dropped. not because the investigation ran its course. they were dropped, prosecutors say the law never applied to him. the law applies only to full- time instructors. take a look at this package. >> there's no criminal activity that he committed that complies with the statute. >> my client's position is that he did nothing wrong. >> attorney for scott speier says even if his client had been full-time at richard montgomery high, he is innocent of the two misdemeanor sex offense charges stemming from his relationship with the 16- year-old female student. >> he had a relationship with the student. >> sexual relationship? >> not a sexual relationship. >> we were shocked. we think it's absurd. >> speier has professional and political ties. the case has gone to anne arundel county where prosecutors say they are dropping the charges because speier is part-time and not full-time at montgomery high. >> our office has contacted or did contact the legislature in

the fall to try to have that loophole closed and we find it frankly absurd and hope the legislature will take action to change it soon. >> speier has a meeting set with school officials for tomorrow, but they made clear it's not likely speier will get his full or part-time positions back any time soon. now that the criminal matter has been resolved, montgomery county public schools will conduct its own investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior with the student by mr. speier. the statement goes on to conclude, mc, ps, does not use the same standards as police in its investigation. >> reporter: now back to what they are asking the state legislature to do. here's a copy of the bill. they are hoping to get that pass. it would apply to all coaches who deal with students. they would be charged for sexual misconduct. but, getting back to this other story and the investigation going on, a friend of scott speier also stopped by and said to me, the charges are brought

not by the 16-year-old, but charges were brought by a third unidentified party, perhaps even a police officer. we should also point out in the state of maryland. you can give consent to legal sex. back to you guys. >> this gets thicker and thicker. we thank you. >> tonight, the maryland senate is considering a bill that would make it illegal to smoke in the car with a child under the age of 8. supporters say secondhand smoke is dangerous to kids of all ages. it will be easy for police to monitor since children under 8 are also required to be in a car seat. we'll see what happens. campus police at the university of maryland are thanking internet users to stop what they say is a credible threat. scott broom has more on what they think one student had planned. >> this chain of events started overnight saturday night when university police got calls from three separate people. one as far away as montana. so disturbed by what they were reading online, they wanted police in maryland to know about it. >> it was alexander song, a

software mechanical engineering major who had been busy. a new sharing site and an online community where strangers are linked to strangers unanimously for spontaneous conversation. song saying i will be on a rampage. hopefully i kill enough people to make national news. stay away from the mall at 1:30. as he drove on campus at 10:00 a.m., he was arrested at his car. >> there were postings that led us to believe, using his words, that he is stressed out. >> no weapons found. song was involuntarily committed for psychiatric care. >> out of character for him. >> students who know alexander song are surprised. >> he has close friends and stuff. it wasn't like he was antisocial. he was a nice guy. >> on the university mall

today, police offered a reassuring presence and students viewed the threats as the real thing. >> i think that's a significant threat and i don't want him here. i don't want someone here that is going to threaten the campus like that. >> at university of maryland, scott broom, 9news now. >> law enforcement officials from virginia tech took the stand today to defend the early response to that 2007 shooting on campus. specifically that at first, police thought this was a targeted isolated incident that did not endanger the whole campus. the lawsuit was filed of parents of two shooting victims. their children may not have been killed if the school warned the entire campus sooner that a gunman was on the loose. a bristol woman will not be going to jail after her child died after being left inside a hot car all day long while she went to work. instead, prosecutors agreed to a plea deal in which her 24 month sentence will be suspended. the veterinarian mother

received no jail time today for the death of her child after leaving him in a hot car for seven hours in this parking lot. >> karen murphy sobbed loudly after leaving the courtroom. her husband ushered her out the back door of the courthouse after she was sentenced to six years probation and 400 hours of community service. she will face no jail time in the death of her two-year-old child. she and her husband found dead in the back of their minivan last june. >> i think she should have got more than that, but we do have flaws in our judicial system. >> that is murder. even if she -- she might need some professional help. >> murphy had been indicted on felony murder and child neglect charges. they were bumped down to two counts of misdemeanor child neglect so she could keep her vet license. >> dr. murphy made a terrible mistake with her child. that she wasn't a murder. sp i'm convinced knowing what i know about the case that she

punished herself more than the law could ever do. >> thanks to peggy fox for that. in afghanistan, the taliban is vowing revenge after an american soldier allegedly went on a rampage killing 16 civilians. it happened sunday in villages. elizabeth takes a look at the international fallout. >> reporter: look at these bodies. they all belong to one family. grief stricken families are preparing to bury their loved ones. as investigators comb this scene, there's an outcry for justice. barbaric action, that's how they are calling it. afghan president is calling the incident an un forgivable crime. u.s. officials are condemning it. >> it does not reflect the values that we share with the afghan people and our joint

resolve to work together. >> offer his condolences. sunday's tragedy will not derail the u.s. mission in afghanistan. >> but it is important in the aftermath of this terrible and tragic incident to remember why we were there and what our objectives are in terms of the security. >> the gunman's identity is not being released. nato will say he is the u.s. army staff sergeant in his mid 30s from joint base lewis mccord. he has been deployed to iraq several times. >> this is very clearly the act of one individual for motives we don't understand right now. >> soldier was taken into military custody. according to the pentagon, he will be judged by u.s. authorities and not face punishment under the afghan justice system. sunday's alleged massacre compounds the already fragile relationship between the u.s. military and the afghan people. just weeks ago, protests erupted when military personnel accidentally burned koran's.

i'm elizabeth reporting. coming up on 9news now at 7:00, what are the odds of getting a perfect bracket in your pool? >> we'll be taking notes. still ahead in this half hour, as prices in the pump head higher and higher, one local student thinks he has the answer to our fuel problem. >> another day in paradise and another day with above average temperatures. check it out. 72 and 45 go in the book. average is 55 and 37. look at the record high, 89 set in 1990. that's the year the cherry blossoms peeked the 15th of march. the temperatures around 90 this time of year. we'll come back and let you know if it will be warm all week. first, the grace period is over. a look at the rules for the district street sweeping program next.

as of today, you can get a ticket for being parked on a street slated for sweeping in the district. the district's department of public works starts cleans the streets march 1, but hasn't given out tickets yet to people still parked in their way. so watch for signs about restricted parking when you leave your car. meantime, a sign at the lowe's in sterling, virginia, caught the eye of one of our viewers. >> she snapped a picture of this tag on the scotts fertilizer display. regular price, $25.97. now on sale for $25.96. she loves this lowe's in sterling, she thinks it was an honest mistake and it was. we talked to the store manager. he says you know what? someone wrote the wrong price at the top. it should have said $29.97, which would make that $25.96 certainly more than one cent of a difference. >> much better deal. now the nationals say there is no mistake about what is going on at their spring training facility.

>> check out these pictures. they show a great horned owl who has built a nest at the top of some of the lights in bright field. there's not much the folks can do about it. the birds are federally protected, a migratory species. the owl is going to stay. >> the owl is like, take that. still to come, we'll show you how to save some green the next time you rent a car.

car rental companies are adding more green to their fleet. our partners at u.s.a. today report more rental agencies are offering a selection of electric and hybrid cars. and while you will save on fuel costs, those greener options do carry a higher daily rental rate. and saving money at the pump may feel more important these days. according to aaa today the average price for a regular of unleaded is up to $3.80 across the nation. that's up 3 cents in the last week. 29 in the last month.

but it's the pain at the pump is too much for you, one local high school student may have the answer. and today, he drove 230 miles from jersey city, new jersey, to bethesda, maryland, to prove he could do it on one tank of gas. anny hong is live in bethesda where that trip ended minutes ago. hi anny. >> hi lesli. yeah, there he is holding his helmet. his friends are here for support. made this trip in 12 hours. check out his hybrid electric car built in over 18 months. quite an amazing thing he did and the trip he took, which started at 5:30 this morning. here's a look at some of the video of the welcoming he got from all his friends here at georgetown prep. the senior says that there's no radio or music player in his car, but it does meet safety standards in virginia. he did some research and found it goes 35 miles per hour.

so he mostly used back roads for this trip that he started early this morning. he even had a web cam hooked up to his car, which can be checked out on his website. >> i think goal completed. we finished with almost a full battery pack. took us about an hour and a half to get out of 15 miles worth of new jersey city and that killed our generator efficiency, but besides that, it was a great drive. >> all right, so a couple things i learned about this. check out the electric motor. powers the wheels and inside here is the gasoline engine, which serves as a generator to charge the batteries. total cost, $15,000. most of it donated. he got sponsors. his next thing is to apply for universities with big surprise, that have good engineering schools. we are live in north bethesda, anny hong, 9news now. >> is it one tank or one gallon? >> reporter: i'm glad you

asked that. i asked that ronnie and his goal was one gallon and he was close to that. a gallon and a quarter. so pretty close. >> i'd say pretty good. >> for 240 miles, definitely. recent tornado damage in southern illinois did not qualify for federal disaster aid. rejected the state's request for federal money to help the victims. seven people died when storms ripped through the city of harrisburg, illinois. but fema says the damage was not severe enough for the federal assistance and state agencies can handle the recovery. the governor plans to repeal that decision. here at home -- >> that's ridiculous decision. my hunch is, it will be repealed. >> that was clear cut. >> it wiped the town off the map, that's not good. here, quiet, 72. we had clouds come in this afternoon, but i don't think anybody complained. a couple showers on radar, but it stays warm all week and

right on through the upcoming weekend. so trying to plan the cherry blossoms, get the family in early. the funniest story i heard all weekend, a guy had a tee time, missed it by an hour. >> because of the time change. >> did you make that up by yourself or did you have help? >> that did not happen to me. that's all i'll say. here's a look at our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. 69 downtown. pressure is beginning to fall and winds out of the south. a warm evening. here are the showers. comperland towards peters burg, confined to the mountains and really, what's going to head our way will be light overnight. but the showers will hold off until after the rush hour. temperatures, still 71 in rockville. 71 in great falls. 70 in reston. 72 in manassas. even up to the north, excuse me, 72 in college park. and 69 in laurel. i mean, these temperatures are

crazy for this time of year. a warm week. a few showers tonight. a thunderstorm possible tomorrow. the atmosphere becomes more unstable and a much better chance tuesday night with showers and storms and beautiful on wednesday. i mean, wednesday is going to be pretty awesome. future cast, 9:00 tonight, maybe some light activity in frederick down essentially i-81 and east toward leesburg. nothing is organized and we get into 3:15 hour, maybe some showers from frederick to gaithersburg downtown. the good news is, most of it gets out of here by rush hour. so most of us will have a dry commute. maybe some left over showers in southern maryland. and that's about it in the morning. another round of showers and maybe a thunderstorm possible as we go through tuesday afternoon and tuesday evening. this is 7:15 tuesday evening. a couple showers possible d.c. south, especially in charles county and calvert county. most of us will have a dry commute home as well. let's talk about tonight. mostly cloudy, breezy and mild.

a few showers. nothing heavy. 50 to 55. winds southwest 10 to 15. now tomorrow morning, returning partly cloudy. you'll need your sunglasses tomorrow, even though we have showers. 50s and 60s. winds southwest and by afternoon, a partly cloudy and warm. shower or thunderstorm possible. not a washout. high temperatures around 75 and winds southwest at 10. all right, next seven days. it stays warm. it really does. gorgeous on wednesday, 74. warmer on thursday, upper 70s. a shower or storm possible. a better chance on friday. because of that, we'll dip into the upper 60s and look at temperatures in the low 70s over the weekend. maybe a shower on st. patty's day, but not a bad day at all and look at that 74 next monday. >> that's fantastic. >> cherry blossoms come screaming out. >> you did that very well. very nice. thank you. >> redskins are known to spend money, but this is money they don't want to spend.

>> this is definitely not money they want to spend. they need every penny, the redskins find themselves scrambling after the league takes away half of their space. now they have to get creative. it's because of this guy. good old haynesworth. a gift that keeps on giving or taking away. however you want to look at it. sports is next.

now, 9sports with kristen berset. the best sports in town. >> just when it seemed like the redskins were turning a corner, they crash head first into a wall. the redskins are expected to lose $36 million in cap space over the next two years. accused of front loading restructured -- the league reportedly warned nfl teams several times prior to the 2010 season not to pay out large sums of money that would free up cap space later on. but the redskins didn't listen. they paid albert haynesworth a $21 million bonus and deangelo hall $15 million. a decision that ended up costing them dearly. the redskins weren't expected to be big players with reportedly close to $40 million

in cap space. it was one of the best situations in the league providing the redskins with a chance to bolster their offense and fill gaping holes in the roster. the one big bargaining tip the redskins still have is a possibility of drafting robert griffin iii. >> robert griffin iii is going to be ready to play and make plays in september. the redskins didn't want to risk getting closer to the draft, not having this question answered. they wanted to figure this out now. that they could use griffin iii as a selling point to potential free agent. rg3 is my quarterback, they might listen. >> here's a look at some of those free agents. on top of the list, vincent jackson, of course free agency opens tomorrow. trying today to make some -- free up cap space, making moves. they cut mike sellers, a 12 year veteran that spent 11 seasons with the redskins. also the skins released safety

after just one injury lateened season. his counterpart, le'ron landry, seems to have plenty of options. the chicago bears, new york jets, and philadelphia eagles have all expressed interest. time now to reveal this week's high school game of the week poll. we got spring sports gearing up among your choices in boys lacrosse. battlefield taking on westfield. and girls softball. go to dc.highschoolsports.net. >> and march madness this week. the excitement that is. >> i have to finish my bracket still. it will probably get busted early on. >> stay positive. all right, that's it for us. the cbs evening news is next. >> and derek is back with our area's only local newscast at 7:00 and don't forget, you can start your morning with andrea, mike, howard, and monica tomorrow morning at 4:25 a.m. and wusa9.com is always on.

have a great night.