Star studded cast to light the National Christmas tree, highlights from tonights pageant of peace. Thanks for joining us tonight. Im will thomas. Im shawn yancy. We begin with a frightening of George Washington university. Someone tried to sexually assault a woman in a restroom. Police have their hands full with several burglaries all within the last 36 hours. Fox 5s Audrey Barnes has tonights news alert. Those burglaries happened in the ivory Tower Residence Hall this afternoon. Around the corner in rice hall a female employee was attacked in a third floor bathroom on tuesday. The incidents have triggered a flurry of security alerts across the downtown campus. Theres a guard posted at front desk rice hall on i street now after someone tried to sexually assault a female employee in a third floor bathroom. When she walked in, the suspect turned the light out and jumped her. She fought back and he fled. From now on no one can get in or out of the building without a g world card or escort. Security has been ramped up, too, at the ivory Tower Residence Hall after Police Say Two girls went from room to room stealing laptops and cell phones. These girls just came in. They were caught on the cameras by gw and they would knock on the door and say that they were either looking for erica or angelica and when people werent paying attention, they swiped i think three laptops and a couple phones. One girl was actually sleeping in her room napping and the people came in and left and she didnt even notice. Reporter Police Released surveillance photos of two suspects who they say entered open dorm rooms on the fifth, seventh, eighth and 10th floors. I think like College Students especially in the city like d. C. Should be more aware of their surroundings and lock their doors and just be more aware. Reporter students are told to keep their doors locked even when theyre in the room and to report stranges are right away. Like the attempted Sexual Assault at rice hall, the crimes are a wakeup call. Were in the city. Anything is possible. Definitely going to lock my door any time guineawhere now. Thats for sure. Any time i go anywhere now. Thats for sure. Rice hall is advicing using a buddy system for students that work after hours and to let supervises know their hours. In both cases students and staff are to call Campus Security if they see a stranger in the building. Crime may have hit another school in our region. A man who worked at the Maryland School for the deaf in columbia, maryland, is facing charges of child sex abuse. Clarence taylor is charged with sexual abuse of a minor. He worked as a dorm aide when students slept at the so overnight. Hes accused of inappropriately touching three girls. The alleged incidents happened between 2008 and 2010 when those victims were just 10, 11 and 12 years old. Howard county police are concerned there may be other victims and want to hear from anyone else who may have been victimized. A Montgomery CountyHigh School Student accused of trespassing is now charged with bringing an unloaded gown to school. Police arrested the teen gun to school. Police arrested the teen this morning at magruder high school. The student did not have any ammunition. Prince georges county police made an arrest in a driveby shooting that killed a 14yearold boy and injured another man. Jose Rodriguez Nunez is accused of shooting Eliezer Reyes in lewisdale just after midnight yesterday. Police say the driveby happened in the 2200 block of sheridan street. The second shooting victim suffered minor injuries. Rodriguez nunez faces Second Degree murder and other related charges. A news alert in maryland, today was the first day same sex couples could pick up their marriage licenses. The law allowing gay couples to marry in maryland wont take effect until january 1st, but clerks in several maryland counties began issuing those licenses today. Fox 5s karen gray houston has a closer look. Reporter meet karen craning, resident of potomac, general manager of a Furniture Store sitting in the lobby of the license department at Montgomery County circuit court. She thought this day would never come. So excited. I cannot believe this day is here. I cannot believe it. Ive been waiting for a long time. Reporter her long time partner of 29 years shuns the spotlight and doesnt want to be identified. Theres prejudice and people dont believe in who we are and what we stand for and unfortunately they dont want this to happen, but the people of maryland have spoken. Reporter a majority of Maryland Voters approved question 6 on the ballot in favor of same sex marriage effective january 1st. Governor Martin Omalley signed a proclamation thursday affirming that popular vote. Attorney general doug gansler wrote a legal opinion last week that would allow gay couples to get a license before the 1st. Its very exciting. Reporter long time clerk of court Loretta Knight has seen a lot over the years, nothing quite like this and says there are changes even in the license itself. So this is the license that everyone will get as of today. Reporter no mention of man or woman or bride or groom. Now its party no. 1 and party no. 2. For those who opt to get married in the court ceremonial room nextdoor when we do the ceremony, were going to be saying spouse for the ceremony instead of saying will you take this man, this woman or now pronounce you husband, wife, its spouse. Reporter as for karen and her spouse to be. Is there a ring . There is a ring and there are two rings and there will be two dresses and we did it together. Reporter they are planning a january 11th wedding for 50 people at the home of a family friend. We are told that about 80 of the people who pick up marriage licenses at Montgomery County courthouse actually get married there. Im karen gray houston in the fox 5 newsroom. Same sex couples can now get married in the state of washington. The governor there signed the law yesterday making washington the nine state to allow same sex marriage in addition to d. C. Couples didnt waste any time. Check it out. They lined up outside a seattle Administration Building shortly after the governor signed the law. Cups were able to pick up their couples were able to pick up their wedding certificates and licenses starting this morning. Three, two, one. [ cheering and applause ] that is president obama and the first family lighting the National Christmas tree this evening down on the ellipse. Sue palka there was with about 20,000 other people. Sue, it looked like just an incredibly fun star studded event. It was so much fun and a lot of it had to do with the fact there were some really great performers there this year. Neil Patrick Harris was the host and hes so fun. Hes just great. He did a lot of ad libs with Rico Rodriguez sitting with the first family pretending he was part of the family trying to get in on the family action. We had Phillip Phillips there performing from american idol, jason mraz and the crowd was really excited to see the fray. I had not heard of the fray. Me either. Thank you for saying that because if theyre not on wtop, i havent really heard them lately, but Colbie Caillat and ledisi and when the fray came out, everybody jumped to their feet. The president was about 40 minutes later, so you do a little tap dancing waiting. I dont know if they were working on that fiscal cliff, whatever, but the peaceful side of things was the lighting of the tree and it was really beautiful and special for a couple other reasons. It marked the 90th year for the Tree Lighting and that means that every president since calvin coolidge, oh, i remember when he lit that one, too, weve been lighting the trees ever since. After the lighting the president directed some of his remarks to the victims of hurricane sandy. And this Holiday Season is especially difficult for families who lost everything in the storm. But its also a time for us to be grateful for the heroism and perseverance of ordinary men and women in the storms path who have showed us that americans will always be stronger than the challenges that we face. Well, what i liked about watching and listening today was that you didnt issue the combover alert, so your hair was blowing over to one side. Thank heavens. It was definitely chilly, but its been way colder other years, so that was good, but i saw baby face edmonds performing with only a scarf and a jacket and i thought i bet he hopes he only has to do one number. It was a wonderful evening and its a beautiful tree, too. Is it gorgeous. Its brandnew. It is gorgeous. Its brandnew. It was found in northwestern virginia. They put it in right before hurricane sandy. President obama made the comment that anyone can lose their job in washington, even the National Christmas tree, and he thinks since this one stood up to sandy it going to do the test of time. Cold today, not as bad as last years show, but what can we expect going into the evening . There is a little challenge in the forecast tonight. That is that its really cold out and theres some spotty showers off to our west. So when you combine cold temperatures and a little bit of moisture, youve got the possibility for a little freezing rain north and west of town. The district is still 37. The air is really dry, so sometimes its very spotty moisture that comes in and dries uabout it gets to the ground, but i would say heads up if you live north and west of d. C. , some very light freezing rain is possible overnight. Were definitely going to be cold. We hope that this will not be widespread rain and we dont expect it will be, but when you look at some of these numbers dont to 34 at dulles, 33 cumberland, 32 frederick, i would recommend you check out in the morning. Make sure we dont have any freezing rain advisories. Some have been issued mostly for pennsylvania. Just a heads up for early morning. I dont think this will be a problem after 9 00 and 10 00 mostly north and west. Shawn, i noticed sue remembered to bring her boots with 6inch heels tower over shawn there. Maybe shawn is just ducking. I dont know. As the 10 continues we move to serious news, d. C. Makes a move to respond to a rise in robberies and not everyone is on board. You have to hear this one. Plus here is a scary thought. A drowsy driver behind the wheel of a metro bus, its happened more than a few times. A new study is pointing towards the real problem. And the battle of the beltways is heating up. Two maryland leaders are battling it out over the redskins and ravens game. Well speak with both men and let the trash talking begin coming up tonight at 11 00. [ man ] weve been in the business over the course of four centuries. [ woman ] it was a Family Business back then, and it still feels like a Family Business now. The only people who knew about us were those in new england, that moment that we got our first web order. We could tell we were on the verge of something magical. All of a sudden it just felt like things were changing. We can use this to advertise to bakers everywhere. [ man ] browns summit, North Carolina. Crescent city, california. We had a package go to kathmandu once. The web has been the reason this entire section of the warehouse exists today. We were becoming more than this little Flour Company in vermont. [ woman ] were all going after one common goal, which is to spread the joy of baking throughout the whole world. Millions of people depend on metro drivers, but apparently some arent getting enough sleep. Weve reported on bus drivers working long hours and falling asleep at the wheel, but a new study by the Transit Agency reveals the real problem may be the shift those workers work. Fox 5s sherri ly is monitoring metro tonight. Reporter it all started with concerns about safety, metro bus and rail workers in critical jobs working numerous double shifts, even longer, but an analysis of more than 3,000 bus and rail operators found the biggest factor in fatigue may be the critical hours between midnight and 8 a. M. Night work, a lot of night work which deprives you of opportunities to get good nighttime sleep, is going to be the major driver with fatigue. Reporter earlier this year metro reported drive cams triggered by sudden braking on metro buses showed 67 drivers in a 19 month period fell asleep at the wheel. When we see that, theyre taken off duty. We check to make sure they have no medical problems, sleep apnea and we also look at their work hours to see if that had an influence on it. Reporter metro cant restrict the hours employees work because of the way overtime is awarded. Instead its recommended drives who start work between 3 a. M. Drivers who start work between 3 a. M. And 5 a. M. Should go to bed earlier. Even having people turn in earlier as a mitigation measure does not mean that theyre not going to wind up potentially working a double or triple shift. Reporter overall the number of worrs affected by fatigue appears small, but the problem is big. A study of Railroad Workers found when the effectiveness of tired workers fell below 70 , the risk of accidents went up. The problem is you cant necessarily eliminate that shift. If these people are building trains for the morning rush hour. Weve got to figure out how they can do that job and still be well rested and alert. Reporter some workers load up on coffee to stay awake, but do that all the time and experts say it lose its effect. Bottom line, workers need sleep. In the coming months metro plans to have some of their workers log their work and sleep habits, then a small number will also wear a monitor similar to a wristwatch that will keep track of all their activities 24 7 so that hopefully theyll get a much more accurate picture of whether workers truly are getting enough sleep. Sherri ly, fox 5 news. Now to a fox 5 followup, a story you saw first here on fox 5, this video prompting the Guardian Angels to set up patrols on the metro. Its footage of a fight and robbery on the train last weekend taken by one of the suspects. The group that calls itself the 44th street crew is taking responsibility and uploaded the video to youtube. The Guardian Angels said theyll patrol metros green line every friday and saturday night in an effort to prent more Violent Crimes like this one. Dozens of d. C. Police officers working in a specialized Narcotics Task force are being redeployed to help fight robberies across the city. Chief cathy lanier says the officers will no longer be working together. Instead theyll be fanned out to the seven police districts. Its a move being slammed tonight by the fraternal order of police, the police union. Fox 5s paul wagner is following this one for us. Reporter its no secret that street robberies in the district are an ever present danger, some of them violent. Just this week an 18yearold girl on her way to school was shot in the leg and her book bag taken. Every day the Police Departments twitter feed reports robbery after robbery. A few weeks ago the chief announced a specialized robbery Suppression Team had been deployed in the city and now shes looking for more help. In a statement to fox 5 chief lanier said, the strike force is a street level narcotics unit that is being decentralized to the seven narcotics units already in the districts. They will be working narcotics and robberies. A short sighted decision according to the tv op. Because the department fop. Because the department hasnt told anybody or put anything in writing as usual, we dont know exactly where they think theyre going, but what theyve done at ethe day if youre a resident of the District Of Columbia youre less safe because were so desperate for manpower were having to strip the department down to bare bones. Reporter Christopher Ball man says the Narcotics Strike force brought an expert Kristopher Baumann says the Narcotics Strike force brought an expertise to will be unmatched. They took a lot of fences and people dealing in stolen property was taken off the street. What they were essentially is a unit we could use anywhere in the city when we need themed when there were serious problems. Now theyll be gone needed them when there were serious problems. Now theyll be gone. Reporter there is no way of knowing how bad the problem is. The Computer Software that drives the online crime mapping tool has been down for weeks. In recent Months Police have been very aggressive in getting information about robberies out to the public issuing press releases about arrests and posting videos online of suspects in hopes of solving additional robbery cases. We had a number of questions about the dissolving of the strike force, but chief lanier said she was too busy to answer them today and declined to put out any other official to address the plan. In the fox 5 newsroom im paul wagner. Why many downtown businesses have taken a beating this fall. Also rg3 and the redskins are getting ready for one of the biggest games of the season. Will the redskins new look offense be enough to confuse our neighbors to the north . Scott is back