from the first local station with news in high- definition. this is 9news now. "this broadcast realtime captioned by becky lyon." good evening, i'm lesli foster. we begin with a check on the weather. topper shutt, it's been a stormy afternoon. what's next? >> most of the storms south of us, lesli. still under a severe thundersnirm war ngfor st ry's 'scounty. for a coupminutes. moofst nutes. ost of the achaenbes has been through . the nort th e northern neck and will zoom down to the onh. ti meom e e th adrnrntoo wain the tornado warning. no confirmed re r s chesin offara4 ines of raia pe per hail. now d anhail. now aw ayomfril away from sandy point. r soy yavraheouin willin 15 in soba so again, that'sn,atetprtyprm over hdoa e coav le redo have a couple more thunderstorm delo to tothe north west th west of to mber. ndlaard . isththe isthe last th minutes. il asrara ins it crosses 522.

we will go to the computer. forecast then looks like this. for tonight thunderstorms and then muggy. it will be in the 70s everywhere tonight. winds out of the southwest at about 5 to 10. we will come back and talk about our prospect for more thunderstorms yet again tomorrow and more on bill. bill is a massive category 4 hurricane. lesli, back to you. >> all right. warning to drivers now. sky 9 above the work on the intercounty connector. you want to expect delays on 95 between baltimore and washington, that area. between route 198 and laurel and route 212 and beltsville. closures in southbound lanes start as early as 7:00 p.m. and northbound lanes could close as early as 8:00 p.m. southbound lanes are expected to reopen by 6:00 a.m. northbound bound lanes by 7:00 a.m. connecting u.s. route 1 with interstate 270. wilson boulevard still closed between emerson street and

north green briar street. the power company is repairing a utility pole hit in a car accident earlier today. crews hope to reopen wilson boulevard by 7:00 p.m. tonight. virginia general assembly announced huge budget cuts and some are calling them the deepest cuts in modern virginia history. surae chinn is in richmond tonight and she files this report. >> reporter: the budget overshadowed a special station covered by governor tim kaine. trying to find a temporary fix for a recent supreme court ruling that requires forensic examiners to be available for cross-examination. instead the focus of lawmakers, a $1.5 billion shortfall. which department is going to take the biggest hit? >> everything is being analyzed. so in terms of big eggs, it is just hard to say. >> what i tend to do is start every agency off with zero- based budging. that way we will find out at's rtimpoant, what's not

important. en>ep rr:tes hiimopponent must close the shortfall fu ret additional taxes that they cannot afford. virginia lawmakers say these cuts will be especially painful because it comes on the heels of another budget shortfall and some lawmakers say the cuts will be widespread. >> there won't be anything in state government that won't at least get analyzed. >> more cuts? >> it is likely there will be more. >> reporter: he made the official announcement today at the meeting at the state capitol. he said the state's revenue is down by nearly 1.5 billion for the budget that ends in june. political analyst saying this couldn't have come rse e time for the democrat running for governor. >> it ans afr ree tepublics an after g ofr wepofor years. everything is with the "it is

time for change" theme. >> reporter: as lawmakers deal with a special session others are working even harder to get past the state's financial problems. in richmond, surae chinn, 9news now and wusa9.com. governor tim kaine says he will announce specific cuts in early september. now to an update on the story we first brought you on 9news now last night. some prince george's county employees could be getting a big refund check from the county. a federal judge says 10-day furloughs they had to take were unconstitutional and ordered the county to give back the $17 million saved through those forced days off. it is a victory for the union which took the county to court and now they may be headed back to the courtroom for a second round of 10-day if you are furloughs that are already underway. >> we are expected to be in contract negotiations and we hope that we can come to some final resolution in this with last year's and this year's potential furloughs. >> county officials say they will appeal the ruling if it

stands threatening massive layoffs. with staffing levels at 10-year lows union leaders say more layoffs would jeopardize public safety. police charged a physician's assistant with sexually assaulting two female patients. he is 49-year-old man. the assaults took place at the specialists office in virginia where sanchez works. right now investigators are trying to find out if more people have been targeted. montgomery county is now offering $1000 reward for information about this week's arsons. investigators believe the same person set fire to several mailboxes and bales of hay. if you have any information contact montgomery police. prince george's county investigators have arrested a man for setting a house fire that critically injured a firefighter. the fire took place last april

in largo. the firefighter was inside the house fighting the flames and suffered severe burns but after months 9nof rehaisb is back on du ty. now to nebraska ven hwrtbenot eses and and wisconsin avenue. the osare some sprawling complexes like the department of lahomee hondsecurity, theirw embassies and urmeem in e thhyants in the city. t dave statter is on nebraska avenue with details about how the fire department is going to handle these issues. dave? >> reporter: lesli, that's the department of homeland security across the street. this is one of the hydrants. it has red around it that indicates it flows less than 500 gallons per minute of water. there is a similar one down the street in front of nbc. those are the only two hydrants in almost a half mile stretch of nebraska avenue. where you have these large complexes, church complexes here, even a couple embassies

down the street. they are still researching as to why these are such low flow hydrants on a thoroughfare. they are planning for areas like this around the city. we joined them on one of those missions today. that one was on oregon avenue. it is a private unit development of 20 homes. the problem there is those are private hydrants. they do not maintain them and can't use the money to maintain the private hydrants and two of the three hydrants don't work. the fire department had a group of firefighters out there doing planning today. they say they are doing similar planning around the city where there is low water flow. one of the neighbors said this. >> they are putting together a plan to have adequate water pressure here to fight a fire not using our hydrants but drawing on hydrants that are

publicly maintained. >> reporter: as for here on nebraska avenue we are reminded by the fire department many of the businesses have sprinklers. it is unclear how much water will flow out of the hydrants. back to you, lesli. >> all right, dave. thank you for that. an elderly man beaten and nearly killed. ahead, hear from the woman who witnessed the attack and helped save his life. plus, inside the nd of a mass murder. medical records for the virginia tech shooter are back . wein wl bebackin less than two minutes. #o)

welcome back. this fact may startle you. the number of women driving drunk is up 30% in the last decade. it is called a disturbed trend. most of the arrests are made at this time of year and labor day. this holiday weekend you will see more law enforcement on the road. >> we are putting all drivers on notice. women and men. that between august 21st and september 7th be our annual late summer crackdown on impaired drivers will be in full force. >> he also addressed the cash for clunkers program today.

some dealers are frustrated about cash delays from the government but lahood says they will get their money. parents can shop with more confidence now. the law drops lead limits in items made r foililchch endrund yse age of 12. ma au gustthth o14 deter august 14th of this arst mu haveand that halal bean nalocationda of e tch ba ti e batch ma keit wi ke it yo to knifoweaor f sointhg in eg thin your child's toy box or oset has been recalled. up next. do we have a deal for you. you can meet the new star of the washington nationals and it will only cost you $1. but first, here is a preview of the "cbs evening news." coming up just hours before election day in afghanistan we will have more of the exclusive

report as u.s. troops fvoters t tonight only on the "cbc evening news." wusa 9 news is brought to you in part by your local lexus dealers. at your chevy dealer. wreith mo eligible models to choose from than anyone. i urf nk yo er al qu ifies to be recycled, you can get a $3500 or $4500 government rebate. a jnousand!t unce if you qualify for the clunker

that means you can buy this 8 rebate and no do pwnnt.. go to chevy.com for details. but there's one little friend you don't want him to meet. the flea. just one in your home can turn into thousands-fast, infesting carpets, furniture, even your bed. to stop an infestation, ask for frontline plus. it quickly kills fleas, their eggs, and larvae-even ticks. it's waterproof. and one dose lasts all month long. fleas are nobody's friends. ask for the vet's #1 choice for dogs and cats-frontline plus.

(announcer) new icy hot medicated roll. for wherever you hurt.

icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. the new icy hot medicated roll. with the roll, pain's under control. the u.s. military says three american troops have been killed in afghanistan. th e mitary has released the name of a marine killed earlier this month. 23-year-old lance corporal. now to baghdad a series of devastating bomb attacks. more than 95 people are dead. hundreds more are injured . the string of explosions targeted government buildings. the iraqi parliament filled with smoke. mortarsmortars on the american embassy. >> these bombings are truly dastardly acts that need to be

condemned by everybody. >> violence had slowed in baghdad until this month and there was talk of tearing down the blast walls that protect the city but today's attacks make that much less unlikely. an arrest made in a vicious hate crime. an elderly blackman nearly beaten to death by a group of men claiming to be members of the ariian brotherhood. one even calling himself hitler. >> reporter: a man severely beaten during what police say appears to be a hate crime committed by three white men tuesday morning. >> he said the boys came from behind and had a bat and was banging him, knocked him on the ground. kicked him. took his keys. and sped off with his truck. >> reporter: this security guard speaking only to eyewitness news called 911 comforting the victim until help arrived. >> his left eye was shut and it was like a golf ball. >> reporter: hours later police

arrested 28-year-old calvin lockner. earlier this year he was accused of beating his wife because she associated with minorities. >> during the interview the suspect admitted he does not like african-americans and we are treating this as a hate crime. >> reporter: police are still searching for two other suspects and the mayor visited the victim in the hospital. >> he shared with me he had been doing this for a number of years and he enjoyed it because it was a way of relaxing. he also shared with me some other concerns that he had about the park. some things that had changed over the years. >> calvin lockner is being held without bail. investigators told him if the victim had been white this crime would not have happened. police are searching for the other suspects. medical records were finally released for seung-hui cho. the records show that a year and a half before cho deadly shooting eea deadly shooting spree

inrg he said he did not have any homicidal or murderous thoughts. in april of 2007, though, cho killed faculty and students and then himself. educators and doctors and health administrators from around the world discussed how to best combat the h1n1 virus. the convention just wrapped up today. >> family, school, community. you take one of the legs away the chair falls over. so what we are talking about here is a comprehensive approach. at this point it is extremely important because there is no vaccine. now, we hope to have a vaccine but our only weapon today is education. snoop the international swine flu conference ends on friday. today we lost another television news pioneer. don hewitt died after a battle with pancreatic cancer. among his accomplishments he

created the "60 minutes" program and pioneer the news magazine format. his death follows that of another cbs news legend walter cronkite. don hewitt was 86 years old. hurricane bill is expected to become a major storm over the next couple of days. here is some video shot from the international space station. topper says it is too soon to know what effect bill might have on the u.s. mainland but we can tell you that bill is a large hurricane 300 miles in diameter with a huge eye and it could close in on bermuda by the end of the week. >> that's a cool picture. >> wow. it is. >> huge storm. >> it is already a major hurricane. >> you were saying we could feel some repercussions of this depending on what it does. >> it is so big that even if it doesn't hit directly. i don't think it will. we are still talking about rip currents at the beach. maybe some minor beach erosion

and maybe a couple of bands of showers at the shore. not so much here. >> we had some big thunderstorms. no warnings in effect right now. also run the risk of thunderstorms on friday. temperatures hovering around 90 thursday and friday. today's case in point, those that develop could be hefty if not severe and then on saturday maybe some of the showers leading into the morning hours then returning partly cloudy. not quite as hot. high temperatures back into the upper 80s. for tonight early thunderstorms. muggy. lows in the 70s. winds southwest at 5 to 10 miles per hour. let me show you live doppler 9000. we zoomed in down to the south and east. now st. mary's county not under a warning but heavy rains still occurring across southern sections of st. mary's county just south of st. mary's city. everything is heading off to the east. not severe but heavy rain. 2 to 4 inches per hour with these storms. we will zoom back out and we

will talk about in mesostorms that are developing popping up here and there. we will go up to the north and west. if you're walking the dogs inside the beltway, you're fine. i think the game will be fine too. pretty heavy thunderstorms. just crossing over now just north. another one just popping up northeast of hancock crossing into adams county eventually. heavy rains possible there. no warnings on those two yet. if we see a warning we will pass it along to you. back to the computer. temperatures. it is toasty. 82 downtown. 90 up in frederick. 78 in quantico. tomorrow morning partly cloudy, very warm. 70s and 80s. winds west-southwest at 10 and by afternoon partly sunny shot, showers and thunderstorms. highs around 90. some of those could be hefty. here is bill. what a classic storm. look at the eye. eye 30 miles in diameter.

average is about 10 miles. it is a massive storm. and it is a category 4 and forecasted to stay a category 4 as we go into friday morning early and friday afternoon it will pass just to the west of bermuda. it will impact bermuda and the east coast with rip currents and beach erosion. next seven days. maybe a couple showers early ontario saturday. nice for the game, though. temperatures will go back in the up, 80s on saturday. hold in the 80s sunday. monday. tuesday. very nice weather. it will inch back up to 90 as we get into the middle part of next week. bill is a monster. if you will try to go to the beach next weekend, maybe some clouds, showers. be careful of the rip current. more on my website blog at wusa9.com. >> all right. we will send it out to sara now live at redskins park. keeping her eye on things

there. >> it is nice for saturday so i'm holding topper to that. redskins starters missing practice. we will tell you what that means for saturday's game and is mike rizz out as the gm? one report mesays he is gone. and steven strassburg. those stories are next ahead. b@

welcome back to redskins park. the game is set saturday with the steelers and at that game the redskins will have a much better measurement of where they stand. that's because they expect to have a full lineup of starters on the field. clouds and doubt cast over those ideas after this morning's practice. chris cooley had lower back spasms. starting defensive end phillip daniels had his left knee drained after experiencing

swelling. same knee he had reconstructive surgery on a year ago and that draining is the same procedure albert haynesworth had done a couple weeks ago. >> every chance we get we want everybody on the field so every day i can't tell you the degree but i want everybody it be able to go. so it is a setback but both those guys i plan to play. >> meanwhile both zorn and the defensive coordinator called out the plays. zorn says barnes has a way to go and blosh saying he hasn't lost faith in the player but he was dispointed. >> in bloshes meeting he went the other way when talking about landry. landry a season ago was

hampered by hamstring injuries but now completely healthy and says he should have six to eight interceptions and a trip to hawaii booked by season's end. of course the pro bowl switching to miami this year but we knew what he meant. >> we would like to see him with some of those big hits, with some big breakups. we would like to see leron create fear. don't want to throw it deep down the middle or even down the sidelines. with him healthy throughout the training camp will be huge. moving on to baseball. when jim bowden stepped down mike rizzo stepped into a role not many wanted but appears he will not get. yahoo sports are reporting the nats are hiring a new team manager. rizzo took over for bowden and has since won the major league, minor league and scouting operations for the organization. injuries and player personnel

all went through mike who gave no indication that this may happen when he spoke to us yesterday about his role in signing steven strassburg. the nats have yet to comment on the story but here is a look at the file of the new gm. he was a boston red sox scout in '03. won a championship with the organization in '04 and then became the direct or of scouting. meanwhile steven strassburg will meet the media friday and you can be there. the team is holding a 2:00 p.m. press conference to anyone that buys a ticket to friday's game. 2000 tickets will be sold for $1. the gates will open at 1:30 p.m. it is a bargain. no excuses not to go. check out the new face of the nationals franchise. we will have much more on the redskins coming up tonight but for now we are live out at redskins training camp. by the way, tomorrow the last two a day session. the the players will be celebrating. >> i can see the excitement now. >> we will be celebrating