fire. it was a rough day, a rough start to the day for a man in lanham, maryland. he'd just awakened when a minivan smashed through his bedroom wall. michael flynn is here with that story. michael? >> reporter: pat, it appears all a driving lesson that went horribly wrong. the man inside the apartment had just woken up for a doctor's appointment when a minivan crashed through a wall and landed just a few feet from him. >> i say it was like an explosion when itame through the window. >> reporter: robert schreiber had just gotten out of bed this morning a minivan came crashing into his bedroom. the front of it landed right on top of his bed where he'd been sleeping only about ten minutes earlier. when it happened he was sitting in this chair, now surrounded by debris. >> when he came through, it was a big bang. and hit the floor and when i looked up there was a vehicle sitting there. >> reporter: a photo of the minivan sticking out of his lanham apartment. police say the driver did not have a license. the male passenger was giving him a driving lesson. flying debris from the impact hit his leg but he still went outside to help the driver and passenger out of the minivan. >> i've made many misnaics life and this might had been a simple mistake by them you know what i am saying, so no need to be upset. i'm upset that a lot of -- my wife's and mine furniture and stuff like that is destroyed. >> reporter: despite the large hole that's now in the side of his apartment and so many belongings ruined, he says he's the luckiest man in the world today because he's still alive. >> i'm blessed, god, let me know it's not my time because it could had been at that point so i'm blessed i go on living life the way i do. >> witnesses say the minivan driver and his instructor were parked in the lot next to scriber's when it suddenly took off. the driver is faced without a license and both passenger and driver are charged with reckless endangerment but boy, one lucky guy. back to you. >> incredible story, michael. yo for the firstime since mid-july average price for gasoline fell below $2.50. per gallon today in the washington metro area is $2.39. down five cents compared it a week ago and more than a dollar less compared to a year ago. the average price of gats in the district stz a bit more, $2.53. bob, this is pretty nice weather. >> nice weather to go for a drive now that the is gas cheaper, right. >> good idea. >> put the top down, just take in the sights. >> yeah. >> outside we've got another -- sunshine today and our temperature just about near our average. some spots into the low 70s. outside right now 69 degrees. and did you see that moon? have you seen the moon ostweekend? what a wonderful, wonderful time of the year especially with clear skies and again tonight, you'll be able to see it at 7:10 rising and see how large you think it is. outside now, our temperatures earlier in this morning, we were at 54 and still yet to get below 50 degrees officially here in washington, maybe tonight or later in the week. 40s around the lakes. you can see. meanwhile it's been warm and a bit on the humid side down south. miami right now 87 degrees and dew point's around us with that dry pattern, really delightful but look at jacksonville and new orleans, 75. dew point. down if new orleans. that's where there has been a little bit of rain. you can see a little circulation and another one up here. that's an area of low pressure that will move to our north and as it does, may bring in a few light showers, late tomorrow, first part of wednesday. in the meantime, though, it's producing a fair amount of rain, and earlier, yesterday, you could see that circulation, had some leftover snow. land over i'm with, 16 inches of snow yesterday. on the east side some rain showers moving to our north. the other bap of rain showers moving to our south. yesterday pine bluff arkansas, had two inches of rain burks here we are in between with hardly anying g oingon. so overnight tonight, we'll continue to see the skies clear. tomorrow and during the latter part of tomorrow watch that low pressure area moves to our north. trailing cool front made by early wednesday morning, may bring a few light showers but in back of it while the moisture may beoving out we're going to be seeing strong winds on wednesday. a rather blustery day on wednesday. tomorr into the low 50s, once again tomorrow afternoon into the 70s, but we'll see after a clear beginning tomorrow morning, we'll see some increase in clouds. but when you get up and head out tomorrow morning it will be another chilly morning. as low as the low 40s for you folks out in the suburbs. 50 degrees. getting that late sunrise. look from the clouds to begin inea increasing. i think any rain showers holding off except from the folks up in west virginia mountains, tomorrow night and cloudy skies tomorrow evening. a chance of some light rain showers. we're a little bit on the dry side. then after they move by wednesday morning, rather blustery, windy day, and although a mild day on wednesday. nice shyne back on thursday and friday and the weekend, i'll tell you more about the weekend a little bit later. >> we were all -- >> thank yo bob. well, coming up on news4 at 5:00, autism. why it may affect more families than you thin the proof is in the numbers next. plus swine flu fears p we're getting answers from the experts and putting the rumors to s dyuggethat seers prevusly beev resech wasuced by ientistist aticvard scolnd government agenci autismedhat every n 90 of the previous estatas 1 150drch reporty r than medica professionals. the udy findingaphe jonaiaics." > stain ekeah exs he acr tnaonill bollingn you the first th is fe er ma peoere w misthma care he to and tore somety saf coer. answer some ofrueions than cck, jaie. ande is wheer vacne h1n1 sa e a l opl eotonvinc >> thabsut tnd patiehi of t time the bottom line is this it's the seon flu vaccsus s the in the seal a a ofpeople don'tr ffertfl. that ady ann1-le v and in thnes st the o s tte n maane po t andn tested on ople it's been tested onots o d that ound that vir exa kwndveas t seasonal flu >> su >>there's n dice saking ofget the seasonal vacce can'. yo jt t one the right.ason t ant has do member we werpp our flu sea here last year t is whe they t nexyearl f s vi discovered, ts thi seluonal f1it jtid ne it intth ccin no covern seanalu it two dferent vaccis t dferecomponents one es n tak the pce of the r. sa t same te. i believe y'll be able to botht in n the b o them the same time. >> okayt' mait bo e t i benninugdisced. hayouoohat the pandemic is, the world led thocnd all that was saying it's a new virus, it is global and it can have very severe consequences and then you take that and you say well, we've experienced it now here in our area and not so many people are getting horribly sick, but that brings up sort of the second misconception which is people are getting very sick and we don't know who they are. they tend to be pregnant women, the very young and healthy people. so why risk it and turn out to be the one who gets very sick when you can in fact get vaccinated? >> when you talk about the vaccine the shot versus the mist, do they both work the same way or equally as well? >> right they, both work equally as well. this is a phenomenally effective vaccination, whether you get it as a nasal spray or whether you get it as an injection. >> is there anyone who shouldn't get it? >> well, i think they're going to be people who have to line up to get it in a certain order and what we're really going for is to vaccinate it first, those at highest risk because tho tend to be the people that we have seen have gotten very sick, and again those are pregnant women, those are young children and those are people who take care of young children and lastly, those are healthy young adults. >> okay you've been seeing a lot of patients in your office asking a lot of questions. >> yes. >> and you've answered a lot of ours. dr. jackie, thanks so much. keith? >> thank you, pat, thank you, dr. jackie. a professor at johns hopkins university school timore is this year's nobel prize recipient. car carol greider is one. shares the prize with elizabeth blackburn and jack szostak. had is the first time two women have shared the nobel prize in medicine. coming up, mocking the candidate, the race for governor of virginia gets nastier. we'll show you the youtube video that's grabbing some attention. and open house, open target. we'll reveal the scheme that hit homeowners all over our region. >> i'm liz crenshaw, says it'll change the way you clean bare floors forever. does it really do that? >> reporter: as we travel the 95 corridor as you can see here out of springfield we've got significant delays. this is the pace as you make your way southbound continuing through wood bridge down towards quantico. a big problem though if you are traveling along 66. 66 was shut down for a time due to an overturned vehicle. and that has caused big delays. the belt way's also slow both on outer and inner loop on both side. the stay tuned. we're following breaking news out of fairfax county, where a woman says she was abducted. the woman tells police she was taken to a homeless camp. fairfax county police are investigating the incident as an abduction and sex assault. officers are now on the lookout for a man fleeing the area on a bicycle. more on this story as information becomes available. welcome back to news4 at 5:00. i'm keith garvin. house of ruth, refugee for battered women and their family, hangs in the balance. the race for virginia hits the fast line. lane. police arrested two men accused in a regional burglary operation. the targeted open house is for sale. the guy's allegedly posed as father and son while stealing homes on the market from maryland and virginia. chris gdon is live at alexandria headquarter, chris? >> reporter: these larcenies were not only committed in broad daylight, but right under the nose of real estate agents trying to sell houses. but in the end it was a network of realtors, communicating with each other and police who put an end to it. police say the open house sign was an open invitation to thieves, who posed as father and son and stole tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry and cash. from houses on the market for sale in alexandria, fairfax, montgomery county and baltimore, maryland, where just last weekend police arrested 51-year-old john palmer jr. of glen burnie maryland and 22-year-old samuel goldstein of dunn dock maryland. going on since may but just two weeks ago at an open house in alexandria, virginia, realtor mary got suspicious. >> they purposely put me in a position where one could go upstairs and look for jewelry. spent a lot of time looking and the next morning it was still gone and i said, call the police right away. >> reporter: the homeowner reported the theft to police who asked the northern virginia association of realtors to post a description on its website alerting its members. >> not only do we have it our website and also our melt pel listing service so any realtors on the mls a warning was there. >> reporter: he and his wife patricia were ready at an open house last week when the phony father and son team showed up. >> something was suspicious. and it didn't ring right. and i remembered the alert we'd had so i came back and took out my pen and piece of paper and wrote down the license tag number. the older fellow in the house came outside and said, is there a problem? and i said, no, i was just looking at the car. >> as soon as i ran the license plate, we had one suspect and we're able to determine the other. >> now the two suspects are being held in kwucustody charge with a string of larceny. they are being charged with stealing tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry. but because of the quick action of the realtors and the police some of that stolen property has been recovered. live in the studio, back to you. >> chris, thank you the husbands of a piano teacher is behind bars in fairfax on charges he abused two young girls. she said she was abused when she was just 7. since then sully feliz had found a 19-year-old girl whoallies she was abused when she was younger. 71-year-old george copping lives in australia but police arrested him recently in los angeles. cheap shot or simply stating the facts. new troefrp today surrounding the virginia governor's race. b.e.t. cofielder shielda johnson is caught on video mocking democrat at a fund-raiser for republican bob mcdonald. in the clip johnson talks about her feeling that deeds has trouble articulating his views for virginia and then pretends to stutter. a mcdonald rep says the mocking of opponents stuttering to illustrate on unable to express any vision. calls it a cheap shot and says while the candidate not the smoothest speaker. high is authentic and means what he says. it would affect the homeless. >> the struggling economy's not only increased the number of homeless residents in the district it's reduced the number of resources for that population. resources that could be in further jeoparoundy. >> there are clearly folks out there that are waiting for something. >> reporter: the city's department of human services committee met today to discuss a proposal to cut more than $11 million from that department's budget. it is a loves funding that could lead to a rise in homelessness on district streets. >> cause i don't know how we're supposed to tell constituents of ours that we serve, i am sorry you have to sleep out on the street. that cannot be the option. that cannot be the only option. oh, i'm sorry, orleep in your car and pose on a relative like you've already been doing. the government can't be there for you. >> we have been using our available resources to enhance our ability to serve our homeless neighbors, okay? and we will absolutely continue do that. >> reporter: the cuts would eliminate nearly $500,000 for the house of ruth. a domestic violence center that serves more than 600 district women and their children. many of them had been driven from their homes by abuse. >> it means that we may have to ultimately close programs. >> reporter: house of ruth president crystal nichols appeared before today's committee to ask for the money to be reinstated. nichols says without the funding, more than a hundred women and children will lose assistance. >> there is really no other place for these women and these children to go so we have to figure something out and i want the government to understand that they're putting us in an impossible situation. >> reporter: one of the wom who could be affected is vaughn. vaughn joined the house of ruth 18 months ago. she says eliminating a program that helped save her life could put precious others at risk. >> if they cut the services, you guys are going to get one of two things. you will get what you had 18 months ago, who was broken and didn't have anything, or you are going to get a brinda vaughn like now who has been taught that don't have to live life the way that i was living. i'm a new person. >> the apartment of human services says it is eligible for $46 million and funding from the federal government and try to use that money to aid programs in jeopardy. still to come tonight, extortion case, why one defense attorney says he can't a prominent capitol hill democrat is criticizing virginia leaders for being too slow when it comes to spending the state's share of federal stimulus money for transportation. the criticism is aimed at governor tim kaine but is having repercussions on the virginia's governor race. julie kwaer carey is here with . >> reporter: and he says virginia needs to pick up the pace in funding road pjects and getting people back to work. >> reporter: northern virginia's congested roads and what to do about them has been a trrl issue in the governor's race. now the campaign of republican bo mcdonnell has found an ally in an unlikely source the transportation chairman, just sent this scathing letter to governor tim kaine pointing out that virginia is dead last among all states in using its transportation stimulus funds. at the end of august, just 17% of the money had been committed. "virginia has fallen far behind other states. i strongly urge you to refocus your efforts." now republican bob mcdonnell is redirecting the criticism at his democratic opponent creigh deeds. a campaign stop in arlington, deeds, a seeking public input first. >> and here's the problem, it points out weakness in our transportation system. we didn't havthe ongoing projects that we could just pour the money into. we have to analyze all of our entire system and our entire project list to see where we can put the money to work as quickly as possible. the governor's doing the best he can to get the money out as quickly as he can. >> reporter: governor kaine's responded with a letter responding is overdated and viinia has funded far more projects. wrote, kaine, we assure you the commonwealth is implementing aara funds according to the intent of the legislation." but republican congressman frank wolf says the overstar letter hurts both governor kaine and the democrats who wants to replace him, creigh deeds. >> it's not good for him because he f he says he wants to be like the existing group the existing group hasn't done very good. so probably not very, very good. i think that the money, rather than attacking people, and i think the money ought to be -- they make sure they have the full allocation and get it out quickly. >> coming up at news4 at 6:00 the view of a former virginia governor mark warner, now u.s. senator. now become to you. >> julie carey, thank you. the man accused in the extortion plot against david letterman says he cannot wait to cross-exam the "late night" host. police arrested 51-year-old tv producer robert joe halderman. he's accused of trying to blackmail letterman for $2 million. prosecutors say halderman was in debt and told letterman that his world would collapse around him. halderman's lawyer says letterman's bombshell on his show didn't tell the whole story. >> letterman gave what he wanted the public to know. he wanted to get out ahead of the story earn that's exactly what he did. he's a master at manipulating audiences, that's what he does for a living so to think that david letterman gave the entire story and nothing more to be said is simply wrong. >> halderman's next court date is next month. he faces up to 15 years in prison if he's convicted. coming up, find out where's the best place to live. and coming up in sports it wasn't easy but the redskins got a much-needed win yesterday. lindsay has today's reaction from the redskins park. >> reporter: i'm liz crenshaw the brissle says tell change the tonight, news about innovations so powerful it will change the way you clean your floors forever at least that's what the infomercial promises. >> this vacuum calls itself a breakflew floor cleaning that will make your house cleaner and your life simpler. the question is does it really do that? liz crenshaw has been checking it out. >> reporter: we just want the world's best vacuum all of the time. i don't know why it is. >> powerful. >> if you're like pat and keith, "v" is for vict rean versus. bissell that leaves you a clean floor and time and energy to spare, but does it really do that? you're about to find out. ♪ >> reporter: this is versus. the incredible new bare floor vacuum from bissell that effortlessly picks up dry floor messes. >> reporter: bare floor cleaning his taken a giant leap if you listen to the infomernal for the bissell vacuum. v-shaped which allows you to do three cleaning actions at once. >> hi, i'm eileen and this is tom. >> hello. >> reporter: eileen and tom leave no dirt unturned to show how its v-shaped creates a vortex in the suction that quickly picks up all kinds of dirt at the same time. so we sent the bissell to morris williams' house. he has lots of bare floors in his home and was interested in cleaning them quicker and easier. the bissell versus vacuum cost us $79.99 with shipping included and however nar price we're get a machine that creates a whole new category of bare floor cleaning. >> but -- >> does it really do that? >> it worked. bissell versus, how is it working for you. >> it seems to be pinning up very well sploo it does and your typical noisy machine but it makes some really clever claims. can i throw some stuff on your floor? >> sure. >> how about some big, chunky dog food up against that edge there? and with that, morris began to clean up the dog food. not much trouble at all. how about cheerios? and the versus did a nice job on cheerios too. chips? as well as crustchips. so we moved opto something much more difficult. okay this is a tough one small food-like rice in the corner. do you want to give it a try? >> yes, i do. >> reporter: now in the inmercial the versus makes a big deal about how well it takes on the toughest tasks. >> and finally its narrow arm fits into tight corners, fits all the way up to the edges. >> reporter: but at williams' house rice in the corner turned out to be a task the versus couldn't tackle. >> the rice seemed to push it into the corner to the point where you couldn't really pick it up. >> reporter: and williams had another complaint about the versus. >> but i know at didn't like to stay on the floor because of the swivel movement. >> kind of lipped out? >> yeah. >> reporter: bissell tell us that most consumers are happy with versus but it has made improvements in the maneuverability of the arms and suction at the end which will be available on models in time for holiday shopping. bissell says it will also offer special lower pricing. but morris williams says this v-shaped vacuum couldn't quite cut it for him. so the bissell vess versus does it really do that? >> for the most part, yes. >> reporter: for $80 would you buy it? >> no, i wouldn't. >> reporter: why not? >> because it doesn't pick u in the corners very well and also the wings come out occasionally when you are trying to maneuver around the corners. >> reporter: oh, boy. not too crazy about it. but anyway, if you would like to contact me by e-mail we have an easy way for you to do it. the e-mail for ask liz questions. does it really do that request, any info you would like to send me liznbcwashington.com. twitter.com, just search for liz crenshaw and morris was hoping it would be perfect but not quite so perfect. >> the v-shape makes it look cool but i guess it's not all that in the end. >> i think that things work out better in people's studios than in people's homes but i appreciate them helping us out. >> it depends on what you want to do. >> yes and no. >> the best country in the world to live in belongs to the canadians. the united nations human development index released today its list and norway tops the list. australia and iceland round out the top three. the index ranks 182 countries based on things like life expectancy, literacy, school enrollment and gross domestic product per captia, the united states ranked 13th. niger ranked last. >> all right so we're not number one, see if doreen can cheer us up. what's going on in sports tonight? >> not sure about that. >> i got nothing here to cheer you up. coming up on news4 at 6:00 a report from the white house as president obama wrestles with decisions on whether to send more troops to afghanistan. a college campus put on lockdown this afternoon after police receive reports of a gunman nearby. and some newly published letter it is from famous artist vincent van gogh are shedding new light on his personality. it turns out he may had been much more rational than people had thought in the past. those storiesen a lot more tonight at news4 at 6:00. see you then. >> thanks, doreen. >> sure. well, we want to continue following some breaking news out of fairfax county where a woman says she was abducted from the herndon park. the victim says she was taken it a homeless camp in the 200 block of west glade court in reston. officers are now on the lookout for a man who they say fled the area on a bicycle. well, it's a day to celebrate for washington. the football game turned out the way a lot of folks wanted it. >> yeah, a lot of people are complaining but dan, lindsay, a win's a win, right, so we thought. >> even if it's ugly? >> reporter: a win is a win. a little bit too close for comfort, but bottom line this could be one of the victories that i think people down the road look back that the season and say that was the turning point for the redskins. >> really two ways to look at the season so far. jim zorn likes to break it up in the quarters. the first quarter's in the books. beat two of the worst teams in the football with a combined five points or this team is 2-2 despite not having played anywhere close to their best football especially for an entire ball game. they are going to win ugly so we better get used to that even if clinton portis is ready to go. >> you are going to think it's madness. watch that guy. >> clinton portis ground out 98 tough yards on 25 carries. his longest carry of the day just ten yards. he was a grinder. it was a jekyll and hyde performance for jason campbell. a nice touchdown pass. the first one to chris cooley another solid day. 65 yards. nearly all the offensive players used to winning ugly the last few years, but jim zorn isn't buying that mentality just yet. >> i'm just going to keep on pushing. i feel like i'm the one that's reflecting on as well. it's reflecting on all of us but i'm the one, the focal point and it should reflect on me. so i'm not going to be happy with that. and we're going to keep pushing. >> i will take it any way that we can get it, seriously. you know it's tough to win in the football -- in the nfl, no doubt. and four turnovers on the day, it's really tough to win. and to come away with a win with that being the way it was, that's pretty big win for us. >> all right that's casey rabach. they barely won but they won and had four turnovers. >> exactly and jason campbell said the first half was the worst he's ever played. he said college, pee wee football, whatever, but bottom line is he learned i think a lot about himself as a leader yesterday d his teammates certainly backed him up. all in all, it ended a good day for jason campbell. >> proud of my teammates and coaches never gave up on me. they kept on believing and came out in the second half ijust wanted to start fresh. early in the game i was pressing too much and i felt like i had to motivate guys. i felt like i had to do more than my job than what i was doing and when i start do that i forgot about the way that i needed to do things to help us move the ball and win. >> reporter: but the second half was not without frustration for jason campbell. threw a third interceptiono akeem talib three picks for the buccaneers seemed to be campbell's leading receiver but kesspite turnover campbell threw touchdowns and shot downfield and as well as a comeback have earned his place as a teammate. >> i think that he's dane great job. i told him the only way to be able to know what he's got out there is about taking those chances. something for jason, okay i took that chance, watch that film, see what i should have did and now you can critique yourself and say now i know better. >> the best thing that happened today was us sticking with jason behind the tower turnovers i think that jason should be a leader of this team, sticking with it. it was a great feeling to see him continuously ing the ball and coming off of the field without coming off with an excuse, after throwing the interception. "oh yeah i got it." came off of the field. it was the play over with. >> 2-2 is better than 0-4, 1-3. >> hey did what they had to do. >> they won. >> they won. that's it we'll have more on sports coming up. meanwhile, coming up at 5:00, nothing to complain when it comes to the weather. >> but change is coming. bob will return with the well it doesn't get much better than this. bob ryan joins us from the weather center. no storms to talk about today. >> no, no storms for sure. heading out to school tomorrow morning another chilly morning with some spots into the low 40s, about 49, 50 degrees in town. next seven days, won't get much better than this. some clouds coming in tomorrow afternoon. it could be a few passing showers. very early wednesday but ill be a rather windy but mild day after that thursday, friday look pretty nice. and then into the weekend, i think we're going to be seeing part low sunny skies. maybe a morning shower on saturday. sunshine for sunday. back to you. >> all right, thanks, bob. coming up, a deadly firefight and the pressure to send more troops to afghanistan. >> jim and doreen gentzler are up next. d.c. high school students held protests today after more than 200 city teachers were fired. but fst swine flu vaccine given to health care workers today. a college campus was put on lockdown today as authorities responded to reports a gunman nearby. this week president obama's wrestelling with whether to send more troops to the war in afghanistan. good evening, i'm doreen gets ler. >> and i'm jim vance. two new factors weighing on the president's mind, the first is a weekend firenight which eight u.s. soldiers were killed. the second is the public campaign for more troops by the top u.s. commander in afghanistan. steve handelsman has our