captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions woodruff: a new study says fast food makes up about 11% of the american diet, less than before but not by much. good evening, i m judy woodruff. suarez: and i m ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we sort through what all this means for america s obesity problem in children and adults. woodruff: then, we look at health care for the pooras florida s republican governor is the latest to embrace the obama administration s program to expand medicaid. suarez: margaret warner gets an update on the syrian civil war, as attacks on damascus escalate and the deadliest car bomb to date rocks the capital. woodruff: our week long focus on guns, after newtown continues with two reports: first, the state of play in florida, which has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the u.s. nothing really truly equalizes a smal petite woman with someone who s 6 3, 230 pounds who s angry except a firearm. those weapons often times fall in the hands of bad folks in our communities. suarez: hari sreenivasan brings together high school students from across the country to talk about guns and violence. woodruff: and as oscar night nears, tony scott, movie critic for the new york times, gives us his take on the latest buzz about wild cards and front runners. that s all ahead on tonight s newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. suarez: there may be hope yet for bringing the national epidemic of obesity under control. at least, the latest numbers on calories and fast food, released today, indicated possible progress. for years, health officials have warned about americans growing girth. now, research from the centers for disease control and prevention suggests the fight against fat may be having an effect. among the findings: american children consumed fewer calories in 2010 than a decade before 7% less for boys and 4% less for girls. and for adults, fast food accounted for just over 11% of the calories consumed in 2010, down from nearly 13% in 2006. the researchers acknowledge the changes are small and can t be fully explained. but public campaigns against obesity have intensified in recent years. last september, for instance, new york city s board of health limited sugared drinks and sodas to 16 ounces or less. mayor michael bloomberg praised the prohibition that takes effect march 12th. this is the single biggest step any city i think has taken to curb obesity, but certainly not the last step that lots of cities are going to take. and we believe that it will help save lives. suarez: and today, continuing her long-running let s move campaign, first lady michelle obama along with big bird of sesame street issued new public service announcements encouraging kids to get active and eat healthy. no matter what your age, it s important to get your body moving every single day to help keep you healthy. look, mrs. obama, i m getting moving right now by jogging! suarez: if a healthy trend is developing, it still has a long way to go. as of 2012, the c.d.c. estimated more than one-third of american adults and one out of three of children were obese. we examine today s numbers and the larger challenges obesity still presents with two people who have studied the epidemic closely. michael moss is a pulitzer prize winning writer for the new york times. his new book salt, sugar, fat. how the food giants hooked us. looks at how companies have contributed to weight gain. and dr. william dietz is the former director of the division of nutrition, physical activity, and obesity at the c.d.c. michael moss, let me start with you. i know there are caveats and things to be further explained, but just the gross statistics: adults consuming fewer calories from fast food, children consuming fewer calories overall. that s good news, isn t it? well, that s fabulous news for nutritionistsho are concerned about these foods. i mean, these are among the foods that we all hate to love because they re cal or willally dense. they pack in huge amounts of sugar, fat, and salt into small packagings and no doubt have contributed greatly to the obesity epidemic as well as other health concerns, diabetes, etc., in this country. suarez: dr. dietz, is there a not so fast moment waiting here? are you worried about getting too happy about this report? i m not sure this is good news. when we look at the obesity statistics, the prevalence, the frequency has stayed flat in girls and has s increasing in boys. but with a decrease of 150 calories in boys and 80 calories in girls which this study demonstrated we would expect weight loss. the only way that we can explain the decline in calories and the increase in obesity in boys, flat in girls, is that physical activity has declined and if that s thecation, that s a real concern because physical activity plays a major role in the prevention of chronic diseases, including obesity. suarez: so what s the assignment now? is it stringing together more years of that declining consumption along with, as you suggest, increased physical activity? well, for sure we need to decrease consumption, particularly of specific products which contribute excessive calories for the diets of children and adolescents. suarez: carb consumption as well. well, sugar drinks are the main source of sugar but pizzas and other big sources of calories haven t gotten as much attention. by the same token, we need to increase physical activity. because physical activity reduces the risk factors associated with obesity like elevated cholesterol, like elevated insulin and glucose levels, like elevated blood pressure. suarez: michael moss, along with knowing the raw statistics, is it important to know why? could it be from economic factors that a lot of people just had less money to spend on all kinds of things, including food? or would you want to know that it s the fact that the messages from the big voices in the culture finally are taking hold? you know, americans are becoming much more nceed bouthe food that we put in our mouths but, yes, there s a couple cautionary notes beyond those mentioned by dr. dietz. one, the data comes from the recession period when people are trying to save money by cutting back on eating out of the home. the other cautionary note is the question, you know, what were they replacing these fast foods with? and in my reporting for the book i found that over the years recently fast food type products have been moving into the grocery store where you see more entirely prepared meals ready to eat in the school lunchroom or at home that have almost caloric loads as fast food restaurants so it becomes a question of, okay, you re cutting back fast food but what are you replacing with those and are those healthier for people? suarez: do you agree there s a lot more we have to know in order to understand what s going on here? oh, absolutely we do. but i think that the concern i have that about the potential explanation for these findings that is a decrease in physical activity should increase the urgency of restoring physical education programs to schools of restoring recess to schools. of making our communities more physical activity friendly. suarez: do you worry about the trend that michael moss brought up of well, maybe we re going to fast food restaurants less often but the food we re buying to eat at home is more like fast food food? absolutely. i think the food companies as michael has pointed out, have painted themselves into a corner because the same charactistics or the same nutrients which make food so tasty that is salt, sodium, and fat, are the same characteristics that make them unhealthy. so his point about what people are replacing those foods with is well taken. suarez: one of the less ballyhooed statistics was that people who were already obese consumed more fast food in this same period. and these are the people who were already in danger, weren t they? it s so distressing to hear that, too, becauswiin the food industry the heavst consumers, the heaviest consumers of the worst foods are typically referred to by companies as heavy users and companies who who put most of their marketing and efforts on encouraging those consumers to maintain their high levels of consumption and you see that across the board whether it s grocery manufacturers or fast food, concerns focusing on those people who are eating a lot because it makes more economic sense for companies to focus their marketing on those individuals and as you point out those are the people who should be least eating those foods, the people we should be most concerned about. so in the grocery store when you see low-fat products, low sugar products, alternatives to the mainline items companies sell, often the people eating those are the people we least need to have eating those. suarez: so is the food industry on board or not on getting americans to eat healthier and weigh less? well, i think it s certainly some companies are doing more than others but they have gotten the message both, i think, from the public health advocates and increasingly from the public that things need to change. the question is how rapidly are they changing and how big a difference will those changes make? suarez: michael moss, i cut you off. well, one of the problems for the companies is they re beholden not only to consumers but to wall street and the fierce competition among companies themselves and their obligation to shareholders to keep profits up has also boxed in these companies as they move forward and decide how much can they afford to pull back on these loads of salt, sugar, fat, in order to create a healthier product without jeopardizing sales. suarez: with all your cautions in mind we ll keep an eye on this. michael moss, dr. dietz, thank you both. very welcome. woodruff: still to come on the newshour : embracing government health care for the poor; the ever more deadly syrian civil war; florida s liberal gun laws; teens on gun violence. plus, oscar wild cards and front runners. but first, the other news of the day. here s hari sreenivasan. sreenivasan: a new winter storm blasted its way across the nation s midsection today, bringing heavy snow, freezing rain and even thunder and lightning. weather warnings and watches extended to at least 20 states, from new mexico all the way to virginia. in parts of kansas and colorado the snow fell at a rate of more than two inches an hour. it caused whiteout conditions, shutting down highways, schools and some state legislatures. forecasters said the system will push on to the great lakes and appalachians, with a spin-off storm dumping heavy snow on new england. the snowfall in the plains brought some relief to the drought stricken region, but not enough. in fact, government climate experts warned the drought is likely to continue through at least spring. drought conditions are also expected to spread to california, texas and florida. currently, just over half of the u.s. is affected by some form of drought, but that s down from last year. the u.s. chamber of commerce and the a.f.l.-c.i.o. have agreed on principles for a key part of immigration reform: letting in more lower-skilled workers. the two groups called today for a new worker visa program that makes it easier to hire foreign workers when americans are not available to fill jobs. the principles also envision a federal bureau to track labor market needs and shortages. the focus of the gun control debate shifted back to connecticut today. vice president biden attended a conference in danbury, just miles from sandy hook elementary school, where 26 people were killed last december. biden urged support for the administration s proposals to curb gun violence and he warned there is a moral price to pay for inaction. the president is absolutely determined, that the loudest voices will be for the voices of the people who lost their voice. they will be the loudest voices in this debate. we intend to speak for them; enough is enough. we have an obligation to act. and we are taking that obligation seriously, responsibly, and we re acting expeditiously. sreenivasan: we ll have more from our after newtown series later in the program. gunfire erupted in the heart of the las vegas strip before dawn today and when it was over, three people were dead and at least six injured. the shooting sent a maserati crashing into a taxi, sending that car up in flames. police said someone in a black range rover had opened fire on the maserati near several major casinos. there was no word on a motive. police in nevada and neighboring southern california were on the lookout for the range rover. in southern india, a double bombing killed at least a dozen and injured scores more. the targets were a movie theater and a bus station in hyderabad, a city that s a major center for information technology. indian authorities said the explosives were attached to bicycles that had been parked in a busy market. they were detonated minutes apart. there were startling numbers today on this season s flu vaccine. the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention reported that among seniors, the vaccine works just 9% of the time against the most common and virulent flu strain of the season. that s the one causing most of the illnesses this year. for all age groups, the vaccine has been about as effective as in previous years. in economic news, first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, signaling that the recovery is still moving slowly. the news put a damper on wall street. the dow jones industrial average lost nearly 47 points to close at 13,880 the nasdaq fell almost 33 points to close at 3,131. those are some of the day s major stories. now, back to judy. woodruff: and we turn to the battles playing out over the health reform law and particularly the expansion of the medicaid program. many republican governors have long insisted they would not participate. but some of those more prominent opponents are shifting their position. now that includes the governor of the state that first brought suit against obamacare. florida s governor rick scott has been one of the st val critics of president obama s healthcare law. this is going to be devastating for patients. woodruff: but yesterday, he reversed his decision to block the expansion of medicaid. while the federal government is committed to paying 100% of the cost of new people in medicaid, i cannot, in good conscience, deny the uninsured access to care. we will support a three-year expansion of our medicaid program under the new healthcare law, as long as the federal government meets their commitment to pay 100% of the cost during this time. woodruff: scott, up for re- election next year, is the seventh g.o.p. governor of late to accept the medicaid expansion. arizona s jan brewer, ohio s john kasich and michigan s rick snyder have also reversed their decision recently. scott s move is also significant because florida has one of the nation s highest level of uninsured residents. more than a million people could be added to the state s medicaid rolls, potentially funneling an estimated $73 billion in federal money to the state over a decade. medicaid, the joint federal and state program that provides health coverage for low income families and those with disabilities, is key to the president s affordable care act. the congressional budget office projects 12 million americans will gain coverage through medicaid expansion. starting in 2014, the federal government will pick up 100% of the cost. by2017, e governnt s share starts to ramp down, so that by 2020, moving forward, washington will pay 90% of the tab with states picking up the other 10%. but many republican governors said this summer they would not opt into the medicaid expansion after the supreme court ruled states could opt out and not be penalized. texas governor rick perry was among them. the state leads the nation in the number of uninsured residents some six million. the idea of expanding medicaid, we re not going to do it in texas. woodruff: to date, at least a dozen republican governors are declining to take part in the expansion. and even in states like florida, it still must be approved by state legislatures. we take a closer look now at the shift by scott and others and the choices states face ahead of next year s roll-out of the new health care law. we get two views. paul howard is senior fellow and director of the center for medical progress at the manhattan institute, a conservative policy research center. and ron pollock is executive director of families u.s.a. a health care consumer advocacy group which worked to help pass the law. and gentlemen, we welcome you both to the newshour. thank you. pelley: ron pollock, let me start with you: what s your reaction to tis announcement from governor scott? i think it s a hallelujah moment. i think it s terrific. i think this means that we re going to see states all across the country, i think, follow what governor scott has done. as you aptly indicated, florida was the state that first went to court to challenge the constitutionality of the affordable care act. it was that case that went to the supreme court. so this is a big deal. and mind you, for floridians this is enormous, because if you ve looked at the eligibility sndards that exist today th re really meager for parents, for example, in a three-person family. they re ineligible for health coverage under medicaid if they have incomes over $11,000. for people who are don t have any children, it makes no difference what their income is, they re ineligible for medicaid. so this would be an improvement. woodruff: i want to ask you about eligibility. paul howard, how do you see this decision by governor scott in florida? well, i think it s obviously a political decision on the part of the governor who s facing low approval ratings in the sta and trying to do something to elevate his stature and perhaps move to the center. i think it s a mixed bag for florida. you want to expand coverage to low income americans but florida as a whole spends about a third of its budget on medicaid. it s the largest expenditure and it s crowding out other spending on things like education and infrastructure. that s a story repeated across the country not just in republican or g.o.p. states like florida but in new york and illinois and california. so this is an ongoing challenge that it doesn t address and it will be a problem going forward. woodruff: paul howard, you said you think it was mostly done for political reasons. why do you say that? well, you have to governor facing reelection, as you noted, next year, with low approval ratings right now. he s also moved recently to give bonus payments to state workers and to teachers. i think he saw this as a moment to try and reach across to the center or to the left there florida and boost his reelection chances. it s an enormous flip-flop for the governor given the stance he took earlier against obamacare and the medicaid expansion. it looks to be purely politically expedient. woodruff: ron pollock, coming back to you on this question politics. do you believe, as mr. howard does, that that s the reason? well, it s a factor. why would a governor from florida say to his citizens we re going to spend tax money, we re going to send it to washington and that money that goes to washington should go to california and new york and ohio to help their folks get health care coverage but we re not going to do it in florida. woodruff: in fact, that s the argument the other republican governors have made. absolutely. let s get back to who benefits from this. you were touching on that a minute ago. i think you used the term meager, the benefits are not huge in florida. just to put in the just a few words, how much benefit does this mean for people low income individuals? this is going to be a lifeline. all together in terms of people eligible for coverage as a result of this expansion it s 1.8 million people. now, quite a few less might get it because they may not know about it. they have to get enrolled but this means these folks who are newly eligible for coverage for the first time can get good coverage and well in able to afford it. so this is a big deal. woodruff: paul howard, how do you see that? how do you see the difference this is going to make for those individuals with disabilities or low incomes? well, obviously it s a challenge. you know, nationally the congressional budget office pointed out most of the people who are going to be affected by the enrollment under the affordable care act are young and healthy. so the sliver of patients that have chronic diseases or chronic illnesses you want to reach out to, it s a smallortion of people that wll get expanded coverage. i caution just a little bit. medicaid faces challenges in many states because it has low reimbursement for primary care physician enrollment so medicaid patients have good coverage on paper, they re going to have challenges reaching specialists and getting care for complex conditions. so that s a bit of a mixed bag here. it looks terrific on paper, good coverage on paper, the more complex problems, the people who should be most concerned about will have the most trouble getting high quality care. woodruff: are you saying you dispute that 1.8 million number we heard from mr. pollock? no, i don t dispute the number. what i m saying is tat of the people who are uninsured in states like florida, the vast majority of them are going to be young and healthy. the c.b.o. has said that in its most recent update in its estimate of medicaid costs. so these people don t have insurance, we need to find a way to get the people covered but medicaid as a vehicle for getting them that coverage from my perspective is the wrong way to go. woodruff: how do you respond? this covers people throughout the age spectrum. it s not just young people. and by the way, i think getting young people into coverage is terrific because these are folks who are less likely to need care so the costs for those people is less expensive. but this is going to help people whether they re 40 or 50 so it s not simply young people. this is going to be across the board. this creates a floor under which nobody can call in terms of their eligibility for medicaid. woodruff: paul howard, how about the rest of obamacare? what is left now for the states to decide. we know there are the health care changes and without getting into all the t details about that how much of an advance is this r getting obamace instituted. from the perspective of the states i think ron is right. states are looking at a no-win situation. if they don t expand under medicaid they re looking at their tax dollars going to other states that have expanded. the law will face a number of challenges. i think exchanges are going to be an ongoing challenge. a number of insurers said they won t participate. the cost problem of coverage is something that hasn t been solved. the c.b.o. and other organizations, independent analysts have noted health care costs continue to rise. finly the problem of physician access under the law is going to be a challenge. so implementation is going to gohr go forward. a number of states will continue to hold out and let the federal government operate the exchanges and see what happens. i think you ll see a mixed bag on medicaid expansion as well. so from here on out we ll see challenges on implementation and costs that won t be resolved to anyone s liking in the next few years. woodruff: how do you see, ron pollock, who what s left of obama, what s left to be done and accomplished. now we have to implement this legislation effectively. since the legislation passed in 2010 we had a very ctentious debate and there was a question as to whether the affordable care act would survive. well, the supreme court held that it s constitutional. president obama won reelection. so now it s clearly the law of the land and for all of us now we ve got to try to make sure it gets implemented effectively state after state. i think that will happen and it certainly will happen in the timely manner starting january 2014. woodruff: and you re saying what s happened today and these other states, especially those with republican governors which were not expected potentially to go along with mecaid expansion, this will make a difference? i think it s going to make a huge difference i think the dominos are falling. i think you ll see many republican governors doing it. 100% paid by the federal government and the states are saving money in terms of their cause for uncompensated care, this is a good deal. woodruff: i know we ll come back to this in the future. ron pollock in washington, paul howard in new york, we thank you both. thank you. suarez: we return to the conflict in syria where more than 50 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a damascus car bombing today. we have a report narrated by lindsey hilsum of independent television news. reporter: at least three bombs exploded in downtown damascus this morning, a coordinated assault designed to kill and maim. a car which the syrian government said was carrying five bombs exploded just outside the headquarters of president assad s baath party, dozens killed, hundreds injured, devastating damage, more evidence that even in the heart of the capital syrian civilians aren t safe. survivors shown on syrian state tv blamed jabat al nusra, the jihadi wing of the rebels linked to al qaeda. ( translated ): this is terrorism. it s murder. it s un-islamic. you re telling me it was done by al nusra? i hope god never forgives them. ( translated ): we think al nusra and the wahabi terrorists did this. reporter: a rebel video reveals that the last man shows up frequently on state t.v. often as an eye-witness sometimes as a soldier. he s spouting government propaganda. the video exposing him is rebel propaganda. nonetheless, in recent weeks al nusra says it has carried out bombings in the capital. they said nothing about today, while the more moderate syrian national coalition condemned the blass. in the damascus suburbs today, rebels were firing missiles at the army general command headquarters. this video apparently shows fighters who ve come from chechnya. the koran speaks of syria as a holy land, it s becoming a magnet for jihadis, the original opposition s talk of democracy overwhelmed. having backed the opposition, western countries are in no position to broker a ceasefire or a peace deal. this is a war with no victors but many victims, where neither side is strong enough to prevail and no end is in sight. suarez: margaret warner picks up the story from there. warner: for more about today s bombing and how it fits into the broader balance between the forces in syria, i m joined by zeina karam, acting beirut bureau chief for the associated press. and zeina, welcome. this is, i understand, the third straight day of attacks at government-affiliated sites thi damascus, yet the government appears still to remain in control. what is the state of play between the rebels and the government right now in the city? well, yes, as you say, this is the third day we ve seen bombings and mortars and targets inside the syrian capital. now i do know the syrian rebels have been trying to push in the past month but they remain severely outgunned by the syrian regime and what these mortar attacks and bombings suggest the that instead of immediate response the rebel forces are resorting more to attrition and loosening the government s grip on the capital. the attacks in the last few days have certainly shattered the sense of normalcy that the syrian regime has tried to maintain in damascus. warner: do the rebels control some parts of the city and if so which parts? the rebels control parts of the southern and eastern parts of the damascus. in the past month we ve seen bels try to push the way forward io damascus from the northeast and, in fact, they have seized several army checkpoints on the highway linking the capital with northern syria. but those advances have largely been reversed now and the government is mostly back in firm control of the capital. but in recent days we ve seen the rebels launch mortar attacks from these areas into central damascus. warner: so what can you tell us about the rebels overall strategy for the country and how key is do they want to seize control of damascus and are they trying to drive the assad regime from power? what is their overall game plan? for the rebels, damascus is the prize the seat of the assad s government power and this is what they want to get at we ve seen after they ve lost momentum in recent weeks the rebels have had some strategic victories say cross country. they ve been gaining some momentum again but we re still a long way off before they can achieve any breaks, though, because they remain severely outgunned by the government. warner: the reports were there that there were lots of civilians in the bombing. has there been backlash by some of the rebel groups? al qaeda and al nusra have claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the past. these kinds of attacks which came along to civilians in a way they strengthen supporters of assad and they make many syrians distrustful. but we saw today the syrian national coalition, the main opposition group they condemned the bombing and they blamed the government indirectly for allowing groups in syria. warner: well, zeina karam of the associate press ineirut, thank you very much. you re welcome. woodruff: online we have a photo essay dispatched by a reuters photographer who spent a month on the front lines in syria. woodruff: now, to our weeklong focus on guns, violence and mental health concerns in the wake of the connecticut shootings. tonight, special correspondent trimmel gomes from florida public radio/wfsu-fm looks at the increase in gun ownership in that political battleground state. his report is part of the pbs after newtown series. reporter: florida is known for many things its sandy beaches, warm weather but the state s nickname of being the sunshine state, is getting stiff competition by some who call it the gunshine state. florida is very pro-gun. reporter: charley strickland is a sheriff s lieutenant and part owner of the soon to be built, talon shooting range and training facility. we have a republican governor, republican legislature, and so we sort of lead the country in a lot of the new gun laws, castle doctrine, stand your ground statutes and naturally getting conceal carry permit is common place. reporter: a carry and conceal permit allows a florida resident to c cry a weaeaout of sight of another person, except in schools and a few other buildings. our background is teaching people to get conceal carry permits. we know why they are getting them; primarily to protect themselves. women are being taught to twist a finger and stomp on a toe but nothing really is truly equalizer is a small petit woman with someone who is 6 3 230 pounds who s angry except a firearm. reporter: one woman who s been making sure that equalizer is in place is the leader of the gun lobby in florida, marion hammer. in 1987, hammer received the first carry and conceal permit issued in florida. she lobbied hard for florida to be the first state to make it easier to get gun permits and later went on to be the first woman to head the national rifle association. florida was the first state to pass a shall issue law and basically what that means is that unless you were prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm, the state shall issue it as long as you have no criminal record, no record of mental abuse or mental illness, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, just the standard prohibitors. reporter: 25 years later, there s another first. more than one million people have active concealed weapons permits. and like in the rest of the nation, gun sales here have spiked. gun dealers in december reported daily sales that matched a months worth of business. gun owner philip vause likes his states liberal laws, but doesn t want florida to be known as the gunshine state. i think it s an adultery to use that terminology, we are the sunshine state, we are not a gun state. let s take one place for instance, let s get off of florida for a minute, illinois, chicago, has the toughest gun laws in all 50 states. where are the most murders committed? chicago, illinois, with the toughest gun control. they have the worst crime rate. i think you are slandering the name that i m proud of. i ve been here 77 years and to me it s not a gun state, it s a state that has guns and they are legal. reporter: indeed overall, florida has seen a 33% decline in gun violence since 2007, but roughly 70% of homicides were tied to guns. nationally, violent crimes of all types have been declining since the 1990s, but two-thirds of all homicides in the u.s. are tied to guns. in a 1987 law giving the state jurisdiction over gun permitting, the process has been overseen by the state agriculture department but because it is not a law enforcement agency, the department lacks access to the fbi crime database. there are an average of ten arrests a day in the state of people who obtained weapons despite having a criminal record. florida also sells conceal and carry permits to people out of state. that has allowed some to skirt their local, more strict gun laws. pennsylvania recently changed their laws, after violent crimes were linked to those with florida permits, to require anyone in that state with a florida permit to be a legal florida resident. barbara peterson would like to see florida laws change as well. she blames the gun lobby for preventing any attempts to restrict gun access or to allow oversight. she is executive director of the first amendment foundation which tracks the state legislature, including the evolution of gun laws in the state. we re not trying to infringe on anybody s right to own and bear arms as long as they re legally owned that s fine. but we should have the opportunity to oversee those agencies and hold them accountable, those who are approving those permits, we have no accountability in the stem right now. reporter: she is fighting a tough battle in florida where the state legislature instead might liberalize the conceal weapon law to make it possible to carry guns in more locations. many in the state also oppose with president barack obama s proposal calling for restoring a ban on military style assault weapons. no, we don t need to ban the assault weapon because there is no assault weapon. what are you going to ban, a hammer, screw driver, saw? it s the same thing. i don t categorize an a.k. as an assault weapon because i m not going to assault anybody. you don t take a racecar driver and categorize him with a drunk driver, they both drive cars so i don t see the comparison at all. reporter: now with more than a million active permits, that means about one in 14 or 7% of adult floridians have the right to carry a concealed firearm. while praised by gun advocates, those numbers are troubling to some law enforcement officers. obviously, it means there are more opportunities in the community for guns to be in the hands of the bad guys. reporter: walter mcneil is chief of police for quincy. it s a town of nearly 7,000 residents west of tallahassee with a violent crime rate higher than the national average. mcneil, a former president of the international association of chiefs of police, was part of a group of law enforcement officials that recently met with vice president joe biden to discuss national changes to gun access. those weapons often fall in the hands of bad folks in our community. what that means is more opportunities for police officers to come into contact with those carrying a weapon. and that creates a degree of concern and a level of tactical operations for police in terms of how do i make sure this isn t a bad guy i m dealing with and the weapon he or she has now isn t going to be used against me. reporter: 165 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2011. that was the highest number on record and florida saw the highest number of officers killed 14, most of them by guns. to help protect citizens and police, chief mcneil argues there needs to be more background checks on anyone trying to get a gun. the issue of background checks is a no brainer. any person that purchases a weapon from a friend or family member or gun show goes to a gunshop everyone of those circumstances there should be a background check done on that person. to us in law enforcement, it seems to be a simple solution. reporter: there s another thing that worries police officers about all those guns. their use in florida s stand your ground law a law that got national attention when it was used by george zimmerman to defend the shooting of trayvon martin last year. the law allows the use of deadly force if an individual has a reasonable fear of being killed or seriously injured. when the stand your ground law was first contemplated, florida police took the position it was wrong headed and not the thing to do. i would submit to you today, having seen the carnage that has occurred on our street we should move away from that legislation today. reporter: since the law was passed in 2005, the number of justifiable deaths has nearly tripled to an average of 35 a year. trayvon martin s mother recently went to the legislature with a call to repeal the stand your ound law. we need to get rid of this law, we need to do something serious about this law. as a parent, i wouldn t want you to stand in my shoes because it is hard, it is difficult. reporter: a bill has been introduced in the state legislature to repeal the law, but it is given little chance of passing. both sides say there needs to be a sensible approach to tackling gun violence, but in this gun loving state, it s hard to see any major changes to legislation on the horizon. suarez: now a different perspective on guns and public safety from young people who participate in the newshour s student reporting labs program. hari sreenivasan has that story. sreenivasan: we brought together high school students from around the country into a google hangout to talk about recent gun proposals that affect schools, the connection between video games and violence and what can beone to prevent mass shootings like the one that took place in newtown, connecticut. we asked him about recent proposals such as arming teachers. jacqueline is from texas. i wouldn t trust a teacher who s trained to teach to protect me. we also have three armed constants al our school and i would trust constables and i would trust somebody that is trained to protect me to protect me. so i feel safe with the constables and i feel like they can do the job better than a teacher. reporter: spencer baldwin is from shenandoah, iowa, a place he describes as a rural community with hunters and farmers. a lot of our teachers are already gun owners. they have conceal-and-carry permits. they ve been trained to do that kind of thing and i think that having in every classroom wouldn t necessarily be a danger to the students at all. sreenivasan: students also talked about the changes they ve seen since newtown. many schools are increasing restrictions on who can enter the school, times can that kids can go off campus and they re trying to ep idividua frm walking the halls alone. our school has implemented a closed school campus where students can not leave the school for lunch anymore and not too many people can get into the school without going through the front office now they have teachers guarding the door where students can not speak out or cannot sneak anything in without teachers being around. sreenivasan: patrick who goes to school in los angeles describes what he sees as a useful tool. we have random searches so what happens is an admiistrator will come in and ask for the attendance list and they ll do every third person or every one who has a birthday in the month of february and they ll search their locker, their backpack and it s completely random. sreenivasan: the students had a lot to say about whether video games cause real gun violence. el lee from los angeles think it is underlying causes are more complicated. i think we ve been witnessing violence for years, whether in reality through the media or video games and i don t think that s a first-hand affect. a lot of the shooters that we know might not even be interested in that stuff. i go to school with a lot of teenaged boys who are into that but they would never dream of owning a weapon. sreenivasan: jacqueline? i feel like it s a false placement of blame because other countries have the exact same video games, they have the exact same movies, exact same cartoons that children and teenagers and adults are watching and those other countries don t the same violence as we do. and i feel like it s basically just the fear ingrained in american s minds that we need that gun to protect ourselves when in reality it s kind of putting you o a victim of crime. sreenivasan: a separate group of students said families and parents have to counter the effects of a violent media culture which can desensitize people to the brutality around them. one student believes media violence can be desensitizing. when they see in video games they re killing people or see it on a movie it kind of makes the whole violence thing even hearing it on the news like it s not real. i don t think it will affect someone enough to take up a gun and kill someone just because they played a video game. disagree. because i think if you were raised on a game like grand theft auto, you played it when you were six years old and now you re playing something like call of duty now, you re a lot more comfortable with the idea of a weapon or a gun. especially if you don t have parents or you don t have someone tell dwlug this is the wrong thing or this you shouldn t be this is just a game. sreenivasan: gerald, you had your hand up. yeah, i don t think that we should legislate against a culture or cultures and i m not comfortable with restricting choice. i think if it s the parents choice and if it s the child s choice to go and buy that video game. i don t always agree with, you know, a six-year-old, for instance, i know a few playing grand theft auto. but i won t say that video games themselves are the problem. sreenivasan: madison, go ahead. i agree with ben about video games numbing us as people to when we hear about violent things. you don t feel as much as you would before. like playing the video game. t without having playing these video games you probably feel more when you hear about tragedies like these. sreenivasan: thank you all for participating in this student reporting lab s google hangout chat by the newshour. thanks for joining us. woodruff: you can watch the full conversations with the students speaking candidly about guns on our website. also online, you can explore our entire week s worth of coverage for the after newtown series. that s at newshour.pbs.org. suarez: finally tonight, an assessment of the state of movies and the state of the business, as hollywood gets set to congratulate itself with the academy awards this sunday. by and large, this was a year where the nine films nominated for best picture arguably generated more critical praise than usual and several proved to be solid commercial hits. some also generated plenty of controversy too, including zero dark thirty, lincoln, argo and django unchained. tony scott of the new york times has been reviewing and writing about these films, plus hundreds of others. he joins us now. tony, is this an unusually good year to go to the movies and does that make it an unusually hard year to pick winners? i think it was a good year. i mean, i think there s so many different kinds of movies that come out in every year that it s sometimes hard to rank them. i think it was a very good year for mainstream moes that grown-ups might want to go see. there s been a knock against the hollywood studios for the last decade or so that they re mostly interested in teenagers, in action franchises for the international marketplace, in sequels and superheroes and so on. this year a lot of movies, lincoln life of pi les miserables, zero dark thirty found audiences and as well as a lot of critical acclaim. so i think it is a strong year for the kind of movies that we were accustomed to seeing around oscar time in decades past but haven t been as thick on the ground recently. suarez: around oscar time. might this part b what some critics see a the gaming of a calendar? the concentration of what you would call movies grown-ups want to see around the time that would make them oscar eligible? there s no question about that. i think it is a distorting affect that the academy awards and the whole phenomenon of the awards season and awards campaign has had. that is, for the first nine months of the year there s very little for grown-ups to go and see and critics find themselves falling into despair wondering are the movies dead, is it all over, where are the great movies of yesteryear. and then around the time of the toronto film festival in september all of a sudden these very ambitious and creative and interesting and serious-minded movies pop up and they kind of overwhelm the multiplexs for a while so there s a great kind of famine in the first part of the year and then the last three month there is s a big feast. and that certainly happened this year. i mean, with the exception, i guess, of beasts of the southern wild an indy movie that came out of sun dance and was released in the late spring early summer, all of the movies that we ve been talking about, lincoln, argo zero dark thirty django unchained right down the list came out in novber and december. so they definitely clog up the system and that s all about the prestige and the hope for box office bounce that awards consideration will bring. suarez: some were gripping, beautifully acted, beautifully shot but they deal with some tough themes, don t they? slavery and revenge? emancipation, torture, mental illness. there s a lot of darkness there among the nine nominees. yeah, there certainly is. and there s a lot of tough and interesting political themes as well: slavery, terrorism and torture as well as some very painful personal stories. one of my favorite movies, the french language film amor is a really devastating drama about an elderly couple and how they deal with the life s decline. and i was i was amazed and impressed that that actually got not just the nomination for best foreign language film but for others as well. but there is you know, there s a comedy in the mix. silver linings play book which yes, does deal with mental illness but in a very, i think, hollywood friendly light hearted affirming way. it s a romantic comedy really in the screwball tradition. i think there s also life of pi and les miserables which gives something to fans of sort of spiritual splendor and musical spectacle. so there s quite a range. a few years ago, the academy opened up the best picture field to allow for more than the traditional five nominees so now we have nine. that represents a pretty nice spectrum of what movies are today and what the american film industry thinks is worth rising. suarez: who do you like for best picture, quickly, before we go? i think it s going to be argo. i think that argo has kind of march through the guilds. if you d asked me six weeks ago i would have said lincoln. but not ben affleck s because not nominated for best director. that will probably still go to steven spielberg. suarez: tony sctt of the new york times, thanks a lot. pleasure, ray. suarez: do you think you know this year s films, play our oscar quiz online on our home page. woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: the c.d.c. reported possible progress against obesity. new research found kids are consuming fewer calories, and fast food makes up a smaller share of adult diets. a new winter storm blasted its way across the nation s midsection, bringing heavy snow, freezing rain and even thunder and lightning. and a car bombing in damascus, syria killed more than 50 people and wounded well over 200 others. online we follow up on last night s mind of a rampage killer special. hari sreenivasan tells us more. sreenivasan: miles o brien spoke with liza long, the mom and writer who penned the viral blog i am adam lanza s mother, about her own son s struggles. you can watch miles s conversation with her son about his rage, in our after newtown series. on making sense, paul solman offers steps to find the right financial adviser for you. and be a part of our coverage share your story about the voting rights act of 1965. go to our website or call 703- 594-6pbs for details. all that and more is on our website newshour.pbs.org. ray? suarez: and that s the newshour for tonight. i m ray suarez. woodruff: and i m judy woodruff. we ll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioningponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
out of argo. robin s interview with the first lady. and we re just moments away from revealing the sizzling new cast of dancing with the sta stars. our exclusive first look at the players and their partners. all joining us live. be ready to be surprised by who is ready to rumba in the ballroom. and good morning, america. hello to lara and sam, up early again, out in l.a. this morning. just about an hour, we re going to have that live announcement on dancing with the stars. stay around for that. robin getting some rest after the oscars. we re looking forward to sharing her interview with michelle obama. great to have elizabeth vargas here. great to have you both back from los angeles. we re going to have details on the crash coming in and on the monster blizzard, that sam was talking about. we re going to get that from him just ahead. it s been hitting throughout the northwest. some major developments overnight. we re going to start with josh and the balloon air crash in egypt. quite a few people dead. right along the nile. this breaking overnight. 18 foreign tourists killed when a hot air balloon exploded and plummeted to the ground during an egypt tourist mecca of luxor, along the banks of the nile. witnesses are describing the terrifying moments as people tried to jump for their lives. egyptian officials said at least 20 tourists were flying over luxor, when the balloon caught fire and plunge to the ground. christopher michelle is an american photographer. he was in another hot air balloon, close to the one that crashed. this is a popular tourist thing to do in luxor, which is to float over the ancient tramp temples. they do it every day. as we were coming in to land, i heard a loud explosion. saw smoke. we were close to the ground. as you probably know, in the luxor, they burn the sugar cane. i assumed it was coming from the ground, not obviously one of the balloons. reporter: michelle said he couldn t see the other balloon until after his had landed safely. emergency vehicles started arrive. and we started to understand t exnt of the tragedy. reporter: another woman described the scene to the bbc. it exploded in the air. and people were jumping out of the balloon. so, i believe they died out of jumping, not of the explosion. reporter: egyptian security reports three are being treated for their injures. and that the tourists included citizens of france, britain, belgium, hungary, japan and hong kong. that s not the first big crash at the site. 16 tourists were injured in 2009, when a balloon struck a cell phone tower. we ll have updates as news becomes available this morning. now, to your money and new worries on wall street this morning, after the worst loss of the year. the dow plummeted nearly 200 points monday, thanks in part to an indecisive election in italy that could accelerate europe s debt crisis. that sent oil prices plunging this morning. and the white house stepping up u.s. involvement in syria s bloody civil war. secretary of state john kerry has promised the rebels trying to overthrow bashar al assad that support from the u.s. is coming. he didn t elaborate further. he did persuade rebel leaders to attend a conference in rome this week. there are reports that saudi arabia is secretly shipping weapons to the rebels, something president obama has refused to do in the past. and next time you re tempted to illegally download music or movies online, you could be in store for a rather rude awakening. beginning this week, the top internet providers will be tracking illegal downloads as part of the new copyright alert system, organized by the entertainment industry. you will get six warnings to stop. and the real punishment kicks in. your service provider will temporarily slow your connection to a crawl. have you seen first lady michelle obama s wardrobe change from the oscars? we saw mrs. obama in her sleeveless silver gown, looking lovely, as she announced argo s win for best picture. but look at the version that aired overseas. first lady, a bit more covered up after media in iran got done photoshopping the images. the iranian version on the right, more in line with muslim modesty codes. but argo got the win. they could not photoshop that away. going to get more on the monster blizzard blasting the middle of the country. sam out in l.a., tracking it all. hey, sam. good morning, george. and following the same path as the last one. this is another active day. 21 states have winter weather watches, warnings or advisories. they go from kansas, oklahoma, to the great lakes. then, get into maine and drive down into the carolinas. 21 inches of snow in that panhandle of texas. look at what it looks like when this snow falls in amarillo. they re having to use every piece of equipment they can to get the snow out of the way. wichita, the exact same thing. it was just last week wichita got pounded with snow. they get pounded again. the winter storm warnings are still out today for heavy snow. kansas city is right in the heart of it. so is our ginger zee. she s in kansas city this morning. good morning, ginger. reporter: sam, it s another morning commute stifled. highways are already closing. remember, i was just here. but this storm is a little different. it had another violent feature, the wind. the raging blizzard, bringing whiteouts and record snow to parts of north texas. also fueling devastating fires in the southeastern part of the state. including one blaze that burned a mobile home, killing a mother and her twin toddlers. came outside and looked. and i looked across the street. and the house was on fire. reporter: in corpus christi, wind-whipped dust made driving look like this. and watch as the side of this building in austin crumbles. after being battered by 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts. this morning, even as the storm moves east, it is thrashing highways, from oklahoma to kansas. roads now caked in snow. here in missouri, the morning commute will be nearly impossible. it s the second major snow in less than a week. and while grocery store shelves in kansas city were cleared in anticipation the remnants of last week s wallop in wichita came crashing down, in time to make room for a fresh coat. here s the other difference. this snow is very heavy. it is already weighing down trees and power lines. i ll bet power outages will been an issue. and roof collapses could be a problem, too. elizabeth? all right, ginger. thank you so much. now, we re going to turn to the headlines coming in right now on the pope. we just learned that benedict will be called emeritus pope and will wear white after he steps down next week. his retirement this week is being clouded by scandal, as there are more calls to stop an american cardinal from participating in the election of the next pope. abc s david wright is in rome right now with the very latest. good morning, david. reporter: good morning, elizabeth. the process to replace pope benedict is now on the fast track. we ve also just learned that the deacon of the college of cardinals will summon the cardinals on friday to their first meeting, which will take place on monday, march 4th. never before has the cardinal given the conclave amidst a scandal. and that raises the pressure for the other cardinals tainted by scandal, among them, roger mahoney, who for years, covered up for pedophile priests. for 24 hours, britain s cardinal keith o brien has holed up in this home in scotland. the holy father accepted the resignation of cardinal o brien. reporter: on sunday, a british newspaper reported hi sexually harassed four seminarians in the 1980s. while o brien insists the presence were false, his presence at the conclave would be a distraction. there s another that threatens to be a distraction. i think it s important to raise these kinds of issues. reporter: roger mahoney protected pedophile priests for more than a decade. already in rome, last night, he blogged about his disgust, with a culture so quick to accuse, judge and condemn. what happened to the norm of giving others the benefit of the doubt until hard evidence proves otherwise? in mahoney s case, thousands of pages of documents released under a court order were so damning, his successor publicly rebuked him. nothing changed. and nothing will change. with a new pope if that new pope is going to be saddled with cardinal mahoney. reporter: but the vatican supports mahoney. so does america s highest-ranking official. i believe he should be at the conclave. reporter: pope benedict himself is having a quiet day today. no public events on his schedule. vatican officials saying, he s getting set for his departure two days from now. george? david, looking forward to joining you in rome for that in a couple days. right now, we turn to washington and the budget stalemate that means across-the-board spending cuts to kick in on friday. no talks about solving the problem. instead, the two parties are fighting about what the cuts will mean and who s to blame. jon karl has more from the white house. reporter: good morning, george. the white house is loudly sounding the alarms about what these cuts will mean. but republicans are accusing the president of trying to scare the american people. the white house has already warned of airport delays and meat shortages and lost jobs. now, greater risk of terrorist attack. i don t think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country. reporter: the president invited the nation s governors to lunch at the white house monday, warning of cuts that will hurt their states. the longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become. reporter: the white house has put together a state-by-state report on how the cuts will hurt the disadvantaged. in louisiana, for example, more than 1,700 children will not receive vaccinations. 600 will lose access to child care. but just minutes after lunch with the president, louisiana s republican governor accused him of fear-mongering. he s trying to scare the american people. he s trying to distort the impacts. reporter: are you saying they won t happen if the cuts happen? i m saying the president needs to show leadership and tell congress how he can cut $85 billion without cutting these services. reporter: we put that directly to the secretary of homeland security. governor jindal says the president is scaring people. he says the president is scaring people. is that just wrong? if people are scared it s because the full impact of this is finally being made evident. reporter: later this morning, the president travels to newport news, virginia, to highlight how the uncertainty of the defense cuts has put 5,000 shipbuilding jobs on the line. the idea is to put pressure on the republicans. one leader in congress said, mr. president, this is no time for a road show. so, the finger-pointing continues. and it will for some time. jon karl, thanks very much. now, we re going to turn to the latest on the family that went missing at sea over the weekend. they told the coast guard they were abandoning ship near monterey, california. now, there s a massive manhunt on the way to find them. abc s abbie boudreau has the story. reporter: overnight, the frantic search continuing, from the sky and the sea. using infrared technology to find a family who apparently went missing sunday evening, after reporting their sailboat was sinking. coast guard, coast guard, we are abandoning ship. reporter: the u.s. coast guard says that call came in from a location about 65 miles west of monterey, south of san francisco. investigators say they pieced together clues from a series of broken distress calls. and believe the boaters were a husband and wife, their 4-year-old son and his cousin. the boat was taking on water and the motor stopped working. they said they had a cooler and a life ring. they were going to try to put them together to make some sort of life raft. reporter: the coast guard has yet to locate the sailboat, which they believe is named charmed blow, even though it s not registered. and the identities of those aboard remains a mystery, too, since no one has filed a missing persons report. for good morning america, abbie boudreau, abc news, los angeles. that is a tough story. we re going to turn to robin s exclusive interview with first lady michelle obama. all over the headlines this week, especially after that surprise appearance at the oscars to announce the best picture. robin sat down with her before heading to l.a., to talk about the first lady s let s move campaign and more. including how the president is handling a teenager in the white house. please raise your right hand and repeat after me. reporter: it really seemed, mrs. obama, that you and the president and your family, this time around, really took in the moment. was that the case? absolutely. we made a conscious decision to take this in because four years ago, it was a whirlwind. so, this was one of those times where we had to just stop and breathe and appreciate all that we d accomplished and all that was left to do. reporter: as president obama begins his second term, gun violence has become an issue close to both the president and the first lady. in january, mrs. obama attended the funeral of one, young victim in chicago, gunned down just a week after performing at the inauguration. she was an honor student. one of the things her mother said, i did everything i was supposed to do. and she was absolutely right. she did everything she was supposed to do. she was standing in a park, with her friends, in a neighborhood blocks away from where my kids grew up, where our house is. and she was caught in the line of fire. i just don t want to keep disappointing our kids in this country. i want them to know that we put them first. reporter: our country s children have long been the focus of mrs. obama s time in the white house. this is the third anniversary of her let s move campaign, taking on childhood obesity. what have you accomplished with let s move? and what remains to be done? when we started, there were a lot of people in this country that would have never thought that childhood obesity was a health crisis. but now, we re starting to see rates of obesity coming down, like never before. this new initiative that we re announcing, the my plate recipe partnership, where we re collaborating with some of the top media companies in this country. and they are compiling and labeling and promoting recipes that meet the my plate guidelines. reporter: now, before i let mrs. obama go, i couldn t resist asking about her latest trend-setting move. yep. those new bangs. there s no hotter topic oh. reporter: no hotter topic, than your bangs. bangs? what bangs? reporter: you forced me to go wigless. in december, my wonderful stylist picked out a wig for me. in december. you didn t debut this until january. look at this picture. my goodness. that s cute. i was going to do that every would have thought i was copying you when i came back. robin, you were so gorgeous. you are one of the women who can do whatever to your hair and you look great. thank you. you can mix it up. that was december, the wig. robin had it first. robin i m following you. reporter: not at all. but that s the spirit of everything. and when i think about your children, malia s going to be 15 in july. i know. reporter: and your husband has joked a little bit about the knock, knock, knock 1600 pennsylvania avenue young man. is he really concerned about that? no. i think he likes to fathers in particular, i don t think they really know how they re going to feel until it happens. you know? there s nothing like the look on his face when malia dresses up for a party and she s heading out. and she walks past him. and you can see his face sort of just drop a little bit. like, what is that? he s a little gray. people think the gray is from his job. it s from his children. so, we ll see how that goes. welcome to the club on that one. good luck. i m loving all the details that are coming in about the secret oscar announcement. it was like something out of argo. one of the producers told the hollywood reporter they had to fly secretly to the white house. keep it off the manifests. and the first lady said yes immediately. i think it s a great idea. they watch movies all the time. and they pulled it off. they sure did. that was great. we re going to go back to sam champion in l.a. with more on the weather because we have breaking news on tornado warnings. hey, sam. good morning, everybody. yeah. it s the same snowstorm, elizabeth, that we talked about, delivering snow in the northern half. and the strong to severe storms are in the southern sections. those tornado watches and warnings are out from tampa, all the way to savanna. that includes jacksonville, florida. you see the areas in the boxes. this is live at this time. we have warnings in the highlighted red area. that s the area just west of gainesville, florida. this is where the strong storms will light up during the day today. we think it will be almost an all-day event. north florida, south georgia, the carolinas, as well. we re very interested in this. and one or two storms could develop isolated tornadoes today. a look at what gets more snow in the storm. it s somewhere from chicago, to detroit, to boston, into maine. that could be an additional eight inches of snow for some folks. good morning, washington. 34 degrees. most of us looking at temperatures in the upper 20s at this hour. will move in by mid- day. heavy at times. a little sleet and freezing rain mixing in in the shenandoah valley and areas ought to the west. over an inch in d.c.ngton, there is a bus stop forecast. and coming up on gma, the latest in the controversial trial of the star college quarterback. what the police interrogation tapes reveal right now. also, america s it girl. big changes for jennifer lawrence this morning. the video that s gone viral when jack nicholson popped up during george s exclusive interview with her backstage at the oscars. lara, what have you got? elizabeth, we have cast, dancing with the stars. a bit of a clue. two are olympic gold medalists. who? i ve discovered gold. 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[ anouncer ] compare new griddle melts yourself. just $4.99. it s an epic breakfast sandwich. this is an in hd, news update. good morning, everyone. of motions hearing today at fort for private first class bradley manning. manning was accused of giving wikileaks.secrets to he faces several charges, including aiding the enemy and fraud. trial in to go on june. the sequestration deadline is friday. president obama will travel to newport news, a virginia, this about what could if lawmakers do not take action before automatic budget cuts kick in. station will have an in-depth report in just a few minutes. busy morning out there is this morning. one of the problems is on metro rail. orange line commuters, a reminder. they are doing emergency track fallsut of the west church station. expect delays. they say they will be single tracking throughout the morning commute. 370, youfrom 270 to cannot get through. getting down to the ramp, look at the delays before father hurley boulevard. forecast. you need the umbrella, and you will one day before the lunch hour. 34 degrees is the temperature. need to weigh year. layer. rain still down to our southwest. arrivingit should be in the afternoon. be heavy,ill afternoon late this temperatures in the 40 s. think you. [ cheers and applause ] d.j. kiss in l.a. this morning. there s tom bergeron this morning. he s going to peek behind the curtain. we re counting down, just 45 minutes or so, until everyone should know. he has to know. you would think so. lara and sam out in los angeles, with more clues to the new cast. hey, lara. we have some clues for you. as to who the dancers are. one of them is known more for singing. in fact, a five-time grammy winner. it s elvis. it s not elvis. this list is so secret, even tom bergeron has to peek behind the curtain. and he s the head of the show, by the way. and another one. in this ring, this champ is a knockout. that s another clue. another clue. we have olympians, grammy winners and a knockout in the ring. george, any guesses? does that mean he was knocked out or he knocked someone out? that s a clue, george. no follow-ups to clues. it s not elvis. it is not muhammad ali. all right. we ll find out, shortly, when we get back to sam and lara and tom bergeron out in los angeles. we have a much more serious story coming up in this half hour. there s escalating concerns this morning for a young american couple who vanished during a bike trip in peru, south america. we re going to have the very latest on the desperate search to find the pair who haven t been heard from in almost a month. a long time. on a lighter note, it is one of the great pieces of video we ve seen in forever. there s the first of several remarkable reactions when jack nicholson bombed george s interview with jennifer lawrence, after winning best actress for her part in silver linings playbook. much more on the woman who has become america s new it girl. a little gift for everyone who sends out our viral video. we re going to begin with the crucial testimony in the trial of the star montana quarterback. jordan johnson was on the stand in his defense on monday. in this case that has divided the community, his fate is likely to rest on how he handles the next round of questions. linsey davis is here with more on this. reporter: the defense called it the she said/she said case. others are calling it trial by twirt. bloggers are tweeting play-by-play updates about the quarterback who now faces up to 100 years in prison. for the first time, jurors are hearing firsthand what he has to say in his he said/she said case in montana. jordan johnson, at the center of this alleged sexual assault case. i don t think i had intentions of a relationship. reporter: johnson s lawyers maintain the football player had consensual sex with a classmate. from the witness stand, a soft-spoken and demure johnson detailed the extent of their relationship. including the text messages they exchanged. i honestly don t remember. how s it going? how is school going? did you she came to my dormroom. and i went over to her dormroom. reporter: police say the night of the alleged incident, the woman invited johnson to her room to watch a movie. what happened next depends on who you believe. in this police interrogation tape played for jurors last week, johnson says the two began kissing on the woman s bed before things went further. if she had said stop or no, he says he would have stopped. but shortly after the incident, johnson s accuser texted a friend saying, i think i might have just gotten raped. i said no, but he wouldn t listen. she later told another friend, maybe i wanted it. early in the day monday, the jury heard the accuser s brother, saying their sister struggled telling the family about the alleged ordeal. she started off really calm. and then, by the end, she started breaking down. reporter: in those audio recordings played in court from the victim s family, her mother and brother talk about how she s changed. that she cries more and has become more guarded. the defense is trying to paint a picture of being jealous of another woman johnson had just started seeing. the trial resumes tomorrow. let s get more from gma legal analyst dan abrams. what a crucial decision to go on that stand. and this testimony is going to be make-or-break to some degree. the jurors will be watching what he says and how he says it. they re going to be looking at his eyes and his body language. his credibility is this case. she s already testified. the jurors have watched her testimony. they ve heard her testimony. they ve heard her account. now, this is his opportunity t get up there and say something very different than what they previously heard. exactly how he says this becomes crucial. all he has to do is plant a seed of doubt. that s the problem for prosecutors here, right? if these jurors believe it s more likely than not that she was raped, that s a not guilty verdict. there has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. that s a high standard, particularly in a case like this, where you have her account and his account. and you have dueling medical experts, et cetera. prosecutors have the enormous burden. that s why this is such a tough case. see how he handles cross-examination. back on the stand tomorrow. the direct examination is the easy part. the harder part is when he s cross-examined. turning to the growing mystery of the young california couple who vanished on their dream vacation in peru a month ago. the question this morning is, could they have been kidnapped? abc s gio benitez has the story. reporter: this morning, the search is on for this young couple on the vacation of a lifetime. bicycling through south america for several months. worrying only about taking the next great photo. but then, one month ago, silence. and now, their families are asking, where are 25-year-old garrett hand and his girlfriend, jamie neal? they would post sometimes several times a day. pictures, telling us where they were. and then, we all noticed that his postings stopped. reporter: on january 25th, the last facebook post from cuso, peru. neal writing, finally found kraft mac and cheese in south america. hand s mom is sick. larkin remembers garrett s password. and it turned out the password was also the password was also the password for his bank account. reporter: and there s no bank activity after january 25th. how is my son traveling without getting any money? reporter: just this month, the u.s. date department issued a warning for americans traveling to peru. highlights kid nals in cuzco, the same city that neal was facebooking. the couple might have gotten oen a boat to ecuador. a country not on their itinerary. but hand s mother says, wherever they are, she should have heard from them by now. that s a long time, particularly for people who are in their mid-20s, who communicate daily on the internet. reporter: hand s sister hopes her brother will be home, playing with his niece and nephew again soon. come home. your family needs you in california with them. reporter: and neal s bosses at a bike shot in california are also joining in on the search. raising money to offer as a cash reward to anyone with information on where neal and hand may be. a mystery. let s hope so. time to go back out to los angeles and check in with sam champion for a look at the nation s severe weather this morning, sam. yeah. we re starting severe. even though this is the southern part of that big snow system. the severe storms are what s breaking out first and early this morning. take a look at where we expect the severe storms to be today. and stay up with your local abc stations. it s really in the southeast. this area got heavy rain yesterday. a lot of the gulf coast even the panhandle of florida. jacksonville, orlando, all the way up the carolina coastline. beware there could be severe storms. you get rain by afternoon in d.c. from this system. this was a snowmaker in the middle of the country. it becomes a rainmaker in the mid-atlantic. quick look at the big boards to show you the system that was on the west coast, moves in to become another mountain snow in the west. good morning, washington. 34 degrees and cloudy skies. the rain is on the way. should be here by midday with some sleet and snow mixing ,t higher elevations we are live this morning here in l.a., for the dancing with the stars cast reveal. so live, we have an audience, by the way, that is here. let s go back to new york, to george, elizabeth and josh. thank you, sam. coming up, big changes for jennifer lawrence just revealed. plus, we ll have more of the oscar moment that s gone viral. there s jack nicholson crashing our interview. and sam just said. the clock s clicking down. who is headed to the ballroom for the blockbuster new season of dancing with the stars ? 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[ male announcer ] more fish fun to love. ba da ba ba ba [ cheers and applause ] back, now, at 7:42 here in los angeles. the latest on jennifer lawrence. the interview that george did with her right after she won the oscar. then crashed by jack nicholson. it has gone viral. one of the most popular videos online. and brand-new pictures overnight, that she s dyed her hair black as she gets ready to film the next hunger games movie. chris connelly has the details. jennifer lawrence. reporter: jennifer lawrence didn t just win an oscar. she won the whole oscar season. every bit, the it girl next door. for her unpretentious exuberance. i m sorry. i did a shot. reporter: gone viral and then some, backstage banter with three-time oscar winner, jack nicholson, during her interview with george stephanopoulos. thank you. i don t mean to crash your interview. you re being really rude. i wanted to congratulate you. you look like an old girlfriend of mine. do i look like a new girlfriend? i thought about it. oh, my god. is he still here? i ll be waiting. oh, my gosh. reporter: even her occasional slip on awards show staircases. people are standing up because they feel bad that i fell. reporter: only ratifying how refreshing she seems. a modeling contract, as the new face of miss dior, and a bright future on-screen. she is the hottest female entertainment star on the planet. she s an acting camilhameleonch. but she doesn t take herself too seriously. reporter: she has roles in two film franchises. the x-men series and the hunger game trilogy, in which she will return as catness everdean. post-oscar, the sky s the limit, for the young actress who began her career at age 6, playing an edgy role in a church play. my mom tells the story, she was playing a prostitute. i guess i had a feather boa. story, anybody. reporter: for good morning america, chris connelly, abc news, los angeles. brilliant. completely unfiltered. coming up, anne hathaway s oscar switch. and a little bit of this. why are we showing badminton? trust me. you will have new respect for badminton when we return. you will have new respect for badminton when we return. go nowhere. i wo. cally that company, the united states postal service® works for thousands of home businesses. because at usps.com® you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. i can even drop off free boxes. i wear a lot of hats. well, technically i wear one. the u.s. postal service®, no business too small. i got it made, i got it made i got it made fresh at subway breakfast made the way i say i got it made i got it made, i got it made, i got it made fresh at subway breakfast made the way i say [ male announcer ] get breakfast made the way you say. like your very own sizzlin steak, egg white & cheese. amazingly under 200 calories. want green peppers, red onions on toasty flatbread? oh, you so got it made. at subway something this delicious could only come from nature. new nectresse. the 100% natural no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. 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[ female announcer ] from more efficient payments. to more efficient pick-ups. wireless is limitless. d.j. kiss. in hd, this is an abc 7 news up eight. good morning, i m greta kreuz. , all publicdlines schools in prince george s county are scheduled to take part in a lockdown drill today. 10:00 a.m. atat last 20 minutes. drill is one of several recommendations to enhance the enhancer the the deadly school shooting in newtown, connecticut. owner martin o malley has a new cochair of the council of governors. obama announced the appointment yesterday, including 10 governors, five ,emocrats, five republicans will address issues related to national guard and homeland security. metro and onhe this morning. let s go to jamie whitten with an update. any problems still lingering out there? they do. had some issues early on .his morning on the orange line can still expect delays. single tracking orange line at the west falls church station. for orange line commuters theyghout rush-hour, be single tracking. let s go to our live cameras. , backed up past 118. accident gone. cloudy right now. dry and it will stay that way for the better part of the morning. withels like 27 degrees the wind coming in. out of the northeast at nine hour.per the rain will move in, heading hours,afternoon especially by noon. reasoning at times, especially along the blue ridge and areas to the west. the rain will be headed by late afternoon. thank you. thank you for watching, and we 8:27.ee you again at thank you for watching, and we 8:27.ee you again at thank you for watching, and we 8:27.ee you again at we need to look for a new van. yeah. i just don t know where to start. glad you found us. start by test-driving nearly every make and model, all in one place. carmax. start here. i m on the edge of glory good morning, america. and get ready to dance. i m on the edge of glory the sizzling new season of ballroom battles is about to begin. we re revealing the entire cast of dancing with the stars and their partners, in the next hour. and guess what? they re all here, live. it s the most competitive cast ever, about to faceoff in a blockbuster ballroom showdown. and we re kicking off all of the dizzling dancing fun, live, right here, on gma. our big moment. the dancing with the stars cast reveal party is under way. as you can hear. the audience in l.a. is pumped. d.j. kiss, getting it going. the dancers are warming up. look at those moves. i know. we were doing i m exhausted because we were doing that just moments ago, lara and i were, exactly doing that. we re missing two people. we can t have a dancing with the stars cast reveal, without tom and brooke. where are you? come on, guys. come on. tom bergeron, brooke burke-charvet. hello. hello. good to see you. how are you doing? how are you? thank you. thank you. well, tonight, before we talk about dancing with the stars, can i just give a shoutout to robin. you look so hot at the oscars the other night, robin roberts. amazing, wasn t she? you look marvelous. extraordinary woman. this is going to be so much fun. i can t wait. this is like we ve got the dancers. we ve got the pairings. we ve got the hosts and the stars, all coming up this half hour. it s going to happen very fast, folks. so, get ready. and twitter. you re the first ones to see it and hear it. it s so top secret, that even tom was trying to find out. i was trying to find the building. that s how secret it is. let s go back to new york elizabeth, george and new york. and new details on a last-minute switch at the oscars. anne hathaway looked so great on the red carpet. there were reports that she doesn t wearing that dress a few hours before she went on to the red carpet. apparently somebody else was wearing a dress that looked a little too like hers. michelle obama, also this morning, is in the kitchen with robin and marcus samuelsson. wait until you see what they re cooking up. let s get news, first, from josh. the breaking news from egypt. a deadly hot air balloon crash there. 18 foreign tourists have been killed in the nile tourist town of luxor, after their balloon caught fire and crashed 1,000 feet to the ground. most of the tourists were from europe and asia. initial reports indicate that the pilot s landing cable got caught around a helium tube. big story, this nasty blizzard scoring a direct hit on kansas this morning, after dumping nearly two feet of snow on texas. this is video playing out. five deaths are now being blamed on this storm. winds whipping fires across the state of texas, including one that killed a mother and her twins in san antonio. in a moment, sam s going to tell us where the storm is now headed. we have new information from the vatican this morning about what s next for pope benedict after he steps down on thursday. he will be known as emeritus pope or your holiness. and will continue to wear white, though he will no longer wear his signature red shoes. the cardinals who elect his successor will hold their first meeting today. and president obama travels to the navy shipyards in virginia today, to warn that military jobs will suffer if congress allows some $85 billion in spending cuts to take effect friday. republicans accuse the president of needlessly scaring the american people. they re offering a plan to give the white house more flexibility to implement the cuts to protect important programs. but no bipartisan talks are planned. and finally, two great examples of character, paying off for people down on their luck. first, an indianapolis teen, you see him there. he walked ten miles through ice and snow, just to get to a job interview on time. but before he heard about whether he got the minimum wage job, a local restaurant owner who saw him making the trek offered him a job on the spot, for double the pay. that s so great. tremendous. and so is this. last week, we told you about a homeless man in kansas city. he returned a very expensive engagement ring to a woman who accidentally dropped it into his cup. her fiance found him and set up a website to collect donations for him. they have now raised $150,000 for him. hear, hear. people are so good. and it s such a wonderful thing to say. that is fantastic. let s go back out to l.a. a little pop news with lara and special guests. let s go to it. good morning, everybody. and it is oscars puppy power. quvenzhane wallis was nominated for her role as hushpuppy in beasts of the southern wild. now, the puppy purses are the accessory of the season. of course. tom has his. i have that exact same one. poochi and co., says their doggy bags are selling like hotcakes. my daughter is a big fan of one of those bags. only to find out you know what s fun? when you can get yours to chase the mailman bag. that s fun. also in pop news, tom and brooke, we ve seen glimpses of oscar nominee, naomi watts, in character as princess diana, her next role. now, nicole kidman in grace of monaco, playing prince kelly. kelly requested changes to the script. but the director said, no can do. i m not a journalist or a historian. i m an artist. he is not making changes to the film. we ll see what the hubbub is about when that comes out. a whole lot of legal thank you. other than right here. and finally, hard to imagine, these two thank you. taking that picture. supermodel wife, looking gorgeous, at the vanity fair oscar party sunday night. it took a few tries to get that picture. little did they know, our friend, jesse tyler ferguson, clearly photo-bombed. he photo-bombed the couple. he gets the oscar for that photo-bomber ever. and i am going to give you all one more dancing with the stars clue about one of the stars dancing. and i m kind of ad-libbing. making this one up. are you ready? he may have been on a soap. uh-huh. but he can get very, very dirty. that could be just about anybody. we fully understand that these clues are not good clues. but we don t want you to guess. i don t know. i don t really. this ain t columbo. it s good morning america. i m impressed that the rumors have been on the down-low this time. there hasn t been a lot. and our clues aren t helping everybody. i tried it out on just about everybody. and it is still under lock and key. for a few more moments. first, we need some weather, mister. let s do a little. let s get the dancers down here. i want to get down with the audience and the dancers. tell me your name. i m emma. and sasha. do something that feels good to you. do a little dancing. are you up for that, as we do a little weather? [ cheers and applause ] the studio audience is entertained since weather isn t always the most entertaining thing. it s informational. we ll show you what s going on in the big boards. we start with the big system that moves across the middle of the country and exactly how it moves. we have snow on the northern line. and the heavy rain and strong to severe storms in the southern line. it s easier to understand when you see it this way. the two lows separating. and the coastal system, developing rain. and the one that stays inland, kicking off more of the snow from it. two inches of rain in the bright red zone. and washington, d.c., new york city, you re getting some rain. there s a look at the west co good morning, washington. cloudy skies and 34 degrees this hour. , take an umbrella .potty showers by the noon hour sleet and freezing rain will be westward, but all rain this afternoon will be heaviest afternoon and into the evening. one to two inches with a flood in effect. temperatures in the low 40 s today. lingering showers, tracking off to a few flurries being around you guys, i now learn that the hardest part may be to stay out of the dancers way. collisions could be fun. what s ahead on the morning menu ? here s what we have coming up. last-minute switch. why did anne hathaway change her dress just hours before the big night? plus, our exclusive big reveal of the new dancing with the stars cast. that is just moments away. and dishing with the first lady, michelle obama, with robin. and marcus samuelsson is also with us. it s live at good morning america in times square and l.a. see life in the best light. outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it s meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. visit your eyecare professional today to ask about our newest lenses, transitions vantage and transitions xtractive lenses. experience life well lit. ask which transitions adaptive lens is best for you. by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about.by the bowlful? campbell s soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell s. it s amazing what soup can do. campbell s. living with moderate to semeans living with pain.is it could also mean living with joint damage. humira, adalimumab, can help treat more than just the pain. for many adults, humira is clinically proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your rheumatologist about humira, to help relieve your pain and stop further joint damage. she would help her child. go! goooo! 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[ cheers and applause ] you remember that. little freestyle from cheryl burke and drew lachey, february 2006. one of the most memorable dances ever. who is going to be this year? we re going to find out the cast in a few minutes. right now, let s get more fallout from the oscars. this is anne hathaway s last-minute fashion switch. she looked fantastic in that prada. but cecilia vega reports that may not be the dress she originally picked for the red carpet. reporter: call it dressgate 2013. my mom says it s business in front, party in the back. reporter: anne hathaway may have walked down the oscars red carpet in pink prada. but she had reportedly been planning to wear an entirely different dress by an entirely different designer. just before the awards show started, an excited valentino sent out this announcement saying hathaway would be wearing its pink embroidered tulle illusion gown. the intrigue. i have rumors that this may have been anne s. and it may have looked too much like her les mis co-star. nobody wants their dress compared to someone else s on a big night. reporter: hathaway is a valentino loyalist. she s worn the label to countless red carpets. even to her own wedding. whether or not an actress wears a designer s dress on the red carpet is a huge deal to the designer. reporter: this morning, the fashion world is buzzing. was it a devilish snub to wear, gasp, prada? i think that depends on what you re it wasn t a question. reporter: hathaway s camp has no comment. but the pixie-haired star told rain seacrest, it was a last-minute decision. i didn t know what i was wearing until about three hours ago. reporter: hilary swank is no stranger to the last-minute switch. she reportedly changed her mind before walking the red carpet twice before. and went on to win oscars each time. proof that just maybe, the oscars gown switch-a-roo. and the oscar goes to. reporter: makes for oscars luck. miss anne hathaway. reporter: good morning america, cecilia vega, abc news, los angeles. all part of the master plan. that s all i m saying. i ll let twitter go where i won t. sam, let s do it. all right. it is that moment, george. the moment we ve been waiting for. season 16. can t believe it. on dancing with the stars, kicks off in a few weeks. the contenders for the mirrorball trophy have been kept secret until now. host tom bergeron and brooke burke charvet are here to bring us the big reveal. take it away. our first competitor, five-time grammy winner, more than a dozen number one singles. she s also a new york times best-selling author. let s welcome backstage, she said i d never do this. never say never. country music star, wynonna judd. [ cheers and applause ] love her. all right. here we go. next up, we have comedian actor, political commentator and star of the beloved tv series, the hughleys. he makes us laugh all the time. but can he dance? here s d.l. hughley. [ cheers and applause ] yeah. all right. next up, a super bowl superstar. he holds the record for the longest touchdown ever in the history of a game. we were talking 108 1/2 yards, according to our estimates. and according to this, he loves to jet ski. i don t know how that will play into the show. give it up for baltimore ravens wide receiver jacoby jones. [ cheers and applause ] oh, yeah. all right. this savvy entrepreneur keeps it real on the real housewives of beverly hills. and was one of the first people ever to water ski barefoot in england. but does she jet ski? she might get jiggy with it on the dance floor. and i think jiggy is sitting in our audience. here is lisa vanderpump. [ cheers and applause ] all right. another funny man joins our cast this season, actor, director, producer and musician, who has his own comedy band. let s bring out, andy dick. [ cheers and applause ] sorry. so sorry. it s going to be funny. next up, his fancy footwork in the boxing ring helped propel him to wbc welterweight champion. he is a fan of country music and even wanted to sing himself. here to put up his dancing dukes, victor ortiz. [ cheers and applause ] yeah. our next competitor likes to shake it up on the disney channel. her dad wanted her to be the first woman in the nba. say hello to teen acting singing and dancing star, zendaya. [ cheers and applause ] she led the fab five to olympic gold this summer. as the captain of the u.s. gymnastics team, she killed on the floor exercise. how will she do on the dancing floor? come on out, aly raisman. [ cheers and applause ] general hospital fans were sorry to see him leave port charles. he traded hollywood for hawaii. now, ingo rademacher is back. i m not going to do that. this former american idol finalist got herself a record deal and went on to win three awards and three song writing awards. we know she has the pipes. but does she have the legs? i heard she does. let s meet country cutie kellie pickler. [ cheers and applause ] and our final superstar, another olympic legend. in 1976, she figure skated her way into our hearts. and she rocked rhinestones and a gold medal on the ice. but will she do it on the dance floor? here s dorothy hamill. [ cheers and applause ] hello. thank you. there you go, everybody. your season 16 cast, right here. [ cheers and applause ] we re going to start with you start. hello, my friend. good to see you. this is a little different than your day job. not really. how does comedy play a factor in dancing? well, i ll see if i can learn to dance with my foot in my mouth. i m excited. i never knew my hips were supposed to move like that. kellie, i saw you when you walked out on stage. i love the hair, by the way. we have the same haircut. she cut it off because her friend has cancer. we have the same haircut now. very similar. now, you re a singer. but do people know that you were a rollerskating waitress? does that give you an advantage in this competition? a big one. i m used to falling down. i ll be good. i got that covered. wy, you said you would never do this. they asked me for six years. why do it? i m trying to get back to my original weight of 16 pounds and 8 ounces. because it s the year of doing things that you re i m scared to death. anybody else scared to death? raise your hand if you re scared to death. jacoby s not scared. did you see that? i wish i would be on your team. seriously. this is something i said i would never do. we re glad you re here this year, to see it all happen and get down to that original weight. there s a lot of athletes on the panel. but dorothy hamill, by the way, beautiful i remember watching the hamill camel. i remember seeing all that. i remember it, too. but i can t i don t know kellie, i m used to falling. that might be good. i don t think it is going to help. but i can try. we have a lot more questions to ask. we do. we re going to have a lot of jiggy appearances? jiggy. your right-hand man. he s over there. he s with me. we re going to talk to the rest of the dancers coming up. we re also going to introduce you to the pairings. this is the big deal. this is where it all happens. who dances with who. do not go anywhere. we ll be right back. live and in hd, this is an abc 7 news update. good morning, everyone. i m greta kreuz. here is the news. a non-jury trial expected this principle ofhe coolidge high school in .orthwest dc he is accused of ordering and thelma jarrett is allegedly beating up a woman at a homecoming football in november. , she was put on administrative leave. the maryland senate takes up a strict new gun control bill under the measure people would have to submit finger finger prints to get a handgun license. assault also ban for people who have been involuntarily committed, they could not own guns. let s check with jamie whitten to see how the weather is going. outside the beltway, we are manassas, centreville. a little bit of volume. inside the beltway, we out of the rosslyn , past falls church, route seven. metroraillls church, are still single tracking. the orange line train outside station, alls church track problem. jackie jarrett, how about the ?orecast forecast is fine now, by noon things are looking kind of wet. and anrain jacket umbrella. 35 is the temperature now. wind chill is 29. ,louds overnight, but the rain will see some freezing at the higher elevations in northern virginia and western maryland. otherwise, temperatures will be all day with temperatures in the 40 s. thank you for watching. a: 56. news update at [ male announcer ] here s a friendly reminder it s your last chance to get a $200 verizon visa prepaid card with verizon high speed internet and phone for business, both with 99.9% network reliability, for only $84.99 a month when you sign up online with a 2-year term. plus a basic second line. just order at verizon.com/bizdeal, or call 1.888.929.4404 for other offers. hurry, this offer won t last long. [ cheers and applause ] are you ready for that? are you ready? we are back, now, with sam in los angeles. we just revealed the brand-new cast of dancing with the stars. just ahead, we re going to tell you who they re dancing with. everybody here, for the first time. you re the first to see it. the brand-new season kicks off right here on abc, monday night march 18th, at 8:00 eastern. george, elizabeth, josh, we have the pairings coming up. we re going to show you who they re going to dance with. a few more questions when we come back. a fun cast out there. a funny cast. seen that in the introduction. we got that coming up. also, first lady michelle obama with robin and marcus saelelsson in the kitchen. healthy recipes coming up. i feel like i m back in bristol. my espn days. sports great guys and two-time daytona 500 champ, jimmie johnson, with the trophy. one of the great racers all-time. what a story. what a story that continues. let s get back and find out who the stars will be paired up with. that s crucial to winning. right, sam? that s what they tell us. this is my first time being a part of the big reveal. but i think dancers and their partners are pretty much everything. didn t you think, tom, for a second, that sam was a part of the cast? if only for comic relief. thank you. okay, sam. a long time. he knows. we should find out. the pairings, please. fair enough. first up, wynonna, you will be dancing with last season s all-star edition champ, he has the sparkliest teeth in america, tony dovolani. [ cheers and applause ] hello. off to a good start. okay. d.l., for you, two-time winner, cheryl burke. [ cheers and applause ] hey. jacoby, seeing that you re a super bowl champion, we ve teamed you up with season 13 champion, karina smirnoff. [ cheers and applause ] somebody s been practicing already. lucky lisa, you have the honor of meeting and stepping out with one of our brand-new dancers. lev sebtenko. he s been dancing since he was 7 years old. lucky you, lisa. all right. andy dick andy, your partner is a brand-new edition to our pro cast after dancing for three years in our dance troupe. meet shara burgess. [ cheers and applause ] victor, we have got a knockout for you. our third addition to our professional team. lindsay arnold. lindsay trained with mark ballas and finished in the top ten of last season s so you think you can dance. [ cheers and applause ] i like all these new faces. i know, huh? zendaya, get ready. we hope you re excited to be seen with one of last year s finalists. val chmerkovskiy. [ cheers and applause ] ali, in honor of your two olympic gold medals, we teamed you up with winner mark ballas. look. he has hair again. ingo, get ready to train hard with another two-time champ. kym johnson. [ cheers and applause ] kellie, you lucky lady. i might be a little jealous, you ll be teamed up with three-time champ and my old partner, derek hough. [ cheers and applause ] that s going to be fun. and last, but not least, dorothy hamill, say hello to our favorite irishman, tristan macmanus. [ cheers and applause ] i m not worthy. thank you. there you go. the stars and their pros. this is what it s going to look like when the stars are dancing. when we were asking hi, gorgeous. when we were asking questions, we left off with lisa. lisa, i know we have jiggy on stage. but there s a giant departure. i know. is everything going to be pink? i hope so. ali, big shoes to fill in the olympic category. a lot of olympians tend to end up as winners. i m excited. this cast is really amazing. it s going to be a good season. i m excited to have mark as a partner. i can t wait. you got ballas. i believe things are going to look good right there. hey, victor. how many boxers have you had? three, four, boxers? three, four? never a winner. so, what do you bring to the table? her. oh. that s all i have to say. ingo, you ve lived in hawaii. you ve done the soaps. this is different. do you surf? i do paddle board racing. that s why i moved to hawaii. is that going to help? a little bit. when you re doing downwind runs, you step back on the board a lot and you squat a lot. that is helping with the legs. that s all we ve been doing for the last two days. our cast has a gift for rationalizing. and water sports. jet skis involved and everything. i know you have to do weather. jacoby, can you give us a little sampling of end zone magic? [ cheers and applause ] what can we look forward to? give them a little give us a super bowl look. for you [ cheers and applause ] we asked questions about unfair advantages. that may be an unfair advantage. that seems like it falls under the dance experience category. let s get one or two maps out of the way. and we ll come back and talk a little bit more. in case you re walking out the door right now, we re going to show you what s happening. we re going to start with the twitter and facebook pictures. virginia beach, this is the way it looks. if it didn t look that way, we wouldn t have the picture on the board. kansas city, as wiell. you continue to get snow in that area. and we see the mountains of north carolina get in on it. the good news for coastal cities on the east coast, is this is really going to be more of a rainmaker. a lot of folks can use the rain. once you get in the high elevations, the mountains of west virginia an we have a cloudy start here morning. 35 degrees is our temperature. moving in byld be midday. temperatures in the 40 s. showers changing all that weather was brought to you by cottonelle. this is day two of us here in l.a. we were here yesterday for the oscars. all of our friends at facebook ran the exclusive poll asking, what was the one look you loved the most on the red carpet. there were so many good ones. anne hathaway? was it prada? yes. many of you said strapless gowns ruled. jessica chastain, as well. that was armani prive. that s your choice, on the facebook page. what do you think? that s beautiful, too. josh, what do you think of the pairings? i think it s going to be a great show. it s going to be a phenomenal show. not only, given the professionals that are back with us. but what a cast. and i ll tell you what, wynonna judd, twitter has broken. it s going to be an entertaining show. and the lovely ladies, all tied for first. meanwhile, congratulations to everybody. i do have another champion with me. many, many times over. what a day it was sunday at daytona. the great american race, won by a man who has won it before. and has done a whole lot of winning in a singular career. five-time cup series champion, jimmie johnson, taking his second daytona sunday, in a race we also saw danica patrick to become the first woman to lead and best-ever finish by a woman. joining us now, fresh off a car wash in my old home, bristol, connecticut, and espn, jimmie johnson. you brought along. that is the trophy. this is a heavy trophy. you see the video. that s not easy to lift. thankfully you re not doing the carrying. what a race. it is your second. i watched yesterday on espn. you say, it s still your the first win of your career, still the most important. but when you win this thing, even having done it before, and all the wins you ve had, and a hall of fame career, what s that like when you take the checkers? honestly, the emotions are overwhelming. the best way to describe it, it s the only race that feels like a championship. nascar owns me for the next two or three days. yesterday was a full day, and today and on. and they take you around the country, talking about the great american race. it has that championship feel to it. a career-defining race for driver, team, crew chief, everybody involved. it s a big deal. the ultimate comparison, the super bowl of racing. or super bowl, the daytona of the nfl. and your car, now, the car you win with, is the car you won t drive again this year. it is now in the museum there. they put that in the museum. 7:00 a.m. yesterday morning. i had all of our crew guys there. we rolled the car in. it will sit there until just before the start of next year s daytona 500. check it out. you re somebody who won five-consecutive cup series titles. never been done before in this sport. you have been as big a star as we ve seen. and yet, in your sport right now, it feels like danica patrick is experiencing a spotlight that maybe we ve never seen before. how do you think she s handling the intense scrutiny of this moment? she s doing a great job. i think she showed her comfort in the race on sunday. raced for the lead. led laps. finished very well. that package of racing, that rules package that s involved, it s evident she s comfortable. as we move into the season, she has challenges of learning different racetracks and the different style of racing as we move forward. she s done an amazing job. no one on track sunday was thinking, that s danica. that s a car racing for the win. and she s done on amazing job. it was a great race. all of the oscar preshow places had the race on. one of sports truly great gentlemen. congratulations to you and everybody involved. indeed. coming up here, michelle obama, marcus samuelsson, cook we re back with more from michelle obama. the let s move campaign is in its third year. they re showing thousands of recipes with the my plate program. marcus samuelsson joined mrs. obama and robin to whip up a few of them. we re moving here in the kitchen, with mrs. obama and marcus samuelsson. you know him from red rooster here in new york city. one of my favorite restaurants. that yard bird. today, we re not cooking yard bird. today, all about the healthy meals. so, you know, you gave us a challenge on my plate. 50% of the plate should be vegetables or fruit. i m going to do stir fry. if you put in a little bit of orange juice, garlic. already off to a good start. this is one of the my plate approved recipes that people can go online. this is meat. it s lean meat. it s flank steak, which is a lean cut. and it s quick and affordable to do. thass the point. you look on my plate, there s over 3,000 recipes that you can look up, as of today. and there s going to be more. absolutely. all healthy, great recipes, that the partnership this is homework. i know. marcus is our guy. listen, i do the homework. he s one of the chefs that s showing the nation how to cook healthy but also with that core essence. you can do both. put a little onion in. and a little bit of curry. and tomatoes. just cook this off. and i have here, vegetables. this is going to be the hardest thing for kids to love. you have to make your vegetables flavorf flavorful. and we re going to have sesame seed and onions. they re little pieces. and this is the broccoli. could be any green. how many mothers who have been working, they ve been building their careers, it s not just mothers. it s parents, generally. you don t learn how to plan a meal. you don t learn how to figure out how to make a week s worth of food. that s why people end up eating out. this is true. they have a resource. eating out is not bad. it s not bad. wait a minute. not at all. not at all. much better. eating out, especially at red rooster. it depends on where you eat out. right. you can get healthy food out. at the right places. i have to ask you this. when was the last time you were in the kitchen? i walk in the kitchen every day. every day. when is the last time you prepared something in the kitchen? oh. it s been a while. it s been a while. i have to say. you got this. let it be known that i m in the kitchen every day. are you looking forward to the time when you ll be back and cooking for the family again? absolutely. i enjoy cooking. really delicious. isn t that great. just finding the time. and also, these recipes are quick. they only have a few ingredients because that s one of the things that these websites are finding out. if you have too many ingredients, they sound too fancy, people don t have the time. right. thank you, marcus. keep eating good. eating is one part of it. the other half, you have to move. exactly. that s why we jump around. we jump around. eating and jumping. marcus, thank you. mrs. obama, thank you. great to have you here. you can get all of the great recipes on our website. bon appetit. and we are back in l.a., with the entire cast of dancing with the stars, season 16. what a great group. and so fun to be with tom and brooke and all of you. congratulations. we have a couple more stars that we want to get to. andy dick. we didn t talk to andy yet. andy, when you first found out this was going to be something that you did, what was the first thing you did after hearing about it? people call you i hear you have a little fan group out there. where s my group? dick? dick? i did a little dance like jacoby. zendaya, save us. you were on shake it out. will we see dance moves you use on the show? i will try. it s very difficult. i m used to hip-hop dancing which i realize is a completely different world. so, i kind of have to forget what i know and restart all over again. we re going to bring everybody back. the season kicks off in just a minute. we ll be right back. [ cheers and applause ] great show, lara and sam. hurry back. travel safe. they ll be here tomorrow. also goodmorningamerica.com/live. here we come. abc 7 news update. good morning. it is endicott 56. i am greta kreuz. maryland state police have a delivery. agency is set to receive two of 10 new helicopters. chapters will arrive at airport this morning. they will be used as medevac transports. usually men are not allowed in but cheerleaders made an exception for our own john gonzales. the prep class begins this week information and his full audition on wjla.com. let us head back to see how the morning rush. we are not out of the woods yet. i am going to take into a camera, the crash as 395 northbound. to can see a lot of flashing lights. quick note, you will need time on 66. west out as very slow. the metro will continue to track on the low orange on the orange line. it is 35 degrees right now. hasn t been a bad start. the rain is still a couple of hours today began a couple of hours away. a couple of hours away. we will see a little sleet and rain and mixing in. the rain will be heavy this afternoon and for the rush home see 1 to 2 inches of .looding rain a wet one on the way. thank you for watching. a wet one on the way. th[ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i used my citi thankyou card to pick up some accessories. a new belt some nylons. and what girl wouldn t need new shoes? and with all the points i ve been earning, i was able to get us a flight to our favorite climbing spot, even on a holiday weekend. things are definitely. looking up. [ male announcer ] with no blackout dates, you can use your citi thankyou points to travel whenever you want. visit citi.com/thankyoucards to apply. to travel whenever you want. new griddle-melts to yourime usual breakfast sandwich. a lot more flavor. [ anouncer ] ihop s new griddle melts. made fresh and hot! hand crafted just for you. it s like a sexy sandwich. [ anouncer ] compare new griddle melts yourself.
than 250 flights are canceled as a result of the storm. let s see if the storm impacts our weather. time for weather and traffic on the 1s. here s tom. good morning will we ll have a light impact from the storm system that s been in the midwest. ahead of that, the clouds rolling in and temperatures are cold. we are down below freezing around virginia, delaware, west virginia. upper 20s to near 30 degrees. that includes montgomery, arlington, fairfax. leading edge of the precipitation. there s a mix in west virginia. the areas in the white and gray, just a few flurries trying to reach the ground from near charlottesville to richmond. it s gradually advancing east, northeast. but it s coming into very dry air. it s going to be tough for any precipitation to fall had morning. maybe a few scattered flurries northern shenandoah valley. now the leading edge of that. hour by hour this morning, a cloudy sky with dry pavement. below freezing temperatures through 9:00 or so. by noontime, into the mid-30s. we might have a few scattered flurries around as we get into the middle part of the day and during the afternoon. look at that tonight in ten minutes. a look at traffic with danella now, good morning. good morning. if you re making the trip this morning, out of charles county, well, check in with local roads for you. if you re traveling along 210, 223, barry road, nice and clear. heading to the beltway now, beltway and prince george s county, st. barnabas road in both directions. travel lanes are open. no construction. no accidents right now. that s very, very good news. continuing the beltway this time traveling the outer loop towards 50, you can see here nice and clear. even the beltway in montgomery county as well as virginia not seeing incidents at this time. i m back in ten. aaron and eun over to you. thank you, eun. melissa has breaking news right now. attorneys in the oscar pistorius are arguing about whether the disabled athlete is a flight risk. they just returned to o court from a ten-minute break. they re in the middle of day four with this hearing. they want him held without bail. pistorius thought his girlfriend was an intruder. a decision on bail expected today. his lawyers need to prove there s an exceptional reason for him to be freed. melissa mollet, news 4. boeing meets with the faa today to get the troubled 787 dreamliners back in the sky. the airline manufacturer set to present its solutions for the battery problems that have plagued several of its planes last month they grounded all of the dream lierns across the world after two separate incidents. boeing is losing $200 million a month in delivery payments until the planes can take off again. nevada police are still looking for one of the cars involved in this fiery crash on the las vegas strip which was the result of a shooting spree between two cars. police say that yesterday morning an argument in the valet area of a hotel led to people shooting at each other in two vehicles. one crashed into a taxi, which then burst into flames. the driver of that car and the driver and the passenger in the cab died. three other cars also crashed and the other car ka involved in the gunfire exchange took off. we re following a developing story in a sign of possible progress to a vied the see questions trags. t t we are still working to find out what the side said. but white house describes them as good conversations. 4:34 right now. if you like going to the national zoo, you might notice major cutbacks if a budget deal is not in place soon. according to the washington post, the zoo may have to consider closing a major exhibit if it drags on long enough. the zoo won t elaborate which exhibit it would shut down. itould have to rethink major projects, including acquiring cheetahs in front royal, virginia. civilian employees at the defense department are facing furloughs if the sequestration takes effect. it isn t the government workers that feel the effect. a lot of businesses that depend on the employees are seeing bottom lines impacted. they re adjusting how they spend money as they brace for possible pay cuts. one business owner says it feels like we re in another recession. i mean, do they fix a car or buy their medicine or buy their groceries or pay their mortgage? whatever they have left over, they hunker down on because they don t know what tomorrow is bringing. tens of thousands civilian defense department workers could face one furlough day a work starting in april. that s a 20% pay cut. news 4 will have you covered as the showdown continues. we ll bring you every development as the march 1st deadline approaches. you ll also be able to find updates at nbcwashington.com. 4:35 now. lawmakers must consider changes to gun control laws in maryland. late last night a state senate committee approved a measure banning anyone from owning a handgun if that person had been involume untearily committed to a mental health pa silt. the legislation now dps to the full senate for debate next week. efforts to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation projects come down to today. the general assembly will had vote on the most sweeping transportation reform bill in the commonwealth in nearly three decades. a committee negotiated the measure this week. it would replace virginia s gas tax with a wholesale tax on gas. raise the commonwealth s sales tax and impose a fee on hybrid cars and shift about $200 million a year from the general fund. this morning, a recall you need to hear about before you make your breakfast. also ahead, how the classmates of two students killed this week with pouring their grief into music. the incident that left a teenager dangling from his chairlift. winter weather look at this again. are you kidding me sm. what? no way. absolutely incredible. front flip, half court shot. a william kerry university cheerleader has only tried that shot a handful of times. but thursday was the first time went in on the ohm court. the 21-year-old junior also plays soccer and says she mimicked the shot after the front flip throw-in soccer players do and of course, the video has gone viral on you-tube and her friends think she s a superstar. awesome. suit up, get out there on the court. make something happen. i don t know what the team is doing. but she s clearly a winner. time for weather and traffic on the 1s. storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein here with our forecast. good morning, tom. good morning. right now 4:40. temperatures are below freezing just about everywhere. that includes the nearby suburbs, prince george s county around 30 degrees. upper 20s in montgomery county. arlington, fairfax near 30 degrees. district of columbia also right near the freezing mark. we have storm team 4 radar just a few flurries in the shenandoah valley. panhandle of west virginia and from richmond south and west of there. right around the metro area, no precipitation now. through the day today, chance maybe of a flurry 8:00 a.m. through noon. then a bit of a mix perhaps by late afternoon. maybe a little snow and sleet melting on roadways. maybe just a light coating on some grassy areas as we get into the evening hours maybe a little light snow and sleet. changing to maybe a little light icing. areas north and west, i ll show you that zone and we ll look at the seven-day coming up in ten minutes. a look at traffic with danella. good morning. checking on roads. if you re traveling in virginia making your way from stafford, all the way north, i ll give you a live look as you head past the occoquan river bridge. north and southbound clear. hardly any volume. northbound looks like a lot of lights. again, no major delays. checking for construction, roadwork as you head to the beltway of the travel lanes are open. travel ton 395 northbound between edsall and seminary. nice ride to the 14th street bridge. aaron and eun. thank you, danella. we re tracking breaking news after an explosion near a movie theater in india. you saw it as breaking news here. now wa we re learning about the fire that left a father and two children dead. why you may not soon face almost tastes like one of jack s cereals. fiber one. uh, forgot jack s cereal. [ jack ] what s for breakfast? um. try the number one! yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] over a third of a day s fiber. fiber one. shimmy, shimmy chocolate. shimmy, shimmy chocolate. we, we chocolate cross over. yeah, we chocolate cross over. [ male announcer ] introducing fiber one 80 calorie chocolate cereal. chocolate. new griddle-melts to yourime usual breakfast sandwich. it doesn t seem like fast food. there s a lot of substance, it just seems really fresh. there s like a lot more flavor. [ anouncer ] ihop is building our best breakfast sandwiches ever. new griddle-melts made fresh and hot. hand crafted just for you. it s like a sexy sandwich. i love this crispy bread. .the roasted red peppers. it s awesome. [ anouncer ] compare new griddle melts yourself. just $4.99 at ihop. this is an epic breakfast sandwich. [ anouncer ] ihop. everything you love about breakfast. you want that don t you? i m melissa mollet at the live desk right now. 15 people are dead, 119 at least injured after two bombings in india. take a look at this. police are now searching for evidence in the attack. the bombs exploded minutes apart in a crowded shopping area in the south. the blasts also shattered storefronts, scattered food and plates from roadside restaurants. right now, police are saying there was a jenna lert about the possibility of an attack somewhere in india for the past three days or so. this is a first major terror bombing in india since 2011. we ll keep an eye on this for you at the live desk. melissa mollet, news 4. students in prince george s county are finding emotional outlets as they deal with the grief of two students killed this week. suitland high school hosted a concert last night for the community. it comes after the death of ninth grader charles walker jr. someone shot and killed him in hillcrest heights monday. then the next day another student was killed at suitland high school. students say the concert is a bit of a distraction from what s been an emotional week. nobody really been to school and the people who has been to school, i ve seen people crying and like other people saying you look like him. i thought, i saw him and just everybody is just crying and upset. police arrested five people in walker s murder but no one yet in kidd s case. grief counselors have been there all week and may remain into next week if necessary. also in prince george s county, investigators say a house that burned killing a father and two daughters did not have working smoke detectors. the story was breaking yesterday morning when a home on leslie avenue erupted in flames. the mother and an 8-year-old are expected to be okay. an 11-year-old girl is still hospitalize ds. the cause of the fire is still being investigated. a family member tells news 4 that the family had kerosene heaters in the home. we re hearing from d.c. fire on what it says happened to a man. durand ford sr. s family says he had to wait a half hour for an ambulance while he was having trouble breathing. the ambulance came from maryland. d.c. fire and ems admits there was a delay but admits medics were on the scene within ten minutes. also says the ambulance that transported ford was from the district, not maryland. the family says it s been billed for $700 for the service. officials say that was not a bill, it was a request for insurance information. today a historic new statue will arrive in town. a statue honoring civil rights pioneer rosa parks will be the first ever full size statue of an african-american woman in the capitol. it s cast in bronze and stands about 9 feet tall. it will be part of the national statuary hall collection. it will happen next wednesday. president obama will speak at that ceremony. first lady michelle obama will appear on late night with jimmy fallon. she s busy spreading the word about her let s move campaign. she can take on fallon in a fitness challenge. this month marked the three-year anniversary of her healthy living initiative for kids. i don t think i d do too well against her either. a major recall that may make you want to put down your breakfast. 38,000 pounds of pork sausage, it s recalling grault any mild pork sausage rolls. smithfield packing company based had virginia is warning that their products may contain small pieces of plastic. the recall effects 11 states, including the district of columbia and maryland. incredible video that might convince you to keep the safety bar down on the chairlift when you go skiing. check this out. this is 17 year oiled jacob gutierrez hanging from a chairlift in new mexico. he slips off after trying to throw a snowball at his friends. after 6:00 of trying to pull himself back up, he plummets 45 feet to the ground. amazingly, essa live. he did suffer a lacerated liver, tears in both lungs a hairline skull fracture and a gash in his forehead. he is expected to make a full recovery. this video has nearly 900,000 views on you-tube. sorry. as a parent, it s hard to watch. i m thinking, okay, maybe my kids shouldn t go skiing ever. terrifying. you re supposed to sit there. that s it. with the bar down. stay there and wait to get to your destination. he s so lucky. 45 feet. 11 minutes before the top of the hour. frustration mounting for the capitals and caps fans. the team let another wind slip away last night. rebound, score sclat the new jersey devils scored two goals in two minutes to steal away the victory. 3-2 the biggest factor in the loss, penalties. some of which players didn t agree with. we did everything we needed to. unfortunately, there was too many calls. what was the view of too many penalties? i m not discussing. i don t feel like getting fined tonight. we were robbed a little bit. two points, one point, anything kind of was taken away from us there. okay. little angry there. the caps can t try can try to get the points back tomorrow night. they ll play the devils again here in d.c. you may notice one of the wizards top players missing from the lineup if you watch them take on the nuggets tonight. jordon crawford is no longer a wizard. the team traded him to the celtics. washington gets leanne barbosa. collins rarely got playing time in boston. it will be a good situation for jordan. he might get an opportunity to go to a bet approximator team and help them. it will allow us to continue on the path we re trying to build in the locker room and good work ethic and team play where everybody is on the same page and wanting to play for the same reasons. okay. crawford has been the wizards third leading scorer but hasn t appeared in the past four games. will be the final day of practice for the nationals before their spring training season begins. the nats take on the mets tomorrow afternoon. first pitch is scheduled for just after noon. the nationals open the regular season april 1st against the marlins. so exciting. tom kierein is brushing off his red hat ready to hit the field down there. may be brushing snow off of it too later today, here anyway. not there. we re starting off though, no problems as we get off to work and school on this friday morning. it s cold. our temperatures in prince george s county around 30 degrees. it s near 30 arlington, fairfax. upper 20s in montgomery. district of columbia, most locations are around 30 degrees. elsewhere, we have temperatures around the shenandoah valley and out of the mountains. most locations mid and upper 20s right now. farther south and east, much of southern maryland, eastern shore, northern neck near 30 degrees. storm team 4 radar showing precipitation. the area in the gray is just some flurries. a few light flurries trying to reach the ground. the air is extremely dry. the moisture coming in aloft, much of itvaporating by the time it reaches the ground. had west virginia, those locations are getting sleet and wet snow. in the northern shenandoah valley, the gray zone, panhandle of west virginia, maybe a few light flurries from the sky. it is extremely dry. mostly cloudy through the morning. just a slight chance of a flurry. a greater chance much flurries and maybe sleet by mid to late afternoon. highs before then early afternoon maybe upper 30s. then a likelihood of some snow and sleet this evening that may put down a light coating here in this light blue zone including washington. fairfax, arlington. the darker blue zone maybe an inch of some snow and sleet. a little light icing from freezing rain on some of the elevated surfaces. central shenandoah valley into the mountains. the storm team 4 four-day forecast. all of this changing over to rain. rain likely tomorrow, ending tomorrow night. sunday, sun returns. 30s in the morning. afternoon highs near 50. more of the same on monday. maybe rain again on tuesday. cloudy wednesday. might get snow thursday. stay tuned. keep you posted on that. i m back in ten minutes. danella now with first 4 traffic. good morning. still pretty quiet in the area. happy friday to you. i m just realizing. i love fridays. crossing over the bay bridge, route 50 nice and clear. travel lanes are open. no accidents. let s head inbound 50. a live look by 50 and 301. your travel lanes are open. no issues to report from bowie to the beltway. landover road to new york avenue again in both directions. you re clear. if you re no reports, anything to warn you about right now. i m back in ten minutes. we ll check your rails then. danella, it could be a long ride on the orange line this weekend. four stations will be closed on that line. the vienna, dun loring and church stations will shut down at 10:00 tonight. you ll be able to take a shutting. there will be single tracking between friendship heights and van ness. all the work should be done by monday morning. we re learning more about a mow tension lawsuit against disgraced cyclist lance armstrong. on the same day he admitted in an interview with oprah winfrey to using performance-enhancing drugs, the head of the anti-doping agency lobbied the justice department to join a lawsuit against armstrong. the lawsuit was filed by armstrong s former teammate floyd landis. the justice department hasn t announced if it will join. under armor is going after nike. it s suing the competitor arguing that nike is misusing under armor s new slogaslogan, l it claims nike has been using i will at the start of phrases on several of its ads. nike has not commented on that suit. it won t comment. it s your lifeline when there is an emergency. 911 can t solve all problems. coming up at 5:20, the unusual call for help that got a little boy in a lot of trouble. the local lawmaker giving pot smokers a reason to light up. why the district is not re here you go little man. [ humming ] [ babbling ] the cheerios bandit got you again? [ both laugh ] the one and only, cheerios the one and only, cheerios a baltimore lawmaker wants to make maryland the latest state to legalize marijuana. he introduced legislation making pot legal for anybody over the age of 21. the bill also creates a system to regulate and tax it like alcohol. the revenue that tax generates would help pay for treatment programs to prevent substance abuse. vote ners colorado and washington state legalized marijuana in those charge. a rare charge in a drunk driving case in southwestern virginia. police charged a woman riding in the back seat with driving under the influence. now, officers say she grabbed the steering wheel and caused a crash in bedford county near roanoke. the car ran off the road and flipped. four people went to the hospital. d.c. is preparing to make a push to keep the fbi in the district. mayor vincent gray will propose the agency relocate to an area known as poplar point on 295 in southeast. it s a piece of property already owned by the federal government and is accessible by metro. it is the future home of the u.s. coast guard headquarters. it would bring in relatively little tax revenue for the district. the fbi will had begin looking for proposals next month. stay with us. news4 today continues right now at 5:00 a.m. breaking news on whether or not oscar pistorius will be let out of jail. we re tracking the impact this winter storm will have in the d.c. area starting in a few hours. good morning everyone. i m aaron gilchrist. i m eun yang. welcome to news4 today for this friday febar
at least two rounds slammed into this pick up, another smashed his car window, another in a nearby building. part of the gunfire that ended the life of the 30-year-old joseph heart. we heard the gunshots. we stepped out and we see the guy laying down on the street. witnesses said a little after 1:00 saturday morning he and another patron, cedric spicer got into a fight at a seafood bar and were kicked out. moments later the sound of as many as 10 gunshots rang out. it was bloodcurdling. i thought this was a pretty safe neighborhood. a police report said an arriving officer grabbed spicer, wearing a mask, after dropping a handgun on the ground. witnesses later identified him as the shooter. in this close-knit ethiopian neighborhood, this is a shock. people are worried. it is crazy. you just wonder what is going on every second. it is very scary. you have to watch your back. spicer is now in police custody, facing a murder charge. we went to the bar to check with them. they have been closed. we have not talked with anybody from there so far. d.c. police chief cathy lanier is considering a 96-hour closure order as they investigate the homicide. richard reeve, abc 7 news. a major change coming to virginia. this afternoon, the state senate voted to reform the way the commonwealth pays for road repairs and transportation projects. they voted 25-15 in favor of the reform. the build dumps the state s 17.5 cent gas tax and replaces it with a 3.5% wholesale tax on gasoline and 6% fee on diesel fuel. the bill will also boost the state sales tax from 5% to 5.3% and increase the titling sales tax on car sales. we are not just a week away from the sequestration deadline. this friday, deep budget cuts will go into effect and will have a major impact both here and across the country. today, president obama said the cuts can be avoided. congress can turn them off any time, with just a little compromise. they could pass a balanced plan for deficit reduction. they can cut spending in a smart way enclosed wasteful tax loopholes for the well-off and well-connected. republicans argued the administration wants higher taxes and the right way to address the deficit is with better spending, job creation, and expanding the tax base. something you may not know about the budget cuts is the impact on our food and food prices. we re joined from the newsroom with that part of the story. this time next week, the meat on your dinner table could be gone. all meat, this change could come to your dinner table. richard is facing a different kind of chopping block. politics could get in the way of us being able to eat the foods that would like to eat every day. out agreement from congress, automatic spending cuts will kick in front. the government has warned of a furlough of meat inspectors, which could lead to a nationwide shutdown of meat and poultry plants. less inspectors, if your products. and the price could be driven up. if this happens, i think the prices may go up a little bit at first. but again, it is just the product will not be available. with fewer inspectors to detect foodborne illnesses, meat safety could also be compromised. it is important that we have real healthy beef, as well as all other food. i really don t like the idea of the government doing anything to hamper that. amid that the struggling economy, local residents say more expensive meat means they may have to eat something else. if against pricier, i will eat more vegetables. vegetables could alsaffected. the agriculture department has warned of the cuts happen, there will be less money available for pest and disease prevention which could hit farmers hard with more out bricks to their crops. i am concerned about this. local residents shopping today say they are used to dysfunction in washington, just not when it reaches their dinner table. i guess somehow we would all be affected, but i never imagined it would be meet on my table. this is only one small part of the broad effect if the budget cuts take effect. president obama will take his message on the road to newport news, va., tuesday, and urged congress to come to a deal before any of this happens. changing gears, we are just one day away from the oscars. cynne simpson and r campbell are in los angeles for the big night in hollywood. and arch campbell are in los angeles for the big night in hollywood. are you enjoying the weather? it is not bad. glorious sunshine. 70 degrees, feels amazing, especially in the sunshine. you should explain your microphone flag. it is a star-studded microphone flag. bedazzled, which i thought was fitting. and the stars are out. we have rodriguez, manny from moderate family. he will be talking about the fan experience. the head cheerleader tomorrow? i think so. it is wonderful. i always come here and enjoy it and remembering places. the thing that i love is it is a city of locations where a career in places often stand in four places of the past. one of those locations is down the street, hollywood boulevard. there is a grill inside. take a look. next time you watch a movie set in the restaurant in the 1940 s or 1950 s, will close because you may be seeing this grill. operating an old school style on hollywood boulevard since 1919. unlike most of los angeles, and here they have not changed a thing. mark runs the place. the same place 93 years, why make a left-hand turn? they have been dozens of movies not ocean s eleven hitchcock, and ed wood. did orson welles eat here? oh,. yes. and just the other day in hitchcock , when the interview the actor, i felt like it was in this restaurant. it was. where? this booth. this is very booth? there are closed sunday night. you will find characters in this place. guys like me, to raise their coffee cups to establishment that gloriously avoids change. ah! the coffee they make is so strong, it will blow my hair back. by the way they have a phone booth in there. people go when their to tweak and text now. so there has been a little evolution. we are enjoying this gorgeous day. the red carpet fills in a little bit today, more journalists from all over the world, and a couple of star sightings. but the best is yet to come. you have an interesting story tonight at 11:00? i do, two g.w. students were getting a trip of the lifetime, in these bleachers tomorrow. we will talk with them tonight. great food, good weather. we may never see cynne simpson ever again. send a little sun block. thank you. don t forget to watch arch and cynne tomorrow night after the oscars. it is starting to dry out a little bit. let s find out what is ahead. no doubt, similar temperatures? depending on where you were today, that determined whether you saw sunshine or clouds. the temperatures in the middle 40 s. winchester front royal shenandoah valley, more sunshine and temperatures rebounded nicely. 34-39 this evening, the wind will pick up. more on the forecast coming up. a bethesda neighborhood was hit by vandals this week and now the exit the incident is being investigated as a hate crime. mikre has the story from bethesda. mike? investigators believe this happened overnight february 16. the vandals attacked one home that belonged to a police officer. the residents find this disturbing and disappointing. i think it is awful. and it is too close. several neighborhood residents in woodhaven were shocked to find their property defaced by graffiti, most of it explicit. the vandals also damaged this light post and spray-painted a swastika on this rock. they are mad about something. the vandals seem to focus their destruction on this montgomery county police vehicle that belonged to an officer who lives in the subdivision. every inch was covered with slurs against jews and gays. there was also the n-word. this victim did not want to show her face. maybe we were not targeted, but the destruction and the words, the racial slurs, it is sick. residents say many jewish families have called woodhaven their home including some of the victim s. to see that simple and language infuriates me because i am jewish. victims say while this is unsettling, they are hoping it was just careless teenagers. i have no idea why. hopefully they get caught. it is not clear they targeted anyone, but many residents did not to talk on camera. the police urged anyone with information to contact them. there is a $2,000 reward for that informati with all of the sunshine with arch and cynne go downtown, go to the kennedy center. this is around the entire perimeter of the kennedy center. it looks like the northern lights. 45 degrees at reagan national airport. a little bit of a wind chill making it feel like 41. the weatherbug temperature 44 alexandria 0.1 inches of rain earlier in the day. about the same and upper marlboro, 43 degrees, the wind out of the north at five. the final stop, wtop radio, 43 degrees. the temperatures will slowly fall into the 30 s overnight. 43 frederick, quantico. fredericksburg 46. the milder temperatures earlier in the day mid 50 s petersburg. now they are 49. not a tremendous amount of cold air, but enough to produce a lot of snow in upper new winchell and later tomorrow. in upper new england. parts of new hampshire massachusetts, vermont, could have 6-12 inches of snow. the wind chill factor not a problem as we move into the overnight. the coastal storm moves off to the north and east. the clouds break up tomorrow. early in the morning, we could have patchy fog, a little bit of drizzle, but not a whole lot. travel plans tomorrow, the local airports no problems. doppler radar quiet and dry, but the clouds stick around. future-cast, through the day the wind changes to the north northwest. wind gusts of 25, so even though the temperatures are about 50, it will feel colder than that. the forecast overnight, the temperatures fall into the 30 s. patchy fog, it did a bit of drizzle. the best chance is across southern maryland. tomorrow, a mixture of sunshine and clouds, 45-50. the highs rebound after a more significant storm system tuesday. it appears right now that we will be on the warm side of things, mainly a rain event. then a nice bump into the low 50 s wednesday. on settled thursday and friday, but still waiting for the snowstorm in washington. keep waiting, i am fine. also around the corner, baseball season? baseball and march madness. georgetown got that started today. it s very exciting game for the whole yes. the nationals play for the first time this year. and from one superstar and now the toyota sports desk brought to you by your local toyota dealers. in front of the 35,000 people, georgetown and syracuse put on one of their last big east showdowns. otto porter more than rose to the occasion. porter, trying to beat the shot clock with the three, no good, but the securities player drives it out of bounds. but the syracuse player drafted out of bounds. second-half, smith behind the arc, no good, but porter again. i will keep saying his name. the hoyas up, porter drains the 3, 4-point play. porter on fire, 33 points, georgetown wins. maryland hosting clemson, at the comcast center. the terps led by three at the half. in the second half, maryland on cruise control. how board picks of the past. wait for it. the big man lays it in. maryland cruises 72-59. alex ovechkin has taken a lot of hits this season off the ice. he came into today with only five goals in 16 games just enough points to tie him for third on the team. vintage alex ovechkin. in the first scoreless, the past, alex ovechkin on the one- timer celebrating like we like to see. later in the third, the game is tied. vintage classic ovechkin with the hesitation move, and he likes the lamp. the icing on the cake, again to ovechkin. smacks it in for his 11th career high hat trick. everybody is anxious for the nationals season to get here, even if it is just an exhibition game against the yankees on march 29, but judging by his performance today, maybe we should hold the excitement and let them get into a rhythm and the grapefruit league. stephen strasburg struggled in his first preseason start. tejada tees off the fastball at 96 gone, two-run shot. the mets lead to-0. davey was not happy, neither was strasburg. the nationals lose 5-3. the nationwide race in daytona. fourth term, smith in front is spun around. that sets off a chain reaction, my goodness. punching a hole into the catch fence. apparently affected some fans, too, no word on anybody was injured, but quite a scary moment. no. 2 ranked miami was upset today by with forest 82-65 their first acc loss of the season. steve is back with good news? tomorrow will be a light brighter daytime high about 50 degrees. monday looks nice, the clouds rolling in late in the afternoon with a storm system with eight chance of a winter mixture early tuesday, changing o beirne to all rain. milder wednesday then on settled thursday and friday. milder wednesday, then on settled thursday and friday. thank you for joining us.
here is the center of the storm, it will be like so many storms this winter moving to our north. we will get a bit of moisture air is so dry that i really don t think we anything in the morning rush-hour. i do think that there is now a better than 50-50 chance that we see a very slight amount last 4 snow, sleet, and if you spots for the evening rush hour. we are getting a closer look the major mass that was caused by all of that. we re live in the satellite center. we may deal with some of truly dealing are with it out in the midwest. this is a live picture where they are covering part of the , and the further west you the worse it gets. this is what it looks like in iowa tonight. the midwest and great plains are covered in white. among the hardest hit areas is where drivers could barely see a thing at times. also in missouri where some of made their way through the storm but some needed a lot of help. even some trucks had times, reallyd at big stocks trucks got stuck buses were not immune either. it is ice that is keeping tow drivers busy. it has at times literally thundered its way across the country. it is the same storm that damaging tornadoes the california and some rare snow to affected baseball. have beene americans with it. it is a monster. and an ugly one, headed this way. complete storm watch coverage, 24 hours a day. and our social networking facebook and twitter. the local forecast begins a four block 30 a.m.. bubbly back to update the forecast in just a few minutes. following news from en rondeau county were council members have selected laura newman as a replacement for john leopold. newman is the chief executive developmenthe authority. out 15 other candidates. resigned earlier this after he was found guilty misconduct in office. parents are outraged at night, after learning an wasentary schoolteacher charged with sexually abusing a pair of students. at meadow hall we have more.ool, 2009, and august of past four and a half atrs has been a teacher here lementary school and every school. a lot of parents are not sure if they buy that story. to say that getty and is done is an understatement. the arrest of timothy on two lefts of sexual abuse has this apparent dumfounded. this is not the man he met many times. the kids,ed with all is nice and easy going. if you talk to that guy, you like you know him forever. forwarde students came he approached touched themly in september. they said he tried to force them him.uch reaction today from parents was outraged towards these serious allegations. i know the teacher who he is and the person that he is. everyone is jumping to conclusions. she has a daughter in his class and she says that she absolutely does not believe what girls are claiming. there are many parents that be in court with him, standing up for him because of is and thethat he teacher that he is. the bond hearing is set for 1:00. they do conduct background their before hiring teachers. they are on administrative leave. repeal1:00, a bill to penalty has moved forward into the state senate tonight. a vote is expected next week and also support in the house of delegates. tonight, he said that the death bill just moved out of committee. it is expensive and doesn t work. a maryland delegate has introduced a bill to legalize marijuana. the measure creates a system to regulate it like alcohol and direct the comptroller to license one of their retail and testing facilities. voters approved measures to legal in november of last year. a sexual harassment scandal the d.c. fire department. at least two female cadets have against members of the department. tonight, the mayor is speaking out about our report. jay? or this is personal for may vincent grey. the program was inactive until resurrected it. dodge this is the graduation ceremony and he was proud to be there. there will be a day where we have a fire program in the columbia.f harassment directed at female started at the training academy last month. we re always going to be concerned enough to do the investigation and find out. based on what is determined, we appropriate action. we really need educate our women on things that are appropriate. we are not revealing this to protect herty harassedwho was not said she heard directly from others that said they were harassed by male instructors. it was alleged they shaking their behinds, mentioning their breasts to some of the young cadets. the version is strongly disputed. what we believe happened, was language and touching not of a sexual nature that makes them uncomfortable. no employee has made an allegation of sexual misconduct. we are investigating any verbal we havearassment but from the chief. he said if he is not satisfied the internal investigation, hearingsall for himself. a report such that these allegations are unsubstantiated and there will be an oversight hearing. they also told us the took immediate action instructors away presence of cadets. firefighters are a deadly fire that a man and two of his daughters. was the 8600 block of the around 4:00roke out this morning. the 36-year-old father, the 8- plan and the 4-year-old not survive. it is believed that the blaze an electrical failure. on our newscast at 11:00 p.m. night, we reported about of an 18-year-old and man dancing around waving a gun. kid, rson was not aaron for that mistake. the dodger for anyone that flu shot this season ha it did not work for millions who got it. and donald trump is the of an online attack. how this happened and his response. oscar races too close vegas police are looking suspects after a violent out that ended with an explosion. dead and several wounded tonight. it happened this morning across the street. they opened fire holland the maserati and another person wounded.e car was the taxi blew up, killing the driver and his customer. loved ones are mourning a from woodbridge after he was gunned down during robbery.nt gregory was walking his dog when approached by 25-year- old eric smith. during the struggle, smith shot away. murder and robbery charges. this is tied to the flu vaccine. disease control and prevention say that the 9% effective in people age 65 and older. health officials are not sure exactly why that is. the hospitalization is the decade for old people. seniors should not ignore any serious flu like symptoms. dr. donald trump s twitter seriouslys been lyrics by offensive rapper who pleaded to his home 2 million followers. back in control of the account, said whether will soon be if lives are able to hack into accounts. we are 72 hours away from hollywood s biggest night. the biggest stars are in contention for oscars this year. dodge the oscars team is on the hollywood tonight. arch campbell left us his picks he thinks will be the big winners. oscar buzz centers on argo, itcoln, zero dark thirty, like a good election. too close to call. what did you think of tommy lee as thaddeus stevens? jones the early favorite but his competition includes robert , the obsessive compulsive in silver linings playbook. [inaudible] i think his valley speech supportingm best actor. what was that like? dodge and how about the best actress contest. lawrence holds her own among the cast. think she is a the hard stuff? jessica won raves for her officer, now is a no- brainer, daniel day-lewis for lincoln. best supporting actress anne hathaway, best director is steven spielberg for lincoln. best picture, argo. argo will get the top prize but playbook will win most awards. he is the expert. we invite you to watch special coverage of the academy awards live from hollywood. they will be live on the red carpet and we will be here for abc seven news after the oscars. we will watch it together. he needs to take that spot and bundle up. other]g over each andnted to take you outside this a great where light displays on outside of the kennedy center, i will show it to you tonight as well. our washington snowfall, it has only been a bit over 5 inches. not even 2 inches today in wichita, kansas. over 15 inches of snow, the second biggest of all time. lightningnder snow, during a thunder smell. thunder snow. snowing at 2 inches an hour. you can see, there are friends there and the storm is leaving. look at where it is setting. nasty winter weather heading toward ohio. that is a mixture of snow, sleet, and freezing rain. fortunately not coming right into us. that will limit a lot of that moisture. by the time to get into friday saturday, i think we of someseeing a touch winter weather. at the temperature is right now. 32 degrees, here is the key. it will take a while for that really saturate the atmosphere. here comes that area of storm, circulation to the west. tomorrow morning, 7:00 in the high cloudsa lot of temperatures around the area into the 20 s. way out into the shenandoah valley. watch what happens. this is a simulation. by noon time, anything will be of spotty. montgomery county might be a few snowflakes, maybe a bit of and that will be the story into tomorrow. heading out 66, there could be some slippery spots, but no significant accumulation because it is so dry. the second part of this storm develops, and that would be something for us. and no cancellations and no overlyto relieve the about her morning rush hour. there ll be some sleep and a very bit of light snow and it turns to reigned as we get into saturday. at sunday back to some sunshine. we are lucky. thank you. it is all a and or you are out of here. make a deal with boston. new jersey gives washington the devils. they started against the very talented doubles team at the top of the nhl east. they have not beaten a team at this season. the lampss game, life and starts the siren. they have the early momentum. too many penalties. he gets the goal, the capitals not won.e that is the way the game went. as far as being eager to get there, i think we are changing our game. of the wizard s made a trade today and itics done to clean out and attitude in the locker room. he goes to boston, so the question is, why did you make the deal? more flexibility in the future, there is a roster spot. and we will continue to build on to build. trying of virginia tech behind the woodshed. he was phenomenal. he led by twentieth the half. the blast virginia tech tonight. yesterday it snowed and today, no. 1 and no. 2 player is eliminated. androy was eliminated, fabulous route to be tiger woods. a stunning day on the first day of the match play championship. on his way home. he wore a jersey with no. 18, the number of olympic gold medals that he has. he had not played since he was 10 or 12. he hits a few. the eighth ranked maryland women by 25, 30 points and 12 rebounds. d.c. is opening a major retail project. celebrating the completion of the renovation. the shopping venue has new stores and restaurants. they say the pavilion allows to spendthe chance money rather than out. it took about a year. i would like to head over there and check it out. you might have to wait. maybe not an outdoor cafe tonight. it will be a cold one. nothing for tomorrow morning, but some spotty temperatures into