right now we have new information on live anthrax samples tent? the mail. i'm aaron gilchrist at the live desk. how the additional anthrax was discovered. i'm barbara harrison. lanes closed on the memorial bridge all in the name of safety. why the work started today could take months. and overcast skies for some of us. when the clouds burn off and what you can expect as far as afternoon storms and downpours are concerned. >> i'm pat lawson muse with new mystery in parts of the south. water rescues, evacuations and more rain. news 4 midday begins right now. we're following a developing story out of utah where more live anthrax samples have been

discovered. there's an army facility there where this originated. you will remember last week we told you about live anthrax samples that had been sent out fee ya via fedex to laboratories in nine different states. now a sample is found that had been irradiated in 2008. think know they have one live batch and they're checking to make sure a shipment from that batch sent to australia doesn't also contain live anthrax. both the army, the department of defense and the cdc now working to make sure no one becomes sick as a result of these samples that have been discovered. that's the latest from the live desk. back to youlert right now. the right lanes in both directions on the arlington memorial bridge are shut down. there's also new weight and pedestrian restrictions. megan mcgrath is live with more on why these lane closures are happening and the impact this will have for drivers out there. megan? >> reporter: barbara engineers have been taking a close look at the memorial bridge since a

routine inspection turned up a problem. last week we had one lane closed down. now the decision was made to close a second lane on the memorial bridge. it a's heavily traveled bridge and these closures could slow people down. another inspection another problem and now another lane closure. memorial bridge is now down a total of two lanes -- one in each direction, for the next six to nine months. >> i think it's going to slow down traffic and longer my commute. it's already long so it will add more time to it. >> reporter: problems with the 83-year-old bridge keep stacking up. the outbound curb lane was closed due to corrosion last week and now engineers have found issues with a secondary support beam prompting the closure of the right lane on the inbound side. a weight restriction is also in place, 10 tons, that's the limit, which means many buses won't be able to cross.

what will it be like? >> well, if you come really early like me not that bad. if you come later it will be hell basically. i mean -- but i guess whatever they have to do. they have to get it fixed. >> reporter: you saw in our video some of those large tour buses were still crossing the memorial bridge despite the weight restriction. i talked to the national parks service, they say they here in an educational phase right now. they're contacting bus companies, advising them to come up with alternative routes and they're not cracking down immediately but they hope to have those heavier vehicles off of the bridge in the next couple of weeks. also strangely, traffic today across the memorial bridge seemed to be lighter than usual. no explanation for that. perhaps people got the word these lane closures were in place. pat, back to you. >> thanks megan. d.c. police need your help figuring out who is behind a deadly shooting on i-295. pedro alvarado and his brother-in-law were on their way to work when someone opened fire on their suv.

it happened around 8:45 yesterday morning near the first exit on 295 in southwest d.c. al varvarado died inside the car, his brother-in-law was shot but survived. the alvarado family says they can't imagine why anyone would do this. the shooting took place in the middle of the morning rush hour so police want to speak with anyone who saw anything. no rest for the weary in oklahoma and texas. flash flood watches are in effect in both states right now. rain caused big problems in central texas overnight. in dallas alone nearly 100 people all believed to be in cars had to be rescued from flooding. take a look we found on twitter. this man was trapped inside his car when it was swept away in the fast-moving floodwaters. he was not hurt though. he spoke with the weather channel's dave malkoff. >> sam eun was inside his brand new bmw when the water came through he was swept away inside of it. he was able to escape but look

at this brand new bmw. he was able to get out through the window because the door wouldn't open up. the water was just moving so fast. >> right now the death toll from the record rain and flooding in texas and oklahoma stands at 25. 14 people are still missing. those numbers could rise since more rain is expected to fall throughout the weekend. amelia, what about our weather? >> right now on storm team 4 radar i'm tracking this lone shower just sitting trying to move north but the mountains preventing it. this will hopefully rain out within the next hour. otherwise clouds across the area around washington and areas to the south. clouds will break up somewhat once we hit 1:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. but overall looking at a mix of clouds and sun. once we 24i9 o'clock, we'll track scattered showers and thunderstorms on the radar. slow moving heavy downpours are possible later today but it will be hit-or-miss activity. not everybody sees rain during the afternoon and early evening hours. mainly dry for your evening. in less than ten minutes, i'll

have a closer look at temperatures. the leader of world cup soccer is calling for unity amid a major corruption scandal. fifa president sepp blatter says it has unleashed a true storm. blatter is running for a fifth term. a straw poll shows he's likely outcry over what u.s. investigators describe as decades of bribery. the nation of qatar is commenting for the first time since the charges cast a shadow over its 2022 world cup. qatar says it conducted its bid with integrity. protesters gathered outside fifa meetings in switzerland. earlier today someone called in a bomb threat. the area was cleared and meetings resumed. the winner of today's fifa election won't face the media until tomorrow morning. right now a live look at the washington monument. it remains closed right now. an electrical issue caused elevator problems and forced the monument to close. a service contractor is working on fixing the problem.

we'll send you a push alert on our nbc washington app as soon as we find out when or if it will open. the alexandria courthouse is closed until further notice because some sort of electrical problem there. says the courthouse could hope later today or maybe not until monday. a new bug that turns prey into zombies? plus apple has a fix for that text message that turns off your telephone and a decision on the danger globs of oily goo may have to beachgoers on the beach this weekend.

just into the news 4 live desk, a solution -- sort of -- a work around to the problem that apple iphones have been having with messages that have been coming in shutting down the phones left me explain the problem. there's a string of arabic characters that can come in a text message to your apple iphone that's choking the phone

and causing it to shut down. so apple has put up this message about how you can work around that issue until it comes up with a permanent fix. it says you should ask siri to read your unread messages and reply to the message you get with that malicious text in it and that once you reply to the message you should swipe left delete the entire message and that should solve the problem for you. apple has said it's very much aware of this issue and they're working on an update they'll push out through the next ios 8 update. until then that work around for you. if you didn't catch it we have it on our web site nbcwashington.com. >> sara final episode, can't wait to hear how it ends. >> very exciting. >> we're following closely what you're clicking on today. "serial" fans listen up. according to buzzfeed creators of the true crime podcast announced there will be a second and third season. the creators are keeping tight-lipped about what to expect but we can tell you it will be back this fall.

renaldo renaldo rey who was known for "friday" and "white man can't jump" died yesterday. rey started his show biz career as a standup comedian. friends and co-stars took to twitter two pay their respects. his 227 co-star jackee harry wrote "rest in peace." the "washington post" is grabbing your attention with the dementor wasp. it may be named after a mythical harry potter creature but this bad boy is real. it turns out -- it turns its prey into zombies. awarding to the world wildlife fund it's one of a new species discovered in the greater mekong region. i'm glad i won't

a developing story now. an entire island in japan has been evacuated after a volcano erupted. take a look at this. mount shindake started spewing black clouds of rock and ash about 14 hours ago. one person suffered minor burns from falling debris but is expected to make a full recovery. a few hours ago, the coast guard helped rescue all 137 residents. japan's pleat lodge japan's meteorological agency says there could be more eruptions over the next couple days. in the next few hours, we'll know whether california beaches can reopen after a mysterious oily goo washed ashore. the substance smarted showing up on wednesday. crews are trying to figure out where it came from. they say it may not be from a recent oil spill in the area. health officials want to make sure all of that tar is removed before they reopen the beaches. contact with oil products can cause irritation to the skin and other health problems. amelia? pat, right now temperatures across the area in the 70s for

the most part mid to upper 70s. 77 in frederick, 76 in washington. to date not as warm as it was yesterday but warmer than normal. it's also muggy outside and it will stay hot and humid right on through the weekend. here's the high temperature in your neighborhood 88 in washington. yesterday our high was 92. 89 for those of you in culpeper. in less than 10 minutes i'll take a closer look at the weekend. rain is more likely on sunday but i can't rule out thunderstorms in spots tomorrow. i'll let you know where coming up. >> all right, amelia. honda, ford bmw and fiat are adding even more cars to the already massive faulty air bag recall. 34 million cars are being recalled in the u.s. if you are not sure if your car is affected by a faulty air bag recall, the government is trying to make it easier for you to get information. with just a few clicks you can see if your specific vehicle is part of the recall. head to safercar.gov/vin and

enter the details of your car. former governor martin o'malley's weekend announcement after the break stay with us. we'll be right back.

some breaking news. an accident on the outer loop of the beltway near braddock road causing big-time delays. we can show you live pictures from our traffic cameras here. what we know at this point is that there's an overturned vehicle near braddock road.

as a result of that traffic right now only getting by in one of the main lanes, the far right lane here. we had heard earlier traffic was being diverted into the express lanes but we know fairfax fire on the scene and at least one lane is getting by on the right side of the road on the outer loop of the beltway. until they get a handle on this accident scene and are able to open up more lanes there, you can follow us on twitter twitter @nbcwashington for an update as the lanes clear up. >> thanks aaron. new today prince william county police are rounding up more than two dozen drug dealers in a county wide raid. only news 4's camera was there as police executed what they dubbed operation growing pains. the four month long investigations focused on dealers selling primarily to high school students and young adults. this search was done on a townhouse in the bristow area. a 21-year-old man was arrested there. 19 suspects are in custody. there are warrants out for seven others. coming up on news 4 at 5:00 and 6:00 julie carey looks at what

police got in their haul yesterday, including a new type of marijuana parents will want to know about. d.c. police need your help in finding a murder suspect in the death of a local reporter. is charnise milton was shot and killed tuesday night. her parents say she was used as a human field when gunfire broke out on alabama southeast. her mother was waiting for a text message from her daughter but it never came. >> at 9:28 she texted me and said "i'm on my way home." i was waiting for her to text me back and let me know if she needed me to pick her up. . we never got the text. >> reporter: police say they are looking for a teenage we are dreadlocks who was last seen riding a dirt bike or moped along good hope road. if you have any information, police want to hear from you. >> you'll want to leave early if you're taking metro this weekend. there will be track work on most lines. trains on the orange silver and blue lines will run every 26 minutes.

trains on the red line will run every 20 minutes but there will be additional trains during the day within the district. on the green line, the green belt station will be closed. shuttle bus service will be provided by however. temperatures right now 76 degrees. dew point talks about moisture when it's above 65 it's humid outside so it's a bit humid, not as muggy as yesterday and not as hot as yesterday at this time. . future weather walking you throughout the day today at noon still dry at 2:00 we track scattered showers, 5:00 p.m. hit-or-miss activity maybe slow-moving rain. not everybody lb see rain today. similar weather for saturday. rain mainly west of washington over the mountains, the blue ridge mountains. for sunday some heavy rain is in the forecast. a moderate-to-high chance we're seeing heavier rain later in the day and a low to moderate chance of hail and high winds. i'll have a look at the temperatures in ten minutes, pat. >> all right.

there are some big mysteries surrounding the indictment of former house speaker and former illinois congressman dennis hastert. he's accused of agreeing to pay 3.5 million$3.5 million in hush money. he was trying to keep a person quiet about some sort of prior misconduct. there's no word on what hastert was trying to hide and we don't know who was accepting the money. in new court documents, prosecutors say virginia first lady maureen mcdonnel's corruption conviction should be upheld. they go on to say mcdonnel has a fundamental misunderstanding of bribery law. mcdonnel and former governor bob mcdonnel were convicted of trading political influence from a wealthy friend. lawyers for maureen mcdonnel say the guilty verdicts should be released because of the judge. prosecutors say the judge handled the case properly. mcdonnel's reply is due july 11. activists are planning to protest outside former governor

martin o'malley's event in baltimore. he's widely thought to be using his speech to announce he's running for president yet baltimore accountability activists say they want to draw attention to the zero-tolerance policies o'malley had when he was mayor of baltimore. the activists say those policies may have cricketed to the kinds of police tactics that led to the death of freddie gray. o'malley defended his record saying the city is safer now than when he was elected. meanwhile, hillary clinton is busy raising money in florida. she'll attend another fund-raiser tonight in the parkland area north of ft. lauderdale. while clinton has faced tough questions about everything from the clinton foundation to benghazi some republicans are turning their attention to the coverage she's getting in women's magazines. . a new report from politico says magazines like "ladies home journal" and "vogue" have ramped up their political coverage and they're leaning heavily toward clinton. politico's kate bennett contributed to that report. she's here to talk about it.

kate as an example of this report hillary clinton has been on the cover of "vogue" magazine several years ago, she was the first first lady to do that and she's been on it at least seven times since then. is this good for her? >> sure i think women's magazines are becoming a new place for candidates to get a new footing and reach a new audience, so any publicity, especially in campaign season where you're reaching a new demographi way is a good idea. >> this is a fashion magazine we're talking about. who's reading and who are they going after when they seek to be in one of those magazines? >>. >> they're mainly looking for young women between the ages of voting age up to mid-30s, 40s. it's a whole fresh new batch. we have to remember in the beltway these issues are out in front of us but in america things like sexual assault in the military health care issues balancing work and life all these women's issues are essential. that's why picking up readership just pick up a

"glamour" magazine it could influence them. >> let's talk about fashion. hillary clinton known for her power suits. do they talk about who designs them? is that one of the things a fashion magazine would talk about? >> what we've learned is that hillary goes back to a woman who's based here in washington named nina mclemore. she dresses all of these power women, elizabeth warren hillary clinton, janet yellen. basically her theory is it's not about fashion, it's about power so she's not looking for razzle dazzle. she's looking for suits that are streamlined, they present themselves well not filled with patterns. that keeps hillary clinton going back for ten years. >> i want to talk to you more about what's considered presidential as opposed to first lady clothes so we'll be back in just a minute and we will b

this just in. it will washington monument will reopen at noon today. an electrical issue caused elevator problems yesterday

forcing the monument to close. again, the washington monument will be open again at noon. google is offering a new way to share and store your photos today. the company tweeted the announcement this morning. the google photo app pools your pictures from your phone, tablet and computer into one place and from there you can share your photos with your friends. this photo sharing app goes against facebook which is currently the number one photo sharing site. the only critique about this to google's new venture is whether the app will be able to organize and manage thousands of pictures at once. google photos is available for free on google play and in the app store. >> i'm eun yang. for american women the deck can feel stacked when it comes to the job market. women earn less on the dollar and there are fields in which women aren't represented well. however there are amazing jobs that don't come attached to that glass ceiling. careers.com put together this list. we're talking about jobs in fields that are expected to

grow. a lot of these jobs pay well regardless of gender and many of them put women in charge as a manager or an entrepreneur. a couple examples an actuary. a lot of you in the federal work force are already in this role paying $93,680. biomedical engineering, another high wage here where women are having a big impact already. advertising and promotions managers have the highest salary on this list more than $115,000 a year. and occupational therapy is another field which is paying well and growing in the health field. and really the number one take away here is this -- women need to take a close look at so-called stem jobs. yes, many science, technology engineering and mathematics fields are still heavily mail dom -- male dominated but there are incredible opportunities out there for women. >> thanks eun.

take a look at this.

what was once a 75-foot-high mound of snow in boston is now a huge pile of debris. that was snow! it's still coated with some ice out there. you can see the white stuff. crews have been working to remove this stuff for six scattered showers

breaking news at the live

desk. we've just learned that the united states has dropped cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. this is a major move forward in the effort to new york mallize relations with cuba. the state department saying it still has a lot of significant concerns and disagreement with cuban policies and action bus fallout side of anything that would designate them state sponsors of terror. that eliminates an obstacle toward restoring diplomatic ties between the u.s. and cuba something that's been happening in small steps for the last several months now 54 years since the two countries have had normalized relations. this latest step cuba being dropped from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. i'm aaron gilchrist at the live desk. a tax hike in prince george's county has a lot of homeowners upset. it could cost them hundreds of dollars a year but there are some people who say the hike didn't go far enough molette green is live where folks are weighing in.

molette? >> good morning. homeowners want to know what this property tax increase the first to come in 35 years and coming by skirting around voter approval means their their households and this county's future. riverdale park resident sean trotsail who lives in walking distance from a county public school but after council members approved a 4% property tax hike to fund teacher pension costs he's not sure if she'll get the best education here. >> it's such a big increase. it won't cover the things that when you hear about a budget increase for education you assume it's going to help the kids. >> reporter: this tax hike doesn't address needs inside the classroom adding pre-k lowering class size and offering teachers competitive salaries. it's a big blow to are reform plan rashern baker and kevin

maxwell pushed for. maxwell blasted the decision in this statement that reads "this action continues the tradition of chronic underfunding for our schools. . council members say taxpayers couldn't afford a higher increase. this resident has her doubts about how her tax dollars are handled. >> well i don't trust them. i don't trust that the money is going to go to schools. they promised with the casino issue that that money was going to go towards education and it didn't so i don't trust them. >> reporter: long time prince georgians who want to see schools and businesses on par with other areas wonder about the future with school funding unresolved. >> i'm not pro-tax but i am pro-county. i'd like to see us come up in the world. >> reporter: county executive baker has a chance to review the budget. he can reject parts or all of it all together. before the council adopts it

once and for all there will be one more public hearing. that's the latest live from riverdale i'm molette green. barbara, back to you. >> thank you, molette. here's a traffic alert that will affect your drive between d.c. and virginia. is two lanes on the memorial bridge are closed and will stay closed for the next couple of months. there are concerns about corrosion on a secondary support beam. in addition to lane closures trucks weighing more than 10 tons are being kept off the bridge. sidewalks are closed to pedestrians. no rest for the weary in oklahoma and texas. flash flood watches in effect in both states again. rain caused big problems in central texas overnight. in dallas alone nearly 100 people all believed to be in cars were rescued from flooding in the city. right now the death toll stands at 25 but there are 14 people still missing. those numbers could rise since more rain is expected to fall throughout the weekend.

amelia, we often see storm systems like this in that part of the world. are we expecting anything like that in our area? barbara a cold front is going to move through later in the day sunday and that will likely bring heavy rain sunday afternoon and evening and any thunderstorms we see could be on the strong to severe side. the weather today having relatively low impact. most of us remain dry. it will be warm and humid for exercise but not oppressive. have the small umbrella handy, you may not need to use it. 76 degrees and plenty of clouds. we'll get some peeks of sunshine but overall clouds are over you right now they'll win out for the most part today. negotiation that a few widely scattered thunderstorms for the afternoon and evening hours. high temperatures today around 88 degrees. >> d.c. firefighters are raising money for one of their fallen brothers. the fireman's memorial day ride

took off. after the ride there's a party at the d.c. brewery. tickets are $20. all proceeds go to the family of lieutenant kevin mcrae. mcrae died earlier this month after collapsing while battling a two-alarm fire in the shaw neighborhood. coming up, the new york city sunset no one wants to miss. we'll tell you why a

we're keeping an eye on the stories grabbing your attention. you can enjoy manhattenhenge. what's that? the moment the sun aligns with the street grid in manhattan. you can only see this twice a year, this weekend and july 12 through the 13th. head to the nbc washington app to check out the best viewing spots in the city. ♪ the song here in my heart ♪ jay-z's high quality music streaming site title may be facing an embarrassing blow according to bloomberg.

the streaming site is being asked for big money by sony and warner in exchange for their artist's music. warner is close to striking a deal but sony is not playing ball. if sony doesn't strike a deal with title then jay-z won't be able to play his wife's music. title hasn't matched up to pandora or spotify as many had hoped. buzzfeed has come up with the ultimate spelling bee, "game of thrones"ment correctly spell the character's names. it may sound easy to you, but these names are -- i can't even pronounce them much less spell them. so check out this quiz, see how you do. and we are back in 60 seconds.

an online battle for and against a gun shop in arlington is running neck in neck this morning. there were two change.org petitions circulating right now one for the shop and one against the shop. and both have about the same number of signatures. the owners of nova firearms want

to lease the location at the shopping center in the cherrydale area but other tenants say the store doesn't fit in with other retail yers in the area. >> people come here for beauty for peace they come here for a meal. and i don't necessarily feel people come here for guns. >> a lot of times before you purchase something you like to check it out and be able to touch it and feel it see if it fits right. guns are the same. >> some other tenants say patrons have threatened not to go there if the gun shop moves in. if you have time this afternoon, you may want to take your kids to borer park in gaithersburg after school. montgomery county is hosting a free water safety day. there will be a lifeguard, demonstrations, sessions to teach kids how to use flotation devices and how to safely help someone struggling in the water. experts will talk about the importance of using sunscreen. the event runs from 3:30 until

6:30 at borer park. the nationals are going to need to keep their hot streak alive without jason werth. he's expected to be out the next three months after getting hit by a pitch during a game may 15. werth has two small track dhurfractures on his left wrist. it's the third time in his career he's had a wrist injury and the second of this season. werth has played in only 27 games and he's only hit two home runs. the nationals are headed to cincinnati this weekend for a three-game series against the reds. the nats have won 8 of their last 10 games. sunday will be a work day for senators. after the break, why their weekend task is being called a matter of national security.

headed toward a weekend showdown on capitol hill to renew patriot act. majority leader mitch mcconnell is asking the senate to come back to washington to vote on the renewal. if it's not past, the nsa's bulk phone collection program and other anti-terrorism measures would stop. nbc's tracie potts is on capitol hill with a look at what's at stake. >> reporter: pat, the senate's being called back for a rare early session on sunday afternoon just hours before the patriot act is set to expire and the obama administration is really pushing them to get something done. there is a plan on the table a replacement, the usa freedom act, already passed by the

house. but there's some pushback on that in the senate especially from majority leader mitch mcconnell. they left town without dealing with it, now they're coming back early just hours before this critical deadline. we're hearing from loretta lynch, the attorney general who says national security could be at risk because it's not just the nsa and bulk phone collection that would expire but critical tools they use to tract terrorists. so we wait to see what will happen sunday. will they pass some sort so short term solution? might they come up with another solution? if not what happens on monday to those tools that are used in the fight against terror? back to you, pat. >> thanks tracie potts. there's big mystery surrounding the indictment of former speaker of the house, former illinois congressman dennis hastert. he's accused of paying $3.5 million in hush money to an unknown person. the indictment says hastert was

trying to keep the person quiet about some sort of "prior misconduct." there's no word on what misconduct hastert was trying to hide and we don't know who was getting the hush money. on storm team 4 radar, tracking a small cell developing near the charlottesville area. if you're watching earlier, i've been keeping a close eye on this cell that developed in parts of culpeper, developing because of the wind direction out there. likely not being able to move further north because of the mountains it's raining itself out. you can find a cool picture of that on my facebook and twitter pages. highs today in the mid to upper 80s. as we work our way into the afternoon and evening hours, tracking those hit-and-miss showers and storms. no severe weather today, though keeping a close eye for heavy rain on sunday. >> reporter: that's former maryland governor martin

o'malley playing "hail to the chief." o'malley is expected to declare tomorrow that he is running for president. he's holding an event tomorrow in baltimore and activists there say they plan to protest. they want to draw attention to the zero tolerance policies o'malley had when he was mayor of baltimore. the activists say those policies may have contributed to the kind of police tactics that led to the death of freddie gray. o'malley has defended his record saying the city is safer now than it was when he was elect eded. meanwhile, hillary clinton has faced many tough questions from the media about her past but some republicans are concerned she's getting a boost from slanted coverage in women's magazines. there's a new report from politico that says magazines like lei deez"ladies home journal" and "vogue" have ramped up political coverage and are leaning heavily towards clinton. politico's kate bennett joins us to talk more about the that report. readers of women's magazines are a hugely important demographic for women and clinton and female

rivals. tell us why. >> women's magazines are a new avenue to reach a voter who might not be as interested or reading the "new york times" the "wall street journal," the other avenues candidates seek to get their message out. so the competition in all these magazines, "cosmopolitan," "glamour," elle they're paying attention, putting editors in washington, and they're becoming savvy about how to put politics into their magazines. hillary clinton does get lots of press both positive and negative. she's got a swanky fund-raiser coming up on the ninth, is that right, of money. >> tell us about that. >> she's coming back to town. the question is who's hosting these big fund-raisers where they're paying $2700 a ticket? one person having the fund-raiser is a woman named tracy bernstein who was a big fund-raiser for hillary during the 2008 campaign. she was a hillraiser. that means she raised over $100,000 then. so she's opening her home, having about 100 guests to support hillary clinton and kick off these very pricey essential fund-raisers for hillary. >> can we expect tracy bernstein

to be an ambassador at some to hillary clinton? >> after the 2008 election she ended up in the state department working in the office of protocol so she did sort of manage to stick around with hillary as she transitioned to the state department. so who knows if hillary gets to the white house we could see. >> good to see you kate. thanks for joining us. and we'll be right back.

a lot of folks going to be boldly going where no man has gone this weekend -- to the washington convention center for awesome con. the event starts in just a few minutes at noon. the aeb site is ready to go with everything you need to know about who will be there and what to do and check out the facebook post. this is how you'll be greeted when you walk in. there will be tons of exhibits and guest celebrity appearances. william shatner and george takei are among the big names people -- big-named people who will be coming out and you'll get to see them.

awesome con runs through sunday, pat. >> all righty awesome. queen latifah proves flattery goes a long way. take a look. the queen paid tribute to the host, l.l. cool j.ed on last night's "lip sync battle." she took a chance on the 1985 hit "rock the belt" donning his signature track suit and black hat. that was no brainer. she beat out marlon wayans even though he did an impressive version of pharrell's happy. what past winners of the

talk about a spell binding final round of the national spelling bee. for the second straight year and fifth time ever two contestants were named co-champions. spelling bee officials even ran out of words. peter alexander is here with a look at the dramatic fish in.

>> correct. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: the judges threw the book but both gokul vonkatachalam and vanya shivashankar got the last word and nearly $38,000 plus a merriam-webster dictionary they probably don't need with the power to spell, well -- meaning the art of cutting paper into decorative designs. and while they may not look like varsity athletes these are the real letter winners. 285 woordrd wizards half boyce half girls, two thirds from public schools chosen from 11 million entrants in regional contests. for the scripps national spelling bee. that's bee with two "es" that's become an unforgettable cult favorite. >> k-a-b-a-r-o-g-o-y-a. what? >> reporter: creating unlikely stars. >> that's correct.

>> some as young as six. the official pronouncer jacques bailey won on a glitch in 1980. >> jacques won after page misspelled the word glitch. >> reporter: but for others life has spelled out different endings. 1984 winner dan greenblatt now the voice of a video game. >> proceed as planned. >> reporter: this man spelled prospicience. he didn't know he'd be back on tv in the world series of poker. for this year's co-winners these may be the most important college acceptance letters. as we head into the weekend, we'll keep a close eye on sunday. the biggest concern would be heavy rain but high winds producing isolated wind damage and small hail also possible. doug will have the latest tonight. >> that's news 4 midday. join us at 4:00 5:00,

>> kate: good morning. i just wanted to stop by on my way to the office to apologize for my behavior last night. i was...stunned. >> justin: that makes two of us. >> kate: i don't know what gave victor the ridiculous notion that the two of us could work together. >> justin: well, technically we won't be working together. i am your supervisor. >> kate: [scoffs] whatever. but i think as long as we keep a united front we'll be able to talk victor out of this. >> justin: no, no, no. victor's not changing his mind. and besides, i didn't stay up all night reading about mascara for nothing. >> kate: [laughs] are you really gonna let him