Chevy chase resident and science correspondent speaks to our surae chinn. Reporter pbs science reporter miles obrien dives right back into work after returning to the United States a few days ago without his left arm. Everybody it talking about polar vortexes. Reporter the former cnn anchor who specializes in science, technology and aerospace is moderating a panel on Climate Change in northwest, a commitment he made well before his accident. Sometimes the best tonic is to stay focused on work. Reporter he told the world about the mishap in his blog. I wish i had a better story to tell you about why im typing this with one hand. A shark attack would be interesting. An assassination attempt would be intriguing. Skydiving mishappens always make for good copy. No, the reason i am now one handed is a little more prosaic. Obrien was on a shoot in the philippines reporting on the aftermath of the fukushima disaster. It was a seemingly minor accident. He was packing up tv equipment when a caseful of camera gear fell on his forearm. Two days later hes in the hospital suffering from acute compartment syndrome, a condition where blood flow is cut off to the muscle. The doctor made the life and death decision to amputate his arm above the elbow. Being the caretaker that he is obrien didnt tell his family until he returned to the United States on monday, two weeks after the accident. His girl friend says that was his way of processing what happened and protecting his family knowing they couldnt do anything about it. Obrien says hes now dealing with pain and the healing process. Phantom pain which is really crazy weird, yeah. I mean its like my hand is right there all crunched up and in a vice and at times it can be very excruciating. Reporter little did the science reporter know hes been doing the research throughout his career on what would become invaluable information in his personal life and new reality as an amputee. One of the first things i did was look at a piece i did for the news hour about a year and a half or so ago on bionic limbs. I suppose its a little bit like seeing what people might say at your funeral except im still around to be there for it. Im glad to be alive. Reporter in northwest washington surae chinn, wusa9. And he is lucky to be alive, great to see him. Miles obrien is consulting with one of the top limb transplant experts in the world. His name is dr. James higgins of Union Memorial hospital in baltimore and he is internationally renowned. Hes also a Founding Member of the American Society of reconstructive transplantation. He actually led a team that performed the first bilateral arm transplant on a soldier who lost both his arms overseas. Recently dr. Higgins reattached the arm of Prince Georges County firefighter William Alexander after it was severed in an accident on the beltway. While we dont know what sort of treatment obrien is looking for, we do know worldwide 85 people received upper limb transplants. So it could happen for him. Attorney general eric holder is out of the hospital tonight after he experienced faintness and shortness of breath this morning. They rushed him to medstar washington lot center as a precaution. Holder said he started feeling faint during a staff meeting this morning. Never lost consciousness and was just joke he never lost consciousness and was joking with the paramedics on the way to the hospital. More now on the remarkable life of a 91yearold holocaust survive killed yesterday trying to cross 11 lanes of traffic on columbia pike in Silver Spring. Scott broom is at that intersection by columbia pike and tech road tonight where elijah meranski was hit by a school bus. Reporter it is remarkable, a 91yearold man trying to cross 11 lanes of traffic here. Elijah meranski is a survivor of the nazi invasion of poland, imimmigranted to israeli and he died here trying to cross a road with his walker. He still two his soviet war medals in this 2009 photo with his wife who died in 2011. Yesterday his crumpled walker sat by the side of route 29 where he was struck by a Howard County school bus carrying middle schoolers back from a field trip to the white house. Police are investigating whether meranski ran out of time trying to cross all 11 lanes of this busy road. I remember the closeness he felt towards his daughter and the closeness she felt towards him. He did not speak english well. Reporter for the Holocaust MuseumGail Schwartz recalls interviewing meranski and his daughter just last year for the museums oral archive. In his interview he described the nazi invasion in poland, the execution of his family in the streets. He was spared for slave labor but escaped confinement to join resistance fighters and was eventually severely wounded while fighting for russia, a modest housepainter after the war, married, had two kids, emigrated from israeli to russia in the 70s and followed his daughter to the u. S. In 1995. Unbelievable. He survived death so many times during the war and to have this happen by chance is devastating. Its a tragedy. Reporter outside rtonsvill neighbors were shocked. Just to survive the holocaust and to do things is just remarkable. Reporter meranski lived in this ground floor apartment alone. The intersection where his remarkable life ended is only a short distance away. Now to the intersection here and the investigation, the investigators have not determined who may have been at fault, but there is a serious focus now on the safety of this crosswalk. When i come back at 6 00, the shocking reality at how short this light is actually timed for pedestrians. Until then scott broom reporting live, back to you. Amazing that he could survive something so awful and yet die trying to do something so simple. A victory tonight for d. C. s transgender residents. Today mayor vincent gray ordered Insurance Companies to stop denying coverage for people seeking to have a sex change operation. Specifically the American Medical Association and the American Psychological association are in agreement and have publicly stated that treatment including gender reassignment surgeries is necessary medical care for some people with gender dysphoria. The city now says gender dysphoria is a recognized medical condition. D. C. Already has laws banning discrimination against transgender people. Gay rights advocates praise arizona governors decision to veto the controversial religious freedom bill. The measure would have allowed businesses to deny services to transgenders, gays and lesbian by saying their religious beliefs precluded them from serving such people. Wusa9 has been tracking potholes for week, but today the district announced the official date for potholepalooza. The month long effort begins march 20th. Thats when repair crews will try to fix all the identified potholes in 48 hours instead of the normal 72. City says they have filled more than 9,000 street craters already. Speaking of road craters, mary gaffney wrote us about a stretch of road in northwest d. C. That needs take lot of tlc, so much so she felt it should be named our pothole of the day. Mary says the street beginning in the 3200 block is a hazard. We is not our cameraman kurt brooks out to get some pictures. He tells us because there are cars parked on both sides of casada, the potholes are hard to avoid just waiting to do some serious damage. We reported this mine field to the department of transportation. Ddot promises to fix potholes within three days after the complaint. With any luck this will be a thing of the past by march 4th. If you know of a pothole, tell us by going to tellwusa9. Com and if you can,easealso send us a picture. A warning tonight from defense secretary chuck hagel to russia. Dont do anything to escalate tensions in ukraine. The countrys ousted president is believed to be under russian protection in moscow. Meanwhile pro russian protesters took over government buildings in ukraines coastal region. Meeting with nato allies in belgium, hagel says the u. S. Is watching the Russian Military exercise at the Ukraine Border very closely. So far north korea is refusing to explain why it fired four short range missiles today. Those missiles were fired from a mountain site just north of the border with south korea. The launches come days after the beginning of the annual joint u. S. south korea military exercises. In the past north korea blasted those exercises as preparation for war. You may precede the nutrition label when you slop for food read the nutrition label when you shop for food in the store, but now for the first time in 20 years the food and Drug Administration wants to give them a makeover, but the proposal to change nutrition labels could prompt a backlash from foodmakers. First Lady Michelle obama wants to make nutrition labels easier to understand. Families deserve more and better information about the food they eat. Reporter mrs. Obama and the fda are leading the way as the government unveiled new proposals for labels. The proposed change would make calorie count stand out with bigger bolder font. Companies would have to list nutrients. Most americans should consume more of like potassium and vitamin d and any added sugars will also be included on the label. Like whether the sugar in your yogurt was added during processing or whether it comes from ingredients like fruits. Reporter the fda also wants the serving size to actually reflect what a person will eat. This is one important part of a broader set of efforts to really address important issues of nutrition and health. Reporter ultimately consumers will decide whether to Pay Attention to the new information. Its going to help people to know what theyre eating. Its a good effort, but i dont think it will be that effective. Reporter some Food Companies may fight parts of the plan. The fda prects companies will have to take around 2 billion to change the take around 2 billion to change pay around 2 billion to change the food labels. The fda is giving the public 90 days to weigh in on the proposed changes. We thought wed talk about this because newsrooms are not the healthiest places. The big idea is to help people understand the calories theyre taking in as you chomp on those and what the serving size is. In this bag of potato chips there are 15 servings here. For some of us thats like two servings. I know. This is what an actual serving size of these potato chips look like, right . This is 20 chips, but how many of us only ate that . Thats 150 calories, 9 grams of fat. Now if you eat this whole thing like youre known to do, you would consume over 2,200 calories. Thats like food for a whole day. Absolutely. The whole idea is for people to be more educated. The calories will be bolder. The serving size will be bolder. All of this in an attempt to help you understand what youre eating. These used to be bags where youd see two servings. Now theyve right sized them so its just one serving in these bags here, but got to pay close attention to that. Or sometimes you on purpose dont look because you just dont want to know. Thats right. If youre trying to keep up with the joneses, you ought to know four of the wealthiest neighborhoods in america right here in our neck of the woods. Peggy fox takes us to the land of the rich folks coming your way at 5 30. If youre sick of the snow and the cold, youre not alone. So right now pretend its summer. Were going to take you to some tropical locations where you dont even need a plane ticket. Hard to believe even colder air is moving in right now. Winds are howling on the weather terrace. Well show you temperatures. 38 downtown, 32 in gaithersburg and frederick, 27 in hagerstown, 34 in leesburg. Well come back and tell you what the winds are doing to our wind chills. I got new information on mondays storm. Dont we love those guys at nasa . Theyve come out with what theyre calling a planner to bonanza. Scientist a planetary bonanza. Scientists have discovered new planets and nasa says four of the planets have the makeup to potentially support life if only we could get there. Look what nasty weather did in toronto. Nearly 100 vehicles in accidents. This highway was closed here for most of the afternoon while crews dealt with the mess. Unbelievably there were no major injuries. I thought they knew how to handle their cold and snow in toronto. Whats up with that . We were going to ask you whats up with that . Well, makes us feel better, doesnt it . A little. We always get nailed. We dont get those massive ones. That was horrific. New information on the monday storm, its all trending colder which is actually kind of good because it would mean more snow and sleet as opposed to freezing rain. Be glad for small favors. In this case our choices are not good. So that would be one of the better scenarios, the colder the better. Lets start with a live look outside, our live michael and son weather cam, 38 right now, dew point Single Digits, relative humidity outside is 25 . I harp on this, but its very dry air, wind north, northwest at 17 gusting to 30, but your indoor relative humidity is 9 . If your hands are cracking, thats why. Satellite picture radar combined, well zoom out into the west coast. This will be our storm. This is our source of moisture. It will track across the country over the weekend. It is going to hammer california. They have winter storm warnings out and flood warnings out. Were talking about 1 to 3 inches of rain there. In the meantime a cold front moved through. Most of the snow showers stayed north of us. You heard the winds pick up in the afternoon. Its driving in fresh arctic air and generally clear skies. Temps 38 downtown, 30 in gaithersburg, 32 in frederick, 34 in leesburg and manassas. Factor in these winds. It feels like its 60 in gaithersburg, feels like 29 downtown and 22 in leesburg. If youre going out, dress for the teens tonight. Look at this, wind chills 1 below in oakland and 6 below in davis around timberline. Even colder tonight, hard to believe, but its fresh arctic air, some Single Digits possible north and west of town. Bus stop temperatures 9, 25. Whats the Silver Lining . Okay. No winds tomorrow morning. Very cold friday the whole day but good news, no wind the whole day. For tonight clear sky, even colder, winds slowly diminish, northwest 10 to 15, but lows 9 to 19. Tomorrow morning mostly sunny, a very cold start. I would say hat, gloves and a scarf good idea. Teens and 20s, winds manageable northwest at 10 and by afternoon partly cloudy, colder. Youll need your sunglasses, winds light, High Temperatures again struggle to get to the freezing mark which is kind of a cold way to end february. Look at these temps, in the teens to start, lot of sunshine. These are city temps. 18 at 9 00, 22 at 11 00 and by 1 00 25 degrees. This may be a little bit low at 1 00. The weekend looks good for the first weekend in march, 45 on saturday, maybe a sprinkle, but im tempted to take that out, partly sunny. Clouds come back at us sunday, High Temperature 50 with rain developing late sunday or sunday night. That leads into our winter storm monday. Rain and or ice or snow, 33 and again models are trending colder which would be more snow and sleet, less freezing rain. Thats a better thing. Then cold tuesday, wednesday in the 30s, chilly on thursday, next thursday with temperatures back in the mid40s. Do you want to get away . Remember that commercial . Escaping this miserable Winter Weather can be pricey, spring break air fare up 9 this year. So how about a staycation . Jessica doyle found some local places. Reporter are the winter blues stomping the life out of you . More than 90 of people do admit to some lessening of their mood and going into a hibernationlike mode this time of year. Reporter the dirty snow, gray skies, all of that can really get you down. I think of washington winters as very wimpy. This one has been pretty powerful. Reporter and depressing. And depressing depending on your point of view. Reporter but psychiatrist antonia baum says you can do things into trick your brain into being happier, so we found a couple local spots where we can pretend its already summer. Im so over this cold. Reporter not only can you get your tooties ready for toes, theres a lime and ginger body treatment with warm oils and heated body wraps, talk about tropical. Cheers. Reporter speaking of the tropics how about scuba diving classes . Blue planet d. C. Is just 4 blocks from the Dupont Circle metro. Did you know Fairfax County has a rec center with an indoor water park . Cub run in chantilly has a 50 foot indoor water slides. You can put summers restaurant georgetown at tackle box. R in put a clam bake and rum punch on your bill. What it, did somebody say bill . He is the roseate spoonbill. Reporter mike acts like the mayor at the zoo. He loves greeting new friends. At about 80 degrees yearround, you definitely want to lose your winter coat. Now if they could only work on getting a little more sun in here. There are monkeys, fish, different species of birds. Hey, theres mike again. Its always summer in here. Personally big fan of the lime and ginger body treatment. That was Jessica Doyle reporting. Just in case youre counting, theres only 20 more days left till spring, but tomorrow is the last day of february, so you know this is almost over. Tell the truth. You really like the pedicure. That was your thing. That was my thing, but dont ask me to take my shoes off and show it off. We will not. Right after the break why babies born via c section may be more likely to suffer fr in tower health alert new data suggests c section in our health alert new data suggests c sections can increase the likelihood of your child being obese later in life. London Research Shows 25 of babies born to c section were more likely to be heavier as adults. Its concluded not having a natural birth might affect a babys metabolism. They need to be exposed to the bacteria that comes from the mother which that baby might not be exposed to if a baby is born by caesarean section. Experts compared data from 150 births. About 1 3 of all babies in the u. S. Are born b