hello. i'm pat lawson muse. today we're going to show you some of the more interesting local stories making news this week. among them, a new initiative to help america's unsung heroes. what's being done in washington to help reverse the trend of unemployment among mill stair spouses. two teenagers in montgomery county set out to help troops overseas, but soon they get the surprise of their lifetime. plus the story of a dog training to find the lost, only to get lost itself. how he finally made it back home again. we start, though, with what was a tense situation in silver spring. that captivated the country.

several discovery channel employees were held inside company headquarters in september of 2010 by an armed man. this week a montgomery county police officer was among those honored for his role in getting that scary situation under control. news 4's tracee wilkins was at the awards ceremony and had this report. >> reporter: on september 1st, 2010, lives were saved inside of the discovery building inside silver spring. there were a lot of people who contributed to the outcome of that day, and today one of them was honored. >> amazed not just by his bravery but his instincts, what he did. and that reflects the character and quality of the individual but also the training of the institution here in montgomery county. >> reporter: the officer was actually off duty when the call came. he said he quickly went back on duty and instincts kicked in. >> being able to gain access to the building by some of the discovery employees that

recognized me. from there, i was eight to get a tactical advantage coming up from the rear and seeing the subject with his apparatus and gear and being able to relay that vital information. >> reporter: today the officer was presented congressional badge of bravery, an award acknowledging his sacrifice and quick thinking. he credits that all to good training. >> the stuff that we've been training for, for different scenarios, and this surprising enough, something similar to this that our department had trained for a week prior. >> reporter: as the standoff stretched on for hours, there were hundreds of armed law enforcement outside of discovery. but it was the man inside who narrated what was happening. >> you know, everybody worked as a team. that was the big word throughout the whole event. >> reporter: tracee wilkins, news 4. >> payton one of 20 other officers across the nation who also received a valor award. american troops are known for their courage under fire, but their families here at home

also know the meaning of sacrifice. while u.s. servicemen and women are fighting overseas, it's often tough for their spouses to maintain their careers. 1 in 4 is unemployed. but now it's hoped a new initiative by the chamber of commerce will reverse that trend. as jane watrel reports, some believe it's a matter of national security. >> reporter: cleaning up after his two children is a never-ending chore for jeremy hillton. he's been air force spouse who gave up his career in the navy to belong to a select group. less than 5% of military spouses are male. >> in the squadron my wife is at right now, there's one other guy. he is brand new. it is nice talking to another guy. we're few and far between. >> reporter: jeremy also shares something many other military spouses have had to deal with as the global conflicts wind down -- unemployment. the military lifestyle is almost impossible for two careers. and often it is the spouse's

career that has to go. >> we moved approximately -- over the last nine years about six times, and those six times, every time you have to restart, you know, looking at different jobs. >> i personally have moved nine times in the last 14 years. >> reporter: jeremy has an advocate in laura dempsey, a lawyer and army wife who's held down five different jobs. but her mission now is to help military spouses get jobs. >> military spouses are at about 26%. there is i think a 42% wage gap between military spouses and the civilian population in general. and the more educated the spouse, the higher that wage gap becomes. >> reporter: under a new initiative started by the u.s. chamber of commerce, military spouses are now starting to be linked to major employers that advocates say will benefit both. >> it's not just the right thing to do. it's right for business, because military spouses and veterans alike make great employees. they're strong. they're resilient. they're adaptive.

>> reporter: jeremy hillton is still adapting, getting his master's degree in legislative affairs from george washington university to hopefully return to the workforce when the time allows. >> our ability to focus, our ability to get things accomplished, i think most military spouses i know are pretty amazing people. >> reporter: amazing people, say advocates who can provide stability to the troops and to the nation's workforce. jane watrel, news 4. there are big changes in the work for drivers with disabilities in the district. new specially designed parking meters are going up all over the place. d.c. officials say it's all in an effort to stop people from trying to cheat the system. tom sherwood tuls es everything we need to know about the new parking rules. >> reporter: those rear-view mirror hanging handicap placards can be a real help to those who need help, parking at city meters for free. but there's a lot of fake placards, too. there are dozens and dozens and dozens of spots like this all

over town with these free parking spaces. the city has no idea which ones are real and which ones are not. >> really, there is fraud. there is abuse of the system. and the real incentive for that is that you can park for free. >> reporter: beginning this month, d.c. is installing special red-top meters downtown and an office-heavy parking near southwest to for the first time reserve meter spaces on the street for handicapped motorists. >> what it's going to do is provide reserved parking for persons with disabilities, currently something we don't have in the district. >> reporter: the big change is handicap motorists will have to pay the meter rather than parking for free with placards. it's a move to cut down on the incentive to cheat. but the red handicap meter will allow longer times to park. >> if it's two-hour parking on a block, you'll be able to park there for four hours. >> reporter: the new red meters are part of many efforts to modernize street parking, and most like the idea.

>> i guess it's a good try to, you know, keep the handicapped places for handicapped. >> reporter: city officials say it's similar to arlington, which requires everyone to pay at metered spaces, cutting way down on the use of placards. >> they said it was night and day. before, it was difficult for anybody to find a space that was reserved for persons with disabilities. afterwards, there were spaces freed up, and that's what we're hoping for. >> reporter: tom sherwood, news 4, washington. >> the district will offer a grace period for parking in february, but then the city will start writing those tickets. a new report shows our area has some of the best and worst driving laws in the country. d.c. and maryland both got green ratings, which means there are multiple laws to keep drivers safe here. virginia, though, got a red rating, putting it near the bottom of the category of driver safety. virginia got that low rating because it doesn't have a primary seat belt law or a

no-teching-while-driving law. the report was compiled by the group advocates for highway and auto safety. for a montgomery county woman who served four tours in afghanistan, the road to happiness always leads home to her daughters. this week, she surprised the teens by coming home early from overseas. as darcy spencer represents, the tearful reunion takes place at a restaurant where owners were touched by her story. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: air force captain charissa jackson came home early from afghanistan, stunning her 17-year-old twin daughters. >> how does it feel, mom, to have them back in your arms? >> it's great. wonderful. awesome. >> reporter: jackson, a critical care nurse, hadn't seen the girls since she was deployed back in june. >> it's like we are three bandies together. when i'm not around, it's very hard, very difficult. >> reporter: the reunion took

place at a gaithersburg kfc. the company organized and paid for their homecoming after hearing about jackson's story. she's a single mom taking care of two girls while serving her country. the girls thought they were coming here to kfc to wrap care packages for their mother's platoon in afghanistan. needless to say, it was all a ploy just to get them here for the reunion. >> you tricked us! >> reporter: and there was one more surprise for the twins who were seniors at richard montgomery high school in rockville. >> we are here to award both of you $20,000 college scholarships. >> oh, lord. >> reporter: do either one of you plan to follow in your mom's footsteps and go into the military? >> no. >> no. >> we're going to follow her by doing the medical field, not necessarily the military. >> reporter: jackson has now completed her fourth tour in afghanistan and plans to retire next year.

>> words cannot express how excited i am right now. all i can keep saying is i'm so blessed, i'm so thankful to be back. >> reporter: darcy spencer, news 4. >> the girls plan to go to college together. and they say they both want to become doctors some day. a chauffeur from rockville is now one of our area's newest millionaires. still ahead, why the virginia lottery winner almost didn't collect his winnings. plus, we'll tell you why northern virginia could soon be getting paid to drive to work.

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when you first find out you have breast cancer, you feel like you're in a nightmare. when i was diagnosed, i felt very out of control and a victim of the disease. (woman) helpless but never hopeless. (woman) this is something we can do. (man) we can walk. (woman) 60 miles. we can erase breast cancer. (woman) 60 miles in 3 days. i can do that, we can do this. we can do this together. (man) register today for the... and receive $25 off your registration fee, erves) register today for the... a lifetime. imagine getting paid to ride to work. that'll soon be the reality for thousands of defense workers and government contractors taking part in a new ride-share program in northern virginia. it's for those who work at ft. belvoir, quantico, the mark center, and arlington hall. drivers would be paid $25 in gas per month.

this program is sponsored by the northern virginia regional commission. the sign-ups begin in march. it is the end of an era in old town alexandria. a theater that first opened its doors back in the days of vaudeville had its lights dimmed for the last time this week. derrick ward got one last look inside the old town theater before the final show. >> reporter: it's one of the last times roger will thread a film through this projector. it's the last day for the old town theater on king street, built in 1914 as the richmond theater with vaudeville on the bill, the name lasted until the '80s when it became the old town. it was owned and run by roger. how does he feel about the theater's last film? >> i feel better monday. >> reporter: you'd think an in-town theater featuring first-run movies, beer, wine, food, at cheaper an the multiplexes would have a niche. it did for the beginning but toward the end it became an

impossible mission. in fact, he says the restaurant and movie house combination brought together the worst of two challenging endeavors. for the restaurant business, it's the challengeover disappears supplies. >> the hardest thing for a restaurant is to keep track of all that stuff. >> reporter: for the movie side. >> putting out a fine product. when you don't have a product to sell, people just aren't going to come. >> reporter: but there were those who came and now lam the loss. >> it's nice to have these old theerlts that just are, you know, neighborhood theaters so you don't have to go to a big multiplex with 20 million theaters. >> the old town has a certain charm about it, and this was one of the things that was cool about it. >> it takes a lot to keep these things up so i understand the difficul difficulty. >> the finer side is the patrons that come in and all that stuff, they're really nice people. >> reporter: derrick ward, news 4. a chauffeur from rockville, maryland, is probably one of the luckiest people in our area this week.

warner ashby just won a million dollars from the virginia new year's millionaire raffle. he's been driving people around the d.c. area for 20 years. ashby says he bought 20 tickets for the lottery but he didn't check the number, and then he read online that the winning ticket was purchased at the 7-eleven on georgetown pike in great falls, where he had bought his ticket. >> i said golly, i bought a ticket at that store, and so i started, you know, immediately going through my tickets. and of course, you know, the numbers matched up, and i said holy moly, this can't be right. >> despite winning a million dollars, ashby says he'll keep his job as a chauffeur for now. he says he is worried, though, that folks won't tip him as much. as for what he's going do with all that money, he says he plans to visit his daughter and granddaughter in tennessee and then maybe take a trip to hawaii. he could probably take several trips. it's worth only about $50 in any given store. still ahead on "news4 this week," why a bethesda woman is

offering a big reward from something stolen from her desk drawer. and the story of how viewers helped to find a search dog that went missing.

his mission is to finds the lost, but a local search-and-rescue dog created a lot of concern when it disappeared itself. zito was chasing a fox at white marsh park in buoy, maryland, last week, but didn't go back to his trainer. a man working nearby found the german shepherd and called police after seeing a report on the the news. the man returned the dog to his handlers at a gas station. zito's trainer said she was worried she'd never see the dog again. >> i've search sod many times for missing people, and i've been on the other side and i certainly have felt their pain. but, i mean, what a helpless, you know, feeling it is to just -- that whoever or whatever

you're looking for is in the rest of the world. >> zito was still in training when he wandered off. he's got big paws to fill. the dog is supposed to replace its father on fairfax county's urban search-and-rescue dog team. a woman in bethesda, maryland, is desperate for the return of an item that she considers priceless. someone stole a video camera from her home. it's worth only 50 bucks, but as news 4's jane watrel reports, it contains memories of her husband whose life was cut short two years ago. >> the flip camera was in here. >> rainey foster shows the small desk drawer where she kept some of her late husband's personal effects. >> it's a drawer where i kept, you know, both wallets. >> bill foster died two years ago this week in a small plane crash in connecticut. the former nasa rocket scientist and energy lobbyist was only 50 years old. >> he was really on the brink of something wonderful at the time of his death. and i was very proud of him, and

i was very proud to be his wife. >> reporter: dealing with the loss of her soulmate has been difficult, but rainey said she was comforted by a short video she took of bill holding a family cat. >> i watched it all the time. i watched it all the time. and -- because it was three days before his death. >> reporter: but the flip cam, similar to this one, containing the priceless video, was stolen from the desk drawer when burglars broke into the bethesda home in late december. stealing electronics, jewelry, and other personal items. >> they at least could have taken the pouch, but they left the pouch. it was sort of adding insult to injury. >> reporter: rainey is working with police. three other neighborhood homes were burglarized the same night. >> i just wonder if thooefs h s have -- thieves have a heart because if there were any way i could just get that footage back, i would be happy. >> reporter: rainey foster says she'll offer a cash reward to anyone who can help return the stolen flip cam, a $50 item

containing memories money can't buy. in bethesda, jane watrel, news 4. thousands of people in the d.c. area will be a little warmer this winter thanks to the generosity of news 4 viewers. people lined up outside the salvation army in northwest washington this week where they were donating -- passing out 17,000 donated coats. they are part of the 20th annual share the warmth coat drive. hundreds of our viewers and local businesses spent all of last month cleaning out their closets to give to those in need. more than 460,000 coats have been collected since the program started. [ cheering ] these kids from northeast washington are performing a cyber safety rap that they wrote. they were filming a video at the door of the charter school. it was part of an anti-cyber bullying campaign sponsored by

the department of homeland security. >> normally hear on the radio almost every morning, and we just started putting rhyming words together. >> i think it was a really important song because maybe, like, children who are cyber bullying other people, maybe they would, like, think over it and maybe think that they should stop. >> the rap video is expected to be shown across the nation over the next few months. still ahead on "news4 this week," we'll tell you about the new workout craze that has folks in our area jumping for joy. [ female announcer ] what would you call an ordinary breakfast pastry that's been wrapped in a flaky crust stuffed with a gooey center toasted up all golden brown then given a delicious design? a toaster strudel. pillsbury toaster strudel. so delicious...so fun. mom, we're dying. no you're not, you're just hungry. make some totino's pizza rolls. we don't have any! front...

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if you're trying to bounce back into shape after the holid holidays, this next workout could be just your thing. instead of gym equipment, it relies solely on trampolines. here's what folk who is take the class say it feels like to jump their way to fitness. >> lunges. begin! come on!

>> this is just come here to have fun and just jump. i mean, when's the last time you've been on a trampoline? crunches, sit-ups, lunges, reverse lunges, jumping jacks. definitely harder to do on a trampoline. the reason for that is first off your stability. >> it's that whole instability on that trampoline that's causinging you to engage just your entire core. so, you know, the most basic exercises like maybe even a push-up or a crunch, you know, becomes just, you know, so many times harder just because you're on that unstable surface. >> get up! >> just hitting all different parts of your body, working the entire body, but again, you're getting strength and cardio mixed into one. >> the main thing is it's fun. it's fun to jump around. makes you feel like you're a kid again. >> hard enough to work on your core when you're on a stable surface. with it being on a trampoline, you have to work extra hard on your score. >> i've definitely slimmed down a bit. i've seen bigger muscles in my calves. i can definitely feel like my

core is getting tighter. >> great, guys. let's go! >> you can burn up to a thousand calories in 45 minutes to an hour doing this workout. it's a great total body workout. >> we start out smiling, start to feel a little pain, and then the smiles go away, but we always end with a smile again. actually looks like fun, but it does look hard. the trainers teach this trampoline workout at the rebounders trampoline arena in sterling, virginia. and that's it for "news4 this week." i'm pat lawson muse. thanks for joining us. have a great day.

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