hello, i'm j.c. hayward. thank you very much for joining us. well, this morning in charlottesville, virginia, prosecutors put experts on the stand in the george huguely murder trial. they're trying to refute the defense consternation that

yeardley love died from a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol. our 9news now reporter bruce leshan is outside the crouse with more information. bruce -- courthouse with more information. bruce? >> reporter: i just walked out and now we are to perhaps the most rivetting part of the entire prosecution case. right now in the courthouse, they are playing back this videotape statement. you might almost call it a confession, it's awfully close. that george huguely gave to police the morning after yeardley love was found dead. it was kind of -- you know, it happened overnight. so it was just a few hours after she was found dead. and they pick him up at his apartment. they wake him up. they take him down to the police station. they have not yet told him that yeardley love is dead. and they say what happened? what did you do? and he admits to a whole lot of this. he admits to going into her apartment. he actually admits at first to

punching a hole in her door later admits he kicked a hole in her door to get into her. and then he says there was this wrestling match. they were arguing. he insists he just wanted to talk to her. and the detective says how did she get back in the bed? he says we were wrestling and she stood up. she may have had a bloody nose. i like tossed her on the bed. i never strangled her during the whole commotion. i may have grabbed her by the neck but i never, never strangled her. he says i never hit her or strangled her or punched her but we're going to get to the point in a few minutes i think when the detectives are going to tell him yeardley love is dead and i haven't had a chance to hear it yet but on opening the defense suggested his response to this is she's not dead. i did not -- i did not -- i never did anything that could have done that to her.

j. c.? >> all right. bruce leshan reporting live of course we'll have the latest information on the website. wusa9.com. and also on 9news now beginning at 5:00 p.m. we have breaking news from southeast washington. several police agencies were involved in a chase after a d. e. a. agent had his personal car stolen. our 9news now reporter kristin fisher joins us live from the site. >> reporter: this is a 45 minute long high speed chase in the middle of broad daylight. it ended an hour ago when the car, the suspect's car, crashed into this tree right back here. just off eastern and southern avenue in northeast washington. now, in all started -- this all started earlier this morning, there was a robbery in prince george's county. right near the d.c. border. and right after that, a detective observed a vehicle that matched the description of the car used in that robbery.

when detectives approaches the vehicle, these are prince george's county didn'ts, that vehicle then fled. inside the car, a 19 to 20-year- old man who was believed to be involved in the robbery the morning and several recent robberies in prince george's county. the chase started in maryland and then ended up right now where i am in north -- excuse me, northeast d.c.. and this was a very high speed chase. there were d.c. police, prince george's county police and u.s. park police involved. at one point and time, the suspect slammed into a prince george's county police cruiser. that officer inside was injured. his arm and shoulder was injured. minor injuries but still enough to be taken to the hospital and then as you said, it oleandersed right here when the car -- all ended right here when the car slammed into the tree. it burst into flames and that's when officers were able to get out of their car and get the suspect. he was arrested and taken into custody where he is right now.

and he is currently with d.c. police but he is about to be extradited to prince george's county police. so really a very frightening morning for a lot of people. a lot of witnesses here saw the whole thing go down. we'll be chatting with them and post more information on the website. wusa9.com and have more on this high speed chase later on in the 5:00 evening newscast. back to you j. c.. >> thank you kristin fisher reporting live. the alexandria paramedic who fell off a 95 overpass -- 395 overpass responding to a car fire has died. joshua weissman suffered a severe head injury when he fell 20 feet into four mile run wednesday night. this was alexandria's first death in the line of duty in more than 100 years. weissman has pulled his ambulance to the shoulder in the northbound lanes. he started to climb over the guardrail to get to the southbound lanes. but unlike some locations, there was no pavement between

the north and southbound spans. a local teacher accused of having sex with a student is now free on bond. montgomery county police say that ashley campbell was involved with a 16-year-old student from the fall of 2010 until last month. 27-year-old campbell taught kindergarten at montrose christian school where the alleged victim also attended classes. the investigation into the relationship started last friday when somebody sent an anonymous e-mail to the school. a shocker in the last hour in the jerry sandusky case. sandusky, the former penn state assistant football coach, is accused of sexually abusing boys. today, the judge convened a hearing about the condition of the 68-year-old's bail. sandusky spoke afterward about trying to get permission to speak with and to visit his grandchildren. >> when grandchildren call on

my birthday and they ask to talk to me and she has to tell them that they can't, i'm sensitive to that. >> the judge has not yet ruled on sandusky's bail conditions. but did set a tentative date for a trial, may 14th. today, dr. phil talks to the family members. most affected by this week's horrific house explosion in washington state. police say that josh powell killed himself and his two young sons in that blast. powell had been suspected in the 2009 disappearance of his wife, susan. her sister, denise, was watching her nephews last saturday night. >> they kept calling me back into the room to make excuses so they didn't have to go to sleep. and i -- charlie, you know pretty much it was really cute. he told me -- he told me, he didn't give me the option that

i was coming over after his visit with his daddy and i said i'll be there. >> you can see dr. phil's interview with susan powell's parents and her sister beginning at 4:00 p.m. right here on channel 9. this morning, d.c.'s mayor and police chief both discussed some new strategies in hopes of solving a string of robberies in northwest washington. there has been an increase in robberies targeting smart phones and other personal electronic devices. people are urged the better protect their property and stay aware of their surroundings. police are also asking for tips to help them make arrests in these cases. coming up ahead on 9news now, we may not see any snow like we had earlier this week. but, howard is expecting some of the coldest air this winter so far. and after this week's controversy over new rules for

religious affiliated companies covering contraception, president obama is expected to announce a reversal of that policy in just a few minutes. we'll be right back.

today, a new city in syria has become embroiled in violenceic motions rocked the northern city -- explosions rocked the northern city of aleppo. they called the blast two terrorist explosions but opposition groups reported three explosions and if you ever. this city is -- gunfire. this city is syria's main commercial hub and it has been relatively quiet in the 11 months of anti-government protests. a 48 hour nationwide general strike got underway in greece this morning and some protestors quickly sistered rioting -- started rioting, they are demonstrating against new, even more stringent austerity more thans. they are requiring greek lawmakers to enact the measures in order to receive another huge bailout. in campaign 2012, there's news that president obama is

about to announce what companies are religious affiliations won't have to provide full contraceptive coverage. that's a policy reversal by the white house. the rules had been a popular target for republicans speaking at the conservative political action conference being held here in northwest washington. >> the president's job is to unite the country, not divide it. his job is to bridge differences, not aggravate them. to encourage success, not condemn it. and to honor and embrace the free exercise of religion. >> one thing's for certain -- this attack on religious freedom cannot and will not stand. >> again, president obama is announcing a change to contraceptive coverage rules. and if he speaks before the end of this newscast, we will bring that to you live. howard? yeah, j. c., out here still some sunshine now but clouds are on the increase. we've got cold air and some

winds and even some snow headed toward the region over the weekend. i'll tell you about that in just a few moments, we're going to break though with a look at the current temperatures, locally readings now into the lower 40s like 42 in reston. the weekend outlook when 9news now at noon returns.

we're going live to the white house where the president is speaking. >> all insurance plans are required to cover preventive care at no cost. that means free checkups, free

mammograms, immunizations, and other basic services. we fought for this because it saves lives and it saves money. for families, for businesses, for government, for everybody. that's because it's a lot cheaper to prevent an illness than to treat one. we also accepted a recommendation from the experts at the institute of medicine that when it comes to women, preventive care should include coverage of contraceptive services such as birth control. in addition to family planning, doctors often prescribe contraception as a way to prevent ovarian and other cancers and treat a variety of different ailments and we know the overall cost of health care is lower when women have access to contraceptive services. nearly 99% of all women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives. 99%. and yet more than half of all

women between the ages of 18 and 34 have struggled to afford it. so for all these reasons, we decided to follow the judgment of the nation's leading medical experts and make sure that free preventive care includes access to free contraceptive care. whether you're a teacher, or a small businesswomen, or a nurse, or a janitor. no woman's health should depend on who she is or where she works or how much money she makes. every woman should be in control of the decisions that affect her own health. period. this basic principle is already the law in 28 states across the country. now as we move to implement this rule however, we've been mindful that there's another principle at stake here and that's the principle of religious liberty and

inalienable right that's enshined in our institution. as a citizen and as a christian, i cherish this right. in fact my first job in chicago was working with catholic parishes and poor neighborhoods and my salary was funded by a grant from an arm of catholic church and i saw that local churches often did more good for a community than a government program ever could. so i know how important the work the faith based organizations do. and how much impact they can have in their communities. i also know that some religious institutions particularly those affiliates with the catholic church have a religious objection to directly providing insurance that covers contraceptive services for they employees and that's why we originally exempted all churches from this requirement. an exemption by the way that eight states didn't already have. and that's why from the very beginning of this process, i spoke directly to various

catholic officials and i promised that before finalizing the rule as it applied to them, we would spend the next year working with institutions like catholic hospitals and catholic universities to find an equitable solution that protects religious liberty, and ensures that every woman has access to the care that she needs. now, after the many genuine concerns that have been raced over the last few weeks as well as frankly the more cynical desire on the part of some to make this into a political football. it became clear that spending months hammering out a solution was not going to be on option. we needed to move the that'ser so last week i directed the department of health and human services speed up the process. that had already been envisioned. we weren't going to spend a year doing this, we were going to spend a week or to doing this. today we reached a decision on how to move forward: under the rule, women will still have

access to free preventive care. that includes contraceptive services no matter where they work. so that core principle remains. but, if a woman's employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company, not the hospital, not the charity, will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive carefree of charge. without copays and without hassles. the results will be that religious organizations won't have the pay for these services -- to pay for theosophs and no religious -- these services and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly. let me repeat. the employers won't have to pay for or provide contraceptive services but women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services just like other women and they'll no longer have to

pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries. now i've been confident from the start that we could work out a sensible approach here. just as promised, i understand some folks in washington may want to treat this as another political wedge issue. but it shouldn't be. i certainly never saw it that way. this is an issue where people of goodwill on both sides of the debate have been sorted through some very complicated questions to find a solution that works for everyone. with today's announcement, we've done that. religious liberty will be protected and a law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women. and we live in a pluralistic society. where we're not going to agree on every single issue. or share every belief. that doesn't mean that we have

to choose between individual liberty and basic fairness for all americans. we are unique among nations for having been founded upon both these principles and we have to carry them forward. i have complete faith that we can do that. thank you very much everybody. . >> we're going to take a break and we'll be right back.

welcome back. we're looking pretty good for

the next few hours but things are going to go downhill later tonight. temperatures climbing into the upper 40s and some areas around 50 degrees for the high as the clouds thicken up, we'll get into the night and then winds pretty light out of the north though. trying to bring in some colder air that's really going to be much colder tomorrow. with the 9:00 temperature about 45. going out this evening in pretty good shape. lots of sunshine right now on the michael & son weather camera although reporting mostly cloudy skies. there's a lot of sun coming through the overcast. bismarck's at 0 and minneapolis at 8 and here comes this push of cold and that's what we're going to see for the weekend especially saturday night into sunday. that's going to be the brunt of it for us but it's only going to be around through sunday before we get milder again by monday. we are watching some snows in wisconsin and michigan and then a lot of moisture down south along the gulf coast. this is going to form a pretty good sandstorm along the east -- storm along the east coast and just miss us but you can

see the snows in the ohio valley and this is really going to pound the mountains. the ski areas, snow shoe, out toward whisk. 6 to 12 inches of snow not out of the question for these folks in the next 36 hours. for us we're okay in the evening hours, tonight though midnight, i-81 west, a little snow there. southern maryland perhaps some rain showers. tomorrow morning though you may wake up to a little snow north of town but rain, south and east. we'll get rate of that midday but -- rid of that midday but as the temperature comes in can they drop during the afternoon, another chance for snow showers just about everywhere here in the afternoon and evening hours. this could put a little coating some areas might even pick up an inch or so. here's the forecast. today, we're looking at 50. tonight rain and snow showers we're down in the 30s. tomorrow, 40 but falling temps in the afternoon with a couple of chances for snow showers tomorrow into tomorrow night. by sunday, though, we start in the teens to around 20 with windchills near 0. sunday's high in the low 30s. and then next week, j. c., we

are back to 44 by monday so bundle up and a little bit of snow tonight north and west and tomorrow maybe a coating inside the beltway wouldn't surprise me. >> go to jchayward.com and win four free tickets to see charlie brown. go to jchayward.com and enter the contest. stay warm for the weekend. come back and visit us at 5:00. >> bye bye. [ captions by: caption colorado, llc 800-775-7838 email: comments@captioncolorado.com ]