expanded, a flood watch covering pretty much the entire metro area include saturday morning includes prince george's county, fairfax, points north and west. it does not include charles county and southern maryland. it does not mean you'll not see heavy showers and some thunderstorms. we'll move further west other side of the mountains and show you the thunderstorms pushing through kentucky into ohio and eventually into western west virginia, tremendous amounts of tornadoes and flood watches and warnings and a tornado watch still in effect across most of west virginia and eastern kentucky. so again the good news for us, that severe weather will stay out there, but we aren't done with thunderstorms just yet. we'll take you through the weekend in a bit. meanwhile indiana authorities say at least three people have been killed by the tornadoes that structure the southern part of that state and the violent storms also pummeled the nation's southeast and the forecasters say the danger will ramp up as the night goes on.

high winds sideswiped these homes outside of huntsville, alabama, and tore off roofs, snapped signs, flipped trailers in the tennessee valley. meteorologists believe of it the work of at least two tornadoes each with winds of about 130 miles an hour. >> devastating. it's heartbreaking, don't really know what to think tell you the truth about it. >> from louisiana to ohio, from missouri to south carolina golf ball sized hail fell and damaging winds were pulling down the trees and power lines, tens of thousands of people in the dark tonight and the severe weather comes just two days after a massive system in the very same region unleashed more than two dozen tornadoes killing at least 13 people. essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. what does that make her? it makes her a slut, right? makes her a prostitute. >> okay. whole lot of reaction today to the way rush limbaugh referred to a student at georgetown university and bruce leshan reports one advertiser has

pulled its spots and even the white house is weighing in. >> president obama has stepped into the dust-up between radio loud mouth rush limbaugh and a third year law student at georgetown university. it started last month when an all male panel was first up for a house hearing on contraception and sandra fluke was denied a chance to speak. days later congressional democrats provided a forum. >> i attended jesuit law school that does not provide contraceptive coverage. >> reporter: limbaugh suggested that fluke wants taxpayers to pay for her birth control. >> it makes her a slut, right? makes her a prostitute. she wants to be paid to have sex. she's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. she wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. >> reporter: and went even further. >> if we're going to have to pay for this, then we want something in return, ms. fluke, and that would be the videos of

all this sex posted online so we can see. >> a lot of women unfortunately have heard those types of words and historically they've always been used to try to see lens women and especially women who are -- silence women, especially those seeking out help for their reproductive health and needs. >> reporter: if we allow coarseness, anger, even hatred it was said to stand in for civil discourse in america, we violate the sacred trust that has been handed down through the generations beginning with our founders and the president in his call to fluke apparently expressed the same sentiments as the school principal. >> he expressed support for me and thanked me for helping to amplify the voices of women across the country. >> this began as a debate about religious freedom, but the ground has shifted, more people

now talking about the right to contraception which may not be playing as well with swing voters. bruce leshan, 9 news now. an update now on that virginia man fighting to get off the commonwealth sex offender registry. we introduced you to 20-year- old edgar coker last month when he was 15, a 14-year-old girl accused him of raping her that. girl later recanted the accusation and said it was consensual, but by then coker had pled guilty to the crime. since then he's been fighting to have the 2007 rape conviction overturned. today the virginia supreme court ruled coker can sue to have his original conviction reversed and his name removed from the state sex offender registry. caught on tape, a pickup driver swerves onto the sidewalk hitting a man and drives off. look at. this it happened in laurel wednesday afternoon. the metrobus camera catches this happening. the impact caused a man to be thrown 30 feet over an

embankment. police are looking for a ford f250 pickup with a supercab and extended bed, the model year 2005 to 2007. nearly 100 teachers rallied in the rain today protesting plans to freeze their pay for the next three or four years. kristin fisher spoke with the educators today and has the latest from dale city. >> reporter: these teachers have come from all over prince william county and they've been standing rallying in the rain over three hours now. they're trying to garner public support to get the superintendent to change his current budget proposal. >> we want to be treated like professionals. we work for if and we've earned it and we deserve -- for it and we've earned it and we deserve it. >> reporter: nearly 100 prince william county teachers rallied in the rain for something they haven't seen in years, a raise. how long has it been since you've got a raise? >> it's been three years. i'm a fifth year teacher and frozen at a second year teacher salary. >> it takes three years to make

up for a child's deficit. we're not getting paid the amount we're worth, how many more deficits will there be? >> reporter: if the proposed budget stays as is, it could be four years before these teachers get a raise. >> just recently moved. i'm not able to live in this area by myself, not even remotely. >> they feel like they don't have a platform, someone to advocate for them. >> reporter: the superintendent said there's simply not enough funds for salary increases. >> we're teaching the kids who will pay for your social security. >> reporter: they want more money from the county, but the board of supervisors says the school system already gets a greater cut of the county budget than most other systems in the d.c. area. this back and the forth is all the more frustrating for teachers who say they just want to be paid to do what they love. >> treat us as professionals, respect us, let us be able to afford to live here or else you're going to lose us of. >> reporter: prince william county public schools issued a written statement saying they sympathize with the teachers' concerns and are reminding them

that the budget process is not over yet. i'm kristin fisher, 9 news now. the d.c. primary is april 3rd and if you want your vote to count, listen up. this monday is the mail-in deadline to make any changes to party affiliation. independents, you cannot vote unless you declare to one of the three official parties, that is, the democrats, republicans or statehood green. you can make these changes by filling out a form and mailing it into the board of elections, but it must be postmarked by monday. officials say in the last primary almost 4,000 voters cast ballots that were not counted because they were not registered properly. check your status. go to our website www.wusa9.com and look under local news. coming up d.c. students have the option of going to any state school they want to in the whole country and they'll pay in-state tuition, but we look at how many are actually taking advantage of that opportunity. but first the latest on the trial of the former rutgers university college student connected to the death of his

roommate. stay with us.

in new jersey prosecutors still laying out their case against dharun ravi, a former rutgers university student accused of spying on his roommate with a webcam when his roommate tyler clementi was in an intimate encounter with another man. clement i jumped off the --

clementi jumped off the gw bridge and killed himself. ravi is on trial facing 15 criminal counts including bias, intimidation and invasion of privacy. >> these acts were purposeful. they were intentional. and they were planned. >> might be stupid at times, but certainly not a criminal. >> ravi's attorney said his client was just 18 at the time and meant no harm, but if convicted he faces up to 10 years in prison. tonight controversy over a walking tour out in milwaukee. that is because it is a planned walk that's supposed to give you a peek into the life of serial killer jeffrey daumer. this tour takes you through the walkers point neighborhood where daumer met and stalked his victims, but the victims' families and others say this tour is just an attempt to exploit an ugly part of city history and they want to put a stop to it. police arrested daumer back in 1991 and he admitted that he killed 17 young men, some of whom he mutilated and cannibalized. daumer was serving life prison sentences when a fellow inmate

beat him to death in 1994, but tour organizer van marketing and media is not detoured and plan to keep the tour going. so what do you think? are they exploiting a terrible crime and commercializing a monster or what's wrong with giving the people what they want to see? send us your thoughts. we'd like to see them in mcginty's mailbag. the address is mailbag at wusa9.com or you can post your thoughts on our facebook page. could our weekend end up being a washout? topper shutt has the answer in your full 9 news now forecast, but first talk about a life changing opportunity. d.c. kids can go to any state college and not pay the out of state rates. we'll get the details as to how many are participating.

$311 million, that is how much congress has appropriated over the years to help pay using its of d.c. students going to colleges all over the country. it's called the tuition assistance program or tag and it's only available to d.c. residents. advocates call the program a huge success, even though the number who graduate is below the national average. here's bruce johnson. >> it's not just a program about my child, but it's for the city's children. >> reporter: that's michelle seabrook and she's at the district's tuition assistance office because she and her husband are about to send off their second child to college out of state. >> whereas many otherwise would

not be able to attend. >> reporter: it's not just a low income program. any d.c. family earning $1 million or less is eligible. the u.s. congress has put more than $300 million into the tag effort. let's talk about the graduation rate. >> the national average is 58% and remember that's all income levels in every state. we're at 48% of. >> reporter: just half of the more than 18,000 student have graduated in four to six years. >> 10% below the national average. >> reporter: how do you view that? >> you have to remember, it's not an excuse, but we have a large low income population. >> reporter: the grant money ranges from a few thousand dollars up to $10,000 you can use that money at any private university in the city including here at george washington university. you can also use that money at any public university throughout the country if the student can get in. students at the district's only public university, udc, they are not eligible for tag funds. >> basically ignored udc as a

state university for the district residents of the district of columbia. >> reporter: udc faculty say many of the d.c. students who fail to finish using tag funds elsewhere i understand -- end up here at the north main campus. >> not all students are ready to leave home. >> i think it's fair to say almost 50% of your students graduating is pretty good. it's not good enough for us. so we've been working the last year and have a lot of time and effort into retention programs. >> reporter: critics hearing ruefully half of the tag money -- critics argue roughly half of the tag money may have gone to d.c. students who did not finish college in six years. >> on saturday march 10th the tag office will conduct a smart college fair to help tag students pick the schools where d.c. students have had the highest graduation rates. that college fair will be held at trinity university in northeast d.c. and gets started at 11 a.m. well, this is the birthday of the late children's author

dr. seuss and prince george's county schools celebrated by participating in the annual read across america day. that reading and motivation and awareness program calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on this day. teachers and volunteers took time to read dr. seuss books to the kids. >> would you eat them in a box? >> no! >> would you eat them with a fox? >> no! >> nobody likes the green eggs and ham, all right. more than 45 million readers nationwide were expected to celebrate read across america day. this is started by the national education association back in 1998. there you go. >> you know what? i really liked it earlier when it was sunny and 60 degrees. that was nice. >> yesterday was really nice. today is not so good. the first batch is through is the good news. the bad news is another round of showers and perhaps thunderstorms possible overnight into early on saturday morning. let's start with the radar out

to the west. this is some nasty activity in west virginia, eastern kentucky and also into ohio. you see the big area shaded in red, that is the tornado watch boxes. the areas that are in bright red are actually under tornado warnings this hour and we know they have tornadoes because this is the same line that produced the tornadoes in henryville, indiana just of louisville. so a tremendous amount of energy and instability. look at all the lightning pop up just west of charleston up toward ripley. the good news is we are on the stable end of the environment, so we don't see anything severe happening tonight. we will watch it carefully getting into the midnight hour. we will see milder air roll in and the atmosphere will destablize a little here. look at the storm reports. these are tornadoes. we have hail, all kinds of activity through much of ohio, southern indiana, southern illinois and it continues to march off to the east. in fact, an unconfirmed tornado now around huntington with a severe thunderstorm. we'll move off to the east.

here's our first batch of rain and showers. some of it was actually heavy at one time, but now we are looking at kind of a respite, but because the warm front is way back to the west of it, it will push off to the northeast overnight. we're not done with showers and we're not done with thunderstorms just yet either. so it's a good time to download our weather app. go to the app store and search wusa radar and track this activity. we do have a flood watch that covers most of the metro area through tomorrow. it does not include southern maryland, but you could still have some heavy downpours. a live look outside with our weather cam by mike and son. temperatures haven't budged much, still 48 downtown winds southeast at 8. they're turning a bit and eventually become southwest by dawn tomorrow. pressure steady 29.81 inches of mercury. 45 bethesda, gaithersburg and reston, looking at 47 in college park and out to the west it's 46 in manassas.

i think temps stay steady or go up a bit tonight. tough commute home, rain and thunderstorms tonight, flood watch entire metro area. windy, warmer saturday and breezy and colder sunday. a turn toward winter sunday. so mostly cloudy tonight, breezy and milder, showers and thunderstorms, 48 to 50, winds south, southwest 10 to 15. by morning showers and norms end early, pretty mild, temps in -- thunderstorms end early, pretty mild, by afternoon partly cloudy, breezy, warmer, showers still possible, highs between 60 and 65, westerly winds 10 to 15. next seven days it gets cold, sunday and monday temperatures in the 40s and, in fact, maybe a flurry late sunday or sunday night and low 40s monday, back in the 50s, though, on tuesday with sunshine, gorgeous on wednesday, more rain and showers thursday and then very nice on friday. >> what time do you think the rains will end tomorrow morning? >> i think before dawn and brake and maybe some showers in

the afternoon. >> all right -- a break and maybe some showers in the afternoon. >> all right. let's get to our weird news file because tonight either angelina jolie either turned you on or out when she stuck out that leg last sunday and you know nothing ever dies once it hits the internet and tonight we present something called leg bombing, angelina's right leg in some interesting situations. her leg on the scariest creature of all, the alien. how about the dart mal from star wars and even lady liberty getting in on the action. as far as i know, there is no topper shutt version, but if you make it, i promise you, we will show it. >> it's too bony. >> i agree. >> we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mailbag, the address mailbag at wusa9.com. 9 news now will be right back.

in the mailbag tonight response to that wisconsin state lawmaker sponsoring a bill that basically says single parenting is a big contributor to child abuse and neglect. our good friend deb in arlington says in a perfect

world sure, everybody would have two loving parents, but what world are you living in. ideally yes, it would be great if everyone was raised by two qualified caring parents, but all families aren't the waltons or the crosbys, but i have known so many cases where a great mom raised great kids and oppositely two parents with so many issues their kids turned out warped. everything is an absolutely individual case. then we heard from jg who claims to have been raised by a single parent in wisconsin and they are not nearly so nice about this. i want to know what makes him think he has the right to impose his opinions on others with how he raises children and how the children of single parents, which i am living proof and have been successful. each of my siblings have gone on to productive and successful lives. i will not say it's easy. raising children is not easy regardless of one or two parents. i think both of you have said

it all, but in case you missed a spot our address is mailbag at wusa9.com and don't forget to include your name and where you're from. that is our report. i'll be right back here at 11:00 alongside anita brikman and long on any time you like to www.wusa9.com. we'll have the latest on this weather forecast right there. we'll see you a bit later. have a great night. bye bye. people! look at you!

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now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. new "desperate housewives" courtroom drama today. >> she got walloped upside the head by her boss. >> nicollette sheridan's tearful testimony and the tantrums behind this poolside foe tee shoot. >> i just really don't regard me as a desperate housewife. they're desperate and i'm not. new brad pitt. his post-oscar shopping trip with son maddox. plus, a very, very pregnant jessica simpson. and mariah carey returns to the stage. >> it is my first public performance since them babies. davy jones' final tv performance with his young wife on stage, their wedding photo, and his candid interview