skies? >> i didn't notice it with the headlights. >> okay. so that's the weather person in me. always looking up. even coming in in the daress, starry skies means that we'll have some clear skies to start the day today. mperatures across the area right now 53 degrees right into the district and around cleveland park. 49 now at burke and great falls. you folks in prince george's county now at 50. manassas at 48. and there's manassas,48, with a southwest wind. so we are going to be warming up very nicely today. that system that's plagued us for days, it's now around northeastern pennsylvania. cold front producing a few high clouds back off to the west. west virginia and eastern ohio. so sunshine for today, a few high clouds, 70or your high. about 3:00 today. and then guess wha more sunshine. it continues through the holiday weekend. we've got columbus day coming up. close to 80 on saturday and sunday. jerry? >> jerron ka, good morning to you.

good morning, everyone. clear dry road surfaces generally speaking. right now 395 northbound, landmark to sterlington doing okay. no hang-ups at the 14th street bridge. speaking of bridges, let's take a live look at the wid row wilson bridge from the maryland side. inner loop and outer loop between alexandra and oxon hill moving along very nicely. a lot overnight road work along the capital beltway. most of that should be wrapping up. we're on the prowl. >> all right, jerry, thanks very ch. this morning, the search is on for answers after a woman was murdered inside a northern virginia restaurant. this happened insi the five key bar and grill on spring garden drive in springfield while people were eating dinner. police were called after people heard a woman screaming. fairfax county police say there was a struggle between a man and a woman who knew each other. >> our investigation determined at a 40-year-old man entered the reaurant, assaulted a 37-year-old woman that he knew and he subsequently harmed himself. the woman was pronouncedead at

the scene and the suspect, who was taken int custody, was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. >> the suspect is in custody and expected to face murder charges. >> this morning people living in the foggy bottom neighborhood are on alert after a young woman was raped near washington circle. it happened yesterday morning in the 2300 block of pennsylvania avenue northwest. that's right behind the embassy of spain. there are at least half a dozen surveillance cameras covering the alley becae of the proximity to the embassy. police are now reviewing those tapes. george washington university sent out an alert las night. however it is not clear if the victim was a g.w. student. they're trying dozens of criminal cases in pince george's county are under review as the polic department investigates claims that the police officers involved in the cases may have cheated while still at the training academy. more tn 30 officers could face suspensions in this case. news 4's clint gordon has more.

>> reporter: last year this class of police cadets helped search the crime scene in one of two similar mother and daughter murders that occurred in prince george's county. now, their future as police officers is uncertain. this is the county police training academy, the focus of an internal affas investigation of alleged cheating that could involve discipline, suspension, or even removal of 32 prince george's county policefficers and two members of the maryland national capital park police. it casts doubt on their honesty and credibility. prince george's county ate's attorney glenn ivey, whose office prosecutes crimes, has formed a team to determine how many of his cases involve police in the alleged cheating scandal. >> we just wt to make sure that, you ow, any information that the defense had a right to know before the case was resolved was turned over to them. they might want to use this information for impeachment of the officers, who may have testified. and that's true for cases that

haven't come forwar as well. >> reporter: "the washington post" quotes an internal memo from the former training commander, notifying his superiors that there was a complaint from a former student that instructors had been providing cadets wittest answers. in 11 exams given in the final weeks before certification in 2009, all of the students scored 100% on one exam a student who was not even present scored 100%. the frarnal order of police is the union representing lice officers and instructors at the academy. >> i would hope, you know, these individuals, that there wasn't any wrongdoing on their part. until there's anything proven against these individuals. >> reporter: chris gordon, "news 4 today." >> and a state agency will determine whetr the officers need to be retested. it will be months before we hear the supreme court's decision in a debate over free speech versus the right to privacy. the polarizing argument centers around a protest at military funerals. crowds demonstrated outside the supreme court yesterday as

justices inside heard a lawsuit filed by a dead marine's father. he says members of the westboro baptist church disrespected his family's grief by picketing at his son's funeral. the church members say their anti-war protest was at a public event. >> you have one and only one opportunity to bury your child. in a civilized society we shouldn't be forced to be exposed to that behavior or skip the eun ral. >> -- call yourself having your feelings hurt over words is not enough to shut up the speech. >> the supreme court decision will determine if the marine's father can collect $5 million awarded to him by a lower court for emotional distress. today marks nine years since the beginning of the war in afghanistan. the afghan government is now working on a deal with the taliban to try to end that battleand many americans wonder whether u.s. troops will really come home next year, as the president has compromised.

nbc's tracie potts is on capitol ll. she joins us live. >> reporter: good morning. good morning, everyone. for the many families who have had loved ones to die in afghanistan, and there are hundreds of them in this country now, this is another anniversary. it's full of questions about whether we're actually fighting the right enemy in that war. president obama marked the ninth year of war by honoring 24-year-old staff sergeant rob miller, who died two years a defending his comrades against insurgents. >> they heard his voice. he had been hit. but still he kept calling out enemy positions. >> reporter: his parents said miller believed in the mission. >> he believed he was working for a good cause. >> reporter: but nine years and 1200 lives later, critics say it's time to refocus america's $100 billion year investment away from insurgents, and back to al qaeda. >> we can start to not be spending money again.

>> reporter: the white house reports pakistan's mitary is backing off direct conflict with the taliban, and al qaeda. and now there's word the taliban's in talks with afghanistan's government, possibly to end this war. the u.s. pullout is supposed to begin next summer. analysts say the begning of year ten offers a new opportunity. >> now is the time to give the new strategy one last chance. and if this one doesn't work, it's time for a backup plan. >> reporter: but what is that plan? a letter from president obama accompanying the white house report says for now, there's no reason to change the war strategy. the big problem there now is getting supplies to u.s. troops. just this week, dozens of nato convoys, nato trucks, supply trucks coming out ofakistan have been attacked by militants. joe? >> tracy pots, thanks very much. the suburbs have been hit particularly hard by the recent economic crisis. according to a new study by the brookings institution, the number of poor people in the suburbs jumped by morehan 35%

since the year 2000. that'sore than twice the city rate of 16.7%. since the recession began three years ago, 1.8 million more people in the suburbs are now living in poverty. economists say the study proves that people of all income levels are being impacted by this crisis. 4:38 is o time right now. 56 degrees outside, and clear skies ahead today in "news 4 today." a small fortune found in a city field. police trying to solve an unusual mystery involving boxes of valuable baseball cards. >> plus why a homeowner who watched everything she owned go up in flames when firefighters refused to help says she's not even angry. and the change in the forecast is coming. we'll check weather and traffic next. ♪

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from gloomy to glowing. welcome back to weather and traffic on the 1s. boy, weather doing a real turnaround for today. some sunshine across the area. now we've got clear skies currently. 53 degrees. not too bad. bailey's cross roads, and then stin hill andrince george's county at 50. and 54 degrees in st. mary's. at the bus stop, 52 to 61 degree and maybe you'll get by with just a long-sleeved shirt today. weather front off to our west but we're not going to get any rain from it. nothing but sunshine as hi pressure moves in.

74 degrees. your high teerature today is in close to 80 degrees. coming our way the weekend, sticking with sunshine around the area. >> let's head out and take a look through northeast along new york avenue. quiet start. there had been, again, in the overnight hours just like last night and the night before, the ramp from the inbound side of 295 of the vw parkway on the new york avenue was closed in the overnight hours for roadwork. that should be reopening if not already. we'll keep a watch on that. quick check elsewhere, wilson bridge okay, 270 moving along well so far. joe, eun? >> thanks very much. >> 56 degrees. still to come this morning, why the white house is drawing some fire for the way it handled the gulf oil disaster. >> plus a maryland man says it's a case of mistaken identity. why he's been receiving some threatening messages. and next a frightening find inside a home. what a realtor discovered that put a neighborhood on lockwn.

4:45 is your time now. president barack obama with campaign with maryland governor mart martin o'malley today. the campaign rally is at 1:00 this afternoon in prince george's county. meanwhile republican challenr bob ehrlich begins airing his first television ads in the washington region today. federal prosecutors have issued new subpoenas in their investigion into john edwards' campaign finances. ey're looking into allegations that some campaign money was used to keep edwards mistress rielle hunter, out of the spot light. edwards has admitted to fathering a child with hunter. a 37-year-old woman is dead after she was stabbed in fairfax county. the deadly stabbing happened inside the five-2 bar and grill in springfield while people were eating dinner. police say a 40-year-old man walked in and stabbed her to death. he was taken to the hospital with self-inflicted injuries. he is expected to survive and is in police custod investigators are still

trying to figure out who put what appeared to be two pipe bombs in a foreclosed prince george's county home. a real estate aingent found t devices in a vacant house in distri heights yesterday. a bomb squad spent about four hours making sure they were not a threat to the public. the agents who discovered them says that he did not even reize how dangerous the situation really was. >> i mean, when i found it, i didn't even -- it didn't even register to me that i was in a dangerous situation, really. i was more concerned about whoever may be looking for it, and find it. i didn't know, you know, somebody might be watching, that kind of thing. >> investigators sent a substance iide the devices to a crime lab to determine if the pipe bombs were real or folk. a man in anne arundel county says he's getting all kinds of angry messages and threats eer since a d.c. police officer shot and killed a dog during a festival. he also says it all a horrible case of mistaken identity.

aaron gilchrist has this story. >> reporter: meet scott fike. he invited us to a dimly lit park away from his home totell us about the threats he's been receiving. >> i'm like completely clueless so i had to do my own investigation to find outhere that came from. >> reporter: sepmber 12th, the adams morgan day festival. the stories all end the same. a d.c. police officer subdues a shar pei mix that eventually gets away. police say the dog then came at the officer aggressively, forcing him to pull his gun and shoot the dog. thatfficers name is also scott fike. >> i'm not a police officer. you know, i work for a deck and fence company. >> reporter: sce september 15th, he says people have inundated his facebook mailbox with hateful messages calling him a dog killer and telling him he should be shot. he says it doesn't help that he's a hunter and holding a deer in his facebook profile picture. >> that right there, i think, you know, offended some people.

and so i was an immediate target for being this guy. >> reporter: fike says that he loves animals, that he's never been to adams morgan a that he wants the malicious mail to stop. >> they weren't there, and they obviously don't even know what the guy looks like and don't even know if they have the right person yet. they don't hesitate to accuse me. >> reporter: he said he responded to some of the messages and received a few apologies and has also been told he's a liar. while he has not reported the threats to police, he says his uninrmed accusers should be ashamed of themsees. aaron gilchrist, news 4, maryland. now to the latest on the gulf oil disaster. this morning a new report finds the white house blocked effts by federal scientists to disclose the wours-case scenario. that panel appointed by president obama found the administration consistently underestimated how much oil was spilling and overestimated how fast the oil was disappearing after the leak was plugged. the white hous said it never covered up any findin.

this morning a tennessee woman says she doesn't blame firefighters for letting her house burn to the ground. firefighters refused to respond to paulate cradick's house because she failed to pay a $75 fee for annual fire verage. the woman says she simply forgot to pay the fee. >> no firefighter wants to stand by and watch a neighbor's house burned. but we're sometimes put in this predicamt through the subscription response program. >> firefighters say the incident shows difficulties small fire departments have raising money to protect their communities. the homeowner says she's just glad no one was hurt. attention baseball card collectors iyou're missin hundreds of cards from your collection we have some good news for you. someone found more than 500 baseball cards in a grassy area near east potac park near the tennis center there. this collection includes cards from the early 1980s. the person who made the miscoverry was nice enough and honest enough t hand those

cards over to police. you can contact the police if you think you might be the rightful owner. >> roy halladay's baseball cart is probably worth a lot this morning. >> a bouncer. in time! roy halladay has thrown a no-hitter! >> the philli piper threw a no-hitter yesterday in the opening game of the national league division series. halladay allowed just one walk in the phadelphia 4-0 win over the cincinnati reds, andt's just the second no-hitter in postseason history. it was halladay's second no-hitter of the season. why? >> to me th's what's really amazing. his second no-hitter of the season. that is amazing. >> congrats to him. >> quite the roar in that stadium, too. >> absolute. >> close to the roar that maybe we're going to get aroundere because of the fact that we're finally going to be getting some sunshine across the area. >> yea yay! >> a turnaround i our ather.

great fall weather not just for today but through this weekend. saturday, sunday, close to 80 degrees. take a loo what's going on right now across the area, we've got temperares that are currently in the 50s throughout the area. 54 degrees right now, martinsburg. 54 in hagerstown. just up tohe north. folks around vienna now at 49 degrees. 47 down around waldorf, maryland. and then we've got 54 analysis, and shadyside and the bus stop, sunshine, clear skies, 48 to degrees. thenhroughout the day, again, as high pressure moves in, we're going to keep the sunshine here. matter of fact, i think we're going to see even the high clouds that we've got overhead, we're going to see those moving out. temperature will get up to 68 by noontime 74 by 3:00 today. finally firs time over 70 since saturday. so there's our little weather system that's plagued us for days. you can see what's left of the showers, some of them trying to eak out over the border of

pennsylvania, but try for us. there's a cold front back to the west in ohio. that's produced just a w high clouds. temperature 48 degrees in manassas. gaithersburg at 52, and we are looking at a warm-up. so nice conditions as we go from the 60s where we were yesterday, to the 70s, not just for today, but for the next several days through monday. 71 to 75, a little bit of an afternoon breeze, then sunshine and quieting down. west winds for the eekend, and close to 80 degrees. let's get an early look at traffic now with jerry edwards. >> all right veronica, a live look at how we're doing coming in from the north. very quiet so f. 270 in german town. everything is moving along very nicely. moderate traffic and worse from frederick down to rockville wh all travel lanes open. over to northernvirginia, and a report of an accident, a little hard to tell but we're looking for it. alongs 95 corridor in virginia. the accident was reported southbound. w there's a report of a car

fire in the same general vicinity. so between wood bridge and newington, the best i c do right now, heads up if you're gettingready to head out, go back and take a look at more traffic cameras and see if we can find it if it is there. joe, eun? >> thank you very much, jerry. have a traffic alert if you take the beltway through tyson's corner you might have to change your commute a bit beginning next week. e ramp from 123 onto northbound 495, that would be the ramp to the inner loop of the beltway, will be closed because of the hot lane construction. instead you'll have to turn left at a newraffic light just before the capital one bank there. get used to that new traffic pattern because it will be in place for about two years. d the news isn much better if you're driving near the rosslyn metro station. beginning this saturday north moore street will become one way, headed southbound toward wilson boulevard. taxi stands will be moved to the south corner of moore and wilson, and the bus stop will be relocated, as well. the changes come as crews get

ready to begin renovations on the rosslyn metro station. and while you were sleeping, passengers aboard a luxury yacht passed through town onhe potomac. the wilson bridge made a rare opening so the british sp the boo 2 could pass through. the ship is more than ten stories high. traffic was backed up while the bridge was open. everything is back to normal this morning. but the drawbridge will be opening again at 10:00 tonight for another ten minutes for the boo 2. >> and so get out there early if you want to s yoo-hoo to the boo 2. and wave. >> that's what how i call my kids. >> coming up, why some people in silver spring are not veryappy with the new increased security measures at the discovery channel building. >> plus a new report about the iphone that will make millions of verizon customers very happy this morning. >> and next, a drink fit for a president. brewers from around the country attempt to recreate a historic brew.

brandy drinkers, here's a treat you may enjoy with a bit of history. a buh of brewers from across the country recreated george washington's peach brandy in mount vernon. they cooked the concoction by standing fires to heat the quid and using buckets, instead of pots, just the way washington would have done it. but their bgest challenge was not having the exact recipe.

documents and historians that set the holocaust in motion are on display at the national archives. the three ws outlawed marriages and sexual contact between jewish people and citizens of so-called german blood. stripped jewish peoe of their german citizenship, and established the swastika as the official flag of the third reich. the papers were taken out of germany by general geoe patton at the end of world war ii. they're thought toe the only surviving original copies. this morning, the news that many of you have been waiting r. it looks likehe iphone will soon be available to verizon wireless customers. "the wall street journal" reports that apple will start mass producing the iphone by the end of t year. analysts estimate verizon could add 900,000 w customers if the iphone switch becomes reality. iphone estimates it could sell 9

million iphones in the first three months with verizon. if all this happens as expected verizon could have that iphone early next year. this morning, there's another controversy over last month's standoff at the discovery channel headquarters in silver spring. some of discovery's neighbors are upset that the company has closed its public garden. they closed that garden days after e hostage situation on september 1st. according discovery's agreement with montgomery county the garden must be open to the public during the day because it is the only gree space in downtown silver spring. a company spokeswoman says that discovery is conducting a secuty review and will try to work with county officials when th assessment is complete. stay with us "news 4 today" continues right now at 5:00 a.m. department scandal, why allegations of cheating among new police officers c