good morning, everyone. welcome to "news4 midday." i'm barbara harrison. it is monday, april 2, 2012. right now police are in the middle of a press conference addressing a violent weekend at prince george's county. what they are doing to find the people responsible for the crimes. there were four shootings within 48 hours. three people died and five others were hurt. the violence started friday with a domestic dispute on northwest drive and adelphi. three people were hurt. early saturday morning someone shot and killed 19-year-old lester flores on woodbury street

in lieu itsdale. later that night two men were shot in an apartment on terrace drive in suitland. one died and other managed to get hurt at a nearby liquor store. the latest shooting happened sunday morning. a fight broke out on a home in judith avenuing in district heights. two men were shot and one died. so far no arrests have been made. and any of these -- in any of these cases. a live report on what police are saying in just a few minutes. new today. police arrest ad woman for stabbing a man in the district. it happened just before 1:00 this morning. inside an apartment in the 4200 block of massachusetts avenue, in northwest washington. the man was taken to the hospital and with minor injuries. he's expected to be okay. police are calling it a case of domestic violence. turning to our weather now. oh, it is beautiful out there after those early morning showers. sun is out. still a little chilly, though. let's find out from tom what it will be like the rest of the day. good morning, tom. >> good morning, barbara. yeah. everything greening up there as you saw that live view from our

city camera. and in addition, we have had set a record for the month of march. we will talk about that in just a few minutes. right now we are dealing with the aftermath of rain that came through that cleaned tout air and also cleaned a lot of the pollen out of the air that has been hovering around over the last few days and had very high tree pollen. that's improved. we have beautiful sunshine pouring across virginia, maryland, district, and the eastern shore and into the mountains. just a few puffy clouds. these are the temperatures. still a chill in the air with a blustery wind. 54 now at reagan national but the wind is gusting to around 30 miles an hour. and looks can be deceiving. looks nice looking out the window. when you step outside you definitely need a jacket. still quite a chill in the air. we have chilly temperatures right now in the mid 50s and climb just maybe into the low 60s for a brief time by mid afternoon. winds still a witness blustery into the afternoon with lots of sunshine gusting to 30 miles an

hour. might get frost tomorrow morning. talk about that and n that march record. look at the rest of the week and weekend, too. just a few minutes. >> tom, we will see new just a little bit. meanwhile, let's check on the midday traffic. danella sealock is here and will tell us what you can expect. >> if you are crossing over the american legion bridge on the outer loop you have road work. right now just take it away your left lane as you make your commute. volume is very light. spring break is in the air. so not a lot of volume as you are making your way out of the house. 14th street bridge nice and clear as you head in a the city. travel speed on 395, not bad at all. 5 miles per hour as you make your way northbound. from the beltway to the 14th street bridge that trip only taking 12 minutes. checking the sousa bridge, no issues inbound or outbound. back over to you. >> thanks, danella. today we could finally learn the answer to the question many of you have asked since friday night -- who won that historic mega-millions jackpot? winning tickets were sold ed in

kansas, illinois and 7-eleven in baltimore county, maryland. a maryland woman told "the new york times" she is one of the winners. but refuses to show her ticket. she claims she bought her ticket with her money and not money from her co-workers at mcdonald's. maryland lottery officials say she has yet to come forward and if she does, they have a process to verify her story. >> there's an enormous amount of computer data that would support the claim at that point in time the winner then would have to make decisions about whether they were going to take the annuity payout over 26 years or whether they were going to get a lump sum payment and then we would process the claim accordingly and get some money into their bank account. >> the winners will split a $656 million jackpot. if the maryland winner takes the lump sum payout the state will benefit from more than $13 million in state taxes. virginia's schools are big winners from that mega-millions drawing. the virginia lottery says that tickets bought between late

january and last friday raised more than $21 million for education. virginia retailers that sold tickets earned more than $2.4 million in profits. mega-million hopefuls bought more than 14 million lottery tickets on friday in virginia alone. today townsend university will remember two students who died within 12 hours of each other over this past weekend. a vigil will be held this afternoon for 20-year-old ryan bailey and 27-year-old timothy hoyer. bailey was hit by a car near washington avenue and york road early saturday morning. coyer, iraq war veteran, was found dead in his apartment. his death does not appear suspicious. an autopsy is under way to determine had you he died. d.c. police are warning taxi cab passengers after a string of attacks seven taxi drivers are facing charges for attacking passengers in recent weeks. six of the seven victims are

women. one was allegedly dragged out of the cab by her ankles. another was allegedly punched. legislation is being proposed to install panic buttons in all d.c. cabs to alert police when there is a problem. >> drivers have been robbed, assaulted. also for passengers because this is totally unacceptable, obviously. but on occasion we do have drivers who actually assault passengers. and the primary victim is a woman. >> the panic buttons are expected to be installed in d.c. cabs by december. let's go back to prince george's county where police just wrapped up a news conference about the violent weekend shootings that left three people dead and five injured. the violence start order friday night and ended with four separate shootings around the country -- around the county. news4's derrick ward is live at police headquarters and has more for us now. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, barbara. we just finished briefing with the police chief mark mcgraw

here who tells us that none of these crimes were related. none of them were random. lot of instances, at least two, there have been arrests. tragic circumstances behind these. started off friday with a gun battle between two youth, 17-year-old ended up dying in that gun battle in district heights. police say they think that that was drug related. later a robbery with gang undertones that happened in lieu i lewisdale area. accokeek, 83-year-old woman shot by another family member. police do say that -- and also in that incident with the two women shot near the mall area, turns out police believe that one of the women had actually shot the other. the one who survived was the shooter in this. there will be more details in that coming up. police want to stress these are not related and they are not random. we hear that he feels something about this and we hear now what the police chief has to say about these crimes. >> reporter: this past weekend was an exception to what we --

we experienced over the last 14 months. currently our community thank you reported 17 murders. one of those attributed to a 1989 assault case. we have a 37 as -- as of today, 37% reduction in murders. we are down contact shootings and overall crime down in the county. this department never forgets, though, that these numbers represent members of our community who have families and loved ones and that's why the officers work so hard to bring resolution to these cases. >> and that interesting case talking about, 1989 crime, that's where the victim died from injuries that were sustained in that crime and now that's being folded into murder charge. they say that the late -- later this month, the police here will release their initiative and outline what they will do for crime typically spikes and think that will help take care of the problem. these areas are being saturated with more uniformed presence as well. hopes that stem thing tide of

violence we just experienced this past weekend. palmer park, live, derrick ward, news4. >> thank you. 11:08. it is a do or die time for the gop candidates with primaries tomorrow in maryland, d.c. and wisconsin. by the outcome -- why the outcome is important for mitt romney and rick santorum. plus why airline passengers are waiting less often these days. i was paying too much with cable. paying so much, you want better quality. it just got more frustrating and frustrating. for the amount of money that i'm paying, my cable company should take care of me. [ male announcer ] stop paying for second best. get verizon fios tv, internet and phone with our best price online:

just $94.99 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 ] sign up with no annual contract. or choose a two-year contract and pick your bonus: hbo and cinemax for 12 months... or $250 back. fios internet...the speed, you can't compare. i'm able to take care of things much faster now. [ male announcer ] get fios online: $94.99 a month, guaranteed for two years... plus your choice of bonuses with a two-year contract. is change good? in this case, change is very good. [ male announcer ] visit verizon.com/greatdeal. that's verizon.com/greatdeal. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800-974-6006 tty/v. fios. a network ahead.

plane carrying 43 people crashed shortly after takeoff in siberia overnight. atr 72 turbo chop aircraft just left tyumen when it crashed and burst into flames in a snowy field. russia's emergency ministry says 32 people were killed and 11 people taken to the hospital. at least five of the survivors are in critical condition. it is not clear what caused this crash. today presidential hopeful newt gingrich will be in maryland, the former house speaker will have a rally at frederick motor company at 11 cloak this morning. head over to hood college in the afternoon. he will meet with student republicans after his college visit. gingrich's visit comes a day before maryland's primary where he is a distant third place in polling behind mitt romney and rick santorum. it is do or die for the gop

candidates today as the last day of campaigning before tomorrow's primaries in maryland, d.c., and wisconsin. mitt romney is predicting that he will come out on top and the former governor told a crowd in madison, wisconsin, last night he will probably win the nomination in the state by state battle to accumulate more than 1100 delegates needed to win the republican presidential nomination. romney has an estimated 565 delegates. that according to real clear politics. presidential hopeful rick santorum says he is staying in the presidential race even if he loses tomorrow's primaries. santorum made a comment on "meet the press" and he would drop out race if mitt romney accumulates the delegates needed to secure the nomination. >> i'm not talking about this anymore. we are just -- focused on doing well here in wisconsin and i think -- what you see, it seems to be the pan nick the republican establishment of everybody sort of coming out of the woodwork to say things are -- >> santorum faces an uphill

battle. so far romney won 54% of the delegates at stake putting him on track to reach the 1144 delegates needed by the end of june. santorum has won 27% of the delegates at stake. and that means he would need to win 74% of the remaining delegates to cinch the nomination. and right now, president obama is meeting with the leaders of mexico and canada. the meet willing focus on energy issues and high gas prices. reports say canadian prime minister steven harper is upset with president obama's decision to kill the keystone excel pipeline which would go from canada to the gulf coast. the three leaders are also planning to discuss citizens security as mexico has seen a drastic rise in gang violence against residents. we have tom kierein with us now to talk about our weather. it is nice out there with the sunshine. chilly. >> yeah. march acted like april. now april is acting like march. and we are all confused. the -- plants are certainly

confused. we have got some azaleas even trying to bloom now. and in addition, of course, everything else that bloomed early in march, there is the sky over washington. live view from our high definition city camera. and the temperature right now at reagan national, 54 degrees, mostly sunny. wind out of the north gusting to around 30 miles an hour. sustained at around 15 to 20 miles an hour. it certainly feels chillier than that. yes, we had a record warm march in washington. reagan national airport the average temperature for march 2012 was 56.8 degrees. that's when you add up all of the highs and all of the lows and averaged them out. the old record, 56.2, was set 67 years ago. it has been that long since we have had this warm of a march. temperatures around this region now as we ar just past 11:00, only in the low to mid 50s p of the region. only near 50 in montgomery county and howard county, up near the opinion pen border as

well as much of the shenandoah valley. panhandle of west virginia. low to mid 50s now. southern maryland through central virginia. and including fredericksburg, culpeper, warrenton, manassas, and we have a mostly clear sky now. just a few clouds have been popping up around the region. here is the wider view. there was that rain all this near green was the rain that came through overnight. washing a lot of the pollen out of the air. and clearing our sky out we have that northwesterly breeze and high pressure to our north, pushing in. that's going to give us this sunshine for the rest of the afternoon. and cool temperatures, too. average high this time of year is 62 in washington. we are probably going to get up near the average. but we are not used to that. we have had much warmer than average weather over the last month. northwest winds gusting to 30 miles an hour. and high temperatures, though, farther to our south, may make it into the mid 60s and north central virginia and into southern maryland and over towards the central shenandoah valley. perhaps even the northern shenandoah valley gets into the mid sits. near washington, only around 60 to briefly low 60s, highs 50s

near the pennsylvania border. tonight clear and chilly. we will be in the 50s right after sunset which today is at 7:33. then by midnight dropping all the way down to the mid 40s. we will have a northwesterly breeze settling down overnight as it happen it is temperatures will really drop and we will be down to near freezing by dawn tomorrow. many locations in the rural areas may have some scattered frost starting off tomorrow morning. then during the rest of the day on tuesday, quite a warmup coming. we will have it climbing right back into the 60s and tomorrow warmer than today. ought to make it into the upper 60s. then on wednesday, a warm front coming in. that will bring in 70-degree temperatures. may make it into the mid 70s in the metro area. and even though a lot of clouds around. then a cool front rapidly on the heels of a warm front coming in. during the afternoon and early evening. that may trigger showers and maybe some thundershowers. and after that, cool weather returns on thursday morning near 40 and afternoon highs just near 60 on thursday and partly cloudy. then a bit milder on friday

afternoon. into the mid 60s. sunny and sunny for the weekend, too. looking nice. >> looks like a good egg hunt weather. >> that's right. >> coming up. enjoy. >> okay, thank you, tom. let's head out to the roads again. here is danella sealock. >> thanks, barbara. checking the beltway in prince george's county, a live look at the beltway now at 50 as you make your way on the inner loop and outer loop, you are clear in prince george's county. travel speeds, though, 62 miles per hour. making your way from route 50 on the outer loop to i-95. now crossing over the wilson bridge, no issues there. you are clear in both directions. your volume very light at this time. and as you make your way into virginia, get to van dorn street, no issues in virginia as well and your travel speed looking nice at 61 miles per hour. six minutes to get from the wilson bridge to van dorn street. >> thanks, danella. it is 18 minutes after 11:00 now. still ahead on "news4 midday," how to make the classic grilled cheese sandwich into something special just in time for national grilled cheese month.

plus, the washington ballet's production of "alice in wonderland" from the costumes to the dance to the story line. a prey view from the ballet's artistic director coming up.

♪ that's a rehearsal under way because next week the washington ballet's original production "alice in wonderland" opens at the kennedy center. the ballet's artistic director calls it a wild ride and joins us this morning with more on what the audience can expect. we are always so happy to see you. >> great to be here. >> what an imaginative choreographer you are. this is supposed to be amazing. we had somebody here on friday saying it is already sold out for some of the shows. >> ticket sales have been through the roof. it's doing well. >> tell me why did you decide to do "alice"? >> "the great gats by, and when i was finning this i wanted the next production to be an antidote to the serious theme. i wanted something with

whimsical and i happen to be a kid person and wanted to do a production that would have kid element in it. i grew up with "alice in wonderland" as a story and knew it would make a great ballet. >> there is alice there dancing along. is this true to the original story? white rabbit and all of the other "alice in wonderland" familiar characters? >> sure. the story is so complicated and complex. i couldn't fit all of the characters in. i used the first book as the guide. taken a couple of elements from the second book "through the looki ing glass." tried to streamline and take out some of the elements that may be complicated. there are no mother-in-laws in ballet. that's a story -- bay la's best when it distills to its essential. extra sidebar characters don't exist. >> all right. let's talk about the costume because that's what everybody is talking about. >> sure.

>> let's have a look at some. we brought with you. >> yeah, really stunning. the designer has done amazing work. >> jordan carne why you is with you today. these are students from the washington ballet. jordan is the white rabbit. have jordan come out. >> come on out. you can see jordan's -- he is a student. he's wearing this -- the latest fashion from wonderland. beautiful. you can see clocks, clock motif. a period costume. you can see that he's -- it is also quite fashion. it is a fashion statement. >> did you design the costumes as well? >> liz did. i collaborated with her and talked about what they should be like. lot of detail, as you can see. really stunning. liz worked with fabric technology person that did all the fabric for our production. amazing work. >> let us see the next one. brianne coughlin, queen of hearts. >> yes. you can see -- we have been calling her the dominatrix

queen. quite glamourous. her headdress is roses, play on a tutu. also sort of bat-like. she eventually -- her head is the giant jabber walky. this kind of tutu becomes a cowl neck piece. >> in costume? >> a big puppet who is -- it is a -- 24-foot wing span. performed by seven puppeteers. >> let's have a look at the alice costume. >> beautiful abusiness thank you. >> of course. we see alice. >> very pretty. >> what we would expect alice to look like. >> absolutely. liz played a lot with squall and you can see small motifs in her costume. alice is actually sort of laser cut the words -- word alice throughout the fabric. you can see small motifs. >> that's aaden garcia who is

modeling it for us today. >> looking beautiful. >> the rest of you come back out so we can see the costumes as you tell us. what can we expect from this ballet that people aren't expecting? anything scary? >> there's -- certainly there is an element of danger. alice is a strong-willed young girl. she sends a message to some degree of girl power. ballet is a bit about girl power. she's -- strong willed and not afraid to tell it like it is. and she -- certainly does battle with the queen of hearts and eventually slays the jabberwalky as her test of heroism for which she is put on trial. i mean, i think you can expect the unexpected. that's the only thing that i can say for sure. >> costumes are wonderful and perhaps unexpected. i love them all. really -- fantastic. >> another element that makes them come to life is the score, original score by matthew pierce. beautiful score. new classical music. audiences will really enjoy. >> thank you so much for coming

in, all of the dancers from the school. modeling the costumes for us today. let me marine mind everyone that "alice in wonderland" opens at the kennedy center. eisenhower theater april 11 through the 15th. hurry and get the tickets. there are some left. >> about 12. go to the internet right now. washingtonvalley.org. >> thank you for coming in. >> a big pleasure, barbara. 11:26. coming up in the next half hour, good news for airline passengers. services getting better and we will tell you why. plus, back to work after being bit on the air by a dog. a news anchor greetin'nchor gre this morning. >> tom kierein will be back to let us know what we can expect this first

right now on "news4 midday," more uniformed officers will patrol the streets in prince george's county after a weekend of violence left three dead and five injured in separate shootings. police say they are working to solve these cases. a press conference was held just

about an hour ago. police say none of the krooimgs were related and they were not random. looks like airlines are listenening to their customers. passengers say they are seeing improvements in the things like seating and baggage claims. richard jordan has a look at the changes in customer service. >> reporter: the research looked at 15 of the most popular airlines. there were a few that came up short but overall, a big improvement. flying the friendly skies is actually getting more friendly. a new report says that the nation's airlines are improving the travel experience, getting travellers and their luggage to their destinations as scheduled 80% of the time. >> my bag was waiting for me when i got here. that's an improvement. >> reporter: that's coming at a price with air fares on the rise. >> with gas prices going up the fares have gotten ridiculous. >> reporter: if money is no object and you want to arrive somewhere on time, you may need to plan a hawaiian vacation. hawaiian airline has the best arrival time with nearly 93% of

flights touching down at or close to the scheduled time. jetblue land order the other end of the spectrum with more than 25% of flights arriving late. but jetblue has the lowest rate of bumped passengers. the study found southwest received the fewest complaints. it averages one complaint for every 300,000 passengers. but united had the most with nearly seven times as many. that high complaint rate attributed to united merger with continental airlines. the most calls and e-mails came in from for flight problems, 14% of complaints are about baggage. 12% due to customer service. and 11% for reservations and ticketing issues. many pliers agree that airlines are stepping up. >> the efficiency of the airlines -- the price of the certain ever service. i think it is a deal. >> reporter: american eagle came out on top and the airline had the highest improvement rating

against all of its competitors. at reagan national, richard jordan, news4. >> the jetblue pilot who had an outburst during a flight that forced an emergency landing, reportedly heading to federal court. "the new york post" reports a short time ago he left a texas hospital and went to court in handcuffs. meanwhile, his wife says that he did not intentionally act violent towards pass enand other flight members. last week he became belligerent during a flight from new york to las vegas. he had to be restrained bypass -- by passengers. he will not speak publicably this incident. next week, a grand jury will begin hearing evidence in the controversial shooting death of trayvon marton. the 17-year-old was shot to death by george zimmerman, neighborhood watch captain in sanford, florida. zimmerman claims he shot martin in self-defense. police say they have not filed charges in the case because of

florida's stand your ground law. alexandria, virginiais one of several cities across the country that held rallies for justice this weekend. protesters say zimmerman should be arrested and the florida law should be repealed. >> every american feels the need to step up and be heard when something unjust and unfair has occurred. when we see the kind of situation that occurred in sanford it really carries a everybody's soul. we do not want to see a child gunned down and then nothing essentially done about it. >> alexandria mayor julie spoke at last night's rally. the event also included a moment of silence for trayvon martin. >> no justice! >> trayvon martin's parents joined civil rights leaders for a similar rally in south florida. trayvon is from miami. he was visiting his father near sanford when he was killed. the teen's family believes race played a role in the shooting. the reverend al sharpton and

reverend jesse jashg son both vowed to keep holding peaceful demonstrations until zimmerman is arrested. a tv news anchor in denver is back on the desk after a dog bit her live on the air. kyle dire made her return this morning on kusa. nbc affiliate there. >> so glad you are back. you are looking great. >> thanks. >> we know that -- the viewers really appreciate it. they have been looking forward to it, too. >> i appreciate you all. i have read every single letter, every e-mail. there's just no way i could write you personally but thank you so much. it has been really wonderful to hear from so many of you. thanks so much. >> you may remember when the 85-pound argentine mastiff bit her two months ago. at the time she was interviewing the dog's owner and fire fighter who rescued the dog but ended up in trouble himself. the dog ended up pulling the fire fighter to safety from an icy pond. dire had to get 90 stitches. she called it an accident and says she's glad the dog is back

home after it had been quarantined. going to check in again with tom kierein with the latest on our forecast. >> good morning. we have had a chilly morning. still a chill in the air with blustery wind. live view from the high definition sky watcher camera bouncing around and gusty wind around 30 miles an hour. looking into northeast washington and into the distance out in the horizon. prince george's county. national cathedral there along wisconsin avenue. you can see the potomac river in the distance. and look how green everything has gotten. really we have greened up rapidly here with this warmer than average march. and record warm march. now looking towards falls church and ballston in the distance. and to fairfax county now. and we have the camera bouncing around. we have a lot of sunshine. there is tysons corner in the distance on the horizon, fairfax county. temperatures right now there are just in the mid 50s. mid 50s in washington. and as well as much of southern maryland through central virginia. farther to our north and west, frederick county and to the northern part of the shenandoah

valley, panhandle of western virginia, 50 degrees. this is what it looked like at 11:00 last night. we had rain moving in that area of green. that was rain and that swept through. and it cleared a lot of the pollen out of the air. and then it has been building over the last couple of weeks. now we are bright and sunny and drying out. and some of the pollen will begin to build again probably later today. it won't be quite as high as it has been the last couple of days. it will likely build as we get into tomorrow for sure. for the rest of the afternoon, expect sunshine and wind gusts to 30 miles an hour as temperatures reach the low 60s. that's about the average high this time of year. we are getting a little taste of what it should normally feel like, what the average is anyway. and then overnight tonight, the temperatures will plummet as winds diminish. we will drop about 30 degrees. down to the mid 30s by dawn tomorrow. we could have some scattered frost in many of the rural areas starting off tuesday morning. and then bright and sunny on

tuesday afternoon with afternoon highs climbing into the upper 60s. and then not as cool on wednesday. in the morning near 50, afternoon highs mid 70s. warm front coming in and bring in clouds and as well as some of the warmer weather but cool front coming in quickly on the heels of that. by late afternoon and early evening. may trigger some showers and thundershowers ahead of that that may move in. and move through into wednesday evening. and then clear out after that. we will get chilly by dawn on thursday. down near 40 degrees. and afternoon highs near 60 on thursday. here is a look at friday, saturday, sunday. we will recover back into the 60s each day with lots of sunshine. looks like a beautiful easter weekend coming up. that is the way it looks right now. barbara. >> all right. thank you, tom. expect even more pain at the pump. gas prices nationwide sit at $3.93. 17 cents higher than one month ago. our area drivers are paying close to 30 cents more than last month.

gas prices have gone up 70 cents since january 1. expect the prices to go even higher. analysts believe the prices will hit four buck as gallon in the next few days. crews past the all-time high of $4.11 set back in july of 2008. drivers may want to change how they hold the steering wheel that could keep them from getting injured in a crash. safety experts now recommend drives to hold the steering wheel at 9:00 and 3:00 positions. these new positions are outside of the air bag deployment zone. also when turning the wheel experts say drivers should use one hand to push the wheel up and the other to pull it down so that there is no more of had a hand-over-hand style action. air bag can cause injuries when it deploy at more 00 miles an hour. going to check on the midday traffic. here is danella sealock. >> thanks, barbara. traveling i-66 eastbound at suddenly, no incidents for you east and west outside of the beltway. eastbound travel speed is not bad. 59 miles per hour from fairfax county parkway to the capital beltway.

that trip only talking 11 minutes at this time. heading inside the beltway on i-66, live look at glebe. no problems to report at this time. travel speed eastbound is still good at 55 miles per hour. barbara, back over to you. >> you may want to stick around because we have good coming up. april is national grilled cheese month. perfectly delicious excuse to create your own melty savory concoction of cheese and whatever else you can think of. joining us this morning to help us make our next grilled cheese special is chef billy klein from cafe st. x. good morning. good to have you with us. >> good morning. >> sure smells good in here. wow. >> thank you. >> you have a lot going on. we can't wait to taste it. tell us first what is the most important part of making a grilled cheese sandwich. i guess the cheese. >> i think it starts with the bread personally. that's why i chose the few things i chose today. starting with the brioce. fruity pebbles. fun for parents to give to the

children. apples and brie cheese. you will show us how to make that in just a minute. you said the grilled cheese sandwich doesn't have to just white bread and piece of cheese. >> not at all. this one up here is what i'm calling potato bread which is really just -- slices of potato. >> one mere in the middle? >> this one here with the egg on it. this is the bacon and cheddar cheese on potato bread which is just slices of potato. put on the grill, pieces of bread. >> show us how to do it. >> yes, yes. >> tell us what to do. >> my favorite thing to use is clarified butter. >> start with butter. >> all the flavor of butter it doesn't burn. after that we will take the potatoes and when are already sliced here. place them on the griddle. >> okay. >> place the cheese. >> they have already been cooked a little bit, too. >> yes. actually -- ahead of time you need to boil them in lightly salted water for roughly 40

minutes. just until -- just soft like a bake pod stay tow. >> that's cheddar cheese you put on top. >> yes. >> then what? >> bacon which has been crisping up. >> yes. >> and then just let that cook for a little while. and then so -- >> that's going to go on what when you bring out the bread? your most important ingredient, that will be on what? >> this is the potato bread. >> that's a good one. like that. >> another one you are going to show us the other one, the -- fruity pebble crust on the french toast. if that's a good, simple french batter. i dip the bread. and -- >> bring it over here so we can see it. maybe they can see it there. actually they can. >> okay. we have ground up fruity pebbles, food processor for 30 seconds. >> fruity pebbles. >> simple french toast batter. right on to the griddle. >> i see. so that's just fruity pebbles on a piece of regular bread. >> pretty much.

then the french toast batter is what makes the fruity pebbles stick to the bread. >> that's that goes face down. >> face down always. i know a lot of people like to build their grilled cheese sandwiches and then slather them with butter before they start to cook. always prefer to start them off at the face so they can toast evenly on their own and you don't have to do a lot of flipping and wondering is it quite there, is it not quite there? we always start out this way. add our cheese once the bread is on there. >> what kind of cheese? >> any creamy, triple cream brie will work great. this is a great kid one. you can use cream cheese as well. just sliced apples. and if you want to make it really interesting, use something kind of fun. >> don't tell the kids what you are using on that one. they would probably say no. all right. you have these already finished

and ready to go. one more. quickly show us and then we will show the finished product. how do you make the last one? >> this one on another type of bread. i make my own cornbread at the restaurant. recipe i work order for quite some time. i use this toasted cornmeal. really smokey flavor. the actually is another kind of cereal idea, taste as lot like cap'n crunch. >> cornbread. use the butter, of course. >> instead of cooking it the typical cast iron skillet, cook it in a loaf pan. let it cool down. cut it in slices like any other bread. this one i'm doing with fontina cheese. >> what kind of cheese? >> fontina. a soft white, sweet, easy melting cheese. these are just some sauteed mushrooms that have been chopped up. makes them a lot easier to keep inside the sandwich. >> great ideas. show us quickly. these are the finished products of all those you have shown us how to make. this is the one the fruity

pebbles on top. can we see that? apples. potato bread which you put a nice poached owing top of that. >> sunny side-up egg. like having potato -- >> cornbread. >> last one is cornbread with mushrooms, basil, fontina cheese. >> thank you so much, chef billy klein from cafe saint ex in washington. still ahead on "news4 midday," he was one of the game's best and now his personal baseball memorabilia will be auctioned off. we will tell you how you can see it. who is this "today" show legend? who is this "today" show legend? today's big

never in my lifetime did i think i could walk 60 miles in 3 days. 60 miles in 3 days is-- is huge. if my mom can fight and beat breast cancer, i can walk 60 miles. you just put one foot in front of the other, and you know that you're walking for such a great cause that you just keep going. (man) that you have all these people coming together for one common goal. (woman) the goal is to bring an end to breast cancer. (woman) the fund-raising was the easiest part. people were very giving. complete strangers wanting to help. if i can do this, you definitely can do this. (woman) i'll never stop walking, not till we find a cure. (woman) and it has to end, but it starts with us. i knew someday i was gonna do this walk. it is the most rewarding experience i have ever had in my entire life. we can do this. you can do this. we can all do this together. (man) register today for the...

and receive $25 off your registration fee. because everyone deserves a lifetime. let's see what you got. rv -- covered. why would you pay for a hotel? i never do. motorcycles -- check. atv. i ride those. do you? no. boat. house. hello, dear. hello. hello. oh! check it -- [ loud r&b on car radio ] i'm going on break! the more you bundle, the more you save. now, that's progressive. small gains to start the week on wall street. let's check in with cnbc. >> hi. markets today are trading high other the first trading day of the new quarter after the best

q-1 in 14 years. right now we have the dow up about 50 points. the s&p 500 is up about nine points. nasdaq is holding on to gains just shy of 20 points. in the news today avon quickly rejecting a takeover offer from cosmetics maker cody. proposal was for $23.25 per share in cash or about $10 billion. cody says it hasn't been able to engage avon in takeover talks but adds it does not intend to purchase spew a hostile bid. groupon shares tumbling more than 12% after cutting results from its first quarter as a public company. blaming higher than expected customer refunds on deals, it is called a material weakness in internal controls. the change will reduce the quarter's earnings by four cents a share. burger king rolls out its new expanded menu today after spending a year evaluating all of the ingredients from the mayonnaise to the cheese it serves on its burgers. to try to reverse years of slipping sales. the home of the whopper will now

offer more than a dozen new best in class menu items which feature wide arrange of freshly prepared better for you options that live up to the signature great taste. that's it from cnbc. back to you in washington. >> thank you. tomorrow the nationals return to nationals park for a preseason game against the red sox. during that game, personal memorabilia of baseball hall of famer ted williams will be on display before going to auction later this month. david hunt, president of hunt auctions is with us to tell us about the auction. welcome. good to have you with us. >> good to be here. >> you have quite a bit of memorabilia. this is just a little bit of it, i understand. tell us how these items ended up on the auction block. >> this is just -- part of the display that we are -- selling them on behalf of the williams family at the end of april. nationals are gracious, ted being the manager, to allow these things to be displayed. these are a few of the things. many more things on display at

the game. >> we are glad you are here. williams' children got a lot of news coverage because they were fighting over the fact they had his remains actually frozen. is that -- is that still going on, do you know? >> really, what we are focusing on here is the life of a great american, great baseball player. a two-time war veteran. those things are private. that's really when we believe. when we do the auctions there are many things we don't sell. we recommend the family doesn't sell because they are private. >> you mentioned williams was manager of the senators from 1969 to 1971. any of the memorabilia have anything do with that part of his career? >> yeah. lots of things being military related. being in washington, many things from presidents and here's a signed photo from douglas macarthur to ted. this is his actual flight manual book when he flew in world war ii and kept all of the meticulous notes of the flight patterns and things. when you are somebody of this iconic status, not only did you have a great life in baseball,

outside of baseball, presidents. >> with babe ruth here. >> he is. very famous meeting with babe ruth in fenway park. if you will look down, obviously the key piece, one of the best pieces in the sale is a ball signed to my pal, babe ruth -- ted williams, from babe ruth. when you think of the two arguably the greatest hter and home run hitter in the history of baseball with the signed ball very special piece. >> which and this? >> that's the most valuable player award plaque. 1949. he won it twice. when you get into those sort of premier awards, the value is high. value already about $150,000 now in online bid. >> how much money do you expect to make? >> set at seven figure auction. we don't know how much. obviously hopefully multiple seven figures. one nice thing, too, the family is donating a portion of the proceeds to the jimmy fund which is the children's cancer fund that ted helped. so dear to him. >> it looks like you have special things to show. thank you so much, david hunt from hunt auctions. >> yes. thank you. >> very happy to have you here. good luck. let me tell the people how they

can see it and you can tell us, how can they see this. >> all these items and many others will be on display at the stars and stripes club at the washington national stadium during the pregame hours and during the game for the nationals versus red sox game. claudia will be deliver iing it his daughter thank you so much again. >> thank you. it is 11:53. coming up two big announcement this morning on the "today" show. plus meteorologist tom kierein will be back with another check on when we can see another warmup. stay with us. >> i'm eun yang. >> i'm aaron gilchrist. tomorrow morning on "news4 today," our area is the focus of the republican race. how the results of tomorrow's elections will impact the race. plus the other big races you need to know about. >> your weather and traffic together on the 1s and overnight news from your neighborhood.

the "today" show revealed its mystery legend this morning. it was meredith vieira. former today show host stopped

by to talk about her new venture in the coming months. >> we have what we think is a great announcement and will be affecting us and our viewers in the coming month. >> thank you. it is great for me. i'm going to be joining you at the limb mix and i'm very excited. of all the things i did on the "today" show i think the olympics was my favorite experience. starting with beijing which was wonderful and vancouver as well. i had the opportunity to go to london i jumped at. >> it she says she will also co-host the opening mayor mocerr the olympics. another announcement, sarah palin will co-host part of the "today" show tomorrow morning. going to take a look at the stories we are following for news4 for this afternoon. pat lawson muse joins us in the newsroom with a preview of things to come. >> hey. coming up this afternoon on "news4 at 4:00," the latest on the mega-millions saga in baltimore. and whether mcdonald's employee is the real winner. also tonight is the night we see

the voice live first round performances. we will gooif live to l.a. for a preview. then tonight on "news4 at 5:00," must see before you start the spring cleaning. liz crenshaw will share secrets from the ritz-carlton in an all new tricks of the trade. >> thank you, pat. quick check on the weather. >> it is going to be breezy and chilly throughout much of the day today. highs in the low 60s. i say chilly because compared to march it certainly is cooler. bit warmer tomorrow. >> thank you, tom. that's it for us for today. hope you plan to join us tomorrow morning. we will be here at 11:00. have a great day and we will see you in the morning. [ male announcer ] does your cable company keep charging you more...

and more... and more? stop paying so much for second best. upgrade to verizon fios tv, internet and phone for our best price online: just $94.99 a month, guaranteed for two years with no annual contract. or choose a two-year contract and pick your bonus: hbo & cinemax included for 12 months or $250 back. unlike cable, fios is a 100% fiber-optic network that delivers america's fastest, most consistent, most reliable internet, plus the best tv picture quality. why pay so much for cable? sign up online for just $94.99 a month with a two-year contract and choose your bonus -- hbo & cinemax included for 12 months or $250 back. visit verizon.com/fiosbonus.