on "news4 this week," meet the intern chief. tom sherwood goes one on one with who will replace cathy lanier. kids are back in school. a new school district opened its doors with a bit of controversy. and back from rio. we talk to katie ledecky after her impressive run in the pool. >> announcer: welcome to "news4 this week." >> hi, everyone. i'm chris lawrence. welcome to "news4 this week." we begin with a familiar face in the community and a long-time d.c. police officer who is now preparing for the next stage of his career. assistant chief peter newsham will becom

when cathy lanier retires next month. tom spoke with newsham about his plans for the future with the department. >> reporter: peter newsham, 52, assistant police chief now but a young holy cross graduate when he answered a newspaper ad back in 1989. >> i saw the police department was advertising for police officers in the paper and i took that opportunity and, i've got to tell you, truly and honestly, it's the best decision i ever made in my life. >> reporter: muriel bowser named him as assistant chief. the union and community has endorsed body cameras. >> when you go out to the community meetings, most of those people in the meetings are saying positive things about the police department. >> reporter: the police union has fought with chief cathy lanier over staffing and

worked well with newsham. >> whether it's the interim chief, the permanent chief, whoever that's going to be, they want a chief that's going to back the -- >> i think the number one priority is public safety. i want people to feel safe. >> reporter: newsham has held all of the administrative jobs since being named assistant job in 2002. lanier citywide has been very popular and visible. >> i intend to be very visible as i serve as interim. i am not cathy lanier. i'm peter newsham and i intend to be peter newsham and i hope the community sees me for who i am. >> in the disstrict, tom sherwood, news4. lots of kids went back to school this week. nearly 130,000 are in prince george's county. it's the second largest district in maryland. the ceo of schools says the district is growing. he credits a long list of specialized programs for t

growth. and the results of the first day of school for students in frederick county as well, the school district is about to implement new science programs and it was also back to school in the district. this year, there's a new school which opened with a bit of controversy. news4's mark segraves explains. >> reporter: this is a dream come true for a lot of us. standing outside of of the all-new high school, the chancellor and mayor bowser defended their plan to focus on men of color. >> stay tuned. we are investing in them early. we will have less interventions to deal with families down the line. >> reporter: one of those young men attending ron brown prep school is 14-year-old abselan bowling who lives in anacostia. >> i'm so

like this will be a good place for me. >> our transition from children to men has been a resounding success. >> i think that's our future valedictorian. great job. >> i think it's a great reflection of our student body and the students that will come to this school to learn. >> reporter: bowling knows as students head back to classes, a lot of people will be watching to see if the new school succeeds and he knows now he'll be part of that focus. >> there is a huge target on my back now. it's a lot of high expectations for me. >> reporter: in the district, mark segraves, news4. >> i'm sure he's going to meet those. montgomery county is redeveloping the area around white flint mall. they are changing it to a more walkable community and now want to call it the pike district. it's located from the groves metro to the twin brooks station. chris gordon has more on the changes the pike d

dining out in montgomery county. >> reporter: white flint is changing. so is rockhill pike. and in today's world of rebranding, it's now called the pike district. >> it hasn't gone away. it just has a new name. we've got all of the wonderful parts of white flint. we just have a new name. >> reporter: the pike district features new restaurants, retail and residential choices along both sides of rockville pike. >> it's all about redevelopment and investing in our community, about getting people excited about what is possible here in montgomery county. >> reporter: construction is under way for the second phase of pike and rose, which is like a little city in the suburbs. >> in 2017, we'll be adding great new retailers and entertainment venues and our condominiums. >> reporter: the pike district

traffic. >> it is a liveable, walkable community. instead of people driving in to go shopping, you'll have more people living here. >> reporter: but branding presents a challenge. >> where is the pike district? >> where is the pike district? i don't know. where is it? >> it may be construed as north bethesda. >> reporter: when you use the pike district, are you comfortable with that? >> sure. >> reporter: some like the name but find it hard to remember. >> i feel like it's going to take a while to get adjusted to pike district. >> reporter: you had to think there for a moment. >> a little bit, yeah. i kind of forgot for a second. >> reporter: well, do you remember where you were? up next, an infamous day that we mark this week and the clean-up that is still under way because of that damage. plus, news4 sits down with katie ledecky

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you probably remember where you were when the ground started shaking five years ago. these people stuck in the washington monument definitely do. we mark five years since that earthquake shook our region. the monument was shut down for five years and work at the national cathedral is still not complete. it still needs $22 million to finish repairing all of the stone work damaged by the earthquake. good news for drivers who use i-66 in the haymarket street. there are now eight lanes. the four-mile long stretch of road extends to the hov lanes. about 52,000 vehicles use this stretch of i-66 every day. the good news is, the project was completed both on time and on budget. while you're waiting for your flight at dulles international airport, kids will have something new to keep them busy. a nla

week. as you may have guessed, an aviation theme. there's a mini air traffic control tower with a slide. kids can climb on futuristic tires and jets. it can be educational with facts about aviation in general. it's right near gate b-70. still ahead on "news4 this week," ang lee sits down with katie ledecky after her unbelievable medal haul in rio. plus, the news 5 team tackles the issue of

plenty of folks worried about standing water contacted our news4 i-team about standing water. that includes what happened when tish thompson started asking questions. >> reporter: lunchtime for these federal employees, just enough for a quick walk, a phone call and to make beautiful music

but there's nothing beautiful about this. >> it stayed like that for about five months. >> reporter: we showed up here at this benjamin banicker park. floating around in the stagnant pool of green gunk, a lot of dead bugs and mosquito larvae. >> that's probably a significant breeding ground right there. >> reporter: with so many worried about the spread of zika, news4 received a bunch of tips about standing water. we found d.c. has received dozens of mosquito complaints about tires, abandoned swimming pools and construction sites prompting health officials to issue citations. our analysis found complaints in montgomery county and the complaints has jumped more than 270% when compared to all of last year. and in fairfax, officials say they have gone in to overdrive trying to help

where mosquitos breed. >> if somebody calls inare hing mosquitos around their yard, we can help them look around their yard and provide guidance. >> reporter: joshua smith of fairfax county says it takes about a week to develop into the pests that we so despite. >> if you can empty out water or tip and toss water on a weekly basis, that should help control the mosquitos around your home. >> reporter: it's easy to over look the water like a tray or a child's toy. >> one of the more common ones that we find are the downspouts. it could be a good source of mosquitos. >> reporter: so what happens when there is this much green sludge? >> a call from you and your viewer prompted us to take a look. >> reporter: the national park service takes care of nearly all of the public water services where the

typically treated with chlorinated water but fountains are not. things can get pretty gross when they break. >> drain it, get the part ordered, and clean it up. >> reporter: the national park service sent a crew out here less than 24 hours after we called and says the fountain's motor kept overheating allowing the algae to grow. he says to call them if you have any more problems because it was your tip that made all of that green gook finally disappear. tisha thompson, news4 i-team. >> and the park service says they want you to let them know when something doesn't look right. tweet them @nationalmallmps. a lot of athte

marulus. she defeated a three-time defending champion. helen wrestled as a student. this is video of her wrestling the boys back in 2008. during an appearance on "news4 midday," she talked about competing in such a male dominated sport. >> it was tough. a lot of barriers had to be broken. definitely people didn't support it but at the same time you'd find that partner that would be willing to go with you or a parent to encourage you. i think that made it more worth it because they were kind of helping pavement way for me as well because it is different for everyone. i found so much support in my community now and everyone here at home has been so amazing. >> standing on the podium during the medal podium, she said, was surreal. we have a linko

match right now on our nbc washington app. another marylander who made us proud, katie ledecky. she brought home five olympic medals. she sat down with eun yang. >> i've been smiling a lot the last couple of weeks. >> reporter: katie ledecky has good reason to smile. there are four gold medals, a silver and a lifetime of experience in rio. >> it's not every four years like people think. every year you try and get better. >> she spent years getting better here at stoneridge school in bethesda where at 19 she is a legend. >> i never dreamed i would make the olympics. and it never ends. >>

she set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle and throughout it all a record-breaking swim in the 800-meter. she won gold in london as well. at one point, it looked like she was all alone in the pool. even with that sizeable lead, she didn't slow down one bit. >> you can't take anything for granted when you're out front or favored to win or anything like that. i just had to focus on how i wanted to put together that race and it was my last race in rio and i wanted to make it count. >> reporter: but some of her favorite moments from rio involved bonding with her fellow swimmer. >> really, we were just having a lot of fun at the swim meets. i couldn't be part of a more special team. it was fun every day to see what my teammates were going to do and to see them succeed. we were all feeding off of each other's energy. >> reporter: concerning the controversy involving one teammate, she says swimming i

>> i still feel very honored and privileged to be a part of this team and what we accomplished. >> reporter: ledecky will head to stanford university where she will swim with the swim team. she hopes to have a normal year. >> i know it will be tough to adjust to everything but i'm trying to get everything ready right now. i'm just unpacking from rio and i have to start packing for stanford. >> reporter: but ledecky is used to, working under pressure. she manages it with strength and grace and credits her parents for supporting her every step of the way and she enjoys sharing her olympics from the side lines. >> hearing the national anthem and my parents are in the stands right under the flag and i couldn't help but cry. >> reporter: eun yang, ne

honor all of the athletes who take part from the state. 200 athletes competed in 14 different sports and ranks behind china, great britain, russia and germany. still ahead on "news4 this week," one of a big milestone. the big celebration, when we come back.

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nbc 4 is working for you in the community and we want to thank everyone who came to kingstowne this week and stopped by apple federal credit union to donate to our backpack drive. we need your help to make sure kids are ready to go to school and you can still donate. to see a list of things to give and do nate online, head to our website, nbcwashington.com and search backpacks for kids. ll

never get enough pandas so we're going to finish the show with a look back at a big milestone for our favorite panda cub bei bei. it was a traditional china birthday for the cub. zoo zeepers placed three objects in the yard and she picked friendship and luck. the father is celebrating a birthday this month. that's going to do it for us. for this week, i'm chris lawrence. we want to leave you with pictures of all of the kids going back to school this week. thanks for joining us.

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news 4 today begins with breaking news. >> that breaking news on this saturday. a double homicide investigation underway right now in northeast. new details on the search for a suspect coming in to our newsroom right now. the gloves are off. hillary clinton versus donald trump as they continue to attack each other on the race. we've got the latest on the campaign trail. a on to the next phase of the safetrack surge. what you need to know about your weekend commute. >> 6:00 on this saturday, august 27th. good morning. i'm david culver. >> i'm megan fitzgerald in for angie goff. if you like steam, we have some of it.