>> you can get everything online and now there's a way to make yourself feel better, by renting a girlfriend just for facebook. we'll explain how it works. the news at 6:00 starts right now >> long-term decisions we'd be making. >> the slots are fine but what about poker? tonight at 6:00, the push to get chips on the table here in maryland. >> all right. so we have been with the purple pride all week long and i have just the place you can go. details coming up. >> and still trying to figure out what to do with that gift card from over the holidays? abc 2 news is working for you to help find ways to get the most out of your money. >> new tonight, the state doesn't even have it's full slot casinos yet and already some lawmakers want to add

table games. as don tells us tonight, there are folks that want to take the gamble and expand the state's gaming industry. >> maryland's general assembly is just underway and already pushing to allow table games have surfaced. it's no surprise considering how long it took to reach a decision on slots. >> these are long-term decisions we would be making and we're going to continue in the house and legislature as a whole to do it in the thoughtful way, what's the impact on the jurisdictions that already have slots facilities. >> they met this afternoon. the chairman says the commission cannot make policy changes but he encourages lawmakers to think about how maryland is impacted by the gaming industries in pennsylvania, delaware and west virginia. >> they have certainly expanded their gaming initiative since the time that maryland passed slots. if we're going to be it's

certainly an initiative they have to address. >> the expansion of gaming would happen. there are many promises it would not in order to get votes to pass gaming and slots back in '07. the special session and here we are. table games. >> the delegate ron george heads up the delegation and thinks if idea of table games now are too soon. >> we already have the revenue. we ought to let it go and see what it raises for us and leave it at that. it's kind of, you know, jumping the gun here to all of a sudden be -- do table game before we're getting any kind of return on slots. >> if the issue isn't decided this year the state will have to wait until 2014 so table games can be put on that ballot. >> the state's next slots parlor is expected to open near june. applications for the casino and baltimore city casino could be

approved by the end of april. >> after a few early showers, skies cleared off nicely but we are still dealing with the cold winds. temperatures have not done anything to warm up today. in fact, they continue to drop. winds from the west, gusty still, 22, 24 miles per hour. they have let up some but the wind chill factor, feeling like 20s and teens north and west. through the day tomorrow we'll climb into the mid and upper 30s and i want to give you the sneak peek at our sunday game day forecast, temperatures above 33 degrees. this is going to be one cold kick off and one very cold tailgate sunday morning. but i just don't think fans care. it's been five years since we've had a home playoff game. for more on the purple rage that's flairing across the entire baltimore area, how's it going. >> hey, i'm at caseys and it is fired up in here. wow, but i like it like that so i'm not going to complain. people are practicing for what

they're going to get as we go into sunday. we're going to kick their bottoms. i have fans. it's one in particular i want to talk to right now. it's you. she said she had never been on television before. tell everybody your name. >> my name is debbie. >> thank you for being here. who's your favorite player. >> ray lewis. >> how long have you been a fan. >> forever. >> you're not a fair weather fan we like that. >> absolutely not. every game i'm right there. >> what about caseys? how often do you come. >> all the time. the food is great, friendly service, wonderful here. everybody should come. >> we like that. let's go somewhere else. we're going to head over there. let me bring you in. come here. yes, okay. so now my friend, what's your name. >> barbara. >> who's your favorite player. >> ray rice. >> ray rice and rice lewis. you know what, the ravens cheerleaders will be here later as well.

so speaking about a cheer, i might have one for you. do you want to hear it? okay. here we go. the cheer goes like this. from east to west we are the best. we fight to win and won't give in. so raise your voices shout and scream for the baltimore ravens are the no. 1 team. [applause] >> all right. all right. i can't hear. i'm going to send it back to you in the studio. let's go ravens. >> all right. we're going to getly net to make up cheers here in the studio any time now. well, win or lose on sunday, downtown baltimore stands to do very well for the big game. a local analyst says the city could make up to $25 million. hotels are full, restaurants are booking up quickly and plenty overbears, restaurants and other attractions should do well as well. add to all this the fact that

this game technically falls on a three day weekend with mlk day on monday and it's a perfect storm to show off charm city and make some serious cash. >> any time you can bring additional spending, either by locals or visitors into the city, especially in january on a sunday it's great for the city of baltimore. >> no kidding, the economist says the city could see a $25 million bump for this game. he says if the or yells contend that could bring in more money than the ravens. we're all waiting on that to happen. >> well, there are still tickets up for grabs on for the game on sunday. you just have to know where to look. we have been doing digging around and found thousands of tickets still on sale. >> yeah, that's right. lots of tickets still available but i can tell you, it is fewer than we saw just last night. this is a ticket selling website. as you can see, right here, there are 887 tickets left for this game. there's also ebay and

craigslist and other places. but this same site last night there was more than 1500 tickets available. so there's been a lot of buying. yesterday that's when we spoke with the ticket broker that runs sports tickets unlimited. he said he had been hearing from ravens season ticket holders all week long, thousands of them selling their tickets to this game sunday against houston and a lot of people that lost the tickets last week paid for them with the idea that the steelers might be coming to town on sunday. the way the games worked out, texans are coming to town. tickets selling for 70% less than last week. not nearly the same rivalry it could have been. what was surprising is he has been getting a lot of calls from ticket brokers in houston. that means you can expect to see some fans in the stands on sunday. probably not enough to create a cheering section but probably more than you might have expected and all of that selling of tickets into the

market earlier this week means that there's hundreds of tickets available. just on stub hub right now. it is an opportunity to see the ravens in their first home playoff game in five years so a lot of people have been taking advantage of that opportunity. >> the caravan is make it's way around town. the first stop. cheerleaders leading some of the marching band with the restaurant early, early this morning. >> we are hitting 18 location giving away prizes, entertaining the fans and getting everybody excited about the game on sunday. >> we've got a schedule, of the car vain on our website at abc 2 news/ravens. there's a look inside the story. they'll be making the rounds until about 89:00 tonight. so you can catch them anywhere. >> abc 2 news is working for

you ahead of sunday's playoff game. we show you the way to indy. we'll be broadcasting live from the corner of sharp and austin starting at 9:00. tweet us at hash tag way to indy. tell us when you're leaving your house, parking, grilling, all of that good stuff. >> health department officials were at a baltimore elementary school after three students came down with scarlet fever. they were all in the same class at george washington elementary school. the district is taking steps to clean up the building. the symptoms are a high fever and sore throat and a strawberry like spot on the tongue. it can be treated simply with antibiotics. >> high winds knocked down a tree killing the power to more than 1200 homes and businesses today. gusts estimated to be about 30 miles per hour more downed this

tree which took out the power lines with it. businesses lost their electricity and the lunchtime crowd, well, they lost that too. >> well, the wind has been pretty bad all morning and our house has been out for several hours. we just got electricity back. we live right up the street here and my friend and i were coming for lunch while the kids are in school and we pulled in and there's nobody in the parking lot and all the restaurants were closed. >> a thousand of the impacted customers have power restored within a few hours. the police department also had it's electricity knocked out but a back up generator had it back in business in less than a minute or so. >> well the murder rate is down in baltimore city and now we learned that fewer people died in fires compared to last year. one of the most well-known deadly fires was when the firefighter died last january. he was helping fight an apartment fire but did not make it out alive. his name has been added to the maryland fire rescue services wall of honor. he is one of 67 that died in

fires last year. 17 of them were in baltimore city. most of those killed were in homes in order to get help. that number even make it lower. you should check your fire detector or smoke detector and make sure that the batteries are working inside. >> u.s. and state flag assistance cross maryland were flying at half staff today. the governor called for the flags to be lowered to honor the memory of the army specialist of maryland. he was killed in afghanistan on december 11th. the flag was at half staff today from sunrise to sunset. >> well, gift cards are great. you can always get what you want, you think, unless you don't like the store where you got that gift card from. we'll explain how to get around that coming up after the break. plus, buying love online. this is kind of creepy. how you can get that facebook status changed to in a relationship, even if you're not. >> all right.

52 just past midnight last night. we forecast you in the 40s today so no winter, sorry about that. when we come back, we'll talk about this brutal cold northerlily flow. when does it let up? will it be in time for the game maybe? we'll talk about it straight ahead

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>> you probably received a gift card or two over the holidays. are you going to use it soon? ways to unload it if you don't want it so you don't waste your money. >> consumers are holding more than 100 million new gift cards this new year according to consumer reports magazine.

most of them were received over the holidays. now the sad news, nearly a third of those gift cards, that would be about 30 million will never be used. so if you're holding a few you may never redeem, we're here to help. until the mad rush of the holidays many of us ended up not with clothing, gadgets or books but with a wallet full of gift cards. that's fine if you like the stores or restaurants but not so much if you never end up using them as beth knows too well. >> i usually try to use them right away. >> put them inway in a drawer, what happeneds. >> i find it about a year later. >> kevin and his family end up shopping stores every january that they normally never visit. >> it makes us go to those stores that we got them to. >> but rather than buying what you really don't need or letting them expire, why not trade in your unwanted gift cards. an entire gift card trading industry has popped up in recent years. the website swap a gift,

plastic jungle and card avenue are the big three of card trading sites. here at swap a gift, you pay 1.99 to list a gift card that you want to sell. >> list it at a slight discount and someone will take it off your hands. now if you prefer an immediate sale, plastic jungle will buy your card immediately for a small fee. i told plastic jungle i had a best buy card valued at $50. in seconds it offered me $30 cash. not the best business deal, but it sure beats leaving the card unused forever. >> finally, if you're in a charitable mood, you can donate unused gift cards. plastic jungle site has a section that allows you to gift your card to charity and many goodwill stores will take gift cards to help others. you don't waste your money. >> well, they have everything for your bed, bath and beyond but not federal regulators say one item which is going to be

pulled from the store shelves. the problem with the tissue holders because they have low levels of radio active material. a spokesman with the commission says there's no real health threat here however they are telling people to return them bed bath and beyond says you can return the tissue holder for a full refund. for more information call this number, (184)962-3966. >> well, some things in life leave us in shock. words just won't come out of our mouth. that's what happened to her. she thought she was going to see her mom on skype. when there was a technical problem, a familiar face, well, is going to walk through the door. >> wow.

mommy. >> i love you. [applause] >> you never get tired of watching that. she said she was so excited she couldn't move at first and now she's glad to spend her birthday with her mom. >> how do i follow that. >> i know. tell us it's going to be 80 degrees, right. >> yeah, right. i wish my friend. i wish. take a look. 34 degrees right now. winds at 7. it's going to be one cold night. the winds are letting up a little bit. some good news with that but that's about the only positive spin. look at the wind whipping our camera here. at the naval academy it was a cold scenario through the day. radar is still crystal clear so that's good but the temperatures still dropping steadily out there. and interesting enough, the

winds really stay strong. it actually holds the actual air temperature up a little bit, kind of keeps things stirred up as the winds get calmer, temperatures able to drop even more quickly. you see how cold it is north and west. 12 oak land. winds west around 10 to 17. they were up closer to 30 earlier today. so it was a much windier scenario. 17 in d.c. 23 in york. not as impressive as earlier today but the wind chill factor is still very chilling to say the least as we're down in the 20s. the wind chill is chilling. go figure. 37 at harbor east tomorrow. i think most of the weekend we're going to struggle to get out of the 30s. guys that include the big game on sunday and in the morning for tailgating, i'm talking below freezing possibly. so dress warm before you light up the grill, how's that? to the west and northwest, there's snow coming down. across the great lakes, usual

suspects, northern ohio, northern western pennsylvania, that's all coming off the great lakes right now. not reaching into our state as they rarely do and our cold blast settling in now. they'll stay breezy tonight and into the early part of tomorrow. partly cloudy skies through the day tomorrow but dry. sunday morning clouds and we dry things out for the game sunday afternoon. sunshine around will make things feel a little bit less frigid but i still think with this cold dome of air that it's going to be tough to get out of the 30s even sunday. overnight tonight, 23, going to feel like the teens with those winds still kicking a bit as we go into the late part of the night. tomorrow winds let up but still cold, still breezy. and then tomorrow night, down to 22 as the winds finally pretty much go calm. as we look to your sunday and further, here's how things shape up. again for game day, mid 30s, we'll look for a freezing start

for the tailgate. it gets above freezing at least for the game and as we look to mlk monday, holiday for a lot of people, sunshine, 40 degrees and next week we could even hit 52 on thursday so if wild swing there. >> 52. that's a good sign. >> bouncing back. >> thanks. well, a relationship isn't officially a relationship unless it's on facebook these days and now there's a way to fake love online. there's a website for that for a small fee. there's always a small fee. it sells various services including finding someone to be your facebook girlfriend or boyfriend. that's so sad. there's another that provides a similar service. you get to design your perfect mate and they even write love messages on your page to make it seem more real. >> here's a look at what's coming up tonight at 11:00, how does a free nook sound? that's the deal at barnes & noble right now. it's a catch but if you love the new york times it could be worth it.

if your child is looking ahead to college, information on which majors will earn them the most dough and what could leave them struggling. those stories and more. join us for the news at 11:00

>> now i can hear myself.

we're here until 8:00. tell me about your beer. >> we're going to drink a bunch of loose cannon. this team is going to win this one. >> i think you are a loose cannon. we got fans over here, brian and amy. how's it going? prediction. 28-3 baltimore. >> 27-10 baltimore. >> all right. well, we're going to be here until 8:00 giving away all kinds of great things like this which is really annoying but, you know, it's cute on some people i guess. i don't know, come on down to maxes tap house on broadway. bring your purple.] cheering] >> all right. take a quick check at the wind chill out there. it is frigid.

feeling like the 20s now. let's go to the game day forecast. >> 33. >> 33, kick off, we might make mid or upper 30s by the end of the game. >> let the grill keep you warm. >> that's it for the news at 6:00. we'll see you right back here at 11:00 [ male announcer ] introducing kfc's new weekend bucket.

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