this is wjz tv, wjz hd, and wjz.com, baltimore. >> from the city, to the counties, to your neighborhood, now it is complete coverage. it is wjz, maryland's news station. >> hello again, i am don scott. >> and i am jessica kartalija. >> we begin with the directive, the president is expected to respond with an announcement soon. mary bubala is live with this report. >> reporter: good afternoon, the president will announce religious employers will not laugh have to cover birth control for employees after all. the administration will

suggestion women get contraception directly from them. the archbishop said it would drop coverage before it would provide contraception. the senior official said it would ensure women get access to healthcare while also protecting religious liberty, don. >> thank you. the president is expected to make that announcement soon. jerry sandusky, the former penn state football coach just appeared in court in state college trying to get a judge to loosen the restrictions on his house arrest. his attorneys want the judge to allow him to leave to visit his grandchildren and have people come over. prosecutors want him to stay off his back porch which overlooks a playground. they spoke about it. >> all of a sudden these people turn on me when they have been in my home with their kids, when they have attended

birthday parties, when they that have been on that deck. >> sandusky is accused of molesting boys over a 15 year period. he pleaded not guilty. his trial is set to begin in may. >> explosive testimony in the trial of george hughly, accused of killing yardly love. weijia jiang has this story. >> reporter: good afternoon. as this trial progresses it is getting more intense inside that courtroom. the details so specific and gruesome yardly love's mother and sister have been driven to tears many times. revelations of what she suffered have been harrowing. as the murder trial nears the end of the first week jurors will hear more testimony to decide if he beat her to death. they had an off and on again relationship, 1 friends and family say was spiraling out of

control in part due to hugley's growing drinking problem. jurors saw an e-mail that read you said you would get back together with me if i stopped drinking then you went and bleeped mike burns. i should have killed you. mike burns took the stand, too, admitting he had a sexual affair with love. when hugley found out he testified he heard her scream help me and he put her in a choke hold. he broke it up. she was crying and said thank you so much. but defense lawyers are pushing the juror to consider involuntary manslaughter, not they have first degree or felony murder charges that would put hugley in prison for the rest of his life. they argue he was so drunk he was incapable of plotting and they say she passed out from drinking and suffocated in her pillow. jurors will hear from more experts and family and friends when the testimony continues

next week. reporting live, weijia jiang, wjz eyewitness news. >> please stay with wjz for complete coverage of the george hugley trial. we will continue to update you on testimony of this high profile case. >> in less than an hour supporters and opponents of the governor's same sex marriage proposal will go head-to-head in a debate in annapolis. ron matz is live with more on this. good afternoon. >> reporter: good afternoon. two house committees will hear arguments from both sides this afternoon on a pair of marriage related bills. one bill would legalize same sex marriage, while the other could create a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman. the governor is hoping the state will pass the bill that makes same sex marriage legal. last year the state senate approved that same sex marriage bill but it stalled in the house. don, back to you. >> thank you very much, ron. that hearing is expected to go well into tonight. >> thousands of conservatives have gathered in washington this weekend to hear the gop

presidential candidates make a pitch for their votes, danielle nottingham is there and reports it could be a make or break it moment for any of them. >> reporter: these are the conservative movers and shakers that could turn rick santorum's new found momentum into a presidential nomination. >> who has that strong track record and that contrast? okay. >> reporter: santorum is coming off a big week, winning contests in three states and leaving mitt romney on shaky ground. romney is still the front- runner but he is struggling to convince conservatives he is one of them. what he tells this crowd could be a game changer. >> he has got to gain not just the acquiescence of but the enthusiasm of social and tea party conservatives in order to win in november should he be the nominee. newt gingrich speaks later this afternoon, vowing to stay in the race even as his top donor has decided to hold off on

future funding. there are thousands here for this high profile event. some have yet to pick a candidate, others have made their choice. >> rick santorum is the last conservative left standing in this race right now and we hope to put him into office. >> reporter: while the republican party is divided over the candidates, they are rallying around the idea of president barack obama has to go. >> we must outsmart the liberals. we must outsmart the stupid people that are trying to ruin america. >> reporter: after hearing all the speeches, this group will make its conservative presidential pick in a straw pole tomorrow night. in washington, danielle nottingham, wjz eyewitness news. >> texas congressman ron paul is the only candidate not attending the conference. his son, senator rand paul spoke on his behalf thursday. he is staying focused on maine, which holds its caucuses tomorrow. another mild day here with cool temperatures and little

wind, looking ahead to the weekend though that could all change. take a live look outside right now. a little cloudy out there. looks nice to me. the sun is still shining. wjz is live with first warning weather coverage for you, marty bass in the outback, meteorologist tim williams in the weather center. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. we do have a system moving through not unlike the systems over the last few weeks or so, they come through quickly and dump their snow and rain and move on out of here. right now mostly cloudy skies around much of the area. in the bigger scheme of things we have moisture moving from the southwest. we have a front moving from the northwest and those two are going to collide over us tonight into tomorrow. the saving grace with these storms have been the temperatures. we warm up in between the streets get warm enough there is not a lot of problems until the overnight hours. the biggest problem this time is that the temperatures will plummet and that is going to dictate a lot of what is going on. for more on that we send it out

to marty. >> good afternoon, everybody. the rest of the weekend are the key words, just think back two days ago to the same scenario. this is primarily on grassy surfaces, street sidewalks may be messy and slushy, not an issue south and east. let's go to our graphic and note there are none. once you get out to the eastern spine of the mountains there is a winter storm watch. it is not like we are looking at it. the problem is the rest of the weekend. come on back here a second. going down to 18 degrees tomorrow night. moisture will be out of here once that big blast of cold air hits but there is a lot of wet ground. we could see icing overnight saturday into sunday morning. meteorologist tim williams will discuss that possibility here coming up shortly. now let's throw it back inside. >> thank you very much, marty. it has been another report setting year for the port of

baltimore. officials say their terminals handled more compared to 2010. the report says port workers processed more than 600,000 vehicles both in and out and more than half a million tons of wood pulp. cargo traffic was up and more than enough for the governor to say the port has rebounded from an economic slump. >> still to come death toll rising in syria, whom the government blames for the latest attacks there. >> turning up the romance, what one restaurant chain is planning for valentine's day. >> and a calm day outside, tim williams will have your first full weather warning forecast. stay with us. >> complete coverage continues with don scott, jessica kartalija and first warning weather with marty bass and meteorologist ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

more unrest in syria as two motions kill 25 people in the northern city there. the government is blaming the attacks on terrorists. in another city the opposition says the city is under relentless attack there with the president killing hundreds just this week. u.s. and its allies are exploring ways to further isolate him and put an end to the violence. the u.s. embassy there closed earlier this week. a newly released fbi file is giving new insight into the late steve jobs' personality. while many of those interviewed praised him, one person said his power caused him to distort the truth and others said he alienated people because of his ambition, they were done in 921p 91 as part of a presidential appointment. >> a restaurant chain known primarily for breakfast is making a big play for

valentine's day. waffle house will set a more romantic mood and offer up a specialized menu with porkchops and steaks and they will of course still have waffles available. >> well, that is romantic. now i know where you two are taking your valentine's day -- >> i don't think so, but we have to drive aways to get to one around here. >> this is true. all right, let's take a look at today's midday st,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

all right. welcome back to our noon news. here is our friday puppy. this is susie right here. now susie is a two-for. susie has a sister named lucy and her owner had to give them up. we are trying to keep them together. i mean they spent their live together. she is a pug mix and again five years old at the maryland spca. we will show the number in a second. really laid back. pugs are real nice dogs, almost lapdogs if you will but again, you are going to have to accept responsibility for two dogs and not just one. of course our yellow scarf is compliments of mr. basement, who believes that together we can make a difference for pets that need a home. we will find you a home.

>> she is cool. >> she is cool. >> meteorologist tim williams, let's talk about the weather this weekend. >> we will. we have a system playing out like the last few. a blast of winter weather and then they move out. we have the low pressure to our southwest bringing in the moisture and a front from the northwest bringing in the cold air and willing meet along the eastern seaboard, this low will continue to the coast land and turn into a coastal storm, it is a bigger problem for our neighbors north and northeast. right now 44 degrees is helping to warm up the streets which has always been a saving grace, the streets have been warmer, warm enough this there has not been accumulation, this is grassy surfaces around much of the area where most of the accumulation will happen. 32 oakland, 47 on the shore, around the metro area 38, mid- 40s around most of the state. winds are calm right now around much of the area and it is a little while before all of this takes place so after rush hour

light showers move across the region and we start to see a rain, maybe rain-snow mix after the rush hour and into the early hours of tomorrow morning. then that cold air starts to move on in. we could see off and on showers of snow through out the day tomorrow. so today increased clouds, temperatures going up to about 48 degrees, looking for overnight lows going down into the 20s. we will call it and low 30s, we will call it 34 degrees, for tomorrow rain-snow showers, 43 degrees with p.m. snow showers, marty will have the 5 day coming up. >> still to come treating kansas e and alzheimer's. a look ,, medicare. it doesn't cover everything. and what it doesn't cover can cost you some money.

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in today's wjz health watch, a skin cancer drug may be able to treat alzheimer's disease, scientists tested the drug on mice and found it can reverse the disease, improving memory and brain function. the study in the journal of science found the drug removes plaque build up that ,,,,,,,,,,,

well, all right, let's take a look at the five-day- forecast. we are going to warm up again. wednesday is the 15th of the month. look at that monday, 40, normal is 43, tuesday's normal is 43, wednesday's it is 50. tomorrow night with that low of 18 we will be on the job covering the story for you should we need to be. >> speaking of stories, we want to update you on the story, the president announces a compromise on whether to offer contraception. the president made that announcement from the white

house a few moments ago. >> -- concerns that have been raised over the last few weeks as well as frankly the more cynical desire on the part of some to make this into a political football. it became clear that spending months hammering out a solution was not going to be an option, that we needed to move this faster. so last week i directed the department of health and human services to speed up the process that had already been envisioned. we weren't going to spend a year doing this. we are going to spend a week or 2 doing this. today we have reached a decision on how to move forward. under the rule women will still have access to free preventive care, that includes contraceptive services, no matter where they work, so that core principle remains but if her employer is a charity or hospital that has a religious

ox to providing contraceptive services as their plan, the insurance company, not the hospital, not the charity, will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive carefree of charge. >> for the latest on the president's decision including reaction from the archdiocese come back today at 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00. >> thanks ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,