judge rules in the case of a high school footbcul player d of a locker room assault. we have reaction from outside the courtroom. and weather alert mode as i track rain moving through the area. most of us under a flood watch. i'll let you know how long this rain lasts and the impacts in my forecast. president trump upholding free speech rights today but it's his speecsi that's c a stir in washington. i'm tracie potts. that's next. announce "news4 midday" starts now. good morng and welcome to "news4 midday." i'm erika gonzalez and we begin this morning with a weather alert.

we are under aed into watch this morning and more rain is headed this way and it could be heavy at times. meteorologist amelia draper joins us now. there's a very active radar we've got going on. >> absolutely. we'll see this rain continue on into the afteron and evening hours. there's a flood watch for pretty much everybody. this is in effect until midnight. you could still see isolated flooding issues if you're not in the flood watch. one to two inches o rain is likely across the entire area today. washington already seeing over a half of an inch as the storm system pulls out, overnight tonight, weee strong winds behind it. those persist not only tomorrow but on in to saturday as well. here's a close-up look of storm team form radar where i'm seeing some of the heaviest rain. we head to the district where we're seeing moderat rain moving in from the south. here's a look at the overall storm syste and you canee the yellows, the oranges and red are going to be the heavier pockets

of rain ohere where the areas of green are more light areas of rain. this storm system continues to impact us throughout the day today. i'll have more on the timing and also more onhose winds that we'll be deali with tomorrow coming up at 11:20. new this morning, video of two suspects in a high profile murder arriving back in maryland after trying to escape the u.s. keith smith and his daughter are accused of killing his wife last year in baltimore and they told police she had been stabbed after giving a panhandler money. earlier this month we learned the mother and daughter had been arrested trying to cross the border into mexico. police say they made up the story and then tried to take off once authorities' investigations started to focus on theey there booked into a baltimore jail overnight. any minute now a former virginia preschool teacher will be sentenced for sexually abusing his studts.

last year taylor boykin pleaded guilty to molesting mtiple children at the day care in bristo. prosecutors saye also took several inappropriate pictures and admitted to making child pornography. newss northern virginia bureau chief julie carey is at the courtroom right now. you can follow her on twitter for the very latest. now to a developing story on the other side of the potomac. a fourth football player charged in connection to a locker room assault at damascus high school juvenile.be tried as a so that means all of the teens charged in this case have been moved out of adult court. let's get right to megan mcgrath where we just heard from attorneys in this case. megan, what are welearning? >> reporter: well, first of all, let me say that it's a crime that shoed t community and traumatized the victims and now the family of those victims as well as their attorneys, they are expressing unhappiness and anger over the njudge's decis to move the trial of a fourth

defendant to juvenile court. now the attack happened on ttlloween, j.v. football players wereked in the locker room by fellow players assaulted with a broomstick. the defendants have called it a hazing ritual, but prosecutors say it ras . three of the four defendants have had their cases waived back to criminal court already and a judge decided that the fourth defendant who prosecutors say was the main instigator will also be tried as a juvenile. the judge said ts was a horrible attack but law requires him to consider several factors when deciding if a 15-year-old can be tried as an adult, the judge in the end waived that ca back to th juvenile court so that the defendant can continue to get medication for severe a.d.h.d. as well as therapy. now the attorney representing ime vi though, says the families are outraged. they want stiffer penalties that would happen if the case was tried in the adult eysystem.

say the victims are suffering ily. >> these young men are struggling and when i say struggling, i mn daily. daily they are struggling with this. they were raped in their locker i don't know how you ever overcome that. they and their families, it's a and day struggle they have. >> reporter: now the attorney for the defendant here today says the judge did the right thing. he saysen his c couldn't control his impulses due to severe and untreated adhd and that he had responded well toca meon and therapy since all of this happened. his attorneynsays the t viewed this as a hazing incident, not rape, and he believes the attorney believes that damascus high school should take some of the blame for this. >> they had an unsupervised locker roomith a whole bunch of 14 and 15-year-old boys. wh e were theadults? why isn't the school here? why did they leave that locker

room unattended day after day after day? they know that there are- there's a problem with hazing. >>eporter: and so all four of the defendants in this case will o tried in juvenile court. backyou. >> all right. thank you. we know more about how d.c. mayor wants to spend the money in next year's budget. a it15.5 billion plan and it includes $55 million to create and preserve affordable housing, but it does not c makenges in the real estate tax. just under $2 billion would go towards traditional and charter schools and give a laptop omputer to every student in grades 3, 6 and 9 and it also eliminates the sales tax on diapers. en there's $122 million, earmarked for a new k street transitway which we will include a bus lane and the budget includes free d.c. circulator sservice and expandsvice east of the river. the budget adds 70 more police

officers focusing on bike and foot patrols and there's money for four new ambulances and 45 firefighter/paramedics as well. it appears minimum wage will be going up for maryland er wo the state's general assembly approved a plan to raise hourly wages to at least $15 and hour by20 . businesses with fewer than 15 employees will have an extra year to mak the change. the governor is against the plan but the billh passed with eno votes to override a veto. right now minimum wages at 10.10 an hour. it's already higher than other states in our area. virginia's -- which is the lowest really at 7:25 an hour. then you've got west virginiat 8.75 an hour. d.c.'s is 13.25 an hour, but ll raise to 15 next year. >> a congress in recess has left the president with chances to a several of his political foes.

even one who is not alive any more andoday he iset to sign a new order dealing with free campus. n tracie potts is on capitol hill with the verylatest. >> reporter: today president trump is expected to sign an executive order that could deny federa funds to colleges that prevent free speech but it's his speech that's gettingattention. >> it's deplorable what he said. >> reporter: again attacking tht late s john mccain. >> i gave him the kind of funeral that hewa ed, which as president i had to approve. i don't care aboutth , i didn't get thank you, that's okay. we sent him on the way but i wasn't a >> reporter: at as jobs event in ohio, president trump spent five minutes railing against mccain and mccain's vote thaav obamacare, even republicans are turned off. >> i think the president's comments about senator mccain h hurt more than they hurt thef

legacy senator mccain. >> reporter: the president's also going after george conway a frequent critic and husband of aide, kellyanne conway. >> he's a whack job, no question about it. >> reporter: and like the rest of the country -- >> let it come out, let people see it. >> reporter: president trump says he's eager to see robert mueller's report on russian election interference. w>> i just one of the greatest elections ofll time and now i have somebody writing a report tt never got a vote. >> reporter: denouncing mueller, conway, mllccain while taking credit for saving jobs. but there were ao som jobs lost. in fact, gm just shut down a plant hust a fewrs down the road from where the president was speaking. n tracie pott news, washington. new this morning, another major donation for george mason university, the universityno ced that it received a $1.1 million gift to its school of policy and government. the five yea grant will pay for research on immigration, demographic changesnd labor

issues. earlier this month, george mason reived a $50 million endowment to support new faculty at itsol law sc the university says the new grant will help attract ph.d. students and improve research. all right. the summer driving season hasn't started yet but we are already seeing higher pric at the mp. what is causing the increase coming up and what can we expect in the business months ahead? plus people in law enforcement face danger every day but two local deputies are beinghe praised for actions in a situation that many of us would have simply run away from. >> five or ten minutes ofcpr she began to breathe on her own. >> reporter: the danger wasn't over a evenfter that. re from themo

. we are back with breaking news at this twhour. people are dead after an atv accident in spotsville county.

the victims were on one atv a police tell us alcohol appears to be a factor in this accident. national guard troops have been called in and residentsbere g told to stay inside after elevated levels of benzin were detected this morning near this thouston areak farm. at the same time extensive cleanup and recovery operations are under way and it is happening with the dangerous challenge of flare-ups like this one that you're seeing here which just happened yesterday, in fact. according to our affiliate in houston, this flare-up was quickly put out. officials say such flare-ups are expected to happen. the pettro chemical storage facility exploded into this huge fire on sunday and it's been buing since then. the good news here is that no injuries have been boeing is placing a high priority on a software upgrade for its 737 max jets. the planes involved in the

ethiopian air crash and lion air crash last year. as nbc's tom costello tells us, that software update is not expected to be enough to get the planes back up in theair. >> reporter: the relationship between the faa and boeing is under intense scrutiny. the fbi, a federal grand jury, congress and the d.o.t. inspector general are now all investigating. because it's understaffed and underfunded, congress loud the ta to delegate some of its own inspection authori boeing itself, the southwest airlines pilots union which flies more than 737 maxes than any other u.s. airline says it too has elncerns. investigatorsve a single sensor on the lion air plane that crashed in indonesia fed bad data to the system suggesting the plane could stall. the computer then forced the nose of the plane down as pilots fought to pull it back up. investigatorsn ethiopia say that plane crash shows similar characristics but eve after two fatal crashesn five

continue.s. airlines to fly the plane until last ek we. the airlines insist they were looking at hard data not profit issues. american says during 46,000 flight hours and 18,000 flights, it never experienced similar problemsit says the data showed the plane was safely and united pilotsagreed. the ceo of southwest says, the only real factor that we were thinking about was safety. boeing under scrutiny for last week's crash in ethiopia that killed 157 and last october's crash that killed all of the 189 people on board. indonesian authorities say they've been working with boeing in a simulator to trecreate final moments of that doomed flight back in october and they also concede that yes, the pilots were really struggling to figure out what was going onth heir plane and they're confirming, the pilots pulled out the polite manual to try to come upithnswers.

with the mute r. kelly movie in full swing here in the u.s., the singer wants to go to dubai for a series of concerts. r. kelly has signed a contract to perform three to five in dubai next month. his lawyers say he needs the money to pay child support. kelly is charged with aggravated sexual abuse for allegedly assaulting three underaged girls and a woman. he has adamantly denied any wrongdoing. a judge in chicago is eected to consider his travel request tomorrow. this next story is simply about the right people in the right placeth a right time. dereck ward explains how two unconscious d an woman from her burning car. >> reporter: most people in law enforcement will tell you there's nothing routine about the job. these deputies were moving a l prisonert week. they had done that before but

this trip took a diversion here along route 301 in upper marlboro. what's lefteere on th side of the road tells a story, something happened here, but it doesn't tellhe whole story. they wouldn't have normally come that way, worki around an accident. it turned out to be quite the twist of fate. >> we looked outin thews and saw the vehicle struckhe tree. >> reporter: other motorists happened upon the scene but the woman who was driving was unconscious inside. >> the vehicle was on fire. >> reporter: they had to stay with the van and the prisoner protocol. deputy keys grabbed the van's fire extinguisher. >> the fire g was on theund under the vehicle. >> reporter: he got her out but the woman wasn't breathing. he started doing cpr, his partner had the double duty of watching the prisoner and his rtner's back. >> i was on the radio trying to talk to him. >> after about five to ten minutes of cpr she began to breathe on her own, but at that time the fire was still burning. the vehicle was still on fire and we had to move he n >> reporte the woman

started having a seizure and the fire was still spreeming. >> i rr hearing the tires exploding and different things. i remember the trees were on fire, the shrapnel flying over our head. >> reporter: finally the ambulance arrived, two deputies back o road. norris at the wheel. >> i really couldn't have done everything i did without him. >> i'm really proud of them. >> reporter: even theirha prisor a new respect for the job these lawmen do what theydi >> he was like you're a hero and he's right. >> reporter: dereck ward, news4. for anyone who has experienced driving, this will not come as a surprise. the roads are filled with rude and dangerous drivers. drivers in falls church willir wear the pledge to be a safer and more courteous driver like . badg so the city is going to roll out this initiative later this year, drivers will the stick promise to drive the speed limit, stop for pedestrians and be responsible. anybody who may roll their eyes at the idea know that t

simplicity of the secret isn'tl on local leaders. >> is it sad that it has to come to a aticker that yougree to drive the right way?ll >> we unfortunately, all you have to do is walk a few b acks anywheund the area and you'll see a total breakdown in driving >>behavior. virginia doesn't have speed cameras so anything that can be done to lower speed must be considered a win. we are just one day into spring and it looks like you'll be starting t new season by paying more at the gas pump but it's not just aasa prices, we're also talking about gas rices surging across the country. nbc's gabe gutierrez reports on what is behind the rise. >> reporter: spring has sprung, an unwelcomedurprise at the pump. gas prices are surging again. >> i'veng started to the gym only three days a of five days a week so that i can save gas. >> reporter: the average price of regular unleaded is up to 2.58 a gallon, up 35 cents in

weepast six it means drivers are paying $135 million more a day for gas compared to the start of the year. the states with the biggest price spikes are in the midwest, michigan, ohio and illinois. part of the reason, turmoil in venezuela and the switch from winter to summer gas which the heat. less i >> a lot of it is seasonal suspects, refineries d ng maintenance ahead of the summer driving season and the switch to more expensive cleaner burning summer gasoline. pricesrter: the higher at the pump to continue into april and maybe even last until memorial day. new overnight, sorry to say, you didn't win the powerball jackpot, the good news is neither did anybody else. the pot keeps growing. it is up to $625 million after nobody matched all the numbers last night. y in case want a smaller prize, the numbers drawn were 10, 14, 5053, 63 with a powerball of 21. the next drawing is saturday night. good luck.

today march madness tips off and if you have finished your racket, get ready for it to be busted. if you haven't yet, you only have a few more hours to get it inefore the games begin. maryland is one of the first on the court. the terps practicing yesterday for their first face-off against 11 seed belmont hopingo t see the f sst post-season wince 2016. tip-off at 3:00. also today oldin dn tips off against perdue. four other virginia schools have their m firch-ups tomorrow and do not be surprised when you see some upsets today. the nca says the odds of picking all 63 games correctly is one i9.2 quintillion. b that's 1illion billions. do the math. so we have the results coming up of a really surprising cancer study. coming up, the hot liquid that could put you at risk and a

reminder that we are in weather alert mode today. we'll havehe latestn our flood watch and the windy weather that arrives and -- look

heads up for district residents when you turn on the tap water next week you might get a slight taste or maybe even smellf chlorine. there's nothing wrong. it is part of the annual spring cleaning t maintain the water system that starts march 25thit annds may 6th. d.c. water recommends letting the cold tap water r for a couple of minutes before you use it and if you haven't used it in a fewhours, then let it run for about five or ten minutes. frigerate cold tap water in an open pitcher and within a few hours the chlorine taste and odor should disappear. some filters may reduce the chlorine taste and smell as well. catastrophic flooding has put nebraska and missouri under states of emergency. the dam te froms widespread

flooding is already estimated to be in the billions of dollars. the massive influx of water came from last week's bomb cyclone. we talked about it a lot. w simply too much for the rivers throughout parts of the midwest and for several days now we have seen incredible images like these. the flooding being blamed for at ast three deaths so far. storm teamet 4rologist amelia draper joining us. we are in weather alert mode today. one look our radar explaining the whole situation. and it is very early in the day and we'vegot a l day to go. >> we'll see about one to two inches of rain falling across the area today. i wouldn't be surprised if some locations saw up to three inches of rain. look at storm team 4 radar right now. we're tracking some moderate even heavy rain falling right nows we head off to graphics. we're also under a flood watch until midnight tonight. we'll see anywhere from about one to two inches of rain falling with that moderate rain right now north of the districe

and s heavier pockets of rain back around the i-81 corridor. rain continues not only into the afternoon hours but in the evening hours as it will be blustery then tomorrow, maybe some spotty showers tomorrow throughoutyhe nd it's going to stay blustery not only tomorrow but on saturday as well. we do have really nice weather in the forecast on sunday. here's a look at total rainfall so far. dulles is appaching an inch. charlottesville over an inch. the district has seen overalf an inch. gaithersburg has seen almost an inch of rainfall. here's future weather, this is 2:00 p.m. notice we're still tracking rain across the area with some o pocket heavy rain continuing for that evening commute. it's a slow go out there. 8:00 p.m. we're tracking rain lighter in nature but it's sti raining even at midnight. the storm system doesn't start to pull out of ue areail about 2:00 a.m. into very early tomorrow morning. so a high temperatureoday of 53 degrees as rain continues and

it will be heavy at times with one to two iheslikely. we could see pup to three inches in some spots and with s that we'l likely some flooding issues, especially in urbanea winds today out of the northeast at 5 to 10 miles an hour. the winds don'tntick up overnight tonight and then we continue to track those strong winds friday and saturday. so the weather concerns today, flooding andhydroplaning, tomorrow those weather concerns shift to wind damage where we could see some downed trees and po'lr outages. be dealing with windchills tomorrow and saturday. i'll have more on that coming up. >> all right. thank you, meanwhile still ahead, a disturbing sex abuse allegation at aocal assisted living center. the news4 i-team found out it took days to report, what the family wants to happen enow. >>ry semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on friday will be banned in this country. >> the prime minister of new zealand makes c promisednges

after the attacks on two mosques. more on the you're watching

midday." >> today the florida man accused of sending pipe bombs through the mail will be in court. he's expected to enter a guilty plea in the manhattan federal court. this is in accordance with the plea deal to avoid a psible life sentence. he has been charged with sending homemade explosive to cnn headquarters and 13 high profile democrats, among them former president barack obama and hillary clinton. new zealand is taking action following last week's deadly attacks at two mosques late last night. the country's prime minister announced it is banning all military stylesemi-automatic weapons. the ban includes assault rivals itand high cap magazines. the man charged in the attacks

had purchased his weapons legally using a standard firearms license. he then enhanced the weapons by using 30 plus round magazines essentially turning them into military style semi-aonomatic we and while the modification of the guns was illegal, ardern says it was done easily through a simple online purchase. new zealand will ban all military style semi-automic weapons. we will also ban all assault rifles. we will ban all high capacity magazines. we will ban all parts with the ability to convert semi-automatic or any other type of firearm into a military style semi-automatic weapon. >> prime minister ardern says she expects the new law to be in place by early next month. 50 people were killed and dozens more wede inj in the attacks and the funerals for those victims are under way.

a father and his son were the rst of the 50 victims to be laid to rest yesterday. the other morials willollow in the coming days. tomorrow, the entire country of new zealand will observe two minutes of silence to remember those killed in the attacks. an allegation of sexual abuse in a most sensitive the bedroom of a woman with dementia at a senio living home, a witness saw something happen, but what happened next has a local family outraged. an investigation by scott macfarlane and the news4 i-team revealed a serie of delays in ealling the family and the safety brown inside what is supposed to be a safe place. >> reporter: making the rounds on a friday, a housekeeper worried when her knocks went unanswered. she unlocked the door to find the female resident in bed. o

she a found a construction worker from the property standing, near partially unclothed from the west down. he cursed upon being seen, but what hapned next is mystery because the housekeeper closed the door and left the woman behind. and that wom suffers from dementia. she's a resident of an assisted living facility. >> you feel like your tru was broken. >> absolutely. >> reporr: the woman's son worries his mother was taken advantage of by a sexual predator. we're masking the son's dentities to protect his mother's. >> there's a lot of levels where things broke down and proper procedures were not followed. >> reporter: he says he didn't know about the april 2018 incident at the chevy chase house in d.c. for nearly a week after it erhappened. was a lot more he wasn't told, that possible sex crime witnessedy anmployee went unreported to the facility's administrator and to police for nearly a week. the construction worker returned

to work just days laternd was seen on that woman's floor again. oc. health department records weained under the freedom of information act paint a troubling time line. april 6th, 2018, t housekeeper witnesses the possible sex crime and tells a receptionist. april 8th, the receptionist notifies the activities director later explaining to health department investigators he didn't report it immediately because he thought it was likely consensual. april 9th, the construction partially s only named in public documents is seen back at work. he's eventually questioned by a supervisor and courted off the grounds. april 11th, the activities director notifies the chevy chaseat house adminis and april 12th nearly a week after the incident, the administrator calls the family and the cops. the woman has no recollection of the incident. your unbiased observer of this particular case, what did you think of this? i thought it was outrageous. >> reporter: she's an expert in der care. the long wait not only del

getting the woman any care she needed but could have compromised the case. >> you need tolo fup immediately in order to preserve evidence, in order to get recollections of individuals with ordementia. ter: the d.c. health department which licenses assisted living residents did its own investigation. it says they failed to immediately report anexllegation ofual abuse to the head of the facility, failed o thoroughly investigate an allegation of abuse and failed o take appropriate action to protect residents from potential abuse during the investigation. when wehowed youhat we found, this surprised you? >> i was extremely surprised. >> reporter: the woman's son and his attorneyet anderson knew little of this case until the i-team contacted them and re faled what wend. you didn't know the man returned to t office? >> we had absolutely no idea. >> reporter: didn't know it took a week for this to get reported to police but had been going through several emplidees. >> we not know that. >> reporter: didn't know the man cursed when caught by the housekeeper. >> we did not have those facts.

>> reporter: the chevy chase house declined an interview request and would not answerti qus about the case. in a statement they say they've retrained staff and follow d.c. regulatid their license is intact. the woman's son saidmo hd his mother from the chevy chase house after she learned the incident. she says she has no memory of the incident. her son can't help but worry about what he doesn't know and how ny times his mother or other people with dementia may ha been harmed. there's no way of knowing, that's the scary part. >> that was the i-team's scott macfarlane reporting. d.c. health records show h chev chasse met with residents to discuss the alleged incident in august, nearly four months after the police were called and a month after d.c. health inspectors came in to ask questions, the financial penalty for the district or by the district for this and other issues, a $10,000 hfine. if ye a tip for the i-team, you can log on to our app and click on investigations.

an alexandria woman is in o jar an argument over dog poop. really? a womand confron a lady about picking up her dog'poop and that woman caught the whole thing on cell phone video and that's wn she knocked t phone out of her hand and hit her. freeman then grabbed her phonef and police caught up with her, charged her with robbery. you co-own the historic town hall building in remington, virginia. the town council is trying to sell its historic town hall for $129,000, according to the times, it moved to a different building a couple of years ago. the building was built in 1905 and first used as a bank andt still has the bank's safe, in fact, inside it. the building also once served as the town's two cell jail which is also part of the cell but a time capsule that is imbedded in a wall will be removed. very cool.

all right. we have the results of an alarming udy. adhd medications may cause psychosis. advice if y have a child on the medication, plus for the first time, the safety of

working for your health this morning withetails on a new study on adhd medications ee prescribed to and young adults. the report shows those drugs may cause paranoia and hallucinations. researchers found patients who had been newly prescbed am fet minz were twice as likely to develop psychosis than those medications like rit alynn. either class is still relatively rare but patients and their parents should know about the increased risk. >> parents or people who are taking these drugs and have been establishe on them and a doing well on them, there's

absolutely no reason toon dinue them. we can't understate how neficial these drugs are in actually treating the symptoms of adhd. >> if you're making a decision today and my kid was going to have to go on that, y wou say no? >> i would not say no. uat the study does more than anything it ope the line of communication between the health care provider and the patient. >> more than 200,000 pie ntats published in the "new england journal of medicine." new video this morning showing som strange weather in southern california, a hailstorm left pilesf ice pellets all over the roads in the parking lots yesterday but the harsh weather didn't end there. heavy rain flooded several streetsnd highways. eook at that video. some drivers w even trapped during the evening c mute and for today, like us, peoplen southern california are dealingy with very he rainfall. that leads us to ourm storm t 4 weather alert and what all we

have in store for us today which is a lot. >> we' see at leas one to two inches of rain falling across the area. i wouldn't be surprised i see up to three inches. just about everybody is under a flood watch today. i'm especially concerned if you live by creek stream, you could see some floodere in a low lying urban areas asybod the re under the flood watch until midnight. that's the entire d.c. and metro area. the winds pick upve and we strong winds out there tomorrow and saturday as well. so it's a d rainy today. it's a windy day tomorrow. we could see some spotty showers tomorrow and it's still windy on turday. here's the latest radar, the heaviest rain is now north and west of washin on. right along the i-81 corridor up around the winchester asea. e take a look at montgomery county, we've seen heavy rain up sround clarksburg around damascus well. frederick seeing heavier rain right now just north of

frederick seein some very heavy rainfall as we see the rain moving out tonight aroundht midn that is when the winds pick up so theinds potentially king you up overnight tonight throughout the day tomorrow. gusts up to 40 miles an hour. we could certainly see some downed trees out there. maybe even some spotty power outages. now it's still windy on surday and tomorrow and saturday will have windchills in the 30s and 40s.ke look at what i mean. we start off the day around 42 degrees but with thtrong winds it's feeling right around freezing. high temperatures tomorrow in the mid-50s will feel more like 40s when you factor in the s. wi saturday morning, it's just cold. 35 degrees to start off the day will feel more like 20 outan the then as we move throughout the day on saturday, we warm to out 52 buthat will only feel about 40 degrees. again, maybe a spotty shower out there tomorrow, plenty of sunshine though over the weekend. it iee another drynd but sunday looks like the better of the two weekend days, erika with

the high around 60 degrees. >> all righty. thank you, ma'am. truck safety, coming up results of new crash tests were released overnight in some of the most popular models on the roads did not perform at the highest level. we've gothe results. and kale is considered a super food. super food. there's a warning about choosing my car insurance was the easiest decision ever. i switnded to geico and saved ds. that's a win. but it's not the only reason i switched. geico's a company i can trust, with over 75 years of great savings and service. ♪ now that's a win-win. switch to geico. it's a win-win. switch to geico. it hasn't always been easy, has it? ♪ there have been days when you doubted yourself. ♪ and days when you were ready to quit.

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new test ratings show just how well passengers are protected in certain accidents. the insurance institute for highway safety recently tested a number of small and large pickup trucks. researchers wanted to see how the trucks performed in passenger's side crashes. in the small pick-up category, the toyota tacoma received an acceptable overall rating. the chevy colorado, gmc canyon and niesan fnt owned marginal ratings. three large pick-ups received

good overall f ratings assenger's side crashes, the ford f-150, the nissan titan and the ram 1,500. the tota tundra earned a poor atting. theset tests will lead to more safety protections for passengers. all right. this is a story tha every parent needs to see, researchers at virginia tech did testing on youth football helmets to see which one offered the moston protecor young athletes. doreen gentzler is working for your health to break down those findings. >> now for the first time ever, parents a coaches have access to some important information about the safety of youth football helmets to see which ones work best to protect thero brain serious injuries on the field. virginia techs helmet lab tested 17 different youth football helmetso see which ones offered the most protection to

reduce the risk of concussime. the h were fitted on a crash test dummy the sides of a 10 to 12-ye-old boy to replicate experiences on the field. sensors inside the helmetas ed how hard the player was hit, how often and where the hit landed. during the simulation researchers could determine which hit was most likely to caus a concussion. reaction to all this now from the director othe helmet lab. >> this is real useful informion because it's t first of its kind information. there's never been data available on youth players and which helmets areafer than others. so this is the fecst use ic design criteria we have. >> now take a look at thelt re of the 17 youth helmets that were tested, researchers say seven f earnede stars, the highest possible rating. the restee earned t or four stars. the helmets that did not perform well typically had front pads that were too stiff according to the virginia tech researchers,

every company had at leas one five star helmet available for sale. the rating has come amid increased scrutiny of head injuries of children playingpo contacts like football. to see the complete list, maybe to check your own child's current helmet, search helmet in our app. ♪ if that song doesn'tyoake u dance, nothing will. most people know every lyric to tngs and albums lik la bamba and nowse titles are among the diverse new editions to the library of congress's recording registry. it's a veryst pious recognition. only 25 titles are selected by the library every year. for nearly half a century, a music school has taught budding artists but because of financial

problems those lessons could soon come to an ends. tracee wilkins hashe stories on the school's owner's hope to hit the right notes. >> reporter: the music school has been around for more than 40 years in this space for some 20 years but recently they've fallen on hard times, so much so that now they're selling some of their instrumen to try and maintain this school. the ownerf the schoo says that she wants this music to enrich the homes of folks whous love and she's also hoping to draw students back to the school. she says things became d especialficult for the program after the latest federal government shutdown. >> parents came telling me i don't have t money just like that and so you give them -- especial those who were preparing for various things, you could give them the lessons but you didn' get the money, so -- and basically d i wasng

that. >> reporter: these are some of the other instruments that they are selling here. for moron informan buying these instruments and on this school, go to nbc washington and search musicsale. i'm tracee wilkins s news4 in hyattsville. that kale that you puturn smoothie this morning may not be so good for you afterall. aew list ranks kale as one of the mos contaminated items i the produce section. the environmental working gro is out with its latest dirty dozen, the list of the 12 produce items containing tmo pesticides, kale is number three. 92% of kale samples have residue from at least two pesticides only strawberries and spinach test positive for more pesticides than kale. i got a little spr at home and before n all my veggi i eat them. researchers say that tea is o hot can increase your risk of cancer.

the study looked at more than 50,000 tea drinkers over ten years and found those that drank more than 20 oues of tea a day at a temperature higher than 140 degrees had a 90% higher risk of cancer in their . thro the american cancer society estimates that more than 1000 people will be diagnosed with esoph jeel cancer this year. it is the kind of sto we love to see, a family reunited after a longnt deploy you'll hear from this national guardsman and who

> nowo another video that has been making the rounds on social media, maybe you've seen it captures a surprise father and son reunion. nbc's peterlexander shows us the moment that has not only warmed hearts but has created a lot of watery eyes, too. r orter: 9-year-old lukas thought he was sparring with his instructor when someone else stepped on to the mat. keep your arms up, ship. >> that voy that nickname only stopping shib in his tracks. >> come on. is that all you got? >> daddy?

>> reporter: that hug after ten apart while his father staff sergeant rob ses teryno was deployed in syria. >> you're such a big boy. i am s proud of you. >> reporter: he says it's service members families who t deserve applause because their sacrifice is even greater. >> andis id him so much. >> reporter: luca like thousands of children away from their parents working hard to make them proud in their own wayin seour country, too. >> play hookie tomorrow. >> reporter: peter alexander, nbc news. >> i think i've seen that eight times alrrydy and i each time. it's beautiful. we'll send things over to aonlia last time because we're in weather alert mode. >> i love that story as we talk about the weather today.

rainon going tonue not just through the afternoon hours but on in to the evening and a overnight hou well ending around midnight. under ay almost is flood watch so you want to be cautious of flooding out there and hydroplanins well. the winds pick up overnight tonight. it's windy tomorrow and saturday with some spotty showers out there tomorrow especially during the afternoon hours but somne sunss well. we'll have windchills in the 30s and 40s friday and saturday so o cold days. erika, sunday, looking fantastic. highse the winds with around 60. >> all right. that's more like it. thank you, ma'am. and that is it for "news4 midday." thank you for joining us. we are back on the air this afternoon first at er00 but remehat you can get news and weather updates any time through ourto nbc washiapp.

we're live in five, four, three, two, one. >> march madness is upon us. it is that magical time of the year when people who know nothing about college basketball pretend they know things about college basketball. >> that is me all the way, ki el. thank you. march madness starts today. who do i pick? welcome toyoaccess live." re into this. you went to unc. >> i live for college sports. i love watching college athletes compete. everybody is watching the games during the day. thou's so fun to me. doven care? >> no. >> i'll say this. i like competition. but i don't knowho