said that's not going to happen. that puts the tax break in danger of expiring. we are right back there again. >> the renegotiate risks, the middle class tax cut never going to the middle class. >> congress needs to act. the house needs to act, or else americans will have their taxes go up. >> so, if that tax break expires, the average american family loses $1,000 over the next 365 days. the gridlock continues between the two par parties. the clock is ticking. here we are again. over a tax bill. what is the big sticking point this time? >> big sticking point is that the senate version is a tax cut for a year. so we wouldn't have to deal -- tax cut for two months. so in february, i think it would come out, we would be fighting out about it again. the house wants to have a tax cut for a full year. the senate did not agree to

that. so that is basically the difference between them at this point. >> didn't it come down to how you pay for this tax cut. they couldn't agree to get it done. >> the senate couldn't come up with enough money to pay for this tax cut for more than two months. so they do it for two months, whereas the house, which has a strong tea party has come up with ways of saving money that would allow it. >> at this point, december 31, which is a couple weeks off comes. the senate doesn't come back and vote, house won't vote on the tax cut that is already in place. it could go away. is that likely to happen? >> you know, they can reinstate it. congress can do what they want. they can come back and say okay, they can even do it retroactively. there's always escape patches with congress. and temporary fixes. this is about the campaign. this is about positioning. this really happens to be real money on the line. this is really about next

november's campaign. >> this is politics. >> this is politics. who gets stuck with it at the end? you can make an ad and say this guy voted to raise your taxes. >> it is a weird thing. is this a tux cut that was put in place recently. at some point, doesn't have to go up to pay for the social security system, which is what the payroll tax does? >> it should, but it doesn't have to. they can continue to borrow money and make up for the gap. this money goes into the social security trust fund, it's called. but they'll just make up for it by borrowing money like they do now, which is what increases the deficit. >> where does the white house play into this? john boehner saying why aren't they showing more leadership? >> the white house is sitting pretty because this is the equivalent of a reversal. it is usually the republicans who are saying the president is against tax cuts.

now it's the president who is completely reverse the situation from last year, where he was the one who is standing in the way of tax cuts. this is an amazing political cue on the part of the president so far. >> and we will watch the politics unfold for the next couple of weeks and i'm sure far beyond that. >> thank you, sir. appreciate your time this evening. the identity of a prince georges county police officer who shot and killed a man saturday night has been released. he is michael owens jr. he's a two year veteran and owens was in uniform and returning from a toy give away in an unmarked van. when he saw a man just lying there in the grass. assistant chief, kevin davis, says that man came armed with a pistol and he pointed it at owens. >> this police officer saw someone who is minimally in in need of attention. he stopped. he stopped to help him. and from that, he was encountered by an armed gunman.

i would argue that the police officer had no idea, whatsoever, that he was going it be confronted by a person with a gun. >> the victim is 35-year-old rodney edwards whose criminal history includes drugs and weapons charges. his family complains the shooting was senseless. the officer on administrative leave now while the investigation is completed. a group of d.c. lawyers is teaming up to fight what it calls a grave injustice in our area. they are referring to the young african american men who have now been issued barring notices. that means they are kept away from housing projects. andrea mccarren reports, the men alleged they have been arrested and even though they don't have criminal records. >> i don't have a jaywalking ticket. they can't tell me why they turned my pockets inside and out and laughing about it. >> isaiah green received one of the 67 bar notices issued so far this year. >> we are human beings. we are not animals. we don't deserve to go in cages. i have no record.

i have never been convicted of any crime. >> white was also arrested at woodland terrace. the member was told he was not authorized to be on the property. >> i was trying to figure out, how can't i be authorized to be on the property? >> after a public outcry, the charges were dismissed. white says his name is still in the d.c. court system. >> branded for life. and he did nothing. there's not even a suspicion of criminal activity. they just bar them because they say, we don't want you there. >> the lawyers working on these cases believe this is an issue city wide. andrea mccarren, 9news now. >> now to a big undercover sting operation by d.c. police and federal agents. they set it up with a recording studio in northeast. but instead of recording music, they recorded unsuspecting clients making deals for shotguns, even a rocket launcher. today, dc police chief praised

the officers who put their lives on the line. >> we actually had several cases where our under covers traveled outside of the district of columbia with suspects that were known to be involved in multiple armed robberies. those suspects during those discussions made it clear they had no problems in shooting or killing police officers or security guards in the course of their criminal conduct. >> and check out the results of the sting. police arrested 70 people. seized 161 weapons. took off the street drugs worth more than $7 million. from credit card readers it standardized colors. wants changes made to cabs in d.c. bruce johnson with all the details of the newly introduced taxi cab reform bill. >> your ride in a d.c. cab will change considerably in the next year. >> attempting to put into taxi cabs the kind of amenities that are available in taxi cabs around the country. >> new meters will enable you

to pay by credit or debit card and produce an accurate receipt. a gps system will keep the driver from getting lost. the new technology will enable you or the driver to notify police in case of emergency. passengers will pay more at least a 50-cent surcharge for the new technology. also pay more for the basic cab ride. back here, we have a yellow and black cab. over here we have a gray cab, white cab, black pearl, gray, blue, within a year, all of the cabs will have to be the same uniformed color. in new york it's yellow. in boston it's white. what do you suppose d.c.'s color will be in. >> i hope they would be white. >> the same color scheme on the circulator bus. >> a taxi cab reform bill will be introduced tomorrow. bruce johnson, 9news now. they tell us it's the holiday season, but you couldn't tell it by the

weather. we have 50s going. we like that, top. >> we like that. we are looking at cooler air tomorrow. now right now, let's talk about the satellite picture and radar combined. a couple showers out in the ohio valley. a couple sprinkles north of us. nothing of any consequence is happening tonight or tomorrow for that matter. temperatures are not bad. 49 downtown. 46 in gaithersburg. and also in leesburg, 48 in manassas. 50 in cumberland and 51 in hagerstown. for tonight, mostly cloudy, breezy. not nearly as cold as it was this morning. it was 29 this morning. lows 35 to 40. and the winds pick up southwest 10 to 15. that is a warm wind. we'll come back and talk about a cooler wind tomorrow. and talk about a real temperature roller coaster for the rest of the week and look ahead to the weekend. we have christmas and the skins at home on saturday. thank you topper. coming up, a multimillion dollar gift the national zoo is hoping might lead to panda

feet, but aimed at keeping people in d.c. well rested. we'll talk about that coming up.

according to the washington post, a textbook publisher is refusing to let virginia's education department preview its latest school books. that publisher is known as

press. those are the same folks that made headlines last year over history books that contained many mistakes. they plan to market science books directly to the virginia school district bypassing the state review and as you might imagine, state lawmakers, at least some of them are not happy about that. people in southwest and southeast d.c. may be sleeping a little sounder tonight. late night flights into reagan national will no longer be flying over their homes. you see, ever since last spring, flights landing between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. to to be diverted. d.c. delegate called up the faa and now the airport will hold off on that construction until 1:00 a.m. after those flights have landed. >> a pretty warm start to the workweek. could it stick around for our holidays? top gives us the latest forecast. but first, robbing peter to pay paul. that's what some lawmakers say virginia governor bob masumi

masumi mcdonnell is doing with his new budget.

the washington, d.c. veteran's affairs medical center and wusa9 salute all who serve at home and abroad this holiday season. >> merry christmas and happy holidays to granddaddy, david, morgan, tyler, madison, ryan, and henry and all of our other family and friends in northern virginia, from the donaldson's in germany. merry christmas. the national zoo received an early christmas present today. a $4.5 million donation to the zoo's panda program. that gift came from david of the d.c. based carlisle group and zoo officials say now they can stop focusing on fund raising and get back to what they really want to do. that is get some panda cubs. the female panda will likely

try again in the next few weeks. congress is granted the struggling u.s. postal service a reprieve. over the weekend, lawmakers passed a spending package that will give the u.s. mail more time. but there's a catch. that bill also mandates that the postal service keep on delivering its mail six days per week. the postal service had been considering cutting that back. bob mcdonnell presented his budget plan today and it includes cuts to prek and public schools in northern virginia. and hits local governments hard by making them sure up the state's under funded plan. the details from peggy fox. >> this budget accomplices the goal. >> in the governor's two-year spending plan, he sures up the under funded pension fund with a $2.2 billion boost in employer contributions. more than a billion will come from local governments. fairfax county democratic supervisor says that's not

fair. >> the administration, i remember, was quite negative and upset over the federal bailouts when the federal government was bailing folks out. now what they are doing is asking local government to bail out the state. we aren't capable of doing that. >> dave says the plan makes sense. >> fairfax county employees, and so they are supposed to make the employer contributions to their employee's retirement, just like happens in every other business. >> they are pleased to see the governor's budget designate money for transportation, although democrats dislike where it's coming from. >> folks have gotten to the point where they want to be straight up told, what is it going to cost to fix our roads and let's get busy doing it. moving money from the general fund, all that does is hurt the kids in the class room. it's not really a sound budgeting practice. >> the governor wants to eliminate money that helps northern virginia schools retain nonclassroom staff that competing school systems are trying to hire away. >> on the reduction side of

the budget, the governor cut $300 million from medicaid funding. that's going to hurt a lot of people, but one local leader said the governor had to do it. >> medicaid, problem is, it had gone up 300% in ten years. it's absolutely mathematically unsustainable. >> peggy fox, 9news now. >> while the governor's plan includes no new taxes. total of $10 million. a nativity scene will remain on display at a california air force base. the two are part of a holiday decoration at the travis air force base and last week the military religious freedom foundation complained about them saying the nativity were a military endorsement of religion. the group asked the base to move those displays, but that won't be happening. air force lawyers reviewed the case. they say the two symbols does not violate the first amendment, because they are part of a broader display. >> all right, does including the nativity infringe on the troops or signs of the season,

just like christmas trees that are shown in that display? weigh in, mcginty's mail bag. nice weather. we have had a few weeks where it gets cold for a second and then it warms right back up. >> it can't lock into a winter pattern. i know you are upset about that. >> 52 today for the high. it was 29 this morning downtown. >> it was colder. but we're looking at a pretty tame pattern for the next several days. let's start with the satellite picture radar combined. pretty big storm. blizzard warnings in effect for southeastern colorado and western kansas. and some areas have already had over a foot of snow that. will continue into the early morning hours on tuesday. we're looking at good rains, too right now. kansas is crazy. you can have a blizzard in western kansas and tremendous rain in eastern kansas with thunderstorms headed for kansas city. as we travel eastward, it's all rain. i mean, there's no cold air anywhere in the 48 continuous

states. so we're looking at rain. as far as we're concerned, a couple sprinkles to the north, nothing really going to happen tonight or tomorrow for that matter. temperatures still pretty nice. 50 in arlington. 52 in college park. 46 in beltsville. cooler north and west. 45 in gaithersburg. above average for this time of day. here's the deal. cool and milder. just chilly tonight. you'll need a jacket tomorrow. cooler on tuesday. but then milder on wednesday. milder still thursday. a bit unsettled. that's code for some showers, especially on wednesday. for tonight, mostly cloudy, breezy. a chance of a late shower in. i would not worry about it. winds southwest 10 to 15. a warm wind tonight. look what happens to the winds tomorrow. winds turn, become northeasterly at 10. temperatures in the 30s and 40s to start. a slight chance of a shower. mostly cloudy skies.

by afternoon, mostly cloudy, maybe a few showers. not much. grab a coat as opposed to an umbrella. highs near 50. most areas will hold in the upper 50s. that is a cool wind. all right, we'll break it down. 35 to 40 to start. maybe a sprinkle. noon, a lot of clouds. temperatures in the 40s. by evening, 46 to 50. a better chance of showers late in the evening. upper os wednesday. upper 50s wednesday. we are wet on wednesday. that will be the wettest day of the week. we get a break on thursday and more rain. winter arrives on thursday. we get a break on christmas day and then another system may come at us on monday. by that time, it might be cold enough to have to worry about rain or snow monday afternoon. >> just maybe. >> we'll look forward to your keeping us posted. let's get to our weird news file, because most of the time

all it takes to win an eating contest is a stomach the size of a small sedan. there are times when size doesn't matter. take rj williams. his meal was not that big, however, it is a real lightbulb he is lunching on. he managed to get down in a world record 33.86 seconds. glass, wires, and all. happened earlier this month. over at recordcenter were there. the rules are simple. had to be a household bulb. had to eat everything, including all the metal. the only tools to break, his teeth. this is so not sexy. but rj, i think you have to make some claim here. he is the man. >> he kind of is. >> eating lightbulbs. we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's

mail bag. mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news will be right back.

just a small token of appreciation from our good friend, ron from maryland. i just want to tell the mail bag at this time of the year that i appreciate the gift that keeps on giving, the channel 9 newscast. downright enjoyable. happy holidays and keep up the great work in 2012. go ahead, publish this, you

deserve it. even if you don't, we want your e-mails and comments. mailbag@wusa9.com. don't forget your name. that is our broadcast for tonight. i'll be right back here tonight at 11:00 along with anita brikman. log on any time to wusa9.com. we'll see you a bit later. have a good evening. bye bye.

now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment news magazine in the world. j. lo and marc anthony, together after the split. >> i can get a lot there. >> what this exclusive video may reveal about their relationship now. britney's engagement. the ring. who is her fiancee? big bang wedding news. >> the new kim and kris photo shoot. >> the kardashian's christmas card with kim posing alone. >> your favorite star's children growing up fast. brad and angelina's brood, tom's older son and daughter. which kids are following in their famous parents' foot steps. >> i look at my daughter. she's dressing like i did. chelsea handler's new show. >> you cannot date my ex-boyfriend. that's very slutty. >> is it too racy? >> you've gotten so much funnier since your dui. >> "mission impossible" mondays. brand new tom cruise.