heightened state of alert for one of france's neighbors. >> chris lawrence starts us off tonight with all the breaking details at the live desk. >> reporter: we just learned france has launched more air strikes on isis tonight. french warplanes bombed targets in syria in and around the city's sis has been using as its capital. next door to france, belgium has raised its terror alert to severe after several police raids failed to find abdeslam. it was a few hours after the attacks and they hadn't received the international warrant yet, so they let him go. police say abdeslam rented the car that was used in the attack. belgium upped its threat level across the country and canceled tomorrow's soccer match with spain. tomorrow certain members of congress will start to see it. the director of homeland

security and fbi director will brief certain members of the house on tuesday. doreen? >> chris lawrence. d.c. is on high alert tonight after that isis video that purportedly threatens a similar attack here in washington. we saw heavy police presence at union station today. while you ride metro and amtrak, you are being reminded to see something, say something. u.s. capitol police are on the highest alert level. d.c.'s mayor says all threats, verified or not, should be taken seriously. >> we take every threat seriously. our city is always at a heightened level of alert. our police department has a lot of experience working with our federal partners to take credible information and make sure we're deployed properly. >> the head of d.c.'s police union says the most important thing we can do to combat terrorism is to keep living our lives. >> tonight the number of governors here who say they won't accept syrian refugees

continues to swell. 19 governors say they have actively opposed or asked the federal government not to send refugees to their states. no real movement in our area despite calls from virginia republicans, governor terry mcauliffe hasn't made changes. governor larry hogan says he'll make a very careful decision. and d.c. mayor muriel bowser says the district doesn't have a refugee office so they weren't accepting refugees in the first place. earlier today president obama called refusing refugees, quote, shameful. tonight former secretary of state condoleezza rice said the u.s. needs to be welcoming to those running from tyranny. but she can also understand the concerns of some governors. >> what the united states has done is to be very open to people who are fleeing tyranny, people who are fleeing danger. but we've done it in a very careful way that has worked very well for us. >> still questions tonight about

whether the constitution allows governors to block people from entering their states. don't panic if you hear fighter jets flying over your house late tomorrow night. norad is conducting an exercise with f-16s. the series of flights will happen between midnight and 2:30 a.m. wednesday. air force f-16s and coast guard helicopter, and civil air patrol aircraft will all take part in that exercise. developing right now in virginia, we're into day six of the search for a d.c. teenager, ava zechiel. she disappeared in cherokee national forest last wednesday. the fbi is now involved. news4's shomari stone spoke to her family tonight in northwest d.c. and has their story for us. shomari? >> reporter: good evening, jim. tonight i spoke to ava zechiel's grandmother near nebraska avenue. she was on the phone with her father in tennessee, and he was telling me that this is a very tough time for the family.

right now he and his wife are in tennessee, in constant communication with rescue crews and law enforcement officers. he told me ava went missing on a hiking field trip with her boarding school in the cherokee national forest in northeast tennessee. crews are searching for her in the rough terrain. she got separated from other students about 2:30 in the afternoon last wednesday. crews haven't found the 16-year-old. her father told me that she did not have a cell phone with her. he talked to our sister station wcyb in south virginia. let's whatever he has to say. >> it's every parent's worst nightmare. you see the stories on the news, but you see the throngs of people who come out to help. we're relieved that that's happened here and that one of them will find our girl. >> reporter: the rescue crews are well-organized, and this is a well coordinated rescue. he is going to continue to talk to them, and hopefully they find his daughter. live here in northwest d.c., i'm shomari stone, news4. the nights are numbered for

a homeless community living in tents near the kennedy center. d.c. officials confirmed they will close this encampment. they tell us they'll work with the occupants to place them in shelters, and only the holdouts will be forcibly removed. meanwhile today a group of runners from virginia beach finished a 200-mile relay run to the white house. they raised more than $20,000 to help the homeless, and they dropped off care packages at shelters along the way. things will return to normal in the morning at washington college in chestertown, maryland on the eastern shore. the school went on lockdown today when a student's parents called to say their son got a gun from their home and then left. he hasn't been seen or heard from since. students are being told to stay inside their rooms tonight. but the college will reopen at 8:30 tomorrow morning. new tonight, the price tag is going up on montgomery county's plan to deal with school overcrowding. more than $1.7 billion over the next six years. and tonight the school board gave that plan the go ahead.

news4's jackie bensen is in rockville with what will happen next. jackie? >> reporter: doreen, the mere discussion of changing school boundaries can make parents see red. but money to do just that, to begin a discussion is included in this budget. >> our hearings were lively last week. we filled the auditorium, and then the fire marshall wasn't too happy with it. we're experiencing explosive growth. we'll be opening new schools, building more space in the schools. and when we do that, obviously we have to change boundaries. >> reporter: tonight the school board vote made it clear that painful discussions and $1.7 billion will be needed to see montgomery county public schools through fiscal years 2017 to 2022. it includes money for roundtable discussions on how to handle enrollment increases in the gaithersburg and walter johnson clusters. >> we don't look at boundary, we

can't build our way out of 24. >> reporter: the recommendation by superintendent larry bowers includes ten new classroom additions, a new elementary school in clarksburg, and widespread replacement of heat and air conditioning units throughout the county. the capital improvement budget now goes to the county council and the county executive for approval. live in rockville, jackie bensen, news4. i'm very thankful to be able to report that incredibly as of today, i am 100% cancer-free and in complete remission. >> it's the news many of you have been waiting five months to hear. maryland governor larry hogan is cancer-free tonight. he had a very special person to thank today, his pen pal, 5-year-old andrew observe early of baltimore county, also a cancer patient getting treated at the university of maryland medical center. andrew has been an unexpected

friend to the governor, who says it all began when he got a handwritten note with some tips for coping with cancer. >> he told me to keep my hugging person with me when i'm feeling down, along with nine other great pieces of advice. andrew is right up front with his mom. >> andrew and the governor are both in remission now. hogan says his body still needs time to recover. as for a second term, he tells us he is not even thinking about that yet. former maryland governor martin o'malley could be cutting back his campaign staff as he struggled in the polls. he is shifting his focus to the early primary states. most of his headquarter staff in baltimore will move to those states. but other could be cut. o'malley is struggling to raise money behind hillary clinton and bernie sanders. well, things are back to normal tonight in downtown d.c. after protesters caused some big traffic trouble during the evening commute. maybe you saw it this evening. d.c. police had to close down

some streets as dozens of people marched, holding signs. they walked from k street all the way down to pennsylvania avenue. protesting trade deals negotiated by the obama administration. a big personal announcement expected tomorrow from actor charlie sheen. there have been rumors circulating about his health in recent months. tomorrow he'll sit down for an exclusive interview with matt lauer on the today show. you can watch it here on nbc4 at 7:00 a.m. right after news4 today. local flights taking off and landing every day, whether they have passengers or not. tonight the news4 i-team shows you the empty flights that you're still paying for, and who is fighting to keep them in the air. also ahead tonight, surgery gives new confidence to a firefighter badly burned on the job. see the results of a one-of-a-kind face transplant. and i'm tracking the next storm system that is going to bring heavy rain to our area. we're calling one day this week a weather alert day. i've got your forecast.

i'm melissa mollet with your first 4 traffic. 95 southbound between 198 and the icc are going to have two the icc are going to have two left lanes the icc are going to have two left lanes this is more than just a town. this is our home. and small business saturday... is more than just a day. it's our day... to shop small at the places we love... with the people we love. for stuff we can't get anywhere else. and food that tastes like home. because the money we spend here... can help keep our town growing. on small business saturday, let's all shop small. for the neighborhood, the town, the home we love. on november 28th, shop small.

it's being called the most extensive face transplant ever, and it went to a volunteer firefighter who was badly burned in a fire 14 years ago. we want to warn you in advance, you may find some of these pictures disturbing. this is 41-year-old patrick hardison before doctors performed the transplant in august. and this is him today. he has a nose, ears and eyes. patrick says he is glad he can

finally see his family again. >> they're just excited to see me. >> it took a team of 150 medical professionals 26 hours to perform the surgery at new york's langone medical center. hardison received the face of a 26-year-old man. he died after a bike accident in august, and his mother donated her son's face for the surgery. >> wow. amid this hectic travel season, it's hard to believe some local flights are taking off empty. no passengers at the gate, no passengers on the plane. and guess what? you're paying for it. tonight scott mcfarland and the news4 i-team investigate why taxpayers are paying hundreds of millions of dollars on flights with so few people on board. the crowd, the lines, the noise. if you walk into an airport, especially this time of year, usually you are consumed. by people and by stress.

>> ladies and gentlemen, we are boarding. >> reporter: but not here. hagerstown airport midday, with flights each day to pittsburgh or dallas. there are tsa officers at the checkpoint, but not always that many passengers to check. hagerstown is one of several dozen small airports in 34 states nationwide that are part of a program called essential air service, created by the u.s. department of transportation in the 1970s to boost small cities. the flights take off whether full or empty, says steve ellis of the watchdog group taxpayers for common sense. >> what is kind of amazing about it, for how little used the program is, it has passionate backers. >> reporter: a flight from pittsburgh touched down in hagerstown with no passengers. and watched as a flight outbound to dulles departed after with no passengers. another day, we bought a pair of tickets of our own on sun air airlines. only one other passenger aboard. as you can hear, it is noisy aboard these planes, and there

is no seat assignment on the ticket. they move me to the back of the plane to better distribute the weight. flying these flights is expensive, though our tickets cost us only $39 each, taxpayers paid $1,000 for the two of us to make this flight. we also bought tickets for an essential air service flight from shenandoah valley airport in stanton, virginia, as did linda cassidy. >> and my family can't drive 150 miles to dulles when i'm only ten minutes from shenandoah. so i really don't have a choice. >> reporter: federal records obtained by the i team showed nationwide it cost taxpayers a quarter of a billion dollars nationwide each year. the u.s. department of transportation told the i-team the essential air service is a critical link between small cities and the nation's aviation system, a lifeline to small and isolated cities. but ellis doesn't think these flights are essential at all. >> all these small towns feel like it's part of their identity that they'll be less of a town if they don't actually have an airport. so they fight for it very hard

and their lawmakers fight for it very hard. >> reporter: not all lawmakers, though. a california representative offered an amendment in congress in june to kill the program. but that amendment was defeated. for the people who take these flights, they say they would hate to see the program grounded. how crowded was the flight? >> me and one other, actually. >> reporter: mark took his first hagerstown flight this summer. he paid $39 for the ticket and breezed through the nonexistent security lines. easier than driving to dulles for his flights to denver, he says, and cheaper because the parking sheer free. >> this is something that is really keeping a lot of small towns in americ afloat, and is a great service to people like us who live in these smaller towns and want the see them thrive. >> reporter: federal records show 3,000 passengers fly each year from hagerstown, an average of about 2 1/2 passengers per flight. 15,000 a year in stanton. and congressional sources tell the i-team the program is not likely going anywhere, any time soon. even if they don't have that big airport holiday feel. scott mcfarland, news4 i-team.

>> now sun air airlines told the i-team its flights are reliable with 9% ontime arrival. and that people in the small cities deserve access to the u.s. aviation system. out west winter has officially arrived. more than six inches of snow dumped on park city today. a preview of what parts of colorado can expect overnight tonight. denver international airport already has canceled more than 100 flights over the next 12 hours with blizzard-like conditions expected. some parts of colorado could see as much as 18 inches of snow by tomorrow night. and doug is over there just doing this. it's going to come our way. >> my old house in colorado, i lived out threw there for a few years. 18 to 24 inches. i'm bummed out that is coming our way in february. not any time soon. for us, we've been on the warm side. as a matter of fact, we hit 70 degrees today. across the area. it was incredible out there.

but today unfortunately the best day of the week. yeah we go down hill from there. right now 50 degrees. winds out of the northeast at 3 miles an hour. that northeast component is going to have a huge impact on our day tomorrow. look at the 267s. we saw clear skies earlier. and that allowed temperatures to cool very quickly. down to 37 in frederick. 39 in manassas. and over towards culpeper. we are starting to see the clouds move in. that will stop temperatures from dropping all that much more. these are fairly what they're going to be like early tomorrow morning, fairly similar to what they'll be like tomorrow morning. maybe a few degrees cooler. you'll need the jacket when you step out. no rain to talk about right now. our next system is back towards the west. you can see the clouds moving on in. once again, the clouds acting like a blanket tonight. not allowing us to cool all that much. here is the storm back to the west. a lot of rain. places like kansas city, little rock. look at these storms here. numerous tornadoes in kansas, texas, oklahoma and the blizzard going on right now around the denver area.

parts of denver already seeing 4 to 5 inches. and they do have a lot more to go around that region. what is coming our way is the clouds first. and then that system moves into our region. and it's just rain here. the clouds here tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. by noon, you can see the clouds coming in from the east. some sun possible tomorrow. if we get any sunshine, that will help with the warming. but we're not going to warm all that much. look at 4:00, 5:0in the afternoon. we're socked in with the clouds. we'll continue to see the clouds all day tomorrow. most of the night tomorrow night, right on into the day on wednesday. wednesday a couple areas of showers. maybe drizzle too with the northeasterly winds. we'll continue to see those. and then on wednesday night, we have a better chance of seeing some rain move in. but it's really thursday morning. that thursday morning commute is going to be a problem. that's why we're calling thursday a weather alert day here at nbc4. you want to pay attenti to thursday that system moves on through. and behind it we get a lot colder. high tomorrows tomorrow cooler. 70 today.

59 in gaithersburg. 59 in manassas. only 56, back towards the martinsburg area. what to wear tomorrow? it's not the coats or the scarves or the gloves. it's not that cold. the umbrellas, you don't need those either. only the jackets necessary during the day tomorrow. and tomorrow is the day you'll most likely need it all day long. next couple of days. 63 for a high on wednesday there is the weather alert. most likely weather alert mode at 11:00 on wednesday night. transitioning into thursday. 66 on thursday. but look what happens friday, saturday and sunday. we cool off pretty big. 50 degrees for a high on saturday. most of you in the 40s. and only a high of 47 on sunday that would be the coldest we have seen this year. this season, rather. and we are going to be seeing 20 to 30-mile-per-hour winds that will put windchill in the upper 30s all day. this weekend looks to be culpable. right now all eyes on the day on thursday. chuck will have the latest on that tomorrow morning. >> thank you, doug. up next, court storms at the smith center. george washington with a shocking upset. >> jason is up next. first sheer jimmy fallon.

>> hey, guys, cate blanchett is my guest tonight. plus we have anthony mackie.

this is the xfinity sports desk, brought to you by xfinity, your home for the most live sports. >> college hoops tonight. what an upset. >> great game tonight. doug and i went to this game. i wanted to storm the court afterwards. doug wore a suit. he was worried about college kids stepping on his shoes. he didn't want to mix it up with everybody. >> he didn't want to be caught in the social media picture.

>> that's very unfortunate. >> we had a car wait, had to get back to the station. >> it was a great game, though. what a way to start the college basketball week. we all know about the much anticipated game tomorrow night between maryland and georgetown. but how about those colonials tonight. george washington knocked off the sixth ranked team in the country for one of the biggest wins in their program's history. it's bikini season year round at the smith center. that's why i love that place. late in the first half, gw out to a seven-point lead. the senior patricio guarino comes up with the steal. the army going absolutely nuts. they're up at halftime. second half, malcolm, a fifth year senior. he had himself a game. 28 points. led all scorers. knotted up at 52. off the miss, guarino again. what a tip-in. he finished with 18 points. colonial's up by four. late in the game, gw trying to close this one out that is kevin

marston showing off the low post move. he had nine point, seven rebounds. gw, they storm the court as they should. they knock off the sixth ranked cavalier, 73-68. gw not shocked by the outcome. >> so we're now surprised. we know that we had the personal mettle. we have confidence. i think we're playing great basketball. all the courtesy to virginia. they deserve to be top six. but i think we're up there. people didn't recognize us enough at the beginning of the season. and that's motivation for us. we know we can be up there. to richmond now, even the baby rams ready for the vcu-ratford matchup tonight. they beat georgetown two nights ago. melvin johnson was the star of this game. later on in the first half, more from melvin johnson. this time showing off the range from the corner. knocked down the three-pointer. vcu is up 11 at halftime. second half, it was more of the

same. worked around to johnson. this time showing off the deep range right there. he was 6 for 10 from three-point range. 24 points. that was the game high. vcu beats radford 92-74. moving on to the nfl now, the redskins have reasons to be excited. plenty of reasons to be excited. you know your offense played a wonderful gym when the opposing team fires their defensive coordinator the very next day. the skins, they beat up on the saints so bad that rob ryan, the d coordinator in new orleans, he no longer has a job. the redskins played a complete ball game. but the offense just had a monster day. most yards since 1991. most points in a decade. on defense, they stopped the high-powered saints offense, allowing just 14 points and scoring their first defensive touchdown of the year. jay gruden knows this team getting better each and every week. >> you can see the growth, at least i can. you can feel the confidence just

breaking the huddle. you can see that they feel like they're going somewhere every time they break the huddle. defensively, to have success against the offense against new orleans, it says a lot about their confidence and their resilience coming back from a tough loss against new england. they bounce back and had a great game. >> next time in college basketball, we're storming the court. >> we're storming the court. >> i'm not wear tag suit. that's for

tonight a big black bear is okay after a close call with a

milk can. wildlife workers used an electric hand saw to get the can off this guy, the head of a 200-pound bear in frick county. officials with the department of maryland natural resources tell us they had to tranquilize him first, smart. once he regained consciousness, he wandered right back into the

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♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." tonight, join jimmy and his guests -- cate blanchett, anthony mackie, musical guest tinae,