. >> gary nurenberg spoke with representatives from the group. >> reporter: the d.c. group collective action for safe spaces has been compiling stories of sexual harassment in public maces for to years-- >> places for two years. >> 30% of those have taken place on the metro buses, trains, platforms. >> reporter: the system which handleled 344 million trips last year, one rape, 41 assaults, 40 indecent exposures, 22 arrests. given the millions of trips, it really isn't a big issue. there are a minuscule number of incidents of actual crimes said dan stessel, a metro spokesperson. >> they actually don't track the verbal harassment which we know is much more common. >> i'll be on the metro minding my own business, head phones in, reading a book and people will come up to me like hey, baby, you look good tonight. >> reporter: sometimes it's less clear on a crowded metro car. >> you feel something below your waist and you say, was that really necessary? there's a question of well, is it because we're crowded or because someone's taking advantage of the situation. >> reporte

in all, three contests tonight in the republican presidential campaign, and gary nurenberg is here with what we know so far. gary. >> reporter: santorum did not just win missouri, he won it big. 55% to mitt romney's 25% with 96% of precincts reporting. in minnesota which romney won big in 2008, santorum tonight is winning convincingly 20 points roughly over second place ron paul with mitt romney in third. in colorado, no reliable projections yet. that was the goal at this still water, minnesota caucus. >> we're going to cut government spending. >> reporter: on a tuesday night largely about mitt romney trying to keep his momentum while his opponents try to stop it by questioning his conservative convictions. >> governor romney as governor who is pro abortion, pro gun control, pro tax increase. >> reporter: ron paul made a last minute appeal at a minnesota caucus at about 8:30 washington time. >> the bigger the government, the smaller our liberty. >> reporter: but it's rick santorum getting the biggest boost. >> tonight was not just a victory for us, but tonight was a victory for the voic

the public has a right to know when their government is breaking the law. >> reporter: gary nurenberg, 9news now. >> the d.c. city government says it has a policy of not commenting on cases that are still in litigation. but if the police officers prevail, taxpayers will pay for the misconduct of those in government who went after the whistle blowers. >>> last night metro riders voiced their opinion on the transit agency's proposed fare hike. the transit agency is proposing what amounts to a 5% increase for rail service. people using pair fare -- paper fare cards can face a high flat fee but metro would dump the peak surcharge. more than 100 people showed up to voice their opinions. >> i've written metro i think 18,000 times, and i was delighted when it initially opened. the level of service now is atrocious. >> metro bus riders would also see fares go up 10 cents for sportrip card -- smartrip card users. the price for parking garages would go up a quarter. if you missed last night's hearing, you still have five other chances to voice your opinion. just go to wusa9.com and we have a li

gary nurenberg has more. >> reporter: this happened at about 6:30. bmw apparently traveling more than a hundred miles an hour was racing toward the traffic light at sheriff road when is lost control hitting the curb by this citgo station and flipping repeatedly hitting lots of things. >> you can see several trees there, a sign, looks like a trash can of some kind. over here there's the air pumps that were in place next to the vacuum. this box is upside down as a result of that collision. then it came across through the fence. there was a fence there before it came into the kfc. >> reporter: in the process it hit this suv injuring the driver who was hospitalized. the bmw then slammed into the building. the impact apparently throwing an occupant from the car. that body pinned beneath it, the only fatality. the impact also threw parts of the wheel 20 feet into the air where it's still embedded in the building. debris rained on martin luther king highway. the damaged cars were taken from the scene and will be combed over by investigators looking to expla

. >> the historic emmanuel chapel is gone but gary nurenberg reports, it will still play a role in the seminary's future. >> reporter: the stained glass windows, irreplaceable, it's history of world leaders who worshiped or preached there. only a part of its meaning to an episcopal community taught to go into the world it teach the gospel. >> generals ford, the day after watergate sat -- gerald ford, the day after watergate sat here. i was ordained a priest. it's got a thousand one associations. >> reporter: this is all that's left now. so historic, the city won't let them tear it down. >> you cannot have a seminary without a chapel. seminaries by definition need chapels. >> reporter: so thursday night the school unveiled its plans for a replacement, a chapel for the ages, roughly the same size but with better plumbing and a nursery. >> the place where we can pray, where god is invited to work on a human life, to work on the complexities and the doubts that we all live with and to turn us into vehicles to we can bring to countless congregations around this country the good news of god

gary nurenberg, 9news now. >>> good morning. we begin 9 news now at 6:00 a.m.ories we're following for you right now. let's take a live look. this is district heights, maryland. three adults and two children are hurt in an early morning fire. a live report from the scene is coming up. >>> now to the inner loop of the beltway and connecticut avenue. two lanes are open finally after a deadly crash here this morning, but it is going to have an impact on your morning commute. monika santami is keeping an eye on that. she'll have more on that in a moment. >>> first, howard is here with the latest on this possible winter storm this weekend. >> looking more and more likely we're going to see some snow on sunday, sunday afternoon, sunday night. the question is how much. that's tough to pinpoint because the exact track of the storm we can't yet determine. it's st

gary nurenberg talked with some of them earlier tonight. . >> reporter: well, anita, some behavior is clearly creepy, out of bounds, illegal and revolting. but other behavior is less clear. you look pretty tonight can either be welcomed or unwelcomed, depending on the circumstances. the dc group collective action for safe spaces has been compiling stories of sexual harassment in public places for two years. >> in with 30% of those, stories have taken place on metro buses, on the trains and at the platforms. >> reporter: the most dangerous examples in the metro system, which handled 344 million trips, one rape, 41 simple assaults of a sexual nature, 40 in decent exposures, proposals or acts. 22 arrests. given the millions of trips, it really isn't a big issue. there are a meniscal number of issues of actual crimes says a spokesman. >> they don't track the verbal harassment which is much more common. >> i'll be on the metro minding my own business and people come up to me, hey, baby, you look good tonight. >> reporter: sometimes it's less clea

gary nurenberg has more. >> reporter: corinne and barb have been together for more than 26 years, met> we served under don't ask don't tell. that was a very unusual experience because we could not acknowledge each other as part of our family and we are a family. i think that's the reason why we want a license, a marriage license to express that to everybody. but we want people to know that we are a family and we're like them. we're good citizens, good neighbors. we're good members of a congregation and we'd like to be like they are. >> reporter: but they know they'll be denied that license and plan to leave the courthouse and walk into a demonstration of supporters who plan a candlelight vigil there tuesday afternn.

gary nurenberg checked in with them and reports it's really an effort to bring attention to the issuesarriage. >> we can make it go back. >> sure. >> get the whip cream. >> reporter: they have been together for more than 26 years. met while they both served in the navy. >> we served under don't ask, don't tell. and that was a very unusual experience. because we could not acknowledge each other as being part of our family. and we are a family. and i think that's one reason we want a marriage license and a marriage ceremony to express that to everybody. but we want people to know that we are family and we're like them and we're good citizens. we're good neighbors. we're good members of a congregation. and we would like to simply be like they are. >> reporter: but they know they'll be denied that license and plan to leave the courthouse and walk into a demonstration of supporters who plan a candlelight vigil there tuesday afternoon. >> and part of it is the awareness. part of the awareness that there are same sex couples in every single neighborhood that they live in. so we'll have our ba

. >>> gary nurenberg reports a latest case of corruption in disk government has legitimate unemployment furious. >> reporter: some washingtonians got the news standing outside the department of employment services. >> the greed. >> reporter: paid government workers filing claims for and collecting unemployment checks. $840,000 in fraud government wide. >> a variety of agencies were still going through the list to try to determine. there were multiple agencies. >> never, never be on employment. before i lost any job, i worked 20 years, eight years for one company, 12 years for the other company and i was kind of guess statemented when i lost my -- devastated when i lost my job. >> reporter: but when she applied for benefits, she found someone stolen her identity causing a storm of paperwork and a continuing fight to get her unemployment benefits from d.c. >> i'm waking up every day going outside to see if people took my card yet because they're going to repossess the truck because i can't pay

. >> the governor says he's going to sign the bill but gary nurenberg says that's not the final chapter reporter: that's because opponents of the bill say they will go to maryland voters to try to get them to override the legislation by banning same sex marriage. there was passionate opposition. >> i believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. >> reporter: but the tally board slashed a 25-22 vote. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: that had proponents cheering inside the chamber. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: and outside the chamber when the legislation's champion stepped into the hallway to be hugged by governor o'malley. >> for my family, it's going to mean a degree of safety, of confidence and security that we know that we will have with the government saying we want you to have the lifelong commitment. we want to see it last. >> congratulations. to all of us. many, many years. >> reporter: opponents knowing the outcome in advance were scarce at the state house, but plan to put the issue to a state-wide vote or referendum in november. >> i think that's ultimately whe

. >> gary nurenberg reports that cop was assigned to help this woman and use the opportunity to stealm her instead. >> reporter: the 86-year-old learned about police officers from her father. >> he was a police officer in chicago. i used to go down and see him and he put me on his horse. >> reporter: she called police when she expected her bank of america accounts had been targeted by crooks. a sergeant was assigned from the second district in northwest. >> she knocked on my door and came in and sat down and introduced herself to me. and i went and got her a glass of cranberry juice. >> reporter: leaving financial documents exposed without worry. >> for a police officer, i expected her to be honest. >> reporter: aisha hackley forged signatures to herself on checks more than 40 grand. police also found checks in hackley-jackson's prince county home. >> here she is a police officer and the mother of some children, and you think your mother is an example. and i just thought it was terrible that she would be that kind of an example to her children. >> reporter: the dc police chief said th

gary nurenberg has the latest. >> reporter: metro police tell 9news now that the stabbing happened at about 8:00 tonight in the 4900-block of east capitol street at this bus stop where a man dressed in women's clothing apparently had an altercation with another individual, a black male in his 40s wearing a striped hat and a black coat. that suspect allegedly stabbed the the person in the head. she fell down. medical assistance was brought right away. she was transferred to the hospital and it was not until she was on the hospital when doctors determined it was not a woman but a man. the investigation is in its very early stages and we're unprepared to talk to 9news now a few minutes ago about the details of what happened. back to you. >> thank you, gary. >>> an unrelated case earlier today, russell smith was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attacking a transgender woman in broad daylight in northwest washington last summer. the 26-year-old tried to steal the victim's purse but when she refused, he pulled her hair, punched her into the head and tried to pull her into an alley. they

gary nurenberg says it's a romance novelist. >> the grand staircase looks like the setting for a romance novel, a long way from the streets of puerto rico where a little girl had a dream. >> my goal in life was to become an astronaut. >> studied hard. >> i have a three masters and a phd besides my bachelors. >> in what? >> physics, astronomy, engineering and national strategy. >> while studying joined air force rotc to improve her chances of realizing that dream and then trouble with the astronaut physical. >> so they disqualified me. >> 25 years in the air force working on the space program and other engineering challenges, retired now in the private sector doing similar work for a defense contractor, writing and reading serious science. but she has a teenage daughter. >> i think i have read every twilight book about 25 times and i have seen every movie a million times. >> so her own romance novel tomorrow never comes was born, a surprising tail of terrorists, romance and love for your country, with lots of science. >> it's a lot of action and there's a lot of physics about tsunamis and

gary nurenberg is here to show us how the plan came together and fell apart. >> reporter: this is a technique that the fbi has done before. help a terrorist plan an attack and stop him before he can pull it off, but in this case the guy kept changing his mind about what he wanted to do. el khalifi appeared in court late this afternoon charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, a crime that carries a potential penalty of life in prison. the moroccan native came to the teenager as 1999 and overstayed his visa and has been living in the country illegally ever since. the fbi has been watching him for more than a year as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do. on december 1st, he said he planned to attack an office building in alexandria partially used by the military and he wanted to kill face-to-face. on december 8th, he said he wanted to attack a synagogue or an army general. on december 15th he said he found a government building to target by placing a bomb in a restaurant next door. on december 26th, he visited the restaurant in dc to see when it was busiest and decided

. >> gary nurenberg there. >>> a montgomery county teacher is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student. montgomery county police say on two occasions 47-year-old scott dwayne spear had sex with a girl he once taught and later coached. he's been placed on leave pending the outcome of these charges. >>> prince george's county police have a second man in custody now for the murder of an activist from alexandria. 20-year-old ivan newman of waldorf is charged with killing lenny harris. harris had been missing since september. investigators found his remains at the bottom of a well in fort washington last week after getting an anonymous tip. his wife still can't believe her husband of 19 years is gone. >> it was like a piece of your heart was torn. it was like he left my body and that was it. >> another suspect linwood johnson was arrested tuesday. police believe robbery was the motive here. they expect to arrest several more people in this case. >>> tucson shooting suspect jared laughner is still incompetent to stand trial. he has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the 2

. >> reporter: gary nurenberg, 9news now. >> virginia amended the constitution in 2006 to ban same-sex marriage. they won't get the license but they hope to draw some attention on valentine's day with their courthouse demonstrations. >>> today the virginia house of delegates is scheduled to cast a final vote on two bills which have for-choice supporters upset. the first the controversial personhood bill which defines human life as starting at conception. it provides all unborn children the same rights and privileges available to all others in virginia. the second would require all women seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound of the fetus. the bill would not force women to see that image. >>> house g.o.p. leaders say they are willing to extend the payroll tax cuts through the end of the year without budget cuts to offset them. house speaker john boehner said the vote could happen before the end of the week. democrats and republicans failed to reach an agreement during negotiations over the weekend. 160 million americans would see a payroll tax increase if lawmakers cannot strik

gary nurenberg examines the future of policing in america. >> reporter: they can look really little. essentially invisible. >> the fourth amendment allows observation by the government of people in public places but this is to a new degree, unprecedented. >> reporter: the bigger ones, predators and global hawks have tracked and helped kill terrorists abroad. following suspects say in an illegal gun case, seeing who's illegally crossing the border and where or taking over the duties normally filled by more expensive helicopters and their pilots. >> you can give law enforcement the ability to have aerial assets cheaper. >> reporter: fighting wildfires or any type of fire for that malter. >> give situational awareness to the firefighters on the ground where the hot spots are, where people might be trapped. >> reporter: but some see dangers. >> we have this really weird inconsistency with people not knowing when the government is going to be watching them. and opposition to our very -- our very beloved constitutional right not to be observed by the government unless there's a want and un

gary nurenberg has that. >> reporter: they can look really little , especially way up in the sky. essentially invisible. >> the thing that allows observation of people by the government in public places. but this is to an entirely new unprecedented degree. >> reporter: the bigger ones, predators and global hawks, have helped track and with bombs kill american military enemies abroad. and police see law enforcement uses at home scoping out a street demo like those we see so often in dc. following suspects say in an illegal gun case. seeing who is illegally crossing the border and wear or taking over the duties now filled by more expensive helicopters with their pilots. >> you can give law enforcement the ability to have some sort of aerial asset at a much cheaper cost. >> reporter: fighting wildfires. any type of fire for that matter. >> it let's them know where the hot spots are. where people might be trapped. >> reporter: but privacy advocates see dangers. >> we have this really weird inconsistency when people are not knowing when the government is going to be watching them in op

gary nurenberg looked into it. >> reporter: forget the partisan warfare of 2011 for now. are unlikely to raise taxes even if it takes money away from social security. >> the only resemblance the social security trust fund has to the real world is that congress can borrow from it faster than paris hilton ever could. >> reporter: even if the public is worried about social security. >> you have people who say they're never going to get any social security paychecks. none of that is true but there are a lot of people who do not have confidence in the social security system. >> reporter: under the pending deal, congress plans to take money from the general fund giving it to social security to make up the loss and then borrowing to replace that money. >> now we've created a system with this complicated transfer of money where it's going from

gary nurenberg reports the latest case of corruption in dc government has legitimate unemployment beneficiaries furious. >> reporter: some unemployed washingtonians got the news standing outside the department of human services. paid government workers filing claims for and collecting unemployment checks. $840,000 in fraud government wide. >> a variety of agencies were still going through the list to try to determine their multiple agencies. >> never. never been on unemployment. i've always worked. before i lost my job, i worked 20 years. 8 years for one company, 12 years for the other company. and i was kind of devastated when i lost my job. >> reporter: but when maryland smith of southeast applied for benefits, she found someone had stolen her identity causing a storm of paperwork and a continuing fight to get her unemployment benefits from dc. >> i'm waking up every day going outside to see if people took my car yet, because they're going to repossess the truck because i can't pay them because i owe everybody. >> reporter: so to hear corrupt government workers were collecting benefits when s

as gary nurenberg reports, some worried residents say that's just not safe. >> reporter: remember this guy from christmas eve, made national news as the mummy man who robbed a cvs in montgomery village and got away? >> we need a stronger police force. they've got to be on the street a whole lot more. >> reporter: he's the president of the montgomery village foundation in the parking lot of montgomery village center where in recent weeks this restaurant was robbed. a customer of this 7-eleven was assaulted in the parking lot. >> they are a response force. they're no longer policing the way they used to. >> reporter: the nearest police station is now on west watkins mill road on the other side of interstate 270 and busy route 355. >> traffic ties up at rush hour especially. they can't get into the community as fast as we think they should. >> reporter: and that $26,000 a month leased space is apparently where they'll stay now that a new closer police station, 21 million, has been removed from the county budget. >> the county executive decided to reduce our borrowing in the capital budget

of a kfc at the intersection of martin luther king highway and sheriff road and that's where gary nurenbergns us live with the latest. >> reporter: four and a half hours after this accident, accident reconstruction is still under way and apparently will be into the early morning hours to facilitate the investigation. police closed eastbound lanes of martin luther king highway for about 400-yards, the length of four football fields. >> this happened at about 6:30, a bmw traveling more than 100 miles an hour was racing toward the traffic light at sheriff road when it lost control hitting the curb by this citgo station and flipping repeatedly, hitting lots of things. >> you can see several trees there, a sign, looks like a trash can of some kind, and over here there's the air pumps that were in place next to the vaccuum. this box is upside down as a result of that collision and then it came across through the fence. there was a fence there before it came into the kfc. >> in the process, it hit this suv injuring the driver who was hospitalized and the bmw slammed into the building. the impact t

even so, gary nurenberg found one extraordinary couple who believes hope is essential when you live with alzheimers every day. >> reporter: sometimes you don't need music when you've been married for 43 years, you can make your own. bob blackwell was the cia analyst and manager for 30 years, and that's him with the first president bush who wrote at the retirement, blob blackwell is one of the brightest men i've ever worked with. >> [laughter]. that was wrong. >> he has his sense of humor but words can be tough to find. >> if something is just there, i can try to get it, but it's hard to get. >> bob knows his 97 year old mother has alzheimers. >> it's tough. >> but when asked if he has symptoms? >> not that i know of, but maybe there is something out there, but i don't, i haven't run into anything or somebody hit the robot, anyway. >> bob and carol write a blog about alzheimers for usa today. >> people really can't understand it unless they are living with it. it is very difficult. it's a horrible disease, just horrible. it doesn't stop and it's very hard. you never really adjust to it. y

. >> that was gary nurenberg reporting. congressional budget office study projects take social security's trust fund will be depleted in 24 years. the fix is likely going to be very unpopular. therefore, it is unlikely that fix would happen in an election year. >>> a sad day in alexandria. joshua weissman will be laid to rest later today. he's the alexandria paramedic who died last week suching a tragic fall while responding to a car fire on 3935 in -- on 395 in arlington. the visitation wrapped up add midnight. -- wrapped up at midnight. >> joshua's family is our family. we're doing everything from at the upper echelon, all the departments are getting together doing mutual aid. >> that's one of the reasons we're here is to take dare of his family and -- care of his family and make sure every need is met. >> the funeral is at 1:00 this afternoon. all alexandria city schools will be let out early and alexandria police say there will be road closures so commuters can expect traffic congestion near king street, braddock road a

. >> gary nurenberg reports this crack down on whistle blowers is also growing at local governments as well. >> reporter: the disclosures can be big ones about 911 and national security. >> regarding what they could have known or should have known. >> or little ones like local police escorts. >> what we're seeing is intense retaliation against anyone who comes forward to report misconduct. >> howard county was a senior executive at the national security agency who testified about new snooping software. >> i provided them significant amounts of prime aphasia evidence regarding the massive abuse with a program called trailblazerser which at the time was nsa's flagship program, a multibillion dollar program. >> the government didn't like it when he gave unclassified information about it to a newspaper reporter and charged him. >> i face over 35 years in prison if i've been found guilty of all charges. >> running for president in 2008, president obama promised to protect whistleblowers. >> there have been more prosecutions of this president of whistleblowers and other laws than l of the ot