Will be bright and sunny. It will be windy and cold throughout the day. Wind chills in the morning is brutal. Its going to be 10 at joint base andrews and it wont change much throughout the day. There will be sunshine and a little improvement on friday. Not because the air warms up but the wind chill will diminish. There is a wind chill advisory in effect late tonight along the blue ridge and points west in the mountains. A twoday deal tomorrow and friday. We will pull out on saturday. When i join you here in 15 minutes we will talk about a wintry mix possibly on friday before it warms up. Michelle . Michelle thank you. A big question for some parents and students will school buses start on a sub freezing morning. It has been a problem in the past. Q mccray is in arlington with how schools are making sure everyone gets to the destination on time tomorrow. Q, what is the plan . Q yeah, well, listen the students on time, michelle, they have to start early here. At the Arlington CountyPublic School system bus yard. At 4 00 a. M. When the start team shows up. What does the start team do . What the name suggests. They get on the buses. And they start the engines. Its as simple as that. The start team is made up of the bus drivers who are called in early on weather emergency days. The other bus drivers still show up at 5 00 a. M. To check the fluid and the tire pressure. But the start team is important because all the buses run on diesel fuel. When its cold outside and freezing temperatures they have a trouble starting. They may stall or they may not start at all. That is important that the start team gets here at 4 00 a. M. The bus may not start in the morning and we need the buses to take the kids. We do not want the kids standing on the corner for 30, 40 minutes waiting for thes but that bo Public School district has 170 buses. At any given time they are transporting 13,000 students. So safety is their paramount concern. I reached out to the other major School Districts in the d. M. V. You will hear what they are playing for tonight at 5 30. For now that is the latest live from arlington, im q mccray, abc7 news. Alison thank you. Dont miss weather, traffic, school and breaking news alerts. Download the abc7 news app from the app store and google play. Well, actor alan thicke died suddenly yesterday. He was playing hockey with his 19yearold son when he suffered a heart attack. Thicke is perhaps most known for his role as one of americas fathers, a star of the 1980 sitcom growing pains. But as kidd oshea shows us, there is much more to his career and his family life. Show me that smile again kidd alan thi growing pains. According to his website the show is still syndicated in over 65 countries. What . You are not excited about seeing yourself in diapers will drool running down your chin . Kidd you may not have known he hosted dozens of game shows and tried to take on Johnny Carson with thicke of the night and he is credited launching alex trebeks career. Alan thicke was a composure of the original 1975 theme song for wheel of fortune and facts of life and different strokes. He never saw a tv until he was 7 years old. According to the New York Times he grew up in a small town in ontario, canada where they didnt have tv. He appeared on an episode of fuller house on netflix. He posted season two looking good. I even like the ones im not in. That his friend posted on twitter last night Carter Thicke, his 19yearold son who was skating with him at the time of his heart attack took to twitter and said i love you, pops. Jonathan i dont know how it could happen. Unless he had a history of it. Alison the news came as a surprise to many people. Jonathan Lindsey Mastis is in the newsroom with the express of shock displayed on the social media. As soon as this happened, social media went nutty. Lindsey absolutely. Not just celebrity friends, hi tamly member is reaching out on media. They are in disbelief but they want to let the world know how impactful he was on their life. On growing pains and she said, i loved alan. He was one of the smartest and funniest men i have ever known. We shared a life changing success and friendship. Kansas who plays d. J. On fuller house and full house she said she is saddened beyond words. Her brother was an actor on growing pains as well. This is the photo that kidd showed of Carter Thicke saying he lost his best friend and his idol as well. The celebrity tweets keep coming through. Talking about how much he loved hockey and his family. How at a loss they are. But, of course, there are a lot of fans who are at a loss as well. They grew up with him as their tv dad as well. Back to you. Jonathan all right. Thanks. A sad passing. Appreciate it. Today was Silicon Valley day at trump tower. Representatives from the Top Tech Companies meeting with donald trump as he continues to fil cabinet. Karen travers has the latest on the trump transition. Karen sitting down with leaders from the top companies. To be there for you. You call my people. You call me. It doesnt make any difference. There is no formal chain of command. Karen Silicon Valley is not exactly Friendly Campaign for trump. In july, 140 tech executives and entrepreneurs wrote in an open letter that trump would be a disaster for innovation. Due to the views on immigration and the global economy. None of todays attendees signed that letter. Trump announcing wednesday he picked former Texas Governor rick perry to lead the department of energy, an organization he once said he an agency he once said he would eliminate. And he offered interior secretary job to ryan zinke, a retired navy seal. Both selections have been criticized by environmental and clean energy groups. But the pick for secretary of state that is drawing bipartisan potential conflicts of interest. Last night trump launched a Public Defense of his choice of Rex Tillerson who has had a long relationship with russian president vladimir putin. Rex is friendly with many of the leaders in the world that we dont get along with. No surprise, russians have been effusive of their praise. He is getting more love from russia than people in the United States senate. Donald trump has not yet announced his picks to lead the department of agriculture and veteran affairs. Mike pence says the work of the Transition Team will continue in the holidays. Reporting from northwest, karen travers, abc7 news. Michelle Goldman Sachs the big Investment Bank is getting ready to replace gary cohen who is tapped to lead trumps policy team. Two current members will cochief operating officers in the new chief. Alison 7 on your side with a consumer alert. The Federal Reserve will raise a key Interest Rate for the thirst time in a year. So here is what it means for you. Student and car loans as well as the fixed rate mortgages should see little to no impact. Adjustment rate mortgages, credit card loans could rise. The news of the fed rate hike was not received well on wall street. The three key u. S. Indices plunged in afternoon trading. Jonathan i hate when it happens be it has been going up nonstop. Still ahead for us at 4 00, the major air carriers that are joining forces. Michelle annual tradition in the district comes to an end. Alison also next the yearly reminder to water your tree. How fast it can ruin your christmas. And the number of calls across the country firefighters respond to every year. One former employee says uber through information uber gets your hand on when you ride. Im scott taylor. Up next, a 7 on your side alert if you need to watch jonathan a 7 on your side consumer alert. Ads forgettlemaning forget getting it there overnight . How about in minutes . Jeff Bezos Company made the first drone delivery on the 7th of delivery in england. He says it took 13 minutes from click to delivery. Jonathan wow alison here is what the customer ordered. An amazon fire streaming device and popcorn. Michelle its probably still warm. Alison probably was. Michelle amazing. Jonathan that is the future of things. Uber drivers using a tracking device to spy on you. Michelle information uncovered claims that uber is doing that. Jonathan 7 on your side Investigative Reporter scott taylor says if its true its creepy. Scott we discovered startling claims that employees at uber may have been able to track anyone from celebrities to even you. According to a court filing by a former uber investigator. As part of a wrongful term night lawsuit he alleges that ubers lack of security regarding the customers data was resulting in employees being able profile politicians, celebrities and personal acquaintances. The data included the trip origin, the trip destination, the route taken and the type of route. We spoke with him. He said it was ongoing problem. Since so many people had wide access, anybody could look up anything. Uber shared a warning, you may not access the account of anyone you know personally or celebrity. A lot of the apps on that we use have pretty intrusive privacy items on there. Roads but ubers doesnt believe they need approval because drivers are in the test cars. Jonathan that is also creepy. Retail sales were sluggish in november. Up not by a lot but almost four per season tage up from last year. That is good news. This might have been on the christmas list. Check it out. Dont bet on finding them under the tree. You know what they are . Apples highly anticipated air pods. The shipping time is four weeks. That is well past christmas. But they will be available in stores next week. They will be 160. Abc7 on traffic watch this afternoon. Jamie sullivan is keeping an eye on the ride home. It looks me not as many crashes but lets talk about the slows spots. 20 minutes on the inner loop from tysons to the American Legion bridge. A live look to show you how heavy the inner loop traffic is. Clear from mcclain. Slow patch from 66. But that is the only area on the outer loop in the northwest corner. Seeing the outer loop delay on the bottom of the beltway. 395, slowing for you crossing the 14th street bridge to average 12 miles per hour. You can see volume here. The wizards game later tonight at the verizon center. We will see heavy traffic inbound as well as the typical outbound. Bottom side near the wilson bridge we have the volume. 95 past the occoquan southbound you can see the volume. If you are heading further south to triangle we have volume. Like i said, there are no big crashes. Michelle . Thank you. Check this out. This is about as big as a scare as you can have on the roads. S. U. V. Slides off a minneapolis road and into an icy monday. The aftermath all caught on camera. People pulling over to run to help while the woman who was behind the wheel climbed out the back to start breaking through the back window. Here is what one person said. I knew she was heading to the pond. I called 911. I said close your eyes. There is a lot of glass. We pulled her out of the vehicle. Michelle great work. The driver told police the windows fogged up and she couldnt see. Jonathan its not just one person running down the hill. Half a dozen to Work Together and get her out. Alison thank goodness it way daytime and they could see her vehicle. Jonathan scary. Doug good point. Michelle get ready for really cold air. We have had cold fronts but its going to female like the middle of winter. This afternoon, get a look at what is going to happen in the next couple of hours. We will see a steady increase in cloudiness. Temperatures drop from 40 to 30s. Later tonight around 11 00 that the computer models indicate that the time the front will arrive. Its accompanied by now snowshowers, area of flurry and maybe south of the metro area light rain at times. If there is any accumulation, it looks as if it will be the east and the washington. Maybe on the part of the Eastern Shore of maryland. It clears out and the winds will pick up and the temperature will drop. Then we have lower temperatures and the high winds. The winds chills will tank. As a pint of comparison in the past five years this is when we had each year the first measure rabble snowfall at reag measurable snowfall at Reagan National airport. It didnt happen last year until the 16 of january. December 2016 december 26, 2012. Sometimes we wait a while for the first snow. I point that out because projections here say places like joint base andrews, eastern superb to annapolis may pick up. 2 of an inch. A possibility as the polar air plunges across the area. We know the bus stop will be sunshine. But it will be windy. Very cold. The temperatures are dropping a degree or two in the day. We will have the single digit wind chills throughout the day around the region up on friday. We have sunshine in the morning. The clouds increase. The next system is organized friday everything. This is 11 30 friday night. Snow could develop with a wintry mix to the west. Cold front approaches. This keeps most of the action north of washington. But a brief wintry mix saturday morning is a possibility. Then it may dry out later saturday. Another stronger front is bringing rain and maybe heavy rain later on sunday. In the meantime, there is the big change. 20s the next couple of days. 50 degrees. Any morning mix will change to rain on saturday. Sunday rain is developing. Becoming windy. 58. Cold or the clearing weather monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday. Looking ahead to Christmas Eve ten days away, the skies are partly sunny with the temperatures 51. Jonathan thanks. Coming up next for us at abc7 news at 4 00 it was an attempted robbery. He saw the camera. That stopped him. We will let you know where striking next. Alison it cant be said enough. You have to take precautions with the Christmas Tree. We will show you how fast one can burn. Michelle its the season of porch pirating. Alison this is a new one. Stoop scrooges. Pretty clever, right . Jonathan these are nice terms. The people owning the homes where the packages are stolen nice alison using bad words. Jonathan some of the guys are getting caught. 7 on your side fighting back, this is horace holmes. This is your beat now. Its nice when they catch a knucklehead. Horace lets help. This one didnt get away with the package. That the good news. Look at the picture, though. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when you are caught with your hand in cookie jar. Prince georges county police sharing this. A man tried to snatch a package from a home in the 4100 of ellis street in capitol heights, maryland. The camera catches him. A week ago today around lunchtime. We were joined today by detectives with advice to protect your porch. We do really encourage people to purchase or somehow acquire cameras for the front of their house. It makes our job easier. If you do go back and look at his face, think is worth the price of any surveillance camera. Horace the doorbell cameras are good, too. You can talk to them and scare them. See pictures like that on the special web page. Log on to wjla. Com. Under the 7 on your side tab click on porch priorities. We have posted it if you want to take another look at the guy. When we post the videos on the web page, update you throughout the holiday. The shipping and the shopping season, if you recognize any of the suspected porch pirates contact the police. They would love with the homeowners to catch them. Jonathan did you see the viral video of the person with so many things stolen they put a timer in a box. It blows up with something in it. Yard droppings. That is waun way to get rid of them. Thank you. Jonathan coming up next, up in flames. Christmas ruin if you dont take precautions with the tree. You wont believe how fast the tree can go up in flames. We will show you up next. Michelle we take you shopping with the cops. The new unlikely bond and the friendship forged between d. C. Police officers and the Young Children getting a special holiday treat. Alison coming up at 5 00, a doctor set out on a Cross Country return an his family grew along the way. The amazing journey and how the d. C. Children will benefit at why are you checking your credit score . You dont want to ride the 13l forever, do you . [woman laughing] credit karma, huh . Credit karma. Give yourself some credit. Announcer youre watching abc7 news at 4 00. On your side. Jonathan by now its a safe bet that a lot of folks have the Christmas Tree up. Alison tonight an important reminder to water it. Michelle we sent John Gonzalez for the university of maryland for an important demonstration. John we are inside the Fire ProtectionEngineering Department at the university of maryland. Witnessing dramatic demonstrations. The engineers showing us how quickly the beautiful Christmas Tree inside the home can go from this to this in seconds. Take a look. This is a natural tree watered its still fully engulfed in under 30 seconds. The nationwide numbers are startling. Christmas tree the five times deadlier than a regular house fire with 230 house calls around the country each year and average of six deaths. Take a look at this. This is a very dry fir, the difference is alarming. Fully immersed in ten seconds. It gives you an idea if its in the living room how little time you have before it turns into a tragedy. This is really important to make people aware of the tremendous hazards that are associated with the Christmas Tree. Especially if its not properly cared for and watered on a daily basis. The unwatered tree, the fire goes up quickly to the point that you cant do anything or much about it once it gets going. The essence, the essential piece has to be that you stop that event from starting. Statistically most of the Christmas Tree fires happens is still inside the home but being