vice president, it has such a nice ring to it. she did what no woman before her had done. tonight, america remembers former vice presidential candidate geraldine ferraro. and disturbing outburst in libya in front of scores of reporters. a woman claim shes was assaulted repeatedly by the military then whisked away. it's the weekend that signals the start of spring here in washington, but the cherly blossoms have to compete with a little snow. good evening, everyone.

i'm aaron gilchrist. craig melvin has the night off. in the storm center with wa we can expect. kim? >> hard to believe with our beautiful cherry blossoms pooping out, maybe a coating of snow tomorrow morning. good evening. let's talk about the possibility of cherly blossom snow. it would happen during the overnight hours and into the morning. we're not looking at a lot inside the metropolitan area or beltway. high e snow totals more likely off to the south. not a big deal. more of a conversation snow. as we look at the satellite and radar loop you see the rainfall associated with the storm pushing through tennessee and kentucky. the northern boundary, show, shows pink colors on the radar returns. a mix of freezing rain and snow. we have a winter weather advisory not over d.c. but for charles county and down towards stafford county, king george, the northern neck of virginia and into the shenandoah valley. that's in effect from tonight

until tomorrow afternoon. locally, it's going to be quiet here this morning. i'll tell when you the snow starts and how many we'll see on the blossoms when i see you in a bit, arab aaron. >> okay, kim. 140 plows on standby. vdot has 400 trucks out starting tonight at 8:00 and mdot crews spent the day pre-treating roads lie i-270 and i-95 between d.c. and baltimore. thousands braved today's cool temperatures for the kickoff of the cherry blossom festival. one of the most dufl tibeautifu times of year here in washington but the possibility of snow has people rethinking their plans. live at the title basin with more on that. hey, darcy. >> reporter: hi, aaron. the title basin is still packed with people at this hour. many like me wearing winter coats, wearing gloves, wearing their hats. now, officials are saying that this weather expected for

tomorrow is not expected to devastate the cherry blossoms. some folks came out today because they're not taking any chances. they are not yet in full bloom but already the cherly blossoms on the title basin have open and thousand, taking in their beauty. >> i'm amazed at the number of people and people from every back ground. i've seen people walking, speaking ten different languages already. it's great. love to see all different people coming here to check things out. >> it's been great. she slept through part of it, but, that's a given. she's having a great time. lots of things to see. >> reporter: although it's officially spring, snow is in the forecast. some are concerned that the cold flakes could snuff out the blossoms before they reach their peak, but officials say that won't happen. >> it's almost even better for the trees to be a little colder right now. it keeps them a little insulated. it's kind of nice. it slows down the blooming process. it will hopefully extend the

blooming pert. >> reporter: it's unclear what if any impact the snow and expected cold snap lp have on the blossom, some aren't taking chances. they're here today just in case. >> a major factor. tomorrow, we're virtually going to get what, potentially three inches of snow? we may have some devastation to the blossoms. so this is the perfect time to come see the blossoms now. >> reporter: the annual cherry kite flies festival was supposed to happen sunday but it's been postponed because of the forecast. ♪ >> reporter: the opening ceremony held at the national building museum, a kickoff to the 60-day celebration of the mag any of sent cherry blossom treers. back out live here to the tidal base. peel are here at this hour. it's chilly but quite a beautiful day to come out and see the trees. officials are saying that tomorrow's weather is not going to devastate the trees. let's keep our fingered crossed.

the peak bloom is expected to start on tuesday and last through april 1st. reporting live from the tidal basin, darcy spencer, news4, back to you, aaron. >> people will want to see the snow add and blossoms together. a nice photo tomorrow. a disturbing story out of libya. a woman there says she was detained by libyan government troops at a checkpoint, tied up and raped. the woman told her story at a hotel full of foreign reporters in tripoli. you see the video. while talking, security shoved reporters back, then threw a black hood over the woman's head and dragged her outside. a libyan government spokesman says the woman is suffering mentally. >> she seems, initial reports, to be suffering mentally. they're dealing with her. investigating. checking where her family is. who she is. she's refusing to tell them who she is. >> libyan officials say the woman, they took the woman to a

hospital. reporters stepped in to help her, and they were pushed back. a reporter was punched as well and a cnn camera was smashed. several leading republicans mobilized a conservative base in iowa today, a year and a half before the 2012 presidential election. several potential candidates including newt gingrich and haley barbour addressed the crowd at the conservative principles conference. minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann got the noisiest reaccepts saying voters are ready to overturn health care and throw president obama out of office. the iowa caucus is generally considered the start ever the presidential race. it's scheduled for february 6th, 2012. geraldine ferraro, first to run on a major presidential ticket died this morning at the age of 75. she died of complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer she battled for 12 years. shot to fame walter mondale's

running mate in 1994. though the two were defeated by president reagan and vice president bush, she had broken down barriers. she was diagnosed with an incurable form of bone marrow cancer in 1998. >> my marriage has been spectacular. my kids are wonderful. and i -- i look at what comes next, and for me, i believe strong in an afterlife. so i -- i'm perfectly -- i am literally perfectly consent. >> reporter: president obama issued a statement saying, "geraldine fought to uphold america's founding ideals of equality, justice and opportunity for all, and as our ambassador to the human rights commission for cuba stood up for that around the world. sasha and malia will grow up in a more equal life because of the life geraldine ferrara chose to live." what you'll be paying for more effect live immediately.

and somebody is $319 million richer tonight. what we know about america's newest mega millionaire coming up. hakem? >> in sports, a different goalie in net than expected. kentucky sends another number one seed packing, plus vcu needs overtime to prove they

somebody is $319 million richer today. probably not you, though.

unless you bought your ticket in new york. there was one winning ticket sold from last night's mega millions draws sold near albany, new york. but don't throw away your ticket just yet. 32 tickets including one in maryland matched all five numbers. not the megaball, though. those tickets are still worth $250,000 each. the lights went out at dozens of major landmarks across australia. you'll see the same thing across our area later tonight. the lights on the opera house and sydney harbor bridge went off at 8:30 p.m. local time and stayed off one hour. part of the fifth annual earth hour. several buildings in our area pledged to participate including the national cathedral and national aquarium in baltimore. the u.s. navy has a new ship among its fleet. the "uss arlington" named for arlington, virginia, in hon eer of the 184 people in the 9/11 attack on the pentagon. it was christen this morning at a shipyard in pascagoula,

mississippi. capable of honding a landing force up to 800 marines. its home port, norfolk, virginia. the trickle-down effects of soaring gas prices. still to come tonight, the business passing the cost along to its customers. and we are monitoring the spring snow moving into the area. the

a montgomery county police officer is on leave tonight

after shooting a man this afternoon behind a busy strip mall. this happened on georgia avenue near aspen hill road. derrick ward reports shooting the man was a last resort. >> reporter: on the front side of the northgate plaza, business as usual. say for a lone police cruiser. out back a different scene. montgomery county police investigate a shooting by one of their officers. place say it started here in a store that used to be known as the jewelry corner but they're in the process of closing. >> the adult female manager, a jewelry store in this shopping center, had an unknown male enter her shop. did not present himself as a customer. she felt threatened by him. she asked him to leave. he did not and was advancing towards the back room of the jewelry store. >> reporter: the woman ran next door to this nail salon and called police giving them a description of the man. officers caught up with him in the rear of the shopping sent. police say he a large, broken

bottle with a jagged edge in his hand. >> officer deploys his taser for an unknown reason the taser did not take effect. so he transitioned to his service weapon. >> reporter: according to police the man continued to move towards the officer who fired shooting him several times. officers chronicled the crime scene, bloody clothing, a taser and nearby broken bottle, the proprietor at an adjacent florist shop wonders how this would have all happened had he not entered the store. >> derrick ward reporting. it is going to cost you more to catch a cab here in the district, apparently starting monday. cabs will add an extra dollar fuel surcharge for rides in washington and that surcharge lasts through july 25th unless repealed sooner by the d.c. taxi cap commission. mayor vincent gray says the surcharge will help offset the rising price of gas. it will not apply to taxi fares across the border into maryland or virginia. yep.

more than 16,000 people laced up their shoes and braved pretty chilly temperatures for the sixth annual national marathon this morning. the 26.2 mile course took runners across the district. michael wardian of arlington won the race finishing in 2 hours 23 seconds 1 second. his fifth first place in the past six years of running that race. kim martucci is here -- >> stunning. >> not bad for him or anybody getting action out in out in the cold temperatures. >> not a bad day for people and pets alike. awesome video republican from our beautiful cherry blossoms everybody is taking them in and some of you just like to bring your cats and dogs. this little guy's name is pud. >> or pud? >> no. yes. seriously. looks like he's had a few mousers in his lifetime. we're not allowed to touch the trees and the blossom, mind you, if visiting us. i guess he got a special permit.

walked around in his harness, a big fan. channel 4 knows him well. hello. great to have you with us. let's talk about snow. hard to imagine, but we have to. you see a little moisture on the screen south of us and to the west. that's slowly moving our way. it's going to take a southern course, though, and because of that, d.c. really not worried about a lot of accumulation. we have this winter weather advisory in effect from 4:00 a.m. sunday until the afternoon. all of these contis shaded in purple. they include manassas and culpepper involved. down to stafford, fredericksburg and quantico. southern maryland, you're in it, too. probably about an inch or two for you and for us in d.c. less than that. maybe a coating two to an -- to an inch. that's what we're thinking. temperatures in the 40s. cooling down to the freezing mark and below tonight. not worried about an icy vent. would be an all-snow event

probably starting after 4:00 in the morning. right around 5:00, six. here it is on the radar composite. you can see that right across kentucky this is the battleground where we have rain and thunderstorms, and just to the north around the ohio river, that's the snow, and that is what would be moving in our direction. again, during the overnight. if you have evening plans, this is fought going to be a problem for you. let's talk about the timing. overnight and tomorrow i'm going to pause this. here's 4:00 in the morning. there's the snow on top of us. by the afternoon, you'll see we're just cloudy throughout the day. maybe even late in the day getting breaks and monday's looking pretty good. about a coating to an inch here. south and west, fredericksburg, and into the shenandoah valley, might crack a three-inch total. nothing more than that. no problems this evening. tomorrow morning, when wep have the light snow around. lows in the freezing mark range and coming up in the afternoon, mostly cloudy. could mix in a rain or even snow shower still. plan ahead into the week. you'll see that temperatures are chilly for this time of year. we get some rain in here back on

wednesday, and then our next shot for a few showers won't be until next friday, and by then, we are back in the 50s. at least it will be closer to the average high of 60 by then. >> thank you, kim. and coming up in sports, how the kentucky wildcats knocked out overall numbe

hakem is here.

i do not have enough black and gold in my wardrobe to show how proud i am. >> i am so happy for you aaron gilchrist. i did doubt virginia commonwealth but i will say i have more respect for this team now than i did when they played georgetown. this team is the real deal. so i apologize to you and your vcu faithful. they're legit. >> forgiven. >> and following you on twitter and all your excited tweets. on selection sunday, bradford burgess didn't get his hopes up, knew the rams were a long shot to receive an invitation. so burgess went to five guys and had a burger. when he returned to his dorm room he found out his guys made the big dance. vcu has since polished off every team in its way. last night, the florida state seminoles. how it went down and coach shaka smart looking smart. leading the break. looking good here.

drive kicks it out to rob brandenburg in the corner. wide open. buries the three ball. virginia commonwealth take as 57-49 lead. under a minute to go. rams up 65-62. seminoles with the ball. aaron gilchrist biting his nails. knotted at 65. oh, my. rams have a chance to win it, though. burgess -- for the game winner -- but, no. bernard james there with the game-saving block. we go to overnim tied at 65. bonus basketball. seven seconds to play in o.t. joey rodrigues to bradford burgess puts it up and in, went for 26 points. a huge night. calmed him big shot brad. last chance for fsu. singleton for the win. brandenburg says i don't think so, comes up with a game-winning block. beating florida state 72-71 in o.t., shaka smart jumping for

joy. the first time in school history, vcu plays number one seed kansas tomorrow at 2:20. >> amazing what a team can accomplish when nobody cares who gets the credit. our guys have played with that in mind over these last couple of weeks and every night it's a different guy stepping up. but every one of our guys to a man goes in there and does what he can to execute the game plan. >> i want to definitely tell the coaches, if high the opportunity i wanted to score and in overtime, just having that intent to make good plays for my team helps me out a lot. >> bottom line, we have to play much better than we did tonight to have a chance to win the game on sunday, but our guys know that and i think we have it in us. >> all right, coach shaka smart. vcu will try to do what kentucky did last night. knock off a number one seed. buckeyes against the wildcats. under 40 seconds to go.

uk up. liggins hits the jumper. big blue take as three-point lead. very next buckeye's possession, john gets the ball. he's good from deep. i mean, way deep. knocks it down. tied at 60. here we go. kentucky has a chance to take the lead. freshman brandin knight with the ball. pull-up jumper. got it. buckeyes' last chance. here they come. get it to buford for the win, no good and that's it. kentucky upsets number one overall seed ohio state 62-60. the wildcats advance to the elite 8 and play north carolina tomorrow. a matchup between the two winningest programs in college basketball. turnering to the women's ncaa tournament. georgetown plays number one seed uconn tomorrow at noon. and if goliath had a sister, her name would be connecticut. the hoyas have a tall task in front of them, but they're confident. when we asked senior guard monica mcnutt what makes her think the huskies are beatable?

they're human beings. two eyes, two arms, two legs. they're human beings. during the regular season, georgetown forced turnovers but the hoyas last the game. they struggled mightily from the three-point line shooting just 5 of 27. in the big east tournament's the huskies dominated winning by 16 points. the two-time defending national champion huskies lost just one game this season. georgetown hasn't beaten connecticut since 1993. hey, it could happen. >> our young ladies have this air of confidence about themselves and it's not just something they have right now. they came in with that confidence a long time ago. so for us to be playing right now in the sweet 16, i think it, once again shows them this is what we wosh for, why we're confident in ourselves and we're doing it by doing exactly what we do. >> is connecticut the number one team in the nation? number one in our bracket? yes. that's fine. but we believe in ourselves and

we believe we do the things we're capable of doing we have a huge opportunity in front of us. >> georgetown and uconn set to tip-off tomorrow at noon in philadelphia. talking baseball. the countdown is on. five days until opening day in d.c. the nationals start the season against the braves. today spring training baseball down in florida. that's gnat -- nats taking on the astros. that's a jammerjack. eighth home run ever the spring. nats win it 10-0, the final. nats win it 10-0, the final. also capitals play the montreal

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