. >> paul wiedefeld, general manager of metro. with me is rob, running the rail operation, bob who runs the bus operation and chief. i saw many of you at the mayor's press conference. i said this morning at a briefing the decisions that we are making are two-fold. on two factors. one is the safety of the customers and the employees. the second is trying to get service back as quickly as we can get it back. with that, closely watching the forecast and receive update regularly from the national weather service. and coordinating with all jurisdictions, partners and the personnel management on behalf of the federal government. as you know the blizzard warning has been issued this afternoon. very serious ise that we are all facing in the region. we expect the impact to last through the weekend and next week. beginning tomorrow at 4:00 p.m., we will activate our emergency operations center. everyone from all of you are key departments will be there to deal with any issues that come up. regarding changes in metro rail, we expect the ride

metro gm paul wiedefeld took the helm november 19.ember 19.he express newspaper will publish his open lettern to metro riders detailing somese progress since carol glover's ge death. he talks about having improved coordination with emergencyonh responders, a new firers, a newe department liaison stationed sti in metro's rail emergencymergen operation center and increasedct training for firefighter whoseho work in the tums, he talks about inspections and repairs rp to the tunnel ventilationventt system, new training for fanor n operations and also a newew radio system that's about tos bt come on line he says forays fo better public safety and cell ac phone communications.nicaon now, interesting, over the weekend riders also reported rte that there was a heavy smoke s in the tunnel at the federaled center station, said they hadthd to evacuate. evacu so far we have not seen any response from metro as to whatta exactly happened there.he wiedefeld did say also that his first order of businessordes when he hires his firsthifi executive to join the t

paul wiedefeld points to better coordination, better radio system, and better ventilation in the tunnels. open the nbc washington app to read the entire letter. >> the time right now, 6:04. mexico's government is working to extradite drug lord joaquin el cha powe jr. to the u.s. he's already escaped from mexico's prison twice. mexico's government wants to question actor sean penn who secretly interviewed guzman for "rolling stone" magazine. the extradition process could take months because of the appeals. >>> montgomery county public schools could have a new superintendent as early as march. joshua starr stepped down last february. they're happy with the range of applicants. montgomery county officials did not comment on possible candidates or top contenders for the job. >>> it's a locker clean-out day for the redskins now that their playoff hopes are over. the end of the game was hard to watch. the team couldn't match up against the packers. >>> it was kirk cousins first career playoff start and the team struggled to get things moving in the second half. good first start though. many of

metro general manager paul wiedefeld said tries to keeped up grown stations open would put a strain on their resources squoo there are some changes to your commute as well. the commuter trains, vre and m.a.r. krmt is on an "s" schedule today. both are expecting a rush in the middle of the day and they're telling passengers trains will be very crowded. >>> now, with the snow not expected until the afternoon, the march for life is going on this morning. demonstrators will hold a pro-life rally and concert starting at less than an hour. the arch bush op of washington, cardinal donald wuerl will celebrate mass. >>> now, you may need to catch a cab to get around this storm, but you can zpoelkt pay a lot more here in the district. the storm emergency fare goes into effect at 9:30 this morning. that means you'll have to add an extra $15. the metering charge will stay in place for 12 hours unless the snow emergency stays in place. >> i bet you can expect a surge in prices for uber. without hitting yet, this storm is costing mill yuns. in d.c. it costs $1 million per shift for snow cleanup. the

a year after the tragic snow incident at the l'enfant station, paul wiedefeld wrote a letter and outlines steps to keep the customer and employee safety. he is working to improve cell service for riders but it would need to be upgraded through 100 miles track. it won't happen overnight. leon: tonight a local mall is trying to explain what a shopper calls a case of defeat. kevin lewis? kevin: more than 8 million people shop at the montgomery mall each year and they generate a lot of trash. there is a recycling program but it has room for improve. >> this is the montgomery mall in bethesda. you will see dozen of the silver garbage cans. one side spot for recycling. the other a spot for trash. >> imagine shopper kathleen surprised when she noted the glass bottles to recycle ended up in the same plastic bag as the food court trash. >> i felt like it was deceitful. alison: we called a supervisor who told us the cleaning crew couldn't keep up with the volume of the garbage so they toss everything. the management said they didn't know about the policy. they said we have rules to follow the goodl

paul wiedefeld. he talked about metrobus and metrorail. big progress. 79 of 91 stations are reopened. full service restored to the green line. partial service to all other lines. by tomorrow morning they expect full service on the metrorail except for the five distant branches of the silver line. today they made progress toward healing the snow-crippled metro system. >> because of the hard work from a lot of people, as of 3:00 today we had limited service across the system on the blue and yellow, green line. stephen: metro manager had news for the snowbound people who plan to return to work tomorrow. >> the system will open at 5:00 a.m. and serve all the lines except for silver line. stefs the

paul wiedefeld said today he is mad and embarrassed. transportation reporter adam tuss has more on his reaction and plus new details on a plan to slash metro fares. adam? >> reporter: that's right, doreen. the news about the fraudulent smartrip scheme not sitting well with the new gm, and he told us it reflects poorly on the entire transit agency. >> i'm mad that they did it and i'm embarrassed for the agency. >> reporter: mad and embarrassed pretty much sums it up and general manager paul wiedefeld, to let the riders leave the system for free and load up the remaining value of the paper fare cards on a smartrip card and resell it. he said these nine employees don't reflect the overall agency. >> a huge organization where people are doing, you know, a very good job and are honest as the day is long, and that's, you you know, i wish that everyone did it 100%. >> also at a board meeting today, slashing the fare for riders, was quickly voted down. metro riders getting into a back and forth about the best way to lure customers back to the s

paul wiedefeld assuring customers that knaub of steps are being made to improve safety here. includes more coordination with emergency responders when it comes to public safety communication. as you take a look at some of the video here of the metro station, there's been inspections and repairs to the tunnel's ventilation and fan operations systems. me toe has stepped up training that's -- metro has stepped up training that's provided for metro workers and first responders, including new quarterly drillsened-of- there's also new design of the radio system. some of these changes were identified days after the tragedy. also after a number of inspections took place her of these ideas were made. reporting live this morning from l'enfant plaza, mikea turner, wusa9. >> thanks, mikea. >>> developing this morning, italy is fearing an amanda knox style saga after an american was found dead there. >> i can't imagine a person who would hurt her. she is a gentle, kind, a beautiful friend, a lovely girl. and it's been awful shock. >> friends are reacting to the murder of an american woman

we'll take you to metro's paul wiedefeld who is about to speak to the public. >> they run the bus operation and chief pavlik. i saw many of you this morning at the mayor's press conference, and as i said this morning at our briefing, the decisions that we're making are twofold and based on two factors and one is the safety of our customers and our employees and the second is trying to get the service back as quickly as we can get it back. so with that, we've been closely watching the forecast and receiving updates regularly from the national weather service and we've coordinated with the jurisdictions, partners as well as out for personal management. as you know, the blizzard warning has been issued this afternoon and a very serious issue that we're all facing in the region and we expect the impacts to last through the weekend and into early next week. >> beginning tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. we will activate the emergency center and all of the marquee departments will be there to with any issues that may come up. regarding metro rail regarding the closings and early dismissals and you'll see rus

we're going to check in with metro's general manager paul wiedefeld. >> paul, do you perceive opening that system again? >> good morning, angie and adam. how are you? we're going to open it as soon as it's safe. first of all i want to thank our employees. they're working hard in several circumstances and they're professional and that's faef tock seechlt as you all know, it's been a massive storm. this is not going be massive hours to get things whack to normal. it's going to be days. adam, with you coming out yesterday, you saw the challenges we had with constantly trying to keep the third rail up and running. the switch is a big issue. i'm very concerned with the dropping temperatures in the single digits, low teens. and what we've also seen with the wind. i do emt know if you've seen twitter pictures at tysons corner which basically looks like an outdoor station given the volume of snow down there. >> yeah. pal, you know, obviously being out there on that anti-icing equipment yesterday, you said you were clearing the track and you would get them clear and you would come back for ano

as you know paul wiedefeld was named in december. >>> 4:31, your time right now. a check on "weather & traffic on the 1s" beginning with four things to know about the forecast. chuck? >> hey, good morning, aaron. good morning, everyone. thursday's hurst. friday can't be that much farther away and then the weekend. four things you need to know about the weather. wind, no, chill, yes, as opposed to windchills that were in the single numbers yesterday. a much milder day coming your way. a 10 to 15-degree improvement over yesterday. rain likely but may not interfere with too much of your weekend plans. we'll talk about that a little owner and new to the forecast, a chance for snowflakes on your sunday. on your way out the door for that resolution run or walk this morning, plan on temperatures in the 20s for the next couple of hours. going to be a very nice day to be outside today. we'll get more to the timing of all those rain and snow chances coming up. here's kim mccormick. >> nice and quiet ride for you all over maryland. if you're coming from southern maryland to

metro general manager paul wiedefeld said trying to keep underground stations open would actually put a strain on resources. >> high winds and power loss and we would not want to have a loss in the understood ground tunnels. we're using all resources and other medical emergency resources if power is lost. >> wiedefeld said sheltering the railcars will help get them up and running quicker when metro service resumes. >>> we're already seeing the storm have a major impact on travel flights. united airlines says no flights will be leaving the baltimore/d.c. area after noon. delta, jetblue, american, and southwest will also be canceling flights today. be sure to check your schedule. >>> it's now 4:356789 amtrak might be your only way out of the area now. as of now a few are still scheduled to run. amtrak says to keep a close eye on the website if you have tickets for saturday and sunday because there could be some changes. the auto train that runs between florida and virginia has already been canceled. >>> good morning, everyone. i'm erika gonzalez from the live desk. the same system that'

so, metro gm paul wiedefeld took the helm november 19th.em19 he says he's trying to restoreeo trust financialntegrity andtea safety to the system.e s in the open letter to riders he he's detailing some of theil progress over the last year. this mostly deals though with smoke and incident incident coordination. he said there's been improved coordination with emergency responders and new firers and nr department liaison stationed sti in the metro rail emergency operations center, alsonsente increased training foring firefighters who may have to go down into the tunnel tunnelsn they say they've inspector, inst new training for fan operations and designing a new radio system for better publicui safety and cell phonel communications but he did notdit address what is at the hearthe a of the smoke incidents which is those arcing insulators andaa though all of the ntsb issues is that need to be addressed butssb he did say that his firstis order will be to hire a newhi a chief safety officer. oicer live at l'enfant plaza, i'mlaza melanie alnwick, fox5 local news. >> mel thanks very much.el thane >>> t

sot - paul wiedefeld / general manager & "we cannot risk putting our customers out there" in north carolina - the panthers' pep rally cancelled - ahead of sunday's n-f-c championship game. sot - adam rhew / charlotte center city partners: "it just wasn't a good idea to have this event" nats - beeps from fire truck ((locator: green bay, wi)) major preparations truck ((locator: green bay, wi)) major preparations well underway - coast guard ships bulldozed frozen lakes... nats - horn honking @ 0:33 ((locator: belmar, nj)) a drone captured the emergency dunes barricading this new jersey coast... nats - salt trucks desperate... as supplies run low on supermarket shelves -- many of them bare... nats - store and food... in d-c, this supermarket reined in allowing 10 shoppers ten..." va)) amount of snow purchase... sot - derek staton / manager, taylor's do it moving thing has been last few" sam schrier with a look at your forecast. sam yesterday was the week with a balmy high we are going to be a bit cooler than that from a weak cold front that passed through the state overnight. very light snow wi

new gm paul wiedefeld welcomes the scrutiny. riders just want things to work. >> i do feel like we can be safer. >> i meet with every class as they come in the door. and the first message i give them is that is what their job is. it's the safety for each other and for our customers. >> wiedefeld also called the safety inspections the new norm. said it's important for changing the culture at metro. >>> we're learning new information tonight about a maryland man charged with joining the terrorist group al shabab. court documents reveal 31-year-old malik jones is from baltimore. he traveled up to jfk airport in new york and took off for somalia in 2011. court documents say he learned how to fight and did battle against kenyan government soldiers. kenyan authorities arrested jones last month. they say he was trying to get a boat to yemen. jones is now back in the u.s. and facing terrorism charges in new york. >>> president obama's final state of the union address. it is less than 24 hours away. and tomorrow a northern virginia army

paul wiedefeld said he spent hes the month of december talking with riders and hearing theirrie frustrationsnceience with everything to train and a rail problems, delays ands public safety concerns.once >> the bottom line is you knowsu i think as an agency we'vey 'v lost credibility to providedibiy the high quality service thatert we are used to in the past. >> wiedefeld went on to sayld w that based on the agency's agenc recent performance he doesn'teon think it's fair to raise fares or cut service right now.ervice he says it will take some time e before the agency can get back c on the right track. t >> employers are discoveringyera that helping their employees ele pay off their student loanshe helps them attract new employees and keep them happy.ap more companies are starting to help employees pay off their pat student debt by giving themdebtb extra money for loan payments or even paying the lenders direct. >> technology is makinghnolog another impressive leap.ssive le right now scientists are are working to create a kindle a kin style is a tablet for thelet fo mind. scientists at the uni

paul wiedefeld was named g.n. in november. >>> now to a story you first saw.nine metro employees have been fired and arrested for stealing from the transit agency. metro officials say seven and two ores allow them tom exit forthree. they would transfer the balance and then resell the cards at a discount price. >> in one case there was $100 and being resold for $60. >> metro would not put a cost on it. they say i it shouldn't happen again. >>> today we'll learn how quick the water is in d.c. that announcement set for this afternoon. it looks at drinking water, waeft water, roads, parks, schoolnd and transit. >> tou today in 2016 they'll fight for a top spot. seven candidates will be part of the main debate. it starts at 9:00. fox business network says questions will focus on domestic and economic and policy issues. >>> questions over senator cruz's fund-raising may come up tonight. he failed to disclose $1 million in loans he used during his 2012 senate campaign. some of the borrowed money came from goldman sachs. cruz's wife is an employee there. >>> hillary c

paul wiedefeld said progress is being made but he warns the infrastructure upgrade would take months or years to complete. tomorrow on the one-year anniversary, passengers are planning to announce lawsuit against metro. michelle: a former minister and his wife are dead and the 4-year-old child without parents after a m.d.-suicide -- murder-suicide. stephen tschida has more. stephen: they cofounded a church a couple of blocks away. he is a former mince center. the parents of a grown daughter and a little girl. apparently dead in a murder-suicide. sheriff deputies responded to a call from a neighborhood late last night in this condo development in lanesdown. they found a man and woman dead. the 5-year-old daughter in the home but unharmed. >> we saw the van pull up. stephen: investigators say the little girl was home when the incident began. they say andre is -- andre howell is believed to have fatally shot his wife naomi and turned the gun on himself. they were high school sweethearts but neighbors say they knew there were problems. >> they had arguments. everybody has arguments but t

. >> paul wiedefeld letter to the customers outline the changes to improve the safety since smoke filledhe tunnel outside the l'enfant station. a number of problems highlighted are being addressed. repairs have been done to the ventilation system. the firefighter liaison has been assigned to the rail operations control center or rock to coordinate emergency response. >> any engagement with the public is important. >> they got a chance to read the letter this morning and said one of the key things that stuck out had to do with this. to be able to make a cell phone call on the train in the tunnel. >> metro is working to improve the first responders radio communication and the cell service for riders but they need to upgrade cables to 100 miles of track won't happen overnight. >> it will take years and years and years. they will have to take minutes breaks to run the cables and so forth. a lot of people would like to see that through. brianne: wiedefeld started the job with a mission to rededicate metro to safety and part of that the agency is now working to hire a new safety officer. in so

paul wiedefeld says this is the right way to do things to go more with the customer experience. >> real information about how their world work. we are making sure we look at it from the customer eyes and not what we do. coming up tonight at 6:00, why wouldn't this work on the buss? we have more tonight. leon: always a catch. prince george's county police arrested a man in homicide. marvin vazquez-juarez is charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend. alison: the driver suspected of causing a fatal accident in largo is now in police custody. juan sanchez was driving without a license. the crash killed angela jefferson. springdale. leon: a hundred people are out of their homes following a fire at the condo in adelphi. they think the fire started accidently. alison: three winners will split the record powerball jackpot. the winning tickets sold in chino hills, california, melbourne beach, florida, and munford, tennessee. none of the winners have step forward to claim the prizes. leon: police in italy arrested a man in the death of american artist ashley olson who was found murdered last weeke

paul wiedefeld saying he was mad and embarrassed and other employees at the transit system also felt that way. take a listen to what he had to say today. >> i'm mad and embarrassed, you know? i mean, that's, you know, it reflects poorly on the agency. so i'm mad that they did it and i'm embarrassed for the agency. >> reporter: meanwhile, we've learned that all of the employees were fired because of that incident and some of them still have court dates that they have to go to, but this was not a good incident for the transit agency and they were making that known today. >> there was information about the green line train that separated while in motion last week. what have you learned about that? >> so what we heard was that there was not a specific problem with the coupler. that's the piece of equient that holds the rail cars together. if you look in between metro rail cars you can see it's an orange piece of equipment right there. the general manager telling us nothing was wrong with that, but he mentioned something interesting. there was a lot of moisture around this train where thi

paul wiedefeld says he welcomes the increased oversight. >> that is the new norm and that's probablyther big change that is starting to filter through the whole culture. >> reporter: listen to what he's saying to every batch of new metro employees about safety. >> i meet with every class as they come in the door and the first message i give them is that is what their job is and it's the safety for each other and the safety of the customers and it really does start there. >> reporter: metro has a long road ahead and many like bob levy say they simply want it to work and they want to be safe. >> i mean, it's a huge system, and unfortunately, accidents occur in every huge system. you always want to try and control those risks. >> reporter: controlling the risk, metro focusing on just that. at the la font plaza station, adam tuss, news 4. >> new guidelines for women when it comes to breast cancer screening. we'll break down the latest recommendations. >>> we'll report on the expressions of condolence coming in from around the world after the loss of david bowie. >> and i'm tracking the n

metro gm paul wiedefeld and jerry connolly will be riding the orange line this morning.essman connolly thought it was a good way for the gm to see some of the challenges virginia riders experience. you can share your thoughts before they take their metro ride. they'll start at the vienna metro station at 8:00 this morning. >>> this is a storm team 4 weather alert. >> good morning, everybody. we start to get ready for snow, one of my twitter followers september me this snow checklist, milk, breads, eggs, all check. i couldn't agree more. i might have road salt on my checklist as well. we'll be getting a whole lot more information on how much snow we're going to be getting as we get closer. but it looks like it could be a name worthy snowstorm coming our way friday and saturday. right now, temperatures in the bone chilling teens across the area. windchills are at or below zero in many neighborhoods and hourly temperatures, barely climbing into the mid-20s, even with full sunshine. windchills below zero in montgomery, loudoun counties, northbound, out to the shenandoah vall

paul wiedefeld. he talked about metrobus and metrorail. big progress. 79 of 91 stations are reopened. full service restored to the green line. partial service to all other lines. by tomorrow morning they expect full service on the metrorail except for the five distant branches of the silver line. today they made progress toward healing the snow-crippled metro system. >> because of the hard work from a lot of people, as of 3:00 today we had limited service across the system on the blue and yellow, green line. stephen: metro manager had news for the snowbound people who plan to return to work tomorrow. >> the system will open at 5:00 a.m. and serve all the lines except for silver line. stefs the limited reopen of metro brought cheers. >> we are overjoyed. stephen: it meant freedom for some stranded tourists. >> we have been here for two and a half days. stephen: since metro is free there is no way to gauge ridership but those who did board a bus or train had the same sentiment. >> thankfully we had it running again after the weekend. i had t

paul wiedefeld was named g.m. in november jo today we'll learn how clean the drinking water is in d.c. the american society of civil engineers will release its 2014 report card on its infrastructure. the group looks at things like drinking water, waste water, roads, parks, schools, and transit. >>> parents are relieved after a former virginia day care worker was found guilty. jordan encouraged toddlers to fight and bite each other. jordan denied hurting any children. therapists testified at least five children in jordan's care likely suffered trauma from the abuse. she will be sentenced in may and could spend up to 40 years in prison. >>> expect to see extra police at three prince william county high schools. you may be aware there have been five threats against students. police say none of them is credible. officers posted a warning on facebook saying whoever posted the threats could face felony charges if they're caught. >>> the woman accused of stealing jewelry from half a dozen stores from down south is due to

paul wiedefeld said there's better coordination, better radio system and better ventilation in the tunnels. wiedefeld said he's recruiting a new chief safety officer as well open the nbc washington app to read the entire letter. search metro. >>> in the days ahead mayor muriel bowser will release her accountability report. she'll update us on how she's kept the promises made during her transition to office in 2014. the announcement will be made at gallaudet university in northeast. >> we're proud of them. we wish they could have gone further. >> don't we all. it's a disappointing day for the redskins nation now that the team's playoff day as are over. they'll be back, but this time to clean out their lockers. they proved to be too much of a challenge. >> no moral victories. i don't walk off this field smiling saying, you know, i tell you what. we won the division. all that's in the past. all we wanted to do was get a win at home and we didn't do it. >> well, now one of the biggest questions out there heading into the offer season is whether the team will re-sign kirk cousins next season wh

paul wiedefeld let you know there's better coordination between emergency responders and a new radio system to improve communication in the tunnel and repairs have been made to the ve ventilation to air it out faster. >> he started out with the mission of rededicating metro to safety and restoring trust ask pride in our metro system. you can read the entire letter on the nbc washington app, just search metro letter. >>> as someone who drives through 95 wooe been waiting for this next one a long time. you can access the ramp, and transportation reporter adam tuss is live now along the new hov ramp. tell us why this ramp is so significant and so important to commuters. >> anything that gets done around here that could potentially ease congestion and traffic is a good thing, right, pat? the good thing is this finally provides a connection to seminary road from 295. chris was talking about it, but take a look at this ramp and how big it is. it's not your typical on and offramp, it is massive and stretches all of the way from 395 now connecting directly to bustling communities like alexan

today gm paul wiedefeld talking about the smartrip story as well as other troubling issues. >> i'm mad embarrassed, you know? i mean, that's -- you know, again, it reflects poorly on the agency. so i'm mad that they did it and i'm embarrassed for the agency. >> reporter: mad and embarrassed. nine metro employees arrested in a scheme to take paper fare cards from riders, let those riders leave the system for free and load up the remaining value of those paper fare cards on a mar trip card and resell it. >> i wish the road was perfect and it's not. i wish organizations were perfect and they're not. >> reporter: he says the vast majority of metro employees are doing the right thing. a green line train actually separated while it was in a tunnel outside the navy yard station. it didn't have a definitive cause and says issues are being ruled out and he said nothing was wrong with the coupler that holds the trains together. >> it was not broken or anything of that sort and the cars were aligned incorrectly. >> he did say there was extra moisture around the train and that's being studied righ

paul wiedefeld told us it's been a battle to clear the tracks as the snow kept on coming. >> as we clearedt out it came back out. >> they'll check the tracks again today and make a decision on when it will reopen. we might hear about that sometime this afternoon. we'll keep an ear out. >>> the snow has fallen and now you probably want to know when a plow will clear your street. this is what you want to watch closely today. pe put a link to all of these. d.c. shows where it snowed and what's been plowed, what's been salted. vdot showed the streets they plowed too. maryland's didn't of transportation lists all the closures and travel speeds. >> let's head to german town and check in with molette green. molette, how are the streets looking? it seems like one of the places the snow kept coming and coming and coming. >> oh, yeah. two feet of snow or more. plow drivers are still pushing it. there are some trucks gassing up. on top of the white trucks, a bunch of salt. they're going to be using it to clear more of the streets and the main roads. a couple of restaurants tell me they're going to tr

:00 tomorrow might because the blizzard is coming and let's hear from metro's general manager paul wiedefeld. >> with the blizzard with high winds there is a concern of power loss and we cannot risk putting our customers out there and leaving them stranded in the conditions that we're all expecting. we're keeping them clean and before we start service -- excuse me, we will go through with the inspection to the entire system. >> and the last thing metro wants is for anybody to get stranded in the system, obviously, everybody needs to be safe during the storm and if what we think is going to happen is going to happen this is a good move by metro. coincidentally, guys, the last time metro shut down all of its service was in 2012 and that was during super storm sandy. back to you. >> thanks, adam. >> social media was on fire today from a bunch of people who tried to drive home last night and who claim that what they had to deal with was absolutely the worst commute they have ever experience individual their lives. >> all of that and more prompted an apology today from the mayor of d.c. tom sherw

paul wiedefeld will attend a meeting. he'll talk about his observations of metra since taking the role. cog is an independent nonprofit organization that helps tackle the issues. >>> you can vote on a plan to add tolls to i-66. virginia delegate bob marshall proposed a measure to acquire two measures on the ballot. one says should there be tolls inside the beltway and the other asks whether there should be tolls outside the beltway. the questions will be only advisory. meaning they won't force the state government to decide whether or not to build those lanes. >>> 6:26 now. there will soon be more police services for people in the dale city lake ridge area of prince william county. construction has started on the central district station along davis foreign road near the prince william parkway. it will be the third police station in the county which is adding 25 additional officers each year. that new station expected to be completed in august of next year. >>> this sunday some of you will be doing your best to be the bes

a short time ago, metro's general manager paul wiedefeld that starting at 11:00 tomorrow night the rail system will shut down saturday and sunday and he said this was being done out of an abundance of caution for riders and take a listen at he was telling everyone. >> there was a concern for power loss in the underground tunnels where both we're using our resources and other emergency medical resources into the tunnel. the power is lost and that's a real possibility. it provides us the opportunity to basically shelter the equipment so that we can get up and running much quicker. >> reporter: yeah. so that lets you know more about their thinking. clearly, they want to protect the rail cars and store them inside the tunnels. a lot of people were saying why can't they just run the below-ground service and not run the above-ground service. power was also a concern and the last thing you want is to be stuck on a metro train inside the tunnel. doug was talking about the storm team 4 by 4 and we certainly are going to be out all weekend long checking on weather conditions and i expect many, ma

paul wiedefeld penned a letter outlining the safety steps and repairs made over the last year and a maryland man is facing charges for supporting an al qaeda offshoot responsible for a series of deadly attacks in east africa. malik jones traveled to somalia in 2011 to fight on behalf of the al-shabaab militant group. that's the latest from the live desk. back to you. >>> happening today an oxon hill man will be sentenced for his role in a chantilly shootout. his name jesse lee roberts. he was injured during an attempted robbery of an armored car at the capital one bank at eastern marketplace. roberts was shots when he and a second suspect exchanged gunfire with the armored car driver. roberts is now facing up to five years when he is sentenced this afternoon. >>> still ahead, a d.c. elementary schoolteacher is accused of sexually abusing a child. he'll go before a judge. >> plus, if you have at&t starting today you can sign up for unlimited data but there is a catch. we'll tell you what it is. allyson? >> it is cold out here but the winds are still very light. my app tells me here in northwe

syste paul wiedefeld said he spente the month of december talking with riders and hearing their frustrationsnce impatienc with everything fromth malfunctioning elevators and escalators to train and railnd r problems, delays and public publi safety concerns. >> bottom line is you know iu kw think as an agency we've loste los credibility to provide theprovi t high quality service that we are used to in the past.as >> wiedefeld went on to say to s that based on the agency's agency' recent performance he doesn't doesn think it's fair to raise faresaise or cut services right now.ght he says it will take some timeome t before the agency can get back on the right track.ra. >> as we follow reports out of o indonesia this morning of of suicide bombings the u.s.he u still very much at war againstin the islamic state.ta the new plan to defeat the militants coming up at 5:30. 5:21 is our time right now. stay with us. >> we're talking powerball of course. urse three tickets matched all the numbers for that $1.5 billion billi jackpot. ck winning numbers in lastinast night's drawing were four eight, 19 27

metro gm paul wiedefeld took the helm november 19 he saysbesa he's trying to restorees confidence in system. today in the letter to riders t he detailed some of the of th progress metro's made since sin carol glover's death including improved coordination withrd emergency responders, a newers,a fire department liaison lis stationed in metro's railetro'sl emergency operations center, cte increased training forraining f firefighter who's have to go g down to the tunnels and worknd the rails. talking about metroing abme inspections and repairs to tunnel ventilation systems, new training for fantraini for operations and also designingo n a new radio system for betterte public safety and cell phone communications.communicatio now interesting over thentesti weekend metro riders alsoo reported an incident of smoke oo on the platform and in thenhe tunnels at the federal center station saying they did have thh to evacuate. ecu so far metro has not responded to that incident so we don'te dt know exactly what happened.appe also, should let you know that a in the letter metro gm met wiedefeld sa

it is going to impact a lot ofao people.op the general manager paul pau wiedefeld he spoke about whenwill resume not making k any guarantees of coursegu they're hoping for monday butar they're going to have to playngf it by ear. b e >> well, it's going to hurt a tr lot of people as far as work.e f you know, my job saying as sin long as we're opened, you need n to be here. so, i travel through bund train. if i can't get to work, ian geto can't get to work, you know.ou k >> we are going to monitor obviously -- we're stillsly -- e several hours away from that, ft several days away from that sohs we'll just monitor that what tha the conditions are and we'lle' react as that plays out. >> reporter: just think thatt ta there are more than 130 miles of above ground track.d tra there are more than 50 abovemoro ground stations sove all ofll those areas are going to have to to be cleared of snow before service can resume. one benefit of shutting downof w service on saturday and sunday y is that the trains will beains b stored in the tunnels underneath ground so that they t will be protected from

o'clock with thee last runs beginning ats begig 1 o'clock.1 o' again, the whole goal here,e, paul wiedefeldaid is thatd, i he doesn't want to get anybodyet any out to a destination and noton and be able to get them back homek h safely and that includes all the metro employees as well. of course all essentialal personnel will be workingon through thene duration of the storm.or interesting, they are going tog, thee use the underground tunnels tunls they're going to park hundreds h of rail cars inside those tunnels for -- tomorrow foromorro the duration of the storm.f thetorm that way they're not going to have to dig them out fromg them 2 feet of snow so they'rehe hoping that that strategy mayt str help metro get back up and running as soon as possiblesi but it is going to be a herculean task. t hundreds of miles of tracksds o that will have to be cleared ced with their track plows, alsows, ao all of the platforms all of all o the lots all the stations,tati all of that has to be cleared to bele before metro can open safely.af they are really hoping that tt sunday can be a cleanup day cleanup b