next on fox 45 morning news. >> police make arrests in a string of violent crimes. the unusual suspects behind the armed robbery. the mayor's vacation to miami, why it end up costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars. and budget cuts lead to rotating fire house closures and reduce police overtime, how this affects your safety. good morning. it's thursday, december 10th. i'm patrice harris. another cold start to this day. meteorologist steve fertig is here to fill us in on the details. i guess it's not another cold start to this day, this is the first day we have seen this day. >> but it's dry. >> you know what i mean. >> we have the dry conditions. that is improved but the temperatures are not improving. the temperatures are dropping. we start at 42 degrees, not bad. 42 down at d.c. 45 in salisbury. 37 in hagerstown and 23 only in oakland. but here with the winds, now 1 15-13 miles per hour through the renal yogee, and ta will make it feel like the temperatures are closer to 25, and 9 degrees in oakland and 35 in washington d.c. these winds are going to make for a chilly day even though the temperatures are in the low 40s. 23 at the bus stop. and the trajectory of the snow showers to the north will stay out of our way as they move from west to east into pennsylvania and new york. more on what you can expect for the rest of the week and weekend in a few minutes. right now candace dold has the traffic edge. >> reporter: thank you, steve. unfortunately we are still talking about flooding from yesterday in baltimore county. in fact, on eastern avenue at earles road we can show you exactly the scene yesterday and it's still going to be there this morning. that road is completely shutdown. look at that, it just turned into a river there. obviously the shoulder of that road and then there it is on the center as well. this is going to be an issue again this morning. just be aware that it's there. you can always stick with route 40 instead. as for the main lines traveling on the outer loop lanes from 95 heading toward he 83, it's running pretty normal an 11-minute ride, 54 is the average speed. then check out the outer loop lanes from 83 up is 795, good news there 8 minutes and 50 miles per hour. that is a look at the morning commute, patrice, back to you. city firefighters are investigating a one alarm blaze at south baltimore. the cause for the heavy smoke and flames went out after 3:30 this morning. the people living next door had to be evacuated for smoke exposure but no one was hurt in the blaze. the response to this fire was not affected by rotating closures, but yesterday response to a fire just minutes from this one was delayed because the closest fire company was closed. joel d smith is live on the scene now. joel, we know that there was that fire yesterday. this morning, you're just a few minutes away from that happened yesterday. how does this fire compare with that one. >> reporter: that is only 5 minutes away so we're real close. big difference here, no one was hurt and response was much quicker, as they said, about 5 minutes. they got it under control in a half an hour. this is an abandoned property and the folks next door had to leave and their place is well damaged as they had to rip up ceiling areas to get the location. because no one was hurt here, this is happening 24 hours after a fatal fire on preston roo street once again, only 5 minutes from here. sammy davis and his daughter were found unconscious and davis died later at shock trauma and his daughter is still in critical condition. according to officials the call for help went after 3:00 a.m. and because crews were called to a different locations, they didn't get to the right spot until 3:16. the closest company truck 18 just a few blocks away respond because it was shutdown during the rotating closure. firefighters say even a few seconds can be too much. >> the fact of the matter fires kill people. there's no doubt about that. our position is that rotating closures will exacerbate the inevitable result of fires. >> reporter: firefighters went to the 300 block of preston street handing out pamphlets, protesting the h rotation closu. now the plan unveiled this week was would shutdown one engine and two truck companies with the firefighters assigned to 2 other locations to try to make up differences. and mayor dixon says they want to reevaluate all of this and try to be safer, but the money has to come from somewhere, patrice. >> how much money are we talking about? >> reporter: it's a lot. it's $5.5 million. there needs to be cuts. and the fire chief came up with the idea of shutting down those companies. but now when it comes to safety, some say the price is too high. we're live at west baltimore, joel d smith, fox 45 morning news. first on fox. police arrest a mother and daughter for a string of armed robberies in the city from federal hill to fells point, they have been attacking unsuspecting people in the streets. megan gilliland joins us now live from fells point with more, good morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. most of those victims were walking down sidewalks here in south point or in federal hill when suddenly they found a knife to their throat or a knife to their back. police believe the people behind it, a mother and daughter. bryan was on the phone with his girlfriend. >> i heard the stress in her voice, and then you know, it hung up. >> reporter: sarah warner was being robbed at gunpoint walking to her federal hill home the day after thanksgiving. >> she struggled, and he was like, i will cut you. her face got cut a little bit and that is when she knew that she had to hand everything over. >> reporter: the attacker and two women stole her camera and her purse. then police say they moved on to fells point robbing several people at gunpoint that same day. it was here during an armed robbery that police say the three thieves were captured on camera. 32-year-old monyet middleton of baltimore along with her 15 years old and her daughter's boyfriend march ti martis ander. >> i think it makes a big to know that they're behind bars, and they caught the people responsible for this. >> reporter: the police believe that the tro trio is responsible for up to 3 holdups. fortunately no one was hurt. a personal vacation taken by mayor dixon this summer is costing taxpayers thousands of dollars. when she went to miami for a week, she took two members of her security detail with her. their expenses amount to more than $4,000. receipts for a luxury suv rental costing nearly $2,000 and dinner for one person totaling $150. many question the expenses during a time when the city is tasing a budget shortfall and workers are being laid off. i think it's part of a pattern of how the mayor has operated overtime. with the gift cards for example, they're small dollar increments but it's an abuse of power. again this is another example where she is taking the tax pair dollars to use for her benefit but doesn't benefit the city of baltimore. >> the mayor says that the security detail was necessary in case of an emergency. stay for continuing coverage of this story. we talk with a representative of the american public policy institute coming up later this hour. three top executives with conconstellation energy will noe getting golden parachutes. they were in line to get millions in pay outs if any change of control took place. constellation will also eliminate golden parachutes from corporate policy altogether. still ahead the wha the awas to. when president obama plans to say when he will accept the nobel peace prize today. e holiday season is in full swing and you can experience the splen fo splendoo sencurties. it's all happening at the historic site. meteorologist jessica starr is live there with all the details for the hometown hot spot. good morning, jess. i see some decorating going on. >> reporter: yes, they are decorating the mansion. that is where i am at mansion at the historic site. they are getting for this weekend's historic christmas event that is going on. to get ready for the exciting things that are going to be going on. i'm joined by ranger angela. >> tell me about this. >> we are the best kept secret of maryland. we were voted that by us today. the origina richly family owneds estate for 25 years. they constructed the mansion in 1783, and they finished in 1790 and they lived here until 1948. this is a rare place where you come to the mansion and 95% of what see in the mansion is original to the house. across the street we have a farmer overseer's house, a fully restored slaves quarter, and full working dairy. so it's rich with history. this weekend we have a rare where we open from 6 to 8:00 p.m. and you can see hampton in its splendor. but we're open during the day for tours from 10 to 4:00. everything is free, your tax dollars at work. we have activities for the children we have free carriage rides on sunday. how much does a carriage ride go in baltimore? come on down and he we have a professional story teller. she will be telling us stories about the slaves on christmas time on sunday. we have activities for the children and they can make toys for free. we are located right off the beltway. >> reporter: perfect. a lot of information. you definitely want to come on down and check this out. if you are the history buff, this is the activity for you this weekend. you can get all of that information by logging on to foxbaltimore.com. the weather coming down on saturday is going to cooperate, a high temperature of 40 degrees and a mix of sun and clouds for a saturday. for the full forecast today, the breezy forecast today, let's head to steve in the sky watch center. >> jessica, beautiful decorations. patrice will take the decorations and i will take the mansion. that how we will divvy things out. yesterday it was all about the rain. now all we're talking about is just some windy conditions and dry conditions. yesterday picking up as much as an inch of rain throughout the area, the eastern shore as much as an inch 1/2, some places up to 2 inches of rain. now we're looking a lot better as we see a nice scan on the hd radar. this is current and it's not showing anything of the sort. we're looking better as far as sky conditions. however, we're going to get strong winds in here as jessica was indicating. we're also going to be talking some cold temperatures, too. to the north is where we see some snow, lake-effect snow, moving off lake ontario, lake erie and new york and pennsylvania respectively and off of lake michigan and moving into michigan itself and ohio itself. the tray gee trajectory is west, that is why we're not thinking of us seeing any significant weather out of this. otherwise, this is what we're dealing with again, wind advisory, everybody else seeing strong winds, 15-25-mile-an-hour winds gusting higher. right now 15 to 30-mile-an-hour winds, up in hagerstown, 30-mile-an-hour wind there. not as bad in salisbury. and wind gusts at 30 miles per hour at hagerstown. as far as the current temperatures, 42 degrees at baltimore. the same for d.c. 45 in salisbury, look at that 37 and only 23 up in oakland and that is not going to be helped by the winds. the windchill will make it feel like 9 degrees up in oakland. 25 in hagerstown and better as you come further points east where the winds are not as strong. we have the winds coming out of the west. as i said the trajectory will keep the snow to the north, but we will still feel the cold wind. we stay dry for the next couple of days. the next chance of snow may be coming by late saturday into late sunday as we get the coastal system get. system. high pressure, cold and windy for the next couple of days. eastern shore, you should get up to about twice up to about 45 degrees for the high temperature, mainly clear skies with a west wind at 15 to 25 miles per hour. gusting at maybe 35 to 40. back to the central part of the state, 40 degrees for the high with mostly clear skies, a 15-20 miles per hour gusting to 30, to 35. back to the west we go and look for temperatures here to get up to 35 degrees only. some places even cooler than that with a west wind at 15-30 miles per hour and partly cloudy skies. tonight 25 degrees for the overnight low. clear skies, with a west wind at 15-20 miles per an hour. the 20 feeling more like it's in the teens instead. mostly clear skies and 40 and partly cloudy on saturday. in come the snow showers late saturday into the sunday with a mix of light rain or snow. could affect the game if you are headed to m&t stadium, game time temperature pretty much where the high will be around 35 degrees with a chance of a slight know mix. a drier day before the next chance of rain comes our way. it will be rain with 44 degrees the high on thursday and 40 and partly cloudy for your wednesday. fox 45 sky watch weather is at your finger tips. iradar is available at foxbaltimore.com. you coup k cues fox 45 powerful doppler radar to track incoming storms. the interactive tools will let you know when rain or snow will be over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on i-radar. here is candace dold with the a check the traffic. >> reporter: 62 miles per hour on the beltway moving through pikesville. and 6 63full 63 traveling on 95h the city. we do have to talk about an incident. we have flooding in baltimore county, shutting down eastern avenue at earles road. we can show what that scene looked like yesterday. it was definitely coming down there and as a result, this intersection was completely shutdown. still is, you want to stick with route 40 and head over to ebenezer road as an alternate route. as far as the main lines in the area, things are looking pretty good. we can show you what it looks like at 695 at pulaski highway. it's going to be very light activity there, both the inner out ander loop lanes as well. taking the outer loop and there it is, very light activity. as far as the outer loop lanes taking it from parkville, moving toward the towson area and heading up toward 83, a tranquil ride there as well so not doing too bad. a carbon copy up toward 83 toward the greenspring area, and heading down to 795. that's a look at the morning travels. patrice, back over to you. thank you, still ahead, budge cuts lead to rotating fire house closures and reduced police overtime. former police commissioner ed norris weighs in on how affects your safety. the award goes to -- what president obama plans to say a new subaru during the share the love event, you helped us donate almost $5 million dollars to charity. i chose the boys & girls clubs. it's an investment for the future. i chose the national wildlife federation. our pets are our kids. we chose the aspca. we're sharing the love again this year. because giving back feels good. get a great deal on the subaru outback, motor trend's 2010 sport/utility of the year and two hundred fifty dollars gets donated to your choice of five charities. and rancher's reserve beef, guaranteed tender 100% of the time. at safeway, we now promise something new. something big. a commitment... to thousands of new everyday low prices. so you can get what you want. when you want it. at the price you need. today... and tomorrow. that's our promise. that's ingredients for life. safeway. president obama is the 3rd sitting president to win the nobel peace prize. he will accept the award this morning in aslo norway. the decision has motivated high praise and crticism since it was announced back in october. nicole collins is in washington with details. >> reporter: amid two wars and announcement that 30,000 fresh new troops will deploy to afganistan. president obama arrived to accept the nobel peace prize. >> i have no doubt that there are others who may be more deserving. my task here is to continue on the path that i believe is not only important for america, but important for lasting peace and security in the world. >> reporter: the president's critics agree. questioning what he has accomplished to receive such a distinction. in a new cnn opinion research corporation poll only 19% of americans believe the president deserves the prize. another 35% say eventually he will accomplish enough to deserve it. while 35% say he will never merit the honor. the committee stands by the decision. >> he we are to give the prize to the person that has done most for peace in the world last year. the decision was quite clear. >> reporter: being selected so early in his presidency mr. obama says he does not consider the award a recognition of his accomplishments thus far, but rather as a call to action. the president acknowledged the crticism this morning and said hopefully it will subside as he accomplishes the goals he has set for his admnistration. in washington, i'm nicole collins. 6 between i6:23 is the time. you are watching fox 45 morning news, all local all morning. [ holiday music playing ] don't let those long holiday lines bury you. grab a delicious new dunkin' donuts peppermint mocha latte and chocolate mint donut today. great flavors, great value -- just another reason the holidays run on dunkin'. try the new peppermint mocha latte and chocolate mint donut today. stocks worked to regain losses from tuesday's trading. the dow jones industrial average ended the day up 51 points, closing at 10337. the nasdaq and s&p 500 also posted gains. the nation's secretary breathed new life. tim geithner announced the $700 million tarp bail out will be extended to october of next year. it was scheduled to end at the end of december. the program will be scaled back and it will be aimed at stopping foreclosures and helping small businesses. one of the biggest recipients has paid its debt. bank of america cut its check to $45 billion. tuesday is the day the aol officially splits from time-warner and goes at it alone. the company has a hard road ahead to capture its past glory. the shares are expected to start trading at $35. the once mighty aol was worth more than $100 billion and trading past $100 a share. for business brief. i'm stan case. coming up the mayor's vacation to miami, why it ended up costing taxpayers thousands of dollars. >> reporter: and police arrest a gang of thieves accused of attacking folks here in the city. i'm megan gilliland, why the suspect's identities may surprise you. >> reporter: yesterday around this time, a fatal fire in the city where response time was in question. i'm joel d smith, this morning again, only 5 minutes away another welcome back to fox fry morning news. 6:30 is the time. you're taking a live look at the tie point area in fells point. a nice pretty shot to get your day started. good morning, i'm patrice harris. we need to check in with meteorologist steve fertig to see if the temperatures will feel as nice and pretty as that shot looked. i'm guessing no. >> it looks nice on the they were meter. >> on the monitor. >> oh on the thermometer. >> because it's 32 degrees downtown but the winds are strong. take a look at the temperatures to see where we stand at this hour. we're at 32 degrees at downtown, 37 only in hagerstown. when you factor in the winds that are around 15-25 miles per hour, it will feel about 10 degrees cooler not that that. it's definitely chilly. see the snow moving out of the great lakes area, moving out of pennsylvania and new york but not coming our way. it's moving west and east as the west flow of air will continue to be a west to east he flow, meaning we won't worry about the tray geetrajectory. the temperatures will drop during the day. the winds 10-20 miles per hour. that will be a big part of the story today as the winds will be with us for the next couple of days. windy and chilel chilly today. mainly dry by saturday night. we may have snow to talk about a little bit into sunday as well with more snow mixed in. right now to talk about the roadways is candace dold who has the traffic edge. >> reporter: thank you, steve. we have no rain to talk about it fortunately, but unfortunately we are still left with flooding at earles road. we can show you what the scene looks like from yesterdayed and take a look at the high waters rippling down from that road. this intersection is completely blocked. you want to stick with route 40 and head over to ebenezer road as an alternate route. as far as the main lines, from 895 to 83 pretty pretty normal. 53 is the average speed. and we're at 53 miles per hour from 83 up toward 795, just an 8-minute drive and a 12 minute clip from 795 to 95. and running normal from 895, running toward the harbor tunnel, at 895 an 8-minute drive. that's a look at the morning travels, patrice, back to you. thank you, candace. city firefighters are investigating a one alarm blaze in southwest baltimore. the call for heavy smoke and flames in the 2200 block of christian street went out just after 3:30 this morning. neighbors say the fire was intense. >> extremely high. you know, they were -- couldn't see it through the smoke, but you could feel it on your face and i was just down the street. >> the people living next door had to be evacuated for smoke exposure but no one was hurt in the blaze. the fire companies that responded to this morning's fire were not affected by rotating closures which many neighbors are blaming to the delayed response to a fatal fire yesterday at north baltimore. with a $5.5 million fire deficit, the city says that closure saves money and only affects response time by a minute or two. what do firefighters think? they're going door to door with answer. joel d smith is live at southwest baltimore at this morning's fire with more. good morning, joel. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. this is a fire only about five minutes away from the one yesterday. different fire personnel came to this one and it was a different result as well. take a look at here. it was at 2231 an abandoned property. that is where the fire happened. there are obviously questions about arson. this is still under investigation. you see some of the damage out here. the people who live next door are the victims. they had to leave running barefoot. while no one is hurt, this is all happening just 24 hours after a fatal fire on preston street just 5 minutes from this location. that is where davidson and his daughter were found unconscious. davis died at shock trauma. his daughter frank wilder is still in critical condition. according to officials. the call for help went out after 3:00 a.m., but officials went to a different location first, they did not get there until 3:15. firefighters don't know if they could have saved davis, but they wish they had a better chance. >> i know that there are a lot of variables, however if those rotating closings weren't happening, we would have been here and maybe been able to make a rescue quicker. >> reporter: so the firefighters went back to that location at the 2100 block of preston street yesterday handing out pamphlet protesting closures. they will be back this afternoon for a rally to keep the -- >> all right that was joel d smith reporting. first on fox after a string of armed robberies in the city, police arrest an unexpected gang of thieves. this morning a mother and daughter are charged with as many as 10 attacks. megan gilliland is live in fells point with the story, good morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. many of the victims were just walking down sidewalks here in south point or even in federal hill when suddenly they felt a knife on their throat or even a knife to their back. the day after thanksgiving there were four separate robberies and four separate locations. in federal hill one victim was walking home when he she saw a a knife on her throat. she was told to hand over her camera and purse or she would be cut. they pulled knives at several people. the three thieves were captured on camera. look at who police arrested. 32-year-old monyette middleton along with her 15-year-old daughter and her boyfriend march tismartis anderson. police believe the trio is responsible for as much as 3 3 holdups. we spoke with her boyfriend who was on the phone with her while she was being attacked. hear from him and what was going on through his mind coming up in the next half hour. megan gilliland, fox 45 morning news. a double amputee who was attacked with a hammer in her home last week has died. 559-year-old deborah beard and her daughter were beaten by a family member. he was in a drunken range after a fight with his girlfriend. the 17-year-old daughter was killed in the attack. jones was arrested and is now facing charges. the man accused of a deadly hit and run of a hopkins student is facing 14 more charges. the same day that thomas meggan killed merriam frankle, he slammed into a car injuring several people in baltimore. he took after that but was arrested with a blood alcohol level of . .09, magen meggan, ig charges already. up next the mayor's vacation and why it ended up costing taxpayers thousands of dollars. flooding is the same deal this morning. i will tell you where to 6:40 on this thursday morning checking out yesterday's look at our rain vision and this is what you will find. as much as an inch of rain fell then. it's a much different story then than it was today. about an inch and a 3rd to an inch 1/2 for the eastern shore. we are looking a difference as we look at the scan on the eastern radar. no rain falling right now, no snow, either, but the temperature is going to be cold enough for it. to the is north of us, moving on lake ontario, and lake erie and into pennsylvania moving the northwest flow. it's keeping the snow to the north. that tray geek for he trajectore snow to the north and east. the winds are stronger today making it feel even chillier. almost everywhere on our map we will see the winds picking up quite a bit up to 15-25 miles an hour. note to the northwest, that is what is coming our way and into the weekend as we get chillier temperatures than the 39 you see now at bwy. we will get that at the forecast. 37 degrees is the forecast, but the wind will make it feel chillier. 37% relative humidity, and the do you point is only 17 so it's rather dry. 32 degrees in baltimore, the same for d.c. and out toward salisbury, 45. 37 in magers town. only 21 degrees in oakland. look the winds 15-30 miles per hour. those accompany henyin accompan. and the wind gusts are going to help make the temperatures feel a whole lot chillier. it's feeling like 35 and only 6 degrees it feels like in oakland, so real chilly the further west you go. get the northwesterly flow behind the cold front that brought all of the rain yesterday. you can see the snow stays to the north. we sit between the low and the high. then we will be talking about the low that will be coming up the coast bring us the next chance of snow but not until late saturday night and mix with a whole lot of rain and not a whole lot of it then. 45 degrees is the high temperature for the northeastern shore which is close where we start. the winds are gusting up to 35. central part of the state, 45 degrees for the high. and 15-20-mile-an-hour wind. the winds will be gusting higher-up to 35 miles per hour. back to the west look for a high temperature there. 35 degrees, some places not getting out of the 30s in the highest elevations, west winds at 15, and partly cloudy skies. tonight, 31 degrees for the overnight low and if that is not cold enough, factor in the 10-15-mile-an-hour wind. it will feel like the temperatures are in the teens. much better temperatures in the teens than we had jest when we were -- yesterday when we were in the 50s. 39 on sunday with a mix of light rain or light snow and a temperature at game time, a high temperature of 39 degrees, southeast wind at 5-10 miles an hour. the rest of the week goes like this, 40 degrees partly cloudy on monday. 40 degrees, partly cloudy on wednesday. fox 45 sky watch weather is at your finger tips. iradar is available at foxbaltimore.com. you can use fox 45's powerful doppler radar to track incoming storms. interactive tools will let you see when rain or snow will be over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on iradar. now candace dold is here with another look at your traffic edge. >> reporter: thank you, steve. we are checking on your speeds for you out there. so far there's pretty good news for you heading out on the west side of the beltway at 53 miles per hour traveling near security boulevard. it dips down a little bit to 40 miles per hour moving through the catonsville region. as for 95 near the airport, look at that 67, somebody is going over the speed limit there. we do have to talk about neusance. it was there yesterday and unfortunately some flooding remains in baltimore county. here it is on eastern avenue at earles road. look at that water rippling down that street and it's going to be blocking that intersection. this morning you will want to stick with route 40 and head over to ebenezer road as an alternate route. on the beltway in the same vicinity checking in on pulaski highway, we can show you the inner and outer loop lanes and so far there's a lot of room in between all of the cars and in boths. 95 pretty smooth there, just a little bit of congestion and eventually hitting toward the fort mchenry tunnel. inside of the he city b city, kmart makes christmas count! with no payments, no interest, for six months. that means buy today, get six months to pay. only this month and only at kmart. there's smart, and there's kmart smart. new aches and pains, ...and new questions about which pain reliever is right for your body. tylenol 8 hour works with your body, with one layer that dissolves quickly... ...one layer that lasts all day ...and no layers that irritate your stomach the way that ibuprofen can. it's tough on your body pain. not on your body. new this morning, city firefighters are investigating a one alarm fire. the call for flames at the 2200 block of christian street went out at 3:30 this morning. the people next door had to be evacuated for smoke exposure. no one was hurt in the blaze? police arrest a mother and daughter and charge them with a trininrobberies at federal hill. the mother and the 15-year-old daughter and her daughter's boyfriend martis anderson held up 10 people. the receipts are in for a centesummer vacation the mayor k this summer. she went to miami for a week and took two members of security detail. sometime expenses didn't have full explanations and others were excessive, like a $150 meal for one person and the suv rented at a cost of nea nearly $2,000. >> martin with the maryland's public institute joins us this morning. good morning. >> thank you for having me. >> this is one example of questionable spending at a tight time in the city budget, but you think this is a sign of something much larger. >> it's a sign of entitlement had a the mayor has at a time when you mentioned the city is facing a huge deficit to go on vacation with a police detail when she might not need it when she is in miami. the police could have take ebb her ttaken tothe airport and pip again. an suv was rented to show whether there was large ambiguity and received a free trip in essence as a result of the police coming along. >> play devils advocate. there are other mayors and city leaders that do take their details with them, a lot of them don't. some people are saying we're piling on the mayor now. we should leave her alone and she was entitled to do it, why not do it? >> i think it's -- the bigger is question -- it's not just a technical detail of whether or not she could do it, but it's about leadership a time when the city is facing a deficit. should i make this? is this the best decision i can make for the people? is it the best decision that i can do to take the gift cards? it's all of the decisions that speaks of the mayor of sense entitlement of what she deserves when she is in office. >> do you think it's particular to sheila dixon. if she leaves office is it going to happen to the next person. >> i think that there's a culture of small corruption in the city. i think you can go to capitol grill on a regular basis and see a number of city officials having lunch and dinner there. who goes there on a regular basis except on an expense account. account. they're not paying for that. is that right or a bad decision on their part. >> what do the people in baltimore say after hearing this story of their money being used for trips to miami. to be clear the mayor played for her own vacation expenses be but it's the security detail, why did you need that in miami? >> again, i think it speaks to her -- i guess being tone deaf to what is going on in the city and to what kind of leadership the city needs. i mean to go back to your question, i think that it's many officials grow up in a culture where it's okay to take these things. overtime you stop thinking of whether it's right or wrong, you just do it? >> do you think the citizens get to a point where they get fed up. or do they get to that point it's what is happening but they can't change? f. >> it's a little bit of fatalism. and with the result of the trial people thought she did wrong or the jurors thought she did something wrong. that was interesting, because it's a sign that people think she shouldn't be able to do that. >> martha, thank you for coming in. >> very interesting. coming up in our 7:00 hour as temperatures cool down your power bill is probably heating up. bge answers your questions about keeping your rates down this winter. that is in our take action thursday. next fire cuts lead to rotating fire house closures and the baltimore city fire department is shutting down one of its fire houses and rotating closures of others. it's all because of the city's budget shortfall, but the fire department isn't the only agency facing a hit, city police are facing it too and city residents are worried about their safety. former police commissioner ed norris is talking about undercover. we are talking about the fire department and them having to scale back. the police department also had to face this. everybody had to make cuts across the board. how do those cuts impact? >> it will impact. and the city says you are not going to notice an impact, but that is not true. you can't take mon he money awad people away and not feel an impact. >> have we already started to see this with the police department in the city. >> i don't know. they under fund the budget every year anyway and then crime goes up. they are certain things you do proactively that you do overtime and there are a lot of court costs involved. you have these guys that have a fatal fire right at the closing fire houses, you wonder. >> a lot of residents are wondering. a lot of residents are saying, i want to be safe, but you got to make cuts, the public agencies and police department should be exempt. >> i think so. if your city proceeds this unsafe. we had a shooting at a town downtown hotel. you have shooting at the harbor this summer. we still have more murders in the country, well over 200 murders. if you have that kind of crime problem and you have safety issues, people aren't going to want to come here, or want to live here. they pay high taxes. you think that because of the high taxes you get a lot of she service. i don't see it. >> fire chief jim clack says i want to close three departments so we can get rid of the rotating closures. mayor dixon said we are going to close one and keep up the rotating closures. how difficult is it to negotiate with a mayor that is in limbo herself. how tricky is that. >> reporter: it's very difficult. you don't know what her policy is going to be if mayor dixon would step down. i would let the fire chief make the decision, because you hire experts to make expert decisions. i wouldn't give advice. >> i think it's still better even though you run the department, i think it's better. >> she is a politician. her reasons are political. >> if you had to make cuts, because it doesn't seem as though anybody is going to be exempt, are there places, name one or two places you could legitimately make cuts within the police department and not impact safety? >> had a is always tough, because the police department has a budget it's bare bones. it runs personnel and vehicles. that is how the budget is set up. there's very little extra money. most of the other is on grants so city funds not much to play with. >> the fire department is saying the same thing. you can hear ed norris on radio the fan police make arrest in a string of violent crimes. the unusual suspects behind the armed robbery. the mayor's vacation to miami, why it ended up costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars. and as temperatures cool down, your power bill is heating up. tips on keeping your rates down this winter. good morning. it's thursday, december 10th. i'm patrice harris. let's get over to meteorologist steve fertig and talk about these cold temperatures. now you have been saying it's dry, unlike yesterday morning when it was a complete downpour. >> right. >> but it's cold. >> it's bringing a lot of cold air and the winds also. it's going to make it feel chillier. now we are talking about windchill and all of that kind of thing. >> it's not even winter. >> i tell you, it's going to be a rough winter. for now, things are not too bad. take a look at t the northern part of the eastern shore, under a wind advisory. that will continue until 6:00 p.m. tonight. the winds could say there until 1:00 p.m. and 43 in salisbury, 35 up in hagerstown and 21 in oakland, but when you factor in the winds, around 25 to 35. there's a 38-mile-an-hour wind in salisbury. you factor that in and it's going to feel like temperatures are much chillier like they're in the 20s this morning. 40 degrees for the expected noontime temperature. the temperatures begin to drop, 35 at 6:00 p.m. so they continue to drop under mainly clear skies. it will be a pretty day, you want to enjoy that from inside, west winds at 25 to 30, to 35 miles per hour at times. the winds will be a fobbin fact. we will take a look at the rest of the weekend forecast but right now candace dold has a look at the traffic edge. >> reporter: if you're heading out and hitting the roadways. you will find an all too familiar scene in parts. we have flooding to talk about in baltimore county. we have an update at eastern avenue at earles road. this is from yesterday, the eastbound side is now open. the westbound lanes are closed to cars, but trucks and buses can still get by. at least that is better news if you're headed out there this morning trying to get through all of that water. sers i as far as theas far as tg normal with a 1 minute-delay, 12 minutes the actual time and 49 miles per hour. trailintraveling through the cil the way to the beltway a-okay, looking at a 53 minute clip. and 54 is the average speed with a 9-minute ride through the harbor tunnel. check out west side of the beltway from 795 to 95, already a slow ride there, 16 minutes, 40 miles per hour. that is a look at your morning travels, patrice, over to you. thank you, candace. 7:03 on fox 45 morning news. city firefighters are investigating a one alarm blaze in southwest baltimore. the call for heavy smoke and flames in the 2200 block of christian street went out just after 3:30 this morning. >> extreme hely highextremely he it through the smoke. you could definitely feel it on your face and i was just down the street praying not to step on glass. >> the people living next door had a to be evacuated for smoke exposure, fortunately no one was hurt in the blaze. joel d smith is live at the scene with the latest and more on how firefighters are also battling he city hall. good morning, joel. >> reporter: good morning. patrice a couple of fires. no one hurt here and the response time was quicker. let's take a look at the way things look out here. it looks like a vacant building is where the fire was. it did spread next door. we saw the person who lives next door, walk ago way with the red cross as they are getting some help. we did see some evacuated and we talked to the woman you just saw a couple of houses down. she had to leave. this was a fatal fire at pressman street a few minutes away from here. that is where davis and his daughter were found unconscious. davis died at shock trauma and his daughter is still in critical condition. because crews were sent to the wrong place they didn't get until 3:16, 16 minutes later just the closest company truck 18 was a few blocks away but it couldn't respond because it was a shutdown during a rotating closure. response time is affected by a few minutes. >> the fact of the matter is fires kill people. our position is that rotating closures will exsas exacerbate e effect of fires. >> reporter: he they will be back out at truck 16 this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. for a rally to try to keep the fire houses open. the plan was unveiled this week to shutdown one traffic engine and two truck companies. that was the plan to save jobs, but now the mayor, sheila dixon wants to reevaluate and wants to try to make up the money in different ways, but really they have been looking at this for a long time and there's not too many choices out there, patrice. >> how much money are we talking about here? >> reporter: it's a lot of the fire department in deficit $5.5 million. the rotating shown shutdowns maa difference. when you are talking about lives, the folks here not cost is enough. joel d smith, fox 45 morning news. first on fox police arrest a mother and daughter for a string of armed robberies in the city. from federal hill to fells point, police say they have been attacking unsuspecting people in the streets. megan gilliland joins us live from point with that story. good morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. most of the victims were walking down sidewalks here in south point or in federal hill when suddenly they felt a knife to their throat or even a gun to their back. police believe the people behind it a mother and daughter. brian balesta was on the phone with his girlfriend when. >> i heard the stress on her voice and hung up. >> reporter: sarah warner was being robbed at gunpoint walking to her home the day after thanksgiving. >> a knife to her throat and she struggled. he was like i will cut you. her face was cut a little bit. that is when she knew that she had to hand everything over. >> reporter: the attacker and two women stole her camera and purse. then police say they moved on to fells point robbing several people at gunpoint that same day. it was here during an armed robbery that police say the three thieves were captured on camera. 32-year-old monyette middleton of baltimore and along with her 15-year-old daughter and her can daughter's boyfriend, martis anderson. >> i think it makes a difference that they are behind bars and caught the people responsible for this. >> reporter: this troy owe is s responsible for as many as 10 attacks here in the city. fortunately no one was injured. megan gilliland, fox 45 morning news a former doctor the a former doctor with the university of maryland pleads not guilty to drug charges. he enters the plea after his lawyers were unable to reach a decision with state prosecutors. he faces several charges, including one for growing marijuana. the charges were brought following his fiancee's death in september after she injected herself with what she thought was a narcotic. a 23-year-old man will spend 15 years in jail for fire bombing aned o an odenton townhs part of a revenge. he planned attack in reaction to the christian jones. the person targeted wasn't home at the time and prosecutors say he had nothing to do with jones' death. coming up the ravens get ready for sunday's game against the struggling giants. the quarterback the ravens defense is preparing to face. i'm jessica starr coming up in morning on the hometown hot spot, i'm going to take you inside of the old celebration at > meteorologist yes ska starr is live there this morning with the hometown hot spot. good morning, jessica. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. this is a great event, you can come and check out. not only can you ask experience history and there's a lot of family activities. if you are a history buff this the activity for you this weekend. i'm joined by ranger. >> tell me about what era. you are telling me that every room in the mansion has a different era. >> that's right. this room is 1870 to 1890s. this is the more festively decorated room in the house because we have a huge christmas tree here in the corner. christmas trees became popular in the country in the 1840s but they're table tops. by the end of the 18th sentourcentury they are big fore who can afford it like the richlies on. >> reporter: there's nothing fancy about this wrapping paper. tell me about that. >> plain wrapping paper, brown paper and common up until the beginning of the 20th century, where we start to get festive hely decorated pape -- festively decorated paper with santa clauses themes and before that sprigs of hollie and other greenery. that is it. >> reporter: that is why history is so great. tell me about the celebration that is going on this weekend. >> this saturday and sunday we have activity for families. we have crafts for children. singing, sing along, ca carroll, carriage rides. a story teller over in our slaves quarters. we do have a farm property and we have slaves quarters so we're going to be telling african-american stories. all kinds of activities for the family. we hope everyone will come out. it's free from 10 to 5:00. thank you for coming out and giving us a couple of history facts. you will want to come out and give us more. you want to log on to foxbaltimore.com. if you're coming down on saturday, the weather is going to cooperate, a little bit on the cool side but it's december to get you in the holiday spirit. a mix of sun and clouds but for the breeze forecast let's head to steve in the weather center. jessica, you're putting us in the holiday spirit. yesterday we saw a share of rain. we had as much as an inch of rain the downtown area, right around that number throughout the region and also to the eastern shore about an inch or an inch 1/2 and localized areas to 2 inches 1/2 fell in spots there. now looking a whole lot better as we check out the sky watch hd radar scanning the level two radar. we can see we have dry conditions throughout the region. a big difference in terms of sky conditions but with the clearer skies colder air moving in and as jessica indicated cold winds, too. meanwhile we look to the north. that is where we have snow falling. quite a bit of snow into new york insurinnewyork and lake ont is because of a west to east trajectory and that will keep it away from us. so again, we won't have to deal with too much with regard to any snow, but we do have to deal with the winds and we do have a wind advisory for the eastern part of the eastern shore. everybody else seeing the winds, 15-20 an hour winds that are steady and gusting higher. we saw gusts at hagerstown of 10-mile-an-hour winds. the winds will be a factor as will the cool temperatures. right now the cool temperatures, 41 degrees, not bad if you factor in the winds. 43 degrees in salisbury, 35 up in hagerstown and only 21 in oakland. as far as the windchill feeling like 23 in d.c. but it's only feeling like 26 in hagerstown and 9 out in oakland. and that west to east flow keeping the snow showers out of the way. we look at our future scan model. you will see drier air moving in from today and tomorrow. we will be looking good then. what we will be talking about is the cool air that continues to move in over the weekend. the low pressure center that is going to brings a chance of some light know, late saturday night into your sunday. 45 degrees for the high in the eastern shore with mostly clear skies. 15-20-mile-an-hour wind there as well as for the central part of the state where we could have in most places gusting up to 30. really it's where almost start the day. the temperatures dropping through the afternoon. 35 in you're lucky in the western part of the state some places won't get into the 30s there. partly cloudy and tonight, 21 degrees only factoring in the 15-25-mile-an-hour wind, it will be windy and very cold feeling like teens instead. as we get through the 60s, 40 and partly cloudy saturday, chance of that light snow-rain-snow mix on sunday and that might include the rain time for the ravens game. 44 and 40 on tuesday and wednesday with a next chance of rainshowers only for tuesday. fox 45 sky watch weather is at your finger tips. iradar is available at foxbaltimore.com. you can use fox 45 powerful doppler radar for incoming storms. these tools will let you see when rain or snow will be over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on i radar. now candace dold is back with a look at the traffic edge. >> reporter: thank you, city. we have news for you if you are traveling on the rails this morning. it's involving the mark train penn line. the train 509 is 30 minutes late. train 407 is disabled in one of the tubes. so train 509 is helping with te trainings fetransfer of passengt there's 309 passengers to be transferred. we are stuck with that delay. we will give you information as soon as we get more information. services the main lines. an all too familiar scene from yesterday flooding at eastern avenue at earles road. you can see the ripples of water coming down that stretch. the westbound side is closed but we do have an update for you. trucks and buses can now get by there. the eastbound lanes are open so that is at least better news ssments can you always stick with route 40 and head over to ebenezer road as an alternate route. on 95, we cleared out an accident on the southbound lanes right at eastern avenue, as a result of this we are stuck with the lengthy ride moving through the whitemarsh area all the way toward 695. use route 40 as an alternate route. checking in on the beltway at pulaski highway, we can show you the scene and those cars are cruising along but it does slow down from harford road making the stretch toward providence road. that's a look at the morning travels, patrice, back over to you. thank you, candace. still ahead, senate democrats make headway in the effort to bring healthcare reform to america. what they are agreeing on. and the orioles make a big trade. the the ravens focus has shifted as it must to the next o oppone. the detroit lions this sunday. dissipate their record heading in, the ravens know they are in the thick of the race for a wild card spot. it gives them something else to focus on, so their work is cut out. they know they have to sweep the next four games or the very least three of them and they say they are up to that task. >> it doesn't come, it's going to come late. we have had a couple of seasons where we started 4-0, but the bottom line, is you know, our football will change in the later part of the year. here we go again. >> it's unfortunate we have to take this route to get there. this could be the most exciting weeks of our lives if we take care of business. it's our journey to get ahead. >> we haven't done a good enough job. that is what we have to live with. we have to make sure that the next four games, and this game most importantly we go out there and take care of business. as long as we do that, everything else will take care of itself. we won't be seeing matthew staffer. he has a bad shoulder. won't be playing on sunday. instead the veterans will be facing veteran backup, duante culpepper. >> he has shown that he can play in a league and it's slightly different challenge. he is not a passer and is not the same running quarterback. we have a whole new set of problems. >> you know play football and let it take care of itself whether it's matthew or cup pepper. it doesn't matter. we will prepare the same way. you can see the ravens for a playoff are when they host the lions. kickoff set for 1:00 ca 1:00. to baseball and the orioles heading into the off season, one the club's top priority is a veteran's presence in the starting rotation. it looks as if andy mcveil as achieved that goal. the on's have completed a bill that will bring him to baltimore. in exchange they sent chris ray to texas. there will be cash involved to off a $12 million guarantee from the rangers. millwood who is a 13 year veteran, went 13-10 for the rangers last season. the deal was official late this at safeway, we make the joy of the season... deliciously affordable. with a commitment to thousands of new everyday low prices. ♪ and with club card specials like... boneless pork loin roast, $1.99 a pound, you can get all the holiday oohs and ahhs you want... when you want them, at the price you need. ♪ that's our promise. that's ingredients for life. safeway. that's our promise. >>majority leader harry reid is making every effort to get a vote before christmas. they get rid of the controversial public option and replaces it with a non-profit insurer. it expands medicare. frank luber and shawn casey join us to talk about this morning. >> good morning, patrice. >> is this a good alternative to the public option? >> i think i smell a rat. the people keep saying that it's an alternative to the public option, while that may be true, remember this is only in the senate bill. let's say that this passes the senate bill with the 60 votes that it needs or whatever the case may be. don't forget the house bill. the house bill is already out there and has been passed and has the public option. meaning if they pass the senate bill wit without it, and the in conference committee the public option could find its way back into the bill. >> another issue that would have to be melded is the abortion issue. they rejected the efforts to restrict public money with senate bill which what is completely at odds with the senate bill. >> i think there's going to be a showdown on it. i believe that could be the straw that breaks the camel's back. there's so many different things that are going to present problems. i mean, first of all they want to expand medicare now to cover people 55, beginning at the age of 55. well, how in the world can you take a half a trillion dollars from medicare on one hand and then add 30 to 50 million potential people to medicare in the future, that to me is another way of having the federal government have more and more control and the doctors are going to go scream like crazy on that one. >> we will have to see how it all plays out. it will be interesting to see if senate can get their bill passed before christmas. thank you for joining us. coming up later, five virginia men are arrested in pakistan. the illegal act they're accused of. another morning, another fire. i'm joel d smith in southwest baltimore. yesterday it took crews 16 minutes to get to a fire. how long did it take them this time? you are watching fox 45 morning news, all local all morning. and, oh yes, saving a lot of trees. kaiser permanente. thrive. welcome back to fox 45 morning news. 7:30 is the time. i'm patrice harris. let's get a check of the forecast. meteorologist steve fertig is here with a look. good morning inside good morning to you. this is a part of the -- the warmest part of the morning. >> pretty sad. >> let's all shed a tear because it's going a to be a sad afternoon. >> according to you this is a sad winter. forget all of tears, they will he freeze at our face. >> right now we're at 41 degrees which doesn't sound too bad in baltimore. d.c. the same. 43 in salisbury also not bad. hagerstown 35, a couple of more tears in oakland, 31 degrees is what they got for current temperature. 10-15, we will get up to 25, maybe gusting to 30 and we're already seeing gusts up in salisbury feeling like 38 degrees, but it's going to be wind gusts up around 35 later on for most of us. 26 degrees is what it feels like in hagerstown, only 10 degrees in oakland. 10 degrees at the bus stop. you will want to be prepared for the winds to make it feel chillier as you head out. be prepared as i said. the snow moving off to the north and west and east up around pennsylvania and new york. around here, better but the temperatures do drop, 40 degrees, and 35 at 6:00 p.m. also with mainly clear skies. we will get caught up on the rest of the weekend, the weekend forecast in just a bit. right now we will see what is happening on the roadways with candace dold. she is here with the traffic edge. >> reporter: thank you, steve. we're going to talk about mass transit this morning. it's all because of a delay out there. we do have a mark train on the penn line in fact running with a 30 minute-delay. train 509. here is why, train 407 is disabled. they have 300 passengers that need to be transferred. as a result we are stuck with the extra minutes added on. be aware that you will need to leave earlier if you're headed out there. as for the main lines, we can show what you is looks like on 695, at liberty road, here it is the reduced speeds at the outer loop lanes. at least it's not a parking lot so far, from 795 to 95, we are running slow, a 17-minut 17-min, 4 miles per hour. and the looking at a 9 minute clip, 48 miles per hour. but doing much better, this will take 9 minutes, 55 miles per hour. that's a look at morning travels, patrice, let's send it back to you. patrice, fox 45 morning news, city firefighter are investigating a one alarm blaze at south baltimore. the call for smoke and blaze at christian street went out after 3:30 this morning. the people living next door had to be evacuated for smoke exposure but no one was hurt in the blaze. the response to the fire was not affect ad b a by rotating closures. but yesterday's morning fire was affected because the closest station was closed. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. it only took firefighters about a half an hour to get everything under control. by 4:00, things were looking much like they are right now. a lot of debris, an abandoned property. it's vacant. there are questions of how got started in here considering there's no one inside. that will be investigated in the next few days. we saw the red cross helping somebody who had damage inside there as well. this is happening 24 hours after a fatal fire on preston street about 5 minutes from here. that is where davis and his daughter were found unconscious. when firefighters got to them, and davis died later in shock trauma and his daughter is still in critical condition this morning. the call for help went out after 3:00 a.m., but because crews were sent out to the wrong place, they didn't get here until 3:16. the company 18 was closer by. the firefighters say even a few seconds can be too much. >> i know that there are a lot of variables, however, if those rotating closings weren't happening, we would have been here and maybe been able to make a rescue quicker. >> it worries me every day. i kind of wonder what is going to happen next, you know. >> reporter: that woman you just saw she is a neighbor here. she got evacuated this morning barefoot with all of this glass around her. we are happy she is okay. baltimore city firefighters were back at the 3100 block of preston street yesterday rotating the closures. they will back with for a rally to keep the fire stations open. later in the week, mayor dixon and some others are starting to look at some other options to see how dangerous it could be when you have the rotating closings, but with so much less money they are trying to figure out something. >> what are they trying to accomplish with the pamphlets is the rally. >> reporter: the rally is this afternoon. the firefighters think it's dangerous for the public and dangerous for them to have rotating closures and not getting in time for the locations they need. the public officials need to find the money some other way, because the lives of these people are worth too much when it comes to money when they are trying to save money owe that ot end. instead they need to save more lives. joel d smith, fox 45 morning news. police arrest an unexpected gang of thieves. this morning a mother and daughter are charged with as many as 10 attacks. it's a story you are seeing first on fox. megan gilliland has the latest from fells point. good morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. many of the victims were walking on sidewalks here alfells point or on federal hill when all of a sudden they felt a gun to their throat o or a gun to their back. in federal hill one victim stles walking home whe -- was walkinge when she felt a knife on her throat. she was told to hand over her camera and purse or she would be cut. it was at the enter continental hotel that the three thieves were captured on camera. take a look at who police arrested monyette middleton of baltimore, along with her 15 years old daughter and her daughter's boyfriend, martis anderson. >> i think it makes a big difference that they are behind bars police believ. >> reporter: police believe that the trio is potential for as many as 10 holds ups. one victim says she is still shook up and plans to move. megan gilliland, fox 45 morning news. five men from northern virginia are arrested in northern pakistan accused of planning terrorist attacks. >> reporter: good morning, here is the latest from washington today. a community in northern virginia is acting -- reacting today to a report that five of its young men who disappeared in november were arrested in pakistan. they had suspected the american men had gone overseas to perform acts of terrorism and contacted the fbi. yesterdayed pakistani embassy reported that the 5 men became suspicious to authorities and were taken into cust he de. according to the president the five men who include a dental student at howard university, never exhibited any outwardly radicalized behavior. senators are awaiting details in all-important price tag for the latest healthcare officials, that senator harry reid sent to the congressional budget office for analysis. despite's reid analysis that democrats had reached a broad agreement, several members say they remain hesitant. could a if the golf star handles the public relations scandal he could come out better than ever. but the list of women who claim to have had extra marital relations with woods now stretches into the double digits. so far woods has only released one statement since the original accident. that is the latest from washington today. until tomorrow, from the washington times. i'm julie bedane, back to you. read those stories and more by logging on to washington and clicking on foxbaltimore.com. coming up getting your home winter ready. an expert is here to share some tips. we are dealing with delays on the marx train penn [ holiday music playing ] don't let those long holiday lines bury you. grab a delicious new dunkin' donuts peppermint mocha latte and chocolate mint donut today. great flavors, great value -- just another reason the holidays run on dunkin'. try the new peppermint mocha latte and chocolate mint donut today. welcome back, 7:42 on this thursday morning. quite a bit different than wednesday morning when we had all of that rain and flooding concerns. we picked up about an inch of rain generally through the central part of the state about an inch 1/2 with localized area of two inches that fell yesterday. a big difference as we get a scan on the sky watch hd radar, level two, you can see dry conditions around here, but the not the case as you move to the north. to the north, there's showers and heavy snow up through new york state and down through pennsylvania with a lake-effect snow. that trajectory is going to prevent it from coming our way. just cold and windy today. as far as the big picture goes, here is what we're watching of the first of all wind advisory for the northern part of the eastern shore where the winds are expected to be around 15-20 miles per hour gusting at 40 there. gusting to about 30, so it's going to be windy no matter where you are even if you're not in the advisory area. all of this cool air is coming our way. it's coming our way for the next few days into the weekend. right now, though, 38 degrees at bwi. 41 degrees downtown with a west wind at 14 miles per hour and partly cloudy skies we have out there for you. 41 degrees in baltimore, the same for d.c. 43 in salisbury. up in hagerstown, 35 and only 21 in oakland. when you factor in the winds up around 15-20 miles per hour, gusting higher, up to about 30-mile per hour winds you're seeing in dover, delaware. you had 30 plus winds and a 38-mile-an-hour gust in hagers town. it's making it feel like the temperatures are a bit cooler and only 10 degrees in oakland and down toward salisbury about the same as the thermometer reads there with lesser winds for now. it brings us the strong winds, keeping snow out of our way. we sit to the north and high pressure building. that is why we have high winds today and tomorrow, too. we will keep a high on up the coast. that could bring us snow chances saturday into sunday. not heavy snow, just light snow possible. winds gusting higher and the temperatures will be dropping through the day. 40 degrees for the high temperature which is where we are for the central part of the state. 15-25-mil-mile-an-hour winds. up to the west, you're lucky if you get to 35 degrees. in the higher elevations we may not get out of the 20s. partly cloudy skies there. tonight, 21 degrees, that is pretty chilly especially when you factor in the 15-25-mile-an-hour winds. gusting higher, it will feel like the temperatures are in the teens. after the 40s today, 36 tomorrow, with mostly clear skies. 40 degrees partly cloudy on saturday and 39 degrees on sunday, just some light snow showers mixed with some light rainshowers possible, and the rain time the same around game time. 38 degrees partly cloudy. showers on thursday, and 40 degrees partly cloudy on your wednesday. >> frox 4fox 45 sky watch weaths at your finger tips. you can use fox 45 powerful doppler radar to track incoming storms. the tools will let you know when rain or snow will be over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on iradar. now candace dold is back with a look at the traffic edge, candace. >> reporter: thank you, steve. we are talking about mass transit delays at the marx train penn line. here is what is happening. train 407 is actually disabled so they need to transfer all of the passengers on to 509, but there are about 300 passengers. because of that we're stuck with this delay. just be aware that had is the case. as far as the roads are concerned, we are checking on the average speeds. 36 miles per hour on the west side of the beltway. on 95 traveling near the airport, actually over the speed limit at 68. but a little bit farther up, that is not exactly the case. we are dealing with an accident on the southbound lanes. it's right at caton avenue and he we do want to show you exactly what it looks like. it's back the 395 and the 95 sky ramp. here it is the cars are cruising along, so we don't have delays mounting and you will find the flashing lights a little bit farther down. in baltimore county we have flooding to talk about there. it still remains on eastern avenue. it's right at earles road. it was there yesterday and unfortunately that is the case this morning. we do have an update for you. the westbound lanes are still shutdown, except that trucks and buses can get by. the eastbound lanes, unfortunately, they are still blocked this morning. as far as the main lines and traveling through the area intermittent delays are on outer loop lanes traveling near harford road. we do have an accident taking out one lane at perring parkway at putty hill avenue, just inside of that ge beltway. that is a look at the tramp, patrice, back to you. thanks, winter arrives in less than two weeks. what are the changes you need to make at home to save yourself money? an expert is here in our studio to help answer your questions for take action thursday. if you have a question about winterizing your home, our phone lines are open no right now at (410)481-4545. you can send us a tweet or go through our >>winter is officially more than a week away. but with snow and freezing temperatures already, people aren't making that distinction. all they're thinking about is how to keep their homes as warm as possible for as little money as possible. linda foy with bge is here with tips on how to winterize your home. >> good morning. >> it is so cold. >> it is cold and that is why customers need to start thinking about getting their homes ready for winter. >> you brought some stuff with you. let's go over some things that you are going to tell us how to stay warm and save money. >> what customers want to do. these are items that will help to winterize your home. these is caulking that you can use around your windows and doors to keep the air out. >> are these things that can you do at home. >> the best thing to get started, bge offers a quick home energy check-up. they will do a visual inspection of your windows and doors and of your duck work of a lot of things where energy and might be getting through and they will make recommendations of and you can go through the checklist and decide which works best for you. they will also do some of it at the house while they're there. >> even better, but if you have to do some of your own, here are the things that will help? >> exactly. >> this is weather seal for your windows and doors. that is where a lot of air can escape. you're wasting energy when you don't have the gaps sealed. this is a window installation kit. there's a lot of different ways to prevent the air from getting in. this is something you may not think about. if you put your hand up against an outlet or light switch you will feel cool air coming through. these goes behind the plate, the plate that is right on the outside of the wall. it keeps some of that air away from your home. you can go through, take all of your plates off, put those behind it, put the plate back on and it's going to keep the cool air out. >> that's a good idea. they're not that expensive at all. >> this big one. >> this is the water heater installation blanket. of course, that keeps your hot water hot longer so that it doesn't have to work as hard and doesn't use as much energy. these are a few items that customers can consider. the best way to get started is by calling and scheduling the quick energy home check-up and have a technician come out and check your home for you. >> we will have calls for you. and if you do have questions about winterizing your home, our phone lines are open right now at (410)481-4545. and of course, you can send us a tweet at fox baltimore or you can go through our facebook page. 7:52 is the time. you are watching fox 45 morning news, all local all morning. s. we are back with linda foy from bge. she is taking your calls about winterizing your home. if you have questions of how to help your home with a little bit of money. the phone lines are open at (410)481-4545. you can send us a tweet or ask through facebook page. we had two comments from facebook and twitter. both of them wanted to he know about windows. one had older windows and wanted to keep the draft out, one had new win dee windows and there'sa draft there? >> you can go to your local home, and find a number of products. >> this is the plastic that you can put all around it and this is the foam that goes around it? >> there's a lot of options and it depends on what works best for the customer. >> it seems like windows are the big thing for people. >> yes. >> let's go to dorthy. what is your question? >> my question, since there's no one all day long, could i turn the circuit breaker off. >> if there's no one at your home all day long? >> uh-huh. >> you may not necessarily turn your circuit breakers off, because that may require you having to reset some things when you turn it back on. you want to turn your thermostat down and you may want to consider joining bge programs, where you can get a programmed thermostat installed professionally. you can set it so your thermostat goes down when no one is home and that way you're not heating a home that is empty. >> let me ask you about that. you don't turn the heat all the way down, because i heard that you have to reheat the whole house and it takes that much energy that way? >> it's a good idea to turn it down when no one is home. we would recommend about 68 degrees. it depends on where you're comfortable. if there's anybody in the house that my require it to be a little bit warmer. if you have a programmable thermostat, you can set it so it goes down to 68 when you leave the house. whatever works for you. >> that's a good idea. let's go to tia in baltimore. good morning,tia. >> good morning. >> what is your question. >> i wanted to know, for the winter months can they turn your service off? >> can jury servic your serviced off for the winter months? >> yes. >> we would ask anybody who is having trouble paying their bills, there's payment arrangements and we don't want our customers even if they're struggling to pay their bills to ignore the bill. there are restrictions and requirements that we must adhere to when it comes to services connections during the winter. we don't want to get to that point with our customers. we want you to give us a call so we can work with you. >> there's a credit coming in january. >> there is. >> linda, thank you for joining us this morning. coming up in the 8:00 hour. we are counting down for christmas. stay tuned for a chance to win one of the presents under our tree. >> reporter: i'm joel d smith in southwest baltimore. yesterday it was 15 minutes to get to what turned out to be a fatal fire. this morning anot next on fox 45 morning news. >> police make an arrest on a string of violent crimes. the unusual suspects behind the armed robbery. the mayor's vacation to miami, why it end up costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars. i think they would like frosty the snow man. >> and pretty paper. see if i'm up to the challenge of wrapping christmas gifts that are almost too pretty to open. good morning. it's thursday, december 10th. i'm patrice harris. good morning, i'm megan gill gilliland. we're in the holiday spirit and it's not because it's cold outside. something to warm you up here today. >> really, it's because we're counting down to christmas from now until the big day. we have an entire stack of gifts under our tree that we're gaifg away to you guys all the way to christmas eve. >> you can win right now. you can pick one of those if you're the 10th caller at (410)481-4545. >> now let's check in with meteorologist steve fertig and he can talk about the cold. >> it's very cold. this is army-navy weekend guys. >> army-navy, up to philadelphia. it doesn't concern us. >> who are you rooting for. >> swimming and diving, i'm going to unusually root for army today. i'm going to say go army because my niece. >> you have a family tie. >> i will say good luck to lindsay because we want her to do well. go navy. >> we're on the same team, good luck lindsay. i wish you well. >> 40 degrees starting out right now and 41 in salisbury. 35 in hagerstown, and we got the snow showers staying to the north. for us it's dry conditions around here. we will get to 40 degrees for the high today. we will see plenty of sunshine but it will be chilly, warmer maybe even in the pool lynn. windy and chilly conditions, we will talk more about what we can expect for the rest of the week and weekend in a little bit. let's see what is happening on the roadways with candace dold. candace? thank you, steve. and good morning, we're actually talking about the rails right now. we do have many delays out there and one of them includes a marx train. a train 411, at the bwi station. it's all due to a disabled train an earlier one that was on the penn line. we have been dealing with this. allow extra time if you're headed out there. 695 right at 70 take a look at the outer loop lanes. it's going to be a cramped ride there. that's the same deal heading toward ka catonsville. it's running pretty slow, a 20-minute ride, 31 miles per hour. doing much better, a little farther up from 83 toward 795, looking at an 8 minute clip. 54 miles per hour. but then look at that. it dipped down to 34 miles per hour from 95 up toward 83 with an 18-minute drive. that's a look at your morning travels. patrice, and megan, back ove ovo you. 8:03 on fox 45 morning news. city firefighters are investigating a one alarm blaze in southwest baltimore. the call for heavy smoke and flames in the 2200 block of christian street went out after 3:30 this morning. the people living the next door had to be evacuated for smoke exposure. fortunately no one was hurt in the blaze. another response to this fire was not affected by rotating closures. yesterday morning response to a fire just minutes away from this one was delayed because the closest fire company was closed. joel d smith is live on the scene of this morning fire with the latest. good morning, joel. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. the difference this time, time and effect. obviously no one was hurt this time. the fatal fire yesterday and it only took 3-4 minutes to get here. that is a lot better than yesterday as well. we want to show you what it looks like right now. this is 2431 christian street. this appeared at 3:30 in the morning. by 4:00 it was under control. you see the results now. this is a vacant property. there are questions as to why this happened here. also next door, you also have a location that these people had to by vook waited. that was -- to be evacuated. this a situation where one woman barefoot out here trying to clear the scene while firefighters were fighting this. while this was going to here and no one was hurt. remember 24 hours ago a fatal fire happened at preston street. that is where davis and his daughter were found unconscious. when firefighters got to them, davis died later at shock trauma and his daughter is still listed in critical condition. a call for help went out at 3:00 a.m. but because officials were called to a different location, they didn't get there until 16 minutes later. the closest truck 18, was nearby but they couldn't respond because they were dealing with a rotating closure. firefighters say that could be too much. >> i know that there are a lot of variables. however, if those retating closings weren't happening -- rotating closings weren't happening. we would have been here and maybe make a rescue quicker. >> it worries me every day. i wonder what is going to happen next. >> reporter: that is one of the people that were evacuated earlier. more than a dozen baltimore city firefighters were back in the 3100 block of preston. yesterday afternoon handing you on pamphlets and protesting the rotating closures. they will be back out today at 4:00 p.m. over a rally at truck 16 trying to keep the fire houses. the fire chief trying to figure out a way to save money. since then the mayor and others have said that really the cost, it shouldn't matter when it comes to safety, but really when they're this much in the hole, it's hard to find the money, patrice. president obama is going to receive the peace prize today. the nobel prize committee to give the president obama the nobel peace prize has generated praise and cristism. the president doesn't consider the award a recognition of his accomplishments, but rather a call to action. >> i have no doubt that there are others who may be more deserving. my task here is to continue on the path that i believe is not only important for america but important for lasting peace and security in the world. obama is the 3rd sitting president to win the nobel peace prize which includes a $1.4 million check. a gold medal and a deplume a. general mills is changing what it puts in your kids cereal. the company says it's cutting the amount of sugar in some its most popular products, including lucky charms and could could puffs. they say there will be no more than 11 grams of sugar in the updated version. they also plan to increase the amount of whole grains. >> that's the whole idea of eating them. >> did you notice the part children's cereals. >> our countdown to christmas is continuing. we have our winner on the phone picking out their gift. >> stay tuned to see what they won and when your next chance could be. >> reporter: i'm jessica starr, i'm going to take you inside of the celebration at the hampton mansion. stay tuned. you are watching fox 45 morning celebrate 2 hun sen touries of christmas. the hampton and historic site is hosting a you'l you'll tied, ule celebration. >> reporter: this is family friendly and if you are a history buff this is the celebration for you this weekend. all the exciting activities that will be going on for the ule tied celebration. i'm joined by the curator. >> good morning, jessica. glad to have you here at the national historic site. >> reporter: thank you. >> we have an exciting weekend planned for the public all free. please come join us at hampton. >> reporter: talk to me right now. it looks like you have a christmas dinner that is prepared here. >> we are in the dining room at hampton. our period dinner service is set for 1820 when governor charles kearney richly was the owner of hampton would have had latchish christmas feast. we have this beautiful long table set for 10. we have the historic paris porcelain service dinner with the family's coat of arms in the center. a lavish meal of featuring 13 different dishes that would have been only the first course at dinner. and then the guests would have left the entire table would have been cleared off and the cloth removed and a second cloth underneath and then a whole second course of equal size would have been placed on the table. dinner the early 19th century at hampton was a lavish and lengthy affair. >> reporter: wow, wow! thank you for coming on down and telling us about all the history. it's not only education at the hampton mansion. it's not only going to be the mansion but the whole plantation is that going to be open for the tours. the best part of it is that it's for free. to get more information log on to your website at foxbaltimore.com. the weather if you're going to come down for the weekend it's going to cooperate. it's going to be cold out there, but it's december getting into the holiday spirit. for the full forecast today, the breezy forecast to see when the winds are going to die down, let's head to steve in the sky watch center. jessica, i was going to ask you to bring some the food back, but 1830s, probably spoiled by now. jessica. take a look at rain fell heavy yesterday and it brought us as much as an inch of rain for the central part of the state. we got 1 and a 3rd, some places saw 2 inches of rainfall. it's a whole different story right now as we look at the sky watch hd radar. it shows a nice dry scan. it's certainly a whole lot better with regard to any presiptation. if you are traveling north, we will run into some lake showers. moving off lake erie and lake ontario and off of lake michigan and into michigan, too. all of that is going to stay out of our way, but we will have to deal with the winds. northern part of the eastern shore under a wind advisory through 6:00 p.m. tonight. even if you're not in the advisory area, you are going to have to deal with winds up to 15-25 miles per hour and gusting higher. right now 10-mile-an-hour winds in baltimore. 17-mile-an-hour winds in baltimore. 16 out in oakland. you can see the westerly flow and again we're looking at some gusts around the area up around 25 to 35 miles per hour. earlier had a 30-mile-an-hour gust in hagerstown, right now not seeing those gusts. the temperatures will feel cooler with the winds. 41 in salisbury. only 35 in hagerstown. 19 degrees in oakland. they're probably running east right now looking for warmer air. 35 is what it feels like in hagerstown. it only feels like 5 degrees. 5 degrees in oakland, that is chilly. 36 degrees in salisbury and again with the westerly winds as you can see, bring the snow showers across new york and pennsylvania but not coming here. again we will look at dry conditions for the next couple of days. future scan model looking like this activity that remains to the north but not around here. it's going to be the cold air and the windy conditions thanks to the high pressure center. we will be concerned about the low. somewhat concerned, because it won't bring us a lot but it will bring us light snow showers into saturday night and into sunday. it may affect part of the game on sunday if you are headed to m&t stadium. some light snow showers with light rain mixed in perhaps. 45 degrees for the high today with a 15-20-mile-an-hour wind on the eastern shore with mainly clear skies. temperatures dropping off from here. 15-25-mile-an-hour winds gusting up to 35. mainly clear skies, at least we will see plenty of sunshine today. west part of maryland getting up to 35 degrees only. some places not even getting into the 30s like the higher elevations toward oakland where 35 would sound pretty good. compared to the 45-degree reading as far as what it's feeling there. 35 degrees for the overnight low. clear skies tonight, 15-20-mile-an-hour wind. gusting up to 30 miles per hour going to make it feel like the temperatures are in the teens instead and maybe even single digits if you're 4th points west. after the 40s today for the high. 36, chillier even tomorrow. from the heated indoors, it won't matter. it will very pretty. once you step outside, you will feel it for sure. 39 degrees on sunday, and if you're headed to m&t stadium fr the ravens lions game, temperature at 39. we won't rule out a chance for a light rain or shower then. 34 for tuesday, and showers possible. 44 and partly cloudy on your wednesday. fox 45 sky watch weather is at your finger tips. iradar is available at foxbaltimore.com. you can use fox 45 powerful doppler radar to track incoming storms. the interactive tools will let you see when rain or snow will be over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on iradar. now candace dold is here with a look at what is happening the roadways with the traffic edge. >> reporter: thank you, steve. we're talking about the delays on the rails. it's due to a disabled vehicle. there's a very long list of them. you can find the delays on the morning news ticker. one of them includes the train 4. train 4 at bwi is running 20 minutes late. again, check the bottom of your screen for more information. as for out there on the roads, checking out on the speeds, they're pretty far as well. 46 miles per hour near towson and, 28 on 45 at the northeast corner. speaking of the area, in the baltimore county region, we're dealing with flooding eastern avenue at earles road. it was there yesterday, this is the scene all of that water rippling down the street and it's still going to be there this morning. we do have an update this morning. the westbound lanes are closed. the trucks and buses can get by. so you will at least be able to travel there the eastbound direction it's going to be completely closed though. that's a look at the morning travels, patrice and megan, back over to you. it's our countdown to christmas here at fox 45 which means that every day from now to christmas eve, we're giving away those gifts under our tree. we have the first winner of the day shannon from baltimore. >> that a one makes noise, good morning, shannon. >> good morning. >> we're going to open this one and patrice will open the second one. >> let's see what we got here. i don't know if -- do they go together? >> i think so. >> you get two gifts, shannon. >> maybe we should know what this one is. >> i think that one goes first. >> here we go. you get the play mobile, 1, 2, 3. and there you go. >> it's a set and play mobile, it's the secret of pirate island. it comes with this interactive dvd and it's courtesy of play mobile. and it retails $32.27. shannon, what do you think? >> thank you. >> congratulations and happy hol hey days tholholidays to you. don't worry, because if you didn't win this time you still have the opportunity to win. we are giving away gifts for our countdow airborne guy: i first started taking airborne to help support my immune system when i travelled. but then i realized ... there are so many other times my immune system could use help. sfx: waaaaaahhh! wife: guess who's teething? airborne guy: like whenever life gets a little out of control ... daughter: daddy, meet snake. airborne guy: or any time life catches up to you. anncr: airborne helps support your immune system with a special blend of ... zinc, ginger, echinacea, and 13 other vitamins, minerals and herbs - plus a blast of vitamin c! sfx: kissing sound wife: 'night dear. airborne guy: try airborne. it's good for you when life is not. this time of year, everybody looks forward to giving. even if you're going to tear into them, you want them to start off nice and neat. that is where professional gift wrappers come in. you can find them at most malls. for this week up to challenge i went to the mall at columbia to help out with the gift wrapping. at the end of the day, it was probably me they wanted to send packing. >> i would say about 25 years. >> you have been doing this for 25 years? >> yeah. >> since i was 4? >> and in that time, she has gotten down to a science. >> we do this every year. it's a lost fun and we try to do our best. >> we have classes, tel sometims for the volunteers who say i can't do it. we show them. it's not that difficult. >> what do you usually get at the kiosk that needs help wrapping gifts. >> absolutely the men. >> that makes sense. >> in fact my first customer of the day was a man. >> you want me to wrap this for you. can i wrap your coat for you? you need this all wrapped. >> i used him for practice, jumping right in to wrap his coat. >> i got my tools here, my tape and my scissors. now this is my first gift of the day and i think i want to make it extra special. he is going to be back in 5 minutes. here is what we will do. let's be festive for the season. we will wrap one arm in this paper much even though it didn't look like it, there was a method to my wrapping madness. >> this sleeve is nice silver. silver bells. i'm done. it's a little unorthodox, but you know. it's festival. maybe he will like it? >> yours is one of the largest gift wrapping so i think that is about $5. here you go. what do you think? it looks good? [ laughter ] >> he gave us $10. >> are you serious? this looks good? [ laughter ] he really must have been in the holiday spirit to think that wrap job looked nice. good bless them one and all. >> if you can show me how to wrap a gift. >> paula got to work showing me all the secrets from just the right amount of paper to creases and folds. >> fold this over to get rid of the messy part. >> yes. >> you don't want to drag the edge. >> but my biggest problem was the tape. but somehow i managed to get the gift wrapped. >> i would say -- >> that looks like the professional one except for the bough. we added a bow, we added a big red bow and it was done, but just when i got the perfectly wrapped box down, in came my final gift of the day. >> how do you think we should wrap this? >> a ravens football hell all round and ak -- helmet all round and awkward. >> somebody who wants a ravens football helmet, i think they would like frosty the snow man. they just played in the frozen tundra. they can relate to the frosty the snow man. i got to work. folding here, tucking there. >> this is why parents buy toys in boxes, because how in the heck do you wrap up all of this stuff. >> and tape everywhere. >> i just keep taping. tape solves everything. >> finally it was done. >> i think under the circumstances, without a box that was fairly well. >> she was being very generous with that grade. but it is the holiday season, i will take is it. >> my final gift to wrap for the day. happy holidays? >> well, if you would like to challenge me, just go to foxbaltimore.com/challenge. still to come our countdown to christmas continues. i promise i didn't wrap any of the gifts. we're giving away all of those gifts under the tree. your chance to win ising in up in 10 minutes. next, there she is, miss america. katie sams tells us how doorbusters, starting early at 6am saturday. like men's and women's coats for just $49.99. any size down- alternative comforter for just $39.99. 70% off all gold jewelry. 50% off our entire stock of robes for her. and kid's sleepwear just $7.99 go to jcp.com to see gifts for everyone on your list. style, quality and price matter. jcpenney lasts up to five times longer than ordinary toothpaste. [ inhales deeply ] ok she's right. ok. oooh, "she's right." my breath still feels fresh. and how could i resist that smile?! [ female announcer ] new crest extra white plus scope outlast. there she is, miss america. she is saluting the men and women who serve our country this holeholiday season. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> tell me, what are you doing to honor our millitary heros. >> it's not just something i'm doing. it's something that all of american people can do and that is give a donation that will be turned into gift cards and then sent out to our millitary to provide a happy holiday for their families. can you do by going online to sears. i'm here on behalf of sears, but truly i'm here on behalf of all of the american people saying thank you to our millitary giving these donations so they can provide a happy holiday for their families. >> talk about how important it is to take care of the millitary personnel but also their families. we're talking about the wars in afganistan and sending more troops overseas. there's a lot going on with our millitary right now? >> there absolutely is and it is so important to give back to our millitary, because they give so much to us every single day by fighting for our freedom overseas. it's so important that we not forget, not only our millitary families but our wounded soldiers, our veterans, but all of those back here at home. our millitary families are serving also. they are taking on financial responsibilities that they never had because a loved one is overseas fighting for our freedom. you know, they're losing the moral support because they're overseas, they're not around their loved ones every single day. our mill tie millitary familiese fighting with overseas in the war in iraq and afganistan. it's so important to support them because they give us so much. >> are there programs that are helping the men and women who are coming back from serving? >> there are. there are many programs out there but one that is very special it's called jobs for vets. what they're doing is creating jobs for our millitary, because it's important that we not only take care of them now, but we take care of them in the future and help them provide for their families and for themselves. so that is why we have these organizations in place, these resources for our millitary. wonderful organizations that our american people can truly get involved in? >> i know that they will. thank you for coming on and talking with us this morning and reminding us during this holiday season. >> thank you. come to kmart this holiday and get in the "no"! kmart makes christmas count! with no payments, no interest, for six months. that means buy today, get six months to pay. only this month and only at kmart. there's smart, and there's kmart smart. we are getting you in the holiday spirit this morning. we are counting down to christmas here on fox 45 morning news. that entire tax of gifts under the tree has to go to you guys out there. >> you can win right now if you are the 4th or 5th caller at (410)481-4545. i want to say to stephanie who wrote on facebook who was cracking up on any of the gifts. i didn't wrap any of those gifts. call me i will help you to wrap the gifts. >> i'm not sure the laughing was about, with me or laughing of me. >> it's going to feel more winter-like even though winter is a little ways off. we have a few or another week or so, a week 1/2 before winter arrives. the eastern shore today at 6:00 p.m., but even elsewhere the winds will be around 15-25 miles per hour and gusting higher. 20 he degrees the temperatures in baltimore, but in baltimore it doesn't sound so bad but in washington d.c., the winds are picking up a little bit. now it will make it feel chillier. much chillier in oakland at 19 degrees. you fanning for in the winds and -- factor in the winds and it only feels like 9 degrees in oakland. it will feel chilly. the temperatures will drop through the afternoon. 35 at 6:00 p.m. so the high temperature through date at 40 degrees west winds at 15-25, though, gusting to 35 or more. so that will be the story this afternoon. all right, let's check out what is happening on the roadways with candace dold. she is back with a look at the traffic edge, candace. >> reporter: we do have breaking news into our newsroom. there's a watermain break on dundalk avenue at don haven road. here is what is happening. not only is it just a broken watermain, the road is collapsing in three different places. so obviously, you will want to avoid the area. we will continue to keep you up-to-date. we do have a crew on the way to the scene. as for the main lines headed on the beltway right now taking it from 95 toward 83, it's slow and the volume is still increasing. 18 minutes worth of a ride, 34 miles per hour. it does go up to 45 miles per hour from 83 up 795 with a 10 minute clip. then an extremely heavy ride on the west side of the beltway, 24 minutes, look at that 26 miles per hour. that's a look at the morning travels. megan, back over to you. believe it or not there are only 14 shopping days left till christmas. this morning we're going to help you buy gifts for everyone in your family. life still expert lynn backer is here this morning to help us out. good morning to you. >> boy, if you haven't started boy, you better get on it. >> we will start out with dad. >> if you have somebody who is a history buff, get them a subscription. look at what i found for me, a photo of my great grandfather and his brother and a coopy of the world -- a copy of the world war ii registration car. subjieptionsubscriptions start a month. it's really fast, quick and easy. you can use anywhere, debit, master card is accepted. it's at 50, 100 denominations. >> that can be dad for everybody. >> snap fish.com will help you create personalized desk stop calendars. photo books, jewelry, everything is easy to create. >> and mom always wants the pictures to put on their desk at work. i'm promoting a healthy smile with reach by design. they are designed to clean more plaque than other sizes. i love the travel size of list listerine anti septic. >> this goes to the smelly uncle in the family. everyone has one, you know you do. >> this is for the facial hair. battery lasts three times longer. interchangeable heads for any kind of hear trimming. >> you are saving for doing your own hair. >> you can get at it at wall nation. >> this is the clarity d613 cordless ampl amplified phone. it will give you a digital answering machine under $90 at radio shack. >> handyman or handy woman. the sears crew gaveny the hammer head. and you kno know sears does layy plans. >> do one for the kids, maybe. >> this is the equal to the wii sports game. including hockey and ball, you can go head-to-head with family and friends. you can even select some things to play online. under $30. >> i need to take you with me. you're amazing lynn. thank you very much. great ideas for everyone. great ideas for me, too. thank you for being here this morning. straight ahead our countdown to christmas continues. we have our winner on the phone. right now they're picking out their gifts from under the tree. stay tuned to find out what they won and when you can win next. you are watching fox 45 morning news, all local all morning. and, of course, you can never go wrong with futures. kaiser permanente. thrive. and, of course, you can never go wrong with futures. >>8:40 on this tuesday morning. we talked about heavy rain. we picked up about an inch of rain, an inch and a 3rd to the eastern part where the lowell iced there was -- localized area there was an inch of 1/2. the scan indicating no precipitation. the cold air starts to move with strong winds, too. that becomes the new factor that we have to deal with weather wise today. to the north we go and we look for snow there. if you are traveling north, you will run into that activity. and also lake ontario and into michigan and mish and ohio, too. if you have travel plans, west or northwest, will you run into a few snow showers. heavy snow at new york state. for us it's going to be a dry look to the day today because of the high pressure center that is building in and it will bring us plenty of sunshine, but that is about it, because otherwise, we got to deal with this. the winds the northern part of the eastern shore with the wind advisory at 6:00 p.m. the rest of the counties not under the advisory. nevertheless, gusting higher still. that will definitely play a role in our weather in terms of making the temperatures feel cooler than they read on the thermometer. look at the cold air to the north and west up in the northern plains. that is headed in our general direction. cooler temperatures to come. 36 degrees is where we start this morning at bwi. downtown we're at 40. 10 miles per hour wind which will make it feel chillier, only 17 on the dew point. that means it's very dry. now temperatures indicating 40 degrees in baltimore. it doesn't sound too bad. d.c. the same. down toward salisbury, 41 degrees and hagerstown 35 and oakland, chilly there 19 degrees. it feels a bit cooler when you factor in the winds, 10-20-mile-an-hour winds through the region but gusts up to 30 miles per hour winds. and we had a gust and wind gust in salisbury in the upper 20s. from time to time the winds are going to make it feel excessively cold. can you see 7 only in oakland. and down in salisbury it feels closer to the temperature reading with the winds not at strong at this particular time. look at the future scan model. we will be sitting between low pressure to the north and high pressure building. that is what is bringing strong winds. it's coming from the westerly direction which has a lot of arctic air and that means colder temperatures, too. it's going to get chilly around here and why not, it's heading toward winter. soon you hav enough, low pressur coming up the coast. bad word. that will be bringing us the chance for light snow showers as we get into the sunday. may start off as snow late saturday night. that's the next weather maker. for today, cool temperatures starting off at 45 degrees and cooling down from here with mostly clear skies. a west wind at 15-25 miles per hour gusting to 30 to 35. central part of the state, 40 degrees, mostly clear skies, west winds at 15-25 miles per hour gusting up to 35. back to the west, you will be fortunate, if you see temperatures climbing into the mid-30s like we show here. some the higher elevations we may not get out of 20s. west winds at 20-30 miles per hour makes it feel chillier and part lead cluely cloudy skies. when we factor in the 15-20-mile-an-hour winds it will definitely feel like temperatures are a bit cooler as if they are in the teens instead, and maybe out to the west single digits is what it will feel like. as we move through the day today, we will see temperatures hover around the 55 degrees at noon. tomorrow getting up to 36 degrees with mainly clear skies, 40 on saturday with partly cloudy skies and 35 on sunday. i think we're looking at light rain or snow showers pushing through the area. that means we may be having to deal with that at the bank. the m&t stadium, with the lions game. the southeast winds at 5-10 miles per hour. the rest of the week, still looking a bit chilly but better. 43 degrees on monday, partly cloudy, 44 on tuesday with rainshowers possible then. we will be a little bit warmer to allow for plain rain. 40 degrees on wednesday with partly cloudy skies. sky watch weather is available at your finger tips. iradar is available at foxbaltimore.com. you can use fox 45 powerful doppler radar to track the weather over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on iradar. now candace dold is becom back a look at the traffic edge. >> reporter: thanks, steve. take a look at the west side of the beltway, 28 miles per hour at security boulevard and 23 traveling through the catonsville area. we need to talk about baltimore county on the eastside. we do have a broken watermain at dundalk avenue that is collapsing at three different places. you will want to stick with stalers point road as an alternate. we have a crew on the way to the scene. but be aware that is going to be an issue for this morning. as far as the roads in the way, bernie highway, at the key bridge we can show you what that looks like. here it is, the cars are cruise along just fine on the belt way is not going to be affected by this incident. up at baltimore county, some flooding. it was there yesterday and unfortunately still there today. just is all of that what -- all of that water is going up eastern avenue and shutdown on earles road on the westbound side. trucks and buses can get by. he we do have an update for you this morning, the eastbound lanes are now open. you can travel through the area in the eastbound direction. as for the main lines traveling on 95 through the baltimore area it's going to be pretty clear and be aware an accident inside of the city he ha he edmondson t poplar road street. that's a look at morning commute. patrice, back to you. thank you, megan. it's time for the countdown to cri christmas. from now until christmas eve we're giving away the gifts under our christmas tree. we have another winner on the phone right now. >> that's right, good morning victoria from baltimore. good morning, victoria. >> good morning, ladies. >> happy holidays for you, by wait. >> thank you, same to you. >> i'm going to turn it around and reveal your gift which a $50 target gift card. so you can either use that and spend on yourself which is very nice or you can maybe get some more christmas shopping done for others. what do you think? >> love it. i was hoping for that, too. >> oh, good. >> we're glad we could give that to you, congratulations. >> we do have another winner and it's charles from jessup. he chose this one. how are you? >> fine. >> charles sounds happy. >> all right, charles, let's see what you got here? >> okay. >> you got a black box. we will flip it over. >> oh, charles, you got very lucky this morning. this is an hd video cam corder. it's 5 megapixles. it's got a digital zoom to it. this retails for $100. >> what do you think charles. >> thank you very much. >> you can capture all of your holiday memories this year. >> thank you very much and congratulations. >> don't worry if you didn't win today. we are giving away gifts all month long as a part of your countdown to christmas. [ tape clicking ] [ tape clicking ] [ tape clicking ] [ ribbon squeaks ] [ female announcer ] it's the most wonderful time of the year, and walmart's here to help. starting saturday, december 12th, at 8am through december 18th, get this 32-inch vizio 1080p lcd tv for $398. find even more specials at walmart.com/holidaysavings. save money. live better. walmart. find even more specials at walmart.com/holidaysavings. rumor has it, it's great food and a great atmosphere. it's dining deals day. for $25 you can get a $50 gift certificate to the rumor mill. it goes very fast so you want to make sure you log on to our website very quickly. chef, malone. how are you this morning. >> i'm great. >> we are diego a little seared scallops in the saute pan here. we are going to finish off with surf and turf. we have cucumbers or scallops on top of a pickled cu cucumber sa. we do a garnish in the center and some sort of vegetable. we will weigh one thing that we will have on the new year's venue. >> this time of the year i'm imagining you're busy with holiday parties and holiday events and that kind of stuff. >> we have. it's a great time of the year. everybody wants to talk about food and how do you cook for your family and how do you make your family eat. we brought small miniature ideas so they can stretch their budget. >> the way you present things, it's interesting to me. it's art and this right here, i have to show this here. what is this matt? >> i have a plastic maker up in new york who makes me mini push pops. >> everybody remembers push pops. >> yes, what is in this one. >> we have tuna tartar and you push on that, we will have you have a bite there. >> i couldn't keep talking and eat. we have a minute to get through a ton of stuff, what else? >> there's a soup, a nice way to pass things around. we have a little seared. we have chicken caesar salads. we have seared tuna. we have a big pare paired tart d the little mini version. we is a constructed cheese cake. you see the lamb chops there. >> what do you have over here? >> we did a little chemical, coming off of top chef's win. i'm not going to tell you who won. >> i already blew it for somebody around here. >> it happens. >> basically what we did. >> we took grilled great fruit and some fun chemicals and we're going to make caviar balls. we are going to put these on a spinach salad. everybody knows spinach salad, and caviar and grapefruit. >> what is in here? >> this is grapefruit juice that we grilled and add a couple of chemicals on it and dip it in a calcium bath. it looks like caviar. it's going to look fun. it's liquefied in the center and has a little skin on the outside. >> this is why i can always be a master eater and never a master chef. that is beyond what i can imagine. we got to get out of here. you got a ton of other stuff. let me stee tell you though, tot your $50 meal for $25 for all of this stuff right here, go to our website at foxbaltimore.com/dining deals. make sure you go right now because the gift cards are limited. you do not want to wait. does your phone do searches ? does your phone do searches, for example, the word "human" ? does your phone do searches for "human" on the web, then google maps for places named "human," your contacts for any friends named "human," which would be weird if you had one. even your music for songs you forgot you downloaded ? droid does. search all digital creation. in a world of doesn't... search all digital creation. are you getting into the holiday spirit. many of you have listened to christmas car rolls and strung some of the lights outside of your house. you have probably not put together something like this. take a look. ♪ >> impressive. >> it really is. >> this is actually in linden, utah. the family does this every single year. there's 150,000 lights. so they keep up those lights. >> i mean they have to keep most of them up throughout the year. >> right. >> this is a calm song, because a little bit ago we heard a song that was a little more jazzy which means their neighbors are probably going? >> the lights -- >> are moving according to the music. >> watch? ♪ >> i love it. i just think that is so great. >> i wonder what their electric bill is? >> i want to know who did that. >> megan is worried about the people who live next door. >> it's this time of year. i'm sure everybody loves it. >> there's snow on that house in utah. >> hopefully that is not the case here. >> no, it's not, but it's cold surface and on the roof. you are probably not hanging around the roof. >> were talking about the gusts. >> winds gusting up to 35 and it's going to be chilly indeed. 45 for the high. mostly clear skies for tomorrow, and 45 for the high. and sunday there's a chance for light snow showers. that is about it? >> things are turning dark for harry potter and his friends in harry potter and the half blood prince. >> it is harry's 6th year at hog worth school of wizardry. he discovers a book and