learning about this problem. also ahead, getting to the bottom of a messy derailment that caused so many problems for metro rail passengers. the potential fallout in the days ahead. plus, storm team 4's chuck bell with a hour-by-hour forecast. >> a few scattered clouds in the eastern skies. waiting on sunrise. it's not up for another 31 minutes. but it's a comfortable start this morning. mid to upper 50s through shenandoah valley. 58 in martinsburg. 59 near montgomery county. near 70 degrees in annapolis. just those scattered clouds around. becoming mostly sunny. hour-by-hour, low to mid-80s. breaking news on the roads, southbound, bw parkway. right now a crash off to the

right side of the roadway. chopper 4 over the scene. we have a four-mile backup. it's on the washington, d.c. app right now. right now, it's a pretty good option, 95. two lanes blocked ramp from southbound gw parkway to inbound key bridge that is shut down starting today through friday. take the roosevelt bridge instead. 100 eastbound at route 1, a crash there as well. see slowdowns there. innerloop and outer loop, no major problems. more on this problem on the beltway coming up, eun. >> thank you, melissa. developing this morning. you won't be able to go to the washington monument when it opens today. there is a problem with the elevator. news4's molette green is live outside the white house to decide what is being done to fix the problem. molette, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, no operating elevator means no visiting the washington monument. they're standing by waiting on a repair crew set to arrive

sometime this morning to get to work on this latest elevator problem. this had malfunction, the elevator it happened last night just before 10:00 last night. two pregnant women were among the 50 or so folks inside at the time. they opted to have d.c. fire bring them down in stair chairs. the others took the stair, nearly 900 of them inside. this elevator problem is a nagging issue with this particular attraction with incidents as recent as may and june. a big bummer for all of the tourists in town trying to get the last days of the summer vacation in here in the nation's capital. we're staying on top of this developing story throughout the day. we'll tell you when it is all finally fixed. but still waiting on the repair crews to arrive this morning. back to you. 6:03, and today, some of the people at metro could lose their

jobs over the train derailment earlier this month. the metro's board of directors has a closed meeting at 11:00 this morning. they're reviewing the investigation on how a train slid off the tracks at the smithsonian station august 6th. more importantly, they'll talk about why that problem caused it to go unfixed for a month. "the washington post" says we could learn what it says by the end of the week. now, if you live in southeast d.c., you can take the w-8 bus on its normal route. metro detour the bus around elvans road. mayor bowser said, no, no part of the city can be abandoned by metro. d.c. mayor muriel bowser planning another move to limit the city's increase in homicides. sources say she plans to ask

d.c. council to give law enforcement more power, specifically, parole officers would be able to search former convicts at anytime if on probation. the officers could then detain them for break even minor rules. the community also responding to the spike in crime. take a look at this, people held a peace rally last night. they said the community needs to put a stop to crime. one of the people will was michelle johnson whose daughter was killed in a triple shooting last week. the florida postal worker who flew a gyrocopter through some of the most restricted airspace should be back in court today. douglas hughes recently rejected a plea deal that would have required him to spend ten months in jail for landing near the u.s. capitol this year. he faces as much as 9 1/2 years in prince on six felony and misdemeanor charges. also today, we expect a colorado judge to formally

sentence convicted movie theater shooter james holmes. by law, that sentence will be life without the possibility of parole. that's because a jury could not agree on a death penalty. those same jurors found holmes guilty of 12 people and wounding dozens more back in july 2012. firefighters in montgomery county say a massive barn fire was an accident. the fire department tweeted that the cause was likely spontaneous combustion. take a look at the flames here from chopper 4 out to damascus road when a hay barn was on hire. there were was little firefighter could do because there were no hydrants in the area. crews kept a close eye on the fire to make sure it didn't spread. no one was hurt. today arglington leaders an troopers will dedicate south glebe road to cajacqueline vern.

she was the first woman and first black person virginia state police hired to be a troooper and to be killed in the line of duty. vernon was 32 years old. and it's truly back to school for the children in prince george's county. a water main break forced them to cancel class yesterday in mt. rainier. they say the main is fixed. and that means classes start at 7:45. good luck today. right now, we're working to make sure kids have the school supplies they need for the year ahead. our backpacks 4 kids campaign kicks off today. and breaking news on the roads. a big problem southbound, bw parkway. a four-mile backup. details coming up. but first, back at home, cameras are on hand as one of the

>> announcer: you're watching "news4 today." welcome back. it's 6:10. crews no longer have to search through a massive landslide in alaska. they recovered the body of the final victim of that landslide yesterday. the city building official went missing under logs, rocks and mud in sitka, alaska, last week. the landslide also killed two other men. one of three men who stopped a shooter on a train in europe is now back in the united states. anthony sadler arrived home in sacramento, california last night. he and two friends received france's highest ranking medal this week. they stopped a man who pulled out an ak-47 on a train to paris. reports say the gunman has now been charged with terrorism. we're working hard to make sure children in the area have all the school supplies they need to head back to class. >> amelia segal is part of that

effort today in kingstown with the forecast. >> reporter: hey, aaron, it's comfortably cool out here as we kick off the backpacks 4 kids drive at the apple federal credit union. angie's here, lauren's here. we all right have donations coming in. this backpack is so heavy. you can head to my facebook and twitter pages to see exactly what we need you to donate. again, swing by today. we want to the see the weather looking beautiful at the bus stop. temperatures in the 60s. about 67 degrees out here. a-plus, temperatures around 80 degrees. and a temperature of 84 with plenty of sunshine. melissa, how are the roads looking this morning? breaking news right now on the roadways, bw parkway southbound. take a look at chopper right now. a four-mile backup. bw parkway at nasa is shut down temporarily. this tow truck just arrived on

the scene. we're totally stopped. take 95 instead. ramp through the gw parkway to key bridge closed for inbound traffic. alternate is roosevelt bridge. as far as travel times no problems on the beltway or 270. listen to our friends at wtop 105 fm in your car. excuse me, you weren't called on? sit down. sit down. >> controversy again. what caused donald trump to throw a reporter out of a news conference he was holding. but first, a dangerous situation in dublin. what we're learning about the fire and the impact on

right now, flights are back in the sky at dublin's airport after a fire. we have a picture to show you. no small fire we're talking. that's a hangar burning. the roof completely on fire. this morning, it forced the runways to shut down. flights had to be suspended. now they are delayed.

the fire was in a restricted area, separate from where passengers are. we don't know just yet how the fire started. back to you. excuse me, sit down, you weren't called. sit down. sit down. sit down. go ahead. >> i have a right to ask a question. >> no, you don't, you haven't been called. go back to univision. >> a pretty cantankerous night on the road. donald trump argued with jorge ramos two more times before throwing his hands up and say i can't deal with this. last year he sparred with president obama over immigration, repeatedly interrupting the president while speaking. the presidential candidate did repeat his claim that he will stop eating oreos because the cookie maker is downsizing its operation and moving it to

mexico. a spokesperson for oreo said they will continue to be made in the united states including one in virginia. a democratic hopeful, hillary clinton, collected her first indorsment. this came from a member of the president's cabinet agriculture secretary tom vilsack. he said that clinton is battle tested. two nato service members were killed in afghanistan. nato said this morning the attack happened inside a military compound in the helmand province. the gunmen were killed. nato has not released the nationalities of the killed service members. today, there's a case going in front of the frederick county school board and it could have national implications. cindy jones wants her children to opt out of standardized tests. if the board says rose's children don't have to take the test, it could set a precedent for other school boards to

follow. 6:18, one middle in loudoun county is not making the grade. middleburg charter school fell short of state accreditation benchmarks. the school has been given an accredited now label after 50% pass the science exam. you may remember the school board placed mcs on probation after finding out the school's first principal barbara smith was not certified to teach or lead a school in virginia. . a traffic alert, starting today you'll have to find an alternate route to get from gw parkway to the key bridge. they closed the ramp for repairs. that ramp should be back open saturday morning. its women's equality day equal rights activists will walk from st. stephen and the

incarnation episcopal church. the plan to pass the white house an hour later. two major power companies may keep fighting for a amerger that could cost you. d.c. regulators rejected pepco'snd epsilon's $6.4 million merger deal. the city's session said the merger would provide a single energy provider in the region. the pentagon just killed the replacement for the well-known and ageing humvee. take a look here, oshkosh won the highly coveted bid here. under the initial contract, the company will build 17,000 joint light tactical vehicles. a protected armor of a tank and e the mobility of a jeep. the first shipment of these vehicles should be ready sometime in 2018. right now, you can be part

of our effort to start kids off right this school year. the backpacks 4 kids campaign is going on. as we speak in kingstown, virginia. let's check with angie goff. >> reporter: it's so wonderful. first, let's talk about the weather. it's so nice, it's so cool. it's a little dark. it's a little early. but we are already out here at the kingstown apple federal credit union collecting -- >> all: backpacks 4 kids! >> reporter: how's that four? he kindly donated 50 backpacks. what do you got in that bag? >> in the bag we have some paper folders and some paper. some pens and erasers and then school supplies. >> reporter: could you pick up

the whole bag, please. you got to see, guys, this thing, it weighs more than brooke. thank you so much, brooke, for coming out. devin, here you don't start school for another week or so, you're with fairfax county. you decided to get up early and help out, why? >> well, how could i not? it's such a positive foundation for so many kids in this area. it's just overall, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. >> reporter: it's warm in our hearts, too. you all are setting such a great example. this is the kind of spirit we want to spread throughout the day. we want you to come out from 6:00, we all right started, until noon today we'll be collecting these backpacks. we've teamed up with apple federal credit union to collect backpacks filled with supplies. we're located here at 6830 viceroy drive. if you can't come out to this branch, just go to any apple

federal credit union branch. or go to our nbc washington app. search the word backpack. it's going to be the first thing that pops up. coming up later this hour, we're going to talk about how this is going to impact students in fairfax county. back to you. >> angie, thank you. great to see the kids out there. >> yeah, i appreciate that. a lot of good stuff in those backpacks. we want to get a look at the forecast, 66 degrees outside the studio. >> storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell can tell us what to expect. it's a beautiful day. >> it's a beauty. a little bit of a cloud deck outside of the tower view, across northern virginia, suburban, maryland. these clouds are not going to last much past sunrise. all eyes are on tropical storm erika right now. quite a ways off the leeward

islands but what is most important is the forecast track over the next five days. expect it to be near category 1 hurricane strength. and somewhere very close to the southeast coast of the florida as we get into sunday night or monday morning. if you have friends or relatives or travel plans that will take you from south florida or the bahamas, saturday, sunday or monday, this is the forecast cone of possible locations for the storm. so we'll keep a very close eye on erika, but all interests in south florida and the bahamas need to be starting to prepare for what could be a storm this weekend into early next week. for us, what a great start. partly sunny skies. 68 in capital heights. 70 degrees in edgewater, maryland. your commuter forecast, 66 for the next hour or two. 72 degrees between 8:00 and 10:00. highs up into the low 80s. 85, washington, 84 in kemp springs, maryland tonight.

going out tonight, temperatures still near 80 between 6:00 and 8:00 tonight. dropping into the mid-70s between 8:00 and 10:00. so perfect weather. here's the seven-day forecast. 85. and more humidity friday. saturday, feeling like summertime again. and that summertime feeling the chance for afternoon storms sunday and monday. a check on traffic with mel slays and breaking news. breaking news. southbound bw parkway. the problem at nasa. as far as the accident, we have a five-mile backup, bw parkway approaching nasa. you might want to take 95 instead. 66 west at the toll road. brand-new crash there. you can see a slow down there. wide look at the beltway. no major problems. looking pretty good. 66 through manassas. 40 miles per hour, 270 at falls road this morning.

no major problems. southbound, same thing northbound. looking quite good. again, this is the big issue, southbound, if you're heading out the door i'd say ache 95 and save yourself time. 6:25 now, big changes are coming to montgomery county schools this year. the district will have athletic trainers on staff at each of its 25 high schools. it's part of the effort to reduce concussions among athletes. the athletic trainers will be onsite for practices and games and on call for injuries. recent study found concussions impacting high school females in particular. 1100 suffered concussions throughout the washington area including montgomery county. an eagle will head back to its natural habitat after being found injured on a pier in the

potomac river. national wildlife officers will release this bird at widewater state park. beautiful. it may want you to break into song. >> i'm waiting for you to do it. a particular song i had in mind. >> not now. it's on facebook -- >> you sang earlier. >> the bird was found back in may with an injured wrist apparently. it's been recovering at the wildlife center in waynesboro. since then about to head back into the wild. the million-dollar painting accidentally damaged by a clumsy 12-year-old boy is back on display. take a look. right there, the boy tripped and punched a hole in the 17th century oil on canvas painting over the weekend. flowers right there worth $1.54 million. this is no ordinary accident like you break a glass in the store. the masterpiece was fixed. there's something called insurance. knowles where you break it, you buy it.

he's going to have to live with the rest of that. >> he had a cup in his hand too. didn't spill anything. >> you can imagine. imagine if they had cameras rolling on all the mistakes we made when we were kids. new video putting you inside the escape route the prisoners in upstate new york used to get away. there's a live look outside there. chuck bell has your bus stop forecast at 6:41. the traffic here in the area is said to be the worst. if you take a look at 495 heading southbound, you can see it's moving along not too bad here. but we are at the beginning of what is rush hour. now, this new study says that in 2014, they took an average of drives out here, saying that it is tough for us driving on the

it's a problem we're all too familiar with around here. heavy traffic leaving us with

that stop and go commute. now, new numbers giving us a better idea of how much time we're wasting with driving around the d.c. area. helping your kids get ready for the day, heading out to catch the school bus, most of us seeing temperatures in the 60s. really nice. >> storm 4 team meteorologist chuck bell is here with the forecast. good morning, everybody. work week close to half over already. the sun literally across the eastern horizon on what will be a beautiful day to be outside. those low clouds out there this morning, they won't last long, we should be back to full shine before lunchtime. 61, gaithersburg, 63 in springfield. 64 in manassas. it's a great day outside. what to wear? you don't need the umbrellas or jackets at all. you just need the sunblock and sunglasses and short sleeves. bus stop weather. great start. temperatures in the mid-60s this morning. a gorgeous afternoon coming our

way. temperatures back in the low to mid-80s later on today. it's called a parkway, i feel there's not a whole lot of driving this morning. >> actually parking. breaking news, again, southbound bw parkway at nasa this morning is where that crash was. five-had mild backup headed southbound on bw parkway. at this point, taking 95 is a good option if you're leaving sometime soon. innerloop there right lanes blocked. ramp from southbound gw parkway inbound key bridge closed to friday. alternate is roosevelt bridge. prince george's countyoverall, no major problems. 66 looks good eastbound and westbound. new this morning, washington, d.c., maryland commuters facing gridlock on the daily commute. at least that's according to a new study at texas a&m. how bad is it, meagan fitzgerald has a close eye on it this

morning. meagen, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, aaron, that's right. it puts us on the top of the list and that's not a good thing. it says traffic here at metro area is the worst in the country. take a live look outside, 495, we're heading southbound. beginning of rush hour so it's not too bad right now. but we all know as time goes on this is just going to get worse. in 2014, the study says the average commuter spends about 82 hours in traffic wasting 32 gallons of gas. this amounts to roughly $1800 which, by the way is the highest in the nation. the study says the gridlock is so bad that most commuters have a very slim chance of being on time to work unless, of course, they plan additional time ahead. in case you're wondering, drivers in l.a. spend 80 hours in traffic which is two hours less than we do here in the metro area. and in new york city, they're coming in fourth place with 74 hours annually, sitting in traffic. aaron, back to you.

>> meagan fitzgerald live for us. today, you can share your input on the second phase of the silver line. there's a public workshop to talk about the silver line in loudoun county. leader there will break down three development plans. if you want to go to the meeting it's at moorefield elementary school. there will be a vigil tonight for one of the women who lost her life trying to cross a busy street in southeast. there's no crosswalk or stop walk to the entrance of united medical center on center avenue. you can see from this video, people just dart across the road. and she died friday night trying to do just that. news4 took this issue to muriel bowser. and she said she will consider adding a stop light to the crosswalk. the 14-year-old held 27 classmates hostage. you can see the school went into

lockdown. police then negotiated with that teenager. he let everyone go and no one was hurt. >> when they took us to the football field, that's when i realized this was actually happening. >> thank god that none of our students was hurt. it's been a drying day for schools students and kids. >> it's not clear whether the teenager will be charged with anything. curtis smith was shot and killed in chester county courthouse in pennsylvania. smith was facing similarly, assault, and harassment charges after jumping the white house fence back in had march. there's no word on why he was at district court yesterday. the deputy hurt his arm and hand but is expected to be okay. it is 6:36.

today, the head of fema will visit mississippi as that area marks ten years after hurricane katrina. craig fugate took up a position after the hurricane and will take a few days visiting the gulf coast. fugate has visited schools that have been rebuilt since the 2012 storm. he will also join with officials looking at recovery efforts. and port part of stafford park is closed due to a sewage leak. a sewage plug apparently broke from upstream of the park. if it's safe that park should reopen thursday. a developing story at the national mall after an elevator malfunction at the washington monument leaves a number of people stranded at the top. what we're learning about the incident and why two of the visitors needed help from crews to get back down. and breaking news at bw park

away, southbound at nasa. details coming up. but first, showing you how they pulled it off. the new video of the escape route used by those prisoners in new york as they made their dash to freedom. the

take a look. this is the escape route two convicted murderers took from an upstate new york prison earlier this morning. correction officials washingtoned the route david sweat and richard matt took. it involved squeezing between steampipes in blocks. it only took 20 minutes to get out. matt was shot and killed and sweat was captured a few days

later. we're seeing the sun come up. >> meteorologist chuck bell is here with weather and traffic on the 4s at 6:41. >> another beauty out there. as bari mry manilow would say, looks like we made it. temperatures start in the mid to upper 60s in the immediate suburbs. to even 50s on the map. 66 at 7:00, 80 at lunchtime, and it looks as nice as day. a check on traffic with melissa mollet. breaking news, southbound bw parkway at nasa, that's where we had the issue but that's been cleared out of the way. we have now a two-mile backup. eye ramp from southbound gw parkway to inbound key bridge, it's closed until friday. take the roosevelt. outer loop 10 minutes behind.

northbound a couple minutes behind. and inbound no problems. remember to listen to our partners at wtop 105 fm in your car. trying to put a stop to the spike in crime. the extra hour that law enforcement would have if the mayor gets her way. we're looking for another day today and the action being

right now, we're watching the situation at the washington monument after another elevator mishap. the latest malfunction left a number of people stranded. and two of them needed extra help getting down. it is one of the stories we're working ton get you up to the minute, the minute you're up. we'll start things off with storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell. good morning, wednesday often to a comfortable start. sunshine around there. just a few clouds this morning. they're on their way out of here for the afternoon. 66 on your way out the door. high in the 80s. sunshine and low humidity but terrible traffic, melissa. southbound bw parkway at nasa looking a lot better. just a mile and a half backup, much better than the five we were already dealing with. ramp from southbound gw parkway, remember, today through friday, we're shut down. take roosevelt bridge instead.

the elevator at the washington monument is broken again. and building is closed. news4's molette green is following this problem which could be a headache for the visitors at the district today. she joins us from the national mall. mollett, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, aaron, oh, yes, cross the washington monument off the list of tours for the day at least until the elevator situation is resolved. we're still waiting for the repair crew those up and get this done. just before 10:00 last night, the elevator malfunctioned with a bunch of people at the top. firefighters brought two women who happened to be pregnant down in stair chairs. we're hearing about 50 or so people were at the top at the time. those two ladies opted to have d.c. fire bring them down because they did not want to risk taking the nearly 900 steps to the ground in that condition. the rest of the folks inside took the stairs down. we've been following these

elevator troubles throughout the most recent one happened in june and then there was an incident in may. so this morning, i'm seeing a few tourists out and about, taking pictures of the monument. that's all you'll be able to do until they get that elevator fixed so folks can go back inside and go back up to the top. that is the latest live from the national mall, i'm molette green, news4. it's 6:47. in the day ahead, big next step on the delay on metro earlier this morning. metro's board of directors is meeting earlier this morning. they're reviewing an investigation as to how a train jumped off the track at the smithsonian station august 6th. more importantly, they'll examine why a track problem went unfixeded for a month. the meeting begins at 11:30. metro transit police now patrolling a neighborhood in southeast washington. you may see them on elvans road where someone shot a man on a

metro because last week. metro detoured the bus around the road after that happened. it's back to its normal route after the move outraged city leaders. d.c. mayor bowser said no part of our city can be abandoned by metro. the mayor is also planning another big move to eliminate homicides. she plans to give law enforcement more power specifically parole officers able to search former convicts at anytime on probation. the officers can then detain them for breaking even minor rules. and the d.c. community also responding to crime. take a look here, people in ward 8 held a peace rally last night. they said the people there need to work with police to help stop crimes. we're watching another global market after a roller coaster day. landon dowdy is here on what to

expect. good morning. we can expect u.s. markets are poised for another bounce of the opening bell today following tuesday's save. starting sharply higher with the dow up 441 points after china tried to prop up its slumping markets. those gains returned in the afternoon with it picking up in the final hour of trading. the dow closing down 205 points. the index has now had five straight days of losses of more than 100 points. asian markets were mixed overnight with china down 1%. but japan rallying 3%. and europe is in the red today. the florida postal worker who flew a gyrocopter through some of our most restricted airspace should be back in court today. douglas hughes recently rejected a plea deal that would have required him to spend ten months in jail.

hughes said the gyrocopter was his form of protest against campaign laws. he faces up to 9 1/2 years in prison. we expect a judge to formally sentence a convicted movie theater shooter james holes. by law, the sentence would have to be life without the possibility of parole. that's because the jury couldn't agree on the penalty. firefighters in montgomery county say a massive barn fire was an accident. take a look at these massive flames. the fire department tweeted that the fire was most likely spontaneous combustion. chopper 4 flew over the hay barn on manassas road. crews did keep a close eye on the fire to make sure it didn't spread. no one was hurt. coming up at 6:51 on this wednesday morning, we turn to meteorologist chuck bell who is telling us about -- we like this

kind of weather. >> we sure do. august without humidity? sign me up for that. yeah, it's been beautiful the last several days. looks like the great weather will last up until the weekend. unfortunately, we can't keep it this nice for too long in the washington area. but we'll get a couple more days out of it. the weekend will not be terrible. it's going to feel a lot more like summertime than this early autumn preview. lights out of downtown monument. 67 at reagan national. morning wednesday at 8 miles per hour. what to expect today -- this cool morning with a few clouds around will turn into 100% sunshine later thirss afternoon. current temperatures, 59 gaithersburg and frederick. winchester, 58.

lu ray, 57. great running weather by august standards this is off the charts. high s today, 81 in hagerstown. the nationals hosting the san diego padres. another great nice for baseball. hopefully another great time for a big nats win. future weather, nothing but sunshine. clear and cool tonight. another winner of the day coming our way for tomorrow. mid-80s, today and tomorrow and getting more humid and back to 90s. chance for a late afternoon shower on sunday and monday. looking at southbound bw parkway, chopper 4 over the scene, had that earlier crash and a lot of delays but we are clearing out. ramp from southbound gw parkway to inbound key bridge, remember, we're closed till friday.

take the roosevelt bridge. outbound, 66 there at the toll road because of an earlier crash, 66 overall, no major problems. 95 looks pretty good. same thing when you're looking at prince george's county, overall, a little yellow here and there. 270 at montrose with a little slowdown. arlington leaders and law enforcement will remember a state trooper who died. they are dedicating the i-95 bridge over south glebe road to trooper jacqueline vernon today. she had just pulled someone over for violating hov rules. vernon was the first woman and first black virginia state police trooper to be killed on the job. well, it is truly back to school for students at thomas stone elementary. a water main break forced school officials to cancel the first day yesterday. but they say the water main is fixed and that means classes start at 7:45.

we need your help this morning to make the backpacks 4 kids program a huge success. our goal is to provide as many backpacks as possible to children in our region who need them. our angie goff is collecting backpacks. >> reporter: we have surprise here, some olympics stars here. what did you bring with justice. >> today we have packed backpacks. in our backpacks we have paper, pencils, crayons, note cards. these are all the tools that kids need to succeed. >> reporter: this is home for you because you're from this area? >> i grew up in great falls, virginia, not too far. i remember being young and getting backpacks and doing these drives. >> reporter: and tucker, you also include something a little special with yours?

>> yeah, both of us include a handwritten note for the lucky kid that gets it. good luck this year, set goals and work hard to achieve them. and most importantly have n. >> reporter: both of you are inspirations, we appreciate you stopping by. when we talk about the annual backpacks 4 kids we can't do it without robert stall from apple credit union. how is this going to impact the area? >> it's going to impact the kids and serve the education community and what better way to do it than give the kids a fresh start for the school year. we're excited about it, angie. >> reporter: we're going to be hanging with you all morning long. we want to invite you to come down to the apple federal credit union. you can bring a backpack. or head over to the nbc washington app and find out a way to make a donation. coming up, we'll take a closer

look in the 7:00 hour about how campaign is really making a mark in the community. back to you, ys. >> angie, thank you for your support. this wednesday, the d.c. area has the worst gridlock in the united states. a new study from texas a&m says d.c. drivers waste more time and fuel than traffic in either new york and l.a. >> and we posted it with the washington app about whatever comes out of that meeting. >> today, a judge will formally sentence james holmes to life in prison without parole. the colorado movie theater shooter killed 12 people and hurt dozens more in 2012. and in the washington monument, the elevator broke with 50 people at the top last night. the elevator is closed until it's fixed. and it's wednesday. that means you're already thinking about the weekend at the beach, if you're heading down to the coastline, perfect weather, friday, saturday, sunday. water temperature, 80 degrees. are you kidding me?

great weather until then. ramp from southbound gw parkway to inbound key bridge. again, we're shut down today through friday. the alternate can't take key bridge but roosevelt. >> that is the broadcast this morning. thanks for waking up with us. >> what a musical morning. the "today" show is next. until then, have a great day. >> make it a great wednesday,

good morning. ejected. uni vision's anchor kicked out of a donald trump news conference. >> sit down. go back to univision. >> as trump's ongoing battle with megyn kelly forces her boss to step in. can his confrontational style take him to the white house or will it wear thin with voters? we'll talk to trump in a live interview. hero's welcome. one of the americans who stopped the train attack in france returns to the u.s. the man he helped take down charged with terrorism overnight. what authorities are revealing about his plan. >> all eyes on erika.