he never really liked america. he talked about it and he was just mad. >> a local man arrested by the fbi after a threat to do maximum damage on metro. tonight how the feds were tipped off. a local woman lets a renter into her home. plus topper is in with another bone chilling forecast. this is 9news now. tonight mother nature is gripping our area with some bitterly cold hands making tomorrow morning's commute another unusually cold one. here is chief meteorologist topper shutt. top. >> yes, it's like we're in a time machine and we're in january as opposed to december, but it is what it is. let me show you the wind gusts. they're still howling. gusting to 24 miles an hour

downtown. 21 up in frederick and 23-mile per hour in martinsburg and winchester. it feels like it's in the single digits. nine downtown, three in gaithersburg. it feels like six in leesburg and eight in manassas. so overnight clear to partly cloudy. windy and very cold. wind chills primarily in the single digits. low 14-22 and winds still 15-25 and gusty. here is the deal, if you're in the district and you see someone that is outside and needs shelter, please call the hypothermia hot line at 1-800-535-7252. all right. here is your wakeup weather. teens and 20s to start. mid teens and low 20s by 7:00. and then mid teens and mid 20s even by 9:00. we'll come back, anita, and talk not for one chance but two chances for snow in the next five days. >> busy time coming up. thank you, top. right now a row of town homes is literally covered in ice after crews hose them down trying to put out a fire.

the flames forced family out into the frigid night air in hyattsville. brittany morehouse spoke with firefighters on the scene. she joins us live with that story. brittany. >> reporter: these town homes are just south of fedex field here and no one was hurt thankfully. amazingly firefighters escaped uninjured given the freezing cold conditions. they've been walking on ice out here. here is what we can tell you what happened. it was around 7:00 when a fire started on the exterior building of the townhouse behind me. it was towards the garage level. it spread up three floors and went to two separate buildings on either side. so you had a number of families that were displaced. they say because it spread on the exterior, it actually by passed the sprinkler system and that caused even more problems. of course fighting flames in the freezing cold caused major ice and put a lot of people out in the cold, including one woman who we met who actually is the homeowner of the house that caught on fire. thankfully she was not inside

when it started. >> it's treacherous to walk back there and i'm homeless. i don't have any place to live. i have my neighbor here with me right beside me. she and her husband. they have been just great and i'm sure they'll be able to help me. the fire department did say i could stay at the hotel tonight, and i know all state will find a place for me. but i really want to be close to the house. so i really thank, again, everyone and for those who have gone through anything like this during the holidays, this is really devastating. my father passed away december 16th and i was mourning him and now this. but god is good. >> reporter: such powerful strength she has . she did say that she is worried about her pet turtle that was in the townhouse and still does not know if the turtle survived. in the meantime, firefighters say they're still looking into the cause, and that investigation is still under way. anita. >> brittany, anybody else displaced from the fire? >> reporter: yes.

actually we have six families total among the row of townhouses here just south of fedex field and firefighters say they're putting them up into nearby hotels. >> okay. that is good news. all right. brittany morehouse, thank you for that. meantime, threatening to blow up pipe bombs on metro and in georgetown at the height of rush hour. that is what the fbi says a 25-year-old arlington man did before he was arrested for it. some of his neighbors say they're not surprised. gary nurenberg joins us now with that story. gary. >> reporter: good evening, anita. we're talkt awais younis who has had several identities. >> i was shocked. really shocked. really surprised. >> i can believe it. >> reporter: not so surprised for some who went to high school with younis. >> no friends. but certain things that happened he was just real weird about it. like when 9/11 stuff and happened in school, he clapped about it. >> reporter: clapped about it and said what?

>> that's what they get. and then they beat him up. >> reporter: the case began when a facebook friend told the fbi younis had posted threats to use pipe bombs to blow up metro trains at the height of rush hour. >> more and more wanna bes are connecting with each other. you can do what you want to do through e-mail. >> reporter: the fbi alleges he used facebook again when he believed his friend had turned him in posting in a chat you are sticking your nose where it doesn't belong into something bigger than you and i. that is the problem with americans. they can't leave well enough alone until something happens. then they sit there wondering why we dropped the twin towers like a bad habit. ha ha ha. i'm telling you right now you are going to regret doing what you did for your peace i hope what i'm hearing is all lies. all from facebook. so why use it. >> the smart ones won't.

they'll find a different way to do it. a lot of times what we've been finding recently is the people that aren't that smart are the ones getting caught. >> reporter: younis's father told 9news now he believes his son is innocent. younis's brother says the affidavit on which the brother is based is a lighter version than the term of bs. he says his brother is innocent and will be freed next week. >> thank you. police in our area is on the lookout for an alleged thief that goes by kathy griffin. what she is doing is no laughing matter. andrea mccarren fills us in on this in northwest dc. >> reporter: when a woman calling herself kathy griffin showed up at this home, she already paid for a one-night stay. had no luggage and asked about the alarm system. >> well, one thing i thought was strange because nobody has asked me that was right up front she says will you tell me the security code. >> reporter: before the middle aged brunette even stepped inside, she seemed to know the

floor plan. >> she said what about this bedroom and that bedroom, and i just thought that's odd. >> reporter: helen has rented a home in her room to senators, world bank employers and others and she has never had anything like this. a laptop computer and $100 in cash disappeared from her home as quickly as the renter. when she was gone, helen also noticed the tabs holding in her screen had been moved. >> there are six of them and i found them here. >> reporter: the back door had been unlocked. >> it was closed but unlocked. so i don't know if she called people and they came the back way. >> reporter: the renter only stayed for 30 minutes, long enough to steal, say police, and case the neighborhood. andrea mccarren, 9news now. . >> now, police tell us that kathy griffin, again, not the comedian, has been on their radar for the last few years. she may be part of a larger crime ring. family and friends today celebrated the life and the loss

of air young fashion designer. -- the loss of a young fashion designer. sylvie was murdered last week in a room in a new york city hotel. police have arrested her ex-boyfriend. >> my heart is so broken. my life is so destroyed. i cannot think. i cannot think. i want justice done. but nothing will bring back my baby girl. >> sylvie had worked for victoria secret and tommy hilfe hilfeger and others. her mother promises to continue her work in sylvie's honor. tonight a mother is dead and five others are hurt after a gun battle broke out in the parking lot of a california strip mall. police say it started when two men walked into a barber shop and started shooting. two other men inside pulled out guns and returned fire and all

of this spilled out into a parking lot. a mother was unloading her son and got caught in the crossfire. she died at the scene. so far no arrests in the shooting. when in rome, do what the romans do. that would have meant tossing stones and smoke bombs at riot police. [ chanting ] >> thousands of demos marched after the prime minister barely survived a no confidence vote. the protestors, many of them students, are upset about budget cuts. tonight in london, prosecutors are appealing a judge's decision to grant bail to the man behind wikileaks. he will remain behind bars at least another day. the judge has set bail at $310,000 and several celebrity supporters offered to put up the

cash, including michael moore. he is facing sex abuse charges in sweden. still ahead tonight, is there hidden danger in the most common of things? your cell phone? meet a scientist who says she thinks high tech phones could mean high tech health problems. that is coming up. [ female announcer ] keurig has over 200 varieties of gourmet coffee and tea to choose from. it's the way to individually brew fresh, delicious coffee in under a minute. way to brew, hon. [ female announcer ] choose. brew. enjoy. keurig.

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it's the way to brew everyone's favorite cup in under a minute. woman: way to brew. [ female announcer ] choose. brew. enjoy. keurig. so how close are you with your cell phone? do you have it on and on you almost all the time? in tonight's health alert, the technology has changed our modern world, but how safe is it to be this connected? >> as the manufacturer's tell you, cell phones should not be held up to the body or brain. >> they're talking about the radio frequency or rf information that comes with your cell phone in small print, information you probably missed. >> then it says that although we don't know that there is any problem, here is what you need to do. >> the literature suggestions if you're concerned about rf exposure, minimize your talk time, use a headset or a hands free kit and place more distance between your body and the phone when not in use.

>> most people have no idea that a cell phone is basically a two way micro wave radio. >> a device that uses much less power than a microwave oven but holding it so closely to our bodies can be dangerous, especially in children. >> their skulls are thinner and they can absorb much more radiation. we have to understand cell phones have never been tested for safety. they were put on the market with the assumption that the radiation was so weak it had to be safe. >> but a johns hopkins researcher who works on the president's cancer panels say studies have been ongoing for years. >> under a number of studies, large studies have been done in europe and in the u.s., the data doesn't support evidence in cancer in the cell phone use. >> davis maintains it will take years more to fully understand the negative impact of this exposure, a case she details in her new book disconnect.

in the meantime, she has a warning for all cell and smart phone users. >> use a headset and use a speaker phone where you can. do not keep the phone on and on your body. do not sleep with the phone. if you use it for an alarm clock, keep it far enough away from you. >> now, davis also says try to avoid using smart phones when the bars are really weak and the phone is constantly searching for a signal. that increases the radiation it puts out. coming up tomorrow morning at 6:15, other habits she says are riskier than others in our 24/7 cell phone world. tonight remarkable video of a routine school board meeting that became anything but routine when a man pulled out a gun. >> please don't. please don't. please. [ shots fired ] >> now, before we go any further, we need to point out nobody was hit by that gunfire. but it did happen. later the man who had the gun was wounded by a security guard and then he shot himself dead.

all this happened at a school board meeting in panama city, florida. no word yet on a possible motive. police say this gunman once served prison time for stalking and another shooting incident. caught on tape, a casino robbery much too low brow for hollywood but the heist was successful. police say the man you see running just robbed a casino in vegas. his take $1.5 million in casino chips. he road a motorcycle up to a side entrance, walked up to a table and grabbed the goods. tonight they're not saying whether they'll be able to spot those chips if they come through the door again. talk about a run of good and bad luck all in one day. in north carolina, a woman and her newborn are alive after getting into a fiery car accident right in front of a fire station. the woman lost control of her van and slammed into a tree. within seconds, you can see the van catching fire.

the woman was trapped along with her three week old son in the back. in a panic she thought about tossing the baby seat out the window to save her life. but as she tried to reach the newborn, firefighters came running to the rescue. >> i was happy to see them. i know we probably wouldn't be here. >> mother and baby are expected to make a full recovery. anacostia tonight, a top chef played santa and helped donate $5,000 worth of holiday gifts to kids. a charity dedicated to the children of ward eight. to read the full story and read an interview, go to wusa9.com. plus for other stories that are specific to your neighborhood, find your community in our where you live section. all of that on wusa9.com. this time of year it seems everybody is bundling up when they go outside, even man's best friend. some of our viewers have been sending us pictures of their

pooches in winter gear. heidi sent us this picture of bella in pink. you can see the nice, warm sweater bella is wearing. we also have little emma. that is really cute. if you want to share your pet's picture, just post it on our wusa9 facebook page. >> we have a sweater, but i think it hurts the self-esteem. >> it doesn't say i'm a real powerful dog. >> no, it doesn't. [ laughing ] >> but remember your pets this time of year. wind chills in the single digits and through freezing tomorrow. >> don't leave them outside. >> don't leave them outside at all. we'll start with the satellite picture first. look at all of the snow showers in the upper mountains. the good news, no winter storm warnings for western maryland and no now showers.

all we have to worry about is the cold, and that's plenty of that. outside story, we have two chances of snow. tomorrow will be dry and cold. temps struggle to get to the freezing mark. thursday light snow possible and maybe one of the events where it's a minor weather event but because of the timing we can see some snow during the rush hour in the evening, not in the morning. it may have a rather mild impact. since this afternoon and late tonight, the mild winds are trending farther south and east. that means much less snow for us. the storm is on the map. by tomorrow afternoon, it's great. clear to partly cloudy skies. a few snow showers but no more hammering. they've had 18 inches in the last three days. now, we get into late tomorrow night, again, clear to partly cloudy skies. i want to show you this. if we get into thursday late in

the morning the rush hour will be dry but a little bit of light snow breaking out from winchester back to manassas and this will start from northwest and move to northeast. these folks in manassas and leesburg will get it before it crosses the river and gets into over gaithersburg and frederick. over night, no problems but just cold. clear to partly cloudy. windy. very cold. wind chills 0-10. and lows themselves 14-22. winds out of the west, northwest at 15-25 and gusty. tomorrow you'll need scarf and gloves and your shades. partly cloudy. very cold. wind chills single digits to start. temperatures in the teens and 20s. even in the morning, winds gusting to 25 miles per hour. we're not going to have the 40-mile per hour winds we had today, but still a factor. by afternoon, partly cloudy, breezy and cold. wind chills hold in the teens. temperatures struggle to make it to the freezing mark. winds westerly at 10-20 and

gusty. all right. next three days, cold tomorrow. 32. i dropped the temps. dropped the temps on thursday too. had to drop the temps on friday too. back to 39 but dry. next seven days, all right, here we go. saturday and sunday snow possible saturday evening into sunday. temperatures in the mid 30s on saturday. around 30 on sunday. and the wake of this storm doesn't really matter where this storm goes either. it will be cold again monday and tuesday of next week. it has potential, but, again, it's trending a little further south and east. and, once again, we've teamed up with our corps of reserves for toys for tots. it runs through december 22nd. and all you have to do is drop a new unwrapped toy at area fire stations and they will get it to the kids. and they need toys for kids 0-3 and pre teens. >> something small. anything you can. >> anything you can. well, kobe was in town. did he live up to the fanfare? >> he always lives up to the

fanfare. what knocked me out when i was writing the story, did you realize kobe has been in the league for 15 years? i guess that's what happened when you come straight out of high school, it seems like you've been in the league for a long time. he was so good tonight, he only needed to play half the game. kobe and the lakers, as you might expect, dissect the wizards. plus another case of premature celebration. 9 sports, oh, dear.

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. it's time for 9 sports with brett haber, the best sports in town. >> last week in la, the wizards lost to the lakers by seven with john wall. so you probably figure tonight with wall on the bench, they would annihilate the wizards and kobe bryant would have a field day. donovan mcnabb in the house to see kobe and they were not disappointed. third quarter derek fisher to kobe. ten rings between these two guys.

they have done that a million times. behind the back to kobe as he knocked down three. we keep show youing third quarter highlights because kobe didn't play the 4th 24 points in 23 minutes for kobe. lakers roll 103-89. >> couldn't do nothing about it when kobe was hitting the shots. he hit three threes and got two three-point plays. >> he's a tough player. plays like that that's why he's one of the great e. >> that he is. college -- greatest. >> that he is. college hoops tonight. eagles in blue here. four of eight from three. somewhere derek mcginty is smiling tonight as american wins by 13. they're now 6 and 3. it was a noble thing that hunter smith did on sunday night laying the blame on himself for that botched extra point saying in essence that the redskins loss is his fault and his reward for such rare integrity, he got caught today. the 12-year veteran released by mike shanahan which seems kind

of harsh but statistically smith was the third worst punter in the nfl this year. santana had this to say about smith's departure. >> it was a surprise. but a lot of things have been going on so you don't know the reasons. you can't blame that game on the kicking game. you can't blame that game on special teams. you have to blame the game on offensively. we had chances. we didn't score. >> that is true. the average age of the national roster just got older. the team signing 42-year-old matt stairs today. he leads the major leagues all time with 23 pinch hit homeruns. he got a non-guaranteed deal. two years ago james franklin was named the head coach in waiting for maryland football, but apparently he got tired of waiting with the school committing to another year he has pulled the cord. he would have been due a million dollar penalty if maryland had failed to make him the head

coach in january of 2012. time for you to pick this week's high school sportsnet game of the week. some of the games on the menu, potomac and jordan mccain. st. mary's and saint johns. cast your vote at dc high school sports game. we'll tell you the winner on friday. do not engage in premature celebration. seahawks return on washington brilliant 86-yard celebration only to get caught. oh, the shame to get caught by the punter. but even moore shame after you show boated in the air just run down the field and he gets him right by the heel. >> barely. >> barely is enough. but they got him. don't celebrate too early. >> premature. >> we'll be right back.

and that is 9news for tonight. what is next? >> cold and maybe light snow. >> no. letterman is next. >> letterman. [ laughing ] >> it's going to be cold too. >> it says it right there. [ male announcer ] the face of hunger in this country is all around us.

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