Decades away. Now, heres an outline of the proposal were expected to hear. The policies include requiring schools to offer Computer Science classes to students within ten years, expanding the number of High School Students offering advanced placement, and requiring them all to read at grade level by the end of second grade. The mayor says he hopes todays speech is targeted towards parent, but hes also trying to get the attention of governor cuomo, trying to make the case for more state funding, as well as a longer renewal of mayoral control within the school system. In a preview of todays speech, the mayor said the goal of these proposals is to provide equity that is not there. He says it may require things like retraining teachers or hiring more teachers or specialists to come within the school to achieve these goals. Thats why some are saying already it may be too much. Well have more on that coming up in our next half hour. Right. Weve got to get the faculty along with the new program. Thank you so much, tracie. Time for weather and traffic at 4 35 on this wednesday morning. Hey, chris. Good morning, guys. In pretty good shape once again this morning. Very comfortable outside. Temperatures mid and upper 60s in the city. 50s in the suburbs. Not quite as chilly as the past couple mornings have been. A Beautiful Day filled with sunshine. Warmer temperatures this afternoon. Much of the area into the mid and upper 80s. The humidity stays low. Temperature right now in town, 67 degrees. It is a comfortable morning. Plenty of sunshine, blue sky around. Maybe a fair weather cloud here or there. About 3 00 should be the high for the day at 87 degrees. Sevenday forecast just ahead. Lets get to to lauren and find out about the commute. Good morning, everyone. Lets talk more about mass transit. A few detours on want buses. The bx5, bx24, and q50. 4 and 6 train have cleared up. We have fast track maintenance on the f. Overnight, no f trains from jamaica 179th street to briarwood. Alternate side of the Street Parking rules back in effect today. In new jersey, police are on the search for a gunman who shot four people outside a housing complex. Police say it happened last night by the Betty Shabazz housing complex. No word yet on what led to the shooting. The victims are expected to recover from their injuries. New this morning, police are on the lookout for two swindlers who conned an elderly woman in queens. Police say the woman in the surveillance photo approached the 80yearold victim on jamaica avenue last week. They say she asked her for help cashing a winning lottery ticket. A few minutes later, a man approaches. Police say they scammed the older woman out of 90,000 in cash. In president ial politics now, the republican candidates face off tonight in their second debate. Its being held at the reagan library. 11 contenders will be in the primetime matchup. Donald trump should be in the center because he does lead in the polls. His opponents say they plan to hit him much harder this time. Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton will also be on tv right here on nbc 4. Shes dropping by the tonight show starring jimmy fallon. Its one stop of a media tour town. You can catch her appearance right after news 4 at 11 00. And happening today, voters in connecticuts largest city go to the polls in their democratic mayoral primary. In bridgeport, its a race between twoterm incumbent mayor bill finch, the former mayor. Hes seeking his old job after serving some seven years in federal prison on corruption charges. There will be a break today in the talks aimed at averting a School Bus Driver strike on long island. Negotiations are scheduled to resume tomorrow between the its drivers. The two sides have held contract talks for the past two days, but if theyre unable to reach a deal, a strike could affect suffolk counties. It is coming up on 4 39. Pope francis will arrive here in the United States in just six days. At the same time, were learning about an isisinspired plot against him now stopped by law enforcement. A 15yearold boy in new jersey right outside of philadelphia was arrested. A source tells news 4 that teen contacted people overseas and was getting Information Online about explosives. Sources also tell us the boy possibly suffers from Mental Health issues. Remember, if you own a drone, you have to leave it at home while the pope is here. This is the theme of a new video. It warns about new faa restrictions. Starting next tuesday, new york, philadelphia, washington, they e nodrone zones. Its extends to the surrounding co wunities. Anybody caught flying one of these Unmanned Aircraft could be arrested, and they could be fined. The search is now resuming for a missing person after a deadly flash flood swept two cars away in utah. Raging flood waters and mud tore across a road monday, dragging two vehicles with three families inside for hundreds of yards. 12 people are now dead, three children survived. The floods followed heavy rains in the canyons just north of hildale and colorado city. Some people in california who were forced out of their homes by a raging wildfire are now returning to find them burnt to a crisp. At least 600 homes are now gone. This is earlier cell phone video of one family after they packed up and left home, trying to escape the flames. So far one person was killed in the socalled valley fire. Thousands of homes are still in harms way. Still ahead, shocking incident involving a new Jersey High School football player, and now police are investigating. Plus, burglars comb through a manhattan mans apartment while he watches the whole thing. How they made it inside. And were going to get a check of weather and traffic on the 4s coming up. This is a look at the hamilton bridge. We see some Service Vehicles out there. Well find out more about that. In the meantime, follow us on facebook and twitter. Youre watching today in new york. Its 4 43. Here are four things to know this morning. Overnight, a derailed Freight Train was removed from the tracks in hicksville. The repairs are still causing problems for liir riders. Lauren is tracking that, so stay with us all morning for updates. Today mayor de blasio expected to un il a major new Education Plan to improve our new york city schools. Tracie strahan will have the details coming up. A heads up to people in the bronx. West nile spraying takes place tonight in several neighborhoods. Youre advised to stay indoors beginning 8 30 tonight. As we told you earlier this week, this is child passenger safety week. So today federal experts are holding a twitter chat. This is to answer the question of parents. It begins at 2 00 today. You can submit a question using the hashtag the right seat. This is important because there are new guidelines about rearfacing seatsefor the youngest children and now a longer time in the rear facing than before. Exactly. And just newer requirements tend to come out when you have a different car, if you get a new car seat, if youre a new parent. Lots of questions. I think its great that somebodys around to answer them. I think everybodys sort of fumbled around with a car seat at some point. I have a nephew. I think hes up to four car seats now. How do you do that . Its a lot. How about our producer who has three babies . Matt has three. Thats crazy. Three under three. Id love to see video of that. Well amuse ourselves with it, not him. Imantime, were dealing with ce weather over the next several days. Its not going anywhere any time soon. If youre looking for rain, youre not going to find it. If youre looking for sun, weve got it. More to come. Temperatures will even continue to warm f thurther today. 67 and clear right now in the city as we look at where we should be this time of year. Normal high down to about 75 degrees. But we expect a forecast high today of 87. So we are well above normal. So very warm but not sticky. Humidity level still stays quite comfortable through this time frame. Our headlines, looking at a sunny stretch going on probably the rest of the workweek and into the weekend. Warm temperatures with low humidity. The weekend really looks good too. It may cool down just a little bit. Upper 60s. We do see some 50s and 40s north and west. Not as many. 50s in sussex. 48 in morristown. Could be patches of fog in the lowlying areas. There really isnt much going on through the entire eastern half of the country except over the southeast. Thats about it. None of that is moving in our direction. We have High Pressure locked in here. That means were locked in with sunshine. The good stretch continues. 87 the expected High Temperature this afternoon. Tonight, maybe some patchy fog in the suburbs. A little more well start to see. 50s in the most distant burbs north and west. Tomorrow, that Southern California feeling out there. Temperatures starting out in the 60s and 50s in the morning, warming into the upper 80s again in the afternoon. The humidity level stays quite comfortable. Into the weekend we go. Mid80s on friday. I think by saturday and sunday re closer to the 80degree mark. Then eventually early next week, another High Pressure area builds in and t t ns the wind more northeast. That will bring in cooler temperatures, knocking us down to the 70s. Maybe some clouds and eventually some showers. But from now right into the weekend, it looks y. 87 today and tomorrow with ,sunshine. Middle 80s on friday. Lower 80s on saturday. Near 80 for sunday. Back into the 70s with a few more clouds come monday and tues coy of next week. Lets find out about any problems early on this wednesday rnine ommute. Well, forveryone just tuning in, liir commuters, heres the latest after the derailment. Exn pect 10 to 15minute delays as well as cancellations on the ronkonkoma and Port Jefferson branches. Still no Eastbound Service between 6 00 a. M. And 10 00 a. M. At ronkonkoma, huntington, and rt jefferson stations. Some westbound trains could bypass westbury and carle place. An accident out thereto with with a dostwned pole. Heading to the Jackie Robinson parkway, shut down with construction. Staten island expressway has construction. Westbound between clove road and the bridge. Right now not causing a delay. At. Lauren, thank you. New this morning, Princeton University has its first openly gay football pl flayer. Junior offensive lineman Mason Darrell revealed the news. He w mted to snihow you can be gay anwid Place Division i football. He adds everyone on and off cam pus has been accepting. People will surprise you. I was definitely concerned that people, you know, teammates would react very poorly. I 4k in this day and age, people just dont really care ab . Out it. Its really not a big deal anymore. Princeton kicks off its season this weekend. Theeyll be taking on lafayette. 4 48 now. Police are investigating whats bein call one of the dirtiest football plays in a while. This happened friday night during a High School Game in new jers ma. Linden taking on immaculata. Video shows a defensive lineman pulled a helmet off one of the opponents and hit him in the head with it. He then tosses that helmet aside. Some fans were at the game and were just shocked. They were getting blown out, so i feel like he was kind of heated. But it still wasnt right regardless. Its crazy, somebody getting hit with a helmet. He should have been brought out the game for that. I dont think he should be able to play for the rest of the game or the season even. The players names have not been released. You see him striking him with helmet. Quote, once we reviewed the videotape, we felt it necessary to contact linden officials who in turn have been very cooperative and apologetic. Linden high school conducting its own investigation at this point. An Upper East Side resident hoping Surveillance Video will leinadouolice to the men who broke into his apartment. This clear video shows a man inside the apartment after he climbed a fire escape and broke through a window monday afternoon. He then helps another man get in through another window. Motion sensor in the living room went off, sending an alert to the meowners cell phone. He rushed home, but by the time he got there, the two men were gone. Hes in my house, and hes touching my things. Those are my things. Somebody knows who these guys are. This isnt the first time these guys have done this thing. So lets put an end to it. The men took off with just a pair of rangers tickets. If you have any information, call police. Right now police want your help in finoing this man. They say he was caught on Surveillance Video robbing an elderly man in the bronx. This was monday afternoon inside an Apartment Building in kings bridge. Police say the man followed this 79yearold victim into the lobby, grabbed him around the neck from behind, then threw him to the ground and took off with 200. Well, two suspects are faci charges after shots were red outside a Day Care Center in westchester county. Police say two men in cars exchanged gunfire just steps nursery. One man drove himself to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the shoulder. Police1captuied theisecond suspect after a short chase. No children or teachers were hurt. 4 50 right now. Still to come, a crowd gathered to watch a rescue. What went wrong. Nv and you may find them alarming. The new findings about fast food and children. Youre watching today in new york. Welcome back. 4 53. It is wednesday morning. 67 degrees out. In news for your health this morning, a government report says onethird of teens and children eat fast food every day. The 2012 survey also found on average, kids get 12 of their daily calories from pizzas, burgers, and other fast foods. The cdc says those numbers have been the same for the last decade. Wow. 12 . People here pointing a themselves, right, in horror. I only have grains. A plantbased diet. Rolled oats of chicken mcnuggets. Well look into that. Anyway, if youre heading out today, doing a little jogging early on this morning, still pretty comfortable. The humidity level is not bad. Climbing into the upper 80s this afternoon. Thats toasty for this time of year. Were well above normal. The good news is the humidity stays down. Theres plenty of sunshine. Tonight, clear skies, upper 60s in the city, 50s in the distant suburbs. Could be patchy fog developing overnight. Again, this pattern continues. More typical of what youd see in portions of Southern California. Mornings are cool and comfortable. Afternoons nice and warm and dry. Love that, except we dont live in Southern California. Palm trees and the pacific ocean. Yeah, we like those. Sand. Well, we could talk about our subway system, which is not as exciting as palm trees. We have some problems out there. Downtown a and e trains are running express from 59th street or 42nd street to canal street. We have overnight track work out there on the a. No service between euclid avenue and lefferts boulevard. On the l, no service between myrtle and lorimer. That should be wrapped up at 5 00 a. M. Well have an liir update shortly. Thanks very much. Meanwhile, more commuter news. A new plan to push to pay for the rail tunnel under the hudson river. Governors cuomo and christie have sent a joint letter to president obama. Theyre asking the federal government to pick up half the cost of building a new tunnel. The governors calling their plan a fair funding solution for new tunnel that many people agree is essential to the region. The hunt for an elusive alligator lurking in a queens park is finally over. For the last two months, weve been telling you about the gator nicknamed jaws spotted in the waters of flushing meadows park. He disappeared every time authorities were called to catch him. Yesterday police finally managed to capture the twofootlong gator with the help of a local fisherman. Ive been hunting him every day. I come down and look for him before work. I just took a break to take a ride, and i just happened to be in the right place at the right time and got him. Its not clear where the gator came from, but it was likely a pet that became too much to handle. City leaders racing towards a deadline to make a change in times square. News 4 has learned the task force still hasnt met. Its been nearly a month since the mayor convened a task force to try to find a solution to the topless painted women and aggressive costume characters. Times Square Alliance is set to make its own recommendations as well. S a escape artist is rushed to the hospital after a stunt in new jersey apparently went awry. He tried to escape from a tank filled with water. The stunt was supervised by gician chris angel. Just about two and a half minutes into it, he became visibly distressed and was dragged out by emts. A spokesperson says he was conscious when he was removed from that tank. 4 57 now. A Dozen High School seniors in our area are going to get the chance of a lifetime. Theyre going to get to meet pope francis. All 12 are from area Catholic Schools who have great grades. Some volunteer in soup kitchens. Others lead school ministry. Another thing they have in common, each and every one says they are inspired by the holy father. I screamed. Me and my mother were jumping up and down screaming. Hes very open with what we believes. Hes very accepting of everybody. I think christians and nonbelievers appreciate that. The gathering with the holy father is going to be at our harlem. While there isnt much time, students are hoping pope francis will stay a little longer than hes scheduled, but theyre certainly thrilled for even a brief moment. We have posted the information on pope francis visit, including his scheduled stops. Head to nbcnewyork. Com. Closer and closer by the day. So exciting. Theyre great kids. Coming up on 5 00 a. M. , if youre about to head out the door, take uses with you. Keep watching today in new york by downloading the news 4 new york app on your mobile device. Our next hour starts right now. New this morning, progress on long island. A derailed Freight Train is now off the tracks, but commuters are still being warned. Youre going to have to leave early. We have team coverage. Plus, the major announcement that impacts hundreds of thousands of new york city students. And escape from the flames. Dramatic new video that puts you inside the car of a family as theyre trying to flee that california wildfire. Today in new york starts now. Good morning, everybody. 5 00 a. M. Almost on this wednesday, september 16th. Im michael gargiulo. Im darlene rodriguez. Chrissy cimino is here with the forecast. Clear skies for the post part. Temperatures cool in the suburbs. Woodbridge is 58. 50 in jackson. Toms river at 54. Closer to the city, milder. 67 in central park. White plains still in the low 60s. Most of the Hudson Valley in the 50s this morning. We see a few 40s way to the north and west. A full day of sunshine again. Warm 80s by noontime. A high of 87 degrees. The rest of your forecast coming up on the 4s. Chris, thank you very much. New this morning, that Freight Train that derailed on long island, the Freight Train itself is off the tracks. This happened just west of the hicksville station. The emergency repairs, thats impacting the commuter. We have team coverage. Lauren has the latest from long island railroad. We want to start with Katherine Creag out in hicksville. Reporter yes, at the liir station. Theres an announcement happening right now talking about that Freight Train, that its off the tracks, but that commuters should expect delays and maybe cancellations. For example, the 443 train was eight minutes late. Commuters told us that it is almost always on time. They actually expect delays to worsen as the morning progresses. That Freight Train has been removed. Workers were on the job overnight. They got it off the tracks. There were two train cars that actually derailed yesterday afternoon. 200 feet of tracks now have to behe repaired. Those tracks have to be inspected. The repairs have to begin. Overnight, workers removed it. So thats good news, but there are delays, and there might be cancellations according to the mta. The derailment happened at 1 00 in the afternoon. It took seven hours for regular liir service to resume. In the meantime, the afternoon rush was impacted. At one point, shuttle buses were running between carle place and westbury. Just minutes ago we talked with a commuter who says shes frustrated by the delays. Listen to this. It stinks. Its happening all the time. Frustrating, i would imagine . It is, of course. I get late. Its late. Reporter and we received an alert from the mta that the 338 from huntington to penn station was 15 minutes late. So right now were hearing, michael, 8 minutes, 15 minutes late, for example, on some of the trains running this morning. Not awful, commuters are telling us, when you think about what could happen. It could be worse later on, but they do expect delays to build up as the morning progresses. Back to you. All right. Hopefully itll get better an not worse. Thanks very much. We want to find out exactly what you can do about this. Lets check in with lauren. Well, as kat just said, a train that was 8 minutes late and 15 minutes late. Expect 10 to 15minute delays. Thats realistic at the moment. Also expect some cancellations. We havent seen that yet. Thats on the ronkonkoma and Port Jefferson branches. No Eastbound Service between 6 00 and 10 00 a. M. To the ronkonkoma station, huntington, or port jeff. Some westbound trains be bypass westbury and carle place. Theyre still single tracking. Delays. Otherwise, your major commuter lines look good. More weather and traffic coming up. Okay, lauren. Thank you. Happening today, mayor de blasio is expected to lay out a new Education Plan. A long list of changes with one goal in mind, improving new york city schools. Tracie strahan is at city hall with details. Reporter darlene, good morning. The tech talk is certainly the big headline out of this. The department of education estimates that fewer than 10 of new york city Public Schools offer any sort of Computer Science classes. Mayor de blasio hopes that initiative and others will help city School Students compete. How he plans on partnering with the private sector and achieving the big headline out of this, announcing plans to require schools to offer Computer Science classes to all students within ten years. He also hopes to expands the number of high schools that offer advanced placement courses. His final one, and its a big one as well, requiring all new york city School Students to read at grade level by the end of second grade. The mayor also hopes to target his speech to parents and lawmakers in albany alike, making the case for more state