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a series of powerful storms blew through the area. utility crews are out right now trying to restore power to homes in the dark. news 4 s tracee wilkins is live in tacoma park. hit particularly hard by the latest storm. good morning. reporter: good morning. we have a crew up here trying to get some of the power back up at tacoma park. it has been a brutal night for the folks that live here. they lost power early morning. here at montgomery college and the tacoma park campus of montgomery college had to close and will not be opening until noon. the good news for folks here and throughout the area. it looks like things are coming together quickly. last night s storms moved quickly and left some major damage. downed trees like this one in northwest d.c. at 16th and military road made for an early morning mess. it was the tacoma park section of montgomery county where the most suffered from early morning power outages. at its height, petco reported more than 3300 customers without power in that area. for montgomery county, we are looking at crews that are on the scene in tacoma park and trees and wires down and started again after the second of three storms that came through after midnight. for students at the tacoma park of montgomery community college, classes were delayed until noon. pepco crews were able to restore and by mid morning, power was restored. a few scattered outages remaining. not as bad as the situation yesterday on the highway. the storm, when it wraps around trees and wires, it s a process. reporter: pepco has been working quickly. they are saying in d.c., prince george s county and here in montgomery county, they are looking at several hundred folks without power as opposed to thousands like we saw earlier this morning. things are coming around. but, again, wherever you have plenty of trees and strong storms, you are going to have lots of outages. tracee wilkins, live this morning back to you in the studio. thank you. we re taking a life look outside at 11:02. we had storms overnight. want to know if the rain is going to end today. it is going to end today. yes, is the answer to that question. it s only going to be light rain left out there at this point in time. all the heavy rain has been gone since about 2:00 this morning. we have really just been left with lots of clouds and moisture and a little bit of light rain at times. temperatures are in the mid-70s here in washington. low 70s right up alongside the bay and a little bit warmer where there is some breaks in the clouds starting to come through towards winchester. current temperature, 80 degrees with a brightening sky. a check of doppler radar. still, a few dying sprinkles towards culpeper, virginia. the bulk of the live rain is still in the great state of maryland. a few sprinkles coming along interstate 270 down through frederick, maryland, into upper montgomery county. some showers in howard county, maryland, drifting southbound into northern prince george s and northern anne arundel. plenty of clouds left. a few light rain showers. certainly, not more than about .10 of an inch of rain at the most. with the afternoon clearing, warm today. a little break or two of sunshine. temperatures will quickly climb into the mid and upper 80s. out west towards the blue ridge, because they will get the sunshine first. thank you, chuck. montgomery county police are investigating after a man was shot and killed near wheaton high school. police say they found the 27-year-old man on randolph rode around 1:00 a.m. when they responded to the area for a call of shots fired. the man was suffering from at least one gunshot wound and died at the scene. around an hour later, police say another 27-year-old man walked into a nearby police station and turned himself in. he related that he was involved and responsible for the shooting. investigators spoke with him, took him into custody and he is at police headquarters. right now, we are investigating this case as a homicide. i can t go into any details that the investigators are gleaning now. police have not yet released the name of the victim. the man charged with killing chandra leavevy chandra levy is getting out of jail today. he can give authorities a handwriting sample. prosecutors say he wrote threatening letters to witnesses and made admissions about levy s murder. in december, he pled not guilty to additional charges that he threatened a witness in the case. he disappeared in 2001. her body was found a year later in rock creek park. have your walking shoes ready if you have to use a dupont metro station today. some escalators there are still not working. crews worked through the day yesterday to fix some of the escalators. we checked it out this morning. half of the escalators are working right now. the issues began monday night when smoke was reported coming from one of the esska laytors. that forced commuters to walk 120 steps up to the streets. at the south entrance, just one escalator was working for part of yesterday. it was going down. i want to know why would they have the one going down and not have the one going up. reporter: how hard is it? i m out of breath. i can t even breath. i m 72. i have a bad knee. so it is bad. reporter: metro tells us one of the escalators at dupont may not be fixed until the end of the month according to the agency s website. there are more than 60 escalators not working across the system. pepco is working to replace 1,000 feet of cable after an underground fire. smoke was seen coming from a manhole at connecticut avenue and r street early this morning. pepco says about 20 businesses are without power in that area. let s get a check of the midday traffic. jerry edwards joins us with the latest. . good morning. it has been a challenging day all day long with the rain coming and accidents and broken down cars. we have yet to clear out. look at this. here we are, 11:07 in the morning. the beltway is still very heavy on the outer loop from new hampshire around the silver spring. after this, it breaks loose only to slow again on the beltway where police have just moved an accident out of the roadway. in virginia, the inevitable road work slows you down. 95 northbound, two-lane exit ramp. left lane blocked there. a little bit of a slowdown. that s how we are doing. back to you. police in the district believe they have found a serial killer. they say that 35-year-old ronald brisbane jr. was behind five cold case murders. he is already behind bars. he was convicted of a double murder in 2002, which are in addition to the five cold case murders. never too late. it is never too late to bring closure to a family that s lost a loved one, especially in this senseless violence. this should never have happened. we are glad that we are at least at a point where we can close this chapter for these families. investigators believe that revenge was the motive for the killings s. investigators believe a might ning strike may have sparked a fire on the grounds of saint elizabeth hospital. the fire started after 9:30 in the 3700 block of martin luther king avenue southeast. firefighters say it originated on the roof of an eight-story unoccupied building. it took firefighters several hours to put out the flames. one firefighter was injured and taken to the hospital but is expected to be okay. the person campus of saint es is now being developed for the future department of homeland security headquarters. another deadly day in afghanistan for u.s. troops. coming up, the latest on attacks that left eight americans dead in a 24-hour period. plus, first delays on testing a new oil well cap are announced. now, word there will be delays on drilling a relief well. we will run down the new information from the gulf. name your price. a rare stephen strasburg today, five more american troops are dead from attacks in afghanistan. nato says four of the troops were killed by a roadside bomb while another died from wounds in a gun battle. the total of eight killed south of the country dominated by the taliban. they have stepped up security in that area. it looks like a top official won t have to answer to congress about the mismanagement at arlington national cemetery. deputy secretary they are monday higgen bottom has retired. he has made his retirement retroactive to july 2nd, that s the same way they found out congress wanted to interview him about botched contracts. he had been on administrative leave since last month. his supervisor was reprimanded and also retired. you can see oil is still flowing through the vents of the new containment cap. bp decided to delay testing and now the oil company has temporarily stopped drilling on a relief well. the well is supposed to permanently plug the oil leak. bp says it is for precaution as it prepares to begin testing on the new cap. nbc s kristin dahlgren has all the developments from venice, louisiana. reporter: this is not what so many hoped to see this morning, dark clouds of oil still gushing from the leaking well. and a murky explanation of why. in a written statement, thad allen said after looking at the research, including a seismic map, we decided the prospect may benefit from additional analysis. so, through the day today, engineers will take a closer look before starting the test they hope will tell them how well the new cap will work on the leak. we are trying to learn something that we don t know. that s the condition of the well board. reporter: the delay was a disappointment to those still waiting for the flow to stop. almost three months in, it is just latest heartache. for the oil worker who fears his job inspecting drill pipes for the relief wells may be his last. we should finish by thursday or friday and i don t know if i work after that. reporter: or the oysterless oyster house. it is day to day. i mean, we don t know how many is coming in. we are not in control of any of this. reporter: and the fish captain in oil-fouled waters. our livelihoods have been completely affected, completely shut down and are going to be shut down for a long time. it has already been the end of life as they knew it. this morning, the end to the oil leak faces yet another delay. kristen dahlgren, nbc news, venice, louisiana. bp says it is delaying drilling on the relief well by up to 48 hours. the final day of spain s running of the bulls has proven to be the most dangerous. nine people were hurt today during the last running. three of them were gored and one of them is in serious condition with two goring wounds. the running took a scary turn when the last bull turned and charged backwards at least three times. yikes! that is not for the faint of heart. would you ever do that? it s a wonderful tradition. i m glad it is on that side of the ocean. i think it would be fun to watch from one of the houses looking down, the crazy people running through the streets. you would have to be crazy to get in front of a stampeding bull, but, you know, that s just me. i don t want to criticize or judge. outside in our area, a tradition of being hot and dry for much of this summer. we have put a dent in that tradition over the last several days. finally, needed rainfall. we have had more rain in the last week than we have had in the previous two months combined. so we appreciate every little drop. outside, on a wednesday right now, plenty of clouds out there. temperatures, 75 degrees with some light rain falling. the dew point is at 70. the humidity, a very high 83%. a northwesterly wind at 13 miles per hour. there is the rainfall over the last 24 hours. more than two inches of rain now at national airport. far and away the biggest amount of rain we have seen in a long time. then, you add on that 1.2 inches of rain we had on saturday. we are actually starting to catch up just a bit. here is a look at the satellite picture, still plenty of clouds from washington northbound from montgomery and frederick counties up into northern maryland. look out towards the blue ridge. all these clouds are starting to break up. a lot of sunshine starting to stream through the blue ridge and shenandoah valleys. that will allow temperatures to start to warm up nicely. stanton and waynesboro. 79 degrees in culpeper and manassas. 77 in western fairfax county. 79, winchester. a check of the rainfall over the last 24 hours. more than two inches in washington. more than two inches in culpepper and rappahannock, over an inch in winchester. just over .75 at dulles. just over 1.25 in prince george s county and down towards la plata. a little more than .50 down towards southern maryland. a look at doppler radar. all the rain has ended in the far western suburbs. we still have showers in howard county, baltimore, carroll county, maryland. these showers are win wheeling around an overall area of low pressure, a few sprinkles towards damascus. all of interstate 270 now is pretty much covered in the rain showers. here we go, columbia. down towards clover lee and laurel, light rain showers into those areas. up towards washington counsel any in maryland, there is interstate 270. nothing heavy out there. a few sprinkles towards vienna and chantilly. for the most part, i would say that 99.5% of the rain we are going to get is already down. the area of low pressure over the northern tip of the chesapeake bay. that will pull on out of here. we don t need to worry about heavy rain. the heavier rain showers are rolling in towards new york city and into boston. 75 here. already, signs of the warming trend that we are going to have to endure back out to the west and due point temperatures, omaha, nebraska, current dew point, nearly 80 degrees. unbelievably warm and humid out to our west. that s what s many could go your way for the next several days. heavy rain lifting up. high pressure will bring sunshine and high temperatures back to the area for tomorrow and friday. today, the clouds are stuck with us for the next several hours. we will have clearing late in the day today. sunshine, heat and humidity back tomorrow with temperatures back into the mid-90s. kind of a good day to drive to the beach today. thursday and friday look like winters with tons of sunshine and highs in the mid-80s. the four-day forecast for us. mid to high 80s today. may have to trim back our 89 just a bit. it depends on how much longer we have to wait on the sun. 94, tomorrow. 95, saturday. about 90 degrees for both days over the weekend. a chance, 30% to 40%, both days this weekend. many, many, useable, dry outdoor weather hours this weekend. very hot, very humid. is sounds like summer to me. thank you, chuck. let s check on the midday traffic once again. the rain caused some problems this morning. what s the latest? a tough commute for a lot of folks. now that the weather has settled down, time for the road work. 395 northbound, 14th bridge in the three-lane stretch, the far right lane taken away. a little bit of a backup. not too bad. be aware if you are headed for downtown at this hour. let s hop over and see how we are doing elsewhere. over prince george s county, capital beltway around greenbelt still looks a little on the wet, potentially slick, side. be careful as well. eun? 11:20 is your time. an fda advisory committee is hearing evidence right now on whether the drug, avandia, is so unsafe, it should be pulled off the market all together. that decision is expected today. remembering a giant in the world of baseball, george steinbrenner. one big happy family. bristol palin and levi johnston reunite. first, a look at what s hot on nbcwashington.com. it seems like airlines are adding more fees every day. a fee to check your bags and another fee to get a pillow. some lawmakers say enough is enough. tracie potts reports from capitol hill where the house is holding a hearing today. reporter: everyone has heard about $10 sandwiches and checked bag charges. it doesn t cost them $35 to put your bag in the belly of the airplane. reporter: did you know airlines charge more than 100 different fees, pillows and blankets, holiday sir charges, early boarding, extra leg room, booking by phones. this feelings like teenagers pushing the boundaries. reporter: today lawmakers will ask whether fees are fairly and prominently disclosed as required by law. plus, you pay nearly a dozen government taxes. typically, uncle sam only taxes the ticket, not the extras. some argue taxes bags, pillows and blankets to bring in more money needed for airport repairs or our expert says, it could backfire. the federal government takes some of the money that that might reduce incentives airlines have to tack on the fees. jet fuel is still expensive, they say, they need the money. we are ruffle a $15 million a year business. 1% or 3% can be a swing to the bottom line. reporter: a bottom line that is growing. from january to march, airlines made 3 quarters of a million dollars on baggage fees. almost $8 billion for all fees last year. the airlines argue these add-on fees actually save you money, because passengers only pay for what they want. tracie potts, nbc news, washington. more than one-third of the money airlines made from the fees last year was from charging customers for baggage. the baseball world is mourning the loss of one of its biggest and most oat spoken figures. george steinbrenner died yesterday of a heart attack, 80 years old. steinbrenner, better known that is the boss ran the bronx bombers for nearly four decades, the yanks won during that time seven world series titles. he may best remembered for his temper and competitiveness. he was a winner. they have to put one word on his tombstone, winner, winner! he was a great boss, because, you know, he wasn t about to just sit there and say, i won last year. he always wanted to win next year. the steinbrenner family says funeral arrangements will be private. details about public memorials will be announced sometime soon. steinbrenner was honored with a moment of silence before last night s all-star game in anaheim. he wouldn t have been happy with the results. the national league won 3-1. it was the first victory over the american league since 1996. nationals pitcher, matt cap picked up the victory despite pitching just one-third of an inning. got some money to spare? this rare stephen strasburg baseball card could be yours. bidding opens today on the autographed 2010 bowman prospect card. the opening bid, a cool $9,000. a sports memorabilia auction house is hosting the two-week online auction. get out your checkbooks. 11:26 is your time. the so-called barefoot bandit is back in the united states. we will look at the charges he is facing now. plus, police are looking for these two men after they tried to steal a catalytic converter from a car in maryland. we will have details. chuck bell is back with a right now on news 4, utility crews are out restoring power to homes and businesses in the dark after last night s powerful storms. pepco reported more than 3,000 customers without electricity at one point. trees fell on to power lines there as well as into the district where the downed trees made the morning commute a mess. another delay in the gulf. bp says it will delay drilling on a relief well by 24 to 48 hours. the relief well is supposed to permanently plug the oil leak. bp says the postponement is precautionary as they prepare to test the new cap it placed on the leaking well. a new proposal would make it easier to learn more about juvenile offenders arrested over and over again for violent crimes. d.c. s department of youth rehabilitative services is responsible for 900 teenagers. kimberly suiters reports from the jail where they retain the most troubled kids. reporter: it has been a political question this week. does the public have the right to know if a juvenile commits a violent offense? we went behind here to hear their views. we are locked up. reporter: locked up or what? terique is a 17-year-old from southeast d.c., in and out of youth prison three times. because of privacy laws that protect kids, we are not allowed to know what crimes he committed to get here. the d.c. council is under pressure to consider releasing information about the most violent offenders, even if they are young, for the sake of safety. the interim head of dyrs doesn t sound convinced that disclosure would amount to greater public protection. if we spent as much time talking about how to move forward on providing services and supports and opportunities for young people as we spend on talking about confidentiality, we would be a lot further along. reporter: not surprising, terique would rather his past stay private, working on a ged, wants to go to trade school and wouldn t want his old ways to keep him from moving forward in a positive direction. if they see that, people are just going to start judging you or whatever, oh, he did this, he ain t going to change, he did that, he ain t going to change. i really don t think so. of course, the facility is an open book when it comes to sharing the successes here at new beginnings. in the last year, 19 kids have gone directly from this lockup to college. in laurel, maryland, i m kimberly suiters, news 4. tonight on news 4 at 5:00, kimberly will report on the high-profile crimes committed by kids in the district and why the juvenile justice system could not stop them. today, we will learn the fate of a popular diabetes drug. the food and drug administration will vote on the future of avandia. this as the manufacturer of the drug has agreed to pay $460 million to settle about 13,000 lawsuits. panel experts are reviewing five options, which include restricting avandia s use or pulling it from shelves all together. it has been linked to heart attacks, strokes and deaths. plaintiff s attorneys say a negative ruling could trigger a host of other potential claims. it s now 11:33. let s check in with chuck bell on the forecast. we had a lot of rain. we needed it. we are going to get more storms and damaging storms. absolutely, positively, not going to happen. the rest of the day will be considering quieter than late yesterday and early this morning. temperatures are in the mid-70s where the clouds have remained the thickest. baltimore still only 73 degrees. 79 in hagerstown. look at all the 80s showing up on the map. waynesboro and harrisonburg, winchester, up in the low 80s thanks to some breaks of sunshine. low pressure over the northeastern most tip of maryland getting ready to go up the delaware river and take the rain showers out of the picture along with it. here it is on local doppler. most of the long showers are fizzling their way through frederick and montgomery and northern prince george s and anne arundel and howard county. the majority of moderate showers is northern baltimore county, headed up into northeastern maryland. that s where it is going to stay for the rest of the day. we will have the trailing off of the sprinkles and showers. the further west and south you live, the sooner, you are going to see the son. the temperatures up into the mid and high 80s today. if you like it hot and sticky, wait a day. it will be back into the mid-90s by then. that s the way jerry edwards likes it. we wanted to make him happy. whatever it takes to make jerry happy. it s about time y all learned that. good morning. let s head out and see how we are doing here as we are just about at lunchtime. we are still dealing with road work at this hour which could slow your trip up on kenilworth avenue as we leave the district. be prepared. only one lane getting by. southbound, same story with a bit of a delay there as well. beltway, north of town, throughout the morning, a tough commute. look at this. still below the speed limit here at 11:30 in the morning, as you travel from new hampshire off and on to georgia avenue. this is better than it was 30 minutes ago. there is hope this will clear out before the afternoon rush-hour gets underway. we can only hope. only hope. eun? today, an iranian scientists who turned up in d.c. is on his way back home. secretary of state, hillary clinton, wants tehran to return the favor. sha haan amiri is a nuclear scientists that disappeared a year ago. right now, he is returning to iran traveling through a third country. yesterday, secretary clinton denied iran s accusations that the u.s. kidnapped him. she also asked iran to release three american hikers being held in iran. the barefoot bandit is back in the u.s. and set to appear in court later today. teenage fugitive colton harris moore was deported from the bahamas and is now in custody of the fbi. peter alexander has more. reporter: under heavy security, colton harris moore arrived back here capping a long day that began in the bahamas. with the suspect marched to a nassau court wearing clean high-top shoes without laces, a bahamas t-shirt and a fresh coat of mosquito bites, inside this courtroom, the 19-year-old fugitive who could have faced several charges, including a legal possession of a weapon, was surprisingly only charged with one minor offense, for illegally landing this stolen plane in the caribbean nation, july 4th. harris moore who had alluded authorities for two years since vanishing from a halfway house was respectful and expressionless. only repeating the word guilty twice when asking for his plea. harris moore s bahamian attorney. he is wanting to get it over with. reporter: his sentence, a $300 fine and immediate deportation or three months in the bahamian prison. the u.s. embassy paid that fine. in less than four hours later, was on a flight back to the u.s. with harris moore accused of dozens aof crimes across at least eight states allegedly stealing cash, cars and five planes, the investigators say he taught himself to fly. a lot of states want the guy. it is in a sense going to be a battle. the state that wins or the federal jurisdiction that gets first dibs will be the one where he committed the most crimes or committed the most harm. reporter: the fbi says harris moore will likely be returned to his home state of washington where he allegedly preyed on neighbors for years after a troubled childhood. the herald newspaper in washington state reports that court documents say harris moore told a psychiatrist in 2008 that his mother was abusive when she had been drinking. colton, is there a message for your mom? reporter: after his deportation from the bahamas, many of his victims hope he faces justice. at least one relative says, what he really needs is help. that was peter alexander reporting. authorities say harris moore earned the nick neighboring barefoot bandit by committing crimes without waring shoes. the teenager accused of stealing a metro bus and taking it on a joyride is telling news 4 he is sorry. he is charged with taking the bus from a lot in northeast washington and taking it to southeast washington and crashing into a tree. he was dressed up as a bus driver and picked up riders ang lo the buses normal route. he knew how to drive the bus. at least one family was a bus driver. he was a student at duke ellington school and understands what he did was wrong and apologized for his actions. i have truly sorry for what i have allege owedly been accused of. i personally would like to extend my deepest apologies to the good name of the duke ellington school of the arts. and to my family and friends who i love very much. jackson is charged with one count of unauthorized use of a vehicle. a metro access driver is facing charges accused of sexually assaulting a special needs passenger. the victim says the assault happened last thursday after a metro access van picked her up from an adult daycare in montgomery county. metro transit police say the suspect is no the a metro employee but a driver provided by subcontractors regency cab incorporated. police plan to charge the driver with second-degree rape and second-degree sexual offense. were you one of the hundreds of the marc passengers stranded on the heat in the train. customers are now eligible to get five free vip passes. it is in response to the train that broke down on june 21st leaving passengers stranded without air-conditioning for two hours. the ordeal sent two passengers to the hospital for heat exhaustion. new today, the search for two men accused of stealing a pricey parts from cars in annapolis. those men are 22-year-old curtis armstrong and 24-year-old kenneth armstrong. police say they tried to steal a cat lit particular converter from a vehicle on americanadrive. they were last seen driving a yellow pontiac g-3 with maryland tags, 3fe72. two men have been charged with chimiing up 75-foot polls. prosecutors say they made off with 270 pounds of wires, about $20,000 worth when sold as scrap metal. the plan unraveled when an alert amtrak employee tipped them off about a suspect dressed like a railroad worker. the wires did not carry an electric current. authorities say, the men risked touching nearby lines that could have resulted in lec trugs or service disruption. an investigation is underway at george mason university after two students reportedly stole a campus police officer s i.d. information. university police began their investigation back in may when they first realized the information was stolen. investigators tracked the theft back to a student who used the information to gain access to a housing office. when officers showed up as the students dorm room, they found a box of access cards, a list of students name and credit card information. police also seized items from a second students home in herndon, virginia. the students have not yet been charged. the d.c. council has approved a measure allowing the city to take over the united medical center in southeast washington. the hospital, which is the only one in the district east of the anacostia river, has been struggling financially for several years. it was formally known as greater southeast hospital. under a plan proposed by mayor adrian fenty, the hospital will remain open and be run by a nonprofit board appointed by the city. the district will look for new private buyers to purchase the facility. 11:42 is your time now. 74 degrees. the dow has gained ground for six straight sessions. we will look at how stocks are training this morning. dog owners will be howling at this. i m done with all these lists. and driving all over town. i want one list. for one store. [ female announcer ] at safeway, you get it all. great quality and great prices. so you just need a safeway list. [ male announcer ] with thousands of everyday low prices you ll save all over the store. [ female announcer ] with club card specials like breyers ice cream just $1.99 and safeway hot dog or hamburger buns only 89 cents. [ male announcer ] quality and low prices. so there s one stop for everything. [ female announcer ] at safeway, that s our promise. that s ingredients for life. you know, the guys who always do a super job. well, it is. just go to the verizon® yellow pages. and look for a business with the superguarantee® shield. you ll get the job done right, or we ll step in and help to make it right. so, protect yourself with the superguarantee® from supermedia. on its way the new verizon® yellow pages with larger, easier to read print. if you have a dog and live in montgomery county, you will have to start paying to use the dog park, $40 annually for access to the county s five dog designated parks. each additional dog will cost an extra $5. they will get colored tags. if you are caught without one, park police can issue a fine. the new fees are meant to help the county close its budget gap. a 7-11 store in leesburg has the my das toucidas touch becom spot for ticket winners. someone bought a ticket for $250,000 but no one has come to claim the prize. these numbers, 3, 4, 15, 27, 37. sound familiar? no. the numbers again, 3, 4, 15, 27, and 37. the ticket matched all of those numbers but not the megaball, which was 35. by the way, news 4 was there as a customer won $1,000 yesterday. another customer says years ago a $9 million ticket was sold in the same store. not bad. retail sales fall in june for a second month. let s check in with cnbc s courtney reagan. she joins us live with more on that and the rest of the day s business headlines. good morning. good morning. stocks are higher across the board. the dow is up about 35 points. we are getting a little help from the earnings at intel. stocks just getting their sort of first chance to react today. wall street looking to extend a winning stroo he can to seven days. at least for the dow, when we actually started off lower. things have gotten better as trading has worn on today. europe was mixed. like you said, retail sales fell for a second straight month. the numbers were hurt by weak receipts and gasoline stations. often times, with he get a nice bump from those two areas. prices dropped by 1.3% last month. that s the biggest decline since january, 2009. prices were also down. we are still waiting on the minutes from last month s fed meeting. those will be out later this afternoon. the congressional panel we are seeing the $700 billion tarp says that small banks are still struggling. the panel says tarp was designed with big wall street banks in mind. many regional community banks are having trouble repaying the money dragged down by bad commercial real estate loans and high unemployment. the panel says that hundreds more small banks could fail by the end of next year. all of chrysler and general motors dealers threatened with closure as part of the automakers bankruptcy proceedings. we will soon find out their fate. they are down to about 35 cases out of the 1600 dealers who appealed their shutdowns. hearings should wrap up today. we wish everyone the best. we like to see business boom in every area. so, hopefully, most of those will be back up and running. back to you. courtney reagan, thank you. timing really is everything. it turns out small changes in your schedule could make a big difference in your life. researchers now say there is a best time for everything from exercise to work. nbc s kristi nelson reports. reporter: patty thinks she gets her best work out in if she doesn t do it first thing in the morning. i like to work out about 10:00, 10:30, mid morning or mid afternoon. imnot an early work-out person. reporter: experts say the best time of day for exercise might for most people be the afternoon. your muscles will be warmer, the whole body is warmer. the muscles are more pliable. you are less likely to get injured. some people actually notice if i work out in the afternoon, i can do more, i can pump more weights, go a little farther. it turns out there is a best time of day for most people for doing most things, including work, naps, take medicines, even intimacy. there is science behind this involving the delicate rhythms of the brain which determine your best performance time. they can change body temperature and more. they are genes in your system that are on a sir okayedian clock. these genes are in every cell in your body. the master switch is in your brain. reporter: the best time of day to complete certain tasks can vary by person. historically, the best time to take a nap is in the early afternoon, when people have their siestas, when you are most tired. our society doesn t allow that. reporter: if you are trying to finish that big report. you want to work on a report when you are alert, when you are going to be alert during the day. reporter: keep in mind, you are less productive at any task if you push it or you are simply not into it. back to exercise. consistency is the key. you should try to get some exercise in every single day no matter what your rhythms are telling you. that was kristi nelson reporting. experts say you can swetweak yo internal clock. too much, you can feel fatigued or jet lagged. 76 degrees coming up. bristol palin and levi johnston back together and talking marriage. plus, meteorologist, chuck bell, will be sarah palin was hit with a surprise this morning. her daughter, bristol, and lee levi johnston announced they are engaged and haven t told their parents yet. bristol tells the magazine she found the idea of telling her mother intimidating and scary have the the magazine s editor spoke earlier on the today show. bristol came to us and said, i want to get my message out. i want a platform to explain it. sarah palin is very protective of her daughter. they had a very nasty breakup and feud. for her to be able to tell her story and explain how much they are in love and they want to get married and be a family, she needed a platform to do it. us provided that. the today show obtained a statement from sarah palin said, bristol at 19 is a young adult. we want what s best for our children. bristol believes in forgiveness and redemption to a degree that most of us stugle to put into practice in our daily lives. pat lawson muse joins us in the newsroom with a preview of thing to come. coming up, we will have the latest out of the gulf on the testing of the new cap on the leaking well. we will be following the so-called barefoot bandit this afternoon as he appears in court in miami. plus, anyone with kids in college these days knows about the high cost of textbooks. many students are buying books on line to try to save some money. some campus bookstores are trying a novel approach to try to win back business. we will have that story coming up today. then, tonight, on news 4 at 5:00, going beyond the books. how old bicycles are being used as a teaching tool to help at-risk children in our area. those stories and the latest on weather coming up tonight on news 4 starting at 4:00. eun, back to you. time now for a final check of our forecast. meteorologist, chuck bell has the latest and greatest on the wet weather. i am optimistic. as usual. you are an optimist. we like that about you, chuck. i am glass half full most of the time. plenty of sunshine already breaking out across much of the shenandoah valley down into central virginia and that sunshine is going to continue to work its way into the washington area over the next couple of hours. 75 here, 79 in roanoke. richmond, virginia, 86 degrees. 77 in sterling, winchester, virginia, 82. here is a look at the doppler. you can get a sense, a little bit of light rain into northeastern maryland. we will be left with a little bit of clearing this afternoon. temperatures in the mid and upper 80s today. if you have to be back in the 90s, you will get it for tomorrow and friday and through most of the weekend as well. something for everybody. thanks, chuck. would you talk to the press if you got attacked by a crocodile for trying to ride it while you were drunk? you would if you are michael in y newman. he had a few too many at the bar, climbed a fence into an area where fatso the crocodile lived. he tried to pull a little croc rodeo action. he cut michael s leg pretty badly. you ask yourself, what on earth were you thinking, michael? now, he is answering it. i am thinking if someone else can feed him, i could go up and paddle him. unfortunately, they move so fast. he is big ann are thind near his back legs. as i touched it, it had my leg at the same time i went to touch it. it turned around and grabbed my leg in half a second. well, fortunately for michael, fatso had mercy on him and let him go. he doesn t seem to get how ferocious a crocodile is. they haven t made it 100 million yaears by being the nicest kids on the black. they are mean and fast and hungry. that does it for us. have a great day!