a scare over the pacific ocean as fighter jets scramble to reach a u.s. passenger jet

after a hijacking threat. good morning everybody. i'm aaron gilchrist skbliefrnlt i'm eun yang. welcome to "news4 today" for this had friday, january 18th, 2013. we were spared the snow but you need to bundle up as you head out this morning. tom kierein has more on the conditions outside. it's cold out there, tom. where did that winter storm hit, though. >> just to our south. it tracked about 50 miles farther south than it was looking yesterday morning. as a result, we didn't get anything locally around washington. now getting a few scattered flurries north and west of the metro area. here in northern montgomery county, a burst of flurries as well as in western howard. it's quickly tracking off south and east. few other flurries in frederick county heading southeast and will probably dissipate. these are the snow totals from yesterday. a dusting to an insure near harrisonburg to north of charlottesville. but then south and east of charlottesville through southeastern virginia, 2 to 6 inches. they had as much as 8 to 14 inches of snow in southwestern

virginia from that system. right now, we're in the 30s. the winds beginning to pick up. gusting out of the north and west to 15, 20 miles an hour. might have a few scattered flurries. otherwise, clearing sky, a lot of sun. gust i wind and cold will stay in the 30s through the rest of the day. a look at your night coming up in ten minutes. traffic now with danella. >> good morning. still pretty quiet out in our area. if you're making the commute, traveling along bw parkway in maryland or yooi 95 in both directions, nice and clear between the baltimore beltway and the capital beltway. at 50 out from indianapolis passing bowie, you're clear. a live look at 410. no issues towards new york avenue. i'm back in ten minutes. aaron and eun, over to you. >> thanks, danella. new this morning, a woman stabbed in the neck on the streets of northwest d.c. police say the woman was stabbed, then walked to a gas station on 14th street, not too far from the columbia height metro station. that woman now in the hospital.

we're told she will be okay. police in montgomery county need help finding a man who attacked and robbed an elderly woman. this is video. investigators say on tuesday the woman walked out of the store just before 10:00 at night. a man threw her to the ground and took cash from her. she had minor injuries. if you recognize this man, call police. >> it happened again. police say robbers in gaithersburg used a fire extinguisher to hold up a restaurant. they sprayed a manager and a customer. they snatched the cash register and took off. four suspects were arrested near the middle school after police say they used a fire extinguisher to rob people. the two incidents do not peer to be related. a developing story out of seattle this morning. the fib investigating after someone warned that a potential hijacker was aboard a flight from hawaii to seattle. the fbi honolulu office reported getting a call from the ground

that somebody on that plane was going to hijack it. f-15 fighter jets from the air national guard scrambled to escort the flight to seattle tacoma international. many on board the plane didn't even know anything was wrong. >> the only thing i saw was when the police came on the airplane and asked the lady next to him to get up. they took him outside. >> officers questioned the man. but they say they do not expect to arrest him. it's not clear if the call was legitimate or a hoax. news 4's melissa mollet at the live desk now. >> we've been following this hostage situation in algeria for a couple of days. we've learned that a u.s. plane landed at an airport near that natural gas facility to evacuate americans who were being held but are now safe. many hostages, though are still unaccounted for. they're holding the hostages at a nearby bp complex.

others were sent on a chartered flight to london late last night. still unclear what exactly happened to dozens more. the a.b. reporting at least six were killed when troops attempted to rescue hostages on thursday. we'll keep an eye on this for us. melissa mollet. leaders in prince george's county will help unveil a new gun proposal. baker and police chief mcgau will join governor martin o'malley for the announcement. they'll give a joint statement in indianapolis later this morning. a survey shows americans want tougher gun laws. according to a wall street journal poll, 56% favor more restrictions on dpuns. 7% say current laws are too strict and 35% prefer to keep the laws the way they are now. the poll shows 41% of all households have a gun. the numbers show a sharp political divide. 55% of republicans say they have guns compared to 27% of democrats.

already stripped of his seven tour de france titles. lance armstrong giving up his only olympic medal. the international olympic committee asked armstrong o return his bronze medal from the 2000 olympic games in sydney. he won that medal for the cycling time trial. that request came just hours before an admission that many have been waiting years for. armstrong confessed o doping during the almost entire career he had with an exclusive interview with openry winfrey last night. he used a combination of blood boosting drugs and transfusions to win all seven of his tour de france titles. >> in your opinion, was it humanly possible to win the tour de france without doping seven times in a row? >> not in my opinion. not in that generation. i'm not here to talk about others in that generation. it's been well-documented. i didn't invent the culture. but i didn't try to stop the culture. that's my mistake. >> armstrong says he felt doping

made for a level playing field. he also apologized to those -- he apologized those who took legal action against to keep his doping quiet. tens of thousands of people will gina riefg today ahead of the inauguration and thousands of them are members of the national guard. 6,000 national guard troops will be in the district for monday's inauguration. another 2,000 will be on alert in states just outside of washington. they're coming here from more than 25 states and territories. the guardsmen will had have several sponts for the inauguration, including crowd management and medical support. dulles will be closing a runway this weekend to accommodate the hundreds of private planes arriving for the inauguration. the runway will close sunday evening and be open again on tuesday. airport administrators insist the closure will not impact commercial flights. when you're watching president obama take the oath of office, take a close look at the

presidential seal on the podium. it was likely made here at a -- this is the institute of heraldry. they craft 40 to 50 new seals. each one is a true labor of love. >> each one of these seals is individually hand casted and hand-painted and hand finished by the artist. >> they're not mass produced? >> that's correct. no mass production. we use essentially medieval techniques of sculpting to get to this process. >> the things you never knew you never knew. pat lawson muse will show us all the steps that go into making the presidential seal. every one of them tonight on news 4 at 6:00. >> very cool. awesome. how about that. 4:38 is our time right now. ahead on "news4 today," what's being blamed for a mishap that left several escalator passengers hurt when it suddenly went in reverse. putting a price on the white house. what you could expect to pay if you ever got the chance to buy the executive mansion.

don't forget your winter coat as you get ready to leave for work. the blustery winter forecast on tap for you next with weather and traffic on the 1s. as we head into the inauguration weekend, did you know, this is the seventh time the inauguration date has fallen on a sunday. [ fingers tapping ] [ rain pattering ] [ heels clicking ] [ female announcer ] yoplait light tastes great now...

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how would you like to live in the white house? it would cost you a pretty penny. it's valued at nearly $3 hundred

million. zillow released its calculation of how much the white house would cost on the market. it's valued at $294.4 million. it's value has risen 7% from 275 when president obama first took office. so what does that kind of money buy you? 55,000 square feet, 35 bathrooms, 16 bedrooms, and 18 acres of prime real estate in downtown washington. >> uh-huh. you should just run for office if you want to live there. that's the only way -- all right. let's check the forecast now. storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein here. >> location, location, location. >> yes. >> good morning. starting off with a clearing sky, a few scat irreconcilable differences flurries north and west of the metro area. stay in the 30s throughout the day. winds gusting occasionally to 30 miles an hour. wear your warmest winter gear. if you're going out tonight, a cold night. down to near 30 by midnight under a clear sky and lighter wind. seven-day outlook is coming up

at 4:51. a look at traffic now. here's danella. >> good morning. still checking on construction in our area. the dulles toll road, eastbound at reston parkway, still blocked there. checking local roads along 29, heading to columbia, no issues at 2 at 32. passing bridge cheney ahead -- >> thank you, danella. it's now 4:43. ahead on "news4 today," talk about just dropping in. the unlikely object that came crashing through the roof of this business. why you may want to limit how much water you

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welcome back. 4:45 now. we know now what caused this escalator mishap earlier this month in new jersey. it turns out this escalator suddenly reversed with dozens of

people on it. the port authority of new york and new jersey says that it sustained damage back in october when the station was filled with more than 12 feet of saltwater. they say they've inspected it since reopening and the escalators at other stations -- verizon contributed to a 911 outage last summer. a facility lost power and 911 calls couldn't get through in arlington, fairfax and prince william counties after the dore ach owe in june. they did not properly respond to the outages. since then, verizon tried to correct its failures. verizon says it will continue to make improvements. a measure to repeal the virginia law requiring women to get ultrasounds before an abortion failed. the senate education and health committee struck down the repeal bill yed. the committee killed a separate

measure preventing funding abortions with little or no chance of survival of fetuses. anne arundel county executive trial gets under way today. yesterday he waived his right to a jury trial. a judge will determine his innocence or dpilt instead. leopold is accused of using taxpayer funded police details for personal and political purposes, including ferrying him to sexual encounters with a mistress in parking lots. leopold maintains his innocence. he faces up to five years in prison if convicted. the original author of the dear abby advice column died. pauline freed man phillips died yesterday after a long battle with alzheimer's disease. for decades, her -- the two were on good terms by the time esther died in 2002 and giving good advice runs in the family. the dear abby column has been written by her daughter jean for the last nine years. it looks like actor tom

cruise may be the latest victim of a hoax called swatting. that's when a false report is called in about shots fired at a home to get swat teams to come in. officers say there was no emergency. s not clear if cruise was home at the time. cruise is just the latest celebrity victim of that hoax. ashton kutcher, miley cyrus and justin bieber have all experienced similar situations in recent months. an unprecedented move from president obama's political organization. it's going to become a nonprofit. democratic leaders say it will be called organizing for america. it will use the support and energy that got the president re-elected to further his second term agenda like gun control and immigration. obama 2012 campaign manager, jim messina will head that group. it will be separate from the democratic national committee. hillary clinton will step down as secretary of state with the vast majority of the country approving of the job she's done. an nbc news poll finds that 69%

of americans approve of the job she's done while only 25% disapprove. secretary clinton widely seen as the early favorite to get the democratic nod for president in 2016, although she has not said whether she's interested in running. it is now 4:49. feel free to tweet and text away during monday's inauguration. the biggest cell phone carriers are making sure you don't lose service during the inauguration. this is a much bigger issue than it was for the first inauguration four years ago. more than 130 million americans now you have smartphones according to the wireless association. just 41 million had smartphones in 2009. cell phone carriers are encouraging you to send text messages instead of making calls. phone calls use more of the network. metro is offering an inauguration souvenir to riders this weekend. it's selling this smart trip card. they're $15. they come pre-loaded with a

one-day pass allowing unlimited travel on the day it's used. you can reload the card like every other smart trip card as well. it may be a bit more affordable to take a cab to the inauguration. you can share a taxi with other inauguration-goers on monday. you'll have to get the cab from a special pickup location on 17th and independence avenue near rfk stadium. you'll be dropped off near the parade route. taxis must be carrying four passengers. the ride will cost $28. you'll have to go to sixth and i streets in southwest d.c. to get a cab back to rfk. you may want to hold off drinking a lot of coffee or water monday morning if you're going to the national mall. there could be a port a potty shortage. the washington examiner claims that the amount will be down from the last inauguration. there's one toilet for 300 people. they prefer a ratio of one port

o potty -- >> one to 300. >> here's the reason why it's tough to take small children. >> they don't hold well. >> they don't hold it well. and it's cold. there's a lot of walking. good luck to you. >> 4:51. storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein is here with a look at the forecast for this friday. >> little bit of an explanation. were did the snow not come into washington? i thought we would get a dusting. it tracked 50 miles farther south. forecasting winter storms is the most difficult thing to do in natural science. it really is. we do our best to approximate at least what might happen. it did track about 50 miles farther south. boy, central and southern virginia got walloped with heavy snow. here, though, right now 38 at reagan national. a wind out of the northwest gusting to 20 miles an hour. feels like it's in the 20s. there's that storm. it did unload a lot of snow.

southwestern southern central virginia. even snowed in ocean city. now it's ended. a few flurries in montgomery county into howard county. quick passing snow showers are zipping through. few flurries in frederick county as well in maryland. here are the snow totals. dusting to an inch south of fredericksburg to charlottesville. south and east of there 2 to 6 inches from richmond to virginia beach and west of there. even ocean city got a dusting as did parts of northern neck. but 8 to 14 inches snow fell in southwestern virginia into western north carolina. incredible storm. now as we look at what's happening over the last 12 hours. the skies are clearing out. we still have a few scattered flurries and snow showers zipping from the north and west. colder air is moving on in. 21 now in pittsburgh. that cold air coming in on northwest winds throughout the day will keep us in the 30s. we'll have sunshine.

winds gusting to 30 miles an hour midday. will settle down tonight. tomorrow sunny 20s in the morning. afternoon highs mid 40s. more of the same on sunday. blustery wind on sunday. inauguration day is looking partly sunny. might have a passing snow shower with highs only in the 30s. really cold on tuesday, wednesday into thursday. arctic air mass moves in. i'll be back in ten minutes. danella now with your first 4 traffic. good morning. >> good morning. in our area not seeing any reports of accidents. but still seeing construction reported on the outer loop of the beltway. it should be in its final stages. this is as you travel between the dulles toll road and 123. you'll see the right lane and right center lane blocked. that should be wrapping up. i checked cameras in that area. volume is very light. if you have to head out in that direction, shouldn't be a big problem for you. traveling bw parkway, checking for accidents there. nice and clear north and southbound. a live look across the american legion bridge. no issues to report. eun, over to you. >> danella, thanks so much. melissa mollet is at the live desk with breaking news.

>> good morning. we know one person has been killed in a fire that's raging in australia. it's so intense, it's actually turning the sky orange. take a look at this incredible video just into the newsroom. firefighters battling the intense flames that are tearing through trees, homes, even cars. the large and fast-moving wildfire has doubled in side to 111,000 acres. residents are still being evacuated and one small town is surrounded by the flames. at the live desk, melissa mow larks news 4. nasa's mars rover is leaving behind footprints, sort of. it's hard to see here, but in the middle of this picture you can make out curiosity's tracks as it moves from the landing site to the current location at yellow knife bay. that's about 2300 feet. it's headed for mt. sharp where scientists hope to learn if the planet once supported microbial life. imagine a watching a bucket fall from the sky. that happened in san diego.

a bucket fell midair from a military aircraft. an rv and several vehicles were hit by the pieces of the bucket and ceiling. the aircraft was based out of a marine corps station in the area. they're taking full responsibility. >> we have very good proceed nurs place to make sure that flying here in southern california that we're safe about it. but we're going to use this as an opportunity to make improvements and move forward. >> no word on how much damage -- how much the damages will cost to repair it. it's a good thing no person was inside. >> boy. time now is 4:55. coming up, new hope for all of us deal with people who have bad cell phone manners. escaping the cold

if you're looking for a new job, you might want to send your resume to facebook. it got the employee choice award for the best company to work for. this is actually the second time facebook has topped that list. facebook employees rated the company a 4.7 out of 5. the company is known for its laid-back culture and great perks like free food, transportation and daycare. daycare, wow. it looks like we're seeing fewer people chatting loudly on their cell phones. a new study by the pew research center says 39% of adults saw annoying cell phone users on a

frequent basis. that's down from 2006. the number of people who never see those incidents doubled from 5% to 10%. it's either because people are getting better about cell phone etiquette or we're becoming acclimated to those who talk how'dly on cell phones. >> people think i'm weird, i don't like to talk on o the phone in public places. >> i don't think that's weird. you should put your cell phone away. a lot of people put them on the table. >> that drives me crazy. i hate that. >> we're on the same wave length pour once, aaron. if you were thinking about waiting until spring to go on vacation. january is one of the best months of the year to find travel deals, especially cruises. airfare an hotel rates are slated to rise throughout the year. part of the increase stems from the economic recovery. fewer people were flying. so prices went up. if you book a trip had month, you may be able to score great deals. all right.