closed captioning will resume shortly closed captioning will resume shortly a vacant motel catches on fire - and the fire department believes it could be the result of homeless people seeking shelter from the cold.

this morning - fox 5's ophelia young is live at the scene wiht the latest. yesterday and today are the coldest mornings we've seen this season - so homeless people keeping warm - the fire department says its possible this is what led to the fire. hope kwon owns this building on 3rd and imperial hope kwon owns this building on 3rd and imperial downtown - "this window was clear before and we blocked it last week. before she blocked the window, she had a clear view of the vacant motel across the street. "the kids go up and down and kids go in and out of the parking lot around the building so i called 911." it wasn't the first time she complained about the homeless in the motel. she wasn't surprised when the shuttered motel caught fire monday morning.

nat sound this is video from the first fire a year and a half ago. it was caused by squatters - or homeless people seeking empty building for shelter. they left the motel then - but during a recent inspection - the department found more evidence of squatting. "theres usually trash mattresses shopping carts things of that nature its just a place they go to hang out and theyre trying to get out of the elements." though the fire which started in the stairwell is still being investigated- symanski suspects squatters may have accidentally started it. "it could be smoking cooking but many times they build a little heating fire this morning was the coldest morning that we've had so far this season." there are also reports those living there included workers renovating the building. the fire department boarded up the building after making sure the blaze was put out. but in the past - boards have done nothing to keep

"some of these people they dig tunnels they breach walls they cut a hole in the wall theyre hiding" "within an hour homeless people will be over there ripping the boards off getting back into the building again." hope has had countless windows broken by rocks thrown by the homeless living around the motel and her business. "everytime i change it they broke it again." she hopes the fire disperses them - and brings attention to the homeless problem in a neighborhood she's trying to help revive. "oh i hope so please im asking city mayor help me keep the place nice." squatters are a growing problem in the valley - the fire department asks property owners to frequently check their buildings if they are vacant - especially during the winter when temperatures near freezing. reporting live. a new squatter law makes it easier for property owners who suspect homeless living in their property to work with police to arrest them. its that time of year again when hundreds of thousands of people come to the valley to ring in their new year. but with the extra

comes heightened security. fox 5's abby live from the strip with a look at how preparing for the big night. in just a few days this street corner will be packed with people for new years eve. and while las vegas officials welcome the party - they want to make sure it's also a safe experience. it's "americas party" and las vegas is the place to be. lindsay somerstein, visiting from miami: 1:03:00 we came here specifically for new years we heard it was a lot of fun so we wanted to see what it was like. with the crowd expected to top 300-thousand - county officials are taking extra steps to make sure the party is as safe as it is fun. 1:11:41 larry brown, vice chairman of clark county commission: when people are making the decision as far as a destination like las vegas, the first question they ask now is "how safe is your community?" and we will go above and beyond

uniformed officers will be working the strip, 300 in downtown las vegas, and an additional group of plain clothes officers spread through out town. metro is also taking a page from the fremont street experience hand book - asking the public... not to bring large items onto the strip. lombardo: we're putting a request out on las vegas blvd. to prevent indiviuals from showing up with backpacks, bags, strollers, bulky items that one could use to conceal items of harm unlike the fremont experience however - it's not an ordiance. just a request. nevertheless mayor carolyn goodwin says more than the preparations in place- the public is their best asset. we're the boots on the ground, we something that looks unusual we see someone acting out. we need to take responsibilty and we can't just turn out head and figure its someones job. christian molander-barraza it was just a lot of craziness going on something say something campaign is." they say in the last couple of months -

in they're suspicous activity reporting earlier today we spoke with the las vegas convention and visitors authority .. it expects nearly 99 percent of all local hotel rooms to be full new year's night. as abby mentioned .. they predict more than 330- thousand people will be in town for the party.. and expect them to spend more than 227-million dollars.. up almost 5-percent over last year. a violent crash killed a woman just before daybreak this morning. from our traffic cameras you can see the emergency responder activity around the scene. according to the nevada highway patrol .. a woman was driving an s- u-v north on the 15 when she lost control and rolled down the rocky embankment onto the ramp between the 215 and las vegas boulevard. she was not wearing a seatbelt .. was ejected and died at the scene. no word yet on if she was impared or something else led to her losing control. democrative presidential

sanders has spent the day campaigning at public and private events around the valley.. tonight .. he's holding a rally at canyon springs high school. that's where fox 5's rachel moore is with a look at his busy day. elizabeth they just opened the doors to this see there is a line flooding into this gymnasium. we're expecting sanders to speak around 6 this evening. they'll speakers rev up the crowd before he takes the stage. earlier today the senator attended a private event at former democratic congressional candidate erin bilbray. he spoke to about 100 guests of the women's leaders luncheon. in a short speech about money in politics and said he would fight for an increase in the minimum wage and fight against income inequality. if elected -- he also promised to court justices who uphold limits on government influenced by monetary interests. proud of his by millions of

donations than by the beneficiary of billionaire patrons. after posing for individual photos the senator then went to an event to speak to veterans. and in about an hour or so he'll talk to the crowd coming in here now. this is a free event -- open to the public so they're expecting a couple thousand people here tonight. rlrmffnllv. this morning fox 5 anchor john huck sat down with the senator here at the fox 5 studios.. they talked at length about housing .. the future of energy - fossil and renewable - in nevada .. and why he's targeting our state as a battleground. huck going into the sprint part of this race, you have iowa feb 1st, new hampshire feb 9th, nevada, 3 weeks after that, what is your message to nevadans about why they should vote for you, life would be better under president sanders over president

" the answer i think, this country today faces an enormous crisis, these are not normal times, we just talked briefly about climate change, which is one of the major crisis, we're also talking about incredibile, unequal, distribution of wealth and income. that we are now experiencing, top 1- tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, 58 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent. workers are working longer hours, they are getting less in real inflation to account for dollars. we have a corupt campaign system, sucks that people like sheldon adelson and other billionaires, are literaly able to buy elections. we need a president who is prepared to stand up to the establishment, to take on the big money interest. the billionaire class.

is part of the establisment. i think my life's work, my record in congress, what this campaign is about should tell the people of this country, i am that candidate." huck here in nevada, a lot of homeowners are still underwater, how will the president make life a little better? sanders here's what we do, what we say is first of all, in america we need a minimum wage which is a living wage, not a salvation wage. my view would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next several years, number 2, real unemployment in this country is close to 10 percent, youth unemployment is higher than that. we need to create millions of decent paying jobs, rebuilding our crumbling infrastucture. we need pay equitiy for women workers, if we are going to be competitive in this global economy, we need to make sure, that we have the best educated workforce in the world, in my view :04:30:10 colleges and universities, are tuition free and paying for that for a tax is wall street speculation. "senator, last week there was a decision here by the public utilities commission, giving nv energy the ability to charge

more, while giving them less money for the power they returned, and a lot of people say that's going to kill the solar here in nevada, they feel they've been kicked in the gut by the government, that tells them to go green, and yet the utility-- monopoly here is making economically sanders "that decision was made by the state officials. i am not an expert on what goes on here in nevada but it sounds to me, like a very bad and counter-productive decision. look, here's the reality, this is my view , i believe along with vertually all the scientists climate change is real, it is caused by human activity, it is already causing massive problems in our country, and around the world. next .. a look at the other candidates .. including frontrunner donald trump going after clinton .. and not the one running for president. plus .. a grand jury decides whether or not to prosecute the officers who shot and killed 12-year old tamir rice. welcome to the sun bowl ... in the middle of a snowstorm! a look at the crazy weather across the nation

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an ohio grand jury will not charge any officers in the 20- 14 police shooting death of 12-year- old tamir rice in cleveland. rice was shot while playing at a recreation center near his home. the 12-year-old was holding a pellet gun when

the two officers involved in the looked real. prosecutor says it was reasonable to believe the officer who fired the fatal shot felt threatened. tim mcginty/cuyahoga county prosecutor "given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police." a witness who 9-1-1 said the weapon the african-american sixth-grader was holding was "probably fake". but the officers involved were not told this. prosecutor tim mcginty said the shooting of a child should not happen again ... and he called on toy gun manufacturers to stop making items that look like real guns. rice's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of cleveland. after a brief break from the campaign trail for the christmas holiday.. and with only five weeks before the iowa caucuses .. fireworks are once again flying between presidential candidates. joel waldman has more from washington.

escalating the war of words with the clintons, when it comes to gender and sexism, firing off this tweet first thing this morning.... if hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women's card on me, she's wrong! no fan of hillary clinton herself, carly fiorina called out trump for dragging former president, bill clinton, into the campaign scrum. fiorina says "you're not going to be hillary clinton by attacking bill clinton. you're going to beat hillary clinton, i'm going to beat hillary clinton by attacking her track record and her lack of trustworthiness." no matter what you think of trump's tactics, he heads into the iowa caucuses firmly atop the gop field....with strong stances on national security, immigration and the economy. johnson says "what people are angry about is the percieved lack of leadership on these issues and that's precisely what he's tapping into." nats: jeb! jeb! former florida governor, jeb bush, once considered a shoe-in as the frontrunner, now

stepped up his attacks on trump. bush says "he's the chaos candidate and would be chaos president of the united states." political watchers warning bush he may be picking a fight that cannot be won. sabato says "so if you look establishment, and walk establishment and act establishment don't make any plans after july, because you're not going to be the nominee." waldman (on cam tag) says "a new survey out today by the foundation for accountability and civic trust finds hillary clinton one of "the worst ethics violators of 2015" ... while a new gallup poll finds clinton the most admired woman in america. in washington, joel waldman, fox news." a strange scene at the hyundai sun bowl in el paso texas sunday as snow fell during the game. the university of miami and washington state had to battle the elements as well as each other. washington state went on win the

now fox5 weather 24/7, with chief meterologist ted pretty we keep the freeaing to near-freezing temperatures overnight through the week with cold afternoons. tuesday's start at 33 degrees will be a few degrees warmer than what we saw monday morning at 29 degrees. through the rest of the week we'll see lows around freezing with highs around 50 degrees. new year's eve will feature breezes to 15 mph..those breezes last into new year's day. we keep the freeaing to near-freezing temperatures overnight through the week with cold afternoons. tuesday's start at 33 degrees will be a few degrees warmer than what we saw monday morning at

the rest of the week we'll see lows around freezing with highs around 50 degrees. new year's eve will feature breezes to 15 mph..those breezes last into new year's day. closed captioning will resume shortly from new mexico we keep the freeaing to near-freezing temperatures overnight through the week with cold afternoons. tuesday's start at 33 degrees will be a few degrees warmer than what we saw monday morning at 29 degrees. through the rest of the week we'll see lows around freezing with highs around 50 degrees. new year's eve will feature breezes to 15 mph..those breezes last into new year's day. we keep the freeaing

overnight through the week with cold afternoons. tuesday's start at 33 degrees will be a few degrees warmer than what we saw monday morning at 29 degrees. through the rest of the week we'll see lows around freezing with highs around 50 degrees. new year's eve will feature breezes to 15 mph..those breezes last into new year's day. closed captioning

closed captioning will resume shortly

up through the midwest... people are getting little relief from the weather today. but at least 24 people have now died from a storm system that has brought tornadoes, flooding..and now blizzard conditions in parts. this man in ellis county, texas didn't mind cleaning up after a tornado barreled through. jordan hinton tornado survivor "it was like a movie, i was running towards my closet and the doors and everything started caving in." in the midwest...the system brought heavy flooding over the weekend...forcing of i-70 in missouri. several people were killed by the floodwaters, of international soldiers who were at fort leonard wood for training. ahead, a scare inside a northern nevada casino over the weekend. gone in a cloud of debris.. why an almost century old bridge bit the dust this morning. blame it on the rain .... and the snow .. fed ex explains why so many people did not get their christmas gifts delivered on

2 it has not been a merry christmas for fed ex. the company missed christmas delivery deadlines for thousands of packages across the country over the holiday weekend. fed ex issuing a

quote "severe weather in the southern part of the country meant a large number of packages had delays getting on the move." the company also wrote they were handling a larger amount of last- minute demand than they were expecting. a large response over the weekend to the nugget resort and casino in sparks. people were reporting smelling smoke and the odor of something electrical burning. the sparks fire department responded and did not find a fire .. however .. they believe the smell was real and it was coming from a kitchen incident at the casino's gilley restaurant. firefighters say a broken sprinkler tank caused a fire pump to run, causing diesel smoke to fill a hallway. people say goodbye to an iconic bridge in pittsburgh this morning. this is the ninety- year-old greenfield bridge being blown up. crews took months to set up the implosion which went off without a hitch. the structure has been closed to traffic since october. a new span is scheduled to open by mid 20-17. there's much more coming up in the second half

including a look at just how much we all spend over

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john huck. christine maddela. and