now at 11:00 -- end of watch for a montgomery county police officer. flowers cover a cruiser outside his police station. his fellow officers wearing black stripes on their badges. powerful calls tonight for dui laws.

a moment of prayer and community as local muslim families share stories of torment after those recent terror attacks. take the stress out of last-minute gift buying. news4 consumer reporter erica gonzalez with some tips as you cross more items off your list. good evening to you. montgomery county police officers lined the streets this afternoon to salute one of their own killed in the line of duty. >> new tonight, tomorrow of those same officers were back on the streets searching for drunk drivers just what officer liota was doing the night he was killed. >> reporter: there's outrage, outrage tonight that a repeat drunk driver was involved in this. there are questions tonight as to whether repeat dui offenders are punished severely enough.

the officer was just 24 years old when he was struck by a car and fatally injured while trying to make the streets of montgomery county, the place where he was born and raised, safe from drunk drivers. officer john durham worked alongside him. >> it's something that you do because you do believe in the cause of getting impaired drivers off of the road. and he did. >> reporte >> the state of maryland has some of the weakest penalties -- >> reporter: outrage poured from the police chief as he talked about the 47-year-old, the driver of the car that struck the young officer during a holiday alcohol enforcement patrol on december 3rd. >> he was killed by a man who had been arrested twice before for drunk driving. >> reporter: the circumstances of officer liotta's death are shockingly similar to a crash earlier this year also involving first responders in montgomery county. in february a suspected drunk driver plowed into an ambulance

crew from the blgle,"t echo fi department as they treated victims of an earlier crash on the beltway. two paramedics were hospitalized for weeks with catastrophic injuries. court records show the driver charged also previous dui arrests. in a statement this evening, montgomery county state's attorney john mccarthy said, "i understand the chief's frustration with repeat drunk driving offenders who are not adequately punished under maryland law. as for this particular case, it is our responsibility to enforce the law as it currently stands." the state's attorney says he has assigned two of his most senior prosecutors to the case and we have received many inquiries tonight as to how people can send their condolences, their thoughts to the family of officer liotta. you can go to our website, nbcwashington.com. we have compiled the ways that you can do that. they called him the next president of the united states.

a large police union in new england endorsing donald trump tonight at an event up in new hampshire while accepting the support, trump said that one of the first actions as president would be to sign an executive order requiring the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing a cop. and there is new evidence today that trump's recent comments about muslims aren't keeping his popularity from rising. a new cbs/"new york times" poll found trump has the support of 35% of gop voters, more than double ted cruz. and an nbc news poll tonight found 42% of republicans support his plans to ban muslims from entering the country. from news about donald trump to the terror attacks in paris and san bernardino, local muslims say they're being singled out in hateful incidents across our region. some children are even getting bullied at school. we spoke to parents tonight at the community center if silver

spring. >> reporter: tonight those parents tell me that they are outraged and upset. they say that their kids are being bullied at school. many of the folks in the local muslim community in d.c., maryland and virginia drove here to the muslim community center in silver spring to voice their concerns. >> i'm very upset. >> reporter: this woman is outraged. she says kids are bullying her 13-year-old son at his school in howard county. he's muslim. >> he feels quite marginalized and in fact some of the kids in the school are naming him as isis. >> reporter: she along with dozens of muslims at this community meeting say they are experiencing an anti-islam backlash. montgomery county office of human rights committee against hate and violence held a meeting at the muslim community center in silver spring. >> we are here to receive a firsthand account of what is occurring in the community. >> reporter: the panel of human rights activists, lawyers and police officers listened and let the group know they're not

alone. police told the crowd about some hateful incidents that happened this month, such as a hate e-mail investigation. some say republican candidate donald trump made their lives worse when he proposed temporarily closing the borders to muslims. after the san bernardino terrorist attack. many admit the suspects were muslim extremists but insist they don't represent islam. >> i think what donald trump is trying to do is just trying to focus on religion. people do bad acts. any human being can do bad acts and it is not the religion that should identify the individual for his bad acts. >> reporter: some of the folks here tonight tell me that they plan on having a peaceful march and they say that they also hope the community will understand what's going on with their religion. live here in silver spring, news4. a letter with a white

powdery substance showed up at the building on capitol hill, turned out to be harmless. a similar letter was sent to a care office in california. it is unclear whether the incidents are connected. virginia voters will have more than a dozen republican candidates to choose from on primary day. today was the deadline for presidential candidates to submit petitions to get on to the ballot. 13 of the 14 still left in the race met the state's requirements. george pataki did not try to qualify. all three democratic candidates will also be on the ballot. virginia's primary is super tuesday. that's march 1st. and tonight democratic front-runner hillary clinton visits "late night with seth meyers." at 12:35 right after the "tonight show." tonight in connecticut governor dan malloy plans to introduce legislation to ban sales of guns to people on the federal watch lists.

connecticut already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country passed after the shooting at sandy hook elementary school in 2012. maryland congressman chris van hollen is urging governor larry hoe gran to take similar action here. hogan says the state already has a policy in place to address the issue. new at 11:00 tonight, a second arrest has been made in the murder a recent american university graduate. the 23-year-old was hit by a straight bullet near shaw metro station back in august. andre dudley is now charged with second degree murder. police had named him a person of interest just days after the shooting. marcus king is also charged in the murder. sheriff's investigators say they are getting closer to making an arrest in the murder of a 21-year-old woman found shot dead in a car in her driveway sunday night. now deputies say they have her cell phone recovering critical text messages and phone calls

made just before she was can killed. investigators are still asking anyone who may have seen her car sunday night to give them a call. a search in d.c. today did not turn up any new clues in the disappearance of young girl. she was just 8 when she disappeared in march of 2014. khalil tatum, the man she was last seen with, committed suicide weeks later. >> so it is a combination of things. we really have done some extensive guides into the information we had and different information that came in as to different possibilities of the movement of mr. tatum. >> the chief says there are other locations they'd like to search but didn't say when those searches would happen. new video of protests tonight that continue to divide the city of chicago. even mayor rahm emanuel's strongest supporters are now starting to doubt whether he can continue leading the city. nbc news talked to voters on the

city's north side today who question the mayor's leadership. the protesters want emanuel out for his handling of the deadly police shooting of laquan mcdonald. emanuel apologized by state lawmakers are advancing a bill to recall the mayor. two of the high-est ranking members of prince george's county council are going to propose to rename the byrd stadium. the current president acknowledges byrd's accomplishments, he agrees with students who say byrd was a segregationist. the prince george's county schools chief budget last year led to a bitter dispute, and this year he is asking for even more. dr. kevin maxwell proposed a $2 billion budget to the county school board during his state of the school address tonight. maxwell wants smaller class sizes for kindergarten, first and second grade and expansion of specialized programs and

higher teacher salaries. maxwell says he wants to build a stronger district long term. >> we must decide if that chapter is simply about getting through the next school year, or about creating a new prince george's county public schools for the students we have now and for the generations to come. >> last year's school budget requests prompted county executive baker to propose a property tax hike. the county council rejected it. a local county put up road blocks for hot lanes on i-395. now its opposition may be cooling. we'll tell you why. and christmas is little more than two weeks away. two weeks! if you're like a lot of us, the stress of gift giving is ramping up. consumer reporter erica gonzalez shows us some ways you can ease those holiday headaches. still two weeks for me to buy all the gifts. no problem! take a lookout there right now, amazing warmth over the next couple of days. we are talking record breaking

temperatures. i'll show you when

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and 2016 fusion and escape. plus 1,000 dollars holiday bonus cash on 2015 focus and 2016 fusion and escape. it's the best gift ever. now during the ford holiday sales event get 0% financing for 60 months plus 1,000 dollars holiday bonus cash on select vehicles. see your local ford dealer. one of the hottest gifts of the holiday season could be banned from your next flight. . nation's three biggest airlines -- american, delta and united -- officially banned hover boards today. video showing hover boards bursting into flames have been making the rounds on social media. in many cases they spontaneously overheat and catch fire. very bad smell at an apartment up in baltimore led authorities to a scene that might terrify some of you. 66 snakes. they came in all different

sizes. one more than ten feet long. many of them extremely sick. tonight animal experts are trying to nurse them back to health. the baltimore animal rescue and care shelter says they have taken in snakes before but never this many. they hope to find them all permanent homes. parents of some middle schoolers in prince william county received a call tonight letting them know a former teacher has been indicted on child porn charges. he was arrested in the summer of 2014. he taught from 2013 to 2014. he is no you a car salesman. investigators say he sent explicit pick tuesday tures of d had a relationship with a girl younger than 15 at the time. arlington county may be opening up to the idea of hot lanes on i-395, high occupancy toll lanes. opposition from arlington and alexandria kept them out of the

original plan. now the arlington county board may be reconsidering. >> arlington is like the skinny part of the funnel. everything has to come through us. figuring out how to move these layers all at once through arlington is part of everybody's success. >> a full environmental impact study needs to be done before the expression lanes get extended to 395 but work could start as early as 2017. need something to help take the stress out of the holidays? this next story is for you. erica gonzalez has four ways you can avoid stress when it comes to giving gifts. >> reporter: registers ringing and plenty of gift giving this holiday season. but all isn't always calm being. you can avoid some of the gift giving stress with some advice from kiplinger personal finance. first, if you plan to give money, is there a tactful way to do it? >> you need to be a little more sensitive. you don't want to seem like you are giving them a doe nation.

feel free to throw in a line like i didn't know what to get you so i wanted you to get what you want. >> reporter: for students and young professionals, dress up the cash or gift card with a bow or handwritten note. next, that awkward situation when somebody gives you a gift but you weren't planning to give them one. do you reciprocate? kiplinger says a simple thank you will suffice. >> you don't need to reciprocate. you don't have to run to your closet and go, yeah, i got you something. if you want to give back, wait for new year, invite them over for dinner, something that doesn't feel forced. >> three, for those who choose to give a gift to the boss, what's appropriate? >> something not overly personal and something that fits more into your salary. it will look really strange to everyone else if you're splurging on a really expensive bottle of wine for your boss. >> finally, with so many gifts to give, how do you trim the list without offending anybody in kiplinger says take the lead and suggest a gift exchange. >> how about we all give gifts

to kids under 18 and for the adults we just enjoy each other's company over a potluck dinner or we all bring a gift for a secret santa exchange. volunteer to host it the first year. >> i have a lot of shopping left to do. a lot. >> i haven't even started. >> i can give you a list, don't worry. >> this is going to be a perfect one to hit the outdoor outlets. this time of year most of us are inside the malls looking for those christmas gifts or gifd for your loved ones. this time you can go outdoors because that's the kind of temperatures over the next couple days. right now 48 degrees, very mild for this time of night and this time of year. winds out of the south at 3 miles per hour. the clouds will help keep temperatures on mild side. 37 up toward toward frederick and 46 toward annapolis. these are the average highs for this time of year. waking up tomorrow morning, no

big problems out there. temperatures 38 to 46, a mild start. you might need the jacket but only until 9:00, 10:00 because takes when things start to get warm. this is yet another storm system that's passing us way up to the north. let's bring in rain to places like the u.p. of michigan, towards the great lakes. for us it's given us a little bit of a frontal boundary that's bringing in some cloud cover. but in behind it we don't g. the jet stream dipping way down to the south, then way to the north. this area shaded here in orange may be setting records for the next couple of days. areas like portions of ohio, down towards arkansas, up towards new england. record high temperatures. for us i think we will get near some record high temperatures as many areas will be near 70 degrees the next couple days. warm all the way through next week. now high temperatures tomorrow,

65 in leesburg. 60 in annapolis, closer to the water, little bit cooler. but simply -- wow! 46 to start off the day. 50 at 9:00 a.m., 61 by 1:00, 66 by 3:00. whether it is hitting the gym tomorrow afternoon, getting out on the tennis court, riding the bike, no matter what it is, it is going to be perfect. 69 saturday, 70 on sunday. both saturday and is under the ecord high temperature is 71. we'll be very close to that. monday the record high is 70 so i am forecasting a record on monday of 71 degrees. we will see a chance for some showers during the afternoon, late afternoon on monday but most of the day looks dry. high temperatures even next week behind that system. they get cooler but we're still 10 to 15 degrees above average. temperatures of 60 degrees or better tuesday, wednesday and thursday as well. guys, talking about probably one of the warmest weeks we've ever seen in the month of december. it really is quite amazing. >> enjoy it while we can. coming up, jay gruden's name

being mentioned alongside bill belichick's as top nfl head coach. thank you watching in d.c.! thank you watching in d.c.! chris hemsworth is here.

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jason starring us out with some stamps. >> it is a long season. it was one of those nights. they didn't have it for whatever

reason but this group is going to bounce back. it wasn't a randy whitman type post-game press conference following a bad less. but it was entertaining. the cavs had plenty to chances to make it a game in south florida gerns tagainst the pant. there was a 15-minute delay because there were no paramedics at the aush, this he were attending to a call from earlier. they did return and we got things started. no warm-ups needed for panthers tonight. they came out hot and ready to play. jagr, his ninth goal of the season. panthers were up 1-0. third, florida's now up 2-0. a huge hit two brian campbell. the ref calls that one boarding. a five-minute major. he was ejected. the nhl will definitely look at

that. panthers are now up 3-0. later on, cats trying to get back in it. alex ove a cats win by a final score 4-1. the florida road swing for the capitals continue saturday as they visit tampa bay. redskins' head coach grjay gruden has made his share of mistakes. but when it is time to maybe call a trick play or make an onside kick, gruden is actually better than you may think. today the head coach receiving plenty of praise ranking nfl head coaches and their decision making has gruden ranked fourth in the league. gruden behind some pretty big names. mike mccarthy, ron rivera, bill belichick is considered the

greatest coach of all time by a lot of people. gruden was a little surprised to be on this list. >> i'm going to have to frame that article. you know what? we work hard at it. but every game's different. there are certain things i wish i had back, certain situations, end of the half couple times i'd like to have back but for the most part i feel we have great communication amongst the staff. tonight, d.c. united unveiled their new logo tonight, their first change to the logo since 1998. some new d.c. united gear might be pretty good holiday gift. >> thank

hey, listen up. a plea tonight from the salvation army. the group needs toys for around 500 needy children dpr around our area and it only has one week left to collect and deliver by christmas. all the gifts are donated by the salvation army's annual angel tree program. >> it is gratifying to be able to make sure that no child that is being served will wake up on christmas morning without anything. >> hey, if you'd like to make a donation, download our nbc washington app and search angel tree. folks, it is easy. we can get this done.

let's do it. >> our station played a big role with our community affairs department. so many of our wonderful colleagues already donated. don't be shy. that does it for us. "the tonight show with jimmy fallon" is headed your way next. >> thanks for watching, we'll see you tomorrow.

♪ >> 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 -- chris hemsworth, jim gaffigan, musical guest jamie lawson,