temperatures are pushing almost 90 degrees right now. >> boy. >> i know. and they're going to climb even higher. that means a heat advisory is set to take effect in just about two hours. >> tucker barns is in the weather center downstair in an air conditioned bunker to tell us all about it. >> you saw the live shot, notice the humidity on the increase as well, that's the heat advisory. yesterday's high temperature was 100. today we'll do that again, but we'll mix in a lot of humidity, so it's going to feel more like 105 to 109. don't have an update for our 9:00 a.m. hour, but hee we are last hour the 83 at reagan. i would expect these numbers will jump impressively here in just a couple of minutes. 81 in winchester. the heat advisory going into effect at 11:00 this morning. you can see all the counties in orange. that includes the district of colombia here, baltimore, all the way down to ocean city, under a heat advisory. it's the combination of humidity and air temperature,

going to make it feel like 105 to 109. limit yourself, if you're working outdoors, make sure you take frequent breaks that kind of thing. satellite and radar, thunderstorm activity a possibility later today. it will arrive in the form of a cold front later this afternoon and tonight. it will take its time moving through here. so we're not going to really cool down until friday, but at least the possibility of some cooling showers and storms later today. let me mention some of those storms could be strong, so be ready for that possibility as well. 100 later today in washington, 100 in manassas. only 97 in winchester, so a little cooler in the mountains. more details on the forecast including a better looking weekend ahead. i'll have that for you in just a minute. tony, back to you. tucker, thank you very much. now that heat could mean another days of delays on metro. speed restrictions likely again today with temperatures near the triple digits. metro changed its seat policy

after a greenline derailed after another heat wave about two weeks ago. officials blamed a kink in the track which mostly was caused by -- most likely caused by extreme heat. another note for drivers today. you will be allowed to carry bottles of water on buses and trains because of the heat. we turn now to a tragic accident in northern virginia. a huge tree crashed down on top of a car, killing the driver. >> this happened along georgetown pike in great falls around 7:00 last night. crews have been working to remove the tree and another one that is rotting in the area. fox 5's melanie aldewick has been following this developing story. she's live on the scene. melanie. >>reporter: well, tony, both of those trees are down now this morning, but i gotta tell you, the buzz here as people have started waking up and coming together, there's a lot of consternation among the residents that i've talked to that these trees were not taken down sooner. i'm told there was a survey that was done within the year, talking about the condition of the trees, i'm not sure exactly

who was responsible for that survey, but the people i talked to said there was some debate as to whether to take all of these trees down or not. i did find a picture here, i hope you can see it, this is from the great falls historical society. there's no date on this picture, but this is an old picture of this exact oak tree that came down last night, and people that i talked to say that they believe it is anywhere between 100 and perhaps even 200 years old, and not only did that tree come down, but, again, last night they had to start taking down the tree behind me, what was behind me because they were confirmed -- concerned about that too. let's show you some video of when that tree came down. you can just hear the force that that old oak tree fell with, and that is the same kind of force that came down last night, unfortunately, on top of a black four-door mercedes sedan shortly before 7:00 last

night. a man in his 60s was said to have been driving his car in the same direction as the traffic is going here. witnesses say they think he tried to slam on the brakes because he may have heard some cracking. but the tree was just too old and too big. they're saying it was about 100 feet tall, weighing about 40 tons, seven to eight feet in diameter, i mean, there really was no way that anyone would be able to survive that. again, tony and allison, there's a lot of questions this morning about who is responsible for this tree. it's pretty obvious when you look at the roof, you can't see it here, but we had video of it earlier, when you look at the roof, you can see there really wasn't anything there holding that tree to the ground, a very dangerous situation. and so i think as this story develops today, in addition to hoping eventually that fairfax county authorities may identify the victim, they are waiting for an autopsy there, then the followup story here is really going to be who's responsible for these trees and why weren't they taken down sooner.

back to you. >> all right, melanie. >> thanks, melanie. making headlines in the day ahead, a show of support for d.c. mayor vincent gray. today two prominent city ministers will rally for the embattled city mayor. they will hold a rally. they say he deserves courtesy and respect. gray is under fire to the response to the revelation that he was elected with the help of a so-called shadow campaign. three members of the city council have called for his riex. also -- resignation. also ahead today, maryland governor martin o'malley will join the mayor of baltimore and speak are of the statehouse in baltimore to discuss the possibility of a special legislative session. baltimore's mayor supports adding a casino in prince george's county. on the hill a house committee is hours away now from voting on a controversial bill that would ban abortions in the district after 20 weeks of pregnancy. the legislation is based on a disputed claim that a fetus

feels pain at that stage of development. but opponents like d.c. delegate eleanor holmes norton says the measure undermines a woman's right to an abortion and call it on rules. another day on the hill for fed chairman ben bernanke. today he will testify to the house financial services committee. the appearance comes one day after bernanke offered a grim picture of the u.s. economy for the senate banking committee. he says america's financial situation is doomed if congress cannot agree on how to avert a budget crisis. meanwhile congress is about to make some tough choices on defense spending that could cost the nation millions of jobs. >> sarah is back in studio with details on that. sarah, good morning. >>reporter: the big defense cuts, they actually kick in automatically next year, and of the estimated 2 million jobs on theline, 45,000 could come from right here in the dmv area, and with time and options running out, yesterday the gop turned to an old hand.

former vice president dick cheney back on capitol hill, offering republicans some blunt talk about looming defense cuts. as part of last year's debt deal, congress set in motion what's called a sequester, about trillion dollars in cuts over 10 years that kick in next year, half of that from the pentagon's budget. >> obviously i think that capability is threatened by the prospect of sequester. >>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%, 12% or higher percentage, everything, no thought, no discretion, no planning, just whack everything. >>reporter: secretary of conference leon panetta has already warned that the cuts will be devastating. cheney, a former secretary of defense himself blamed 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 is 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 everyone 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 insist any compromise to avoid them must include tax hikes. allison. >> sarah, thank you. the white house, in the meantime, wants to create a core of master teachers, so today president barack obama will announce a new $1 billion education initiative. the program will reward top teachers with salary stipends, the hope that in turn will boost student cheevment in science, technology, engineering and math. well, speaking of the president and money, mr. obama could become the first incumbent president outspent by

a challenger. four years after becoming the first candidate to raise more than $100 million in a month, the president is trailing presumpitive republican nominee mitt romney in the fundraising race. in june the president and his dnc allies raised $71 million, but romney raised $106 million. and mitt romney is pushing his attacks on the president in ohio today. the republican candidate plans to stay on the attack for the white house, but growing pressure from across the political spectrum to release his personal tax returns threatens to stunt his momentum. the former massachusetts governor is holding a town hall meeting this afternoon and will try to build off fiery speeches he gave in pennsylvania yesterday. we are following breaking news now from syria. a suicide attack in syria's capital killed the defense minister and also killed president assad's brother-in- law. this morning attacks on top officials targeted a meeting at the national security building

in the capital. the attack happened as the rebels announced they have started deliberation of damascus, raging street battles continue this morning, and for the first time heavy armore and attack helicopters helicopters -- armore are used inside the capitol. we have still more breaking news now, this time from the nfl. redskins fans are going to breathe a sigh of relief. >> robert griffin, iii is final -- has finally inked his deal and will report to rookie training camp today. the skins just tweeted out a picture of the signing right there. do you see the contract or just the pen? >> i can't see it. >> he is all smiles. just over an hour ago griffin tweeted, well, people, it's time to go to work, off the unemployment line, oh, yeah, and httr. that means hail to the redskins. >> very good. glad to get that done. they are supposed to be

efficient- -- energy-efficient ways to save you money. not everybody is on board with the plan to install smart meters in or on your home. >> there is a way temporarily to opt out. still ahead this hour, i will talk live with paula carmody from the people's council. plus a democratic strategist beaten outside a convenience store on capitol hill. we'll have an update on his condition and what may have led to the confrontation. right now it's 9:11. we'll be right back.  what makes a sleep number store different?

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obama's dishonest campaign: another reason america has lost confidence in barack obama. to the big apple now where garage attendant's big mistake is caught on camera. check it out. a car plunges 40 feet down an elevator shaft in new york city, injuring two people on the street. firefighters had to cut the driver out of the lexus using the jaws of life. he is a parking attendant who drove the car onto the elevator, only the elevator was

not there. the lexus plummeted from the fifth floor. luckily and amazingly no one was seriously hurt. health and privacy issues associated with smart meters has led several agencies to take action. up until recently pepco and bge customers had no way of opting out of the installations, but now there is an opportunity. joining us live with this very latest information is maryland people's council paula carmody. good to see you. >> hi, allison. >> tell us about the opt out because i think that's what people want to know, then we'll get more into exactly what these smart meters are and what they claim to do. how can people opt out in maryland? >> sure, allison. maryland public service commission issued a temporary order on may 25th that certain options for maryland's consumers smart meter installation. there are two things that consumers can do, they can go

on the pepco website and basically type it in and opt out on the website or they can mail in a written request to opt out, and i have put up the address online, but it is a pepco address in washington d.c. this applies to two categories of customers. some customers already have the meter installed and so if that is the case, they can still contact the company and say do not activate the signal even though the meter is there. they can also contact the company if the meter has not been installed already and say do not install the meter. now, this is a temporary measure until the maryland public service commission decides whether they will allow consumers to opt out of the installation of the smart meter. >> why is your office against this? >> it's pretty -- >> why is your office against the smart meters? >> our office actually had challenged the proposal from

pepco and bge to install these meters, but it was mostly a money issue, what we had raised were a lot of issues about the cost of the installation of the smart meters, by both bg and e and popeco. ultimately what the maryland public service commission said is we will not -- you can go ahead and install the meters in residential households, but you will not be able to collect any money up front. sometime down in the future you are going to have to show that these meters and their installation are cost effective to our maryland consumers. so that was a big win that we got two years ago. since then we have been working with public service commission work groups on education, on privacy issues, cyber security and other issues of concern to our customers here in maryland. in fact you do say they invade privacy, won't save the customer money and haven't been tested for safety. i know that's not your realm of expertise, but a lot of people

are afraid of those frequency, that it will come, they say, into their homes because of it, the radio frequency exposure. on pepco's site, they say there is no danger, but i can't find where they have actually tested this in people's homes. can you speak to that at all? >> i can speak to it generally. you are right, our organization is a consumer office, it's not a health organization, but what you are referring to are the radio frequency or rf fields. these are frequently admitted like -- emitted like a lot of things like microwave ovens and a number of items like cell phones that people have. people have raised concerns because the meters are attached to the house. we have seen a number of studies related to rf frequencies and we have not seen any clear evidence that there are health hazards to

consumers, but there hasn't been a specific study done on the smart meters themselves. we do not see any indication that there is a problem, but we understand that consumers have raised this concern and that is why the maryland public service commission held a hearing back in may to let people bring these comments to the commission. >> we thank you for joining us. again, the bottom line here is you can opt out. you say send an e-mail or you can write in. on the website it also says that you are not allowed to opt out still today. so when you send the e-mail, should you make reference to what you're saying, that until maryland pse does not allow that. can you put that in the letter? >> i have put up a piece of paper. there is an online form that people can fill out on the pepco website, and it should refer to the maryland smart meter opt out, and they should

specifically say either i do not want the meter installed or i do not want the signal activated if the meter has already been installed or they should send it in writing to the address that's showing on the television right now. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> pepco is under an order. thank you. >> thank you, paula. paula with the people's council of maryland office of people's council. thank you, live from baltimore today. tony. >> allison, thank you very much. still ahead in sports, rg3's new adidas ad hits the web and the redskins rookie is finally ready to hit the gridiron. the details coming up next. if football is not your game, how about a few laps around the track? holly morris is live at the old dominion speedway with the need for speed. hi, holly. >>reporter: that's what they say, tony, all those other sports, they're just games. we're talking about racing and wreckin'. no better way to spend a saturday night, even more so here at old dominion speedway as they are gearing up for the third annual nascar day all for

a good cause. coming up live later, we're going to have our own mock race plus tell you too how you can get behind the wheel of a race car. it's all ahead on fox 5 morning news. look at that, the pace car is even running. 3q every day, an average of 5,000 people switch from cascade to finish dishwasher detergent. that's about 150,000 a month, over 2 million people so far. with finish quantum you get incredibly clean, sparkling dishes without having to rinse them first. now see for yourself why millions have switched to finish. join the finish revolution. and now you can try finish quantum for free.

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as we mentioned earlier, redskins fans are breathing a sigh of relief. yes. >> robert griffs finally inked his deal and will report to rookie training camp today. but in his time off griffin stayed busy. take a look. >> it gets in your head. you can't avoid it. >> this is an ad. it's a little bit creepy. in it griffin haunts a football player with several characters including a bus driver, a security guard and a trainer. >> eventually griffin shows off his skills on the gridiron in this ad.

by the way, full training camp for the skins starts a week from tomorrow. what is the purpose of it now? >> it's an ad for adidas. >> so wear the right shoe? >> yes. >> okay. well, that's a strong message. speaking of sports -- i'm scared. high drama, the nats blew a two- run lead in the 9th against the met with a three-run homer, but they would tie in the bottom of the inning with a hit by danny es pinnosis a, the -- espinoza. harper, here we go, would tie it with a triple to right. he would come home with the game winner on a wild pitch. the nats go on to win it 5-4 in really what was a thriller. love it. >> crazy win. and finally this half hour, america's pastime dps to man's best friend. take a look. this is ugy. you might remember him, he's the winner of "the artist."

he threw the ceremonial pitch at the padres game against houston. uggie took the ball and ran straight to the team's fryer. >> he looks cuddly. i like you. >> very cute. very cute. still ahead in our next half hour -- the monitor is over here. anyway, still ahead in our next half hour, the search for a suspect in an attack on a prominent political strategist who has appeared on this show many times. >> yes, he has. we're wishing him the best this morning. also how a quick-thinking senior citizen stopped a pair of would-be armed robbers. right now it's 9:26. you're watching fox 5 morning news. we'll be right back. [ obama ] i'm barack obama, and i approve this message.

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movie. >> just in the tv show. >> i like it. the wait is almost over for batman fans. >> christopher nolan's trilogy wraps up tomorrow at midnight with the nationwide premier of "the dark knight rises." excited fans are already helping the movie set records. opening night prices for tickets are selling for up to $300 online and amc theaters say they have sold more than 60,000 advanced tickets to a marathon showing of all three of the most recent cape crusader movies. >> that'll be fun. speaking of heros, take a look at this video. here's a real-life hero. two armed robbers try to hold up an internet calf bqe in florida. you see it going down there donna cafe in florida. you see it going down there. a man with a permit turns the tables on him. he quickly got up with his weapon drawn and squeezed off a few rounds. the suspects fled on foot. no one in the cafe was hurt. you go. >> wow! >> and run, run, run. >> wow! >> he knew what he was doing,

had the right to carry and there you go. >> he fires several shots too. >> something about the way you said it was funny. >> they weren't even hit, but that was good. >> did you see the controversy about -- batman is coming out, so some of the critics had had some criticisms about it and the commentary on one of the most popular websites has gotten to be so charged that they had to have close the commentary segment. >> what was the argument? >> some of the critics have reasons that they don't think the movie is perfect. >> so then the fans went after them. >> threatening them, yeah, basically. i'll tell you i'm a fan of the movies, but apparently something pretty dramatic happens in the movie. i want to see it before that gets blown for me by someone just talking about it. >> as you often accuse me of doing. you do that all the time. >> i don't mean to.

>> allison will talk right over me to tucker and say, did you see such and such. >> we would have seen it. >> i'll say, well, i haven't seen it yet. and she goes, well, tucker, when the girl goes -- hey, hey. >> you gotta go and see it. >> tony, i want your review. >> i'm going to try to go. >> don't tell him what the thing is. >> i don't know what the thing is. >> tony, don't tell tucker. 86 in washington, 89 in annapolis. here we go. i'm talking about our heat because once again we're going to be near 100 later this afternoon. we're going to have very uncomfortable levels of humidity as well. so we've got a heat advisory that goes into effect at 11:00. look at this dulles, 88, fredrick 86 already. i don't get to do the heat index very often in the morning hours, but it already feels like 92. our heat index later today is going to be 105 to 109. so obviously that's a dangerous heat. 95 in annapolis, 92 in quantico, 92 is what it feels like in stevensville. very hot day on tap and the possibility of some showers and storms. not yet, but later this

afternoon along this cold front which will be approaching the area very slowly. we could see some showers and storms develop. and some of those storms could be on the strong side. in fact, parts of the area, or much of the area officially under a slight risk for severe weather later this afternoon. that would include damaging winds, hail and we could see some heavy rain if these storms are moving slowly enough, as they push down the area. the timing on that, i think anytime after 2:00, 3:00 today, in through 10:00 tonight. some of these storms could linger in the overnight hours as this front is going to hang out in our area during tomorrow and much of our thursday. so tomorrow will be a day where we sort of transition into more comfortable air, but the good stuff doesn't get here until friday. 100 today, sunny and hot, storms possible later this afternoon. heat advisory goes into effect at 11:00. again, it'll feel like 105 to 110. later tonight scattered showers and storms. warm and humid overnight. 79 the overnight low. winds north and west five to 10. good news is things get better. 93 tomorrow with a few showers and storms around. much better by friday, saturday

and sunday, highs in the mid- 80s, lower humidity. hang in there, it will get better and it'll feel better too by friday and the weekend. okay, guys, that's a look at the weather. back to you at the desk. tucker, thank you. a prominent democratic strategist remains hospitalized after being beaten last thursday night outside of a convenience store in northeast d.c. >> david mercer has appeared on national tv shows. that's him on the left there, including on fox news channel talking about politics. police say mercer was attacked outside 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 parties 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 the 7- 11, but they aren't saying whether the assault was captured on tape. sources tell us that mercer's condition is improving and he's now breathing on his own. we do wish him and his family

the best. >> yes, we do. well, she may be best known for her song "i love your smile," but there's a lot you might not know about shanice. >> this is a good record. there she is! still ahead at 9:00 the singer joins us live in studio to tell us what she's been up to. first, though, tom cruise reunited with his 6-year-old daughter. tmz's dks holtz joins us with the latest on the hollywood split. 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...

in today's "buzz bin." tucker. hang on, i'm working on it. >> tom and surrey are reunited. dax holtz joins us live from l.a. with the details. we have an update on the death of sylvester stallon's son, sage. good morning, dax.

let's start with tom and surrey. >> yesterday was the first time they've been reunited since the divorce filing. there was a shot of them having dinner in iceland, but after that tom hadn't seen surrey in quite some time. yesterday he went over to katie's apartment, picked up surrey. there was no actual contact between tom and katie. it was done through bodyguards and such. tom took surrey back to his grenich hotel, they hung out there for a little bit and he took her to gym newscastics later -- gymnastics later on. tom looked extremely excited to hang out with surrey, he had a smile on his face all day long. there was tons of paparazzi following him around, but he looks like a very proud father yesterday. >> by all account he's a very hands-on dad. let's face it, he knows how to do this now. this is his third divorce, you know, so they know how to do it, they don't have to

communicate hand off the children, through the bodyguards and all that. >> he's always been a very good father, that's never come into question, even through this divorce katie has been very vocal about, you know, i definitely want him to have time with the daughter. she was thinking about maybe, you know, trying to make it a little more difficult on him for her own so that -- you know, obviously suri wouldn't grow up do be scientology, but she's never said he was a bad dad by any means. >> dax, we never worked out the custody issue with her, have they? do we know? >> yes. all of that is getting figured out. the divorce settlement is finalized. they had negotiated on everything. tom's getting a significant amount of visitation with suri and they've negotiated all of the stuff in regards to religion. neither of them can talk to suri about religion until she gets older. it's kind of one thing they put in there, a lot of stipulations so that both of them felt comfortable with this. >> let's push on, very sad news

for sylvester stallone and his family. his son died. what's the latest? >> so sylvester stallone wants some answers and he has hired a private investigator named scott ross. this guy has worked on tons of huge cases. he worked on the michael jackson molestation trial case, he worked on the chris brown and rihanna case, and sylvester stallon has used him many times in the past. so he hired scott ross and he wants him to look into sage's death, find out if sage was unhappy in the last few weeks, if he was doing drugs, drinking alcohol, just get some answers from him, and so he sat down with him yesterday and with frank stallone and some of the other family members. now he's going to get working on this case and see if they can get some answers to what happened. >> 36 years old, i think, right, for sage? >> yep, 36. >> hey, dax, been watching your show lately. you guys have been on fire. a lot of fun watching the show. it's good to have you on our show. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> good to see you, dax.

>> dax holt there. of course, you can see tmz every week night here on channel 5 at 6:30. still ahead, tucker, you have to do this, thank you, "i love your smile," you remember that song? >> of course. >> singer shanice joins us live with a special performance. looking all happy as always. but, first, holly is feeling the need for speed, figure tom cruise, she joins us with a look at the speedway in manassas. this is the plplan that revolves around you. introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. tap into a single pool of sharable data and add up to 10 different devices, including smartphones and tablets. the first plan of its kind. share everything. only from verizon. now add a tablet

for only $10 monthly access. [ male announcer ] when a president doesn'tt 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.

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third annual nascar day. we've moved up to the fox. it's the broadcast box, so joining me here is steve britt who is the owner of old dominion speedway. on my right is cody scott, he's 17 years old. we're having our own little mock race here. they should be starting relatively soon. we'll bring it to you live here on fox nascar broadcasting. good morning to all of you. good morning. >> you guys are in the moment. you're excited for this race to begin. what are the drivers thinking right now, tony? >> usually when i'm in the car right about now, usually i'm watching the guy in front of me -- >>reporter: pace car goes off. >>reporter: there goes the flag. biggity, biggity, biggity, let's go racin', boys. do you get stracted while you're driving? >> honestly, once the green flag starts, it's all good, you're not really thinking of anything. i know when i'm driving,

usually i think about two or three laps ahead of how i'm going to pass the guy in front of me. if i'm in the lead, i just think about hitting my mark, staying consistent, hammer on, just go. >>reporter: now, you know, i know that you talk a lot about driving fast and it's quick moves. but there's a lot of patience. it's a waiting game, right? >> oh, yeah. it's a miracle. i mean, i don't know i guess it's adrenaline rushing through your veins. patience is a key to learn when you're going to race a race car. >>reporter: how do you [ inaudible ] >> i'll be quite honest, my right turns on the street are better than my left turns. >>reporter: very good. i also want to bring in mike souters, he's with try it racing. the cool thing about try it racing is a regular person like me can actually drive a car myself like we're seeing right now, right? >> right. i have three of them out there right now and we have a two seater, race car and an actual car that you can drive. >>reporter: so how do you go about getting that experience?

>> you go to our website, tryitracing.com. you choose one, come out, see jeff, he'll put you in a race car and let you drive. >>reporter: that happens here at old dominion raceway? >> a couple of other locations. >>reporter: what's the cost for that? >> it's fairly accessible. >>reporter: what's the typical experience? >> typical experience is $300. >>reporter: how many lap? >> you get 15 laps of driving and five laps driving with a profession. >>reporter: i want to bring in steve. let me tell you something about steve and his wife kerry. they are donating the track on saturday for the youth for tomorrow event and 100% of the proceeds are going to this charity. steve, you're a pretty generous guy. >> thank you. >>reporter: good to see you. why is it important to be part of something like that? >> it's a local charity for us, so it's really important, it's a connection to racing with the joe gibbs affiliation with the youth home, he started it. and we want to support local initiatives. we want to support good local

charities, and we love the kids. we think it's important, kids are a big part of our racing program here. >>reporter: how much does something like this help get new racing fans out there? >> building the branld, if you would. this brings in people that maybe wouldn't normally come, it's a charity event. so we get a whole other cross section of people that come out to the race and they'll come back. it's a great thing for us, it's also a great thing for the charity. >>reporter: cody, how is the driving going out there, how are they doing? >> it looks like the pack is very good. you see the 83. >>reporter: i think the only thing that's missing is you. >> it's fast [ car noise ] >>reporter: the 5 car looks pretty good. it all looks good on saturday if you come out for the night of fun, third annual nascar day going on here at old dominion speedway. myfoxdc.com, we have a link. they really want to get you out here. there's plenty of tickets available. do you have something for me? >> i do.

listen, holly, you're a winner, so is fox 5, so we present you with a winner's trophy for coming out to old dominion speedway. >>reporter: you know what? let me just say this. i want to thank panasonic cameras for broadcasting this, for fox 5 broadcasting, for microphones making sure i'm heard all the time, starbuck's. you know what? it just takes a whole team to make this happen. >> thank you for bringing this event. >>reporter: back to you in the studio. >> you're a winner all the time, but today, holly, especially. if you have caught yourself singing along to "i love your smile" sometime in the last two decades. the song got to the billboard top 5 in 1991 and brought shanice more attention, she was on "kids incorporated," remember that, or how about a star search contestant way back in the day. she appears at blues alley this weekend. but, first, she's here with us. good morning, welcome to d.c. >> good morning. i'm so excited to be here.

>> have you played at blues valley before? >> this is my first time. i'm looking forward to it. i'm hearing wonderful things, though. >> your voice might blow out the venue. >> oh, thank you. take it easy on the folks. you can see shanice on friday and saturday, that's the 20th and 21st at 8:00 and 10:00 p.m., two shows. there it is. this flyer says experience the voice of a generation and it's so true. your songs have now become iconic. what's that feel like? >> it's really a blessing. "i love your smile" actually went number one in 22 currents, so i was able to -- you know, i can still tour europe and japan and even saudi arabia. so it's just a blessing. i'm really thankful for that song. >> it's feel-good music. sometimes when you turn on the radio, you don't always get that nowadays. such a happy song. >> it's a happy song. if you're having a bad day, put on "i love your smile." >> you hit it big as a young teenager with your first album

coming out at 14 and then going on with the "i love your smile" single. how have you stayed so grounded? how have you managed that? >> i think i've stayed grounded because of my family, my family kept me grounded, my mom used to tour with me, my grandmother, i had family around me, and just my love for god. >> the faith and the family working together. >> exactly. >> you got a lot going on. we talked about the music a little bit, about blues alley, but what else are you doing? you got a clothing line you're working on, new music? >> i have a new clothing line called house of 11. i'm wearing house of 11 today. and i'm working on new music. i'm recording right now. i'm excited. i'm back in the studio. i will be back with some new music very soon. >> now, we say new music, what are you doing today, though? >> i'm singing "my love" >> the only people who can touch this song. so this, of course, is shanice. we'll talk to you on the other side of the break.

>> okay.

let's say one more good morning to our fan of the day. this morning we say hello to

vernisa. she says she and her husband seen in their 7th wedding anniversary photo are our number one fans. thanks so much for tuning in. to be tomorrow's fan of the day, log onto our facebook page, leave a comment under the couple's picture. >> very nice. there's a live shot, sunshine. we have lots of that, maybe too much of it today, as we're going to be once again scorching under a hot summer sun. near 100 later today. heat advisory goes into effect at 11:00 and then the possibility of scattered showers and storms later today. heads up about the storms late this afternoon, they could be strong. just be ready for it. cooler weather on the way by the weekend, mid-80s with less humidity. >> we want to thank shanice once again for coming in. what are you going to be doing all these guys? >> rehearsing with the band and on friday, saturday i'll be at blue valley. >> 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. tickets are still available, but not for long, i'm sure. not a lot of people know this, that is some of tucker's favorite songs. >> i