in the newsroom, scott mcfarland.s 4. >> thank you, scott. >> give yourself some extra time for tomorrow'scommute. >> we are live on the road where the refreeze from this weekend's snin is startto set in. >> and we are just one commercial break away from revealing the final four folks in the pat collins snow stick allenge. >> ah. >> oh. we all love that, guys. you know what we don't like tonight is the refreeze, te look at these numbers. 28 college park. the rengeeze, begin right now. we'll talk much more about what to expect tomorrow morning then couple ofdays. our next storm system. see you in a few minutes. and now at 5:45. a new concern about temperatures going below freezing. every night this ek, back in a couple of minutes with more on what to expect. spectacular at stuff. don't with e? >> hi the first big snowfall of the season 2019 is our snow stick challenge. >> weot a lot of intrigue. but before we get to that, you have to narrow it down by looking at somebef the . >> it was no easy task, folks. our chief sn

scott mcfarland, news 4. >>> it's 6:26. coming up, the new year and new traffictrouble. we take a closer look at the construction projects that could cause a bitf chaos before improvement. lauren? > and we are looking at some nice and dry conditions this morning, but we do have rainth way over the next several days. not going to be raining the ♪ ♪ start the car! start the car! ea the inter sale. wooooooo! save up to 50% off select items in store only december 26th to january 6th. ikea. >>> "news 4 today" starts now. >>> it is just about 6:30 and we are taking a live look outside on the second day of 2019 as schools reopen, some of them in our area and many of you are heading back to work after this long holiday. tu may need bundle up again. 43 degrees ouide. that warm welcome short lived. no surprise there. > a little bit more like winter. >> you're not supposed to have the 60s in january. good morning, everyone. i'm eun yang. >> i'm chris lawrence in for aaron. ricketts is in for chuck with the forecast. first, check in with melissa i first 4 traffic. >> this is a probl

nbc's scott mcfarland joins us from d.c. with the latest. scott, good morning. >> reporter: frances, good morning to you. on a cold winter day here in washington, d.c. you really can feel the heat coming out of the capitol and the white house. no scheduled negotiations, no public meetings with coress o the president's scle tensions are rising due in no small part due to the president's decision to cancel speaker pelosi's trip with top democrats to egypt and then to afghanistan. he wrote in a letter to her, "it would be better if you were in washington negotiating with me." this comes after speaker pelosi in a letter recommended the president reschedule his state of the union address, citing the furlough and the unpaid secret service workers who would be involved with the security regimen. right now here in capitol hill leaders are digging in and lashing out. >> i think the president's decision to disclose a trip the speaker's making to a war zone was completely and utterly irresponsible in every way. >> being speaker of the house and leaving

scott mcfarland has what some say and oregon are rathers are against it. >> reporter: sam's town house sits in the shadow of i-270. no one is more closely watching the proposal to ease traffic on one of the nation's highways. >> i'm grateful that the governor is on record sing no homes or property will be demolished. we intend to hold him to that pledge. >> reporter: more tn a year ago the state said they would consider ambitious plans to ease congestion on 270 and the beltway. so far 15 proposals have been considered. hundreds of people haveent comments to the state trying to sway the decision. using the freedom of information act we asked for those e-mails and received them. we found an overwhelming number of those notes in opposition to any lane expansion including dozens in rockville. one writing major traffic congestion won't beved by any widening. another, i have many neighbors and favorite restaurants and affected.at will be one more saying please don't ruin rockville.su orters wrote, it's okay if it doesn't affect t property lues. one says i support expansion, present routes a

scott mcfarland, news4. >>> it should be a good year for people filling up for the pump. for the firee time in years, gas prices are expected to go down this year. gas buddy predicts the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded will be about $2.70 this year. that's down from $2.73 last year. but it is stillly significa more than what we were paying back in 2016. this month is when prices will be at their lowest. prices generally peak in may around memorial day. >>> when it comes to food, it's more of a mixed bag. overall groceryrices are expected to go up 1% to 2% this year. that's still below the typical rate of inflation, which is just over 2%. the good news, some foods lik pork, eggs, oil and nonalcoholic beverages could actually be cheaper this year. >>> all right, clay, we had a pretty nice day today, but something tells us 's not going to last. >> no, jim, it's not going to last. actually, we had temperatures ose to a record. i had to do some research on that. we found out that the record high temperature today was 64 degrees -- our high today was 64, the r

news 4's scott mcfarland says officials want more of your feedback. among the options, adding new las to eas congestion along the highways. scott uncovered thousands of comments from people. most of them are against widening the highways. many of those messages came from homeowners who live near the highway. state leaders will narrow the t lis spring. >>> there will soon be even more trains.n metro starting next week, metro customers will able to bring their bikes with them on the train at any time. met pro metro is ending a long-standing restrictio that prohibited bicycles during rush hour. it's expected to make metro rail more attractive to riders who want to take their bikes between their station and workplace. i would imagine that means less room to stand during rush hou >> on twitter i've seen a lot of people say ban the backpacks. there are these gigantic g backpacks th in the way, more so than the bikes. >> then you get rid of trists. tough thing to figure out. >>> all right. 4:10 now. happening toy, d.c. mayor muriel bowser will be breaking gro

scott mcfarland joins us now with an update. >> halfwa through the school year d.c. tells the i-team they're still wetking to more teachers licensed. this year we found oy 70% of d.c. teachers had licenses, but as ok this w the numbers are better. nearly 90% have a license or at least applied for a license. that leaves about 400 without certification as of tonight licenseture is required under d.c. law. and the office of the state superintendent of education they're working on a corrected action for teacher it isn't just an indication of training and certification, it's a safety issue. teachers who work without licenses are more difficult to track and mor difficult for future employers to weed out if they engage in misconduct with kids. neighboring school districts tell the i-team they do not employ any unlicensed educators as teachers. we're going to keep checking with d.c. officials with updates on this and we'll keep you posted. >> all right, scott, thank you. >>> another school announcement just coming in as we bring in doug calvert. tonight's going to be the col

>> the maryland department of transportation has received more than 2,000 comments only on 4 scott mcfarland has what some are saying and the fig why no highway. >> reporter: sam ellis's town house sits in the shadow of i-270. perhaps no one is morewa closel hing the governor's proposal to ease traffic on one of the nation'sost clogged highways. >> i am really grateful that governor hogan i on record saying that no homes or property will be demolished. we intend to hold him to that pledge. >> reporter: more than a year ago the governor announced ambitious plans to ease traffic on 270. so far 15 alternatives have been considered including reversible lanes and widening the highway. hundreds of people have sent comments to the tate trying to sway the decision. using the freedom of information act we asked for those e-mails and received them.ou we an overwhelming number of those notes in opposition to any lane expansion including dozens from people in rockville. one writing major traffic congestion won't be solved by any widening. another, i have many neighbors, favorite restaurants and stores t

scott mcfarland joins us to explain. >>> d.c. officials tell the news 4 i-team they're stiking to get more of the district schoolteachers licensed. this summer we found only 75% of d.c. public schoolteachers had aliance. as of this week, nearly 90%a either hav license or have at least applied for a license that's 3,6eachers. a licenseture is required under d.c. law. correctedrking on a action plan with d.c. schools because of this. recent news 4 ini-team stigation shows for teachers licen licenseture is a safety issue. teachers who work without licenses are dckficult to t and weed out if they engage in misconduct with kids. we found neighboring school districts including prince george's county say they do not ouploy any unlicensed teachers. >> thank when we come right back on news 4 at 5:0drama involving a chineseel degation here in the district. >> protesters scuffling with security outside the willard hotel. and they didn't stop there. >> plus, disturbing new details in the mansion murders case. the at children's national, stro

news 4's scott mcfarland says officials want more of your feedback. among the options, adding new lanes to ease congestion along i thways. scott uncovered thousands of comments from people. most of them are against dening the highways. many of those messages came from homeowners who live near the highway. state leaders will narrow the list this spring. >>> there will soon be even more wheels on metro trains. starting next week, metro customers will be able to bring their bikes with theon the train at any time. metro is ending a long-standing restriction that prohibited bicycles during rushour. it's expected to me metro rail more attracte to riders who want to take their bikes between their station and workplace. all about options, some people dould say. >>> still ah this morning, why keeping your kids on a sleep routine couldelp them in the battle of the bulge as they grow older. >>> plus, defending college test scores. what one florida student has to do after her s.a.t. scores went up. we'll explain the controversy. >>> and we have a few showers south

news 4's scott mcfarland says officials want more of your feedback. among the options, adding new lanes to ease congestion along the highways.co scott unred thousands of ts commrom people. most of them are against wideni the highways. many of those messages came from homeowners who live near the highway. state leaders will narrow the list this spring. >>> there will soon be even more wheels on metro trains. starting next week, metro customers will be able to bring their bikes with them on the train at any tim metro is ending a long-standing restriction that prohibited bicycles during rush hour. it's expected to me metro rail more attractive to riders who want to take their bikes between their station and workplace. >>> pell, hng today, d.c. mayor muriel bowser will break grnd on a new grocery store in the district. >> she said good food markets il grocery store provide fresh food and offer job opportunities. it's expected to open later this spring along south capitol street in southwest. the ground breaking starts this morning at 11:30. sounds like a n

"today in the bay's" scott mcfarland is live in washington, d.c., where so far there's been no end in sight. >> this is what a stalemate looks like. congress is returning home this morning for the long weekend, and in the meantime, many workers, federal workers are ordered to return to their jobs, but without pay. three-quarters of a million federal workers start the day without the promise of a paycheck and the leaders who could put them back to work started the day without plans to negotiate. president trump has no meetings scheduled with members of congress and blames the top democrat in the house. >> while many democrats in the house and senate would like to make a deal, speaker pelosi will not let them negotiate. >> reporter: the president grounded today's overseas trip by the speaker and top democrats which included a secret visit with troops in afghanistan. in a letter he wrote "i am sorry to inform you that your trip to brussels, egypt and afghanistan has been postponed." >> we think this is a completely inappropriate action, this is obviously an action directed at the speaker