prosecutors apparently satisfied that he's been forced out of office. now a big issue is who the remaining 12 members of council will select to serve as interim chairman pending a special election. the washington post weighed in. the newspaper liked at large councilmen phil mendelson. he doesn't have the votes we're told. vincent orange is the main competition, the other at large democrat. there is concern both candidates received campaign contributions from businessman jeff thompson who as you know is under federal investigation. here's what two of their colleagues had to say about all this. >> what are you looking for in chairman? >> someone that can really lift up and understand that we're in an ethical crisis. it's not just the two people that have stepped down from the council, that there really is a whole issue about campaign finance and it's touched every council member. >> reporter: who are you going to support for chairman? >> i'm not going to talk about that now that's not how i operate, i can guarantee you the council will be stronger than ever before and the acting chair will be stronger than ever before.

>> they won't talk publicly, but about all of them will talk to you on the telephone if you don't use their names. the vote is wednesday. i'm told right now neither mendelson nor orange has the votes to become interim chairman and kwame brown's staff is not likely to be let go immediately. chairman pro tem mary cheh is offering to keep the 20 or so staffers on board at least for now. >> let's talk about the fact that there's no votes locked up so far for these new council chairmen who want to be can chairman. these people know each other -- to be council chairman. these people know each other very well. >> here's one deal we know about. michael brown and phil mendelsohn have teamed up. if phil mendelsohn becomes the interim chairman, michael brown becomes chairman pro tem and you can bet vincent orange is making deals, too, on the side. right now there's mistrust because nobody knows where the next shoe will drop. >> in other words, somebody else could be indicted and forced out, you go through this

all over again. >> indicted is a big word. something could happen. >> thanks, bruce. the dulles rail project has one more big hurdle before it gets itself back on track. the board of supervisors will vote next month on whether to opt in or out of project. as peggy fox reports, it's expected to be a close vote because some of the supervisors have steep reservations. >> reporter: building metrorail past dulles airport into loudoun county will bring huge economic gains to loudoun including some 40,000 jobs over 20 years says economist steven fuller, but loudoun board member ken reed doesn't buy it. >> unfortunately there are a lot of people with stars in their eyes about this and they think it's going to improve their real estate values and bring all these great jobs and we're going to have little bethesda, but that's very speculative. >> reporter: he thinks ridership will be low, it won't so of traffic congestion and most loudoun -- solve traffic congestion and most loudoun county residents won't use it.

>> their bus and train operators are paying about $66,000 a year on average and some of these folks are making six figures with overtime which is more than we pay our teachers '. >> reporter: if loudoun o.s out commuters could probably -- opts out, commuters could probably still use a metro dulles rail station, but they'd probably want to be dropped off because that garage next to where the station will be built costs $17 a day. airport authority ceo jackpotter hopes loudoun joins in. >> what they get again is development around the stations, convenience for the folks that live in loudoun to access the metro to get to work. >> reporter: but there's still hope for metro to loudoun even with naysayers like ken reed if there's money for roads in the plan. >> we can set aside a special fund that will include highway project and our buses, then i could support that maybe. >> reporter: that would involve a tax hike which is never an easy task. peggy fox, 9 news now. >> we'll be watching this. the loudoun county board has

very little time to come up with a funding plan if that's what's needed for a yes vote on the silver line. the vote is set for july 3rd. cones, signs, even a flagger not enough to protect three tree trimmers working in montgomery county today. they were hit by a truck at the intersection of new hampshire avenue and brighton dam road. >> reporter: i'm scott broom in montgomery county where a truck driver has been charged with negligent driving after he blew past a flagger and plowed into a tree trimming crew on the ground. sky 9 was over the scene at new hampshire avenue and brighton dam road this morning as the two tree trimmers struck by a truck were taken to ambulances. >> the driver was very apologetic to both of the individuals. >> reporter: what did he say? >> he said that he had saw the sign, but he said he didn't see the flag and it just came up on him. >> reporter: it's the latest example in a metro area plagued by worker deaths and injuries on the road. in 2010 the u.s. bureau of labor statistics reported 10

fatal highway incidents in the d.c. area. nine were workers hit by vehicles. of, a higher rate than everybody -- vehicles, a higher rate than average in u.s. the truck driver was hit with negligent drive and two other charges and was -- driving and two other charges and was released. today marks nine years since somebody pushed a 70- pound boulder off an overpass on i-95 and nearly killed a woman on her honeymoon. daphne gibson and her husband brian were driving back to rochester, new york from disney world when that rock smashed through their windshield in spotsylvania county. gibson survived. she had several surgeries. however, her marriage did not make it. now she lives in atlanta. the person or people who pushed that boulder have never been caught. route 355 back open after big problems this morning near cedar lane. a subcontractor working for pepco was trying to remove ole lines that had been replace -- old lines that had been

replayed when one of those old lines fell into a new line. that sent the traffic lights crashing to the ground. repairs took a couple of hours. it should be back to normal now. pepco tested out its energy wise rewards program in maryland. customers had their air conditioning turned off in peak hours of electrical use and as a reward they get a reduction on their bill. a survey conducted by the insurance institute for business ranks virginia and florida first in building codes out of the 18 most hurricane vulnerable states. maryland tied for ninth with louisiana. mississippi came in last because it does not have building codes. nothing tropical on the horizon tonight. nonetheless it is a yellow alert today, top. so what are you seeing out there? >> some thunderstorms kind of few and far between. the ones that develop are pretty hefty. we'll start with it live doppler 9000 and point out a couple storms to the northwest

and also the southeast. the storm near hagerstown produced some heavy rain, nothing severe. some warnings were issued earlier, but right now just heavy activity. this is a heavy storm right around new windsor and wolfsville, other side of 68 and 40. it will follow the i-270 pass in the next hour. we'll move further south and east down towards southern maryland, pretty good storm in upper marlboro. these just popped up in prince george's county, upper marlboro and just south of davidsonville going down 2. these will also move off to the southeast as well. we'll come back, track a few more storms, tell you when they'll finally end and look ahead to the weekend in a bit. tonight at 7:00 symbolic differences, a teen-ager banned from high school for wearing a religious symbol the school equates with a gang sign at 7:00. still to come, a major company wants to relocate its

headquarters for houston. >> but first nearly two years after that deadly mining in, west virginia families are on capitol hill -- mining accident in west virginia families are on capitol hill still demanding change.

relatives of minors killed in west virginia's upper big branch disaster are meeting with members of congress today. they're calling on lawmakers to pass new mine safety regulations by july 4th. the national mining association opposes those new rules and the bill has been stalled in congress. 29 minors lost their lives in that west virginia mine explosion back in 2010. a rescue operation on a much smaller scale caught on tape in arizona, a consistent pulled out of a drain outside a restaurant in peoria with a can stuck on its head.

rescuers say they aren't sure how long he was down there. it did take a while to get his head out of the soda can. the kitty is expected to be fine but needs a new home. a boston transit worker praised for his heroic act in rescuing a stuffed bunny. the mother of a 3-year-old wrote in a blog the stuffed animal fell from her daughter's stroller as they were exiting the train and landed on the tracks. that's when the worker sprung into action. he called the incoming train bringing it to a halt so he could make the daring save. the mom wrote the worker's act made her little girl incredibly happy. still ahead we hear a lot about the government needing to balance that budget, so why is there $70 million sitting in bank accounts? a look at the answer coming up. >> distracted driving is the no. 1 killer of american teens. one city has taken extreme measures to cut down on accidents and we'll show you tonight on the cbs evening news.

back now with your consumer alert. for the sixth straight week mortgage rates hit record lows today. freddie mac says the average rate for a 30 year fixed is down to 3.676%. the latest jobs numbers are suggesting just modest growth after three weeks of weak -- three months, that is, of week hiring according to the department of labor. applications for weekly jobless benefits fell by just 12,000 last week, but the four-week average rose to its highest level in a month. the founder of best buy resigned from the company's board. that's 71-year-old richard schulz. he launched the company in 1966 and he owns 20% of the firm. he said today he is exploring options for his ownership stake. this is fueling speck lace that he may lead a private takeover of best buy. it's the beginning of the end for exxon mobil in northern virginia. the company says it plans to close its fairfax headquarters and take more than 2,000 jobs to texas. kristin fisher has more from outside their headquarters with

what this means for the local economy. >> reporter: when exxon mobil first moved into this sprawling campus in the early '80s, it was a very big deal for fairfax county. for the next three decades it would bring high paying highly skilled jobs and a nontraditional industry to northern virginia, but yesterday the company announced all 2,100 employees would be moving to a new home in houston. the reason? company consolidation. virginia governor bob mcdonnell told the washington post we've actually been fortunate they've delayed their decision. we were able to keep them here a couple years to keep that presence here. obviously it's a lot of jobs. i'm disappointed. >> we're very, very sorry to see them go. >> reporter: jerry gordon is president and ceo of the fairfax county development authority. he's sorry the company is leaving. he says it will not devastate the local economy. >> the impact on fairfax county is less than it would have been 30 years ago when think first arrived. today we have 620,000 jobs and we're about to lose 2,100.

so the economic impact is not devastating. >> reporter: recently there have been several big companies that have come to fairfax. volkswagen, hilton, northrup have brought in 9,000 jobs, but that's still 900 sort of the 2,100 jobs exxon mobil will take to houston. it will take about three years for exxon mobil to move out, but when it does, perhaps an even bigger company bringing more jobs will move in. >> it's a great site. someone will snap it up. >> reporter: kristin fisher, 9 news now. >> exxon mobil says it will start moving in two years, but the move won't be complete until 2015. the numbers are in for campaign 2012 fundraising in may and republican candidate mitt romney was able to raise about $16 million more than president barack obama. it is the first month the former massachusetts governor has outcollected the current commander in chief. today senator tom coburn

released a report that says tens of billions of tax dollars have essentially gone to waste in recent years because they've been unused, money that congress earmarked for certain projects but was never spent. coburn, a republican from oklahoma, says more than $70 billion are sitting in bank accounts. so why doesn't congress just take back the money? here's coburn's answer. >> i could write a bill that would get all that money back. the question is it would never get to the floor. they don't want to fight the political bat of saying he gave and take a -- battle of saying he gave and take away. they don't want that negative press. >> democratic senator mark warner is also concerned and is pushing for a law that would give congress a better han l on what's spent and show in real -- handle on what's spent and show in realtime when there's money just sitting around. police on the lookout for a grandmother tonight accused of gambling away her grandson's college trust fund. 73-year-old edna sue pate is accused of stealing $100,000 from her grandson christian.

she of the only trustee to the account. -- she was the only trustee to the account. now police in louisiana are keeping a lookout for the grandma who appears to be on the lam. >> 83 today, about average. we have issued a code yellow because of the thunderstorms. we do have some storms out there. >> just to remind people now green, yellow and red. >> we talked about this at 5:00. i shouldn't promise, but there's this really cool video worth taking a look. put your knife and fox down. look at that. >> that's big hail. >> piled up hail. they had to plow it. it caused numerous accidents in colorado springs. >> when did this happen? >> yesterday. is that unbelievable? now is in good video. >> that is good video. >> okay, good. thank you. the smattering of applause, appreciate it. let's take a live look outside, very nice downtown, the might 83, our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. winds out of the north at 12,

pressure steady 29.95 inches of mercury, dew point in the 40s again. that means open the windows but not too far. it will be cool again tonight. live doppler 9000, we'll zoom up north and west and look at this storm. it will be on the east side of 270 as it marches southeastward headed toward frederick. this is route 15 and that's frederick. it's going to move across into frederick and probably in between new market and urbana. not severe, but the red is rainfall rates of about an inch per hour. there are pockets of heavy storms out. that's why we issued a code yellow. back to these storms, they've weakened towards prince george's county and anne arundel but south of upper marlboro, some moderate rain and now some rain over toward shady side. we still see showers and storms back toward harrisburg up into pennsylvania. we'll keep the chance for showers and thunderstorms in

till about 10:00. temperaturewise primarily in the 70s, 76 bethesda and great falls, 74 springfield, 77 chen park, 74 in beltsville. so -- college park, 74 in beltsville. so early thunderstorms, a wet commute possible for some of us tonight going home and a fabulous friday, grab your shades, warmer and nice, hot sunday, but still nice. for tonight showers and thunderstorms ending around 10:00, clearing and cool, low temperatures between 54 and 64. let's talk about the next three days. we've got green, green and green. that's good. low 80s tomorrow, orpiments saturday, a slight chance of a thunderstorm sunday. we're still going to keep it as a code green on our 9 weather alert system. next seven days, monday back up to 90, a little better chance of a thunderstorm and tuesday a little better chance, mid-80s. as we get into next wednesday even a better chance of showers and storms as the frontal system approaches and back in the low 80s with sunshine returning thursday. so a hot weekend, but i think

it will be nice. >> a little more unsettled. >> summer-like. >> we will be back with sports. oh, no. here we go. here's kristen berset out at redskins park. >> reporter: yeah, we are here at redskins park, redskins wrapping up another day of practice. things are coming along well. rg3 says he has an aha moment richmond coming an speaks out up next in sports.

now 9 sports with kristen berset, the best sports in town. >> reporter: welcome back. we are live in ashburn at redskins park. the team is wrapping up their third set of otas today. i got to tell you every time i'm out here it's more apparent just how comfortable robert griffin, iii is getting with this redskins offense. he said he had an aha moment yesterday after some pressure from the defense. robert said he and the offense just tore them up and it really made him feel like he was starting to settle in as the starting quarterback as well as getting a good understanding of how different game day will be than what he's used to. >> it's not faster in practice, by any means, because on game day everybody is a little bit faster, but i think i have gotten a little bit of a grasp of what it's going to be like on game day just based off practice. >> roberts is a young guy, but

he has a lot of ability and potential and he's showing it early. it can only get better from here i believe. >> reporter: also the first time since the big announcement yesterday we were able to talk to players and get their thoughts on training camp moving to richmond, most of them pretty in different saying they're just focused on football, but some of them also excited for the changes that are coming. aside from training camp, there's also going to be some major renovations here at redskins park in ashburn. this place will go from run down to hi-tech. we've seen the addition of the indoor practice facility, the bubble. there's plans for a new weight room, new training room and even a new cafeteria. >> you always want a state of the art facility. you want players to come in here and enjoy coming to work. that's one of the reasons i think the bubble helped so much. we want free agents to come here and say hey, what a great facility. i can see me coming here and get better as a football player.

>> reporter: it looks like the skins will make good on their invite to brian banks. after the former linebacker from california was exonerated on rape charges, several teams reached out to him and offered him a tryout. today he worked out for seattle. shanahan said he could be in ashburn tomorrow. to the diamond, nats with baseball against the mets, scoreless in the 5th, but the mets lucas duda changes that, a two-run homer to right field, 2- 0 met and they would add another run in the 7th -- mets and they would add another run in the 7th. ryan zimmerman, a solo home run in the 9th, his third of the season. the nationals lose 3-1. that will do it here from redskins park in ashburn. the redskins pick up minicamp starting next week. i'm kristen berset, back to you guys in the studio. >> get out of the sun. we're worried about you, don't want you to get burned. that's all for 9 news now at

6:00. stay with wusa9. cbs evening news is next. good night, everybody.