in something like this. >> it is hard to imagine and after more than a day of rain neither man nor beast were safe as isaac caused flooding all along the gulf coast. tonight the tropical storm has been downgraded to a tropical depression, but i think some remnants are still dumping a whole lot of rain, so much so that in louisiana crews decided to start breaching' levee in plaquemines parish south of new orleans to relieve some of the stress from the fluid waters. they're also taking similar steps along thmississippi border where the tangipahoa river started to swell. >> now that the winds have shifted they're also planning to have pumps on site to help dewater that area as well. >> folks living just south of that dam were given 90 minutes to grab their stuff and get the heck out. they weren't the only ones scrambling for safety. our scott broom is in moss point, mississippi, where he saw several folks who were rescued earlier today.

>> reporter: i did, derek. i'm in my mobile newsroom now touring moss point, mississippi, near pascagoula. as you can see behind me, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of homes still surrounded by water or under water. look at some of the pictures earlier today we took from my car as rescue boats were moving throughout the area. there is mandatory evacuation order for large part of this town and parts of pascagoula, mississippi, as the rivers here keep rising. i went on a rescue with one of the firefighting units here. they used a boat to get in -- [ technical difficulties ] >> well, scott, it looks as though we're having some tough technological problems. that mobile newsroom is an amazing piece of 10, but like a lot of new 10 -- technology,

but like a lot of new technology it is not perfect. >> meantime speaking of perfect, topper is in the weather center keeping an eye on the storm. >> it's a depression now but is it still has a lot of moisture with it. let me start with radar. location is still at the center about 35 miles west, north west of monroe, louisiana. its maximum winds are 35 miles per hour, but the heavy bands of rain are still pushing through parts of mississippi just north of scott right now, even western alabama headed into northern louisiana and also arkansas tomorrow. winds are still gusting, 36 mile-per-hour wind gusts in jackson, mississippi, and 32 mile-per-hour wind gust in baton rouge. the storm track will go through northern louisiana. we get into tomorrow afternoon and it's into northern arkansas. then it begins to turn off to the north and east, go just around st. louis into saturday and then it will begin to accelerate and move eastward and southeastward as we go into tuesday and wednesday of next

week. that said we'll cool back and talk about even though the center is -- come back and talk about even though the center is pretty far away from us, we'll talk about the moisture we will get over the holiday weekend. 23 years behind bars, that was the sentence today for university lacrosse player convicted of killing his on again off again girl friend in a drunking rage. our andrea mccarren was in the courtroom when george huguely was sentenced. she joins us now live from charlottesville. he didn't get the max, but he certainly didn't gethe least. >> reporter: no. it was a very slight reduction to 23 years, very close to the high end of the sentencing guidelines. just a short time ago we received a statement from george huguely's family. here are some of the excerpts from that. today is a sad day for our family. we love george anwill always support him. we continue to believe yardley's death was not intended but an accident with a tragic outcome. minutes after the judge issuedly sentence this

afternoon we heard from both the prosecution and the defense. >> and this gentleman has an anger problem. he has a violence problem. it's not necessarily so much triggered by alcohol, but it's facilitated by alcohol. >> we are confident that a mature and careful consideration of this case will result in the reversal of these convictions and that the correct outcome in this case will eventually be reached. >> reporter: as you just heard, george huguely plans to appeal not just his sentence, but his conviction on second degree murder. and he faces another legal battle ahead. the love family has filed a $30 million civil lawsuit against him. we also heard from yeardley love's mother and sister lexie

tonight. they said in a statement, "we find no joy in others' sorrow. we plan to work diligently to try to prevent this from happening to another family," a very sad and emotional day today for the love family. they looked shocked when the judge issued his reduced sentence of 23 years for george huguely. back to you. >> andrea, george huguely did say something to the love family today, but he pulled it back not fully expressing remorse in the courtroom. >> reporter: that's right. he turned and spoke to mrs. love and yeardley's sister lexie for the very first time. his voice was breaking up and he said, "i am so sorry for your loss. i hope and pray that you find peace." of course, as i heard you discussing with our legal analyst, in part that could be because an appeal is likely as well as the civil lawsuit he faces. so i think it was clear that he was not going to accept any

kind of culpability for the tragic death of yeardley love. >> andrea mccarren, thank you. we know there are civil cases come down the line, a lot to watch even now. the republican national convention wraps up tonight with mitt romney accepting his party's nomination. organizers today expanded the stage at the convention to bring romney closer to the delegates. before he speaks jeb bush is expected to make a push for education reform. then marco rubio will introduce romney himself. we also learned the mystery speaker will be actor clint eastwood. we'll have more on what's expected in romney's speech at 6:15 when we go live to bruce leshan in tampa. once the convention is over the republican ticket makes its first stop in virginia. mitt romney and paul ryan plan to hold a rally in richmond tomorrow. president obama information charlottesville yesterday underscoring just how much of a battle ground the old dominion

is and it's expected to be come november. regardless of who wins the white house we do know one thing about january's inauguration. tap water will be available at this year's ceremonies. d.c. water's general manager sent congress a letter last week asking congress to serve tap water instead of bottled at the inauguration. his argument is the money it would save. since tap water costs a penny a gallon while bottled water costs 100 times more. today is the start of the college football season, but coming your way at 7:00 on 9news why some fans are not cheering for an ohio state t- shirt which makes a little fun of the jerry sandusky sex abuse scandal, the story at 7:00. still to come in this half hour after realizing her keys are missing during a trip to the casino, a maryland woman finds them in a scary and surprising way. >> and maryland's rainy day fund hit the jackpot.

we'll explain that next.

earlier this month it was virginia reporting higher than expected revenues. now it's maryland's turn. it has ended fiscal year 2012 with $230 million extra mostly from income tax, sales taxes, lottery receipts that brought in more than projected. the state controller says the extra cash should go into

maryland's rainy day fund. so people joke about losing their shirt at the casino, but for one maryland woman it was almost a lot more. it started when she lost her house keys in edgewater at maryland live! in hanover, apparently had a little too much fun. matt jablow is here with the rest of the story. >> around since clock the woman noticed her car and house -- 6:00 the woman noticed her car and house keys were missing and went outside the casino and noticed her car was missing as well. she called police. the police went to her home and found a man coming out of the house with some of the woman's property. the man refused to stop when ordered to do so. the officer struggled and the -- the officer struggled with the suspect and the suspect was tasered. keep track of your belongings at all time is the moral to the story. we don't know if she lost her

keys in the casino or the mall. we don't know a lot of details except for the fact her keys were found and some of her property and car were found at her house. >> wow, she is very lucky. thanks so much. well, it is mitt romney's big night. coming up we're live from the republican national convention with what we can expect to hear from the gop presidential nominee. >> isaac is moving out, but there is a desperate effort to hold back the floodwaters left behind. we'll have the latest from the gulf coast tonight on the cbs evening news.

a quick programming note for you, due to this weekend's u.s. open coverage, this week in defense news is changing time. so instead of seeing it sunday morning you can watch it saturday night at 7 p.m. after a whole series of well received speeches at the gop convention the pressure is on mitt romney tonight. so is the spotlight. the rep nominee has been thinking about this speech -- the republican nominee has been thinking about this speech apparently for notes scrawling down note of our bruce leshan is live in tampa with what he plans to say. give us a preview, bruce. >> reporter: we actually just got some excerpts and mitt romney was out here at the podium a little while ago kind of doing a sound check. the excerpts point to mitt romney talking about what he says are president obama's failings and the disappointment of the american people. he's also going to talk about his own personal life story. everybody has been saying be it but it's true.

it's really a -- saying it, but it's true. it's really a chance for mitt romney to reintroduce himself to the american people. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. >> reporter: mitt romney knows his own words can hurt him. >> i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. >> reporter: but those were unscripted moments and this whole convention has been structured to boost his ratings in a scripted way to highlight his success as a businessman, a governor, an olympic organizer, even if polls suggest a lot of americans still do not like him. >> some would like to turn this into a popularity contest. it's not who gives the best speech or who is the best orator in a given circumstance. >> reporter: even barry goldwater got a post convention speech bounce. so did president obama and both presidents bush. >> read my lips. no new taxes.

[ cheering and applause ] >> i'm running with a passionate conservative philosophy. >> reporter: but romney has some tough acts to follow. >> like to see this thing all the way through. let's get this done! >> reporter: and romney faces a fast response team from the other side. president obama's surrogates like maryland's chris van holland. >> the republicans in the house and representatives are sitting on the president's jobs bill. they haven't even had a vote on it since last september. >> reporter: the tv audience for tonight's primetime address by mitt romney is likely to number in the tens of millions even with so many things distracting us. americans still really like to watch these conventions and these big speeches, but mitt romney also knows the valley of retail politics and he -- the value of retail politics and he will leave his hotel room tomorrow morning to campaign here in battle ground florida and battle ground ohio and guess what else, battleground

virginia. >> that's right, the old dominion, battle ground for sure this election season. thanks, bruce. you go to the fair for the corn dogs and the ferris wheel and oh, what are those fried snicker bars? >> oh, yeah. >> but not for the swine flu, but swine flu has hit animals at several fairs this year. organizers at the great frederick fair are taking steps to keep their celebration flu free. they say all the animals have undergo special screening and pass a certified veterinary inspection and that fair opens september 14th. >> we should point out when they say swine flu, this is the one that really spreads among pigs. it wasn't the one we were talking about in people, but still they don't want it. >> not at the fair. swine flu, funnel cake, not so much. funnel cake, i'm dreaming again. we're looking at a very nice evening for baseball. the nats are in town. in fact, let's start with live look outside, generally clear, our live weather cam brought to

you by michael and son. it's toasty. it was 89 today and it still is, dew points in the upper 50s. that's a nice treat. so very comfortable if you want to take a walk, maybe play a quick nine holes, you've got time, wind's out of the west at 9, pressure finally rising. 90-degree days. we've had 43 so far. we're talking about meteorological summer, june, july and august. so we've only had 43. we'll probably end up with 44, hit 90 tomorrow. average is 31. so we're way above that, but for a time we thought we might get close to some records, but last year 47 days. we had 52 90-degree plus days in tent 10 and the record is 198 -- in 2010 and the record is in 1988. what was record setting was the number of triple digit days which i think was eight. 82 in gaithersburg, 84 bethesda, 86 arlington, 84

vienna and fairfax, 87 college park, 83 in bowie. baseball forecast, we're hosting the cardinals. 76 to 85 your temperatures, 85 to start, 76 to finish, perfect night for baseball. not quite as cool, though, tonight. in fact, temperatures got down to the low 60s up around damascus and down into the 40s in canaan valley this morning. the weekend we do feel we'll have some showers and thunderstorms from isaac. clear and mild tonight, not as cool, 64 to 72, winds out of the southwest at 10. inside the beltway downtown talking about low 70s, but very comfortable north and west, 64 gaithersburg, 65 reston, 64 leesburg, 68 in college park. friday morning, mostly sunny, warming up, 70s and 80s, winds out of the southwest at 10. by afternoon mostly sunny and hot but not humid, high temperatures near 95 and winds

west, southwest at 10. next three days we'll keep it green tomorrow, hot but not humid, 94. we'll keep it green saturday, isolated storm, 91. you don't have to change your plans. sunday code yellow, scattered thunderstorms especially in the afternoon, high temperatures in the upper 80s. now the next seven days, labor day even a better chance for thunderstorms, temperatures still in the upper 80s. tuesday a leftover thunderstorm still possible, highs acme still be plea an -- highs in the 80s, still meandering around a bit left with isaac. topper said it, going to be pitch perfect for the nats game tonight. >> reporter: it feels great out here right now. fans are piling in because the nats are opening up their last big homestand of the season. it is against the world champs, but how is the confidence level right now after their recent

skid? >> plus it's a tense 24 hours for several redskins players. we'll hear from those bubble guys coming up next in sports. 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.

now 9 sports with kristen berset, the best sports in town. >> reporter: welcome back. we are live at nationals park. the nats are opening up a four- game series starting tonight

with the st. louis cardinals, going to be a great series and a big chance for these nats to bounce back after their current five-game skid. they ended that last night in miami. now the nats haven't experienced too many skids, so they're kind of in fairly unknown territory, but while fans may have been worried on the outside, the nats were just taking it one pitch at a time they say trying to keep their confidence level high. >> we got out of it. we still feel confident, still feeling good. we weren't too worried about it, but yeah, it's never fun to lose. >> we dealt with adversity all year. that's just kind of another thing and hopefully we've turned it around. >> time will tell how we bounce back, good game last night, finish up the trip. we've got a lot of work to do here with a good team coming in. >> reporter: we're also 24 hours from the redskins finalizing their roster. we'll find out who will be wearing burgundy and gold this season. the redskins must cut 18 more players by tomorrow night to

get down to that final 53-man roster. last night's preseason finale was the last chance for many of these bubble guys and several familiar names made some big statements on the field, anthony armstrong, roy helu, brandon banks. now they sit by their phones and wait. >> you got to come up with a certain number and try to find your best 53 plus your practice squad. if you have a hard time making those decisions, that means we're getting better. >> it's going to make difficult decisions. i feel like whoever doesn't make the roster here will most definitely be on the practice team. the baltimore ravens close out their preseason finale tonight on the road in st. louis. we'll get to see rookie kicker justin tucker take the reins now that billy cundiff is gone and who will replace linebacker terrell suggs, highlights tonight at 11:00.

don't forget about our toyota game of the week poll. here's your choices. we'll announce the winner at 11:00 tonight go. to usatodayhighschoolsports.com/dc to vote. breaking news out of the tennis world. andy roddick announced he will retire at the age of 30 after this year's u.s. open. you can see coverage from flushing meadows beginning saturday here on wusa9. the 30-year-old has one grand slam title at the u.s. open in 2003. we'll have more on that plus highlights from today's nats game tonight at 11:00. we're live at nationals park. i'm kristen berset. ladies, back to you in the studio. >> again ladies. the nicest thing i've been called all day. >> ladies and topper. >> are we allowed to close the show? >> yes, you may. >> that's it for us. the cbs evening news is next. >> derek is back with our area's only local newscast at 7:00 and you'll be there, too,

top? >> this lady will be there, yes. >> good night. >> bye bye.