case. authorities in washington state revealed tonight that a search of powell's storage unit led them to a blood-stained comforter. police in utah are testing that blanket to see if it is related to the disappearance of susan powell, josh's wife. other items found in the search include garbage bags of kids' clothing. nbc and news4 will continue to follow the developments in this case. take a look at this video from michigan pap sudden drop in temperatures caused highways to freeze this evening, sending cars spinning and that same cold air is coming our way. doug joins us as some areas around here are already seeing snow? >> to the west. but they won't see anything like this in our area but the cold air from michigan is moving down here. look at the number in chicago. currently, 16 degrees. omaha, nebraska, at 10. cold air is coming our way. rain and snow coming our way and a lot of moisture in the eastern

half of the nation but most of it is rain around the washington, d.c. area. just off to the west, winchester and martinsburg all reporting snow. i expect that. and maybe, through tomorrow afternoon, another round of snow. i'll let you know just how much snow i expect plus, how cold is it going to get because we haven't seen numbers like this much at all this winter. >> thanks, doug. two girls in critical condition tonight after they were hit by a van outside a mall. that accident shut down a busy road for much of the night. jay i can benton along 355 gaithersburg. >> the police say the girls were in the crosswalk but apparently crossing against the light when a white van heading nobd on 355 struck two of them. the driver of the van stopped on

the other side of the intersection and he remained on the scene and tried to help the girls. this is a very busy area. lake forest mall is on one side of the street. a shopping center is on the other side of the street. accident investigators were here for much of the evening. they had the road closed. we're told the two girls, are in, what's described as critical condition but they are expected to survive. reporting live, jacky benson, news4. someone in prince george's county got shot during a i have legitimate for a teenage murder vict victim. the man suffered nonlife-threatening injuries. 200 people gathered to remember 16-year-old chris smith who was shot and killed on tuesday. a robbery spree in fairfax county. four kbriems in a five-mile radius in one hour. women were attacked.

men were punched. guns pointed at the victims. tonight, we spoke with two of those victims. >> incredibly angry that they would try something like that. >> reporter: carolyn's concerned about hair fairfax county community. three armed men dressed in black sweatshirts, ski masks tried to remember her thursday night when she was walking home from her car. >> one brandished a gun and put it to my head. told me to, you know, give me my wallet and empty bhooish pockets. >> reporter: they penched her in the throat and she screamed an they took off running. she's one of four robbed in an hour. they all match the same description and the four robberies may be linked. >> they have proved themselves to be violent by striking two of the victims. >> a couple of miles away three men punched fred in his face when he parked his minivan outside the house. >> they just opened the door and shoved guns in my face and said give eme all you got. >> this happened near the 6900

block of kingstown village parkway. while police search with additional patrol carolyn hope the cops catch the crooks before they strike again. >> if they're going to stoop that low -- >> investigators want anyone with information about the robbies to call the fairfax county police department. we'll continue to bring you updates on our twitter account @washington. in springfield, back to you. dropping their conservative routes. the republican candidates pass through washington for speeches at the conservative political action conference. the stop here in d.c. allowed the candidates to remain in the headlines during a lull in primary season. newt gingrich told activists that 'c pac. and they call it the stepchild to obama care. romney said his record as

governor shows his conservative credentia credentials. >> i was a severely conservative republican governor. on my watch, we fought hard and prevented massachusetts from becoming the las vegas of gay marriage. >> we're gathering together a team. we have a conservative "dream team" of people like governor rick perry, herman cain, fred and jerry thompson. todd palin. >> gingrich left sarah palin off of that list, the former vice-presidential candidate will be the keynote speaker tomorrow. ron paul is not at this four-day conference. his campaign attributed it to travel constraints. meanwhile, a group of 400 protesters, many of them part of the "occupy d.c." movement gathered today and some tie tried to get inside but were quickly removed by security. they say c pa-pac. and religious-based companies won't have to provide

free birth control to their employees after all. president obama announced a compromise on his contra sepgs mandate today and it comes after protests from conservatives, religious groups and some in his own party, workers at rely dpous groups have to access free birth control directly through their insurance company. for the first time this week, george huguely was moved to tears in the courtroom and he wasn't the only one, as jurors listen to his first interview with the police in the hours of yeardly's death. >> george huguely, dry-aed in court, but he ended up in tears with his head down, as prosecutors played the videotaped statement he made on may 3 word 2010, shortly yeardly love was found done. they could hear his hysterical shouts of denial later in the interview when the detective

drops a boenl shell. i have to tell you something, she says, she's dead, you killed her. huguely? she's dead? no, i did not. she's dead? you killed her. and as detectives hand cuff her he says, please tell me she's not dead. detective says, i wish i could tell you that. she's a 22-year-old and she's gone. hieg lee, oh, my god, kill me, there's no way she's dead. he explained that he went to love's 35er789s to talk about recent fights between the two over their romantic rivals. he was like o'o'l -- i was like, chill out and i shook her a little and she kept hitting her head against the wall. huguely admits he held her down on the floor and her nose was bleeding. detectives pressed with tougher questions. did you grab her neck? huguely, i may have grabbed her a little bit but i never strangled her. he also denies breaking down love's bedroom door admitting it only after detectives ask repeatedly. today jurors saw the door

themselves, a large hole knocked through it. george huguely was not the only one brought to tears. at least two jurors cried as did yeardly's mother and sister. back to you. there are conflicting reports tonight about just what happened before a woman was shot and killed by the police in culpepper, virginia. police say an officer shot pat cook after she closed her car window on his arm and started dragging him. an eyewitness claims the officer's hand was on the door handle not stuck in the window. the virginia state police have taken over the investigation. jerry sandusky could go to trial as soon as the spring. a judge set a tentative date. said sandusky asked to be allowed to see his grandchildren but prosecution opposed that after neighboring said they had seen sandusky peering at a school playground from his back deck. he said it hurts to see his wife have to explain to his

grandchildren why they can't see him. >> came home after visiting with grandchildren or sitting there when grandchildren call on my bic and they ask to talk to me and she has to tell memorial that they can't. >> sandusky also told the judge he wants the trial to stay in state college. that means he cannot appeal a conviction on the grounds that the jury was biased. the architect of the martin luther king jr. memorial is upset about plans to correct can inscription on there. he says changing it, in his words, will deface and scar the granite. right now, the inscription is paraphrased and reads, quote, i was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness. however, the original quote from dr. king kwus -- if you want to say that i was aid drum major, say that i was aid drum major for justice. say that i was aids drum major for peace. i was a drum major for righteousness and all of the other shallow things will not matter. if as the slogan says, virginia is for lovers, well,

then, reston is for romantics. social networking site four squa square came up with a list of the most romantic cities. places like flower shops, french restaurants and winebars. the most romantic city on the list? b buena vista in florida. february 14th next tuesday. why do you dread it? share your story on our facebook page, news4 or on twitter with the @stupid cupid and we'll share our best with you monday night at 11:00. coming up tonight, an i-team special investigation. why clean energy for the university of maryland is coming at a very high price for some people in a different state. a father so it upset by what he found on his daughter's facebook page he decided on an

unusual punishment. and the most

a simple flip of your light switch could be sparking a mountain showdown. many organizations, schools and governments are turning to green energy. but as it is for i-team discovered some say the clean energy the costing them more than they thought.

tissa has the story. >> the state of maryland and the university of maryland started buying some of their power from a new green energy source called "pi knackle." we got calls from viewers to tell us to come on out to their small town in west virginia to see why maryland's green energy has them seeing red. a thick fog has settled in on green mountain, kaiser, west virginia. >> i can't live like this, you can't sleep. >> all day people point into the trees and they are telling us something is in the fog. >> it's just rumbling the whole mountain. >> reporter: and then the wind blows and you can see what don ashbee is talking about. he contacted the news 4 team after the wind farm turned on its turbines for the first time in. >> we were told you would hear a swishing sound like the waves of an ocean which would calm you and put you to sleep. >> reporter: but ashbeand his neighbors say the lee-frequency rumble is much worse than they e

they expected. >> i think i was misled on what we were going to have here behind our house. >> reporter: according to document obtained by us the wind farm presented a noise study to the west virginia government saying sound would be quieter than average speech. the sound's hard to capture on camera, but it's somewhere between a railroad car going by and an airplane flying directly overhead. but here's the thing, it never stops. >> i can get out of it in the factory. once in a while you come home and get away from it. here you can't get away from it. >> richard brought a sound meter and has been keeping a log. 60, 70, 68 decibels. >> they can argue how accurate it is but they are welcome to brick their thousand-dollar machine or whatever they want and take it. >> reporter: prior to building, the wind farm did a noise study showing the highest level of

predicted operational noise was 56 decibels. >> 55 or more is uncommon. so these folks are definitely dealing with the high ends of what's allowed in other places. >> jim cummings runs the acoustic ecology ins opportunity who studied wind farm noise. he says there are no federal guidelines. but state and local governments typically impose limits to between 40 and 45 decibels. west virginia has no restriction. >> you can go to every neighbor i got up here and they'll tell you they're very unhappy. >> they're circulating a petition asking for the machining to be turned off at night. pinnacle's parent company tells us that it can't do that because it's contractually obligated to provide power to maryland. the company says it takes issues raised by residents seriously and is currently testing technology that could reducing noise from the turbines. back on green mountain, the sun is starting to set. ashbee points to two other wind farms and says there's plans to

build more nearby. before they do, he wants people to know -- just because it's clean and green doesn't mean it won't come at a cost. the company that owns the wind farm says it will keep the community advised of its progress as it looks into a buffer solution. but our wind expert told us no one has really found a good buffer that works. the best they've been able to do is reduce noise by about five decibels. you can see the company's complete statement on our website, nbcwashington.com. >> the way the expert pointed it out to us is, coal energy, that kind of energy, it impacts a lot of people across a wide expansion. whereas, green energy comeless at a cost but it's very localized. it's very not in my backyard. so it's something to think about. >> thanks. >> thanks. >> check out one of the hottest pieces of video on youtube.

father down in north carolina so upset with what his daughter posted on facebook he posted this video. in the post she apparently used a few choice words to complain about all the chores she she has to do. eej sing even singled out her mom. >> i don't know how to say how disappointed i am in you and how disrespectful you were. that right there is your laptop. this right here is made 45. and after that comment you made about your mom, your mom made me to be sure i put one in there for her so that one is from her. >> oh! >> that's a laptop with a couple of bullets in it. >> the father says she can buy herself a laptop after she pays him back for the one he shot up. >> i don't think tech support going to help with that one. so we're in for some wild weather? >> we really are. it's going to be really cold.

you'll notice tomorrow. you may see some snow on some rooftops across the area but the snow is not going to be the biggest factor and i'll continue to say that through the rest of the weekend. it is the cold and it will be the wind. winds could be gusting upwards of 30 to 40 miles an hours late tomorrow afternoon bringing in cold temperatures. today, not too bad and we saw sunshine earlier with a high of 47 degrees. average high around 46. yes, get ready for the cold and get ready for the wind. out there right now, 42 degrees and light rain across much of the area with winds out of the northeast at 6 miles an hours. around the rest of the region, 34 in leesburg. 43 in gaithersburg and 33 in martinsberg. that's where the snow chances are to the south, 42 in washington. 43 in fredericksburg. this is where we'll see the rain. that's what we're see out of this. snow to the north and west and rain in the i-95 corridor and we're still seeing rain.

seeing rain around rockville and gainesville but near damascus and mount ariane, blue mountain, all seeing snow right now. also, rain/snow line will continue to progress down to the east. i do expect it to come close to the d.c. area. here we are at 12:30 and you see the rain/snow line around the gaithersburg area through sterling around watch what happens as we move through the night. here's the rain/snow line and by 7:00 tomorrow morning we may be seeing snow around the district. once again, i don't expect to see problems on the roadways even to the north and west where it could be snowing most of the night. down south, good rains in southern maryland. tomorrow afternoon we get a reprieve at 11:00 and most of us see a break. here comes, i think, a more significant band of snow. this could give us a coating in some locations. it depends on where you are.

some of you may see a little bit more than that. up to the north, one to two inches. an inch around the i-95 corridor and it won't cause any problems. maybe a little bit more near the south and east as a coastal storms develops and in the west, five to ten inches of snow and that's why there's a winter storm warning. the winter storm advisory includes the panhandle of west virginia as well as frederick count and county through maryland and frederick county in virginia. snow to the north and west. rain down to the south and east and as we move to the next couple days you'll notice a cold day on sunday. 34 with winds of 30 miles an hours. that will put wind chill between 18 and 20 did the and then about 50 degrees the day after valentine's day.

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it is really cool, when a local kid lands at a local school. >> it is. i'm going to let him have all the glory tonight, too. >> absolutely. >> it's a great thing for this young man. five-star recruit and good council wide receiver stephon diggs made up his mind, the decision was so big people on twitter called it "digg s.e.c. ision" the the winner is -- >> what better place to do it than your city? >> oh, yeah. diggs made the announcement at looney's pub in college park, look at him doing the gator chop. he's ranked at the second-best receiver in the country and sixth overall prospect. he led with more than 800 yards and 13 touchdowns. his choices were auburn, florida, ohio state, maryland

and the kid from germantown hoping to do big things in his backyard. >> my dream is to win a national championship. nothing similar possible. i'm going to do everything in bhooi will power and everything i have in me. i'll give it to the team. i play with a lot of heart. >> maryland coach said, quote, we're honored and happy to have him. more big news out of college park. howard is out for the rest of the season after tearing his right acl during practice. a huge loss as they get ready to played duke on saturday. lebron james and the miami heat in town to play the wizards. lebron and heat second in the league in scoring and wizards are 26th. a good game to watch. looking good, john wall drives and then spin move and dishes to mcgee for the dunk. and take another look. wall had 16 points and 10 assists. 13 rebound and wizards open up the game on a 7-2 run.

second quarter, dwyane wade. ball and goes behind the back and gets the spinning bucket to go. are you kidding me? see this again. wow! wow is he a talent or what? wade had a game-high 26 points. later, wade drives it and throws it to his buddy, lebron. miami beats washington 106-89. the wizards now 5-22 on the season. high school hoops. gonzaga, on national television. second quarter, james robinson feeds b jechlt anya and a 6'9" junior and he stacks up seven. less than two seconds to go and lyles, from half-court, banks it in. they defeat gonzaga, 76-47. the stags have won five in aid row. ? alexandria, the capitals had

their poker face on. the washington capital hoisting casino night and auction. fans had a chance to hang out with the entire team with all proceeds going to charity. up next, a road game against the rangers on sunday and you can see that right here on news4 at 12:30. >> they need

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okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition.

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and jay-z in january. they made the photos public this evening and thanked the public for respecting their privacy. baby blue has already made a cameo in one of jay-z's songs and her name is in the process of being copyrighted. >> she has a lot of hair. >> pretty baby. >> "the to

he's just very thoughtful. he knows, like, things that make me happy. he totally knows how to make me happy. i like being the guy who makes things happen... makes things work. i, um, try and shake things up so that it doesn't just become routine. always, like, having fun together. it's adventure. keeping it interesting. this valentine's day, show her she's loved with the helzberg diamonds gift box, godiva chocolate gems and diamond pendant. i love you. you do ?

>> announcer: it's "the tonight