and we have. >> strangely, ray's aunt came to the news conference looking for answers, but insisted the coldhearted home invader police are describing is not the nephew she knows. >> you know, what you had, you know what i'm saying? is he guilty of this? >> police say he bound six victims with zip ties. the youngest just seven years old. and he sexually assaulted one of them. in bethesda, he allegedly tied up a mother and son in the bedroom, took bank cards and pin numbers, and then went after the cleaning lady. >> took the housekeeper into a bathroom and forced her to commit oral sex and groped her. >> here is kevin ray on the maryland sex offender registry. before the third degree sex offense that landed him here, authorities say he did 18 years in prison on a manslaughter charge. if he is a repeat offender and

is guilty also of these home invasions, authorities say he may qualify to go away for a long, long time with no chance for parole. bruce leshan, 9news now. >> and police still on the lookout for whomever abandoned a newborn girl on the front steps of the home of northeast d.c. last night. she was found by a neighbor who was passing by the house in the 3,000 block of chaning street. that neighbor called 911 and took that baby inside, tried to perform cpr on it, dc fire and ems showed up. they took the child to children's hospital. but it was too late. that baby girl died. she was pronounced dead at 2:30. the ordeal has shaken up everybody, including the man who lives where that girl was abandoned. >> it was another ten steps, a bang on the door, and i mean, my wife and i are in the process of an adoption right

now and, that's not public knowledge, now it is. but you know, we know so many families who would love a child, any child, and it's just heartbreaking. >> it is heartbreaking. police are now waiting for the result of the autopsy. they want to know exactly what killed that baby. >> the little boy who was run over and killed along duke street yesterday has been identified. his name was hernandez, brian hernandez chavez who was eight years old. he and his mom were walking along a sidewalk near the landmark mall when a car driven by 22-year-old victor jumped the curb and hit them. now charged with dui, manslaughter, wreckless driving and he is being held without bond. >> an 8-year-old child eludes, but something so traumatic. i can't imagine what that would be like. >> the boy's mother was also hit and suffering nonlife threatening injuries. >> the italian coast guard says 29 people are still missing from a cruise ship that ran a ground off the coast.

rescue crews worked deep into the night looking for more passengers, including a couple from minnesota. so far, six people have died in that accident. the ship's captain remains in prison. he faces several charges, including manslaughter and abandoning ship. fortunately, a young couple in sal san alexandria is not among those. but as fate would have it, they missed out on being on the sinking vessel by just a few hours. and in a story you'll see only on nine, they tell kristin fisher what they saw. >> when you're on a cruise, the titanic always comes up, but in a jokingly manner. you don't imagine it could happen. >> something obviously not quite right with the sound in that particular story from kristen. we may bring it later.

in the meantime, both emily and leanard say this whole ordeal will not stop them from perhaps booking another cruise, but next time they say it will do a better job of checking out the cruise operator and pay close attention to emergency drills which they participated in while the trip was on going. south carolina voters will have just five republicans to pick from on this saturday's primary. former utah governor, jon huntsman dropped out of his bid for the nomination today. huntsman spent most of the gop presidential race at the back of the pack. while he pulled off a third place finish, he was dead last in iowa and never really had any momentum in south carolina. now, huntsman is throwing his support behind the candidate he now says is the strongest. >> the space between us on some of the issues. i believe that candidate is governor mitt romney. >> huntsman says he believes romney has the best chance to defeat president obama in the

general election. as of right now, the former massachusetts governor leads most polls by double digits in south carolina. more issues tonight for the virginia primary ballot. asking the attorney general to look into some of those signatures submitted by newt gingrich. last month, gingrich said 1500 of the signatures submitted were fraudulent. the washington post reports the board of elections chairman wants cuccinelli to look into those irregularities. he failed to virginia for the virginia ballot by 450 signatures. all across america today, people paying tribute to dr. martin luther king, jr., by giving back. in the last two years, the holiday has turned into a national day of service. the first family joined in, spending part of the morning with a group of volunteers working it out at the brown education campus in northeast. the president helped to assemble new book shelves and joined by the first lady,

michelle obama to paint some of the famous quotes on the wall of that library. >> you look at that speech, talking about dr. king as a drum major. what he really said was all of us can be a drum major for service. all of us can be a drum major for justice. there's nobody who can't serve. >> that same scene repeated throughout the city. over at the american university, the men's basketball team partnered with the samaritans to give out shoes and hold a basketball clinic for the 200 local kids who showed up. and fedex volunteers teamed up to make and deliver more than 3,000 meals to people living in d.c. with aids, cancer, and other illnesses. today, if you are out there, you know it was bitterly cold and topper hoping it might get warmer? >> yup, i think it will. milder air is on our doorstep. in fact, let's start with

temperatures. they haven't moved much. this time yesterday, they were falling like a rock. back up to 40 at national, 37 in gaithersburg. 41 in manassas and 39 in leesburg. look at oakland, across the divide, 37 degrees. warms everybody up. satellite picture, radar combined. you might look at this and go wow. it's not reaching the ground. the air mass is too dry. it's evaporating before it hits the ground. increasing clouds. light rain before dawn. lows in the 30s. winds southwest. there could be a few pockets of sleet. we'll tell you where that's going to be. let you know what this means for the morning commute and also tomorrow evening's commute. >> thank you topper. coming up, a d.c. tradition honoring dr. king makes a triumphant return. what the experts say is fueling the increase. that's up next.

maryland live casino employment center opened today with standing room only. the new casino is scheduled to open over the summer and looking to hire more than 1500 casino, marketing, security, food, and beverage workers. the center open weekdays 10:00 to 7:00. >> a will the of money made at those jobs will head straight into folks gas tanks. aaa projects gas prices in the d.c. area will top $4 a gallon by the spring. right now, drivers in the d.c. metro are paying $3.40 a gallon and that's up almost 30 cents from a year ago. and it is the highest prices

have ever been at the start of the year. aaa says that is not a good time for the rest of 2012. >> unfortunately, it looks like it will be this way for a while. usually we see prices low at the beginning of the year and inch up during the spring. with them starting off high at the beginning of the year, they'll continue to inch up during the spring. >> the price of crude oil sure hasn't helped. it risen by almost $24 since october. experts say that is from increased global demand and the optimism about the u.s. economic recovery. >> we are trading into cold for rain. top, tell us when the showers will roll in. that's coming up, but first, d.c.'s parade honoring dr. martin luther king. the sight and sounds of the tributes are up next. stay with us.

hundreds of people filled the pews at the ebenezer church honoring dr. martin luther king, jr. as well as religious and business leaders spoke out about dr. king's life and legacy and how he shaped our country today. >> thousands visited the memorial and hundreds more lined the streets of martin luther king avenue for the city's first parade in eight years. 9news now photo journalist brings us to sights and sounds.

>> so many things. >> the enforcement to be serious about social progress. >> it's the best. why not be out here? >> but you know, it is a birthday celebration at the same time. it's a time for the community to come out and celebrate. >> this is what dr. king was about. he was about equality for all people. i'm just excited to be here. >> i feel a sense of comrade and it's just really touching to see all different types of people out here getting along, because in the days of martin luther king, jr., it wasn't like this. >> 1963, i was in new york city. we chartered a bus from the summer camp and came here to demonstrate for civil rights and justice for all. >> i wouldn't be able to do

half the things i am today if it wasn't for him and his speeches. >> celebrating martin luther king's birthday. >> it's important because people are taking pictures of this memorial. taking pictures of the quote that are on the walls. it's good to see a good mix. >> just one way to show that we are still working together. >> community does need to come together. >> happy birthday martin luther king. >> happy birthday dr. king. proboxers were the grand marshal's of today's parade. that parade was made possible by marion barry and washington and former publisher, barnes. family helped launch the first mlk day parade now 34 years ago. you can see more of today's events on our website, wusa9.com. right at the top of the page. one new york school system is going high-tech in the battle against childhood obesity. the new york post reports that

bay shore schools will now use a watch-like device to keep track of activities. it's a monitor and it counts heartbeats, motion. that information is all sent to a password protected site that students and teachers look at. the device lets kids know in real time if they are being active or not. plans to start using ten of those monitors this coming spring. are these monitors too big brotherrish and how active students are from all parts of the day or are those administrators doing their part to address the growing problem of obesity in this country and big kids and little kids? address your thoughts. the address is mailbag@wusa.com. >> all right sir. what are we looking at? we have rain on the way. >> we do. 41 today. we got out of the 30s and 50s tomorrow. >> that's nice. >> there's a few snow out

there, but everybody is not complaining. in the middle of january. all right, let's start with the weather cam brought to you by michael and son. nice shot of the capital. we have some breezes. good news is, it's a southwest wind. it's a warmer wind and that will drive much warmer air tomorrow. 40 right now at national. gone up over the past hour. clouds have increased. dew points 26. that's going up as well. that's one thing we look at. precipitation starts falling, the dew point comes up. the temperature falls and meets in the middle somewhere. we watch that carefully. right now, we think the southwest winds all night, no worries in the immediate metro area. just rain. and really we're looking at an unorganized system. this is the first wave of moisture rolling across the ohio river into our mountains and you look carefully, we mentioned this earlier. there's precipitation on top of us and moving through. there is, just not reaching the ground. and so we're looking at temperatures in the upper 30s with a little bit of verga in

the form of rain and that's it. we're looking at 39 in bethesda. 38 in arlington. 40 downtown. temperatures are very uniform. you get clouds coming in and southwest winds. they stay pretty uniform. 39 in beltsville. they aren't going to tank like they did this time last night. locate the umbrella. breezy and not as cold tonight. light rain by dawn. a brief mix possible well north and west of town. north of frederick and cumberland. you may salvage a nice afternoon tomorrow if the system rolls through quickly. in the morning, 6:00 in the morning, a patch of yellow there. that's more moderate rain south of town. so might want to allow extra time in the morning. look what happens by lunchtime, it's almost gone. the showers really confine to northern suburbs to montgomery county and loudoun county. then that's it. we should get breaks in the clouds. southwest winds, we should get temperatures into the 50s. it does turn colder on wednesday. good news for the ski resorts.

turns to snow through much of garrett county and down toward the valley all the way down to snow shoe. that's good news. for tonight, look for increasing clouds, breezy, not as cold. light rain before dawn. lows in the 30s and winds southwest at 10 to 15. tomorrow morning, southwest winds continue and most of the rain falls, again, in the morning hours. cloudy, breezy, and chilly with rain and showers. 30s and 40s. by afternoon, i think we're going to see skies become partly cloudy or maybe a shower. high temperatures near 55. and winds southwest at 10 to 15. we'll break it down. 30s to start. showers ending by noon. temperatures 48 to 53 and 50 to 55. maybe a passing shower in the evening. but really a nice afternoon. all right. next seven days. looks like this. we're looking at temperatures generally in the 30s as we go through, why won't it go to the seven-day? the old fashion way then. there we go. wait a minute. next three days, colder on

wednesday. colder on thursday. keep a chance of a flurry in or thursday. all right. next seven days. it doesn't stay cold long, derek. rain or snow on saturday and then boom, we're in the 50s. >> yes, sir. >> so we have not had any bitter cold, like sub 20-degree weather this year at all. >> nothing like that. >> all right, for many of us that grew up watching the under sea world, scuba diving remains mysterious. maybe scary. but not apparently to everyone. to the land of histonia, where they like to use their diving equipment for playing checkers. it's just way too cold to dive in the winter, so to keep their equipment and their bodies in shape, they do this under water checkers tournament to keep the skills up over the dark cold months. it's played indoors. each game is allotted six minutes and the plastic pieces are made of lead. the big challenge, keeping still while you're down there.

you know how it is, you tend to float. one contestant reports using lead weights in her pockets. just king me. remember that game? i used to like that. >> i was a chess player. >> we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mail bag. the address, mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news now will be right back.

in the mail bag tonight, we got this on friday's coverage of the 30th anniversary of the crash of air florida flight 90 on the 14th street bridge. wants to clarify a few things. your broadcast reporters on the snow and ice caused the crash while snow and ice were contributing factors, it was the flight crew's failure to turn on the heat which limited takeoff power that doomed the flight. that's a very good point and though you are correct, much of our focus was on the terrible weather that day and what had to do with the crash. not to mention the deicing problem. i recall bruce leshan saying not only should those pilots used the heaters, but push the throttle up to full power while the plane was in the air. that crash would never have

happened. over on the wusa9 facebook page, reaction pouring into the terrible story on the infant girl left out to freeze to death on somebody's front stairs in northeast d.c. krista writes, this is probably the most horrible story i've heard. to be so close to a police/fire station and leave a newborn on the concrete sidewalk is the horrible event. all of those who would have adopted this child would have been grateful to have it. and similar sentiments from ashley who writes, this person who did this could have gone to a high school, a police or fire station and left the child if she could not care for him or her. the baby would have been safe and placed into an adoptive home to loving parents. so awful. may the lord have mercy and welcome this child into his kingdom. and kelly miller spoke for many who was outraged at the perpetrator. it makes me wonder somehow someone could be so cruel. plenty of people who are unable to have children and take this child in as one of their own. there's no excuse for this.

none whatsoever. i couldn't imagine. i hope they rot in hell. thanks for the input, folks, there's no mcginty's mail bag without you. that is our report. i'll be back tonight at 11:00 along with anita brickman. don't forget, log on any time to wusa9.com. have a great evening. we'll see you then. bye bye.

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