Transcripts For WTTG Fox Morning News 20100312

just ahead. the death of a little girl has raised concerns about protocol within d.c. fire and ems. today a public hearing will be held. we're live with the latest and we'll talk with the chair of the public chair philmendelson in minutes. and with money issues mounting, metro is addressing those problems with a four- point improvement plan and they are receiving some harsh criticism from one of their prior general managers. we're live with the latest. good morning, i'm allison seymour. >> and i'm steve chenevey. already off to a wet start today and could get worse throughout the weekend. it will be a wet one. >> through to the workweek. that's a look outside. checking out the view from the 395 at the pentagon and tony joins us with more. you should just expect to pack your umbrella today. >> you'll need it today, tonight, saturday, part of sunday as well. we have wet conditions. and some of you aren't seeing rainfall at this hour. so that's the bright spot. and i think we'll have a little bit of a break later on. let's take a look at what is going on. we'll start with our radar and show you how things are shaping up across the region. indeed, there is your rainfall moving or falling across most of the washington area. right in the district itself, not a whole lot happening at this particular moment. but it's building in in regions to the north and southwest and across most of the area, light to moderate rainfall. because of the rain, there is flood watch in effect for the entire region. and it's in effect from now until saturday evening. that's because we do expect to see periods of heavy rain which could lead to ponding, flooding of storm drains. we'll see increases in river levels, creeks, streams and the like. and particularly well out to the west where they still have quite a bit of snow on the ground. this will lead to rather rapid melting of that snow. again this is way out to the west, in western maryland, so they'll have pretty significant flooding concerns there. right now 53 degrees at reagan national. relative hum 86%. the winds out of at 15 miles per hour. your forecast for today, cloudy ses and periods of rain. rain steadier late in the day and heavy tonight. high of about 58 degrees and quite breezy. we'll have more details on all of that coming up in a little bit. right now we go to julie wright and get p dates on traffic. better news for pennsylvania avenue, the accident activity cleared to the shoulder and the lanes are open however traffic on the inner loop, the south bound 95- 495 slowing at central avenue to a point just south of route 4. southbound 270, no incidents to report out of rockville toward the split. traffic still slows approaching and passing 109, germantown toward the village and then spotty delays from falls road toward the lane dvide. in virginia, 95 slowing from woodbridge across the occuquan where we have a stalled car in the main line. lanes are open out of newington and springfield on to 395. eastbound on 66, delays coming eastbound from manassas but again 7100 trying to get past 50 fair oaks to 123, nutley street to the beltway. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. to track this latest round of wet weather with live radar and get traffic updates with all of the cameras all over the area, go to myfoxdc.com. can you -- you can do it all there. criminal charges could be brought in the case of a d.c. toddler who died after medics did not take her to the hospital. >> the case is the focus of a public hearing planned for today. the d.c. residents will get a chance to tell their stories and address concerns about the d.c. fire department. stacy cohan joins us live from the wilson building. stacy. >> reporter: good morning. the death of stephanie stevens and outraged her family and the communities and others will have a chance to get their stories told happening at a hearing here later this morning. now medic 33 out of southeast washington responded to the toddler's home during the blizzard back in february and she was suffering from trouble bleeding. documents obtained by fox 5 showed the unit only stayed about 10 minutes before refusing to transporting the little girl and leaving and she died of fam -- pneumonia the next day and d.c. fire admits ere was a lapse. >> i want everyone to know there is a very clear-cut protocol who describes how the treatment should have gone and to not transport, we should have followed that protocol. >> reporter: and the chief is expected to testify this morning. and sources tell fox 5 they are also investigating the allegation that this failure to transport was being covered up by folks inside the d.c. fire ems department. i'm live outside of the wilson building, back to you. >> stacy, thank you. new this morning, metro is deali with another derailment. no passengers on board wednesday when a red line train came off the tracks at the brentwood rail yard. the operator ran a stop sign. there is reported damage to the tracks and the third rail. well he derayment and crashes -- derailment and crashes have metro looking for an industry veteran for advice. >> reporter: good morning. it sounded like a perfect idea, find someone who knew the metro system inside and out and then ask them to do a full review. well that is exactly what the metro board did. they found a former general manager. with a looming $190 billion deficit, a string of fatal accidents and another change at the top, metro's board asked a top gun transportation expert for a diagnosis. gaffed gunn, the prior general manager, gave them an earful in a closed door session. he laid it on the line and i'm glad he did because we got the unvarnished report from his point of view. >> reporter: he laid out a four- point plan for improvement. first of all resolve the safety issues. second find a permanent general manager and shore up the finances, including general access and the door to door service for the disabled. >> it's tough because these are people very often in great need who we want to respond to. >> reporter: tough decisions all around, but gunn told the board he would not recommend cuts to metro rail. >the question is whether there are other kinds of track problems of various sorts. >> reporter: graham says the agency realizes it has a lot of work cut out for it. an aging infrastructure, not enough money, now the board will have to dive head first into gunn's specific recommendations. suggestions from someone who has been around the track once or twice. >> in philadelphia, in new york, in d.c., president of amtrak, this is one of the real transit gurus of america. >> reporter: and that guru told the board that there is no time to waste. david gunn said the plans need to be implemented right away. steve, allison, back to you. >> matt, thank you. one more word from metro this morning. a word of warning. it's out with a new psa to fight a dramatic rise in thefts of electronic devices. it begins with the questions. you wouldn't leave $200 in cash in plain sight so don't do it with your electronics. it shows how quickly a thief can steal your ipod or phone. try to avoid standing near the doors where a thief can make a quick getaway. it seems that not even serious family emergencies can get in the way of the health care battle on the hill. despite democrats appear unlikely to meet the president's goal to have the work done by thursday. doug luzader has the latest for us on health care. >> reporter: it looks like democrats in congress are going to miss another white house deadline, but that doesn't mean they're not pulling out all of the stops to get this done. it's hard to even keep up with all of the key players in these negotiations. but if the is any single measure of just how important this is to democrats, consider this, the senate majority leader harry reid wife and daughter were in a serious car wreck yesterday. his wife broke her neck and back. reid went to the hospital and came back to keep things moving. rahm emanual was thre as well, still pushing to get a deal done fast. even though next week's white house deadline is in doubt. >> the march 18th is an interesting date. our clock starts ticking when we get the final cbo report. >> reporter: the congressional budget office still has to fire out how much the president's health care plan is going to cost. and it's still not clear how the final bill will handle things like abortion funding. if seven pro life democrats vote no, our latest count shows demoats will be seven votes short in the house. and the white house seems to acknowledge now that the president's deadline is probably dead. >> if it takes a couple of extra days after a year, then it takes a couple of extra days. >> reporter: it could take weeks. but democrats brought out the family of a woman who died because she lacked insurance. and republicans who have been shut out of the negotiations were not moved. >> and members of congress shouldn't be deceived by these theatrical attempts to create a sense of urgency about this legislation. >> reporter: well if congress misses the deadline, it will continue but the president is heading overseas for almost a week and the white house fears they will lose momentum, especially with the mid term elections drawing closer. doug luzader, fox news. verge legislature looking to close a gap for a spending plan running through 2012. it does not appear likely there will be an agreement before saturday's scheduled adjournment. and coming up, more troubles for toyota. why they are mystified by the runaway prous this week in california. plus the huge sum awarded to first reonder who's got sick as a result of the dust at ground zero. and as we head to break, a live look outside. we'll get the latest weather and traffic updates on the other side of the break. time now is 7:10. we'll be right back. yeah ! hey, hey, hey, hey, your map's blocking the game. oh, sorry. i'm just checking the scores. is my map in the 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(announcer) nothing works stronger, faster, or longer to relieve your worst allergy symptoms, including congestion, without drowsiness. get claritin-d at the pharmacy counter. live claritin clear. laxatives? i've tried all these. this one's gritty. this one can make you bloated. clearly, miralax is the one for me. it relieves my constipation with no harsh side effects. miralax. restore your body's natural rhythm. welcome back. it's 7:14 right now. taking a look outside. i believe continually town -- tenleytown area. and it will get worse through the weekend. >> it doesn't look so bad there. >> at the moment it's not, in washington itself. we're seeing more rn elsewhere. out to the east and to the west, but in the district not so much happening right now. and i think for part of the morning, most of us will get a pretty decent little break. i characterize today's rainfall more as periods of rain. then it will be a steadier rain tonight and overnight and during the day tomorrow too. >> so tomorrow won't be pretty. >> so tomorrow will not be pretty. unless i'm appraisingly wrong, i think that -- >> that's out of the question. >> yeah, you won't have out door activities. but if i'm going to be wrong about something, this one i wouldn't mi being wrong about. and temperatures around the region. right now it's 53 here in the district. 50 up in gaithersburg. baltimore is at 48 degrees. in quantico, virginia, 53. 55 in culpeper. salisbury at 48 degrees at this hour. winds, i want to check those out. they have picked up a little bit. 9 mile-per-hour winds being reported in the district right now. 14 mile-per-hour winds in baltimore. we'll monitor these through the day as we do expect the breeziness to pick up and then down right windy tonight and overnight and for part of the day tomorrow. satellite radar composite for the nation, the most active weather in the nation is in the eastern half. you see that big storm system spinning. check out western iowa. that's where the low pressure system is. and it's bringing weather to the northern plains, the upper midwest, the great lakes, the mid-atlantic, off the coast of the carolinas, and down into the southeast. so this is a pretty vigorous and big storm system. for us it means rain and wind. your five-day forecast, high today about 58 degrees, periods of rain, becoming breezy and windy, and a flood watch for today and into tomorrow evening. tomorrow rain heavy at times. before this is all over we could see 2-3 and in some places 4 inches of rain by the end of sunday. on sunday periods of rain again and maybe the rain could wrap up sometime in the afternoon so maybe not complete rainy day on sunday. we'll have to wait and see how that develops. more for you coming up in a little bit. >> thanks, tony. appreciate it. and let's check in with julie wright and find out how the commute is going this morning. >> it's slow going. good morning to you all. delays from the inner loop to central avenue toward route 4, pennsylvania avenue. that's where we had the earlier crash but all lanes are now open. southbound 270 out of rockville, heavy and steady on both the main line and the locals toward montrose road. but again all lanes are open. new york avenue, west virginia, montana, signal lights repaired but traffic backed up toward the third street tunnel. southbound baltimore washington tunnel authorities are check for a crah at that location. you're waking up this morning to poor visibility and wet pavement. allow yourself extra time. 395 sling from edsel road toward seminary and again crossing over the 14th street bridge. northbound 95, incident at lorton has cleared but delays out of dale city, heading north and out of newington through springfield. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. our big story this morning -- -- d.c. council will put emergency medical services on the hot seat. joining us now the chair of the public city services. phil mendelson, thank you for joining us today. are wegoing to hear from city officials or is this a chance for public to speak out. >> we'll have public witnesses and then the fire chief who will testify and answer questions about this. >> obviously this came to light perhaps most significantly with the death of the 2-year-old girl. you've had a chance to look over this and review this a bit. what is the feeling right now, just in a nut shell, as to how the situation was handled. >> well i'm very disturbed that the progress in ems that i thought we had been achieving over the last several years has stalled. and it's not just the events in the last couple of weeks that have led me to that conclusion but there have been increasing complaints that we've been hearing both within the department and from citizens. as i said, i thought there had been a lost progress and that seems to have stalled. this is very disturbing. >> and we talked a lot about this a few years ago with the rosenbaum case that brought this to the forefront. is that what you're referring to about the changes that were made or instituted after that incident. >> yes. among other things we were supposed to see pay parity between the emergency response and the fire department and that has not happened and the administration has stalled on that. we're on our third medical director in as many years in the department. and the vision for ems should be this is prehospital care, that when there is an emergency, that which we expect to take place in the emergency room actually begins at the sidewalk or in the patient's house. and that's truly not what is happening. >> and in this particular case with the 2-year-old, some dispute even between the members of the crew that was responding as to whether or not that care shoulhave been administered on the scene. and as far as the specific case, the mayor yesterday said his administration will launch an investigation to look into this. we know the mayor and council doesn't always see things on the same page. will council work with this investigation as well as the things that council is doing on their own. >> there is not much council can do as far as working with the investigation. i'm glad there is an if the past is prologue, the administration will not be very forthcoming but there needs to be an investigation. i don't know what happened. nobody knows what happened. we do know that a patient died and in one instance, the other instance publicized, it doesn't appear that the response was adequate, when there has to be a callback and the patient is taken to the hospital. and why wasn't that happening the first time. and i hop the public will be fully informed as well as to conclusions. >> what is a suitable end result here? we could talk about things like demotions or suspensions or firings but does that solve the problem? do we need a bigger end result come out of this. >> i think your question is exactly on point. it's not enough to just discipline, if discipline is warranted. there does need to be systemic change and that goes back to where we started. there was a lot of effort, a lot of attention to what were the systematic problems and what were the reforms and those reforms, there is a long list, some of them have been put in place, but at th point, it stalled and has, if anything, slipped backwards. >> and when we look back, some of this originated during the blizzard, looking back, this was an unprecedented time period that we went through here in washington, when you look back at that as far as how the emergency responses were handled through the blizzard, did we do enough to keep the folks in d.c. safe. >> well initially my impression was that all of the responders both police and fire were flawless in their ability to respond when needed to emergency situations during the blizzard. but one of these instances, if not both of them, were -- occurred during the snowstorms. so i'm not sure i can give you an answer. >> does that -- i don't want to say make an excuse for ems in any way. >> absolutely not. >> but does that change the way you look in the future because are you going to categorize things and say we need to have responses differ in emergency situations because of the weather or blizzards or do you want it to be the same all of the time. >> well if the situations we're tacking about, there should be no reason why there is a difference sponsor expectation. when someone called 911 for a medical call, a pneumonia for a 2-year-old or difficulty breathing for adult, the response should be immediate and not slower and that means whatever is necessary, if there a foot of snow on the ground or three feet of snow on the ground, the responders need to get there. i had not heard complaints about the response until we started to hear of these situations. this is more -- if there was something wrong, and it certainly doesn't look right to me, this is an issue of emergency -- what the emt's in the field did, what the decisions were, not about the snow. >> looking forward to see what the investigations show and also the hearing today. councilman, thank you. >> no, thank you. >> we'll take a short break. and when we come back we'll have much more. including more toyota troubles. that's next on fox 5 morning news. ♪ [ female announcer ] discover black silk from folgs... ♪ with bold rich flavor that's exceptionally smooth. wake up to black silk. we call the bunches in honey bunches of oats the prize in the box. well, now there's a prize inside the prize. pecans! pecans! baked into crunchy oat bunches. taste the delicious surprise in every spoonful. honey bunches of oats with pecan bunches. beautiful. a judge today will consider a settlement offer that could pay out more than $650 million to thousands of ground zero rescue and recovery workers. the workers say they fell ill because of dust from the collapse of the world trade center towers on 9/11. the workers must also approve the deal. if they do, thousands of lawsuits would not go to trial. toyota execs say they are still mystified by the report of a runaway prius in california. the driver said his gas pedal got stuck and hit speeds of 94 miles per hour. he couldn't stop. a police officer had to help him. that driver does not plan to sue. now attention has turned to the head of the national highway transportation safety administrationment at a hearing, administration. -- at a hearing,congresss accused them as being a lap dog. we'll break down the latest developments in the health care battle. plus a move that will affect thousands of workers. why one major city has decided to shut down nearly half of its public schools. a wet start to the day. not raining in some areas. including tenleytown in northwest d.c. but it will rain later. we'll find out after the break. coming up, it's 7:27. take signature styling plus smart notifications. plus the ability to merge your facebook events, outlook and family calendars into one calendar. plus 8 more gigs of memory, plus an app that makes the phone a mobile hotspot for up to 5 devices, plus the network with the most 3g coverage. and what you have is the palm pre... plus. and right now buy a 3g smartphone and get a second one free including the palm pre plus for $149.99 or the palm pixi plus for $79.99. at verizon. how about over here? n-- let's go back to the left. waffling is back at dunkin' donuts. for a short time only, enjoy the return of the delicious oven-toasted waffle breakfast sandwich. america runs on dunkin'. the wife and daughter of senate majority leader harry reid continue to recover from serious injuries after an accident yesterday on i-95. the senators wife is in icu atin ova fairfax. she suffered a broken back, neck and nose when her vehicle was rear-ended by a tractor- trailer. his daughter has a neck injury and cuts on her face. she was released from the hospital last night. police did charge the truck driver with reckless driving. after visiting with his wife and daughter in the hospital, senator reid was right back on capitol hill to continue talks on health care reform. with the president's latest deadline approaching fast, democrats are saying that passing reform by next thursday might not happen. joining us from capitol hill, fox news sunday host chris wallace. good morning, chris. >> good morning, allison. >> another deadline but are we closer to a real deal here, on the 19th any way. >> well the 18th. and no. they yesterday gave up on the 18th. but i think the next week is really crucial and i know we've said that and said that, but i think there is only so long you can bake the bread and i think next week is the key week. the democratic leaders, speaker pelosi, in a desperate effort to cobble together 216 votes and some of the people that voted yes in november are voting no and that means she has to get some of the people who voted no back then to say yes and she has to say what is it we can do to persuade you to switch and vote for this bill. >> there has been a lot of talk about reconciliation. may that come into play. >> absolutely. that's the only way they can pass it. two steps for the house and only one for the senate. the house is going to have to pass the senate bill, which they don't like, there are a lot of elements they don't like so thell have to hold their nose and vote for it, and then they want to pass some fixes to the bill, for reconciliation, which means you only node 51 votes -- only need 51 votes in the senate and then 60. and what they they don't pass the fixes, then they're stuck on the bill and then they have to defend the bill they didn't like for the election. and the house didn't trust the senate. things get through the house and people take tough votes there and then it just dies if the senate and they're stuck with it. >> not a lot of bipartisan support but you ha a bipartisan panel. >> i think we're loaded. we have robert gibbs sh the man who made the deadline and is going to have to climb down off of it. the white house press secretary. and two key house leaders, including maryland's chris van volumeen and then karl rove who has written a new book and he'll have interesting things to say about what is going on now and also about the bush years, what they did right and what they did wrong. >> we'll be watching. chris wallace, thank you for joining us. >> and you can watch that right off fox news on sunday morning. and it will be wet out there for the next couple of days, there is a nice shot from our tower cam. >> at least we know it's raining a couple of feet up. >> can't see much of anything out there. a little bit of fog in there. our tower cam -- >> wow, high-tech. >> rain showers across most of the region. it's spotty rain but nonetheless, some areas of heavy rain across eastern portions of maryland and off to the north and west as well. out towards winchester, seeing some heavier rain. right around the district just scattered light rain showers as you can see inside of the beltway, not as much activity happening there. no rain straight up to the north. and then some spotty rain down to the south. this is an ever changing story throughout the course of the morning and the day. satellite radar for the represent tire -- the -- the entire region. and we're under the gun for today, tonight and tomorrow and into sunday. and does that mean it will be raining every minute, no. but i do think tomorrow is going to be a washout. rain all day tomorrow. let's look at what is going on elsewhere and we can show you a couple of things. first of all, because of all of the moisture and precipitation, we have a flood watch in effect from now until tomorrow evening. it's all of the counties in green, so yes, that includes washington, all of the close in counties, baltimore, indianapolis, front royal all under the flood watch. the amount of rain will lead to flooding in low lying areas and creeks and streams and rivers will likely come out of their banks. in washington we'll keep our eyes open for the georgetown area, hains point, down in alexandria and virginia, places like that. rain likely today. it will be periods of rain, i believe. so sometime it's won't be raining and then it will kick up again after that. 58 degrees and still above normal but lower than yesterday's high of 65. then for tonight, winds, they really pick up and it becomes quite windy. winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour. the rain continues and i think it becomes heavy at times tonight. then rain heavy at types during th day tomorrow. a wash-out day. 55 degrees. sunday, mostly cloudy skies, if not just plain cloudy all day. periods of rain likely in the first half of the day. that's a look at what is happening with the weather and now let's go to julie wright for a look at traffic. we had a stalled car at severn bridge and delays are easing toward pennsylvania after yeah. and now southbound 270 out of gaithersburg, here we go, southbound approaching 370, reports of an incident on the right side. so again, on the brakes heavy and slow leaving mva headed south. we just saw a state trooper so we'll keep you posted in the next report. meanwhile traveling in virginia, outer loop of the beltway leaving springfield in the direction of the wilson bridge. 95 still struggling. delays through woodbridge. newington toward duke street and again over the 14th street bridge. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. and if you plan on using chain bridge this weekend, weather permitting the brdge will be closed for repairs. closed to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. it may close again later this month if the work is not finished soon. with all of the rain we'll keep onoy on whether they do close the bridge this weekend. montgomery couy schools dodging a $23 million penalty for not maintaining it's level of spending. the maryland house of delegates voted to free the county from the fine. montgomery county is the only one that would have been penalized for withholding of state funding. leaders there say they funded school above the maintenance of effort level before the recession hit but budget challenges have made it hard to continue that. and leaders in kansas city, missouri, are planning to shut half of the district schools and that means less crowded classes, less teachers. marianne rafferty takes a look at the plan upsetting some parents. >> reporter: it's a sign of the times but can the plan really work. by a narrow vote, the kansas city school board has decided to clear nearly half of the district's 61 schools to help eliminate a $50 million shortfall expected in 2011. >> closing and other schools much stronger academically is unquestionably the right thing to do. we were operating far too many schools. >> reporter: thousands of students shuffled and jobs loss. but they support the decision. >> i think that makes the district much more manageable in the future. >> reporter: kansas isn't alone in making tough decisions. education cuts are being made in dozens of states but still plenty of people in kansas city are speaking out and demanding something less drastic be done. >> this intentional continuation of the blighting of the urban core is scandalous and shameful. >> and i expect for those who lead the plan to remain here to be accountable for what happens and let's all pray the best is yet to come. >> reporter: they say they plan to implement the plan in a few months and one option is merging middle school students into the high schools. marianne rafferty, fox news. and looking ahead to the 8:00 hour, new education standars being proposed that could change what and how our children are being taught in school. we'll hear from both sides of the issue in the next hour. also coming up on fox 5 morning news, the big apple may soon be completely salt-free. the push to ban salt in many restaurants after the break. also just ahead, tiger woods planning his golf comeback and bringing in one of former president george w. bush's press secretaries with him. that's coming up next. stay with us. it's 7:39.  making headlines now at 7:43. it's already illegal to send a text while driving in the state of maryland. soon it could be illegal to read one as well. the state house of delegates is expecting to pass a law making it against the law to read a text while driving. the fine would be $500 and moves to the state senate. making healthier meals by banning salt in restaurants. >> that would cost a lot of dash and caroline gusoff has the details. >> reporter: spice may be a good thing in life but when the spice is salt it could be too much of a good thing. state assemblyman felix ortiz of brooklyn thinks new yorkers consume far too much salt and proposing banning it altogether from restaurant food and not even a pinch. >> he think it's a joke. >> reporter: one owner says you wouln't want to eat something without any salt. >> i don't think there is any way that a chef or anyone that cooks, a mother or father, can prepare a meal or recipe without salt. >> reporter: and the up scale sd 6 where they use eight different kinds of salt, the chef says they never cook unhealthy amounts but you need enough to make foot tasty. >> this is my food, the real food. >> they're going to think the chef is to blame. >> exactly. >> reporter: so how much salt is too much? we asked a dietician at new york presbyterian. >> some sodium is needed for health benefits and food precipitation. however there is a lot of studies that have shown that there are risks with eating too much sodium, it increases your risk for heart disease, for stroke, high blood pressure. >> reporter: ortiz said that banning salt would save money on health care and lives. she's sprinkling in a $1,000 fine for violators. >> city health department is trying to get restaurants to voluntarily cut down on salt use but eliminating it altogether, restaurant owners say in this tough economy, that would be like pouring salt in the wound. carolinain gusoff, fox 5 news. >> not a chance that will go through in new york. >> trying to make a point perhaps. >> we'll talk about it. >> trying to regulate everything, aren't they. >> you may as well just not go out because it won't be flavorful then. >> i would be more supportive of not -- you can't ban it, but significantly reducing the salt in processed foods. >> definitely. but fresh foods, that's crazy. >> i co-sign on that, tony. >> thank you very much. let's look outside. we'll take a tour of the area airports and show you what the temperatures are. could we have some touring music please. 53 at reagan national. dulles international 54, bwi marshall, what is happening up there, it's only 48. those temperatures are cooler up to the north and east. here is a look at our future cast as we talk about the rain. what do we think it will look like over the course of the day? well and the weekend? here is what we're looking at. friday morning we do have some rain. well i can tell you that -- we already went to friday afternoon. there will be a little bit of a break i think later on today. but rain really surrounding most of the region. off and on periods of rain today is what we'll say, but as the day progresses you'll see the rain fills in and by tonight everyone is getting rain. some of the rain is heavy, particularly overnight and into tomorrow morning. windy as well, so just messy, dangerous conditions out there, still raining, and then by sunday i think it's again periods of rain and lighter amounts of rain. still cloudy. but not an all-day drenching rain on sunday. not the way it looks right now. here is your five-day forecast. high today about 58 degrees. that's lower than what we've seen. periods of rain today. winds pick up and it will be windy tonight and into tomorrow. winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour. rain all day tomorrow. some of that rain heavy at times. rain into sunday. pain a couple of lingering showers on monday but i do think we start to see improvement on monday with a bit more sunshine. there you go. that's a look at the weather. more is coming up in just a bit. >> just in time for the workweek. well it will make it easier to get to work. >> it's a good thing you're inside at caps game tonight, julie. >> with all of the rain, is that what you mean? >> exactly. >> i know. i'm happy. but i would rather have sunshine on saturday, but that's okay. >> it can't happen every saturday? >> well, why not? [ laughter ] >> not here. >> exactly. all right, look out miami, here we come. some major tieups traveling the inner loop of the beltway, between the bw parkway and 214. incidents at route 4 is cleared. new crash at the inner loop toward ritchie marlboro. here is your deal downtown, this is 14th street at constitution avenue. 14th street at constitution, you will find it blocked off both north and southbound at this point f. this particular -- fm this particular camera, you can see some police direction is able to get by. but 14th street is blocked off at this point with all of the accident activity. they are diverting traffic off of penn off of the 14th street bridge. southbound 270, the crash before 370, two right lanes blocked delays beginning back in germantown leaving 118 and the outer loop is still on the brakes from van dorn toward the wilson bridge. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. georgetown came into their big east tournament match one with syracuse looking to break a two game losing street. >> and hoyas in a rollercoaster ride. and west johnson had a team high 27 points but the hoyas rally. freeman down to chris wright and a reverse -- and to beat sanford. hoyas up 1. and right in transition. i gay high 27 points. j t3 is loving the effort. four minutes left and the lead is just two points. that's the way to do it guys, austin freeman to greg monroe for the lay-in and the foul. monroe finished with 15 oints, and georgetown beats georgetown by 9 -- no, that's 7. and virginia taking on boston college. the hoos looking to break a nine game winning streak. and virginia beats d.c. by 6 and 68-62. to earn a matchup with duke blue devils and you can watch that game on my 20 this afternoon. your turn. the maryland men's basketball team begins it's run at an a cc championship tonight. they're going to take on the georgia tech yellow jackets. the terps come into the matchup riding a 7 game winning streak. and the redskins have signed tight end shawn ryan. he caught 14 passes and scored two touchdowns with the chiefs last year. the skins are also looking at another former chief, running back larry johnson. he visited redskins park yesterday. and anything of that yet in. >> not yet. she broke up the ranks of the boys only club. today the new head coach of coolidge high. natalie randolph is the first woman to coach a high school football team in the district, possibly in the united states. randolph also teaches at coolidge. she was an assistant coach at woodson for two years. >> i love it. tiger could be teeing off at the master's next month. two people with knowledge said he's likely to play at the tournament. they say he's been pacting at his home in orlando the last couple of weeks. and tiger has hired fleischer to join his team. he is a former presidential advisor to george w. bush and also helped mark mcgwire through his scandal. and merlin olsen has died after a battle with lung cancer. he was part of the fear-some four-some. he was best known as jonathan garvey on little house on the prairie or father murphy. he was 69 years old. >> that's a loss. sorry to hear that one. two of the biggest names in hollywood are coming to d.c. to honor heroes. up next on fox 5 morning news, how tom hanks and steven spielberg are helping veterans of world wore ii. >> they were down at the memorial yesterday and we talked to them. and the weather may not be cooperating but there is plenty on tap to celebrate saint patrick's day. right now just a little bit of wet weather outside as we look at 395 at the pentagon. it's 7:52 on this friday morning. [ male announcer ] if we knew more about our food, would we eat better? at hellmann's, we make our mayonnaise with eggs, vinegar and oil rich in omega 3. for the quality that could only be hellmann's. hellmann's. it's time for real. you'd savor exquisite specials and a fine chianti. but...rome is like 4,200 miles away. that's why there's bertolli chicken florentine for two in a luscious white-wine sauce. bertolli. italy is served. two giants of hollywood in the district to thank world wore ii veterans for their service. as claudia coffey reports, tom hanks and steven spielberg have a new project to honor them. >> reporter: world war ii veterans here on the national mall. it's their day to be honored. >> it's great. i'm enjoying it tremendously. >> i'm overwhelmed. i never expect anybody to fuss over me this much and when i get back to normal life it's going to be hard. >> reporter: and rolling out the red carpet, none other than tom hanks. >> any time somebody says thank you so much, i am honored to get these guys here for the only time this their lives that we can hook it together with some brand of what i do for a living, god bless america. >> reporter: they came together to pay tribute to the veterans and launch their new hbo series the pacific. they teamed up before in saving private ryan, band of brothers and now another theater, the pacific. >> we thought it was time to equip the other half of world war ii with the men fighting in the pacific and we're hoping that will spike the interest and mostly we're interested in reaching young people. >> reporter: hanks and spielberg tells the right life story of three u.s. marines. stories these men have lived and feel proud to be honored not only in film, but to be a part of historic day. >> today i'm feeling something different. i'm feeling a much more deeper feeling. that's sacred ground over there. >> reporter: all of the veterans were brought in by a group called flight network which flew them in to enjoy the memorials that honor all of their service. claudia coffey, fox 5 news. did you know that 75% of growing kids don't get the recommended amounts of calcium and vitamin d? that's where their favorite cereals like trix and lucky charms can help. general mills big g is the only leading line of kid cereals that has both calcium and vitamin d in every box. check for this banner on the cereals they already love... like cinnamon toast crunch and cocoa puffs. help them get more of what they need with general mills kid cereals. a d.c. paramedic now under criminal investigation after being accused of refusing to transport this little girl to the hospital. today city leaders want to know if you have had a similar experience. then some controversial photos about to go under display inside of metro rail busiest stations. we'll tell you what they are about. and some of d.c.'s most favorite restaurants in the headlines this morning for the wrong reasons. we'll talk about that as well. thanks for being with us this friday. i'm steve chenevey. >> and i'm alison seymour with a reminder for you. this weekend we spring forward into daylight savings time. so that means we're going to lose an hour of sleep. it will equal out though, tony. when you spring ahead this sunday, remember it's a good time to check the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. and i call you out because you voiced your opposition -- not nationally. >> parts of arizona doesn't do it. >> and hawaii doesn't do. >> and that's a good reason to move to hawaii. >> if you needed one. and here is the good part of it. what it means is that on monday, instead of sunset being at 6:12, or 6:15, it will be 7:15. >> i love that. because i like that when it stays light later. >> that's true. that means summertime is almost here. >> and that won't happen if we didn't do that. >> and eventually. but it will rain all weekend so maybe you won't need the extra hour. >> you'll be indoors on saturday and you can spread it out throughout the day to change your clocks. take a look. it will be raining. i told you before, when we gain an hour, i never do because it takes me an hour to change all of the clocks. >> you have that many clocks? >> i have a lot of clocks. watches, clocks, in the car. so here is a look at the rainfall around the region. we are seeing scattered rain. off to east, a lot of rain there. some areas of heavy rain too. we'll continue to deal with this throughout the day. we'll have periods of rain. before the whole event is over, we're expecting some heavy rainfall. we do have a flood watch that is in effect from now until saturday evening. flood watch, and with could see some floating in low-lying areas and where the rivers, streams and the creeks are over the course of the next couple of days. so we'll keep our eyes on that. right now reagan national reporting a temperature of 52 degrees. we've dropped off a bit. humidity is at 86%. winds are out of the east at 12 miles per hour. forecast for today, cloudy, periods of rain. not as mild as it has been, but still above normal temperatures and becoming rather breezy, down right windy tonight. 58 for the high today. more details of the forecast coming up in just a little bit. >> rain. tony, thank you. and let's check in with julie wright and look at traffic. >> and all of a sudden we're busier than a beaver with two tails. a lot to talk about downtown. lower 14th street at constitution, we have the accident activity blocking north and southbound 14th street. all traffic being diverted off at pennsylvania or independence. but again all of the activity blocking 14th street. across constitution you can get through under police direction but all traffic over the 14th street bridge into independent and all traffic from the other direction diverted out of pennsylvania avenue. and traveling southbound 270 out of rockville this morning, got the crash in the local lanes. that's what is happening traffic tied up out of germantown. only one rain to the right is getting through in the local lanes. main line is open for business. all of this activity here causing the rubbernecking delays and that's starting to stack up leaving 118. inner loop of the beltway, ritchie marlboro, two lanes blocked with a crash. outer loop a crash with a bus at the bw parkway. stay to left to get by. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. today residents in the district will get to sound off to address potential protocol and training within the d.c. fire department after a spring of complaints and an incident where a 2-year-old cild died after not being transferred to the hospital right away. stacy cohan joins us down at the wilson builng today. >> reporter: what happened at stephanie stevens is what drew such outrage across the city and now it is the subject of a city hearing as the city fire and ems comes under fire down here at the wilson building today. and this happened during the blizzard when medic 33 responded to the home of stephanie stevens, she had trouble bleeding. and documents show they stayed on the scene for 10 minutes before not transporting the child. she died the next day of pneumonia. councilman phil mendelson wondered why fire department reform enacted in prior years aren't being implemented. >> i'm very disturbed that the progress in ems that i thought we had been achieving over the last several years and has stalled. and it's not just the events in the last couple of weeks that have led me to that conclusion but there have been increasing complaints both from within the department and from citizens. as i said, i thought there had be a lot of progress and that seems to have stalled. this is disturbing. >> reporter: and the council will get to hear from the citizenexactly how much progress there has or has not been made. and on hand today fire chief dennis rubin. getting underway at 0:00 this morning. i'm live outside of the wilson building, back to you. >> thank you, stacy. the wife of senate majority leader harry reid is in intensive care this morning, badly injured after a chain reaction crash on 95. this happened yesterday afternoon near the fairfax county parkway. a tractor-trailer rear-ended the minivan she was riding in. she broke her back and neck and broke her nose in the crash. the reid's daughter lana has a neck injury and cuts on her face. she was released from the hospital last night. the truck driver was charged with reckless driving. metro investigating yet another derailment. two wheels of a red line train with no passengers on board came off the tracks on wednesday. this happened at the brentwood rail yard. metro said e operator failed to stop at a signal. there was damage to the track and third rail as well. that news followed by a stinging assessment of metro's current state and tough recommends from a man considered to be a transit guru. matt acland is following that story this morning. he's live in northwest. >> reporter: good morning, again. the idea was to bring in someone that already knew the system that could do an assessment and figure out what was working and what wasn't working and then also tell them how to fix this, tell the metro board how to fix this. the man they brought in to help, a man named david gunn. he used to be the general manager for metro. he really outlined four-points in a plan for improvement. first safety issues must be resolved. second, find a permanent general manager. third, somehow shore up financial problems. and four, deal with the massive costs for metro rail access. now gunn did go on to say and tell the board that he would not cut from metro rail. >> he really laid it on the line and i'm very glad that he did. because we have the unvarnished truth of the situation from his point of view. >> reporter: got the unvarnished truth, but part of that truth is this is going to take some timeo fix the metro rail system. we're hearing it could take as long as 3 years, steve. >> matt, thank you very much. depending on which metro station you use, you could see a controversial display. we're talking about billboards that include portraits of american soldiers staring into the camera, some say as if to make them appear as if they have dead. the billboards are asking people to think about soldiers and the human cost of the war and the psychological impact on servicemen and women and their families. the soldiers picture hd permission from their commanders and posed between tours of duty. the billboards will be posted at different metro stations. 8 minutes past the hour now on this friday morning. next more on the proposal that could change what and how your children are taught in school. plus tony will be back with a look at our wet weather, which will continue through the weekend. stay with us. fox 5 morning news will be right back. it's 8 minutes after 8:00 now. we're the watchful ones. we like to know where things stand. we keep a close eye on what we have and what we spend. suntrust would like to applaud our solid financial ways. now when you pay your bills online you'll not only gain more control of your money, you can also earn up to one hundred and fifty dollars. find out more at suntrust.com/solid live solid. ank solid. suntrust. how about over here? hmm... let's go back to the left. uh... waffling is back at dunkin' donuts with the return of the waffle breakfast sandwich. two oven-toasted waffles with a hint of maple, complete with fluffy egg, a slice of melted cheese, and now with delicious sausage. so hurry in today because it's only around for a short time. america runs on dunkin'. try our oven-toasted waffle breakfast sandwich today, only at dunkin' donuts. 52 degrees on a friday morning. 11 minutes after 8:00. an escaped prisoner behind bars. police caught up with terrance moore last night hiding in a car under a blanket. moore broke free when he was escorted to the hospital earlier that morning. a prince george's county police helicopter forced to make an emergency landing in d.c. yesterday. the pilot put the chopper down on an athletic field at the bening terrace rec center. there were two police officers on board. neither were injured. no word on what was wrong with the chopper. toyota executives said on thursday the company is mystified by a report of a runaway prius in california. the driver james sykes said the gas pedal got stuck and reached speeds up to 94 miles per hour. a police officer had to use his cruise tore bring the car to a stop. and coming up on 8:13. we will check in with tony perkins and use a warm-up factor today. >> and then i -- shall deliver it to you. time for the my first 5 photo today. she's staying on top of what is going on. this is 5-year-old ashley. she's keeping up on current events by reading the newspaper. >> enjoy it now ashley, i'm not sure how long the newspaper will be available to you. she's really cute. >> she's really, really cute. >> to send us your child's picture, go to myfoxdc.com and click on mornings. take a look at hd rar. we'll start with that. because we do have rain across portions of viewing area. light rain for the most part. some fog and mist is also being reported, so itill slow your commute down. way off to the east and way off to the northwest, some pockets of heavy rain. let's go to satellite radar composite and as we go to view, we are looking at more rainfall to our south and then out to the southwest as well. so we're not done yet, folks. even if we get a little bit of a respite, a break from the rain later on this morning, we'll see more rain move in later today. meanwhile, current temperatures around the region look like this. we are at -- hold on, let me push it right there. right now we're at 52 degrees. so we've dropped off a degree. 54 at dulles airport. 47 in baltimore. fredericksberg is at 56 at this hour. forecast for today, rain, periods of rain, becoming windy, breezy tonight and high about 58 degrees. now let's get more on the morning rush hour traffic with julie wright. things have picked up for you, julie. it has. has gotten busy. the crash on the outer loop involving a bus at the bw. a crash on the inner loop past ritchie marlboro tieing up the two right lanes and then this scenario here. this is lower 14th street blocked both north and southbound at constitution avenue with a lot of equipment still hear on the scene at this point. now coming in off of he 14th street bridge, diverted off the pennsylvania and independent avenue. so constitution avenue under police direction is able to continue southbound on the 14th street and out bound toward the 14th street bridge. you cannot turn and go northbound at this point. but again, it is lowe14th street where we have the serious crash in the process of bng cleared. you'll find all lanes are block and traffic is diverted off at independence and pennsylvania. and the earlier crash at 28 is cleared. all lanes are open out of rockville but the local lanes jammed up out of gaithersburg headed south. main line on the brakes leaving 118 to 270 with an earlier incident pulled to the shoulder. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. >> julie, thank you very much. new school standards have been proposed to allow children across the country taking the same math and tests across the u.s. and today we have two ests to discuss both sides of the issue. thank you for being with us. certainly an interesting concept. a lot of people wondering if this could work and ho this could work. first of all, gene, let me ask you, the basic design behind this and the thought process out there as to how this might make children's education better. >> a number of states have developed standards over the last few years but their very different standards. some are high and some are low. so it's confusing to the public of what we are expecting of students. and the students are many too broad to teach to. and can states come together and agree upon what students should be able to know and do. and secondly, is there some benefit of that coming together toimprove the education process in this country, can these standards be better than what the states have on the books right now. >> can a uniform approach like this work or are there con there. >> if you look at the research, there is no proof. so we don't know. it's the best thing we can say. and i think it's important to note this isn't states truly voluntarily getting to do this because there is federal money involved. race to the top funds about $4.3billion and if you want to compete with that you need to adopt national standards and they're talking about connecting that to the elementary and educational act. >> and what is a good solution or a middle point to make this work? >> the root problem is not that we have 50 state standards or that we need one federal standard, it's that all kids are different. so we need a system where all kidded -- kids what is best for them and then you have accountability and standards driven from the bottom and is truly tailored to what every child needs. >> and i'll let you respond to that, but also would there be specific changes or widespread changes from some of the plans and procedures that we have in place now. >> many states that have very high standards will be very close in terms of the common core standards that are developed. other states though -- we have some fairly low standards, poorly written, that i think will be a great deal of clarity in the process and better for many of those states. and it will push them forward. i would just say on the issue of how far has this country come in terms of expectations, this is not simply an issue of commonality, it is raising the bar for the students in this country and the expectations. we're highly competitive now and we need a much stronger set of standards. that is not coming in a uniform way across country and in this mobile society we have, it's very difficult to build a strong rational for having a difference if you just simply pass the border from one state to another. >> i know one of the arguments that comes out against this is that students sometimes learn at different paces and perhaps a student in a wealthy suburban district may be learning on a different rate thanoy poorer district somewhere. is there a way to address the levels. >> i want to support neal's point about choice. we're really talking about uniformity or clarity about where we are going, not how we get there. it seems to me that those two are not concepts in conflict. in fact they could be complementary. and the more that is shared, the more variety and accountability frankly we can have in the system about how we get there. we should throw out the things not working and build on those that are. we need stronger research and have not had that kind of base. i call this essential but inadequate. it's a starting point. we have a lot of decisions about how to get there. >> what do you think about the starting point? >> some kids have an aptitude for arts and should focus on that and they might be terrific auto mechanics or electricians or all sorts of things but the impetus is even though they call it career ready, it's college ready. to push everybody toward the same goalch and when you are dealing with kids that are so different, that doesn't make a lot of sense i think. and so i think it's absolutely critical that we not -- specially further centralize or make a more uniform system, but we let all kids pursue what is best for them and to let schools be autonomous and taylor what they are delivering to the needs of unique populations and then you have the most sufficient system. >> i know states will have some input on this. what is the timetable on this? >> in the next month, public comments and people are welcome to recomment and we'll revise those and within the late spring we'll have the standards in front of the states for consideration. a number of states have begun that process already, a number of states are waiting to see if the standards are equal to or complimentary to what they have and then we'll look into the adoption in fall. >> and if not all states come on with this, does this accomplish what it sets out to accomplish. >> we think it's good that you have real differences. but the states are going to feel pressure to adopt the standards whether they like them or not, because if they don't, they don't get federal money and that's the problem. and then you have all of the politics coming in there where the impetuous will be to lower the standards if they are adopted. so we're going down, i think, the wrong road. >> and this began before any federal initiative. we've been at this for a while. we'll continue it whether the state gets money or not. this is a state-led initiative, not a federal one. >> and we appreciate you both being with us. obviously an important issue for anyone with kids in school so we do welcome you for your opinion and we'll put information on website to do that. and 8:21 right now. the president has decided what he will do with the money that he received with his nobel peace prize. we'll give you those details coming up next. and then some of the d.c. famous restaurants like gordon browns and ber sh are in the news today for the wrong reasons. stay tuned for that. we'll be right back.  this morning the fbi is investigating a new jersey native captured in a sweep of suspected al-qaeda members in yemen. sharif mobley is accused of killing a guard while trying to break out of a hospital. he moved into yemen two years ago and before that he worked at a nuclear plant in new jersey carrying supplies and doing maintenance work. he had satisfied federal background checks at the time. democrats are saying they are getting toward the end of hammering out a health care reform plan. the president wants it done by next week. democrats say they are night ready and republicans want to know what is the rush? the president took a big risk of setting a deadline democrats say that they can give him what he wants but just not what he wants it. sources say speaker nancy pole osy won't call for a vote until he knows enough are on board. and the president will award his noble peace prize. the largest goes to fisher house for those receiving care at military or v.a. hospitals. and the haiti fund will receive money, plus global out reach groups in africa they're going to split it up. 8:26 on this friday morning. and coming up in the next half an hour, we'll talk more on how you can make money on your commute. plus tucker will be back with a look at our wet weather which will continue throughout the weekend. here is a live look at the potomac in alexandria this morning. still a go looking shot. >> river level getting high. >> that's the worst part. stay with us, fox 5 morning news will be right back. ah, auto! sir? finding everything okay? i work for a different insurance company. my auto 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[ female announcer ] introducing the eraser foundation from maybelline. our patented applicator and formula with collagen goes beyond covering. micro-corrects, micro-erases signs of aging. the eraser. only from maybelline new york. hos15% or more on car to geico insurance?e you host: did the waltons take way too long to say goodnight? mom: g'night john boy. g'night mary ellen. mary ellen: g'night mama. g'night erin. elizabeth: g'night john boy. jim bob: g'night grandpa. elizabeth: g'night ben. jim bob:'night. elizabeth: g'night jim bob. jim bob: g'night everybody, grandpa: g'night everybody. jim bob: g'night daddy. vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. what you're looking at there breaking news happening right now in our area. fire fighting squad on a way to a minor fire at george washington university library. it ended up with this, crashed into two vehicles. this happening at 14th and constitution avenue. we're told three people have been hospitaliz and suffering from serious injuries. no firefighters have been injured but we'll let you know what is going on in the area. again this is happening right at 14th and constitution avenue, three people taken to the hospital. >> and there you see some fire trucks on the scene. not sure if those are the ones that responded or came to help with the injuries as a result of that. but we'll keep an eye on it and let you know what happens but be aware of that for traffic purposes trying to get through that part of town. in the meantime, tucker, you have it pretty easy. just talk about rain this weekend. >> a lot of wet weather and the potential for flooding into the nighttime hours. particularly tomorrow morning with streams and rivers. >> is this still snow-melt related. >> no. it's a combination of snow melt to the west and heavy rain, 2-4 inches of rain, believe it or not. >> how much would that be in snow. >> you can do the math on that. >> 10 inches. >> another 20-40 inches. >> so that's one way to look at it and get through. >> exactly. so let's get to it. >> could you imagine blizzard number four. >> thank goodness it is not. but the stormy madness continues through march. and here is your hd radar. and the showers are sporadic at this moment and we'll watch them die out but they'll be back with a vengence as we watch the next area of storminess arrive om the south and southwest. we see some areas north and west of leesberg and another area east of the bay, over toward cambridge in easton this morning. all of the lifting slowly to the north. let's take a look at the satellite radar and see what we can find. what we can find is more rain, down to the south and rest down toward nashville. a new area of storminess develops off the coast and this one will have very heavy rain expected tonight and under the flood watch until saturday evening. and we'll b dealing with very gusty winds. we'll have winds gusting to 35- 40 miles per hour during the overnight hours and tomorrow morning. so a combination of heavy rain and some gusty winds, it's going to be very stormy around here. flood watch, i mentioned that, rain likely and becoming breezy. high temperature 58 degrees. that's just a bit cooler than it's been in the last couple of days. still that is the only bright spot in the forecast. 50 tonight and that's another bright spot but that rain continues and heavy at times overnight and the heavy rain lingering into the first part of the weekend. by sunday it's just cloudy with showers. but you can see that we don't see any sunshine until maybe monday, tuesday time frame. >> we'll be prepared. >> we'll make it. >> thanks, tuck. julie, maybe you can help us get through the weekend. >> i have a perfect event to bring some ease and fun to you this weekend if you come out and join me at cash back 2010. i'll be at the arlington fairfax elk lodge tomorrow night from 5:00 to 11:00. >> what are you doing at the elk lodge because i hear you hang out there quite often any way. >> they ask me to be part of the entertainment and so i'm working on my soft shoe. >> i thought you were going to entertain them. >> i've been working on my singing. i know they call it cash back and it's to benefit the capital hospice for northern virginia but giving away door prizes of $500 every half hour and the grand prize at 11:00 if you can stay awake that long steve chenevey. >> and can folks come to see you. >> it's $25 a ticket or buy five tickets for $100. >> and give them to your friends. >> and then it benefits capital hospice and you can run $500 every half an hour and includes dinner as well and entertainment. you see you can't beat. it come on out and have fun. >> good luck with that. >> thank you. hope to see you there. lower 14th street and live pictures from the scene there and authorities responding to a fire at george washington hospital. this is a live shot from the camera up high on the building at the willard camera and lower 14th street is closed off in each direction and find a lot of activity still in place. we have accident vehicless as you -- vehicles that have been smushed. so three people have been taken away to a nearby hospital and what this means traffic wise is if you travel off the 14th street bridge you'll be diff erted off at -- diverted off at independent and constitution avenue. a portion of constitution is blocked offt 12th street according to authorities. so lower 14th street not the way to and from downtown d.c. at this point. again the closures include southbound traffic diverted off at constitution and independent avenue. that's a check of your fox 5 on- time traffic. well it's already illegal to send a text while driving in maryland. and soon it could be illegal to read one too. the state house of delegates voted to pass a bill making it against the law to read text messages while driving. violators would be fined up to $500. the bill now moves to the state senate. a call to crack down on dangerous drivers causing traffic safety advocates like triple-a and victims of family saying it's time to tighten the vehicular manslaughter laws and point to the deadly street race in aco cook where one driver is going to breath. edward kohl's son connor would have been 17 today. a driver hit and killed connor in baltimore. >> he had a horrible record and through the suspensions he should have learned that a car is nothing different than a gun, it just has four wheels. >> regularly motorists who kill with a car escape with a traffic ticket. >> the bill triple-a wants passed would call for penalties of up to three years in prison and $5,000 in fines. the d.c. area is expanding a program that puts cash in the hands of car poolers. it was once limited to three major highway bottlenecks is now available anywhere in the region. just register online or join a car pool already in progress and you can make some money. you have a $1 incentive each way and you have until the end of the month to sign up, just go to myfoxdc.com and look under web links. time now is 8:36. good news for dominion virginia customers. your bills are going down. details next. >> if we can keep them down. when you log on to facebook today, become a fan of fox 5 morning news. you can check out photos posted and comment on the stories and it's your way to answer the trivia question of the day which is coming up shortly. just search for fox 5 mor news and no space between fox and 5. we'll be right back. again 8:36 on this friday morning. 3 welcome back. 8:39 right now. if you are looking for work, check out our job shop online at myfoxdc.com. today's job of the day, ultimate beauty lounge in rockville looking for stylists and booth renters. for more on this job and others go to myfoxdc.com and click on the job shop tab near the top of the home page. and good news that might save some hard earned money. the state corporation commission will approve lowering bills for dominion customers. savings is $727 million across the state. the average customer will pay $10 less a month. and some customers may even get refunds so hopefully a little bit of good news there. >> any little bit does help. it's 8:40 right now. 52 degrees on this friday morning. coming up next, we'll check out some saint patrick's day celebrations taking place around town. >> and then some of the biggest local restaurants making headline this is morning for all of the wrong reasons. bob. >> you've heard about rats forcing restaurants to close. well a new report about food safety across our region is nearly as startled. i'm bob barnard, we'll dig into it. welcome back to fox 5 morning news. time for a look at some weekend events. it is friday after all. the washington, d.c. independent film festival wraps up sunday at the navy memorial and heritage center. sunday you can celebrate pie day at the maryland science center. that's pi, the formula used to calculate the circumference of a circle. there will be a pie eating contest and a contest to resite the most numbers. i know where you'll be steve chenevey. the celebration is free with paid admission. and then manassas will hold its saint patrick's day this saturday starting at 11:00 in old town on center street and we'll have more on myfoxdc.com, just check out web links for that. well the weather may not cooperate for the parade, but you can certainly celebrate saint patricks day in doors. on tap magazine has compile the a guide to washington's shamrock related evens and they'll capture the celebrations on flip cams for fox 5 and we'll share the video with viewers on our website. joining us this morning with a rundown of events is on top magazine's kathy will mont. good morning. >> good morning. nice to see you again. >> thank ou. >> you come for the fun stuff. >> i do. >> and this is no exception. >> and we have a lot to get to. we have to get ready. >> yet you brought me nothing. is there no button. >> i want the boa. >> i'll wear the hat. >> let's start with saint bald- ricks. >>the shave your head at saint bald-ricks is downtown and going to saint bald ricks to raising money for children with cancer. >> and that's a wonderful cause. and number two, four corners for miler. >> they are partnering up with pacers running and they're going to have a four miler and they're going out. they have 7 pun people -- 700 people to sign up. ant the race starts at 8:00 in the morning and giving away a trip to ire land and there is an official race leep rican. >> and the shamrock contest, it is a rain or shine event and they will have tents set up and bands there, stages, and thaer giving -- they are giving away stuff and having an irish village tickets starting at $20. >> a rain or shine event. this thing has been through the rain. >> so you have to wear a cute hat like that. next one on tuesday march 16th, clarendon's saint patrick's day at the courthouse. >> correct. it starts at 8:00 from north barton to irving. and we'll be on a float. >> on tap magazine. and arlington has their own celebration, thursday march 17th. >> we'll be out there with flip cams and going to ireland courts again and i believe we have three of them in arlington. ireland four courts, kittyo sheas and sullivans. >> and you have several ways to get your saint patty's day on in the district. >> we'll be at at the dubliners, channel islands, mcfadden, mackeys and james hobeins. >> and everybody is irish today. >> we have our green on and we're ready. >> but it's not over. foggy bottom, dupont circle area, what are they doing. >> everybody has something going on. so we're going to find out. that's where i'm going to be. i'll be out there with the flip cam figuring out what people are doing. >> and there are a couple of locations, 51st state, also mcfaddens and james hobein's irish bar. and last but not least, but in bethesda there are several places to go and celebrate. take it away, kathy. what do we do in bethesda. >> go to flanig ands, mcguntys andrea irish pub. >> so a lot going on. and so with those flip cams, those little portable video devices, you'll put what you guys capture on the website? >> correct. >> that's so cool. >> yes. it will be a lost fun. i can't wait. >> we can't either. kathy, come back again for our ext g happy time. when is that? >> easter. >> is that happy time. >> i don't know. kind of questionable. >> well eggs. >> with you let's celebrate the bunny part not the serious part that it's really about. kathy will mont, thank you so much. i think we look splendid. >> you both look great. and seeing that boa, i'm glad you did the interview today. >> and she was ready to wear both of these. >> and she would have if i did the interview. and this morning a number of high profile area restaurants in the spoight for bad reasons. bob barnard follows up with a published report that names names. >> reporter: do you enjoy a night on the town, eating out for fun? well this front page investigation by the washington examiner may kill your appetite. revealing more than 1900 d.c. area restaurants and food vendors failing health inspections in recent months. the examiner reports restaurant employees were found preparing desserts with cuts and sores on fingers, cleaning dining utensils and dishes with dirty rags between servings and using the same pair of tongs to handle cook and raw food. >> not good. >> the examiner reports three of the most prominent washington night spots were found with more violations than most. >> first of all we're embarrassed by the inspection section -- the inspection occurred on december 31st. >> reporter: john benton is chief executive of alm restaurant group. d.c. health inspectors cited his 19th street restaurant for serving expired crab cakes. >> there is no experience. our restaurant failed and we corrected the areas that were found to be deficient. >> and gordon brown and debeers were cited. in a statement, a ord berch executive said a reinspection five days later was passed with no violations ab we -- and continue to work with our local health partners to secure our solid track record and our relationship with the washington, d.c. >> and if they're making patrons sick, they're losing business. >> reporter: bob custard is with the alexandria health department. he says the fda food safety code is filled with hundreds of potential violations. >> but the things we pay most attention to are things like hand washing, food temperatures, do they have an employee health policy that they know what to do if they have an employee who is sick. >> and these types of problems are nothing new in the area. two high profile restaurants, five guys and johnny rockets were closed in recent years after rats were found on the in virginia the results of all restaurant inspections are posted online. mr. custard says in alexandria most restaurants are inspected four times a year. i'm bob barnard, fox 5 news. >> thank you very much. and does your kid have what it takes to be a star athlete? next hour, how to get them noticed by recruiters if they do have that potential. and coming up, an interesting ask allison question today. a lot of people have said why do you have to ask allison if it's the weather guy. sometimes it blends lines. you said it too. >> yeah. >> haters. any way, i have now tried to incorporate the talent of the weather department. >> you're pushing off your own job now. >> no. i bring in a resident climatologists. >> tucker. >> he's the best i know. >> all right. pushing it off on to somebody else. >> that is not true. but why not use my resources. >> subcontracting your ask allison work. >> that's not true. >> but coming up in the 9:00 hour, 9:45, we're going to tread into some interesting water to find out toy's answer. >> it will be entertaining nonetheless. >> that it will be. stay with us. okay, let's do this... it's a new year people, we have to hit the ground running. so, we're upgrading to verizon. they havthe speed we need, plus rock 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[ male announcer ] no matter what the day brings, be ready with verizon high speed internet and phone for your small business. call 877-network today and for just $84.99 a month for 12 months with a 3 year agreement, you'll get a best-in-class package: high speed internet with up to 7 meg speeds, unlimited nationwide calling, 25 gigs of online storage plus our internet security suite and free wi-fi access from thousands of hot spots nationwide. all backed by the reliability of the verizon network. it's a total business solution that you can't get from cable. call 877-network today and see how verizon call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800-974-6006 tty/v. offers so much more for less. funniest surprises last night on american idol. four were boosted off of the show. some surprises here. lillie had been one of the judge's favorites and they lovedded torick's performance. they loved alex's performance thiweek. judges really loved it but america didn't. anita vogle caught up with the top 12 as the remaining ones were celebrating. >> i'm schemely excited. wooh. >> reporter: they had good reason to celebrate after beating out thousands of idol hopefuls, they are closer than ever to take home the crown. >> i'm so excited. this is everything that i have ever dreamed of since i was a little girl. i've wanted to do this my entire life. so now being able to have this opportunity it just the most amazing feeling in the world. >> i'm like so honored that i can be doing something of this magnitude. espially when it's something that i've always wanted to do which is make music for the rest of my life. and it's just beginning right now. >> tonight the results are in. >> reporter: after weeks of intense competition, the top 24 have been whittled down to 12 after more contestants were eliminated on thursday night. >> this is an awesome experience, i came here to prove i'm not just a dancer and i can also thing and i think i'm done that. >> and their idol dreams dashed. the booted contestants said goodbye to their judges and the hopes of taking home the title. >> it's surprising, a lot of incredible talent is going home tonight. >> and now the pressure is on for the remaining 12 who will have to prove themselves each week to stay in the game and become the next american idol. >> the farther you get, the more your expectations go up. so now that i'm here i want to make it to the top 10. and i think it's just -- its life-changing so i can't ask for anything more. >> the biggest thing is to go out there and be yourself and don't be fake, just be yourself and who you are and let america decide. >> it's important to get the audience to vote four. i think they'll vote for whoever they like the best any way. so you just get out there and do your best and whatever happens, happens. and it's just to hope that you're here the next day. >> may i present to you, america, your top 12. >> reporter: in hollywood, anita vogle, fox news. >> and the reason it was 12 is because four got kicked off last night. and we'll talk with two of them next hour. alex lambert and kate eper ling. and allison, a little surprise with alex lambert not making it through. >> it was heartbreaking. the first time i cried. >> you cried? >> because he was crying. >> because he was. just a few tears. >> it's good that you feel so strongly about it. we have much more ahead on the next hour of fox 5 morning news. word of another derailment by metro. believe it or not, a former general manager from metro makes some crucial recommendations. we'll hear what he had to say to the metro board in just a little bit. then student athletes. we're talking real talk with somebody who knows what they are talking about. when the question is does your child have what it takes to really get recruited to college, how you as a parent can help, there are chances of getting looked at by some of the schools out there. we're talking with the representative from the national collegiate scouting association. >> a lot of parents in that position so listen up for that. and also remember our fox rocks winners, the shields brothers. we had them on the show. they were a lot of fun and they are great. well part of the prize for winning fox rocks was a music video. well it has been produced, the television preer is coming up on this show and they're going to join us to talk about it. stay with us. >> and i like that song. >> that's the one that they did there. >> the e

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