words and symbols deemed racially offensive. >> it is really sad that people in this day and time are thinking, you know, about something like that instead of education. >> at a school? >> workers tuesday removed the sod that was used to form the graffiti. >> i think it's horrible and they should be held responsible for their actions. >> in addition to their criminal cases, the students could face disciplinary action within the school system itself. i'm audrey barnes. for a second day, hundreds of students showed up at various high schools and they still don't have schedules. school officials blame a computer glitch. john brought a book to bowie high school so his son would have something to do. >> i don't understand at 43 in one room doing nothing since yesterday and today. it is very frustrating. >> they split the max on notice. >> but that obviously is unacceptable and inexcusable and we are hoping to get it

resolved as soon as possible. >> the president has an idea for next year. >> these schedules need to be mailed out during the summertime. that way if there's a conflict with their schedule, they can move forward and get that change before the first day of school. >> i'm scott broome in annapolis where the governor has announced another round of budget slashes, including the closing of state government for five days and employee layoffs. closing down maryland state government for five days, mostly by extending holiday weekends is just the beginning. look for state workers and unemployment lines with layoffs of at least 205. furloughs for all the rest, up to ten days for higher wage employees. another 211 million slashed in state aid to counties. >> the first time in at least 30 years, state spending is going to be less than what it was three years ago. >> these are difficult times and we have to make the decisions necessary in order to protect our priorities and to

continue to move forward to the other side of this recession. and right now, virginia congressman, jim moran is holding a town hall meeting talking about president obama's healthcare reform proposal. pretty big crowd out there, including howard dean, who will have the rest of that story for you at 11:00. earlier today, jerry connolly was holding his own healthcare reform meeting. this one at green spring retirement community. while they were kept in check, outside protesters making their feelings known. digital correspondent, peggy fox with that story. >> in front of the usually quiet entrance to green spring retirement community, angry signs screamed warnings about death panels, socialized medicine. >> i believe it is unconstitutional, unaffordable, and that the government is untrustworthy. >> i feel it would be very bad for america. we have the best system already. >> it's like a great mansion with a leaky roof.

you want to take a wrecking ball and tear the mansion down. >> inside, the room held 400 residents, 100 more were on the waiting list to hear congressman's view on healthcare reform. >> i think if you look at the economics of healthcare, we are in trouble. >> he told them that the u.s. spends $7,000 per person every year on healthcare. twice what all other entry yamized nations spend. much of the burden comes from the 47 million americans without insurance. >> deductibles in the last ten years have doubled. premiums in the last ten years have doubled. copayments in the last ten years have doubled. while insurance company profits have gone up 428%. >> the concerns for residents kept coming. >> i don't think we need to throw out our present healthcare and have a whole new government system. i am totally against the government system. >> connolly told them the plan is to build on the system we have, not to federalize healthcare. one of the biggest fears seniors have of healthcare

reform is that it might hurt their medicare coverage. but the executive director of the state's aarp told the group that is just a myth. >> you think he got to these people who are against reform? >> no. i think there might be a lot of closed minds that are firmly convinced of the wrongness of it and you know, this is government, government, because they don't want to pay taxes. >> in springfield, peggy fox, 9news now and wusa9.com. congressman connolly says he is not endorsing any plan, he is trying to learn as much as he can before making a decision. a dc woman was arrested at bwi marshal airport early this morning after customs officials found more than 2 1/2 pounds of cocaine stuffed in her bra. she arrived from jamaica around 11:00 last night in the immigrations and customs enforcement agents say the cocaine was divided into two packages and specially designed to blend in with her bra.

alexandria has a brand-new police chief. earl cook, cook became acting chief last month when the former police chief, david baker was charged with drunken driving. he later pled guilty and resigned. cooke is the first african american to hold that top police job and alexandria's history. and it looks as though ben bernanke will keep his job as chair of the federal reserve. today, president obama took time out from vacation to nominate bernanke for a second term as head of the feds. mr. obama said he has shown and we show, bold action to help the country through the financial crisis. and speaking of finances, wall street reacting positively to the bernanke move. stocks gained a little more ground today. the dow finished the day up. the nasdaq gained 6 points. the s & p 500 was up 2. an update now on the plan to build a wal-mart supercenter

ar a battlefield. early this morning, e the orang tyunco virginia voted vor fa of building that wal-mart. the vote on e l cociunwas pp ots say ppthe area e erwh ls nerasa grant and robert e. leinmenet battle for the t rsfi time is hallowed ground. t subuppte orsay the store will bring jobs. they point out the area has two strip malls and a fast food joint. work on the project could begin next month. from the hallowed ground to the combat zone of iraq. a big change coming for soldiers at fort meyer. 136 soldiers with the old guard are being deployed to iraq for a year. here, the soldiers stand watch over the tomb of the unknowns and help with the burial services. in iraq, they'll service prison guards at a base near baghdad. al-qaeda claiming responsibility for a string of deadly bombings. they killed 100 people.

the targets included finance, foreign and defense ministries. the attacks were meant to wreck infidelity. belonging to the government of al-maliki. five car bombs that detonated rocked afghanistan today. at least 36 people died in the blast. and 50 others hurt. the bombings appeared to target a japanese construction company. four u.s. troops were killed in another bombing in southern afghanistan. this would be the second deadliest month since the invasion back in 2001. nasa has scrubbed another launch for the space shuttle discovery. the liftoff that was scheduled for 1:36 this morning has been put off again. this time the problem is a bad fuel valve. lightning in the area was a

difficulty. springfield, virginia native is part of the crew. and topper is here with that 9forecast first. hope it sticks around. >> it's going to stick around through tonight. it was pleasantly warm tonight. for tonight, here's your forecast f cl. cloudy, not quite as cool as last night, but not bad. last night everyone got into the 60s. i think low 70s downtown, mid to uptonight. winds t.lighnigh winds light. cewive. ni low to mid d 80 s.at s.downtown. 82edfrk.ic fo frederick. forget about leesburg. 82 in manassas. ico.a ic few clouds offshore and they will stay offshore. we'll come back and talk about what could be a tropical system that could be offshore and what that means for our friday and saturday and that includes the redskin game. thank you top. breaking news for you now involving metro. there has been a fire on the redd line near the station. that fire is out, but metro is

running only single track service between friendship heights and we'll bring you more on this story as we get more news on it. would you like to never have to pay your electric bill ever again? there's a new home in our area where you could do just that. we'll show it to you. plus, high speed on the high seas. al. latest weapon in rs serities a enrswi 9news now at 7:00 will be right back. fa

welcome back. students found out the hard way, not all air space is created equal. sky 9 captured it all. the pilot flew into washington's restricted air space today. military aircraft intersected and escorted the plane to the montgomery plane. the secret service believes they entered the restricted area by mistake. check this out, it's a new hot thing there. a state of the art high speed pursuit boat. it is designed to spot the targets and run them down. one feature, thermal imaging. see how many people are on board and even determine what they are carrying. imagine never having to pay a gas or electricity bill ever again while living in a house that heats and cools itself. there's a house just like that in virginia. it's st first of its kind in

the neighborhood. now some of the top home designers and builders in our area worked on this place. the home has been built with the latest in green technology. >> we have a super well insulated house to begin with, with great thermal efficiency and renewable energy systems. systems produce electricity, solar hot water systems and a heating and cooling system. so you add it all up and you have a house with no carbon footprint. >> wow. it's called the charity works greenhouse. charity work is a local group that encourages projects to improve the quality of life in the dc region. coming up, line up and get rich. at least that's the idea. but one winning lottery ticket could soon be worthless. we'll have the story. plus, topper is back with that full foreca. b@fa

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your credit score is a

window on the future. be sure your financial decisions today will help and nonoharm those t rtimanpo t numb s. first of all, close an account after a rate hike and your a hi hit.l take so keep the t.rd caenjust 's td d oopa g wntodosty lyng gitto pay down or y paf ury yo balances, bu yoep ac ti viactivity be rear nd help de lire ef, a deed btrelief credit cor un loselowill ding y score, but once you es h witter borrowing, those numbers llad he back up. for more tips, log on to wusa9.com. it looks like the housing market turned another corner. for the first time in three years, home prices are going up. rising nearly 3% from the first quarter of this year into the second quarter. but the news is tempered a bit. second quarter prices are down 15% from the same time last year. and car dealers now have another 45 minutes left to submit their paperwork so they can get reimbursed under the just ended cash for clunkers program. the original deadline you remember was last night when the program itself closed, but

after pushing the deadline for the dealers until noon today, the transportation department extended it even further because they are having problems with that website. they say all it takes is $1 and a dream and apparently a lot of folks buying into that one. it is the lottery ticket line today at calbert's. today's megamillions jackpot is up to $252 million. the mega millions lotto is played in maryland and virginia as well as ten other states. now to the other big money lottery, a state employee who decided to spend $2 on lottery tickets was the winner of last week's $260 million powerball jackpot. his name is solomen jackson. they introduced him to the public today. he is playing things close. he doesn't say much about himself or how he is going to spend all that money. and a lottery ticket worth a quarter million dollars is about to become absolutely worthless.

that ticket matched the first five numbers, but missed the megaball in the drawing, but the ticket will expire if it's not claimed by 5:00 p.m. next monday. that ticket was bought at the royal mart in highland springs, virginia. somebody check their change or something. we like this weather today. this was not bad at all. >> 86 is our average. a little hotter tomorrow, but not crazy hot. and we are watching that system off the coast. i'll show you a couple things about that. the forecast first. 91 tomorrow. 81 on thursday. a very nice day. some storms are possible. the bulk of the day will be nice. 86 on friday with showers and thunderstorms and this depends on a couple things, just how close the front gets to us from the west and how close the storm gets to us off the coast. and we are looking at the possibility of some rain during the game. we'll keep you posted.

clear to partly cloudy tonight. not bad, 66 to 72 with light winds. temperatures, low 80s. 81 in gaithersburg, 82 at woodbridge. also 81 in floral. tomorrow morning, mostly sunny and warm. winds southwesterly at 10:00. a little more humid yes, but certainly bearable. high temperatures around 90. satellite picture, radar combined, showers, back into iowa with the frontal system. we'll be watching that approach us on friday and friday night. we'll also watch this system approaching us. it's about 300 miles northeast of san juan. it is moving off to the northwest. not a completely defineable center here. i tell you what, if it hugs the coast close enough, it will affect us anyway, whether it is tropical or not. satellite picture closer to home, a few clouds in the mountains. we showed you this with bill. this is a spaghetti plot with

that system i just showed you down off the coast, northeast of san juan. this is not a good track for us. that would be a direct hit. notice lines are pretty far apart, closer together the lines are, the more confluent. if it takes this track or even the ones far enough out to sea, we are going to get beach erosion. so we'll keep you posted on that. the friday, saturday timing. zone forecast, we are looking at a lot of sunshine. pretty hot. 90 middleburg. probably 92 in dale city. and dry tomorrow. 91 downtown. 88 for annapolis, not quite as warm on the bay. now the seven-day. 91 tomorrow. mostly sunny. maybe a thunderstorm on thursday, but the bulk of the day is fine. friday and saturday, really up in the air so to speak and no pun intended. showers and thunderstorms depending where that system goes, temperatures in the mid 80s. maybe a left over shower or storm on sunday morning. should salvage the afternoon.

look what the temperatures do. 80 on monday and 78 next tuesday. >> saturday looks bleak, though. >> well, let's see how close it gets. >> let's get to our weird news file. you may never see bacon the same way again. okay, you probably will. pig lets with stripes. we call them zi glet'ss. they belong to a farmer who says he was checking on his sow, or female pig when he realized a new guy were strange looking. he calls it the surprise of his life because pigs don't come with these stripes. he says folks have been lining up to look at them. he adds he and his wife have become way too attached to send them to market. the other ones, well you know, you got to eat. >> how do you like your ribs? we want to hear what you think, send your e-mails to mcginty's mail bag. the address, mailbag@wusa9.com.

9news now will be right back.

in the mail bag tonight, we put the question out there a couple days ago as to rumors surfaced that confessed mega swindler, bernie madoff might have cancer. should madoff get the same treatment and get early release if found out he is terminally ill? davis says you got to be kidding me. the answer is a no brainer. no. they shouldn't release madoff because they shouldn't have released the bomber. he is released on compassionate grounds. the thugs showed the people they murdered and the life savings they plundered. these people are sick. i hear you, david. while i always like to err on the side of compassion, if it's possible, it just hit me today, both of these men are sentenced to what amounts to life in prison and just because their life could end earlier than

expected, is it really grounds to go free? and then there was this interesting note from robbin in virginia. i can't understand for the life of me that why it was reported that the obama vacation should be considered a private family vacation when the taxpayers are paying for the vacation. shouldn't the obama's cut down on the expensive vacations since it has been reported that the vacation will cost $20 million. since the country is in economical chaos. first of all, where did you get that $20 million? the house in martha's vineyard rents for $30,000 a week and the obama's are paying that. the money for the secret service would have to be spent if they vacationed at exotic tyson's corner. do you really degrudge personal time with his family? i think he has the most stressful job in the world. the time he deserves is time off. send your thoughts to mcginty's

mail bag. that is our report, i'll be right back here tonight at 11:00 along with anita brikman. log on any time you like to wusa9.com. i'll see you later. have a great one. /pb@fafab@ (announcer) back to school means back to busy mornings. that's why i got them pillsbury toaster strudel.

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this is "entertainment tonight" in high definition. dr. murray's reported drug confession. the alarming mix police say he gave michael jackson before he died. >> valium and propofol injections. the just-released time line to the king of pop's death and what will happen to any doctor involved? then, is there a beverly hills drug cartel enabling star addictions? >> they fall under the sway of celebrities. katherine jackson new interview. released only to "e.t.." >> it's been a long time. >> you've been waiting, grandma? inside the family compound with her grandchildren. plus -- jermaine, jackie, tito, the video that you won't