announcer: abc 7 news at noon, on your side. jummy: brand new this noon, and announcement for d.c. schools by mayor muriel into the role as school chancellor. sam? sam: after launching a search last july, the mayor walked into a news conference at eastern high school an hour or so ago and announced her choice to be d.c.'s next school chancellor. today she walked into the news conference with anton wilson, the current superintendent of

system and had received other offers. this one he decided he would definitely take. >> when thinking about d.c., there is only one district of columbia. it is a school district that is the premier school district in the country. the tremendous opportunity to make a difference for the people here and hit -- can have a tremendous impact across the country. i believe in wholeheartedly, , social, and emotional learning. it is important that schools are places that educate young people and prepare them for success. sam: wilson has worked in a number of school systems. he was a superintendent assistant in denver, the married father of three children, who

attending d.c. public schools. the chairman of the d.c. education committee, david grasso, put out a statement that he will be holding hearings. the nominee will have to be confirmed. reporting live from northeast washington, i am sam ford. jummy: thank you. right now at noon, police have the man accused of a crash that killed six students in tennessee. , as the ntsb continues the investigation into that devastating accident. sam sweeney is at the ntsb hanker at the hangar at the airport. sam: they are on the ground in chattanooga, where they will spend the next seven to 10 days doing a thorough investigation trying to figure out what led to the crash that killed five small children. less than 24 hours after this

tree, the 24-year-old driver faces five counts of vehicular homicide. >> we have executed a search warrant for his blood. the investigation will let us know if there is any outside influence on his ability to drive a car, a vehicle. we do not know at this time. what we do know now is that his behavior was to the of recklessness. sam: members of the ntsb go team have arrived on the scene at chattanooga. >> one of the first challenges is to get all perishable evidence before it disappears. sam: about three dozen children were on board, many taken to hospitals. others leaving the scene in a daze. early indicators to speed as a possible factor. the ntsb will be digging into the background of the driver, the company that operated the bus, and looking for possible surveillance video that can help them determine what led to this

results for at least a year. reporting at hangar number 6 at reagan national airport, i am sam sweeney. back to you in the studio. jummy: we want to get to an update on the deadly bus crash in baltimore. baltimore city schools terminated the contract of the company operating that bus. the company faced scrutiny when one of its buses slammed into an mta bus in november, killing six people and injuring 11 others. it is unclear whether the driver suffered a medical emergency behi in critical condition after police say she was accidentally burned. it happened in a trinidad neighborhood in northeast d.c. john gonzalez has the latest. john: the d.c. fire department and police -- the violent crimes bureau -- has been out here all day long investigating this very strange, rare situation. they are using the cameras.

holbrook and neil street, there is a crime-fighting camera. it appears a woman at around 3:30 this morning, accidentally set herself on fire. that is the word from d.c. police. they were spending a lot of time going through the scorched remains. her clothing -- you can see it is laid out on the street. at the sidewalk where this woman was found unconscious, unresponsive on the sidewalk. exactly what happened is unknown, but we can also tell you over at a railing at one of the homes, there was a whig that was also charred. it appears that her wig may have caught on fire. neighbors are shocked. >> i just heard someone screaming a couple of times, and

. it was 3:00 a.m. exactly. john: firefighters have washed away the charred remains here. this was the same neighborhood that had a burning body found in a dumpster last summer. but this incident this morning was an accident. john gonzalez. back to you inside. jummy: it has been two weeks since donald trump was named president-elect of the united states. for the first time, he is laying out his agenda for the first 100 >> donald trump talking to the american people directly. mr. trump: i have asked my transition team to develop a list of executive actions that we can put in place on day one. >> six key items he will tackle in january, like withdrawing from the trans-pacific partnership, the largest trade

for our country. >> instead, canceling trade restrictions. mr. trump: creating many millions of high-paying jobs is what we wanted that is what we have been waiting for. >> trump strayed from one campaign promise that started a firestorm. mr. trump: we are going to build a wall. we are going to build a wall, folks. >> he backed off signature issue to build a wall. no word on restrictions of immigrants from some muslim countries. but looking to make good on one promise -- a ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists after leaving the administration. he says that will help rebuild the middle class. jummy: happening today, president obama will award the

entertainers and former athletes. among them, robert de niro, ellen degeneres, bruce springsteen, michael jordan, and kareem abdul-jabbar. it is the highest civilian honor. the ceremony begins at 2:30 at the white house. we are approaching the busiest travel day of the year. nearly 40 million americans are gearing up to travel 50 miles or more this thanksgiving. suzanne kennedy has a preview of what you can expect out on the suzanne: we are out in mobile trak 7 this afternoon, keeping an eye on the roadways as people are starting to head out on their thanks giving weekend. we are seeing a steady increase of people hitting the road this noon hour. gas prices will be about $2.15 a gallon for unleaded regular in the washington metropolitan area, about the same as last year but more than a dollar cheaper than two years ago. the washington area will see a 6% increase in the number of residents traveling to holiday

-- by automobile, translating into more than one million people taking to the roadways. here is some vice that here is some advice from aaa about when to head out the door. >> tonight is traditionally the most difficult time, probably between 5:00 and 6:00. it used to be that people would leave on wednesday. i think we have all kind of figured out that that is what we are doing. now people are leaving on tuesday. suzann about your return trip for the holiday weekend, the best time to redo -- the best time to depart is friday morning before 6:00. jummy: surge 10 of safetrack for metro ends tonight, and surge 11 begins on monday. trains will single check between east and west falls church on the orange line. trains on the orange and silver

minutes or so, so you can expect big crowds. customers are being urged to use alternative options if possible. abc 7 is always on your side. you can get breaking traffic alerts sent straight to your phone. go to wjla.com/texts and sign up for those traffic alerts. we want to take a live look outside pennsylvania avenue and the capitol building. another fall day out there. let's go to doug hill for the forecast. doug: there, a little bit of a breeze and not the strong wind from the past few days. clear blue skies looking at the rockville campus. here is what you expect to encounter. low to mid 40's. warm spots in the metro area, 47 at reagan national, 46 at reagan national. -- 46 at fredericksburg. temperatures will climb to 50 this afternoon.

breeze, the windchill knocked down a few degrees. feels like 38 at joint base andrews. 32 degrees at reagan national airport. the wind will pick up, 10 to 15 miles per hour. plenty of sunshine, and we will see the numbers continuing to climb, close to 50 degrees. that will be the trend line for later this afternoon. here is what we have for you tonight. another clear night in store. when you week up tomorrow morning 20's and 30's, but crystal clear skies. the entire weekend forecast is coming your way in a couple of minutes. jummy: thank you so much. coming up on "abc 7 news at noon, a massive rack on the road -- a massive wreck on the road at china -- in china. coming up, we will explain why this is just the beginning. jamie? jamie: we are seeing a

if you live in the area near jones bridge road, connecticut avenue, this may affect you. the right lane is currently blocked. you can see a lot of this water in the road. the cones are out, so please be careful. we do not have everything closed off. you still can't get through, but it is best to avoid it. that you still can get through, but it is best to avoid it. -- you can still get through, but it is best to avoid it. outbound kenilworth avenue, slow minutes from the 11th street bridge to the bw parkway. outbound 395, bumper-to-bumper from the pentagon south to seminary road. you can see the left lane being taken out, wrote work in place. there is more green than red or yellow, but we have slowing with roadwork.

announcer: you are watching "abc 7 news at noon," on your side. jummy: a wild scene out of china. dozens were injured, 17 people killed in a expressway. survivors were rushed to the hospital. the good news is that most if not all of them are expected to survive. developing at noon, the search for what caused a package to explode right in the hands of the 62-year-old man in philadelphia. it happened just after 4:00 this morning in center city. he was opening a package containing some sort of medication when it exploded. the victim suffered injuries on his hands and chest.

package exploded after it was open and noted that the man often receives packages of inhalers delivered by mail. the first major winter storm of the season has turned deadly. massive amounts of snow falling across the great lakes. this noon, a new storm is taking shape. gio benitez is in new york with more. gio: overnight, the first winter storm turning deadly, hammering dropping more than 40 inches of snow in some areas. home is buried. the whipping wind and white out conditions made the highways hazardous. take a look at this heart stopping moment, a bus overturning while trying to avoid the spun out car. the family watched in horror as the bus tipped over. >> we all rushed over there. there were a bunch of students inside. we got them out of the emergency

passengers on board, luckily only nine suffered injuries. the cause of the icy conditions, one person lost their life in rochester as they slid straight into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer, showing just how ferocious this storm has become. >> we will have a lot of accidents until people learn to slow down a little bit. gio: this could be just the beginning of a lingering travel nightmare here in cortland, new york, people will finally be able to start shoveling out. the snowfall will stop today, so now the attention turns to the west with major storms ruling out there. those will cause major travel problems. gio benitez, cortland, new york. jummy: wow. doug: nothing like that here. jummy: thank goodness.

thanks giving day but that is about it. we do have a tropical update for you. we talked about this chart local disturbance in the southwestern caribbean. it has been upgraded to tropical storm otto. it could become a hurricane later today as it continues to move to the west and northwest as well. if the speed and every thing go with it, it will probably impact the coastal areas of nicaragua see the westward flow, and then it will go to the pacific ocean and diminish somewhat when it hits cooler water over there. not rare, does not happen that often to get a system this late in the season. our weather is beautiful. a southern breeze at times. temperatures will get from 47 to 50 degrees. clear skies tonight as we look to the forecast. the wind will become almost call

windchill to factor in. the forecast tomorrow and for the next couple of days, high pressure moving overhead, giving us more sunshine tomorrow, but things start to change early on things giving morning when the next system will increase cloudiness, bringing in showers for things giving day. the front will pass through, and things will kind of improve heading into friday and to the upcoming weekend. let's get a quick look at the forecast. a quick look at the holiday forecast hour-by-hour. morning showers. after that, temperatures holding mostly in the 50's with some sunshine. don't miss our black friday specials, at havertys furniture. big savings in store only. this friday, eight am to eleven am. plus, win up to $250 off your total purchase.

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jummy: the magic of disney usually uplifts us during the holiday season, but for one person a change their life. owen, a young man with autism, was featured in the documentary "life animated." this friday, his story airs on "20/20." deborah roberts joins preview. deborah coleman we met him maybe months ago just before this documentary on his life was released, and he is such a remarkable young man. so many of us here at "20/20" have such warmth just presenting this story. this young man, like so many other families who have experienced autism, was speaking and was the classic toddler, then started to recede, started

his parents tried to get him intensive theory -- intensive therapy and nothing was happening. then one day there was a declaration when he said something to them, and it was a line from a disney movie and they suddenly realized, unlike so many other kids, he loved movies but that was his way of making sense of the world. so they actually started to jump in with him. they said they got phd's in these animated films and actually realized that this was owen actually began to find himself. we take you on this journey. he is 25 years old, a remarkable young man, and he is talking and working. we will let you meet his family. he found love at school. and to just see how for one family and for so many families,

into their child. there is hope for families that for so long have felt there was not hope. it is a classic "20/20" story, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we are enjoying putting it together. jummy: we look forward to seeing that, deborah. his story airs friday at 10:00,

jummy: this holiday season, a couple of turkeys have something to be thankful for. vice president biden: we hereby proclaim rizzo the turkey and bryant the turkey free from the harm of the knife on thanks giving day. jummy: congrats to them. doug: it is them. so fortunate. let's take a look at what we have in the next can days. average to below average temperatures, possible showers. still cool friday with a lingering shower popping up. pleasant for the weekend and beyond. jummy: thank you for joining aspirin watch "abc 7 news" starting at 4:00.

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