i'm aaron gilchrist. >> thank you, aaron. >>> today, a kentucky community is reacting to the deaths ofing fire destroyed their home. neighbors anfri tson and eight of her nine children who were killed yesterday. a fire broke out in the watson home thursday morning. the flames were so intense, firefighters couldn't even go inside. the tightknit community of mullenberg county says they are stunned by this loss. >> losing a child alone, especially several children, several family members, it just makes you want to hold yours tight and not let go. no words to express how anybody feels towards something like that. it's sad no matter which way you look at it. >> the father and an 11-year-old girl were the only ones who survive that fire. they were flown to a medical center in tennessee. fire investigators say the fire was started by an electric baseboard heater in a bedroom. >>> and today, the man accused in the colorado theater shooting will be in court for a hearing. a judge will consider allowing a crime scene reconstruction expert to testify for the prosecution against james holmes. lawy

news4's aaron gilchrist is following that. aaron? >> we're talking about a mainstay in the frederickburg and north maryland area, freelance star saying it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. it owns the freelance star newspaper and several radio stations in virginia. the paper reporting that this filing won't have an immediate impact on operations of the paper, the radio stations. it will, though, end the company's 130-year ownership by the same family, the roe family, in that area. the expectation is the new york company that holds the "freelance star's" loan could be a buyer for the entire company there in the fredericksburg area. that's the latest from the live desk. barbara, back to you. >> thank you, aaron. >>> new today from virginia's attorney general, the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, and he will no longer defend it. coming up, how other lawmakers in the state are reacting. >>> plus, take a look at this sheet of ice. it's a sidewalk. the busy area, commuters ran [ male announcer ] when your small business has

i'm aaron gilchrist. >> and i'm eun yang. with welcome to "news 4 today" for this friday, january 3, 2014. more than three dozen schools and organizations have already closed today because of the winter storm including loudoun, prince william, and stafford county schools in havevirginia. fauquier and frederick county schools are also closed today. so are warren county schools. >>> in maryland calvert county schools will open two hours late today and in west virginia, hardy county schools will open two hours late. >> students in spotsylvania county schools are still on winter break but all activities on school grounds are canceled today. we have a complete list of closings on the bottom of your screen and on nbcwashington.com. >>> now the federal government, you should know, is open today. employees have the option for unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework. emergency employees have to report to work unless their agencies tell them otherwise. >>> we are tracking all the angles this morning from the snow that's on the roads

aaron gilchrist at the live desk. aaron? >> getting the information from the first4 traffic team about a major tie-up on i-95. i think we have pictures we can show you. southbound i-95 near the dumb fries exit. apparently, a crash and car fire in this area. you can see a large police and fire ems response here. this has blocked all of the southbound lanes of interstate 95 there at the dumphries exit. you can imagine, there would be a lot of traffic headed south out of town, but now, the traffic is being stopped on interstate 95 because of a car fire. you can follow our first4 traffic team on twitter as well as nbc washington on twitter and get the latest information. barbara, back to you. >> thank you, aaron. >>> a new construction zone is about to pop up in prince george's county according to the "washington post." the ground-breaking for the county's first whole foods will start next week. the grocery store will sit in riverdale park right off route 1. the groundbreaking comes after years of complaints about a lack of groc

. >>> news 4's aaron gilchrist has more on the state of the union address. >> during tonight's state of the union speech, president obama will announce that he is signing an executive order to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour for neufeld contractors. t the president says trying to boost morale as well as increase productivity. it would likely impact kitchen staffs on military bases and construction workers on government sites. house speaker john boehner just ended a news conference and he responded to the president's pla plan. >> we know from increases in minimum wage rates in the past that hundreds of thousands of low-income americans have lost their jobs. so the very people that the president purports to help are the ones that will get hurt by this. >> this executive order is in line with the expectation that the president plans to go around congress to get things done before he leaves office. we'll learn more details about it tonight during the state of the union. i'm aaron gilchrist live at the news desk. >> thank you, aaron. >>> it could be a mess if you work

to aaron gilchrist at the live desk with closures that are just in. what's going on? >> as this snow starts to pick up in intensity and pile up a little bit, changes in government statuses. allstate offices in maryland and facilities just closed at 11:00 this morning, obviously except for those involved in emergency operations. arlington county offices will close at noon today. courts will close all of the facilities in arlington county will close at noon today as well. fairfax county, the schools there -- the schools are already crowsed. offices did open today. those offices now in fairfax county will close at noon today. places that are polling facilities for -- in fairfax county for today's special election in the 33rd senate district, those places will stay open until 7:00 pm unless the governor declares a state of emergency. barbara, that's the latest. back to you. >> aaron, thank you. a reminder, you can track the winter storm on the go. can you see live radar right on your smart phone. storm team 4 weather app. search nbc washington weather. >> learning about a

good morning, i'm aaron gilchrist. >> and i'm eun yang. this is a live look at capitol hill.s are closed, and emergency and telework employees must follow their agency's policies. >> a live look at storm team 4 radar for you, we'll show that to you in a minute as we are in the calm before the storm. just a few hours to go in our area that is set to see the heaviest snowfall in three years that could make for dangerous conditions all day long. we begin with meteorologist chuck bell to look at what we'll see and when. chuck? >>> good morning, aaron and eun. good tuesday morning, everyone. you set your alarm early and are ready to go, but now a lot of places will be closed for the day. so technically you can go back to bed, but why would you do that when you can watch our coverage for the next few hours. winter storm warnings go into effect at 7:00 and last until 11:00 this evening. here's storm team 4 radar over the last hour. nothing going on around town, but we have several more dry hours and snow-free hours ahead of us here, but the first leading edge of the snowflakes are m

news4's aaron gilchrist is here with the steps being taken to protect the super bowl and interestingumbers about america's biggest game. >> reporter: in just days, american also practically halt their lives for the nfl championship game, and that has security experts paying very close attention. a big concern this sunday, the number of people taking mass transit. about 30,000 people could be using buses and trains to get to metlife stadium. that has security experts looking at the recent attacks in russia for ideas on how to prevent an attack. the weather also a big concern here. the high on sunday expected to be about 38 degrees, but it could drop into the 20s by the time the game is over, and that would make this actually the coldest of the 48 super bowl games played so far. of course, half the fun on this coming sunday is going to be happening in your house very likely. take a look at some of the numbers here. more than 49 million cases of beer will be sold on sunday. by the time the game rolls around, 125 million pounds of america's favorite game-day food, chicken wings, will be

our celebrity panel of judges morning anchors, eun yang, aaron gilchrist and tisch thompson and used olympic style voting. the five finalist, sea urchin hats, baby pat hat. the turkey hat, the hat for two and the well-dressed hat. and now the winners of this january 2014 pat collins' snow stick challenge, kevin and carolyn hammond! the binner, the hat for two. it was knitted by carolyn's mom. it started as one thing and then, well, it turned into something else. >> it started as a scarf? >> starred as a man's scarf. >> reporter: then it took on a life of its own? >> it did. >> now hat for two? >> yes. carolyn is very creative. >> i noticed it was long and i said to my husband, come over here and put this on. we put it on and i couldn't go very far and it became a really snugly hat. >> reporter: so why did the judges like the hat for two? >> we gave high marks for creativity because it's the only hat we saw that fit two heads. it keeps the couple together. it's homemade and the pictures are cute. >> reporter: what do you like best about it? >> keeps me close. >> reporter: to him? >> y