>> this opens up this whole line of questioning about what don't we know. >> reporter: investigators drove the future price of orange juice up on tuesday. this comes as traders -- the fda said low levels of the pesticide had been discovered, so there's no health hazards to humans. ford is recalling nearly half a million mini vans and suv because of mechanical issues. the automakers is recalling 200,000 free star and mercury mini vans made in 2004 and 2005. apparently the torque converter output shaft may fame and cause a loss of power. ford is also recalling escape suv's made during the 2001 and

2002 year because of a leaky brake fluid cap, and it could lead to a fire. ford will replace the parts for free. in the case of escape, there could be a parts delay, so owners should park their cars until the parts become available. the makers of twinkies and wonder bread filed for bankruptcy. it comes three years after filing an earlier restructuring. the company's products include the hostess cupcakes, ding dongs and nature's pride bread. they employ about 20,000 people at bakeries, distribution centers and outlets. today marked the start of the 2012 general assembly in annapolis. maryland's law enforcements are trying to decide what changes

should be made to the laws that impact our lives. don harrison takes a lack at how this process works. >> reporter: with that, maryland's 430th session begins. ovary year the general assembly meets from january through april. long ago many legislators were farmers. it was easier for them to be here in the winter. >> the system has been in place since colonial times. >> reporter: he has reside over a record 26 years. he respects the historic traditions of our legislature. >> we've been around a long time. >> reporter: the chambers will review bills and send them to commit. both chambers must agree on a particular bill and the governor must sign it into law. >> and support the constitution. >> reporter: it take has lot of

people to make this run smoothly. he is one of them. he will read the bills. rose has to be on his toes and prepared for anything. >> always lots of changes, but that's part of the process, you know. you never know what's coming. >> reporter: 90 days from now the con feet thy will fall and legislators will look at close to 3,000 bills, all of them organized and informed by the big board. in annapolis, don harrison, abc2 news. >> there are several hot button issues including same-sex marriage and a gas tax increase. we'll take a look at it tonight at 6:00 and 11. a dutch national suspected of murdering an alabama teenager has pleaded guilty to another murder. jamie costello joins us with the

latest. >> reporter: joran van der sloot has admitted to murdering a peruvian lady in hopes of receiving a lower sentence. van der sloot admitted he killed 21-year-old stephany flores. >> yes. i want to plead guilty. i want to confess sincerely. i truly am sorry for this act. >> reporter: investigators say he strangled flores after finding her on his computer where she discovered a connection to natalee holloway, the alabama teen who disappeared in 2005 during a trip to aruba. van der sloot always claimed he had nothing to do with it. in 2006, he said he left the intoxicated holloway on the beach and in 2010 surfaced in peru, the prime suspect in a young woman's murder. van der sloot confessed after he

was arrested. his attorney said his client was deeply affected by the strain of holloway's case and the death of his father. if this case had gone to trial, van der sloot would have faced 30 years in prison. we have the latest on a missing montana teacher. after four days of looking for sherry arnold police are scaling back their search. arnold left for an early morning run and never returned. so far, the only clue in her disappearance was a single running shoe found by a ditch along her running route in sydney. overnight the fbi interviewed ronnie white and believes he might be one of the last persons to see her as she jogged past his car. meanwhile the family, neighbors and friends have been praying for her return. >> it's horrible.

it's a nightmare. >> the fbi said hundreds of tips are pouring in, but there's still no solid leads. get this. a boy blew up a building and police do not want to talk to him about this. why one by got the chance of a lifetime to blow up a building and it was for fun. what are you going to do with many of those unwanted items? we'll tell you where you can get cash for them.

we've got video of a dramatic high speed chase. police in houston were chasing a white car that had a 300 pound safe in its trunk. the safe was stolen from a nearby home. the chase ends when the car stopped in the middle of the highway. they jumped out trying to make a run for. this the three were quickly tackled and arrested. the getaway car caught fire. the make a wish foundation granted a 7-year-old cancer

patient's wish to blow up a building. he traveled from california to huron, ohio to live out his dream. a crowd gathered to see the blast. he got to push the button that imploded. the city hopes to abandon the site. as -- develop the abandoned site. a whale make as huge splash. a gray whale was spotted off the coast in san diego's mission bay channel. experts believe the whale was a juvenile. one scientist suspects it may have wondered toward the shoreline. the animal is not believed to be in danger. >> this is usually the time of the year people clear out their home of things they don't want or need. how you can earn cash without wasting your money. mitt romney hopes to make this three in a row. the other republicans hope to

stop him. how things are shaping up in south carolina coming up. ã

january is typically the time of the year for clearing out that unwanted stuff, especially old toys and electronics. donating them to charity is always a nice thing to do. if you want to get cash back, there are great options. >> reporter: if you're like a lot of families, you probably have a pile of unwanted christmas gifts. either the kids have grown tired of them or you have no use for them. did your kids receive too many toys over the holidays or you got a low budget tablet computer that's so frustrating you want to get rid of it.

without receipts, returns can be hard. you'll want to check out great sites. the newest, ebay's instant sales sites. enter what you have like an iphone 3g. e bay offers you $77. two other popular sites are net worth.com and gazelle.com. the down side, they may not off you much. when i tested gazelle, it offered me just $27 for my $200 nice cool pix camera. the sites are mostly for electronics. sorry. they don't want that ugly sweater you got for christmas. you're reluctant to ask the person who gave you the difficulty for a receipt, check

out these sites so you don't waste your money. all right. let's start things off with a check of maryland's most powerful radar. relatively light rains across the immediate baltimore area, but it is actually as you go further south across that d.c. area extending south and eastward toward the cliffs, this is moving north steady, beginning to creep into southern howard and southern anne arundel county. this will continue to push north. we'll continue to deal with heavy rains. you can see college park getting a heavy downpour moving quickly toward bowie and laurel. further south and west more heavy bands toward fredericksburg. a little problem with our camera

but 45. visibility is at six miles. let's take a look at some of our cameras. bel air show last cloudy scene yow with rain on the roads. you have to drive with care. you know how this gets when the rain comes down. towson, looking at charles, finding a wet weather scenario into the evening. that has been the deal across the area. temperatures mid-40s to 30s west. we're safely above the freezing mark of course. that will mean a pure rain event but the extreme western edge and winds are from the east, got an easterly flow off the atlantic, off the chesapeake. that will also play a slight role in helping to keep the temperatures up. visibility has cut itself from normal, which would be 10-miles to two miles in frederick. much of that is from the rain but we're also getting mist and low level fog. as you go west in particular,

watch out for some reduced visibility. big swath of rain. we see it often times in december, even january, february, huge surges and cyclones. you can see the full circulation on that least coast view, broad area of low pressure, tight circulation over about knoxville, tennessee but the huge rain shield, two different centers on this thing. behind the second one, there is much colder air that will impact us late tomorrow night into friday. our trend showing more rain and then more rain. we eventually color out by 5:00 in the morning. as we go into thursday night after a mild cloudy day, another round of rain, could be rain and snow showers as cold air surges in as we go into the day on friday. friday a much colder day.

45, scattered showers. relatively dry. much warmer with you but cloudy and tomorrow night we drop the temps. we bring in not just the chance for rain but wintry type showers. it may make things slick early friday morning and then into the weekend it looks dry but cold, maybe some additional cloud cover on sunday for the ravens. so there you go. >> clouds better than snow. >> it depends, but for me. >> for most. let's talk about politics now. in democracy 2012, a record number republican voters come out for the primary and gave mitt romney a convincing second win in the praise for the gop nomination. so what's next for the candidates, let's check in. big win for romney but definitely an expected win. >> reporter: he was up in the polls. mitt romney is leaving new

hampshire with the wind at his back. here is why. he won in both iowa and new hampshire and would love to make it a trifecta in south carolina. >> this is about the assume of america -- soul of america. >> reporter: all six candidates are in south carolina today. they have 10 more days to make their chase in the palmetto states. they're the ones razing the expectations. >> south carolina is a place where campaigns will be made or broken. south carolinians are looking for a conservative candidate that will get this candidate back working again, and i'm it. >> i believe the next seven days are as important as anything we may have seen. i believe that south carolinians will pick one conservative or by default we're going to send the

moderate. >> reporter: now that iowa and new hampshire have wrapped up, wroor' starting to see the race move into bigger states where money talks. romney has raised $24 million but not as much as president obama. he's in chicago. he has three separate fund-raisers scheduled there. >> south carolina two weeks away. where do the candidates stand. >> reporter: mitt romney would like to say he's not a front-runner. look at the latest poll. it was taken before new hampshire. it shows mitt romney clearly in the lead. the folks hoping to slow down his momentum have a lot riding on south carolina. we're seeing all six candidates going into the state. we'll see that field 10 days from now. to the other side, first

lady michelle obama said she's tired of people portraying her as some angry kind of black woman, end quote. she challenges assertions in a new book. she says she hasn't read the new book called "the obamas." a puppy found in a box on the side of the road. we'll tell you how the dog named mars is doing. a cop pin state university student remembered. those stories and more when i see uptonight at 6:00. i remember the days before copd.

my son and i never missed opening day. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better, and that means... game on! symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. [ whistle ] with copd, i thought i might miss out on my favorite tradition. now symbicort significantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. and that makes a difference in my breathing. today i'm back with my favorite team. ask your doctor about symbicort. i got my first prescription free. call or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help.

the dow jones is down 13. the nasdaq is up eight and quarter and the s&p 500 is flat. tech lovers love super cool gadgets, but this year's consumer electronics show features plenty of items that could be in your living room, office or small enough to fit in your pocket. karin caifa has the details. >> reporter: this year's consumer electronics show has brought many of items. >> what we're seeing are incremental changes to a lot of things already in our lives. >> reporter: 2011 was dubbed as the year of the tablet. >> i think you're seeing a

number of solutions in this space because people love than lets. one of the disadvantages, they don't have the physical keyboard. >> reporter: this year's show features lots of ultrabooks, slimmer laptops bridging those gaps. 3dtv's was a trend but the average consumer wasn't buying it. 2012 brings two dimensional tv's with better resolution. even though the camcorder has been changed, there are new devices with the web. the association predicts record industry revenue in 2012 driven primarily by smartphone sales. for consume watch, i'm karin caifa. it seems the u.s. military is the top employer for young adults. the military was the top

employer of people ages 18 to 29 last year. the study looked at millions of facebook profiles taken from an online job networking site and the big employers are walmart, starbucks and target. the top 10 employers were retail chains. amtrak has big plans for 2012. the company plans to add 70 new electric trains. amtrak will also offer e ticketing for all trains. upgrades will be made to tracks, bridges and other infrachurr -- infrastructure. they said the upgraced are critical. here's a sneak peek at toyota's newest prius at the north american auto show in detroit. it's sleek looking. the car gets an estimated 53 miles on the highway and 46 46

our -- miles per gallon in the city. the car is expected to go on sale in march this year with the starting price of $20,000. some people love him, but joe flacco has up with man who has complete faith in him. what coach harbaugh has to say about his quarterback. that's coming up at 6:00, which starts right now. the 16-year-old harford county teen charged with killing his father was in court today. we told you last night about a small dog launched from a balcony in owings mills. we'll check in and see how the doggy is doing and where he might wind up. five years ago the sales tax went up a penny. guess what the