talks about her long battle with cancer. the bitter winter chill, whipping winds making it feel like it's in the teens out there. how long will that last? i, leslie e. johnson, do solemnly swear. >> we begin with the transfer of power in the shadow of a giant scandal. leslie johnson is now officially a prince george's county councilwoman, but she and her husband, the county's last chief executive, still face charges in a corruption investigation. thanks for joining us. i'm brian bolter. >> i'm laura evans in tonight for shawn. also sworn in today the new county executive who wasted no time cleaning house. fox 5's will thomas is there live at the national harbor where an inaugural ball took place tonight. will? >> reporter: good evening. a busy day for the new county executive. rushern baker took the new office, then proceeded to fire all of jack johnson's top deputies including police chief roberto hylton. then he wrapped up tonight with a party celebrating his beginning. we went one on one with the former county executive and we'll show you how the change of power occurred. a black tie gala inside the newest jewel of prince george's county, the gaylord national harbor. it's an inauguration celebration honoring county executive rushern baker. >> i think rushern baker has all the skills and the attitude that we need to transform prince george's county to change our direction. i think he can do that. >> reporter: attorney wayne curry now in private practice served as prince george's county county executive from december, 1994 to december, 2002. jack johnson replaced curry when he left office. on the investigation into the johnsons. >> almost 900,000 people live here. i refuse to stigmatize 800,000 people because of the action as of a few. they're not demonstrative of this community and what it can do. that's some people who allegedly have done something the rest of us wouldn't. >> reporter: a who's who in attendance including the prince george's county interim police chief mark mcgraw who did not want to talk on camera but when asked he spoke about leslie johnson's controversial decision to be sworn into the council. >> i might not do the same thing considering the delicate posture of prince george's county and the obvious frenzy in the media and otherwise to capitalize on a moment of vulnerability. >> reporter: mr. curry followed up by saying it was the only decision leslie johnson could make and that she it. rushern baker did not want to talk to reporters. we tracked him down going through a kitchen. an aide said they would bring him out. it never occurred but he spoke earlier as he became the new county executive. rushern baker never directly spoke about jack and leslie johnson at the swearing in ceremony, but they were there, all right, a reminder of the fbi investigation and the charges of destruction of evidence and witness tampering against them. >> prince george's county is ready for greatness. our time has come. we have the skills and the will to be first in education, first in job creation, first in public safety and yes, first in integrity. >> reporter: last month fbi agents arrested the johnsons in an alleged bribery scandal involving public officials. court documents reveal agents believe leslie johnson flushed $100,000 check down the toilet and stuffed nearly 80 grand in her bra when agents showed up at their house. despite the cloud of suspicion, leslie johnson took the oath of office accompanied by outgoing county executive, her husband jack. >> so, will, question for you. when is leslie johnson expected to cast her first vote? >> reporter: yeah, laura, it could come tomorrow when the council picks the new council chair. by the way, i don't think they were here. an aide for rushern baker said they weren't here and we certainly didn't see the johnsons here either, laura. >> will thomas, thank you. another big story tonight, elizabeth edwards cancer fight taking a turn for the worse. her family issued a statement today saying the disease has spread to her liver and doctors say further treatment would be unproductive. edwards has been battling breast cancer since 2004. she was first diagnosed in the final days of the campaign when her husband was the democratic vice presidential nominee. fox 5's bob barnard has more now. >> a family friend who is with elizabeth edwards at her home in chapel hill, north carolina, says ms. edwards has been told she only has weeks to live. tonight in bees this tay we spoke to another friend who says -- in bethesda we spoke to another friend who says elizabeth edwards has waged a courageous battle in cancer. >> i'm a physician and we talked about her prognosis and she knew how this would end. >> reporter: pamela peak is a doctor of internal medicine and expert in women's health first meeting elizabeth edwards at a breast cancer seminar in the district. >> she had been on me pass taces meaning that the cancer -- she had bonnie metastese -- she had bony metastases. this is from lynn buckley. you are the picture of class and dignity. >> reporter: the 61-year-old edwards receiving many good wishes on her facebook page said to be surrounded by friend and family at her north carolina home. >> the most important thing is pain relief because at the very end there is a tremendous amount of pain. >> reporter: edwards had suffered a great deal of emotional pain the past few years. her husband john who she'd met in law school ran for vice president in 2004. her cancer diagnosis came toward the end of that campaign. three years later john edwards ran for president and she learned her cancer was terminal. soon after john dropped out of the race for the presidency he was caught in an extramarital affair later admitting he fathered a child. john and elizabeth then separated all the while she battling cancer. >> she wasn't pleased by any means by what had happened to her. she was deeply hurt and she was hurt more for her family than herself in many respects because this was embarrassing. it was awkward. it was strange. it should never have happened, but it did, but she rose above it and she continued to live her life with grace and with elegance. >> reporter: elizabeth edwards has placed her own message on facebook. in part it reads, "the days of our lives for all of us are numbered. we know that, but i have found in the simple act of living with hope and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world the days i do have are made all the more meaningful and precious and for that i am grateful." friends say her estranged husband john is among the people at ms. edwards bedside tonight. >> bob barnard, thank you. we are following new developments at this hour on the possible tax deal on the hill. the president is telling taxpayer everybody will be unhappy about, something but at least it's an agreement. here are the highlights. the deal extends all tax cuts approved under president bush for the next two years, extends unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed for another 13 months and cuts payroll taxes by two percentage point, but as we hear the explanation, it's not a done deal yet. >> reporter: conceding everyone will find something they don't like about the compromise, president obama announced to be able to extend all the bush administration's tax cuts for two years in exchange for an extra 13 months of unemployment benefits for millions out of work. >> make no mistake. allowing taxes to go up on all americans will have raised taxes by $3,000 per a typical american family and that could cost our economy well over a million jobs. >> reporter: the tentative deal breaks his campaign pledge to end the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest households. mr. obama says he'll spend the next two years making sure the tax cuts for the rich don't become permanent. >> a permanent extension of these tax cuts would cost us $700 billion at a time when we need to start focusing on bringing down our deficit. >> reporter: liberals immediately protested. new york democratic congressman anthony weiner see this as punting on 3rd down. in fact, house and senate democratic leaders stopped short of endorsing the compromise saying she'll discuss it with caucus members -- they'll discuss it with caucus members but republican leaders were receptive saying i am optimistic that democrats in congress will show the same openness in preventing tax hikes the administration has already shown. the compromise includes a 30% reduction in social security taxes for 2011, an extension of taxes recovery act aimed at families and students and a compromise with republicans on the estate tax. the president said agreeing with republicans was more important than continuing a fight that could have gone well into next year. >> i'm not willing to let working families across this country become collateral damage. >> reporter: mr. obama said the higher taxes january 1st could have pushed the country back into recession just as we were beginning to climb out. if you have ventured outside at all tonight, you know how bitterly cold it is. look at our camera bouncing in the wind. that's the biggest part of it. temperatures in the 30s, the wind's making it feel colder than that and while it's cold here, you don't have to go too far to find people digging out from snow already. fox 5's sue palka live outside in the wind and the cold with more. sue. >> reporter: that would not be fun to have to deal with all of the snow on top of this wind and the temperatures. that's what's going on in the mountains, more on that in a moment. tonight this wind just does not want to give up the ghost, still blustery out here and temperatures already in the 20s in the suburbs. let's check them out because you can see the range roughly from 28 to 31 and if we get down into the 20s in the district, this is going to be the coldest night so far this year. we're pretty sure that's doable for us. now the wind chill in the teens between 14 and 19 already and if you head out to the mountains, tate going to be a below zero wind chill. heads up for travelers in that direction. check out the wind gusts as well, still going between 24 which we're getting in the district to about 28 miles per hour and i'm sorry to have to tell you this. these winds will be back tomorrow. you have to dress for the wind chill and the fact the breezes are continuing. want to show you where we've got quite a number of winter storm warnings and yes, blizzard warnings. the blizzard warning is for the west slope of grant, mineral and pendleton where we've already found 18 inches of snow in baird, west virginia, up to about 10 in deep creek and 4 out in frostburg, probably piling on there. it is snowing moderately to heavily out there. i wanted to show you some pictures sent to us. i want to thank deb michael from grant county, west virginia. check out the heavy snow they've gotten out there as well as in frostburg matthew stern sent us this picture of the snow outside his window. we want to ask you to send any snow pictures and/or videos to www.myfoxdc.com. we would love to see what's going on out there. unfortunately your snow will continue in the highest elevations. the cold continues for us. i'll let you know how cold it will be and a lot of people say when it's this cold, anything else we need to keep an eye on? yes. i'll have that with the extended outlook when join you in five, laura. that will be momentarily. >> get in here, sue. as if the blow-out loss wasn't bad enough, more drama tonight surrounding this guy, albert haynesworth. rumors running rampant after he watched yesterday's game from the sidelines. we're breaking down what could be next for the skins $100 million man. here's to the believers. the risk-takers. the visionaries. the entrepreneurs... who put it all on the line to build and run their own businesses. at at&t, we know something about that. our company started out in a small lab, with not much more than a dream. 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[ female announcer ] yoplait's real fruit and the goodness of dairy... gives you a little slice of happy. and happiness comes in 25 delicious flavors. explore them all. yoplait. it is so good. now the yoplait you love in a new four pack. try it today. redskins nation, oh, it's stinging after another winless sunday, but this loss to the giants seems small compared to the loss of albert haynesworth. >> didn't play yesterday, his attitude once again being called into question. fox 5's sports director dave feldman has more. >> albert haynesworth is becoming a distraction again, read all about it in duh magazine. this won't end well for somebody. albert haynesworth was a spectator yesterday for the fourth time this year inactive. he practiced thursday, but according to the head coach, it was not one of his best practices. albert said he was sick on friday, arrived late and then did not practice according to the coach. these are two very strong willed men and it appears redskins park is becoming too small for both of them. >> they choose to sit me, they choose to sit me. this is their organization. so i'm just a piece. >> i know you guys want to ask the question 50 different ways so we can talk about it more in detail, but we'll talk more about it on wednesday, okay? i can be a bit more thorough, tell you about how our conversation went. >> i think he puts the team first because he's not going to let one person come in here and destroy what we have. i think you put the team first when you think about, you know, the future and the things we got to do. if you don't practice, you don't play. that's putting team first. >> reporter: to delve deeper we welcome in our own rick doc walker and jason reid who is at redskins park who covers this team very thoroughly for the washington post. jay reed, i'll start with you. if you're not going to play him and he's a distraction, why are the redskins keeping him around? >> feldy, i'll give you 35.6 million reasons why. that's the amount he'll be paid at the end of season for two years worth of work. i think they would like to recoup some of this investment and the only way is if they can trade him for something. now they were unable to trade him this year because mike shanahan did not get what he wanted. i have to believe at this point it's such a diminishing return on the investment that the only thing you can get now is something be it a sixth or seventh round draft pick. i can't even envision someone giving him a five at this point, but feldy, the reason albert haynesworth is still on this team is $35.6 million. that's the reason. >> doc, on our pregame show you were angry like look, who is more important, disciplining him or beating the giants? you thought it really hurt the team's chances of beating the giants by putting 92 on the bench. >> feldy, i'm always angry on game day because there's no one that i despise more than the opponent especially if it's an eastern divisional opponent and if we're all about winning and mike has said this over and over, what gives his team the best chance to win? well, it wasn't the three guys he started up front because he's better than all three of those guys combined. then you got to what about you say you're going to be. was al wrong? absolutely. he's got to adhere to some rules, but from what i just heard from jason reid, sounds like mike shanahan is not in charge of the football program because if money is a factor, then he can't do what he really wants to do, then we're back to the two-headed monster. >> i mean because if you're just going for what's best for this team, jason, these guys clashed from day one, there's no question that after the offseason workouts and everything he missed he probably should have cut him in week one or two, whenever the shenanigans really started. >> feldy, i hear you in theory. i just don't think -- and i hear doc as well. i always hear doc, but i just think in terms of money involved here, i don't think they could stomach just cutting him and letting him go sign elsewhere, somewhere where he wanted to be. i think they would have felt if that was a reward, i hear what you're saying, but i don't think they could stomach that. >> now it's 5-7, the playoffs not going happen. i guess people are just playing for spots. this team's rebuilding. they say it's better than they were last year with zorn. are you still okay with the progress right now at 5-7? >> no, not at all because the areas in which i saw progression early on have not stymied. they are at a stalemate. the quarterback play and performance is at a stalemate, passing game, stalemate, running game nonexistent, can't tackle, can't block. so what progression do you see? maybe i need to look at a different film. >> jason reid, with four games left and you cover this team and i assume you'll cover them next year because you did a good job. will next year's roster look totally different from now? >> all the stuff doc just said, all that stuff is true. they had 30 new players on the roster from the previous season. i think there could be as many as 30 new players, but the bottom line is no matter how many new players, unless they're doing things putting those players in position to succeed, it won't matter. >> just to recap, he, 92, albert haynesworth will be on the team till the end of the season, jason, according to you? >> at this point, believe so but this is a fluid situation. i think that anything could happen but believe at this point he will be on the team. >> jason reid of the washington post, rick doc walker from the pregame show on espn980. thanks, guys. to make matters worse a new report out and this does not make him look good. >> no. there was one tv report laura that said perhaps he missed practice friday because he was hung over. he went on the radio tonight, the fan, and he called them and said he was not hungover, that he goes out every hearse night but he was just sick. when he -- every thursday night but he was just sick. when he went home, went to bed and friday he was one minute late and shanahan didn't let him practice. so he said he wasn't hung over. >> does he even want to play? what's the deal? seems like he doesn't care. >> he said that's a misconception. he wants to play. he says you're paying me all this money, do play me, but take off the leash, his words, and let me do what i can do because they're not letting him play in the defense he wants and also he only plays two or three plays each series. >> right. >> so he's a specialist. he e wants to play more. that's what i think -- he wants to play more. that's what i think. you heard what jason reid and doc walker think. here's what the fans have to say. >> the biggest rub is the fact that we spent so much money on him and he sometimes produces, but we can't even get him in the game. >> i think they should drop him. he's no good for the team, why keep him? just get rid of him. >> i think that we don't know the entire story. so it's kind of hard to speculate, but i think it's a little bit of both. it's his fault and it's the team's fault. >> the fans just keep getting more and more frustrated. so what's next for albert haynesworth? >> mike shanahan said he'll address it wednesday and meet with albert tomorrow. he says he'll talk to us wednesday. i don't he'll tell us what he says to albert, but he will address the subject wednesday. >> he seems fed up, too. brian back up to you. >> albert haynesworth wants to play on his own terms, should get his own team. a bizarre story in the district, a rape suspect cornered by u.s. marshals set himself on fire. up next we'll tell you how it all went down, plus a former marshal joins us with insight into the dangers of the job. this is my band from the 80's, looker. hair and mascara, a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount has given us money to reinvest back into our business and help quadruple our floor space. how can the plum card's trade terms get your business booming? booming is putting more music in more people's hands. heart break at a prince george's county elementary school where a child died today. the acting principal at jay frank dent elementary in ft. washington sent a letter home to parents saying the death was not a result of a fight or altercation at the school. the letter did not identify the student. grief counselors were called in to help classmates deal with the news. the medical examiner will now determine how the 6th grader died. an arrest in the district gone wrong. two deputy u.s. marshals rushed to the hospital with serious burns after the man they were trying to arrest set himself on fire. el-mustapha el-bechir was supposed to go to trial next month on rape charges. fox 5's paul wagner picks up the story from there. >> reporter: just after 8:00 this morning witnesses heard an explosion coming from the rear of 1215n street northwest. employees of the carwash next- door who declined to go on camera say they saw a female deputy marshal standing next to a man on fire. the marshal's hair and hands were burned. as the employees grabbed a fire extinguisher, other marshals used jackets and their hands to put out the flames. >> the details that i've received thus far it, did happen very quickly. >> reporter: when the deputies first arrived, el-bechir's wife said he wasn't home. sources say he was found hiding under a stairwell outside his apartment. >> they're pretty severe burns. any time you deal with a burn this severe we transported two from the scene here, one of the u.s. marshals and the victim himself were transported to the local hospital. >> reporter: el-bechir is from the african nation of mauritania and has lived in the u.s. the last four years. his attorney said her client was stunned by the charges against him. >> mr. beechier was a man who was extraordinarily troubled by the allegation against him that he maintainsly innocence. he felt he was -- maintains his innocence. he felt he was being wrongly accused and it had some effect i think on his -- he just wasn't able to handle that well. >> reporter: she said el-bechir maintained his innocence from the minute the woman went to the police with her claim. the most seriously burned marshal, the woman suffered burns to her head and hands but it's unclear how. the other injured marshal was burned on the hands when he tried to put out the flames. both deputy marshals were admitted to the burn unit. their conditions are unclear at this hour. the judge in the case wanted el- bechir locked up again when he violated the conditions of his release by getting arrested in november on a dwi charge. in the fox 5 newsroom, i'm paul wagner. we want to take a closer look now at the risks u.s. marshals face. joining us now is someone who knows the dangers of the job firsthand, former u.s. marshal himself matthew fogg. thanks so much for being here. first do you have an update on the condition of those u.s. marshals? >> from what i understand is they're stable. >> okay. does it seem based on what you know about this case that this guy was intending to hurt more than just himself? >> well, that's a possibility. again i don't want to say for certain, but we know that someone did get hurt and the marshals trying to arrest him got hurt. so he set himself on fire in their presence when he saw them. bottom line was they were in close proximity and at some point my understanding that the marshals had to get away from him. so someone was hurt in the act. >> did he know that the u.s. marshals were coming? >> well, from the fact that the guy was hiding apparently that's what it looks like. it looks like he was attempting to hide, to conceal himself, when the marshals found him in the back of the place. >> again you know firsthand because you were a u.s. marshal, but this is risky business. how do you prepare for something like this and do you go into each situation with an expectation of danger? >> yes, always. whenever you're going out especially when someone has jumped bond or failed to appear, those are situations where obviously if they're failing to appear, they're not complying. then that means there's a likelihood that there could be danger involved. >> have you heard of anything like this before? has there -- obviously we've heard of shootings, but somebody setting themselves on fire and u.s. marshals getting hurt as a result? >> i would put this on a level of someone, for example, having a bomb on them. the bottom line is when someone is intent on hurting themselves, there's always a chance people around them is going to get hurt. that's a real concern of ours. i personally heard of a story where someone -- haven't heard of a story where someone set themselves on fire, but the bomb situation, we do handle those and we understand that extreme risk happens when people fail to appear. >> thank you for shedding your insight on this. >> thank you. power outages even when there aren't any storms. pepco says it has a plan for improvement and take a wild guess how they plan to pay for it. hi. this is captain valerie hugle from the combined joint task force in africa saying hi to my brother gary in alexandria virginia and his children ben, jeremy and allison and also doreen. hope you have a very happy holiday season, looking forward to seeing you sometime in 2011. i love you. ecic lightning fast. lightning strong. verizon 4g lte. rule the air on the most advanced 4g network in the world. you're watching fox 5 news at 10:00. down in the newsroom now talking about pepco. they held a press conference today and sherri ly was there. they were talking about their improvement plan and addressing reports they're one of the worst in the nation when it comes to reliability. >> when we talk about reliability, we're not even talking just about the major storms in winter and summer. we're talking about day to day reliability and it's a phrase i hear all the time when we talk with pepco customers. when the wind blows, my power goes out and it shows. the numbers really don't lie. when it comes to reliability and the duration of the outages, pepco ranks in the bottom half. when it comes to the frequency of outages, they're in the bottom 1/4 nationwide. >> and now they want to raise rates. >> they do. they've got a five year plan and added another $190 million to make improvements in their reliability and they say we've got to raise our rates to pay for that. we're looking at a little bit more than $1 for customers in maryland and a little less than that for customers in the district. >> what are we predicting for this year, a repeat of the problems of last winter? >> frankly, when you look at the improvements they're looking to make, that's for day to day. that is not with major storms and frankly, they said this doesn't make our plan bulletproof, so they aren't guaranteeing it won't happen again. for a lot of people it's really upsetting when they look at this. we talked to one woman today looking at the day to day reliability issue and she said frankly they need to get that taken care of. they lose power, she said it's two, three times a month, sometimes five minutes, sometimes two hours and here's what they had to say about that. >> if pepco is going to solve this problem, i don't think we should see intermittent power outages at all except for extraordinary events. >> are we saying that there will never be another on thage? we're not saying that at all -- outage? we're not saying that at all. what we are saying is the frequency of outages will go down considerably. >> the bottom line, when will we see progress? >> pepco said they're doing some of the tree trimming and beginning to underground some of the wires in some of the problem places, not all of them. some of the improvements have started and they said it shouldn't take five years to see it. people should start to see an improvement in the next few months, in the next few years, shouldn't take five years, but there are a lot of people out there who have seen pepco's record over the last five years and aren't really holding their breath. >> a lot of doubters. sherri ly, thanks. brian, back to you. keeping a close eye on the developing story with wikileaks. the lawyer for founder juliana sane is reportedly arranges -- julian assangs reportedly preparing to turn him in. wikileaks shutting down today and the website slammed by hackers. the white house said one man with a website doesn't pose much threat, but today the attorney general and the secretary of state implied otherwise. >> the american people themselves have been put at risk by these actions that are i believe arrogant, misguided and ultimately not helpful in any way. >> the illegal publication of classified information poses real concerns and even potential damage. >> just yesterday wikileaks posted a secret 2009 diplomatic cable listing sites around the world that the u.s. considers critical to security. those sites include underwater communication lines, mines, food suppliers and vaccine factories. the pentagon says the release gives valuable information to terrorists. now the government started out saying the wikileaks documents really didn't contain any new information. is this really a threat to national security? with us to discuss that, larry johnson, a former cia analyst. good to see you. >> i also worked at the state department. >> you are the perfect man to talk to because this latest cable came from hillary clinton herself seeking sites around the world that if destroyed, disrupted or explode wood have an immediate effect on the u.s. -- exploded would have an immediate effect on the u.s. of the it sounds like these are getting more dangerous as they go on. >> no. 1, that cable did not originate with hillary. every cable that comes out of the state department in washington bears the secretary of state's name. that doesn't mean she drafted it. it's a stamp. you'll find every cable that came out when condoleezza race was secretary of state had her name on it. that's just the formality. >> but does it seem like these are getting more serious? >> not really. look, these were classified at the secret level. the really sensitive stuff that could hurt us is either top secret or secret exclusive to a variety of categories. this bradley manning who is apparently the source of these leaks didn't have access to that. it was on what they call the zipper data which is the dod's secret computer network and you do easily download this. >> that's my question because you have a military private who wanders into an office with a blank cd. >> no, no, no. that's not what happened. here's what happened. he had secret clearances. you give somebody a secret clearance, they get access to secret information. it's real simple. he's sitting there with the a computer with a secret clearance legitimately and he signed a nondisclosure agreement. by giving people access is like giving people access to your house. if they decide to go in and rob a room, you're the one that gave them the keys. >> you don't think that these -- we're getting mixed messages, as you can tell. >> you're getting mixed messages from people who don't know what they're talking about. someone who wrote close to 1,000 state department cables during my time there, the fact of the matter was and i do still have access to zipper net, anybody that has a secret clearance and an access to zipper net has access to everything that's on there. >> i guess my question is how dangerous because. >> it's not that dangerous. i mean it's embarrassing. what's really interesting about this is the american people get a great look behind the scenes at the normal image of the state department diplomats as a bunch of lilly livered spineless cookie crumbling pinstriped diplomats. you find out actually they're pretty stuff. they say some very truthful things about some very unpleasant people and actually some of these cases it will serve us well because these people that we meet with will think that we're fools by not calling them out when they actually see we've called some of them out for what they are. there's some dangerous information in some isolated cable as, but this isn't going to bring america down, by and large. >> i guess my last question would be is that why we haven't shut them down? i think maybe i'm living in the outside world and i know you have been on the inside world, but looking in it seems like if this was that important, that dangerous, we could shut these websites down. >> well, julian assange has broken no law. he's not under a secrecy agreement. he's not a u.s. citizen. he's in much the same position as the post or times and publishing leaked information. i think he's a mindless twit and i thinkly motives in this are not pure -- think his motives in this are not pure, but the reality is this is a political problem for the obama administration because they don't have a real legal basis to go after this guy because if they did, we'd be all over them like a chicken on a bug. >> larry johnson formerly with the cia and the state department. thank you. >> you're welcome. two college students killed in a deadly fire. now firefighters say they know what sparked this tragedy. we have an update on the investigation next. but first gas prices could go even higher by christmas. neil cavuto explains why in tonight's business report. >> oil trading at a two year high pushing gas prices higher a gallon of regular unleaded approaching three bucks, up 10 cents in the past week, many expecting we're going to see $3 gasoline by christmas. to wall street, quiet day, dow down about 20 points, nasdaq and s&p mixed. not a quiet day for gold, however. the price of metal soaring nearly 10 bucks, the ounce setting a record high in the process already up 29% this year. some page turners in the book business, a major shareholder group of the borders chain offering to finance a takeover of barnes & noble. the cash and stock deal be with worth nearly a billion bucks. google officially getting into the e book site looking to compete with amazon and apple with a growing market of online book readers. that's business. i'm neil cavuto. this fox 5 stock market report is brought to you by your lexus dealer. live life heroically. a massive fire rips through downtown baltimore at one point reaching five alarms. check out this youtube video here. heavy black smoke spread over much of downtown this afternoon. the fire broke out in a three- story building in the adult entertainment district known as the block. it then spread to at least five other structures. it started about 4:00. firefighters finally got the blaze under control around 7:00. the cause is still under investigation and we could tell you no injuries have been reported. a deadly fire that claimed lives of two frostburg state university students is ruled an accident. investigators say a pipe leading from a woodstove overheated causing a wall on the first floor to catch fire. the fire spread to the second floor where evan kullberg and alyssa salazar lived. they could not escape the flames and firefighters say the apartment building did not have working smoke detectors. tonight on the news edge at 11:00 an all out manhunt in montgomery county after a suspect follows a woman under a bus, then -- onto a bus, then tries to kidnap her after she get off at the same stop. and a doctor who started practicing in our area today was met by dozens of people protesting outside his office. find out what the controversy is all about. the news edge at 11:00 is just minutes away. mmmm. you don't love me anymore do you billy? 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[ whimper ] [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. for some people it is just a struggle to keep the heat on in the winter. last year the low income housing energy assistance program helped 8 million homes and now it is facing huge cuts. fox 5's melanie alnwick explains that means millions may be left out in the cold. >> reporter: not long ago in the district thousands of low income residents waited to sign up for energy assistance. they're just a portion of the city's 37,000 households who get a little help from the feds to pay their heating bills, 122,000 households in maryland and 191,000 in virginia counted on the program last year and says mark wolfe, director of the national energy assistance directors association the need nationwide is growing. >> the families that have been unemployed six months to a year, they're basically becoming increasingly poorer and they are having less and less resources. so lines become for any assistance a much more important program to help them and those are the families that we're seeing for the first time. >> reporter: the low income housing energy program is funded by federal dollars. it provides about $450 towards a family's heating bill, but all of the money may not come this year. the senate wants to cut the program's budget by 35% and that means some may be left out in the cold. >> it's not a program that's going to start in a few months. it's already started and so the question is how do you cut benefit levels when you don't know how much money you're going to have? >> reporter: this is all held up in the appropriations bill congress needs to approve. energy directors say they've never gone this far into the season before without knowing how much money they have to work. with so in the meantime they have to assume the lower figure. d.c. right now could lose 5 1/2 million dollars. maryland and virginia are looking at cuts of $38 million each. melanie alnwick, fox 5 news. the news edge is coming up in a little while. before that we got to talk to sue palka. >> you've got to hear this forecast. >> still cold. >> i had gary come out with a dolly and wheel me back in because i was flash frozen out there. it's bad out there. wear your layers tomorrow. it's going to be unfortunately even colder than today was. >> and tomorrow night, too? there's a lot going on tomorrow night with the christmas tree lightings on the capitol. >> oh, my gosh, that's right. people really need to bundle up and thursday nightlighting the white house tree. so the frigid air unfortunately is going to be sticking around most of this week. want you to know it will be blustery again tomorrow. watch for winds gusting between 20 and 25 miles an hour. might even be a weekend storm to watch, although in a la nina year like this sometimes the rain or mix, but certainly with the cold air the track of the weekend storm will be important and whether or not maybe we see a little snow around here. we're getting it in the mountains. the blizzard warpings are flying as we talked about. -- warnings are flying as we talked about. it's the western facing slopes getting a lot of snow, probably 12 to 20 inches and out here where it's really been blowing especially in grant county, mineral, preston, tucker we're really seeing the snow pile up out there. it's all lake effect snow. you can see how it works and it's piling up and many of these areas will continue to get snow for the next 24 hours, maybe beyond that as the winds continue in this direction. perhaps you saw a few flurries around here, too, across the mountains, but nothing of significance locally. how about this. baird, west virginia, grant county below oakland, 18 inches of snow, frostburg had 4, maybe it's gone up since then and hasn't been updated. and it is still piling up and, of course, it's all about this cold air, too much that's what's creating it coming across the -- too. that's what's creating it coming across the lakes. detroit 29, 20 in cincinnati and we aren't the only ones that were cold. florida record high -- record low high temperatures how about 63 for miami, unbelievable for them. orlando was only 54 degrees, daytona 53. all of these are records. that's how vast this cold air is and the jet stream will continue to keep it pouring down all the way to the gulf coast states. it's certainly for florida and places like alabama into georgia, the cold air will continue for all of this week and then we'll watch another couple of fast moving storms this week riding along that speedy jet stream and one this weekend that we'll watch for sunday. meanwhile check out these temperatures, already down into the 20s. when we factor in the wind, it feels like it's in the teens, definitely a very bitter cold night as well as a cold morning. this is what we'll likely see overnight, 22 for winchester and frederick. i notice garrett county is at 14 degrees, chantilly 26, washington 28 degrees and if those numbers verify, it will be the coldest night so far this season. gusty cold wind, wind chills in the teens and 20s, 28 degrees, tomorrow only about 37 degrees. a little bit of sunshine, but also the brief -- check this out, only in the 30s most of the week. we might eventually get up and over the 40-degree mark by friday, saturday 46 degrees. we'll watch and see what our sunday storm does. i'll take you on a futurecast trip down into the weekend on the news edge at 11:00. coming up in minutes on the news edge the one thing that can make your kid three times as likely to start smoking, back after this. today's five-day forecast is brought to you by your local dodge jeep and chrysler dealers. here's to the believers. the risk-takers. the visionaries. the entrepreneurs... who put it all on the line to build and run their own businesses. at at&t, we know something about that. our company started out in a small lab, with not much more than a dream. and today, we know it's small businesses that can create the jobs america needs. that's why at&t is investing billions to upgrade and build out our wired and wireless networks. making them faster, smarter, and more secure. connecting small businesses to markets across the country, and around the world. we invest now, because we know it will pay off... with new jobs, new growth, from a new generation, putting their belief in the future on the line. now is the time for investment and innovation. the future is waiting. and the future has always the future is waiting. and the future has always been our business. at&t.