good morning, everyone, welcome to "news4 midday." i'm barbara harrison. it is monday, february 13th, 2012. we begin this morning with the latest on the death of singing legend whitney houston. ♪ i will always love you ♪ >> the coroner's office just moments ago said it could be weeks before investigators know exactly how the 48-year-old died. just a few minutes ago, the coroner held a news conference making it clear, despite

internet reports that the cause of death has not been determined and houston's family has not been notified of a cause. >> i had a conversation with the family at the hotel and at no time did i discuss prescription meds or the drowning issue. >> the grammy award winner was found dead saturday in a bathtub in her beverly hills hotel room. but as investigators look for clues into houston's death, some of the music industry's biggest stars are honoring the singer and her talent. nbc's jinah kim has more. >> i just want to say to bhitwhy up in heaven, we all love you, whitney houston. >> reporter: music's biggest awards night turned into an impromptu tribute to whitney houston. her songs were featured along the night along with a tender rendition of the most famous

bald. ♪ and i will -- >> the passion and how effortless she was of it, she celebrate that tonight. >> and i don't think any of us really have come to the full realization of what this means. >> earlier is under the los angeles county coroner told reporters an autopsy had been done but it's far too early to tell what may have caused the singer's death. >> i know there's reports that she maybe was drowned or did she overdose, but no, we won't make a final determination until all the tests are in. >> reporter: he said it will likely take six to eight weeks before toxicology reports are back. criminal intent, however, appears to be ruled out. meanwhile, houston's daughter bobby kristina was rushed to a hospital elm sunday morning. sources say she was released after being treated for anxiety. her father, singer bobby brown, cut short his concert tour in the midwest and arrived in los

angeles sunday night. if this death investigation is anything like michael jackson's, it could be a while before we hear anything definitive. it took the same coroner's office three months to rule on a cause of death in his case. in beverly hills, jinah kim, news4 washington. houston's cousin dionne warwick canceled a concert in greensburg. it will now be held march 2nd. right now president obama is in northern virginia. the president is speaking at northern virginia community college talking about his 2013 budget proposal that's being released today. he's asking congress to boost spending in transportation and education, cut government spending and increase taxes on the wealthy while reducing the budget deficit by $12 trillion over the next ten years. copies arrived on capitol hill at 8:00 this morning. part of the president's budget proposal includes $8

billion for community colleges around the country to help train the next wave of workers. news4's megan mg gracgrath is ln the northern virginia community college campus with more. >> reporter: good morning. i'm going to step out of the way to show you the president is arriving here as we speak. he's going to be unveiling details of the community college to career fund. president obama is calling for an $8 billion investment in job training to be performed at the nation's community colleges. the goal -- to train 2 million workers in high-growth industries like health care, transportation and advanced manufacturing. the program seeks input from local employers to find out what kind of skills they need to -- in their employees. the community colleges would then take that information and would provide training that is needed. the idea is to move students immediately into permanent jobs after graduation. the program also would provide

for money to pay for bonuses to community colleges and employers who successfully put students in to permanent jobs after graduation. there's also money to provide paid internships to low-income students. now we've been speaking to students here on campus and they say they like what they hear. >> it is a very good program to help them to get the jobs and g get up-started because that's the basis of their lives. it's going to help them and the country as a whole because it is going to better the economy. >> i'm an architectural major and there is no way that i can like get a job like that. these internships will help us get, you know, experience in the field and actually having been like being paid for it, it's a win-win situation. >> for change in this country, the education is the backbone and foundation of this country. it's what made the country strong to begin with and i'm very excited.

>> you can see live here, the president's caravan here, entourage, motorcade. the white house press corps has just enperred the building and we spent to see president obama shortly here as he unveils this plan at the northern virginia community college. now the program is part of the budget that the president is sending to congress and with its $8 billion price tag, you can imagine that it is going to be under a lot of scrutiny on capitol hill. of course we'll continue to follow this story and bring you more as we learn more about this program being unveiled today. d.c. mayor vincent gray will also comment on the president's proposal today which could affect the district. he says the plan cludz language that would give d.c. greater control over its local budget and not need congressional approval. budget autonomy would protect the district in the event of a

federal shut dodown. the press conference is scheduled for 1:30 this afternoon. a very cold start to the morning. i think it was down to 22 degrees at one point. tom, what can we expect? >> it was even colder than that across much of the region. we got down into the teens this morning but thankfully those winds diminished. flags are still flapping in a bit of a breeze, so even though temperatures are hitting the upper 30s to near 40, it feels colder than that. wind is gusting to around 5 to 15 miles an hour. but that's enough to bring those windchills down. right now upper 30s in fairfax, arlington, montgomery, prince george's counties, near 40 in washington. elsewhere we are above freezing all around the region after a sub-freezing start. we'll have quite a bit of sunshine today thanks to high pressure moving in, winds out of the west-southwest generally at 5 to 15 miles an hour as temperatures hit the mid to briefly upper 40s this afternoon. tonight we'll have clouds on the increase throughout the evening

hours. we'll have our sunset at 5:42. it is going to be going mostly cloudy by midnight and it will be cold by then, too. near 40 by sunset, but then by midnight it will be down near freezing once again. could get a little bit of flurry activity tomorrow. we'll talk about that as well as the rest of the week and weekend later. >> see you here in just a few minutes. today a pennsylvania judge ruled jerry sandusky can see his grandchildren. judge said his family can have supervised visits in his state college home. there are certain conditions to the ruling. sandusky provide a list of his family that will be allowed to visit and there are limits on how many people can visit at one time. the defense team opposed this change but the judge says they didn't provide any evidence that the visits would be considered a threat to the children. today jury selection begins for the case of a murdered maryland state trooper. wesley brown was shot to death in june of 2010 while working

security at a forestville restaurant. police say brown kicked a man out of a restaurant because of disorderly conduct. man allegedly came back and shot brown in the parking lot of the restaurant. another man has also pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the murder. he's set to be sentenced later this month. the autopsy report is expected to be the focus of today's trial for george huguely. medical examiner is expected to testify. the university of virginia lacrosse player is accused of killing his exgirlfriend yeardley love in 2010. prosecutors say huguely killed love in a jealous rage slamming her head into a wall. defense attorneys say their client was too drunk to plot love's death. they say she was also drunk and died of asphyxiation. the trial is expected to last at least another week. the southbound side of the fairfax county parkway should reopen any minute now after a

serious crash this morning. around 9:00 this morning, police say several vehicles, including a tractor-trailer, were involved in an accident on interstate 66. the crash shut down both sides of the fairfax county parkway. three people were hurt. rescuers said one person went to the hospital with life threatening injuries. authorities shut down ramps from i-66 to the fairfax county parkway as they worked to clear the scene. time right now, 11:10. greece's parliament votes for spending cuts over the weekend but residents show their disapproval for that. a look at how markets are reracketing around the world. ♪ there's a fire starting in my heart ♪ >> and grammy night's big winner -- stay with us.

israel's prime minister is blaming iran for bombing a car carrying an israeli diplomat in india. it happened today near the israeli embassy in india late in the afternoon. two people were injured in the blast but authorities aren't sure if they were in the car. this comes hours after israel's foreign ministry said that they stopped an attempted car bombing in the former soviet republic of georgia. there's been no immediate claim of responsibility for either

bombing. riots in greece didn't stop lawmakers from approving harsh new austerity measures designed to save the debt-crippled nation from bankruptcy. protesters upset with the terms of the debt deal set fire to several buildings in the capital. under the plan greece will receive $170 billion in rescue loans by the european union and international monetary fund. it's the second bail-out package from those agencies. as part of the deal, greece agreed to cut 150,000 jobs from the public sector as well as implementing spending cuts to the minimum wage and pension. u.s. stocks opened the week higher on this news out of greece. gop candidate rick santorum is calling foul. in a recent decision for 2012 survey that was done, he says mitt romney's campaign rigged saturday's straw poll at conservative political action conference that was being held here in washington. romney won by just seven points. santorum accused romney's campaign of stack being the audience for his advantage.

>> well, you have to talk to the romney campaign and how many tickets they bought. >> a spokeswoman says santorum's claims are not true and noted romney also won a related phone survey. today is the last day to register to vote in virginia ahead of the republican presidential primary there. only mitt romney and ron paul qualified for the ballot. virginia's gop primary is on super tuesday which is march 6th. today supporters of the same-sex marriage will gather to push lawmakers to legalize gay marriage in annapolis. earlier this year opponent gathered at the capital to protest a possible bill. the governor has pushed for a bill to pass the state senate and house and said he would sign it immediately. tom joins us to talk a little bit about the weather. i call my telephone every morning.

>> what did she say. >> she said it was 22 degrees right in the district. >> right there at your phone. >> but it was a light cold everywhere else. >> it got down into the teens, northern and western suburbs, all around washington. urban areas got into the low 20s but elsewhere it was in the teens under a clear sky. but now we are warming up and thankfully, mercifully, that wind that was just brutal over the weekend has diminished. look at blue waters of the potomac reflecting that gorgeous royal blue sky. 41 with sparkling sunshine at reagan national and the humidity is very low so you'll need to keep skin lotion handy throughout the day. windchill there is down to 33. the temperatures are above freezing now throughout the region. it is down into southern and central virginia, down to fredericksburg, that area it is near 40 degrees. farther north we're in the upper 30s in montgomery county, loudoun county.

fairfax county is near 40, as is prince george's county. but most of southern maryland were in the teens this afternoon, just in the mid or upper 30s now, as is the even shore. the view from space, a large area of high pressure is over us now giving us our clear sky. however, things are rapidly changing. this high will leave, exit and go off over the atlantic and behind that we are getting some clouds that are beginning to stream in from a weak area of low pressure and a front that's going to be moving in by later tonight, into tomorrow. but between now and then we'll have this gorgeous gear sky with us. as we go forward over the next 12 hours we'll have just a few of these clouds coming through and then another 24 hours or so after that we'll have a possibility of a little bit of precipitation, perhaps tomorrow morning, few flurries here in this lavender and white zone from north central virginia into the shenandoah valley. maybe predawn a few flurries. otherwise, just some clouds. late afternoon into tuesday evening we might have a few sprinkles of light rain.

that's the green zone there. for today, lots of sunshine. before then we should climb into the mid or upper 40s before sunset. the wind will settle down and the breeze will be down to just around 5 miles an hour overnight, becoming cloudy. it will be cold this evening, near 40 by sunset. down to near 30 by midnight. by dawn on tuesday we'll start off in the upper 20s and cloudy and again a few flurries are possible tomorrow morning. then maybe a few sprinkles of light rain late afternoon or in the evening on tuesday. otherwise a cloudy and chilly day tomorrow with highs in the mid or upper 40s. then any of the cloud cover or precipitation ending late tuesday night will be some sun back on wednesday and should be a bit milder. in fact, wednesday may be the mildest day of the next seven days. it will be climbing into the low 50s with sunshine. and then a stronger front with an area of low pressure coming through the eastern half of the nation on thursday. likely bringing us some rain showers. looks like it is going to be too

warm for any snow. will be near 40 in the morning, afternoon highs near 50 on thursday. rain should be ending thursday night. as we get into friday and the weekend, sunshine returns, highs on friday near 50. seasonably chilly. highs this time upper 40s. more clouds on sunday. highs mid 40s. that's the way it looks. no big snowstorms in the future. >> so up-and-down temperatures again. >> yeah. >> we can use some of that. >> hopefully. >> thank you, tom. we'll check on the traffic now. you had some problems out there earlier, how's it looking? >> definitely. if you're traveling around the beltway, still seeing some problems for your commute this morning. slow as you make your way on the outer loop approaching the dulles toll road and those delays continue to i 66. leesburg pike, 14 miles an hour. at central avenue making your way on the outer loop, 63 miles

per hour. no problems in montgomery county on the beltway, nice and clear. 19 after 11:00 now is the time. still ahead on "news4 midday," we'll get you ready for valentine's day. roses are not your only option. how to get more for your money. and how to cook the perfect steak dinner for your loved one. the celebrated chef from blt steak joins us with a great recipe. but first here's a look at what's hot on nbcwashington.com. [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable

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$300 back. unlike cable, fios delivers a 100% fiber-optic network to your home. get america's fastest, most consistent, most reliable internet, plus the best tv picture quality, and more hd. why keep paying so much for cable? switch to fios for just $89.99 a month for two years with a two-year agreement. save $600 in your first two years. and don't forget your special bonus: $300 back. hurry, offer ends march 3rd. call 1.877.827.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that's 1.877.827.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. fios. a network ahead. those five food groups sound a whole lot better when you put them in a taco shell instead of a pyramid. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican. fantastic! pro-gresso ] they fit! okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit.

okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. juftd. just in time for valentine's day, we're showing you a great steak recipe for valentine's day for the love in your life. chef is here with step by step instruction. thanks for coming to see us. it smells to good in here. we're doing something a little bit different today. you say we might as well do something special. let me quickly read the ingredients. you need a 10-ounce skirt steak. that's a fairly reasonable cut of steak. >> right. this is a skirt steak, an outside skirt steak. the whole thing to it is having a really nice piece that's got evenly distributed fat in it. >> victor, just before you show that again, i'm going to finish the ingredients.

along with the skirt steak, 4 ounces of grated manchchlt hego cheese, one slice serrano ham -- . >> right. don't let all the ingredients get you scared or down. what you are really doing is accentuating the quality of this meat. >> you buy this piece of meat, then you stretch it out. do you have to pound it or anything? >> no, this comes beautifully. can you always do something like this which is more after traditional valentine's day surf and turf which is a rib eye with some really beautiful grilled lobster tail. but i figured doing something like this was a little bit different, a little bit funner and it makes you look like you really did something. >> show us how to do it. >> basically what you want to do is get your herbs started first. i have them all chopped here.

what you want is to have the herbs nicely chopped already. all the herbs that you discussed here already are here. we're going to season our meat. salt. pepper. as much as you like. we're going to put this down. >> that is the -- all of those heshz together. >> basically this is just chopped herb, garlic, rosemary, parsley. for valentine's day i like something that's vibrant. right? you really want to have that kind of vibe to it. we're going to add -- these are actually burned onions. we right before they burn we take them to that point. then we chop them and we add some balsamic reduction to it. we're going to rub that in there as well. here's your serrano ham. layer that in there. it's very easy. it sound like there's a lot to it, but here's the cheese that -- >> it looks wonderful.

>> we're staying kind of spanish, doing manchego cheese, some really nice serrano ham and just roll it up. and we tie. >> that's what it looks like afterwards. beautiful. >> then we're put this in. again season the outside. put it in the pan. >> it's all done in the frying pan. >> yes. we can do it here or on the grill. this takes a little while because it is rolled and you want to get it cooked on the inside really, really well. that's what we have right here. we're going to slice it. you threat rest a couple minutes after you cook it. you'll see what you have. it is this beautiful rolled -- what's really nice about this is also you get a little bit for everybody who loves meat. you have the well done, the medium well, a little bit down into medium rare, you have a beautiful melted manchego cheese, vibrant hesrbs and the ham in there. we serve it sliced with some

beautiful charred figures that we put on a grill and we put on top of it with -- here we accentuated it with a little bit of grilled endrive as well. thanks so much for coming. 11:27. in the next half-hour of "news4 midday," what's being done to prevent another sign scare on a local highway. plus, after a very cold weekend, tom kierein joins us with good news on the temperatures. but there is some rain in the forecast. when is it coming? we'll tell you. the debate on whether ethical guidelines are needed

[ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable and enjoying it less and less? stop paying for second best. upgrade to verizon fios and get tv, internet and phone for an incredible price: just $89.99 a month for two years with a two-year agreement. it's an amazing deal, but it's for a limited time only. so don't wait. want to save even more? call right now and we'll add a special bonus: $300 back. unlike cable, fios delivers a 100% fiber-optic network to your home. get america's fastest, most consistent, most reliable internet, plus the best tv picture quality, and more hd. why keep paying so much for cable?

switch to fios for just $89.99 a month for two years with a two-year agreement. save $600 in your first two years. and don't forget your special bonus: $300 back. hurry, offer ends march 3rd. call 1.877.827.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that's 1.877.827.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. fios. a network ahead. right now investigators are trying to cause exactly singer whitney houston's death. the 48-year-old was found dead in a bathroom at the beverly hilton hotel saturday afternoon,

found underwater and unresponsive. result of an autopsy completed yesterday will not be released until toxicology results are in which could take 6 to 8 weeks. right now president obama is at northern virginia community college discussing his 2013 budget proposal which is around $3.8 trillion. part of the proposal includes $8 billion for community colleges to help prepare students to enter the job market. breaking news from the memorial bridge right now. all the men hanging a free tibet sign on the bridge are in custody now. darcy spencer is live at the scene with the latest. >> reporter: the demonstration was taking place right behind me on the memorial bridge. there was a large banner that was hung from the bridge by four protesters associated with the free tibet movement. those four individuals had been taken into custody. let's go to the video, a news4 photographer was able to shoot this morning exclusive video of two of these individuals who

were arrested. they were apparently dangling from the memorial bridge after putting that banner up and so the harper patrol had to come out here and basically pull these people from the bridge. they were then taken to the georgetown water front where they were handcuffed and taken into custody. a total of four arrests. u.s. park police say that they will be charged with some sort of civil disobedience violation and this incident is over -- it was a minimal impact to traffic in the area. traffic continued on the memorial bridge but some outbound traffic was affected for a short period of time. an additional protests are planned this week with a free tibet movement here in the washington area. reporting live from near the memorial bridge, darcy spencer, news4. back to you. vdot crews plan to inspect highway signs along route 66 after one of the signs fell into traffic this weekend. it came crashing down saturday near monument drive in fairfax county and landed right on top of a pickup truck. news4's tracee wilkins has more

on the inspections that are coming. >> reporter: it is amazing that the driver of that pickup truck was not seriously injured when that sign fell on top of his vehicle. you can take a look here. there on the side of 66, part of the structure that held up that sign is still lying there on the side of the road. vdot officials say that they want to figure out what went wrong so that it won't happen again. the 30-foot tall structure appeared somewhat mangled, as did the vehicle it struck when it came cramming down on i-66 in fairfax county this past weekend. >> this is certainly an normal occurrence for us and we want to assure motorists that this is certainly an abnormal occurrence and that the number one priority right now is determining what caused that sign to fail. >> reporter: the virginia department of transportation is investigating to see what caused the sign and its structure to collapse on to the eastbound lanes of interstate 66 near monument avenue. it happened saturday afternoon in the midst of some wild weather. >> we want to determine if the

wind was a factor, if there were faulty parts, any type of issue that there could have been with this sign. we hope to find that in the next week or so. >> reporter: there are 31,000 signs in the vdot system like the one that fell. it inspects its sign structures at least every five years. structure that collapsed was last inspected in december 2007 and its anchor bolts have been tested since then. but figuring out why the collapse happened will determine what the rest of this investigation will look like. >> number one question will be exactly what caused that sign to fail and that will help us determine how many signs need to be reinspected, what types of signs and how long that will take. we certainly hope to have a plan in place for that and hopefully under way within the next week or two. >> reporter: virginia department of transportation spokesmen say it could take several weeks for them to wrap up this investigation. in fairfax county, i'm tracee wilkins, news4. improving weather has finally allowed salvage crews to begin underwater fuel pumping at the site of a cruise ship

disaster near italy. two weeks of rough seas delayed the clean-up process until this weekend. the koes that concordia hit a reef one month ago today and flipped on its side. nearly 4,200 people escaped, 15 people are still missing and presumed dead. salvage officials say it will take 28 days to remove tons of fuel from the wreck. a hot tourist spot in italy has gone ice cold. the famest venice canals are frozen over thanks to a recent cold snap in europe. the freezing cold temperatures are making travel difficult and couldn't have come at a worse time for venice. the past weekend was the kickoff for the abul venice carnival which brings millions of people to that area. fairfax county woman is alive after a large tree fell on her house trapping her inside. take a look at these incredible pictures. an enormous tree came crashing down in burk on sunday morning. part of it landed in the woman's bedroom pinning her to the bed. rescuers pulled the woman free

though. the rescue took about an hour and a half. she was to ento the hospital. she said her leg was numb but otherwise she's expected to be okay. let's talk to tom about our freezing temperatures we had this morning and see where we are right now on the thermome r thermometer. >> thankfully the winds have died down. when that tree came down we had winds gusting to around 50 miles an hour. it was late on saturday, into saturday night and part of sunday we had those gusts still going. but this morning a blue sky, lighter winds right now around the region. temperatures are climbing into the upper 30s to around 40. thankfully those winds have diminished down to about 5 to 15 miles an hour. but still, even with that, with temperatures around 40 it feels more like around 30 with that kindergarten at 15 miles an hour. there's the view from space. we do have high pressure over the region. there are some clouds closing in from the west. they're now coming into the ohio valley out of the midwest. that's an area of low pressure along a front that's going to be drifting through tomorrow but it is weakening as it moves east so there's a very small chance of any precipitation.

might have a few flurries tomorrow morning after we reach highs today in the mid 40s, we'll bottom out in the upper 20s by dawn tomorrow and a cloudy day on tuesday but just a small chance of flurries in the morning, maybe an afternoon sprinkle. sunshine back on wednesday, highs in the low 50s. rain likely on thursday with highs near 50. a dry pattern into the weekend and seasonably chilly. that is the way it looks. >> tom, thank you. i want to check on midday traffic again. here's danella. >> if you're traveling along i-95, not so bad at all in virginia. let's look at travel speeds northbound approaching route 123. 61 miles per hour. continuing on to 395, no issues there at all. here's a live look right now at et cete edsell northbound. northbound, look at this, 60 miles an hour. only 12 minutes to get from the beltway across the 149-9-9

street bridge and into the city. the words after presidential candidate recently sparked a debate about whether the federal government should develop ethical guidelines for in-vitro ferthizatio fertilization. welcome. the result of one of your test tube baby attempts was actually very successful as we can see. >> that's right. >> wonderful. thanks for coming. let's start with speaker gingrich's words. he says, "if you have in-vitro fertilization are you creating life and there are we should look seriously as what should the rules be for clinics that do that because they are creating life." dr. gordon, do you think that there is enough oversight for in-vitro fertilization at this point? >> certainly there is a lot of oversight in terms of what we do both in templts cdc, the society for assistive reproductive

technologies have guidelines how ivf should be practiced and how many embryos should be replaced. that's one of the biggest things we face because we're victims of our own success. twin pregnancies account for almost all of the morbidity that account for our procedures. >> tell us who you've got with you. >> this is lennox blen roughner. he is our second child. he was conceived natural cycle ivf. we are pregnant with our third. 16 weeks. >> you knew when you were coming we were going to talk a little bit about the gingrich proposal that be more government intervention. would that have bothered you if there had been more process for you to go through in order to seek out in-vitro fertilization? >> because we did the natural cycle it wasn't really necessary because you only have the one egg. so there's nothing that you need to freeze, the debate wouldn't have applied to our situation because we did choose a natural

cycle ivf. >> dr. gortodogordon, tell us w natural cycle ivf is. >> actually the first ivf baby in the world was louise brown and she was conceived in 1978. that was a natural cycle. the one egg that was growing was removed, fertilized in the dish, that means in-vitro, then transferred it back in the uterus. we got away from that because it wasn't very efficient. we revisited using just the one egg that a woman normally produces without using fertility drugs. how often do you get a pregnancy with just the one egg? >> what we saw is our patients under 40 years old, 20% to 25% of successful egg collections resulted in a pregnancy and 30% to 35% of embryo transfers resulted in a pregnancy which compares favorably if you look at putting back one embryo. it eliminates the issues of the extra eggs and extra embryos which has a lot of people concerned and actually prevents a lot of people from seeking

care because they want one child. they don't want the ethical responsibility for embryos that might be kept in the freezer. that's a problem for some of them. >> it is less expensive having the natural cycle as opposed to having to take several eggs and reimplant them? >> it is. we recognize it may not be at efficient. we price natural cycle in our clinic as one-third of the price of stimulated ivt costing less than $5,000 for an attempt. >> one of the concerns mr. gingrich has is the number of frozen embryos could be destroyed. tell us about that. how many do you usually -- what do you do with those. >> this has been looked at. if a typical patient produces 11 to 15 eggs, they may have three to five extra embryos that may be frozen. interestingly, when this has been examined, most of the embryos that are frozen in the country are actually being held by patients to be used in the future? >> had you done that? >> had we? certainly. whatever you take out you have

to put back in at some point. >> glad you were able to come and respond to speaker gingrich's debate. i'm sure that continue. thanks for bringing the baby. it is now 11:42. still ahead on "news4 midday," what is pushing gas prices higher. plus, flower options for valentine's day. fresh cut flowers may not be the best choice. certainly not the only choice. stay with us, we'll be rig

gas prices are soaring at unseasonably high levels and show in sign of coming down any time soon. drivers could see even bigger hikes this summer. melissa has a look at the prices right now. >> the average price for a gallon of gas went up nearly 12 cents over the past three weeks. this chart is from gas buddy.com. it shows just how much gas prices have gone up in the d.c. area. since christmas gas prices have risen 42 cents from $3.32 a

gallon to $3.74. now we checked for you. right now the national average for a gallon of regular is $3.50. now in maryland you'll pay 12 cents more for a gallon of regular. gas is going for $3.62 here. heading now over to the state of virginia, you're going to pay a little bit more there, too, than the national average. going to cost you $3.52. now heading over to west virginia for you this morning, a gallon of regular will cost you $3.64. the question you might be wondering, why is this happening? analysts say it is because of rising tensions in the middle east, as well as the more expensive switch over to the summer grades of gasoline. the pain at the pump is not going to stop any time soon. they say prices could skyrocket to over $4 by memorial day. today stocks are opening higher after greece's parliament voted on some spending cuts there.

>> good morning. stocks are rising higher today with the s&p 500 recouping nearly all of its declines from the previous session as greece's parliament approved the strict financial reforms needed to obtain its latest international bailout package. in other news, goldman sachs shuffling ratings on oil service companies today. the firm upgrading oceanary international and payne and patterson uti. technology stocks taking a hit after downgrades. a couple stocks feeling the heat -- texas instruments, june ter and micron, all trading in negative territory after that call. lastly, apple in focus today breaking the $500 mark. first time in history weechg an all-time high today. translating to $9.7 billion more in market cap just since friday topping the market cap of more than one-third of the s&p 500 components including small

companies like clorox, jcpenney and southwest airlines. lastly, more am news. the company is asking a federal court in california to prohibit the sale of samsung's galaxy nexus smartphones. apple claims the phone infringes its patents. the latest in the worldwide patent dispute involving the two companies. >> thank you. if you plan to run to the local florist to pick up some flowers for your valentine, we have a few ideas for you. david martin, our garden expert, joins us this morning with some ideas so that you can do other than roses and what you can do with roses as well. thank you for coming. we've got just a few hours left before we have to get those flowers out. >> the crush is on. >> let's start with some other -- we'll start with whatever you brought. show us what you brought. >> let's start with some live plants because sometimes people don't like to have things that they just throw away. we want to talk about for a moment, you canhydrangea.

in this nice purple. that's something that actually a gardener can plant outside as soon as we're over the danger of frost. that will grow and continue to come back year and year. >> you've got to keep them watered. you buy them today, you better water them tonight. >> don't let them dry out. once that blossom goes, it is done. orchids, they're a very easy plant to take care of. this makes a really nice garden. that orchid will bloom like that for a good three months which is a great hold through the spring. this is known as a flamingo flower. this is popular this time of year because it has that really neat interesting heart-shaped bloom on it right there. that's another one that will last a long time. just a little bit of water in the bottom. >> you've got some roses back here. >> i do have roses. you have to have roses on valentine's day because there are some women and men who don't like to get anything without some roses. but roses now are hybridized to make this beautiful bloom. in doing that they've lost the

great scent that roses had. what we like to do is mix it in with some of these delicious fragrant star gazer lillies. that way you get a nice fragrance out of this arrangement and still have roses. >> you mention flowers for men, too. do you find people do send flowers to men? it is okay to use that as a valentine gift. >> why not. i can't afford to eat anymore chocolate than i already eat so send me some flowers an i'll be glad. >> this is called a cupcake base. this is great for kids who want to take something to grandmom or want to give something to mom that's their own gift. i've set one up over here. it is really simple. you just buy a couple of bunches of carnations. the kids can actually put this together themselves. it is a nice really easy little thing to do. a valentine for grandmom or for mom or for dad. >> it is easy to stick them in because there are holes. >> can you do that for under $15. these are rose petals.

these are very popular this time of year. this is something if you want for your valentine to give them a nice bath to put some rose petals in the bath. people also put them on the pillow for people. >> how much does something like that cost? >> i think for a bag of the rose petals like this they're los to $20 because it is a couple of dozen roses that go into doing that. >> this of course, white roses. is it all right to send white roses? i prefer white rose zplpz white roses are the flower of forever. so if you really want to send someone that you love a gift that seas i will love you forever, then it is going to be white roses. >> lastly? >> this is a presentation bouquet. this is simple thing to do. go into your local florist where they have a nice selection of cut flowers. they come in all prices. this has a lot of inexpensive flowers in it such as carnations and snap dragons. get yourself nice cellophane and tissue paper in colors. you just go ahead, make that little wrap right there.

this raf fia is something that s less expensive the ivive than r. tie it up and present it to your valentine. you're set to go. >> david, always dishing a little dirt for us. >> thanks, barbara. happy valentine's day. that's for you. >> thank you very much! our time right now, 11:52. coming up, adelle's big night and her return to singing. plus tom kierein will have another check on the break in the cold weather. stay with nbc 4 all afternoon. at 3:00, an ellen exclusive. jennifer lop

there will be plenty of pooches in new york today as the annual westminster dog show kicks off at madison square garden. the 136th annual events will feature all 185 american kennel club breeds including six breeds making their first westminster debut. the winner gets quite the treatment including a steak dinner, a trip to ring the bell at the new york stock exchange, and an appearance on the "today" show. you can watch the competition live starting tonight at 8:00 on usa. then from 9:00 until 11:00 on cnbc. two women dominated the

headlines at last night's grammy awards. millions tuned in to see tributes to whitney houston. it was also a big night for a young woman from the uk. >> adelle! >> british singer adelle won six grammys, including record, song and album of the year from her album called "21." the awards tied beyonce's record for the most wins by one woman in one evening. >> my life changed when i wrote this song and i felt it before anyone even heard it. i just felt it so thank you. so seeing it is a vocal performance i need to thank my doctors, i suppose, who brought my voice back. ♪ there's a fire starting in my heart ♪ >> adelle was talking about her vocal cord surgery back in november. big congratulations to the foo fighters. the local band picked up five grammys, including best rock

performance. congratulations to them. a look now at some of the stories we're following on news4 this afternoon. pat lawson joins us with a preview. coming up this afternoon -- billy bush will join us live on this day after the grammys with his take. plus, we'll go one on one with katherine mcafee. she's star of the new hit nbc show "smash." then on news4 at 5:00 today, a do it yourself product promises to bring hazy headlines back to show room-new. the question is does it really do that. those stories plus the latest developments from the george huguely murder trial in charlottesville. a live report from the white house tonight on news4 at 5:00. it is time for a final check on our forecast. here tom. >> after a lot of sun this morning we'll have some clouds closing in later tonight. highs today the mid 40s. cloudy tonight, upper 20s by dawn on tuesday, cloudy tomorrow, maybe a few flurries in the afternoon, maybe a few sprinkles in the afternoon but most of the day should be dry. sun returns on wednesday. highs in the low 50s.

then the clouds come back in again on thursday. up and down weather this week. we could have some rain on thursday. then we dry out and get chilly again friday into the weekend. have a good day. we'll see you tomorrow morning. thank you. that's "news4 midday" for today. we thank you for being with us. tune in for more news at 4:00 with bei, 5:00, 6:00, and again at 1:00. we have some real surprises for you tomorrow. see you in the morning. 1:00. we have some real surprises for you tomorrow. see you in the morning. [ clanking ]

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