big news today in the republican presidential campaign. texas governor rick perry drops out of the race and immediately endorses newt gingrich. >> and that was just half of a one-two punch for mitt romney's campaign. steve handelsman is in columbia, south carolina with the latest. >> reporter: rick perry said the republican mission is to beat barack obama and to replace him with a true conservative. i am suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. i believe newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country. >> reporter: gingrich is surging in south carolina. ten points behind mitt romney in today's nbc news marist poll, ron paul at 16, rick santorum at 14. but in polling since monday's debate, gingrich trails romney by just five. >> the only effective conservative vote on saturday is

for newt gingrich. >> reporter: romney praised perry. >> a terrific guy. terrific conservative. been a great governor. was great in the race. >> but he slammed gingrich. >> the speaker was talking about all of the jobs he helped create in the reagan years. he'd been in congress two years when reagan came to office. >> reporter: romney got more bad news from iowa where he'd claimed his first 2012 win. officials there say a new count puts santorum ahead and there is more potentially damaging financial news about romney. he sent some of his millions to the cayman islands but aides deny romney used the secretive banks there to dodge u.s. taxes. gingrich got bad news in this religious state. a reminder of his three marriages and infidelity from a second wife on abc. >> he was asking to have an open marriage and i refused. no. no. that is not a marriage. >> reporter: campaigning with his current wife gingrich said intruding into 10-year-old family matters is wrong.

tonight the four remaining candidates debate again here in south carolina. it shaping up as a gingrich/romney slugfest. steve handelsman, news 4. more on the controversy over newt gingrich's marriage to his second wife mary ann. >> "the washington post" reporter james grimaldi is one of only a very few journalists who have interviewed mary ann gingrich and joins us from "the post" newsroom. let's start with mary ann gingrich has stayed out of the public eye through this entire campaign. why is she coming forward now? is this connected to the primary timeline? >> well, she said that she wanted to get her story out now. she knew it was inevitable, unavoidable. she wanted to do it once and then she didn't want to do it any further after that. i think she would probably deny that it was related to the timeline and, in fact, at one point i think was going to wait

to go public until after the south carolina primary but she gave an interview as you pointed out a minute ago to abc. so i called her and i had been talking to her and said that we would like to print an exclusive interview and she agreed. >> about that interview on abc's "nightline", james, some have said she has this bombshell about newt gingrich. did she give you any hint of a bombshell? >> she told me there is no bombshell. she merely described some of the details of the relationship. some might call the request and the offer for an open marriage that would allow calista to be a p paramour at the same time they were married but she didn't consider it that. she claims he said well the problem with you is you want to have me all to yourself and she

said that that's what a marriage is. and she refused to do that. the other thing is that when he asked for the divorce she felt there was maybe some contradiction to what he was saying publicly about family values as opposed to asking his wife for a divorce at a time he was having an extra marital affair. >> interesting. this morning on the "today" show gingrich said his daughters from his first marriage asked abc not to air that interview with abc with their former step mother. here's his response today. >> i'm not going to say anything negative about mary ann. my two daughters have sent a letter to the president of abc news saying from a family perspective they think this is totally wrong. they think abc should not air anything like this and that intruding into family things that are a decade, more than a

decade old, are simply wrong. >> so, james, what's your reaction to that? and also, do you think it's fair to dove into a candidate's personal history and go back as far as ten years or longer? >> well, mary ann gingrich said to me after i told her about that quotation from the "today" show that, well, she said he's going back ten years to talk about making jobs, creating jobs for the american economy yet he doesn't want to talk about what he was doing at the same time in his private life, which may in fact have contradicted what he was saying in his public life. i want to also point out she didn't feel that everything she had to say about him was negative. she said she really had a lot of positive things to say about what she felt he accomplished. in fact, she felt she was a partner of his during, you know, those years where she was his wife in congress and felt that there were some great accomplishments. so it's not totally meant to be a whole negative portrayal of

mr. gingrich. she certainly had some positive things to say as well. >> all right. james grimaldi of "the washington post", thanks a lot for joining us. >> you're welcome. president obama's pitching a plan to boost tourism today by visiting the happiest place on earth. he chose disney world as his back drop as he announced an executive order to speed up visa processing in china and brazil. the president says more tourism could create more than 1 million american jobs over the next decade. mr. obama's trip could also help his re-election campaign. florida of course is a key battleground state. republican front-runner mitt romney is already running attack ads there. on wall street stocks made some minor gains today as investors remained cautious after a two-day rally. the dow went up about 46 points. the nasdaq ended 18 points higher. and the s&p 500 picked up six points. the washington monument remains closed because of significant damage caused by the earthquake last summer. now a local businessman is

sharing some of his wealth to ensure that the monument is repaired and able to open again to the public. as megan mcgrath reports this is not his first gift to the nation. >> like the rest of us billionaire david rubenstein watched with fascination as engineers assessing the damage rappelled down the washington monument. >> i was glad they didn't ask me to do that. they asked me to go up and take a look and i was glad i didn't have to rappell down. yes i was amazed. those people are professionals and are obviously quite skilled but it is a skill i don't have. >> reporter: while he may not be able to climb the washington monument, rubenstein has other skills -- skills that have made him a very wealthy man. and he's coming to the rescue of this american treasure. rubenstein has donated $7.5 million to fix the monument. that's half the total repair bill. >> i thought because it's an

important symbol of our country if i could help in some modest way i would like to do so. that's what i wanted to do. >> reporter: rubenstein's donation means the project is now fully funded and engineers can begin the business of repairing the monument. as for when it will reopen? >> we will begin the construction in 2012, begin the repairs, and we're not sure exactly how long it will take so we're estimating that the monument will reopen in 2013 but i can't give you a hard date. >> reporter: the washington monument was seriously damaged in august's earthquake. mortar and stone came tumbling down and large cracks formed allowing water to pool inside. it's been closed ever since. although disappointed that they couldn't get inside today, tourists say they're glad the landmark will be fixed so that future visitors can enjoy it. >> i think it's great. it's something you can give that will last for generations as opposed, you know, it's paying forward i guess you could say. >> reporter: rubenstein is no stranger to large donations.

he gave $13 million to the national archives and $25 million to the kennedy center. just recently he gave $4.5 million to the panda program at the national zoo. from the washington monument, megan mcgrath, news 4. >> the washington monument is 555 feet tall and damage extends the entire length of it. but the biggest problems are right up there at the top. let's take a look at this video shot by engineers last november when they were conducting inspections. several marble panels have cracks that are 1 inch thick. there are those cracks and then there are chipped stones that are allowing rain to get into the monument. not only that the lightning protection system sustained major damage. let's take a look now at some of what's going on on the inside of the monument. stones inside have become dislodged. one of them is really big and weighs 200 pounds so they've got a lot of work to do on the inside as well. the park service says the repairs could take a year to complete. jim? >> pretty cool perspective there.

here's the big picture on the sky. the sun was out most of the day. that still didn't warm us up that much. storm 4 meteorologist veronica johnson joins us now with your first forecast. v.j.? >> this was definitely a winter day for us, jim and pat, with temperatures hovering right around 40 degrees. we're at 39 now. reagan national airport. as you said, the sun was out earlier. now we're already seeing the clouds advancing on us from west to east those clouds and temperatures will start coming down. 37 in aspen hill. only in ashton, 38 you folks in mclean and vienna. big afternoon to you folks in prince george's county, riverdale, and glendale coming in at 38 degrees. it's 43 degrees currently just down to the south in quantico, virginia. let's take a look at that cloud cover. there it is making its way from western maryland right through d.c. now almost covering most of southern maryland. from those clouds we are going to see a few flurries late tonight. pittsburgh already getting the snow.

cleveland, ohio, too. this will be one fast moving system for us. right now it looks as though the possibility of flurries will be in that window between about 9:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. so as temperatures start to drop, possibility of flurries coming our way for 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. real quick look at your fast forecast. we've got flurries to talk about tonight but a better chance of wintry weather this weekend. and that's what i'm going to be giving you the details on in a couple minutes. >> thanks, veronica. divers have resumed their search for more than 20 missing passengers who were onboard that sinking cruise ship in italy. this as new details emerge today about the captain's actions after the ship ran aground. duncan golistani has more. >> reporter: today there has been much more activity on the costa concordia with divers able to go back on. they've been able to access parts of decking 80 millimeters below water. that area was important because it was a meeting point, so

potentially passengers might have gone there during an emergency. unfortunately, the divers didn't find anything. we've also seen helicopters dropping off more sonar equipment to see if the vessel moved at all. that will be important in the coming days because we're expecting strong winds to hit the island. also, new evidence from a potentially important new witness, a 25-year-old hostess who works for costa cruises but was actually on holiday onboard the concordia at the time. she says she heard a coded emergency call, went up to the bridge to help, and was up there with officers and the captain and she has defended his actions, saying he did a great thing and saved 3,000 lives. of course, that is not how prosecutors here in italy see it. they say he caused this crash. for nbc, duncan golistani in italy. we're just getting started.

a sichbt timgn of the times. apple unveils a new plan to let students get textbooks on apples or computers. >> actor mark wahlberg apologizes for controversial remarks about the 9/11 attacks.

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heavy backpacks at school may soon be a thing of the past. >> they can weigh down the kids can't they? technology giant apple is introducing a new way for students to study with digital textbooks. >> reporter: a backpack loaded down with heavy textbooks could give way to an ipad filled with their digital counterparts. that's if apple's electronic textbook service unveiled today, i-books 2, catches on. >> reinventing the textbook. >> reporter: it teams apple with a trio of publishers responsible for 90% of the textbooks sold in the united states. >> imagine i'm a high school student and studying biology. >> reporter: the group plans to sell interactive electronic versions of textbooks for $15 or less starting with high school, math, and science. >> it becomes a revolution in the textbook business. it also might take some pressure off school budgets because the cost of books will be going down. >> reporter: but to use these digital textbooks students also need $500 ipads.

apple says 1.5 million ipads are now in use in education but the company did not reveal any new plans to increase that number or somehow defray the cost of ipads for students. >> these are beautiful books. >> reporter: the souped up textbooks will simply try to add to the ipad's appeal. >> they have embedded video. they have 3-d modeling. they can make your own graphic cards. they can make note cards, flash cards. >> reporter: hurdles facing digital textbooks however are more than just financial. there's also ingrained behavior. >> i like being able to turn the page. >> what i read online, it's easy to jump around. >> personally i need a textbook. >> reporter: publishers are hoping a new generation of them will have students feeling the same way. >> new school and old school. >> really cool. khloe kardashian's baby blues. the group helping paris hilton make a musical comeback. >> and a grand reopening for jay-z. it's time for hollywood

headlines. joining us is georgia, cohost on the morning show heard week days. so, georgia, singer jay-z is back in business after the birth of his daughter we know, blue ivy. a lot of stars helped him reopen his what, 40/40 club in new york city. >> yes. >> we were thinking beyonce might come out. >> i hate to say i told you so. i didn't think she would be there. i don't think she'll be out until she's back to a size 4. i know with beyonce that'll be in like a week. >> right. >> i was surprised about one guest. i did expect lots of celebrities but not 81-year-old warren buffet there. >> wow. >> he wasn't even scheduled to be there. what happened is he called and said hey do you mind if i roll by? >> whoa. >> he and jay-z were apparently really good friend ever since they were on the cover of "forbes" together. >> okay. >> not only that jay-z showed him how to do the rockefeller sign so it's hilarious. >> no. >> yeah. >> they're rolling together. >> yeah. >> quite a party there. >> listen, actor mark wahlberg was scheduled to be on board a

flight which hit the world trade center and is now apologizing about some remarks he made concerning what happened on 9/11. >> yeah. not very smart. i think he's having a problem distinguishing between a movie set and real life terrorist. he said if he had been on the plane it wouldn't have gone down like that. he says he would have landed the plane safely. apparently he is also a pilot. but i guess he sees what a dumb mistake that was. he says it was irresponsible, horribly irresponsible -- i'm saying "horribly" he didn't but probably meant to. now he is apologizing because, you know, this the not -- he says oh, i do all my own stunts. i could have done that. is he crazy? >> and offensive to a lot of people. >> very offensive and disrespectful. yeah. >> hey, the nasty breakup of katy perry and russell brand seems to be taking an even nastier turn. what's going on? >> kissing and telling in a tell all book. >> we don't do that. >> you don't do it. he doesn't really need to do it. he is supposedly going to tell everything that happened in their 14-month history. >> uh-oh. >> and he is giving up the goods i hear. he is no gentleman if you do

that. >> not at all. maybe she made a good choice there. >> yeah. >> to move on. khloe kardashian and her husband are still trying to conceive and they're holding off on calling in the big guns. >> yeah. well here's the thing. there were rumors she was feverishly looking for a fertility doctor in dallas so she took to twitter to say that is a rumor. you know, right now me having a baby is in god's hands and if i do decide to see a fertility doctor i will shout it from the roof tops or at least put it on twitter. >> okay. paris hilton is trying to make a singing comeback and is getting high profile help. let's hear what they have to work with. ♪ ♪ she's got betty davis eyes happy birthday andy! >> oh, happy birthday. >> so you're thinking why would one of the hottest groups right

now with one of the hottest singles help her? apparently they've known her since they were kids. one of the group guys and another guy sky blue are the sons -- son and grandson of barry goredie so it's kind of like a celebrity hookup is what she's getting. maybe they've got a lot of auto tune they can put on there and make her sound good. >> i've heard a lot better care yoke than that. >> what do you have tomorrow? >> we're doing the dmv under 30. if you know someone under 30 nominate them. we'll be highlighting someone every day in the month of february. so history makers, people making history now. if you know somebody go to kysdc.com and nominate them. i'm 31 so don't bother nominating me. i can't do it. >> you don't look a day over 29. >> i love you. >> thanks, georgia. >> congrats on your predictions. >> thank you. i sure did. >> on the money. coming up on news 4 at 4:00 better them than us. the state of washington deals with a state of emergency. >> plus the tsa and homeland security make an apology over

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we've still got the breeze out there. >> yes, a little bit of a breeze. we have a gust around 20 and

moving into the area or pushed into the area will be some snow. how about that? a little bit of snow. some flurries, just enough to get us talking later tonight because after 9:00 we've got that chance. nothing like the snow though that fell in seattle, washington. but here's the thing. all those systems that are coming into the pacific northwest, those are rolling eastward. let me show you what happened in seattle this morning. yeah, this is the airport. as you can tell there's not much going on. all that snow that picked up 5 plus inches of snow, there was ice that came on top of that so the freezing rain and ice shut down the airport and brought much of washington state to a standstill. again, a series of storms all heading east. we've got a better chance to pick up some snow right here this weekend for a period of time. 39 is the temperature. most locations, most neighborhoods staying right around 40 degrees today and as we said, a little bit of wind out there out of the south-southwest at 14 delivering a wind chill when you factor the two together of 31 degrees.

31 very cold degrees. we've got 34 to the north in mount arie hanging on to the 40s down to the south. a little warm pocket, la plata, charlottesville, virginia 41 degrees. so a chance of flurries, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 a.m. 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. fast moving system called a clipper moves in and out and hits some areas and leaves others fine and dry. tomorrow morning already a clearing sky at 25 to 30 degrees across the area. a little bit of wind and a little bit of a wind chill. you can already see on the radar there, storm 4 doppler. that moisture moving through into western maryland. a bigger batch, williamsport, pennsylvania to cleveland, ohio, and extends right down to the south and west. in and out of the area by tomorrow morning a little bit of sunshine. guess what? there it is. the white back. clouds increase. and for early saturday morning, 2:00 a.m., there is your snow starting right after midnight.

we've got a chance between about to 2:00, 3:00 a.m. on saturday. up until about 5:00 a.m. then it's freezing rain for a brief period of time saturday morning before switching over to all rain. i do think that most of the rain on saturday will be before 2:00 p.m. so now we've got a lot going on. 37 to 34 your evening forecast. let's go ahead and take a look at your four-day forecast here. tomorrow we'll be right around 40 degrees, 38 to 40. saturday, same thing. right around 40. i'm not worried about the afternoon. i'm worried about the overnight and early morning periods. really not just saturday morning but also sunday morning we could have some pockets of freezing rain around. that's kind of what we were afraid of, that once this pattern starts to change we'll be right on the line, a possibility of not just snow but the other stuff we don't like to drive on. >> okay. >> no we don't. all right. thanks. still to come on news 4 at 4:00 how happy are the people who live in washington? find out where we rank nationally among the list of the

happiest cities. plus a decades old tradition to honor edgar allen poe seems to honor edgar allen poe seems to be when you first find out you have breast cancer, you feel like you're in a nightmare. terrified. horrified with the news. when i was diagnosed, i felt very out of control and very helpless and a victim of the disease. i was just so overwhelmed, and, um, my heart just started to race. helpless but never hopeless. (woman) and i can actually do something to help. (woman) and this is something we can do. (man) we can walk. (woman) we can walk. (man) if our wives and daughters, our sisters and mothers can go through breast cancer... we can walk 60 miles.

60 miles. we can erase breast cancer. (woman) 60 miles in 3 days. i can do that, and even 60 miles isn't enough. i believe that we can rid the world of this terrible disease. we can do this. we can all do this together. we can do this together. (man) register today for the... and receive $25 off your registration fee, because everyone deserves a lifetime. it just got more frustrating and frustrating. a lot of times, the picture would break up. for the amount of money that i am paying, [ male announc ] stop paying for second best. move up to verizon fios tv, internet and phone for our best price online -- just $89.99 a month guaranteed for two years. first time we saw tv on fios was amazing! i was just in a trance watching it. i'm discovering new channels every day. [ male announcer ] and here's a special bonus: sign up now and get $300 back with a two-year contract. fios internet -- the speed, you can't compare. i'm able to take care of things much faster now.

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new at 4:30, then there were four. texas governor rick perry suspends his presidential campaign today, endorses newt gingrich. mitt romney, rick santorum, and ron paul also remain in the race. >> bethesda billionaire david rubenstein has donated $7.5 million to help repair the washington monument. the structure has been closed since august 23rd after there were cracks and other damages from the earthquake. repairs are expected to begin in late summer. >> an audio recording reveals new details today about the actions of a cruise ship captain after his ship ran aground in italy. in the recording the captain is heard telling port officials the ship suffered a blackout. he is under house arrest accused of abandoning ship. on wall street today stocks ended in positive territory. the dow industrials gained 46 points. the nasdaq was up 18. and the s&p 500 closed six

points higher. >> the department of homeland security is apologizing today for tsa agents who searched two elderly florida women at jfk airport in new york last year. >> but neither woman is satisfied with the tsa's response. betty yu has the story. >> i'm disgusted. it's a lie. that's all i can tell you. >> repter: this is the first time ruth sherman is reading the letter stating that tsa agents were wrong but only when they asked her and another elderly woman to show medical devices under their clothing. >> why are they sending a letter? why don't they send anything to me or come to people forward and say, we're really sorry we invaded your privacy. >> absolutely outraged. i don't consider this an apology. they say it never happened. and it did. >> reporter: in the letter addressed to a new york senator who called for an investigation, the tsa says it sincerely regrets any discomfort or inconvenience the passengers at

jfk experienced. 89-year-old ruth sherman of sunrise and 85-year-old lenore zimmerman of coconut creek say they were humiliated but the letter says there is no evidence to support the claims that tsa employees conducted strip searches of any passenger. >> i am not a liar. they are nothing. they didn't do absolutely [ bleep ]. >> i think they're trying to cover their [ bleep ]. it's a lie. >> reporter: the assistant homeland security secretary admits sherman was forced to show her colostomy bag which violates policy but added at no time were the passengers asked to remove clothing. these are the sweat pants sherman says she was asked to drop. >> they should send people to classes who would learn how to deal with the public. >> reporter: the tsa says it's doing just that. agents at jfk are receiving refresher courses to learn how to respectfully and safely screen passengers. >> now in the immediate after math of the incidents the tsa said the searches were warranted in order to ensure safety. >> oprah's body guards got into

a scuffle with tv journalists in india. take a look at this video. a fight broke out as the guards tried to keep photographers from getting too close to oprah. no one was injured but three body guards were briefly detained. oprah was filming in india meeting baliwood stars and visiting the taj mahal, traveling with guards from the u.s. and india. there is no indication that her american body guards were involved in the fight. rupert murdoch's british newspaper company has agreed to pay the actor jude law about $200,000 to settle a lawsuit generated by phone hacking. the newspaper company acknowledges that 16 articles about law were obtained by hacking and the actor was placed under repeated and sustained physical surveillance. the articles were published in the now defunct "news of the world" tabloid. the company also admitted misusing law's private information for articles that were published in "the sun tabloid" but no details about that were provided.

♪ >> that was a snippet of bruce springsteen's newest single "we take care of our own" and the song is on his new album to be released in march called "wrecking ball." the album has strong political messages reflecting springsteen's views about the state of america. other songs include "death to my homeland" and "this depression." the album's executive producer calls the writing on the disk the best of springsteen's career. it's no disney world but washington, d.c. is one of the happiest cities in the country when it comes to work. >> all right. we can feel it many days. that's the finding of a new survey by career bliss.com. washington comes in 12th on their list, which measures what employees say about the work they do, the money they make, the people they work with, and their chances for growth in their field. by the way, the average salary here in washington is more than

$70,000. >> now the happiest work city is miami. that's according to the survey, followed by worcester, massachusetts, oklahoma city, san jose, and oxnard, california. >> and at the bottom of the list are akron, ohio, boston, trenton, sacramento, and seattle. survey bliss interviewed 43,000 employees for this survey. a letter alexander graham bell wrote to his parents just sold for more than $92,000 at an auction in new hampshire. the letter is seven pages long and includes rare and elaborate drawings of the telephone he invented. it was written two years after bell made his first call to his assistant thomas watson and obtained a patent on the telephone. the inventor was responding to news from his parents that a lightning strike damaged their wiring. in the letter he instructs his parents on how to ground the telephone to prevent harm from future lightning strikes.

from bell to poe for the third year in a row the anonymous toaster failed to show up at edgar allen poe's grave site last night in baltimore. since the 1940s a man dressed in black had been placing roses and half an empty bottle of cognac on poe's grave the night before his birthday. today would have been poe's 203rd birthday. >> wow. much more ahead on news 4 at 4:00. facebook adds to its timeline with an assortment of new apps. plus a blizzard couldn't stop delivering a baby. hear from the proud parents comi

the world's largest online social network is getting even more popular. facebook has launched 60 new apps, including ticketmaster and fitness with nike. all of the apps will be integrated with facebook's new timeline profile feature and that means your activity will be displayed directly on your timeline as it happens. users have the option of limiting what is displayed. the goal is for facebook to have users spend more time on the site. time now to take a look at today's daily deals. >> if you are trying to get into shape before spring gets here, living social has just the deal for you. for $30 you can get one month of unlimited fitness classes at the

sergeant's program boot camp. they're in 19 locations around the d.c. region and classes will work out your cardio, give you core workouts, flexibility, stabilization, and resistance. >> meanwhile on groupon there is one for those looking for a little indulgence. pay 15 bucks and 30 bucks at kitchen 2404. the park restaurant offers upscale comfort cuisine and southern themed drinks so you've earned it after the first one you get from living social. >> a southern themed drink. hum. sweet tea? >> sweet tea. maybe spiked sweet tea for some. >> maybe so. >> all right. coming up, a west coast storm puts a halt to an elevator and a mother is forced to deliver her child inside. >> plus, is it safe to have relations again after someone suffers a heart attack or stroke? a new study reveals the answer to that. don't miss foodies tonight at 9:00 on nbc washington nonstop. we're taking a crash course in japanese cuisine and learning

all about platter preparation at sushico. >> we've got a passion for fashion on the nonstop scene at 9:30. we'll head to the georgetown shop that's trying to make the male muffin top a thing of the male muffin top a thing of the i have copd. if you have it, you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms... by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine.

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veronica, looking at a possible winter storm. some folks are looking at that tomorrow night. >> right. for tomorrow night, saturday

morning, really an after midnight type of system winter storm watch they just issued for some counties north and west of us. washington county is the closest to us right now up in maryland. so we could see that drop south i think tomorrow. so we're going to be looking at that system very closely tomorrow. let's talk about tonight, though. possibility of some flurries coming through the area. just a conversation. not going to cause us any trouble at all on area roads where it's 39 degrees right now. again, a bit of a breeze. we're at 14 miles per hour with the breeze out of the southwest so it's giving us a wind chill of 31 degrees right now. hanging on to 40 just south in huntingtown, maryland. 39 reston. manassas also at 39 degrees. but unlike last night the mercury dropped really fast under a clear sky. we're talking about clouds across the area. those clouds have been increasing and you can see by storm 4 doppler the precip advancing off to the east. already some light snow in western maryland right now. we've got flurries for 9:00,

10:00, 11:00 p.m. and the possibility of flurries up until about 2:00 a.m. after that the system moves east and we get a chance to clear out. so tomorrow morning, we'll be looking at a partly cloudy to mostly clear sky especially by the time the sun starts to rise. 30 degrees at 7:00 a.m. other locations 25 with a little bit of wind. there are those flurries to the north passing through very quickly. again, a fast moving system by 6:00 a.m. should be down across southern maryland. we're back to the clouds on late friday night. here is midnight and this is all a combination of freezing rain and a little light snow that advances through the area. most all the rain and freezing rain should be gone by the time we get to about 2:00 p.m. on saturday. there it is down across southern maryland moving on out of here. let me back out of the way and we'll talk about your four-day forecast. there's that coating to an inch that could be laid out across the area for early saturday morning. your high temperature for tomorrow, 38 and close to 40 degrees both saturday and sunday.

right now the best chance of rain coming back into the area will be late sunday early monday morning. there you go. a lot going on over the next couple days. active pattern. >> i'll say. busy. >> and a little bit of a warmup again there. >> a little bit of a warmup. >> my goodness you've been busy. all right. thanks a lot. a pregnant woman in washington state went into labor in the middle of a snowstorm. her husband thought getting to the hospital would be the biggest problem but he was wrong. >> the hard part was there. they finally pla lly made it on find the real challenge was still ahead. >> reporter: in this awful weather driving to st. joseph medical center from graham early this morning took luke and katy thacker a long time. >> it was a solid sheet of ice all the way here. >> and he ran a couple red lights. i was like, stop. but he couldn't stop, so it was kind of scary. >> reporter: after all, katy was nine months' pregnant, ready to give birth. but they got here safely and were on their way to the delivery room when nurses noticed a problem with the

elevator and decided they should move to a new one. luke made it out. katy did not. >> we got on the other elevator, went up to the 14th floor expecting to see them shortly, and the doors didn't open. and they didn't open for about two hours. >> reporter: katy, her nurses, and midwife were trapped between the 12th and 14th floors. >> i was in such hard labor that i was just like, are you kidding me? because i kept hearing the clinking and clunking of the elevator trying to do stuff and then the faces of people. >> i don't think she was in the elevator for more than 10 and 20 minutes and i heard my son cry. >> reporter: it took nearly two hours to open the door but the actual elevator was still stuck between floors. >> my wife asked me if i would be able to come down and cut td cord, the umbilical cord because it hadn't been done yet and they said that would be okay so i was able to climb down into the elevator and cut the umbilical cord. >> and see him for the first time. >> reporter: their healthy baby boy earned the nickname blake

"the snowflake" otis thacker. otis is the name of a popular elevator company. >> it is really not going to stick, i hope. >> reporter: but his birth story should last a lifetime. >> wow. >> couldn't wait. >> had to be born and couldn't wait for her mother to get out of the elevator. coming up -- >> a baby's sense of urgency. >> yes. they call the shots. next on news 4 at 4:00 a baby panda gets its first taste of winter. first penn camera went out of business and now kodak is having major economic problems. i'm wendy rieger. coming up a 13-year-old boy goes to a sleepover and is sexually assaulted. now a mother of three, yes, the mother, is facing serious charges. a hefty fee for those plastic grocery store bags. one lawmaker says 20 cents is a fair price to pay. tonight at 6:00 a new tell-all about john f. kennedy jr. from his rocky relationship to that

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pnc bank. for the achiever in you. kodak has gone bankrupt. eastman kodak company filed for chapter 11 this morning. chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that is. the company has been in business for 131 years. but it had a tough time

transitioning from film to digital photography. kodak is now trying to raise cash by selling off its digital imaging patents. one decade ago there were 70,000 people on kodak's payroll. now the number is plunged below 19,000. the company did not announce any new job cuts today. talk about a kodak moment, take a look at this little fellow. cameras were rolling when this 1-year-old panda got his first taste of winter. he lives in a zoo in vienna, austria. seemed to have a great time in the white stuff. he climbed a tree. he hung from a tree. then he fell from the tree. there he goes. there was a basket there to catch him. the panda's name is fuhu which we're told means lucky tiger. now he's on a swing. he's loving life there. >> having a good time. still ahead on news 4 at 4:00, how safe is having intercourse following a heart attack or stroke? the american heart association releases new details about that toda

heart disease isn't the game ender that it once was. these days more people than ever before are living with it and doctors say many patients want to return to their normal lives as quickly as possible. this includes returning to sex. experts are giving most patients the green light.

>> reporter: exercise is often part of a patient's rehabilitation after suffering a heart attack or stroke. but there is one form of exercise that gives some patients pause. is it safe to have sex after a heart attack? >> this question comes up fairly regularly. >> reporter: duke university's dr. magnus oman helped write a scientific statement for the american heart association meant to help guide cardiologists and their patients. >> the muscles of your heart. >> reporter: it says for the majority of patients whose heart disease is stabilized the answer is yes, sex is quite safe. >> we need to allow patients to return to their normal living again and part of that is sexual activity. >> reporter: it's good news for 56-year-old elizabeth robertson who suffered a heart attack just last week. she's already been comforted by two friends living with heart disease. >> they said that they have completely resumed their sexual activity with their spouses and everything was wonderful. >> reporter: it's been on 49-year-old joseph downer's mind. he's been living with heart

disease for more than seven years. >> as the heart disease has progressed it has become an issue. >> reporter: he has addressed it with several doctors because he has a lot of living left to do. >> i'm still young and my wife is still young. it is an intimate part of a marriage. >> reporter: an intimate part that can be enjoyed in sickness and in health. >> and that's news 4 at 4:00. news 4 at 5:00 starts right now. tonight on news 4 at 5:00 serious sex charges stemming from a sleepover. a mother of three charged with assaulting a boy with her children in the next room. a metro fare scheme. two metro employees arrested for stealing thousands of dollars but it's what police say they did with that money that really has people upset. and paying for grocery bags.

a lawmaker wants a bag tax for virginia but how much is too much? >> and welcome to our show. i'm wendy rieger. >> i'm jim handly. we begin with the two veteran metro employees now accused of stealing money that riders paid for their metro fares. investigators tell us they took that money and tried their luck with lottery tickets. news 4's live near the metro yard in alexandria with details on how the two got caught. >> reporter: essentially investigators followed the money. when you put your money in a fare card machine ultimately it is supposed to end up in a facility like this in alexandria off eisenhower avenue where their revenue collections unit is. but it never ended up here according to federal prosecutors. now they say the two employees nickelled and dimed themselves into a federal case. they were trusted with the lifeblood of a transit system, its revenue, and the government says they pocketed it.