Transcripts For WRC News4 At 6 20121218 : comparemela.com

Classmates while students from other schools here went back to class for the First Time Since the tragedy. The pain offing goodbye has become a part of every day now in newtown. This grieving community buried two more first graders today. Jessica rekos loved horses and asked santa for cow girl boots and hat for christmas. First born, she liked to plan and organize so much her family called her their ceo. James mattioli, nicknamed jay, loved math, sports and games on his ipad. Early riser, he usually ended his days cuddled up on the couch next to his mom. There are so many here holding one another tight right now unable to sthak the horror. For gene rosen the panicked words of six young survivors echo over and over in his memories from that day. They kept saying in one of the boys said he had a big gun and a little gun. I ii could not fathom what they were talking about. Reporter he found the boys huddled in his yard after they ran past the gunman to escape. They were very upset. And i two boys just started talking. Hi noed were what happened. And they said we cant go back to the school. We cant we cant go back to the school because our teacher is gone. Reporter students in newtown did go back to school today. Except for those from sandy hook elementary. Every campus opened with extra security and grief counselors on hand. The parents whose 7yearold wrestled with jake pinto, one of the victims, says it is tough but time. I dont think you are ever ready to send your child after to school aftering . Like this happens. As much as we can get him back to normal we have to. Reporter most understand normal means something very different now. What can really be normal when you are talking about burying 6 and 7yearold kids here. Tomorrow victoria soto, one of the teachers who died trying to protect her students, will be the first adult from the tragedy laid to rest. Live in newtown, connecticut, im jay gray, news4. When shadows fill our day dozens of students and staffers at George Mason University gathered today for a vigil to remember the victims of the connecticut shooting. A flower represented each of the victims as their names were called out. Speakers urged the crowd to make the most of the lives they have. We have the opportunity to empower others, students, our peers to spread this light. Please join me in choosing life so that we all may live and our children may live and that we may continue to add light into this world. The people participated in a procession alto the George Mason Statue for a moment of silence. You can get up to the minimum updates on the shooting investigation any time on nbcwashington. Com. Also, coming up at 6 30, the debate over gun control and the Virginia Governor considers plan to arm teachers. 1 days now until the fiscal cliff deadline and there is at least one thing president obama and House Speaker john boehner agree on and thats a tax hike on the rich. Theres Month Celebration yet. Lot of work still to be done. Steve handelsman on capitol hill now. Law make verse not quite agreed on how to define the very rich. Steve . Thanks. Here on the hill, little more optimism. Still the hangup over which of the rich might get a tax rate hike starting january 1. People, families, making a million or more a year or much larger group making 400,000. What do we want . Reporter protesters came to the capitol dempedding republicans agree to tax hikes on the top 2 of americans. The original obama plan that he campaigned on. But Speaker John Boehner is pushing a new compromise to the calling plan b. Taxes on the wealthiest 1 would go back to the clinton era rate of almost 40 on income over 1 million. In trade for taxes on everyone else, not rising january 1. Our plan b would protect american taxpayers who make a Million Dollars or less and have all of their current rates extended. Reporter but president obama studded obama says not good nuf. His new proposal is to hike taxes on earners over 400 thousand how and cut spending an additional 1. 2 trillion. The white house says boehner ought to buy that. It seems like folly to walk away from that opportunity because you dont want to ask somebody making 995,000 a year to pay a dime more in income taxes. Reporter briefed by boehner at the capitol, some republicans said the speaker is going too far. Agreeing to raise tax rates on anyone. I hate it. I hate it. Once you have crossed that line and say, like, some people, it is okay for some peoples tax tows go up, i think it is not i think it is a mistake for the republican party. Reporter most republicans realize the top rate will rise. Period. Beyond that, i tell you, we just have to get more cuts. Reporter democrats say just got to get tax hikes on more of the rich. Deal to avoid the cliff could still get spoiled by the disagreements over taxes and spending. Steve handelsman, news4, living from the hill. Thanks, steve. Senator Patrick Leahy of vermont, formally assumed a position in the line of president ial success. Today he was vorn in as the new president pro tem. It follows the death of daniel inou. He lahey moves to third place in the line of succession behind Vice President joe biden and House Speaker john boehner. Developing story tonight. The suspected butt slasher, a guy that targeted women at Fairfax County Shopping Malls, is on his way back to Northern Virginia tonight. He was extradited and flown from peru to the u. S. Today. Police in peru took him into custody near a Shopping Mall in january. He is accused of cutting ten young women with a box cutter or razor. None of the victims were seriously hurt. An active search under way for a shooter in aspen hill, maryland p. M. At about 4 30 this afternoon a 19yearold was shot in the eye. The police tell us it happened in a park near the intersection of connecticut avenue and grand prix road. Once again, Police Searching thatrea now trying to find the shooter. We just learned the name of a man found murdered near a d. C. Elementary school. Police identified the victim as 5yearold anthony rice of northwest washington. A dog walker found rice shot to death at ft. Lincoln park yesterday. Thats right behind Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in northeast. The school notified parents and planned to hold all activities indoors until this investigation in the park was wrapped up. Vicious murder still unsolved after seven years. Today the Culpeper County sheriff released an open letter asking for any information on the death of cheryl warner. Back on december 18, 2005, warner was killed in her home. She had been on the phone with her father, a man knock order her door claiming his car had broken down. She was later found tied up and hanging in the basement with her home set on fire. The officials do not believe the killer was alone. They are hope somethi one will provide the tip they need to make an arrest. It is official the district government has for now given up on its plan to set aside hundreds of special red top meters for disabled drivers. But the decision leaves a lot of confusion about just who can park wear and who has to pay. Tom sherwood is here to rye to sort all of it out. Sounds like a mess, tom. Doreen, it is confusing. More now any driver can park at any meter at any time. These are just two of 1,500 red top meters. D. C. Planned to install them all over town for disabled drivers to pay to park. But only 450 of them are in place now. The others will stay in storage. The new red meters were designed to cut down on thousands of fake handicapped placards. But confusion over the plan forced the d. C. Council to delay the whole idea. The concept of it was completely reasonable that we would reduce the number of scoff laws. Any time there sun fairness, whatever is it is, in this case the parking you know, it just creates a lot of resentment. Disabilities groups complained not enough red meters were being set side. Less than 10 of the 18,000 city meters. Heres the big question. If the city is not going to go made when with the red top parking meter for disabled motorists, does that mean anyone can park here . In short, yes. Any motorist can park at any meter for from the allowed time whether it is silver, red, or even the old blue meters once used for disabled drivers. Driver was handicapped placards still wont have to pay. Many drivers are unsure of the rules. Saying i can get handicapped ticket now . Reporter that means you dont get a ticket. They dont enforce the red top meters for handicapped now. Sounds great to me. Reporter the city says it is not enforcing the red top meters. Really . Reporter have you gotten tickets. I have seen two people get tickets. Reporter but month more. These red meters could become soughtafter spots. The red meters give you twice the time for the same price of a regular meter. Council members say they will try again next year to clarify new rules. Door evening . Thank you, tom. Former president george h. W. Bush should be home in time important the holidays. A spokesman important Methodist Hospital in houston, texas, says the former president is getting better. And he could be released in the next few days. Mr. Bush has been in a hospital since november 23 for treatment of a cough related to bronchitis. Doctors say his physical therapy sessions are going well. And they are increasingly confident he will be home in time to celebrate christmas with his family. Strangely weirdly warm weather out there today and windy this afternoon. What can we expect tonight . Chief meteorologist Doug Kammerer is here with the scoop. We are still on the windy side. Winds gusting right now to 30 miles an hour at the airport. 50 degrees after seeing highs in the low 60s earlier today. Winds out of the westnorthwest now. Sustained at 14. Again, gusts to 30 at this hour. Little cooler to the west. 42 in hagerstown. 49 in la platta. A cool night tonight but much above average continuing across the area through the night tonight. Lets head into georgetown. Thinking about walking around, looking good for you. Temperatures around 50 around 7 00. 47 by 11 00. 40 when you wake up in the morning. Still breezy tomorrow. I will talk about when we see the cold air finally move in. Next at 6 00, held captive for five days. Tonight nbc news Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel is safe and talking about his days as a prisoner. Lot of psychological torture. Threats of being killed. They made us choose which one of us would be shot first. When we refused there were mock shootings. We will tell you how you can help vdot come up with the next big traffic master plan in Northern Virginia. 30 life and death experience important nbc news chief correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew has ended and ended well. The journalists were kidnapped in northwestern syria last thursday. They escaped into turkey last night in the middle of a fire fight between their captors and syrian rebels. As we were moving down the road, a group of gunmen justly rally jumped out of the trees and bushes on the side of the road there, probably 15 gunmen and they kept us blindfolded and bound and we werent physically beaten orator toured. Lot of psychological torture. Threats of being killed. They made us choose which one of us would be shot first. And when we refused there were mock shootings. As we were driving along the road, the kidnappers saw this checkpoint and started a gunfight and two of the kidnappers were killed. We climbed out of the vehicle and the rebels took us. Engel believes their kidnappers were loyal to al assad whose regime had been facing an upriding since 2011. Nbc news said there was no claim of responsibility, no contact with the captors. And no requests for ransom during the time that the crew was missing. Tonight russia is getting ready to evacuate its citizens out of the syria. Russia deployed warships to the mediterranean. Syrian refresh else claimed victory today over a Palestinian Group loyal to syrian president al assad. The Syrian Military stepped up its attacks with bombings in did a mass cass suburbs. Syrias Vice President says he hopes the rebels will negotiate for peace. The former mistress of general David Petraeus will not face federal cyber stalking charges. Her name is paula broadwell. Today the Justice Department announced it is dropping its investigation into whether she stalked a woman she perceived to be her romantic rival. An fbi investigation into the matter uncovered broadwells appear with petraeus. He was forced to resign as cia director last month. Law enforce many Officials Say it is also unlikely broadwell will Face Criminal Charges for having classified information on her computer. Comments made on a social media website set off a school riot in sweden today. The police say somebody went on instagram and asked people to post pictures of sexually active girls in the city. People responded with about 200 pictures and names. Some of the girls were as young as 13. Teenagers upset by the posting organized a proceed tis on facebook. The police say the teenagers then went to a high school to attack the girl who put up the posting originally. About 27 teenagers were taken into custody. Three people are in custody tonight in connection with a massive theft of maple syrup. Police in quebec, canada, say the arrests are part of the breakup of a huge trafficking ring in syrup. About 16,000 barrels of syrup was taken from a warehouse there. Those thefts happened over a year but they werent noticed until an inventory check back in august. That stolen syrup is estimated to be worth about 30 million. The thefts put a dent in the Global Supply of sear up wow. Thats a lot of pancake. Thats a lot of pancakes. I knew there was something wrong out there. That was than syrup. Never heard of anything like that. How dhaus happen . Go figure. What weird weather was today. I left my car the reading in my car was like 65 degrees at 10 00 this morning. Right. We hit 62 for a High Temperature today. Thats really very warm. Some areas into the mid 60s today. We talked about that yesterday. And that we would see these warm temperatures but wow was it nice. A little bit earlier and winds kicked up and even with the winds we stayed on the mild side after a code front. We are warmer behind the combed front and it doesnt happen very often. We have seen it a couple of times this year. Actual high today was 62 degrees out at the airport earlier this afternoon. If you were out and about, low this morning, 48 degrees. And the record high, nowhere close to that. That was 74 set in 2006. Very interesting. December 18, 2006, 74 degrees. December 18, 2009, a blizzard. Remember that . Yeah. I think we all do. Beginning our tough winter of 20092010. You can see this time of year does give us one of the other either warm or cold and seeing the snow. No snow right now. Fortunately for many of us, no snow in the forecast either. 50 degrees current temperature. Winds out of the north west at 14 miles per hour. But they are quite gusty. Still seeing winds gusting upward of 30 miles per hour. Cooler to north and west. 41 in cumberland. Cool air starts to slide across the area. Again, this will be cool air overnight and not cold air by any means. The wind is still kicking up. 30mileanhour wind gusts in washington. 18 in fredericksburg. Still 21mileanhour winds towards winchester. We will continue to see rather breezy conditions through the night tonight and through tomorrow, too. Tomorrows winds upwards of 10 to 20 miles per hour. Radar, no shower activity. No rain. We saw a few showers earlier. They were very light. They moved through very, very quickly. Now we are just seeing the clearing skies. We saw the clouds earlier. Now the clouds can no longer make their wooifr the mountains. We have some Winter Weather to talk about. Winter storm watch. Back towards garrett county, maryland. Parts of west virginia. West of the mountains, it is not going to get here at all. We are going to stay on the mild side of things. Breezy conditions and mild. Thats what we saw today. After our front moved through. Tomorrow the storm system moves farther out. What we see tomorrow is sunshine. Again, to the western slope here we are looking at a chance important snow. For us, on the downslope of the mountains, we are going to be on the warm side again. Temperatures into the low to middle 50s on our wednesday. Thursday will be the day of transition. We will see mild temperatures and highs still in the low 50s, i think. Cloud cover and then frontal boundary, that front could give us showers and possibly thunderstorms and then the cold air rushes on in. We are going to see very cold conditions on friday. And on saturday. I think wind chills both days will stay in the 30s all day long bp time that we get cold air in here. And it is coming just in time for the start of winter and also for the christmas holiday. Take a look at your forecast for tomorrow. Partly cloudy and cool and not cold. Temperatures 32 in the suburbs to 40 in the city. Tomorrow afternoon, we will see those numbers back up into the 50s. Once again, about 5 to 10 degrees above average under mostly sunny skies. Your wednesday will be great. If you have anything to do outside, lets say you forgot to do it, tomorrows the day because then we are going to see things change. 51 on thursday. 70 chance of shower and thunderstorm activity late in the day on thursday. Then friday and saturday windy and High Temperatures only in the low 40s. Very, very chilly friday, saturday and sunday and right now looking okay as we head towards monday and tuesday. Tuesday is christmas. We are 7 days out and looks like mostly cloudy skies. Chance of some rain showers late in the day. Early is looking okay. Lot of times you figure that forecast out wil