[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news at noon. >> another shuffling of the deck in iowa, as rick santorum is the latest to surge ahead in the polls. can he hang on? good afternoon. i am don hamilton. iowa residents will be casting

their votes tonight, and republican residents are casting their last hopes on voters who are undecided. tracie potts reports from iowa. >> it confident mitt romney told iowa supporters he wants their help to make a barack obama a one-term president. >> i am here to collect. he is out. >> romney caucuses with a slim lead over ron paul and rick santorum in the latest poll. yesterday he predicted victory. today he was more cautious. >> i think i will be among the top group. i don't know if it is one, too, or three. >> romney spent a lot on tv ads but rick perry spent more. >> on to victory. >> this morning on cbs, newt gingrich accused romney of lying about who paid for some of the negative ads. >> are you calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes.

>> you are calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes. >> will voters care? >> the rhetoric and policy positions and the campaign ads are not going to impact things as much on the final day of the caucus. >> for some of you is a real huge. [laughter] >> tonight, watch the exit polls. more evangelical voters could mean good news for santorum. here is something to keep in mind. last election, only one in six eligible voters participated in the caucuses. compare that to over half of the eligible voters who voted in the new hampshire primary. tracie potts, 11 news. >> residents of the lansdown area are left with little water as workers try to repair and other water main break. the 36-inch main broke.

the pressure to st. agnes hospital has been stabilized, but crews are shutting down other valves until the main is fixed. many residents in northern anne arundel county are so happy to have water back in their homes after dealing with the same problem. hundreds of homes were without power yesterday. the break happened around 8:30 yesterday morning. still no word on what caused it. >> today is officially the coldest days so far this season. temperatures have been hovering in the upper 20s around baltimore all morning long. we're not expecting much of the warm-up as we head into the afternoon. periods of clouds and sunshine, but also some snow. we have accumulation towards randallstown. most of the radar is clear over baltimore, but southern carroll county, you do have some light

snow. some of that could be accumulating. something to keep in mind, west and north of the city, accumulating snow is a possibility. >> a code blue alert is in effect in baltimore, and the city emergency shelters will remain open until tomorrow morning kim dacey paid a visit to the main city shelter in east baltimore, and she has the latest on how officials are dealing with the drop in temperatures. >> plenty of people were bundled up in hats and gloves monday night. what we have felt so far is just a preview. winter is about to make its presence in down at the lowest temperatures so far this season. >> you see people who are not prepared for the cold, and at some of the areas, we might see hyperthermia. >> doctors and emergency rooms are preparing for more patients with cold weather-related issues. city officials have declared a cold blue weather alert through

today. emergency workers will go out and check in on vulnerable residents and emergency shelters have extended hours. american rescue workers in south hanover is one of 10 at baltimore city locations offering food, a hot shower, and a warm bed. >> when it gets really cold, we allow guys to come in and state because it is really, really cold out there. >> city officials say that the shelters are a big help. >> ever since the city of baltimore started, the operating shelters, the 24-hour shelters, the numbers for hypothermia have plummeted. >> kim dacey, wbal-tv 11 news. >> ravens fans can send their favorite players a letter, and aid is not even going to cost u.s. stamp. starting today, giant will offer a purple mailboxes in its grocery stores all across the

state. they will be taken to the team every wednesday that the team is in the playoffs and they will be posted on the walls of the owings mills cafeteria. ravens fans are pumped about a home playoff game, and that is helping a local businesses hope for a major it playoff pay off. local retailers are stocking everything from ravens clothing to keep six hoping people will buy them. the pregame excitement is driving much-needed sales in the typically slow month of january. >> a playoff game at home for the ravens. >> if today was any indication, it was a very busy day. people were excited about the home game and a playoff game. this makes for a very good january. >> retailers are not the only ones preparing for a boom in business. there will be special ravens-

esteemed food leading up to game day. tickets went on sale this morning and sold out in less than 14 minutes. still ahead, at carrie engel from valley view farms is here to answer your winter gardening questions. and a royal mystery. police in england are investigating the discovery of a body on a the will the state. -- the royal estate. and bp is trying to make endske

>> british company bp is suing one of its contractors for the gulf oil spill. it is suing halliburton for extensive lost profits associated with the accident. bp has also accused halliburton of botching this man shot on at the well. the rupture on the horizon rig killed 10 workers and released millions of barrels of oil into the gulf of mexico. dts set up a compensation fund for cleanup costs and payments -- bp has set up a compensation fund for cleanup costs and payments to victims. british police say that a woman's body was found on the vast rural estate in norfolk where queen elizabeth and her

family celebrate the new year's holiday. it was just a couple of miles from the queen's country home. >> a murder mystery on the grounds of the this is state -- this estate. the palace is beloved by the royal family for years, and it is where the queen and her family have their christmas celebration. they were informed that a dog walker in the area found the body of a woman at's human remains on at the estate. the remains were found about two miles from the main royal residence. today police were calling this a murder. they have been very quiet about the details, both the queen and the palace. they have much of the woodland blocked off. >> i cannot tell you a great deal, honestly, because we have a lot to establish and we do not

want to make any sort of gases or -- guesses or suppositions at this time. >> police are investigating this murder. apparently the remains have been there for some time. that is all they are releasing at this point. the body was found at technically on the royal crown's. >> still to come, carrie engel from valley view farms is here to answer plant and gardening questions. >> we are tracking the cold air pouring into the east, taking off the heavier snow mainly to our north and west. first, a live look outdoors.

"consumer day's alert," it is the day to send it back. ups is expecting a record number of returns today. it is the highest number of returns ever recorded. plus, officials expect to receive more than half a million returns several other days this week. experts attribute the increase to the rise in internet shopping and say that improve the return policies are also a factor. did you know that employers in most states are permitted to look at your credit report as part of their hiring practices? that could soon change in a handful of states, like california. rules are beginning to restrict access to credit reports.

>> our credit history can be as different as there are people on at the street. one thing is for short, the credit report can keep us from getting a job. >> some companies review credit reports as a way to predict who will be responsible and trustworthy employees. >> credit reports offer a snapshot of our financial history, the good and bad. when you apply for a job, your potential employers look it over. >> 60% of employers run credit checks on some or all applicants. >> you get one back and 80's everly negative 1 -- it is a really negative 1. your tendency is not to pick the one with the negative could check. >> credit checks are routinely pulled, along with other background checks, to determine the character of the candidate. >> there are plenty of reasons why someone might have bad credit that are totally un

related to the character, such as medical emergency, a lengthy divorce, or another family problem. >> one of the problems with using your credit report to decide whether you get a job or not is the fact that some of those reports aren't very accurate. >> credit reports have been known to be rife with errors. a 37% of americans report evers on their credit report. >> as of january 1, california is joining six other states in restricting the use of credit reports in hiring and personnel decisions. >> it is not indicative of the person's ability or trustworthiness to do the job they are applying for. >> certain job applications still require a credit check, such as a manager -- just managerial positions in financial jobs. for others, a bad credit report will not prevent them from getting hired.

>> it is really unfair. >> now your 11 insta-weather- plus forecast with meteorologist ava marie. >> we are going to start you off with eight live view of one of our cameras out in western maryland. this is i-68 at savage mountain. you can see some heavy snow has accumulated and blowing winds are only adding to that, reducing visibility. most of that has moved out over frostburg. hd doppler is showing that line moving towards hagerstown. they can see accumulating snow on some of the western slopes. the western part of the state is really getting hammered by all of this lake effect is now. baltimore has seen some snow, of these some flurries in the city. not much more than a trace, but nonetheless, it is causing some problems. where you could see accumulation is in the northern counties. these are out of the northwest

right now. 23 miles per hour in parkton. it's very dusty and chilly this afternoon. you can bet that those are affecting the temperatures. currently temperatures are in the upper 20's and low 30's. with what the wind chills are at right now, we are talking 20 degrees at the airport, 19 in downtown baltimore. single digits, if not below zero, what it feels like as you head into western maryland. that is the thing to focus on. even though temperatures are cold, it feels even colder than that when you factor in the winds. coldest night so far this season. we are expecting a note around 15 in the city. -- low around 15 in the city. for tonight, the skies will clear out, and that will help temperatures to drop down.

those it ranging from 12 to 20 degrees, but at least the wins will be light. futurecast shows that the snow basically tapers off tonight. we will see sunshine around de area tomorrow. then we will get our next storm system, with a weak disturbance pushing in. for baltimore city this time, maybe some accumulation a late into wednesday evening overnight wednesday. should be a brief shot of snow. we are not expecting a lot of accumulation. seven-day forecast shows a slight chance for that snow later on wednesday. high of 34 by wednesday afternoon. then a week will get this cold snap. 50s this weekend. it could come with some rain. >> welcome back. carrie engel from valley view farms is here to answer your plant and gardening questions. i see you have a beautiful

little bonsai. >> this is pretty cool. we have three classes, and if you ever wanted to try it, saturday at 9:00. i like the tropical bonsai, because it they do well inside. these are great because you can keep them indoors yearlong. >> we were just discussing how difficult it is -- >> we have a bunch of people come to meetings every month. that is why we have classes. i am not sure i would do a lot right now. in the spring, just use some light pruning on that side to see what happens.

you want to double check and make sure they are not stay in t -- not staying too wet. they do not have much of our roots system to keep them stable. the best thing, really, get about two inches or so this time of year. if we have periods where the crowd isn't frozen, go out and water the plants a little bit. that is really all about -- about all you have to do. >> thank you. if you have a plant or gardening question --

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the maryland lottery -- let yourself play. >> ava has one last check on the forecast. i loved the snow flurries this morning. very pretty. >> sunshine really eliminated them. in baltimore, not really a big deal, but western maryland has been getting hit hard. a lot of the ski resorts have not been able to open up. as for us, the flurries will taper off this evening. most accumulation outside baltimore city. take it easy through the afternoon. we drop down into the teens tonight. it will be so cold tomorrow morning. >> thanks for joining us. watch tonight with stan stovall and me. >> follow breaking news and weather any time at wbaltv.com, and stay connected with us on

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