platform. >> probably about 20 minutes. i've been doing my homework. the train just came, i'm happy. it's all good. >> reporter: but what about morning rush. >> crews are going to be working throughout the night. as long as they need to, to do our best to ensure that morning rush hour will not be affected by this. >> reporter: gary nurenberg, 9news now. three men and two women were killed in a carbon monoxide poisoning incident. in prince george's county, the bodies were found yesterday morning inside a home on shelby drive in oxon hill, maryland. investigators say a broken exhaust pipe in a purr fast was the cause. -- furnace was the cause. >> we had a heating system that had a very old piping system. obviously it had not been maintained. >> prince george's county county fire chief mike brady says the amount of carbon monoxide found inside the home could have proven fatal in just an hour or two. lawmakers in maryland may be called back to annapolis for two separate special legislative sessions. one would deal with the state's money problems.

the second would focus on expanding gambling to national harbor. news of the possible sessions came after a meeting between governor martin o'malley and the heads of the state senate and house. if the legislature doesn't pass a new budget by july, the so- called doomsday budget which includes half a billion dollars in cuts will take effect. later today, the u.s. supreme court is going to take up arizona's immigration law. justices will hear oral arguments to help them decide if the law is constitutional or not. they'll determine if the state's law passed in 2010 protects its borders or infringes on federal authority. president obama's reelection campaign was in full force yesterday. the. was targeting young voters during stops at college campuses. he discussed lower rates for federal student loans. the president wants congress to extend the 2007 law which reduced student loan rates to 3.4%. if the law is allowed to expire on july 1, it would double

rates to 6.8%. mitt romney took home victories in all five of tuesday's primaries. he is now about 300 delegates shy of the 1144 needed to clinch the republican nomination. ron paul, though, has vowed to stay in the race until the convention. newt gingrich says he plans to take a realistic look at his campaign and think carefully about how he can best help the country. yesterday former candidate rick santorum hinted he may throw his support behind governor romney. three more secret service agents allegedly involved in the prostitution scandal in columbia have been -- column use have been forced out of the -- colombia have been forced out of the agency. all of the agents involved initially have been disciplined. susan mcginnis has more. >> reporter: three more secret

service agents implicated in the colombian prostitution scandal are out of a job. that brings the total to 12 members of the agency disciplined for allegedly bringing prostitutes back to their hotel rooms in cartagena. six resigned, for are in the process of being fired. three were cleared of serious wrongdoing but will face administrative action and one retired. on nbc's late night with jimmy fallon, president obama called the incident distracting, but he defended the agency that protects him and his family. >> a couple of knuckleheads shouldn't detract from what they do, but what these guys were thinking, i don't know. that's why they're not there anymore. >> reporter: the agents involved were in colombia to set up security for the president's trip to the summit of the americas earlier this month. several congressional committees are investigating what happened. homeland security secretary janet napolitano will likely face tough questions when she

testifies at a senate judiciary committee hearing this morning. mark sullivan was on capitol hill yesterday updating lawmakers on his agency's findings. the president has expressed confidence in the director saying sullivan took swift action when he first heard of the alleged misconduct. susan mcginnis, cbs news, washington. >> the secret service says if any new information regarding the scandal is revealed, more action will be taken if it is necessary. during a news conference yesterday, defense secretary leon panetta revealed this is not the first time americans that were serving our country have been punished for an incident involving prostitutes. he said last year in brazil four marines were demoted and punished for a separate incident involving a prostitute. the marines allegedly pushed the prostitute out of a car after a dispute over a payment. panetta says the marines were pulled out of the country and their ranks reduced. he says he has no tolerance for that kind of conduct. two years after the worst oil spill disaster in u.s.

history federal agents have made their first arrest. investigators say a bp engineer intentionally deleted 300 text messages they allegedly pointed out the efforts to contain the gulf oil spill were failing and that the amount of oil leaking was far more than the company was reporting. that engineer kurt mix faces 20 years behind bars if he's convicted. meanwhile halliburton is objecting to a proposed $7.8 billion settlement between bp and a plaintiffs group. the group represents more than 100,000 victims of the 2010 oil spill in the gulf of mexico. the houston, texas based company claims the settlement improperly seeks to assign certain claims that bp has made against them concerning liability in the spill. halliburton officials say the current wording of the settlement would affect any future settlement deal it would have with plaintiffs. preliminarily approval of the settlement is expected to be made by a federal judge today. here's another story making news now.

federal officials have confirmed the first case of mad cow disease since 2006. >> we explain how it was detected and why the usda says humans are not in danger. >> reporter: the disease was found at a -- in a dead 5-year- old cow taken here at the plant in california. it was about to be grounded to pet food when a random test discovered the illness. officials are sure there was never a danger to humans from the cow's meat or milk because according to usda chief veterinarian, no dead cow is ever slaughtered for human consumption. >> this particular animal did not enter the food supply at any time. >> reporter: the diagnosis was atypical bse which is spontaneous and not known to be contagious to humans or animals. atypical also means the cow did not get sick from other cows or eating a now banned type of an medical feed composed of other animals. >> it is not likely to be

attributable to infected feed which is the method in which normally bse would be spread from cow to cow. >> reporter: three men's are thought to have died from mad cow disease, a brain wasting infection with no cure but all three had spent many years eating beef overseas. no americans known to have died from consuming u.s. beef since increased testing began. >> there are two concerns. it's worried consumers in asia will hear the word mad cow and slow their purchases. even though the atypical form of the disease is not known to be a problem, the exact cause of mad cow remains unknown. 4:37. gas prices continue to rise and fall. jessica is going to tell you where they stand right now. >> well very more on that story plus your weather first when we return in two minutes. you're watching 9news now.

coming up on 4:40 on this wednesday morning. yes, we verified it is wednesday a few minutes ago according to mike hydeck. sunshine today. a few clouds early. a chilly start. we'll be 60 by 11:00 so a nice warm-up. winds out of the west at 10 to 15. we'll see temperatures pick up into the upper 60s. might even get to 70 in a few spots with some wet weather returning tomorrow. details in just a few. right now monika with time saver traffic. north of the beltway in four corners, an accident just out of this camera shot at university boulevard and colesville road. you want to watch out for police directing traffic through the area north of the beltway. coming up in my next report, another look at area roads at 4:47. coming up on 4:41. it is time for the first your money segment of the morning. >> jessica is here talking about fruit.

>> that's right. blowout quarter for apple. its first quarter profits surged 93%. sales topped $32 billion beating even the most optimistic estimates from january to march. the company sold 35 million iphones and 12 million ipads. if that is not enough to make rivals jealous, apple says it has more than a hundred billion dollars sitting around in cash reserves. if only we could have a little piece of that. wall street had a pretty good day yesterday thanks to other strong reports from the likes of at&t, 3-m and hershey. the news offset the biggest drop in new home sales in march in more than a year. checking the numbers the dow stands this morning back above 13,000 after adding 74 points. the nasdaq, though, had a bad day. it was off about 9 and the s&p 500 was up by about 5 points. the federal reserve wraps up its two-day meeting this afternoon. policymakers are expected to reaffirm their plan to keep

interest rates near record lows, at least through 2014. following this meeting, fed chief ben bernanke will hold a press conference. investors want to know if the feds plans to inject any more stimulus into the economy. gas is no cheaper in most of the country that it was a year ago. prices at the pump down 9 cent as gallon since the beginning of the month. aaa says the national average is now $3.85 though i can't seem to find that in my area. that was a penny lower than this time last year. experts say the price of gas is coming down now because crude oil prices are lower. we just seem to be holding a bit above the national average. >> i'm thinking $4.09 is a bargain. >> it's costing 70, 08 bucks to fill up our minivan. >> i was looking at the fuel estimates the last five years. they're talking $5.50 a gallon. time to move to hybrids or electric or something.

ford focus. a local county is going to keep middle school students in school for a little bit longer starting in august. >> your wester first when we return in -- your weather first when we return in two minutes.

4:45. do we have any wind out there? >> very little right now. sm seven spring was open -- seven spring was open tomorrow. everybody is gone for the season but they made it happen for six hours yesterday. good for them. for us, bundle up.

it is cold this morning. 30s and 40s with very light winds. that is going to change later on on. 30s and 40s. sunrise at 6:17. i like the interest you're showing this morning. >> i enjoy wind speed and direction. >> 4:45 and 45 degrees. today we are looking at winds which will be generally out of the west picking up at 10 to 15 miles an hour. 63 at noon. 67 at 4:00. highs will be making a run toward 70 in a few areas and we get clouds start to roll in tonight. could be some showers here by dawn tomorrow. we're watching an area, that low that gave us the rain and snow over the weekend, that's up in canada but the flow around it still bringing in a piece of energy a. couple of light showers in southern pennsylvania with a few clouds here and there thank to that. temps are ranging from the mid- 30s now. culpeper 34 along with cumberland to the mid-40s right in washington. baltimore, easton 41. it's 37 in gaithersburg.

locally we're down to 41 in columbia. 38 over andrews. 36 in centreville. reston at 35 this morning. that's one of our cold spots. alexandria we've got 39 degrees. so definitely a chill in the air. outside on our michael & son weather camera, look at this. just a little wind right there. see the flag? it's not standing straight, just a little. a little breeze outside the capitol with 45 degrees. mostly cloudy at reagan national and a southwest wind only at 3 miles an hour. so the windchill 44. big picture, we've got lots of scattered showers in the northern rockies. one, two big storms off the west coast. they're going to get unsettled but with this northwesterly flow, we turn our attention to the upper plains, the northern mississippi valley here from the twin cities in minneapolis down headed toward madison, wisconsin. we've got showers moving south and east and this next disturbance looks like it could be giving us a problem with the form of showers, maybe a couple of rumbles of thunder as we get into the day on thursday. looking at our future cast,

pretty quiet this morning. a few passing clouds but a good looking day with partly to mostly sunny conditions. temps upper 60s to around 70. we turn our attention west. tonight we're looking at the clouds rolling in. here we are by midnight. still quiet, maybe a shower toward garrett county. overnight we're going to see the clouds thicken up by tomorrow. here comes some showers here for the late morning hours on thursday with cloudy skies. showers, maybe a rumble of thunder. here we are at 1:00 into the afternoon hours. 4:00 p.m. trying to move south and east of d.c. we'll see this last line of showers here in the evening hours right around the appalachians, maybe coming through with a sprinkle tomorrow night and clearing out nicely for friday. but the weekend starting to get a little more concerned about a potential back door cold front. so i've lowered temperatures for saturday and sunday. 68 today. very nice. showers possible late tonight on into thursday. warmer though. i think we'll see highs in the mid-70s tomorrow. friday clearing out.

partly sunny, 64. saturday looks like partly to mostly cloudy, maybe some late showers. we've got maryland day. i'm going to be out there. monika will be out there. topper, anny, the whole crew. we'll have a green screen set up for you. sounds like a lot of fun. 60 on saturday. you'll need a jacket. sunday 64. monday and tuesday in the 60s. happy wednesday. generally speaking, maybe i'd give it a five right now. not that great. if you're franking to head -- planning to head around the beltway, especially the west side of town, you see all the triangles behind me. that means there's construction. a couple of things i want to tell you on the north side of town and in the district. accident cleanup at route 29 and university boulevard in four corners and then here inside the beltway georgia avenue between decature and emerson, watch out for the accident and police investigation here in northwest d.c. we're going to take you to a live picture on the beltway. route 201 overnight construction has been cleared

up. everything is moving pretty well right now. let's go back over to the maps this time to the west side of town. no problems to report 066 coming in from center -- report on 66 coming in from centreville. we'll take a live look as you travel here at the american legion bridge west side of town all lanes are open across the potomac river. coming up in my next report, we'll go over to route 50 in maryland at 4:55. virginia governor bob mcdonnell says he wants to limit tuition hikes at state universities. he said major increases would deter qualified students from getting a college education. speaking on wtop radio, mcdonnell said the idea of doubling college tuition is simply unacceptable. >> i said this 10% increase every year, can't do it anymore. it was 9.7% last year. i said listen, i've kept my end of the bargain. we put $230 million in the budget. now i need you as part of this restructuring to keep the cost of tuition down to the cti,

consumer price index. >> governor mcdonnell says the state has received a total of about $330 million in new funding of the budget over the last couple of years. some prince george's county middle school students are bound to start complaining at least a little bit once they hear n. starting in august they will have to spend 40 more minutes in class. the goal is to improve student achievement, reduce transportation costs and at the same time merge some bus routes. a school in southeast washington is one of just eight chose frn across the country to -- chosen from across the country to take part in a new white house program. it's part of the turn around arts initiative. it's a two-year program aimed at transforming -- [indiscernible] -- into a creative, engaging and high performing learning environment. a california middle schoolteacher has been named the 2012 national teacher of the year. president obama recognized rebecca for her hard work as an

english teacher. a new study finds botox is not very effective when it comes to treating migraines. researchers say the fda approved injections and they reduced chronic headaches but only by about 10%. doctors writing in the journal of the american medical association say prescription medications have better results when it comes to migraines. stress hurts the heart, especially for women. researchers at penn state did a study. they find when men are under stress, the blood flow increases while women, it stays the same when they're under stress. the slower blood flow may explain why women are more likely to have a heart attack during stressful times. a spice used on pizza and other foods may help fight prostrate cancer. scientists at long island university tested an ingredient in oregano. they say it kills cancer cells in the lab at least. doctors are trying to figure out if the compound can be found in future treatments for

humans. the alleges hoopers association -- the alzheimer's presented an award to the winningest coach in basketball. last august she went public with her diagnosis of alzheimer's. >> i remember telling the doctors you don't know me. no, you don't know me and what i'm capable of doing. and finally, though-- >> summit and her son, tile letter, have create -- tyler, have create add nonprofit group that raises awareness of alzheimer's. >> that woman is a force. >> amazing. it is time for the question of the morning. >> last year 10% of all american households removed this from their annual budget. is it a, the cable bill, b,

land line phone service, or c, an automobile? >> remember, it's only 10% of households, however, so keep that in mind. log on to wusa9's facebook fan page and leave your response. we'll have the answer in our 6:00 hour. we'll be right back.

welcome back. 4:56. your weather first. it's chilly out there this morning. 30s and 40s. we're going to have a pretty good day with lots of sunshine. winds picking up out of the west at 10 to 15. at 3:00 67. looks like some wet weather will be here for thursday. more on that coming up. right now monika is in with time saver travel. taking a look at route 50

inbound. no problems to report all the way in from annapolis to the beltway and beyond through cheverly and northeast this morning. coming up in my next report, we'll take another look at area roads at 5:01. the space shuttle enterprise will soon be headed to its new home in new york weather permitting. nasa says it hopes to leave dulles airport this friday after weather delayed its plans -- its planned departure on monday. it's headed to the intrepid museum. that nay o'connor cancels her tour. >> big changes in the works for the choice television awards. >> reporter: irish pop star o'connor is calling off the rest of her american concert tour. she says she's suffering from

bipolar disorder. o'connor recently had a nervous breakdown and ignored her doctor's advice not to go on tour because she didn't want to let down her fans. she's hoping to return to the stage in july. actor and comedian russell brand testified before the british parliament about his days as a drug addict. >> i was sad, lonely, unhappy, detached and drugs and alcohol seemed like a solution. >> reporter: he says the government should treat addiction as a sickness and not as a crime. some of tv's biggest stars are expected to be here at the beverly hilton for the critics choice awards on june 18. there are six new categories this year, including best new mini series and animated series. the nominations will be announced on june 5. >> room service. >> reporter: jack black is back. starring with shirley mclean in the dark newcombdy "bernie" based on a friendship that ends in murder. >> it was, you know, a peculiar

case because he's the most liked guy in town, the least likely to commit murder. >> reporter: "bernie" opens on friday and that's your eye on entertainment. cbs news, los angeles. >> we can't hate shirley mclean. thank you for watching and being with us for 9news now at 5:00 a.m. i'm andrea roane. i'm mike hydeck. glad you're here. here's monika santami and she is too. >> i am. >> howard bernstein hat your weather. >> going to be a good day to get outside and enjoy. even lunch time should be pretty accident. temperatures by then -- pretty decent. temperatures by then in the low 60s. get ready for a good looking wednesday. now we'll show you the weather graphics after the preview of something there. we've got temperatures in the mid-40s in town. 30s in the suburbs. by noon sunny and 63. we'll have highs in the upper