right now temperatures take a big dip as we get ready for more rain and maybe even snow this weekend. and new from overnight, new video of a flying fireball after all that talk of asteroids and meteorites. welcome, everybody. i'm angie goff. >> i'm richard jordan. temperatures were pretty comfortable this morning. >> perhaps a storm.

>> welcome to your weekend. as we mentioned, we have a chance for rain drops and even snowflakes this weekend. don't worry if you can'tind the snow shovel. not a lot coming our way. reduced visibility this morning. don't be surprised if you're out and about this morning to run into foggy spots. temperatures generally in the mid to upper 30s around spots. it is going to be a wet start to the morning. we'll continue to see these rain drops and eventually a chance for snowflakes later on today. we'll talk about that and the rest of your weekend coming up. new this morning, prince george's county police say several people were robbed near the university of maryland campus. it happened just after midnight. police say there are multiple victi victims, and they believe the robbers took off and then left

that area. if you have any information, please call police. this morning, police in philadelphia say a woman who lived in our area until a year ago abducted and assaulted a 5-year-old girl. the day care worker is accused of taking the girl from her school. police say that was just the beginning. news 4's jackie benson has details of this little girl's disturbing ordeal. >> reporter: montgomery county public school officials confirm 19-year-old christina graduated from the white oak area in 2011. police in philadelphia believe she is the woman seen here in black muslim robes and face covering taking a 5-year-old girl from her elementary school. the little girl was taken to a nearby home and subjected to an unspeakable ordeal of rain and psychological intimidation before being left freezing in a

park. >> teenagers do reckless things. we never suspect anything of this magnitude. >> this goes beyond reckless. >> reporter: investigators say the girl, seen here leaving the police station s a match to dna taken from the victim's shirt. in addition to dna evidence, an exotic pet bird is considered key to the case. the child told police she heard a bird talking in the house and the kidnapper said, quote, it would peck her eyes out if she tried to escape. >> if they were the ones that did what was done to this child, they deserve to be caught. >> i never knew nothing like that would happen in this neighborhood. this has always been a quiet block. >> reporter: jackie benson, news 4. >> and the girl is being held in philadelphia this morning on a $4 million bond. later this morning, crews will return to cut down an ash tree, but this time they'll be chop can go down right tree. earlier this week, contractors got the wrong tree, accidently chopping down a healthy

140-year-old tree. the park services says contractors simply misses the markings on the ash tree. they're investigating the mix-up and might find the contractor responsible. it might be a slow go on metro this holiday weekend. seven stations are closed. minnesota avenue and dean wood on the orange line. morgan boulevard and largo town center on the blue are shut town. you can take a bus between stadium-armory and cheverly on the blue. work lasts through the holiday on monday and will be on a saturday schedule that day. almost all of the nationals are down in florida ready to hit the diamond and play some ball. the newest nat, closer rafael soriano, is expected to join the team today after being held up by visa issues.

in one week they'll start spring training against the new york mets. bryce harper says last year's stunning playoff collapse has fueled the nats to make a deeper playoff from this yethis year. >> hopefully we can come into this year and really try to get further inside the playoffs and hopefully can go to the world series. >> in addition to avenging last year's playoff defeat, the team has extra motivation to win it all this year. the manager says this season will be his last. and the time now is 6:05. federal workers, why you may not see a pay raise in the near future after all. and brand new video reveals more of what it was like for passengers stranded at sea on that carnival cruise. >> plus, stoners at the gas pump. you've probably noticed yourself. this morning we're checking to see how much prices jumped again overnight.

just two weeks left until the sequester takes place and congress is on a break. lawmakers left d.c. for a week for the president's day recess. as close to $1 trillion in automatic cuts is set to take place on march 1st. if the sequester does happen, dozens of programs will see major cut, including the military and disaster relief funds. democrats suggested a plan to delay the cuts, but republicans shot it down because it included tax increases. now republicans say one way to save money is to continue a pay freeze for you federal workers out there. the house passed a bill to extend a freeze for nine more months. the last federal employee raise was back in 2010. the house bill would block president obama's executive order to give workers a 0.5% raise next month. republicans say this move saves the government about $11

billion, but democrats say it unfairly punishes federal employees. can't afford a new car? see the new ways to get others to foot the bill. plus, stranded at sea. the video giving us a new view of the carnival passengers and what they went through. good morning. cloudy and wet and cold outside. all we want is a little sunshine like yesterday. that may be hard to come by. i'll talk about your forecast coming up. [ female announcer ] coffee-mate natural bliss.

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well, it is a sight thousands of people would have loved to have seen when they were stranded at sea. last night all of the lights came back on aboard the crippled carnival triumph. huge generators are now powering the cruise liner at a shipyard in mobile, alabama, so it can be cleaned and so investigators can figure out exactly what went

wrong. and now that passengers have charged their cell phones, we're actually starting to see the first video on board the triumph during those five nights at sea. >> you can see some of the 4200 passengers and crew crowded on to the top deck as another cruise ship passes by. you can even see some crowds that were waiting for some food and drinks, which had to be rationed out. >> some disturbing stuff. speaking of the cleanup, they have a big job on their hands. >> carnival is already facing one lawsuit over that cruise gone bad. >> but the mishap is also raising questions about what rights do we have, and what rights may you be giving up when you set sail? nbc's gabe gutierrez has more on what you can expect when things go wrong. >> reporter: the nightmare is finally over for triumph passengers. >> it got to be pretty bad. >> reporter: carnival will compensate her and her fellow travelers $500, a refund, transportation expenses and a

free ticket, but this latest incident has raised questions about oversight of cruise lines and their passengers' rights. if you travel by plane, you're protected under the passenger bill of rights, which among other things includes stiff fines for airlines that leave you sitting on the runway for hours. it also mandates compensation if you're bumped off your flight. but cruise lines are different, partly because passengers give up certain rights in their ticket contracts. for example, carnival is not liable for damages for emotional distress or psychological injury, except when caused by the negligence of carnival and resulted from physical injury. also, many cruise ships are registered in foreign countries and not subject to u.s. taxes and many regulations. the triumph is incorporated in the bahamas. >> this industry is unregulated because they have successfully hidden behind their foreign flags. >> reporter: in 2010, congress did pass the cruise vessel security and safety act, mandating better crime reporting at sea, but critics say it's not

enough. >> there's no reason when a ship is mechanically deficient, operating out of the united states, that the united states cannot take action against the cruise lines. >> reporter: the industry says it has improved, implementing new safety policies following a string of disasters last year, like the costa concordia and costa allegra. >> this is already a very heavily regulated industry. it's regulated at international and national levels. the enforcement occurs in multiple layers. >> reporter: on any given day, there are some 280 cruise ships on the open seas, carrying about 300,000 passengers. for those considering any kind of travel, the most important information may be in the fine print. gabe gutierrez, nbc news, atlanta. unloading your pockets at airport security check points help the tsa amass a small fortunate worth of spare change

last year. fliers left behind more than half a million dollars in pocket change. what do they do with all that? a tsa spokesman says that money is collected by the agency's financial office and spent on general security operations. >> there you go. >> okay. the tsa suggests moving anything in your pockets to a carry-on bag before going through security so you don't leave it behind. >> i wonder how many cell phones they collected. who knows. so much stuff. >> once you have to empty out your pockets, you're taking chances. >> especially if you have to rush to your flaight. >> speaking of travel, the roads are going to be wet this morning. >> a little bit of wetness out there this morning. maybe some slowed down air travel as a result of all the low clouds and low visibility around the area. if you're planning to get on a plane and leave town today, actually not a bad day to do it because it's going to be a fairly cloudy and cold weekend around here.

may want to call ahead to your airline just to make sure it's running on time. for now, it's a cloudy and cold start. the complete opposite of yesterday afternoon. what a nice day yesterday turned out to be. mostly sunny. we made 60 degrees at national airport yesterday afternoon for a high temperature. all that is now a thing of the past. clouds came rolling in late yesterday afternoon into yesterday evening. now the cold air has come along with the clouds. 37 here in washington. winds are going to generally start to pick up out of the north and northwest later today. that means that colder air up to our north will be filtering on in. temperatures, which are middle and upper 30s now, are going a whole lot of nowhere for later on this afternoon. here's the way your saturday starts out. light rain, maybe a couple snowflakes, with temperatures mostly just at or above the freezing mark. not looking at anything in the way of accumulations. cold and wet, but nothing to have to worry about for shoveling. temperatures through the rest of

the day, here we are by 11:30 this morning. by midafternoon, upper 30s. flirting with 40 degrees if our time. back into the mid-30s by later this evening. where are the drops and flakes for now? most of the rain drops are along to the south and east of i-95. that's where the bulk of the rain is at this point in time. these rain drops lifting off to the northeast, traveling through 301 through charles county this morning. it will be a wet ride. slow down a touch. the shaded counties to the south and east, that's a winter weather advisory because there is another little ripple of low pressure coming our way that will bring a chance for rain drops and snowflakes starting late this afternoon into this evening, primarily down to the south of washington. a little unusual. almost always we talk about up to the north and west. here we are by late tonight going into this evening. a little ripple of low pressure throwing just a chance for some

snow showers across parts of southern maryland before it finally pulls on out. clearing skies late tomorrow will set us up for a decent day, but temperatures still well below average. we're going to stay cold all the way into monday. how much in the way of snow potential is there? mainly just flakes around town. one inch or less across much of charles county, southern prince george's county. maybe, maybe the big winners is one to two inches into southern st. mary's county. the word of the day is cold. could also have been cloudy and wet. all the way through this morning, temperatures middle and upper 30s. not a pretty day to be outside today. cloudy and cold this afternoon. any snowflakes should be across southern maryland. that will continue on into this evening as well. what about the all-important seven-day forecast? 39, i think that's about all we can do today. we might inch up above 40 for a brief time. most of the day spent in the 30s today. another risk of flurries tomorrow. the cold air will stick around

into early next week. another little chance of rain drops coming our way on tuesday. and maybe another little chance for some rain/snow chances late, late, late into the week. by then, you know. >> who cares? >> you can almost see march from here. snow lovers are starting to develop that sense of late winter panic. >> well, spring is only, what, a couple months away? >> technically, meteorological spring begins march 1st because march is a spring month. >> there we go. >> that went by faster. >> the equinox isn't until march 20th. >> all right. coming up, the legislation that could impact roommates living in virginia. plus, another spike overnight in gas prices. we're going to show you just how much more you're going to pay to fill up that tank today. and what facebook is saying about a hack attack targeted at the social media site.

the world's biggest social n networking site has fallen victim to hackers. last month they were victims of a sophisticated hacking attempt. fortunately, employees realized the problem before any information was violated. the pain at the pump continues. the national average of a gallon of gas has gone up 40 cents in just the past month. we've got brand new numbers in for our area, and it's not looking much better. in d.c., gas is now $3.85, up 5 cents overnight, and 30 cents in the past month alone. virginia also went up five cents. gas there is now $3.55 a gallon. maryland is up 5 cents, too, to $3.67. drivers in west virginia are paying 6 cents more.

if you're looking to buy a new car, you can thank lincoln and washington for great deals this weekend. president's day weekend is the first big holiday weekend of the new year for shoppers. dealers are eager to sell the new 2013 models and are willing to offer some great deals to do that. some great deals include up to $5,000 cash back and 0% financing for up to five years. you've heard of registering at a department store for your wedding, but how about registering for a new car? dodge has unveiled its dodge dart registry program. couples can customize their dream car, create a registry, and then the best part is family and friends pay for the pieces of that car. dodge is also extending the registry to social media so you can beg all your facebook friends and twitter followers to help you out. >> pretty cool. the time right now is 6:26. twitter lit up overnight with reports of a streaking flash across the sky. this morning, video of that

flash. plus, exerts weigh in on what it was. and why traffic in a busy part of maryland may get worse before it gets better. and just how much rain or snow you could see in your neighborhood today. my mom doesn't drink starbucks coffee because she thinks it's too dark, and so i brought her some blonde roast. she loves it now. "my son made me this coffee," "you should try it, it's delicious." ♪

and some people found that a little bit strong.