Democrats rally for Maryland redistricting; DC mayoral candidate shares disdain for autonomous cars

And on this Thursday, the 6 begins with a weather roller coaster of sorts hitting the D.C. region. Chilly showers tonight, but the 80s coming back tomorrow with a chance of severe storms. A live look outside from our Fox 5 Skycam in Reston. Our weather team tracking more rain, gusty winds, and that severe weather threat for your Friday. Kaitlin Roth, here tracking it all. Hi, Kaitlin. Hi, guys. I'm ready for this week to be over. Right? I mean, it was fine up until this point. Yeah, I know. We went from 90 yesterday to 60 with rain showers out there. We're now tomorrow back in the 80s. It's like weather ping pong. It really is. It's hard to keep track of. And then I think finally by the weekend, we're in fall. Okay. I mean, second half of October. It's about time. But yeah, tomorrow, not done with summer just quite yet. The 80s are back. It'll have a very summer-like feel to the day. Warm, humid, and capped off with some late-day showers and thunderstorms, some of which may be on the gustier side. Live look out at Reston Station. Earlier rain showers have passed. There's a little bit of brightening on the horizon. And some low-level fog still kind of stuck there in the valley as you look off to the west. A few treetops are changing colors. It's October. We're right in the middle now. But it's really kind of struggled to give us some beautiful fall weather. 62 degrees back at the airport as the front came through last night after that hot day. Got stuck to our south. And while we've been seeing mostly clouds and showers, we've also been seeing these temperatures that have really not budged. And if anything, they've gone downward. upper 50s north and west low 60s south and east so satellite and radar showing some more showers out to the west we are not done yet we'll have some more intermittent rain as we head into the evening the one batch that came through DC is now up by Baltimore so expect some light rain and drizzle 63 degrees for that overnight low your planning forecast for tomorrow we start off cloudy break into sun temperatures jump and by late afternoon along a cold front look to see some thunderstorms we fall again into the weekend much much cooler but like i said i hope we looks like we'll kind of stabilize into next week and i'll have much more on that coming up in my full seven day back to you all right Caitlin thank you we continue to follow that breaking news out of Oregon a shooting at an elementary school and we're told there are several victims yeah so Marina Morocco is joining us live now from the newsroom with what we are learning Marina students among those victims at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend Oregon Police say at least two people hospitalized, the shooter dead. But at this hour, unclear how serious those injuries are. Police receiving calls of shots fired into a car just before 4 p.m. here on the East Coast. Officers arriving to the scene minutes later. The Bend La Pine School District confirmed on Facebook that the elementary school remains on lockdown. Families have been asked to reunite with their kids at a nearby church. Silver Rail Elementary, located roughly 100 miles southeast of Portland, serving kindergarten through fifth grade students and had an enrollment of nearly 460 students last school year. Kenneth and Angie, we continue to track more as we start getting pictures from that scene as investigators descend on that school trying to figure out what led up to this active shooter situation that has now ended two people in the hospital still awaiting their condition. What a tragedy. Marina, thank you for the update. The mystery continues tonight at Northwest High School Montgomery County leaders now refusing to answer questions about the sudden suspension of the principal Scott Smith is out For now, Fox host Bob Barnard is in Germantown with the latest. We still don't know why the Northwest High School principal has been suspended or why MCPS officials aren't explaining what's going on. Why the lack of transparency? with the school community here beyond telling us that this is a personnel matter. All we know officially is that Mr. Scott Smith is on administrative leave. He's been the principal at Northwest High School since 2021. Our camera was there Wednesday as boxes were removed from the school amid what we're told is an internal investigation of some kind. At this morning's Montgomery County School Board meeting, neither Grace Rivera-Oven, whose district includes Northwest High, or Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor would speak to us. We were told they were not available to answer our questions about the situation or the lack of transparency surrounding this matter. We stopped by Principal Smith's home in Frederick County this afternoon, hoping to speak with him directly, but nobody answered the door. We left a business card hoping he might call. We've spoken to some Northwest parents this afternoon. It's a little concerning. Verbiage didn't really say much in the community letter they sent out. From what I understand, according to my child, So some of the students are a little concerned and wondering what's going on. It's got them a little frazzled, I guess. Are you concerned of not knowing? I'm kind of a, I'll wait to see what happens or what they put out. The letter did say they will provide more information later. Then I guess I'll make a decision if I should be concerned or not at that time. We send her here, she's here for most of the day. So we got to know that there's a safe environment. If there's something going on, we need to know about it as parents. So we're more concerned about her than the safety of the other students. And we just want to know what's going on and get some information from the county or from the school about what's happening. Northwest High School was in the news just last month for a gun reported inside the school. It took nearly 24 hours to communicate to parents it was part of an armed robbery inside a boy's bathroom. Not sure whether Principal Smith's removal has anything to do with that. The only thing MCPS officials are saying about this is in a letter sent to the Northwest High School community yesterday. An administrator writing, Mr. Scott Smith is currently on leave. We are committed to sharing more information regarding the length of Mr. Smith's absence when available. We'll keep pressing for answers and when we get them, we'll pass them on to you. Day seven of the Noreesh Bot murder trial, a piece of carpet with blood detected was introduced as evidence. The Prince William County police investigator testified it was cut from the defendant's bedroom. He told the jury blood was found underneath the carpet. He testified a sample tested positive for blood. The defense challenged that. You have this positive reaction, but you can't know from the reaction how that substance ended up where it ended up, right? No. You don't know when it got there? I do not. You don't know why it's there? I do not. Bot is accused of killing his wife, Montecoffle. Her body never recovered. That trial resumes Monday. Envelopes containing suspicious substances sent to congressional offices and election officials. The discovery is triggering a nationwide investigation with the FBI and other federal agencies now working to identify who's behind the letters. Fox News' Tom Fitzgerald live on the Hill tonight. And Fitz, you've been working your sources all day. What are you learning here? Look, the calendar plays a role in this. Today is the 25th anniversary of that first anthrax letter back in 2001 arriving here on Capitol Hill. So you might imagine people are on edge about this kind of thing. Now, so far, officials have not detailed exactly what was in these letters, but they say it was potentially hazardous. So here is what we know. The FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspector's Office, and the U.S. Capitol Police, all investigating what they describe as letters containing suspicious substances. Now, these were sent to both congressional offices, both here on the Hill and around the country, also election offices around the country. Now, an email obtained by Fox 5 said that this was a white powdery substance in one envelope bore a return address that said DSA with an address in New York City, which had previously been connected to the Democratic Socialists of America. There is no evidence that there's any connection between that group and this incident. But today, Virginia Congressman James Walton told Fox 5 he has directed his staff to take precautions. We've had this situation before in our history with white powdery dangerous substances being mailed to congressional offices and others around the country. Obviously, we take every precaution in our office and we'll wait to see the results of the investigation, but it's really disturbing. Now, in a statement to Fox 5, the FBI says they are working to identify the individual or individuals that are responsible for these letters. So how soon could they make a break in this case? Well, the former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police and a former FBI special agent who was assigned to the White House back during those 2001 anthrax attacks tells Fox 5 Today these kinds of attacks that come through the mail are difficult cases, but they are not impossible to solve. They're going to do a long history of analyzing both the envelope the contents the writing uh everything surrounding it so there's gonna be significant research and evaluation done for a wide array if you will of people who do this type of thing for different reasons the investigation now is going to key in on that and we're going to also see if anything was put on social media late this afternoon Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy revealed his office received one of those letters that we should know it is less than 20 days right now. Before the midterm elections, the FBI says they're going to work to secure elections for American citizens. We're live on the Hill tonight. We'll send it back in to you. Thank you, Fitz. Democrats now making a last minute push for Maryland's redistricting referendum. Congressman Jamie Raskin and Montgomery County Executive Mark Elridge rallying today in support of question three. Now, if approved, it would likely give Democrats all of Maryland's congressional districts. We have to be abundantly clear about what's at stake. If we allow Trump to rig these maps, working families here in Maryland, right here in Silver Spring, where I grew up, where we are across the state of Maryland, across the country, they are going to be the ones who pay the price. They don't want fair elections. They want a chess game. The UMBC poll shows 53 percent of likely voters plan to vote against that amendment. And new this hour, the Democratic nominee to be the next mayor of D.C., Janice Lewis-George, is once again publicly speaking out against autonomous vehicles like the ones used by Waymo. Earlier today, George tweeted, D.C. is facing a jobs crisis. Rushing the legalization of autonomous vehicles is irresponsible given the anticipated AI-related job displacement and disruptions that put countless workers at risk. Waymo's D.C. robo-taxi rollout is on hold. Commercial service cannot begin without council approval and DOT issues permits