it's going to be a rough day too as far as the weather goes. sorry about all that. it's wednesday, july 18th, good morning, i'm tony perkins. >> all that and it's not quite 7:00 yet. >> yeah. believe that. >> i'm allison seymour. good morning, everybody. tucker barnes joining us with a look at how h and h and h it's going to be. >> allison you said it. they're back and back with a vengeance today as we're expecting temperatures near 100. a possibility of late day thunderstorms so some changes. let's get to our numbers. you saw on the live shot there, not a good looking start to your day. reagan national right now 80 degrees. that's our overnight low believe it or not, so once again not even falling back into the 70s. 80 in baltimore, quob at pux naval air station. 77 in hagerstown. we're all off to a steamy part of the day. not much relief until later this afternoon with some storms. heat advisory, it's back. our heat advisory goes into effect at 11:00 this morning.

much of the area here, all the counties in orange under a heat advisory from 11:00 this morning until 9:00 tonight. mix in that humidity today and it's going to feel like 105 to 109 degrees. that's, of course, dangerous heat. lots of water if you're going to be working outdoors. if you can, take it easy here, get indoors in some air conditioning for a time this afternoon as the worst of the heat will be midday. forecast today once again, high temperatures near 100. we were 100 yesterday, 100 in manassas, 99 in fredricksburg. could be thunderstorms later today. some of those could be strong. i'll have more details on that coming up in a couple of minutes. let's do traffic and find out who's going to work this morning. lauren has your latest. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, tucker. i can tell you because of that heat if you are taking metro this morning, you are permitted to carry and drinks water on the metro rail. for the evening rush, keep in mind there may be some speed restrictions due to the heat. we saw that yesterday. could be the case again today, so you want to be sure to check the schedule before you head out online. let's take a live look from

traffic land. if you are traveling the beltway in montgomery county, outer loop, delays from college park to silver spring. we also had reports of an accident on 29 just inside of the beltway, so do watch for any police activity there. 270 southbound seeing the typical volume past 109, then again off and on through rockville. here we are traveling the beltway in virginia, to the right of your screen, outer loop, slow from springfield to eisenhower avenue. 395 seeing some volume delays off and on from the beltway up toward seminary. 95 actually appears to be in pretty good shape right now. do want to mention if you are traveling 66, we've got some delays here from 7100 past route 50 toward 123. also georgetown pike remains shut down at great falls west of walker road. melanie will have more on that coming up. tony, over to you. >> lauren, thank you very much. we are following breaking news from syria this morning. a suicide attack in the capital has reportedly killed the

syrian minister of defense. he and other top officials were meeting at the national security building in damascus at the time of the attack. this attack happened as the rebels announce that they've started what they're calling the liberation of damascus. raging street battles continue this morning, and for the first time heavy armore and attack helicopters are being used inside the capital city. and now to a developing story in northern virginia, a huge tree came crashing down on a car, killing the driver. >> crews have been removing the massive trunk and trimming other trees in that area all night long. melanie is live in great falls, virginia right now with more. melanie, just a tragic scene this morning. >>reporter: oh, it's crazy, allison. it's one of those things you never know. it happened like this, in a split second. it looks like crews are doing a pretty good job here of working trying to get this road open, this section of georgetown pike right here in the heart of great falls village.

they've been working to take down a second tree that was also in danger since about 11:00 last night, and they brought that second tree down about 45 minutes ago. take a look. i mean, you can just hear the force that that tree came down with, and that is the kind of force that came crashing down last night. unfortunately when a man who was driving a black mercedes was coming down georgetown pike here, it was just before 7:00 last night, a black four-door mercedes, man in his 60s. that tree that came down without warning, it was 100 feet tall. people said it weighed about 40 tons. it was seven to eight feet in diameter. witnesses did say they do believe the man tried to stop. he must have heard some sort of cracking sound because they say he slammed on the brakes, but the tree just came crashing down and crushed the roof of the car. >> i was coming home from work

and my mom, a couple cars down from the first guys, they were right behind the car that got hit, and immediately we pulled in here because we saw the tree in front of us, and so we pulled around and we saw the tree was directly on the person who was driving. you couldn't see the person from this side. so we went around, got a pretty good angle. it wasn't a pretty sight. >>reporter: they're not going to identify -- it doesn't sound like they're going to identify the driver of that car until an autopsy is performed. i want you to take a look at the roots of the tree that came down last night. it's pretty obvious to anyone who takes a look at that, it is completely hollow. there really wasn't much holding that tree into the ground to begin with, and so that is the situation that they're going to be looking into and that is why they also took the second tree down because they're basically twin trees, they were both 100-foot oak trees. they realized that the second one also was rotten as well. and tony and allison, i think

the question that's going to come up later is who was responsible for the management of that tree. it could be fairfax county, it could be vdot, it could also be the owner of the shopping complex. i talked to vdot this morning, one of the guys here said that is something people are still trying to sort out. so the story is going to continue here as far as who is responsible for making sure this tree was healthy and not in danger of falling. >> that's what we were just talking about. melanie, thanks very much. a check of this morning's other top stories for you now. a prominent democratic strategist remains hospitalized after he was beaten thursday night -- last thursday night outside of a convenience store in northeast d.c. david mercer was -- has appeared on national television shows. he's on the left, including fox news channel talking about politics. police say that mercer was attacked outside of a 7-11 store at eighth street and maryland avenue after being involved in some kind of dispute. >> our investigation at this

point is ongoing. we believe we've identified all the parylts involved and we're currently in the process of continuing to interview everybody and try to sort out what happened. >> police say there is surveillance video from that 7- 11. they are not saying whether the assault was captured on tape. sources tell us that mercer's condition is improving and he is now breathing on his own. there will be a rally this morning to support embattled d.c. mayor vincent dprai who's been under investigation for an alleged scandal involving criminal campaign activity. two prominent ministers in the district are planning the rally. they're upset that three d.c. councilmembers have called for gray to resign after the revelations that the mayor was elected with the help of $650,000 and what prosecutors call a shadow campaign. but the reverend grayland haggler tells us the mayor has not been found guilty of anything and the city council should let the legal process play out. >> we've had so much trauma

lately in district government with the resignation of two city councilmans that we need to calm down, and approach it on a sober fashion. >> today's rally will take place on the steps of the wilson building at 11:00 this morning. allison. the house judiciary committee is expected to vote on an abortion bill today that would only affect women here in our area. the legislation would ban abortions in the district after 20 weeks of pregnancy. it's based on the disputed claim that fetuses can feel pain after that point. d.c. delegate eleanor holmes norton asked to testify in front of the committee. her request was denied, so she submitted a statement on behalf of d.c. residents instead. the congresswoman has said the bill is part of a nationwide effort to undermine a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. tony. allison, before president barack obama hits the campaign trail today, he meets the agricultural secretary to talk about the drought. then he honors this year's women's basketball champs, the

baylor bears at the white house. tonight the president attends a fundraiser at the mandarin oriental hotel. mitt romney is in ohio this morning. he is holding a town hall meeting in bowling green. the presidential election is 16 weeks away. and a hot topic on the campaign trail, the economy, of course. it's also front and center on capitol hill as congress is about to make some very difficult choices on defense spending. fox's doug luzader has more details on the impact that will have come next year. >>reporter: members of congress have kind of backed themselves into a corner on this with big defense cuts that automatically kick in next year and republicans were turning to an old hand. former vice president dick cheney back on capitol hill, offering republicans some plunt talk about looming defense cuts. as part of last year's debt deal, congress set in motion what's called a sequester, about a trillion dollars in cuts over 10 year that is start kicking in next year, half of

that from the pentagon's budget. >> obviously i think that capability is threatened by the prospect of the se queter. >>reporter: republicans today will press the white house to explain exactly how those cuts will be implemented. >> there is no thought. it's just go down every item in the budget and take off 8 to 12 or higher percentage, everything, no thought, no discretion, no planning, just whack everything. >>reporter: the secretary of defense leon panetta has already warned that the pentagon's cuts will be devastating. cheney, a former secretary of defense himself blames the white house for not pushing back against them. but democrats are quick to point out that republicans already agreed to the cuts. >> i'm sure that the vice president here to spur them on, to focus on how the defense industry is being hurt with this sequester. they voted for it, republicans voted for it, but don't forget every here, that the sequester also deals with people who need help also. >>reporter: that's because

about half of the trillion dollars or so in automatic cuts come out of domestic programs. democrats are insisting that any compromise to avoid them must include tax hikes. in washington, doug luzader, fox news. 7:11 now. still ahead, why today's extreme heat could make for a slower commute on metro. plus scary moments for a teenager riding down a metro escalator last night. what happened when his flip flop got caught as he reached the bottom step. and another bomb threat in the detroit area, this time directed at tigers ballpark just before game time. we're going to tell you how that situation played out next. i like this song. this is katy perry. hopefully you're wide awake heading the road this morning. we have a couple of spots out there, lauren will be here to talk about that. tucker barnes will have your forecast when we return.

7:11. [ cheers and apapplause ]

because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. [ cheers and applause ] if you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. ♪ you make a big election about small things. ♪ [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

the head of the ncaa hasn't ruled out drastic punishment for penn state university in the wake of the jerry sandusky child sex abuse scandal. that includes a possible shut dowp of itsable -- shutdown of its football program. we will hear what he had to say coming up in our 8:00 hour. there was another bomb scare in detroit. an anonymous caller phoned in to 911 about a mom at comer ica park. the stadium was filled with fans for a game between the tigers and the rangers. police searched during the action but did not find any device. the threat comes just days after two similar incidents that temporarily shut down a tunnel and bridge connecting detroit and canada.

no explosives were found in those incidents either. very strange. >> yeah, exactly. 7:15. i'd like to thank you all for answering my weather guy questions. >> ply pleasure. >> makes perfect sense. it seems so wrong. >> i know because i know you, you were asking for concern out -- out of concern for those workers outside. >> i figured they must be on to something because -- you're right, we show construction workers too. so i figured that, but i just wanted to make sure. >> honestly, it's still uncomfortable. anytime you're outside, it's 100 degrees. >> it sticks to you, the whole thing. but thank you. >> you can do it again tomorrow if you want. >> that's okay. you said i was a long-time viewer, so greatly exagerrated. >> you're not a loviewer? i guess if it qualifies you. 81 right now in washington, warm, humid start to your day. humidity 69%, winds south and

west at seven. guess what, we'll be near 100 later again today. the humidity will be increasing. it's going to be even more uncomfortable than yesterday with expected heat index temperatures approaching 105 to 110 later today. a heat advisory goes into effect at 11:00 a.m. want to show you the radar. we've got relief on the way. see the rain showers pushing towards detroit and michigan and across the tblaix? that's our -- and the great lakes. that's our cold front. it's going to be a slow mover, so it's going to take the better part of a couple days to get through here. later this afternoon it'll get close enough that we could begin to see the possibility of thunderstorms to develop and some of those storms could be strong. 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 today look out for the possibility of thunderstorms starting to get organized. they'll be with us through the evening rush hour and lynxering into the nighttime hours. tomorrow a little better than today and a much improved forecast for the end of the week. 100 today. again, possibility of -- >> what did you say? >> been saying that with too much frequency this summer. >> right.

it seems like normal. >> 93 tomorrow and then there are your 80s friday, saturday and sunday. it should feel a lot better with less humidity this weekend. >> thanks, tucker. late go to lauren demarco now to give us an update on this this morning's rush hour traffic. hi, lauren. >>reporter: hey. definitely need to stay cool today. right now things are looking pretty good. for the most part dealing just with volume. although we do have georgetown pike shut down just west of walker road in great falls. that's because of a large tree that was down. melanie has been reporting on that. other than that just the volume that we're seeing this morning. let's take a live look from traffic land and you travel northbound 95 at the left of your screen, the headlights are the main lanes as you head into the mixing bowl and springfield. no accidents or incidents for you this morning. 395 does slow from the beltway as you head up towards king street and then, again, leaving the pentagon to head across the 14th street bridge and into the district on the friday, southeast/southwest freeway as you continue eastbound, you're going to find that is heavy to main avenue as well.

inbound salem parkway, slow to the douglas bridge. 295 slow to the 11th street beige at this point. if you're traveling the beltway in montgomery county, outer loop heavy from the usual strej, 95, college park toward silver spring. in virginia to the right of your screen, is slow springfield past van dorn, to eisenhower avenue. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. tony, over to you. >> lauren, thank you very much. we have a heads up for the evening commute. metro riders may want to plan on some extra time today. the extreme heat yesterday forced metro to put speed restrictions in place. trains at above ground stations can only travel 35 miles an hour on any above ground tracks. metro revised its standards for heat restrictions after a train derailed on the green line about two weeks ago. passengers will probably see similar restrictions today, so be sure to check the metro website. there was a scary incident that serves as a reminder that

escalators can be very dangerous. >> a 14-year-old boy from canada was heading into the smith smithsonian metro station when his hand got stuck in the escalator. this was the scene as firefighters worked to rescue the teen. a metro spokesperson says the boy was riding down the escalator when his flip flop got caught on the bottom step. now, when he tried to get his shoe, his hand got stuck instead. >> the escalator stopped, d.c. fire and ems responded as well as metro transit, police and our escalator technician. they extricated him with a hand injury, was transported to a local hospital. injuries are described as nonlife threatening. the escalator will be out of service pending a full investigation. >> it took firefighters about 40 minutes to free that teenager. >> hope he's okay. it is 20 minutes after 7:00 now on this wednesday morning. still ahead, a new diet pill gets federal approval, but not without some backlash over its potential side effects. plus a possible link

between having a big baby and your chances of getting breast cancer. we'll explain why some researchers say size matters. and holly is revving it up in manassas this morning where in just a few days some nascar celebrities will roll into town. it's all to benefit at-risk teens. how you can get in on the action and we'll to to one of this weekend's featured drivers. that's coming up. stay with us. i'm barack obama and i approve this message. [romney singing]: oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain,

america, america, god shed his grace on thee, and crowned thy good, with brotherhood...

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a health alert for you this morning about the risk of having a heavy baby. according to preliminary data from two different studies mothers who gave birth to the larger babies have a greater chance of getting breast cancer. researchers say their findings show those women are at more than twice the risk compared to women who have smaller babies. one of the reasons is that a bigger baby means more estrogen which is one hormone associated with increased breast cancerristic.

another new weight loss drug will soon be on the market. the fda has approved, let me try to get this name for you, qsymia for adults who are obese or overweight. the catch, though, those takes the drug must have at least one weight-related condition like high blood pressure or diabetes. during clinical trials, the medication produced dramatic weight loss, but there are some concerns about potential side effects including increased heart rate and birth defects too. virginia's department of historic resources has approved 13 new historic markers in the commonwealth, including one of a civil war hospital in alexandria where african- american soldiers protested the denial of full burial honors for black casualties. the other signs will be announced later today. one commemorates a 1608 christmas celebration by english settlers who were saved by indians in hampton, and another is of a colonial tavern that is still in operation in hanover. >> i often pull over when i see those signs. i gotta read it. i gotta know what happened

right there. >> i know you do. >> very cool. time now 7:25. tensions running high on the campaign trail and pressure on capitol hill over those spending cuts to the defense department. today's headlines coming your way after the break. plus, i don't know if you saw this or heard about it. the nts first home game for the rest of the season is one they won't soon forget, the fans won't forget it either. the dramatic finish is coming up next. and as we take you to break, love the music our producer lend this is hour. a live look outside for you. we'll get the latest weather and traffic from tucker and lauren next. 7:26.

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the nats blew a two-run lead in the 9th with the mets with a three-run homer by valdestine, whatever, they tie in the bottom of the inning with a hit by danny es pinnosis a. new york took the lead again in the 10th, but bryce harper would tie it with a triple and then he would come home with the game winner on a wild pitch. lack at that!

the nats win it 5-4 in a thriller. this team doesn't give up. >> all right! >> they don't give up. look at that. i love it. i love it. >> they're playing as a team, you know? >> yes, they are. i give the team credit, i give -- what's the manager's name? >> david johnson. >> david johnson, give him credit. man. this is good stuff. >> exciting, right? >> it is exciting. >> when you can get excited about it -- >> baseball in washington. they got to keep winning. braves are hot on their tail. >> braves are hot again? >> yeah. eight in a row. i don't know how they did last night, but, yeah, they've been winning. go nationals. if you're going -- i think we got a game tonight. if you're going out later, look out for the possibility of thunderstorms later this afternoon into tonight. i don't think it'll be a washout there, but certainly possibility. >> there'll be some delays. >> a lot of heat and humidity back in the forecast today. hey, i want to show you guys some amazing numbers. we'll start with some stats. yesterday was day number six of 100-plus this summer, day number six, so i had my

researcher, ie tyler, the intern do some research, the summer with the most 100-plus days 1930, there were 11. if you feel like the last couple years we've had a lot of 100 plus days, it would not be your imagination, we've had 15100-plus days in the last three years. >> that says something to me. >> compare that to 1993 and 2009 where in that entire period, entire 16-year period we only had 100 plus days. there'll be a quiz after class. >> we don't know what that means. that's all you have to remember right there. today might be day number seven. let's get to the numbers. right now at reagan international, 81 degrees. 81 in washington, 83 in annapolis. our overnight low at reagan national was 80. most of the area here in the 70s off to the north and west for overnight lows. so not a comfortable start. mix in high temperatures upper niebilitys to about 100 and very uncomfortable humidity and we've got a heat advisory in effect at 11:00 this morning. going to show you the dewpoint temperatures now because they are in the uncomfortable range,

so uncomfortable i can't say it. 70, that's the current dewpoint in washington. of course, the higher this number, the more uncomfortable the air with the humidity. 70 in annapolis, 72 in manassas, so we're going to mix in the actual air temperature and these dewpoint temperatures and it's going to feel like 105 to 109 later today. that's why we've got a heat advisory. want to show you the surface map for today. we have a cold front which is currently parked across the great lakes. it will be sagging south very slowly later today. and as it moves into this very warm, very humid atmosphere, we've got the possibility of some severe weather around here. so officially we're under a slight risk for severe weather. that will include very gusty winds, damaging hail, that kind of thing. this front will be moving through later this afternoon. that's why the possibility of storms starting 2:00, 3:00 today, into your overnight hours. during the day tomorrow the front will be moving through. so we unfortunately have showers and storms back in the forecast today. here's your forecast, 100 today, that's the actual air temperature. again, heat advisory goes into effect at 11:00. a little better tomorrow as that front is hanging out, pu

it'll still be kind of hot and humid with highs in the low 90s. much better by friday, saturday and sunday. high temperatures fall back into the mid-80s with less humidity for the weekend. so saturday looks great. friday does too. that's weather. let's do some traffic and lauren demarco. good morning, lauren. >>reporter: still going to be seeing a lot of those photos popping up on facebook and social media people take in their car with the heat index thermometer going up. that's definitely something to watch out for today. stay cool out there, folks. if you are traveling around town, most of our major arteries dealing with volume. no major accidents or incidents. let's take a live look from trafficland as you travel 270 southbound, off and on heading down through rockville, you're going to find yourself on the brakes, just volume to deal with, no accidents or anything tying up any of the lanes. the lanes are open as you continue down toward the beltway. beltway itself does slow, the outer loop, typical delay from 95, college park to the right of your screen there heading past new hampshire avenue, continuing into silver spring. once you get to georgia, things should open up for you.

if you're traveling the beltway in virginia, really heavy right now leaving the mixing bowl on the outer loop past van dorn street toward eisenhower avenue. then things do clear up across the wilson bridge. inner loop also slowing from the mixing bowl to gallows road. 66, we're seeing a delay from 7100, past mill to 123. also northbound 14th street brink pretty heavy and the freeway is heavy to main avenue. tony, over to you. >> lauren, thank you very much. if automatic budget cut goes into effect at the end of the year, 2 million jobs could disappear, that's the finding of a new report from the aerospace industry's association which estimates that not only will the jobs go away, but that the national economy will lose billions of dollars. for more on that and the latest from the campaign trail, joining us now democratic political strategist peter fin and republican political strategist jim asensi. gentlemen. >> excellent. more good news today. you always start off by saying good morning and then you dpif us bad news. >> we try to throw in some good

news. let's start with this because this is a battle. >> sure. >> i'm going to start with peter because the democrats, according to a story in the "washington post" the other day, the democrats really seem to be willing to say, look, you know, we want to avoid this -- the defense cuts, the loss of jobs and all of that come january, but if republicans aren't going to vote to increase taxes on the wealthy, then we'll let it happen and we'll see how it goes. isn't this the very thing that the democrats have complained that the republicans have been doing for 3 1/2 year? >> look, no one likes to go to brinksmanship, that's the story of certainly the republicans in condepress over these last two years. i don't think the democrats want to do this either. what they're calling for is balance here. what they're calling for is an end to the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest of americans, they have some kind of balance in this approach, and, you know, i find it rather odd to

be perfectly frank that dick cheney goes up to capitol hill to be the girter on this when he got sent in this problem in the first place with huge deficits with two wars that weren't paid for and defense cuts and tax cuts bankrupting the country. so, you know, i think with that it's kind of like taking advice from dick cheney is like door- to-door salesman takes advice from a jobs instructor. it's like a door-to-door salesman taking instructions from the boston strangler is what it's like. you just called the former vice president a boston strangler. >> did i really? [ overlapping talking ] >> what did do you think, jim? what should we do? >> that's disrespectful. i think both sides need to sit down. i think tony is right, these guys have been pulling these shen an gawns for years now.

they haven't passed a budget in the senate, peter, for how many years? why don't we all sit down? >> i am totally with you, jim, but what happens when we have the debt ceiling and these guys shut down the government? wait, wait, wait. when they all sign the grover norquist pledge. >> i've been gone for two weeks. >> i'll just leave and go back to sleep. >> let jim get a few words in here. >> thank you. good. you must have been fun on your vacation. >> do you get a vacation? >> make your point. >> would you shut up? i appreciate it. >> jim. >> what's the question? >> what do you make of cheney's appearance on the hill? does peter make a good point here that why should they listen to cheney or is cheney trying to guide this discussion and say, look, guys, you gotta get serious here because the defense budget is going to be cut drastically if we don't come to an agreement. >> the vice president is right,

we have to get serious and stop playing these games and making these ul ultimatums or else we're going to walk out. when you look at politics, this is when america kind of throws up its arms and says these people just can't grow up. this is just childishness, these are the things that happened. the democrats controlled congress for two years now we have a split congress, so they're still fighting again. i think that's why you see all the problems out there. >> jim, i totally agree with you. but then why didn't you speak out when the republicans wanted to shut down the government, when the republicans wouldn't let this -- and the only -- look, and was the decision made, calling for both parties to have a deficit commission and the republicans voted it down and the president had to put together the deficit commission on his own without republican support? i mean, where were you when the

intrangients -- >> they're trying to revise history. there were republicans on a deficit commission if you remember, republican senators like tom coburn. >> they were forced to go on. >> they've all passed this. but nothing gets done. >> nothing has gotten done. >> that is my point too, but, you know, at this stage, why not sit down and say we should not have sequestration, we should have a balanced approach to dealing with this deficit problem which does not harm growth, which does not cost our country. >> obviously what we're hoping is that there is some middle ground found because all of us pay if they don't find middle ground. >> correct. >> let's move to the campaigns quickly. barack obama's people are running a campaign ad now. let's run part of it. i want to talk about the tone of these ads and the tenor of the campaigns. there's an ad that's running that is just essentially mitt romney singing "america the beautiful" and some facts go up

on the stage, some headlines. watch this. for amber waves of grain for purple mountains ma gesty >> it's got some point there is that it makes. you see it and you kind of laugh at it. is this fair, is it just ridiculing mitt romney when you just put him up singing? he doesn't have a great voice, but so what? >> they have -- the romney campaign had an ad with the president singing al greene, urn fortunately they had to pull that off because of copyright infringement. the key point here i think is that the record at bain capital is fair game, the romney campaign talked about his role as a businessperson, that this is why he should become president. so, you know, it's fair game to look at that record, to look at the outsourcing of jobs, to look at the companies who are were closed and jobs lost.

>> fair game? >> sure it is, but so is the record of the president of the united states, and what you have right now is a campaign from the obama perspective where they can't talk about the president's record, so they're going to try to attack and hammer romney. that's their whole strategy. you're going to see that between now and november. >> while you're talking about that, i want to roll very briefly one of the romney campaign ads which is kind of one of these fact checker, purports to be a fact checker ad, how can the president lead, how can you trust it when you goes to factchecker.org and that kind of stuff, some of the things the president has been saying are misleading. is this a more effective ad because it's going to, you know, it's going to content and actually it's rebuffing what the president is actually saying? >> you know, i think that the romney campaign thinks that this stuff has been hitting home, they've been seeing poll numbers in these swing states with undecided voters where the bain capital stuff was hurting him, so he's coming back and trying to blunt that.

the strange thing about this is it's a lie. this isn't september, this isn't october, this is july here. we're going to see this for an awful long time. to answer your question, i do think this is an effective ad because it's not the romney campaign saying it, these are third parties, the "washington post," clearly not a newspaper that's going to be favorable to romney saying the fact the president is not telling the truth, so i think it's a good way to blunt it. >> you'll see another ad come back saying the "washington post" says that, fact checker says y. but the romney campaign, one thing they're trying to do right now is to muddle this stuff. but i think the problem they're into, and this is what the republicans are really concerned about with the campaign, he's on the defensive, he's answering, he's explaining. when you're explaining, you're in trouble. unfortunately we're out of time, but, thank you, gentlemen. we'll have you back next week. >> i bet. we'll have a monologue so you can understand us. >> we'll see you in a few minutes.

7:45 right now. tucker is back with another look at this hot, hot, hot forecast. >> yeah, sorry about it. it's going to be hotter later today and mixed with the humidity it's going to feel

like 105 to 110. heat advisory goes into effect about 11:00 this morning. dangerous heat, lots of water, remind people to take it easy, get indoors if you can later this afternoon. let's get to the maps. just want to start with that heat advisory, show it to you one more time. most of the area here, the exception is if you're one of the lucky ones out to the west in the mountains. you're going to be a little bit cooler. but for the rest of us, again, a heat advisory going into effect at 11:00 this morning. and that's because the heat index today will be warmer than yesterday. yesterday our heat index was only about 100 because we didn't have a lot of humidity around. today the humidity has been increasing overnight, our dewpoint temperatures are now running in the low 70s, so our heat index will be approaching 110 later today, and that's why we have a heat advisory. let's do the futurecast. i want to show you the other big change later this afternoon we've got the possibility of some storms moving in, and some of those storms could be on the strong side. futurecast not loving the idea that at 5:00, but notice by 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 tonight looks like we'll have some storms moving in and some of those storms could be on the strong side as we get some cooler and dryer air starting to filter in

from the north and west. be ready for that possibility that there could be storms developing as early as 2:00, 3:00 this afternoon if you're off to the north and west, and then moving across the immediate washington area here by about rush hour. and then even overnight some showers and storms will linger into our thursday. here's your five-day forecast. 100 degrees later this afternoon. that would be the seventh time this summer we hit 100 if we do it. little better tomorrow, 93. much better by friday, saturday and sunday with highs in the 80s and less humidity. so the good news is the weekend is going to be close to perfect. >> sure does look good, tucker. >> like that. >> thank you. >> focus on the positive. >> we'll just wait until then. what is this day? wednesday. we can get there. here's lauren now. she'll show you if you can get there. >>reporter: funny when 89 looks cool. we've been follow -- melanie has been following a situation for us in great falls. georgetown pike was shut down in both directions just west of walker road. they are live there at the scene showing us that traffic is now getting by alternating using one travel lane.

so you want to follow crews' directions there if you are traveling in great falls, georgetown pike, you are now able to get by, just be careful heading through that stretch. you'll want to avoid that if you can. you can take route 7, leesburg pike as an alternate. let's move along to trafficland. traveling 95 northbound, you're going to find stretches of volume heading through morton, up toward newington and into springfield. once you get onto 395, dealing with some delays off and on from the beltway, past edsell road up towards king street and again across the 14th street bridge to head onto the freeway. outer loop heavy past van dorn to eisenhower, jammed up there. once you get past eisenhower, it does improve heading towards the wilson bridge. the mixing bowl slowing towards gallows. and if you're traveling the beltway in montgomery county, jammed from 95 college park on to around georgia avenue. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. allison, tony. >> thanks, lauren. still ahead, racing fun for all ages. >> holly is hitting the track in manassas this morning.

hey, holly. >>reporter: good morning. if you feel the need for speed, we've got the calling this morning as we are live at old dominion speedway in manassas where they are gearing up for their third annual nascar day. this is a chance for you to come out and hang with the big dogs in terms of the world of racing. it is also a good final for -- good time for a good cause. we'll explain it all on fox 5 morning news. stay with us. 

homicide of young people in america has an impacact on all f us.  how can we save these young people's lives? as a police chief i have an opportunity to affect what happens in a major city. i learned early on if you want to make a difference you have to have the right education. university of phoenix opened the door. my name is james craig, i'm committed to making a difference and i am a phoenix.

[ female announcer ] every woman who believes decisions about our bodies and our health care should be our own is troubled mitt romney supports overturning roe versus wade. romney backed a law that outlaws all abortion -- even in cases of rape and incest.

and that's not all. i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. [ female announcer ] for women, planned parenthood means life-saving cancer screenings and family-planning services. but, for mitt romney... planned parenthood. we're going to get rid of that. nascar gets back to its roots in northern virginia this weekend with a third annual event at old dominion speedway. >> it is a chance for fans to meet the drivers for a day of fun and racing, and it's all to benefit at-risk youth. holly is in manassas for the preview of all the action now. holly, good morning. >>reporter: good morning. drive fast, turn left, that's what we're talking about in terms of nascar and nothing beats a day of racing,

especially if you are down on the track, seeing it firsthand and you can have your own nascar experience this weekend at old dominion speedway if you come out for the third annual nascar day. gary jones is the ceo for youth for tomorrow and that's really what the day is all about, it benefits this great cause. good morning, good to see you. >> good morning. nice to be here. are planning on a whole lot of fun come saturday. >> we have a great venue plan ford saturday evening, gates open at 4:00 and you got chances as a fan to meet the drivers that come out onto the infield, then we'll have a parade of stars at 6:30 and the first race at 7:00. >>reporter: this is a big deal to get, you know, the caliber of drivers that are coming out to come here to a local track and kind of come back to the roots as we were talking about earlier. this is a fast track, short track. >> it's a short track, it's a historic track, and it's a track that has had many, many all-american drivers here, and we're grateful that we have some nascar sprint series drivers coming to compete against some of the local guys. >>reporter: so what we're most

grateful for is the cause this supports on saturday, and it was started by coach gibbs, you know, youth for tomorrow. you've been a part of it for many, many years. explain to people what this -- what the charity does and the difference that it's really made in young people's lives. >> coach gibbs back in 1983 conceived the idea, and in 1986 we opened our doors. we've served over 1,000 teenaged children who have been abandoned, abused and victimized in the most unspeakable manners, and our success rate varies between it 84% and 87% of the kids that have been with us come one to five years behind in the grade level in school, they have mental health issues, depression, ad/hd, ocd, o.d.d., all these acronyms that are common in the mental health field, and we give therapy and education and counseling and love to these children and turn

their lives around. >>reporter: and, really, you take a child what some may have said a burden to society and made them contributors to society literally. >> that is the end result, absolutely. we're all about end results in corporate america, we're about end results in a non-profit world at youth for tomorrow. >>reporter: talk about end results, the winners' circle is where my next guest wants to be come the end. thank you very much. i want to introduce you to davy callahan, a nascar driver. this is davy right here. good to see you, sir. you are in the nascar whalen all-american series, right? >> yes, ma'am. >>reporter: i understand you're the current points leader at this track. >> yes. we've gotten two wins so far and stayed out of the wrecks. it's been a good year so far. >>reporter: i think that maybe people that rnlt the diehard nascar fans don't necessarily understand how you have to come up through the ranks and all the different classes. so what's going on on the track right now as we see the cars come out? >> these are bandelero cars.

their drivers range from about 7 years old to 15 or so. >>reporter: and when did you start driving? >> when i was 7. >>reporter: when you were seven. >> yeah, i started racing go carts. >>reporter: how old are you? >> i'm tboo. >>reporter: you're so old. how many different classes? >> i would say usually about five classes. >>reporter: for you in the whalen all-american series, this is kind of like the minor leagues? >> yes, this is the minor leagues. it's pretty close to what you see on tv, maybe just a little bit more budget restricted. >>reporter: but on saturday you will be racing with the big names out there. >> yeah. i get a chance to race with the i guess professional race car drivers, so that's going to be a really cool shot, you know, to show them what we can do. >>reporter: is it kind of like any sport, when you get to drive against someone that's maybe a little better than you, that gets you to up your game? >> oh, absolutely. it's cool to get out there and show what talent you might have that you can put towards a professional race car driver. >>reporter: and you know what?

i hear the first two years is a local one, so it doesn't matter what your budget is, it matters how fast you can drive. >> absolutely. >>reporter: i don't see any duct tape holding this baby together, she looks pretty good. >> yep. >>reporter: thank you. we wish you the best of luck. stay out of the wrecks. >> i will. >>reporter: that's the mom in me talking. we have a link to old dominion speedway so you can find out more about their third annual nascar day going on this saturday, july 21st. coming up in our next hour, we're going to talk to the owner of bk racing, he's the owner of youth for tomorrow and he's going to talk about the nascar drivers coming out here. we'll find out firsthand who's going to be coming around on saturday. we'll have more fox 5 news after the break. stay with us. ñ [ romney ] i'm mitt romney, and i approve this message.

[ male announcer ] when a president doesn't tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead? the obama outsourcing attacks: "misleading, unfair and untrue." there was "no evidence" that mitt romney shipped jobs overseas. candidate obama lied about hillary clinton. so, shame on you, barack obama. [ male announcer ] but america expects more from a president. obama's dishonest campaign: another reason america has lost confidence in barack obama. good morning, fox 5 is following breaking news at this hour. >> a suicide bombing claims the life of a top government official in syria, the same day that another push for peace gets under way. here at home, in the meantime, concerns about the dangers of falling trees nearly three weeks after that dangerous storm tore through

our area. a driver kill whd a tree falls across a busy road in northern virginia. and police release startling surveillance video as they continue to investigate another deadly accident. a man who had just been hit by a car lying on the sidewalk. you can see him there. we've blurred it out a little bit, as people simply walk by him. morning, i'm tony perkins. >> i'm allison seymour. happy you're with us on this wednesday morning. tucker barnes is with us also early this wednesday morning with details of what will probably be the most uncomfortable day of the week. >> yes, certainly more so than yesterday because the humidity has been increasing overnight and our dewpoint temperatures are now in the low 70s. yeah. bottom line it's going to feel like 105 to 110 today. >> yikes. >> open up the new -- opening up the new pool as we speak. >> really? i think it's a good plan for later today. 81 right now in washington, 81 in baltimore, 81 at the naval air station. with the heat spells we have, we just don't cool off overnight.

and once again you can see those temperatures not in the comfortable range, it's 8:00 in the morning. 82 in ocean city. let me mention the heat advisory goes into effect this morning at 11:00. it will be in effect until 9:00 tonight. we do have some relief on the way in the form of showers and thunderstorms, just starting to develop now and there's some storms out in west virginia and more storms to our north and west up into the great lakes region. that's a cold front that will start to move in later this afternoon. so a couple changes, more humidity today, and a better possibility of showers and thunderstorms than yesterday. some of those storms could be strong later this afternoon. so be ready for that possibility with damaging winds and hail. high temperature in washington forecast to be about 100. 99 in fredricksburg, 97 in hagerstown. so another scorching hot day. relief tomorrow and much better looking weekend forecast. i'll have that for you coming up. >> thank you, tucker. let's did to lauren demarco now and get the latest on this morning's rush hour traffic. lauren. >>reporter: good morning. a few minor incidents to report going on this morning, as you travel route 50 john hanson highway inbound, we did have

reports of an accident just prior to 704, so do watch for that. also northbound on the bw parkway near goddard reports of an accident, police responding to those. in the district, let's head on to trafficland, as you travel southbound north capitol street at 8th street, we have reports of a wreck involving a metro bus, not seeing anything from this angle, not sure whether it's out of the camera angle, but you do want to watch for that. 395 heavy and slow from the beltway to king street, then again here from before the pentagon, across the 14th street bridge, freeway also slows to main avenue traveling eastbound. beltway jammed up from springfield past van dorn street toward eisenhower, no problems right now crossing the wilson bridge and heading into prince george's county, so that is some good news. 66 heavy and slow from 7100 to 123, the left of your screen, you can see that. if you're traveling in montgomery county, outer loop jammed from 95 around toward silver spring. 270 that's all clear right now as you leave rockville or heading down toward the split

for bethesda. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. tonesantonio holmesy. >> lauren, thank you very much. we have more on the breaking news in syria where there have been some very big developments this morning. this morning suicide bomber attack that killed the defense minister also killed president assad's brother-in-law. he was one of the most feared leaders of the syrian regime. this morning's attack also left the deputy defense minister dead. he was meeting with top officials at the national security building in the capital and the rebels say the liberation of damascus is now under way. fires are reported near the presidential palace as fighting rages on this morning. , our top story this hour, a deadly accident in great falls, virginia. a massive tree fell on top of a car, killing the driver. the tree removal has shut down part of georgetown pike this morning. fox 5's melanie aldewick is

live on the scene with the latest. melanie. >>reporter: well, tony, the latest is that one lane of traffic is now getting by here on georgetown pike. you as anyone who drives through here knows, this is a very busy section of georgetown pike right here in the heart of great falls village. it has taken most of the night and into this morning to get these trees cleared, and you see the tree stump, jason, right over there. that was the tree that had to come down as well to make sure that things were safe for drivers to come through here again this morning. take a look of that tree coming down just a short time ago. and when that tree came down, that thud, you could feel it through your feet, reverberating through the road and the sidewalk here. you can only imagine that is the kind of force that came down also last night on that car that was coming through here, just one of those freak things, a black four-door

mercedes just before 7:00 last night, driving through here on georgetown pike, as that first tree began to fall. now, witnesses believe that perhaps the driver heard a cracking noise, may have seen the tree starting to lean, we don't know because they do report that the driver tried to slam on the brakes to avoid that tree which is said to be 100 feet tall, weighing 40 pounds, seven to eight feet in diameter, but they say he tried to slam on the brakes, but it was just too late. that tree came crashing down and crushing the roof of the car. they had to actually use a crane to lift the tree off. strangely enough, it happened just feet from the fairfax county fire station that you see right here. and we're going to go ahead and zoom in once again and show you the bottom of that tree there. you know, normally after a storm and we see trees fall, you see a very large root ball, you see dirt and mud and grass clinging to where the roots are.

take a look at this, there are no roots around there that were basically holding that tree into the ground. you can see the bottom of that trunk hollow. so, tony and allison, i think the questions that are going to come up here were why was this tree allowed to be here in this condition, who was responsible for the tree. people that i talked to say they're still trying to figure that out. they don't know if it's vdot, if it's fairfax county, it could be the property owners. it depending on where the right of way falls. i've made a number of calls this morning and hopefully we can update you in the 9:00 hour. back to you. >> melanie, thank you very much. developing news on embattled d.c. mayor vincent gray. he is getting support from d.c. ministers this morning, at least a couple of them. they are organizing a rally later this morning outside the wilson building. it's to show support for mayor gray. the federal officials are investigating gray for alleged campaign violations and actually three d.c. councilmembers have called on gray to resign. mayor gray is not planning on attending the 11:00 a.m.

rally, however. allison, time is running out for maryland governor martin o'malley to call for a special session of the legislature. he wants to expand gambling but needs to call lawmakers back to annapolis to do it. and the governor says he has less than 10 days to make that decision. a meeting at the governor's residence in annapolis with house speaker michael bush and senate president thomas miller ended with no real conclusion yesterday. scary moment for one 14- year-old heading into the smithsonian metro station. this was the scene last night after his hand got stuck in an escalator. a metro spokesperson says that that teenager who is from canada was riding down when his flip flop got caught on the bottom step. now, when he tried to get his shoe free, his hand got stuck instead. it took firefighters about 40 minutes to free that young man. he was taken to a local hospital for treatment. the penn state community is trying to get past the sex abuse scandal involving former assistant football coach jerry

sandusky. >> recently we found out shocking new details about the university's lack of involvement in dealing with accusations against sandusky, but now the university is taking action in hopes of improving their image. >>reporter: tony and allison, the question where do they go from here. that's a question a lot of people at penn state want answered. there are still a lot of questions remaining about the future of penn state post-jerry sandusky and post-joe paterno. now, in particular, how does the school recover from something like this? well, the current president of the university is now talking about his plan to move forward. rodney ericson is president of penn state university. he took over last november after graham spanier was forced to resign in the wake of the jerry sandusky sex abuse scandal. >> this has been obviously a very difficult time for the university. it's been a time when we've had to really look into the soul of

the university. and what we have seen has been very difficult for us. >>reporter: erickson says procedures have been put in place to deal with the aftermath of the scandal and the university is committed to moving forward. >> the faculty, staff, students and alumni are as committed as ever to making sure that we learn from mistakes that were made, that we move forward and we use this as an opportunity to become an even better and stronger university. >>reporter: and part of that moving forward process might mean taking down the statue of former football coach joe paterno. many have called for its removal after the freeh report concluded that paterno buried allegations against sandusky to protect the university. >> there are aspects of paterno's legacy that are important to remember. there are obviously based on the freeh report some very, very negative aspects. we have to look at this comprehensivively and we have

to come up with a comprehensive solution. >>reporter: now, the university is also getting ready to respond to the ncaa which is also reviewing the university's actions in the sandusky case. the association might shut down the school's football program completely if they continue going in this direction. but, you know, if they do shut down that program, they would only be the second football program in history to get the so-called death penalty, smu got it because of all the corruption with the football program and they never recovered. they're still trying to recover. that was back in the if this ha this could be devastating. but it's clearly devastating what happened to the kids as well. >> thank you. 11 minutes after 8:00 now on this wednesday morning. coming up next, some teachers could see a big pay check boost under a new proposal from president obama. that's all in an effort to improve students' math and science scores. newly-released surveillance video shows people ignoring an accident victim lying on the sidewalks just moments after he

was hit by a car. while many would say it's morally wrong, nobody broke the law by walking by. we'll talk about this. 8:11 now. [ obama ] i'm barack obama, and i approve this message.

[ female announcer ] every woman who believes decisions about our bodies and our health care should be our own is troubled mitt romney supports overturning roe versus wade. romney backed a law that outlaws all abortion -- even in cases of rape and incest. and that's not all. i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. [ female announcer ] for women, planned parenthood means life-saving cancer screenings and family-planning services. but, for mitt romney... planned parenthood. we're going to get rid of that.

8:15. here are some of the stories making headlines this morning. the white house visitors center is closing effective this sunday. that's to make way for an extensive renovation project which includes enhanced accessibility and improved design. the current visitors center will be closed for the next 15 months. there will be a temporary visitors center open inside its place. president barack obama is proposing a program to boost math and science scores at schools nationwide. he is pushing a $1 billion program that would create a pool of master science, technology, engineering and math teachers. those with the best results would be rewarded with a thrrs 20,000 annual stippen. first lady michelle obama is joining elected officials from across the country to announce public and private sector commitments to getting our kids healthier. it's part of her "let's move"

initiative. later today mrs. obama will be in alabama where she will meet children affected by devastating storms that hit the state last year. she'll speak at a fundraiser in birmingham tonight. , it is 8:15 now. let's head back on over to the weather center. tucker barnes has the forecast. >> but before that, it's time, tucker to make a smile. >> time for the coolness factor. we need something real cool like a popsicle. let's get to the first 5 photo of the day. >> this will do. this will do just fine. >> good one. >> that's a beautiful photograph. for anybody, this is 2-year-old nicole. >> hey, nicole. >> with her parents, godson, 4- year-old dominic. >> so her god brother. >> her god brother, yeah. >> is that a proper term? >> yeah. i love the picture. >> that's a classic. >> could you imagine if it were in black and white, it could seem like it were -- >> i know it. >> yeah. >> you're right, it would seem like it's something out of the

'30s. >> that's so cute. i like that dreamy look she has on her face, just looking off to her bright future. >> how many times do you think it took before they got it just right? >> probably a couple of times. >> that's a tough job. >> that is a tough job. i'll tell you what else is tough is wearing that sweater today. >> doesn't he look dapper, though? >> very handsome. families say they love playing together and they love watching fox 5. we thank you, dominic and nicole for watching us and thank you to your parents for sending in the picture. to send in your child's picture, go to myfox5dc.com. >> beautiful girl. >> adorable. let's do some numbers. here we go again, another hot one expected with high temperatures approaching 100 degrees. to make matters worse, the humidity will be on the increase today as well. it's not just washington, we've been talking about it for days and days. generally if you're east of kansas, the temperatures have been unseasonably warm for the better part of the past month and will continue to so today,

places like chicago, 78, st. louis 84 already. they'll be close to 100 later this afternoon. and, of course, the drought continues out there. high pressure continues to dominate the weather out to our west. for us another hot one. i mentioned the high temperature near 100, but we have a heat advisory today which goes into effect at 11:00 this morning as our heat index, when you mix in the humidity, it's going to feel like 105 to 109 later this afternoon. we do have relief on the map charging towards us, a cold front now across the great lakes. see the rain showers up towards detroit? they will move in later this afternoon and tonight, could spark off some strong thunderstorms around here. in fact, we're under a slight risk for severe weather. be ready for the possibility of strong storms later today. up ahead of it, a very hot, very humid day. that front will take its time getting through here. late in the day tomorrow, particularly by friday, saturday and sunday, much cooler air on the way. it's going to feel great around here. just hang in there. here's your five day, 100 today -- yeah, 100 today, i'm sorry. overnight lows are once again

in the upper 70s to p 80. low 90s tomorrow. much better by friday, saturday and sunday with less humidity around here as well for the weekend. that's weather. let's do some traffic and get your latest. lauren demarco is keeping an eye on those roadways. lauren, what's up? >>reporter: you got it. if you are heading out of buoy, we have an accident reported westbound on route 50. let's take a live look at that, as you travel after 301, everybody jammed up. it's moving, that's because it's zoomed in so much, when it moves from the wind, you can really see a jiggle. you see to the right of your screen just creeping by there, that is 301 -- or 50 westbound after 301, pardon me. two lanes blocked with a wreck, heavy and slow out of buoy right now on route 50. let's move on to trafficland and see what else we got going on. if you are traveling the beltway, no problems in prince george's county, but here heading into montgomery county, heavy and slow. this is the usual pace leaving 95, college park, past new hampshire avenue, continues to george avenue. beltway very heavy as you head into alexandria out of

springfield. that's the outer loop passing van dorn street, heading to eisenhower avenue where then it does break free across the wilson bridge. 395 very heavy and slow before the pentagon, across the 14th street bridge and the freeway heavy to main avenue. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. tony, allison. diswr thank you very much, lauren. arlington county police are hoping newly-released surveillance video will help in their investigation of a deadly accident. >> the victim was hit as he crossed colombia pike back on july 1st. the driver stayed on the scene, but it was what passersby did not do after that accident that is so disturbing. fox 5's beth parker has more now. >>reporter: edgar aguilar had just left the 7-11 down the street and he tried to cross busy colombia pike. he was hit by a car, and what happened next is almost as shocking as that. >> oh, my god, this on me. [ indiscernable ]

>>reporter: jose hyman was there when his friend, edgar aguilar was hit by the car while running across the street. jose says after the honda hit edgar, he fell and hit his head. >> [ indiscernable ] >>reporter: jose says the driver who stopped was distraught. >> it was a lady. oh, my god. >>reporter: but plenty of other people were not. watch this video shot from a camera on a metro bus. aguilar is laying on the sidewalk next to the garbage can. people walk right by and get on the bus. one passenger even looks at aguilar on the ground and does a sign of the cross. >> they don't want to deal with it, so they'd rather ignore it and move on. >> it's not like you're in an alley in the dark and there's a person laying there and you'd be afraid, and then you'd call on your cell phone. >> yeah, i think that's terrible. >> i think that's just immoral. it's a crime. it's criminal.

>>reporter: in virginia it's not a crime. there were several 911 calls. you can see police lights in the distance in the video. investigators hope witnesses can give them more details about what happened. >> and that's our sole intention is to get witnesses to come forward. it's not out there to seek additional suspects or anything of that nature. >>reporter: the accident happened july 1st. police say the traffic light at the intersection was not working because of the big june storm. friends say aguilar lived in prince william county and worked hanging drywall. he was just 22 years old. >> amigo. >>reporter: police say that the driver of the car that hit aguilar is cooperating fully with the investigation. she has not been charged. in arlington, beth parker, fox 5 news. it is 8:22 right now. it's a wednesday morning. and up next, fans are hoping that rg3 is the start of a very good thing for the redskins. but there is one very important thing he hasn't done that's key to playing for them this season.

>> it has to do with this. >> yeah. >> dotted line? >> yep. also later, we're checking in with holly. she is live in manassas, check out the car. she's going to show us how nascar is promoting a positive change for the youth for tomorrow. we'll be right back, 8:33 -- 8:23. @ñ

we have a little breaking news for you just before the break we teased this story and said come on, robert griffin, i has to sign. this just in, it appears that robert griffin, iii will be showing up for rookie training camp today. it sounds like he may have finally signed his contract. he just tweeted out "well, people, it's time to go to work. off the unemployment line and, oh, yeah, httr" which means hail to the redskins. >> all right. >> griffin missed the first two days of rookie camp. >> httr too, rg3. >> excellent. lin-sanity, it's over in new york. jeremy lin is heading to houston. that's a good fit for him. the knicks did not match a three-year $25 million offer by the rockets. the knicks were swayed by the $14 million for the third year which would have cost them millions more because of the luxury tax. the undrafted lin became an international phenomenon with his exciting play before being

injured last season. >> why is it a good fit in houston? >> it just -- it just is. >> okay. he says it just is. guess we don't have the time. 8:27 right now. it is wednesday morning. i'll look it up. this morning we're checking this morning's headlines, including an update on a tragic story we've been covering, that tree that came crashing down on a car in fairfax county. also most people prepare for a road trip with all of the usuals, food, a map but most don't plan ahead for the most important part. we'll fill you in on that next. they need some stars down there. >> forget it now. [ mom ] dear chex cereal,

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[ male announcer ] when a president doesn't tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead? the obama outsourcing attacks: "misleading, unfair and untrue." there was "no evidence" that mitt romney shipped jobs overseas. candidate obama lied about hillary clinton. so, shame on you, barack obama. [ male announcer ] but america expects more from a president. obama's dishonest campaign: another reason america has lost confidence in barack obama. making headlines this morning, in syria, a suicide attack kills top government leaders, one of them is the president's brother-in-law, general asif shocka was the

deputy defense minister. also killed this morning was the minister of defense. other officials were injured in the blast that targeted the national security building. we'll have more on this later. part of georgetown pike is back open following a deadly accident in great falls, virginia. a huge tree, you see it there, came crashing down on top of a car last night, killing the driver. workers spent the night removing the tree and another large tree in that area. both were rotted -- or rotting. police have not released the name of the man who was killed. the drought across the nation's mid section continues with little relief in sight. later this morning president obama is meeting with the secretary of agricultural to discuss the government's plans to respond to it. we've not seen a drought this bad since 1956. a federal report says that more than half of the lower 48 is in some state of drought and it's gotten worse in the last month. >> i look forward to the day we don't have to report that anymore, but sadly it looks

like it's a problem for the imminent -- >> for the foreseeable future. >> for the foreseeable future, right. >> high pressure continues to be out to our west. it's going to give us a hot one today. unfortunately no relief for the farmers to the west. >> terrible. >> yeah. around here we've been doing these 100-degree days with unfortunate regularity this summer. >> we still have a rainfall deficit here. >> oh, yeah. we'll take every drop we can get around here. our deficit is still running several inches for the year. if we get rain later today, we'll take it. here we go, warm and humid start to your day. yesterdays highs near 100. i think we'll get to noorp 90 -- upper 90s to 100 today. to make matters worse, the humidity will be yeesed later today. leonardtown, good morning, 81 degrees for you. 81 at dulles, 81 in martinsburg. overnight temperatures just not falling into the comfortable range, upper 70s and low 80s for your overnight lows this morning. here's your heat advisory. it goes into effect at 11:00 this morning, all the counties

in orange. so if you're one of our lucky viewers out to the west, you are not under a heat advisory, but for the rest of us, a heat advisory. it's going to feel like 105 to 109 later today in the counties here that are in orange as our actual air temperature will be very close to 100. mix in that humidity which will be increasing up ahead of our frontal system and it's going to be -- that will make it a very uncomfortable day. here's the big change in your forecast, cold front approaching from the north and west later this afternoon and this evening. we're officially under a slight risk, you can see the area in red there, under a slight risk for severe weather later this afternoon. and it's certainly possible we could have some damaging hail, some very gusty winds with these storms as they move into this very warm and very humid atmosphere. so the good news is we've got cooler air on the way. it is going to take its time moving on through. so later this afternoon, even into the nighttime hours, the risk of a shower or thunderstorm. and then tomorrow our temperatures will be a little cooler but the front will be right on top of us, so we really don't get the relief until this friday and this

weekend, but things get a lot better. here's the five day, 100 today, sorry about that. overnight lows once again in the upper 70s. tomorrow is a little better, still going to be kind of sticky and humid with a few showers and storms around, 93. much better by friday, saturday and sunday, particularly this weekend, lower humidity, highs only in the 80s. so hang in there. it'll get better in a couple days. that's a look at weather. tony, allison, back to you guys. >> tucker, thank you very much. what would be great as you travel this summer? a better seat on the plane, cheap help on the road, a deal on your next night's stay? well, there's one guy who says you can have it all. fox consumer reporter steve noviello is live in dallas this morning with the secrets to saving on your next trip. good morning to you, steve. this is always good news. let's start with the hotel part of it. >> good morning tou, tony. a lot of folks don't realize those deep disounlts you get on those third-party websites, you can actually also get when you book directly through the hotel. well, why would you want to do that? here's a great travel tip for

you, when you contact a hotel directly, particularly their front desk and not their website, you do a couple of things. first you show intent, that you actually want to stay there, not that you happen to come upon it because it was a cheap place to stay, but you also establish a relationship with that person, the same person, by the way, who can offer you things like perks and upgrades when you check in. it's also a good time to ask that person about signing up for the hotel chain's free loyalty program, and also be sure to ask about any pay in advance discount that the hotel may be offering. >> all right. that's accommodations. what about transportation? obviously a lot of folks take road trips during the summertime. >> maybe folks in your neck of the woods packing up, going down to ocean city, you get all the essential stuff, you remember the map, you remember the food, you remember the entertainment for the kids in the back seat, but what we forget about is the roadside assistance. all of a sudden you're stuck on the side of the road, paying through the nose to a mechanic you never met before because you didn't plan ahead.

believe it or not, you may have free or discounted roadside assistance already in your pocket, your insurance program likely has a roadside assistance provision, many credit cards like bank of america, for example, offers roadside assistance. and if all else fails, check with your cell phone provider, all of the major cell phone providers have some sort of roadside assistance program which will get you things like locksmith and towing assistance, tire and gas assistance. many of them only cost a couple of bucks a month, certainly a worthwhile investment before you take that road trip this summer >> it really is amazing that oftentimes we have stuff that we're not even aware that we have some different coverages. >> oh, yeah. >> what about if you're going to be flying? i know some of my coworkers here will be doing that. how do you get the best seat hopefully without paying for it? >> the paying part is really a pain in the neck. what really adds insult to injury here is not only do you want me to pay for a good seat, but a lot of times all the good seats are already taken. well, if you've got a seat on a plane that you're not too thrilled with, the best time to

call and get a different seat is starting 72 hours in advance of the departure time of your flight. here's why, during that 72-hour window, that's when all of the frequent flyers and elite status holders get upgraded to different seats, so now all of the premium seats that they leave behind in coach become up for grabs for the rest of us. >> okay. these are good tips. steve noviello in dallas, texas, always good to talk to you. >> good to see you. >> see you again soon. 8:37 now. good information there. >> always is. still ahead, an apology after one of the world's largest banks is suspected of helping drug cartels. and get ready for big crowds at the box office this weekend for sure. up next the summer's big release "the dark knight rises," batman. we're going to get a sneak peek. stay with us. [ crows cawing ] [ male announcer ] strange things happen

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the chairman of the federal reserve returns to capitol hill this morning. it is ben bernanke's secretary day giving his semi-annual report to the senate banking committee. yesterday he painted a bleak picture of the economy and warned that things will get worse if congress does not agree on preventing a looming

budget crisis. also on the hill, top executives from one of the biggest banks in the world saying sorry to congress for laundering money for drug cartels and terrorist organizations. the head of compliance at hsbc announced he's stepping down. top executives say they were not aware of the money laundering and they told a senate panel that they did not fully know about the transactions. up next we are hitting the campaign trail, two very popular comedians are touring the nation to stump for their new movie. >> should be funny. and holly is getting behind the wheel with nascar this morning. hey, holly. >>reporter: actually, i'm getting ready to officially start the race. are you ready? i've always wanted to do this. ladies -- one lady, and gentlemen, start your engines. [ brjs roaring ] >>reporter: listen to those engines purr. we are live at old dominion speedway, easy for me to say,

right? in manassas where they are gearing up for their third annual nascar day. they've got all kinds of racing going on, all for a good cause coming up this weekend. we'll tell you how you and your family can get in on the fun. that's all next on the fox 5 morning news. stay with us. us. 

i can't wait. it's the most anticipated movie release of the summer. there it is. tickets already are selling out for this friday's debut of "the dark knight rises," the third and final installment in the latest batman series. fox's william leugenesse gives us a sneak preview. >>reporter: director chris nolan's third and final batman movie, "the dark knight rises" has a lot to live up to with his two previous films posting record-breaking numbers. >> i swore that i would protect you. >>reporter: the story of the billionaire turned superhero crime fighter picks up eight years later as a peaceful gotham city is erupted when the terrorist emerges, bringing the caped crusader out of

retirement. >> ashes. you have my permission to die. >>reporter: star christian bale had mixed feelings when the movie wrapped. >> especially that moment when i was taking it off for the very last time, yeah, you know, it's very bittersweet, you know, nice to be able to pop an adville and get rid of the headache, -- advil and get rid of the headache. this has meant a great deal to me, it's meant a great deal to me in terms of my career, in terms of my life, my family's life, et cetera, and this is it. >>reporter: not so for michael cain and morgan freeman. >> i start crying at the end of a movie and want to go home. >> start something else. >> yeah. start something else, read another script. >> my mom warned me about getting into scars with strange men. >>reporter: playing cat woman and starring next ann hathaway feels like she's on a a roll. >> there were two iconic roles back to back, definitely, but if you can't trust chris nolan,

i don't know who you can trust. >>reporter: and the debate continues over which costar was a body mold for batman's tight- fitting suit. >> that is michael's body. >> it goes in like -- they take the air out and it sucks in and that's mine. >> i did the mold friends. >>reporter: in hollywood, william lejenesse, fox news. >> i doubt the mold is from -- >> it's good. let the campaign games begin. >> comedians will ferrel and jack goankiss kicked off. these two funny members rival north carolina candidates out to bury each other in a mud slp slinging, back-stabbing comedy. it was all laughs as the two kicked off a "whistle stop" tour in l.a. >> marty hugins is the guy that's kind ep of his family that comes from a

political family that they have all kind of os tra sized. >> >> he likes the idea of being a vice president where you really don't have to work too hard. >> the campaign tour hits a number of big cities in the united states and canada, including d.c. on july 31st. wouldn't it be great if they came in here. let me not get too excited. the campaign hits theaters august 10th, the movie. >> we gotta try. >> we'll try. they go from zero to, well, maybe 100 miles an hour in the blink of an eye or more. we don't know, it doesn't say. but do you ever wonder how nascar drivers like joey lagono or kyle busch or david reagan got their starts? >> one program is teaching children to chase their dreams all the way to the finish line. here's holly with more from manassas now. holly. >>reporter: hey, guys.

have you ever heard sell on sunday, win on monday? >> yes. >>reporter: it's a long-time slogan that's been associated with nascar because it means if that brand of car wins a race on sunday, then on monday that brand of car will be selling at the auto dealers. and so that's kind of been the theme in terms of nascar racing over the years. but when you're talking about the nascar race that we're talking about on saturday here at old dominion speedway, we're selling a whole different thing. we're selling the future for kids that wouldn't necessarily have that opportunity because it's all about the program called youth for tomorrow which saturday's third annual nascar day supports ron devine is the vice president for youth for tomorrow. he also is the owner of bk racing, and i have the future of nascar here with me as well, jonathan benly and brady miranda. we're going to get to them in just a second. i why this event and why now? >> it's an important event because the youth home like every other organization is trying to survive in this economic time, and so to be able to have an event like this

and bring money back into the youth home and raise this money, you know, i can't thank all the people so much for everything they've done, the sponsors have come together and steve britt opening up his track like he has and making this opportunity for the youth home is really special. >>reporter: it's so important to you that, you know, when you sign your drivers on, you say, okay, on july 21st, you're going to be doing this event. >> yes, we did. it gives them a chance to bring back and it brings them back to their roots where they got started and they're real excited about being here, landing castle and travis will be here, mike and angie skinner are coming. we've got some redskins coming out for fan appreciation to sign autographs, to be with the people, really a special day. >>reporter: you know, it's wonderful for the younger drivers to get to hang with the professional drivers. but it's nice for the professional drivers too. it might help them work on their basics a little bit. >> it's funny, last year after the race a lot of the professionals were, like, we've been kind of humbled by these guys. >>reporter: yeah, local ones. >> local tracks have that

knowledge, so it keeps them humble. >>reporter: well, you also get to see come saturday how nascar really develops its drivers. and look here, we're talking about the future of nascar. right here i have jonathan fendly, 13. you race in the bandero outlaw division. and, brady, you are 10 years old, you race in the imax bandellero division. she's got the game face on already. show me your cars. let's walk over here. as we do that, tell me, how did you get into race sng >> my grandfather had a mini modified when he first came out here. i saw these cars, and i asked him that i wanted one. he said maybe and we knew a guy who had one and he was selling it and my grandfather didn't tell me until he took me and showed me it. that's how i kind of got started. my grandmother and him put the money together and gave me a car. >>reporter: now, i understand that you also like to fix cars.

you tinker on yours quite a bit. >> yeah. my grandfather lets me do most of the stuff on mine. >>reporter: so why is your car so fast? >> i mean, it has a good setup in it. we talk to people down in north carolina who know what they're dealing with and how to work on them and people who at 600 racing who make these cars and give them to us to race. >> who's your favorite driver? >> carl edwards. >> am i going to see you at daytona one day? >> i'll sure try. >>reporter: you remember me, okay? he currently happens to be ranked 9th in the nation in his division. let me head on over -- i'm a little scared of you, brady, you look tough. whew. she smiled. is it true that i understand you started racing when you were 4? >> yes. >>reporter: so why do you like to drive cars fast? >> they're fun. >>reporter: they're fun. are you as good as the boys? that's where you say i'm better than the boys. >> yes. >>reporter: so who's your

favorite driver? >> dale junior. >>reporter: dale junior, all right. what's your strategy when you get behind the wheel and get out there on the track? >> concentrate. >>reporter: do you ever get nervous? nah, piece of cake, right? do you ever tell your mom how to drive when she's taking around to school and stuff. no. you're not a back seat driver? i just wanted to make sure. i just wanted to make sure. whoa! she is a tough cookie. what are your chances of winning you think come saturday? >> i really don't know until saturday. >>reporter: you don't know until saturday, right? do you know what your ranking is right now? >> not really. >>reporter: i think you were read you were, like, 17th in the nation. it's okay, right? and how do you think these drivers are doing out here? >> good. >>reporter: what do you want to talk about? i hear you have a black belt in karate. i'm just going to wrap it up

right there. myfoxdc.com is our website. we have a link to old dominion speedway here in manassas where come saturday it will be their third annual nascar day. come on out and have a good time. coming up in our next hour, believe it or not, this is just practice for thee guys, we're going to have a little mock race. we'll see how that goes in the 9:00 hour, how many laughs we can get in in four minutes. i don't know. back to you. >> who booked that little girl? >> tony was on the phone. >> good try, though, holly. >> thanks, little racer. good morning to our facebook fan of the day. she is vernise. she says she and her husband, pictured here, are celebrating their seventh wedding anniversary. >> lucky seven. >> happy anniversary. she says they are fox 5's number one fans. can both of them be number one fan? >> yeah. they can share that title. >> seems like one would be number two. >> your half. >> to see our fan, log onto our facebook page and leave a

comment under vernise's pictures. could charlie sheen bring his winning ways to "american idol"? the show's producer says it is a possibility. it is a possibility, tony. >> train wreck. >> sheen says he would be up for the challenge even though he doesn't have a lot of singing experience. he appeared on ryan secrest's radio show and says appearing as a judge on idol would be fun. last week steven tyler and jennifer lopez announced they weren't returning to the show. i think it would be a joke. >> it would be a joke, and for the live shows, you'd spend every -- they could be 10 minutes into the show and charlie wouldn't show up. you can't do that. >> exactly. it's important to these young people, so it can't be a joke. 8:55 on this wednesday morning. coming up next hour, pepco and bg and e are promoting smart meters as a way to save on your power bill, but not everyone is excited about the idea and if you're one of them, there's a way you can actually opt out of the program. >> at least for now. also she topped the charts

in the early '90s with the hit -- don't you love this song, we love your smile and charniece's career is still going strong. she'll join us live next hour.  [ romney ] i'm mitt romney, and i approve this message. [ male announcer ] when a president doesn't tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead? the obama outsourcing attacks: "misleading, unfair and untrue." there was "no evidence" that mitt romney shipped jobs overseas. candidate obama lied about hillary clinton. so, shame on you, barack obama. [ male announcer ] but america expects more from a president. obama's dishonest campaign: another reason america has lost confidence in barack obama.

obama's dishonest campaign: the middle class is shrinking. in this s day and age you can oy accompmplish so much without a degree, and traditional institutions a e simply not set up to accommodate people who have jobs and families. university of phoenix works for those people who have real lives and real demands. the degrees that we offer are things where people can fulfill their goals with even brighter hopes for the future. my name is katy white, i'm committed to making a difference in people's lives and i am a phoenix.

straight ahead at 9:00, breaking news from the football field. the redskins rookie quarterback says he's heading to work. we'll have the latest from the contract negotiations. like good news when it's breaking news. >> yeah. plus a senior citizen saved the day. we'll show you how a 71-year- old stopped a pair of would-be armed robbers. >> some more good news there. and later singer shanice is in town for a concert at blues alley this weekend. first she is stopping by to talk with us. i haven't seen her in a long time. that's great. >> can't wait for that. good morning, everybody, i'm tony perkins. >> i'm