you win virginia? the magic number to win is 270 electoral votes, 13 up for grabs in the commonwealth, a state with two sides, northern virginia and the rest of the state. we have tide water, south side, and roanoke with a strong republican base. mr. obama would have to win convincingly in northern virginia. >> he doesn't need to win northern virginia. he needs to crush romney in northern virginia. a simple win would be a victory for romney. romney wants to keep it close. obama has to destroy romney in the vote turnout in northern virginia. >> reporter: mayor says obama will carry black voters in virginia, but it will hinge on voter turnout. >> virginia is more of a necessary win for romney and a nice-to-have win for obama at this point. now, things could change. if republicans are serious about wisconsin and michigan and those numbers start to close, then it will be obama that is desperate to win virginia. >> reporter: president obama won virginia in 2008, the first democrat in 45 years and since lynd

do you win virginia? and 13 electoral votes up for grabs in the commonwealth, a state for two sides, northern virginia and the rest of the state. we have tide water, south side and roanoke with a strong republican bases. mr. obama would have to win convincingly in northern virginia. >> he needs to crush romney in northern virginia. a simple win would be a victory for romney. romney wants to keep it close, obama has to destroy romney in the turnout in northern virginia. >> reporter: mayer says obama will carry the black voters in virginia but it will hinge on turnout. >> virginia is a night to have win for obama. things could change. if republicans are serious about wisconsin andmy michigan and those numbers start to close, it will be obama desperate to win virginia. >> reporter: president obama won virginia in 2008. the first democrat in 45 years. since mayer says virginia has been in the back pocket of the republicans, this will be the first time we really see a full presidential race with political ads

the history of virginia indian tribes predates 1607. the first sustained -- >> you have run out of time. >> okay. >> thank you. >> you did well. >> thank you for your time. >> by the way, i have to remind you that we did pass and recognize you out of this congress last year. we're going to do it again. that dark hole over there, we call it, i don't know what you say, you got to go over and jerk them around a little bit, too. >> thank you so much for your time. when i heard that you were going to be on this committee, i have good friends in alaska and i just, my confidence soared. >> i appreciate that. next witness is mr. scott gabaldon. from alexander valley. you're up. >> good afternoon, chairman young and members of the subcommittee. my name is scott gabaldon. i am an indian. i'm the elected chairman of the tribe of alexander valley. i would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to represent my people. let me be crystal clear. our tribe was wrongly terminated and deserves its status restored. that is a fact and only focus r

and in 2009 virginia elected him governor. the same year if 2009 virginia picked this guy as governor. he spent his first years in office suing the federal government over health reform. how did that work out? he also designed a new and more modest version of virginia's official state seal. then virginia elected a legislature that passed a bill requiring a medically unnecessary vaginal probe ultrasound for any woman trying to get an abortion in virginia. a forced vaginal probe ultrasound. and last how governor bob mcdonnell became coast to coast as governor ultrasound. and now nobody thinks he's going to be vice president of anything. at the last minute they did change the law so it's not technically a forced vaginal ultrasound specifically, but it is still forced, and they made sure that you have to pay for it. the virginia state government, under republican controlled mandates that you have to have a medically unnecessary ultrasound and you have to pay for it. if you can't afford it, virginia wrote up a list of places where

dominion virginia has 202,000 without power in northern virginia. and bge says in montgomery county and prince george's county, about 37,000 outages. >> all programs and activities in county school buildings are canceled monday and tuesday because of widespread power loss. administrative offices are closed. only designated staff will have to report on monday. fox5's audrey barnes reports. >> reporter: montgomery county has opened a number of cooling stations offering a place to wait out the very hot days. bob gray is getting his dog used to the neighborhood around the inn in bethesda, because they're going to be there a while. power is out in his neighborhood, and he's made a reservation through next sunday. >> i'm a meteorologist, i work for noaa. so i saw it coming and i made reservations before it hit. >> reporter: oh, you had insider trader information, right? >> yes, i did. >> reporter: the lines of cars waiting to check in at some hotels stretched down the block. it was standing room only at the reservation counter. bob hogueland was lucky eno

virginia, there are a lot of wrinkles to virginia.nservative governor, conservative legislature, 5.6 i think it was in may, the unemployment rate, obviously almost three points below the national average, a lot of that defense spending, a lot of that federal spending, dependent on federal spending. obviously northern virginia with the pentagon and the federal government right across the river. virginia is to a certain extent dependent on the federal government and federal spending. it's a bit of a wrinkle there, little bit of a conundrum for republicans in this kind of attack. first read, you talk about the vital nature of virginia, first read today said 13 electoral votes so important, a win here plus in colorado enables president obama to surpass 270 electoral votes without winning florida, iowa, ohio and nevada. so there's no question it stands to reason why the president's going to be spending so much time there over the next two days. >> you know, we dissect the president's sort of messaging and campaign strategy. this seems like

campaigning in virginia, in virginia beach. you're looking at live pictures coming up. president obama became the first democratic presidential candidate since lbj to carry virginia and both campaigns are vying for the state's 13 electoral votes. nbc's senior political editor, mark murray, is here with me and nbc white correspondent kristen welker joins us from virginia beach. kristen, since you're down there, this crowd obviously waiting for the president, it's a democratic proud, military area of the tidewater. at the same time, this is such a critical state and it is very close. virginia has been getting more and more conservative in recent years. >> reporter: absolutely. and the importance of virginia really can't be overstated, andrea. the obama campaign thinks it's crucial to winning in 2012 so when president obama takes the podium here, he will, as he has in days past, call on congress to extend the bush era tax cuts for folks making less than $250,000, but he will also tell or some of his comments we are expecting to the military community here. there are about

i think that puts more emphasis on virginia, the demographics in virginia are growing a bit more faivlgovernor tim kaine who will be engaged in a tight vote for the senate there. it will bring out the votes. that's an important battleground state that the president will go back to. >> how crucial is the win in virginia? >> i think virginia is important for the president. i don't think it's this the must-win category liking ohio or pennsylvania. but it's definitely important. i think there are 13 electoral votes there. the latest real politics average show barack obama with a three-point edge over mitt romney. it's very competitive. romney has taken campaign trips to virginia but not as froektly as barack obama. perhaps because that's also because the white house is just a few short miles from virginia. but it highlights what an important state it is for the president. >> let's switch gears, david. i want to talk about mitt romney is fighting back about his time at bain capital. here's what mitt romney told nbc's peter alexander. >> the president's campaign has been i think outrageous in

covers all of west virginia and all of maryland and virginia except for right around the tidal potomac and in the cities and around the bay it's in the low 70s. elsewhere, a pleasant morning under way. we're starting off in the mid and upper 60s many locations. and there's the sky over the washington monument. we've got a bit of a crescent moon showing up in the eastern sky. and we have the high clouds that will be with us throughout the day. here's your day planner. sunrise 5:53. that's getting later this time of year. noontime, mid 80s. turning less humid by mid to late afternoon. late afternoon, back to mid 80s. i'm back in ten minutes with another update. danella is here with an update. >> i-95 in virginia northbound the crash is at fairfax county parkway as you approach fairfax county parkway and it's blocking your right lanes. here's a live look right now as you make your commute. two lanes to the left are able to get by. police and fire departments still on the scene. you can see a police officer in this area and you can see where the lanes are blocked. hitting brakes just a bit

into western virginia.y down into the carolinas and tennessee. i wanted to zoom in a little bit. we're seeing all this weaken quite a bit. again, there's that late bloomer there out in western maryland. this is futurecast tonight at 11:00. handling it very well. by 3:00, a few showers, maybe a thunderstorm. this is probably just going to be a good old garden style thunderstorm moving through. we're technically in the risk of severe weather. so it needs to be watched. tomorrow morning, dry, dry tomorrow afternoon with a possibility of one or two popups late in the afternoon. storms possible overnight tonight. otherwise, mild low temperatures and we start off tomorrow in the upper 70s. will be a mild start. we'll have sunshine through the day. good news here, we cool off a little bit. at least the next couple of days. not only do we cool off with the temperatures, but the humidity will lower just a little bit. at least until fourth of july and the humidity will come back. high on fourth of july with a threat

this is all advancing west to east out of west virginia into maryland and virginia.ight now right around washington. just a few sprinkles, but the roadways are wet. and so, watch out. you're going to have to allow yourself some extra time. don't tailgate, don't speed. you might spin out. we've already had some accidents, people hitting those ramps going too fast and spinning out. the roadways are wet. getting some heavy downpours, these areas in orange, and that includes frederick county, where they have creeks and streams out of their banks. many of the rural roads there have high water flowing over the roads, so watch out for that. panhandle of west virginia getting some moderate showers near charlestown to martinsburg, and then winchester down to la ray, front royal, just lighter showers. east of that, faulkier county getting moderate rain and a few pockets of thunder and lightning in southern prince william county, just now crossing the potomac and heading into charles county near waldorf. may get some brief, heavy downpours there over the next hour or so, but th

the hour a terrible incident unfolding on the campus of virginia tech university in blacksburg virginia that's a couple of hours south of washington d.c. at least twenty people have been killed in at least two separate shooting incidents there is still a lot of activity there are still officers up above crouched high trees busy enough police out there weapons drawn. going through the campus business but it's been like all maureen very chaotic very rushed through the thirty three people killed here at virginia tech including the gunman this is the worst campus massacre in united states history but of course it isn't the first it's almost eight years to the day since the columbine massacre. have been able to confirm the identity of the gunman the response the person is cho started with. the gunman needed only to. i.d.'s and a credit card to buy the weapons and ammunition he used sadly for tat has just become an all time mass murder site and students here will never feel the same. it was a normal monday morning and. also from my nine am french class to another class that day in both the ca

northern virginia. the company says crews from 15 other u.s. states are also helping with power restoration efforts. >>> an alert for all federal employees tomorrow. federal agencies in d.c. will be open, but nonemergency employees will have the option to take unscheduled leave or telework. emergency employees, however, expected to report to work as scheduled. >>> three marylanders have died from the heat in recent days, one from montgomery county, the other in baltimore city and and i the health department is warning of symptoms of heatstroke, no longer sweating and despite being hot. >> i'm already beginning to see signs some humidity is creeping back in. let me briefly show you the highs today. it felt cooler than we felt in quite a while. reagan national hot, no doubt about it, 95 degrees. we weren't talking about heat index values running over that, though. that was okay. dulles 92, so a little cooler in our western suburbs, bwi marshall 94. humidity will run. it looks like it's going to be coming

that includes the eastern shore, maryland, virginia, and into west virginia.it's in the mid 70s. for the rest of the day today, by 9:00, still a chance of maybe a sprinkle. so have an umbrella handy before you leaf. we will have temperatures by noontime from the 70s mid morning to the low 80s by noontime. and only a slight chance for your lunch hour that you will need that umbrella. later this afternoon, though, another greater chance of maybe a passing shower late afternoon and into this evening. reaching the mid 80s mid afternoon, back down to near 80 and then by dawn on saturday, mid 60s. for your friday emping, maybe a passing shower this evening and then a greater chance tomorrow afternoon, mostly cloudy day saturday. hot and humid near 90. maybe a little thunter thunder and lightning tomorrow afternoon. severe storms. sunday and monday, hot and humid both days. around 90. maybe some passing afternoon thunder showers or partly sunny. tuesday, settling down a bit. hot and humid, hot and humid through mid week, too. storms around wednesday and thursday. dan

plan to bring casinos to virginia? we'll tell you where the gaming par lorss could be. >>> also ahead, d.c. cracks down on drunk driving. the harsh new penalties you could face. >>> more troubles for the post office. the massive payment the postal service sa >>> there may be fewer sunbat sunbathers on the beach in cape cod today after an apparent shark attack, at least not in the water. they saw a large black dorsal fin break the water. the man struggled to get to shore with bite on his legs. the cuts were deep but he is in stable condition and not expected to lose the leg. wildlife officials still have not confirmed that it was a shark attack but sightings have increased this year because of a large seal population in that area. >>> virginia has a little more cash it ins pockets this morning. the state finished the 2012 fiscal year with a surplus of $129 million. $78 million of that surplus is marked to replenish the state's rainy day reserve which was used to help avoid huge budget deficits the past few years. virgin

west virginia, 4:00 p.m.8:00 p.m. looks like the time frame for, if any storms do get going, a risk of damaging winds. and as we do get through the rest of the day, we'll have temperatures climbing to the upper 90s by midafternoon and we'll have a lot of humidity around, too. then after that, we'll get the storms coming through, and then much better after midnight and through the day tomorrow with lower humidity and cooler temperatures and lots of sunshine. then the heat and humidity return on thursday and friday, into the 90s again with afternoon storms possible. cooler for the weekend. could get storms saturday, but lower humidity sunday-monday, highs in the 80s. danella, good morning. how's traffic? >> good morning, tom. right now checking the roadways, if you're traveling in prince george's county. we're going to check branch avenue as well as 301. i'll give you a live camera right now. here's a live look as you make your way northbound on branch avenue, passing 301. you see your volume is increasing, but

storm4 radar showing a cluster of heavy downpours southwestern virginia and into southern west virginiais is advancing closer to us. right now i don't have any rain around the metro area but we are under a flash flood watch noon all of the way into tonight. it covers all of the way of northern virginia and east and west virginia, the district and much of maryland in is for the possibility of heavy downpours that may cause some localized flooding. and we could get a passing shower by mid morning. we'll be in the upper 70s by then. and around noontime, too. have an umbrella handy for your lunch hour. we could have downpours beginning to occur there. but the likelihood of the flooding rains is during the afternoon into tonight. we'll be reaching mid 80s before they do get going. if you're driving along, hey hi water, do not attempt to drive through high water. not only will your vehicle stall out you will probably ruin the engine in your car. we will have the heavy downpours with thunder and lightning likely through this friday evening. if you have plans to go out tonight, be aware of that

of virginia.nt out ttresintbama w virgiay s pois i 2008 coue,ecomg t fir decrat t w thatate sce j wawearg har slas and ordering by phone in this area behind me in the west wing. there are 13 electoral votes up r grs. hes i a healy -igh mitaryrea ere todor e fit pa of toda t rst o even. pele aunderend dow ther cal itideter, virginia beach. then he is in hampton, one of the issues you have already talk about is the so-called defense cuts, so-calle seeste theefen cut undetheseeste und t buet ctrolact,hat reblics ha bee hitng e pridenon ldingp t thisrip histall impoantegio i tiwate notwithstanding the fact that 174 republican members of the house voted in favor of the budget control act, just 66 tinggain itboutear ana ha ag demoatsere sitevly, 955. th ones o othe one i hang a harime unrstaing toda thalinef atta. anyway, later he goes on to western virginia, the roanoke area, perhaps a little bit more red but a lot of people in virginia telli meodayt's rninuer. com baco t wte hse nighandhen tomoow,t's

dominion, virginia has a total of 138,000 customers. 83,000 of them are in northern virginia. in the last hour pepco reported more than 130,000 customers out, 76,000 in montgomery county. 31,000 in prince george's county and 23,000 in the district. >>> in verge individual anyonian power welcomed the arrival of crews last night. >> crew as arrived from other states and even canada. they have identified more than 16,000 work sites from the weekend storms and more than half their customers have been restored. there are still more than 8000 smaller work sites left to address. 9news now reporter jessica doyle joins us live on bailey's crossroads. good morning jess. >> reporter: good morning to both of you. that's right. there are 4000 line workers working for dominion trying too get the power back on. now they are doing things like picking up tons and tons of trees. they are replacing poles. replacing a pole that is a good one day of work there just to get the pole back in the ground, not even talking about the transform and stringing the line. obviously very tough work as they try

virginia dominion is expecting to get about 80, 85% of its customers in northern virginia back with power by tuesday. folks who live in these little neighborhood communities, these people are probably going to be looking at possibly thursday for restoration and folks like myself in a neighborhood with lots of little trees down and big trees down deep in neighborhoods in northern virginia, we are looking at probably the weekend before we get our power back. in terms of your morning commute, there are still major intersection problems. arlington county has about 50 intersections without power. down from 80 over the weekend. fairfax county updated to say they have about 80 intersections out, which is going to make that commute in really a tough situation. the state declared a state of emergency and that helped to bring crews in from other states. thirteen states provided crew workers, as well as canada. so if you see folks today working on lines, they are obviously working hard in really tough conditions with this heat, so they have got to get the trees up, put the lines back up, in some cas

you can see that covers a lot of virginia and maryland into west virginia. right near the bay it's in the 70s. 74 at reagan national. hometown forecast, la plata, by noon, low to mid 80s. highs reaching mid to briefly upper 80s. maybe near 90 farther west across northern virginia. then by late evening, low 70s. i'm back with your seven-day outlook in ten minutes. danella is here with a look at traffic. >> traveling 295 in maryland, things look good. travel lanes open heading between baltimore and the capital beltway. travel speeds southbound, 67 miles per hour approaching 197. over to i-95, a live look passing 198 southbound as well as if you are traveling northbound. no issues to report. looks like my camera is just adjusting. travel speed is 66 miles per hour from route 216 to the beltway. that drive just taking nine minutes. i'm back in ten with another look at your traffic. >> 4:42 now. 70 degrees out there. still ahead, one city's drastic measure to make their budget work that has employees seeing red. >>> an inside look at london's olympic village and

and find out what the catch is. >> a dog fight between a northern virginia restaurant and a west virginiae house. hear from both sides in this dispute over a name. >> and before you grab the keys let's check on the commute now, monika samtani over to you. >> northbound i-95 a minor incident on the shoulder near lorton. it's moved on and caused a tiny delay here but no big deals helding for springfield and the beltway. i'll be back with more traffic coming up in my next report, at 6:30. you're watching 9news now. >>> welcome back. 6:29. your weather first on this thread morning. tgif is another humid sticky morning. not as bad as though as yesterday and it's not going to be as hotted a yesterday. still going to be hot and mid 90s. 95 or so and we have again a threat of storms, here's the day planner we have temperatures this morning starting in the 70s. pretty sky here in northwestern d.c. with some of the clouds mixing in. 91 by moon. mix of clouds and sun and then this afternoon, 95. 93 by 5:00. and by then, we'll have a couple of storms mainly south of town. yesterday evening had the bi

west virginia. a few high spots in west virginia are in the 50s right now. reagan national at 74. the view from space showing a few high clouds drifting. the rain is down to our south. that may be moving in perhaps into the mountains later today. only a slight chance. otherwise, here's your day planner. mid 90 by afternoon. less humid during the afternoon hours and partly sunny throughout the rest of the day. i'll be back in ten minutes with another update. aaron? >> all right. thank you, tom. >>> a traffic alert for drivers now. a downed tree shut down a busy road in northwest d.c. this one caused big delays during the morning commute. melissa mollet with a look at the damage now. >> reporter: good morning. i can tell you a lot of folks have come down here at 6:00 this morning. slowed down and taken a look and realize they can't go down waterside drive if you are on massachusetts trying to get to rock creek parkway. you can see why. look at this tree. this tree is originally on rock creek park prop

two-thirds of northern virginia right now. but let me show you about the problems one-third of the folks are dealing with here. you are going to see a line coming down. this is a major power line here, this is quincy road. i'm going to stay a short distance away from this, because this may be partially energized. it is tangled in small trees and then you get over here and you have one of these oak trees. some trees in these neighborhoods are 100 years old. that is about 1000 pounds of leaves that have come down from this storm that we had on friday. a lot of it came down on saturday. about 27% of residents in northern virginia are still without power. virginia dominion has been working really hard on this situation. they brought in crews from 13 states and canada. the declaration of emergency really helped getting extra crews in. but this is the restoration timeline folks are looking at. virginia dominion expecting that about 80, 85% of folks will be back online as of tomorrow. that is when the hard work is going to really beg

covers a huge area, all of virginia, all of maryland, eastern shore, all of west virginia. this is between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. today. that's when we might get an isolated storm producing some wind damage. but a beautiful morning by 9:00, low to mid-80s, humid, lots of sunshine. by noontime, clouds beginning to build. for the lunch hour, though, we'll be into the low 90s. then mid and upper 90s midafternoon, but late afternoon, around 4:00, 5:00, we might have an isolated storm popping up. we'll drop back down into the 80s by then, and some of those storms might produce some wind damage, so stay tuned. then tomorrow, much nicer! it will be a beautiful day with lower humidity. 60s in the morning, afternoon highs in the 80s with lots of sun. then we heat up on thursday, soaring to the upper 90s, near 100 with increased humidity and maybe an isolated storm. still hot and humid on friday, too. maybe an afternoon storm as well as on saturday, but not as hot. sunday, monday looking better with lower humidity, highs in the 80s. danella, good morning! how's traffic now? >>> good

ohio, virginia, similar shape. and power companies, they say they are out there, they say they are repairing the transmitters and lines faster than expected, but their estimates show customers could be waiting until the weekend for electricity. as we mentioned, it is hot all the while. those unbearable temperatures keep spreading. 14 states under heat advisory today. brian todd is in charleston, west virginia where it's supposed to be 95 degrees there. i see the tree behind you. i'm sure folks in the neighborhood, no power. another big issue, a lot of people don't have food. >> that's right, brooke, you were talking about people waiting on the power companies and waiting for the power to get up. but this is what's keeping them waiting. seems like this all over the state. this oak tree snapped in half, took down this power line here, disabled this power pole up here then you've got a domino effect throughout neighborhoods like this. power officials telling us these trees down are a huge obstacle. we're right in the

in northern virginia, dominion virginia reports 351,000 outages and bge said montgomery and prince georgesounty, there are 51,000 customers in the dark and more stomps could be popping up in our region. >> not exactly what we need to hear now as you know. tucker barnes follows the latest round for us. what is the latest? >> reporter: good news here. we're quiet across the washington area at the moment. we had a pop-up shower move into the district an hour ago and all is clear at the moment and that is staying warm and muggy overnight and there you go. the shower moved through the city and is dissipating and things should be quiet overnight and does not mean we won't see storms pop up tomorrow afternoon and that potential for scattered storms during much of the week as we endure the hot temperatures and the heat wave across the mid- atlantic. i want to show you what got going and during the late afternoon-early evening hours, a big thunderstorm complex got going and south and of the city to culpeper and fredericksburg. can you see that activity now fading to the south to richmond and a lot

and west virginia. as well as in the district of columbia. >> it's a disaster all over. >> reporter: power crews in many areas are working around the clock to restore service to more than 2 million people. >> there's no air and it's really hot today, so the power i think is the main thing that everyone's really suffering from. >> reporter: with temperatures soaring past the 100-degree mark in many plays, dozens of communities have opened cooling stations. >> it's here for the people who don't have electricity. they can come here, cool off. especially people with young children, elderly, people are respiratory problems. >> reporter: forecasts say the temperatures should dip into the 90s in the coming days, but it may be several days before power is up and running. >> if you are going on night three without power and looking to book a hotel, well, it's best to shop around. there are some crazy rates all over the internet. today, we still found places like the motel 6 in northwest going for yes, $500 a nig

most of virginia and maryland and into west virginia, too. it's in the 60s this morning. here's your day planner for this friday. yes, you may need an umbrella this morning. again, when you're coming back home but for your lunch hour probably not. by then, near 80. peeking in the mid 80s by mid afternoon. a look at your friday evening planner in ten minutes. danella has a look at your friday commute. >> tom, things look good in our area. connecticut crash at georgia avenue. it's completely clear. let's head down i-95 in virginia. very clear as well in both directions. so far light volume. no accidents to report. here's a live look at the weigh station making your way southbound as well as northbound travel lanes are open. quantico, not bad. 58 miles per hour. just 24 minutes to drive to the beltway. continuing on 395. no issues on n. this area. beltway and to 14th street bridge, you're clear. 55 miles per hour. looking like a 12-minute drive. on the rails though, 16-minute delay now. and the vre metro are running on or close to schedule. >>> 6:02. d.c. mayor vincent gray

as far as northern virginia, dominion power they are also assessing and restoring. their focus right now is on the critical structures like hospitals and senior homes because they really need to get the power back on in those places they expect to have a full assessment by noon as to whether -- what kind of time table they are working with to get all the power back on and that is why on some of the websites you will see the changes, the power -- you will have one number for power outage and it will go down and may be up and down. they want you to call it is important to call if you see power lines down or don't have your power on at this point because they don't know to come out and fix it if you don't call them. >> wisdom, the biggest source of frustration for people. we will ask people from pepco and dominion about that. >>> the scene will be repeated hundreds of times throughout the day throughout the dc region. not just here but several mid- atlantic states. we want to get the lettest on the restoration efforts, good morning myra. >> good morning. >> we understa

and west virginia. temperatures right now in the 70s to near 80 degrees and reagan national now at 79 and highs reaching low to mid-80s and when we get in the next two to three hours and then after that some of the heavier downpours later this afternoon, tonight, improving news for the weekend. next week starting off, heat and humidity maybe afternoon storms but a break from the heat and humidity mid-week. that's the way it looks. barbara? >> thank you, tom. >>> a member of congress thinks d.c. should be able to tax commuters who drive or ride into the city every morning. here's a live look at commuter traffic this morning. house republican darrell issa says he wants to hold a hearing on the possibility of a commuter tax. because of home rule, d.c. is the only place in the country that can't levee that kind of tax. issa says he's not necessarily supporting the idea, but says he thinks it's a bad idea to give workers an incentive to live in maryland or virginia but work in d.c. >>> and taking metro in or

with virginia having experienced its own tragedy at virginia tech, we began with guns. >> when i wasf the general assembly of mr. jefferson's seat and it was my amendment that said that when anybody is buying a firearm that they'll be regardless of the firearm, there willing an instant criminal records check. i think the instant criminal records checks including mental disorders or drug abuse is indicated in any firearm purchases. we need to wait to get all the facts and make decisions as to what can be done when such an abhorrent act occurs. >> let me see if i can get you directly to the question. knowing what we know now, are there enough gun laws we could impose that would stop someone from doing this if they have a clean record? >> well, it would be complete hubris to say we can put policies in place that would stop bad things from happening. what we need to do is learn and fix them and minimize the chance of these things happening. >> we touched on other subjects important to this election cycle, the economy, military spending and infused through it all, politics. >> i noticed g

what is virginia's secret?e'll try to get the governor to tell us. ♪ and it starts every morning with gillette fusion proglide. get your great start... with gillette fusion proglide. ♪ [ male announcer ] ok, so you're no marathon man. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost. introducing the musically enhanced htc one x from at&t. rethink possible. >>. >> greta: 5.6%, that is president obama's favorite number. that is the unemployment rate in the state of virginia. will president obama will get virginia's success? bob mcdonald joins us. good evening, governor. >> nice to be on, thanks. >> greta: with the unemployment rate of 5.6% the envy of many other states, how do we know whether or not the president should get credit with his stimulus bill or whether you should get credit for it or legislature or something else? >> success has a thousand fla failu

about to cross the border between ohio and west virginia. that's why we will keep a chance of an isolated thunderstorm in overnight, but not a big chance. so your day planner, your wakeup weather, 70s to start. 74 to 82. by 10:00, it's going to get hot again. heating up rather quickly. we'll come back and show you the record highs. and we'll also talk about the roller coaster temperatures over the next week, which includes fourth of july. >> thanks, topper. widespread power outages last much of the metro area in the dark for updates. we have pepco on the phone right now. hi marcus, can you give us the latest numbers? >> sure. so we currently have roughly 377,000 customers out across our service territory. we have about a thousand crews on their way to supplement the crews that we already have, currently assessing damage to our system and currently restoring power to our customers. so, this is going to be a multiple day event, but we are certainly staffing up accordingly. definitely an all hands on deck type of event. we have employees staffe

let's head over to i-95 in virginia.to hit the brakes at the occoquan as you make your way north on to the beltway. you're under speed, just about 35 miles per hour. you're looking at a 17-minute drive to get to the beltway. connected to 395, seeing some volume there as well. as you head from edsall past duke street, also sun glare, so make sure you pack your sunglasses today. you're under speed. it's not terrible, but it's slow, 40 miles per hour. taking about 16 minutes right now to get from the beltway to the 14th street bridge. i'm back in ten. now back over to you both. >>> d.c. mayor vincent gray finds himself under increasing pressure this morning to resign, and it follows a guilty plea by a former aide and pr executive, jeanne harris, who admitted to running a $650,000 shadow campaign. now, it is the third guilty plea in an ongoing federal probe into gray's 2010 campaign. and while gray maintains that he knew nothing about it, several council members say that it is the last straw. now, right now, three members ar

dominion virginia has more than 82,000 offline in northern virginia. bge says montgomery, prince george's, anne arundel and howard counties have about 61,000 without power. >> you get up andhood out on to the roads and lights are still out. that is a big problem. but than on top of that, the heat. we had a little bit of a break yesterday, a little. but today, is it back? >> up to 95 yesterday. >> i know. >> here is the change from yesterday. the humidity will be back. we got a little break from the humidity yesterday. today, it will be hot and humid. >> we get both. >> yeah, it's back. >> that is not good for the people who don't have power and ac. >> thank you very much. i'm getting irritable. i hauled water like i lived in remote siberia yesterday down the street from a neighbor so i would have water in the house. >> a lot of people are getting tired of it. >> 78 in washington. 70 in baltimore. 70 in one chester. so temperatures, if you are in the mountained or down to the ocean, ocean city, 65. not terribly uncomfortable. satellite-radar, we have a

northern and southern virginia, southwest virginia. all of that has to come into play.s the reason that the candidates are spending a lot of money. you talk about blue state. we don't know where that's going now. >> but we have to remember in virginia, this campaign of kane and allen is intertwined with romney and obama. if romney or obama surges that will help their surrogates that is to say, if romney surges that will help allen. if obama surges that will help tim kaine. they're largely dependent on each other. this is where coattails and where reverse coattails could have a big effect. the fact that virginia is a battleground state is extraordinary and yet the fact remains it's all tied into presidential and national politics. the economy goes up, it helps obama, well that helps kaine. >> and also one of the reasons we're being inundated with and these ads now where kaine is being criticized for being out of state, doing everything he -- >> working for the dnc. >> as if that's not what a chairman does. but it will hammered home. hammered home. so the opposition to ka

you're taking the beltway in virginia. the outer loop. first at the dulles toll road and again at i-66, you're going to have the left side blocked because of road work there. your volume is very light. hopefully that's in its final stages. let's head over to the beltway in montgomery county. inner loop this time past colesville road. construction still taking place. it was blocking the right side of the roadway. looks to be confined to the right shoulder lane. you are hitting the brakes just a bit but clear as you continue on. good news on the outer loop of the beltway, not seeing any issues in montgomery county. back in ten with another look at your traffic. >> thank you. >>> today lawyers for george huguely will be back in court. they want to judge whether prosecutors acted inappropriately by withholding evidence during his murder trial. in february, they found him guilty of second degree murder in the death of his exgirlfriend yardly love. both played lacrosse there before she was beaten to death in 2010. hugueely is expected to be sen

what is virginia's secret?ale announcer ] this is our beach. ♪ this is our pool. ♪ our fireworks. ♪ and our slip and slide. you have your idea of summer fun, and we have ours. now during the summer event get an exceptionally engineered mercedes-benz for an exceptional price. but hurry, this offer ends july 31st. >>. >> greta: 5.6%, that is president obama's favorite number. that is the unemployment rate in the state of virginia. will president obama will get virginia's success? bob mcdonald joins us. good evening, governor. >> nice to be on, thanks. >> greta: with the unemployment rate of 5.6% the envy of many other states, how do we know whether or not the president should get credit with his stimulus bill or whether you should get credit for it or legislature or something else? >> success has a thousand fla failures. we're glad to be down to 5.6% since i became governor down from 7.4. it was a bipartisan accomplishment. we worked together. but i would say if the president stimulus policies and all the other t

that represents about 10% of total customers in northern virginia. so virginia dominion, i'll tell you, is working really really hard on this situation. they have about 4000 line workers at work. you are not going to see a lot of them at night and in the early morning hours, that is when folks are going to try to get some rest, they have been working 12 to 16 hour shifts, looking still like the weekend before the outlying power comes back. guys i'm going to send it back to you in the studio. >> good luck. if you are at a hotel and you still don't have power or you are someone still in the dark or you know someone still in the dark, here are some of the phone numbers you can call to report and check the status of power out annuals in your neighborhood. pepco customers 1-877-pepco 62. dominion 1-866-.com help. and the bge number is 1-877-737-2622. >>> verizon says most of its 911 service has been restored in northern virginia now but arlington county still has some issues with wireless emergency calls. the building that controls those calls lost power

let's turn our attention now to virginia. dominion power is reporting more than 170,000 residents without electricity. no virginia tech is faring better with more than 3000 customers waiting for their power to be restored. in maryland, bge, has 28,000 customers without power. most of them, at least 25,000 residents live in prince george's county. and more than 4800 customers are also waiting for their power to be restored. most of the outages are in charles county. well, it is the number one question on a lot of people's minds. when will the power be restored? christian fisher is tracking what's happening in kensington, maryland. kristen? >> reporter: j.c., it has taken two and a half days but this morning pepco crews finally removed the downed power lines that were covering the southbound lanes of connecticut avenue right here in kensington just north of university boulevard. i think we are just moments away from seeing all of the southbound lanes reopening earlier. just a few moments ago, i saw some cars getting through. yo