federal workers are on unscheduled leave. uncle sam will close four hours early today. dc public schools close at noon. get the complete list at wusa9.com. you know, andrea, you are doing the virginia list and it would be quicker to say the open ones. >> i think i wouldn't have anything to say. >> maryland has early dismissals in many cases but the closures seem to be in virginia and southern maryland. >> that's where the track of the storm is going starting in

virginia. >> it is snowing already in lynchburg and roanoke. for us, could be 10:00, 11:00, 12:00 at the latest i think the snow will begin in washington. show you what is happening outside. looking at the satellite and radar. you see snow in southwestern virginia. some light to moderate. rain in west virginia in to north carolina. the atmosphere is cold but only slightly cold for snow. it is not like a super cold air mass. that's why we think some of the areas to our south and southeast will see some sleet or rain mixing in with the snow here as we get in to tonight or this afternoon. that is one thing we will be watching. temperature-wise, we are at 35. notice williamsport is 25. to the north a lot of cold air. if the storm deepens later tonight, off the virginia coast and the carolina coast, it will start to draw in colder air. even in the areas that turn to mix, i expect everybody to go

back to snow during the overnight toward tomorrow morning and then tomorrow will be a snowy day and the winds will pick up with this system. we are looking at maybe near blizzard conditions later on tonight and on saturday. so by 9:00, perhaps a flurry or two, getting close. at noon it is snowing and by 5:00 it is snowing heavily. right now 34. it is 6:02. here's the friday commute info. >> thank you, howard. we are kicking off the 6:00 hour right now and finding on 95 in virginia things are slowing down between the prince william parkway and the mixing bowl. taking you to the inner and outer loop in virginia, no problems to report. green on both sides of the beltway. 66 eastbound, things are starting to fill out. we talk about volume around the route 50 area. no significant delays just yet. on the outer loop in maryland, more drivers are hitting the road here at university and we want to wrap with an all-clear commute on 95 and the bw

parkway. finding our lanes way open down both roads out of baltimore. that's a look at traffic. back to you. the storm will make a mess of local roads. that's why the plow truck and salt crews are already out in force. kristin fisher is live with that part of our coverage. good morning, kristin. >> good morning. we are still six hours away from the start of the next winter snowstorm, but crews here in montgomery county have been hitting the streets. in fact, last night they loaded up a bunch of trucks, 200 trucks, in fact, with salt and some were pretreating the capital beltway in to late thursday evening. now, let's put in this in perspective for you guys. this is the third significant snowstorm in seven days. some of the salt from last tuesday's snowfall is on the road but a spokesman says that's where the similarities stop. he is predicting the weekend storm to be more severe than tuesday's snowfall. >> it appears to be a heavy snowstorm opposed to some other ones that have been light and

fluffy, plow it one time and it is basically done. doesn't look like that is what we will do here. this is about managing expectations for people that are out there. >> so what that means is you need to expect that you are not going to be able to drive on friday night, saturday, saturday night, maybe even on sunday morning. so go out now, get your gas and groceries. do it before the snowstorm hits because who knows what the roads will be like. road crews say they will do their best to clear the roadways as quickly as possible. keep in mind, we are expecting snow to be falling at a rate of up to two inches an hour and the storm is expected to span 36 hours. so road crews can only do so much until the snow indeed stops falling. i want to leave you with one more thing if i can get back to my old tweets. the top trending topics on twitter are gas, groceries,

storm and blizzard. that's what people are talking about this morning. back to you in the studio. >> we will continue to talk about it. we start now in virginia. it's been under a state of emergency since wednesday because of the impending snow. while visiting loudoun county yesterday, governor mcdonnell says the commonwealth is focusing resources on our region. >> we replenished the salt and sand supplies. we redirected some of the trucks that were down in hampton roads last time to come up to northern virginia because this looks like where the heaviest snow will fall. >> reporter: virginia is now using money from the emergency maintenance fund to pay for snow removal. the district says it's ready, too. a state of emergency begins this morning at 9:30. that means 350 pieces of equipment will be out there treating the roads. the city is reminding you to be patient. it may take some time to get to the side streets after the storm. also reminding you to remove your cars off of snow emergency routes after 9:30. for people hoping to fly out before he snow hits, it will be

a trying day. hours before the first flakes, airlines started to slash their schedules. you knowed cancelled all the transatlantic flights to dulles today except london. and you can expect other airlines to start cancelling flights fast. you know the best advice, call your airline ahead of time. metro says be prepared for above-ground rail service to be halted for 18 days. the same thing happened during the storm in december and it happened with an hour or so of warning. trains would only run in the ground ground part of the system. it could be halted completely and we will have announcements from metro as soon as we get them. good luck if you are heading to the store. a thursday night rush has a lot of shelves empty this morning. yes, sir can doyle is live at falls church. the giant just opened up. we know they have bread and

chips. what else is it looking like? >> they also have something that may be the most important thing that you buy today if you don't have this already. this is your windshield washer fluid. so important. i know i was driving to work this morning and saw i'm low so i need to pick this up for myself. this just opened up here at the giant here on route 7, opened up at 6:00 a.m. since it opened, we have seen a steady stream of people going in for the essentials. your toilet paper, your water, your bread. all of those sort of items. of course we have super bowl sunday this weekend. so people are coming out for the super bowl items, as well. saw a huge rush yesterday. we talked to the people here and they said they were jamming from 6:00 a.m. all day long. they are expecting the same today. we have seen a convoy of trucks coming in this morning. they have been dropping off the bread and snack and so on and so forth. milk is obviously in high supply. we need to see if there is some of that inside. we will go in and see what's in

there right now but some nontraditional places you can shop as well if you can't get to the store or if your store is out of stuff. remember, your gas stations have little mini centers. we have one nearby that has milk. i was just in the 24 hour cvs they have tons of water and milk. think outside of the box if your supermarket is no longer stocked up. >> good advice. if you think groceries are hard to find, snow supplies are even more scarce. there was a crush of customers at one store and we asked the manager what people are buying. >> shovels, ice melt, a lot of windshield wash, firewood because people are expecting to be inside for a while, as well. >> the manager also told 9 news the store put in a special order for supplies on wednesday. a lot of them were snatched up as soon as they came in. we will have every angle of the storm covered for you. we will be here with you all morning long and we will have you covered this afternoon as well beginning on a special

edition of 9 news now at noon. tomorrow morning, our extended coverage begins at 6:00 a.m. and join us on sunday morning as well before the super bowl pregame shows. as always, follow the forecast and upload storm pictures at wusa9.com. our time right now, 9 after the hour. ahead a check of other stories making news today. the list of problems is getting longer for toyota. i'm tara mergener in washington. toyota can't seem to get a break as another possible recall looms. the latest coming up. and if you are having a tough time this morning, don't let it set you back. best-selling author and motivational speaker willie jolly explains why it will all come to pass. >> good morning this is willie jolly. today's live better tip for success is focus on helping you overcome this challenging economy. it is taken from my new book turn your set backs in to green backs. throughout the scripture we see it came to pass which means an

event or experience came to fulfillment there is another event that is just as powerful in light of these tough times. if this situation came to pass it did not come top stay. it is member meant to pass, not to last. economic storms like thunderstorms come in to our lives at various times, but you need to stay mindle of of it has come to pass not to stay. and i have been through a number of than i found they shall pass. say to you do not panic, do not jump off any bridges this shall pass. it is not personal nor is it permanent. it came to pass. it did not come to stay. this is willie jolly. visit my website at willie jolly.com. for more information, turning your setbacks in to greenbacks and make this an incredible day. that's yours.

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we get to the latest on toyota's troubles. we are expecting to hear today in the ceo of toyota. it's the first time he's spoken since the recalls began. this morning tara mergener reports on the car companies growing recall list. >> reporter: toyota this morning is denying published reports that it will recall 270,000 prius hybrids. on thursday, the auto giant admitted there are problems with the antilock brakes in the 2010 model. >> it is a weird sensation. like you are driving and when you hit a pothole or some kind of bump, all of a sudden it is lime -- >> 300 people are filed complaints including four reports of crashes. toyota says the problem has

been fixed but only in vehicles sold since late january. they are looking in to other hybrid models including the lexus that uses the same braking system as the prius. another recall will add to toyotas recalled because of sticky gas pedals. >> it is the brick on brick, bad news on bad news that kills your reputation. >> but it is not toyota's reputation that congress is worried about. a house committee plans to hold a hearing to investigate whether the automaker and u.s. transportation officials acted quickly enough. >> you have to look to government's failure throughout the entire period and that's where the primary jurisdiction is. >> one failure could include this federal test conducted more than two years ago. a toyota lexus showed a problem with sticky gas pedals but nothing was done. the transportation department launched its own review, the beginning of what will likely be a long road for toyota. on captiol hill, i'm tara mergener , 9 news now.

coming up on 6:14. we have the late closings and early dismiss -- dismissals. we start in maryland --

bottom of our screen and it is always at wusa9.com. >> we have to add jefferson, west virginia and i believe morgan and berkeley also. we are just going to confirm that. we probably are. but we will double check it for you. >> anyone left in northern virginia? >> i don't believe so. calvert county i didn't hear. we will get that information, as well. that was conspicuously absent. >> weather wise the snow is coming. we will start with live doppler hd. we can show you the ring of snow around the radar site to our northwest, our southeast and our south. that is snow. that is aloft. it is in the upper levels of the atmosphere. not reaching the grown and you will see it get tighter and tighter as the upper level snow gets closer. eventually it will moisten up and hit the ground and you will know it. i will start light and get heavier as the day progresses and could take two to three hours from beginning to

moderate snow. show you the forecast first the next three days. we are looking at snow developing later this morning in to the noon hour. heavy at times this afternoon and windy, too. we will see mixing south and southeast. tomorrow a windy day. could be near blizzard conditions at times tonight and tomorrow. temperatures in the upper 20s and then sunday a lot better and low 30s. needless to say, winter storm warnings are up for everybody. the momslikeme.com forecast. 28 to 35 with cloudy skies. sun is up 7:10 this morning. and today the snow will get heavy this afternoon. could be two to six inches by dark, especially to our west with the heavier snows. some mixing. again southeast that will keep accumulations down. highs in the this mid-30s. northeast winds 10 to 15 miles an hour. heavy snow and win tonight. anyone who is mixed will turn back to all snow by morning. five to 15 more. highs near 30. northeast winds 15 to 25 and then snow and wind will be tapering off tomorrow, afternoon, from a foot in the

areas that saw more rain to 2 1/2 feet north and west of town where it will be all snow. blizzard warnings are in delaware and also for coastal new jersey. everybody, look at this, from southern pennsylvania, ohio, indiana, through the carolinas, virginia, maryland, west virginia, winter storm warnings has this crippling storm is getting ready to move in. you can see it is snowing though the south and west in roanoke and lynchburg and that is moving north and east. 32 orange. culpeper is 30. here in washington we sit above freezing at the moment. 34. a south wind, light at six miles an hour and the dew point in the middle 20s. another historic storm, probably a top tenner. heaviest is friday night in to saturday morning. near blizzard conditions at times, as well. some of that mixing south and east. as far as the storm itself, you see the moisture here and another piece of energy. we want to show you the storm accumulations. anywhere from 16 to 24 for much of the region.

more mixing south. possibly up to 2 1/2 feet for central and northern shenandoah valley. a big big storm. here's the seven-day forecast. it will snow today and tomorrow. tonight you know that. some of the drifts could be as tall as i am. we are talking 32 degrees on sunday. monday, maybe as tall as angie. and a couple of snow showers. >> thank you. the time is 6:18. tgif. we are getting snow by at least it is friday. hope you are off to a good one. begin with inbound new york avenue. lights are reported on flash at the bladensburg road. treat this as a four-way stop. we are seeing backups toward the times buildings. slow go is between germantown road and 370. over to the maps we go, route 4, route 5, crane highway. no issues to report out here.

take it outside and show you 395. things are starting to slow down from duke to seminary. i'm saying plus five minutes and that is building. keeping it going. we take it to the maps. some issues on the train to tell you about. met throw is on time. vre is on schedule. take note, they are running extra trains starting 12:55 p.m. and 1:15 p.m. after getting word that government workers will be getting out of work early, four hours early to expect more congestion on the trains and then amtrak we are hearing they are not going to have any service available this evening. as far as marc riders are concerned getting word that 890 on the brunswick line has been cancelled. 92 is the next train. back to you. a story that is new this morning, fairfax county leaders approve a budget overhaul for county schools. the school board approved it last night. it asked for $82 million from

officials, $24 million than jack dale requested. the extra money would go to keeping class sizes the same and keep foreign language education in elementary school, freshmen sports and funnel money to under performing schools. it now heads to the county board of supervisors. unemployment numbers are due out in two hours and it is forecast to go up. this follows worst close in three months ♪ [ music ] the dow fell over 2 1/2% on thursday. it finished at 10002. asian and european markets are down in trading this morning. it is 6:20. ahead sports, maryland takes it to the limit in its game against florida state. check out this goal from ovechkin. if you think that's amazing, just wait three minutes and see what else he did last night. (announcer) pillsbury grands! biscuits,

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good morning. if. if we told you the caps would give up five goals last night you would think the win streak would come to end at 11 games but there are a million ways to win a game and 6-5 is one of them. ovechkin has 37. that's a nasty wrister. 3-2 caps. new york would score three unanswered to go up 5-3 until alex through the legs of the defender. his 38th. and then on the power play, third period, tom for the point. he ties it at five. and five minutes after that

another man advantage. nick buries his 24th and we have a 12-game win streak. they will go for 13 tonight against atlanta. college hoops last night. maryland visiting florida state. we are tied at the start of the second half. sean moseley, and he had 18. the terps got careless with the rock. singleton with the finish and we are tied at 64. 100 picks to go. and you know he is not going to pass and he dunn. terps win by four. and now 5-2. that's a look at sports. i'm brett haber. have a great safe friday. third snowstorm in a week is moving in and it's a big one ahead everything you need to know. the latest accumulation forecast and when the snow will start and end and who has to go to school ;

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dismissals. the federal government will close four hours early but federal workers are on unscheduled leave. as for schools, we start in virginia. these districts are closed --

wusa9.com. the man of the hour, howard bernstein is in the weather center tracking the storm. we still have several hours before we will see the snow. it is not yet to charlottesville but it is snowing in lynchburg and roanoke right now. mid to late morning it will get closer to the metro and, you know, there are people getting ready -- just spoke to charlie in catlett. he delivers propane. he is on 25 hours now. they are doing everything they can to get the deliveries done before they can't get out there any longer. there are people working to get you ready. appreciate that. go to doppler hd. where we see a cone of verga as we call it not reaching the ground. it is getting a little brighter and smaller. that little circle around the radar site and it will take several more hours to fill in. that's why i think anytime after 9:00 or 10:00 we could see the first flakes here in washington. go to the weather computer. we have a lot of moisture feeding in out of the gulf of

mexico. it is pouring heavily across georgia and tennessee and with colder air it will turn in to snow and there's a piece of energy out of the nebraska, kansas area that will join it, as well. we are just getting ready. upper 20s and low to mid-30s right now. later on, temperatures will actually drop we are at 34. it is dry. highs in in the mid-30s. several inches of snow on the ground by sunset. time now is 6:32. half way through the 6:00 hour. we will help you get through the rest. let's begin with the live shot of the outer loop. we are tacking on five to ten minutes to make it from university to georgia. tracking the head lights. moving to 66, hello, virginia. things are filling out between 50 and 123 but no incidents. keeping things going. here's 95 moving well from the prince william parkway to the micking bowl. no tieups or problems to report. and finally good news on inbound new york avenue and northeast dc. those lights a bladensburg road

have been fixed but the delays have not. we are still backed up to the times building. remember wusa9.com for all the traffic needs. just look for the black and gold banner at the top of the home page. hundreds of gas stations ran out of regular grade during december's big storm so people are making sure today their tanks are full. kristin fisher is live at a gas station in silver spring, maryland with more on that. >> i'm happy to report that regular grade fuel is still available at this exxon station in montgomery county. we are on new hampshire road off the capital beltway. i just got gas myself and wanted to stock up while i had down time before the rush gets in and while i was doing that i met this gentleman. tom is from dc but he is out here this morning getting some gas. is that right? >> yes, you are right. >> reporter: why did you decide to come out early to get your gas now? >> because i didn't want to get caught in the traffic later during the day trying to hustle

and bustle to get back home. >> reporter: smart man. did you have any trouble this morning. >> none whatsoever. >> there are quite a few people in line now. not as busy as earlier today and you were able to get some regular fuel, correct. >> yes, i was. >> reporter: good deal. what are your plans now? are you going to be driving around this weekend or hibernating. >> i'm going to the store, pick up milk and bread and hibernate until wednesday. >> until wednesday. hey, i wish i could do that. i will be out in the snow all weekend. well, tom, i will let you get to it. thank you so much for joining us. get home while you can and drive safe. >> nice meeting both of you. >> nice meeting you. >> a few quick tips. if you haven't gotten gas, get gas now while you can. and also if you have to drive, you might want to pack an emergency kit in the car. authority authorities are telling everyone to stay off the road but if you have to drive, bring food, water and

warm clothes because if you get stuck on the roads it could be a while before anyone can get to you. back to you. >> get gas and a lot of people are hoping to get last-minute grocery shopping done. jessica doyle is at a giant in falls church. anything left? >> we have ben with us. we want to introduce you to ben who has a tropical hat on. where would you rather be. >> i am looking forward to going to spring training in fort meyers. >> this is my second trip. now we have the milk, the guacamole for the super bowl. the orange juice, the frozen fruit because my daughter loves smoothies. we have that in here and a couple of paper towels. cream for my and my wife's coffee and my son's birthday is next tuesday so we have to have brownie and stuff for them and my daughter macy loves those, too. we are set for the weekend and  birthday parties and things like that.

>> you were just inside and clearly found the things you need, except there were some things that were missing. what did you see a shortage of? >> there was no ground meat of any kind. no ground turkey. i wanted broccoli and callly flower. none of that i had to get it bagged. no bananaens. what else, some apples but i didn't get any of them. but the shelves are pretty bare, especially if you are looking for chips or super bowl related items. not much. >> you are in fairfax county falls church, kids are home today. what are you going to do with them. >> we will make smoothies. i don't know, are we making brownies today, i'm not sure what we have planned but ava has home work to do. harrisson has birthday preparations to do so we will be doing that kind of thing for the next three days. >> congratulations to harrisson, happy birthday from us here. back to you. >> the family that survives the snowstorm together will stick

for a while. in three hours the district will be under a state of emergency. that means you can't park on any snow emergency route. over 350 pieces of heavy equipment will be out taking care of the roads. the city reminds you to shovel your sidewalk once the storm ends. virginia is already under a state of emergency. the plows and salt truck have been pretreating the roads in the commonwealth. vdot's focus will be on our region. metro says it will be running above-ground rail service as long as it can but be ready for it end to with little notice. if the snow gets too bad like in december don't expect to see any above-ground trains, only lines in tunnels will run and metro will cut back or stop metro bus and met throw access service if needed. amtrak is already cancelling some of its service. all trains from here to richmond and new port news are cancelled except the one that leaves at 7:30 this morning. and trains between here and

lynchburg are cancelled as well as the trains to savannah, georgia. the train to chicago will terminate in huntington, west virginia. power crews will be out ready to deal with downed lines or outages. a spokeswoman from virginia told 9 news now what the power company needs from its customers. >> reporter: one is to be prepared and the other is to make sure, to notify us if they are without power. often times people assume that we know, but in fact that is not the case. >> for any power-related issues here's the numbers to call. for dominion it is 800-667- 3000. call pepco at 877-pepco-62 and the number for bge is 800-685- 0123. those numbers are on our website. we will have every angle of the storm covered for you and we will be here all morning long and we will have you covered this afternoon beginning on a special edition of 9 news now

at noon. and tomorrow our extended coverage begins at 6:00. join us on sunday morning as well before the super bowl pre- game show. as always, follow the forecast an upload your pictures at wusa9.com. it is 6:39. ahead the story stories making news this friday. montgomery county backs down from cuts to the ride-on bus system. and super bowl 44 is just days away. a look ahead in five minutes. xxówóióiói

a few nfl players teamed up with steve harvey and other volunteers on thursday. they renovated seven homes in the coconut grove community in south florida. and remember this is the place to watch super bowl xliv

kickoff. our super coverage begins at noon and we will recap the game and the great commercials on monday morning here on 9 news now. well, weather permitting the capitals will go for their 13th win in a row tonight. it's at home against atlanta. last night it took a three-goal outburst to keep the streak alive. >> rebound for them. he fire and scores. >> reporter: the caps scored three unanswered goals on the rangers. washington beats new york 6-5. college hoops, virginia tech visiting unc. delany scored 21 points for the hokies they beat the tar heels and tech hosts clemson tomorrow. and the wizards are setting up a ticket exchange program because of the snowstorm. tomorrow night's game against the hawks is still planned for a 7 p.m. tipoff, but fans can exchange

tickets for the wednesday, february 17th game against minnesota. you have to do that, though, at the verizon center box office. it is 6:44. howard bernstein is coming in with the latest from his weather instrument. >> just checking out where it is snowing already. still lynchburg and roanoke and abouting on the and southwestern, down 81 if you are heading through tennessee they are raining right now. that's where the transition area is for us. we are wait and watching on live doppler hd. in the median or middle levels of the atmosphere. switch over to radar. and you can see the rain developing to the west and southwest and southeast. that is snow or moisture. several thousand feet upstair and too dry to reach the ground and you will see the big ring. of course you will become a doughnut and tighten in on us as the snow levels drop closer to us and we will be snowing. i think we will be snowing perhaps even here in washington. the first flakes at 9:00 or 10:00 and by the afternoon the

snow will really pick up. the next three days, the forecast first. we have temperatures which will get in the mid-30s through midday. dropping in to the lower 30s with the snow picking up this afternoon. tonight, tomorrow, snow heavy at times, winds, strong at times, near blizzard conditions. the only thing that will keep accumulations down will be any mixing of sleet or rain in our southern an southeastern areas. otherwise looking at a lot of snow. another historic snowstorm. 32 on sunday. we start the big dig. the momslikeme.com bus stop forecast for those going this morning, cloudy and cold. 28 do 35. the sunrise is 7:10. this afternoon the snow will be increasing. again, i think somewhere late this morning, noon hour it will start to snow. we will get a couple of hours where maybe it won't be so bad and mid to late afternoon it really comes down. two to six inches out west by dark over to the shenandoah

valley. highs in the mid-30s. tonight heavy snow and the mix south and east. anywhere from five to 15 inches more. we could be snowing one to two inches an hour at times tonight. maybe even more than that. a clap of thunder not out of the question. lows near 30s with the winds picking up. snow and wind will taper off late tomorrow afternoon. anywhere from a foot far south and east. northern neck where you will have more mixing to potentially two and a half feet in northern virginia, shenandoah valley. where you will be all snow. i can't believe i'm telling you this, 12 to 30. mind boggling. white is all winter storm warnings. pink is blizzard warnings along the coast. this is a large storm and the moisture is getting in to southwestern virginia. it looks worse here again. this isn't reaching the ground. it will take several hours for the atmosphere to moisten up. 28 for the cold spot. a lot of areas 30 like

martinsburg and frederick and culpeper. easton is 30. annapolis and washington sit at 34. we are looking at a lot of moisture coming in here. you can see that. we have upper level energy here and big-time snow totals coming for you. we will look at that later and you can always look at it at wusa9.com. here's the seven day, big time snow later today, tonight and tomorrow sunday and monday are dry and the system is hopefully nothing more than snow showers on tuesday and wednesday. here's angie. >> thank you, howard. the time is 13 minutes from the 7 hour. we are going to begin with the interstate, 270 in particular, heading southbound, a slow go is what we are tracking from germantown road to 370. as we take you over to virginia. 395 northbound. delayed from edsall to seminary. i'm saying you are tacking on an extra seven to ten minutes for that stretch of a commute. 495 in virginia. check it out, nice and green. i like it. the inner and outer loop

looking nice to 66. no issues to report. as we go to the trains, i want you to know about metro. once we get eight inches on the ground they suspend above- ground service. yellow line will run pentagon to crystal city and the red line will run from medical center to union station. and orange and blue lines will run from ballston over to stadium armory and green from fort totten to congress heights. we will have this available at wusa9.com. just click on the black and gold traffic banner at the top of the home page. that's the latest. now, over to you. it is 6:48. the investigation in to the actions of an off-duty dc police detective during a snowball fight is done. detective baylor was captured on video last month. his gun drawn on adread gathered at 14th and u streets northwest. according to witnesses he got out of his vehicle and pulled his gun when one of the snowballs hit his suv. police chief says although the investigation is complete she has not yet seen the results.

he has been on desk duty since the incident. montgomery county executive ike leggett submitted a plan regarding cuts to the county's ride-on bus service. he originally proposed cutting routes but according to the new proposal it calls for cutting three weekday route and for a 25 cents fare hike and $5 increase in parking fines. later this month, the national transportation safety board will hold a hearing in to last june's fatal metro crash. the february 23rd hearing is expected to focus on the accident as well as federal oversight of all of the nation's rail systems. you'll recall nine people were killed june 22nd when track safety signals failed to work, leading to the crash. while you slept, little butter stick, big boy now, touched down in china. more than 14 hours after the fed, plane left dulles airport it landed in his new home.

this is video from the airport in china. tai shan now has a two hour ride to his truck in his new home. the caretakers here at the national zoo have been preparing him for this his whole life. >> with tai shan , we always relied heavily on hand signals and less on verbal cues because we knew at some stage of his life he wouldn't understand what the verbal cues were. >> reporter: tai shan will now live in a place called a wulan panda base and hopefully have a few cubs of his own to restore the species. the temperature 34 degrees here in northwest washington. in three minutes a look at storm preparations including the rush to get out of town at area airports. we'll be right back. breathe right, the small strip that gives you...

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major roads. however side streets may not be cleared for days. expect stores to be packed this morning. this is what it looked like last night. the whole foods was so packed the manager had to shut it down. a live look at national airport. it is crowded this morning with people trying to get out of town. several airlines have already announced they are cancelling flights starting this afternoon. howard? light snow is reported at the shenandoah valley regional airport. we could see the first flakes toward 9:00. getting heavy this afternoon. several inches by 5:00. the temperature dropping to 32. seven-day forecast and angie's traffic when we return.

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in virginia. in virginia these districts are closed -- the complete list is on our website and at the bottom of the screen. we are slow from edsall to seminary. if you are continuing to 39567

over on 66 eastbound. no problems out of centreville. we are seeing more drivers between 50 and 123. and in maryland, the outer loop delay. it is here from new hampshire to georgia. the good news is no incidents to report. snow toward charlottesville and stanton. during the mid to late morning it will spread toward us. this afternoon it will be heavy. heavy off and on through tomorrow. some mixing south and east. 12 to 30 inches across the region. by sunday, 32 and monday, dry. tuesday and wednesday looking at a potential for a couple of snow showers. hopefully not more than that. we will have extended coverage coming up all day and all weekend. >> the "early show" is next. they are live in miami with the super bowl preview. we're not biased here. >> coming up the latest on the storm's track and how the local governments are getting ready. >> you can track the storm all