you'll deal with rain in most areas. if you're on the southeast side of the beltway keep in mind we have that longterm construction project going on through curtis bay, inner loop closed, outer loop, two-way traffic pattern. probably a little slow especially this morning. a live look at i-95 at maryland 175, those of you driving northbound from the laurel region, northbound lanes clear all the way through arbutus to 695. we're on the top side of 695 here at harford road, outer loop and inner loop, through parkton and of course at the outer loop. as you continue past providence road. remember, follow us on twitter at maryland traffic. back to you. first day of the 2012 legislative session kicked off and already a hot button issue for debate, talk of another sales tax increase and what it could mean for you. abc2 news sherrie johnson has details. >> reporter: lawmakers will be back at work today for the 2012 legislative session. looking at the budget and taxation as well as the number

of bill hearings. but yesterday governor martin o'malley suggested 7 cents on the dollar could be a way to tackle the state's budget problems. the plan is to cut the state's multimillion-dollar deficit. the governor says the money could be used to pay for programs and borrow more for road projects. the maryland sales tax went from 5 cents to 6 scents after a special session in 2007. the governor told a radio host that helped the state through the great depression. there's been talk of an increase in the state's gas tax, a move also opposed by republicans. some say the governor's idea of a sales tax increase might be an attempt to provide political cover for the gas tax. >> this whole notion of raising the state sales tax to 7% is really catching a lot of people offguard today. i don't know if it's a serious discussion or not. >> no one lost their home. no one lost a business. because of that one

penny. >> reporter: a 7% raise would give maryland the second highest sales tax in the country along with five other states, california's the highest at 8.25%. sherrie johnson, abc2 news. other changes coming, this time to amtrak, after record ridership in 2011. the company plans to add 70 new electric trains. amtrak will offer eticketting for all trains in the next year. improvements and upgrades to be maid to the tracks. the amtrak president says it's critical for enhancing the passenger experience. a new budget to raise metro fares. the general manager plans to present the bill to the board today. it will include buses and parking. a program hoping to expand in baltimore. a public health campaign to cut

gun violence through mediation and community outreach. it's called the safe streets program. a request for a proposal was approved by the board of estimates yesterday. it's received $2.2 million in funding so far from the department of justice. it -- it could help neighborhoods promote nonviolence. in a new study the program was effective in the past several years. would you believe this is a toy gun? it is. police in westminster arrested two people -- three people for pointing it at a car driver on route 97 wednesday. police say the victim says the passenger in that car rolled down the window and pointed this rifle at her in sykesville. todd gory has been charged with assault. they are also charging a 17-year-old in this case. police in montgomery county need your help to catch a burglar caught on tape. you see it taking place here thanks to the homeowners'

surveillance system. the man walks up to the front door and just kicks it in. police say it happened just before noon on december 19th. the home is in silver spring if you recognize this man call police immediately. there's a reward for any information. this morning police are looking for one of two suspects accused of breaking into a home in bethesda and assaulting the housekeeper. corrine redmond has details. >> reporter: police believe one of the suspects caught on camera not long after the crime and this morning police and neighborhoods who live in the community hope someone recognizes him. look at the picture. police believe this is one of two suspects who are suspected of entering the home during a home invasion and robbery and assault. it all began at a home off cedar lane in bethesda. seconds after the housekeeper arrived for work. she answered a knock at the door and then masked gunmen entered, one forced his way in, the other waited outside. the man then tied up the

housekeeper, homeowner and her teenaged son. the intruders left after 45 minutes in the house. >> it's disturbing. it hasn't happened before. we would like to think this is going to be the last of it. >> reporter: investigators say the robbers stole the housekeepers's gray ford expedition. the housekeeper was transported to a local hospital for treatment. so far there's no word on her condition this morning. corrine redmond, abc2 news. you may not always see it but new research suggests stress levels for many of us dropped. coming up, there's still cause for concern. some say yes so we'll have the details coming up. also, why wine producers in minnesota hope that state will get cold weather very soon. you're watching "good morning maryland." that's a live look at the nation's capital. justin is watching our weather. angela has the commute. ♪

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newstime 5:08. welcome back. we've been following breaking news overnight. out of north carolina where strong winds rip apart homes in the western part of that state. several people were trapped in the rubble. at least 10 reported injured. the national weather service is working now and will continue to work throughout this thursday to confirm whether or not that was a tornado. on a much lighter note, wine makers in minnesota are hoping for colder weather as they are missing out on winter favorites. ice wine. the sweet dessert wine is made with grapes freezing on the vine. the state is not getting frigid temperatures now so the grapes are not freezing. ice wine is primarily made in canada and germany where cold temperatures are much easier tole -- come by. i'll tell you where you can get ice wine, cordova alaska. >> that's a town no one knew about until two days ago. now some of us are just dreaming. i wanted to talk about a school i went to visit last fall with wind for change

program. the top fundraisers, we'll have a pizza party today. today we'll be in the essex/dundalk area at our lady of mount carmel. very excited about that visit and we'll have more to talk about tomorrow. this morning, 49 baltimore, 54 easton. warm temperatures this morning and how about this rainfall. wanted to use maryland's most powerful doppler radar, baltimore, heavy stuff about to come back. whitemarsh heading to joppatowne, looks like more behind it, heavy rain at the toll plaza and bay bridge. we're watching this band and then a break with this band of snow. that is the arctic boundary and looks like it may hold together to give us maybe a quick inch and some issues tomorrow morning. temperatures today, upper 50s to near 60. the rain will end in the next couple of hours. 5:10. it's rough outside now. here's angela with the latest. >> thank you very much. you are correct, it's rough now. we're getting reports of fog

warnings on the bay bridge and at this police now working to clear a collision, on west north avenue near park avenue. be prepared for a brief slowdown there. live look at some of the cameras, we're on 29 at maryland 108, still good to go coming from i-70 southbound on 29. no reported incidents there. here's a live look at u.s. 50 just east of the bay bridge at maryland route 8, again, there are fog warnings at the chesapeake bay bridge. as you continue on 50, still moving well despite the issues this morning. this is 50 at sandy point. back to you. if you have an electronic meter reader in your home or business, chances are it's probably not working correctly. coming up, a spokesman from the public works department will be here to talk about the changes being made to make sure you're being billed correctly. and joran van der sloot says he's guilty of murder. the confession he made coming up. as we head to break, we want to show you a great picture,

george draper showing how he's feeling the purple passion. the playoff game four days away. show us your purple pride. morningshow@wmar.com. we'll be right back.

welcome back on this thursday morning. most of us have water meters in our home or even in our businesses. they were installed nearly 40 years ago and many stopped working leaving customers with estimated bills. this morning, curt cokier with public works with here with the new way customers can now keep track of their meters. we're talking 40 years ago. this is pre-personal computer. >> yes. most people have the water meters outside -- inside walk. but there's 12,000 or so customers who have what is an old meter called in the home. it was state of the art at the time. the idea was this will be wired to a little box, the size of a doorbell on the outside of your home. >> this is old school. we've all seen this.

>> if you have it in your home -- that's not the most common meter but it's common in these 12,000 homes. that was wired to this little box and read by a meter reader who would hold this up to the box and would give you a printout, a reader. state of the art 40 years ago. over the years these things have become disconnected, all sorts of problems. so people are getting estimated bills in the 12,000 homes. what we're doing is we're taking and replacing those with meters outside of homes right now and that's going to take about a year and-a-half to do that. >> we've had several stories at abc2 during the past couple of months about people who get these exorbitant water bills. is this show playing into that? ---- somehow playing into that? >> to a certain contribute some of those are contributing. we've sent out these cards, these are going to the 12,000 homes where people can fill in

the numbers because we don't go inside and read this. or they can call them us the information or e-mail the information and we'll give them an accurate read. we've been estimating bills in the 12,000 homes. if you have one person in the home, then changes to four or changes to eight and goes back to two, still the same estimated bill essentially because we don't get a real read off those. >> this process is going to be a three to five-year timetable? >> to replace -- to put these meters in the ground, going to be next year sometime. then over three to five years, there's been an attachment of some sort looks like that will go on these and we'll send an automatic feed to our billing which -- we have a brand new billing situation and people will most likely be able to look on smartphones and computers and say, oh, i'm use dhg much water at this time. or, there's something wrong here, a leak.

until then that's state of the art. >> where to go. >> baltimorecity.gov. >> thank you we'll hear more at 6:00 on what is going on. baltimorecity.gov. it will also be on our web site, abc2news.com. time to check the weather with justin. >> i'm trying to get in touch -- a lot of people up to talk about the heavy rain. 48 in baltimore. 54 in ocean city. a little cooling in the mountains. we'll wind up with a warm day as this storm system is cranking up and pulling in warm air behind it. this is the last gasp, if you say with us the last couple of minutes we'll do another tour of maryland's most powerful doppler radar, to show you where it is hitting hardest. we're watching the heavy stuff go up 95, really bad stuff around philadelphia, cherry hill, new jersey, up towards trenton, pushing the new york

metro area and heavy rain continues up 95, new york and southern new england for the morning hour duration. we'll get morning sun and clouds then return. look at this, connecticut going from heavy rain, snow in massachusetts and snow in new england. they are going to have a snow at the ski resorts going to rain and back to snow. why? there's another system behind this. while we're watching this low pressure slide through look at that arctic boundary. this is a sign of the upper level winds really catching in and wrapping in behind this system. there will be enough moisture i believe behind this that will catch up with the cold air and that reaches us tomorrow. check out our future trend. we get this stuff out of here and we get sun and return of clouds later. looking for showers to return this evening and overnight. rain-to-snow. this model indicates rain but i do believe snow will be pushing through. could be a quick inch tomorrow morning. could be slick problems in spots. hard to truly identify where at this time but it's much colder

this weekend. a break of sun after the morning rain and then clouds return. 31 tonight, maybe a quick burst of snow, extended forecast i have to get out quickly. we drop with temperatures, maybe 42 tomorrow. we'll go to the 30s over the weekend, still a chance of flurries or snow showers on sunday. good morning. on our roadways now we've got rain but despite that our major roads are moving pretty well. state highway officials just removed a disabled vehicle vehicle on 895 southbound, 895 now moving without delays through the tunnels. on i-95 still looking pretty good at maryland 175 through howard county all the way to baltimore county, lanes are open and no incidents to report. a check on the drive on i-97 now, also in pretty good shape even with the wet roadways, this is 97 at maryland 100, no troubles to report from anne arundel county police. health news -- it's certainly no secret, we're all aging and ultimately we

have the same fate, you know, death, taxes, all that. but a new report shows the ways in which people are dying, that's hats changing. the government released a 2010 list of the 15 most common causes of death. two big trends, murders are down and certain age-related conditions are on the rise like death from choking. heart disease and cancer remain the top two killers. they account for half the deaths in the u.s., however, there are fewer cases of people dying from stroke, chronic respiratory diseases and the flu. 5:21. between work and kids, the house and daily life things can certainly be stressful but a new study shows overall americans are less stressed than they were five years ago. the american psychological association's annual stress in america survey shows money, work and the economy remain americans' biggest stressors. isn't that also the basis behind the presidential campaigns? yes. it's also emerging concern that stress, taking care of parents as the younger are taking care

of parents as they get older >> in addition to the physical commands of care giving there's also the emotional toll and grieving and sorrow you may have for that person's condition. >> the study also shows women stress more than men but the interesting part is men are more likely to develop stress-related eu8nesss. newstime 5:22. in 10 minutes we're going to have a brand new story about sleep apnea and women. experts look at how to prevent sleep apnea and the best remedies for getting a good night's rest. that story 10 minutes away. a shooting in germany in a courtroom leaves one dead. coming up, how that shooter was able to get a loaded gun in a courtroom. he died of a heart attack on december 17th but what has north korea finally decided to do with kim jong il's body? details coming up when "good morning maryland" continues.

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welcome back. the late leader kim jong il's body will be permanently on display. he will lay in state in the palace in the capital permanently. portraits will be set up and the "power of his immortality" will also be built. he died of a heart attack in december. his son has since taken over. witnesses say joran van der sloot looked somber as he pleaded guilty to murder and robbery on wednesday. at one point he even said "i'm sorry for what happened." prosecutors say joran van der sloot severely beat 21-year-old stephany flores and strangled her. the murder was may 30, 2010. five years to the day after the disappearance of american teen natalee holloway. his attorney says the night of flores' murder he was suffering from ptsd from being unjustifiably targeted as the suspect in holloway's disappearance and grieving over the death of his father. >> he was pointed at and

persecuted, the world had been against him for five years before this case for a murder he said he never committed and for which there's no evidence whatsoever. >> the three-judge panel in peru now has two days to weigh the evidence before deciding on a sentence for joran van der sloot. in germany yesterday a state prosecutor was shot and killed by a defendant in the middle of a courtroom. the judge was reading his sentence when the 54-year-old man pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot the judge. he missed and in turn fired three shots at the prosecutor before two witnesses in the courtroom restrained him. the security guard wasn't on duty and there are no surveillance cameras. the judge was going to sentence the defendant to one year in a suspended sentence. in a shocking statement in downtown baltimore yesterday, the latest on a man stuck under a subway train. the new batman movie, doesn't come out until july but if you want tickets today you may be able to get them. we'll tell you where and how, when "good morning maryland" continues. on this thursday.

january 12th. that is a live look, nowhere near here. that is moscow. ó