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tpwheeth did we learn on the show tonight craig ♪[meow] [laughter] craig: this is what we would do if it really was the end of the world. good night, everybody. good night. [cheers and applause]

nice. oh... oh! oh! red! red! red! yes! yes! come on! oh. no! oh... bummer. [children shouting] hoops? yeah. sure. sure. announcer: moms everywhere are finding ways to keep kids active and healthy. works every time. announcer: get ideas. get involved. get going at letsmove.gov. it's been kind of stormy all day long. in fact, you could argue it's been all summer long. topper is here to tell us about the crazy weather. >> especially north and west of town. now we're looking at towns south of town. you can access radar on our

website, wusa9.com. you can see the storms building warrenton south and west of fredericksburg. you see the reds and yellows. pretty good rainfall southwest of culpeper. indicates rainfall anywhere from half an inch, an inch per hour. everything is pushing off to the north and to the east. we'll put this in motion. over the next hour we are going to see the storms move through culpeper, head up towards gold vain and eventually up the west side of 95. one area hit hard today was hagerstown. check out this picture. flooding, anywhere from two to three inches of rain fell. this person is not supposed to do that. do not drive through a flooded street. we'll come back, talk more about those storms and say which day will be the better of the two for the weekend. >> thank you, top. less than 90 days before the presidential election and an end to all those political ads we've been seeing endlessly on tv. the veterans of presidential campaigns say this may actually be the most nasty and

misleading campaign yet. gary nurenberg is here to explain why the heck is it happening now. gary. >> part of it is that court ruling that allows all of those super pacs to buy negative ads without a candidate having to say, i endorse this message. the candidate can say, hey, it's not my campaign throwing the dirt. just his supporters throwing the dirt for him. it wasn't always this way. >> ike for president! >> reporter: at first tv ads were about name recognition. likability. >> you like ike, i like ike, everybody likes ike for president. >> reporter: qualities to sing about. but in 1964 -- >> six, eight, nine. >> reporter: it was a countdown to the end of the world in nuclear war that would kill little girls if voters chose

barry goldwater, a candidate intent on confronting communism. >> vote for president johnson on november 3rd. the stakes are too high for you to stay home. >> it shows that negative ads do work. >> reporter: because they work, negative ads increase, some mocking the opposition. agnu for vice president? michael dukakis for commander in chief? >> kidnapped yawning couple, stabbing a man, repeatedly raping his girlfriend. >> reporter: barack obama said, enough. >> we're not going to go around doing negative ads. >> reporter: but if this year if you believe one political ad by a super pac, mitt romney's policies could help your wife die from cancer. >> she passed away in 22 days. >> reporter: the washington post called foul, giving the ad

four pinocchios. >> wouldn't to have work, wouldn't to have train for a job. >> reporter: not true. four pinocchios and a pants on fire. to reinforce an image -- >> the obama campaign wants to cast romney as a rich guy out of touch with the ordinary working people. the romney campaign wants to cast him as a socialist who is at work with religion. >> this is the 9th presidential campaign i have covered and we have never seen ads like this. we've never seen so many ads and so many ads that take a harsh turn. >> you just want to take a shower and get it off of you. >> reporter: but why is it so bloody negative? >> we have two candidates who have problems building a positive case for themselves so they're trying to build a negative case on the other i go. >> obama and romney are still only a couple points apart. so both just are in

desperation. when campaigns get desperate, they get nasty. >> brace yourselves for negative ads. >> reporter: so hard to find a candidate that's happy. ♪ you like ike, i like ike, everybody likes ike ♪ >> reporter: but not everybody likes these negative ads. campaign managers have weighed the costs and benefits and decided the benefits outwage the costs. so as susan page said, don't expect this to change. expect to see more of it in the weeks to come. >> ah, for the innocent days of "i like ike." both the president and his republican challenger dmitri young took -- mitt romney took today off. the democratic national committee will be shadowing

romney's trip with this bus, the dnc calls the event the romney economics, the middle class under the bus tour part ii. all that as one of the latest and best known polls shows the race is still deadlocked. this is out today from gallup. it says 46% of registered voters would pick president obama if the election were held today and 46% would choose romney. just a month ago that very same poll showed at the present time up by four points. big developments on the local political scene. maryland's general assembly hard at work in their special session and apparently wasting no time. the state senate has already tackled two controversial issues. first it's reversed part of a court ruling that called pit bulls inherently dangerous, and it's also reversed language that made landlords libel for dog bite injuries. number two, the state senate has approved another casino. that's the one that would be in prince george's county. the bill also okayed table games like blackjack at all maryland kass sin those. both bills now go before the

house where the outcome is a lot more precarious. he's out there, and he's a creep. look out, ladies. police in montgomery county say they're looking out for a man would is targeting women, running up to them, wrapping his arms around them, and then just running off. the suspect struck at least three times and the cops want to stop him from doing it again. ken molestina is live in bethesda. what is it, a serial hugger? >> reporter: i guess you could call him that, derek, but, you know, this hugging business that we're talking about, it's not the kind of hug that would you give a loved one or a friend. as a matter of fact, people i spoke to here are saying this is creepy, they say it's weird, unsolicited. quite frankly, it's illegal. it's sexual abuse, according to police, and they want it to stop. >> people are getting weirder and weirder. >> definitely disturbing. , word is out in bethesda that a pervert is on the loose wanting a lot more than just a

friendly greeting from unsuspecting women. >> makes me wonder, i don't know, what causes him to do that. >> reporter: montgomery county police say the creep struck first here on june 5th. the 47-year-old woman was walking around, listening to music, when he came up there behind, wrapped his arms around her, then bolted. on july 10th, it happened again. this time it was a woman what had just walked out of the strathmore metro station. she, too, was wearing ear buds. he striking a gain, and detectives say it happened slightly different than the other two. they say the woman heard the man running up because she was not listening to music. the man did however manage to wrap his arms around her and fondle her inappropriately. >> i saw something on youtube that there's a guy going

around, holding people's hands to see what their reaction is, so maybe he's trying to do the same thing with the hug, but that's bad. >> reporter: police think it's all the work of the same man. women in the area aren't take any chances, and they have their guard up now that the man suspected of doing this is still out there. >> stop doing that, you're scaring the heck out of women. >> probably scream, but i will turn around and ask him what he's doing. >> reporter: now, here's what's sort of making this a little tough for detectives. they say this is usually happening at nighttime, and he never stays around long enough for anybody to get a good look at his face so there is no composite sketch, derek, but they say he is between 18 and 22, either a white man or an asian man, about average height. again, the details are vague on his description, but if you have seen him or if you know anything about this police certainly want to talk to you. live in bethesda, ken molestina, 9news now. new tonight, yet another

aspect of the d.c. government apparently under federal investigation. according to the washington post the feds are looking into possible corruption in the way the district awarded the contract for the d.c. lottery. that's a contract worth $228 million. the bidding process started back in '08 and carried over into 2009. but the u.s. attorney's office is not commenting. if you're sitting at home watching you might want to do yourself a favor and stand up for this next story. while it may seem harmless there is growing evidence that sitting around too many hours in the day is taking a serious toll on your health. as anita brikman reports that has some doctors now taking a stand against sitting. >> reporter: lisa says she's always tried to lead a healthy lifestyle but finds that life gets in the way, like millions of us, almost as soon as she gets up lisa finds herself sitting right back down. >> i sit all day at the office, i commute to and from work like a lot of people, and with a two- year-old, i have even less time to try to get formal workouts.

>> reporter: so lisa found a more informal way to work out, by doing it at work in the corner of her office lisa has a treadmill desk which allows her to keep working while she's walking, and in doing so doctors say lisa is bucking an unhealthy trend. >> we're sitting more and more. the average person now went from standing 90%, to now standing 30% of their day. >> reporter: this doctor at ohio state says the simple act of sitting is leading to some serious complications. >> excessive sitting increases your risk of heart disease by 30%. we have found that insulin works 30% less, and that means that more and more fat gets put into the body. >> reporter: in fact, studies show those who are obese tend to sit an average of two-and-a- half hours a day more than those who aren't. and it may be to blame for a rise in lower back pain. the good news, walking just five minutes an hour burns 10

pounds a year. >> you burn about 100 calories an nowmplt we were just to stand, we would burn 150 calories, 5% higher. >> reporter: doctors say being sedentary too long can even affect cholesterol. they found an enzyme that converts bad cholesterol to good drops by 95% if you sit still too long. time to move, folks. anita brikman, 9news now. the russian government is locked behind bars. members of the punk rock band known as pussy riot. three women were arrested from the band after performing a

song in russia. >> they've already spent six months in prison. some of the women have children. they have not been well treated. they're really being caged like animals when they are not in the least degree a threat to anybody. >> that verdict expected one week from today. well, it may come around every august, but it never gets old. all you have to do is look up. best of all, it's free of charge. find out what it is after the break. and coming up in less than two minutes the story about a man's love for his pet. hasn't left a dry

okay, tear-jerker alert. whether you have a pet or not you know there is an undeniable bond between people and their dogs. that connection drawn over tens of thousands of years. john unger's companion is 19 years old. his name is shep. he is so arthritic he can't even sleep because of the pain. unger's love for the dog has made it to the internet where hat gone viral. here's the story of a man and how far he will go for his best friend. >> reporter: they say a picture is worth a thousand words. but it's safe to say one of hanna hudson's newest snapshots is worth millions. >> it's been viewed almost three million times. it's been shared i think like 150,000 times. it's been liked an incredible amount of times.

my mother has a saying, for the comfort and convenience of the dog, and he is the epitome of the saying. he loves this dog, he takes care of this dog. his life is about this dog. >> reporter: john unger and shep have spent almost 20 years together. he was rescued as a puppy. >> we both wanted to work with a dog that had been abused, and we knew this. we talked about it. that's what we wanted to do. we wanted to help out an animal and bring out his full potential. >> reporter: it's hard for unger to talk about their time together. >> what he means to me -- i can't put into words. >> reporter: because 19-year- old shep is nearing the end of his long, happy life. he suffers from arthritis and has trouble sleeping, so to ease his pain, unger takes him

swimming, and shep will fall asleep in his arrests. >> not too many more times are we going to be able to do this, and so every time, now, it's pretty special feeling. the buoyancy it gives him in the water relieves the pain, or at least some of it. to the point where he's -- he's relaxed. >> reporter: hudson's picture captured this moment perfectly, and her snapshot, viewed 3 million times on facebook, comes down to one word. love. >> they are two amazing beings, and if you can take anything from this photo, take the love from it, pass it on to other people. >> you give love, and that love will return ten fold. that's what i want people to get from this photograph. >> 19 years.

maybe you haven't noticed, but the perseid meteor shower has been putting on nightly shows, and the shooting stars will hit their peak over the weekend. your best chance, probably after midnight on saturday and into the wee hours sunday morning. right now it's a little cloudy. >> a little cloudy. you want to lie down flat so you don't get a crick in your neck, and get away from light. it will be nice on saturday night. we are going to look at thunderstorms, though, kind of lingering tomorrow. we'll start with live doppler 9000. the frontal boundary is well to the west of us. we also have another thunderstorm up in hagerstown. we showed you the flooding earlier. they've been getting hammered. this is like the third storm tonight in the hagerstown area. it's not severe but heavy rain to the west of williamsport and one little storm just crossing i-81 north of hagerstown headed to pennsylvania, around franklin county, adams county. now the big storms are still down to the south and west of us. we're watching these. these are pretty heavy.

they're growing in intensity. they're moving to the north. we'll see how severe they're going to be when they get. they're probably going to have heavy rain south of 66 and west of i-95 tonight. in fact, we'll put this into motion over the next hour or so and see the storms move up to the north and east towards manassas, chantilly. they cross over 66 but remain lint terms of rainfall intensity. heavier activity. see the yellows around woodbridge. the farther south, the better chance of heavier rain. right now a live look outside through our weather cam brought to you by michael and son. it was only 88 today, and i say "only" because we didn't hit 90 for a change. pressure is falling. satellite picture, radar combined, we've got a frontal boundary. see the spin? that's the area of low pressure connected to the front. it's still well west of us so we're not done with storms. in fact, i think we're going see a couple storms tomorrow afternoon. a little trough of low pressure pushing through, kicking off showers to the south and west

of us, down toward culpeper. headline, lingering morning showers, cannot rule out an isolated thunderstorm tomorrow. i wouldn't change the tee time but there will be a few stores. pleasant saturday night for the meteor showers, then on sunday, great, better, more sun, and even less humid on sunday. pretty good deal. overnight, looks like this. we are going to keep the chance for scattered storms. some heavy, some severe. still kind of muggy, 68 to 74. tomorrow morning there's still a chance of a shower or thunderstorm in the morning. 70s and 80s. especially east of town. then by afternoon, not a bad day at all, partly cloudy, warm, but isolated storms are still possible, high 85 to 89. we should stay just under the 90-degree mark. next three days, green, green, and green. 88 sunday, great. 91 monday, a little hot. we can handle that, though. next seven days, looking like this. 90 on tuesday, isolated storm possible. back in the upper 80s on wednesday. maybe a storm on thursday.

friday we're back into the low 90s. don't go anyw

i'm just learning how to pitch. that's what stephen strasburg said after blowing away miami on sunday. just learning how to pitch. what? wow. never has a guy with a learner's permit looked so scary. he hasn't been perfect in the second half, but, hey, the man is 12-5 with an e.r.a. under 3. i think he's doing okay. bryce harper, whenever we show you the establisher, you know good things happened. there it is! just joking. sac fly. 4th inning this is not funny. dale scott takes it right on the chin. he staggers and goes down. he would leave under his own power. that is good news. always good to see a guy like that leave under his own power.

still in the 5th, arizona up 3- 1 right now after the ryan zimmerman home run. orioles, meet manny machado. he tells luke, hello, hello, hello, just his second major league game. triple last night. next inning, bam, gone, youngest oriole ever with a multi-home run game. o's win 7-1. we've exhausted rgiii talk so another redskins topic. how about the defense. blame mike shanahan for cardiovascular endurance and john beck but give him credit for revamping this defense, especially the front seven. young, athletic, face tee. don't look at the stats because most of buffalo's yardage came after the starters took off

their hats. brian orakpo was wreaking havoc. talk about the defense. >> any time you give up six points and play with that type of effort and that type of enthusiasm, first, second, third team, and some is positions fourth team, you're very pleased with the way they handle themselves and the way they play. some football tonight. jets, at tebow and sanchez scrimmage. cincinnati had five sacks. tim tebow came in, throwing like hot garbage. right to the defender. jets lose 17-6. redskins looking good. that defense looking good, too. >> yeah, but that tebow-sanchez deal not work