value of his house is dropped. very surprised, shocked. reporter: more than 670,000 marylanders will soon be getting notices in their mailbox seeing how much less their home is now worth. on average, the drop across maryland is nearly 20%. this is the largest decline we ve ever experienced in the history of this department. reporter: the department of assessments and taxation evaluates homes every three years so the last assessment was right at the peak of the real estate bubble. here s the rub. a lot of people will get at sesments and assume because the value of their house is less they will pay less in taxes, but that s not the case for many people. that s not exactly how it works. maryland also has the homestead tax credit law. reporter: which put a cap on the property tax increases of the past, so you paid less when everything was worth more. even now with home values down, that cap still exists. sort of evening out the system. even with a substantial reduct
after a scare in the air on christmas day, many, includes those who lost love ones on 9/11 are wondering, how much safer are we? first at 11:00, state leaders are demanding change. the case of an 11-year-old salisbury girl who may have been kidnapped and killed by a registered sex offender may spark change. cheryl connors spoke to a group that councils abused children. reporter: the opinions vary on how to keep children safe. they want to donate money to programs that will generate conversation about inappropriate behavior. but lawmakers want to focus the attention on predators, by keeping them in prison, much longer. it has generated debate over child sex offenders. she was found dead on christmas day. thomas legs is being held without bond on charges he kidnapped the girl. the senders will find a way to do the crime, so the focus will be placed on children. someone makes their mind up, they re going to do something, it s very hard to stop them, particularly when you r
near disaster, security concerns at our nation s airports after a man nearly sets off a bomb on board a flight to detroit. i was like a zombie, it started to seep in finally, what danger i had been in and what had happened. tonight hear from a baltimore man who was sitting just a few feet away. hello everyone, i m vic carter, here is what people are talking about tonight at 11:00. al-qaida is boasting that it is responsible for the airline would be bombing. mataba told u.s. officials from the start he was on a mission from al-qaida. monday, an al-qaida group said it had in fact, supplied the suspect with the device. the attack failed. the american people should be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep you and your family safe and secure. reporter: the obama administration revealed the christmas flight federal officials are holding this terror suspect at this federal prison. prosecutors are hoping to get a dna sample to see if they could connect
now. there is still some out there. and we are almost coming up on the time to ring in the new year. today we ll be doing taste testing to help you find the perfect bottle of champagne to kick off the new decade. a little bit of bubbly is okay. do you think it s okay to do that at 6:30 in the evening instead of midnight. sure. why notment because you can t make it until midnight. i can t make it to midnight. before we head over to weather, i want to show you some video that just came into the fox 5 news room. the high winds that tucker has been talking about, this is the result of that. a tree literally just uprooted this morning came crashing down on a car. this was over in adams morgan. and i guess with all of the rain and the snow, the ground is pretty saturated. it is. and then you combine the winds with that. you got it. we ve had wind gusts good morning. wind gusts over 40 mileper hour here in the city. and we have a wind advisory until 6:00 tonight. s
and lost opportunities. reporter: on the trading floor, commodities soared and 2009 was indeed the golden year. the precious metal teetered around $1,000 an ounce. as for the people who shaped the year in business, long-time bank of america s sea resigned. angel berroa fan key got re- - and ben bernanke got another term. for many [ inaudible ] for many sweet justice was served. brian bolter now with the news edge at 11:00. he s the face behind a terror attack on the u.s. and tonight al qaeda says it prepared 23-year-old umar farouk abdulmutallab. the nigerian native tried to blow up a passenger plane on christmas day. president obama made his first public announcement today regarding the scare in the sky. the president is trying to reassure the public traveling is safe. he s promised an immediate security boost at airports. president obama also ordering a review of that watch list, the no fly list, and the screening process. he s not pulling any punches making it cl