a horrible accident here on university boulevard. we expect university to be closed down for hours so we want to let folks know early this morning will you want to avoid this area. let me show you the scene behind me. there is actually a vehicle about three or four feet up on that wall. that is where the vehicle ended after this accident. we're learning at this point there were three female adults in the car at the time of that accident. two victims have died. one has been transported to a local hospital. we were talking to captain from the montgomery county police department. he said the vehicle was possibly coming from a d.c. club. the vehicle wound up on that wall, unclear at this point if alcohol or other factors were a factor in this accident. we actually had the opportunity to speak with the uncle of one of the accident victims in the car. his name is karl morris and he says his niece was 19-year-old

tamara johnson. >> she called and said tam ara is in an accident and i should come out. she don't know if she's breathing. i don't know if she was closer to the crime scene earlier but i just got off the phone and said ok, i'm on my way. i just rush up. she works and goes to school and she just graduated from high school. thinking about going to college. >> reporter: it is unclear what the status of tam ara johnson is at this point. as you can see, the vehicles are back there. we have accident reconstruction going on. police vehicles, fire trucks and that vehicle, it is hard to tell what it is. if it is a sedan, an suv, if that's the front or the rear of the car. we're going to continue to work on this story for you this morning. mike, i'm going to send it back to you. >> thank you, jessica. jessica is live in silver spring, the scene of a deadly accident where two people were killed and another is in the hospital. this is going to cause a major

traffic issue this morning in silver spring near university boulevard. let's toss it over to monika samtani to tell you how to get around it. >> mike, the location of the accident is university boulevard at piney branch road at langley park. as we heard jessica say, the reconstruction and investigation is going to take hours. therefore, if you're getting ready for work, head out the door, you want to plan early. the alternate routes to the west, route 29, flower avenue and even the sligo creek parkway will work. if you're heading northbound, carol avenue, i believe is going to be your last chance to get off before you head up toward piney branch road and authorities are telling us there that they will keep it closed down both directions for quite some time here inside the beltway. let's take a live look from the mdot camera first to show you the scene of the accident. we'll now take you over to the beltway at university boulevard which is unaffected by the accident. you're going to be ok on the northside using the beltway through silver spring right

here. now, also let me take you over to virginia. just a little heads up. northbound 95 is looking great coming up from route 644. if you're exiting to the outer loop of the beltway in springfield, watch out for an accident. that one just reported as well. coming up, of course, we'll update you on the situation in langley park. back to you, mike. >> thank you, monika. quick check of the weather now, olga breese is in for howard this morning. wow, big change in the last 24 to 48 hours. >> the cold air has moved on in. we got cold winds. this morning, temperatures are really dropping down. many locations right now have some clear skies, even a few passing clouds from time to time. but in all, it will be a very cold start. as you get out the door this morning, we're sitting in the 20s outside the beltway near 30 degrees in town. and things are going to be on the bitter side at least until about 9:00 or 10:00 this morning with temperatures remaining in the 30s. then by noon, we should get a little bit closer to the 40 degree mark. we're definitely looking at the possibility of seeing some more

of that cloud cover beginning to take on over as we head into the afternoon and the evening hours. so, here's what we look like in and around the beltway at the present time. the forecast over the next three days is going to keep us in the 40s for today. we'll get close to that 50 degree mark. not quite there yet. by friday, we're looking pretty good. 54 degrees. but mostly cloudy skies. slight chance for an isolated shower to pop on through. late night on friday. then on saturday, we're looking pretty good. partly cloudy skies. highs in the 50s. mike? >> all right, thank you, olga. rockville pike is open again. it reopened overnight after a deadly crash involving a metrobus in bethesda yesterday. this bus collided with a pickup truck around 4:15 in the afternoon. the road was closed until almost midnight for accident reconstruction. the pickup truck driver died. ten others were taken to the hospital. so far, no word on the cause of the crash. as far as which driver is at fault in this. >> jewish leaders have released photos of their meeting with a

u.s. government contractor alan gross, held in cuba for more than two years now after being accused of trying to undermine the communist government there. a member of the synagogue in havana took the pictures. gross is the person in the center here. he's being held in a military hospital right now. they say gross isn't too thin anymore. they believe he looks good as far as health is concerned. however, gross's wife disputes their claim that her husband is in good shape. gross denies the charges against him. he's been held for more than two years now. >> frederick county police say they have four suspects in custody. four teenagers after someone set fire to two garages in urbana. the 16-year-old boys used marine flares to set the garages on fire on singleton terrace and addison woods road early tuesday morning. they tracked him down using surveillance video from a walmart that showed the boys shoplifting the flares. fires caused an estimated $130,000 in damages.

mothers across the country staged a nurse-in at target stores. they're doing it today including some moms from our area. it was support of a woman who said she had a bad experience while she was breast-feeding in the aisle of a target in texas. she claims employees harassed her in the store. she later went online to complain about it. >> they all came and started like walking by and shaking their head like you know and rolling their eyes and shaking their head no, no, like i'm doing something so horrible. i'm feeding my baby here. i don't want maria to grow up and live in a world where that would ever happen. >> now, target has since apologized said moms are free to nurse their babies anywhere in the stores. the company is going over the policy to make sure employees know it, too. >> time now for the latest "your money" report this morning. good news is that european investors appear to be optimistic this morning. which gains predicted trading gets underway in about an hour. but that follows big losses in

the u.s. yesterday. the dow plunged 140 points to close at 12,151. the nasdaq dropped 35 points and the s&p 500 fell about 16. well, there is word a third baby recently became sick from bacteria sometimes associated with tainted faint form l.a.x. the child lives in oklahoma and has since fully recovered. a child in illinois also rebounded but a ten day old baby in missouri died from this. missouri's child death was initially linked to enfamil but health officials say the oklahoma child did not consume enfamil so the two most likely are not connected. federal health experts are conducting tests hoping to pin down the source of the illness. retailers are reporting a healthy increase in holiday sales this year thanks to shoppers who turned out right after thanksgiving and those who waited until the last minute. shoppers spent 4.1% more in november over last year and 4.7% more in the days just before christmas.

including christmas eve. a 4% increase has been considered a successful season. economist say there was a deeper than usual lull following black friday but the surge during the final two weeks before christmas made up for the initial decline. another delay in the trial of former egyptian president hosni mubarak. >> a good ending for miners trapped in a mine shaft. >> an upset win as georgetown beats a team ranked in the top five. we'll be right back.

welcome back, everybody. we're off to a very cold start this morning. temperatures are down in the 20s for most of us.

30s for some. inside and around the beltway. in all, partly cloudy skies to get you started. we'll increase the clouds through midday and late day. highs should make it into the midrange 40s. we'll push the upper 40s across the southern zones. monika? >> going to take a look live at the scene of a fatal crash from overnight in langley park. here at university boulevard at piney branch road. it is blocked in both directions here. and will be for several hours this morning. you want to use alternate routes, i'll have those coming up for you in my next report. back to you, mike. >> thank you, monika. making news now at 5:10, huge crowds attended a memorial service in pyongyang for kim jong il. his third son and designated successor took the leading role in the ceremony. it wraps up nearly two weeks of mourning since kim jong il's death. hosni mubarak's trial has been delayed again. the former egyptian president was wheeled into a courtroom yesterday on a hospital

stretcher. but after a few hours, the judge adjourned the trial again until next week. mubarak faces charges in the death of hundreds of protestors killed during the uprising that led to his ouster earlier this year. rescuers pulled three men out of a mine in tennessee after a fire trapped them inside. 54 miners were inside when the fire and smoke started pouring out of the diesel-powered rig. the three who couldn't get out on their own sheltered in a bunkerle in the fire was doused and the rest were able to find them alive inside. >> have you made any new year's resolutions yet? coming up at 5:49, andrea roane has one big one for 2012 in today's buddy check. at 5:34, a campaign manager defect from one republican candidate to another. that's just days before the iowa caucuses. and next at 5:15, seven-day forecast shows a big cooldown for the start of the next year. we'll be right back.

welcome back. good morning if you're just waking up. 5:14. olga breese is in for howard this morning. not quite ice scraper worthy but it sure gets your attention outside. >> i didn't need the defogger or need to warm up the engine this morning but i needed that coat, the hat and those gloves.

we have cooler temperatures this morning in the 30s right now. 20s had in some locations and a little bit of cloud cover starting us out this morning. the winds have been out of the south at about 5 to 15 miles per hour. the day planner will be looking pretty good. no complaints here. we have partly cloudy skies to start off with. we'll increase the clouds through midday and late day. for this morning, it is just darn cold! basically. 30s around the beltway. we will slip back into the 40s. it will take us about an hour or two to get closer to the 40 degree mark. by midday and late afternoon, the cloud cover comes back. southerly winds will help us. push our temperatures into the middle and even some of the upper 40s by late afternoon. but tonight, we'll take another dip back down into the 30s and those 20s, the cool winter pattern is definitely here to stay. after the cold start for the morning hour, the cloud cover will slowly take over. i'm projecting partly cloudy skies for 9:00. then by lunchtime, we're almost mostly cloudy headed into the

afternoon. milder temperatures are still coming our way. southerly winds today, southwest winds tomorrow. things are looking good as we head in toward the holiday weekend. so far, the forecast looks pretty mild. clear through new year's day on sunday. forecast for today though, we're sitting in the 20s or feeling like the 20s for much of the region. there are a few pockets though, however, that are feeling a lot cooler than that. we definitely have the opportunity for our temperatures to dip a little bit prior to sunrise. that's fairly normal. the city center normally stays a little bit warmer at 33 degrees. the forecast overall has that wind chill. 29 degree wind chill for reagan national with our partly cloudy skies. and the winds have been calm to light. with our future cast forecast, the model doesn't bring in the clouds this early but toward the afternoon and evening hours, definitely we become mostly cloudy. that's how we'll stay overnight tonight and headed into your friday morning. the forecast does feature an opportunity for a very brief

shower to start rolling on through. this is a hit-or-miss, less than a 20% chance. a lot of us will stay dry as we get in toward the early friday morning hours and then it is mostly cloudy for tomorrow. with that milder air moving on through. here's what you can expect for today. about a high of 45 to 47 inside the beltway. we'll definitely see the overnight lows tonight dropping back down into the 30s. very chilly up to the north and toward the west with we could even see the freezing mark once again. the next three days feature a warm-up back to the 50s. saturday, we bring back the sunshine. for sunday and monday, temperatures will start to take a change. the colder air returns on monday. we're even tracking an opportunity for some snowy precipitation possibly by tuesday morning. monika? >> olga, montgomery county police are on the scene of a deadly crash that occurred overnight in langley park. we're starting off with a map here inside the beltway. it happened at university boulevard at herren drive north of piney branch road.

it is blocked off both directions of university boulevard to. west, you can go ahead and use colesville road or flower avenue or the sligo creek parkway. to the east, your option, the best option will be new hampshire avenue. let's take a live look from our mdot cameras. you can see that both directions of university boulevard are blocked off and the investigation and reconstruction is going to take several hours this morning. so, plan ahead for this. i'll take you over to 270. on southbound 270, you're doing just fine. no problems from frederick down to falls road and the point where the lanes divide. a quick look over into springfield on the northbound side of i-9 a. if you're exiting to the outer loop of the beltway, there was an accident reported but it is not affecting traffic too much at this point. we'll update you on the situation once again in langley park coming up in my next report. mike? >> thanks, monika. campaign 2012 now, texas governor rick perry is continuing his fight to get on the republican primary ballot in virginia. he filed an emergency order. he did it wednesday in federal

court. he's asking for an injunction to order the board of elections to include him on the ballot. virginia republicans left him off because i did not get the required number of signatures by last thursday's deadline. the virginia senate race is now a little less crowded. businessman tim donner said he won't seek the nomination. his decision was in part because of the "overwhelming support for the frontrunner" former governor george allen. three other candidates are still running against allen for the g.o.p. nomination for u.s. senate. georgetown gets a win over a top five team in college basketball. the capitals offense comes alive to break out of its losing streak. we have highlights coming up in sports. now, let's take another look at the question of the day. according to a new study, the average person craves one of these five times a day. is it a, a candy bar, a nap or hug. >> rachel writes all of the above. a yummy candy bar and a hug

before settling down for a nap. sounds good to me. we want to hear your guesses and comments. we'll reveal the answer in our 6:00 a.m. hour.

it is feeling awfully cold on this thursday morning. winds have been calm to light mainly out of the west and northwest. however, the temperatures are slipping through the 30s. 33 degree at reagan national airport. we're going to go down into the 20s outside the beltway. and keep our cloudy skies for most of the afternoon. highs today should make it up into the middle and pushing the upper 40s. mike? >> well, the wizards are still looking for their first win of the season but the capitals found a way to break their losing streak. kristin berset has the highlights in your morning sports. >> good morning, everybody. we're all well aware of the capitals post-season struggles the past few years but the only team they have been able to beat then are the new york rangers. so, if they were going to get back in the win column, it was going to be last night. caps hosting new york. john carlton with a shot. brower with the deflection. caps go up 2-1. later in the second, alex with the goal. caps up 3-1. and simmon would add another one.

capitals hold on and beat the rangers 4-1. wizards in atlanta looking for their first win of the season. hawks, well, they get off to a fast start. joe johnson with the three puts the hawks up 11-0. wizards try to come back. driving. mcgee gets the follow-up dunk. wiz fall within 2. wizards drop to 0-2 with a 101-83 loss. georgetown last night proved why they're good taking on fourth ranked louisville. shea with the easy dunk. they pull within four. hoyas make an upset. potter says that is one i'll get for you. watch that guy. georgetown holds on to the lead and pulls out the upset. 71-68. >> alex lynn finally making his terps debut. the comcast center. first half, howard to lynn for the dunk. look at the big man.

terps up 23-13. then the two hook up again in the final seconds of the first half. maryland beat albany 83-72. that's going to do it to your morning sports. i'm kristin berset. have a great day. >> campaign manager switches candidates just days before the iowa caucuses. more on who it is and where they're going coming up. plus, we'll have the latest on this morning's latest breaking news. two young women have died. a serious crash in silver spring this morning. monika, a quick check of the commute. >> i'll tull more about that. here is a live look at the closure of university boulevard at piney branch road. it will be closed for several hours this morning. i'll have alternate routes and everything else going on around town at 5:30. you're watching 9news now.

coming up on 5:30, we're following breaking news out of silver spring. two young women have died in a crash that happened just after 3:00 this morning. the car left the road on university boulevard east north of piney branch road. 9news now reporter jessica doyle is live at the scene and this is just a tragic, tragic scene. jess? >> it is a horrible accident, mike. i'm going to just step out of the shot and i want you to take a look at the vehicle.

that is it on that wall. about 50 yards away from us. it is about three feet up. somehow that vehicle must have gotten airborne. accident reconstruction is going on right now. police are trying to figure this out for themselves. the call came in into montgomery county police at 3:09 this morning. this happened eastbound on university boulevard. now, as you can see, it is on the actual wall. you can't tell if that is the front or the back of the vehicle. it has been so destroyed, of course, fatal crash as we said. we spoke with an uncle of one of the victims and we also spoke with captain robert who updated 9news now about this accident. all of the occupants we believe are adult females. two of the individuals have died. one of those individuals is alive and is at a local hospital receiving treatment at this point in time.

we have no idea right now if alcohol or speed were a factor. that's currently under investigation because of the extent of the damage, right now, we don't know who was driving. >> she called and say tamara was in an accident and i should come out. she don't know if she's breathing. i don't know if she was closer to the crime scene earlier but i just got off the phone and said i'm on my way. i just rush up. >> now, that was carl morris speaking. he told us he's the uncle of one of the women who was in the vehicle. 19-year-old tamara johnson, just graduated from high school in a nearby high school and comes from jamaica a couple of years ago. working, holding down a job, aspirations of going to college. now, as i said earlier, accident reconstruction is going on. this is going to shut down university boulevard for hours. so, captain bill esca is advising commuters to definitely avoid this area. as he said, they're not sure if

alcohol or speed were a factor in this accident. when i asked him is the driver one of the fatalities in this case, he said he couldn't confirm anything because the accident is so bad, they couldn't tell who the driver was at this point. there is some indications that the car was coming from a club in d.c. they're working on that background to see if they can confirm that for us. the accident victim's families have gathered at this location. the police are speaking with them right now. you can actually hear them crying. they're gathered around, hugging as they get notifications as to the status of their family members. a very, very tough accident this morning, mike. and obviously some horrific damage in that car behind us. i'm going to send it back to you. >> i'm trying to make sure i heard this correctly. the gentleman you spoke to that is related to one of the victims, did he say he actually talked to her on the phone and does that mean she might be the

one in the hospital? >> he talked to his sister on the phone of this accident. i'm sorry, the police tape is being moved behind me. he spoke to the mother of one of the accident victims on the phone and she immediately came to the scene and was very, very close potential will i to the vehicle during the early, early time of this accident when the reconstruction, the police were working the scene. >> cab you tell -- i know your camera is far away. can you tell what kind of vehicle that is? it is hard to tell from the video, is that the front of the car or the back of the car. >> when we talked to the captain, he believes it could be an suv. they can't even tell what kind of vehicle it is from the distance that he was working in. that's right. you can't tell if it is the front or the back of the vehicle. you can't even tell how it could have gotten airborne and wound up on the wall. >> obviously reconstruction throughout the morning. thanks, jess. we'll check in with you in a

little bit. >> this is going to make a serious impact on your morning commute. university boulevard east in silver spring. monika has how to get around it. monika? >> inside the beltway, silver spring, langley park area, university boulevard just north of piney branch road at herrin drive. as you heard jessica say, the mangled remains of the car remain there and it is going to take awhile to investigate and reconstruct what happened there. several hours will be taken up this morning doing all of that work. in the meantime, as again you heard jessica say, police are asking that you please avoid the area on the west side of the accident, go ahead and use route 29. flower avenue or sligo creek parkway. on the east side, you can use new hampshire avenue. south of that is carroll avenue. i think that will be the furthest point you can go as you travel on university boulevard. the beltway is not affected by this. on the northside of town. if you're planning to head elsewhere, i'm going to take you to a quick look live at the sousa bridge there. no problems. here's what it looks like. university boulevard at piney branch road. a quick look at the sousa

bridge. no problems to report on the potomac or anacostia river crossings. there is a water main break in northwest on 7th street at farragut street. you want to watch out for that. that road is closed. aisle a very more on that and what's going on in langley park at 5:39. mike? >> monika, thank you. weather time now, olga breese is in for howard. looking at the thermometer, 33 degrees, 11 degrees cooler than it was yesterday morning. you will feel the difference. >> yes, will you. the temperature is still dropping that the hour. we're feeling a chill outside. i know the winter weather levels are rejoicing because we're finally feeling like winter again around the metro area. the skies have been partly cloudy, most of the night. we're seeing a little bit of clearing. that's allowing the temperatures to drop down a little bit more. right now in the 30s inside the beltway. 20s outside. we'll increase the cloud cover as we continue through the morning. partly cloudy by 9:00 a.m. mostly cloudy by the time we get to noontime. i think most of us have the opportunity to get the temperatures to the middle 40s and even push some of the upper

40s by the 5:00 hour. notice by the end of the day, we'll be on that mostly cloudy side and we'll continue with the winds out of the south. for the short term, it is feeling much cooler. temperatures are in the 20s and 30s. it is feeling more like the lower to mid-20s across the board. next three days are looking pretty good. an improvement. we're up into the middle 50s by tomorrow. we'll hold on to more sunshine by saturday and the weekend forecast still looks pretty good. mike? >> thank you, olga. now to the news once again, rockville pike reopened overnight. after a deadly crash with a metrobus and a pickup truck. this was in bethesda. the bus collided with the pickup truck around 4:15 yesterday afternoon. the road remained closed until almost midnight. accident reconstruction teams were working that. the pickup truck driver died. ten others were injured. they were taken to area hospitals. so far, there is no word on the cause of the crash. or which driver could have been at fault. the man accused of slashing

women while they were shopping in northern virginia may have fled the country. police say johnny surfaced in peru now and they're trying to extradite him to stand trial in the u.s. police issued a warrant for his arrest back in september. they believe he was the one who used a razor blade or box cutter to slash nine women on their rear ends while they were shopping. fortunately, no one was seriously hurt in this. shake-up in a campaign just days before the iowa caucuses. a campaign manager quits one campaign and jumps to another. duarte geraldino reports. >> reporter: michele bachmann's campaign is dealing with another blow. just hours after appearing with the minnesota congresswoman at an event wednesday, her iowa campaign manager state senator ken sorenson defected joining ron paul's team. >> i think there are two tiers of candidate. i believe ron paul is in the top tier and i'm here to help him. >> reporter: but bachmann claims his decision wasn't just

based on politics. >> kent sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the ron paul campaign. >> reporter: paul's team insists it did not pay sorenson, accusing bachmann of slandering the state senator. >> bachmann already had her work cut out for her. a new cnn times poll showed only 9% would vote for her at next tuesday's caucus. the poll's biggest surprise, former pennsylvania senator rick santorum after struggling for months, he suddenly surged to third place with 16%. that's an 11-point gain since the beginning of december. one-time front-runner newt gingrich has plummeted to fourth place. ron paul is second with 22%. just 3 points behind the leader mitt romney. >> the president said he wants to fundamentally transform america. i kind of like america. >> last night, the former massachusetts governor drew one of his largest crowds yet at a town hall meeting in iowa. he's hoping for a bigger

turnout at next week's caucuses. duarte geraldine another for cbs news. still ahead, talking about her role in an upcoming film about margaret thatcher. it is called the iron lady. >> plus, have you gotten a parking ticket in d.c. lately? if so, you're helping to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the city coffers. makes you happy, doesn't it? we'll be right back.

welcome back, everyone. you definitely need to bundle up, stepping thought morning. forecast stays chilly. temperatures in the 20s and 30s. our day planner will keep us in the 40s later on this afternoon with some increasing cloud cover and then another cold night tonight. monika? >> taking a look live at the scene of a deadly crash in langley park inside the beltway. university boulevard at piney branch road, it happened overnight and it will remain closed in both directions of university boulevard here at

piney branch road for several hours. please plan early for your alternate routes. i'm also getting word of an accident on the beltway in tysons. i'll have that coming up at 5:48. >> d.c. is writing record. as of parking tickets compared to other cities of a similar size. according to aaa mid-atlantic, nearly two million parking tickets have been written in the district over the last 14 months. aaa believes at this pace, the city will shatter the amount of parking ticket revenue collected in fiscal year 2010 which was just over $80 million. at a jump of nearly $10 million from the previous year. >> a lot of it is motivated by the profit margin. >> i understand that for safety purposes, fire trucks and everything but they're making a killing on us. >> our crew even found evidence of aaa's claim that parking ticket officers are writing the tickets before the meters even expire! then printing out the tickets the second the meter runs out.

in the last few months, an average of 5300 parking tickets have been issued each day. i've contributed to the total. >> i think i have, too. >> i wasn't happy about it either. >> thanks, monica. >> it is that time of year to make some healthy resolutions, right? andrea has a very important one coming up. >> plus, driving and even just walking will be tricky today in parts of the rockies thanks to some hurricane-force wind gusts. >> birthday time now. let's see who is celebrating today. oscar nominated actress mary tyler moore is 75. oscar winning actor john voight is 73. he's a new leading man on csi, ted danson turns 64 today. >> another oscar nominated actress patricia clarkton is 52. he's gotten a couple of oscar nominations, oh, yeah, actor jude law is 39. a special happy birthday to wusa 9 engineer sean hawkins. happy birthday, sean!

welcome back. 5:45. if you're just waking up, weather time now. olga breese is in for howard. yesterday, sort of balmy. plenty of wind.

big difference today. >> we're feeling the chill this morning. you step out the door. definitely looking at some cooler temperatures and keeps on dropping. we're now down near the freezing mark inside the beltway. definitely into the 20s. outside the beltway. so, the forecast for today is going to feature plenty of cool air. our day planner has partly cloudy skies to start. that will be changing through midday and late day. we'll roll in some more cloud cover. move our temperatures out of the 30s, at least head back into the 40s by about the 1:00 hour. most of us will top out right around 40, 45 degrees. that will be it. for the forecast for today. now, we are looking to see a little bit more sunshine moving on through as we get in toward the weekend. i think we're going to go through a fairly cloudy stretch for the next couple of days starting off for tonight. even in the evening hours, we'll see the winds continue out of the south. that definitely means we'll keep things a little bit on the mild side, too, as we go through the next couple of days. here's how we sit right now. very cold off toward the north and west.

29 now in arlington. it is still sitting at 28 in alexandria, virginia. but this feels like temperature is much lower than that. feeling like 29 in the -- at the reagan national airport with the winds out of the west- northwest. future cast brings in the cloud cover. kind of rapidly this morning. i think we'll go from pretty sunny skies for your morning commute to mainly cloudy skies by your lunch break. even at 6:00 this evening for the drive time home, we're look at cloudy skies but dry pavement so that's a good thing. the forecast does try to bring in just a little bit of that moisture as we get a little bit closer in toward the early hours of friday morning. this will be hit-or-miss and a lot of areas are miss out completely on the moisture. then for tomorrow, mostly cloudy skies as we finish out the shortened work week. our high temperatures for today around 44 to 47 degrees. another chilly night tonight. we're down to 29 degrees early tomorrow morning. but as we head in toward friday and saturday, the temperatures look pretty mild. we'll keep things fairly dry as we go in toward the holiday

weekend. by the time we get from sunday into monday, the cooler air arrives and we will be well back into the 30s by early next week. monika? >> well, i just got some good news for those of who you travel in the langley park area, we've been telling you about very serious crash on university boulevard at piney branch road. the good news is that i'm hearing northbound university boulevard as you travel toward the beltway has been reopened. northbound university boulevard near piney branch road reopened. the southbound side is what remains closed. so, if you're exiting off the beltway, you might as well just go ahead and still plan early and use colesville road, route 29 or new hampshire avenue to get around the closure. this was a fatal crash that happened overnight and authorities are going to be there for several hours investigating and reconstructing at the accident scene. i suggest you go ahead and avoid the area if you can altogether. we'll take you over to a live picture and just show you the

police activity here. again, as we just heard on the northbound side of university boulevard, the lanes have been reopened heading past the accident scene. let's take you also to the beltway on the west side of town at the american legion bridge. we're doing fine here. no problems to report across the bridge span but on the outer loop right after the dulles toll road, we just got word of a motorcycle accident, virginia state police just arriving on the scene. i'll give you more information on that as it comes in. more on everything that's going on around town at 6:02. >> here's what's making news now. still no word on what caused this huge explosion in myanmar. at least 20 people are dead. 100 others are hurt. the blast happened in a group of warehouses which the government rents out to private businesses. officials at the 9-11 memorial in new york city plan to announce today that a million people have visited the site since it opened this september. the plaza and its two massive fountains now attract about 10,000 people to ground zero every day. there is no admission fee but visitors need to get passes in

advance. a high wind warning in effect for parts of colorado this morning. several gusts have reached hurricane strength. in fact, one was recorded at 98 miles per hour. in addition to getting strong winds, the higher elevations will see more snow today. >> do you know your individual breast cancer risk? given all of the contradictory studies about the benefits of early detection, it could be important on when you may decide to schedule a mammogram or even do a breast exam at all. andrea roane has more on why learning your personal breast cancer risk should be one of your 2012 new year's resolutions. >> 24-year-old claudia gilmour didn't want to just survive breast cancer, she wanted to previve a cancer diagnosis bus her grandmother and father carry the breast cancer gene mutation, she knew her personal risk was high. she had a prophylactic mastectomy. >> i can't believe it. i did it. i reduced my risk by 90%. it was just -- it was such a

surreal moment. >> on the other hand, debbie fornwell had no family history and thought her personal risk was average which is why she had annual mammograms. she found the cancerous lump through a breast self-.xa. >> they say to look for a marble or a lump. mine felt like a piece of clothesline rope. it was about this long and about this wide. >> reporter: doing that breast self-exam helped debbie find her cancer at an early stage. in 2011, women continued to get mixed messages seemingly on a daily basis about when and how often to have screening mammograms and a breast self- exams were worthwhile. dutch researchers concluded regular mammograms cut a woman's risk of dying in half. but another study from canada said for asymptomatic women, they should avoid routine screening until after age 50 and then only every two to three years. as for breast self-exams or even routine clinical exams, don't even bother. critics say the guidelines could cost women their lives.

cancer specialist dr. sara from the kimmel cancer center at johns hopkins finds fault with the directive on self-breast exams. >> i do believe that self-exam is an important part of a woman's routine. and that is because she knows her breasts best. >> but she does agree with the reasoning behind the mammography recommendations under very specific conditions. >> those who are at high risk with family history of breast cancer, be it discovered, in the family, the guidelines need to be quite different. but for the public at large, perhaps two to three years is sufficient to discover new breast cancers. >> before making any decision on how or when to screen, every woman should resolve in 2012 to learn her own individual risk for breast cancer. make that appointment now to have a serious discussion with your primary care doctor or gynecologist. have a healthy and happy new

year. i'm andrea roane. you can read much more about buddy check and the fight against breast cancer any time on our web site at wusa9.com. look under the features tab on our home page. all right, 5:53. they may be out of class this week but cool schools rolls on. we're checking out a program where kids learn some life lessons in the kitchen. next, one of the most acclaimed actresses of our time talks about playing a woman who led in a man's world. margaret thatcher. meryl streep talks about it next.

could her portrayel of a british prime minister win her an oscar? meryl streep has been nominated for a golden globe as best actress. manuel gallegus previews the film which opens nationwide in

two weeks. >> i have done battle every single day of my life. >> actress meryl streep admits she was not agree with many of margaret thatcher's policies but she does respect britain's only female prime minister. >> i have admiration for women who, for anybody, actually, who decides to take on a leadership role. but it is just much, much harder for women. >> the film takes place in the present day with thatcher suffering from dementia, flashing back to moments in her life. it shows controversial decisions thatcher made like invading the faulkland islands but mainly focuses on her relationship with her husband, dennis. thatcher imagined her deceased husband as still with her, revealing a softer side to the woman often called the iron lady. >> could perhaps tend more closely to what i'm saying. >> the film also shows tough road thatcher navigated in the

male dominated world of politics. >> she stood up in the house of parliament and could speak to rival the greatest shakespearean actor because she had not only conviction but just the breath. >> the two-time oscar winning actress said even she had a tough time keeping up with thatcher's vigor. >> i went to drama school and i had a hard time replicates the speeches she made. i ran out of gas. she was formidable. >> we'll find out if streep's performance is formidable to oscar voters when the nominations are announced january 24th. manuel gallegus, cbs news, new york. you're watching 9news now at 6:00 a.m. thanks for joining us. i'm mike hydeck. andrea is off this week. >> i'm monika samtani with a check on timesaver traffic in a moment. >> howard is off, too. olga breese is in with the weather first. >> good morning. cool this morning. a little bit on the cold side for some. but hey, in the end of december, i think we're closing out in fashion at least for

this morning. temperatures have been very chilly. we're still down into the 20s most of the region only holding on to that 33 at the city center. in time, we'll become overcast as we get in toward the afternoon and evening hours. don't expect too much of a warm- up today. we normally see about 45 degrees for a high. we'll make it into the range by later on this afternoon. and keep our winds out of the south. the southerly winds though for today and tomorrow means that we're actually going to have a milder forecast as we go through the next couple of days. at least for this hour, things will be on the chilly side with temperatures feeling more like the 20s than the 30s. the forecast overall is looking not too bad. 47 for today. in the 50s for tomorrow. and basically partly cloudy skies on saturday as we end the year. monika? >> we've been telling you about the scene of a deadly crash from overnight in langley park. inside the beltway. at university boulevard at piney branch road. our jessica doyle has been live at the scene. jessica, tell