Normally they have it blocked off. But today they dont. We contacted vdot. So did one of their contract plow crews to let them know about the unsafe conditions here. It wasnt long before the road was closed. Well be watching high water through the day and tonight. As the sun broke through and ice continued to melt, maintenance crews at schools made sure parking lots were ready for the return of schools. And families began to venture out to do errands put off during the storm. These boys had traded in their boots for crocs. Ready for the kids to go back to school. Its warming up and just, its great its all melting and looking forward to spring. This first graders take on our weather lately. His mom, glad to see the snow and ice disappearing. Im not a winter person anyway. Im happy that theres an early spring evening activities scheduled for Loudoun County schools were able to go ahead tonight. Back to you, doreen in the studio. Most school disz triktricts region have used six or eight snow days so far. Lets start in virginia, fairfax, loudoun, prince william, arlington have used eight days, so no makeup days so far. Alexandria Public Schools will use teacher workdays in mark and april to make up two snow days. D. C. Public schools will extend the school year by a day to make up for lost time. And in maryland, Montgomery County is extending its school year by two days. Prince georges county also has two days to make up. And will decide how to do that at the end of the winter. Right now the immediate concern is the potential for refreezing tonight. But then apparently its going to around here, doug. Dont we need it, guys . Yeah, we do. We do. Springlike for sure as we move into the 60s. In time for the weekend. The last couple of storms weve had a couple right during the weekend. The snow changing to ice and rain, and the rain moving out of the region early. Upwards of an inch in leesburg. Martinsburg, two inches toward the shenandoah valley. Radarestimated rainfall. To the south about an inch. Thats the rain, thats not the snow we saw. Thats the rain. We saw a lot of rain. Most of it was freezing rain. Now refreeze tonight. Yeah well see that tonight. A couple of delays out there. Beautiful weather moves in next couple of days. Yes, we are tracking another storm next week. Ill have more on the forecast coming up in a few minutes. Thanks, doug. The confirmed plans to give the public an opportunity the late justice antonin scalia. The body of the late justice will lie if repose in the great hall of the Supreme Court building. The public is invited to pay respects from 10 30 in the morning until 8 00 p. M. Right now Justice Scalias courtroom chair is draped in black as part of the Supreme Court tradition that dates back to the 19th century. Meanwhile, the bitter political battle over his successor continues. Republican leaders say the appointment should be left to the next president. But within the hour, president obama made it clear he intends to carry out his constitutional responsibility. Theres no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years. Thats not in the constitutional text. Im amused when i hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the into it a whole series of provisions that are not there. The president added he will present a nominee to the senate in due time. And he says the senate has more than enough time to vote on that nominee. Virginias president ial primary is two weeks away. Its on march 1st. Also known as super tuesday. We have the results tonight of a new president ial poll of likely virginia voters. The results suggest donald trump is in the lead on the republican side. Followed by marco rubio and ted cruz. Everyone else in the field is in single digits. And virginia. On the democratic side, Hillary Clinton holds a majority among likely primary voters. Leading Bernie Sanders 5240 . That poll was conducted by the Wassen Center for public policy. At Christopher Newport university in virginia. Right now the Democratic Candidates are scrambling for control of saturdays nevada caucus while republicans are locked in a pitched battle survival in South Carolina. Steve handelsman is tracking the race from capitol hill and he has more. Well everybody trying to survive except donald trump who looks like hes thriving in the palmetto state. Hes got double the poll numbers of ted cruz. Donald trump is the best weve got by far. Hes leading by 18 in South Carolina polls. Lets go get them. To survive past saturdays primary. Jeb bush needs trump seen as a joke. Ill be a commanderinchief, not an agitator in chief, not a blowhard in chief. In the state with so many activeduty and retired military, ted cruz promised a bigger u. S. Fighting force. With greater capacity to take on our adversaries. Let me be clear we will not go picking fights around the globe. Marco rubio picked a fight charging cruz military expansion. Hes weak on national security. He knows thats a liability in South Carolina. More than half of South Carolina democrats are black. We like to be treated fair. Hillary clinton courted africanamerican leaders in new york. My campaign is really about breaking every barrier. Bernie sanders, black clergy in South Carolina. When we talk about inequality, it goes without saying. That the Africanamerican Community is suffering even more. Sanders trails clinton by 21 in a new poll. South carolina democratic polls, vary widely. And experts warn that the polling in nevada where the democrats have their caucus on saturday night are even less reliable. And finally, a word doreen, about the virginia polling. Yes, its true, that the newport poll today shows clinton with a 12point lead over sanders. A month ago university of Mare Washington showed clinton with a 36point lead over sanders in the co which it always should be considered to be. Or clintons in a freefall in virginia. Which she might be. Doreen . All right. Steve handelsman, thank you. Nfl team owners including dan snyder contributed more than 4. 5 million to political campaigns last year. That is according to a new report by an Organization Called citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. That poll found snyder donated 100,000 to a superpac supporting jeb bush. The biggest contributor in the league is the owner of the houston texans, robert mcnair, who gave 3. 5 million to support several candidates. Last week the medical director for the d. C. Fire and ems service resigned in a blistering letter. And blasted the agency for having a toxic culture. Today the department responded. Newob memo given to d. C. Council members ahead of the hearing on the subject. D. C. Fire chief gregory dean directly responded to statements made by dr. Gillette saucy. The department went as far to say that dr. Saucy was dissatisfied or did not fulfill the duties of her job. In response to a specific claim that dr. Saucy was blocked from assessing the competency of paramedics, the Department Said this, quote, dr. Saucy did propose repeating and assessment of ems providers that was deemed by many to be unfair and an inaccurate measure of the providers competency. Dr. Saucy was tasked to come up with an alternative. She did not come up with an alternative. The new fire chief says the problem with d. C. Ambulances showing up late or not at all is closer to being fixed. A private company will soon help with 911 calls. Our Mark Segraves broke the story yesterday and talked to the chief today, asked him about concerns over the pl the chief and the mayor both have widespread support from the union and Council Member force this new plan. There are questions about what with a a patients rights will be under the new plan. And how long d. C. Plans on using the private ambulances. The citys confidence has been shaken in terms of their ability to know they have services when they need them. And they bring in a private ambulance as a shortterm fix. By no means is it going to be a longterm solution. What do you say to Council Members who dont want it to be a longterm solution . We bill gather all the data. Well talk about it with the Council Members and look at the best way to do this and well make some decisions. When private ambulances start transporting patients in about a month, it will only be those with nonlifethreatening problems. Every 911 call will be responded to by d. C. Fire. Once on the scene, d. C. Fire will decide who transportshe that process and have asked about what the patients rights are. Can they say, no, i would rather have d. C. Fire transport me . No, they cannot. The idea behind this is theyre making a determination based 0en what they see. If its a nonlifethreatening event, our goal is to get our units back in service by having them transported by amr. So the fire chief noncommittal on whether this is a shortterm fix or a longterm solution to the ambulance delay problem in the district of columbia. This is sure to come to a head tomorrow morning when the chief goes before the d. C. Council for his first oversight review hearing. Also at that hearing, will be his former medical director, dr. Juliet saussy. Who said in her letter that the private Ambulance Service fix was in her words putting a bandaid on a gushing wound. News4 will be at those hearings tomorrow. Crusade bay family to save lives after a deadly fire in a mansion, but tonight, theres a new effort in mirland to repeal a law that requires sprinklers in new homes. Some people say its just not necessarily. These tracks just outside of Silver Spring peaceful today. But 20 years ago on this day, a different story. An amtrak train and a marc train collided here. Im adam tuss and ill tell you about the safety changes that have been made since the crash coming up. A new chain of command in Prince Georges County. How the police chief plans to tackle a highprofile case involving allegations of child porn in. 20 years ago, rescue crews were trying to save passengers after an awful collision between an amtrak train and marc train in Silver Spring. 11 people were killed. Investigators say the marc train missed a warning signal on the tracks. A lot has changed to improve safety of rail systems since then. Transportation reporter adam tuss talked with some of the First Responders who combed through the wreckage that day. And he joins us live from Silver Spring. Hi, adam. That marc train was trying to make its way here to Silver Spring, but it never got here. Today those First Responders opening up about a day that sticks we went down there and we pulled down there and the smoke it just dwarfed the highrise. February 16th is not an easy day for jim lee may, a retired firefighter to talk about or think about. He was a lieutenant, one of the first on the scene when a marc train and amtrak train collided just outside of downtown Silver Spring. The collision so powerful that diesel fuel from the amtrak train was tossed everywhere and erupt erupted. Try to tell the young guys coming up in the ranks, when you go out always try to in your mind make the incident bigger than what it is, its easier to scale down than it is to scale up this one year i had no chance of scaling up that high. It was snowing that day and there was confusion about which train should have been on which track. An investigation concluded that the marc train was traveling too fast at a crossover point on the tracks and it didnt have enough time to slow down. The sight, the smell, everything that happened that day just stays with you forever. Monte fitch, a retired fire chief with montgomery fire and rescue who was there that day as well said amazingly there were no emergency exit windows on rail cars prior to that accident. First responders couldnt get to the passengers as fast as they wanted. Hard plastic windows, they wouldnt shatter. We couldnt get into the car at first. Safety changes now made with emergency exit windows in rail cars. These two say they were proud of the way their teams responded that day. But theyll never be able to forget what happened, even today, some posting signs to never forget that awful day. Investigators found that a signal that could have crew had been taken out of service as part of a signal upgrade. Back to you. Yet again, a car lost control and slammed into a building this time in rockville on rollins avenue between jefferson street and rockville pike. Two people in the car when it flew across a parking lot, and crashed into the atrium of a building. Those two were taken to the hospital to be checked out. Nobody seriously injured. No one inside that building was injured, either. Woman who lived in arlington is facing grand theft auto charges. After police say she got so drunk she stole a car and didnt remember doing it. Her name is samantha bauman. She told police she drank a bottle of wine before she took an uber to district taco in rosalyn last saturday night. Police say after going to the restaurant, bauman walked to a nearby hotel, got into car waiting to be valet parked and drove a bauman told police she woke up in the back seat of that car at 1 00 in the morning and drove home she went back to sleep and then called the police about 9 00 the next morning, to tell them she had the car. But didnt know why. Some of the nations leading scientists and doctors met in d. C. Today to brainstorm ways to stop the spread of the zika virus. The National Academies of sciences, engineering and medicine held a workshop. Scientists say theres still a lot they dont know. Theyre worried about zikas relationship to birth defects, its mysterious link to the paralyzing guillonbarre syndrome and how quickly its spreading. Its swept through the South Pacific to Easter Island and now jumped into latin america. So i think thats the speed and why it has suddenly gone so quickly, oversuch a Large National i cadmies will share a list of Research Recommendations with the department of health and human services. Torn apart by tragedy. Instead of hiding, a mother of a murderer. Is opening up about her sons demons and hopes to change minds and help others. Plus people in florida are picking up the pieces after a series of tornadoes tore through that state. So who gets this baby . No more teasing. No more talking. Its judgment day. The snow stick challenge i lead the 11 oclock news with stories of gun violence. And like many of you, my family lived through the beltway sniper crisis. In congress, ill fight to expand background checks on guns and ammunition, ban assault weapons, and mandate gun safety locks, because too many kids die were not afraid of them; as democrats, as americans, as parents. Im Kathleen Matthews and i approve this message. The National Weather service has just confirmed that a storm that roared through florida was an ef3 tornado. The series of storms blasted across the Florida Panhandle last night. This morning, Surveillance Video shows strong winds from an ef1 tornado that raged across the miami area. Bark was peeling off the palm trees there. The violent weather is part of the same storm system that brought snow, sleet and freezing rain to our area this week. In Loudoun County, virginia, investigators are trying to figure out if ice may have have caused a deadly crash along a busy roadway. A suv slack slammed into a backhoe along route leesburg. The driver, 18yearold geneva owens of Harpers Ferry died. Were told route 7 had been cleared, but there were still icy patches. Look here, at sligo creek in a takoma park earlier today. We could see more of this as the evening goes on and parts of the area. All of that rain along with melting snow causing the water to rise. It led to some standing water on the nearby parkway there. Right now the worst of the storm is over. Doug is up in the storm center now. To know what we can expect next. Whats up . What we can expect is some nice weather. Eall get to breathe a little sigh of relief. Because winter going to take a little break. Weve seen a lot of it the last couple of weeks. Were still going to be cool the next few days, but then we get to some really nice weather. Today a good day to get out and about. Maybe walk the dog a little bit. We had sunshine and the warmest temperatures in the ty seen in two weeks. So some very nice weather, around the georgetown waterfront a little earlier along the potomac. That is ambrose our photographer taking those shots today. Thank you very much for getting out there. Across our region, we did see numbers in the 50s, now back to the 40s in d. C. Winds out of the west at about 14 miles per hour. Already in the 30s, to the north and west. 39 hagerstown, martinsburg. 39 in gaithersburg. Tonight we will see the refreeze tonight. We saw the rain and melting snow, heres the rain that we saw. It came down hard earlier this morning and then quickly moved out by around the noon hour and this afternoon, we did see the sunshine coming in and now not a single thing on the radar at all. Now this is the storm. Look how big this storm is. Severe weather across the region even up towards philadelphia. 5065mileperhour winds in philadelphia, that caused damage there. You heard about the tornados in south florida. Around buffalo. They picked up nearly nine inches of snow. A this date. Heres the next storm thats coming our way this one will scoot just down to our south. Not going to be a factor. What will is the cold. We do have some cold air tonight. This is temperatures a little bit above average in most areas down to 28 gaithersburg, 30 in manassas. But we will see ice tomorrow morning. Heads up for that. Your Road Conditions this evening, just wet. Use caution on area roads, tomorrow morning areas of ice expect delays, possible School Delays, culpepper county called in with a twohour delay early tomorrow. Wednesday afternoon, no problems. We are all green by tomorrow afternoon. No issues at all and tomorrows impact forecast will stay on the low side. Clouds and sun, nice and quiet and we stay quiet for the next couple of days. Too. Yes were on the cooler side of things. 48 tomorrow. Thats not bad. With sunshine, pretty good afternoon. 39 on thursday. But again, with sun and light wind, thats a pretty nice day. 44 on friday. Plenty of un Super Saturday. 63 degrees on saturday. Were so optimistic about the weekend. 63 degrees saturday. Even good on sunday. You guys had to put that up there, didnt you . Tracking the next chance of snow. Coming up at 6 45. Now i have to talk about that. For now we love Super Saturday as you call it. Right there. A lot to look forward to. Thank you, doug. A burn survivor is sharing his experience as lawmakers in maryland decide whether to repeal a law making sprinklers mandatory in new homes. Prince georges county has a new chief of police, im Tracee Wilkins coming up on news4, why some Council Members and officers were worried about diversity within the upper ranks. The rumor mill is hot about the contract for kirk cousins, some say talks have broken off and theyre no lon negotiating. Our guys say hold on. That may not be the case. A veteran of the Prince Georges CountyPolice Department has become the new chief. The county council named interim chief Hank Stawinski to the slot. He starts his tenure with bureau chief Tracee Wilkins is live in upper marlborough with the story and the chiefs new focus. There were Council Member who is wanted to make sure that it was understood that they are interested in diversity in the upper ranks and also showing that they have some serious concerns and they are very confident in their new chief as well. You have my personal word that should i earn that trust today know it will be my daily work to earn that trust every day that follows. New Prince Georges County police chief Hank Stawinski is coming into office as one of the countys most farreaching case of child sexual pornography is unfolding. Its very disturbing that he would manufacturer trust so that he could abuse it. Stawinski stood shoulder to shoulder with county leaders last week promising the countys full commitment to the prosecution of deonte carroway, a 22yearold Elementary School volunteer now facing multiple chargesor pornography and sexually abusing as many as 50 children in multiple locations, including the school he worked at. So far 16 victims have been identified by police. My main concerns right now are did he work with anybody else . And how did he finance this . Because that will tell us, if there are additional victims out there that were not aware of. Right now thats our daily work. The Prince Georges CountyCouncil Approved stawinski trusting that concerns raised during his confirmation hearing will be addressed. Including diversity within the upper ranks of the department. We continue to look within the ranks to promote those who upper ranks can look like the county. Im completely committed to a Police Environment that reflects the community. We need only look at examples on the National Stage where departments didnt have the capacity to connect with the community because they didnt have command officials in a position to do that directly. In Prince Georges County. He had been with the Police Department for 23 years and his dad was also a Prince Georges Police officer. He said this is his dream job. Reporting live in upper marlborough. Im Tracee Wilkins, back to you. A man who the Swimming Coach at st. Marys college for almost two decades, is facing child pornography charges tonight. That school is in southern maryland, and on friday, officers arrested Andre Barbins after they searched his home in calvert county. Were told investigators found evidence of child porn on some of the devices inside that house. Barbins has been the coach at st. Marys for the last 18 years. The assistant coach has taken over that role. Fairfax county homeowners could face a property tax increase but schools wont get all they asked for under the budget revealed by the county executive. Ed long presented his budget that increases spending by 4 . Schools will get less than half of the increase requested but taxpayers could pay more. Im recommending that the 2017 advertised budget include as tax increase of 4 cents from 1. 09. The impact to home owners will be 303. Supervisor pat harrity attacked the plan for another tax increase, he said it will come to an average of 1200 over the past five years. Public hearings will be held on this in april. The d. C. Schools chancellor just became one of the highest paid executives in city government. Today the d. C. Council approved a 3 pay raise for kayia henderson it brings her base salary to 292,000. Slightly higher than d. C. Police chief kathy lenier. Performance bonuses could add another 15 . Council member says they hope retain chancellor henderson when her contract officially expires next year. We turn to weather now. The rain is gone but theres still concern about possible refreezing on our roadways. Doug has the latest. I think were going to see it tonight. We still have a couple of areas that have snow on them. Back to the west that saw six to eight inches of snow yesterday. The storm system that came through here brought the very heavy rain today. We did see flooding as a result. Thats allowing us to cool overnight. Theres another storm system moving our way. This one will track to our south. Bring us cloud cover tonight. Temperatures will still get below the freezing mark. Well talk more about it and talk about the next storm chance after the warm air this week, talk about things next week. All right. Thank you doug. Most of it is melted now. Its probably safe resulted in so much red and blue dye in the snow. Our chief snow correspondent pat collins asked to you get patriotic for his latest snow stick challenge. Lets check in with pat and meet the winner tonight. Washington, you outdid yourself again. You showed your red, white and blue. The entries were fantastic. And it was close, real close. At the finish it got down to just one point. Practices the president s day snow stick challenge. Do something patriotic in the snow. Do something patriotic with the snow. The best in snow gets an official pat collins snow stick. We had an awardwinning panel of judges. They did their due diligence. And using an olympic style voting system, they selected a winner. The four finalists in no particular order. George Washington Crossing the the iwo jima reenactment. And the Teddy Roosevelt snow sculpture and the marching band and the winners, the Howard Family from alexandria it was the Howard Family that created the snow sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt. And the judges voted it the best of the best. I thought teddy showed the most skill. The sculpting of the nose and the mustache. It looks like him. Sort of a caricature. Even with the little hat thats kind of a signature thing. Its pretty remarkable. Took some time on that. Its a good thing we have the picture. Because today well today teddy has gone the way of frosty. Look what happened to teddy. Yes, it is sad. Remnants now. Yes, they worked so hard. The rain got to it, though. Missing from the stick Award Ceremony today, leahs husband, sort of drawn to teddy. I think my husband decided to channel you know his inner architect like michaelangelo with david. To figure out when president spoke to him and it was teddy who emerged. Congratulations to the Howard Family. Winner of the president s day snow stick challenge. Thanks to everyone who participated. Ill see you at the next one. And teddy, teddy im thinking of you, teddy. Jim . Did you say at the next one . Is that what you said . Listen to doug. Huh . Listen to doug. Were hoping that that lovely family doesnt have any snow to measure with there. We got hundreds of entries for the snow stick challenge. Check them out in our nbc washington app. Open them up and search snow stick. A makeshift memorial gin of a crime for the First Time Since two deputies were shot and killed. Plus a murder suspects mother is turning her pain into empowerment and talking about her sons d the panera restaurant where a harvard county sheriffs deputy was killed reopened today. David evans shot and killed Senior DeputyPatrick Daley in the restaurant in abingdon last week. The gunman ran outside where he shot and killed Senior Deputy mark lockston. A memorial, flowers, balloons and signs is sitting outside the panera now. Services are being held for the deputies it week. Official says its not clear why evans shot those officers. The mother of a murderer is sharing her story with news4 tonight in hopes of changing minds. And maybe saving lives. Last october antoine tan yarks before turning the gun on himself. Sullivan was a d. C. Protective services officer. Crella Sullivan Smith said she learned after the murder suicide that her son had a history of violence against women. She said his father was also abusive and took his own life when antoine was young. Probably in the middle, something happened. I dont know what. Its always the question of was it something, could i have seen something . Could i have done something differently . Crella Sullivan Smith invited a psychotherapist to speak at her sons memorial about depression and domestic violence, shes become an advocate in the community, taking her message to churches and local events. If you know someone who might need help, you can find a list of local Treatment Centers and phone numbers on nbcwashington. Com, search changing minds. Now heres chris gordon with whats coming up next. The victim of a fire how a geico for your boat. See how much you could save. Well never know if a Sprinkler System could have saved the family who died in this annapolis house fire. But thats the goal of a new maryland law. Preventing more deaths. It requires all newly constructed homes to be equipped with sprinklers. But some builders and homeowners say its too expensive. Today lawmakers are holding a hearing to determine if local counties can opt out. Chris gordon reports. I was burned on 50 of my body. He lives with the scars and surgeries from the fire at a Prince Georges County body shop three years ago. The building i was in did have a sprinkler contained the fire. Since i was the only one who had major burns. It helped a lot of my other coworkers. Not sustain any of these injuries. And as far as you did, it saved your life . 100 , yes. Last january, this massive house fire in annapolis killed four children and their grandparents. Don and sandra pyle. The house didnt have a fire sprinkler, because it wasnt required by Anne Arundel County when the house was built. Since the fire, members of the pyle family have been lobbying lawmakers about the importance of mandating sprinklers. Today in annapolis this Committee Hearing is packed with firefighters who support the state requirement that new construction must include fire sprinklers. In Montgomery County in 2015, we had 44 sprinkler activations in the county saving over 26 lives. But the housing industry supports a bill that allows Rural Counties to be able to opt out of the state mandated sprinklers. Il almost as effective as sprinklers. Which can cause 6,000 to 20,000 to install. I know businesses that have closed because they arent selling homes and up in the rural areas where theyre so close to pennsylvania and west virginia, youre finding those people are moving out of state. Prince georges county has required residential sprinklers since 1992. Montgomery county, since 2004. In all of those years neither county has suffered a single fire fatality in a home equipped with a Sprinkler System. In annapolis, chris gordon, news4. The internet is now abuzz today about a new bald eagle camera. The eagles are named mr. President and the first lady. They built their nest at the National Arboretum in 2014. The American Eagle foundation launched a live camera yesterday. First lady has laid two eggs in the past week. Both parents will incubate the they roll like that the eggs will hatch in about a month. The bald eagles are the first ones to nest at the National Arboretum since 1947. Doug, i seem to recall it snowed on february 16th in 47. Can you look that up and tell me if my my recollection is correct. You are correct. You dont have to look it up . I dont have to look it up. Good. Very exciting to be able to watch those eagles. Pretty cool. Thats very cool. I cant wait for the hatchlings. I bet theyre happy about the sunshine and warmer temperatures today. I have not been happy about it nice weather in a long time. Its been tough over the last couple of weeks, weve been weather alert for the last five days in a row for different types of storms. Finally were not in weather alert mode. Were in blue mode, whatever mode you want to call it just nice weather this evening. Well see the refreeze. 0 u i think the district is going to be okay. 46 degrees in the city. Cur were down to about 37 by 11 00. So notice were in the going to drop that fast tonight this is not going to be a frigid night. Temperatures mostly in the 40s, 41 reston down towards warrenton. 39 gaithersburg and annapolis at 44. We may see a bit of a refreeze overnight. That could cause problems tomorrow morning. But im not anticipating major issues. But give yourself extra time. There could be a few School Delays out there. Thats something well continue to monitor for you. Hour by hour tomorrow, 7 00 a. M. , 34 in the city. Most areas below freezing. 40 degrees by 11 00. 46 by 3 00. Were going to see a mix of sun and clouds, but still 46, thats a nice winter day across our region. By 7 00, were cool, down to 40 degrees. Not bad at all. A nice day. Now our next storm chances, we get warm over the weekend. We see the pattern shift again to similar pattern weve seen over the past couple of weeks. Deep trough of low pressure along the east. We see another storm develop down to our south. That moves up. So the pattern is ripe for will it be rain or snow . Way too early to tell. If somebody is out there telling you were going to get a lot of snow, dont listen to them yet. Again we got a lot of time to figure this out. Heres one thing we know, saturday night sunday are going to be awesome. 63 on saturday. 62 on sunday. Im so happy not to work on the weekends, ive worked a lot of weekends. We know you have. Thats all we need to know for now. Were looking forward to enjoying the nice weather this weekend. Weve got sports coming up. A duel of Division Leaders has special meaning for one of the newsest caps. Ja this is the xfinity sports desk. Brought to you by xfinity. Your home for the most live sports. Today it was anywhere where there were more than two people. This thing with kirk cousins, whether the team is done with him. Stop negotiations . Contract talks. Whats the deal . Now is not the time to freak out if youre a redskins fan. Still plenty of time to get the deal done between these two sides. The deadline for the to tag nfl players, franchise tag them march 1 at 4 00 p. M. So the redskins have two weeks to work out a contract with him. Earlier today there was a report saying the two sides had broken off contract talks. But that is not the case. Source out at telling Carol Maloney that the contract talks between the two sides, cousins camp and the skins are still ongoing. Cousins played his first full season as starter, he led the skins to a 97 record. Firstplace finish in the nfc east this year. He made just under 700,000 last season. But hes now a free agent. The skins hope to sign cousins to a longterm deal. But if they cant, that franchise tag still an option at an estimated salary in the neighborhood of about 20 million. A lot of people are torn about this the big question, do you sign kirk cousins after one season . One full season as starter . Do you sign him to a longterm contract . Or do you pay him 20 million next season, franchise him, see if he can duplicate the success and get a longterm deal done. Youre talking about the in 15 million range. People are saying 15 million to 18 million a year is what he will make. I dont think it matters. All that much, does it really . Are you hesitant to sign him to a longterm deal after one good season, though . No. I think it only gets better from here. He knows the system, we saw what he did. I think his future is very, very bright. Could they sign him to a shortterm contract . Well hes not going to want to sign a shortterm contract. So then whats you have to. Hes going to be back next season, under the franchise tag or longterm contract. Hell be back next season. Well see how it plays out. I understand why the skins are a little hesitant. Or why they would be. I think they should sign him to money and then get a defense. A whole defense. A whole defense. Some more redskinsrelated news, a report in the sports Business Journal today, that the league is likely to schedule the redskins cowboys game as one of its two thanksgiving day games this upcoming season. How about that the game would but the nfl is not confirmed that report. Regularseason schedules arent usually finalized and released until mid april. Were going to move on to the ice now. Tonight the capitals host the kings. More importantly, brooks orpik will play tonight. The capitals topline defensemen has missed the last 40 games due to injury. This contest tonight a special one for some of the newest capital, senator Mike Richards and ford justin williams. Both were members of the kings when they won the stanley cup back in 2012 and 2014. Their first meeting against their friends, former teammates. I mean i want to say just another game, but its not. It has a lot of meaning to me. It has a lot of importance to me. And the at the same time its a lot of importance for our team. Youre playing against all your friends, any time you play anything against your friends, you get a little competitive. Whether its cards or street hockey as a kid or whatever it is. It would be nice to win the game. College hoops, georgetown having a tough go latety. The hoyas 1412 this season. Most recent loss coming in providence on saturday. The Silver Lining from that game. They did cut down a 26point deficit to one before falling. The time is starting to run out on their season. Five games left before the conference tournaments, they need to string together some wins to get into march madness. We just have to stay in the moment. We have to stay in the moment. We cant get lost in whats happened in the past. We cant start looking oh, if this, go down the road. We have to take care of each and every possession. Every half basketball. I think were a tournament team. We had a lot of close losses, a lot of losses we let slip away if we eliminate those, were in the field. Were not going to quit, were going to keep going out there and playing like its our last. And hopefully we end the season off right. Too much talent on the team to not be in the tournament. Hopefully they get it turned them, george washington, maryland. All the local teams go to the dance. That would be delightful. Thanks, jason. Thats our broadcast for now, nightly news coming up next. We hope to see you for news4 at 11 00. I lead the 11 oclock news with stories of gun violence. And like many of you, my family lived through the beltway sniper crisis. In congress, ill fight to expand background checks on guns and ammunition, ban assault weapons, and mandate gun safety locks, because too many kids die from accidental shootings. Lets show the nra were not afraid of them; as democrats, as americans, as parents. Im Kathleen Matthews and i approve this message. Breaking news tonight. Slamming trump. President obama comes out swinging late today. A harsh attack on the gop frontrunner and firing back in a blockbuster battle over the Supreme Court. Buried and blown away by record snow and a ferocious tornado outbreak. A massive storm stretching over 1,000 miles. To catch a serial killer. The grim sleeper trial in los angeles after a decadelong cold case mystery. How a bite of pizza may have caught an infamous murderer. Slashing the price of prescription drugs by as much as 95 . How people are going around their Insurance Companies and saving big money. And the fur is flying