vincent gray's campaign. prosecutors having looking into brown's allegations that he was promised a job and given cash to help undermine the campaign of former mayor. bruce johnson has been working on this story. bruce, what have you learned? >> reporter: we have learned a lot tonight. howard brooks, is cooperating with the federal investigation. we don't know if he has been grand immunity. but our sources say mr. brooks has already agreed to wear a wire. sources say others have also been approached by federal prosecutors, and have refused the same level of cooperation. they will not wear a wire. now if you follow the story from the beginning, you know brown, a form mer candidate for mayer, testified before a dc council committee and produced money orders he says were given to him by brooks. brown says he was also given cash and the promise of a job if gray won the election. gray won the election and brown was required and fired from a six figure position. mayor gray today reiterated that a payment and promises of a job

were made to brown, who knew nothing about it. he has not been called before the federal grand jury. he has not been told he is a target. >> i haven't been called for anything at this stage. we want to cooperate with this investigation as we said we would. we want to continue to provide whatever witnesses, whatever documentation is requested of us. >> reporter: you are going to be surprised if it turns out there were irregularities in the campaign? >> i'm surprised this thing happened in the first place. >> lorraine green the chairman of the great campaign has denied brown's claim she gave him money and that job. as on for harold brooks, 9 news now has never been able to contact him. sources say he has recorded at least one conversation already for prosecutors. we have been able to confirm those conversations were not with the mayor they were not with lorraine green. >> but bruce, what is the crime? you felt like so much, what is the crime? >> reporter: we were just talking about the money orders. it has been determined some of

the names were not put there by people who have those names. that is a possibility of fraud, larceny, depending on where the money came from. then there is obstruction of justice fthey've got on wire people are conspiring they are coming up with the story, it is the cover-up. that is always the big charge and always what prosecutors go for. called the homerun. >> more to come. bruce johnson, thanks. charges flew in maryland today with a focus on redrawing lines in montgomery county. it is the first day of a special session of the legislature called to redistrict the state thanks to the result of the latest census. in the cross hairs, republican congressman roscoe bartlett of western maryland. his district would be changed to add heavily democratic areas in montgomery county. representative don edwards has complained minority districts around dc would be broken up by

this plan. governor martin o'malley is taking much of the heat. the greatest amount of population growth happened in the washington suburbs. therefore that is where this disruption of lines has also been the great e. >> reporter: it spritz communities, it splits neighborhoods. it hurts minority population t hurts those of us who represent rural areas. it is a very poor plan by the governor. legislative leaders hope to have had redistricting done over objections in rural and minority districts. they want to have it done by the end of the week. today governor o'malley announced a 60 day review period trying to reduce unnecessary rules in the state's regulatory process. all of this is part of his push to spark job growth in his state today. president obama hit the road for a three day bus tour pushing his jobs plan. danielle nottingham is live at the white house with more on that. danielle? >> derek, once again the president is out, taking his plan directly to voters and battling with republicans over

how to get america back to work. president obama is shaking hands and talking up his jobs plan as his bus winds through north carolina. he picked up lunch and got some face time with voters at countryside barbecue in marion. the president kicked off his three day road trip at asheville, regional airport. he called out republican lawmakers who blocked his $447 billion jobs bill in the senate last week. >> we are going to give them another chance to do their job by looking after your jobs. now the president wants congress to pass his jobs package in part, starting with $35 billion for state's to prevent teacher layoffs. president obama's bus tour will make several more stops in north carolina, then virginia. two battleground states he won in 2008, that are crucial to his reelection. >> the president is trying to hold on to asheville voters

like leonard crook, who is concerned about the weak economy. >> not near as bad as it is in some other states. >> reporter: the president insists the trip is not about keeping his job, but republicans say it looks like a campaign swing. >> what i hope is that we could, once the president gets off of his campaign trail, that we could sit down and come to agreement in some areas. >> congress may test the president's new approach soon. senate democrats are planning to bring up the first part of the jobs package this week. the president will also try to get congress to pass a proposal to spend $50 billion on infrastructure projects. live at the white house, danielle nottingham. now back to you derek. thank you danielle. today marks just one month since protesters began the wall street protest. at the height of these demonstrations. 700 people arrested in one day. while today the crowds are a little smaller. hundreds are still out there

and they vow to keep up the cause. demonstrations are popping up all over the world as well, including right here in washington, d.c. montgomery county police were out along i-270 again today looking for any sign of 1-year-old william mcquain. his stepdad agreed to return here from charlotte, north carolina today to face charges in the murder of his mother in germantown. no one has seen william in weeks. >> no sign of william in the woods here. the facts, increasingly discouraging. this is a search warrant released by investigators down in north carolina. they say they found the murder victim's credit card, along with a box cutter. in the motel room, her estranged husband was sharing with another woman. >> he was standing on the steps, talking to me and kenny why the kids were swinging and eating, jane and william's good friends told police that curtis lopez knew the woods near their home in damascus. their worst fear lopez might

have killed the boy and dumped his body in the woods. >> i hope he is somewhere and he can find his way back you know? >> how worried are you about him? >> a lot worried. over the years prosecutors around the country have had to make hundreds of murder cases with no victim's body. the more time that goes by with no sign of william, the more they may have to consider that here. in clarksburg,. a trial began today for the montgomery county teacher accused of punching and kicking and choking her first grade students. susan lee burke was a teacher at greencastle elementary school at silver spring. seven children say she attacked them when she was angry about their behavior. burke denies the allegations but children are all expected to testify at the trial and they could take the stand as early as tomorrow. coming up tonight at 7:00, a rare opportunity, folks. one day after the formal dedication of the new monument to dr. martin luther king jr.,

we are going to be able to bring you his entire i have a dream speech. you can see it from start to finish tonight at 7:00. get past the sound bites, hear the whole thing. still to come, in this half hour of 9news now. cathedral climbers. why they were scaling the pinnacles again today. topper? >> reporter: records on this date 86 and 33. we'll come back and tell you how many more nice days we can squeeze out of this week before big changes roll in. first, talk about a bump in the road. more on this morning's traffic mess, up next.

back now with good news for commuters in the morning. i 295 is back open tonight over

south capital street. this morning a three by six hole opened up in the southbound lane. nobody hurt but cars were damaged, either by hitting the hole or by the debris that fell on to south capital street below. the overpass was just inspected at the end of last month. the united states department of transportation is giving our area $928.5 million in grants for public transportation projections. transportation secretary ray la hood announced the move today and that will go toward more commuter buses in maryland. a study of transit and a new system for metro to keep track of its buses and trains. a health alert tonight about the cost to society from excessive or problem drinking. the cdc estimates excessive drinking cost society $224 billion a year. about $2 per drink. how do they get this?

researchers included costs such as lost work productivity. and money spent to lock up convicted drunk drivers. dozens of families are without a home tonight after a fire ripped through an apartment complex. coming up, why investigators have arrested one person who warned the others to get out. but first, a preview of tonight's cbs evening news. as fans mourn the indy 500 winner killed yesterday, we'll hear from one of the other drivers as new questions are raised about what cause that had deadly crash. that story tonight on the cbs evening news

new information tonight about the stolen valor act. the supreme court has decided to consider the case of whether this law is constitutional. now the stolen valor act makes it a crime to lie about having gotten a military medal. congress pass this had law in 2006, but a federal appeals court in california has since struck down the law, saying it violates the right to free speech. similar cases are spending before appeals courts in

colorado, georgia and missouri. arlington county will now require big box retail stores, like a wal-mart, to go through special scrutiny before they move into the county. the process will be applied to any development of 50,000 square feet or more, or requiring more than 200 parking spaces. the move was prompted by reports wal-mart was considering a location in schillington. several other northern virginia jurisdictions have similar zoning rules. tonight a woman is credited with saving a life of some of her neighbors. i'm lindsey. 23 people are without a home after a devastating fire. but everyone got out safely. thanks to two women. one is being called a hero. the other is under arrest for allegedly starting the fire. >> this woman is wandering around and she come to my door and said my room's on fire, call the fire department. >> barbara berry says that was this woman tanisha bates. she even asked her for a pair

of shoes. >> she didn't have any shoes outside. >> six apartments and town houses were destroyed. there is $600,000 worth of damage. 23 people are without a home. including 12 children. >> why would someone do that? i mean not only is she harming her but harming everybody else. >> little is known about bates. she is charged with setting the fire in her bedroom on purpose. the fire marshal won't speculate as to why bates allegedly did what she did. bates is being held without bond. first they scaled the washington monument. now an elite team of climbers is tackling the national cathedral. their goal is to see how much damage the august earthquake caused to our local landmark. peggy fox is live outside the cathedral with a look at today's work, which is part daredevil, part science and really cool. >> even though the cathedral is closed, there is no structural damage. they are worried about all the stone carvings inside and

outside. they have been inspecting inch by inch. and today they started the outside inspection way up there. >> it is a good thing it is not windy today. >> reporter: the beautiful weather is why the start of this inspection process was moved to dodd. you wouldn't want to be rapelling 236 feet down the national cathedral with all its ornate carvings on a windy day. >> i give these guys a lot of credit. >> reporter: that is all true, except the fellows are women. kati francis on the left, here with her camera. and emma on the right, here with a mallet. >> you can't keep a good woman down. they climb to the top. >> reporter: they are engineers with the difficult access team of w je, the same company that inspected the washington monument after the earthquake. >> this with all the ornament tation that we are going to be crawling around and gets more entertaining for us. >> reporter: the women engineers are looking for any instability in the stone carvings and

pinnacles. the earthquake destabilized three pinnacles which came crashing down in the winds of hurricane irene. they don't expect to find any problems, given what they have seen through binoculars. but up close, kati and emma, armed with cameras, ipod and hammers, are giving it a good once over. >> they are hoping to get the inspection process done in the next couple of weeks and they plan to open the cathedral back up november 12th. i'm peggy fox, reporting live. back to you. thanks peggy. >> they had great work to be all the way up there. not too windy. nice temperature. all right. let's talk about the fall colors. because it is really this weekend is probably the weekend i would recommend to go out skyline drive. we get a lot of e-mails and calls about that. facebook comments. they are pretty much near peak. they are pretty much past peak once you go west of the divide. especially in garrett county up into the laurel mountains in

pennsylvania. we have good color around the immediate area. some color south of us into southern maryland. all in all a vibrant fall. keep sending those pictures in. we have a great best shot for you tomorrow. upper 60s in fredericksburg. generally in the 60s, but this is average for this time of year. 67 in hagerstown, 67 at andrews and back to the west. 60s in cumberland. you jump the divide you go back in the mid-50s. we have one system in the midwest and we'll watch that. the real storm we are watching is now in the gulf of mexico that is currently being tracked by the national hurricane center. does have tropical characteristics with it. it is going to raise up the coast as we get into tuesday night and wednesday. computer models not exactly set in stone as to where the track's going to be. that is going to greatly influence how much rainfall we get tuesday night and all of wednesday. right now we are looking at clear to partly cloudy skies, a very nice evening. here is the deal.

midweek changes. they are on the way. cooler tonight. a light jacket early tomorrow morning. it will still be mild tuesday we'll have a mild finish and big rains are possible. on wednesday. tonight 46 to 56. winds become light after midnight. so lows tonight downtown, low to mid-50s. there are some 40s. we are looking at 47, 49 in college park and bowie. to the west upper 40s in reston and fairfax. 47 in sterling. all right tomorrow morning, partly cloudy, cool. grab your sunglasses. 40s and 50s. then by afternoon another nice day. partly cloudy and mild. high clouds coming in late. high temperatures around 70. winds easterly at about 10. next seven days, there is the wet day wednesday. showers, thunderstorms, maybe even heavy rain. keep an eye on it. upper 60s, windy too. behind the front much cooler, lingering showers possible thursday. a struggle to get to 60.

60 on friday with sunshine. weekend looks great. bright but brisk. get out there. mid-60s on sunday and mid-60s next monday. very nice weekend. cooler but so what? >> the weather was nice but the game was ugly. at least those that went to the game got to enjoy a nice day. maybe get a little bit of sun, little tan or what not. it was a rough day for grossman and the redskins and redskin nation. what will the skins do now? moving forward, hear what mike shanahan has to say about this tough decision. çñ

we knew it was coming each week. we have seen glimpses of good wrecks and bad wrecks. the one who can make a great play and the westwood one who turns the ball over. yesterday all we got was really really bad wrecks. turnovers for rex grossman, yesterday was by far his worst game this season. four inceptions. bringing his total to 11 in five games. does shanahan go with his boy wonder beck? he says that decision won't be made until wednesday. >> on wednesday the decision will be made, based on who's

going to start, best interest of our organization. i have not made up my mind right now. but we are going to do what we think is best for our football team. >> the redskins had surprised everybody in the league, going into the bye week 3-1 and first in the division. it was theirs to lose. yesterday was a big step backwards. four turnovers yesterday played a key part in the skins loss to philly. many of grossman's teammates jumped to his defense right after the game and reiterated that statement today in ashford. >> it is a decision. but you know as an offensive line we have to make better plays. we know that. >> anytime you want to drive you turn the ball over. it takes the air out of you. john came in running around doing what he does it felt real

good. >> the news doesn't get any better for the redskins. they lost three key offensive players. trent williams out with an ankle sprain. and chris cooley, who needs surgery on his broken forward-looking soldier likely out the rest of this season. hey high schoolers, it is time to reveal this week's poll for our high school game among the week's choices a match up of the undefeated. jefferson at vai ral marshall and twin parks at largo. the winning game will be in our highlights friday night. finally tonight these two guys, this just doesn't look good to start with. trying to do crunches. the top kid is trying to hold the bottom kid. >> they both go down. topper that is the best. not a lot of core strength going on there. >> they need to do more crunches. >> don't try that at home. >> that is it for us. stay with wusa 9.

cbs news is up next. then at 7:00 our area's only local newscast and as always we are on at wusa 9.com. have a great night.