chris pabst spoke to the man filing that suit. chris is live at the metro headquarters in northwest washington. chris, as you reported yesterday, these claims could cost metro millions of dollars. >> well absolutely. these lawsuits are soon to start piling up. today, we learned that the first lawsuit will officially be filed tomorrow. and then just a minutes ago, abc 7 learned that six more of those passengers have already signed on with that same law firm with the man who is filing tomorrow. now, speaking of that man he said today that he thought that he was going to die on that train when it started filling with smoke. so much in fact that he wrote a text to his mother and to his two kids saying good-bye. >> i just didn't see any way that we were going to get out of there because the smoke was encapsulating and all you could see out the window is darkness. >> at about 3:30 monday afternoon, while stuck inside a smoke-filled metro train near the l'enfant plaza station, malbert rich thought his life was over. with all hope gone he squinted through the smoke and wrote a good-bye text to his two kids and mother. >> i told my mother that i loved being her son and i told my kids i loved being their dad. and i told them you know cry a little bit and then move on because i'm somewhere better. >> according to rich's attorney the 53-year-old new yorker was just released from georgetown university hospital. and he's suing to make safer. he'd also like compensation though he wouldn't say how much or discuss his injuries. and while injuries on the metro do happen, they are rare. according to federal transportation data obtained by "7 on your side", from 2010 to 2013 d.c. metro reported 14 injuries for every 100 million customer trips. compared to similar sized markets, that's fewer than chicago's 31. but more than boston's six. metro would not comment about the lawsuits. as far as the injuries are concerned in comparing transit systems, metro said that is "not important" because different metro systems have different problems. the woman that will be filing that lawsuit tomorrow on behalf of that passenger also represented two of the victims from 2009's fatal metro crash. live in northwest d.c. chris pabst, abc 7 news. >> thank you so much chris. now, d.c. police are looking for the gunman who shot two teenagers in southeast last night. 17-year-old phillip jones was killed. the shooting happened on martin luther king jr. avenue at around 8:30. officers heard the shots as crowds were leaving the anacostia basketball game. another teen, a 14-year-old girl was shot in the hand. we're learning more about the ohio man arrested and accused of plotting to bomb the u.s. capitol. f.b.i. agents have reportedly been tracking 20-year-old christopher cornell for months. rebecca cooper has the latest developments from capitol hill. >> visiting the capitol for work today, former marine shane keller noted there seemed to be more officers inside protecting lawmakers than on the streets outside where parking enforcement officials were more visible. noting the capitol is always a tempting target for extremists he wanted to come armed. >> in general, we'd feel better if we had it to protect ourselves. >> you'd like to carry a weapon? >> yes. >> this d.c. resident said she had no qualms of being on capitol hill today. >> i'm fine. it's beautiful. i'm enjoying the sun. life is short. let's enjoy it. >> not worried. >> not worried. >> law enforcement officials report it was an informant that led them to 20-year-old ohio resident christopher lee cornell and his posts on social media supporting islamic radicals and calling for home grown attacks. today, house speaker john boehner credited a controversial n.s.a. surveillance program that allows spying on americans with thwarting his plans. >> bizarre law enforcement officials and those program that help us stop this person before he committed a heinous crime in our nation's capitol. >> the criminal complaint alleges that cornell bought two assault rifles 600 rounds of ammunition and was building homemade pipe bombs intending to kill lawmakers and anyone else he found inside or near the capitol. justice department officials insist the public was never in danger. they say cornell was still in the planning stages and not in the operational stage. they insist they shut him down before he ever got that far. at the capitol rebecca cooper, abc news. >> president obama and british prime minister david cameron addressed the paris terror attacks in a new op ed. it's titled "we won't let the voice of freedom be muzzled." "the times of london" published it today on line. the president and prime minister wrote they're recommitting themselves to protecting people safeguarding their economies and defending values. the two leaders will meet for a working dinner tonight at the white house. coming up at 6:00, a new report on donations to bob mcdonnell's legal defense fund. find out if they've increased as he appeals his sentencing and we'll look at changes taking effect tomorrow that will change what americans can bring back from cuba. >> and i'm doug hill in the furniture storm watch 7 weather center, kind of quiet and cool for a couple of days but some changes on the horizon. we'll highlight that in the seven-day outlook. still to come here at 6:00. stay with us. >> the "7 on your side" help center is open for business until 6:30. it is ask the attorney night. you have a few more minutes to call. we'll tell you what questions are being answered as soon as we come back. >> a virginia state senator wants to know what's happened to more than a half million dollars in his campaign fund. the f.b.i. says someone stole $600,000 from the campaign accounts of fairfax county democrat richard saslaw. he said that authorities discovered the theft while looking into another matter. and he expects charges to be filed in the next few months. donations are dwindling to the legal defense fund of former virginia governor bob mcdonnell. federal disclosure forms show the fund collected $3200 during the final month of last year. supporters donated $320,000 before mcdonnell's corruption conviction last fall. mcdonnell is appealing his two-year prison sentence. today is the 86th birthday anniversary of civil rights icon dr. martin luther king jr. a church in northwest washington honored his birthday with the ringing of bells. the memorial united methodist church also held a ceremony. monday marks the national holiday in honor of the life and legacy of dr. king. still ahead at 6:00 starting tomorrow it will be easier for americans to travel to cuba. we'll explain the new relationship between the u.s. and cuba. and doug is tracking the forecast. find out if warmer weather is headed our way for the weekend. >> hey, mo how about this for a forecast? rain predicted for both nfl titles. that will be sunday. seattle and foxboro and the redskins make a big hire. offensive line guru joe bugel type. let's go to work as abc 7 n >> for some americans who want to go to cuba it will get much easier starting tomorrow. the white house has revealed more details of the recently announced shift in policy towards the island. ryan nobles explains how they might affect you. >> it is a policy shift five decades in the making. >> these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked. >> a new relationship between the united states and cuba and starting this friday the average american will be able to reap the benefits. >> i'm sure americans would come here more if they could. >> 50 years americans have had to request permission to visit cuba. as of friday you no longer need to clear the trip as long as a visit is for educational, cultural or religious reasons. travelers will be able to use u.s. credit cards there and on the way back, american citizens will be able to bring in $400 worth of cuban goods. they will be limited to $100 worth of alcohol and tobacco products including those world famous cigars. the obama administration is hopeful this will be the start of easing tensions between the two countries. critics like florida senator marco rubio, a cuban-american are worried it will just put more power in the hands of the castro family dictatorship. >> if you want a better relationship with us economically, that should have been as a result of an opening politically on the island of cuba. >> but polls show most americans support the switch. and starting this friday they will get to take advantage of this new cuban-american partnership for the first time in a long time. in washington ryan nobles abc 7 news. >> 7 is on your side to help with your legal questions. over the past hour, several attorneys have been taking your calls in the "7 on your side" help center. "7 on your side" consumer investigator kimberly suters is there now. kimberly, there's still time for people to call and ask the attorney, isn't there? >> that's right. 14 more minutes, maureen, this group of volunteer attorneys have been kind enough to come in here. they are from the alexandria, prince george's county montgomery county bar associations. plus the aarp, maryland legal aid and the women's bar association and they are here for, as we said, now 13 more minutes for answering your calls. call the number on your screen. if they can't answer your question, a lot of them are referring people out to different agencies. referring even among themselves here in the "7 on your side" phone bank. and the kinds of questions people are asking are this is the situation. can i get out of my lease? i'm going through a foreclosure proceeding. is there anything i can do? people have questions about wills and trusts and federal court procedures and the attorneys say while the phones have been ringing off the hook they are having a good time helping you out tonight here in the "7 on your side" help line help desk help center, ask an attorney night. one more thing, they're only here for a few more minutes and then the phone bank closes at 6:30. if you don't get your phone call picked up you can always e-mail us at tips at wjla.com. and we can refer you to one of these wonderful attorneys who has helped us out tonight. maureen, back to you in the studio. >> a thank you, kimberly. first woman elected to federal office from iowa will deliver the republican party's response to president obama's state of the union address. senator joni ernst won her seat in november. that seat had been held by democrats for years. the state of the union address will take place on tuesday night. nearly 300,000 virginians have signed up for the health insurance marketplace program under the program's second enrollment. the u.s. department of health and human services said today was the deadline to get coverage starting next month. if you missed the deadline you can sign up through open enrollment until february 15th. and what is going on in the weather today? no big, big things. >> no, we need a break. if you had big snow yesterday morning, old man here just taking a breather here. >> still shovelling. >> it's very quiet. no big surprises, we do see a winter pattern trying to re-establish itself. let's get started with pretty pictures from damascus during the day. typical of the northern suburbs. started with clear skies this city and most areas south and east started with cloud cover. through the day, we got rid of the clouds most everywhere and turned into a partly sunny to mostly sunny day area wide. few scattered clouds. that will be the picture tonight and tomorrow. very pleasant colder tonight but not terribly cold. 42 and 32 are the high and low at reagan national. not that far off from the averages of 43 and 28. here's a nice tantalizing thought. back a long time ago. 77 is the record high in 1932. we're down now past sunset. temperatures starting to fall. 32 in gaithersburg. 32 at manassas and culpepper. 35 at the mid shore and east end. we'll see the numbers slowly drop off during the evening hours and area of low pressure in the south taken a lot of cloudiness and it's a fast mover. it will move out to shore and allow the approach of another cold front. partly cloudy tonight. as this moves out we'll get a bit breezy tomorrow but we'll have a fair amount of sun with the clouds. a pleasant day. we'll be into the 40's. that will be nice. it will turn colder tomorrow night and for the day saturday when this high pressure center moves overhead and give you a look at how the temperatures will respond. first tonight, we're headed down. 24 to 30 degrees for the overnight lows and then tomorrow morning, just a map form with temperatures to look at. 25 in leesburg when you wake up and manassas. 28 in bowie. 30 in arlington, a little heavier jacket than normal for these temperatures. yesterday, sunshine and a few clouds and this cold front, no weather expected with it. sunny day with the high pressure system moves through the day on saturday. another one comes to the south and those two will combine more likely to get in some sunday showers. wake up on a friday 32 degrees with westerly wind. 10 to 15-mile-per-hour winds. upper 40's tomorrow afternoon. the dr. martin luther king jr. holiday weekend. enjoy the numbers. 39 on saturday. and a 30% chance of showers that will hit the area. looks good partly cloudy 43. 43 on tuesday and rain showers of anything next wednesday with highs continuing near average numbers in the low to middle 40's. maureen and tim? >> thank you. so much, doug. >> it looks like the wizards are celebrating christmas every day of the year. >> it's fun. this is really fun. i've got the very latest on the red hot wizards. aaron rodgers talks about the 12th man. and the redskins make a big announcement that should help this team go from being offensesive to a good offense. coming up next in sports. >> well, the washington redskins have hired the former dallas cowboys offensive coordinator and offensive line coach bill callahan. he's regarded as one of the best line coaches in the nfl and that will be his title with the redskins redskins, offensive line coach. he has a great relationship with bruce allen from his tampa bay days and he was part of jon grudin's staff with the oakland raiders. bill took the raiders to the super bowl in 2003. great get for washington. with the division title game set for this weekend in green bay seattle matchup.at will be all kinds of things with aaron rodgers and russell wilson but the headline of that game will be the stadium in seattle, the 12th man. it certainly is the loudest stadium i've never been in and the noise causes problems with audibles but aaron rodgers is aware of that. >> it's a tough environment. you know we split our games on the road this year. played up there in week one, great environment to play in. it's loud. and great defense. great test. winner gets to play for it all. >> aaron rodgers. the wizards have won five of their last six games with big wins over the spurs and the bulls. wiz kids are home against brooklyn tomorrow night. final 40 seconds, magic-rockets game. orlando makes the steal and starts the break. former dematha star says 360, draino, flush. victor oldipio with the show stopping dunk. magic go on to win and that is the sealer. hold on. give the women some. george mason women need a miracle. watch taylor brown falling out of bounds and throws up the shot. ties the game in regulation the patriots beat saint bonaventure in overtime. downtown taylor brown. finally ohio state quarterback surprised everybody and called a news conference this afternoon. thought he was going to the nfl. he announced he is going to stay in school. he wants his diploma in his pocket before he goes to the national football league. i'm hoping all the kids are listening to that. >> good advice. good advice for them. thanks. >> let's talk about the weather tonight. clear and partly cloudy. it will be very comfortable, cool. in the morning, temperatures will be in the 20's. it will climb to 42 to 48 with partly cloudy and breezy weather. check out the holiday weekend forecast. looks good to me. 40% chance of rain and temperatures in the 40's on sunday. a bit cooler on monday. and more on the weekend and wake up steve rudin monitor all the weather weekend updates and have that coming up tonight at 11:00. when we get a little bit of snow, a lot of people are disappointed. we want a lot of snow. there's nothing in the foreseeable future. give it a week or two more. >> things are going to change. word news tonight coming up next. i know grandma's house isn't the most exciting, but it's only for a few hours. look what i've got. when you get verizon fios, you get beautiful hd picture quality; super fast internet, and america's most reliable network. so you won't miss a second of that movie, that game they love, or those moments with family. can we sleep over? please! come on! make your house the house when you get more guaranteed from verizon fios, with tv service rated #1 in hd picture quality and signal reliability based on customer satisfaction studies, plus america's fastest, most reliable internet. get a price quote in writing and professional installation from a highly trained verizon technician. hurry now to get an offer that can't be beat. last chance to get a fios triple play online for just 79.99 a month - a price guaranteed for two whole years, plus get all our premium channels included for two years, and a $400 bonus with a two year agreement. hurry, this great deal ends january 17th! visit verizon.com/worryfree to learn more. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v on this thursday night, the breaking news. the large-scale terror raids under way. authorities say major attack was imminent. the firefight, what was their plan? and the abc news exclusive. the moment in an american quarry. the fbi says this is homegrown terror right before your eyes. the practice bomb going off. the plane crash in florida. you will hear the frantic call blinded by the fog and dark. and the nfl player pulled from the field amid charges of sexual assault. and bradley cooper is here