The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:
GAS PRICES DROP?
Labor Day, the tradition end of summer, usually mean the end of higher summer gas prices, and this year isn't expected to be any different. The weekly AAA Mid-Atlantic survey finds that regular unleaded gas prices have dropped 3 cents in the past week to $2.55 per gallon. "We can expect the price to be about $2.50 for the next week and a half for the next couple of weeks," says AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend. "When driving plummets as it always does after Labor Day, about five percent, then we can expect prices to do their annual drop." (wtop.com)
TUESDAY COMMUTE
Washington’s Notorious Rush-Hour Traffic Has Dipped Three Percent In Recent Months, To The Relief Of Commuters, But Signals Are Mixed, Says AAA That dreaded day of reckoning is drawing nigh for area motorists and commuters alike. It is “Terrible Traffic Tuesday.” That’s the day after Labor Day in the Washington metro area when it’s back to work, back to school, and back to the second-worst gridlock in the entire nation, says AAA Mid-Atlantic. “With more than three million Washington area workers returning to work, 800,000 kids returning to area schools, and 860,000 Washingtonians who spent the weekend kissing summer goodbye 50 miles or more from home, chances are we will feel the full brunt of the second-worst gridlock in the nation for the first time in three months,” comments John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Manager of Public and Government Affairs. (Alexandrianews.org)
SPEED CAMS TARGETED
Speed cameras that will be allowed across Maryland this fall have proven to be popular targets for vandals in Montgomery County, where they're already allowed. Vandals have damaged automated speed cameras 27 times since they were installed in 2007, according to police reports obtained by The Washington Times through the Freedom of Information Act. (AP/Examiner/Washington Times)
SCHOOLS READY FOR SWINE FLU
Parents, your children will be safe at school despite the swine-flu pandemic. This was the message at the heart of an Alexandria appearance this week by Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine. He visited Tuesday at Tucker Elementary School to assured parents throughout Virginia that schools will be as safe as possible for the first day of classes next week. Unlike earlier this year, the governor explained, schools will not close at the first report of the virus. (Alexandria Gazette Packet)
BEAR PARTS
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Three severed body parts that washed up yesterday morning along waterways near the Magothy River could be from either a human or an animal such as a bear, Maryland State Police said last night. (The Capital)
