and now these parents are making pepco handle the dangers. >>> i'm lesli foster. i'll grab jan and we'll get this newscast started. >>> but first, we begin with two cops caught on the wrong side of the law and tonight, one of them is dead, another under arrest accused of a prostitution operation being run out of his apartment. we have team coverage tonight. andrea mccarren has the latest on an apparent suicide of an officer accused of child porn and why he was not being actively monitored. first, we begin with bruce leshan where the officer now charged with two minors have been ordered held without bond. bruce. >> yeah, jan, the judge just ordered this officer move to the treatment side of the jail so you can imagine where the defense may be headed here. officer barnhill has been on the force for decades and it looked like he was wearing his police utility pants as the marshals led this huge guy into the courtroom in handcuffs and leg irons. officer barnhill has his arms around two girls in the photo on his myspace page. one of his alleged victims says the cop was

look at some of the other top stories from today inincludg a proposal to raise rates for some of you pepco customers out there. >> and that's not the only place you might be asked to pay a little more, how much metro's general a subaru... ...are the hands that do good things for the whole community: the roenvinment, seniors, kids, and animals. that's why we created the share the love event. by the end of this year, the total donated by subaru could reach 35 million dollars. you get a great deal on a new subaru. we'll donate 250 dollars to a choice of charities that benefit your community. it feels good to be a helping hand. >>> everyone seems to want to get their hands in your pockets and tonight you can add metro to the list yet again. >> reporter: i'm debra alfarone at the gallery place metro station where riders are not thrilled about news of a fare hike. >> i seen that on the news, but what can you do? i expected it. you expect that from metro, right? >> reporter: today general manager richard sarles unveiled his plan. come july if approved it would cost 15 cents more to take a bus, a

's responsehat pepco was terrible. >> it was terrible, if you want my opinion. >> there was an increase of $7.13. approvegulators only $2.41. thecompany says that request has to do with the hundreds of millions that they are spending to make sure the power grid is more reliable in the future. customers say that if it is really for that, they are ok with that. >> five dollars would not be too big a sacrifice. >> profits should come out of the shareholder dividends. >> pepco has not earned an increase. >> they feel a gay teenager who has caused a lot of car accident and keeps getting the keys to the car. >> the public service commission will have the final say on this increase. them alldecide to give of what they want, some of what they want, or non-on what they want. we will see what happens. a change is on the way. you might have seen that. got to sit down with him and ask a few questions. an idea that i had for a long time. a a new station and a number of companies wanted to do ron burgundy stuff. none of those things felt right. to sell a bigng american car. >> if you cannot get enoug

. >>> you could be paying more for your electric bill if pepco gets its new rate hike. the utility is asking the maryland public service commission to increase the base rates. pepco claims that would add about $5 a month to the average customer's bill in montgomery and prince george's countieses. the money would make up for the hundreds of millions of dollars it spent to improve reliability. should find out next summer if that rate increase is approved. >>> backlash tonight over new metro ads. some riders claim the posters are sexist. it shows two women, one is talking about metro buses, the other asks, can't we just talk about shoes? there are complaints on twitter and ultraviolet, a women's rights group calling the ads stupid and offensive. one writer doesn't see the point of the campaign. >> i'm a person who is happy but, you know, i like talking about policy and serious issues. >> other riders didn't have a problem with the ads. metro says it is just a light-hearted effort to get people talking about metro's rebuilding efforts. >>> covering prince george's county. t

. >>> pepco is asking for its third rate hike in two years. the power company filed a request with the maryland public service commission to raise rates by $43.3 million. so that's an average of about $4.80 a month per customer in montgomery and prince george's counties. pepco is also seeking a $44 million rate increase in the district. the utility says its request is justified because of its improved performance, declining power outages >>> let's get right to it. we need a timeline to sunday. let's go from thursday to sunday. >> okay, fine. sunday morning i think we'll see snow break out across most of the metro area about 10:00 or so. that snow will go to mix and stay a mix all day sunday d.c. north and west. you won't get above freezing until sunday night. let's start with a live look outside, our live michael and son weather cam. we were 69 today, the record high 75. relative humidity very high, 81%, winds out of the south, southwest at 11. that will keep the warm air in place all night. here's the radar, showers to the west. you get to th

as we sit here today there are wires as we speak. >> well, pepco released a statement saying it's in full compliance with the voltage rules and added that pepco tests all of our facilities on a three-year schedule. it's part of our ongoing inspection. >>> a drattic move today as craig paterson took the stand in his own defense. the arlington deputy is accused of murdering julian last may when he was off duty. david culver was there for the dramatic day in court. >> reporter: wendy, a dozen witnesses testified in court today. the most surprising of them all, the man accused of murder. the defense called craig patterson to the stand. since the start of trial monday, craig patterson has sat in court quiet. but today we were there as he called on his client to testify. what were you doing on may 22nd? patterson told jurors he went on a walk with his badge, gun and cell phone. that's when he ran into 22-year-old julian dawkins who he described as intoxicated and adepressive. so much so paterson claims he pulled a knife on him. i started running and he started chasing me. patterson headed

pepco wants to increase its rates for the third time in two years. the utility wants to raise rates 43.3 million in maryland that break down to $4.80 a month for customers in montgomery and prince george's counties on average. pepco says the request is justified because of fewer outages, extensive upgrades and improved performance. >>> microsoft has a plan that your private info never ends up in the hands of the nsa. we'll be talking about that in your first your money report of the morning. >> it will be a soggy commute to and from work. the first alert forecast from erica is coming up >>> good morning. it's 4:41. i'm meteorologist erica grow. a yellow alert day because of inconvenient weather. that's what we mean when we issue a yellow alert. scattered showers throughout the day with a chance for steadier rain moving in later in the day as we're heading back home from work. the day as well. the temperature that we have out there right now is deceiving. it's not going to stay in the 60s. temperatures falling through the 50s to the upper 40s by 5:00

pepco says it needs the money to add to its infrastructure and reliability. last year, the request for a rate in kris was rejected. >> no need to turn up the heat high today. >> mild temperatures about to get even warmer. doug hill has your first check on the forecast. >> very warm and very cold with maybe some ice between over the weekend. 54 now with cloudy skies and 55 down the river at reagan national. the air is not terribly damp or humid and the wind is calm. that will lead to a little fog or drizzle tonight. inat the airport and 56 fredericksburg. 47 in annapolis. temperatures are going only to drop a few more degrees of a staying light with a southeasterly wind. and drizzle, so mild overnight. satellite and radar shows a little precipitation moving up the coast grade you will see a mix of stuff in the mississippi valley, but take a look at what's going to happen over the next 24 hours. a major winter storm warning from texas to the canadian border. a lot of important information to share with you, especially for the weekend coming up in a couple of mi

tonight is the night to get out to zoo lights sponsored or powered by pepco. across the area, beautiful weather. temperatures in the 60s, close to 70 earlier. a lot of people at the zoo enjoying the nice weather. let's run into what we are dealing with. temperatures are on the warm side. here are the numbers with temperatures in the low 60s across the region. warm numbers all night long. storm team 4 radar showing showers to the west of the region. as we widen out, notice what is going on to the west. rain, ice and snow. we will deal with all of those over the next three days. let's show you on future weather. we take you through hour-by-hour. we are going to be seeing the rain moving in. some of the rain comes down on the heavy side, at least during part of the day. tomorrow afternoon, same deal. tomorrow afternoon, a cold rain starts to fall. by saturday, that is all out of here. saturday is just rather cold and breezy. that sets us up for sunday, however. with sunday, i think we'll start as snow and move over to a period of ice. it depends on where you live

pepco is preparing for the worst. can you report an issue with them 877-737-2662. power knocked out by the same storm system, more than 200,000 outages are reported in texas, oklahoma, arkansas, indiana and missouri. utility trucks from houston are heading to dallas to help get the lights back on there and utility company say it could take a week to repair all the damage. all the weather alerts now. search nbc washington weather to find that. >>> we want to go back to veronica johnson who has new photo that is have just come in. vj? >> you've been sending them in of the snow coming down. it started theb then stopped and then started again in some areas with the exception of spots off to our west. let's show those photos now from around our area. about two inches or so as accumulated around i-81. that husky in the distance there, very cool. it's looking a lot like christmas, right? snow is covering the trees and unfortunately it's covering the roads as well. when we turn over to sleet, look at that, two inches there, areas mainly in western virginia right now. live

right now pepco is reporting about 104 of its customers without power. dominion power says more than 23,500 of their northern virginia customers are powerless. and bge has about 70 cups hers without -- customers without power. if you do lose power, you can still watch us online or the wusa9 ipad app. make sure to check those out. we'll >>> just moving across the bottom of our screen, montgomery county schools have now decided they are going to close this morning. so you can stay in bed and watch us and watch howard's forecast. >> yesterday afternoon i'm home. my son has a friend over. he wanted to do a sleep over. yeah, there won't be school. his mother was, are you sure? >> i'm 99.9% sure. there's always that little tiny -- but he didn't sleep over. enjoy the day, kids. for the parents, well, that may not be so enjoyable. depending on your situation. let's be honest. we still have some issues in the form of light freezing rain still making for some very slick areas, especially the untreated roads, your neighborhoods, the sidewalks. even heading out of y

pepco with just 21. at this point, bge is reporting 25 people in the dark and the cold. erika gonzalez continues our team coverage from arlington where she spoke to a woman who was diabetic and tells us how neighbors stepped in to help as to crews are working to get that power on. erika? >> wendy, when you rely on insul insulin, keeping it cool in the fridge, losing power is not an option. >> wandering around in the dark. everything is -- touch. >> it's been a rough couple of days for valerie but you would never know it by her demeaner. >> take it as it comes. >> reporter: she's diabetic and needs her insulin and she's been without power since yesterday. so the tree limb came down sunday night? >> yeah. and broke the wires down and i still had electric. >> until yesterday. >> the truck went through the cones, got caught up in the wire and everything was gone. >> reporter: dominion power has had 1300 employees working on outages like valerie's around the clock. >> putting the main feeder on makes a lot of people happy. it makes us happy to do that but inevitably in a stor

there is apparently a power line town across this area, so right now they are waiting for pepco. nobody injured. one person inside the home. these guys will be on the scene for quite a while, though, because they tell me of these conditions. back to you. >> melissa, thanks. >>> 4:47. news 4's molette green at the live desk with more breaking news. molette? >>> and good morning. we just found out about another suspected american drone strike in pakistan. intelligence officials in the country say two missiles were fired at a home in the northwestern tribal region bordering afghanistan and officials in islamabad say at least three foreign militants possibly arabs were killed in a village in north withaziristan. that's the latest. >>> montgomery county police need your help to find the person who stole a menorah from a man's front yard. >> this is video of the five foot tall menorah from a few years ago. the owner says when he got to his germantown home after work tuesday night it was gone. friends in the neighborhood told him it had been left in pieces in a nearby yard but when he w

we will talk to pepco about widespread power outages crews are dealing with. we just checked the utility company's website. more than 7,000 customers are without electricity right now. the situation is worse in virginia. dough minimum ion says more than 23,000 people in northern virginia are in the dark right now. >>> molette green following breaking news at the live desk. >> we heard a liberal leave policy in effect for city employees. all essential employees must report to work on time unless otherwise instructed. a liberal leave policy in effect for the city of frederick, maryla maryland. back to you. >>> thank you, molette. it is now 4:35. new this morning we are getting a first look at the aftermath of a house fire in temple hills, maryland. a tree fell on a power line. presumably because of the weather and sparked the fire. everyone escaped the single l family home on joyce drive without injury. officials are still investigating to confirm what caused that fair. >>> the winter storm has already tied up traffic this morning. take a look here. two vehicles

novec, pepco, bg&e only have a handful of customers without electricity. >>> right now bone chilling temperatures are on the bway. the cold is taking a toll on us. but you know, our temperatures last night dropped down to the 20s. wasn't quite as low as i anticipated, and that gave us a higher start for the day today. we've been in the upper 30s to low 40s across the area. nonetheless, i'm expecting some freezing temperatures tonight. today we started out at 25 degrees throughout the area. look at the numbers. 19 in leesburg, manassas. ashburn starting around 16 to 17 degrees this morning. and now for tomorrow morning i'm forecasting 28 in d.c., with many locations dropping to the low 20s once again. our windchills tompl morning will be in the teens. when i return i'll show you which neighborhoods will be if coldest tomorrow morning. >>> concerns about the care of the animals a t the national zoo. zoo officials say the staff is stretched way too thin and that's creating a real challenge for them. the revelation comes on the heels of an internal report following several incidents at t

i wanted to put a sign up there that says this one is for you pepco.tric. >> you have to make it about jasper. >> do your neighbors like you, bob? >> no, because once that thing lights everybody starts driving down and they can't park their cars which is too bad because i'm leaving anyway. >> that looks like the rabbit they have at union protests. >> christmas spirit, bob. christmas spirit. >> all right. one more thing is up next. >> susan did that. >> she did. >> she did a great job. >>> it's time now for one more thing. we begin now -- >> as we should. the u.s. air force band surprised museum goers at the air and space museum in washington d.c. they wanted to promote their 29 holiday shows. so i think that we have a thought here in just a second that we're going to toss to -- take a look at this. >> wait, how long -- the expressions on the museum goers faces were just great. icon garage late t icon -- i congratulate them of the first photo bombing. >> i was just putting the menora away. >> you have so many jobs at fox news. it's unbelievable. >> are

>> we turned to pepco for the afternoon. there are easy ways to save money on the electric bill. first, you have to set your thermostat to 68 degrees during the day and drop it to 60 at night, if you can stand it. an extra blanket will help. dress warmly and lower the thermostat and save 3% for every degree you lower it. change your furnace filters once a month making sure it's running efficiently. winterize your windows using weather stripping. it will keep the cold air out and the warm air in. >>> got a second question for you. this comes from zoe in d.c. why do some stores change their return policy during the holiday? >> it's a surprise. according to the retail federation, stores do it for several reasons. some make their policies more lenient because they understand there is a lag time between when a gift is purchased and received. others tighten their policy to deter return fraud and shoplifting. to see if there are changes in your favorite retailer, look at the return policy online, on the back of your receipt or the wall of the store where they have to post it. >> the las

pepco is preparing for the worse. the number to call there is 877-737-2662. we've got this information posted at our website, nbcwashington.com. >>> this morning, crews are busy restoring power knocked out by the storm already entering our region. more than 200,000 outages are reported in texas, oklahoma, arkansas, indiana and missouri. utility trucks from houston are headed to the dallas area to help get the lights on there. utility companies say it will take about a week to prepare the damage. don't forget that you can get all the weather alerts you need on your smart phone. we have live radar and storm tracking on the storm team 4 weather app. you can download that at the app store or search nbc news 4 weather. >>> police were on the scene at aspen hill road overnight where a single car accident happened. police have not released the cause of this wreck just yet. surrounding streets, however, were closed off for several hou hours. >>> in prince george's county, two people are dead and six others, including a pair of children rrks in the hospital after anot

you can also report an outage or downed power lines for pepco 877-377-3622. >>> restoring power knocked out by the storm that's headed our way, more than 200,000 outages are reported in texas, oklahoma, arkansas, indiana, and missouri. utility trucks from houston are headed to the dallas area to help get the lights on there. utility companies say it will take about a week to repair the damage. get your weather alerts on your smart phone. download the storm team 4 weather app in the app store or google play. search nbcwashington weather. >>> aspen hill, roads are closed as police continue to investigate a fatal crash at aspen hill and iris streets in rockville around 1:00 this morning. only one car was involved. police are not sure exactly what caused this crash. >>> also in maryland, two people are dead and six others are in the hospital this morning after a deadly car accident. prince george's county police confirm the deadly accident at central avenue and it happened around 11:00. several of the victims were trapped and actually needed to be cut free from the vehicle when police arriv

pepco down to about 300 out damages now, mostly in the district. and about 115 bge customers are now in the dark in howard and anne arundel counties. our team coverage of the storm continues with northern virginia bureau chief julie carey in vienna. >> reporter: the road is fine right now, just wet here along maple avenue. but sure enough it's getting chilly, and i started to see people slip slide. here is why. this was slush just a while ago. now i can pick it up. it has turned to ice. for most folks today, the first good snow in years meant a lot of fun. sledding, building snowmen. but for several thousand fairfax county residents, it was a rough day because it was their second day without power. this is not how the rogers family normally prepares lunch, pizza heating up in the fireplace. nor is this how they normally dress inside the house. >> it is cold. it really is. my daughter has on her ski pants. i have on several layers, my hat, my scarf. it makes it so it's possible. it's cold. >> reporter: the rogers and about a half dozen neighbors are

pepco says 23 customers are without power. about 186 bge customers are without power. and potted tomac edison says ju about 11 without power. >>> julie kerry is live in vienna, hey, julie? >> reporter: i'm ending the day where i started the day alongside maple avenue in vienna. take a look at this roadway right now. it is just wet. that is a big improvement from the slushy mess we saw this morning. good thing was, a lot of people seemed to heed the warnings this morning. at the peak of the snowfall, they stayed home, kept their cars in the garage. for the kids who stayed home from school, this was a snow to celebrate. in sled-worthy snow we've seen in some time. >> one, two, three. whoo! >> reporter: we didn't have to go very far into the neighborhoods in vienna to see families either sledding or building snou men. this vienna family only had to step out their front door to their sleep driveway and they had their own to be bog gan run. these three kids were loving it. for the youngest who is just three, it was not only his first time sledding, this was his very first s

pepco could seek $19 billion coming this way.y it is in talks of mitsubishi about new loans. they want to limit the risk of default by tying the borrowing to project income. talks to due to begin resolve lawsuits over the claims of sudden acceleration in the u.s.. resolvedse is not still may go to trial. they recall more than 10 million vehicles over the issue in 2009 and 2010. two months ago toyota lost its first case over the elated -- a facts. if you use twitter, it is easiest to stay in touch with us. i would love to hear you. i'm active on the twitter sphere. make sure you send me your tweets and questions. we're going tor talk about what is happening to the futures in with gold. it is losing its luster as investors turned away. for more details, we're counting down to the opening session in japan and korea. stay with us. >> manufacturing confidence improves on the prime minister's watch. china takes action on fixing prices. one of the most dependable investments of the past decade did not work well this year. what is well f

come off streets for dinner every wednesday, and this past week, tuesday, we were able to get the pepco us a place, we were offered the table, tablecloths, and we were able to serve with 60 volunteers about 200 men and women. the great thing, off the streets, served dinner, we sat down with them, ate, got a chance to talk about their lives, like we have thanksgiving dinner. we have lots of programs like that. for us, it was better for us than them. we love to serve and feel like we're part of their lives. that was a great one so far. >> it is amazing and it boggles minds of many, we are here in one of the wealthiest communities one of the most expensive to live in the country. how tough is that? to square with people who have so much money and people who have so little? >> it's tough for the people who have so little. it's tough to get out of there, especially if they don't have education or skill set. we see them living in the streets or low-income housing, it very difficult for them to deal with. we assist that by using our great patrol, we go out each night, feed the homeless, people