announcer: from abc 7 news, this is a breaking news alert. jummy: we begin with that breaking news. a plea deal for the comet pizza shooter. amy aubert is at the live desk with the breaking details just coming in. amy: prosecutors say there is a deal in principle in place for edgar welch. they would not give the details of the deal. police arrested him on december 4 after witnesses said he fired a gun inside comet ping pong pizza. no one was hurt. be motivated by something he read online about a nonexistent child sex ring at the business. welch pleaded not guilty to the charges.

monday. the final hearing is on march 24. jummy: thank you. to another high profile case now taking center stage this noon. charles severance, the man convicted of murdering three people in alexandria, had an appeal hearing today, focused on whether the cases should have been tried separately rather than together. he is serving three consecutive life sentences for the murders of three people. to the weather now. right now the big eight-out across the dmv. -out across the dmv. the combination of slow, -- of snow, rain, and freezing temperatures caused a refreeze overnight. doug: even though today we will see temperatures barely get above the 32-degree remark in some spots, the sun is going to melt off some of this and it will refreeze solidly again tonight. when gusts at times will be 35

per hour. we will show you the latest report of wind gusts. 45 miles per hour at reagan national, 41 at joint base andrews. 39 in leesburg. those kinds of wins will continue throughout the afternoon. those kinds of winds will be blowing the air around, upper 20's to lower 30's now. that is producing windchill of 7 in winchester, 13 in washington, 15 in manassas. temperatures and wind chills way below anything you would expect to find in the middle of march. some snow flurries and showers coming with the westerly and northwesterly winds. it is going to be a cold day any way you cut it, with temperatures struggling to get near freeze and -- to get near freezing. one place we picked up measurable snow is in damascus, maryland, where john gonzalez is shivering in the chill. john:

shivering. on march 15 we usually hear beware the ides of march. how about beware the ice of march? we have been driving around in mobile trak 7 all day long. we have been finding secondary roads that still look like this. the problem is all of that wet, heavy snow that fell yesterday with the sleet and freezing rain is now frozen solid. take a look at my feet. you brush off some of the snow and you have a sheet of ice and miles and miles of -- some of this hard, crunchy snow. , and theyold out here did an ok job, a pretty good job, but i have seen better. when it comes to parking lots and stuff. john: it is still pretty icy out here. what are you seeing? >>

of snow left over. >> i hope it gets a lot warmer pretty soon. john: as for the main roads, route 27 ridge rd cuts right through the heart of damascus. what you are going to find the white effect, the chalky condition. but trust us, we have run into some icy patches throughout the day. it over tog to send suzanne kennedy, who is in centreville, where they have school delays today. county, here in fairfax schools are on a two-hour delay after being closed tuesday by the storm. here at ormonde stone middle school, they put down salt on the sidewalk. many still remained icy and treacherous. bus drivers gathered early at the school to warm up their vehicles and knock off any school that remained on them. students came to class at 9:30 instead of their regular belt time of 7:30. fairfax was one

that delay their openings by two hours. >> it has been freezing cold, like really slippery. some of my friends fell already. they could not come to school today. >> i have seen a couple of kids fall already this morning. it is a little hazardous. really icy andll there is a lot of snow everywhere. i almost slipped a few times. prince school systems -- william, manassas, fauquier, and loudoun all remained closed today. jummy: we are not the only ones digging out this afternoon, from new york and massachusetts and up to maine, people are recovering from the wrath of the virginia storm. thousands are still left without power, and so far at least four people have been killed. can stay connected with the stormwatch 7 team around the clock. you can follow us at w

facebook and twitter, and are wjla app. the president puzzle order on the revised travel ban is expected to take these at midnight, but hey last ditch effort and court -- in court could halt the measure. sam sweeney explains. sam: today is decision day. three courts in three different states will hear arguments against the revised travel plan. six states and the aclu are fighting this executive action and are hoping the block is put in place before it goes into effect at midnight. why he says executive action is unconstitutional and will hurt foreign students and tourists in the aloha state. they hope the same judge who halted the first ban will also act on this one. the attorney general there says the new order will harm students in that state, also residents and tech companies trying to bring in foreign workers. amazon and

based there. closer to home, the aclu is arguing a case in greenbelt. it argues that it is illegal to reduce the number of breast fiji is in the middle of a fiscal year -- reduce the number of refugees in the middle of a fiscal year. we expect immigration lawyers to be on hand tomorrow morning. reporting at dulles, i am sam sweeney. back to you in the studio. jummy: coming up, a massive fire engulfs a building in new york. how the weather impacted the fight against the blaze. and applying pressure, the very latest in the back-and-forth new plans to replace obamacare. still clinging on, but will they survive? the damage being done to the cherry blossoms. now a check on traffic with angela foster. this afternoon, not too bad in terms of volume and delays, that we are getting reports of icy

and wind warnings. on the area bridges, closer to , not due to any accident activity. had an earlier accident on d.c. 295 that finally cleared at ending road, but as we step outside to our traffic land cameras, giving you a live look at the traffic flow. to the eisenhower connector, you can see the lighter volumes there. capital beltway in silver spring, the one works own that we did discover, outer loop, you will lose the right lane at new hampshire avenue. northbound 395, a disabled bus blocking the right travel lane.

announcer: you are watching abc 7 news at noon, on your side. jummy: right now one person is still unaccounted for after a four-alarm fire ripped through an apartment building in yonkers, new york. firefighters had to battle flames and frigid conditions. crews had to dig out the hydrants from the snow and also dealt with low water pressure. residents from the apartments were evacuated. so far, there is no word on what started the fire. police in california are investigating after someone began shooting at drivers last night on a los angeles highway. that shooting first reported last night around 8:00. two drivers were hit. both were taken to the hospital without life-threatening injuries. police are investigating and they are urging all drivers to ta

also happening today, the justice department is expected to officially announce charges tied to one of the mega breaches of the yahoo! user accounts. we expect fisher word -- we expect official word any time now. including two russian security officers, are being charged with that breach. mary mccord said today that she could not discuss the specifics, but today was a good cooperation enforcement and the company that is the hacking victim. pushing forward the gop plan to repeal and replace obamacare -- this comes despite a report that leave 24re could million people uninsured. cecilia vega has the latest. cecilia: the plan to repeal and replace obamacare, lending -- landing right of the steps of paul

and this morning, pushback from his own political party, too. conservative republicans in the house and senate say the plan does not deliver on the plans to dismantle obamacare. moderate members worry about the report car on the plan -- the report card on the plan that says millions could lose coverage. >> sure, there are people who have concerns and criticisms, but that is what happens when you get consensus. we have an obligation to keep our promises and pass the reforms we told people we would pass if we got this opportunity. >> going on offense, the white house. >> what the congressional budget office is good at is estimating income and expenses in various federal programs. what i think they are less effective at is evaluating what happened in the marketplace. >> the reality for many americans could be harsh. a 64-year-old with a $26,000 salary could see a huge spike in premiums, from $1700 a

under obamacare to nearly $15,000 under the gop plan. a nearly $13,000 a year increase. press secretary sean spicer says the president will keep his campaign promise. can you stand here today and say that the president will keep his promise of insurance for everybody? >> the president's goal is to make insurance available to everybody. that is what he intends to do. jummy: that was cecilia vega reporting. after this week us winter storm, wide -- after this week's thunderstorm, there was damage to the cherry blossoms all across the national mall. eileen whelan with more on the concerns. she is at the tidal basin. with the recent snow and dangerously cold temperatures, everyone is wondering how the cherry blossoms are faring. by last week on wednesday, they reached stage four of the bloom

cold is not helping. our guest is here to tell us a little bit. how are the trees looking at this point? >> we see a lot of brown on the more advanced stages. there are six stages the trees go through. stage five, are puffy, light. see a lot of the white blossoms, we are seeing damage on those. we are going to take some cutting of some of the earlier stages, take them back to the office, see if we can force them out, let us see what is inside and if there is damage in the early stages, or whether they have been protected by the bugs. eileen: we always talk about the critical temperatures. those are.t >> starting at 27 degrees, you can see damage to the blossoms, perhaps 10% loss. get three degrees lower at 24 degrees, and you can see as much as 90% loss on the blossoms

we are at 27 degrees a little bit before midnight last night. nine hours later we are still not above that. this is nights of coming. these high temperatures could take control. eileen: they really could, but thank you so much. you will be updating later on with more information. thank you so much for everything that you do. our fingers are crossed that the cherry blossoms will be able to withstand these extremely low temperatures. mike said,just heard stormwatch 7 is picking low temperatures tonight and tomorrow night. back inside to you. doug: not good. jummy: they say the magic number is 24. we are really close to that. doug: as i understand from the reporting on this, not since 1911 -- apparently there has never been a season where we have not had a full bloom. sometimes it is early, sometimes late, but this may

time we do not see it. just because the blooms may not get a full bloom, it does not mean that the trees will be bear all summer. we will have all the bleat -- all the leaves growing, just no blossoms until next year. i wish i had some great weather news. it will get a little warmer over the next few days. at this point we will take it. right now, 23 degrees in frederick. a live look at the campus camera at st. john's regional cap flick at st. john's regional catholic school. some sunshine but not much. whatever is around is going to re-freeze. we are only days away from the official beginning of spring. upwill see a little warm here and there. a wind advisory is in. per gusting to 40 miles hour on a day where air temperatures are going to be something like 22, 25 degrees below average. these are the latest wind gusts that we have seen.

39 mile-per-hour gusts in leesburg. those gusts will stay up all afternoon. below wind advisory criteria tonight, but it will be breezy enough combining with the cold air that wind chills tomorrow night and -- tonight and tomorrow morning are in single digits and low teens. we have one band of showers coming through. a few more on long the -- a few more along the pennsylvania line. this big coastal storm is still doing its thing to the northeast. these are the forecast temperatures for tomorrow morning. 19 in hancock, berkeley springs, and hagerstown. seven degrees -- 17 degrees in frederick, ashburn. expectmetro, we temperatures similar to what we saw this morning. 19 in poolesville. 22 in pasadena. it will be widespread cold. anything that is slushy will freeze solid later tonight. probably not too

slushy with these cold temperatures, but some of it will. obviously what is on the roadways and sidewalks will re-freeze as well. smallturecast shows westerly winds -- strong westerly wind continuing. it will still be cold, but we will get close to 40 degrees. service comes in late friday. maybe a few rain showers, warming up as rain and into early saturday morning, a passing shower. this should warm us well up into the 50's on saturday. a chilly st. patrick's day here. partly cloudy for most of the day. notice the overnight low. notice that we are below freezing and temperatures tomorrow night, at 41. to the weekend we go with a chance of showers early next week. this will happen. i may not live long enough to see it, but we will see it happen where it is loaded with 70's and 80's. jummy: is that

friday, after 45 when it goes up to 70? doug: looking out 10 days is a stretch. it gets warmer, and then it gets colder again. sooner or later we will get to the 70's. jummy: i sure hope so, doug. doug: maybe june? before then. april will be fine. jummy: coming up, let the madness begin. we are talking basketball. one of our local teams is advancing in the ncaa tournament.

jummy: if you have not already done it, time is ticky to

bracket for the ncaa tournament. last night mount saint mary's squeezed by new orleans in the first four matchup in buffalo. their win is the first whenever in the big dance. next is the overall seed, though, and defending champs the villanova wildcats. tomorrow in the east region, uva attaking on unc wilmington 12: 40. then virginia tech takes on wisconsin at 9:40 p.m. will placing-- vcu marries. if you are at work or at home filling out your bracket, smith for the last eight years has picked 12 teams that will not win it all. all of this is based on his two daesch aids

of research. larry put them up against eight different markers. he will not tell us what they are, but if a team violates any of the markers, they are dirty and he put them on the list. here is his dirty dozen, teams you want to stay away from -- baylor,gonzaga, duke, oregon, florida state, butler, iowa state, notre dame, minnesota. to round it out, smu and creighton. not that we question larry's knowledge about this, but some could question his skill. take a look. larry: through the legs, i can do that. >> through the legs. sign him up. larry: what am i doing? i have never done that before. >> just like that. larry: i need some practice. jummy: that was earlier this morning on "good morning

hoops green is her name. go

jummy: all right, doug. doug: 35 today with flurries. cold tonight. we will do a little better tonight, near 40. jummy: thank you, doug. thanks for joining

>> i have no idea how much money i'll be giving away today. could be $50,000, it could be a million. but i can promise you that whatever happens, it won't be boring. so stay right there, it's time to play "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] ♪ hey, everybody, welcome to the show. are you guys ready to play "millionaire" today? [cheers and applause] let's do it. our first contestant put his family and friends through the wringer to determine who would be his plus one. sounds like a smart man to me. from staten island, new york, please welcome alex fumelli. [cheers and applause] how you doing, alex? welcome. welcome. [cheers and applause] alex, welcome to "millionaire." >> thank you. >> i like that, because--okay, so the "plus one" is one of your lifelines here on