. this is wjztv, wjzhd and wjz.com, baltimore. from the city to the counties to your neighborhood. now it's complete coverage, it's wjz, maryland's news station. arson or an accident. the hunt to find out what sparked a violent fire. tonight the clue is uncovered and where investigators are focusing their search. >> reporter: hello, everybody. >> here's what people are talking about tonight. someone definitely started the fire but did they do it on purpose? that is what investigators are trying to figure out. wjz is live along the block. kelly mcpherson spoke with investigators today. >> reporter: the majority of businesses that can open up

here on the block have done so today. that's because investigators are gone but they say they are still working on this case to figure out who set this fire and most importantly, why. this is not an easy fire to solve. it took more than 90 investigators and 2 days of clearing out debris to get to the source of the block fire. it's somewhere in 404 east baltimore street. only saying that someone set this fire and they need more information. >> this scene was one of the more difficult ones in terms of the structure collapse and what happened. >> reporter: businesses including stores and strip clubs have been shut down all week. >> nobody making any money, it's kind of messed up because i thought they could have [ indiscernible ] >> it's been bad, people out of work. >> reporter: christmas john's

are cleaning up to pass a health inspection. regulars and workers on the block expected to hear that this multibuilding blaze was sparked by someone. >> there's a bunch of guys that squat in the back of the building. whatever they are smoking. it doesn't surprise me? that's not surprising around here. you never know what could happen. >> reporter: investigators will call this arson if the person responsible meant to burn down the building. >> it's a question of intent. it has not been determined whether that was an intentional involvement. >> reporter: while investigators are not giving an exact location within the 404 be able our media partner is saying a man seeking shelter from the cold started a fire. kelly mcpherson. thank you very much, kelly.

offering a $5000 reward for information that leads to the conclusion of this. a man catches fire. the city fire department says a man was found alongside of safe way. he suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns to most of his body. first the cold, now there's talk of snow coming and it could disrupt your ride home from work tomorrow. caught a little black ice on the road. the ground is already so cold. any water that hits it freezes pretty quickly and the wind is whipping around that frigid air. you may remember that that light dusting of snow last friday caused some major problems on area road ways. tracking this system is bob. >> reporter: take a look at radar, out to the west of

outside, quite a bit of notice all the way from minnesota to portions of west virginia and it's moving slowly toward our region. let's take a look at what to expect. generally 1, maybe 2 inches of snow and more like 1 to 3 to regions just south of the area. let's take a look at the advisories that will go into effect tomorrow morning. just south of the area, all of the areas in the south portion of the region now under a winter weather advisory. that means things could get a little slick. so your drive home tomorrow is going to be definitely effected by this storm and the slippery conditions that will be out there at times. we'll take a close look at this particular storm and perhaps even more coming this weekend.

thank you, bob. a man is shot in the chest during a home invasion. it happened just before 6:30. the victim is a 28-year-old man. he was rushed to johns hopkins with several gunshot wounds. the shooter is still on the loose. a school board meeting in florida, members are speaking out about the chilling stand off that was all caught on tape. we do want to warn you, you may find this disturbing to watch. >> i don't want anybody to get hurt. >> the super intend ant of schools pleaded with a man who pulled out a gun. but the man clay duke refused to back down. what happens next is disturbing to watch. >> please don't. >> reporter: despite shooting at point blank range, clay

missed his targets. >> god blocked the bullet. >> reporter: the 66-year-old kept shooting until a security guard wounded him. then he turned the gun on himself. he let most people leave. ginger a board member snuck back in and tried to use her purse to try to knock the gun from his hands. >> i knew something bad was going to happen. i could either leave and live with myself. >> duke pointed the gun at littleton but didn't fire. by the time swat members entered the room, no one else was hurt. immediately after the shooting super intend hasn't called out that he had a cap gun, but police revealed it was a real gun. duke complained that his wife had been fired from the

district. tonight she tells reporters that her husband was a gentle giant that was just frustrated. today openly gay men and women are one step closer. don't ask, don't tell has been the policy since 1993. well, now the debate goes to the senate where democratic leaders are hoping to squeeze out a vote. president obama also wants a vote before republicans take over the house next year. police intensify their search for a baltimore man after uncovering new clues in the case. now police are trying to find two people who were seen using his independence food card. friends say they don't know really who he would give his card to and they are worried that he's been gone so long. >> it's a concerning aspect for him to be gone so long, missing

so many raven games and not communicating with us or attending church or communicating with us. >> reporter: anyone with information on his disappearance is asked to call baltimore county police. a horrifying case of animal abuse proves it's not just a problem within the city limits. we warn you these images may be disturbing. this pit bull was dumped and left to die. she was covered in scars. the dog is now being treated in parkville. a grim outlook for the state budget this year. now governor is announcing another furlough day next week. the state will have $37 million more to work but with but that doesn't come close to eliminating the -- as federal stimulus funds run out. the governor has promised to

balance the budget without tax increases. there is talk of tax increases in baltimore, it's coming from the aclu. they say the sales tax need to go up to fix city schools. wjz live at city hall explains close to $3 billion is needed. the aclu is involved because it sees this as a civil rights issue. already outlined its -- for city schools. city schools are in dire straits. many buildings are old and in need of repair. or in some cases new schools are needed. the american civil liberties union already gave an outline of the problem. now the maryland budget and tax policy institute has a plan to pay for it. >> so this support is an attempt to lay out a plan of how we can finance this. >> reporter: the school system

estimates it will cost $2.8 billion to fix, upgrade or build new schools. the aclu proposes a 1% sales tax and 1% and increased state funding is also proposed. >> it's required by the constitution that we have an adequate education for every school child. we believe that good modern buildings are required for that. >> reporter: saying the mayor's task force will review and fully examine the recommendations as part of the effort. >> reporter: and once again this is a plan according to the aclu to fix any schools but not the only plan. they welcome other ideas. right now out of 180 schools, about 70 need major renovations. the aclu is suggesting the state get together to figure

out how to get this done. >> reporter: thank you, kei. and wealthier jurisdictions have more money to spend on school construction. there is something new and colorful at santa's house at inner harbor. state of the art led light show is running every night on the half hour between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. all the way through december 23rd. the bright lights are corps graphed to your favorite holiday carols. i assume santa vacates the house by the time the light show starts. >> maybe that's when he takes his break, his snack. >> reporter: taking the happy out of the happy meal, just moments away, why a health is suing mcdonald's. plus a high school basketball game gets heated.

what happens after takes it too far. more eyes on the bay with a new surveillance system for the chesapeake. that story. snow heading for the region tomorrow, i'm bob turk. i'll have a complete first alert forecast coming up next. complete coverage continues with denise koch, kei jackson and first warning weather with bob turk and sports with mark [ music playing, children talking ] nothing turns the volume down on the hectic holidays like an authentic latte from dunkin' donuts. get any small hot latte for only $1.99 today. a real latte at a real value.

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22 degrees and clear in central maryland right now. mild weather all around us. first to the north with heavy lake effect notice is making driving difficult around syracuse. expected to reach 14 inches by tomorrow. alabama, freezing rains being blamed for this deadly accident. say a car lost control and struck an ambulance worker. two of the people were injured in those accidents. a moment of violence during a high school basketball game if florida. and it's all caught on tape. watch as a player is called for a foul. he argues and then pushes the referee. he continues after him, grabbing and tossing the referee to the grounds. holland has been suspended from school. the federal government makes its first legal move against the companies involved in the gulf oil spill. the lawsuit names british

petroleum along with trance ocean. they are accused along with several other companies of disregarding federal safety regulations. the law for polluting the gulf. bp says they stands alone among the parties involved. the lawsuit is separate from an ongoing justice criminal probe. the over toys is heading to court. a mother and an advocacy group is suing mcdonald's by using the toys as an inducement. a stolen 2002 jaguar belonging to marion berry has been recovered after the keys were left in the ignition.

council man barry's car was found. no arrests have been made in the case. how do you patrol a body of water as large as the chesapeake with a limited number of officers? alex reports, high-tech surveillance has come to the waters of the bay. >> reporter: it's not easy sneaking up to a boat, especially when you're natural resources police. >> before you leave the harbor, everybody knows that you're coming. >> reporter: but what if the boat doesn't know you're looking? that's what a new system is capable of doing. >> this is what the whole purpose of this is is getting more eyes on the bay. what you see here is our current radar picture. >> reporter: for large ships it produces vessel names and also monitors sensitive areas. >> when we hit the alarm an see that the james rankin has

entered our zone. >> reporter: hundreds of cameras with water views, some will be infra red to see at night, bringing faster response time. patrol officers will access this same information meaning they will be able to see what they are dealing with. >> it really is a force multiplier. it allows our force to get a little bigger with these eyes on. >> and it means even officers who work alone will have someone watching their backs, alex dmitriy i will also give federal, state and local agencies access to the same. the turtles became stranded in the cold waters of the atlantic ocean before they could migrate. currently taking care of 5 of the turtles. 5 more are expected to arrive

next week. has led to a large number of stranded turtles. who would think of that. >> they came here for the crab cakes. >> beautiful creatures, they belong way down. we're down to 22 degrees. the only good news is the winds are way down, only at 7, the barometer holding steady. the dewpoint still pretty low at 7 so it's got to get a little more moisture in the air. 22 here, 10 at oak lands, 21 at ocean city at the airport, so it's a cold night everywhere. right now we have clear skies. that's going to change quickly by morning. they are mostly under 10 miles per hour. now, that storm we told you about that really gotten juiced up. from iowa down to northern kentucky this evening. looks like some pretty moderate

snowfall could fall across southern west virginia. as we told you earlier for our region, here's what we expect. take a look at this graphic. we kind of upped it. generally i think across northern marry lands and down to our south, 1 to 3 inches, maybe 3 or 4 inches if you're heading down 95 into the richmond area. you folks down there could see as much as 3-inches of snow, so it's going to get slick. it may start around the noon hour. let's take a look at the rest of our graphics. we do have that lake effect snow going on. what we're looking at is that batch that's moving in our general direction and it's coming our way with the low pressure that's going to sit over kentucky by early morning around move off to east just

south of us. this mild air overrunning the cool air. you see that band and then tomorrow night it clears out once again and gets cold. anything that's left is going to freeze up solid. and then another system we expect to come by the coast on sunday could give us some more snow on sunday. southwest the day at 5 to 10 knots and tonight, still clear. tomorrow, cloudy skies, partly between noon and 6:00 we'll see 1 to 2 inches. more going on south of an appear applies washington. may only get to 30 degrees tomorrow. 38 on friday with more sunshine. clouds come back saturday night. 40, and a chance of snow on sunday, 38 an clearing and cold again, 34 here on monday, denise. thank you, bob. coming up the ravens get ready

for the super bowl champion saints. [ female announcer ] safeway talks holiday favorites. i think there are eggnog people and non-eggnog people. and which are you? i'm a fish. on a tree. [ female announcer ] if it tastes like the holidays, we've got it. safeway. ingredients for life. 1 in 6 americans live in hunger. at bank of america, we've created the gift for opportunity fund to support feeding america and the boys & girls clubs' efforts to provide hunger-relief. and we invite our customers, associates and communities to help. every dollar you contribute this season can be matched, dollar for dollar. together we can make twice the difference to help support those in need. ♪ i'm off to the post office... ok. uh, a little help... oh! you know shipping is a lot easier with priority mail flat rate boxes.

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safeway. ingredients for life. superbowl winning quarterback drew breeze is coming to the new orleans saints and like the rest of us he watched the ravens get torched. he has great respect for ravens. indoors, knowing they are going to be tested by the saints offense. needed overtime to win at houston. read says those who question overlooked the final results. >> the most important stat right now is winning at the ends of the game. it doesn't matter how many leagues we have blown. we're trying to get the next one. everybody is fighting to get in the playoffs. >> reporter: playoff spot sunday with a victory over the saints and losses by at least

two other contenders. an nba show down in new york. battling boston. staid meyer, the celtics get the ball to paul pierce. he will hit a jumper with less than a second remaining. watch out in the celebration there. stood meyer will hit one last shot. the celtics do hang on and win by 2. it's their 11th victory in a row. rudy gray leading the -- he'll get an assist on the alley-oop. grizzlies beat the bobcats. 4 wins in a row. jason werth was introduced today as the washington

nationals to a 7 year contract for $126 million. werth was a first round draft pick of the orioles in 2007. dcs hockey team is down in the dumps after another loss. in overtime against an line gets the -- anaheim gets the game winner. the losing streak is the longest in the three years that boudreaux has been. has been battling leukemia. thank you, mark. the ugly sweater phenomenon. tacky is now trending. how stores are now cashing ,,,,,

they are multicolored with seems of santa and they are the biggest thing this holiday season. we are talking about the ugly holiday sweater. stores can't keep them in stock. ugly sweater parties are all the rage. it just shows everything comes back into fashion in one

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