people. one of the engineers had been texting shortly before the crash. in 2009, a northwest flight overshot its destination by 100 miles because the pilots were on their laptops. despite the threat of a presidential veto, the house approved a bill to extend the payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits. now, the legislative drama moves to the senate where majority leader reed says it is doa. >> it includes funding for the controversial oil pipeline project. if congress doesn't find a compromise, 160 million workers could see their paychecks shrink which most likely means you. lawmakers need to stay in washington until they reach a deal. >> there's simply no excuse for congress to leave on vacation until the american people know that they've been taken care of. >> wasting time catering to the tea party folks when they should be working with us on a bipartisan package that can pass both houses. >> adding to the pressure of the negotiations, senate

democrats are holding up a critical year-end spending bill. if that doesn't clear congress by friday, lawmakers will need another stop gap spending measure or risk shutting the government down partially. california congressman darrell issa wants to know why occupy protestors have been allowed to remain in mcpherson square for so long. representative isa says taxpayers spent $400,000 to renovate the square and it is now being destroyed by the protest. the national park service prohibits camping on the property but does allow 24 hour demonstrations. congressman issa would like the interior secretary to explain the difference. officers in full riot gear removed occupy demonstrators in baltimore yesterday morning. the predawn raid at a downtown plaza appeared to be peaceful. no one was arrested. the baltimore encampment had been in place for months but city officials called it illegal and recently denied their request for a permit to continue their protest. the nearly 9-year-old war

in iraq is almost over. the remaining u.s. forces in that country are getting ready to leave. >> today, to mark the end of the war, president obama is going to meet with troops who recently returned home. susan mcginnis has more. >> reporter: president obama heads to fort bragg, north carolina today, a military community that has seen its soldiers repeatedly deployed to iraq. the president will talk to troops who have recently returned and thank all forces who fought during the nearly 9 year long war. >> we've given the iraqis an opportunity to have a democracy and to be successful. it is now time for us to bring all of our troops home. >> reporter: the last u.s. combat troops in iraq are scheduled to be out by the end of the year. and the president is spending the week marking the end to the war. >> the president says in total, the war will likely cost the u.s. more than $1 trillion. and he says history will tell whether or not going into iraq was a mistake.

the deadline to pull u.s. troops out of iraq by the end of 2011 was actually set by the bush administration. former vice president dick cheney says the iraqis have made major progress in the past few years. >> i've got a democracy established. it is not perfect by any means. there is a lot of work to be done. but they've clearly much better off than when saddam hussein was in charge. >> both the bush administration and the current white house wanted some u.s. troops to stay behind for security but the iraqis ultimately said no. >> it is important for us to continue to have a security partnership with iraq but it is not going to be with our folks based inside of iraq. >> reporter: the last few thousand remaining troops are packing up equipment, many are hoping to be home by christmas. susan mcginnis, cbs news, washington. former penn state university assistant coach jerry sandusky waived a preliminary hearing just moments before it was about to begin. the move means he will not have to face his accusers any time

soon. sandusky faces 52 criminal counts for a series of alleged sexual assaults on children. his lawyer said he waited until the last minute because he wanted prosecutors to agree to share vital information in the case. sandusky's attorney says there will be no plea bargain. the prosecution says that's fine. they're ready for trial. >> not our case because today's not the time and place for us to present our defense. >> it will allow us to promptly advance the prosecution in this case to a just conclusion. >> sandusky remains under house arrest. he is scheduled for january 11th and he's not expected to be there. >> two men who say they were sexually abused by a former syracuse university assistant basketball coach, bernie fine, have now filed a lawsuit against the school and the men's head basketball coach jim bayheim. davis and lange said they were repeatedly molested by fine. fine denies the allegations.

a third man has accused fine. the u.s. attorney's office is still investigating the case. at 4:35, here is a look at other stories making news now. investigators say a lone gunman is responsible for a deadly grenade attack in belgium. four people were killed and 123 others hurt in the rampage in downtown liege. the gunman fired an assault rifle into the crowd of shoppers. there was a fifth victim, a cleaning woman found dead in the home. the gunman died but it is unclear whether he committed suicide or was killed. he had served time on drug and gun charges. he was due in court yesterday. five men accused of killing a new york city police officer will remain in jail until trial. shooting suspect 22-year-old lamont pride is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of officer peter figure osi. prosecutors say the men killed the officer during a botched armed robbery of a drug dealer in brooklyn. the postal service has agreed to a congressional

request that it briefly delayed closing more than 250 mail processing centers and 3700 post offices. the closings were supposed to start taking place next year. now they won't happen until mid-may. the postal service is expected to lose $14 billion next year. the obama administration is stopping nearly all production of presidential dollar coins. saving the taxpayers $50 million per year in production and storage costs. in 2005, congress mandated the u.s. mint issue the coins but the white house says more than 40% of them are returned to the federal reserve because nobody is using them. >> i use them all the time. i love them. the time is 4:36. at 4:41, retailers are at it again. one major chain says it will remain open around the clock until christmas eve. >> you're sitting in church on a sunday morning and the service gets interrupted by a robbery? we'll tell you where this happened several times and now police are hoping you can help

them catch the suspects. >> we're back with your weather first in two minutes. you're watching 9news now.

4:39. wednesday morning. we'll have partly to mostly

cloudy skies today. it will be a dry day. temperatures about where they were yesterday in the upper 40s to low 50s. winds not too bad, south- southeast at about 5 miles per hour. i'll be back in five minutes, we'll talk about tomorrow's rain chances and the upcoming weekend. right now though, here's monika with timesaver traffic. >> we'll take a live look into new carrollton on the beltway near route 50. route 50, the bw parkway both look great through cheverly. no problems in southern maryland on route 4, 5, or 301. coming up, we'll go into maryland again at 4:47. mike, back to you. thank you, monika. time forever the first your money segment this morning. jessica is off. we have the headlines. the federal reserve held interest rates steady. the u.s. economy is expanding moderately. in the latest policy statement, the fed said hiring is picking up and consumers are spending despite the slower growth globally. they were disappointed the fed didn't offer a new stimulus. the dow lost 66 points, nasdaq dropped 33 and the s&p 500 was

off 11 points yesterday. retail sales rose for the sixth straight month in november as americans spend more on clothing and electronics. the overall gain of .2 of a percent was the smallest since june. consumers pulled back on some purchases that are not related to holiday shopping like groceries. macy's will once again keep a handful of stores open around the clock for three days leading up to christmas eve. 14 stores will stay open for 83 hours straight. from december 21 through 24. they're hoping it will give a big sales boost for the holidays. >> here is a question. where would we be without metro? would you be willing to pay $200,000 for a hypothetical answer to that question? >> that's what the transit agency did even though it is strapped for cash. that story plus your weather first coming up. keep it here.

good morning and welcome back to 9news now. 4:44. we're halfway through the week. howard is here with the change again in how the weather is going to affect us. >> we're going to get rain in here. not some snow, some rain. the pattern is one where most of the storms will head toward the great lakes. so, unless things change a little bit, snow lovers will be disappointed. the snow make as we talked about, at the ski areas, they've been working overtime at night to put the snow on the mountains to get ready to open this weekend but this next pattern will be a rainmaker, andrea. you don't like snow? >> you keep asking. we don't like snow. we love snow! we love skiing. but -- >> we don't want to shovel it. >> can you work that out? >> can you just put the snow on the mountains? >> that's about the only thing we can do with snow right now. >> good! >> let's get talking about today though at the bus stop forecast. mike, your kids will be old enough soon enough to help out with the shoveling.

>> i hope so! >> partly sunny, chilly. if you pay them, that will be more motivation. >> 34 to 44, temperatures this morning. sunrise, 7:18. today, we'll have a lot more clouds than we did yesterday as well. even mostly cloudy than most of the day. winds will be fairly light. you'll notice them south 3, 5 miles per hour. highs approaching 50 degrees. maybe low 50s in spots. by 8:00, we're back in the mid- 40s. there is a slight chance a couple of the showers out to the west will make it into northern western areas. there is a lot of rain in ohio tracking toward west virginia. it doesn't appear it is going to hold together as it crosses the mountains. we'll watch it nonetheless. the clouds will cross the mountains. that's why we're expecting a mostly cloudy day. your temperatures are in the 30s to 40 in southern maryland and here in washington, 36 culpepper, win chester and cumberland. on the eastern shore, easton at 34 degrees. officially, mostly cloudy and 40 at reagan national with calm winds. dew point now 32.

that barometer slowly falling off 30.41. yesterday, it was 30.45. i show you national temperatures, i want to point out the milder readings in kansas city to little rock to dallas. 50s and 60s. this milder air we're going to try to bring in here tomorrow. tomorrow, we get into the mid to upper 50s. plight even get to -- might even get to 60s, northern neck of fredericksburg thanks to this system in the midwest and central and northern mississippi valley. this comes out of the southwest. we've got rain and snow. some tropical jet coming across the plains with all of the rain. there is snow in wisconsin. you're flying into chicago today or through chicago, yeah, there will be some delays with that. same story in columbus as well. with the rain coming in and it does look pretty ominous but as we look at the computer modeling here, most of that is going to stay away from us. some tries to sneak in toward the shenandoah valley later this morning. northern areas also this afternoon. so, we'll see if we can squeeze

out a shower or two and isolated areas but for the most part, we'll keep it out of the metro. as we go into tonight, things should be relatively quiet. showers toward pittsburgh and charleston, west virginia. watch what happens as we head toward the lunch hour. showers will be pretty much on top of the metro, especially north of town trying to pass through in the afternoon. the front still to the west. that doesn't come through until thursday night. by friday, a cooler air mass starts to settle in. that next wave for friday night looks like it will slide south of us. we'll get the chillier air as we head into saturday and sunday. so, the forecast breaks down like this. today, around 50. mostly cloudy. i guess there is a slight chance of seeing a shower west to north later on. a better chance of showers tomorrow. tonight, we're in the 30s to around 40. tomorrow, upper 50s with those showers especially middle of the day into the afternoon. friday, we're cooling down to only near 50 with partly sunny skies and your weekend, a chilly one with mid-40s

saturday and sunday. near 50 monday and another system late monday into tuesday could bring more wet weather to the region. it is 4:47. monika is in. is orange a good color for traffic? >> is it a construction color? >> it is a construction color. the weather wasn't bad for all of our construction workers overnight. >> good segue, monika. >> that's why we work together, howard. if you're planning to head around town, things are looking fine all around. we had the construction in the tysons area, in silver spring and up on 270. from frederick right now, you should be ok. i-70, 270, fine. there was construction between route 80 and 109. everything is cleared up as you head further south on 270 from falls road to the point where the lanes divide. over to the american legion bridge. you will be fine. we'll take a live look in the heart of rockville. route 355, the entire intersection is nice and quiet. no problems here as you head down south from frederick on route 355 as well.

we'll take a live look into aspen hill. here's what it looks like. georgia avenue at connecticut avenue on the northside of town coming down toward the beltway, you will be ok inside the beltway as well. no problems to report on georgia avenue. at 4:55, we'll take another look around town. back to you guys. >> thank you, monika. >> police are on the lookout for a female thief whose hit six churches. church-goers say she strikes in the middle of sunday services! peggy fox has the latest on the investigation in a story you'll see only on 9. >> when someone comes into your space, sort of your private space and takes something like that, you feel violated in a way. >> reporter: reverend randy duncan was up on the altar at sterling united methodist church this past sunday leading the second of three services while someone was rifling through his office. >> they were sitting just right here on the top of my desk. >> when the service was over, he came in to relax at his desk, he noticed not only his

church keys were missing but also his own private house keys from inside his desk. later, an office worker found her wallet stolen from her purse which was under this desk. and another church member remembers talking to an unfamiliar woman who was going through another desk. >> she's over there. rifling through the desk. and there is a person here. >> exactly. >> he speaks to her. >> he speaks to her and asks can i help you? and she said something like, i'm just here leaving a note. >> and then left. >> and then left. >> incredibly, this church wasn't the thief's first target sunday morning. apparently she had already ripped off a preschool director at a church in ashburn. >> when i looked in my purse, my wallet is missing and then i noticed that my checkbook was missing. >> brenda says she saw the woman she thinks stole her money standing by a bulletin board before the service. >> her boldness of coming in and coming in and just taking

my wallet and my checkbook. i'm praying for her. >> in ashburn, peggy fox, 9news now. metro transit is facing some questions after it spent $200,000 to find out what life would be like if there was no metro service in the d.c. region. metro says the study was meant to quantify the transit agency's impact on the area like higher property values, more tax revenues, the kind of information metro can use for lobbying for more tax dollars. ironically, 9news now spent next to nothing to ask commuters what they thought about the study. several say the money could have been better spent on equipment. >> who in their right mind would build metal escalators exposed to ice, snow, rain and heat? it is one of the reasons why they're breaking down all the time. >> to be fair, the transit system is paying big money to replace its aging, unreliable

escalators and did take awhile before they realized the canopies might help. d.c. cabbies have received the ok to raise fares by 44%. the initial fee of $3 would stay the same under the recent proposal but the per mile rate would go from $1.50 to $2.16. now, to offset this sort of additional charges would be eliminated including the luggage, additional passenger fees. there would be a 30-day comment period before the fare increase goes into effect. in health news, statins may be able to do more than just lower cholesterol. a new study finds statins can help people hospitalized with the flu. researchers found patients who took statins together with traditional treatment reduce their risk of death. studies suggest statins lower inflammation and activate the immune system keeping the virus in check. >> researchers in utah are trying to identify the main reason for so many stillbirths in the united states. they found preterm labor,

abnormalities in the placenta and early cervix dilation were some of the common cause. roughly one in 160 pregnancies in the u.s. are stillborn. >> geo plasties performed outside traditional hospitals are safe. that's according to the mayo clinic research. doctors looked at 900,000 patients who had the procedure to unblock arteries at care centers and found there was no greater risk of death. 4:53. it is time to look at the question of the morning this morning. >> the question is seven out of ten of us plan to do this every weekend. is it a, go to a movie. b, catch up on sleep. or c, check work e-mails. >> log on to our facebook fan page. leave your response. we'll have the answer coming up in our 6:00 hour. [ female announcer ] more people are using wireless devices... in more ways than ever. and our networks are getting crowded. but if congress frees up more wireless spectrum...

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is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. is it a robot? no. is it a jet plane? nope. is it a dinosaur? [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] inside every box of heart healthy cheerios are those great tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. stickers? uh-uh. a superhero? ♪ kinda. [ male announcer ] and we think that's the best prize of all.

♪ welcome back. 4:56. your weather first on this wednesday morning just a stray shower chance today. otherwise, lots of clouds. by 11:00, low 40s. winds not bad out of the south- southeast, maybe 5 miles per hour. 1:00, 47. highs near 50 today. better chance to see some showers on thursday. i'll have that forecast coming up during 9news now at 5:00. right now, here's monica. >> live look here in alexandria at the beltway and telegraph road. both loops of the beltway are fine between 95 and the wilson bridge. we're looking good on route one trying to get to the beltway and 95, in my next report, i'll show you that as well. coming up at 5:01. back to you guys. >> looking for something to do this weekend? an exhibit is opening at abraham lincoln's cottage on the grounds of the armed forces

retirement home. the display features images of the civil war in washington. the seat of war exhibit includes historic prints, some of which have been rarely displayed. the cottage provided a summer retreat for president lincoln's family for several years. it opened to the public for the first time in 2008 after a $15 million renovation. elizabeth taylor's spectacular jewelry collection hit the auction block last night in new york city. >> some of taylor's most famous jewels fetched millions at christie's auction house. alexis christoforous has more. >> at $2.8 million, $3 million. >> reporter: collectors and fans of the hollywood actress packed christie's auction house in new york for the chance to own one of elizabeth taylor's legendary jewels! the crown jewel of her collection, the iconic 33 carat potentially flawless white diamond ring, a gift from husband richard burton. it sold for $8.8 million.

another burton gift, this bulgari emerald and diamond necklace fetched $6.1 million. 80 earrings, necklaces, pendants and rings went under the gavel, in one of the most important jewelry auctions in a generation. >> a hallmark of this entire collection is the quality of the stones and the craftsmanship. >> it took elizabeth taylor a lifetime to amast her jewelry collection. christie's says it is one of the finest in the world. as rich as her jewels are, so are the stories behind them. like this cartier diamond tiara which she wore to the 1957 academy awards. a gift from her third husband, hollywood producer mike todd, sold for $4.2 million. after a fierce bidding battle, the rare pearl necklace which queen mary once owned sold for a staggering $11.8 million, a record for any pearl jewel.

but for these well-healed bidders, the legend of elizabeth taylor makes her jewels priceless. alexis christoforous, cbs news, new york. sales of taylor's art, clothing and memorabilia will be held later this week and online only sale runs until saturday. part of the proceeds will go to the elizabeth taylor a.i.d.s. foundation. we decided this isn't the 1% who is buying this. this is the -- >> .1%. >> those are spectacular jewels. good morning. thank you for watching 9news now at 5:00 a.m. i'm andrea roane. >> we're glad you're here. i'm mike hydeck. here's the lovely monika samtani. she'll have traffic momentarily. good morning, mr. beirne. >> we may see an isolated shower north and west of town later this morning into early afternoon but it looks like our rain chances really will become better tomorrow. tomorrow will be the wettest day of the week. we're not talking about like a soaking rain either but