today begins wa would be the busiest or could be the busiest day of the year. holiday year end travel starts today for most people and many people. it will be one of the least expensive years. aa amid atlantic expressed more than two million people to travel for the christmas holiday. that's more than last year. if you are driving, you can save a bit on gas compared to years past. prices are at a three-year low. 5.5 million people are expected to fly. visitors did the study and analyzed records around thanksgiving, christmas and new year's. they found december 21st, tomorrow, through the 26th and the peak. not necessarily on the highways. >> there is a lot of traffic out where people shop the more likely you are in being in a crash. it's that simple. >> most were just fender bebders and they consider christmas day the safest day to travel. your chances of getting into a traffic because of fewer cars on the road that day. how would the weather be for traveler travelers. a live view there and that doesn't stop the temperature from warming up. warping us into the low 50s. at 52. college park is 52 and northern virginia and southern maryland and central virginia into the mid 50s. here are the headlines. a lot of clouds around from the west. they have been passing over the thin spots in the clouds. the bis story is a nice warm up. highs expected in the low 60s around washington. much warmer for the weekend. i think on sunday it may be up and down the atlantic seaboard and make it 72 in washington. the cold air north and west will come in on the first part of next week. barbara? new this morning, how this house fire got started even though no one lived there. this is on o street not far from pennsylvania avenue. firefighters were called around 4:00 this morning and put out the fire and checked for hot spots when crews learned no one lived there. firefighters have not put an estimate on the damages in the building. firefighters are figuring out what caused this town house to catch on fire. this was on north colonial terrace. no one was hurt there either. the family was not home at the time because the floors were being resurfaced. firefighters think that might have sparked the blaze. >> dozens of activists are remembering those who lot of their lives without a place to call their home. the group organized the events that included last night's all night vigil and today's procession to the wilson building. the group will hold a ceremony to honor the people who died in 2013. a popular math teacher is d.c.'s teacher of the year. the honor came as a surprise announcement at the two rivers charter middle school in northeast. we go live at the school. mark, tell us more about the teacher who won. >> barbara, i can tell you bill day is 33 years old and as you know, two rivers public charter is one of the highest performing schools in the district. no surprise they would have the teacher of the year working here. for this young teacher, this prestigious award and the prize money that comes with it comes at a very good time. >> he is math teacher william day. >> bill day has been teaching math for nine years. the past three years, here at two rivers charter middle school. >> he made math easier and sometimes he gave me hard problems, but times i wanted to give up. he helped me work through the times. >> during the assembly, students knew something was up approximate when the mayor walked in. >> you are probably saying what the heck are they doing here today? they didn't happen to be in the neighborhood. no, we didn't. did we, superintendent? we came here for a special reason. >> that reason was to present the 2014 teacher of the year award. >> wow. i have 500 hardworking role models. every time you guys come into class ready to go, ready to learn. thank you. >> the honor comes with a $5,000 check that comes at a very good time for day and his fiance. >> i just got engaged. maybe that is the invitations or the flowers money. i don't know. >> bill day said he made a five-year commitment called math for america to teach here in the district, but his long-term plans are to keep teaching right here in washington, d.c. in northeast at two rivers charter school, news 4. >> thank you, mark. right now consumers and insurance couples and politicians are sorting through a late night surprise announcement to delay part of the affordable care act. a look at what the change affects. last minute shopping on your own time. the retailers are once upon a time, an insurance clerk stumbled upon a cottage. [knock] no one was at home, but on the kitchen table sat three insurance policies. the first had lots of coverage. the second, only a little. but the third was... just right! bear: hi! yeah, we love visitors. that's why we moved to a secluded house in the middle of the wilderness. just the right coverage at just the right price. coverage checker from progressive. >> this morning streets in london are still closed after the ceiling fell on theater goers. about 700 people were in the apollo theater when the collapse happened. theater goers rushed out of the building. they are not quite sure how to describe what happened. >> a lot bang and an explosion and the ceiling came down. a lot of dust and wood and all that sort of stuff. >> we looked up and the whole ceiling kind of came down in slow motion. >> about 80 people were injured and all are expected to make a full recovery. they don't believe the collapse is connected to criminal activity. a key member of the senate is in the hospital. at the live desk with details. >> midday, harry reid is in the hospital right now. his spokesman said he was not feeling well early this morning and went to the hospital as a precaution. doctors asked that he stay for observation so he will not work today. dick durbin is filling his role in his absence. >> senator reid called me and he sounded good and we look forward to his speedy recovery. >> reid's spokesman said doctors conducted tests is everything is normal. he is resting and feeling better. check nbcwashington.com for updates. at the live desk, i'm lynn yang. >> a florida congressman is out of the rehab part of the hospital in time to spend the holidays with his family. he said that you will see him on capitol hill when congress returns. the first term republican will not resign. he said he has been in rehab now for a while no >> no one, no one will take away my passion when it comes to serving southwest florida. >> he said he was actually in rehab because of a problem with alcohol and not drugs. the ethics committee is investigating the circumstances surrounding his arrest. >> president obama will hold a news conference and answer questions about 2:00 this afternoon. we will be streaming that on nbcwashington.com. it will be streamed live. the president and the rest of the first family will be heading to hawaii for winter vacation after the news conference. before the president goes on vacation, the white house is announcing a signifi cant change in the rules of the law. nbc deputy editor joins us with more on the change. tell us about what the change includes. >> when the president said if you like your health insurance you can keep it and there is a whole fact that a lot of those people are not going to be able to keep the laws because of how the policies may have changed. they will now not get hit with a penalty until next year. they have an extra year to sign up. >> do you expect the president to talk about that? >> he will be asked about it. he will have to be. you are looking at a president who had all time lows in his presidency and a big reason for is the botched roll out of the health care law. there have been a myriad of delays and problems. over just this past year, that's a big issue and one of the democratic pollsters said as goes health care, so goes the obama presidency. >> what do you think he is going to face? >> the big picture. if you look at the lows he has in his presidency, how does he regain the trust when you are seeing those numbers and honesty and trustworthiness start to decline. you will see more on how you get back to the next three years and getting to do something? >> do you think he considers himself a lame duck now that they are talking about the next election? >> no wi he can admit that. most say presidents have about to eight months to get the agenda through. we are well beyond that point. there is no real chance for democrats to take back the house. there is a chance republicans take back the senate. what happens if mitch connell is running the senate and john boehner is running the house? unless there is a lot of give from the president, he is going to be in lame duck status unless he gets executive orders through. >> speaking of duck, let's talk about this subject and that's phil robert and the duck dinasty and the politicians defending him. what they're defending. >> the protagonist here in duck dynasty was interviewed by gq magazine and had comments about members of the lgbt community and racially charged comments as well. >> controversial remarks about homosexuality. >> absolutely. what happened though was he was suspended. when that happened, that triggered conservatives like sarah palin and bobby jindal to say he was expressing first amendment rights and biblical passages. here's what is surprising. when the republican party is trying to change and appeal to swing voters. gay rights and immigration, these are things they had problems with in the 2008 election. one of the options was to stay silent and they didn't do that. >> they think they are playing to their bases. thank you so much. we will see you next week. >> thank you. see you maybe next year. >> for more check out first read at nbc news.com. we have a look at forecast and summer returns. >> we started the poll on twitter. do you think the spring-like weather is weird or wonderful? no, we are getting -- a little of each. >> we are getting a lot of wonderfuls and it's december and we want it cold. you will have to wait for that. just in time for christmas it's going to be feeling like winter and between now and then, certainly feeling like spring time for today and into the weekend. yesterday i traveled into rockville and visited the st. mary's school in rockville. this is a site where the parish has been there for 200 years. i talked to 200 schools about all the weather. they asked great questions and i showed them my national geographic weather pop up book. they loved that and we had a lot of fun in rockville in montgomery county. i want to thank one of the parents for the invitation to visit the st. mary's school. a lot of clouds over washington and live from the sky watcher camera overlooking washington. temperatures in the low 50s around the metro area. southern maryland in many locations that hit the 50s. up to 55 and the mid-fiftz. around 52. already near 60. near 50 as well. any of the snow that is on the ground far north and west will be melting as afternoon highs climb to around 60 degrees in washington. may hit low and mid 60s. light southwesterly breeze and sunshine in and out. down to the mid 40s and saturday with more sunshine and that persistent southwesterly wind will make it to the mid-or upper 60s on saturday afternoon. the warmth continues into sunday, but a lot more clouds. we will have sunday's high. many locations reaching the low 70s right in the med row area. south of washington many locations will reach the mid 70s. the record high for washington is 75. we may be near that. that was set back on december 22nd on 1984. shower activity with a cool front that makes its way through and may trigger warm showers on monday as well. then it gets cold. just in time for christmas eve day. highs eaching around 40 and then christmas eve itself, i think it will be mostly clear and temperatures christmas eve will be down into the low 30s in the evening hours and then the 20s by dawn on christmas day in the afternoon. i think they will have temperatures just in the low 40s. partly cloudy christmas night should be mostly clear and back to the 30s. it will feel like winter again by christmas. >> wow. i guess that's a good thing. >> no snow. not a white christmas. >> thanks and we will see you again shortly. we want to hear what you think about the mid-december warm up. do you think it's weird or wonderful? call the flash survey line at 202-601-3444. text if you think it's weird and text two if you think it's wonderful. we will share your responses in a few minutes. ahead of a busy week, we hear about the new role he has for the catholic church. >> i have fallen in love with your daughter and she has fallen in love with me. >> plus, that's the start of a very uncomfortable conversation on the stage going on right now. it's the production of guess who is coming to dinner. you probably recognize the star. he will be here along with his lovely costar with more than audiences can expect. and we are all set for the holidays. are you? i'm not. we will show you how you can be. stick around to see the beautiful greenery we will tell you about when we come back stay with us. 50 here's a look at what's hot on nbcwashington.com. bl right now macy's are all open and three won't be closing until christmas eve. the stores in tysons corner and columbia maryland will be open around the clock to get your holiday shopping done in the middle of the night if you want. many kohl's are open 24 hours a day and that starts tomorrow morning. if you are out shopping late, you want to set your dvr to record "saturday night live." >> jimmy fallon is hosting and justin timberlake will be the musical guest. he will star in the sketches as well. we don't know if the barry gibb talk show will be reprised. they have played the gibb brothers in the past, but robin gibb of course has since died. we will look forward to seeing whatever they do. i'm sure it will be entertaining. a new message from target this morning. coming up, what they are saying to those who may have been victimized in a massive security beach. it's hard to tell, but temperatures have reached the 50s. right now around the area we will get much higher than that before the weekend is over. it's our final days of the 12 days of giving. our final day actually. we hope that you will reach out and help the covenant house of washington. we will tell you how to make a difference in the lives of a lot of peo >> millions of people woke up with an e-mail from target explaining the credit breech. if you received the e-mail, read it carefully. it contains crucial information regarding your account. target officials apologized to customers and added to that letter the trust between the store and the shoppers is a top priority for them and went on to address and provide information about what customers should do to protect their money and personal information. the credit card breech impacted about 40 million people who shopped at the superstore between november 27th and december 15th. the information includes your name and card number and expiration date and the security code. localliy we are hearing from many of you impacted by the breech. over the last 24 hours, news 4 received emails and phone calls about the situation. most of you have been trying to report the fraudulent activity, but due to the large number of cases, you haven't been able to. they said the website crash and callers are bottlenecking while trying to reach someone. making sure they are organized including having your could number and having charges readily available. we met with a few people who are dealing with the charges and their statements already. >> if you are not checking every line item, you don't know exactly what's going to be on there. >> if you want more information about the breech, head to our website, nbcwashington.com. we have a break down of what we know and numbers to call if you are one of the victims. there is a new leader this morning of stafford county schools. bruce benson has been hired as a superintendent after a-month 7. benson started his career as a science teacher in 1983 and has been superintendent of the schools in virginia's eastern shore since 2011. his contract calls for him to make $200,000 a year and he will start in april. there is a lot of damage to clean up today after a van crashed right into the front of a building. this is ace cash express on oxen hill and livingston road. that's where it happened. prince george's county police said the driver was in a crash with three other cars. that sent the van off the road and right into that building. an employee in the check cashing center said it happened so fast. >> it was a loud boom. i just saw the wall come in. it just collapsed and the police came in and said we needed to leave. the truck was on fire and the building was going to collapse. i got my stuff and i left. >> no one inside was hurt. two people in the crash went to the hospital, but should be okay from what we hear. for the first time, we are hearing from cardinal donald about his new with the catholic church. earlier we told you how he was appointed to the congressigation of bishops. it promotes and nominates bishops from around the world. they stopped by the newsroom and he said it's all part of the change in the church under pope francis. >> it's how this will continue to move forward with the beautiful, beautiful vision he has for the church today. if we are going refresh this and that's one of the words he used, maybe it's time for newer faces. >> the cardinal replaces the conservative cardinal burke. we will check in again on the temperatures outside and see what the weather is like right now. tom is out there feeling it up. >> it is much milder than we have seen the last several days. we are into the low 50s. a little bit of a breeze north and west. you still need a jacket. the cloud cover is not holding the temperatures back from rising. 52 here in northwest and much of washington and the nearby suburbs. further south it is already now into the upper to mid 50s. we will see it hitting the low 60s and may hit mid 60s in parts of north central virginia. low 70s on sunday. sunday night into monday may get showers and it will be a cold pattern for christmas day and we will have temperatures into the low 30s by midnight and the 20s by christmas morning. christmas day should be partly cloudy and cold and highs around 40. 30s again on a clear sky on christmas night. that's the way it looks. >> thank you. in today's 12 days of giving, a look at an organization making a difference in the lives of thousands of young people in the area. they take care of some of the most vulnerable young people and the homelessness, abuse and neglect. they join us to talk about the house and how it has been a wonderful thing for you. i will start with you. i would like you to tell us what do they do for kids? >> it's the largest and leading agency that is serving homeless neglected and abused young people 18 to 24 here in the washington, d.c. region. we provide over 40,000 meals during the year as we serve our nearly 2,000 young people each year. >> that's a lot of kids and you were helped by covenant house. tell us about what they did for you. >> i have been at covenant house for a week and since i have been here, i have been able to enroll in school for free forfully bot me and internet and computer certification and they helped as far as poiding shelter and food and things i can't provide on my own. they helped me with that. >> kids can stay and how many do you have. we have a 44-bed facility at the crisis center. we have permanent services for periods of time up to two years in that process. we have a variety of services as well as educational services we are providing and prevention for services. >> were you in a crisis moment? >> yes. i called and i went online and i looked up shelters in the d.c. area and covenant house was the first number they came across. i was crying historically. the lady could barely hear me because i was crying so much. i told her my story like i needed somewhere to go. i'm from tennessee. she was like look, don't worry. we are going have you somewhere. that sunday she checked up on me and they could get me in. how old are you? >> i'm 19. >> how did you end up in washington? >> i came for school opportunities and work and i wanted to be in the air force. i wanted to be stationed at andrews. >> sounds like you are on the right path. can you give us a phone number? >> sure. you can go to the website, www.covenant house d.c.org and get all kinds of information and donate to support us as well as the phone number. 202-610-9600. >> do you need volunteers? >> volunteers and alliances and we need dollars. thank you. >> thank you so much to both of you. thanks for coming in. for more, you can check out our website and go to nbcwashington.com and look for covenant house. coming up, keeping the tree looking fresh through the new year. guess who is coming to dinner in our area. meet the stars . >> now you see, mom. this is john. >> i am so pleased to meet you. >> and am pleased -- >> guess who's coming to dinner. both are here with more on the 1967 classic film. great to see you. i was telling malcolm jamaal, we say the whole name, i met him many years ago when i interviewed him the first year. great to see you again. very nice to have you here. do you feel like you have big shoes to feel with the great sydney portier. >> it's an honor to reprise the role, but we have a different approach with the stage adaptation than the movie. we have an opportunity to definitely into the subject matter. that's because of the political and racial climate at the time. >> the country doesn't see race and do you think it is relevant today? >> absolutely. i think there still racial issues that we deal with, but this play is great in the sense that it asks us to look at ourselves more broadly as a culture and how do we -- how are we prejudiced now whether it's race or gender or sexuality or religion. >> let's look at the play and see another scene. >> we are here to see if you and have any objection if, if we got married. >> had wants to sit. >> it's a serious play and has funny parts too. do you have favorite parts that you think are kind of -- that get a lot of laughs? >> the scene that you just saw a clip from where i'm revealing to my parents who i have brought home to marry. we never rehearsed it to be comedic. we just rehearsed the honesty of it and it is hysterical how they react. >> you having fun on the stage or do you think this is a heavy, heavy subject to deal with? >> we are having a blast. the script has a lot of humor in it. we don't necessarily have to play the humor. it's there. as long as we play the honesty of it, all the humorous moments and the cast is great. we get along and it's great. we have a company where everyone has mutual admiration and respect. >> this is your stage where you live in washington. the kmund and stuff at the national theater. this is the first major production. >> you hoping that the show will go to new york and broadway? >> from your lips to god's ears. >> is that the idea? this is the first airing. was it anywhere else before the stage version? >> it debuted about a year and a half ago and about half the cast was in that. good luck. we were happy to have you in washington and a lot of people will get a chance to see it. >> please see us. >> it runs through january 5th at the arena stage. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> a nice rally going on we are hearing on wall street. let's check in for the latest. seema? >> we are looking at a 40-point gain on the nasdaq showing the economy growing at the fastest pace in almost two years. they revised up to 41% from a projection of 3.6%. the major averages are posting gains, hitting yet another record high. two stock stories on the radar. first mcdonald's mighty wings didn't prove to be so mighty. they have 10 million pounds of unsold chicken wings and they need to get rid of it fast before they expire. they spoke and confirmed they are bringing back the wings very soon. united airlines will no longer allow children 5 through 11 to fly on flights that include connections. >> christmas trees and other decorations need care if they are going to last through the new year. you know that already. david martin from johnson's florist and garden joins with us a look at how to keep things fresh. i think we are on, david. i think we are going to start with the tree. >> okay. >> how do you suggest -- we said there a lot of different ideas about how to keep things fresh and somebody said viagra in the water. aspirin in the water. what do you suggest? >> i don't think anyone wants to spend their viagra prescription on their christmas tree. i like this a lot. it's called prolong. you put it in the water at the base of your tree. do you it about times throughout the season. this will help to keep the tree fresh. it's important that they put a fresh cut before you take it home and put it in water. about an inch and a half or two inches needs to come off. >> you also spray the tree with hair spray to make it stay fresh. >> no because hair spray is flammable. i often wonder why women use it on their heads. this is called wilt proof. this is used on greens and things a lot. this tree here, what we would do is soak it well and spray it. this is an aspect des cant. it helps keep the leaves and things on the trees and greens as well. >> does it work on flowers too? >> not as much. what you would use on flowers, you use the prolong. this uses well on fresh cuts and there a couple of other products you can use. >> that would make a nice table top tree. how long will that last? >> this will last all winter long. a customer wanted me to prune it and they started to grow new tips on it. it's an oasis. these are tiny tips that are here to make the shape. >> as long as you make it water and keep the foam wet. >> it will stay alive. >> people are looking for small presents to give their neighbors or friends. many people think of flowers. what do you suggest? >> i like the idea of giving live plants. fresh flowers are great, but avoid the poinsettia because it's more difficult to take care of. >> after christmas, they are not very appropriate. >> for doesn't last and you end up putting it in the trash. this is an orchid can it involves a couple of ferns. this will last for four to five months. this is another here. this is great and also air plants with the red spike. this is also a form that gets the red coloring here. this lasts until the following thanksgiving. this is a plant that is popular this time of year, but it's a nice long bloom. why i like it better it it tolerates warm drafts and the plant is not as tender. >> i have seen these and i will lift it up. i have seen these in floorists. >> we have these cut on a farm in maine and shipped to us. people use these for a lot of things. the most popular use is for fireplaces and a lot of people have them and they don't use them. they want to look at something being used. >> can it burn and don't give people things to burn. birch is a very long burning wood. >> what are about pine cones? >> that's nice to give people. she's are sugar cones from a large pine tree. you can do those. these are faux greens. i wanted to bring them in instead of something that was going to shed. >> those are not real. >> they are not. the french say faux and we say fake. we call these permanent because they don't go away. >> that's a good way to have them next year. tell us about the big pot. >> it's a great thing. this is a porch pot that has been planted. this is a shrub and this is a shrub. this did have flowers during the summer. what i have done is turned it into a holiday porch pot and i added stalks and stems of greens to have southern magnolia here. this is winter berry that you can buy. you can buy this in stem and this lasts up to 30 days. >> great ideas. thanks for joining us. david from johnson's floorist. our time it 11:52 and the lighter side of president obama. we will be back wit >> following a developing story. the maryland video lottery commission will announce which project is coming to prince george's county. members are voting in baltimore and choose either a tight tight at national harbor or at ft. washington. president obama will answer reporter questions a few hours from now. he will give his end of the year conference at about 2:00 in the afternoon. we will stream it live. after that the president and first family are headed to hawaii for the holidays. the national gallery of art obtained another van gogh that has rarely been seen over the past 50 years. take a look at this. unveiled today, it's the green wheat fields you may have seen. for years the piece has been in the home of paul melon. he left the artwork to the museum, but not until his wife passed away. his wife now 103 years old decided to give the participating as a christmas gift this year so everywhere could enjoy it. the last time it was on display was in 1966. i had a chance to see it myself when i interviewed him a few years ago. >> warming up into the low and mid 50s and into the low 60s and warmer and getting k0e8d for christmas day. >> thank you so much. looking at the flash survey. we asked you whether this warm up is wonderful or weird. people are flit on this one. 51% say weird and others say wonderful. that's what you and i said. >> that's news 4 for today for this week and we thank you for tuning in at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00. we will be here at news 4 midday. have a great

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