station with news in high definition, this is 9news now. >> good evening, i'm lesli foster. some city employees in a local community are getting a park that seems almost too good to be true. they are renting city owned property for dirt cheap and not paying a dime of taxes to do it. it's a practice that is now under the microscope. here is audrey barnes with the story. >> the city custodian who lives in an efficiency may have the best deal in town. he doesn't pay one penny of rent to live in this city owned building. robert johnson, a public works supervisor rented this 1700 square foot home on dogwood drive from the city for $350 a month for more than 30 years. other rentals in the neighborhood are going for $1700 a month. >> i find it disgusting. >> a deal brokered between johnson who made about $120,000 a year in base pay and overtime rently and the former city manager, who retired in 1994. >> it was done with a

handshake to begin with. this guy has been living up here for almost as long as we have. >> gaithersburg new city manager got wind of these cheap city owned rentals when she toured the city before deciding to take the job last year. she now launched an investigation into the property perk. >> should the city have ownership of those properties or is it in the best interest of the public to sell those properties? >> a city employee earning $46,000 a year has rented this home on south frederick street for $704 a month since 2005. and like the other employees, paid no taxes on it. according to the state tax code, city owned property is exempt from taxes if it is used for governmental purposes. the city attorney is now trying to find out if this rental agreement fits that criteria. >> if we are offering properties at below market value, then that's considered a benefit. and as such, we should be treating it that way. >> this city employee who

knows some of the men renting the homes doesn't understand the fuss. they work hard, they deserve it, he said. now it's up to the ty to determine how much it will cost them. audrey barnes, 9news now, wusa9.com. >> the city manager says she hopes to report her findings to the city council by the first week of september. well within an hour, president barack obama will appear at a campaign fundraiser for virginia democrat, creigh deeds. some see the governor's race as a referendum on president obama's performance. gary joins us now live from mcclane with more. gary. >> lesli, it's really no surprise the president is here. virginia republican sensing a drop in the president's approval ratings has made this campaign as much about his national political chance as it has been about local virginia issues. >> enough is enough. >> republicans opened their 18th virginia campaign office

last night, pushing hard for their candidate, bob mcdonald who is showing a comfortable lead in the polls over democrat, creigh deeds. >> republicans have been racking up more losses than the nationals. they are hoping for any victory they can get. >> they lined up for tonight's rally, hoping president obama can help deeds close the gap. >> i think he is magic. i think he has the ability to really rivet people's attention on key issues. >> as you can see, there's so many people out here today. >> we have to elect creigh deeds. we can't let mcdonald win virginia. we can't let virginia go back to what it used to be before we elected some democrats here. >> every single person in this crowded ballroom had to sign in on a sign up sheet. a virtual guarantee they will be contacted by the campaign and called upon to volunteer in the fewer 90 days that return.

>> thanks for that. history was made on capitol hill today. just hours ago, lawmakers voted to make sonia sotomayor the country's first hispanic supreme court justice. elizabeth has more. >> the ayes are 68 and the nays are 31. >> with the overwelming support of democrats -- >> she is a judge of unimpeachable character and integrity. >> and the nod of a dozen republicans. >> i will support her. i will be proud for her. >> 55-year-old sonia sotomayor will become the first hispanic and third woman to sit on the supreme court. president obama applauded the vote. >> well, i am pleased and deeply gratified that the senate has voted to confirm judge sonia sotomayor. >> sotomayor came from a modest background. she was raised by puerto rican parents. she received her law degree

from yale. some republicans who say sotomayor would not be their pick for supreme court justice crossed party lines on the basis of sotomayor's experience as a judge. >> it is clear to me she is qualified to serve. >> the majority of gop senators voted against sotomayor, siting comments she made off the bench. many questioned whether she would bring liberal bias to her decisions. >> she has bluntly advocated a judicial philosophy where judges ground their decisions not in the objective rule of law, but in the subjective realm of personal, quote, opinions, sympathies, and prejudices, closed quote. >> with her confirmation behind her, sotomayor is ready to begin a new job that offers lifetime job security. >> all of the hurdles now cleared. all that is left is the swearing in ceremony. that will take place on saturday. in washington, i'm elizabeth. u.s. senator did not let a broken ankle keep her away from

today's historic vote. today was the first time the maryland democrat returned to the senate chambers since undergoing surgery. you'll recall she broke her ankle after falling last month. she is now undergoing intensive physical therapy. >> the senate is expected to add $2 billion to keep the cash for clunkers program running. a vote is expected by 8:00 tonight. a proposed amendment to lower income requirements for customers is not expected to pass. the $1 billion used to start the program is expected to run out by tomorrow. we have new information on that breaking news story we first brought you at 5:00. police tell us the man who was struck by a car in bethesda has died and that accident happened on river road at wilson lane. the striking vehicle did stay at the scene. traffic as you can imagine on river road is just a mess. since all the lanes inbound are now closed. you will want to find an alternate route on the way home and if you are expecting

somebody coming that way, they will be a little late. if you use a social networking site like twitter or facebook, you probably noticed problems today. they were able to attack and take it down. they slowed down service on facebook. live journal was also impacted. cyber security expert, bob gurlly says this attack could even affect your personal computer and that is because hackers were able to get into users personal computers. >> they are looking for your information on your computer. your credit card numbers, your bank account numbers. your passwords, and that can be used to extract money from your accounts and put it into the accounts of the people doing this. >> he says we can expect to see attacks like this in the future. he recommends updating your antivirus software and changing your passwords. >> the dc fire department has beefed up its response to fires in two large portions of the city after last week's fire at the former home or the former

home of a school board president, peggy cooper. the water supply companies, two of them that carry larger hoses will be dispatched onl al reports of building fires in parts of northwest washington and anywhere east of the anacostia river. those two companies are now staffed around the clock. >> we think that these are strategically located. these are our primary areas where they have the best use. >> fighting fire, it has identified problem areas. it has not yet prepared to release that information. >> all right, fidgeting fire is dangerous enough, but imagine doing that with dozens of deadly snakes in the house with you. more than 30boa constrictors and pythons were discovered inside this home in alexandria. six of them survived. no one was hurt in the fire. investigators are searching for the cause. still to come, private planes for politicians, find

out how some lawmakers on capitol hill will be able to fly in style thanks to your money. and what is going on with former president, bill clinton? yesterday, he brought jail journalists home, now he is taking on aids. first, here is tony. >> it's a beautiful thursday evening, we have heat in the seven-day forecast. we'll show u thalina a . here are re are rethe mb ernu pa lyr cloudy ie sk r peup70s and low 80s. 77 at national airport. first, we have to see what brett haber has to say. >> we are live at redskins training camp once again. one of the reasons the defense is ahead of the offense at this camp is that you can't throw on the redskins secondary. a low down on that unit, plus you'll never believe who showed up at ravens camp today. we'll let you know in 16 minutes. 9news now returns in just 60 seconds.

last fall, auto executives got their ear full. lawmakers scolded them and suggested if the car business was in such bad shape, the executives should have come in commercial. now congress is gearing up to fly privately aboard three new jets of its own and they are already approved and being paid for by you. >> this is exactly why taxpayers are mad. it's because they have members of congress, they have bureaucrats preaching to them about how they should spend their money and what they should do and preaching to businesses about how they should spend money, yet they are flying around on private jets. >> now normally, big ticket items like jets require earmarks, but since one of these jets is already on order, no additional earmarks were added. and also because there's no earmarks, the legislation has not disclosed which member of

congress requested those jets. got a beef with your car? your wheels won't get up and go or they are constantly giving out. it's a free site where you can see if your car is having a common mechanical problem and how much it will cost to fix it. you can search the user submitted data base for owner complaints on the vehicles, problem trends, even post pictures alongside your horror story. we have a link on our website, wusa9.com. just click on living smart. when 9news now returns, it has been a whirlwind few days. find out what he is doing now after bringing two u.s. journalists home. first, here's a preview of the cbs evening news with katie couric. >> a new report says even a minor fender bender could wind up costing you thousands, so why aren't car companies fixing

the problem? we'll have that story and more tonight only on the cbs evening news.

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a prayer vigil is planned for pittsburgh. later tonight for the victims of tuesday's health club shooting. a makeshift memorial is growing outside of the fitness club. george killed three women before taking his own life. today, one woman who is 10 weeks pregnant spoke about how she survived. >> i put my head down and held my breath. >> a woman who lived across the street from the shooter says he seemed like a loner who liked to keep to himself. a possible break in the search for madelyn mccann. she is that three-year-old girl who disappeared back in 2007. private investigators hired by her parents are looking for an australian woman who might know something about the case. that's because something a woman told to a stranger hours

after the child disappeared. there's also new information. an investigation i should say involving members of the alexandria police department. this is the third internal investigation. the latest embarrassment involved two officers under investigation. active chief, earl cook would not talk about how an officer sexually assaulted a woman. anal alexandria police exdemepantrt mearrested, including its now former chief on dui charges. >> most of these things have been in the works and we have investigated and started those investigations prior to the echt that happened with chief baker. so with all of those events appearing to come to a nexus now, there's so much disorder and so many things going wrong. there's a problem with the agency. when actually it isn't. >> chief cook confirms the officers are being investigated for criminal and administrative misconduct and he says those

officers can be fired for that, even if a court finds them innocent. >> yesterday, he brought home two american journalists jailed in north korea. today, former president, bill clinton struck a blow against aids. mr. clinton reached an agreement with two drug companies to provide cheaper hiv treatments. those patients only have to pay approximately $500 for an entire year supply. the initialtive is the latest in the string of hiv, aids price deals negotiated by clinton's foundation since 2002. the stork dropped off a little bundle and by little, we mean little to the san diego zoo. 17-year-old giant panda mom, she gave birth yesterday, the zoo's camera system recorded the delivery. the cub has no hair yet. i don't know, is mama letting us see the baby? >> got a little peek. >> you can hear the voice. this is her fifth cub, as you

may remember from the birth at the national zoo. there it is. it will be a few weeks before zoo keepers know whether this cub is male or female and it is always so amazing to me that the cubs are the size of a butter stick. a stick of butter and they grow to be these giant creatures. >> it's cool stuff. you did get to see the little baby there. >> just a baby. >> cute stuff. weather wise for us, after not a great start to the day, we ended up with a great afternoon. the winds have shifted to the northwest. the humidity went down. the rain is gone, and i think tonight, we will get a taste of the kind of weather we enjoyed at the beginning of july when the temperatures were dropping into the 50s. let's start with the three-day trend first. things are going to change as we go into the weekend. that's why i'm telling you to enjoy this. high temperatures will be in the mid 90s. but overnight, it's going to be nice. clear to partly cloudy skies and we'll call it pleasant. the low temperatures will drop

into the upper 50s in the cooler suburbs. mid 60s in the city. winds out of the northwest. sunset this evening at 8:14. during the day tomorrow, beautiful friday. mostly sunny skies. the high temperatures in the mid 80s. no humidity. northwest wind at 10. sunrise tomorrow morning at 6:15. right now, it's 77 degrees at national airport with a dew point of 63. that will likely fall into the 50s over the next couple of hours. relative humidity comfortable 60%. other temperatures generally in the upper 70s and low 80s. that's because the skies cleared quicker in the northern suburbs. 81 in haggerstown. only 74 at the air station and in the low 70s at the beaches, because still some rain showers hanging on. the front that triggered the rain is now pushing off the coast and a dryer, less humid air mass is sinking in out of pennsylvania. this front here actually produced some severe weather down along the lower eastern shore. it's not that bad right now, but we have rain showers

showing up. no severe weather. most of the heavy stuff is out over the ocean. eventually. the clears are going to clear. it will work its way down to the south. if the skies clear early enough, those of you watching out close to the pennsylvania line out in the mountains, perhaps western maryland, might dip into the upper 40s by tomorrow morning. won't see anything like that close to the metro area. high pressure moving in. will give us a nice friday. things will change as we head into the weekend. the jet stream is going to move to the north. the heat across the southern plains is going to get a chance to make a brief appearance here in the mid atlantic region. as we make that transition into the hotter temperatures, there could be a passing thunderstorm on saturday. that's not major weather story. the major weather story is where we'll end up temperature wise after a beautiful friday. we will make it into the mid 90s on sunday and monday. complete with the heat index, probably up around 100 degrees. it's only going to last a couple days. that has been the trend for

most of the summer when we get these little brief hits of heat. they go away quickly. another front is going to come through on tuesday and wednesday with showers and thunderstorms and that will knock the temperatures back into the 8. a beautiful night tonight coming up. great day tomorrow and you know, a little warmer over the weekend. >> all right, we know brett and brian are likely relishing these cooler temperatures today out at the b and b that is now redskins training camp. >> we'll be just fine. we are starting week 2 of this camp and brian, one thing we learned so far, these redskins db's can cover. >> yes. deangelo hall showed his impact. and fred smoots, he will show you what he can do. >> more on the surprise visitor to ravens camp today. 9sports live from camp after this. o o o lower your

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and welcome back to redskins training camp, everybody. last year, the redskins had only 24 sacks. that ranked them 28th in the nfl. obviously, the acquisition of albert is going to help in that department, but another thing that is going to help is their upgraded defensive back field because when opposing quarterbacks go to throw, nobody is going to be open. that db foursome of carlos rogers is now widely considered to be among the best in football. hall joined the team mid season last year. had five picks and got a big

contract in the off season while landry, who was drafted in the first round three years ago has become one of the most punishable hitters in the league. good luck throwing in that group. >> to be the best, that's the bottom line. that's everybody's goal. we know as a defense, if we get the ball and get back to the defense, the more chance they have, the more time they can score. >> they have a great front. we have nothing but talent. so we are able to do a lot of coverage. >> meanwhile, one young guy trying to join that secondary has made a good first impression and that is kevin barnes. coach zorn says he has been spectacular in man coverage. still picking up the zones that will come along. joined once again by our analyst, brian mitchell, let's talk about landry. there was a void of safety when sean taylor died two years ago.

how has laron done filling that void? >> he is a big hitter. i don't think he will fill the shoes of sean taylor. since he was at lsu, he was always a guy that could punish you. he has done that. >> i guess that's dangerous. >> let's talk about the kicker. he has been solid the last couple of years, not spectacular. are you comfortable with him or should the redskins be looking around? >> for some reason, i can't understand why teams never bring in competition for the kickers. they bring one guy in and keep them. i think they need to have fresh on them to work a lot harder and get to the top level he can be at. >> jim zorn made an interesting point. the veterans know their bodies. the rookies sometimes don't know the difference between just being sore, which you get at training camp and having a serious injury. is there something to that learning your body as a young player? >> you have to learn your body. whether there's a rookie or whatever, they should know

their bodies by now. they get that same little message from their coaches then. at this point, where the coach don't push them, it's coach's fault, not the players. >> santana moss hamstring today. if he goes down for an extended period, that is catastrophic. >> if he goes down, he is in trouble. santana is the only guy that i will consider true play maker at the receiver position. malcolm kelly, those guys, we have hope that they can be. they haven't proved it over the long haul. they have to have a santana moss. >> meanwhile, up the road at ravens camp, you would never believe the rather interesting guest coach who showed up today. >> introduce you to a new coach. >> thank you. >> going back to practice. >> yes, snoop dog in the house. a special guest of ray lewis today. he led the team in a post

version. he drank gatorade. also franchise was at it again. ryan zimmerman, 7th home run in the last 13 days, two-run shot made it 8-7. then in the 8th. game tied at 8 when ronnie belliard knocked one to center. guzman scores, nats take the lead. they win 12-8. they have a five- game win streak. that's their longest of the season. that's the story from here. redskins scrimmage on saturday. we need to get a guy to hold the umbrella. then we would be okay. >> i know what you're saying, brett. we'll work on that. >> you know you have an entourage. >> i'm so not like brett and brian. >> you are right. that's it for us. you'll get to hear from them later. the cbs evening news with katie couric is