those holiday travelers now travel times during that period. again, 3:00 to 6:00 will be elongated by 2 1/2 times. so it is going to be unpleasant. 66 westbound, 270, i-95 in both maryland and virginia, those are the predicted hotspots as we have seen in years past. so best advice here is, if you're leaving, you want to leave early between noon and 1:00 so you get out of the dmv before all of this hits. back to you guys. >> always good advice. earlier the better. hit the road now. if you're headed to the airport today, prepare for crowds because today is the busiest travel day for airlines. here's a live look at reagan national airport. arrival's line. more people plan to fly this year than last year. that's according to travel data. >> you can see people lining up there. we're keeping an eye on the airports nationally to see if the power outage at the atlanta airport is having

effects. we'll have team coverage of the holiday rush all morning. more details emerge after a bus overturned on tuesday killing 12 people. we now know that a group of family members from lorton, virginia, are among the dozen that lost their lives there. anna behar and her son died. daniel's grandmother was also killed. moises behar was killed. friends are now mourning the loss of daniel. >> he was always the life of the party. very energetic and happy. he always has a joke and makes everyone laugh. >> just like energetic and loved the world. >> the family was on its way to see the mayan ruins when the bus flipped over. a preliminary finding shows excessive speed and the driver's neig

that driver is now facing vehicular manslaughter charges. police have reopened some of the lanes on the interstate highway in washington state where a train derailed and sent railcars tumbling down to the road. last night, work crews cleared the southbound side of i-5. the right lanes remain closed as they clean up the area there. transportation crews hope to open the third lane later this morning. anne arundel police chief timothy at marry is shaken. but otherwise okay. after being rear rended. this is video from annapolis. he was in his cruiser when the driver hit him. medics say both him and the driver of the other car were taken to the hospital to get checked out. doctors released the chief and we're still waiting to get word if the driver will be cited. 4:32. following breaking news out of hollywood, california. molette green is standing by at the live desk with the latest. >> a gas explosion ke

want you to take a look at these images coming in. it sent shattered glass into the busiest tourist area last night. for those familiar with this area, that explosion came from the tin horn flat saloon and grill. the gas was turned off. one person was evaluated for possible injuries. thankfully, no one seriously hurt in this. back to you guys. >> molette, thank you. president trump is celebrating a major victory this morning. congress approved his tax bill on wednesday. it's the first significant legislative accomplishment for the president. >> the largest tax cut in the history of our country and refo reform. >> the bill still needs the president's signature. a lot of people are asking what you get out of this. lower taxes for 8 in 10 americans including most middle and

see lower taxes. the corporate tax cut from 35 to 21% is permanent. by 2027, most americans earning less than $75,000 could end up paying. when it comes to health care, the mandatory is erased. a lot of employers scrambling to revise withholding. looks like a coin toss to see who controls the virginia house of delegates. this is in the ninth district. ia ians they're tied again. it may have to get settled the old-fashioned way. a coin toss. >> it's hard to believe. the balance of the legislative house in virginia by a coin s

you can't bring everybody back to revote. how do you do it? >> i guess that's how you do it. virginia law says a tie must be resolved by the equivalent of a coin toss. i guess that's the professional way. >> name out of a hat. >> can you imagine the pressure? who gets to toss the coin. how high it has to go in the air, what kind of coin. the more the story gets out, the more people think one vote does count. >> every single time. it's 4:35. let's get another check of weather and traffic. >> what are we looking at guys? >> rock, paper scissoring to figure it out. >> another old-fashioned way. >> we have tied twice in a row. both with scissors. >> i win. >> i always go for rock. now you know my trick. >> i let chuck win. >> oh, brother. i don't know if i've heard it all but i'm getting close. >> it is a chilly start on a thursday morning.

you're excited because that means tomorrow -- >> yes. i'm incredibly excited. the sunset -- not even the sunset. but we get one more minute of daylight, yes? >> we get three more seconds of daylight. >> it's only three seconds. >> i got to look at the sunrise and sunset. i'm looking at it right now. >> dry weather for now. sheena has your travel forecast in just a second. to get your day started, below freezing in most of the suburbs now. 25 in new market, maryland. 36 in reagan national. there's your planner for today. plenty of sunshine today. temperatures in the low to mid-40s. how about that travel weather, sheena. >> we'll talk about that sunrise and sunset later, chuck. anyway, if you're traveling today, we talked about how road travel is going to be not good. airport travel is looking good weatherwise. weatherwise, no delays. here we're looking at sunshine today. nice and dry across much of the eastern half of the country.

impacts. temperatures mid-40s. tomorrow, we'll see more clouds moving in. but the rain chances don't increase until the weekend. tomorrow looks good locally. bwi, reagan, you'll see an increase in the cloud cover. rain for the weekend. we'll talk more about the timing of that coming up. let's check the roads with jack taylor. good morning, jack. >> sheena, good morning. not a great start in centerville. 28 southbound at i-66. all you can see is flashing lights. not a lot of traffic moving. northbound travel on 28 can only get as far as the ramp to get on to 66 east. no further traveling northbound if you're coming on from 66 west, that right exit ramp northbound to 278, you're fine. southbound travel, they're stopped at this point. be aware and please plan ahead. more details coming. outbound on new york avenue, bladensburg road, a bus broke down. that's been removed.

open. inbound was never affected. quite a start. eun, chris. back to you. >> 4:37 in the morning. thank you. families forced out by fire just before the holidays and it's not the first time for one family. how they're coping without a home for the third time. plus, it was a sale that shoppers celebrated until their orders got canceled. online glitch that has ugh boot earers upset. a growing cosmetic trend that promises to cut the time of your morning makeup routine. not allalons are doing it s

many of you are connecting with our report on four conditions inside a shelt -- poor conditions inside a shelter for domestic violence victims. we're hearing from a former worker. women say there is mold on the walls, old moldy food and they showed a picture to back up stories. she worked at the family crisis centers of prince george's county for two years before being fired last month. she says it's all true. >> there are victims being revictimized in a domestic violence shte

there is a chronically ill woman in that shelter. there is a chronically ill child in that building. earlier this week we spoke with the executive director of the shelter who said conditions were fine. the county inspected the shelter and the director of family services says the conditions were not fine. the county is working with the center to make sure all things noted in our report will be taken care of as soon as possible. >> certainly doesn't look fine from those pictures. not at all. >> hope they take care of that right away. families forced out of their homes earlier this week by fire. >> way too much experience dealing with this. we showed you video of the flames that destroyed an apartment building in hillcrest heights. now we're learning it's all too familiar for one family. >> the first time happened on the same day in 2012. her family moved in with her mother until that home

they managed to save a few photos of what's left of their apartment and trying to stay positive. >> i can't get down right now. it's a mess in the world and my life and our lives, period. it's baffling. i can't get over it. like, why? >> on top of all that, hale tells us she lost her job last month and did not have renters insurance. the red cross has given the family money for food, clothing shelter. >> demoralizing. three times to experience this. still not clear what sparked the fire. >> we've got a lot of generous folks in our area and hoping somebody will help them. a family's pet killed. there was gunshots in a local neighborhood. plus, casino crime. what mgn national harbor

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good morning everybody. coming up on 4:46 on your thursday. not going to be too terribly cold today. oh, next week, there are signs of significantly colder weather coming into play arriving on christmas day. moisture here this weekend, we might be able to have a little snow chance on christmas morning. sheena will have more with the ten-day forecast. >> a white christmas. >> on the heels of congress passing the gop tax bill, lawmakers have to scramble to fund the government and the children's health insurance program. >> it covers 9 million kids, 2 million of whom could lose coverage next month. let's go to tracie potts for more on capitol hill. lawmakers going to be able to keep the moment up and get the government funded? >> they're scrambling and the key is, the republicans in charge cannot do it alone. they are going to have to get the demo

in the senate to get a budget passed. democrats say they don't want to cherry pick many of the other issues connected to the budget, like children's health insurance or daca, the protection for young immigrants that they want to deal with defense programs, that republicans want to deal with. they don't want that kind of approach to do a short term extension. less than 48 hours to deal with this to avoid a shutdown just before christmas. the timing is awful politically. but what we're hearing is that lawmakers are looking at yet another short term extension that will push a lot of the decisions into mid-january. >> tracie, speaking of that short term budget that keeps the lights on and will put out the issues until mid-january, is it too late for the children's health insurance program? >> it could be. there are several states running out of money. they're notifying parents, eun, that they are going to have to find some other way to pay t

if congress doesn't act this week. putting off the decisions until what we're hearing january 19th, that's not going to help them at all. >> no, it's going to affect a lot of families. tracie potts, thanks so much. virginia senator mark warner is now sending a terron warning to president trump. -- stern warning to president trump. the growing criticism of robert mueller's russia investigation is concerning. >> the president's track record on this front is a source of concern. i'm certain that most of my colleagues believe that he wouldn't fire jim comey either. >> senator warner made it clear that all members of congress should declare that removing the special counsel is wrong. he also said that attempt to fire mueller or to pardon anyone charged in the investigation would lead to a constitutional crisis. here at home, we're working to learn if a

charges for killing his neighbor's dog. he shot the dog in northwest d.c. another neighbor says he was outside and saw the entire thing go down. two pit bulls were fighting when one guy tried to break it up. >> he tried to hit the dogs with a stick to pull them apart. that failed. so he went back into the house and he came out and he had a small gun or firearm. he just shot one of the dogs. two bullets. >> the man who shot and killed the dogs spoke to kristin wright off camera and told her, the neighbor's dog was attacking his dog. the d.c. state board of education delayed a vote wednesday night calling for an independent investigation of public and charter schools. this comes after the graduation scandal surrounding ballou high school. an investigation by npr and wamu radio revealed dozens of students with high rates of unexcused absences were still allowed to graduate. mayor muriel bowser has launched

allegations. >> does d.c. feel more crowded lately? a lot more folks calling the district home. the mayor's office said 10,000 people moved here. they believe it will hit the 700,000 mark soon. population has grown about every year since 2006. the mayor is attributing that to an increase in jobs. all right. it's 4:50. new this morning, things are back to normal at mgm national harbor after a glitz caused headaches yesterday. that prevented people from using the automatic payout option for their winnings. mgm says they were manually able to pay out kus americans and the system came back online. the news 4 i-team obtained records that show 23 thefts or robberies at the casino in november. that's more than double the number in october. the most at any maryland

mgm tells news 4 the internal review shows one of the incidents was a robbery and at least ten were complaints from customers about missing money. the maryland lottery and gaming control agency will review the report today at a public meeting in baltimore. at one point some consumers on ugg's website had a 60% promo code. it actually worked. the company says it was a big mistake and only intended for its employees, not the general public. customers say the company ended up canceling their orders. that caused a big sigh when sheena walked in and heard it. it explained an internal employee event circulated out of the organization without -- mumbo jumbo. they're not going to -- >> everybody is buying 25 and reselling them on e-bay. >> they did apologize for the inconvenien inconvenience. >> this was an interesting question, proposition. i think some companies might have honored that and gi

i don't know if that was possible. we need to get to breaking news in first 4 traffic. chuck taylor is in for melissa this morning. >> this is a tough start this morning in centreville. it's on 28 southbound. as we look on the screen, there's a box truck on the left side. looks like a billboard lit up white. that's a box truck. behind it is a tractor-trailer on its side. unfortunately, underneath the tractor-trailer there's a car. there's an enormous amount of equipment arriving on scene. 28 southbound blocked. you will have to get on to 66 west. 28 northbound, you can only get as far as the ramp to get on to 66 east. if you are west on 66, the only traffic that will be moving is off the ramp of 66. if you're headed to dulles airport, pay attention. 28 at 66, basically blocked for the next foreseeable future. for now, nothing moving other than 66 west to 28 northbound. unfortunately, not a great start here in traffic. sheena, better news in the weather depm

we have a lot better news in the weather department, jack. we're looking at good weather for travel even if your roads locally might be a little bit jammed this morning. as you step outside, grab the warm coat this morning. we're looking at colder temperatures. around freezing or below through the area. travel weather does look good. we have showers for the weekend, though, and christmas morning mainly. we are watching that closely. 36 degrees in washington. dulles at 24. quantico, 31. lorton 27. 26 degrees gaithersburg. we are much colder this morning. here's a look at your commute both today and tomorrow. good news is weatherwise, we're not looking at anything crazy out there on the roads. but temperatures this morning will be on the colder side. you might want the heat on this morning. here's a look at the national map. we're looking mostly at the eastern half of the country. things are nice and dry. not looking at many airport delays yet. but we do have snow expected in new england later today. here's aok

the afternoon and evening. there you see the storm system giving snow. we have a little bit of delay there and storms flaring up from texas through tennessee. this will continue up through new england and into saturday morning. with that snow still -- that weather system moves into our area through the weekend. rain into saturday. sunday looks pretty dry compared to a couple of days ago. as that storm system moves through and of course, we're watching your christmas day. here's a look as we go through the weekend. there's rain chances for saturday. we're looking at a high of 62. going to be mild and then we get colder christmas day. we'll be watching that closely. that cold air does eventually get here. closer look at what you can expect through your thursday coming up. thank you, sheena. new overnight, mormon um-- more monuments removed. after hurricane maria, an update on puerto rico's power

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way of tattooing your eyebrows. how do you know you're in safe hands? news 4 i-team investigated after getting complaints from viewers, including christine hernandez who makes a living about makeup and the beauty industry. she says she did not get what she expected after going into a fairfax county salon for microblading. >> extremely painful. i could feel the cuts were really deep. i expected swelling and expected discomfort. but i looked like someone took a pen to my face and drew lines wherever they felt like it. >> christina filed a complaint with virginia which does license salons for permanent cosmetic tattooing and the individuals who performed the procedures. the i-team found shops operating the services without the correct license and there's very little that they can do it about it. coming up at 11:00, find out wt

tracks down the woman christina complained about and what else the state requires for any shop offering this cutting-edge beauty procedure. it's getting down to the wire. the national retail federation shows more than half the shoppers will buy the last gifts on super saturday. we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 126 million people shopping the saturday before christmas at and about 6% of shoppers say they won't wrap up until christmas eve. >> we do wrap the presents christmas eve after the children go to bed. that's our thing. >> did you get the -- >> of course i did. >> trying to get credit here. >> you get the credit, chris. you haven't sent the presents off to a family, the deadlines are coming up. >> i can't believe at this point, you can still get it there. if you want the gifts to arrive on christmas, you better hurry up. you have to send it overnight and ups next day air. tomorrow is the last day for

postal service deliveries. you'll have to use priority mail express packaging. read expensive. the price depends on the weight and how far you're sending it. if you're trying to send the mixer, forget about it. >> drive out there and give it to them then. stay with us, "news4 today" continues right now at 5:00 a.m. that breaking news, another intentional crash into a crowd. new details overnight out of australia where more than a dozen people are hurt. >> holiday trip turns deadly. members of a family from virginia killed when their tour bus overturns. this morning, we're hearing from their friends and family. countdown congestion. the busiest day for holiday travel is here. we have team coverage with warnings as you start your day. busy day. don't let that live picture fool you. all the people get on the roads to commute and