the darker the clouds, the higher the cloud tops and more intense the rainfall and that's what they're feeling in the bahamas. we do have an expanded area now of tropical storm warnings, essentially the entire east coast of florida, the atlantic side up into most of the coast a.m. sections of georgia -- coastal sections of georgia and part of south carolina. this harms the florida coast and then -- parallels the florida coast and then turns back to the east. the showers we get saturday and sunday have nothing to do with sandy. then it turns back to the northwest. we talked about this possibility yesterday and on tuesday and this would impact the immediate metro area. this would not be a direct hit for us, but it would impact this as we get into tuesday morning and tuesday afternoon. even by tuesday afternoon this still has 65 mile-per-hour winds. it won't technically be a tropical storm anymore. it will be extra tropical, a

cold core storm, but because it will be so intense it will generate some pretty big winds for us if it goes into northern new jersey. if it goes further north, less. so if it goes into southeast p.a., we'll be in a world of hurt. we'll come back and talk more about the timetable and scenarios. >> we should note for you sandy is already blamed for two deaths, one in haiti, the other in jamaica. the outer bands of the hurricane are hitting florida's atlantic coast now with some powerful waves and gusty wins and heavy rain. streets are -- winds and heavy rain. streets are being flooded by miami and officials are warning surfers stay out of the water in ft. lauderdale. >> if is a washing machine out there. -- it is a washing machine out there. you just get toss around, really severe rip currents. >> up the coast in melbourne residents are preparing for tropical storm force winds and flooding as the offshore hurricane moves north tonight and into friday. the region's utilities are

kicking in their emergency plans and urging customers to get ready. scott broom is at pepco headquarters with the latest on what we can expect. >> reporter: a short while ago i spoke with marcus beale, the spokesman at pepco. he told me the utility is going to be holding 550 line workers on stand-by throughout the weekend. >> we evacuated all of our emergency teams. we're already holding calls to basicically plan for holding contractors to work on our system are in place so they're available immediately if we need to do restoration efforts. >> reporter: but at this lowe's in laurel there were plenty of utility customers voting no confidence with their wallets. >> i'm getting a generator for my house. the last storm we had power was off five days. we don't want to do that again. >> reporter: how much you spending on this thing today? >> $800. >> reporter: wow. >> better than losing all the tough in your house. >> i had lost food, had to empty out my refrigerator, just

not going to do that this time around. >> reporter: are you ready? >> i guess so, as ready as a person can be. >> reporter: the other big sellers, flashlights and batteries and supplies to clean leaves from gutters and drains, a key to flood prevention around the house. so if the big rains and big winds come, you definitely got to have those gutters and drains cleaned out to get the water away from the house. in addition potentially to worrying about the electricity going out, the region's other major utility bge has issued a statement this afternoon telling its customers to be prepared for the possibility of hundreds of thousands of outages. all the utilities are watching this storm just like we are. reporting live at pepco headquarters downtown, scott broom, 9 news now. >> we've made it easy for you to track the storm on your smartphone. text sandy to 25543 and you'll get simple instructions how to

download our wusa9 weather app. a storm of another type has been brewing for some time now in maryland. a political firestorm over question 7 which would add a casino in prince george's county. matt jablow joins us with a look at how the vote on the referendum is looking as election day fast approaches. >> one thing both sides agree on right now is the vote looks extremely close which is why the campaigns for and against question 7 are really heating up. >> he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. >> with less than two weeks until the election the two sides of maryland's question 7 debate are ramping up their campaigns. in forest heights, maryland, the state controller led a rally against the referendum which if approved would allow table games at the state's existing casinos and pave the way for the construction of another casino, this one on the grounds of national harbor in prince george's county. >> it's a big jolt for our

economy. >> reporter: where former prince george's county executive wayne curry is helping lead the charge in favor of the referendum. >> i suggest we take yes for an answer. >> curry says a vote for question 7 is a vote for thousands of new jobs at the new casino. >> the promise of 12,000 jobs both permanent and in construction is something we can't overlook. >> and for tens of millions of additional dollars each year for the maryland education trust fund which by law is one of the primary beneficiaries of gambling revenue in maryland. >> is in an unprecedented opportunity to achieve goals that we've had for, many years. >> reporter: those opposed to question 7 vigorously disagree. >> it's not economic development. it doesn't produce new revenue. >> reporter: saying most casino jobs pay very little money and say that even though casino revenues have been added to the state education trust fund, state spending on education has not changed since

casinos came to maryland and they don't expect it to change if a casino is added at the national harbor. >> any dollars coming from the casino into education in maryland only replace existing school dollars netting no change for education funding. >> an interesting element of question 7, the maryland secretary of state tells 9news that if the entire state votes for question 7 but prince george's county votes against it, a casino would not be built at national harbor unless the state's location committee decides to push it through. however, under that scenario table games would still be allowed at the state's existing casinos. a little confusing. >> so just to be clear, if casino money replaces some education money in the state budget, where does the education money that was replaced go? >> that's a very good question. presumably the money goes back into the general fund to pay for all kinds of programs and

services, but peter french and other opponents of question 7 say the money goes into the black hole of state government never to be seen again. >> you're going to have some answers in just about two weeks. thank you. turning to the race for president, where the campaigning is fast and furious. once again the focus is on the battleground states. after a predawn delivery of donuts to some florida firefighters president obama was delivering his remarks in richmond, virginia, two days of nonstop campaigning, however, beginning to take a toll. >> i'm sorry. are you fired up? >> we're ready. this is our time. i need your help. >> the president just a tad hoarse earlier today. mr. obama did make some election history in chicago a few minutes back when he became a first sitting president to ever cast his vote early. he wrapped up his day in ohio before he's back in washington d.c. tonight. mitt romney kept his focus on the buckeye state all day long. remember no republican has ever captured the white house without winning ohio.

a former fbi agent runs down an 18-year-old in a deadly drunk driving crash. today a jury finds adrian johnson guilty of that crime. ken molestina joins us live from upper marlboro with details. >> reporter: this was a very emotional day for all those involved, especially the family of the loved ones of the victims who say today justice was indeed served. it was in february of 2011 that along garner was killed and his close friend badly injured following a drunken crash involving then fbi agent adrian johnson. police say johnson was driving on the wrong side of the road drunk and speeding driving down a rural road in brandywine when he slammed into garner's car. the 18-year-old had just graduated from given park high school. the -- from gwynn park high school. the loved ones spent their time following a crusade since his death and today they got it. >> my family has gone through a lot and it feels like a sense

of peace now. maybe he can rest now and we all can rest. >> reporter: adrian johnson could face up to 13 years in prison. his sentencing is set for december. ken molestina, 9news. arlington place launched a criminal investigation into the conduct of patrick moran, the son of virginia congressman jim moran. the move follows the release of an undercover video showing patrick moran discussing a plan with an alleged volunteer to cast fraudulent ballots. the tape was made by a serve kif activist. moran expressed doubts -- conservative activist. moran expressed doubts about the plan but eventually said he'll look into it. patrick resigned yesterday after the release of the video. disgraced local swim coach rick curl surrenders to police today to face charges of sex abuse from decades ago. the alleged victim said curl began abusing her when she was 13 and the relationship

continued another five years. the woman is now 43. curl is 63. he's already been banned for life from usa swimming, the legendary swim club he started in montgomery county. they've dropped curl's name from its title. coming up at 7:00 topper is tracking hurricane sandy and the image that thousands say inspired them may amount to nothing at all. we'll explain why this dying veteran's vote may not count. that's 9 news now at 7:00. >> what a story, derek. right after the break in this newscast microsoft goes after apple with two big time product launches of its own. >> plus our entire weather team has been tracking hurricane sandy for you. we ask you for your questions about the storm. we'll have the answers coming up after the break.

on the heels of apple's unveiling of the ipad mini microsoft is showing off some of its new products. >> at a five-hour event in new york city today the company gave consumers a look at windows 8 as well as its new tablet. windows 8 is designed to work on both pcs and tablets. microsoft's new tablet is called surface. it costs $599 goes on sale tomorrow. you have questions, we have answers. meteorologist topper shutt and erica grow respond to your

concerns about sandy and a possible super storm next.

we are tracking sandy now, a category 2 storm, maximum winds 105 miles per hour, wind gusts 125. she's raking the bahamas right now. she's turning northeast a little as we get into friday afternoon, goes down to a category 1, probably 85 mile- per-hour winds and then it parallels the southeast coast which is great news, really great news for florida quite frankly and for north and south carolina as well. this is saturday afternoon. it's well off the south carolina and georgia coast. we'll put it back into motion now. we're looking at the storm beginning to turn to the north and west and this is the problem as we get into tuesday of next week. this is tuesday afternoon. even though it's extra tropical winds will still be 65 miles per hour with some higher gusts. if it takes this exact track, we are going to have some winds in the metro area, heaviest bands of rain staying in northeast maryland. we are going to have gusty winds into tuesday, maybe 20 to 40 miles per hour. this is the deal with that storm. i want to show you the

spaghetti plots. each line represents a computer model. they're in pretty good confluence over the weekend and then they turn it back to the north and west and that becomes the danger, especially into tuesday, late monday night into tuesday. if it takes this track, we're in a world of hurt. if it takes this track, it will graze us, anything north of new york misses us completely. social media is abuzz with all kinds of questions and for more on that, here's meteorologist erica grow. >> we know you're already concerned about the storm even though it's four or five days away, but a couple top questions on our facebook page today tasha reed asks will the d.c. area be getting rain, snow or a mix of both? it doesn't look likely we'll see any snow. the warm air will there be when we have the rain. the cool air will be there when the rain is already gone if the storm follows its current track. patrick rich asked do you think there will be any trees

falling? this is the one thing that we can say with pretty high confidence, we'll see some tree damage, maybe a lot of tree damage. it depends how close the center of the storm gets to us and, of course, the closer to the center of the storm that you are, the stronger those winds will be. finally linda barnett asked will there be coastal flooding along the potomac river? that actually doesn't look very likely at all because the winds will be coming from the wes which is a direction that pulls water -- west which is a direction that pulls water out into the ocean instead of pulling ocean water inland. so coastal flooding is not likely. of course, if the track changes, that is an x-factor we'll have to keep in mine. right now we are continuing to -- mind. right now we are continuing to track this. next week is when it's most likely we will feel the impacts of whatever is left over from sandy. >> isn't it kind of interesting, though, eric car,

about -- erica, about a year ago today we had a big snowstorm in connecticut? sometime late october storms can be pretty hefty. nice outside, very nice evening, our live weather cam brought to you by michael and son. temperature still 69, dew point 59. that tells you it's going to stay warm tonight. winds are out of the east at 7. that's a motif to continue the next three or four days. 69 rockville, 66 vienna, 69 college park, 66 in bowie. monitoring sandy, the threat again is next week, mild tonight. you might want to grab your umbrella tomorrow, although i don't see anything heavy, getting cooler through tomorrow and the weekend. mostly cloudy tonight, mild, maybe a few showers late, 52 to 60. that's a very mild night. tomorrow morning mostly cloudy, mild, shower possible, 50s and 60s and by afternoon it stays

mostly cloudy. i don't think we'll have the breaks we had today. some showers tomorrow, not a huge deal, highs upper 60s to near 70. again winds easterly at 10. they stay easterly. next three days seasonable tomorrow, code alert green. yellow alerts saturday and sunday, some showers both days. the games will building played saturday. sunday temps go down to the low 60s. next seven days it stays a little unsettled. we're looking at temperatures generally in the 50s right on through halloween into next week and yes, tuesday would be our really tough day with sandy if it were to take a trek back to northern new jersey or further south. we have been lucky the last few years on halloween. payback. some pretty big d.c. sports figures in town. >> yeah. it was great day. actually one redskin in the news, not for great reason. we'll talk about that. he's played 231 games in a row.

now he's doubtful for some pretty serious reasons. london bridge is falling down. can he get up in time for pittsburgh? we know when big john thompson speaks, people listen. >> and ryan zimmerman healed, yes, next.

and now 9 sports with dave owens. >> well, how excited were you

burgundy and gold nation when pierre garcon caught that deep end pass from robert griffin, iii and dashed 88 yards for a touch and we won? could that end up being his primary highlight of 2012? maybe so. he's been mostly injured since that play, of course. today he announced he has a torn ligament in his foot, ouch. he's not sure when he'll be back, devastating news for a guy that so much has been banked on. so thursday it became beep, beep, beep, paging dr. mike shanahan, md, please. >> when you talk about a capsule, when you're talking about tendons, that's what a capsule is. there are fibers in there that are off balance, yeah. what the doctor said to us, if he can tolerate the pain, he's not going to make it any worse. >> sounds painful. london fletcher not only dealing with a tight hammy, he missed practice to see a specialist for balance problems, not sure if it's associated with a concussion,

but he's questionable for sunday. still time to vote in our latest high school game of the week poll, potomac and fulton in prince william leading the way. total votes above 16,000. let your votes be heard. the year before john thompson jr. went to georgetown the hoyas won three games over the next 27 years his teams won 70% of his games. so you can see why he's so revered. his legacy is also that of appear african american man -- an african american man building a basketball power in a relatively small white school. if anybody knows scrutiny, it's thompson. so i couldn't help but ask him about rg3. a young man growing up in a different era. so how is mr. griffin handling it all? big john gave me his take. >> the boy is not only a good athlete. he's a great entertainer. very few people have the ability to be good and still be

entertaining and that's why this kid is so special, but he comes across as being intelligent. he comes across as being thoughtful. as far as his team is concerned, i've been very impressed with him. some news on the nba, commissioner david stern announced he's step down in february, 2014. i guess he just wanted to give them time. it will end a 30 year run that's included some controversy, of course, minimum age limit, dress code, but great things like the mega tv deal and the internationalization of the game. ryan zimmerman had surgery on his right shoulder. he basically played all year with the bad wing and needed those sort zone shots. surgery went fine. he's expected to be ready for spring training. we just got word devin burns, quarterback for maryland is out with a foot injury. that would mean they're down to just one scholarship quarterback. we'll have more on that at 11:00 tonight. >> that's it for us. the cbs evening news is next. >> good night.