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right now on "news4 this week," the price to park. why youoon could be payingre mohan six bucks an hour to rk in some parts of the district. overdose spike. a warning about a dangerous increase in drug deaths in part of northern virginia. plus, remembering mlk. a look at the tributes in our area to a civil rights icon. >> announcer: welcome to "news4 this week." hello, everyone, i'm leon harris this week police in alexandria sounded the alarm after a sudden spike in suspected opioid overdoses. four people suffered overdoses over the weekend. two of them northern virginia bureau chief julie carey reports detectives are now trying to find the source of the deadly drugs and steer overdose survivors into

treatment.te >> rep an alarming pattern in alexandria over the holiday ekend. four suspected opioid overdoses in just 72 hours. two women died. one call came in from this aldi customertore when a was found unconscious n bathroom. >> 30-year-old breathing hea in the bathroom and is unconscious. >> reporter: alexandria health officials and police not waiting to sounding the alarm. >> we have created a spike ale system. when we see a certain number within a certain amount of time, we know there could be a public safety andh issue. so we want to push out that information as quickly as possr:le. >> reporith this overdose spike, they're still awaiting the medical examiner's reports to found out what's to blame, whether it's deadly fentanyl or something else. investigators are moving ahead to try to find a source, while encouraging the surviving overdose victims to get treatment. >> our primary goal is to get people who overdosed help and

treatment. after that we try to disrupt the istribution ofnd narcotics at a higher level. >> reporter: the help starts with a new initiative. detectives deliver this recovery bag to overdose survivors. ong the items inside, a phone programmed with numbers leading to treatment. >> in them areed pluwo phone numbers, a detective's phone number and treat nt system phone number. 25% of the time we've connected with the person and got the help. that's extraordinary. >> reporter: police and city officials hope their warning will g to tho struggling with addiction and their loved ones. an impor tnt part ofir message, the opioid reversal drug narcan, can be picked up for free at the alexandria health department. i'm juliecarey, news4. no one is going to like hearing this but prices are going up to park i one busy part of the district. adam tuss took a look at how much you're going to have to pay the next time you drive to penn quarter. >> reporter: pretty substantial changes when it comes to parking

meters in part of the city. we're talking about the penn quarter section of the district where it now could cost as much as $6.50 per hour to park at metered spot during some portions of the day. now, of course ddot and the city have been workinggrn a p where they charming you more to park during peak events, like a wizards game or caps game. the idea is that you encourage turnover and people won't park for long periods of time and able toople will be finding a parking spot. nevertheless, some people say that's a bit steep, $13 for two hours on the sereet, but t parking changes are going into effect and you should be ready for it. back to you. >> thank you, adam. decriminalize to fare evasion on metro is one step closer to becoming law. d.c. couoril votedhe first time to override a vetorom mayor muriel bowser. we've shown you people cheating the system jumping the turnstiles. under this new law if you're

caught you'll face a $50 fine, however, you won't face jail time and a criminal charge. supporters fordecriminalization says stiffer punishment unfairly targets poor people. the mayor sided with metro and said it loses between5 and $50 million a year from fare evade evaders. this wee we remember dr. martin luther king jr. s day one of service, reflection and honor, all in the name of the man who helped chge the course of civil rights in this country. news4's derrick ward showsib us the es to dr. king in d.c. >> reporter:t's a holiday, but not one for resting and this year for those viewing one of the big parades, not one for being warm. >> is pretty cold out here. >> reporter: on martin luther king avenue in the an costia section, the mlk parade has been a fixture for years and charles

has found a prime viewing spot for most of them. >>'ve been coming even before it was aouoliday. i wa here then. >> reporter: the frigid temperatures weren't enough to chill the spirits of those who came and braved the arctic air. >> yes, i am brave eno >> reporter: and managed to play on and people marched proudly with their banners, be tgy younr seasoned. all across the area events and opportunities that embody the theme of the holiday being a day on and not a day off. in alexandria at washingn lee high school, some young people volunteeredwi to help other food and books, food for the mind. >> we learned some interesting facts about mlk, nothing everybody knew. .c.reporter: back here in where the parade ended, service started. service to the community. >> part oe dream is helping, someone else reaching out to someone else. >> reporter: and for charles, on

the day we remember a man taken from us in a time of turmoil, call to reinvigorate that man's dream which liveson. >> we as a world need to come together. >> reporter: and if that indeed happens, perhaps then we will have livedo upe vision that he left us with. at the mlkme rial, derrick ward, wnews4. hen we come back, new year, new school. a look at the new digs for some students in alexandria, and how the teachers there helped them ma that transition mid-school year. plus, we'll show you how a young woman took a cancer diagnosis and turned it into a way to give back to others. i'll introduce you to this i'll introduce you to this week's harri hero.

it hasn't always been easy, has it? ♪ there have been days when you doubted yourself. ♪ and days when you were ready to quit. ♪ but you didn't. ♪ because you had the courage to venture into something powerful. education. if i leave you with just three words of advice: never...stop...growing. [cheering]

hopes of a minimum wage hika in virgiere dashed in the state senate this week. a bill that would have gradually raised the minimum wage to $15 hour had republican support, but it died by a 21-19 margin. that means virginia's minimum

wage will remain ho.25 an, which is the same as what's mandated by federal law. wages i d.c., maryland and even west virginia are all higher. students left patrick henry school in alexaria last week to never return again. well, now they're attding the new patrick henry k-8 school on the same property. the new building has been fiven yearse making. the classrooms are bigger and more modern. there's a new indoor performance space, and the city's new recreation center is also attached. the school's teachers had a big role in the mid-yearov mo. over the coming months, the original building will be torn down to make w for athletic fields and additional parking. if you want to see a time lapse of the construction or find out more about the newschool, just search patrick hen on the nbc washington app. when we come back, a young t woman'se against cancer inspires her to find a way to make things better for others walking the same walk. i'll introduce you to this

week's harris' hero. plus, what do you do all that unused medication lying around your house? one part of our area is starting a new program to make sure tse unused drugs don't fall into the wrong hands.

a problem with unused or outdated prescription drugs is they're often discarded the wrong way.re well, t a new push in fairfax county to do something about that. northern virginia bureau chief julie carey explains. >> reporter: tow away doesn't necessarily mean go away. drugs thrown in the trash or down the drain end up in the vevironment or maybe in the wrong hands. finding these substanssu substances are becoming ubiquitous in our streams. it's a concern that we identify what are those effects and how do we better control them. >> reporter: officials infa fa county wanting to keep problems like that from

happening. they havre addedription drop boxes to every police station in the county, expanding on a pilot program that turned out to be effective. >> people arera encd to drop off their unused or unneeded medications toro these d box locations. it's a safe and convenient way to dispose of old, unused medication b it to end up in the wrong hands. >> reporter: but there's some things you should not bring to the drop boxes. >> prohibited items include needles or sharps of any kind, liquids of any nd, illegal narcotics or drugs, or drugs from businesses or inics. >> reporter: residents can also get rid of unwanted drugs at either of theun 's drug take-back events or a activation kit that neutralizes the medicine. >> people put their medicin in and then it can go in the trash. many of the clinics in the unty have the deactivation bags that you can grab and take with you. >> reporter: in northern virginia, i'm julie carey, news >> for more information on what you can and can't put in those drop boxes, the a locatio

other ways to get rid of unwanted prescription drugs, jup search drug dxes on our nbc washington app. you know, someoids want follow in the footsteps of their parents. some choose a different path. the son of maryland basketball coach mark turgeon saidhe tha wanted to play basketball while still letting his dad be a dad. sherree burruss shows us this unique bond for father and son. >> it's nerve racking. coaching is a lotn easier t being a dad. >> at the end of the day i can hear him on the sideline. he's also a fan. he's really nervous. it's really cool to see him. i'm not used to that. >> reporter: mark turgeon is used to drawing b plays on the delines or saying something after a big win as t head coach of the maryland men's basketball team nowadays, you'll see him in the bleachers watching his son,

will, a freshman guard f the cardinals. >> i'm all dad. will has really never let me coach him, so i've always been a dad to him. he's got enough coaches and enough going on in his life. iust try to support him. >> i lot of people asked me why i walk on at maryland or play for my dad. one reason is i wanted to actually the second reason is i didn't want my career path to be made because i'm mark turgeon's son. i want to be willrg n, the catholic university basketball player. >> i looked at will asre high-level division iii basketball player. the last d nameoesn't matter when you have those kind of skills. >> reporter: the turgeons have always been connected through f their love o basketball, but that doesn't meaneing a coach's kid is easy. >> you know, you get a lot of crap from fans on social media and fans in person. like your dad shouldn't be here, blah, blahah . thankfully i felle in lov with the game thanks to him, so our relationship has been very

strong through sports, which i'm very thankful for. i'm hoping that i can do some things over the next four years here and make him very proud. >> let me let you in on something here, right before the end of her interview with coach turgeon, she says that he got a little choked up talking about his son's cocomplishments. h asked that we not show that part of the interview and we are respecting his shes, t clearly you can tell just how proud he is of his son, for good ason. now, as we mark teen cancer awareness week, we want to introduce you to a cancer survivor who took her experience as motivation to make treatment easier for othersho have the same challenge. nikki was 17 years old when she was diagnosed with a rare form of thyroid cancer, and then she foundut thereeren't enough support resources geared toward teenagers with thedisease, so she decided to do something about it. that's why nikki is this week's harris' hero. alone. e not in this >> reporter: today nikki is

visiting a patient with cancer at a nova hospital. >> and you wish somebody was doing this when you were in the hospital? >> i do. >> reporter: she's here to hand out a teen support bag. >> hi. here you go. >> thank you. >> yeah. i hope you enjoy it. we picked the items out. hopefully it can help make the time here a little easier. >> reporter: she came up with the idea after spending so much time herself in the hospital, battling a rare form of cancer. >> people would be senng me gifts and stuffed animals and coloring books.ci while i appated that, it wasn't tgeted towards me at 17. >> reporter: so these are designed wit teens in mind. >> you have a stress ball, adult colori book, a journal, another thing to pass,he time ok sudoku >> reporter: eight years after that first organization, her organization called bite me cancer has taken off.an they now hd out bags to patients at 115 hospitals in 45 states. >> it's pretty good to use the cards and the games. it was just good to pass the

time. >> i just wanting to be able to relate to themnd know that they're not in this alone. i've been there. i want them to be happy when they get it. >> reporter: she's thankful for how the organization has grown, but theost meaningful moments come from the time spent with the patients. >> we had aeen who was diagnosed when she was in high school and her peers were jus so mea to her. like didn't believe that she altually had cancer. i just rememberng to her and she was telling me that i'm such this light for her. i was just like me? i'm inspiringo you? and her having to put up with all of that just really spoke ti me, andas like, okay, what i'm doing is making a difference i've made a difference. >> and her passion for making a s you can see there, is very, very real.

nikki told me that in those moments lik that, she feels like her battle with thyroid cancer was all worth it. ated theirncer ini first teen cancer awareness week in virginia back in 2015. so if you'do iket involved or learn more about bite me cancer's mission, che out the nbc washington app and search harris' hero w. when come back, kartin lutherg day is celebrated as a day of service. we'll introduce you to a mother whonswered that call

the spirit of dr. martin luer king jr. h inspired people to give back and volunteer each year.4' ne meagan fitzgerald talked with one local volunteer who explifies that spirit all year long, helping others as she heals from the incredible string of tragedies in her own life. >> reportees for dec the united planning organization, or

upo, has been a helping saving lives. >> we serve t underserved population in washington, d.c. >> reporter: aiann is the director and volunteers here. she knows firsthand the impact her organization has on neighbors, who are struggling to survive. >> we provide child care, an early learning department, job neacement, job training. >> reporter: but particular volunteer provides more than just food and resources. >> my name is wanda. >>he is someone people can relate to. >> reporter: her name is wanda dudley, andiv she ges hope to people who feel like life has dealt them annbearable nd, because she once felt that way too. >> my husband actually passed away. well, he was killed in 2015. and my oldest son, he died in june of last year, 2018, from pneumon pneumonia. nt reporter: just last her youngest son, richard, was

gunned down on elvins road i southeast. >> it's the trial and tribulation that i go through on a daily sis. >> reporter: but if you meet wanda, you'd never know about the pain she carries. joy.t's an unexplainable i can't explain it. when i come, people they smile at mend i don't come with mypr lems. >> reporter: her pain and depression disappears while wanda is serving and helping to save the lives of others. few will ever realize that they are the ones helping to save hers. >>undercover they don't even know, you know, that i pull joy from them. >> reporter: in the district, i'm meagan fitzgerald, news4. >> wanda, you're the kind of person that makes this world work. thank you for what you do. that's allor f "news4 this week." i'm leon harris. we'll leave you now with more images from martin luther king day. thanks for joining us. have a great week.

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