gray's campaign to sulaimon brown's campaign just so he would continue to go up against mayor adrian fenty and say nasty things about him. now howard brooks today was a consultant for mayor vincent gray's campaign and today he said that he lied to federal agents as they investigated this bizarre question of these money orders being passed. the only thing he admitted to -- the only thing he pleaded to was lying, but he admitted to a whole lot of other wrongdoing, thousands of thousands of dollars worth of money orders that he collected apparently from mayor gray's campaign and passed off to brown writing other people's names on it, which is illegal in the city. that's hiding the source of a campaign contribution. we had a chance to talk to howard brooks' lawyer today. we spoke to him a few minutes ago. here's what he had to say about how he's doing. >> it's obviously a cuff day,

but i think he handled it extremely well. i think his demeanor in front of the court reflected his regret and there's contrition. you know, i hope that was conveyed accurately to the court today. >> reporter: now for lying to federal agents howard brooks is looking at a potential from zero to six months in jail. the sentence is in some ways contingent on his continued cooperation in the investigation and the big question, of course, is are more people going to be charged? the source in the u.s. attorney's office tells me not to expect any more charges tomorrow, but who knows about next week or next month. the investigators are continuing their work and clearly at this point they are looking at the potential of putting together a case against mayor vincent gray that he knew about this, that he was involved in wrong doing in illegal acts during his campaign in 2010.

back to you. >> bruce, the investigation certainly is not over as you just said. ward 8 council member marion barry did his best to apologize to the asian american community today. it came after recent offensive comments he made about asian business owners and filipino nurses. barry met with community leaders at matthews memorial baptist church in southeast. >> when i make a mistake about something, i'm the first to say maybe i could have said it different ly, but by saying it differently doesn't negate the problem. >> today marks an effort on the asian community in d.c. to ensure diversity is viewed as an asset rather than a source of conflict among us. >> asian community leaders at today's event say they accept the apology, but during that apology barry used a term some consider offensive to describe people from poland. iowa is shaping up to be a

battle ground state in campaign 2012. president obama made his second visit to the state today while mitt romney's campaign has a new ad ready to hit the air waves. danielle nottingham has it all for us from the white house. >> reporter: students gave mitt romney a warm welcome at the philadelphia charter school where he went to talk about education. >> we allow more choice for parents. i like every parent to have a choice and every child to have a chance. >> reporter: the teachers had some challenging questions for the republican presidential hopeful who says reducing class size does not improve student performance. >> i can't think of any teacher. mr. bennett, would you want more kids in your classroom? >> reporter: romney's visit to the heavily democratic neighborhood came as his campaign released a new tv ad. >> day one, president romney announces deficit reductions ending the obama era of big government. >> reporter: romney's ads target battleground states where the race is heating up.

a new poll puts president obama slightly ahead in three key states including florida. wednesday a different poll put romney ahead. >> bottom line is it's close everywhere. it's the 3rd inning. the thing isn't baked yet, but no doubt this summer is a key period where the obama guys are going to try to wreck romney on the economy. >> reporter: raising money out west, president obama took direct aim at romney's economic policies and a jab at his time in the business world. >> what governor romney doesn't seem to get is that a healthy economy doesn't just mean a few folks maximizing their profits through massive layoffs or busting unions. >> reporter: today the president visits a wind turbine blade manufacturer in iowa, then heads to another big fundraiser. danielle nottingham, cbs news, the white house. >> and president obama has already spent more than $2.5 million advertising in iowa alone. finding space at the beach could be a battleground this long holiday weekend.

what's the weather looking like, top? >> it's great today. we do have some big thunderstorms south and west of town. there are no warning out, but be advised they have very heavy rain embedded in them. let's start with live doppler 9000. we'll pinpoint some of the activity, again not as numerous as yesterday and south and west of town. we'll zoom into this one storm that is now marked north of fredericksburg and it kind of extends up into warrenton. this is tremendous rainfall. these are heavy downpours anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 inches per hour. it's headed drifting off to the north. it's going to head toward manassas and loudoun county and unfortunately prince william county. this is either hail or extremely heavy rain. around garrisonville around 6:10 kind of straddles i-95. you can get a picture of it safely, send it to wusa9.com. back that out. you can see where this goes in the next hour, essentially moving due north headed toward

warrenton, crossing 66 in the next hour. if you have folks heading out 66 from the district, it's slow going. some of these areas have had 4 to 6 inches of rain since monday. we'll come back, tell you how long these storms will be with us and look ahead to the holiday weekend and have the hurricane outlook. just in time for memorial day weekend the virginia department of transportation launched an enhanced version of its 511 traffic reporting info system. drivers can now download a free mobile phone app to access realtime traffic information including online video of traffic conditions. prices at the pump are a pretty big concern for people driving this holiday weekend. according to aaa, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $3.67 today. in the greater washington area it's 3.65. throughout the rest of this half hour we'll take a closer look at gas prices on the way to some popular destinations like the eastern shore beaches. today we checked with

gasbuddy.com and found the best price along the way is a shell station along route 50 in mardella springs where you'll pay 3.46 a gallon for unleaded. it's expected to be the busiest travel holiday weekend in five years. >> reporter: i'm scott broom along the delaware seashore where visitors this memorial day weekend will find a lot of new things to talk about. it is a frustrating welcome to rehoboth beach, no place to park with all that new white just refurbished sand calling. rehoboth unveiled today park mobile, an app for smartphones where you pay for parking with a touch of a finger. do you think it will help? >> definitely. i pay a lot of stuff by phone. >> reporter: now down to dewey beach. this year the town tightened up its noise ordinance. farther down the coast a dramatic new landmark to see and cross, the new $150 million

indian river inlet bridge finished and finally open this week to all four lanes of traffic. >> people that travel up and down this road from maryland, delaware, virginia, pennsylvania and new jersey like it. >> reporter: in rehoboth beach, delaware, scott broom, 9 news now. coming up tonight at 7:00 policing the pound, a local police department launches a new physical fitness program and helps one of its own become much healthier and lighter along the way. we'll talk about that at 7:00. >> good thing they weren't in our newsroom today. still ahead in this half hour the fly-by that still seemed a million miles away. >> but first this is probably the setting you think of when you think newborn baby. we'll tell you why that was not the case in arlington up next.

tonight we're helping you gear up for traveling for this

memorial day holiday, checking the gas prices. you're heading south toward hampton roads or the carolinas, the best prices we found were along i-95 in thornburg, virginia. that is where a citgo station is charging 3.36 for a gallon of regular unleaded. you can always find the best gas prices at www.wusa9.com. click on pump patrol. just another day at the office for arlington county police corporal steve tray yawn owe, that is -- steve troyano, that is until a woman called saying her sister was having a baby. trayian owe had pulled -- troyano had pulled over for a traffic violation. he then saw this baby was not going to wait. >> i tried to reposition the mother, get her as comfortable as possible. had the sister grab a towel and within about a minute or so the

baby was coming out and she came out in my hands. we had one little scare. the cord was wrapped around her neck, unwrapped that and she started to breathe and then i started to breathe. >> oh, boy. they all started to breathe. medics arrived and took mother and daughter to the hospital. all of them are fine. in honor of corporal steve troyano the little girl's middle name is stephanie. how sweet. still to come, one of the companies competing to help nasa stock the international space station is in our own backyard. we'll introduce you to orbital science when we come back.

aaa 900,000 people in our area will drive someplace for the memorial day holiday and if your travels take you toward roanoke, you'll find the best gas prices in the harrisonburg

area of i-81. on gasbuddy.com we found three stations around the marketburg exit charging around 3.07 a gallon. you can fine the best gas prices in your area -- find the best gas prices in your area on wusa9. click on pump patrol. lots of fuel used to send the spacex dragon cargo ship to the international space station. the commercial ship did a fly- by of the station today. it was a mile and a half away, but it still showed up like a tiny speck. so we highlighted it for you in that circle there on your screen. the dragon is scheduled to dock with the space station tomorrow. if it's successful, spacex will make history, but there's another company hot on its heels. orbital scientists based in dulles and as kristin fisher reports, it's poised to put virginia on the map as a leader in commercial spaceflight. >> launch of the spacex falcon 9 rocket. >> reporter: spacex is taking title of the first private company to launch a spacecraft

to the space station, but orbital science based in dulles is just six months behind. their mission from nasa is the same, resupply the space station, but orbital has had lets time and less money to get the -- less time and less money to get the job done. >> we've closed the gap with the spacex team. >> reporter: carl walsh has spent nearly 200 days aboard the space station as a nasa astronaut. now he's helping developing orbital's rocket in the spacecraft that will sit on top. >> it's very exciting because we're developing something that has not been developed by the big government nasa before. >> reporter: so this is orbital's mission control complex. this is where the cignes capsule will be controlled once it launches sometime later this year. that launch will take place in virginia at nasa's wallace flight facility. it's one of the reasons why bob mcdonnell said virginia is poised to become a leader in

space launch operations. orbital's ambitions are aimed at space, but the payoff is already being felt here on earth with 2,000 jobs and counting in the d.c. area alone. >> i believe it's a good thing for the state of virginia and the whole economy around virginia because it really propels this area into the human spaceflight area. >> reporter: in dulles kristin fisher, 9 news now. >> the first test launch of orbital -- antares rocket is expected to take place in september and its first real launch is slated for the end of this year. virginia residents can prepare for the upcoming hurricane season and save money at the same time. the state is holding a sales tax holiday on emergency items like batteries and flashlights, tarps and first aid kits. it runs friday through next thursday. those items that cost $60 or less will be exempt from the 5% state and local tax. generators that cost $1,000 or less are also exempt. >> today, top, we learned a

little more about the hurricane forecast. >> we did. dr. grayish used one a couple months ago. -- gray issued one a couple months ago. noaa issued one today. it doesn't take an active season to cause problems. let's start with how many hurricanes they are predicting as opposed to how many are normal. we'll go to the graphics. we're looking at on an average basis, 10, okay? that is average. they are predicting nine to 15. so it's kind of a wide range, but 10 is average. they say four of those eight named storms will become hurricanes. six is average. that's pretty much dead on for average and then one to three major hurricanes categories which means category 3 with winds 111 miles per hour or higher. three is average. last year only one hurricane made landfall. that was irene. it doesn't take much to cause problems. names? the first few names, alberto, beryl, chris and debby. what is the thinking with the

hurricane forecast? here's what one official had to say. >> although this outlook suggests a less active season compared to recent years, the bottom line here toss prepare. as we saw nearly -- here is to prepare. as we saw nearly 20 years ago it, takes just one major landfalling hurricane to make for a bad season. >> he's talking about hurricane andrew in 1992. we only had five or six named storms. only took one to cause big problems. go to our website for our hurricane tracker. download it. it's free. you can track the storms with us and check out the history file. it's pretty cool. it will be on the weather page or homepage on the right side on check this out. go ahead and check it out and download it free. here is our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son, clouds on the increase as that storm starts to creep up 95, 81 downtown, winds south, southeast at 14, pressure down a little over the past hour, 30.03 inches of mercury. live doppler 9000, we are kind of concerned about this area of

thunderstorms. it is south and west of town. we've been watching this storm just creep and i mean creep north. heavy rains from warrenton back over toward quantico and the whole storm is lifting towards the north. it's headed towards manassas. some of it's extending across 66, but this itself will roll across 66 in the next hour or two. we'll go up to the north, big storm up around upperville. we'll zoom into this storm. garrisonville getting hammered lifting up 1, lifting up 95. really between dumfries and triangle down towards stafford you're going to have to drive through some torrential downpours as you go out 66. we'll back the radar out. the problem with these storms, they are slow movers. they're strong storms to begin with, but if they moved 30 miles an hour, wouldn't be a big deal. problem is they're not. these rainfall rates 1 to 2 inches per hour will cause problem. in the next hour they'll lift

slowly north headed for manassas, chantilly again, prince william county, cross 66 and eventually head into loudoun county. we'll keep you posted. right now no warnings, but they are hefty. 79 in great falls, 78 arlington, 79 also in springfield. here's the deal. heating up, isolated storm tonight, late fog again tomorrow at least in the morning. warmer on friday, hot on saturday, fewer storms both friday and saturday, which is actually kind of good news. for tonight, then, partly cloudy, mild, isolated storms possible, some late fog, low temperatures in the 60s. the next seven days looks like this. saturday an isolated storm, 88, sunday isolated storm 90, memorial day, isolated storm 90, so not a bad weekend really, upper 80s tuesday, mid- 80s wednesday, storms with a cold front and dry thursday with highs in the low 80s. remember go to our website and download our 9 hurricane tracker. >> sound good. we'll be back in a moment with

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segui segui darts now 9 sports with kristen berset, the best sports in town. >> as the redskins wrap up their first set of organized team activities, rg3 isn't the only player with eyes watching him all week. there's plenty of key players trying to make a comeback, santana moss looking to rebound from the worst season of his

career spent offseason getting in great ship. chris cooley hampered by knee injuries last year says he feels good, wants to be the no. 1 again and then there's tim hightower, the running back on par for a stellar season last year until he tore his acl. he rejoined the redskins this week, but is taking things frustratingly slow. >> i'm not used to going half speed, you know. that's not really a natural concept for me. i'm an all or nothing kind of guy. it's one of those things i'm just trying to gradually listen to the training staff and trust them. when they say hey, just do this and don't do nothing else. >> when it comes to locker placements, especially for rookies, i'm not sure who makes that call, but in the redskins locker room rg3 is sandwiched between london fletcher and brian orakpo, two leaders on this team, two guys he can learn a lot from and just in case two guys that will keep him in check. in soccer as in football when a player goes down, the next man steps up.

d.c. united has been hampered with injuries all season. midfielder danny cruz will miss four weeks after injuring his hamstring. the good news is they're on the cusp of a three-week break in the regular season. united has been on a terror lately winning five of their last seven games, second in the eastern conference currently, but now one misstep and that could change. >> we're up there, but not where we want to be at this point. there's other great teams in this league. we just have to stay consistent. we can put losses in a row and we're back down in fifth or sixth. consistency is the key and just staying focused on each game. the washington capitals doing some good with the kids today teaching them -- helping them work on their slapshot. these are students at brown middle school in northeast d.c. that's greg holtby and you see joel ward and slapshot the mascot and they presented the school with some street hockey equipment, too. >> that is fantastic, great way to end the year. that's it for us. the cbs evening news is next.

have a great night.