that's what several pepco customers are experiencing after wireless smart meters were installed at their homes. now, 9 wants to know why these meters are emitting radiation far more frequently than pepco claims. kristin fisher uncovered this new evidence. this is similar to the radiation debate. >> this is very similar to that debate. it's the same kind of radiation and the research into its safety is not conclusive. here's the big difference. you can choose how often you use your cell phone, right? with smart meters, you don't have a choice. the frequency with which you are exposed is determined by the power company. and as i found, it may be a lot more frequent than they claim. >> this is a meter that tests for radiofrequency radiation. the same kind of radiation that is emitted by smart meters. today, the center for safer wireless, an independent group that questions the safety of smart meteorologists is using this device to test three pepco customers smart meters. we turn off anything else that might emit this radiation. our cell phones, my wireless microphone. any radiation we pick

pepco's wireless smart meters. >>> i'm meteorologist, topper shutt. winds are picking up, but clouds on their way out. temperatures in the 50s around the metro area. look at martinsburg, 65 in martinsburg. we'll come back. we're going to turn back toward winter. we'll talk about a storm over the weekend. >> a $1 million reward brought in a lot of tips. i'm edward lawrence in >>> the man hunt for an accused cop killer in southern california is in his fifth day. >> police are offering a million dollar reward in this case, but edward lawrence reports christopher dorner is hard to catch. >> 600 tips is come in since the l.a.p.d. offered a $1 million reward for former officer, christopher dorner. >> we have hundreds of detectives and investigators that are working on every clue that is coming in. >> but dorner's nowhere to be found. >> a tip that he was stopped at this store turned up nothing. agents are stopping every car crossing the mexican border and the man hunt east of l.a. has been downsized. dorner's burned out

pepco warned of an explosion. the shopping center was evacuated. >> they went door to door making had all their family members out of the house. everything is all good now. people to step away. power came back on, the power they did the problem with the transformer went away. check, there were fewer than 200 customers without power. all is well that ends well. >> the annapolis woman accused her two-year-old she believed the was possessed with an evil spirit. investigators said the little laid on top effort death and thento body in the trash. she is charged with first and asond degree murder as well child abuse. >> and return to the developing story out in california. for a former police officer accused of killing three including a police officer. natasha barrett is check -- this in our of satellite center. >> the efforts to find may be madedorner the weather atby around a big bear. a winter storm warning has been that part of california with as much 10 of snow. the uneasiness continues in the area while the manhun

. >>> still ahead, the option to opt out when it comes to pepco's smart meters. it depends on which side of the border you're on. >>> up next, president obama tries to turn up the pressure on congress to stop those automatic budget cuts just to take in effect exactly one week >>> we are hearing more today about the consequences that the congress cannot come up with a budget deal before the automatic spending cuts kick in, in just one week. an internal memo says visitors to our national park wills find fewer rangers and locked up bathrooms. the transportation secretary is warning he's going to have to cut air traffic controllers. that means big delays. today, president obama says it appears republicans are willing to let all that happen. >> their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts. >> but the republicans argue the cuts are being blown out of proportion. a statement from house majority leader says, it's not true that criminals will be let loose and nor

pepco employees have been dispatched to help. the power is also sending crews, 250, to be exact to new jersey and massachusetts. they are loading 50 crews in the northeast. a 14-year-old silver spring, maryland, teen is facing a murder charge. he's accused of killing his infant sister. ken reports the teen had been caring for the baby. >> police say this all happened sometime thursday night into friday morning inside an apartment here at the 11600 block of lockwood in silver spring. according to police, the mother, gloria, had left her seven month old baby in the care of her 14-year-old brother, jonathan thursday night. she then went off to work. when she returned, the baby was unconscious. paramedics rushed her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. >> our homicide investigators were called in to begin an investigation. one, they determine thad there were injuries on her body that were not self-inflicted. >> according to montgomery county police, the teen told investigators he hit the baby and he put his hand over her mo

after a long day of a lot of folks being in the dark, as you said, pepco, they believe all the power has been restored. >> the power outage experienced in prince george's county was so widespread that at its peak, 50,000 customers were in the dark. >> lost power around 11:30. i tried to cut all utilities and things like that. it didn't work. >> pepco officials say a tree landed on a transmission line in a deeply wooded area. causing the massive outage. it knocked out power to four substations. it caused an evacuation at a shopping center and nearby homes. the safe way's generator kicked on and caused an underground tran former to shake and smoke. >> we're told by pepco transmissions in the unlikely event of an explosion, it would be powerful. >> the loss of power also affected this dialysis center. this woman said she had just dropped her husband off for his treatment. >> as soon as i got home, they called me and me i had to compaq and pick him up. when i got around here to the turn right there, i had to keep straight on through. >> neighborhoods throughout central and southern princ

we got off of the phone a few moments ago with bob from pepco. he told us most, if not, all of the people who lost power in this this afternoon have now been restored and those who have should be back online fairly soon. and the bottom line on all of this is that it was a tree to thaknocked out four substations and -- that knocked out four substations and what happened calls for a long afternoon in parts of northeast and southeast, and parts of port georges county. at the addison plaza shopping center, it was close to 12:30 when the power suddenly cut out. >> yeah, i smelled it. >> what did it smell like? >> something burning. >> reporter: friday afternoon, a tree in a wooded area fell. that tree, it turns out, fell on the transformer lines which in turn supply electricity to four substations. once they went off-line, the power outages began to spread across the range. soon as many as 50,000 people in prince georges county and the district lost power. >> nobody had power. so we didn't know what was happen. we knew that everything was out. >> repo

. >> reporter: pepco says friday afternoon a tree in a wooded area fell.ansformer lines which in turn supply electricity to four substations. once those substations went offline power outages began to spread across the area. soon as many as 50,000 people at prince george's county and the district lost power. >> nobody had power, so we didn't really know what was happening. all we knew was everything was out. >> reporter: no power was only part of the problem. prince george's county fire and ems were called to the addison plaza, the reason? residents in the area and store owners began hearing strange sounds, smelled burnt electrical odors coming from the plaza's main transformer. >> the transformer was acting in an unusual manner. it may have had something to do with a generator in one of the store's back feeding into that transformer. we're not sure. >> reporter: pepco and fire officials say the problem resolved itself as soon as the power came back on. metro says the outage caused power outages at the addison road and capitol heights stations, but it only

. >> some people on facebook blame it on pepco and in other blame it on pepco and in other news, the mm i went potty! th'sreat, honey.... wher for life's bleachable moments. >>> welcome back. 5:09. your weather first on this monday morning. qiept out there now -- quiet out there now. chilly, lots of 20s. we'll see a chance of snow for tonight and first part of tomorrow. no big problems. bundle up. highs from 32 -- that's actually up toward the hagerstown-frederick area, but 40 toward fredricksburg. 36, 37 here in d.c. with increasing clouds and light snow possible late today into the first part of tonight. i'll elaborate more on that in a few minutes. right now let's go to monika with timesaver traffic. >>> construction still in place in strapford on the northbound side of route 1 near forbes street at princess an street. here in springfield, northbound i-95, just a tiny bit of volume now increasing but no delays heading up to 395. i'll be back with more coming up in a few minutes. back to you guys. >> thanks, monika. >>> here are some of the other stories making news this morning. a

pepco tells us it sent 150 crews to new jersey and southern new england to help restoring electricity and removing down trees from power lines. they sent employers to help with customer call centers there. the power sent 250 crews to new jersey and massachusetts and bg and e sent 40 crews to help areas affected by the storm in the northeast. >>> here at home, we caught a break, only strong winds across the region. let's go over to erica grow. >> that's right, bruce. we had strong winds during the overnight and into the early morning and they are a result of this huge blizzard that is up in the northeast. we still actually have some snow showing up on satellite and radar from that departing blizzard. you can see it affecting eastern portions of maine, but pulling away and gusty winds will create blizzard conditions in the northeast because of that blowing snow. here at home, we are in the clear and it was a decent afternoon once the wind settled down a little bit. of course, they are gusty, but nowhere near where they were. 48 miles an hour with a peek wind gust. in new market, we had

. >>> up next, a followup to our report on pepco's smart meters. 9 wants to know why our tests show these meters are emitting radiation far

pepco said at its height, the outage affected 50,000 customers in prince georges county, 5,000? in southeast and northeast d.c. and tom fitzgerald has more on the situation. what is the situation? >> reporter: we talked with most if not all of the people who lost power today and they have it back now and are expected to be restored quickly and that is when a tree fell on a feeder line, which splayed electricity to four substations. once they went out, a daisy chain of power outage spread out for our sprint georges county and norton, parts of northeast and into southeast d.c. here, the neighbors and people working in the plaza noticed an electrical smell coming out of the transformer, which were accompanied by sounds that allowed -- alarmed them. ask prince georges county fire and e.m.s. arrived on the scene and they quickly assessd the scene and figured it had something to do with the outages. >> it's possible that d.c. transport was acting in an unusual manner and may have had something to do with the generator in one of the store's back feed into this transformer. we're not su

. >>> pepco sent 150 crews to new jersey and southern new england. they are helping with downed power lines. minuteian power is sending 250 crews,. >>> new england is far from alone. authorities have issued a no travel advisory for parts of north dakota. heavy snow makes visibility near zero. >>> this morning dan hour bach of the black keys has four new grammys. >> reporter: mumford and sons took home album of the year at the grammy awards. >> we are grateful for all of this country and the grammy foundation. >> reporter: but it was a night for fun. the trio sang as it rained on stage and won best new artist and song of the year. >> i just remember thinking this is why i got into music. >> reporter: in an aapartment grammy snub chris brown didn't stand when rival frank ocean beat him out for best contemporary album. >> taylor swift kicked off the perform plants. >> justin timberlake used the grammy stage to relaunch his so low career. >> fans at home were excited to see their performances. >> country singer miranda lambert performed. >> i'm sitting b

they have been running low but pepco is donating several hundred smoke alarms to the county and now is a time to call. >> and that is good information to pass along. thank you. >>> turning to the weather now, a damp and dreary start to the weekend and gwenn tells us more. >> reporter: and after today. >> okay. >> and some things will be different. and can you see wesa have a lot of clouds there and they're going to move out as we have a ridge of high pressure that is building in. also, a chance of patchy fog here and there and leave all, not bad at all and this is that look at our numbers today. we reached 46 degrees at reagan; 43, dulles and 45 at bwi thurgood marshal. the temperatures, two to five degrees below the seasonal average for the day and we're looking at temperatures that are in that range right now, actually. 45 at d.c. and with 44 at fredericksburg and baltimore and 43 in dulles. cooler to the north, though, 37 in frederick and 39 degrees at hagerstown. overall for tonight, 36 for your overnight low and mostly cloudy. fog developing. we had originally thought there might

. >>> there was no storm, but it was lights out this afternoon for tens and thousands of pepco customers, including dozens of schools and three metro stations. first a tree fell on to power lines. at about the same time, an overcharged, underground transmitter was discovered in the 6200 block of central avenue in capital heights. the cause, an improperly installed generator at the shopper center was sending electricity without its knowledge and the result could have been catastrophic. fear of a possible explosion led to the evacuation of a shopping center and 20 homes nearby. everything is back to normal now, but the outage and the confusion around it caused some panic for the family of a dialysis patient being treated in that area. >> i came to pick up my husband after dialysis and i couldn't get in the building. i still don't know what's going on. i don't know where my husband is. >> he was sitting in a wheelchair right in that corner. >> somebody from dialysis brought him home. >> somebody put him there? okay. all right. so he's home? thank god for that. >> so her husband is safe and

. >>> thousands of pepco customers have power again following a massive outage across prince george's county and parts of the district today. the problem is thought to have started with a large tree that fell on a transformer. that reportedly cause the a domino effect that knocked out four other transformers. most of the impact is in central prince george's, as well as northeast and southeast washington. police had to direct traffic in capital heights. as many as 50,000 homes pd businesses were out at the height of the outage, including 30 schools. only a handful of customers are still without electricity at had hour. >>> energy new orleans, the company that powers the superdome in new orleans is now taking the blame for the super bowl blackout. today the company says a switching gear device malfunctioned causing the lights in the stadium to go out for 34 minutes. that device had been installed to prevent a failure in electric cables leading to the stadium. the company said it worked fine during the sugar bowl in january and at other events. the device has been removed and it's being

pepco is on the scene. use caution. shutdown this that area. let's talk about delays. of more than. traveling the beltway, this time on the outer loop of the beltway at university boofd. delays from i-95 prior to georgia avenue. no reports of accidents. traveling 395, heavy on the brakes in the beltway. as you make your way toward seminary road, that's where you're sluggish. past seminary past the 14th street bridge. not terrible yet. it will take you 17 minutes to get from the beltway to the 14th street bridge. aaron. >>> thank you, danella. 4,000 people aboard a cruise ship stranded off the coast of mexico are awaiting for a tugboat. there's a tugboat headed toward the cruise ship triumph. it's 150 miles from the yucatan peninsula. it's running on emergency power. another cruise ship there as well with supplies. the next two trips next week for the triumph are canceled. >>> a mine explosion in russia killed at least ten coal miners. this happened northeast of moscow. officials say the explosion might have been caused by a buildup of methane gas. nine workers are miss

also want to mention that washington power company, pepco, saying that 50,000 of its customers are withoutower right now after a tree fell. they are working to restore that, and here just a few miles north of the george washington bridge commuters have been advised that the speed limit has been re-reduesed to cautionary 35 miles per hour both ways so people taking caution on the road as things are whipping up and getting much worse. back over to you. >> that is amazing. thank you, jackie. do you need to make a last-minute run to the store for a shovel or a flash lying. mary thompson is already for the storm. she's at a home depot in hackensack, new jersey. mary? >> hey there, maria. if you need a shovel or a flashlight you will be in luck, but if you're looking for some of the bigger ticket items like a generator owe snow blower, no such luck. think about this. 50 generators were sold at this store in the last 24 hours. same story with snow blowers. the last one leaving the store at 11:30 this morning. another thing that they are out of, gasoline canisters. you might recall during supersto

being presented by viacom and pepco. we have business leaders stepping up to give back.ew young in atlanta with hank erin's wife and now it is the can't miss event every year. it's going to be the can't miss event in washington. >> this is meta williams she is an excellent spokes person for the united negro college fund. thanks for being here today. >> thank you for having us. fox rocks. >> i like that. tony, over to you. >> thank you very much. we appreciate that. still ahead this hour, beyonce easy electrifying half-time show. it is 8:40. we'll be right back.  ♪ [ male announcer ] we touch a lot of things throughout the day. so it's nice that clorox disinfecting products help kill the germs that can live on surfaces for up to 48 hours. ♪ feels sweet when i can touch you ♪ one made with only real cheese.. and dough that rises naturally. with no chemical leaveners. a pizza with premium meats. and sauce made from only real tomatoes. a pizza my family will love. (announcer) freschetta naturally rising crust pizza. freschetta. made better to

just a couple more earnings bits to bring you, pepco has reported and the report shows a wide operating loss of 275 billion yen of the current fiscal year. they expect this fiscal year another net loss of 120 billion yen. the nine-month group revenue came in, it looks like, above market -- or at least above the prior quarter. probably above the prior period, that is. the point, though, being that tepco expects a wider net loss for the current fiscal year. this compares with a -- i'm sorry, they expect a wider net loss of 120 billion for the current fiscal year. we'll leave it at that. down 1% as investors digest that news. staying in japan, the priority of japan's leadership remains ending its long running uptrend. nozomu kitadai has the details. >> hi, kelly. japan's finance minister reported that he's still unsatisfied with the yen's recent levels. asso said the most important task for this cabinet is not overcome deflation and the yen's protracted and bring back a strong japanese economy. asso's remarks show the government's determination to lower the value further for japan's strugg