pat? >> reporter: jim, drama here in superior court today as lawyers for gilbert arenas fought to keep him out of jail. arenas heading home tonight, but if the prosecutor had his way, arenas would be locked up. the judge said he thought arenas did take responsibility for his actions. that he thought arenas was remorseful, that he thought arenas was a decent man, capable of great generosity. now the sentence handed down after arenas stood before the judge and said i'm sorry this all happened. every day i wake up and wish it didn't. i thought by lying i could protect my family, my teammates. i would rather keep a friend or teammate and lose everything else. i'm sorry i hurt mr. crittenton's family, mr. poland, the city of washington, what we did was stupid and irresponsible. i'm sorry again. i put everybody through this.

now after the sentence we heard from arenas' girlfriend, laura govan. >> i know you don't think he should go, do you? >> no, we're really excited and happy. thank you. >> reporter: this controversial gun case goes way back to december at the verizon center. this all got started last december when arenas and teammate javaris crittenton got into an argument over gambling debt. arenas threatened to shoot crittenton in the face and burn his car. arenas brought four guns to the wizards locker room at the verizon center. he placed the guns on the chair in front of crittenton's locker with a note that said pick one. as it turned out, crittenton had a gun of his own. the guns were not loaded. no shots fired.

arenas claimed this was a misguided practical joke, but the prosecutor wasn't laughing. in january arenas brought the court where he entered a guilty plea to one felony count of carrying a pistol without a license. after this crimina case became public, arenas was suspended by the nba. all images of the wizards' franchise player removed from the verizon center. >> arenas coming up court. >> reporter: arenas was making about $147,000 a game. with the suspension he forfeits more than $7 million of his salary. for his part, javaris crittenton pled guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge and received one year unsupervised probation. but the prosecutor claimed arenas was not worthy of probation because he attempted to cover up the crime. and because he did not appear to be truly sorry for what he did.

but the judge didn't buy into that. again, the sentence for gilbert arenas, 30 days in a halfway house, 18 months supervised -- suspended sentence, two years supervised probation, 400 hours of community service, no basketball camp a $5,000 donation to the victims assistance fund. the prosecutor wanted arenas to spend three months in jail, but that was not to be. jim, back to you. >> thank you, pat. and the wizards just released a statement about arenas. let's get more on that from dan hellie in the newsroom. >> as far as what this means for gilbert arenas, the basketball player, time will tell. the three-time all-star avoided jail time and no indication the wizards will try to void the remainder of his $111 million contract. the team said that gilbert is still a part of the organization, and just a few minutes ago, as you alluded to, they issued this statement.

we believe that today's sentencing of gilbert arenas can bring closure to the unfortunate situation that has played out over the last three months. gilbert has admitted his mistakes and will now pay his debt to our community. we are confident that he has learned something significant from this experience and we are now looking forward to moving on and focusing on building this team into a contender that our outstanding fans deserve. when you listen to those in the know, this was the best case scenario for gilbert arenas. shortly after the news came down, hakem dermish caught up with mike wise who might be the person in the media who was closest to gilbert. >> dramatic. like perry mason-esque in there. the -- i thought gilbert's lawyer did his best to poke holes in the prosecution's sentencing statement. the prosecution rebutted for a couple of minutes. surprisingly itas --

surprising there wasn't more back and forth. it was essentially all of gilbert's lawyer shooting down the prosecution's statement and i happened to be in an overflow courtroom where i could see his fiancee and she put her head down when the sentencing happened, a huge sigh of relief, i think, on her part when she realized in fact there would be no jail time for gilbert. >> repter: arenas' lawyer spoke for nearly an hour. we'll have a lot more coming up in a few minutes. guys? >> dan hellie, thanks, dan. the reaction from fans tonight is mixed about arenas' sentencing. john shiver has more. >> reporter: opinions are split right now as to whether the judge handed down a good sentence with gim bert arenas. one thing many people are agreeing on is that fans say arenas made a bad decision bringing guns into the arena.

>> that's not acceptable. a lot of kid, eecially in d.c. we already have problems with guns in d.c. he's a role model. he'll do his time. >> reporter: wizards fans and out of towner glued to the tv at clyde's to learn arenas' fate. for some, it just isn't good enough. >> he should get the se punishment as anyone who brings guns into the city or the district would get. he shouldn't get preferential treatment for being rich or famous or an athlete in the city. >> if he was a regular guy on the street, he would have gotten more. i don't know if that's what he deserved, but i think he should have gotten more. just because he's a star, he shouldn't be awarded only 30 days. >> he's alrey been suspended by the nba indefinitely. some feel after he serves his time, he should be back on an nba court. >> i feel like jail time isn't reasonable. i feel like he should pay some

type of consequence of some sort, you know? not sure house arrest or anything like that, but he should have time to think about his actions. >> everybody makes mistakes. people should be able to go through what they have to do and then they get over it and say, okay, you know what, i learned from my mistakes. he keeps doing it then, i'll have a problem with him -- being a fan of his. >> you would forgive him? >> i would. i think most people should be forgiven. >> you can see the poster now on the facade outside of the verizon center. that's the place where gilbert arenas' poster used to be. it was quickly taken down soon after the story emerged in january. only time will tell to see if gilbert arenas will be back with the wizards. live from the verizon center. good afternoon, good evening. veronica johnson here in storm center 4. get your coat ready. pull it back out if you're going to be out tonight. the skies clear, temperatures

will start trop idropping. here is the sky cam, we have gray across the area and showers down to the south around st. mary city. and down around hayes beach and south fredericksburg, all moving away from our area. in the 40s now. feels like we're in the low 40s. still a bit of a light wind blowing behind this weather system. the clouds, you can see them clearing out. western maryland, west central areas of -- west -- eastern areas of west virginia now, we're getting clearing skies. weather system moving away. cold temperatures tonight and below freezing. we have not seen temperatures below freezing yet this march. we will tonight, dropping between 20 and 30 degrees. your fast forecast, big weekend chill. wait until you check out the high temperares for each day. at least we have a warmup to talk abt. back to you. >> thanks, veronica. news out of prince georges county now, three teenagers injured after being involved in a serious car accident.

it happened about 3:00 in the 4300 block of lords landing road in upper marlboro. the car those teens were in ran off the road and hit a tree. all three were trapped inside. it took crews about half an hour to pull them out of the wreckage. one of the teenagers who is said to be in critical condition, another said to be in serious condition. investigators are looking into what caused that run off the road as they did. there was drama and excitement at a strip mall in northern virginia this morning. late this morning, after a woman drove her car through the front of a store. derrick ward has our story. >> reporter: it happened at the bradley center on king street. about 11:30. not a busy time at the foot solution shoe store and good thing it wasn't. >> the wall were falling down. we were scared. >> we heard a shutter. kind of like a bomb went off or something. >> reporter: this toyota camry

jumped the curb at the end of a parking space and ended up inside the store, coming to rest against a rear wall. >> we responded. we located drivers. she seems to be in good condition. >> reporter: no one was injured. that's remarkable, but not the only remarkable thing about this incident. >> two weeks ago, the same thing happened. the same place. but not as deep. a year ago, same thing, same place. >> reporter: so much for the business tenet of location, location, location. other merchants find it hard to believe. >> people came in, saying it happened. i thought they were talking about when it happened a couple of weeks ago. >> we're going to send them a bottle, i think, of wine. those poor people in that store deserve all our best wishes. >> reporter: they say the building is structurally sound. businesses on other side remained open throughout the incident. in alexandria, derrick ward, news 4. >> the car involved was a toyota camry. it doesn't appear to be a case

of phantom acceleration, the problem that caused so much problem for toyota recently. a water main break is creating a big mess for the afternoon rush. just before 1:00 this afternoon, a 12-inch main break in laurel on the northbound side of route 1 near gorman road. officials say it was an older pipe. a few customers were without water for a while. officials say northbound route 1 is in that area and will remain closed through rush hour while crews make repairs in the maryland state police are on the scene now helping to detour traffic around that. coming up tonight, the white house unveiled a new program to deal with the mortgage and the foreclosure crisis. a close call as a train nearly plunges into a virginia water way after a drawbridge mishap. david gregory will join us to talk about the health care debate or the latest developments they're in and other news. a bloodhound successfully tracks a woman who was lost in a county state park for the past two days. carol loves to rescue dogs,

and spends a lot of her time and money doing that. [ carol ] th're all rescues, yeah. thank you. thank you. so i decided to make my home their home. it just makes it a little harder to save for myself. we showed her how wachovia's way2save program can help. when carol uses her check card to make a purchase, a dollar is automatically transferred from her checking to her savings account. and she gets a bonus just for saving. the more i can save for me the more i can give to them. [ male announcer ] with you when it's time to save. wachovia. a wells fargo company.

that train nearly plunged off the bridge near check piece, virginia, this morning. the bridge over the intercoastal water way was open when the train came to a stop with the lead locomotive hanging over the edge. some diesel fuel spilled into the water, so it was closed, so workers could contain it and get the train back on the tracks. the engineer was able to make it out safely. there were no other injuries. officials are trying to figure out why a csx freight train derail on its way to philadelphia this morning. it happened near the howard county/baltimore line. nobody was injured. the train was carrying plastics and aluminum when it went off the tracks. there are no problems with any hazardous materials. still trying to figure out how it happened. a train derailed near route 100 near the baltimore howard county line. six cars are off the track. we have no word on what caused the derailment or if there are

any other injuries. you just said that, didn't you? >> yes. >> okay. >> in case you didn't hear it. >> we needed to make it clear. veronica, help us out here. >> well, one thing that i said already is that it is going to be cold tonight and i'll say it again because i don't want for it to be cold. i'm not ready to pull my coat and heavy wear back out again. or to turn on the heat tonig either. we look at the tidal basin, best day to head there this weekend will be saturday and you'll see why in a couple of minutes. 48 degrees i the temperature right now. we did start out around 50 degrees. that was the early part of the day, around 7:00 a.m. and we dropped to 43. now back up a little bit. 49 degrees, temperature was .32 of an inch of rain. hasn't been below freezing yet this month. h been a while. here we go, down, down, down tonight. big change in the temperatures

compared to yesterday at the same time. we were into the 70s yesterday. temperature change anywhere from about 20 to 30 degrees. d.c., richmond, norfolk, salisbury, we go from may-like temperatures to february. 49 the reading here. 47, norfolk. 48 in raleigh, north carolina. not too bad. cold air will be moving in behind this latest weather system which is already well off the coast and cloud cover is quickly clearing. western pennsylvania, western areas of west virginia and ohio too. this is what's left. solomon and down through the northern neck around hayes beach and st. mary's. all moving away from the area. we managed to pick up .42 of rain in great falls. .32 in alexandria where your temperature went from 60 to 49 degrees. all thanks to high pressure moving in and our winds calming down. we'll allow temperatures tonight to drop to below -- to drop between 25 and 30 degrees and

then we'll have a little bit warmer air for sunday morning. and there is our next weather system around the four corners area. it moves in sunday afternoon. and we're going to be looking at, again, rain showers across the area. cold air for you in chago. 49 degrees in great falls. and so much of the northern part of the country, it is going to be falling to freezing tonight. here we are, future cast, the next8 hours. there is the clear skies and sunshine to start the day tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. more sunshine throughout the day. and the best day out of the weekend because, again it rain from sunday from this fast moving other weather system making its way up the coast too for monday. not only wet on monday, but we're also going to get a little wind from monday and tuesday. 36 degrees. that's where we drop tonight. by the time we get to midnight, sunsets at 7:26. clearing skies early tomorrow morning. we're clear, we're sunny. sun is up at 7:01.

25 to 30 degrees. the winds will be fairly light. chilly and feeling like early march tomorrow 47 to 51 degrees. again, it is wet weather for the afternoon and early evening on sunday. cold start and a chilly weekend. >> thanks, veronica. the vatican is reacting to reports that pope benedict did not take action against a priest accused of abusing as many as 200 boys in wisconsin. the case involves reverend lawrence murphy. he is accused of molesting as many as 200 young boys at the st. john's school for the deaf during the '50s through the '70s. a new york times article says pope benedict, then a cardinal, failed to respond from letters from archbishops asking him for guidance in the case. the victims say the pope did not protect them. >> he assaulted this child here, this child here. >> his innocence was stolen from him. >> the case was briefly opened

before murphy died. but pope benedict ordered the case dropped. the vatican strongly is defending the pope. officials say the allegations are a media campaign to smear him and his aides. stillo come, police release video of an attack by a minute in tennessee on a police cruiser. > and get ready to dig deeper into your wallet for a date night at the movies.

we're talking love again this week with ellen mccarthy of the washington post. good to see you. >> they did the very first day they could. this is the couple that had been together for years and years and

years. they met through aol's online dating website and had sort of, you know, really grown up together in a lot of ways. they adopted two children together. they had bought and sold two houses together. they had gone through the process of making sure that their families were okay with their relationship, which really did take a while. when they found out that marriage would be legalized in d.c. they signed up right away. it was interesting. just this very small wedding and then they went out to dinner after and they went home. it wasn't about a wedding. it was about wanting to be married. >> the kids looked like they were very much involved in the ceremony. >> it was a family wedding and they all sort of really enjoyed it. >> great. okay, so date lab, we get to be voyeurs as people go out on their dates. who is the guy? >> he's 26, a congressional staffer, he's this really, you know, outgoing, sarcastic guy who is really lely to make

friends with everybody. he's a soccer player, has lots of interesting sort of a part time photographer, a huge foodie. he's looking for a chef with a great laugh -- >> world class or -- >> good luck with that. either one. >> who did you match him with? >> we set him up with heather, 25, not a stand-up comic but a satellite designer. so she's, you know, this really smart woman, kind of a little bit of a dork, a secret trekkie fan, supernear sport and getting outside. and so we sent them to spency. we thought they had so ny eclectic interests. there were moments of awkwardness because it was first blind date for both of them. they had star trek in common, you'll have to read on sunday to

find out whether or not they -- >> i'm curious to see how they got on. thanks, ellen. you can find out the details of steven and ann's date this sunday in the washington post.com/gog and get ideas on where to take your own dates on our website. coming up tonight, an update on the top story, the sentencing of the wizards star gilbert arenas in a gun case. david gregory joins us to talk about what's next in the battle over health care. or is it even over? > a woman lost in a virginia state park for two days.

welcome back to news 4. i'm jim vance. >> i'm wendy rieger. >> we begin this half hour with our top story, wendy. >> no jail time for gilbert arenas in that gun case. no jail time. the suspended washington wizards star will have to serve 30 days in a halfway house. 18 months of his sentence was suspended. he will be on supervised

probation for two years and will have to perform 400 hours of mmunity service which cannot include baseball camps. and he has to contribute $5,000 to the victims assistancfund. this all began in december of last year when arenas left four guns on a chair in the verizon center locker room with a taunting note for teammate javaris crittenton. arenas' legal problems then began on christmas eve. that's when the team reported the incident to the nba and to local police. in early january, arenas met with federal prosecutors about the case. but away from those meetings with prosecutors, he continued to make light o the incident. at one point using his fingers just before an away game to make a gunshot gesture. after that incident, he was suspended indefinitely by the nba and by january he was charged and then he pled guilty.

as for javaris crittenton, he pled guilty to a misdemeanor gun possession charge as part of a plea deal. prosecutor s agreed to drop a second misdemeanor charge against him. he was sentenced to one year unsupervised probation and fined $1250. he's also agreed to begin a mentoring program for kids in d.c. and to work with the nba on relief for haiti earthquake victims. we invite you to stay with news 4 and nbcwashington.com for continuing coverage of the gilbert arenas case. we'll have more live team coverage at 6:00. the latest on health care. lawmakers passed the final version of the halt care reform bill last night. this include some changes like better prescription drug benefits for seniors, and more funds for low income families. some top democratic lawmakers received threats in the wake of health care reform and the gop offices in albemarle, virginia,

have been vandalized. police are looking for the people who threw bricks through the headquarters there. the final bill goes to president obama for his signature. david gregory joins us now with discussion of all the important things going on this week and there is a bunch of them. >> absolutely. >> this health care thing, the president has to be feeling pretty good about this. it looked like this presidency was going down the tubes but it is not over yet, is it, by the long shot? >> he may have gotten the vote, but he may have won the argument. this will be an intense campaign. there is so much passion and anger in opposition to this. we have seen that playing out, people going way too far obviously with acts of violence against elected officials. and the president really from now to november will be saying this is what it is about, this is how it helps you. republicans are saying this is the true cost of this. so it will be extraordinary in that way. regardless, huge accomplishment for the president. he would muchather have it than not. >> and let me ask you what is the strategy, though, we have been arguing about this now for

what seems like, you know, years. and he goes out there, everyone is so die mametrically opposed this. does it become beating it to death? >> we spend our live immersed in the details of news. a lot of people are not as well acquainted with what is actually in the bill. and that level of confusion persists today when you have got 2400 pages in the bill. so people want to know what does it actually mean to me? what are the costs a the benef benefits? does this help the middle class. people say i have health care, i get through my job, i don't know what health care cost because my employer pays for it, why are we giving the subsidies away to the poor when it may be hurting me? all of these things have to be argued about and explained in many ways if it is going to become an accomplishment that they can really take home with them. >> there is not just a domestic victory for the president.

he's looking good on the international side with regards to the treaty with russia. >> with russia, right, and reducing the nuclear stockpiles. it was a key goal for the president. i think it was another example of where you want to see the administration move beyond health care. they want to campaign on this. but they want to get on to achieving some other things and moving beyond it too. >> sarah palin and john mccain together again, not on dancing with the stars, i take it. >> the -- mccain is feeling the brunt of the anti-incumbency move toward washington. he has to go out there and shore up support among conservatives in arizona. i worked out there. there is a pretty strong anti-government vibe out there. and that's why he's going to rely on sarah palin, still quite popular what do you have on sunday? >> senator senator graham on health care.

we like to make sure you heard what he said. so we'll repeat it. >> we repeat everything twice. >> sunday on nbc 4. there is a new warning about online scammers posing as u.s. soldiers to cheat women out of thousands of dollars. according to the investigators, the criminals pose as soldiers and become romantically involved with their female victims. once they ask the victim for money, for laptops and return plane tickets, they're often from other countries and use real soldier information. army officials say be suspicious if you're asked for money, for transportation costs, for computers or communication fees, or medical fees. date night at the movies is going to cost you more. and we're going to tell you more about other kinds of things. in fact, a big week for one

fairfax county police officer and his partner as well. >> all

a big week for fairfax county police officer and his partner. his dog, that is. they found a woman who was missing for two days and was near death when they found her. julie carey has more on this life saving team. >> reporter: this hardly looks like a face of a hardened crime fighter. but the aptly named scnozz sniffed out some bad guys lately. and he saved a life. the harness is the first signal he and pete are about to get busy. >> once he sees the harness come out, he gets it over his head and he knows he' going to work. what we do is we present him with some article we collected at the scene, let him get a smell of it.

>> that's what happened wednesday night. they found an abandoned car near this restroom and searched for its owner. they tracked down her family, got an article of clothing and the dog went to work. >> worked down a trail head, about 100 yards and he took off into the wood line for about a quarter of a mile. working through the tree line, a lot of downed trees. >> reporter: it wasn't long before he found what he was looking for, the mentally disabled 53-year-old missing woman. >> she was at the base of the tree, covered in leaves, barely coherent, obviously suffering from exposure. with the temperatures and her condition when we saw her, i don't know if she would have made it another night or two out there. >> reporter: not all o his work is done in the deep woods. a w weeks ago he tracked the scent from a carjacked taxi to the suspect's front door.

the department added bloodhounds in 2003. this dog is the second generation. >> great asset, proved us over and over again how valuable they are as part of our overall canine unit. >> reporter: especially on the days he gets his man or like this week makes a rescue. >> it is a fantastic feeling. it is great to take their innate ability to hunt animals and turn it into hunting humans and locating people and hopefully save some lives and catch something bad men. it is the most rewarding feeling you can achieve in this line of business. >> they are two years old and after intense training it they have begun their police work. their handlers hope they will have long productive careers with the force. back to you. >> thanks, julie. police released dash cam video of a dog that had an appetite for police cars. the officer in chattanooga,

tennessee, was filling out a report last week when he noticed his police cruiser was shaking. winston, a pit bull x, and t other canine accomplices had managed to tear off a section of his bumper and were going for the tires. the officer had trouble stopping them. he used his taser and chemical spray and they were not in any way phased. winston was released to his owner yesterday. a judge sentenced him to obedience school and has to take canine good citizen classes as well. probly lots of classes. wow. coming up tonight, the white house unveiled a program to deal with the mortgage and the foreclosure crisis. i'm liz crenshaw. why have the birds started making so much noise in the early morning? that's the question. the answer is coming up on a liz on news 4 at 5:00. and in sports, sam has more

friday dance party music. why does the president use multiple pens when signing a bill? do checks expire? and why are the birds making such a racket all of a sudden? it is friday and liz crenshaw is here to fill us in on all of that. welcome, welcome. >> the early morning birds are -- >> they're quite noisy. first question from several viewers about the presidential signings as we saw, the president, he often uses a lot of different pens when he signs legislation. how come? >> why does he do that? it is a good question. president obama used many

different pens earlier this week when he signed that health care bill. we called the white house to get the story. it says when the president signs important legislation, many groups are advocates or citizens have worked hard to get the bill passed. so the president uses many pens so they can be presented to people or groups, a showing of respect and recognition for those folks. also, if the bill has historical significance, the president will use several pens to sign it and the pens are then displayed throughout the country. an example would be the pens that president roosevelt used to sign the new deal. >> okay. >> that's why there are so many. it took him forever. >> everyone gets a little piece. >> when does a check go stale? this next question is from john and judith. is there a staard that says the check is out of date after a certain point? >> we contacted the american bankers association and wachovia for this answer. the american bankers association says under the uniform commercial code, a check that is

outstanding for more than six months is considered stale. a bank is under no obligation to pay a check when it is presented more than six months after the date it was written. wachovia says it also follows that uniform commercial code, but banks may choose to cash a six-month or older check in good faith. so it is the law, they cannot -- if they don't want to, but if they want to, they can help you out. >> our last question from a viewer in silver spring getting early morning wakeup calls lately. she asked why the are the birds going crazy in the early morning. all of a sudden they wake her up at 5:00 a.m. with wild, crazy chirping. is there a way to silence them? >> can we get them quieter? we went to david butcher. he says early spring, transition time for the birds. in the winter many birds are in large flocks and in the spring, they move around. if it is a flock that settled into your neighborhood, they should move on relatively soon. however, it is also the time of year when birds settle into spring territories.

these guys may be harder to get rid of. dr. butcher says once settled into his territory, a bird will sing his heart out to attract females and defend against other males. their favorite time to sing, yep, dawn or predawn hours. this is all a spring phenomon, so by summer the noises will end for sure. as for the efforts to discourage birds from settling into your backyard, dr. butcher says the only thing that will work is to get rid of the vegetation that the birds are using but that will leave you with a pretty bare yard. if you have a question you would like us to consider, just send it to us. use this e-mail address to contact us about any story, idea, that you have. >> you get used to the birds. >> get up early with them. yeah. >> just wildlife. >> it is nature. >> those men being loud in the morning. >> yes. whatever. >> now the forecast. >> wet and chilly today. wet and chilly and look at our nature photo here. this was sent in by william

fulsen. this squirrel coming out for a quick drink of water. if you have photos you want to get to me, i'll get them on. veronica.johnson@nbcuni.com. skies will clear overnight. sun will come up at 7:01. sunshine throughout the day. but the high only 50 degrees. only up to 53 on sunday. it is sunday right now where it does look like rain will move back in during the afternoon. the bulk of the evening and through the day on monday, but take a look at thursda yfriday. next week this time, back up to 70 degrees. back to you. >> thanks, veronica. let's head back downstairs to the newsroom and dan hellie with more on the gilbert arenas sentencing today. no jail. >> no jail. safe to say gilbert arenas going home a happy man tonight no jail time. he get 30z days in a halfway house. two years probation. 400 hours of community service. and a $5,0 fine.

tnt analyst david aldridge joining me now. you covered gilbert arenas since he entered the league. a lot of people surprised by this sentence. would you put yourself in this category or no? >> whenever you talk about a legal proceeding and one judge deciding it, i defer to them. this is a judge apparently who was fairly lenient, so i think the fact that they only asked for three months tells you they weren't expecting the full five years to be hanned down by this guy. not shocked. i'm sure from the outside it looks kind of strange. >> some people might say this is a rich guy getting a great deal. you have another camp that will say he's already lost 25 to $30 million in salary and endorsements. you talk about gilbert arenas, the basketball player, the wizards said i a statement that, okay, this is concluded this series of events. in reality, it is just starting for them. what are they going to do here? >> right now, i believe they are genuine in their desire to bring

him back, which shocks me. but i think they look at it as, you know, he's an asset, he's clearly still the best player they have til things change this off season. i think realistically what they're saying is if someone wants to make a trade for this guy, we're not going to cut him or buy him out or void his contract. all of those things are difficult to do anyway. in the main, we're going to keep this player who has some ability and if you want him, you have to deal with us. >> he has ability and right now his value is an at all te low. who is to say it couldn't shoot back up again and they can trade him. >> exactly. averaging 22-7 when he got suspended. if he can come back and have similar numbers when he comes back, the contract is big, $80 million. but, look, everybody in this league can get traded. i thought howard could never get traded and going to traded. anybody's contract can be traded in this league if somebody wants them bad enough. >> it seems like when this first

went down there was no way he's ever going to play for the wizards again. got to get rid of this, void his contract. now you have a team that has been stripped to the bone and i know he's not going to call himself agent zero anymore. >> agent 6. >> right. new number will be the building block. can you build this team, can you win with gilbert arenas as your starter and not even talking about what happened now, just him -- >> not the way he has played the last couple of years, no. if he is that guy in 2007 making an all-star team, a dynamic player, guy who won games for you at the end, that talent level with a lot of mature, yes, that's the guy you can build around. haven't seen that guy since 2007. we need to see gilbert arenas, a team guy, a team first guy, not going to break off plays because he wants to shoot threepeaters, will defer to his other teammates, try to get them involved, will give you effort on defense. that's what the wizards are going to have to -- if you can

give any pretense to building a team around this guy. >> they'll have to wait and see on gilbert arenas. defense has not been his strongest. david aldridge, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. coming up next, you'll want to carry extra cash if you go to the movies this weekend. we'll tell you why. we'll show you a comparison of the cost of rents in d.c., new york, l.a. and other places. and if you are an early riser, we have a programming note. monday morning, news 4 today will begin at 4:30, every week day morning. so tune in for your news, weather and traffic starting at a new time on monday, 4:30, bright and early.

if you're going to the movies this weekend, bring extra cash. theaters are rising their ticket prices for the 3d movies. accord to the wall street journal, prices for the film

"how to train your dragon" have gone up $3 in boston, a $14.50 ticket. prices for the 2d version will up 3% or 4%. a new study says it is more expensive to rent in d.c. than other cities in the country. the district has the sixth highest rent in the nation according to a report from the center for housing policy. the average monthly rent for a two bedroom apartment is about $1500. where is that? good luck with that. $1500 for a two bedroom. that ps the district ahead of l.a., which is number ten. and new york which is number 13. san francisco is the most expensive place to rent. there the average is about $1760 a month. earlier this week president obama's administration was criticized for not doing enough fast enough to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. today the government announced new mortgage aid program to help keep more people in their homes.

tracie potts has more. >> reporter: the signs just keep coming and the community group showed congress this is how many american homeowners face foreclosure, almost 3 million last year. and this -- >> these are the amount of homes -- >> reporter: is how many government programs have helped. less than half a million. >> i come to you from the front lines of america's foreclosure crisis to tell you that the battle is being lost. >> reporter: so the obama administration announced a new plan using $14 billion from bank bailout funds to encourage banks to refinance or reduce loans for borrowers who owe more than their home is worth. >> for the investor, it will be cheaper to write down a portion of it and get them to an affo affordable loan than hold them on the balance sheet. >> reporter: will it work? >> he's only helping those who are up to date on their payments. so many families are behind in their mortgage, face ballooning interest rates and so forth, they really can't be helped. >> reporter: critics say it is not fair a bailout for people who bought more home than they

can afford. supporters argue, at this point, we're all in the same boat. >> i might not be the one who made the holes in the bottom of the boat, but if we don't plug those holes, we all sink a little bit. >> reporter: tracie potts, nbc news, washington. >> the obama administration is hoping that the new program will help meet its goal of saving 3 million to 4 million homeowners from foreclosure. thanks for watching news 4 at 5:00. news 4 at 6:00 coming up right now. gilbert arenas will not go to jail for taking guns into the verizon center. a judge today issued a sentence for the man that was once the face of the washington wizards franchise. good evening. i'm jim vance. >> i'm wendy rieger. doreen gentzler is off tonight. several months after that dispute, arenas now knows what his