prosecutors say norwood used six to eight weapons in the attack including a serrated knife, a hammer, wrench and box cutters. norwood then allegedly tied herself up and inflicted minor wounds. >> reporter: murray was found with a bloody rope around her neck. andrea mccarren, 9news now. home people in frederick maryland say groups of teenagers are harassing and attacking them. police say most of the incidents have occurred along carroll creek park downtown but many of the cases go unreported for various reasons including the fact many of the home just don't trust the cops. still, some homeless men told us the teens are stealing from them. >> they actually pulled a knife out on somebody. there was like 25 of them ganged all around us then they followed the other people down to the creek and that's when they got beat up, thrown in the creek. >> they try to take things and

they destroy stuff and take knives and cut it up. >> police plan to install surveillance cameras in the area next month. they may not have shut down the chamber of commerce but they sure made it uncomfortable. protestors with the occupy d.c. forces rallied on the chamber's front steps today. a security officer tried to have them removed but police said, wait a second, they were within their rights to be there. >> they are having their say. we are doing ours. a different tone and tenor but so be it. >> their way is to continue to push public policies that funnel wealth up to the 1%. and our way is to demand that our public policies are actually based on the evidence of what works for the majority of people. >> a lot of police around there but no police action was taken. protestors say they have received cooperation from the police but tell us they are willing to face arrests if they have to. now, out to oakland,

colorado, where a protestor protest turned violent. marching down the streets along and at first peaceful but then came trouble. first somebody broke a window of a highway patrol car. then somebody fired a shot into a store front and some of the demonstrators threw paint balls and officers responded with tear gas then arrested more than 100 people. now, to atlanta where overnight police moved into a downtown park and arrested about 50 occupy wall street protestors who have been camped out there for about two weeks now. police tell us they gave those demonstrators plenty of warning. the mayor says the cleaning of that park was prompted by a man showing up yesterday with an assault weapon. are people making a point or just becoming troublesome or is

being troublesome part of the message which would be, by the way, exactly what? would love to know your thoughts about that. mailbag@wusa9.com is my e-mail address. throw your thoughts into mcginty's mail bag. president obama rolling out another plan to help americans who are struggling with debt. this time helping students with crushing student loans. he told students at the university of colorado a way to give the slumping economy a nice little boost. >> when a big chunk of every paycheck goes to student loans that's not just tough for middle class families it is painful for the economy. >> this might surprise you. student loans are now the number 2 source of debt in american households just behind your home mortgage. this new program could help 7 million people. the plan reduces loan payments to no more than 10% of a person's income and it helps them consolidate certain loans with lower interest rates. president obama is able to put

this into motion without the need to get the okay from congress. congress has just four weeks left to come up with a spending deal or the u.s. government will shut down. yeah, we are going through this again. this time it is a fight over the 2012 budget which funds the government through next september. but two u.s. senators want to make sure this doesn't happen again. a democrat and republican have introduced a bill that could require congress to agree on a budget by april 15th every year and if they don't it would shut down, no considering any other bills or businesses, no leaving washington going on recess or anything like that. senators are hoping if the bill would pass would give their colleagues more incentive to get things done. that congressional super committee cutting trillion had its first meeting today. the 12 senators have until

november 23 to agree what will be slashed. if they don't trillions across the board in cuts will kick in. >> we aren't there yet but i'm confident we are making progress and i'm hopeful we are moving quickly enough to meet our rapidly approaching deadline. >> in many respects today we may be debating the pennies, nickels and dimes in a debt crisis that is demanding half dollars and dollar bills. house members and senators on that super committee. senate democrats put a deal on the table that would cut 3 trillion-dollar from federal spending but it would also add 1.3 trillion in new taxes and that last is a nonstarter for the republican committee. rainy, dreary cold now. the man to blame is topper shutt. when will it get better? >> through the rest of the week then big changes. start with the satellite picture, radar combined. we actually have lost the first

round of showers. they are gone. showers are now in west virginia. they roll through just in time for the morning commute. in the meantime temperatures are okay. 62 downtown. a bargain. 54 gaithersburg. 57man57 inman assess. we will come back and tell you if your morning and evening commute will be wet and we will also talk about really kind of a winter storm over the weekend. >> thank you, topper. heads up for drivers who take the dulles airport access road. starting tomorrow crews will start narrowing some of the westbound lanes on part of that road. those are the lanes that are going out to the airport. the narrowed portion is 600 feet long just west of the leesburg pike overpass. drivers are being asked to use caution when driving through that area. the narrowed lanes will be in place until sometime around thanksgiving. coming up, a republican presidential hopeful comes to the commonwealth. what he was telling his

supporters in virginia. we will have the story. but first, a semester at sea. why some students will spend their semester in state rooms. that's up next.

9news now is sponsored in part by michael & son. if you can't we can. college students in maryland living on a luxurious cruiseship for a semester?

may sound like an over the top fantasy but it will actually happen thanks to an outbreak of mold at st. mare's college in maryland. 350 students had to move out of their dorms after it became contaminated with the mold. crews are working to clean it up but for now students have to live in hotels 20 miles away. so the college has come up with a creative solution. turn a cruiseship into a dormitory. >> it started out as a lark and got more realistic as it went on and when i was told it wouldn't cost more than the hotels were it sealed the deal. >> they will be renting out the sea voyager docking at historic st. mary's city on the other side of the maryland dove. the students will move in on friday and won't being back to their dorms until the start of the spring semester. tonight a verdict of guilty in the first criminal trial to come out of this country's worst coal mine disaster in

decade. back in april of last year an explosion at a mine killed 29 miners and just a short time ago a federal jury found that the security chief did impede the investigation by lying and trying to destroy thousands of documents about security at the mine. coming up on 9news now, first the rain, then the chill. topper tells us when our temperatures are going to head south. first, one of the front runners of the presidential nomination is hitting the road and we will tell you about his message to primary voters.

we could soon know if the supreme court will be hearing any of the challenges to president obama's health care overhaul. right now the justices are scheduled to talk about federal court rulings from atlanta, cincinnati and richmond and will be having a private conference on this november 10th. now, should they choose to hear any of the cases the court would announce it either on the 10th or 14th when it starts its public session. all of the cases challenge the requirement that everybody has to buy insurance or pay a penalty. one of the leading republican presidential candidates already trying to raise money and make friends in the battleground state of virginia. mitt romney hit fairfax today side by side with the governor.

bruce leshan asks could we be looking at the next g.o.p. candidate. >> reporter: plenty of buddy/buddy. >> no endorsements although those are always welcome. >> reporter: the governor holding off addressing any of the g.o.p. presidential candidates. >> this is like the occupy fairfax county movement. >> governor romney gets it when it comes to free enterprise. a great record of achievement creating wealth and jobs and opportunity for people. >> reporter: a recent poll suggests romney is tied with cain in virginia and tied as well with president obama. so with picking mcdonell would it help? >> it would be presumeing to do that. >> reporter: the president saying he is not paying

attention to the republican primary until one or two are voted off the island but these democrats are paying attention now. >> for mitt romney it is more trying to help the people at the top instead of trying to give just a little bit of a boost to the families that are struggling across the commonwealth. >> reporter: but on the hot subject of taxes especially flat taxes, romney insists his plan is more moderate than his leading republican opponents. >> my view is that the key to a tax policy is to reduce the tax burden on the people who have been hurt most by the obama economy and that's the middle class. >> reporter: but if he gets to the white house romney says he does want to make taxes flatter. bruce leshan, 9news now. >> and democrats are rallying right now in silver spring with a bit of a different vision than romny. instead of a flat tax they are pushing congress to pass the president's jobs act. the primary season could start off fairly well for the former massachusetts governor. a new cnn national poll shows romney is in the lead.

he got the most support in new hampshire where 40% of registered republicans pick him. in florida 30% pick romney. the race closer in iowa and south carolina but romney on top with 25 and 24% respectively. businessman herman cain came in second behind romney in each of those states. and we are inching ever so much more closer to the start of winter and that means of snow and the state of maryland is looking for volunteers to keep track of the road conditions when the wintery weather inevitably hits us. it is called the snow squad. people who sign up would report on conditions during their normal drive. 21 years old, a license with no points and of course you have to have valid insurance. anybody interested in that ought to contact the state highway administration by november the 14th. >> snow squad. >> i like that. snow squad. >> kind of dig it as well. thinking about the situation in denver for the folks who live there they are probably not

liking it as much as i am because i'm thinking about skiing. >> didn't hurt them in terms of traffic but so many leaves on the trees. we are talking like 100,000 people without power. 8 inches in denver proper. some areas in the foothills 18 inches of snow. >> wow. >> and it is on the way into the southern plains and will probably snow in new mexico tomorrow and maybe even as far south as the texas panhandle by tomorrow night. some of the moisture will come in here on saturday. this could be our cold rain on saturday with some mountain snows for us too. the radar will show these are the showers that went through between about noon and 4 p.m. this afternoon. now we have a second batch of showers. this is what the cold front itself, which is still out in the ohio valley, that's going to generate another round of showers late tonight, early tomorrow morning. so look for a wet morning commute. temperatures are still pretty mild. 57 in rockville.

56 in bethesda. 60 in arlington. 62 downtown. and 55 in college park. really that's not too bad. here is the deal. more showers are on the way. breezy and mild overnight. more showers thursday. i think the good news, they should be out of here by tomorrow evening's commute. much cooler on friday. and more like winter on saturday. we are looking at a coastal storm. still some discrepancy as to how close to the coast it will get but either way a chilly day with rain. showers tapering off tonight and then firing back up by dawn. lows between 50 and 55. winds out of the southwest at 10 to 15. with the clouds covering and southwest wind really a pretty mild night. low to mid-50s downtown. 52 college park and in bowie. down to the south 52 in waldorf. maybe about 50 out toward leesburg and down towards manassas. tomorrow morning the best chance of showers, mostly cloudy, breezy and mild.

50s and 60s. winds still southwest 10 to 15. now by afternoon mostly cloudy, windy and mild. showers ending early in the afternoon. highs low to mid-60s. winds turn though north westerly at 10 to 20 driving in cooler air and rather chilly air over the weekend. 56 to 61. still showers at noon. most of the showers should be out of here by 5 p.m. maybe south and east. temperatures 61 to about 66. now the next three days we dry out on friday. briefly. kind of cool too. 55 and then there is that cold rain on saturday for the terps game. temperatures only in the mid- 40s. that's a downtown temperature. next seven days. remember all these temperatures in the seven-day are downtown temps. on sunday we dry out again. 55 with sunshine. we are in good shape for hallowe'en. mostly sunny. some clouds come in late. but stay dry. upper 50s then looking at temperature falling back briefly on tuesday in the low 50s and then back in the low 60s by next wednesday.

>> cool stuff. let us get to the weird news file. yesterday we told you about the guy who got himself stuck in the child's swing for nine hours on a bet with his buddies. today he had more evidence there are reasons young boys of any age should not be allowed out alone. let's talk about this guy. he got himself stuck in a tree somehow. he is in laguna beach, california. we have no idea how this happened. what we do know, however, is that the only reason the cops knew about it is they heard him screaming for help and they followed the sound down into the creek bed and there they found him stuck in a hole just like that. the tree going 4, 5 feet down underground. took the firefighters about 90 minutes to free him. why did he do it? first responders do not know for sure but they have ruled out that this guy is a super genius as a possible reason. somehow that is already off the table. we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's

mail bag. the address mail bag at mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news now will be right back. çñ

>> in the mail bag tonight. hallowe'en. in conneticut thinking about celebrating the holiday on the last saturday of october regardless what day is actually the 31st of the month. i like that plan. most of you did not. here is eric from reston. just take your kids out earlier if you're worried about them staying up late. just because you can't handle parent doesn't mean your children should suffer. who wants to be home on saturday to hand out candy. you are not only passing out candy. most would likely put candy in a bucket. stop getting out of parenting. it is once a year. let kids have fun. then someone that calls herself the wicked witch of virginia. it is a pagan holiday celebrated by all st. 's day. to change the day would lessen the significance of the holiday. those parents that complain they are rushed trying to rush

home from work, dress the young ones, get them to trick-or- treat festivities, i say this. what did your parents do? you know, that's a pretty good question but back in my day we wore our dime store costumes home from school, rolled out in the neighborhood to trick-or- treat by ourselves. some say the montgomery curfew law some say a loitering law would be better. how can they properly enforce a curfew? why not match the statute to the desired results. if you don't want young people milling around at 3 a.m. and causing problems. stop ringing your hands over what police may or may not do. >> then this on the metro

escalator story we did. bernie writes when there are three side by side and only one is working why isn't it going up instead of down. the question on the minds of millions i ran that. in the meantime i'm waiting for your e-mails as well. the address mailbag@wusa9.com. that's our report. i will be right back here tonight at 11 p.m. along with anita brikman. wusa9.com is always on. we will see you there. bye-bye. captions by: caption colorado, llc 800-775-7838 email: comments@captioncolorado.com

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now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. a real housewife in a 400-pound fat suit. >> here on the streets of new york city. >> the story making headlines around the world. >> she's normally 115 pounds. >> a preview of our special report on fat discrimination. then -- mad maks versus the judges on "dancing with the stars." the new war of words today. >> last time i apologized was to my grandma when she was dying. the latest on dog the bounty hunter's grandson and the abuse allegations. >> i got a call from somebody at social services. >> new audio in our "e.t. investigation." >> plus, dog's family tragedies. >> yesterday afternoon, she was killed many a car wreck. new video