Transcripts For WUSA Wusa 9 News At Noon 20171219 : vimarsan

early this morning. let's just talk a little bit about the numbers here. so two apartment buildings, 11 units now deemed unliveable, 19 adults and 11 children with no place to go. >> you see nothing but flames. >>reporter: this video tells the story. an apartment building exploding into flames. andrea poston lives next door and was there as it started. >> i saw the kids on the balcony screaming help me, catch me, help me, help me. >>reporter: from there this fire grew. at one point evacuation tones were even sounded, ordering firefighters to get out. assistant chief alan doubleday says he sees fires everyday and this was a big one. >> we are etypically equipped to fight fire on one floor. when you arrive here and you have fire on two floors and the roof, you've basically exhausted all your resources by the time you get on the scene. >>reporter: after 30 minutes the fire was out, but the damage was done, five with minor injuries and dozens without >> right before christmas, you know, just imagine the christmas trees and the presents that are already there. santa claus hasn't even came yet, you know. >>reporter: so as mentioned, that's now 30 people displaced for the holiday season. really it could be more because that's just the people that are on the lease. the red cross is estimating that it could be closer to 40 people that are now displaced for the holiday season. by the way, wanted to mention the red cross is working to connect families with toys for tots to make sure these kids will at least get some toys later on for christmas. reporting here in suitland, evan koslof, wusa 9. >> thank you, evan. now to the latest on the amtrak derailment that killed at least three passengers near seattle. today the national transportation safety board plans to interview the crew of amtrak train number 501. the ntsb says the train was traveling 80 miles an hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone. however, investigators say it's still too early to tell why the train was in this would happen. chris martinez is at the scene of the crash in dupont. >>reporter: crews lifted train cars overnight as they tried to stabilize the scene of monday's deadly derailment. the national transportation safety board says the train's event data recorder indicates the amtrak train was traveling 50 miles over the speed limit when it jumped the tracks. >> the question is why was the train traveling at 80 miles an hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone? and the answer is it's too early to tell. >>reporter: the train was making its first run on a faster, new route from seattle to portland. but when the train entered a curve over the interstate, one of the engines and 12 cars derailed, slamming into cars and trucks below. >> amtrak 501, emergency. we are on the ground. >> is everybody okay? >> i'm still figuring that out. we got cars everywhere, and down onto the highway. >>reporter: authorities say the train was carrying 80 passengers and five on-duty crew members. >> all of crash, and there it was down. the train went like this. >>reporter: amtrak says positive train control, the technology that can slow or stop a speeding train was not activated on the tracks at the time of the derailment. at least one local official, lakewood mayor don anderson voiced safety concerns about the new line at a city council meeting earlier this month. >> there is that accident just [ inaudible ] >>reporter: the ntsb expects to start interviewing the train crew as early as today. chris martinez, cbs news, dupont, washington. another local councilman in dupont says he rode the train with about 30 or so other dignitaries on a special trip friday before the service opened to the public on monday, and that trip went smoothly. he added the train also slowed down as it rounded that curve. had a chance to step outside and get some fresh air. it is just gorgeous out there. 55 degrees right now, and there there's a sun and cloud mix, but we are expecting gorgeous weather today with high temperatures bottoming out at the 60-degree mark in most regions. southwest winds today 10 to 15 miles per hour. so showers are to our north. we actually have a cold front coming in our direction. but this cold front, not a lot of buzz with this front. we'll have the cooler weather behind it, but we're not looking at rain. as i advance futurecast, you can see we are dry by 3:00, 4:00 and even 6:00 this evening. although at 6:00 you will see more clouds making their way in as that cold front approaches the area. so no rain, but we get some cooler weather. high of 60 today, tomorrow 49, and cloudy. we'll have a disturbance passing to our south. that's where the rain will be. we'll just get the clouds in place tomorrow. and then thursday a little bit more sun with high temperatures in the upper 40s once again. now, many people are starting to think about forecast. i tell you, it's still anybody's game here when it comes to whether we'll see a wet or a white christmas. right now let's go with high temperatures 47 to 52 degrees, rain with some flurries mixing in. i'll show you the time line for all of this coming up in my full weather. but for the latest weather, you can always stay alert with us on the first alert weather app. you can download the wusa 9 app right now. we could learn if the jury is expected to continue deliberating in the trial of six protesters arrested after peaceful protests turned violent to rioting on january 20th. more than 200 people were charged in connection with the inauguration day violence. a recall election to decide the political future for a bowie city councilmember is under way today. a group called bowie citizens for accountable government asked for a recall vote for district 2 councilmember diane poliigan. if there are more votes to remove her from office than to keep her in place, she could still run in the subsequent special elec. held 60 to 90 days after the recall election. polls in district 2 are open until 8:00 tonight. and we're learning more this afternoon after the top cop in charlottesville resigned effective today. chief alfred thomas was on the job when racist protests overwhelmed the city. a counterprotestor was even killed last august. a report released two weeks ago revealed the charlottesville, virginia police department poorly planned and handled the white supremacist rally as well as the counterdemonstration which led to, quote, diastrous results. the deal is set, congress has the numbers needed and members will vote today on sweeping tax reform legislation. the senate is expected to follow their lead and hand president trump the first major legislative victory of his administration. the president and republicans call the tax reform bill a gift for americans, but more than half of americans polled see it differently. >>reporter: the ho preparing to pass a nearly $1.5 trillion tax reform bill. >> come january 1st, americans will be able to keep more of what they earned. they have -- they will have a stronger economy, stronger pay checks, and we're finally going to see some of our american jobs come back from overseas. >>reporter: the tax bill reduces the rates at every income level. it also doubles the standard deduction for individuals and families. but the biggest winners are corporations which will see their rates slashed significantly. house speaker paul ryan has spent his entire career working on tax reform. >> it's an honor to be speaker of the house this season. last time this got done, the job i had, i was working at the quarterpounder grill at mcdonald's at the section of highway 440 and 90 in janesville, wisconsin. >>reporter: it's not a clean sweep for republican support for the bill. members from high-tax states like new york, new jersey and california say the cap on state and local income tax deductions hurts them from your constituents? >> nothing good, especially for the republicans who voted for trump. very disappointed. >>reporter: congress has passed bigger tax cuts before, but that didn't stop president trump from celebrating on twitter, saying this is the biggest tax cuts and reform ever passed. enjoy and create many beautiful jobs. weijia jiang, cbs news, capitol hill. >> on that boast, the tax policy center reports the largest tax cut in history designation would go to either president ronald reagan's 1981 tax cut or president barack obama's 20-20-20-12 extension of most of the george w. bush- era tax cuts, depending on how the size of the tax cut is measured. the white house is blaming north korea for a worldwide cyber attack that caused billions of dollars. the trump administration says it holds pyongyang directly responsible for the wanna cry attack earlier this year. the white house says it's important to expose north but homeland security adviser thomas foster admits there isn't much more the administration can do to apply pressure. >> president trump has used just about every labor you can use short of starving the people of north korea to death to change their behavior. >> the wanna cry attack struck more than 150 nations in may, locking up digital files and demanding a ransom for their release. so is there intelligent life out there? a new study shows many of us do believe it. coming up some video just released a salvation army? minnesota is celebrating this afternoon. it got a big surprise in one of its iconic red kettles over the $200,000 in a minneapolis kettle saturday, and the donor asked to remain anonymous. the check will make a huge difference for the salvation army with its holiday efforts. the twin cities branch says donations are down 10% from last year. it hopes to raise about $12 million by the end of the year. now to a quick reminder about our give hope campaign with our partners at children's national. we are working to get gifts like these to children who will spend the holidays in the hospital. more than 1,000 of you have helped out so far. all you do is head for wusa9.com/give hope. click the link and check out the amazon wish list. you purchase a toy and the rest is up to us. we'll make sure it gets wrapped and delivered to where it's needed. again, that's wusa9.com/give hope. a teenager from reston, virginia is blowing up the olympic speed skating trials in utah. and because of it, momnah bieny t qualify for the u.s. speed skating team. at 17 she'll be the youngest member of the women's team, and you can only imagine her reaction when she found out she made the team. >> i can't believe it. it takes me a while. holy cow! >> holy cow is right. bieny emigrated to the u.s. from ghana when she was 5. we are told she learned to skate at reston's speed skating club. they are proud of her. a new cbs poll says that americans believe there is intelligent life on another planet. but have they visited earth? santonio holmes reports the military's been looking -- tony d ou kopil reports. >> oh, my gosh. >>reporter: you're watching just one of the many u.f.o. department of defense. >> it's fascinating. >>reporter: the unidentified flying object about the size of a school bus attracted the attention of former intelligence officer luis eliznodo. >> it's not a drone. it's not something we can easily say, oh, that's an airplane. >>reporter: for years he ran a $22 million pentagon effort aimed at understanding the physics of sightings like this one. >> frankly, if it's russian, chinese, little green men from mars or, you know, your neighbor's dog, i really don't care. my focus is what is it and how does it work. >>reporter: elizando refused to discuss the number of cases he investigated, but he did work with robert bigelow, a las vegas aerospace ty who recently told "60 minutes" that alien life is real. >> i am absolutely convinced. that's all there is to it. >>reporter: do you also believe that ufos has come to earth? >> there has been and an existing presence. >>reporter: from 1947 to 19 investigated more than 12,000 u.f.o. sightings, 700 of which are still unsided. >> i would say remain skeptical, absolutely. but there comes a point where the evidence becomes overwhelming. >>reporter: elizondo says we're not at that point yet, but he believes something is out there and ignoring it just won't fly. tony doukopil, cbs news, new york. well, it certainly has been pleasant and refreshing out there. 55 degrees, it's good golf weather as we've heard earlier today. we're topping out at the 60- degree mark out there. warmer, partly cloudy, but a cold front is heading our way tonight. so we'll notice the changes tomorrow when cooler air settles in. we do see some showers well off to our north and east, and we're not anticipating any rain out of this particular front that's making its way in. but we do have some changes coming our way. warmer air returns friday and saturday ahead of our next system that's mix up our christmas forecast. look for rain between friday and christmas day. christmas day starts off mild with rain, but at the end of it, we're looking at some flurries and some snow mixing in on the back end. so christmas forecast calls for high temperatures in the 40s and low 50s, right between 47 and 52 degrees. look for rain and flurries out there, especially later on christmas day. let me show you what we're looking at on two different models. that's why we still need some time to sort out exactly what's going to happen because if that colder air comes in sooner, then we're looking at more snow and flurries rather than rain. if the cold air holds off until later, then we're looking at more rain rather than flurries. let me show you both models. this is the gfs, okay? so we'll start with this friday evening. we're looking at rain moving in friday night, all throughout saturday. both models agree on giving us showers. sunday afternoon more rain is possible, including during the redskins game. so if you're heading out there, you want to throw on that poncho to keep yourself comfortable. just light showers are anticipated, or you can just tc wusa 9. now, monday morning, this is at 6:00 a.m. this is the gfs model. it is pushing in that colder air much sooner. it's very aggressive on that. if that's the case, we'll start with rain and we'll have a rain/flurry mix and it'll change over to some flurries and light snow showers on the back end of it. then let me show you the european model, the euro which is another model that we like to along at amongst the very many. that model agrees on bringing the rain in friday throughout the day and on saturday. it's monday morning, though, that we begin to see that discrepancy on just how fast that colder air is going to come in. this is christmas morning at 6:00 a.m. you're noticing more green than white here because the air is warmer on this particular run, and you don't really begin to see that mix until later on in the evening at 4:30 p.m. that's when you begin to get the rain and the know mixing in around forest rick, westminster and leesburg. so areas north and west would have the best chance of seeing that. so the forecast, this is what i'm going to call for for now, there's still many days to fine tune this forecast, we're looking at some showers to chance for some rain and flurries to mix in on christmas evening. fingers crossed if you want that white christmas. it's hard to get around here. only a 10% chance of getting one inch of snow on the ground during christmas and a 15% chance of.10 to.90 inch of snow on the ground. so it's been since 2009 since we've had a, quote, unquote, white christmas around here. if you're heading out to the redskins game this sunday, 48 to 52 degrees. bring the poncho. a light shower is possible as they take on the broncos at 1:00 p.m. seven-day forecast, what a roller coaster ride, 60 today, upper 40s and cloudy tomorrow, 48 thursday. by the way, thursday winter starts at 11:28 a.m. look for 60s friday and saturday with showers and christmas day 50s with welcome back to the news at noon. no one likes getting sick over the holidays, so let's talk flu shots. doctors say we can often tell if we're in for a bad flu season if it's bad in australia during their flu season. and this year australia had it bad. you might have heard the vaccine was not all that effective for the particular flu strain that hit down under. so you might be wondering, should you even bother to get a shot? well, our verify team has some answers. we reached out to dr. fred lopez, an expert on infectious disease at l.s.u. he says, yes, it was bad in australia, a nasty strain hit, it's h3n2 and now that same strain is surfacing right here in the u.s. >> we don't know what's going to happen here. i mean, it's possible that we may see something very similar. we ow h3n2 strains predominate that we're going to have probably a more severe season. >> and the good doctor says that's all the more reason to get vaccinated. for one thing, your odds against getting sick improve since the vaccine is designed to protect against three or four different strains. the vaccine is also good even if you do get the flu. >> even if it's not a perfect match with what's circulating in a community in a given year, it will still provide you with some protection against the complications and severity of the illness that you might develop. >> so we can verify. it's a question mark as to how effective this year's vaccine will be, but it will help. so go ahead, roll up your sleeves, doctors urge everyone older than six months to get a shot. and the sooner the better because it takes about two weeks to build up immunity. if you have something you want verified, let our team of researchers get to the bottom of it. you can find us on facebook or twitter or nd an e-mail the toothpaste that helps prevent bleeding gums. if you spit blood when you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. help stop the journey of gum disease. try parodontax toothpaste. z2m7ez z16fz y2m7ey y16fy tonight on wusa 9 news at 5:00, a washington redskins player accuses police of racial profiling. new information about a shelter in prince george's county and allegations of unsafe conditions. plus why are these people attacking a christmas tree? we'll tell you all about the christmas rage room. >> shakes head and gives forecast. hey, good afternoon, everybody. 60 degrees today, upper 40s tomorrow. winter starts on thursday, and then the warm air returns friday, saturday. we're looking at rain with highs in the 60s. sunday the redskins are on the field. they'll be playing right here on wusa 9, 55 during the game. and then christmas day falling temps and some rain and flurries on the back end. >> we look like we're ready for easter. >> i know. >> matches the weather out there too. that's it for wusa 9 at noon. we'll be just became whatever whayou're about to dout to do after you get coffee. nothing comes before coffee. that's why we're introducing a new line of café-quality espresso drinks from mccafé. get a small peppermint mocha for just two dollars. >> previously on "the young and the restless"...

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