they say a man was walking on the sidewalk and was attacked by two pit bulls. it happened right outside her front yard. >> he was just screaming like get them off me, get them off of me. >> reporter: she says neighbors tried throwing bricks and doing what they could to get the dogs to run off but it didn't help. >> throw water at them, one guy got in his car, rode up on the curve. they wouldn't stop. >> reporter: when police arrived the victim was rushed to the hospital. police say his feet and lower legs are badly injured. the dogs were tranquilized and subdued before carried away from the scene by animal control officers. police believe the dogs somehow managed to escape from the backyard. while neighbors say they're thankful no one else was injured, they're still shaken up by an attack they say could have happened to them. >> we just never expected to see anything like that before. >> reporter: d.c. animal control officials say the pit bulls will be put to sleep. they tell us this is still an active and ongoing investigation, but it's likely charges won't be filed against

the owners of the dogs. coming up at 6:00, hear from a man neighbors are calling a hero after he risked his life to try and save a man who he says was a complete stranger. reporting in southeast, meragan fitzgerald, news 4. here at the live desk we're getting new details about something we told you about first at 4:00. a teenager shot not far from an elementary school in maryland. charles county sheriffs deputies say he was 17 year old riding on a bike path in waldorf when two men walked up to him. one of them shot the teenager in the leg then rode off with his bike. teen was able to run down the trail and flag down a school bus driver who called for help. nearby eva turner elementary school ordered students to shelter if place while all this was going on, and a letter is going to be sent home to parents to explain to them what happened. deputies say right now they don't know who fired those shots. >> thank you, chris. we're learning more about a patient who died two days after

a confrontation with guards at a local hospital. the man's name is james mcbride and he was 74 years old. mcbride died last week after leaving medstar washington hospital center without being discharged. the confrontation happened when hospital workers tried to bring him back and sat some point he fell to the ground. we're told an autopsy has been completed, but the results will not be released for a couple of months. also breaking news that could affect a lot of you in d.c. and maryland. d.c. mayor muriel bowser announcing a tentative settlement with exelon corporation to merge with pepco. the new agreement increases exelon's investment in the district from $14 million to $78 million. d.c.'s public service commission is the only thing stopping this merger from moving forward. maryland had already approved the deal earlier this year. the settlement now goes back to public service commission and

review, for review and a comment. the sun is out in much of south carolina but the threat from historic flooding isn't over yet. water flowing toward the ocean could overwhelm dams and devastate more neighborhoods all over the state. about 1,000 people are are stst in shelters now. more people could be evacuated. more than a dozen people have died from floods in the carolinas since september 24th. most drowned in their cars in the columbia area about 74 miles of interstate is still closed tonight. and they are able to dry out down there tifinally across the region. that storm system that caused them so much pain and rain across the area the last couple days is moving out to sea. clearly see it on the satellite and radar together. look at the spin in the atmosphere. notice the entire spin is now over the ocean and that means all of this rain will stay out over the ocean as well. so finally moving out. actually seeing some sunshine today for the first time in many, many days. we saw some sunshine yesterday

for the first time. we're seeing a lot more across the region today, but we've got a change coming for the weekend. the next couple of days, tomorrow and thursday, both looking great. but this weekend, we'll be tracking a frontal boundary coming in from the west. it's going to give us a good chance of showers, maybe even thunderstorms on friday night. if you got friday evening plans, maybe saturday plans, i've got that forecast for you coming up. >> thank you, doug. now to the plan just approved today by the d.c. council to use private ambulances for low-priority calls around the city. we know a lot of you have questions about just how this will work, and news 4's mark segraves got answers today about the changes council members want to see. mark? >> reporter: that's right, jim. the council members say they were all behind this, but they wanted a few things before approving it. one, accountability from the fire department and the private company that would perform these transports. they got that. but they also wanted a commitment that this would not be a long-term solution. and that, they did not get.

>> and i want to make sure as council member chase said that we are actually solving the long-term problem. >> reporter: many council members echoed that concern, they want to fix the problem of ambulance shortages but don't want to privatize the service indefinitely. >> we need to make sure that we have good response time as well as training our workers so that we have a world-class ems system. we are falling very short. >> reporter: the fire chief was grateful for the council's support, but remained noncommittal on whether this was a short-term or a long-term fix. but he did say he wanted the new ambulances in service sooner rather than later. >> we're thinking in the next four to six weeks based on us being able to talk to the -- talk to the major companies and see what they can and cannot do. may be longer, but our hope is we an do it immediately. >> reporter: the council added several provisions to mayor's plan including mandatory reporting by the private company and the fire department. >> to provide a number of

reports to let us know how many transports they're making, and a host of things related to the quality of emergency medical care in the district of columbia. >> reporter: some parts of the plan still remain unanswered, for instance, how much this will cost. >> we have not answered that question because we needed to talk to the companies. but we didn't want to talk to the companies prior to approval by the council. >> reporter: now, another change the council members made to mayor's proposal, the mayor had wanted to protect any private ambulance company from civil liability arising from their services. the council removed that protection. coming up at 6:00, you're going to hear from a group that represents some of the emts in the fire department who says this is actually a bad deal that will set 911 service in reverse. wendy? back to you. >> all right, mark segraves. women in arlington need to be extra careful when they walk alone at night as police are hunting for the man or the men behind a string of attacks.

there were nine since july. these men strike at night targeting women who are out alone. the latest was on saturday on north scott street in rosslyn. a 23-year-old woman had just left her group of friends when she was attacked from behind. that man threw her in the bushes and implied he had a knife then sexually assaulted her. the women we spoke to say they normally feel safe. >> surprised. i wouldn't expect that. i'm glad to know i need to watch out. >> you never know where people could be hiding. i try not to walk alone, but i feel pretty safe in this neighborhood. >> police don't know if this is one man or several men responsible for all of these nine attacks. a lot of the descriptions from the women do sound similar. in addition to the recent attack on north scott street, two others since july involve women being thrown into bushes. one on north quincy street. another in the 1900 block of 15th. one woman was grabbed while sitting on a bench on fern street. this was last month. another woman assaulted by a man

asking for directions on south columbia pike. in july, a man threw a woman to the ground on a trail. this was on south harrison. and other attacks happened on frederick street, highland street and north purshing drive. to see the list of these attacks, go to nbcwashington.com and search "arlington attacks." disabling a metro bus in the district could land you a fine and possible jail time if one council member has his way. ward 2's jack evans who also sits on the metro board introduced that legislation that would attach criminal penalties for disabling a bus. we told you about this this summer. teenagers using an emergency switch on the outside of the bus to disable it. evans' proposal would include a maximum $300 fine, 90 days in jail, or 30 days of community service. a court date is now set for the fairfax county woman charged with fraud accused of ripping off the virginia senate minority

leader and pocketing money from an autism organization. the news 4 i-team's scott mcfarland broke this story last night. he joins us now with an update. >> jim, good evening. her name is lynn miller, former campaign treasurer for fairfax senator dick sazlaw. she declined to comment before the charges were unfiled. unable to get ahold of her today at her home. miller will appear for a plea hearing next thursday afternoon october 15th a the federal courthouse in alexandria. plea hearings are also scheduled when a plea deal is in the works. the feds say miller wrote dozens of fraudulent checks from sazlaw's campaign account, an m embezzlement scheme of more than half a million dollars. it may not be closed. according to a criminal complaint there's a co-conspirator and the feds have left clues about what the conspirator is accused of doing as well. we're completing that part of our investigation right now. we'll have it for you tonight on news 4 at 6:00.

wendy? >> thank you, scott. going to be longer before virginia's department of transportation can repair the bumpy rides that some beltway drivers are experiencing. rough road signs are posted along the loop from the american legion bridge out to tyson's. crews making repairs to that asphalt had to put their work on hold after all of the last week's rain. well now the already congested beltway is experiencing another slowdown. >> i don't want to catch a flat tire, i don't want any, you know, stones or what have you. sometimes when you're driving on uneven paichvement like that, y get rocks and little things that hit your car and get dents in your car. >> vdot says it is working to finish this project at night but it could be another week before it's all done. d.c. firefighter and police officer are both out of the

hospital tonight after a near head-on crash. take a look. that cruiser and the fire truck collided here on porter street yesterday. earlier today d.c.'s fire chief told mark segraves that he's looking into whether the fire truck crew complained about brake trouble before this crash. an inspection showed the brakes were working but the alignment was pulling to the left. let the battle over manicured lawns begin. there's a fight now over whether you should be allowed to use pesticide on your grass. find out what the drama over the green is all about. and despite all the recent problems, metro may raise fares. but how much is too much? we did some comparison shopping for you to see how metro measures up to other costly commutes. and an uber driver is accused of sexually assaulting a rider in northern virginia. we're going to tell you why the charges were dropped and why the driver believes he was targeted in the first place. >> reporter: another daylight shooting.

another murder. another community victimized by the violence in our city. i'm pat collins. the story coming up.

we have a breaking news update. metro is warning customers who plan to travel on the yellow and blue lines that their evening commute may be longer than

expected. metro says this afternoon that a track problem was reported between braddock road and reagan national airport. metro said at the top of the hour emergency repairs had been completed, but the delays they could last until about 6:00. young man gunned down on the way to a corner store and this evening police are looking for the person who pulled the trigger. this happened just a couple blocks from a public charter school in northeast washington. news 4's pat collins is live near 42nd and foot streets with details on this. pat? >> reporter: jim, another daylight shooting, and another life lost here in our city. it has become an all too familiar sight in our city. police working yet another broad daylight shooting scene. this one on 42nd street northeast. this one turned into yet another

case of murder. 42nd and edson place northeast. that's where it all began. they say a young man was walking down edison place. he was on his way to the store. that trip to the store cost him his life. neighbors say they heard a shot. just one shot. the young man was struck, and he starts running down 42nd street. about a block away at this corner store, the man drops some keys on this freshly poured concrete and then he continues down the street. but he didn't get far. maybe 50 feet from that store. maybe a block and a half from the shooting scene. the man falls unconscious. and ends up on this grass next to the road. i want you to hear now from a man we call greg.

he's lived in this neighborhood for 30 years. >> got so bad out here, i try to stay out of the streets. i'm 58 years old and this violence out here, they need to do something about these guns out here in the street. it's getting ridiculous. >> reporter: now, we're averaging about three murders a week in our city, and it's taking its toll. not just on the victims and their families, but people who live in the neighborhoods as well. more on that coming up at 6:00. wendy, back to you. >> all right, pat collins. developing right now, another pilot has an issue midair while flying a jetliner. united airlines says a co-pilot lost consciousness mid-flight this morning. that plane heading from houston to san francisco. the plane landed safely in albuquerque. this comes just one day after an americanairlines pilot died mid-flight after experiencing a medical emergency. that plane also landed safely. and the wife of that pilot who had that heart attack in

mid-flight said he showed no recent signs of bad health. captain michael johnson died while he was flying the americanairlines jet from phoenix to boston yesterday. the co-pilot took over, landed the plane safely in syracuse. johnson's wife says the 57-year-old did have double bypass heart surgery, but it was nine years ago. the airline requires that he take a physical every six months. captain johnson's wife says he was a nice guy who would bend over backwards to help people. >> loved everyone that was around him. an amazing father to his children and the best husband i could ever ask for. >> the captain and his wife would have celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary later this month. vermont's governor is reiterating tonight that the conductor of that amtrak train that derailed was not responsible for the crash. the d.c.-bound vermonter went off the rails about 20 minutes after it took off from montpelier yesterday. investigators say it hit rocks

that had fallen onto the tracks there. seven people including the conductor were injured. everyone is expected to be okay. ahead in our next half hour, we're going to have new reaction from passengers. the latest numbers aren't great for metro. ridership is down, but it's those riders who may have to pay for it. as the transit agency looks at a possible price hike. our transportation reporter adam tuss reports on how the cost for taking our system stacks up nationwide. >> reporter: as metro deals with a very real decision of raising fares in the face of declining ridership, a move that could further drive riders away, it's worth putting metro rail fares in context compared to other major transit systems. take a look at this fwragraphicu can see metro is second only to b.a.r.t., bay area rapid transit system for peak fares. here, almost 6 bucks. $5.9 0. metro charges fares based on

distance. the farther you travel, the more you'll have to pay. in chicago and new york, their subway fares are one price no matter how far you go. >> step back, doors closing. >> reporter: keep in mind as well, though, that metro also charges you an extra dollar if you buy a paper fare card as opposed to a smart trip. in reality, your max rail fare here in our area could be close to $7 one way on metro. metro has been forced to raise fares over the past three years as operating costs have gone up. adam tuss, news 4. you'll be able to use metro if you're planning to head to the army ten miler sunday. opens at 5:00 in the morning to take fans and runners to that race. the closest metro rail station to the starting line is the pentagon station. metro says you should consider using pentagon city instead to avoid the crowds. it's less than one mile -- a one-mile walk to the starting line from that pentagon city station. the two biggest names in fantasy sports are are playing

damage control tonight. fanduel and draft kings released a joint statement today saying their employees are temporarily banned from playing any online fantasy sports contests. now, the companies say they need to come up with a better policy concerning the use of competitive date to gathered by those sites. the move comes after a draft kings employee took home $350,000 on fanduel. later this hour, i'll explain why so many people out there are getting into this new fantasy sports craze and why some experts say it's gambling. he simply vanished. from a park in prince georges county. family and police are not giving up in their search for this man. find out what could help bring him home. and a cargo ship full of doctors sank during hurricane joaquin. hear why family members say they're not ready to lose hope. >> have no interest in looking a

and now your storm team 4 forecast. >> we saw another spectacular day across our region today. now the clouds starting to move in across the region. that's going to help with a couple of things. last night was really quite chilly and these clouds should help to keep temperatures up a little bit as we move on through the night tonight. right now we have mid to high level clouds. temperatures around 76 degrees.

beautiful weather. winds out of the northwest at 9 miles per hour. look at the lows this morning, though. clear skies and dry conditions. 50 in d.c. that's one of the colder numbers we've seen. 41 in winchester. look at le ray. the first 30 i've seen on the map this season. 39 degrees down there toward le ray. 41 in frederick. a very cold start to the day. if the kids were at the bus stop this morning, they were definitely on the cool side for sure. that includes the kids at viers mill elementary school. i spoke to 90 of the kindergarteners. wanted to say tell held llo to them. 72 gaithersburg. 72 fredericksburg. 74 down toward martinsburg. on the radar, nothing to show. we're not going to see any rain or snow. all the kids today, they were definitely asking when we're going to see that first snowfall. trust me, still about a month are two off at least. satellite and radar. not much happening except the clouds coming through now. once again, not a lot of clouds

but just enough to keep us on the warmer side. down to the south, that big area of low pressure that brought the rain to the carolinas is moving out to sea and will continue to move on out. as i mentioned, it will be cool night but not nearly as chilly. 58 in d.c. 49 winchester. 50 around frederick. 52 in manassas. a few more clouds off and on. tomorrow starting off a little on the warmer side, too. we'll say on the cool side but milder. 60 degrees in d.c. 70 degrees for your lunchtime. plenty of sunshine at that time. by 4:00, temperature around 79 degrees. 8:00, around 74. another beautiful afternoon on your wednesday. thursday looking good, too. so if you want to wash the car, good day to do it. dry through the rest of the week. the exception being friday night. friday night is the day we're going to be watching to see about the chance for shower activity. the impact tomorrow, no real impact at all. cool start but mostly sunny. not going to be much of an impact at all until we get to friday night and saturday. if you have plans friday night,

wait and check out this forecast because it does long like we'll have showers coming in late friday. could impact those evening plans for you. high temperature of 79 before the front moves through. once the front does come through, we get much cooler. high of only 65 on saturday. that's in the city. most of you will be in the low 60s with a 30% chance of rain early in the day. we're watching this system, though. some of the computer models want to hang it up for the weekend and bring a little bit more rain saturday. we'll continue to watch it. veronica has the rest of the seven-day forecast and more or yn weekend coming up in a minute. at the live desk, new developments on the massive cleanup efforts in the carolinas. we're going to show you what the historic flooding left behind. plus, traffic pretty terrible around here. on an average evening rush hour commute. we find this gridlock right at lunchtime. lunchtime. we'll

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god smiles on south carolina because the sun is out. that is a good sign, but i will tell you that for us, we still have to be cautious. >> right now at 5:30, some cautious optimism from the governor of south carolina. >> yes. now at 5:30 from the live desk, we have up to the minute details on the recovery efforts from that flooding. the weather channel's paul goodloe is in kings tree, south carolina, about halfway between columbia and the atlantic ocean where floodwaters are still at

some incredible heights this evening. >> reporter: the historic rains have ended, but not the historic flooding. i'm in kings tree, south carolina, and take a look at this. the flood wauters sti efloodwat portions of downtown impacting buildst, impacting businesses, impacting homes and definitely changing lives forever. it's not just the roads. we're also talking about even some bridges here in town have been impacted. and that's a handful of more than 400 roads and bridges statewide that have been impacted and closed because of the flooding. it's not just roads and bridges. take a look at this. railroad tracks also covered by floodwaters impacting freight trains as well as amtrak which typically makes a stop at least two to three times a day here in kings tree. that's not happening. n now, what about the road to recovery? you can definitely get there from here, but because of some detour, the journey will take a little bit longer now as people here across soh carolina, they're willing to wait it out.

reporting from kings tree, south carolina, i'm meteorologist paul goodloe, back to you. the national transportation safety board is in the bahamas now trying to figure out what caused the el faro containership to go down. it's believed it lost power trying to skirt hurricane joaquin last week. there are questions about engine work being done to the ship that's 41 years old and if that caused it to become a sitting duck. one body has been recovered, but among the missing are 28 americans and the mothers of several crew members are speaking out tonight. refusing to blame the ship's captain or the owner. they say they are staying positive. they know how dangerous shipping can be. >> they travel in bad weather all the time. i mean, i've gotten so many e-mails from my daughter in the past, hey, we're going into a tropical storm. or, hey, the winds and the seas are really rough. hey, mom, we're going to go for another fun ride. they have to do it. or nothing would ever get

delivered. >> stay tuned for "nbc nightly news with lester holt." they're going to have more on the stories of the lives on board that cargo ship. concern growing tonight for an 80-year-old prince georges county man who's been missing for more than two weeks now. lubin hasn't been seen since september 18th. he has dementia. he walked away from a senior picnic at watkins regional park in upper marlboro. he's 5'6", about 142 pounds. his caregivers say he was last seen wearing a blue shirt, khaki pants, and sandals. he's from the virgin islands and speaks with an accent. if you see him, he may appear confused or distressed. a cyclist is expected to be okay after a car hit her today. the accident happened here at 15th and "t" streets. police tell us the car remained on the scene. it has been a rough summer for cyclists all over our region. there have been deaths in fairfax, montgomery, and howard counties. and the news 4 i-team scott mcfarland took a look at the

most dangerous spots for cyclists in our area. you can find a map on the nbc washington app, just search "investigations." you could run into a backup like this one if you take the clarent barton this week. they're repaving all week. if you're driving from the district to gleneco, you can't get off at that turnaround. work outside of the morning and evening rush hours. despite warning signs by the national parks service, we found a several mile delay today. charges have been dropped against that uber driver who was accused of groping a customer. that driver insisted from the beginning he was falsely accused. our northern virginia bureau chief julie carey explains why. >> reporter: mengistu asfaw lost his job as an uber driver when the misdemeanor sexual battery charge was filed against him in

early august. he picked up a woman and her kp intox kated friend july 12th. today in court an agreement, the charge dismissed, and asfaw agreed to compensate the woman by the two days' pay she lost coming to court. >> he still maintains and always has that he was falsely accused. >> reporter: the defense attorney says if the case had gone to trial, he planned to argue that security camera video at the apartment complex supported his client's claim of innocence. he says it shows the woman laughing with her friend as she walks into the apartment. >> it was our position that that wasn't the reaction of somebody who's just been sexually assaulted to be fooling around and joking around and smiling and laughing with a friend. >> reporter: mengistu asfaw declined to comment on camera. his goal now, to find work

again, something that was impossible while the charges were pending. in northern virginia, julie carey, news 4. i'm tom sherwood in the district. today a big move to dramatically increase the number of months you can take for family leave with pay. how many months? i'll have the story coming up. plus amtrak passengers happy to be back on solid ground. hear more from the people who safely escaped that derailment during a trip to washington.

working in the district may soon have a big advantage for those who need to care for family members. d.c. is considering paid leave that's longer than any place else in the country. news 4's tom sherwood takes a look at how long it is and who's eligible. >> reporter: a new battle over family-friendly laws in the district. the city already has cut worker taxes and increased the minimum wage. now this bill would require city businesses to provide 16 weeks of paid family leave. more generous than any state in the nation. workers who either get no paid leave or just a few weeks know the value of extra paid time off. >> it's been one of the most special times and also i don't know how we would have done it any other way. it's been a big learning curve learning how to take care of this guy. >> reporter: council members who introduced the bill say it's good business to have workers with less stress in their family lives, as other countries do. >> to give people the

opportunity to go care for a loved one, engage in family activities whether it's a newborn child or adopted child or elderly parent is extremely important and i think this country and certainly our city needs to evolve to that point. >> reporter: to fund the new benefits, city employers would pay up to 1% of salaries or w e wages of full or part-time employees. alyssa silverman says the bill would help ease income disparity and allow poor people who can't afford unpaid leave to keep their job. >> it retains workers especially low-wage workers. >> reporter: and the build would allow low-income workers to care for aging parents. >> you can't plan for that like a pregnancy. you have to immediately care for that parent. >> reporter: the family leave bill faces serious objections, it will be the subject of hearings before a council vote later this year or early next. in the district, tom sherwood, news 4. well, it's the most common mental health disorder diagnosed in children.

>> and it's a condition that nearly 5% of adults have as well. we're joined now with more on attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. >>ly, wendy, jim. a diagnosis of adhd might sound like a major obstacle for anyone who hopes to be successful, but experts say it can actually be an advantage when it comes to accomplishing your goals. tonight changing minds about adhd. this is matt curry. take a look around his office and you can see the signs of his success everywhere from the walls to the car he drives. and he says if it wasn't for his adhd, he wouldn't be where he is today. >> i succeeded in life because of my a.d.d., not in spite of it. a.d.d. gives you a lot of -- gives you the ability to creatively problem solve, gives you a lot of energy, you can motivate people and move people forward. you see things other people don't. >> coming up tonight on news 4 at 11:00, a closer look at why

matt curry sees his adhd as an asset and he has a lot of successful company in the business world, too. that's coming up at 11:00. >> all right. see you then, thanks. fantasy sports for some it's like a religion. we're going to take a look beyond the scandal and the headlines tonight to see whether this is really considered gambling. >> reporter: montgomery county bans the use of pesticides on lawns. ahead, i'll tell you what impact it could have on landscaping jobs in our area. a little rain before the week is over. i'll show you when and how long it will last and more on that bright fa

montgomery county has the strongest pesticide law in the country. the council voted today to ban the chemicals on private lawns.

it's a victory for parents who have been pushing for this. as news 4's chris gordon reports, some landscapers are fearing this is going to put them out of business. >> 5214 is adopted on a 6-3 vote. >> reporter: parents who wanted a yes vote celebrated. for almost two years, they fought for the strongest anti-pesticide ban in the united states. >> so that our children are out in their communities safer, healthier, not being exposed to these toxic pesticides. >> reporter: by january 1st, 2018, pesticides can no longer be used by landscape companies on private lawns. also the parks department must come up with a plan for county playing fields to be sticide-free by 2020. council president sponsored the bill calling pesticides poison that could cause illnesses. >> the cost/benefit analysis suggests that it is more important to protect the public health than it is to have an absolutely clover-free,

dandelion-free lawn. >> reporter: lawn care companies lobbied unsuccessfully for a no vote on the pesticide ban. they say their customers expect good looking lawns. they add the chemicals they use are safely applied. >> we may have to consider layoffs. yeah, that is a serious thing. it's nothing i want to consider. i want to hire more people, not less, but if we don't need licensed registered employees, then we may not have to have them in the future. >> reporter: ahead, the possibility that this fight over pesticides isn't over and could be challenged in court. that's onlyi incoming up on newt 6:00. reporting from montgomery county, chris gordon, news 4. it's fall harvest time at the white house. with that comes a lot of local eating for local students. students from four d.c. public schools helped first lady michelle obama dig up some sweet potatoes, carrots, other vegetables from the south lawn garden. what a day for it. they later turned them into a salad for lunch. mrs. obama created the garden in 2009 during her first year in

the white house. since then it's become the backdrop for discussions about healthy eating. and led to the creation of the first lady's let's move initiative to help fight childhood obesity. >> i bet that garden grew a lot just from the last week with all the rain. >> exactly. it's making me hungry for vegetables now. good for the rain we got, right, and now the cool overnights and the warm days will be the perfect formula for nice fall color around here which is what i think we're going to have by the time we start seeing the color pop. right now we're seeing moderate fall color in areas of western maryland and the high spots of west virginia. take a look at the satellite and radar animation here. see some cloud cover making its way eastward. just some high clouds. that should not, should not get in the way of viewing for the international flyover tonight. sun sets at 6:44. look to the southwest starting at 7:16. and for four minutes, bright object making its way over and fading to the northeastern sky.

yep, yep, i can almost see it. it will be pretty cool to take a look at as it makes its way through our sky during the overnight period. as far as the evening, 76 the temperature. by the time we see that international space station we'll be down i think into the 60s or at least around 70 degrees. low 60s by 11:00 p.m. temperatures will fall very quickly. this morning during the late morning, early part of the afternoon, those temperatures went up in a hurry because of the sunshine. now, tomorrow, we're going to pick up a few clouds. call it partly sunny. a weak weather front will be making its way through. a pretty nice day on thursday. so temperatures go up again. and even up on friday. friday those temperatures will be heading into the upper 70s, around 80 degrees. out ahead of this and this green that you see, a few showers. that is a weather front that's going to be making its way in. that means for friday afternoon, friday evening, even friday night, there will be some showers coming through our area. hagerstown, frederick, leesburg. even a little heavier around winchester where there could be isolated or small pockets of a little bit of thunder coming

through. cambridge by late during the evening. so tomorrow i think our impact forecast is very low. we've got sunshine. a cool start. pretty nice. but then on friday, the end of the week with the threat of more rain. shouldn't be anything too heavy. again, the chance for some isolated thunder. we're low to moderate impact forecast for friday. and chilly for the weekend. behind that front. look at the temperatures early tomorrow morning. 51 gaithersburg. 51 right in d.c. 53 in culpeper. again, a mostly clear sky. we go way up pretty fast by lunchtime it's 70 degrees. mid 70s by 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. awfully nice. then as we get into the end of the workweek, again, temperatures continue to rise. nice and mild on friday. the weekend right now, we're going to see cooler conditions. mid 60s for saturday. here's the thing. when the weather front comes through, it could get stuck around our area. could. there could be some clouds holding throughout the afternoon and keeping our temperatures down into the mid 60s. we also have some rather cool

conditions coming up sunday. at least sunday right now is the day with sunshine. gets a little breezy behind the system. we get into the upper 60s to around 70 degrees. this will be the day i think to head to the apple farm or maybe to check out some of the fall color if you plan on going west next week. as we head into early part, it is looking dry. just a little bit of rain, maybe a tenth or a quarter coming our way friday afternoon into saturday morning. guys? >> sounds good. thank, v.y. >. people have been playing fantasy sports for years. the debate is heating up over whether fantasy sports online is considered gambling. in most of the country, the answer is no. >> step up to the plate at draftkings.com. >> fandual's one-week -- >> reporter: the ads seem to be everywhere. the target audience young men who know their sports or like to think they do. so much so they're willing to place a wager on stats or how an individual player performs. on your cell phone, you can play any time, any place. >> opens up a whole other app on

your phone then just pops up. it's like you can never escape it. >> reporter: the two biggest daily fantasy contests are draft kings and fanduel. >> i like it a little better than traditional fantasy football because it gives you a chance to reset, do something new every week. >> reporter: he plays on his cell phone. >> last year i spent more than i wanted to. so i've, like, set myself a limit of no more than, like, $20 for the season this year. keep it pretty low. i usually play the dollar leagues. >> reporter: jeron henderson wants to play it. >> i'm interested in a couple million dollars or $100, $200, $300, anything to help out my pocket. >> reporter: is it a game of skill or chance? the websites contend it's all about skills so it shouldn't be considered gambling. but critics argue that doesn't matter. chance would make it gamble. skill means it takes talent. a deep understanding of the sport and rosters. even with an assist from those spreadsheets filled with stats. the websites argue it's like the stock market. those who participate do their

homework, but some who study gambling addicts say there's potential for the daily contest to lead to an unhealthy addiction. >> and it certainly meets our clinical definition of gambling which is wagering or risking something of value on an event whose outcome is uncertain. there are many forms of gambling that take skill. people bet on golf. people have tried to define poker playing as a game of skill rather than gambling. so even skilled games, there's an element of uncertainty. >> reporter: so far, 45 states have declared the websites and their contest legal. courts in congress have yet to weigh in. we reached out to the fantasy sports trade association, they tell us there's no reason to call these websites gambling. "it's unfortunate that the maryland center for excellence and problem gaming would unfairly characterize the fantasy sports industry in a manner that is not supported by the facts or the law." today's fantasy sports contest

represent the natural evolution of a skill-based competition that fans have enjoyed for decades." >> i'm worried about it a little bit, but i feel like you're not putting too much out there. but you have so much more to gain. >> i guess in a way it is gambling, but i would hesitate to call it, like, traditional gambling or legally gambling. i think there's a lot of things online you can put your money toward. chance or skill, whatever you want to call it. >> hey, we talked to a lot of young men in our area for this story, but stats show women use these sites, too. about one in three users are women. and you can learn a lot more about how much money people spend in fantasy sports and the people using these sites, it's all on nbcwashington.com. up next, surviving a train derailment. we heard the tales from the tracks as we try to figure out what went wrong. >> reporter: dozens of same-sex couples around the commonwealth are celebrating>8núñ their one- wedding anniversary today. that's because a year ago the door was open to same-sex

marriage in the commonwealth. coming up, we'll check in with one of the first to tie the knot

well, problems at a high school football game and it was the parents who need to grow up. they were upset over a referee's call and they rushed the field. one of them punched the ref in the face. this was recorded on a cell phone. the man was identified as a coach with the lakeland florida team. he was arrested and charged with

battery and the team now says he's no longer a coach. he's not even allowed at any games or practices. the ref, by the way, was not seriously injured. and tense moments on a college campus today after an argument between two men ended with a gun being pulled. this is a community college of philadelphia's main campus. lockdown for more than an hour after a man threatened a student with a gun and ran into one of the buildings. the students were asked to shelter in place as s.w.a.t. team s searched the campus. no weapon was found but a 17-year-old was taken into police custcustody. it could be days before the train cars are removed from the tracks in vtermont. yesterday's derailment near montpelier caused quite a mess. this derailment could have been much worse. >> reporter: big equipment rumenrume rumbled into place tuesday to start the tough job of righting train cars that violently left the rails monday morning in northfield. a new photo showing the southbound amtrak vermonter

colliding into boulders that fell onto the track after a rock ledge gave way. >> best possible outcome it can. >> reporter: all seven people hospitalized after the chaos have been released from the hospital. a crew member shumlin said needed an air list from the crash scene is recovering from a concussion and bad bumps and bruises. >> we're grateful that he's back at home. >> reporter: the governor told reporters he hopes repairs including cleanup of a diesel spi and fixes to the damaged railbed will be complete in days, not weeks, to get the vermonter running again. in meantime -- >> thank goodness nobody got killed. >> reporter: -- these leaf peepers and others who expected to travel through vermont by rail are instead taking buses. >> we're going to get where we're going only by buses, not amtrak. darn. >> the ntsb is investigating and right now officials say there's no reason to believe there was negligence on anyone's part. news 4 at 6:00 begins with breaking news. >> we're following two stories

breaking within the past hour. metro has restored service, it says, in parts of northern virginia after some emergency track repairs, but there still may be some delays. crews found a track problem between braddock road and reagan national airport during the evening rush. that caused trains to single track between those two stations. delays were up to 45 minutes but, again, metro says the problem has now been resolved. we are also following developments on the proposed merger between power companies pepco and exelon. d.c. mayor muriel bowser now is supporting that merger. we put details on the nbc washington app. the plan calls for a $78 million investment in the district. each customer would get a one-time bill credit of about $50. the plan includes money to prevent rate increases through the year 2019. exelon says it will also relocate and hire more workers in the district.

that plan now goes to the d.c. public service commission for approval. historic flooding in south carolina now. tonight floodwaters are beginning to fall, and that's revealing the devastation left behind from record rainfall down there. >> at least 17 deaths reported. 15 in south carolina. two in north carolina. countless more have lost their homes and even though it's stopped raining now the threat is far from over. the governor of south carolina is warning of more evacuations over the next 48 hours. other places will be under a curfew for the second straight night. nbc's jay gray joins us live now from columbia, south carolina, with the latest. jay? >> reporter: hey, yeah, this is the kind of mess that so many across the carolinas are dealing with right now. as you say, the cleanup begins here, they're also very concerned that more water could be on the way. finally, there's some sunshine