welcome to "news4 this week." >> hi everyone. i'm veronica johnson and we're going to show you some of the more interesting local stories making news this week. among them it's been years in the making but the d.c. street car line could see some big changes before it even opens. why the project may shrink. plus ever curious about how certain streets get their names? we did a little bit of digging into the history books to help you meet your street. and planes falling right off the map. we've seen it before but one local company is working on a way to prooefbt itevent it from happening again. we begin with a local effort to keepsake red places and the neighborhood surrounding them crime-free.

think neighborhood watch but for your place of worship. northern virginia reporter david culver explains the new initiative by fairfax county police. >> it really was heart-breaking. >> reporter: that's how he felt when the space he prays in was marred by vandals. this was 2011. just about every custom window shattered. in three years' time its beauty restored with some new additions. >> we record a 24-hour video coverage. these are infrared cameras. we also supplemented them with additional cameras inside the mosque. >> reporter: following the advice of fairfax county police they beefed up the mosque security. >> it was just one of those one-off incidents. i think generally the community here is very welcoming. >> the grounds here are pretty big. >> yes, very safe. >> reporter: tom oversees the grounds and is cautious of

preserving a safe sacred place. >> if you have ever grown trees or bushes anybody can hide behind them. >> reporter: while not wanting to share all of their security techniques they set up random patrols through the night. >> if people see that they know we're here at any time. >> reporter: but he's looking to join the worship watch for the sake of getting to know his religious neighbors. >> then you have to look outside your property. you have to look and see what's going on all around you. if everybody can do that and watch out for each other, it will be much better. >> reporter: one of the many reasons police launched the program. >> this is a good time to remind people of what they can do to prevent becoming victimized. >> reporter: david culver news4. big changes could be ahead for the district's street car system. news4 has learned the planned system to include eight lines over 37 miles is now in yep jeopardy. hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the project but only a fraction of the system is likely to be built. council sources say one proposal

would complete the planned line from h street west to georgetown and a second line to an costia but little else. there's no timetable for the project's completion now. one of the best disease treatment facilities in the world is coming to northern virginia. virginia. innova is transforming the old exxonmobil campus to a new cancer research medical center. they have their flagship hospital right across the street just outside the capital beltway in fairfax. the hospital hopes the new center will draw world class researchers in fields like genomics. dna research has made all the difference for a 2-year-old boy that has a rare genetic disorder. >> because of the research they were able to identify a hormone that he needed to have on site and with them during the surgery. i think it could have potentially been life-saving. >> they hope to open the new center by 2017. exxonmobil announced plans to

vacate the campus in 2012. its 2,000 workers moving all the way to houston. the uss berry is shipping out for good. it's going to be towed away in the next couple of months and turned into scraps. the navy destroyer is docked on the anacostia river at washington navy yard. it has served as a floating museum for 30 years now but the ship is in poor condition and it needs to be moved before october. now that's when construction begins on the new frederick douglas memorial bridge. well, if the gamble of an on-time flight is not enough for you, slots could be coming to one of our local airports. the maryland general assembly has drafted a plan to add 3,000 slot machines at bwi marshall airport. our i-team reporter scott mcfarland found out the machines would be placed in the casino-style room just beyond security checkpoints so that only the ticketed passengers

would be allowed to play. that way it really wouldn't compete with other state casinos. voters would have to have that plan approved first. well some of maryland's students will get a chance to sleep just a little later next school year. the montgomery county school board approved later start times this week. now, middle and high school bell times will be pushed back by some 20 minutes. elementary schools will start ten minutes later. the school board was considering a couple of other different options, but this one that is approved costs virtually nothing. >> you know it does have significant implications. other districts have changed and other districts have long had later start times for high school students. >> the new bell times will take effect this fall and those are some pretty happy students those high schoolers. from a house of worship to a literal house, we check out one

local chumprch that could soon become the address for residents in need. and it's cookie season. we'll take a look at just how many girl scout cookies are flooding our region.

okay so arlington has a need for affordable housing, and one church may make it all happen. members of the arlington presbyterian church have voted to redevelop the denomination's columbia pike property and turn it into housing. the pastor says there's a lot of planning and design necessary before the first stones will fall. >> stay in this community. we are connected to this community. this is a community we feel called to serve. where we will be once the building goes down we still don't know. >> we're very excited to be with them on what for them is a faith journey. they have a wonderful vision for the community and have many braced affordable housing.

>> that's just terrific. this is not the first time an arlington church has taken down this road. the nearby church in clarendon is the example of a church redeveloping itself to include affordable housing. to find out why this is especially difficult transition visit nbcwashington.com and search arlington presbyterian church. have you ever passed a street and wondered hmm, how did that street get its name and what, if anything, it has to do with the area's history? first 4 traffic's melissa is hitting the roads and the books to help you meet your street. >> reporter: from this northeast billboard, nanny watches as the cars and people roll by down her street. sprinkled with condos and restaurants, her name may sounding familiar but for many of us the passing years have turned the details of the real person behind the street name a tad fuzzy.

so we hit the street her street here in northeast washington to find out what folks know about nanny hallen burrows. >> i don't have the slightest idea who she was. >> do you wonder about her? >> honestly no. >> reporter: some are not curious. others just don't know. >> i don't have the slightest idea. don't have a clue. >> reporter: but d.c. schoolteacher debra bachmann is eager to learn. she's lived here at the corner for 21 years. >> what do you think about nanny hallen burrows? >> reporter: she was born in virginia in 1879. at age 5 her mother brought her here to washington. she left washington when she was a teen but years later came back and started a school. about your row burrows was an activist who battled for women's equality and fought against racism. >> it's an honor to actually live on her street. >> reporter: now it's on to hur next stop. we're going five miles southwest to first sterling avenue in

southeast washington to see if it's the same story there. of course first sterling is one of the biggest tongue twisters in town. it's less than two miles long flanked by homes and a highway packed with history, but not one many people knew. one we had to look into. >> this is first sterling. you know what i couldn't tell you. >> reporter: bertha sterling was a steel company that used to sit on the side of the air force base. it opened in the spring of 1907 and was later highlighted in this article in the "washington times" under a headline that touts the plant as part of the birth of a manufacturing washington. this is the first of our new "meet your street" series. if you have a question about your street or perhaps one you pass every day on your commute, here is what i would like you to do. just let me know. shoot me a message on twitter and i would love to come meet your street. >> like veronica avenue right? sure how did that street get

its name? all right, well grab a glass of milk cookies are on the way. girl scout cookies in fact. they're in the hands of troop leaders, about 4 million boxes of them right here in the washington area and they'll soon me in the hands of you, customers who order them. then the girls are going to decide where all those profits are going to go. time to divvy it up. >> some will do service projects with it, some will go camping or go on a trip. some will donate -- in fact most troops donate a significant number of boxes to either a charity in their area or to military troops overseas or to the local food bank. >> so in a day or two next week scouts and cookies will start showing up outside supermarkets. thin mints and samoas are still the reigning favorites. my favorite. well you might have to find a different way to capture your next trip to the smithsonian museum. the new band that will make it just a little more difficult to take a selfie and they don't

seem like they have anything in common but a small similarity has one of the world's largest companies suing a local brewery.

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it's one of the greatest mysteries in the history of commercial flights. where is malaysia airlines flight 370. the plane with hundreds on board still missing after almost a year. recent disasters have raised concerns about the ability to find commercial planes. angie goff shows us a local company created system that tracks those flights any time and anywhere. news4 begins with breaking news. >> a jumbo jet is missing with more than 200 people on board. >> so far searchers have not found any wreckage of the plane. >> and the fact that they are now searching two massive bodies of water tells you they have no clue where this is. >> reporter: almost a year later, and no sign of mh-370 or the 239 people on board.

a world left wondering how a modern plane vanishes without a trace in a day, an age when it seems anything can be tracked. don toma is president and ceo of arion, a mclean based company working to modernize air traffic control on a global scale. >> people become much more aware of the issue. obviously events like mh-370 or the airasia flight show there isn't a way to track aircraft in places like this. >> reporter: right now the primary way to track a plane is through radar technology from the '30s and '40s. it works well over land but notice how it fades when flying over remote areas or once you get about 150 miles from shore. as a solution they are looking up at space, launching 81 satellites that will use state-of-the-art gps technology all planes are required to have by 2020. this is the first time news cameras have been allowed in

here in their satellite network operations center. it is the backbone of this new flight tracking system in the making essentially a mission control based here in leesburg virginia that has the potential to change the way we fly worldwide. >> this capability will not only be able to provide the ability to see where the airplanes are, but we believe you can close up the separation and make the operations a lot more efficient while maintaining safety. >> reporter: vince capazuto chief officer, says this realtime data can maximize airspace which would improve flight routes and cut costs on fuel. as for flight tracking in the case of mh-370 no one knows if the system would have prevented the plane from getting lost. but developers believe it would have greatly advanced the efforts to find it. once it is fully operational, it will be free to search and rescue crews. >> we'll test the system and

make sure that all the pay loads and satellites work properly and then we'll begin launching ten at a time out of california using the spacex falcon nine rocket. >> a new frontier in flying in the works, working to eventually make the case of missing planes a thing of the past. angie goff news4. although they arehave been working with the faa, the government agency has not said whether they will sign up for the global surveillance service. he made headlines by trying to win a car at the nhl all-star break. now alex ovechkin is making good on his stunt with a big assist.

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i've got to warn you. this next story will get you riled up. a loudoun county brewery is calling them a big red bully. the president of old ox brewery says he's a little confused why red bull filed opposition against them from the u.s.

trademark office. he said red bull wants them to refrain from using any bovine-related pictures or words or the colors red, blue silver. in a letter on the brewery site he had the only similarity between their products is that they're both liquids. we reached out to red bull but they have not heard -- we have not heard back from them at all and i think that's a little ridiculous. well it could soon be harder for you to take a selfie in some of d.c.'s museums. the smithsonian banned selfies this week and is working on a policy for other attractions on the mall. it follows a similar ban in new york city museums. a spokeswoman says the ban is meant to protect the artwork from damage and visitors from hurting each other. well caps star alex owe very much -- alex ovechkin is known for scoring goals but this week he gave an assist to a local youth hockey program.

>> reporter: alex ovechkin finally received the car he's been begging for. >> i'm very happy to be in this position to help the kids and help everybody to be happy and put smiles on their face. >> reporter: he and honda presented the car to the american special hockey association, a program for children with developmental disabilities. they'll raffle the car off, raising money for the program. >> what are you doing? >> they learn life skills through the game that translates to everyday life for them. they feel accepted they're part of a team. they have friends. it really opens the doors for them. >> the caps first hosted kids a few months ago. it was there where ovie developed a special relationship with 10-year-old ann schaub of the washington ice dogs. >> he's my boyfriend. >> you guys went on a sushi date right?

>> yeah. >> are you grabbing sushi again tonight with him? >> yeah. >> we were so grateful for just that little piece of alex's time to have him come out and coach our kids on the ice was so special for them. that alone would have been something that we remember for the rest of our lives. so for it to turn into this is unbelievable. >> we posted some great pictures in our nbc washington app. >> it's obvious, that's why this town just loves alex so much. that's all for "news4 this week." i'm veronica johnson. thanks for joining us. we leave you with images from the most recent space launch. until next time remember be safe be kind, be happy, everybody.

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>> what does it feel like? >> the arctic. >> the day after arctic winter weather, don't be surprised if you see snow flakes. it is freezing out there. the temperatures in the 20s and the teens in some places. chuck said we will get a brief break. i'm angie goss. >> we begin with the bitter cold blast keeping folks indoors on this valentine's day today. we will keep them company. chuck bell tracking it all the way. a strange weekend of weather. >> the cold arrived, the first of two big waves of