weatherwise, thunderstorms this afternoon. mainly south of town, but looking decent for this independence day. hot and humid. the temperatures into the lower 90s. by noon, upper 80s. 5:00, the threat of scattered thunderstorms. by 9:00, an isolated thunderstorm chance. i think it will be south of dy. should be good for the fireworks. this afternoon, a chance that there will be a rain delay with storms coming through. last night the storms came through, and they came through in a big way. a lot of hail. inch and a half in diameter hail reported. damage on the g.w. parkway. that's gone, and this morning we are left with mild temperatures. muggy upper 60s to lower 70s across the board. angie is off, but kris sneed is monitoring minor incidents here. >> minor problems, mostly in the district with the live shot

off capital, a couple of down trees for us to watch out for. it's causing problems on the roadway, and poor driver's car is smashed with the tree there. we also have a report of canal being closed because of a down tree there. going over to florida avenue, westbound florida avenue from 3 3rd and rhode island avenue, we have an accident there. crews are working on the scene. police are directing you around the accident seen there. maryland, the outer loop, there's a few cars on the road. people trying to get to the early spots, and they are watching the fireworks this morning, and then over to 95 in virginia, no problems on the northbound area between the prince william parkway and the mixing bowl. jessica and andrea, over to you. >> in a matter of a few hours, america's front yard will be crowded. >> hundreds will be getting ready for the fireworks and the

concert. >> with a preview of the huge celebration, we will go to surae chinn who is live at the mall. we get the opportunity to say happy 4th of july. >> reporter: happy 4th of july to you. it will be an electrifying feint here tonight. if -- event here tonight. if you follow the rules you will have a great time. bring your cooler but no glass. bring food and plenty of water. speaking of, drink plenty of it because temperatures will soar into the 90s. don't forget a fan, andrea, i'm just keeping this handy all summer long. it's going to be of much use today, and don't forget the sunglasses, that will help out a lot, too. here's other things you need to know. the show at 9:10. weather permitting obviously. 9:10 going on for 17 minutes exactly. don't bring alcohol. that's not allowed on the national mall, no tents, no

grills, and no glass bottles as i mentioned. if you follow those rules, the celebration goes on. >> i'm expecting big fireworks actually, a lot bigger than what they have in california. it is washington, dc. >> we are expecting a great time, beautiful fireworks. >> reporter: well don't forget security will be beefed up. add extra time for that, and also the best thing to do to get down to the national mall is take metro. they expect half a million people. don't forget the smithsonian station is closed for most of the day and night, but it reopens after the fireworks to board then. there will be extra trains and buses then to transport the people who will have it crowded. >> you have the shades ready, we love it. live on the national mall. if you don't feel like fighting with the clouds on the mall, there's other places to see the

fireworks. it's recommended at north burlington point in arlington. you can also join in on the marine corp. at arlington. you can always go to the rooftop at the hyatt hotel. you learn more by visiting metromix.com. it's on or front page, and we will see the festivities at 6:08. unfortunately this morning, thousands of people in our area are dealing without electricity. that means on this hot morning, no air-conditioning. >> the power was knocked out after the line of storms moved through at 6:30 last night. >> right now dominion has 7600 customers without power. petco just over 1200. and pge, 1600. arlington, virginia, appears to have gotten hit the hardest. power lines and trees came down to the yorktown and chesterton

neighborhoods. people there have never seen anything like this. >> in the 10 years i have lived here, this was the most violent storm. the wind had the trees literally bending i would say, you know a 45-degree angle. >> and doe dominion's website has -- and dominion's website has not listed about -- an estimated time when the power will be back on. a man on a bicycle was hit by a tree yesterday and killed. his name has not been released. police will be on the local waterways this weekend. they want to make sure people are not boating and drowning. a lot of times the victims are not wearing life jackets. there's water demo classes the boat owners can take that are

specifically designed for our area. >> a lot of it is knowing the dangerous parts of water. you to recharge the maps to know where the rocks are and where the branches are sticking up. >> boaters need a coast guard certification to go under the wilson bridge. despite the 4th of july holiday, jury deliberations could begin today for the casey anthony murder trial. the defense rested its case on sunday. the prosecution will have one last chance today. the tragic case that hit millions. >> reporter: casey anthony's defense spent the final hours before the jury trying to convince them there's not enough evidence of mid. >> the reason you don't have the evidence they are desperately trying to find is because it's an unprovable case. the closing arguments they tried to discredit the state's charge that the 25-year-old suffocated her 2-year-old

daughter caylee be chloroform and duct tape, and then they pointed the finger at casey's father saying he covered up an accidental drowning. they were not able to bring up charges he sexually abused his daughter because the judge said they did not prove it. >> i don't think anyone can justify her actions, but they don't constitute murder. >> reporter: many of the jury appeared tired. they have been sequestered for 6 weeks, and they will begin to deliberate later today. but first the prosecution will have the final word with the rebuttal to the defense. prosecutors detailed how casey anthony spent the month following caylee's death, lying and partying with her new birthday. >> we can only hope that the chloroform was used before the tape was applied so caylee went peacefully. >> reporter: the prosecution

says she didn't want to be a mom and killed her daughter. the defense believes she's an imperfect mother who is wrongly accused. soon the jury will decide. karen brown, orlando, florida. it's just about 6:08, time for another your money report. if you're looking for new experiences to spend your money on this summer, here are a couple of ideas. you see the surfers in the waves, and now you can join them. lessons for beginners. malibu surf shop has lessons for $60 an hour, and their instructors have been teaching lessons for at least 3 years. would you rather play in the sand? sandy south padre island in texas will offer a 1-hour sand castle making lessons. lessons start at $20 an hour. here's something for the little ones, your life guard lessons

on bethany beach. $85 a child. they learn how to rescue someone and perform cpr. >> that seems expensive but what a child could learn and keep could save a life. >> absolutely. it's better than video games. >> yes, get them away from that. >> it's 6:09. >> we have 75 degrees. up next, howard has another check of the forecast. >> more places to check out fireworks today. in virginia, head to greedy park. that's on ferndale avenue. there's music at 6:30 be the fireworks at 9:30. in bowie, maryland, the fireworks begin at 5:30. music, food, and the fireworks begin at 9:15. >> gaithersburg holding its annual independence day celebration. it begins at 7:00. the fireworks going off at 9:25.

61:00 on this monday morning. independence day 2011. it's quiet and 74. upper 90s at noon a few thunderstorms with unhealthy percentages on the air qualify. -- quality. kris sneed, what is it looking like out there? >> past 198 to the beltway, everything is looking good. the spots to avoid at 6:18.

andrea and jessica, back to you. >> reporter: a deadly dispute in memphis, tennessee, with among the death one a police officer. >> it happened sunday night at a hotel blocks from beal street. offers responded to a call at the hotel. gunfire began a short time later. police have a suspect in custody. no claims of responsibility for an explosion on the gas pipeline in egypt. it happened earlier this morning. it's the third attack on the pipeline since february. exxon mobile says they have been able to contain a fuel spill in the yellowstone river. 1 thousands gallons leaked there the pipeline on saturday. some americans get very frustrated dealing with immigrants who don't know english very well. it's even more frustrating for the person trying to learn our language. >> one group is trying to end

the frustration. we go to the literacy council of north america. >> this is a fire station. >> reporter: this sounds ridiculously simple. >> this is my birthday. >> reporter: for these students it might as well be a foreign language because it is. >> they may be learning the alphabet learning to put together cat or dog. >> reporter: they come from all over the world. they have two things in common, they badly want to learn english and have come to the literacy council of northern virginia to do it. >> we focus on very, very beginning level. there's no one else helping the population. >> reporter: executive directer patty domley says it comes from one-on-one from the 1400 dedicated volunteers. >> they have to take 12 hours of training for the basic

literacy program or 16 hours of training to everybody in the esol program. >> abraham lincoln. >> born in 1809. >> i am very motivated to begin someone a stronger voice to express her ideas and thoughts. >> reporter: ann has been helping bertha find her voice for the last year and a half. the results speak for themselves. >> i never thought i would be typing a letter in english or taking my brother or sister-in- law in the doctor to interpret for them. i never thought i would be doing that. >> when you teach someone to read, they have then have the skills to learn more and more, and you have just given someone the keys to the kingdom. >> he became a lawyer. >> reporter: derek mcginty, 9

news now. >> the volunteers make the literacy council successful but donations keep them going. they have given $5,000 to support the worthy cause. to learn more about the group or others we profile go to wusa, 9.com and go to features and -- wusa9.com and go to features and click on heros central. mother nature gave us the fireworks last night. >> reporter: yes, and we have quite a few people in the dark this morning. talking to me on facebook, and they must be using their phones or pdas or something. i'm sorry always -- i'm always there. i am on facebook and twitter each morning. >> we have the apps. >> the apps as well on wusa9.com, you can download those. talking about clouds around here. some sunny breaks.

temperatures at 9:00, lower 80s. 1:00, 88 this afternoon, the development of a few thunderstorms. going farther south of d.c, opposed to farther north of dc. winds north to north westerly at 5 to 10 miles an hour. the high today, up to 92. by firework time, we should be in better shape. i will show you the firework forecast, 83 degrees. the isolated thunderstorm chance, but it will be mainly south to southeast of town. warm and muggy. satellite and radar, the big storms that andrea was talking about. big hail, and a lot of trees down. g.w. parkway got hit hard, and thankfully this morning, it's all gone. 60s in the mountains, low to mid-70s around here right now. temperature officially at 74. skies are cloudy this morning with a south westerly wind at 6 miles an hour.

a muggy morning with the dew points in the upper 60s. clusters of storms through the front of the ohio valley. headed into the tennessee valley later on and into here. showers and storms to the northwest. we can in the rule this out later this afternoon. slides to the south, mainly to the south of washington. we may see a few to annapolis or washington. we will slide this south and east of us. by 9:00, it's pushing away from us. far better shape. tuesday and wednesday looking good. the next 3 days, temperatures today in the lower 90s. again, a few storms in virginia opposed to maryland. upper 610s to -- 60s and lower 70s. stray storm mainly in the mountains. thursday and friday, back in the 90s. not much of a change for the weekend. low 90s with the isolated severe storms. angie is off, but kris has

time-saver traffic. >> reporter: incident with leftover storms from last night. a downed tree blocking the roadway. the crews are trying to clear that and now another between renow road rode -- road and fox hall. we have an accident at 3rd and long island. the road is blocked off. follow the police detour if you headed out in that direction this morning an earlier december abled -- earlier disabled here has cleared. 270 southbound, coming out of fed rick, all -- frederick, all the way down to the split, everything there is clear. 6:25, or 6:30 i will have an update on 66 in virginia. andrea and jessica, over to

you. >> thank you, kris. next in sports, learn which national made the all star team and which one still could. our question of the morning, every independent day we spend $111 million on two things, what is charcoal. what is the other? is it a, popsicles, b, hot dogs, or c, beer. >> the hot dogs and beer are up there but i love the good old fashioned root beer popsicle. i'm going with a this morning. >> we will have the answer at 6:49. [ female announcer ] keurig brews more than just hot coffee.

now you can brew over ice for delicious iced coffee or tea. hot or cold, keurig is the way to brew everyone's favorite cup in under a minute. choose. brew. enjoy. keurig. 6:23 on this monday morning. low 70s. some spots in the upper 60s. highs today, low 90s. the nats have a game today,

1:05, playing the cubs. as we look at the baseball forecast, partly sunny and hot. a chance of a thunderstorm. better chance south of town, but there could be a rain delay. temperatures, 88 to 92. with more on the morning sports now to kristin burset. >> reporter: good morning, everybody. the nationals were quite busy this weekend. they reported their first victory under davey johnson. they played a double header and then turned around to play game number 4. the nats wrapping up their seriesed on sunday. the competitive portion over early. down 3-0 and the single to center. the pirates just getting started. 5-0 pittsburgh. the double to center to score garrett jones and it ends marquis' day. less than 2 innings, and the

nats are blasted 10-2. for at least one guy it was a happy died. before the -- happy day. before the game, tyler was told he is the only nat to be going to the all star game. he has 57 strikeouts in 46 innings, and he could be joined by mike morse who is in the final player vote chosen online by fans. to wimbledon in england. rafael nadal taking on something other than no federer. novak djokovic in complete control here. but then in the end. novak was just too strong. blanketing the grass. championship point. novak with his first wimbledon title. that's a quick look at sports this morning. have a great day everybody.

>> first lady michelle obama will be at tomorrow's game with the national and cubs. part of an event honoring military families. no word if the chicago native will root for her hometown team or for ours. >> there's enough love to go around. >> absolutely. >> up next, the latest on the major power outages in virginia. >> the national mall is the place to be tonight. what you need to know before you get there including the best ways to get there. what makes the sleep number store different?

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hundreds more in your wallet year after year. feed me! saving you money -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. welcome back to 9 news now. it's 6:30 on this independence day. always the place to get your weather first. a live look at the washington monument on the national mall. overcast skies and 74 degrees there now. thank you for starting your 4 4th of july with us. i'm jessica doyle. >> and i'm andrea rhone. mike and angie are off this morning. mike has the forecast. >> reporter: winds are light, calm in many instants, and today we could see the thunderstorm, but i'm not expecting what we had yesterday with the damaging thunderstorms we have around here. maryland, most of those reserves for virginia.

the independence day forecast. this morning, upper 60s and lower 70s by noon. i expect the temperatures to be in the 80s with partly cloudy conditions. 5:00, 90-degreings. -- 90-degree the -- 90 degrees. washington could see a temperature of 83 for the fireworks going off at 9:10. gaithersburg at 60. hagerstown at 72. came bridge, 6 -- cambridge, 68. the thunderstorm are last night are long gone. we have cloudy skies this morning. back in a few to talk about the 7-day forecast. rightnow kris sneed is in for angie. >> we will go over to florida avenue between 3rd street and cy after. there's an accident there. you can see the cones are in place. police are clearing this out of

the way and also directing traffic around it if you have to head out in that direction. canal and fox hall. we have a down tree reported here at reservoir road and fox hall to watch out for. capital street, crews clearing the downed tree there. 66 eastbound, past 234, 50 to the beltway, no problems, and you can see it's a nice, quiet commute right now. outer maryland, 270, same here. both loops looking good. no problems. more on these d.c. problems coming up at 6:46. jessica and andrea, back to you. >> the power has been out for thousands since last night when the storms moved through and no word when the lights and ac will be back on. >> dominion has more than 7,000 customers without power.

pepco, just over 700. bge, 1100. >> we are joined by frank mac from dominion power. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> where the outages concentrated in northern virginia. have you made any more progress since the number 10,000 we reported being out? >> yes, we have. we were hit with high winds and heavy lightning lath night at 6:00. we got up -- lightning last night at 6:00. we got up to as many as 30,000 customers. alexander, fern don, and leesburg primarily. currently there's 6300 customers still out, and we have a lot of severe damage from last night that includes broken poles, and we have crews working through the night, and there's additional crews and contractors coming in this

morning. >> in terms of a time line for he is tore ration, what are you -- time line for restoration, what are you looking at? >> we need to replace them. with the contractors and crews coming in, it looks like they will work throughout the rest of the day. we don't have a time line because they are assessing damage. >> mr. mac, your colleagues in potomac have had problems getting power restored to customers and they were taking preventative measures what has dominion done before the storms to reduce the number of customers who will be affected? >> we train on a regular basis, and we watch the weather, and we have our own weather

forecaster. we plan in advance to make sure we have the crews and supplies available, and a lot of times we have to wait for the storm to go through to assess the damage. >> hopefully you will have a better rest of the summer and get people back online quickly as the temperatures are hot. they need the ac and air- conditioning coming back on. frank mac, thank you for speaking with us. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. howard says there's a threat of storms in our region tonight, but they should stay south of the national mall. >> that's good because hundreds of thousands of people will crowd downtown for the annual fireworks show and concert. >> surae chinn beat the crowds and got there early, and she's live this morning. good morning, surae. >> reporter: we have our fingers crossed. the weather looks beautiful. . we hope the show can go on. what can people expect when they get down here? >> it will be a long, hot day.

make sure you bring plenty of water to enjoy yourself. we have a good robust security plan in place. i think we will have a spectacular celebration of the nation's birthday. >> reporter: when people come down, there's going to be some security? >> multilayers of security. some things are visible and some things the people will not see. most will go through the access points, and there may be different types of security depending on what is going on, what time, and we have some different plans in place. don't infer anything by the type of security you can see. >> reporter: quite the event, no glass bottles, no tents, no alcohol, and no umbrella? >> i think umbrellas will be okay, but don't block other's views. the biggest thing to bring, water, and a good, good time.

>> reporter: i think we can handle that. that was sergeant slasenger with the u.s. park police. take metro to come down here. public transportation is your best bet. >> thank you, surae. that was surae chinn live on the national mall. our friends from the stack music academy in memphis will be playing, and we are live on friday morning. they will be performing on the stage at 11:00. today is the final day of the first half of the celebration. if you missed it or want to catch it again t will run from thursday to sunday. >> we want you to check out the video that is going viral. someone strapped a tiny camera to fireworkses to get their prospective of the 4th of july. check it out. issue cool!

-- check it out. >> cool. >> we are not sure how much it cost, but the video picked up 325,000 hits since friday. >> i imagine some cameras were damage in the process. >> fantastic, though. >> it's 6:38, and it is 74 degrees on the way to the high in the 90s today. up next, howard will tell us if it will cool down at all this week. right now more 4th of july events around town. culpepper, virginia with a full day. 5k at 8:00. historical reenactments, and then it's the park on route 522. in kensington, maryland, the concert is around 7:30. >> then the falls church independence day celebration. bring the blankets to george mason high school. the fireworks going at 9:20.

learn about all the events and more by visiting metromix.com.

and of course 6:42, and we are back with your weather first. a live look at ocean city, maryland, via a web cam. >> people are bike riding this time of the morning. >> people are headed to the beach. >> can you believe it? >> there will be storms today with highs in the upper 80s, and it's pretty hot for us already. >> in the low 70s now, and if you like to get outside and exercise, do it early. code orange, unhealthy for sensitive groups. >> it's hot and muggy. >> it may be one of those days if your hair likes to go curly, it will be really curly later

on. especially with the showers and storms popping up where you are. add rain on it. you know the drill. weatherwise, i used to have the brillo hair when it was longer. [ laughter ] weatherwise, a chance of a few thunderstorms later this afternoon. 6:00, still at 9 -- at 89, you can see how quickly we will be rising. northwest winds, 5 to 10 miles an hour. tonight, the fireworks forecast, 9:10 is when they go off downtown. 83 degrees. the threat of an isolated thunderstorm. the threat will mainly be south of washington. maybe well south to norfolk, maybe to the northern neck of richmond. everything has sulk south and -- has sunk south and east. a fatality from the storm with a tree falling on a bicyclist. 60s in the mountains, and

locally lower 70s and a few upper 60s like in montgomery county. great falls, and haymarket at 68. 71 in springfield in alex and degree -- in alexandria. cloudy skies, and winds have been light all morning at the southwest of 6 miles an hour. we are watching, not only the showers and storms from last night, but this morning, notice the activity out here in the ohio valley. moving east, and some of this this afternoon looks like it will be moving across the region, especially on the virginia side of the pennsylvania tomic. tomic -- potomic. most of it is south and east of us. that's why i'm encouraged the show should be good. even the parades this morning should be okay. tomorrow and wednesday, around 90 with the isolated storms at best. i think the rain chances 20 to

30 percent. they pick -- 20% to 30%. they pick up. the isolated weekend storm with highs in the low 90s. kris sneed with the roads. >> reporter: overall, a clear commute. we have a yellow line because of things in the district. a live look here. westbound florida avenue at 3 3rd street and rhode island. crews had the road closed but it just reopened. good news, the accident just cleared. canal road at fox hall, i'm getting word of the downed tree last night. canal and fox hall, canal and k- street and south capital, trees to watch out for there. moving over to 395, northbound, no problems here, jauss reminder, all hov restrictions lifted for all roads except for 50 during the day. the beltway in virginia, and inner and outer loop, all clear

there. no problems on either loop. everything is looking good. metro opening at 7:00 a.m. just a reminder, you not exit on to the smithsonian station until after the fireworks show. you probably want to take metro into the district today. i will update the area at 6:58. >> the first family is hosting a 4th of july celebration on the south lawn today, and you can bet if they are serving hot dogs and burgers, they will be plentiful and tasty. >> the national archives is looking at the food enjoyed by our presidents including some of their personal recipes. karen digs in saying hail to the chef. >> reporter: we are what we eat, and throughout the history, the americans have looked to the kitchens of the foody in chief for inspiration. >> i think one of the way

people think they can get close to the president is by adopting his favorite recipes. >> reporter: what's cooking uncle sam looks at how the government influenced what we put on our tables with a special spot for our presidents, john f. kennedy's chowder to this recipe. >> st it's river -- it's river chili, and it was so popular they had special cards printed up to send out. >> reporter: this vegetable soup has the precision of a 5- star general. >> he worked very hard to polish his craft, and he often cooked as a form of relaxation. >> reporter: other presidents inspired americans to try new things. the simple southern dishes of the south introduced grits to many. richard nixson inspired

interest into china's foot. >> president roosevelt complained bitterly about the cooking, and i understand that people who attended the state dinners did as well. >> reporter: proving not only presidential cuisine gets the popular vote but still gets a place setting in history. karen capa for 9 news now. >> feeling rungry at this point. the presidential food exhibit is on display on january 3rd. a check of the news before you go is next. >> but first the answer to the july 4th question of the morning. every year on the 4th americans spend $111 million on two things, charcoal is one of them. the other is? a. popsicles, b. hot dogs or c. beer? surprisingly it's a. >> today is also the biggest holiday for beer sales. you can understand. we will spend $203 million on

the sound mints -- sound meants condiments for the cook outs. >> early flight today? it will be fine leaving washington. >> chicago really nice. sunny and 84. we heat up out west, especially in denver. upper 90s in afternoon with sunshine. high heat for the mile high city. 105 in vegas. in los angeles sunny and very pleasant. it will be 76-degree -- 76 degrees there. hot in reno, 97. sunny in seattle, high today. 75. these sweet honey clustery things have fiber?

fiber one. almost tastes like one of jack's cereals. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? uh, try the number one! i've never heard of that. [ wife ] it's great. it's a sweet honey cereal, you'll love it. yeah, this is pretty good. are you guys alright? yeah. [ male announcer ] half a days worth of fiber. not that anyone has to know. fiber beyond recognition. fiber one.

6:53. looking at 74 with cloudy skies. unhealthy air for sensitive groups. if you have respiratory ailments, limit your time outoutside. this afternoon, a few thunderstorms. high temperatures in the low 90s. 5:00 p.m. temperature around 90. today is monday, july 4th, a check of the news before you go. the national mall opening at 10:00 a.m. for the 4th of july celebrations you have to go through public access points surrounding the mall. before you go, know that the smithsonian metro station will be closed until 10:30 want to. additional crews will be brought in today to restore power to northern virginia.

7,000 customers are out after last night's thunderstorms. most are in arlington and falls church. >> an unvailing ceremony this morning in london for a statue of ronald regan outside of the u.s. em back i did -- u.s. embassy. condoleezza rice will be there for the unvailing. several other statues will be unvailed in europe this week. >> it's 6:54. one more weather and traffic check when 9 news returns.

we have one more thing for you. we told you earlier that

immigrants would be sworn in as american citizens at mont vernon. i bet they know we declared independence in 1776 but surprising a lot of americans don't. >> a new poll says that 58% of americans don't know. >> 5/8. >> 5/8ths don't know that the american declared independence in 1776. 26% were unsure. 16% said another date. >> this is surprising based on movies movies and tv show the. one in four americans did not know from which country we declared our independence. it found while 76% correctly said great britain, 19% were unsure and 5% said a different country including china. >> it takes all kinds, andrea, remember that. >> hope any we are educatorring all kinds. >> -- educating all kinds. >> educate us about weather.

>> hot and sticky. better chance of storms in virginia rather than maryland. the afternoon plans, grilling you may have an interruption from that. highs around 90. low 90s thursday and friday and scattered storms in the afternoon. kris? >> downed trees in the district to worry about. canal and reservoir and south street and capital. they will start to shut down streets in half an hour. take metro if you plan to see the fireworks. virginia, 66 eastbound, no problems there. a few cars on the road. and the outer loop from 95 and 270, looking good. >> thank you, chris. "the early show" is next with more on the casey anthony case, and the look at the 4th of july traditions. >> i will be back in 25 minutes with a live update on your holiday forecast. you can always get updates