campaign trail this morning where a rome any-gingrich showdown is shaping up. fox 5 morning news continues now at 6:00. it is 6:00 on this tuesday. taking a live look at washington d.c. this morning high atop our tower cam. a little wet out there but the temperatures aren't too bad. i'm sarah simmons. >> i'm steve chenevey. a traffic alert. some northbound lanes of route 3 between bowie and crofton are still closed after a big accident near lute 450. it involved a car, a box truck and a gasoline tanker that overturned carrying some 9,000 gallons of gas. the tanker spilled about 100 gallons. that was last night. crews have been working since then to clean opportunity. the southbound lanes of route 3 are open now. we'll get more on this from julie in just a minute. >> it has been a little wet out there. is that going to stick around

or clear out of here. >> no, it will stick around. we'll get more showers during the course of the day today. it is mainly light rain. maybe some areas of heavy rain tomorrow. that is a possibility. but today, mostly light rain. let's take a look at what is going on out there. we'll start with the temperature across the region. we've just dropped off a little bit to 55 degrees here in washington. 58 down in quantico. 57 in annapolis. baltimore is at 57 degrees. so is dulles airport and in manassas, we are at 55 degrees actually mild start to the day. it will be a mild day today as well. here is a look at the radar. indeed, shower activity mainly light showers moving across the washington area. baltimore, up to our north, off to the west. southwest, to the southeast and south, not much is going on there. so you should be dry. but you'll get some rain showers popping through later on. there is the next batch of rain down to the south and west moving across southwestern portions of virginia. so some continued light rain

and more rainfall coming in during the course of the late morning and afternoon hours. your day planner for today, certainly it will be cloudy. periods of shower activity. high today about 06 degrees which is where we were yesterday and that is a full 10 degrees above normal. so one more mild day and then we begin to cool down and we get cold by the end of this week for many. you. >> cold he have we've seen so far this season for highs? >> no, not quite. >> all right. thank you. definitely colder than what we have now though. >> that's for sure. juror wet pavement is what we're waking up to and the remain of an accident which is still tying up our commute as you travel between 450 and 50. this wreck occurred overnight and it involves a tanker truck now back up on its wheels. we had to offload some fuel before we could get it out of there. the southbound stretch of route

3 has been reopened. northbound side of roadway we mains closed and still, as can you clearly see here from chopper brad, a lot of activity out there on the roads. that will cause some rubbernecking delays. the southbound lanes of route 3 have been reopened traveling between 450 and 506789 we've got more problems to report unfortunately. -- between 450 and 50. we've got more problems to report unfortunately. now, inbound on route 4 at the suit land parkway, we have accident activity blocking one of the left turn lanes. it is a double left turn lane there at that intersection. one of the left turn lanes is tied up with the accident activity. southbound 29 #, acrash at the beltway there in fort washington now cleared. lanes are open eastbound on 66. no problems to report out of manassas, volume increasing. we are slowing in centreville and we are starting to slow just east of 50 headed in towards vienna. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. jack johnson will be sentenced today. the former prince george's county executive is scheduled to find out how much time he will spend behind bars for his

role in a corruption scandal. >> johnson pled guilty in may to shaking down developers and collecting bribes. fox 5's stacy cohan is live at this federal courthouse in grown belt with more. >> reporter: good morning. john mark karr johnson is expected to arrive here around 9:30 this morning. he will go before the judge would will hand down his sentence and indeed, johnson will be heading likely to federal prison. now, he was apparently -- he did plead guilty in this corruption case. there has been a long ongoing federal probe into the charges that it was a pay to play atmosphere where johnson would accept bribes for government favors in tot tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars over his eight years of county steck executive in prince george's county. federal investigators have videotaped and audio taped him accepting bribes from developers an of he and his wife allegedly trying to destroy evidence as the federal

investigators closed in. here is one of those audiotapes where jack johnson talks about possible prosecution. >> a lot of legal enemies and they call the various prosecutors. and the prosecutors always want to try to -- especially minorities, they like to try to put them in jail. if one of the prosecutors are able it bring somebody like me down, they brag their whole career, you know, i prosecuted jack johnson. >> reporter: that audiotape was made less than a month before the end of his term. of course, he was arrested last year. now, he is expected to receive a strict sentence but asking for a fair sentence. the sentencing guideline are up to 14 years. his lawyers will ask if quite a bit less than that. his wife, leslie will be sentenced for her charge of tampering with evidence. that comes at the end of the week.

i'm stacy cohan. back to you. >> thank you. in other news this morning, d.c. council chairman kwame brown plans to meet privately with embattled councilmember harry thomas. twelve of the 13 members had a closed door meeting yesterday to discuss option in the wake of and fbi raid on thomas' house friday. thomas is accused of funneling $300,000 from the city for his own personal use. it is just one reason why the government operations commit yes passed new ethics reform legislation yesterday. the head of the federal aviation administration, randy babbitt, is on leave of absence after his arrest over the weekend. he was allegedly driving drunk. a fairfax city police officer pulled babbitt over on saturday night when he saw him driving on the wrong side of the road. now, babbitt lives in nearby reston. police say, after babbitt was pulled over, he took a field sobriety test and was then arrested for dwi. for now, the deputy faa administrator will take charge of the federal agency. another protest centered around the economy has kicked

off in d.c., this one a five- day demonstration on the national mall. the movement is called our d.c., tart of the take back the capitol protest. they want congress to start representing the 99% of the peep, not just the rich. protesters will march to the capital and to k street where they plan to deliver the message to lobbyists. coming up next, sentencing today in another high-profile case. a former governor who tried to sell president obama's senate seat is about to learn his fate. details on i warning,ed for 15 nations including an economic powerhouse. that is all coming up. 

the s&p rating agency warns it could cut ratings of 15 european counties including powerhouse germany and stocks around the world are falling. oil tell for about $100 a barrel this morning in asia. standard & poor's says it is reviewing the credit rating of

countries using the euro and put them "negative watch. the death toll rises in a suicide bomb attack in afghanistan. 48 people reportedly have been killed. the explosion happened in a crowd of shiite worshippers marking a holy day in the afghan capital. they were near a shrine close to the palace of president hamid karzai who is actually in europe today. pe today. coming up next, newt gingrich rising still in the gop presidential polls and a showdown with mitt romney shaping up. we'll take a look at the latest from the campaign trail this morning. first, we'll check in with tony for your full forecast coming up and julie wright is on your traffic this morning when we continue. we'll be right back.  to make a commitment

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we are taking a look at the beltway this morning. traffic picking up a little bit out there. pavement still wants to stay a little wet. it will probably be like that over the next couple of days, isn't it, tony? >> yes, we'll have periods of rain over the next couple of days. right now at reagan national, they are just reporting overcast skies. parts of the area are getting light rain. it is not a big deal but we'll have to deal with t let's take a look at our temperatures across the area. they've dropped off a tad but still quite comfortable out there as far as our temperatures go. right now, in the district, it is 55 degrees. across most of our area, temperatures are in the 50s. but look at how cold it is just out to the west. when i say just out to the west, i'm talking about ohio,

places like that. 39degrees in cincinnati. you can see this line here, this cold front that will come through here. 39 in buffalo. 35 in chicago. and then you think that is cold? look at the midsection of the country. these are current air temperatures, not wind chills. eight degrees right now in lincoln, nebraska. seven in fargo. 17 in wichita. denver right now is 2 degrees. so the coldest air of the season in the nation's midsection. we'll get some of that. we're for the going to get these single degree or temperatures in the teens but these temperatures in the 30s will work their way with in here. we'll get overnight temperatures in the 30s probably starting on thursday night the way things are shaping up. here is a look at our satellite- radar. plenty of cloud cover and as you can see, points south, we don't have much going on, just the clouds. up to the north, we have some rain showers moving through. there is a heavier bulk of rain off to the west -- west actually and southern portions of west virginia. all of this moving to the northeast.

this frontal boundary slips southward and as it does, rain showers continue to move along it. we will have more rain later on today and even for a couple of days. that will kind. get caught up in the mid- atlantic. the jet stream pushes eastward. that is partly responsible for allowing some of that colder air to move into the eastern portions of the united states although again, with the position of the jet stream, where it is going to lay for the next couple of days, it gets colder air clous but it also prevents the super cold air from moving in to our region. today, we'll see a temperature right around 60 degrees again. so the forecast is a rainy day. periods of rain, mostly showers, light rain. 60 for your high. wind will be out of the south about 10-mile per hour. then for tonight, more rain, light winds. winds become southwesterly, five to 10 miles per hour. 50degrees for your overnight low. five-day forecast, tomorrow, not as mild but still a high in the low 50s. more rain. i think there may be more widespread rain tomorrow and then wednesday night into thursday, yeah, there is a

possibility of some of that rain changing over to snow particularly north and west of the city and some of that snow could accumulate in western portions of maryland where there is actually a winter storm watch in effect. i'm talking about western maryland. temperatures in the 40s for the rest of this week. now, here is julie wright with an update on traffic. >> i'm talking southwest which is where i'm heading if that snow is heading here. >> you want to go south and east. >> i just want to go south, man. i am not prepared for that. waking up this morning to wet pavement. it has been a tough go already. new accident reported on the inner loop of the beltway before connecticut avenue. that is what is tying up the left lane. the crew in sky fox continuing to hover above route 3 right now at 450. this is where we had the overfight crash that left the roadway blocked off in each direction for quite some time. as you can see along the rye side of your screen, southbound route 3 reopened at 450. the lanes are open here. northbound traffic still blocked off at 50 with a lot of equipment still on the scene at

this incident. again, the southbound lanes have been reopened. not too much in the waive delay at this time. we'll update your ride inbound along route 4 here at the suitland parkway. accident activity is blocking one of the left turn lanes. a double left turn lane here at the intersection. police tell me they are on the scene waiting for a tow truck. on the other side of town, coming in below germantown, below speed as you i don't recollect war way into mva. newt gingrich continues to surge in the polls in the race for the republican presidential nomination. gingrich met with billionaire donald trump yesterday in hopes of getting his endorsement. both criticize some gop rivals including ron paul. gingrich leads the latest des moines register poll. ron paul is second. mitt romney, third. another poll has gingrich leading with romney second and paul third. gingrich is now directly challenging rome necessity oops effort to run as you a political outsider. >> i don't know that you ought to count running for the senate

in 1994, running for governor, then running for president for six years. i mean i don't know in that makes him a clear politician or not. ill he'll let you decide. it's fair for say i have abeen a successful candidate a number of times. >> former vice president dan quayle is throwing his support behind republican presidential candidate mitt romney. quayle is expected to make it official with the former massachusetts governor during an appearance today in arizona. quayle was vice president under president george h. w. bush. president obama traveling to kansas city, missouri today. he is set to speak on the economy at a high school south of kansas city. the president continues to pressure congress to reach an agreement on extending the payroll tax cut. there is now a countdown clock on the white house went web site ticking down to the end of the month when the clock expires. coming up next, we'll go live to fox business network in new york for this morning's business beat. if your inbox at work leaves you feeling overwhelmed, you

want to hear this one. find out what one company is doing to eliminate emmail altogether. a gift that would come in handy if you have ever wanted to click your heels and head home. a pair of dorothy's ruby slippers from the wizard of oz hits the auction block later on this month. they are expected to go for as much as $3 million. this pair is one of four in existence. another, of course, is at the smithsonian. there is another pair in a private collection and another was stolen from the judy garland museum in michigan. we'll be right back. ack.

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fox business network live in new york with this morning's business beat. good morning. >> good morning. you know what? the markets are looking just fine. dow futures are higher by 50 points right now. we are looking at a higher open on top of a 78 point gain for the dow industrials yesterday. the gain is despite news that standard & poor's put 15 european nations on watch for the downgrade. >> we allude to the this one business overseas that is trying to streamline things. i can't believe this, with no e- mail. how is that possible? >> it is going to be hard but a french it firm says it is possible. they are planning to get its 74,000 employees in 42 runteries around the world to have no e-mail by the end of 2013. how are they going to do it in they say they are going to have i centralized document center set up online. that is where they are going to

update their documents. so the challenge is getting each and every one of those 75,000 employees to know when to check and where to check what they need to know. it might be relaxing for those employees especially after long vacations when you come back to like a thousand e-mails in your inbox and you know you're afraid to leave your blackberry at any time. >> i know. it is so true. >> kind of good news for this french company. we'll see if others continue their trend. >> my answer is just shift delete in mass quantities when a come back from vacation. >> i know. and then you deplete something you need. >> right. exactly. that's true. all right. we'll check in with you tomorrow. thank you. till ahead, -- still head, it has long been known as snail mail and soon sending a letter will take a little bit longer. we'll tell you about the impact of major cuts proposed by the post office. first, he was an elected official. the key figure in a widespread

corruption probe and today, former prince george's county executive jack johnson will learn how much time he will serve for the crime. ♪ [ female announcer ] during the holidays, there's a lot to get done.

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the capital christmas tree lighting ceremony will be held today at 5:00. republican congressman john boehner will help 70-year-old johnny crawford of california flip the switch. there are 2500 orments donated by californianed. >> we would like you to be a part of our fox 5 holiday tradition that we have here. we have our own christmas tree that needs trimming. we'll deck it out in orangements that you have sent to us and send toy to aworthy group here in the d.c. region. you can send the ornaments to the address right there on the screen. screen. we would like to thank theresa wells of lanham, maryland for sending in this ornament. a gorgeous ornament. is that the frosty we were

looking at there. that is very cute. we will grown ate all the ornaments and the tree -- we will donate all the ornaments and the tree to a local organization. thank you. >> tony is back with us. starting to feel like the holidays. at least by the end of the westbound, it might. >> yes, air right. right now, it is mild. it doesn't feel like december. it will by thursday and friday. certainly highs only in the 40s. those days, so colder air on the way. let's take a look at what is going on out there. we'll start with the september nell radar. we can see that there are a few light showers here and there. not a whole lot going on. not much happening around the washington area. we've got overcast skies but not much in the way of precipitation. up around gaithersburg and on 270, that is where we're seeing some shower activity and out to the west towards winchester as well, some showers there. so these will be moving through throughout the course of the day today. let's take a look at what is happening right now. reagan national -- sorry, got to push a button to make it

happen. staring at it. come on, come on. 55degrees right now in washington. relative humidity, 93%. wind are out of the south at 12 miles per hour. a little bit of a breeze out there. your forecast for today, lots of clouds, rain, pertdz of showers here and there. a mild day though. high about 60 degrees. that is a look at what is happening with the weather. coming up in about 15 minutes, today's edition of ask the weather guys. merry christmas! >> what is it going to be? >> where does that expression come from. >> we can all talk about it the rest of the day. >> why do we use it when many other parts of the world, they say happy christmas. we say merry christmas. we will explain it. fascinating. >> excellent. looking forward to that. >> will you use that english accent? >> i'll try my best. >> you got 15 minutes to improve on that. >> if madonna can do it, if she can -- i don't know if you want

to go there. >> i'm just saying no pressure, tony p., but. >> on the roads, wet pavement pavement is what we're waking up to. we have a string of brake lights as well. this is southbound 270 coming out out of germantown. no lanes to report right now. crash reported on the inleer loop before connecticut avenue is now on the shoulder. here, atraffic merges on from fair oaks headed into towards industry antia, no incidents to report as you continue eastbound towards the beltway. still a slow go on the inner loop 236 up towards 66. this is a live shot coming inbound new york city at capital street. lanes are open. university boulevard south of riggs road for the accident reported. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. >> thank you. now to the sentencing of jack johnson. the former prince george's county executive is due in front of a federal judge in morning to find out how much

time he will spend behind bars. >> he pled guilty to corruption charges back in may and took bribes of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. let's get more now from stacey cohan. >> reporter: steve, this is a man who spent a very long time at the very top level of government here in prince george's county. he was a prosecutor. it was his job to put people behind bars and then eight years as county executive and now he will be learning how much time he will be spending in prison. last night was probably his last night as a free man for quite some time. he will be before judge peter massettey at 9:30 this morning. he did plead guilty in the corruption charges. this was a long-term federal investigation of what authorities have described as a pay to play culture in the prince george's county government in which jack johnson accepted bribes from developers an others in return to numerous favors. there have been audiotapes and videotapes of deals he was

taking. bribe showing him accepting cash and thumbing through the cash. his wife was also involved. she pled guilty to evidence tampering after flushing a $100,000 check down the toilet as federal agents arrived at the couple's home last year. >> i have 24 days. >> yeah, the time flies by. >> oh, okay. thank you. >> what do you want me to do with this mondayy in they are banging. >> put it in your panties and walk out of the house. >> reporter: johnson could face up in prison. i'm stacy cohan. back to you. >> d.c. council cannot fire him but councilmember harry thomas is under fire following and fbi raid on his home friday. thomas accused of using $3 number $3 -- $300,000 for his

perm use. bob barnard has more. >> reporter: they are going into private discussions to discuss the federal case against harry thomas. >> i look forward to vague conversation with councilmember thomas to discuss this. >> reporter: his home in northeast raided by the fbi friday, part of an investigation into the alleged misappropriation of $300,000 in d.c. government grants to charity for thomas' own private use. >> my opinion has not changed since the disclosure of the settlement last summer which is an acknowledgement of guilt. i don't care what the settlement says. no one hands over $300,000 if they're innocent. >> reporter: david catania has called on councilmember thomas to resign. >> the fact this he won't do what is right says a lot about his character. >> reporter: the d.c. council has no real authority to do anything to or about their embattled colleague.

>> based on the activity on friday, don't know what the council can do at this point other than stay out of the way and let the process conclude. >> reporter: the thomas scandal just one reason the council's government operations committee today has passed new ethics reform legislation. chairman brown carrying had you own ethical baggage helped to push the bill forward. >> we'll doe what is necessary to make sure that we pass a comprehensive ethics reform bill this year. >> the point is, i think, the resident. district of columbia want to make sure there is an ethics law that make sense that we are conducting ourselves in a respectable manner and at the same time that there is not a law out there that is used for political witch hunting or any kind of political rent debt as. >> reporter: organizers of that recall movement say by law,

they cannot officially start their campaign until january 2nd. but promise to go full speed ahead if thomas isn't already gone by then. in the newsroom, bob barnard, fox 5 news. >> thank you. coming up next, a major cost cutting plan at the post office could impact how quickly your mail is delivered. >> as we go to break, holiday wishes from a member of our military stations overseas. ove >> hello. welcome to beautiful bagram, afghanistan. i am christopher reed. want to say hello to my beautiful wife michelle and my son rider. don't let them bully at school, okay, rider? be good and study hard. [ femalele announcer ] at verizonfios.com,

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changes at the post office. >> part of a cost cutting plan. melanie alnwick reports. >> reporter: getting packages and letters delivered in a matter of days is a service many customers find great value in. it has been woundably convenient to have one-day mail delivery. >> reporter: speed is a luxury the post office can no longer afford said david williams, vice president of network operations. >> customers are cheesing speed as they choose electronic alternatives. they are choosing electronic bill payment. they are choosing electronic communication via the internet and e-mail, things like that. >> reporter: that means it may take your letters and packages a little longer to get to their destination. if i mail a bill today in any of these blue collection boxes like this one here in washington, d.c., it should be delivered the very next day

within a 09-mile radius and in two days within a 12-hour's drive time. usps want to eliminate next day delivery for first class mail, shrink that two-day delivery to just a four-hour drive radius and make everything else three- day delivery. >> the fact of the matter is our network is too big. we have more capacity in our network than we can afford. >> i'm concerned about the carriers. they need their jobs and i'm afraid some of those carriers might lose their time. >> reporter: eliminating that next day delivery will mean 2,000 job cuts. usps would close 261 processing center and make more efficient use of those that are left, saving more than $2 billion a year. >> you just can't sit back and wait. have you to act on these things. we have to go with $20 billion. we are going to do that to keep ourself financially healthy. >> reporter: priority and express mails are not changing and commercial customers are being given options to help

expedite bulk mail. postmaster donahue says he doesn't want a bailout. >> we don't take any tax money. we don't want any tax money. just the ability to downsize the way any that ranking business would. melanie alnwick, fox 5 news. postal service filed the proposal with the postal regulatory commission yesterday. it is approved, the earliest you would see any changes would be april. >> everybody will have the christmas cards out in the mail. >> gwen pointed something out. if they do make that change, if you're still paying bills by mail, you will have to pay them a little bit earlier just to allow if that time to get there. you got to remember that. >> or you can do it online. >> yeah, and many more people do. that is one of the problem. more people do everything online now. >> but they'll be busy with this christmas. >> they sure will. let's find out what is going on out there with our weather conditions around the region. we start with our temperatures. they are mild. you will be pleasantly surprised when you step out this morning. you shouldn't be surprised if you listened to our weather

yesterday. 55degrees is the current temperature in washington. 57 in gaithersburg. 57 at dulles airport. winchester is at 54 degrees. how about this? off on the east, salisbury, 61 degrees and fredericksburg is at 61 degrees right now. all right. it will be feeling more hike winter here. you've heard us talking about it. let me tell you what is going to happen here. we have some periods of rain today, tonight, tomorrow. wednesday night, that rain may end as some snow wednesday night, particularly off to the north and west. there will be just enough cold air being pull in to make that happen n western maryland, they've already issued a winter stormwatch for extreme western maryland. it could impact the thursday morning commute even right around here with some lingering snow or some snow having fallen wednesday night. we are not talking about significant accumulations but there is an accumulation potential for the north and west and again in western maryland, you can see several inches of snow out there. not here. let's take a look at futurecast.

i'll show you what you're talking about. right now, we are not seeing much in the way of rain. this is overplaying day little bit. more rain off to the south and west. that will be coming through here. here is about 2:00. we've got rain here, rain to our south. a little bit of a break off to the west. then, as we get into tomorrow, this is indicating tomorrow morning, we'll have some areas of heavy rain for your wednesday morning commute. so there could be some problems and remember, i said today, mainly light rain. off to the west, hagerstown, harrisonburg, other areas off to the west, some snow falling and some wintry mick as well and that gets fairly close to the washington area at least the north and west suburbs before things die down very early thursday morning. forecast for washington for today, cloudy and mild. rain, light winds, high today about 60-degree. for your five-day forecast, 53 tomorrow with more rain. i think heavier rain tomorrow.

maybe some snow wednesday night into thursday. no big deal here in the washington area. don't worry. then we cool off dramatically thursday, friday, saturday. overfight lows in the 30s. daytime highs in the 40s. a lot going on here. that is a look at the weather. it is now time for ask the weather guys, the segment where tucker barnes and i put our heads together to answer your most pressing questions weather- related or otherwise. tucker is off today so i'll hand it would. today's question comes from deanna simk i want n. she writes why do americans commonly say merry christmas as opposed to happy christmas as the english do. she find it strange since we put happy with so many other greeting like happy birthday, happy thanksgiving, happy easter. >> why not happy christmas? >> this is one of those questions that i love because, when i looked into it, i learned a lot too. i did not know the answer to

this question and it is fascinating. >> well, please share. >> i will. you were right that here in the u.s., merry christmas is more common and we are -- it is the real sole exception to the happy rule as you pointed out. here-- the u.s. i should say prefers merry christmas. gwen, what do they say in canada dism. >> they say happy christmas but in quebec where i'm from, they say joyeux noel. >> it has come to mean joyous or jolly in relation to christmas. the phrase merry christmas and a happy knew year is thought to

have first and in a letter written by an english admiral in 1699. >> you along time. >> the phrase and in the first ever christmas card, the first ever christmas card produced in england in 1843 said merry christmas and happy new year. >> so it is like 150 years. >> it took 1 other years to catch on. someone writes it in a letter, it is very odd for something to catch o in the same year, 1843, the phrase merry christmas figured prominently in charles dickens' a christmas carol. you remember, somebody said miry christmas and he says i wish everyone who said that would be boiled in their own pudding and after he is a changed man, he is saying merry christmas to everybody. that story popularized that

term. now, you wonder, well, charles dickens, he is in england. why didn't it catch on in england? because in england, the word merry also means tipsy or drunk. and the thinking is that has prevented it from catching on. >> was that dickens true manying? >> well. >> they didn't get around to asking him. >> merry also there means tipsy or drunk. now, one final note, some people point to the clement moore poem, the night before christmas as having originated the phrase merry christmas because that was published before a christmas carol and many people refer to the final line, merry christmas to all and to all a good night. however, moore wrote the line as happy christmas to all and to all a good night. it has been changed to merry

christmas in many published versions due to the popularity of merry christmas in america. >> wow! >> i don't think he would be happy with that change. >> isn't that cool? i want to say when we do these, we go to all kind of sources. the best source for this one was wikipedia. i don't generally use wikipedia as a super reliable source buttic peed i can't has a great explanation for that and so if you want to look up more, that is a good place to do it. >> i like that. >> merry christmas, happy christmas. thank you for the question. >> in england, merry christmas would be good for the corporate christmas parties. >> how was jane's christmas? she had a merry christmas if you know what i mean. this is john lennon and yoko ono. >> happy christmas. >> he's english. you didn't know that. go to myfoxdc.com and click on the weather tab to ask a question. >> let's check in with julie

wright and get a look at traffic. >> we find the crew in sky fox over the beltway. it is very much a she go as expected at this hour as you travel from 59 college park head west into silver spring. again, it is bumper-to-bumper traffic slow. no incidents to report in your way. sky fox is checking out a couple of police officers we saw traveling westbound 495 on the outer loop but so far, nothing has popped up to cause the delay. it is dealing a combination of wet pavement and volume. as you can see, traffic is flowing before traffic merges on from i-95 to continue westbound. that is the ramp coming in from beltsville. in virginia, we -- behind me, van dorn street remains heavy, slow and steady. that's a check of your fox 5

on-timetraffic. ffic. here is an affordable way to knock one thing off your to do list. today's my fox half off deal is from spotless dry clean.com. $10 buys you $20 in dry cleaning services. to get in on this one, go to myfoxdc.com, look for my fox half off on the right side of the opinion. from flags to first ladies, there is always something really cool to see at the national museum of american history. >> we are taking you behind scene of some new exhibits. that is when fox 5 morning news continues. stay with us. h

good morning, everybody. i'm annie yu filling in for holly morris. you know, one of the best things about living in the nation's capital is that there's never a shortage of events and history in our area.

and we are live at the american history museum this tuesday morning where we're getting a sneak peek to a couple exints that are new and a program -- exhibiting that are new and a couple of programs you and your family can enjoy. you can me mary picklessill who sew and who sewn the huge imairson flag. there are exhibits you can come out and enjoy. we're going to be speaking with curators later this morning about how you can come out. this is all really interesting and interactive fun, but the best part it is all free and right here in our back yard. back to you, sarah. >> annie, thank you so much. time to say good morning to our facebook fan of the day. it is ron matthews, sr. today. congratulations, ron. he and his mom, i'm assuming that's your lovely mother, they are big fans of the show and watch every morning. we thank you, ron and your

mother for watching fox 5 morning news. find us on facebook by searching fox 5 morning news and post a comment under ron's photo. that does it for the 6:00 hour. let's send it over to allison who is joining steve. good morning. >> good morning, sarah, thank you so much. coming up on fox 5 morning news on a tuesday, it is sentencing day for jack johnson. it took an undercover investigation and an fbi raid to bring the former prince george's county executive down in a widespread corruption scandal. now he faces years behind bars. a live report is straight ahead. another protest planned today in the district. this time demonstrators will descend on the u.s. capitol building. we'll tell you what they hope to accomplish with today's march. plus: >> how can you fight tooth and nail to protect high end tax breaks for the wealthiest americans. >> a bitter debate over the payroll tax extension. now president obama is trying to pick up the pieces. the fox 5 morning news at 7:00

starts right now. 7:00 right now on this tuesday morning. there's the national cathedral as we take a look down toward the potomac river courtesy of tower cam this morning. tuesday, december 6th. good morning, i'm steve schenectady. >> let's check in with tony perkins and get a look at our forecast. mild out there. at least the temperatures. >> yes, it is. mild temperatures make for pleasant-feeling conditions out there, however, we do have some rain showers here and there across portions of the viewing area. good morning, everybody. let's take a look at sentinel radar and see what's happening as we do have a few showers here and there. you can see primarily up to the north is where the shower activity is now, some rain along 270, up towards baltimore, places like that and also out to the west. and we'll see some more rain showers move through here during the course of the day. current temperature, interesting, we apparently have just jumped up to 58 degrees. 58 degrees right now here in washington, 60 in baltimoe.