first today we are looking into how some pet owners are finding a way to trick the system. people who want to take their dogs everywhere even where the dogs aren't allowed are turning their pets into phony service dogs. liz crenshaw explains. >> let's go. >> reporter: nancy's dog nev leaves her side. but there's a difference between arkin and other dogs. arkin is a service dog. >> he's trained to work for me. >> reporter: she has multiple sclerosis and relies on arkin to help her with everyday tasks. from retrieving food from the fridge, picking things up from the floor, and even when she shops. >> i love him like a pet, but he is my working dog. >> reporter: that's why arkin is permitted to go everywhere with her. >> restaurants, stores, retail stores. the movies. we were just at the ken der center. >> reporter: the americans with disabilities act allows service

animals to accompany people with disabilities wherever the public is allowed to go. but she says she runs into problems when people pretend to have a service animal like the one she ran into in a local restaurant. >> and the lady had her dog in there. big black german shepherd. and he got a look at arkin and went ballistic. >> reporter: it's easy to pretend your pet is a service animal. go to one of many websites selling service animal vests and i.d.s. there's nothing in the law to stop the pretenders. >> the laws 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 accompany them places. >> reporter: arkin was trained for six months by a nonprofit called canine companions for independence. the blind dog foundation for the blind trains service dogs. but the disabled are not

required to show proof their dog is trained. >> 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 in different places where individuals have gone in with dogs who have not been trained and they have concerned with other patrons and the restaurants themselves. >> reporter: the national restaurant association has partnered with canine companions in an effort to stop the online sale of fraudulent service animal products. collecting more than 15,000 signatures on a petition to be sent to the department of justice. >> people who lie or take advantage of disabled people, it infuriates me. people with disabilities have a tough enough time. >> reporter: liz crenshaw,

news4. >> while the government does not enforce any law to prevent people from pretending to have a service dog, businesses do have the right to ask anybody with a dog that misbehaves to please leave. we may know what's behind the influx of snowy owls in the washington area including our now-famous owl that is recovering from an injury. experts say the harsh winter has allowed the owls to roam a little further south than normal. they're usually found in the northeast and in parts of southern canada this time of year. the snowy owl that was recently hit by a d.c. bus is fortunately on the road to recovery. before that accident the owl caused quite a stir when pedestrians spotted it perched near a parking garage. a way to reward students for doing well in school is under fire in montgomery county. eastern middle school held a pizza party for students with straight as. students with bs and cs were invited later.

but more than 300 students were left out with grades lower than a c. some parents say that could alienate the excluded students and possibly lead to bullying. others say it's fair. >> i think they should be rewarded for it. but they may leave other people feeling they're excluded because their grades aren't necessarily up to par. it's just -- i think they need to work harder. >> the montgomery county school district says it's up to individual schools to decide how to celebrate academic achievement. well, it might be the last place you'd think about being assaulted. on an airplane. women attacked by strangers sitting right next to them. acting on a tip from the fbi, the news4 i-team uncovered a series of recent incidents in the air including on flights headedo reagan national and dulles airports. no one in the government is keeping track of how often this is happening. >> reporter: it's luck of the draw. who you'll be sitting next to on

your next flight. dana larue sitting in the middle seat on a nighttime flight to chicago. the cabin dark. she fell asleep. >> i couldn't believe what was happening. >> reporter: she said the man on the aisle ran his hand up her leg. >> i was just stunned. i was stunned. >> reporter: then began touching her breasts. >> i was completely terrified and frozen. >> reporter: she said she felt trapped in the only after landing did she report the assault. she said too late for the fbi to gather evidence to arrest the man. >> i felt paralyzed and shocked. >> reporter: the d.c. field office of the fbi said it's investigated four similar cases in recent months. twice arresting the men accused and twice giving enough evidence to charge the guys. carlos vasquez flying from houston to dulles charged with assaulting a 15-year-old. he was rubbing her leg and thigh, up her orts, touching her underwear. the girl, court records say, pretended to be asleep.

>> victims are so shocked that they're being assaulted so it takes awhile to process it. >> reporter: prosecutors say the victim pretended to sleep too. he made abusive sexual contact against the woman. a stranger next to whom he was sitting. her hand inside her bra fondling her breast. de.n we dug deeper, we foundon including the new jersey man charged with molesting the passenger next to him on a plane while whispering kiss me in her ear. the man charged with groping a pregnant woman on a plane. we also found no federal government agency keeping official count of these cases. not the faa or the u.s. bureau of justice statistics which tracks crime data nationwide. the news4 i-team asked the airlines for their numbers on assaults on their airplanes. all declined to answer. a federal prosecutor in massachusetts was keeping track

on its own onboard misconduct. that there were 30 over a two-year span. delta wouldn't confirm when we asked. fliers rights groups say they should be reporting each incident. >> this is something that the airlines have probably been aware of for awhile. at the very least there needs to be more reporting required. >> reporter: they're concerned this crime is happening more often than we know. >> there's only a handful of flight attendants, sometimes as few as one, working a flight. so it's up to all the passengers as well to be mindful of what's happening around them. >> reporter: the fbi says if it happens to you, immediately notify the flight crew. >> i wish i had been able to start screaming and yelling and make a big scene. >> reporter: scott mcfarland, news4 i-team. >> the union representing the nation's flight attendants says it, too, has heard of at least four other cases of passenger sex assault. to learn more about what you can do if it happens to you, go to our website nbcwashington.com

and click on investigations. it's taking on the potomac. still ahead, we'll show you the big changes you might see after a $100 million expansion of a famous d.c. landmark. and are you a little confused by this? this is curling. we'll show you everything you need to know about this need tthese little angels build in softness. and these little angels build in strength. and that little angel says, "weeeeeeeee!" 60% more sheets than charmin. everything you want and the value you love. angel soft. everyone wants to be the cadbury bunny. cause only he brings delicious cadbury crème eggs,

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[ hans ] warm, flaky, gooey. toaster strudel! [ female announcer ] try new pillsbury heat-n-go mini pancakes. the kennedy center for the performing arts is getting ready for its 65,000 square foot expansion and we're getting a peek at the plans. if everything gets approved by planning officials, new space for education and rehearsals will be added underground and aboveground we're going to see three new pavilions. two will be alongside the building and there will be a third floating space on the potomac river. the price, about $100 million. if you try to describe the

winter olympics in just one word, adrenaline might come to mind. many of the sports involve dangerous speeds and amazing jumps. one event doesn't quite fit that mold though. dayan that hit the ice to tell us why we shouldn't sleep on curling. >> reporter: as an outsider, it seems like horseshoes and housekeeping all together. the object of curling is to move this 40 pound rock as close to the target called the house. >> you curl your bar shuffle board game will increase. >> reporter: what you may not realize is this ice is nothing like a hockey rink. it actually has. e pebbles. >> you sweep to melt the ice. makes it go further. >> reporter: at the curling showed me how to play. first a teammate throw this

rock. then the other teammates have to sweep. >> come on, come on. oh. >> reporter: it's rigorous and mentally draining. but this sport is addictive. >> yeah! >> you can pick up on the strategy, it can just be -- we can watch a game here and everybody will be talking and figuring out the strategy and all the shots. >> reporter: it turns out curling is simple to understand, but not so simple to perfect. would you let me join your team, you think? very hesitant there. it's all right. i'll practice more. >> i have a full team though. >> reporter: all right. that's a good excuse. way to get out of that one. >> that is just amazing. theextu t of an orange peel. never knew that. will it hurt your waistline? coming up, a new study sheds

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in news4 your health, bingeing on the weekends may not be a bad thing after all. a new study by cornell university found that heavy eating and drinking on weekends may not necessarily lead to permanent weight gain. researchers reached their conclusion after following a group of people. 59% of them did gain weight when they indulged on weekends. among those, 60% lost the weight they gained during the week days. the weight loss was seen among people who usually had healthy eating habits monday through friday. it's one of the most common sports injuries. a torn achilles tendon. there's a radical new procedure that could mean the difference between running again or never walking again at all.

>> i was going up for a layup and i felt a large pop and i thought somebody had kicked me from behind. >> reporter: that pop was the sound of reuben's achilles tendon rupturing. >> i sat down for a moment, tried to walk again, that wasn't happening. >> reporter: the achilles tendon is a large fibrous cord that connects the back of the half with the heelbone. it's one of the strongest tendons in the body, but also one of the most vulnerable to injury. >> it doesn't have that much blood supply. so there's what we call a water shed rear that predisposes it to rupturing. >> reporter: usually fixing it in simple. a routine surgery to reconnect the torn tendon. but georgetown university hospital dr. karen evans says for 5% of patients, there are complications. >> it can happen to anyone. >> reporter: and that means more surgery leaving some patients unable to walk. but now evans is using a new

technique. taking tissue from the thigh and transplanting it onto the back of the heel. >> we take it out and we roll it up like a fruit rollup which makes this really, really strong piece of new tendon. >> reporter: dr. evans says it's a long, complex surgery. but after six months of physical therapy, patients come back with much more function. they're able to get back to being active, playing sports, even running again. reuben underwent the procedure after he ended up with complications. as a medical student he said he was fascinated by the new surgery. >> i thought it was an awesome procedure. it was only unfortunate that, you know, i had to be the subject. >> reporter: he's now back on his feet trying to stay active. he's even gone back to the basketball court a few times. and the new procedure has actually been a source of inspiration. >> the whole thing has made me more interested in surgery, yeah. we'll see where it goes from

here. >> this is a really complex procedure. surgery can take six to eight hours. but they also say if you work really hard at rehabilitation afterward, you could make a full recovery. they chose d.c. for a reason. we'll take a look back at the beatles' first concert in the u.s. 50 years ago and the man who helped make it happen. ♪

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♪ nature valley. nature at its most delicious. it's been 50 years since paul, john, ringo, and george arrived in the u.s. for the very first time to appear on "the ed sullivan show." couple days later the beatles performed in their first american concert right here in washington. a recent tribute performance at the old washington coliseum recreated that night for fans, and news4's mark segraves spoke to a woman who not only was at the original show, her husband was the reason the fab four

chose d.c. for their first u.s. gig. >> they were always coming from left field. >> reporter: over the course of three days in february of 1964, betty james duke got to hang out with the beatles. >> they'd do something fair and then the four of them would break into laughter. >> reporter: duke's husband was the late carol james. he was one of the first deejays in america to play the beatles on the radio after seeing a story about them on the news, he asked a british woman in his office if she could help get the record sent from london. >> she had a buddy who was a pilot. a phone call, the pilot flew it over here. >> reporter: rather than just play the song james had the idea to pick a listener from one of the many letters he had received asking him to play the beatles to introduce the song. >> so he picked out one from -- that he thought was probably the best letter. it was from a young girl named marsha albert. >> marsha, the microphone is yours. >> ladies and gentlemen, for the

first time on the air in the united states, here are the beatles singing "i want to hold your hand." >> reporter: james then wrote to the beatles manager brian epstein and the two organized the concert in d.c. james wore a beatles wig that night when he introduced the band. after the concert, it was off to the british embassy. >> things seemed to be going rather smoothly. then somebody decided she would get a souvenir which was a lock of john lennon's hair. which precipitated some really unpleasantness. >> reporter: duke teaches at the university of maryland today. she says spending time with the beatles in the early days of their fame was something she'll never forget. >> they hadn't become jaded to it yet. and they were just -- they were having a great time. >> reporter: mark segraves, news4. >> and we're not sure how she got that lock of hair. and that's all for "news4 this

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. this morning, another round of winter weather is moving in just when the snow was starting to melt off. what this could mean for your saturday plans. plus, new from overnight, a firefighter hurt as smoke and flames take over an apartment. good morning, everyone. >> welcome to news 4 today. we cannot escape it, we have more snow coming down in the d.c. area right now. >> and check out the mess it is creating out in western maryland right now. this is in cumberland, the snow making it difficult to see the road out there this morning.

>> chuck bell is tracking how much snow we could see today. chuck, good morning. >> richard and angie, good morning to both of you and welcome to your weekend, everybody. 52 degrees and sunny yesterday to start the meltdown, but just as you guys mentioned, as soon as we start to melt down blob number one, we have a chance for sweat snowflakes. it does include carroll and frederick and washington counties and northern maryland as well as the panhandle of west virginia and right down through the shenandoah valley. strasburg, page county, all under the winter weather advisory that goes over the next couple of hours. here's radar this morning. this is all just light rain in the washington area. though, there may be an occasional snowflake or two mixed in. the bulk of the rain and snow should be coming to an end about lunchtime, 1:00 or 2:00 out