killer tsunami. two powerful earthquakes set off warnings in the pacific. an open gas line leads to delays in putting out an early morning house fire. and slowly but surely less american droops will find themselves stationed in iraq. thanks for joining us. today is wednesday, september 30th. it is cloudy outside. definitely a chill in the air. let's find out what is in store for us. let's go to kim martucci.

>> good morning. here's our time lapse tower cam from the netherlands carillon keeping an eye on the cloud deck we have and likely to stay with us through the day. sprinkles working their way in from the north and west. 59 degrees and winds the west at 3 miles an hour. the batch of rain i was talking about left pittsburgh behind. it is moving toward cumberland and soon to be northern maryland. we will have a couple of spotty showers skirt by through the middle of the day with cloudy conditions. so the light jacket, umbrella will serve you well. temperatures we have hit 60s out there. frederick is 61. that's the case in easton. quantico only 54. we are, as i mentioned -- oh, we just picked up to 61 degrees and 55 in culpeper. game plan, a couple of showers with cloudy weather. cooler in the 60s. on thursday we will brighten up the forecast and friday it is certainly my pick of the workweek. angie is keeping an eye on the

traffic this wednesday. >> good morning. hey, everybody. it has been a busy morning for a wednesday. by the way, we are half way through the workweek. help me through the rest. on the outer loop specifically at georgia avenue is where we have crash activity reported. you can't see it but it is way back there. as a result of this drivers are backed up starting at 95 an they are losing a left lane. heading over to 270, switching that camera out. minor slow goes as drivers make their way to the split. 66 eastbound from 50 to the capitol beltway we are tracking that trip and 30 minutes or so to make it through there. no incidents or accidents on the inner loop. nice and green from 95 to 66. drivers are moving at a great pace and 395 from the beltway to the 14th street bridge is where the congestion is and that is pretty much stop and go. we are following a couple of developing stories from the

south pacific. we are learning able a powerful underwater earthquake this morning which rocked western indonesia. the u.s. geological survey puts the magnitude at 7.9. early reports say there is damage to buildings in the capital of jakarta. new information about the deadly tsunami in samoa. 100 people are dead. a wall of water nearly 20 feet high slammed in to the islands on tuesday following a powerful earthquake. video and pictures show the extent of the damage. dozens are still missing. president obama has already declared american samoa a disaster area. an open gas line was a major problem that led to minor delays at an early-morning house fire in annandale, virginia. it began at 3:30 on royston street. alex trevino is live outside of the house. good morning, alex.

>> good morning. fire investigators are inside the home here on royston street trying to clear out debris that caved in. everything that was on the first floor is now in the basement. that's where the fire started. this home on the 5,000 ploy block of royston did not with stand the blaze this morning. a neighbor called the fire department when he noticed flames coming from the roof. another neighbor says the home was unoccupied. dan schmidt says the house is believed to be vacant but does not rule out the possibility that somebody was left behind. the search process for casualties can be dangerous. >> the structure right now, there's no first floor to it at all. it does have a basement to it. obviously that's where the gas- fed fire originated from. again, we will try to get in the home as quick as we can under safe conditions. >> reporter: the gas-fed fire did not threaten homes in the neighborhood.

fire crews will work to put out hot spots and dig in the ground to continue the search. the search will take some time for these crews. it is a long tedious, back- breaking process. we will keep you posted with information. live from fairfax county, alex trevino, 9 news now and wusa9.com. >> thank you. a two day summit on distracted driving gets underway today. researchers automakers and safety advocates and lawmakers will discuss ways to keep from causing deadly accidents. they may seek a federal law against using mobile devices while driving. maryland's texting while driving ban takes affect tomorrow. the senate finance committee has dealt a potentially fatal blow to the health reform plan. a group of democrats and republicans voted twice to reject the government-run health care option. the chairman of the finance committee said he would block a

public plan unbecause there isn't enough support to pass it in the senate. >> i can count and no one has been able to show me how they can count up to 60 votes with a public option in the bill. >> reporter: democratic supporters of a public option argue nonprofit government-run health care is needed to drive down costs by creating competition with for-profit insurers. here's a look at the things happening today. today the top american general in iraq will testify on captiol hill about troop reduction in iraq. he is expected to say the number of u.s. soldiers in iraq will total 120,000 by the end of october. that is a reduction of 4,000 troops. also today, at 11:00 this morning, president obama will be in bethesda at the national institutes of health. he'll announce that nih has been awarded $5 billion in grants to support research and

to cure cancer and other diseases and to create jobs. the money is part of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan. beginning tomorrow, you can ride amtrak from northern virginia to new york and boston. amtrak begins new service from lynchburg with local stops in culpeper, manassas, burke center and alexandria. there will be a ceremony later today at the burke center station. you spoke and the district listened. the circumstance lather bus route through georgetown will keep going north to glover park. budget cuts were going to force the city end to the route at georgetown harbor but riders got the decision reversed. a recall for thousands of vehicles currently on roads. we'll be right back.

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announcer: ask your doctor about the latest generation lap-band system. here's a look at stories in the news right now. a new angle is being presented in the case of a deadly home invasion. this comes one day after friends, family of tyrone richardson held a candle light vigil in bowie. today the "washington post" says police want to know if richardson was killed by someone who had been at the house or a party. you may remember he was killed last weekend in front of his wife and four children. police think robbery may have been the motive. a university of maryland medical school researcher is dead after overdosing on a heroin substitute. police say 29-year-old carrie

john died on sunday after injecting herself with boot. it is often used as a substitute to treat recovering heroin addicts. police say she and her boyfriend had been buying the drugs on-line from suppliers overseas. toyota and lexus owners, remove your driver side floor mat before your next trip. it could interfere with the accelerator and cause a sudden surge or crash. toyota says it affects camrys 2007 through 2010. the avalon, 2005 through 2010. the prius, 2004 to 2009. the tacoma, 2005 through 2010. the tundra, 2007 to 2010 and the recall also includes the lexus es-35 o model years

through 2010. a lot for you to get in one reading. so all of this information is also on our website at wusa9.com. kim? >> i heard it. >> i will stop by alexandria toyota after work. i want to remind everybody the green festival -- >> take the door mat out. >> don't i get a replacement 1234? >> no. >> that isn't fair. come to the green festival. we can't wait to see you. we have had a lot of clouds and they have been hanging around with us throughout the morning and they are holding back our warmup. some 50s and 60s on the map. showers north of the mason dixon line. inside the beltway, probably at or after the lunch hour we are

at 61. quantico 56. our friends in fredericksburg 58. we will take you to 64 and not get much warmer than a high of 65 today. more clouds than sun and a few spotty rain showers thanks to upper-level energy that is pin wheeling around huge upper level low sitting on top of quebec. this thing is the center of the spokes of our wheel of energy and one of those spokes is coming down and that is generating clouds and a couple of showers. there it is. we mark it as a dash line called a trough in the atmosphere. it will cruise through with a chance of showers. after that we will have some high pressure build in for two days to bring us a return to sunshine by tomorrow. here's the time line. keep an eye on the cloudy weather throughout the day and tonight for a while. clouds will start to break up and we will improve the forecast as we head in to tomorrow. still cool, though. friday it is my pick of the workweek, 76. over the weekend we will watch

for more showers coming around. this will target the terps game on saturday. we want to kick them out of here in time for the skins game at home. 70 and partly cloudy on sunday. back to you. some prominent hollywood directors, including woody allen and martin scorsese are banding together to demand the immediate release of roman polanski. they are asking he be freed as he fights deportation to the united states for a 30-year old sex conviction. with me is former son of sam prosecutor jim shallock. >> thank you for having us here. >> thank you. >> let's remind people of two things, brilliant, creative director but also the man who did admit to drugging and having sex multiple times with a young woman he knew was a minor. now, the victim has passed -- has asked this goes away. roman polanski is asking it

goes away. three decades later why not just drop in. >> he is should be treated like anyone else. he admitted to statutory rape. i'm not saying he should go to jail but before sentencing he absconded and fled and for 30 years he's been on the lam and he deserves to be in front of a judge to be sentenced for what he did and for his crime. i'm not saying he should go to jail necessarily but he should face his punishment like everybody else. it would be a terrible example for everybody else if he should be treated differently. >> if i am a defense attorney scene hear another prosecutor say he shouldn't go to jail i say, fine, let's talk to the judge. he can try to tie up the extradition for a long period of time. but if he doesn't get bond in switzerland which is unlikely he is sitting in jail while the

fights extradition and it is difficult to fight the extradition. he's a swiss and french citizen and the french do not want to extradite him and have no problem with it but it was something that was statutory rape and not a warranted act. it was something he forced upon her. >> you know, usually you talk of cases 30 years later or whatever, a statute of limitations, but this was something that had a judgment rendered against him. >> the statute of limitations doesn't apply because he was convicted and skipped before he was sentenced. so they can bring him back anytime. >> reporter: there is always the conspiracy theory when it comes to hollywood. he has a home in switzerland. he's been going back and forth to switzerland over the past three decades why arrest him now? >> recently there was a public statement by him in a pleading that said the l.a. district attorney is not interested in him anymore, which ticked somebody off and they saw that and that

facilitated some action. at least that's the reason people think that all of a sudden they went to extradite him. they have tried to extradite him in the past. one time when he was in israel they tried to extradite him and they weren't successful in doing it and now they came around and did extradite him and he will have to face the music here. >> reporter: do you believe he will face the music, if not on the actual charge of statutory rape but the absconding of justice. >> he should. why should he be treated any different? >> i think he will try to cut a deal if he comes back, come in front of the judge and reaching a agreement with the prosecutor saying i have already served time. i have been out of the states for 30 years. i have been punished enough. enough is enough. let's move on and i will agree to the crime. >> thanks for joining us. how safe is the food you eat and how may it impact your health? some things you need to know

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welcome back. time to look at news from the entertain world. here's angie. >> if you ever get a reality show named after you make sure

your name is the catchy part and this is why. tlc is making changes in the lineup. they are dropping jon from jon and kate. the series will be renamed kate plus 8 when it returns in november. tlc says jon will be in the series but not as much as before. emmy award-winning actor john career and his wife have adopted a baby girl. the infant named daisy was born august 11th and was the couple's first child. he has a 9-year-old son from a previous marriage. we have a look at local events around town. junior league of washington volunteered at the book festival on saturday. i believe we have a picture coming up. maybe not. there we go. there's kate and another volunteer. we caught up with other 9 news now watchers at the 23rd hispanic heritage award and tomorrow gomez hosts wrinkle

erase for the cure. at the metropolitan institute for plastic surgery. all proceeds will benefit living pink which supports breast cancer research. got something cool around town to cover or that we missed, send that info and the picks at omg@wusa9.com. >> the leader of one food safety advocacy group says there's no such thing as the stomach flu. she says more likely it is a case of food contamination. the question is, is enough done to keep the public safe and what about our children. with me is a former fda associate commissioner and managing director of food and import safety. doctor, good to have you with us. >> thank you. >> this is a good question, is it stomach flu or a case of food poisoning, food contamination. >> more often than not it is something you have eaten. a little nausea or vomiting or

fever and chances are it is a little dose of salmonella. usually nothing to get too fussed about. don't need to visit the doc and don't need to much. >> not that anyone is trying to do something deliberate but small things can make a difference in what happens inside of our stomach. >> accidents will happen. one interesting thing is people are eating more at home with the economic downturn. so do it right. keep it separated, chill it, make sure you are not contaminating the salad with raw chicken. pay attention at home, not just when you are eating out. >> the health care debate talks about whether the government can provide us with good health care and take care of us. we have a question what the government's role is. food that has been recalled, they are not finding out about

things that need to be pulled from school menus in time. how does something like this happen? >> that clearly edifieds an enormous gap. the school lunch program covers 25 to 30% of schools. it's not everybody. but look at it from a different perspective. moms and dads should say next time you meet with the principal, how do you know when the food you are serving is problematic, there's a recall. the school and the government has a problem here. and there needs to be a system for the school to say on a regular basis is the peanut butter we are serving the kids contaminated, the lettuce, sprouts, whatever it may be potentially subject to the recall and pull it and don't serve it to the kids. >> reporter: the media is telling people what is being recalled and it has lot numbers so everyone plays a role but one new york senator says the government having this delay

says it a wrong and dangerous and we need to take action. what government action would be appropriate? >> this begs the question of safety agency again. where you have the school lunch program under the department of agriculture. a lot of the recalls we are seeing are fdas. different departments within our government and it is down to how good is communication between the food and drug administration and the department of agriculture, sometimes it is excellent, sometimes it is terrible. and it is not consistent. that's the issue. it is fixable. >> it is fixable. >> reporter: this is a phone call or e-mail. >> facebook or twitter. >> there you go. >> and at the responsibility of the health of 31 million school children. doctor, good to have you here. and happy birthday to you tomorrow. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. you've got a strawberry pop-tart,

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campus of the catholic university in the background. >> very nice. today weather, cool today, 66. we'll get the sunshine back tomorrow, keep it in the 60s. the pick of the workweek is on friday, 76 and partly sunny. i have got any tights on. >> yes, we know. it has to be chilly out there and i'm not wearing any. >> i wore mine last night and i wasn't the only one, so. >> that's it for us. the next news is at noon with angie and kim. we will see you again on 9 news beginning at 4:55 thursday morning. ////