stay put. >> they can't hurry with the visibility like it is. like some place where they can get to a shelter and stay off the road. >> reporter: the storm is expected to wind down later today. winter doesn't officially arrive until just before dawn on thursday. terrell brown, wjz eyewitness news. the coverage continues with meteorologist bernadette woods. >> it is a big storm. large storm in many different parts. the worst of this has already peaked. flooding rains and really strong thunderstorm. look at the temperatures, just really cold air coming in behind it, obviously on the warm side of everything. we'll have our forecast coming

up. terrifying sight on a busy new jersey highway as a small out of control plunges into traffic. take a look, a plane spirals out of control and exploded. all five people on board were killed. no one on the ground was injured. the victim's have just identified as two new york city investment bankers. air traffic controllers say the pilot made a 7 second call about icing just before the crash. it's unclear. services now back up and running on metro blue and orange lines in washington d.c. following an incident on the tracks. it was something that fell off one train off the tracks. several trains had to be stopped and passengers had to get off and use a bus bridge to get their their destination. a war of words in washington d.c. as democrats and republicans trade barbs

over a tax cut. the battle is over how long the extension will be. >> reporter: the people business is at a stand still on capitol hill. the house rejected the senate's plan to extend the payroll tax credit for 2 months. republican say the vote should send a message to senators. >> come back to washington! do your work! give the american people a year. not 2 months. >> reporter: the senate's bipartisan compromise guarantees the tax break through february. gop lawmakers in the house say, they'll only vote for a yearlong extension. >> a 2 month extension is nothing more than kicking the can down the road. >> reporter: the clock is ticking for lawmakers to find a way forward. if they don't, the tax breaks that helped 160 million americans will expire at the end of the month. that means workers will see about $20 less in their weekly paycheck starting j anuary 1st.

just after the house vote, president obama called on speaker boehner and other gop leaders to move forward on the senate's plan. >> this is not a game. this shouldn't be politics as usual. right now, the recovery is fragile but it is moving in the right direction. our failure to do this could have effects not just on families but on the economy. >> reporter: house members voted to send the bill to a special committee to hammer out differences with the senate. but the senate's top democrat says, he's not going to negotiate again unless the house passes the senate's plan. in washington, daniel, wjz eyewitness news. house speaker john boehner sent a letter to the white house asking the president to put pressures on senators to return to washington ore work the payroll tax cut plan. the population in the chesapeake bay is bouncing back

from record lows. last winter it was so cold, nearly of the bait population died off. time now for quick look at some stories you'll find in tomorrow morning edition of the baltimore sun. explosive testimony in the wikileaks hearing. while local residents marched in today. these stories and lot more in the baltimore sun. you can look for the updated forecast from wjz's first warning weather team. the nutcracker is a christmas tradition for many families. the ballet is getting a new twist in north carolina. david crabtree has the story for wjz. >> reporter: the nutcracker is performed around the world every year. a new production in raleigh

keeps the traditional 1892 music and corography adds something special. rick thomas is the top magician is las vegas. his show is one of the biggest on the strip. robert weiss, recruited thomas to teach his secret to the ballet. >> he creates the magic that sparks imagination. well, the magic is just that much more fantastic. >> reporter: the music are a highlights of this performance. actors disappear and appear. >> i think there will be moments where they'll say to the person next to them, did you see had. >> reporter: robert weiss says the production stays true to tradition. >> i think if the masters have seen what we've added to the

show, that's magic. >> reporter: the company hopes the magic will brings in adding new fans. especially boys. they're the most difficult to attract to ballet. >> hopefully they'll see the dancing. >> reporter: and the carolina ballet hope this nutcracker will become a new family tradition for years to come. i'm david crabtree for cbs news in raleigh, north carolina. that's worth the ride down to raleigh. >> still to come on wjz eyewitness news, not giving up hope. the search for a missing 20- month-old baby. >> also a woman set on fire inside a elevator inside her apartment building. the latest. >> i'm bernadette, we're putting together exclusive 5 day forecast, coming back. >> here are the top stories on wjz.com at this hour.

for. dates and updated forecast, ,,,,

woman: we had been called up for the first time.

wildfires were getting close to homes. at that moment, i got my first taste of just how important the guard is. announcer: be there for your community, at nationalguard.com. >> neighbors of an elderly woman died in new york

remembers her. 47-year-old jerome isaac is charged with her murder. investigators say a rifle accident is to blame for a amish girl death in ohio. 15-year-old rachel yoder was shot in the head and killed while she was riding inside her horse buggy in fredericksburg. the accident occurred when a man was cleaning his loaded rifle. it fired nearly a half in a way from the girl. police in maine say they received a hundred leads from the public in the case of a 20- month-old. she was last seen sleeping in her beds. volunteers and local police canvassing the neighborhoods looking for the girl. a 4-year-old girl is used

as a human shield. the suspect tells his daughter between him and police when officers surrounded his car. police say the man was driving erratically. officers rescued the girl. she is now safe with her mother. the latest crime stat show americans should feel a little safer. as bob orr reports this year's fbi figures shows a lot less crimes. >> reporter: in the first 6 months of 2011, robberies in los angeles dropped 10% from the number reported in the first half of 2010. over the same time period, chicago recorded 14% fewer murders. in dallas, the number of rapes fell by 22%. the fbi says these are not statistical flukes. nationwide, violent crime is down sharply across all categories. murder down 5.7%, rape just over 5%. robbery down more than 7.5% and

assault almost 6%. crime analyst credit an aging population, stiffer prison sentence and better police. >> they using technology and data and crime patterns and maps to figure out the hot spots, what's the trend in terms of crime. >> reporter: criminologist james allen fox also disputed the popular myth that crime should be going up in a bad economy. >> people are criminals or not, independent whether they have a job. >> reporter: crime is down in big and small cities in every geographic region. the northeast saw a drop about 3.5% in the first half the year. in the south, crime fell 5.8% and in the west about 6.5%. the biggest decrease was in the midwest, where violent crime dropped nearly 10%. the challenge facing many police department is how to keep lowering the crime rate while facing budget cutbacks.

>> scott pelley has a review on what's coming up tonight. >> a cbs poll shows mitt romney newt gingrich locked. that story tonight on the cbs evening news. >> here is a look at tonight's closing number on wall street. we'll be right back. ,,,,,,,,, [ female announcer ] holiday plus cookies plus memories

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. >> any chance of show in week or just rain. another seasonally warm evening. meteorologist bernadette woods is in the weather center. >> this is going to be in the form of rain. chance for light rain and drizzle tonight and good the day tomorrow -- sane into the day -- and into the day tomorrow. we will start out closer to 40 degrees and get to 60. then, that part of the storm gets out of here and another comes our way into thursday night and friday. in the form of rain. that will get out of here early saturday. we will be watching on christmas day for potential coastal storm. stay tuned and we'll keep you

updated. a former soap opera star talk about her inner demons. chris reports from hollywood. >> reporter: she has been open about her battles about drug abuse. >> i was looking around in my closet for the match to a chute. >> reporter: emotional, crying cry -- crying and confronting her inner demons. once the rebellious teen, she has spent a lifetime battling addiction. >> the person that i was would spend hours and hours in that

closet alone using drugs. >> reporter: he's helping mckenzie clean out a closet that holds painful memories. what do we have here? >> that's weird. those are pill bottles. i want to throw them away. >> reporter: tonight dutches case daring down. that and more coming up later on entertainment tonight. >> that's at 7:30 only on wjz 13. >> still to come, the ravens return to a practice field after a bad loss bow in a good mood -- ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

. >> i guess mood changes in owens mills when you put the pass behind you. mark is here with wjz sports. >> the players found it rather humorous. ravens players were laughing today about the mood change in their sometimes emotional coach. joe flacco says that john

harbaugh was noticeably upbeat. that's quite a shift in demeanor after that loss to san diego in the reason for the good mood was the ravens returned to the practice field finding themselves in first place thanks to that steelers loss last night. pittsburgh is downfall served as a baltimore pick me up. >> it changed the mood of the team today. you come in here, guys are happy. not saying we're a happy bunch. you know what, you can look at the san diego game and not say that it didn't matter. we want to get better from that film. we don't have to look at it as critical we would have been. >> reporter: put away that san diego loss and look ahead for the cleveland visiting crowns. you can see it here on wjz and

kickoff is at 1:00. i'll have a live post game report and live reaction from the team and then it's marty and jessica kartalija and they'll keep it going with football talk. it is a full day of ravens football coming up saturday here on wjz. the aarons can in part thank the cleveland browns hutting ben roethlisberger ankle. pittsburgh failed to score a touchdown for the first time this season. the steelers lose 20-3. they lose the advantage he had over the ravens in the playoff race. pittsburgh falls to second place and is currently just a wild card team. >> we acknowledged what we did here. we had an opportunity and we didn't seize it. make necessary correction, we

better make them quickly. >> reporter: pittsburgh play st. louis on saturday. it may be that the steelers rest roethlisberger for the playoff. in baseball it has been a relatively quiet season for the orioles. it picks up a new manager. that can be troubling to a fan base that's looking for infusion of top level talent to a last place team. the orioles did announce today of signing chavez. he played part of last season with the texas rangers. chavez is 33 years old, he can play left field and when adam jones need time off, chavez can

play center field. that whole harbaugh thing was working out. >> right. lot of talk about that. thank you mark, we'll be right break. - back. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

. >> don't miss the cbs prime time lineup. the hit drama unforgettable. >> it's the last news for steam. a womens woman using hair on barbie giving them a all natural make over. >> that's a good thing to do. that's it for us tonight. back at 11:00. >> thank you for watching >> pelley: tonight, will there be a tax increase for the holidays? the president warns house

republicans... >> the clock is ticking. time is running out. >> pelley: and they fire back. >> i need the president to help out! >> pelley: bob schieffer and nancy cordes are covering the battle over the payroll tax. dean reynolds and wyatt andrews on our new poll that finds a three-way tie for the g.o.p. presidential nomination. gingrich, romney, and none of the above. cynthia bowers is covering a deadly blizzard in the plains and a high school football coach finds the team's toughest opponent is poverty. seth doane on what he did to defeat it. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening, in just 12 days 160 million work could see a tax increase in their paychecks and nearly two million others are struggling to get by without a paycheck could lose their