report. state agencies saved enough money during the first half of the year to make a one-time 3% bonus a reality. reports of lavish trips overseas, sweetheart deals and a list of other concerns are appropriating some strong words from the u.s. secretary of transportation. his target? members of the metropolitan washington airports authority, the board that runs d.c.'s local airports. secretary lahood says he is gravely concerned about what he calls a lack of accountability on the board. the d.c. mayor and the governors of maryland and virginia all signed an open letter with mr. lahood demanding the board get rid of no bid contracts, former employees and terminate former board members who have gotten jobs at the airports. the airports' board says it's already implementing many of these changes. >> those are easily fixed things, should have been done a long time ago, shame on the board for not doing it up till now. >> members of congress are moving forward with changes to the law that created that board and these changes are expected

to address these concerns even more. it is 4:31 just about. taking a look at what's going on on the campaign trail this morning. vice president joe biden made some comments that some are saying are controversial. others are even saying these are racially sensitive. >> as drew levinson reports, some of the sharpest words from both sides are coming from the political ads. >> reporter: vice president joe biden sparked controversy from the campaign trail when he told supporters, including hundreds of african-americans, that mitt romney wanted to cut back on wall street regulations. >> unchain wall street. we're going to put you all back in chains. >> reporter: that sparked a war of words between the two campaigns. romney says biden disgraced the office of the president. >> another outrageous charge, this came a few hours ago in virginia, and the white house sinks a little bit lower. i've got a message for them. if you want to know what's outrageous, it's their policies. >> reporter: biden says he was talking about how the

republican policies wrecked the economy and put the middle class in shackles. >> this is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like. >> reporter: the sharpest words in this campaign have come from tv and web ads. both sides accuse the other of running only negative commercials. >> you notice their ads generally don't tell you what it is that they're going to do. >> this is an election in which we should be talking about the path ahead, but you don't hear any answers coming from president obama's reelection campaign. >> reporter: the latest romney ad slams president obama for cuts to medicare. >> obama has cut $716 billion from medicare. why? to pay for obama care. >> reporter: the obama camp says the cuts are part of a cap on medicare spending and that new vice presidential candidate paul ryan advocated the same caps in his budget proposal. drew levinson, cbs news, washington. a bomb attached to a truck exploded outside a hotel in the

syrian capital wounding at least three people. meanwhile, syria's former prime minister who defected to jordan last week is calling for more of his fellow countrymen to defect. he says syria's government is on the verge of collapsing and he called on the military to, quote, take the side of the people. u.s. military leaders say there is growing evidence that iran is supplying a militia to support the syrian army. a woman has filed a civil lawsuit against her former partner and a pastor. janet jenkins is suing pastor kenneth miller of virginia for helping her partner flee to nick nick with the couple's daughter. the pastor says he's willing to accept the consequences for his actions. the judge could sentence miller up to three years in prison and the lawsuit that jenkins filed is seeking monetary damages. the city of laurel is seeking a $3 million lawsuit after a city policeman was caught earlier this month striking a man he had already put in handcuffs. a cell phone camera captured

the man being struck three times. gary nurenberg lass the story and video you must -- has the story and video you must see to believe. >> reporter: the parking lot has captured on the cell phone camera a suspect handcuffed on the ground before he was led to a police car by two officers. and then? >> i was like ooh. i couldn't believe it. i couldn't believe it. i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: the officer on the other side of the suspect begins yelling profanity and strikes him evidently three times. watch again. "the washington times" quotes the officer as saying he was trying to keep the suspect on spitting on officers and bystanders. citing the potential for multimillion dollar litigation, the mayor denied a 9news now request for an interview but said there is an internal police department investigation, the results of which will be forwarded to the

state's attorney. >> it seems like something you'd see on tv or in a movie. >> reporter: he says the three punches were uncalled for. >> two officers got him one on each arm, handcuffed. i don't think you need to hit him up side the head. >> reporter: you saw one punch. >> i was like ooh. >> reporter: you saw two. >> i was ooh. >> reporter: then you saw three. >> i don't believe it's real. this is 2012. handcuff me in white, black, green, purple, don't matter. handcuff me. >> reporter: he says he likes laurel police, calls them good guys and this officer? >> he probably ain't no bad guy, just had a bad night. we all have bad days but you can't hit a handcuff dude. >> reporter: not in the age of cell phone cameras without facing the prospect of a multimillion dollar lawsuit and eventually paying out picked up by the taxpayers.

gary nurenberg, 9news now. 4:35. a ticking time bomb. that's how relatives described the man who gunned down two people near texas a&m university on monday. it all started when a constable went to serve eviction papers to 35-year-old thomas caffall. caffall shot and killed the constable and kept firing. a bystander also died in the attack. four others also injured. caffall was eventually killed by police. his stepfather told reporters, quote, he was crazy as hell. at one point we were worried he was going to come up here and do something to me and his mother. verizon admits it didn't do enough to respond to the 911 outage after the june derecho. the emergency service was down in parts of northern virginia after several failures in backup systems. a company report found verizon didn't even know 911 was down in fairfax county until the county alerted it. verizon plans to present its full report to the metropolitan washington council of governments later today, but you can read that report right

now at wusa9.com. just about 4:37. we are under a yellow weather alert today. howard is up next to explain the forecast. >> plus, general motors issues a recall that could affect you. that's next. plus, we'll take a look at today's question of the morning.

welcome. we have the threat of some storms thank. but no problems this morning. partly to mostly cloudy with a chance of strong storms this afternoon as i said. highs mid- to upper 80s. full forecast in about five minutes. here's monika with timesaver traffic. on the southbound side of i-

270 no issues. nice and light down to point where the lanes divide. 4:40. time for the first your money segment ever the morning. >> i -- of the morning. >> i bet you're wondering what the numbers were yesterday. here's jessica doyle. >> there is good news about the economy that's out there. that was certainly a factor on wall street's trading yesterday. we spent more in july increasing retail spending by the biggest amount in five months. but stocks wound up marching in place because you know it's coming. economic concerns about china and europe. checking the numbers now, the dow stands this morning at 13,172. added just about three points in trading yesterday. kind of a ho hum day. the nasdaq was up by five and a half. the s&p 500 was flat on the session. regulators in china have given wal-mart the green light to buy a majority stake in a chinese e-commerce company. it sells everything from grocery, electronics and clothing. the deal improves wal-mart's access to chinese consumers who are doing more of their shopping on mobile devices

nowadays. g.m. is recalling more than 10,000 full size advance. if you have a 2003 or 2004 chevy express or gmc savanna with left side cargo doors this notice is for you in particular. the vehicles were sold in 20 states and d.c. the fuel hose can rust and leak and cause a fire. there is a free fix and g.m. plans to send you notice about the repairs soon. >> fire tends to get people's attention. >> it does. it tends to be a bad thing when gasoline is involved and your car. >> thanks, jess. our time right now 4:41. still to come, believe it or not, there's? good news to the dry weather we're having. we're checking the health of the chesapeake bay. >> time to celebrate the appalachian trail. we're heading to the woods next. we'll be right back.

good morning. welcome back to 9news now.

4:43. you see the alert. your screen is written in yellow. that's because it's a yellow alert day. >> those are the days when the weather will have some kind of impact on you but not the severe weather alert. concerns will be later this afternoon. we could have a couple of strong storms like we had yesterday afternoon. baltimore got hit not just with some inch diameter hail but had flooding up there late last night. let's talk about our day planner. partly sunny to mostly cloudy as we go throughout the morning. in the afternoon with temperatures rising toward the upper 80s, we're going to see a couple of thunderstorms pop. there's enough energy once again that some of those storms could be on the strong side. we're watching some showers coming out of west virginia really more so in kentucky right now. just getting into rockingham county, north of harrisonburg. keeps going. may get to new market in the valley in about 30 minutes or so. other than that, a nice quiet

morning. 72 at the patuxent river naval air station right now. gaithersburg, hagerstown are at 66. we've got mid 60s in the shenandoah valley toward culpeper. fredricksburg is at 70. as we look outside on the michael & son weather camera, a little condensation on the lens. one thing to point out here, remember yesterday the dew points were in the low 70s. they dipped into the upper 60s now. the air is a little drier. not really dry but a little drier. humidity 76%. the storms yesterday were some big ones. this morning in the capital district of new new york state headed up to western massachusetts we've got some storms there. a little disturbance coming through kentucky and tennessee right now. this is going to blow some clouds our way and also help enhance a thunderstorm threat a little bit later into the afternoon hours. in fact, along the east coast generally along and east of i- 95, got that slight risk of severe weather from the storm prediction center with the main

threat today being potentially damaging wind gusts and some large hail. the farther west from d.c. you go, obviously that threat falls off but, you know, northern neck, all the way to philadelphia and new york, even up toward boston today, we'll have take watch out for potentially some strong thunderstorms. here's our future cast. we're starting out again quiet this morning. we'll get into the middle of the day as some of those clouds from that system out toward kentucky and tennessee head our way. into the afternoon a scattering of some showers and thunderstorms. some to our southwest and some are northeast. this is a computer depiction. think about bubbles when you're boiling water. the bubbles in the pot come up all over the place. this is sort of what it's trying to suggest to us this afternoon. things will quiet down here tonight. maybe lingering showers toward the coast at midnight. a fine looking thursday. going to be a lot hot around here but we should have mostly sunny skies. friday, here comes the front. you see it out here in the morning. ahead of it southwesterly winds. going to be a hot day on friday. highs i think 90 to 95.

but by late in the afternoon here we are at 4:45. showers and potentially strong storms once again will visit the area but this is going to bring us a nice cooldown as we head toward the weekend. it's going to be much more comfortable around here. so a yellow alert today for the afternoon storms, 87. tonight about 70 in town, some 60s north and west. 90 tomorrow. a good looking day. then another yellow alert friday for the threat for some big afternoon thunderstorms. high temperature friday up to 94. a little bit cooler north and west as the clouds will arrive earlier. as we head into saturday, some lingering showers and storms. look at that. we're going to lose at least 10 degrees. only about 83. close to 84 sunday and monday. tuesday mid-80s. could see a storm return by then but we'll welcome the low 80s for the weekend. it is 4:47. monika samtani, i'm not throwing any rain at you this morning. >> thank you, howard. very kind of you. look at what i'm throwing at you. isn't that a pretty shot?

no people on the roads. that's how we like it. no problems to report downtown. boy, are we lucky. such a beautiful city. no problems here heading near the capitol. we're going to take you over to our maps. you see all those icons. that's all that overnight construction. i am hearing that everything is being cleared up on the west side of town and on the beltway near the bw parkway as well. let's zoom into 270. looking great out of frederick. no issues to report as you head down to clarksburg and germantown down to the point where the lanes divide. your lanes are open right now. we'll take a live look outside of montrose road. this is an example of all your major thoroughfares coming in from the north including 95 and baltimore. back over to our maps and this time heading into the downtown area. there is a fire on south dakota avenue at bladensburg road. they're just dealing with the residual problems due to that. so watch out for some lane closures there. we'll end with a live look new york avenue at bladensburg road. in my next report a look into

virginia at 4:55. >> thanks, monika. we told you how the drought is hurting farmers on the eastern shore. >> there may absilver lining to the -- be a silver lining to the dry weather. it's helping out the chesapeake bay. the department of natural resources says just 12% of the bay is classified as a dead zone. that's half the average size for summer. dead zones are where oxygen levels are too low for most marine life. but this year's dry weather has reduced the algae blooms that suck up the oxygen. that's a good thing. the appalachian trail estimates thousands of people try -- try to hike the nation's foot path every year. it's long. that's why. one in four make it all 2180 miles from georgia all the way up to maine. it's a long trail. tuesday marks the 75th year since the trail first opened. we sent greg to harpers ferry to learn more. >> reporter: boots on the ground to celebrate a birthday. >> the appalachian trail is an experience of a lifetime.

>> reporter: to be exact, today is the 75th birthday of the appalachian trail. this morning several of the nearly 6,000 volunteers who maintain the trail took a hike of celebration along this stretch near harpers ferry. >> come to a beautiful vista like this and kind of contemplate about what's important in life and then go back home with a sense of peace and tranquility. >> reporter: the appalachian trail is the longest hike only foot path in the world. it stretches from maine to georgia. >> it's a gap where the shenandoah and potomac crush through this ridge line. >> reporter: each year nearly 500 so-called through hikers canvas the entire foot path. it takes nearly five months. entries in a record book like 1,000 miles, baby or done it, done it describe the track. hikers say a surprise lies around every corner. >> i can't fire -- a campfire

where every one would relax and just talk about anything and everything. >> reporter: but with all the beauty comes challenges. >> encroachment. as population grows, people tend to have competing uses for the land. >> reporter: challenges met on this 75th birthday by thousands of volunteers. >> the treadway is the body of the trail but its soul rests in the stewardship of the volunteers. >> reporter: along the appalachian trail in harpers ferry, west virginia, 9news now. >> if you break the hiegers down by deck -- hikers down by decade there were just five who broke the 2,000-mile mark in the 1930's. then move forward to the 1940's, a gradual increase. then a grand total of an estimated really not a lot over these years 12,662 hikers made the distance. it's a pretty big deal. crews in california are working round the clock to contain a brushfire near los

angeles. residents took what they could and got out as the fire closed in on their homes. flames continued to dump fire retar gant -- firefighters continued to dump fire retardant on the 234r5eu78s. its -- on the flames. time for the question of the morning. the average single man does this about once a month while the average woman does this once a week. what is it? >> is it a, clean out your car, b, wash the bed sheets or c, balance the checkbook. >> join the conversation on our facebook fan page. we'll have some of your arrangeses in about 30 minutes. -- answers in about 30 minutes. we'll be right back.

4:54. welcome back on this wednesday morning. yellow alert day. there's an isolated shower in rockingham county coming out of

west virginia. we'll see skies go partly cloudy to mostly cloudy. again the threat for ciewsm stronger storms later this afternoon. highs in the 80s. there's an accident in columbia right now on the eastbound side of route 32 after i-95. it's in the right lane. no issues on 95 itself on route 32. i'll have more on traffic coming up in my next report. back to you, andrea. >> thank you, monika. in this morning's health alert at 4:55, new research that may make you think twice before you make that omelet this morning. a heart study that measures the thickness of the carotid artery finds eating egg yolks could clog arteries as much as smoking, especially after age 40. it seems like all the cholesterol in the egg yolk is the real problem and much like cigarettes, the longer you consistency eat the yolks, the worst the damage. so next time maybe an egg white omelet instead? here's some more food for thought. a new study finds eating cocoa could help improve your memory

and your judgment. but consider the source. the study was funded by mars incorporated which makes the cocoa powder used in the survey. it found that the antioxidant in cocoa could be key in improving memory. 90 elderly people took part in the study. a powerful tool when it comes to combating post- traumatic stress disorder may be getting both the sufferer and his or her partner into therapy. there's a new study released in the journal of the american medical association that shows couples therapy that tack himmed both the ptsd symptoms and the stresses on the relationship made a four-fold impact exairgd to people not getting -- compared to people not getting help and the improvement they say lasted for months. >> it's a family illness. it doesn't just affect the individual but affects everyone in the family. this approach of treating it as such is i think exactly spot on and proven to be highly effective. ptsd comes also through living

through traumatic events such as hurricanes or in our home area when the derecho came through. >> he saw some people with post- traumatic stress after being trapped in their homes during this summer's violent storms. a long list of entertainers attended the funeral of marvin hamlisch. >> and spike lee's new movie marks the 25th anniversary of michael jackson's album "bad." teresa garcia has all the highlights in this eye on entertainment. >> reporter: the entertainment world said goodbye to composer marvin hamlisch in new york city. former president clinton, ann margaret, liza minelli and richard gear all attended the funeral at a manhattan synagogue. hamlisch was behind the music in dozens of popular movies and musicals including "the way we were. were." he died august 6 at the age of

68. the festival will feature spike lee's documentary "bad 25." it marks the 25th anniversary of michael jackson's album "bad." olympic swimmer liian lochte is going hollywood. the winner of 11 olympic medals will make his first appearance in a television series this october. he will play himself in an episode of.90210 ." and coming to some movie theaters this friday, robot and frank. franklin plays a retired jewel thief who's losing his memory when his son get as robot to take care of him, a new crime duo was born. >> it was sort of kind of fun. like being a kid with an imaginary friend. >> reporter: susan sarandon also stars as a librarian who befriends the aging thief. >> i didn't know what was going

to happen. >> reporter: cbs news, hollywood. come on down. "the price is right" is looking for its first male model. for nearly 40 years the prices have almost always been displayed by women, but sbs says it will now 5ud decision -- but cbs says it will audition a male model. male contestants will be judged on quality such as verbal skills, posing. monika is showing mike how to do it. and the ability to showcase a product. so do your vanna thing. >> there you go. >> you have to be able to caress something. i don't have that. haven't seen that in about five years. thank you for watching 9news now at 5:00 a.m. especially all those great people i met in western maryland in allegheny county and cumberland, maryland yesterday. i'm andrea roane. i'm mike hydeck. thanks for joining us. this is monika samtani. >> that would be me. >> she has traffic. there's howard bernn.