$14,000 for 14 assault style weapons. that's how much one school district is now spending to arm their guards. why they say the action is necessary. a fight for our country and die for our country. but women serving in the military haven't always had the same opportunities as men. all that will soon change an historic announcement coming later today. also it's a sight your children are going to love. when they look out the window this morning they're going to see snow on the ground and you may want to hold off on getting the kids ready for school. because right now we are getting a number of delays into the abc2 studios. baltimore county public schools are on a two hour delay this morning. anne arundel county schools two hour delay and there'll be no half day programs. howard county, frederick, carol county public schools they're all on a two hour delay today. baltimore city schools are on a delay once again two hours.

kent county two hours, queen anne's public schools are closed today. we've been getting those through the course of the morning. "good morning maryland." i'm charlie crowson. megan is off today. and snow and the cold remain the big story on the thursday morning. lynette charles is standing byway check of the -- with airchecks of the forecast. you said -- a check of the forecast. you said the snow was coming. >> yes, we'll get a break from it today charlie into the afternoon but then it works its way right on back in here into friday. the details coming you but this morning -- up but this morning we have the winter weather advisory until 9:00 and that's because of the slick roadways and the snow we have on the roadways this morning. and speaking of the snow we can look at it on maryland's most powerful radar as of now. and it is beginning to taper off from the northwest down to the southeast. the southeast corner now is where you're getting all the -- all the snow rather in southern maryland around ocean city. but still some light snow showers hanging around glendale right now. and pg county. around bell, new carolton. landover hills. kentland and also

mitchellville. and largo and kettering. we're also seeing some light snow showers once we cross over the bay. so around talbot county and around st. michael's edge view and also cook's hope getting in on some light snow showers this morning as well. as we look at the abc2 most accurate forecast right now we can see the temperatures are cold once again. 14-degrees in chestertown but feeling more like we are in the single digits. charlie? the snow could slow down the commute to work this morning. also you're seeing the delays for school. have those for you at abc2news.com. but as for the way the roads look, abc2 news linda so is live this morning and how are thing looking out there? >> reporter: we're in a neighborhood here along roland heights avenue in hampton. and you can see the snow still covers these neighborhood roads. we saw a snow truck go by about 15 minutes ago to apply salt. but you have to remember that the pavement temperature is below freezing. so you're still going to be doling with some -- dealing with some slick spots. that's why they're not completely piling these roads and as more cars go over them

it's packing down the snow. you just want to take it easy. give yourself extra time because snow is covering the sidewalks and your cars. the good news is, is that the cars -- the snow on the cars good morning a lot of people heading off the work no morning. a lot of snow that's covering the cars, it's not icy. so you can see right here, just dust it off. you're not going to need the ice scraper pretty easy to remove but again just need some extra time to get out and about. as you see the salt trucks on a road keep your distance and get out of the way for them so she can do their job. linda so, abc2 news. good tip. now to the abc2 timesaver traffic report with lauren cook. and lauren i know you're watching the big roads out there. >> yes, charlie. several accidents. trouble in anne arundel county where there's a crash right along the westbound lanes of route 50 at the bay bridge. more problems on route 100. there's a crash eastbound at 97. and another accident right on 97 along the southbound lanes

of ben field boulevard. we have big problems on interstate 70 in howard county. we have a crash along the westbound lanes at route 32. and another westbound at columbia pike. if you're using the beltway this morning, here's a look at the delays on the northwest corner here at old court old. it's going to take you eight extra minutes to travel the outer loop from 795 down to 70. the inner loop will be shrubbish making the push up to 83. here in parkville everything moving right along at harford road. but the roads are really slick the morning so it's important for you to reduce the speeds and be careful approaching any intersections. that's a look at your abc2 timesaver traffic. charlie over to you. women in the military will be moving to the front lines, pentagon chief leon panetta will announce today he's removing the military's ban on women serving in combat. the ground breaking move overturns a 1994 ruling that reinstruments women from being a-- restricts women from being assigned to the front lines and

elite combat divisions. each branch of the armed forces will have until may to come up with a plan to fully integrate women into front line service. well, today confirmation hearings begin for senator john kerry. president barack obama nominated him to be the next secretary of state. his confirmation is widely expected by both sides of the political aisle. republicans and democrats alike. current secretary of state hillary clinton faces congress today -- or did it yesterday rather for hearings on the benghazi attack back in september. in that attack four americans died. she's going to be leaving her post as soon as kerry is confirmed. brazen thief caught on tape. take a look at this. the surveillance camera at a pharmacy in florida caught a person going behind the counter and stealing the register. not the money, he took the whole register. and the store was open the entire time. >> it was very brazen the way he did it. considering the amount of people that were in the store. and the fact we just don't see

that on a regular basis here. >> police say the man's also ripped off another store just 20 blocks away using the exact same technique. investigators are hoping a tip from the public can help them track down the suspect. well a 50-foot crater swallows up a driveway for a man blocking his car and leaving him inside. what officials say caused the street to open up and the problems this massive sinkhole is now creating for residents. >> all right, and this is the time that you need to go to the website. download our app and you can follow the snow showers still falling across the area. or you can get the forecast. temperatures right now in hunt valley coming in at 18 degrees. make sure you bundle up as you head out and about. >> well all of the snow is making for a very messy commute. we're dealing with two accidents right now on interstate 70 and many more across the region. i'll have all the details coming up on "good morning maryland." >> a live look this morning once again in northeast baltimore. that's the scene of the overnight fire of the commercial building. but you see the roads out there

covered in snow and a thin layer of ice. be careful out there. it's the interior neighborhood roads that can be causing the real problems as we continue in just a moment. best $4 i ever spent.

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new video for you this morning, bad weather in ohio caused more than 22 accidents on a 20-mile stretch of road. this happened on interstate 90. snow and ice cause maryland of the conditions -- caused many of the conditions. the snow is expected to continue through today. the cold weather is likely to blame for a water main break that caused a giant sinkholement take a look at this. knocked out water service for at least 85 homes in michigan. david may planned to drive his france kids to school that day. instead the car was blocked by a 50-foot crater, 35-foot deep.

>> the ground around it caved in and the water continue today just -- continued to just know. >> there's the house over there. the water was in their yard and up to their door and they were evacuated. >> the water flooded eight homes in that neighborhood. well take a look at this. this is an astronomy teacher from connecticut uncovering the milky way. he made the discovery digging through archives of the hubble space telescope. this is original archived photograph showing a large cloud nearly 200,000 light years from earth. well, we are about the mid- way point to 7:00 and he provided the childhood choice for charlie brown. this morning he's now facing charges. what police say peter robbins did that landed him behind bars. >> also you don't have to go out and go without breakfast today. where you can get a great sandwich and it won't cost you a thing. but liniest you have to know -- lynette you have to know the magic word. >> another day where we're going to be feeling like

temperatures are in the single digits. when we finally get the warmer weather if here coming up. >> well, lynette we have accidents across the region. two on interstate 70 and another on 97 and i'll have all the details coming up on "good morning maryland." >> and a life look the morning once again northeast baltimore. you see the snow covering the cars. covering the sidewalks. and yes, it's covering the roadways. you see already the congested traffic. give yourself some extra time. plan ahead. be safe. "good morning maryland" is back in just a moment.

"good morning maryland," i'm charlie crowson. megan is off today. abc2 works for you this morning. a live picture outside the abc2 studios, this in rogers forge and you can see the snow on the ground once again. sidewalks covered. side roads covered. grass covered and you see the ramp covered as well and take the precautions and give yourself extra time as you head out the door. if you're getting the kids ready for school today we have delays you need to know about. baltimore county public schools on a two hour delay and anne arundel county schools on a two

hour delay and there will be no half day programs today. howard county, frederick, carol county public schools, they're all on a two hour delay today as well. so let's get right to the weather with the very latest and meteorologist lynette charles. you see there baltimore city schools two hour delay. kent county two hour delay. and queen anne's county lynette. they're closed today the public schools. >> exactly that's because the roads need to be plowed. i saw lots of snow out there. an inch to a dusting but still you keep on packing them together and it's going to get slick out there and that's exactly what they're dealing with. maryland's most powerful radar, picking up on some light snow. things are starting to taper off. that's some good news. get a little bit of a break in the action. but still some light snow popping up around calvert county this morning. we can see it around lord calvert estates this morning. castle more. victoria estates and wind haven estates and also plum point. if your travels take you in this direction taked easy on the -- it easy on the roadways,

we have a winter weather advisory in effect until 9:00 and that's for all the areas here shaded in the blue colors. so we are talking along the eastern shore as well as the western shore this morning. right now temperatures are cold. very frigid. 13 degrees in parkton. frederick coming in at 15 degrees and also in stevensville at 15 degrees. and as we go through the day, we look at abc2's most accurate planner. well, 27 degrees by 3:00 and it gets cold again as we go into 7:00 this evening, let's get a check now of the abc2 timesaver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. good morning lynette. well, it is snow is making for a terrible commute. we are dealing with a crash across the region. trouble in anne arundel county where there's a crash on route 100 along the eastbound lanes at 97. and another on 97 along the southbound lanes at ben field boulevard. problems in baltimore county, a crash on rossville boulevard right at route 40 and another nottingham at walter boulevard. on 695 no problems from parkville up to towson. but the west side extremely jammed here's a live look at

the northwest corner at old court road. outer loop an extra 11 minutes to travel from 795 down to 70 and we are dealing with a crash on 70 westbound at columbia pike. another accident has cleared from the westbound lanes at route 32. so expect delays there. here in hunt valley though 83 nice and clear. no problems traveling from shawan road down to the beltway but again the roads really slick so take it slow out there this morning if you can. charlie over to you. so much going on out there. crews worked overnight in the bitter cold battling a three alarm fire and abc2 news' sherrie johnson is live on the scene. she's been there since the story broke just before 4:30 this morning. what can you tell us and where are firefighters as we are right now? >> reporter: well, we've been talking a little bit to authorities that are here on the scene. and they tell me that this fire hit a local business. so this is a commercial building. it hit a local business and crews are still on the scene as you can see right here. we're at the intersection at north calvert and read streets. they're basically still cleaning up the hot spots after

this three alarm fire. some of the -- fire trucks have already started to leave the area. but they still have a few that are still cleaning up. the call came out just before 1:00 this morning. when crews arrived here, the three story brick building was fully engulfed in flames. again this is an end of group commercial building for a local business. now the first, second and third floors were engulfed in flames. heavy fire on all of the floors made it unsafe for firefighters to actually go inside. so that means they had to fight the fire from the outside. now no one was inside the building at the time of the fire. firefighters tell us that there were no reported injuries. and because of the cold temperatures a bus was brought in for shelter to help keep people warm for those who needed it. right now there's still no cause of the cause and investigators are still trying to figure out what happened here this morning. reporting live in northeast baltimore, sherrie johnson, abc2 news. two bills are being introduced today in annapolis to prevent gun violence.

anyone who commits a violent crime with a firearm can't receive early release from their sentence. the second piece of the bill would create a website to get information about pro lees who committed violent crimes with guns. vice president joe biden is going to take part in a discussion on google+ today talking about gun violence. vice president is going to be channeling his inner fdr. roosevelt, used to conduct these back in the 1930s and '40s. well, your child's school be safer if officers on campus are carrying assault style weapons? one police department in california is saying yes. 14 assault style weapons arrived yesterday at the fontana unified school district yesterday. the kind of firepower will prevent mass school shootings like the one that took place in connecticut. critic says the weapons have no place on any school campus and the $14,000 spent on them should have gone toward

counseling programs. the guns will be stored on campus in locked safes for police. well, ray lewis' last game is being commemorated with a t- shirt. and take a look at this one. fans only is starting production of ray's last ride. that is the theme of the shirt. this is what the front side looks like. it says the end of an era and shows ray doing the dance. on the back, you see the number 52 with the simple farewell message saying we love you man. some dramatic footage out of vermont where a train slammed into a truck. take a look at this. the train hit the back end of the truck as it was going through the crossing. the truck driver says he was distracted and never saw the train for the flashing lights. fortunately no one was hurt. and take a look what happened as firefighters fought to put out a fire at a warehouse in chicago. it took them hours to put out the flames and they used water hoses as you would expect. but as the hours wore on the flames in the bidding turned

into a -- building turned into a massive block of ice. this is the building now. the entire warehouse is covered in ice making it like look a huge castle. crews are now concerned that portions of the build willing collapse under the weight -- building will collapse under the weight of the ice. the cause of the fire though is still being investigated. the first meeting of the sandy hook advisory commission happens today. they're going to have the update on the investigation into the shooting and they're going to hear if those involved in the aftermath of the columbine and virginia tech tragedies. and talks of cushing gun violence continue in baltimore today. a force will meet and look at regulating gun access to people with mental illnesses. maryland's health enterprise zone initiative is being unveiled today. reduce disparities among racial and ethnic minority populations and also improve health care access to communities. the man behind the voice of peanuts' character char rhee brown is in -- charlie brown is in jail. peter robbins is accused of stalking and making death threats to his ex-girlfriend and to a plastic surgeon.

and we should get more details coming up about the investigation into boeing's 787 dreamliner. the national transportation safety board has been testing the plane's batteries. one of them caught fire in an empty dreamliner back in boston last month. well, who doesn't love a free breakfast? so you can stop by chick-fil-a and east point mall today and all you have to do is say the magic phrase. the early bird gets the chicken. and you'll get a free breakfast entree. now if you can't make it this morning the restaurant is running the same promotion the following thursday as well. get out there and enjoy your chicken. all right, so check out what's going on right now. because we had a happy teacher and she woke up to snow this morning. that's green holly elementary school and you can see the snow across the area. it's on the trees and it's on the ground. we have about an inch out there. and it's still coming down beginning to taper off so thank you so much for sending this in. it looks like you have a little bit of a delay this morning as well. as we check out what's going on live this morning, well we can

see the wet roadways now. in bel air. and we can see the snow on the grass. nothing on the roadways though. doesn't look like any type of snow probably the plows came through and did their thing there. but with these temperatures well below freezing, anything that's wet is going to freeze back up. so definitely take it easy and look for that black ice out there as well. 13 degrees right now in baltimore. stevensville coming in at 15. more of the same in laurel. and we are at 21 degrees right now in cambridge. but the bigger story is we still do have the winds, yes. light in nature. and out of the north at about 6 miles an hour and baltimore. 8 in stevesville. it is making it feel like we're in the single digits once again. what is this like the third day straight of this. really bundle up can cover the ear -- and cover the ears and fingertips and toes. at the surface we have high pressure that will begin to filter its way in here. we will still continue to have a mix of sun and clouds across the area for today. by tomorrow we will have

another crack at the wintry weather. that's because a clipper is going to come through in time for the commute home around 6:00, 7:00. it's going to drop another inch or two across the area and remember the temperatures have been really cold in the air and on the ground. anything that falls is going to stick right away. 27 degrees for today. 14 degrees that deep freeze will continue by tonight. and that seven day forecast abc2's most accurate seven day forecast has that warming trend kicking in by next week. let's get a check now of the abc2 timesaver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. good morning lynette. well, the snow is leading to an extremely hectic commute. we're dealing with accidents across the region. trouble in baltimore county with a crash on route 40 at rossville boulevard and another in dundalk on merit boulevard. and if you are traveling in nottingham watch out for the accident on white marsh boulevard. that's going to be right at walter boulevard. if you are going to 695 that is what it looks like at harford road. and we have a crash in the city on harford road right at placid

avenue. you can always stick with route 1 to get around the d the beltw going to take you 11 extra minutes to travel the outer loop from 795 down to 70. but the inner loop clear up to 83. charlie. the roads extremely slick. so take it slow this morning. >> we've seen the backups there are through the tower cams throughout the day so that's just a coin of things -- sign of things to come as more people start head out. >> exactly. >> you talk about bundling up? >> take it easy open the roadways. we'll have a break later today but the temperatures staying below freezing even throughout the day tonight is going to refreeze. black ice on the roads. >> and as a result we got closings throughout the day. school closings on delays. i want to emphasize delays. some closings, but the majority are delays. go to abc2news.com for the very latest on that list as it continues updating. as we leave you this morning, this is a live shot out of the northeast baltimore. you see a thin layer of snow and ice on the roads. snow-covered roads and sidewalks. we are back in half an hour.

that's a look outside the abc2 news studios. we'll see you soon. [ captions by: caption colorado, llc 800-775-7838 email: comments@captioncolorado.com ] [ harry umlaut ] here we go.

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