. hello and thank you for joining us. i'm jc hayward. well, virginia will be the focal point in the campaign today. vice presidential hopeful paul ryan is going to be appearing at west springfield high

school. meanwhile, the white house is attempting to keep the focus on mitt romney's tax returns. randall pinkston has the latest from the campaign trail. >> reporter: mitt romney intended to offer a quick lesson on the differences between his medicare plan and president obama's. >> which of these two do you think is better? >> reporter: but reporters changed the subject to taxes. >> every year i paid at least 13%. if you add in addition the amount that goes to charity, the number gets well above 20%. >> reporter: the obama campaign pounced on the comments asking romney to prove it. the president's campaign manager sent a letter promising to back off the issue if romney agreed to release five years of tax returns. the romney campaign said no deal. it wants to talk about the economy. romney supporters are trying to help get back on message. >> the obama-biden campaign wants to talk about this all day because they don't want voters in states like mine to look at their failed record. >> reporter: the white house insists it west comes -- welcomes a debate on medicare

and the economy. >> this is exactly what we want to be talking about. these are the substantive issues that be decided for this country and that will have huge impact on this country. >> reporter: to counter romney's claims about medicare, the obama campaign hit the airwaves with this new ad. >> the nonpartisan aarp says obama care cracks down on medicare fraud, waste and abuse. >> reporter: next week mitt romney will be teaming up with his running mate paul ryan in new hampshire for a town hall meeting on medicare and the economy. randall pinkston, cbs news, washington. >> mitt romney has released tax returns for 2010 and has promised to release the 2011 tax returns for election day. the obama campaign is pressuring him to also release his returns for 2007 through 2009. prosecutors are seeking a three-year prison term for members of a feminist russian

punk rock group. a russian judge found them guilty of hole begannism -- hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for antikremlin protests inside a church. >> reporter: the women of the provocative punk group pewsy riots -- pussy riots stood inside a glass cage as they heard from the judge. they were found guilty citing religious hatred n. february they burst into moscow's christ the savior cathedral in ski masks and belted out a protest song calling on the the virgin mary to throw president putin out of office. he has close ties to the orthodox church. opposition leaders say the russian president is cracking down on dissent and free

speech. celebrities including paul mccartney and ma madonna have called for them to be fred. protests have sprung up in london, moscow and 50 other cities around the world. most demonstrators are dressing like the band members. >> they were put in jail for speaking their minds. that is what art and music is about, expressing how you feel. you shouldn't be going to jail for doing that. >> reporter: here in new york protesters came to get their message out. originally they were over at the russian consulate but police forced them back over here across the street. >> we're not allowed to gather on the sidewalk right now. i'm not allowing to wear a mask. >> reporter: the women say they were not motivated by hate but protesting close ties between church and the russian state. they've already been jailed for about five months and it's not clear if they will get credit for time served. drew levinson, cbs news, new york. >> ever since his inauguration, putin has signed laws raising fines for protesters and

tightening control of the internet. the mother of a man who stopped a gunman inside a d.c. office building agrees with people who have called her son a hero. >> i know he saved a whole lot of lives yesterday. i'm very proud of him. i could be no prouder than i am. i thank god for everything. i thank god for him, too. because so many people could have been gone away from here today. >> 46-year-old leonardo johnson is the building manager at the family research council. he did not have a weapon, and he had been shot in the arm when he tackled accused gunman floyd corkins. the head of the frc believes that his conservative group was targeted because of its opposition to same-sex marriage. >> corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the southern poverty law center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy.

>> corkins is being held without bond, and he will undergo a mental health evaluation. he's due back in court next friday. neither the obama nor the romney campaigns are responding to an open letter regarding the virginia tech shootings. dozens of relatives of people killed or wounded in the 2007 rampage sent a letter to both candidates. they want answers on how to improve background checks for guns. but neither campaign gave a direct answer. part of the letter read, quote, now is the time to fix our nation's broken gun laws, but we need our nation's leaders to tell us the specific steps that you will take to prevent more bloodshed. 32 people died in the tech shootings. it has led to changes in how college campuses handle emergencies. expect to see plenty of motorcycles this week for the annual 9/11 memorial ride. they will move through western

maryland and northern virginia today. the caravan left shanksville, pennsylvania yesterday, and the riders will be spending the night near the pentagon where another hijacked plane crashed. the ride will end up saturday in new york city with a ceremony planned for sunday. traffic is finally moving again on interstate 95 north of baltimore. but that was not the case earlier this morning following the crash of a tractor-trailer. the trailer struck a barrier and burst into flames. unfortunately the truck driver was killed. interstate 95 was closed for several hours while crews extinguished that fire and cleaned up the accident scene. nearly 18 months after a devastating flood, a popular georgetown restaurant is finally reopening. tony and joe's seafood on the waterfront is open for business again. but this was the scene in april

of 2011. the whole region suffered massive flooding. the flood walls were not erected in time in order to prevent water from the potomac getting inside many restaurantses. and cleanup has taken more than one year. the driver of a race car that rolled down a mountainside in colorado is talking about his ordeal. he lost control during a 12- mile race to the summit of pikes peak. >> the moment i knew it was all over for us is kind of when we started to get towards the gravel and flying off the edge. i had a slight delayed reaction. but pet much after that it was just tumble, tumble, try to hang on and just hope for it to stop as soon as possible. >> when asked whether he would be racing again, the driver said only time will tell. still to come when 9news now continues, a return of the deadly west nile virus. we'll tell you about new precautions that are being taken. >> plus, young love. we'll tell you about a new

memorial to the president and michele obama's first -- [ inaudible ] we'll be back in a moment.

there is a warning today about the west nile virus. at least two people in maryland have contracted the disease and there are reports of mosquitoes in other parts of the region carrying the virus. west nile is blamed for the deaths of at least ten people in dallas. we have more on what is being done. >> reporter: two twin engine

planes began targeting 49,000 acres in dallas county late last night. at least a dozen cities in the county will be part of the aerial spraying program. the cdc reports 693 cases of west nile nationwide, the highest mark since site reduce was first -- since the virus was first detected in 1999. in dallas county, 217 people have been stricken. >> the target of mosquitoes we're after primarily is only active during the first hours after the sun goes down. >> reporter: health officials and biologists say the spraying is safe and many welcome the emergency measure. >> we do support the spraying. every time we've stepped outside all summer long we've been swarmed by mosquitoes. we know several people that have become ill with west nile virus. >> reporter: despite the outbreak, others remain concerned. >> i'm not a fan of spraying. i have an organic restaurant. i have not had one mosquito

bite all summer. for me to put extra chemicals in the air is something i'm not a fan of. >> reporter: the spraying can't happen fast enough for the city council which declared a state of emergency. >> we have people dying. we have to have a sense of urgency to get this done now. that's what's the most important thing. >> there have been 26 confirmed west nile deaths nationwide. more than a third of them are in dallas, texas. the impending shutdown of washington national ace stephen strasburg is making national news. the nats have the best record in baseball, but not everyone agrees with that decision. >> washington has a chance to go to the world series. don't tell me down the road we'll get another shot at it. you may never get another shot at it again. to do this would be a slap in the face to the fans. >> have you had any second thought abouts this decision? >> i have not. i don't think i would be doing my job as the caretaker of this

franchise long term to forego the long term health of stephen strasburg for short-term gains here in 2012. >> strasburg underwent surgery in 2010 to repair a torn ligament in his elbow. general manager rizzo says he's going to stick with the doctor's recommendation that the pitcher only be allowed to pitch fewer innings this season. rookie bryce harper spent his off day yesterday at the bryce harper baseball pro-camp in fairfax. it was for little leaguers between the ages of 6 and 14. some of them not much younger than 19-year-old harper. he says he's happy to give back and build the nationals' young fan base. >> when i was back home, i loved going out and seeing little leaguers play. being around and really doing things for the community. i think, you know, coming into d.c. and really trying to do things for this town, this

city, for the kids and stuff like that, i think, you know, it's always a lot of fun and i have a blast out here with everybody. >> harper and the nationals will take on the new york mets tonight in washington. yay, nationals. e-bay says it is getting out of the black magic business as part of a new policy. the online auction site says it will no longer offer psychic readings and healing sessions. and the same goes for magic potions, spells, prayers, and hexes. e. may says if t is trying to -- e-bay says it is trying to build trust in the marketplace. the president and the first lady's first kiss is being remembered. the owners of the chicago shopping center installed a 3,000-pound granite marker this week and it says, on this site president barack obama first kissed michele obama. there's a picture of the first couple and the quote from the president describing their

first date. the sweet smooch happened in 1989 when the president treated the first lady to ice cream at a baskin robbins store. the obama's will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary this fall. coming up on 9news now, passengers aboard an overseas flight are asked whether they have extra money for gas. >> olga has the week's forecast. >> the heat is on already. it is hug gi and hazy. the -- muggy and hazy. the clouds have stayed away. that should change. our highs should make it to the lower 90s before the front gets close enough to pick up the showers and storms we were talking about. i'll have the extended forecast including a cooldown on the weekend when 9news now returns.

air france confirms that it asked passengers to help pay for gas. this happened when a flight was -- [ inaudible ] air france asked passengers if they had any extra cash because fuel can only be purchased by cash in damascus. well, the airline finished out a way to get around the issue and so the passengers were not forced to chip in. air france is now apologizing to everyone on board. olga is here with the hot

forecast but that's okay. it's the weekend. >> it's the weekend. in fact, we're tracking a cooldown for saturday and sunday. quite a nice surprise for our august forecast. it's all due to a cold front that's going to be sliding on through. for right now, though, ahead of that front, we're tracking some warm temperatures already in the middle 80s this noontime. we're going to keep on going. we should peek into the low 90s by early afternoon, but along with that front comes some cloud cover by about 3:00 or 4:00 we'll definitely see overcast skies. then 6:00 or so, showers and thunderstorms begin to develop and we could carry those past midnight and into the early morning hours. satellite and radar, quiet right now. live doppler 9000, not tracking much of anything at the current time. however, out toward our west, that's where we're seeing the front start to move on through. we're beginning to develop some midday showers and thunderstorms. this happened with all of the daytime heating destabilizing the atmosphere. spoke so some of this will make

it over the blue ridge and spill into the d.c. area. for us right now, it's hot, hazy and humid. already 85 at arlington. we have 85 up toward bethesda. we're looking at 87 for college park and, yes, we'll hit those lower range 90s earlier in the afternoon. the humidity values are on the rise as well. we're looking at dew points that have already peaked toward 64. we'll begin to pump up the humidity along our southerly and southwesterly winds and that means we have the opportunity, all the ingredients for showers and even strong storms to move in later this afternoon. here's our current satellite and radar image. right now most of the moisture is out toward ohio, pennsylvania, and west virginia. it's going to keep on sliefding on through. that -- sliding on through. that means with our future cast, we'll see a pop of showers and thunderstorms into the late night and overnight period tonight. then we start to clear things out as we head in toward saturday. by early sunday morning, we're still looking good but with all of this moisture around, our winds shift back to the south and southwest.

we're going to keep our rain chance in the forecast the next three days. here's what you need to know for the late night and evening hours for today. the severe weather risk remains off to our west, at least for now. so most of that steady rain should pass south and west of the metro area. that's not to say a pop or two can't make it over in toward the beltway. high of 92 for today. we're definitely looking at a three-day forecast that's going to be a little bit on the cool side starting with the overnight lows tonight. as we head into tomorrow, take a look at these numbers. 82 for our high on saturday, code green. code yellow on sunday with only a high of 80. as long as we keep our winds fairly gentle out of the north and northwest, the temperatures stay down toward the beginning of next week. as we head in toward wednesday and thursday, we start to warm back up into the middle and upper 80s. stick around. 9 news now at noon will be right back.

i am one on one with steven lucas. he really is an executive officer with the i.r.s. students in -- with the restaurants in boston and here in washington. i've been to your one at pen quarter. everybody knows i don't eat raw fish. you didn't know it because somebody didn't tell you. so you brought me some guacamole guacamole. >> i want to walk you through one of my favorites, the one we

make with watermelon. what you want to do -- it's really important that you cook the fish in lime juice so it's going to have the texture that it's been cooked a little bit. we'll season that nicely with some salt. we're going to get that go. you have been to our restaurant on wisconsin avenue or you haven't? >> i have not been yet. it's beautiful from the outside. >> it is beautiful. it's been very popular during restaurant week this week. >> are you featuring this, this week? >> they're on our menu. they're not on our restaurant week menu but they are on our appetizer menu. it's been so popular, restaurant week so we've extended it another week. what i've -- what i have here is the tuna i've marinated in lime juice. some orange segments. i'm going to put a little bit of pickled abe narrow to spice -- habanero to spice it up. i'm going to take a little

agave syrup. i'm going to drizzle that on like that. >> sounds delicious. >> it is delicious. the best thing about it is you get a little bit of sweet. you get a little bit of that spice. you have the nice crunch from the watermelon. it's really good. so i'm going to lay the watermelon down on the plate. you can do this. this would be awesome to do for a barbecue. you could do it -- because you can make a nice big platter and do it for 10, 12. you gave me the recipe. go to jchayward.com and you'll get the recipe. steven has shared it with us. look at that. it's a pretty dish. but you put some other things -- you brought some other things, too. >> i did. we have here a rock fish. we're trying to really use fish that is local, really, really close to us. we have beautiful rock fish right now. we have scallops down there. >> that's the dish that you're

preparing. rosa