the conditions, and delia is in fairfax. we're going to start with you. tell us more about the conditions where you are. >> reporter: well the snow has stop falling here in fairfax county, but it has left behind a small coating of snow on the ground. let's take a look. we're talking just about two inches or so of accumulation. this is pretty much snow that was untouched. it's pretty light and fluffy as you can see, but it's not a whole lot of snow. however, just enough snow to cause some trouble for drivers and for these folks behind me. filling up a whole lot of overtime work for those plow truck operators. 23 degrees and snow on the ground, welcome to winter wonderland, at least for the kids. fairfax county schools dismissed two hours early. >> i guess that they are happy to come out. >> reporter: but for those who had to get behind a wheel, the small amount of accumulation was just enough to cause some big headaches. like for this driver who lost

control on the roads. what was it like today? >> just terrible. it's scary, but there are a lot of accidents back there. >> reporter: vdot mobilized 1,400 plow trucks to salt and sand all roads in northern virginia. a small snowfall, but a big staff to clean it all up until the next one. >> we'll continue to treat and plow until everything is cleared and everything looks safe. safety is the big priority. >> reporter: and it will be a long night for these folks as you can see the plow trucks are getting loaded up with that salt and sand mixture to treat the roads. their main concern, freezing overnight. so it will be a long night for these folks here in fairfax county. now, we're going to check in with scott broom who is on snow patrol in maryland, scott? >> reporter: well, it was a tough day as well here in prince george's county. they also decided to dismiss schools two hours early, but the kids, they all came out hitting the streets right at the worst part of the storm, which caused a lot of parents to second guess the decision to have schools to start with

today. it was made worse when a school bus carrying students from the high school hit a county snowplow. and the plow driver was injured and one student had a suspected asthma attack, sending both to the hospital. school support services chief explains the days decisions. >> we make a call based on what we see with the precipitation that is actually in place. >> wile kids were hitting the snowy streets early, elsewhere, traffic incidents were widespread. like here on this road where the motorists lost it on a curve. >> yes, i am shook up. i didn't know what was happening. it just happened so fast. >> reporter: the good news tonight is that they have had a lot of time to salt since all of that happened and the snow has stopped, sot road conditions have improved significantly, even note temperatures are quite cold. school officials here will make their decision, whether or not

to have school at 4:00 in the morning, canceling all evenings here. and reporting live, scott broom, 9news now. lesli, back to you. >> all right, scott, thank you. and howard bernstein is out on the terrace. howard, it looks like the worse is behind us. what's coming next? >> reporter: well, we may have a storm on sunday and another couple of chances in the extended forecast. right now, let's talk about what's happening. still a few light flurries. take a look at this one. you can see a little sliver of snow, kind of tough to tell that from leesburg right through the district. a little more than a snow shower. that's going on across the eastern shore. so that's it. a big picture on the weather computer. it's going quickly across the region. you know, we have a first inch of snow at reagan national. so we're looking at another cold night here as temperatures will be dropping. right now, we have some readings down in the low 20s.

reston at 24. columbia, 23. so you heard them talking about the threat for the freeze, yes, that's a big threat. if you have not cleared it up yet, this is a light fluffy snow. that's all you need to get to have this off your driveway. >> thank you, howard. the good news from the roads, we see very little snow on the pavement and the traffic is much better than earlier today. but there is still slow going areas in lots of spots. this is the camera. things are moving there. next we'll head over to leesburg pike. those red lights are moving from the top to the bottom there. those are cars. and on i-95 south, traffic is slow. we've got one check of the map for you. you see all the red cars and the speeds below that are just around 10 miles an hour?

they are really slow. drivers are spending about 96 minutes just to drive from the dc beltway to the baltimore beltway. take it easy there. in other news, they are busted for fraud. natalie overton williams has been on paid administrative leave for more than two years while investigators looked into the issue. and that issue, williams alleged use of the letterhead to the invoice companies for cpr training. and the u.s. attorney's office says that she turned herself in, having her first court appearance today. and if convicted, she will face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, plus, a fine. well, once again, the federal government's health insurance reform is under attack. this time from attorneys general representing 20 states, arguing in a lawsuit in a florida courtroom that they say that the health care act is unconstitutional, that congress does not have a power to force the citizens to buy health insurance or to penalize those who don't. >> and as if congress could force you to go out and

purchase a product such as healthcare, they could force you to go out and eat broccoli because that would be better for your health. earlier this week, a federal judge in virginia did indeed rule against a reform act. on the other hand, two other federal judges, they have upheld the overhaul. bottom line, expect this to line up before the supreme court. now to the tax cut compromise, president obama hammered out with republicans, the one that would add to the national debt, but they let many of us hang on to our paychecks. democratic leader in the house want to hold a final vote tonight. that might get pushed to tomorrow. and there are some disagreements over the appreciable matters. the senate approved the tax cut package earlier this week and mr. obama wants to sign the bill were the end of the year. otherwise a batch of current tax cuts will run out. new at 6:00, caught on tape. and teen thieves are looking for a joyride at someone else's expense. but first, a half dozen students get sick at school

ending up in the hospital. and wait until you see what they ate. we'll be right back.

paramedics had to rush to potomac high school after seven students got sick. some of those students even ended up in the hospital. lindsey mastis joins us now live in the newsroom. and lindsey, we understand that they got sick from something they ate? >> reporter: less by, that's right. brownies are to blame for giving the students sick: paramedics rushed to the school. six out of the seven students had to be transported to the hospital. a school spokeswoman does not have an update on how they are doing, but they consider is not

serious. the school spoke to them and said that the the brownies did not come from the cafeteria and that authorities have ruled out food poisoning. now of course, they want to find out what was in those brownies. samples of the sweets were taken by police and the hospital and they are hoping to find out soon what made those students so sick. lesli? >> thank you, lindsey for that. another frightening school incident today. this one police arrested a man for trying to sexually assault a boy at a middle school bathroom that happened in maryland. we're told a staff member heard the boy yelling, went into the bathroom, got the man off the boy, and a school officer held the man until police arrived, a county spokesman said that the student was not physically hurt. 32-year-old jeffrey easley back in roanoke. this is video of him arriving today, accused of abducting 12- year-old brittany smith and taking her to california. easley was arraigned this afternoon on charges of abduction and credit card fraud. he's also suspected of killing

brittany's mother, tina smith, who was also his girlfriend. easley is being held without bail. attention metro riders, the next time you get on board, you may be first. we'll give you the full story coming up after the break. but first, here is a preview of tonight's cbs evening news. the security guard who saved the florida school board members says that he is no hero. i'll speak with him about what happened. that story and more tonight only on the cbs evening news. lots of lotions promised healing.

this one actually does it. [ female announcer ] gold bond ultimate healing lotion. nothing feels like it, smells like it, heals like it. gold bond. this stuff really works. metro transit police announced today they are starting random screenings of passenger bags for explosives.

they are not going to check every passenger, just every forth to fifth one. they are going to use the same sort of sniffing machines that you might have seen at airports. critics complain that random screenings just a few stations is a waste of time and resources and that they actually make you less safe. >> what do you say to those who say that this is just security theater? that if the bad guys want to get in, they are just going to go to the next station down the line. >> that's something possibly said by people who want to be experts, but it also reports that is the opportunity to randomly do some activity that puts us in a better posture. >> metro transit police say they will not be going through your bags and backpacks unless the ion machines and explosive sniffing dogs first indicate that you've got something explosive. lowden county needs your help to track down thieves in one neighborhood. detectives say that two men are going around breaking into cars. as surae chinn reports, they

are hoping that new surveillance video will help solve the case. >> honestly, i'm shocked. i would have never even thought about locking my car because in this town, you kind of think it to be a very safe neighborhood. >> reporter: but that way of thinking left emily without a way to get to work. >> actually i walked outside and my car wasn't there. >> reporter: lowden county authorities believe that the men who took her suv are the same people caught on this home surveillance video nearby. the two crooks are seen walking around smoking, checking out a pickup truck. once they realized that it is locked, they move on. and they are caught again doing the same thing to another vehicle. eventually they made it to emily's suv, but they didn't seem interested in emily's gps or other valuables. >> i think that they just wanted to make mischief. >> reporter: and that they did when they crashed her vehicle. >> and they had driven maybe a mile up and crashed my car into someone's yard over a tree and through their fence. >> i mean it kind of happened

like right under our noses and we were oblivious to it. >> reporter: the thieves ran off. her suv came away with only a few scratches, but it still puts folks here on high alert. detectives are not sure exactly how many car break-ins are connected, but that it has taught this neighborhood a tough lesson to always lock up. >> we always make sure now that our homes are very secured too. >> obviously i lock my car now. >> reporter: surae chinn, 9news now. >> now the sheriff department says you should always lock your car, remove all the valuables out of sight. if you see somebody suspicious, you'll want to report it and let a deputy determine if they belong there. all right, virginia state workers, you're going to get ready to take a hit in the wallet. governor bob mcdonnell wants government workers to pay into the state's underfunded pension system. he wants you to contribute 5% of your pre-taxed pay starting next year, which effectively negates the 3% pay raise he proposed for 2011 that actually

cuts the take-home pay for state workers by 2%. so we're apparently trading paper for plastic this holiday season. according to a new consumer report, more of us are using cash to pay for our holiday gifts. that's a good thing when you consider 13.6 million of us are still paying off last year's credit card debt. and in 2010, we're going to spend about $20 less than last year. we're really looking for value. apparently more people are going to outlets to do some shopping. all right, so you see all these toys around. if you're going to do anything this year if you're going to buy anything this year, we really hope that you'll consider giving to kids in need. we're collecting toys through the toy drive. and that is area fire departments, that's right, on the 22nd of december, they will come pick up all these toys and take them to kids who need them. we really hope if you have some space in your heart that you'll do the same thing. the need is great. kids from babies all the way up to age 17, and we really need

stuff in the age range for 3-5 and 11 on up. >> donations are lagging this year. >> yes. >> but snow is not lagging. it was only a couple inches. >> it was enough to close some schools for tomorrow. >> yes. for >> culpepper staff in virginia, west virginia, we've got berkeley county and jefferson county, they are starting two hours late. and so this is doing some damage. >> yeah. >> the problem is that the roads were closed. anything untreated became a real slippery mess. it wasn't just this. we were lucky, we had a dry powdery snow to the southwest, a real mess in the new river valley, that all schools were canceled. they had about three inches falling. around the mid-morning, sleet and freezing rain started coming down. we have an extra slick layer to add it to the covered roads when you start getting that sleet and freezing rain. and so watch it if you will be out anywhere, really, for the next 18 hours or so tomorrow, at least we'll do that mapping. for tonight, a look at your forecast. the light snow, the flurries,

they are ending right now. and next 20 minutes, we'll pretty much be done with almost anything, otherwise mostly cloudy. any breaks we're developing, dropping it into the mid-teens. most of us will be 20 to 25 at 5 miles an hour. and the snow, you can see that it is pulling out here. it is quickly moving away. and right now, it's trying to show the breaks up to the north. a little less out here of the snow down in southern maryland, coming over towards the eastern shore. you know it was very slippery in spots. the meteorologist with me all afternoon, out on the weather terrace. tom, how many times did you go up the road there? >> well, i think that i have pulled for the first three miles. >> and it took them a while to get here. by the way, a personal apology. and a personal apology for the person who, you know, grabbed the area. i'll be back to help fix it. what we're looking at as far as accumulations. >> the microphone fell. >> there we go. we have an inch and a quarter here at the station at wusa9.com. two inches at mount vernon. lesser amounts to the north. greater amounts to the south.

so as you can see from damascus, even though it's about 2" in frederick. that's a little high for some northern areas. dulles only reporting .8". dwi, .4", but many locations getting 3". all the way over to around stafford and st. mary's county, wu at least we -- but at least we didn't have the strong wind and the blowing and the drifting of the snow, but it will be quite slick overnight. >> exactly. it is nice not to have the wind. it's kind of nice. if you didn't slide off the road, it really was a nice snowfall. we're now at 26 degrees. we have lost a degree since the last hour. still some flurries are going on with a light, light northwest wind. here is the future cast as we go through tonight. there goes the storm out on the atlantic. we look to the west, the mountain snow showers. friday not a bad day. we'll do some melting. we see the clouds start to increase through saturday. saturday, increasing clouds. look at the rains here. what we've got to do is watch for saturday because one or two things are going to happen

saturday night through sunday. either the storm goes out to sea, tracking a no problem here. or some of the models, this makes me a little nervous coming off the coast if that happens. it will be a major east coast storm, giving us a problem here for our sunday. late saturday night and into sunday. big problems for new england. 36 tomorrow and saturday. and maybe a coastal storm on sunday. stay tuned for that. and headed towards monday. whatever we get, that's leaving, 35. now, another little clipper touch system on tuesday that could bring the light snow on tuesday into wednesday. as we stay below average, temperatures holding in the 30s. >> all right, normally we would be all a buzz about, you know, the skins and the cowboys, but this year, not so much. >> when two teams think that you cannot generate the buzz. >> yeah, well, you know, we call it like we see them. it's dallas week, but where is the buzz, everybody? the skins and them are both out of the playoffs. does sunday's meeting have any juice for you? plus, with the hawaii marching band and what they did that the redskins can't. see it on 9sports next.

the other team is 4-9. who wants to party? that is the rather hoe hum backdrop of this weekend's renewal in the nfl. although that the cowboys are the upswing having won 3-5. and while the skins, they have dropped five out of six. it's all about tradition. we don't whatn't -- we don't want to go out there and lay eggs. >> because practice was moved indoors to a nearby gymnasium. players had to drive themselves

for that location -- to that location. building a bubble is a priority for the team. this man's mother called to say how disappointed she was about the capitol coach using foul language in the premier of the hbo series. then again, she never coached through a seven-game losing streak and she doesn't know how the coach feels. alex o etch have kin has been im-- ovechkin has been invisible lately. just two goals in the last 15 games. if he keeps up with that, then hbo might cancel him. >> we need to try different tactics here. i think only fools realize that if something is not working that they don't change for the sake of not changing. >> well, what do you think? i kind of understood that. but jason werth and his contract a-- jayson werth and

his contract saying good-bye to the 31-year-old slugger, traded to the a's team. willingham hit 16 homers last year, but missed the last two months with a knee problem. we're 23 games into the nba season is the wizards still do -- season and the wed sadrs still do not -- wizards still do not have a winning streak on the road. finally tonight, we have seen marching bands do a lot of things over the year, but never before kick a field goal. this is the university of hawaii band in the form of the place kicker. there's the ball, and there is the kick. and it is up and good! and now the hawaii marching band officially has a better kicking game than the redskins. >> maybe they need to go to dallas and help. >> and play this weekend. we could use them. >> that's it for us. you'll have more coming up at 7:00. cbs evening news with katie couric is up next.