minutes. right now the agriculture department is prepared to open offices closed after an unspecified e-mail threat. after the agency received anonymous threat. they include the research center locally here and offices in colorado, connecticut, north carolina and key branches in west virginia. the usda says it received the messages monday night. the fbi is now investigating to figure out whether the threats are indeed credible. good morning. i'm erika gonzalez at the live desk. two hurricanes headed for virtually the same area. madeline and lester headed for the hawaiian islands. this video we're showing you is of hurricane lester. a labor day weekend threat for hawaii. it's now a category 4 hurricane

winds. something that a lot of people will be watching as we head into the labor day weekend. back to you. erika, thank you. 4:31 is the time. a reminder, the redskins play tonight at 8:00 p.m. we'll air that game here on nbc4. the final preseason game against the buccaneers was moved up because of weather concerns in florida. as a result of the game tonight, america's got talent will move to tomorrow night at 8:00. for other changes, check out the nbc washington app. i watched that last night. stayed up way too late. >> watched what? >> america's got talent. chuck bell is here. >> thanks, angie. amazing, a strong word today. clear skies this morning. the u.s. capitol in downtown washington, 75 degrees downtown. mid to upper 60s in most of the outlying suburbs. four things to know about the weather. another summer sizzler. we've had 22

every this month. today will make it 23. that's the most ever. tomorrow begins september, a new month. it will feel like a new month. a new feel to it. the tropics remain busy. 8 and 9 off north carolina and florida respectively. show you the tracks on those coming up in a little bit. just as soon as you think it's going to be cooler in september, looks like more heat coming our way for next week. all that and the ten-day forecast coming up at 4:51. let's go over to melissa mollet and see how traffic is holding up. >> breaking news in first 4 traffic. suitland parkway and naylor road. lanes diverted. this is because of an accident there. it happened a couple of hours ago. they have investigation now under way. inner loop before connecticut, work zone there. left lane getting by a crash. heading down south, 95 south, pushed on to eastbound route 3 in the fredericksburg area because t

95, 278 montrose road looking good. no problems there. updates on the breaking news, of course, every ten minutes. >> melissa thank you. it's 4:33. how long does it take to cross the bainbridge. larry hogan wants to cut the time down significantly so you can forget scenes like this. this is july 4th weekend. traffic backed up for miles. governor hogan says it's only going to get worse. that's why maryland will study a new crossing for the chesapeake bay. >> nobody else has done it. people have been trying it for years, maybe decades. we're finally making the process get started. >> now, in case you were wondering how bad traffic really is on the bay bridge, the maryland transportation authority says almost 26 million drivers cross that bridge during fiscal year 2015. that is 1500 vehicles per lane every hour. it opened back in 1952 and took

there's no timetable for a new bridge. governor hogan says the study itself will take four years to complete. it's 4:33. if you have ever traveled through union station, you know how crowded it can get there. now passengers will get more room to breathe when an extra 20,000 square feet of space is added for an amtrak concourse. the money is coming from part ever the rail company's multibillion dollar investment in faster service. design is currently under way to upgrade restrooms, boarding gates. new this morning, chris brown is out of jail, released on $250,000 bail overnight after he was booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon. so this comes after an incident in which a woman called 9-1-1 and said that brown had pointed a gun at her at a deli -- there was a standoff between the singer and police and he was later taken into custody. his attorney says

allegations are demon stra bli false. happening told, we could hear closing arguments in this man's trial. he's charged with killing his girlfriend's 23 month old son. he was left alone with the child when paramedics were called and found the boy unresponsive. he died at the hospital. >> what we are insinuating is that he is a 2-year-old child. anything could have happened to that 2-year-old child. >> the little boy died at the hospital from what officials say was blunt force trauma and a lacerated liver. the doctor is expected to take the stand. new this morning, police want you to take a good look at this footage. the man you see here is a person of interest in an assault. this happened on 12th street and on 13th street apparently in northwest d.c. three weeks ago about 8:30 in the morning. if you have any information, cald.

are on the hunt for a stolen vehicle and -- neighbors tell news 4 they heard screams yesterday afternoon. a man and a woman were attacked as they unlokds their apartment door. at least one suspect showed a weapon and forced their way inside to search for valuables. police say that two suspects got away in the couple's vehicle, a black 2015 toyota rav4 with maryland tags. if you see the car, call police. this morning, we're work to go learn how a 12-year-old boy is doing after being hit in the head by a piece of lumber. this happened yesterday at a home being remodeled on 74th avenue in landover hills. the prince george's fire department said the child was near a shed when he was hit. you see the shed there. he went unconscious and was bleeding severely from the head. he was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. today for the first time in 50 years, the first commercial

u.s. and cuba. jetblue's flight 387 takes off from ft. lauderdale this morning and will land in santa clara, cuba. the airline has specially chosen a crew of five cuban americans to work the flight today. it still prohibits tourists to travel to cuba. there are a dozen categories of authorized travel, including family visits, journalist visits and educational activities. high-end heists happening all over the area. criminals with pricey taste strike again. still ahead, the luxury items they're getting away with and how they're doing it in seconds. plus, packing our election -- hacking our election. foreign governments trying to tamper with your polls. how the u.s. is trying to protect your votes. feel like the commute is wose this week?r

good morning everybody. i'm storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell. it's coming up on 4:41 on your wednesday morning. school day today. temperatures in the 60s and low 70s at the bus stops here early this morning. outdoor recess for the kiddos today. temperatures mid-80s by midday and another day in the 90s today. if you're already start to go think about the holiday weekend at the beaches, temperatures are going to be in the upper 70s to near 80 on saturday and sunday. getting

weekend. but we are keeping a close eye on both tropical depressions which are both likely to be tropical storms before the day is done. i'll show you the latest track coming up. let's go to melissa mollet with breaking news. suitland parkway, we're shut down because of a crash investigation. all lanes blocked. inbound diverted at branch avenue and outbound at alabama avenue. you'll have to be pushed off the suitland parkway. no problems on the beltway. all of the main routes looking good for the most part. inner loop at arlington boulevard, the left lane getting by the crash. no big slowdowns right now. i say for the most part. 95 south is being pushed on the eastbound 3 to different crashes there. >> aaron. talking about traffic, we know it's pretty bad in the area. lately, it may feel like it's getting worse. >> you're not imagining things. we're not making it up. they call it september shock. they say with school picking back

spending 3 to 6 more minutes sitting in traffic. major trouble spots are i-66 and i-270. they've already started to see delays nearly double. the washington council of government came out with a study and said safetrack could add to traffic delays heading into fall. >> good luck with that. a cat finally in the arlington home where he belongs after his cross-country journey had a few roadblocks along the way. how he was lost and found during a move from seattle. plus, making a trip to mexico. details on the surprise visit donald trump is takingoday. tth the roast looks good dad. how good? 162 likes. did i get any retweets on those green beans? yep! and they're blowing up on instagram. honey, your rump roast just broke the internet!!!! as it should. life is family mealtime and everything you need to make it picture perfect. now be sure to tag your mother because she needs more followers. ok.

the roast looks good dad. how good? 162 likes. did i get any retweets on those green beans? yep! and they're blowing up on instagram. honey, your rump roast just broke the internet!!!! as it should. life is family mealtime and everything you need to make it picture perfect. now be sure to tag your mother because she needs more followers. ok.

we are also going to secure our border and spot p drugs from pouring in and destroying our country. i'll be talking about that tomorrow night in arizona. big speech on immigration. >> donald trump last night previewing what has become a highly anticipated speech on his immigration policy. >> before trump gives that speech, the republican nominee will head to mexico to meet president henrique nieto. >> this could be a highly charged meeting because neither trump nor the mexican president has pulled any -- >> tracie potts is following the story from capitol hill. tracie, how did this meeting come together? >> he was invited and so was hillary clinton. clinton said she met with him two years ago. there's no reason for her to go down there. trump jumped on the

giving that immigration speech in arizona tonight. now, trump and pena nieto have been at odds over building the wall at the u.s./mexico border. he's compared trump to hitler and mussolini. he said this is an isolationist policy that donald trump is pursuing. it will be interesting to see what happens when the two men are face to face. as for the immigration speech tonight, it's still on. it's going to be a busy day for trump. he'll head back to arizona to do that speech tonight where he's expected to lay out his policy, contrast it with clinton's and also expected to talk about the latest controversy or confusion over whether or not he's going to kick out 11 million undocumented immigrants immediately or somehow allow them to stay. >> tracie potts on capitol hill this morning. thank you. three high-profile incumbent prevailed in the primary elections in florida and arizona. marco rubio owe

nominee after reversing his decision not to seek reelection. former democratic national convention debbie wasserman schultz dee fighted her opponent to become the no, ma'am fee for her seat. in arizona, senator john mccain won his primary as he seeks a 6th term in office. with 68 days until the presidential election, u.s. officials are working to prevent hacking from foreign governments. nbc news learned that a top secret u.s. intelligence group has already been cast -- with russian-related hacking. u.s. officials say russian hackers penetrated an online voter registration system in illinois. also tried to break a similar system in arizona but failed. >> these kinds of things are something we take very, very seriously and work very, very hard to understand so that we can equip the rest of our government with options for how to deal with it. state election officials say

outside toer hack into the completely separate individual devices that count the actual votes. so security experts say touch screen systems should have paper ballot backups. two more people are facing charges in connection with the shooting inside the chinatown mcdonald's. d.c. police say they arrested lafayette booker of northeast and a 17-year-old from capitol heights. both are charged with assault with intent to rob. the d.c. teen was arrested the day after the shooting. the man was shot in the face inside the restaurant's bathroom earlier this month. that man is still in the hospital. there are new concerns about safety after another pedestrian is killed in fairfax county. it is the second death in three days. the latest accident happened just before dawn on richmond highway near the mt. vernon area. security camera video showing how everything happened. the victim, 56-year-old aaron mccull off stepped into the southbound lanes and began walking in the middle of the

strauk and killed him. springfield, leaders are celebrating the opening of a new high tech crosswalk aimed to improve safety. supervisor jeff mckay pushed hard to get this. until now, they had to walk fwlox get to a lighted intersection. now the signal stays dark until a pedestrian hits the button and allows them to cross safely. 4:49 now. the pentagon is catching heat for not taking appropriate action after finding out employees may have misused their work credit card. the inspector general's report is a follow-up to an audit last year that found those cards were used attica sin owes and strip clubs. they did not take action to pre veent future misuse of the cards. they spent $950,000 attica sin owes and another $96,000 at strip clubs.

the d.c. dmv's ticket payment system is back up and running this morning. it was down due to a power outage yesterday in the vendor's office in new york. officials say any deadline for ticket payments yesterday or a request for adjudication to contest tickets will be extended until today. covering the district. today there will be another chance to learn about the search for a new d.c. schools chancellor. the meeting will be at eastern senior high school in northeast. you're looking at video from last night's forum at roosevelt senior high school in northwest. kaya henderson has been chancellor more than five years. she will leave that job at the end of september. the results of the park's standardized tests are out. 1/4 of city students are college and career ready in math and english. chancellor henderson says students are making progress but still room for improvement. >> you know, when you are trying

can't do everything at once. i expect that the investments that we've made this year will begin to see payoffs. >> charter schools reported slightly higher scores than city public schools. a miracle. that's what an 8-year-old boy in arlington is saying after his family cat was found at a michigan rest stop. >> pretty amazing. they thought that the family pet was lost forever during their cross-country move from seattle. >> the cat was on a leash -- it was on a leash and ran off into the woods at a stop in new buffalo, michigan, where a dog scared him. after a two-hour search, milky was never found. four days later, employees at that rest stop found the family pet. >> when he ran away, it broke my heart. >> it was oh, my gosh, unbelievab unbelievable. a great weight was lifted off of my heart. >> the employees put milky in a bathroom with

do not open, cat inside and then they called the family. the father drove 12 hours back to michigan to pick up the cat and bring him home. >> wow. can you imagine, though, how agonizing that trip was, not knowing where the kitty was. >> driving all that way. >> smart. >> not as smart as that cat. hasn't had to work a day in his life. >> that's right. >> you, on the other hand -- >> on the other hand, i get up at 2:00 in the morning. >> you're working overtime tracking a lot of tropical troubles. >> so many things going on. two different storms aiming towards hawaii. two storms in the atlantic basin as well. another one off the west coast of africa now. we have to watch that. that one might be a threat seven to ten days from now. it's a long ways away. we have a lot to deal with between now and then. it's a mild start to the day. a couple of clouds this morning. 75 degrees. no rain on storm team 4 radar this morning. rain unlikelyr

a maybe a few showers later on today, especially farther to the west. mid to upper 60s in the temperatures currently. comfy in fairfax and loudoun and montgomery counties. another quick warmup coming. more 90-degree days in august than any other august on record. we're still tied for the warmest august of all-time as well. 93 is my forecast for today. clouds will be increasing. another hot day, though. there is, again, a little chance for a shower. rain chances today only 30%. here's future weather to help you plan out the day. a dry start. by noon, nothing to worry about. by 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, a couple of light rain showers along and to the east of i-81. those will try to migrate into the metro. more clouds than rain chances. overnight, mostly cloudy and into the day tomorrow, maybe a stray shower or two. rainfall amounts won't be that high. tropical depression number 8 off the outer banks of north carolina will not pose any

intensity as it parallels the coastline. rough surf and rip current along the beaches. tropical depression 9 in florida, still looks like it's going to be making a pass over the northern parts of florida and then off the georgia/carolina coastline. where it goes after that, a lot more uncertainty. it may try to hook closer back to the coastline. we'll watch this very carefully. the time frame to watch is saturday into sunday. if you're going to the beaches this weekend, definitely windy and a lot of rough surf. may not be much of a rain threat. we'll keep you posted on that. 93 today. cooler tomorrow and wonderful weather here through the weekend. if you like the 90-degree weather, just wait. next week it will be hot again. breaking news this morning, suitland parkway at naylor road. all lanes shut down right now. inbound lanes diverted at branch avenue and outbound at alabama avenue. something to keep kind of listening for throughout the morning if you are

yourself, you have to be diverted and maybe allow extra time. inner loop at arlington boulevard, just the left lane getting by the crash. i think i can get eyes on that in a couple of minutes. 95 south eastbound, three different crashes still reported. not seeing the same slowdown southbound and inner loop before connecticut right lane blocked by the work zone. see you in ten minutes. melissa, thank you. call it a high-end heist. the man and woman police need help identifying after they allegedly stole thousands of dollars worth of expensive goods. a new move to win back customers. the offering that could make dinner a loteasier tonight .

welcome back. running list of changes. how changes could impact the marine corps marathon. not just those running the race. get ready for a warmup. a look at just how hot things are going to get where you live and when things will finally cool off when we check back in with storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell. developing it morning, want to show you some sketches here. this man and woman stole handbags at high-end stores, a bridal store near friendship heights. that's just one of a number of thefts at luxury stores in montgomery county and the district. police say two men ripped

the georgetown michael kors store. in chevy chase, the jimmy choo store was -- had a theft. >> they picked out purses, tried to leave the store without paying for them. a loss prevention officer tried to stop them and she was pepper sprayed. >> the county and d.c. police are working to see if the robberies are connect the. two companies signed the white house's equal pay pledge. it's an initiative between the white house and companies with the goal of reducing the gender pay gap. hilton worldwide holdings which is based in mclean, virginia, is the latest company to sign that pledge in our area. arlington-based ceb was one of the original 28 companies that signed it back in june. overall, 57 companies have joined this

you can get free food if you visit chipotle this month. they're trying to win back customers after food safety problems last year. college and high school students can get a free drink when they buy a meal. on sundays next month, regular entrees will come with a free meal for kids. that breaking news is in traffic this morning. i'm melissa mollet with first 4 traffic and a couple of problems now. suitland parkway the naylor road all lanes shut down probably for a couple of hours. an investigation is under way after a pedestrian accident there. inbound, diverted at branch avenue. outbound at alabama avenue. a warning for you there. at arlington road, right now you can get by on only the left side of the roadway here this morning. one more situation. 95 south still pushed off into route 3 for two different crashes. >> melissa thank you. >> we'll check back in with you. i'm