time. >> talking about temperatures in the 60s today. but you know that this is not going to stick around very long. of course, it is december. almost january now. first, we're tracking breaking news in first 4 traffic. melissa. >> breaking news in first 4 traffic, guys. we have chopper 4 on the way to the problem at eisenhower avenue. we have two lanes that just reopened. traffic had been stopped here. you can see almost a 7-mile backup on the inner loop and a 4-mile backup on the outer loop. a mess as we try to get this out of way and cleared up on an already bit of a busy tuesday morning. hyattsville southbound bw parkway at 202. crash still in the center lane. we'll have more on that problem bottom of the beltway coming up in a minute. hi, chuck. good morning. yes indeed. a tuesday off to a pleasant enough start. depending where you live, we have a big range of temperatures th

but 51 currently in martinsburg and hagerstown. a big spread. clouds have been thicker during the overnight. what to wear? maybe a medium coat and sweater for later on. don't forget your sunglasses. temperatures, upper 30s to 40. recess for the kids, 58 at noon and still in the mid-50s as late as 5:00. the high today at national airport should reach 60 degrees. yes, indeed. rainy and cloudy and colder weather eventually. the five-day forecast coming up. chuck, thank you. we're staying on top of this breaking news this morning. federal safety investigators now say the train that derailed in washington state was going more than twice the speed limit allowed around that curve. >> ntsb said it was traveling 80 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone. the train was making its way from seattle to portland along a new high-speed

than 70 others were taken to the hospital. including ten with serious injuries. ntsb investigators are expected back on the scene today to figure out what went wrong. we're also keeping an eye on flights in and out of atlanta this morning. take a live look at flight aware's airplane tracking map. this morning, we're seeing some delays and cancellations at atlanta's hartsfield-jackson airport. it created a travel nightmare on sunday. more than 400 flights were canceled yesterday on top of the 1100 canceled on sunday. this morning, we're learning a rat may have caused that ten-hour blackout. apparently a wire leading to a switch in the airport tunnel was frayed. airport officials believe a rat gnawed on that wire and that sparked the fire. the switch caught on fire and burned through seven critical lines that knocked out the main power system and the backup power system. it's 6:02. we're following a developing story in southeast d.c.

the gunman who killed a teenager at a community center basketball court. the shooting happened last night on bruce place southeast at the frederick douglass community center. people there told news 4 the teen was on the court when someone robbed and then shot him. he died at the scene. the victim's name has not been released. this morning, a d.c. woman is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries after a fire. this started inside a first floor apartment on downing road. it was last night. a second woman and a firefighter also taken to the hospital. they are expected to be okay. no word on how that fire started. right now the remnants of in brushfire in gaithersburg are still burning. take a look at the scene here. chopper 4 flew over the area on hawkins creamery road near laytonsville road last night. firefighters doused it and contained it as much as they could. they expect the fire to continue burning for hours. no word about what caused it. just about four minutes after the hour. changes are coming to prince george's county when it comes

grading after that grade tampering scandal. >> news 4's meagan fitzgerald live in upper marlboro with a look at the new report the ceo of the schools will unveil today. meagan, good morning. good morning, eun and aaron. dr. kevin maxwell agreed to sit down with us in an interview to explain exactly how he's going to fix this widespread issue throughout his district. the governor of maryland, larry hogan, has been very vocal and critical of the scandal calling it either corruption or just incompetence. of course, dr. kevin maxwell has quite the task here. the audit reveals that school staff changed grades after quarterly cutoff dates, kept poor records and received little oversight from the school district. here's perspective for you. in 2016, that graduating class had more than 20% of the students. they had their grades changed. so they were able to walk across the stage to receive a

that they may not have deserved. may not have earned. in 2017, that figure was more than 14%. again, dr. kevin maxwell has agreed to sit down with us to explain how he's going to fix this issue. in a report that he will discuss with the school board and with parents in a public meeting. back to you. >> meagan fitzgerald, live for us this morning. meagan, thanks. here's a live look at the u.s. capitol. later today, lawmakers will begin voting on the republican tax bill. the house is scheduled to start voting at 1:30 this afternoon and then it will head to the senate for passage there. it cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. and does away with popular tax deductions. it eliminates the mandatory health insurance coverage by 2019. famed music mogul russell simpsons is facing sexual

simmons tried to force her to perform oral sex during a movie shoot. singer cherry hines says she was raipd in the 1980s. both will share their experiences on megyn kelly today. that begins at 9:00. tonight on nbc, one of the four finalists will be crowned the winner of "the voice". >> the season 13 finalists gave it their all in part one of the finale. >> ♪ >> so now it is up to america to vote. >> so much talent there. you know how hard that song is to sing. i wonder where that -- the two-hour finale begins at 8:00 tonight on nbc4. speaking of incredible voices, our holiday choir showcase is just in time for the holidays. all week long, we'll

>> we're talking about the largo high school choir. so much talent there. molette green is live with the choir and those incredibly talented young people, molette. >> being entertained right now. go call it on the mountain. the high school choir, 32 in their holiday hats this morning. in the 6:00 hour, how you can see them perform live tonight in prince george's county. all of that is coming up next on "news4 today." just want to sing and dance. >> sing-along, right? >> yes. >> seven minutes after 6:00 right now. shut the front door and watch out for your front porch. the overnight scare that had investigators shaking their heads. california is burning. major new developments in the battle against the wildfires. the turning point that could help give firefighters the upper hand. it is a nice star

tuesday morning. wakeup temperatures will be mostly in the 40s around the district. we have some neighborhoods in the 30s. wait until you see how mild it ll be this afternoon. ♪ ♪ it feels good to be back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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at the live desk. following new developments in a massive cyber attack. publicly blaming north korea for the so-called virus. the trump administration says the north is getting more reckless and will be held accountable. back in may, there was a quarter of a million computers in hundreds of countries around the world. it locked up digital documents and files and demanded money to get them back. it froze computers in hospitals, offices and government

they believe they have enough evidence to pin it on pyongyang. breaking news right now in first 4 traffic. chopper 4 over a massive problem at the bottom of the beltway. we're talking about the inner loop at eisenhower avenue. even though some lanes are getting by, this problem. some lanes are getting by at the bottom of the beltway as you can see on the inner loop. quite slow. we're going to look at more of this in a minute. sheena? >> good morning, melissa. the weather looks good. that will be nice as people are driving this morning. take a look as we go through the day. unseasonably mild temperatures. the normal high is in the mid-40s this time of year. we'll be around 60 degrees and dry. enjoy today. we have rain on the way. a lot colder temperatures as we head into next week. chuck is here in a few minutes to show you the timing and details on that. thank you, sheena. it's 6:12.

choir showcase. ♪ from the billboard charts to the kennedy center, the largo high school choir is doing big things. the group of students puts on a show at the kennedy center's sunday night singing the classic rejoice. >> fresh off that performance, largo high school is our first stop. >> molette green is live at largo high school with the choir and these incredible talented students. molette, good morning. >> good morning to you guys. how do you sound this delightful so early in the morning. let me shut up for a second so you can listen to them. ♪ largo high school choir is under the leadership of brandonfelder. their performance on kennedy center was sunday. they have

releas released. brandon is the musical director joining me here. talk about the impact of what all is happening with this choir in prince george's county. >> good morning, molette. thank you so much for coming to largo. this has been a professional and monumental time for these students. i can't explain how much this means for them to have a recording contract to record a cd that has charted the billboard, gospel in the top ten. it's amazing. >> it gives the students the self-esteem, the confidence to move forward in whatever they choose to do. >> correct. we call music education and arts education, we say it brings the cs, the connections, the connectivi connectivity, the citizenship, the collaboration. this is what the students are able to do. our goal is not that they're the next beethoven or mozart or marsal marsalis. we may have the next doctor, s

that opportunity to provide that, that's what this is about. >> reporter: they're performing live tonight. a free performance at the reid temple. we have the information on the screen. it's up on the screen. come on out and see the youngsters perform. ♪ >> not only are they talented. how about the director playing piano and doing the interview at the same time. >> never stops. >> we can barely walk and talk at the same time. multiple talent there. just such a great season to hear these put full voices. >> really awesome. thanks to the choir and molette. we'll check back in with you a little later. >> don't you want to play the music. >> i wish we could, right? we're getting set for our choir showcase. we'll be in olney, maryland, the bethel world outreach chur

all the christmas music. >> for sure. 6:16 is our time right now. zien increase in humidity and decrease in wind speeds are helping the thomas fire. it's 50% contained. making progress. that's an improvement from yesterday. more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed, including the home where the eagles recorded their hit song, "hotel california." also breaking news at 6:16 and that deadly train derailment in washington state. the amtrak train was traveling more than double the posted speed limit. nbc's kirk hawkins joins us live this morning from dupont, washington, where the train went off the tracks. kirk, good morning to you. >> reporter: aaron and eun good morning to you. we learned new information at a news conference with the ntsb. they've recovered the data recorder. that recorder showed that the train was traveling more than 50 miles over the speed

taking a live look at the wreckage. you can see the heavy duty machinery and the crane as workers are scrambling to remove the wreckage. they won't be able to do it in time for the morning commute, but they are making progress. as you can see, they've been able to move the train car up above. now, the ntsb is expecting to continue their investigation here on the ground as they -- we're learning more about the three fatalities in the crash and more than 70 injuries. fire officials locally are telling us that a number of the injuries are critical. all of this happening after that train slammed -- careened off of the tracks and slammed into traffic in the middle of morning rush hour monday morning. and taking with it a semi truck and several other cars that were traveling just below here. now, there have been concerns with this high-speed route. this was the inaugural train service

to be ignite controversy in the coming days. back to you. >> kirk hawkins live for us in dupont washington. thank you. it's now 6:18. we need to go to breaking traffic news. melissa mollet has the latest in your first 4 traffic. what's happening? >> bottom of the beltway here. take a look at this. choch chopper 4 over the 8-mile backup. some lanes reopened. it is painful for these folks this morning. you have to allow a lot of extra time. hopefully, this is out of the way soon. brad freitas in chopper 4 looking down on things. tell us what you're seeing up there. >> reporter: that's right, melissa. we got on the scene a few minutes ago and they are making progress to clear up the last two left lanes there. as i zoom out and pan over here a little bit, i can zoom in nine miles with the incredible hd cineplex camera and show you what the delays look like on the woodrow wilson bridge. those are solid bumper to

delays past the casino and crossing over the bridge into virginia. it's going to be a long riled for the drivers who make this commute. melissa, what else is going on? >> puts it in perspective. this problem in hyattsville at 202, crash in the center lane. that has cleared out of the way. that is good news. the rest of the beltway looks pretty good. taking a look at travel times, 270 southbound. germantown to the spur. you're on time. top of the beltway, a little slow. 35 miles per hour. going take you 16 minutes from 95 to 270. 66 inbound is okay. remember to listen to wtop 103.5 fm. let's listen to mr. bell. good morning. >> good morning, melissa. everybody was hoping our chances for a white christmas would be going up. unfortunately, looks like the mild air and some raininess coming our way in the nick of time for christmas. our warmest christmas on record. 1964, made 72.

our snowiest christmas day, back in 1962. we'll have an abundance of moisture on christmas day. a blast of frigid air arriving immediately behind the rain chance. we'll have to watch very carefully. there could be iciness the morning after christmas to concern ourselves with. for this morning, though, no weather worries today. 41 here in washington. it's colder down across northern virginia where the skies have been clear overnight. where there have been extra clouds, temperatures in the upper 40s to 50. there's your hourly planner for today. plenty of sunshine. mid to upper 50s for most of the hourly temperatures today. high temperatures expected to reach 60 in washington. 62 culpepper. 57 in frederick. a nice day today. just know that it will be a little chilly for some spots. northern virginia kids need a heavier jacket this morning. we're under the influence of the jet stream for a couple of days. that means increasing chances for

cold between now and the weekend. the polar jet takes over early next week. the clouds will be increasing. mostly cloudy and cooler day. near 60 with the sun today. in the 40s all day tomorrow with a lot of clouds around. chilly and kind of gray. the sunshine back. chilly sunshine on thursday. back to clouds and 50 degrees on friday and 60. but with quite a bit of rain likely on sunday. sheena will have a closer look at that christmas eve, christmas day forecast and the christmas plunge after that. 6:41 right now. pullover controversy. local police accused of racial profiling. the redskins player lays out his case on social media. the clock is ticking down to buy your holiday gifts. i'm aimee cho hitting the stores to find out what cool new gifts you can buy coming up. he's handsome and talented. he's a lot of things. talking about idris

6:24 right now. if you're trying to get your packages out today but still people on your list, there's still time. >> we have tips to get the last minute gifts done. completed. >> if you still need to get to the stores this holiday season, first of all, have no fear. you're not alone. >> just literally started today in person. >> we took a trip to walmart to check out last-minute gifts. store manager paul hill showed us options for everyone. for the little ones, action figures and sporting goods are a classic.

>> for the little kids, you can't go wrong with a nerf set. >> he says pajamas and slippers make good gifts. for adults, the high tech toy like a drone or video game. >> the hottest new gift again, the nintendo switch. this is an awesome item that everybody is loving. >> according to hill, some of the best gifts don't have to be the fanciest. >> the traditional, the board games and apparel. >> just walking into the store can be a little overwhelming. that's why walmart suggests using their app to create a shopping list ahead of time. that way, you get to the store and you'll have a plan of attack. before you know it, you'll be ready to check out on another year of successful shopping. >> how far along are you in your shopping? >> probably like two days in. those two days are a little hectic. hopefully today is the last day and i can relax after that. >> in northeast, aimee cho, news 4.

stranger danger. a 3-year-old sent home from school with a man she didn't know. how this could happen and what a local school district is doing about it now. >> reporter: was it racial profiling or routine traffic stop? an nfl star says one thing, a local law enforcement agency says another. i'm justin finch. we'll have the story in a live report. jackets this morning. but short sleeves this

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good morning everyone. take a look at these temperatures in december. we have 50s up in here. that means it's going to get warmer. >> up in here. we have your news 4 team up early. we begin with breaking news. melissa mollet is in first 4 traffic. all right, melissa, what's going on? >> breaking news. we're talking about the bottom of the beltway. having too much fun. that's not fair. what's going on? i'm dealing with something serious. eisenhower avenue, the crash is off to the shoulder. at this point, we're still very, very slow as you come through chopper 4. showing us an 8-mile backup at this point this morning. just a mess there.

eisenhower avenue. new problem on the beltway. car can flat tires, several of them on the shoulder. another issue inbound 395 at boundary channel drive. crash blocking the left center lane. right knew, miss parveen, i know it's feeling better outside than it was earlier today. >> yes. it feels nice out, melissa. this leaves. this morning, some spots might wake up and say it's noot that cold out. we have areas around freezing south of the district. as we go through the day today, the mild air will continue. it's 41 degrees right now in d.c. by 8:00 a.m., we're looking at temperatures in the mid-40s. some sun glare as you drive this morning. be careful of that. 10:00 this morning, 50 degrees. look at lunchtime today. 55. that is not going to be our warmest. we'll be around 60 this afternoon. currently, look at these numbers. south of d.c. and much of northern virginia, we're looking at temperatures near freezing or

as you head towards frederick and martinsburg, temperatures near 50 degrees. that's because of some cloud cover helping to keep things a little warmer. big changes as we go into next week. that's coming up. sheena, thanks so much. here are your top stories morning. federal safety investigators now say the amtrak train that derailed in washington state was going more than twice the speed limit. the ntsb says it was traveling 80 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone. three people were killed. more than 70 others were hurt. >> lawmakers begin voting on the republican tax bill today. among key provisions in that people, cutting the corporate tax rate and does away with popular tax deductions. it also eliminates obamacare's mandatory health insurance coverage by 2019. prince george's county school ceo dr. kevin maxwell is set to unveil his plans to fix grade tampering allegations. a state audit reveals

after cutoff dates and received little oversight from the school district. dr. maxwell will sit down with our bureau chief, tracee wilkins later today to talk about his new report. 6:32 now. it will be a sad holiday for the family of a doctor and his daughter who died in a plane crash. >> they were killed on their way to frederick, maryland after their plane crashed in oldenburg indiana. he picked up his daughter in kansas and was headed back home. the plane had instrument problems. she taught. we're working to learn more about how this car ended up crashing into this home. take a look at the video here. what we know is that house is on carrie place in upper marlboro. no word on whether anyone was injured there. stick with us for updates. the trial of a former

transit officer ended with a guilty verdict. prosecutors say nicholas young tried to provide financial support to the terror group through give cards. young was arrested last year after giving the cards to an undercover fbi agent. he will be sentenced in february and faces up to 60 years in prison. washington redskins safety su'a cravens threatens to sue the loudoun county sheriff's office. >> he says he was racially profiled and roughed up during a recent traffic stop. he was pulled over in ashburn near the farmwell station middle school. he was recently cleared to resume football activities after suffering from post concussion syndrome. justin finch is live where cravens was pulled over with the sheriff's office side of the story. justin, what are they saying? >> reporter: cravens aired his side of the story on twitter last night. it played out about three weeks ago in this plaza behind us.

were conducting a traffic enforcement safety patrol on this street back on november 29th when their laser reader locked in on cravens' car going 39 in a 25 mile per hour school zone. on his twitter page, cravens said he was racially profiled, stopped, searched, suspected of drugs, roughed up and handcuffed. >> i mean, i say what are you doing? pulled me out the car and said calm down. started putting me up against the -- put cuffs on my hand. like whoa [ bleep ]. >> from the slheriffs office, w have a partial statement. the driver was pulled over into a shopping center. cravens was issued a virginia uniform summons for speeding and a second summons for illegal window tint. the next step is to appear in core. he's scheduled to do so on january 25th.

back to you in the studio. >> justin, thank you. you know you're really good when you get not one, but two jersey numbers retired. last night the lakers retired both numbers. kobe bryant wore them during his basketball career. 8 and 24. you see it there. he's the first player in any professional sport to have two numbers retired. the 18-time all-star played 20 seasons with the laborers. wrap your head around that. won five championships. kareem abdul jabbar, shaquille o'neal and magic johnson were there as the iconic numbers were immortalized. o congratulations. he did a lot for the lakers. government workers, you've been put on notice. the reason your paychecks could be put on hold. sexual misconduct in

out.

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6:39 now. five women are accusing oscar winner dustin hoffman of sexual misconduct. >> three of the women sat down with cynthia mcfadden in an nbc news exclusive. katherine ross eter credits hoffman with getting her to star with him on death of a salesman. she said he repeatedly groped and harassed her. >> people go, how was it to work with did you say snin i tell the half truth. i owe him everything as an actor working with him. i learned so much. then i would stop. there would be a knot in my stomach. the real truth was, he was abusive and he was a bully. >> nbc news has reached out to ho hoffman's lawyer about her claims for

claims by other women defamatory. i'm storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell, four things to know about the weather. last best day of the year, sunshine and 60 degrees today. nothing to complain about. christmas weekend looks on the rainy side. it promises to be bitter cold next week. sheena has the ten-day in a few more minutes. here's your hour by hour planner. many hours worth enjoying. >> i like that. breaking news in first 4 traffic. a backup on the beltway and a couple of other problems coming up. tis the season for singing. molette, what is going on live in upper marlboro this morning? >> reporter: yes. that's right. we're live here in prince george's county. they are about to fine tune all the music starting. fine tuning for their performance tonight.

we'll tell you where and all the details coming up next. this is the largo high school my wish was a clubhouse, but we call it "the wish house." people visit national parks from all over the world. food tastes better when you don't have to cook it. he was just supposed to be my dog. i don't know why. (vo) we're proud that, on behalf of our owners, the subaru share the love event will have donated over one hundred fifteen million dollars in just ten years. get 0% financing for 63 months on select models. plus we'll donate $250 to charity.

deadly derailment. searching for answers. the new discovery overnight after a train tragedy and the crucial clue that could reveal what went wrong. >> a lot of tossing and squealing and rattling the train. stolen gifts. a christmas caper and crooks with no heart. the car theft that hit even harder during the holidays. >> he said all he want is his car back for christmas. that's all he wanted. hip hop mogul scandal. russell simpsons accused of sexual misconduct and rape. government shutdown. a looming deadline. the sticking point that could put that government check on hold days before christmas. at 6:44. we begin with breaking news this morning. >> that deadly amtrak derailment south of seattle is having a ripple effect. part of the major

for investigation. chris lawrence at the live desk with the latest. chris? >> yeah. eun. ntsb investigators got a look at the data recorder which reveals the train was traveling 80 miles an hour in a 30 mile an hour zone. the train was making its way from seattle to portland along the new high-speed route. the derailment dropped a 100-ton locomotive on the southbound lanes of the interstate highway and left some cars dangling from the overpass. three people were killed and paramedics rushed 70 others to the hospital. ntsb investigators haven't interviewed the engineer yet. it's unclear if the crew knew it was a 30 mile an hour limit around that curve. back to you. >> chris, thank you. right now, we're keeping an eye on flights in and out of atlanta. this morning, we've seen delays and cancellations at hartsfield-jackson airport. that airplane is still recovering after the power outage created a travel nightmare on sunday.

may have caused the issue. a wire was frayed in the tunnel. officials believe a rat may have gnawed on the wire and sparked the fire. the switch caught fire and burned out critical lines knocking out the main power system an the backup power syst system. a showdown in congress brings new threats of a government shutdown. lawmakers must pass a budget bill to keep the government operating past friday. republicans need democratic votes to pass a budget in the senate. but right now, the two sides disagree on spending levels, protecting some undocumented immigrants from deportation and funding for a health insurance program for low income children. 6:46 now. changes are coming to prince george's county schools. that's after a grade fixing scandal shook up the district. meagan fitzgerald is live in upper marlboro with a look at what the dikt ceo has planned. meagan? >> reporter: good morning aaron

dr. kevin maxwell agreed to sit down with us in a one-on-one interview to explain how he plans to fix this problem. you'll remember, the governor, larry hogan, even saying that this scandal, he called it corruption or incompetence. dr. maxwell has quite the task here. the audit revealed that school staff changed grades after quarterly cutoff dates. they kept poor records and received little oversight from the school district. here's some percent peg tispect. that graduating class, more than 20% of the students had their grades changed so that they would be able to walk across the stage for -- on graduation day. in 2017, that figure was more than 14%. so, again, dr. maxwell has agreed to sit down with us to explain how he's going to fix this problem throughout his school district. it will be presented to the school board and to parents in a public meeting. back to you. thank you,

live in upper marlboro this morning. talk about a real-life grinch. somebody stole a man's car filled with christmas presents over the weekend in prince george's county as he was holiday shopping. his mercedes was actually found. it's sitting in a tow lot in landover. it was found in southeast d.c. it was saturday when somebody snatched the car from the mall at prince george's in my yachtsville. the owner had no plans to press any charges against the thief. >> even if they would have caught the guy, i wouldn't have pressed charges. i wouldn't have done that. >> why not? >> it's the holidays. i don't want to see nobody else in jail. he had christmas presents in the trunk and he's not sure if they're still there. he thinks he may have dropped his keys and that's how the thief got away. an important consumer alert as you wait for the holiday packages to arrive at your home. fedex says there is an e-mail scam that could infect your computer. take a look. this is the e-mail going around. it has a subject line, fedex delivery problems and inside the

our company's courier couldn't make the delivery. there's also a link inside that e-mail saying delivery manager. don't click the link. fedex says delete the e-mail or forward it to abuse@fedex.com. fedex does not send unsolicited e-mails to customers regarding packages, accounts or passwords. we've been dealing with breaking news in first 4 traffic this morning. >> melissa mollet has the latest. >> breaking news. bottom of the beltway. chopper 4 over this for quite some time. this is the inner loop. we're talking about a six-mile backup there. it's a mess for a lot of people. went from a ten-mile backup to a six-mile backup. it still looks pretty bad, especially from above. brad freitas showing us what's going on right now. hi brad. >> good morning, melissa. that's right. those lanes did reopen just in the past ten minutes or so. let me tell you the damage is done. as i zoom out here

4's cineplex camera, i can zoom back in on prince george's county on the other side of the woodrow wilson bridge and back at st. barnabas road. that's where the delays start. bumper to bumper traffic past national harbor. melissa, what else is going on? >> thanks, brad. that puts it in perspective. georgetown pike, cars with flat tires on the shoulder. debris perhaps if the roadway. also 395 inbound at boundary channel. crash blocking the left center lane. rock creek parkway northwest at virginia avenue. crash reported there as well. taking a look at your travel times. 270 doesn't look that bad. top of the beltway here from 95 to 270. outer loop is pretty slow going 20 miles per hour. inbound, on 56, no major issues there. looking pretty normal here on 95 in virginia. quantico to the beltway going 37 miles per hour. going to take you 31 minutes. listen to wtop,

you hop in your car. you might not need the seat heaters today? >> no, maybe not. maybe the windows down this afternoon. unseasonably mild temperatures through the day. we'll be cooling back down and even for your thursday. into the weekend, we have rain and for your christmas day monday, we're looking at a wet christmas. but we're also looking at very cold air moving in as we go throughout the day. we're going to have a mixed bag in some spots with that cold air and that rain. could even see ice issues very late. we'll talk about that as we get closer. 41 degrees in washington. 35 dulles, 35 quantico. frederick, 50 degrees where we've seen the cloud cover this morning. clinton at 39. there's the cloud cover. mainly north of the district. everybody else south, looking at the clearing skies. we're going to be nice and dry this morning. throughout the day today, in a perfect day to get outside and exercise. maybe go for a jog or something. just walk around. it's going to be gorgeous. by lunchtime.

mild with highs around 60. we'll look at the travel weather as you head out of town or people coming in town for the holidays. here's wednesday morning. we're looking at a storm system. could be seeing delays near atlanta, nashville off into the carolinas. that goes wednesday evening and then watching chicago. another storm system headed towards chicago for friday morning. could be seeing delays there and giving us rain into the weekend. here's future air masses. mild air into the weekend. saturday we'll be back in the low 60s with rain. look at this arctic air spilling down, starting just about christmas day. so we will be seeing a lot of cold air rushing in around your christmas evening. take a look at this forecast through the evening. there's the rain likely on saturday. even sunday a few showers. a little bit of a temperature difference there. monday, 60s not really in the afternoon. that's going to be early. we're really going to drop down. look at the temperatures after that. around freezing, guys.

it is 6:53. today we're kicking off our holiday choir showcase. >> so fun. it really is. from the billboard charts to the kennedy center. the largo high school choir is doing big things. >> fresh off that performance, the choir is our first stop this week in our holiday choir showcase. molette green is live with the choir and the incredible voices. molette, this is a treat. >> reporter: this is a treat. 30 high school students up early this morning singing. it's the largo high school performing under the direction of brandonfelder and tonight they'll have a special performance live, free, in silver spring. we're going to talk to michael white who is one of the directors, the musical director over at the reid temple church. how incredible is it to have these young performers at your church tonight? 1,000 people

experience. every year the ministry comes together to celebrate jesus, christmas at the temple. nothing better than to have the largo high school choir come and get that good sense of community and how everybody comes together and celebrates this time of love and giving. >> this prince george's county school has been in the spotlight at the kennedy center on sunday and, of course, tonight performing live at the reid temple north in silver spring. it's free. come on out and see them. they're going to end the segment with, this christmas. let's hear it. >> this christmas ♪ ♪ ♪ through the night ♪ and it's christmas ♪ this christmas will be a very special christmas for me ♪

>> reporter: largo high school choir, back to you guys inside. >> somebody shake their hands. ♪ and this christmas will be ♪ >> all right. >> it's like they knew that was your favorite song. they sang it just for you. >> i appreciate it. thanks, guys. we, of course, are just getting started with our holiday choir showcase. >> we are going to be in olney, maryland showcasing the choir at bethel church. i love it. so fun. 6:55 our time right now. here are four things to know this morning. school ceo kevin maxwell will unveil his plan to fix grade tampering in prince george's county. he sits down with our bureau chief, tracee wilkins later on today. federal safety investigators say the amtrak train that derailed in washington state was going more than twice the speed limit. it was tel

three people were killed. more than 70 others injured. a live report coming up next on the "today" show. lawmakers begin voting on the republican tax bill today. among the key provisions, it would cut the corporate tax rate and eliminate health insurance coverage by 2019. more on the tax bill coming up next on "today." nine women now accuse music mogul russell simmons of sexual misconduct. allegations which he denies. two of the accusers will share their stories on megyn kelly at 9:00 this morning. breaking news this first 4 traffic. six-mile backup at eisenhower ae avenue. thank you chopper 4 for the pictures. chuck? >> it's going to be a colorful sunrise today. temperatures will respond nicely. up near 60 degrees today. don't be fooled. there's a couple more chances to be near 60 degrees. both saturday and christmas day. have to be dealing with rains.

the temperatures afterwards. that's what i'm looking at. >> the cold will come in handy. that's the broadcast for this morning. thanks for waking up with us. >> the "today" show is next. we'll be back in 25 minutes with the weather and traffic, and local news. there they are, the largo high school choir. make it a great tuesday morning. ♪

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good morning. breaking overnight, way too fast. officials confirm the amtrak train that derailed off an overpass south of seattle, was going 80 miles per hour, nearly three-times the speed limit. >> we got cars everywhere. and down on to the highway. >> three people killed. dozens injured. and sharing their harrowing stories. >> a lot of squealing, rattling of the train. >> investigators now trying to determine why that train was going at such a high rate of speed. we're on the scene, live. the ayes have it? all eyes on the hill, as the house is expected to pass the republicans' controversial tax plan today.