actions that aren't consistent with what we'd expect around young children. reporter: police say the man with the red truck has parked close to the school and when children walk by, he would shout out to them, but police will not tell us what the man said. >> we were just very concerned and we don't like things like this happen and to scare our kids and to scare our community. reporter: police say it happened three times in december when kids were on their way to and from school. now detectives are looking into two more incidents, one last week and one last tuesday. >> the vehicle is an old red pickup truck, probably has dents on, it sounds like it's got some rust on it. reporter: parents say they'd let their guard down but not anymore. >> in a neighborhood like this i didn't think it could happen actually. this is a school pretty much everyone knows everyone else. >> it was nice to see kids walking up and down with dogs and friends and stuff and right now they cannot do that. >> they love school, but we've been telling them that they have to be careful.

don't walk with strangers. reporter: police are urging parents to talk about stranger danger with their kids. >> know where the safe houses are. know where your friends are. walk in pairs. walk in groups of. reporter: in alexandria, i'm lindsey mastis, 9 news now. >> the man is described as income his mid-30s, perhaps hispanic or middle eastern and he has a goatee oar moustache. he's wearing a ball cap, blue jeans and white jacket. parents are invited to attend a meeting about all this in about 30 minutes at the school. two metro employees are charged with stealing thousands of dollars from the transit system one nickel, one dime and quarter at a time. horace mcdade was assigned to collect money out of the fare machines. metro officer john haile was allegedly arranging his schedule so he'd be the police officer keeping an eye on mcdade. visitors say the two men conspired for years to siphon off perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars. the police officer alone deposited $10,050,000 in unexplained cash in his --

$150,000 in unexplained cash in his bank account in just the last three years. >> i am thoroughly disgusted and displayed by the events that are alleged to have taken place by these two employees. >> metro has launched a top to bottom audit and relieved the revenue center supervisor of duties. metro says it's doing everything it can to make sure this never happens again. >> another cold day in washington and frow perhaps just a chance for some snow, but snow -- and now perhaps just a chance for some snow, but snow levels shouldn't be all that much. >> no. i have heard reports they've been treating some of the roads up 95, don't really understand that either, but here's the deal. we're still above freezing about everywhere, 40 downtown, mid-30s into manassas, gaithersburg and frederick, 34 in hagerstown, 32 in cumberland and oakland. satellite picture and radar combined, the system will bring snow primarily to the north of us, but the last couple hours you see a little dip in the snow. it's going to get into western

maryland and we, too, could see a flurry or snow shower later tonight, no problems in the next few hours. low temperatures 28 to 32, winds southwest to west 10 to 15. we'll talk about a much better chance at seeing winter precipitation and we'll tell you when that's going to roll in next time. rick perry is out of the race for the republican presidential nomination, just a couple days before the south carolina primary. the texas dropped his bid for the white house today telling supporters in charleston there was no viable bath to victory. now he's thrown his -- path to victory. now he's thrown his support to former speaker of the house newt gingrich. >> i believe newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country. we've had our differences which campaigns will inevitably have and newt is not perfect, but who among us is? >> and despite that endorsement several of perry's donors told

him they're likely going to back mitt romney. and while all eyes are on south carolina there are questions as to who actually won the iowa caucuses. the state released the final results today and now it seems rick santorum has come out on top with 34 votes more than mitt romney. romney was declared the winner back on january 3rd after the initial count showed him with an eight-vote lead, but even with the new results the iowa republican party is not going to declare an actual winner because voter ballots from eight of the state's precincts are still missing. so what does all this mean for the race for the republican nomination? i'm joined by bob westphal, a republican advisor and lobbiest in d.c. and has worked as a fundraiser . perry throws his support to gingrich. does it matter now? >> not really. i think right now it's a bit of a sideshow in south carolina.

it was big news for about five minutes today and then when the news on newt gingrich's marriage came out and with his second wife coming out and doing an abc interview tonight on national tv, it's sort of swamped the good news for newt. >> this has been the big story today, the big talker, but the fact is didn't we already know newt gingrich was not a master of the marital arts, so to speak? >> derek, all of us here in washington d.c. have known it for a long time. he's been married three times. those of us that worked in congress have known about his personal predilictions, but the country is learning that now. >> he's been on a surge in south carolina pulling within a couple point according to one poll of mitt romney. does this perhaps put the brakes on for him? >> that's a really good people. i talked to the mayor of greenville, south carolina, today, the second largest city in the state who endorsed mitt romney and he doesn't know, nor

do any other south carolina contacts know if it's going to really make a difference. from the myrtle beach debate a couple nights ago newt surged and blew away the competition. this clearly won't help, but the question is will it slow him down enough to have mitt romney emerge? >> people already knew he wasn't exactly mr. faithful, so perhaps it doesn't hurt as much. let's talk about mitt romney for a minute. we all know he's very rich, but he's handled that very poorly the last week or so and now we learn that he's perhaps got some offshore bank accounts trying to dodge taxes in the cayman islands. how big a liability is this and perhaps could this cost him south carolina? >> i don't think so. romney first of all came out today and said he's paying full blown u.s. taxes on his investments in the cayman islands, but i think the whole bain capital issue, the fact that he is a wealthy person and has been successful in the business world in the

republican primary at end of the day it's not going to make that much difference. they all want to be mitt romney. >> if romney manages to figure out how to lose south carolina and he didn't win iowa, now he's one for three. >> i don't think the iowa thing will make that much difference. it was a toss-up anyway it was so close, but look at what's next, derek. it's florida. the last day of the iowa caucuses mitt romney made an $800,000 statewide tv buy. he is pouring millions of dollars into florida. all the polling shows romney will run away with florida. i think florida is much more pragmatic than is south carolina and it's his to lose. >> if he wins that one, it's practically over. >> i think if mitt romney pulls out a win in south carolina, goes to florida, wins florida, go into super tuesday. where do you stop him? >> bob, thank you. >> okay, great. folks in d.c. and montgomery county, maryland,

you're already paying a five cent bag tax when you shop. two virginia lawmakers want to take that and quadruple it. they've introduced a bill that would charge shoppers 20-cent fees for plastic bags statewide. there would be some exemptions to that, for example, no fee on bags used for ice cream, meat or fish. one of the cosponsors of the bill says the fee is meant to cut down on bag pollution. republicans have come out against the measure. three similar bills died in the house in virginia last year. students at the university of maryland poo see us would go up under the new budget propose -- could see tuition go up under the new budget again calling for a 3% hike for all the school's campuses. in 2010 and 2011 tuition rose the same amount. during the first four years of o'malley's term, the governor kept tuition fees unchanged. the university has started construction on the new

president's mansion. the $7.2 million home is expected to be done by the end of the summer. the state demolished the old one earlier this month saying it didn't meet safety codes and needed lots of renovations, but opponents chiropractor sized the decision as the university faces -- criticized the decision as the university faces major budget cuts. coming up a boy wants a tattoo to remember his brother, but his mother's approval lands her in handcuffs. that's up next.

faced with some community opposition the folks who own the verizon center have put on hold their plan to install new animated signs on the building. the company says it's been reworking the plans now and want more time to share them with the community. >> we'd like to replace these with signs about half the size that are digital, video. reporter: including this one here? >> this one here and that one there. we would eliminate this marquis right here that's been there a long time and then we would like to place one on the fourth floor, our space, wrapping around from the corner of seventh street on to f street. >> sounds pretty fancy. a d.c. council hearing had been set for monday on the matter. now it's postponed indefinitely. so would you like to see

chinatown turn into sort of a mini times square or does all that glitz and neon glow just not fit in with our hometown southern d.c. look. we can put your e-mails into the mcginty's mailbag. the address is mailbag at wusa9 9.com. winter lovers just may get their wish. we've now got a chance for some of the s word over the weekend. top has the details in his full forecast coming up. but first people in louisa county are still trying to rebuild since that east coast earthquake. we'll take a look at their progress coming your way next.

it a crime to let your 10- year-old son get a tattoo? a georgia woman is facing charges of child cruelty after taking her 10-year-old to get one. sinteria napia said her family is still grieving the death of her 12-year-old son who was hit by a car two years ago. she got some tattoos of her child and she said her son wanted to do the same thing. >> he said mom, i want to get a tattoo with maliq on it rest in peace. what do i say to a child that wants to remember his brother? reporter: you mom said you want to get tattoo. why did you want to get it? >> because it represents my brother. >> so he got that tattoo on his arm. later someone at school saw, it called the cops. investigators say a law that hit the books in 2010 does make it illegal for anyone to give a

tattoo to somebody under the age of 18 and as you might expect, police are also investigating that tattoo artist. nearly five months since an earthquake rocked mineral, virginia, aftershocks continue to hit that small town and yup, yesterday a 2.5 magnitude aftershock hit louise cat and once again it rattled the -- louisa county and once again it rattled the frayed nerves of the residents that live there. two schools are skill closed because they were damaged so badly because of the quake. reporter: i'm peggy fox at louisa county high school damaged since the earthquake in august. they're putting the finishing touches on to get ready to move into a modular campus. >> building c classrooms, building k classrooms. reporter: it takes more than a, b, c to move an entire high school. it also takes h, k and p. >> we have to get this site all already for february 1st. reporter: that's the day 1400 students at louisa county high

school go back to class in their new temporary buildings on their school's parking lot. they'll be in front of their old building which was severely damaged in the august earthquake. >> it was very frightening and they were very frightened, but they've ettled in and i think the trust is back. -- settled in and i think the trust is back. reporter: then? >> we had an aftershock yesterday in the morning, 2. something, and every one of us just froze. we just said again? but we're okay. reporter: the high school students have been sharing the middle school next-door. each school has operated alternating days including saturdays for the younger students. >> we made it work, yes. reporter: superintendent dr. debra petit says she's grateful to the parents. >> parents have not complained. they've stuck with us. so as of february 1st we'll be back on the normal schedule of. reporter: teachers won't have to drag their materials to and from the classroom anymore. >> i'm looking forward to getting back on to schedule, having a five-day week. reporter: the new campus has 22 buildings including

administration buildings, a cafeteria, a gymnasium and this is the library. >> that's our flag. we'll be hanging it up. reporter: in louisa county, peggy fox, 9 news now. >> the earthquake repair goes on at the washington monument as well and today the federal government got a big help in paying the $15 million price tag to fix up our monument. d.c. philanthropist and businessman david ruben stein announced today he's donating $7.5 million to cover the repair costs saying he's repaying the gift to a country that was so wonderful for him, very cool. still not opening for months and months up. >> believable. the early i think kristin said was june of 2013. >> tomorrow night there will be more of a mix and snow and i try to reserve the brettonmeter for just snow.

we'll start with a live shot outside brought to you by michael and son, our weather cam. we're looking at a very nice evening. clouds are thickening up, not crazy cold, though, temperatures still 40 at national, the high so far today, dew point creeping up to 23 as the strong southwesterly winds continue to blow a heft cold front. the cold front will bring us -- ahead of the cold front. the cold front will bring us clouds and a chance of snow. we'll zoom in. you can see the snow pushing into ohio, pennsylvania and now western new york state. it's not a lot of snow. also there's rain down through the south in through southern virginia and extreme southwestern virginia. so the precipitation extends pretty far south. most of it gets raked out by the mountains as usual, but we'll keep in the chance of a flurry or snow shower. certainly from hagerstown west you'll find activity tonight and west of the divide you'll find accumulating snow, which is good news for skiers. temperatures, 37 bethesda, 36 great falls and reston, 39

college park, 38 beltsville. temperatures well above freezing in the immediate met tree area, 38 springfield -- metro area, 38 springfield and 37 towards sterling. here's the deal, a touch of winter, flurry or snow shower possible tonight, no worries in the metro area. morning and afternoon clouds friday, a little sun in between and a mix developing before midnight friday night. so have the kids get home early because looks like a mix will develop across most of the metro area by about 10:00 or 11:00 tomorrow. late tonight maybe a snow shower in frederick and snow showers go back west of cumberland. everything moves out quickly getting into morning. we'll see sunshine, but clouds come screaming back around 12:00, 1:00, stays dry. tomorrow's rush hour will be dry as well, but look at 8:30 tomorrow, see some snow out towards winchester and martinsburg. you see the magenta there, kind of a mix and it overspreads the area pretty quickly going through the night tomorrow.

southern maryland is probably just rain, the rest of us a mix. it will go to rain during the morning saturday but late friday night and early saturday morning some of the roads could be kind of tricky. mostly cloudy, breezy and cold, a flurry or snow shower possible tonight, lows 28 to 32, winds west, southwest at 10 to 15. next seven days looks like this. we have a chance for more rain sunday that. could begin also as a morning mix and then here comes the warm air. we are in the mid-50s monday with showers. i could even throw a bolt up there if i wanted to for monday and beautiful tuesday, mid-50s, low 50s wednesday. more randoms late wednesday into early thursday. i have been searching and searching back in the weather office. i do see maybe some colder air by the 1st of february but nothing really bad. >> we'll be back in a moment. >> we want to hear what you

think. 9 news now will be right back. here's today's deal just for you. snuggle up to a cozy $50 off brand-new pajamas from pajamagram.com. sign up at dealchicken.com hatching deals daily.

in the mailbag tonight. >> think at all for a

hagerstown grand -- no sympathy at all four a hagerstown grand- - for a hagerstown grandma who is going to be deported. >> i'll never understand why people think we should turn our heads to people in the country illegally. they're breaking the law. by definition they're criminals. my questions to these people are what other laws should we ignore? i say follow the law or change the law. it's that simple. i have to tell you the folks at the immigration department point out last september, the woman, josefina rodriguez-vega was given until this month to leave the country voluntarily. they charge she removed and made her alternatives a detention ankle bracelet, became a fugitive. that's why she's being deported. meanwhile nobody happy about the propose tax hikes in maryland. shirley writes get him out of there. maybe we should become west maryland and be a new state but

ben says how about an old state. residents of the people's republic of maryland there is a place just a short distance away where unemployment is low, taxes are low and government respects your freedom. it's called virginia. i'd suggest the other alternatives known as delaware, west virginia and p.a. i suggest your send us your mail here to mailbag at wusa9.com. that's our broadcast. i'll see you a little later tonight at 11:00. bye bye.

now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. the real-life hollywood murder mystery. new clues to the crime near brad and angelina's home. >> a severed head similar to the movie "seven." now, why was brad's bodyguard questioned? plus -- >> hands and feet found under the hollywood sign. was it a mob hit? as the woman who made the grisly discovery takes "e.t." to the scene. >> it was cleanly severed. then, did heather locklear punch her ex, jack wagner, what police are saying tonight. the modern-day titanic. stunning new images. >> many of the survivors we talked to keep bringing up the "titanic." the man who said that he was