shocking find. why police have spent all morning at the tidal basin. >> this time it's focusing on service over safety. >> increasing amounts of sun shine in our skies over northwest washington but how long can we stay away from the rain drops? >> plus the storms may be gone but the destruction is fresh. news 4 midday starts right now. >> right now we are learning more about the task to improve

safety on rails. metro says it has a massive backlog of work to do and that's because there isn't enough time to get all of the work done. metro really only has overnights to shut down the lines and get the work done. in order to implement the new safety measures, metro will have to shut down a single track more often. we'll tell you why the union says some workers are afraid to report problems. >> thanks so much. d.c. police have a mystery on their hands after a body is found in the tielgddal basin. police say they were called on west basin drive. the body is that of an adult neal. male. >> right now crews are busy cleaning up storm damage. knocked down power lines and trees blocking roads this morning. fairfax county tells us oxen braddic roads will remain

closed. kristin wright reports for us now. >> reporter: a lot of trouble during this morning's commute of the storms last night. this is south of the intersection of 123 and braddic road. wires are down across the entire road and a utility pole is down. down 123, you can see the debris. this is where the road is closed. you look at the intersection, there are more wires down here. the traffic light out, and causing the intersection to be partially closed throughout the morning commute. also problems nearby on twin brook road at the intersection of that and brad dak road. sim same situation. trees and wires down. quite a job for utility workers and drivers trying to get to work this morning. kristin wright, news 4.

>> beautiful day outside today. sun shine has returned to the nation's capitol. mostly blue sky out there. the heat wave has been broken. loving the sun shine but getting more and more worried about the weekend and how much sun shine we may get to enjoy on saturday and sunday. right now temperatures are reaching the upper 70s. 77 in winchester virginia. the afternoon planner full of sun shine, lower humidity. temperatures climbing into the mid 80s by later this afternoon. >> thank you chuck. new today, no charmsges will be filed against police officers. officers shot and killed a driver of a car. the 27 the passenger was hurt. he ignored commands to turn the

suv around. prosecutors say there is video evidence that he raced toward the officers. they say the officers committed no crimes. breaking news now from the live desk. the governor of alabama ordered the confederate battle flag on the grounds of the state capitol to be taken down. two workers removed the flag. the governor said the action was in reaction to what happened in charleston last week. in charleston bible study will resume tonight at the church where nine people were killed. the new temporary pastor of the church says even in the midst of traj theragedy, we must press forward. today the-- lawmakers will debate

whether the flag should stay. in boston, zo har tsarnaev will receive the death penalty today. victims are there testifying right now. the first one called him despicable. another said he had no soul. tsarnaev will get the chance to speak. and developing news this morning. the massive search for the convicts entering the 19th day in new york. now the man hunt has narrowed to to a wooded area near a camp. they left behind eaton food and underwear and new details about the woman charged with helping them escape. prosecutors say she smuggled tools into the prison inside ground beef in fact. >> also developing right now, a hiccup during the morning commute when someone made a bomb threat at a metro station. metro tells us somebody heading

outbound got off and walked over and allegedly made a bomb threat. the metro took the train out of service, searched it but didn't find anything. some trains were about ten minutes behind. metro did not say if anyone was in custody this. >> the man who tried to get out of a ticket with a ticket. plus jaw dropping video that will show you how

we are following with you're clicking on this morning. a blind jack russell in the uk has his own guide dog. glen is guided by a terrier, and it's a match made in heaven. how cute are they? they need a new home as they

were found abandoned a few weeks ago. they need a quiet home and come as a pair. a man arrested for dui tried to get away with it by offering up a winning lottery ticket. he told police he was a state lottery official and offered a winning the ticket to drop the charges. officials say he is not a lottery employee and has never been. don't try that one. listen up. according to insider.com, there are now six ways to attract women. wear red. if you want a younger woman you need heavy stubble, don't smile. not all women think that's weak. muscles are always a plus when it comes to the ladies as is sweat. apparently some women like it. very interesting. 6 h

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outside today the complete opposite of yesterday. sun shine, a nice northwest breeze. lower humidity and temperatures in the 70s. sun shine is back for now. it isn't going to last too long. showers looking more and more likely as we head toward the weekend. play ball. nationals beat the braves last night after the rain delay. tonight's game, no delay at all. hopefully straight to a win tonight. temperatures 85 at first pitch and down to the about the 80 the degree range by last out. the weekend, chances for showers coming back in. the up side, cloudy skies keep temperatures in the 70s. >> right now lawmakers are hearing directly from the inspector general abouthackers.

it tries to recover from massive data breaches. opm is way off in the assessment of how long it will take to fix cyber security problems. >> new into our news room dramatic video of a crash in california. take a closer look here. this is a motorcycle going down a winding highway and then wham, right there, the driver slams into a truck. a go pro camera recorded the whole thing. this is back in april. we only just received the video today. the guy on the bike broke a bunch of bones in his arms and legs. but he's alive and talking about it. amazing. >> a household danger getting worse in our country and the incredible storm images y

it hit the -- i got it on video. >> wow. yeah. you saw it there. lightning hit the washington monument. take a look. this video was sent to us by a viewer. it appeared to strike a landmark during last night's storms. >> the storm left a path of destruction up and down the eastern seaboard. in rhode island, mass i have trees brought down and power lines. big time damage in philadelphia too. amtrak service between d.c. and

philly had to be shut down. at one point customers were without power. >> things around here quieter today, certainly, but we want to see what's in store for later today. >> big time changes coming. >> changes all for the better from yesterday to today. and now as we get from today into tomorrow, changes kind of back in the other direction, rain chances coming back tomorrow but we're not looking for anything in the way of high end severe weather like we saw yesterday. there's the view from the tower. looking northbound, just a beautiful day to be outside. temperatures in the upper 70s now. we'll make it into the middle and upper 80s for highs today. almost 100% sun shine. a few clouds. here's future weather through the rest of the day. nothing but sun shine. mild and dry tonight and into the day tomorrow, clouds starting to sneak back into the picture and by tomorrow afternoon 3:00, that's when rain chances are looking more

likely. maybe a rumble of thunder but no organized severe weather. >> another day and another republican jumps from the race for the white house. the louisiana governor bobby jindal is in. i am here with our senior political editor, great to see you. we want to start wuf a jindal because we know he's very much to the right. >> we had a wall street journal poll that showed, 28% said they wouldn't support him. not a lot of name i'd. maybe the most interesting thing he's not that popular in his own state. sometimes when a sitting governor isn't that popular, that bodes trouble ahead for a presidential contest. >> for awhile it seems like he had a lot of momentum and he was doing well. we'll have to see if he makes the cut. >> former road scholar. it shows you how things can change in american politics. >> and someone who knows how things can change, governor

chris christie, we're hearing reports he's going to join the race next week. >> he has almost the same issue. he had the bridge gate scandal. his approval rating is around 30 % in his own state. >> his people are saying we have a shot at this because jeb bush has been unable to break away and establish himself in that lane as the choice candidate. does that mean the lane is wide open and that christie has a good shot. >> the guy is a talented politician. you put him in a town hall, we can be a truth teller. that proved well for him but you get into the position right now where almost a majority of republicans in our poll saying they could not see themselves supports him. he doesn't have the fit that a lot of republicans are looking for. >> let's shift gears. everyone is teaching their eyes on the supreme court right now. as early as tomorrow we could see a ruling on obama care.

are we going to see this trickle into the campaign trail regardless of how it goes? >> almost everything becomes a 2016 issue and this will be as well. it's worth noting if they end up saying the subsidies are invalid and there's a pretty good chance they uphold it but if it doesn't, the biggest political test is going to happen in governor nowhere's mansions and on capitol hill. and then the presidential race. it will be a big political story on picking up the pieces. that starts here in d.c. first. >> a lot of people will be looking at republicans for solutions for sure. thank you for joining us. have a good day. at the live desk, right now train safety is the focus on capitol hill. the house transportation committee called a hearing after a deadly derailment in philadelphia last month. the federal railroad administration has been working to implement positive train

control by the end of the year. ptc is designed to automatically stop a train before certain types of accidents happen. right now only a fraction of railroads say they will meet the deadline. >> fra continues the work to enforce the strategy for those that will miss the deadline. our ultimate goal is to bring all railroads into compliance as quickly and as safely as possible. >> the american public transportation association says it will be at least 2020 before ptc is fully implemented on commuter lines beginning january 1st, the fra says railroads that haven't fully implemented ptc will face a lot of penalties. >> fus like candies they are colorful but the danger of laundry detergent pods are danger. the number of poisons continues to be alarming. we have the latest. >> reporter: it happens once

every hour. an urgent call to 9-1-1 for a child who has ingested a pod of laundry deter jens and at least once a day a child is hospitalized. they very many symptoms. >> young children are explorers and they like to put everything in their mouth. and so liquid laundry packets can dissolve in the mourt. >> they make it easy to do the wash. three years ago this mom's daughter found a pod on the floor and tried to eat it. >> vomiting, she had diarrhea. it was pretty much the symptoms of a stomach virus. >> if they breathe it into the lungs, that's the worst part they can be lung damage and wheezing to the point of needing to be placed on a ventilator in the

icu. >> the consumer product safety commission reports two children have died from ingesting the packets. in a statement the american cleaning institute tells nbc news manufacturers have already made major changes to the packaging, including easy to understand icons improving warning labels and redesigned packaging so pacts aren't visible from the outside. out of control, the epidemic at a faefr pip and it's hitting one par

news for our health, congress is taking action to keep you safe from the harmful affects of some chemicals. the house just approved a bill to update the regulations of the tens of thousands of tem cals. the senate is set to pass a similar measure.

if passed this will be the first major change to the toxic substances control act since 1976. >> it is a startling new look at a growing problem in our country. drug overdoses. we are talking this morning about this. we appreciate you coming in. the reports now are tha drug overdose deaths surpassed car accident deaths. why are they on the rise. >> let me say one other thing. overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury-related deaths in this country. there were 44000 people who died from accidental overdoses in 2013. this problem has been a growing epidemic. it's been a long time coming. the issue has been the increased amount of prescription medications used to treat chronic pain. this was something that made the cover of time magazine a week or two ago. more and more people are using prescription pain medications. the dea is trying to crack down

but what's happened over the last several years is you have many people addicted to the medications and in some cases because the medications are now becoming a little harder to get because the dea is cracking down some of the people are turning to heroin and things like that and that's causing a lot of people to get into a lot of trouble. >> we know that west virginia comes in for the highest rate of drug overdoses. the report says the death rate is more than double the national average. why is west virginia ground zero it seems for this snsh. >> i don't have a good answer. i don't know. i'd have to look at the statistics. maybe very statistics that show the percentage of people who are being treated for chronic pain in the state. but i'm not sure. i guess time will tell when we're able to gather some of the statistics to figure out by west virginia is having such a bigger problem compared to the rest of the country. thank you for coming in. we'll talk a little bit more for

ideas on how to reverse this later in the broadcast. >> why you could save up to eighty percent at stores right now.

welcome back to news 4 midday. bright sun shine out there. we are not going to make 90 degrees today. first time in five days. so far we've had 1 days 19 days 90 or higher. last year we'd only done that six times by now. good news, no more 90s, at least for a little while. close today and tomorrow. upper eights to near 90 but chances for rain tomorrow late afternoon into the evening. scattered showers on friday and as you get into the weekend saturday and sunday have high rain chances. cloudy skies both days. temperatures and showers staying down in the 70s both days.

>> chuck, thank you. now is a great time to hit the stores to get a deal on your favorite clothes and other items. most retailers offer 80% discounts in late june because they're trying to clear out their shelves before back to school sales. prefourth of july sales start this weekend. you can usually find good deals. >> let's go shopping after the show. it's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's an army helicopter. why more of them are over the d.c. area this morning. we're back in a moment.

news at the news four live desk. right now we are learning about the emotional statements taking place at the boston marathon bomber sentencing hearing. more than 30 victims and their family members are describing the impacts on their lives. one woman called him a coward. tsarnaev will get a chance to speak but no one knows if he will. three people died and more than 260 overthers were injured. we'll send you any breaking developments on your phone using

the nbc washington app. >> a driver ran into a downed tree and died last night in montgomery county. chopper 4 flying over the scene. the driver of a pickup truck slammed into a tree. the 79-year-old driver died at the screen. >> smoke and fire and it all happened so fast. >> it was a lightning strike that sparked the fire. this morning people are trying to find a new place to live. >> reporter: aaron angie, the good news here is no one was hurt, but the recovery for some will be long and difficult. in the light of day you can see right through the charred roof. that's this man's unit. >> i saw a very big spark. i did not think it would be

anything big and then i start smelling smoke. >> reporter: he's visibly shaken after having to run out when lightning struck and caught the roof on fire. >> i really don't even feel like yet. i think i didn't come out of the shock yet. >> reporter: a mattress, other furniture including baby gear for his newborn daughter damaged and tossed out. he didn't have renter's insurance. >> now i have to start over. >> reporter: the firefighters fought back blames on lake shore drive at university apartments but it left building 207 and 209 unsafe. >> i heard people screaming fire, fire. >> this man grabbed his son and ran out. he came back today to get what he could salvage. >> the fire people the department just told me that

everything is flooding. >> reporter: unlike his neighbor just above him he says he has insurance to help him recover. family photo albums burned on the top floor level. that's something you can never replace when you lose it this way. for those who have been forced out, they tell me they are staying with loved ones for now and getting whatever help they can from the red cross. we've live this morning in green belt. back to you. outside on your wednesday afternoon, we have a fair amount of sun shine now. it's a very pleasant day out there. temperatures nowhere near where you were yesterday. yesterday we were already touching 90 degrees. today not even a single reporting station is above eighty. temperatures staying in the mid to upper 80s. a nice day. today, tomorrow and the next

day, today sun shine and 88. tomorrow 89 but clouds thickening and a chance for rain showers after 5:00 tomorrow. and cloudy with occasional showers on friday. >> thanks. a first 4 traffic alert. in the next four years you can expect improves in the centerville area. the board of super visors approved a construction project to widen the road to six lanes. traffic gets backed up eastern more 6:00 a.m. construction is expected to start in december 2018 and be finished two years later. there are plans to widen other roads also. >> there t frinchench prime minister says allegations the national security agency spied on french leaders. the nsa is on the defense.

>> reporter: the french are already all over this. they had an emergency meeting of the defense council early this afternoon and have announced that they are sending a senior intelligence official to washington to talk about what happened here. it all came out late last night when wikileaks announced they obtained top secret documents suggesting the united states had been spying on three french presidents, phone taps that were recorded, although, we must point out that this has not been independently verified. not a lot of secrets discussed but some key information that could have been useful. the mideast peace talks and whether or not to shut the u.s. out of them. the european financial crisis and secret meets about that. diplomatic relations with germany, you might remember the chance la merkel was also reportedly spied on by the nsa.

the nsa says they will not and have not been targeting the french president in terms of spying on his conversations. but whether it was done in the past, no comment from the council on that. president obama had ordered it ended. this was apparently a program that had been on auto pilot but now new concerns as the french send someone to washington to deal with the latest allegations. back to you. >> thank you. if you see more helicopters flying around the region today, don't be concerned. the army and air force putting them up for a series of training flights as part of an emergency response exercise. they could be flying as low as 200 feet above the ground. no weapons will be used and they are carefully planned and closely controlled. the summertime danger that could happen to anybody and the person who was there to stop it.

here are some of the stories lighting up social media this morning. it's a parent's worst nightmare and a good reason to keep your kids close to you at the pool this summer. this video shows how hard it is for life guards to spot a child in danger. you can watch this video several times where you can even see the little boy struggling to keep his head above the water. people think that kids scream and yell and flail but a lot of times they slip under the water unnoticed. kudos to that life guard for finding him. we've all seen the bikinis on the sickvictoria's secret website. some people say it won't look like that on me. a group of women decided to take on the challenge. they had their own fashion swim suit shoot wearing the suits and gave buzz feed. here are some of the comments we've seen about the swim suits. i felt more confident after obsessing over the photos for

days and also every girl should feel this sexy. and finally a video from people pets.com for all of you cat lovers. a mountain lion the kitty growled and spat and the mountain lion decided enough auz enough. >> a lot of punch in that little purr perhaps. >> it could be a new way to drive around. >> the new way to drive around

ford is getting into the car sharing business. it's launching a pilot program in chicago, san francisco, and d.c. a ride share app. customers who finance their cars with ford motor credit can rens them out to prescreened people when they're not being used.

you'll be reimbursed on an account. >> clever way to cut down on the cost of a new car. it's a top down kind of a day for convertible owners. lower humidity. lots of sun shine. here's the view from a tower looking up. just a few clouds. rain free today. next little chance for showers is becomeack across illinois. bringing a chance for rain by late in the day tomorrow. most of your daylight hours tomorrow should be rain free but as we get toward 6:00 tomorrow rain chances are moving up. today temperatures in the 80s. thank you, chuck. if you're a fan of the nationals "the wall street journal" says you're among the best spellers in the major leagues. >> they checked errors on the website of all 30 ball clubs. they found nationals fans came

in the top ten for accuracy. that's you in the bottom right in this dwraskgraphic here. you had just six ererors for every 100 words. mets fans they came in dead last with more than double the nationals fans mistakes. >> what are you talking about? i'm kidding. people now know folks are reading this stuff so maybe they pay a little more attention to get it right. >> or, they -- we're the most well read city. that was a new study that came out. perhaps they're baseball fans too. all right. heavy traffic could have a worst affect than we thought. >> and a new scam targeting homes. what to do too keep your home safe

right now metro is in the hot seat for another round of questions after the smoke emergency in january. metro's union says some bus and train operators are reluctant to report safety problems because they're afraid of losing their jobs. this cops after metro's rail chief testified about the transit system's mass i have maintenance backlog. he says because there isn't enough time to get the job done and that metro only has overnights to shut down the lines. to address the backlog metro

will have to shut down and single track more often. >> thank you, pat. within the next hour president obama is expected to announce changes to the u.s. hostage policy. nbc news confirms the u.s. will not threaten legal action against families that want to pay a ransom for their loved ones. the obama administration listened to families of hostages. the administration is setting up an interagency fusion center at the fbi to keep families in the loop. the u.s. government will not negotiate or pay ransom directly to terrorists. they pose as utility workers and then prey on the elderly. they worked three scams believe they're all connected. kristin wright spoke to a victim who described how the victims got inside her home. >> i feel like a prisoner in my own home. you know? i never know who's watching me. >> a 90-year-old woman, too

afraid for us to show her face. >> my jewelry box was opened and everything in it was gone except a pair of pearl earrings. >> her most treasured jewelry. >> well, it was my wedding band, my engagement ring. >> from her late husband of 65 years. it started with a knock at the door. and i said are you from pep koe and she said no, but we're just helping the utilities. she said if i could take a look at your meter. >> reporter: she took the woman around back. the front door unlocked, a man in a red car out front. >> she just kept talking and every so often she'd go back to check with her boss, she said. >> reporter: then they were gone. police think the scammers did the same thing to two other older women in montgomery county. they stole credit cards from a house and that led police to these surveillance pictures.

these are the suspects. a woman and a man using stolen credit cards. police say they targeted three women since may. >> ask to see their identification. call whatever company they're claiming to be from. >> reporter: irreplaceable pieces may be lost forever. >> one was a watch my first christmas my husband gave me. i've lost trust in people. >> reporter: kristin wright, news 4. no weather worries for us today. our heat wave was broken after four days in a row with temperatures in the 90s. we're loving the sun shine for you but as i've been mentioning, i'm a little bit worried about your weekend plans if you're trying to decide whether to go to the beach or not, don't cancel the trip just yet and remember even a bad week at a beach is better than a bad weekend at the office. we're going to have highs mid to

upper 80s across the area. get outside and enjoy it. temperatures up to 88 degrees by later this afternoon. chuck, thanks. living your life to traffic noise may shorten your life. researchers in london compared day and night traffic noise levels and the health records of more than 8 million city workers. death rates were higher in those who experienced daytime traffic noise. this may be due to high blood pressure, and stress caused by the noise. an epidemic that's getting worse. drug overdoses in a steep increase. we have joined by a doctor to talk about this. what are doctors doing to prevent the deaths and what should they be doing differently? >> i think people need to be educated. people really run into trouble with these medications when they do one thing in particular. their body develops a tolerance to the medications or drugs, whether their prescribed or not.

they're using these drugs or medications and then maybe they need to take a break from the medication for a while. maybe they go to jail or something happens and then they come back about a month, month later and they do the same amount of the drug or medication that they had been taking before and that leads them to ladies and gentlemen of the jury. the majority of people dying are from the open oids. this is like percocet and heroin and what those do if you take too much and your body is not used to it, they stop your ability to breathe. >> is that then, in some way on the doctors to sit down and really have deeper conversations about things that might be prescribed as it relates to these types of drugs. >> absolutely. doctors need to explain to the patients and let them know that they need to watch out and try not to use as much of this medication for a prolonged peer of time.

you really have to educate people. >> what would you suggest for somebody watching this who has drug problem or knows somebody who has a drug problem? what do they need to do to start to get a handle on this? >> in we're talking about a prescription drug problem with oxycontin, there's a great medication which blocks your ability to get high. it also prevents people have being able to overdose. so people, that's one good treatment. the other thing that i recommend is if you have a loved one on those medications and you're concerned about them taking too much, you can get a prescription for a drug that is an injection or inhaler, not an inhaler a nasal spray, or a pill and this immediately blocks the affects of the opiates. if somebody is not breathing and you give them an injection, they will immediately wake up. it can be life saving. >> thank you so much. >> you're welcome. thanks. finally a way to make sure you

never again fire off an e-mail you might regret. i'll show you how it works. ahh, soccer. top chef. soccer. top chef. soccer! top chef! disco. say it and see it with the x1 voice remote from xfinity.

we have all been there. we write an e-mail, maybe it's a little private and then we send it to the right people or complain maybe about the wrong person like your boss and hit reply all? maybe google is giving you a way to undo that e-mail and here's how you do it. it's easy. what you want to do is go to the little wheel click onsetings, that is going to give you the option as you scroll down to enable undo send. you'll click on that, and then you have the option to choose how long you want to get, five, ten 20 thirty-seconds. this is emimperative to scroll down and save your changes. after you write an e-mail, test it off. you notice we wrote the subject here, my boss. i don't like him. we know that's not true but if you want to go ahead and unsend this e-mail, you're going to send it, and then you're going to see this.

your message has been sent. and you'll be the option within that thirty-seconds to view the message or undo it. it's right back and you are saved and okay. most of us use our phones for e-mail. if you want to ability to unsend on your mobile guys very important that you install google's new inbox app. you cannot unsend e-mails with just the g mail app or the mobile website. >> thank you. a d.c. summer tradition gets new life at a new location.

welcome back. the 49th annual folk life festival. the celebration started about an hour ago. it is on an new area of the mall. the national park service put new restrictions to cut down on imagine to the mall to the grass there from foot traffic. this year's festival highlights peru. you can check out the schedule

on our app. search folk life festival. >> final check. nothing to worry about today. national airport is up to 80 degrees. mid to upper 70s in most of the suburbs. a very pleasant day to be outside today. but it's just not going to last nice all that much longer. here's your 7-day forecast. tomorrow 60% chance of rain showers and thunderstorms moving in after about 4:00 or 5:00 tomorrow afternoon. most of the day will be dry but it'll end wet. there's a pretty solid collapse for rain going into your sunday as well. >> thanks, chuck. >> and that is news 4 midday. thanks for joining us. we're back this afternoon first at 4:00. get your latest weather anywhere any time with our nbc washington app.

>> chad: when i look into your eyes, i see something that no one else sees or understands. look, no-- that is exactly why it is gonna make it even better when it does happen. >> abigail: no, no, no. >> chad: yes, yes, yes. [gentle music] ♪ ♪ >> zoe: penny for your thoughts. >> chad: no dimera is ever gonna sell anything that cheap. >> zoe