hello. thank you for joining us. i'm jc hayward. democrats are getting their turn this week to fire up

american voters. first lady michele obama is the head speaker as the dnc opens tonight in char not, north carolina -- charlotte, north carolina. >> reporter: democrats will fill this hall later today to begin the three-day process of renominating president the obama. >> we just want to be here. this is history. >> reporter: delegates will approve their party platform. then hear from a long list of speakers portraying president obama as the wise and humane alternative to mitt romney. michele obama's speech will be the final address tonight. >> i'm looking forward to hearing the first lady. i think she's dynamic and i'm just excited. >> i'm sure she will connect with us and we'll connect with her as we always do. >> reporter: president obama is not expected to be here when his wife speaks. they say he will watch from the white house. this afternoon the president holds a rally in norfolk, virginia. on labor day he told auto workers in ohio they are better off thanks to his

administration's auto industry bailout. >> i believed in you. i bet on you. i'll make that bet any day of the week. >> reporter: but republicans are hammering away at the president's record, questioning whether americans are doing better since he took office. >> i would ask the 23 million people today in america who are struggling to find work if they feel like they're better off. >> reporter: democrats will use their convention to make the case to voters the nation is better off. randall pinkston, cbs news, charlotte. meanwhile, republican mitt romney has no campaign eevents -- campaign events scheduled this week. he is preparing for three debates with obama earlier next month. thomas gore pleaded guilty in may to organizing under-the- table payments to former mayoral candidate suleman brown. it was part of an alleged shadow campaign to get gray

elected. gore was the first of three campaign aides to plead guilty, and federal prosecutors asked the judge not to set a sentencing date because their d.c. political corruption probe is still ongoing. gore will return to court in december. the poles are now open in northeastern virginia for a -- in northern virginia for a special election. residents will select a new delegate. the district includes parts of old town alexanderia crystal city, shirlington and huntington. the poles will close tonight. some is over for most students in northern virginia. some of the region's biggest districts are heading back to school today. alexanderia arlington and fairfax counties. kristin fisher spent the morning with students at the new south county middle school

in lorton. >> reporter: good morning. it's a day full of firsts at south county middle school. it's the first year that this school has been open, first day of school. how you feel something good very nervous. i don't want to get lost. >> i'm feeling anxious for her. >> kind of scared maybe. >> i'm so anxious, like i'm so excited for my daughter but like, you know, she's growing up so fast. >> reporter: but no one is more nervous than this seventh grade boy from south korea. this is your first day going to school in the u.s. how you feeling? >> not good. >> my son is very nervous. >> reporter: but at least everyone is a new student at this school. they've come armed with color coded maps to find their classrooms in this $22 million sprawling school that's been years in the making. >> i think it's great. i mean, we've been waiting for it for years. >> reporter: this is one of two new schools opening in fairfax county this year. the other is mason crest

elementary in annandale. these new schools were built to help accommodate the 3600 new students entering the school system this year. >> we've grown about 15,000 kids over the last five years, so we are dealing with growth, growth, growth. >> reporter: for dr. jack dale, head of fairfax county public schools, today is his last first day of school as superintendent. he's moving on at the end of the school year and he has no doubt what the biggest challenge will be for his successor. >> we're running out of space here in fairfax. it will be a challenge in the next five, ten years. >> reporter: in lorton, kristin fisher, 9news now. the first day of school was met with anger from some parents of arlington county school students. the school district has canceled bus sches at 12 stops -- service at 12 stops. we caught up with some parents who kids attend the elementary school. >> carlin springs is a busy road. the route is long and it's -- this is a difficult street to

walk along, especially when you're talking about very little children. >> school officials say the streamlined bus service is more efficient and safer for students. >> reporter: coming up on 9news -- coming up on 9news now, the book detailing the killing of osama bin laden will be on store shelves today. and the man who wrote that book is facing some trouble from the pentagon.

tens of thousands of refugees escape to neighboring countries in order to get help. we have the latest from syria. >> reporter: syrian president bashar assad met with leaders of the international red cross. he said the agency can expand its humanitarian operation in the country as long as it remains impartial in the conflict. the organization says victims are not receiving medical treatment or food fast enough. inside this refugee camp in jordan, a woman describes a desperate situation. she says, we can't get enough food and we don't have enough milk to feed our babies. refugees have little water and pens are the only shelter from 120-degree heat and sand storms. the united nations refugee agency says more than 100,000 people fled to neighboring countries in august.

that's the highest monthly total since fighting began in march of last year. in the turkish border town -- [indiscernible] they claim they now control most of the country's largest city aleppo. they say they will keep fighting for however long it takes. >> the united nations says about 240,000 refugees have fled syria. more than 40% escaped the conflict last month. still to come on 9news now at noon, a task force is looking at ways to prevent another flash flood like the one that destroyed dozens of hopes and cars in northwest washington. jc, sunshine coming out now. that's heating things up. we could make a run toward the upper 80s today and maybe a few storms. we'll check out radar and see what's happening now. let's go to break with a look at the allergy updates. once again not in a good spot. grass and weeds have flip-

flopped. mold still high. i'll be back with the seven-day forecast when 9news now at noon returns.

i've been combing trying the day's daily deals and retailer websites to find you some deep discounts and here are some of my favorites on this tuesday. know someone in the family way? target.com is running its biggest baby sale of the year. for example, a free mattress

with a purchase of a simmons crib. also, up to 20% off things like travel systems and free gifts with some purchases. you don't see dyson vacuums on sale that often but wal- mart.com has one right now. $269.98 for the dyson dc-23 tur pine-head canister vacuum regularly about 400 bucks. you'll also get a bonus mini turbine head for free and that's a $70 value. plus, shipping is free with in store pickup. groupon is saving you 50% on manicures in falls church, virginia. present nail spa is offering a spa manicure for $18 or you can get three of them for $51. it comes with a 35-minute hand treatment, including expollation and moisture -- exfoliation and moisturizing. if you have an offer you've seen or you're a local merchant with a deal for our viewers, i'd love to hear from you on facebook. i'm jessica doyle, 9news now.

the book "no easy day" will be on store shelves actually today and it provides an insider's account of the dramatic raid which led to the killing of osama bin laden. it is number one on the amazon best seller list. and mariellen hopkins reports that the formally anonymous author could be in a lot of trouble. >> reporter: the former seal team six member spoke with cbs' "60 minutes." in the interview he went by the pen name mark owen. his face and voice changed to hide his identity. but his cover has since been blown. matt said his book originally set for september 11 release is not aimed at influencing the election. >> my worry from the beginning is, you know, it's a political season. this book is not political whatsoever. doesn't bad mouth either party and we specifically chose september 11 to keep it out of

the politics. >> reporter: his account offers new details of last year's raid. he says ask the team went up the stairs at bin laden's compound in pakistan, the al qaeda leader poked his head out. two shots were fired. by the time he got inside, bin laden was on the floor not standing up as was first reported. he and another seal then fired into bin laden's chest to make sure he was dead. the military's top lawyer warned the author last week that he had violated secrecy agreements and broke the law with the book. he said the military was considering pursuing all available legal actions against him and his publisher penguin putnam. his lawyer says he did not violate secrecy agreements or break the law and said he is confident classified information was not disclosed. >> military insiders say that the real impact of the book is that it has broken the code of

silence among covert military operatives. if the pentagon has its way, both the author and its publisher may be forced to forego all royalties. as residents in the district's bloomingdale neighborhood resume cleaning up from that flash flood, ward council member mcduffy wants to set up a relief fund for victims. d.c. fire crews had to use boat in order to rescue several drivers who were trapped by that flooding sunday night. there were scores of flooded basements and apartments along u street and rhode island avenue northwest. many residents say this is not the first time that this has happened, but it is by far the worst. >> it scared me when i saw the water force that door open. i couldn't believe it. >> d.c. mayor vincent gray has appointed a task force to come up with a plan in order to fix the problem. until then, authorities suggest that residents keep plenty of

sandbags nearby. that's unfortunate. >> until they get a long-term solution, that's unfortunately likely to happen again. >> i know. >> we've been lucky. we've been lucky so far today. we've only had a couple of showers overnight. during the morning hours it's been quiet. radar still relatively quiet. a lot of moisture around. muggy and sticky and gross outside. the humidity way up. we will see a couple of showers and storms but not as much as i was thinking earlier this morning. i think tomorrow will be a more active day but still we have the yellow alert up in case something pops and it could impact your plans. here's the day planner. already in the low 80s. wear headed for the mid and upper 80s before the day is out. with enough sunshine, if is some poke to the 90-degree mark, that wouldn't be surprise me. winds out of the south at 10 miles an hour. 7:00 temp is 84. 9:00 81. if you're going out this

evening, it's still going to be warm and muggy. the showers and storms, you see them up in southeast pennsylvania. more are firing in jersey. they had flood warnings across parts of central new jersey this morning. out to the west and southwest, a few just starting to try and fire right on the higher elevations to our south and west where most temps now in the low #s on in the then dough -- 80s in the then dough ya valley. 77 -- shenandoah valley. 77 in hagueerstown. up to 84 degrees tappahannock. here in washington we've got a lot of breaks in the cloud cover now on our michael & son weather camera. we're seeing partly sunny conditions with a temperature of 83 with a south, southwesterly wind at 11, although national reported overcast. clearly you see the breaks in the overcast with the humidity way up there. still 69%. while it's warm and sticky here, it's still mid summer heat. these are the highs today. 105 for september 4. that is some crazy heat. i point that out because they're going to stay triple digits for the next few days and a little bit of that heat

will work its way toward us i think by thursday, friday. we have a front up here in the midwest. we have the remnants of isaac but there's no longer an area of low pressure spinning with it so it's really stretched out. the low level moisture is in place. we just don't have much of a kicker. the mountains to the west and the daytime heating, that will be enough to pop a few showers and storms. these will be slow movers containing possible heavy downpours, but i don't think there's going to be too many of them. that's going to be the key today. tomorrow, though, as that front north and west gets closer, i think we'll have more activity. looking at future case, isolated to spotty showers and storms. most of it in pennsylvania and certainly more out to the west in the mountains this afternoon and this evening. might see an isolated shower overnight. tomorrow we start okay in the morning. again there could be a stray hour or two in the morning. but in the afternoon, we add the daytime heating and just like boiling water, eventually you get hot enough and the bubbles start to pop. this is what i think we'll have in the afternoon. scattered showers and storms on

wednesday. by the time we get to thursday, we'll dry out a bit. looks like the focus will be up in pennsylvania and southern virginia. we'll be mainly dry on thursday with the isolated afternoon storm. that's going to allow temperatures to shoot even into the lower 90s. so this warm air mass not really moving much. highs today mid- to upper #s on, maybe -- upper 80s, maybe near 90. tonight upper 70s on the bay, mid-70s in town. low 70s in the outer suburbs. the forecast, it is a sticky one. 87 today, if not 88, 89. partly to mostly cloudy. still the yellow alert for a few storms. tomorrow the more active day 87 after starting in the 70s. as we head toward thursday, still a chance for a few storms, especially south of town but hot, 91 degrees. if we have a really dry day, i think it will be friday with a temperature near 90. the weekend still looks a little unsettled. chance for a few storms saturday and sunday afternoon, mid-80s. by monday maybe a few more storms, low 80s. we are going to learn all about

one of my favorite foods coming up in the kitchen when 9 news now returns.

today i am one on one with leah, a chef. and we are about to celebrate rosh hashana which begins at sundown on sunday, september 16. and i love this bread. today we're going to talk about hala because it is a jewish tradition. you said making it round is special. i'm used to seeing it like that

inned braided. >> it's traditional for fest vifts, -- festivities but for rosh shop that we tend to do it in a circular shape. a few reasons. one of them it symbolizes the continuity of life and we do it in a spiral ascending shape that basically talks to the whole season of ascending ourself spiritually and also bering life, making it more sweet for the new year and being blessed with many blessings for the new year. so we do it in a spiral shape. by the way, i'm not a chef. >> oh, okay. i just promoted you. >> i don't want to take credit where credit is not due. i am a reformed attorney, a mother of three, who turned bread mixer. i created this unique mix of

breads. they're easy to prepare. everything is on the back. all the instructions are on the back, less mess, less stress. >> if you go to jchayward.com, i'll have all the information on how you can get these mixes. she says there are three flavors. while you're doing that, there's holy wheat and there is simply -- [indiscernible] and also tradition. >> what i'm doing is stretching out the hallah dough that i made from the traditional. it's traditional to add raisins for an extra sweet year. so we spread some raisins around. and actually i brought you another type of hallah for rosh shop that which i added sin -- rosh shop that which i added sin upon, currants and i'll

have -- cinnamon, currants and i'll have the recipe for you so you can put it on your website. i created this line because i'm a from scratch baker. i'm a self-taught baker. with busy life, i wanted a good incentive for my from scratch baking. so i wanted to make sure it's all natural which these mixes are, that it takes less time, easy to prepare. so now for the round hallah, we want to keep one side a bit thicker than the other. and one that is tapered so we can tuck under and the whole shape won't collapse to one side. so i am going to put more on this side. would i'm going to do is i'm basically taking this thick part and i'm keeping it in the middle. >> we have 30 seconds. you're just rolling it around. >> i'm shaping it around. >> look at all the beautiful

breads that you've brought. hallah is my favorite. i love it for french toast, bread pudding. >> i have -- it's a versatile -- this mix is versatile. i made rosemary, whole wheat. >> we've run out of time but thank you. come back and visit us at 5:00. go to jchayward.com for the recipes. thank you. >> thank you.