is going to be returning for the holiday weekend. right now at reagan national, it's 49 degrees here at 5:00 on this friday morning. the wind out of the north and west is gusting to around 10 to 15 miles an hour. it will increase a bit as the day progresses. all that rain that came through overnight is now crossing the bay and is on the eastern shore. to the west of there, it's still mostly cloudy. we ought to get some breaks in the clouds here as the day progresses. right now we're in the 40s from the mountains all the way to the atlantic beaches except right near the bay and southern maryland and northern neck. weather observers reporting low and mid-50s. montgomery, arlington, fairfax, prince george's counties in mid and upper 40s as well as in washington. here's your day planner. sunrise at 7:24. that blustery wind will begin to develop later this morning into this afternoon. could be gusting to around 30 miles an hour. temperatures creeping up to around the low 50s or so by noontime. and then they'll drop back during the afternoon and get much colder tonight.

i'll show you the evening planner for this friday night. that will be coming up at around 5:11. let's check our friday morning traffic. good morning, danella. >> good morning. if you're traveling around the beltway, seeing a lot of green in the area, not a lot of delays at all f any,, if any, a the beltway. not seeing any issues on the inner loop or outer loop, you're actually clear in both directions. no problems there. traveling the beltway into virginia, virginia as well looking pretty good. this is the view at van dorn street. i'll give you a travel speed if you're traveling on the inner loop making your way from van dorn street, you're traveling at 59 miles per hour. and the rails are open so far with no reported delays on the metro, marc, or vre. joe, back to you. >> danella, thanks very much. more americans are traveling this holiday season. today millions of people will hit the road, catch a plane, or hop on a train to visit family and friends. news 4's tracee wilkins is live along i-95 in college park.

good morning, tracee. >> reporter: good morning, joe. we have 2.2 million people from the washington area who are going to be hitting the roads. to give you an idea of what that's going to be like for folks who are left in this area, there are 5.6 million of us living in the washington area. that's 40% of the folks who are going to be hitting the roads. 30% of the people in the nation are going to be traveling 50 miles or more from home. here in washington, we have more people who are leaving home for the holidays. that's because they have more expendable income and vacation time to burn the most. 91% of washingtonians will be driving. that means lots of company on the road when you hit the road. 32 million people across the country will travel on the roads this year. 1.4% increase from last year. know that gas prices are a bit higher than in recent weeks or lower than they've been in recent weeks but higher than they were last christmas. so prepare for that. now, if you're staying in the immediate area or if you're driving through virginia to get

to your destination, we have very good news for folks. vdot has gone ahead, and they're going to be lifting lane closures for all of their major highways. so 95, 395, 66. if you're using any of those highways, know that lane closures will be lifted for the weekend of christmas and also new year's as well. so that's good news. tracee wilkins live this morning in college park. back to you all in the studio. >> tracee, thanks very much. today congress will finally approve an extension of the payroll tax cut just days before it was set to expire. house republicans are bowing to pressure from democrats and fellow republicans in the senate and agreeing to a two-month renewal of the tax cut. house speaker john boehner had demanded a one-year renewal of the tax cut. he insists that's still the best policy. >> when you look at this, it's just another short term extension. this creates uncertain si for

job creators. i used to run a small business. i know how this works. kicking the can down the road for a couple of months does cause problems. >> law makers are vowing to extend the tax cut next year. if it had not gone through, as many as 160 million americans would have faced a tax raise of $20 a week. a blown transformer at the intersection of "g" and 11th street. police originally thought it was a bank robbery at the suntrust bank when the explosion blew out two windows at the bank. pepco is on the scene working to fix the problem and reopen the area. montgomery county firefighters were called to a house fire in the kemp mill section of silver spring friday night. the fire started around 1:30 this morning in the basement. there were no reported injuries, and the cause of the fire is under investigation. greenbelt police are asking for the public's help in finding a group of suspects who sexually assaulted a woman last week.

it happened early saturday morning in the 6000 block of cherrywood lane near greenbelt metro drive. investigators say a 24-year-old woman was walking when several suspects grabbed her and took her into nearby woods where they sexually assaulted her. she was seriously injured in the attack, but her injuries are not life-threatening. if you have any information about the incident, please contact greenbelt police. the u.s. park service has released new photos along with a new report detailing the damage to the washington monument from last august's earthquake. the report states the 5.8 quake caused damage all over the monument with cracking from the top all the way to the bottom. the most severe damage is around the 450 foot area. august quake damaged six marble panels, cracked beams, and bearings. the report says that despite the damage, the monument is structurally sound. more troubling news from arlington national cemetery. thousands of headstones may need to be replaced, added, or corrected.

that's according to a new army review of the military cemetery which found problems with as many as 64,000 headstones. the review comes a year after a report from arlington claims that thousands of graves were mi misidentified or misplaced. that report cost thousands of military executives their jobs. our time is 5:06. still to come, frayed nerves in new zealand this morning after more earthquakes jolt the country.

5:08 is the time. 48 degrees in the nation's capital. we had a lot of rain overnight. looks like we may have still cloud country skies.

let's find out for sure from tom. >> tom, what's it looking like? rain has ended. much of the region, pavement still wet. watch out for slick spots heading across town. across the bay bridge and to the eastern shore, might be lingering sprinkles over the next hour or so. much of the rain will be exiting the entire region over the next couple of hours. it's now drying out in washington, nearby suburbs in prince george's county, montgomery, arlington, fairfax, and points west. temperatures right now are getting a little bit chillier. we're down into the mid-40s in the mountain region of western maryland and west virginia. shenandoah valley in the upper 40s, blue ridge and points east in 40s and 50 degrees. here's your day planner. sunrise at 7:24. that wind will increase. gusts to around 30 miles an hour this morning through midday. temperatures struggling to make it up to low and mid-50s by the middle of the day around noon or

1:00. after that, turning colder. by 5:00, back down to near 50. then this evening sunset at 4:51. temperatures will be down into the low 40s by midevening. and then by midnight, upper 30s to around 40 degrees with the wind diminishing overnight. turning colder for the holiday weekend. i've got better news for saturday and sunday. i'll have details on that. we'll also take a look at the forecast into next week. that will all be coming up in about ten minutes. along with your travel outlook for the nation if you're heading out of town today. that will be coming up at 5:21. danella, how's our friday traffic? >> good morning. if you're crossing bridges in our area, they look really good, but they are slick. you've got to give yourself extra time. make sure you give extra room between you and the car in front of you. let's take a look at the american legion bridge. cars moving quite nicely. no major delays on the outer loop or inner loop in either direction. you're in the clear. if it you're traveling in d.c.,

making your way across the 14th street bridge heading into the city, not seeing any major delays. traveling on 395 in general all the way from the beltway to the 14th street bridge in both directions, you're clear at this time. if you're making the trip in southeast checking the sousa bridge, no problems there. on camera checking the douglass bridge, you're clear. cameras in both directions. you can see very wet pavement here. please give yourself extra time. pat and joe, back to you. >> danella, thanks. time is 5:11. ahead on "news 4 today," it's not the grinch, but best buy is trying to act the part. why a number of customers may never get the gifts they ordered for the holidays.

welcome back. new zealand is dealing with the

aftermath of more severe earthquakes which hit earlier today. a 5.8 earthquake hit the eastern city of christchurch with three major aftershocks following it within an hour. luckily, there are no reports of any deaths from this latest round of earthquakes, and there appears to be no major damage to buildings there. >> quite quick and quite sharp and over in a short period of time. it wasn't like one of these long rolling sort of things. once i figured out the ceiling wasn't going to fall and that sort of thing, it was sort of like when's it going to finish? >> christchurch is still recovering from this past february when an earthquake killed some 182 people and destroyed most of the city's downtown area. strong winds ripped through georgia overnight. the winds knocked down trees, damaged homes, businesses, and power lines. crews have been trying to restore power ever since. dozens of people will be spending the holidays in a temporary shelter after a massive fire burned through

their apartment yesterday in san francisco and through their apartment building. the five-alarm fire could be seen from miles away. it took more than 140 firefighters several hours to contain the flames. two people suffered minor burns. 30 units in the building were damaged. the pakistani army has rejected the united states report investigating last month's deadly air strikes that killed 24 pakistani soldiers. the american report said that both the u.s. and pakistan made mistakes that contributed to those air strikes. the pakistani army released a statement saying the investigation was, quote, short on facts. the army claims the attack was a deliberate act of aggression. in "news 4 your health" this morning, women are breast implants may want to double-check to find out who the manufacturer was. france is recommending women to remove implants by poly implant prosthese as a preventive

measure. a non-approved silicon was used in those implants. a 20-year-old toddler in maine disappeared over the weekend. ayla reynolds had been staying with her father while her mother was in rehab. police are searching the neighborhood. yesterday they put up crime scene tape around the house and brought in homicide prosecutors. despite the developments, police say there's been no change in the missing child case. the man who found the body of 2-year-old caylee anthony is now suing the mother casey anthony for damages. lawyers for the former meter reader say casey and her lawyers defamed him by calling him a killer. during the murder trial earlier this year, they accused him of finding and keeping caylee's body and then placing the remains where he found them. a jury found anthony not guilty after her lawyers eventually argued that caylee accidentally

drowned in the family's backyard pool. it may be smart to keep your smart phone out of sight if you're in one capitol hill neighborhood. police say robberies there are up and that iphones are often the thieves' main targets. officers there say there have been a dozen street robberies this month alone in the patrol service area 106. that neighborhood is bounded by sixth street southeast and 13th street southeast to the east and west and south of east capitol street. most of the crimes have taken place on weekends, evenings, and usually on darker residential streets. >> no weapons involved, but they have resorted to violence by striking people and pushing people to the ground and things of that nature. >> just last night, police say two men in ski masks held up a radio shack on capitol hill. iphones were among the items thieves took from the store. the police responded quickly, but the thieves still got away.

a silver spring homeowner is taking to the internet to find who broke into his home. he took this surveillance video and put it up on youtube. this burglary occurred on monday on burnett avenue. police believe it might be connected to another burglary in the same neighborhood just a few minutes earlier. our time is 5:19. it's a wet friday morning, but things are looking up. >> let's find out from tom kierein what the rest of the day is going to be like and the week en, tom. >> many ggood morning, tom. >> good morning, pat and joe. we're starting off with wet pavement from overnight rain. now we are starting off with still some wet pavement. watch out for that. there are certainly going to be some slick spots around as the storms did come through. they left anywhere from 1.33 to as much as .8 inch immediately in the metro area. that rain is now on the eastern shore, beginning to exit the area. low cloud cover beginning to break up near charlottesville. temperatures in the 40s

throughout much of the region from western maryland and west virginia all the way to the bay and eastern shore except right near lower parts of the eastern shore, northern neck, and southern maryland. it's in the low to mid-50s there. 49 at reagan national. temperatures in the mid-40s in the suburbs. if you are traveling today between washington and new york, shouldn't have too much difficulty, but between new york and boston, portland, maine, upstate new york, into new england, they're getting rain and snow there. that storm system may cause flight delays and driving delays too. farther to the west, don't have any travel problems in the midwest except in minnesota. they're getting cold air. also, they're getting snow in far southern new mexico all the way down to el paso, texas. there may be flight delays there too. up and down the western seaboard, does look like from seattle and vancouver all the way down to los angeles. pretty good weather although they're getting a little rain in seattle. there might be minor flight delays there. for your day planner for this

friday, if you're traveling and getting out of town, the pavement may be drying as the morning progresses. gusty wind out of the north and west gusting to around 30 miles an hour. temperatures low to mid-50s middle of the day and dropping to 40 by midnight as we clear out. near 30 by dawn on saturday. christmas day looking better. partly sunny. afternoon highs mid-40s. cold weather all the way into next week. small chance of rain on tuesday. danella, how's traffic? >> good morning. if you're traveling in d.c., you have to be careful in northwest. traveling in northwest on "g" street, your closure is at 11th street due to a blown transformer. pepco is working to repair that right now. for now your streets are closed. if you're taking new york avenue heading outbound, this ongoing construction takes up the roadway. just have to stay to the right. no major accidents or delays just yet. looking pretty good in d.c. if you're traveling this time in maryland, i-270, you're in the

clear at falls road. in fact, traveling southbound and northbound, your lanes are open. no major delays. definitely no accidents. but seeing wet pavement, give yourselves extra time while you make your commute. and out of virginia at i-95, this is the view at the occoquan heading northbound. i am seeing your volume increase, but you're not delayed at all at this time. southbound, you're completely in the clear. travel speed northbound at 63 miles per hour. to get from the occoquan to the beltway, that trip right now only takes 11 minutes. joe, back to you. >> danella, thanks very much. our time is now 5:22. this morning a virginia woman is alive after she jumped from the roof of her burning house. this happened in henry county, virginia, south of roanoke. 24-year-old bronwyn smith says that smoke filled her bedroom, and she crawled out of her second story window onto the roof. >> i panicked. i went straight to the window. >> i saw the smoke and discovered she was up on the roof hollering. >> her neighbor randy campbell

smelled smoke and rushed to help. he convinced her to jump the 12 feet. he then caught her. she certainly is thankful for his help of the her dog romo died in the fire. however, she says she did have insurance on the house. a fairfax county man is once again in trouble for base jumping. police say 25-year-old robert morgan climbed the maryland public tv tower. he suffered minor injuries after his parachute malfunctioned. after a trip to the hospital, morgan was cited for trespassing. this is morgan's second brush with the law in less than a week. he was part of the group that jumped from the weta radio tower in arlington. a woman was seriously injured in that jump when her parachute got stuck in a tree. all five people involved in last week's stunt were also charged with trespassing. the washington nationals have another powerful arm in their starting pitching rotation. they acquired gio gonzalez from the oakland a's in exchange for four minor leaguers.

the left-handed gonzalez is an all-star pitcher who has a career e.r.a. under 4.00. several other teams were hoping to land him, including the boston red sox. and georgetown remains one of the hottest basketball teams in the country right now. the hoyas beat memphis 70-59 last night at the verizon center. this was actually the second time georgetown beat memphis. two teams squared off last month in the maui invitational. the hoyas are now 10-1 on the season and rank 16th in the country in the latest ap poll. this weekend's game between the denver broncos and buffalo bills will include a very special guest in the stands. former woodbury forest school quarterback jacob rainey was invited to the game by quarterback tim tebow. he suffered a freak injury during a scrimmage in september. he took a pretty bad hit to the back of the knee which severed an artery.

rainey's knee had to be amputated, but he was back on the sidelines cheering the team on. tebow says rainey's story should be saluted, and it makes him realize how blessed he is. it could be a very disappointing christmas if you're waiting for a gift you ordered online from best buy. >> it turns out the gift may not arrive after all. the company says it is now canceling some online orders because of what it's calling an overwhelming demand for some products. it's alerting those customers of the issue just days before christmas and right in the middle of hanukkah. some of those orders were placed back in november. best buy isn't the only retailer with egg on its face. upscale department store barney's says that some of its onloin orde online orders were cancelled because of technical glitches. >> that's a pretty amazing thing. a lot of the gifts were ordered, as you said, so far ago. >> i wonder if canceling is the right thing to do. then if you still want the product, now you have to go back

and reorder it. >> that's right. >> get in line again and wait for it rather than have them deliver it. maybe better late than never is better than having to reorder the thing all over again. >> there are no plans to fill those orders at all. >> apparently not. >> that's pretty bad. >> guess they just punted. 5:26 is the time. coming up, get your holiday shopping done yet? well, you are, as you know, running out of time. what the stores are doing now to try to help you out before christmas.

putting an end to the standoff on capitol hill, congress is heading back to work this morning in the hopes of extending a tax break for american workers. plus we've seen what it was like inside the washington monument during the earthquake. now we're learning more about the damage that quake caused to the infrastructure. good morning. i'm pat lawson muse in for eun yang. >> and good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. welcome to "news 4 today." it is friday, december 23rd. the day before the day before christmas. we're taking a live look outside right now. 48 degrees out there. we had some rain overnight. tom says that's pretty much cleared out. this has been a week of suspended reality. we had mild temperatures.

got to 62 yesterday at reagan national. got that moderate to heavy rain overnight with rumbles of thunder. now the rain is gone, and the pavement is still wet. so allow yourself some extra time and take it easy. there's still some standing water around the region from the overnight heavier downpours. right now at reagan national, the sky is cloudy over washington. there's capitol hill. national airport just to the right down river, it's at 49. the wind out of the northwest at 5 to 15 miles an hour. that wind will increase as the day progresses. now over the last 12 hours we've had rain come in last night. now it's exiting and on the eastern shore. just a little light rain there. it's continuing to rapidly move off to the east. cloud cover beginning to break up. we ought to have sunshine around dawn. current temperatures are in the 40s from the mountains all the way to the atlantic beaches, except in far southern maryland and northern neck and parts of the lower eastern shore in the low and mid-50s there. if you're traveling, well, if you're heading up toward new

england, you're going to be running into rain and snow there. there could be flight and driving delays heading up there later today. however, the rest of the country is looking pretty good. a little snow in the upper midwest, dakotas and minnesota. snow in new mexico, far west texas, and along the west coast from seattle down to los angeles. really not much in the way of any travel problems. just a little rain around seattle. for us here locally for today, we will have sunshine breaking out, a bit of a blustery wind. highs low to mid-50s at noon time. danella, good morning. how's traffic? slick roadways are causing a couple of fender benders this morning. excuse me. outer loop of the beltway, this time right after you pass bw parkway. this accident is in the shoulder lane. your lanes are open. you've got to give yourself extra time this morning. if you're traveling along 50, i'll take the trip with you. green in both directions. that means no delays and no accidents to report.

a live look at 3. you're actually clear in both directions on 50 east and west at route 3. no issues at all. you can see that's nice and clear as you make your way into the city as well and head into d.c. i'm not seeing any problems for you this morning. on the rails, a minor delay. this one on brunswick east train number 870. your delay is six minutes. joe, back to you. >> danella, thanks very much. today congress will finally approve an extension of the payroll tax cut just days before it was set to expire. house republicans are bowing to pressure from democrats and fellow republicans in the senate, apparently agreeing to a two-month renewal of that tax cut. nbc's brian mooar is live on capitol hill with more. brian, this is not a completely done deal yet, right? >> reporter: wouldn't you know this is going to end with a little more of a cliff hanger. they're going to have unanimous consensus votes. the senate at 9:00.

the house at 10:00. here's the hitch. in any one of those 535 lawmakers shows up on the floor and objects, the whole process gets pushed into next week. let's say this was a victory for president obama, basically a present for his 2012 election year. he was able to ramp up the pressure yesterday, getting people who would have been affected by that january 1st tax increase that was looming, speaker boehner and the republicans absolutely got pummelled not only in the public but by other members of their own party. speaker boehner said they did the right thing, they fought the good fight. >> we were here fighting for the right things. may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world, but i'm going to tell you what. our members waged a good fight. we were able to come to an agreement. we were able to fix what came out of the senate. >> reporter: so what's to stop any one of those lawmakers coming out today and making a

very public statement, making a name for him or herself? well, there are 4 million good reasons not to. $4 million is about what it would cost to bring everyone back next week from vacation to hold a vote. live on capitol hill, i'm brian mooar, news 4. >> brian, if someone does object to it, do they actually have to physically show up on the floor of the house or the senate, or can they phone that in? >> reporter: no, they have to show up. they have to go there and say i object. let me just say that that person could make a name for themself in their home district, but then they're going to have to explain in their re-election bid why it was worth $4 million to delay this for one week just to make a statement. >> make a name for themselves but maybe not make a friend for themselves. brian, thanks very much. right now millions of people are preparing to hit the road for the holidays. aaa estimates nearly 92 million will travel between now and january 2nd. that's up nearly 1.5% from last year. more than 83 million people will

take a road trip. that's up more than 2%. but fewer will get there by plane this holiday season. aaa cesaire travel is down nearly 10% because airfares are at their highest point in the first five years. traveling by train and bus is up. more than 150 members of the d.c. air national guard will return home from afghanistan just in time for christmas. members of the d.c. air guard's 113th wing will arrive at andrews air force base later this morning. its aviation package deployed earlier this year and became the first air guard f-16 unit to conduct combat operation ins afghanistan. u.s. park has released new photos along with a new report detailing damage from the washington monument from last august's earthquake. the 5.8 quake caused wide spraet cra cracking from the peak all the way down to the bottom. most of the damage is around the

450-foot area. cracked beams and bearings. it's still closed to tourists, but is worth the closure to fully repair the iconic damage. >> i was surprised it did that much damage. >> hopefully, they'll get it repaired. that's the important part is just making sure it's restored. >> the monument is structurally sound, and they recommend filling the cracks with stainless steel plates, filling them up with sealant, and replacing the loose marble. more trouble for arlington national cemetery. thousands of headstones there may need to be replaced, added, or corrected. that's part of an army review of the national cemetery which found problems with as many as 64,000 headstones. the review comes a year after a report from arlington claimed that thousands of graves were misidentified or misplaced. that report cost several top cemetery executives their jobs. now to decision 2012. with a little over a week to go before the iowa caucuses, republican presidential candidate mitt romney picks up a

key supporter. former president george h.w. bush tells his hometown newspaper, the houston chronicle, that he supports romney. he says "i think romney is the best choice for us. i like rick perry, but he doesn't seem to be going anywhere. he's not surging forward." rival newt gingrich is su l surging for a big finish in iowa. gingrich said he would be happy coming in third or fourth in iowa. his comment came a day after a new iowa poll showed ron paul there. gingrich is in virginia trying to collect enough signatures to make it onto the primary ballot. it appears to have worked. republican leaders tell "the washington post" that romney, perry, gingrich, and paul all turned in enough signatures by yesterday's deadline. the other candidates did not qualify to make it on the march 6th primary ballot. 5:37 is our time.

losing their cool on the court. what led up to this basket brawl during a high school basketball

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good morning. 5:41. i'm meteorologist tom kierein in stormcenter 4. we've had rain passing through overnight. it was moderate to heavy at times. now it's exiting the eastern shore. now the cloud cover is beginning to break up a little bit. temperatures around the region are in the 40s from the mountains all the way to the beaches. right around the bay, lower southern maryland, northern neck, eastern shore low to mid-50s. 40s montgomery, arlington, fairfax, prince george's counties. upper 40s in washington. sunrise at 7:24. near 50 by 9:00. little sunshine in and out and a blustery wind out of the northwest gust to go around 30 miles an hour. by noontime, warmest part of the day, low and mid-50s. getting colder during the afternoon. looks like a cold night tonight coming up. temperatures by dawn tomorrow near 30 degrees. and then sunny and chilly on saturday. good weather for the skins and vikings. christmas day fou looking better with highs in the mid-40s and

morning lows near freezing. we'll take a look into next week as well as travel across the country. that will be coming up in ten minutes. danella, how's traffic? if you're planning on heading out of town, traveling from maryland making your way into virginia, i-95 south to 395, you're bustling right along. i'm not seeing anything slowing you down just yet. if you're planning to head out of town and visit family, might be a great time to get on the roadway. no major delays just yet. if you're traveling 395 making your way towards d.c., you can see here northbound at edsall, you're in the clear. lanes look good as well as the hov lanes, no problems there. southbound 395, you're in the clear as well. a travel speed northbound, you're at 58 miles per hour. to get from the beltway to the 14th street bridge, that trip will only take 12 minutes. pat and joe, back to you. >> thanks, danella. our time is now 5:42. the clock is ticking for all you

procrastinators wait to go get your holiday shopping done. a number of stores doing what

police in florida looking for a group of teenagers that posted this youtube video that shows them vandalizing local stores. the video shows them knocking items to the ground and spilling food before they walked off. they also went to a furniture store and jumped around on the mattresses on the beds there. police tracked down one of the suspects who then gave them the names of the rest of the teens involved. authorities are contacting the store managers to see whether they want to file criminal charges. police in greenbelt, maryland, are asking for the public's help in solving a sexual assault that took place last week. it happened early saturday morning in the 6000 block of

cherry wood lane near greenbelt metro drive. investigators say a 24-year-old woman was walking. when several suspects grabbed her and took her into a nearby wooded area where they sexually assaulted her. she was seriously injured, but the injuries were not life-threatening. if you have any information about this incident, please contact greenbelt place. it may be smart to keep your smart phone out of sight if you're in one capitol hill neighborhood. police say robries there are up, and iphones are often the thieves' main target. police say there have been a dozen street robberies alone in the patrol area numbered 106. compare that to one year before where they had only one robbery. police tell us most of the crimes have taken place on weekend evenings and usually on darker residential streets. >> no weapons involved, but they have resorted to violence by striking people and pushing them to the ground, things of that nature. >> just last night police say

two men wearing ski masks held up a radio shack on capitol hill. they say iphones were among the items the police took. police responded quickly to the scene, but the suspects got ai wa. police are still investigating a large brawl that broke out at a high school basketball game between a d.c. and baltimore high school. take a look at this video at a fight which took place on wednesday night in baltimore. it happened during a game between d.c.'s cardoza high school and a charter school from baltimore. even fans got involved. no word of any arrests or injuries. virginia tech will be without its kicker. cody jornell and two others were arrested late wednesday night and accused of breaking into the apartment of a virginia tech basketball player. they say it was over some sort of drug deal. jornell was an all-acc honorable

mention this season. a montgomery county employee is arrested for a peeping incident inside the woman's dressing room. police arrested the sales associate at the guess clothing store in the westfield mall. a 24-year-old shopper told police gonzalo garcia tried to take video of her with a cell phone as she was undressing. detectives confiscated garcia's cell phones and a computer from his home to see if there are additional victims. two men are facing charges as police say they attacked a police officer at the occupy d.c. camp site. police responded toe report of a man assaulting a woman at mcpherson square when he was kicked in the groin. he was taken to the hospital, but we haven't gotten word on his injuries. it's not clear whether the two people are affiliated with the

occupy d.c. movement. this morning waiting test results on a batch of infant formula walmart removed from its stores. walmart pulled the enfamil brand formula from its shelves voluntarily as they investigate the death of a missouri boy who ingested the formula. its manufacturer says the batch the baby had consumed tested negative for the bacterium suspected in his death. the formula has not yet been recalled. attorneys for former presidential candidate john edwards says he is now too sick to start his criminal trial next month. they say he's been diagnosed with a serious medical condition but have not said what that medical condition is. they're asking a federal judge to delay his trial over campaign finances for two months. he was supposed to begin january 30th. edwards is charged with using campaign funds to hide information about his pregnant mistress.

edwards has pleaded not guilty. turning to the weather, it's pretty damp friday out there this morning. tom? >> we're slowing drying out in the wake of the overnight rain this morning, and i'm happy to say it's snowing. i love hearing my voice say that. it's only snowing on my tie. and in new england right now. that's about as close as we're going to get for the holiday season. good morning. right now at reagan national, the rain has stopped. there's capitol hill under a cloudy sky. 49. and we have wind out of the northwest gusting around 5 to 15. that wind's going to get a little blusterier as the day gets going. now the rain has xwexited. farther to the west, some breaks in the clouds. ought to have a nice sunrise. pictures coming up for you on nbc 4. be sure to tune in after 7:00 this morning. i'll have those for you. the clouds are setting up for a gorgeous sunrise. we're in the mid and upper 40s

throughout much of the region, from the mountains all the way to the chesapeake bay. if you are travel, yes, it is snowing in new york state, new hampshire, vermont, and massachusetts down towards new york city. there may be flight delays getting into new england through the day. elsewhere, scattered showers, carolinas down to florida. if you are traveling to the center of the country, shouldn't have any travel problems, maybe around minneapolis and st. paul. that area is going to get snow shortly after the next few hours. there's snow in southern new mexico, las cruces, new mexico, getting snow. for us today, we'll have the cloud cover breaking up some sunshine. coming ut heout here this morni our sunrise at 7:24. winds gusting to around 7 miles an hour. low to mid-50s. it will get colder as the afternoon progresses. near 50 by 5:00. and then down to near 40 by

midnight. and then near 30 by dawn on saturday as we clear out. tomorrow sunny but cold in the morning. afternoon highs low to mid-40s. looks like great weather, though, for the skins and vikings at fedex field. then on sunday for christmas day, partly sunny now. it's looking better. storm system that looked like it was going to be close enough to give us rain over the last few days is now trending farther and farther south. we should be dry sunday but cold. on monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, each day next week, cold, afternoon highs in the 40s. small chance of rain on tuesday. danella, good morning. how's traffic? looks pretty good in our area. beltway at colesville road, inner loop, no problems. outer loop picking up some volume. you don't have any major delays just yet. you're traveling quite nicely as you make your way in montgomery county. no issues there. traveling i-95, pretty busy. a lot of people heading out of town at fairfax county parkway. northbound busy as well. good news. i'm not seeing any major delays

just yet. i'm also checking for accidents. i don't see any accidents in the roadways for you. if you want to go to tysons corner. i want to show you an early morning look. it's nice and clear now, not going to be later. maybe as you're sitting in traffic, you can think of how nice it looked at this time of the morning. i don't know. just trying to help. now back to you both. >> dream on. >> you're helping, danella. you're helping. all right. if you're looking for a deal, you're definitely in luck this holiday season. almost every major retailer is offering huge sales. business analysts say, even though the discounts are good for bargain hunters, it might signal a bit for companies who have too much merchandise. one retailer's chief executive says things may get worse after the holidays because they're going to be stuck with a lot of products they probably can't get rid of it. procrastinators, you have less than 48 hours now to get those final gifts. luckily, some stores are helping out by being open round the clock. news 4's megan mcgrath is live

this morning at the macy's in tysons corner. megan, is it a madhouse right now? >> reporter: it is actually the perfect time to shop because it's very quiet. tons of parking, no lines at the checkouts, and i've got to tell you, great deals to be had. take a look at the necklace that i'm wearing. this is a $6,000 necklace. yes, a bit pricey, but it's 40% off, and if you get the wow coupon in the paper today, it's another 15% off. these right here, fresh water pearls. $1,000 is what they normally go for. today $299. a terrific deal. i'll tell you, if you come today, you're going to see all kinds of these signs here. 50% off for the ear muffs and the scarfs and the hats. we're seeing 50% off with the coats, sweaters, good deals. and you also have the coupons in the paper. so before you leave, definitely check the newspaper. john here just arrived. john, what's your mission? what are you coming for? >> here to buy something for my

girlfriend. >> reporter: why so early? >> because i knew it was open. i saw the ad in the paper, and why not? figured there shouldn't be that many crowds here. so taking advantage. >> reporter: all right. good luck to you. john's not alone. we've seen several people shopping. talked to a couple of gals who have been here since 9:00 last night. we're going to hear from him coming up in the show. >> what are you going to do about that necklace? >> reporter: if i try to leave, he's going to tackle me. >> all right. i guess that answers the question. >> reporter: so it's going back to the counter. >> megan mcgrath. thanks, megan. >> reporter: sure. >> just remember two little words -- lindsay lohan. retail giant amazon is delivering holiday cheer to virginia with jobs. amazon will open two new distribution centers in chesterfield and dunwoody counties next fall, adding 1,250

new jobs. it's the largest single jobs announcement in virginia since 2004. d.c. police officers are helping children in need this holiday season, helping them make their christmas a little brighter. >> the officers took part in the annual shop with a cop event yesterday at the target store in columbia heights. more than 100 children shopped alongside the officers. each child received a $100 gift card for clothing and toys and holiday gifts. the children were selected based on need. it isn't just best buy, the other store now telling customers it can't fill their

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