Transcripts For WTTG Fox Morning News 20100204

way. a major winter storm hits tomorrow. and also mixed messages fueling fears surrounding the toyota recall. we're clearing things up with a live interview from detroit. fox 5 morning news at 7:00 starts right now. good morning, everybody. you've heard it how many times? 30 times? you're looking at the calm before the storm. that is a look at d.c. area just before sunrise. 7:00 thursday morning, february 4, 2010. good morning, i'm allison seymour. >> and i'm steve chenevey. we do have some school systems feeling the affects. so let's look at virginia where madison county schools are closed. the following schools in virginia on a one hour delay, clock, frederick, shenandoah and spotsylvania. >> and two hours in affect for king george, rappahanock, fauquier and orange county. and you can see the delays and closings at the top of your screen and on myfoxdc.com. let's get to tony with a look at the forecast out there tday and the big storm for tomorrow. and we'll have a better idea tomorrow how much we'll get? >> we will. and tucker and i feel very strongly that you don't want to alarm people or anything like that. we tell you what we know and as best we can. we are trying the models and the models are lining up in agreement that we are going to get a major storm. the more recent models from this morning actually suggest we could get more snow that we've been talking about but that remains to be seen. we'll fine tune this in the next 24 hours. but we expect to see significant snowfalls. and a winter storm watch goes into affect tomorrow morning and lasts until saturday evening, including washington, d.c. and the surrounding areas. it does include that one county you see there, queen anne's county is not filled in. that is a technical glitch. it is included under this winter storm watch. the whole viewing area is. out to the west, the purple is a winter storm warning and they'll get the affects earlier than we will. here is a look at satellite radar for the nation. the storm is moving across the gulf states and it's rain down there because of the warmth. as it moves up the coast it will encounter colder air and will pull in colder air and turn it all into snow. to the south and east of the district, you all may get a period of rain and then a mix of sleet and snow efore it turns into just snow which could keep your snow totals down but still significant precipitation. right now 32 degrees at reagan national. relative humidity 54%s. winds out of the north at 12 miles per hour. today partly sunny and temperatures near seasonal, high of about 40 degrees. that's a look at the weather with more coming up in just a little bit. stay with us. right now back to the desk to allison and steve. and with the storm headed this way, it may put some problems into your weekend escape. you might want to come up with a plan b. u.s. airways and united have relaxed their ticketing policies ahead of the storm. governor mcdoell has declared a state agency to allow agencies to lend a hand to local jurisdictions. and no matter where you live you are asked to put an emergency kit together, including water, nonperishable food, a battery operated radio, blankets, a flashlight and extra batteries. julie wright i know you're talking about escaping down to miami, but you can imagine those people with superbowl plans trying to get out of town ahead of the storm this weekend. >> yes. what a mess that will be. i would love to go to miami and broadcast live from there and we'll be like the weather people and tell what you is happening someplace else other than here. that would be the dream job. but we have to talk about the traffic and on the outer loop, the latest incident on river road, where we have the crash with an overturned vehicle. if you're traveling on the outer loop from montgomery county down toward the dulles toll road the activity will squeeze you by to the road. so this is the outer loop from 270 and it's jammed up from before montrose down to the accident scene. so an overturned vehicle, traffic squeezing by single file to the right toward the american legion bridge. inner loop of the beltway troubled with a crash at the dulles toll road. that has the left lane blocked and stacking up traffic toward tysons. one quick note, in bound canal road after arizona avenue, traffic blocked because of an accident at arizona avenue. so again traffic coming in off of the chain bridge into a backup and traffic not moving inbound along canal road. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. we've seen the video so many times. our big story, when he first got here we talked about him being the size of a stick of butter and how we've watched him grow over the last 4.5 years. >> we've celebrated birthdays and the beet ice creek birthday cake. now it's time for him to say goodbye. he is headed out today. and sarah simmons is live from the national zoo. >> reporter: in factually about an if hour from now, he is going to be loaded into his crate. e won't be able to see it from here. it will be a quiet process. they'll be dong that back in his enclosure. that will start at 8:00 because let's look at rest of the time line. at 8:15 zookeepers will bring in his food and that will be traveling with him. at 8:30 he'll be loaded into the truck and at 9:00 he is going to leave here from the zoo headed for dulles and at 12:05 he is expected to take off to china. with me now is brandy smith, the head curator here at the zoo this morning. thank you for talking with us and give me an idea -- and this is very important and the conservation efforts that will follow from this. >> there is. there are only about 1600 pandas left in the while so anything we can do to create more is a good thing. so he will be part of the breeding program and help fill the world with more pandas. >> reporter: people underand he'll be in this crate. explain what it looks like to people? >> it's a beautiful crate. it's a large box, more than adequate to meet his needs while he's flying. to me it looks a little bit like a princess bed which isn't a bad way to describe it. but it's made of lexn which is clear and so he can peek through and watch people. >> reporter: and this is serious stuff. this is bulletproof glass. >> it is. we are sure he will be safe during his journey. >> reporter: and you've been working with him to get him used to going into a enclosure. how wide is it or is he expected to travel well? >> he's been training for this moment the entire life. this morning we'll open up the crate and he' walk in and if he needs encouragement he'll be added a pair. he's used to being in the crate and we'll move him out here to the truck and travel and he'll have his keeper with him and a veterinarian. >> reporter: who will be holding his paw, as i was saying. it's sad. >> it is. but we've taught him paw signals, so there is no language barrier. we can communicate with him through our hands so she won't be holding his paw but they'll be mirroring each other. >> reporter: thank you so much. we do appreciate it. and an hour from now they'll be loading him into the crate and we'll bring you the live pictures into the truck later on this morning. definitely a bittersweet time. back to you steve and allison. >> we'll see you again in a little bit as we get ready to say goodbye. now to the other top stories today. more problems for toyota. now the autmaker admits to design flaws with the anti-lock brake system in the new prous. a spokesperson said they corrected problems and are still trying to figure out how to inform people that bought earlier models and more of what you need to know later in hour. senator elect scott brown will be sworn in today. brown will be taking over the late ted kennedy senate seat but not his desk. john carry claimed the deg that he used for 47 years. until now carrie has been seated at the desk used by robert kennedy. and we'll find out more about the budget for the 2011 career. the president has said his priorities are creating jobs and stabilizing the economy. the nearly $4 trillion budget the president is proposing would be the largest federal budget ever. time now is 9 minutes after the hour on this thursday morning and still ahead on fox 5 morning news, the most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction. we'll show you the sculpture that brought in more than $100 million. and d.c. facing a bleak budget outlook. they could use some of that money. a recent poll shows the mayor's approval rating is down. up next fenty on fox as the mayor joins us in the studio right after the break. it's now 10 minutes past the hour. dreams are amazing things. and in hard times, sometimes, a belief in a dream, a belief in what is possible - can transform everything. at at&t, we've never forgotten that our company began in a small laboratory, with a dream and a belief, in the future. today, our wired and wireless high speed internet networks are connecting small businesses across america - in cities and small towns - to markets around the world. we know that investment in broadband high speed internet can create hundreds of thousands of new american jobs. small businesses are being formed - dreams are being launched - and real jobs are being created. at at&t, we're investing billions to upgrade and build out our wired and wireless networks. now is not the time to stall momentum or to stifle innovation or investment. dreams, and jobs, and the future are at stake. at at&t, the future, are at stake. at at&t, the future, has always been our business. at&t... your world... delivered. welcome back. it's 7:13. and we're back with d.c. mayor adrian fenty. >> thank you for being with us on the eve of this storm. we have to start with the snow budget. it's $6.2 million blown already because we've seen so much snow. on tuesday at a press conference you said you were deploying the pieces of equipment and getting ready. but now the monster storm of the weekend. how do you tackle something as the mayor of a city when there is no way to do it. how do you fight mother nature? >> you budget so much for snow but you have the rest of the budget to find savings to redirect to the snow program if they are needed. the $6 million is as much a budget as an estimate as to how much we'll need. in the past 3 or 4 years we haven't needed anywhere near that amount. this year we'll go over but within a $10 billion budget, it's not hard to figure out that you can find savings within other programs to redirect and we will. >> when we have the major snowstorm on the weekend, is the priority the same on a wednesday and people have to get to work? is the same effort still put into fighting at cumulation on the ground? >> absolutely. for no other reason than you want to get snow up before it freezes on the ground. that's the biggest reason. and then you still want people to get around on the weekend. we've had snow during the shopping season, people have things to do on the weekend. and then you want to get ready with a snow this size for school and work to resume on monday. this may be as much snow as the december storm. >> so all things will be -- >> oh, no. we already had trucks on the road yesterday to prepare for this snow which is coming tomorrow. they're putting down salt, they're putting down liquid brine and that's on top of tons of salt still on the streets from the two snows from earlier this week. >> that's a big effort. more may be on the way so hopefully we'll be through winter soon. >> let's talk about the bigger issue of the budget. we have vincent gray on yesterday. he said city will be a minimum of $200 million over budget and another concern was continuing to dip if a reserve fund to try to balance the budget. how do you see this playing out as far as if cuts need to be made and, if so, where they would come from. >> most of the adjustments will be made within the normal spending practices of the government. so one example is we basically sent a memo to our -- to all of the agencies saying this are certain things you may be playing on doing, hiring some people you haven't gotten to this year, we're not going to go ahead with those for the remainder of the year. so we'll kind of live within our means. that saved us $100 million, which is probably going to get us a large chunk of what we need for ts fiscal year. we're also preparing for next fiscal year and sending the budget to the council in the next couple of months. we know we have to make that balance so we'll try to find additional savings. and i agree with the chair, you don't want to dip too much into reserves because you want to keep them just in case the economy got even worse. >> are there any departments in the city, social services or anything like that that are strictly off limits that you would never make cuts in or is this going to be across the over the last three years, the three agencies didn't send any cuts to the council were schools, police and fire. there have been cuts in some administrative stuff. but not effecting teachers, firefighters and police officers. the cut that came for the teachers which got so much attention happened after chancellor rhee submitted her budget to the council. >> want to talk about some recent poll numbers that the washington post put together. they're talking about looking at a poll taken two years ago to a poll taken recently. the poll taken two years ago there was a 60% approval rating of american voters and now 65% disapproval rating. we're going into the election season. tell us your reaction? do you look at numbers like there? how do you fight this going into a second election bid? >> i usually don't. and not because i'm morally against polls or anything. it's just because i never know what weight to give them. this is my fourth major campaign and i take -- i use a strategy that is more aligned with grassroots strategy, talking to voters directly. as you said, the campaign, we started this campaign at the back of 2008, have been knocking on doors and talking to voters for six months now and we get some great feedback, positive and negative. and i use that not only into shaping my campaign but also in altering decisions and using that input. >> with that african-american demographic, it's the same complaint we've heard before in the past administration when you ran for mayor that mayor williams -- his main concern was the wealthier d.c. resident and you said you would make a push that everyone enjoyed the fruits of wealth here in the district yet that core population is saying that you haven't done enough to help them. that could be very damaging going into an election year in the city. >> well even more important, you want to make sure that you're serving all of the residents because that's what is right. one thing that you should always do in your public office is you should be able to accept criticism and know that you're not -- no one is perfect, you have a lot of work to do. we know. that i spend a large part of my day, as i did yesterday, at schools like therapy hope where we met with organizations like peaceaholics and other groups where we were talking about what we can do more to engage young people or what we can do to continue to drive the low crime rate. the homicide rate went down by 35%. we want it to go down with similar numbers if we can this year. so we spent time doing that but i'm the first to say as mayor it's my responsibility to find more savings, especially for those most in need. >> we did get some e-mails, including people concerned about crime in their neighborhoods. you've scored well on that and if we could get more beat cops out there. and we'll pass those on. thank you, mayor. good to see you. and right now we want to check in with tony perkins. he's the man of the day. no offense, mayor. and what will we see this weekend? tony? >> and preparations are underway for a storm and we will get significant accumulations from the snow. the storm will occur tomorrow, friday afternoon into saturday evening. let's see what we know about the storm. keep in mind things will change during the next 24 hours as we tweak this forecast. here is what we know. it arrives friday during the early afternoon. snow will be heavy by friday night. that will last until late saturday and we believe accumulations generally will be a foot and a foot plus. and in some locations it is possible you'll see 20 inches or so of snow from the system. that sounds crazy but that's what we think at this point. take a look at the satellite radar for the united states. now a couple of things we can show you. the main thing is the storm system moving across the southeastern united states bringing rain, some heavy, to the gulf coast states. this low pressure will continue to move along the southeast where it will become a nor'easter and will bring in snow, as i said heavy at times, particularly friday night and into the day on saturday. five-day forecast, high today, the calm before the storm, about 40 degrees. good day to get stuff done that you need to. tomorrow snow begins in the afternoon and becomes heavy during the evening and nighttime hours. possibly by the evening rush hour that, we'll have to figure out today and tomorrow. saturday snow all day, wrapping up sometime during the night. 32 for the high on saturday and it remains cold for the next several days. that's a look at what is happening with the weather. we'll have more coming up in just a little bit. steve and allison, back to you. >> thank you so much, tony. 7:22 right now and this thursday morning. you are an adult and the age of 18. there is a new proposal that could allow adults to hang on to their health care way beyond that age. and it's time to take your superbowl party to the next level. move over beer and pretzels and chicken wings. >> but those are so fun. >> holly is helping us fine a new twist for this year's bash and that includes wine. and we're taking a live look at the plane that is going to be bringing mai lan up here to washington. so this is plane number two of the panda express and this is the plane leaving atlanta in a short time to come up and meet tai shan at dulles and then the two will travel together to china. more on this whole story coming up as fox 5 morning news continues. it's 7:.  police and child protective services are now investigating a fire that september three children in southeast to the hospital. officials say their father left the kids alone in the condo to go to work. he asked a neighbor to watch them and she said by the time that she arrived the kitchen was on fire. the children range in age from 5 months ld to 5 years old. they are all in critical condition. a bill allowing people under the age of 30 to still be on their parents health care plan is being debated right now in annapolis. current maryland law allows individuals to stay on a parents' plan until 25. a current sdy shows some from ages 25 to 30 are the most without health care. a sentencing hearing later this morning. dixon pled guilty to perjury after convicted to embezzlement. she'll pay $45,000 in fines and do 500 hours of community service. and it is now just 7:27 on this thursday morning. in haiti, parents of the children taken away by an american church group are speaking out. what they have to say about the ordeal coming up next on fox 5 morning news. plus another foot of snow. some say at least that much. more on how local officials and airlines are preparing for another massive storm that may be heading our way. 7:27. dreams are amazing things. and in hard times, sometimes, a belief in a dream, a belief in what is possible - can transform everything. at at&t, we've neveforgotten that our company began in a small laboratory, with a dream and a belief, in the future. today, our wired and wireless high speed internet networks are connecting small businesses across america - in cities and small towns - to markets around the world. we know that investment in broadband high speed internet can create hundreds of thousands of new american jobs. small businesses are being formed - dreams are being launched - and real jobs are being created. at at&t, we're investing billions to upgrade and build out our wired and wireless networks. now is not the time to stall momentum or to stifle innovation or instment. dreams, and jobs, and the future are at stake. at at&t, the future, are at stake. at at&t, the future, has always been our business. at&t... your world... delivered. we're back with a check on today's stop stories. the parents of haitian children taken by a church group said they willingly gave the children up. they said many parents jumped at the offer after telling their children would be educated and possibly returned to take care of their families. the ten baptist missionaries from idaho who were stopped at haiti's board without proper documents for the 33 children are now awaiti their fate at the hands of the haitian government. the president will be attending the 58th national prayer breakfast today at the washington hilton in northwest d.c. the gathering includes members of congress and diplomats and leaders from the business and religious communities. hillary clinton is giving the key note address. the spanish prime minister and tim tebow will also speak. we know you're probably sick of the snow right now. we are too. and first the december record breaking and this week's storm and now another storm is out there causing a lot of stress and will likely put a dent in some superbowl plans as well. >> reporter: folks with plans for a weekend escape via the friendly skies are already looking for a plan b. >> i've had several calls already and people are concerned on getting to the superbowl and what they should do if they can go out early. and i've had people asked to cancel their tickets to get back to washington ahead of the storm and i have people that have said i'm not going anywhere. >> reporter: so far u.s. airways and united have issued a travel advisory. temporarily relaxing ticket licies during the mid- atlantic storm through sunday. other airlines may soon follow. >> right now in this economy the airlines want to keep everybody as friendly as possible. they went through a bad time with the last storm where people were stuck in airports and sleeping on floors and couldt get a hotel room and couldn't get out for three days so they're trying to be proactive. >> reporter: getting around on the ground will likely be a mess too. they are getting ready for another onslaught. >> our troops are up for it and ready to go and we are move salt filling the domes and we're making brine. it's really brine, salt and trucks that make it happen. >> reporter: and virginia is again declaring a state of emergency, paving the way for lending a helping hand. and folks are heading to stores to reflectish supplies. after a blizzard in december, most have plain had enough. >> i'm tired of the snow because i had to shovel before i went to work this morning. >> i'm waiting for winter to end. i'm going to florida, hopefully. >> i'm tired of it. but what can we do? >> what can we do? can we protest outside of the station? >> you can't can. >> you can but it won't do anything. >> i'll be honest, tony, you and tucker have been very conservative about your estimate so far. because i can't tell you how many times yesterday and last night i was getting text messages, talking to people saying i hear we're getting 3 feet or 4 feet of snow and you're trying to keep it under control but you know where that's going to happen. >> i don't know where that is coming from. and someone said 3 feet and someone said is it true we're getting 36 inches of snow? no. we've never gotten that. is it going to be a bad storm? yeah. similar to the storm in december. >> the blizzard of '10? >> we're giving you the warning and if worse comes to worse and it doesn't happen, you'll have plenty of milk and bread in your house and you won't have to shop again for a few weeks. we do have a pretty high degree of certainty with this storm. here is a look at hd radar. we are precipitation free and we shall be for today. there is your resip well out to -- your precip well out to the west. and out to the west snow falling there. it's all rain in the south, including heavy rain across portions of lousiana and mississippi. here is the future cast. this is a computer model of what we think will happen. there is your precipitation well out to the south. it's across texas and the gulf coast states. by noon we'll get some precipitation. it's rain and wintry mix that could hold down your totals but it could eventually turn into snow. and this does show a little mix in the precipitation across washington. we're not certain that will happen. if it does, it's not great. it will hold down the snow totals yeah, but it will bring iciness into the equation. we believe washington will get mostly snow. still snowing saturday at 12:00 noon and snows until saturday evening the way this model suggests. so with the rate of snow we're going to see, we do think there is a likelihood that the washington area genelly speaking will see 12 inches to 20 inches of snow. it sounds crazy to forecast that ut that's what we believe at this moment. some places could see higher. some places to the south and east a little bit lower if you get that wintry mix. 32 degrees in washington. 27 in gaithersburg. 19 in frederick. leonardtown at 32 degrees. today the calm before the storm. high today of about 40 degrees. we continue to have melting of the snow we got early they are week. partly sunny skies, but they cloud up later on in the day. for tomorrow a winter storm watch is in affect from tomorrow morning until saturday evening. that will turn into a winter storm warning at some point. snow develops during the afternoon but becomes heavy friday night. five-day forecast, that heavy snow continues into saturday, through the day. it gradually decreases in intensity and then sunday and monday we dry out in time for tuesday when we have a chance of snow. more about all of that coming up in a little bit. right now let's go to julie wright and find out what is happening with traffic. right now on dry pavement we have a mess on our hands, tony. it is a 12-mile backup. you heard right on the outer loop of the beltway trying to get from 95 college park all the way around toward river road where we had the crash involving the over turned vehicle. this is what it looks like past connecticut avenue and toward the scene. and some of it still there on the right shoulder and the lanes are open but the traffic slowed from 95 college park toward river road. inbound canal road past the chain bridge and toward arizona avenue. accident has one lane of traffic squeezing by to the right. early crash at the inner loop at the toll road, delays beginning at robinson. jamming from 28 to the beltway. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. toyota's troubles keep getting bigger. the u.s. transportation secretary alarmed drivers telling them to stop driving toyotas, only to retract that statement a short time later. detroit free press correspondent justin heinz joins us. >> good morning to you. >> good morning. >> and ray la hood testifying and he says toyota drivers, just stop driving your cars, get them taken in. and then a short time later backs off that, lifts the foot off the pedal. >> yes. >> and what does that do for the public confidence out there? what was the reaction? >> it hit shares immediately. in the global market the shares plunged for the hour the comment was live. it was unexpected because there has been a few rare cases in recalls where a automaker has come out and said stop drive your vehicles and let us come and pick them up. it brings several months to bring them into the dealerships and that's going to be true with the toyota recall as well. la hood said he misspoke and he said if you are concerned, take it to your dealer. that's what toyota is trying to tell their owners as well. >> we're tking about not the prous, separate from the sticking accelerator. we're talking about two different things. let's start with the gas pedal. how many cars were affected and huh does this do to the driver? >> there are two recalls. one is sticking gas pedals which involve 3.2 million vehicles and the recall on the floor mats and that totals 1.5, and the gas pedal fix is underway. you can call your deeper up and they should be parts this week and schedule a repair. but over time the pedals are slow to snap back into position and that could lead to a situation where you could take your foot off and the car would still go forward. and there is not a report to any crashes but it was enough to concern federal regulators and get toyota to do a recall. >> still the thought is horrifying that your car won't stop. has toyota done anything? someone said if you google this problem, it pops up and not just recent. >> going back to 2003 there is issues like this. but far more than any other type of vehicle. sudden acceleration is very hard to track down and very hard to identify. for many years the assumption was it was simply driver error. clearly with the floor mat recall and the pedal recalls that not the case. mr. la hood said they will go back over the previous complaints and look at the prous issue and see about a problem they need to repair. >> and now toyota acknowledges there are design problems with brakes for the top selling hybrid. how does something like this happen? >> there were apparently 140 complaints here in the united states. people that owned the 2010 year prous, they would try to press the brake and nothing would happen. they said we have a software problem and we fixed it in production but not sure what we'll do for vehicles on the road. and i think that will cause some problems in the united states. it's the kind of action that federal regulators have taken a hard look at in the past. toyota faces two congressional hearings and now a third will come up and all of those will look at their actions to the safe ty issues. >> what should drivers do? >> be aware of what is going on. call your dealer and get an appointment to get the problem fixed. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> steve, over to you. it is 41 minutes past the hour on this thursday morning. a brand new record for a work of art purchased at auction. we're talking nine digits and we'll show you the piece that brought in well over $100 million. coming up next on fox 5 morning news. a sculpture that you see right here has been auctioned off for a record-breaking price. now i know you guys were both outbid. the final bid -- allison, you bid -- >> $16. >> it went for $104.3 million. >> is it called the thin man? >> it's called man walking. it's a sculpture of a man by alberto giocometti. and why priced so high? apparently sculptures by this artist are rarely put up for auction. it beat out a picasso painting that seld for $104.2 million. and it's the most expensive art sold at auction. >> what is it made out of? mettle? >>met -- metal? >> i don't kw. >> i'm going to make a piece of art. >> but it has to be something somebody wants. >> who has that kind of money any more? >> very strange. and i haven't heard of that artist. >> neither have i. >> but i'm not well versed in sculpture. >> you can brush up on the next piece. we have some art work to show you but no one is bidding too high on this. here is a look at the satellite radar. we've got pretty decent conditions out there. yes, it's cold, but a fair amount of sunshine this morning. not too bad. clouds building in later on today but right now things look good. now travel out to the south and west of here, into the southeastern united states and the nation's mid section where you have a little bit of everything. snow falling across kansas. rain across oklahoma and little rock, arkansas. and arkansas in general. and heavy rain in eastern texas and along the gulf coast. so that's the big storm system heading east and bringing us snow tomorrow afternoon and through saturday evening. we call this a nor'easter. and you know that they tend to bring us the snowstorms. tucker and i were marveling at the fact it looks like we'll get a second major -- in the top 15 of storms in the washington area, in the same season. that's very rare. we believe it's only happened before in 1899, where we had two big storms in february of that year. >> so we should embrace this living history. >> yeah. all right, let's take a look at the forecast for today and the next five days. high today, enjoy that. and saturday very blustery and blizzard-like conditions, lots of heavy know. sunday and monday, things quiet down but still cold. and right now it looks like we have a chance of snow on tuesday, but not a big storm like this one. >> i'm just putting this out there, i think you answered it, but i know ou were watching the temperatures for friday and saturday because there was concern whether there would be more sleet or snow. are we convinced it would be snow. >> it could be snow for washington and to the north and west and to the south and east you'll likely to get a mix which will keep the snow totals down. julie, 12-mile backup? that's crazy. >> and that's what we're looking at right now on the outer loop leaving 95 college park headed all the way around toward river road where earlier sky fox showed you the wreck involving the over turned car. that has cleared but the outer loop is backed up from college park to river road. southbound 270 jammed up leaving mva all the way toward the lane divide and beyond. so coming off of 270 alone, that's 11 miles trying to get from 124 headed toward the split. then you have to continue in the bumper-to-bumper traffic toward river road. so not an easy commute on the top stretch. improving at inbound canal road at arizona after if you. accident to the right. toll road slows 28 to the beltway. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. we'll check in with holly morris right after the brk. stay with us. it's 7:49. - hi. - hi. okay if we look around? sure. you thinking weights, ellipticals, yoga? uh, we're looking to... up our game. we can do that. let's take a walk through. we offer the latest, most innovative machines. we're tough to beat. what... is... that? that's the revolutionary nordictrack x7i incline trainer. you won't find it anywhere else. it's wifi-enabled, so personal trainers... can pick you up, if you're slacking. and it's powered by google maps, so you can simulate actual courses anywhere in the world. you're in san francisco right now. ooh, hilly. that's the automated incline/decline feature -- helps you burn 5x the calories. so how much is a membership? membership? this is sears. oh... then we'll take it. the number one provider of fitness equipment... with the lowest prices guaranteed. save $1000 on the new nordictrack x7i incline trainer... and up to $1000 on all wifi-enabled fitness equipment. sears. life. well spent. the international food and wine festival is going on next week. >> and holly is spending the morning with some of the participant to get great food and drink ideas that you can use as soon as this weekend for your superbowl party. >> why wait? >> reporter: when your holed up inside, because it snowed 20 inches. nonetheless, this is news you can use so we're going to get started right away with stef ridgeway who is with the festival. she joins me this morning. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> reporter: give us an over view. >> being hosted at the ronald reagan international trade center and this is the largest festival of its kind. we have over 100 different wineries with 600 wines from around the world. >> reporter: we'll talk with stef later about the event. but you might be sitting there going, they're serving 600 wines, from 100 different wineries how in the world can i taste allof that and still walk out up right? that's where kelly comes in. she's a wine consultant. so you'll teach us to tackle a festival of this magnitude. >> just some tips before you come and while at the festival. first you want to eat something before you arrive. even though hey have a lot of great food but get something in your stomach. >> reporter: something hearty like bread. >> sure. and then when you ge hard to say i'm going to taste the white first and then the red. so what i suggest is taste sparkling wines in between because that will clear your pallet. and save the dessert wines -- dessert wines first. >> reporter: you are talking about drinking the wine. >> don't be afraid of spitting. if you don't feel comfortable, what i do is bring my own cup. you spit in the cup and dump it into the bucket because you don't want to be swallowing the wines. >> reporter: and you can still get a good taste of it if you spit it out? >> yes you can. save swallowing it for the few you enjoy. >> reporter: and how do you remember? you're tasting so many wines. how do you remember the ones you like? >> there is a program. and have a game plan and jot down simple notes. put a star by it. >> reporter: you probably won't be able to read the last notes you write. >> and stay hydrated. >> reporter: so the food and wine festival is next weekend. thank you. we'll check back in with her later. and we'll talk in with her -- check in with her later. and you can serve wine at your uperbowl party according to andrew stover. good to see you. >> good to see you. have some wine. so superbowl, football and wine? >> why not? there are people that will be at your superbowl party ma maybe aren't beer fans, perhaps ladies, like yourself. wouldn't you rather have a glass of wine. but i never turn down beer either. i'm just kidding. >> i never turn it down either. but we brought a line of american wines. what is more american that football and wings and whatever else you have on your table. so just a couple of tips. i always -- [ lost connection ] >> it looks like we lost holly there. >> she has good information as we gear up for the superbowl and beyond. 7:55 on this thursday morning. we have more coming up next hour. we'll take a look at new crash test results on the small pickup trucks. and plus u.s. intelligence officials say al-qaeda will attack the united states in the next six months. so what is being done to stop the terrorist threats? we'll talk with one expert after the break. and also the story we've been following all morning, the bittersweet goodbye to little tai shan. >> he's in the corner. he's sad. >> i know. he's giving his reflections on his four and a half years here in washington and all of those that have gone done to wish him well over the years. tai shan heading out today but we have the coverage coming up at 8:00. more on fox 5 morning news after this. >> steve, i think he's really sad. ♪ 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(announcer) the contour meter, only from bayer. could you take all of these in for me please? all of them? well, it's the boston crème pies and the apple turnovers, oh, and the white chocolate strawberries, and the key lime pies so you need them let out? no, no, no - in out uh, in out ♪ no, in [ female announcer ] yoplait light, with 28 delicious flavors at about 100 calories, it only tastes fattening ok, i was just outside out and then i came in - so if you could... ♪ it is a sad day that we knew was coming at the national zoo. tai shan who was born here just four years ago is leaving today to go to china. good morning. i'm steve chenevey. >> and i'm allison seymour. we have live team coverage ahead this hour. another big story we're staying on top of is the weather. and we still have school delays from tuesday's snow at the top of the screen. and a massive storm heading our way this weekend. it is supposed to start snowing tomorrow and continue through saturday evening. a state of emergency has been declared in virginia so state agencies can get a head start. alexandria officials are telling residents to be prepared to be stuck at home for 3-5 days. >> well this is what happens. we have some shoppers stocking up on food at theshoppers food warehouse last night. they aren't taking chances and you can expect long lines today and tomorrow when you try to do the same thing. >> and i do have to go to the store today which i just realized is horrible timing. >> today might be okay. >> no. >> i went to pick up a few things and it was already building. today will be crazy. >> and stuck at home for 3-5 days seems like overkill. >> i'm not sure about that. but i don't think that will happen, but maybe they know something i won't know. >> it's been a little over a month since we did that. >> the blizzard of '09. >> and this could be the blizzard of '10. it's possible. we'll get significant snow tomorrow afternoon lasting through saturday and we're looking at accumulations of 12 inches or more. it is entirely possible that parts of the viewing area will get 20 inches of snow from the system. we'll keep fine tuning this forecast as time moves on. take a look at the area covered by a winter storm watch. it includes the entire viewing area. all of the counties you see in blue are under a winter storm watch. now there is one county over on the eastern shore that is not in blue. that's -- a couple of counties i believe. queen anne's county and i can't tell what the other one is. but those counties are also included but those include a technical glitch. this goes into affect tomorrow morning. here are the current temperatures at the area airports. rean national is 32 degrees. 30 at dulles. 26 at bwi marshall. the satellite radar shows you the storm. it's not near us now. it's moving across the southeastern united states but it will makes it way into our area tomorrow. and that rain that you see there will turn to snow. some of our viewers south and east of the city, it could start as rain and then become a wintry mix before turning to snow. forecast for today, a calm one today. not bad. partly sunny and merely seasonal temperatures. high of about 40 de grs.the wea more is coming up in just a little bit. stick with us for that. >> enjoy it today. >> that's right. >> some people not enjoying being stuck in traffic on the beltway today. let's check in with julie for that. it has been a tough ride and it started on the west side of town this morning. but before i jump there, southbound 95, route 100 left lane tied up from a crash. and we had the earlier incident at 95, that's gone and at freeway airport hitting its brakes toward the beltway, earlier accident gone. we're talking about a 12-mile backup beginning before this shot at new hampshire avenue. so bumper-to-bumper slow leaving 95 college park past new hampshire avenue and head all the way around the big curve down towards the american legion bridge. the accident which caused all of that at river road has cleared but as a result, southund 270 jammed up badly now. so now it's a 13-mile backup to get out of germantown southbound on 270, just so you can meet up on the beltway and then continue your drive out towards river road and the american legion bridge. so again a tough time coming around the big curve and off of southbound 270 this morning. meanwhile dulles toll road jammed off of the greenway leaving 657 toward the capital beltway. there was a crash on the beltway at the toll road and it did cause rubbernecking and that's contributing to the delay inbound from 657. the beltway slowing from the robinson terminal all the way up to tysons. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. well this is how a lot of us will remember tai shan, the little guy born as we said many times the size of a stick of butter and he grew into a playful panda cub. he could fight inside that box and now he's grown up and it's final for him to go to china to participate in a breeding program there. >> and zookeepers are preparing to load up the 184-pound panda into a crate so he can be fedexed to china. sarah simmons continues our coverage from the national zoo. it makes you want to cry because he's leaving us. >> reporter: i know. he's so cute. and i did just hear actually that he has been loaded into the crate in his enclosure. and jusbehind us they were bringing up bamboo and some other treats that he's going to have with him, toys and that nature that were just loaded in here behind us on getting ready for his flight over there to china. and with me right now is the acting director of the national zoo steve monford to talk about this. tell us what it will be like with life after tai shan after the zoo and what people can expect? >> we still have two terrific panda, may shawn and tee and tee and. we are hopeful we might have a pregnancy incubating right now. >> reporter: and i know tai shan was here on a couple of extensions and he got to stay here longer but there is going to be negotiations or they are underway at this point but we'll know later on this year whether or not the two pandas you have are going to stay and just kind of how things work out from there? >> sure. we're very confident we'll have pandas here at the national zoo for a long time. the loan agreements are a standard thing. this one is a ten year agreement and it ends in october. so we have to enter a new negotiation and we have great partnerships with the chinese and we have great confidence we can work something out. by early summer we should have firm news on the future. >> reporter: so it's unclear we will keep the two pandas? we may get different pandas? >> it's highly likely we'll continue to have the two that we have today. the only thing that could come up, the chinese own the pandas and they have to make a decision based on what is best for the genetic management of the pandas in china. so there is an outside chance they may make that decision to swap them out. >> reporter: and this is common. san diego has done this as well. and so this is common? >> zoo atlanta and san diego zoo both renegotiated their loan agreements in 2009 and dennis skully, the incoming zoo director, just completed the negotiations over in china a few months ago so that gives us a nice entry into starting the zoo negotiations here. >> reporter: and one thing i want to ask you, people have be used to seeing him on webcam, any way the chinese could provide a webcam for him? >> there have been conversations about creating a webcam and it hasn't been finalized but people would be interested in that. >> reporter: steve monford, thank you for talking with us this morning. they're in the process of getting tai shan loaded up. at about 8:30 we'll expect him to be loaded up into the truck and we'll bring you those pictures live from the national zoo. back to you, steve and allison. >> sarah, thank you very much. it seems like just yesterday we were lining up for tickets to go down and see him as a baby. >> and now he's leaving. >> and we don't want you to miss ure. we'll have live pictures from the national zoo up on the right side of your screen. and you can log on to myfoxdc.com for an up-close look. and on the left side that is mai lan who will share the flight with tai shan. and her crate was just loaded on to the fedex plane in atlanta. and that cargo jet is scheduled to take off at 8:15 and will stop at dulles to pick up tai shan and then head to china. that's where we find beth parker this morning, in dulles with more. >> reporter: we are buzzing with activity out here as it always is at the fedex facility at dulles. but a very unique day out here. this is craig robertson. he is a seni anager with fedex and runs the operations here, right? >> that is correct. >> reporter: big day for you guys? >> very excited. >> reporter: and how long have you been preparing for this? >> we've been preparing here since january 18th, as a matter of fact. we met with zoo officials and we've been preparing. >> reporter: and what sorts of preps? what are you doing? >> making the comfort of tai shan and customized crates for the movement and the planning of our 777 aircraft that will btransporting them to china and that is our new 777, which is our new plane. >> reporter: and are there alterations for the flight? >> there are no alterations. what he will move on is on a pmc pallet which fits on the aircraft. there is no special requirement as associated with it and just walk into the aircraft and have comfort as he travels home. >> reporter: first class operation? >> first class indeed. >> reporter: and this is not new to you. i was looking through some of the paperwork and you have moved a lot of ceatures over the years? >> oh, most certainly. we move animalled -- whales, ostriches, different animals all over and we've moved them without any issue. they're our friends. >> reporter: and is it something you guys take a lot of pride in? >> we're very excited about it. we're very excited to help out in any way possible and we're excited to not only just move our customer packages but we deliver the promise of moving our animals as well. >> reporter: and it will be on time? >> on time every time. >> reporter: thank you s much craig robertson. we appreciate your help in being with us today. as you heard steve say. that plane getting trod leave atlanta. it will arrive here at dulles at 9:50 a.m. and then we expect tai shan will arrive here in that truck at 10:30. live at dulles, i'm beth parker, back into you steve and allison. >> thank you very much. and somebody asked if he would have a tracking number with fedex, but it shows how much people care. they want to know when he'll get there and if he was delivered safely. our coverage of the farewell is far from over. >> we'll continue to bring you live pictures from the national zoo throughout the hour. we have more to talk about this hour here at 8:00. we'll take a closer look at claims by u.s. intelligence officials that almost will attack the u.s. at some point in the next six months, or try to. so what is being done to stop the terrorist threats? we'll talk with an expert about that when we come back. it's now 10 minutes past the hour. ♪ [ male announcer ] ready to make this year a great year for your small business? ♪ verizon is here to help with everything you need to make the most of every dollar -- and every opportunity. you'll get high speed internee to your business for consistently fast speeds; free wi-fi access from thousands of hot spots nationwide; plus unlimited calling to customers and suppliers across the country. call right now and we'll include two free extras for an entire year: our advanced internet security suite, plus 25 gigs of online storage, enough to safeguard all your important business files. it's a total business solution backed by the reliability of the verizon network, all for just $84.99 a month for 12 months. and you can't get 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save $1000 on the new nordictrk x7i incline trainer... and up to $1000 on all wifi-enabled fitness equipment. sears. life. well spent. it is now 8:13. 32 degrees on a thursday morning. time for a look at stories making headlines. an annual tradition in the district. president obama arrived at the annual national prayer breakfast moments ago. hillary clinton and college star quarterback tim tebow are among those who will speak. republican scott brown will be sworn in as the new mass pass senator today. more than a week ahead of schedule. he moved up the date because he wants to be present for unspecified votes. he's filling the seat held by the late ted kennedy. and today is the last day in office for sheila dixon. she'll resign flowing her answering for misusing gift cards for the needy. the new mayor will be sworn in at noon. another story making headlines is the farewell to our little panda tai shan. >> after four years at the national zoo, d.c.'s beloved panda is now moving to china, so minutes ago he was loaded into the crane and a crate will take it to a shipping pallet and then the whole thing will be loaded into the back of a fedex truck. now the truck, which has the big panda on the side of it, will take off for dulles airport. there you see the truck with the panda. we're going to keep these live pictures up on the right side of the screen during weather and traffic so you won't miss any of the action if we see tai shan come out soon. >> do you have confirmation? because it looks like his picture. can we say it's his picture. >> but there will be two of them in the plane so you don't want to offend the panda from atlanta. but because it's here let's say it's tie shawn. >> let's check on the snow. tony has the latest. >> here is what i wonder. on the trip from the national zoo to dulles, will the fedex truck make other stops, delivering packages? >> no it will not. today at this moment the priority is our tai shan. >> just wondering, because they're very efficient. i thought maybe they would make other drivers. >> it might be horrifying if he decides he doesn't want to go to someone else's home. >> let's go with what is happening right now. before we talk about the eather, it's time for the my first 5 photo of the day. >> i'll run it. >> thank you, allison. this is 3-year-old monzel trying to catch a snowflake. >> it should be easy this weekend to do that. >> yeah. you'll catch a lot of snow. >> on your eyelids and everything. >he was enjoying the snow the other day. i suspect the kids will have a good time for the snow coming up this weekend. to send us your child's picture, go to myfoxdc.com and click on mornings. let's look at what is happening out there. the current temperatures, we have not budged. we are still at 32 degrees that hour. 26 in baltimore. fredericksberg is at 27 degrees right now. so cold air in place for the start of the day. it will get warmer today with a high of around 40. ere is a look at the satellite radar. we've got mostly clear skies. you can see by the live shot there, a lot of sunshine this morning. we'll start to get clouds building in here later this afternoon. in advance of this storm system which is moving across the gulf coast of the united states. a lot of rain. some is heavy. and when it gets here it will be snow. and the snow will be heavy. and our viewers along the eastern shore, southeastern virginia, places like this, you're more likely to get the precipitation starting as rain and also likely to get a wintry mix which will hold down your snow totals but our friends to the north, say in frederick county and elsewhere, you'll get significant snow and closer to the 20-inch total as a possibility up there. we'll have to wait and see how it develops. five-day forecast, high today about 40. quiet today and snow tomorrow developing in the afternoon and comes quite heavy overnight and still heavy and blowing snow on saturday. that's a look at the weather. now to julie wright for an update on traffic. julie. tony, we're still experiencing huge delay around the capital beltway from college park all the way around toward silver spring and continuing out toward river road. and that's because of an earlier accident involving an overturned vehicle. all of the activity cleared so the lanes are open but this is the drive as you make your way around on the outer loop coming from the college park area and continuing around through silver spring. as a result, southbound 270 is a mess. a big backup out of germantown headed southbound all the way down toward the lane divide. and then we have slow traffic toward the tysons area. there was a crash on the beltway at the toll roads and that's clear but as a result the in bound stretch of the toll road is jammed off of the greenway toward the capital beltway and the beltway on the west side of town is stack up leaving the robinson terminal. naylor crash, stay to the right to get by. big delays there as well. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. a chilling prediction, saying al-qaeda will likely launch an attack on the u.s. for the next six months. a professor and from the foundation of the defense of democracy, good morning and thank you for being with us this morning. while we heard this talk this morning, why so much focus now? >> well the prediction is because of what happened during 2009. 12 attempted attacks against us. two were bloody. arkansas attack, fort hood and one was almost about to become a disaster that was the christmas day bomber. so the projection that if we do not basically stop the future attacks, we will have attempts this year. >> and what type of attempts are we most worried about? >> the united states government is worried about what we call lone wolves. individuals who do not have a formal link to al-qaeda but are interested in the ideology and who would like links to its mothership. >> and we're hearing talk in the u.s. about what they call clean recruits. people we have not been able to do background checks on. >> well that's the target or any jihad organization, to find individuals who are not on any list, who have not perpetrated any crime before, who have the passport and speaks the language and blends easily. >> we find how the face of terrorism has change and evolved? how has it changed and how may that affect us? >> it keeps morphing and mutating. we expect people coming from out side, they may send somebody from the midwest or california and we suspect one ethnic group and they have others. they are as diverse as one would think. the most important thing are the world's ideology. and for that we need a good education of the public. >> we've had stories ranging from people who are from this area, who have maybe gone to afghanistan or pakistan for training. we've had people who are home grown, who have caused problems here in the u.s. where is the focus on where the fear is now as far as future attacked? are we worried more about the home-grown domestic terrorism. >> well we look at what happened in 2009 and the previous eight years, the north carolina cell, the few cells in new york, texas, we see that 80% are u.s. citizens, most of them born here. so what we'll look at, who is in indoctrinating them and who is teaching them and recruiting them? >> what we've seen in iraq is women that are suicide bombers. do we have that fear that could happen here? may we be seeing almost or other groups trying to infiltrate into our system. >> absolutely. they have recruited women in the world but also in the west. there was a belgian woman recruited and we're looking at recruiting american born women as well. >> and as far as al-qaeda, when we look at how the terrorist organizations are working we talk about the christmas day tack in al-qaeda in yemen claiming responsibility and then we heard osama bin laden. is the face of al-qaeda changing? >> on behalf of al-qaeda to not let us underand how they function and the first reaction was this is an isolated thing. 48 hours later al-qaeda said he's a member and then osama bin laden comes in and he's a hero. >> and the christmas day bombing attempt in detroit. the suspect has been talking and cooperating with the u.s. government. does that help? >> absolutely. >> will we get good information? >> the more we can convince him to talk, the earlier the better it is. >> we appreciate your insight professor ferris and hopefully we can talk to you preemptive and rather than after something has happened. 32 degrees on this thursday morning. today is the day that we say goodbye to tai shan. right now the 4-year-old panda is in a crate. these are live pictures from the national zoo. he is in a crate getting ready be loaded on to that waiting fedex truck and then driven to dulles. our live team coverage continues ahead this hour. also ahead, we are live at the international food and wine festival. getting ideas on how to fill a fabulous superbowl party. we'll have that 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(announcer) try apple cinnamon cheerios. ked in apple th a daring amount of cinnamon. today a rather sad day here in the nation's capital. >> it's a bittersweet day indeed. after fourears at the national zoo, our tai shan is movingch and even though the panda was born at the national zoo he was on loan from china. we always knew that i suppose and now he has to go back and participant in a breeding program. >> right now tai shan is in his crate and the crate is being ready to be loaded into the fedex truck and then that truck will be driven out to dulles aiort. at that point he'll board a plane and share that plane with a panda from zoo atlanta. now this is the plane down in atlanta right now. these are live pictures at the airport where that plane is expected to take off soon to fly to dulles to meet tai shan, pick up that precious passenger and then together the two pandas and their staff and crew will take off just after noon to head to china. they said it's about a 15 hour trip. >> he'll have company. i wonder if he has leeway in the crates. i was expecting a bigger crate. >> they're the only ones on the plane so maybe they'll -- not like he can roam around. >> we should protect him i guess. >> and live coverage from dulles and its national zoo. >> we'll check in with beth parker and sarah simmons. but another story, the monster storm headed our way expected to bring more than a foot of snow to our area and we're being conservative when saying that. and we'll look at that in a few minutes. >> we'll have more details for you tomorrow. and new crash tests are out for small pickup trucks and we'll let you know which vehicles performed well and which ones didn't do so well. stay with us. it's now 8:28. dreams are amazing things. and in hard times, sometimes, a belief in a dream, a belief in what is possible - can transform everything. at at&t, we've never forgotten that our company began in a small laboratory, with a dream and a belief, in the future. today, our 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yeah...it's interesting.... certainly not the worst ringtone i've ever heard... ♪ ringtone lyrics: a-ringedy- ding-ding-dingy-dong, ringedy-dong-ding-ding... ♪ gecko (to himself): yeah, that might be the worst. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. so long tai shan. our big story this morning the farewell to our favorite panda. >> moments ago the crate carrying tai shan aived. right now crews are working to fix the crate -- affix the crate to a shipping pallet. that is happening live at the zoo. it will be loaded on to the truck and we'll keep these live pictures up on the right side of your screen so you won't miss any of the action there. a lot of action this weekend. of the mother nature kind. >> you got it. it will be a big one and it will arrive during the early afternoon tomorrow and it will linger on to saturday. and this will be a big one. remember the december storm? >> of course. >> a kind of repeat. december 10, it's the only difference. >> we're calling it the blizzard of '10. >> it looks like a big win. let's get to the headlines. we're talking about the storm arriving. overnight the clouds will start to move in and the snow arrives in the afternoon tomorrow and it will stick around all afternoon tomorrow and all night tomorrow night and into the day on saturday. it will probably linger until late in the day on saturday. it arrives early afternoon on friday. snow lingers through saturday afternoon. and the snow will be heavy here. and i was looking at the model profiling. it looks like it could be more than an inch per hour overnight friday and into saturday. and accumulation 12 plus and that's conservative. and in some spot it's could be 20 inches or a few inches more than that when all is said and done. there is your storm system across middle sections of the country. just getting it's act together and it will push off to the north and east and it will run out of real estate in the cold air. and it will change to snow in the washington area. and if you have plans to be out there later today, no problems. it will just be a partly sunny afternoon and the calm before the storm with temperatures -- a little melting today, 40 degrees. so the winter storm watch goes into affect tomorrow, snow developing during the afternoon. high temperature 66. it will stick almost immediately. problems for the afternoon rush hour and then all-out snowstorm to saturday. look at that. 32 with a lot of snow. sunday and monday will quiet things down. that's a look at the forecast. back to you at the desk. toyota troubles are only getting bigger. it has pulled eight of the most popular models as part of a massive recall associated with sticky accelerator pedals. then yesterday transportation secretary ray la hood made this announcement. >> my advice is if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it, take it to a toyota dealer because they believe they have the fix for it. >> toyota shares began to fall, slighting 8%, sensing there was a problem with that comment. he attempted to clarify his position. >> what i meant to say, what i thought i said was, if you own one of these cars, or if you're in doubt, take it to the dealer and they're going to fix it. >> toyota released a statement saying if drivers are experiencing problems with the accelerator pedal they should contact they're dealer without delay. if they are not experiencing any issues, toyota is confident the vehicle is safe to continue driving. now a new problem is surfacing for toyota. complaints are growing over the popular prius hybrid. there are design problems with the hybrid. the automaker corrected the design since late january. >> and i'm watching tai shan being hand fed at bottom of the screen. we'll continue with the news and we have more news for drivers. new crash test results are out for pickup trucks. they are far more likely to roll over which is why the insurance institute for highway safety looked at how the roofs would hold up in five of the ten models. and we have find that is pretty surprising. >> reporter: safety experts say the strength of the roof is what is most important in protecting people in rollover crashes. stronger roofs crush less, reducing the risk that the riders will be hurt and keep people from being thrown from the vehicles. >> in order to be approved it must holding four times the vehicle's weight. >> reporter: the insurance institute for highway safety rated only one small pickup good in roof protection and that's the nissan frontier. and even so, it barely made it into the good category. the ford ranger rated acceptable. followed by the dodge dakota. toyota takoma and colorado were put in the marginal category. >> small cars or pickup trucks are none topnotch in the range of the tests we do. >> reporter: its insurance institute checked other things. the frontier earned good rating and the colorado was good on a side test. the toyota didn't get a good rating because the side airbags failed to deploy. the insurance institute said that's never happened before in any of the testing. tisha thompson, fox 5 news. >> and chrysler said the problem was with the dakota optional curtain side airbag and they identified a computer glitch and are working on a recall. a live team coverage of the farewell to tai shan continues this morning. and coming up next we'll let you know what is going on with his journey to dulles. but first, we have a great resource called the job shop on myfoxdc.com. also important these days. today's job of the day is at county website incorporated, looking for a sales representative. paid between $40,000 and $80,000 a year plus commission. if would you like more on this job and many others, go to myfoxdc.com and click on the job shop tab near the top of the home page. stay with us. we'll be right back. ♪ [ female announcer ] discover black silk from folgers... ♪ with bold rich flavor that's exceptionally smooth. wake up to black silk. like 2009 h1n1, wash your hands and get yo flu shot. regularly disinfect surfaces. and talk to your friends about doing the same. let's help spread protection against flu viruses like 2009 h1n1. progresso. i reached my weight goal thanks to you so i am ready to get back out there. alright. that's great. congratulations. it was pretty easy with the soups you make. i want to thank you for 100 calorie hearty chicken rotini. well, it's not just me. humble. i like that. thanks. you're so funny. i like you. i... sshh.... [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. ♪ many thousand people ♪ living all here together ♪ ♪ on my island in the sand ♪ ♪ where the beaches are ♪ ♪ just as white as snow ♪ ♪ and the people live...♪ is every song in aruba about friendship and happiness ? what about themes like "broken hearts" "losing your house" and "growing old alone" ? ♪ ...peace and harmony ♪ ♪ sha la-la, la-la-la ♪ ♪ la-la-la ♪ sha la-la, la-la-la... ♪ welcome back to fox 5 morning news. where it is now 8:40 on this thursday morning. we've been talking about it all morning, a rather sad day here in d.c. >> after four years at the the national zoo our tai shan is moving. again live pictures. this is happening at the national zoo. and even though the panda was born here, he was on loan from china and now he has to go back. he will participate in a breeding program. and right now he is in that crate. you can't see him really, but just a moment ago as steve mentioned, he's being hand fed, just to calm him down a little bit. he is affixed to a shipping pallet and crews are working on getting that crate now loaded into the back of a fedex truck. >> some people ask if you would be -- if he would be sedated or tranquilized. no. he will be in the crate and conscious and active the whole time for the 15 hour trip to china. truck that he will be loaded in will be driven out from dulles. then he will board a plane with a panda from atlanta. these are the live pictures from atlanta and the flight is expected to take off momentarily from hartsville jackson airport. and then it will pick up tai shan atdulles and they'll all leave together just after noon today. we'll continue to stream live pictures at myfoxdc.com. we've put a link right on the home page. in the meantime our live coverage continues. >> when we come back, we'll check in with sarah simmons who has been at the national zoo. and we say hi to holly, good morning. >> reporter: hello. we're having fun here at the ronald reagan building where next weekend is going to be the wine and food festival and we'll talk about that and we'll learn how to take tips from them. all of the wine experts here and put that into our superbowl parties this weekend. this is all serious news can you use, folks. aleast i think so. live next on fox 5 morning news. stay with us. no doubt he is one of d.c.'s most popular resident, soon to be ex resident. you would have to be pretty big to have such a good bye party. >> fans gathered to say goodbye and today is the day our panda is moving to china. this morning we have live team coverage. rights now we want to check in with sarah simmons. she's been at the national zoo all morning. sarah, this is the moment we were hoping would be delays a couple more months, or years. >> reporter: i know. a think a lot of people were hoping that. it's been quite a touching moment to see him as he was rolled up. but then to see him just with the last moments with the zookeepers and those who work with him every day, feeting him pears and apples. this is a very bittersweet moment. i want to talk with dr. susan murray. she's the head veterinarian and also a very sad moment. what was it like to watch him as he's being loaded behind us. and coming up here and kind of having his lst moments here? >> it is bittersweet. and at the same time, we know it's for a great cause and we're happy he's going to china. but it is sad to see everybody giving him his last apple or bamboo. >> reporter: how closely have they been working with him. those that we saw gathering around the crate, day in and day out they're like family. >> that's a great way to describe it. the keeper and animal bond is tight and they are with him 24 hours a day and or his whole life and they are family. >> reporter: and he was in there eating bamboo and he seems calm. >> he's very calm because he's in familiar surroundings. he has friends, the keepers, he has a nice big crate and bamboo and he has his friends. >> reporter: we hear the forklift, is it backing up and preparing. we're close to seeing him go into the truck. >> we're close to see him go. and he got on the pallet and once it's batoned down, he'll go out to dulles we have a motorcade and so there will be no delay and mai lan is just landing. >> reporter: as quite an entourage. >> it is. and corporations and organizations and so everybody has worked together so smoothly. it's gone text book and we're thrilled. and we're sad to see him go but he looks calm and happy. >> reporter: and we're glad. dr., thank you for speaking with us this morning. we do appreciate you allowing us to spend time out here with him. he will be heading out of here at 9:00 and heading to dulles. the plane is expected to leave around noon today. very sad time as we watch tai shan loading into the panda express truck live at he national zoo. >> all of those cameras capturing the moment as well. thank you, sarah. we'll stay on top of this story as we watch him head out toward dulles. you want a day off? some students are celebrating weather-related school days but those in indianapolis get to sleep in for the superbowl. they are taking on the new orleans saints and kids want to watch it so schools have delayed the start time and so they will have to make up the time at the end of the school year. but it's probably worth it. so there you go redskins organization. if your kids want a day off, get the team to the superbowl. everybody will enjoy it. if you're hosting a superbowl party, we have some help for you this morning. >> holly morris joins us from the site of the international ood and wine festival to help make your party stand up. i think the first thing is wine and not just beer for party. >> reporter: and you're right. and the timing is perfect. because the wine and food festival is going on next weekend. all of the people know what they are doing in terms of throwing a party so we'll get tips from them to make our superbowl parties that much better. we'll start with ryan with baous wine cell. and you're talking about new arrivals out there. and maybe you want to impress your guest or learn from the festival next weekend but where do we begin? >> well the owner and i have tasted a lot of wines and we realized the so-called new varieties are the old ones. and you can look at this whole ris of wines from benardo to australia, carmen air up in chile, from bordeaux and south america and they've takn them and bottled them and over the years they've changed the fermentation and creating new flavors and mullback is an example. and like all of the other grapes it was a blending grape in bordeaux. it was bottled and fermented and 20 years later it's amazing. >> reporter: we'll talk with you later. thank you about talking about the new varietyals. and i've seen you before. and he has good tips on serving the wine at your superbowl party. so where were we? >> i don't know. about what are you having at your superbowl party? >> well i'm going to have the wings and pizza, and salty, fattening food. >> so if you're going to have chips, the bubbly. go for the bubbly. whether you do domestic bubbly, american wine and football i think go hand in hand, or you can do champagne. but perhaps you'll do more of the pretzels, i think bubbly goes with that. if that's not your thing, i think you can go with a peno blayn. and even reeseleing. i don't know if you're a fan of those. >> reporter: i personally am. >> and i don't know if you like pizza. >> this is a blend we have from michigan and it's called shin dig. and what is better with pizza than shin dig. >> reporter: what is this? >> your double fisting now. >> reporter: our panda is leaving today and i'm sad. >> this is from arizona. and a blend. >> reporter: i have to move on. >> move on to kelly. >> reporter: andrew thank you very much. i hope you're taking good notes. and this is kelly, wine consultant and writer because another great thing are wine tasting parties. >> you get together 10 or 15 of your friends, pick five or six wines from a particular air of the world or a variety and purchase inexpensive stem wear aside from the plastic cups, have some pour out buckets, down load tasting note sheets and then start with the sparkling wines and then move on to the reds. and then discuss your findings and compare notes and see what new bottles you fond you like. >> reporter: but i get conversation is great as well. and you will even host these in people's houses. >> i do. i do it for homes or corporations, so you can go to my website and get that information. >> reporter: very good. we have a link to the website. and we have a link to all of the websites we're featuring today and we have a link to the international food and wine extravaganza. they are limiting tickets because they want to make sure it's a comfortable experience and it's in this beautiful building, the ronald reagan international trade center. and hopefully you got good tips after what we rammed through at a good pace. and coming up we'll talk about other things. even though it's not all about wine. they do have food demonstrations and we'll talk about food pairing and about superbowl foods as well. it's parties on every level today, guys. >> and you got me hungry talking about the chicken wings and everything else. good stuff, holly. we'll see her next hour. and we'll be staying on panda watch throughout the morning. but also ahead serious news. the on going relieve effort in haiti. a. >> friend of fox 5, lisa van sustern has just returned and she has commented about the spirit and patience. and the great need that still exists. the doctor will be with us at 9:15. dreams are amazing things. and in hard times, sometimes, a belief in a dream, a belief in what is possible - can transform everything. at at&t, we've never forgotten that our company began in a small laboratory, with a dream and a belief, in the future. today, our wired and wireless high speed internet networks are connecting small businesses across america - in cities and small towns - to markets around the world. we know that investment in broadband high speed internet can create hundreds of thousands of new american jobs. small businesses are being formed - dreams are being launched - and real jobs are being created. at at&t, we're investing billions to upgrade and build out our wired and wireless networks. now is not the time to stall momentum or to stifle innovation or investment. dreams, and jobsand the future are at stake. at at&t, the future, are at stake. at at&t, the future, has always been our business. at&t... your world... delivered. due to diabetes it would frustrate me. in a basketball game a couple minutes could mean a big momentum shift. my bayer meter is very important. 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(announcer) the contour meter, only from bayer. won't be long before we have the winter olympics in vancouver and we're always looking for interesting stories. you heard from the jamaican bobsled team and now an african skier is expected to compete. the first person from gana. is set to complete in the slalom. kwame began skig six years ago. no snow where he's from so he started skiing inside at the u.k. and he's called the human snow leopard because of his outfits. so one story to watch during the games. let's turn things over to tony and allison. thank you very much. much more ahead on fox 5 morning news. panda watch continues. tai shan leaving the national zoo shortly. in fact he's just been loaded on to the specially-designed fedex truck. he's taking a ride out to dulles airport where he'll be loaded on to a plane and head to china. we'll have that coming up in a little bit. and as we continue to look at earthquake ravaged haiti. dr. lisa van sustern is a guest. she has a firsthand account of the situation in country in haiti. doctor van sustern just back from the country and joins us now with what it was like to be there and some of the things she saw. >> she has some pictures to show too. they are very moving to look at, i'll say that. and also an amazing story. a a woman -- a woman is watching a sunset via webcam and notices something strange going on. it was

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