faster that caused a huge explosion. three were hurt including two 17-year-old girls and a 16-year- old boy. the fire department said all of them were taken to bayview where one of the girl social s is in critical but stable condition. >> any time this happens it's a tragedy but especially during the holiday it's even more tragic. everybody is use to having a good time and it creates heartache. >> reporter: the fire department said a parent was monitoring them and was able to step in and help after the explosion. one of the teens was treated and released from bayview. the others in fair condition. >> a hit list, has parents worried. the school officials say a 4th grade girl made a list titled kill list before renaming it people that are mean to me.

it included 35 35 classmates and stars including justin bieber. the girl was bullied by other students at times. in case you missed it here it is. flurries, fell on some of us here today in the video you are looking at was taken right in catonsville. is this a sign of what's to come in the new year? wyatt has the details. >> reporter: a few flakes flying airtimes. the radar tracked a little burst of light snow showers. baltimore northward up in to the county and hartford and cecil. you can see that area is cleared out. one other area of light snow into garret and if it holds together could bring a few more snow showers. don't expect much and a chilly flight with wind in the mid- 30s. feeling and looking like winter rest of this evening as the

skies continue to darken. cloudy, 30s and again the chance for a few more flurries but we will talk about how much mildler it'll get toward the new year. >> the latest on the case of a 9-year-old whose dismembered body was found in indiana. school officials say she lived in western maryland earlier this year. they say she attended winter street elementary from january to june of this year. a neighbor who was babysitting her confessed to hitting her with a brick, stashing her remains in a freezer and dismembering the body with a saw. for the first time in nearly two weeks police won't do a physical search for a maine baby now missing for two weeks. tj says while the trail is cold, the girl's parents are speaking out. >> reporter: the 20-month-old hasn't been seen since december

16th when her husband says he put her to bed in his home. now for the first time in two weeks police will not conduct a physical search for the baby saying the trail is cold. late wednesday night they released this statement. it's important that the public hear it from me that i have no idea what happened to her and i'm not hiding. this morning on the today show his wife publicly expressed doubts he is telling the truth. >> he says he isn't in hiding but why won't he come out or talk to me, why is he staying away? >> reporter: he also addressed allegations that he may have been abusive. the little girl had suffered a broken arm. >> said her and my niece like to go down on the stairs t could be from that and i didn't believet. >> reporter: i would never do anything to hurt my child he said, the questions of her arm or bruises or anything else are

ridiculous. >> we have a daughter that's missing. just talk to me. that's all i want. >> reporter: though the parents have been in a bitter custody battle authorities say both are cooperating and believe someone kidnapped their daughter. >> we feel that someone took her out of that house and the circumstances surrounding that we aren't sure. >> reporter: police have received close to 400 tips, more than a hundred of them since monday when a 30,000- dollar reward was offered. >> other news around the nation right now let's take to you new orleans. look at this pile up on interstate ten. two people are dead and dozens more hurt. it was a 40 car pile up. it happened round 4:00 in the morning and there were reports that dense fog was happening at the time of this wreck. one person has died. this say fiery crash in florida. sheriff's say three track for

trailer is a united states mail truck collided on 95, one of the trucks went into flames, the driver died. four others had to go to the hospital and the cause in this wreck still under correction movement a butter ball turkey plant in north carolina on the hot seat. the plant was raided after allegations of animal abuse. an animal abuse group sent someone undercover. video reportedly shows them kicking stomping the turkeys and shows injured birds with open wounds. a woman got up close and personal with the elephants. how she found her way in. why she was taken to the hospital and some love tim tebow so much they wouldn't mind borrowing sugar from him. what this is about.

. let's go out to colorado. have you to check out this new video. a driver upset. caught on camera. you can see the driving plowing into cars. neighbors watched as this guy hit car after car and even tried to hit people and by the time he was done police say he

hit at least five cars, guess what? you are going to jail to ring in the new year. a woman at the la zoo decided to take a closer look at the elephants, she hopped the fence and other barriers and got close enough to get to them. unbelievable. everybody is yelling at her telling them to get away. witnesses say she was in there for at least five minutes before leaving. police took her into custody and took her to the hospital. she is under a mental evaluation. we folks in minnesota experiencing unusually high temperature, ice fisherman have to move out because their ice houses are sinking. a house made entirely of ice. it has a tower, two entrances.

it marks the 100 -- the villagers built the first one because they didn't have a church of their own in town. the famous word of charlie sheen this was a winning year for many. 's wick day look back at some of the stop stories. and the clock ticking for the republican candidates as they move closer to the caucus. a live report from the nation's capitol.

. from charlie sheen's rampage to beyonce's baby bump. we look back at some of the top stories of this year. >> reporter: the year kicked

off with a new beginning for the queen of talk. oprah launched the network own on new year's day. the final episode of the show aread in may. another good-bye came from regis. >> this will be my last year on this show. >> reporter: his final show aired in november. charlie sheen found himself jobless in 2011 so he hit the road. >> how do you like dc? >> so far it's great. >> reporter: after being in the hospital and rehab his show went into hiatus. when he lashed out in a series of interviews he was fired. he then went on a cross country tour. also causing a stir in 2011 lindsey lohan. she showed up for a court date wearing this, she was charged with stealing a necklace and

violating probation. >> probation as you know is a gift. there is something called looking a gift horse in the mouth. >> reporter: she is sentenced to 30 days jail but only spent a few hours. harry potter cast a final spell as the last film hit the big screens bringing in more than $168 million in its opening weekend. that was a new record. beyonce's baby bump became a center of attention and set a new twitter record with the most tweets per second. >> i'm having so much fun. >> reporter: sugar land was moments taking the stage when high winds caused the stage to collapse. seven people in the crowd died. dozens were hurt. sugar land made an emotional return for a special memorial

concert. >> it was bad. you know but -- we got to play again. we will keep playing. >> reporter: families some of the victims filed a lawsuit saying the band should have canceled the concert because of the weather. a representative for them had no comment. conrad murray was convicted of manslaughter in connection with the pop star's death and sentenced to four years in jail. the biggest star wedding was the talk of the tabloid's. d's, they later divorced 72 days later. i'm michelle wright. >> and if you are look for more of the top stories check out the best of 2011 page. just send to the website. we have the most powerful photographs, most searched person and remembering those we lost this year. here is what people hope to gain in 2012.

tim tebow as their neighbor. according to a survey the quarterback is the most desirable star neighbor. real estate information company zillow said angelina joli and brad pitt were runner ups and then jennifer aniston. the liest number -- didn't like any of the choices given. >> now the most powerl radar and the forecast certified most accurate by weather rate. >> how about just jennifer aniston? nobody would mind that. 37 out there now. humidity at 67%. it's dry and chilly and looked wintery at times. no question. there are those snow showers that came through briefly this afternoon. northern baltimore, hartford up through cecil you have a brief burst of snow. now tracking a little bit from the west.

here at county get age good shot of snow. fresh powder on the slopes and if this area holds together possibly a few snow showers in our area later tonight. again it won't add up. no accumulations, man chester, a high thin cloud deck and there is that brief burst of snow showers, in spots, it briefly coated the grass and few car tops. ellicott city a brief snow shower and -- you know just a kind of a cloudy situation here with a few flakes flying at times. want to show you temperatures now across the state. much colder north and west. mid-30s year. slightly mildler in southern maryland, came bridge, easton and back through the naval air station a little mildler air. wind's have turned south on us and this souther labryses will not warm us up all that much tonight. it'll keep us from keeping much colder and into your day on

friday. temperatures set up to get much warmer. that lights out breeze now that's making the wind chill more noticed. through the day tomorrow the south wind will work in our favor. i look for about 50 in the afternoon. around the city. i want to show you the regional picture. this is a disturbance off the great lakes, a little unsettled waiver coming through. enough to trigger the snow showers, again there is the back side of this, little boundary here. if it holds together yet you could see a few more flakes fly later this evening. it'll be cold enough. you can see most of the snow and winter weather tracking to the north into northern pennsylvania and upstate new york. chilly air hung out all day because that mild air while knocking on the door remained in virginia and the carolina's that. will move in and warm us up a solid 10 or 15-degrees, just a slight chance of a passing

shower. tomorrow a dry day, partly cloudy computer milder. we will get one more disturbance. could produce brief rain showers in to early saturday morning. then saturday clears out. we are left with sun and mild temperatures in the 50s and that will hold up into new year's day. nothing more than a flurry or two. sun and clouds, a nice chance and tomorrow night we will keep the chance in for patchy rain showers, as it'll be mildler tomorrow night. check out the outlook as we look to the last day of 2011, saturday, 53, not bad. 55 for not just the first day of 2012, first day of january, 55 degrees. how is that? double. >> then it goes down. here we go. the slide. let's take a look at democracy12. we are keeping track of all the developments. today we get political analysis straight out of iowa from mark preston and bring us up to

date. >> reporter: there are so many stories out of iowa right now. less than a week out, let's focus on the three big political talkers santorum's time on the ground is paying off with a manager boost in yesterday's poll. he is now among the top three contenders in iowa and just bought tv time in new hampshire. >> if the money isn't coming in you have to work harder. >> all he had was the negative. >> reporter: gingrich's star may be falling as quickly as it rose. he is blaming it on negative campaigning. >> are they having that much impact on the campaign? >> from there is no question that the rise and fall of gingrich can be really based on the negative advertising and the fact that he has not countered it. >> reporter: also bachmann lost her co chair in a key local endorser. he left her to endorse ron

paul. >> in the direct conversation that i had with him he said that he was offered money. he was offered a lot of money by the ron paul campaign. >> reporter: sorenson says the claim is not drew. >> it's an insider political story. why that's significant, it's because she at this time can't weather a storm like that. >> reporter: what's the take away here? at this point in the game, just a matter of hours can change the entire world for one of these candidates. >> you aren't kidding. the first event of the election cycle. what does that mean for our state? >> reporter: you know to answer that let's talk about mitt romney. he is now leading in iowa and new hampshire. list tone this. >> if romney were to clean up and do very well in the first couple nominating contests it would be hard for somebody to try to knock him off. then the date we are looking at march 6th because the month of

february only a few contests. super tuesday is such an important date. >> reporter: by the time we get to maryland which will vote in april the number of candidates could be cut way down. that's how it relates. >> all right. great job for us from dc tonight. we will talk to you tomorrow. all right. coming up all new for you tonight at six. one family's tragic accident becomes a lesson for anyone with young children. tips to make sure your holiday decorations are safe. and you know that diet and exercise can have an impact on your cancer risk but what about your home? what a story this is. how your home can help you maintain your health. those and much more coming up all new for you at six and now here say preview of what's ahead on world news at 6:30. >> coming up on world news what's behind this new talk of adding hillary clinton to the obama ticket and the violent stroke. can you stop it from happening, can you stop your memory loss

in its tracks. coming up.

. now to your economy, the number of americans signing up for unemployment woes just before christmas. the labor department said 15,000 more filed for it more than last week but they say if you average the claims over the span of a month they will at the lowest level in more than three years. the times has reached an agreement to sale 16 regional papers. the deal worth 143 million and the move lets them focus on its core newspapers, some say it'll be dub in the next few weeks. is and a goodyear for the industry. auto sales shifted in to high

gear after spending a few years in low gear. about 12.8 million are expected to be sold by the end of the year. that's the highest number since 2008 when 13.2 million were sold according to the research firm true car.com. gm was the industry leader, ford and toyota third. the industry still has a way to go to get back to prerecession sale totals. senate governor is taking a look back at the year and the future. what he says is his number one priority going forward as the news goes forward at six. >> >> driving experts feeling good about drivers in our state. what they think is behind the drop in deadly accidents. heard about a gas main break how whereyed were you? how the situation looks.

it seems when you get the late night phone call it's about cancer. tonight a story about a man who wants to build a cancer free home. the skies were great and -- pretty clear this morning and slowly but surely some snow actually started to fall. did you see it? though it's nearly january it's finally feeling like winter outside. the question, on everybody's mind now is are we going to see more of this white stuff this weekend? wyatt telling us no. beat you to it. >> yeah, back to you jamie, no, just kidding. we could see a few more flurries later tonight but there is that burst that came through earlier. we were tracking it on the radar. you can see what's left of that little cluster. we have a new