ordeal, i fortunately was not seriously injured. obviously things could have been much worse. i thank the u.s. capitol police and the district of columbia police for responding quickly and professionally. tonight there's growing concern about our nation's mental health care system one day after the stabbing of a virginia state senator. we got an update on deeds just about an hour ago. he has improved today. he was stabbed several times in his home by his son gus yesterdayday. there were reports that there was not enough room for him at a psychiatric facility. outside state senator creigh deeds' law office, a notice inviting well wishers inside to start a car. the medical center where he is suffering from stab wounds

inflicted by his son during an attack. his condition is upgraded to good. >> i'm so relieved that he's doing better. that's janet howell. she's also a leading voice on mental health issues in the virginia general assembly. she says the deeds family tragedy casts the spotlight yet again on problems with virginia's mental health system. yesterday it was reported that hours before the attack 24-year-old gus deeds was the subject of an emergency custody order, but then a bed at a hospital or psych unit was not available and he was released home. he killed himself after the attack on his dad. now the "washington post" is reporting that three hospitals within a two-hour drive did have beds available, and two of the three say they were never contacted. the state inspector general has launched an investigation to find out what led to his

release. >> regardless if there were beds, there wasn't a system to determine if there were beds available. it seem toss me we should have a clearinghouse of some kind. >> these are very vulnerable people. >> george heads the fair fax-falls church community service board. he hopes the family tragedy brings more awareness and funding. >> as a professional, i know what can happen when you're sitting there and you know someone needs a service and you don't have it available. >> julie kerry, news 4. more than a year ago, internal auditors flag a number of problems in virginia's system for handling the mentally ill. the news 4 i-team looked over documents that reveal real concern that virginia was turning away too many patients and didn't have enough room in the psychiatric facilities. >> yeah, jim.

72 patients all at risk at posing serious harm to themselves were released before they were supposed to. 72 patients over a three-month span in late 2011. this internal audit says a lack of available space is one of the reasons. it's a warning to us that the system has yet to create sufficient capacity to serve our neighbors. the young man had shown signs of mental illness and was turned away from a nearby hospital because it didn't have a psychiatric bed for him. the audit revealed 100 fewer psychiatric beds in virginia last year than there were in 2007, even though the state's population has increased dramatically. a new report will show

improvements have been made saying nearly all people do find a bed in a reasonable amount of time. and we're looking at a group of more than 1,200 adults in 4% of the cases. we look deeper. maryland has seen a sharp drop in beds in psychiatric hospitals. but more space now available in private hospitals, maryland tells us. a northern virginia community is realing after a husband and wife were shot and killed inside their home. paul and janine parisi were found early this morning. the shooting appears to be a domestic incident. paul worked at the bureau of tobacco, alcohol and firearms. his wife was a teacher at franklin middle school. coming up northern virginia bureau reporter david culver will have new information about what happened after the

shooting. and marking 50 years since the assassination of president kennedy. today there was an event at arlington national cemetery. >> reporter: thanks. this white house looks a lot like it did in 1963 when the era of president john f. kennedy ended so abruptly and shockingly. but the institutions look a lot different to many americans, look worse. and that's due in part, say some, to the assassination. half a century after the flame was lit, president obama and former president clinton came to honor their fallen predecessor. he was charismaticharismatic, l patriotic. he faced down the soviets in cuba and jfk ignored the polls. he pushed for black voting rights, knowing it could cost

him re-election. but before kennedy could see the voting right act passed, he and first lady jackie kennedy went to dallas and jfk was assassinated. america was stunned. gunman lee harvey oswald was shot and killed in police custody. conspiracy theorys swirled and the official investigation would be rushed and incomplete. today most historians agree oswald alone killed kennedy but america's spirit was wounded. >> we never trusted government as much. we never felt as secure as we did before the kennedy assassination. >> barack obama picked today to award 16 presidential freedom. >> because this marks the 50th anniversary of president kennedy establishing the honor. >> oprah received one and bill

clinton. and then the presidents went to arlington where the memory of our 35th president burns brightly. jfk's daughter caroline kennedy is the new ambassador to japan and she's there this week. being here she said would have been too emotional. >> so the question remains was the assassination of jfk part of a conspiracy? two university of virginia law students convince congress to reopen the investigation into that question. wendy rieger has their story coming up in the next half hour. it will be 90 years behind bars for the third suspect in the murder of an activist. a 20-year-old pleaded guilty. he received the same sentence that the second suspect received

earlier this month. his body was found in a well in prince george's county. a gang leader orchestrated and photographed the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl. and now anres cortez will spend serious time in prison. he was sentenced for the assault that involved a girl under the influence of drugs and alcohol. it happened last october. investigators used social media to find the suspects after a coworker reported seeing photographs of the crime on cortez's phone. >> we feel justice was very much served in finally taking down the leader. and as if leader he committed one of the most heinous crimes you can commit, sex offenses against a woman. >> cortez was sentenced to 15 years in prison da he could spend 24 years in jail. a warning tonight for homeowners in montgomery county.

keep an eye on your pipes. copper thefts are on the rise in the silver spring area. but they're being reported all over the county. thieves are targeting houses for sale or otherwise unoccupied homes and moving to homes on the same block. there were no signs of working smoke detectors after a deadly fire in maryland. a man was found in the kitchen while the woman was in the upstairs bedroom. tonight there is a new tentative agreement that will keep some u.s. troops in afghanistan after most other forces withdraw next year. after a year of tense negotiations, secretary of state john kerry says this clears the way for thousands of u.s. troops to train and assist. he says the role will be limited. a group of 3,000 afghan tribal

elders will consider it tomorrow. more than a million people will lose their unemployment benefits days after christmas unless congress intervenes. tonight democrats on the hill launched a new effort to get people who have been out of work for more than six months $300 a week. 1.3 million people could lose their benefits on december 28th. the program provides between 20 and 47 weeks of additional benefits. it's been in place since president george w. bush signed it into law back in 2008. you may not expect to see any new nightclubs in dupont circle. they voted to put a moratorium for three more years on east dupont circle. that's the area around 17th street and q street northwest. the board did allow two new taverns to get a liquor license. a congressman says he knows

he has a problem. tonight the fallout from a republican's plea on cocaine possessions. a local man owing vdot so much money. why it will take decades for him to pay it off. and how are we looking, doug? >> we're looking cold across the area. right now it's 31 degrees. that's the windchill down towards camp springs. 38 in d.c. 34 in winchester. it will feel m

>> a congressman from florida is back in florida tonight after pleading guilty to cocaine possession here in d.c. he avoided jail time but will be on probation for a year. we expect to hear from trey radel later tonight. he'll hold a news conference from his office in florida. radel told a judge he bought 3.5 grams of cocaine from an undercover police officer. darcy spencer was in court there today and joins us with more. >> it's safe to say very few people expected him to walk into court and plead guilty and to be sentenced right away. one independent attorney says he doesn't think he got special treatment. he says low level buyers aren't usually the targets of federal undercover operations. it was here at the circa

restaurant that trey radel bought cocaine from an undercover cop last month. today he rushed past camera crews to a d.c. courtroom where he pleaded guilty to a cocaine possession charge. standing quietly next to his attorney, he admitted he bought cane on a d.c. street last month. he said, i apologize for what i've done. i've hit a bottom where i realize i need help. the first term republican congressman could have been put behind bars for up to six months on the misdemeanor charge. he escaped jail time on a plea agreement worked out with the attorney's office. he will be on probation for a year. if he stays clean the charge will be removed from his record. john norris is a long-time offense attorney not connected to the case. they want informants to give up higher level dealers.

>> people who possess are no @ target. however, because he's a congressman, i'm certain that's why he was targeted. he agreed to buy 3.5 grams of cocaine for $250. he got in the offer's car and got the drugs. once he got out of the undercover cop car he was immediately approached by federal agents. that's when he dropped the cocaine on the ground and agreed to cooperate. radel who calls himself the hip-hop congressman showed remorse in court, saying he let down his constituents and his family. he led police to his apartment where he also had a vile of cocaine. he's refused to answer questions about whether he intends to resign from congress. that's a question h he face tonight as he holds that press conference in his home state. the florida democratic party

called radel's conduct an embarrass to his district and the state of florida and goes onto say he should resign immediately. >> the nbc news political team looked back over the years to provide context on the drug conviction of republican congressman trey radel and we found the first-term congressman from south florida is the first member of congress to be convicted on cocaine charges. now, there was one other member of congress kwiblgted on a drug charge 30 years ago. he was busted for marijuana use in addition to corruption charges. he resigned from congress. there were two house staffers who pleaded guilty to cocaine use. two congressmen were also accused in the scandal of using cocaine. but the ethics committee found

know basis for the charges. at any time now a judge in los angeles will decide whether the entertainer chris brown will be sent to jail immediately. brown is in court for a probation hearing. he's scheduled to be back in d.c. on monday in a misdemeanor assault case here. today we learned brown went on a violent rage in a rehab facility while being treated for anger management issues. he checked into that facility after being arrested outside a hotel near the white house last month. he is still on probation for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, the singer rihanna. experts say it's in the process of creating a new island. it's part of a small island chain south of tokyo. the new land mass is already 800 feet across.

this is the first time an eruption has happened in the area in 39 years. >> that's so cool. the beginning of a new geography. got to change the maps. goog google is scrambling today. cold today. but the real story is what's happening this weekend. we're not just in for cold. we're in for frigid air. the numbers minus 40 in canada today. minus 44 was one of the coldest numbers we saw. the current numbers, winds out of the east at 7 miles per hour. that puts our windchill around the 38-degree mark. 32 right now in winchester and culpeper. temperatures will go down a little more as we continue to move through the evening hours. storm team radar is here. it will stay that way.

now we're starting to see clouds invade from the west. these are once again mid to high level clouds. should not affect what goes on across our region tonight. chilly day with sunshine. we did see a lot, but temperatures still barely hit the upper 40s in our region. on thursday tomorrow, still cool. not quite as cold. but we're going to see a lot of cloud cover tomorrow. tomorrow should be mostly cloudy. say deal on friday. as high pressure slides down to the south, we'll get a little bit of a return flow. that means for us more in the way of mild temperatures. many of us get to the upper 50s. some of us may hit 60 degrees. it's going to be a cold one, i'm thinking. 26 in martinsburg. 27 in manassas and 35 by

fredricksburg. tomorrow just a little warmer. 52 in d.c. 50 over towards gaithersburg and leesburg. now how about the next couple of days? here is what is happening. we're going to rise on friday up to 60. 30% chance of a late-day shower. most of the day will be dry. saturday we have shower activity in the morning. a temperature of 50 degrees. but that's deseefing. sunday a temperature of only 38. and we stay that cold on monday, too. a few showers, but very windy late in day on saturday. temperatures will be falling and sunday will be fridge. windchills in the upper teens to near 40 degrees. >> we'll have a report on what happened on a jetblue flight that forced an emergency landing. and new changes on motor coach buses.

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three texas women have gained infamy for a heinous crime are out of jail. they were known as the san

antonio four, convicted of molesting two girls in 1994. they all maintained their snens during their time behind bars. on monday a district attorney said the women were entitled to a new trial based on scientific advances that undermined a key part of their conviction. they spoke about what it feels like to be out of jail after so many years. >> to be able to wake up with my mother seeing her and to get a phone call saying hey, mom. what are you doing? >> i'm going to be able to get to know my kids again. they must now await a court's decision on whether to grant a new trial. if that happens their convictions will be overturned. big buses will soon be required to have seat belts. all new motor coaches and other large buses will have to have seat belts. the goal is to reduce the number

of deaths in bus accidents. the government hopes seat belts will cut the number in half. at 6:30, neighbors el us what they saw in recent weeks. $200,000 in fines. and we'll report what a school is saying. school is saying.

i started part-time, now i'm a manager.n. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time. where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. healthcare starting under $40 a month. i got education benefits. i work at walmart. i'm a pharmacist. sales associate. i manage produce. i work in logistics. there's more to walmart than you think. vo: opportunity. that's the real walmart.

now at 6:30, a beloved teacher and atf agent found dead in their northern virginia home. we'll bring you reaction from neighbors who describe just how big of a loss this is. a major scare for airline passengers when an emergency slide opens in midair. $200,000 in fines in three years. he's talking to news 4 about how it happened and how much of it he now has to pay. first, though, breaking news. we're hearing from the congresswoman who was attacked

on capitol hill. jim handly has the latest for us from the live desk. >> reporter: we talked to grace mang moments ago. she was hit on her head on her way home from dinner last night on 6th street. she says the blow to the head knocked her out for a time. the next thing she knew her bag was gone and police were calling for help. >> i was knocked out for a little bit after i got hit to the ground. and then i encountered a police officer, and somehow they called an ambulance. i went to the ambulance and the hospital. this could happen to anyone, male, female young, old. it's just another opportunity to remind people to exercise caution when they're walking. and i'm very thankful because the situation could have been a lot worse. >> now, congresswoman mang says she has a headache, a few bumps and bruises, but otherwise she's okay. the congresswoman says the thieves left behind an old cell

phone. police are hoping to get fingerprints from the phone. she also says her credit card and i.d. were in her pocket and not stolen. tonight police are investigating a family tragedy this northern virginia. a husband and wife found shot and killed inside their home in chantilly. it happened this morning on point pleasant drive. well, virginia bureau reporter david culver is in the area with new details on what happened moments after the shooting. david? >> jim, from the atf where the husband worked to a local middle school where the wife taught, it's clear that this is a community that is struggling. struggling to understand what led up to a family tragedy. neighbors call paul and janine parisi ideal neighbors. facebook photos proved it. gl the last time i saw him janine and paul were sitting on their stoop seemingly having a lovely conversation with each

other. >> but tonight their chantilly home was shrouded in silence in a community left stunned. >> my neighbors have been calling. everybody is trying to figure out what's going on. we watched as they wrapped the neighborhood in crime tape. the focus was the parisi's home. inside at the time of the shooting, paul, janine and the two daughters. 46-year-old paul worked as a special agent for the atf. he was assigned to the arson and explosives group. he started tw the agency in '93. that's where he met his wife janine. she worked at franklin middle school. she taught health and p.e. she was on staff there since 2005. it's unclear tonight which of the two pulled the trigger and why. young neighbors remembering the

good. i see the dad putting up christmas lights every year. and sold lemonade with the youngest daughter. >> there are a lot of questions you just naturally ask. >> reporter: neighbors also tell me just before halloween they saw an ambulance and several police vehicles here. i did get ahold of a note that the principal sent out. it reads in part with regards to janine parisi. she was a wonderful teacher, role model and friends to students and staff. she will be greatly missed. i'm david culver, news 4. right now dozens of jetblue passengers are on a new plane to boston after the first had to make an emergency landing. this is video from orlando where video landed.

the flight crew decided to declare the emergency. no passengers or crews were remembered. the plane has been taken out of service. want to tell you about a story of a man who owes $95,000 in tolls because of his not paying them in virginia on easy pass highways. chris gordon now along the dulles toll road where the driver learned a very interesting lesson. >> reporter: ddot tells me only 1% of all the drivers who use the dulles toll road fail to pay for it. you're about to meet a man who mayo the most in virginia history, but his story may evoke your sympathy. jason has been waging this battle a long time. he doesn't deny that he road the dulles toll road nightly without paying for his commute from

reston to washington three and a half years ago when he was looking for work. now he has a good job. this week vdot took him to court because his bill had ballooned from $440 to more than $200,000. jason realized it was time to settle up. the best we can do is $40,000. the other kicker is they put me on a payment plan for $150 a month. >> at that rate and with interest due, jason who is 33 figures he will be 87 years old by the time he pays vdot back. we asked motorists what they think. >> i have sympathy for the guy. i hate the bureaucracy and what's going on. >> do you have sympathy for jason? >> not really. he used a service and he hasn't paid for it. >> reporter: and you think he ought to? >> i believe he should, yeah. vdot issued this statement

saying the lesson learned is to work with us. if you don't have a quash to pay a toll, don't wait. don't ignore the notices. i would say there would be two. the other would be for me don't mess with easy pass. >> don't mess with easy pass. another takeaway. there's no such thing as a free ride on the toll road. two kindergarteners are recovering after they fell out of their moving school bus today. school official says the whole thing appears to have been an accident. >> a student got on the bus, and at some point the strap of their backpack got caught on a latch for emergency exit door, and the bus was taking a turn and going over a speed bump at the same

time, and when that happened, the backpack lifted up and the latch lifted up and opened the the door. >> neither of the little boys was seriously injured. the school sent home a note with parents explaining what happened. school officials and takoma park police are both investigating. coming up, you may see a lot of edward snowden's face in d.c. popping up. and people don't mind holiday shopping creeping into thanksgiving. they're already lined up for next week's door busters. doug, getting cold. >> those guys are going to need heaters. not jus cold. we have frigid air making its way.

if you want to be first in line for black friday deals you have to start early in this town in ohio. three people are already camped out. they're standing intense.

they have generators and heaters to keep them warm. bestbuy door busters start at 6:00 thanksgiving night. that's still 191 hours away. edward snowden is the former nsa contractor who admitted leaking u.s. secrets. he is still hiding out in russia, right now. but there's a group supporting him here in washington. they want to say thank you to him. they are trying to raise enough money to pay for ads to wrap around buses. the group says it wants to thank snowden for defending americans' right to privacy. >> they pushed congress to reopen the investigation of the kennedy assassination and

succeeded. we talk about conspiracy

a daring helicopter rescue caught on video near baltimore. it happened last night. two people had to be plucked from the back river there near the town of essex. they got stuck? an atv and some mud. you can see one of the victims clinging to an emergency responder. no one was injured. a decade after the killing of president john f. kennedy, two university of virginia law students convinced congress to reopen the investigation. they wanted to see if a conspiracy was behind the assassination. wendy rieger sat down with both men to talk about their ultimate

conclusion. they were law students in 1975 when they saw something remarkable, the zaprudo film in slow motion. >> when you slowed it down you could see movement that you typically won have necessarily picked up by watching it at the regular pace. >> that movement it was the president's head jerking backwards, as if he had been shot from the front. lee harvey oswald fired from the back. >> just about everybody believed we would prove it was a conspiracy. >> this image got them fired up. they showed the film to members of the virginia delegation of congress and got a congressional committee to allow them to re-examine the evidence. >> so we created a panel of nine forensic pathologists and went to the arkansas kooifs and to the x-rays.

>> imagine being a 25-year-old law student and getting access to the president's autopsy photos. for more than a year they pored over this evidence, convinced it would crack open the warren findings, which pointed to arizo oswald. >> eight of nine forensic pathologists said they believe the shots came from the back. they did not see evidence that demonstrated there was more than one gunman whose bullet stroke the president. >> and the lone pathologist who disagreed. he said a shot did come from a second gunman, in front, but went into the same bullet hole created by a previous shot from oswald from with behind. holmes and purdy thought that was impossible. and if you're in a grassy knoll, how could you fire and miss? that's a great shot. >> what about the president's head jerking backwards? >> if you look at the film at

normal speed, it's more of an impact. when you look at slow motion it's an exaggerated kind of moouchl. you say that had to come from the front. when you look at it full speed and talk to eight of the nine, they say it came from the back. >> they say if it was a conspiracy, there is no evidence to prove it. so why does this conspiracy theory still persist 50 years later? >> people want to believe that these major tragedies occurred in our history. president wendy, bobby kennedy, martin luther king. they want the believe there's some greater purpose, some malemale malevolent force. >> wendy rieger, news 4 in washington. >> wendy will report live from dallas tomorrow and friday as part of our counting coverage.

join us for that beginning tomorrow on news 4 at 5:00. we also have a jfk 50 page up on nbcwashington.com. right now president obama is at a dinner with recipients of today's presidential medal of freedom, and they're having dinner at the national museum of american history. the president is expected to speak in half an hour there. you can expect road closures downtown in the next couple of hours as the motor kad ran back to the white house. during the speech the president will speak about the legacy of president kennedy. >> doug is here with another check on the weather. >> some areas will wake up on sunday morning with windchills around 15. that's cold for this time of year. normally you talk about late december, maybe january. we are about to get january cold in mid-november. it doesn't happen very often. but it's going to happen this weekend. out there now we are on the chilly side of things.

we are watching the strong front. once again, those numbers will drop quickly. very quickly. and i think we stay dry over the next two or three days. there's a chance of rain coming up on friday. 52. mostly cloudy skies tomorrow. still on the cool side. on friday we start to warm up dwards 60 degrees. friday will be the warmest day by far. a 30% chance of late afternoon activity. that's going to be afternoon. then we get to saturday and sunday. we'll take a look at saturday first, and let's show you what we're talking about here.

but saturday we are tacking 50 at 8:00 a.m. 44 by noon. rain will ending and 40, windchills around the 27 degree mark. a very cool afternoon, and how about sunday? we're talking cold and windy. windchills in the teens. winds gusting to 35 miles per hour. if you have plans this weekend, there's one thing you're going to need above everything else. it's going to be that heavy coat. and the heaviest coat you got in the closet. guys? >> we've been warned. >> yes, we have. we have sports coming up. diana, what do you have? >> coming up, a lot of explaining going on in redskins park as the team tries to prove it's not divided. the comments made by santana moss that started it all. and what he is saying now. >> as a leader

y'all talking about reporters are always trying to stop something. our job is to see to it that we don't buy into it. chris cooley said the dude made

a mistake. let it go at that. if they was 7-3 instead of 3-7, we won talk about any of this stuff. when great teams struggle, they don't point your fingers. he's always telling the media exactly what is on his mind. he did that last night again when he told 106. 7 the fan that robert griffin iii needs to own up to his mistakes. he made his message clearer to us today. >> blame it on yourself when it's not on you. i'm going to blame it on me. at the end of the day, that's who everybody sees last.

if we didn't i'm going to say i have to control our gain better. it didn't work. i don't know who else is to blame for that. try to throw the ball away and it didn't work. me and tana talked. we're on the same page. we just want to beat san francisco. that's all that matters to us right now. moving on. new developments in another redskins controversy. comecast sportsnet is reporting that roy ellison will not be suspended after an nfl investigation into claims he cursed at trent williams. trent says it happened during the second quarter and an nfl spokesperson disputes this and says the matter is still under review by the league. so much going on around the redskins right now. the washington capitols and pittsburgh penguins have not been division rivals since the

1997, 1998 season. since the realignment, the two are back. this means the rivalry is renewed and extra fierce. that would be the first this season. rg3 was at the verizon center to explain why the two teams despise one another. >> capitols and penguins, whenever they get together. had a talk with jason, and he told me why this game and rivalry runs so deep. it's always fun to play them. they do the best players. they will bring the best people. it's a good matchup. >> you guys are playing very good hockey the month of november. do you see this game as possibly a statement game? >> yeah, every game is a

statement game. especially when they're one point up on you. they're there. every game is a statement. especially tonight with the first place on the line. >> the month of november for you guys. you got the mustaches and beards going. you may want to keep those past november. >> they don't like the mustache too much. i think food is caught in there. you don't get too much love at home when you have the mustache. you have to get rid of. >> >> reporter: so he is giving advice to all the guys out there. the puck drops at 8:00 here from the verizon center. you can watch that game on nbc sports network. it should be a great one. >> i'm going to tell the viewers at home that you've been trying. look at that thing. you can't do it. >> he's busted. >> jay, thanks so much. >> also tonight, lindsey vonn is

going to rehab it. she tore her acl in the same knee. she's not going to get surgery. >> aggressive rehab. i got to make a point of what diana has learned in three months, ignore advance. >> she's trying her best. >> ignor