every paycheck in 2012. while that may not seem like a lot, for most, $40 means extra groceries or a full tank of gas in one of the economy sized cars. >> one business group estimates if congress lets the payroll tax cuts expire, it could jeopardize the creation of 168,000 jobs next year. later today, g.o.p. presidential candidate newt gingrich will be in arlington, virginia. the former house speaker will attend a fund-raiser and initiative in rosslyn. presidential candidates have until september 22nd to collect the signatures of 10,000 resident in order to appear on the 2012 ballot. newt gingrich is accusing mitt romney of running a nasty smear campaign. he suggested romney is behind negative attacks funded by special political action committees. romney denies wrongdoing and he said the commercials are out of his control. the d.c. council has approved an ethics bill which allows members to remove legislators for criminal

wrongdoing and misconduct. an ethics board and code of conduct overseeing the actions of council members would be established. >> legislators would be allowed to keep their outside jobs but the amount they can keep in their constituency fund has been cut in half to $40,000. congressman wells says the bill falls far short. >> i can't believe that now we said that we can use our constituent services fund for sports tickets again. >> some people, you know, want more. i respect that but it at the end of the day, the bill goes a long way. >> campaigns of both d.c. councilman, chairman kwame brown and mayor vincent gray are being investigated by the u.s. attorney's office. former chief of staff to graham is serving time for corruption. graham failed to report he had been offered a bribe in that same federal investigation. >> some pepco customers may soon be paying a lot more for service. >> the utility company is asking regulators to approve a rate hike of more than $68

million. ken molestina explains why pepco wants more of your money. >> reporter: a significant snowstorm and hurricane in our region exposed pepco's shortcomings since the last time they had a rate increase. now a year and four movements after the spike, they're asking for more money again. >> at the end of the year, we'll been 3,000 miles of treeline that's been trimmed. the underground cable that's been renewed or replaced, the new technology put on the system. >> reporter: pepco president thomas graham says the efforts aren't cheap and he's asking for $64 million. if the maryland public service commission approves the proposal, maryland customers will have to pay an additional $5.56 a month. >> i'm not happy about it at all. >> reporter: she's one of many residents left in the dark and cold when snow blanketed her neighborhood at the beginning of the year. pepco has failed her before and she isn't hopeful a rate increase will solve the liability issues. >> i think that the performance hasn't been good. you call them up and they don't

come and i call them and i gave up. amaybe next year they'll ask for another $5 or $10 and who is going to guarantee the quality to going to increase in. >> reporter: pepco officials are promising to do better. >> minimize the time a customer is out of service. that's important. >> reporter: i'm ken molestina, 9news now. >> if the maryland public service commission approves the increase, the utility bills would start going up in july of next year. >> police are searching for answers after a body was discovered in reston. they were called to the spring apartments in the 12,000 block of gray wing square yesterday afternoon. people living in the building called to report a strange odor coming from a storage area in the basement. when officers arrived, they found a decomposing body of a man. they have not released the victim's name. they do not believe foul play was involved. a 2-year-old girl is safe after police say she was left alone for 24 hours in an apartment locked in that

apartment. she is 2 years old. this happened in the 6900 block of walker mill road in capitol heights. prince george's county police say the toddler was found in a bedroom, dirty, hungry and cold. they were able to locate the little girl's father and take him into custody. at this point, no word on what charges he will face or how the child ended up alone for that long. >> at 4:34, a look at other things making news now. a study suggests there are more than 1.6 million homeless chirp in the united states. that's roughly one out of every 45 youngsters. the national center on family homelessness says its study is a call to action for all of us to address child homelessness before we lose another generation. the group says the child homelessness rate has jumped 33% since 2007. the investigation continues into a deadly plane wreck in northern new jersey. a single engine plane crashed on a major highway tuesday, killing all five people on board. including two children.

just before the plane went down, the pilot discussed icy conditions with air-traffic controllers. >> a major snowstorm which brought heavy snow to parts of five states is blamed now for at least six deaths. snowdrifts in parts of southeast colorado were as high as ten feet. texas officials warned drivers to stay off the road in the panhandle to give crews space to remove snow and ice. there have been a number of road closures in western oklahoma but one bright spot, the storm is providing a big boost to hotel owners along the closed highways reporting sellout crowds of stranded travelers. coming up, at 4:41, holiday shoppers flock to stores in record numbers to buy the last- minute gifts. >> at 4:48, police to our north are now watching your every move. we'll explain coming up. >> we'll be back in two minutes with your weather first and i'll behave.

welcome back. 4:38 on this wednesday morning. grab the rain gear. it is a pretty quiet at the moment. we'll have some showers and periods of rain today as temperatures climb into the upper 50s by lunchtime. we're looking at temperatures this afternoon 60, maybe 61, 62. keep in mind the average high is 45 degrees. south winds at 10 to is a gusting at times over 20.

i'll come back with the seven- day forecast looking toward christmas weekend. right now, monika? >> live look at 270 at route 121. the length of 270 is looking good from frederick all the way past clarksburg down toward germantown and the point where the lanes divide. coming up in my next report, we'll take a closer look into maryland. back to you, andrea and mike. >> time for the first your money segment of the morning. here's jessica doyle. >> good morning. that's the kind of market performance we're talkin' about. starting way above the 12,000 level this morning, stocks surge yesterday after an upbeat housing report. we had some encouraging headlines out of europe. we'll get to that in a second. here's the good news. dow standing this morning at 12,103. 337 point rally yesterday. we'll take it. nasdaq up by 80 points and the s&p 500 added 35 points. now, homebuilders, they broke ground in november on more houses than in any time in the past year and a half. new home construction climbed

more than 9% last month. that was led by a 32% drop in demand for apartment buildings permits which are pretty good gauge to future construction. they also rose to a one-year high. the home building industry is improving modestly after two of the worst years in history. confidence among german business leaders and consumers unexpectedly rose in december according to a new survey and the spanish government pulled off a successful debt auction. why do we care? because both ofs they things help to ease worries about europe's debt crisis and help wall street. shoppers were out in greater numbers last week and they were buying after taking a breather from a record-spending spree over the thanksgiving weekend. sales of stores open at least a year rose 3.5% last week following two weeks of sales did declines. retailers are expecting another last-minute shopping spree. as of sunday, 9% of shoppers polled hadn't started their holiday buying and that's up from 6% last year.

fewer people will fly this holiday season but the flights will still be packed. about 43.4 million travelers will fly on u.s. carriers over the three-week period. airlines are blaming lingering economic concerns and high energy prices that are limiting would be travelers, disposable income. since they have been cutting back on the flights, don't expect to have the seats open next to you so you can lay across and take a little nappy poo. you that never seems to happen anymore. >> i'm always the one in the middle. there will be someone on either elbow. >> thanks, jess. >> scientists make a potential breakthrough in the fight against malaria. >> we'll have more on that and weather first when 9news now returns in less than two minutes.

welcome back to 9 nutt now. it is 4:43. for all of you early birds, put back the heavy coat but get

some rain gear and fut in the car. >> it will be unbelievably warm for december. mike is not complaining. you're not complaining. >> we, like you, a lot of us wanted to go skiing this weekend. >> i want to be able to drive to the mountains. >> you can drive there but there is just not much snow on the slopes. they're making what they can. >> you can ride up and down on the lifts. >> they'll take your money and we could make that happen for you, mike. if that's what you want. >> for something to do. >> drink in the lodge. >> bus stop forecast, school still in session for a couple more days this week. rain showers moving in over the next few hours. couple of sprinkles right now. not that much. temps running cool spots, low 40s to low 50s in southern maryland. sunrise, 7:23 this morning. sets at 4:49. day planner, get ready. a few showers here this morning. then it will pick up later this morning toward the noon hour, upper 50s. winds south at 14. gusts over 20 at times today.

turns to the southwest this evening. 60 degrees by 4:00 with highs in spots in the low 60s. yesterday, we shot up to 57. average high is 45. by 8:00, i think maybe by late this afternoon, we're done with most of the rain. 61 southwest winds at 14. west to northwest tonight but we're really not going to cool off that much. our weather headlines, the active weather pattern, that will continue for the next several days, the rest of the week actually. breezy and wet today. rain again thursday night. another batch of heavy rain friday night into thursday morning. right now, christmas may see some showers with temperatures in the 40s so there is another chance of rain and i don't have any really cold air or any snow in sight locally. a little bit of snow in pennsylvania, northern pennsylvania yesterday morning, last night moving up toward new york state but out to the west and southwest, you see the scattering of showers to the south and well out to the west right now. this is all moving in our direction. here's live doppler 9000 hd, couple of sprinkles in the

lower eastern shore. then in northern virginia, from southern loudoun county out west here, you can see it here. this is upperville over toward steven city approaching winchester. this stuff lifts northeast. we have the very light showers and also out into west virginia, we'll take you south of cumberland between kaiser and cumberland moving up toward the northeast. couple of sprinkles there as well. but still, relatively quiet. 50 degrees in washington with 41 in winchester. 39 hagerstown and 54 in tappahannock. 55 in fredericksburg. you guys could be 65 this afternoon. that is going to be close to 15, 20 degrees above average. documents in the 40s. a little damp this morning with a south wind at 5 and the barometer going south, going down at 30.04. the big blizzard that hit the southwest, what's left of it is spinning across northwestern areas of missouri. chilly air in the northern plains. mild air across the southeast with showers and storms.

look at the storms moving through western florida up through atlanta approaching columbia and south carolina. all of this is moving up toward the washington area and that's why we've got rain in the forecast. there could be a couple of heavier downpours and maybe, maybe even a rumble of thunder today wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility. show you the future cast, showers moving in. here we are at 8:00, still not too bad. by the middle of the day, by noon, here comes the moisture and it is going to be out of here pretty quickly by this evening and another batch of rain moves this way as we head into tomorrow night. you can see it coming up here from the southwest. we're ok through midday. late in the day by 6:00, 7:00, rain will start to move in if not a little earlier. so, the forecast, in detail, today, 61. breezy, periods of rain and showers. tonight, 45 to 50. tomorrow, lighter winds, 60 with late showers. even some moderate rain thursday night into early

friday. friday, partly sunny. 54. the weekend, we cool it down a little bit for you on christmas eve. 46. should be dry for the 'skins game and the christmas day. chance of showers, 47. look at that. still 50 or better monday and tuesday. monika samtani looking good today. >> thank you so much, howard. it doesn't feel like you're talking about december. it is easier to shop in this weather, that's for sure. if you're traveling around town early this morning as well, very easy. no problems to report. we're going to zoom into 95 coming in from baltimore, the bw parkway, everything is fine. all lanes are open down into college park. we'll take a live look there right now. no problems to report on the inner or outer loop of the beltway. outer loop to silver spring is incident free. we'll take a live look at the heart of rockville. everything is fine along 355 in from frederick. no problems to report on 270 or the northern corridors heading to the beltway. we'll go into virginia at 4:55.

back to you guys. thank you, monika. unless they want a little face time with police, vandals should think twice before they misbehave at a popular park in maryland because cameras are in place at carol creek park near the frederick library in the historic area. there are new brighter lights there now and police patrols are also being increased. >> in health news, a vaccine which could one day be used to treat malaria is ready for human testing according to the oxford university research team which is leading one of several malaria studies. the bbc news reports that several lab tests showed the vaccine has been successful in eliminating every strain of the deadly parasite. >> even with this news, researchers say human testing is still at least two years away which means an actual malaria vaccine may be a decade away interest being made available to the public. hundreds of thousands of people die every year. >> drug poisoning kills more people than car accidents. the exploding rate of prescription pain killing abuse

is driving the trend. a new report from the national center for health statistics says prescription painkillers were responsible for 40% of drug poisoning deaths in the u.s. the number of such deaths has more than tripled in the last decade. >> roughly 40% of police officers have some kind of sleep disorder. which is almost twice the national rate. according to researchers at boston's brigham women's hospital, they surveyed nearly 5,000 police officers throughout north america and found 57% reported falling asleep behind the wheel at least once or twice a month. the fatigue may explain why accidents kill more cops than crimes do. there are new calls for tobacco companies to eliminate cigarette additives. researchers at the university of california san francisco say additives like menthol increased the toxicity of the cigarettes. tobacco company claims about the safety of over 300 cigarette additives cannot be taken at face value. cosmetic treatments used to

make faces look younger are targeting a whole different part of the body. your feet. >> anita brikman tells us how beauty infections are being used to fight foot pain and a lot more. >> it is like really burning sensation. >> reporter: diana has aching feet. like millions of women, her shoes are causing the agony. yet she's not willing to give up her favorite footwear. >> more professionals, heels, suits, goes better with heels. >> diana has painful corns on her toes, thick patches caused by friction. >> i try those corn pads, wrapping it with band-aids. >> reporter: that didn't work, she turned to podiatrist johanna for one of the latest techniques in foot pain relief. >> it is an offlabel use that's been fda approved for areas on the face for years and we found it safe and effective in the feet. >> the filler juvederm is injected beneath the corn and

fills up tissue that's been lost. it not only evens out and shrinks the corn, it triggers the body to replace its own worn out collagen. >> by using filler, we can delay surgery or halt it altogether. >> reporter: that's not the only injectable being used these days. the doctor also uses chemotherapy infection to treat plantar warts and botox is now commonly used for what can be a smelly foot problem. >> botox is a muscle paralytic. for excessive sweating in the feet, it is safe and effective. >> reporter: anita brikman, 9news now. >> ok. >> enough feet pictures, thanks. before we head to break, let's look at the question of the morning. >> 8%, that's the key, 8% of people say this is their least favorite christmas tradition. a, gift shopping. b, putting up and taking down decorations. i vote for that. c, caroling. >> log on to our facebook fan

page. we would love to hear from you. we'll answer the survey in the 6:00 hour. we'll be right back.

howard here with your weather first. grab the rain gear. pretty quiet right now. we'll have showers moving in this morning. periods of rain today. may actually be over by 6:00 p.m. temps will be way up. south winds 10 to 15. gusting over to. highs upper 50s to low 60s.

that's pretty darn mild for this time of year. monika samtani, it is quiet weatherwise at the moment. how about on the roads? >> very quiet on the roads as well. here is a live look at 66 at nutley street. traffic is moving well from manassas through centreville all the way past the earlier construction here at nutley to the beltway. another look at the roads in virginia coming up in my next report. back to you, andrea. >> in you're scrambling to finish up their holiday gift list, toys "r" us are giving you round the clock shopping until christmas. stores nationwide will stay open for 112 hours straight through 10:00 p.m. christmas eve. that's late. here in our area though, stores include fair lake, bailey's crossroads, gaithersburg and frederick. this is the second year in a row the retailer has remained open for 24 hour shopping in the days before christmas. 14 macy's stores including the one at tysons corner will stay open continuously for 83 hours straight from today until christmas eve. if you need to make a grocery store run, safeway says most

stores will stay open from today straight through saturday, christmas eve as well. >> the historic lincoln theatre at u street is going to stay open even after several concerns it could possibly close. yesterday, mayor vincent gray announced the d.c. commission on the arts and humanities will replace an independent foundation to oversee the theatre. the commission plans to hire a new executive director and that person's mission will be able to -- will be to make the theatre self-sustaining. >> mayor gray announced the plans to bring the movie the girl with the dragon tattoo to the lincoln theatre. >> that's one of the most anticipated films of the year. >> the girl with the dragon tattoo is out today and it is bound to turn a little known rooney mara into a household name. >> no one here particularly likes her. >> it was the question in hollywood when the american version of the swedish blockbuster, the girl with the

dragon tattoo was announced. it would play elisabeth salsander. >> actress rooney mara auditioned intensely for movements to get the role of the troubled computer hacker. >> i felt desperate to play her. i felt she was someone -- i just felt like i really understood her. >> mara is already nominated for a golden globe for her performance and received high praise from her co-star, veteran actor christopher plummer. >> nothing could have been more marvelous than watching rooney mara take it on. she was even better than i had imagined. >> the 26-year-old says it wasn't difficult getting into her character's head. >> i'm much more of an introvert than most people and so i can really relate to that part of her. definitely. >> the film also stars daniel craig as journalist mikhail blom quist who clashes and falls for the complicated and

tough elisabeth salander. >> you have a character in salander who has been beaten down since she was a child and somehow has managed to retain humanity. >> i want you to help me catch a killer of women. >> today, they get drawn into the disappearance of a young woman. for fans of the book, this o big screen version offers at least one surprise. manuel guy agous, cbs news, new york. we were saying rooney mara household name, you know her if you have a pittsburgh steeler or a new york giant fan. they were her grandfathers. yeah. good morning and thank you for watching 9 thus now at 5:00 a.m. familiar faces, familiar names i hope. i'm andrea roane in case you don't know. >> we're trying. >> i'm mike hydeck. we're trying to be more and more familiar. here's monika samtani with traffic. we love howard because she's got a great forecast this morning. to get things started. >> nice and mild. the middleweight, in a raincoat. we've got some low 40s north