he was delivering pizza at the time of the crash. >> he -- [ inaudible ] >> i have been calling him since 5:00. he was not answering. >> reporter: too grief stricken to appear on camera, the girlfriend of the man who died in the collision that shut down rockville pike during rush hour described how she learned he had not survived the accident. they are investigating what caused his pick-up to jump the median. a northbound metro bus swerved to avoid it and plowed into a tree. is camera on board the bus recorded the accident. it is being analyzed at this time. the driver of the bus had to be cut out of the vehicle by firefighters. she remains hospitalized, in serious condition tonight. back to you. >> jackie bensen, thanks.

in silver spring, to young women killed and one badly hurt after the driver lost control and hit a brick wall. police are trying to figure out if alcohol and speed were factors in the accident. it happened after 3:00. chris gordon is on the scene with more. chris? >> reporter: jim, this double fatal accident occurred along busy university boulevard east. the car crashed into that brick wall and stopped before hitting that house. in the daylight, you can see the tire tracks. the car that crashed stopped short of the basement window. the montgomery county police accident reconstruction team is trying to determine the cause of the crash. it claimed the lives of two young women and sent another to the hospital. the single car collision

happened at 3:09 in the morning. this black nissan was traveling east on university boulevard approaching lang li drive. it appears the car served, hitting the brick wall in front of the house at 611 university boulevard east. a 22-year-old was killed. it also claimed the life of a 19-year-old of hyattsville. johnson was a passenger in the backseat and may not have been wearing a seatbelt. this 18-year-old of silver spring was sitting in the front passenger seat. she survived the crash but is hospitalized with serious injuries. police are trying to determine if alcohol or excessive speed were involved by questioning friends driving in another car at the time of the crash. >> we want to speak with them more in detail about what the driver was doing prior to getting into the vehicle and how she was operating the vehicle as well.

>> reporter: the family of tamara johnson says she was close friends with james, who survived. they both graduated from northwest high school in june. they went out last night to a friend's party in silver spring. >> it was one of her friend's birthday party that they went to. >> reporter: you don't know if the driver was drinking or not? >> i'm not sure. i don't know the driver. i only know the other friend. >> reporter: the family shows me a picture of tamara wearing a prom dress and told me she wanted to be a fashion designer or get into modelling. >> the loss is too much right now. >> reporter: a friend of tamara's was on twitter today sending out messages saying there will be a candle light vigil here at the crash scene at 7:00 p.m. the twitter message ends, rest in peace baby girl. that's the latest from university boulevard east, back to you in the studio. >> thanks, chris. a montgomery county grand

jury indicted a man in the murder of his estranged wife. murder, kidnapping and robbery. police say he stabbed his wife, 51-year-old jane mcquain inside her apartment. her body was found october 12th. a week later her son's remains were found. investigators believe he was beaten with a bat lopez was arrested in north carolina. he's back in maryland and held without bond. the district's police unit says there's been a significant spike in crime since the occupy d.c. movement started. violent crime is up 17%, overall crime up 14% since the protest started three months ago. the union believes it's because many officers have been pulled off neighborhood patrols to monitor them.

they scolded the mayor for not being more up front about the spike in crime. they are reviewing the union's concerns. now to decision 2012. rick perry last his attempt to get his name on the virginia ballot. a federal judge denied the request for an emergency court order that would have required the state board of elections to put his name on the ballot. the judge scheduled a january 13th court date to hear arguments in the case. perry and gingrich failed to get the 10,000 signatures required to get on the ballot. with the iowa caucuses less than a week away, the crazy ups and downs. romney picked up momentum. steve handelsman is live in des moines, iowa with more for us on this. good evening. >> reporter: good evening from des moines where not only is it unseasonably warm, the political

climate is unusual, even for iowa. so many iowa republicans say they are upset at the federal government, upset at congress that the texas libertarian, ron paul, who made a career out of campaigning for smaller government surged to double the support of 2008 during the caucuses. polling second in one survey, first in another, ron paul is on a role, slamming big brother government. >> this idea of giving up your liberties to be safe is nonsense. >> reporter: hanging on every word were james, mark and chris. mark switched candidates again. >> started off bachmann, cain, perry, now ron paul. >> reporter: his friend chris, kept watching unconvinced. >> thank you. >> reporter: also surging is rick santorum. he's focused on iowa.

finally, he's polling third or fourth out of seven. >> if iowa says you are the guy by pushing us up there into the top tier, they won't be able to ignore us anymore. >> reporter: newt gingrich hammered by negative ads, half his support is gone is looking at later primaries. >> it would be fairly foolish not to stay in the race. it is a long way from here to picking a nominee. >> good morning. how are you this morning? >> reporter: mitt romney figures he can win iowa. >> i want to make sure that your vote backing me is a vote that leads me to become the nominee. >> reporter: his new ad is all over iowa tv. >> the american ideals of freedom and opportunity need a clear defense. >> reporter: ron paul run all over chris. >> next week, i'm going to caucus for ron paul. >> reporter: five days for iowans to change their minds,

again. there's so much switching. if romney gets 25% on tuesday night, the same number he got in the iowa caucuses in 2008 when he lost to mike huckabee. this time, enough to win this republican contest. a few weeks ago, romney barely contested. live from des moines, i'm steve handelsman. >> thank you. the weather now in some parts of the area. before we do that, let's talk about the stock market. we are going to talk about snow showers in the weather but it was sunshine on the markets today. stocks climbing steadily after encouraging news about jobs and the housing market. closing bell, the dow up 136 points because of big games from jpmorgan and bank of america. nasdaq picked up 24 points s&p 500 up 13 points. i was so excited about the weather. let's talk about that now. there were snow showers in parts of the area.

this is mopt gulf of mexicoryville there. there are reports of snow in loudoun county and in frederick county, maryland. doug kammerer, nothing that you didn't expect, right? if i'm not mistaken i thought i heard you say something about that last night. >> i said the exact places you talked about would get snow, jim. >> all right. we listen to you. >> i don't think i mentioned it at all, to be honest with you. a lot of people are saying doug, where did this snow come from? montgomery county is the bulls eye today. we saw a dusting of snow in montgomery county and frederick county. it didn't last long. activity to the west. snow showers in petersburg. that's about it. it could be an isolated flurry later this evening. that's about it. i'm not expecting anything else. 42 degrees is the current

temperature. the winds out of the south at 6 miles per hour. 41 in freddicsburg. 34 in gaithersburg. that's the cool spot. they are not going to move a lot due to cloud cover and warm air making its way in here. warm air. it will be chilly overnight tonight. low temperatures into the upper 20s and 30s in most locations. warming up tomorrow. then another warm up toward the first of the new year then all bets are off after that. >> thank you. coming up tonight, iran threatening the world's oil supply. >> 911 what is the location. >> yeah. some idiot gave me your department, put a lock on my phone, i can't call out. a classic example of wasted resources from complaints to weird stuff. the most random calls they got all year. verizon announcing another

fee sure to annoy tens of thousands of customers. in the south pacific nation of samoa, tomorrow will never come. it could mean a boost to the economy. >> what do you have, dan? >> georgetown returning to the national stage in surprising fashion. maryland welcomes back a big man who delivers big time. when the caps click

tempers getting bad in the gulf where they will not -- earlier this week, iran's vice president threat ped to close the move if the west imposed more sanctions. it comes as iran hold as navy drill. one sixth of the entire oil supply goes through there. today in north korea, kim jong un was named the supreme leader. the new title was used for the first time during a public memorial for his father, kim jong-il. hundreds of thousands of people filled the main square for the memorial today naming kim jong un as the country's supreme leader is significant because it helps cement the family's hold on power for another generation.

there's word criminal charges might be filed with the massive oil spill in the gulf last year. u.s. prosecutors are preparing to file felony charges against several british petroleum engineers and at least one of their supervisors. they say an announcement could be made early next year. prosecutors believe the workers may have given false regulation about the safety of the drilling operation. the deep water horizon spill off the coast of louisiana in april of last year killed 11 workers. 200 million gallons of oil went into the water. it was the worst spill in american history. friday december 30th. forget about it in samoa. tomorrow will be saturday in the small pacific island. 120 years ago, traders convinced them to move east to trade easier with california. it took awhile, but now they are realizing it's not a good idea.

stephanie gosk explains. >> reporter: at the stroke of midnight, this small island will shift the date line east. there will be no friday, december 30th. >> this week, we are going to be losing a day. we are going to move the date line so we'll be in line with new zealand and australia. >> reporter: the date line runs north to south in the pacific ocean. on one side, they see the first sunset of the day. on the other side, they see the last. confused yet? put more simply, if it's friday in samoa, it's saturday in australia and new zealand making business deals with samoa's largest trading partners a nightmare. >> if it's urgent, we have to come in on sunday. otherwise, we have to wait until monday. which is really tuesday. >> reporter: the prime minister said enough is enough. time for a time warp. there won't be any births or deaths on the 30th. no car accidents, no school or

workday. employees were promised to be paid for their lost time. for those who don't like it -- >> people who aren't happy about samoa not being the last place to see the sunset, let's change the attitude. we'll be the first place to see the sunrise. >> reporter: that means even better, they will be the first nation to celebrate the new year. if you haven't made your plans for new years, this could be the place to go. there will be a large party. once you have recovered from that, get on a plane, fly an hour east and celebrate a day later. stephanie gosk, nbc news, london. >> if you die in samoa tomorrow, are you really dead? you're not -- what? how do you go with that? >> you are, just not tomorrow. >> are you dead later? >> whatever. >> you have to get to the weather. >> i am confused about this. the island moves and shifts.

i don't know how they do that. >> how can one country decide -- anyway, it's cold out there. snow showers. >> kind of cool to see the snow showers out there. a pretty sight. a lot of people asking when are we going to see significant snow? i don't see it anywhere in the forecast. i do see big changes at least temperature wise. let's show you what's happening out there. first off, a good shot at the kennedy center. looks good all lit up. temperatures on the cool side. the actual high temperature made its way to 44 degrees. that is the actual average high temperature. you can see this morning, 31 degrees. that is the coldest low temperature that we have seen in two weeks. it's still above average, believe it or not. sitting at 42 degrees right now at the airport, winds out of the south at 6 miles per hour. the windchill is in the upper 30s. the winds may increase over a

few hours and bring the windchills down. the temperatures are not going to move a lot tonight. there's the system off to the west. 34 in winchester. storm 4 doppler radar, we can soo a few light snow showers or flurries. i don't see any now until you go to the west, kummerland and garrett county, maryland. a weak storm system. there wasn't enough upper level storm energy to give us showers. all of them were to the north or west. southern maryland you didn't see any at all. northern virginia didn't see any either. the chilly air overhead. watch what happens tomorrow. we see the mild air race in ahead of another fast moving system. i think temperatures tomorrow will make it to the low to mid-50s. i'm looking at a fantastic friday. however this system coming through may give us a slight chance of a shower late friday

night into early saturday morning. on saturday, we are back into sunshine. we are on the mild side with temperatures in the low to mid-50s. after that, we get warmer on sunday. sunday, we are going to see a big warm up ahead of a trough. that trough is sit iting back t the west all winter long. it is finally going to make its presence felt with not just chilly air, but cold air. the first arctic outbreak making its way into the region. high temperatures into the 30s. windchills tuesday and wednesday could stay in the teens and lower 20s all day long. get ready. the cold air is coming. mostly cloudy, cool, breezy. see temperatures 34 -- i knew i spelled continued wrong. i have done it for three shows. partly cloudy, chilly breeze, 28 to 35 degrees. tomorrow afternoon, the numbers bump up to the 50s. a little on the breezy side late

in the day. the next couple, sunday, new year's day, beautiful. 56. winds 20 to 30 miles per hour bripging in warm air first, then cold air. again, not just cold, but potentially frigid. 34 on tuesday. 36 on wednesday. windchills all day long with 30 to 40-mile-an-hour winds in the 20s. >> i'm going to a spelling seminar on tuesday. you missed the last one. >> i don't have spell check on my system. >> we noticed. still ahead tonight, an explanation after several people in northern virginia felt their homes shake today. a milestone at the 9/11 memorial

milestone today at the 9/11 memorial in lower manhattan, new york. 16 weeks after it opened to the public, it attracted more than 1 million visitors from 120 countries. it features two fountains where the towers once stood. bronze plates surround the fountains and bear the names of those killed in the terror attacks. a museum is still under construction. they expect to open it september

11th or next year. tonight, we get a picture of the man from potomac, maryland sentenced to 15 years in a prison in cuba. allen gross is seen there in the middle. he's said to be in good spirits and fine health according to two jewish leader who is visited him monday. gross was put in jail on charges of spying two years ago while he was working on a government funded building program. gross told his visitors he was disappointed he was not released during a massive cuban prisoner amnesty last week. a man forced to give up his service dog in northwest iowa. they ban pit bulls. there was an injunction this week. he was without his service dog for two weeks. he suffered a stroke four years ago with limited mobility. snickers helps him walk.

when the dog was gone, he fell twice. >> he's part of me. this right side don't work, but he does. it's the greatest day of my life. >> he could still lose the dog. city officials cannot comment on the case because it's still in litigation. coming up tonight, students are five times more likely to be suspended or expelled from school. i'm julie carey, one final way to do holiday giving. the pay off of a tax deduction. the holiday donations coming up. 911 operators reveal the strangest requests they have gotten on their emergency lines. coming up in sports, the redskins running game taking a turn for the better. la jollas knocking on the door of the top ten. of the top ten. the my journey across america,

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police in montgomery county are trying to determine whether speed or alcohol might have played a role in a car crash that killed two women in silver spring. the 22-year-old driver of the car crossed several lanes of traffic and hit a brick wall. it happened about 3:00 this morning. one woman was killed. so was a 19-year-old passenger.

an 18-year-old passenger is still in serious condition. investigators in montgomery county looking into the deadly crash in bethesda. a pizza delivery man died after his vehicle crossed the median and collided with a metro bus. he was 49 years old. mitt romney is picking up steam with less than a week to go to the iowa caucuses. romney is the front-runner. ron paul a close second. rick santorum, third place. newt gingrich is now a distant fourth. candidates are continuing to run tv ads and going on bus tours to sway voters before the caucus on january 3rd. time the running out on the year 2011. >> it is. that means time is running out if you want charitable donations to get your tax breaks. julie carey has the report. >> reporter: whether it's bags

of clothing, furniture or even cars, the rush to make end of year donations is in full force. at this fairfax county salvation army and this arlington good will, a steady stream of vehicles rolls in all day long. >> traditionally, new yeer ear'e is the biggest giving day. we expect to see a significant increase. >> reporter: the next few months represent the slowest time for donations at good will and other agencies like it. >> you have a receipt? >> yes please. >> reporter: it's about making a drop off in time for a 2011 tax deduction. others want to help those less fortunate or end of year house cleaning. >> it's cleaning out the house, tax donation time and trying to do a good thing. >> we just moved here. we decided to make a donation.

we are cleaning out our house. >> i'm donating a lot of things that could help disadvantaged people. >> reporter: most are dropping off household goods, some welcome the cash that come from vehicle donations. these were picked up by national services. dozens of other smaller charitable groups. this time of year, it is hard to keep up. >> right now, they are picking up 22, 24 cars, they are work ing 22 hour days. >> reporter: this week, 270 vehicles will be donated. as long as donors call by 11:59 p.m. new year's eve, they can use the donation. >> if you want to check out a charity before you donate, the better business bureau is the

place to go. we posted a link on our website, www.nbcwashington.com, just search charity donations. if your home was damaged during the tropical storm, you are running out of time to apply for a low interest government loan. it's offered until january 13th. it comes with a 2.5% interest rate. tropical storm lee blew through the area september 8th and 9th after hurricane irene. the flooding took four lives in northern virginia. there is new help for people affected by the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that hit mineral, virginia in august. fema says residents and business owners are eligible to receive federal disaster aid. they include culpeper, orange and spotsylvania county as well as the city of fredericksburg. spotsylvania was approved for aid. for more information go to www.nbcwashington.com and search earthquake.

in northern virginia, a lot of people reported feeling their houses shake this afternoon. we checked on that and found there were no earthquakes recorded in virginia today. what people probably felt was explosive training at the quantico marine base. the training happened several days this month however the overcast conditions made the noise and vibrations stronger today. when it comes to school discipline, the differences are black and white. analysis reported in the washington post show black students are expelled or suspended two to five times more often than white students. the post survey found of the 35,000 students suspended or expelled, more than half of them were black. experts say reasons for the disparity could be poverty, unintended bias, access to the best teachers and differences in school leadership styles.

one guy called up about a broken toilet. a woman called mad that she was not able to see her grandchildren. those are not exactly what you call emergencies, but they are types of call that is 911 operators in prince george's county has to deal with every day. derrick ward with a look at what officials are doing with that. >> he's awake? he's breathing? >> reporter: the prince george's county 911 center in bowie gets more than 1 million calls a year. 20% of them fall into this category. [ inaudible ] >> reporter: the men and women of the emergency call center are well trained, prepared for almost anything. >> we have a six week academy they have to attend to get certifications to actually go through the protocol systems we have. >> reporter: no training gets back the precious minutes from prank calls.

time taken away from someone who may be in dire need of help. in fact, the county fell behind. they were two seconds outside the nationally accepted standard for dealing with emergency calls because 911 operators were dealing with non-emergency calls. >> you are under immediate threat, you need to get through to emergency services right away. it's what 911 is for. >> reporter: since the number has been in place, the response in calls increased significantly. inquiries like this -- >> you want to call who? >> i want to call the water department. there's no water at this location. >> getting those calls to serve the citizens better, two, to reduce the call volume in here then those precious seconds are then available for 911 calls. >> reporter: while you may be in the midst of a life or death situation, there are things you can do when you call 911. >> know what neighborhood you

are in, what address you are at. stay on the phone. don't just dial and leave us out. the questions we ask aren't slowing down service, it's to update the officers. >> reporter: the county is going to move to a three digit non-emergency number. >> it's a great service and will help us out, too. >> the current non-emergency number is 301-352-1200. the new three digit number should be in use soon. still ahead tonight, an extra fee for verizon customers. also, a lot of people say 2011 is a year they really rather forget. you might be surprised to see what a poll reveals about expectations for the new year. this could be interesting. a

welcome back, everybody. a cool day out there if you are one of the folks who saw the snow today, an interesting day for you. most of us did not see anything. montgomery county, montgomery village outside of gaithersburg coming down good there. coating of snow. frederick county, saw pictures there of some of those coating of that white snow coming down across the area. that's about it out there right now. the current temperature at 42 degrees. there could be an isolated flurry for the rest of the evening. most of us will not see anything. the windchill, 38 degrees.

34 in gaithersburg, 34 in winchester. most of the numbers not moving too much. notice where they have moved to the south of fredericksburg. there's where the snow is, the doppler radar showing around the west virginia/virginia borders. hampshire county, hearty county and shenandoah county up toward washington county and allegheny counties and morgan county, too. areas of snow coming through. most of us stay on the dry side. high temperatures tomorrow, back to the mild temperatures. 54 degrees in the d.c. area. 56 near fredericksburg. a really nice day. if you are thinking of ringing in the new year, hey, looking good. midnight, 39 degrees. partly cloudy. not too cold out there at all. we are looking at a very good new year's celebration as far as the weather is concerned. it's when things get tricky.

the forecast is coming up in 125 minutes. >> thank you, doug. it's a different kind of brave new world. a company suing employees over twitter followers. phone dog llc says a former employee quit and took 17,000 twitter followers with him. he took his handle he used for work and made it his personal account. the employee insists he didn't violate policies. a judge will look at it later this month. new fees from this country's largest cell phone provider. beginning next month, verizon wireless is going to charge customers $2 to make a payment online or over the phone with a credit card. the fee will begin on january 15th. it will not apply to electronic check payments, credit card payments in verizon stores or through the auto pay system. of course, there will be no

charge the old fashioned method of simply mailing a check. the kids call me a dinosaur because i write out checks every month. >> i do, too. >> you have to for certain things. especially parking tickets. >> i got my share of them, too. what are we looking at? >> winning teams. the capitals get their wing man back. a big man highlight reel. this guy is good. la jollas a

really happy today and proud of those kids. they play add heck of a game last night. >> we talked about this yesterday. he's not tempering the enthusiasm as in past years. with a young team, he has to keep pushing it. we talked about gorgetown finishing tenth in the big east. they could be among the top ten teams in the country. la jollas down thanks to a couple career games from youngsters. the only thing better might be

the name of the place they played, the kfc yum center, nicknamed the bucket. this week they lose their first. when things got tough, they refused to fold. tied at 63 with less than two to go. off the miss. another freshman, porter is there. he had 14 points and 14 rebounds. la jollas upset fourth ranked louisville. what are your thoughts after this? >> very good win. again, a very good team in a difficult place to play. we are in validations right now. we just want to try to keep accumulating wins. >> this is the big east. games are going to be like that. rarely do you see blow-out games. this is a tough team. we have to be composed. we stayed out and composed.

we kept it together. >> all right. maryland coach has been careful not to call his seven foot big man a savior, but as you can see, the kid could be just that. he made his debut last night and looked dominant. i know they are only playing albany, but he's the real deal. three blocks and five dunks in the maryland win. he gives the terps some hope this year. here is a little story for you. larry brown, the former nba coach saw him practice one time. he said to mark, he said that kids going to be an nba lottery pick. >> i hope so. i want to see him play against somebody with a body on him. there's nobody on him. >> it's like ymca again. he's very skilled and he can bank. >> i'd like to see him blossom.

>> i think i created a new word earlier, the terpitals. we are talking hockey. the caps might get green back in 2012. he's 80% and we might see him in the lineup next week. we saw alexander showing up on the correct side of the score sheet. a much needed win over the rangers. the ovechkin, the thing was let's get physical. lays out girardi in the first period. you have to love when he hits dudes like that. the caps up, 2-1. ov gets richards. pretty back hander there for him. two goals in the game for the first time this season. that line is seven. ovechkin playing like an elite group that they are supposed to be. ovechkin had a pair of assists. a 4-1 win over a team with the

best record in the eastern conference. >> you always need your top players to be scoring and playing hard. you know, last night, they got rewarded for it. three players. they always have to work together. that was a good sign that they are clicking. >> it's good to be in the position we are right now. working guard sometimes, you know, we make bad mistakes that cost us some points. that's a situation where you have to realize. >> we have to play like that every night. you can't just do one game. if you are going to climb, you have to make sure you do it every night. it's what we have to do. i mean, it's been too much on and off our game, so, you can't do that. >> he's exactly right. the capitals haven't won back-to-back games more than once since dale hunter became the head coach. they are way too talented.

>> i would love to see them start clicking. >> that would be perfect timing. talking redskins now. not a single question to mike or kyle shanahan about the eagles today. that's what happens when both teams are out of the playoff pick dhur. there was an award handed out. he looked at the plaque and said i hope i don't end up like the last three guys on the list, they are no longer with the team. they are both rookies. roy helu is the leading rusher. he missed practice today. royster coming off his first career 100-yard game. both acknowledged this season has been interesting. >> it's been a roller coaster, you know. i have been up and down. i was disappointed i was cut. at the same time, i needed to

come out and work every weekend and i did and it paid off. >> it's been a roller coaster with fun turns, scary turns, ups and downs and nearing the back to where we started again. >> that was roy helu. this is a cool story. he's from the area. played high school football here, went to penn state. he moved in with a couple buddies. regular dudes. can you imagine what it's like for them to see him rushing out there 100 yards. >> two of the three guys, award winners in the class, aren't they in the pro-bowl this year? >> yeah. how backwards is that? >> that ain't right. >> it's going to good guys. mike shanahan pleased with two rookies averaging close to 130 yards per game. shanahan said today, there was

no doubt in miz mind he would be back as head coach. bulls season. down in orlando, a couple power houses going at it. fsu and notre dame. everybody in south bend liking the weather there. they were liking this as well. florida state fumbles right here. notre dame going to pick it up. 29 yards for the touchdown. you know pat collins is watching this somewhere and he's smiling. notre dame on top in the second quarter, 7-0. i hope he's smiling. >> i have to tell you, notre dame and florida state playing before new years. that's not right, either. >> it's weird. they spread it out. >> too many bowls. >> true. >> when we come back, ready to ring in the new year. a new survey shows half of americans are optimistic as we head into 2012. >> we

for an awful lot of people, 2011 was really bad. they do not remember a fond memory. there's a survey out about what people believe about next year. you could find it interesting. we have the report. >> reporter: when the new year's ball dropped to start 2011, it wasn't the only thing that went down. american's happiness sank. 70% say 2011 was a bad year.

many are hopeful for 2012. >> 2011, we saw a turn around. we are on the upswing, but it's not going to happen anytime soon. >> reporter: a new poll shows less than 30% called the year a success. the reason, for many, it's money. food and fuel costs spiked and millions struggle to find jobs with unemployment at near record highs. >> i don't think anybody is a real optimistic about 2012. when you say they are more optimistic, it's more than they have been in recent years which has been near historic lows. >> reporter: the end of the year brought the start of good things, gas prices drops, shopping is strong and the u.s. added jobs. all signs there's faith in the economy. >> i think things have turned around. look at the spending, the stores, the holiday season.

i'm optimistic it's going to be a great year. >> happy new year. >> reporter: the polls show 62% of americans think the next 12 months will be good for the country hoping 2012 is a year to remember and 2011 a year you can't forget. nbc news, washington. folks who did that survey contacted 1,000 people by phone two weeks ago. the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4%. if you want to ring in the new year as a millionaire, you have a chance. the virginia lottery new year's millionaire raffle is back this year. 80,000 tickets, less than that left now. the lottery will award three $1 million prizes. six $25,000 prizes and 300 $500 prizes. they are selling 330,000 tickets. a bull escaped on the way to

a meat processing plant. he did not want to be hamburger. he started chasing the cops. also -- this one kind of gets me. a police officer begging for his job back after they caught him speeding 88 miles an hour while drunk. he wants his job back. also, what may be the best story of the day. a guy is 99 years old and just found out his wife cheated on him back in the '40s. i think we are going to tell you what he thinks about that. we'll have his story and more at 11:00. >> i'll be watching. that's good stuff there. doug, get us out of here. >> temperatures going up. we saw a cool day today with snow showers around. 54 on friday. 54 on saturday. 56 on sunday. i think some areas on sunday, if we get enough sunshine could hit 60 degrees early. the cold air moves in sunday night. 41 on monday. 34 on tu