aguirre-herrera. hello and thank you for joining us. i'm jc hayward. prince george's fire officials say they know what spark add fire that killed a 5-year-old

girl. yesterday's fire happened at a home off carrington court in capitol heights. a 24-year-old man who also lived in that home has been hospitalized with severe burns. they cover about 50% of his body. authorities investigating this tragedy say that the family was simply trying to keep cool during a hot spell. >> what we believe happened is a window air conditioning unit was plugged into a normal household extension cord which was then plugged into a power strip that was plugged into the wall. if you have an appliance that generates a lot of power, whether it be an air conditioning unit, a space heater, a blow dryer and they have that thicker type cord on it, that is an indication it has to be plugged into the wall. >> a 15-year-old boy was also seriously injured. investigators have not released the names of the victims.

let's turn our attention now to the elections. president barack obama is continuing to focus on colorado. it is one of several battleground states for the 2012 presidential election. meanwhile, his republican challenger mitt romney is going to be on the east coast trying to raise more money. danielle nottingham has more in today's campaign 2012 report. >> reporter: mitt romney is meeting with donors in new york city. he is hoping to raise $5 million on his east coast visit. in iowa yesterday, the republican presidential candidate went after the president on jobs. >> it is now 42 straight months with unemployment above 8%. >> reporter: president obama is spending a second straight day in the battleground state of colorado. he told supporters that romney is having a tough time explaining how his proposed tax cuts won't hurt the middle class. >> there is a whole different kind of gymnastics being performed by mr. romney than

what's been happening in the olympics. >> reporter: a new ad from a pro-obama super pack is drawing sharp criticism from both the romney campaign and independent fact checkers. >> i don't think mitt romney understands what he's done to people's lives by closing the plant. >> reporter: the ad features a former steel worker talking about his wife's death. the implication is that she died because he lost his health insurance after bane capital shut down his company. a romney aide calls the ad despicable. the obama campaign says it had nothing to do with the commercial. romney is gearing up for a bus tour through several battleground states as speculation builds about who will be his number to. on wednesday ann romney added to the buzz tweeting, mitch's choice of running mate will be announced soon. two potential vp choices ohio senator robb portman and florida senator marco rubio are expected on the tour. danielle nottingham, cbs news, the white house. >> the democratic group

priorities u.s. action stands by its controversial ad. maryland governor martin o'malley is requesting federal disaster relief for 13 counties deeply affected by drought and extreme heat. "the baltimore sun" reports that prince george's county and anne arundel county are among the farming communities on the list. the governor reports that 76% of maryland is under abnormally dry conditions. because of the dry conditions, the state's department of agriculture is offering free testing of grains per toxins. marylandmaryland convenes for a second special session. the first session addressed the budget crisis. now the session is debating gambling. governor o'malley supports a bill to expand gambling. the proposal would legalize table games in addition to slot machines. plus, lawmakers will also consider adding a sixth casino

at national harbor. >> we can create jobs. we can maximize the dollars that come from this. gaming has been approved by every single jurisdiction by the voters a few years ago in order to keep the competitive, in order to maximize the dollars that come to the state. we believe that this is the right way to go. >> a prince george's county group that is opposing the gambling plans to demonstrate outside the state capitol. then they'll share their views with lawmakers. we have a follow-up on a story that we first brought you with our partners at "u.s.a. today." only one d.c. public school will be investigated as part of a standardized test cheating scandal. the school is the noyse education campus. the principal there resigned after a "u.s.a. today" investigation last year. it found a high number of erasures on tests which were

supposedly done by teachers. school's chancellor henderson says there is no evidence of widespread cheating at other schools. american athletes are finding more olympic gold in london with big wins on the track and in the sand. we have the latest. >> reporter: an american gold medal win on the beach turned into a post-match party. >> misty may-treanor celebrated in the sand. kerry's husband pulls her into the stand for a victory hug. they won the third straight olympic gold in an all american final. american apt leads dominated track and field events grabbing three more gold. allison felix powered past jamaica to win the 200 meter final. it wasn't her speed but her nationality that brought tears for sarah atare. she became awed rain's first female track and field athlete

in the olympics. american fans have their eyes fixed on women's soccer. team u.s.a.s that been playing olympic matches across britain but never in london. the final game is here in the capital so they'll have even more fans to cheer them o. the pressure is amazing but they all need to remember that they really, all of them, are the best in the world. >> reporter: the u.s. women will take on japan, the team that beat them in last year's world cup final. >> our focus is totally on this gold medal game. >> reporter: the forward abby says while revenge is the driving force, the goal is to play smart. >> we need to stay patient because if we get frustrated early on, that's exactly what they want. >> reporter: there were some tense moments for fans at a barbecue at new zealand's olympic house. firefighters evacuated hundreds of people after a gas explosion but nobody was hurt. cbs news, london. still to come when we continue, tonight is the night

for redskins fans because rg3 is going to take to the field and his -- in his first preseason game. the redskins against the buffalo bills. i'm one on one with maryland's peter franchot. we're going to discuss money matters. stay with us.

hello. today i'm one on one with maryland's comptroller peter franchot and of course one of our top stories is the fact that the maryland general assembly is opening for a

special session in annapolis. one of the hot topics of course is the expansion of gambling in the state. welcome. >> nice to be here, jc. >> what is your feeling about the gambling? >> well, i'm just troubled by the whole thing. it's so irregular to have a special session just for the gambling industry so that we can expand it. i mean, in maryland we have a great state, a lot of great things about our state, but we've got a big employment problem. we lost a couple of thousands steel worker jobs recently. if we're going to have a special session, jc, let's have it about helping the people of maryland. instead everyone's coming back with breathless urgency. we've got to come back. we've got to cut taxes on these rich casino owners. let them pay less. we've got to expand and they're falling all over themselves for these folks. people in maryland i think are like, we don't get it. what is the emergency here? what's the rush? >> some people feel it's going to bring money, taxes into the

state. they can use that for roads, for fourth, for -- for infrastructure, for schools. >> exactly. that's the problem we did this four years ago on that argument. this is good for kids and save the racing industry. it's going to balance the budget. none of that happened. it was just completely overpromised and so i'm just here as a chief fiscal officer here to say you may love gambling. that's okay if you do. but don't think it's going to fix the fiscal problems we're in because based on the previous experience, it isn't. but here's something that i-- >> something else -- i know you want to talk about it and that is the spending tax free week that is coming up. >> yes. >> real big in maryland. >> that is the biggest shopping week of the year except for christmas holidays is going to happen next week in maryland. >> what can we get? >> august 12 to august 18 for that week, any article of clothing or footwear that's under $100 is exempt from the

6% sales tax. it doesn't sound like a lot of money. people have been waiting for this for months. and they really go out in droves to purchase things because it's an unlimited number of items. so if you buy 20 items for your kids back to school, for example, you can save $50, $60, $70. as long as they're under $100. if you buy a pair of shoes for $120, you can't divide it and say hey, that's $60 for each shoe. it has to be under a hundred. but the businesses love it because they see a lot more consumer activity. consumers get a break. so it's a big deal. >> starts sunday. everybody come to maryland and shop. >> we're going to lose a little bit of money because $10 million in sales tax revenues is lost because we're exempting it but as a tax collector, i'm here to say this is a win-win. it works for everybody. >> always a pleasure to have

you. thank you for being here. >> thank you. howard has the forecast coming up next. >> jc, it's already hot. we're in the low 90s here in d.c. going to the mid-90s this afternoon. a couple of storms on doppler. i want to show you the allergy count. that's come in a little bit better today. we're seeing the grass and weeds and mold are low. mold is moderate. over the next four months, you have a choice to make.

not just between two political parties, or even two people. it's a choice between two very different plans for our country.

governor romney's plan would cut taxes for the folks at the very top. roll back regulations on big banks. and he says that if we do, our economy will grow and everyone will benefit. but you know what? we tried that top down approach. it's what caused the mess in the first place. i believe the only way to create an economy built to last is to strengthen the middle class. asking the wealthy to pay a little more so we can pay down our debt in a balanced way. so that we can afford to invest in education, manufacturing, and home-grown american energy for good middle class jobs. sometimes politics can seem very small. but the choice you face, it couldn't be bigger. ♪ i'm barack obama and i approve this message.

for football fans, the off- season is officially over because the redskins will have their first preseason game tonight. it's a 7:00 p.m. kickoff. the red skins are playing the buffalo bills. all eyes -- well, most eyes are going to be on robert griffin iii. it will be his first chance to show exactly what he's made of. our new quarterback. he won't be playing too much in this first game but the offensive coordinator is hoping to make the most of tonight. >> we know it's going to be tough so we're trying to put him in all these tough situations so he is prepared. also putting a lot of pressure on all the other guys knowing they've got to take that pressure off them. guys are going to have to step up and make it easy for him. >> i'm going to be ready to go. the team is going to be ready to go. it's fun. it's football. that's what we do. >> of course our sports department will have full coverage tonight on 9news now

beginning at 11:00 p.m. let's go to howard and get the forecast. >> jc, a hot, steamy afternoon. temperatures already in the 90s in spots. in fact 92 by 1:00. we're going to head toward 94, maybe 95 here in washington the way we're going. might even get a degree or two warmer than that. should be holding low to mid- 90s this afternoon. a decent amount of sun. southerly winds at 10 miles an hour. also the isolated afternoon thunderstorm. we may be seeing one toward 5:00 in spots. winds again south to southeast at about 10 with mid-80s by 9:00. we're only dropping into the 70s tonight. let's talk about what's happened this morning. we had a slow moving area of thunderstorms marching from western maryland into areas in northern virginia and maryland now. really come out of loudoun county to western montgomery county. areas in frederick now trying to build toward carrollton the most. take you in a little bit tighter here. poolesville over toward germantown now we're watching this shower, what's left of it anyway trying to get up toward boyds as well and dickerson.

the farther north into frederick county, some heavier showers. right on 7 east of frederick coming out of mount airy, toward libbytown, walkersville seeing a little bit of that as it tracks toward westminster. this whole area has been weakening the last hour. where it's been cloudy and some showers, temperatures only in the 70s in leesburg. low 80s in frederick. on the flip side, it's # 9 at -- it's # 9 at an -- 89 at andrews. already 91 at reagan national. a hot afternoon once again. i think this is the 43rd, 44th time we've been over 90. 91 on our michael & son weather camera. look at all the sunshine. feeling like 94 thanks to the humidity at 43%. at the moment national reporting a calm wind so that's not helping us out. lots of showers and storms, a lot of unsettled water, a lot are energy across the great lakes, the tennessee valley and the south n. energy will are moving toward us especially friday night. the moisture is in place with the isolated storms today.

the futurecast shows by tomorrow morning showers just southwest of us likely spreading across in the morning and then other batches or rounds of showers and storms throughout the day on friday. here we are at 5:00. a cold front coming this way. still some showers saturday night and even during the day on saturday. going to the beach this weekend? going to be rather unsettled along those areas through much of saturday. here's a look at the forecast. for today 94. an isolated storm. anything that pops could push some heavy rains down. that's why yellow alert today. we're going to have the yellow alert tomorrow with all of the thunderstorms. highs in the upper 80s. by saturday mainly morning showers with temperatures in the mid-80s. they could linger longer than that out east. as far as the seven-day, a good sunday, upper #s on. it's -- upper 80s. it's thursday, petline. this is a cat named miny? >> eveny, -- eeny, miny and mo

were found in a backyard. eeny and mo were adopted. she's a calm, sweet cat. >> i heard something the other day that pet ownership is down over the last couple of years. i imagine because of the economic times, people can't afford to keep pets. >> that's right. cats are a little bit easier. first of all they're a little more affordable and secondly, you can leave them at home for a day or so, just overnight with some food and they'll do just final. you can keep them in a small townhouse or apartment or condo. she travels well. she's very good natured. >> easy enough for someone to come to the spca and adopt? >> absolutely. all they do is go on our website, find her picture, click on it and fill out a no obligation application, come out and meet her. she'll be at a show this weekend in annapolis at the

petco in annapolis. >> the prince george's county spca, we thank you for coming in today. if you missed any of the information, just go to our website at wusa9.com. click on petline 9. all the information will be right there for you. stick around. we've got more nine more 9news now right after this.

all right. i'm one on one today with an argentinian chef. i had a chance to speak with

him, the co-owner of el patio restaurant in rockville. we are spicing it up. i'm tasting some arch teenian sausage which is absolutely delicious. >> thank you. >> i have with me the co-owner of el patio in rockville, not far from rockville park. today we're cooking authentic argentinian food. sausage, oh, gosh. and of course steak. that's what they're known for. >> there you go. we're going to be focusing today on the sauce itself. we're going to need a few items. we're going to need about two

-- some fresh parsley, vinegar, olive oil. finely chopped fresh american parsley. we follow with the garlic cloves. always garlic is good. we put a little bit. once we have that, what we do, if you follow me here, we have everything cut. we shall mix it up. if you want to help me there. >> that's the parsley. we're going to do the garlic. we're going to use about three table soons so far of dried oregano. a little bit more. now we use the sweet chili peppers. it's argentinian pepper. it's not as spicy as the one here so be careful. you might want to use a little

bit less. a little bit of salt. >> and pepper. >> and a little bit of pepper. >> this smells so good. >> that's pretty much it. now we do the olive oil. red vinegar. that's pretty much it. >> okay. we mix it up. it's always recommended to let it rest a day or so and it gets even better. we're going to be putting the sausage with that. >> i cut a piece off. it's so good. we have about 30 seconds. >> all right. we can do the sausage. we can do the steak. >> i don't know what you do to your steaks but they taste so good. >> you can marinate the steak on one of the secret ingredients or put it as a topping. >> that looks real good. hot today.

mid-90s in spots. isolated storms with heavy rains. tomorrow a lot more in the way of thunderstorm activity, 89. by saturday we'll have mainly morning showers although they could linger a little bit longer east of town. sunday looks great, 88. then turning hot again on monday. >> all right. thank you. thanks for being with us. come back and visit us at 5:00. bye-bye.