school and the message he's planning to deliver. plus, we are watching the approach of winter weather yet again. this time, the threat of ice. storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell is here with your hour by hour forecast. and ahead of a scheduled vote to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, new opposition from d.c.'s mayor and police chief today. good morning, everyone. welcome to news 4 midday. i'm barbara harrison. it's tuesday, february 4th, 2014. right now, a huge winter storm is moving across the midwest, headed for the east coast. snow will cover parts of illinois, indiana and ohio. but the heaviest accumulations are expected today in kansas and missouri. the missouri department of transportation has issued a no travel advisory. the storm will impact the northeast late tonight and early tomorrow. the new york area could get another four to seven inches, follow followed by freezing rain and sleet. the storm could bring parts of our area a lot of ice. storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell is in for tom kierein and joins us with his first forecast for midday today.

good morning. >> good morning, barbara. good morning, everybody. the clouds are already starting to race in after a fairly sunny start to the day today. and the temperatures, while above freezing, are not going to climb too high today. as a result, we'll have the stage set for the chance, anyway, of some freezing rain tonight. storm team 4 radar, though, first thing's first. nothing to worry about in the short term. between now and dark, absolutely nothing to worry about. time to get outside and run errands if you need to. the leading edge of the moisture is still a long ways away. there's the freezing rain in memphis right now. at the pace it's going, it's about 16 hours away. that put it is in here in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. that's when things could get a little bit dicey around here. that's what we'll be watching out for, the opportunity of freezing rain. winter storm warnings are posted. montgomery county, howard county, frederick and washington counties in maryland. loudoun county, blue ridge and panhandle of west virginia for tuesday evening into wednesday afternoon. could easily get some accumulations of freezing rain on the surfaces, the road

surfaces as well as some of the roads and the power lines. we'll watch this very, very carefully. for now, though, temperatures generally inching their way into the mid 30s. when i see you next, we'll be talking about the cold rain that's coming, ice potential into metro and the significant icing to our north. see you in a few. >> thank you. we'll see you shortly. stay with news 4 all day for updates on the weather and get up early with us at 4:00 am for any changes in the forecast tomorrow morning, changes in road conditions and any closing that is come in, too, we'll be covering for you. right now, students and staff are preparing for president obama to stop by their school in prince george's county. bucks middle school in adelphi in a few minutes from now, talking about bringing better technology to the students. good morning. tell us about what's going on out there. >> well, good morning, barbara. lots of excitement out here today. you can hear the helicopter hovering overhead. take a look behind me. all these folks standing across from the middle school waiting to see the president. he is expected in the next

couple of minutes, of course, to talk technology. >> the kids are excited. the staff is excited. how can you not be? it's the president. >> reporter: the energy almost tangible. >> oh, this is just so exciting. like i have jitters. this is great. >> reporter: students screaming "obama" from their school bus windows. as buck lodge middle preps for president obama, students selected to attend his speech based on grades and behavior. >> i will go crazy, man. that's the president right there. i will be like so excited, take pictures. >> reporter: the president, here to talk about his connect to ed initiative, his plan to connect 99% of students in the u.s. to next generation broadband or wireless technology. he picked buck lodge because it's a school that's already tech savvy, with tablets in classrooms and homework programs online. obama wants other schools on the same page within five years. >> if we need to research something right away, we can just go to it and just search

it. >> reporter: private companies are pouring half a billion dollars into the plan. in the end, it will help connect 15,000 schools and 20 million students, stocking schools with ipads, free internet access, discounted operating systems, a huge help where the department of education says 80% of schools have access that is too slow or too limited. >> a pen and paper is not enough for education. you need the internet and tools to access it, especially in this day and age. >> reporter: you can see the tight security right now, secret service guys up there on the roof. the president expected to be here any minute. the event closed to the public. 100 students have been selected to attend the speech. and a couple of them will even get to meet the commander in chief after his speech. live at adelphi, maryland. >> thank you, melissa. decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

you would only be fined if cops busted you with up to an ounce of pot. some council members want to keep it illegal to have or smoke marijuana in public. mayor vincent gray has the same concerns. police chief says she's worried that it will lead to more open air drug markets. on capitol hill, the national debate over marijuana. the white house's deputy drug czar will testify at a house hearing. the committee wants to know why the head of the dea may be at odds with president obama about his marijuana policy. and right now, police are investigating a smash and grab robbery at a subway sandwich shop in montgomery county. it happen this had morning. the most recent robbery has striking similarities to evious crimes. news 4's megan mcgrath was on the scene as police looked for answers. >> the subway on old columbia pike in burtonsville is open for business today. the glass in the front door has

been shattered. it was broken by a thief looking for quick cash. and the owner says it's not the first time it's happened. >> there, make a hole and they come in. >> reporter: another glass door shattered. another smash and grab robbery. this one, at the subway shop in burtonsville. the owner says it's the second time his business has been hit in three months. he doesn't know if it's the same person, but there are a lot of similarities. >> is the same way -- they came in the same way. and the last time they came in like same time, like middle night. >> reporter: after getting inside, the thief went into the kitchen and took $150 out of the cash drawer and then stole the safe from under the counter. there are security cameras. >> here and here. >> reporter: but police will not be able to look at that surveillance tape, because the

thief stole the recording deck. >> i'm very worried about future, too. because it seems two times this happens. i don't know. i'm really, really upset. >> reporter: there have been several very similar smash and grab robberies in montgomery county, nine in one night. the thief was caught on surveillance video at one store, seen using some kind of a tool to pry and then break the glass door. prince george's county had a similar crime spree with 15 robberies in late november. police are trying to figure out if there's a connection. police dusted the door frame as well as the cash drawer, looking for fingerprints, but so far, no word on any suspect. in burtonsville, megan mcgrath, news 4. our northern virginia reporter david culver is in a norfolk courtroom there for a hearing in a case that could decide same-sex marriage's future in virginia. virginia governor mark herring is also tre. he supports the challenge.

republicans say he's neglecting his duty to uphold the commonwealth's laws. a judge held a recall hearing for embattled loudoun county supervisor eugene delgaudio. his opponent filed a recall petition, citing a rarely used law citing neglect of duty or incompetence. delgaudio calls it an effort to disenfranchise voters who elected him four times. censored for using county funds. however, he was never indict ed. a top official from target on capitol hill, as to how the retailer is protecting its customers after a data breach. coming up, what lawmakers say they can do to help prevent it from happening again. from happening again. can ♪ ho ho ho

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i'm aaron gilchrist. you are looking live at the senate committee hearing on the data breaches that affected several businesses in the last couple of months. na namely target, which had more than 100 million of its customers impacted by data security breaches, payment card information having been released. same goes for neiman marcus. this hearing started an hour ago. a little earlier, we saw leaders from both target and neiman marcus apologize profusely to their customers about the data breaches that have affected so many of their customers. a lot of this back and forth has not really presented any new information. there seems to be a clear call for new technology in the retail sector and in banking that would help to lessen some of the impacts from these types of data breaches. take a listen to what one of the leaders from target had to say a little while ago. >> updating payment card

technology and strengthening protections for american consumers is a shared responsibility and requires a collected and coordinated response. on behalf of target, i am committing that we will be an active part of the solution. >> he went on to say that there are government entities and banks, the financial sector who need needed to be part of the effort to start bringing some of the technology we see in europe now as far as chips in credit card that is would further encrypt information so that it would make it more difficult for thieves to steal people's data from their credit and debit cards. that's the latest from the news desk. back to you. a revamped five-year farm bill to president obama's desk. the senate will vote on the measure later today. the nearly $1 tllion billion is being called a bipartisan effort. the bill provides a financial cushion for farmers and makes a limited cut to food stamps. the bill also gets rid of controversial subsidy known as direct payments, which are paid to farmers whether they produce crops or not.

new jersey governor chris christie says his office is cooperating with a federal investigation into lane closures that caused traffic jams for four days. christie says he started asking staff members about delays soon after they were over. federal investigators are looking into what christie knew and when. christie's former deputy chief of staff bridget kelly is invoking her right not to incriminate herself and not testify in a state investigation. lawmakers are looking into whether the closures were politically motivated. also from new jersey today, the resignation or talk of resignation of representative rob andrews. for more on that announcement, we are joined by i know there are reports he is going to make that announcement with a press conference. >> right. he is expected to announce that resignation this morning, exiting the end of this month, making that announcement from

south jersey. been a long-time congressman from south jersey. 25 years in congress. >> ethics investigation? >> exactly. i was just going to say what's behind this is this ethics investigation as to how his campaign finance funds were used. there's talk of a wedding in scotland that he had initially paid for and then had his pac reimburse for. what happens when you leave congress? ethic investigations go away. >> is it fair to say that his seat will remain democratic? >> absolutely. it is a 66% obama district. he won it with 68%. state senator donald norcross is expected to be the person to get the endorsement to win that seat. george norcross, his brother, is a former south jersey afl-cio president. so, labor connected and democrats certainly expect to hold that seat. >> let's talk about fund-raising. so far this 2014 election cycle,

democrats are raising more money than republicans? >> what's an interesting story here, every committee has outraised republicans from the democratic side except for one. the democratic national committee. now, that's leaving a lot of democratic strategists asking why. one of the things they're pointing to is president obama's organizing for action. they raised $26 million last year. the dnc came up $10 million short of what the rnc had. you know what? the problem for a lot of democrat sincere wondering whether or not those grassroots obama supporters will be democratic supporters going forward or whether or not obama is his own entity and doesn't really prop up democrats going forward. >> speaking of president obama, we are waiting to see him arrive at the middle school there in adelphi where he is expected to talk about connect ed. >> this is the initiative that the president has going for more than a year. he is expected to announce $750 million pledged from various

telecom companies to help get about 99% of the country connected on broadband and wireless, or 99% of schools throughout the country. he is expected to announce this major initiative and the major funding that he is expected to get from that. >> a live picture, i don't think he's quite there yet. he is expected any minute. thank you so much for coming, domenico. we will see you tomorrow morning. >> sure thing. >> for more from domenico and the rest of the political team check out first read on nbcnews.com. president obama and first lady are those among -- in hospice care. mondale became a national arts advocate when her husband served as vice president. she was nicknamed joan of art because of her passion, public arts programs. joan mondale was 83 years old.

and storm team 4 meteorologist -- just thinking, he's here. >> that's right. >> he's going to start talking. he has a lot to say. no need to introduce him. chuck bell is with us now in for tom kierein. >> busy day in the weather office today and tomorrow promises to be even busier with the threat of freezing rain, which really could interrupt quite a bit of the morning commute tomorrow. so, be planning on, anyway, for the potential of delays and maybe even some cancellations for your wednesday. the weather headline sincere where i left you a few minutes ago. we'll start out with you right now. the cold rain is coming, everybody. not going to rain here for the rest of the daylight hours. rain drops probably don't arrive here until after 7:00 or 8:00 this evening. there is an opportunity for some ice right here in the heart of the d.c. metro. we'll have to watch this very carefully. a freezing rain advisory. posted for prince george's county, the district, arlington, fairfax, alexandria, down toward culpepper. freezing rain advisory from 7:00

tonight until 6:00 am tomorrow. it will start as rain and change to freezing rain during the overnight hours. could get a tenth to maybe a quarter inch of accumulating ice. that's probably on the high side of things. icy spots and delays are a possibility. significant icing is a real possibility, north and west of the immediate metro. montgomery county, loudoun county, frederick county. all these areas highlighted in the pink, that's where the winter storm warning is in effect. and the ice accumulations could be a quarter to maybe as much as half an inch. and that half inch of accumulating ice, that's when things really start to go downhill. dangerous travel and wednesday morning, delays, maybe even cancellations are going to be likely. so, obviously, we're going on early tomorrow morning at 4:00 am. you'll want to tune in then and we'll track it minute by minute. 35 degree with his a cloudy sky here in town. generally speaking temperatures in the mid 30s across much of the area for now. we'll inch our ways into the er30s to around 40 degrees for a high temperature this afternoon.

there's storm team 4 radar. no rain on the radar just yet. future weather forecast. by 8:00 tonight, still dry. by 10:00, leading edge of the rain drops, which may start as a little bit of sleet pellets as well. we'll watch that very carefully up through about midnight tonight. by 3:00 am, mostly rain east and south of i-95. chance for freezing rain to continue overnight into the early morning hours tomorrow by about lunchtime tomorrow. all this will be nothing but a bad memory. temperature forecast by 3:00 am tomorrow morning, temperatures at or below freezing across a wide section of the northern and western areas. that's the reason for the real danger zone for ice potential. how much ice accumulation? here is our computer forecast. doesn't look like much through about 1:00 in the morning. by 4:00 am, a tenth or quarter inch of ice or more and by 6:00 am tomorrow, a quarter to maybe half an inch northernmost maryland. we'll keep you posted on this here very, very carefully. be prepared anyway for tomorrow morning to be a bit on the dicey

side. here is your seven-day forecast, everybody. tomorrow, iciness first thing. it will change over to all rain and melt off fairly quickly tomorrow afternoon. a couple of chilly and breezy days thursday and friday. saturday, the clouds are back. and, yes, indeed, sunday, sunday night, another chance this one could be a coastal storm. maybe a nor'easter or so. sunday has to be watched real careful. >> you are busy and we are cold. >> have to start talking faster. >> all right. thanks a lot. it's 11:21. coming up, the steps people are taking to get their pets into no pet zones. plus, when you should just ignore that call from an unfamiliar number. first, a look at what's hot on nbc washington.com. ♪ it takes two to make a thing go right ♪

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>> right now, the dow is up 53 points and the nasdaq is up about 28 points after yesterday's freefall. the dow closed down more than 300 points and the nasdaq more than 00 points. that he the biggest one-today slump in more than seven months. today marks a decade since facebook debuted on the internet and forever changed t way the world shares information. facebook, as it was called back then, was first developed at harvard university as an online student directory. on the "today" show, ceo and founder mark zuckerberg said ten years ago he never imagined facebook would be what it is today. >> it's pretty mind blowing, i think, to think about. i remember really vividly having pizza with my friends a day or two after i opened up the first version of facebook. at the time i thought someone needs to build a service like this for the world, but i just never thought we would be the ones to help do it.

i think what a lot of it comes down to is we just cared more. >> despite rumor that is facebook is losing popularity among teenagers, zuckerberg says the company know that is no one uses just one app anymore and they aren't worried about the competition. looking to the future, the young billionaire is launching internet.org, an organization that hopes to make internet access available worldwide. and returning that missed call from an unknown number could cost you. a new phone scam out of the caribbean is hitting the u.s. now. the better business bureau says gangs have been calling people and immediately hanging up. if you call the number back, you'll be redirected to an adult entertainment service, which charges nearly $20 for the connection, plus $9 a minute. the ftc says they've received thousands of complaints about this scam already. president obama is at a prince george's county middle school right now. we'll bring you some of his speech when it starts.

plus lawmakers looking for answers. they want to know how fraud in a military recruiting program cost taxpayers millions of dollars. a plane crash kills four people in nashville. the pilot is being called a hero. we'll explain why. storm team 4 continues to update our forecast, which includes the threat

right now, president obama is speaking at a middle school in adelphi, maryland. and we are looking at some live pictures, however, right now from inside the senate hearing for the west virginia chemical spill. earlier this month, 10,000 gallons of toxic chemicals leaked into a water treatment plant in charleston. 300,000 people's water supplies were tainted for more than a since that leak, federal regulators have been looking into how the state monitors chemical storage facilities.

and a live look at another senate hearing going on right now. army's top brass is facing tough questions about a scandal involving a recruitment program. more than 800 soldiers are accused of receiving millions of dollars in bonuses and kickbacks they weren't supposed to get. >> today, we've got 104 cases adjudicated, 1,600 individuals already in confinement and we continue to after this aggressively. >> senator claire mccaskill, leading the hearing, call this is one of the biggest fraud cases in the army's history. d.c. council, a deal that would give officers their first raises in six years. an arbitrator working with the city and union announced the terms of the deal. they would get a 4% raise retroactive to the middle of last year, receiving no raise this year and a 3% raise after

that. the union says that doesn't keep up with the cost of living or make up for the past six years. bob and maureen mcdonald will have to watch what they say around friends and family. a judge has ordered virginia's former governor and his wife not to discuss the corruption case against them. they've been orred not to have any contact with witnesses. they wanted some restrictions lifted so they would only be banned about talking about this secd round of winter than that. weather is crossing the country now. this morning, many people are digging out of the snow, while stranded passengers are just trying to get home. nbc's ron mott reports, many people have already had enough of winter. >> reporter: from kentucky to pennsylvania, car wrecks to cars towed, relentless reminders of winter are starting to take their toll on many americans, bracing yet again for an onslaught of snow and ice. >> i wish it would stop snowing

long enough so i could get down to the airport and get on a flight and get out of here to some place warm and sunny. >> reporter: another winter storm. snow blowers worked overtime monday. >> you can take this winter. i'm moving. >> reporter: flights were crippled by the thousands as a mad dash by stranded air passengers to escape coming storms picks up speed in the northeast today. if you wanted to spend more money, you could get home? >> yes, like $400 or $500, yes. >> reporter: instead, david thomas stayed the night after his flight home to dallas is canceled. he is booked on a flight this morning. this blast of winter follow aid mild super bowl sunday, catching thomas, whose nephew, earl thomas, plays for the winning seattle seahawks, and other visitors to new york, offguard. >> it's crazy. i've never seen anything like this, ever. >> not enjoyable at all. >> ready to pay more for your oranges and lemons at the grocery store. in california, a week of freezing temperatures back in december is costing citrus growers millions. about $441 million were lost in

naval, mandarin and lemon crops. let's check in again with chuck bell, outside on the storm team 4 weather deck. no precipitation out there yet, huh? >> no. nothing to worry about for the daylight hours. first rain drops may be, 8:00 or 10:00, hoursy fro us. the afternoon commute home from work and school will not be weather impacted all that badly. from northwest washington, looking southbound past the national cathedral. nice, cloudy day. it's awful chilly outside. u.s. capitol building, filtered sunshine out there. almost enough sun to see a little bit of a shadow in the washington area. prince george's county looking northbound, cloudy skies. still a little bit of lingering ice on parts of the potomac. stay off the ice. its not safe for people to be out on it at all. current temperature only 35 in

town. 30 in reston. winter storm warnings posted for all these highlighted counties. potential for freezing rain overnight tonight. we'll keep you posted on that. starting early tomorrow at 4:00 am on news 4 today. cold finish to the work and school week. highs only in the upper 30s. saturday, cloudi and 43. sunday, sunday night into monday. chance for a coastal storm. maybe, dare he say, the word nor'easter? we'll see. >> thank you. we'll see you back in here shortly. >> thank you. a pilot is being hailed a hero today for crash landing a plane instead of hitting a ymca building. the plane was making a second attempt to land at a nashville airport when it started to go down. the pilot maneuvered the plane well enough to miss the ymca by just 20 feet. all four people on board the plane died when it hit the ground but firefighters say the pilot's fast thinking saved dozens of lives. right now, we are waiting to hear from police about the description of a car that was involved in a hit and run right

in front of a school bus stop. demarcus grant says he was crossing the street at 17th and lymon place in northeast washington yesterday. it happened in the morning, when a car came out of nowhere to hit him. he hit his face on the car window and was thrown into the street. by the time he came to, the car was already gone. his mother says someone needs to be held accountable. >> something needs to be done at this point. i'm no longer like scared or anything. i'm angry at this point. his face is always going to be messed up for the rest of his life. you're going to see a scar on his mouth. >> reporter: his mother says he will also need dental surgery to replace his teeth. police say they are investigating, but don't have much to go on. all grant could tell them was that the car was white. a contraband crackdown could be coming to correctional facilities in maryland. some lawmakers want to increase the penalty for bringing inmates restricted ites selling service animal vests and

i.d.s. there's nothing in the law to stop the pretenders. >> the law is about protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities. not penalizing individuals that don't have a disability that want to take advantage of having an animal accompanying them places. >> reporter: arken was trained for six months by a nonprofit called canine companions. guide dog foundation trains both blind and service dogs but they are not required to show proof their dog is trained. >> arken, sit. >> there is not any certification that is required for having a service animal at all. >> reporter: and the law prohibits anyone to challenge someone claiming to have a service dog. businesses like restaurants say fake service dogs are a problem. >> there have been several cases that we are aware of, you know, in different places where individuals have gone in with dogs that have not been trained. and they