sending him airborne. fortunately no one was hurt in the crash, but the driver broke his leg by jumping off the roof. >> when i was on my way out here, my officers told me they thought santa was driving the car, but i realize that was just a joke. >> it looked like a miracle. it could have been 10 times way worse, a bunch of apartments here. the car flow over. i don't know how it landed so perfect on the roof. it was a miracle, i guess. >> stolen and the drive wanted for making terroristic threats and theft. we'll have more on the news in a few seconds. brian bolter will have the very latest on the news edge at 11:00. of course, we'll continue our coverage of the latest in the breaking news in the harry thomas case coming up in a few seconds here on fox 5. we are continuing to follow breaking news. harry thomas, jr. no longer on d.c. city council. thomas resigned from his seat late tonight effective immediately, comes hours after

the federal government slapped him with felony charges and it doesn't end there. tomorrow morning thomas is expected to appear to plead guilty to stealing more than 350 grand in government funds. the news edge has complete coverage tonight. fox 5's roz plater is getting reaction from thomas' constituents. we'll begin with the latest developments, though, from bob barnard now. >> though expected it's stunning nonetheless. never before has a member of the d.c. city council been forced to resign. harry thomas, jr. tonight has done just that. reporter: he is now a former d.c. council member. his ward 5 seat now up for grabs in a special election that must be held in the next 114 days. in his statement released around 8:30 tonight thomas writes, "tomorrow morning i will plead guilty to committing two federal crimes. i am resigning my position as a member of the council effective immediately. i made some very serious

mistakes and exhibited inadequate and flawed judgment. i take full responsibility for my actions. i am truly sorry." the feds say thomas stole $350,000 in federal grant moneys from the city and failed to report the income on his tax returns. d.c. council chairman kwame brown appeared on our newscast an hour ago. >> i'm disappointed, very hurt. i've known him for a long time and what he did was wrong. it was absolutely wrong, unacceptable and he has now taken responsibility by saying that what he did was wrong and that he did actually do it and it's time for the healing process to begin. reporter: one former u.s. attorney for the district of columbia says a prison sentence is likely to be part of the plea deal. >> i think it has to be. i think he has to do the a least a couple years. this -- do at least a couple years. this is a very substantial amount of money stolen from the city's youth program converted

into automobiles and motorcycles. this is pretty disgraceful conduct for a member of the district council and i think definitely even though he does not have a criminal record, a federal judge is going to give him prison time because of the amount of money involved. reporter: in his statement tonight harry thomas said i want to apologize to those i let down including my constituents, neighbors and friends in ward 5, the residents of this great city, the mayor, my fellow council members and the government officials that serve our city tirelessly. >> the expression that we use nowadays you should man up and if he's done these things, he's not a bad person, but he did these bad things. so he should have confronted them and acknowledged them and accepted the consequences for them. now he will. >> again harry thomas, jr. is expected to appear before a federal judge just after 11:00 tomorrow morning. he will plead guilty to two felonies and may end up serving time in prison.

>> we sent fox 5's roz plater out to ward 5 to get reaction. what are people saying out there? reporter: well, we came to the brooklyn cafe in ward 5 where the councilman's legal troubles and resignation tonight were all the buzz. we found two things, a sadness over what could have been and some relief he is finally doing the right thing. >> i think he's doing the right thing. i think he should have done it sooner versus letting it come to this, especially for his family, but i think he's doing the right thing for himself, his family and for all of us who live in this ward. >> i'm disappointed that he was not able to represent the ward in the manner in which it deserves to be represented and he's not able to continue his term. >> this is not the time to crucify him, to be thankful for the contributions he's made and

to support him and his family. >> i'm disappointed because i knew his father. so to me it's like putting a blemish on something that was so good and he was going in that direction, but i guess he just got caught up in what i he got caught up in. >> of. reporter: he still had some support in this ward, people talking about a number of redevelopment projects he was able to steer here. a lot of concern now in this ward about who comes next. >> we're continuing to follow the breaking story on www.myfoxdc.com. you can find the latest updates, court documents and thomas' entire statement from tonight. we'll have live coverage of his court appearance tomorrow morning. new tonight arrests in a brutal crime, an elderly man attacked and robbed in his charles county home by his own neighbors. fox 5's maureen umeh in the newsroom with details. >> the 77-year-old victim had employed the suspects to help him around the house never suspecting they would turn on

him in such a violent way. >> that's awful. i mean i can't imagine anyone that would do something like that to an elderly. reporter: it's a crime that has neighbors in the bryans road community in mayors county furious. >> that's beyond -- charles county furious. >> that's beyoing a 77- year-old man like that. reporter: their neighbor savagely beaten with a baseball bat in his home and robbed less than a week before christmas. the suspects? his neighbors, 19-year-old arthur lancaster and his friend, 17-year-old christopher manning. >> to see a neighbor hurting a neighbor like that, especially somebody who was entrusting somebody else and then turning on them is just -- don't have words to describe it really. it's very upsetting. reporter: charles county police say lancaster and manning when worked for the victim in the past and thought he may have had money. on the night of december 19th

police say the suspects believing no one was home put on masks and broke in through a rear sliding glass door with a baseball bat. they say the victim confronted them and when he grabbed a phone to call police, the suspects hit him multiple times with the bat, then ran away. >> i thought a pretty safe neighborhood. this type of stuff doesn't happen. to hear that happening in the neighborhood is very disturbing, you know, and very upsetting. reporter: police say the suspects were caught after lancaster came back to the crime scene to ask what happened. they say he was wearing bloody clothes and made several comments suggesting he was involved in the crime. neighbors are angry about the attack and glad the suspects have been caught so they can't hurt anyone else. >> that's a relief, you know, being that they were caught. so i'm just shocked. reporter: even more tragically the victim lost his wife while he was in the hospital. he is at home recuperating. the suspects are in the charles

county detention center charged with this crime. a grandmother convicted of murdering her granddaughter at tysons corner. we'll fine out her punishment tomorrow. carmen della rose a is due in court in the morning -- dela rosa is due in court tomorrow morning. she threw her 2-year-old granddaughter over the railing. she's expected to get 35 years in prison. a new defense strategy unveiled by the president. laura evans everywhere at 11:00. >> looking beyond the wars he inherited president barack obama launched a reshaping and shrinking of the military. he vowed to maintain the strength and superiority of the army and marine corps despite moving toward a leaner military and possibly a fewer number of nuclear weapons. did the white house say too much? the house homeland security committee is now looking into whether the obama administration divulged too many details to hollywood filmmakers about the secret raid on osama bin laden's

compound in pakistan. new york congressman peter king is concerned about the entertainment industry's access to the most classified mission in history. he said actions will be taken. hockey fans attacked outside a philly landmark after the flyers/rangers game monday. officers say three flyer fans bribed a carwashing car windows to squirt water on two rangers fans. then came the fight. one of the rangers fans was beaten so badly he ended up in the hospital. turns out he's a cop. changes being made to the massive road project in virginia, the beltway's hot lane getting a new name, details next. have you heard about the latest diet craze getting a thumbs up from health experts? we're going to break down the dash diet. check out some of the other stories on the rundown. the news edge will be back in a few. >> this is fox 5 news edge at 11:00. 

the latest diet craze has been around for years, but now its popularity is taking off. u.s. news and world report just named it best overall diet. the feds and other health experts claim it's safe and it works. fox's jody ambrose breaks down the dash diet. reporter: diet fads often run

their course after a few months. >> i tried several over the years of. reporter: and hardly ever live up to the hype. >> people look for the short term, the quick weight loss. >> it really shouldn't be a diet. it needs to be a lifestyle change. reporter: the dash diet may be right on track. dash stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension. now it tops the list as best overall diet by u.s. news and world report. >> there's a lot of pressure on these dash diet participants to focus their eating habits around fresh produce and fresh and not preserved meats of. reporter: lifetime fitness dietician paul kriegler says dash is best known for helping treat high blood pressure and has been endorsed by the department of health and human services. >> we encourage people to eat mostly whole foods whenever possible. reporter: the whole foods approach helped dash get good

reviews. the dieticians say it's still not right for everyone. >> one place we may differ is we encourage people to get an ample amount of dietary fat, especially from natural sources like olives and avocados and nuts and seeds and even egg yolk. reporter: u.s. news ranked weight watchers as another top choice for easiest diet to follow. you don't have to go far to find fans. >> it's the structure that i need, kind of what you can eat, how much you can eat per day, has a little flexibility to it. reporter: finding a plan to fit in your life can be an uphill battle, but dieters say the payoff is priceless. >> i would just say just educate yourself on nutrition and don't with our about the fad diet. do what works for you. the stores were hopping this holiday season, but that's always translating into a profit, plus a new name for the beltway's hot lane. shawn yancy has your fox 5 top

five. >> the grinch was alive and well this holiday. ask the retailers of no. 5, despite all the shoppers holiday profits were down from this time last year. shoppers who waited till the last minute found the best deals and stores like macy's, nordstrum's and t.j. maxx fared well, but target, kohl's and j.c. penney's did not. no. 4, you have a chevy volt, take it to the dealer for safety repairs. in recent crash tests the electric car's batteries caught fire. gm will add steel around the batteries. no fires have been reported after road crashes. no. 3, not a fan of the new facebook timeline look? once you convert there's no going back. so don't fall for any scams promising to return you to the old facebook. tech experts say ignore websites prompting to reverse timeline. they are bowing -- promising to reverse time line. they are bogus. no. works now the holidays are over, get ready for another weekend of trackwork and delays

on metro. friday night at 10 p.m. through closing sunday night expect delays on parts of the red, blue, orange and green line. no. 1, the h.o.t. lanes under construction on the beltway won't be so hot. we've learned the high occupancy toll lanes will be called express lanes. the operators are rolling out a brand-new media campaign next week to prevent any confusion. the express lanes are set to open at the end of this year. brian, back to you. >> a nice warm-up in store as we head into the weekend. >> two days down seems to be all the washington area can tolerate. 34 degrees yesterday and right back to 50 today and even that's not good enough. how about 55, some places pushing 60 degrees on friday? friday looks delightful and plenty of sunshine to boot. don't get me wrong, folks, it's going to start on a cold note. overnight temperatures are back

in the 20s. that's how we're going to roll this week even with the warmer daytime temperatures. these are the highs today, 50 degrees here, rochester and boston warned up quite a bit and out west we find the st. louis temperature gives us an indication what's coming our direction, 66 degrees there today. don't think we'll get that warm, but we'll come really close to 60 degrees in some of our southern and western suburbs. it's warm all across the nation. 83 degrees today in los angeles and phoenix 77. we've been talking about some record heat in the west, but here it's a typical january night. we have already dropped to 25 degrees in some spots. i don't know it's going to get a lot colder, but it's down to near freezing and below in many spots. we'll get there in the district. we're 36 degrees now, baltimore down to 29. definitely on the cold side. as we look to our west, check out chicago at 11:00, 45 degrees, detroit 38. you can definitely see that warmer air will move in our direction and you will feel it

tomorrow, but we get to some upper 20s tonight, maybe mid- 20s. weir down there in a few spots. -- we're down there in a few spots, alexandria 31. we've had some high thin clouds come through. this won't do too much to warm us up during the night, but no precipitation. in fact, i think we go all day tomorrow, saturday, most of sunday without seeing anything in the way of moisture. we'll be watching down south because it looks like late sun moisture will gather aren't gulf of mexico and move in our direction late in the weekend, but primarily holding off it looks like until monday morning. we are warming up. here comes the push of warm air taking the last of the arctic air. it wasn't really arctic either, out of here even though it felt like it. the cool front move to lose saturday, but before that we'll have temperatures in the 50s tomorrow as well as saturday. late saturday after this swings through it will drop temperatures sunday into the upper 40s and stay there for

monday, but even at that we're still above normal the next four days. chilly tonight, 20s in the suburbs, 32 degrees in the district, back to 55 or 56 degrees tomorrow, again some spots south and west not surprised to see it getting close to 60 degrees. you will notice a breeze pout of the southwest tomorrow, a warm direction. 36 degrees attester clock in the morning, by noon mostly sunny -- at 8:00 in the morning, by noon mostly sunny, 51 and by 5:00 our temperature 50 degrees. we head into tomorrow looking for a warm-up as early as the noon hour, alexandria 55, leonard town 57, fredericksburg 59 degrees. we're in great shape heading into january. showers are possible. we'll see the clouds from the next system late sunday, looks like they'll hold off till monday morning. we will watch the timing on that. we want to make sure it doesn't come in in the overnight hours where we may see a little

mixing, doesn't look like that's going to happen and tuesday we are back up to 50. our fun january continues. that is weather, but we've got some wizards highlights for you. you don't have to wait for them, sports right now. >> this is your local nissan dealer sports desk in hd with dave feldman. >> the wizards are 0-6, worst start in franchise history. the only winless team in the national basketball association. today a players only team meeting where among other things they discuss turkey and tough love. coach flip saunders and team president ernie grunfeld are looking for ans. so nash there are none. point guard and leader john -- answers. so far there are none. point guard and leader john wall has become increasingly frustrated. he called out flip saunders after the first game. clearly issues inside the verizon center and while the meeting today might not have been scheduled with the players, it was necessary.

>> everyone has a part here. the sense of entitlement that's here sometimes is -- i've never seen before. >> we all had a good talk and said our piece. hopefully all the guys took it in and didn't take it to be sensitive or two them or something they didn't want to hear because everything said in here today is something that needed to be said and needs to be done. >> one player who may help the wizards tomorrow night against the knicks is rookie john wesley. the team's first round pick missed all six games in the regular season. he's got a hip scenario, but did he participate in the three- on-three drills today and he believes his closer to making his nba debut. >> i'm not sure that i am the guy that can make some pa miracles.

so i just want -- some mirror condemns. sigh just want to start -- miracles. so i just want to start playing and feel good. i hope i can help the team and will do my best to play hard and put everything on the court. george mason visiting old dominion, brian allen drives in and banks in the tough two, got fouled, scored 10 of his 14 in the 2nd half. george mason wins 63-54 and improve to 3-0 in the caa. still ahead lorenzo alexander in line for a big time award. plus the all american game featuring some local stars tonight and one of them announced he's going to play close to home. we'll tell you after the break.

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welcome back. the redskins announced today linebacker lorenzo alexander has been selected as the team's 2011 walter payton nfl man of the year. this is alexander's second consecutive selection for the team award. it's the only league award that recognizes players off the field community service as well as playing excellent. so way to go, one man gang 97. former bucs head coach raheem morris as talked to the redskins about an assistant coaching position. i worked with kyle shanahan in 2000 -- he worked with kyle shanahan in mid-2000.

d.c.'s eddie coleman from the d.c. academy started a tackle on the black squad, but potomac high school ronald darby came up with a nice pass break. he's going to notre dame in the fall and good second team wes brown announced he's going to maryland next season. congratulations to all the athletes brown and white team, winners tonight 49 -16. i'm dave feldman. brian is back with more right after this. 

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if the last two days have been too cold for you, have i got a feast for your cold eyes. look at tomorrow, 56 degrees, staying above normal till monday, brian. >> now you have the news edge. news is always on www.myfoxdc.com. pp@@ ÷ñpxúú