>> now at 11, what closed that horrific crash that killed a woman and injured three others. the driver that set off a chain reaction is out of the hospital. where the investigation goes next. you saw the heroics live in this

devastating apartment fire. hear from the heroes themselves. firefighters describe pulling two people to safety from a top floor balcony. the search for the three power ball winners takes a bizarre turn. the prank that had a woman believing she won the jackpot. >> thanks for staying up with us. the top contenders for the republican nomination sharing the stage for the smallest debate yet. seven made the cut, but the focus was on the top two. donald trump more than doubled his national lead over ted cruz in the "wall street journal" poll. he is now up by 13 points and tonight nbc's steve handelsman said it was cruz who was on the offensive. >> they came to debate two weeks before the first vote in iowa.

>> the next commander in chief is standing on this stage. >> ted cruz had a lead until donald trump pushed questions about whether cruz born in canada is eligible to be president. cruz launched a counter attack. >> the birther theory that donald has been relying on, some of the more extreme ones insist you must not only be born on u.s., but have two parents born under that theory. not only would i be disqualified, donald trump would be disqualified. >> who the hell knows if you can serve in office. >> why are you raising this? now he is doing better. >> cruz fired back to the "new york times" that he did not properly disclose the senate campaign with the loan his wife got from her employer. >> i made a paperwork error disclosing on one piece of paper instead of the other accident

but if that's the best chance they have, they better go back to the well. >> south carolina governor warned trump about sounding angry with no apology tonight. >> our country is being run by a confident people and yes, i am angry. >> others went after the top democrat. >> you cannot give hillary clinton a third term. she might be going back and forth between the white house and the courthouse. >> it got more intense and more personal. cruz attacked trump for having what he called new york values, saying conservative republicans will know what that means. i'm steve handelsman. >> talk about personal. the gloves came off in the under. a personal shot was taken at the clintons questioning their marriage. former president clinton back on the campaign trail and tonight

on stage with mike huckabee and rick santorum. fiorina used part of her time answering the first question of the debate. >> i have been blessed to do a lot of things and unlike another woman in this race, i want to spend time with 4 my husband. >> tonight on "hardball," we refused to say if she thought the clintons had a real marriage. >> the former secretary of state will appear on jimmy fallon after our newscast here. tonight the driver accused of setting off a nine-car crash that claimed a woman's life is facing charges for another crime. juan sanchez shouldn't have been behind the wheel in the first place. live for us with an update. jackie?

>> jim, new information at this hour. we learned that the driver causing the crash that killed angela jefferson of springdale has been released from the hospital and taken to jail. the 34-year-old was driving even though his license has been suspended. we know that at the time of this morning's horrific-car crash, there was a warrant out for his arrest because he failed to show up for an appearance for the 2014 dui. >> he is actually at the hospital where the security detail, once he is released from there, they can charge him. >> was he wanted for an outstanding warrant? are. >> yes. that will be satisfied and charges from this collision, this crash today will be against him as well. >> and as you learn, sanchez

released from the hospital and taken to jail a short time ago. angela jefferson was 53 years old and there was a large gathering of friends and family in her home tonight and three other people. news 4. >> fire coming out of the doors. something just exploded! >> frantic 911 calls for help after flame pour through. you saw it play out in live coverage here on news 4. woo are learning more about the dramatic rescues. one couple was on the balcony and began a ladder rescue mission to the top. >> bringing him up on the ladder, we had to be

professional and talk about what we would do. >> heroes doing the job. the fire displaced more than 100 residents and the cause is under investigation. they have not found anything suspicious. >> turning to our weather. they continue tomorrow? >> it does. we have weekend plans, we are talking about friday night through sunday. you don't want to miss the forecast. we have a lot going on. today amazing turn around. yesterday a high temperature of 32 and today we went to 53 degrees. absolutely amazing as far as the temperatures were concerned. let's look at the numbers. 53 degrees in d.c. and 56 in fredericksburg. it was on the mild side. tomorrow the temperatures are the rain. look at the rain coming in tomorrow night. it could get heavy. that's what you will be watching for. over the next couple of days,

something else too. we have the rain tomorrow night and a colder weekend. the cold air moves in and that will affect the plans and another arctic outbreak. this will stick around for a while. >> police arrested three men in connection with today's terror attacks. >> opened fire and they are crowded in the area around lunchtime. they claimed and the street

attack is the same one president barack obama drove down six years ago and toured the city where he lived as a child. >> a new federal report covered by the i team and revealed what caused a silo to break apart, killing an 18-year-old worker. the i team broke the story on the nbc washington app and they said coroded parts and failure to conduct an inspection led to the incident in august. it happened here at the quarry in ashburn. there were 500 tons designed to hold less than half that. they received a citation and the company said it made changes in hopes of preventing another tragedy. a district proposal to offer more generous paid family leave in the country. the most is in limbo because top administration officials say the plan costs way too much money. if you live and work here in

d.c., you get 16 weeks of paid leave for the birth of a child, a medical condition or if you are caring for a sick relative. business leaders and councilmembers support it, but at a council meeting they said the proposed 1% payroll tax to pay for the benefit would not bring in enough money. a feeling shared by other members of the administration. >> the bill as it is currently structured has a lot of unknowns. >> we can do this. our residents deserve it. >> the district will have another public hearing on this issue next month. changes are coming to the underground shops in crystal city, virginia to make them more accessible to disabled people. real estate developer came up to an agreement with the justice department after a complaint. he alleged that the corridors violated federal law because of poor accessibility on the

concourse that spans nearly a dozen blocks. among the improvements, hand rails will be installed in the tunnels and restrooms will be modified. a new report shows the surprisingly low number of sexual assaults on college campuses. critics say it's far from the full story. the department of education says 91% of all colleges reported no rapes for the year 2014. the american association of university women questions that number and says the attacks are drastically underreported. they are going to develop new policies that encourage women to report sexual assaults. >> next at 11:00, the power ball prank that convinced a california nurse she won the jackpot. who finally came clean tonight after she celebrated with coworkers. with the olympic games months away in rio. the virus that has the cdc warning pregnant women about travel to brazil.

the centers for medicare and medicaid services recently asked patients to rate the quality of over 3.500 hospitals. fewer than 6% received 5 stars. among them was cancer treatment centers of america in philadelphia. cancercenter.com slash eastern.

>> a quickly spreading virus in some latin american countries could be linked to severe birth defects. it comes as many travel to rio for the 2016 summer olympics. erica ed cards has the story. >> it spreads from a bite from mosquitos just like these. the vis is usually mild, causing fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes. >> the symptoms are mild with acetominophen or tylenol and gone been a week. >> here's what's different with this. women who have the virus while pregnant were more likely to give birth to babies with brain damage and abnormally small heads. >> it's a serious difficulty of brain and cognitive function. >> officials in brazil said they

normally see about 100 or so cases each year. that number increased this past year to more than 3,000. there is no proof it is the cause, but infect jus disease expert say it's likely. now the cdc is working on how to advise those who land to travel to the affected region. a few cases have been diagnosed in the u.s., all in patients who recently traveled overseas. some experts say it's possible it could spread from latin american countries to warm and wet states along the gulf like florida, louisiana and texas. erica edwards, nbc news. >> imagine being told you just want to share that record power ball jackpot and you are imagining all the things you are going to buy and imagine the dreams being shattered. workers at a nursing home in california celebrated after hearing their colleague had one of the three winning tickets

from last night, but turns out the nurse's son sent her a picture of what he said was the winning ticket as a joke. the california lottery said no one has come forward to claim the prize. that's just wrong. while no one in our area won the jackpot, there are 2 unclaimed prizes in prince george's county. the woman almost threw it out after learning no one in maryland had won. but a coworker urged her to check it. >> a local customer. i believe she works in the area. she came in to verify the ticket. an excited young lady. didn't say a lot. she was speechless as people would be if you won a million. >> two more million tickets were sold in salem, virginia and virginia beach. d.c. told two tickets worth

$50,000 and our very own doug won $8. have you spent it yet? >> you misspoke. i only won $4. that's starbucks. >> it takes me down from an extra large coke. we started this morning on a frigid note. temperatures in the teens and lower 20s, but today we got into the 50s across the area. it was beautiful across the day. temperature-wise, we were looking good. highs in the 50s all across the area. right now we are at 42 at the airport. last night at this time we were at 28. much warmer and winds out of the south at 7 miles per hour. the southerly winds helped us to get to the warmer numbers. 37 in leesburg. a couple of cooler spots, but a lot milder than we have been. tonight is a nice night.

no rain on the forecast, but now we are watching a system down to the south. we are watching this coming out of the gulf of mexico and normally this time of year if you have cold air in place out of the gulf, you have a storm. for us it will be a rain storm. that storm moving in here and bringing in milder temperatures tomorrow and a lot of rain. when does it happen? not tomorrow morning. we are fine and maybe even sunshine and high clouds. around 11:00 in the morning is when the clouds move in and same around noon. by around 5:00, notice the shower activity starting to take shape. i think the early part of the evening should be fine. the latter portion is going 250b wet. if you have dinner plans, here's 9:00 tomorrow. look at the rain. the heaviest rain is southern maryland around fredericksburg. upwards of a half inch to an inch of rain and it's out of here by 1:00 in the morning.

take the umbrella. saturday no problem. a nice day. we are talking the small umbrellas or the purse? it's the big umbrellas. the rain will be fairly steady. highs tomorrow cooler than today, but milder. 46 in martins during. 53 down towards fredericksburg. early to the west and moving in to the rest of the area. temperatures are 52 tomorrow and 50 on saturday. not bad. a look at sunday and a high of 42 and falling temperatures during the day. it gets windy and you can see flurry activity. a high of 30 on monday, but the wind chill will be a factor. we are talking about martin luther king day. five to ten degrees between dinnertime and 0 to 10 degrees with the wind chill. extremely cold on tuesday and a high of 29. wednesday a high of 32. much colder numbers making their way in here. next week is going to be a

frigid week. we have seen a day here and there with the cold air and it looks like all of next week will have it continuing. >> thank you, doug. coming up, the cats continue their magic here at home. first here's jimmy. >> tonight we have lucy liu and celebrity photo bombs and democratic president

just back and sliding off the ice from the verizon center. >> it was a pregame. instead they brought back the sign. i got you guys one too. it's not just a sign. this is what they were doing tonight. it's a noise maker. that's not going to get annoying. this is what they were going to do. when the puck dropped. here's the gold stick we were talking about and gave them the cats owner. they presented two and games celebrating number 5 hundred. it's game on. second period was scoreless. six moves score.

a great pass. the cats up 1-0. you do not get the open scores. the magic show with the pass to tom little who puts in the back of the net. that's with the pass and wilson buries it. they add an empty netter and they hope the cats win their 11th straight home games, 4-1. it is wait and see mode for the redskins. guys like kurt cousins, will they be back with the burgundy and gold. one of the guys we don't have to worry about, in the studios, talking about the direction of the franchise. >> by the season, we didn't have

the ups and downs. we overcame and know we have a good team and a good nucleus with the team and actually get to where we want to be. >> your quarterback cousins had a tremendous season. >> it didn't surprise me one bit. i know i expected it out of kirt. he's a great player. what he is doing is what we knew he could do. >> on the court, her eighth ranked ter wins are rocking and rolling in michigan. and one. maryland up seven at the half. third quarter, wolverines clawing their way back in. 23 points for her. michigan within four. the terps too much with bryanna

jones and make it look so easy. 74-16. 15-2 with the overall record. >> men and women. good. >> good trivia. >> every time you do that, i will do this. t

a nasa spacecraft traveled

further from the sun than any solar powered vehicle ever. the solar juneau launch and broke the distance record yesterday when it reached 493 million miles away from the sun. juneau will arrive in jupiter on july 4th of this year and orbit the planet 33

♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> 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 gues -- hillary clinton, lucy liu, musical guest flo rida,