the average high is 56. that's where we are right now. 61 by 9:00. sunshine, a couple of clouds, maybe even a stray shower west of town this afternoon. highs 80 to 85. still 80 degrees at 5:00 p.m. this morning you're looking at thunderstorms in ohio moving in toward west virginia. those are some pretty hefty ones there. i don't think they'll survive the trip. cool spots are in west virginia and frederick. 46 manassas but 56 now in washington and 53 on the bay. the records to beat today and i think we're going to at least tie if not break them, 81 d.c. 82 baltimore and dulles. these were set back in 1990. 80 to 85 before we're done. i think traffic is moving pretty well this morning. i'm keeping my fingers crossed for you so you get to work on time and you can leave on time and enjoy the day today. the beltway is incident free. if you're heading south on 270 out of gaithersburg to rockville and bah these today, you're going to -- bethesda, you're going to be fine. you have the usual slow spots

from route 80 to 21. here at route 121 still looks good as you head into rockville. same story on route 355. this time let's take a look at the bw parkway and route 50. it slows down when it mergees together right here trying to get into northeast but the lanes are open here. back outside live, if you're planning to head over to the beltway north of town, you're going to see the brake lights forming after new hampshire avenue on the outer loop heading westbound into silver spring. one more graphic i want to let you know, marc trains 870 and 890 are both running 5 to 10 minutes late this morning. coming up in my next report, we'll go cuss on virginia at 6 -- we'll focus on virginia at 6:18. a jury has found virginia tech negligent for its initial response to the 2007 campus shootings. a jury in christianburg ruled against the school wednesday. it agreed not enough was den to warn students after a -- was

done to warn students after a shooting in a residence hall. the parents behind the lawsuit celebrated outside the courthouse. >> certainly it was an end of a long process for us where we just said we wanted to get a little bit more truth, a little bit of accountability and we weren't just going to go away. >> my daughter would be proud of me. >> we're disappointed the jury second-guessed the unanimous conclusions of three separate law enforcement agencies as well as the tech administration. >> virginia tech has already set up a new alert system to inform students in dangerous situations and its method has been copied at other universities nationwide. for the first time in five years, virginia tech will hold classes on april 16. that will be the fifth anniversary of the shootings. the school says five years marks a turning point on campus. this year's seniors were not yet freshman on that horrible

day. the school will hold remembrance events during the day of the 16th. what is wrong with a system that is supposed to protect women from domestic violence? that's the question after tuesday's murder of heather mcguire. she had a protective order but police say philip gilberti killed her anyway. >> reporter: did the system fail heather mcguire? >> i would say heather mcguire did everything she needed to do to seek protection through the courts. she did that. she came into the family justice center which is the domestic violence center here in montgomery county. she had long-term counseling. she had safety planning. she did a lot of the things that she needed to do to try to protect her and her children. >> which makes this all the more sad. last weekend mcguire told the court she was afraid for her life. police arrested gilberti twice over the weekend for violating protective orders but a

computer system malfunction didn't let the court know about his violent past. mcguire's three children are now with relatives. police in prince george's county say they have busted an illegal gambling hall. according to the police force's twitter account, officers hauled away 29 slot machines. they were found in the back room of the marlowe wing house and sports bar. that's on branch avenue just south of iverson street. they took a large amount of cash but didn't say how much. we are suggesting you might want to call out sick to work today but if you have a vacation day this might be the day to take it. >> sunny skies, low humidity, highs in the 80s. delia goncalves live in dupont circle checking out the unseasonable warmth this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. i didn't have a chance to call out sick. where's my vacation day? mark boss had something to say. >> it's too late for us now. >> reporter: it's way too late.

we're already here but we're enjoying it because listen, this is one of the best parts of our job when we get to be out and it's warm. i've seen a lot of folks dressing in layers because it's a bit chilly but it's certainly going to warm up. i've seen a lot of shorts and skirts and maybe some hats and scarves and coats as folks are adjusting to the temperatures. speaking of adjusting, the national park service also had to adjust its cherry blossom prediction because of the warm weather. the peak has now jumped up by a whole lot of -- by a week or few days in fact. it begins this sunday. all across the nation warm weather has forced folks to adapt. for store owners, that means they've had to be a little creative and move around their inventory. they've sold far less shovels and snow blowers.

sales of rock salt down by 41% nationally. but the good news major cities like boston, chicago, those usually hit hard by the winter, they're saving big on snow removal costs. >> it's not only a blessing for the city but the people in the neighborhoods, the heat bills alone. everybody should be thankful for what happened out here this winter. >> reporter: the warm weather has had a mixed effect you can say on virginia wineries. attendance is up but there may be less wine to drink when you're there. so coming up in my next live report, i'll have a bit more on that. i'll explain why there may be less wine and i'll have much more hopefully talking to some folks who are getting ready to enjoy this beautiful day coming up at 6:30. >> feel free to bring back any samples if you have any props. thanks, delia. if you get a chance to go outside today and enjoy that weather, we want to see your pictures. go to our facebook page and

upload them there. we'd love to put them on tv and share them with our facebook family. jessica doyle is watching your money. she says beware the ides of march. >> that's because today is use it or lose it today. would does that mean? >> use it or lose it for your flexible spending account. maybe some folks have one of these things. those are the accounts that let workers take money out of their paychecks before tax and then they can use that pretax money to pay for medical expenses like prescriptions and doctor ease visits today. is the day to use all of that money you put in for 2011 or you lose it. most businesses give you an extra two and a half months to spend the cash so you may want to head to the drugstore. what qualifies? the rules have changed because of the health care bill passed in 2010. previously you could stock up on over-the-counter medications like cough syrup, aspirin.

these items no longer qualify unless you have a doctor's prescription. that's a trick. over here is what you can buy. you can buy sunscreen but it has to have an spf higher than 15. you can buy band aids, contact lens solution, braces. all of these things count including reading glasses but be sure to check with your plan before you buy any of this stuff because companies do have some flexibility in determining which expenses are eligible. you can check out the website. another way you can spend your flex spending money if you have a prescription medication on a regular basis, ask your doctor to write you a prescription now for the entire year supply. that way you can buy it using any leftover flex spending money. on average folks who don't use it all up, they leave about $75 in the trash can as a result of not going out and buying this stuff on the last day. >> don't do that. >> don't do it. it's your money. >> it is your money.

it makes a difference, too. thank you. 6:08. cool schools time eight minutes away. future filmmakers are in the spotlight this week. their subject has been called living and breathing. so how could it be 225 years old? the students will show you in vivid detail. we really can't get enough of the forecast today. highs in the 80s, upper 80s in fact. howard looks ahead to the weekend when 9news now returns.

good morning. welcome back to 9news now. 6:12 this thursday morning. here's a look at some of the stories making news now. while you slept the centers for disease control and prevention launch add new antismoking campaign. the newspaper and billboard ads feature graphic images of the problems caused by smoking. they hope to get 50,000 americans to kick the habit. the lights are back on in just about all of boston once again this morning. 36 hours after a transformer fire there. it knocked out power to 21,000 customers in the high end of back bay area of the city. work closed a key exit off the mass pike there. president obama hosted a special dinner last night. prime minister david cameron and his wife were guests of honor at an official white house dinner. it was the obama administration's biggest with

over 300 guests. >> lined up nicely there. >> yes, they are. >> very cool. >> we were home for that dinner. >> you didn't get an invitation? as we heard charlie rose was there. >> we'll listen to the news at 7:00. >> one of these days. put on andrea on the list. she can tell us about it. i want to talk about the forecast. we've got a beautiful day ahead where we're looking at temperatures which will be climbing into the 80s. our day planner forecast here -- i don't think i put the computer in play mode. we'll get things moving this morning while we look at that -- that's a -- that's actually not a current picture but close enough to what's going on that i wanted to pop that on there. our bus stop forecast, there we go. we have clear to partly cloudy

skies. temperatures in some spots in the 40s. 50s and even 60s out there at bus stop. very comfortable this morning. here's our day planner. 58 degrees at 8:00. by noon 73. it is going to be gorgeous out there once again with highs between 80 and 85. we're going to shoot for some records. even at 8:00 still 74 degrees. winds southerly at 5 to 10. right now we have the 50s out there. culpeper is 48. freld rick was 44 -- frederick was 44. light winds out of the south, southwest only 3 miles an hour and our dew point still in the upper 40s. watching all the storminess on the -- out in the western u.s. mountain snows. as the storms come on shore in the west, they're forcing the jet stream in the eastern part of north america to go into canada so we're under this very warm air mass. some showers and storms this morning across parts of ohio. we'll see if any of that can hold together.

doesn't look like it's going to and the better chance for us for showers and storms will be on friday. today 83. that would be a record. 81 by the way. the record we're shooting for set back in 19990. tonight in the 50s. a couple of showers around. tomorrow scattered showers and storms, still warm, 75 to maybe 80 if we get enough sunshine. saturday 74. stray shower. 60s in the morning for the u.s.a. rock 'n' roll marathon and half marathon. still 70s across the board. could be a shower monday. better chance on the first day of spring tuesday. yeah, spring begins astronomically tuesday morning at 1:14. >> really mentally it's been here for a long time. >> months. >> i'm not complaining. if you're complaining to head outside, there is one major complaint and that's a serious accident, a carver sus a motorcycle right -- car versus a motorcycle right here at military road. it's shut down completely there. we're hearing rumblings after medevac helicopter. i'm keep you posted on that situation. in the meantime use 16th street

as your alternate route to rock creek park here, beach drive at military road. outer loop is incident free out of college park. we'll take a live look at 270 where the brake lights begin at route 80 to 121. the pace improves through clarksburg and rockville. back over to the maps this time on the northbound side of i-95 in virginia. if you're planning to head over into dale city toward the prince william parkway, you've got the slow traffic at 39 miles an hour. we're going to take a live look northbound on 95 here at potomac mills from sky 9. you can see it's very, very slow but the good news is the lanes are open through this area. coming up in my next report, we'll update you on the situation in rock creek park at 6:25. >> thanks, monika. thursday's here. that means it is time for cool schools once again. we or a nationwide tour this week. we're going to start in montgomery county. this week's story is about how our nation's government got started. the students are the ones teaching the history lesson this time and they're doing it with a video camera.

>> reporter: you've heard it called the living breathing document. now you can see and hear the u.s. constitution, too. thanks to teenage filmmakers from across the country. >> these pieces of cardboard is still here which means the messages on the cardboards are worth more. >> we filmed a lot of these signs. >> there were so many signs. >> reporter: they chose the first amendment for their documentary and they found a real life example of it. >> we both heard about occupy d.c. which had been going on. we thought this is current. this is fresh. this is young. >> living in a democracy isn't even. >> reporter: and a modern lens to explore a 225-year-old document. the two seniors from montgomery blair high school were one of 1200 creams in cspan's student contest titled "the constitution and you."

they wrote, shot and edited the piece and incomposed -- and even composed music for it. >> they're making five-minute documentaries and it really turns your head when you see them. >> reporter: like this one on article 5, provision of the constitution that allows -- [ inaudible ] this one from students in lynchburg, virginia. >> we're a true beacon for democracy. >> reporter: $50,000 in prize money was awarded to the top 75 entrants. first place matthew from honolulu. >> i traveled to this relocation camp to learn more about my uncle's experience. >> reporter: it's not only a living, breathing document, it's the foundation for a nation they will inherit and grow to appreciate through this project. >> it's really important to know your rights and know because people fought for a really long time to get those

rights. >> isn't that beautiful? first prize, matthew got $5,000. we really enjoyed this story. if you have a cool school's story, send it to mike hydeck. we'd like to feature your story next week. they were so talented. it was so much fun. next in sports the ncaa tournament games you'll see on channel 9, get your brackets ready. >> right now time for a check of our question of the morning. the average woman has 40 of which of these things? a, a pair of jeans, b, pairs of shoes or c, items in her purse? >> i'm going along with facebook friend nellie. she says c, items in her purse. >> keep your guesses coming. we'll have the answer at 6:54.

welcome back. your weather first at 6:22. not a bad morning at all. pretty nice out there. most temps in the 50s. some have actually dipped into the hoss and another -- into the 40s and another late day spring ahead. quell -- we'll be in the low to mid-70s by noon. looking for highs between 80 and 85. amazing. >> thank you, howard. hard-core basketball fans are counting down to noon today. >> can't wait. that's when our coverage of men's ncaa basketball tournament begins with a round of 64. >> colorado state and murray state tip off at 12:15. after that it's byu and marquette. >> tonight 7:15 last year's cinderella virginia commonwealth faces wichita state. and then new mexico state

andeanian. >> two teams are playing on tnt. 7:20 it's west virginia versus gone disaig ga -- gone diseg ga -- gonzaga. print out your brackets and learn where tnt, trutv are on your cable spoon in standard deaf and high def. south florida taking on california last night. not even close in this one. the bulls ended 9 first half with a -- the first half with a 20-point lead over the bears. up next, they get a date with temple. in an early game vermont against lamar, this was another lopsided one. 71-59. that turns them the right to play unc coming up on friday. national general manager mike rizzo says two big

questions remain for the team and he doesn't know the answers. what will be done with extra starting pitcher john lannan and will bryce hopper make the opening day roster. stephen strasburg gave up two home runs in four innings. nats lose it 6:5. they take on the yankees today. time 6:25. still ahead, a movie about teen bullying that teenagers might not be able to see. >> strange. a goldman saks worker quit in a big way. learned what he said and the national reaction to it. before we head to break, a quick check of the commute. a medevac helicopter just landed at the scene of a serious action closing beach drive at military road. there are critical injuries at the scene. take 16th street as your alternate route. i'll keep you posted on this situation coming up next at 6:30. you're watching 9news now. we'll be right back.

good morning. we're back at 6:29. this is always the place to get your weather first. we have a live look now. this is dupont circle and there's that half moon that mark boss has gotten for us. a beautiful moon. 57 degrees there. lovely start to the day. grab your tank tops and flip-flops. thanks for starting your day with us. i'm mike hydeck. i'm andrea roane. meteorologist howard bernstein is live on the weatherer is as with our beautiful -- weather

terrace with our beautiful forecast. >> the birds are singing. we're headed for the low 80s. might peak at 84, 85. going to hold on to the warmer temps for another week at least. 62 at 9:00. by noon 73 and 5:00 right about 85 after -- about 80. in ohio watch the thunderstorms that have popped in the last few hours. some of that cloudiness is likely to be here for a little while this morning. temps right now in manassas and frederick in the mid-40s. 57 at andrews. a quick look at the records to beat. 81 washington, 82 baltimore and dulles. monika santami, what's going on with the roads? >> there's a serious accident. if you plan to head to the rock creek area, you want to be aware of it. a medevac helicopter arrived just a short time ago on beach drive at military road. it's going to be blocked for a while in this area.

i subject you use 16th street as your alternate route. again beach drive at military road a car and a motorcycle were involved in this accident with critical injuries and the medevac helicopter is on the scene as we speak. i'll keep you posted on that situation. all the slow traffic in college park. let's take a live look at the beltway north side of town here at university boulevard. this delay begins back at the 95 interchange. it's normal for this time of the morning heading westbound on the beltway as usual but the lanes are open here. we'll go back over to the map, this time on the northbound side of i-95 or actually inbound 66 coming out of centreville. you have the slow traffic at about 33 miles an hour but the lanes are open heading into centreville. then a bit slow again right here bunching up at the beltway. we'll take a live look from sky 9 on the northbound side of 95. this is what it looks like at route 644 in springfield heading to the beltway. then it looks like that again on 395 in landmark at duke street. i'll keep you posted on that situation in rock creek park at

6:43. >> thank you, monika. there's a new movie coming to theaters about the dangers of teenage bullying but teenagers may not be able to see it because of the rating. >> there's some pretty high profile people who are upset about this. it's one of the stories ahead on cbs this morning. erica hill joins us live with a preview on this. good morning. >> good morning to you. you may recall actually recently on cbs this morning, we had the man behind that documentary on the man who said he was bullied as a child. he talked about a fight for a rating and talked about the when especial from harvey wine seen he was getting. harvey is going to be with us on cbs this morning today to talk about his fight to remove the r rating from this bullying documentary. some teens are saying it's an incredibly important movie. they want to be able to see it themselves. parents groups are concerned about violence and bad language that is ultimately told where why it was rated an r. we're going to talk to harvey about those efforts to get that changed. a little bit from last night's

big dinner in washington. there were a few people in town including charlie rose. >> he didn't call us. >> i'm going to talk to him about that. >> please do. >> did you say he's going to be live with you this morning to talk about it? >> harvey, yes. >> no, charlie. >> oh, yeah. we're not letting him sleep in after a night out. come on. >> that's what we want to hear. >> thank you. this morning defense secretary leon panetta is in afghanistan. this video of today's meeting with afghan president karzai, topic number one last weekend's shootings of civilians. a u.s. army staff sergeant is accused of killing 16 people, mostly women and children. he's been taken to kuwait. the entire administration is making sure the incident doesn't strain relations with afghanistan even more. >> we have to learn the lessons from each of those incidents so

that we do everything possible to make sure that they don't happen again. >> the forces are making very real progress, dismantling al qaeda, breaking the taliban's momentum and training afghan forces so they can take the lead. >> secretary panel net take's trip to afghanistan -- panetta's trip to afghanistan was scheduled before last weekend's shooting. d.c. council members are pouring over records looking for campaign contributions from jeff thompson and companies run by thompson. sources tell 9news now muriel bouzer and jack evans has received subpoenas. they are complying with the investigation. the feds want to know more about thompson's contributions and whether he donated more than was legally allowed. disgraced former illinois governor rod blagojevich reports to prison today in colorado. the democrat was given a 14-

year sentence for corruption. the charges included offering to sell his appointment to the u.s. senate seat once held by president obama. blagojevich says he never purposely did anything wrong and he is appealing his sentence. today is one of those days having your desk near a window is a double edge sword. on one hand you'll get a chance to see the beautiful weather. >> on the other hand you'll be stuck inside seeing that beautiful weather. delia goncalves is in dupont circle getting an early start on this gorgeous day. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. it is a gorgeous day. "just kind of -- i just kind of shivered quickly. mark boss, i mentioned him a lot. you heard his voice. now i'm going to reveal the mystery man behind the camera. this is mark boss. tell me your theory when right before the sun comes up. >> yes. the temperature drops about 10 degrees before dawn. >> even though it's going to be warm and i just shivered a bit,

i had a legitimate reason to do so, right? >> yes, if you're cold natured. >> reporter: that's all i needed to know. thank you. go back there. anyway, it's going to be a gorgeous day. we're having lots of fun. we have been out here before. we've been at dupont circle talking to morning commuters but there's one difference today. i'm seeing a whole lot more smiles and i think the warm weather has a lot to do with that. in fact, you may be smiling once you see the cherry blossoms beginning this sunday. the peak has been moved up because of the warm weather but folks at virginia's wineries, well, they're not smiling. the warm weather has just jump started the budsing season by a whole month. if the weather breaks and we get just one cold day, that could kill the crop which means less local wine for you this year. >> the ideal weather for a vineyard would be to have a long, constant cold winter.

if we come out and ten days and i have bud break early and we don't have a frost, then i'll be happy because hopefully my fruit comes out early and then i flower early and therefore i'm eventually harvesting earlier. >> speaking of flowering, take a look at some of our beautiful trees in the d.c. area like i had mentioned before. this is one of my favorite seasons in d.c. although it is a killer on the allergies. i think d.c. is just breaght taking at -- breathtaking at this time of year. hopefully you can get out and have some lunch with or without the wine this afternoon and enjoy the beautiful weather. back to you. >> delia, i share your affinity for washington in the springtime. it's just never long enough. it goes right from spring into hard-core center. >> reporter: then the humidity comes after that. >> let's enjoy today anyway. thanks a lot, deal ya. lieu great, sound great. she's live in northwest this morning. it's 6:37. jessica doyle is here watching your money. >> she is indeed.

she's watching the reaction to a resignation of this guy from goldman sachs in a pub -- goldman saks in a public way. >> a goldman saks executive quit very publicly yesterday. this is how he did it. he wrote an op-ed piece in "the new york times" announcing his resignation and talk about burning your bridges on the way out the door, here's an example of his scathing critique of goldman goldman sachs. he wrote, i can honestly say the environment is as toxic and destructive as i've ever seen it. he said he once had provided in his employer. now it puts its clients behind profits and revealed the goldman employees call their overtrusting clients muppets. goldman's c.e.o. and president sent a letter to employees yesterday trying to rally the troops. wall street not impressed by

any of this. goldman shares took a 3.4% haircut as a result. >> i read some criticism. i'm anxious to hear what you heard so far from the public. >> the public of course, there's a lot of shock, outrage. we went through the big recession. the big banks got the bailout so there's that side of it. but there's also the parody side of it, the internet being what it is, it quickly fostered means and there's one that went absolutely viral. this one is called "why i'm leaving the empire" by darth vader. so you're seeing that everywhere. >> everybody says he will never get a job on wall street. what else are they saying on wall street about this guy and why it took him so long to expose the empire. >> ten years and now all of a sudden. >> 12 years. there's split opinions on this. there are people who say goldman has gotten worse when it moved from a bart nearship to a pub -- partnership to a publicly traded company. the whole culture shifted.

other people are saying this is investment banking on wall street. it's sharks. you're upset that they're trying to make money by trading profits? get over it, buddy. that's what the culture is. so there's a real divide on this. the goldman inside is furious on the this guy for pulling this. >> probably writing a book right now. st. patrick's day is this saturday. in nine minutes going into the kitchen for a few green drinks. today is definitely a day to enjoy your lunch outside. sunny skies, highs in the 80s. howard looks to the weekend when 9news now returns. stay with us.

it's 6:44. a balmy 56 degrees. welcome back to 9news now. the beltway is doing fine all around town. no incidents to report but here in rock creek park, a serious accident on beach drive at

military road. medevac helicopter has come and gone from the scene but the accident investigation will take a while. use 16th street as your alternate route. 270 on the southbound side, you have your overall delays route 80 to 121 and then near montrose road heading to the point where the lanes divide. this time into virginia. if you're planning to head northbound on i-95 you have the slow stuff out of dale city and again in lorton going about 26 miles an hour in springfield. we'll go there live right now on the northbound side where you've got the slow traffic again at duke street heading up to seminary road. a quick look live from sky 9 on the inner loop of the beltway. here's springfield by the way northbound on 95. we'll end with a live look from sky 9 on the inner loop of the beltway. this is at i-66. no incidents to report, just the slow traffic. coming up in my next report, a look at the big picture at 6:58. good morning, everybody. it is mild out there. very comfortable start. we're in the 40s and 50s. your bus stop forecast, some areas a couple right now in the low 60s but we could be low to

mid-60s by the time the bus gets here. sunrise 7:19. a little over half an hour. today it's going to be another one of those late spring, almost early summer days. we'll be 80 degrees by 3:00. lunch looks great. low to mid-70s out there. partly sunny, mostly sunny. stray thunderstorm possible later on this afternoon. generally west of d.c. with a better chance of some showers and storms on friday. big picture in temperatures. we're in the 40s in culpeper, cumberland. frederick, maryland was down 44 last check but pax river is at 59. even places like catlett. here's some of the cool stuff in man fan sas. love vets -- manassas. lovettsville 44. andrews 57. upper marlboro, this he have their numbers coming back 51 degrees. outside right now on our michael & son weather camera, starting to see a glow in the east. a temperature of 56 degrees. partly cloudy skies and a light

south, southwesterly wind reported at reagan national. your relative humidity 72%. what we're looking at today are showers and storms this morning across ohio. i think the stuff is going to full apart but some of the clouds are likely to dim the sunshine ath bit here over the next few hours. future cast, this is something that bothers me. when i look at computer models and they don't match up, you have to say do we trust any of it but not really picking up the storms here. i think we'll have more clouds coming in toward us by the noon hour but still a decent day, partly sunny. this afternoon generally dry with the stray thunderstorm here or there. overnight tonight into tomorrow, that's when we have a better chance we're going to pop showers and storms, especially here in the mountains and south of us as we get into the afternoon and evening hours. by 5:45, we've got some showers right on top of us. this should generally clear by tomorrow night so that by saturday morning we're in good shape for the marathon. 83 today. that would be a record. the record is 81. tonight we're in the 50s. a couple of showers. tomorrow 78 with showers and

storms. saturday 74, an isolated shower. then by sunday still looks good with highs in the low 70s. andrea, over to you. >> thank you, howard. of course we know saturday is st. patrick's day. it's no secret a lot of people enjoy celebrating it with a good drink. this morning we have a couple of drinks you can whip up for your st. patrick's day party. one alcoholic and one good for every member of the family. what's really special what you've done for us, these are drinks you won't find on the menu, just for 9news now. what are you starting with? >> good morning. we're starting with an alcoholic beverage. it's a great day. we have some appear flavored -- pear flavored vodka along with pineapple juice and fresh lemon juice as well. we'll add a little color. >> lover the green color. >> that's important. as we come through here, we'll

give it a nice shake. >> did you create this drink? >> we did. we created it in one of our restaurants. it's got a nice little color there. we're going to pour a little over ice here. >> a little early in the morning for this. >> but it's always good. >> we'll top it with some fresh ginger beer. >> this is for 9news now. we have the recipe on our website. >> add a little bit of fresh mint. >> so it looks pretty as well. >> you were telling me you were in boston. you grew up in the new england area. >> i did. >> compare a st. patrick day celebrate there -- celebration there compared to here. >> a little different. but we have the marathon downtown and it's a family friendly holiday. >> you have 30 seconds to do this one. >> we have a fresh kiwi here. pounding that in. going to add some of our fresh lemon juice we use in the

restaurant for all of our lemonades. >> again we'll be down at rf kfor the suntrust u.s.a. marathon and again what we will say at the end whether it's nonalcoholic or alcoholic especially, drink responsibly. sober ride is in effect so you don't have to worry about driving. i will taste this and tell you about how that is. let's go to jessica for daily deals. happy st. patrick's day. thank you for being here. we've been combing through the day's daily deals and here of some of my favorite deals today. a good way to get brand new spring apparel at 40% off ann taylor running a special. 40% off any single full priced item online. you will use the shopping code ann 40 at checkout. staying with the fashion theme, you're going to find this one at amazon.com. the website is giving you 60% off versace men's and women's

watches. a woman's diamond watch will cost $770 but that is still down from about $2,000. finally one week one can all afford. outback steakhouse is offering $10 off any two entrees. all you have to do is like the restaurant on facebook. you fill out a brief form, select your local restaurant and then you get your printable couponned e-mailed to you. if you're a local merchant with a deal for our viewers, i'd love to hear from you on facebook. a check of the news is next before you go. the best part of any great meal ?

delicious gourmet gravy. and she agrees. with fancy feast gravy lovers, your cat can enjoy the delicious, satisfying taste of gourmet gravy every day. fancy feast. the best ingredient is love.

welcome back. 6:54. today is thursday, march 15. here's a check of the news before you go. the washington national cathedral says it is in a financial crisis.

it's still trying to rebuild after last summer's earthquake and that could take a decade and cost $20 million. vdot wants to make it easier for you to get an ez pass. it helps to begin selling the transponders in stars like target and wal-mart beginning july 1. they expect 500,000 more drivers to be using ez pass in the coming years. virginia commonwealth begins its quest tonight for a second final four berkt. the team -- berth. it left for portland, oregon yesterday. 6:556789 time to reveal the answer to our question of the morning which was the average woman has 40 of which of these things, a, pairs of jeans, b, pairs of shoes or c, items in her purse. >> the answer is c, items in her purse. we sort of thought that because we know the women in our lives have more than 40 pairs of shoes by a long shot. >> we do. one more check on traffic and weather right here next on

9news now.

we're looking at a warm day. temperatures 80 to 85 degrees. maybe a stray storm. better chance of showers and storms tomorrow with temps in the upper 70s. a live look from sky 9 at route 7. running well. a serious accident beach drive at military road. the cbs this morning is next with the money raised on the campaign trail. and charlie rose talks about his big night at the white house. we'll be back in 25 minutes with a live update on traffic and weather. don't forget wusa9.com. flip-flops and tank tops. enjoy the beautiful weather. we'll see you back here tomorrow morning at 4:25.