could know who will likely be the next mayor of d.c. and the next county executive of prince orge's county. good morning to you. >> good morning to you. it's tuesday, the 14th of september, 2010. a live look outside right now. nice day. 66 degrees. nice day so far, he said. let's find out what the rest of the day is going to be like. >> lookingood for the election. another day with quite a bit of sunshine. no fog this morning like we had yesterday morning. the atmosere dried out since then. right now just past 5:00 in the morning. 66 at national airport. ral areas of maryland and virginia, many locations upper 50s. near the bay, though, low to mid-60s. in the mountains, upper 50s. over the last 12 hours, a few high clouds drifting north an

west. highs reaching the low 80s. 50s tomorrow morning. mostly sunny wednesday, near 80. area of low pressure will give us a small chance of a passing shower thursday night. perhaps into friday morning. weave to dry out a bit with highs near 80. now let's check traffic on this tuesday morning. jerry, how is it looking? >> looking good this morning so far. capital beltway, inner loop and outer loop, top side from american league to bridge doi fine. south side, no woies. getting from an trues air force base to alexandria to i-95 moving along nicely. speaking of the wilson bridge, here's the outer loop, the inner loop. again, moving along with the travel lanes open. >> thank you, jerry. >> today could decide who the next mayor of the district will be. voters will heado the polls in

about two hours. fenty is vying for second term but he is facing challenge from vincent gray whoeads in most preelection polls. may dpan mcgrath is live in northwest washington, one of the main polling stations today. good morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning. just hours to go. two hours to be exact before the polls open this morning. and this has been an interesting and sometimes heated campaign. most of the polls showing adrian fenty is facing an uphill ttle. will that translate into a victory for vince ept gray? fray certainly hopes so. gray is saying i believes voters are considering him based on his own merits. but, again, mom ine, the ornt

thing is what the voters do. again, polls open at 7:00 this morning. if this race does, indeed, become tight we may not know the winner tonight. if it comes down to provisional and absentee ballots, it could take time to count all those up. it could be a late night or we might not know the results until a later tate. it just depends howtight it is. of course a lot of people to come out and cast their pal lots today. more coming up in the next half hour. back to you in the studio. thanks very much. dpra hopes to replace fenty as well. but three candidates are uning to replace gray. kwam brown is ahead in most of the polls. he leads orange and douglas. orange ran for mayor four years ago and loss. and the race for county

executive. michael jackson and baker are considered the front-nners. levi, dean, and turner are the other candidates in this primary. they're all trying to replace jack johnson, returning to private sector after eight years in office. you can get the latest information any time on nbcwashington.com. right now 5:04. a commuter alrt. metro continues to work to repair a stringf elevator outages that have affected several northern virginia stations. elevators went out at half of the stations in arlington yesterday. they includes rouse lynn, courthouse, pentagon, crystal city stations. paramedics had to free one woman got trapped when it sully shut down at the courthouse station. work could last through

tomorw. still not clear what caused the elevator toss shut down. another commuter alert in prince george's county. if you take the bus you may want to make alternate plans. that's because drivers are on strike. union members are striking for better jobsecurity, improved health insurance, and changes in the discipnary changes. officials say cameras have helped improve safety and driver performance. to get the latest on what routes are affected, 301-324-2877. passengers should callthat number. officials at georgetown university are investigating what they're calling several hate and bias incidents. they occurred between september 6th and 13th at two separate residence halls, now south hall and darnell halls. hitler and swastikas were

written on dry erase boards. police are still looking for who may have committ those crimes. a neighborhood dispute over a speed bump may have led to a murder in fairfax county in the springfield area. steven carr was found shot in his home on field master drive in springfield. his neighbor, david patton, was arrested. court documents show patton was previously charged with assaulting carr in june because he was upset carr lobbied lawmakers to have a speed bmp installed in his house. the two were due in court this week on that assault charge. >> real sad day for the community. neighbors can't get along sometimes. and a silly thing like a speed hump can cause a tragedy like this. doesn't make any sense, does it? prosecutors charged 44-year-old david patton with murder. he is being held without bound. our time is 5:07. 66 degrees.

texting on capitol hill. lawmakers go head-to-head on whether to allow bush cuts to expire. it's not just the republicans who are opposed. it's president obama's new plan. what precautions are being taken to make sure it doesn't happen again. will you need to grab a light jacket or perhaps a dark ♪

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welco back. 5:10. 66 degrees. nice, cool, refreshing morning when i came outside my door and headed to work. skies are clear. another nice day so far. so far, so good, tom. >> and then you've got to work. >> sunshine from both sides. >> thank you very much. i was waiting for that. >> basking in joe's glow.

>> that's right. >> good morning. at this hour we have a partly cloudy skies. beautiful start to this ection day2010. around our ream we have it in the mid-60s in washington near the bay. highs today in the low 80s. quite a bit of sunshine. tomorrow, a cool start in the morning near 50s. thursday, increasing clouds. could get showers thursday evening. drying out after that. a look at the weekend at 5:21. >> we're hard pressed to find anything bad this morning. that is very good. 14th street bridge. just aeminder the far left lane for the new construction pattern. things went surprisingly well yesterday. hopefully it will be the same today. elsewhere, the trip around town, 270 southbound near middlebrook south of 118 looking good.

northbound, any road work should be wrapped up 5:12. 66 degrees. primary elections are here. polls are opening soon. live on maryland with more on some of races there. >> monday officer storm from space. space. hurricane so i told the guy i wanted yeah. a convertible. and this is what he had in my budget. aw! well, the top is down. the top is gone! lots of head room... tons of head room! --carefu that's sharp. jeez! yeah...sorry. narrator: settling foress isno. what is smart is getting more car for your money at carmax. guaranteed-quality used cars can cost a lot less than new cars. you c get more car for less m. now more than ever, the smart choice is carmax. the way car buying should be.

5:14. we could soon learn today whether fent will remain d.c.'s mayor. the mayor is facing a tough election challenge from vincent dpra who leads in most preelection polls. it is also primary election day in maryland where voters in prince george's county will choose their candidate for

county executive. a deadly shooting may be linked to a fight over a speed bump. steven carr s shot and killed in his own home sunday night. court documents show patton was previously charged with assaulting carr in june. he was upset carr lobbied lawmakers to install a speed bump in front of his house. elevators in five stations broke down yesterday. it could lost through tomorrow. still unclear what caused the elevators to shut down. decision 2010 voters will side their pick for democratic nominee for county executive. five people are in the running. jackson a baker are considered the top runners.

levi, dean, and turner are the other candidates in this primary. >> reporter: as you said, it will be a tight race with five choices and a very competitive one as well. baker, who has run three times for countyexecutive, is in the running, along with prince george's county sheriff jackson. dean says don't count himout. i believes he's also a front-runner. levi and busessman turner jr. are in the running. they have all campaigned hard, going door t door. their campaigns were working very hard yesterday to get out the vote. we saw campaign workers already setting up signs in front of this polling site.

the polls open at 7:00 p.m. >> t race for governor in maryland has been focused on a possible rematch between o'malley and uhrlich. today they will ce members of their own party. o'malley is expected to easily win the race today. and uhrlich will face murphy. the bethesda resident earned the support of sarah palin. uhrlich is favored to win the republican nod. it is also primary day for the house and senate. one we're keeping an eye on is the maryland 16th district. that includes potomac, chevy chase areas. there are 13 different candidates running for the spot ream vacated. we will be monitoring all the ras throughout the morning. stay with us for live reports at 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. you can get the latest on

nbcwashington.com. happening today, president obama heads to philadelphia to make his second back-to-school speech to the nation's students in as many years. the speech will be broadcast to schools across the country. the president will say if they focus on their studies and work hardz they can achieve their fwols and dreams. the white house released the remarks a day early so people could read the speech beforehand. last year they said he tried to push his political agenda. so such controversy this year. politicians return to capitol hill. battle leans on whether to steptd tax cuts implemented during the bush adminisation. now some democrats are joining the opposition. >> reporter: tax cuts for everyone, or the obama plan for

just those who make 50,000. the president said those who earn more would get a break. >> if you make half a million dollars a year you would get tax help on the first half. >> reporter: boehner signaled he may do that you ey want the cuts extended for everyone. we can't help the middle class by taxing the people who give them the jobs. >> we had tenyers o tax cuts for the healthy. where are the jobs? >> they can't rejustify hiring all the workers. >> everything is done on top with a smaller staff. >> at least three democrats agree. raising taxes now may not be a good idea. >> i think if we rse anyone's tax rates in 2011 wh the recovery is so fragile, we take

a chance that it goes back into recession. >> it would cost $4 trillion. to put this in context, this is a fight over very few people. restricting contracts means 6th three would pay more. federal investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a natur gas pipeline to rupture and cause a fire in san trou know. close to 40 hopes were stroid. pacific fas and electric started installing all ofts gas lines. but there's concern about aging pipelines beyond california. new concern about a storm brewing in the atlantic ocean.

julia was upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurrane. it is packinginds at 75 miles per hour. a more immediate threat, thoh; hurricane igor. nasa released this video of the category 4 storm, sustained winds of 140 miles per hour. dramatic pictures. the tract shows it well south of bermuda the next five days. it's too early to tell whether it could threaten land after that. tom might have a better idea. >> that's the view from the space station. >> it does appear the extended tract for the hurricane will keep it out to sea, thankfly. the chances are quite good we are not going to have igor threatening the seaboard. here we have a paly cloudy sky on this tuesday. temperatures in the 50s and low

to mid-60s. a few clouds coming through. more of the same on wednesday. thursday, increasingly cloudy. app area of low pressure passing to our north. ande have a chance of a passing shower when that happens. just a small chance. otherwise, clds coming in. drying out friday aternoon with highs near 80. here's a look at the all-important weekend. saturday and nday looking terrific. upper 70s with lots of sunshine. should be mostly sunny sunday as well with temperatures into the 80s. we could start having some heavy surf at the beaches on sunday and monday as well. both days not vry humid. morning lows into the 60s. a pleasant pattern for the weekend. let's check on traffic. jerry edwards, how are we

looking? >> very, very morng so far. southeast, pennsylvania avenue, coming up from branch avenue, rightcross the bridge. no worries whatsoever. elsewhere, the rush hour is picking up some volume. a couple spots on 66 coming from 123 tthe beltway. certainly no wries. travel leans open on the yes or no bound side. fair oak, center vil or beyond, that's loving along very nicely. vet ra, vre and, mark, no early delays as trains begin pulling out of the stations. >> jerry, thank you. >> 5:23. they're supposed to kill germs but did the diseases really work. and who texts more, women or men. who is racking up the highest one bills. >> who do you think?

it is a fall staple and the unofficial symbol of halloween. pumpkins, of course. this year's crop will be a lot smaller than in the past. the problem has been too much moisture so the pumpkins will just rot and die. it keeps bees from getting to pumpkin plos onlies. too bad. >> lathering on the hand san sizeray not keepyou cold free this 60-90 minute. those using the sanitizer, 42 caught a call. came down with the flu. the numbers were similar for those who do d not use the hand tizer. the company was sponsored by

dial. experts say sanitizers are still effective against most gastrointestinal problems. how many text messages do you send a month? 300? 200? 300 would be ten a day. >> not me. if you're a teen, that number may be close to 3,000. >> that's 100 a day. >> teens accepted an average of nearly 2,800 text messages a month. women hold a clear advantage over men. leading spend more than 14 hours a month on the phoe, threend a half more than men. that's because youre making the doctor's points and calling the school. >> more and more people are never using the phone as e phone. they're e-mailing, texting, watching videos. >> no one ever talks to each

other, basically. yeah, face to face or on the phone anymore. well, let's talk to you face to face. it is election day in the race. it will determine if mayor fenty will stay in office. we'll have a live report. police say they were forced to shoo a dog after it pit two people, but the owners that never happened. more problems at the ♪ i thought it was over here... ♪ [car horn honks]

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decision day. voters will head to the polls in d.c. and marylandor the primary elections. when it's all over we will know who is one step closer to taking office. good morning. welcome back to news 4 oday. i'm joe krebs. >> it is tuesday, september 14th, 2010. primary day in maryland and d.c. a live look outside right now. washington monument is pnting the sky, which is still dark at this hour. going to be a while before the sun comes up. >> the sun coming up later and later. sunrise, 6:49 this morning. it's getting later and later. thankfully, no fog around like yesterday morning. this morning we have a few high

cloud. western sky is jupiter. mid 60s in washington and near the water. the mountains, 50s. arch clouds with a hue you drifting northwest. low ate later on. more of the same on wednesday. increasing cuds thursday. jerry, how is the traffic? >> tom, yesterday indeed was quite a challenge because of the fog. today, smooth sailing, good visibility and dry pavement. we look at the capital beltway near braddock. inr loop from springfield around the nd, up towards 66 looking good. little volume here and there. inner loop of the beltway. green belt. outer loop trying to pick up customers as you come over from green belt, college park, west to silver spring. good news is no accidents

reported. let's see if it continues on the rails this morning. indeed, it does. metro, vre and mark all looking good. it's primary day in the district. voters will decide whether mayor adrian fenty will serve another term. megan mcgrath is live where voters will beginasting their ballots in abou 90 minutes. megan, good morning. >> reporter: well, good morning. a lot of interest in this race. in an hour and a half, voters will have their say. according to most of the polls, adrian fenty is fighting an uphill battle. that will translate into a victory for gray. he certainly hopes so. i believes many voters are seeing him for his idea and not

just considering him app o sagz vote. >> people understand there's way more good that's happening in the city than the bad. we will learn from hurry mistakes and do a better job. >> i've heard it trance igz to a better place. >> reporter: the polls open at 7:00. they will stay open until 8:00. the polls show fenty is fighting an uphill battle. if this turns out to be a tight race it coulbe a while before an official winner is declared. they would have to cut the provisional and absentee ballots. and there are new rules in terms of unregistered photoers. if those folks then cast ballots, the votes would not be

counted untils are si is met. again, not much longer. about an hour before the polls open. >> megan, thank you. thee candidates are run to go replace vincent gray. but three candidates are running to replace gray. kwame brown is ahead in most of the polls. he leads orange and douglas. orange ran for mayor four years ago and loss. a neighborhoodispute over a speed bump may have led to a murder in fairfax county in the springfield area. police say the suspect and victim knew each other. court documents show patton was previously charged with

assaulting carr in june. the two were due in court this week on assault charge. prosecutors charge 44-yearld patton with murder. heis now being held without bo. it is still unclear what really happened moments before a d.c. police officer shot and killed a dog at the adams morgan day festival this weekend. a 2-year-old pitbull shar pe mi he did bite a poodle during the fight but was in the middle of caing him down when a d.c. police officer stepped in. an eyewitness told news 4 that the officer put his hand on parrot's throat and he spun around and bit the officer on his hand. but block insists that's not what happened. >> he tried to squirm free from this obviously painful position. he grabbed the dog, flipped him down the stairs on his back. the ficer came to the top of

the stairs, fired one shot. it did not immedialy kill my dog. they left him to bleed out at the bottom of the stairs. >> several other people witnessed the incident. some of the stories match what happened block says. others support the officer's version. block raised a concern that police fired a shot into a confined space with lo of people around. a lot of virginia's dmv problems may not be over. a computer glitch yesterday caused more headaes at the franconia office. some customers had to wait in line for hours. and the audio system went down and they hadhe call the numbers from behind the desk. it's not clear whether this was related to the computer meltdown of last month which prevented customers from renewing their licenses for a week that problem, though, was eventually resolved. 5:38. 66 degrees. children across the country will get a special message from the president of the u.s. what he plans to encourage kids to do this school year.

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good morning. time for weather and traffic. at this hour, we've got a partly oudy sky. temperatures in the 50s and 60s around the region. a beautiful start to this tuesday. 66 in washington. highs reaching low 80s this afternoon. low humidity. more of the same on wednesday. could get showers thursday night, friday morning a small chance of that. and a look at the weekend and the latest on the tropics in ten minutes 5:51. how is it looking now, jerry? >> if th keeps up, i'll be it of a job. smooth sailing 395 northbound, new lane configuration.

the left side. you can exit to the g.w. parkway. kind of shifts down over. but it really worked out well yesterday. we'll keep you updated. howard county, authorities wrapping up an earli accident. should be out of the roadway before too long. northeast corridors, lanes are open. all is well. >> at least montgomery county schools in some maryland are closed because of primary election day. i don't know whher that's true throughout maryland. >> jerry, as long as you're in this ea you'll never be out of a job. >> keep jerry working. >> 5:43. still ahead, the polls will be open soon in maryland. where the biggest primary race is for prince george's county executive. and how would you like to

deal with less traffic? besides jerry. we sit down with the man in charge of d.c. transportion department to hear his plans to tr

>> i am a proven leader. i have a proven record. i brought resource toss prince george's county. i have provided leadership of an agency that was almost extinct when i walked in the door in 2002 as sheriff. >> reporter: jackson is considered one of two front-runners, along with baker, who ran three times for county executive seat. >> tis is a great opportunity for prince george's county. it really is. if you look at where we're standing in largo, the opportunity to build and bring commercial business toss prince george's county and the experience i have in doing that, hands-on experience, working with our education system, it's an important election. >> reporter: sam dean believes he's in the lead of this competitive race. businessman henry turner said voters want change and that's

what he will deliver. levi says the election will be historic if she's voted the first female county executive. she votes a 10-point plan to move the county forward. campaign workers are working all arou us work to go get out the vote, hing to impact voters here in upper marlboro. the thing t keep in mind just like in thedistrict, because this is such a heavy democratic county, whoever wins this primary most likely will go on to be county executive. >> the job of governors also up for grabs. the race focussed on a possible rematch between o'malley and former governor bob uhrlich. today they face members of their own party in their respective

primaries. and uhrlich will face murphy. the bethesda reside earned the support of sarah palin. uhrlich is favored to win the republican nod. stay with us for live reports all day long. of course you can get the latest information any time on nbcwashington.com. today, president obama will head to philadelphia to make his second speech in as many children. the presidentill tell students if they phone us on their studies and work hard they can achieve their goals and dreams. last year conservatives accused him of using the speech to push the views of children. the mque near ground zero

says all options remain on the table, including finally a new locatn. his group is still looking for a solution to the controversy. he said he thinks it is disingenuous to sa the block in question is, quote, hallowed ground because it is filled with strip clubs and betting parlors. 70% of americans think muslims do have a right to build the mosque but 63% think it would be inappropriate to do so. feral investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a natural gas pap line to explode last week in san bruno. four wereilled in the blast and close to 40 homes destroyed. nbc's leanne gregg has more on the vestigation. >> reporter: gas station

security video of san bruno. from the air, a view of what's left. >>this has been a tremendous disaster, and we want the people to know we're doing everything we can. >> reporter: pacific gas and electric started inspecting all natural gas lines as ordered by a state regulator. but there's concern about aging pipelines beyond california. >> this is a national safety issu because in many local communities, because of a lack of local rules and regulations, neighrhoods have grown and sprawl over these high pressure pipelines. >> reporter: pg&e claim their pipelines are safe. but critics say they should have replaced the lines in san bruno earlier, pointing to a company memo that reads, the likelihood of failure of this location is

unacceptably high. more than half the homes in america are heated by natural gas. officials hope what they learn will help prevent future disasters. 5:52. >> good weather for election day. students in maryland have the day off due to the election. atthis hour we're starting off with a mostly clear sky. bright spot in the western sky is the planet jupiter. around our region we have another mild morning under way. mi-60s in washington. low to mid-60s near the water. elsewhere, upper 50s to near 60. prince george's, arlington, fairfax, montgomery, near 60. it's dipped into the 50s in western maryland and throughout much of west virginia. view from space the last 12 hours showing a flow northwest, a few high clouds drifting over us. hurricane igor, a well-formed eye as it churns over the atlantic. new hurricane julia much farther

east. a disturbance south of cuba. we'll keep an eye on that. it looks like it disa dissipating. east of bermuda during the morning hours. it should stay out to sea and not threaten the atlantic seaboard. low 50s and 60s t next few hours with a mostly clear skies. by mid arch, low to mid-80s. mostly clear night night. 50s tomorrow morning. on wednesday, near 80 with sunsne. showers thursday night into friday morning. weekend looks dry and mild with sunshine each day. jerry, how is the traffic? >>uick sampling around town. amican leej bridge moving along nicely from the maryland shoreline. there it is. no worries. elsewhere, head ove and update you. traffic through southeast pennsylvania avenue as you head

up towards minnesota avenue. 589s volume. all in all moving along nicely. out to the rails we go. metro rail and vre doing fine. one delay, camden 1, 14 minues behind schedule. >> thank you, jerry. if you're about to jump in your car, it's no secret. th nation's capital has the nation's worst commute. >> and we have a look at just what makes driving in d.c. so bad and what is being done aout it. >> reporter: driving around d.c. in a nutshell. >> scary. >> frustrating. time consuming. >> reporter: the hatred is justified. at least according to a research allstate insurance study. of 200 cities surveyed, d.c. was the worst in which to drie. what makes it so seems to be about the only thing on which we can agree -- >> driving in d.c.s very hectic. > pretty congested. >> reporter: root causes of the

congestion fend on who you ask. the man who runs the city's transportation system remembers how a recent move to the northwest moved him. >> 5:30 looking up and down the street and seeing almost no cars. we have to get rid of some of the cars. >> reporter: to do it, gabe klein has a plan. to do it, more of these. >> it's going to be free for the first 30 minutes and very low cost after that. >> reporter: the city is about to launch a brand-new bike sharing comny. >> doors swinging open. it's very dangerous. cars running red lights. >> reporter: not everyon thinks they'rso great. it sure seems like they have declared a war on motorists. >> reporter: and thegeneral could very well be ron anderson.

the spokesperson believe >> what you do to cars and to the metrobuses that use pennsylvania avenue, it should cause instant grid lock. >> reporter: to maximize impact, anderson would rather see d.c. focus on these. >> i think signal optimization would help a lot. >> reporter: the city is on it. >> if a car pulls up, it will flip the signal as long as there's no other cars in the corridor coming. >> reporter: d.c. rently installed a new system at 1178. while it's in the budget the expense means we won't see it for years. anderson says those well-intentioned efforts hav been overshadowed by something else the city has done. >> it increased to double more than 71 different offenses. and of course they jacked up the on-street parking now $2, $3 an hour.

>> reporter: but if you can find a spot. >> there's no parking. >> there's nobody that kes to pay for parking. >> the reality is times have changed. >> hopefully the grid lock soon will t. craig melvin, news 4. it is a problem. >> indeed. >> and if you're thinkin mass transit is the answer, this next story may discourage you. also ahead at 6:00 a.m., everything you need to know before you head to the polls. stay with us. we'll be right back.