New developments from that huge earthquake in central italy. Its causing even more problems this morning. The biggest one, aftershocks striking the country right now. A magnitude 4. 3 magnitude collapsed at least one building in the town of amatrice this morning. The death toll is at 241 people right now. Thats actually less than what officials were saying this morning, but still a staggering number. At this hour crews are leading dogs through the streets to try to find any survivors and recover any bodies in the mess. Italian leaders say it is possible to give an estimate of how many might still be missing right now. Some of the most dramatic moments have been the scenes of rescuers pulling survivors from the rubble in italy. We saw what was likely the most intense and rewarding scene like that this morning. Take a look at this, rescuers pulle a pile of rocks and debris. People clapping as she was pulled from beneath all of that. Amazingly she seems to be okay. People applauding as the rescuers as i mentioned pulled her from that debris. This is in that town amatrice where basically every building has cracked or collapsed in some storm. Cleanup right now in the midwest where at least eight tornados caused major damage. Buildings lifted off their foundations in ohio and parts of indiana hit very hard. Ta tammy laettner has a look at the damage in kokomo just north of disappearance. Reporter mother natures wrath caught on cell phone video in indiana. Oh, my god, starbucks just got blown over. Reporter in the town of kokomo, a tornado taking down a starbucks with customers still inside. Theyre trying to get in the building. Reporter and then released. Everybody got out okay. Tee together and got the doors off, got them out. Reporter eight tornados confirmed in the state. The intense storm system bringing loud cracks of thunder and spawning massive funnel clouds that left behind a twisted path of devastation. Im glad youre all right. Reporter george penna took shelter in his bathroom as his home collapsed around him. I said dear lord, if its going to be my last month, make it quick and not very painful. Reporter he made it out unharmed but his neighborhood is nearly destroyed. Im just glad my kids werent here. Reporter Late Wednesday indiana governor mike pence left the campaign trail and headed home. Well be here as long as we need to be. Reporter this morning, a familiar heartbreak. A community again picking up the pieces. Lets check on the weather. Storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell joins us here. Hey, the Severe Weather threat has now traveled well to our north and west. We will not need to worry about Severe Weather around here for today. We are watching an increasing number of clouds, though. Heres Tysons Corner in the distance there under a mostly cloudy sky. Weve seen a couple of raindrops out here towards the Shenandoah Valley, nothing heavy. A couple sprinkles along the Virginia West Virginia border. These drops are coming eastbound but theyre drying up as they do so, so not everyone is going to get rained on today. Our rain chances inside the d. C. Metro area down below 20 . Current temperatures thanks to the increasing clouds have leveled off a bit. Were around 82 degrees now. 82 in washington and fredericksburg, 79 out west in winchester. Your mostly cloudy for the next couple of hours but these clouds will scatter on out and well be left with plenty of sunshine to finish the day. As a result it will be plenty warm. Then your thursday evening, partly cloudy, 83 at coming up in a little bit ill let you know a forecast for the nats game tonight, the redskins game at fedex field tomorrow and the whole weekend outlook. Well see you in a few. Thank you, chuck. An attempted Sexual Assault investigation under way in loudoun county. Deputies say it happened on the washington and old dominion trail. The victim said she was walking on the trail about 8 30 wednesday night when she was approached by two men. They allegedly pulled at her and her clothing before physically assaulting her. Were told the suspects left after a bicycle road buy. Anybody who may know anything about the suspects is asked to call police. If you see a lot of flashing lights around the pentagon right now in the next several minutes or so, we dont want you to be concerned. Theres a major emergency drill happening there right now. The Pentagon Force Protection agency says youll probably see it if youre driving on washington boulevard or anywhere along route 10 close by there. Police and firefighters are acting out what would happen if a helicopter crashed on the again, it is a drill. It should be finished by this afternoon. Metro leadership is digging into the details of recent rail troubles this morning. The board is meeting to talk about last months derailment at East Falls Church and to discuss the problem of operators running red lights. It comes one day after a federal investigation revealed problems at the rail yard. The report says workers have not been properly securing rail cars, which has led to rollaway incidents. Meanwhile, another d. C. Transportation option is celebrating an anniversary. The d. C. Street car will mark six months of service on saturday. Transportation Officials Say more than 400,000 people have taken a trip on the street car since february. Now, starting next month, it will also run on sunday. Mylan will help patients pay for their epipen treatment. This comes after the drug maker received c hikes for the drug. They laid out a plan to expand its Patient Assistance Program and offer 300 savings cards for its epipen twopack. There is no change, though, in the price of the treatment. Right now repairs are under way yet again at the washington moniment. The landmark will be closed until midseptember so for two or three weeks to fix the elevator. The National Park service also tells us a more extensive repair project will start soon after. That could take eight to nine months. D. C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes norton says it is a long time but a step in the right direction. Its easier to take that it may close down for almost a year to be totally fixed than to have it closed down periodically and not know when thats going to happen and when it will end. The price tag on the elevator repair could hit close to 3 million. Happy birthday to the National Park service. They are celebra 1 check this out, this is the google doodle. Lets see, is it going to go for us . I think its going. There we go. It shows off the sites on several of the National Parks around the country. One of the most iconic National Parks is right here in the district of columbia, the National Mall. Thats where we find Megan Fitzgerald live where they just did something record breaking. Tell me about it. Reporter they did. I can tell you thats probably the biggest highlight of the morning. There was over 1200 people that gathered here on the National Mall and they got in formation to create the National ParkService Emblem of the arrowhead. A lot of folks got here bright and early and they say they will continue to celebrate well into the weekend. It was a busy morning here on the National Mall. Wristband. Reporter wristbands were in high to where the logo is. Reporter the wristbands are color coded for a reason. This is one of the green umbrellas. Reporter participants will be strategically positioned on the National Mall for a historic reason. Were going to attempt to create the Worlds LargestNational ParkService Emblem, the arrowhead. Reporter if you hadnt noticed, its a celebration out here. The weather cooperated, so its a fabulous day and wonderful opportunity to celebrate all the good things that the park service does. Reporter they are celebrating its centennial and in great fashion. In the crowd of participants, we found aiden and his brother, brendan. Im wearing all the badges ive earned over two years. Reporter and over the last several years, he and his family have gone to over 100 National Parks, so they understanding the significance of today and why these landmarks are so important. Peaceful, calming. It gets my mind off of things for sure. Ive had a lot of problems last year and it helped me a lot going on these trips. National parks around the country mean Something Different to everyone. How many browns . 11. Reporter which is why so many came out to say thanks. Its here not just for us that are here today but for our children and their children in the future. Reporter now, there is a birthday bash that kicks off at 5 00 tonight in constitution garden. Thats where theyre going to have comedy action live music, food, and a beer garden as well. Then tomorrow morning starting at 10 00 a. M. Its geared more towards the kids. Theyll have a Scavenger Hunt and all kinds of games out here at the National Mall. Back to you. But is there cake . That is the real question. Meagan fitzgerald, thank you so much. Coming up, new attacks from donald trump, why the republican candidate for president is now calling his opponent a bigot. Up next, women wearing full body swimsuits banned at this world famous beach. A look at whos fighting the ban not ready for the first day of school. The problem keeping the large dmount of ki today frances highest court is deciding whether a ban on burquinis is illegal. Several spots have banned the hijab or head covering, including these beaches in cannes. Critics call it antimuslim and discriminatory. The french Prime Minister says its a symbol of the enslavement of women. The court will make a decision in the next two days. New information following an attack at the American University of afghanistan. This morning the u. S. State Department Says they have no reports of any american citizens killed or seriously hurt. 14 people were killed in the attack at the school yesterday, including several students and police officers. Two gunmen were also killed. The university has been closed until further notice. Turning now to decision 2016, where donald trump has a new attack line on hillary clinton. Hes now calling her a bigot. Meanwhile, clinton is expected to give a detailed response later today. Nbcs tracie potts has the latest. Hillary clinton is a bigot w votes not as human beings worthy of a better future. Reporter donald trump is going after the africanamerican and latino vote by claiming democrats have done little to improve the lives of minorities. Clintons response comes this afternoon in reno. Shes expected to argue what she told cnn last night, that trump is shifting republicans who are disturbing extremist views. Someone who is very much peddling bigotry and prejudice and paranoia. Reporter clinton insists her meetings as secretary of state with donors to her familys foundation broke no laws or ethical rules. Theres a lot of smoke and theres no fire. Reporter she calls trumps shift on immigration desperate. Instead of mass deportations, trump says hes now willing to work with immigrants who came here illegally but want to change. Jobs, wages and security for americans. Reporter his Campaign Says expect more details in the next two weeks. And we could find out more today when trump sits down with latino and africanamerican leaders in new york. Tracie potts, nbc news, washington. It is a popular way to get over a fear of heights for some, but now a woman is dead after falling off a delaware zip line. Officials say the 59yearold woman fell to her death at the go ape zip line. She fell 40 feet to the ground. The attraction was closed after the accident and now multiple Police Agencies are investigating what happened. Days after a federal report revealed teachers allegedly abused and humiliated preschool children in Prince Georges County, news4 has learned of past investigations that found issues with the headstart program. In 2013 a letter to the board of education listed several naup compliances, among them criminal background check files for 103 of its staffers were inaccurately kept. And several classrooms had undesirable or hazardous materials. All of the problems were corrected by january of 2014. They have a very high standard. You are not allowed to have any uncorrected deficiencies. Last week the federal government stripped the county of its headstart grant money. Five board of education members are now calling for the board chair and vice chair to step down. Thousands of students in Prince Georges County are missing out on the first week of school, and that is because they arent immunized or still havent proven that they have been vaccinated. According to policy, they have to stay home from school until then. The deadline was tuesday. The first day back. The number is about 6300 but that does not mean they a immunized. It could mean their information is not in our data system, so our nurses are looking at this information every day as parents bring in the information to them. If they can prove, then theyre in school. If they cant prove they have immunization, they are excluded until they can prove it. Required vaccinations are for diseases like polio, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox and hepatitis b. Can parents save money on backtoschool shopping . Molette green takes a look. You have your colored pencils, your binder notebooks. Reporter School Supplies fill the room, pencils, paper, backpacks. This family is mostly ready, except for the school uniforms. No, im not done at all. I havent even done the uniforms yet, were just getting started. Its a long process. Reporter Patrice Jones is getting three children ready for school in crayons. Reporter and counting every dollar spent. Between the three of them, i probably spend close to like 700 to 800 on uniform shopping. Reporter in the debate, uniforms versus regular clothes, for this single mom it comes down to dollars and cents. I prefer uniforms just because its consistent and i know what theyre wearing the next day. But as far as expenses, i think regular clothes would probably be cheaper. Reporter the two younger ones will wear uniforms back to school and thats okay with 10yearold antonnette who will practice Fashion Design on her brand new sewing machine. In the future i want to have my own business and in order for me to have my own business, i need to do good in school. Reporter for many Parents School uniforms doesnt mean saving money but it does cut down on the peer pressure to wear labels and keeps the focus in the classroom. Afford the cost of getting students back in class, we are still taking donations for backpacks for kids. You can call us to make a donation throughout the day. Weve got some folks that are standing by, all smiles. Hello, ashley brown, aaron gil kr aaron gilchrist, we see you. Thanks for lending a hand. You can also text nbcdc to 51452 to help us help the community. A new hurricane is in the atlantic and forecasters are keeping an eye on another tropical system. A look at the area especially vulnerable. Plus alarming numbers out of ohio. The drug problem that is killing an average of eight people a day. Tropical activity in the atlantic continues to ramp up. The National Hurricane center is closely watching hurricane or Tropical Storm now, i could say, gaston and one other storm system still forming. The storm system has people in louisiana on edge. They are still recovering from last weeks massive and devastating flooding. Right now some First Responders in baton rouge will be given temporary government housing. Those First Responders, firefighters, police, they have been busy rescuing people, flood homes were in trouble too. And so gaston just now downgraded, right, from a hurricane to a Tropical Storm again. Yeah, just as of the 11 00 a. M. Advisory, back down to Tropical Storm and likely going to stay there at Tropical Storm strength for the next couple of days. More important than anything else, staying out in the middle of the atlantic ocean. The next area of low pressure were going to carefully keep an eye on might end up taking on the name hermine over the next 24 to 48 hours. Heres the satellite loop out over the atlantic to show you where these two systems are, way up on the top lefthand side of your screen, thats miami, florida. The first system you see there to the lower right of miami, that is the system that may end up becoming hermine. This is gaston, way out here in the middle of the atlantic. It was a hurricane, you can briefly see the eye of the storm, but now becoming a little bit more disorganized. This one, though, because of where it is and the general direction its going, its generally speaking tracking off to the northwest. As a result of where it is and where its trying to get of a threat. Sorry about that, the pause point didnt do me any favors there. But where its going, it could, could be a named system impacting somewhere in south florida in the late sunday, early monday time frame. After that well see where it ends up potentially in the gulf of mexico. But theres a long way between now and then. As far as the immediate near term future for us, clouds have been increasing over the last little bit. There are a couple of raindrops out here, nothing heavy. No Severe Weather threat for us today, just a couple of drops from winchester and parts of rap hank rappa hank county. As you saw there, its tending to dry up with time. We could see a lingering amount of showers between 3 00 and 5 00 today but by and large not much of a rain threat. Everybody dries out after about 7 00 or 8 00 tonight. Temperaturewise were now in the upper 70s and area, forecasting 90 on the nose in downtown today, upper 80s in most of the outlying suburbs. So hot, a little bit more humid and again your rain chance stands at only 30 at most, for most areas its even lower than that. Heres the way the next five days are looking. 90 today, 95 tomorrow and low to mid90s both days over the weekend with not much in the way of a rain chance between now and monday. Coming up in a little bit, ill give you the tenday forecast which does have a better chance for rain. In addition to that, the nationals and the redskins forecast. See you in a few. Thank you, chuck. The goalie for the u. S. Womens soccer team wont be playing for a while. Hope solo has been suspended. You may have heard what she said. She had called the swedish womens team a bunch of cowards after they knocked the americans out of the olympics. They won on penalty kicks. The president of the u. S. Soccer said those comments were unacceptable. The suspension is the next six months. School so theyre collecting School Supplies to donate to students. Theyre looking for new basic items like backpacks, paper and pens. Were going to go to needy d. C. Public schools, probably those around the ballpark here, the ones we have a relationship with. Were so glad that our fans are so generous. We have the best fans in north america. So you can take supplies to Center Field Gate at Nationals Park this saturday when the nats play the colorado rockies. They will accept donations from 10 30 in the morning until the end of the second inning. Just look for the tents outside of the gate. You dont have to be going to the game to give. The nationals are not the only ones that are helping kids get ready for school. Here at nbc4 we are holding a backpacks for kids phoneathon. If you didnt get a chance to come see us yesterday, this is your opportunity to make that donation on the phone. Call us at 2028854949. at the nbc4 studios that are ready to take your calls. We appreciate any donation, small or large. We tried, theres nothing we could do. We couldnt fix it. We really tried. Its sad at times and just funny at other times. It was written by local brothers. Were talking about the play black boy blues that opens tomorrow. After the break meet the play arights and he right now at 11 30, areas hit by the strong quake in italy are now dealing with strong aftershocks. A 4. 3 magnitude aftershock caused more damage. The earthquake has killed nearly 250 people. In indiana, emergency officials and the red cross have set up shelters for victims of tornados that swept across the central part of the state. The storms caused substantial damage and about 20 people surprisingly were hurt, but not badly. And new information out this morning from the drug company mylan. The company is working to lower the cost of its popular epipen 2pack. They have gotten a lot of criticism for recent price hikes. The drug maker is expanding eligibility for its Patient Assistance Program. As parts of Ellicott City return to normal after massive flooding, Howard County officials are asking people not to come and sightsee. They say parking is limited and crews are still working to repave the roads. Meanwhile, part of main street is back open this morning. The western end of the towns main stretch is the first section to reopen since flooding killed two people last month. A d. C. Man did something pretty remarkable in memory of his teenage son. He rode his bike Cross Country after his son took his own life. It was an emotional and personal journey, but one also designed to save other young lives. Darcy spencer reports. Reporter hes home after riding 3200 miles from seattle to washington on his bike to bring awareness to teen depression and suicide after his 16yeard own life last summer. His body found in the anacostia river. People were asking me why was i riding, was i doing it for fun or what was the cause. I would tell them interesting you should ask because this is why i ride. It was a 48day ride he was supposed to take with his son. Obviously during this trip he had a lot of time to think. One of the lessons he learned, he said, was to stop asking the question why. The question doesnt for me it just didnt help the healing. It just created more more sadness and grief for me personally. Reporter during the ride he reflected on his son and the thousands of teens battling depression, especially those who have succumbed to their illness. For me it was just important that i finish for them, you know, because they werent able to finish their ride. Reporter he saw the rides ups and downs as life. I had to deal with mechanical issues, i had to deal with personal injuries, but thats, thats life. Reporter he had his own struggles along the way. He lost a front tooth and sprained his wrist when he crashed his bike. Im flying off my bike and i landed on my mouth. Reporter but pedaling on to the finish was never a second thought. Plenty of family members were waiting for him. Now that hes home, he wants to continue to spread his message. Suicide is a problem and life is the solution. Reporter in the district, darcy spencer, news4. If you or someone you know is suffering from depression and needs professional help, head to our website. Weve posted a list of links and resources as part of our changing minds initiative. Officials think a bad batch of heroin caused nearly two dozen heroin overdose calls in cincinnati last night alone. Some of the users were in court this morning facing numerous charges still one of the more serious cases oded with his four kids inside the car. Between indiana and ohio, there have been more than 75 total overdoses since last friday. Heroin is a big problem in ohio. Numbers released today show drug overdoses killed a record 3,050 people in the state last year or an average of eight people a day. Broken bones and concussions, those were just some of the injuries fans suffered when a railing collapsed at a snoop dogg concert in philadelphia. Now some of those injured are suing, saying it could have been prevented. The lawsuit was filed wednesday. During a show earlier this month the rapper urged fans to move toward the stage and thats when the railing just gives way. Dozens of fans fell six feet onto the concrete walkway below. The lawyers in the case say there was nothin crowd from surging forward. I can sweep your floors, i can clean your toilets. If you give me a chance, ill work for pennies. Thats a scene from black boy blues playing this weekend in springdale. The play created by brothers is set in the 50s in maryland. And today josh and Jimmy Jenkins join us with more on the big opening tomorrow. Good morning to you both. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Thank you for having us. Thank you for being here. I watched the trailer this morning. I was very, very impressed. Tell me what inspired this play . This play was inspired by a place called black wall street, which was in the early 1900s, a very prominent africanamerican community. It had over 600 blackowned businesses. Theres a point where white supremacist came and ended up burning the town down, bringing planes, dropping bombs, leaving 9,000 people homeless. Its inspired to me because i want to show people what our people produced and it inspired me to write this play. Your father is pastor of First Baptist church of glen arden, a wellknown church in our area and very well respected. Is this do you consider this a faithbased production . I think it is faith based. It is and its not. Its about faith, its about purpose, its about passion, its really about educating. So, you know, were trying to light peoples fire inside about their dreams, their goals, and educate them, like jimmy said, on where we come from, our drive. What were inheriting, our blood line as black people. So i think youve hit my next question right on the head. What is the message you want people to take away from the play . Well, for me, i would say to go after your dreams, go after your passions. To take shots, take chances on yourself. And for me, its, you know, i want people to know that the worst person to lie to is and once you come into truth of who you are and whatever you believe, thats what you manifest. Whatever you think about in your head every single day and whatever your heart desires, thats what you produce. And thats what i want people to get out of this. I want people to find their heart, find what they believe and i want them to produce whats in their head. And i understand youre working on another project. Tell me a little bit about that and also how to get tickets to the play this weekend. So you can get tickets at blackboyblues. Com. Were going to have shows friday starting the 26th, tomorrow night, through sunday, the 28th. We have plenty of Tickets Available for purchase. And he can tell you a little bit. Well, we havent just a little bit. We have a new film. We have a new film that weve been working on. We just picked up our first budget to do a new movie. That will be shot in atlanta. Were working on that but i dont want to say too much. Make sure you come see black boy blues. Congratulations. Thank you for having us. Thank you, so, so much. Coming up after a little break from the heat, the warmth returns, but will it stick around for the weekend . Ch its a great day for an adventure. Surprises are hiding around each corner. Come chase thrills that lead in every direction. Yet somehow bring us all back together. Busch gardens williamsburg and water country usa. Vacation packages start at 50 per person. A whole other world awaits. Such a nice reprieve from the sweltering heat, but it looks like it was a shortlived break. We were talking about it on monday, how you needed to enjoy monday, tuesday and wednesday because we knew it couldnt last forever and, indeed, the end is in sight. Temperatures may not get to 90 in your neighborhood today. Well be within a whisper of it. Starting tomorrow we could go five, six, seven, eight days in a row. Its just another hot week coming your way. Outside right now, a cloudy sky here in washington. Not much of a rain threat here in and around town. Again, theres the latest on the tropics. Gaston there. And were watching c here locally a little light rain coming through the Shenandoah Valley where interstates 81 and 66 meet. Nothing heavy. Those showers are drifting southeast bound so they could get a little light rain over the next little bit. That will travel south of the washington area. By 4 30, 5 00 today theres another chance for a few more showers to bubble up a lot farther down to our south and west. So after that, things quiet down for the remainder of the evening. Really not much in the way of weather worries for the next couple of days. Going out to the nats and orioles game tonight, the fist pitch at 7 05. Temperatures will be in the upper 80s at 6 00. Game time temperatures will be mostly in the low to mid80s. Now, for tomorrow, more heat, more humidity. Highs up in the mid90s tomorrow with a heat index potentially up as high as 100 degrees, so thats going to be a sizzler of a friday for sure. Friday night ft redskins play host to the buffalo bills. Its a 7 30 kickoff at fedex field. Temperatures near 90 degrees at 7 00 in the evening and most of the game time temperatures will be in the low to mid80s, so it will certainly be a warm friday night out at the ballpark and at the football field. Meanwhile, for the weekend if your thinking about getting away and getting out to cooler weather, a little chance for some showers at the coast line on friday but saturday and sunday will be great days at the beach, temperatures only in the mid80s. If youre more of a mountain than a beach person, theres a little chance of a shower tomorrow but saturday and sunday, partly to mostly sunny. A lot cooler. If you can get up along skyline drive, it will be much more pleasant, temperatures only in the low to mid80s. That will feel nice. Heres our tenday forecast. Hot, hotter and hotter. Our next best chance for steady rain showers doesnt come until the tuesday, wednesday, thursday time frame of next week. And then we will cool down just a bit in time for labor day ek meanwhile a new trend by Home Builders in our area. What you may already be noticing in your neighborhood. And a cake inspired by a popular ,hi with fall right around the corner, expect brunch crowds around our area to grow. District, the pastry chef is ready with an unusual desert. Its a bloody mary cake. Were joined by the chef this morning. I asked for a spoon, sorry, he went to get it. We can worry about it in a second. Chef is here to show us his creation. I want to talk about this. So a bloody mary cocktail is not sweet. Is the cake . Thank you for having me. Its a blood a mary dessert. Yes, we started the bloody mary dessert actually three weeks ago and it has been so much in demand. Really . Yes. So thats the inspiration behind it. Tell me about the ingredients that go into making is it similar to the cocktail . Its the same thing. It is very well known to have a unique recipe of bloody mary. Basically the capital mary. Basically tomato juice is this what were looking at here . No, this is the glaze. Black pepper, tomato juice, old bay. You must have it. You must have it. Some horseradish, lemon juice, of course the gin, you need to have some gin. We need to have the gin, yes. And tabasco. This is beautiful. This is what gives it that lovely shine. That shiny color, the glaze, yes. Do you have other cocktailinspired pastries or did you just shoot with the moon with this one. I think my background being caribbean, also vodka also. Originally from the caribbean we do have rum. Of course. Can i try it . May i . Ruin your beautiful creation. Is this how its normally served . Can i pick this up, guys . Yes, if you come to the restaurant, we do have it li like and what are the littles they look like cookies wafers inside. That is very light and healthy. Oh, my god. Like a balance of creme brulee and you notice on the bottom you have that crunch. Theres that balance of its sweet and then on the tail end. That bloody mary will come in your mouth. Wonderful. Im going to keep this. Chef, thank you very much for coming by. Im going to hold on to this. Kristin, ill send it back to you. Kids phoneathon is under way. We are working for you to make sure your kids have everything they need the first day of school. Throughout the day, you can call in you can call in to make a donation. The number to call is 2028854949. So far we have collected hundreds of backpacks for area students. Many of you dropped off backpack and other supplies yesterday at Apple Federal Credit Union in kingstown. You can also donate online. Just head over to nbcwashington. Com. All right. Well, in july sales of newly built homes jumped to the highest level in nearly eight years, nearly nine years, and prices dipped. Diana olick explains why we might be seeing a change. Reporter its happening in brandywine, maryland, at midatlantic builders and across the nation. The average size of a newly recession. Mostly its financing. It depends on the markets, but in our market, its been financing is driving the deals and builders are adjusting their product to meet the affordability issue. Reporter more entrylevel buyers who need mortgages are coming back to the home buying market, and that means more demand for smaller homes. At one point during the before the great recession, we were probably averaging 4200 square feet of house. Now were 2800 to 3100 square feet, so yeah, they have shrunk quite a bit. Reporter the average size of a home built from april to june was over 70 feet smaller than it was in the first three months of the year. Theres a mix issue where as more and more boomers buy houses, they may be smaller because they dont need all the square footage. Reporter and as for the youngest home buyers, the millennials. This is all storage for all your reporter smaller can often mean tiny, from microapartments to tiny homes. As long as the place is tricked out with all the top tech amenity, bigger isnt always better. After the break, a story of persistence. It is. How a homeless woman in d. C. Fought the government andon. W i wodont know where id be without itre so when i heard about conartists committing medicare fraud. It made me so mad i wanted to give them the old onetwo one, never give your medicare number to get a free offer or gift two, always check your medicare statements for errors these crooks think were clueless, they dont have a clue its your medicare, protect it now its our labor day sale. Where you can create the perfect home. From now until september 5th, youll find huge savings on stylish pieces. Get free delivery, plus an extra hundreddollars off every thousanddollars you spend. With havertys, your home can be perfect, even when life isnt. Mom . Have you see my iguana . The labor day sale is on now, at havertys. Life looks good. Nobody would listen to her when she claimed the government owed her tens of dollars. But after years of fighting, a homeless woman finally found somebody who would listen. As Nbcs Kristen Welker tells us, it turns out she was right all along. Reporter for 20 years, wandsa witter was homeless in the nations capital, living in shelters action even calling this Street Corner home. This is where i used to live. Reporter but now 80, a divorced mother of four was also stubborn. She knew the federal government owed her a lot of money, and she was determined to prove it. Your daughter offered to have you come and live with her in tennessee. You said no. Why . I just didnt want to leave the area until i got my money, until i got everything that was due to me. Reporter it started when she lost her job as a machinist and couldnt find work. What was the hardest part for you about being homeless . I lost my freedom and my independence. Reporter when she eventually started collecting social security, the checks didnt add up. You made multiple attempts to get in Security Administration and say you owe me more money. White. What happened when you said that . Nothing. What would they say to you . Nothing. They dont respond. Reporter most thought she was mentally ill. But she had paperwork eventually convincing a lawyer to take up her cause. She was so organized and had everything so documented that i felt confidence that her case did have merit. Reporter after 16 years, she finally beat the bureaucrats. Waiting for her at the bank, almost 100,000. Its just 999 all the way across. Reporter she moved into an apartment just last week. Her dream now, some new furniture and meeting her great grandchildren. You took on the government and you won. How does that feel . It fields great. Reporter an unbreakable woman who finally has a place to call home. Kristen welker, nbc news, washington. My word, what an incredible story. Taking on the social Security Administration is no small feat. No. And just everything together, so clear and filed away, absolutely amazing. All right. So the weather, one last check. Hey, chuck. You cant fight city hall and you cant fight mother nature. Temperatures outside today will be in the upper 80s to near 90. Just one or two little spotty showers out there now in northern parts of rappahannock county. The next couple of days, yes, indeed, a hot one today, a little chance for rain today. Almost no chance for rain friday, saturday, sunday, monday. Afternoon highs low to mid90s. Heat indexes friday and saturday in particular, heat indexes up close to 100 degrees, so its going to be a hot one, everybody. Oh, joy. Thank you, chuck. That is it for news4 midday. Thank you for joining us. Were back on the air this afternoon first at 4 00. You can get news and weather updates any time with our nbc washington app. Until 4 00 this afternoon, we hope that you have a great day ande announcer stand by, everyone. Were live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Tom, how could you do this to me . What do you mean you dont reember . Oh, it was the old i was so drunk i dont remember making out with that woman at the bar excuse. Oh, no, no. Welcome to access hollywood live. The finale has everyone talks. As we talked to the countess, she said there was going to be a lot of drama, the cheating, the girlfriend code, do you tell if you hear or know something. If you get the oo