committee. a state whose democratic nominee for governor trails by double digits. republican nominee, bob mcdonald, all of this at a time when republicans were dropped and are attempting to turn the virginia race into a referendum on the president's national policy. a few minutes ago, deeds talked about the local issues of education and transportation all the while hoping that some of that barack obama electoral will help him. attendeis paid as much as $2300 a person to meet the president. he will be appearing at this rally soon. every person in this room, derek, had to sign up before being allowed in. a clear sign that they will be contacted by the deeds campaign to volunteer in a campaign that now has only 88 delays to close that double digit gap in the polls. derek, we'll watch this for the evening. if the president appears during your program and we suspect he

will, we'll come back here immediately. >> thank you for that. we'll look forward to that. all right, here at home, capital police investigating a maryland man after he was photographed holding an effigy of a congressman in a noose. here's the picture getting the attention on the internet. the man, patrick samuels, the congress -- from maryland's first district. samuels brought the effigy to his rally. now to other top stories, first their former chief is hit by a dui, now two police officers are under investigation. plus, employee perks. some local city workers get dirt cheap rent and don't have to pay a penny in taxes. and 9news now uncovered other spots around dc with low water pressure. >> i'm dave stadard in northwest washington. in reaction to last week's

fire. >> we have solutions now in place that will provide the adequate water protection, or fire protection to every community in the district. >> the water supply companies have large hose, helping to create an aboveground water main. two of the cities six water supply engines will now d fearound the clock and dispatched on all fire s calld a portion of northwest and anywhere east of the anacostia river. a report issued in 2007 after a fire with similar water problems recommended that all six be fully staffed. dc's fire chief said last week that he didn't have the funding to staff the fire engines. >> i'm audrey barnes. gaithersburg officials are investigating some property perks, a few employees have gotten for years, without paying a dime of taxes on them. a city custodian is living rent free in an efficiency in the community center. another employee is paying $704 a month to rent this city owned house on south frederick avenue. and a public works supervisor

has rented a city owned 1700 square foot home for decades for $350 a month on dogwood drive. >> we knew it was a rental house. we knew the city owned it and we knew he was a city employee that he was living in there, renting it. we had no idea what the arrangements were. >> the state code says city owned property is tax exempt if it is used for governmental purposes. that's all part of the investigation. >> you evaluate those properties based on what is in the best interest of the public good today. i would say whatever arrangements we make would be opened to the public. they would be based on fair market value. >> i'm suray chin where acting chief took over the position of top cop 12 days ago in a swirl of controversy. the latest embarrassment involves two officers under investigation. chief cook would not confirm reports that allege one of the officers sexually assaulted a woman.

in the past two weeks, a total of four employees with the alexandria police department have been arrested, including former chief, david baker on dui charges. in light of these issues, the acting chief is working hard to regain the trust and creditability. >> our public image, of course, is damaged somewhat when something like this happens. if you will, it is more of a strike to the agency and not a knockout. and right now, president obama is at the podium at that fundraiser in mcclane for the creigh deeds. let's listen in. >> so, we are grateful. part

of the reason i like being in virginia is because there is a tradition here that has been developing starting with your former governor and now outstanding senator, mark warner. [ applause ] a tradition that starts off with the basic idea that we are all in this together. mark warner came in at a time when the fashionable politics was the nasty kind of politics. the slash and burn politics. the arguing and arguing without everything ever getting anything done kind of politics. and mark warner said you know what? we can try something different.

we are going to be pragmatic instead of ideological. we are going to try to bring people together rather than push them apart. we are going to make sure that we listen to other people's ideas. we are going to bring labor and business together. we are going to make sure that we don't have a southern virginia and northern virginia, we have one commonwealth virginia. [ applause ] and so what he was able to do was to shape a kind of politics here in the commonwealth that has resulted in one of the best managed states in the country. a state that was able to make investments in education even as it was dealing with the fiscal crisis. a state that has now been able

to navigate some of the toughest economic times that we've seen in the history of the country. because of that foundation of stability and practicality and hard work. tim kaine -- >> president barack obama campaigning, putting in a good word for his fellow democrat, creigh deeds. who would like to be governor of virginia. he is down in mcclane making that speech at a big fundraiser. we'll have more on that story later on tonight at 11:00. meantime though, tony pan the weather man here with the weather first. we have rain, sun, and clouds. we have the sun back again. what's next? >> we covered all the basics. it turned out to be a nice afternoon. the front that came through early afternoon with the rain showers dropped in humidity. the wind shift in the midwest nd actually very pleasant t ri nogh w.t' s lent a look coiondupnsitpe, 7 and low 80s under partly cloudy

skies. 81 degrees in manassas. 76 downtown. everyone watching us north and west of the city has a chance to drop into the 50s by the morning. most of you will stay in the 60s around the city and near the water. a great day coming up on friday. we are going to turn up the heat over the weekend. we'll talk about that in a few minutes. we have a quick update to that breaking news we told you at the top of the hour. st propane gas leak has now been capped and any danger is over and of course nobody was hurt in that. we'll get the final word on it later on in this broadcast or more at 11:00. now on to today, here in dc, they moved to get a bit tougher on major league criminal offenders. mayor adrian fenty signed the public safety bill in the law, so now the district with increasing penalties for violent crimes. six of seven north carolina men accused in a federal terrorism case have been transferred to a jail in virginia. federal authorities said they are being held in farmville.

the u.s. marshal's office did not say when or why they were transferred, but did say the marshal service has a contract with the jail to house federal prisoners. that is a detention hearing for the seventh suspect will be held on monday. he is still in north carolina. >> right now, a prayer vigil is being held in pittsburgh for the victims of that health club rampage. new details are out about the gunman. george left behind videos that showed how desperate he was to attract women. >> my objective is to be emotional and be real and be emotionally connected with people. she has to feel good about this. they match, the woman will be impressed. >> wow. police say he was filled with hate hatred for women. it's official, judge sonia sotomayor is the next justice of the u.s. supreme court. >> the ayes are 68 and the

nays are 31. >> al franken presiding over the senate there. with the overwelming support of democrats and the nod of a dozen republicans, the 55-year- old is now the first latina and third woman to sit on the u.s. supreme court. spectators said a misty eyed sotomayor fielded a call. she brushed off questions from reported quote, i'm going to be with my friends. >> casting her vote in favor of judge sonia sotomayor. it was the first time the maryland democrat has been back to the senate chambers since she had ankle surgery. >> right now, the senate is debating whether or not to add $2 billion more to keep that cash for clunkers program going. a vote could happen by 8:00 tonight. the $1 billion that was used to start the program is expected to run out by tomorrow. >> twitter is hacked and sends the social network site into a

tail spin. we'll have more. plus a man sneaks a gun into jail. what's more shocking is how he with us. weio 'll with us. we'll be back in 65 seconds. fa@

hackers hacked the country's most popular social networking sites today and we are learning that even your personal computer might be infected. lindsey is in the web center with more on something that scares us all. lindsey. >> derek, i talked with a cyber security expert today. he says hackers used twitter and facebook's own users to attack the site. it is possible that members own personal information has been exposed. >> hackers were successful today taking down twitter, freezing up facebook, and limiting live journal. >> it's crazy.

it's like i deal with it during work. >> the blogs about cyber security, he says the sites were victims of a distributed denial of service attack. >> where thousands of computers can be taken over and used to attack a single website, overwelm it with traffic and bring that site down. >> we may never know who was behind the attack, but he believes it likely originated overseas and could even be linked to organized crime. >> some people might do this for malicious fun, but there's money involved. >> that's the scary part. users may have icd keon a link which looked legitimate, but their computers were infected. and the attack has the potential to take information that makes stealing a user's identity very easy. >> 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 pud ite nttho people doing

of hepeople doing this. >> op recommends heplat p e eo wos, pah ir pa their systems, and update their antivirus software. >> we will see these types of attacks again in the future, that is why it is so important, derek, to protect your own computer. all right lindsey, thank you for that. a legacy home can be a great thing to pass down, but there are things you need to consider before you sello tlllaretivere pu. your soinso rt pa both parties e arr.ea l bankrate.com says consider saowncfinee nale owne finance laneuryore the the moy nthlpatsym enctnt ly to yo u. haor yoveurlyfayopurchase 50% of your homed anrae ara me mortgage for halfit vas lu e.r remops ttio keepthe home in the value, go to wusa9.com and click on living smart. coming up, one student's very unusual punishment after getting busted with a cigarette. that's coming up. plus, tony is back with that

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welcome back. an obese inmate in texas had a secret. he was packing heat. but officers never found the weapon even though they searched him several times. the gun was tucked safely between his layers of fat. 25-year-old george weighs in at 600 pounds. he was searched three times, even showered and police never noticed the weapon.

not only did he have a gun, but two magazines in there. right now he is home out on bond. >> we teach the officers to lift up and look under. they can be so big that just basically short of strip searching the person and do cavity searches, you could miss something like this. >> obviously you could and did. he was charged with piracy. he is now charged with having a prohibited item in a correctional facility. are you into hypnotists? she went out on a date and without her knowing it, he tried to put her in a trance. we emphasize the word tried. she freaked out when he tried to kiss her and now he has been fined for a transkiss. this went down in south korea. and a student got busted for having a cigarette lighter in his locker. what did the teacher do? he forced him to smoke 42 cigarettes for four hours as

punishment. this happened in malasia. the teenager was a model student and his teacher did not want him to stray off the straighten arrow. the school apologized and said this is not normal. we don't do that often. really, you do every now and then? but not too often. okay. just once a week or something. whenever we need to. whenever it comes up. rough over there. >> it is indeed rough. last night we were talking about the lack of tropical actions. >> now we find out why. >> the el nino is playing a big part of it. when the experts came out with the tropical forecast, it was supposed to be weak. it ramped up. >> it got stronger. >> the little guy got stronger. it's not the only factor. that's a big factor, but not the only factor. i have to remind you, we are going into the heart of the tropical season. august, september, october is the pivotal point. >> is there anything out there?

>> no. there's nothing. >> we have to make it to the 27th without a named storm to set a record. >> 27th of august. >> that happened back in 1977 or '78. i know somebody will write in to correct me. let's see what is happening here at home. not going to feel tropical tonight. as a matter of fact, it feels comfortable. we will get a break before we turn up the heat late in the weekend. 86 tomorrow, but still shooting for mid 90s on sunday and monday of next week. but tonight, very nice. after the rain showers went by, the humidity dropped, the temperatures will go into the 50s. kind of what happened at the beginning of july. northwest wind at 5 to 10 miles per hour. during the day tomorrow, mostly sunny skies, a pleasant friday. the high temperatures in the 80s. no humidity. sunrise tomorrow morning at 6:15. right now, 76 degrees at national airport with a dew point of 62. the dew points dropped into the low 50s in the northwest suburbs. that dry air is sinking down

out of pennsylvania. it is 80 degrees at haggerstown. 76 at winchester. that's because they cleared out a lot quicker than the folks watching down south. that's only 73 at the naval air station, but that clearing will work its way in from the north to the south. everybody will wind up shortly after midnight. the system that brought the rain showers is pushing off of the beaches and all the thunderstorms and everything are going along with it. still picking up a couple of thunderstorms across the coastline. most of that activity is weak. there were thunderstorms earlier this afternoon going across earlier this morning. no severe weather reported, but over an inch of rain in some of those storms in a short period of time. nice big area of high pressure coming in over the ohio valley. that is why we are forecasting a great day to close the workweek. as we have been talking about, the jet stream is going to take a big buckle over the weekend, move up into the southern part of canada.

that's going to allow some of the heat that has been stuck in the southern plains to briefly visit the mid atlantic region. for most of the summer, we will get shots of hot weather, doesn't last long and we will continue that trend here on sunday and monday. as the heat comes in, in the form of a warm front on saturday, there's a chance of a couple scattered showers and thunderstorms and the heat will come in. high temperatures mid 90s on sunday and monday. the heat index will likely be up around 100 degrees. it's not going to last very long. another front is going to come in on tuesday and wednesday and that will knock the temperatures back into the 80s by that time. >> a two-day heat wave hanging in there. >> that's it, but let's focus on tonight. tonight is going to be great. >> we have a weird news file and it is something that will impress you. others will say hey, what's wrong with that? it's a doll that breast-feeds. i kid you not. a spanish toy maker came up even comes with a special halter top that little girls wear as they pretend to breast-

feed the doll. we got the video and it is creepy. the halter top has dazeys that come undone just as easy as the flaps on a nursing bra. this is weird. the doll translates as glutinous baby. something about this is just creeping me out. >> i agree. agreed. we want to hear what you think, send your e-mails to mcginty's m. ghnewwiw e no bt lldres mailba@ 9news now will be right back. gó