thursday, december 1st. "good morning, america," justin berk has a look at the thursday forecast. things finally beginning to feel a little wintry out there. >> yes, and we are three and-a-half weeks away from christmas, a lot of you thinking something's going to happen soon. this morning we check our satellite and radar composite. we're quiet, a few clouds, they have snow in the mountains, no biggy, right? we've had cold air filter in. temperatures this morning, 37 from baltimore to easton, to ocean city. near freezing back to our northwest. winds are trying to settle down a little bit and if they do there's a possibility of developing frost but we've had ourselves a bit of a breeze, that will pick up again, typically once the sun comes up we start mixing the atmosphere. by the way that sun up is 7:07. let's maximize what we get. it will push us to 52 this afternoon, the 2-degree guarantee. that sun goes down at 4:44 in the afternoon. that hurts to say.

5:30 now. looking at traffic once again with burt. thank you very much. live camera over at the u.s. 29 and maryland 108 we've got headlights moving, no tail-lights and traffic up to posted speed. closer to baltimore, i-83 at shawan road, no problems to report there as well. drive times now, southbound 83 at shawan road, about five minutes us a get down to 695. and outer loop ride across the west side to 795 to 70, seven minutes. get traffic any time on twitter at maryland traffic. back to you. u.s. businessman spent four months in jail on aruba and arrived back on u.s. soil. gary giordano speaking out about the disappearance of his travel companion robyn gardner. abc2 news' sherrie johnson has the exclusive details. >> reporter: we learned new information, gary giordano is speaking out exclusively on

"good morning america" today. he left aruba yesterday and landed in miami before heading to new york for his interview. the gaithersburg man scored another legal victory yesterday when an appeals court rejected a prosecution appeal to put him back in pretrial detention. giordano left aruba when a legal panel ruled prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to continue holding him as a suspect in the disappearance and presumed death of his traveling companion robyn gardner. prosecutors say they still considered giordano a suspect and plan to pursue the case and work with the fbi. giordano denied wrongdoing in the disappearance of robyn gardner. he says she vanished while they were ?oking in aruba. her body was never foun snorkeling. >> it's hard to believe the american authorities would extradite him just to let him sit there as they continue the investigation. >> reporter: robyn gardner's family says they are very disappointed in his release. they just want to know what happened to her.

>> stay with abc2 news and "good morning america" in an exclusive interview with gary giordano. that is coming up immediately after "good morning maryland." news around the nation -- billy graham is in a hospital for lung treatment. the 93-year-old was admitted yesterday. staffers said he was alert, seemed to be doing ok, even waving to people when he was taken in. graham was hospitalized in may for pneumonia. one of the country's most sophisticated drug tunnels now shut down. the san diego task force and mexican officials recovering more than 32 tons of marijuana after going into the tunnel tuesday. it's one of the largest seizures in history. the tunnel links warehouses again in san diego and tijuana, mexico. officials think they shut it down before any drugs were actually smuggled. scrooge is on the loose in missouri. for the third year in a row a

crook stole a christmas tree from a boy scout lot. this year the heist was caught on surveillance camera. a woman arrives in a dodge durango and leaves with a christmas tree. this year she brought a hammer with her to make that heist just a little easier. a santa beard, yes, the beard got caught repelling near south florida at a mall making for an agonizing descent. he was going to sing "we wish you a merry christmas." it was supposed to conjure up magic for the struggling santa. apparently it hid his screams because the beard is real. the stuntman santa ripped off the facial hair. let the award show buzz begin. a look at those getting grammy nods. who tops the list? coming up. would you want bernie madoff

to give you financial advice? no. how about tax suggestions from john gotti? we'll have more coming up. in "tech bytes," your smartphone may be a tattle tale. experts say hidden software lurking in the latest smartphones records every key stroke including your passwords. there's no way to opt out. worse, appears data is easily available to hackers. yahoo says women in pop culture dominated web searches this year but the i-phone was the most searched item followed by casey anthony and kim kardashian. working late? the drive taking longer than expected. now you need a hotel room. the new smartphone app called hotel tonight can help. the "the wall street journal"'s katie buret says unlike other services it lets you book a room as late as 2:00 a.m. >> hotel tonight really wants

to get bodies into beds. they are willing to do a lot more things, more flexiblity to get people into rooms. >> reporter: it's free for apple devices. those are your "tech bytes." i'm alternate side of the street parking has been -- i'm sunny hostin.

the scene of a major accident in central indiana, luckily everyone is ok. you can see what is left after a tree slammed into the snow plow. police say that plow was supposed to stop at a sign before crossing those tracks. the train's conductor told police the plow only paused before trying to get over those tracks. clean-up time in parts of michigan after a heavy snowstorm. the state capital, lansing, got between eight and 10 inches.

justin, eight to 10 in lansing, michigan! it knocked down an awning at a gas station. the heavy snows also helped collapse an inflatable dome at a golfing range. that would be outside of jackson, michigan. they had close to a foot of snow, man! you don't look happy. >> it is michigan. >> dream big. >> michigan. where's megan to stick up for michigan? we can say anything we want about them. that is how she describes where she lives. she puts up the hand and says i was there, on the map. happy december 1st. we're looking for a long range outlook that has some snow next week. the average for the month, 3.1 but we know we challenged some of the records recently. by the way, yesterday turned out to be a very winter-looking day after a sunny start. this is from route 22 and main street, bel air, one of our new favorite cameras.

here go the clouds. they just took over for the rest of the day. by the way, annapolis, gorgeous sunrise, no doubt about that. and then the clouds came in a little later, was more like lunch hour and beyond for them. this time set up with the cold air, around the bay where you wind up with more sunshine, and more clouds and much colder northwest. we've all cleared out overnight. 33 westminster now. holding milder, 34 in annapolis. by the way, on this first of december, typically we would expect a high of 50. we've had records split from 12 to 75. so we can get anything. 37 is where we are now. we'll talk about the forecast in a moment. burt is here to talk about the traffic. >> thank you very much. as we look at the live cameras we've got a shot of i-95 at maryland 32, that ride inbound is looking pretty good. also we've got this shot of the jones falls expressway, no hitches in the traffic. the mta transit is moving well

also. no delays. get your traffic all morning long at abc2 news and at abc2news.com, click on traffic. back to you. grammy nominations are in. kanye west has the most being picked for seven categories but his album "my beautiful dark twisted fantasy" was not nominated for album of the year. adele's album $2"21" was nominated for album. year. also other nominations, foo fighters, lady gaga, rihanna and more. the grammys will be february 12th. it's kind of like asking kim kardashian for marriage advice. courtney love is now offering to be the coach, sobriety coach for troubled lindsay lohan. that's right. courtney love, a history of drug abuse herself, she says she's been clean since 2005. no word yet on whether lohan

has accepted her well intentioned advances. i see a reality show in the future. people come from all over the world to see this christmas tree. yesterday the switch was flipped and all the lights came on. take a look. >> three, two, one! [ cheering and applause ] >> 30,000 lead lights a -- led lights adorn that christmas tree. at rockefeller center, lit before 8:00 in new york. this is the unofficial beginning of the holiday as that has become the symbol of the season. it's the season for giving, sharing, apparently stealing. up next, we look at the most commonly stolen items by shoplifters. and number one is more than a little curious. >> more troubles for penn state after the first lawsuit is

filed over the sexual abuse scandal. that full story coming up. i'm chef michael, and my dog bailey and i love to hang out in the kitchen. you love the aroma of beef tenderloin, don't you? you inspired a very special dog food. [ female announcer ] chef michael's canine creations. chef inspired. dog desired. [ beep ] [ male announcnc ] find an italian masterpiece in your grocer's freezer. buitoni shrimp and lobster ravioli with garlic butter sauce. simple ingredients, artfully prepared.

welcome back

on this thursday morning. the scandal isn't over for pep state. the -- penn state. the university is gearing up for a fight in its first lawsuit. the lawsuit came down the same day that university had a town hall meeting talking about the accusations. corrine redmond has details. >> reporter: the child abuse sex scandal that shook penn state brought school officials together last night, it happened hours after the first lawsuit was filed against penn state. as you recall jerry sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight boys. the lawsuit is from the ninth alleged victim, a 29-year-old man who said sandusky abused him more than 100 times in the 1990s. jerry sandusky's inattorneys insist his client is innocent. sandusky told nbc news he only horsed around with the kids in the shower. according to his attorney he hired a private investigator to

prove his innocence. >> he sat here with his mother and brother and said he was not a victim. he only had said he was the boy in the shower as far as he knew but he was not engaged in any sexual acts with jerry. >> right now jerry sandusky is free on $100,000 bail, charged with 40 counts we lated to the alleged sexual abuse. corrine redmond, abc2 news. now what? scandal after scandal plagued herman cain's campaign during the last few weeks. defiant mr. kean cain blaming his critics. he says this is now an attempt to assassinate his character. when asked if he was still in the race - >> are you vowing to stay in this race? is that your message? >> we are re-assessing and re-evaluating. >> are you staying in the race? >> we are re-evaluating and

re-assessing. >> how soon until we have a final answer on your future plans? >> we'll be making a decision in the next several days. >> he says he will decide the future of his presidential run tomorrow. he says he needs to talk to his family. he needs to face accusations of meryl tal in -- marital infidelity. what is going to happen now in downtown baltimore? occupy baltimore it is occupy baltimore has the latest permit denied. other groups have asked to use that square during the same time period. the city also said no to the occupiers' request for four large tents. right now they've got 40 smaller tents. no word yet if the tents are actually occupied and no word on when the city may or if asks them to leave. susan slattery killed, son

matthew badly injured when a truck driver fell asleep behind the wheel. ed slattery attending a meeting on restricting how many hours truck drivers with drive in one shift. the truck industry says cutting drivers' hours can cost them an excess of $2 billion. >> 330 million of us can share that cost. as it stands now, 3,000 families lose a family member and those families bear the whole cost by themselves. it's not fair by any sense of justice. >> mr. slattery did not get a chance to speak at that hearing but did leave a written letter. lawmakers are still debating potential changes, nothing has been decided just yet. it's the season to be taking -- shoplifting is up 6%. that is according to "ad week." one out of every 11 people apparently are leaving stores with something they didn't pay

for. who knew? an amazing number. the number one item stolen? filet minute-on, not making this up. jameson whiskey is number two and after that, electronic gadgets and the gillet mock 4 razor, comes in fifth. that's kind of specific. on this day in 191955, rosa parks refuses to give up a bus seat to a white man in montgomery, alabama. this day in 1955. she passed away in 2005 but her legacy lives on. tonight is the national monument lighting in mount vernon. the 40th annual celebration is scheduled between 5:30 and 8:00 tonight. former baltimore raven matt stover will flip the switch and the christmas lights go on.

what is the weather for tonight? >> it will feel proper, how about that. chilly, clear, winds will settle down. we have a good setup for a couple of days, if you like winter and as we've ushered in this meteorological winter. 37 in baltimore. below freezing in the mountains and then into the ohio valley all the way to the lower tennessee valley. national at 26. 27 montgomery. jackson, mississippi at 28 degrees. it's a good large pool of cold air. that is pretty much where that storm track was locking all the stuff to the south. now high pressure is provided that protective dome and clear skies and chilly air. we're staying on the cool side though we miss out on the coldness of this air. we'll get that warming trend as we head in towards the weekend. the winld flow and return flow around that same weather pattern is going to provide us with a nice return over the next couple of days. by the way, out west there's a storm track, you can see the snow from wisconsin and

through eastern sections of colorado. this goes back through utah and southern california. record high pressure from canada, and this storm system all helping to funnel in strong santa ana winds. they were expecting 60 to 80 mile-per-hour winds across the l.a. basin and it has fire warnings because of that dry air that gets pushed down from the mountains and problems to prevail. by the way, i mention that because that eventually will shift east in a weakened form and help to generate a new storm pattern next week. the storm pattern itself stays locked in the central and southern plains, texas gets beneficial rains. we stay dry saturday into sunday. today, if you're going to the lighting. mount washington monument it will slip back to the 40s and upper 30s by daybreak. we say tonight but it's really a daybreak temperature.

the extended outlook, low to mid-50s, dry weather for the start of the weekend. our sunday, dry, near 60. cleveland may get wet for the ravens game. that same system brings us rain late monday, tuesday, could end as snow by late wednesday morning. we're going to watch this with the developing pattern. let's check traffic. >> thank you very much. nothing to really worry about on the roads. a quick shot of the live camera on i-95, down at maryland 32, traffic moving well. going up towards the tunnels, fort mchenry tolls and harbor tolts, no problems though volume is building. traffic moving well on the jones falls at northern parkway. and drive time locations, southbound 95 coming from harford county, whitemarsh to 695, six minutes and outer loop ride from belair road to providence road, six minutes there as well. back to news with charlie. on capitol hill, a number

of elected leaders today will be hearing arguments for medical regulation and foster children. and it's the most wonderful time of the year for one of the most famous christmas trees. you're watching "good morning maryland" on this thursday, december 1st. look what denny's left for my dad, santa! christmas cookie pancakes. milk & cookies shake. i think santa needs a helper. come try arthur christmas's favorites. only at denny's. and see arthur christmas only in theaters.

members of the u.s. senate, homeland security and governmental affairs subcommittee will hold a hearing today on medicating foster children. among those expected to testify, a 12-year-old victim. the hearing is set in the nation's capital for 10:30. and today's world aids day. each year it's dedicated to raising awareness of the aids pandemic and preventing spreading of infections. 5:00 a.m., annual tradition in the nation's capital, the lighting of the white house christmas tree beginning at 5:00. the headlining act, nothing says christmas like the black-eyed peas. the place where kids go after school keeping them safe and off the street. coming up, what baltimore is doing to keep their rec centers open. medicare is joining the fight

against obesity. the rules of government now out to help people stay healthy. and severe weather winter. that and more coming up in the 6:00 hour of "good morning, america." "good morning maryland."

new developments in the disappearance of a maryland woman in aruba. the only suspect in the case speaks out exclusively as he arrives on u.s. soil. >> the lines are being drawn as the debate over same-sex marriage heats up again. i'm corrine red mopped, i'll have more coming up. >> and could you use extra money for the holidays? the irs may have a check for you. how to find out if you're owed a refund. it's thursday, december 1st. good morning,