Downtown DC Holiday Market closures | FOX 5 AT 6AM

Right now at 6, President Trump's proposed triumphal arch brought back to the forefront. Our Fox 5 team is live with more on the public hearing and protest set to get underway. A new study shining the spotlight on pedestrian safety along Route 7 in Fairfax County. We're live with a closer look at those results and the calls for change. And the D.C. region could see some rain today as the Fox 5 weather team is getting ready for winter. We have your first look at the 2026 Winter Weather Outlook coming up in just a bit. Fox 5 Morning at 6 a.m. starts right now. Well, we have an exciting day today ahead and appreciate you being with us here on Fox 5 and streaming on Fox Local. We're going to learn more about winter weather later this hour. Yeah, our outlook. Tucker is all excited for that. Oh, my God. I got all excited, Steve. You said we had a big show and then I realized it was... That you're the show. Yeah, yeah. That it was me. I realized it was me. Okay. Stay tuned, 6:30. We're going to have everything you need to know about what to expect this winter. Meantime, we've got some rain showers throughout your morning. We're going to be for another mild day. We've got numbers in the 60s at this hour, but some rain showers moving right across the region. None of it very heavy, and I don't think it's going to rain all day, but the next couple hours will feature showers. So running out the door here in morning commute, we've got some scattered showers across the area. Might actually have to turn on the windshield wiper for the first time in like two-plus weeks. Plenty more on the forecast and, of course, the winter weather outlook coming right up. All right, thanks for taking a look here at 6 o'clock. This is your Thursday morning commute overview-wise. You'll see a couple of different numbers right now. Just keep in mind that we already are seeing downtown holiday market street closures, which means fun holiday market shopping that I'm ready for. F Street, 7th to 9th is what you're looking at there through that area. Anything around Capital One Arena is kind of going to be closed. And, of course, the construction there. Just keep that in mind. Back to you. We began in the district this morning where today election officials will announce preliminary results from the city's ranked choice voting system. The results were delayed by one day so they could finish compiling the ballots. Several races have been too close to call, including the D.C. Council at large seat and several ANC races. This year, D.C. voters ranked candidates in order of preference rather than just picking one. Election officials then do a round-by-round tabulation to determine the winner. All right, in the meantime, in Maryland, still no winner in the race for Frederick County Sheriff. Republican and Trump ally Chuck Jenkins seeking a sixth term, but his Democratic opponent, Carl Bickel, is leading by more than 10,000 votes. Eighty percent of the votes so far has been counted. Key races across the country remain uncalled this morning as votes continue to trickle in. A couple very close Senate races, one of them in Mississippi, where Democrat Scott Collum holds a paper-thin lead over Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, while in Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola leads Republican Senator Dan Sullivan by just about 600 votes. 74% of the votes have been counted so far. In Alaska's governor race, Democrat Jonathan Chris Tompkins holds a strong lead over Republican Bernadette Wilson. And in Kansas' governor's race, Democrat Cindy Holsher holds a razor-thin lead over Republican Ty Masterson with an estimated 98% of votes counted. All right, of course, the latest election results are online, and you can find them always on the Fox Local Washington, D.C. app, which is free to download for your phone or smart TV. Head to our website for more information, or you can scan the QR code that you see on the screen. Well, today is the day that the Trump administration said it would begin construction on the massive Triumphal Arch near Arlington National Cemetery. Still several steps to go through, though, before they get to the actual construction. Some are still fighting to stop the project as well. Let's get to Mel near the construction site or potential future construction site with an update, Mel. Well, we'll see, Steve. You know, today, a couple of things going on. We have a planning commission, public hearing. We have a public protest. And of course, those lawsuits, three individual lawsuits going on against this project. But this afternoon, the National Capital Planning Commission will need to decide whether to approve the project. That is one step the Trump administration said it would wait for before putting shovel to ground. But many expect the commission, currently with a majority of Trump appointees, will just go ahead and approve the There will be a public. First, the commission said so many people signed up to speak that they had to move all of the public testimony online. That also will avoid a in-person conflict with protesters. Instead, the protests will set up at Memorial Circle, as they have done before, the site of President Trump's planned triumphal arch. Veterans and historians have filed a lawsuit to stop construction, saying once it begins, it would cause irreparable harm to the landscape and block historic views. The District of Columbia and Arlington County lawsuits raise concerns about air traffic safety, emergency response and potential damage to critical underground water mains and argue that the administration illegally bypassed environmental reviews. The judge has not yet granted. The request for a temporary restraining order or a stay to prevent the Trump administration from beginning construction. But she did require the government to give 30 minutes notice before any physical activities here or around the site. The government did go ahead and file a notice last night saying it would begin pre-staging some construction equipment in advance of anticipating that they would get the approvals and the permits later today. The protests he We'll go on until at least 4 this afternoon. We'll send it back to you guys. Well, thanks. It's coming up on 6.05, and that means two things. One, it's time for weather and traffic on the 5s. You can see the weather team ready to go and traffic. I mean, they're... Guys, just take it away, it's good stuff. I know, they look so good, I can't see them. Yeah. 25 minutes from now, we'll get our winter weather outlook. And that's what I've been working on here. Are you, no, you're... Okay, all right. Did you notice I showed up at the fives? That's when people are expecting the weather. Yeah, I was, I was working hard on it. Okay, good morning. We got some showers across the area. We're going to be for another warm day, but change is here. 17 days, I think, since we last saw rain in the D.C. area. So we actually have some showers out there as we speak. I'll show you the radar here in just a moment. Quickly, it's very mild with the cloud covering the light rain across the region. 65 degrees, rain being reported at Dulles and BWI Marshall at the moment. Temps in the mid to upper 60s. We will be once again in the 70s for daytime highs today. Here's your rain shower activity again. Most of it pretty light. I do think it will certainly wet the roadways out there. So just, you know, maybe a few extra minutes on your way out the door here. Off to school here, you have morning showers. It tapers to some really light stuff this afternoon. I think we'll have the clouds will kind of linger and there may be one or two afternoon showers. But most of the action and it won't be a lot of rain will be in the next few hours. And then we should taper off to mostly just a cloudy afternoon with an occasional shower here. Eventually, the front will get through later tonight. Tonight the actual cold front. That will give us a cooler weekend. And it will also give us another chance for showers later tonight, early tomorrow morning. So that will be a second round of shower chances. 75, I mentioned the scattered showers and the warm temps hang around for another day. We'll cool down for the weekend. We'll have more of that in just a moment. All right. Don't forget about the weather app and the Fox Local app. It's right there. The QR code is easy to follow along and download in two seconds. And it's free. And then you feel amazing about your life. That's the most important thing. I want you to feel good about your life, so download it today. I'm still thinking about the fact that at 6.04, they were like, it's your turn, but it wasn't our turn. You guys came early. Tucker and I are boycotting. What? Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, we'll take a look here at Maryland 210 northbound. Looking at your drive time, it's really not a lot to worry about this early 6 o'clock hour. It's about 19 minutes Berry Road towards the Beltway. I-295 traveling northbound, that's completely clear Beltway towards the 11th Street Bridge. This is a look at DC 295 southbound where you're always seeing a little bit of an increase in potential for some rain definitely coming down in that area. Kenilworth Avenue towards the 11th Street Bridge is about 14 minutes there for that 4-mile stretch. You'll see a couple of different pockets of congestion, which will slow you down on your way there. 13, this is inbound 15, New York out. Avenue, Kenilworth Avenue, towards the Third Street Tunnel, looking pretty normal. Steve? All right, let's head to Fairfax County. A study on the Route 7 corridor finds 10 of 11 fatal pedestrian and bicycle crashes happened after dark. An advocacy group in the area points out correlations they're finding with dangerous incidents on the roads, and they say it's not random. All right, let's get to Stephanie Ramirez. She's out there along Route 7 with more for us this morning. Stephanie? Yeah, good morning guys over at Gallows Road and Route 7 and we know police this year have investigated multiple deadly pedestrian crashes in different areas of Route 7 and Gallows Road. Now I want to step out of your way and show you officials want some change, especially sorry, local folks wanting some change, especially by this area because there are plans for rapid Bus transit. Now, this group involved, and I say locals, activists. They're called Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets, and they've been reviewing Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria, in some cases using police-reported data from 2017 for the pedestrian and bicycle crash stats that you just mentioned. I want to also note another study the group did, pulling together near-miss reporting. From January 1st of 2025 to June 30th of 2026, here the group found a majority of the near-miss incidents are repeat problems. That 391 out of 506 reports were flagged as reoccurring. The group also notes that the top three cited driver behaviors were failure to yield, speeding, and failure to obey traffic signals or sign. Children were reportedly present in a little more than half. Of the near miss incidents that were actually reported. So this group, these road safety advocates, they're calling on transportation officials within the state, within the localities to do different things. Like look at the intersection, the way it's built here, visibility, essentially audit these areas to make sure it's safe for everyone. We'll dig into more of the details coming up. Steve Morris, I'll send it back to you. Steph, just a curiosity. Are these. Well, we lost that. All right, we'll ask next time. Still to come this morning, Prince George's County Public Schools teaming up with health officials following last month's illness outbreak, more on the task force being created to combat it. And President Trump still pushing to make daylight saving time permanent. The renewed calls to Congress when we return.