him. the son of the temple's president says his father died trying to stop the attacker. >> my father by engaging the shooter saved a tremendous amount of more hardship because people are able to get to cover. >> reporter: federal authorities are investigating whether this was an act of domestic terrorism or a hate- based crime. >> we are looking at ties to white supremacist groups. >> reporter: many members of the sikh community say they've been mistaken for muslims since 9/11 and that they're scared. >> it's god's home. everybody goes there to worship, to pray for peace for everybody. if that is not safe be then where is a person going to go -- safe, then where is a person going to go? >> reporter: fbi agents say they had no information about any threats before the attack. >> the fbi says the investigators are confident page acted alone. agents say they located a person of interest but determined he is not connected to the shooting.

the sikh community in this area is responding to the wisconsin shootings with prayer vigils as well as reminders their community has been targeted before. we spoke with members of the sikh temple on old columbia pike in silver spring. s have >> we do not know what the motive of the assailant was, but the fact is that he singled out the sikhs with the turbans on. >> we went through this in 9/11 where the first person who got killed after the 9/11 was a sikh. this again mistaken identity. >> prayer vigils are planned for wednesday and friday in local sikh temples. everybody is welcome. local police will be keeping a closer watch on the temples in the area just in case there is a copycatter shooter out there. the fbi looking into a fire that broke out as an islam center in missouri. this marks a second time in over a month fire has broken out at the center. the first one was july 4th and

classified as arson. investigators have not said what caused today's fire. in fredericksburg one of the largest and oldest churches was broken into over the weekend and now a member of the british military is facing charges for the crime. >> reporter: baptist church accident the 157-year-old building -- church, the 157- year-old building survived heavy damage during the civil war and now it's been attacked again, but leaders are most surprised about who did it. >> he pushed his way through his doors. >> reporter: once he broke his way inside the church he tried to get out through a stained glass window, but the plexiglass on the outside wouldn't budge. >> pulled this closet door off the hinges and threw the door through the window. >> reporter: fredericksburg police were in the area looking for a man who had just tried to kick in the doors of a hair salon and a butcher. they heard glass breaking at the church and saw the door come through the window. when the suspect climbed out he immediately surrendered but then began spitting at the

officers and continued to spit until after he was placed in the patrol vehicle. 22-year-old edmond toby barr whitehead, a second lieutenant in the royal british navy, was arrested and charged with burglary, destruction of property and assault on an officer. >> we're in the -- try to be in the forgiveness business and we certainly forgive him for doing this. he hasn't done anything that cannot be restored. a d.c. judge upheld the convictions of seven men in the murder of catherine fuller. back in 1984 a jury found the men guilty of first degree murder after fuller was found beaten, robbed and sodomized with a pole. the men appealed their convictions earlier this year and said new information was out there showing they are innocent, but today the judge ruled they did not present enough evidence to show that. no word yet if the men plan another appeal. a dozen unusual cases of the swine flu popped up all over the country and the illnesses have been linked to public contact with pigs at

county and state fairs. now health officials in our neighborhood are warning visitors to local fairs to take some common sense precautions. we spoke with the health officer in howard county where the county fair has already gotten going. >> enjoy the fair wherever you're going, whatever county or state you're in, but try to avoid touching pigs, particularly if you're in a vulnerable population group and if you do touch pigs as part of a 4-h project or whatever, just make sure you wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water afterwards. >> that is why you will see a hand washing station right outside the petting corral at the hour county fair. the centers for disease control also issuing a warning about the west nile virus. 240 people have been infected in this year alone. that's the most for this time of year since 2004. adding to that, four of them have died from the mosquito transmitted disease. most of the cases are in texas, mississippi and oklahoma, but the cdc says west nile

infections don't peak until august and september. three weeks from today the republican national convention will kick off in tampa, florida, and until then the speculation keeps growing as to who mitt romney is going to pick as his vice president for the ticket, but we now know a few names that are off the list. the rnc announced today some of the speakers at the convention which include secretary of state condoleezza rice, south carolina's governor nikki haley and ohio governor john kasich. other frequently mentioned names such as florida senator marco rubio and virginia senator bob mcdonnell are not scheduled to speak as of now. and the romney campaign still won't say when it will announce the running mate choice. the gop hopeful is taking the night off from campaigning and instead is hosting his senior advisors for a dinner in new hampshire. president obama is up in new england tonight as well holding two campaign fundraisers in connecticut including one at the home of film producer harvey weinstein. the president is expected to

bring in at least $2.5 million from those events. virginia's board of elections will not take action against a nonprofit group over its voter registration mailings despite hundreds of complaints. the board said it looked at the voter participation center's mailings and found no cause for criminal investigation. people across the state had complained the group sent forms to dead people, noncitizens already registered voters and even animals or in the case of mo morris in bedford county, a dodd that had been dead two years. the voter participation center said it did nothing wrong in the errors and the mailing lists are ones they bought from vendors. so the group says the mistakes were not intentional and the state agrees, but isn't there a bigger problem here? with a right as sacred as voting shouldn't more be done to make sure only people who are allowed to vote actually cast a ballot? cast your thought into mcginty's mailbag, the address mailbag@wusa9.com. another hot muggy day, a few storms out there. topper has us another yellow

alert. top, what are you seeing? >> a front boundary to our south, which is actually nice. if you're north of 66 and north of route 50, you won't have storms tonight. a couple storms that popped up in the last half hour are just southwest of warrenton about to cross over 29. that's about it. you have to go down toward fredericksburg to see more activity. earlier it was heavy around harrisonburg, right right now the only one in the immediate area is southwest of warrenton. temperaturewise 93 today, still 90 downtown, but in the 80s in the burbs, 86 gaithersburg, manassas, 83 andrews, fredericksburg 86 degrees. tonight we'll keep the chance of a thunderstorm, but south of town early, otherwise partly cloudy, mild, 66 to 74, wind i.c.e., southeast at 10. we'll come -- winds east, southeast at 10. we'll come back and talk about another cold front heading our way late in the week. coming up another historic moment for nasa as the latest mars rover touches down and

begins its mission. >> but first maryland's first casino request to downsize just as lawmakers are looking at adding another one. something is wrong with that picture. we'll tell you about it up next. from those experiences, i had the chance of running the olympics. the games were in real trouble. there'd been way too much spending. and in massachusetts i found a budget that was badly out of balance. our legislature was 85% democrat. and every one of the four years i was governor, we balanced the budget. i want to use those experiences to help americans have a better future. we believe in our future. we believe in ourselves. we believe the greatest days of america are ahead. i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

we are back now with the update on that mississippi church that wouldn't let a black couple get married there in its sanctuary. the first baptist church of crystal springs is now apologizing to the couple, although not directly. instead the church posted a message on its website. it asks for forgiveness and reconciliation with charles and tandrea wilson, their family, friends and god, but the groom said the church never called him or his wife and he viewed the apology as another insult. the church is not commenting. owners of maryland's first casino now plan to downsize a bit because the revenue is going down. hollywood casino in perryville asked the state to take back 1/3 of the slot machines. it brought in just $6.9 million last month, 1/3 as much as a

year ago. hollywood's casino's owner said the decline began once maryland live! opened at anne arundel mills in june. this comes days before a special session to talk about expanded gambling in the state. >> the hot muggy week is off to a fairly stormy start. >> but first taxing olympians, the president weighs in on a proposal to allow america's winners to keep all their gold. that story is up next.

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the final week of the olympics is now underway and the united states is still battling to stay out front in the medal count. we won't spoil any of today's events for you, but here are the latest medal standings. china now lead team usa by one medal in the overall tally and by two in the number of goals. russia, great britain and japan round out the top five. and the americans who brought home those medals could soon be richer if the president has his way. today the white house said president obama supports a bill that would exempt olympians from paying taxes on their prizes. the athletes get a cash award with the medals and they do have to pay income taxes once they come home. florida senator marco rubio introduced a bill to allow them to keep all of their winnings. touchdown confirmed. received on mars. [ cheering and applause ]

>> wow, what a reaction. that's at the nasa jet propulsion laboratory. that's a big historic moment for these guys. that's the latest mars rover known as curiosity had safely touched down on the red planet. in minutes from seeing the first photographs of the rover to touch down on mars, those represent a decade's worth of work for nasa scientists across the country and, of course, right here in maryland. as kristin fisher reports, one of the most important instruments on curiosity was designed at nasa's goddard spaceflight center in greenbelt. >> reporter: hundreds of scientists and spectators gathered at nasa goddard to watch curiosity live up to its name. >> it's really just getting our curiosity as human beings as we look at the universe and look around us. what else is out there? >> reporter: melissa treanor is just one of the goddard scientists that spent years developing the instrument at the core of curiosity's mission. >> sam is sample analysis at

mars and it is basically the chemical laboratory that is on the curiosity rover. >> reporter: now the sam instrument built here at nasa goddard is one of the a man reasons curiosity is to different -- main reasons curiosity is so different from previous mars rover. spirit and opportunity could only look at the soil, but curiosity can actually dig in and take real soil samples. >> those rovers were really geologists and now curiosity is much more of a geochemist. it has the ability to scoop up the rocks, take them in and really break them down. >> reporter: breaking down the individual elements in the soil to. do it takes some serious sensors designed by another locally-based entity, atk which is headquartered in arlington. >> atk was responsible for helping to develop the suite of sensors that will look at the samples collected by the robot arm. >> reporter: together sam and her sensors will have two years to try to find carbon-based organic molecules, evidence that life could have existed on

the red planet. >> now the actual real adventure begins now that we're safely on the surface. >> reporter: kristin fisher, 9 news now. >> don't get too worked up because even though the rover landed, it's still going to be a few months before curiosity can start collecting soil samples and using those fancy sensors built at goddard. >> we're looking for life, carbon-based, that's what we think life is. there could be some that's not carbon based. you don't know. >> we showed you lightning at 5:00 in kansas and st. louis. let me show you this. this guy had to be chasing this thunderstorm in tennessee. watch it. it hits the tree and takes a piece of the tree off. the tree is left standing. this is about 75 miles southwest of nashville in a little place, summertown, tennessee. it split a good portion of the tree off. the tree is still standing. >> i heard somewhere lightning is five times hotter than the sun. >> you are correct, sir, not to be messed around with.

let's talk about florence quickly, right now just a tropical depression, probably will remain a tropical depression, pretty good con announce with the models heading towards the southeast course. even if it stays a tropical depression which it's forecasted to do, so get it off the southeast coast that, could actually bring much needed rainfall to parts of the southeast and even the delmarva. we'll put ernesto into motion, still a tropical storm headed for belize city as a category 1 maybe wednesday morning. then it goes back to the gulf of mexico and back into portions of mexico. it could be really a big mess in mexico city and points south as the some makes landfall there with heavy rain. it could actually go in the pacific ocean and regenerate and become a storm again. a live look outside, our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. it is 90, dew point 63 which is pretty good. dew points in the low 60s is a good thing, humidity 40%. pressure steady 29.98-inch of mercury. temperatures, 80s are winning,

83 bethesda, 86 arlington, 88 college park, 84 bowie, pretty nice. even out west 85 great falls, vienna, 88 in sterling. so a front is just to our south where most of the storms will be tonight just south of us. grab your shades tomorrow, pretty nice day. kind of hot by thursday, not crazy and then more scattered storms again each afternoon. as we go through the week, the chances go up a little. early thunderstorm possible south of town tonight, partly cloudy, mile, lows between 66 and 74 downtown. a little muggy. by morning partly cloudy and warm, 70s and 80s, air quality in the moderate range which is actually pretty good for summertime really and then by afternoon partly cloudy and warm, isolated thunderstorms, high temperatures by afternoon near 90. winds will pick up a little out of the southwest at 10 to 15. so we'll break it down then. 66 to 76 to start and 82 to 86 by noon. so warm by lunchtime, not hot.

86 to 90 by evening, isolated thunderstorm possible. 9 weather alert codes, we'll keep tomorrow green and go yellow wednesday and thursday, 90 wednesday, some storms possible, a better chance for storms thursday with temperatures in the low 90s. next seven days cold front comes through friday and that will give us a pretty good chance for some storms friday and algeses according to plan, the front stays -- all goes according to plan, the front stays south of us and we stay in the 80s saturday, sunday and monday which would be a nice streak. >> i haven't seen a 60 on the seven-day in a minute or two. >> that's true. >> we'll be back in a minute, folks. >> we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mailbag, the address mailbag@wusa9.com. 9 news now will be right back. if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own.

if you've got a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. my father's hands didn't build this company. my hands didn't build this company. through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. why are you demonizing us for it? it's time we had somebody who believes in us. someone who believes that achievement should be rewarded not punished. we need somebody who believes in america. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

in the mailbag tonight more reaction to lesli foster's commentary last friday cast getting a some black folks who have gone online criticizing the hair-do of olympic gold medal champion gabby douglas. sharon says lesli was right on target. i think all the blacks who criticize her hair instead of relishing her success need another think. the nation heard her success. she didn't work that hard because she was black. she did it because she had goals and talent and dreams of respecting her country. thank you. then herb said hey, -- heck is a dew point? -- what the heck is a dew point? i didn't learn about it until college. so why the change in reporting and is anyone going to define it? correct me if i'm wrong, but is it the temperature at which the current air mass would be at 100% humidity? i asked topper and that is about right, but i only barely

understand why it's important. topper says think about it this way. dew point in the 70s, bad, dew point in the 50s good. maybe that works for you. and then a very good question from reginald. i'd like to know if you heard and know what happened to the lightning bug. i'm curious about that because you see lightning bugs every summer. please let me know if you can find out why we don't see any. i hadn't thought about that until you mentioned it, but you're right. where did they go? scientists say they're not quite sure, but it might well have to do with more and more of their natural habitat being paved over and the light pollution from our big cities which makes it hard for the lightning bugs to do what they do, which is communicate with 13 any taillights. communicating with me, that's easy. just send an e-mail to mcginty's mailbag, the address mailbag@wusa9.com. well, that is our report. i'll be right back here at 11:00 along with topper shutt and do not forget log on any time you like to www.wusa9.com.

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now, "entertainment tonight," the most-watched entertainment news magazine in the world. >> gabby douglas, from gold medals to bankruptcy. america's olympic darling on the down side of fame. can new endorsements help her mother's money troubles? >> it takes a village to raise a child. >> and hollywood's obsession with the young gymnast. >> the smile on her face finishing up her floor routine. >> a former super model off the wagon. brigitte nilsson downing a bottle of vodka at a public park. >> i'm an alcoholic. >> from the a-list to celebrity rehab. has she hit rock bottom? plus -- ♪ >> what sent '80s icon adam ant to a mental hospital? >> i didn't really understand what was happening to me. >> macaulay