Channing street. Caution there. We have a red line delay. A full look at traffic next. Back to you. 7 oclock is our time right now. Developing overnight the power is back on at the worlds Busiest Airport. But now thousands are backed up after being stranded and delayed in atlanta. All right in the thick of Christmas Travel of course and fox5s Melanie Alnwick is live at Reagan National airport with how these major delays are affecting us locally. Mel. Reporter hey, good morning, and, yes, it is definitely affecting us locally. We had a number of passengers who told us that they came here to the airport yesterday, their flight was canceled they were rebooked on flights for this morning. They got here this morning and those flights were canceled and thats why weve seen such big backups here at the terminal and also at the at the check in counter as people are trying to figure out where are they going, how can they get there and when can they get there, all of this because of that power outage that knocked eve atlanta yesterday and delta has its hub there which means they are predominantly affected by this. The entire airport plunged into darkness sunday afternoon and an electrical fire in the underground tunnels knocked out multiple Power Systems and then you had toxic fumes which kept power crews from accessing the site for hours while on the tarmacs and terminals were stranded. There was a Ripple Effect. Some passengers at Reagan National said theyre having to do a lot of rerouteing to get home. Not going as planned. Sad you wake up with so much joy ready to go and get here and one of the top airlines its just not working out. Its just real sad and heartbreaking. Reporter and they were trying to get to el salvador for christmas and were spending several hours on the phone just trying to figure out how were they going to get there, literally having to fly now out to los angeles and then head down and thats what a lot of people are having to do. Delta of cours affected because thats where its hub is. Even though they have extra planes, extra crews there, it is really having a big impact. Back out live here at Reagan National, we have talked to people who said that theyve been in this line for two hours trying to find out when they can get rebooked, how theyre going to get rebooked and one family that i talked to said they were told they could not get on a flight to atlanta until thursday so theyre heading to the rental car counter. Live at Reagan National, im Melanie Alnwick, fox5 local news. Thanks mel. 7 03 is our time. Three people are dead after a single engine cessna plane crashes in indiana. That plane was headed to our area. It happened saturday night. All three people on board were killed as well as a dog. A second dog survived the crash and is receiving care from a veterinarian. According to flight records the plane took off from kansas city heading to frederick maryland. President donald trump is expected to unveil his strategy. The plan is to focus on four main themes protecting the homeland and way of life. Promoting american prosperity, demonstrating peace through strength and advancing american influence in an ever competitive world. The Administration Says the United States must fight on all fronts to protect and defend its sovereignty. The United NationsSecurity Council will vote on a draft resolution calling for the u. S. To withdraw its decision to recognize jerusalem as the capitol of israel. The move is likely to face a veto from washinton. According to reutters news service, the draft doesnt mention the United States or President Trump by name but it is likely to further isolate the president on the issue. Now to the latest on the massive wildfires in Southern California. Nearly 8,000 firefighters have been deployed to fight the thomas fire in ventura as it continues to threaten 18,000 homes. Crews say the return of powerful winds could raise the fire risks. 40 percent contained. Crews say full containment is not expected until january and even then the fire will probably burn through the new year. Jury deliberations could begin as early as today in the Inauguration Day protest trial. Six of the 194 defendants arrested on january 20th are on trial. They face multiple riot related felonies and misdemeanors. All six will face the possibility of more than 60 years in prison if convicted. 7 05 is our time and i was surprised at how mild it was even yesterday. Yeah, yesterday made it to 50 and today even warmer. Five, 6 degrees warmer this afternoon. Ill take it. Love it. Best part, nice and dry so we wont have really no weather issues for the next couple days. Good. Yup. Check that one off the list. Right. We got school, work. Yes. Holiday plans. Lets do it. [laughter] lets do it. [laughter] yesterday as mentioned made it to 50. Today were forecasting 57. And a mix of sun and clouds. Nice quiet day for you. Theres your satellite and radar. Got a few clouds out early but making for a beautiful sunrise as we just saw a few minutes ago and we should be in for a quiet afternoon. No rain, no winter weather. Can you believe eve already had three days where weve had at least measurable snow or snow showers . Is that a sign. Thats better than all of last year, isnt it. Its pretty much equal to all of last year, yeah. We wont get that this week. Well be nice and mild this week. Temperatures throughout the week will be above normal starting today, 57 and theres your mix of sun and clouds. Enjoy a nice afternoon. Coming up ill have the seven day. We have rain in the forecast. Looks a little stormy next weekend as we get into our Christmas Eve weekend so well talk about that. Thank you very much, tucker. Appreciate it. All right erin how is it looking on the roads. 7 06 things picking up. We have delays on the red line right now. Theres an equipment problem on a train at farragut north. Theyre offloading at line signal problem outside van ness. Delays to shady grove. As we move forward take a look at this. 66 on the eastbound side 22 minute trip. Its jammed up. Red zone 234 to Fairfax County parkway. Aside from that 195 northbound, close to 23 minutes as you make your way and northbound toward the mixing bowl, 95 on dale city to the beltway and then making your way out, outer loop 25 minute trip, youre all jammed up as you make your way from 95 to the 270 spur. Inner loop bottom side of the beltway were jammed up right there from branch avenue to the wilson bridge. Down to 13 Miles Per Hour average on 210 northbound through livingston road. Well have more news, weather and traffic in a few. Thats your traffic. Back to you. 7 07 is our time. President trump says he is not considering firing special counsel robert mueller. Hopefully this shot will come over to me. There you go. Well take a look at the capitol. That disputes a rumor thats been floating around on capitol hill. Mueller is investigating whether there was collusion between the President Campaign and russian officials. The president criticized the fact that mueller had gained access to emails sent and received by President Trump and officials within his administration before his Actual Administration took officers. Muellers Spokesman Says the emails were obtained in an appropriate manner. Meantime, we have learned russian president Vladimir Putin called President Trump to thank him. Putin says he is grateful to the cia for providing the tip that helped thwart a series of bombings in saint petersburg. It is the second call between the two leaders over the past three days. Were told the cia tip led authorities in russia to a group of suspects that was planning to bomb a cathedral and other crowded sites this weekend. President trump may be just days away from his biggest accomplishment in office. A major tax overhaul. But there could still be some complications along the way. Arizona republican senator john mccain being treated for brain cancer, hes just left washington. Our maureen umeh joins us with the very latest mo. Reporter good morning both of you. No one is under any allusions this morning about the kind of prognosis senator john mccain is facing battling brain cancer. He is now headed back home to arizona as his republican colleagues here are working feverishly to try to get tax cuts done senator john mccains health has been declining but he continues to fight. His soninlaw with an update over the weekend. Hes in good spirits and hes looking forward to heading back home to arizona for the holidays. Our thanks to everyone who has been sending thoughts and prayers to the senator this week. We greatly appreciate it and he remains one of the toughest men on the face of the earth as you know. Reporter a confident President Trump meanwhile returned to the white house last night from camp david. He tweeted this. As a candidate i promised we would pass a massive tax cut for the everyday working American Families who are the backbone and heartbeat of our country. Now we are just days away. The math in the senate though is difficult especially with mccains absence this week. The president said he spoke with Mccains Mccain and i wished her well. I wished john well. They headed back but i understand hell come if we ever needed his vote which hopefully we wont but the word is that john will come back if we need his vote. And it is increasingly clear the republicans will need just about every gop vote they can muster to get this done. Democrats even moderates like west Virginias Joe Manchin are not likely to bite. Once Mitch Mcconnell has decided that 51 votes was all he was needed and theyre all going to be republicans and make it political thats exactly what happened. Reporter and the wheels are in motion to wrap this up relatively quickly. The house is expected to vote on tuesday followed by the senate on wednesday. Allison. Maureen thank you so much. Former Vice President ial candidate sarah palins older son arrested again on Domestic Violence charges. He was arraigned on saturday. It is the second time in just two years hes been arrested on D Sarah Palin has suggested the past ptsd played a role in her sons behavior. 10 minutes past the hour right now and coming up. Santa is having a holly jolly christmas. Holly you must love this time of the year with your name. Its the best time of the year. How much dough hes raking in this christmas. I dont think youre getting any of santas dough. And i was born in april but anyway. [laughter] [laughter] isnt that nice . Holly, we need to work on our harmony when a song comes on like this so we can sing it. Okay. No, later. Youre a singer. I need practice and to learn the words. You need to work on you see what i mean. Anyway, welcome back. We are all in the holiday spirit around here and the Christmas Music tells thetells e so excited. I love this week at work. Lets talk about the pope. Now the pope celebrates his birthday like the rest of us. Here he is over the weekend blowing out a birthday candle that was placed on a 13foot slice of pizza at the vatican. I dont typically do the pizza part. Pope francis turned 81 this weekend. The event delighted the children in vatican square. Thousands gathered in saint Peters Square to wish the pope a happy birthday. This year the pontiffs birthday coincided with his weekly sunday appearance before the faithful. Happy birthday. Thousands usually dont show up for my birthday, either. Well and then theres that. Me either. All new at 7 00 looks like santa claus may make a stop at the bank the next time he comes to town. A company that hires out santas for the holidays says that jolly old saint nick can make up to 15,000 during the holiday season. Wow. With some c as 500 per hour on Christmas Day. Of course the pay varies based on what kind of work each santa does with mall santas making less money than their premium counterparts. Some santas also say a custom suit costs over a thousand dollars plus many must attend santa school which can run between 250 to 500. But you know what it is really nice that all of those santas help out the real santa. Right. While hes at the north pole. Exactly. Getting everything done. And thats priceless. More information about santas than ive heard my entire life. Youre welcome. Uhhuh. Do tell. Thats what you get on fox5 news morning. Lets do the forecast. For that kind of money i might be santa. I saw your ears perk up when i started saying the rates. Right. But you cant grow a beard. I know. Although it probably would be white. Aww. Nice the deal. Winter is going to be here on thursday. Todays daylight nine hours 27 minutes. Sunrise if youre curious in about, lets see, five minutes. And sunset tonight at 4 48 so again, winter arrives on thursday at 11 28 a. M. Dont quote me on that but i think thats right. 39 in washington. Lets see. We are going to be nice and mild today. Mid to upper 50s so temperatures a good 10 plus degrees above normal. Mix of clouds and sun. No rain today. In fact most of the week should be nice and dry with mild conditions expected for the next few days. Look at tomorrow. 60 degrees. Little cooler as we get in the first day of winter on thursday and right now next weekend looks wet. Hm. Saturday and sunday. Iim not sure if its going to rain all weekend but we do have a period of rain as we get into next weekend. Theres time for that to change. Cant complain about the temperatures. No. Well above normal this week. Thanks, tuck. Any complaints on the roadways . Thats where erin como comes in. You know what im always full of all the great news. Right now 7 16 and we have this hyattsville where traffic is sharing the westbound lanes. Eastbound and westbound getting by in one lane between riggs road and chillum manor. Water main break. Please use caution. Crews working through the afternoon. Right now we have a tweet from Pete Piringer letting us know southbound 355 frederick road south of shady grove road two car collision property damage. Give yourself extra time to get around there. Looks a little bit damp outside. Please use caution. Watch for slick conditions. 355 closed at Monocacy River bridge because of road work. Keep it to 85 or 80 to get around that. Typical congestion, you can see that yellow line. Overall its not terrible. 34 minute trip from 109 to the local plain split northbound side getting by just fine. As we forward things along once again new york avenue inbound yellow zone 17 minutes from 295 to the third street tunnel. A lot of heavy congestion inbound if youre headed out to Union Station keep in mind we have congestion there. 295 southbound jams from visit to the 11th Street Bridge. The good news is 50 westbound out by the sandy point plaza if youre headed to or from annapolis looks nice right now. No major congestion there but typical delays picking up on 66 eastbound as well as 395. Thats your traffic. Back to you. Thanks erin. 7 18. In virginia today, contracted Service Workers at Dulles International airport are expected to go on strike. This move comes at the peak of the holiday season. The workers are demanding a fair recognition process that allows workers to exercise their legal right to join a union. The strike is due to begin at 2 oclock this afternoon. 7 18. Cvs health expected to launch a safe medication disposal at cvs pharmacy locations across the district. The move is in an effort to fight the opioid abuse epidemic. The move will for the first time allow the public to bring unused medication to select locations for a safe environmentally friendly disposal. Happening today, d. C. Takes new action to cut the rat population in the nations capitol. Fox5s bob barnard is live in northeast with the details. And very that the city might employ. Bob. Reporter thats right, allison, holly, yes. Mayor bowser is going to do a Community Walk here along h street this afternoon and she is going to demonstrate the use of dry ice to kill rats. Its something theyve been doing in new york, chicago and boston. Basically they put the dry ice into the rat burrows and it suffocates them. Its cheaper than using some of the other poisons. Dry ice which is of course frozen Carbon Dioxide is a solid but when it turns to a gas, it does suffocate rats. Now, this method was used in those other cities but halted by the epa for a time last year saying those cities had not got 10 approval for using dry ice to kill rats but now that has been changed and the epa says its okay as long as they use a certain licensed product and according to reports out of boston, theres been a 95 percent reduction in rodent activity in boston. Now, d. C. We did this story on the morning show a few weeks ago d. C. Announcing the use of other methods to try to reduce the rodent population across the city including using solar powered trash bins and smart litter cans, also encouraging people to call 311 to report rodent activity and get Vector Control in to tell do something about it, and of course along this busy corridor with more restaurants, theres more trash unfortunately dog owners sometimes dont pick up after their pets, those are things that attract the rats and there have been a lot of reports to the city recently and the mayor, again today is going to announce this new other effort to try to crack down o