. hello. thank you for joining us. i'm jc hayward. the first day of spring brought some violent weather to our area. a lightning strike woke people from their sleep and torched a

home in montgomery county. delia goncalves takes a look at the damage. >> reporter: the pictures are devastating and firefighters say they haven't seen anything like this in some time. take a look for yourself. you can see the lightning bolt blasted through this massive tree shattering it to bits. then the charge traveled through the roots 20 feet to the house. >> we heard a loud explosion. >> reporter: within seconds howard says his home was up in flames. >> the back part was burned where i have thousands of bucks that were destroyed. >> reporter: neighbors looked out of their windows shocked at what they saw. >> fire was billowing out of the back of the house which is the family room. >> reporter: the fourth of the -- force of the strike so severe, it shattered the large tree sending a massive branch flying, knocking down this fence and landing in a neighbor's yard. the backyard now full of charred household items, remains of a life fully lived inside this home destroyed now

in an instant by mother nature's fury. the homeowner is trying to recover as many books as he has in the basement but the furniture is a complete loss. thankfully they both made it out safely. in silver spring, delia goncalves, 9news now. electricity that was knocked out to that neighborhood has now been restored. there was another fire this morning at a state department in northwest washington. flames broke out around 6:00 on the fifth floor of the state department annex building at 24th and east streets northwest. a spokesperson says the fire was contained to the fifth floor and the building was evacuated. the cause of that fire, however, is still being investigated and employees were told they can work from home for the day. arlington county are responding to a report only on 9news now. we indicated that there is a quota system when it comes to issuing traffic tickets.

the information is contained in an internal memo obtained by 9news now. during a news conference that was held just minutes ago, the police chief said a miswas made when that memo -- a mistake was made when that memo was issued. >> this morning i rescinded the pro activity guideline memo issued by patrol commanders earlier this month because it has created confusion. there is no month-to-month or day-to-day numerical quota system for our officers. >> chief scott says that the memo was an effort to create a guideline for performance standards for police officers. he adds that officers will not be disciplined if they do not meet the goals that were outlined in the original memo. mitt romney expects to tighten his grip on the republican presidential nomination in today's primary being held in illinois.

the former massachusetts governor has picked up a lot of momentum. randall pinkston has more. >> reporter: the polls are open across illinois. voters there are picking the republican they want to see challenge president obama this fall. it's a showdown between mitt romney leading the latest voter surveys and rick santorum who is trying to recover from a stumble on the campaign trail. >> i don't care what the unemployment rate is going to be. doesn't matter to me. my campaign doesn't hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. >> romney pounced on his rival's mistake. >> one of the people running for the republican nomination said he doesn't care about the unemployment rate. that doesn't bother him. i do care about the unemployment rate. >> reporter: santorum later admitted unemployment is important going on to say the nation's economic troubles are symptoms of the government's intrusion into the lives of voters. >> occasionally you say some things you wish you had a doover. but you know what?

i think it's important that you try to get a sense of how real the candidate is. mistakes and all. >> reporter: santorum hopes his message of restoring freedom will drive conservative voters in southern illinois to the polls today delivering him a surprise win. romney is counting on republicans in chicago suburbs to help him secure a victory and add most of the state's 54 delegates to his already big delegate lead. randall pinkston, cbs news, the white house. >> rick santorum will be watching the illinois returns from pennsylvania, the state he represented in congress. the gunman in the afghanistan massacre and his lawyer are scheduled to meet again today. staff sergeant robert bales could formally be charged with the deaths of 16 afghan civilians. nine were children. his lawyer says that sergeant bales does not remember the night of that shooting rampage.

>> reporter: did robert bales tell you he went out the night of march 11 and shot these people? >> he did not. he has no memory of -- he has an early memory of that evening and he has a later memory of that evening, but he doesn't have memory of in between. >> sergeant bales joined the military after the 9/11 attacks and he did four tours in iraq and afghanistan. he was facing pressure at home with financial issues. movers could be seen at the bales' house in washington state. the family was forced to sell the home for $50,000 less than they paid for it. a new report says the gunman who opened fire outside a screwish school in france may have filmed that attack. a rabbi and three children were killed in the city of toulouse. the interior minister says the attacker was wearing equipment around his neck that could be used to film and post videos

online. the gunman is also suspected of murdering three french soldiers last week. it will be a high climbing affair at the washington national cathedral. for the first time since august earthquake, members of the public will be allowed to visit the central tower. it's part of the tower climb, a tradition at the cathedral. the 333 steps from the ground to the top take about 45 minutes to climb. participants will be treated to the spectacular view from the top of the tower which is the highest geographic point in the city. the cathedral climb will take place on saturday morning. reservations can be made only through the cathedral's website if you want to take part in this climb. we have a link through our website. just go to wusa9.com. or if you want to remain a little more grounded, you might want to check out the cherry blossoms. they're gorgeous. today marks the beginning of the cherry blossom festival. because of all of our warm

weather, the trees are in full bloom. the national park service says this will be the peak week for the blossoms and you should go take in all that beauty. >> it's unbelievable. every time it's even better. it gets more and more magnificent. i love it. >> the cherry blossom festival will last until april 27. the beautiful trees surrounding the tidal basin and hanes point of course were a gift from the japanese government 100 years ago. first lady michele obama made her first appearance on dave letterman's show last night. among other things, the two of them talked about her undercover run to target in potomac yards. >> i went to target. [ laughter ] >> i thought i was undercover. i have to tell you something about the trip, though. no one knew that was me because

a woman actually walked up to me, right. i was in the detergent aisle. and she said -- i kid you not. she said, excuse me, i just have to ask you something. i thought oh, the cover is blown. she said, can you reach on that shelf and hand me the detergent. i kid you not. >> this was not the first lady's first appearance on late night television. the first lady michele obama actually appeared on the tonight show with jay leno in january. coming up ahead on 9news now at noon, a world with fewer lawyers, fewer students are going into the legal profession. we'll have details on that story when we come back. >> plus, texas twisters. cleanup is under way after strong storms ripped through san antonio and other parts of texas. we'll have details in just a moment.

it looks like there could be fewer lawyers in the future because for the second straight year, the number of people taking the lsat has dropped. there's a 16% decrease for the

2011-2012 academic year. experts say that the numbers show that the legal profession is having problems and getting a law degree doesn't always mean getting a job. cleanup is under way after a tornado rimmed through parts of texas. a postal facility and at least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed in san antonio. residents pulled out their cell phones to capture a funnel cloud in divine, texas. >> i saw the circular motion of it. then i saw debris flying up in the air. and i just purchased a camera today and i told my wife pull it out and stayed there for 30, 45 minutes. >> the salvation army is helping families who lost homes and property. coming up next, howard has the forecast. >> jc, not bad right now. we could see a couple more showers and storms this afternoon. one thing the moisture will do is up the mold count. just got the allergy update in for the day. tree pollen is high.

grass, weeds and molds are low. i would expect molding coming up by this time tomorrow. we'll have the full seven-day forecast and a look ahead toward the weekend when 9news now returns.

during the difficult economic times that we're facing, if you have a child, when should you start thinking about a college fund for that child? here with some advice is d.c.

treasurer mack. thank you for being with us. when should you start thinking about tucking away money? >> well, the perfect time to start is now. no matter how young or old your child is, there's no better time to start than the present. of course the younger the child is and the more time you have to save before it's time for that child to go to college but we like to stress that it's never too late to start saving for college. >> aren't there some special funds that people should know about that can help them because it's so expensive now? if you have a baby that's just been born, by the time that child is ready to go to college, it's going to cost more than it does today. tell me a little bit about those funds. >> absolutely. the primary fund i'm here to talk about is the d.c. college savings plan. it is a plan we set up with the d.c. government especially designed to help families save for college. the benefit is that you get a

tax advantage both in the money that you save, the earnings on those investments are tax free from both federal and low income taxes, and in addition, there's a deduction from your taxable income. so it reduces your taxes at the end of the year as well. >> how much do you earn from the fund and what is the minimum amount of money you have to put in each year? >> the earnings vary. they are invested in investment products in the marketplace so earnings can vary depending on your choice of investments and of course how the market performs. but of course it's much better to save and invest. you will earn -- over time you will earn a significant return on your investment and again you get the tax advantage as well. >> is there a minimum amount of money you have to put in? >> you can invest as little as $25 a month. it can be done through payroll

deductions. we have various means and you can contribute as much as you want or, you know, very small amounts if that's all you can afford. >> we're going to have that information on my website jchayward.com. if you want to find out about this fund, you live in washington, d.c., this is specifically for washington, d.c. residents? >> well, actually, you don't have to be a d.c. resident to invest in the plan. other states have college savings plans as well, but even -- we some some people invest in the d.c. plan that aren't d.c. residents because they still get the tax advantage on the income that is earned. but there's additional tax advantages to d.c. residents in materials of d.c. taxes. >> so we will have that information on jchayward.com. if you have a child and want to start saving for that college fund, go to my website and mr. mack's information will be there. thank you. >> one more important thing i wanted to mention. >> very quickly. >> very quickly is that we have

an essay contest for ninth graders in d.c. public schools and d.c. public charter schools. how i am preparing for college. 500-word essay contest. we have prize money to help them start saving for college. >> we'll have all that information on the website and they can sign up and submit an application. that's g. all right, thank you, mr. mack. we've run out of time. lets get the forecast. temperature wise we're going into the 70s. afternoon highs are only 57. we may be 74, 75 but also the threat for some isolated showers and storms to pop up. it's gloomy in spots but we'll definitely see peeks of sunshine. this is the storminess we had this morning. it's gone. look at all the low-level moisture in the forms of clouds. lots of breaks, especially to the west. manassas already 72. to the east clouds are thick.

it's only 60 at the naval academy. cambridge 62. even down south we had some dense fog earlier. fredricksburg 69. some low 60s in the shenandoah valley. you really see this difference where the sun is in places like sterling at 71 versus the thicker clouds. crofton 64. bwi62. it's 56 in rockville this our. arlington 71. as we look outside, still have some of these low hanging clouds but there's a little blue. i don't know if you can see it right there peeking through. we'll mix this up a little bit more. we'll take some of this low level moisture, spread it out across the atmosphere and we end up more sunny than now. dew point up over 60 so it's a bit muggy outside. any showers or storms that do form today, they could have some heavy downpours. there's a lot of moisture around. not like in texas where it's really storming but the upper storm for this is back here near the texas panhandle. this is going to work its way

toward us by the weekend. so that saturday and sunday rain chances will go up. temperatures will probably be held in check in the 60s, maybe the 50s if we expect enough rain. for us might see an isolated shower or storm today, tonight, tomorrow. temperatures today about 74. back in the 50s tonight. winds east to southeast 5, 10 miles an hour. talking about the return of some low clouds and fog by tomorrow morning. 75 tomorrow afternoon. sort of like today. threat for the afternoon shower or storm. thursday and friday, though, i think it will be warmer because it will be drier. we could be in the upper 70s to near 80. then the weekend unsettled saturday and sunday. only in the 60s. drying up by monday. cake decorators pay attention. neat concepts coming up over in tysons. we'll tell you all about it when 9news now returns.

i love wedding cakes. i really do they are so good. look at these beautiful cakes that i have on display. i want to tell you about a competition that is going to be this weekend at tysons galleria. if you're out shopping, you will see four chefs from different bakeries. here with me today is beverly with the vidalia restaurant and with her is kate jansen. kate is decorating -- go right ahead, kate. kate is decorating and showing us how easy it is to decorate a

cake. it's not easy but she's making it look easy and beautiful. what type of icing do you have on that cake? >> cream cheese. >> i love cream cheese icing. let's talk about -- beverly, let's talk a little bit about the competition that's being held. why is this important? four different chefs decorating wedding cakes in a mall. what's the significance? >> a bride doesn't just buy her dress or plan the reception or invite her best friends. she has to select a perfect cake. and this area we're blessed with so many really talented bakers and chefs. it was our way to not only raise funds for scholarships but to showcase some of the wonderful talent that we have that we sometimes take for granted. >> in this area we do have some

great bakeries and some -- cakes, wedding cakes have changed. when i was a little girl, it was just a white cake and it had some flowers on it but now you have different colors, the style has changed. >> absolutely. >> look at this. this is so different. >> a lot of times a bride will ask not just her colors but she'll want part of her lace or the fabric of the gown incorporated into the cake. and now we can do that with proper techniques. >> we also want to tell our viewers that if you go to tysons galleria, you can purchase a raffle ticket. they're going to have lots of prizes, up to $3,000 worth of different prizes that you can win if you purchase a raffle ticket. tats are costing how much? >> $5. >> $5 for a raffle ticket. of course the money goes to scholarships so you're helping a wonderful cause and you can get some great prizes. how you doing over there, kate? >> great. almost done. >> look at that what are you going to do with these?

>> that's a little chocolate for garnish. >> again tysons galleria, the scholarship fund this weekend. please go out and participate. thank you, ladies for being here. we're going to eat cake after the show, i promise you. thanks for being with us. come back at 5:00.