right now on "news 4 this week," metro agency's boss marked one year on the job and says the future's looking bright for riders. burning question, should people be jailed for lighting up the american flag? donald trump raises eyebrows with a tweet but does the law a paramedic gets a haunting 911 call. it wasn't the emergency but what happened after that has a family calling her a hero. welcome to "news 4 this week." >> hi everyone. i'm amelia draper. we start with a new plan to make metro good again. general manager paul retafeld recently marked one year on the job and he wrote up an ambitious

the gm is confident riders will see improvement. >> reporter: in a room chock full of elected leaders, metro employees, and media, gm paul wedefeld charting a new course that quite simply caters to the rider. >> what they want is the trains to run on time and the buss to run on time. that's what they want. the big message is i want i customers to know that i get it. that you get it. that we get it. at metro. >> reporter: all throughout this speech the gm feeling confident that metro will turn it around. so what are the specifics? >> we're going to put a much greater emphasis on customer experience, particularly with regards to reducing the number of delays due to track issues, the delays due to car issues, then we're going to improve the environment, particularly in the stations. >> reporter: here's a little bit more on the transit agency's goals. get metro back to good. that's their plan. they'll do that by focusing on rail cars, specifically to make sure they're running smoothly

the system will become those new 7000 series trains and there will be a new quality control department that will oversee this effort and report directly to the gm. if all this works the gm says the transit agency will cut down on unscheduled track delays by 50%. >> we apologize for the delay. >> reporter: and cut down on rail car delays by 25%. he promises riders will notice. donald trump started a big burning the american flag a crime? the supreme court has ruled it is protected speech. but as news 4's tom sherwood found out, it's an emotional and complicated issue for many americans. >> reporter: the american flag in the nation's capital. flags here, there, everywhere. and here. a flag-burning protest at american university the day after donald trump's election.

quite special about the flag, and for many, many people. that's why it provokes such a reaction. >> reporter: trump has created another of his twitter storms now, tweeting flag burners should be jailed or lose citizenship. more than 200,000 responses, many supporting him. but the supreme court has seen it differently. since 1969, twice ruling it's protected speech. nbc justice correspondent pete williams. >> it's just something that strikes a lot nonetheless, the supreme court said it's expression and that's what the first amendment is intended to protect. >> reporter: people in downtown washington near the white house didn't like flag-burning. but stopped there. >> it's freedom of speech. not a very nice way, but it is freedom of speech. >> tolerance is the true test of freedom. it's easy to tolerate things you agree with. what's hard is to tolerate things you don't agree with. >> i think burning the american

not against the law, it's free speech. >> reporter: some say trump's twitter storms have a different purpose. >> what mr. trump apparently does is he throws red meat to his supporters to garner attention. and perhaps deflect from other issues. >> reporter: in the district, tom sherwood, news 4. this week, a student at howard university was named a rhodes scholar. he's only the fourth in the history of the university. kristen wright talked to cameron clark about his big plans for the future. >> reporter: there's big news on the campus of howard university. >> it's great to be around, like to be surrounded by people who have such great goals and who have achieved such greatness in the short four years we've been here. >> reporter: senior cameron clark was just named a rhodes scholar. some just want to shake his hand. >> keep up the good work, man. >> yes, sir. >> reporter: cameron is one of

prestigious scholarship out of more than 800 applicants. >> it was definitely not expected. like i had already mentally prepared myself to not have won. >> reporter: he'll study at oxford university in england. he wants to be a doctor and help in underserved communities. >> there's so few primary care physicians for each patient that it's an overwhelming system and people aren't able to get the care they need. >> reporter: cameron has don howard has given him a sense of purpose. >> once you get to the school, they instill in you such a dedication to your community. >> reporter: university president dr. wayne frederick says having a student who's a rhodes scholar will help the university keep recruiting the best and brightest. >> this means a lot. it says to the world that our students are excellent, as we've been saying all along. >> reporter: cameron's family enrichment is proud. his dad found out his son is a

giving. >> this changes a lot of my plans for the future. >> it does, doesn't it yeah, definitely. >> reporter: a future shining even brighter. at howard university, kristen wright, news 4. still to come on news 4 this week, the first lady unveils the white house decorations for the holidays and gets nostalgic about her last christmas on pennsylvania avenue. a status report on our favorite panda cub after emergencsu i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine

may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. do not take breo more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. see if you're eligible for

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why can't we win? >> love that. that was the daughter of news 4's angie goff. she helped light the christmas tree in reston. reston has one of the biggest tree-lightings in our area. this week we got our first look at the holiday decorations inside the white house. this is the eighth and final year that first lady michelle obama is in charge of the

the holidays. many of the rooms highlight mrs. obama's favorite initiatives and there's also whimsical tribute to the first family's dogs sunny and bo. the first lady welcomed military families to the white house to view the decorations and she reminisced. >> i'm thinking back to when we first came here to washington. and we promised to open up this house to as many people from as many backgrounds as possible. and white house the people's house. >> the first lady says the obamas have welcomed almost 500,000 people to the white house during the holidays over the past eight years. still ahead, turning a tragedy into a positive. how one first responder's helping a local family have a special holiday season. plus sudden unexplained infant death. it's on the rise in our area. the news for i-team shows us what's being done to stop the

he gets a lot of compliments. he wears his army hat, walks around with his army shirt looking all nice. and then people just say, ?thank you for serving our country? and i'm like, that's my dad. male vo: no one deserves a warmer welcome home. that's why we're hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017. i'm very proud of him.

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ordinary tissues left dakota's nose sore and red. so dad slayed the problem with puffs plus lotion, instead. with lotion to soothe and softness to please. a nose in need deserves puffs, indeed. i want to go really big with my appetizers. we can do it without blowing our budget. oh yeah, this is great! everything for the holidays.

panda cub baby continues to recover from emergency surgery. but good news, recovering well. zoo officials september this photo of the surgery. they say baby ate too much bamboo over thanksgiving, we can relate, and some of it got caught in his digestive tract. baby recently began sleeping more than normal and wasn't eating so zookeepers got him checked out. they say it shouldn't be long many first responders would like to think they'd seen it all but every once in a while a scene stands out. a couple of weeks ago a paramedic helped save two young children stabbed by their father. it's haunted her ever since. but as prince george's bureau chief tracy wilkins found out it inspired her to help that family pick up the pieces.

paramedic pamela graham never forgets the call where a child accidentally shot himself. >> that was one of my regrets that i was not able to save that child. >> reporter: it came back to her on veterans day when there was another call for wounded children. >> we got the call as children stabbed. you always think, no, this cannot be. something's wrong. >> reporter: police arrested the father of the lieutenant graham and the boys' mom were on their way to children's hospital. >> took care of the wounds. i was effect cussed. i was so glad that mom, she was incredible in the back. >> reporter: weeks after, the case still haunted graham. >> 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds are supposed to be running around, jumping off the couch, playing with the toys. >> reporter: so she went to

site to help raise money for the family. the mom is relocating from the house where the stabbing happened and needs the help. graham's also gotten her colleagues involved. >> we set up something for christmas. at my house. fire department and police department. santa will be coming. >> reporter: graham and the mother have developed a friendship that keeps her connected to the two babies she helped save. >> i don't dig too i can hear them in the background, that's all i need. >> reporter: if you want to donate nbcwashington.com and search "you caring" and we'll have the steps for you to follow. i-team shows cases of sudden unexplained infant death on the rise in maryland. it's the pain no parent should ever have to bear. but it's happening to more and more families in our area.

shows us what's being done to keep more of these strategies from striking. ?? >> very beautiful. >> reporter: anthony boston and wanda camara love talking about the day their daughter malia was born in 2008. in her 30s, ready for another baby, wanda says the pregnancy was easy. malia was their second child. >> i've already done this >> from her 1st birthday. >> reporter: it was a sold night in january. malia had a cough. after a bath and a bottle, they put her to sleep on her back in a full-sized bed next to her 5-year-old sister. >> i thought, this is going to be okay. that's the last thing i said to her. i was the last one to see her alive. >> reporter: the next morning anthony found malia face-down, not moving, not breathing. >> i was like, oh my god.

wanda started cpr. >> she just fell back and i knew then. i felt helpless. >> reporter: paramedics came. but after putting malia on life sport, doctors told them their daughter was gone. >> they say that's the bottom, that's it. >> i can't understand what happened. it doesn't make any sense. >> reporter: the medical examiner r death as sudden infant death syndrome, sids, when a baby's death cannot be explain after a thorough investigation. sids falls under a category sudi. >> sudden unexpected infant death, sudi, is a general term for any death that is unexplained and surprising for an infant under the age of 12 months. >> reporter: the deputy health

quadrupled to eight deaths this year. >> when the number is small it's significant for us for public health to act. >> reporter: i-team found at least 50 reports of sudi deaths statewide in 2014, the most recent numbers for maryland's child fatality review team, making sudi the leading cause of infant death in the state for the first time. >> it truly does happen to everybody. so while there are risk factors, you want everybody to know that they do have a part in this and c themselves. >> reporter: dr. rose says fighting to combat the perception this is a tragedy that only impacts young, low-income parents of color without access to a crib. the county is now pushing a new educational campaign promoting the a, b, cs of safe sleep. >> sleeping alone on your back, uncluttered crib. >> reporter: the push includes brand-new recommendations from the american association of pediatrics about sleeping near but never with your baby.

important. particularly within the first six months of life when the risk of sids is much higher. >> nobody should ever have to lose a child. everyone deserves a chance to prevent that from happening. >> reporter: wanda and anthony have joined support groups and now help educate other parents. malia would be 8 years old today. her parents say they constantly think about the kind of child she could have grown to be. >> devastated even now. i have my emotions -- i do this to hadn't represent all the people like me, fathers like this, that don't get to say these things. you know? it's doing my part. i would give anything, i mean anything, for her to be here. >> touching story there. we have specific guidelines on safe sleep practices including the new recommendations from the

the risk of sudi and resources for parents who have lost a child. find it in the nbc washington app under "investigations." when we come back, the state-of-the-art library now open in our area. and it's offering so much more

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in prince george's county, years of waiting paid off this week. the new laurel library is now open after three years of plng on seventh street near talbot avenue. news 4 was there for the grand opening. >> reporter: a long time coming. >> it's amazing. we've been watching the construction for months and months and looking at the plans online and that sort of thing. so to see it finally open is just wonderful. >> reporter: a new library over 30,000 square feet of books,

it is such a step forward. it's so beautiful. >> reporter: a big part of the library catering to kids. >> look it! look at what we're doing! >> we wanted to make a destination. so it's full of books because studies still show that children need to learn with a physical book before they learn to read. >> i'm excited too because they have reading programs for little so that i can come here and read to her and there's a program involved with that. >> reporter: visitors wasted no time checking out the building and the books inside it. >> i get five books at a time. when i go to the library. >> reporter: the new library has over 50,000 items. customers are free to choose a different book, dvd or magazine every day for the next 100 years and still have more to choose from. local author richard friend came to see one book in particular,

books like i used to. this is revesseling my book for a change. >> reporter: for the bookworms in laurel, change is here and that long wait is finally over. in laurel, amy cho, news 4. >> that's all for news 4 this week. we leave you with more pictures of the white house holiday decorations. thanks for joining us and have a

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i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back

in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. do not take breo more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. see if you're eligible for

?? about welcome to "redskins chronicles." i'm larry michael at redskins park. we take a look at a piece s sto. a coach who made a lasting impact on this team in one year, the great vince lombardi.