. get the shovels back out. topper is tracking how much snow you'll get. do you still text behind the wheel? >> i text and drive because i can. >> let's see it. we tried it with scary results. we may be going through the long difficult period like the great depression. >> here the frightening details of where the economy is headed. this is 9news now. >> first let's talk about the wild weather. >> high winds and snow showers are all rolling across our area. the question, will it all be done by the morning rush? here is topper shutt with the latest on this wind alert. top. >> i don't think so, derek. in fact, i think it's going to be winding up just in time for the mourning rush. let's start with -- morning rush. let's start with the wind advisory. kind of unusual for the metro area. sustained winds up to 40 miles an hour and gusts up to five miles an hour. that -- 50 miles an hour. that includes just about

everyone. you're under a high wind watch and everybody is going to see wind. we already have. 30-mile an hour wind gusts downtown. 38 in frederick. and a 40-mile an hour wind gust last hour up at bwi. what does that do to the temperatures? it feels like it's in the teens. it feels like it's 14 in frederick. here is the deal. intense winds on friday. check your flashlight and your batteries. and when you drive into work now, watch for down trees and power lines and potholes and you name it. we'll show you live doppler 9000. snow showers are picking up in intensity. as topper just mentioned, it is the winds that will cause us the most trouble overnight. and 9news now surae chinn continues our team coverage from manassas where she is experiencing the wind firsthand. surae. >> reporter: oh, yes. i really want to pick it up. i want to show you the anamo anamometer. you can see it's reading at ten

miles an hour. it doesn't seem like a whole lot. it's feeling like it's 16 degrees out here. and it just feels like it's blowing a lot more. you can just see the side flags right here whipping in the wind and it's expected, as topper said, to go auto head and whip even more. -- ahead and whip even more. that's what they're dealing with. pepco is concerned about tomorrow morning when the winds are expected to pick up. whenever there are sustained winds of 40-50 miles an hour, that can cause a lot of troubles. in the last three weeks we've seen just that. mother nature reeking havoc on the power line with snow, high winds and trees coming down. tree companies have been swamped. if you see a power line on the ground, stay clear from it. both could be energized. they don't anticipate large power outages tonight but that could change as the winds really kick in. >> we expect that between 4:00 a.m.

and 10:00 a.m. we could have the greatest potential for power outages because that's when the wind is supposed to be the highest. we have crews in the offices tonight. we have more crews coming in tomorrow. we will make sure that our customers get their lights back on as quickly as we can do that and as safely as we can given the wind conditions. >> reporter: so i just checked with the utility companies. pepco has 311 people without power. bge 382 and dominion has 1700 customers without power which is not significant. but, again, that could all change. and the power companies are saying if you do have a power outage, make sure you call the companies. the more people who come, the faster you'll get service. you'll find all of those numbers on our website at wusa9.com. in manassas, surae chinn for 9news now. >> and 9news now will be on early tomorrow morning. 4:30 with the latest weather and traffic conditions as well as

any possible school closings. plus you can always log on to wusa9.com for all of the latest. a man sentenced to life behind bars is now back on the street tonight. a judge sentenced raymond taylor to life in prison for a 2005 attempted murder charge. officers say he tried to kill his ex-girlfriend and her two daughters in baltimore. today the prison accidentally released taylor because he was being held in a cell with another inmate who was scheduled to be let out. >> taylor was placed in the cell with inmate johnson which was the first mistake here as we move along in this process. >> if you know where taylor is or have seen him in the area, police want you to call 911. three major stock markets closed down because unemployment claims were higher than expected. the recovery is fault ering and the economy could be heading for the double dip recession. gary nurenberg is watching the

money. >> reporter: the unemployment news came as president obama prepared for his day long health care summit. >> the president is fiddling his time away on health care. this economy is coming away. >> reporter: similar reaction to the unemployment news on cable. >> some are talking about rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic when it looks like the economy is heading for double dip. >> reporter: eric was doing the unemployment walk as september began. >> i have been unemployed for it will be three months this weekend. >> reporter: he is still doing it as february ends. >> is this making you crazy? >> making me crazy. i've been crazy. i keep a good attitude about it and i try to keep a sense of humor. but there are definitely days when you feel like you're at rock bottom. >> reporter: the new unemployment numbers show he is far from alone. it's a real danger that instead of unemployment going down to nine ers, it will jump -- 9%, it will jump to 15. if the economy turns down, we

are headed into depression-like conditions. >> reporter: he says fixing the trade deficit is a key. >> unless the president refocuses on trade policy immediately, the economy is in grave peril and his presidency could fail. >> reporter: the obama administration says it is focusing on the economy. as for eric, he is a project manager in the interactive web world who is still looking hard for work after eight months. >> tough times. thanks, gary. here is a look at our current unemployment numbers in the region. virginia sticks at 6.9%. maryland is at 7.5%. the district has the highest jobless numbers 12.1%. democrats and republicans speaking common ground on health insurance reform. raise your hand if you thought this would get anywhere. president obama invited three dozen lawmakers to sit down together. democrats and republicans did agree on one thing, the system

needs work. the deeper they dug, the more ways were parted. president obama said he would move along with or without republican support. >> we cannot have another year-long debate about this. >> they will see if they have enough to push the vote. the seaworld will not be isolated will the other whales nor will he be banned from working with other trainers. horrified witnesses say the 12,000-pound animal snatched her by her ponytail from the platform of the pool and dragged her in yesterday afternoon. >> tilikum just shot off like a racket and then he came back up, bobbed up and then he had somebody in his mouth. >> this is the third death

tilikum has been involved in. it was one of the three orcas for killing a trainer back in 1981 after a woman fell into their pool and in 1991 it killed a homeless man who jumped into the pool after park hours. more headlines from across the nation tonight. a man who opened fire on police in central california is dead inside his house. this after a day-long standoff and a fierce exchange of gunfire. the police say the man killed one officer and citly wounded another -- critically wounded another. al qaeda was calling the shots for the attack last fall in new york city. it was designed to be like the one in 2005 in london's subway bombings. a massachusetts prosecutor wants a new investigation into amy bishop and the killing of her brother back in 1986. that death was originally ruled an accident.

bishop is now the woman accused of killing three faculty colleagues at the university of alabama huntsville. crossing the line or just good kind of clean fun? caught on tape two teachers getting down and dirty in front of their students. plus we put moms, teens and even bus drivers to the text. the frightening results when people try to text and drive in tonight's safe and sound report. topper. the winds are getting very, very strong. we'll take you out with your wake-up weather. 8:00 in the morning. we'll see wind and snow showers. it may look scary at first. temperatures 26-31. wind chills in the teens. we'll come back and tell you how long the snow showers will last and how much is going to fall. there will be some accumulation. stay tuned.

we're the watchful ones. we like to know where things stand. we keep a close eye on what we have and what we spend. suntrust would like to applaud our solid financial ways. now when you pay your bills online you'll not only gain more control of your money, you can also earn up to one hundred and fifty dollars. find out more at suntrust.com/solid live solid. bank solid. suntrust.

a teenager in maryland is facing charges tonight after an accident sent two of his friends to the hospital. it happened this morning near the high school in columbia. the 17-year-old tried to drive across the intersection but he collided with a trash truck. the impact forced the teen's car into a volvo with a mom and her baby inside. they were not hurt. >> all of his friends were in the guidance this morning. everyone is here for them. >> do you get nervous when you go through that intersection every day? >> i actually do.

since there is no light, it's dangerous. >> that young driver faces charges of negligent driving. all passengers in the car had to bewaring their seat belts. a local rape victim speaking out not that her attacker will be sitting behind bars for more than a decade. >> he was hitting me with a closed fist. i was basically in and out of consciousness as he was doing this. it was surreal to see him at first. it's a lot to process to see someone like that again. but it was a big part of, you know, all of the closure just to see him in the end taken away. >> last year the university of maryland senior had just left this campus bar and gotten into what she thought was a cab. well, that is when the 21-year-old said he attacked and raped her. he pled guilty to second degree rape and assault. two teachers in canada are in a lot of trouble after

getting a little carried away during a school pep rally. take a look. the teachers are part of the dance competition when their routine started to resemble something you might see in a strip club. the female teachers even placing fake money in the man's pants. many of the students cheered them on. others not finding it too amusing at all. school administrators have now suspended them. in wisconsin, a teen convicted of using facebook to blackmail dozens of classmates into sex has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. the 19-year-old is accused of posing as a girl on the social networking site and tricking more than 30 male classmates into sending him naked photos. he then used the photos to blackmail some of them for sex. california lawmakers are looking to clean up the language in the golden state. for one week, cussing not allowed. of course there won't be any legal enforcement of the measures but lawmakers are hopeful it will promote harmony

across the region. several schools in california have also started no cussing clubs. there are all sorts of conflicting studies out there about texting or talking on your cell phone while driving. there is no impact and there are others that say it's as dangerous as driving while drunk. so we decided to conduct our own informal test as a part of our safe and sound campaign and frankly the results were down right scary. >> i text and drive because i can. >> i've talked on the phone. >> every once in awhile, you can't help it. >> i drive and multi-task a little better. >> teenagers, some young professionals, a mom, a driving instructor and a school bus driver. we put them all to the test. >> let's make a dry run here. >> all state insurance set up this test. hit a large cone, that represents a child. a smaller one is a barrier or a

curb and a few other surprises. >> are you ready to start? >> yes, let's start. >> the test quickly shows driving with one hand bad idea. >> whoa. look out. >> i got hit by a ball. >> this teen tries texting and driving. he nearly hit the cameraman. >> sorry. >> and this mom didn't do much better. >> i text and drive every day. when they threw that soccer ball at me. >> i actually ran over a kid. >> even the professionals had trouble. >> i'm trying to juggle eight different things at one things here. >> this man teaches accident avoidance. and he can't drive much better either. >> oh, yes. you can't do it. >> and giving our drivers a hands-free device didn't help much. everybody took longer or hit a cone or missed a light. >> i did worse on blue tooth than i did on the regular phone? >> really. >> yes. >> now it's our school bus

drivers turn. >> hello. >> holy cow. >> she hit cones, missioned obstacles. she just -- missed obstacles. she just couldn't pay attention. >> i do better looking straight, using my mirrors. i do much better. >> remember, those cones that they kept running into, each of those represents a child. virginia, maryland and dc all have some form of prohibition against driving while using a phone or texting and there are four bills pending in the u.s. congress right now to push more states to regulate cell phone use behind the wheel and federal employees are already banned from texting while driving. you don't want to miss david letterman tonight. arlington native and oscar nominee sandra bullock is with them as well as drew brees. that's after 9news at 11:00. the duke ellington school of the arts has lost critical funding because of budge terry

cuts. dick et cetera for tonight's concert started -- tickets for tonight's concert. stevie wonder has won 22 grammies in his career. >> even if you aren't going to duke ellington, how cool would that be. >> that would be cool. it's going to be cool outside. >> the wind, wind chills, and i think the snow showers will pick up in the morning. >> super. >> give yourself some extra time. here is the forecast. the next three days, now showers primarily -- snow showers primarily in the morning. we're in the 40s for the high. then on sunday we're in the 40s but dry. partly cloudy skies finally. here is the nine micro cast model. this is midnight. there are snow showers just to the north of us around baltimore. look what happens, though, by 6:00 a.m. they get into montgomery county and then by 9:00 they spread over the metro area. it's not going to take much to

make people freak out tomorrow. snow showers will do that. they'll go away pretty much in the afternoon. a few may linger to the north through the evening hours. a little closer to the center of the storm. but, again, bad timing with the snow showers tomorrow morning. now, because of the snow showers, we're going to have a little bit of accumulation. we talked about this last night. a trace to two inches. dc south to west maybe two inches and extreme montgomery county that is posted on our website at wusa9.com. high wind warning, snow showers, trace to two inches. winds north, northwest at 30-50 and gusty. we don't type that in too often. now, let's look at live doppler. there are snow showers already showing up most of which are north and east of town. we'll zoom into this. these are just going to grow and slowly move southwest ward but pretty good showers in baltimore on the west side of their beltway.

all right. let's go back to the computer and we'll talk about what is going to go on tomorrow. it's going to be kind of a slow commute. high winds, snow showers reduce viz inlt and some -- visibility and some slick spots. temperatures 20s-30s which means wind chills will be in the teens. westerly 25-40 and gusty. a few leftover snow showers in the afternoon primarily north of town. winds west northwesterly at 15-35 and gusty. satellite picture radar combined, look at this storm. it's a monster. it's going to make a loop back into pennsylvania. that's what is going to drive this down to the south and then it will slingshot very slowly out to sea. what is it doing up in new york? we have a live shot for you. check this out. it's pretty impressive. it's snowing sideways pretty much right now. it's going to snow it looks like for the next 12-15 hours. get ready. all right. let's go back and we'll talk about the seven day. we're looking at snow showers

tomorrow. 37. windy through friday. maybe a flurry on saturday. not a huge deal. we're back in the mid 40s at least. mid 40s on sunday. upper 40s on sunday which is meteorological spring. march 1st. i have a few flakes spinning around on tuesday and wednesday. it's not like we don't have big storms in march. and then mid 40s on thursday. >> boy, do we need spring. >> we do. >> a reminder we start tomorrow at 4:30 in the morning. >> thanks, top. we forget high school program in the nation and they had a big night at the school tonight. if the walls could talk, they would have some stories. the program closing its ledge dairy gym. to -- legendary gym. tonight we'll see the emotional farewell there. and then the latest mascot coming up.

it's time for 9 sports with brett haber, the best sports in town. >> you want to talk about a home court advantage. from 1961 to 1976, the dematha stag in their home gym never lost. it was that building where the coach coached all of his 46 seasons and tonight the door closed. after 60 years tonight the final game at the gym. dozens of alumni coming back to say goodbye, including wooten himself. the staingz went out inside. robinson to naves and then a guy with a little nba pedigree to him. damatha closes the gym with a win. up a couple levels, ilgauskas we hardly knew you. he was released by the wizards

today. they al loud him to re-- allowed him to resign with the cavs if he want. karon butler is em broild in straw gaze. everybody has getting a kick out of it. but the nba ruled that he must stop. the league didn't explain why. karon may appeal. the list of things the nationals needed this off season was so long it should have been printed on a scroll, like the one that santa uses with the gifts. but the first item on that list would have been a number-one starter and they got one. ten-year veteran jason marquis is that man getting acclimated to his new surroundings. he won 15 games for the rockies last year. he posted double digit wins the last six years running, exactly the stabilizing force the nats need. >> i'm going to try to come in here and bring some veteran leadership. get some good plays and have an

opportunity to do something good here. they have to realize the potential and stay within the realm. >> now the latest from the winter games in vancouver as the olympics reach day 14. the u.s. and canada are each one day away from meeting each other. tonight those two countries metaphor the gold in women's hock -- met for the gold in the women's hockey and the canadians are the olympic champions. both goals by falepala. speaking of the medals, the u.s. increasing its total to 32 with a acylsilver tonight in men's skating. remember the mascot that ingested a live cheerleader. he was back at it tonight.

he decided to go roller blading and knocked them over. [ laughing ] >> in fact, i believe that's why dinosaurs are extinct now because they don't know how. >> that's good stuff. >> [ laughing ] . >> we'll be right back. >> that was funny.

>> we'll be right back. >> that was funny. thanks for watching. 9news is back tomorrow early at 40. be -- 4:30. be t.

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