evere storms moving closer to our region. there are already some reports of hail. >> let's go to doug who has been monitoring it all in the storm center 4. >> yeah, guys, you mentioned hail. some locations taking up golf ball sized hail. this is a dangerous line. you know we have had the heat and humidity. you add those together and the ingredients are there for severe weather. this is 270 up along the clarksburg area. you can see the rain really coming down. this is a strong and a very strong line at that. there is a tornado warning. back towards the west. we're going to focus on this area right here. this is where the strongest storms are in our region. back towards the west. right around the jefferson county. this storm right here really strengthening. heads up.

watch out. this storm means business. severe thunderstorm warnings in effect. i will take off the radar and show you where the warnings are. i fully expect to see a new warning issued here for that storm in the montgomery county area. a very strong storm. there it is right there. loudoun county. northern prince georges county. back down towards howard county. once again a very strong storm making its way through that area. a lot of wind with this storm, too. hail could be the size of quarters if once again around the columbia area in maryland. all of montgomery county right now heads up. really getting hit hard. we will continue to keep you posted. heads up. gathersburg around 6:15.

right around 6:27. heads up. we will keep you posted from the storm center. >> thanks and that's the storm team four by four out there. this is near route 9. not too terrible at the very moment right now. but we're going be monitoring the roads and the weather throughout the hours. we have been reporting on the deadly smoke incident for six months now. we have heard from people trapped in the train. we have heard what went wrong. we have heard metro's plan to fix it but for the first time tonight we are seeing just what it was like underground that january afternoon and with this video we can begin to understand why there is so much urgency to make sure this never happens again. adam is live with some new tough

questions for metro. >> reporter: in these meetings everything is on the table. what we heard today is that dc fire and metro transit police certainly were not on the same page adding to the confusion. metro says quite lifire chief rolled up the window on the transit police chief twice during the smoke episode and metro's top leader said that may have been costly. >> i think we had information that would have been helpful primarily that the train was in the tunnel and that we had information and we had regular communications that we could have assisted with. >> but the help was shunned. this video showing just how precious time was. but what happens next is telling. training continued to pull in and out of the station even with the thick smoke. we know that metro wanted the train to keep moving away from the smoke but it was evacuated

and sat empty on the platform. meanwhile the smoke was choking passengers and a 61-year-old woman later died. the operateover states i got people on the train saying they can't breathe. i need to get back to the platform. i need to back back to the platform. that operator was told repeatedly to standby. there wasn't enough power to move the train back to the platform to do it. >> and back here now live it seems that the left hand didn't know what the right was doing. back to you. >> to south carolina where the cry to remove a confederate flag from the state house ground has been heard. lawmakers approved a measure that allows them to consider removing the flag.

they will not pick up the issue until they pass the stat budget. it could still be a couple of weeks. hundreds gathered to call for the removal of the flag. >> we plan to let this be a living memorial that never again will somebody be able to use that red rag as the reason for taking the lives of another human being. >> protesters were hoping the flag would be removed before tomorrow. that's why he was live in repose. >> and the state of virginia is also taking action. if you go to the dmv site in the future you will not see this specialty plate offered as an option. the governor announced he wants this plate banished. jules? >> reporter: this is a standard issue blue and white virginia tag. we see plenty of those but finding the sons of the

confederate tag, they are hard to find. only 1700 have been issued across the entire commonwealth. the governor says that is 1700 too many and he has just advised to start the process of pulling them. visitors come to soak up civil war history but they are keenly aware of the contemporary debate over the flag that for some now symbolizes racism and hatred. >> i enjoy history and i hate to see anyone use any symbol to encourage hate. >> virginia's governor announced he will begin the process of stripping the flags off of the vanity license plates created for veterans. in the wake of the massacre, the flag has got to go. >> this commonwealth does not support the display of the confederate battle flag or the message that it sends to the

world. >> this visitor supports the decision but wonders whether the move will have much practical impact. >> while i appreciate the gesture and i'm kind of a fan of this no longer being a symbol of southern pride or whatever it is that people consider it a symbol of, i don't know how much of an impact it will have beyond the immediate look what we are doing too. >> he did not understand until he attended ole miss. >> historical symbols are important i think it is being used for the wrong reason now. >> i contacted several leaders of the virginia sons of the confederate veterans but i have not heard back from any of them yet. >> people who live in the neighborhood are calling it

senseless. a body found inside a burning trash can. firefighters reported it when a woman found a burning trash can behind a vacant property. that's in dc's trinidad neighborhood. >> here we are monitoring new developments in the freddie gray case, there was an autopsy report that said that gray suffered a single high energy injury. that is similar to what happens when somebody dives into shallow water. gray suffered a severe spinal cord injury and he died in a hospital.

they are scheduled to go on trial in october. at the live desk i'm chris warn. >> summer vacation just started. the school system is making a big move. scott has more. will consider a plan to reduce or eliminate a large number of tests for students. >> and figuring out whether it's best to cut back on the many county exams or whether to simply eliminate them. expect to decide whether the change in policy should happen. include changing the schedule for the tests or spreading them out throughout the year to prevent an overload or simply doing away with county tests. the combination of state, federal and local tests can be

overwhelming. they prefer and value the county test but those are the ones that the district directly control. >> oh we have a wild afternoon ahead of us. we are live in maryland to tell us what the weather is looking like there. wet. >> well right now we are here. >> i will bring you a live update coming up. >> you're in that area of severe weather. a lot of lightning associated with that, too. we have incredible lightning

coming right through the area. i want to take you out towards 270. this is what is coming your way. notice traffic coming down to almost a standstill and that will be the case as we move on through. stay indoors for the next hour

some rough weather out there tonight. traffic can be rough there under these rainy conditions rigt now bad news out there. doug and veronica are on top of it. we will bring you the latest as it develops. >> tonight larry hogan keeping a low profile.

one day after the governor announced his cancer diagnosis. as chris gordon found out they also found a special way to support the governor's fight. >> the lieutenant governor took over as he opened this meeting of the board of public works. >> some of you thought i wasn't going to be around again but the substitute teacher is back. >> just before that meeting, ruterford walked to the governor's residence to meet with him. >> this is just essentially a new challenge for him and we are giving him our full support and support for his family as well. >> the staff at the board of public works handed out these pins. >> these relationship awareness pens and in the office this morning three of us put them together to give to the audience to show their support of the

governor and his family. >> he left the residence once today for a medical appointment. someone posted this sign on the fence outside. praying for you. maryland loves and needs you. >> i see them supporting him with this sign and i think that's awesome. >> politics can be very aggressive and they don't often times verbally support the leadership. it's a good thing. >> larry hogan posted a message on twitter that said found this sign hung on the fence at government house. i am touched and truly humbled by all the support. that's the latest, live at the state house. wendy and jim back to you. >> thank you, chris. >> big heavy rains moving through the area.

it doesn't look too bad. rain is coming down some. but doug says there are severe thunderstorms coming your way. >> moved out to the south of dc but right now north and west we are really getting hit very, very hard. take a look and we will show you what's happening. radar showing it to us right now. that line of severe storms look at all the lightning. and now we're starting to see storms fire up and flare up into northern virginia. i do expect this line to continue to fire back to the west and that's what will hit northern virginia here over the next couple of hours here. loudoun getting hit hard. montgomery county getting hit hard. look at all the light ning. portions of western montgomery county here. take the lightning off.

we have a new report right out of damascus. this report here has trees down in that area. all of these are hail markers. we have them the size of golf balls that have come on through here. i'm going to zoom into this area. this is an area that is being hit very hard right now. includes. the gathersburg brings in on 270. this is where we have in on cameras. really looking tough as far as the rain is concerned. extremely heavy rain. . down towards the south. here is the warning. that's the one storm. look how big this warning is. it includes parts of northern prince georges county all the way to loudoun. we will see more warnings as it goes on. rockville you're getting it

right now. dc as i mentioned around the 7:hour. here is the line. this means it's pushing out to the center. that means very heavy wind and tracks the line all the way back down the west. if you haven't seen them you may not see these until 8:00 tonight. it's going to be high wind. that's the biggest issue. medium risk of hail. heavy rain is going to be a factor. you might have to move the rain up. we have seen a couple of flash flood reports out of this. after these storms move completely different air mass moves in. we will see a late day chance of shower.

and then on friday, high of 84 and right now the weekend looking wet and a lot cooler. that is a system that we will be watching. you don't want to miss out on this forecast. right now all eyes on severe weather making its way through our region right now. i do expect more warnings to pop up. we will keep you posted when they do. >> still ahead there is new information about the suspect in the dc mansion murders. and the mistake that agents made weeks before this crime. >> headstones found in a creek where at least one grave was displaced after this past weekend's rain. i'm tracee wilkins coming up on news 4. >> and taking down the confederate flag is hitting close to home. it might shift public opinion

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yesterday. >> that cemetery is now starting to build a retaining wall to prevent coffins from resting out of their resting places.

trace tracee. >> the department of the environ environment and state agency. there are a lot of investigations going on. >> a coffin washed out of its barrel plot and then tombstones. >> i want to make sure that my mother is all right. >> i don't know what the problem is. i don't know for sure. >> we could tell that the retaining wall has been breaking for some time. they have actually been here for a while. >> those stones were purposefully put there and discarded there is what happened.

>> it was an area that you know, it was authority that needed to be replaced. >> this was an issue that they said was a misdemeanor if the family is unaware but in this case since the stones were replaced discarding them in a creek is a department of environment issue. one grave was disturbed and washed out by saturday's rain and no others. murdoch was told that his mother's resting place was not impacted but he says he does not like the way this was all handled. >> the department of the environment said they got a complaint today and they are going to investigate it. and make sure that it enough that

body that was disturbed will be put back into the ground this thursday. >> thanks tracee. some severe weather out there. doug and veronica told us about it. we will look at what it is coming down heaviest and where it is coming next. >> and sprayed on this african-american church. >> and his wife is accused of helping two convicted killers break out of prison. tonight he's breaking his silence to reveal why he thinks she did it. >> she said they gave

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take a look at montgomery county right now. this is right around the aspen hill area. look at the heavy rain coming on down. the heaviest is still to come in this region. you can see the very heavy rain and a ton of lightning. we are starting to see wind in that area. you can see montgomery and loudoun county. intense lightning around ashburg right around the area. as i talked about now. we will continue to see this line forming back to the west as well. if you're here, prince william county, you haven't seen it yet but it's moving that way. take a look at the latest warning. back towards loudoun, a lot of wind associated with this as well. i will show you how this is

moving down through the south and east. what's that? take a look towards the washington d.c. metro area. nothing in the metro right now. just outside the belt way but this is what's coming. that severe thunderstorm warning once again until 7:15 tonight. locals will be going. washington coming right through around 7:00 as i have been telling you for the last two hours. you're heading down to the national's game. i will continue to keep you posted as we move on through with these storms. >> thanks. there are two dozen police officers who protect the veteran's administration medical center in the district and they say that the management there has hit cameras and microphones inside their building.

including areas where officers take breaks and changed their clothes. joins us now for the lawsuit that has just been filed. just filed in federal court. say that medical center director and chief of police conspired to hide cameras and microphones in the rooms. one of at least three cameras they have spotted inside. one camera found in january they say in a room used by male and female officers to change clothes. they also provided this image a microphone they say they found on site. reportings were used by managers in at least one discipline case and an officer was sus penned for two weeks.

it was the medical center director who decided to install the recording equipment. she didn't respond but an official with the national headquarters did telling news four that he remained vigilant that dedetects our employees however we can't comment on this case due to pending litigation. the use of secret recording devices must have approval from the u.s. justice department. >> we're saying that the cameras were put in without proper permission? it was done by the administrators? >> they are saying it was done without headquarters approval. >> okay. >> more to come on this. back to you scott. >> right now in wood bridge the search is on for a man that has

been flashing people on a bicycle. the man may be tied to two cases in the river oaks area the first case happened. a 14-year-old girl saw the man exposing himself. this friday a woman jogging near the pool said a man on the bike suddenly flashed her. >> and tonight an african-american church is ramp b up security. vandalism was found hours and a half church shooting in south carolina. as reported now, the pastor is considering a rather unusual step. >> pastor james robinson is usually handling bills and work

around the building and inside. one of his concern is the safety of the 900 parishonors who call this their home. he took us to show us why he has a heightened sense of awareness. >> what you see here is basically the expression, cross that's upside down. >> gra feet tee was discovered thursday afternoon. police are actively investigating what they consider a case of vandalism while the pastor is amping up security. >> investigators say they don't have any leads so they are encouraging the public to contact the prince george's county police department right away. >> let's go back to doug with more on the storm that is moving inside the belt way. >> it is just coming through

right now right around the portion of silver spring and through montgomery county. let's take a shot here. severe thunderstorm warning. prince george's county until 7:15. tracking a storm right now. this is 29 and east randolph road. a lot of wind we have seen right around this area. we do have reports of trees down and power lines around the area an

>> we are hearing from the man whose wife is accused of helping the two killers escape from prison. lyle mitchell sat down with matt lawyer. >> he said your wife is more involved than she is letting on. oh my god. >> when did you finally ask her point-blank face to face? >> that night when we went home. >> you said did you help these two escape? >> i said how can it happen? she said it just does. i was scared. >> lyle says he does not believe

his wife had a sexual relationship with the inmates and thinks that if everything had gone according to plan he and his wife would be dead. a prosecutor now says that this the tools were smuggled by embedding the items. a piece of clothing belongs to one of the escaped inmates. we already knew that the dna belonging to both escapees had been found there as well. the two have been on the run for 18 days. the call to remove the confederate flag at the south carolina state house is spurring more controversy. we are looking into the parallel

issues. >> supporters say the confederate battle flag honoring soldiers and fans of the washington redskins says the team name honored athletics and indians but the flag is caught up in more controversy because of the racest fuelled controversy. >> it is not on that feeling to see them go as racist. >> professor steven taylor has taught for 19 years after american university. taylor sees no direct comparison between the flag and team name because too few people personally know american

indians. >> not enough people are on a day to day contact with american indians. >> some visitors were clear the team name should go. >> you would not say that to someone who is a native american who is a friend of yours. >> it took a horrible mass murder to force the issue but discrimination is an ongoing battle. >> still ahead the american dream isn't cheap. if you should rent or buy your home. consumer reporter gets answers from the experts. >> and more questions tonight about the scope of a government

>> some nasty wester out there. thunderstorms that doug has been warning us about all afternoon. with sere showing that because it hasn't started raining yet but it will and already amtrak has temporarily suspended train service. also up on 270, that is a mess.

rain falling very heavy up there. going to have an update in just a couple minutes. >> that information revealed today by the director of the agency as she testified before congress. she did not say when it happened or whether it's related to two other cyber breaches. the private information was exposed. opm is offering credit monitoring services online. some employees are saying that the site is not working properly and that there are long wait times to sign up over the phone. officials at opm say they are increasing staffing now at their call centers. >> to rent or own. a lot of people are asking that question as low rates make

buying quite tempting. >> new marriage new house, new dog. >> shannon is building her first home in dc after years of renting in a market she and her family have decided to go for it. >> rent in dc is very high. believe it or not we get a lot more space and actually pay less money than we would paying rent. >> but the american dream may soon be an anomaly. ownership rates in the u.s. are falling through 2030. that means renters, lots of renters. real estate information breaks down just how much of your salary it would take to buy a home with a recommendation that you don't spend more than 20% of your income on housing. let's say you live in arlington county and you're teetering with the idea of buying a house that

is why in both areas the site recommends renting. but if you go to prince william or prince georges where it takes more than 20%, realty trac recommends buying. you can see the break down on all the other counties in our area and the average income results are based on visiting. just search rent or buy. >> overall it's still a good time to buy a home. >> while mortgage rates are at the highest levels they are still historically low and the rates warrant you taking a good hard look at your finances. >> a 30 year fixed rate mortgage is slightly above 4%. i remember when my wife and i bought our first home in the dc area and they were double digit mortgage rates. >> it's likely rates will climb by september. >> the modest risk is that

interest rates move slightly higher. let's say one quarter of 1%. that's a pretty good outlook. >> for me paying rent is like opening a window and just throwing money away. >> forshannon and her family it was the right time to buy. remember, home is where the heart is. news 4. >> and now new warnings. >> we continue to watch as this line makes it way through intensifying. 15, 20 minutes ago. we are seeing that line intensify. you can see the warning now goes from here and all the way over towards the eastern shore with this line of storms. tons of lightning here.

be prepared for your power to go out if you're in some of the area area. you have not gotten it yet. it is right on your doorstep. it is coming through dc right now. it is coming through your camera right now. we do have heavy rainmaking its way through our studios right here and it will pick up very quickly. we will take this shot again and we will show you exactly what is happening. itd is moving through. the nationals braves game is now delayed as a result of these very heavy rain. the city of fairfax has not hit you yet. here it comes. more warnings until 7:15 now.

we have had hail the size of golf balls with this. if you live in southern maryland you haven't seen it yet. once again everybody will see this. that's what we're really worried about. we have seen hail and extremely heavy rainfall. traffic is going to be a mess. give somebody a little extra time to make it home. it could be a rather cool and gloomy weekend. >> all right. and as doug just told you the nats game is delayed because of this mess out here.

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>> the news of the gnats we will have to wait a bit for the news. tonight he's fresh off of the disabled list and ready to start. so which will we see tonight? we have more on strasburg and the nationals. actually we will go to college baseball for a moment. an elimination game for uva. they are done 1-0 in this series. it was offense that had them rolling. uva lost the game. if they lost, it is completely

over and vanderbilt would win their sect straight national championship. >> let's get one final check. it is getting rough if you are trying to get out of the city. >> this is right outside of studios there. very heavy rain. low in the flag right there. we will see anywhere between a quick half an inch to an inch and a half. these storms all moving through with a 7:15 time frame. prince georges and all of this making its way down through the south and east. we have had wind reporting. we will continue to keep you posted with the very latest. i will see you back here tonight at 11:00 tonight.

tonight, a major turning point in the fight over the confederate flag. walmart, ebay and amazon say they won't sell it. and a major flag maker now says it won't even make it anymore amid growing calls in more states to remove a symbol so painful for so many. a massive tornado outbreak barreling across the country. several towns take direct hits. right now 70 million people major cities in the high-risk zone. nbc news exclusive. as we learn stunning new details about how those killers escaped prison. the husband of the woman accused of helping them speaks to matt lauer about his wife and the alleged plot to kill him. and toxic fumes. how safe is the air you breathe on airplanes? an alarming