firearms and explosive is saying it discovered a disconnected gas pipe in flower branch apartments. it was in the meter room. the atf says that's where the explosion originated. it is possible the room filled with gas, then a small flame like a pilot light set it off. not clear why the pipe was disconnected in the first place. seven people as you know were killed in that explosion one year ago this month. back to you. >> angie, thank you. virginia governor terry mccauliffe and his wife will attend services for victims of violence in charlottesville. there will be a memorial service for heather heyer, she was killed saturday when a man drove into a crowd on the city's downtown mall. this morning's service takes place at the paramount theater at 11:00 a.m. her family asking those that attend to wear purple in honor of heather's memory. funerals for two virginia state police officers also happen this

helicopter crashed while they were monitoring weekend protests. it is not clear why. services for trooper bates are friday. fallout from president trump's response to charlottesville is dominating news and social media feeds. >> "new york daily news" and "new york post" going after the president for what he said about protesters in charlottesville at the stunning news conference yesterday. the president reigniting a fire storm when he went back to his argument that there are two sides to blame for saturday's violence. >> i would like you to think there's blame, yes, i think there's blame on both sides. you look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it either. and if you reported it accurately, you would say that. >> mr. trump's comments seemingly catching his advis

white house official tells nbc news the president, quote, went rogue. all of this coming one day after the president denounced hate groups involved in saturday's violence. >> i have condemned neo-nazis, i condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were neo-nazis, believe me. not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of statue robert e. lee. >> the president also defended senior strategist steve bannon who has been tied to the alt-right movement. >> blow back to the president's comments came fast. lawmakers on both sides not holding back what they think of what the president had to say. republicans as a whole condemning white supremacy, some criticizing the president for his comments. some democrats are calling for real leadership. candidate for maryland governor

to resign. aaron, breaking news in the last hour. crews now are taking down a confederate statue in baltimore. our affiliate tweeting out this video. crews taking down robert e. lee and stonewall jackson monument. they started to do it around midnight. also, another crew took down the roger taney statue in baltimore as well. a story developing this hour, we will continue to follow. eun? dozens took part in a peaceful march around the monuments on the national mall saying it had nothing to do with president trump. it started at the jefferson memorial as the sun was going down. there were no torches, just candles. most participants were alumni of uva, others lki

they didn't agree on politics but were committed to healing each other. >> this is not about donald trump, this about our community, our university, and also symbols of hate that created this type of conflict. >> extremism that does not help. we're not going to be able to solve the issues unless people are reasoned about it. >> the march ended at the lincoln memorial. the group says they would like to organize more peaceful events like this one so people can talk. today, benjamin stoddard middle school new principal has an information session after the track coach was charged with child sexual abuse. bell accused of creating child porn, abusing kids inside that school. tonight's meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the middle school in waldorf. take a good look at this sketch. fairfax police say this man abducted and sexual assaulted a five-year-old girl. this happened sunda

alexandria. has a mustache, heavy side browse and dark hair. he is described as mid-20s to early 30s. if you have information, call fairfax police. the fight to recognize a historic african-american church cemetery will continue. it was bulldozed years ago. developers want to build a parking garage and residential units directly over the cemetery site. members of the church are asking for small monument and space for a museum. court hearing is scheduled this afternoon. three corpse flowers are about to bloom at the u.s. botanic garden, first bloom for all three of the plants known for their terrible, awful smell. botanic garden officials estimate they will start opening between tomorrow and august 23rd. appears tbe

north america an institution has three corpse flower plants blooming at the same time because they're gluttons for punishment. >> triple the odor of that? goodness, i don't know if i want to smell something like that. >> good luck shaking that smell off. 4:36. a check of weather and traffic. >> going to look at wednesday commute with wtop's jack taylor in a second. first check in with chuck and sheena with a look at the weather. >> she wondered if that was dennis the menace flower. >> this is google. we will find out. >> i loved that movie, that was a good part, too. anyway, dense fog we've been telling you about. dense fog advisory until 9:00 a.m. for everybody. visibility a quarter mile or less. be careful driving, give yourself extra time and space between cars in front of you. one mile v

frederick at a half mile. hagerstown almost a quarter mile visibility there. clinton coming in a half mile, quantico, not too bad in the district. as you drive over any of the bridges, that's where fog will get more dense across the area. we'll talk more about when the fog will lift with mr. chuck bell. >> start getting temperatures close to 80 degrees, warm air will absorb moisture and help fog to break up and dissipate across the region. future weather, moving forward through time. look at all of the fog, hanging tough around i-95 corridor through 8 or 9:00 a.m. dense fog advisory goes until 9:00. after 9:00, 10:00, break into a mix of clouds and sunshine, depending how much sunshine helps indicate whether we have to deal much with rain threat. i don't think most anyone gets rain

spotty showers. so much humidity in the atmosphere, we get extra sunshine, highs today in the upper 80s to near 90 degrees. more warm days to come, jack taylor. >> nice. thank you, sir. i appreciate it. freeway downtown works zone between third street tunnel and south capitol street. left lane blocked, volume so light, not causing any delay. had wires down in gaithersburg blocking 28th between muddy branch. still working on rock creek parkway. they alternate one direction at a time. back to you. >> thank you, jack. it is news metro riders will love. signs that will see more cell phone service. another iconic memorial vandalized. what officials found on lincoln memorial. when they hope to have it looking like new again. live look outside where the fo

if you have to drive, may want to leave the house early to get

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you can see the fog covering

most of the area under fog advisory until 9:00. >> could be a problem for people heading to work. >> low beams. check in with our weather folks in a second. right now, let you know that espn is apologizing for a fantasy football auction gone wrong. they had the draft featuring mostly black players. people that saw it said it was too similar to a slave auction, after many demands for apology, espn released one. they said in part, the segment replicated an auction draft with a slate of diverse players. we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive and we apologize. 4:42. thick paper covers part of the lincoln memorial after someone spray painted red graffiti across it yesterday. the national park service also discovered the letters m and e on the same pillar where the red spray paint was

believed that carving had been there awhile. a preservation crew is working to remove paint without damaging the stone. visitors were stunned to find out what happened. >> i think it is awful. this is beautiful. everybody should treasure this place. >> in february, someone vandalized the lincoln memorial, war memorial and washington monument with permanent marker. restoration work on the latest vandalism expected to last a week. hard to wrap your head around why you would damage something like that. another look at the fog. >> especially as you drive over bridges, we have visibility a quarter mile or less in some areas. remember that as you head out. coming up, chuck and i tell you when the fog is clearing and the forecast for the rest of today. a big win for anyone that uses uber. the ruling that came down when it comes to your private

see only on news4. what robert e. lee's great, great grandson has to say about the confederate soldier and what he would

it is 4:46. we continue to be working this morning on a foggy morning. take a look outside. pea soup for a lot of people waking up. sheena parveen is following dense fog advisories for a lot of us in the area. what can you tell us? >> i guess you can call it pea soup, eun. there are fog advisories for everybody until 9:00 a.m. you look at the map, some areas are close to a quarter mile. this is fluctuating through the morning. even if it looks good now, could be getting worse in the next few hours. chuck and i are back to tell you what to expect through the

>> thank you. 13 before the hour. we turn to continued fallout over the violence in charlottesville. following breaking news out of baltimore where two confederate statues came down this morning. this is video from our affiliate showing the lee, jackson monument coming down. the roger taney statue was also removed this morning. there are two other confederate statues in the city. checking to see if those came down as well. the man who organized saturday's white supremacist rally in charlottesville facing legal trouble, a $3 million lawsuit was filed against the organizer, jason kessler. the man accused of driving his car into counter protesters is also named in the suit. two women that filed the suit suspect james alex fields hit their car when he drove into the group. and what everybody is talking about this morning, president trump's stunning news conference yesterday, the president doubling down o

violence in charlottesville. and the president is getting a lot of criticism for what he said. >> lawmakers from both parties are stunned that the president was defiant in blaming two sides for the atmosphere that led to saturday's violence. edward lawrence is live on capitol hill. edward, how have people in the president's party reacted? >> reporter: it is a history making moment. this is the first time in history you've seen a president, sympathetic, he did condemn the neo-nazis and supremacists, then said both sides were violent, saying the alt-left was also violent. republicans are coming out against the president, criticizing him. nbc news got talking points they sent to lawmakers, they said they should agree that both sides were violent and none of the republicans have come out agreeing with them. senator marco rubio sending a tweet saying the president needs to c

white supremacist terrorist attack. house speaker paul ryan saying bigotry has no place in america. >> edward lawrence, live on capitol hill for us. thank you. as many prepare to head back to campus for fall, university of virginia officials are trying to ease concerns for returning students and parents. many students were among those protesting against white nationalists this weekend. in a letter to parents, the president promised the university is committed to security. one student says outsiders tarnished the upcoming school year. >> it is disappointing, it sheds a bad light on uva sometimes, i feel like that's not fair, it is not uva community itself, it is people coming in, they're hateful. >> most uva students return to campus this friday and saturday. the violence we saw this past weekend in charlottesville began after the city discussed removing statue of

general robert e. lee. now hearing from one of his descendants that lives in the area. it is an interview only on news4. robert e. lee iv and said his grandfather would be ashamed at the violence over his statue. >> in my opinion, he never would side with people that started the riot or klu klux klan. we don't need people like that in this country. >> after the civil war, general lee taught at what became washington and lee university. his great grandson says he saw it as a time to unite as one country, very illuminating interview with this man. look at this story in the nbc washington app. just into the live desk, brand new election results. there's an open senate seat in alabama, the one attorney general jeff sessions gave up. we know two republicans go to runoff after resul.

appointed and is serving that seat now. the other is former alabama chief justice roy moore. moore received more of the vote in the primary last night, looking at the numbers. the winner of next month's runoff faces former u.s. attorney doug jones in the election that will happen in december. eun? >> thank you. good news for people trying to make a call or metro. the transit agency says wireless voice and data service is now available in tunnels on a chunk of the blue, orange and silver lines, including nearly four mile stretch between metro center and stadium armory. they hope to have wireless coverage in all tan elunnels by of 2020. no more missed calls. many think it is something we can only dream about. but the

futuristic concept may be in reach. >> the goal is new form of transition where passengers ride in pods that travel in tubes between cities. these pods travel almost 700 miles per hour. students at university of maryland have built this prototype if you will called nemesis. hyper loop pod, entered in the spacex competition and feeling good about it. >> it is a phenomenal feeling. makes me shake with happiness every time with what we're about to do. >> kind of like when in one of the pods. >> i feel like i would need a helmet, all kinds of pads. >> the team flies out saturday to california for the competition. >> smart university of maryland kids. way to go. >> figure out a way to get from one side of d.c. to the other in a halfr.

>> that would be something. no doubt. >> especially with fog. that could be a problem too, this morning. >> have to slow down this morning. thick fog will reduce visibility. there's the view from city camera looking back to the city. washington monument is still visible. again, the camera is near national airport. three or so miles from the monument itself. right here in town, visibility isn't oh so bad. once you get over the bodies of water and into rural areas, that's where the fog is more of an issue. man has it been raining. we had twice the average rainfall for the month of august. now more than halfway through the month. temperatures 1.3 degrees cooler than average for month of august, courtesy of clouds and rain chances. right now, a lot of clouds, 73 in washington. there's your visibility, down under a mile from manassas, frederick, maryland under a le

stay ahead of the weather use our nbc washington app. also find and follow me on twitter. and here's the satellite picture. gert moving farther from the u.s. main land, good riddance to gert. nothing too organized in the tropics just yet. say good-bye to gert, focus eyes to the tropics later in the week. future weather. here's the fog early this morning between now and 8:00 or 9:00, that's when it is worst. then we break out into sunshine, enough sunshine to get temperatures in the upper 80s to near 90. and slight chance for a shower or two today. most of us wait until tomorrow afternoon, thursday 4:00 p.m. that's when rain chances start to ramp up again. rain is something we don't actually need for the next couple days. 40% chance for rain thursday afternoon and evening. 70% chance for rain friday. any rain saturday should be coming to an end

jack taylor, should be try with temperatures up near 90 degrees. threw a couple of nines in there on me. all right. we had trouble in gaithersburg, on 28, closed between muddy branch and edison park drive, wires in the roadway. crews just about wrapped up on the inner loop after georgetown pike. two right lanes getting by. 50 west, before 301, two left lanes getting by. also should be in the wrap up stage. back to you. >> jack, thank you. another recall surrounding vehicles with takata air bags. what you need to know before hitting the road. no time for

this morning, mazda is recalling more cars with takata air bags. several popular models are effected. we posted a complete list on our app. mazda says some cars were already recalled once, but the replacement that was installed still had a faulty part. uber has agreed to third party audits after they were accused of mishandling privacy and security data. a breach resulted in names

driver's license numbers being stolen and says uber stopped using automated system to monitor employee access to consumer data. as a result, they will undergo audits for the next 20 years. they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, now you have more choices to grab a quick bite on the way to work from your favorite fast food restaurants. chick-fil-a has a new hash brown scramble and taco bell is expanding naked food line to the morning deal with the naked egg taco. that launches across the country august 31st. >> someone explain that to me. >> naked egg taco. >> naked egg taco? maybe without the shell? >> definitely without the shell. can't eat that. >> why not, the taco shell, not the eggshell. stay with us, news4 continues at 5:00 a.m. we need to get some breakfast clearly.

right now, a foggy start outside. advisories in effect that force you to slow down as you start your day. right now, a search for a sex assault suspect. a man police say attacked a five-year-old girl near her home. i think there's blame on both sides, and i have no doubt about it, and you don't have any doubt about it either. >> the president's latest news conference putting his own party on edge. the reaction and latest calls for resignation. >> america's got talent performance you'll be hearing about today. you can't do mc hammer without the pants. 5:00 a.m. i am