sueson mcginn mis -- susan mcginnis, cbs news, washington. >> it will address the expansion of medicate and whether it is a burden on the states. the controversy surrounding the shooting death of florida teen trayvon martin played out with members on capitol hill. martin's parents had told leaders they want justice for their son. >> ken molestina spoke to the father. >> reporter: tracy martin is asking his son's killer the question everyone wants answered -- why? as the investigation continues into george zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who shot trayvon martin, the furor over the shooting has reached capitol hill. a committee of house democrats held a forum where the teens parents were present. >> i would just like to say that of course my heart is broken. but it breaks even more to know that we have not gotten justice yet and that this man has not

been arrested for shooting and killing my son. >> reporter: three major issues -- accusations of race and racial profiling on behalf of zimmerman and the sanford police department hands down being the most discussed. >> time and time again when we judge honiara we have to go -- how far we have to go, the consistent person at the bottom of the barrel are the victim is always a male person of color. >> reporter: also thoroughly talked about was opposition of florida's stand your ground law and similar gun legislation that protects those who shoot and kill claiming self-defense. also plentiful at the hearing was finger pointing at the sanford police department for what these congressional leaders are describing as prejudicial police work. >> trayvon is the victim of a botched police investigation full of incompetence or intelligence mismanagement. >> reporter: i'm ken molestina, 9news now. >> now the hearing lasted more than two hours and had countless congressional leaders

vowing to support martin's family. many of them spoke past their allotted times. now this hearing though has given rise to speculation that some of the politicians involved in the debate may try to use the trayvon martin case as a platform for their own political gain. investigators are trying to determine what led to a murder/suicide involving a father and his 13-year-old daughter in fairfax county. it happened about 1:00 tuesday morning in an suv parked outside the home of the girl's grandparents on forest grove drive in the sleepy hollow neighborhood. the victims are identified as 40-year-old john jackson and his 13-year-old daughter alexis. a neighbor heard the gunshots who lives three doors down. >> it went bang, bang, bang. very quick. three times. >> john jackson left the police department in 2010 after serving 16 years on the force. he then ran a waste removal company with his brother. he and his daughter lived in

falls church. national harbor one step closer to getting a casino. the maryland state senate approved a bill clearing the way for another casino in maryland. now the plan still needs approval in the house of delegates, the governor and majority of voters in a referendum. if they get green lights the legislation would clear the way for a casino in prince george's county. today gop presidential candidate ron paul is going to be in maryland. yesterday, it was newt gingrich who made a stop in the free state. gingrich criticized governor o'malley for his plan to raise revenue by raising taxes on gasoline in the state and also acknowledged his campaign could use extra cash. maryland holds its primary next tuesday. it was election day yesterday for voters in arlington county. they had to decide on a candidate to serve out the rest of barbara favole's term. democrat garvy won with 49.2%

of the vote. republican mark kelly came close with 43.5%. experts on the topic of distracted driving met yesterday to develop solutions to the problem. the national highway transportation safety board sponsored the day long summit. topics included increased enforcement efforts with texting and hand held cell phone bans. the agency about about 5500 people were killed in crashes in 2009 involving distracted driving. pope benedict xvi will wrap up the visit to cuba today. he's scheduled to hold a huge open air mass at havana's revolution plaza. former president fidel castro has requested to meet the pope during his time in havana. the pontiff met with his brother. benedict has called for good relations between the vatican and cuba and also raised eyebrows by saying its marxist

system no longer corresponds to reality. passengers on board a jet blue flight pinned down the pilot yesterday. witnesses say captain clayson osbeen became erratic during the flight and the copilot locked him out of the cockpit. they made a landing in amarillo, texas and passengers were later transferred to continue their flight to las vegas. thousands of people are getting ready to evacuate as the flames keep spreading near denver, colorado. so far, dudsens of homes are -- dozens of homes have been damaged or destroy. calmer winds should help them get some control to have flames today. -- of the flames today. a hot spot or controlled burn last week was what may have sparked the fire. our time is 4:45. at 4:39 american will soon become the most expensive place in the world to do business. >> the most extensive face transplant ever performed takes place at the university of

maryland medical center. >> we're back in two minutes with your weather first, stay with us.

it is 4:38 on this wednesday morning. quiet now. some high clouds around. we'll be partly to mostly sunny through at least early afternoon as we warm to the upper 60s around 70 by 1:00. winds will be out of the southwest 10 to 20. a couple of showers and storms and could be a couple of strong ones later this afternoon. highs in the mid 70s. full seven day forecast in about five minutes. right now beverly farmer is taking a look at timesaver traffic. so far we'll take a look at the drive out of frederick county on southbound 270. volume building making your way to hyattstown but all lanes reported open. good pace here as you get down

past 109 and to the scales into jermantown gaithersburg rockville a good start. no early troubles save for the overnight road work just out of the roadway. it is time for the first your money segment of the morning. >> and here's jessica doyle. >> the reason why? federal reserve chairman ben bernanke says it could take a few more years to unemployment to drop to more normal rate without faster economic growth kicking in. he also said in an interview with abc news the u.s. financial systems look stronger and threats from europe's debt crisis aren't as problematic. now checking the numbers from wall street -- the united states is said to have the highest corporate tax rate in the world.

this sunday, japan will cut its rate to -- rather 39.8% to 36.8% making the u.s. the most expensive country to do business in the world. our corporate tax rate? 39.2%. but both democrats and republicans argue the corporate tax rate should be lowered to give companies more insent i to do business here. -- incentive to do business here. president obama wants to cut the rate to 28%. mitt romney proposes a 25% rate. and carnival is bringing the princess cruises to japan. they are looking to capitalize on the growing japanese cruise market and it plans to offer trips from april through july 2013 to see if there's enough demand. now earlier this month carnival reported a larger than expected quarterly loss and flashed the annual -- slashed the annual profits in half after of course the liner costa concordia capsized off the coast of italy in january. of course some serious problems.

>> another one of the shippings had problems with -- ships has problems with norovirus. >> thanks jess. still ahead we're going to take a deeper look at the debate over the health care law. >> in this half hour we'll look at the negative impact the bill could wind up having on small businesses around the country. >> and we're back with your weather first just two minutes away.

good morning and welcome back to 9news now, it is 4:43. it's wednesday and it's a lot warmer this morning than it was yesterday. >> yeah, no freezing temperatures. no freeze warnings. but the concern will be this afternoon when we have a line of showers and storms coming in across. some of those could be on the strong to severe side.

stay up on the weather this afternoon in case we get any warnings issued on this but this morning though it is much milder and that's a good thing. here's a look at the bus stop forecast, the temperatures are running mainly in the 40s this morning. a few areas have dipped into the upper 30s but just about ten degrees warmer than yesterday morning and our sunrise 6:58. sunshine today this afternoon is going to be the concern when we get much warmer. winds will be out of the southwest 10 to 20 busting to 30 and 65 by noon. mid-afternoon we could be looking at a couple of strong storms here. 74 degrees, highs will be mid- and upper 70s in spots and we're going to be maybe 20 degrees warmer than yesterday afternoon and 8:00 still 70 with partly cloudy skies. this morning's temperatures some 30s in cumberland at 36. culpeper and winchester 45. 42 down in richmond. 39 across the bay in easton. locally we're generally in the 40s with 43 for rockville and leesburg. fort belvoir one of the warm spots at 48. columbia at 48 and washington this morning we've got the high

clouds out there but good visibility on the michael & son weather camera. feeling like 43 though with a south-southwest wind though at 30 dew points yesterday morning, they are still quite dry but up into the mid 20s. nationally still all sorts of action on the west coast. some showers in west texas but it's this storm system that's swirl right here in canada coming past lake superior. this one is trailing a cold front producing some showers which are far near south chicago and moving up to indianapolis and western ohio. right here this is the line we're going to have to watch for this afternoon. as it gets here with temperatures in the 70s it's a pretty strong mid level winds that's going to help to give them a little bit of a kick as they push through. here's a look at the futurecast. we're fine through the lunch hour. notice the showers here through al tuna, back toward oh pittsburgh and points south of there. the middle of the afternoon

now, frederick, westminster, we'll have to watch the anything holds together to winchester. then through the mid and latter part of the afternoon the line firms up a little bit south of d.c. and west of town this is where we're really going to watch the threat for severe storms. tomorrow we won't be talking about 70s on thursday, we'll be talking about 60s. as far as the severe weather threat, it does cover parts of the ohio valley. and tennessee valley. and it moves toward us you can see kentucky and tennessee southern west virginia. and moving right across the washington metro. almost to the bay here could be a couple of strong wind gusts and even a little bit of hail could form with the strongest of the thunderstorms. that would be oh anytime from mid to late afternoon. i don't think we're going to see much here before oh 2:00, 3:00. so should be good through them. our forecast today, much warmer. 75. some areas upper 70s west of town. the afternoon showers and thunderstorms possible. tonight clearing and breezy cooler. we'll be down in the 40s --

excuse melo 50s tonight. tomorrow -- excuse me 50s tonight. tomorrow 60s and over the weekend a chance of showers saturday and monday warm 82. let's go to beverly farmer here at 4:46 with timesaver traffic. howard, we're looking good. pulling all the barrels out of the path for your drive northbound 95 up out of fredericksburg and points north to quantico and woodbridge. getting to the beltway. 395 lanes are open making the ride out of landmark, shirlington into the 14th street bridge. downtown no incidents to report from police, the volume is nice and light. virginia beltway all the overnight roadwork is out of your way and tyson's, the roadwork on 66 and the beltway has been cleared out of the roadway. maryland drivers out of southern maryland lanes are open for you north on 4 heading into andrews. getting on to the beltway route 4 and the beltway near oxon hill everything is a-ok for

you. here's 270 southbound still running at speed. back to andrea. all this week the supreme court has been hearing arguments over whether the health care law mandating everyone of the health coverage is constitutional. some say the law helps small businesses, others sait hurts small businesses. arvene kiln says her business has suffered since parts of the law went intoefect. she joins us by skype. good morning miss skillby. how is it impacting your business? >> it's impacting our business in a couple of different ways. one, we are looking at classification right now that in the 25 to 49 employee range. as we have been growing our business which is now in its 20th year, when you look at the requirements of this law, it's going to keep me from looking

at expansion and being a -- another provider of employment to the local community. once you hit that 50 mark, you are no longer going to be in the grandfather clause. it is going to keep you from moving forward in this economy by most of the small business people like would to do. >> basically it will cost you more money to provide coverage if you go into 50 employees, 55 employees, maybe even 100 employees. >> correct, once you -- once you pass that magic number, 50, then you are going to be under a different requirement. and you are going to be under potential penalties if you do not follow the law as it is currently written. >> miss killby, we've heard though there are tax credits that will offset that problem. >> not true. when you are having employees in this range as we do, employees of the numbers between 25 and 49, we are not eligible for those tax credits.

that was the low employees of 25. -- below employees of 25, we fall into one of those holes and when those credits are not available, then you are looking again day by day at all of your revenue and -- [ indiscernible ] >> arvene killby, you'll be watching what happens in the courts very closely over next couple of days. thank you for joining us. >> we certainly will and thank you so much for asking me to join you. and coming up in the next hour, we'll have the other side of the debate. a small business owner who's in support of the health care law because it's helping his bottom line. from medical mistake to medical miracle, it is being hailed as the most advanced full face transplant to date. virginia man's face was fully transformed last week after being destroyed in a gun accident 15 years ago. back in 1997 richard lee norris

of hyattsville suffered a destructive gun accident. the dr. rodriguez with the university of maryland school of medicine says they have tried 12 times to surgically improve lee's face without much success. well, last week during a 36 hour procedure a team of surgeons replaced both jaws, teeth, a portion of his tongue and plus the soft parts of his face from his hairline to his neck. >> he can move his tongue. he can open and close his eyes. he's beginning to feel his face and he's actually looking in the mirror shaving and brushing his teeth. >> richard lee has the chance to live without a mask on now. the office of naval research provides funding for research to develop ways to make the very complex transplants successful. new research shows alcohol in moderation may reduce deaths in men who survived a heart attack. the boston study looked at

narily 2,000 men and found those who survived a first heart attack and drunk about two drinks a day were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease. chili peppers may be good for the heart. a study found capsaicin the ingredients which gives them their heat can lower cholesterol and improve heart and blood vessel health. it's already used in creams to treat arthritis and other types of pain. the herb thyme may be good at treating acne than other herbs. they tested the herb and they found thyme was the most effective and it also outperformed concentrations of benzolyl peroxide. time now for a look at the question of the morning coming

up on 4:53. >> it is -- >> what do you think? add your answer to our facebook fan page, we'll read some of them and have the answer in the 6:00 hour. do you like relaxing at the spa or free meals? you can enter the 9news now and hyatt regency wonderful weekend sweepstakes. you and three of your friends will receive a two night all- inclusive stay at the hyatt regency. >> we can't do that right? just "like" us on facebook and guess the lowest round of the u.s. masters golf tournament. you will receive golf and spa getaway valued at more than $4,000 if you guess right. good luck.

welcome back. 4:56. your weather first on the wednesday morning. some high clouds out there now but it's going to be a much warmer day today. winds out of the southwest 10 to 20-mile an hour gusts, a chance for a few showers and maybe a few strong thunderstorms as well. more on 9news now at 5:00. right now beverly farmer has got timesaver traffic in for monika. all the overnight roadwork pulling out of your way and so far just building volume for travelers. no incidents or accidents to report from police. we're off to a good clean start. including on the beltway each way between tyson's and 270 running smoothly right now. andrea, mike your next check of timesaver traffic comes up at 5:01. talk tow then we've -- to you then, beverly. five dogs are now ready to retire. the spca and other groups helped bring them state side

and now they've been reviewing applications from families who would like to adopt the dogs. all five animals were raised and trained in texas and they worked with private contractors in iraq to sniff out and clear acre after acre of land contaminated with mines in baghdad and in southern romalia. >> there's no you know really clear way to pinpoint how many lives these dogs have probably saved but undoubtedly they have. and for the service they've provided for americans it's only fair that they get the royal treatment for their retirement. >> indeed. i wonder if dogs feel stressed too? that's a stressful job. the dog's names are -- and of course we all hope especially for their service they all get great loving homes. you can own a historic building in baltimore. the city is considering the idea of selling or leasing about 15 landmark sites.

the mayor blake says selling the properties could beef up the budget of the city. some properties are abandoned and others are just old and dilapidated. among the properties being considered the water tower in roland park. the governor of new jersey has a request for bruce springsteen. >> and harry potter is coming to the ereader. bigad shaban has those stories and more. >> reporter: on the ereader the seven novel series also a hit on the big screen is available on author j.k. rowling's pottermore website. the boss has an open invitation to perform. from the boss of his home state. new jersey's governor chris christie wants bruce springsteen to perform at the new revel casino in new york city on labor day weekend. he could help the casino succeed in a city where gambling ref knews -- revenues

are sharply down. beyonce will headline on memorial day weekend. one of the stars of the new movie "mirror, mirror" going to the top of the emissary state building on tuesday -- empire state building on tuesday. >> i'd never done any choreographed work before like mixed martial arts. >> mirror, mirror on the wall what's the fairest of them all? >> reporter: it stars jewel somewhere roberts and is a retelling of the snow white fairytale. collins plays snow white. >> you never told me you were a prince. >> reporter: roberts takes on the role of the evil queen and that's your eye on entertainment. bigad shaban, cbs news, los angeles. good morning and thank you for watching 9news now at the 5:00 a.m. hour. i'm andrea roane. >> glad you're here, i'm mike hydeck. beverly farmer is in for monika samtani, mr. bern steen has the weather first and we are warming