whether the acura purposefully cut off the cruiser, forcing it to crash. the patrol car was reject -- the he was 23 years old. he suffered massive head injuries. he was on the force 2 1/2 years. he was well-known since he was 15 or 16 years old he was a police explorer scout. his partner has been on the force one year. he suffered multiple injuries that are not considered life-threatening. law enforcement officers from prince george's county and other law enforcement agencies are gathering at prince george's hospital center. >> it's a very sad day for me, for my men and women who i represent, for the police department as a whole. i know that everyone will ekeep us in their thoughts and prayers. >> police are asking for those who saw the accident south of powder mill road in the beltsville area to come forward. >> if you know anything, to please call crimesolvers and help us out with this. we also ask for your prayers for the two officers for their families as they're going through this and for prince george's county. >> this evening, county attorney angela brooks the top prosecutor issued a statement saying our police officer put their lives on the line every day to protect us from harm. and we will be eternally grateful for the sacrifice of this officer made for the citizens of prince george's county. live from the hospital, chris gordon, news 4. two members of the gop are under fire today. the romney-ryan ticket distancing itself from a missouri congressman for his comments to a st. louis tv station. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> that's republican todd akin after he was asked if he supports abortion in the case of rape. after the interview, akin released a statement saying he his spoke and has since apologized. steve handelsman is on capitol hill with the latest on this. steve? >> wendy, thanks. mitt romney wants to talk about medicare and jobs and the economy, not about rape and abortion. he's trailing in the national polls in the race for the white house in part because he is running behind with women voters. so romney and the republicans know this issue cannot help. >> the issue of abortion rights for the victims of rape exploding today. poses possible damage to the ryan #romney presidential campaign. with women voters. disproportionately weighed in. >> the views expressed were offensive. rape is rape. >> it was republican congressman todd akin running for a senate seat in missouri who set off the firestorm questioning if all rapes are, in his words, legitimate. he was arguing against abortion rights for sexual assault victims. >> it seems to me, first of all from what i understand from doctors, that's really rare. if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down. >> senate democrat claire mccaskill had been trailing. >> this is jaw-dropping and stunning. >> akin claimed he misspoke and says he has deep sympathy for women raped and apologized on the radio. >> rape is never edge lit mat. it's an evil act. >> mitt romney called the original statement inexcusable. but paul ryan recently opposed abortion rights. it's a double problem for republicans. >> one with women voters spusk specifically and secondly with the a agenda. putting it back on the -- they want to be on the economy. >> president obama claims obama care helps stop male politicians making decisions about women's health. >> or qualifying forcible rape versus nonforcible rape. i think those are broader issues and that's a significant difference in approach between me and the other party. >> todd akin, he says he won't quit the missouri senate race. but in a clear indication of a worry in the upset of the republican party establishment, karl rove and his powerful crossroads gps super pac today pulled out of the missouri race. i'm steve handelsman, news 4. virginia senate candidate, george allen had this to say. "while congressman akin may have addressed his statement. like many men and women, i disapprove of his original comments and the sentiments behind them. having served on a rape crisis board, i saw how physically and mentally harmful it is for victims. there should be an exception for rape." virginia governor, robert mcdonnell will the criticized the comments saying the comments are in his words, "absolutely wrong and appear to be based on bad science and bad facts." the governor is currently in tampa working on the republican party platform ahead of the convention. others are talking about a skinny dipping controversy in israel last summer. it was first reported by the organization politico. 30 republican members of congress took part in a trip paid for by foundation connected to a pro israel lobby. after a night of partying, 20 people on that trip jumped into the sea of galilee. one of the lawmakers, kansas freshman, kevin yoder, swam nude. house majority leader, eric cantor took part in the trip but was not present during that swim. he scolded the delegation the next morning. congressman yoder has since apologized. a young girl was sexually assaulted as she slept in her bed. police say they have the man who did it. darcy spencer talked exclusively with the victim's mother today. that happened early sunday morning at their home on allendale drive in landover. police say 24-year-old deron west, who was a neighbor, used a ladder to climb into the house, then walked into the girl's room. the girl's mother says the 11-year-old child awoke to the man touching her. she yelled for help. the suspect then ran away. >> just make me sick to my stomach. why would you climb in my window? why would you do that? just having this play over in my head. what was he going to do to my daughter? >> prince george's county police say they were able to quickly arrest west because he left his wallet at the scene with his photo i.d. inside. the suspect is now facing a number of charges, including sex assault and burglary. the suspect's mother tells news 4 that police have the wrong man. we are just learning that rosie o'donnell suffered a heart attack. she says it's a miracle she's still alive. she suffered that heart attack last week and is now recovering at home. she talked about it on her website rosie.com. the comedian is saying she was helping a woman out of her car in new york when she later felt pain in her chest and arms. the 50-year-old credited the survival to a quick internet search of sip toms. she took an aspirin that was recommended in the ads. a family in silver spring got an unexpected surprise this morning. a ride-on bus crashing into their house. it was 11 o'clock this morning along avanel road. the bus was making a turn when somehow lost control and plowed into the house. two people were inside, neither was seriously injured. >> i thought it was an earthquake at first. when i seen the bus, i was completely astounded. i didn't think this could happen. >> i thought how in the world could this have happened, why is there a bus in my living room? >> pat collins will have more on what may have caused this accident coming up in the second half hour of news 4 at 6:00. might be showers tonight. doug, how close? >> they're real close to the metro area. along i-95. if you're thinking about taking a trip up i-95, to the south towards richmond, you're going to run into some rain over the next hour or so. 79 degrees the current number. wind out of the south right now at 12 miles per hour much here's where the rain is. you can see that line. it is a line making its way right across maryland in through portions of northern virginia. some of the heaviest rain in through portions of prince william county to the west of woodridge and quantico. still 20 minutes west of the i-90 corridor. up to the north, montgomery county seeing showers and even a few thunderstorms right around damascus right now. all that moving to the east. i'll show you when it comes through the metro area coming up in a bit. >> thanks, doug. skeletal remains were found in a grassy area along 395 in alexandria. a construction crew found it. it was in a grassy area near the exit ramp from northbound 395 to east duke street. there's no i.d. that body has been taken to the medical examiner's office in manassas. police are working on a timeline. it happened along north carolina avenue where they found the victim unconscious on a porch a few blocks away. jackie benson has the latest from the eastern market area. >> investigators are trying to fill in the blanks to a very critical time period in this investigation. eight hours investigators say that is the amount of time that elapsed from when 29-year-old tc mass lynn was seen after midnight until he was found unconscious on a porch in the 700 block of north carolina avenue southeast at 8:30 saturday morning. >> d.c. police first direct commander daniel hickson addressed whether mass lynn was a robbery victim. >> we know where the victim was at about 12:30 in the morning. shortly after midnight. we don't know exactly his whereabouts between that time of 12:30 and when he was found some eight hours later. >> news of the attack has neighbors very concerned. police confirmed street robberies are on the increase in the area. >> the robberies going down in that area. but they did come back up in july of this year. in july of this year, we saw a marked increase in july for robberies as compared to july the year before. >> police caution that most of those robberies did not involve violence. but situations where something like an iphone or an ipad was grabbed from the victim. reporting from the eastern market neighborhood, jackie benson, news 4. coming up, a girl taken from the playground. this crime goes just beyond a child abduction. it was the first day of school for thousands of kids in prince george's county. still no permanent school superintendent in place. >> what happened to this house? was it an earthquake? fallen tree? runaway ride-on. i'm pat collins. i'll have the story coming up ziechlgts for the first time in [ male announcer ] since 1996 welfare recipients were required to work. this bipartisan reform successfully reduced welfare rolls. on july 12th president obama quietly ended the work requirement... gutting welfare reform. one of the most respected newspapers in america called it, "nuts!" saying, "if you want to get more people to work, "you don't loosen the requirements -- you tighten them." mitt romney's plan for a stronger middle class will put work back iwelfare. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. phyllis diller, one of the original women of comedy, has died. diller was a housewife at the age of 40. she became a staple of nightclubs and tv at a time when female stand-up ws a rarity. she often referred to her husband as fang. diller suffered a major heart attack in 1999. she retired a couple of years later. her long time manager says diller died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face. phyllis diller was 95 years old. president obama made a surprise appearance in the white house briefing room today just soon after mitt romney and paul ryan campaigned together in new hampshire. the president rebutted accusations regarding his positions on medicare, taxes and syria. danielle lee reports. >> nearly 5.4 million seniors with medicare have saved over $4.1 billion. >> president obama cited statistics he hopes soothes voters' concerns after his opponents accused him of taking billions from medicare to pay for obama care. >> do you think raiding medicare and putting bureaucrats in for it is an achievement? >> paul ryan and mitt romney campaigned together in new hampshire one week ahead of the convention. romney said the plan to tax the wealthy will hurt the economy. >> what they don't understand is raising taxes slows down growth. it's like a dog chasing its tail. you'll never get to the balanced budget. >> i think it makes more sense and put out a detailed plan for a balanced approach that combines tough spending cuts with asking people like me, millionaires and billionaires to do a little bit more. >> the president explained why his campaign is pressuring romney to release more of his tax returns. >> if you want to be president of the united states, your life is an open book. when it comes to things like your finances. >> mr. obama also addressed the unrest in syria. he said the u.s. position on military involvement could change if chemical or biological weapons became a threat. democrats are putting martin o'malley in the spotlight up and at 'em democratic convention. he'll be a featured speaker. he spoke at the dnc in 2004 when he was the mayor of baltimore. now he's serving his second term as governor. he's chairman of the governor's association. the 2012 dnc begins on september 3rd in charlotte, north carolina. and stay with news 4 for all your convention coverage. we'll have live team coverage from the republican convention next week. aaron gilchrist and julie carey reporting from pampa. also live coverage of the democratic convention in charlotte next month. a citizens group trying to ban all corporate campaign contributions. the organization called d.c. citizens for public trust committh submitted a petition that had there weren't enough legit signatures to get it on the ballot. the group has gone back over the names. it claims that the elections boarder roared in its count. the group is filing suit in d.c. superior court to get back on the ballot. another first for nasa's mars rover. it's called curiosity. it leash -- it unleashed its laser yesterday from a rock the size of a softball. within seconds it vaporized it into plasma. each blast had more than one million watts of power. nasa says the goal of the exercise is to test whether the so-called chemistry cameras are working properly. there's hope the lasers could soon provide useful scientific insight such as measuring what those rocks are made of. they're made of rock, right? >> interesting. interesting and confusing at the same time. blow it up to figure out, i don't know what's going on. >> you should understand that. >> i'm trying, wendy. i'm trying. i do understand some rain. right now coming in across parts of the area, the nats taking on the braves tonight at nationals park. is everyone taking them out tonight? maybe shower activity if you're thinking about making the game in the next hour or so. we have cloud cover now. the clouds preceding a little bit of a boundary. 82 degrees with a low of 69. the average high is 86. so today, once again, below average. the first time with three days below average. in a month we've been well above average. the month of august running above average. which is well above average. 79 degrees the current temperature out there. winds out of the south at 12 miles per hour. those winds may pick up just a little bit ahead of that frontal boundary. you can see where it is. 79 in washington. 66 in gaithersburg. 67 in martinsburg. that's the cooler air coming in. once again, if you're heading to the nats game, bring yourself a sweater or light jacket. here's the rain. you can see thunderstorms associated with this too. heavier rain to the south and up to the north. let's take a couple of stops through prince william county. fairfax county. stafford county. fairly heavy rain. very close to i-95 here. if you know somebody who is making their way from washington through i-95 in the next 15, 20 minutes, give them a quick heads up. let them know they're about to go through fairly heavy rain that will last a while. the next hour or so, that's when i expect the rain to hit burke center. quantico -- the next 57 minutes. to the north, other showers and a few thunderstorms here making their way to the south and east. around gaithersburg and only seeing some of that rain in through howard county around columbia. this hour making its way close to i-95 in about the next half hour and here's the area that's going to come through the district. this is the lightest rain that's out there. around reston. herndon, sterling saw some of that rain. fairfax, falls church, this will make its way through the washington area in the next 37 minutes, fairfax the next minute or so in an nonedale. you'll probably need the umbrellas for 15 minutes to half an hour. that rain will move out of here. i think we'll be a-okay. this making its way over i-95 in the next half hour towards the north. what are we going to be seeing? one frontal boundary moves to the south. this is actually a little trough coming through right now. that's helping to cool our temperatures down. an area of low pressure to the south tomorrow. that's where most of the shower activity should stay. on wednesday, it moves a little bit to the north. we'll see a better chance of showers, more cloud cover on wednesday. temperatures still in the lower 80s. we're going to stay on this cool trend right on through the end of the workweek. i don't for see any 90s at all any time soon. partly cloudy, scattered showers. 68 to 76 degrees. most areas x though, already in the mid 60s. partly cloudy, cooler with areas of fog tomorrow morning. 56 in some of the coolest suburbs to 69 in the city. tomorrow afternoon, a mixture of sun and clouds. warmer, still below average. temperatures 80 to 85. can't rule out a shower. right now, i think most everybody should be on the dry side. better chance of showers on your wednesday with a high of 84. 87 coming up on thursday. friday, a high of 89. so we could top out around 90 there. but on the cool side, saying 89. the they can weekend, 87, plenty of sunshine, beautiful weather no matter what you're doing. it's looking very, very nice. >> excellent. still ahead, diana nyad. she wants to be the first person to swim from cuba to florida without a shark stage. she has to overcome a setback. apple has reached a new milestone. coming up in sports, the nationals getting ready for their biggest series of the year. the redskins prepare to wrap up the pre-season without two of their defensive starters and the two rookie quarterbacks talk about their very different about their very different i'm barack obama and i approve this message now mitt romney's attacking the president on medicare? the nonpartisan a-a-r-p says obamacare "cracks down on medicare fraud, waste, and abuse and strengthens guaranteed benefits." and the ryan plan? a-a-r-p says it would undermine medicare and could lead to higher costs for seniors... and experts say ryan's voucher plan could raise future retirees costs more than six thousand dollars. get the facts. fairfax county an abduction and sexual assault of a child. the victim is a little girl who was grabbed at a playground over the weekend. >> police are searching the area for a suspect. julie carey joins us with more from the lynn cone i can't area. julie? >> that police canvas started a few minutes ago. the officers are around the corner out of sight. they've started their canvas. few residents it seemed had heard about the attack that took place here this evening. now they're coming home tonight to the startling news that the man who attacked this little girl could still be in their midst. at these apartments, several mothers kept their kids entertained on this playground unaware that a day earlier iman grabbed a little girl off this equipment. the 5-year-old was playing alone between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. had a man took her from the playground. he brought her into the basement of a nearby building and sexual lay salted her. the attacker let the little girl go. not long after she went home, the police were called. >> come home from my job. i saw the police here. >> jose has a 2 1/2-year-old daughter. but he didn't know until we told him why police came to this area near the corner of manitoba drive. >> very bad. so dangerous here. >> he and his wife never let their daughter out of their sight. this