thursday, we are tracking a weather alert for you. it's a start of what will be a very wet day across our region. the storms moved in overnight. they will stick around all day long. don't forget your umbrella. it will get a workout. i'm aon lchrist. >> i'm eun yang. we're working for you as you work to getut of the door on this thursday. jack taylor is in for melissa mollet this morning. he will have a look at the commute in first 4 traffic. let's start with chuck bell and the rainy forecast we're in for, chuck. >> itill be coming down hard late morning to the mild parts of the afternoon. noing more than showers around this morning. wet pavement meansou have to take your speeds down. jack will talk about travel impacts in ad. sec rain here this morning and more rain to co. heavy rain between roanoke a richmond. st, packol day fore

your umbrellas for sure. temperatures in the chilly morning.his only get in the low 50s today. rain chance .10 no doubt about it. what to wear, yr jacket, hat, galoshes and the biggest umbrella you have. thegraily e, it's a thursday and a rainout. "f" for the daily grade. >> fail, fail. we'll start with the good news. we h a work zone on washington boulevard. that's cleared. should be wrapping up on i-295 on suitlandpa way. you'll find we have a report of a crash in prince coorge's ty near whitfield chapel road. authorities are headed to the scene. not sure if this is in the roadway or not. hopefully they can clear it out as fast as possible. >> thank you. residents in northeast washington are taking to the streets to show they wl not

stand for gun violence that hit their neighborhood. it was in response to this shalting. >> seven unloading their guns in broad daylight about two weeksago. that's newton street in the brookland neighborod. the bullets took out the power to a few houses. no arres have been made for this. police have increaseat patrols n neighborhood. and there's a $10,000 reward that leads to conviction of any the shooters in the video. a somber day in st. mary's county start and ended with a teen killed in a shooting a year wednesday was a year since she was shot at great mills high . scho another student was shot in the leg and the shooting student took his own lifes a school resource officer started shooting at him. now, a yearlater, parents believe the community has come a long way. >> we're stronger because i know the school would come together and help each other. und the commy, as well, as come together to be strong.

>> there were threats of violence made against the school cerlier in the week and reported to the po but the threats were not found to be credible. and in crginia,sses have been canceled at a charlottesville school because of a threatound online. local and state police are working with the fbi to find the source of that threat and determine if it isib cr. for the first time in two years, the family of a murdered artist say they closure. kari karina mehiel was killed. and they found toure was guilty for her murder. her family is pleased with the verdict. >> i hope he dies in prison. i hope that's the rest of his life. the sooner thebetter. >> mr. toure cannot hurt anyone else again. he will be i prison.

mehiel was from north carolina. she was living and working as an artist at the corcoran school of art and design. the trial of a man who killed a store manager will continuetoday. the lawyers are trying to prove their client was suffering from a mental own when he stabbed and beat a stranger to death. his brother took the stand. he dcribed the health changes in the months before the killing.ee he had bn charged from a psychiatric hospital the day before he drove to alexandria and killed brad jackson. his attorneys will call more witnesses toda >>today, a former virginia preschoolteacher wl be sentenced for sexually abusing his students. last year, he pled guiy to abusing a dozen preschoolers. he also took several inappropriate pictures and admitted to making child pornography. the northern bureau chief will be at the courtroom later this

morning. and you can follow her on twitter for the latest. it's 4:35. also happening today, a judge is expected to announce whether a fourth teen charged in a hazing assault at damascus high school will get his case moved to juvenile court. he is one of four teens accused of raping a fellow junior varsity football player with a broomstick in a locker room last year. the judge was going to make a decision on tuesday but needed ew the me to re situation. the three other suspects allegedly involved in the incident have had their cases moved to juvenile court. here's a look at our other top stories. a 3-month-old girl has died after being found unconscious in a southeast the weekend.pe over she suffered blunt force trauma to the head. thmi medical er is calling her death a homicide. no arrests have been made. new zealand is taking a strong stand on gunontrol after the terror attacks on mosques. the prime minister announced a ba on all military-style

semiautomatic weapons. that includes assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. 50 people died in the shootings. 12 lawsuits have been filed against boeing, involving two deadly crashes with its 737 max and the fbi is joining the investigation into the aircra aircraftmaker. a fix for the software is expected to be released as early as next week. catastrophic flooding has put nebraska andnd missouri states of emergency. three people have died so far and theag d is already estimated in the billions. the water is from last week's bomb cyclone and a huge snowfall that came with it. it appears minimum wage will be going up for maryland workers. the state's general assembly approved a pn to raise wages to $15 an hour by 2025. businesses with fewer than 15

employees will have ano extra year make that change. governor larry hogan is against the plan but it passed with enough votes to override a veto. right now, the minimum wage is $10.10 an hour.'s virgins the lowest at $7.25 an hour. west virginia is $8.75 an hour. d.c. is $13.25 an hour but will raise to $15 an hour next year. sorry to he to tell you, you did not win the powerballt jackast night. the good news, neither did anybody else. the pot keepsg. grow it's up to $625 million after no one matched all of the numbers. in case you won a smaller prize, the numbers on your screen, 10, 14,50,53, 63. and the powerball was 21. the nex i drawi saturday night. >> i have time to buy my tickets. today, march madness tips off. if fouished your bracket, get ready for it to be busted. you have a few more hours to get

it done beforees the g begin. maryland will be among the first on the court. the terps practiced inso nville for the first face-off against 11th seedon t. we are hoping to see the first e postason win since please, terps. tipoff at 3:10. today, o dominion tips off against purdue. four other schools have their first match-ups tomorrow. and this happens all the time. you think your sixth and seven seed, automatic. no way. you will see upts, i'm sure. the ncaa says the odds of picking all 63 games correctly is 1 in 9.2 quadrillion. you have a better chance of winning the powerball. >> iethink ar chance of winning the powerball several times before you get that. coming up, we'll tellou about the local player who has been sidelined just hours before

histeam's first tournament game. 4:39 now. coming up, new crash test ratings released overnight. offore you get in your car, we'll show you somhe safest rides on the road. first, improving emergency response. ne u technologys your smartphone when you need elp themost. how your camera and other apps can help spatchers duringdi

you're watching news today. >> we're getng an inside look at the future of 911 emergency response. >> the tecology allows dispatchers to not only pinpoint your lation but also give first responders eyes on the scene before they. even arri the technology is called 911 eye. someone calls 911. the spatcher sends a text message with a link to thatne person's p the caller clicks the link and

their exact location is sent to first responders. that's not all. the andispatcher also access the phone's camera, seeing the scene inreal-time. law enforcement officials are calling this system a total game-changer. >> this is the most precise way to sharenf imation with law enforcement in real-time. >> now, the service has a price tag of less than $10,000 per year for police departments. according tocohe any's website so far, it's only used in areas of new jersey. let's turn back to chuck. >> all right. dog wking forecast on a storm team 4 weather alert day, apopriately named, this is storm. a little girl would make a great addition to your tfamily. humane alliance rescue.org. to find out how to add storm to to find out how to add storm to me mes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough

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today. >> welcome back. you may not have r congress has been in recess this week because the president has been producing more than enough headlines to fill the void. >> and things likely won't slow down today. tracie potts joinsro us capitol hill today. the president has been feuding with a sstaffeusband and a senator who is nowdead. he's set to sign an order on the first amendment today. what is that about? >> the president has been on the attack in person and on twitter. he's gng to talk about free

speech on college campuses. the president says that conservative students have been silenced on college campuses. he's going toign on an executive order that includes a directive for students to be allowed to exercise free speech. you see john mccain. president trump has been sounding off on him in ohio, saying he was never thanked for the mccain funeral that he allowed to happen. re-emphasizing he was a big fan of john mccain. then, there's this guy, georgeay co the husband of kellyanne conway, that the president has been in twitteud with. he's been a frequent critic of president trump. they've been going back and forth on that. but the focus today wille free speech for college students. the president has said in the past that if colleges don't allow students toan demonstrate speak out, especially conservative ones that he'spo ted out, they shouldn't get federal funds. >> tracie potts live on capitol g.ll this morn thank you.

the florida man accused of sending pipe bombs through the ma mail, caesar say yok. t he is expect please nd not guilty in a federal court today. he could face life in prison. this morning, a communiteris mourning a man and woman were found dead inside a home in dumfries theolice say they started to argue and that's when the man shot and killed the woman and turned the g on himself. other people were inside the home but were not hurt. police have not leased the couple's name. new developments in the murder of a man in northern virginia. a man is in custody this morning for killing a beloved business owner from adli.

police say dale wright of west virginia, shot jeffrey evans in the head and chest. a fight started during a business transaction between the two men. this happened off route 7 in c clarnty on sunday. police say evans tried to drive off but crashed. by the time officers arrived on the scene, he was dead. the two men knew eac other because wright worked at a business near evans' auto shop. the d.c. eagle bar has been ordered to close for seven days, starting this saturday, assu of an incident involving d.c. council member vincent gray was at the d.c. eagle for an event last fall when he got into a dispute with a bouncer over his form of i.d. he said the bouncer pushed him, causing him to fall and hurt his back and. ha it says that d.c.'s alcoholic

beverages registration fined it and not to sell alcohol for seven days. >> a woman is in jail this morn morning over an argument over dog poop. et in for o let that a second. a woman confronted a lady named sty freeman, about picking up her dog's waste. that woman caughthe who thing on cell phone video. that's when freeman phone out of her hand and hit her. poe woman grabbed her phone and left. ce caught up with her and charged her with robbery. >> it is a bummer toee dog poop in your neighborhood. you could own the historic town hall buding, remmington virginia. theown council is trying to $190,000.town hall for the council moved to a different building two years ago. the building ias built 1905 and was originally used as a bank. it still has the bank's safe and

vault. the building once served as the town's two-cell jail, which is also par of thejail. but a time capsule that's emb embedded inhe wall, will be removed. a lot of history. for nearly half a semplg nc hiyat hyattt' hyatt'ssville school has provided music onle >> reporter: the music school has been around for 40 years and this space for 20 years. but they've fallen on har times. so much so, that they're selling their instruments to try to t maintas school. the owner of the school says that she wants this music to enrich the homes of folks who love musian she's hoping to draw students back to tho scol. she says things became difficult for the program after the latest federal government shutarwn. >>ts were telling me, i'm

on contract. i don't have the money. ju. like th you give them -- especially those that were preparing, youhe could give the lessons but you didn't get the mone so -- and basically, i was doing that. >> reporter: these are some of the instrumentsin they are se here. or information on pbuying these struments and on this school, go to nbc washington and search music school sale. in hyattsville, i'm tracee wilkins, news 4. one day into spring and on cherry blossom watch now. news 4 spotted somen buds stage 2. >> we're about two weeks away from the day the national parks service says the blossoms will be at their peak. all right. we're getting closer. >> yeah. >> we need a little more warmth to coax thet. >> we do. and there's not a lot of warm.

>> anthony: in the next seven days. and there m be a chance -- don't you dare. >> don't say it. >> maybe tuesday morning. maybe just a little bit. we're talking about a little chance for wet snow ontuesday. this will not be anything you have to shovel or sweep. it will be mostly conversational in nature. that's all. yeah. don't rry. winter is not making a comeback. but that's doesn't mean that the warm-up is anytime too soon, either. looks like it will turn milder and drier later on next week. but the next five to s day around here will be rather chilly, rainy or wiy, with only one exception. i'll show you the ten-day in a second. your thursday morning is cloudy and wet already. temperatures in the low 40s now. your ner, then, for today, afternoon temperatures will be in the upper 40s to around 50 degrees. rain chance today, 100%. and the rain could be heavy at times. here you can see quite a burst of rain through the roanoke area. heavy rain acro the northern parts of north carolina.

around here, off-and-on showers becoming steady rain by o 9:00 10:00. and the heaviest rain from 10:0 this morning, well into the evening parts of the commute. don't expect an easy ride home from work and school today, either. here's 10:00 tonight. the moderate rain starting to lift ou showers come to an end around midnight. it will be rain-free tomorrow morning. but tomorrow, clouds will build again. a quick shower during the middle of the day. those will be quick hitters, though. the real issue with tomorrow, it will be ferociously windy. rainfall amounts, a solid 1 to o inch rain. that's why the flood watch is posted for today, until midnight tonight. very windy tomorrow. gusts of 40 to 50 miles per hour likely on your friday afternoon. a blustery day on saturday. sunday is the pick of the litter because rain chances come back late monday. and that could be col a enough fo rain/snow mix on tuesday.

good morning, jack taylor. give us good news on the thursday commute. >> i'm going to ignore the tuesday part of your we have prince george's county, 704, we have accident activity. we have a water main break inside the beltway after pepper mill u'drive. yo going to find the right lane is getting by there. should be wrapping up our work zone on i-295 toward suitland parkway. s volume is light. unclear if this work zone is cleared with the rain showers moving in. just again, don't fight the stconditions. eep your speeds down. crash test ratings show how well passengers are protected in certain accidents. >> the insurance instituteor highway safety crashed a number of small and large pickup trucks.

researchers wanted to see how the trucks performed in passenger side crashes. the three large pickups received good ratings. the ford f-150, the t nissanan and the ram 1500. the toyota tundra received a poor rating. most of them got good ratings in driver's side cashes and the latest tests will lead m toe safety for passengers. now, to a different kind of crash test. for the first time, youth football helmets have been tested and rated. the research was done atia virg tech. 17 different helmets were tested to see which offered the most protection to reduce thef risk a concussion. sensors inside the helm measured how hard the helmet was

hit during the simulation. of the 1 youth helmets, esearchers say 7 earned five stars. the rest earned three or four stars. the helmets that did not perform well typically had front pads that were too stiff. to see the st, search youth helmet ratings in the nbc washington app. a local basketball standout is sidelined this morning hours before his team's firstar madness game. frank howard, a starting guard for syracuse, is spended indefinitely. howard is from suitland, ryland, and graduated from catholic high school. the he is, number 23, in orange's recent game against duke. syracuseays howard violated an athletic department policy but did not elaborate o the issue. >> there's a lot of syracuse fans in the newsroom >> going to be upset about that. still ahead on news 4 today, a headsp for some of you. your tap water may have a

distinct smell in the coming days. and fix yourcredit. we'r working 4 you to show you what needs to b done to get you back on track financially.

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news 4 begins with a storm team 4 weather alert. >> spring has arrived. but wouldn't you know it?

so have the storms. we're in weather alert mode this morning, as rain, the most we've seen in weeks, will spend the day pummeling the d.c. region. good morning, i'm e yang. >> i'm aaron gilchrist. grab the umbrella as you use ayution behind the wheel t there's concerns about flooding. that could impact you commute. >> wtop's jack taylor is keeping an eye on the road for us in your first 4 traffic. but we begin with meteorologist chuck bell. i feel like it rains eweek. >> it really does,ou just remember, you had the all-time year.t calendar year last and that pattern of heavy rain lasted deep into january andfe uary. so far, for the month of march, until today -- through today so far, we're about a quarter of an inch of r below average for the month. we'll fix