieter's brain. the it can affect our ability to carry out tasks. this is why i hate diets. >> something to consider there. you can't just think about you want to be thinner -- >> it doesn't mean i should eat two chocolate doughnuts in a sitting -- >> one. all things in moderation. >> i agree with that. coming up on ten minutes after the hour now and we've started the morning off a tad warmer than usual maybe because of that plblanket over the district. >> storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein tells us more of what to expect in the weather. >> we have a cloud blanky that's

keeping us warmer than it has been the last several mornings. right now in the mid-50s around much of the region. storm team 4 radar showing a weak disturbance just to the north of charlottesville getting light rain there but further to the north that disturbance is pro-tuesdaying just a few sprinkles along the potomac near mason neck. all this should stay south. we should get some sunshine breaking out. by them upper 60s to near 70 and partly cloudy. by midafternoon we should be peaking in the mid-70s. your seven-day outlook at 5:21. danella, how is traffic? >> the rails in the first alert traffic center. all running on time the over to the roadways, though, a report of a water main break. we have tony tull on the scene of this water main break in northwest. so traveling to 3100 block of

water street. please be aware of that and use caution. hopefully i'll be able to come back with a live picture. up to i-270. meantime folks traveling southbound from urban a heading to rockville, your travel lanes are open, no accidents to report in either direction. aaron and eun? danella, thank you. if you're the parent of a newborn, you probably know it's natural for babies to cry. coming up, though, how those cries could soon help a child avoid future health problem. >> the role former president george h.w. bush played in the marriage of a same sex couple.

i'm melissa mollet at the live desk. police in l.a. are searching for the arsonist who lit multiple fires overnight. this is just into the newsroom. take a look at smoke and flames

he here. several businesses burned to the ground. the suspect, they say, lit as many as six fires. this happened along the popular ventura boulevard. they are still searching for that person this morning. they think the person might have initially tried lighting fires in trash cans and then ended up spreading again as many as six fires in los angeles overnight. at the live desk, melissa mollet, news 4. 5:15 now. a team of investigators is inside the nairobi mall where militants waged a deadly four-day attack. this comes as al shabaab, the group behind the attack, says the people killed were a, quote, legitimate target. the group said this in an e-mail to the associated press. the extremist group confirmed witness accounts that the gunman freed people who were muslim. one survivor said they played dead by using the blood of a dying teenager beside her. >> i would love of to know who

he is and everything. his blood probably protected me -- his blood protected me from getting probably more injured in the attack. >> the death toll from the attack stands at least 72. at least 71 are still missing this morning. the u.s. state department has renewed a worldwide travel alert for americans. the state department says there is no specific threat but there is -- i'm sorry, the mass shooting there in kenya. the state department says there is mounting intelligence that terrorist groups may be planning attacks against western targets. americans are warned to remain vigilant in public places both here and abroad. new this morning, the death toll from the earthquake in pakistan continues to rise. right now tuesday's 7.7 magnitude quake to blame. the quake leveled houseses and other buildings and has made rescue efforts difficult. military troops helping crews

now search for survivors. a connecticut commission says police must release 911 tapes from the sandy hook school shooting. n newtown police refused to turn over the tapes citing a new state law that prohibits the release of some information in homicide cases. that law was adopted in response to the school shooting, but the state's freedom of information commission says the law does not protect 911 calls. they say the calls will likely not be released anytime soon. here is one of the dangers of conducting a television interview in public. an anti-nuclear protester started fighting with one of the former british prime minister gordon brown's former advisers yesterday. his publisher grabbed the protester and moved him out of the way and the interview continued. this morning we've learned more about the victims of this deadly plane crash outside of chicago. the small plane went down just outside a bank yesterday afternoon.

police there say the plane hit a tree, a light pole, and several vehicles sparking a huge fire. the woman who was a passenger on the plane died. the pilot was taken to the hospital. the faa is investigating. 5:18 and right now a commuting nightmare building. tens of thousands of people in new york city are trying to figure out a different way to get to work today. a power failure causing a big problem for a very busy rail line. that line runs from manhattan to stanford, connecticut. some passengers took substitute trains. they only hold 10% of the normal passenger load. the problem could last as long as three weeks. and new this morning, the population onboard the international space station has doubled. three astronauts including one american and two russians arrived at the outpost just a few hours ago. they will live there for six months. and in november they will receive the olympic are torch for the 2014 winter games in sochi. the two russian cosmonauts will

do a space walk with the torch. let's check in with melissa mollet at the live desk with breaking news. this is just in. nbc news reporting a mortar round has hit on or near, they say, the u.s. embassy which is empty right now in damascus, syria. a mortar round on or near the u.s. embassy in damascus. the russian embassy compound was hit a couple days ago on september 22. from the live desk, melissa mollet, news 4. you know the show must go on. apparently nothing shakes one high school band in orlando. take a look. whoa. as you could see the lightning strike startled everyone on the field including the football players. the man who recorded the video said moments after the show ended and he turned the camera off it started to pour. it might have been an omen perhaps. this video was taken on friday,

september 13. i'll tell you what, though, from an instrumental perspective that percussion fit right in with the performance. it sounded great. >> maybe there was some higher power. >> being a part of the performance there. all right, coming up on 5:21 right now, there is a picture of a cloudy sky here for us this morni morning. no thunder or lightning to worry about, though. let's check in with tom. notre dame fight song, one of the lines is shake down the thunder from the sky and this morning no thunder. we do have light rain showing up here in the storm team 4 weather center. near charlottesville and that is a rotation in the atmosphere, a weak disturbance in the mid level and that's going to be tracking east through the morning. so areas east of charlottesville to as far north as fredericksburg and perhaps into stafford may get a few sprinkles here between now and around 10:00 or so this morning. further north we are getting a few scattered sprinkles showing

up on radar. that's right on the stafford -- rather the prince william and the fairfax county line right near woodbridge getting a few sprinkles there and there is another patch of maybe a few sprinkles trying to reach the ground south of manassas and prince william county. through the morning we'll stay cloudy and a little sun should break out. your forecast being for the day hour by hour and a nice warm-up this morning near 70 by noon. by mid afternoon into the mid-7s with a partly cloudy sky. so we'll get some sunshine breaking out around noontime and during the afternoon. then tomorrow storm team 4 four day forecast gorgeous on friday. morning lows 50s. afternoon highs mid-70s. we'll keep that going through your weekend. the storm team 4 seven-day outlook showing this pattern remaining dry into next week. saturday and sunday, both days, mornings in the 50s, afternoon highs with sunshine into the mid and upper 70s, just delightful,

perfect weather for outdoor activities and then on monday back to work and school, warmer. pa partly cloudy. high near 80. tuesday, wednesday each day, too, highs around 80 degrees. i'm back in ten minutes with a hometown forecast. danella is here now looking at your thursday morning traffic. good morning, tom. well, in the first alert traffic center, still keeping my eye on the water main break. this is in northwest d.c. water street right now is closed between irving and kenyan street. the street closure will last until vdot arrives on the scene and puts some cones out for folks. so, for now, water street shut down in both directions. let's head over to the southeast/southwest freeway. nice and clear for you. taking 295 a live look as you travel to 95 from oxon hill. traveling from the beltway as you continue northbound heading to southeast d.c. and continuing northbound to greenbelt really in both directions no accidents on 295. brunswick east, 870.

you know this train. five minutes. not bad. metro, vre, they're not reporting delays at this point. aaron and eun? thanks, danella. a glitch appears to be to blame for some apple mac mishaps. some drivers in alaska trying to get to fair banks international a airport had been finding themselves on the runway. the device on iphones and i pads directs drivers to the end of the tarmac although on two occasionses drivers have kept going. no one has been hurt. no word from apple what's behind the glitch. it is the first of its kind. testing being done on the first thought controlled bionic leg. doctors say they have rewired the nerves zach otter would have used if he still had his real leg attaching them to a different set of muscles. and when he thinks, walks upstairs, the leg instantly responds. >> it's a tiny computer on the leg and it listens to the

electricity that zach's muscles generate when he walks and it listens to sensors that are in the leg and it figures all of this out at a near instantaneous speed. >> wow. the scientists hope this bionic technology could become commercially available in the next three to five years. it's natural for babies to cry but it's hard to figure out why sometimes. researchers are now trying to see if those cries could could offer clues into his or her future health. scienti scientists are using a new tool called an acoustic cry and lieser. now why didn't they have this when my kids were babies? depending on the pitch, researchers believe they can determine early on if the baby will develop autism or other delays. this morning a lesbian couple in maine has the form earp president's signature on their marriage license. according to "the washington post" former president george h.w. bush and his wife, barbara, served as witnesses for the couple on saturday. one of the brides post this had photo on facebook of mr. bush signing the license.

bonnie clements, co-owner of a general store in kennebunk, maine. the longtime friends of the bush family. the america's cup will stay right here in america. oracle team usa beat emirates new zealand in the 17th and decisive race of this international yachting competition. this was a historic comeback. n new zealand led by eight races just a week ago. it only had to win one more to capture the title. the u.s. team never gave up and won eight straight races although i'm told there's only one american on the american team. a baseball player is taking to twitter to apologize for his behavior which almost led to a major brawl. carlos gomez of the milwaukee brewers yelled at atlanta braves pitcher as he circled the bases after hitting a home run last night. some of the pitcher's teammates took exception to the taunts. gomez tweeted that the way he acted was unacceptable.

he let his emotions get the best of him. i'm not sure if i'm saying the other player's name correctly. there's the video of the brawl. >> probably not an apology in there anywhere. i accept responsibility. move on. well, the war over health care remains in the spotlight here in the district. >> the local stop president obama is making as he tries to build support for his health care law and what republicans are doing to stop it. the chilling new video of the navy yard shooter as we learn the company that employed him has lost its contract. and some of you are waking up to morning showers, but will the rain impact your afternoon plans? your out the door forecast next with weather and traffic on the 1s. 5:26. >> stay connected with us online or on your smartphone. you can follow us on facebook or twitter.

looking at the stories making headlines at 5:29. ken cuccinelli and terry mcauliffe are both declaring victory after their first debate in the race to be virginia's next governor. we will be there today as d.c. mayor vincent gray introduces his choice to be the city's next chief financial officer. and hope dogs will be greeting workers at the washington navy yard today providing comfort in the wake of the mass shooting. we'll have much more on those stories throughout the morning. first, good morning to you. i'm eun yang. >> and i'm aaron gilchrist. welcome to "news 4 today."

right now dozens are without water in northwest d.c. because of a water main break. an eight-inch main burst between irving and kenyon. about 18 homes and two 12 unit apartment buildings impacted here. d.c. water tells us it will take them between six and eight hours to repair that main and get the water back on. let's go to danella now for a check on the rest of the morning commute. good morning, aaron. here is what we're tracking for folks traveling the gw parkway. a clear commute for you. still early. out to the dulles toll road right now, again, as you are traveling in this area clear as well. travel from the dulles international airport heading to the beltway in both directions you're clear. a live look at 28. your drive time just 15 minutes from sully to the capital beltway, not bad at all. now i'll send it over to tom. good morning. storm team 4 radar showing a few scattered sprinkles south of the metro area over the parched

landscape north of charlottesville heading due east but there are a few sprinkles further north showing up here on storm team 4 radar right now on the prince which wiilliam and f county line right near woodbridge along 95. you may have a few sprinkles there, a few sprinkles here southwest of manassas as well. these are generally heading off to the east and not the a lot at all as we're sort of getting into dry conditions. temperatures right now are generally in the 50s most locations. shenandoah valley into the mountains most locationses there. now upper 40s to near 50 degrees. we'll stay cool through 8:00 and then by 10:00 in the mid-60s. a lot of clouds through the morning. sunshine break iing out around noontime and by then we should be near 70 degrees. hometown forecast hyattsville, prince george's county, partly sunny by noon. near 70. a look at the rest of the day coming in ten minutes. back to you. all right, tom, thank you.

and in just a few hours prince george's county will be the backdrop for president obama's fight for the health care law. the president will talk about the affordable care act this morning at prince george's community college and this comes at a crucial time for that law. tracie potts on capitol hill right now with more on what we might hear today. go good morning to you. >> reporter: the day enroll opens but a lot of people don't get it. they don't understand them. they don't even know if they're eligible. the president's task today is to try to in a very simple way at pg community college explain what these exchanges are and how they can benefit people. this was a big part of the health care law that states would offer, exchanges so people who don't have insurance, if your employer doesn't offer it, if you are in the marketplace buying it on your own, people could come to a central place. and because so many people would be buying through these exchanges the prices would be lower. that's what the president needs to try to explain today. he also needs to explain the

process. he talked a little bit about that in new york with president clinton the other day saying essentially you could shop around for health insurance just like you shop around for a cheap plane ticket online. so that's what we expect to hear from the president in largo today. here on capitol hill this whole idea of paying for the health law which includes the exchanges has been attached to the budget and the government shutdown. it looks like the senate is now going to detach that and they will end up telg with that in the debt ceiling debate later this month. >> tracie potts on the hill for us, thank you. when the new health care law system launches next week, d.c. health link, the marketplace for d.c. residents, will not be fully up and running by tuesday. while you will be able to go online and use the site it won't be able to tell you right away what kind of coverage you might be eligible for. it's not expected to delay when you can be covered, though. colorado and oregon also say

their online exchanges won't be ready in time for tuesday's launch. it is now 5:34. to melissa mollet with breaking news. just in, 14 people dead, 40 hurt in a triple l bombing north of baghdad. an outdoor market at avilleage there. the area packed with shoppers. two bombs exploded at the entrance of the market and then one other one earlier, about an hour earlier, another bombing happened in a market south of baghdad killing seven people. at the live desk, melissa mollet, news 4. we'll find out more about a deadly police shooting in northern virginia. the alexandria police department will release the results of its internal investigation of the sellers shooting. seven officers fired more than 30 rounds at sellers in february. even though sellers did not fire any shots. prosecutors say the officers acted in self-defense. right now a diplomat is in the hospital after getting hit by a car in northwest washington.

this accident happened around 9:30 last night at the intersection of 36th and garfield streets. the driver of the car stayed on the scene. so far no charges have been filed. secret service officers are investigating. new developments this morning surrounding the mass shooting at the navy yard. nbc news has learned that the subcontractor that employs the gunman, aaron alexis, has been fired by hewlett-packard. they hired the experts on a job to refresh and replace computers at the navy yard n. a letter from hp to the ceo of the experts they say they have lost all confidence in the experts ability to meet its contractual obligations and serve hp as a subcontractor. the can company cited the experts quote failure to respond appropriately to his mental health issues. they say the company is disappointed in hp's decision. he also says hp had its own site manager who supervised alexis. that manager was reportedly with

alexis when he thought he heard voices in his rhode island hotel room last month. we want to you check out this video of alexis roaming the halls of building 197 armed with the sawed off shotgun. an update on the investigation, agents say a backpack left in the bathroom contained some clues as to why alexis opened fire on innocent people. they say they found electronic files that suggested alexis believed he was being controlled by extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves. he believes he had been subjected to them for three months. he also indicated he was prepared to die during this attack. workers at the navy yard will get a unique pick me up this morning. hope dogs will be greeting employees in parking lots around the navy yard as they arrive today. these pictures are from a visit the dogs made to the navy yard yesterday after a prayer service for employees. hope is an animal assisted crisis response team that uses dogs to help people cope with traumatic events.

♪ people of different faiths united last night to remember those who lost their lives at the navy yard. a vigil was held at the mt. carmel baptist church in northwest washington. mayor vincent gray was among those who spoke at the prayer service. a xhcomedian making headlin in the district this morning after he allegedly attacked a washington reporter. plus, the changes being made to the purple line route to apiece one of the project's biggest opponents. also ahead, how this unusual creation is helping rid one community of a fowl problem. good morning. i'm storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein. right now storm team 4 radar showing a few sprinkles north of charlottesville. looks like they're tracking east. i'll tell you areas that may be impacted by this in a couple of minutes.

beep-bop-boop-bop boop-beep. [monotone] she says, "switch to progressive and you could save hundreds." call or click today. take a look at this contraption, this orange kite looking thing is called a goose-na it goose-nator used to shoo away birds hoping to keep canadian geese and their droppings away from parks. my kids would have a ball with that thing.

>> one of your kids would do fine. you don't need it. just send your 3-year-old out there and the birds will take off. save some money on construction. 5:41 your time now on this thursday morning and we want to get a look at weather and traffic on the 1s. tom? is we have a lot of those geese around here, too. a few sprinkles tracking east through the morning so if you live naer fredericksburg or perhaps near culpepper you might have a few sprinkles. just to your south over the next several hours to about maybe 9:00, 10:00 this morning, also a few sprinkles right now just south of washington near woodbridge and west of manassas, those are tending to dissipate. looking cloudy through the morning hours. should be near 70 during the afternoon reaching mid-70s. a look at friday and your weekend in ten minutes. how is traffic, danella? checking on a couple incidents, the first one in northwest, keep in mind the water main break shutting down water street between irving

street and kenyon street. over to i-66 eastbound at fairfax county parkway. a report of a small object on fire. i am seeing eastbound volume pick up in the area. chopper 4 is en route. i'll be back shortly with a live look. thank you. a costly mistake by the prince george's county school district. why the district was forced to return more than a million dollars to the state. also ahead, the nine-month journey coming to an end today here in the district. the cause this retired marine is trying to raise awareness for. and kenya says the same group that held hostages at a nairobi mall has struck again. nairobi mall has struck again. the new attack

today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. i was honored to serve as governor of virginia.

we brought folks together in richmond to focus on creating jobs and getting results. that's the virginia way. and that's why i'm backing terry mcauliffe for governor. terry won't let ideological battles get in the way of making progress. terry will work with democrats, republicans, and independents to create jobs and move virginia forward. it's important for virginia that we elect terry mcauliffe as our governor. i'm terry mcauliffe, candidate for governor, and i sponsored this ad.

15 before the hour now. syrian president bashar al assad says the rebels were behind last month's deadly chemical weapons attack. he told venezuela's state run tv

network that rebels have admitted they brought chemical weapons into syria. assad also warned that the rebels or terrorists, as he calls them, would attack any united nations inspectors who come to dismantle the chemical arsenal. iraq's foreign minister urging countries not to arm syrian rebels. he warns that those weapons could wind up in the hands of extremists or terrorist groups. the u.s. sent weapons to the opposition groups a few weeks ago. it's also arranged for anti-tank weapons to be sent to rebel fighters who have already embedded. what a group of senators want to do to keep the nsa from spying on you. introduced legislation yesterday to limit the agency's eavesdropping program. they'll discuss the intelligence committee hearing. the legislation has a constitutional advocate to represent the public in the secret court that oversees the program.

today friends and family will say good-bye to a woodbridge man who was murdered. kenny diaz was stabbed to death over the weekend. eight people are now charged with abduction. one suspect, diandra samuals is charged with murder. they say she stabbed him after diaz confronted her about a trend being robbed. today's viewing will be held from 2:00 until 4:00 and 5:00 until 9:00. diaz will be laid to rest tomorrow. attorney general eric hold er will meet with teenagers from around the country. he'll deliver the opening remarks at the national summit on preventing youth violence in arlington. teenagers as well as the police chief, mayors and school leaders are in town for the conference which wraps up tomorrow. new this morning a popular comedian in a d.c. jail over accusations he punched a reporter in the face. dan nainan was at the d.c. improv. he approached daily beast reporter josh rogin over some tweets he sent out about his

performance. that's when witnesses say nainan punched rogin several times. rogin tweeted it saying dan nainan punched me in the face and that he had been arrested. the prince george's county man who killed a mother and daughter in their largo home will never get out of jail. jason scott accepted a plea deal. he'll serve two life terms in the 2009 murders of delores and ebony dewitt. scott is already in jail for a series of home invasions. he tracked his victims through computers at ups where he worked. they believe he would have killed again if he wasn't caught. the name of the woman killed yesterday in this apartment high-rise for seniors. deborah lee died when flames ripped through the ninth floor of the leisure world complex. it's not clear how the fire started. damage is estimated around $150,000. prince george's county school

administrators are learning a hard lesson. miss a deadline and pay the price. the county has to return $1.4 million to the state because it didn't approve school construction contracts on time. the money was supposed to pay for improvements at potomac and crossland high schools. they had two years to get everything lined up but missed the may 31st deadline. they will still ask the state for help in upgrades. boasting about virginia high schoolers performance on the s.a.t.s. they received their highest scores ever on 0 the new version of the exams. seniors who graduated last spring scored a 1528 out of 2400, 30 points above the national average. s.a.t. scores in the district were also up. students received a 1400 on average, below the national average but up 18 points from last year. maryland students' s.a.t. scores fell to 1483. and we'll be there today as one

of the most infamous buildings in washington, d.c., begins to be torn down. demolition begins today of the old dunbar high school. it's often criticized as prison like and was replaced by a gleaming new dunbar high school next door. take a look. the new build iing features high-tech classrooms, a new jim nanyways yum and auditorium. the $122 million building also pays tribute to the many black leaders who receive their education there at dunbar. the proposed purple line in maryland is shifting this morning to appease a big opponent of the project. it will be moved 12 feet to the north to better protect clubhouse views and spare four holes that would have been impacted. the country club has long opposed the project. they would drop all opposition. the state plans to use eminent domain along that 16-mile route between be ththesda and montgom

county and new carrollton. in a few hours more about how bad this upcoming flu season could be. several federal agencies will hold a joint news conference at 10:00 this morning. representatives from the department of health and human services, the cdc and the u.s. surgeon general will be on hand for the event. the group will give an outlook for what we can expect. the u.s. senate will hold a hearing on ways to reform the postal service. this comes one day after the po postal service said it's raising the price of first class stamps 3 cents to 49 cents. the postal service has been losing billions of dollars each year. the hearing will look for outside the box ideas to improve its precarious financial position. >> make it 50 cents. 49 -- four pennies now to get a stamp. >> maybe it sound better 49 verse better. >> 50 is easier. that's all i'm saying. >> meteorologist tom kierein is here now. we've had spectacular weather

now. getting a little cold sometimes. >> we have a little blanky over the metro area keeping us warm earp overnight and right now after we had that cloud cover moving in, temperatures are into the 50s but look at the sunset we had last evening as that cloud cover was beginning to move in. beautiful picture from one of my twitter followers taken in damascus, maryland. folks, weather@nbcwashington.com. go gorgeous sunset. love it when you share your weather and nature photos. >> few sprinkles heading off to the east. so fredericksburg, perhaps over to st. mary's county, parts of the northern neck later this morning you may get a few scattered sprinkles. right now getting just a couple of isolated sprinkles just west

of woodbridge right on the county line. just now moving further to the west out of prince william county into eastern fauquier county, just to the east of warrenton. a few scattered sprinkles. a dry sky under the cloud cover. yes, in the 50s. nearby suburbs and the rural areas. the shenandoah valley, many locations there upper 40s. upper 50s near the bay and hour by hour throughout the day today we'll have temperatures quickly climbing. cloud cover breaks up by noontime. partly cloudy during the afternoon. highs reaching the mid-70s. and then a wonderful day. tomorrow highs mid-70s. we'll keep this gorgeous you a it tum weather going into the weekend, too. afternoon highs 70 saturday and sunday. then highs near 80 monday, tuesday, wednesday next week. i'm back in ten minutes with the hometown forecast. here is danella looking at traffic. good morning, tom. in the first 4 traffic center i-95 in virginia. northbound travelers, once you

can get to triangle, when you pass joplin road, your left lane -- two of your left lanes, your delays are right around six miles. folks having to get over to the right lane. again, that's at joplin road. we'll head back over to i-66 eastbound. still seeing reports of something small on fire. i know that sounds sketchy but we have chopper 4 en route to see what's going on. eastbound if you're traveling 66, expect just a brief delay as you make your way through the incident there. now for folks taking the rails, good news here. metro, marc, vre running on or close to schedule. aaron and eun? danella, thank you. another traffic alert this morning if you're driving through loudoun county later today, stay away from waxpool road after the morning rush. it's going to be closed in both directions between loudoun county and pacific boulevard. they are doing utility work there. waxpool will close at about 9:30.

it should reopen by about 10:00. parking in sol d.c. neighborhoods just a few days away from changing. last month we told you how vdo it t is planning to simplify the process of neighborhoods where nonresidents can only park on the street for a few hours. instead of getting a visitors' pass from a police station every household would instead get its owns pass. vdot says current passes will be honored through the end of the year. the plan goes into effect on tuesday. we know what a propose d casino at national harbor could look like. this is the $800 million design developed by mgm. the company says it was inspired by d.c.'s monuments. the entire complex more than 1 million square feet and features an 18-story, 400-room hotel. m mgm is competing with penn national and greenwood. they hope to pick a winning design by the end of the year. metro could run to national harbor if gansler is elected maryland's next governor. he made that pledge in a

campaign speech in prince george's county last night. according to "the washington post," gansler spoke to about 200 people in hyattsville. he said that he wants to establish a law school at the state university. he launched his bid for governor tuesday. he is competing with lieutenant governor anthony brown and delegate messier for the democratic nomination. if you miss a redskins game you'll soon be able to watch the highlights. i use that word loosely. you can watch them on twitter. the nfl has reached a deal that would allow social media service to show highlights from games. it is still not clear when you will be able to start using that new service. think you could survive without the internet? believe it or not, many americans do and don't seem too upset about it. 15% of american adults don't surf the web. only 8% of them say they want to use the internet. another 9% say they go online outside of their home.

i remember the time before the internet. >> you do? >> i do. you had to go to the library to do research. >> index cards. pick up a book. >> remember the dewy decimal system? a retired marine is end iina nine-month run across america right here in washington. >> and he's doing it for a good cause, to raise money for returning veterans. sergeant o'toole's facebook page shows him starting his trek in oceanside. he's run almost 4,000 miles. 11 states. he's raised more than $200,000 from three veterans organizations. this morning he will run from arlington national cemetery to the capitol. >> amazing. what an incredible journey. i hope he gets a warm welcome today. happening today, president obama speaks about the health care law at prince george's community college. information on the specifics he'll discuss. plus your forecast and a look at traffic. [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman,

we've always been on the forefront of innovation. when the world called for speed... ♪ ...when the world called for stealth... ♪ ...intelligence... endurance... affordability... adaptability... and when the world asked for the future. staying ahead in a constantly evolving world. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. right now at 6:00, new information just released about president obama's speech in prince george's county today. the specific details of the health care plan he will discuss plus, right now a water main in northwest washington is shut off. how long before people can use their sinks again. and we are following some breaking news in syria from our

live desk. a mortar round has hit the empty building in damascus. more on that. first, though, meteorologist tom kierein is here to help you get prepared for the day. tom? something weird is falling from the sky south of washington. a little bit of rain of all things. we had to blow the dust off storm team 4 radar and get it going. we're actually picking up a few scattered sprinkles. the whole system is kind of rotating around. it's a mid level weak circulation passing off to the east and so air quas around fredericksburg, south of culpepper and maybe just south of warrenton may get a few scattered sprinkles here over the next several hours. right now much further north. we are getting one little sprinkle along route 1 and 95 in ft. belvoir. just to the east of warrenton right there on the prince william and fauquier county line. temperatures now are in the 50s