be detoured through the strip mall there it's just going to slow you down a bit. they are directing traffic through that area on the westbound side of route 7. no problems on 395 or 66 inside the beltway. in fact let's go to the roosevelt bridge on the inbound side. nice and quiet here. really the length of 66 inside and outside the beltway this morning. no troubles to report. back over to the maps and this time we'll head over to the west side of town at the american legion bridge. 270 looks good coming in from frederick. let's take a live look at the bridge span whether you're leaving the corner or heading southbound out of bethesda you will be just fine as you can see. just a bit of volume but no delays to talk about. coming up in my next report, virginia at 6:10. mike? there's one member of the occupy movement here in washington still on a hunger strike. his goal is getting the district to vote in congress. today protestors want to open a new chapter in their fight. jessica doyle is live at the square with a preview of what they are planning. good morning jess. >> reporter: good morning to you mike. that's right. the person's name is adrian parsons, day 23 of his hunger strike starts today. so far, he's just been drinking water and a new stage of his protest starts today with a new term occupy the vote d. c.. this is a new phase for the occupy movement here in the washington, d.c. area. the goal is to push capitol hill to fully recognize democracy for d. c.. now d. c. mayor gray is among their supporters and he's finding himself in the middle of a different controversy concerning whether crime is up as a result of pulling officers off the streets to police the occupy protests. kristopher baumann is the chairman of the fraternal order of police. he said the mayor has made claims that the occupy movements have not caused an increase in crime. baumann tells 9news now that's simply not true. >> there's been a double digit increase in violent crime and overall crime in the city and as time has passed it has become worse and worse. in fact right now a 21% increase in violent crime through the city. >> they don't have to surveil us 24/7? okay, we can take care of ourselves. >> reporter: now, baumann has sent mayor gray a 20 -- a 40 page letter and supporting documents that claim that the occupy movement actually is to blame for the spike in crime. those statistics again, regular crime overall crime 10%. he says since the occupy movement began. now d. c. mayor gray is expected to address these allegations later today at a press conference around 2:30 this afternoon. where he'll also be joined with d. c. police chief kathy lanier. back to you in the studio mike. >> very interesting and of course jess will have that on wusa9 and on wusa9.com. the mayor's comments there. the murder rate in the district is at the lowest level since john f. kennedy was president. as of thursday there were 108 homicides in the city this year. and that is the lowest since 1963. there were 132 murders in the city at this time last year. compare that to 20 years ago? 479 people were killed in the district. 24 hours after a deadly car crash, police still want to know what caused it. they're working on the cause now. we brought you this as breaking news yesterday morning. an suv left university boulevard east in silver spring and hit a fence and then smashed into abulic retaining wall. -- a brick retaining wall. 22-year-old jenice richards and tamara johnson died in the crash. 18-year-old desaleen james survived. her twin sister says she knows what happened but is having a hard time acknowledging the death of her friends. >> she keeps saying she's not dead and then one minute she is, like where's tamara i want to see her? she's just in a lot of pain but should be okay. >> police are still trying to find out what happened. the line of cars is going to be long at goodwill outlets this week. it already is if you've driven by. people are trying to get their donations in time to get the tax break. this is what it looked like yesterday at the goodwill on glebe road route 50 in arlington. they are trying to get their good deed done by december 31st. >> we clean out the house, clean out the clothes, get it to goodwill. >> pretty important right? >> very important. got to get the tax deductions. >> i don't know how much i can write this off for but i'll give it my best shot. >> a birdhouse. never saw that donated. if you're not sure of the writeoff amounts on anything you bring to goodwill, they will let you know. check on the websites too, we have it on wusa9.com as well and so are most other charities. new at 6:00 a preliminary list is out of which sears and k-mart stores are now closing. at least 120 of them will be closing in the coming months on the preliminary list of the 79 stores to be closed, none of them are in the immediate d. c. area. a sears and a k-mart will be closed in mid loathe yanks virginia. east closure means about 60 people will lose their jobs. in about five minutes, an odyssey involving bank of america and a homeowner in trouble. who's trying to do the right thing. >> i really thought you know, interest rates have come down so much people are having so much difficulty. they should welcome someone that is willing to make the payments. >> just learn how long it took to get the bank to get back to him. and why it really cost the bank in the end. and it's finally friday. what's the weather going to be for the last weekday of 2011? your weather first when 9news now returns. stay with us. hi, we're the family, we're stationed in germany and we're saying a big hello and merry christmas to uncle bob. happy friday everyone, it is 6:09 with partly cloudy skies this morning. we're quiet on satellite and radar. not a lot of moisture through and some southerly winds. that's going to warm us up today. we'll zip through the 40s into the middle 50s for highs today. but we'll bring in some cloud cover late in the afternoon and another mild night tonight only in the 40s. monika? we're going to take a live look from sky 9 and we're looking at an accident from overnight blocking westbound route 7 here between columbia pike and patrick henry drive. you're being diverted through the strip mall in the area. or you can go ahead and use route 50 as your alternate route. more on this and other area roadways coming up in my next report. mike, back to you. thank you monika. it is 6:10. yemen's embattled president is coming to america. the obama administration has decided to let ali salei into the united states to seek medical treatment. it is under very strict conditions however. salei suffered severe injuries when rebels stormed his found. a financial dispute is the latest snafu in new york city. the museum was expected to open in 2012. however the mayor says it is not going to happen because of this. president obama laid a ceremonial wreath at pearl harbor. he heads back to d. c. after the new year. here's a story about a foreclosure mess that will have you shaking your head this morning. a florida couple tried to do the right thing as they were falling on hard times but as elaine quijano explains the bank got in their way. >> reporter: if you're wondering why the real estate market has been slow to heal, listen to what the rileys went through to try to keep their house in tampa. what is the process been like for you? >> stressful. chaotic. i mean it's a lot of those kinds of words come to mind. >> reporter: tim riley was laid off from his i. t. job in 2009. robin riley's salary was not enough to cover their $3,000 monthly payment. so they asked their lendor, bank of america to lower their interest rates. >> i really thought you know interest rates has come down so much. people having so much difficulty. they should welcome someone that is willing to make the payments. >> reporter: he was told he couldn't get help unless he fell behind on his payments. so in 2009, tim riley stopped paying his mortgage. what's followed has been a two year battle with bank bureaucracy that the rileys chronicled in this thick binder. >> october, barbara signed steve, nancy passed it off to sarin. >> reporter: a year went by with no progress. the rileys moved out of the property. >> i contacted the bank, sent them a registered letter and gave them my phone number and e- mail address and told them i'd closed up the property. >> reporter: they didn't hear a word. another year passed. the rileys moved back home. the bank wanted to tack on late fees and past penalties which would have increased the mortgage $60,000. >> we just had a stalemate. it was a no win. >> reporter: finally after two years without a mortgage payment, bang of america gave the rileys permission to sell their house and another twist, it's offered the couple up to $20,000 to seal the deal. >> it's kind of beyond a crazy story: you know? it's absurd. >> reporter: last week, the rileys found a buyer for their house. they're moving into a mobile home. as for bank of america, it could suffer a $100,000 loss. much more than if it had worked out a new loan with the rileys in the first place. i lean key ha know -- elaine quijano, cbs news, hollywood, florida. >> the average foreclosure now takes 674 days to complete. four years ago, before the housing market collapsed, it took 253 days. well, did it snow where you lived yesterday? this is what it looked like thursday afternoon in frederick county. plenty of it coming down. the burst of flurries hit the northern and western suburbs and barely stuck to the ground though. it did stick on a few bridges and overpasses. and the snow might not be all real at white tail ski resort but it does open for the season today. it's in hearsersberg, pennsylvania, just north of the border. skiing begins this morning at 8:30. only the beginner trails will be open but next week a cold nap and they can make some for snow. >> maybe the natural kind coming on through here in some areas later on in the week. just now getting up and heading out be prepared for that. in the 30s and n and around the beltway with partly cloudy skies. but more cloud cover later on today. for the end of december i think we're doing very well. we're moving into the 40s in the next two hours or so. we'll keep on going. sunshine through midday and a few clouds late afternoon. but still these highs are going to be pretty good for this time of the year. mainly middle range 50s. as we go in toward the afternoon but we'll become partly cloudy to mostly cloudy by the 5:00 hour when temperatures start to dip below 50 degrees. it looks like a fairly mild night tonight. we won't get too terribly cold for the next couple of nights. the weather headlines are pretty standard for what we've been telling you about for the last couple of days. we have cleared out the cloud cover for now and get into more clouds later on this afternoon. but keeping our temperatures mild. the reason for that, is the southerly and southwesterly winds that will continue through here both saturday and sunday. before we have that shift in winds. that means a very mild forecast as we head from new year's eve into new year's day. in fact, that arctic blast should arrive on monday night and into tuesday. and you'll notice the stark difference in our temperatures toward the end of the week. satellite and radar has been behaving pretty well. we had mostly clear skies through the overnight and now a few clouds across the d. c. metro area this morning but it will be a mixed bag today. we call it variable cloudiness. some areas will have sunshine from time to time and others will have more cloud cover late in the day for most of us. current temperatures in the 30s inside the beltway and 20s outside but when you factor in a little bit of a wind out of the south at about 5 miles per hour, it does look like our windchill numbers are down just a couple of degrees. in all, it won't be too bad. partly cloudy to mostly cloudy into the afternoon. it's feeling like 34 degrees at reagan national at this hour but the futurecast forecast model doesn't have a lot of moisture to work with. so we'll call it partly sunny for today. and then mainly sunny for tomorrow. as we go into our saturday forecast, looking good on new year's eve night. temperatures will be in the 40s and upper 30s and then, for new year's day, we'll push our temperatures toward those middle range and upper 50s. so a very mild closure to our current year and heading back -- into 2012. the forecast for today, not too bad as the middle range 50s as i said a little bit -- almost 10 degrees above average from normal. but the next three days will show that same trend. we'll hold on to mild conditions until we get to monday night. then you'll notice temperatures slide with that northwest winds back into the 30s and even overnight lows well into the 20s. monika? well, there's just been one issue that we've been talking about this morning and it's affecting traffic in the bailey's crossroads area right here westbound on route 7. in fact a live picture from sky 9 to show you. westbound route 7 was blocked off overnight between basically columbia pike and patrick henry drive. you can go through the little victim mall there or just use -- strip mall there or just use route 50. traffic is a little bit slow in the area. over the maryland and this time a live look at 270. here's what it looks like at shady grove road. no problems from frederick to the point where the lanes divide and across the learn legion bridge. prince george's county on beltway looking good into alexandria. if you had the go to work, this was the week. and now is the time to check the morning lights, it's our last morning lights of the holiday season. >> speaking of looking good, this photo was the first we got from our operator, lori adams, she loves the blue l. e. d. likes because they have such a soothing glow. >> she is. so soothing. >> she's a sweetheart. she gave us this picture because at first we thought we weren't sure that you guys were going to send us stuff. we held hers until the end and we're glad we did because it's beautiful. >> and to check out owl the homes we showcased during december, go to wusa9.com and in the search bar type in morning lights. okay, it is 6:18. up next in sports redskins' coach mike shanahan gets ready for the final game of the season. hopefully it's not his final game as coach. >> no, supposed to have five years. right now another check on the question of the morning -- >> and when you "like" us on facebook, you get first crack at the question. if you're an insomniac, you'll get it. barbara says -- so it's a close call. >> i got engaged in december. >> you did? that was february. >> keep the guesses coming, we'll reveal the answer at 6:48. and welcome back. it's 6:22. partly cloudy skies across the region this morning and some pretty cool temperatures, down inside the 30s in the beltway and some 20s to the north and west. definitely see some sneak, a mix of sun and clouds for the afternoon and for the afternoon. the day planner will take us into the mid-range 50s by later on this afternoon with mostly cloudy skies by later on tonight. now dave owens has a look at sports. well, good morning everybody, just doesn't have the usual sizzle that we're accustomed to. the redskins and philly finale means nothing in terms of postseason play but still counts in win loss column and each wants to go out on a positive note. at best, the redskins will finish with back-to-back six win campaigns, at worst mike shanahan will have a two year record 11-21. that's not as good as jim dorn's, imagine that. when asked by reporters about his job security, coach says i'll be back. >> there's no doubt in my mind. you know. hopefully there's no doubt in dan's mind too. [ laughter ] you know, i talked to him about it when i first got here. i said if you don't plant on me coaching here for five years, it's going to take some time to do it right. >> we shall see. alexander was given the media good guy award yesterday. he's always been a great interview and this year especially helpful notifying the media of practices during the lockout. he says he loved the award but says he hopes he doesn't end up like past winners jason campbell and andre carter, they were released or traded. last night some college hoops, howard taking on kansas and it was a thomas robinson just popping in his air force ones. the follow-up dunk. jay hawks slam the bison 89-34. that's right, 89-34. tough one there for howard. all right, that's going to do it for your morning sports, i'm dave owens, is a great friday -- have a great friday everyone. the lady terps weren't on tv last night. you had to catch them on the web instead. a great game though against unbeaten delaware. thomas with 23 points and she was one of three maryland starters with double digit figures. lady terps beat the fighting blue hens 85-36. maryland is perfect 13-0 on the season. coming up we are going to be joined by district assistant chief of police and learn how police are trying to keep crime down as the occupy protests. the latest transformers movie second hottest at the box office. it earned $352 million. up next, learn which film came in at number one. before we head to break, quick check of the commute. monika? >> we're going to take a look at a map we're. an accident from overnight. the clean-up continues in bailey's crossroads. westbound route 7 between columbia pike and patrick henry drivement keep that if mind for your travel mans. coming up in my next report, another look around the area at 6:30. you're watching 9news now. stay with us. when it comes to getting my family to eat breakfast, i could use all the help i can get. like nutella, a delicious hazelnut spread that's perfect on multigrain toast, even whole-wheat waffles, for a breakfast that my kids love and i feel good about serving. and nutella is made with simple, quality ingredients, like hazelnuts, skim milk, and a hint of cocoa. it's quick, easy and something everyone can agree on. ♪ nutella. breakfast never tasted this good. 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