[ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. . hello and thank you for joining us. i'm jc hayward. support for d.c. mayor vincent gray seems to be waning according to a "washington post" poll. the poll asked readers if they thought mayor gray that step down as mayor. 54% said yes.

37% said no. that mayor gray should stay in office. his 2010 campaign is the focus after federal investigation into illegal fund raising. prosecutors say that gray beat former mayor adrian fenty with the help of a shadow campaign which raised more than $650,000. genie harris pleaded guilty to running that campaign. mayor gray says he will serve all four years of his term. george zimmerman spoke out publicly for the first time about what happened the night he shot 17-year-old trayvon martin. zimmerman talked with fox news host sean hannity and gave an account of what happened that fateful night in florida. zimmerman says it was trayvon who attacked him and he regrets the night ever happened. >> he said you're [ bleep ] and took one hand off of my mouth

and i felt is going down my chest towards my belt, my hollister. and that's when i didn't have any more time. i do wish that there was something, anything could i have done that wouldn't have put me in the position where i had to take his life. >> trayvon martin's father told the associated press there is no way god wanted george zimmerman to murder his teenaged son. the loudoun county sheriff's office is hoping that this surveillance video from a harris teeter will lead to the arrest of crooks. two masked men robbed a grocery store at the village center plaza in aldie around 2:00 tuesday morning. the suspects opened several safes, grabbed money and then took off. if you have any information about this robbery, please call the loudoun county sheriff's office. it's not as hot as it was yesterday and the storms have passed for right now.

but we could be in for another round of storms. anny is here with the forecast. >> hi, jc. temperatures will thought be as hot today but still warming up pretty quickly. here's a look at the white house on this thursday afternoon. temperatures will get into the lower 90s so almost 10 degrees cooler than yesterday's triple digit highs. we are looking at scattered showers and thunderstorms impacting the area by this afternoon. better chances of those showers and storms are later tonight. right now mostly cloudy conditions. temperatures 87 degrees. we do have a code orange air quality alert for the unhealthy, sensitive groups. things are quiet right now. we have cloudy conditions out there but to the north and west of us in the ohio valley, we do see some showers and storms. some of those storms could be severe and will grab some energy from that system. that could also trigger showers and storms for us. temperatures 09 for manassas -- 90 for manassas.

upper 80s culpeper. 85 degrees in gaithersburg. the' still humid out -- it's still humid out there so feel itself like most of us are in the 90s. frederick with the exception. that sensor is off right now. i'll talk more about the forecast coming up. also why we could still be unsettled for the next couple of days. back you to, jc. >> thank you, annually. this afternoon crews are continuing to clear the debris of a massive tree that fell yesterday. the tree uprooted and it fell on a house on arcadia place north west washington. fortunately no one was injured. the house actually is not a complete loss. but residents in the neighborhood say it's situations like this that are quite frightening. >> we're scared about this tree but we love them so we live with it. it's been happening quite often recently. comes with the territory. they keep us cool in the summer and they're beautiful. it's part of the nature. around here it's barnaby woods

and we want the woods. >> it would be nice if it didn't happen again. the power came on much quicker this time so we're happy with that. >> and they were happy to get power back on. when that tree fell down, power was knocked out for that street. well, thank montgomery county -- well, thank montgomery county executive ike leggett is with me. it's been a very busy month in montgomery county. of course people lost power after the storm yesterday. so we want to talk about what is happening with pepco and i understand there is going to be a hearing. is that tomorrow? >> in fact, it's today. it's one of several hearings that will be conducted both at the county and state level to look at the performance of pepco during this recent power outage. i indicated before that we found it unacceptable to have the amount of outage that we had for such a long duration in the heat and humidity, under

these circumstances and conditions i think was pretty difficult, and i think we need to get some better answers from them. >> there are a lot of complaints but what actually do you think can be done? >> well, two years ago i commissioned a task force that laid out an action plan that outlined three things. one, better communications. two, to aggressively address the infrastructure, and challenges and to make sure we have the response, bringing outside crews in a timely fashion. i'm not sure they measured up to those things that are already outlined. so the answers are there. we need to make sure that they performed to that standard. >> if people would like to register complaints or comments- - >> it's today. they can write any number of places but also the public service commission which is in the state of maryland. because this is a body that has jurisdiction and oversight over

pepco. >> what about gambling? >>it's up in the area. there's a push to bring a casino to prince george's county to national harbor. it's a human fight, as you know, because it's complicated in terms of the other casinos trying to work out some condition that everyone is satisfied with. so it's not necessarily to bring it but at least have a referendum so the citizens of the state of maryland and of course prince george's county and the city of baltimore can make a determination whether or not they want it. >> ride on buses, 26 montgomery county ride on buses have been taken out of service because? >> well, i made the decision yesterday to remove them permanently because we've had some problems with the champion buses in the county. we had a fire yesterday. i do not want to jeopardize the safety of our workers and our potential patrons of the ride on system so i decided to remove them. we'll look at replacement. we hope to have all of those replaced in a couple of weeks. >> with 26 buses out of service, it's going to affect

residents. >> it certainly will but we hope we can get through this with minimal disruption. we're on sort of a mini holiday schedule for some of the buses now and we'll ramp it back up the next few days. >> you will. so it will be back in a couple of days. >> hope to, yes. >> thank you. it's always great to have county executive ike leggett with me. congresswoman michele bachmann's allegations that the secretary of state has ties with the muslim brotherhood has some republicans telling her, you know what? you should back down. we'll have details on that in just a moment.

israel is standing by its claim that iranian backed his bala is responsible -- hezbollah is responsible for an attack on a bus of tourists. the blast killed seven people. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says the suspected suicide bomber had a fake michigan driver's license. israel is vowing to strike back. syrian president bashar el- assad made his first appearance since yesterday's bombing that killed three of his top officials. the government's state-run news agency says the president attended the swearing in of the new defense minister at an undisclosed location. the former defense minister who was also assad's brother-in-law died in yesterday's attack.

well, president obama and republican mitt romney are tied according to public polls. a new poll from cbs news says there is no clear favorite for the 2012 election. they discovered that voters think mitt romney is more capable of handling the economy, but the poll also says that a large percentage of residents think that president obama is better at looking out for the middle class. many voters, however, are still undecided. one in five say they may change their mind before november. senator john mccain is telling fellow republican michele bachmann back down. the congresswoman is accusing a long time aide to secretary of state hillary clinton of having ties to the muslim brotherhood in egypt. and she's asking for an investigation to determine if extremists have infiltrated top

levels of the government. senator mccain says that he's tired of such allegations that are spreading around the washington area. >> these allegations about hugh pa abedin and -- huma abedin and the report if which they're drawn are nothing less than an unwarranted, unfounded attack on an honorable citizen, dedicated mental and loyal public servant. these attacks have no logic, no basis, and no merit, and they need to stop. >> in response, congresswoman bachmann says, i will not be silent as this administration appeases our enemies. another automaker is issuing a recall. >> plus, the nominations are in. which of your favorite cbs shows are up for an emmy? we'll have details in just a

moment. anny has the forecast. >> hi, jc. lots of sunshine out here. it's still humid. we've got some showers and storms on the way once again. and we could be unsettled for a couple days. i have your complete forecast when we return. 9news now at noon continues after the break.

honda is recalling more

than 270,000 cars with malfunctioning locks. the recall affects more than 166,000 2012crv models and 62,000 2013 acura ilx cars. if the door handles are used at the same time as the manual or power locks, the inner latch may not work. owners will get a letter from the company alerting them starting in mid-august. honda says no crash injuries have been reported, however, due to this problem. the nominees are in. emmy award nominees were announced this morning by comedian jimmy kimmel. among the nominees is "the big bang theory" up for best comedy along with jim parsons, up to best comedic actor. mike and mollie, two and a half men and the good wife also

scored nominations. how you doing today? >> i'm good. it's still hot and steamy out there but nowhere near triple digit heat like yesterday. we set a new record yesterday at dulles. today will be 90s. we're always watching for some big storms that could come through this way. i think most of the afternoon we should be okay. storm chances will increase for this evening as we get into the night hours. here's a look at our day planner for this thursday. again, we're looking at mostly cloudy conditions out there with some breaks of sun. for the rest of today we have a chance for showers and storms. temperatures topping out in the lower 90s. this evening we'll see storm chances increasing. here's a look at your satellite and radar picture where we do see showers and storms to the north and west of us out in the ohio valley. here's a live look at our michael & son weather camera. temperatures right now are generally in the 80s. dew points in the upper 60s under mostly cloudy conditions. winds are light north, north east at 5 miles per hour. here's the satellite and radar picture where the clouds did

finally clear out a little bit this morning. but we'll see pretty good amount of cloud cover for the afternoon. we do see some showers and storms in the ohio valley. and some of those storms could become severe. so we're going to see how today plays out as well. temperatures right now 87 in downtown. 90 in manassas. 84 in leesburg. fredricksburg in the 90s. but when you factor in the dew points that are in the 60s and 70s, it definitely feels like we're well into the 90s once again. what are we expecting for today? more storms through tonight. then some strong storms are possible, especially with the clouds clearing out. that makes the atmosphere a little more unstable. more storms are possible on friday, but then we will cool things down. not just today but through tomorrow and into saturday. here's a look at your futurecast. again scattered showers and storms late this afternoon coming in from the north and west. we could see more showers and storms later tonight. then we'll see showers also for friday as well. we're looking quite unsettled to finish off the week.

but we are going to see some cooler, drier air come this way. here's a look at your forecast. we start in western maryland. oakland getting into the mid- 70s. cumberland 86. hagerstown, martinsburg 87 degrees. culpeper lower 90s. warrenton, manassas in the upper 80s. around the d.c. area lower 90s in downtown. 91 for andrews air force base. pax river in the mid-80s. annapolis close to 90. easton and cambridge you'll also top out in the mid-80s. but much more comfortable compared to yesterday's triple digit heat. check out the next three days. our 9 weather alert code for today is yellow because of the showers and storms that we're expecting. still hot out there. lower 90s. friday also code yellow because of the showers and storms. but we'll be in the mid-80s so even more comfortable temperature wise. look at saturday. we're a green alert because temperatures being in the lower 80s and not expecting the weather to be as unsettled on saturday. maybe a stray storm.

but lower 80s, that may even feel like chilly. so the next seven days on sunday in the mid-80s. the weekend actually does look pretty g. we're hot again by monday. tuesday and wednesday, though, lower 90s. by wednesday in the upper 80s, close to 90 degrees. back to you. we have some exciting news about the sunday morning programming. because in the fall wusa will launch an exciting new talk show with bloomberg government. the show is going to air on sunday mornings as part of our acclaimed power block. and bloomberg's chief washington correspondent peter cook will be the host. we'll be right back. i've been combing through the day's daily deals, e-mails and retailer websites to find you some deep discounts. here are some of our favorites on this thursday. before school is back in session, how about a trip to kings dom minution. groupon has 66 bucks for a

theme park visit for two with access to design sawyers alive. this -- dinosaurs alive. this would normally cost 130 bucks. how about this one. 45 bucks for one hour therapeutic massage at water falls wellness center in alexandria. that is a 50% savings and you have three days left to get in on this deal. and finally, get a ticket to this year's capital groove fest for just 25 bucks. the summer music festival usually goes for $50. capital groove fest is july 28 at the fair grounds at navy yard. you can find this deal on living social. if you have an offer you've seen or you're a local merchant with a deal for our viewers, i would love to hear from you on facebook. i'm jessica doyle, 9news now. ?gw?qyjw

today i am one on one with kristin kendall, the co-owner of lily mcguilly's. i love that. it's located in gaithersburg. i love cupcakes but you have a twist on cupcakes. these are beautiful. but now you're doing cupcake pops? >> cake pops are extremely popular, very trendy. it's basically cake rolled into a ball on a stick. >> it's great for kids. >> it's perfect for kids. >> what i like about your cupcakes, they're beautiful. >> thank so you much. >> how many flavors? >> we have probably about 50 different flavors we make and each day we have about 15 flavors. >> what are the unique ones? >> well, over here we have

chocolate ganache and the lemon, those are special flavors. all the other flavors are daily flavors that we have every day. chock loot peanut butter, red velvet is our best seller and caramel. >> oh, yes. let's talk -- i'm supposed to stir this. i'm talking. this is chocolate. you don't want this to burn. >> correct. basically the first step-- >> you're playing. i can tell. >> i am playing. the first is to crumble up cake. it can be sheet cake, cupcake, whatever you have. then you add a little bit of icing at a little bit of time. it's going to basically act as the glue so you can roll it into a ball like a meatball. >> you take the icing and mix it with the cake. >> just kind of squish it together. >> that's fun. you want it to be the same -- to be the kind of consistency where if you roll it into a ball, it's not going to fall apart. you add just enough icing to do

that. >> just regular icing. >> just regular icing. whatever flavor you'd like. and then what we do at lily mcguilly's is we use a scooper so everything is similar in size. you don't have to do that. you can kind of wing it i guess. so we use a scooper. that makes it easier to make and basically just roll it like you would a meatball. and then we will take these sticks here to stick on them. question have some right here. we'll just dip it in the chocolate and stick it in the ball. >> then dip it in the chocolate? >> mm-hmm. we typically put them in the freezer to make it harden so they don't fall off. these are some we've already done that have hardened. we'll stick it in the chocolate like that. let some chocolate drizzle off. you can make them like that and stand them up. it's a little messier but you can also stick them in these little-- >> it's great for kids. that's the finished product?

>> that's the finished product. >> lily mcguilly's at rio in gaithersburg. this is a rhett velvet. thank you so much. >> you are very welcome. thank you. come back and visit us at 5:00. oh, my goodness.