announcer: now, "abc 7 news at noon," on your side. jummy: white off the top, stormwatch 7 getting you ready for an arctic blast. temperatures are about to take a big plunge. tomorrow may the one of the coldest december days in the area in more than a decade. let's get to doug hill for the latest. doug: we plot out the current wind chills, and you see a difference -- 41 in washington, 45 in richmond. go a little north and west and look at how dramatically it changes. it feels like 14 in pittsburgh, one below at detroit metropolitan airport.

heading in our direction. the leading edge will come in later tonight and may be accommodated by light snow or flurries or a snow shower or two. today we will hit 46. clouds will increase later on, the wind light at 5 miles per hour. but that will change. another weather alert is up. a wind-chill advisory from pennsylvania, western maryland, into the high plains of minnesota and the canadian border because of the combination of bitterly cold arctic air and strong prolonged wind out of the northwest. my futurecast model shows late tonight, around 11:00, the possibility on this model, areas of snow pushing through the area. we will take out overnight to see how quickly it clears out so tomorrow we will have strong wind, plenty of sunshine through the morning. in thisll holding single digits in many areas. tomorrow night, not a whole lot changes.

31 degrees in washington. by early morning at all changes. frederickington, 8 in and winchester. low single digits by the afternoon. it should feel about 11 downtown. a lot of ground to cover. we will do that coming up in 13 minutes. jummy: we will see you then. already in many other parts of the country, they are in that deep-freeze. take a look at this video. the frigid weather coding a ship as it makes it's way off lake superior in michigan. in minnesota, quick thinking motorists sprang into action after her suv went off the road into a frozen pond. nearly a third of the country will dip below zero. >> can this be dangerous? >> absolutely it can be dangerous to we are thinking ou

both of which can be dangerous to life and limb. jummy: the winter weather led to a tragedy in new york, authorities investigating whether a snow plow caused two boys to be trapped in a snow bank as they were building a fort. one boy died, the other is recovering in a hospital. closer to home, vdot already getting ready for the frigid weather. roads in northern virginia are being treated with the salt and sand mixture before the temperature drastically drops. as we get ready for the frigid air, remember stormwatch 7 is on your side. download the stormwatch weather app. say safe as we get ready for the blast of winter weather. happening today, a stronger economy is expected to lead to a rise in interest rates. in a few hours, federal reserve chairman janet yellin will announce -- could announce that interest rates will go up.

credit cards or if you are trying to buy a home or a car. hundreds of airport workers at reagan national and dulles at the picket lines this morning, joining in on the fight for $15 an hour. sam sweeney has the story. >> what do we want? >> 15. employee -- these are not airline employees but contractors who help around the airport, and their pay is well below the poverty line. >> some people make $15 an hour, some people make five dollars an hour, some people actually make $2.83 an hour. that is just unbelievable. sam: these jobs were designed to be supplemented by tips from passengers, but times have changed. >> when airlines started implementing baggage fees and all types of fees, the tips went away.

the long hours keep some employees for making it home at night. is forced to be in the parking lot just so he can make his next shift. >> i cannot see my family. on my off day only i go to see my family. sam: the employees $115 an hour, six time, and paid time off. abc 7 reached out to their contractor. we have not immediately heard back. the union representing these workers says they plan on being out here thursday morning. the airport authority says they do not expect disruption to operations. sam sweeney. back to you in the studio. president-elect donald trump continues to hold meetings at trump tower. today he is meeting with leaders from some of america's top tech companies. last night while meeting

paul ryan, he defended his secretary of state pick, rex tillerson, who has a long relationship with vladimir. trump: rex is friendly with many of the leaders in the world that we do not get along with. many people do not like that. that is why i am doing the deal with rex. because i like what this is all about. picked rick also perry to leave the department of energy and offer the interior secretary job to the congressman from montana. divest -- donald trump must divest himself of all of his interests with his hotel. is at the d.c. armory for a first look at all the preparations being done for the inauguration. suzanne: i am at a giant 40-foot by

washington area. all of this is being used by the joint task force, the national capital region getting ready for the inauguration, 37 days away. you can see right here, they have a u.s. capitol where they president-elect will be sworn in. the folks who are using this to drill can look at the parade route right here, down pennsylvania avenue. interestingly enough, there is a pop-up feature of the president-elect's hotel located at 12 street northwest and pennsylvania avenue. you can follow the police route to the white house. they have a reviewing stand set up so they can get a sense of where that will be in relation to the white house, and other features through the downtown area. all of this being used to prepare for the inauguration, which takes a lot of forethought and planning. >> this is one event where we recognize the military is the source of our american leaders. that is why there is a presidential inaugural committee

committees at the civilian level that helps organize it. the military is here to help support our civilians, local and federal workers. suzanne: several monuments are laid out on this map. this will all be during a map drill today. authorities say this is part of the preparation, the military and civilians coming together to make sure the inauguration goes off without a hitch. back to you. hour: developing at this out of tennessee, a dangerous hazmat spill that started when two semi trucks crashed on an interstate outside nashville. one of the trucks caused -- one of the trucks caught fire, sending a toxic cloud around the crash site for at least a mile. people in one nearby neighborhood have been evacuated. no one has been seriously hurt. taking a look at news around the nation, today marks four years since the massacre at sandy hook elementary school. the

killed. ofre were 15 minutes reflective silence in newtown, connecticut, to remember the 20 students and six adults killed. here at home, a protest is being held at the nra headquarters in fairfax. monthly vigils and rallies have been held to draw attention to the nra's continued opposition to any new policies to help reduce gun violence. bill cosby is back in court for the second day of his pretrial hearing. day one of the hearings was heated as the judge threatened to bring in sheriff's deputies after both parties engaged in a shouting match. defense attorneys are expected to make their counterargument later today. coming up on "abc 7 news at noon ," the potential danger of some

homes. what you need to know to present a similar disaster through this one. also coming up, caught on camera. a crook learns epistle lesson -- learns a painful lesson about crime. and what amazon has announced that could be a game changer when it comes to online shopping. jamie: we are seeing some good news and bad news. the good news we will start with, a crash cleared away on the gw parkway. if you were heading outbound, it was after turkey run. all lanes blocked have been reopened. you drop down into the 30's headed north past spout run. 66 not bad to arlington. same thing, to falls church. lloyd m midday afternoon. theyis midday work that are doing. another area that is slow, southbound on 95, bumper-to-bumper before the icc, continuing through the beltway. tricky, but stick with me

volume we have. avoid 95, and the bw parkway. if you travel on metro, there is a track condition between addison road and stadium-armory that we have single tracking. that is a look at traffic this afternoon.

announcer: you are watching "abc 7 news at noon," on your side. jummy: a robbery suspect in florida picked the wrong target. police say he tried to rob a former wrestler over the weekend. this is surveillance video from inside the store. pard in the red shirt.

he is six foot seven inches, he is 6'7", 280 pounds. the suspect was arrested. country music star and tennessee native dolly parton says last night's telefon -- telefon raised millions. during the hour, dozens of singers performed and answered phones. taylor swift and paul simon each donated $100,000. dolly parton says impacted families will begin in $1000 a month for six months to help them get back on their feet. right now, a lot of homes have been filled with christmas trees, but this holiday tradition in some cases has created a holiday disaster. john gonzalez is at the university of maryland where he saw how trees can turn into fire hazards. are inside the fire protection engineering department at the university of maryland, witnessing some dramatic demonstration.

beautiful christmas tree in your home can go from this to this. in just seconds. this right here is a natural tree that was watered profusely for about two weeks, and it's still was fully engulfed in under 30 seconds. a christmas tree is five times deadlier than a regular house fire, with about 230 house calls around the country each year and an average of six deaths. take a look at this. and thea very dry fir, difference is alarming. fully immersed in about 10 seconds. it gives you an idea if it is in a living room how little time you have before this turns into a tragedy. >> it is important to make people aware of the tremendous hazards of christmas trees, especially if it has not been properly cared for and watered on a daily basis. you cannot do anything much about that one that gets going, so the essence of it is, the esse

that you stop the event from even starting. >> statistically most of these christmas tree fires happen after christmas when the trees inside your home but is being neglected. officials at umb say get the tree out as soon as the holidays are over. in college park, john gonzalez. back to you inside. jummy: as if the holiday mail rush is not frantic enough, a fire broke out inside a mail truck and you can see flames bursting out of the front of the truck. mail carrier and the good samaritan rushed in and saved dozens of packages. most of them were from amazon, who says they will make a donation to the local fire department. how about getting it in just minutes? jeff bezos announced on twitter that it's company made its first droneits first commercial delivery. the customer ordered an amazon

streams as well as popcorn. i guess they are trying to watch some tv or movies or something. pretty cool, 13 minutes. they need to figure out get it inside a building to deliver it to your desk or it jummy: what can it do for us? doug: and impressive outbreak of cold here. 47 is the average high. pretty typical mid december day out there, with sunshine. clouds will be increasing during the late afternoon and evening, and then all the flooding games come in tonight. dramatic change. you knew to know you can make the decisions, especially for tomorrow morning when the combination of air temperature and wind speed will be such that the windchill will be in single numbers. an exaggeration. it can be uncomfortably

very quickly. the front gets to the neighborhood. they could be some areas of light snow, maybe enough just to glaze the ground in the northern parts of the area. maybe a few showers and out in the valley some. in the overnight, the skies will clear out and we will wake up to mainly clear skies and a quick area of sunshine developing after sunrise. the problem is going to be temperatures may even drop a couple degrees after sunrise and we will be penned in the mid-20's for highs tomorrow. a very uncomfortable day to be outside. it will stay that way through most of the evening hours as well. our futurecast on the set of wind chill's -- the windchill outside right now is 43. not bad. wind chill tomorrow morning at 7:00, about 12. 6 in leesburg. hagerstown, 5 below zero. wind chill's drop into the single digits at 1:00 in the afternoon in washington. wind chill

up a little bit later friday night. as we get into saturday morning, the temperatures start to rise a little bit, the weight -- the wind direction changes a little bit. tomorrow, pickup time at the bus stop, it will be cold. same deal all day with the , wind gusts.chill an uncomfortable pattern here. all the cloudiness will clear out. snow by late friday night with this next system coming in, maybe a wintry mix as we get to saturday morning. the best chances of anything will be just to the north of the metro area. then temperatures will warm up during the day and we will have plain old-fashioned rain. maybe a lot more rain as we head through the day on sunday with warmer temperatures. rain can be heavy at times on sunday. here is what will change over the next 10. we give you a quick look as the numbers go down pit up to 60 on sunday, cooler as we get through monday, tuesday, and wednesday.

get ready for christmas weekend. well above freezing. jummy: do you like you were? doug: yes. jummy: greg, because uber started allowing the public to ride in these volvos today. without the blessing of the california dmv measure. state law requires companies to receive dmv approval before testing the vehicles on private roads. the drivers will be present in the test suv. we will see how long it takes to get to d.c.. coming up, a stunning loss to the entertainment world. we will

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jummy: family, friends, and fans are morning the sudden death of alan thicke, who suffered a heart attack while playing ice hockey with his son in burbank, california, yesterday. he was still talking when paramedics took him away. thumbs-up, said weight, get a picture with me. jason richardson has more. >> ♪ show me the smile again especially known for being the father on "growing from 1985 to 1992, reuniting on "gma" if you years ago to talk about the camaraderie on the set. >> we actually spent some time together off the set rehearsing lines.

attractive. >> alan thicke's role was among the most lovable tv dads of all time. he was born in canada in 1947 and was a popular talkshow host there before becoming a big star in the u.s. he was also a composer. includingeme songs, this one from "will a fortune." alan thicke was 69. jummy: we will check back in with doug hill with a final look at what is about to turn into a chilly forecast. i am stationed at the air base in korea. i want to wish a happy holidays

jummy: we are getting ready for frigid arctic air. doug: coming tonight. today, though, not too bad. a high of 46. but it all changes tonight. take a look at the windchills over the next few days. we have a wind chill average tomorrow of eight degrees, 20 on friday. we may have an air temperature close to 60 degrees on sunday. jummy: thank you

>> they come with a dream, they leave with a check. it's that simple. it's "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] ♪ hey, everybody, welcome to the show. are you guys ready to play "millionaire"? [cheers and applause] all right, our returning contestant is a family man who wants to win big so he can move closer to the one he loves. from lancaster, pennsylvania, please welcome back ben brewer. [cheers and applause] hey, man, what's up? >> hey, chris. >> good to see you, ben. welcome back, man. >> good to see you. [applause] >> welcome back to "millionaire." >> thank you. >> we'll catch everybody up on your game in just a little bit, but so you want to raise some cash, you're up to $10,000... >> mm-hmm. >> because you wanna move back to texas? >> yes, yeah, from texas originally. >> yeah. >> i think i said earlier. but, y