. hello. i'm andrea roane. thank you for joining us. i'm sitting in for jc hayward today. we begin with breaking news. to more envelopes constaining suspicious -- containing suspicious white powder is discovered in the district. one was found at a restaurant at 12th and 8th streets northwest. there are reports that at least one person at the school was

exposed to the substance. loved ones of students rushed to the scene. >> they told me that the secretary picked up white powder inside an envelope. she was itself first one -- the first one but it may be airborne. >> both scenes were cleared a short while later. yesterday crews were called to the oyster adams bilining gall school for a -- bilingual school for a suspicious envelope. first responders rushed there yesterday morning only to be called to two additional suspicious mailings. author david william wrote a case study of the 2001 anthrax attack letters investigation. he has an idea where someone would do this. >> i think it's a very cheap, easy and anonymous way for someone to try and make a point or to grind an ax. >> similar envelopes were also mailed to schools in new

hampshire, massachusetts, connecticut, and texas. in all of those cases the powder was also found to be harmless. changing gears, enjoy the nice weather while we have it. strong winds and more colder temperatures are heading our way. let's get right to meteorologist howard bernstein with your forecast first. >> reporter: if it weren't for the winds, this would be a delightful day here in march as happens have already shot towards 70 downtown. manassas is 70. mid- to upper 60s north and west. we're off to the races. maybe 75 in spots before the afternoon is out. annapolis one of our warmer spots at 71. the winds, that's been the other story weather wise. we have gusts 33 miles an hour now at reagan national. we could see gusts 35 to maybe 40. in fact, we're seeing them down toward orange at 37 miles an hour. and 40 up in philadelphia. so a windy afternoon. we've got a cold front coming. that is going to bring some showers here tonight and chillier temperatures tomorrow. so for the rest of the

afternoon, at least 71 by 3:00. we potentially could be maybe 74. by 6:00 p.m. mostly cloudy and breezy with strong south winds. by 9:00 showers will be moving in. temperatures in the low 60s. i'll be back in a few minutes. the next seven days including ups and downs for the weekends all coming -- for the weekend all coming up. syrian government troops continue their bloody attacks against rebels trying to overthrow the regime. as nations across the globe take stronger stands against the violence. as susan mcginnis reports, a united nations team got its first look at some of the destruction left behind. >> reporter: government forces in syria launched a new wave of deadly crackdowns targeting rebels trying to overthrow the regime. the fighting has left at least 7500 dead. the conflict began nearly a year ago and shows no signs of ending. world leaders including president obama are calling on syrian president bashar assad to stop the attacks and step

down. so far assad's top officials have remained loyal to him, but a high ranking member of his government post add video to youtube -- posted a video to youtube announce be he's defecting. the deputy oil minister read from a piece of paper saying, quote, i do not want to end my life servicing the crimes of this regime. pentagon officials told lawmakers they're considering a range of options to stop the bloodshed, everything from arming the rebels to the possibility of military action. the head of the senate's foreign relations committee senator john kerry says nobody wants to sit on the sidelines but he believes now is not the time for the u.s. to strike. >> syria is not libya. they have a very sophisticated missile defense system, air defense system, that is. and they have a stronger military. >> reporter: but the calls for action are growing. the united nations humanitarian chief toured part of homs, the city at the center of fighting.

she told reporters she saw widespread devastation and wants to know what happened to the residents who called this neighborhood home. susan mcginnis, cbs news, washington. >> syria's neighboring countries are rushing to prepare camps near the borders to handle refugees fleeing the fighting. d.c. fire investigators say they responded to a blaze on the ninth floor of the f.b.i. building. it happened just before 2:00 this morning. the fire started out in a cleaning cart. no one was hurt. a cause is under investigation but the authorities do not believe this is a case of arson. new at noon, montgomery county police have charged two people with the murder of an aspen hill man. the victim was found along superior street near elizabeth street around 3:00 yesterday afternoon. all police are saying about the victim at this time he that he is a young man. the investigation is still in its early stages. police are trying to find a motive. they say the men all knew each other. >> we were just talking -- we

are just talking with him at police headquarters right now. we believe we have the person who was there at the scene at the time of the shooting. >> we now know who the suspects are that have been charged. 19-year-old andrew ramos and 20- year-old christopher evans have been charged with the killing. the victim's name could be released later today. still to come when the news continues, see how solar flares that happened 90 million miles away could cause problems for us here on earth. will the republican race soon be less crowded? the candidate now talking about one of his challengers quitting the race. that story is coming up.

our noon news continues with a look at the g.o.p. presidential race. mitt romney's rivals vow they won't back down even after the front-runner's six-state wins on tuesday. >> reporter: rick santorum told supporters in jackson, mississippi next week's primary could be a gail changer.

-- >> a game changer. >> if we win mississippi, this will be a two-person race. >> reporter: santorum is battling with newt gingrich to win over conservative voters and emerge as mitt romney's lone rival. the former pennsylvania senator has social securitily split that pace with -- has consistently split that pace with gingrich. santorum is stopping short ever calling gingrich to quit the race. newt gingrich says that won't happen. >> we are staying in this race because i believe that it's going to be impossible for a moderate to win the general election. >> reporter: but mitt romney is pulling away from his competition. cbs news estimates he now has 391 delegates, more than all of his challengers combined. >> i'm going to get this nomination. >> reporter: the former massachusetts governor will campaign in mississippi today and he's about to start airing tv commercials in alabama. newt gingrich and rick santorum

have a strong following in the south and will look for voters there to give them some momentum. but romney has the organization and the money to stay competitive if the primary battle drags on. his campaign just announced it raised $11.5 million in february, the second best month so far. >> mississippi and alabama hold primaries tuesday. ron paul will get back on the campaign trail today. he heads to kansas where caucuses will be held on saturday. south america protesters and chilean police clashed over new reforms proposed for parts of that country. activists say the changes would reduce the quality of health care and education for many of the country's poorest citizens. police used water cannons and tear gas to break up the crowds. the protests have prompted widespread mining closures which is costing the country billions of dollars a day. howard is up next with the forecast. stay with us. >> reporter: it's a nice

afternoon except for the winds which are going to gust to maybe 40 miles an hour. we'll take you to break and look at the allergy update. the tree pollen is now in the high category unfortunately. grass still low just below one and mold still low at 888. you're watching 9news now at noon.

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facebook. i'm jessica doyle, 9news now. in just two hours about 30,000 runners registered yesterday for the marine corps marathon. organizers say yesterday's frenzy was the quickest sellout for a u.s. marathon in history. the 37th annual marine corps marathon will be held sunday, october 28. a massive storm on the sun is about to have a major impact on earth. juan fernandez explains how radioactive particles from solar flares may soon start messing with everything from our electricity to gps systems. >> reporter: the biggest solar storm in years is racing towards earth. the massive cloud of charged particles could disrupt utility grids, airline flights, satellites and gps networks. >> high technology of course is always vulnerable because we've got it up at the level where this stuff is coming in. it doesn't used to be like this but since we started putting satellites up in space, we obviously had to deal with this as well. people have been designing satellites to protect them from this kind of thing.

there's a great deal that's done and can be done to do that. you kind of take defensive action. same thing with the electrical grid. but it's prudent at a time like this to reroute aircraft. we know that gps systems and satellites are vulnerable and so they wind up skirting farther south trying to stay away from where the major number of particles happens to be. >> reporter: for us on earth, cell phones and gps devices could hit a snag. according to him, if anything happens, we'll know it. >> the average person doesn't have to worry about a thing but stay alert. if somebody has some trouble with satellite phone system or the gps, you'll know it when you're trying to use your equipment. >> i think it's a lot more useful than cell phones, gps. i know it's far away but anything is possible. expect the worse, hope for the best. >> that was juan fernandez reporting. we are hoping for the best but looking at our weather, though,

seems like march lion like today. >> it's roaring out there, the winds that is. the solar storm so far hasn't been that bad. that doesn't mean the worst of it is over. >> we had some reports -- have we had some reports of anything happened? >> so far they've been okay. >> we like okay. >> but it's not over yet. we're still in the middle of it. weather wise, you're right about the winds and roaring like a lion. we have gusts 35, 40 miles an hour possible this afternoon. if it wasn't for that i'm sure the golf courses would be a lot busier with the sunshine and temperatures going into the lower if not mid-70s. here's a look at your day planner. mix of sun and clouds. some of the high thin clouds the next few hours before they thicken up later this afternoon. the 3:00 temperature 73. if we got to 75, even 76 with a southwest wind ripping the way it is, clearly that's not out of reach today. we will see the clouds increase and then the rain show up after

dark here in washington. could be late this afternoon in places like cumberland, out towards hagerstown. you may get some of that before the sun sets as we're looking at it from the west. here's the latest wind gust. gusting to 36 now in fredricksburg. it's 30 in easton. out to the west lots of upper 20s to low 30s and 37 mile an hour wind gust, the latest report in charlottesville. temperature wise 60s and 70s now. 72 in culpeper. 70 at the pax river naval air station. easton, remember, you've got the winds coming off the water. you're going to have a tough time in cambridge, staying in the mid- to upper 60s along the shore here on the east side of the bay. just a nice, nice day out there. here's a look outside on our michael & son weather camera. notice the high clouds here. just a couple of puffy fair weather clouds but still a decent amount of sunshine. 70 degrees. when they report this they'll report this as cloudy because of a thin overcast upstairs but it's still partly to mostly

sunny and the winds sustained right now at 26 miles an hour gusting to 33. that is some kind of wind. got a lot of cold still in the middle of the country. you see the difference here. temperatures in oklahoma city this morning or noon hour are in the 40-degree range. three hours south you're in the low 70s in dallas. the jet streamlining up right here. south of the jet it's warm. north of it it's cold. but the colder air is going to push a front our way. this front is producing a lot of rainfall. a little bit of snow in new mexico. look at all the rain falling across north texas into oklahoma, arkansas, back into tennessee and kentucky. it looks like we're going to have a massive rainstorm but that's not going to be the case because this front is going to come through. we'll get in on some of these showers and they're picking up in intensity in northwestern pennsylvania this noon hour and southern ohio. we'll get into some of these showers as we head into the evening hours. here we are at 5:00 p.m. rain in pennsylvania getting into western maryland. there may be a few showers out ahead of this and then the more steady rains, the heavier

showers. they'll push through overnight. 6:00 tomorrow morning notice the line here. south and east of d.c. southern prince george's county, anne arundel, cal vermt, st. mary -- calvert, st. mary's,. this will quickly move away. colder air moves in. highs only in the mid-50s. 30s tomorrow night and only around 50 for saturday. so we are going to get a lot chillier here. looking at the forecast, today 73, if not 75 the way we're going. tonight the showers move in. we'll drop into the mid and upper 40s. winds will shift from the southwest to the northwest. tomorrow mid-50s, partly sunny. still breezy, not as windy as today but northwest winds ten to 20. definitely back in the jacket. a chilly saturday with highs only around 50. then we get to sunday. big weekend. we're going to set the clocks forward so we get an early date on sunday morning, my son has a 7:45 hockey game. that's going to be painful.

62. 67 monday. back to the 70s tuesday and wednesday. we'll be right back. we're watching 9news now.

a charity dedicated to helping military families cope with post extra mat ig syndrome is sponsoring a marathon on st. patrick's day. the marathon is the sun trust rock 'n' roll u.s.a. marathon. channel 9 is also a sponsor. we welcome admiral sunny and

he's not alone. board chair. thank you for being here. we've been enjoying talking about this and our gulf coast connections as well. >> it's an honor. >> tell us a little bit more about what is not alone. >> not alone is an organization, a not for profit organization. we do one thing. we provide no cost and confidential mental health counseling to our returning warriors and their families who are suffering if any range of problems from post-traumatic stress, suicidal ideations or just confusion into the resimulation into society. >> how long have you been doing this? >> we've been doing it for five years and expanded into 22 states with more than 400 counselors. all of it is free to the service member and undisclosed to the service because some folks believe that there might be a stigma attached with reporting this problem. >> we have veterans affairs. we have veterans advocacies out

there. why did you feel with not alone feel that yet another service was needed to help support returning veterans? >> the bottom line is you can't deny that there's a problem. and if -- if service members believe real or perceived their perception is their reality, that if they report that they have a mental health problem to their service, that it will in some fashion denigrate their service or be viewed as something that's not accepted, then they will not turn anywhere. and to that end, if you look at the nature of suicide and how people are turning to death by their own hand because they don't believe they have another place to go, those are the people we want to help and reach. >> you talk about the money. what i didn't realize until you mentioned it, regular army comes out and they have benefits but if you're a reservist, you don't leave the service with health benefits.

>> some don't. some do and some don't. some return to jobs that have fine health benefits. some have taken advantage but many do not. when they do not, they absolutely need to be cared for in some fashion with a quality care program. and we're there for them. >> we have less than about 40 seconds left. why also get involved in the rock 'n' roll -- sun trust rock 'n' roll u.s.a. marathon? >> we're all about a culture of fitness. we have about 50 service members who will be running with us. we have about 50 volunteers or so that will be handing out water at the 11th mile so we'll be looking for you. it's just our way of engaging in this culture and we're deeply appreciative to you and your station as well as to the sun trust u.s.a. rock 'n' roll marathon. >> my colleague mike hydeck and i look forward to being out there again this year. we hope we have the luck of the irish when it comes to the great weather. thank you for what you're doing, your past service in the navy and what you're doing with

for the alone because it's not just -- not alone because it's not just ptsd but the families. >> it really is. god bless you and thank you for everything. >> you're welcome. our coverage of the marathon starts at 8:00 a.m. next saturday. have a great afternoon. that's it for us at noon. we'll be back at 5:00.