Transcripts For WRC 20091130

montgomery and prince george's counties. over 1,200 so far. many, like today's accident, creating hazardous conditions. >> it was potentially dangerous especially not knowing how long this water was running under the roadway. and obviously washing away part of the roadway. our concern at that point was that the integrity of the road and obviously nobody driving on it so we quickly isolated that area and nobody was able to drive on that. >> reporter: wssc officials say cold snaps and aging infrastructure are the main culprits for the pipe breaks and leaks. the one that burst today was 61 years old. turning normally quiet high view street into a raging river. >> it was a show, yeah. just dropped her off at school and on the way back and then we saw the mud everywhere. >> i have never seen anything like it. i mean it was really intense for me. >> reporter: jane watrel, news4. it was one week ago this a -inch water main broke in arlington, virginia. north glebe roads. a worker was electrocuted on that scene after a metal ladder touched some power lines and another man was critically injured there. people in arlington are still being urged to conserve water. we're told the water is safe to drink. the investigators are trying to figure out how a car wound up crash interesting a pond here in the beltway in prince george's county. they say the car was coming off a ramp of the interloop at branch avenue and somehow wound up in the water. there was only one person in the car. the man was pulled out of the vehicle by fire and rescue workers. he had minor injuries. the national transportation safety board will investigate the weekend accident involving two metro trains. early sunday morning a train being brought in for cleaning hit a parked train. it happened at west falls church rail yard. there were no passengers on either train at the time. the operator of the moving train and two members of the cleaning crew were injured. chris gordon has the report. >> reporter: metro says two cars derailed on impact and were damaged beyond repaperthey were not located at the point of impact but were positioned in the middle of the trains. both are series 1,000 cars. among the oldest in metro's fleet. metro board chairman jim gram is returning from a trip to el salvador but he's had telephone conversations with metro asking about this investigation. specifically questioninghe extent of damage to those series 1,000 train cars. this past june when nine people were killed, when one train crashed into the rear of a parked train, the crash worthiness of the series 1,000 cars were questioned again by the national transportation safety board. >> we were recommended. >> reporter: years earlier the ntsb had recommended that theaning cars be replaced or retrofitted. since june accident metro has been placing the series 1,000 cars in the middle of six-car trains. metro board member michael brown says they don't have the money to replace all of the older cars. >> to put in the middle of the process and that's what we've done and we hope that these accidents don't occur. safety our first priority but until we have the resources to replace them with nease new high-tech cars it's going to be very difficult. that's why wking with congress is extremely important. >> reporter: in a statement union president jackie jeter says, i am deeply troubled by the acciden at west falls church station. sunday's accident is the fourth involving metro rail workers since the fatal june 22nd crash. clearly worker and rider's safety is a problem that continues to go unresolved. some metro rider are concerned. >> especially some of these, they're like 30 years old. i think it's about time for them to be replaced, so yeah it's a big concern. >> the cars and whatever are outdated and then they need to get those out of the fleet a whatever and have the more updated cars. >> reporter: chris gordon, news4. each new train car costs about $3 million. the damage from the metro accident this weekend is estimated at more than $9 million. a d.c. council is poised for an historic vote tomorrow when it is expected to pass a bill to allow same-sex marriages in the district. representatives of the catholic archdiocese of washington were meeting with council members late monday. the church which doesn't recognize gay marriages wants to be officially exempted from paying insurance and other benefits to employees who are in same-sex marriages. the church has said the new law may force it to give up its social service contracts with the city. catholic charities receives millions of dollars for the year. a strong majority of the 13-member council supports the bill and it is expected to pass easily without significant changes. >> so we've provide them a solution that requires no legislative fix. they can follow the lead if the archdiocese in san francisco or georgetown university where they simply provide employee benefits to a domicile adult in the home of the employee. so they're not required to recognize the marriage but they are required to provide benefs that are equal to that of the heterosexual married couple. >> once the bill passes a second vote in mid-december mayor adrian fenty says he'll sign it and the bill must lay over in congress for 30 legislative days. it's unclear whether any members of congress will attempt to derate bill. beginning tomorrow virginia's no smoking law will take effect. smokers will no longer be able to light up in bars and restaurants across the commonwealth. restaurants will, however, be allowed to have a smoking area only if they segregate smokers into rooms with separate ventilation systems. the law also allows smoking on outdoor patios and in private membership clubs. violators face a $25 fine. as do restaurant owners who don't enforce the restrictions. coming up on our broadcast this evening, a world war ii plane that disappeared 65 years ago was brought up to the surface of lake michigan today. we'll tell you about an attempt to launch a privately owned rocket into space. >> even when the economy struggling and lots of sales out there it's still pretty pricey to purchase all of the items listed in the "12 days of christmas" song. good evening. bob ryan storm center it's cool out there. a little cooling on the damp side. temperatures, pretty uniform with the clouds that we've had. and the mid 40s. here you can see what's left of the rain. still some for folks down around dale city on the i-95 and also into st. mary's county. probably be a couple of hours before it really begins to clear out there. overnight tonight we're going fob seeing our temperatures here in washington drop into the 30s with some lingering sprinkles. tomorrow temperatures i think will binto the 50s as we start out december. nice day. a lot of sunshine and yet with this pattern that we have another area of storminess forming to our south. we'll move to our west. up through west virginia. so late wednesday and especially wednesday night look for some more rain coming in. perhaps a half inch of rain. after that getting cold. as we head into the weekend. right now that's very, very iffy, anything on saturday. i'll keep an eye on it though. a world war ii plane that crashed into lake michigan 65 years ago is now back on the surface. fighter plane navy hell cat was on a training mission when it crashed back in january 1945. a salvage company found the plane in 250 feet of water and got permission to retrieve it. the pilot of the plane escaped and is now 89 years old and living in georgia. there are plans to restore the plane and put it on display. new zealand's first space rocket was launched today. the privately owned rocket lifted off from great mercury island. about 50 people came to the site to watch it happen this morning. the first attempt was delayed because of technical problems but the rocket lifted off successfully just a hours later, the new zealand media reports that after the rocket reached an altitude of at least 62 miles it returned to earth and splashed into the sea. this is supposed to be the first time a privately owned rocket has been launched in the southern hemisphere. scientists working on the world's largest adam smasher reached a major milestone today. officials at the european organization for nuclear research say the large hedron clidollidcollider. protones to well above 1 trillion elect ron volts. the previous record was below 1 trillion. the scientists expect to gradually increase the acceleration until it is up to 7 trillion electron volts. according to scientific american at maximum strength the large hedron collider circulating particl particles. 900 cars traveling about 6,200 miles an hour. golf the whole project is to learn more about the origins of the universe. project barely began last year when a technical outage. the collider was restarted ten years ago. another rough monday down at redskins park. >> can't be too pleasant down there, huh, lindsay this is. >> yeah, you are right, jim and also unpleasant in the college ranks for some people. head coach charlie weis is out of luck at notre dame and also in the nfl the ravens bounce back big time and it's all about trying to find the positives today out here at redskins park but they did get production from their young guy. i just acknowledged that they played better and that they seem to be playing better each week, but just not quite good enough, huh, guys? >> yeah and that has to be absolutely maddening and i mean, wouldn't you say, hellie? >> especially and when a team is scoring points which is what they have not done all year. >> take our telgtoscopics out yet. they had to do that with the defensive end jeremy jarmin this afternoon and they know also that clinton portis still will not be able to play, though he may practice this week but he won't be ready to go against the new orleans saints so a big deal but i want to say is i feel you get the idea that this steam not deflated yet. >> also talk about a coach losing the locker room, obviously jim zorn is in limbo right now not knowing whether he'll be back next year or not. he's not lost this locker room and the amazing thing is that the coaching staff and the players despite all of the injuries almost becoming more comfortable with this awkward situation. >> yeah and it is an awkward situation and part of that awkwardness is the play-calling scenario that everybody talks about, multiple people working together to call plays. obviously something that jim zorn did not ask for but today we there a chance to talk to coach zorn. how impressive this team has been, the offense's starting to click and for the first time he really said that sherm lewis is making a difference in the play-calling. so as you remember about a month and a half ago sherm lewis was brought in to call the plays for e redskins. the losses obviously have been almost unbearable considering how close we've said that the redskins have come and they visibly though have improved on offense. they're scoring points. they've been able to establish a rhythm. therefore, keep that confidence that is going to hold them in games until end even if the outcome isn't what they want. zorn today acknowledged that part of that success is because of sherm lewis calling plays. >> i think it's been a help. we've been scoring points. the way we've done it has created some sense of rhythm to our plan. we work hard to get everything down right. and it's working. >> so the way that it has been working obviously is sherm lewis up there in the booth with quarterback/coach chris. but it was interesting to hear zorn say that i know that he obviously is able to focus now more on things that he feels is very important so clearly it's making a difference. >> and we could say that sherm lewis does exists. he's kind of an invisible man. yeah i talked to him a little while ago too. good guy. he's in a tough situation but he's making the best of it. >> yeah he certainly is. >> and we're talking about the receivers which is something that sherm lewis might had been involved in in terms frpt young guys getting them more involved. finally a relatively productive bunch. there's a number that i want to share with you guys. it's absolutely staggering. last season they combined for just 165 receiving yards the entire season. yesterday against the eagles, 139. malcolm kelly, devon thomas playing well. the two wide receivers took turns. devon thomas a career day. four catches for 46 yards and including a big 35-yard catch. malcolm kelly had a nice game as well with two catches for 50 yards. kelly and thomas just thankful that they're finally getting their chances to make plays. >> the last two, three weeks you know they've been giving me opportunities and i've been coming through. all three of us. and that's the main thing is right now is just because all of the slack and the heat we've been taking for so long and now to be able to go out and show people that we can play football. >> i think with more opportunities we'll keep growing and showcasing what we can do. you try to step up for the team. try to make a play help us win the game out here. >> you enjoy it and then when you lose it doesn't matter. so i don't know. i think that you take it as we got a little bit better today. see what we can do next week. >> fred davis, 27 catchriesit now for 266 yards and two touchdowns. by the end of the season, he will likely be the second leading receive or this team. he's the guy who's been the most involved because he's playing that chris cooley role and chris cooley was -- he really was a guy who is like jason campbell's blanket. throw to himach time. >> him and also antwaan randlel. although they are lose staying key for them to show that they can contribute in these losses and of course they're still all playing as a team but that the point you realize that they are in a sense playing for next year as well and i guess you could say that they always are. the redskins will have another opportunity by the way which is ironic to watch their next opponent tonight on "monday night football" and that's because the new orleans saints are playing the patriots. last night it was the ravens and steelers and let me tell you this one went down to the wire. take you back to the field. ben roethlisberger was out because of the concussion so his backup dennis dixon is in. the backup looked good here in the second quarter. the steelers have the ball. dennis dixon fakes the handoff. goes right throws dart to santonio holmes. holmes does the rest. gets into the end zone a 33-yard touchdown. it's dixon's first career touchdown pass. big ben very happy about that one as you might imagine. just before halftime the ravens, they strike back. joe flacco throws the prettyfide derek mapson. mason goes up. fourth quarter, steelers trail by four. dixon responds. he decides to run it himself. gets a great block. he was got plenty of room to run. he scampers 24 yards for his first career rushing touchdown. pittsburgh leads by three. his family loves it. the game goes to o.t. tied at 17, baltimore's billy cundiff. that is good. 20-17 in overtime. ray lewis. tied at 6-5. moving from football to the nba. the washington wizards they had a rough weekend. i was down that the game and it was not too impressive against charlotte. >> return the waiting for this team turn around at 5-10. you know that they are better. >> today they were back at practice because preparing to plain floent toronto tomorrow. go to the court. the players know how important a week this is. they've got four games in six days. who schedules that? after 15 games the team is just 5-10. we know it's hard to believe and they're in last place in the division. on saturday night the wizards only scored 76 points. antawn jamison knows what will help the team's morale. >> i just think you know four, five victories in a row will you know ease things around here especially in the locker room. the excuses as far as it's still ner early in the season. the more and more you play you're what almost a month and a half into the season now so we just got to fix games like that where we just have games like what we did in san antonio. games like that. you can't have too many of those within the same one. >> i think when you play, how you did play against dallas and how you played against cleveland for three quarters or how you did against miami and you have to understand that's -- that's -- you know that's bottle of magic that you have to perform at that level consistently. >> and another note in college football news, charlie weis is out at notre dame. he's been fired after four years as the head coach there. his record in those years 35-27. so actually in five seasons. >> yeah just one not going back to you guys they have to give him $16 million as a departure package. >> yes and that wasn't daunting to them and so obviously that's one of the questions that is answering if maryland is going to see a similar situation as far as ralph freeiesen and his b security. redskins are turning around this focus quickly for the saints. >> tough team. >> see you guys. >> all right, thanks, guys. coming up on our broadcast this evening, the date known as cyber-monday, wei tell you,retails in trying to attract online shoppers this holiday season. buying efrgz mentioned in the song "12 days of christmas" is getting more expensive. while i was building my friendships, my family, while i was building my life, my high cholesterol was contributing to plaque buildup in my arries. that's why my doctor prescribed crestor. she said plaque buildup in arteries is a real reason to lower cholesterol. and that along with diet, crestor does morthan lower bad cholesterol, it raises good. crestor is also proven to slow the buildup of plaque in arteries. crestor isn't for everyone, like people with liver disease, or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. simple blood tests will check for liver problems. you should tell your doctor about other medicines you are taking, or if you have muscle pain or weakness. that could be a sign of serious side effects. while you've been building your life, plaque may have been building in your arteries. find out more about slowing the buildup of plaque at crestor.com. then ask your doctor if it's time for crestor. announcer: if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. good evening, bob ryan storm center4. still some lingering rain out to the eastern suburbs. buoy over towards annapolis and southern maryland and fredericksburg, that will continue to move out over the next couple of hours. a lot of sunshine tomorrow. could be some morning fog around but temperatures as we start out december will be into the 50s and another batch of rain, rain, he says, a very confidently, late wednesday into wednesday night. after that some chillier weather as we head on into the ekend. back to you. >> thanks, bob. tonight at 11:00 congresswoman eleanor holmes nort y norton. a new report that linkings the salahis with a senior official at pentagon. firefighters in maryland described how they barely escapea backdraft that left anous ashes and goodwill is looking for all kinds of donations this time of year. it's cyber-monday and retailers are cautiously optimistic after the first weekend of the holiday shopping season. overall black friday sales were up half a percent from last year but totals from the overall weekend show consumers spent less on average compared to last year. the bright spot retailers are focusing on, online sales. michelle franzen has our report. >> reporter: it is the day when virtual reality stores come to life. cyber-monday, an estimated 1 in 3 americans are expected to shop with the click of a mouse today and just like black friday door busters online retailers are offering screen buster deals and free shipping to make the sale. >> 90% of online retailers are offering special promotions just here in day for consumers. >> reporter: that is because online shopping is the place retailers see the most potential. this year online sales are expected to jump 8%. >> people don't want to fight the crowds and love the 24/7 convenience of the internet. so what retailers are doing is really trying to do a better job of integrating their stores and their websites so that people can shop in whatever manner they choose. >> reporter: at this amazon distribution center in phoenix, workers cheered. >> yay! >> reporter: and geared up for a busy season of shipping. >> cyber-monday is a busy, busy day. it rivals black friday. >> reporter: but this year cyber-monday started early. ebay kicked off deals the day after thanksgiving. walmart and amazon.com are competing with online price wars. proof, the analysts say the online shopping day has evolved from the origil shop at work monday. >> cyber-monday's become a little of a myth. it really originated when people didn't have the same access to high-speed internet at home that they do today. >> reporter: shoppers have also changed. they are making lists, sticking to budgets and willing to search and wait for a lower price, which means this shopping season will likely be a marathon, not a sprint, to the finish. in new york, michelle franzen, news4. every year at this time certified kbienters at places like pnc welt management add up exactly what it would dost give your true love all of the items in the song called "the 12 days of christmas." it could be argued that putting a dollar figure on such a quest takes the romance out of it. we understand that. but we'll do it anyhow. according to the people pnc would it cost more than $87,000 to buy all of the items listed in the song beginning with a partflinl a pair tree and ening with 12 drummers drumming. price is nearly $800 higher than last year. the privacy gold has gone up so much. as for trying to cut cost by buying it all online, forget about it. as tony might say. the experts say it would add an extra $10,000 to fill the list online. that's because of shipping costs for all of those birds. the turtle doves. the french hens,