close an mitt romney has taken massachusetts, vermont, and virginia. rick santorum won oklahoma, north dakota, and tennessee. >> it has been a very interesting night, watching all the returns come in. ohio, which is still too close call, the last ice all only about 3000 votes separating them. it is certainly the big prize tonight and that is where mitt romney and santorum are battling it out, head to head. >> roughly 700,000 votes cast, and only about 2200 votes separate the two candidates. obviously too close to call. the county's debt remain are said to be treated the counties that remain, we can now give you more background perspective on super tuesday. kate amara is in the newsroom with a look at the race from a slightly different angle.

>> there are a lot of states that come after these 10 super tuesday states. a lot of them want to know, will we matter? we can tell you from the returns a we have seen that this race clearly is not over today. even if one of these candidates has managed to collect all the delegates at stake today, it is still just one-third of the delegates needed to clinch the republican presidential nomination. when the dust finally settled on super tuesday, the national rate could remain too close to call. if mitt romney and rick santorum continue to do get out for the title of front runner, that is where maryland comes into play, according to political science major herb smith. >> it is still very close race. >> maryland's primary election is tuesday, april 3.

>> the maryland secretary of state determines who are the unviable presidential candidates at a given point in time. >> in 2008, maryland, virginia, and d.c. joined forces for a potomac primary. call last may, governor martin o'malley signed a bill moving our state primary back to april, and this time around, it is winner-take-all. >> with 37 delegates at play for the state of maryland, that could be important in a very tightly contested primary process. >> some other key numbers, tuesday, march 13, the deadline to register and to vote or change your party affiliation, and 46, the number of early voting centers statewide. marylanders can begin casting ballots for march 24 through

march 29. if you will be 18 years old by the time of the general election in of all, you can vote in the primary this year. kate amara, wbal-tv 11 news. >> something everybody is thinking about, what kind of role is maryland going to play, looking at tonight's returns? when is it going to play a role in the overall contest? >> the answer to they would have been if the results are modeled, analysts say that marylanders will actually play a very important role down the road. clearly, mitt romney cannot law is up tonight. even if he went -- he cannot lock this up tonight. maryland, with its 37 delegates, are very important in the ultimate delegate count. more than four hundred

delegates were doled out today, but you need more than 1100 delegates to clinch the nomination. >> steve handelsman has been in columbus, ohio week with the night's commitment 2012 report. a lot of people wonder what this means for mitt romney. he is winning delegates, but he is not winning steak. >> no president has won the election without winning the state of ohio, so that says something it well. >> all of the counties that have not been counted belong to romney, but the question is, until each and every vote is counted, you cannot say for sure, and the networks don't want to project that it will come in as a romney count because the boat is just too close to call. >> ohio, as we said, is still

too close to call. many republicans agree that super tuesday will not determine the candidate, but it will deliver a punch. >> a big loss today when it comes to wall street. the dow fell 200 points, the biggest loss in more than three months. it finished at 12,759. the s&p 500 fell 21. and the nasdaq composite index lost 40 points. the doomsday budget on the table in the state senate, the measure proposes nearly $800 million in cuts. it is considered an alternative to the governor's plan that relies on tax hikes and fee increases. the house committee heard testimony today on a bill to extend the sales tax to some 30 different services including

gym memberships and even car repairs. >> this would increase the cost of repairs and cover towing services. that would have the impact of increasing the cost of ottawa insurance for every driver in maryland. >> aaa members sent legislators 27,000 e-mails are urging them to kill the bill. a grieving family is questioning whether a police officer help cover up a young girl's death. >> baltimore city police suspended an officer today for his conduct in the wake up monae turnage's death. police said she was killed in an accidental shooting monday night. >> the families. is just exploding as the story continues to develop -- in the family's fury is just exploding as the story continues to develop.

police are investigating the conduct of one of their own in the hours after she died. >> i cannot think right now. >> edith turnage is having trouble processing her daughter's death. the family last saw monae turnage on saturday when she left to go skating with dick -- with friends. the next day, her brother found her body in an alley covered with trash bags near their home. they were told that she and her friends were playing with a 22- caliber replica rival when she was accidentally shot in the chest. >> with kind of suspected from the beginning that there was an adult involved. these kids are 12 and 13 years old. they would not have known what to do. somebody had to coach them and

tell them. now as we find out, they did. >> tuesday, baltimore city police suspended an officer for misconduct in the wake of the shooting. investigators said the officer was not there when she was shot, but sources say that the gun that killed her was found in his car. the circumstances of her death are compounding her family's grief. we asked a psychologist to address the biggest question, why the boys did not automatically call 911 when the gun went off. >> you really did not intend that consequence, so you try to remove yourself from the scene and do anything in your power to pretend like it did not happen. >> the adult who was, at the time of the shooting did not call 911. family believes they turned to an off-duty police officer instead. >> if you have a police officer covering up a crime and murder,

then something is wrong. >> police tell us the medical examiner conducted an autopsy on her body and determine that she could not have survived that gunshot wound to the chest, even if she had been rushed to hospital. however, her family says they are not taking anything in this investigation at face value. >> meanwhile, on the eastern shore, 04-year-old boy is dead in his mother injured after what appears to be an accidental shooting. according to state police, she woke up to find out she had been shot and then discovered that her son also had a gunshot wound to the chest. investigators found a gun in the bed and learn that the boy had previously been playing with his father's handgun, which it was kept in the bedroom. a new technology to inspect water mains debuted in baltimore today. >> the pipe diver is able to pinpoint ballgirl spots in a water main.

kai reed is live in southwest baltimore with more on the story. >> that tool was dropped into this water main earlier tonight. the hope is that it will prevent further water main breaks and save the city and customers a lot of money. you are watching what is called a pipe diver being inserted into a water main in southwest baltimore. it will cut locating gathered to date on problem areas that need to be repaired. >> we can go back later and perform data analysis and identify location and the amount of distress in these pipes. >> the technology is used on the type of concrete cylinder pipe that was manufactured in the 1970's and has a tendency to corrode and break. it is the same kind of pipe that broke in dundalk in 2009 and turn the area into a disaster zone, flooding roads, cars, and homes.

dozens of people lost everything in their basements. >> this is vital to the future of our water system, to make sure we essentially fix the damage that was done by a defective product. >> the main is the first in baltimore to get this special treatment, but the mall to redo the baltimore area has a lot of these vulnerable pipes -- the baltimore area has a lot of these vulnerable pipes. in most cases, customers will not even know the work is being done. >> being able to locate specific points along these water mains and repair those rather than the entire main saves millions of dollars for the city of baltimore. >> it will take 6-8 weeks for the data to be analyzed before the repairs or replacement can actually be done. this is not cheap.

the first project will cost a couple of million dollars. officials say customers have been paying for such infrastructure improvements on their water bills and lee for the past 12 years. kai reed, wbal-tv 11 news. >> we will be right back with the latest on the struggle to win in ohio. >> chilly temperatures again tonight, but a big warm up in the forecast. that is coming up next. mine was earned over the south pacific in 1943.

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on this super tuesday, ohio is still too close to call, and it is the biggest prize by far tonight. that is where romney and

santorum continued to battle it out. >> steve handelsman is in columbus, ohio with night's commitment 2012 report. >> celebrating victories in oklahoma and tennessee, sixth win since january, plus leading tonight in ohio. >> we have one in the west, the midwest, and the south, and we are ready to went across this country. >> santorum, a proud social conservative, can make a new claim of electability. >> we need a person running against president obama who is right on the issues and truthful with the american public. >> mitt romney had to talk up his uncontested win in virginia, vermont, and at home in massachusetts. >> i am not going to let you down. i am going to get this nomination. >> he had to wait to get the

all-important verdict from ohio. >> i stand ready to lead our party and our nation to prosperity. >> now he faces a fresh challenge from newt gingrich, who won his home state of georgia, heading into more southern primaries. >> i want you to know that in the morning we are going on to alabama. >> with ron paul hoping for delegates tonight, mitt romney is facing the old question, why can he not close the deal and end the race? rick santorum, a new question. can he sees solid front-runner standing? in a republican race sure to be dragged out because of the super tuesday split result. >> 437 delegates are up for grabs. yesterday, mitt romney lead rick santorum by almost 100 delegates. you can keep track of how it

stacks up state-by-state with our interactive map at wbaltv.com. >> families in the midwest and parts of the south are continuing to pick up through the splintered wood and twisted metal and in some cases snow after those killer twisters. a total of 40 people have been confirmed dead so far. as victims begin the recovery process, and indiana mother is sharing an incredible and dracula story of survival today. stephanie decker -- incredible story of survival today. she explains how she used a blanket and her body to shield her two young children in the family's basement. >> went like i had never seen before, and then the glass broke -- wind like had never seen before. as soon as the glass broke, the house started shifting. he was caught -- crying and screaming.

i took a blanket and pulled it over my children and tied it in knot. everything started hitting my back. beams, pillars, furniture, everything was just hitting my back. i had my children in the blanket and i was on top of them. i was reaching around holding them, and they were screaming, mommy, i don't want to die. please don't let me die. i said you are not going to die, we are going to make it. >> imagine that courage that mother had. her husband was at work at the time. doctors were unable to save her legs. she lost one leg above the knee and the other above the ankle, but she is grateful to be alive. >> now, your insta-weather forecast with chief meteorologist tom tasselmyer. >> temperatures today running a little bit below normal. beginning tomorrow afternoon and

into thursday, we expect temperatures to soar well above normal levels. a chilly atmosphere for couple of days. 48 degrees at the airport. the normal is 50. 47 at the inner harbor. 76 was the record high. the record amount of snow was 60 years ago when one of the worst nor'easters was pounding maryland, delaware, and west virginia. it lasted several days and left 3 feet of snow in some areas. 70 mile an hour winds at ocean city. it was $200 million in $1,962. that would be about $1.50 billion today. the city was under about 4 feet of water due to the high tide that came. the storm was rolling up the coast right at the time of the

new moon. heavy snow here 50 years ago today. now it is a very quiet weather seen in the middle atlantic tonight, antipater's are getting chilly. cambridge 37 -- and temperatures are getting chilly. tonight, oakland is at 41 degrees. that is a very decent sign that mild air is spreading across the higher amounts out west and will reach baltimore tomorrow afternoon after a chilly start. sunrise at 6:32, clear skies and calm winds. the southwest when, so all the miles out here moves east over the next few days. right now it is 59 degrees in chicago, 65 in kansas city. the upper level winds out of the southwest pushing the warm air all the way into the great lakes. the market will come into the mid atlantic and stick around for a couple of days. these were the highs today, 73

in denver, 68 in chicago, and 74 in kansas city. 60 all the way up to minneapolis. studies predicts undisguised tomorrow and a little bit of cloud cover thursday. -- sunny skies tomorrow. thursday night, the next front slides in. late rain gets here late thursday night into friday morning. for the next two days, spring fever. 60-65 degrees tomorrow, lots of sunshine. a two-foot shop on the open waters. western maryland, even up in the amount they should get close to 64 couple of days before the rain arrives on thursday. on the eastern shore, it could threaten 70 on thursday. same scenario on the lower eastern shore. the seven-day forecast, the mild weather on thursday, rain person identified in school rather.

the clocks go forward one hour, daylight savings time returning sunday morning with some showers sunday night into monday. >> quarterback that transform the nfl looks about to get passed over in favor of a new era in indianapolis. we will talk about next in sports. >> it is mega millions. >> tonight's jackpot is estimated $127 million. you must match these five white balls plus that gold megaball. 31-24-20-33-36. tonight's megaball number is 44.

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>> johnny unitas and the montana, and made many will have his name associated with one team, the indianapolis colts. he will not finish his career that team. he has been informed the team will release him tomorrow. the colts have the first pick in next month's draft. manning turns 36 next month. he has had three neck surgery and missed all of last season, but he still wants to play, and the colts want to move on to create a new era. he threw for more than 54,000 yards with the colts, but he will throw his next pass in the game while wearing something other than an indianapolis uniform. miami, new york, denver, possibly washington could have an interest in signing peyton manning. the second round of spring football practice is.

the terps 3 -- return to practice saturday. he insisted today his program remains on the right course. >> it has happened. it might not be happening is quick as some people would like, but if you've got to do something, we are going to do it the right way. when you do it the right way, maybe it does take a little bit longer than what people would like. >> championship week continues for area college basketball. the opening round of conference tournament, florida a&m came back to the -- to beat the eagles tonight, 74-71. morgan made it to the n.c.a.a. tournament in 2009 and 2010 but has failed its it -- failed to

make it for the last two seasons. maybe the biggest surprise of the college lacrosse season. the home field was magic tonight. a pair of goals, and the terps started with the first goal of the game from that grounder. the returning bali for the retrievers. five fourth quarter goals, upsetting the terps 8-7. johns hopkins today in manhattan. john scores from the right side of the net, 4-0, hawkins off and running. coppersmith putting his skills on display, a perfect shot put him up 5-0. in the second quarter,

collector's edition caliber accuracy as hopkins shuts them out, 11-0. the first time in 14 seasons they shut out an opponent. as a buck showalter searches for starting rotation, not many pitchers have made it easy for the manager so far. the orioles in fort myers today taking on the red sox. you want to see somebody shine. one strike out against four hits today. figuring into the outfield rotation this season. bryan adams and nick johnson, always, they run short, losing 5-4 in fort myers. stick around for a look at a stick around for a look at a spring day

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next there is the forecast with 63 and 67 the next few days. that is feeling like springtime. some spring light showers thursday night into friday, and then it gets back to chilly weather on saturday. >> that is all for 11 news tonight. >> thank you very much for joining us. have a good night, everybody. [captionin

>> announcer: it's "the tonight featuring rickey minor