a new strategy tonight for fighting synthetic drugs. >> mayor bowser signs it into law tomorrow. tonight chief lanier tells news4 it's just the beginning. >> we have to get our act together and do something. plus, 22 million people, 1

in every 15 americans their social security numbers and much more stolen. tonight growing calls for somebody to get fired. and heavily guarded. the confederate flag spending its last night flying over south carolina's state house grounds. >> "news4 at 11" starts now. >> first tonight, synthetic drugs. d.c.'s mayor and police chief say they're at the center of a spike in murders this year. >> tomorrow, mayor bowser will sign a billíz givingey police more power to go after the people who sell them. and tonight chief cathy lanier tells our jackie bensen synthetic4odb-iñi; city backvn;l decades. chief about this tonight.v her comments were powerful. and i have to tell you, i found >> and dangerous drug. >> reporter: on tuesday, a 10-month-old baby was found

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but archuleta says she won't step down and president obama still backs her. jim? >> thank you, chris. we can tell you tonight what you can expect tomorrow during the 10:00 a.m. confederate flag removal ceremony in columbia, south carolina. nbc news reports tonight there will be no speeches. state troopers will simply walk out of the capitol, lower the flag, and walk it back inside. south carolina governor nikki haley signed the bill today to take down the flag and relatives of the charleston church massacre victims are relieved. >> it was just a symbol that our grandfather and the other victims did not die in vain. >> every time i think of my wife and the other eight people i can't think of a better thing to happen than that flag coming down. >> you see in this picture state police and barricades now surround the confederate flag and monument in columbia. tonight will be the last time it flies on state house grounds. the decision today to take down the flag could also lead to more jobs in south carolina.

15 years ago the naacp began an economic boycott of the state when lawmakers decided to keep the flag on capitol grounds. the united auto workers union joined that boycott. and so did the ncaa. it banned south carolina from hosting any championship events. all three tonight say they will lift the ban. there will soon be a legal challenge to virginia's decision to remove the confederate flag from state license plates. the group sons of confederate veterans says it will go to court to keep the state from banning those plates. last month governor terry mcauliffe called the flag unnecessarily divisive and hurtful and asked the attorney general to work on phasing out the vanity plates. we kept most of the severe weather out of our area tonight but storm team 4 cameras did capture a funnel cloud moving over prince george's county. >> we saw it around 7:00 as we were ending the news earlier tonight. take a look at the radar and we'll show you how we were earlier today. not much going on.

and then we saw the storms really erupt right around d.c. with some very heavy rainfall. you can see one more time, really erupt right there. we saw a couple of severe thunderstorm warnings there too. i watch this picture. look right here. this is right where that little storm was developing over southeast d.c. and let's take a look at it from our national harbor camera. that is a wall cloud right there. you can see it coming down from the base of the cloud that storm then extended in toward prince georges county. this is dan alexander out of the upper marlboro area. you can see the funnel making its way down. i talked to the national weather service. it stayed well above and never made landfall in our region. very good news there. but yes, we did have a funnel cloud. and some of you reported it and sent your pictures our way here at nbc4. what are we dealing with? shower activity. that's in. in through montgomery county, in through howard county, this will all come through. and it's going to lead to one great friday. i've got that forecast for you in just a bit. a problem for commuters on the red line today right at the end of rush hour. the backup was caused by someone getting hit by a train here at the friendship heights station.

metro tells us tonight the victim stepped in front of the train intentionally and survived. trains were single tracking for more than an hour around the area. a metro transit police officer has been suspended without pay after investigators say he used a social media app to expose himself to an underaged girl. david andre davis of woodbridge faces charges of indecent liberties with a child. prince william county police say davis used a cell phone app called tango me to correspond with a 16-year-old philadelphia girl. investigators say davis asked the girl to send him inappropriate images of herself. davis is in jail tonight without any bond. a former fbi agent's heroin abuse led to dismissed charges against 28 defendants. and today he learned his fate for his crimes. matthew lowry was sentenced by a federal judge to three years in prison. lowry stole heroin from his own criminal cases to feed his own addiction. the former agent says he has learned something about himself

and he is confident he'll leave prison a changed man. >> a significant life event. it seems like there is going to be no end in sight where things might seem like it's devastating. you know, you're looking at your whole life crashing down. >> lowry who had worked in the washington fbi field office pleaded guilty back in april. in news4 your health tonight, you'll soon see new warnings about the risks of taking some very popular pain relievers. the fda announced today it is putting stronger language about the possibility of heart attack and stroke on the warning labels for nonextraordinarial anti-inflammatory drugs. nsaids, those are over-the-counter drugs like aleve, advil and motrin, as well as arthritis drugs like celebrex. the new warning says heart attack and stroke can occur in the first few weeks of taking the drug instead of warning just about long-term effects. another celebrity chef dumping his plan for a restaurant in donald trump's

trump hotel in d.c. at the old post office building. geoffrey zakarian says trump's comments about mexican immigrants do not align with his values. zakarian says his company employees many immigrants, and america is a nation built by immigrants, his family included. they call her baby doe, a 4-year-old girl found dead. police hope this computer generated picture will lead to answers. the girl's family. the news4 i-team goes undercover tonight to expose the world of ticket scalpers. how they're getting the tickets and how you can avoid getting burned. plus, an unscheduled stop for pope francis in bolivia. how the pontiff wound up at a

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it's a picture you may have seen online tonight. 50 million people have seen the photos of a little girl known simply as baby doe. and now there is a desperate plea from police. the body of the girl was found in a trash bag two weeks ago on a small island near boston's logan airport. she was wearing black and white leggings and had a zebra print blanket. the computer generated picture has prompted dozens of leads. but now police are appealing directly to the girl's family. >> if you are the parent or caregiver of this young girl please step forward. clear your conscience, and help us identify this young child. >> police are also asking the public to think about whether any children have disappeared from their communities recently. it's illegal. but that's not stopping scalpers from selling tickets to fans including possibly the police.

businesses and consumers say it's an easy way to get ripped off, and the city promised to crack down. but as tisha thomp news4 i-team shows you, in their latest undercover investigation, ticket scalping is still big business in washington. >> row e right there. >> reporter: scalpers are everywhere at the verizon center. >> for every concert. >> reporter: easy to spot on show night. or before a big game. bombarding fans with dizzying offers. such a problem during the nhl play-offs the washington capitals sent out a fraud alert warning. >> they're pretty much here year round. >> reporter: with the verizon center he says fans should resist the temptation. >> their hope is that they're going to sell it for more than the box office. so you don't always get a good deal is the first. you run a high risk of it being counterfeit or it being faulty. >> ready. let's go. >> reporter: with undercover cameras rolling the news4 i-team hit the streets during the hockey play-offs to see what kind of sales pitch we would

hear among the sea of red jerseys. >> 400. >> $400? that's way up high. >> i mean, nobody got lower out here. >> reporter: then we met this scalper, hawking tickets normally going for $89 he claimed were right near the action. >> how much? >> $200 each. >> that's down on the ice? >> yeah. >> reporter: inside, we checked out those floor seats. three levels up from the ice, standing room only. >> are you going to sell these to us? are they your tickets? >> reporter: most scalpers are hush-hush about where they get their tickets. but we met one here at the new kids on the block concert who spilled his secret off camera. he says this is his only job, and that he buys most of his tickets the day of from the box office, because he says many venues will hold back tickets and then release them the day of the event. >> how do you know if they're good or not? >> we buy 'em.

>> reporter: his biggest haul in one night, $4,000 at the hannah montana concert. there are scalpers throughout who sell multiple copies of the same electronic tickets. meaning the first one in gets the seats. more than a few years ago police chief cathy lanier cracked down after a news4 i-team investigation showed some officers not enforcing the law, and how these teens lost $500 when they bought tickets on the street for justin bieber. we wanted to talk to the chief again about the scalping problem that hasn't gone away, but a spokeswoman told us we are unable to accommodate your request, only saying there had been 16 arrests since 2014. >> i mean, i see cop cars there. >> they're all right. they though what we're doing. >> reporter: multiple scalpers told the i-team police will normally not do anything, as long as they don't make the sell right in front of them.

>> you talk to the police? for what show? >> any. hockey and everything. >> they buy from you? >> yeah. >> four different sources tell us there has been discussion with d.c. council about possibly changing the scalping law, include one idea of creating a scalping zone where tickets could be legally bought and sold. tisha thompson news4 i-team. >> now experts say you should only buy verified tickets from sites like ticket mast weremaster with a credit card. to score the best seats, go to our nbc washington app. click on investigations. doug is here with more about our weather forecast. some rough going out there in places. >> in places. most didn't see much at all. and right when they came through d.c., they hit prince georges and anne arundel counties. those were the counties that got hit the hardest this evening. even a severe thunderstorm warning issued for anne arundel county a little earlier. the only two warnings, anne arundel, frederick county, maryland. that was it. we're not too worried about

severe weather today. take a look. right now we're look at temperatures still at 85 degrees at the airport. but look at the dew point. down to 68 earlier today. it was often the highest of the summer, up around 78, 79 degrees. it was ridiculously sticky. right now still a little bit on the sticky side. but we'll start to see the numbers coming down. 75 gaithersburg. 78 in culpeper. we're waiting on the front. and you can see it. here it is right up here. see this rain coming on down across our region? it's light rain. watch them blow up right here boom. and really blow up out towards the eastern shore over there towards delaware and over towards parts of new jersey. a lot of wind damage today around philadelphia and new jersey. but for us we did not see much in the way of damage in our area at all. just some shower activity came through montgomery county right now around the gaithersburg region, and through howard county. this will continue in through northern prince georges county and on that track about 25 30 miles per hour. it will be near savage at 11:21. bowie at 11:37 and kettering at 11:44.

what will you hear? just some raindrops on your roof. very, very light rain. now tomorrow a lot of us waiting to mow the lawn, waiting for a dry day. tomorrow will be a dry day. some of us will be mowing the lawn. as we look sunshine early. unless you want to come over, unless you want to come over and help. nice weather early tomorrow as we move on through the afternoon. look what happens here. well start to see more cloud cover. i think we will see some clouds tomorrow. but still a mixture of sun and clouds. nice weather all the way through. if you have dinner plans tomorrow night, no problem at all. but look what happens on saturday morning. another storm system tries to move in here. and by 8:00 in the morning, we could have some heavy rain forming here. and that's something that we're going to be watching now. it's not going to be an all-day rain. watch what happens by 1:30. this storm system moves on down to the south. and we start to clear out. so by saturday afternoon we're looking really good. 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, some sunshine. and i really think saturday is a very nice afternoon. so if you have morning plans watch out for those. afternoon plans not too worried. i think you'll get those in no problem at all. high temperatures tomorrow, starting off with sunshine and

moving to cloud cover. 38 in martinsburg. 89 d.c. 88 back towards fredericksburg. west of the blue ridge tomorrow simply going to be gorgeous. but there will be more clouds back towards that region. high temperatures the next couple of days, 87 with the good chance of showers early saturday morning and then clearing. 87 degrees there. 92 on sunday. rather hot on sunday. then on monday, high temperature around 89 degrees. and then, well, and then it wants to get unsettled again. we really do not want to see any more rain. but i've got a pretty good chance of it next tuesday wednesday, and thursday. right now high temperatures look like they could be in the upper 80s to around 90 degrees. if we get more of the rain, it could be slightly cooler than that. typical july pattern although it has been on the wet side for sure. >> and hot. on the hot side. thank you, doug. up next the o's get set to begin a battle of the beltway. jason is up next to tell us who will walk away with

is the xfinity sports desk, brought to you by xfinity, your home for the most live sports. >> moving up to baltimore tomorrow for the battle of the beltways, jason. >> no baseball locally tonight. i'm going to try my best to fill three minutes of air. >> we have confidence in you, jason. >> i can help you. >> it's okay. you're good. the nationals and the o's had the night off. each team will be well rested for their first game in the battle of the beltway series. that starts tomorrow at camden yards. still no word if max scherzer will pitch this weekend. if he does he will not play in the all-star game. we do know gio gonzalez will start tomorrow. his last outing postponed due to

weather. this series will last before the all-star break. both would like to carry some momentum into the mid summer classic. the nationals 46-38 atop the national league's while the o's are 43 and 42. three games behind the a.l. east. leaving the yankees gonzalez has won back-to-back games. that music is throwing me off. >> banjos. >> deliverance. >> award for gio. the o's are expected to start chris tilman. he is 6-7 with a 5.75 era. let's move on to basketball for a moment and get rid of that music. today was the first day nba free agents could sign with their respective teams. the wizards added four new players, but the loss of one in particular is being talked. paul pierce is now with the clippers. randy whitman, along with everyone in the organization was hopeful pierce would return but they understood his reasons for wanting to leave. >> disappointed a little bit just because of who paul in and

what he is. but you know what? he is at the end of his career. and i know what that was all about. i was able to play for my hometown team at the end of my career. you just have to move on. you can't dwell on it. you have plans. you have contingency things with everybody, whether it's paul or a draft pick or somebody else you're looking at in free agency. if it doesn't happen, you got to be ready to move on to the next step. and i think we have done a good job of that. >> so how did the wizards try to fill the void of paul pierce? well, they agreed to a deal with free agent swingman alan anderson from the nets. they traded with milwaukee bucks for jared dudley and resigned drew gooden and signed gary neal to a one-year contract. a lot of campers at the mystic game today. 11:30 tip-off in this one. they were taking on the new york liberty. we pick this up in the fourth quarter. mystics down by one, but not for long. stephanie dolson, purple hair and all knocking down the jump shot.

mystics on top. where two minutes left to play, the lights went out at the verizon center. a power outage. the fans not too concerned, though, they were dancing, having a good time. the kids they put on some music. they were having a good time there. play did resume about 15 minutes later in the game. the mystics did fall in overtime to liberty in this one. tennis for a moment. serena williams going for her fourth straight major. maria sharapova trying to stop a losing streak to williams. first sets serena 5-2 to the bottom of your screen. she is going to blast this backhand crosscourt winner. no way you're touching that one. later on she would take the first set, easily 6-2. skip ahead to match point. serena eyeing that wimbledon final. sharapova, she request not handle this serve. williams had 13 aces on the day. she wins in straight sets. she will move on to the finals that take place on saturday. >> you know what that needed

jason, was some banjo music at wimbledon. so fight. >> my goodness. we have to get rid of that music. >> what is going on? >> we'll be right back.

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he is known as the pope of the people. and as it turns out, that sometimes means a quick change in a fast food joint. after spending half an hour in his popemobile waving to thousands in santa cruz bolivia today pope francis needed a place to change into his investments so he could celebrate mass. and well, what are you going to do? a nearby burger king was

available. so in he went. the home of the whopper had already closed because of the pontiff's violent. bk later put a post on facebook thanking the pope for using the restaurant as his changing room. do you think they gave him one of those paper crowns?

♪ >> elmo: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." tonight, join jimmy and his guests -- colin farrell jason schwartzman