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right now on "news 4 this week," response time problems. d.c.'s fire chief lays out his plans on to make sure you get help when you call 911. out of options. the city manager paints a bleak financial picture and says things won't get better any time soon. and baseball's soon. sitting down with skipper dusty to talk about the season. i'm chris lawrence. when you call 911 you expect someone to show up. d.c.'s fire chief says his department is struggling with response times to some of the most critical 911 calls in the district. this week the chief and mayor laid out their plans to fix that. news 4's mark seagraves has the story you saw first on news

said his crews spent too much time transporting people who are not having an emergency but wanted a ride to a doctor's appointment. one way he's proposing to reduce those calls is place a nurse at the 911 call center who can screen calls and the determine what is actually needed. the department's medical director led the team that came up with the proposal. >> these calls are neither limb nor life-threatening and these patients can better be served in an outpatient care setting. >> reporter: another proposal announced today is legislation that would require insurance companies to pay more of the costs for those ambulance transports. >> it requires insurance companies to cover 100% of the costs associated with emergency ambulance and prehospital services. >> reporter: after today's announcement, macy o'thomas who lives in northeast and happened upon the press conference questioned the mayor about what increasing the cost to insurance companies would mean to residents' insurance pum

like to give away money, generally. i've got this and i'm going to read it. i think that's an interesting question. >> what do you do to protect residents? >> we have an insurance commissioner, and the parameters for the affordable care and what insurance companies can spend on services and what they get in profit is very clear. so the affordable care act itself is a protection for consumers. and we wouldn't do anything to disadvantage our ratepayers. >> i have a background in public health. and so hearing them talk about reducing the nonemergency calls, i think it's extremely important. >> reporter: mark seagraves, news 4. faced with decreasing ridership and increasing costs, metro's general manager says the agency is in trouble. and there's no light at the end of the tunnel. our transportation

the money troubles and the the impact it's having on the sys m system. >> reporter: metro is shedding riders. year over year ridership down 12% in large part due to safe track. that's stretching the financial picture further. does metro's leader regret safe track? >> no. by no means was a mistake. it had to be done. a system that was not taken care of, we're follow going to go backwards on that. >> reporter: the gm admits we may never get back to a spot where metro was carrying 750,000 riders a day. metro is looking everywhere for savings right now from slashing yobs to potentially cutting service and the money is tight. >> i used up just about every tool i have. i can continue to press, i will, absent absenteeism, workers' comp, overtime, those things. the big numbers aren't there and that's where we find ourselves. >> reporter: the gm has call for a dedicated source of funding for the region specifically, others have said something like a sales tax needs to be set

metro. riders we talked to said they'd be on board. >> rail line does have its issues. so does 270. so does 495. so i'm going to count on the metro. >> do you feel like you're getting what you paid for? >> i do. >> you do, actually? >> yeah. >> reporter: for now, metro's leader putting the region on notice something financially is going to have to change. police watch your step and keep moving upon exiting the escalator. >> metro is testing some new audible escalator warnings at some stations. it comes after a spike in injuries at a number of high-use escalators. this one at gallery place. metro says slips and falls increased 13% in the last fiscal year. it never really felt like winter this year but the nationals are now back in action down in florida. spring has to be around the corner. carol maloney sat down with skipper dusty baker. he says expectations are higher than ever. >>ou

window. you'veeo do today and then boom, plan on what we have to do tomorrow. when i look back i was like, well, you know, why was i chosen to come here? i wasn't chosen to come here just to manage the team. i was chosen to come here to win the whole thing. >> one of those important pieces i have to ask you about, bryce harper, met with the media, seems a little more intense. >> it's what it seems like when to me. he's a man now, not a kid anymore. he's married, has responsibilities now to more than just himself. that responsibility, you know, can take you a long, long ways. >> high five or fist bump? by the way, i say that knowing that you are credited with inventing the high five. or the fist bump? >> no, i fist bump now because of sanitary reasons. all the viruses and different things going

there wasn't any purell back in those daze or whatever it's called, wash your hands all the time. but now, hey, man. >> you don't want to get sick, a cold. >> i don't want to get sick. >> why are you wiping off the dugouts with towels? >> why just do my section? if you're a team guy you're going to do it for other guys too. i don't like sitting in the wet. i've got to go to the mound and that don't look good when i go to the mound and it's wet back there, know what i mean? especially if you're sitting in dirt. hey, man. dusty had an accident. >> it makes sense now, it makes sense. >> i love that. the nats' first spring game is against the mets. and before we know it, they'll be back up here. when we come back, the cost to ride the rails. the local commuter railroad that wants to raise fares, how you could weigh in. plus bao bao says good-bye. we'll take a look back at the cub's 16-hour trip to china and the emotional sendoff at the national zoo.

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the virginia railway express wants to raise the price of tickets. vre has scheduled public hearings to get feedback on the idea. ticket prices would go up 3% starting in july. officials say that would cover higher operational costs. if you want to know when and where the public hearings will be held, just search vre fares in the nbc washington app. it's only been open five months but the national museum of african-american history and culture has already hit a big milestone. the smithsonian says more than 1 million people have now visited the museum. that includes president trump and first lady melania trump. the average visitor spends about six hours there on the weekends. when we come back, giant panda cub bao bao lands in china. we'll show you how she got there and the long good-bye at the zoo. plus who are you trusting to protect your kids when you send them to school? we'll tell you what some schools are not doing that could be putting them at risk.

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the national zoo's panda cub is now at a conservation and research center in china. bao bao arrived this week after a 16-hour flight from dulles. zookeepers say she ate and slept the entire time and the flight was relatively uneventful. now bao bao will eventually enter a panda breeding program in china. christian wright takes a look back at the long good-bye at the national zoo. >> reporter: today marks another milestone -- in our race to save giant pandas from extinction. >> when bao bao lands in china she begins a new life and the hope is that she breeds new life also. >> we want her to be able to go back to china and hopefully have cubs of her own someday. then we'll know our job here, we've really done what we wanted to do. >> reporter: bao bao is only the second surviving panda cub born at the national zoo in 45 years. giant pandas were recently reclassified from endangered to

>> what happens when our giant pandas grow up, they will be sent back to china. that will be helpful for them to adapt to a new environment. >> reporter: bao bao will enter a breeding program in china. her departure is sad for many but an important step. >> they're a treasure for the whole world. it really is true. >> reporter: it's been a long good-bye, and those are sometimes the hardest. >> seeing that crate go into the truck was a little bit tough, i'm going to admit that. >> reporter: in washington, it's not uncommon to cry when pandas have to leave. >> it's been a hard day. a lot of craziness going on today. but i'm also pretty excited for her. >> reporter: chopper 4 watched bao bao ride from the national zoo through her city to dulles airport. the 3 1/2-year-old giant panda arrived at the tarmac in her special crate. the fed ex panda express there waiting. in seconds bao bao was on board, a delicate transfer for

>> our team has worked so hard for so many years to make sure the giant pandas stay on the earth. >> reporter: at dulles airport, kristen wright, news 4. >> remember, bei bei still with us, go see bao little brother. classroom incidents can quickly escalate to police response. it happens so often some are calling for guidelines about what police should and shouldn't be doing in our schools. the news 4 i-team found a lot of those schools don't have guidelin. scott mcfarland takes a closer look at how a national group wants to change that. >> morning, guys. how you doing? >> reporter: school resource officer steven radke starts his days at school with a lot of hell lows. >> what's going on? >> we wear many hats in this job. >> reporter: says his goal is to never end the day with an arrest. >> the majority of time there's an issue going on, you walk in, de-escalate the situation, it goes through pretty

>> reporter: radke says for him arrests aren't common while he's on duty at frederick county public scols. >> i've never had to put handcuffs on a student in a school setting or anything like that. it typically doesn't reach to that point. there's so much intervention before that were to even take place. >> reporter: but it does reach that point in other schools. thousands of times a year. the news 4 i-team pored through the recent numbers available from the u.s. department of education and discovered 65,000 arrests in schools nationwide during the 2013-2014 academic year. and a lot of those arrests are happening in maryland. even though the state ranked 19th in school enrollment size compared to all other states, maryland was 10 in this the nation for the number of students arrested. that's a problem according to the head of a national group that trains officers to work in schools. >> we have to make sure that our officers understand that the way

far different from that -- from though the strategies you use on the street. >> reporter: don bridges works as an officer in baltimore county schools. he's president of the national association of school resource officers which holds courses to teach officers how to serve as educators and mentors too. >> if there's something that is of a criminal nature that occurs within the school, we handle it. but that does not mean that that has to lead to criminal charges. >> reporter: bridges also says schools and their police departments have to have clear guidelines for what officers should and should not be doing in schools. >> they have to have what is called a mou, a memorandum of understanding. and that becomes your playbook. >> reporter: an example of an mou from bridges' organization includes guidelines that call for friendly contact with youth and educating students about law enforcement and letting the schools handle school discipline issues. >> if you don't have the stuff done appropriately, it is a disaster. and that is what you don't want. >> reporter: last autumn the obama adminisio

memo to schools nationwide, urging them to get some sort of mou in place. we asked more than a dozen of the largest school districts in our area if they have an mou for officers. these districts do have. but prince george's county public schools couldn't provide such a document when the news 4 i-team asked them repeatedly. prince george's schools is currently working with police partners to draft a memorandum of understanding to guide efforts moving forward and that it will be in place this spring. >> feel bad about what you did? yeah? were you just angry and didn't know what to do? >> reporter: officer radke says he went through specialized training to work at frederick county public schools, one of the districts that has an mou. >> the kids don't see you as just an enforcer. you're putting a hat on a counsel counselor, as a friend. >> reporter: bridges says those hats are just as important as an mou. >> we work together for the good of kids. that is the bottom line. >> you can see how many arrests were reported in

district over at the nbc washington app. if you or your kids have had an experience with school resource officers you'd like to share, head to nbcwashington.com and click on "investigations." george washington called it home as a child. now decades later, we'll show you the incredible discovery made as crews work to bring you back in time.

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after a close call in a recent fire, one dog's owner says she had a mission. first to say thanks not firefighters who saved her dog sadie. and to help keep your pet safe if it's in a house fire. erika davis walked into the falls church fire department with lunch for the crew. this was her first time meeting them because she wasn't home when the fire started in her condo. sadie was home alone. >> they had wrapped her in a blanket. she had a fire hose around her neck as a leash. they were sitting with her. i was

>> davis also donated window stickers that let first responders know if there is a pet in your home. firefighters can hand them out when they do smoke detector inspections. >>. >> we celebrated what would have been george washington's 285th birthday. for the first time we go to go inside his boyhood home in stafford county. ferry farm is in fredericksburg. as northern virginia bureau reporter david culver shows us, you'll get a chance too. >> open land along the river, what do you envision here? a subdivision of homes? maybe a big box store? a few years ago, both of those were being considered. >> because of that, local preservationists got together, banded together, and preserved this land. >> reporter: most historians always believed this to be where young george washington came of age, where legendary stories might have happened. for years no physical proof, at least not

washington foundation took over. archaeologists like david maraca started digging. >> i couldn't breathe. i was -- because i knew my life was going to change. this from here down -- >> reporter: in july 2008 david and his team confirmed this to be the foundation of the washington family's home. >> he lived here age 6 to 22. so the formative years are here. >> reporter: today at the construction zone, or rather a reconstruction -- >> they made sure that everybody in the town of fredericksburg could see the town. >> reporter: crews about a year away from finishing, working patiently, every detail considered. >> there's only a certain number of craftspeople that can work on the house that know the 18th century techniques, that can make it work. >> reporter: eventually they'll rebuild other structures that once stood here, including the nearby slaves' quarters, all aimed to authentically recreate what was. >> there are not many people who are able to do such work. >> reporter: those working this project absorbing its significance. >> when i put my

stones that a young george washington probably did the same thing -- it sends a little chill down my spine, yeah. >> the more i see of him as a person, the more i admire him. >> reporter: in stafford county, david culver, news 4. >> pretty amazing time. that's all for "news 4 this week." i'm chris lawrence. we're going to leave you with more pictures of bao bao who's now in china after three very memorable years at the national zoo. thanks for joining us. have a great week.

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nbc sports home of the olympic games. the nhl. premier league. the nascar playoffs. and prime-time's number one show, "sunday night football." only on nbc. game three of a five-game home stand for the dallas stars, who look for their first three-game winning streak since december. tyler seguin leads the way for the stars with 59 points. he'll face his former team, and david pastrnak, who's been heating up once again for boston, eleven points in the last eight games.