u.s. is trying to negotiate a peace settlement with the taliban. >> if they break with al qaeda, renounce violence and abide by afghan laws. >> reporter: after today's attack, the taliban says it is still capable and willing to strike anywhere. tara mergener for cbs news, washington. >> at least six people were killed in that taliban attack. secretary of constituent hillary clinton is in beijing for some high level economic and strategic talks with chinese leaders. chen gawng change -- -- chen gawng chang is believed to have escaped. no comment by either side of the government. protesters took to the streets protesting economic equality. >> protests turned violent in some cases. a group of hooded demonstrators

in seattle vandalized local businesses. dozens of people in new york and oakland were arrested for disrupting traffic. >> protests here were a lot calmer than in other parts of the country. >> reporter: about 200 protesters from the occupy d.c. movement were on the move again on d.c. streets marching toward the white house. they chose may day as a symbolic day to once again sound off for the cause of the 99%. >> the overall message is income disparity. people who have massively lost their homes, their jobs. >> reporter: it coincides with the one-year anniversary of osama bin laden's death. now these occupier protesters are hoping they can get the attention of top white house officials. >> the chant be demonstration was all too rim nice sent of the stages -- reminiscent of the stages last fall.

they continue to sound off. >> this is a celebration trying to bring occupiers who may have trickled off during the winter months back. >> reporter: it's more symbolic because president obama isn't here in washington. he's overseas in afghanistan. we're outside the white house. dat race for the white house will take center stage in northern virginia. presidential candidate mitt romney is scheduled to attend two events in the region. at 10:30 this morning romney will be at the exhibit edge in chantilly. he'll be joined by virginia republican congressman frank wolf. romney's also scheduled to host a pain fund-raiser and private dinner tonight in pentagon city. this afternoon former house speaker newt gingrich is scheduled to officially end his presidential bid during a news conference this afternoon at the arlington hilton. his advisors have indicated he will endorse mitt romney. yesterday gingrich announced his intention to drop out of the race in an online video.

he thanked his campaign work information their help along the campaign trail. he also pledged to continue helping the republican party in the general election. the jury will be back at work this morning in the sex abuse trial of michael gardner. he's the falls church businessman accused of molesting three young girls who attended his daughter's slumber party last summer. the defense and prosecution delivered closing arguments yesterday. the jury deliberated for about two hours before they went home for the night. residents in culpeper, virginia want police and prosecutors to speed up the pace of their investigation into the shooting death of patricia cook. she was shot and killed by a culpeper police officer three months ago. according to a report, the officer was responding to a report of a suspicious person sitting in a car in a church school parking lot. when the officer got there, he asked cook for identification. he says she rolled up the window and caught his arm in it and drove off driving him down the road which led him to open

fire. that's how the police say the incident happened. a man who claims to be an eyewitness says the officer's arm was not caught in the window. virginia state police have not given any time frame as to when their investigation will be complete. the special prosecutor in fauquier county says it will be the end of june by the earliest before a grand jury reaches a decision. the state of maryland is trying to stop a court ruling which struck down part of the state's new d.n.a. law. that law allows police to collect d.n.a. from anyone charged with violent crimes or intends to commit such crimes. last week the court ruled the law would justify taking a biological specimen without a warrant. doug gansler filed a motion with the maryland court of appeals to stay that decision. five men are in custody for allegedly trying to blow up a bridge near cleveland, ohio. the f.b.i. says there was no danger -- there was no danger to the public because the explosives

were fake and under the control of an undercover f.b.i. employee at the time. at least three of the men are described as anarchists now not tied to any international terrorism. a report filed by a panel of lawmakers says robert murdoch exhibited willful blindness toward illegal phone hacking. the panel also blasted their tabloid arm for misleading the british parliament during a five-year investigation of the phone hacking scandal. a four-alarm fire damages part of the famed tyler perry studios in atlanta. the fire damage was contained to -- confined, excuse me, to a single building in the complex. according to the studio's website, it's a pretty big complex. it includes five soundstages, 400-seat theater and this is in southwest atlanta. no one was injured in the fire. investigators are still looking for the cause. our time is 4:35. warm weather mixed with

scattered showers. in two minutes howard will let us know when and how these showers can dampen today's near perfect forecast. >> jessica will tell us when the latest news is coming out about facebook's initial stock offering. >> at 4:48, get up and move as super bowl champ and olympic athletes team up to encourage you and your children to go outside and play. 9news now is back with your weather first in two minutes.

your. 4:38. your weather first. the threat for strong storms this afternoon. we'll have the seven-day forecast coming up in about

five minutes. monika is in time saver traffic. we're looking at wednesday roads coming from 270 down to the point where the lanes divide. may slow you down a bit this morning as the rush hour progresses. i'll have more on maryland roadways coming up at 4:47. 4:39. time for the first your money segment of the morning. >> here's jessica doyle. >> good morning to boat of you. it's -- to both of you. amidst much speculation, we're all anxious to find out what's happening with facebook. maybe a launch date for the initial public offering. the company will announce on monday that it will start sharing sells on may 18. apparently problems with the fcc kept the launch date in limbo up until now. this could very well be the talk of the street today as stocks begin at a four-year high. checking the numbers the dow stands at 13,279, added 65 points in trading yesterday. nasdaq up by 4. s&p 500 better by almost 8 points. the d.c. council unexpectedly voted down a $64

million supplemental budget proposal. this is just days after the mayor and council chairman appeared to have reached a deal with council members. the proposal centerpiece was a $22 million plan to pay city workers for four furlough days they were forced to take last year. this was a big defeat for labor unions. some current and former wal- mart employees will be paid backwages and damages for being ennyed overtime pay -- denied overtime pay. they'll have to pay more than 4500 plans. they improperly considered managers and security personnel to be exempt from the overtime pay. >> not a lot of money for wal- mart. they can make it in a morning. thanks, jess. new research suggests a natural chemical dome mean can -- dopamine can play a role in

a person's success.

well can back to 9news -- welcome back to 9news news. it's wednesday morning. it is dry but you say that's going to change. >> when we came in it was dry. there's already been some showers through montgomery county and howard county, down toward fauquier and culpeper counties right now. in goldvein, that's the strongest stuff we're looking at. we'll go over to dop larry 9,000 -- doppler 9000 because we are having showers and storms right now. we may get some severe storms this afternoon. we have the first batch we're looking at. this goes all the way back in toward eastern ohio. we'll be dancing with these showers and storms for several more hours this morning before we get into more of a break. you can see the lightning that's firing a little bit up to the north. this one grabs your eye, that one toward goldvein and another

towards charlottesville. a thin line of showers to the north of us. there's the storms there coming over toward quantico i think in the next little while. in bethesda, east side of rockville, a line of showers. the stronger stuff came through areas of laytonsville and olney. this is just north and extends east of mount airy toward new winter in the frederick county border. this is moving toward caroll county. to the south and west, this is the really strong stuff we're watching. here's stafford now. cromwell, goldvein, might even be some very small hail with this. it's going to track over stafford, maybe south of quantico and then southwestern charles county. it's moving east at 30, 35 miles an hour. give this thing 30, 40 minutes and it will be across the river in toward areas in charles county as i said in southern maryland. we'll be dealing with the scattered showers and storms

this morning for the next few hours. the bus stop forecast, showers around, thunder, it's mild. as we head through the day, the threat for some showers and storms return. even some spots by noon, 77. some sunny breaks too. winds southeast generally 5, 6 miles an hour. 82 at 5:00. the concern is this afternoon that we could see some strong to severe thunderstorms. 65 right now in d.c. 63 in winchester. culpeper 66. so we've got this warm somewhat muggy air mass helping to support the showers and storms this morning. looking outside on our michael & son weather camera, good visibility. 65 degrees with calm winds at reagan national. the barometer dropping a little bit at 29.98. i showed you what was coming at us in the ohio valley. we've got this guy as well. this is potentially what we'll be seeing for the afternoon. with the front draped across the region, we're going to be dealing with these showers and storms on and off today. an isolated chance for the next couple of days and very warm.

today 83. scattered showers and storm. some severe this afternoon. could be damaging wind gusts and hail. tonight in the 60s. 50s in the suburbs. 83 tomorrow. isolated stuff on friday but 88. saturday 84, chance of an afternoon storm. then we're back in the 70s by sunday. let's go to monika santami at 4:45. she's got a look at time saver traffic. we do have the wet road conditions. i want you to be careful if you're heading out the door especially coming south on 270. first let's take a look at the beltway north of town which is still running well out of college park into silver spring and over to bethesda. we'll take a live look at new hampshire avenue on the outer loop. you'll see that volumes are still pretty light coming south on 9 a to the outer loop and heading west. we'll go to the live picture on the outer loop of the beltway at new hampshire avenue. volumes are light on the north side of town. let's go back over to the maps this time to 270 coming from frederick which is still light off of i-70 and down to the point where the lanes divide.

over to our maps, here we go. no problems to report as you head into clarksburg and a live look a little further south on the spur. you're going to see that the roads are wet. volumes are just beginning to build this wednesday morning. be aware of that. it may slow you down later in the morning. in my next report, we'll go out west to 66. back to you guys. >> thanks a lot, monika. 4:47. are you a slacker or a go getter? it depends on the chemicals your brain releases and where they are released. people who release dopamine in the part of the brain that influences reward and motivation, they're the ones who are willing to work hard. on the other hand, slackers had high dopamine levels in the parts of the brain that influences emotion and risk perception. researchers at vanderbilt university hope these findings can help treat attention deficit disorder and possibly depression. newborns should be screened for more heart defects -- more newborns should be screened for

heart defects. noninvasive tests is an accurate and cost effective way to screen for heart defects. the test uses a sensor placed on the baby's foot and that measures the amount of oxygen circulating in the bloodstream. newborns often show no visible signs of heart defects but the condition can be fatal if it's not treated right away. how much fat you have on your body could determine your risk of heart disease. a high body mass index or bmi has long been associated with heart disease but until now, doctors didn't know exactly how that association worked. researchers say gaining just a few pounds a year could increase your bmi and double your risk of heart disease. it's national physical fitness and sports month. we're getting a push to get active this morning from new orleans saints quarterback drew bres. he's the co-chair of the president's council on fitness, sports and nutrition. yesterday i had a chance to speak with him along with olympian allison felix who is a

member of the council on how they plan to get everyone moving. >> reporter: tell us what's supposed to happen this month to get us active. >> both allison and i are proud members of the president's council on fitness, sports and nutrition. really our charge always is to promote a healthy lifestyle through physical activity and good nutrition. kids go through six weeks of basically five days a week, 60 minutes a day exercise. to further that with the challenge, they now have the opportunity within that 6 on minutes do -- 6 on minutes do interactive gaming that would count towards that as well as making nutritional goal for the week and that kind of thing. >> it's -- it seems like it's really imperative drew and allison, when you find out young children are being diagnosed with type ii diabetes relating to obesity, that there's an urgency to get them up and get them moving. do you see that as well,

allison? >> oh, definitely. it's critical with where our kids are today. they're spending to much time in front of screens. we really want to change that into active time. so we really want to get them up and moving. now we have all these games that actually do that and allow them to move around and get active. we're just really excited for that and to kick it off. >> statistics show that kids between ages of 8 and 18 are spending 7 and a half hours a day behind a screen. whether that's a tv screen, computer screen, video game screen, we need to coordinate this active gaming into what they're doing. you can work up a sweat quickly and there's a wide array of games that kids have the opportunity to play. >> reporter: very my little saints teddy bear mascot with me. the first game of the season is going to be against the washington redskins. i like them as well. what do you make of rgiii, the skins number one pick?

>> sure. i think he's an extremely talented player. i'm from austin, texas. i know he's a texas kid as well spending his career at baylor, really revitalizing that program. i think he had a phenomenal college career, obviously the heisman trophy winner. there's going to be a lot of excitement around him coming into the n.f.l. he's as talented as they co. i'm excited to -- as they come. i'm excited to watch him play and develop. unfortunately we lay them the first game of the season. i hope he has an off day that day. no, there's a lot of great, young texas quarterbacks especially that got drafted this year. >> he does have some louisiana ties as well. >> anyone can sign up for the presidential lifestyle award by logging on to fitness.gov. you can track all of your movements there. >> i know that was such a hard interview for you to conduct. >> just wish he could have been in the studio and allison was very good as well. he was very diplomatic about

rgiii. >> that was really nice of him because he really just wants to take him out. >> that will be the first game of the season, the skins go to the dome. >> i want to watch that game with you. >> it's a date. we'll get michael to cook and we'll watch that game together. 60% of people say this is -- this is our question of the morning. 60% of people say this is the most annoying thing that they encounter at work. is it a, gossip, b, unwanted comments, conversations from an annoying co-worker or c, a co- worker who cannot do their job? >> log on to the wusa9 facebook fan page and leave your response. we'll reveal the answer during our 6:00 hour.

welcome back. we're seeing showers and storms this morning on live doppler hd. and a threat for strong to maybe severe thunderstorms this afternoon. right now all of this is moving toward the east at 30 miles an hour. not too much in the immediate metro but north of town, we have seen some showers and storms go through montgomery county now basically into howard county. here's columbia. get ready there. this is headed toward ellicott south. the south of town, this is where we have the stronger thunderstorms that are going on right now approaching 95 here. quantico, stafford. this stuff moving east at about 30, 35. this could contain even not just the downpours but maybe some small hail west of manassas you've got showers as well coming toward prince william county. another cell out to the west pushing toward orange, unionville, culpeper. that will be round two for you this morning. we're looking at an active day today as temperatures get up into the low #s on. maybe -- low 80s. maybe strong storms later on. if you have an early start

this morning, you're still going to encounter dry roads northbound on 395 between seminary road and king street to the 14th street bridge. still a good ride. coming up in my next report, we'll go over to the east side of town at 5:01. secrets, it's a large nightclub in ocean city, maryland. it's won a court victory. secrets sued a competitor for a trademark infringement after another place used a similar name for its chain of luxury resorts in the caribbean. a permanent injunction will protect its trademark. secrets also received $50,000 in punitive damages. a new campaign is under way to get people off the c&o canal and into some of the towns surrounding that waterway. park rangers are putting up signs inviting hikers and bikers on the toe path to make side trips to places like shep readiestown and other places.

it's an 185-mile toe path that runs from cumberland to washington and attracts millions of visitors every year so it could be good for tourism. a germantown schoolteacher has a cautionary tale for all of us. >> she received a bad $100 from a bank that ought to do a better job of spotting fakes. scott broom has her story. >> to me it's unacceptable. >> reporter: that's marge walker and this is a photocopy of a bogus 100 dollar bill she says was passed to her at this germantown wells fargo branch last thursday. >> if i go to the bank, i expect they're going to be the authority on giving good money. to go to the bank and hear that you're passing me counterfeit money to me is beyond shocking. >> reporter: here's what happened. that wells fargo is right over there across germantown road. march drive -- marge drives across to here, the montgomery county teachers federal credit union. she came to pay a bill and immediately the teller here spotted the bogus 100.

marge's question, how can one financial institution spot a bill instantly when another one right across the street got fooled and stuck her with counterfeit. wells fargo issued a statement today saying we have processes and controls in place to detect counterfeit currency, however, on rare occasions, bills may not be identified. in these situations we work with the appropriate agencies to resolve the issue. marge is lucky because she's been a customer at wells fargo for 22 years and after some strenuous arguing, they did credit her back the $100. and the bogus bill has been turned over to authorities. lots of companies sell detectors that spot bad bills and there's a long list of tricks you can learn to prevent being the one stuck with the money. >> i wouldn't know what to look for. >> but marge wonders if a bank got fooled, what chance does she have? >> reporter: one system is called bleaching where someone takes a bill like this and washes the ink out of it and reprints it as a 100 dollar

bill. that keeps the paper authentic and much harder for anyone without a trained eye like, say, a bank teller to detect. in germantown, scott broom, 9news now. >> for more information on how to spot bogus bills, go to our website wusa9.com. she make as good point. if the bank can't spot it, it will be hard for civilians to do it. thank you for spotting the real thing, us, right here on 9news at 5:00 a.m. the genuine thing. i'm andrea roane. >> look at this hand gesture. that's an umbrella. i'm mike hydeck. thanks for joining us. monika santami is here. she'll have traffic and howard will be dancing in the rain all day today. >> a different hand jester for mike. >> oh. >> weather wise, let's get you going. we have wet weather out there. thank you for the setup, mike. a couple of thunderstorms out there already. may have woken a few of you up early. we've got showers