traffic. we start with kim. it is great outside. very comfortable. the middle of july and it's really hard to find this type of weather but somehow it found us. the numbers show refreshing 60s and even 50s in winchester. 70 dc. 72 fredericksburg. we really span all the temperatures we could for this time of the year. the satellite-radar loop. plenty of sunshine today. partly cloudy later in the afternoon. wow, our highs today going to warm up to 85. air quality is yellow, which is moderate. i have the forecast that looks in to the weekend when i see you next. >> good morning, everyone. ready to kick off the 5:00 hour. happy wednesday to everybody out there. 270 live from 121 not tracking the delay yet. it usually starts around 109 area. 95 and bw parkway, clear to

powder mill and beyond. moving in to northeast dc. right now no delays to report on inbound new york avenue between the times building and bladensburg road. 395 northbound is looking great. shot past duke street to the 14th street bridge. the volume is light. to wrap it up, 95 northbound in virginia past backlick to the mixing bowl lanes are wide open. over to you. tomorrow dc councilman marion barry is scheduled to appear in court over his arrest in though stalking charge. in a late night news conference, barry spoke more on the relationship with the woman. >> marion barry made two clear points through his spokes person last night. number one the woman accusing

him of stalking is mentally unstable and the fact he hired her as a contractor was in fact legal. his spokesperson said that barry's exgirlfriend, donna watts was seeing a psychiatrist and her allegations of stalking against him is a product of mental instability. >> miss watts should not be believed. her allegations against mr. barry are simply not true. they are lies. >> reporter: miss watts crashed that press conference and denied those accusations. >> i only heard a little of what she said and what i heard was not true. >> reporter: they say that watts had been awarded a $60,000 no bid contract for a project in ward 8 but said it is legal it. >> is not unusual or is it illegal for council members to award contracts to supporters or family members who qualify or can provide the services

that are required. >> reporter: barry's spokesperson says the fact the former mayor and watts were romantically involved is irrelevant to the contract process and offered this explanation why watts was given the award. >> miss watts was about to lose her house, her car and due no to instability of finding employment, mr. barry did do this primarily not because of miss watts but because of mrs. watts rye children. >> reporter: andrea, the actual money received by miss watts is $15,000. she didn't get the full 60,000 and as far as dc law is concerned they say no public official can use their position to benefit a member of their household. there is nothing in there that says anything about a girlfriend. armando trull for 9 news now

and wusa9.com. millions around the world watched michael jackson's family and friends bid farewell to the superstar. his brother germane sang one of michael's favorite songs and his 11-year- old daughter paris brought the crowd to tears. >> ever since i was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine and i just wanted to say i loved him so much. viewings of the service and vigils for jackson were held around the country. jackson's family has not announced where the singer will be laid to rest. you can see more from the

memorial service on our website at wusa9.com. click the banner at the top for a photo and video gallery. in other news, an autopsy will be performed on a high school football player who collapsed and later died during nditioning session at norse high school in germantown, maryland. the family of 16-year-old edwin jack miller say he was in excellent shape, but he showed signs of heat stroke and dehydration. officials attempted cpr to save miller. the voluntary preseason conditioning session has been suspended indefinitely at northwest high. this morning, police have a driver in custody after a deadly crash on the beltway. it happened last night on the outer loop just before the american legion bridge. police say an suv rear ended a car. the driver of that car lost control and went over the guardrail. the car plunged 200 feet down in to trees. both men in the car died.

police say the suv driver kept going but crashed on the other side of the bridge where virginia state police arrested her. investigators believe alcohol was a factor in the crash. it is time for our first living smart report of the morning. jessica doyle is here and earnings season kicks off this morning. what can we expect. >> alcoa is an aluminum producer and first component to kick off earnings season. analysts are thinking overall earnings for s&p 500 companies are expected to be grim this quarter. they are looking for a drop in profits of 25 to 30%. as for the markets, stocks in asia dropped after more losses, down 2% yesterday. the dow starts this morning at 818 -- 8164.

the future of internet radio may be secure. a handful of on-line stations have reached an agreement to head off a crippling increase in rates. it comes after two years of negotiations. how would you like to fill up your tank for free today. that's what residents of alexandria can do. insurance company allstate is footing the bill for the free gas giveaway in a shl station in alexandria. it is located at 4670 duke street. residents can get the gas until 9:00 this morning. why would alexandria get this free service because the city was listed as the city with the most improved driving record in the allstate survey. a nice free perk for alexandria residents. >> we like free perks and more safings coming up. >> we have saving people $400 while they pay off their car

loan. >> pay off the car loan and mortgage and we will be set. >> that's right. less than an hour ago, president obama landed in rome, italy. he flew there for after meetings with russia prime minister and president. president obama will travel to the city of the earthquake for a g-8 summit. sarah palin says she is a fighter, not a quitter. designate announcing her resignation. she say the unconventional move is the right thing to do. >> it is not a matter of quitting but progressing it is unconventional way and that catches people off guard. it is out of the box and unconventional. it is how we are as alaskans and certainly how i am. >> reporter: they caught up with palin on a fishing trip. she says she will continue to

work in public service after she leaves office on july 26th. vice president biden administered the oath of office to franken, the democrat from minnesota. they have thrown him a seat on the judiciary. it didn't end like the landing in the hudson but a flight here did land safely after running in to a flock of birds. that story is coming up. a district hopes a new center to help people find affordable housing closer to their jobs. you are watching 9 news now. b@

in the news now, a connecticut man is in custody this morning after a tense hostage standoff involving his ex-wife. police say the woman escaped the home but officers did not

enter because the man claimed to have booby trapped the home with explosives. the flames forced the man to come out and surrender. a southwest airlines flight had to return to bwi marshall airport after hitting a flock of birds. the 737 jet landed safely and airport officials say there appears to be no engine damage. the passengers were put on another plane. mayor fenty helped to open a housing resource center in washington, d.c. on tuesday with an official ribbon cutting. mayor fenty is billing it as one-stop-shopping for low to moderate-income families and individuals trying to find places to live in the city. a new warning will be attached to painkillers which have been on the market for decades. that story is coming up. a muddy mess after an unbelievable amount of rain and it happened not too far from

here. >> good morning. i'm getting ready to show you the seven-day forecast that looks in to the weekend. it is jump day. i'm ready to go. are you? stay with us. fios guy! where ya headed?

ah, just installed fios in the whole building. now everyone has the fastest upload speeds. and we're giving them a mini netbook. well, i'm sticking with cable. so's ted. (voice) no i'm not! he's just goofing. (voice) no i'm not! (sighing) ted has betrayed me. (announcer) switch to verizon fios tv, phone and internet today and get an ultra-sleek compaq mini netbook. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v

people in wilmington, north carolina, are hoping for a string of sunny days following a deluge earlier this week. mud and debris are scattered in the city after officials reported 6 1/2 inches of rain in less than two hours. that tore renn overloaded the drainage system and repairs are currently underway. >> yikes. >> that has to be one of the worst things to try to clean up from.

i want to remind you i'm simulcasting my live web cast at my blog right now. you want to see andrea's shoes, what she is thinking during a commercial break, come on in, i have inside connections. it is wednesday and we are already through the middle of the week. i'm rushing things along but we will get through it together. the allergy update has changed since yesterday. guess what snuck up on us. >> mold. >> no, grass. >> the weeds and mold are low but the grass is moderate. i have suddenly been sneezing. i might have to check in to a grass allergy or something. here's a check at maryland's weather this morning. we have 50s in gaithersburg and frederick. 63 in to hagerstown. and 73 for patuxent river. and the weather across maryland will be mighty fine. plenty of sunshine. we are looking at highs to range from 83 in gaithersburg, 82 urbana, 80 shady side and

mechanicsville 80. my buddy babs lives there. she is a regular in the chat room. middle 60s in a lot of locations and 72 fredericksburg. then 50sin the mix. winchester does that with 57. to the west we will have 81 in straussburg. spotsylvania and warrenton in the middle 80s. just like yesterday we have the mighty fine weather with sunshine incoming. this will persist today. tomorrow a few clouds around. tomorrow the winds shift to the east and bring in ocean air. slightly cooler. a little cloudier. not looking at rain and 86 on friday. we will keep the rain across northern new england and well to our south across north florida. in between, a high pressure stand witch is where we are at. high of middle 80s with sunshine. how about the seven-day forecast? there it is.

tomorrow will be the coolest day of the next seven. saturday will be the hottest with plenty of sunshine. we will take a shot at 90 degrees. city still have a couple of quartered thunderstorms for your sunday. other than that i'd say we are getting by with great weather for the middle of july. >> hey, everyone. 17 minutes after the 5:00 hour and just a reminder my behind the scenes camera is up and running. visit me at my blg at wusa9.com. talk about the beltway. a new accident to tell you about on the outer loop at clara barton parkway. watch for crews. volume light. the traffic is flowing okay. moving to the outer loop outside. this is a live shot from colesville road. no problems to report here. inner loop is doing fine, as well. to the maps and checking out route 4, route 5, 301, all the roads are accident free. over to the inner loop from the wilson bridge to t 5 to

braddock, 66 drivers are clocking in at a nice pace here. to round it out we give you eastbound 66 from gainesville to centreville and beyond and lanes are wide open. over to andrea. in living well headlines stronger overdose warnings are coming for the painkiller darvocet. they say it can stay on the mark but patients will soon get pamphlets about the danger. consumer health advocates have linked them to hundreds of death from suicide and accidental overdose. u.s. health officials are testing up of h1n1 flu cases to see if people are resistant to tamiflu. the drug is the main weapon against the virus. the move is after an american teen was diagnosed with a resistant strain of the flu last month. let's see what is happening in the web center. here's kristin fisher. >> reporter: good morning. yesterday's memorial service to michael jackson will go down as

one of the most watched events ever, second to the inauguration of president obama. we did not see the same kind of overload like on the day he actually died in which sites like twitter completely crashed but the numbers are coming in and pretty staggering. look at cnn.com. they are reporting global web traffic was 19% above normal during the memorial service at times as high as 33%. this one reported 9.7 million video screens. antob@ put that in perspective, cnn's viewership record for a full day is 27 million video streams. that is three times as high and that was set in january on president obama's inauguration day. keep in mind these are only the numbers for one side. it will take several days to compile all numbers from websites around the world. so it is not looking like any records will be broken in terms

of web traffic but it is a differenstory on facebook. michael jackson's facebook page had just 80,000 fans and now take a look at this. he is now the most popular person on facebook with over 7 million fans now, beating out only the president. president obama was facebook's most popular person previously and michael jackson has been gaining 20 fans a second on facebook. even in death his star power keeps growing, especially on the web. >> thank you. the nationals try to get a win out west. plus, venus williams pours it on against washington's tennis team. sports is next. 5:20. 68 degrees. you are watching 9 news now. (announcer) if you think all batteries are the same, consider this:

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here's a look at who's celebrating a birthday. in sports the nationals found more offense at coors field last night. the game is tied at four in the

bomb of the 8th when the reliever gets a perfect double play, but throws it to the wrong guy. that loads the bases and the next batter gets a sack fly to score the go-ahead run. zimmerman is washington's last hope and he strikes out to end the game. >> i knew i had -- i went to throw over the base and saw somebody standing there and messed up and threw it to the wrong guy. >> reporter: the nba, the pistons picked a head coach and he has dc ties. calves assistant will be the head coach at gw and has agreed to take over the team. he's been an nba assistant for the last 14 years. in the wnba a heart breaker for the mystics in minnesota. lindsey harding led the way with 27 points to force

overtime. washington ends up losing by two, 96-94. after losing to her sister saturday on wimbledon, venus led the philadelphia freedom in to washington on tuesday to play the castles. a full house turned out to watch and venus did not disappoint. she won the singles and doubles matches as well as the mixed doubles. little sister serena doesn't rejoin the kastles until next week. lance armstrong joined a break away group at the front of the pack all day and is one second off the overall lead. however, armstrong was fined $100 for failing to sign in because he was chatting with actor ben stiller. there's a way to cheat the calendar and save on your car payment. that story is coming up in ten minutes. plus a metro rider catches a

driver texting operate operating the train. 50 westbound no problems to report. it is angie and i have the complete traffic in realtime when 9 news now returns. stay with us.

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we may not have the worst traffic in the nation but one of the few places where congestion is getting worse. welcome back to 9 news now. i'm andrea roane. thanks for joining us this wednesday morning. angie will tell us if the traffic is worse in these early hours but kim is starting us off with a good forecast. >> nothing better than a nice beautiful shot. so many beautiful buildings around here. let's look at the capitol. the sun is coming up and the sky is getting bluer. ready to go?

it is 68 degrees. let's look outside and help you get moving with the weather forecast. 63 hagerstown. garrett coun in the 50s. 80 southern maryland. over to fredericksburg, historic fredericksburg i may add. no trouble for the weather today. if you want to wash the car i you can take it through the drive-thru. you don't have to do it yourself. 38 today and 81 tomorrow and 86 on friday. the weekend forecast is a few minutes away. hey, everyone. just a half hour through the 5:00 hour. we will help you through the rest. we watch you to know about things that could slow you down. clara barton, an accident and crews are on the scene. moving to 270 and taking it outside, live from father hurley okay to the split and the same goes from those that travel from 109 to 121.

northbound new york avenue, thicks are filling out a bit but no delays have set in yet from the times building to the third street tunnel. to wrap it up, let's go to 95 northbound in virginia. drivers are at speed from dumfries to the mixing bowl. that's the traffic. over to you. the recession and high gas prices have led to ' decline in traffic congestion for a second straight year, but not for us. the texas transportation institute released the latest survey this morning. researchers found while traffic in los angeles is getting better it is still the worst in the nation. the time the average l.a. driver wastes in traffic dropped from 72 hours to 70 hours. time wasted from dc drivers jumped to 62 hours a year from 59 hours and puts us ahead of atlanta for second place. the average driver wasted 36.1 hours in traffic in 2007 compared to the peak of 37.4

hours in 2005. total wasted fuel dropped from 2.85 billion-gallons in 2006, to 2.81-gallons in 2007. you can ready more about the institute's findings at wusa9.com. the story is on our front page. a metro train operator caught texting behind the wheel is back on the job after serving a five day suspension. the rider captured the video proof with his cell phone and posted it on youtube. it happened before the deadly crash on the red line. the train in question was moving near the van doren station. metro officials say they recently discovered the video and that the driver confessed. >> could this this send a bad precedent that if an operator is caught texting once i will still have any job. >> we have a policy in place

and given the fact the operator lost income and was suspend for five days it should send a lesson. there are new statements from both sides in in the marion barry stalking case. he is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow. but his spoke person and the woman involved had something to say last night at the wilson building. armando trull is live from there with more. barry took off the gloves and came out swinging last night. through his spokesperson he made two point and made them in a clear fashion. number one, the stalking allegations against him were baseless and done by someone who is mentally unstable and his former girlfriend, the fact he hired her and put her on the city payroll is totally legal. >> reporter: his spokeswoman admitted that barry awarded a $60,000 no bid contract to his

then girlfriend donna watts p but said this was not illegal or unusual. >> the fact that the contract was awarded to a friend or a relative of the former mayor and in this case miss watts is irrelevant as long as it was awarded properly and brought value for the money that was paid. >> reporter: barry says the allegations of stalking against him by his former girlfriend are the product of mrs. watts mental indc -- mental instinct. >> according to miss watts herself she is currently under the care of a psychologist and has been diagnosed with compulsive behavior disorder and clinical depression. >> reporter: watts herself made a cameo appearance at the press conference and denied she was mentally unstable. >> looks like scared of something, aren't they? i haven't said anything. they still have to do this. i must be bad. >> reporter: dc law says public

officials cannot hire any member of their household, including spouses or children for public jobs but does not say anything about girlfriends. live from she wilson building, 9 news now and wusa9.com. security failures at federal buildings will be the subject of a senate hearing today. this comes after a newly- released congressional report saying that federal agents successfully smuggled bomb- making materials in to ten federal buildings. agents working with the government accounting office conducted the exercise. 5:35. time for another living smart report and jessica doyle is back with the start of a possible war between google and microsoft. what is this? >> it really has the making of being a full-blown battle between these two monster companies. what's going on is google is developing a new operating system for laptop computers. this operating system will run through googles web browser

called chrome and will launch the second half of next year. this is their biggest step in challenging microsoft's control over people's computing experience. a report says that washington, d.c. prices for homes will be even lower in two years. 90% chance and baltimore has 90% chance of prices dropping further. they are based on significant increases in unemployment and foreclosure rates across the country. if you are buying a new car and need a car loan, one way to save is making biweekly instead of monthly car payments. you will make 13 payments a year, one extra payment. the money goes to reducing your cars loan principal balance. it means you will save a lot of money in interest. say you are taking out $25,000 car loan for five years at 7% interest.

making bye weekly loans will pay it off five months earlier and add up to $400 in interest payments over the life of the loan. for more tips check out my log on the financialist that.com and get the car loan out of the way five months earlier so that is five months where you are not making car payment. >> or you can put it on the principal of the home mortgage. angie? thank you. toll road travelers listen up. how about a nice drive all the way from the greenway to the beltway? i'm here to give it to ya. more traffic and news coming up. stay with us.

welcome back. we are crossing the bridge and looks like there is hardly any traffic. lanes are wide open. it is angie with the realtime traffic report coming up. in the news now an alabama man is facing drug charges after he was severely burned when a methamphetamine lab blew

up. it was captured on cameras at a local motel. police say the man, his wife and a friend were making crystal meth method in a motel room when the explosion happened. international flights are now flying in and out of new orleans for the first time since hurricane katrina. aero mexico began to fly nonstop service from armstrong international airport yesterday. city leaders hope the service will help to boost business and tourism. so far only four out of a possible 2,000 people have been injured in the annual running of the bulls in spain. of the four only one was actually injured by a bull. the spanish red cross says the injured man wasn't gored but poked in the doctor yea. doctor and patients from maryland take part in the biggest transplant swap in history.

it is early and gorgeous outside. a great view over the skies above dc. i have the forecast. not just for hump day but in to the weekend. it is on the way next and you are watching 9 news now. good morning. fios guy! where ya headed?

ah, just installed fios in the whole building. now everyone has the fastest upload speeds. and we're giving them a mini netbook. well, i'm sticking with cable. so's ted. (voice) no i'm not! he's just goofing. (voice) no i'm not! (sighing) ted has betrayed me. (announcer) switch to verizon fios tv, phone and internet today and get an ultra-sleek compaq mini netbook. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v

a record-breaking kidney swap. eight people getting kidneys from unrelated donors in four hospitals in one state. one of the hospitals johns

hopkins in baltimore. anita brickman has more in the living well report. >> reporter: this surgeon says the last in a come mow of -- domino of operations to complete eight kidneys was completed last night and for if last recipient it was truly a matter of life or death. >> she was literally days or weeks away from dying. >> reporter: the kidney swap involved patients maryland, michigan, oklahoma and missouri. helping to find matches where none existed before, including a married couple from rockville. >> i have an old kidney which is a position to be in if you need a kidney. >> the odds are slim. >> she wasn't a match for her husband bob but she gave a healthy kidney to a man in detroit and bob got his are from an unrelated donor at johns hopkins. >> i'm not a hero i'm a selfish person. i wanted my husband back. i knew the person he was before

that. it is minimally invasive. it is not that bad. i can finally stand up straight. >> reporter: the doctor says encouraging a national kidney swap program could ease the shortage we face today. >> a transplant surgeon can do 2,000 transplants in their lifetime, you know, this work that we are doing here will be responsible for thousands. it's amazing. i still remember it now because the odds were very slim that would happen. >> afterward, all of a sudden everything became fixed. >> reporter: 9 news now and wusa9.com. four of the eight transplant operations were performed at johns hopkins. dr. among says this new model has the possibility to result in 1500 additional transplants each year. to find out more about the 16 patient kidney swap anion update from one of the patient's blogs go to wusa9.com

and click on living well and last year we had a couple involved in i think an eight- person transplant swap. it was amazing listening to their story and how so many people are helped. >> that's great. love these stories. first thing in the morning because sometimes it is tough to get moving but there should be no reason this morning you should feel down in the dumps because it is going to be great outside. it is already 5:46. so we're 45 minutes in to the show. hump day forecast. great to see hope you follow me on twitter. i'm weather kim. i isn't out a forecast at 4:00. it iserly but we want you to know being forewarned. today is all good. 68 is where we are at. win chester in the spotlight with 61. 50s in garrett county standard steep creek lake. one of the days i'm going to visit you. the satellite and radar loop,

though trouble, plenty of sunshine incoming. this morning it is comfortable. i was just outside like this short sleeves on the weather terrace, comfortable. if you are going for a jog you are in good shape. 60s and a few 70s out there an then some 50s to the north and west. that's our wind direction, too. today a mostly sunny one. similar to yesterday. maybe a degree or da two cooler. 85, northwest winds five to ten miles an hour. step out of the way and show you the three day forecast. tomorrow a couple of clouds off the ocean and slightly cooler weather in the lower 80s and friday in the middle 80s. right now we have the northwesterly winds behind this weak cool front that slipped through unnoticed over our parts with no rain drops with them. so it will stay that way. focusing the rain again across new england, yes, they are dealing with it across maine. massachusetts should get a chance to dry out today and a heavy cluster of storms through iowa is blasting through, bringing rain to the crops.

around here it is not going to affect us. tomorrow high pressure will affect us. oddly enough this is usually a fair weather system. when they bring northeasterly winds they push in more clouds. tomorrow slightly cooler weather in the upper 70s and low 80s for the high. a check on the next seven. we will spell it out the next seven days. the hottest time appears to be in the weekend on star. that means a high of 90. sunday still putting in a chance of thunderstorms and next week we will go back to the middle 80s and highs feeling comfortable with mostly sunny skies. good morning. >> good morning to you. a quick shoutout from new york city. they are visiting my blog. from duke to seminary we are filling out but no delays to report as drivers make their way to the 14th street bridge. to the maps. here's the inner loop from 95 to 66. according to realtime sensors

drivers are clocking in on average at a great pace. 66 eastbound, hey, virginia, tracking the taillights past 28. no problems. though the beltway, but we keep it outside. on the outer loop past university a little volume is building toward georgia but still not seeing significant slow goes. to round it out. 95 and the gw parkway we will take you there and show you past 198 to 495 the commute is looking clear. now over to kristin fisher who's standing by in the 9 news now web center. >> good morning, everybody. a massive cyberattack knocked out several u.s. government websites and what's more it maybe linked to a similar cyberattack on south korean websites and that news of course has many people pointing fingers at north korea but at this time absolutely nothing can be confirmed. here's the story on cbs.com. it reads federal sites knocked out by cyberattack t. a widespread and unusually

resilient computer attack that began on the 4th of july knocked out the website of several government agencies including some sites that are responsible for figh g cybercrime. i want to take you on a walk through the sites that were hit this this cyberattack. the first is the u.s. department of the treasury. that website was hit. you also have the united states secret service, surprisingly also being a victim in this cyberattack. the federal trade commission website was hit. they started to come back on- line late sunday night, but even on tuesday internet users were still unable to get to the site 70% of the time. ony other major site hit in the cyberattack is the u.s. department of transporta . on this site was about 100% down for two days. so much so that no internet users could actually get through it. those were the four sites down over the holiday weekend and in to this week. sites were still

experiencing problems. u.s. officials are refusing to publicly discuss any details of the cyberattack and it would only generally acknowledge that it did indeed occur but you have websites of major south korean government alsos an ba al s nk soparalyzed in these suspected cyberattacks. now, south korea seems to be -- these two attacks between u.s. government websites an the south korean government websites seem to be connected. and this just out, one of north korea's main news agencies is reporting that north korea maybe behind tuesday's cyberattack. that was reported on the bbc but at this point nothing confirmed as to where the cyberattack came from either the south koreans or the u.s. government. >> thank you. an official sign the latest harry potter frenzy is days away. that's coming up in the buzz. and a local professor develops a guitar that can

change its pitch and tone. it is approaching 5:52. we'll be right back. one coffee with room, one large mocha latte. medium macchiato, light hot chocolate hold the whip, and two espressos. make one a double. she's fiber focused! i have two cappuccinos, one coffee with room, one large mocha latte, a medium macchiato, a light hot chocolate, hold the whip, and two espressos, one with a double shot. gonna take more than coffee to stay this focused. stay full and focused through the morning... with a breakfast of kellogg's® frosted mini-wheats® cereal; an excellent source of fiber that helps you avoid... the distraction of mid-morning hunger. no thanks, i'm good.

it's not just one thing it's everything. tylenol and advil don't do as much as pamprin. it's the everything in one pill. pamprin multi-symptom welcome back. our time is 5:54. this morning in the examiner

some metro train operators are afraid to operate trains since the crash according to their union chief. plus, the founder of an arlington technology firm admits to bribing a federal employee to win contracts. and the dc summer jobs program will end a week early this year due to a lack of funding. read these stories and more in the examiner. if you think of your favorite guitarist you probably think of a particular sound, a particular tone. b.b. king's lucille, eric clapton's squealing riffs. an engineering professor just launched a line of high-tech guitars that captures that magic thing called tone and make it infinitely variable. here's bruce leshan. >> reporter: a lot of rock stars jam with a half dozen guitars, each with a different sound, each painting a different color ♪ [ music ]

the sound comes from the steel strings over electromagnetic pickups. >> guitarists will take their guitar home and the first thing they do is rip off the back panel and rewire the thing. >> reporter: but they are still left with one sound. >> here's a traditional sound. >> reporter: electrical and computer engineering professor has poured $100,000 of his own money in to launching a line of guitars bill around a circuit that can impact the tone, the color of 100 different guitars in to one. >> if you give a guitarist red and yellow and blue, now they can make green and they can make purple and any color they want. so i just change it there. now all i have to do is put it back and it is ready to go. >> we are in the middle of a the worst economic recession in a half century.

if you are worried about the next paycheck you are going to put off the purchase of a $1,000 guitar. it just launched and former students have sold ten of their remarkable new guitars. >> it is getting a little surreal at this point. >> it may not make you sound like jimi hendrix but may give you something else. >> 37 sexy on a one to ten scale. very, very sexy. >> reporter: and sexy sells. at the university of maryland, bruce leshan, 9 news now and wusa9.com. >> maryland is so confident it will succeed it kicked in $135,000 in economic development money which is supposed to help maryland professors turn their research in to profitable and taxable businesses. our air guitar queen over here is listening to that one. kim? >> love air guitar. >> tambourin. >> good morning.

5:57. london square was busy yesterday not just with a torrential downpour but with the cast from harry potter and the half blood partnership prince. it is the premier in london. the stars were there and they wore white ribbons in memory of the young actor in the film was stabbed to death last year. and paid tribute to michael jackson whose memorial took place in los angeles yesterday. it is coming up july 15th worldwide. i'm so there. i don't care if big ben doesn't want to go, or if he does. i will be there and i'm ready. >> looking at that rain, hope rupert is okay. he is recovering from a case of h1n1 flu. good news about the child stars from slum dog millionaire. the 11-year-old boy and his family finally moved in to a decent home. his mother, brother and older brother's wife moved in to a

one bedroom flat. the $50,000 flat will be his personally when he turns 18, if he finishes his education. danny boyle provided this and is still looking for a place for the 11-year-old girl. the father is staying in she shanty. >> i can't believe the money this movie made and they still couldn't buy. >> -- >> the strings attached they starred in the movie, give them the money. >> real quick we want you to know casey kasem has done his final countdown the 77-year-old told listeners this would be his last one. he started in ' 70. >> when i lived in korea i listened to casey kasem. >> and i listened to him in jersey, too. >> and new orleans, too. >> it is time to get on with the couldn'tdown ecausei will get a rap in the ear if i t don' talkabout the forecast. temperatures are tacoormfble. peorr s