first at four -- a wind advisory is in effect until seven.and those powerful gusts are causing real problems. duke energy is reporting a few thousand customers are without power right now. this is a live look at duke's outage map.. and you can see the current outages are scattered across the tristate. and we've just learned that u.c. clermont is closing right now because of a power outage. but those outages aren't the only problem.trees are starting to fall across roadways and into homes. homes.these are photos posted

ago by miami township fire in clermont county.a tree landed across the road and hit a truck on ibold road.there were no injuries reported.and another tree in that area fell and hit a house!the now's briana harper is headed toward clermont county to bring you a better look at the damage. we'll check in with her later in the hour. and a tree blocked buffalo ridge in cleves this afternoon too!this happened around two and crews made pretty quick work of clearing the roadway here.as you can tell nobody was injured here. steve is keeping an eye on the winds and when they will die down.steve? clouds slowly build this afternoon, eventually turning mostly cloudy after sunset. but winds pick up in the afternoon hours. we'll see sustained winds from the southwest at 15 to 25 mph and gusts up to 40 mph. highs should reach the low 60s today. skies will be mostly cloudy this evening and into the overnight hours. i wouldn't rule out a few sprinkles as a weak cold front passes but it's only a 10-20% chance. right now, it looks like we may have a split weekend: saturday looks great with sunshine and highs in the low to mid 60s. yet, scattered rain showers are likely on sunday. it's a 50% chance for rain during the day, with the best chances in northern kentucky. highs will be in the mid 50s. behind this chance for rain, temperatures will slowly cool as we head into the coming work week,

west chester police and the butler county coroner's office just released the name of a man found dead keehner park. park.the remains of 28 year old eric pefley were found by some teenagers walking in the woods around five thirty last night.today investigators were back looking for evidence. police found out about the remains in a 911 call from the teenager. "did you..i mean does it look completely deceased? oh, yeah it's been there for awhile can you tell if it's male or female? it's definitely male."

has not said how eric peflrey died. a newport home caught fire this morning -- causing a teen to jump to safety. fire crews rushed to the scene at 9th and ann streets where a 16 year old girl had to jump from the second story window to safety.her brother also made it out okay.. with the family's pitbull. we're told the mother and an older sibling were at work at the time. 09 4048 they woke up to the smoke paige jumped out the window she hurt her ankle her brother was in the house he was in the room where the fire than firefighters say today's winds fueled the flames making it difficult to fight..the red cross is helping the family find a place to stay tonight. in middletown -- police are investigating allegations that a two year old child may have been abused. abused.according to a report filed with police the child was taken to cincinnati children's hospital with a broken rib.an adult who had been caring for the child said the girl had stopped breathing and that cpr was needed to

broken blood vessel in her eye suggesting abuse.as of right now though no charges have been filed. the city of cincinnati is accused of discrimination in a new lawsuit. lawsuit.the man who filed it is white-- and says he was passed over for a position in may 2014.he says a black woman was hired instead.he goes on to say that woman was unqualified and only hired because she was a minority.the lawsuit asks for a jury trial. he has also filed a report with the equal employment opportunity commission. now to dramatic footage of firefighters trying to free a person trapped inside a vehicle on i- 71.chopper 9 captured the video after a five car crash.9 on your side's jordan burgess takes a closer look at that rescue. rescue. you can imagine the difficulty.. with the traffic zipping by here on i-71.and firefighters facing two tons wouldn't budge. budge.captured from above... the chaos below... as

person trapped in this rolled over suv.chopper 9.. the only local helicopter getting you breaking news first.. was there during the rescue attempt.you can see them surrounding that suv.they eventually were able to free the person's foot and get them out. they were taken to the hospital.. but are expected to be okay.police say one other person also suffered minor injuries after the five car crash on interstate 71 just north of the pfeiffer road exit.aside from the suv.. a car took a big hit.officers are calling it a chain reaction crash.. but what set it in motion is unknown at this point.the crash happened just before 7 this morning.it closed all but one of the northbound lanes of i-71 and also backed up traffic in the southbound lanes.crews were able to get the crash cleaned up by about 8-15.. but not work. and that crash a reminder of the importance to be careful as you head out on the roads

jordan burgess. the now cincinnati. cincinnati. right now police are working on figuring out who's to blame for the crash. hamilton police announce the closure of a bar -- they've been trying to get shut down. down.they say j&j bar was a hot bed for trouble and criminal activity.after getting a court order -- officers shut the place down last night.in a post on facebook the chief says he's been working for this since early 2015. today supreme court justice antonin scalia's casket is in the great hall of the supreme court. court.the remaining eight justices came today to honor him.they were joined by nearly 100 of his former law clerks. president obama also stopped by this afternoon.scalia died in his sleep saturday in texas. washington, d-c. meantime -- the white house says president barack obama will start the process of picking a new supreme court justice this weekend.he'll come up with a list of possible nominees looking at their professional careers, records and experience. press

the information the president will use was prepared by white house lawyers. here's an interesting new job.. cincinnati's mayor is now looking for the city's first "poet laureate!" laureate!"the person in this new role will be reponsible for promoting poetry throughout the city... and writing verse for special events.candidates have to be at least 18... and committed to poetry.the mayor is accepting applications until march first. an american icon has died. died.we look back at the life of the heralded author, harper lee. 39:07 you've seen the signs! tax season is in full swing. coming up...a new warning from

strong windas have caused power outages across the tristate.. and damge in areas like clermont county. thats where we find the now's briana harper live with a look at the damage there from these high winds.

you've likely read her famous book "to kill a mockingbird." the author, harper lee, died today in her sleep today at

of the spotlight most of her life.in one of the few interviews she gave she said quote "i want to do the best i can with the talent god gave me. all i want to be is the jane austen of south alabama." lee returned to the spotlight last year after her manuscript "go set a watchmen" was published.she wrote it in 19-57 before "to kill a mockingbird." cheap gas means more people on the roads and that is leading to more crashes. crashes.the national safety council says more than 38- thousand people were killed in car crashes last year and more than four million were hurt. that makes 2015 the deadliest year on u-s roads since 2008. and in direct contrast to 2014 which had a record-low number of car-related deaths. the national highway traffic safety administration says cheap gas prices mean more people are driving for leisure and young people are driving more often. now to a warning from the i-r-s...we've told you before about scammers contacting you through email or text

anne mcnamara reports on the 400-percent surge...in the first two months of the year. 15:11 come on over, john..at this liberty tax location...nats25:11 you can claim her up to 23 if she's in school...the owner takes pride in personal connection with customers...one that's lost when people file online. steve mcdermott | owner, liberty tax service37:04 i know his family, i know what theyre going through. i can give advice and get him filed quickly and safely. and he's not surprised to hear about a new online scam. the i-r-s now warning...hackers are sending fake emails and text messages...asking taxpayers to update their e-filing accounts. 34:48 it always seems like there's a new angle...once we figure out one, there's another one. it's important to know...the i-r-s will not contact you via phone or email. so if you get something like this...ignore it.already this year...the number of scams is up 400 percent! just last month...more than a thousand scams were reported. compared to last january...when there were about 250. and

start with 363 scams. last february -- there were about 200 -- total. 36:21 the best thing to do is file now because you might just beat a hacker's attempt to file on your behalf. and in a world where identity theft is reality...he says the i-r-s is starting to assign six-digit numbers...to certain accounts...making it harder to trick the system.38:15 just having the social protect your identity isnt enough anymore for the now...i'm anne mcnamara. if you received a scam message...the i-r-s wants you to contact them via email.send to "phishing" at "i-r-s dot-gov." things are starting to warm outside -- but during the cold stretch we just went through -- remote car starters can be great.but a detroit man says his remote car starter set his garage on fire!he says he used his remote starter to turn on the car while he was still inside his home.he says five minutes later he went outside and spotted the fire. :41 i can't recall a fire

starter vehicle. that being the source. so anything is possible obviously with an electrical system. system.the homeowner tried to put out the fire with an extinguisher but stopped trying before he was hurt.fire investigators are now looking for evidence about what did cause the fire. but not everyone needed remote car starters this january. scientists say images from nasa show this past month was the hottest ever recorded on the planet.the dark red you see at the top of the screen is of special note.the arctic measured seven degrees hotter in january, compared to the 30-year average from 1951 to 1980.nasa calls that region, quote, "absurdly warm."the trend has continued into this month and many experts say "el nino" has a lot to do with it.

afternoon, eventually turning mostly cloudy after sunset. but winds pick up in the afternoon hours. we'll see sustained winds from the southwest at 15 to 25 mph and gusts up to 40 mph. highs should reach the low 60s cloudy this evening and into the overnight hours. i wouldn't rule out a few sprinkles as a weak cold front passes but it's only a 10-20% chance. right now, it looks like we may have a split weekend: saturday looks great with sunshine and highs in the low to mid 60s. yet, scattered rain showers are likely on sunday. it's a 50% chance for rain during the day, with the best chances in northern kentucky. highs will be in the mid 50s. behind this chance for rain, temperatures will slowly cool as we head into the coming work week, eventually dipping back below

the debate over ted cruz's birth is now playing out in court.an illinois man is fighting to get cruz off the ballot saying cruz is not a natural-born citizen because he was born in canada, and therefore can't run for president.cruz maintains he is natural-born because his mom was born in the u-s. a judge is expected to make a decision next month. it's expected to be a tight race between hillary clinton and bernie sanders in nevada. both candidates are in the state today ahead of tomorrow's caucus.this is video from sanders' rally this afternoon.nevada is a lot more diverse than iowa and new hampshire.so it will give us a better idea how the candidates could do among minority voters. nevada senator harry reid says the race is too close to call. and odds-makers agree... giving clinton and sanders a 50-50 chance of winning. the republicans have a little longer until they have to worry about nevada -- their

they have to go through south carolina.the results there, could give donald trump an insurmountable lead in the delegate count. the now's todd walker is live in columbia, south carolina for us.todd, marco rubio and ted cruz are fighting for second place, but time isn't on their side. that's right, 50 delegates up for grab tomorrow, and more than half of those are awarded to the winner automatically.in a couple of weeks more than a quarter of the nation's delegates are decided on super tuesday.donald trump has a big lead already, and that is expected to keep growing. that's right, 50 delegates up for grab tomorrow, and more than half of those are awarded to the winner automatically.in a couple of weeks more than a quarter of the nation's delegates are decided on super tuesday.donald trump has a big lead already, and that is expected to keep growing.in a part of the country where a candidate's faith was already going to play a bigger role in the campaign..kasich :04 we've god given destinies and potentials and gifts :09 comments by the pope about donald trump dominated the talk in south carolina as candidates stumped for votes heading into tomorrow's south carolina primary..bush :01 i don't question people's christianity i think that's a

:08cruz :05 that's between donald and the pope i'm not going to get in the middle of that :07trump :42 i don't like fighting with the pope i don't think it's a fight i think he said something much softer than what was originally reported :47the faith talk is on purpose.. south carolina could be the make or break point for republicans..the state's delegates are given out in a modified "winner take all" method.. the winner of the primary gets 29 of the 50 delegates automatically.. then.. the rest of the delegates are given out to the winner of each of south carolina's seven congressional districts..donald trump south carolina is the last time all of the republican candidates will campaign in the same state at the same time.. going forward they will target states they feel they have the best chance in.live in columbia, south carolina, todd walker for the now. do the dino!a viral video from right here in cincinnati! cincinnati!the story behind the fun that has so many

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welcome back to the now cincinnati.. let's have a little fun this friday. friday. we've got some video you've got to see.. first up.. a dancing dinosaur. the cincinnati ballet posted this on youtube. the caption says "the cincinnati ballet invited t-rex to become our latest visiting artist. check out t-rex dancing ballet.'this costume has become quite the online sensation.. videos have gone viral of t-rex doing everything from jumping on the trampoline to shoveling snow. this video has more than 22- thousand hits already. i tweeted a link if you want to catch the whole thing. and from crazy to cute..check out this video from a zoo in boston wherea baby nigerian dwarf goat named chewbacca was born. she weighed just four pounds and was standing up within hours of her birth. according to the zoo's website, nigerian dwarf goats are noted for their wide range

and - this is not so cute. wildlife officials are trying to track down escaped lions in kenya.the pride got loose from a national park overnight.the park is protected by electric fences, so theyre not sure how the four lions got out. two have been captured.. but it's believed two more are still on the loose. the scary part here--is that officials say the park is directly next to a residential area full of apartment buildings. they're telling people in the area to call police if they see anything.. getting your groceries -- without leaving your car.it's a trend catching on right here in the tristate.. how much will it cost you? and is it worth it? we take a closer

welcome back to the now cincinnati... pushing a grocery cart aisle to aisle might soon be a thing of the past. now you can get your groceries with the click of your finger. companies including the country's largest grocer, kroger, have launched online shopping programs that are saving customers time.. and getting great reviews. here's how it works. 19 05 38 00 beep19:07:10:09 beep19:08:35:54 beep the familiar sound at the grocery is no longer reserved to the checkout lane. thanks to kroger's new clicklist program, employees are doing the leg work for you and scanning as they shop. 19:11:20:33 nat bag rip19 24

make our customers lives easier and clicklist is one way to do that.clicklist allows you to shop for groceries on kroger's website or mobile app, choose your pick up location and time.. and all you do is show up and pay. 19 14 11 13 bottle water nat19:16:41:15 i love it. i have two small children so i dont have to get out of my car. lisa diedrichs frequents the service and says it cuts her trip time from two hours to 20 minutes. clicklist costs 4-95 per pick-up.. or 7-99 for an expidited order. it's a cost this new mom says is well worth it.19 17 32 00 they do a really good job and acutally ive been incredibly impressed by what they pick for me produce wise bcause im usually really picky about that. kroger's been testing online shopping since 2014. the store has been perfecting the method thanks to customer feedback.. and now its really taking off. clicklist is offered in 40 stores throughout the country.. with hundreds more launching this year.19 15 17 00 your new total is 265.96 diedrichs says there's just one thing that could make it even better..19 18 34 12 actually i hope they start

putting it in my refridgerator. that would be ideal. hey-- anything could happen...19 26 49 00 we're definitely looking to continue to innovate to find out which stores offer clicklist-- head to kroger.com. if it's not in your area you can check out amazon's program. google is also working to get in the game-- it has plans to test its grocery delivery service this year as well. have you ever stopped in the grocery store and asked yourself if the extra cost of buying organic is worth it?a new analysis of more than 200 studies suggests organic dairy and meat have about 50-percent more omega-3 fatty acids than non-organic.omega-3's are linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and improved brain and immune function.an earlier analysis found organic crops have higher concentrations of anti- oxidants.part of the reason: plants grown organically endure more stress from nature and develop beneficial compounds to survive.both studies are in the british journal of nutrition.

have a few more hours before things will ease.right steve? clouds slowly build this afternoon, eventually turning mostly cloudy after sunset. but winds pick up in the afternoon hours. we'll see sustained winds from the southwest at 15 to 25 mph and gusts up to 40 mph. highs should reach the low 60s today. skies will be mostly cloudy this evening and into the overnight hours. i wouldn't rule out a few sprinkles as a weak cold front passes but it's only a 10-20% chance. right now, it looks like we may have a split weekend: saturday looks great with sunshine and highs in the low to mid 60s. yet, scattered rain showers are likely on sunday. it's a 50% chance for rain during the day, with the best chances in northern kentucky. highs will be in the mid 50s. behind this chance for rain, temperatures will slowly cool as we head into the coming work week,

it's a sight soon to become very common ...the streetcar rolling through cincinnati! cincinnati!the now cincinnati captured this video of the streetcar going up and down elm street in over the rhine. all three of the streetcars that have been delivered were part of the tests ..the first two are in the brake test phase ... and the new streetcar that arrived last week went through an "overall movement test." a new play is making its world premiere right here in cincinnati... and we get to hear from one of its stars today! "the revolutionists" is

figures of the french revolution ...but don't be put off by those period costumes and historical setting ...the characters speak in modern lingo and bring the reign of terror to life.actress keira keeley says she was drawn to the play by the stories it brings to a new audience. we all know .... so that was really excitingthe play's run is already underway at the thompson shelterhouse ...you can catch it there until march sixth.it's appropriate for older teens and adults.tickets are available at cincy play dot com or at the box office. educators in sycamore ohio are trying to figure out why a teen lied to them ...showing up at the school posed as a state lawmaker ... taking a tour ... and even speaking eloquently to students! state senator david burke was scheduled to speak at mohawk high in january...but in late december, an 18 year old drove up and said the senator asked him to come instead.he

a fellow lawmaker: well dressed, and well-spoken and even had a personal driver. (ken ratliff/school superintendent) "this person showed up in advance days early and said the senator had fallen ill and he was there to take his place and speak." speak."officials discovered the fraud weeks later when the real senator showed up for his scheduled engagement.they say they will be more diligent about vetting guests and speakers in the future. people in an ohio village that came under scrutiny when high levels of lead were discovered in water samples ... may be getting closer to being in the clear. clear.the state e-p-a says all but four of 54 samples from sebring homeowners tested 'below' the federal lead threshhold.they say they've tested 951 samples in recent weeks ... finding high levels of led in 44 homes. back in january environmental officials said the operator of the village water plant waited months to notify people about high levels of lead coming from their pipes.

story we've been tracking for you.the case against the teen who famously used the "affluenza" defense... that he was too spoiled to know right from wrong in this deadly drunk driving crash... is getting moved to adult court. the judge's ruling means 18-year-old ethan couch's probation will now extend past his 19-th birthday.and he could go to jail.the brother of one of the people hurt in that crash back in 2013 showed up in court today. name: alex lemus | brother of victim "look at my brother. he's doing more than a 28 day period or 128 or whatever. he's doing more than ten years on probation." probation."couch will be transferred to the adult system when he turns 19 in april.he could then get up to 120 days in jail if a judge finds he violated his probation last year before he took off to mexico with his mom. facebook looking at a new way advertise to you.the meesages you could soon see the next

you're used to seeing ads on facebook.now they could be coming to the messenger app too.newsy's leah becerra shows us how they would work. advertisements may be on their way to facebook messenger. that's according to techcrunch, which says it obtained a document facebook sent to advertisers explaining how businesses would soon be able to send ads to certain customers.but, and this is important, companies would only be able to send messages to users who already initiated a conversation with the business over messenger.so that sounds like facebook is at least trying to prevent messenger from turning into a spam-filled nightmare.but the news, if true, does seem to show a change of heart for ceo mark zuckerberg. in 2014 when facebook acquired whatsapp, he said he didn't think "ads are the right way to monetize messaging."messenger has an impressive 800 million users. however, options for chat platforms aren't exactly limited, so the company may need to tread carefully with ads if it doesn't want to start turning people away. away.you can now follow newsy on your tv or favorite

device. how adorable is this?singer adele spotted this week in disneyland with her young son -- who is showing he has frozen fever.others at the park posted snapshots to twitter of the family having fun and young angelo dressed in an anna costume. "it's a game that makes chess look like checkers. and now, computers have beaten some of the best human players. so what does it all mean for

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you're watching the now on wcpo 9 on your side... from backgammon to chess, even jeopardy, game-playing computers have always found a way to beat their best human opponents. but the now's andy choi introduces us to the one game computers couldn't master until now.

stop and think about this: the average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day. from what to wear, what to drink, who to call... when to pump the brakes. and when... to go. 3.50.12[nats of stone landing on board]and for those looking to make even more decisions 4.01.47"i've scored a victory here."...there's the ancient chinese board game 'known' as 'go.' 3.36.02"very simple, but it's also very complicated." well, the 'rules' are simple 3.53.51[nats of hand grabbing stones]surround a larger area of the board with 'your stones than your opponent. 3.42.54 "that's about all there is to it."and that's where the simplicity ends. 4.05.32"i was playing games just wracking my brain and just exhausted." because go makes chess look 0:37 - 0:51"in chess, the number of possible moves is about 20 for the average position. in go, it's about 200. another way of viewing the complexity of go is that the number of possible configurations of the board is more than the number of atoms in the universe."so when developers at google's artificial intelligence lab "deepmind" started designing a