records and some students are saying no more. brittany morehouse is live in the information center and brittany, what exactly is it? >> lesli, it's the federal education rights and privacy act. it's the federal law protecting the privacy of students educational records and disciplinary records are included. when a closed campus hearing, where a student is accused of rape, the school usually keeps quiet, but this letter i'm holding here, that could change that. >> a decoration of t-shirts symbolizing sexual violence on campus. the closed pin line at the university of maryland kicks off sexual assault awareness month, so some see it fitting that student journalists here are working on a big break regarding rapes. >> the final piece of, you know, a lot of hard work. >> the final piece is this letter sent by the state's attorney general to a state delegate. it says that students found who committed a sex assault on campus during a disciplinary hearing should be disclosed by name under the public

information act. in the eyes of student journalist here, it's a long fought battle finally won. >> first, i felt like they were trying to protect people. when in doubt, universities always err on the side of nondisclosure. >> experts say this should clear up the cloudy law, for maryland schools, that law protects student records. >> very confusing. it causes schools to conceal a lot of information in which there's a legitimate public interest. >> now students are refiling their requests for names. >> it will be interesting to see if any of the athletes who transferred to any schools, maybe were involved in a sexual assault. >> one woman has big hopes. >> schools do hide. if one state stands up and says we are going to do it the correct way, other states will need to follow. >> telephoned several officials at the university of maryland and did not hear back. i talked with the attorney general's office. they said this letter is not an

order. it's an opinion, which leaves the university and the catch 22 as it seems, the federal law and the opinion of the maryland's attorney general conflict here. lesli. >> does this have an impact on the criminal charges that is very interesting question, a lot of people ask, why don't these women go through the court system and a lot of times, they don't want to. they go through campus hearings. you can bet now that those names are out and these people are going to be paying attention, that perhaps you will have more district attorneys looking at possibly filing charges. >> interesting development there, brittany, thank you for that. now to a sex trafficking charge in maryland. a soldier who was stationed at fort mead pleaded guilty to operating out of his millersville apartment. he is craig allen corey ii. he is charged with conspiracy to distribute drugs and other charges are looming. he'll be sentenced on april 28. police are still searching for a fourth suspect in

tuesday's mass shooting in southeast dc. it was the worst shooting in the district in 15 years. three people have been charged with first-degree murder and yesterday, we learned one of the people charged is as young as 14. audrey barnes is live now from the neighborhood with an update. audrey. >> lesli, at last check, that fourth suspect is still out there. he apparently bailed out of the get away van, which as you said, was being driven by a 14- year-old boy. now while the search continues for that suspect, so does the morning. her best friend, 16-year-old jones died in that hail of bullets here on south capital street tuesday night. she was supposed to be with her, but something came up. her thoughts now are with a 17- year-old girlfriend, recovering from multiple gun shot wounds. >> she is okay, thank god, you know, i didn't lose her either. >> now there's a heavy police presence in the neighborhood tonight as the man hunt continues. and tributes to the four

victims continues to grow. they'll all be honored at a vigil tomorrow night at the southeast church. that's located at 4101 first street southeast. and lesli, even though things are quiet now, the hunt really is going on out there and tensions are running high. i talked to a couple newspaper reporters who were out here trying to get some flavor of the neighborhood to see how they were doing after that shooting and one of them told me someone pulled a gun on them. back to you. >> audrey, all right, thank you for that. we are going to switch gears right now. we are at the height of rush however. how are things looking out there? >> getting stuck in traffic hurts and when the weather is this nice, you want to get out of your car and get out of traffic. coming up, as you can see, due to an accident at river road, so backups all the way to connecticut. right now, that accident has been cleared. as you can see, delays remain. same story on 395 in virginia as we switch on over. lots of traffic here.

north of duke street approaching the mixing bowl. no incidents or accidents, just a lot of volume this thursday afternoon. all travel lanes open all the way to triangle. and we are going to finish up on 14th and independence, all the title basin. traffic, a lot of people down here, tour buses, people, locals trying to see the cherry blossom before it goes away. be extra careful. a lot of pedestrians on the street and we just got word of another accident on memorial bridge coming inbound. we have the same accident yesterday, so a dangerous spot with a lot of traffic going on out there. lesli, back to you. >> brace yourself as we head into construction season. vdot is working on five major road projects. crews are making progress on the bridge. the fairfax county parkway extension and widening i-95. two 1700 foot tunnels metro rail are being constructed under ground at tyson's corner. that's the same area where you should expect major delays. 123 in the beltway is where the

project and the dulles metro rail intersect. >> tysons is going to be the most heavily impacted area over the next two years. due to these transportation improvements. these major transportation improvements. whether you go lookout 7, dulles connector road, dulles toll road, or the capital beltway, you will be touched by these improvements. >> most of the projects are about 50% complete, but they warn to expect delays to be upwards of 20 minutes. did you mail in your census form by today? let's hope yours was legitimate. scammers have been spreading them across the nation. the thieves want to steal your personal information. in some cases, the criminals switched the real form with the fake one and no one realizes what happened until it's too late. >> if they got a scam form, they never got the real one either. the biggest is the social security number. that's the biggest red flag number. >> paperwork will never ask you

for your social security number, your bank information, your signature, and the real forms also have a color background and just ten questions. contamination a virginia tri by tear is soiled and there's no telling how much or how long it will take to clean it all up. >> and johns hopkins says it gives up. nobody gets the name right, so they are changing it, maybe. and devon. >> beautiful weather. it's been out and it's going to continue as we go through the weekend. there is a front that's going to be moving close to washington. could have an impact on our weather later this weekend. i'll talk about long-term prospects for the return of showers and storms. in the meantime, enjoy this weather and i'll have your complete forecast. 

in tonight's consumer alert, good news for buyers and sellers of short sales homes.

beginning monday, the federal government will give financial incentives to lenders to do more short sales. the new rules will increase the buyers chances at negotiating a better deal on a distressed property. on the flip side, not all sellers will be eligible for the program. to find out if you are, go to our website at wusa9.com and click on living smart. johns hopkins is changing its name to john hopkins. officials say since so many people got the name wrong and call them john hopkins, they might as well adjust their name accordingly, not, april fools. they went so far as to have workers pretending to remove the s. so again, it is still john's hopkins and they are not changing their name. now to an april fools hoax that pep co did not find funny. some customers were directed to a false website. it had some untrue statements about rate increases and in addition to that, a bogus

letter containing the same false information was sent to the homes. to avoid the confusion, we aren't going to tell you the address, but to reach pepco, go to ww w.pepco.com. the cherry blossom festival is in full bloom and it's expected to give the dc economy a big boom. we'll have a live report coming up, but first, here's a preview of tonight's cbs evening news. coming up, a new model for campaign attack ads. they're cheap, effective, and going viral. we'll have that tonight only on the cbs evening news.

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. montgomery county police are investigating a suspicious death near ashton. that is right near the howard county line and detectives are trying to identify a man who was found dead in some woods near the banks. a spokesperson for the montgomery county police department tell 9news that man died from multiple gun shot wounds. it's not clear when he died. a mailman who happened to be on a delivery route yesterday says

a stranger flagged him down near the browns bridge recreation area. >> he asked me where we were, what was the hundred block. he was just contacted the police because he saw a body in the woods. he said he poked it with a stick and there was no response and he had kids with him. he was upset about it. >> again, detectives are still trying to figure out the name of this person, so if you know anything about the homicide, call the major crimes division. the number to call, 240- now to a huge cleanup area in western virginia. a csx coal train derailed in nelson county spilling several loads of its cargo. the accident happened just after midnight and right now, crews are still off loading the coal to prevent anymore from pouring out. it's unclear how contaminated it is tonight. the new england area is still on flood watch.

the waters have been devastated. we can tell you that people are having a tough time there. the rain has finally stopped, but officials say the trouble and misery could last for days. rhode island officials are calling this the worst flooding in 200 years. and three dais of record breaking rain has forced hundreds of people from their homes. in contrast, there is nothing but sunny weather in the district right for the cherry blossom festival and with just the right mix for tourists. lindsey is at the title basin. and a lot of businesses are booming now. >> a lot of businesses are booming. they expect a lot of people to come down and people are opening up their wallets on days like this, it's easy to do. restaurants are trying to attract customers. they are offering cherry inspired dishes and drinks.

vendors are selling souvenirs and of course, tour buses are making the rounds. elliot ferguson says hotels are doing extremely well. >> hotels will sell out over this weekend, which is fantastic. because easter is a great time to be in washington, d.c., but not necessarily a very busy time for our hotels. so, the fact that the festival is falling over the easter holiday is good for us, plus great weather. we are anticipating record attendance. >> and of course, they are expecting $80 million to be brought into businesses around the dc area and another $44 million that is going to be brought to businesses in maryland and virginia. so it's very, very widespread and of course, people are out here visiting and it's already packed and just going to get more and more packed out here. live in northwest washington, i'm lindsey, 9news now. >> got to remind them that they can look, they just can't touch. >> it's hard to remind them. >> all right, the blossoms may

not last, what about this weather? >> the weather is probably going to be a fight which is going to last longer, the blossoms or the weather. the weather may win out. we are pushing back rain and thunderstorms that could put an end to the beautiful weather. even into next week. where we are right now, mid 70s in many cases. i checked national, i hate this. as much as i pride my forecast, i was aiming for 80 degrees today. we hit 74 in national. that's a big bust in your forecast. even when it's beautiful, i love to get close to it, but i will freely admit, we didn't come close to that. 80 degrees tomorrow. i don't think too many people will complain. >> not at all. i think we are good. >> 80 degrees tomorrow. i'm going to stick with the guns, go for that tomorrow. 82 on saturday. had a weak front coming in saturday overnight into sunday, but i think this front dies out, just gets killed from all the warm air, the big bubble of high pressure that is in place, not going to make any headway

and keep great weather all through the weekend. temperature may be out west and the lower lying areas. most of us, upper 40s to lower 50s. many of us will push the upper 40s through the lower to mid 50s tomorrow. if any breeze from the south, it's going to be light, 5 to 10. by the afternoon, mid and upper 70s to around 81. here is the setup. this is why you kind of scratch your head sometimes in the world. 80 up in rockville. 81 in gaithersburg. we hit 71. that was right on my forecast. there's little old washington, national at 72 degrees right now. outside of washington, we still have some 80s way out in cumberland at 82. how is maryland doing? well; annapolis, 59. cool down rapidly and made our way into the 70s. lower to mid 70s there, and again, in that forecast, what i was going with. satellite imagery together, you don't see anything on the radar, because there's nothing to talk about and satellite

imagery, we don't see any clouds. continue to see the sunshine and warm air build in. this is going into sunday, still looking great for us here in washington. we turn our attention well west and this is the front that is going to be here overnight saturday through the morning hours on sunday, but makes its way towards this bubble of warm air. that's going to push it all away and the front dies out and taken all rain chances out of the forecast. temperatures tonight, there are the mid to lower 50s in the heart of washington. lower 40s the further out you go. maybe manassas, that's one of our cooler spots. down to 39. tomorrow, going to go with right around what it was today. i'm seeing washington, national, okay, 80. we are going to go again with it tomorrow. zone forecast, way out west. cumberland, 83. you could get a degree warmer than that. winchester, 80-degree temperatures there. 83 in culpeper. i think you could hit that. they were the lower 80s today.

the delmarva. not too far out of the question. seven-day forecast. this is just spectacular weather. we have earned it after the winter we've gone through. 80 to 82, down to 79. easter morning, a bit cool. not going to be all that chilly. some of us, upper 40s to start things out. then we are back around the 80- degree mark for much of next week. we have a big next week. coming up on monday, big opening day coming up, and i don't know if it gets any bert better than that. thanks for that. >> so clinton portis or larry johnson? >> i don't know. unless they get big guys up front to block? it doesn't matter who the runningback is going to be, because they aren't going to run very far. we are used to quarterback controversies around here. larry johnson speaks out on what could be a battle between him. plus, track suits or no track

suits? the bob huggens final four dilema. right after this. in an average week in the u.s., thousands of babies are born prematurely. i am proud to be one of the national co-chairs for the 2010 march for babies. together with the u.a.w., we are committed to raising awareness and funding from volunteers like you. we are confident that, with your help, we can walk together toward a healthier future for our nation's babies. register today at marchforbabies.org.

it's time for 9 sports with brett haber, the best sports in town. >> when you have been to two pro bowls, you don't join a new team expecting to be a backup. for the moment, that is what larry johnson. convince mike shanahan otherwise, the former chief star is now 30 and after several seasons marked by injury and offfield conflict, he joins the redskins. can he supplant clinton portis as the number one ball carrier? johnson said he intends to try. >> i still have a lot left. people forget i didn't really play much in the first couple of years. really, it's smoothing on out. kind of like the cadillac.

it doesn't lose its luster. >> meanwhile, the whining and dining of the quarterback continues. expected to visit the redskins tomorrow and saturday. tennessee safety, eric barry visited the team today. >> all right, if the caps took a vacation between now and the regular season, buffalo won all of its regular games, it would not make a bit of difference. they would not catch -- if the actor says to the director, what's my motivation? the caps have not had much motivation lately, losing their last three and getting outscored 9-1 in those games. tonight, the thrashers come to town. possible first round playoff opponents for the caps and the coach wants a faster start. >> we are not getting it done in the first period and we have having to fight from behind and you play a different style of game totally than you are fighting from behind than when you are playing with a lead. so, would like to get back to playing with the lead. >> as for the goalie

situation, after he got shelled in the last two games, he will get the start tonight. barrly is winless in his last five. it is getting harder and harder to argue against vasquez being one of the best players. he ended his career as the second leading scorer and second leading assist man theterps have ever had. now the basketball hall of fame, voting the nation's top point guard. he is the only player in acc history to record 2,000 points, 700 assists, and 600 rebounds. not bad in a conference that had michael jordan, and tim duncan to name a few. >> winning the award, only myself, and the people around me. so, you know, i'm really happy. >> baseball news today, the o's picking up julio from the cardinals for the ever popular

future considerations. lugo, who won a world series will have his $9 million contract. most of it picked up by the cards. he will be at insurance. >> after waiting 51 years to get back to the final four, west virginia fans plan to enjoy these next five days. the team held it first practice, there is one lingering controversy surrounding the mountaineers and it is a fashion issue. namely, should head coach bob huggins ditch what some called his track suit for the final four? and spruce it up with jacket and tie? the charleston, west virginia daily mail polled the readers and fans say stick with the track suit, bob, don't break the mojo now that you are in the final four. only 10% want him to wear a tie. should wear the basketball net after he cuts it down on monday night, which would mean they won the national championship. what's your take on it? >> it's his security blanket.

had takes him feel good. it gets him all riled up. >> he did say the reason he wears the track suit is, he put on some pounds in the last couple years and his suits don't fit the way they used to fit. it's a concession to the midriff. i think we can all identify with that, but if you get to the final four wearing, you know, a track suit, you got to keep wearing it. how are you doing? >> good, apparently, when you are wearing the track suit. >> i'm really hoping he is wearing clothes along with it. >> he will do a wardrobe change before that, maybe. >> let's hope. that's it for 9news now at 6:00. the cbs evening news with katie couric is next. derek will see you at 7:00. we want to remind you about our early, early morning show. 9news now starts at 4:25. andrea, angie, and howard will help you get your day started. wusa9.com is always