As we see the improvement as we get out ever the 40s into the 50s. It does look like code yellow for today but were actually code green for tomorrow. Monday came . Well, as usual things start to happen a little later in the rush hour on friday morning. Thats exactly whats happening right now. Youll see the volume increasing and we do have one accident. Ill get to that in just a moment. 66 on the inbound side beginning to slow down just a bit as you leave centreville and a little more in fairfax, about route 50 toward 123. Lets take a live look in springfield on the northbound side of i95 where again youre going to see the brake lights right here leaving 644 heading northbound. It slows down to the beltway. Once youre on 3935 it still actually looks good through landmark and seminary road. 270 on the southbound side, looking good out of frederick till you hit 109 toward clarksburg. That will be your slow stretch. Ill show you a live picture at the intersection of seven locks road and Montrose Road where there is an accident here in the rockville area. You have to follow Police Direction to get through it. Ill be back with more traffic coming up in a few minutes at 6 11. We want to update you on our breaking news from earlier in the morning. Reports out of japan have diminished the sietz of the sue maam size of the tsunami expected to hit there. A warning was issued after a quake hit the same area struck by the march 200010 quake. While the debate over the fiscal cliff dominates the headlines, the concern in washington is the middle class. The hardest most biggest segment of the population it is supposed to hit if this does happen. Delia goncalves is live with more. Reporter good morning. Absolutely. This is a very complicated issue that seems to just be boiling over without any real compromise, even though we saw some signs of promise a couple of weeks ago. Another stalemate here on capitol hill. Easily everyone agrees that middleclass families should be spared in this whole situation. They stand to see on average tax increases of 2,000 if congress doesnt take action. So everyone agrees lets spare middleclass families. The only thing that folks are disagreeing on are two other proposals that could possibly solve this fiscal crisis. The first proposal, democrats want to raise taxes on the wealthy 2 . But republicans favor tax reform instead. They say raising taxes on the wealthy could hurt business. The other solution, possible solution involves raising the debt ceiling. President obama advice sid a falls church visited a falls church family. The president says its imperative that congress act now. Its very important that we get this done now. That we dont wait. Were in the midst of the Christmas Season of the American People are counting on this getting solved. The closer it gets to the brink, the more stressed theyre going to be good by demanding the power to raise the debt ceiling whenever he wants by as much as he wants, he showed what hes really after is assuming unprecedented power to spend taxpayer dollars without any limit at all. Reporter senator Mitch Mcconnell talking about the debt ceiling and the president s proposal to raise the debt ceiling. Well have more on that debate coming up at 6 30. Back to you. We have dedicated our entire News Department to track this story. Were ready with alerts on the air and on the web. Every day well have stories that show you how you will be affect fundamental we go over this cliff. You can get alerts effected if we go over this cliff. You can get alerts on your phone. Jessica doyle is here. She leads the effects on you team this morning. Shes looking at the impact on federal contractors in northern virginia. Of course we have tons of federal contractors here. Diving over the cliff would have an acrosstheboard Ripple Effect around the country. We know thats the case. In Fairfax County, they could be particularly vulnerable. Big cutbacks in Government Spending could mean big trouble for Information Technology and defenserelated contracting firms that carry a lot of federal business. If spending on those firms gets cut, a lot of people could be out of a job. If you go make the kind of cuts that some are suggesting happen, then youre really hurting a lot of the Small Businesses and residents in Fairfax County who rely on federal contracts for their livelihood. Ultimately that trickles down to and affects Fairfax County. Fairfax county alone took in 23 billion in federal contracting money back in 2009. Thats more than any other county in the country. And its 3 billion more than washington, d. C. Growth for contracting in Fairfax County has been explosive to back in 1980 federal contracting dollars totaled just 1. 7 billion. Why is nova been such a big draw for federal contracting dollars and the big salary jobs that come with them . One word for you. Dulles. The International Airport provides easy access to washington on its limited access highway. Dulles also provides connections to both national and international markets. But its already been feeling effects of the soft economy. The recent recession left many commercial buildings vacant. If more businesses go under, that means more vacancies, more job losses, possible new foreclosures, and tax revenue to the state could take a dive as well. That is where we see these Ripple Effects happening. A lot of big contracts. That makes a huge impact around here. Absolutely. Thanks, jess. Superstorm sandy is widely thought to have slowed the u. S. Job growth last month. The only question is how much. An answer is expected to emerge from the governments job report from november which is due out today. Meanwhile new jerseys governor paid a visit to president obama yesterday asking for money to help his state rebuild. The storm destroyed 80 of this sea side Heights Community and left the famous boardwalk in pieces. Governor Chris Christie says it will take 37 million to rebuild that area. The president is expected to ask congress for 50 billion but that will not cover the 83 billion that new york, new jersey and connecticut are already asking for now. Samesex couples can now apply and receive marriage lrnses in maryland licenses in maryland. On the first day yesterday, just a few couples around the state actually went to clerks offices to pick up listens. They have to wait licenses. They have to wait till 12 01 on new years day. Montgomery countys new licenses say party one and party two. Prince georges county plans to issue one license for heterosexual couples and another for samesex couples but prince judges licenses wont be ready till next week. Were gearing up for a huge weekend of football here at wusa. It starts saturday with the armynavy game at 3 00 p. M. Well have a complete wrapup at 7 00 on game on. Just go get the wings, beer, soda and sit down and have a good weekend. Then on sunday you can watch as the skins bring the ravens to tonight at fed ex fields. That is going to be a fantastic game. When we come back, holiday shopping. Well take a look at some food gifts from some local Small Businesses. Our food blogger will be back with us in just a bit. Im meteorologist olga breese. Starting off with cloudy skies. Maybe a peek of sunshine this afternoon but expect scattered showers throughout the day. Temperatures only making the middle range 50s. An accident being cleared up from the intersection of seven locks road and Montrose Road in rockville. Expect to follow just a bit of Police Direction through the area. Not much delay getting by. Ill have more traffic coming up in a few minutes at 6 18. Andrea, back to you. Thank you, monika. Shes made no secret of her support for president obama. Now making news, eva longoria will have a new role in his presidency. The actress has been named co. Chair of the inaugural committee. President obama will be sworn in for his second term on monday, january 21, 2013. George zimmerman is suing nbc. Hes the Neighborhood Watch volunteer in florida charged with murdering 17yearold trayvon martin. He claims he was defamed when nbc edited his 911 call do make it sound like he was racist. Three people lost their jobs over it. Thanks, andrea. Its the holiday season. That means well all be shopping for gifts for family and friends. Did you ever think of food . Because sometimes gifts can be challenging when youre trying to find something different. Food is a great idea. Here to talk to us is jona, a blogger. This isnt just a regular drink mixer. Its not. Its an electric cocktail mixer. You can use it to mix up your lie bases during the libations during the holidays. They usually are more expensive but i got this one at hills kitchen around southeast d. C. That was under 25. You can see these. Ive seen these for 57 and theyre still plastic. There isnt anything different about them. Its putting air in wine. Again, these are all from Small Businesses. Our agoing to do plenty of shopping at the big chains. Take care of the Small Businesses as well. Another thing is this cutting board in the shape of d. C. I noticed that. I thought it was pretty cool. So you can serve it as a cutting board or a serving platter for cheeses. Are these cheese things, too . No. These are cookie cutters. You can use these for when youre doing your sugar cookies around the holidays. This looks like its in the shape of virginia. This cracks me up, even the title of this. The vegan junk food cookbook. You have suggestion abouts cookbooks. Exactly. If youre going to buy a cookbook, dont just buy a cookbook. Buy something that relates to the person. Theyll get a kick out of it and maybe find great recipe ideas. Those are preserves, jams which can be served with cheeses and breads. So you can serve those during the holidays and beyond. Theyre locally produced. You said this collection or some of this collection is local as well . Exactly. Another thing youre going to do during the holidays is everybody is going to celebrate and drink. Its a nice added touch to make it from a local producer. Here we have Catoctin Creek and a local vineyard in virginia. How close is this . Its right here in d. C. Its right here in d. C. Okay. And distributed in purcelville, virginia. Very local. Very local. Thats a gift youre not going to find on somebodys table normally. Wow, look at this. Its neat. Exactly. Then you have the olive oils and infused vinegars. Those are unique little dishes or gifts you can give to somebody versus the basic olive oil which typically costs its really expensive. Now you can give it to somebody as a gift and its inexpensive as a gift. Thank as lot for joining us. Ing on ga over to you. Thank olga, over to you. Thank you. Great gifts. Maybe if youre going out shopping, youll want to take the coat because youll need it. Absolutely. Were already getting that rain moving in in portions of warrenton, frederick and also toward hagerstown. The rest of us were about to get some as well. Its creeping up toward the beltway. Temperatures are on the cool side. 30s and 40s for this morning. Thats going to be the case for the next couple of hours but things will improve as the rain tapers off in the afternoon. On satellite and radar, you can see where the moisture is coming from. Our winds so far this morning are predominantly south. Thats going to turn a little bit toward the southwest as we head toward the afternoon. But still the cloud cover sticks around as well as that moisture. Overall, though, the day planner does start off with the overcast skies. Those who have dry pavement now will see a little bit of wet pavement later. Thats why were going with a yellow alert for today. As we move out of the 40s, we should hit right around 49 degrees by the 1 00 hour. Well squeak into the 50s but i think most of us are going to stay in the lower 50s. We could even see some mid range 50s closer to the city center by that 4 00 hour. In all it does look like the moisture is going to be here for the short term. We are not going to see much of a change in our forecast pattern till after we get through the overnight hour into the saturday forecast. So doppler radar, spotty showers around already south of 495 for us. But overall the pattern for the next 24 hours is going to keep the moisture around for the short term and clear us out overnight tonight on the three hour radar loop. Lets get to our forecast. I can show you how things will be looking. Right now we do have mainly cloudy skies. Feeling like 36 degrees because of the winds out of the south. But the futurecast will bring the moisture into the afternoon. It looks like when we get into the overnight tonight, say after 6 00 and in toward the midnight hour, nothing but cloud cover. So the rain is going to taper off. Then by tomorrow were going to see some breaks in the cloud cover calling for a partly sunny forecast for your saturday. As the wind shifts, we will see the temperatures move into the 60s. A nice surprise for our december forecast. The forecast for today right around 52 for arlington. You should see about 48 up toward laurel and middle 50s the further you go down toward the south. It looks like tonight will be fairly mild by comparison. Only sitting into the 40s. Maybe a few 30s north and west. Yellow alert for today because ever the rain showers moving through, were still well still see a few showers mainly northwest on saturday. But sunday we are in the clear. Good weather for the football game. Looks like the warmup really comes on monday. Were beginning to see the slow traffic settling in on the major thoroughfares right now. Good morning, everybody. Lets start off with the inbound side of i66. Of course you have the slow stretch in manassas to centreville. Ill show what you it looks like inbound 066 from our sky 9. A on 66 from sky 9. A minor incident is going to slow things down a bit. Of course its catching some attention and now you have wet roadways as well. Inbound 66, watch out for that. This time over to 270. Beginning to slow down out of frederick. Its not red yet so thats some good news for you but i saw that the roads are wet as you head down into clarksburg. Well take a live look at route 109 on the southbound side. Brake lights forming here and then youre okay down to the point where the lanes divide in germantown. Its 6 19. We have another look at our question of the morning. Women tend to run longer in the morning after theyve done this. Is it a, had a stressful day at work, b, gotten a good night sleep or c, drinking beer the night before. Our facebook friend laura says c. Having a stressful day at work leads to drinking beer the night before. W time 6 226789 showers around. Looks like well keep the chilly temperatures. Date planner keeps an opportunity for showers throughout the day. We should see temperatures top out into the lower range 50s, right around 53 for Reagan National. Andrea . Thank you, olga. Tech pioneer mcaeee is wanted for questioning in the murder for questioning in the murder in belize. He was rushed to the hospital after being denied asylum in guatemala [ inaudible ] services for 58yearold ki success han were held in new york. A 30yearold man was charged with seconddegree murder in connection with hans death. Naeem davis pushed him on to the tracks and took off. Tammy van dyke is resting at home with her son in minnesota, but the northwestern hospital admits to a mixup. The hospital released a statement saying the newborn was taken to the wrong room and briefly breast fed by another mom. A spokesperson from the hospital called it a terrible mistake and said there will be consequences. Santa claus is coming to town in a big way. 4,000 of them. Santas helpers are all going to be there because we know theres only one real santa. These helpers of santa are all gathering for an annual convention dancing to a holiday tune. The festivities include a kris kringle march. More concern in washington over the fiscal cliff and how it affects the middle class. When we return, 9news Delia Goncalves will have the latest from capitol hill. Right now with the latest on our rush hour traffic, heres monika. Reporter brunswick line 870120 minutes 870 is 20 minutes late. An incident here at route 50. Delays begin at route 28 in centreville. More news, weather and traffic coming up at 6 30. Youre watching 9news. Well be right back. Good morning. Were back at 6 29. This is always the place to get your weather first. Heres a live look at the white house. Not as bright as we usually see it. Maybe they were out partying at the ellipse lighting a Christmas Tree last night. Sleeping in. It is 41 degrees. Maybe a few showers later today. But thank you for starting your friday with us. Nothing can dampen our spirits on a friday. Im andrea roane. Sounds good. Grab an extra cup of coffee. Im mike hydeck. Thanks for joining us. Meteorologist olga breese is live on the weather terrace. She had her scarf on last time and does again. Thats right and gloves too. Its cool out this morning. Temperatures this hour continuing to dip down. Yes, we have overcast skies and a few showers moving in. Right now most of us are sitting in the upper 30s with just a slight windchill. Looks like satellite and radar is going to continue with the moisture moving on through. Well stay overcast most of the day. Take the umbrella with you as well. The showers could really impact you as you head throughout the afternoon. Our day planner does keep us quite cool. Only hitting the middle range 40s by the noontime hour. I think well squeak out a 52 or 53 at Reagan National airport by about the 4 00 hour. But then after sunset, those temperatures go back down. Good news. We should dry out later on tonight. Thats great for your sunday plans. Monika . Well, we have a couple of issues right now, plus the wet road conditions. Although we started off really well this friday morning, things are beginning to deteriorate just a little bit. In fact, on the southbound side of 270, of course youve got your initial delay out of frederick toward clarks burke. Then theres an clarksburg. Then theres an accident in the left lane. Lets take a live look in clarksburg on the southbound side of 270. The brake lights are going to