i'm linda so, what new services are available for women planning to have children. >> and women protest outside of target stores regarding their breast feeding policy. that story coming up. >> and in indiana, what two women are accused of after filing claims. those stories straight ahead on this thursday, december 29th. "good morning maryland," i'm charley crowson. let's head to meteorologist justin berk with a check of a chilly forecast. >> good morning. you say chilly but we've got to consider where we're supposed to be. we've been spoiled, four to five degrees above normal. where our temperatures have been this month. on this 29th of december near where we belong. that would be 25, high of 42 is what we would expect. again, we've been spoiled. record of 2 in 1917. 84 brought us to 77-degree mark. that's not going to happen. we're looking at temperatures now 26 in baltimore. 30 easton. a reflection of what is happening by the bay, cooler inland. and overall clear skies but

clouds and snow just outside of our borders in west virginia. that disturbance bringing more snow across northern sections of minnesota and wisconsin. that slides north and brings in clouds our way. we'll be looking at increasing clouds after the sunny start. it will push our 2-degree guarantee high to 46. 5:31 on the clock. >> as we continue to see nice conditions around the baltimore beltway, baltimore county police say the police activity cleared on southwestern boulevard so you should find all lanes open now at southwestern and washington boulevard. let's go live to traffic, for those of you in columbia, u.s. 29 at maryland 108, good to go with no reported incidents or troubles on 29. here's a look at u.s. 50 at severn river bridge for those of you traveling to and from the eastern shore, all lanes open on 50 making your way from the bay bridge all the way up to i-97. this morning's health alert -- a new law about to take effect next year to improve women's

health. linda so is here to tell us what the new services will be and how it will be available to women. >> reporter: if you're planning on starting a family a number of services will be available to low income women as part of medicaid's family planning benefit. the expansion of the law now includes women in maryland who are at or below 200% of the poverty level. they will be eligible for services like pelvic exams, screenings for breast and reproductive cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes. they can also get tested for tsds -- stds. the new law takes effect in the new year. the expanded services, according to some will save millions by reducing unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions. in maryland, more than $28 million to provide more health coverage for children. it was announced by the u.s. health department wednesday.

maryland is receiving $296 million in bonus payments. this is the second year maryland's received that bonus funding. the health department says maryland made other things easier by not requiring face-to-face interviews for enrollment. there's been a big setback for the cancer drug avastin. the company that makes that drug says probably it won't be approved in the fight for ovarian cancer in the united states. studies show it doesn't improve survival and only keeps the disease from getting worse for a few months. it's the second blow for avastin that recently lost approval for treatment of breast cancer. it may be a new test able to detect lung cancer faster. a new tool analyzes a patient's breath. samples were tested of 229 people. 92 had untreated lung cancer, another 137 were at risk or had growths in their lungs. age and smoking habits also

affected the study. lung cacancer was detected about 80% of the time in the test. health officials say one resident in western maryland at a senior citizen apartment complex was diagnosed with legionnaires disease. it was announced yesterday at the grandview apartments. it's usually found in water. it's not contagious and symptoms resemble pneumonia. 139 cases of the disease were reported in maryland this year. a new study in cleveland has a tip to help you keep your goal of losing weight, keep it to yourself. experts say spilling the beans about weight loss plans could have a detrimental effect. >> be particular of who you choose making sure those people are going to encourage you and not try to hinder you in your success. you want to tell some people, however, for the most part keep

it to yourself and let other people gradually start to notice the changes in you. >> a recent study looked at the difference between announce your intention to lose weight verses keeping the goals quiet. a study shows many people see just letting people know as a form of accomplishment so mum is the word. two women from indiana are accused of lying saying they were hurt in an accident to get money. the pair now facing felony charges of falsifying hospital records. seven people died in that accident, 61 people were hurt. in massachusetts a robbery suspect held up a store clerk with a syringe. he said he would infect him with aids and demanded cash it happened tuesday. a masked men entered the store and held a syringe to a woman's neck. it's not clear if that syringe actually contained contaminated blood but customers say the threat was scary enough. police are offering a $750

reward for information leading to an arrest. we talked about marriage -- a vermont man proposed to his girlfriend with a stolen ring. police say he stole the $3,000 ring from a zale's store. the girlfriend posted a picture of it on facebook and it led police straight to their door step. it's not believed by the police the woman knew the ring was stolen. it was taken back. a story from tennessee where a firefighter donated a kidney to a fire captain. the captain added to the list of fellow firefighters, decided he would be tested and learned he was a perfect match. the pair will have five more weeks of recovery time before returning to work. call it creative marketing or whatever you want. coming up, why you can now call the ravens/bengals game sunday a sellout. and one state seeing an influx of hackers on the golf courses because old man winter is not packing a punch. we head to nebraska and take a

look after "tech bytes." in today's "tech bytes," when good tech goes bad customers in more than a dozen complaints complain they are having trouble connecting on verizon 4g and 3g networks again. the third outage this month. verizon says the problems only affect newer 4g phones, 3g phones are operating normally. "the new york times" has digital egg on its face this morning. first, nearly nine million subscribers got an e-mail saying their home delivery accounts were cancelled. the "times" blamed erroneous messages on spammers, then had to admit one of its employees in fact did make that mistake. the message was only supposed to go out to 300 people. when saints quarterback drew brees broke the nfl passing record fans attending the monday night football game couldn't tell anyone, tweets and calls failed because the antennas at the stadium why simply overwhelmed. those are your "tech bytes."

5:39. the game is sold out. the ravens take on the cincinnati bengals this sunday. 4:15. 18,000 tickets to the game sold out in two days. this is only the second bengals home game to sell out this season. the teams had trouble getting fans to the games and for the season. then the hunt for the playoffs. the fans women ensure a is no -- the fans will ensure a noisy game the last few games. >> we have some folks frustrated they've been trying the course of the two days and not gotten through. we're sorry for that. we did everything we could. >> there's still single seat and partially obstructed views

tickets available. even those are slim now. what do you say about that, justin? these guys are in the playoff hunt. >> first of all, partially obstructed, at least they have to be honest. >> like wrigley field, behind the post. >> does it ever remind you of the atlanta braves? if you can't fill up the stadium you don't belong there. sorry. bengals, you don't belong there if you can't get your fan base behind you. here's the deal, clear skies, cold temperatures, a little band of light snow stretching east of columbus and on into morgantown, west virginia, to deep creek lake. they will get light snow this morning. we'll get clouds. and even though we're clear overnight, dropped to 26 in baltimore, 29 ocean city and richmond. cold air trying to hold tight, mid-20s and sun gives way to increasing clouds and probably an overcast afternoon but looks like the flakes stay to the west, we'll hit a high of 46. 5:40. here's angela to give us her

sports take, or not. >> not on the sports take. i'll let you handle that. but thank you for asking. i'll just update you on the situation on the roads. as we mentioned baltimore motorists looking good for the most part especially around the beltway. a fatal accident is working in silver spring. we have an alternate route. university boulevard is shut down between piney branch road and beltway with this accident. you may want to hop on new hampshire avenue, a good work-around to get you around the beltway and university boulevard. in the meantime, back at home, as i mentioned, looking good especially on 95, heading southbound, route 175, no troubles to report. trouble should be in decent shape there. a live look at 695 and liberty road, on the beltway, as far as delays go, still looking good for the most part and we check in with the mta, looking good on the rails, a few minor bus delays but nothing to keep you waiting too long. it's been a year since phylicia barnes went missing, last night loved ones honored her memory. we'll take to you last night's gathering and let you know who

the group is saying and what they are calling for, what baltimore investigators need to do and quickly. >> and moms took their fight to target after one mom claims she was bullied in the store over breast feeding her baby. beth! hi. looking good! you've lost some weight. thanks! you noticed! you know these clothes are too big now, so i'm donating them. not going back there again. good for you! how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. whole grain? whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't... multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 lightly sweetened calories per serving...

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nursing mothers are sending a strong message to target stores this morning after a mom from texas says she was harassed in her local target for breastfeeding her baby. corrine redmond has more on the national nurse-in demonstration. >> reporter: moms across the country went to the target stores for the so-called nurse-in. in response to the treatment of a texas woman who claims target employees harassed her while breastfeeding her baby in the store. the moms organized after the houston-area mom says she was in the women's department at a store near her home, nursing her baby in a covered blanket. she says then the employees gave her a tough time. many mothers saying it's ok to breastfeed. target released a statement saying guests who choose to breastfeed in public areas of the store are allowed to do so

without being made to feel uncomfortable. >> i thought nobody should be made to go some place else like a bathroom or something to feed their baby. and it just seems like it's -- i could bottle feed anywhere but just because i happen to be showing my breast or having my breast out even if i'm not showing it i'm supposed to go some place else? doesn't seem right to me. >> reporter: target says it will inform all employees about the company's breastfeeding policy. the time is 5:48. some new national laws will take place the next few days. a live look in our nation's capital, that's the white house. the the obamas are in hawaii. three big laws go into effect sunday. girls who want an abortion in new hampshire must first tell their parents or judge. also, california students will be the first in the country to receive mandatory lessons about the contributions of gays and lesbians on society. and alabama where the toughest immigration law is is making

all employers who do business with a government entity to use e-verify to check that all new employees are in the country legally. family and friends are still searching for clues in the case of phylicia barnes. yesterday evening was the somber anniversary at best for the barnes family. she disappeared a year ago, her body found this spring. details into who killed the north carolina teen are still hard to come by. in northwest baltimore part of the barnes family gathered for a vigil. law enforcement says they know this time is hard for the family but are making the best in this case. >> we can't be specific about the progress that is being made, that progress is being made. again, a lot of hard work has gone into this, from a lot of committed people. >> family members lit a purple candle for the 17-year-old and white one for other victims last night. a -- as they wait for the much-deserved answers. check our new ipad app, all

you need to know all the time. if you don't have one don't worry, we have apps also available for the smartphone as well. winter weather or lack there of. check this out. ice fishers in minnesota weren't having a great time. warm houses they built on the ice are starting to sink. dozens were pulled to shore. officials are warning people to stay off the ice in the normal winter. fishers can leave the houses out there through march. now are going down. golf courses in nebraska, they are shocked by the spike of business they've seen all thanks to a lack of the cold weather. temperatures mild and even a little snow but the golfers keep coming out in droves. they are bundling up to play because it is still cool but not too cool to keep them off the golf courses. some in omaha have seen as many as 100 golfers over the course of a day and like we were saying earlier this is something i've seen around maryland as i go around and see

some of the golf courses. you have stragglers out there playing. some guys are dedicated to the craft. >> you're dodging leaves and twigs. >> oh, winter rules apply. you can't find your ball. rolls under a leaf, keep playing. >> we'll get our cold and snow, don't worry. and they will have a freeze in minnesota. don't worry about it. a little hint of this outside. in reisterstown, one of the chilly places, one of the coolest locations. this should not be news. this should not be a headline. 43 degrees. one of our coldest spots this morning. this is actually near normal. this is where we belong. we are looking at the temperatures around baltimore holding at 26 degrees. 25 our normal low. we will reach that. maybe drop another notch or two lower. state college 18, look at the teens across central new york.

look at mount washington, granted that is a 6,000 plus feet in elevation at 15 below zero but overall these are signs of coal air there. even though the lake effect match cut off a new disturbance from the midwest will try to increase clouds for us as it takes a band of snow and even a mixture up toward chicagoland and milwaukee this morning. not a major system. our old storm starting to crank itself up through the maritimes of canada. that actually helps to tap in really cold air from hudson bay and try to drive it to our south. overall the active weather pattern, going to lock that up for the weekend and then we tap in next week. as these disturbances slide north we get clouds from them today but the wind not so bad and temperatures still near or above normal. we'll repeat it again tomorrow, i think we'll have an increase in clouds, small chance of a flake or sprinkle early saturday morning. and then trying to deal with sunshine, a milder trend on saturday and sunday an then the bottom falls out next week. 46 degrees today after this clear start. clouds on the increase and

we'll have temperatures not as cold tonight, 32. look for 50s to return as soon as tomorrow. that takes us through the weekend. your outdoor plans, going to see fireworks, no worries out there. we'll be looking at snow showers. remember we were looking at a potential coastal storm? right now looks like that won't happen for us. snow showers still possible and highs actually only around freezing by the middle of next week. on the roads as you travel in and around baltimore, not a lot to slow you down. ural need to use -- you will need to use extra caution in rosedale, icy conditions due to a watermain watermain break, in rose dale on philadelphia road and golden ring road. use caution there. in the meantime, traveling at posted speed if you're on 29 making the drive through the columbia region, 29 clear all the way from i-70. and here's a live look at 695 and providence road. your north side drive on the baltimore beltway looking good inner loop and outer loop between the harrisburg expressway and i-95. back to you.

it's been open a few months honoring one of our country's darkest days. coming up, a huge announcement about a significant milestone. another baby sickened by a bacterial infection. could it be related to tainted formula? when "good morning maryland" continues. again, a live look at the white house. the president and family are in hawaii but the lights coming on, business to be done.

five things for you on this thursday morning. officials of the september 11th memorial in new york say they plan to announce thursday the site has had a million visitors since opening to the public in september. memorial plaza has two huge fountains and draw about 10,000 visitors a day to ground zero. even as the construction of the rebuilt world trade center continues. oklahoma baby now the third child sickened this month by a bacterial infection but wasn't taking enfamil. you recall that formula was pulled from the shelves following the death of a 10 day old missouri infant. however, testing found no bacteria in that enfamil product. and national law enforcement officers say

september 11th saw a 13% increase of officers killed in the line of duty from 2 2010. here's a cool story. samoa making a time switch. the pacific island nation is going to shift its time zone from one side of the international date line to the other. as a result they will lose december 30th altogether to make it equivalent to australia and new zealand. those countries are currently nearly a full day ahead. and mary tyler moore turns 75. she devotes her time today to various charities including helping homeless pets. she's written a book recently about her life called "growing up again, life, loves and, oh, yeah, diabetes." and doctors appointments for last-minute checkups. coming up, a list of medical tests you probably should talk to your doctor about getting done. and the new tax come

january 1st. and pitfalls to avoid if you plan to trade in gift cards. you're watching "good morning maryland." we return in a few minutes.

a deadly bus crash shut down a busy maryland highway . i'm linda so. what you can expect for the commute this morning. >> and i'm corrine redmond, the iowa caucuses and the latest gop standings coming up. >> and playing for a sellout crowd. how the bengals got the fans to buy the tickets. on this thursday, december 29th. good morning, maryland, i'm charley crowson. let's get right to meteorologist justin berk for a check of the thursday forecast. it's returning back to normal but right now normal is pretty cold. >> it was a windy day