we begin with breaking news from northwest washington. i'm ja c hayward. a cyclist was injured after being struck by a vehicle. the incident prompted several

street closures. it happened on 11 and "u" street northwest. our christian is live with more information on what happened. >> reporter: this is a very ugly collision between a lumber truck and one of those red capital biebs. the investigation is still ongoing but it appears that the truck and bike were heading south in this direction on 11th street. the bicyclist appeared to go straight and that's when the truck seemed to turn right into him. you can still see the orange marks in the middle of the roadway. that's "u" street where the bike went down. here is what it looked like an hour ago before police removed the bike from the middle of the street and you can see that the bike is completely mangled and here is where it really gets ugly. the person was dragged under the flatbed truck and run over by all three ackles. they had to flag down the driver who had gone about 30

feet dragging the cyclist down "u" street. when the driver finally stopped, the cyclist was still conscious and breathing but badly injured. we are told he was not wearing a helmet at the time and he was rushed to the hospital. actually the driver of the truck that person could be facing some charges once the investigation is complete. an accident reconstruct team was on the scene for about two hours. they shut down the entire block of "u" street and 11th street. you can see that all of the roads are now back open. by all accounts this is a very dangerous place to be riding a bike. and joining me now talk a little bit more about that is shawn with the washington area bicyclist association. shawn, you tell me a little bit about why this intersection in particular and this stretch of 11th street is so dangerous for cyclists? >> i wouldn't say it is dangerous. it is actually high volume corridor. a lot use 11th street as a

north-south way to get from the neighborhoods north of d.c. into downtown. i don't think the intersection is troublesome and sounds like there was a lack of attention paid by someone in this situation that may have led to an unfortunate crash. while there needs to be better marking and better signage to let motorists know that many cyclists will be using this roadway. i don't think the design of the intersection itself is -- >> there is no bike lane on this stretch of 11th street. >> not at this stretchism stops just before here. >> bike lane on parts of 11th street, just not this one part. hopefully that cyclist will be okay. thank you very much for joining us. and we will have more later tonight about the condition of that cyclist and exactly what happened here today. thank you very much. well, mitt romney and rick santorum are making closing arguments in michigan. they are fighting to convince voters that they are the best choice to face president obama

in the fall. michigan is romney's home state. but randall spinksten says the race is still very close. >> voters are going to the polls in michigan and arizona. mitt romney is expected to pull off a win in arizona, but in his home state of michigan he is stuck in a virtual tie with rick santorum. this morning during a visit in his campaign office, romney went on the attack against his chief rival. >> i think he is an economic lightweight. he doesn't understand the process of job creating. >> romney spent the last five days crisscrossing michigan hoping to avoid an embarrassing loss. he got a boost from an unlikely supporter. >> kid rock. >> rock hit born-free is romney's campaign theme song. >> as it comes down to the wire, rick santorum counting on an unusual correlation to put him over the top. he has lined up support from tea party members, social conservatives and surprisingly he is asking michigan's democrats to vote for him. >> i always find it funny all

of the pundits are saying he ties conservative yet governor romney running ads i'm not conservative. >> even if he doesn't win in romney's home state he could declare a victory a strong showing for santorum in michigan could solidify the republican contest as a two man race. for now ron paul and newt gingrich are still in the hunt. gingrich is looking to the south for another chance on super tuesday next week. randall pinkston, cbs news, the white house. maryland residents who want to vote in the free states april 3 presidential primary have a deadline in two weeks. maryland state board of election says the deadline to register to vote or change party affiliation is march 13 at 9:00 p.m. that's also the deadline to request a polling place change if you are registered in maryland but you have moved. for virginia voters today, it's a deadline to apply for a mail-in absentee ballot.

the state board of collections says applications for mail and absentee plats must be submittedded by 5:00 p.m. applications can be submitted to the voters local general registrar's office in person by mail, fax or scanned e-mail attachments. only two candidates, mitt romney and ron paul qualify to appear on the virginia ballot next tuesday. prosecutors are asking that the wife of former prince george's county executive jack johnson to pay a $15,000 fine before she reports to prison next month. leslie johnson was sentenced last year to a one year and a day in prison for obstructing an investigation into her husband pp corruption. she admitted to flushing an ellisset $100,000 -- i illetset $100,000 check down the toilet and trying to conceal $80,000

in her underwear. another student has died after that shooting at a high school in ohio. the suspect accused of shooting five students is expected to be in court today. manuel gallegus reports where a community is struggling to make sense of the shootings. >> residents are remembering the victims of a deadly high school shooting. >> i know a lot of people here insist it hurts. i'm a mother. it just hurts. >> a second student died from his injuries this morning. one day after a teenager opened fire at chardon high school. >> we have an active shooter at the high school. >> school had just started when eyewitnesses say 17-year-old tj lane pulled out a hand gun in the cafeteria and shot five students. >> just dead silence the entire time. didn't say anything. >> lane is expected to be in court this afternoon. cbs news has learned that lane claims to be a victim of bullying and warned his friends about his plans two days in

advance. lane was not a student at chardon high. he was waiting to be bussed to a nearby school for at risk teens. eyewitnesses say he targeted one group of kids sitting together before a teacher chased him down. students who knew lane are shocked. >> you never think of him to do this. he is so shy and quiet. he is one of those people that is not talkative around other people. >> schools are closed today in chardon and flags are flying at half staff. more memorials will be held tonight as this community mourns the victims. manuel gallegus, cbs news, chardon, ohio. some shooting victims were waiting in the cafeteria for buses to take them to nearby vocational schools. two lawsuits stemming from the 2007 massacre at virginia tech are headed to trial. this comes after talks between the state and the plaintiffs failed to produce a settlement. a jury trial is set to begin on

monday march 5. the $10 million lawsuits were filed by the two families whose students were among the 32 people killed by a gunman. the state of virginia is the only remaining defendant. >> still it come when 9 news now continues, if you have room in your heart and in your home, find out how you can help a few precious animals who are in need of some tender loving care. plus, a crippled cruise ship with more than 1,000 passengers on board. it slowly making its way to port. we will have details when we come back.

another cruise ship in trouble this time an ocean liner with more than 1,000 people on board is crippled in the indian ocean. the same company that owns this ship, operated the ship that capsized the cost of italy. >> reporter: rescue crews are towing a crippled cruise liner in the indian ocean. hundreds of passengers are crowding the deck of the costa allegra because there is no power. a fire in the generator room on monday left the ship with no

air conditioning or way to cook food. >> we have no reports of anyone being sick or hurt. as far as we are aware the situation is very calm. that the captain is in control of the boat. >> emergency generators are only powering the ship's control room and its communication equipment. helicopters are drops food, satellite phones and radios. it's taking longer than expected to tow the ship to the nearest island off the coast of tanzania because the ship is so heavy. but most of the more than 1,000 people on board including eight americans should be back on land in the next 24 hours. families of those on the ship are worried. >> i haven't heard from her yet. >> this woman's daughter is a dancer on the costa allegra. she also had a son working on the costa concordia which capsized last month off the coast of italy killing 25 people. >> a nightmare we didn't think we would have to relive especially within six weeks. carnival owns both ships. the costa allegra is adrift in

an area where somali pirates strike. carnival says it has armed guards on board to keep everyone safe. cbs news. carnival is flying an engineers and technicians to repair those generators. coming up next, howard and the forecast. >> after a chilly start, pretty nice out here. winds getting lighter. we are going into the 50s. one thing it's been such a warm winter the allergy count came in today. and believe it or not, not even march and we have grass pollen on the board. trees are high and grass is low and molds are low. i will be back with the seven- day forecast and talking about a couple chances of rain when 9 news now returns.

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sonic teardrop humidifier. that saves you 34% plus you get free shipping and how about giving your culinary skills a whirl. pay $69 and get a three hour cooking class. you also get wine and a four course meal at living social new live events save 918f street. seen an offer you seen or a local merchant with a deal, i love to hear from you on facebook. a search underway for new foster parents. not for children, not for what you think. the fairfax county animal shelter is looking for people willing to foster cats, dogs and other pets. shelter director karen says it's often better for younger animals to be cared for away from the county shelter. >> sometimes puppies coming into a shelter this size end up getting sick. so we put them in a foster home where there is less population -- a smaller population and the opportunity to have their

vaccines kick in. give them some protection and then we bring them back here for adoption. >> the fairfax county shelter places between 300 and 400 animals in foster care each year. and they are's hosting an orientation session on tuesday march 6. all right, let's get to the forecast. >> beautiful today. >> is it. >> not as warm as yesterday when we were in the 60s but we will take mid-50s. average high is 50 and about 5 above that today. tomorrow much closer to that but that come was price of some clouds and showers and rain around. not a pretty day but we will be back in the 60s by thursday. we were looking good here the next few days. here is a look at this afternoon and i urge you to take a long walk if you can and do something fun outside. it's nice out. there fairly light winds for the rest of the afternoon and go from northwest to southeast. and less than five miles an hour as we top off near 55. head toward the evening partly cloudy. by 7:49, by 9:47.

winds not too strong and won't be that bad. look at these temperatures now. we climbed into the 40s in most areas. even 50s as warm as 54 for culpepper and fredericksburg and you are headed into the upper 50s there and lower 50s north and we are already 49. locally 46 at gaitersburg and leesburg ma.inoussis up to 50 and 51 in crofton. 50 in college park. and springfield looking good at 53. look outside. a nice looking day here as we look off toward the north. clear skies overhead. sunshine and 49 degrees. look how dry the air. dew point down to 19 with a north, northwesterly wind only five miles per hour and those winds are going to be light this afternoon. big stormy nls. a lot of storminess across the country. energy coming into the west coast and energy coming off of mexico and we have a couple of piece to this storm system that some snow right now in the mid west and the storm in colorado when it gets to the northern plains tomorrow, blizzard conditions later today, tonight

and through much of wednesday. we got the snow north and the rain south and it can be strong thunderstorms even on the southern end of this storm system. a spring-like pattern here and then the snow is going to head off toward the northeast and new york state and new england and we will see the rain move in. not so much today. today is gorgeous. mid-50s for highs. just a few clouds start moving in before midnight. more after midnight. southerly flow and moisture from the west and they will come together and the rain will break out here and maybe by 9:00. we were lucky to get passed the morning rush-hour drive. if we are lucky the heavier rains pull out and we imeat break for the afternoon rush- hour before more showers return for the evening. this all clears out of here by wednesday night, thursday morning and so that thursday we will start in the 40s. start with a jumping point that high, 60s will be astainable. i think we are the throw mid- 60s by thursday afternoon and then the weekend is a little mixed. 55 today.

cooler than yesterday but still very nice. tonight 35 to 40. winds are southeast 5 to 10. a cool wednesday. periods of rain and showers only around 50. some areas may stay in the upper 40s north of d.c. and then we jump to the 60s on thursday, a very nice day. friday also warm about 60. with a late shower or more likely friday night into saturday. could be some thunder even mixed in on saturday and then back in the 40s sunday and monday and maybe even a few flurries and snow showers sunday night into monday morning. we are not done. 9news now at noon returns right after this short break.

all right, today on one-on- one with dr. nicholas by ljy and we are talking about heart disease did you know that heart disease causes more deaths than other diseases and more women die from heart disease than any other condition. most people don't understand that. it's interesting. we didn't look at women when we thought of heart disease like we looked at men, did we? >> no unfortunate. they are underrepresented in the vast majority of the medical literature looking at this. up until recently they really been excluded from a lot of the studies. >> and i think do you treat women differently than men? >> their symptoms tend to be different. oftentimes they are a lot more subtle. it's not the obvious chest pain

that we usually hear about sometimes it's just a mild shortness of breath. something that's otherwise unexplained. and oftentimes they present later and oftentimes they do more poorly than men. >> is that so? so really need to be tested. and annual check up. >> yes. there is a lot of traditional risk factors. high cholesterol, diabetes. but even if you are doing the right things in terms of lifestyle, eating right, exercising daily, if you have a family history, you can do the right things and it still could be building in the arteries. >> because we hear of people who exercise, who eat right and then all of a sudden, you know, they have a stroke or heart attack and say what happened? i was doing everything right. >> it happens. you know, we try to focus on the modifiable risk factors. the things we can control. nobody can choose their parents. and unfortunately that contributes. >> that can.

we know eat properly, watch the diet. that's important. get plenty of exercise. >> and exercising can be very easy. simply walking 30 minutes every day or five days a week, you can do a good deal. >> you don't have to go to a gym and pay a lot of money. >> true. >> what about just walking up and down stairs in your home. >> great exercise. and the winter months if the weather is not very good go to the mall. you inside and it's very easy. >> i like going to the mall. that's music to my ears. heart disease is something that's serious. we don't want to make light of it. we want to make sure that viewers are concerned about their health. that they take into consideration the things that they should be doing and their history. and, of course, get a check up. >> if you have chest pain that's ongoing for 20 minutes to 30 minutes, that could be a heart attack and that should be evaluated. >> thank you from southern maryland hospital. thank you for being here today. we will take your words to

heart. make sure that we focus on our heart. thank you for being with us. please come back and visit us at 5:00. by the way, be sure to go to jc hayward.com. i will be on vacation for three weeks. i'm going on a cruise. i will be back at the end of march. take care.