tonight a prostitution bust within walking distance of the pentagon. a story you will only see on

news4. the video from outside a motel in arlington. darcy spencer joins us live along columbia pike tonight. >> reporter: this investigation got underway last night when arlington county police received a tip that prostitution was happening at this days inn here on columbia pike and ended this afternoon when six people were taken into custody. this exclusive video shows a dramatic police bust at the days inn hotel in arlington. >> what i saw there was two police up on the balcony of the hotel. >> are police got a tip on monday night about prostitution happening here. this suv was reported stolen in pennsylvania. they watched the suv and when people got into the vehicle this afternoon, the officers blocked it in. they took four women and two men into custody. >> we have to determine their relationship with the stolen vehicle, how they got it and you

know to see what crimes have been committed here. >> reporter: the bust happened in columbia pike in a portion slated to be revitalized. >> it's bad. there is kids around here. >> it is usually a pretty safe environment in this area. >> reporter: police say the half dozen people detained were taken to the station for questioning to see what, if any, charges would be filed. i checked in with the arlington county police a short time ago. we are waiting for an update to see what charges have been filed in this case. arlington county police say all of the subject taken into custody today were cooperative. darcy spencer, news4. back to you. it turned into an inconvenient night for riders on the orange line. the clarendon station was shut down because loose floor tiles were found on the mezzanine near

the fair gates. they wanted to make sure the station was structurally sound. the shuttle buses were called in for about an hour. no texting, talking, phones or bluetooth behind the wheel. a government agency recommended banning all of them today in a part of an effort to stop distracted driving. one of the crashes that prompted that step took place on the beltway. jackie bensen spoke with a woman who will not forget that crash. >> reporter: the accident took lives of five people and many around here still remember it. >> a car traveling northbound crossed into the southbound traffic. >> reporter: the 2002 crash on the beltway in maryland remains one of the worst in recent memory in the d.c. area. a miracle is how a 38-year-old woman and her two small children escaped unharmed from the devastation caused when a novice

driver was distracted by a call on her cell phone. >> i saw the four tires and an axle just airborne and before i realized it, it landed on the vehicle in front of us. >> reporter: ten years later the woman who now lives in texas thinks that the ban makes good sense. >> we have seen since that time more and more accidents have occurred because people have been on cell phones, talking on cell phones, texting. >> reporter: the crash was the national transportation safety board's first investigation into distracted driving related to the use of a cell phone. >> it may seem like a quick call, text a tweet or an update but accidents happen in the blink of an eye. >> in a crash in missouri last year, a 19-year-old pickup

truck driver exchanged numerous texts before slamming into a truck and being hit by two school buses. >> the driver distraction found us. >> the ntsb's representations are controversial and just that, recommendations. back to you. >> thanks, jackie. an 85-year-old woman is still shaken up after being ambushed and robbed on her way to church. it happened on shepherd street in the brooklyn neighborhood of northeast washington. the woman said she was scraping ice off her car when a man reached inside her car and grabbed her purse. she grabbed the ice scraper to defend herself. >> fighting with him with my ice defroster shaver. he took off so fast and threw me to the ground. >> while the woman was

distracted a second person jumped into the car and sped off. investigators are scrambling to find answers on the shooting on virginia tech's campus last week. but they have had little progress. state police cannot find a link between ross ashley and the campus police officer that he killed. police say ashley bought the gun that he used in that shooting at a licensed virginia gun dealer. there are also no known connections to virginia tech. surveillance video first puts ashley in blacks burg on wednesday afternoon but he is not seen again until the shooting that killed deriek crouse. former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky won't have to return to court until march. no plea deal has been reached tonight but the defense says that prosecutors promise not to raise bail and to quickly share any discovery information. the alleged victims will now

have more time to prepare their testimony for trial. but some were frustrated with the late decision. sandusky himself spoke outside the court about today's developments. >> to put together the best possible defense that we can do. to stay the course to fight for four quarters. we'll have the opportunity to present our side. >> sandusky is charged with 52 counts of sexual abuse with 10 boys over a 12 year span. two former ball boys have filed defamation lawsuits against jim bayheim. they assert that bernie fine molested them when they were younger. they hope their lawsuit will encourage others to come forward. no criminal charges have been filed because the statute of

limitations has expired. donald trump is still considering a run for the white house himself. trump announced today he might become an independent candidate in june. he cannot become an official candidate until the spring season of his show, the apprentice ends. only two candidates had signed up for his debate. trump says that is because the g.o.p. is upset with him. >> they want me to announce that i won't run as an independent candidate and i won't do that. if the republicans pick the wrong person i would seriously consider running. >> the next g.o.p. debate is on thursday. newt givingrich is leading e pack in virginia. the next closest is mitt romney who trails far behind at 15%.

michele bachmann and rick perry are tied for third. massive cuts to the u.s. postal service are delayed until spring so that congress can have time to pass legislation to prevent the agency from going into bankruptcy. the postal service announced it was going to eliminate thousands of jobs. the u.s. postal service is $5 billion in debt this year alone. a d.c. mother filed a formal complaint with the office of human rights after security guards told her it was illegal to breast-feed her son while in a dmv office. she was an in office two weeks ago to challenge a ticket. she says she stepped in the hallway to feed her infant son and was approached by two security guards who told her to stop. >> a piece of my paper and wrote down what she was saying because i couldn't believe what i was hearing and she said this is

indecent exposure. >> the guards are employed by a private contractor and they have been reminded about what the d.c. code allows and does not allow when it comes to breast-feeding. a reunion eight years in the making and one of the owners of this dog never imagined it would happen. is it a story that started in virginia and picked up 2700 miles away. shomari stone now with the conclusion. >> reporter: a special moment for chris and her daughter elaine. >> good girl. >> reporter: it wasn't always happy times in virginia. their four-legged friend ran away from home eight years ago. >> is it an awful feeling when you let your dog out and they don't show up for breakfast ten minutes later. >> iter the family searched the neighborhood and checked animal shelters and put up fliers. >> after a while the acceptance kicks in that the dog is not

going to come back. >> reporter: last week a woman found petunia in yuba city, california. look at the map. 2700 miles away from home. animal control found a microchip inside her and they called the pruitts with the good news. >> i thought somebody was playing a joke on me that knew me from years past. and two or three ours later, we found out it wasn't a joke. >> reporter: she returned home a couple days ago in perfect health. >> she was flown from sacramento to jfk and then we picked her up in new york. >> it's best christmas present ever. >> reporter: a family learned a lesson, walk your dogs on a leash and put microchips in your pets. >> we would not be here today with petunia if she didn't have that microchip. >> reporter: she is friendly and

love doggie biscuits and maybe someone fed her and she jumped in the car. who knows. but this will be a special christmas for them. in virginia, i'm shomari stone, news4. still ahead tonight why lady gaga got a dinner invitation from maryland's governor. we hear a lot about the white light that people see before they die. the question is what is that light and is there any science behind it? a wild ride stops traffic in the inner city and a bear is to blame. outside right now is it a bit on the cold side. 39 degrees at the airport. the temperatures going down tonight. but then back up before our chances for rain. i'll show you about

white light that people report seeing when they are close to death. most believe it is heaven. no one can say for sure but there could be several explanations depending who you ask. tony shin takes a closer look. >> reporter: brian pennings was just about to turn five years old when his toy canoe drifted to the deep went of his pool. >> i figured if i jumped in and held to the canoe i could dog pad toll the side of the pool. >> reporter: but brian sank like a rock. as he began drowning he remembers looking up at the sun. >> it was bright, bright white

because of the sun and it slowl closed and went black. and then slowly opened back up and was completely white. i believe i was in the presence of god. >> reporter: for dee barge her brush with death happened two days after back surgery in the form after a blood clot that led to a stroke. dee says she saw a dark tunnel with a light at the end. >> i start through the chasm, the tunnel, and i walk out to the end. and it feels like -- it feels like heaven. >> reporter: dee and brian believe they were at the edge of heaven. but medically speaking what actually happens to the brain when someone is dying? >> even without a pulse or a heart beat there would be brain function. >> reporter: dr. clark smith says that neurons in the brain are still firing for several

minutes after the heart has stopped. it's at this time the brain is trying to make sense of what's happening. >> as your brain loses consciousness or oxygen you can have a hallucination to a religious experience. >> reporter: what about that light many claim to see? dr. smith says physically it could be caused from a lack of oxygen to the brain or maybe it is a passage way to the afterlife. >> i think we all want to liff forever. the idea that our life ends and is snuffed out like a candle that is a terrifying thought. >> that was tony shin reporting. . ♪ >> maryland's governor wants a dinner date with lady gaga. that invitation went out via twitter. it said thanks for your advocacy

against bullying. the first lady katie and i would like to invite you to dinner to discuss eliminating bullying in maryland. so far, no word on whether she will accept the invitation. people in downtown vancouver got an unexpected wilderness encounter. a black bear hitched a ride on a garbage truck and it brought traffic to a halt yesterday. officials think the bear's journey started in a dumpster in north vancouver. the wildlife officers tranquilized the bear and released it into the wild north of the city. >> i didn't think that guy would be like, hey, buddy. >> move it along, right? >> right. >> he'll be right back in another dumpster in another week or so. >> you better believe that. >> not as cold as it was. >> not too bad.

tomorrow we get into the low 50s in most areas. we won't see all that much in the way of sunshine but will the be a nice day on the wednesday. if you go outside right now a meteor shower happening outside, the nearly full moon may obscure some of those meteors but you may see a couple of those. is it happening outside currently as we speak. temperatures of 52. the low was 30 degrees. once again the third day in the a row with temperatures below freezing after not hitting freezing at the airport. the meteor shower happening through dawn tomorrow morning. 39 degrees the current temperature. the winds are calm. the dew point is 30. the humidity is 70 percent. we are starting to you see more moisture in the atmosphere. and that's what we will see tomorrow morning. it will be cloud cover tomorrow. a slight chance of showers but well to the north and west. in the mid-30s.

the coastest spot is manassas at 28 degrees. and along the bay 41 degrees at annapolis. no rain to show you. and we'll not see good chances for rain until the day on thursday. but there is a slight chance tomorrow back to the north and west in the panhandle of west virginia but most of us will be on the dry side. you see clouds moving in ahead of a cold front. is it a warm front before the cold front that comes in over the next couple days. the high pressure has been dominating the area. it has been a on the cool side. more cloud cover. we'll call it partly cloudy to mostly cloudy skies through wednesday but milder air coming in along with southwesterly winds. here is the warm front with the chance of showers extending down to the north and west. hagerstown and martens burg west virginia. that's about it. on the day on thursday we see a

better chance for shower activity but most of us will see a nice day out there. nice and mild with temperatures in the mid-50s. this front will move through us as a dry front. as it does so will the usher in cooler air with partly cloudy to mostly cloudy skies on friday. for the next couple days tomorrow morning, 24 to 34 degrees under partly cloudy skies. very chilly to start off but warming up nicely going cog up to 58 degrees on thursday, 53 on friday, 45 on saturday, the weekend right now looking sunny but cold once again. >> that's pretty good. thank you, doug. still ahead tonight, a pizza party for true champs of the district. [ female announcer ] more people are using wireless devices...

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sometimes the best plans of mice and men or something like that? >> it did not work to perfection for capitals tonight. it seemed to be on a platter -- >> i didn't. i'm glad you did. >> it took me a minute. >> he got it into and now we're here. now we got it. the capitals were feeling good. they have not lost to the flyers in ten games playing their best hockey since dale hunter took over. problem was they still had to play the game and the capitals have a lot of work to do. jaromir jagr.

he gives it to hartnell and he has been a scoring machine. beating vokoun right between the wickets. the 5 hole. widemen can't get there. the flyers up 1-0. same score in the second period. marc-andre borebone shoots and scores. dale's not happy. flyers up 3-0. and past vokoun again. he stops it initially but off his pads and off the pipes and in. the caps get blasted by the flyers 5-1. that second period proving to be the difference. >> i think the ice is tilted that one way it seems like. every time we are in our ozone i don't know what it is.

maybe we sometimes get comfortable or we are already with the first period and just want to stay that level when teams are ramping it up against us. >> we are disappointed with the effort. we don't offer up many excuses tonight but you get back to it and get better and the guys still have work to do. caps are 3-4 under dale hunter. they are at winnipeg on thursday. a scary sight at verizon center just before the caps game. wizards players rolling in for practice and andre blatche wearing the biggest pair of uggs i have ever seen. but the young guards could be the strength of the team. >> working out together each and

every day on the court at the practice. and we hang playing video games off the court. the chemistry is well together. >> we are seeing each other's weaknesses. pressuring each other trying to get better bringing the ball up. that will work for the game time situations. >> most of us play together most of the time. sometimes me and jordan and sheldon getting the chemistry down and mostly after every practice or shoot around we try to get shots up together and talking the whole time. >> i'm serious about the uggs. and

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the mayor put on a pizza party for two youth championship teams the marshal heights bisons won the pop warner pea wee division and the falcons lost in double overtime. doubl[ male announcer ] this...is the network --

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and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. ♪ show featuring rickey minor tonight, jay welcomes oscar-nominated director