Problem. Inbound constitution avenue, was trying to get that picture up for you. We will show that in just a second. Northbound bw parkway after 50 that one is gone. King street all lanes blocked there in the westbound lanes of alexandria. You can try seminary or south george mason drive if thats easier for you. Inner loop and outer loop of the beltway, no problems there and taking a look at travel times, no major issues. More of that coming up. And President Trump challenged the country to dream big in his first address to Congress Last night. The president struck for of a c conciliatory tone. Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States. Through the sh pass a 1 trillion infrastructure package. He said hes working on tax reform and he urged lawmakers to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act. So i am calling on democrats and republicans in congress to work with us to save americans from this imploding obamacare disaster. The president went on to outline what he says are the principles that should guide congress to create a Better Health care system. It includes ensuring coverage for americans with preexisting conditions, expanding coverage and giving state greater control over medicaid. The kentucky governor, he supported Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the democratic president ial primary. He also embraced the Affordable Care act in his state. He act and fellow republicans on their plans on health care. And even more troubling, you and your republican allies in congress seem determined to rip Affordable Health insurance away from millions of americans who most need it. Now, we will have much more about the president s speech including reaction later in the broadcast. You can also read the president s entire speech in the nbc washington app and we will have a fact check on some of the president s biggest claims there too. Bagels, not bombs. That is the message some people will be spreading in rockville this morning. The store is across from the charles e. Smith jewish day school, one of three area schools that received bomb threats this week. Community members organized the event in reactions to threats here and across the country. Theyll be handing out bagels in an effort to stand up against county. Angie has been gathering the details on this. An active investigation right now. This after two people were stabbed just after 2 00 this morning. It happened in the 4600 block of Community Plaza. The Loudoun CountySheriffs Office not saying at this point how old the victims are or who they are. We do know that both of them are in the hospital. No information regarding who stabbed them was released. Well continue to follow up. All right. Thank you. Its 5 04 now. We are now learning that there have also been threats against the local Muslim Community. The Police Department wants to know who wrote hateful notes to the Muslim Community center and the mosque in silver spring. The notes threatened the lives of muslims and have a lot of people there worried. The letter is sent obviously to incite hate and fear. I dont feel any of that. I just feel really disappointed. Mont urging anyone who might have information to give them a call. Covering Prince Georges County now, were working to learn whether police plan to charge a man they say came at one of their officers with a knife. The officer shot that man last night. The officer was originally called to the home for a family dispute. Police tell us a 29yearold walked out of the house armed with a knife. They say the officer repeatedly told him to drop it, but he didnt. And thats when the officer fired, hitting the man in the thigh. He is expected to be okay. Back in d. C. The aclu is suing four d. C. Police officers over the arrest of a transgender woman. No, youre not going to arrest me. This video from november 16th shows Police Officers at the apartment of the transgender woman. The responding officers said they were investigating a possible assault. The aclu filed hunter was illegally subjected to a warrantless arrest. As a black transformant im dragged out of my home and thrown in a jail cell. Im still in shock that this happened to me. A spokesman for the Police Department released a statement that says quote, we cannot comment on pending litigation, but as most are aware. Mpd remains committed to assisting and building relationships with the underserved groups including the lbgt community. Metro workers will have new rules to follow. To cut down on absenteeism metro is putting the following changes in place. Supervisors cant approve more than two days of absences. Supervisors and managers can also now be fired immediately for not following policy. Metro leaders are expected to give an update on safe trac the next safe track surge will impact alexandria. On saturday crews will begin work on the yellow and blue lines. From march 4th through april 9th trains will single track and run less frequently. Its one of the most beautiful times to see washington and today well learn when those world famous Cherry Blossoms will make their debut. Peak bloom can be one of the hardest predictions to make for the National Park service. Well be streaming the announcement live in the nbc washington app. Erika is live along the tidal basin now with more on how those blooms are looking at this early hour. What do you think . Reporter well, theyve got a ways to go. Indeed in washington, d. C. This is how we know that spring has sprung. So if you take a look, lets give you at this very dark and early hour, what the Cherry Blossoms look like. As you can see, theyre still ry are on blossom watch. You mentioned it, aaron. It is so difficult to forecast the peak bloom. Specifically more than ten days out, but today we will get the official peak bloom prediction from the National Park service and the horticulturists that have been keeping an eye on these babies. So the peak bloom date is when you can see the fluoroets in all their pink and white puffiness. Thats when you get 70 of them surrounding the tidal basin. The announcement happening about 10 30 this morning and this 2017 festival commemorates the 105th anniversary of the gift of the Cherry Blossoms from japan to the United States and we will be even more flooded with tourists. Its when everybody books their flights and gets their travel dates because it really is a sight to see. It really is just sight to see. Were down live at the tidal basin for you this morning. Back to you. All right. Thank you and you know those Cherry Blossoms all depend on the weather of course. Which could be messy on this weather alert day. We have some strong winds in the forecast this afternoon. If you look at that radar next to me we have a line of very strong storms still off to our west so not until later this afternoon, but we are also looking at the severe threat. Could see some damaging winds. A closer look at the timing. Tom will be back with that coming up. Weve come to know him as gary from chicago. Now were learning more about his criminal past. The man who went to his oscars two days after being released from prison. And President Trump addressed a joint session of congress. When we have all of this we will have made america greater than ever before. For all americans this is our vision. This is our mission, but we can 5 12 is our time right now. Tom is keeping an eye on this weather alert day and the stuff thats coming in a little later. All calm and quiet now. A little bit of light fog. Temperatures in the 50s. Look at the theyre not severe, but producing heavy downpours. That whole system is going to be getting closer to us this afternoon. Sheena parveen will be back here in a couple of minutes. New hour by hour timing with our short range and medium range on the hour by hour on the storms arriving later this afternoon. And taking a look at traffic here, inbound constitution there at 23rd street northwest, you can see the right side of the roadway is blocked here this morning so finally got that picture for you to show you exactly whats going on. Powder mill road at cherry hill road. Brand new crash reported outside the beltway. The beltway itself still looking good. Had this problem though, again, in the west end of alexandria. King street all lanes blocked there for that traffic light repair. Alternate cemetery road or we want to get to a story developing in afghanistan. We also have new video of Afghan Police and the military under attack right now. Take a look at this. You can see the big cloud of black smoke there following an explosion of some sort. Afghan taliban militants saying they are the ones behind these attacks. We know that the fighting is concentrated near Police Headquarters and military training school. There was other attacks that we learned of on an Intelligence Agency as well. Still no official word on casualties. Thats the latest from the live desk, back to you. Two woman accused of killing kim jong uns half brother were accused of murder. They appeared in court last night. Officials from south korea and the United States believe kim behind that killing. Both women say they were paid but they thought the attack was a prank. Police are calling it a tragic incident after a dozen band members were hit by a car during a mardi gras parade. Four members were critically injured. Officials say an elderly man was behind the wheel. They dont believe drugs or alcohol were involved. You can hear and see the Severe Weather that whipped through the midwest yesterday. This killed two people. It injured at least four others. Crews with the National Weather service will be out this morning in white country, arkansas, to determine if a tornado rolled through there. In just a few minutes well check in with sheena to see how the storm system is expected to impact us. One of the most talked about moments from the oscars is gary from chicago. He and his fiance tour group snapping pictures inside the theater. Turns out he had just been released after spending 20 years in prison for petty theft and other crimes. His attorney said he was released from prison on friday. He and his fiance decided to go sightseeing and the rest is history. This is a little detour from the tour guide and they didnt know he was going to go into the theater. My moment is when ryan gosling said something to her and we dont though what he said. News 4 has been giving you ways for you and your kids to destress. Some tips that teenagers can use. Its all part of a practice called mindfulness. Reporter from the studying to the sports to the social life, high school can be a stressful place but here students are learning a way to cope with that stress and it takes as little as ten seconds. Feel the first feeling of calm and ease in the body. These students take a break learn how to analyze their own minds. They say where your attention goes your energy flows. Theyre mindfulness teachers. Anybody notice any sensations in their hands . The first step to shutting out your stress is to be simply realizing its there. They have that ability to feel it, to sense it, to understand whats going on and then to respond in a wise way. Part of that response includes matching your body language with how you want to feel. I want everybody to hold a victorious hold for 20 seconds. It is important to focus on your mind set because it will help you do better. It is hard balancing everything and just being a teenager. Reporter giving mindfulness a try doesnt take much. Close your eyes, count to ten. It helps you get your mind right before you do anything important like a test or a sporting event. That little bit of time can make a big difference. In bethesda, news 4. I want you victorious pose for 20 seconds. Were going to do that every day. Whats your victorious pose . Im good. There you go. Do you feel better now . Yes. Good. Wed like to hear from you about how you destress. Send us a tweet or a comment on our facebook page. Use the hashtag less stress. Ill have to rethink my pose. Eun is a little aggress i have. Aggressive. Today is not the day to stress. Its a little bit calming when its raining but today is going to be a different kind of rain. It will move through quick. Its going to be stormy and those storms will provide possibly damaging winds. It is a weather alert day. This morning commute looks fine. But later this afternoon some strong to severe storms possible across the area. We are also looking at the potential agaior before you leave. Tomorrow a little bit of a shock, especially friday. Its going to be colder and windy, believe it or not. Currently 57 degrees in the district. It is very warm out this morning. Heres all the cloud cover, but we have some breaks in the clouds down to our south. Thats going to move in. Sunshine by the middle of the day. That will heat up to the upper 70s and there you see all this rain back off to our west. Very strong thunderstorms here. Pretty organized and whenever we have an organized line of storms we expect to see the threat of Severe Weather. Now you start to notice this reddish color shading coming to our area. That is a more enhanced risk for Severe Weather so today with the storms rolling through, lightning, hail, heavy rains, we can never rule out the potential for an isolated tornado. This is a different computer model. Still similar with the timing but it does show some showers just to the north of the 1 30 here comes that line of storms through the district through the afternoon. Some of that lingering and we could still see some of that rain around. Tomorrow though 55 and breezy. Friday 48 and windy. Could see a couple snow flakes and the weekend doesnt look too bad. Lets check out the roads. Powder mill road at cherry hill, still have that crash reported and as you look at the beltway, the beltway is looking quite good. No real problems on any main routes into or out of town including 66 and 95 here this morning so overall no major issues. Inbound constitution avenue at 23rd those two right lanes taken out here in northwest washington. Speaking of northwest, i was there late last night. Take a look at this. This is the 18th annual st. Jude gourmet gala benefitting the hospital. It was held at the National Building museum there in d. C. An amazing about 1,000 people there. I was able to talk about my connection with st. Jude. I had a friend with a child there last year and it was such a wonderful night. And such a great organization. Thank you. Never turns down a family that needs that care. 5 21 our time right now. One popular head liner replaced with another. Why you may not be upset if you have tickets this year. And the summer is about to get longer for some kids in our area. Prodders, shuckersers, and sniffers, [ inhales ] all giant produce is triple checked. Farm, crate, and store. Were focusing on fresh. So you dont have to guess. My giant. From the super bowl to coachella, billboards is saying it will replace lady g beyonce. Shes the first one to headline the festival since 2000 seven. Beyonce needs to take care of herself and the baby. Now theres a project underway to honor his ties to our area in montgomery county. Hens hensens autobiography, its a book some say helped lay the ground work for the civil war. The park system is laying the ground work now for a museum, a theater and a park in his honor. He wanted them to develop skills. And especially woodworking skills and other skills where they actually can earn a living. Parks hope to complete and open the museum by 2020. To learn more about the hensen project and how you can help and make a nbc washington website and search hensen museum. It is a weather alert day here. Lets check back in with tom for what it means where you live. Good morning. Yeah, well, first of all well have frequent updates. Thats what weather alert day means. Frequent updates all day long. Watching the approach of strong storms coming in out of the midwest. Just a few Thunder Showers into western pennsylvania. Most of this will pass to our north but its later this afternoon, sheena is back with new hour by hour timing on that in just a few minutes. And glue, why the popular someone shot a woman in southeast washington. D. C. Police say the shooting happened on waynes place off of 4th Street Southeast overnight. The woman was alive when medics took her to the hospital was we dont know her condition right now. A mosque has been targeted by hate mail. Theyre trying to find the person who sent notes threatening the lives of muslims. Metros next phase of work starts this next weekend. It will have a big impact on alexandria. Crews will begin to work on the yellow and blue lines between the huntington and van dorn street welcome back to news 4 today. Im eun yang. And im aaron gilchrist. It is 5 30 right now. Its a weather alert day and we are working with you to get you out the door and to work on time. Melissa ready for a peek at the roads. Well get to sheena and tom first to check the forecast. A little deceiving because we dont have the storms around but we do expect them. Were going to have frequent updates and weve had this early spring like weather coming in, hence early spring like thunderstorms. We had some last saturday and we may be getting some later this afternoon. Here is the hour by hour timing. By 1 00 this afternoon this area in the red and orange, these are the heavy downpours with some hail and gusts of wind coming out of the panhandle of West Virginia and the valley. Then they race closer to washington. This is about 2 00 this afternoon. Our western suburbs, northern suburbs and all the way down to central virginia, that li comes through the metro area around 2 00 to 3 00 p. M. That comes around the time that students will be getting out of school.