career. i don't have a political career. my career was in business. i spent 25 years in business and went on to the olympics. i have been in government four years. i want to get america right again. >> the primary is on april 3, but it is not just maryland that day, d.c. has a republican primary on april 3 as well. so does wisconsin. derek, back to you. >> and gary, rick santorum is told 9news now he plans to campaign in maryland some time ahead of the primary and ron paul scheduled a town hall for next wednesday in college park. the other two republican candidates are focusing on the next contest. voters there head to the polls on saturday. now this is the state newt gingrich is hoping to win and today, he tried to convince voters that president obama's energy policy is hurting their state. >> you want increased oil production, wouldn't it be better to have it in louisiana where it created louisiana

jobs? >> gingrich has a lot of work to do if he expects to win in louisiana. the latest polls show rick santorum with the 13 point win over romney. 16 point advantage over newt gingrich. moving in the right direction, that's what virginia senate majority leader said about the first day of their special session. they need to pass that state budget. 12 negotiators from both the senate and the house of delegates met to discuss preliminary budget requests today. the special session was necessary because the senate couldn't agree on a spending plan during the regular session. and that impasse could hurt lawmakers standings. a new poll shows only 38% of registered virginia voters approve of how the general assembly did its job this year and that is down 9 points. meanwhile, 47% disapprove of the lawmaker's performance. right now, the parents of trayvon martin are joining thousands and thousands of people in a rally in new york city. it is called the million hoody

march. it's called that because the 17- year-old was wearing one of those hooded sweatshirts when he was shot and killed in florida last month. martin's father says he appreciates the outpouring of support and he is honored that people are holding this rally. and tonight, we learned the man who shot martin, 28-year-old george zimmerman has roots in our area. peggy fox has that story from manassas where he once lived before he moved to florida. >> reporter: the 28-year-old neighborhood watch captain accused of shooting to death an unarmed black teenager in florida. >> right there the that house across the street. >> reporter: grew up across the street from george and kay hall in manassas. >> i was convinced they must be talking about the same guy, i was shocked. >> the children were obedient. they were just very nice family. always, yes , ma'am, and no , ma'am. >> the zimmerman's moved in when george was little. he is a 2001 graduate of

osbourne high school, a member of the future business leaders of america, he said in his yearbook he was moving to florida. >> i feel for the guy, but i feel more for the family that-a child. >> after shooting trayvon martin who only had skittles and iced tea with him. zimmerman was carrying a handgun. here's the call he made to dispatchers. >> he has his hands in his waistband. he's a black male. >> are you following him? >> yeah. >> okay, we don't need you to do that. >> they told zimmerman an officer was on the way, but minutes later, martin was dead. >> when i heard the tapes of him calling into the police department, i said that sounds like paranoia to me. he is a big boy. he could have taken that boy easily without a gun. >> george zimmerman came back to virginia and asked him to

write a recommendation for him to become a police officer. >> it was like he was trying to prove something. that he can handle this himself. he didn't need help. >> zimmerman's attempt to become a police officer never materialized and george hall thinks that the shooting may be zimmerman's misguided and tragic attempt to prove he could be a cop anyway. in manassas, peggy fox, 9news now. >> we have new details tonight in the assault of a 16-year-old high school student earlier this week. this one happened monday afternoon as she was walking home from woodson senior high. now, fairfax county police have photos of the man they believe attacked her. >> i'm kristin fisher outside woodson high school in fairfax where police believe they now have a picture of the man who assaulted a 16-year-old student on this path two days ago. police believe that man was caught in these surveillance photos. 20 to 40 years old, around 5'8". he got away. two days after the assault, the

path is heavily trafficked by students. >> you're talking hundreds of kids that go through here every day. >> this fairfax county public school employee who wants to remain unanimous, but she's speaking out because what she heard two days ago. >> i hear this blood curling scream. i mean scream like horror. >> the school's vice principal is standing guard, but many parents and employees are calling for a permanent solution. >> one thing is widen this up. if this was a lot wider and clearer, the kids would feel safer. >> in fairfax, kristin fisher, 9news now. >> loudoun county says it needs more time to decide if it's going to help pay for phase two of the dulles metro rail project. reports county leaders ask the metropolitan washington airport authority today for another 30 days to take a look at the project and mwaa granted that request. the county board of supervisors says it wants the extra time since the board has seven new

members. phase two would run from reston and dulles and two stops in loudoun county. those two stops would be scrapped from phase 2 if the county decides it has to pull out. the picture perfect weather, you knew it had to end some time. the sun never got out there today. are we looking at fog again tonight? >> i'm afraid we are. we have breaks in the clouds. some breaks in the clouds, fog is going to develop again tonight. we are looking at temperatures that are pretty nice and in some cases, as warm as they have been all day. 69 downtown. 69 in fredericksburg. 64 in gaithersburg and frederick and leesburg and 66 in manassas. so, still pretty mild despite all the clouds. here's a look at satellite picture. you can see the clouds diminishing. the showers in west virginia will stay to our south and west tonight. so, partly to mostly cloudy and mild. fog will return late. low temperatures in the 50s. winds southeast at 10. we'll come back and talk about possibly hitting 80 before the

week is out. and also, with that warmth comes the potential for big storms. we'll explain. still ahead, the nfl dropping the hammer on gregg williams and some of his more recent colleague, a look at the fallout for the saints for that team's bounty program. but first, lots of folks like to plant flowers around their houses. why is it landing one woman in court? we'll have the expensive details in a minute or two.

the fourth circuit court of appeals has gone to the dogs or at least hearing arguments in the case of an arlington dog groomer and the mural outside her store. that is when arlington county told her to cover up that mural because it was violating county advertising rules. a federal judge sided with the county last january, but she's appealing. the county is violating her first amendment rights. and then, there is the legal battle over a bed of flowers. kim planted daisies, some tulips, and other flowers outside her condo up in new hampshire, he she was breaking the rules. she had permission before the condo association was formed. so, she refused to tear them up. now, she is facing fines of

nearly $6,000 and the condo association wants her to pay attorney fees as well. $8,000 in addition. what's more, it placed a lien on her $300,000 condo. >> it just feels like we have been bullied and really all we wanted to do was have a conversation and figure out how this can benefit all of us. >> kim has hired an attorney. she is trying to fight back. she cannot wait to get this all behind her so she can sell her condo and get out of there. all right, so come on, suing over a flower bed? it was small, kim was just trying to make her home look better. is it worth the court's time and everybody's money to fight over this or are the rules the rules and the condo board is well within its rights to enforce them? weigh in at mcginty's mail bag. the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. move over spring, here comes summer. topper unveils all. but first, paying the price for

all that bounty. the nfl doles out suspensions to the saints over the bounty to take out players.

breaking news out of france this evening. reports right now of at least three explosions right near that apartment building in france where police surrounded a suspect in the shooting at a jewish school as well as an

attack on french soldiers. 24-year-old suspect, mohammad's attacks are linked to al-qaeda. the nfl handed down its biggest punishment ever to the saints for a bounty to pay for hits knocking out players. lost draft picks and suspensions and heavy fines. garcia brings us the details. >> reporter: new orleans saints head coach has been suspended without pay for the 2012 season for allowing his team to use a so-called bounty system to target opposing players. it's the first time the league has suspended a coach for any reason. payton's former defensive coordinator, gregg williams, who works for the st. louis rams has been banned indefinitely. >> we have a serious violation of existing rule that threatens the health and welfare of our players. >> program paid thousands of dollars to more than 20 players for hits on specific opponents.

including quarterbacks, aaron rogers, cam newton, brett favre, and kurt warner. some included $1500 for a knockout. $1,000 for a cart off. that's a player unable to walk off the field on his own and those amounts were doubled or tripled during the playoffs. in the nfc championship game, saints defensive players were fined $30,000 for four separate illegal hits. a $10,000 bounty was offered to anyone who knocked favre out of the game. payton acknowledged the violations happened during his watch, but the nfl says he denied the program existed and ignored league instruction to end it. >> we were misled and there were denials throughout that period and meanwhile, there continue to be risks to our players and to the integrity of our game. >> ordered all nfl teams to

make sure their teams aren't offering bounties now,. >> we should also note the nfl suspended saints general manager for the first eight regular season games and assistant head coach for the first six. the saints also have to pay a $500,000 fine and they will lose their second round draft picks for the next two years. as for the redskins where gregg williams used to work, the nfl cleared them of any wrong doing. all right, so did the nfl come down too hard? the saints will be without two coaches and gm for half the season. doesn't this punish players who had no part of the bounty system or are the facts of this team action so heinous that the whole franchise deserves the blame. your thoughts deserve to be heard. send them to mcginty's mail bag. the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. >> we are looking at fog, what else do we have in store? >> 80s by friday.

the fog shouldn't be as widespread or as dense as it was this morning. let's start with a live look outside our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. temperature hit 70 today and it's 69. winds are dead calm. and the pressure 30.25 inches of mercury. we have been lucky with winds since the cherry blossoms are in their peek and we'll have light winds for a while, which is kind of nice. all right, let's talk about the satellite picture, radar combined. down into louisiana and also into arkansas now pushing primarily into mississippi and western sections of tennessee. this same system is going to give us a chance for showers and thunderstorms over the weekend, but you see this swirl here, area of low pressure sitting and swirling and not moving in west sections of oklahoma. which by the way is more average or normal for spring. we get upper level lows that sit. so this is going to make very slow progress and consequently,

probably not get us directly until saturday and sunday. in the meantime, we have clouds this morning, fog this morning, everything burned off now and looking at breaks in the clouds which actually will lead to a better chance for fog tonight. temperatures, 66 in rockville and also bethesda. we're looking at 70 in college park. 68 in beltsville. out to the west, not bad. 66 in great falls and in reston and sterling. 66 in manassas and 64 in leesburg. we're looking at a warm finish to the week. more fog tonight, some fog tomorrow morning and warmer on thursday. a thunderstorm possible late. warmer even on friday and a better chance of a thunderstorm and it does get a little unstable in terms of the atmosphere by friday. some of those storms could be heavy. we'll keep you posted on that. for tonight, partly to mostly cloudy. fog returns late. low temperatures in the 50s and winds southeasterly at 5 to 10. by morning, returning partly cloudy and mild. some fog early. temperatures in the 50s and

60s. winds out of the southwest at 10, which is a dryer wind. by afternoon, partly cloud cloudy and warmer. and winds southwesterly at 10. so everybody is well into the 70s tomorrow. i think your best chance of making 80 will be on friday. still, close, 76 in rockville. 76 in college park. 75 in bowie and warmer to the west. upper 70s in reston and fairfax and sterling. we would be happy with this in late march. all right, we'll break it down for you. fog to start. warm by noon. 68 to 74 and warmer by evening, 75 to 80. slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. next seven days, stays warm. in fact, gets warmer on friday with a better chance of a thunderstorm. about 80. and showers and thunderstorms scattered about on and off all day on saturday. back in the mid 70s. light rain or showers on sunday. back in the mid 60s. we turn it around, mid 6 os on monday and tuesday and mid 70s

next wednesday. >> doesn't sound like it will be a great outdoor weekend, sir. >> probably the better of the two days will be saturday. we paraphrase from the george classic novel, animal farm, when we say four legs bad, two legs good. to an intersection on the corner of anywhere and anywhere in america where we find an owner walking his dog, or wait a second, is the dog walking his owner? look at this dog walking across the street, just strolling up on two legs. he is chilling and plops back down. the clip is all over youtube, but dog boy doesn't care about all that and of course, you know, you might ask some questions. is it fake? was this clip doctored or did somebody just push the walk button? [ laughter [. >> laughter ] >> i think it's real. >> i think it is too. >> we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's

mail bag. the address, mailbag@wusa9.com.

in the mail bag tonight, reaction to the tragedy of trayvon martin, the unarmed 17- year-old boy shot down and killed by a neighborhood watch captain in florida who claims it was all self-defense. renee from d.c. says she knows people don't want to hear the word racism, but there is no way you can convince me that if this were a white child that was mistakenly killed that there would not be an arrest. they would have at least held him for questioning. how does a person carrying a gun be in fear for their life when the other is unarmed? the police chief did not do his duty as a law man. i agree. and this case is about accountability. you want to carry a firearm, you have to be accountable for using it. you kill a teenager armed with nothing but skittles, there better be a good reason or some darn serious consequences. meantime, over on the wusa9 facebook page, we had positive reaction to andrea mccarren's

story last night featuring video taken by an 18-year-old named desaleen james as the car she was riding in crashed killing two of her friends. the driver was drunk. angel says wusa9, thank you for stepping forward and showing this story. that was so powerful. desaleen, you are so strong to step forward and save lives. this change has to start somewhere and importantly, it looked like you were already making an impact. and john says he was a paramedic for more than twenty years, wow, i was actually at a loss for words for a few minutes after hearing the impact. the one word that immediately came to my mind was powerful. it brought back so many memories. this story is one of the most hard hitting ones i have seen in a long time. this story has had such an emotional impact that desaleen asked us not to air it again, but the dozens and dozens of comments and her courage in bringing this forward has already begun to change some

lives and some minds. our e-mail address is mailbag@wusa9.com. that is our report. i'll be back here tonight at 11:00 alongside anita brikman and topper. log on any time to wusa9.com. we'll talk to you later, bye bye.

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