. hello. i'm jc hayward. thank you for joining us. we're beginning with breaking news now from the trial of two prince george's county police officers. they have been charged with beating a university of maryland student. this morning the judge threw out the first degree assault

charges against the officers. the judge said the prosecutors did not make their case. the officers, however, still face second degree assault and misconduct charges. the defense is now presenting its case. john mckenna, the student who was struck by the officers, is expected to testify. president obama and mitt romney are back on the campaign trail after last night's spirited debate. the president lived up to his promise to be more aggressive. mitt romney, however, stood his ground. danielle nottingham has more. >> reporter: president obama and mitt romney head to separate corners of the country to campaign after one of the most combative presidential debates in recent memory. >> you'll get your chance in a moment. i'm still speaking. >> i don't look at my pension. it's not as big as yours. >> reporter: the president and his republican challenger clashed on just about every issue invading each other's space and battling for

uncommitted voters. >> not drew. >> how much did you cut it? >> governor, we produced more oil-- >> no much, how much did you cut licenses and permits on federal waters? >> reporter: when the sparring was over, cbs news asked a group of about 500 uncommitted votessers who won. 47% said the president. 30% said romney and a third called it a tie. predictably both sides claim victory. romney's team says his momentum will continue. the president's camp praised his performance after his lackluster debate two weeks ago. >> he had a great debate tonight. the thing i liked about this debate, it was so real. >> reporter: social media has latched on to romney's comment about hiringmen whether he was governor of massachusetts. >> they brought us whole binders full of women. >> all he simply meant is he went out of his way to try and recruit qualified women to serve in his administration when he was governor. >> reporter: the candidates debate one final time on foreign policy next week.

danielle nottingham, cbs news, the white house. mitt romney is back in the old dominion today. he has an event that is scheduled for this evening in leesburg. president obama will be in iowa. well, the presidential debate is the top story across the country. kristin fisher has a look at some of the headlines outside the newseum where the front pages of most newspapers featured a picture from one of the most memorable moments of last night's debate. >> the last four years you cut permits and licenses on federal land and federal waters in half. >> not true, governor romney. >> so how much did you cut? >> not true. >> how much did you cut them by them? >> we produced more oil-- >> no, how much did you cut licenses and permits on federal waters? >> governor romney, here's what we did. there were a whole bunch of oil companies-- >> i had a question. the question is how much did you cut them by? >> you want me to answer -- i'm happy to answer. >> and it is?

>> reporter: it wasn't the most substantive but most memorable. so much so that at least half of the numbs on display out-- newspapers on display outside this morning used that finger pointing picture on the front page. >> it's a contentious tight race. i think the candidates, both of their attitudes reflected that. >> i'm glad the president came on more strong this time. he was holding his own. >> reporter: obama took the offense all right. a sharp departure from his first debate performance. instant polls from both cbs and cnn gave the president a seven- point advantage. most of these head lines have romney holding his own, just a slight edge to the president. >> obama won only because mitt romney wouldn't answer any -- he didn't answer the questions to me. >> he was much closer than last time but i would give it to romney on points. >> i think it was a tie. >> reporter: as "the boston globe" put it, this time there were two combatants. at the newseum, kristin fisher, 9news now. preparations are under way

for what is being called the million puppet march in washington. more than 1,000 puppeteers and public broadcasting supporters say that they will march on the mall november 3. that's three days before the presidential election. the move follows mitt romney's remarks that if he becomes president, he would call for the elimination of pbs funding for characters like big bird on "sesame street." organizers originally called the event a million puppet march -- muppet march. but then they changed the name to include sock pup bets, hand puppets, shadow puppets and mascots. it was a joyous homecoming for the virginia hikers rescued in montana this week. neal peckens of herndon and his friend, jason hiser touched down yesterday in richmond. park rangers say that the men used their outdoor survivor skills in order to stay alive in glacier national park. they were stranded for almost

five days, faced a lot of harsh weather but rescue teams finally found them. new legislation of the d.c. city council would reduce fines from automated speed cameras and running red lights. current fines run $150 for driving up to 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. a red light infraction is $100. under the new legislation the fines would be lowered to $50. a speed camera on georgia avenue in olney is back in business this afternoon 24 hours after being mowed down. technicians who put the 700- pound equipment back on its stand say it is obvious that someone deliberately slammed into it. they say that's because of tire tracks leading to the camera. one olney resident says the toppling of the camera is the best news that he has heard. another writes, quote, congratulations to whoever did it. by the way, the olney speed

camera is one of the busiest in montgomery county. a rare earthquake shook new england last night. the 4.0 magnitude quake hit three miles west of hollis center, maine. that's about 20 miles west of portland. the quake was felt as far south as rhode island and connecticut. >> i was sitting in this chair. i had my feet up. the entire table just shook. and i thought maybe the dog was under my feet and got up and shook the table. i looked. there was no dog. >> i never really thought we would have the earthquake. i know we've had them in the past but i didn't think it was, you know, an earthquake. >> the quake was first estimated to be 4.of magnitude, but later it was downgraded. coming up ahead on 9news now at noon, there was a deadly bar fire in denver, colorado. investigators say it was no accident. >> plus, the fall of lance armstrong. the tour de france winner is

cutting ties with his long time charity and that's not all. we'll have details just ahead.

firefighters in colorado made a grim discovery this morning. the bodies of five people were found in a denver bar. the blaze was first reported around 2:00 a.m. investigators say that the fire was deliberately set. police say it is unclear whether the deaths happened before or after the bar was closed. famed cyclist lance armstrong has stepped down as chairman of his cancer fighting charity. he says he has made the move to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of the ntroversy surrounding his cycling career. the u.s. antidoping agency release add massive report last week detailing allegations of widespread doping by armstrong

and his teammates when they won the tour de france seven straight times. minutes after the announcement, nike severed its relationship with armstrong. a nike statement said it's serverring ties with the cyclist due to seamingly insurmountable evidence that lance armstrong participated in doping and misled nike for more than a decade. police in netherlands are looking for suspects in one of the largest art heists in recent hiory. cjar;oecharlie d 'agata reports. >> reporter: thieves broke into the museum around 3:00 a.m. tuesday morning and walked off with seven pieces of artwork. the list of stolen work reads like a textbook in art history. they include a pick picasso, a

gogan and two monets. no guards were on duty at the time of the robbery, but police arrived at the museum just five minutes after the alarm system was triggered. >> the alarm system is supposed to be a state of the art so we've got no reason to believe tates' not, but some mao -- believe take it's not but somehow the people responsible for this found a way in and a way out and they found the time to take seven paintings. >> reporter: the director of the art loss registry, an organization that tracks stolen artwork says the high level of sophistication it took to pull the crime off subjects the thieves -- suggests the thieves had inside information. >> the police will be looking at friends, relatives of various museum personnel, looking into their background to see if they can find some kind of a connection. it just went too smoothly, this theft. >> reporter: together the paintings have an estimated value in the tens of millions of dollars which would make this one of the biggest art heists in recent history.

but despite the high value carried by the art, the people who stole it will have a hard time selling it. >> you take these to vancouver, you're not going to be able to sell them. no respectable dealer, auctionhouse or collector is going to touch them. >> reporter: officials remain optimistic that the stolen artwork will soon be recovered. for cbs this morning, birmingham, england. >> the stolen artwork belonged to a private collector. the artwork was on public display for the very first time. erica is here for howard. >> i'm out here on the patio where it is just gorgeous. lots of sunshine. we're going to continue to warm up those temperatures as we head into the afternoon. in fact, we'll get up to around 70 degrees in most of the beltway. but we do have some rain on the way so i'll tell you more about that coming up in your seven- day forecast. stay with us.

this weekend the als associate is asking you to help them in their fight against the disease. they're having their 13th annual walk to defeat als. it takes place on sunday on the mall. with me is ronnie gennison, the executive director of the als association and also sean collins. he has als. this walk is important to you because number one, you have the disease. >> absolutely. certainly i've benefited

greatly from the assistance that the als association has provided to us. i was telling ronnie earlier, i really don't know how people manage this disease without the assistance of the als association because they come in right at -- right at the time of diagnosis, in some cases earlier and really kind of help set the expectations for families that really are blown away by this. most people don't know about the illness. not only are we looking to raise funds for the association that's done so much for me and my family, but we're also looking to raise awareness so that other people -- every 90 minutes somebody is struck with als, diagnosed with als. every 90 minutes somebody passes away. so we're raising funds to help out those people that are going to be diagnosed and certainly to raise awareness of the disease itself. >> a lot of people know als as the lou gehrig disease, a major sports figure who was diagnosed with the disease. and then two weeks ago there was some news that came out that said maybe he didn't have

the disease. what is the update on that? >> he did indeed have the disease. some of the questions arose during the controversy about concussions and brain injuries with sports figures and there have been questions about lou gehrig but he did have als, yes. >> how present lent is the -- prevalent is the disease? >> about 5,000 people will be diagnosed this year. at any given time 30,000 people are living with als. as sean said, people are diagnosed every 90 minutes. and every 90 minutes someone passes away from als. any one of the problems is that it is a fatal disease. so at any one time we don't have a huge number of people living with the disease and that's part of the reason why it's a little bit difficult, it's challenging to get information out and to raise funds because we don't have that huge population at any

given time. >> i do hope that family and friends will come out this sunday on the mall, help fight this debilitating disease. sean, you look great. thank you for coming in and sharing your story and your situation with us. we appreciate that. we hope that viewers are listening and are going to turn out on the mall. help fight als. >> thank you. >> thank you. let's go to erica and get the forecast. >> thank you very much, jc. it's a beautiful afternoon out there. we're going to continue to see those temperatures rise to around 70 degrees for many of us. 63 degrees by 1:00 p.m. we'll be in the mid-60s by 3:00. and sneaking up to 70 degrees for most of the beltway as we head into the afternoon. for that evening drive, we'll be down to 67 degrees. the winds out of the southeast will help to keep our temperatures from slipping too far during the overnight hours. so we'll only drop down into the upper 50s by 9:00 in the evening. it looks like a beautiful afternoon is setting up shop. we have a beautiful view here on the michael & son weather

cam. it's still 60 degrees with some filtered sunshine there. that's why the cloud is in place on our current weather data. dew point of 42 degrees. and that wind very light out of the south, southeast. but we are watching the approach of a storm system. a weak disturbance will remain to our north. that's going to pass by in new england. another cold front is approaching from the midwest. this will bring us some rain as we head into thursday night. probably not during the day on thursday. we'll see here on futurecast the exact timing of the storm system's arrival. we'll keep it clear and dry today. beautiful weather for today. then overnight tonight it won't dip down too much. those temperatures will remain a little bit milder than what we woke up to early this morning. then the cold front makes its way toward us. i think we're dry through the daytime hours along the beltway and then we'll see that rain move in during the overnight hours. the oranges and the yellows indicate areas where the rain could get heavy. we could have some downpours during the overnight hours.

the good news of course with that is we get the rain we need during the overnight when we won't have to be out in the rain. then it all clears out of here by the time we get to friday morning's rush hour. so good news in our forecast that we'll clear is out in time for the weekend. here's a look at your lows overnight tonight. as i mentioned before a little bit milder than what we woke up to this morning. areas were in the 30s but we'll only dip down to 47 degrees in leesburg and manassas. 50 in baltimore. 56 in annapolis overnight tonight. tomorrow we'll rebound those testimonies to around 70 degrees in places like frederick and gaithersburg. 73 degrees in d.c. in the metro area. so over the next three days, we're going to go code green, even though we have that rain in the forecast overnight thursday. into friday morning i think the rain will be a minute pal threat. it's not going to be a big deal. we'll just see the rain mostly during the overnight hours so it's not going to affect your plans. 37 degrees on thursday, 72 on friday. great weather as the terps have

their homecoming game on saturday. 65 degrees. lots of sunshine and beautiful sunshine on sunday with a high of 68 degrees. monday and tuesday look good. starting to get warmer, too, with highs hitting the upper 70s by tuesday. stay with us. we'll be right back with more 9news now at noon.

todai'm one on one with allison weiss. she is the sandy spring museum's executive director. if you live in the sandy spring area of montgomery county, you know that there are some incredible homes. guess what? the sandy spring museum has a fund-raiser this saturday. you can take a tour inside the historic homes. and it's so nice to welcome

you, allison. how many homes are we talking about? >> there's five residences and one small church being opened this saturday. >> sandy spring museum is located at 108 and new hampshire and is really historic. if someone is interested in visiting, you should go to the museum first. >> start at the museum and pick up a map. it's a driving tour of the properties but you get to go inside as well. >> how old are they? >> date back to the late 1700s but none are older than the late 1800s. >> it's saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. the money goes to the museum. >> right. >> the sandy spring area is really a historic area in montgomery county. >> this particular tour is focusing on the hollings river valley and talks about why agriculture grew to be such a large industry in the area, partly due to the river located there which allowed industry to

develop. one of the most interesting properties that's going to be open is the brookeville woolen mill which is actually a residence now. >> is that so. we're looking at some photos now of -- video of some of these historic homes. was it difficult to select the homes that were going to be on this tour? >> the historic homes tour has been going on for a number of years. each year we try to have a different focus. we wanted to focus on this particular story. then you have to do all the research into the properties. and hope that the owners are gracious enough to open up to the public. it's asking an awful lot of somebody. >> i couldn't let people come into my home. my goodness. it's saturday 10:00 to 4:00. how much does it cost to go on the tour? >>it's $35 a person. >> all the money gross to the sandy spring museum. you really should stop by the sandy spring museum, 108 new hampshire avenue, because they have incredible displays all the time. thank you. >> thank you. >> good luck to you on this

saturday on these historic homes. beautiful, beautiful homes. thank you for ing with us.