s hiv pron, but pepco is help -- problem, plus pepco is helping you landscape your yard. umeh is back with your fox 5 top five. >> alarming news about the rise in hiv rates among local women. no. 5, black women in d.c. and baltimore are becoming infected with hiv at the same rate as some african countries. a recent study found the rate of infection in several east coast cities including d.c. is 24 in 10,000 compared to 28 in 10,000 in the congo. no. 4, hybrid cars are safer than cars with regular gas engines, put hybrid electric vehicles can be hazardous -- but hybrid electric vehicles can be harvardous to pedestrians because they're so quiet at slow speeds a pedestrian can't hear them. a new louriers them to include some type of -- law requires them to include some type of noise technology. the national price for a gallon of unleaded is 3.75, down about a penny from monday. locally the average price for a gallon is 3.89 in d.c., 3.70 in maryland and in virginia 3.64. no. 2, need some trees for your yard? pepco is giving away 3,000 free trees to customers in maryland and

. >> pepco promised to trim trees to avoid further outages. now learning why the company has stopped doing that. >>> northbound on 95 lining up from the prince william parkway to get past the occoquan, more heavy traffic as you make your way through newington. you're watching 9news now. our next check of time saver traffic coming up at 6:30. happy friday. we'll be right back. >>> good morning. time 6:29 on your friday morning. it's going to be a sunny start to the day, kind of chilly. definitely you want your coats, maybe even a scarf if you get cold easily like i do. for the rest of today, we're looking at mostly sunny conditions. for the afternoon, though, some increasing cloudiness. temperatures topping out low to mid-60s for this afternoon. currently it's 44 degrees ready partly cloudy conditions. if you're heading out for dinner tonight, it's going to be milder compared to last night. i think it's going to be a pretty nice evening. maybe you can fire up the barbecues if you'd like. the weekend is looking milder. i've got your complete for

the block is closed while pepco crews work to close it. pepco reported several hundred customers without power in d.c. alone. they're working to restore power to as many areas as possible as quickly as possible. in northwest, i'm tracee wilkins, news4. >>> and this morning, people across virginia took part in an emergency tornado drill. fairfax county kicked off its own three-day drill yesterday. state officials say 51 tornadoes hit virginia last year. that's the second highest number on record since 2004. when 87 twisters were confirmed. last april, tornadoes were blamed for killing ten people and hurting more than 100 across the state of virginia. >>> well we want to check on traffic now. let's see what daniella is seeing out there as she keeps an eye on things around the region. daniella? >> good morning, barbara. well first let's start with metro. if you're taking the orange or the green line, you can expect delays as metro has scheduled track work today. so you are going to see delays on both lines in both directions. over to the road

the outage happened because of what pepco calls a feeder problem. two overheadlines touched and created power surges that knocked the 911 service out of operation. police and fire and ems departments got the word out through social media. and gave alternative numbers in case of emergency. when the system was back up, city officials say they started working to find out who had tried to get through. >> we are tracking all the calls that came in. in fact, we are getting the numbers so that we can call the citizens who called during that time period to make sure that they got the services they need and also to apologize for the service on down. >> if it had looked like the outage would have been extended, the city would have contacted the media and used other resources to get alternate emergency numbers out to the public. >> another big story tonight. new developments in the case of the costa concordia. the italian cruise ship that sank off the tuscan coast in january a. pretrial hearing is now getting underway. fox's greg burke is in rome with the stor

pepco crews responded, put the lines back up. police say nobody got hurt. >>> this morning a resident of maryland nurse home is in the hospital seriously injured in a fire. the fire happened at the senior living center in glen burney. the firefighters say the victim is in his 50s or 60s and has life-threatening burns. the cause of the fire is under investigation. four firefighters responding to the fire are also in the hospital. they were in a crash on their way there, and they are expected to be okay. >>> right now we're working to learn more about a deadly shooting in montgomery county. we're told three men were inside a house on superior street in aspen hill. one person was shot and killed. one roommate stayed there. a second took off. detectives found him, took both men for questioning. so far, no charges. >>> 6:03. a toned down version of the ultrasound bill is now law. governor bill mcdonnell signed the bill. abortion providers across the state must now comply by this july. >>> no pig races and funnel cakes. virginia state

as we mentioned, pepco's bill gross. he's looking at a new normal right now. >> yes, he is. >> as a matter of fact. he recommends investors take some risk but be smart when do you that. >> new normal includes rock bottom interest rates. so joining us right now on the cnbc exclusive to explain how is bill gross, found der and chief financial office of pepco. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, maria and bill. >> take us through the five key strategies for investors to get the most return with the least risk in terms of rock bottom rates. >> first of all, you're being offered relatively little in terms of interest rates. second of all, you have the danger now of bear markets in terms of price which would leave investors with relatively nothing. i think to beep that would be to shorten your duration, protection and the tips market. secondly, in the stock market, look for stocks with high dividend yields and relatively short durations as opposed to growth stocks. and third and i think perhaps most importantly, you know,

. >> up next, pepco is planting trees. we'll tell you about a new program that is providing free trees for homeowners. >>> more weekend track work will affect riders on metro. starting at 10:00 tonight, there will be no service on the red line. that closure will last through sunday night. shuttle buses will get you around the closure, but expect to add 20 minutes to your travel time. >> pepco has come under fire from some for its tree trimming program. now utility is trying to give trees back. providing 3,000 free trees to customers in maryland and d.c. it's part of the energy saving trees program. the idea, to conserve energy and reduce household electricity bills through strategic tree planting. >>> more money is being pumped into the river clean up project. today, mayor gray along with other area leaders announced the creation of the anacostia river fund. a national model for watershed conservation and gray recently took a trip along the river. >> you have a completely different appreciation for what it means to be in t

when making a single payment online or over the phone, with pepco you will pay a fee of $4.95 if you do it with a credit card and $1.95 with your credit card. washington gas, $4.55 extra if you pay using your debit or credit card. dominion virginia power, it costs you $3.95. northern virginia electric cooperative, $2.45, credit or debit. all these fees are for the same bill payment method verizon wireless decided to retract. >> paying your bill so, this is delicious okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. hey, i love your cereal there-- it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way. lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. >>> esteemed poet nikki giovanni and local students recently en

police are working with pepco to make sure 9-1-1 service remains uninterrupted. >>> up next, a senior the top of her class and her struggle to stay in the country she calls home. plus, chuck is back with your plus,[ male announcer ]h your with citibank, it's easy for jay to deposit checks from anywhere. easier than actually going to the bank. mobile check deposit. easier banking. standard at citibank. you can always expect more. like more on demand shows and movies than ever. and more ways to discover them too. plus more speed from america's fastest internet provider. so you can run more devices at the same time. ♪ feel a firework [ female announcer ] and best of all, it keeps getting better. no wonder more people choose xfinity over any other provider. ♪ love can be so mystical ♪ ♪ love can be so mystical ok. [ cellphone rings ] hey. you haven't left yet. no. i'm boarding now... what's up? um...would you mind doing it again? last time. [ engine turns over ] oooohhhh...sweet. [ male announcer ] the chevy cruze with the mychevrolet app. the remote control car is finally here. well now

we begin new this morning with pepco cleaning up lines to make sure they don't hurt anybody. car crashed into a utility pole near the beltway in oxon hill. police say nobody was seriously hurt when the car plowed into the pole overnight. they aren't saying what led to the crash though. >>> this morning police are looking for two cars that may have caused a deadly accident while racing in colesville. this happened on randolph road yesterday afternoon. police believe a silver car when a green and white mini cooper were racing when a car tried to change lanes. the driver lost control and flipped onto the sidewalk. she died from her injuries. police want to talk to anyone who may have seen that crash. >> it's a major artery. there are thousands on the road at that time of day. we need to hear from people who may have seen anything. they may think it doesn't mean anything. we need them to contact investigators, hear what they have to tell us so we can do a complete and thorough investigation. neither of the cars who may have been racing stopped at the crash. >>> this morning we're

when making a single payment online or over the phone, with pepco you will pay a fee of $4.95 if you do it with a credit card and $1.95 with your credit card. washington gas, $4.55 extra if you pay using your debit or credit card. dominion virginia power, it costs you $3.95. northern virginia electric cooperative, $2.45, credit or debit. all these fees are for the same bill payment method verizon wireless decided to retract. >> paying your bill >>> esteemed poet nikki giovanni and local students recently entertained passengers with poetry at reagan national airport. students competed in poetry slam at one of the airport's terminals. giovanni helped judge the competition along with a poet from alexandria, amy young and author vincent young. some very happy kids. >>> now to a huge opportunity for some very talented young musicians. some d.c. public school students got a chance to perform with jazz professionals who work with artists like wynton marsalis. as tracee wilkins reports, you put the two together, you get a very sweet sound. ♪ >> reporter: when victor going picked up the clari

. >>> pepco's giving back to the community by providing free trees. the utility's destroying 3,000 -- distributing 3,000 trees to customers in maryland and d.c., part of the energy saving trees program. the strategic tree planting conservings energy and -- conserves energy and reduces the bills. it began as a pilot program last year. >>> and coming up, peyton manning is making a few visits as he decide press where to play next year. lindsay murphy has more. >>> and mitt romney is a little bit of country and rock'n'roll. the campaign released the play list of the favorite songs, including country music like toby keith and tim mcgraw and the killers and kid rock. high on the list, the beach boys. boys.  . >> hello, everybody. i'm lindsay murphy. maryland's only hope of a big dance bid was to the win the acc tournament. if you know anything about the acc, three teams in the top 20, you know that is not an easy task. in the quarter finals, the terp his to face the top-seeded north carolina tarheels and we'll pick it up in the sec

police say there was no major emergencies during that time and tonight, they're blaming is pepco feeder problem which knocked out power to the emergency call center. >>> coming up on 9news now this saturday night, not too early to start thinking about st. patrick's day. head over to old town to get help you started. >>> also the great weather- wise. and anny is going to tell you how the plan for your sunday when we come back. >>> in old town, alexandria, they're wearing the green bit early this week. tonight's weather provided a nice backdrop for the annual st. patrick's day parade. hundreds of people lined up along king streets to see the parade. the owners of murphy's grand irish pub in old town, they served as grand marshals today. today's festivities also included a classic car show and a fun dog show. >>> great day for a parade especially in the afternoon. i thought it was great out there. >> yeah, definitely we saw some really early morning rain but the rain went away. the clouds went away bruce and we got up to 63 in down on the a pretty nice day this afternoon -- downtown, a pre

police say there was no major emergencies during that time and tonight, they're blaming is pepco feeder problem which knocked out power to the emergency call center. >>> coming up on 9news now this saturday night, not too early to start thinking about st. patrick's day. head over to old town to get help you started. >>> also the great weather- wise. and anny is going to tell you how the plan for love for skating. it all started when i was little and my dad took me to our local rink.. that love of skating took me to the olympics. i also have a love for reading. i remember my mom reading to me at night. those stories helped me reach for the stars as i drifted off to sleep. that's why i've joined with reading is fundamental, america's largest children's literacy group. together we inspire children to become life-long readers, so they can go for the gold. go to rif dot org, and inspire a child to read today. >>> in old town, alexandria, they're wearing the green bit early this week. tonight's weather provided a nice backdrop for the annual st. patrick's day parade. hundreds of people lined

. >> two more to go pepco. >> hello holly i am rod stuart with pepco, we are here to talk about the customerserface with the smart grid nearing our deployment near ami in district of columbia we will begin starting the roll out benefits to customers shortly after that, a couple things here we have a charger out front it will be charging a chevy volt we are able to communicate with that through our advanced metering structure and manage the charge going through the vehicle we will do a minipilot coming up with 10 chevy volts in our fleet we are doe monostraiting inhome display technologies -- demonstrating inhome display technologies. the customer can upload pictures. >> thank you very much. >> let's head to houston 15 seconds. >> stat water, center point energy, i can see how much energy i am using and spending right now forecast my bill that kind of feedback helps customers save up to $400 a year. >> that is a significant amount thank you so much. >>> so they are doing their part are we doing ours? maybe that is what we are getting you to ask yourself five companies in six more to go we will

. >> pepco says the source of the issue was a feared problem. two overheadlines accidentally came into contact with each other around 1:30 this afternoon creating the surges. a spokesperson says crews had power restored to the area within an hour. but, 911 officials say dispatchers will continue to work out of the backup site until 3:00 p.m. sunday. they are completely confident there will be no further interruptions to the service. >> unique situation. this building has been up and operational since september of '06. we have never had an event like this to take place. we take it seriously. we are going to learn from it. we'll make the improvements and make sure that we provide services. >> no word just yet on exactly how many calls were missed or if the outcome of any emergency situations were impacted by a delayed response time. but again, maurine, officials are getting in contact with those. >> lauren, thank you for that. >>> the death toll has risen. almost 40 after a killer storm system in the midwest yesterday. it is an extreme case of dej

the power outages with pepco for weeks. this is something every house hod should have. >> fair enough. >> go out and get one today. i'll do that. >> with springtime coming here, we're just getting to the beginning of our severe weather season. march 20 the state of virginia will hold their annual tornado drill in the morning at all the schools. let's talk about our weather today speaking of schools with the bus stop forecast this morning. it's clear and chilly. temps in the low 20s to the low 30s in the warm spots. not very warm at all. sunrise 6:32. it sets at about 6:08 this afternoon. our day planner lots of sunshine. by 11:00 we'll be in the lower 40s. winds light out of the north, northeast this morning, become srl this afternoon. a boost in temps to 45 by 1:00. we're going to make a run toward 50 this afternoon with a 3:00 p.m. temperature of 48 and at 5:00 still not bad, sunny, 47 degrees. but we'll be gaining nicely on these temperatures over the next couple of days. lots of sunshine today but cool on our weather he

. >> pepco says the source was a feeder problem. two overhead lines accidentally came into contact with each other 1:30 p.m. this afternoon creating the surges. a spokesperson said, crews had power restored within an hour. but, 911 officials say dispatchers will continue to work out of the back up site until 3:00 p.m. sunday, so they are completely confident there will be no further interruptions to the service. >>> unique situation. this building has been operational since september we take it seriously will learn from it make the improvements. >>> in washington lauren demarco fox 5 news. >>> dc receives 1.8 million emergency calls each year breaking down to 200 each hour, so far no word on exactly how many calls were missed or if any emergency situations were impacted by delayed response time. >>> more severe weather several small twisters reported southeast georgia they took down a slew of trees at this point no reports of injuries parts of northern florida were under a tornado watch most of the day. it appear it is region may ha

pepco says the problem happened when two power lines touched and caused power surges. primary system was back online by yesterday afternoon about 24 hours after the original outage. >>> taking a live look outside right now. it is 6:16 on this monday. can you kind of see the remnants of that sunrise to the left there on your screen but it looks like on the other side, perhaps those clouds moving in there, tucker. is this our clipper system? >> this is our clipper system. clouds will move in in a hurry. we're already get something snowflakes reported down towards fredericksburg, just south and west of fredericksburg so a little clipper system. till welcome back quick mover but -- i don want to say dump. it could drop some light accumulations across parts of the area. >> some snow but nothing to be concerned about. we are talking about a dusting at best. >> a dutting here in washington. as you get further south, it could be an inch or two. we have haven't had a lot of snow to talk about this year. i think it will be likely when all is said and done, it won't amount to a w

pepco said the problem occurred when two power lines touched and caused power surges. the primary system was back online by 2:00 this afternoon, about 24 hours after the initial outage. >>> d.c.'s democrats won't know until monday if councilman marion barry will be a delegate to the party's national convention this summer. a partial count of the caucus votes shows that councilman barry will likely be a delegate. at least 75 more ballots must be counted and nose result could affect the outcome -- those results could affect the outcome who gets to go to the convention to represent d.c. the remaining ballots will be counted monday evening. >>> mitt romney picks up a high profile endorsement and we're looking ahead to super tuesday. >>> and later he photographed soldiers on leave from the war. tonight he talks about his up close and personal encounters with nascar's biggest names. >>> tonight on the news edge at 11:00 all those parking tickets add up. you may be shocked to learn just how much money d.c. has made off drivers last year. >>> a reminder here, you have a story

pepco crews worked on it to make sure nobody was in danger. with i're still working to find out from the police what exactly caused the accident. >>> this morning montgomery county police are searching for two drivers who may have been racing and caused an accident. police believe a silver car and a green and white mini cooper hit a nissan when it was trying to change lanes yesterday afternoon. the driver of that vehicle, 31-year-old nelvis garcia flipped her car onto the sidewalk and died from her injuries. police are asking for any help from anyone who may have seen that crash. >>> a man suffered burns from a fire at a senior building. it happened in glen burney. dozens of residents had to be evacuated there. the cause of the fire is still under investigation. four firefighters were hurt in a car crash on their way to battle the fire. they're all expected to be okay. >>> evacuation stones around the nation's 65 nuclear power planls could be skpamding. a panel of experts asem aboutled by the american nuclear society is making the recommendati

it brought down some power lines there and pepco crews responded and put those back up. police say that no one was seriously hurt in that incident. and we have been watching the roads. danella sealock is joining us now with a look at how things are looking on the roads right now in our area. >> good morning. well, barbara, if you are taking the metro, metro has scheduled track work. you are seeing delays on the green and blue lines. expect del nays both directions. to beltway we have a crash here. i-95 on the inner loop actually, outer loop, just past richie marlboro road, the only right lane gets by the accident here. and you can see you are jammed. especially as you make where to pennsylvania avenue. and on eastbound i-66, the ramp to nutley, northbound nutley street, had an accident involving an overturned vehicle on the right shoulder lane as well as on the left so that you can make it but you have to use caution. barbara, over to you. >> all right. thank you very much, danella. >>> turning to our weather. look at that day out there. that's a live picture. spring is

exposed and possible short candidates with large debt loads include companies like pit any bowes, pepcois engaged in the transmission of electricity and natural gas in the middle atlantic area, century link provides local and long distance network assets, ppl, cmf energy. the second category are high-yielders. now, every strategist on "fast" has been encouraging investors and traders to buy high-yielders over the last few years. now, not only are these yields less competitive if rates rise, but if you consider the proposals by the obama administration to nearly triple the tax on dividends, it's going to make dividends less valuable, so companies like utilities would be losers, a sector that has had terrific share price performance, high debt equity ratios and high yield and pit any, frontier communication, local and local provider windstream and another one super value and the third losing sector are -- is an industry -- industries that have benefitted from a drop in interest rates but whose margins are going to contract or the products will be reduced like home builders. the winners --

service centers could see big crowds hundreds are expected to come out for the city wide over power pepco demonstrations coincide with the public service commissions meeting to decide whether to continue their $42 million tax rate hike for seats >> big show of support for victims of hate crimes in the district people gathered outside the ihop where a gay man was shot and wounded sunday several hundred people marched 7 locks along irving to georgia avenue where another gay man was attacked beaten and robbed the night after the ihop shooting. >> we all know it is always happening has been for a very long time and it will keep happening unless we do something about it and it needs to stop it is not fair we can't live like this taking our loved ones away from us. >> the group also lit candles at the intersection where a trans gendered woman was beaten, police have not yet classified that attack a hate crime. >> 7:19 a.m., on a wednesday morning new ipad is already being compared to older versions and not in a good way. >> plus are you looking for love in cyberspace in coming soon a different

airlines, nbc 4, who's been with us for many years, ryan gold, which is fairly new, the organization, and pepco so fortunate to have enterprise rent-a-car, serving as our platinum sponsor, as well as general dynamics. >> that's great. i want to tell everybody that they can still get tickets. >> absolutely. >> individual or table. >> yes. >> absolutely. >> the big night is coming up on march 14th, and it's not just a wonderful dinner, but it's great entertainment and it's a great two way to meet other people who are in it together and doing great in our community. >> our emcees are two wonderful people, jim handly and danella. >> we're so proud of you. >> you've been there several times for us. >> you fill up that room, but there are tickets still available. we want to flash up on our screen the website and phone number, too. if you'd like to learn more about the gala, perhaps that cruise coming up in june, or just to donate your money or time, please call this number or go to the website for the greater washington urban league. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] with xfinity, you can alw