outside this morning with temperatures which are running in the upper 40s in most spots. 49 right now. we may sneak into the low 50s today but temperatures won't be moving too much with spotty showers. best chances will be fort of town and through midday as opposed to the afternoon when i think we'll have lighter chances or lower chances for rain. 5:00 p.m. temperatures back in the 40s. we're watching the moisture this morning up into pennsylvania and ohio. some snow along interstate 80. locally we've had the sprinkles down south charles county, northern st. mary's into central and southern calvert counties right now seeing very light showers. mid-40s in winchester to right around a here in town. again we won't be seeing too much movement on the temps. highs upper 40s to low 50s. monika samtani has your time saver traffic. a bit of an issue on the beltway on the north side of town a little earlier. hence you see all this yellow and orange up here. there was an accident on the inner loop of the beltway after georgia avenue. it was cleared up and traffic

is moving much, much better. let's go over to the south side of town. if you're planning to head on the inbound side of 395, you've got everything running on time. we'll go back to the map on the northbound side of i-395. no problems to report as you head for the 14th street bridge. 62 miles an hour inside the beltway 066. now let's -- beltway on 66. now let's go to springfield. a disabled vehicle caused slow traffic. it's pretty normal heading through springfield. a live look at 66 on the inbound side, no issues to report. it was just a bit slow in manassas but beyond that okay traveling towards vienna. coming up in my next report, we'll take a look around the area once again at 6:11. back to you. >> thank you, monika. it is no longer democrat versus republican on capitol hill when it comes to extending the pay control tax cuts. >> sadly it's the house versus the senate in a showdown that will come to a head today and once again all of us and our wallets are caught in the

middle. >> surae chinn is live with the latest this ongoing debate. >> reporter: good morning. we're just 11 days before our taxes go up. we're about 160 million working americans and the senate thought they avoided the whole mess thinking the house would do the same thing by voting on the measure but instead they're surprised house members emerged saying they are going to vote down the measure. again this bill would have saved 160 million americans about $1,000 a year in taxes. this again is to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. house speaker john boehner seemed on board until he discussed it with other republicans. >> our members do not want to just punt and do take two-month short-term fix where we have to come back and do this again. >> what we see now is stalling action on the part of those who never were really for a payroll tax cut in the first place.

>> reporter: the white house was very clear. they came out yesterday saying if this bill fails that it is the house republicans' fault. again the vote is later on today. >> surae chinn live on capital hymn. of course we'll be following this story throughout the day. president obama and vice president biden will head to andrews today. they'll take part in a ceremony to welcome home troops from iraq and to mark the end of the war there. the last american troops pulled out of iraq early sunday morning nearly 4500 americans were killed and 32,000 wounded in the war. while you slept state- runnymede ya in north korea released images of the body of leader kim jong-il. his coffin was visited by his son and heir apparent. south korea offered its condolences to the people of the north but not the

government. there will be no official delegation from the south heading to the north for the funeral on the 28th of december. d.c. police are investigating three shootings that all happened within less than an hour. two men died. the first shooting call came in around 6:00 p.m. from northwest at 11th and m streets. an investigation into this seems this may have been a suicide according to authorities. a man was shot and tildz near 10th -- cndz near 10th -- killed near 10th and taylor streets. police are looking for three gunmen in another shooting. now we have a commuter alert for you this morning. and some good news for holiday travelers. vdot is going to stop its work on the ongoing project starting friday afternoon. that way every lane on the highway that can be open will be open. the work will be suspended through tuesday and then again from december 30 through

january 3. hov restrictions will be lifted till next monday. 6:05. jessica doyle is here with another your money report. >> she is talking about shopping days and how many there are till christmas and how many stores are open 24/7. >> set your coffee pot to go off a lot earlier because the last dash for christmas, you can now go toy shopping at 3:00 in the morning if you want to. toys 'r' us has announced round the clock shopping right up until christmas. stores nationwide will stay open for 112 hours straight. the bonanza just start add few minutes ago, 6:00 a.m. today. this morning continuing through 10:00 p.m. on christmas eve. this is the second year in a row toys 'r' us stayed open for 24 hour shopping. there are also special deals available today and tomorrow. things like a free $35 gift card with the purchase of any nintendo 3ds hand held system. a lot of us waiting till the

last minute to get it all done. a new visa survey finds three out of four of us still have gifts to buy this week. only 7.6% finished by the end of the first week of december. half have been waiting for better deals or people bought for themselves first. when the times get tough, the ladies buy nail polish. these are some of the findings of a new survey from npd group. for the first ten responsibilities of 2011 sales of nail polish and products were up 59% in the same period in 2010. the research suggests more women may be skipping the salon manicures and doing their own nails but explain to me why i always buy the same color over and over again. >> there is five days left till christmas in case you're not keeping track like i wasn't a

moment ago. there is a new fad this holiday season that's sweeping the nation. it's been dubbed the layaway angels. people are going to stores randomly picking a layaway account and paying cash for them. it's a huge surprise to the people given this gift. >> reporter: it's usually -- >>it's usually disbelief at first. they wonder if someone is pranking them. when it settles in, there's a lot of joy and happiness. >> good reasonable. most of the layaway angels look for accounts with toys or children's clothing and most choose to remain anonymous and most aren't wealthy people at all. 6:07. you've all seen people do it. maybe you've even done it. coming up in four minutes, we're talking about a new effort to put texting behind the wheel to an end. we'll be joined by the head of the national transportation safety administration. learn what's being done to keep

us all safe. it is a lot warmer outside than it was 24 hours ago. rain is on the way. your weather first when 9news now continues. keep it here. my name is amanda. i'm currently stayinged at anderson air force base guam. wants to say hello to my family in alexandria, virginia. happy holidays, everyone. i miss you and i'll see you soon. yeah, i'm married. does it matter?

you'd do that for me? really? yeah, i'd like that. who are you talking to? uh, it's jake from state farm. sounds like a really good deal. jake from state farm at three in the morning. who is this? it's jake from state farm. what are you wearing, jake from state farm? [ jake ] uh... khakis. she sounds hideous. well she's a guy, so... [ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state. ♪

10 after 6:00 on this tuesday morning. we have a few sprinkles out there. that will be the case today. lighter showers through midday, especially north of town. temperatures will be hanging out in the upper 40s. maybe a couple spots in the low 50s. more wet weather for wednesday. ail have the full forecast in seven minutes. right now monika sam samtani is along with time saver traffic. a live look at the beltway in college park. finally back to normal. a little busy heading into silver spring. early morning accident was cleared. the lanes are finally open through that area. coming up in my next report, we'll take another look around the area at 6:18. first these days multitasking in our busy lives seems normal but multitasking while driving, namely texting, is essentially driving blind. joining me to focus on a new

campaign ised administrator of the national traffic association nick. thank you for joining me. >> thank you for having me. >> distracted driving is the number one killer of american teens. how is this campaign going to be different or more effective than we've already seen? >> the one thing we've seen in working and talking with teenagers is they don't want to be preached to. this campaign specifically talks to and lays out specific facts and impact visions to show teenagers what the impact is of making that decision. we find it's been very effective. >> i want to show a clip to our audience to give you an example of one of these psas. >> the average text takes your eyes off the road for nearly five seconds. stop the text. stop the wrecks. visit us online. >> very tough to watch. i know that these psas were created pro bono by a new york-

based ad agency. where will they be seen and who are they going to be targeting specifically? >> they will abseen nationwide. it's a collaboration between our national and the national highway traffic association and the ad council. it will be on television, stations around the country. >> addressing the compulsion we have to always be in contact with people. recently the n.t.s.b. recommended a total ban on cell phone use in cars. we're going to put up a full screen of some numbers. do they justify a total ban? >> we're taking a look at those recommendations. itself one thing i do want to talk about, we're really happy that the ntsb has focused on this issue. the numbers are quite severe. the secretary of transportation ray lahood has taken up the cause of combating distracted driving since he began his service in office. when we all began together working on this there was only a handful of states that had texting bans and hand held bans. now we're up to 35 states across the country with texting bans. of course in less than two

years. >> i think one of the biggest problems is we're not only distracted doing this but we're doing so many things in our cars. i think we need to be mindful of that as well and hopefully something like this would work. going forward you've been in office for almost two years. what are your goals for 2012? >> there's a number of them. the one thing we're very proud of is we're at the lowest number of fatalities on our highways since 1949 which is a huge achievement. we want to keep moving on that, continue the success of saving more people every single day. but also we're working more on distraction. we're going to be releasing guidelines for how automobile manufacturers put in devices in their vehicles and then we're doing a lot more research not only on distraction but how we can encourage people to make better decisions behind the wheel in terms of not driving impaired, making sure you're wearing your seat belts every trip, day or night. it's going to be a lot more work but it's a fantastic opportunity to improve auto safety. >> some of that new technology

may not let you answer the phone. good luck with the campaign and come back and talk with us about the results. >> thank you. 6:15 on the nose. let's get a check of some of the other stories making news this morning. attorneys for a man says -- [ inaudible ] he's' cuesed of giving classified information to wiki leaks. former penn state football coach joe paterno is out of the hospital. this is video from last month. paterno was hospitalized december 11 after he fell in his home and broke his pelvis. he's also undergoing treatment for lung cancer. paterno lost his job amid allegations of abuse by a former assistant. it's going to be a white christmas across the southwest and great plains. individual free of blizzard conditions expected today there. they could get more than a foot of snow. no dreaming will make it so here of a white christmas.

>> not going to happen. western oklahoma till about noon local time they have the blizzard warnings if effect. some of note drifts could be 3 feet. that would be tough to drive through. around here no real problems. got a couple of sprinkles out there. a little bit after chill in the air. the temperatures right now are actually about or even slightly above where normal highs are this time of year. some mild weather today and even milder on wednesday. we start with the bus stop forecast. i'm choked up over the lack of snow. >> it will be okay. >> a few showers this morning, 45 to 50. sun is up 7:22. actually it looks like temperatures won't be moving much. maybe a few degrees up from that as the day planner shows plenty of clouds and those showers possible this morning. the better chance we'll see drier weather this afternoon. northeast, to east winds 5 to 7 miles an hour as temperatures again in a couple of spots may crack that 50-degree mark

later. in fact i think they'll drop a little bit and come up a little bit but not much. a few showers south and east. more rain pennsylvania and ohio with just a little bit of snow along interstate 80 there. locally we've been waffing the showers -- watching the showers south and east in maryland. lusby across the bay to cambridge. that's about all we're seeing on doppler 9000 with temperatures running mainly in the 40s. pittsburgh and cleveland are in the 30s. a little bit of snow up here but for us at 49 degrees, well, anything we see is going to be liquid. reston 43. that's one of the chillier spots with leesburg 52. 50 in laurel and rockville. at reagan national still holding on to 49 degrees. winds are calm. cloudy skies and that dew point of 34. the storm system with the snow, that's still spinning out here. warm air across arkansas approaching west tennessee now and louisiana. pretty hefty thunderstorms. this is what we're going to see tomorrow.

today just a couple of showers here and there, especially this morning. so today upper 40s. i may have to move this up to 51, 52 but not much more than that. tomorrow near 60 with periods of rain and showers. mild on thursday, upper 50s. we start dry. we may see some showers return before the day is out. if not it will be thursday night into friday morning. looks like a wet christmas with highs in the low 40s. monika, over to you. we're going to take a look at the beltway. overall things are looking much better than they were about a half an hour ago when we had this accident on the inner loop of the belt waip after georgia avenue. -- beltway after georgia avenue. let's look at the bwi parkway and route 50. inside the beltway slew sheverly is the norm -- through cheverly is the normal traffic. let's go over to virginia. on the northbound side of i-95 here's what it looks like in lorton. it was slow in quantico in this area up towards springfield and 3935 looking a little heavy as

well. -- and 395 is looking a little heavy as well. the 14th street bridge, a little heavy but no big deals to report. coming up in my next report, another look around the area at 6:25. back to you guys. >> thanks, monika. 6:19 now. it is time to look at some lights. >> this morning we go to laurel, maryland. this is the giveton family home. it's really pretty. you can see a lot of lights up there. i think there's a mickey mouse somewhere in there as well. >> we want to show off your displays. snap a photo or take a quick video and e-mail it to us. you can also post it to our facebook page. include your name and where you live. coming up on 6:20, next in sports not one but two power outages during the monday night

football game. see who emerged the winner when the lights finally came back on. now time to get another check of our question of the morning. this is hysterical. according to forbes.com, this is the best christmas movie of all times. is it "the nightmare before christmas ," "diehard ," or "a christmas story." >> facebook sharon has no doubt b, "diehard" because she says it is the best movie ever. >> never connected diehard to christmas. keep the guesses coming. we will reveal the best answer at 6:53. we'll be right back.

welcome back. 6:23 your weather first. we've got cloudy skies out there. a couple of sprinkles in southern maryland and eastern shore. otherwise a relatively quiet and for this time of year mild morning. you'll need a jacket for sure

but you don't need gloves on outside. here's a look at the day planner. expect lots of clouds. again a few showers here and there through midday. temperatures at noon upper 40s. 48, 49, somewhere in that range. highs today around 50. 5:00 p.m. temps in the mid-40s. andrea and mike? >> thank you. a bizarre scene in monday night football when not once but twice the power went out at candlestick park. >> the utility company in san francisco blames a transformer explosion knocking out the power to just one place, the stadium. >> the first outage happened before the game. you'll see the small explosion. look on the left side. that's when the lights go out. that delayed the start. power went out again in the middle of the game and the stadium switched to a backup generator. as far as the action on the field, it was all niners. take a look at this touchdown pass from alec smith. i promise it's coming up. there was a great touchdown pass by smith.

take my word for it. san francisco topped pittsburgh which had the third power outage. they lost 20-3. the niners improve to 11-3. they're on a roll. the capitals are back on the ice tonight. they're hosting the national predators. puck drops at 7. caps are 4-4 so far this month. to college hoops. virginia tech hosting north florida. the second half the hoak the hokies go on a run. they have now one four in a row. 6:25. still to come, get ready to pay more to ride vre. how much fares should go up and when. fares are also expected to go up for cabs in the district. we'll tell you what other changes could possibly come with it. right now monika has a quick check on traffic. it's been a busy morning. it has been a busy morning but i'm going to give you some good news. you just have the normal slow

stuff on the inbound side of 66 through manassas and inside the beltway through sick more street. all -- sycamore street. all lanes are open. you're watching 9news now. stay with us. [ female announcer ] more people are using wireless devices...

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good morning. welcome back to 9news now. it's 6:30. this is the place to always get your weather first. we want to take a live look at the white house. >> sort of. >> it's there. is that a wreath in the window on the right-hand side? >> i guess so. right now it's also 49 degrees. at the ellipse just south of the white house, the first candle will be lit on the national menorah. it should be in the 40s with a slight chance of showers. the ceremony begins at 4:00 p.m. thank you for starting your tuesday with us. aim mike high deck -- i'm mike hydeck. i'm andrea roane. howard bernstein has your forecast. >> it's mild. temperatures in the upper 40s and a light breeze this morning but grab the umbrella just to be on the safe side. we have the threat of some showers especially this morning through midday. midday temps upper 40s. by 5:00 back to the mid-40s. we have highs 46 to 52 the way

it's looking now. i don't think temperatures will be moving very much from where they are. you see some of the showers that have been south and east but it's really been pennsylvania and ohio. rain and snow now, lip along interstate 8 -- now, especially along interstate 80. locally we see a few light showers on the eastern shore. temps mainly in the 40s to near 50. let's go to monika samtani. 6:31. traffic is building. we're going to take a live look at sky 9 here. this is the westbound side of i- 66 at the beltway. the accident here blocks the left lane. you can see the arrow board and the flares set up. it is going to slow you down trying to exit on to the beltway from the westbound side of i-66. inbound is not affected by this. let's take a look at a map so i can show you exactly where it is and what's affecting. as i said it's on the westbound side of i-66 right here at the beltway. dulles toll road is not affected. gw parkway looks great as well if that's where you're headed inside the beltway. let's take a look live outside

in virginia. here's what it looks like northbound on 395. this is the normal slow stuff at 6:31 in the morning through landmark. then you have a bit of congestion across the 14th street bridge. coming up in my next report, i'll update ow that accident on 66. at 6:45. most senators have already skipped town and headed out for the holidays. >> but the house wants them back because they're about to reject the plan to extend the payroll tax cut for two hsthe h want? >> reporter: first, like you said, they want the senators to come back to negotiate but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. senate democrats are saying they're not coming back to washington because there's no more negotiating. they feel as if house members are not going to budge on n. the senate voted on a bipartisan measure over the weekend. they thought it was a good deal. the house members would do the same thing. but instead the house members are expected to reject this

measure that would have saved 160 million americans about a thousand dollars a year. but this is also pitting house members, together the house republicans and house democrats and it's causing a nay major standoff between -- a causing a major standoff between the house and the senate. >> if we outright reject it, it's awn unworkable -- it's an unworkable solution. >> two months? that is really do nothing. >> when what they sent over was an insult to the american people. >> the american people need the payroll tax cut to grow the economy. it's 160 million americans who will lose their tax cuts because of the tea party republicans who want to hold it up. >> reporter: so the house really wants not a short-term measure. we're talking about house republicans. but they want a long-term one- year plan on the payroll tax

cut. so there are really small options, very few at this point. the house either needs to do some major negotiating or the senators have to return to washington which is unlukely or in the # -- unlikely or in 11 days our taxes go up january 1. not much of a happy new year. >> nobody likes something like that. thank you, surae live on capitol hill this morning. much more on this at the top of the hour on the early show as well at 7:00 a.m. now to the wilson building. the d.c. council today will approve a sweeping ethics reform bill. it passed unanimously in a preliminary vote two weeks ago. this bill will create an ethics board with the power to punish ethics rules violators. one of the businessman caught up in the jack johnson corruption case will be sentenced later today. emrick admitted to buying untaxed alcohol from prince george's county police

officers. he then sold the booze at his tick tock liquor stores in the county. he faces up to 20 years in prison. court documents show he tried to bribe johnson to pass cletion favoring -- pass legislation favoring liquor store owners. he's already pleaded guilty to those charges. vre riders get ready to pay more. the vre wants to make a 3% hike in fares. it would take effect in july. vre has not raised fares since 2009. d.c. council will take up a proposal to make significant changes to the independent taxicabs. under the plan the city would require cabs to accept credit cards, install gps devices and we, the customers, would pay for all of that with a new surcharge. council members mary chay -- [

inaudible ] >> the new proposal would also call for all cabs to be a uniform color. new york, all the cabs are yellow. in boston all the cabs are white. >> i like that credit card feature in the new york cabs. >> it makes sense. >> 6:36. jessica doyle watching your money and your diet. >> boy, do i need help on this one. grabbing a meal at the airport this holiday season doesn't have to be a big belly buster. >> you have other options besides those greasy fries as you make the last dash. fries are nice but you have some other options. the airport has gotten a lot healthier. a new survey is out today that shows some new options n. a poll of 15 major airports, 83% of restaurants had at least one vegetarian item on the menu, low in fat, high in fiber and good for the heart. that's up. the committee for responsible medicine has been conducting the survey since 2001.

our partners at "u.s.a. today" report that dulles came in third in the country for healthy choices. bwi tied in ninth place. reagan national came in in tenth. at&t is ending its bid to acquire t-mobile for $39 billion. the justice department sued at&t in august to stop the planned merger saying it would hurt comp tig. at&t is expected to look for a stake in a smaller company instead. shares of bank of america starts this morning on wall street below $5 a share. it's the lowest level in two years. bank shares have gotten hammered in general this year but b of a has had a really tough time recently on concerns about its mortgage business. a lot of folks probably don't have a lot of sympathy for bank of america after the whole debit card fee debacle we all know about a couple months ago. >> i won't say a word. thank you. the national zoo received an early christmas gift monday. a $4.5 million donation to the

zoo's panda program. the gift came from david reubenstein. this big gift allows the zoo to stop focusing on fund raising and pay attention instead to breeding new panda cubs. time now 6:38. we have some washington wizards girls joining us in the studio this morning. ready for the regular season tipoff coming up on monday. learn what's planned for the big night. howard says we'll have a cloudy day with a chance of showers. highs in the upper 40s. a look at the seven-day forecast including the christmas forecast next on 9news now.

welcome back. that's a rousing welcome back to 9news now here in the studio. 6:43. we have a real treat for you so you want to stick around and see what's new with the wizards. >> he is ready to focus on your forecast. mike is distracted and he's happy about it. >> i'm usually not jealous of mike hydeck but right now he has my attention. i'm going to give you my attention the next few minutes as we discuss the forecast. it's a mild one for december, not mild -- we're in the upper 40's for many years. you'll need the jackets but you won't need the gloves. just a few showers at times but right now it's quiet. mostly cloudy. 45 to 50 this morning. sunrise 7:22. temperatures won't be moving all that much. we'll see highs today upper 40s, if not low 50s with the

midday temperature of 48. northeast winds at 7 and spotty showers through midday, especially more north and south. then this afternoon we're staying with the clouds, highs upper 30's to low 50s. by 8:00 we're back down to 45. a better chance of seeing rain tomorrow. this morning we've had some showers south and east of town, especially the eastern shore and in pennsylvania and ohio when you start seeing the blues and the pinks this is know in the blue and the pink, purple, that's a mix of snow and rain. a little sleet coming down. that's really well north of us so that won't be a problem here. traveling up central pa, you may see a little bit of that. here's live doppler 9000. all i can show you is these showers east of around cambridge into delaware. that's it. we won't spend much time there with temperatures this morning in the 40s to even 50. gaithersburg and baltimore 47 for hagerstown. culpeper and pacs river in the mid-40s along with easton. a mild start when you consider the 45, 46 is where we should be for the normal high this time of year.

right now 49, cloudy skies, calm winds and the dew points running in the 30s. cold out west. warm in the south. 50 in atlanta. 20's in albuquerque with fresh snow on the ground. still dealing with blizzard warnings till noon local time. western oklahoma here with the snow. this snow at times has put drifts 2 to 3 feet. the warm air, the mild air, showers and even some thunderstorms and the moisture that's off to our north and west, most of it will likely stay north of us although we can't rule out a few showers here through midday. better chance for them to see some of that rain as we head to tomorrow. so the forecast a couple of showers here and there but most of us are not going to see t. cool, upper 40s to low 50s. tonight down in the 40s. maybe upper 30s in a few spots but a mild wednesday. near 60 with showers, permdzs of rain -- periods of rain. mild thursday. some rain could return late thursday night into early friday. friday we're clearing out again, 52. saturday looks okay. skins are home, 49.

sunday, christmas day, looks wet unfortunately with temps in the low 40s and going to be some flurries and snow showers on monday. let's go to monika who has time saver traffic. a live look from sky 9. an accident westbound 66 right here at the beltway. you can see authorities on the scene and they are blocking off the left side there. it caused delays trying to exit over to the beltway on the westbound side of 66. we'll take a live look at the inbound side from about gallows ride. quite a bit of congestion and also manassas as you head inbound on 66. let's take a look live. occoquan river as you head to 7100, then here in springfield trying to exit to the inner loop which slows route 236 to 66 and a live look a little further north at duke street on the northbound side of i-395. normal for this time of the morning through landmark through shirlington and the 14th street bridge. another look at the big picture at 6:58. now we'll go to a very happy

man mike hydeck. this is a good day. these are one of the better tuesdays i've had in a long time. tonight the wizards are playing their final preseason game. regular season tips off monday at home against the new jersey nets. to give us a look at what's happening at the verizon center, i'm joined by these wonderful ladies. let's start with you, kim. first of all, these are fantastic. >> i love them. >> as we were talking about before, they're the old new uniforms. it's a john wall jersey. i gather that some of these are -- or some things like them will be given out at the games when they get the season started. >> we definitely have t-shirts we give away at all the games. it's a lot of fun. we're really excited about the season opener. >> when we get to the season opener, we still have one preseason game against who again? >> against the phillys in philly. >> game one is against the nets, right? >> right, at home in the

verizon center 7:00 p.m. >> what do you do when the game is going on? obviously you cheer but are there giveaways? >> we do loot of fan interaction. >> we do looft fan interaction. we dance, -- we do a lot of fan intersection we. dance, do t-shirts. we do suite visits. >> very cool. >> tickets. this is a much shortened season, a quick preseason. are tickets still available for game one? >> there are. you can go to washingtonwizards.com or call us. tickets start at $10. $10? >> $10. >> 202-397-seats. >> these lovely ladies will be dancing with us in a little while just before the end of the show so make sure you tune into that. we have a check of the news before you go coming up. we'll be right back.

welcome back here at 6:516789 coming up on 6:52. 49 and cloudy in d.c. we'll see temperatures pretty steady. upper 40s and some low 50s with a couple sprinkles possible through midday. better chance of rain coming up on wednesday. ail have more on that in just a few minutes. >> thank you, howard. today is tuesday, december 20. here's a check on the news before you go. quick work by d.c. firefighters prevented any injuries from an early morning blaze. it began around 3:00 along euclid street near 16 rght street northwest. -- 16th street northwest. it began on the floor of a second-story building. the cause is under investigation. vincent gray will announce the commission on arson humanities will give oversight of the lincoln theater. it will host a four-week run of the girl with the dragon

tattoo. >> the famous floating dorm at st. mary's college is back at sea. we told but it in october when students moved on board because of a mold infested dorm on land. the old residence hall will reopen when the spring semester begins. it's 6:53. time to answer our question of the morning. according to, for.com, this is , for.-- forbes.com this is the best christmas movie of all time. what do you thunk it is? -- >> think it is in. >> for the answer let's go to the videotape. >> yes, it is b, "diehard." sharon had it right. forbes says, quote, there's christmas and then there's christmas with punching in the face and winning back entire families. which do you refer? >> i never associated "diehard" with christmas. >> they say women love it because he's trying so hard to get back home for the holidays and men love it because in trying to get back home for the

holidays, he's going to take out the bad guys. a check of weather and traffic when 9news now returns.

one more thing. they're not just beautiful faces which they all are but very intelligent young women. we have an accountant here, software engineer, social worker getting her master's degree from howard and a living social sales representative. thank you all for being here and go wizards. >> these stunning ladies will be dancing with us momentarily. however, we're going to start with weather and howard.

>> we have a cool morning. upper 40s, low 50s today. tomorrow a better chance of rain, 59. and then as we head toward thursday, drying out, 58. more showers thursday night into friday. and a wet christmas, 42. we're going to take a live look at 66 westbound side at the beltway. the accident blocks the left lane. this is what is left for you this morning. we're going to take a look also downtown in the northeast corridor. police activity is blocking massachusetts avenue at north capital street. they are checking out a suspicious package there so be aware of that. a last live look on the outer loop slowing 95 to georgia avenue. an accident in adelphi riggs road. we might be looking to play a little catchup after the big rally yesterday. we're looking higher this morning. learn how to make sure your charitable donations this christmas go to the right place and we'll tell you about 9news speed cameras in the district.

no more warnings starting tomorrow. the early show is next with more on the blizzard in the southwest, the debate and the payroll tax cut. howard and i will be back in 25 minutes with a live update on traffic and weather. go to wusa9.com for all your news and weather as well. ♪