tv News4 at 5 NBC September 18, 2015 5:00pm-6:01pm EDT
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the schedule on tuesday afternoon, pope francis will land at joint base andrews. president obama and the first lady will be there to greet him. on wednesday he'll meet with the president at the white house and then the popemobile will do a parade around the ellipse. from there he heads on rhode island avenue, st. matthews catholic church before the big mass in the basilica. pope francis will speak to congress and head to st. patrick's and catholic charities before he leaves for new york. the traffic, over all these days there will be roads closed and changes to the bus rides. our transportation reporter adam tuss says 70 metro bus routes have been impacted and driver, they're going to have to contend with the traffic from everyone coming into the city to see the pope. some other big events along with the pope, ed sheeran has back-to-back concerts tuesday and wednesday and the nats will play at nationals park. and the plan for government workers, the office of personnel management is encouraging and
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all of the agencies that have teleworking ability to take advantage of it and allow those employees to do the work. they should expect major delays on wednesday which are expected to have the most people headed into the district for the pope's, vents. >> we want to help you get around and get through all of this while the pope is in town. if you haven't already and download the nbc washington app and you'll find a list of tips for commuters and visitors written by staffers who just like you rely on metro every day. just search pope commute. thank you, chris. an overwhelming number of people requested tickets to see the pope on the west lawn of the capitol. so congresswoman eleanor homes norton figured out who could go. a high school senior stepped up. >> yeah. that's right. norton wanted to show no favoritism. so they got appear minister from
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archbishop carol. the student's principal whose job today was to hand pick each winner vying for one of these very limited and hot tickets in this town. >> it says mint. >> the first name called in a very special lottery drawing for tickets to see the pope outside the capitol. congresswoman eleanor holmes norton put up 50 tickets she gets as an elected leader and snagged 35 more in fellow members and house leadership. >> matthew mcgregor. i just can't believe that 450 members and senators all have people who are going to have get here, and that may mean that i am underestimating how attractive this post -- this pope is to catholics and non-catholics alike. look who is actually pushing the winner. >> zachary israel.
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>> she will show no favoritism so archbishop carroll high school got the call and selected senior patricia gomez out of 400 classmates to pick winners from a jar filled with 150 d.c. resident hopefuls. >> it was pretty surreal to me at first. i didn't know what to expect coming in here, and i was just really excited when i got the opportunity. >> reporter: but this hot ticket. >> yvette peron is the last number. >> standing room only means just that, to watch the pontiff on jumbotrons outside the west lawn of the capitol. >> that means people will have to stand from very early in the morning before they get any sight of the pope. >> reporter: and delegate norton's office tells me that crowd estimates so far range between 300 and 500,000 for the national mall alone. coming up at 6:00, we'll take a look at security and other prep going on down here that are
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coming together down here and elsewhere around washington. back to you, doug. >> and we'll let down there right now, a beautiful day and plenty of sunshine across the area, but coming up over the next couple of days we'll start to see some changes out there and we have the area of high pressure, and that's giving us the sunshine and these really nice temperatures and take a look. the warm area is here and as it shifts off the coast it starts to bring our wind in from a different direction and combine that with an area of low pressure that will form off the coast and you take the northeasterly flow. what that does is bring in more clouds and a chance for showers and drizzle and lowers the temperatures and that's what's going to be happening next week, next tuesday and into thursday. so if you're immediated out to see the pope, mostly cloudy, dreary and a few showers and most of those are on monday and not -- we don't think there will be too much in the way of rain and it will be a bit breezy, but if you are going to be out and about that day, the papal visit and everything happening during
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the day on wednesday and looking pretty good as far as temperatures go. 74 degrees at 10:00 a.m. and nice and mild around 2:00 and temperatures around 76 degrees and all in all, not a bad-looking day. guys? >> before the pope arrives here in our area, he spends three days in cuba, landing in havana tomorrow and during his trip he'll be celebrating a mass at revolution square and meeting with raul castro. the pope has been credited with playing a major role in easing tensions between the u.s. and cuba and later this hour our david culver reports from havana on why non-catholics are excited about this visit, as well. we have developing for you right now, montgomery county fire just tweeted out that a bush fire outside of latonville under control. chopper 4 under a power line trail about an hour ago it spread to five acres and firefighters had to bring water tanks to put it out. the news 4 i team found it has been a particularly busy
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brushfire season in montgomery county. 120 acres destroyed in a seven-day period in april alone, and that includes about 20 acres in senecca creek state park, and we have an update tonight on a story that news 4 just reported. last june, 73-year-old james gary was killed by a street sweeper while crossing the street near his home. his family filed a lawsuit against the company that owns that sweeper. the safety steps that the family says were ignored. >> fort meyer construction company is one of the biggest local government contractors in the region and you've probably seen them in the streets of d.c. and that's just what the crew is doing in front of james gary's home the day he tried to cross the street. >> it was senseless, really. it was kind of hard dealing with that and why he had a lot of years ahead of him. >> james gary leaves behind a
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wife, five children, and 22 grandchildren. >> he was cool and he liked to joke. that's what drew people to him and he always liked to joke and always liked to laugh and he had a warm demeanor about him. >> reporter: the 73-year-old grandfather was crossing the street in front of the home where he lived for more than 30 years when a street sweeper owned by fort meyer construction company backed over him. >> he was sucked under the truck and he was run over twice and he did live for some time afterward. >> the construction company failed to have the proper safety procedures in place the day of the accident. >> there should have been a flag man. there should have been someone out there to keep pedestrians out of the way of this struck. our understanding is all of the precautions were not in place that there were certain safety guidelines that were not followed and we'll know about this after we receive more of a complete investigation. >> reporter: another of gary's sons told news 4 how he had just
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given his dad a new pair of cowboy boots as a present. >> dad with his boots on and that's the way he wanted to go. that's the way -- and that's how i want to remember him with his boots on. >> we reached out to fort meier construction and they did not return our calls and emails and back in june the company did extrees sympathy for the family's loss and declined to comment because of the ongoing investigation. the family says the lack of a flag man wasn't the only thing missing that caused their father's death. jim and wendy? >> mark segraves, thank you. the mother of two children who had been missing for more than a year now will remain in the psychiatric ward. a judge told katherine hoggle to continue treatment finding her incompetent to stand trial. hoggle is charged with neglect and the abduction of her children sarah and jacob. the kids disappeared last september and hoggle will be back in court in november. >> thieves seemed to be
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targeting asian restaurants in northern virginia. at least six places hit so far and all of them have glass-front doors. our northern virginia bureau chief julie carey is live at the most recent break-in to explain. jules? >> reporter: when we pulled up earlier they were just finishing work on this brand new glass door. take a look inside the waste can here. that's what's left of the front doors of three businesses in this plaza all burglarized overnight and loudoun county investigators think as many as a half dozen businesses were burglarized lately and those businesses might be connected. >> the finishing touches being put on a brand new glass door at this chinese restaurant. this is what it looked like earlier at the nail salon next door and at the indian restaurant. ling has run oriental express for 21 years. she says when the chef arrived this morning he called with the bad news about the smashed door and this. >> they took my cash register,
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the whole cash register which is really old and heavy. they just took it and left through the back door. >> three other chinese restaurants have also been hit in the last week and the others in the ashburn area. this restaurant owner who didn't want her face shown thinks thieves are targeting them because of a false notion. >> a lot of people think that chinese have a lot of cash in their drawers and that's why they pick chinese. >> none of the cash drawers have much money. store owners also think the thieves were looking for shopping centers and businesses that either had no security cameras or very few. >> this one outside in hunan village wasn't working properly. that restaurant owner who also wanted her identity concealed says the break-ins leave her uneasy. >> i can't feel safe anymore, and when i leave before at nighttime. >> for a small business, this is a big hit.
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>> why would they do that? we are all here and they tried to, you know, make a living. and it's a shame. replacing these glass doors anywhere from 400 to $1200 at one of the restaurants. >> i'll tell you what the loudoun county sheriff's department wants all of the restaurants in loudoun county and the small shops to do before they lock up tonight. back to you now, jim. >> julie, thank you. some of d.c.'s gun laws are unconstitutional. a federal appeals court says the city can't require gun owners to re-register a gun every three years and make a gun available for inspection or pass a test about firearm laws and the court struck down a ban on more than one pistol a month and the requirement that gun owners be fingerprinted, photographed and complete a safety training course. >> d.c. passed the laws after a
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landmark supreme court ruling striking down the city's ban on handguns. >> a new and developing story on capitol hill is expected and the house has passed a bill that would end federal funding for planned parenthood for a year. republican lawmakers outraged for an anti-abortion group. they say it shows planned parenthood illegally profiting from tissue sales of fetuses. planned parenthood says it didn't profit and it's done nothing wrong and that the tapes were deceptively edited. the wall street journal reports abortions make up an extremely small amount of planned parenthood services and the congressional budget office says federal money can only be used for abortions at planned parenthood in rare circumstances. planned parenthood received half a billion in funding each year. >> the i-team was the first to show you how crooks were taking off with bicycles at metro stations. now, we'll check to see if metro is doing a better job at protecting your stuff.
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right now at 5:15, bus riders are preparing for the silver spring transit center to open this weekend. after years of delays it becomes metro's second largest transit facility just behind the pentagon. chris gordon shows us what to expect this weekend. hi, chris. >> reporter: there it is, the silver spring transit center after five years of delays and cost overruns of $50 million and allegations of sub-standard construction methods and all of that has resulted in litigation and tonight people are not talking about the problems and they're excited about the future and the grand opening here on sunday. >> busses have been trending for weeks inside the silver spring transit center. the first and second floors will be for bus traffic only. the third floor off bonnfit street will be for kiss and ride, car share and taxis. currently busses drop off
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passengers on the streets surrounding the transit center, leaving passengers with a long walk to the metro station. all of these changes may at first be confusing, but this sunday and monday, plenty of supervisors will be on hand to help commuters get around. >> what they can expect is to see a lot of metro staff out there to support and assist them. direct them to what bus stop they need to take and where their busses are located, and they can expect to see a great facility that will make their commute a lot easier. >> metro today gave us these facts and figures. the silver spring transit center cost $141 million and they anticipate it will handle 20,000 boardings on weekdays and 120 busses per hour will be in and out of the facility during peak usage. today we have some pass everyoningers here how they think the new transit center will change their daily commutes. >> i'm definitely faster, easier and appearance wise it will be better for silver spring
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maryland. >> being looking forward to it? >> definitely. >> i use the train so i will be excited for this. >> it's going to be helpful and usable for everybody who just needs to get around without a car, so -- >> reporter: now ahead, one community leader says the silver spring transit center will not only be a good thing for the future of this area and those people who use it, but for businesses throughout our entire region. that part of the story coming up on news 4 at 6:00. wendy, back to you. >> chris gordon, thanks, chris. >> ten years in prison for the woman who ran over two men in arlington during an incident that was caught on video. alexandra mendes was sentenced today following tearful testimony in the courtroom. this surveillance video from january shows mendez driving into the m.k. auto park and crashing into several cars. two nearby business owners tried to stop her, but she kept on going and she nearly killed one of the men, seriously injured
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the other. investigators are scouring prince georges county right now looking for the shooter who killed one woman and put a man in the hospital. here's megan mcgrath in temple hills. >> an suv and a sedan towed from the parking lot. police spent the night going into this ground floor unit in the gateway at that points and several items were 15 from the scene in evidence bags. >> we can't go in the house yet and everything is blocked off already and they had the front blocked off, too. >> police got the call for shots fired around 10:00 thursday night and when officers arrived they found a woman dead inside the apartment. a man was found shot outside the building. people who heard the commotion last night were reluctant to talk on camera. off camera they heard three gunshots. one resident said she heard a screaming as those shots rang out. the man who was shot is still in the hospital. he's listed in critical
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condition. in temple hills, megan mcgrath, news 4. a community mourning the loss of three teenagers will honor their memory through scholarships. kyle mathers, dale nymore and holly novak all from herndon were killed in a car accident last month in texas. two of their friends were hurt. tomorrow the community holds a family fun day in their honor and the goal is to raise money for band scholarships in memory of the three students who were all band members at herndon high school. >> it's time to remember these kids in a positive spirit and bring the families together to understand how sensitive life us is and how fragile it is and to have fun with your kids. >> the fund-raiser is from 11:00 to 4:00 tomorrow at woody's golf range on leesburg pike in herndon, and if you can't make it and want to donate, go to nbc washington and search banned scholarships for a link. >> more people in the district are joining the fight against synthetic drugs. how the laws could be changed to
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keep the drug dealers behind bars. and we travel down to cuba ahead of the pope's visit tomorrow and we learn why there are so many atheists who will greet him on this holy trip. i'm darcy spencer in northwest washington. they call them alley cats, stray cats, homeless cats and people who are sad vok ats of a program who deals with these animals are who deals with these animals are concerned i was at my shop tied up with a customer when i realized the time. i had to get to the bank before it closed, so i made a break for it. when i got out it was almost closing time. traffic was bad.
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now your storm team 4 forecast. always talking about how dry things have been lately over the past month, month and a half. this is just one area that has seen fires earlier today. we've seen a couple of fires over the last few days and this one over in damascus, about five acres burned underneath some
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power lines and that was the good news. this was not in a populated area. no homes were affected by this. that was very good news there, but it did burn about five acres and i mentioned the fact that it's been dry and we talked about it all week long. we are three and a half inches below average and look at the area that is abnormally dry here and this is from the national drought monitor and many areas will continue to be on the dry side. there's no real chance of any significant rain in the next seven days as far as the forecast is concerned. there's the reason why. nothing, but sunshine across our region. look at the grass, the brown grass toward national airport and 85 degrees and winds out of the south at 9 miles per hour and everybody on the warm side and 86 in frederick and 75 over toward fredericksburg and winchester coming in at 82 degrees. no rain. we continue to need the rain, but it's all because of this area of high pressure that's just sitting on top of us. not only are we not seeing rain. we're not seeing any cloud cover clouds for days. it does look like those are
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going to be changing in a big way with a couple of systems coming our way. overnight low temperatures, first off this evening and looking good for that, tomorrow morning, 55 in leesburg and 58 in la plata. so if you do go outside and you will need the jacket. tomorrow no jacket at all and as a matter of fact, we're on the hot side and 88 in d.c. and 87 in leesburg, and abundant sunshine and tomorrow, temperatures will be ten degrees above average and if you have outdoor plans and it will be a bit humid and temperatures will rise quickly and 78 degrees by 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 around 84 and by 3:00 we're sitting around 88 degrees and one of those, vents going on and the thunderbirds going on for the air show and plenty of sunshine, hot again in the upper 8 s a0s bring the umbrella, not for the rain, but the shade. you don't want to obscure anyone's vision, but it would
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help with the sun. 79 degrees and that's because of a cold front that comes through. that cold front will bring in clearing skies, but also becoming rather breezy. it will bring in windy conditions and you'll see falling temperatures during the day on sunday and then we'll see the changes just in time for the pope to arrive and veronica has more on that coming up at 5:45. >> now at 5:00, the news 4 i team was the first to show you how crooks were stealing expensive bikes at metro stations. now we've learned about a dramatic change. >> plus, we are following breaking news that involves a little girl known as baby doe who was found in the trash. a news conference is going on with details on who has been arrested. is it history or is it offensive? >> i'm tracee wilkins. coming up on news 4. it's the symbol being debated all across the
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you're watching news 4 at 5:00. for more than two decades, the confederate flag has flown high at the charles county fair despite the controversy over what that flag represents it will fly again this week at the fairgrounds. >> our tracee wilkins is live at the fair with one group wo refuses to back down. tracee? >> reporter: jim and wendy, this is a very magnificent fair that they put on down here in charles conte. it's the last place you'd expect to see some controversy. >> this display of the sons of
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confederate veterans have been here at the charles county fair for decades and janice wilkins says. >> every time we see it, we have a reaction. a negative reaction. >> that's why she, the president of naacp said wednesday that the confederate flag displayed here be removed and it has been, but it is still displayed in various other forms. >> we can only look back a few months ago at the tragedy in charleston where that confederate flag was used and displayed and then nine innocent people were murdered. >> that boy was just ignorant. he was misled. he probably knows really nothing about the history of the flag. >> reporter: jim dunbar, the sons of confederate veterans, dylann roof and his association with the confederate flag shouldn't erase this part of american history? i'm sorry they're offended, but if they would take the time to learn the history of the flag.
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>> it's a dark time in american history, the flag symbolizes for many african-americans, hate, bigotry and slavery. >> reporter: many walked by the table without noticing it at l all. for those who did, these people mean no harm. >> as long as we have a platform and we're not acting ugly about it or calling people names or speaking out of turn, i think, you know, live and let live. >> reporter: coming up on news 4 at 6:00, we speak with the lead organization organizer of this fair and what he thinks and he's the one who had to approve it. i'm tracee wilkins, news 4. a former teacher in our area just found guilty in a sex abuse case involving a restaurastuden. this happened in high point high school in 2013. brown had worked at the school as a special ed teacher and also coached the school's football
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team. he'll be sentenced next month. d.c. mayor muriel bowser wants to make sure you know that there will be enough first responders to handle any neighborhood calls while the pope is in town. she made that promise on wamu's politics hour this afternoon. mayor bowser also wants you to stay off the roads as the pope travels throughout the city. >> we want all washingtonians and everyone commuting throughout throughout the city to pay special attention to the closures and just avoid those areas. pack your patience. >> federal workers are being encouraged to telework, and a lot of private schools are going to close. mayor bowser has ordered all public schools and offices to stay open next week. >> along with road closures and transit delays, the pope's impact will impact capitol bike share. on wednesday and thursday there will be no regular morning corral services at 21st and foggy bottom or 13th and new
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york avenue in mcpherson square, but bike share will offer special, unlimited coring at both 10th and constitution where the pope will be holding his mass. that means staff members will be there to collect bikes since the return racks will likely be overfilled. >> even though there are 25,000 tickets to the event and there are only 3,000 capitol bike share bikes in circulation, so the most we can expect is 3,000 is throughout the region. >> we've posted a list of all bike share stations that could be impacted as well as the road closures that you can expect next week in our nbc washington app. bike owners are doing a better job protecting their bikes at the metro rail stations. >> a review of the subway's crime shows a 20% drop in bike thefts from this time last year. a recent investigation by scott mcforland and the i-team caught
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some in the act. >> good evening, wendy. more surveillance cameras and better bike locks. to be clear, thefts are still happening and video obtained by the news 4 i team showed it a month and a half ago on the college green line. watch the screen. you can see a man use a pair of bolt cutters he took from his backpack and chopped off the lock of the green bike and about a minute later he takes the bike away. this man is charged with a felony for stealing another bike from another station the next day. the i-team found a sharp drop in bike thefts and metro stations region wide, down from 257 at this point last year to 215 in the first nine months of this year. the agency says there are still hot spots including college park and noma stations, but they've deployed more surveillance cameras and the agency says riders who have been registering their bikes at metro police get
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newer, better ulock to prevent theft according to the news 4 i-team investigation last year. metro says it is seeing a large number of thefts overnight. people who leave their bikes at stations instead of bringing them home. jim? >> scott, thank you. tonight, we're getting a look at what downtown silver spring will look like and these are rendering over the elsworth place redevelopment. it's replacing fenton street and elsworth drive. bethesda magazine reports a grand reopening is planned for the spring. >> it is quite a controversy over cats. why some people are fighting over what's going on in some d.c. alleys. >> and a new arrest connected to the south carolina church massacres. why the friend of the accused gunman is in trouble with the law even though he came forward to police.
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today this man pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied to investigators about the church shooting in charleston. joey meek is a friend of dylann roof's, the man accused of killing nine people in the bible study. meek told an fbi agent he didn't know about roof's plan to shoot the church goers, but the fbi says that's a lie. meek faces up to five years in prison if convicted. an alarming study about nfl
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players and brain disease raising new questions about the safety of the country's most popular sport. 87 of 91 former professional football players tested positive for a degenerative brain disease that is linked to depression and dementia. the disease is believed to occur after repeated blows and trauma to the head. researchers from boston university and the department of veterans affairs shared their findings with pbs. the players' brains were tested after their deaths. scott mcfarland at the live desk. breaking news now. news 4 has learned of a multimillion dollar lawsuit just filed in d.c. federal court against the fig & olive restaurant in d.c. this is after salmonella illnesses by people who were eating at the restaurant. it has since reopened and cleared with the department of health. news 4 learned a d.c. woman has filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit and product liability
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about fig & olive restaurant and we are reaching out to the restaurant for reaction. more information on the suit and reaction as it comes in, jim. it's a sad story that gained national attention. what happened to baby doe? now investigators have identified a little girl whose body was found in a trash bag. we'll tell you how they found her mother. and it could mean more healing for the cuban-american relations. how the pope is going to play a key role in the historic change. david culver has the report from havana. >> a chance of rain not nearly as high or as great. i'll show you the adjustments i'll show you the adjustments that we've made to
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baltimore is moving ahead with those police body cameras. chief jim johnson announced today that officers will begin wearing 150 cameras next summer. about 1400 more will be deployed in 2017. the cameras follow the death of freddie gray in police custody in april. the death prompted violent protests in the city, you'll recall. six officers will be charged and supporters say the cameras will keep the city safer. the police union say the cameras aren't needed. >> today bipartisan members of congress are uniting against one common foe. synthetic drugs. norton is co-sponsoring a bill that will change the way drug cases are prosecuted and it would put the focus the
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distributors and not the users. they tell news 4's i-team prosecuting synthetic drug cases is challenging because manufacturers often change the chemical compound to skirt federal regulations. this bill would add more than 300 chemicals to the government's prohibited list. a whole lot of fun on tap for the bluebird blues festival tomorrow noon to 6:00 at prince georges county. i'm going to be there. you're going to be there, too. >> tom will be there and the storm team 4 truck will be there and this is a great way to extend summer because we've got summer temperatures, music. >> food! and short-sleeves, shorts. >> really dress for the summer heat and make sure you do the sun block and of course, stay hydrated because it is a split weekend. one day will feel like summer and the other day will feel like fall. so let's talk about the temperatures and where they're going, between noon and 6:00 p.m. we will have those temps in the 80s from the low 80s to the
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mid-80s by 6:00 and we peak at 88 and that's at prince georges community college. hot and sunny and each a little sticky, too, and what happens after saturday and it's all blue. the average high, 79 degrees and it's got a cool pattern coming up for the next couple of days to follow. the evening planner forecast going out, splendid. the temperature getting into the late evening and it's still nice under a mostly clear sky and a nice starry sky for us. i think it will be relatively comfortable early in the day tomorrow and humidity not too bad where 56 and the cooler spots and to 67 right inside the beltway and a really nice start, but again, it's not just going to be toasty warm like today and it will be sticky so that 88 degrees that we get for a high, d.c. down toward stafford and fredericksburg and close to waldorf will feel more like 90 degrees tomorrow with the humidity. this is what happens on sundy. watch the cloud cover come into
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the area. that's the weather front right on top of us by noon, 1:00 and it's east of us by 3 dlok, 4:00 and that mean, i think that our temperatures will max out early in the day, about one or two, upper 70s and we'll fall through the 70s by the afternoon hour and anything that you will do on sunday, make sure you take the jacket and make sure you account for a little wind that will feel more like fall on sunday. so feeling nice. we have the changing mind's walk for suicide prevention and that will be taking place over in manassas at the herod's pavilion. temperatures topping out in the mid to upper 70s. so washing the car this weekend and we've got showers coming up on monday and tuesday of next week. good weekend for getting the run in, but i don't know. i would hold off in terms of washing the car until we get through next week because of those rain chances. a weekend that is split as we look ahead and a cool pattern for us. monday right now, some showers throughout the area.
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74 degrees, the high temperature when the pope arrives on tuesday during the afternoon hours. 78, we're 76 on wednesday for a lot of those activities and notice, we've got a lot of cloud cover around, and it will be on the cool side and even for tuesday and i can't rule out an early day sprinkle and all in all, we'll need that rain and we'll have that coming up next week. >> we do. v.j., thank you. before his highly-anticipated trip to the u.s. pope francis will visit cuba. his plane is expected to land in cuba tomorrow. he'll visit three cities in the island nation. it's expected he will help strengthen the newly re-established relationships between the american and cuban governments. while reporting in cuba last month, news 4's david culver spoke with cubans anxiously awaiting the pope's journey. >> reporter: outside this havana catholic church known as el carmelo, the sign's been up for months affection ately welcomin
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el papa francisco. >> they look at him as their son, their brother, their parent. >> benedictine monk padre john says the american flag now flies over the u.s. embassy in havana, 54 years of severed relations requires much more healing. enter, pope francis. >> his plan is to follow up, to follow up what he started in the relation between usa and cuba. >> reporter: on our trip last month, construction crews worked under the havana sun, trying to get things ready. >> we are standing in la plaza de la revolucion and the plaza of the revolution and carries significance, che guevera and you will see jose marti, all very important revolutionary figures in cuba. then you look behind me here and you can see a lot of
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construction going on. this is an altar. above it, the cross. it's here pope francis will celebrate mass as his two predecessors did, john paul ii in 1998 and benedict in 2012. each visit further breaking down the harsh restrictions against the faithful. a catholic stronghold, even. the revolution expelled the church from cuba, for many, atheism became a way of life. >> you don't believe anything? >> angel luis among them. he and his wife run a bed and breakfast in havana. >> despite not being catholic, he's thankful for the pope for what he's done in brokering the deal. >> he's hoping the new relations will soon allow them to visit their sons in miami. he smiles telling me, he'll be among the thousands ready to greet the holy father. padre jacques says that's
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exactly who the pope wants to see. >> he always said jesus has not been going around looking for christians, looking for catholics. he has been going around looking for anybody. >> tomorrow morning on news 4 today, david takes a closer look at the growing catholicism in communist cuba. >> here at the live desk we're following breaking news out of boston. police are searching for who killed baby doe, and it looks like they've made a break in that case. we've learned the little girl's mother and her boyfriend have both been arrested. the boyfriend is now facing murder charges. the little girl was recently identified today as bella bonn. she was just shy of 3 years old when she died. the arrests are coming after a search warrant was executed last night after someone tipped off police that bella's mother mentioned something about her death. prosecutors just wrapped up a
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press conference in boston. >> in the tragedy of her death is compounded by the fact that her short ended not by illness or accident, but we believe by an act of violence in the very place where she should have felt safest, in her home. >> we've also learned that the department of families and child services did have two cases that involved bella, but they were both closed. one was in 2012 and another one a year later. wendy? >> chris lawrence. and then new at the top of the hour, protesting the pope. find out why some lawmakers are going to boycott pope francis' speech to congress. it's a fight that's spilling into d.c.'s back alleys. we'll introduce you to the cat lady who is leading the charge. a live report he
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details of the brazen escape of the two in new york and matt lauer spoke to joyce mitchell. tonight you'll be hearing from her husband. >> she told you a lot of lies and there were other things she just didn't tell you at all. how do you stay by her side? >> i love my wife, but i believe that she was protecting her family. >> in the beginning? >> everybody hurts and everybody else does and it got out of hand. >> matt lauer reports tonight in a special edition of "dateline" and join us afterward for news 4 at 11:00. the people who help take care of alley cats in the district are afraid that the city will make them stop, but city leaders sayhey're not going to happen. they simply want to review the program after they've gotten some complaints. news 4's darcy spencer tells us what the controversy is all about. >> reporter: wendy, i'm standing in an alley here in northwest washington. we interviewed a self-described
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cat lady who comes here to take care of four stray cats. there is a lot of passion in this controversy. you have the self-described cat people, but on the other hand you have people who don't necessarily of the to see the animals walking around the city and they're subject to cold weather, to heat, to abuse and they prey on birds and other wild life. >> kitty, kitty, kitty! >> dana hubbard feeds patty, rocky and the other cats in this alley in northwest washington every day. >> they all know me. they all call me the cat lady and i come by on my bicycle, hello cat lady. if you would have told me when i was 20 years old that i would be proud of being called the cat lady, i would have died. >> they trap, neuter and return wild cats into the community. she and others consider it a necessary alternative to putting them down. >> it keeps the rats away, too. that's a good thing. >> but she and other supporters are concerned that the district could change or possibly do away
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with the program. >> we're still at that number of 71% decline in euthanasia. >> a d.c. council committee forum was held to discuss the wild life action plan. it will review tnr. leaders say the program will not be eliminated, but some changes may be needed. >> domestic cats are a non-native predator species and when let loose outside they kill native bird, chipmunks, birds, lizards and other small animals. >> i think it is much more humane to sympathy euthanize them. i think it can be done in a gentle way and a miserable existence. >> d.c.'s department of energy and environment trying to find some common ground so the birds and the cats can live in harmony. >> i get lots of pleasure out of making sure these cats live long, happy lives and knowing that all of the people around here love them and that we all know each other and we have community.
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new at 6:00, donald trump is getting slammed by both sides. tonight, it's what he's not saying and where he did not show up today. a major transit center about to open after years of delays. we'll show you the big impact on our region. >> the pope's historic trip to cuba and just hours away, some lucky winners got their hands on tickets today to see the pope in washington. good evening, we begin with the presidential race and the controversy that's already grown so heated and donald trump cancelled a major campaign appearance tonight. >> the question is whether he is going to apologize. nbc's dave wagner is live at the heritage action presidential forum where ten other candidates will speak and where donald trump was expected to be, dave? >> yeah, doreen and jim. it's not what donald trump said it's what he didn't say after a controversial comment from a supporter in new hampshire. it is the latest eyebrow-raising moment in a campaign filled with them.
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>> we have a problem in this country. it's called muslims. we know our current president is one. you know he's not each an american. >> we need this -- and anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. that's our question. >> we'll be looking at a lot of different things and a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. >> donald trump did not correct the supporter's statement. his campaign later saying christians need support in this country. their religious liberty is at stake. >> chris christie while he won't lecture trump he would have handled it differently. >> if somebody at one of my town hall meetings said something like that i would correct him and say the president's a christian and he was born in this country. >> democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton said he was appalled by trump's response. i would call on him call on all of the
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