right now on midday. fire crews coing through rubble after a massive blaze tore through several homes in ashburn. >> what we're learning abo t the fire ats hour. distinction among democrats, i'm tracie potts. coming up, a recap of last night's debate in detroit. good morning. welcome to "news 4 midday." i'm erika gonzalez snooim i'm molette green. lauryn ricketts is kicking things off for us. what are we looking at today?

>> looking for storms this afternoon and into this evening. so, again, we are checking out some storms. we've had a lot of cloud cover out there today. we continue to see this frontal system that's going to be pushing into the area as we head rough the day. still back out in the ohio valley. we're seeing thelouds and rain in front of it. we're weather alert because of the storms. you see a few showers there. mainly to the nor and west. but as we go through the afternoon, storms are going to spark throughout thear . time out for lunchtime, about 9:00 p.m.gh toni humid outside. temperatures in the 70s where they got rain earlier today. we're headed to near 90 degree today. let's talk about the rain and storm chances and time them out in our neighborho in 20 minutes. >> thank you. see you then.ol we're flowing a developing story in northern virgia right now. investigators trying to pinpoint what caused a massive fire in ashburn. >> flames erupted overnight and damaged several homes inthe neighborhood.

news 4's megan mcgrath joins us in ashburn with the latest on this.morning. >>. >> reporter: good morning. investigators still here on the scene. this is the home that -- where they believe the fire started behind me. you can see fire marshals in the garage area looking around trying to figure out the cause. the flames spret fromhis house to the home on either side. a lot of damage was doon here. fortunately, no majorri inju. >> chopper 4 shows the extent of the damage. four houses in a row on milstead drive in ashburn. the two in the middle, a complete loss. >> through the back. so it's just a total destruction. totally has to be taken down and replaced. >> his son owns this home. he's working out of the country. so the house was empty. >> it's not as bad as it could

oe. thank god nob was hurt, there. was no possessions in the house. >> the house next door, they weren't so lucky. the residents were also away, t theirbelongings, including a car were inside the burning home. just the -- the neighbor across the street -- >> the roof was on fire everywhere. both houses. it was scary. >> the 911alls began coming in just after 3:30 this morning. investigators blieve the fire started in one house and spread to the others. a drone was brought in to get a bird's eye view of the damage. but the cause is still unknown. now, one firefighter was injured. he apparently got a burn to his neck. he's going to bey. not a serious injury here. a lot of damage and a lot of work to be done as investigators try to figure out what sparked this blaze. back to you. >> the damage from therrow

owe. >> to think that it could jump ane house tonother house to another.cg megan mth, thank you. >> stay on top of that. llnd out what caused that fire. police are sti trying to find the driver who shot after a car crash on i-395. there were plenty of newitsses. plu police need help to find the other driver. news 4's justin fin at the scene with more on this investigation. >> this morning, right now we're ther ng that the driver, r the person shot, the victim is now in critical condition fighting for his life after being shot in a third street tunnel yesterday afternoon. this happened close to 3:00 p.m. police say. a fenderder was the cause of it all initially. all parties getting outside of their cars and then t thisgic event happening here. a ford suv they say io the dark colored sedan blocking traffic for hours here on 395 northbound. it was in -- after with all the parties came together outside of their

vehicles that a suspect here pulled a gunt and sho that male victim. >> this was unnecessary. this is truly tragic. that a simple accident, vehicle accident, is an accident, can escalate into a shooting. >> reporter: as you heard, escalation leading to this. policeay the suspect got away in that vehicle. that dark-colored sedan. four sdoors. uld be a late model with heavy rear end damage fleeing the scene. police say at last m check a and a woman were in that car. the woman, they say, was driving. police ay if you see that car, do not approach, but to instead give them a call. live here in northwest, i'm justin finch, news 4. >> new this morning, in the district it appears policeed crack a series of sexual assault cases, all more than a decade old. 41-year-old levi ruffin was arrested this week a charged with child sexual abuse possibly dating back to 1999.

he's also charged with baking into three different homes middle of the night and sexually assaulting somebody at knife point. those cases were between 2003 and 2007 in northwest d.c. we're getting details of a murder mystery in fairfax county. a man on trial accused of killing his wife and covering it up. lprosecutorsd out their case. they say he shot and killed his wife done a and then sho himself to cover up the murder. they say he staged his wife's heath. prosecutors say t 13-year-old daughter came home and found her father in the bathtub with a gunshot wound and found her mthershot and killed in bed. this happened back in january of 2017. prosecutors played a recording of laslo talking to detectives while in the hospital and he sai quote, i had soap in my eyes and i look up, boom. i must have hit my head on the tub and i think i pass out.

i heard voices. there were people there. then i woke up in the hospital. en i woke up, they said i had been shot. end quote. next week, the defense is expected to present its case. for the first time an african american woman is set to lead the fireepartment in prince george's county. the current fire chief barksdale, announced his retirement tuesday and introduced tiffany green asnt iim chief. >> the truth of the matter is, although she's a prin gorgian and a female, she'll be named interim chief be use she's qualified. >> green has been with the department 24 years. she hopes to inspire other young women to join the force. we go to decision 2020. tonight, the second and final night of the democratic presidential .debates the first group took the stage last night. another ten tonight. tracie potts has the story.

>> bernie sanders ca out swinging defending his medicare for all. >> i wrote the damn bill. >> but mid of the road democrats argue against getting rid of all private insurance. >> it will turn off independent voters and get trump reelected. >> opponents callenged progressive ideas like the green new deal. >> that's a disaster. you might as well fedex the electiono donald trump. >> free college. >> they literally would pay for wall street kids to go to college. >> wiping out student loan debt. >> i almosthy wonder w you're democrats. you seem to think there's something wrong about using help prneople. >> pete buttigieg is backing a ban on assault weapons. >> high school is hard enough without worrying if you're going to get shot. >> split for i am granlts. >> you are playing sbro donald trump's hands. >> reducingenalties for

illegally crossing the border. >> if you want to come into the country, you should at least ring the doorbell. >> we reserve the rightalrecutem >> they agree on calling out racism. >> we need to call white premacy for what it is, terrorism. >> and beating donald trump. >> what you did not hear last nigh impeachment. we'll see if it comes up tonight. joe biden and nine other democrats taking the tage. including kamala harris. they mixed it up in miami. this time shehe said s won't be so nice. tracie potts, nbc news washingrtn. a norn virginia congresswoman joined the chorus calling for an impeachment inquiry. jennifer wex ton released a statement saying, quote, i did not run for office with the purpose of impeaching the purpose, but i didake an oath to uphold the constitution. she believes he would bein cted if he were not a sitting president. there are now more than 100

house representatives calling for an impeachment inquiry. bad news for metro ridersus who the red line. the dupont circle and farragut north station will take a little longer. it's encountered several delays. that will require design changes, new pipes that circulate cooled water into the station.d ex be delivered in the coming weeks. the project should be complete by mid-august. metro will continue to run tunnel fans until the ac system is up and running. the final beam place on the purple line yesterday. the light rail line will connect the bethesda and new carrollton stations. it's years away from opening. an optecistic projon right now. late 2022. the early estimate f how much it will costid to re is about $2. okay. happening today, cocoa fever.

>> 15-year-old phenom coco gauff plays in the doubles tournament today after losingi the sngles match yesterday. we got a glimpse of her making it to the players village after the loss. we spoke with fans who were excited to see her take the court again. tennis. >> she's a rising star. >> that's true. >> it's nice to see that there's new people coming up. absolutely. >> okay. so can we all remember, please, that she's 15. >> exactly. >> she has a long career ahead of her. if you're heading outo t see the match, check out our story on toy open food and the place cool off also. you'll find that in the nbc washington app. just search the scene. >> what a geat experience for the kiddos to be out there d seeing h her thing. >> absolutely. still ahead, we're tracking a new colle financial aid scheme. hear how some parents are cheating the admission system. that's when "news 4 midday" continues. this is annie.is

and ths annie paying back her friend for the tickets with zelle® before the previews start.is and s annie getting ready to enjoy the show. [whispers] this is your right here, right now ba. this is wells fargo.

> now it tense moems at a confirmation hearing for t man capped to be the next vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. the air force general has been accused of sexual assault by a former top aide. >> yesteay both he and his accuser appeared on capitol nbc's kasie hunt reports. >> this morning, president trump's pick to be the second highest ranking military officer in the country facing explosive allegations from an officer under his command. >> the bottom line is he lied about sexually assaulting me. he did it. he did it multiple times and there was corroborating evidence. >> army colonel katherine -- didn't tell anyone the general sexuallyhessaulted until the presiinnt nomed him to be th jiece chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. >> i want to state to you that

the allegations are false. >> top aide to heighten. sitting feet behind him at his confirmation hearing putting sharp focus on the military's ongoing struggle to address the persistent problem of sexual assault within its ranks. stowser revealed her eye depth inrk "the new yotimes" she talked about unwanted kissing, touching and rub againsth . >> as somebody who had almost been raped that evening, i was just devastated as a human being. i was scared. >> the air force's office of special investigations reviewed her allegations. they couldn't substantiate her claims and heighten was never referred for court-martial. republican senator, martha mcsally who recently revealed her own allegations of being assaulted in uniform ss she

believes the general in this case. >> these are false allegations. he's innocent of these charges. >> what do you say to his accuser? >> i pray she finds the peace that she can looking for. you f but you cannot do it by destroying another person. >> both testified behind closed doors at the sate armed services committee before the confirmation hearing. now she wants a chance to make her case in public. but with his adamant denal -- >> did that incident happen, general? >> that did never happen. >> general hy ten seems on track to be confirmed. kasie hunt, the capitol. we're working for you and staying on top of that capital one data breach about 100 million customers were impacted. the company is offering more tips how to make sure your information stays safe. freeze your credit. that will keep hackers from opening accounts. sign up for free credit

monitoring. capital one promised these services to everyone. be sure to change your passwords. securityts exper recommend this step even though the bank says log-inntials were not compromised. sign up for push alerts on all of your bank accounts. that will alert you of account activity that wasn't yours. we've postedthem inthe nbc mishington app. >> youghtn want to thi twice before renting your h vacation e. liz mclaughlin explns how to protect yourself. >> this summer, some renter didn't get the vacation home they paid for. >> i just . >> with thousands scammed this year by phony rental listings. >> it looks like a great rental. exactly where you want to be. in your price point. >> t bar that will mi tells me they're getting a flood of horror stories. >> you book aome and it looks legitimate. you flyea across the ocn and

show up. not only you don't find the rental but no home all. >> they're duping consumers using photos of homes for sale or sometimes copies of real listings. such as carolyn o'brien's rental. >> how dare you take our house d scam someone out of their vacation and money. >> see if they're listed elsewhe . >> we'veseen some that have come up in four or five different places. >> only book on airbnb and offer protections and -- >> if you're asked to leave the platform, that shouldn't be happening and that should be reported to airbnb. >> avoid paying with an app or zel and vein mow. >> chances of recovery. >> arm yourself by only using a credit card. too en it's too cheap and

good to be true, it always is. >> and staying skepticalz claughlin, nbc news. parents are cheating the collegeio admiss system to make schoolore affordable. the investigative journalism organization, p publica reports wealthy parents are transferring guardianship of a child to a friend or family member. that makes them eligible for need-based scholarships and grants. the group discovered more than such transfer cases ini the chcago area alone. parents involved include lawyers, a doctor, school ofcials, insurance agents and real estate agents. as many sports grappleth wi e issue ofttractingyounger fas, e-sports having no such problem. ha was on full display at the fortnite world cup in new york city. osh lipton takes a l at what it means for the future of

e-sports. >> lads and gentlemen, it's -- >> it's .official kyle giersdorf aka bugha is the be fortnite player on the planet. a 16-year-old gamer from pennsylvan. he won the first-ever fortnite world cup. his prize? $3 million. the largest single payout in e-sports history. the competition took placet ar sure ash stadium in new yk city. 59,000 tickets were soldan d a whole lot more fans watched onlin nearly 10 million views on youtube on the final day of competition. >> feels amazing. i might be 30 years old. i'm here. let's go. >> honestly, it's been crazy, dude. i did not expect this many people to show up, this many fans. it's been an awesome experience. >> the event speaks to the powerhouse that is fortnite. it boasts more than 250 million inyers and nearly $4 billion

estimated revenue. it showcases the popularity of e-sports. it might sound crazy toom but people really do like watching other play video games for big prize. pools 454 million people will watch e-sports this year. a jump of 15%. the revenue will grow nearly 30% to more than $1 billion.ly most from mesponsorship hoe owe. >> who is watching? >> re than 80% of the audience is male according to nielsen. the average age is 25 with annu an household income of $70,000. josh lipton, cnbcne business , san francisco. >ow you kn sometimes you can just say i'm not a morning person. but are you lhaving attle extra problem with it? are you groggy in the morning? >> uh-huh. every day for me. this is my life. your phone may be able to help you out here. >> it does everything else. >> uh-huh.

we're working your health. find oep how sle experts say you can get the most out of apps designed mo pro better sleep. that's that's

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a new survey from consumer reports says 80% of adults struggle to get a goodnight's sleep at least once a week. >> i got about eight hours last night. that's not normal. >> that's a record on this shift. >> not normal to me. more and more people are turning to smartphones for relief. but are they effective? doreen gtzler is getting advice from the sleep experts. >> sleep appsc have bee a booming business with downloads increasing as much as 20% over the past year. an app called sleep as android has been downloaded 18 milli times since 2010. the science isn't settled. >> while there has been some

research on thef effectiveness o sleep apps, it's preliminary at best. >> noise apps can help by blocking out thatar bng dog or street traffic. >> hi. welcome to relaxability sleep meditations. >> other apps lead you through guided imagery andyp hsis to calm your racing mind. one of the most effective treatments is cognitive behavioratherapy or cbt where a trained therapist can help you fix bad sleeping habits. >> the americanac emy of sleep medicine says that cognitive behavioral therapy is the best first step in treating chronic insome at. i can' that's because it can help you change the thoughts and behaviors tat lead to sleep problems. >> what about the sleep tracker apps that claim to say how long you spend ineeper stages of sleep? even though some people swear by them, doctors say they aren't

reliable and shouldn't be used to diagnose sleep disorders. >> at this point, they can't tell you when you should sleep, they can'teasure deep sleep, they can't really adequately measure sleep disruption. >> doreen gentzler, news 4. all right. whatever works for you. >> whatever works. >> lauryn is here to talk to us. we're weather alert today. it didn't seem that bad when i was headed in this morning. what are we in for this afternoon? >> little muggy out rye? >> a little soupy. >> the clouds are out there. a little bit of sunshine. >> stormy stuff is headed our way. >> that's why we'reweather alert today. storms this anyernoon. aime after lunchtime. continuing into the evening. of course, we'll be with you to get you through the evening. today will be about the best e chance to se showers and thunderstorms. now, we also have a chance thursday, friday, saturday and u day. it looks a little ear yie side t

there. then we have sunshine, veiled sunshine. once again, debris from the frontal system pushing through. over the next four days, a stormy afternoon today. we're g ing to havee hit or miss showers into thursday. about a 30 to 40% chance you'll see them then. f aday, we have stormsound again and then storms and some rain coming our way for saturday. current temperatures out there right now, in the 80s and 70s back towards the shenandoah valley wheretthey had a l bit of rain earlier this morning. storms will start to develop any time after lunchtime. we're going to continue toee these storms produce damaging winds, heavy downpours. so we will have storms around through the duration of the afternoon and into theg. evenin they'll start to move out as we head after 8:00, 9:00 tonight. a few rain showers out there right now you can see light stuff coming through our northwestern suburbs. the northern shenandoah valley, back throughrn nort frederick

county, maryland. a few isolated showers out there. just light stuff through the area right now. as we continue through the day, we've got not only this frontal system back in the ohio valley, but another piece of the energy through the eastern coastline. that's going to develop these showers that will be strong in this heat and humidity we have. heavy rain expected. we're going to have isolated instances of flooding. i think they're going to move by pretty quickly. they're not going t hang around. wind is the biggest orfact >> again, rain pushes in, storms, yellows and the reds and the heavierat rain th we have. it moves out by 8:00. fog overnight. then tomorryw, we're d through the morning commute. about a 30 to 40% chance of thunderstorms. guess what? we do it again on friday. friday slightly better chances. we'll look at friday and ikeo the w aft this.er

it is round 2 tonight for the democratic debates. we saw the progreses a the moderate cid night in theirst linelloing at ged this morning, a clear divid asesnd liberals clashed over the o diron the democ and who beat pri >> w ahave choice. we can do the road that or warren want take with badice for all, everything i w ge trump re-elected.running for pr that tryin t make

senators elizah n a bernie sanrs extreme. >>o,again, if we're goio a eric radical changes, they're not -- throw your ha -- he ennd sanders that eands ed the government- h insuraceamerans d tos.ll u citizens and perm resen the move would eliminate private healthur fo lli americans. >> whyet ra we're alth care thatblpuans ar try an timgsanders onhi plan would be b than union c an >> i do know nd i we on

other key ises frimgration to g montana governor stebullock who didn't qualifyir debate struck a perso >> had ajeremy, shot kille as aublie, not political issue.n crowded many candidates hoping fo a author ri williamson may deal with dark force of the collective ey democrats >> all of thedi making the case they are thet dee leket -- electable. >> he's a fraud and a phony and e' t expose for what he is. mentioned last nighe wie stage here in detrve with senatoasho landed

a lotpressure on biden to round deliver a stronger performance. back to you. be re to check out news 4 at 11:00 after the debate tonight for a look at how the candidates did and download the nbc washington app for coverage any time. search, decision 2020. after the president went lt after baore on twitter, the city's youth derespond. teens made murals like this one in two neighborhoods. kids worked with some local artists to help b city. the five-week summer program should leave the city with five brand-new murals when it's all over. very beautiful. a gun store following the president's lead by goingaf demratic congresswomen. cherokee guns in nrk put up the billboard comparing four h talyp. the owner ofay stortainup again.

the congresswomen have president trump of racism.da tht anti-ame go plead to meanwhile, araer, y assault charges insweden. authorities are investigating a st brawl that he and his tourage were allegedly involved in last month.rs prosecutoay they violently beat a young man during the altercation. asap claims he was acting in self-defense. the case has drawn worldwide attention, even from pmpesident tru. if convicted, asould face up to two years in prison. ecause of er she was set to takehe bankers life fieldhousen indianapolis. the show was canceled because of the unverified threats. she did not take stage. no one was hur the show will be rescheduled for

september. now to a developing story. north korea has conducted its second weapons test in less than a week. >> they've fired two short range ballistic missiles off the east coast in a move that observers i should say could be aimed at boosting pressure on theed states. >> richard engel reports. >> north korea fired a new pair of short range missiles t. overnigh the second launch in a week. thess miiles flew about 150il m toward japan. but u.s. officials say they dropped in the sea and were never a danger. >> but why? ago, president trump and north korea's lear, kim jong-un metaphor a friendship summit. the president symbolically crossing into north korea. back then, a t talk was about reducing tension. >> that line was -- >> since then, there have been su sueed to restart negotiations. negotiations which north korea

hopes will lead to lifting sanctions. but the talks haven't started yet and with the launch of north korea showing it's losing patience. >> secretary of stateo pom says the talk should get under bay soon. >> before too long. >> it's not just stalled talks.t he u.s. military announced it will resume military exercises with south korea in august. exercising president trump had promisedo stop and which north korea claims are a dressh rsal for an invasion. >> the u.s. military says it's still monitoring the situation.a south koreaed the launches unhelpful. richard engel, nbc news. >> we are weather m afternoon. >> that's right. lauryn ricketts is going to be back with us toet us knowhat we ne wedt

goo get timing t tether. butor our way. >> i know. storms coming our way lar this afternoon. if people have pns outdoors, ouca to po party -- >> is it >> i was going, you mightbakup ildren's' education discovered a way to pin the burden on other taxpayers. what mott explains they're doing. >> this morning another contversy brewing on colle campuses. this one is perfectly legal. families, many of them with ix-figure incomes, go to court to give up custody of their child to qualify for need-based financial aid. >> you got a tip. >> pro publica illinois broke the story. this happened since the start of last year. parents transferring guardianship to someone ofmes.

>> thee c look at it, itchks t th have say i's in e best interest. it's done. >> some of the families using the tactic living the good life. million dollar homes in some cases. and their kids still getting financial aid aimed at students further down the econoc ladder. that has one vermont parent up in arms. what she calls in a facebook post caught in the middle trap. >> it's a slap in the face when you see people sound like they can afford college are going about it through these loopholes that are very unethical. >> nbc news contacted two illinois law firms that handled most of the cases cited. one attorney rote, financial aid should be about the students. parents generally have no l al obligation to pay for a college education. if they won't, where does that leave the child?

advocates argue thathe unlike t college admission scandal that led to criminal convictions, these students were fairly accepted into college and are looking for a way to pay for it. >> the critics like this new york city-based college counselor say, while it may be legal, someone gets cheated. >> these are limited funds that are set aside really to help the us and ivileged among they're really taking that opportunity away fromthese people in a pretty despicable way. >> the u.s. department of education says those who break the rules shoulde held accountable. and the department is committed to assessing what changes can be made. in the meantime, students soon back to school with some now under a lesshat was r reporting. o>> theays,as well andll be conct the ssistance den now.e.

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local vietnam vet this morning. william holly has unwith family s wldlost. war i. to them.llag it ut of a moving truck a lego. another veteran found it busytretch of central avenue in prince george's county.at immedily recognized the significance and turned it in to the police. holly's daughter later saw on the news tha officers were searching for its owner. on. wonderful. >> very cool. still good people out there. onhe guy who show this morning >> jiggly puff. >> what? >> there's jiggly hepuff. was adopted.yo oat wa the star of our adopti evi out at t yoor livingfacility.

max there. le jiggly puff. a newat the sunrise communitycenter. he has plenty of adorable friends who need loving homes. we want you to take advantage of our august 17th cominghem app. ta family >> somethierybo things to our t >> the was looking ing thrgh aption ng hav onin i think i'm going to get a kitten. heavy rain dwind weather ers andthunderstorms this train until sunday. train until sunday. when i was diagnosed with breast cancer,

i went straight to ctca. after my mastectomy, i felt like part of my identity was being taken away. my team made me feel wle again. cancer treatnt centers of america. appoints available now.