former metro manager hired her former league to transform metro's image for $140,000 salary. $20,000 relocation cost and another $10,000 signing bonus. >> it kind of disturbs me. i'm out here working for a living, breaking my back every day trying to scratch together enough money to keep my home and family intact. the whistle blower said he was fired in retaliation. wilson, the former manager could not be reached for comments. but saying in her own statement, "the ig report contains false allegations that eminent from a disgruntle employee." >> can you see those campaigns? >> i spoke to them who is currently out of state telling me on the phone, it's not illegal. this is some of his work, still being used at metro.

but the current spokesperson denies that claim. they said the only proof of work, a single banner that has since been removed from metro headquarter. the price tag on the one banner? $50,000. outside the metro station, 9news now. >> the former marketing executive said that the $50,000 banner that she talked about is an exaggeration. and he is currently working pr for the office of the state's superintendent. the grand jury has now indicted curtis lopez for the murders of his estrange wife and stepson. they were killed back in october and the montgomery

county police said lopez went to his apartment in germantown where he had beaten and stabbed the woman. as for that little boy, police, they found his body just days later in some woods. they believe that he used a baseball bat to crush the little boy's skull. two young women are dead and another is in the hospital after a devastating crash in silver springs. now this one happened at 3:00 in the morning along the boulevard east. the suv left the road, smashed into a fence, and then hit an embankment surrounded by brick. parts of the car, the driver, the 22-year-old and the passenger here and the 19-year- old. >> she will be missed. it hurts. and may she rest in peace and she will rest again. >> another passenger, the 18- year-old james survived the crash. she's in the hospital. her family has no broken bones, but they don't know when she

will be released. >> police may never know what triggered a deadly crash. you'll remember it from last night. police do know that a pickup truck crashed on the median last night. it collided with that metrobus. and the driver of the pickup died. he's now identified as the 49- year-old. of silver springs. the bus driver is in the hospital with serious injuries. montgomery county police want to hear from anyone who happen to be out on the rockville pike. and they may have seen that crash. well, new at 7:00. virginia's governor has approved those new abortion clinic regulations. they are the ones that will be requiring the existing clinics to meet the same business standards at the hospital. now, he said that will help keep them safe. however, critics say that the cost of meeting these new standards, they will put many clinics out of business. okay, just five days and counting now. away from the iowa caucuses and the race for the republican presidential candidate. they are changing day-to-day

almost. the latest poll will be showing rick now jumping to third place. trailing mitt romney and ron paul, who is only down 3 points. the candidates are pushing hard to swing. >> we can still wage that campaign. it's virtually impossible for them. >> yes. the people in iowa will pay attention. >> more than 100,000 voters are expected to caucus here. they will listen to the speeches and then write their favorite on a simple ballot, those results were sent right here to figure out a winner. >> a setback today for rick perry and his attempt to get on the virginia republican primary ballot. the federal judge has rejected his request for an emergency order to add his name. and now that means that he will need to wait until the courts will be ruling on the lawsuit because he filed that issue. at first, the hearing is set for january 13. virginia left perry off the ballot because he did not get enough signatures in time.

well, the new year, it will likely bring a big fight over taxes of all kinds in the state of maryland. however, the governor said today that he will not shy away from the word here in 2012. i'm scott broom in annapolis where governor martin o'malley gave the reporters a preview of 2012, looking for a big fight for you over taxes. >> but you get what you paid for. >> reporter: the governor today, restating his support for some kind of hike in maryland's 23 cent per gallon tax hike. >> there's no way to build a $100 million bridge for $10 million. there's no innovation in the arse follow, that will allow it to happen. >> reporter: they have not changed since 1992, but that is no excuse to raise it 15 more cents per gallon, according to the republican leaders here. >> the idea that they will be able to afford the additional taxes in this crime of economic struggles, it's wrong. >> i just need to take money from other places and put more money in my gas account. >> that requires modern investments in order to create

jobs. a this -- that will include the sewage fee and a proposed bag tax. statewide. in annapolis, scott broom, 9news now. >> $1.14 million. that's how much they have been ordered to pay the attorney fees in the city's court case. back in 2003, he sued the district saying that it violated the second amendment rights in the case that went all the way to the supreme court. now there, the justice decided with heller and overturned that banned in 2008. well today, a judge awarded the attorneys more than $1 million in fees and expenses. that amount was about $2 million less than what they asked for. we finally got a little taste of winter outside today. the flurries, the light snow, falling in northern and western suburbs. late this morning over in ashburn, they started coming down here. full blown showers in frederick

county maryland. no problems for drivers though. but that has all moved out. now, we are just left with the bitter cold, right? >> yes, just a couple scattered showers out to the west of us, where the temperatures are still in the 30s and the 40s. we are looking at the cloudy conditions. right now, temperatures are around 42 downtown. gaithersburg at 34. and let's go to doppler to show you what's happening here on the doppler radar where we've got basically, cloudy conditions. so you can see the gust of light is green. none of them is blue. indicating the green here, the light showers we have seen basically west along the high lands and also out here. along interstate 81. so it looks like we will still see a possibility of showers this evening, but very light stuff. temperatures will be dropping into the 30s. when i come back, i'll have your full forecast including how much milder we're going to be getting for your new year's eve. it usually means fireworks, perhaps some party -- parties.

but how much to make sure your last-minute donations will help the bottom line. but first, take a look at what is paying your bills and the verizon customers will soon need to do that. we'll explain coming up.

starting january 15, the company will charge $2 for the transactions, calling it a convenience fee. it will not apply to the convenience check card payments, however. customers could pay their bills fee free in store or by just mailing the old fashion check. and from the new york times, a double apology today. the paper plans to send an elias abuelazam mail to 300 folks who have canceled their subscriptions. the paper said to renew us and we'll give you half off. that e-mail got sent to 8.5 million people on a mass marketing list, suggesting that they had been hacked. later on though, the times apologized for that and for the e-mail error itself. well, twitter, they might be all free for service, but one south carolina man, they could end up paying big for their twitter account. that's because his former employer, they are suing him for leaving the company and taking the followers with him. he used that to handle right

here on twitter. well, he changed his handle when he left the company last october, but he still kept his 17,000 followers. now, phone dog llc or lle claims that the followers are actually a customer list and that they would like them to pay them about $340,000 in damages. now, he said that the twitter account said he did nothing wrong. a judge will need to decide. the employee if it is tied to a personal e-mail or the employer if the account was actually used for work here and includes the company's name? today's weather is on the way. a warm up is on the way. we'll tell you when that happens coming up. but first, the national 9/11 memorial marks a milestone

with visitor number 1 million. we'll tell you about it up next.

i would like to wish my

wife and my two sons a merry christmas and a happy new year. a major milestone for you in new york. it's the 1 millionth visitor. they visited each day since the memorial opened up 16 weeks ago. coming from 120 different countries to honor those who have lost their lives that faithful day. >> going at 1 million people that have come stepped on this ground where they were not able to, you know, for 10 years. it's desired to come and remember to memorialize and honor everyone that we have lost that terrible day. the museum located here at the memorial is still under location. expected to be done and open next september. well, many charities are seeing a rush of donations pouring in these days. that's just a few days left to

donate. surae chinn visited the goodwill in arlington. >> reporter: so he will be going through his annual tradition of winter cleaning. >> cleaning up the house and the clothes. get it to goodwill or one of the other locations. >> they are unloading and making sure she'll get that write off. >> yes, i don't know how much i could write it off for, but i will give it a best shot. >> everything here is good. >> the goodwill location is the busiest and the top moneymaker in the metropolitan area. and for every $1 that's been donated, 92 cents will go back to the actual cause of this organization, which is job training and job creation. >> being a savvy donor takes a little work. make sure you're giving to the organization. now, be specific to your cause.

for instance, instead of donating to a generic cancer charity, smart givers may target providing mammograms to the disadvantaged women. make sure that the agency has the accountability and transparency. know how much is going to ceo's overhead and the employee costs. >> check first to make sure it's a charitable organization. there's a lot of businesses that will make them believe they are donating to charity when they won't. that could impact what you're writing off as a tax deduction. >> okay, thank you. that's a benefit, but that's the point that it will help someone else. that's one of the things that i have always passed on what you can. >> it could be a win/win as long as you do your research that your money and donations are actually going to the cause that you intend. and you can also file your donations on your 2011 taxes. in arlington, surae chinn, 9news now. >> to find out just how much you could write off for the items you donate and for a complete list of the top charities ranked by the charity navigators, go to our website,

wusa9.com. all right, i'm already proud of the cold weather. it'll be warm again. >> all right. >> yes, warm for a little bit. after that, we'll get ready for some real cold weather. yeah. we have a couple of, well, scattered showers that are showing up here on doppler radar tonight where we saw the flurries earlier, thanks to, well, the area of the lower pressure over the great lakes. moving a little closer for you into the mid-atlantic along the outer fringes of that. basically it will be on interstate 81. seeing the light activity around just between hagerstown, winchester, into the highlands here. so basically, you know, charlestown, winchester, you're getting very light, well, precipitation. and the light rain. also, there could be flurries mixed in with it because it is still a cool air mass in -- a cold air mass in place. you can see that the showers, they will be coming in from the west and to the north of it. it is a snow maker in parts of pennsylvania and into parts of new york state. but we're not accepting a whole lot of accumulations.

right now, temperatures, they are 40 in arlington. 42 in d.c. mid-30s for you. laurel down to the freezing leveler here. all right, so now milder conditions are headed this way believe it or not. and then it will be much colder. tonight, cloudy and cold. friday at mild temperatures with the clouds moving on in. new year's weekend is also looking to be really mild. after that, dry arctic air for you arrives. get ready for that. it's going to be some of the coldest temperatures that we have seen all season long. here is a look at your future cast. so we've got showers moving through this evening, but again, very light scattered activity for you. and tomorrow morning, we'll see variable cloudiness and a slight chance for the isolated showers. it will be light precipitation. again, not accepting a whole lot. saturday also looking at a mixture of some sun and some clouds and it will be mild once again. so here is a look at how tonight is shaping up. mostly cloudy and cold. cloudy showers here. generally to the west of us. lows in the 30s. south winds here.

and 31 in leesburg. 33 in winchester. so tomorrow morning, bundle up as you're heading out. partly cloudy and cold. and then temperatures though, they will be warming up quite nicely in the afternoon. variable cloudiness, it will be mild with the isolated showers possible. highs around 55 degrees. all right so in cumberland, temperatures in the lower 50s. winchester at 53. manassas will be in the mere mid-50s. it will be feeling nice to end your workweek here. downtown, we should be in the mid-40s at this time of the year. so enjoy the mild weather. now, here is how your friday will break down a cool start as we get taken on here. only a slight chance for the isolated showers. here is a next look at your seven days. new year's eve looking pretty nice. new year's day in the upper 50s. then a blast of arctic air comes in, affecting our temperatures on monday. and boy, look at tuesday and wednesday. and low to mid-30s. those are our highs with this

air mass coming on in. i got a couple snowflakes for monday and tuesday and not a big storm at all. maybe just a couple flurries for you are possible. and i would say a good weekend to do some, you know, holiday decoration clean up. it will be mild for you. but also, they dust out the humidifiers. i think next week you'll want to use them. >> i see a lot of freezing temperatures. >> yeah, it's that time of the year. >> thank you. when a man asked a woman to be his wife, he wants the story to be forever remembered. tonight in the weird news. this one surely will be unless the future groom could get his record expunged. he recently proposed to his girlfriend with a lovely $3,000 ring. the problem was, he posted a photo of it on facebook. she was so excited and sadly, you know, that is where the happy moment turned a little darker because the cops say that ring was stolen from zales. somebody recognized it online and well, the jig was up. as they say here is jarvis in court yesterday. you can see the fiance sitting

back there somewhere. he's got to be pretty disappointing. do you think the engagement is still on? >> no. it makes you crazy. >> even the big house. >> yes. we'll see you in a minute.

in the mail bag tonight, a

lot of outreach for them and the d.c. government ranking in parking tickets. now, they give out a lot of tickets at howard university, especially by the mcdonalds. now, five registrations and my tags were current. i had to spend half my day in traffic court. i felt like i was on parking wars. now listen to this from stacey joe. oh well, there was a sly way that they started issuing tickets on weekends with the tiny little sign on the parking meter and only on one side stating that little fact. yes, i was lucky enough to get one of those tickets on my car and on my birthday. but sherry zimmerman slowly says this. feed the meter and you'll have nothing to complain about. pretty simple, actually. well you know what back in the 80s i had a conversation with somebody in public works about how the on-speed parking is such a rare resource in the city and all these tickets were really meant to ensure that the

spaces turn over on a timely basis. it's not really about the money that the person told me. and that may have been true in some pre-historic time. but now it seems like freeing up the parking spaces is just a side effect. they want your money. and i want your e-mails. mailbag@wusa9.com. well, that is our report. have a great evening. stay warm. we'll see you back. bye.

now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. george and stacy's romantic getaway. their mexican holiday photo album. and tom and gisele $20 million mansion. who are the brady bundchens' famous new neighbors? plus, the latest on justin bieber. back at home after his grandparents' car accident. then -- hollywood's biggest cheaters. >> you cheated on your wife? >> yep. >> sandra bullock betrayed. blindsided by jesse james. tiger's multiple mistresses. >> i had affairs. i cheated. >> plus, from bill clinton's fling with monica lewinsky to the affair that brought john edwards down. >> i was wrong. >> the washington power players who got caught playing around.