from the first local station with news in high definition, this is 9 news now. brace yourself. by this time tomorrow we could all be under at least a foot of snow. grocery rush. hurry up and make that grocery store run while supplies last. the shelves at most stores are already bare. and they made it in. the mind over money segment is back. we have six experts to help handle your questions. start to dial them right now at 202-432-9045. good morning, everyone. i'm andrea roane. thanks for joining us on this mind over money friday, february 5th. we'll get to our show in just a minute but first here's a look at the school closings for this friday morning -- the federal

government is closing four hours early. you can get a complete list and of course they are running at the bottom of the screen. for our experts ready to take your calls on this mind over money friday for mortgage or refinancing health call bernie hall. jim due prix and james ward are talking taxes and james can help you get out of credit card debt. the number two call is 202-432- 9045. we will be answering your questions on the phones and in person until 9:30 this morning. that means howard is the man of the hour. >> the snow is breaking out now. culpeper and luray and charlottesville and richmond reporting snow. show you on live doppler hd. we have been watching that little hole around washington.

we see that first widen out and then it gets smaller and smaller as the snow levels drop because the initial snow is not reaching the ground. the blue line is where it is snowing south of the line and i have drawn it too far south. we know it is in culpeper. maybe like this area to the south of the fredericksburg region and this is slowly moving to the northeast. i think by 10:00 it could be snowing here in dc, seeing the first flake and this afternoon things will go downhill. show you the wideer picture. moderate to heavy snow. portions of southwestern virginia up to roanoke and blacksburg getting in to charlottesville now and all of that moisture is heading our way. temperatures are right now probably about as warm as they will be all day. we will see temperatures dropping off especially this afternoon. i expect several inches of snow on the ground by dark. so if you can get out of work early, 11:00, 12:00 head home that's what i would be doing. we will hear about how the

weather is affecting the traffic with more. >> if you are hitting the roads right now, let's give you a camera tour. shall we? i will be your guide. on the outer loop in maryland, everything is nice and dry and smooth. live from university. inner loop is fine, as well. we will take it to the district. live from 15th and pennsylvania. few drivers are out on the road. no issues to report. and in virginia roads are clear here. 395 northbound a smooth commute to the 14th street bridge. remember, all the traffic needs at wusa9.com. just look for the black and gold banner at the top of the home page. andrea, back to you. the radios look good right now but the heavy amount t of snow will make a mess of the roads. plow and salt crews are already hitting the roads. kristin fisher is in bethesda with more. >> reporter: good morning. do you want the good news or bad news first? >> oh, just give it to us. >> all right. well, the bad news is, as you know, it's going to snow and

it's going to snow a lot. so much so that no matter how much these crews work, when you have up to two incheses of snow falling every hour there's no way the roads will remain clear. the good news is that crews are hitting the streets hard here in montgomery county. check out what you can see behind me. we have seen a steady stream of trucks getting filled up here at one of the montgomery county salt domes all morning long. what they are doing is going out and pretreating the main and emergency roads before the storm hits. once there is three inches of snow on the ground they will start to send out the plows. now the county says the primary focus is keeping the main roads and emergency roads cleared. once it stops snowing we will see the crews working the smaller street and the neighborhoods. if you live in montgomery county you may not see a plow until saturday evening and when it stops the county says it will take 60 hours to clear the

roads they are responsible for. bad news for people trying to drive to super bowl parties this weekend but for road crews it means they will be working continuously now through monday. hunker down. this will be a long one. back to you. >> we will have a party in the newsroom. thank you. virginia has been under a state of emergency since wednesday. yesterday governor mcdonnell said the state is focusing resources on our region. >> we replenished the salt and sand supplies. we redirected some of the trucks that were at hampton roads last time to come up to northern virginia because this looks like where the heaviest snow will fall. >> reporter: virginia is using money from its emergency maintenance fund to pay for snow removal. a snow emergency declaration will begin at 9:30 in the district. city officials have 270 pieces of snowplow equipment on stand by. most will be dc trucks. roughly 50 of those are private

contractors. mayor fenty explained the city's plan of attack. >> essentially we will be approaching this storm, as we did the storm in late december, right before the holidays. we will get our first full shift out at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. those shifts will work 12 hours and then replaced by another shift, the exact same size. we probably will have that going up until at least sunday. maybe in to monday. >> reporter: the mayor also said residential streets will receive the same amount of attention as the city's main roads. well, good luck if you are heading to the grocery store this morning. a thursday night rush left a lot of shelves empty. jessica doyle is live in falls church, virginia. good morning. are you seeing more people coming in this morning? >> i will tell you, andrea, the parking lot here is jammed. you will have trouble finding

the space. we caught up with the mayor of falls church an some friends and she offered advice on what to do with this snow. >> our snow crews have been resting because they know it will be a very long weekend and our services are ready to handle the snow. >> this is mother nature's way of telling us to attack a break. stay in, watch movies, eat some good food and read some books, get some chores done. play board games with the kids an take time off. >> what's your favorite thing about the snow. >> i like sledding with my best friend jeffrey and snowball flights with my brother. >> i like it because i can make snow angels and stuff. >> stay out of school. >> more snow! >> the kids are clearly going to get what they want and that is more snow. if you are coming to area supermarkets you may not find what you want inside. we are seeing there's no ground beef in sight.

this store you are having trouble finding fresh truth and vegetables and they have bottled water and windshield wiper fluid and a lot of toilet paper. those are the things you are after you are going to find it in stores. andrea, back to you. we have every angle of the storm covered for you. we will have you covered this afternoon beginning on a special edition of 9 news now at noon. tomorrow morning our coverage begins at 6:00. and join us on sunday morning as well before the super bowl pregame shows. a always follow the forecast and upload your pictures at wusa9.com. we will be back. it is mind hover money friday. 202-432-9045. we are talking taxes next. ;

welcome back to 9 news now. if you are hoping to fly out of the region, call your israel now. airlines are cancelling flights early. united cancelled the flights from dulles today except for the earliest flights from london. southwest will halt service from dulles and bwi starting at 2:00 p.m. the best advice, call your airline. we will help you get a jump on filing taxes if you haven't already done so. one key word is free. with me now is irs spokesman jim dupree. good to have you with us. jim, free and the irs. come on. >> there's a lot of free help. the first place to look for free help is at the irs website

which is irs.gov. we have all of the latest tax law changes and the information will be there. 5,000 forms and publications, answers to frequently asked questions. an earned income tax assistance to see if you are eligible for the credit and you can prepare and file your return this year. look for the free file program on-line. >> is there any income limit or is this open to everyone. >> just about anyone can do it. we have two types of free file programs. the first is if you earn less than $57,000 a year. it is a partnership between irs and tax companies. and you get all the belt and whistles and benefits of electronic filing. it is easy and accurate and it is commercial grade software. this is going to ask you probing questions not like pulling out the forms. do you have children, are you

married and fills out the forms this the background and we have forms where you can pull the forms on-line and everyone can take advantage of that. >> we have a little time and i want to talk to james. 40% of people searching for a new job didn't realize they could deduct it from their income tax. what other deductions should people consider? >> another deduction people should consider is charitable contributions for non-cash donations which would be to purple heart, am vets, salvation army, those type of deductions and also the introduction of the -- reintroduction, i should say, of the credit for energy savings improvements to your home. windows and doors and roof insulation, as well. and this was the introduction initially on the sales tax of the purchase of a new vehicle can be deducted. that was taken away 20 years ago and has been reintroduced for this year.

>> that's what you want to find out from james and jim. those deductions you may not have thought of including the haiti deduction even though it was made in 2010 can be deducted from the 2009 taxes. right now let's go to howard. snow is getting closer. this is a picture from luray. we thank chase out there. you can see the snow is falling there. it is snowing in newmarket and winchester. and martinsburg. karen in mineral county said it started at 93 and 9:05 snowing in steven city and frederick. we thank our weather watchers for that. submit your storm reports at wusa9.com. keep track of the storm and we will be here all weekend. show you a couple of cameras. take you to mount jackson along i-81 in the shenandoah valley. i-81 is good and the grass is whitening up from the snow. take you to charlottesville, we are looking at i-64 down there.

this is where we have been seeing quite a bit of snow. still they are keeping the roads wet but it is building up on the shoulder. let's talk about the forecast. next three days look like this. -- sorry about that. we don't have snow yet but it is knocking on our doorstep. warrenton and winchester, mineral county, fredericksburg wasn't reporting snow but just south it is snowing there. some snow could break out in the next 20 to 30 minutes fredericksburg and southern maryland, as well. if it is not here by 10:00 it will be here shortly after in the metro and the first few hours should be light enough. the afternoon where things pick up. you want to be in place and hunker down probably through saturday afternoon or even sunday. let's go to the weather computer. here's the forecast. 36 today which is where we are now. temperatures dropping this afternoon as the snow picks up. tonight and saturday, the snow at times will be heavy and windy. if there is mixing that will occur south and southeast of

town. that will keep accumulations there less. tomorrow only 30. and the winds could gust, 30 to 35, maybe near 40. near blizzard conditions at times. and drifting is a possibility. with upwards of two feet of snow and winds 35, snow drifts four feet or higher are possible with this. this will be a little different. snow increases this afternoon. two to six inches by dark. those six inches will be west and southwest toward the shenandoah valley. tonight more snow and wind. five to 15 inches tonight alone near 30 for the low. and then tomorrow, the snow and wind taper late. anywhere from a foot down south to 2 1/2 feet in the shenandoah valley. still the snow has been marching up from the southwest. here you can see it coming toward us. this darker blue the moderate snow an it will be breaking out shortly. we are as warm as we will get today, 36. same with culpeper. but winchester they are at 32 and the temperature will be dropping as the snow moves in.

look at the moisture here. there's a ton of moisture and just enough cold air that we are going to get a ton of snow, as well. another historic storm. 16.4 in december was seventh top snowstorm in dc. we are expecting 16 to 24. less south where we will be the mixing and central, northern shenandoah valley in to eastern west virginia there, you could have upwards of 2 1/2 feet from the storm when it is done. so, yeah, there's no wonder why the bread shelves are empty in the grocery stores, huh? here's the seven day. we'll get through this. we got through the december one we will get through this one. another weak system may give us snow on tuesday in to wednesday. andrea, back to you. is this a good time to refinance or should you wait a while? jerry bener is here now from embrace home loans and we have bernie hall from the hall group and thank you for being with

us. >> let's get to the question. is this a good time to refinance. >> certainly is. rates are really low right now. good time to purchase. tell everybody to take advantage of it before they go up later this year. >> we know the $8,000 home buyer incentive tax credit has been extended, but it could run out. after that is over with, bernie, are there any schemes that can help people get in to their homes. >> 8,000 dollars is going to run out but i think the market has a lot of inventory so you have exceptional deals on the homes. like we were saying the rates are outstanding right now. a lot of homes haven't recovered their value so you can get an exceptional deal that way. it is a good time to purchase. be prepared for a longer process and you are going to go through the whole system now. no more of this going and doing no income, no assets. you are going to be prepared to take longer, provide more information but still it is very worth your while.

>> what about the seller? are we seeing home prices in our area go up a little bit. >> yeah. where i'm seeing activity is 250 and below, multiple offers. first-time home buyers have to be very patient. >> and reasonable in how they price their homes. >> yes, they do. because you are getting multiple offers on lower-end houses and people want to snap them up and it is taking a while to get them. >> what should people consider. >> there's a lot of short sales and foreclosures on the market. be prepared for a long process on that. the banks are dealing with volume they have never seen before. make sure your rate if you are locking it in has plenty of time or the lender will guarantee the rate no matter how long it is. be prepared for unexpected things. on a short sale they could come back and say we have a better offer and not to go to

fruition. so be prepared. >> be prepared. we are out of time right now but 202-432-9045 is the number to call. we'll be right back. (woman) these are my mom's shoes. i walked in her shoes all 60 miles. (laughs) (man) when they first told us she had breast cancer, i was scared to death. i thought that i was gonna lose my best friend. (woman) the 3-day walk is-- is a life-changing experience. it's so filled with hope, with love and support. (man) i don't want my daughter to have to go through

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metro trains would run only in the yond ground part of the system and metro bus service could be halted completely. we will bring announcements from metro as soon as we get them. if your credit card bill is past due you have plenty of company. the question is what can you do to keep up? we have good advice. thank you, very much, bill. people don't realize how important it is to have a good credit track record not just for buying a home but for having a job. you have a website for people to get help. >> for people who are in trouble, who feel they are in trouble. we want to make sure they are talking to reputable companies that are helping them out. the national credit foundation for counseling is a great website. they have a number. people can call them. they will refer them to a local company that's where they live that can help them to negotiate with creditors. try to get people out of trouble without spending a lot of money and having the credit

score damaged so far. >> when you say it will help them negotiate their credit card debt, if i owe ten thousand dollars will it negotiate down to a lower amount. >> it depends on your situation. the goal is people who have seen their interest rate go from 10 to 22%, the idea is to try to get them to a situation where they can make monthly payments, make the debt go away in as little time as possible. it may mean lowering the balance, the interest rate. it may mean forgiving fees that have been charged and the goal is to have people get out of debt perhaps in a year or two opposed to five or ten years which is how long it will take if they keep making the minimum payment on the credit card. >> any changes to look forward to in went? >> the credit card act was passed in 2009. it won't take affect until the summer of 2010. but its goal is to try to keep banks from unilaterally doing

things with no notice to clients like raising the interest rate and charging fees on accounts that were past due in the past. it just puts people in more trouble than they are already in and the legislation tries to prevent that. >> thank you very much. bill is at 202-432-9045. we'll be right back.

we want to thank our guests this morning for participating in mind over money. the next one will be two weeks from today. give them a call until 9:30. 202-432-9045. >> snow is coming. it is knocking on our doorstep. the next 30 to 60 minutes it will be snowing in dc. heavy this afternoon. wrap up your plans and to the folks in the shenandoah valley the snow has begun. it is a in warrenton almost to fredericksburg. it will be bad tonight and tomorrow. getting better on sunday and monday and a few snow showers on tuesday and wednesday. two and a half feet in the shenandoah valley. one to two, 25 inches or , even

here in the metro. >> watching the traffic cam out of charlottes veil it is packing up fast. >> it hasn't picked up yet. that isn't until later on tonight. the next news is at noon. i will see you tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. >> always on.