rain fall 5 to 10 inches, and we could still see winds between 96 and 110 miles per hour. if it turns out to be a category two. we'll compare this to katrina and tell you just how strong the storm could get by tomorrow everyoning. >> okay topper. one of the striking things about isaac is how similar its path is to katrina's. even though the storm is not expected to be as strong, people along the gulf coast are not take the chances. more on preparations there. >> reporter: at the seventh anniversary of hurricane katrina. new orleans and much of the gulf coast is preparing for tropical storm isaac. >> whenever we are confronted with a storm, hope for the best, even as you prepare for the worst. >> after blowing through haiti and cuba, isaac made its way toward florida. where heavy rains and strong winds caused minor damage. in tampa, the republican national convention was delayed for a day as the storm approached.

louisiana officials are urging residents to take precautions. >> if your plan has always been in hurricanes of this nature to leave, now would be a good time to go. if your plan was to stay, now is the time to start to execute the preparations that you have put in place. >> evacuations are taking place and states of emergency have been ordered. >> a note is mandatory, but isaac doesn't scare you? >> it worries me. scared, close, but it worries the heck out of me. i think i'm going to stay. >> officials say emergency crews are ready for what is to come. >> let me reiterate. this team is very, very well prepared. and very well organized. both on the local level, the state level, and federal level. g for now, isaac is picking up strength and forcing the gulf coast to prepare for land fall. >> local crews from the red cross, pepco, and dominion power are heading south to do

what they can to help. evacuations have started for a dozen oil rigs that are way out there in the gulf. the rigs already closed account for 78% of the oil production in the gulf of mexico. lesli. >> and of course, if the production gets cut, the prices go up and we are already hearing hearing accusations of price gouging along the gulf coast and in florida. >> gas prices, even the dog barking. you know what i'm saying? come on, man. >> that was tori davis' reaction when he pulled up to this chevron in miami beach. that $4.49 a gallon for regular unleaded was about 60 cents a gallon higher than the other station in that area. the florida department of consumer services says it is illegal to raise prices on a critical emergency supply like gas, but only once a state of emergency has been declared and the manager, they couldn't find

the manager. between the impact of isaac and that explosion at a refinery over the weekend, gas prices are going up. aaa says the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is up to $3.75 across the country. that is up 3 cents in the last week. 7 in the last two weeks. now in our area, the average price for the greater d.c. area is about $3.72. you can always find the best prices in your area at wusa9.com. just click on pump patrol. >> a very brief session to start this year's national convention as daniel nottingham reports, delegates were asked to ride out tropical storm isaac in their hotel as organizers cram four days of convention into three. >> in session and called to order. >> there was a symbolic convention opening and a very swift adjournment. >> stands in recess. >> tropical storm isaac came close enough to tampa to force

the cancellations of today's activities. even though there were no big speeches, the republicans launched a clock to see how much the government will borrow. >> i think it's important to lock at it every day and look at it climbing every day. >> while isaac is no longer a big threat to tampa, there are concerns about holding the usual convention as a storm bares down on the gulf coast. >> we're going to have to tone it down a little bit, and that's okay. >> in new hampshire, mitt romney said he hopes those in isaac's path are spared major destruction. he is heading to tampa. convention planners have two goals they'll have to accomplish. republican leaders want to attack the president's record and portray mitt romney as a determined leader who can turn the country around. danielle nottingham, cbs news, tampa, florida. >> and bruce leshan is live in tampa. we'll get to him in a few

minutes to ask him questions about how it's working out down there. right now, we'll go to you. go ahead. >> well, derek, democrats in the senate say the dome of the u.s. capital building has, listen to this, 1300 cracks in it and it needs to be fixed, fast. those repairs won't be cheap. new york senator has a figure in mind, $61 million. he and fellow democrats want that added to an upcoming spending bill. the pentagon now says it has punished members of the military whose conduct made headlines nationwide. or worldwide, i should say. soldiers who burned copies of the koran at a base in afghanistan and marines who injury urinated on the corpses of taliban soldiers. not giving any specifics, but there are no criminal charges. now, two women in spat sill vain yay spotsylvania county

are facing charges. arrested after a two-year-old was found wandering with no clothes near their house. once the officer took that little girl home, she found seven other children ranging in age from 7 months to 16 years old living in squaller. there was also rotten food in the kitchen and animal waste around the house. >> every room in the house was covered in filth. kids were sleeping on mattresses and hall ways and that type of thing. >> three of those children belong to craig, the other five belong to lamb. all eight were taken into custody of child protective services and released to their grandparents, seven dogs and two kittens were also taken by animal control. coming up at 7:00, party push. a maryland democratic congress member joins us live to weigh in on the race for the white house and break down what the president has to do to make the campaign work for him. anita. >> we'll see you at 7:00.

still to come in this half hour, a monday at the end of august means more kids heading back to school. a look at all who went back to class today and it's a whole lot of kids. >> first, paying tribute to the man who inspired the imagination of millions. final arrangements for neil armstrong coming up next.

getting back to our coverage of the republican national convention. our bruce leshan is in tampa

for the rnc. what about trying to hold the event with a tropical system baring down on new orleans? talk about what's going on there. >> yeah, there's a whole lot of debate about the optics of that, especially because this is the seventh anniversary of katrina and the questions about the republican administration's response to katrina hang over this, what is supposed to be a celebration here in tampa. and so i just got off of a conference call with some of the top strategists, and they say they are going ahead tomorrow as planned and there is some talk about the possibility of raising money should there be victims of hurricane tropical storm isaac. and that perhaps that would be something that they would do here. but there's also another hurricane that they are struggling with here and that is the ron paul delegation here and there are a lot of ron paul delegates who will be out here on the floor who are upset

about the way that he has been treated. he was offered a speaking spot here, but on two conditions. if he fully endorsed mitt romney and agreed to submit his speech in advance, ron paul refused to do either of those things and there's also some moves about changing the rules to make his kind of insurgent candidacy more difficult in four years and both of those things are making the focus here a little upset. so there is some talk there could be some kind of demonstration here out on the floor. you know, this is a very tightly scripted event. the chance for mitt romney to reintroduce himself to the public. there's a big audience for this despite the fact that the networks are only going to be broadcasting the hour a night. he wants to take that opportunity to cut into that likeability gap that he has with president obama and they

are going to be having ann romney out here tomorrow night talking and trying to warm him up and humanize mitt romney as well as trying to close some of the gender gap that he also has with president obama. anita. >> what about letting the american public get to know paul ryan? >> that's big, too. of course he is going to have his big speech on wednesday night and they are hoping that he can reach out to the heart land. the other thing is, these two guys together seem to feed off each other and make each other looser and more fun. so they are doing that, too. but absolutely. >> painting pictures of the running mates. we are so glad you are covering it for us. we'll see you soon. once the republican and democratic conventions do hit their full stride, be sure to log on to wusa9.com and click on campaign 2012 to stay up to date on everything going on. family of neil armstrong

plans to hold a private funeral service this friday in cincinnati. armstrong died saturday. he was 82. he command the apollo11 mission in july of 1969 and became the first person to set foot on the moon. still ahead, a new year means a new charter school in the district of columbia. we're going to take you there. president clinton: this election to me is about which...

candidate is more likely to return us to full employment. this is a clear choice. the republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper-income... people and go back to deregulation. that's what got us in trouble in the first place. president obama has a plan to rebuild america from... the ground up, investing in innovation, education... and job training. it only works if there is a strong middle class.

that's what happened when i was president. we need to keep going with his plan. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message.

you're late for a very important date. >> not much leniency in bethesda for those stragglers. kids in montgomery and loudoun county all went back to class today. welcome back, kids. d.c. public schools went back to classes, that includes the 57 public charter schools. bruce johnson reports on the new international charter school that already has parents willing to wait in line to get their kids enrolled. >> it's easily the most diverse public school in the district. >> i thought this one would be ideal because of the class size. >> i wanted to be part of starting something new, something unique. >> you like to dress snip. >> it's the first to offer an introduction for students attending a public school.

>> are you excited to be in school? >> yes. not that excited. >> it's a creative mind international public school in northwest. founded by parents professionals and educators looking for the kind of choices that would cost thousands of tuition dollars in private schools. >> one size fits all education model. i don't believe works for every child. >> 15 students for every classroom. >> this year, i'm the executive director and the principal at the same time, that's how we get to channel funding into the classroom. >> school offers prek through second grade. there's movement, art, music, and languages. >> all students are getting chinese and mandarin. >> the big thing is, be exposed to other languages and exposure. >> they have a waiting list at the creative minds international public charter

school. they have 105 students. they have 550 applications for those slots. >> most of our budget is based on public funding. i believe you can do it. >> the founder sends her own children here, same for two of the board members. extended classes after school can run until 5:30. just like the private schools. bruce johnson, 9news now. >> the creative minds international school will eventually serve preschool through fifth grade. the public charter school will have enough space to serve 250 students. we want to see your photos, send them to us. submit them on our wusa9 facebook page. >> we love those smiling faces. >> it was warm today. >> too early to go back to school in august, don't you think? >> it was okay to see them go. miss you. >> it is good for them to get back into education. that's right. >> exactly. >> there was peace in the house this morning. i don't know what it was. >> we are looking at a pretty

quiet weather pattern for us tonight. i want to talk more about isaac for a minute. we told you we would show you the difference between the categories. first, we want to go over the track. could become a category 2 tomorrow afternoon or everyoning. that is a big difference. that could mean winds up to 110 miles per hour. this storm is going to intensify as it makes land fall. the real difference is, katrina was a monster. a category 5, 24 hours before making land fall. now by 1:00 on wednesday, still 85-mile per hour winds, but still well inland. we'll have a storm surge with this. maybe 4, 5, 6, 8 feet. and some isolated tornadoes. but the good news is, it begins to work its way into the midwest and that's fantastic news for the farmers. they need some rain fall and get some rain friday into saturday. you will also get rain out of this later in the weekend. all right, the scale, right now it's still a tropical storm

with winds 70 miles per hour. once it gets to 74, it becomes a category one. winds 96 to 110. category 3, 111 to 130, that was katrina. and category 3131 3, 131 to 150. and reclassified as a category five. katrina was technically a category 3. all right, live look outside. very nice evening, brought to you by michael and son. 88 degrees. dew point is down. 65. pressure down a little bit, too. 30.00 inches of mercury and winds out of the south, southwest at 9. we'll zoom down now to isaac. he's already producing a lot of showers and storms across most of florida and yeah, this is actually all associated with isaac and bands of rain. has yet to hit the new orleans area and southern louisiana, but they are hours away from big bands of rain. there's our cold front.

that rolls through tomorrow. has a little bit to it. showers and storms back in the ohio valley, but as far as we are concerned, we are in fine shape. maybe a shower late tonight after midnight. all right, next three days, we'll keep it code green. 89 tomorrow. isolated storm. fantastic on wednesday. perfect day on wednesday. 85. skins in town. and 91, hotter on thursday, but still code green. now, the next seven days, hot on friday. we're back in the mid 90s on friday. going to be short lived and back to around 90 as we get into saturday, sunday, and labor day. not going to rain continuously, but that will be the remnants of isaac. >> okay. bringing rain. thanks. >> kristen berset is at redskins park where we learn today that we're not going to see rg3 anymore this preseason. >> not in the preseason. >> i hope you got your fill, ladies, rg3 is getting a breather this week. he will see no action on wednesday as skins pull out the

preseason. but just how comfortable is the rookie feeling when feeling with the skin season? i'll have more on who is out the door. sports is next. hey america, even though

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now, 9sports with kristen berset. the best sports in town. >> welcome back. we're live here in ashburn at redskins park. a busy day for the team as they

are prepping. they have to trim their roster to 75 players. they have one effort wednesday to make that final 53 man roster. while they are doing that, robert griffin iii, who we won't see on wednesday is prepping for the season opener two weeks from now in new orleans. when asked if he could have benefit frd playing the final game, he said it wouldn't have made a difference. he said he's ready to go. >> we have a lot of guys getting back healthy. that's the most important thing. i didn't feel like we didn't get enough work in. >> after practice, mike shanahan confirmed curt cousins will start wednesday night and probably most likely play the entire game. the team released jonathan cromp cromton this afternoon. >> releasing neil today. bram said he found out he won the job when the two passed

each other in the hallway this morning. he was headed out of the building. some other changes today. the skins traded cornerback and former terrapin, barnes for a draft pick. and we'll get an update for jamal brown. he has been placed on the physical unable to perform list. he had surgery on his hip. the same one he had surgery on in 2009. he missed the last four games because of the pain and reinjured it running sprints the day before training camp opened. tyler the starting right tackle. shanahan addressed the situation this afternoon. >> they said the surgery went fine. he is feeling better and hopefully be good as new in four to six weeks. >> i think tyler has done a good job. very happy with where he's at. unless there's a miracle, he should be our starter. >> up in baltimore, ravens linebacker will officially miss the first six weeks of the season.

he was also placed on the physically unable to perform list today. the five-time probowler had surgery may 8 to repair that torn acylies. you get to choose who you see highlights of. go to u.s.a. today, high schoolsports.com/d.c. to vote. we will announce the winner on thursday night. so again, a busy day here in ashburn. we are getting the rest of the information, mike shanahan just spoke and we'll have more coming up tonight at 11:00. live in ashburn, i'm kristen berset, back to you in the studio. >> see you later, kristen. >> that's all for 9news at 6:00. >> that's right. derek will see you at 7:00. >> and don't forget to join andrea, mike, howard, and monica tomorrow morning starting at 5:25 a.m. have a great night. president clinton: this election to me is about which...

candidate is more likely to return us to full employment. this is a clear choice. the republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper-income... people and go back to deregulation. that's what got us in trouble in the first place. president obama has a plan to rebuild america from... the ground up, investing in innovation, education... and job training. it only works if there is a strong middle class. that's what happened when i was president. we need to keep going with his plan. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message.