temperatures this evening between 22 and 25. you talk about needing a coat. they say normally, hey, you need body heat. how about fitting somebody else in that coat. mostly clear tonight and tomorrow morning. windchills between minus 5 and plus 5. that's the first time i've had to use the minus sign on windchills in quite some time. 18 as we move through the day tomorrow. partly sunny. windy. very cold. the numbers between 28 and 32 degrees. e wichills between 10 and 18 all day. once again, the winds will be between 15 and 25 miles an hour gusts upwards of 35 miles an hour. high of 32 degrees tomorrow, 32 on thursday. that's when we could see snow. right now i have a 50% chance of that snow. i think we could see a 60, 70% chance of snow. it's looking a little better for snow today on thursday. this is not going to b a big snow. but it doesn't matter.

we are going to have the potential for some accumulating snow. maybe one to two inches of snow out there on friday and saturday. highs around 39 degrees. it's cold. >> yes, it is. thank you, doug. welcome to news 4 at 5:00. i'm wendy rieger. >> and i'm barbara harrison. >> we have break news tonight. a northern virginia man is arrested accused of posting online threats against metro. >> that's right, investigators say the suspect was making the threats on facebook, and someone tipped off the fbi. joining us now is pete williams. pete, good evening. >> good evening to you. >> how do they catch this guy? he's posting on facebook, it's not like he's real stealth. >> exactly. i think the first thing to point out is, this is the a lot different than the cases we heard in the last coupleeeks. different than the case of the attempted bombing of the recruiting station or the d.c. metrplot that was announced in november. those were all stings in which

the people under investigation took a long series of steps to plot attacks. this is very different, this is a very simple charge posting a threat in interstate communications. what authorities say is 25-year-old oasis eunice who made threatening chats with someone on facebook. acrding to the fbi and court documents, he made comments about how he could build pipe bombs, put them under the sewers in georgetown, he can place them, he said, even on cars on the d.c. metro system. apparently this person he was chatting with tipped off the fbi. the fbi then began investigating. but apparently because of that tip-off, according to authorities, eunice then got in contact again with this person and said, in essence,ou're going to be sorry for what you did. so for those two reasons, threatening the person and making the threats against the subway, the fbi chged him with

making a threat through interstate communications. auorities say he never had any bombs, he never had any destructive devices. there's no indication he actually did know how to make a pipe bomb >> this was just a lot of bravado, perhaps? >> according to the charges, that's as far as it goes. >> what do we know about him, what does the fbi know about him? >> he's from afghanian, he's been living in arlington i'm not sure how long. but, you know, this charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. this is very different than the threats and the cases we've seen the past couple weeks in which the charges have been attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. in those cases someone built what they thought was a bomb. there's none of that here. >> ok. interesting. pete williams, thank you so much. we're going to check out our weather, which is really making news all around the country right now >> the official start of winter is a week wh a way. but you know mother nature

doesn't care. we have snow covered streets this morning. the temperature is still brutally cold, gusty winds are just ripping through you, and it's not over yet. let's get more from doug. >> hi, doug. you. >> talk about some of the worst types of weather that we see here, you know we have the blizzards like we had last season. but we never really had any extremely cold air, even thgh we did have the blizzards, we were around average. today was 20 degrees below average. some of the coldest numbers we have seen in early december in many, many years. i've been looking at the last six years, i could not find a day colder than this one as far as the windchill was concerned can. out there right now, we're looking at partly cloudy skies. windchill 11. sustained at 20iles an hour. look right now at our curre temperatures, 20 in hagerstown, 21 in sterling and 21 down toward manassas. you add in the wnd and this is what you get, you get the windchills.

41 mile an hour wind gusts in sterling, and 32 down toward la plata. extremely windy today. that's why we've been seeing the windchills at 4 degrees. 8 in frederick, 8 in sterling toward ashburn, resten, herndon. over toward falls church, current windchill sitting around 9 right now. same as in baltimore. manassas, that windchill is 5. i think we will see some aas with windchills below freezing -- or rather below zero. so does the national weather service. that's why they have a windchill advisory for areas y see highlighted in blue. frederick county, virginia, warren county, virginia. also down toward madison county. we're looking at windchills belowzero, maybe down toward minus 10 to minus 5 overnight. that's how cold it's going to be. even though the rest of the area is not under a windchill advisory, we're goi to see windchills close to 0 tonight.

a few clouds streaming in from time to time. the main area of snow has been moved toward the north, up the toward philadelpa we've seen some snow bands toward philly. for our area, not much in the way of that, like we saw last night. we saw some areas that did see some that snow. cold overnight tonight. very windy overnight tonight. temperatures dip don into the teens. and then we've got a storm system that i think will bring us snow on thursday. i'll talk more about that coming up a little later on. >> thanks, doug. winds, severe weather does hit people in oneocal county here. we'll have a new high-tech tool to battle the winter stuff coming at us. all have you to do is go online. >> john schrien is live in rockville, maryland with what's being done to keep residents safe after a snowstorm. john? >> as cold as it is out here, the good news is, we haven't seen any significant snowfall just yet. as can you see here, we are here with plenty of snowlows ready to go, they're sitting here i' l

id. montgomery county wants residents to know where the plows have been. >> this year ace snow immeately reminded me of last year. >> the dusting gave residents flash books of snowmageddon. it left people kooped up at home with cabin fever wondering the roads were safe. this year after investing 16 $0,000 into a high-tech computer system, montgomery county is letting you know whether to venture outside your house. >> reporter: you can see if county roads have been plowed, are in the process of being cleared or haven't been touched at all. here's how it works. after logging on to the county website, click on the link, then ty in your address. >> it will show you within a two mile radius of the area around your house. of course, as with the google

map, you can zoom in and zoom out. >> after looking at the legend you can see this residential area is in the process of being cleared. to get a better idea of what's going on in altime, the map also connects you to 180 cameras placed at intersections and state roads around the county. >> click on the camera. this particular cama is on river road. that will open a niftyialogue box. can you click on a camera and visualize that progress. >> try to take alternativ routes to drive. i think that will be an additional two to three years. >> it's not just residential areas, this map is so equipped with tools toet you see what it looks like around bus stops, metro stations and schools. county officials say this is in the infant stag. eventually they want to equip all these plows with some sort of a gps device so residents can

see where they are in realtime. john schriffen, back to you in the studio. >> people snowed in on their streets are going to love the gps thing. also today, some developing stories -- a development in a story that's been going on for a while. raymond brown, a popular hip-hop music producer, shot and killed in 2006 while he was chase a thief outside his prince georges county home. today the mawho pulled the trigger was sentenced. >> pat collins reports on that too. it brought a sense of satisfaction to the victim's family. >> justice is served. he's now serving the time that he should be serving for the rest of his life. >> it took more than four years, but today at the prince georges county courthouse danielle brown says she got the justice she was looking for. danielle brown, the widow of

well known music producer raymond scotty beats brown, gunned down in his mitchellville neighborhood back in october of 2006. killed by a guy who was trying to steal the wheels off his chrysler car. danielle brown says that day changed her life forever. >> it broke me. there would be months at a time where i wldn't even come out of the house. i would sleep all weekend, i would cry, i would wake up, have nightmares. it was unbelievable to me that somebody would take a life over a set of wheels and not give a second thought to it. >> reporter: the gunman, the killer, jamaal alexis sentenced today to 140 years in jail. linda brown is the victim's mother.

>> he was a good person, a wonderful perso i'm still dealing with the fact that he's not here, so that's all i have to say. i just wanted to thank the people who brought this nightmare to a close for me. >> this was a complex criminal investigation that took years to piece together. >> it took a while for the police to put the case together. a while to get the trial done. >> convicted killer jamaal alexis is 2 years old. he'll be eligible for parole in 2080, when he's 94. i'm pat collins, news 4, prince georges county. >> jamaal alexis' brother is also under arrest, charged with murdering a witness who saw alexis shoot and kill the music producer. six people including three young children are dead after strong winds helped intensy a house fire in baltimore, maryland. it happened just before 5:00

this morning, firefighters say they were inside and forced to evacuate when high winds spread the fire. it spread to three other homes before it wa put out. that's when firefighters searched and discovered the six bodies inside. coming up in our next half hour, we'll hear from family members of the victims as investigators search for answers into what sparked the fire. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back. the mercury fillings that have been used in our teeth for more than 100 years. another study may say they are dangerous or could harm us >> and cause alzheimer's disease.

how safe are the silver fillin that are in your teeth. the fda has said in the past the mercury is not harmful. today they kicked off a two-day meeting to investigate. >> reporter: dentists have been filling cavities with amalgum fillings for decades. they're a combination of met including mercury. mercury is poison. the question is whether it poses

a health risk in fillings. dr. ada cooper is a spokesperson for the association. >> it's an extreme when i important option that patients should have. >> reporter: fillings are often the cheapest and longest lasting option. some blame them for health problems. one woman developed severe balance problems in 1998. >> i didn't know what happened to me. >> reporter: doctors thought she had ms or lupus. th suspected acute mercury toxicity and removed 12 mi fillings. >> mercurys somewhere in the body, but i am 98% proved without having those mercury filling in my teeth. >> reporter: she's telling her story to the fda's panel of experts during a two-day meeting. >> the fda will apparently not

make any specific recommendations related to amalgum fillings but will discuss safe levels of mercury exposure. we have just anothe day. we're on our second week of this. >> yeah, and this is a colder week than it was last week, and we could ha yetnother e. >> the winds -- >> last week we had winds gustinging to 40 miles an hour. we have that again today. not just during the day, but during the evening hours as well. that's what makes it so cold out there. we are dealing with partly cloudy to mostlyclear skies across the area. this is differt than what we saw last night when we were dealing with mostly cloudy skies and snow flurries around the region. what a we seeing? temperatures of 25 degrees right now winds out of the west northwest at around 20 miles an hour, the windchill 11 degrees. it is cold, we can't say it enough. 21 in frederick, 21 in sterling. temperatures, the coldest we've

en this early. we've only see 20s in the month of december three times over the last six years this is just another time. 32 in frederick right now, current wind gusts. 41 in sterling. 32 right now in manassas, the winds t toward the air force base at 33. t toward andrews. what are we going to be seeing. the windchill, that's what's really the problem. 4 in hagerstown, it feels like 4 in sterling. this is the area i'm most concerned about for windchills below zero tonight. four degrees is enough. cold enough, we may be around four below in some of tse areas by the time you wake up tomorrow morning the winds are really not going to die down all that much. that's why we have a windchill advisory to the west. we're talking about areas around culpepper just tthe west of culpepper, the west of charlottesville. places like that for windchill, upwards of minus 10 to minus 5 degrees. and inside our area, we could still see windchills close to zero. even around the city.

i'm thinking about five degrees abovezero. that is a very cold night and very cold morning. here are the lake effect streamers that continue to come in. they will stay to the north overnight tonight windy and cold tonight. windy and cold for the day tomorrow as well. the wind will begin to subside by late tomorrow afternoon. it is going to stay cold. right now i think the storm will stay down to our south, which means we will stay on the cold side. the northern side, and that will provide us with some snow i think on thursday. how much snow? a little too early to tell. this is going to be a vy first fast moving system. even if we saw a half inch or inch of snow. that's going to cause a lot of problems on the roadways as the temperatures have been so cold. it's going to stick very very easily. >> mostly clear this evening. windy clear and cold as we move rough the night tonight and into early tomorrow morning. the numbers just bne chilling, 15 to 18 degrees. windchills between minus 5 and

plus 5 with the winds gusting to 20 and 30 miles an hour. 28 to 32 degrees tomorrow as we mo on through the next four days, chance of snow on thursday. i think a pretty good chance, especially south of the district and friday and saturday. warming up, i'm glad we're warming up on friday. because i will be live in somebody's front yard on friday. and wait until you see this house. we just made -- we just found out who we're going to go see. this house is amazing. if you'd like us to come 20 your house for the holidays, e-mail us those pictures at weather@nbcwashington.com. >> you may have a little snow on the ground when you go out there? >> it could be. thursday's snowstorm. tonight at 11:00, i'll give you detas on how much i think we'll get. >> thanks so much. what are your kids smoking? pot is actually more popular than cigarettes among high school students. he graduated in 1959 from

dunbar high school. now he hopes to restore his alma matter's faded glory. why tearing down the school is the only way to build it up. how do you keep your energy costs from rising.

forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for our military, veterans and their families. froinvestments.. to life insurance... to health care optios. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242-usaa.

you may soon see electric cars buzzing around the area. one rline may just let you do that for a fee. frigid temperatures translate into higher heating bills. list crenshaw is here to tell us how we c cut down on the costs. >> we're going to start with that chevy volt. washington is one of the first markets in the country to receive the electric car. a limited number of chevrolet volts left gm yesterday. we spoke with a handful of area dealerships today who say they are expecting at least one of

the vehicles in the coming weeks. dozens more all presold by the way are expected to arrive in the d.c. metro area over the next year. gm says the volt is the world's first and only electric vehicle with extended range capability. it combines battery only electric, driving with an efficient gas powered engine and the volt goes nearly 400 miles before having to be recharged. they're excited about that. the first frigid temperatures of the season have arrived. how can you stay warm without causing your energy bill to skyrocket? take control of your thermostat, turning down the heat to 68 degrees in the winter is going to save you 5 to 10% on your heegt bill. another tip, wrap your water pipes. by insulating the pipes you can reduce your monthly bill. inlating the first three feet of pipe can raise the water temperature 2 to 4 degrees. >> consider putting an

insulation jacket or blanket around yourater heater. can you save 4 to 9% in water heating costs. another way to save energy, replace those traditional holiday lightsith led's. they can save up to 90% of the energy costs of traditional lights. and put your holiday lights on a timer. this too is going to save yo energy and money. if you're looking to book a flight. continental is going to allow customers to reserve their airline tickets for up to a week. the airline calls it fare lock. fees to reserve a ticket range from 5 to $9 depending how long it's on hold. the new feature gives customers extra time to plan their travel before purchasing a ticket. the fare lock is available on certain domestic and international flights. i think they're going to be giving us this opportunity and then charg us a fee to do it. >> that's the way of the airlines. >> they'reaking a lot of

money. >> banks learned how to make money off of fees? and now the airlines can make money off of fees. >> i want to charge people just foranging their coat up in my closet. >> that's right. coming up next, baby jesus, the manger and luke skywalker? one local county is allowing several different holiday themes to be displayed in front of the courthouse. >> it's a new trend.

> high winds fuelled a deadly fire in baltimore this morning. six people, including three children were killed when flames got too hot for firefighters. this happened in home wood avenue in east baltire. the victims haven't been officially identified. but a relative says they were an elderly couple their garden daughter and her three young ildren. >> i have no words to say right now. shock. >> reporter: for darryl faulkner who lost his two children in the blaze, there's really nothing he can say, as relatives try to comfort him. friends of the family, it's

the only thing we have right now. god bless us, that's all we have right now. just hold on. that's all we can do. >> reporter: offials say it was just before 5:00 tuesday morning when the fire broke out in a number of homes in the 2300 block of home wood avenue in east baltimore. it's believed the fire started in the end unit, 2311 and spread do because of heavy winds. when the fire was final put out, residents made it out okay. but firefighters would find six bodies in 2309, three adults and three children. relatives i.d.'d them as eleanor and richard satterfield, their daughter and her three children. >> they were beautiful children. i mean, and to see six bodies die in a fire around the

holidays and -- it's just overwhelming for me. >> family members of the victims can't believe their loved ones are gone. firefighters also had a tough time gripping the situation once the fire was out. >> to be confrond with six lives lost. it totally devastating. it's very difficult for our firefighters to con front that. it's something we never looked forward to. >> in the meantime, fire inveigators are looking into the cause. relatives said the family did use space heaters in their home, it's too early to speculate. it's also unknown if any of the homes had working smoke detectors. >> to burn up in a fire, it's so heinous here. can you just hope and pray for the togetherness, the unity and the oneness for the family right now. >> the red cross is helping about 30 other people who have been displaced by the fire damage. drug use is on the rise among teenagers.

drugs are more common than cigarette smoking. a new survey finds marijuana use among eighth graders went up in the past year from 14.5% to 16%. researchers found ecstasy and heroin use also increased, especially for high school seniors. binge drinking went down, but abuse of prescription drugs like vicodin remained high. hundreds of federal workers who enjoyed ahortened commute may enjoy the rush hr congestion once again. three major teleworking centers in northern virginia are being foed to close. they're the latest casualty o tightening budgets. julie cary is live with more. >> reporter: you see it behind me, this kind of stop and go commute allows workers to telecommute at least a new days aweek. but some federalmployees could

be right back in the thick of the commute again. malcolm mccloud hits the road from fredericksburg on 4:15 a.m. on the days he commutes into d.c. two days a week, thers a reprieve, he works instead st ten minutes from home at this telework center. one of 13 in the washington metro area. e general services administration has recently put the centers on notice. funding will end in march, most will be forced to close. >> it was a surprise and a shock. i'm disappointed. i enjoyed the telework center. >> the announcement comes just as president barack obama signed the telework bill. the 13 centers cost $3 million a year serving 300 people. when the centers were open 15 years ago, the ia was they'd pay for themsels. that hasn't happened. virginia congressman frank wolf

is a long time advocate of teleworking, butdvances in technology mean the centers are noonger necessary. and that the goal of the telework bill is to get workers off the road all together. >>veryone now can telework. again, internet, wifi, laptop, skype. the technology has so revolutionized this, that you don't really need a telework center. >> the managers of several northern virginia telework centers say there is still a need for their work facilities. >> over the years we've been growing. it's not so much the people but the amount of days we have here. our utilization coinues to grow. >> they also point out i rural areas, working from home is still not always an option. >> we have a gentleman who lives out in the country, if you will, and he -- the only thing he h for internet service is dialup. >> some teleworkers fear anywhere agencies won't let them work at home, inspite of the new telework bill. >> coming up on news 4 at 6:00

i'll take a look at what -- whether any of the telework centers will be le to survive these cuts. the senate is expected to pass president obama's tax cut tonight or early tomorrow. the deal includes an extension of unemployment benefits for the next 13 mont. and it allows tax cuts for all income levels to continue for another two years, which republicans like. when the bill moves on to the house, you can expect to hear mo democratic cricism of the huge estate tax break which benefits the wealthiest of the nation's wealthy. ultimately, the package is expected to pass in time to prevent a tax hike. coming up next, dashcam video captures the play by play. we'lsee who stepped in to help a police offic being attacked by a driver. and why a secret santa is handing out cash

a woman steps in to help an officer attacked in the line of duty. a secret santa handing out cash to strangers. and a youtube video that has people talking. a police officer stops a man for missing headlights. e man becomes belligerent resists arrest and starts a fight. while trying to grabt officer's gun and taser, a good samaritan comes to the officer's aid and beats the man in the head. this is a woman, she's credited with stopping what could hve turned into a deadlysituation. and there they go. another gesture of good will in california. an anonymous santa has been handing out gift cards near san jose. rosemary was handed a card monday morning. the person who gave it to her

was gone before she could do anything. inside the card cash ranging fr 10 to $20. it encourages recipients to shop at local businesses. a group of wise cracking fruits was one of the top ten most watched videos of the year on yotube. it came in at number four. >> you've seen that one of the fruits? >> no. >> i can tell we're going to be seeing a lot of it in the next couple days. >> true. out with the old and into the 21st century. a d.c. high school is getting a major makeover. and in sports, lindsay sits down for lun with travis pastrana. coming up tonight at 6:00. praise in washingto for ambassador holbrook who passed away following surgery for a tear in his aorta.

the keyto slowing down the middle agedweight gain. those stories and more coming up.

for near four years now, the district has been on a billion dollar mission to repair or replace every dilapidated school building in the city. >> now it's taking on a $100 million plan to erase dunbar high school. tom has more to tell us about what's going to happen to dunbar. >> reporter: vincent gray graduated from dunbar. that was in 1959. dunbars not what it used to be. the city's first black high school and a beacon for academic excellence for decades. named for the poet paullawrence dunbar. >> it had an atmosphere that was conducive to learning. >> mayor gray was a pruoud graduate in 1959. well before it was replaced in the 1970s with windowless

concrete. a architecture sal style that closed in students and turned its back on the neighborhood. >> now they will, mayor fenty and adrian gray announced they will spend a million dollars to upgrade the school. current students welcome t new school. >> we wish we had this and we wish the school oked like this and the scho looked like that. i'm grateful. >> i think this new school will be happy to go to the new school. >> the n school should be ready in2013. students have to stay in the old school until the new one is

completed. that'she bad news. here's doug with a final check on the weather. doug? >> temperatures around 25 degrees. windchill, though, that's the problem once again. with the windchill up 11 outside right now. let's take a look. the windchills tonight between zero and ten degrees. that's going to be all we see. we see partly cloudy skies. high temperatures in the upper 20s through the northwest. around the freezing mark. windchills tomorrow still only in the teens all day long. then on thursday, we see a good ance for snow. how much snow? well, i'll tell abt you that coming up tonight at 11:00. i'll have a snowfall map out there. 32 degrees on thursday, then fridaynd saturday. warming up a little bit. hi temperatures into the 30s and as we look toward the extended forecast. another chance for snow coming

up on sunday. right now i think most of this activity will stay off the coast. if it comes inland we could be talking about a significant snowstorm. we'll talk more about that tonight at 6:00 and then again at11:00 aswell. i keep thinking of pastrami. we'll find out in a minute. >> today we understand that lindsay is sitting down with travis pastrana. a maryland native known as a dare devil. did you have pastrami? >> no, but we had plenty of other stuff his mother cooked. it was wonderful. travis pastrana is crazy, but at's what makes him well known. he will run seven nationwide ras in 2011. one thing he always makes time for, his mama's cooking. he invited us to lunch on his

recent stop through maryland. >> moments away, travis pastr a pastrana. ♪ >> grandma cooks a lot of different stuff. you have two optis, te it or leave it. there's usually leftovers from the day before and the new stuff. >> how do you pick what you're doing now? how do you figure out what you're going to try next? you. >> think, where do i wnt to go. you think what can i do in that country that i can do here. >> we really want to go to nama. okay, we went to costa rica. we can sky dive and land on the beach. you can race on the beach an

stuff. a lot of it didn't make the show. a lot of it -- we do it just for fun. you. >> were 14 when you had your bad accident, right? yeah, i think i just turned 15. >> i read that you were one of only three people in the world that have come out of the injury you suffered, right? >> that's what they told me. >> basically the joint. the spinal column, they blew and shattered the hips. so the spinal column went two centimeters down. >> and the trick you were doing at that time. >> you were in a coma for two weeks? >> really i just kept passing out. >> so kind of a self-induced coma. i wasn' tough enough to with stand the pain. it was pretty interesting, i realized you could only take so much pain. the first thing i remember, getting surgery, coming out, laying down. mom going are you sure? are you positive this is what you want to do? and i'm like, the doctor said i could go back out and do the

event. i ow i can make that jump. >> does it ever get difficult for you knowing how your family might get scared when you're doing a big stunt? >> i'm sorry? >> you appear to people, and i know you said you appeared to be a fairly fearless guy. what are you scared of? >> you're scared of commitment? >> i'm really afraid of falling asleep on airplanes. i have night terrors and i always scream and run at full speed. >> looking back on the double flip you completed. what were you thinking before you fully went and did it? what are you think something do you have any rituals to get yourself ready? >> no, some things just feel good. it's weird, but the energy in

the stadium was so high. thdouble flip, everything felt right. i remember the smells, the sights, everything, it was so clear. >> tell me abo that. >> usually it only happens when you really tnk you're going to hurt yourself or die. your body takes the adrenaline, instead of freezing up. a lo of the x games or action sports guys do really well, they use that to slow down timing and think about what they're doin it's a good time, and if you thinit's not going to last forever. good family, good friends, do it while you can, you know? >> can you imagine what that guy's going to be like on the nascar track? i cannot wait. >> he's got a little bit of a screw loose. >> yeah. >> his grandmother makes lunch every thursday for his whole family. they literally sit around and spin the table. he lives in l.a. but was ableo

come back and visit. that'shy we stopped by. >> nervewracking. >> yeah. still ahead, a twist on traditional local county courthouse has theanger scene and the christmas trees to celebrate the season, that's not the only display you'll see there. you can follow news 4 online any time. search nbc washington on facebook and twitter.

after months over debate over freedom of religion and freedom of speec the board of supervisors agreed to display holiday displays on the grounds of the courthouse. >> reporter: sarah was excited to show the nativity scene to her son. it's back on the courthouse

grounds. last year all displays were banned based on separation of church and state. but a compromise allows the diversity of displays this year, like this sign put up by a group freedom from rigion. and a display knocked over by the windhat says it's a letter from jesus. >> i absolutely love the manger, love it, that's what christmas is -- that's the meaning of christmas. so i -- i lov the christmas scenes. the other things u're talking about, not so excited about that. >> louden county supervisor says up to 10 permits for displays were issued on a first come first served basis. that allowed the holiday tradition of 50 years to continue. >> the option was no nativity or having the nativity. that was the issue, together with the american civil liberties union, i worked with others who are familiar with at the balance is. and the balance is to have the nativity, you have to have free speech. >> there wll be more displays

here at the urthouse later this week including a mannequin display of luke skywalker from star wars celebrating jediism. there will be another display from an atheist group and another manger. >> personally, i don't think it's good. we ended up, instead of having a nice christmas look to the courthouse, this beautiful historic courthouse, w end up with a hodgepodge. >> the restaurant lightfoot is festively decorated for the holiday season both inside and out. >> i think the holiday display are fine to have the mixture on the courthouse lawn. >> your favorite is? >> the christmas tree. >> and to get it back this year -- there's been a long debate. >> we had to share the lawn with everybody. so -- and i think that's fine. >> this year's displays encourage an exchange of ideas as well as an exchange of presence. in lees burg, virginia. chris gordon, news 4. >> that's news 4 at 5:00.

news 4 at 6:00 starts right now. three generations of one family were killed when fire raced through their baltimore home. >> lawmakers could be burning the midnight oil to complete work on the tax bill tonight. more snow may be on the way. and tonight the windchills will dip below zero. we're going to begin with the second potential threat to bomb metro in recent months. good evening, i'm wendy rieger. >> i'm pat lawson muse. jim and doreen are off tonight. according to the fbi. a guy on facebook threatened to put pipe bombs on metro trains and a sewer top in georgetown during rush hour. those threats were sent through facebook's instant messaging system. with more on this story weo to jackie. >> reporter: this me to light when som