56 degrees right now on december 11. phil: spectacular. harvey: it has been great. we have at least one more day to enjoy this kind of weather. we do have pockets of fog in southern new hampshire and southern maine, so be aware of that. there could be locally dense pockets. i don' t think it will be as widespread as it was last night. temperatures in the 40' s well to the north and west. still in the 50' s across a good deal of our area as we start our friday evening. overnight lows not low by december standards. another mild day tomorrow. clouds should exit and allow for clear skies tonight and sunshine on saturday. it looks like a nice day, very pleasant. starting out mild and moving up to around 60 in spots. there will be some changes on sunday, especially on monday.

j.c.: tragedy in north reading, a woman is killed after her car crashes into a home. the accident happened this morning when the weather was very foggy. newscenter 5' s reid lamberty spoke with investigators. >> under the cover of dense fog and early morning darkness, there was no mistaking what happened. >> i was in my kitchen and was about to head toward the door. i heard a horrible sound and new it had impacted the house. >> and right into the front door of her two-family house. they door out of which she was moments away from walking. >> when i called 911, they were asking questions. >> police say the driver and only person in the car, a 39-year-old woman from wilmington, was dead when first responders arrived. uncertain of what caused the crash, investigators do know she was traveling east on route 62. >> crossed over the double solid line, struck a curve, and careened into a home.

though none was hurt. damage, one of the walls collapsing into the living room. winding but well lit. the weather could be a factor. >> the fog and the darkness. some of the passed away. >> two rounds are off-limits secure, which is happening. house was built in the mid-1600s. reid lamberty, wcvb newscenter 5 . phil: sad news out of new hampshire tonight. the state is mourning the loss of a u.s. army ranger killed during a training exercise. corporal andrew aimesbury was wounded in the live fire exercise wednesday. he died after being rushed to the hospital. he graduated from dover high school. j.c.: cuba and the u.s. have reached a deal to reestablish direct mail service. that service was cut back in 1963 at the height of cold war tensions. both countries have agreed to launch a pilot program to test the service.

permanent return. it has been nearly one year since president obama and cuban leader raul castro reestablished diplomatic relations. the soldier who abandoned his post before he was captured by the taliban is talking about his ordeal. phil: up next, what motivated him to walk off the base and what he hoped to accomplish. j.c.: plus, this massive fire out west. the building that went up in flames. phil: the holiday season made much more enjoyable for several local families. the good samaritan that paid off thousands in layway. j.c.: that sounds good. traffic is moving well on zakim bridge. ride. northbound is moving well. people are flying. 13 minutes on the pike.

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>> you are watching newscenter 5 at 5:30. phil: look at these pictures. a los angeles building is a pile of rubble after the overnight fire. you can see the flames and smoke billowing out of the building' s roof. more than 100 firefighters battled the flames for over an hour. no injuries were reported. it' s unknown if the building was occupied, but a "for lease" sign was posted outside. to the controversy over bowe bergdahl, the army sergeant who spent five years as a taliban prisoner after abandoning his post in afghanistan. for the first time, he is publicly explaining why he left and what happened next. bergdahl claims he abandoned his fellow soldiers to draw attention to what he calls bad leadership in the army. he says another reason he walked away, to prove he could be like the movie action hero, jason bourne. but what happened next was nothing like hollywood.

>> i' m not about to out run motorcycles. i could not do anything against six or seven guys with ak-47' s. phil: bergdahl' s account comes from phone conversations with a screenwriter as part of the highly-anticipated second season of the podcast "serial." a former oklahoma police officer is facing a 200-year prison sentence after being found guilty of sexual assault charges read . verdict. 13 women accused him of rape or sexual assault, all while he was on duty. he will be sentenced next month. j.c.: two louisiana marshals are facing murder charges in the death of a 6-year-old boy. jeremy mardis was in the passenger seat of his father' s car when he was shot during a police chase. the officers chased christopher few after seeing him in an argument with his girlfriend. police say they later fired 18 rounds into his car. there were no outstanding

weapon was found in the car. eight cadets are suspended at the citadel military college amid these controversial photos. the pictures show the cadets wearing sheets on their heads, and it looks a lot like kkk uniforms. the cadets at the south carolina school say it was all part of a christmas skit, and they' re supposed to be ghosts. phil: extreme weather continuing to bear down on the western part of the country. j.c.: we take you to the areas hardest hit. phil: disaster averted. the bicyclist that narrowly avoided getting run over by a speeding train. we also have snow falling in parts of north dakota. that is the last thing likely here for a while as we continue in the mild pattern. there are some changes for the

phil: dow chemical and dupont are planning to create a colossal can look company worth $130 billion. the deal is billed as a merger of equals to be called dow dupont. the plan is to split the company into three sections. one focused on material, one on agriculture, and the last on specialty products. j.c.: caught on camera, tempers flare at a meeting of brazil' s house of representatives. the scuffle happened during a board of ethics meeting. it got physical when two members argued over a move to impeach the house president. other house members broke up the

five- minute break. look at this. this is terrifying video out of poland tonight. the bicyclist inches away from being hit by a speeding train. so close. you can see the man riding toward the train crossing. another angle shows at the last second with the train knocking the cyclist' s bike out from under him. that man was taken to the hospital, but is expected to be ok. phil: the northwest is being battered by severe weather. tornadoes, mudslides, flooding. it is not over yet. >> a rare tornado for the pacific northwest. residents of battleground, washington, north of portland, oregon, recovering from the thursday morning twister. >> like something out of a movie. it does not happen here ever. >> it brought over 100 mile-per-hour wind touching down

uprooting trees and fences, ripping apart this backyard, damaging several dozen homes. the pacific northwest this week rocked by weather, flooding, power outages, and lots of hail. a hillside collapsing syndic boulders onto the road. >> i don' t take anybody thought it would be this bad. >> two confirmed deaths, a woman trapped under a falling tree and another who drowned driving through floodwaters. in portland, roads buckling under the rain. >> reports of cars in water, trapped in cars. >> the coastline getting battered. now, it is california' coast getting a beating. huge waves drawing an audience. forcing the closure of the pier and evacuation of residents in nearby homes. a high surf warning in effect. a large swell could bring 25 foot waves and the risk of coastal flooding. it is not all bad. skiers in idaho loving the

now the storm slammed the northwest moves east, forecast to cross the rockies tonight and tomorrow. weather with damaging wind and hail. phil: it makes you appreciate what we are getting now. j.c.: we have to go all the way to the west coast to get that kind of active weather things are so quiet. country. the warmth is in the east. northwest. the one that did come in is producing snow across north dakota and northwestern minnesota. is this area here that has the potential to produce severe weather. as we get a storm system, it will move in our direction but we will be on the milder side. that will happen early next week. in the meantime, we still have the warmth to the east and southeast. you can clearly see it.

the code is -- the dakotas. still mild this evening. the temperature up. the wind is out of the west and standards. it is in the 40' s well to the north and west. we do have patchy dense fog in parts of southern new hampshire and southern maine. be aware of that. have the area widespread fog across the region because the wind is coming light out of the west. it is helping to keep the air drier. the actual temperatures tonight will fall to the 40' s. that is not bad. a few upper 30' s across southern new hampshire and north-central massachusetts. tomorrow, very mild. i think you have the benefit of sunshine for a larger part of the day. today, we had to burn off the low clouds and fog. that took a while. tomorrow, we should not have a problem that extent. that allows us to get to the upper 50' s and low 60' s.

tomorrow, take advantage of that day. it will not be dramatically different on sunday, but tomorrow is the better of the weekend days. more sunshine and milder temperatures. his little bit of chillier air in eastern canada will start to slowly move southward the second half of the weekend and begin to move into our region to drop the temperature a little bit because we will be near the frontal boundary, we will have cloudiness. there is your story tomorrow. tomorrow looks like a nice, sunny day. there may be a few patches of thin clouds. but for the most part, it looks sunny for us. clouds will be coming in on sunday. speaking of sunday, here is the deal. we have this backdoor cold front. behind it, cold pressure in eastern canada. it is a light northeast wind. it is enough to change temperatures from your 62 near 50, maybe even upper 40' s in the

that is a difference when you add the cloudiness. we have a system that approaches us monday. it may be damp and cool. the heavy rain will come with this storm as it passes north of us in the front moves close to us monday night. that should be out of here before tuesday morning. tuesday is a breezy day and cooler. it is a little on the chilly side on wednesday. there could be a shower around thursday. it does look like next week finishes colder, thursday night, friday night, and saturday, the following weekend. but tomorrow, a great day. i hope you get a chance to enjoy it. j.c.: concussions in sports, a growing concern. up to 3.8 million sports-related concussions are recorded every year. newscenter 5' s emily riemer tells us there may be a breakthrough way to get help faster. >> a breakthrough way to diagnose concussions, especially for parents concerned about

>> the head injury even the subject of will smith' s major motion picture. the city scene reports nearly 250,000 kids under 19 were treated in emergency rooms across america for sports-related injuries resulting in a concussion or traumatic rain injury diagnosis in 2009. >> our brains are developing into the early 20' s. those hits could lead to chronic degenerative changes. it is important they engage in sports and be healthy. >> the medical company says they are developing technology that will change the game. >> we are applying rocket science to testing. >> the company developing machines that will identify a concussion in less than one hour using a simple blood test, identifying proteins that show brain trauma. >> a fingerprint could tell you within 20 minutes whether the

>> the research is backed by the nfl. could change the culture of the >> the company hopes to have the test ready next year. doctors say this technology could make a great impact on sports sidelines. >> this test is promising. it requires more trials to make sure it is going to be useful in the sidelines. there' concern from daily stress. it may be linked to memory loss. in the study of 500 people over 70, those who reported high levels of initial stress had more than double the rate of memory problems three years later. researchers say more work is needed to figure out the link. phil: a dream come true for a six-year-old born without fingers on one of his hands. to the bioengineering department.

rebel hands -- robo hands using a 3-d printer. >> i love them. >> we went to the grocery store. both hands. we went down the slide. with both arms. to print each one. years. with a 3-d printer, the cost is less than $50. amazing. a popular iced tea recalled. more than one million sweet leaf iced tea bottles may have glass fragments in them. six flavors are involved, raspberry, half & half lemonade tea, green tea with citrus, peach, and mint & honey. they were all distributed between february and december 6 of this year. customers can return them to the store for a refund. for more information log on to our website, wcvb.com.

the financial burden of the holidays eased for many local parents by a secret santa. phil: we are talking paying off thousands of dollars in layaway. the extremely generous move next. j.c.: and coming up new at 6:00, inside the mbta' s operations control center. how they came up with their plan of action to deal with a runaway red line train. phil: a yearbook photo controversy for a local high school student. why this photo with the american flag became a problem. and this. a return engagement for a little girl who underwent brain surgery this time last year. how she' s bringing holiday joy to children'

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phil: how cool is this? a long-lost disney film rediscovered after nearly 90 years in storage. it' s a six-minute christmas movie called "sleigh bells." it' s a silent film starring oswald the rabbit, one of walt disney' s first animated characters. disney researchers tell us he was most likely the original mickey mouse. the british film institute found it in archives. it turns out, it was about to be trashed. the film is set for release tomorrow. a secret santa strikes in bellingham for the second year in a row. j.c.: newscenter 5' s jorge quiroga tells us the generous

in layaway. >> at the toys are us here, the layaway angel is back spreading her good cheer again. >> these are the gifts that were paid off. >> overwhelmed by a random act of kindness. last monday, she went to pay and pick up gifts she had only way for her grandson. >> i handed her my receipt and she said all set. >> she owed $175. her bill had been paid off. >> i was stunned. i said i don' t understand what you are saying. she said someone came in and paid off your layaway. >> the store not telling us who but saying a woman came in and put down $20,000 to pay off layaways. the recipients chosen at random. >> i started to cry because i was overwhelmed by the goodness in her. i went to the back and it still did not register.

he was like, what? i said, somebody did that. >> giddy employees feeling like santa' s helpers. >> the only thing they would tell me is the same person did it last year and her quote was "if you have it, give it." maybe we all can learn from that. >> she says the gesture, even more than the dollar amount, is the real gift. >> hopefully, she knows how grateful everyone is because i think it was the most amazing gesture. >> it is a trend that started a few holiday seasons ago. layaway angels paying it forward, bringing joy while seeking no publicity. phil: but you hope she is watching tv so she can see the smiles on the faces of the people see affected.

phil: newscenter 5 at 6:00 starts right now. runaway train. >> the responsible actions of a single individual. phil: multiple mistakes made by the operator. have the control center reacted when the train took off. j.c.: this local girl' s yearbook photo rejected. what you cannot see that her school says his offensive. harvey: i' m timing the warmest part of the weekend and the next rain situation. j.c.: julian edelman returns to practice. news on gronk could have patriots fans excited. >> this is wcvb newscenter 5 at 6:00. j.c.: new information about the runaway train on the red line and what the operator failed to do. phil: we have learned david vasquez did not follow safety procedures including setting the break before studying the mesh

janet wu is live reaction from the governor. >> the governor all but said the operator is responsible for nine minutes of terror for the passengers. the incident also points to some of the biggest weaknesses. >> i want to stress at this point, the investigation is ongoing. but we do believe this was an isolated incident, one that required an individual to make multiple mistakes. >> that individual was conductor david bosco' s, a 20-year veteran of the t. he left the train yesterday morning to switch a bypass toggle because of a signal system failure that occurs frequently at the braintree station. but in order for the train to move, two brakes would have to be disengaged and the trottle or cineston would have to be in the forward mode. the transportation secretary would not confirm a cord was wrapped around the cineston, but -- >> in any way a wedging or restricting in the movement of the cineston is a prohibited act