Sleet snow problem late friday night into early saturday. Look at the weekend coming up in ten minutes. Temperatures are mostly in the 30s this morning and as youre planning out the rest of your day, plan on a lot of clouds today and maybe a chance for a sprinkle or two later on this afternoon. Melissa has a lot going on in traffic this morning. Chopper 4 just got over the scene. This looks like a pedestrian that was hit. This is green belt road at kenil worth avenue. You can see a partial closure here of some of those lanes. And before pennsylvania avenue with that left lane blocked as well. Beltway looks okay. 16th street closed between l and k this morning. L closed between 17th and 16th. That is a fire at the capital hilton this morning. Do have two lanes blocked on 66. Not causing a major backup but we are seeing some slowdowns. More on this breaking news coming up in just a minute. We are following breaking news right now out of a fire broke out inside the Capital Hilton Hotel. This is on 16th street. Justin finch is joining us live with the latest. Good morning. Reporter hey, there. Good morning. Were right around the corner of k and 16th streets. Things are normalizing at this hour. Fire crews packing up, investigating inside and guests are also back inside their rooms after quite the scare this morning. I want to take you now to some video from some moments ago. Youre looking at fire crews fanned out across the capital hilt hilton. Guests having to leave their rooms after reports of a fire breaking out in the laundry room in the basement at about 4 37 this morning. That fire broke out somehow in a laundry receptacle, perhaps a laundry bin. At that point the sprinklers above were triggered and contained that fire right where it broke out. Now, back out live here, we do know theres minimal damage in that basement fire did break out. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. There are no injuries to report. And guests at this hour are back inside their rooms. Traffic here on 16th street is opening up to cars. Back in to you. Thank you for the update. Were also covering Northern Virginia right now. We know that route 7 is back open this morning, this after a deadly crash there. Take a look. This is the view from chopper 4. It was over the scene yesterday as fire crews finished their work. The Sheriffs Office tells us that one person was killed. This is the look from the ground. This is a different vantage point. Deputies had to shut down all lanes on route 7 near yellow schoolhouse road because of this crash. And a driver being charged with drunk driving after hitting Fairfax County police chief. He was treated and released from the hospital with minor injuries. Police say he was rear ended while he was stopped at stone road. This is out in centerville, before 9 00 p. M. The federal government is now taking culpepper county to court. The Justice Department says the county acted illegally when it blocked the construction of a mosque. Specifically, the county denied a sewage permit application to the Islamic Center of culpepper. It prevented them from building a small mosque on land it had already purchased. The county considered dozens of similar permits and never denied any of them. Breaking news here in the news room, we just got word in that president elect donald trump is in fact, tapping exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson to be the next secretary of state. Sources told nbc news this was going to happen. Donald trump making that official. The press release just moments ago. We know that tillerson has never worked in government. Hes been with exxon his entire ceo since 2006. He has close ties with russian president Vladimir Putin, a point of contention among some. Tillerson has to be confirmed by the senate. Pictures here of him with Vladimir Putin. So he faces those confirmation hearings. But it is official that president elect donald trump is tapping exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson to be reck setesecret state. Back to you. Thank you. A major announcement about Donald Trumps cabinet that kristen just mentioned and well have more about that and other cabinet picks. And we know that president elect donald trump headed to wisconsin tonight. That is the next stop. Hes continuing his thank you tour. Vice president elect mike pence also joining him at a rally in wisconsin. Texas governor rick perry has been tapped to be Trumps Energy secretary. When perry first ran for president in 2012 he couldnt remember the name of the Energy Department as one of the agencies he said he would eliminate. That was during a debate. That moment became known as his oops moment. Heres a look at our top stories right now. More than 500 people were on a flight that had to be diverted to jfk due to a bomb threat. The flight had departed from houston and was headed to germany. This is twitter video sent from a passenger. Nothing suspicious was found. D. C. Officials are expected to be on board metros plan to close early every day of the week despite initially being against it. Maryland and virginia Board Members have already agreed to the proposal. More than a foot of snow is covering six mid western states right now. It is already impacting tens of millions of americans, and temperatures are expected to fall even more. Well, many of you are furnaces and while you do that there is a family who does want you to hear about their warning. This is about a silent danger. Charles matthews says that sunday morning his family, they turned up the furnace and he says suddenly they all became nauseous, groggy, his daughter even fainted. It turns out their furnace broke and it leaked Carbon Monoxide which is an odorless, colorless gas. Were incredibly lucky. They detected it before they even came in the house. Thats how strong it was. The family spent nine hours at a hospital. After released they immediately went to a Hardware Store and bought these. These are corarbon monoxide detectors. Firefighters say you should have one of these on every floor of your house. There is a search for this missing Montgomery County man. Carl tubbs jr. Police say he lives home. They say he suffers from schizophrenia and dementia and was last seen leaving for an appointment yesterday morning. Call police if you know where he is. And were also posting his picture to our nbc washington facebook page. New this morning Prince Georges County police are trying to track down several people who could be connected to a home invasion. Thats right. Its a story weve been following all night. They say as many as five suspects made it inside of a house on franklin avenue last night. Then they say they ran away. Were working to learn if those suspects were able to get away with anything. We do know some good news that nobody was hurt. Prince georges countys Liquor License tried to use his job to get out of charges. The report says he told police he only had one drink at mgm national harbors grand opening before being involved in a minor traffic accident. Officers say that caldwell asked if there was a way to the 72yearold lost his balance three times during a field sobriety test. He also told officers he had no memory of the crash. 6 08 right now. Bill cosbys case, the Sexual Assault trial for the comedian takes a new turn. Why it may come down to a fight over who can testify. Two crime scenes just miles apart. Police search for clues and a killer good morning, everyone. President elect donald trump sent out his pick for secretary of state. Rex tillerson despite concerns over his ties to Vladimir Putin. Peter, there had been a not so short list. How did Rex Tillerson rise to the top . Reporter this was the biggest prize in Donald Trumps cabinet and that statement put out just moments ago describes Rex Tillerson as among the most influent Business Leaders in the world and deal makers and obviously for the man who wrote the deal, donald trump that was one of the most impressive things about tillerson. While he has no government or diplomatic experience he does have years of experience building relationships with world leaders, a point that donald trump has noted on multiple occasions. That includes the leaders of countries like saudi arabia and yemen and with Vladimir Putin in russia. Thats why some members in congress think this could be a contentious confirmation battle going forward. Marco rubio saying anyone thats a friend of vladimir is not what im looking for in a secretary of state. However, there have been some influential republicans voicing their support for Rex Tillerson in recent days to donald trump. They include former cabinet members like bob gates, the as well as the other individual, james baker, a man that has met privately with donald trump as well. Another one of those finalists for secretary of state was the 2012 republican nominee, mitt romney. My sources familiar with the conversation last night say that trump and romney spoke, that romney was appreciative of the opportunity to be considered. Romney putting out a statement after ward calling it an honor to be on that list. Stand by. Andrea mitchell, peter just mentioned, heres a guy that comes to this job if confirmed with no Foreign Policy experience, but he will also be, if confirmed the first secretary of state in u. S. History with no Public Sector experience after the Election Year weve just come through with the feelings of Trump Supporters across the country, is this a very trump like choice . Reporter this is a trump choice because hes a deal maker, a business executive. They view that as a plus. Whether or not that holds when he goes before the senate for confirmation hearings remains to be seen. There have been as peter was just saying some some criticism from republicans and they cant lose too many republicans to get him through committee and on to the floor and get him confirmed but they believe he has such strong executive experience that this is all going to be a plus. They do have praise for him from several people. Im told that in fact, jim baker despite what Trump Officials have been saying never met with donald trump but does praise Rex Tillerson because he knows him very well from texas. Rice and gates did meet with donald trump and so they are hoping that that validates Rex Tillerson, but this also comes as trump in a statement says that hes hoping tillerson can reverse decades of misguided u. S. Foreign policy, a real all right. Thanks to you. Again, donald trump has chosen Rex Tillerson, the chairman and ceo of exxonmobil to be his choice for secretary of state. Much more on this story ahead. This has been an nbc news special report. Youve been watching nbc news special report on donald trump confirming that he has named exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. This was considered the grand prize in his cab thet appointment. One that was highly anticipated. He had several candidates. It took several weeks for him to come to this decision and he took the risk of a very, very intense confirmation process, which is probably going to follow both democrats and republicans saying that there is going to be intense scrutiny and also its going to shine a light on exxonmobils dealings with moscow in the past, so this perhaps is only the beginning. Lets check in with chuck bell to get to the forecast. Expecting some really cold weather heading our way. Sure are. We have today and tomorrow to get ready. We have thursday and friday to bundle up and hunker down. For today though, temperatures are mostly in the mid to upper 30s right now. So if youre going to go outside and do your morning jog, know its going to be very cold. Tlouds thicken up during the day today. Couldnt rule out a sprinkle or two later this evening with temperatures in the upper 30s to near 40. Some of those might be flurries out toward the valley. Not expecting a big impact. But for the next couple of days dangerous cold comes our way thursday and friday with temperatures down below zero at times. The early lean on the weekend, not much in the way of sunshine. A whole lot of rain chances for much of the weekend but cold enough at the beginning we may have a sleet snow rain mix to get things started on saturday morning. The whole fiveday forecast coming up in a couple of minutes. A brand new problem that just popped up. Overturned car on fisher avenue. So sending chopper right now to check out this overturned vehicle this morning. Westbound green belt road. That is where chopper just left. That was a pedestrian that was struck. 295 southbound still has two different problems. East capital crash in the laeft lane and before pennsylvania avenue left lane is blocked there as well. 270 south and the top of the beltway looking typical right now as we look at travel times in virginia. 66 that is okay. Remember to listen to 103. 5 fm when you hop in your car today. This morning d. C. Police are trying to figure out whether a car jacking and a deadly shooting are connected. The crimes happened less than two miles away from each other. Someone stole a womans car near Chevy Chase Circle and two hours later someone shot and killed a man on 32nd str i thats only a block from where he lives. His mother spoke just hours after learning of his death. He was just a good person. You say climb up on the roof, theres a bug. He would do it. Im his mom. Hes the best son ever. Investigators say it appeared the shooting happened from inside the car. No word yet on a motive or the suspects. Today bill cosby is expected back in court for a key hearing before his Sexual Assault trial. His attorneys are trying to prevent 13 of his accusers from taking the stand. Prosecutors are hoping the testimony will show a pattern of behavior from the comedian despite allegations from dozens of women, cosby is only charged in one case. The trial is set to begin in the spring. President elect donald trump is taking to twitter to bash defense contractors. Trump tweeted that lockheed martins firefighter jet Program Control and that billions of dollars can and will be saved on military purchases after his inauguration. Many investors are worried the Incoming Administration is planning broader federal spending cuts which could threaten u. S. Factory jobs. Future First Lady Melania Trump appeared in a Montgomery County court yesterday. The Court Session was just a scheduling conference. The defamation suit was filed in september after blogger published an unsubstantiated rumor that mrs. Trump worked as an escort. The stories were retracted. There is growing frustration this morning for people who want to protest Donald Trumps inauguration. The National Park service has not approved permits for organized events. Its reserved the natiol mall until it decides what it will use. It is violating the first amendment. People have the right to speak out. This is the nations capital. It is following guidelines set up in 2008 to reserve public land. Trumps Inauguration Committee said it is making its decision on space as fast as it can. Organizers say they will continue to work to find routes for their cause. Chuck bell standing by with more on what we can expect. A lot of cold. And a lot of clouds today. Right . You bech ct ya. Maybe a sprinkle or flurry into the Late Afternoon hours. Knot nothing terribly impactful but a big blast of way colder air is coming in. Temperatures dropping to 20 to 30 degrees colder than weve been. Windchills down near zero. Thursday, friday, perhaps on into the weekend as well. So have your nbc washington app downloaded. Follow me on twitter. You can be a friend follower on facebook as well. Ill do all i can to help keep you ahead of the blast of cold. Theres your fiveday forecast. 40s today with a lot of clouds around. Thursday and friday into the deep freeze we go. All right. Thank you. A grinch caught on camera. Christmas lights are stolen. One homeowner is offering up a little incentive to take christmas. A gunman walked into the pizza place. And aac and m at t. J. Maxx, marshalls and homegoods, weve always believed the holidays should be about joy. Where days are filled with magic, not madness. Its why we have amazing prices on thoughtful gifts, everyday. Lets bring back the holidays. All right. Come on. We all need a dose of cuteness at this hour of the morning. Take a look at these adorable panda cubs. And theyve been named. Show mom some respect. The names mean happy daughters. Theyre expected to make their debut later this month. You cant get enough panda video. These are like the only animals that as they get better they get cuter. All the rest of us, its like ugh. Kept for you. Those baby cheeks and theyre quickly becoming more rare. Theres actually a new study out this morning that examined millions of kids involved in a government food program. They found the number of children at risk for obesity later in life is going down. 15 were at risk in 2010. That number dropping to 12 2014. Not all chubby babies end up being chubby adults. Before you pack those lunches tree house foods has issued a recall on certain macaroni and cheese cup products. Three brands may be contaminated with salmonella. These brand