The 1987 album faith sold more than 20 million copies around the world. Born Georgios Kyriacos panayiotou to a greek immigrant father and mother the singer won wide praise for his tremendous vocal raij range, but his risky behavior and brushes with the law kept him in the headlines. A grave bout of pneumonia left him near death in 2011 but he pulled through to survive. Ive never appeared on stage and left disappointed to this day. Reporter according to statements sunday from his publicist saying it is with Great Sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend, george, passed away peacefully at home over the christmas period. The family would ask that privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. George michael dead at the age of 53. Still so shocking to me thinking about that. Just so random, like you said earlier. Dinner last night with friends and we all pick up our phone and its like another one, another death of a well you know, somebody we all knew and loved. Right. Well, yeah, people tweeting about it on social media. Elton john, Ellen Degeneres a few of the celebrities who went on line to hear how sad they were about George Michael. Actors and comedian also wrote that michael was an icon an ally and a legend. He will be missed for sure. A lot of people are praying for Carrie Fisher right now. Shes being treated in the hospital right now after she had a heart attack on a plane last week. That was friday actually. Posted on twitter saying she was in stable condition now. She also said she would give an update if there is one. A winter storm continues to make its way through the upper midwest. A White Christmas to the region. Some parts of the state were blanketed by as much as 18 inches of snow. Thats a foot and a half. The blizzard conditions have made it almost impossible to travel on roads. Slippery roads, low visibility have caused many accidents, shutting down major interstates, even. Treacherous conditions because of snow and ice in arizona as well. Some highways had to be shut down after multiple accidents sent people skidding off the road and right into each other. Flag staff got 10 inches. No such luck around here if youre into that sort of thing, a lot of snow. Not a White Christmas at all. Into that sort of thing. Yeah, we all would have l little snow on christmas, but now thats in the Rearview Mirror a lot of people are happy to see it go we the wayside. We have a lot of clouds outside this morning and though theres not much of a rain threat in the forecast, a period of drizzle or two might keep things on the damp side for today. Milder for tomorrow, a little better chance for some showers late tonight into the first half of tomorrow, but tomorrow up near 60 degrees. Theres no bitter cold anywhere this week although it will cool down a bit between now and new years and the early lean on new years, 2017 looks like it will start out on the wet note. The whole forecast coming up at 4 51. Until then, see you soon. A good day after christmas to you, jack taylor. Good day to you as well. If youre headed out on virginia and south on 95, a little bit of a heads up. A tractor trailer broken down. Weave got two right lanes closed. 95 southbound headed downward the Prince William parkway. Dealing with 50 eastbound. The ramp was temporarily closed to remove the accident from the ramp. 50 is unaffected in either direction. 4 35 now. Its the thought that counts when it comes to the gifts some people say, but sometimes that gift, especially when it comes to clothes may need to be returned. Walmart opens this morning at 6 00. Target an hour later at 7 00 and most of the malls in the dmv will open between 8 00 and 9 00 this morning. You can look on our nbc washington app for specific times. And heres Something Else you want to keep in mind for today. Dont expect to check the mail. Just stay inside where its warm. The u. S. Postal service is closed today in observance of christmas because it fell on a sunday. Only Priority Mail express will be delivered today. Well, as christmas comes to a close, the start of kwanzaa gets underway. Celebrates family, community and culture. This is a picture from the celebration last year. Today there will be a celebration at the four Walls Education Center in d. C. At 5 30 this afternoon. The celebration will have performances from the kumba kids and the African Dance company. Also being celebrated through january 21st is hanukah. The National Lighting was held near the white house and this is called the worlds biggest menorah. The menorah is next to the National Christmas tree which is also attracting holiday visitors from around the world. President elect donald trump will wake up this morning in his estate in south florida with his inauguration just 25 days away. Trump has meetings. He announced he will close his foundation before taking office. Edward lawrence will have details on that in just a few minutes. President obama spent part of his christmas calling troops. He called one member of each branch of the military to thank them for their service. The president and first lady also thanked troops in person on sunday in hawaii. Thats where theyre spending their holiday. It is the last time he would take part in his annual tradition as president. We will get a break from the bitter cold, but for how long . Chuck is updating your what to wear forecast. Developing right now, officers on leave after a Deadly Police shooting in florida. Y the chief says therwhe sure, you could sit around all night waiting for a pizza to be delivered. Its baking season. Warm up with pillsbury. That sound. Like nails on a chalkboard. But listen to this family talking thats a different kind of sound. The sound of the weekend. Its baking season. Warm up with pillsbury. 4 40 is our time right now and were off to a pretty temperate start. Our average low temperature is right around 30 degrees so were about 5 to 10 degrees above average on the 26th of december. If youre going to be out and about today, as much as you love what you got, sometimes youve got to bring it back. The wrong size perhaps. Temperatures mid to upper 30s for now. Not a big rise in the temperatures. Well inch our way into the upper 30s. Youll need a hat, maybe a light jacket. Needing an umbrella. Lots of clouds meaning today will be marginal at best by most standards but rain chances are only about 20 , so not much of a rain threat for today. We could have some freezing drizzle up across southern pennsylvania. Better rain chances for tomorrow with some milder air coming our way. Well be up near 60 tomorrow. A complete check of the whole tenday forecast coming up in ten minutes. All right. Were going to start off with a little bad news, unfortunately. Its in virginia on 95. It is south southbound. Authorities on the scene of a crash. Two right lanes are taken away. Its not causing a huge delay. The beltway itself otherwise looks good. The inner and outer loop, all lanes accessible. That ramp to 202, an earlier crash that had temporarily closed the ramp. That has now clear sod youve got all travel lanes available. Back to you. Its 4 41. 25 days until donald trump takes the oath of administration as time runs thin. The Holiday Shopping rush is far from over. Why you may have a harder time retu sure, you could sit around all night why you may have a harder time retu waiting for a pizza to be delivered. But wouldnt making it yourself be a lot more fun . Its baking season. Warm up with pillsbury. At progresso, we are now using 100 atibiotic and hormonefree behold our greatest opus we asked people to write down the things they love to do most on these balloons. Travel with my daughter. Roller derby. Now give up half of em. Do i have to . This is a tough financial choice we could face when we retire. But, if we start saving even just 1 more of our annual income. We could keep doing all the things we love. Prudential. Bring your challenges. Welcome back. President elect donald trump will take the oath of office in 25 days. Hes already having an impact when it comes to the way he reacts to world events. Reporter we know that hes inserted himself into world events via twitter. However, over the past 24 hours the president elect has taken off of twitter other than to wish folks a merry christmas. We dont expect that silence to continue. He has a few spots left to fill in his cabinet. Thre b the director of national intelligence, secretary of agriculture and secretary of veterans affairs. I want to take care of our veterans. Reporter as he pulls over those posts the confirmation hearings on some of his current picks will start before mr. Trump is sworn in. Both attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions and Rex Tillerson will face fights in early january as democrats are likely to bring up conflict of interest issues. He has recruited a cabinet of winners. These are very successful powerful people who like winning and are prepared to work very hard to win. Reporter mr. Trump ran a nontraditional campaign and hes broken from tradition as president elect. He tried to get a u. N. Resolution concerning israel tabled, threatened to pull a defense contract from lock heed martin and a Nuclear Arms Race with russia. You havent seen like this where a president elect is speaking out in all sorts of issues in a way that is drowning out the person who was still president. Reporter mr. Trump will become president january 20th. Donald trump saying in a statement that he does not want any potential conflict of interest. Reporting live in washington on capitol hill, Edward Lawrence. Back to you. Since you mentioned the foundation, any idea how long it might take to actually make that happen . Reporter thats the catch. It would have very quickly. However, the new York Attorney generals investigating the foundation so they cant dissolve it until that investigation finishes and there is no time line on when that investigation could finish. So it may not be dissolved by the time hes sworn in as president. Well see. Thank you so much, Edward Lawrence on capitol hill. 14 before the hour and developing out of jacksonville, florida, now, an Investigation Underway into the Police Shooting death of man. Sheriffs deputies say the man was holding a gun when he was killed after a brief standoff. They say it began with a 911 call where he threatened to shoot himself, others and police. I feel bad for the families of everyone involved. I feel bad for the officers who were put in this position, but unfortunately, if you point a gun at a police officer, you are going to get shot. Deputies say the man was shot after he refused to put his gun down. The officers involved are now on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. A frightening tragic christmas for several people in new york. Five people are recovering from a shooting inside the nightclub. The clubs owner was killed. This happened early yesterday morning just out side of the city. About 200 people were in the club at the time and police have arrested a man. The state of emergency has been declared in a town in southeast michigan after a you can see where one home is partially collapsed because of this. People who live in nearly two dozen homes had to be evacuated. They got the call on friday after one homeowner felt his house sinking into the ground. Its not clear just how big that sink hole is but engineers think it may have started because of a possible sewer failure below the home. A 7. 6 magnitude quake shook chile yesterday. About 4,000 people were evacuated but few reports of damage. Many of the widespread Power Outages were reported though. No one has died. Two brothers in Prince Georges County have been receiving acts of kindness from a First Responder who helped save their lives. The little boys are just two and three years old. Police say the childrens father stabbed them last month, but now paramedic lieutenant Pamela Graham has since befriended the family. Christmas at her home where the boys had presents under the tree. Their mother says shes grateful for her new friend who has even helped raise money for the family to relocate. We talk frequently. She asks how im doing, i ask how shes doing. Shes a really good person. Im very happy to see that they are doing much better than the night that i saw them. The boys also got a visit from santa, playing the part was a Prince Georges County fire rescue dispatcher. He was at the 911 call center when the call came in about the attack. Now, the childrens father, Christian Dillard is charged with attempted first degree murder, assault and unrelated charges. There are some Beautiful People in this world who step up and do things like that just out of the kindness of their hearts. That is a perfect example. On this day after christmas for some of us that means score stores and shopping malls. I will not be going. We break down the number of exchanges and returns that will certainly cause a lot of headaches. Some retailers could see as many shoppers today as they did in the days leading up to christmas, but this rush has to do with returns of gifts that are either damaged, not working, dont fit or those you just dont want. Odds are, youll return one out of every ten gifts this year. More gotten online. 40 to 50 of things gotten online can be returned. Reporter what retailers do with all those returns. Maybe they sell it like an open box merchandise. Best buy does that a lot or in some cases it has to be sent to a wholesaler. Reporter theres also pressure on retailers to please are exploiting the transaction. Many women, in fact, will order dresses or clothing in more than one side because theyre just not sure. They never intent to keep all three of those dresses, just the one that fits. Reporter but sure as christmas returns a year from now, so will some of the gifts. Nbc news. Its just a part of the season. You give a gift, you take a gift, you take a gift back. Thats part of it and whats usually part of it, it feels so mild to me out there. Last year we were 71 drees on christmas eve. So compared to last year its frigid outside. By typical standards this is not all that cold for christmas time. Temperatures should be around 45 degrees and will be a couple degrees warmer than that by later on this afternoon. Kind of a cloudy sky out here on your monday morning. Its going to stay cloudy all day long. Upper 30s and low 40s now. Wellnt periods of mist and drisz l. Not much of a rain threat for today but i couldnt rule out a little drizzle from time to time. Well be tweeting out updates on the forecast on our nbc washington app and also on my twitter and facebook pages. Ill do my best to keep you ahead of the weather. Theres a chance for some rain today in milwaukee, chicago and st. Louis has milder air is being drawn up out of the gulf. A better rain chance tomorrow but with the increasing rain chances, well be near 60 tomorrow afternoon. Right now just a little bit of a pocket of freezing rain here across parts of Central New York and central pennsylvania. Were far enough above the freezing mark where im not worried about us having to worry about any freezing drizzle this morning. Little pockets of mist outside and areas of very light rain. All cloudy and notice how hardly anything in the way of green blobs showing up. Theres not much of best chance for a rain tomorrow up to about midnight. By tomorrow afternoon we should be getting back to some sunshine around here and at least three or four hours of really mild weather. Heres todays forecast then. 49 with drizzle today. 61 tomorrow. Most of that rain chances in the first part of your tuesday. So i think tuesday afternoon looks nice. Wednesday a little chilly around here. Thats just about average. Another chance for passing showers on thursday. Rain drops, not snow flakes with temperatures in the 50s. Cold and dry for a friday and for saturday which of course is new years eve. Mostly cloudy, a risk of a couple of showers around here. There will be rain drops, not snow flakes with temperatures up near 50. The forecast there, not too many days colder than average. Saving some money on the heating bills. Lets go over to jack taylor in the glass enclosed nerve center. Thank you see this at this hour but we had an incident down on 95 south at the Prince William parkway. It was a tractor trailer stopped in the roadway. Somebody ran into it and were starting to get a large delay building quickly south on 95. Otherwise, relatively clean and green here. Looking good. Well give you a live shot in maryland. 270 southbound, theres really no problem whatsoever. If you do have to get out, doing any kind of returns or if youre getting out making a trip back home, you should find nothing in your way as you head out. Back to you. Well, christmas with a view like no other. The unique perspective from the International Spa ce means incredibly fast 150 meg internet for the holidays. So in the 3. 7 seconds it takes gary watson to beat the local sled jump record, fly, gary, fly. His friend can download 13 versions of the perfect song. His sister can live stream it. While his mom downloads how to set a dislocated shoulder. Get 150 meg internet, tv and phone for just 79. 99 per month online for the first year. Cable cant offer that. Only fios can. Being on board the iss gives us a slightly different perspective of christmas. Reenforces the fact that we should live as one people and strive for peace. That was american astronaut peggy witson talking about the perspective you get when celebrating christmas in space. The astronauts sent that holiday message back to earth. Its obviously quite different up there. The crew did have a christmas feast. Dehydrated turkey, potatoes and chocolate Queen Elizabeth is still recovering from a cold. The queen did send her annual televised christmas message. She spoke about being inspired by the people she meets. I often draw strength from meeting ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Volunteers, carers, Community Organizers and good neighbors. Unsung heroes whose quiet dedication makes them special. She is 90 years old and is in good health. Pope francis delivered his Christmas Blessing at st. Peters square. The pontiff urged people to negotiate peace in war torn areas of the world. From vatican city to bethlehem, christmas celebrations continued. Thousands of people attended a mass led by the top Roman Catholic cleric at the church of the nativity in bethlehem. It is the biblical birthplace of jesus. And after the recent terror attacks security was a lot tighter than usual this year. And stay with us. News 4 today continues at 5 00 a. M. Now at 5 00 a. M. , he was loved and inspired. A generation of musicians, how fans of George Michael are remembering the late 80s icon. Still cant believe George Michael is gone. Just another one. Shocked everybody yesterday and so young. More on that in just a couple of minutes here. Right now we want to take a look at our weather headlines. Chuck bell is in the weather center. Yes, indeed tough one more me. Hes only four years older than i am, so yikes, thats scary. I loved his music through high school and college for sure. Our forecast for today, a lot of clouds out early this morning. Dont plan on getting any sunshine on your monday. Rain not all that likely today. Could have a better chance for showers late tonight into the first part of the day coming up tomorrow, but tomorrow a little break of sunshine and very mild weather. It will be colder and a little drier around here as we get to new years weekend. 40 degrees right now. Upper 30s and low 40s for the remainder of the morning. Temperatures Holding Steady this evening as southerly breezes bring better chances for rain in for early tomorrow, but any sunshine tomorrow afternoon, we should make it into the upper 50s and low 60s. A closer look at that new years holiday forecast coming up in a few more minutes. Lets go over to jack taylor. Thank you. Weve had some delays in virginia rolling south on 95