let's make a deal. president trump inviting lawmakers to the white house. and muriel bowser is re-elected to lead the nationta ca we have an historicevent. >> and we'll talk about who is going to get wet later on tonight. that's coming up right after this. >> good morning,everyone. welcome to"news4 midday

president trump has invited eight congressional leaders to the white house this afternoon a w rbriefi inghat on border securi. the briefing will be led by homeland security officials. the lawmakers are from both parties. democrats also pla vote tomorrow on a plan to reopen the government. that bill i not expected to get far without funding for president trump's bor.r wa the impact of the political stalemate iseing felt in our area more and more each day. amy -- aimee cho is at the national zoo now, which is closed. >> anyone who comes to the national museum will be greeted y these gates saying it is

close. this store owner i worried about what this will do to her business. as theyp whi up these set treats, she say it is anything but. >> unlial the fed government, i still honor my employees.s to pay my i have to pay rent and pay all of my expenses. it makes it difficu without people in the store. >> reporter: at the zoo, animals will still be fed and zoo keepers will still report to work but they won't get paid until the shutdown ends. >> reporter: they're offering freeunch to zoo employees and free coffee to the workers. >> even though it costs us money, we really want to be there for the federal employees.

>> reporter: until the shutdown ends, the panda pops are the closest thing you can get. live at the national zoo, aimee cho, news4. >> aimee, thank you. of can also see the impact the shutdown in national parks across the country. many national park rangers are furloughed. that means america's greatest national wonders such as joshua tree in southern california are closed. trash cans are overflowing with crash and public rest rooms are closed. >> we'reptimistic we'll get word to come back to soon but until then -- >> arizona's doug ducey says the grand canyon will notclose.

stay with nbc 4 and the washington app. we're covering every angle untiv thenment reopens. a lot of cloud around this morning. lauryn ricketts, does that mean rain son tis on the way? >> we're going to show you that coming up on futurecast in just about 15 minutes. just know we've got some wet days ahead. it's not going to be raining the whole time but we are going to have rain chances. we have r later on tonight that will last through tomorrow morning and that could aytentially last through the day on saturd nothing happening right now. the radar is dry. we're drying looking good out there. we've got the cloud cover, that is stubborn, it's not going anywhere. little pieces of energy are going to ride right along the frontal system. and areas closer to that area of

low pressure will see better chances of rain. if you're north and west, you're probably going to be a little more d on the side. that's coming up in about 15 minut minutes. >> thank you, lauryn. extra police officers are patrling three prince george's county schools. helette green has more on threat from bladensberg, high school. >> reporter: it's important to know prince georges county officials could not consider this threat credible. nevertheless, on this first day back class, they're not taking any chances, adding an extra layer of security. the threat was made via social security media or e-mail to parkdale high school, william w rt middle school and

bladensburg high school. abladensburg police officer said that all seven schools in this area will get an extra eye by police trols. bladensburg high school has their own security. we're not sure what the extra layer of security will look like but nevertheless, that is a layer of comfort for the student and teachers and staff left to come back with the threat loom being over their heads. that is the latest from bladensburg. >> we're learning new details in a deadlyin shootin southeast d.c. a man was found shot to death inside an apartment building on barnabyoad southeast just before 9:00 last night.ic when pe arrived, they fond tan -- found a shot several times. police have not identified a moctim or suspect. >> reporter: thiing a man remains in critical condition after being shot in the head.

he was the unintended victim in a new year's dayli shooting. save he wy he was walking t lunch when two nearby groups began arguing and someone pulled a n. shots were fired and one of the bullets hit the man. police are hopin surveillance video will lead to an arrest. >> we have a coupl people we're talking to. we're working on getting a t lookout f suspect and we're searching the video camera. we'll release it to you guys as quickly as wean. in just a few minutes, muriel bowser will officially start her second term as mayor of the district.we aing ceremony is under way at the convention ceheer. ♪ andome of the brave >> in addition to mayor bowser, the city's attorney general carl

racine is starting his second term. six council members and all incumbents are being sworn in as well as. eleanor holmes norton spoke saying with a new house controlled by democrats, she plans to bring up a measure onck again to the district the 51st state. >> a new announcement frometro this morning, starting next week the metro system will welcome bicycles on train any time, including during rush hour it ends a long-standing restriction that prohibited bicycles during business periods. one lucky new yorker is kicking off the new year $425 million richer. the jacotinning ticket matched all five numbers and the gold mega ball in the new year's day island. it was the eighth jackpot in mega millions history. the cash option is a whopping

$254.6 llion. there were some other big winners,

welcome welcome back. a little girl is expected to ck a full recovery after

falling into a rhino exhibit. this happened at a zoo in mel bourne, florida. theent comes just days after a woman was killed by a lion in north carolina. is gabe gutierrez reports, both cases are r new questions about animal park safety. >> a family new year's day trip to a florida zoo turned terrifying when a 2-year-old girl toppled into a rhinoos exhibit. she and her family were participating in a hands-on exhibit. >> while the fath kneeling down holding the child, according to the witnesses, the child stumbled backwards. at least one, if not two, made contact with the child with their snout. the mother was also treated for

a non-life threatening injury to her harm. in north carolina -- >> we have had a lion attack. >> alexandra mauled while helping an employee clean a lion enclosu enclosure. this lion somehow broke free. >> the person attacked, how badly are they hurt? >> they're incapacitated. >> they say the lion was agitede ag agitated. when repeated attempts tora uilize the lion failed, deputies shot and killed him. it took several shots to take him down. he was amped up. >> this isot a situation we had before. working with wild animals like

this, this is a highly skilled profession andh something we take very seriously so any kind of incident like this is devastating to everyon >> this morning both the, incumbent in north carolina and the rhino exhibit in florida remain closed as authoritienv tigate and make sure incidents like these never happen again. >> peta is trying to make it more difficultfor facilities like tose toe wild andmals. the utah senator elect writes on president trump saying on balance his conduct offer the past two years, particularly his actions this month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.

romney will be sworn in gay6 tomorrow. the president tweeting this message "here we go with mitt romney, b so fast, but is he "lak "i won big and he didn't. ng should be happy for all republicans, b team player and win." also criticizing the op-ed was the chair, mitt romney's niece.i she calle disappointing. shanahan is taking on the pentagon's top job during a time of uncertainty, which includes the partial government shutdown. former secretary of defense james mattis regned last month after president trump announced he was pulling troops out of

syria. >> u.s. catholic bishops wil gather for a week-long near chicago. they will address the ongoing church sex abuse scandal. this comes as the associated press obtained a all rigletter e vatican. the vatican says the u.s. catholic conference did notgo rnor them enough time to review the proposal.g >> this mornnew details on a plan to ease traffic jams and possibly expand the beltway and the maryland department of ansportation has received more than 000 comments. scottar mane has more on what some of saying and what others are waging against widening the highway. >> sam's house ships its in the shadow of 270.

ely aps no one is more cl watching the proposal to ease trffic. >> i'm grateful that the governor is on record saying no homes or property will be demolished. we intend to hold him to this pledge. >> reporter: more than a year ago the government announced the state would consider ambitious plans to ease gridlock on 270. so far at least 15 alternatives have been considered, including reversible lanes and widening the highways. hundreds have sent comments to the state trying to sway the i dec. using theo freedom of infrmation act, we asked for those e-mails and received them. we found an orwhelming number of those notes, one w major traffic construction won't be solved by any widening. another saying i have many neighbors and restaurants that will be affected. and others wrote "please don't ruin rockville."

others saying i support expansion, present routes are too crowded. at home today with his sons, eric lyons says he tired of battling the construction. >> everywhere you work, you have toet on the highway. people get up in the morning and their days are built offf their commute. >> tom hucker said the state wi be wise to listen to local drivers and homeowners. >> this proposal h generated an awful lot of public concern. i think it bothe bcause of the nature of it, expanding the beltway and thep cess. >> news4 says they are expected to narrow their list o possible changes to the highway by spring. >> it looks like you'll be saving some cash at the gas pump in 2019. for the first time in three years, gas prices are expected to go done from e year before. gas buddy predicts the national average for a gallon of regular

gas will be bd 2.70. it stillc siantly more than what we were paying back in 2016. experts say this month is whether prices will be at their lowest. prices generally peak in may around memorial day. but when it comes to groceries, the u.s. department of agriculture are expected to go up 1% to 2% this year, still below the typical ra of inflati inflation, which is just over 2%. ome items such as pork, eggs, oil and non-alcoholic beurages go down in prices this year. well, now that you a back home from the holidays, you might be thinking about your next big trip. perts say january is the best month you'll find great deals for booking flights. february is also one of thett months to buy tickets. that's according to travel search engine sky scanner. and you can save cash by booking early morning flights.re

for delawlights book them at least two weeks ahead of time. for international fghts, the st dealk$ vv1 be found two months before your trip. it's day two of the new year. are you sticking to your resolutions? if you are having trouble, we have psychiatrist here to help. s plus tennisr

e we l when locals do well.

another fun moment after the match, williams and federer took a selfie. that will be seen around the world now. >> thism is fro the all state sugar bowl. the 1,600 pound steer knocked down some metal barriers and charged at the opponent's mascot. luckily no one was hurt. in the end the long horns pulled off the upset and won the sugar bowl 28-21. >> from earth to the far reaches of the cosmos, a nasa spacecraft may contact with scientists 4 binioll miles thanks to the team at johns hopkins universi, applauded as the spacecraft called "new horizons" began sending n

transmissionsew year's day. it reached a tinyo ice object pluto! who knew there was stuff beyond pluto. it's taken me than a dozen years to reach it. >> we build ace saft on earth and we send it out billions of miles beyond earth and it sends us back this wonderful data. >> it's jus the coolest thing. nasa does the coolest stuff.nt scts say it could take more than two years to beam back all the resolutions. so a couple years to beam the info back seems reasonable. >> once you get past pluto, which i'mot eve sure if there's still a planet anymore, but it's think about it's just never ending. i can't ever wrap my head around that. >> we're not alone in this

yniverse, la there are other meteorologists. >> iknow. i try not to think about it because it's frightening. >> we've got cloud cover and rain on theay and temperatures today not quite as warm as yesterday. erday we were in the mid 60s. we hit that at10:25 yesterday morning. now temperatures today in the 40s. those chances of rain are increasing and we'll have chances rain every day up until saturday and then dry by sunday and then we are warming up. 47 degrees right now. temperatures will stay in the mid 40sor ytime highs today. 48 degrees will be our daytime high. rainer on this evening, not for everybody but for areas mainly to the south and east. you can see nothing happening on the radar rye now but widen out ovis view, we have dnloud all a ethe stalled frontal system.

there's an area of low pressure down here. that's going to cetinue to m right into our area, right along this frontal system and push rain into our area. areas closer to the actual low pressure will haveetter chances of seeing rain. for us that's going to be south of d.c. d.c., we may get rain later on tomorrow, into tonight and early tomorrow morning but for the p mostt we're talking about southern maryland and fred ri s fredericksburg. we continue through the evening later on tonight after about 7 8, i've pushed it back a little bit from this morning, could have rain showers moving in as that area of low pressure moves up. but it's a sharp cutoff of who will get rain and who will not. think if you're in shenandoah

valley, you'll be dry. earlycommuters, we could have rain tomorrow morning. if you are in southern maryland, willern neck, you probably have rain through the morning but that will quickly move out of here and then we'll get some sunshine. but more rain on friday and into saalrday. we'll about that in detail coming up. >> lauryn, thank you. ri at now we learning more about the american arrested for spying in russia and tearing from former marine's family. plus medical costs. hospitals are now required to post prices. why the information could make bills even more

the state department has requested access to whelan and expects russian authorities to provide it. in moscow for a fellow marine's wedding, he was last seen giving tour of the kremlin, which he has visited once before. his arrest threatens to complicate the already fraught relationship with russia. last mon maria butina pleaded

guilty to spying in the u.s. russia promised not to retaliate. >> it has the as soon as of tit for tat action to me. >> there isoncern among his family that whelan could become political pawn. >> the only thing i can say is to let my brother god and s him back on the next plane they can. >> there are new det tls in death of a u.s. marine inside the barracks onapitol hill. they say the gunshot that killed the marine was not selfenflicted. weold the marine was on duty and in uniform when he died yesterday from a single gunshot wound to the head. the c marineps is investigating whether the gunshot was accidental or what is fially called negligent

discharge of a weapon. right now the marine's priority is to take care of those involved, tnamely marine's family and friends. >> so far the marine's name and age in yesterday's incident has not been. releas it sao new year and that means a number of new laws are effect. one of them says hospitals must post the prices for services online. as stephanie goss reports, it is taking thetery out of your health costs. >> from cars to clothes to food, we always know the cost befe we pay. there one exception, hostal care. the federal government is requiring hospitals to post their prices on. michael frank wanted to know how

much a hipeplacementco would st before he had the surgery. >> out of pock, fra had to pay $10,000. now hospitals will have to post prices. but it's complicated. jeannie pinder runs a web site that helps patients save money. she gave as you tour of how hospitals are now posting their prices. what benef doest give patients? >> we're not 100% sure because the ices, the sticker prices and charged prices are often wildly inflated. >> reporter: patient out-of-pocket costs vary dependin on coverage and deductibles. officials admit thi is just the first step towards transparency g.icalth care int prthe end ofit, what should you do?

>> we recomnd people ask how much will it cost me? can i have that in writing? will there be any other charges? >> reporter: in othewords, insist on getting the price tag long before cutti t chuck. >> did you make a resolution for maybe you want to lose weight, e quicer of congressing quit smoking or exercise more? unfortunaty we know that resolutions only last a month or two. it's always so hard this time of the year. why is it so difficult to stick r resolutions? why do so many people fail at thha? >> becausee is hard. if things were that easy to change, we wouldn't nee resolution, we would just maybe the changes. i think therere specific things that people are doing when they make resolutions that aren't helpful. t mayby're choosing something

that doesn't resonate with them, that your do something that someone else wants themo do. or they're doing something that's too vague. in order to make lasting changes, you probably need to make cenges in multi other areas of your life. you can't say yex're going to cise more without carving out the time to do that. what am i going to give up, et cetera. >> you say using theym acr smart is a good talstart. >> so s, you say iant to get in better shape. be specific. y i am going to go to the give a half hour to an hour a week. and "m" do something that is measurable. how am i going to track that?

how am i going to measure that? you also want it to be something achievable. you don'tant to from being a couch potato to saying i'm going to do an iron man. no, that's not going to happen. pick somethi you have a decent chance of succeeding in and you want toreak it down into small pieces. the r is for relevant, pink some relevant to you and the "t" is for time limite you want to break things down chunks.aller if you have success along the way and you can see it, that's going to hp with the motivation. >> i like that, smart. is it a smart choice to tell someone else about your resolution or are you just setting yourself up when you keep failing, right? >> i think it's a good idea, especially if you canrab somebody and have them join you in what you're doing. >> drag them . >> guilt always helps, yes. so in general be aware you might

get a little bit of ridicule, might get some people geoffing youd time. but in general telling pop and forming a group is going to lead to more success. >> i think one of the be p resolutionple make is building better relationships with hers. it's a what's your advice? >> don't give unsolicit $ advice. it annoys the heck out of everybody. only give advice when asked. particularly we' talking about family members here and in particular kids. so when your kids have a problem they're experiencing, instead of you trying to solve the problem, listen to the problem, reflect back to them, make sure you understand it and then ask them would like my advice on that? >> so hard to do. >> so hard but so helpful. ask the question to your family, your spouse,er what what am i doing and what am i not doing th you wish i would do or stop doing. and you can hear what they have

to saynd if it resonates for you, take that on as one of your resolutions. the final thing i give people hugs. they found that four hug as day r 20 seconds a pop improves your relationship. g>> wow,at advice for the new year. dr. joshua winer, thank you as always. >> four hugs a kday,p track. and we're tracking rain.

while the rest of the world welcomed thein year with fireworks and champagne, one local family was rushing to the hospital. just 34ec sds into the new year, look at this angel. she one of the first babies of the new year inhe dmv, took cr first breath inside the shadivilleter in rockville.

her parents weren't expecting to have a new year's baby. mom wasn't due until january 13th. >>he was in a rush to come. >> it's amazing. we're happy and blessed and really happy that she's healthy. >> what a beautiful bald. she has an sibling who just turned 1 on december 23rd. god bless that family. she's going to be busy. what a blessing for the new year. >> i've seen that clip a couple times this morning. >> there's nothing more precious y.an a newborn b >> well -- >> i know, lauryn. >> on to that now.it so gray outside. i can't say anything that's going too bring in too muchsu hine to our viewers. it's just a gloomy day out

cloudy and cool.e' again, looking at dry conditions as we head through but after about 9:00, 10:00 tonight, that's when we could see rain showers. we're not sging anythinut there right now. we're dry right now. we've got a frontal system at's stalled just to the south of it us and we've got areas of low pressure that will go rht alon this front and bring rain

to the mid-atlantic. since this frontal system is to the south of us a lot of rain. south of d.c., you have a better chance of seeing rain tomorrow night. i've moved back the time a little bit. after 9:00 or 10:00 we'll see rainhowers more in. then it's out of here by tomorrow morning at 9:00. and then we're looking a lot better as we head through your day on yourthursday. but we do have rain on friday. we'll talk more about that coming up. friday and saturday rain em chances,ratures in the 50s. sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday dry with sunny skies. >> looking forward to the sunshine returning. thank you, lauryn. if you have decided to add a few more veggies in your diet, stick around to see what we're cooking, street

a lot of people kick off the

new year with new eating goals. for some that means eating more plant-based foods. a modern israeli eatery in d.c. is shouk. your customers have been asking you for falafel. and you waited. >> yes. we wanted to make sure we did it well. we were known as this multi-facetted concept and then weep said, you know, okay, i think it's time. the customers have really been pushing f it, it's time to listen to them. >> tell us about your >>version.

e decided if we're going to do floridalafel, we had to do i route. our falafel is gluten free, which is unique. we did a lot of traveling, a lot of research. we spent a lot of time before we landed on the product that we wanted to do the most. youe can h it on a sandwich or over rice and greens. we have our israeli cabbage, our israeli salad, chopped cucumber, tomato, onion,ha mix all together. it comes together nicely. what brings it together for me and a lot of our customerswe use our signature tahina, which comes from israel. and the las things that pushes its way over the edge, which is

shroug, a yemenite hot sauce, cilantro and garlic and parsley and jalapeno. d noyou have to have a fryer to make falafel at home? is this potentiallyomething you can do in a pan? >> you have to have a fryer. you need the depth of the oil,u eed the fryer. people try to bake it for a healthier optigr, that's t, but it does not come out the same. can you not get that crisp texture and moist center driving all the flavors home. >> there are plenty of home ooks that have fryers -- not me. in my opinion let the experts do

it. i have to ask youbout your shouk burger. everyone is sayin it's one of the best vegetarian burgers out there. >> the shouk burger is special to me and to shouk. it really took on a life of its own. it is a labor intensive process to make it. it not something someone can replicate. in could be aing the best things do take a long time. it'stibel. it has such depth of flavor and textures. it checks all the boxes. we do have many people who come he store and have the shouk burger and tellhe us don't realize it's not meat and theyh say didn't miss it. they come in because of all the things that take sowonderful. i'm not vegetarian but that's good. tey have locations. dennis friedman from shou

thanks for joining us. see us for luncime, we're all hungry. >> coming up next, a beauty queen

1 women recently vied for the title of miss distric usa. one contestant said smiling

didn't always come easy because for much of her life her mother was in and out of jail and she was in and out of foster re. we have one woman's storage of pageantry and perseverance. ter: on the edge of our seats we relived the final seconds. >> contestant number 13! >> winning would be nice but simply having confidence to complete was her goal. >> growing up i didn'ti had much confidence. my mother after her being incarcerated, my dad being an alcoholic. r reporter: cordelia and sister were in and out of foster care. at one point she was actually homeless. >> i actually tried to commit id su i called 911 and the ambulance came and got me.

>> reporter: that marked a new beginning, trying to build self-confidenc she worked hard in school and at 16 she even competed in a butte eye p -- beauty pageant. >> i had no id i whatas getting myself into. >> she didn't win. when you don't feel good about yourself, it's hard. >> i was told i would end up pregnant and end up in jail. i didn't want to end up like that. i persevered and i graduated. >> reporter: after high school, she went to college. >> i got a scholarship and beuse i was a ward of the state, t py helped for it as well. >> she earned her mas rs in social work and was encouraged to runis for missict of columbia. >> i went if there thin there t

was going to win and i didn't and i was humbled. >> she was encouraged to try again. >> i am miss district of columbia usa 2008. i have to do the math now. it's been about 11 years. ve i felt like she had a story thatone needs to hear, not just in the district but nationally and internationally. the usa system but especially miss district of columbia usa is really big on that.eo they want s who can make positive change. t reporter: she says people are wrong whonk it's all about evening gowns and swim suits. > those kind of things are laughable to me. i am a supreme court licensed, barred attorney. each and every one of these girls that come and this is just one stepping stone in their life. they all have stories. they a social workers, doctors, lawyers, musicians, writers.

>> reporter: cordcordelia has a masters in social work, she's earned her confidence. everything else is just icingn the cake. >> just looking back and looking at all the things that i was able to overcome, i was just thrilled that i was where i am today. >> what an incredible story. as miss district of columbia usa, she will compete in the miss universe contest later this year. d.c. has a pretty good track rerd for picking winners, 2016 and 2017 both went on to win miss usa. good luck. >> one last check of the forecast now with storm team4 meteorologist lauryn ricketts. how's it looking, lauryn? >> it'slo lookingy out there. we'll continue to see the clouds through much of of the day. some of lus see rain after 9:00 or 10:00 tonight. if you're d.c. south and east, a

better chance of rain. towards the shenandoah valley, you look dry. we dry out tomorrow. and then we've got more rain arriving a we hea through friday afternoon and friday evening. that's going to stick around with us all through the day on saturday. and then we dry out on sunday. temperatures on sundays back into the mid 50s. there was a chance we could have rain on tuesday. that's going to be something we're going to have to watch. fort the mart we get that rain out of here by the time we head into saturday night. sunday looking a lot better. >> thank you. that does it for news4 midday. we are back on the air this afternoon fir at 4:00. you can get the news and weather updatesimny w

♪ we're live in five, four, three, two, one.>> hey. >> oh. >> happy new year, everyboe! welc to 2019. we're here on "access." natalie will be back tomorrow. how was yr newyear's, my friend? >> really very good. my mom came out for the holay. mysisters. it was rainy and cold and colder in l.a. than it wasin in anapolis where they're from. she goes, what is the allure of l.a. again? tell me what it is. and then we went to santa monica. t she sais is living. >> settle in, mama. it was great. all family all the