dc taxi probe. they have more targets in mind as they investigate. federal health warnings a new warning about a common flu remedy for children. good morning. welcome to 9 news now. thanks for joining us. today is monday, september

28th. it is a blustery day in our neighborhood, and kim martucci has more for us. good morning. >> andrea, i'm watching a couple of things. first, a round of showers plans to blast through here not long after the lunch hour. folks to the west will see this first. it will quickly move through and the other thing is it will mix fast wind thousand the surface. this is the leading edge of the change in the air masses. temperatures will be dropping by tomorrow. before that happens we will get gusty winds in here. 63. winds to the south increasing to 15 miles an hour. later today, they will be west to northwest. up around 15 sustained to 25 and then gusting to 30. so, the temperatures are warming up. we will get one more day in the 70s, but by the afternoon a lot different, angie. very gusty winds as everyone drives home. how's the drive in? >> what do we say with that, kim, two hands on the wheel but

you want to know about the drive right now. looks like we are slow across the region. we kick things off 66 eastbound from nutley to the capital beltway. that will be the main delay. the maps, show you the inner loop. from braddock to 66, i'm estimating that drive time at 38 minutes. we are checking out 395 under sunny skies. great until you hit the pentagon and slow from that point to the 14th street bridge. to the outer loop we are delayed from new hampshire to georgia. and wrap it up with a live shot of northwest dc at 8th and h street. watch those pedestrians overall no accidents or incidents to report. andrea, over to you. we begin this morning with breaking news out of landover hills, maryland. 9 news9 news has found out a body has been located near ascension lutheran school. we're told by police the body

was found around 7:30 this morning in a playground behind the school campus. not much is known about the case at this time but we will update the information when more is available. the fbi's investigation in to bribes in the taxi cab industry is beginning to tighten. sources closest to the probe say jim graham may be a target. alex trevino is live with more. >> reporter: the fbi appears to be peeling off layer after layer in to this investigation that includes alleged bribes at the dc vehicle inspection station in southwest. sources from news nine say that both a dc councilman and his chief of staff were on tape talking to who they thought was a cab company representative when in fact, that rep was an undercover fbi agent. 9 news now first learned cab drivers were leaving $20 bills in the ashtrays of their

vehicles. some inspectors were allegedly taking the bribes as payment for overlooking deficiencies on the cab that should have earned them a rejection sticker. >> a second part of the probe center on city hall. the feds arrested ted loza, chief of staff to jim graham. ted loza is charged with accepting trips, gifts and bribes of $1,500 in exchange for legislation introduced by gm that favored certain cab companies. >> we fully believe once all of the evidence has been put in front of the jury he will be completely vindicated. >> reporter: sources tell 9 news now that councilman graham is a target of the probe. the ward two councilman has done nothing wrong and knew of no wrongdoing on ted loza's part. >> our sources say that bribes exceeding $150,000 was offered

to the dc cab commission and he went to police and the investigation led to the fbi investigation. 9 news now and wusa9.com. virginia's republican gubernatorial candidate is hoping to appeal to the black voters. mcdonnell is taking advantage of a recent snub of his opponent by wilder. wilder the nation's first elected black governor hasn't endorsed a candidate but recently blasted deeds for opposing limits on gun purchases. new documents show a move made after june's deadly metro crash was more to appease the public than fix the safety issue. the transit system announced the oldest series 1,000 trains would be moved to the middle of the cars. the striking train in the red line crash was a series 1,000 and it sustained catastrophic damage. the "washington post" has obtained documents showing

metro despite the transit agency's claim had no scientific support for moving the older trains. rather it was viewed as a public relations effort. new this morning, pedestrian chairman ben bernanke heads to captiol hill on thursday. he is expected to defend the central bank and its powers. he is expected to oppose a measure seeking to remove the fed's authority to supervise banks. he's also fighting to keep consumer protection under the fed's control. and u.s. health officials have issued a public health alert about liquid tamiflu for kids. they say parents could give their children the wrong dose to treat the h1n1 flu because the dosing instructions don't always match the measurement markings on the syringe included with the drug. they may be in teaspoons while the syringe markings are in milligrams. doctors are urged to look out for the mismatch. one of the first lines of defense against any h1n1 flu

outbreak will be our health care facilities. joining me with more on hospital's perspective is tracey truman with faulkier health. good morning. how are you? >> good. thank you. >> reporter: how prepared are the hospital systems especially in northern virginia for h1n1. >> very prepared. we have been planning for pandemic influenza for years now. this has not caught us off guard. we have been stockpiling caches of supplies and equipment. we are fully repaired to meet the challenge of our community. >> reporter: when you say you have been preparing for this, we were talking a couple of years about avian flu and that would be the pandemic, stockpiles of virus for h1n1 versus avienna. do you have something that can meet the needs of h1n1 flu victims. >> we are working hard with the

department of health and cdc to make sure we as a state and region are prepared. it is handled mostly at the state level but of course we have inventory at our local hospital and are prepared to meet the needs of our patient if they present with that. >> since school is back in session, are you seeing an increase in the number of patients coming in with h1n1 versus the summer? >> sure. it is busier than you would expect this time of the year but at faulkier hospital we haven't seen the surge they have seen in other parts of the nation, but it is widespread in virginia and we think it is just a matter of time before we experience a surge ourselves. >> reporter: what is interesting is how you are using essential networking to get the word out. explain how twitter and other social networks will play a role. >> we are trying to get on board with that. we have social networking platform that is secure.

it is called nixel. and it is available to jurisdictions as well as hospitals and nonprofit agencies. you subscribe like you would with twitter and try to push the information out to those who have subscribed to give them information realtime about what is going on in your organization. >> now. we are always focusing on h1n1 because we are preparing for whatever is to come but the seasonal flu is something you have to deal with on a regular basis and health care workers have to be prepared, as well. are they getting flu shots? >> we have started to give the seasonal flu vaccine. we are waiting to get the h1n1 vaccine. we think it will be in the hospital within a week or two and we have got our priority group list of who gets what when and we are ready as soon as we get the vaccine. >> you sound confident. we, as patients or would be patients are happy for that. thank you very much for being with us and we'll be right

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earlier today iran successfully test fired a long- range missile. over the weekend they fired off several short range missiles. it. and poland and france reportedly plan to push for roman polanski's release from detention. the oscar-winning film maker

was arrested yesterday in switzerland over charges he fled the u.s. in ' 78 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. the two countries will ask the u.s. to offer clemency to roman polanski. >> looking at the time lapse tower cam. beautiful sunrise. hardly any clouds around this morning. all things change this afternoon and in terms of having calm weather, all bets are off. later today you will notice those wind speeds gusting to 30 miles an hour. for the time being a pleasant morning ahead of our frontal system which is coming through west virginia. the winds aren't so bad yet. they are out of the south a at 15 miles an hour. the humidity is 75%. clouds on the increase out there in cumberland. 55, 59 winchester. you are seeing the rain first and won't get as warm as saint mary's city, annapolis and dc.

we are expected to go to the middle to upper 70s but rain develops between noon and 4:00 in the beltway. after that i think most of it should be to our east for the evening rush. so those high temperatures around the area, the warmest places like leonardtown 80, fredericksburg 78. pair of 7s for dc. up to the north we will have the rain come in here quickly. 70 frederick. 71 cumberland and 72 with more clouds in winchester. the windy weather will be a three-day even and each day we get cooler. tomorrow we won't have any rain but we will have temperatures around 70 with gusty winds and wednesday, cooler yet. 68 with still a gusty wind. here's how it is on the satellite-radar loop. with that rain a lot of it across pennsylvania. riding north you will be running in to it. southwesterly winds now. later today northwesterly. again, possibly gusting up to 30 miles an hour. 7 is the high.

50 for tonight. as we look at the next seven, there it is. feeling like autumn with 60s on wednesday and thursday but at least through the middle and end of the week we stay dry. peggy fox, back to you. >> thank you very much, kim. it is hard to believe so much of the first quarter of this new school year is already behind us and that means parent- teacher conferences are around the corner. they can sometimes be so daunting. how do you make it easier? joining me is the assistant editor of washington family magazine. thank you for coming in. >> good morning, peggy. >> start off. what is the goal? when you go too a parent- teacher conference you need to have a goal, right. >> the goal is communication. trying to open the lines of communication with the teacher. you want your child's education to be a partnership. in 15 minutes you won have time to coverage large indepth issues but using it as a spring board to get communication. in our family we schedule a

meeting within the first couple of weeks of school so we can get the interface going early on. >> i have never done this t. our teacher conferences aren't until the first week of november. so teachers receptive to a meeting in the first two weeks of school. >> usually. we let the craziness get over for all of us and try to go and have a brief meeting and a get to know you meeting and know we are looking to be involved in our child's education and get that ball rolling on being a partner in education with our teacher. >> great idea. when you go in for either this preor the real conference, how do you prepare for it? >> take some time to think through what you want to cover. are there any questions or issues you want to discuss? jot that down. conferences go so quickly and you want notes to keep you on track with your conference and you may ask your child if there is anything they want you to discuss. sometimes it is hard to bring questions to the teachers, and this is a great wee for you --

great way for you to lee say onwith your child and teacher. >> what are ways to make sure it goes as well as can be. >> be on time and end on time. it is hard when you are talking about your child to stop talking. but sometimes the conferences are back to back and can be hard to fit in it in. >> if you are not going to fit it in, set up a later meeting to have an indepth conversation. and at the end of the meeting make sure you review all the things that you have discussed and hopfully written down during the conference and make sure you and the teacher are on the same page. >> what should you bring up, how your child learns, special issues. >> if there is anything going on in your family that may impact your child's education, that's a good thing to bring up. your child's learning style and the teacher will give you information, as well. you want to make this an open-

ended conversation. be a good listener and speak concisely so you can get through. >> you have tips for after the conference. let's go over them real quick. >> if you have any anything planned don't wait. follow up with a post conference e-mail. that way you can really clarify anything with the teacher and the goal is year long communication. you want to be a partner with your child's teacher and research shows that parents -- kids who have parents who are more involved in their education are more successful at school. this is a way to create that successful partnership. >> great tips. all of this will be on moms like me.com in the family magazine group. we'll be right back after this break.

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visit our website or contact your local agent. we know everyone's looking for ways to save. why not save on car insurance? [ coin drops ] [ high-pitched voice ] thanks. [ normal voice ] you're welcome. get a free quote at progressive.com. if you are a nicholas sparks fan it is time to hit the beach for romance, some tears and a best-selling smash hit. the newest novel is called "the last song. " welcome back. we are so happy to have you here to talk about this book. >> thank you for having me. i appreciate it. >> this book deals with the coming of age story, love, loss. how do you come up with these story ideas? >> that's a good question. i have a tree in my backyard that is full of ideas and when i need a new one i just go -- no. this was different.

it had been a long time since i had written a novel with a teenager protagonist and i said maybe i will write one about a teenager girl and then disney called and said miley called and asked if i had a female story. so. i thought, well, what are some interesting things that can happen in the story. >> you mentioned miley cyrus. you wrote this as a screen play first for the movie that will be released in april of 2010. >> yeah. it will be -- the film will be released in april. everyone finds it first and usually they do adapt a screen play from the novel but the difference for here is there wasn't much difference for me because the story came first. i said, okay. this may work. so let me do the story and flew

out with l.a. and met with disney and the cyruss and said this is novel i'm going to write a do you want it. >> they said sure. but it didn't matter to me i have the story. i had to write them both, what order -- i didn't care which order. it was the same story either way. >> tell us about the story itself without ruining it for people that will run out and buy the book. >> it is fantastic only better [ laughter ] it is a story of a young teenager girl. she's estranged from her father, her parents are divorced and mean old mom sent sends her to the beach to spend time with her father. it is about a summer and the events that change her as a person. it is a story of a father violence daughter relationship. it is a coming of age. i think people will love it.

>> i have to ask you write women so well. where does that come from. >> i have a great mom, and married fairly well and to be honest i like women and try to make them look good. that's why. it is a function of many many things and i think it is largely my upbringing and the people and the women in my own life. >> reporter: so we have to ask you what is next? you have movies coming out. you are working on a new project. >> yeah yeah. i have dear john as a new film. that is starring tatum and the last song with miley cyrus. the lucky one, they start filming that in january. getting close to starting a new novel, just finished building our house. good stuff. >> so happy you came in to talk to us. >> thank you, jessica. >> thank you so much. >> busy nicholas starks. time to look at today's other

entertain headlines. perfect segue in to our segment because we are talking about movies. cloudy with a chance of meatballs had fans coming back for seconds this weekend. the adaptation of the popular children's book held on for a second week, cooking up $24 million in ticket sales. the futuristic action thriller surrogate starring bruce willis earned the number two spot. and fame, the remake of the ' 80s film about students at a performing arts school debuted in third place. conan o'brien is can'ted to be back on the job after hitting his head during a tonight show stunt. the network did not say what the stunt entailed. o'brien was examined at a hospital and released. in local entertainment, 9 news joins some of america's bravest at the uso casino night at she the sheraton hotel.

jen corey deals out black jack at the charity event that supports the area's active military. the time is 9:25. 9 news now will be right back. lr;

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weather this a word this afternoon windy. before that gets here you will get showers not too long after lunch and done by 4:00 or 5:00. that will wrap us up. >> that is it for us at 9:00. the next news with kim and j.c. at noon. and we will see you tomorrow at 4:55.