once you get past hagerstown and cumberland, you aren't going to get above freezing tonight or tomorrow. it's going to stay slippery up there. in fact, west of the divide, snow showers tomorrow. but in town, just wet roads, but again, you have to take it easy with wet roads on a friday night. in terms of temperatures, we are in a pretty good shape. looking at temperatures above freezing downtown. 34 in manassas, but 32 in leesburg. 30 in gaithersburg and 30 in frederick. while 270 might be fine, some of those secondary roads, there could be slick spots there as well. precipitation wise, the good news is it's light. a batch pushing through now will move across the beltway and across 270 in the next half an hour with mixture of sleet and snow. primarily, light activity. we'll talk about a coastal storm that hits us tomorrow. thanks, top. the slick roads may be just one theory under consideration for an accident reconstruction team on the scene of a serious accident involving a bus

carrying special needs students that were in montgomery county. now that bus and two other vehicles crashed this afternoon on clopper road in gaithersburg. that's where we find our surae chinn. she is live on the scene with the latest details. surae. >> reporter: lesli, everyone on that school bus is okay. we will be okay tonight, but the driver of the suv is in grave condition. here is a scene hours after this accident happened this afternoon. you can see that the school bus and also the suv is getting ready to be towed. there were several special needs children ages 5 to 11 and two adults, including the bus driver and her aide riding on that bus. they had just left clopper mill elementary school when the accident happened. they were taken to the hospital as a precaution. police say the driver of the black chevy suv was making a left turn when it was rear

ended by a work van that caused the suv then to come into the path of the school bus. the bus then t-boned the suv on the passenger side and unclear if the driver was wearing a seat belt. >> the road was wet. there had been precipitation prior to the collision. so the crew team will determine exactly that level of involvement. but it would most certainly appear to have played a factor in it. >> there was a fourth car in a ravine right now. the driver may have tried to avoid the whole accident to begin with, then lost control. clopper road is a major artery for folks in germantown trying to avoid 270. this is the road to avoid. you want to take route 28 or 355 tonight. lesli. >> it was not the ride they planned on, that's for sure. thank you. anita. >> the murders of six students this school year in prince georges county has sparked outrage and now we learn social media is resulting in a wealth

of information flowing to police. >> i'm scott broom in prince georges county where outrage over the deaths of six students this school year combined with media savvy kids has produced a 300% jump in tips to police. >> they have been of monumental importance. the 124,000 students that are in the prince georges county public school system, a majority of them use social media to one degree or another and we know that for a fact because of the amount of crime solvers tips we have been receiving of late. they have been absolutely through the roof. >> in each case, twitter was alive with tributes to the victims and within hours of the deaths, information was flowing to investigators. >> four of the six cases will be closed thanks in no small part to social media. >> police have capitalized with a twitter page of their own. there's also a text address and a reporting system online. in each case, information can be sent unanimously without

ever having to talk to police in person. which is just the way many kids want it. scott broom, wusa9. >> we posted all the tips, numbers, texts, and web addresses. they have available on our website, wusa9.com. prince georges county police say they have made an arrest in connection with a murder in oxen hill. charles stabbed to death in an apartment yesterday in the 1100 block. today, 28-year-old kimberly elaine smith is behind bars charged with killing him. he had a relationship with smith's mom. now police say smith got into an argument and that's when smith attacked. she is behind bars. she is charged with second- degree murder. and a guilty plea today from the former head of d.c.'s homeland security office. west admitted that she helped former council member, harry thomas, jr., divert $110,000 in grant money that had be designated to pay for a ball. she later on misrepresented how

those funds were used on tax documents. now wes wept as she entered her plea. observers say under federal guidelines, she is likely to get a prison sentence between six months and a year. drastic budget cuts known as the sequester are scheduled to go into effect one week from today. democrats say if an agreement is not reached before march 1, dozens of federal agencies will have to trim workers affecting everybody from food inspectors to the fbi. republicans believe those cuts are being blown out of proportion. in a statement, house majority leader, eric cantor, said president obama has said that unless he gets a second tax hike, he will be forced to let criminals loose on the street. the meat at your grocery store went be inspected and emergency responders will be unable to do their jobs. lawmakers will make their choice when they return to work on capitol hill next week. economists and politicians have been saying for years that small businesses are key to

american economic recovery. but sequestration could smack small businesses hard, costing them billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs. bruce leshan says looming budget cuts have one local business leader rethinking his hiring plans. >> it's been a horrible four years. >> andy stern loved selling office furniture. >> feel different for every people. >> he sold $8 million a year from four locations across the region. >> i've been in business 36 years and these last four years are the worst i have seen. >> the recession cut his sales in half. >> you didn't make any money? >> for a year. >> a whole year, nothing. >> he had to lay off one of 11 employees. worse thing he has ever done. >> this is an amazing product. >> but sales are finally starting to pick back up. >> the last several months, we have been thinking about that. >> hiring somebody? >> and with this? >> no way.

absolutely not. >> federal plans for billions in across the board spending cuts reversed what had been slowly growing confidence among millions of small businesses. >> this, i think, just puts a big wall up between that. >> there are 130,000 federal workers in maryland alone. at facilities like the massive fda headquarters in rockville. now those workers could be looking at furloughs that would cost them as much as 20% of their pay. >> this is a meat act. >> stern does worry about the federal debt, but he says sequestration is the wrong way to deal with it. >> you can't just sort of slash across the board. no business does that. no one just says, all right, i'm going to cut everything 10%. you aren't going to cut your best salesman back by 10%. >> that's bad business. and bad government. in rockville, bruce leshan, wusa9.

you can imagine, a threat of government furloughs has federal workers in our area pretty upset. that's why wusa started a petition. should congress face penalties if they are furloughed due to sequestration. if you want to weigh in, here's what you can do. go to wusa9.com and you can find it on our home page. defends his title at the armory. coming up at 7:00, the remarkable story of a boxer who was once homeless who overcome much more than that to fight his way back into the ring. see you then. also ahead on wusa9, accused murder and olympic athlete, oscar pistorius, receives his ticket out of jail. details ahead. >> plus, mission to mars. we'll tell you about a millionaire who is coming to washington to unveil a plan to reach the red planet. stay with us,

a unique mission to mars is underway. millionaire, dennis, is leading a private effort to fly to the red planet in five years. at 36 million miles away, mars will be as close as it will ever get to earth in 2018. the last man to walk on the moon is a big fan of the mission. >> we are going to be on our way to mars by the turn of the century. i said that in 1973.

over 27 years that we have been proven wrong, i won't live to see humans on mars, i thought i would. >> he is a former nasa engineer and the first space tourist. the flight to mars should take at least 501 days. he will reveal more of his plan called mission for america, here in washington ne week. >> okay. still ahead on wusa9, lance armstrong confession of doping may have opened the door to even

uncle sam wants a piece of lance armstrong. the justice department joined a lawsuit against the disgraced bicycling champ. the suit claims that by using performance enhancing drugs, armstrong defrauded his long- time sponsor, the u.s. postal service. the agency paid armstrong millions of dollars to wear its logo. now the government wants the money back. armstrong's attorneys argue his drug use did not damage the postal service's reputation. an olympic athlete, you can run, but you better not hide. released pistorius on bail while he awaits trial on

charges that he murdered his girlfriend on valentine's day. pistorius and his girlfriend got into a fight and pistorius fired four shots at her through a bathroom door. pistorius maintains he mistook the model for an intruder. steenkamp's family issued a statement through a spokesman. >> whatever happens, it's not going to bring reeva back. we want justice and the truth. >> the judge ordered pistorius to turn in his passport and any guns he owns. to japan next and a story of a shrinking building. instead of bringing in a wrecking ball, engineers found a clever way to bring down a 40 story hotel in the heart of tokyo. crews go four by four taking out beams and supporting columns. the debris is removed and jacks lower what remains. not the cheapest way to take down a building, but it is cleaner and more efficient. and it doesn't disturb the

neighbors. crews should be done with the operation in six to seven months. another round of winter weather is moving through the d.c. metro area. this is the 12th time virginia's department of transportation has put salt trucks out on the road this afternoon. as meteorologist, erica grow found out, they would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to winter storms. >> in northern virginia, crews are on stand by getting ready for the possibility of an icy mix this evening. the trucks are loaded with salt and ready to go throughout northern virginia. vdot had a pretty busy season, despite the fact that there hasn't been much snow at all this winter. the weather has come in all forms, which can be a challenge. >> freezing rain can be even a bigger concern than snow, especially during rush hour. we want to be prepared for that, have our crews along the roads. >> with a mix of rain, sleet, and snow during the day today, there could be some slick roads tonight, unless they are

pretreated. that's why it's important for crews to be in position in case they are needed. about 600 trucks were deployed by vdot today and they are ready to roll. just as they have been all season long. >> we spent half of our budget, about $24 million of our $55 million budget. a lot of that is in preparation for these winter events. >> vdot learned important lessons after the historic 2009, 2010 snowfall season. namely it is better to be safe than sorry and prepare for the worst case in the forecast. they have a bigger budget now and more salt on hand. drivers in the area have no complaints about the road preparations. >> i think it's better to be on the safe side than, you know, to have people get in accidents. so, i think they are doing the right thing. >> but that doesn't mean they aren't ready for spring. >> i feel that spring should come as soon as possible. i don't like winter, honestly. >> in fairfax county, i'm

erica grow, wusa9. >> what a sentiment. >> yeah, well it's almost over, quite frankly. one way or another. whether the weather changes or not. looking at the weather. now we are seeing temperatures right around freezing north and west of town. there are some advisories north and west of town. remember, bridges and overpasses, they have to be taking precautions. it is our michael and son weather cam. high temperature today only 36. back down to 33 at national. we got a mix bag of precipitation being reported at dulles and down toward andrews. i'll show you radar in a second. winds light, south, southeast at 5 and the dew point is under the freezing mark, which is troubling. temperatures could drop tonight north and west of town. here's the big picture. here's our next storm. this is going to be the second part of that energy. we talked about that midwest storm splitting in two. one part went into the great lakes. we had a tail end of that today. this is going it be the second punch that rolls in tomorrow. the good news is it's going be

all rain. it will be a glancing blow. should be out of here by afternoon. in the meantime, we have a little batch of mixed precipitation. the mixed colors there. out toward connecticut and up 270, you're going to run into a little mixed bag of precipitation. that's why we made today a yellow alert. they are never fun, but you have mixed bags falling, it's worse. you can see, you go out inbetween the icc from 270 over to 95. that is almost all in a mixed bag precipitation. when you get to 95, on the icc. that's a really high ramp. be careful of that. those are the ramps that freeze when temperatures are above freezing. 32 in germantown. 31 in reston. 31 in fairfax. that's what happens in bridges and overpasses. 33 downtown. 33 in college park and 32 down toward waldorf. so, mainly wet tonight in the metro area, but the secondary

roads north and west take it easy, of course, bridges and overpasses. light rain and showers on saturday. and the good news is, they will end by evening. in fact, they may get out of here by late afternoon. tonight, light rain and drizzle. pockets of freezing drizzle. lows 30 to 36. winds easterly at 10. tomorrow morning, just wet. look for mostly cloudy skies, light rain and showers. temperatures in the 30s and 40s and by afternoon, coastal storm passes us, mostly cloudy and chilly. light rain and showers end. and when the winds kick northwesterly at 10 to 15, we know the storm has passed and dryer air is moving in. the next three days will be yellow alert with the rain and showers. pleasant on sunday. up near 50. it will be breezy on sunday. and pleasant on monday. high temperatures around 50. clouds come in late monday. next seven days, those clouds will lead to a chilly rain on tuesday. temperatures back into the 40s. wednesday looks pretty nice. we backed off the cold air a

little bit, or at least the arrival time. 50 on wednesday with sunshine. and then cold. thursday and friday back in the 40s with snow flurries and friday is march 1. it won't come in like a lamb or lion. i said this earlier, like the junk yard dog. it will just come in. >> all right, nationals fans are all ears. >> they got some good news today. this is big. i mean, it was a serious story, it's a good story. turning out good for the nationals. big day for the curly w's and talking good news here. one of their big-time pitchers gets great news. remember, his name was involved in some not-so-positive stuff. we will detail that here in just a second. college basketball has a big one coming up this weekend. georgetown and syracuse, a rivalry renewed after the break.

now, here's dave owens at the wusa9 cadillac sports desk. >> it is one piece of controversy that hovered over nats spring training. what was geo gonzalez's involvement, in any, in an antiaging clinic. gonzalez has been very quiet on this. he hasn't spoken about it on television. rather, he has only done brief interviews. today he got good news. a test given to him a few days after the allegations surfaced a month ago came back negative. now, this morning gonzalez

releasing this statement. he said blood and urine tests i was given two days after last month's report came back clean. i expected the negative results and have never taken any performance enhancing drugs. now, gonzalez didn't take any questions, however, his manager sat down with me last week and had this to say. >> you understand, though, that some people might not believe what he is saying? >> i understand that. but you know, i have been around a lot of ballplayers and a good judge of what they have been up to and whatnot. he didn't fall in that category for me at all. >> all right, let's hope davey is right. my producer and i were debating whether georgetown, syracuse was up there with duke, north carolina, in terms of rivalry. he says no, i say yes. patrick yewing, ronnie, allen iverson. all those memories are about to be put to bed for good. saturday will mark the second to last time the two will meet

on a regular basis. typical. both ranked high. 8-11. both in the hunt for a conference crown. last trip to the dome, coach, what do you think about that? >> it's meant a lot to me. it's no secret about that. you know, it's what this series has meant and to our conference. you know, there's a lot of storied moments of the big east conference, associated with georgetown, syracuse games. >> it has been a great rivalry. this story caught our eye. a couple from arizona naming their son, robert griffin vega. the pair placed a bet on outcome of the redskins, cowboys thanksgiving game. the winner got a chance to choose the name of the baby. and finally, this week's high school game of the week is from 12,000. big playoff matchup. we'll have them cool for yo