2007. Dramatically lower gas prices can take the credit or the blame if you hit a lot of traffic. The National Average for a gallon of regular is 50 cents lower this year than it was one year ago. We want to find out whats going on with the weather as you get ready to round out the weekend. Temperatures moving in the right direction compared to this time yesterday. Were already warmer. Look at the 24 temperature increase. Temperatures anywhere of five to ten degrees warmer than this time yesterday. You can see washington right now looking at a temperature improvement of about seven degrees. Enjoy the warmth. Its here today, its here tomorrow. Gone by tuesday. Storm team 4 radar shows dry conditions across the area generally quiet travel weather today. Take a closer look at travel weather in ten minutes. Your morning and early afternoon planner temperature coming in of 43 degrees right now. Already fairly comfortable outside. Relatively speaking. 9 00 a. M. Partly sunny skies, temperature of 44. Partly to mostly sunny skies throughout the day by noon. Temperature in the mid50s. 3 00 well hit our High Temperature of 60 degrees. Mild tomorrow as well. An then dramatically colder by tuesday. Not only that but some rain and a bit of a wintry mix in the forecast. Ill have the latest timing. This morning a man is waking up in jail charged with killing a College Student from Montgomery County. Police say Shannon Jones boyfriend strangled her on thanksgiving. Her belly dancing troupe remembered her in a post. The Ferguson Police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown says hell never be a Police Officer again. Darren wilson resigned. He said the Ferguson Police department has been receiving death threats. Hes been on administrative leave since Michael Brown shooting back in august. His Resignation Letter reads it was my hope to continue in police work, but the safety of other Police Officers and the community are of paramount importance to me. It is my hope that my resignation will allow the community to heal. You may have seen some of these sense from yesterday. Hundreds spreading out across our area to continue protesting the grand jurys decision not to charge wilson for killing brown. Crowds stopped traffic in chinatown and georgetown and in virginia people took over the food court in Pentagon City. Their message we wont stand for it. They claim there was no justice in Michael Browns case. As derrick ward reports they are making their voices heard by stopping people in their tracks. Reporter they spent most of saturday in the streets, penn city, chinatown, georgetown, the reaction of the activities in ferguson. Its no accident these protests were held where they were at the start of the Holiday Shopping season. Were going to raise awareness of people. Reporter they did that. They raised the ire of some motorists who found themselves and cars in the middle of a movement outside of Pentagon City. Motorists exchanged words with protesters and had to be escorted. Once there were sit ins now die ins a reference to the reasons and events that got them here but protesters say go beyond reason events. Its a Greater Movement for Racial Justice and equality for everyone. Coming up today on meet the press Moderator Chuck Todd leads a discussion on race in americ following Michael Browns death and protests in ferguson, missouri. Hell join us on the set. December starts tomorrow which means were only weeks away from the new i95 express lanes in virginia. They are opening next month. Youll have to pay to use them between garcon road and edsall road. If you buy an ez pass you can switch it to flex if you have three people in your car. Its click until you quit. Tomorrow is cyber monday. The biggest sale day of the year for online retailers. Shoppers are expected to spend 2 billion. Heres some deals youll find. Amazon slashing prices on their ereader. Js penny is offering free shipping. Ebay and overstock. Com are offering as much as 70 off. 0 for more we set up a Holiday Shopping section on nbcwashington. Com. The pres out shopping for Small Business saturday. The president was joined by his daughters. They went to politics and prose. The president was there last year as well. This year he bought 17 books. When does he have time to read. On the plane ride. Still ahead, i bet your Christmas Tree cant do this. How the magic of the holiday is setting records. Were talking 60s and sun in your seven day forecast. Stay. You have to go to Rio De Janeiro to see this. The worlds tall Christmas Tree. Its 100 feet across and guinness book of World Records watched as officials turned on the lights for the very first time. It almost has like a disney feel to it. Just another reason to go to rio. Were four days away from lighting up the National Mall. The national Christmas TreeLighting Ceremony will be this thursday december 4th. Actor tom thanks will be hosting the tree lighting. The ceremony is being held in president s park, right behind the white house. By tradition, president obama and his family will help light the tree. Some of this years musical performance will be by neo, Patti Labelle and country star shelley wright. That could be exciting. A blast from the past. Sure, why not. Very entertaining. We want to get a check on the weather. We have amelia segal in for chuck. Were hoping some of that milder air can move its way in. Were looking at comfortable conditions today and tomorrow but by tuesday its going to feel almost 30 degrees colder. So if youre looking forward to the warmer temperatures, soak them up today and tomorrow. Tomorrow, its going to be the warmest day out of the next seven. As far as today is concerned were looking at partly to mostly cloudy skies and a great day to download the storm team 4 weather app because you need to keep up with the weather that were looking at for tuesday. That wintry mix. As we look at the satellite and radar right now, some cloudiness across the area as the sun comes up were looking at those thin filtered clouds. Here are your weather headlines. Quiet travel weather for the most part across the entire country. Starting you off at 7 00 a. M. No major systems to track throughout the day today. Some light rain showers in western york that extend down through indiana and illinois. And then were looking at rain maybe a little bit of snow mixing in out in northern california. There could be some travel issues there as well as wyoming. For the most part nothing like we were dealing with on thanksgiving eve. Tracking a possible wintry mix on tuesday, the details of this system still remain unclear. But what were definitely going to be noticing the cooler temperatures by tuesday. Not bad outside. 37 in frederick, 43 in washington, 36 degrees in culpeper. A bit of a chill once the sun comes up you see that filtered sunshine on sky cast forecasting what the sky will look like by noon still partly to mostly sunny skies and you can see as we work our way into the afternoon hours not bad. Not overcast, not wall to wall sunshine but well take it. Partly to mostly sunny skies, high 2r0e678 degrees. Noticeably warmer than yesterday. Heading back to work. The commuter forecast torrow morning already nice. Temperature around 50 degrees. Long sleeves would be just fine for the kids tomorrow as they do head back to school. Evening commute the chance of a shower otherwise temperatures in the mid50s. Heres that threat of a shower, 4 00 p. M. Tomorrow with future weather. Notice as we work our way into the evening and overnight hours chance for rain. In the morning on tuesday heres that chance of a wintry mix, maybe some snow, a little bit of freezing rain isnt out of the question, some sleet as well as also possible but, again, all the computer models, the timing with this system is a little off. Heres what im thinking right now. Scattered rain is likely on tuesday. A wintry mix is possible. Any accumulation whether it be some minor ice other a little bit of snow would most likely be confined to Higher Elevations in areas of frederick, loudoun and northern fauquier counties. Stick with storm treatment 4 as we update this forecast. Heres the temperature drop. From 63 on neil diamond 39 on tuesday. We rebound, though on wednesday High Temperature of 52. Maybe an isolated shower on wednesday. Thursday its looking dry. Pretty average for this time of year. Mostly cloudy skies though a high of 54. Chance of rain on friday maybe a few lingering showers on saturday. You guys can see today, two warmest days out of the next seven today and tomorrow, 63 on monday. Well take it. We definitely will. Adam wants to hang up his Christmas Lights today. Good day to do it. Next up we have reporters notebook. Were back in 15 minutes with more of the mornings top stories. Good morning. Welcome to reporters notebook. Im pat lawson muse. We begin with the mayor for life, the death of marion barry, an icon of d. C. Politics for more than 40 years. Dead this past week at the age of 78. Barry served four terms as mayor and had a virtual lock on the d. C. Council ward 8 seat. Along with a huge political success many personal failures marks his turbulent life. Because of his contributions to the district and citizen and connection with his citizens Marion Barrys passing leaves a hole in many in this city. Joe madison, marion barry was largerthanlife. Many people thought he had an exaggerated impression of himself. Joe, your thoughts . He lived i want to. Thats the reality of it. Politically. But the reality, i think what a lot of people dont know about marion barry is even more interesting. You know, he was the first young black eagle scout in the state of tennessee. And that he was working on his ph. D. In biochemistry. This was a brilliant man and because of that background he had a mind like a steel trap. The reality is barrys legacy and ive been asked this a hundred times since his death will be wherever you were at the time that he impacted your life. If you were a senior, he impacted your life when he was mayor because he protected seniors. If you were a youth he impacted your life because he insisted that people who got contracts with the city had to hire young people. But not just because they were young and black, he also trained them. He made sure that there were programs that were trained. And those people who live in prince georges county, many of them who were former washingtonians, owe their success to marion barry because he opened up doors that this former southern town closed for many of them. Oh, god he was controversial, charismatic, difficult to get a handle on. At the same time he could be very he could light up a room when he waugh in. The old saying whats a politician you want to have a drink with at the bar. Barry had a problem with drinking. The fact remains in that situation he would have had everybody on his side. He was the first for so many things. Young africanamerican activists. I covered him when he was with pride. Then he went to the school board. Then to the council. Wounded, seriously wounded during the uprising back in the late 70s. Fearful he wouldnt pull through. De. Then he became mayor, first second mayor of the city, first elected mayor, and he had several tumultuous terms. He would be everybodys hero one day, he could be somebodys villain the next day. But his series of accomplishments as an urban leader are stupendous. The Downtown Development we have today. A powerful city largely because of him. He had his demon, drink and drugs, women to a certain extent. There was the incident at the hotel. That was part of marion barry. You cant ignore them. There was so much there to talk about and so much politicmeaccot in the long run. What it boils down and what were saying marion barry was a transformative figure. He was a pure politician. He always said it was politics not personal when he ran against folks in ward 8. And joe mentioned this, but i think the broader picture of marion barry and sometimes what is lost is that also remember marion barry was the first chairman of s. N. I. C. K. Barry also had kind of a round awayism meaning fox on the corner could connect to marion barry yet he could go to a boardroom and push for things for washingtonians. Thats what helped him get elected in 78. Marion barry had something to connect with people. Thats not something that will be lost. Theres so much of marion barry, in my own career and your career too. Going back to pride and going up to when he passed away, so much of my reporting and yours too probably has been marion barry. He has been a force and an eni gma a presence in this city for so long his passing will bring us into a new era. I interviewed him the last time his book was out and we replayed the interview and i listened to it carefully and i asked him what should young politicians today learn from your career. And he said to be still. He was fearless. This man told a story how he walked into the Washington Post editorial meeting to get an endorsement and immediately told the people i dont want your endorsement anyway. I simply came here to tell you what i thought about you. Thats a fearless politician. Then he wins the election. And the post endorsement. Right. The president at the university of virginia has suspended all campus activities on the part of fraternities and soroties in the wake of brutal gang rape that took place on the campus. Details were published in Rolling Stone magazine and consistent off shockwaves and criticism of the way the university has handled not just this incident but other incidents of Sexual Violence on campus. Gentlemen, do you believe that all of the publicity together with the suspension of greek activities on the part of uvas president will change what some have called the rape culture at uva. This has been happening for a while not in terms of rape, we know thats been going on but in terms of awareness, title ix issue. Rolling stone tried to interview the president of uva. Senator warner talked about this. They all were outraged. The blow back then becomes wait a minute we have to do something. But what we do know statistically one out of every five women on College Campuses is sexually assaulted or theres an attempt. Those are national statistics. I think the fact that uva did not do anything to address this until it gets published is the problem on the upside. This is a good side zbrournlism in terms of Investigative Journalism and how that brings about some possible changes. We know Sexual Assault is a problem on College Campuses across the country but talk about the impact of this particular report on uvas prestige and image. Desspit the publicity it was smocking. This is a squalid situation to have this happen at a prestigious school, mr. Jeffersons school, all of the best for students there. This is going on. People have either looked the other way or dissuaded students who were affected from reporting it. This is a first class scandal and you have to wonder, one could wonder whats going on at uva. This school of all schools to have critics say totally misappropriated things and improperly handled thing. This school among all schools and uva and lets stick with uva, just like any other school, heres the issue. They kept it under the rug. They hide it. The reason they hide it is because what parent is going to send their child away to school on their own for the first time with a school that has a culture of rape. So the president hides it. Other administrations hide it. Police hide it. Campus police hide it. And the truth will surely rise. The Rolling Stone brought this to light. Got to take a break. Well be right back. In virginia the new year will bring big change. Departure of frank wolf and eric cantor. The departure removes three big area players from the appropriation process, the folks who have been bringing home the bacon. Or pork. Thats true. People have generally relied on frank wolf, jim moran and eric cantor to look out for this state in matters of getting contracts, defense contracts. Lets not say the rest of the delegation is sleeping on this. They arent. They are on other committees. The Appropriations Committee is where you get into this stuff, really and of course as long as senator john warner was there because of his prestige and his longevity, he was able to deal with the state very, very well and allowed other senators to do other things. You dont have john warner or these three new fellows. You have other people coming in. Not much seniority. How much elbow room will they have in getting goodies for virginia. Mark warner has one term under his belt and tim kaine who is barely through his first term. They are low if you want to say on the experience side. So its kind of a crap shoot out there. Nobody knows exactly how well this will go. In times of tight budget, sequester they need all the help they can get. Frank wolf has already said virginia is going to be in survival mode. The federal government is their largest employer, southeast virginia, 40 of their funds are coming through federal contracts, federal jobs, terry mcauliffe, the governor said he was shocked, devastated that eric cantor lost his position he said he knows he pushes through legislation which will affect and help virginia. Rare you see that kind of bipartisanism when another party loses a position. Even the governor says he knows this will affect