ARLINGTON, Va. (WUSA) -- Wind gusts knocked down trees and wires, knocked out power, and blew roofs off in the DC metro area Friday.

The U.S. Department of the NAVY hosted and invited our members to attend the Stars & Strips reception held during the Black Engineers Awards Conference on February 18, 2011.  The NAVY (Flag Officers) had round-table discussions with the students based on their interest in a career in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM).  

On Saturday, February 19th, the Patriots attended the conference where hundreds of organizations were available to help our youth focus on the importance of STEM related fields in an effort to develop the necessary leadership skills to be successful in their future career goals.

ROCKVILLE, Md. (WUSA) -- Former Montgomery County Council member Duchy Trachtenberg took on public employee unions during last year's re-election campaign, and suffered an election loss largely because of it. She sees the kind of showdowns that are taking place between public employees and legislators in Wisconsin this week as a possibility when the county legislature has to make tough budget decisions within the next several weeks.

"My prediction is that you're going to have some pretty strenuous debate about the very issues that are being raised in places like Ohio and Wisconsin," she told 9NEWS NOW.

"We're in a real budget crunch and we have been for several years. And what's very clear, certainly to folks on the executive side, is that some of the obligations that we have for employees, and also for those that have retired, are not sustainable.