Studio to break it down for use. Good morning. Slashing saturday mail delivery is a big move that the usps must be done. Heres what it means for you. Starting august 1st, the post office stops delivering and collecting first class mail and letters on saturdays. However, they will continue to deliver packages six days a week. Now, if your post office is normally open on saturdays, thats not going to change. However, u. S. Postmaster general patrick announced today there will be hours reduced in 9,000 offices across the country. Saturday service cuts would save 2 billion annually but they need 20 billion to close the debt gap. They have lost 41 billion over the past six years as more people turn to email and online bill pay options. Our new approach is based on a great deal of customer input. It reflects a Strong Demand for Package Delivery on saturdays and it still engables the Postal Service to achieve significant cost reductions. And donahue says theyre going to focus more on Package Delivery, anner where theres been 14 growth over the last couple of years. The agency continues to ask congress for help. And if lawmakers dont act soon the usps could come close to running out of money by mid march. And its still not clear if eliminating these saturday services can be done without congressional approval but the postmaster general did say today that the agency believes it is a legal move. Angie goff, news 4. Just a few minutes ago the boy scouts of americas executive board announced they delayed a decision on whether to lift a ban on gay scouts and leaders, a decision that was supposed to take place today. This is breaking news just in to our newsroom. The board said it will take action on this issue during the National Meeting in may. Last week the board announced it was considering overturning the ban and leaving tissue up for local troops to decide. Gay rights advocates are thrilled about the potential change but some scout leaders say it goes against their values. I think fairminded americans know that discrimination is wrong and that the boy scouts were out of step of america by excluding gay young people and telling nongay children that discrimination was an american value. Its not hate. Its not bigotry. Its a choice about how to raise my children and what i perceive to be my christian values. If yours are different, great. Take your values in places where you have people that agree with you. Earlier this week president obama supported the boy scouts ending its ban on gay members and scout leaders. They say they should have the same access and opportunities everyone else does. Virginia rail ek press is now inspecting tracks. Two incidents caused delays around an hour and a half this morning. Crews say it had a broken csx rail on one track and disabled Freight Train on an alternate track. It stopped all trains at the brook station in stafford. When it resumed they could only go four miles an hour at one point. Vre expects to have normal service by this afternoon. Are there any other problems . Who do we ask . Of course, danella sealock with the traffic. Right now the traffic, tracking two. Police are we responding to the first one, i95 southbound in maryland at the icc. Theyre responding to an accident in that area. So far not seeing delays. But if this is your commute, give yourself extra time and use caution. Lets shoot inbound 50 at collington. Now heres a live way at the beltway in green belt. You can see the loops. As far as accidents, nice and clear. Even as you head towards the bridge. No accidents to report. Both chambers of the General Assembly passed bills to increase the fines and make texting while driving a primary offense. The fines would jump from 20 to 250, making it a primary offense means police will be able to pull you over if they see you texting while behind the wheel. Right now its a secondary offense which means police can only give you a ticket if they pulled you over for another violation. A house bill in virginia has Virginia GovernorBob Mcdonnell saying it is his last chance to change the states transportation funding system. The state senate rejected two amendments. The remaining house bill gets rid of the gas tax as the governor wanted and makes the sales tax 5. 5 . But the legislation cuts mcdonnells proposed 100 fee for hybrid and alternative fuel cars. Turning to the weather. We are starting to see a little clearing and a little sunshine. What does that mean . Storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein with the first forecast. Pleasant february morning under way. Weve had a quite a bit of wind thats been picking up over the last 12 hours. We had the cloud cover early predawn break up. This is the latest view from space looking down. You can see that cloud cover just north of washington and into northern Prince Georges County and Montgomery County and farther north there, howard county. A lot of cloudiness there in the mountains. South, Charles County and calvert and tt marys, an arund arundel. Bright and sunny in fair fooks county and Prince William and parts of Loudoun County have some sunshine but its all sunny farther south towards stafford and spotsylvania where temperatures are warmer. Already in the upper 40s there. Reagan national is at 46. Under the clouds north and west, temperatures there are only in the mid and upper 30s. These are the temperatures right around the bell way in the nearby suburbs in Prince Georges County now, mid 40s, near 40 in Montgomery County. Low to mid 40s in arlington and fairfax and in washington. Well, theres a potential major winter storm thats going to be affecting the northeast. Well look at that and what its impact may be here. Your sevenday outlook is coming right up, keith. Tom, see you instudio in just a few. All right. A new bill introduced in d. C. Could make it harder for students to cheat on standardized exams. It would also establish a series of integrityprotocols and require Security Training for proctors and monitors. Cheating claims reported high rates of wrong to righter ray showers on tests at more than 100 schools. New this morning. A d. C. Public schoolteacher is getting a National Educator award worth 25,000. The surprise announcement happened this morn at ann beers elementary school. Megan mcgrath was there and joins us live to tell us what happened. Tell us a it. It was a big surprise, barbara. You can see the sign behind me, ann be anne beers elementary school, home of the cheetahs. Now its home to one of the best teachers in the country. It was billed as a celebration of school achievement. But when philanthropist took the microphone it soon became obvious that Something Special was afoot. How much is this now . Reporter with help of the students he used flash card to write out the number 25,000. Then came the big surprise. The third grade teacher, Jacqueline Simms, was getting a check for that amount, 25,000. She had no idea. Oh, my gosh. Im completely surprised. Completely surprised. Im in awe. I never would have imagined that i would have been receiving this award today. Reporter Jacqueline Simms is the winner of the milken educator award, an honor given to teachers who ro moat excellence in schools and have had an exceptional im pat in the lives of students. As a young child ive always wanted to teach. Im just really inspired. I want people to learn. And i just get really passionate about that. Aha moment, and so i wake up every day and this is what i enjoy doing. Reporter while simms was surprised, they say she was an obvious choice. Her creativity, her flexible, her willingness to do more than the norm, more thann uncanny ab create structure. Reporter simms is an advocate of students with special needs and has worked to include students of all learning levels in the general classroom. Simms was among the teachers who who started a saturday school program, math and reading scores went up and beers elementary was named a 2012 award school. She was been a passionate advocate for the students. She has a lot of tenacity. We call her around here the pit bull because she knows how to get something done, she knows how to pull the best out of every staff member, she knows how to pull the best out of ively student. She has a student i lovingly call sidekick. Last year you did not hear anything t from the child. She was very quiet. Very reserved. This year shes has just blossomed in ms. Simms class. Reporter she says ms. Simms has taut her a lot. She helped me with my reading. Last year i was down on my reading and now im high. Reporter what will simms do with the 25,000 . She says she doesnt really know. Remember, that she was completely caught off guard by this. She did not have a plan. However, during the program, before she got the award, the topic of motorcycles came up. So after she learned she was the winner and that she was getting 25,000, she said, perhaps there might be a harley in her future. In southeast, megan mcgrath, news 4. Barbara, back to you. Thats fantastic. She deserves whatever she decides she wants to use it for. Nothing better than a fabulous teacher. Thank you so much. Okay. Sure. In other news we could learn more about secret Court Proceedings in the case of the man convicted of killing chandra lee i have. The judge will hold a hearing this afternoon to discuss reporters request about information about those closed proceedings. We arent sure what the meetings were about. He said last month he may have had his conviction thrown out or may have his conviction thrown out because a key witness in the trial was not credible. We expect to learn more information about the health of a georgetown man charged with murder. A judge will decide who he can continue acting as his own attorney. Mooth was taken to the hospital last month because he hasnt eaten since december. He is set to go to trial next month for the death of his 91yearold wife. Mooth claims his wifes death was the result of an iranian hit intended for him. And new this morning, a policeinvolved shooting as landed a man in the hospital and injured an officer. It started as a call for domestic dispute. Just after 11 00 on 13th street and northwest. Officers say when they entered a home there they ran into a man with a knife. One of the officers fired his gun. The suspect was shot in the face, but hes in stable condition, we understand. One of the officers suffered a minor injury. Both people are expected to be okay. Positive news now. Prince William County has a new police chief. Last night county supervisors named Steven Hudson chief of police. A 30year vet of the department, hudson joined the force as a Patrol Officer and worked his way up through the ranks. He replaces charlie bean who retired last year after 24 years on the job. 11 12 is our time right now. Coming up, the latest on a powerf powerful earthquake and the tsunami generated by that quake. Theyre t not here to promote a movie or tv show. The serious issue that has some hollywood stars backing lawmakers right here in d. C. St not exactly a warm welcome for iranian president mack muld ahmadinejad in egypt. Four men are custody after this protest. Cameras caught one man throwing a shoe at ahmadinejad. The iranian leader was visiting an ancient mosque in cairo. He wasnt hurt. Throwing a shoe in the arab world is a sign of extreme disrespect. Egypt and iran have had a strained relationship for decades. Major concerns building this morning over a white house policy discovered yesterday that allows americans to be targets of drone strikes. Nbc news obtained an internal memo that says u. S. Citizens that are top leaders can be considered that kind of strike. The potential targets also dont have to be charge with a crime. Legal analysts say that threatens constitutional rights. It is a chilling document. It sets out the governments claimed authority to carry out the targeted killing of american citizens but the limits are really vague and elastic and is very easy to see how they could be manipulated. It really is unreasonable to expect that the u. S. Will always have specific evidence about a plot. Instead, this allows some flexibility. The obama separation says they are confident strikes follow federal and international law. The pentagon is expected to announce this week a policy change that would extend some military benefits to samesex couples. Partners could have access to base gyms, commission sar shopping and theaters. The allowances would likely not Cover Health Care benefits. The military would likely require documentation that documents Service Member samesex spouse. Right now president obama is in annapolis at the Democratic Senate caucus. Hes urging fellow democrats to help prevent billions of dollars in spending cuts from taking effect. Hes calling on the senate to pass a shortterm deal that would avert whats known as sequestration. Millions of dollars in domestic and defense spending cuts will automatically take effect march 1st if no budget deal is reached. And deja vu all over again for john kerry. He will sworn in again as secretary of state. Vice President Joe Biden will administer the oath during a ceremonial swearing in this afternoon at the state department. Kerry was officially sworn in last friday. At least six people are dead and three others injured after a massive 8. 0 earthquake in the solomon islands. This is new video we have from you for the Western Solomon islands far away from where the earthquake hit. There was a tsunami warning hours ago but its been canceled. The quake did cause two smaller tsunamis damaging 50 buildings and homes. Its too early to fully assess the damage and complete death toll until they can get into the damaged and destroyed buildings. Storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein joins us now. Thats a pretty scary scene over there, isnt it, in that part of the world . Depends on the underwater topography and the type of quake, whether theres going to be a big tsunami. Here, well, weve had february acting like february of all things. And weve had some wonderful photos sent in from space looking down on the planet by one of the space station astronauts. Look at this view of the andes moun takens from south america, you can see the curvature of the earth. That thin blue glow there, thats the atmosphere. Its really thin. Only about ten miles deep. Heres another Photo Looking straight down on new york city at night on a clear night taken also by chris hadfield, the International Space station astronaut. This an amazing picture looking straight down on part of the out back of australia. It looks like a modern art painting. Theres amazing color there and different types of striations there on the topography. Wonderful photos by chris hadfield, International Space station astronaut. And ive been tweeting some of these and putting these on the facebook, too. Great to follow along with that. Right now Reagan National is at 46. Theres a live picture of the washington monument. Northwest wind about 15, occasionally gusting to around 30 miles an hour. Other temperatures now in the mid 40s in fairfax and Arlington County and prince georges, charles, calvert, st. Marys. Theres more cloudiness west. Northern Prince Georges County where temperatures there upper 30s to around 40 degrees. Wide variety of temperatures this afternoon. These are expected highs around rather, these are the current temperatures. Right now near 50 in culpeper and in fredericksburg a bunch of southern maryland, mid 40s. Only in the miffed 30 nasdaq western maryland and cumberland and hagerstown. Just the upper 30s. And its all cloudy there. Now, expected highs this afternoon all depending on the cloud cover which over the last 12 hours weve had that cloudiness really pretty muc hanging in just north of washington but all sunny down to the south as a result certainly going to be milder there with where the sunshine is. Hour by hour through the day, around the metro area, see the temperature. Perhaps hitting the upper 40s in washington and the nearby suburbs here. The next couple of hours. Not going to last long. And then a plummet midnight to near freezing again. The winds gusting 20, 25 miles an hour. As we go forward here throughout the rest of the day today well have the cloud cover breaking up a little bit this afternoon and overnight tonight into tomorrow, clouds close in by thursday afternoon. This is the leading edge of some rain moving in. This is as of late thursday night around 11 00 p. M. And off to our south and west. This area in lavender is a potential mix of maybe some snow, sleet, and freezing rain. This is as of dawn on friday. Rain elsewhere. And then just a wet day on friday. May end as a little bit of a mix north of washington on friday night. So weve got big changes on the way here. Fourday forecast showing that. Its going to be a little bit chillier tomorrow. On friday that morning mix bay be just all rain the rest of the metro area. Not much of an impact even where the mix is. Over the weekend, sun returns. Breezy and cold on saturday. Warmer sunday, up near 50. Nice day. On monday, maybe some more rain. Highs in the low 50s mondaytuesday of next week. Im ready for spring. Its ready for us, too. Lets head to the roads. Heres danella. Good morning. Barbara, im checking up on an accident reported just a moment ago. Good news, as you make your way inbound 50 at collington road, accident was blocking the right lane, its gone now. Lets head to the beltway and construction on the inner loop 3 once you get to rockville pike, you will start to hit the brakes and heres why. Barrels are out and it is blocking your left lanes. Back over to you both. Thanks, danella. 11 23 is the time. Still ahead, the votes are in. Going to tell you the changes being made to the game of monopoly. Always expect a man to be paul ryan fekt. A perfect