revealed right here on nbc during the "today" show. do you have a favorite? >> i like the top hat, i like the thimble. i'm a simple man. >> what about the new ones? >> i have a hard time with change. >> i know you do. i like the guitar. >> maybe the helicopter for me. >> i like the guitar or the robot. stay with us. "news4 today" continues at 5:00 a.m. a man in the hospital right now after a confrontation that had a metro police officer open fire. what we're learning about that incident overnight involving that d.c. police officer. first, good morning, i'm aaron gilchrist. i'm eun yang. welcome to "news4 today" for this wednesday, february 6, 2013. it may feel like we're getting a break from the really cold weather. when you step out the door, a little milder, but, but more winter weather could be around the corner. this is the kind of winter we've had. storm 4 meteorologist tom kierein here with the changes.

>> i've been told that the new monopoly token is a bust of our director kurt nielsen. >> move him to park place. >> now, had morning, we're starting off with a lot of cloudiness. we're at or below freezing if you step outside. it's around 30 prince george's county. montgomery, arlington, fairfax. much of northern virginia below freezing. shenandoah valley, out of the mountains, closer to washington around the beltway, inside the beltway, we're a little above freezing. wrenly in the low 30s including the district of columbia. here's how we're looking for the next hours. cloudiness through -- sun breaking out, ought to be a little above freezing. 7:09 is the sunrise. sunset at 5:36. before then, by noontime ought to be around 40 degrees. i'm back in ten minutes with another hometown forecast. a look at first 4 traffic now with danella. good morning. >> good morning. we'll head over now to the dulles toll road. earlier we saw construction as

you headed eastbound on the dulles toll road between spring hill road and the beltway. it was blocking the right lane. it's clear between the greenway, the toll road heading to the beltway. you are clear. over to the beltway, between the dulles toll road and inner and outer loop, travel time about 13 minutes from the dulles toll road to the interchange. i'm back in ten. over to you. 5:02 now. now to a developing story. at least five people are dead after an earthquake rocked the south pacific. it hit the solomon islands, northeast of australia. it also caused at least two minor tsunamis in the area. this is video just into the newsroom. people in fiji were forced to evacuate because of the tsunami threats. people are expecting the death toll to rise as they sift through destroyed and damaged homes. >> a police involved shooting has one man in critical condition. this started as a domestic

dispute in the 6400 block much 13th street northwest. officers say when they entered a home there, they ran into a man armed with a knife. the man was hit in the face when the officer shot at him. he is expected to survive. new into the newsroom, a toddler recovering from serious burns after trying to drink hot coffee. this happened in lay tonsville, maryland. that's near the country club. the little boy was flown to a trauma center with severe scalding burns. investigators say it appears to be an accident. in a d.c. courtroom, lawyers could present details of a plea deal for a man accused of shooting a security guard at a christian lobbying group head kwoerts. floyd corkins faces several charge. he opened fire downtown. corkins did not like the group's opposing stance on gay marriage and abortion. a security guard responding to

the gunfire was hit. but survived. cork yins is apparently negotiating a plea deal. but no details have been reese leased. the redistricting plan could die today. house speaker william howell will use a procedural rule to kill the proposal. it drastically changes the legislation it was attached to. it would allow him to kill the measure. republicans caught members of their own party by surprise when they amended a bill calling for slight adjustments to house district boundaries. the new map would have likely allowed republicans to maintain control of the senate for decades. president obama will sell some of the proposals on his domestic agenda today to fellow democrats in the senate. he'll speak at the democratic senate caucus in annapolis. the president will talk about immigration reform and gun control among other issues during the closed door retreat. the looming budget crisis will be a hot topic at the meeting also. the president wants congress to approve a quick fix to avoid sweeping spending cuts that will

take place automatically on march 1st. the cuts could be devastating to the country's economic recovery. the president says the short term deal allows lawmakers a chance to come up with a broader solution to bringing the nation's debt under control. today the executive board of the boy scouts of america could overturn a century old policy banning gay scouts and troop leaders. the board will meet at the headquarters in eastern texas. supporters plan to hold a rally outside. last week the board said it might change the policy and leave the issue up to local troops to decide. they say the current policy worked for is 00 years. former scout say it's bigotry and against american values. >> i think fair minded americans know that discrimination is wrong and that the boy scouts were out of step with america by excluding gay young people and telling nongay children that discrimination was an american value. >> earlier this week, president obama supported the boy scouts ending the national ban on gay

members and scout leaders. he said they should have the same access and opportunities as everyone else. a major policy change announcement is expected from the defense department. military officials say the pentagon will extend some benefits to same sex spouses. the defense department is expected to allow same sex partners access to things like housing privileges and recreational activities. the allowances would likely not cover health care benefits. a date for an official announcement on that policy change has not been set. this comes about 16 months after the pentagon lifted its ban on gays in the military. eun? the infamous blackout at this year's super bowl may have surprised you, but not the nfl. the steps the nfl had taken to avoid such a problem. also ahead, why one popular type of beverage may be a bad mix for you when you make a cocktail. a dramatic rescue after a camera catches two teens falling through the ice. 5:06 right now. no icy conditions as you step out the door. that could be changing. the winter weather on

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look at this video of a dramatic rescue at a frozen pond in the park. two people were taking pictures on the ice when it broke sending them into the frigid water. a firefighter helped to save the two teens. they were taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition. they are so lucky. that is just a frightening

situation. >> wow. >> don't go on ice. you don't know how stable it is underneath there. >> i was going to go there on saturday. maybe i'll do the zoo instead. >> don't go there. coming up on ten minutes after the hour. want to get a look at the forecast. tom kierein is here with the details. >> we had a little cloudiness, a few scattered sprinkles on radar. as we zoom in on alleghany county, cumberland is our hometown forecast location. in the upper 30s with lots of sunshine. we ought to be reaching the mid-40s by mid-afternoon. april blustery wind and lots of sun. by midnight, back down to near freezing with a partly cloudy sky. look at the next seven days in ten minutes. a look at traffic with danella. good morning. checking on the rams. metro, marc, they're fine. vre, a situation in brookville. one of the tracks in that area is broken on the other side. the other track is dealing with a disabled freight train. you're seeing fredericksburg line train number 300. it's running this morning at a

30-minute delay. metro is honoring the vre tickets. aaron and eun. >> thank you, danella. the emotional plea from a father as the search for a missing d.c. girl continues. also ahead, no ordinary drill. the steps one school district took to prepare for a potential

5:14 now. talk a good look at this video. police need help finding these men who robbed jewelers in maryland. the video shows them forcing employees and customers to the ground. they grabbed whatever they could carry. it's eerily similar to one that took place in arlington. that was on monday. here's a video from that

incident. it's not believed the incidents are linked. no arrests have been made in either case. police are looking for a missing 6-year-old girl. morning, her father is making an emotional plea to find his daughter. a judge granted him temporary sole custody of his daughter ariana. he's raised her on his own since birth. her mother has a medical condition that made her legally blind. she was in town with her 30-year-old boyfriend visiting from arkansas. news 4 learned that williams is wanted for a probation violation in arkansas. >> doing everything that i can to get my daughter pack. she don't know her. there are strangers to her. i've had annian a all her life. he hasn't seen his daughter since last thursday when the mother asked to take her to the grocery store. a boy being held hostage in an underground bunker celebrates

his sixth birthday. we're learning new details about the heroic rescue of ethan. authority say the kidnapper, jimmy lee dykes allowed members of the hostage team to deliver supplies. the rescue team shot and killed dykes during the raid. he was taken to the hospital where he seemed to be okay. eddie ray routh, the veteran charged with murdering a former navy seal sniper refusing to meet with his court appointed lawyer. he's on suicide watch and held on a $3 million bond. he's accused of murdering former seal chris kyles and another man at a texas shooting range last weekend. routh confessed to his sister about the shootings. she called 9-1-1 later and police found him driving kyle's truck the same night the bodies were found. the six adults two died protecting children at sandy hook elementary will get a top honor. president obama will

posthumously award awards to the psychologist, four teachers and the principal there. the awards will be given to their families in a white house ceremony next friday. it honors americans who performed exemplary deeds for their country or fellow citizens. some are criticizing a california school for a campus shooting drill that looked too real. take a look. >> police simulated a gunman targeting a lunchtime crowd at a school in modesto, california. it injured 20 students who were covered in fake blood. police and swat team members participated. they've been preparing for the drill since august. they're reviewing their response to see how they can improve. america's drone operations are under intense scrutiny and we're learning from where the cia launches many of the attacks. a remote base in saudi arabia is home to a large portion of drone operations. it is from there that the u.s.

conducts strikes against militants in yemen, including the attack that killed u.s.-born al qaeda born anwar awlaki. it's prompting major concerns among legal experts this morning. nbc news obtained a memo saying americans affiliated with al qaeda could be targeted by drones even if they don't pose an imminent threat. like awlaki, the potential targets don't have to be charged with any crime. legal analysts say that threatens constitutional rights and broadens the definition of self-defense. >> it is a chilling document. it sets out the government's claimed authority to carry out the targeted killing of american citizens but the limits are vague and elastic and see how they could be manipulated. >> it really is unreasonable to expect that the u.s. will always have specific evidence about a plot. >> the obama administration says it is confident the strikes follow federal and international law. president obama is expected

to hak his first trip to israel as the president in the coming weeks. the u.s. ambassador there says the president's talk will focus on iran, syria and the need to get them -- the president will visit the west bank and jordan during his trip. israeli tv says president obama will travel there in late march. anything but a warm welcome for mahmoud ahmadinejad to egypt. a man is now in custody for throwing a shoe at him. the iranian leader was visiting an ancient mosque in cairo. he was not hurt. throwing a shoe in the arab world is an extreme sign of disrespect. it will be another emotional day for john kerry. he'll be sworn in again as secretary of state. vice president joe biden will administer the oath during a ceremonial swearing in at the state department this afternoon. kerry was officiallily sworn in last friday. new this morning, we're learning more evidence that the

nfl was concerned about a potential power outage at the super bowl long before the lights went out during the game. an nfl executive told reuters that generators during the game because of power fluctuations during rehearsals. he said the league felt the generators would be the best way to prevent problems with tv and other gear. coming up on our wednesday morning, got to get over the hump today. take a look outside with us, if you will. sun is on the horizon. i promise you, literally and figuratively, i guess. >> just more literally. >> completely literally. coming up -- you know what i'm trying to say, tom. >> i don't know what you're trying to say. i'll carry on. good morning. keep calm. we're starting off this morning with temperatures near freezing in prince george's county, montgomery, arlington and fairfax too. right near freezing. in the district of columbia, in the mid-30s. many of the rural areas, in the upper 20s to around 30 degrees. here's your four-day forecast. we'll have a lot of sun.

by later had morning into the afternoon, highs reaching mid 40s and a gusty wind. that wind could gust to 20 miles per hour. it will settle down down. by dawn tomorrow, the mid-20s. thursday afternoon the low 40s. increasing clouds on thursday afternoon. all cloudy thursday night. as we start off friday morning. we might get a wintry mix. pre-dawn friday morning. north and west of i-95. indications are we might get a little sleet, perhaps freezing rain. maybe a little snow briefly. most of it is going to melt on roadways. elsewhere, it's all rain on friday morning and then rain for the entire region the rest of the day on friday with highs in the 40s. then it gets windy and we get colder as we clear out friday night. in fact, down to the mid-20s by dawn on saturday. a blustery wind on saturday. should be bright and sunny. a high of 40. looks like the storm giving us rain on friday may turn into a major snowstorm for new england. if you plan to travel hartford, providence, boston, portland,

maine on friday night into saturday, it's going to be a major snowstorm there. for us, we'll be clearing out for the weekend and warmer on sunday. up around 50 on sunday afternoon after a cold start. may hit the low 50s on monday. another chance much rain on monday. drying out on tuesday. still mild with highs in the mid-50s. i'm back in ten minutes with another update. a look at first 4 traffic now and breaking news with danella. good morning. >> good morning. breaking news on the rails, tom. this is the problem. it's on the vre train line. in you're traveling fredericksburg train number 300 expect a 30-minute delay much the situation at the brooks station there is on one track. dealing with a broken rail on the other track a disabled freight train. again, fredericksburg train 300 on the fredericksburg line. at a 30-minute delay. you can take metro. they're honoring your tickets. metro is not reporting delays. neither is marc. over to the roadways. we'll head up to earlier construction along sand i spring

road ativan did you sayen -- >> the capitol beltway clear. no issues as you travel southbound connecting to the beltway. and the beltway between i-95 and american legion bridge. no accidents to report. aaron and eun. thanks, danella. virginia is one step away from increasing the penalties on texting while driving. both chambers of the general assembly passed bills increasing the fine from 20 to $250. now governor mcdonnell needs to sign it into law. drivers across the state support the measures saying it makes things safer for everyone on the roads. >> i see a lot of people still texting and driving. i try to use -- talk to text if i feel the urge. >> i think whatever we can do to stop people from doing it, the better off we are. >> in addition to the increased fines, texting while driving would become a primary offense. right now it's a secondary offense. police can only give you a ticket for that if they pulled you over for another violation

first. a primary offense means officers can stop drivers if they see them texting while driving. d.c. lawmakers are working to help overworked nurses in the district. action came after complaints that nurses were so overworked they could be putting patients at risk. the new measure would require hospitals to increase the number of nurses per shift. some hospitals, though, are saying the change is not necessary and will be too expensive. the chief executive of george washington hospital told the post increased staffing could cost the hospital $15 million per year. 5:24 now. the u.s. anti-doping agency says lance armstrong has until the end of the day to reach out to them. the u.s. ada set the deadline forearm strong to fully cooperate in the investigation. in return, it will consider lifting the lifetime ban on cycling. he recently expressed interest in triathalons. he admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during his seven tour de france wins.

a tough start to the season is not getting better for the caps. >> walks in, broke his stick. the snap. they score. >> the caps dropped another game last night. this time to the toronto maple leafs. the worst record of 2-7-1. that leaves a lot of catching up to do in the shortened season. already 20% over. they face the penguins tomorrow night. a little homework could help save marriages on the brink much breakup. researchers at northwestern university in chicago tested the theory. they found couples who spent about seven minutes writing short essays about recent fights were happier than couples who didn't do the assignment. researchers say the study points out that writing doesn't help the marriage, just makes everyone less upset about the fight. does that make sense to you? >> it does. >> mixing alcohol with diet soda soft drinks apparently may be less fattening or less caloric, but it could make you more

intoxicated. a new study shows combining diet drinks with alcohol can cause a higher breath alcohol concentration because it causes the stomach to empty fatter. young women are the most likely to use artificially unsweetened mixtures. one of a kind picasso painting sold in london last night for $28.6 million. the portion of the muse was sold at sotheby's. also on the auction block, a work by monet which sold for $14 million. despite sufficient economic times, prices for the most sought after art works has soared in recent years. 28.6 million pounds equals $45 million. >> can you imagine? i love picasso. could you imagine having that in your home. i don't have space for my house. >> you would knock out a wall.

>> you know me so well. monitoring news out of the south pacific after a powerful earthquake sparked tsunami fears. safety precautions to avoid another deadly meningitis outbreak. the countdown to the winter games reaches a milestone today. temperatures hovering around the freezing mark for some of you as you head out the door. your forecast is next with weather and traffic on the 1s. our time right now is 5:27.

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looking at the stories making headlines. it's 5:30. a man is in critical condition after a police involved shooting in northwest washington overnight. a father making an emotional plea for help as police continue to search for his missing daughter. an executive board of the boy scouts of america could overturn the ban on homosexuals as early as today. i'm eun yang. i'm aaron gilchrist. welcome back to "news4 today" on this wednesday, february 6th. we begin with an update on a developing story had morning. earlier today a massive 8.0 earthquake rocked the solomon islands in the south pacific. at least five people killed there. the quatriggered a tsunami. this is video from fiji.

there was a tsunami warning a short time ago there. it has since been canceled. officials are expecting the death toll to rise as they check destroyed and damaged buildings throughout that area. here in our rei don't know, the weather conditions are much more predictable as you get ready to head off to work. that could be changing. storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein is here with more on the potential winter weather president tom in. >> that may happen on friday morning. right now, no travel problems weatherwise. just clouds passing over the region now. the cloud cover is broken up in southern maryland where they're getting a little bit of the winter constellation showing through. south and east, northern neck and the lower part of the eastern shore. closer to washington, we have temperatures from upper marlboro to rockville, alexandria, it's right at or a little below freezing, as is much of the rest of maryland and virginia. in the district of columbia, right now, neighborhoods like trinidad down to the low 30s to

mid-30s there. mere the bay, in the mid-30s. a lot of cloud cover through 8:00 a.m. temperatures hovering around the freezing mark but a light wind. the wind pick up as we clear out by 10:00. sun breaking out. temperatures into the upper 30s. near 40 degrees by noontime. we'll have the wind also getting gustier as we get into the afternoon. we'll look at that in detail coming up in ten minutes along with our hometown forecast. now with your first 4 traffic on this wednesday morning, here's danella with breaking news. good morning, tom. still tracking the situation on the vre train. here's where we are now. fredericksburg, train number 300. 30-minute delay. train number 30 a 15-minute delay. the problem at the brook station on one of the tracks there's a broken rail. on the other track, a disabled train. all trains have stopped at that station. you can jump on metro and they're honoring the vre tickets this morning. over to the roadways, i'm tracking an accident, report of

an accident in southeast east capitol street and benning road. checking cameras in the area, i can't see an accident. but i can tell you very light. hardly anybody on the roads. if you are traveling along east capitol street, use caution. i'm back in ten minutes. aaron and eun, over to you. >> thank you, danella. new this morning, a police-involved shooting landed one man in the hospital. this happened just after 11:00 on 13th street and northwest. news 4's tony tull joins us live from the scene with more. good morning. >> reporter: mpd just releasing information moments ago that that suspect has been upgraded to stable condition. take a look at the scene. you can see a squad car in front of the house where the shooting happened making sure nobody enters and putting up security here until the morning hours. around 11:20 last night, police responded to this block. when they arrived to this domestic call, allegedly one of the gentleman here lunged at one of the officers with a knife. we're told that that officer shot the gentleman in the face.

as you mentioned, he was taken to a local hospital. upgraded to stable condition. mpd also releasing information moments ago that that officer did sustain some minor injuries. but we're told he's going to be okay. that's the latest from northwest. i'm tony tull. back to you. >> tony, thank you. maryland governor martin o'malley will testify for the first time about his plan to impose some of the toughest gun control laws in the country. he'll answer questions from the senate judicial proceedings committee. he wants to ban assault weapons and create stricter licensing for hand guns. the proposal would set aside money for school safety. gun right advocates are organizing a protest today in annapolis. activists on the other side of the debate will be on capitol hill today. celebrities including tony bennett and chris rock will urge congress to pass president obama's gun control package. that legislation includes a ban on assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines.

we're hoping to find out what went on behind closed doors during court proceedings for the man convicted of killing chandra levy. a judge will discuss the media's requests about recent hearings in the ingmar guandique case. sources told news 4 that guandique may have his conviction thrown out because a key witness in his trial is not credible. a long time switch coach in montgomery county could be close to a plea deal on child sex abuse charges against him. lawyers for the man filed document for an agreement but there's no deal until that paperwork is signed. a former swimmer says curl sexually a wus bused her in the 1980s starting at 13 years old. curl could face 15 years in prison if found guilty. he's due in court, again, february 21st. a 5:35. more massachusetts pharmacies are being forced to shut down after investigations. the state investigated four

compounding pharmacies and closed 11 of them. all are similar to the new england compounding center found to be producing a contaminated steroid that has led to 45 meningitis deaths and sickened more than 600. of those shut down, several did not have sterile conditions while others were using improper ingredient in their drugs. the pharmacies will have to pass another round of inspections in order to reopen. we're just one year away from the world's biggest winter sporting event. the 2014 winter olympics will officially open a year from today. venues are still spring up around sochi, russia. most have been built from scratch leading to a $50 billion price tag for the games. there will be lots of firsts in sochi. 12 new events are debuting. including competitions that originated at the x-games. ski and snowboard slope style and ski halfpipe. very daring sporting events. one of america's most recognizable skiers will have to make a major comeback in order

to compete at the games. lindsey vonn is on her way back to the states after this terrible accident. she crashed at the world championships in austria tearing two knee ligaments and breaking a bone in her leg. doctors say she will not be back on the skis for another six to eight months. but her coaches say they fully expect her to compete in sochi. it's been around since the 1930s. but today the world famous monopoly game is getting a makeover. we'll find out what replaces one of the iconic tokens. voting has been open to the public online to pick a diamond ring, a guitar, a toy robot, a cat r a helicopter. all of the original pieces, including those added in 1950s are up for retirement. the winning piece will be revealed right here on nbc during the "today" show today. they'll get rid of one and replace it with a thu one. >> never get rid of the race car. >> which one would you let go? >> i'm going to say the thimble. shoot, don't e-mail me.

i'll say the thimble. the race car is my favorite. i am going to go with guitar for the new one. something different. a musical instrument. >> i like the way you think. >> can you say that again, one more time a little louder? >> no, i'll never say that again. 5:38 is our time now. >> a boy brought to class something that got him kicked out of school. helping a family left devastated after a fire. how much are you really getting done at work? how many of us spend our time in the office? >> a chilly start to the morning. a taste of the winter weather we could be saying in the next few days. forecast is next with weather and tr

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mostly cloudy near 30 degrees. no precipitation on storm team 4 radar. zooming in on fairfax county. hometown forecast is vienna. we'll have lots of sunshine during the afternoon with highs reaching the low 40s there. throughout the region, we should be climbing into the mid-40s. most of the area, bit of a blustery wind too. then down to near freezing by midnight tonight. seven-day outlook in ten minutes. danella looks at traffic now. good morning. the problem at the vre station still causing delays on the vre. i'm tracking this for you. fredericksburg train number 3. slower, 35 minutes. 25-minute delay on train number

302. no trains are getting by the brooks station. back over to you both. thanks, danella. more problems for chris brown. what's landing him in court today. >> losing her cool. how a judge came down on a young woman for her conduct in the courtroom. were we need to be in the know at all ti

i'm angie goff with breaking news from the live desk. another dead lay tack in iraq. two officers were shot when machine gunfire was opened on police outside of baghdad. that according to iraqi officials. four others were hurt. the attackers were reportedly shooting cars they sprayed that checkpoint. this is the third day in a row militia forces have been targeted in this area. at the news 4 live desk, angie

goff, news 4. that will be $10,000. >> are you serious? >> i am serious. adios. >> shock in the miami courthouse after a young woman flipped off a judge after repeatedly laughing and talking back to the judge. this woman who is being held on drug possession charges got her $5,000 bond doubled to $10,000. didn't stop there, though. the girl continued to hassle the judge. now she's looking at 30 days in a dade county jail cell. today the man accused of shooting a security guard at a christian lobbying group headquarters is due in court. the shooting happened last august at the family research council. corkins is charged with committing an act ofter rich and other offenses. he didn't like the group's politics which opposes gay marriage and abortion. corkins had a backpack full of chick-fil-a sandwiches when he was arrested family research

council supported the fast food chain to oppose same-sex marriage. today a georgetown man is expected in court for a hearing to determine whether he's too weak to represent himself in a murder trial. albrecht humidity wmuth was tak hospital. he's on trial for the death of his wife's death. he claims it's the result of an iranian hit intended for him. a 10-year-old suspended in alexandria could soon be expelled for bringing a toy gun to school. he showed it off on a bus on monday on the way home from douglas macarthur elementary. could not reach his parents by phone. police arrested the child the next day. he was released hours later. they notified parents by e-mail about the incident. mayor gray wants to -- he outlined his plans in the state of the district address last

night. gray says d.c. is poised to become a hub for technology jobs. he's planning a trip to qatar this year to court foreign investors. gray noted the district's recent drop in crime. >> our city is safer than it has been in decades with murders at a 51-year low. >> the mayor's address got some negative attention. a grum group protested over closing schools because of low enrollment. the redistricting plan could die today. the washington post reporting that william howell will use a procedural move to kill that proposal. according to the post, howell will rule that the new senate map drastically changes the legislation it was attached to. that would let him kill the measure. republicans caught members of their own party by surprise. their new map would have likely allowed republicans to maintain control of the senate for decades. virginia governor bob

mcdonnell has one more chance at changing the state's source for transportation funding. the senate voted against two amendments. democrats criticized the bill for using general funds that cover education, health care and public safety. a house bill still has a chance much passing. it scraps the gas tax, hikes the sales tax by 5.5% and gets rid of a $500 fee for hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles. schools in virginia will soon get a letter grade just like the students. a bill passed the state senate yesterday that calls for schools to be graded on an a through f scale. it became law thanks to a tie breaking vote. it will bring accountability and transparency. some democrats call it a gimmick. prince william county has a new police chief. county supervisors named assistant chief hudson chief of police. he's a 30-year veteran of the

department. he joined as a patrol officer and worked his way up the ranks. hudson replaces charlie dean who retired last year after 24 years. a frederick county, maryland community is coming together to help a family who lost two loved ones in a house fire. hundreds of people showed up at the chick-fil-a in frederick last night to raise money for the family. most of them did not know the family but wanted to help. the fire killed 6-year-old sophie page and her 3-year-old sister. the home burned in meyersville. both parents tried to save them. they made it out with the other two daughters. one remains in the hospital. >> anything we can do to help. it's a tragedy. i have two young kids of my own. i can't imagine what they're going through. something little we can do to help out. >> so far the community raised more than $50,000 in online donations for the family. investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire. all right. coming up on 5:51 right now. want to bring in meteorologist tom kierein to get a look at

this forecast. today is going to be a pretty nice day. >> social media opens up the world to us and one of the people i follow on twitter is an iss astronaut. international space station astronaut. chris hat field who took this picture of the andes mountains in south america. you can see the curvature of the earth on the top. what a view from the space station. he tweeted other photos. i'll show you those later. weather at washington nbc.com. you don't have to go to space to do it. back to earth, weave got a lot of cloudiness across the district. breaks in the clouds. mostly clear there. a little below freezing. most of the rural areas. a includes the closer view of washington. our nearby suburbs in prince george's county, it's near 30. low to mid 30s in montgomery county. arlington, fairfax county, most locations are below freezing as is the rest of virginia.

by 7:00, we'll have a lot you cloudiness around. upper 30s by 8:00, 9:00 this morning. we'll have the wind beginning o to increase. by noontime, we'll have it around 40 degrees. the winds will be gusting to around 20 miles per hour. they will be blustery into the afternoon as we reach mid-40s in much of the rei don't know. the winds die down tonight. increasing clouds tomorrow. afternoon highs on thursday, the low 40s. the average high this time of year is 45. we'll be near the average on friday. now, friday morning we may get a wintry mix, maybe right before dawn. perhaps between midnight and dawn friday morning. perhaps a little bit of sleet. maybe a little freezing rain. a little bit of snow. doesn't look like much. mostly melting on roadways. because most of the temperatures will be above freezing. elsewhere, it will be all rain after midnight. throughout the region, the -- a chilly rain and highs in the mid-40s. the rain, though, ending by sunset on friday. clearing up friday night turning colder. saturday morning the 20s.

breezy, sunny on saturday with highs around 40. warmer sunday with sunshine. beautiful day. around 50 degrees. monday, another chance of rain into the low 50s. may hit mid-50s on tuesday. i'm back in ten minutes. first 4 traffic now with danella. good morning, tom. i'm still tracking breaking news on the rails. the problem is along the vre train. the brook station has stopped all traffic to that station because they're dealing with a disabled freight train and rail problem there. as of now, your delays are fredericksburg, train number 301. 35-minute delaynd number 302 is facing a 25-minute delay. i-270, normal volume around had time. it's not terrible, but you are slow. southbound out of frederick, hitting the brakes towards clarksburg roid. b -- road. nice and clear connecting to the beltwayment aaron in. thank you, danella. southwest airlines offering a pretty good deal depending how far you're willing to travel.

the airline is offering fares based on distance travel. the closer you are, the cheaper the flight. you can get a flight for as little at $100. it covers flights from april to june. you have to buy the tickets by midnight tomorrow. word of hundreds of additional flight cancellations because of problems with boeing's 787 dreamliner. overnight, we learned that yap's nippon is canceling more than 350 flights. 1200 of the flights have been canceled since the middle of last month. it's impacted -- all 787s remain grounded while investigators figure o what's wrong with the plane's lithium eye i don't know batteries. we could learn about drastic changes for the postal service. the struggling agency trying to stay afloat after years of losses. cnbc's chashartia brantley live with more. >> the postmaster general has scheduled a news conference today at 10:00 a.m. to announce

major restructuring moves. last month the u.s. postal service's executive board directed them to speed up efforts to further reduce costs. the agency lost nearly $16 billion last year and defaulted on some $11 billion in required -- the postal service has proposed closing several locations and may possibly cut saturday mail deliveries. that move will have to be approved by congress. meanwhile, disney's profits fell due to rising programming costs for espn. but overall, results were better than wall street expected. the company sees better days ahead this year. there may be a reason for star wars fans to rejoice. disney is developing two additional spinoff films based on characters from the franchise. disney already has three star wars sequels in the works, with the first being released in 2015. guys, disney brought lucas film

in october for $4 billion. they're definitely looking for returns on that investment. shartia brantley, thank you. riss brown is due in court later today. there was a motion filed questioning whether he completed all of his community service hours. brown performed his community labor sentence in parts of virginia. all stemming from the 2009 beating of his on and off girlfriend rihanna. brown's services were unsupervised and he should be punished for a recent fight with franco shan. ocean is not pressing charges. if you're suffering from facebook fatigue, you're not alone. a pew survey found at least 61% of adults in the u.s. have taken april break from the social media site for a few weeks. 20% quit altogether. users are too busy to check facebook while others say they just needed a break from the online drama. facebook still remains the dominant online social networking site. if you are tired, you can rent a space to take a nap in

austria. the studio offers six different couches and soothing music. for $15, you can sleep for 30 minutes. the business owner is targeting stressed out workers and hopes they will take advantage of the new place to take a break and relax. >> would you pay $15 to sleep on a sofa? >> no. stretch out at home. it's free. a new study shows most of the time workers are on the computer they are not working. in fact a study shows employees are wasting as much as 80% of their day on the internet. the study from kansas state university calls it cyber loafing. employees that use a computer are shopping online, checking facebook or just watching cat videos on you-tube. the study also says that threatening termination or monitoring employees' usage is effective but lowers workers' morale. what are you supposed do? >> let it go. 80%, though? that's a lot of wasted time. the winter olympics are one year away.

there's already a big concern about the host city. the daring crime at a local jewelry store. why the key to cracking this case may not be on this video. we have weather and traffic on the 1s right after this. stay with us.

a suspect shot in the face