Transcripts For WTTG 20091222 : vimarsana.com

inside it s about finding the right gift along with the others doing christmas shopping. it s nonstop rush hour at the mall outside and in. i m not done shopping. reporter: shoppers determid not to let the snowstorm steal christmas. it s great. the prices are cheap. i kainl out two weeks ago came out two weeks ago and brought stuff back and saved money. reporter: parking spots are hard tocome by no matter where you went. police directed traffic at tysons corner center, valet parking the way to go. shop early or late to avoid crowds. what we are seeing is by the afternoon and evening hours we are having more traffic, more likely to shut down some of our parking garages. with kids out of school, some parents needed to escape the snow. i guess over the past weekend so this is like a way to walk around. no surprise, most of the shoppers at the jewelers were men. earrings you cannot go wrong. reporter: not everyone was shopping. christine on break from her job is crocheting all her gifts. she doesn t envy the shoppers. after all the snow and everything, they are crazy to be out here. reporter: if you don t know what to buy, tysons can save you. they will set up procrastination stations for gifts to everyone. santa on a rope any one? who needs soap on a rope. you have santa. they have these holiday guides that will help you with sales and gift ideas through christmas and if you have a hard to buy person like my husband, you can talk to folks at the guest service desk and they help you figure out what to buy and where to find it. as the graphic sa with the mall madness, many stores are announcing longer hours to help people. macy s at pentagon city will be open until 2:00 a.m. tonight and tomorrow night. technically morning. toys r us will keep their doors open until 1:00 a.m. sears at seven corners remains open until midnight tonight and tomorrow. three days after the snow stopped falling, people in arlington are hing trouble getting out of their neighborods. many streets are covered with a thick layer of snow as you can see there. what is taking so long to get the roads cleared? beth parker is live in arlington with the latest. reporter: you heard of th tale of two cities. this is the tale of two streets. look over here at wilson boulevard, the main arteries are wet. but swing over this way on to a more residential street and as you can still see, some of them are tough to and a navigate. for kids on sleds, slipping and sliding is fun. for adults in cars, it s another story. i was sliding all over the place. i was lucky not to hit any cars. reporter: he is director of environmental services. he says primary roads are the priority, mostly so fire trucks and ambulances can get around. by tonight they will have hit every residential street in the county but he understands people are frustrated. it s like being without power. when you sit in the dark and you see other lights around you, you wonder why not me. i m asking people to be patient. reporter: griffin says there are 300 people working 12-hour shifts some on what should be their days off. walt would be like like to be working too. he is one of santa s helpers. he lives at the bottom of a hill in arlington. the snow and ice prevented him from getting to work at the mall. i am rather frustrated because i have an obligation for the children and that s frustrating that i can t get there. we will have more on santa s situation on the news edge at 6:00. i should tell you one other thing bob griffin says he is concerned about this precipitation that is expected later in the week. he said you should have the gutters on your house cleaned out, free of ice and snow and clear storm drains in your neighborhood would help, too. these are things that may prevent flooding. beth parker. back to you. good advice. if you have a snow concern in arlington county, they want to hear from you. call 703-228-6485. we will post that number on myfoxdc.com. look under web links. we have a little good news for more virginia commuters. v-dot is suspending lane closures and restrictions on major roads. that should help the traffic flow easier. construction zones will remain in place. in maryland, some of the side streets in montgomery county are snow-covered and slick. this driver slit out to the main road. in silver spring, another neighborhood looked a lot better. crews plowed and salted there. transportation officials say this is common around the community. you won t see pavement but at least most of the slush is out of the way. there is a lot of snow on the side roads in northwest d.c. this is 19th and s streets. mayor fenty says most main roads are cleared. overnight crews focused on spreading salt to keep the slush from spreading to ice. gary mcgrady is live in the weather center with a look at another cold night. that s right. tonight at least in the northern and western suburbs it will be colder than it was early this morning. we are expecting the chance for teens. let s check on temperatures right now on true view to give you an idea of what is going on. 39 degrees. everything is pretty much above freezing i. looks like we will stay above freezing probably until 8:00 or 9:00. i think there is just enough wind and cloud cover to help us out a little bit. in terms of the overnight, well below freezing. that is 24 in the district. upper teens in the suburbs. winds out of the northwest 5 to 7 miles per hour. another first look at the first in a few minutes. see you in a bit. you can depend on fox 5 to get you beyond the blizzard. head to myfoxdc.com for the latest on the closures and a chance to upload your best pictures. not exactly a night redskins fans or redskins want to remember. the state of the skins is at the lowest point of the season. fans had high hopes after last week s winds but today they are feeling the effects of a humiliating monday night blowout. prior to last night s game the redskins were feeling good about themselves. first road win of the season and many believed that would carry on and lead to the first division wind of the season. unfortunately for the skins and their fans the entire nation was watching. in the first quarter alone, the giants held the ball for more than 13 minutes of the 15 minute first quarter and they scored on the first four drives. with 4 1/2 minutes left the giants lead 226 yards to minus 2. you heard that correct. the final tally 45-12. the most points the skins have given up all year. by far. after the game, you can imagine. we just took a step back, major step back in this game. it was embarrassing. got [ beep ] and nothing else to explain about it. they lined up and [ beep ] we took it. humiliating and something that you didn t want to have in your mouth as a taste when you open the presents with the kids on christmas. we have another game next week. bounce back next week. the loss drops the redskins to 0-5 against the nfc east. the last time they were winless 1994. next sunday washington hosts the cowboys. they will see a familiar foot. shawn will kick against his old team who by the way is having a great year. he missed a chippy that probably cost him that game but he is with the cowboys. third time he had a shot with the cowboys. he is probably feeling god. last night he was probably not routing for the home team at fedex field. counting down to christmas, three days. for thousands, filling the children s wish list has been more difficult than ever. the u.s. marine corps and prince george county police are teaming up to fill the void. reporter: prince george county is handing out bags full of goodies. to hundreds of needy families. i have the army man for my son and then there is a wonderful science kit in here for the kids. with a recession, times a hard. normally i m able to do a lot. this year i wasn t. this is a blessing. the toy give away was postponed from saturday. i m a single mother of 6. i am working a part-time job. it s helping me out. my sister is over here, a single mother of four. without this, our kids probably wouldn t have anything for christmas. we are grateful for toys for tots. reporter: twanda brown is here to pick up toys for her grandchildren whose he was killed in the horrific crash. even if we don t receive anything, the joy of standing in line. children of police department employees are stuffing the bags with bears, board games and balls. hundreds of bicycles. these are extraordinary times. so many people are hurting. again, this is an effort to let people see that they are human mizeing the police department. we do police from the heart. how big is the demand this year? the folks at toys for tots say between the district, prince george and montgomery county, 105,000 children have been present registered to receive gifts. a year with greater need and fewer donations. if you had seen this two years ago, we would still have piles full of toys. but after disibution we still had which was nice to give to hospitals and different things. this year we are thin. reporter: families that didn t sign up ahead of time will be able to pick up a gift bag until 10:00 tonight. bob barnard, fox 5 news. a gift of love brought a big smile to this beautiful fast. santa and mrs. claus are there for the 7th annual gift of love tree holiday celebration. members of the community partnered with a child or children to make their christmas dreams come true. they say they will open their gifts on christmas eve but today they did get to choose a surprise from santa. i got a coloring book and i have many stickers and tattoos. it s very, very up lifting at this time of the year. that s what the kids need, keep them positive. the housing authority runs the event every year. all right. even president obama is making big promises, no vacation until the bill is passed. will congress push through health care reform before the holiday break? the race against the clock is coming up next. claudia? a major collision leaves one pedestrian dead. what happened on this street corner. dozens of models of booster seats ranked. does your measure up?  two cars crashed killing a pedestrian on the sidewalk at 12th and rhode island avenue. claudia coffey has the story. reporter: the accident wreckage is outstanding. two cars collided. in their path standing on the sidewalk, a man caught in the middle and was killed. james hoff lives down the block and heard the crash along with another neighbor. when i heard it, i came running to the door. loud. reporter: he heard people rushing to help a man who was obviously struck. that s when i saw the truck in the yard, the card there and somebody laying there. reporter: npd says the pick up was going westbound and the blue chevy was going north on 12th. the collision moved up on the sidewalk on the northwest corner of the intersection striking an adult male. the adult male was transported to an area medical facility where he was subsequently pronounced dead. reporter: they are investigating whether speed, weather or any other facto played a role in the crash. while this investigation is under way, many residents say speeding on rhode island avenue is a major concern. sad that a person didn t take time, how valuable life is, a second, any second your life can go. that s why it s important somebody is dead. somebody s son won t be home for christmas. reporter: in northeast, claudia coffey, fox 5 news. the victim s identity was not released. the drivers of the vehicles were treated at the scene. firefighters returned to the northwest d.c. neighborhood to check smoke detectors and pass out information after a deadly fire last night. it started in a boarded up row house on kennedy street. crews found a woman in her 30s in the basement. she later died at the burn center. they believe improperly discarded smoking materials started the fire. the crew aboard an american airlines flight from chicago is reporting a bird struck the windshield and cracked the glass. the airport authority cannot confirm a bird is to blame. flight 4372 landed safely. president obama is putting his christmas vacation on hold while senators hash out a health care reform bill. a final vote for pass gage is scheduled for christmas eve. jennifer davis has the latest on the health care battle. reporter: well, with apologies to santa claus, christmas is going to be anticlimatic this year because we have already gotten the best possible gift, 60 votes reporter: for the second time in as many days, senate democrats held together behind their health care reform bill. one more procedural vote wednesday will clear the path to a vote on final passage. the final line is in sight. health care reform is not a matter of if but when. reporter: members of the gop are doing everything they can to prevent that. they are using all the time allowed to delay the bill. any time congress rushes, congress stumbles. reporter: partison ship is palpable. outraged republicans are raising concerns about the bill that they say is a grab bag of special deals. $2.3 trillion this we don t have. chicago style politics. reporter: the debate could delay the president s hawaiian holiday. he was set to leave wednesda but nts to be in washington in case there are any problems. provide health care to all americans, the least i can do is be around. reporter: if and when the senate measure passes, it has to be reconciled with a vastly different house version before a final bill can be sent to the president. president obama surprised outgoing virginia governor t kaine by calling in to the ask the governor show. the president was introduced as barry from d.c. but listen and hear what mr. obama said next. we have barry from d.c. equaling. go ahead, barry. well, governor kaine, this is actually the president of the united states calling. no. oh, my gosh. i have questions about traffic in northern virginia. but rather than go there, i just wanted to say how proud we are of your service as governor of the commonwealth of virginia. the surprise call was set up as part of kaine s last appearance on the show. he leaves office next month at the end of his term. back to the top story, getting beyond the blizzard. the side roads are still a mess. i think at some point in time, especially with the rain over christmas, it will start pressing the local communiti to get the streets cleaned. let s check in with gary mcgrady and find out when we can expect the wet weather to hit our region. everybody is shoveling the driveways and sidewalks so diligently the last few days. you need to be on gutter patrol now. get the shovel out and knock the snow away from the gutters and the storm drains that will benefit everybody greatly. it looks like, as brian was mentioning, a argument amount of potential rain on christmas. so, if all the storm drains are blocked by snow, you can imagine what will happen. we will talk about that coming up. again, very important with the rain on the way toward the later part of the week. listen, let me show you what is going on across the nation. we are seeing the beginning of the storm taking shape. you see the rain and snow in utah. that will come together eventually. we have the clouds here. they will break up tonight so temperatures will get cold. we are expecting temperatures to drop into the 20s. 37 for washington. 37 for leesburg and 35 for frederick. here is what it looks like through the evening hours. a few hours before temperatures drop below freezing in the district but they will drop below freezing in the suburbs by 9:00. that will create slick spots. in the full forecast, we talk about the christmas, let s call it a mixture to rain. that a good way to say it. i m glad you are saying it and not me, gary. what is keeping the medical examiner from determining how a hollywood star let died? we are staying on top of the tragic loss of brittney murphy next. r pizzeria-style pizza. from your own oven. it s new red baron fire baked crust pizza. fire baked for a crispy crust. new red baron fire baked crust pizza. bring home that pizzeria taste. investigating the surprise death of a hollywood star let. tmz is reporting that deprescription and antianxiety medication was found at her home. reporter: one day after brittney murphy s passing, there is an outpouring of support and disbelief o facebook and shop for a cause charity event. we did a thing together for the mfv award and i was stricken by her presence and her beauty and her kind of charm and now she s gone. today flowers arrived at the actresses home above the sunset stripe. the 32-year-old was found unconscious. the l.a. county coroner completed the autopsy on murphy s body but said there was no obvious cause of death. it s been deferred pending the receipt of additional toxicology results and tissue studies. reporter: the actresses family said she was experiencing flu-like symptoms in the days before she died and family members suggest the star may have suffered from diabetes, possibly even a heart defect. that s why the coroner asked for her medical record and asked when we were at the residence, we collected prescription drugs for miss murphy. no illicit or illegal drugs or drugs of abuse were located. the prescriptions were nothing out of the ordinary. nothing out of the ordinary. reporter: her fan sites are filling up with condolences and well wishes as her family is left to mourn with no known answers. balloon boy s parents are closer to jail time. more than 60 booster seats are ranked. which ones are safe.  right now some of the big stories we are following at 5:00. first the madness at the malls. the stores are jam packed with shoppers. the last minute buying is more frenside because frenzied. some residents are wondering why it s taking so long to get streets cleared. county officials say main roads are the priority and by tonight crews should have hit every residential street in the county. a final vote on health care reform is set for christmas eve in the senate. president barack obama says he won t leave on christmas vacation until the senator s work is done. they passed the second test vote early this morning. thursday s vote is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. there is a report fourth children that need booster sts in their car. the insurance institute for highway safety found many models don t make the grade. tisha thompson shows you how you can check to see if the booster seat you own will keep your child safe. in an effort to reduce costs by reducing crashes, insurance institute for highway safety tested more booster seats than ever before. watch what happens to a child not strapped in a seat belt when this car crashes at 35 miles per hour. the insurance institute for highway safety say they were developed for adults. children need a booster seat. boosters lift children up so that belts designed for adults fit properly to provide the production in a crash. reporter: using a dummy representing an average 6-year- old child, the group tested more than 60 seats in a 30 miles per hour crash. they found when it comes to safety, it doesn t matter if you use what is called a high back model or back lesmo dell. instead, what really matters i where the belt sits on a child s body. you want it to lie flat on the upper thighs and tight on the chest. the group found only nine models qualified as a best bet including this one, costco juvenile pronto and the dakota back less. the insurance instute of highway safety created a list of 11 models it does not recommend because they do a poor job fitting the seat belt like this eddy bauer deluxe three in one model. it allows the shoulder belt to fall off the child s shoulder. other models on the not recommended list including the alpha omega echelon, even flow and harmony secure comfort deluxe back lesmo dell backless model. if you have one of those seats, don t throw it away any booster is better than no belt at all. take a look at the lap fit. there are many problems with three in one models, infant seats that convert to booster seats as a child gets larger. to see the complete list of which models did and did not make the grade, go to myfoxdc.com and click on the web links tab. the nfl is teaming up with boston university to tackle the issue of traumatic brain injuries. they are asking to donate their brains to science after they die. we developed progressive dementia, something similar to alzheimer s disease but what we are finding, it s a distinct disease of the brain. i worry about, i have a 6- year-old son, i want him to play football and i worry about that for him. four players agreed including matt burke. the colorado parents that made up the balloon boy hoax could be spending christmas in prison. they will be sentenced tomorrow and could face jail time. they lied about their son floating away in a ufo balloon. a decision could come for a new jersey father fighting for custody of his son in brazil. david goldmahas been trying to get his son back for five years. the brazilian supreme court is expected to make a decision. reporter: david goldman is in brazil a waiting the most important legal decision of his life. a judge decides if he can raw you night with his son. a brazilian courawarded custody to his father but the ruling was stayed by a justice on the supreme court. goal man tells fox he is ready for this to be over. i will remain hopeful and no less determined until i can reunite with my son. reporter: goldman s wife took shawn to brazil in 2004, divorced goldman, remarried and died while giving birth in 2008. i have been fighting for this, to bring myson home from this abduction this isn t a custody case, this is abduction case and it is in the records of the court that for since 2004 my son has been held her illegally. the custody battle for shawn is getting legal and political attention. new jersey congressman chris smith is in brazil supporting goldman. his father has been trying for fi years to reclaim his own son, his only son. it seems to me that the court gets it. reporter: he is living with his stepfather an influential attorney who is vowing to fight for him. an attorney for he family says shawn s family reiterates it will take all measures to get the well-being of the boy. a lawyer for the family says they will continue to fight for custody of shawn even if the supreme court returns him to his father. medical mistakes are too common. one new tool could help doctors learn from their mistakes. that is next. what really happened to actress brittney murphy. tmz is working the story tonight. exclusive new details tonight.  pawspacheck. teeth. check. bottom. needs work. sorry, son. 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[ female announcer ] and that charmin softness. new charmin ultra strong. look for it in the new red package. for those who prefer moist wipes, try new charmin freshmates for a cleaner clean. medical mistakes are made in hospitals every day but the i goest problem is when the mistakes happen again and again because no one is talking about them. there is near miss registry, an online reporting registry for near mississippi stakes. the goal is to learn what works and what doesn t. it s a treasure trove of information about the weaknesses in our health care delivery. it s being used in nearly 50 new york hospitals. the state plans to expand it next year. days after historic snowstorm blanketed our area, are you ready for the next round? absolutely not. we are tracking the coming winter weather. idol wanna bees are rocking it out. first a holiday greeting from our servicemen and women. hi, i m lieutenant colonel paul andrew. i want to say happy holiday to my sister karen thompson and her family in bowie, maryland and my uncle in alexandria virginia. happy holidays. hope to see you soon and miss you all.  inside that truck is something familiar duracell batteries. and if you think all batteries are the same, consider this: these batteries are going. to the mattel children s hospital, u.c.l.a . because here they use the most. technologically advanced equipment for the healing. and the play. and to power all those toys the people at duracell. packed up a truckload of batteries. because nothing s better than powering a smile. duracell. trusted everywhere. nearly 2,000 people won a lottery in spain that translates to the fat one. the jackpot topped 3 billion bucks. everyone that won won about $430,000. some former idol want that bees are in festive moods singing an array of popular christmas carols. reporter: it s truly a holiday treat. popular american idols serving up your favorite songs of the season. reporter: michael sar verse and gina hernandez in newark. these may be smaller than the big idol tour in the consumer but they are getting just as much love. i enjoy this part. this is more intimate. it s about the music rather than the stage production. it s more special. we did a meet and greet after the show. we get to meet everybody that came and bought tickets. i m honored to sing for anybody that wants to hear. i appreciate the love. it s been absolutely wonderful. it s a great learning experience for me. i have never been on a tour before. they join the wall of fame shared by the oak ridge boys and another idol we had success with david cook and we were hoping for a special christmas show to attract not only the normal audience but younger as well. what is it like to have them come here? i can t describe it. it s awesome. michael just released a single after the tour he is back to work on his debut country album with a major label. i signed with dream records. he gets out the word on social networking sites like my space and twitter where he has nearly 19,000 followers and 3200 tweets, messages to fans. that was my way to say hello, thank you and now it s turned into this amazing thing where we talk and have conversations with fans. for some lucky fans, holiday greetings in person. thank you very much. speaking of former idols, you have a chance to check out carrie underwood s holiday special that reairs tonight. it kicks off at 8:00 p.m. we have been talking about the forecast. a lot of people aren t finished with the last minute shopping heading out tonight. i know. you included. what will they find. it s okay tonight but i would say 8:00, 9:00 here in town worry about a few slick spots like last night. out in the suburbs it s getting cold. enjoying snow. this is what we have in terms of our picture tonight. my weather photo, this is a family from gather man town. cute. it s a nice little snowman. they got it decorated up. i have seen a lot of these around, too. a lot of sledding going on in the last couple of days. the sledding has got better, a little ice, the next day the sledding gets good. i have seen that, too. with the school kids on extended vacation, they are enjoying the snowfall. here is the forecast tonight at 11:00. again, this is in town down below freezing by 11:00. in the suburbs, temperatures will get below freezing before that and some close to freezing right now. we will take a look at temperatures in a second. tomorrow morning sunshine, clouds. 26 degrees. we stay below freezing. tomorrow at noon we are above freezing. we melt a lot, too with the sun out there. temperature 39 in town. look at gaithersburg. generally gaithersburg reads cold here. they are 32 now. they may be at 32 with the censor. most of gaithersburg is above 32 but it won t belong before they get down to freezing if not below. we are at 39. buffalo 19. the cold air is across the northern tier here but notice the warmer temperatures in the south and southeast. this is an important player in our forecast in terms of when we get to christmas because it looks like we really need this warm air to come in and win the battle of the cold air early chrtmas morning. so we may have freezing air out there. we think the warm air will win. did you see a flurry or snowflake. we had a lot on top of us but the snow you are seeing never really made it to the ground. overnight we will clear out. this is the next storm system. we fly you to the desert southwest. another area of low pressure coming through the desert southwest. that will bring rain to phoenix and snow to upper areas of arizona, colorado. then it comes through the plains. there will be almost blizzard or almost blizzard conditions christmas eve in the plains. this is futurecast. tomorrow morning for us, we are good. high pressure here. lots of sunshine to start. it remains sunny through the day tomorrow. it looks like it will stay sunny through thursday as well. look at the storm system. just back to the west of us on christmas eve, this is christmas eve at 10:00. east coast is good for the traveling up and down 95. rain may move in late thursday night. to the west of us in the higher elevations as the rain comes in, probably a little sleet and freezing rain. well back into minnesota, parts of north daytona, south dakota, iowa, this will be blizzard- like conditions as this area of low pressure comes up into the cold air. one good thing, it looks like chicago will be in the warm air. all the traffic going in and out of o hare and midway, it will stay rain. that won t be a big deal. they will have rain down into atlanta on christmas eve. we are not talking about a disruptive snowstorm for the major hubs coming up christmas eve. that is good news. tomorrow morning a through the day, lots of sunshine. temperatures in the middle 20s. we get up to 38 to 39 degrees, even with the sunshine for a high temperature tomorrow, it stays good, stays good thursday but, again, the overnight low temperatures tonight and tomorrow night, teens and low 20s. a lot of rreezing going on. we haven t changed anything for christmas day. morning freezing rain farther west and northwest. there may be sleet mixing in. and if the warm air wins and it looks like it will after lunchtime, temperatures up to about 40 and we will have rain in here. showers lingering through saturday then we dry out sunday. but, it s important to clean heand gutters out there if you think, please. if not, we will have huge problems with a minimal amount of rain on christmas day and you don t want to get out there on christmas day and shovel the gutters and drains because your street is flooding. if we can do that preventative maintenance it will go a long way in terms of reducing the flood problem on christmas. thank you, gary. talk of the town on tmz, a new report on the death of actress brittney murphy. harvey levin joins us live from l.a. what did investigators find in brittney murphy s home? reporter: well, it was really a stunning amount of prescription medications on her nightstand. there were numerous drugs including anxiety, depression, all sorts of things. we do not know if those drugs were ingested or contributed to her death. we know she had taken some prescriptions. she was having severe abdominal paints before she died. there were issues going on with her. she was exhibiting flu-like symptoms, diabetes, but we have to wait for the toxicology report. that will show whether the drugs played a factor in all of this. that s probably four to six weeks down the line. speculation. we have to wait. also you are learning new information about michael jackson. fbi probe into jackson, what are you learning about this? it s really fascinating. the fbi released 330 pages of documents involving jackson. they were intimately involved in the 93 and 2004 molestation investigations in california. they went around the helping the lapd and doing evaluations and talking to witnesses. they were meeting with the prosecutors in the case. i had no idea they were doing this much and they were investigating a death threat by a deranged guy that felt he was married to january ket jackson and was going to kill michael jackson unless he got a lot of money through john gotti. it was crazy. we will look for more details at 6:30 after fox 5 news at 5:00. thank you. coming up on the news edge at 6:00, you put your money in the bank to protect it. fbi investigation into cyber bank robbers cleaning out accounts in a popular bank. a member from the world famous chip pen details, villa jeffrey forked over $4,200 in an online auction for a night in the house. the money from his experience goes to a cleveland scholarship program. well, they are not exactly elves but that didn t stop two famous basketball players from giving santa claus a hand in chicago. harlem globetrotters helped wrap gifts and showed santa a few new tricks. he apparently may ned a few more lessons before he turns pro. the team is in chicago promoting an appearance next week. the news is far from over. the news edge at 6:00 starts right now . the c