good morning, everyone. welcome to news4 midday. i'm barbara harrison. it is tuesday, december 20th, 2011. we begin with breaking news. we're in downtown orange and blue lines are shut down in both directions between federal triangle and federal center southwest. that after a piece of a train fell off onto the tracks near l'enfant plaza. megan mcgrath is there. tell us what you're learning so far? >> reporter: things are still closed down here at the l'enfant plaza station. look behind me. you can see the fire crews and police officers who are here on the scene.

now they're assessing exactly what happened here. we're told that something fell off a metro train down on the tracks. the most likely culprit is what they call a friction ring. that's a part of the brake assembly. we're told that's a redundant part so the train was able to brake even though that ring apparently fell off that breaking mechanism. at no point was anyone in danger according to metro officials. when that ring fell off, it apparently made contact with the third rail. that's the energized rail. that created some smoking conditions down in the tunnel. they stopped the train. they were able to offload everybody safety with the assistance of metro officials. they got everyone off of the train. and now they're trying to assess exactly what happened and what they need to do in order to get the tracks reopened. right now the orange and blue line traffic has been suspended between federal triangle and federal center until they can

get a better handle on what happened here and whether there's any damage to the track or not and when they might be able to reopen right now. so folks are being detoured around the area. we're told that there's some sort of a bus shuttle service that's being run between this station and others although i have to tell you there seems to be a lot of confusion about that. folks have been looking for those buses. you'll have to walk down to constitution. that's probably your best bet from my location. we're here at 7th and maryland. that's probably where you're going to most likely find a bus here. a lot of folks milling around trying to figure out exactly where to go because at this point this is the end of the line. a metro spokesperson says they're not exactly sure when they're going to get things back up and running but it's probably going to be several hours. this station could be closed until the afternoon. they just again trying to figure out what happened and what if any damage there is down on the track area and of course if there's any smoke still in the tunnel they would have to get all of that out as well before

they would reopen and allow regular service here. right now a lot of things in this immediate area closed down. a lot of people milling around. and a lot of folks wondering what it will reopen and hoping it reopens before the evening rush hour. barbara, back to you. >> thank you so much, megan. we have rhonda bailey on the phone with us. she's stuck on one of those trains. rhonda, good morning. >> caller: good morning. >> tell us how long have you been on the train and where exactly are you? >> caller: we've been on the train for almost two hours. we're right beyond when the sparks went off, we were just beyond the l'enfant stop. >> could you see the smoke outside of the train? >> caller: yes. i have a passenger sitting beside me where the trains actually ignited. i'll let her speak to you. >> hello, are you there? >> caller: i'm here. >> what is your name?

>> caller: my name is thai. >> tell us what you saw? >> caller: i'm sitting in a six-car train and we pull up from l'enfant plaza. something went boom and fire and cinders came from the side of the train and the bump and sound were so loud i jumped up and ran to the other side of the train and i almost jumped in a lady's lap on the other side but i caught myself. >> that must have been pretty scary. how did other passengers react? >> caller: they were looking around panicked like what -- was that. they were trying to collect themselves. everyone was trying nto be calm and cool and collected. >> no one panicked? >> caller: i certainly panicked. >> no one was screaming. not a lot of noise on the train after that happened? >> caller: at some point there

was. some people, yes. i sat back down and it ran over something else. i thought it was a third rail coming off. i had no idea. some passengers reported the blue line train in front that something fell off of it. >> has someone given you information? have officials from metro come on to the speaker to talk to you and tell you how soon you may get off that train? >> caller: no. when the train did come to a st stop, it smelled like plastic or something was burning. they didn't say anything to us. there was no communication from metro. zero. not from the conductor. not from metro. not from anyone. >> where are you getting your information now? it sounds like you have some information about what happened?

>> caller: we're on the train. i got on the phone and contacted my job and i also contacted my mom. i assisted somebody to reach out and alert them as to what was going on because again, the other passengers said nobody communicated anything. the first 20 minutes we were sitting and walking and people were yelling and screaming for a moment because it was scary. we were told it was smoke. we could see the dark grayness and then we started heading the opposite way. there were a few passengers who actually pried the door open. i was told somebody fell or something. i don't know. but i can see them attempting to open the door because where do we go? >> i see. are some passengers trying to get off the train?

were some trying to break the door down to get out? >> there were two passengers trying to get off. the metro people were yelling for us to get back on. none of the emergency buttons were working at the end of each of the cars. one of the gentleman had a hard time opening the connecting doors. >> could you see metro workers in the tunnel outside the train? >> caller: no. no. >> i see. so you were able to get some information when you talkeded to your moth your mother on the phone? >> caller: correct. >> it sounds like they need to get some information to you there now. we actually have a metro spokesman on the phone and we'll talk to him and maybe we can get some more information for you. we just have been talking on the phone with rhonda bailey and some of the other passengers who were sitting and are still sitting on one of the trains stuck in the tunnel out there. one of them described what she

felt. she says there was sparks coming from the third rail. she said she felt a big boom and the train sort of made a sudden stop and everyone was frightened and moving around but they said not panicked at least not screaming although one of the others said that there was some screaming for a while. we have dan on the phone now from metro. i don't know if you heard those descriptions from two passengers who are still stuck on the train but they are wanting information from metro. dan, good morning. >> good morning. >> what can you tell us that we might be able to pass onto them? >> well, i didn't hear the last phoner. we're in the process of evacuating passengers off tof te other trains that were in tunnels between metro center and federal center southwest which is the deenergized section of track. when the smoke condition was

reported from a part of a passing train that made contact with the third rail, that created smoke conditions and the protocol is to deactivate the third rail. there are a number of trains in that section that are in the process of being evacuated. >> the people we just spoke with said they've been on the train for two hours and so far they have gotten no information about what's going on or when they will be offloaded. what are you doing to reach those people just to at least get them some information about what's happening? >> i would be happy to check on it for you. our police are down in the tunnels right now and d.c. fi fire worki inin ining and detere best way to offload the folks. i will certainly look into that and be happy to give you an update. >> can you give us an estimate about how many people are still

stuck on trains in the tunnels? >> i don't. i know the incident train is not completely evacuated. in the process of being cleared. there were some trains that were in stations at the time. the train behind the incident train which had the part fall off, that's what we call the incident train, was at l'enfant plaza so passengers could step off and either make their way to the green/yellow platform or leave the station. we're working to get a better count on exactly how many trains and how many passengers are on those trains. not trains that we're working with but passenger counts can be challenging in the tunnel environment. >> we heard there was smoke in the tunnel. is that considered for them to be dangerous to breathe and the smoke situation still going on? >> no. the smoke condition is caused when metal, meaning the part from the train, made contact with the third rail. there was no fire but what happens when that situation

occurs is you get a condition called arching which is sparks on the third rail. that can generate smoke which is why our procedures call for deenergizing the third rail as soon as that's reported. that's what happened in this case and the smoke stopped as soon as the power was taken down. >> dan, spokesperson with metro, thank you for joining us. we'll pass on the information to the people who are calling us who are still stuck on the trains. thank you again for joining us this morning. we'll stay in touch with you over the next hour. we'll have more for you throughout this broadcast so continue to listen and whenever we have any changes, we'll bring them to you immediately as breaking news. we have a breaking story out of north d.c. right now. a car jacking that ended in a crash in ward circle. police now have nebraska avenue in the area blocked off. police tell us the driver crashed into a tree after car jacking a chevy malibu. the suspect was last seen running on connecticut avenue northwest. time is 11 minutes after

11:00. coming up, we continue to follow breaking news on metro that we just told you about. what's next for north korea? leaders across the world are keeping a close eye on that situation as the country mourns the death of kim jong-il and what will happen to the extension of the payroll tax cut if senators refuse to return from their h

right now, streams of sobbing north koreans are

offering flowers in the last respects of this longtime ruler jim jong-il. he's covered by a red sheet inside a glass coffin. the government says kim died of a heart attack over the weekend. he was 69 years old. kim jong-il will lie in state until his funeral. that's set for next wednesday, december 28th. the white house says it's too early to tell whether the death of kim jong-il opens the door for better u.s. relations with north korea. the obama administration has been in touch with south korea, japan, china and russia since kim's death. u.s. officials are keeping a close eye to see how north korea's army of more than a million will adapt to the newest leader, kim's son, kim jong un. >> we remain concerned about their well-being. >> north korea has nuclear weapons. we're worried about whose hands those may fall into. >> the u.s. is considering

renewing nuclear talks with north korea by delivering food to the immove epoverished count. all plans have been put on hold. >> pat continues our coverage from the metro station at smithsonian station. >> reporter: we're at 12th and independence. you can see all of the fire apparatus that strings on here for about a half block. they have more than 60 rescue workers deployed on this metro incident. again, what happened apparently is a train coming from federal center on the track had something fall from the train, hit the third rail. that caused some sparking. it energized and caused arching and what they had to do was then deenergize that track so the

rescue workers could get down there. we're told a number of people are still on some of the trains that are stalled beneath the ground here and they are trying to figure the best way to get those passengers out. rescue workers are down there. because they are down there, they're keeping that third rail shut down for the moment. there was talk they might have to bring a rescue train in here that would come up and actually offload the passengers, bring them to another station and then let them out. right now they're trying to come up with some sort of strategy to get those passengers off the train. there are no serious injuries. there were a couple minor incidents down there that they are dealing with. again, no serious injuries as a result of this incident where something fell off one of the trains, hit the third rail. caused some arching and sparking. causing them to shut down metro service on the orange and blue lines from the federal center all of the way beyond the

smithsonian. orange and blue lines are shut down here for about two hours now as they try to get those passengers off the train. again, i want you to see all of this equipment that's here deployed in for this incident as they try to work to rescue those passengers who have been stranded now for almost two hours on these metro trains beneath the ground. we're standing by. we'll keep you informed as things develop here. barbara, back to you. >> anybody able to address the fact that they haven't used their intercom system apparently to get word to passengers on at least one of the trains. we talked to some of those passengers about what happened and what's going to happen next. >> reporter: i heard that same passenger on the phone. we don't know. we haven't seen anybody from metro here at this scene to talk about that, to address that. i saw the fire chief. he was here. he went down into the tunnel,

but he left without commenting about that. he said they'll talk later at a command post. we don't know what went on down there. obviously from what that passenger said, there was some confusion and a lot of concern when this happened and still now because they don't really know what's going on above ground to help get them out. >> we'll continue to follow this story. thanks so much for that report. tom is here to talk about our weather. thank goodness we didn't have rain or snow going on with folks getting offloaded with nowhere to go. >> not too cold for people who don't have enough of a coat on to keep warm. right now temperatures around the region are right near 50 degrees. for a december day, we'll take that. 51 now at reagan national. as we look at what's been happening over the last 12 hours, we've had quite a bit of cloudiness coming through. the clouds are rolling in from the west to east. we've had a few sprinkles around getting sprinkles here in the green zone.

montgomery county, southern lauden, northern prince william. as we go forward over the next 48 hours, maybe a few sprinkles today. a small chance of that. these areas of green are zones of potential rain. tomorrow we've got a greater chance of some rain especially during the afternoon, maybe some sprinkles in the morning. passing showers during the afternoon and early evening. then we'll clear out after that for a time into thursday. a little sun in the morning. but then as we get into thursday afternoon and evening, we'll get some more showers moving in. so for the rest of this tuesday, cloudy and cool. a light wind. temperatures hovering in the low 50s to mid 50s for the next couple of hours. and then overnight tonight, we'll have clouds still with us. we'll be in the 40s through the evening. and just a small chance of an additional sprinkle. and then as we get into tomorrow, a greater chance of maybe light rain in the morning and passing showers during the afternoon. highs near 60 tomorrow. and then still rather mild on thursday and friday. a little sun on thursday morning could get some rain thursday evening into friday morning. a little sun may come back again on friday afternoon.

highs in the 50s both days. over the weekend, we'll have some changes come our way. chillier weather moves in for christmas eve on saturday. looks like there's a possibility maybe of a little light rain. right now is the way it looks on saturday evening. and then on sunday morning for christmas morning, there may be a little bit of light rain and colder weather moving in first part of next week. that's the way it looks, barbara. >> let's head out to the roads. problems out there all morning. what's it looking like now? >> right now due to earlier crash on southbound nebraska avenue, it's still closed southbound nebraska avenue between new mexico avenue and 45th street. traveling 395 at duke street, we have construction in the right shoulder lane that will slow you down making your way toward seminary road. traveling outer loop of the beltway, this is a view making your way toward eisenhower avenue connector. construction may slow you down as you get closer to that. i'm watching it for you. barbara, back to you.

>> thank you. time now 11:21. still ahead, why last-minute shopping could bust your budget and the secrets of a great holiday party. today we're celebrating hanukkah and continuing to follow breaking news on met

today we continue 12 days of giving. we'll introduce you to different nonprofits group in our area that are making a difference but need help and support to continue their good work. pat lawson muse joins us this morning to tell us about ps

charities. >> good morning. ps charities is an organization that works to support men and women in our military and people who are suffering from cancer. one of the organization's missions is to provide financial assistance to these groups and scholarships. they need your help to do that. the number to call is 202-885-4949. joining us to talk about ps charities is luann dean, wife of a military marine and a breast cancer survivor and michael chandler is executive director of ps charities. welcome both of you to our program this morning. luann, tell us, you started this organization and you had a specific reason for doing so. >> starting ps charities was -- we've always felt like we wanted to give back to the community. after 22 years of my husband serving in the marine corps, he started his own organization. his own company. after a couple years, we said

when we have profit and when we can, we're going to give back. we started on a very, very small level giving back to local -- the red cross. and then it grew to our event which we do three main events every year, it grew to much bigger and so we decided that we needed to separate what we were doing and we started ps charities at that time. >> you are a breast cancer survivor so you also wanted to help military families and those who were suffering from cancer. >> yes. so when i was going through my treatment at george washington university, my doctor -- i told her that we're starting ps charities and when i'm better we're going to have fundraisers for cancer patients too. and she said, i think you should do that for our own local patients.

we do. we have had four events. four of the patient assistance program. one thing that's unique about us is every dollar that we raise we give to the cause. we make sure the dollars are going to the cause and not to help other administrative costs for other organizations. >> michael, let me bring you in here. you have several events you use now to raise funds. tell us about them. >> in particular right now we're passionate about raising money for master sergeant eden pearl who is currently in oklahoma rehabilitating from injuries suffered in afghanistan. so we are taking on behalf of his family to build a house, to meet his special disability needs. >> that gets us to what you need this morning. >> that's right. what we need is donations both from individuals or corporate sponsors who are interested in helping us build this house to meet his needs. we need construction services. if you understand anything about building a house to meet

disability needs or if you're located near san antonio, texas, we need your support. >> ps charities is our organization this morning. the number to call is 202-885-4949. we'll have more later. barbara? >> thank you, pat. coming up on our next half hour of news4 midday, last-minute shopping. what stores around the area are doing to make the experience easier for you and mild weather ahead. tom kierein says the warmer temperatures will also bring rain. tighter skin and less wrinkles. the new technology making that possible. stay with us. we'll be right back.

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right now, part of metro's orange and blue lines are shut down after a piece fell off of one of the trains. metro tells us the train was between the smithsonian and l'enfant plaza stops. no one was hurt but the incident caused sparks and smoke forcing metro to evacuate the train. some passengers say they have been stuck on that train for two hours now and right now all orange and blue lines service is suspended between federal triangle and federal center stations. megan mcgrath was one of the

first on the scene and is live with more on what happened. megan? >> reporter: barbara, it's fair to say we're seeing a winding down of the situation here at l'enfant plaza station. all of the fire trucks have left the scene. we're seeing the lunch trucks starting to move in and people waiting in line to get their lunch. now, we still have orange and blue, those lines closed here. they're not able to come into the l'enfant plaza station but other lines are operating at this point. they are still down in the tunnel here. metro officials trying to assess the situation and figure out when they will be able to open the orange and blue lines. there was a situation earlier this morning. let's take a look at the video from when it was in full swing here. a train was down in the tunnel when what they believe was a friction ring, which is part of the brake assembly, fell off the train and it made impact with the third rail if you're familiar with the metro system. that third rail is the electrified rail.

when that ring fell off and made impact, we saw folks on that train that saw sparking and smoke conditions down in the tunnel and so they had to stop the electricity to that third rail. everything came to a screeching halt down there on the tracks inside the tunnel. needless to say for the folks who are on board that train, it was a little bit unnerving to see the sparks and to see the smoke as they tried to figure out exactly what was going on. we did speak to one woman who was on the train. she talked to us by phone and explained what she saw. >> pulled up from l'enfant plaza and i felt something and then something went boom and fire and cinders came from the side of the train and the bump and sound was so loud that i jumped up and ran to the other side of the train and almost jumpeded in eep of a lady on the other side. >> reporter: blue and orange line is suspended between federal triangle and federal

center. i spoke to a metro official a little while ago and says things starting to wind down. we don't see the fire trucks on the scene any longer. it doesn't look like it will be too much longer before they are able to open up the tracks down there and get things back to normal. good thing is that this happened after really the brunt of the rush hour this morning and so while the trains were crowded, they weren't absolutely packed the way they can be very early in the morning during the prime of the rush hour here. we're told that there were no injuries on board that train. there was some scanner chat that there may be a couple transports. but a metro spokesperson says there was nobody injured as a result of the incident aboard that train. back to you. >> thank you, megan mcgrath. we'll talk about the weather again. here's tom kierein. >> this morning with the event downtown temperatures are not too cold fortunately and we do have a cloudy skies over washington. this is a live view from sky

watcher camera. way off to the east parts of prince george's county and parts south and east have sunshine breaking out. over the last 12 hours, scattered sprinkles and there are sprinkles in montgomery county, southern louden, western fairfax and those will dissipate over the next half hour or so. temperatures around the reasonable under clouds are near 50 degrees. there is sun breaking out in southern maryland into the mid 50s now and that's probably going to be the high for the day today. and then tonight we'll be cloudy and low 40s by dawn. tomorrow light rain in the morning and then passing showers morning midday into wednesday afternoon. that should end then wednesday evening clearing out a bit. sun on thursday morning and another mild day on thursday. might get an evening shower thursday and thursday night and into friday morning. sun back friday afternoon. chillier weather moves in for the christmas weekend on saturday cloudy and highs in the 40s. morning lows upper 30s. may get a shower on saturday night as well as into christmas morning and then some sun back on monday and colder.

barbara? >> thank you, tom. and let's get a quick check on midday traffic out there. >> good morning. the incident at l'enfant plaza is causing street closures. you have southbound 7th street at independence avenue all of your lanes are blocked. this is if you are traveling in southwest. also northbound 7th street and this is at d street. all lanes are blocked here as well. another closure. this one westbound maryland avenue at 6th street. all of your lanes are blocked there. be aware of that as you travel around the area. and then also earlier accident resulting in police activity and closing down southbound nebraska avenue and this is between new mexico avenue and 45th street. if you are on 66 westbound at nuttily, construction takes up the west side of the roadway. back to you. >> thank you so much. radio frequency technology is being used to tighten skin and reduce wrinkles.

we're joined now to see how to works. good morning. this is going to sound like a miracle to a lot of women and men out there. let's not leave them out. we know they are doing lots of things to transform their looks. tell us what is it? how does it work? >> this is radio frequency which is a polar device and the radio waves actually heat the tissues up and cause the contraction of the coligan and you get a tightening effect. this is the device. i'm going to just turn it on. i'll set my hand on this grounding plate. basically this heats up. this is the probe here. very nice wide probe that can be used all over the face. and i'm just doing it on my hand and as you can see there's very, very little pain. enough heat. >> i don't feel anything

actually. >> it warms up to the point of about 40 degrees celsius which is about 104 degrees, 106 degrees is where we try to bring the temperatures of the skin. it feels like a hot rock treatment at a spa. it really does. >> it gets rid of wrinkles? >> yes. the technology is similar to when you have bacon in the skillet and you put it in the skillet and it's very long and loose and then it shrinks up? that's exactly the type of reaction the skin goes through. >> we have some before and after pictures. let's look at this. do you use this in your practice? >> actually, this is my before photo. >> that's you? >> that's me. what i did is i did the lower face and the neck and as you can see the tightening in my smile line area and less lines on the neck. this is after four months of treatment. you need approximately three to

four treatments. and then over time you start to see that tightening of the skin. >> how often over four months do you have to have this done? >> every 30 days for three to four sessions and then at about the sixth month from the beginning of your first treatment you start to see tightening. >> i look at you in person. you look like you're 16. it looks great. what age is this recommended for? >> it's recommended really it's one of the entry level anti-ageing things that we can do. primarily because there are a lot of people who are contemplating a facelift. they go to the plastic surgeon and you're not ready yet. this is ideal for those patients. and for the most part even younger. i usually tell people at 30s and 40s to keep the skin tighter. it's better to be preventive than to reverse. >> a lot of new techniques coming out so that we can all look better and younger.

>> this is going to be very, very popular very soon. you'll hear more about it. >> thanks so much. thanks for joining us. our time is 11:39. still ahead, we're continuing to cover breaking news on metro. passengers stranded for hours. a live update coming up. our phone bank is open. you can learn about or contribute to ps charities. pat lawson muse will be back in just a few minutes with more on how you can help.

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we're following breaking news and we have more now on those problems with metro. pat collins continues coverage live from the smithsonian station. pat? >> reporter: barbara, we're here at 12th and independence at the smithsonian station. rescue workers are continuing to get passengers off metro trains following this incident this morning. this incident where something fell off a metro train, hit the third rail, there was an explosion. a couple explosions the passengers say. some sparks. the third rail deenergized. trains came to a stop. scores of passengers trapped in the trains for sometime. rescue workers called in to try to deal with the situation. we talked to a woman who was in the first car of that incident train. >> we just heard explosions as we were on the train leaving the l'enfant plaza site traveling toward smithsonian there was an

explosion between the car and the wall. we don't know if it was electrical. the firemen took care of us. metro police have been down there with us. just a good group of people. >> reporter: was it scary? >> of course. everybody thinks about september 11th so of course we were scared, but we're just grateful to be up and taken care of and with our families. >> reporter: happy ending here. let me show you some of the fire apparatus deployed for this incident. they had more than 60 rescue workers down here working with these passengers trying to get them off the train. sometimes they had to walk them off the train in the dark. they also tried to use a rescue train here to offload some of the passengers. hear now from the fire chief. can you give me your assessment of the situation here? >> well, it's a challenging situation because we're down in the tunnel.

we're with folks who have not been evacuated from a train before. as i told everybody else, we have well coordinated activity, fire, ems and metro all getting folks out of the tunnel right now. >> reporter: any injuries? >> no injuries that we can confirm. >> reporter: how many rescue workers do you have deployed here? >> it's hard to say. it looks like we have our whole department, but we don't. >> reporter: a lot of delays after this incident where something fell off a metro train, hit the third rail, caused some explosions, caused some arching and caused a number of trains to come to a stop and scores of people stuck in those trains. gradually they get them off the trains. good news here in spite of a long delay, no serious injuries. it looks like they'll have a happy ending. they may resume service sometime later today. barbara, back to you. >> thank you, pat. the clock is ticking to get your christmas shopping done and it's crunch time for procrastinators. a new survey out says 77% of people still need to do some

shopping. news4 tracee wilkins reports. >> reporter: two things to remember when it comes to last-minute shoppers. first of all, they tend to spend more money because they have less options and secondly, they need choices. they have to have somewhere to go. these are all things that stores like toys "r" us are banking on. after the success of changed and often extended hours this past black friday, it's only natural that the retail industry would try it again this holiday season. some macy's like this one in tysons corner will open 24 hours starting tomorrow. >> amazing. i'm not going to be here hopefully. hopefully today is it. >> reporter: toys "r" us started operating 24 hours this morning and will stay open until 10:00 p.m. christmas eve and for last-minute shoppers, the new hours are right on time. >> it helped me before i left for work this morning just to drop in and get the last-minute gift.

yeah. i like it. >> reporter: some folks are just old fashioned procrastinators. others waited for a reason. >> i was waiting for my paycheck to do the shopping. i knew they were open 24 hours. i wanted to get here early to avoid the rush. >> reporter: why last-minute shop? >> there's always one more thing i would really like to get for my granddaughters. >> reporter: many experts say the problem with last-minute shopping is expense. you pay more in shipping and give up more to the stores because you have little time left. >> i absolutely agree. you kind of want to make up for your lateness so you buy more. >> reporter: what's the plan to keep from spending too much this year? >> there is none. >> reporter: experts suggest avoiding this problem by creating a budget and sticking with it. they say don't spend more than 1.5% of your annual income and have a spending limit for each person on your gift list. >> i don't want them to know

what i'm getting. >> reporter: folks have visa have other suggestions for how to save money this christmas season. they suggest that you create gift cards that family members can redeem later for perhaps a dinner at your house or how about giving to a family member's favorite charity. a gift they'll keep on giving. i'm tracee wilkins, news4. we have more now on our 12 days of giving. here's pat lawson muse. >> ps charities is adding to the good work that the wounded warrior project, the marine corps scholarship foundation and more groups are doing to help those who protect our country in the military. welcome back, michael chandler and luann dean. michael and luann, you work on a number of events to support military members. tell us about those. >> we're raffling off a motorcycle, an occ chopper. you can buy raffle tickets online at our website and in

addition we're also having a golf tournament in alexandria in september. >> luann, you have -- eden pearl is one military member and also a contractor who worked in afghanistan. a family of a military member who is deceased. >> yes. we have some of the efforts that we've done in the past. we've helped a family who the marine retired and a week later he was killed by some thugs in his area so we supported him by donating or raising $40,000 to the principle of his mortgage to help the family keep their house. >> and tell us again, you're not only supporting military families, but you're raising money to support cancer. >> yes. >> patients. >> we're passionate about raising money for patients in the fight against cancer and to make sure that the money goes to the patient. we'll help people with rent.

we'll help people with parking. we'll help people with co-pays. help with those types of expenses that you really don't think about. >> michael, how do you choose the military members that you support? the military is really one big family. >> d.c. may be the epicenter of the military but it's widespread when you talk about preserving america and supporting our way of life so there is no limit for us. it's just wherever we can find the need, an individual or family need, that supports america, supports our military, we will service it. >> tell us about the contractor who lives in ashburn. >> the contractor to lives in ashburn was wounded in afghanistan. he wasn't in the military. he's not in the military. he was wounded and came home and to supplement his medical care here in ashburn, we raised and donated money on his behalf. >> tell us what your asking our viewers to do this morning.

>> it's very important because for us we rely on individual giving and corporate sponsorship to raise money on these folks behalf. what we need are volunteers. we need contractors who can provide expertise in building a house and volunteers to work our golf tournaments and volunteers to manage our website. we need volunteers who can sell raffle tickets. we need passionate people about the cancer community and the military community. >> luann, you are a breast cancer survivor. this is very close to your heart. >> it is. we don't only support breast cancer. we support all types of cancer. >> luann dean and michael chandler, ps charities. if you could help this organization do the work that it is doing, please call our volunteers at 202-885-4949. barbara? >> our time right now is 11:51. coming up, a special secret santa. plus meteorologist tom kierein will be back with when we see

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sisters, matthew, michelle, vanes vanessa. happy holidays. i love you. >> tonight is the first night of hanukk hanukkah. after the ceremony, there will be a traditional potato pancake and doughnut dining given out for free and free personal menorah kits will be distributed at the event. in new york what's the world's tallest menorah will be lit for the jewish holiday. it's 32 feet tall. hanukkah is the jewish festival of lights and lasts for eight days. and tomorrow on news4 midday, we'll show you secrets to throwing a perfect hanukkah party. that's tomorrow on midday. shoppers are out trying to take care of their last-minute gift lists. in prince frederick, maryland, one man made a record donation and became a secret santa. all of the money going to help those who had items on layaway

at kmart. an employee called an angel providing $20,000 to pay for christmas layaways for 150 people. layaways of things like toys and clothes. one woman showed up with her children to make a payment on her christmas gifts to find the $300 bill had already been paid in full. >> i'm so shocked. i'm sweating. i feel like crying. i'm really blessed right now. >> the man that gave the donation told kmart to take care of the kids and make sure they had a very, very good christmas. let's talk about the stories coming up later this afternoon. here's pat lawson muse with a preview. >> a holiday producer that work on "survivor" is fighting extradition to mexico where he's accused of killing his wife and a search for a missing woman who made a final chilling phone call to her family and news4 at 4:00, you're planning to be a good

employee and show up for work despite sneezing and coughing but will your co-workers appreciate your action? at 5:00, news4 your health, a new treatment that could stop brain aneurysms before they rupture. very important health news there. those stories and more coming up at news4 at 4:00. let's take a last check on midday weather. >> a few sprinkles to the north of washington. a lot of clouds over washington now. there's sun in southern maryland and parts of the northern neck near fredericksburg. it's warmer there. upper 50s. closer to washington under the clouds in low to mid 50s now. we'll stay this way the rest of the day. small chance of a sprinkle and then tomorrow likelihood of passing showers for morning into evening and maybe more thursday morning and friday morning. thursday evening into friday morning and again on the weekend. stay tuned. the latest tomorrow. >> thank you, tom. a new video. it shows the tight bond between a pet and their owner. the viral video shows a cat

comforting a crying baby to sleep. aaron was filming his son and the baby started crying and that's when the cat came over. he became petting connor's face with his paw. the baby eventually falls back to sleep. so far more than 305,000 people have watched this video. that's news4 midday for today. we thank you for being with us and invite you too tune in for more news at 4:00, 5:00, and 6:00 and tonight at 11:00 and we'll be back tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. for news4 midday. until then, have a terrific day. we'll see you in the morning.