tv 9 News Now Tonight CBS February 3, 2012 7:00pm-7:30pm EST
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the criteria to make clear that qualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. >> no federal money ever goes to fund abortions. we know that in congress the move was a politically motivated one. this has nothing to do with abortion. it has to do with early screening for breast cancer. reporter: while planned parenthood leaders are hopeful future komen grants will be approved, jeannie monaghan with family research council wants the opposite. >> this was a pretty significant victory this week in the sense of an organization that doesn't want to be formally partnered with the nation's largest abortion provider of. reporter: pressure on komen came also from capitol hill. several representatives spoke out and made statements and a number of senators signed a letter asking komen to reverse its course. >> it was brought upon themselves and i think they tried to correct it. unfortunately it's going to be some time before this wound heals as they politicized
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something that never should have been. reporter: peggy fox, 9 news now. >> komen's apology does say they will continue to fund the existing grants to planned parenthood and will consider future applications. however, no word on whether or not it will approve those applications. new information tonight on an alleged sex assault inside a southeast d.c. elementary school. d.c. public school officials now say a number of security policies were broken leading up to that incident. reporter: i'm scott broom in southeast washington where d.c. school officials say a number of security policies were broken leading up to anus dent here at ketcham elementary. the -- an incident here at ketcham elementary. the school system said a student issuing an adult visitor is not approved. this incident has highlighted a need to take immediate short and long term action to prove procedures in protocol around school security the statement
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said. school officials say the suspect spoke with an adult aide at the school about picking up a student. the aide recognized the man and assigned a girl to lead him to a classroom where she claims he inappropriately touched her. the school's statement says at all times security should be present at the school's entrance and now is the time to do an overview of security policy. parents were notified about all this by a robocall, but school officials have denied my requests for an interview and to go inside the school and see security systems in place. instead they're asking me and you to take their word for it. in southeast washington scott broom, 9 news now. there is good news today about the nation's economic recovery as the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in three years. according to the data released today, employers added 243,000 brand-new jobs last month and that dropped the unemployment rate down to 8.3%. the good news sent stock
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markets soaring, the dow jones industrial average closing above the 12,800 mark, the highest level there since 2008. president obama is pushing an ambitious new plan to help military veterans find jobs and he made the announcement at the fire station in arlington today. >> our veterans are some of the most highly trained, highly educated, highly skilled workers that we've got. these are americans that every business should be competing to attract. >> the president wants to create a program called the veteran jobs corps and over the next five years he says he will be putting more than 20,000 vets to work improving federal and state parks and other public lands. president obama will also ask congress for $5 billion to help cities hire more cops and firefighters. unemployed veterans would get first crack at those jobs. members of congress are asking when someone will be held responsible for the mistakes found at gravesites in the arlington national
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cemetery. the army's inspector general testified about the investigation at a house oversight hearing today and he said the army has completed the criminal probe, but the decision to prosecute lies elsewhere. >> if it's criminal, we hand it over to the criminal investigation division. they have completed their investigations for the department of justice now. so that is the decision and that is what we are told in the army they are making the determination on prosecution. >> congress wanted the cemetery to account for the 330,000 people interred there after many graves were found to be unmarked or mismarked. the army fired the cemetery's top two officials in the wake of the scandal. occupy d.c. protesters are waiting for park police to move in. they think it might happen any moment. here's a live picture of mcpherson square of the protests from a camera at henderson legal services. the park service issued a no camping order last week and a judge upheld it as long as officers do not close the park
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and evict protesters who are not sleeping, but so far park police have given no indications when they might do that. you can watch developments from the mcpherson square camera any time you like on our website www.wusa9.com, though it appears to be a tad dark there now. well, tomorrow nevada voters will caucus and make their pick for the republican presidential nomination and the latest polling numbers show mitt romney is way up in the numbers and he may be about to rack up another big victory. romney has a 20 point lead over newt gingrich in those polls. the two front runners spent the day campaigning about jobs and the economy, but they had different targets. romney was criticizing president obama's job creating policies while gingrich focused on the former massachusetts governor. >> if you're a genuine conservative, first of all, you don't say that you don't care about the poor. >> we had good news this morning on job creation in january. i hope that continues, but this president has not helped the
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process. he's hurt it. >> 10% of the voters in nevada are still undecided. the majority will caucus at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning and the results should start rolling in around 5 p.m. a woman in connecticut is taking legal action against her employer who she claims asked her to resign instead of providing her with maternity leave. amy zuvai is the senior program manager with the marketing company and she said her employer said she was not protected under the federal family medical leave act because she'd only worked at the company for four months. the family leave act says employees have to be on the job at least a year to be eligible to up to 12 weeks of unpaid job protected leave per year. so should employers be required to provide that medical leave to all of their workers regardless of when they started? amy was five months pregnant when they hired her, so it's not like this just crept up as a surprise or does the waiting period protect business from employees who are only on the job for a few weeks and then want to take off?
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weigh in, mcginty's mailbag at wusa9.com. certainly a little cooler outside told, but a gorgeous way to wrap up our week. we're hoping it will be nice for a night on the town perhaps. >> i think it will. it will be chilly tonight, but by early february standards and by comparing it to denver, we're getting off pretty easy. temperatures in the 40s downtown, 46 national, but look at the difference in the burbs, 39 in gaithersburg, 37 frederick and also in manassas and down in fredericksburg temperature down to 41. now looking at the satellite picture, clear skies now, some high clouds coming in after midnight. we'll stay dry tonight and stay die through most of saturday. tonight clear -- dry through most of saturday. tonight clear skies, lows in the 30s, winds southwest at 10, another night downtown with temperatures above the freezing mark. we'll come back and we might see some wet snowflakes over the weekend. we'll tell you. when. coming up a massive winter
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dips had become extreme. layers of intense ingredients. it was too much. no! [ sighs ] i was a broken chip, and i needed to change. but how? i wandered the world looking for answers. i looked at stuff. then it hit me. i'd change my shape. now i'm ready for any dip. even this big old dip? boo-yah! bring it! bring it! boo-yah! boo-yah! boo-yah! good news tonight for the folks waiting to be able to ride metro out of tysons corner. the first phase of the new silver line is now on target to be completed sometime next
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year. the washington examiner reports contractors are just 11 days behind schedule and they're expected to be done with this first phase by august 15th, 2013. that is a big change from back in october when the project was reported to be more than six months behind schedule. meantime the work on another big project in northern virginia may be causing some big delays on the beltway. construction on the 495 express lanes will close the entire inner loop tonight at route 7. this will be a proling sieve shutdown with one lane closing at -- a progressive shutdown with one lane closing at 9:30 until all the lanes on 495 are closed at 11 p.m. the lanes will reopen tomorrow at 7 a.m. there will be some metro track work on the orange and blue lines. starting tonight at 10:00 the rosslyn and arlington cemetery stations will close and that means no services between courthouse and foggy bottom on the orange line and between pentagon and foggy bottom on the blue. metro will provide shuttle
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buses to get you between those stops, but it will take an extra 20 or 30 minutes. from an early spring to perhaps some snow, our weather roller coaster takes a turn towards winter. topper tells us the chances we'll see a flake or two over the weekend. we'll get that forecast in minutes. but first a local principal tries to save his students' lives but gets some criticism for it. it's a controversial step against underage drinking and we'll talk about it after the break.
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9 wants you to know underage drinking is one of the most important health issues of our time. many kids begin drinking as early as middle school, sometimes even sooner than that. kids who drink are more likely to be victims of violent crime and sexual assault. earlier today at 5:00 we showed you what an underage party bust looks like. usually they don't make headlines, but this one did because of an unusual move by the school's principal. andrea mccarren just shows us how dr. alan goodwin is trying to keep his students safe. >> if i tell you to call your mom or dad, you're going to call your mom and dad, understood? >> there's definitely a peer pressure. there's definitely a need to try to fit in. there's some students that rationalize that they deserve to relax because they're under so much academics and family stress. >> we're dealing with 70, 80, 90 juveniles who decided to get high and drink.
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reporter: when walt whitman high school principal alan goodman learned from social media and student chatter that three dozen of his students had been arrested and given alcohol citations at an off campus party, he didn't hesitate to act. >> i have a standard practice that if students are cited that i give them some sort of consequence at school. athletes miss a couple games. student leaders and musicians and others, we negotiate with the coaches and sponsors to figure out the right punishment. reporter: the montgomery county school system lets individual principals decide whether illegal activity off campus deserves on campus punishment. >> it's an extra effort and it can be confrontational and it is off school grounds. we have a very strict zero tolerance if an offense occurs on school grounds. >> do you have the ability to put into a gps to get here to take custody of your daughter? reporter: unlike this party in december in which an unsuspecting parent was out of town, police and school
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administrators are seeing a disturbing trend, parents actually hosting underage parties in their homes. >> very frustrating. i don't understand the rationalization. sometimes they say it's to keep their own child safe, but they are meanwhile risking the lives of several others. it's maddening. reporter: goodwin urges parents to be more vigilant. >> just because necessity survived high school and college -- they survived high school and college doesn't mean their own child if they're not vigilant and careful and there's absolutely nothing worse than attending a student funeral. >> and we checked and we found out that most police departments do not notify schools about alcohol citations that happen off campus at non- school sponsored events. some police departments do if a felony is involved. what do you think? should police departments call the school no matter what? join the discussion on our facebook page. up until last night denver had been having a pretty mild winter, about like ours but not anymore. a massive winter storm
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continues to just pound them with lots of snow out there in the mile high. more than a foot of it's on the ground, another foot expected before the storm moves out tomorrow and that weather is already wreaking havoc on air travel. denver is a big hub for united. airlines have already canceled more than 600 flights. some parts of the interstates have been shut down because of dangerous conditions and i guess vail is a nice place to be about now if you can get there. >> actually this storm is more so in the plains and foothills, up to 34 inches i think last count in evergreen, colorado, in jefferson county. you know what? that same storm is coming our way. if you're a now lover don't get too excited. if you're not, derek, don't worry. we'll explain. let's start with a live look outside. here's the capitol, very nice evening, a little chilly but for early february we're still in pretty good shape. this is brought to you by michael and son. temperatures in the 40s downtown, 46 at national, pressure steady over the past
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hour, 30.42 inches of mercury, dew point 28 and winds out of the north at 5. in the burbs a little different story. here's the deal. satellite picture radar combined, this is the snow and we talked about this at 5:00, a tremendous amount of rain with this system and a lot of convection and thunderstorms you might see in march or really even early april. denver can get some big storms early april. now it's still snowing in denver in the foothills. we've got big time thunderstorms pushing through southeastern kansas and into missouri. as far as we're concerned, some of this moisture gets here. it's moving almost due northeast now, about the eventually it will turn off move off to the south and east. snows continue around denver, probably all said and done. it could be in their top 10. it probably will be their biggest february snow. look at the storms moving out 44 springfield headed towards st. louis and now clearing kansas city. some of those producing hail and strong winds. temperatures for us now, we're 40, no problems tonight. we stay dry, 44 in arlington,
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40s about, do but 37 gaithersburg and 38 in reston and 40 in beltsville. a touch of winter, it's possible over the weekend. cold and dry tonight, dry most of tomorrow. rain saturday night, may be mixed weather changed to snow worth and west of town near hagerstown and more snow possible sunday even down to the district line. i think charles county, st. mary's county, you'll probably have kind of a cold rain. how much rain? not much. most of it falls in the mountains. maybe we see a trace rockville north or clarkbsurg north up to gaithersburg and frederick. you get up to the mountains and toward the maryland/p.a. border you could see a couple of inches. we'll keep you posted. if you follow me on twitter, i'll keep you posted all weekend. cold, lows in the 30s but above freezing downtown. tomorrow morning thickening clouds, chilly, temps in the 30s and 40s and winds southwest at 10. by afternoon mostly cloudy. we'll call it cool, some light
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rain possible by evening, high temperatures struggling to get to 50 and winds will be light in the afternoon. next seven days, sunday there's your wet snow possible, but highs still around 40. so even when the atmosphere can support snow, if the surface temperatures are above freezing it's kind of moot unless it snows really hard. whatever happens sunday, we're back to sunshine and 54 on monday, upper 40s on tuesday, a little colder on wednesday. we're back to around 40 and then temperatures go right back up into next week near 50 thursday and 50 on friday with some rain possible by friday evening. >> i think i saw mold growing on the brettometer. >> mold, dust, rust, everything. let's get to our weird news file because this is something i'm sure most folks figured you'd never ever see. feminists upset over urinals. couldn't imagine that. do women really have a dog in that hut? apparently they do. to germany and the rolling stones fan museum where the
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urinals look like this in the shape of a big juicy pair of red lips, the rolling stones logo minus the tongue. what's wrong with that you might ask? activists there say somehow this is offensive to women which i might buy just a little bit except those particular lips actually represent the mouth of stones' lead singer mick jagger and as you and i know or at least we think, he's a guy. the museum owner says these lips, just lips, neither male or female and they're not leaving. so there. so what do you think? offensive to women or are you pining for a lip urinal in your house? mailbag at wusa9.com. >> i'm not pining, no. >> we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mailbag, mailbag at wusa9.com. 9 news now will be right back.
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in the mailbag tonight major league reaction on our facebook page to reporter andrea mccarren's jaw dropping series on the continuing problem of underage drinking in this area. last night you watched her shadow montgomery county cops as they broke up a boozey teenage party in bethesda. marianne hearty for one loved
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it. kudos to andrea mccarren and wusa9 for doing and airing this story. as a high school parent i'm happy they are spending time keeping this in the public light. it is much worse when kids end up wrapped around a tree after an underage drinking party. but c.c. carter is decidedly unimpressed. underage parties happen regardless. busts didn't stop anyone when i was in high school in d.c. police, please, go apprehend some real criminals and wusa9 find some real stories, please. you know what? i'd have a response to that, but michelle does it for me. the comments that this isn't a real story are just unbelievable. would you think it was a real story had one of these teens killed someone while driving under the influence? furthermore, it may not stop all these teens from doing this again, but i'm sure several will think real hard next time and that next time could be on the same roadway as we/you travel. so yes, it's a real story. finally we get this provocative comment from tammy. the drinking age needs to go
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back to 18. we trust them to enter contracts, go to war, buy guns, get married, et cetera, no alcohol to celebrate, though. yes, i have a teen. i did my own underage drinking. the drinking age turned to 21 while i was in high school. i think it's arbitrary. now underage drinkers binge in private and then go out to an alcohol free dance or party. a great point. i'm wondering what the rest of you think. mailbag at wusa9.com is the address. that's our broadcast. i'll see you tomorrow. bye bye.
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