first at 4:00, on the now cincinnati, a tree came down on a house that caused another mud slide. tracking roads for your morning

a lot of rain to go and look at this line of snow. it's not making any progress whatsoever. the reason why, obviously, is because the temperatures are so warm. much colder just 90 miles away. they're starting to see light snow across that area. eventually, we're going to see that cold air move in. here's a closer look at our 9 first warning doppler. we're seeing some pockets of heavy snow out in southeast indiana. it's moving in a northeast fashion. we're going to see wet weather across greater cincinnati over the next hour again and as a result we continue to stay under a flood watch through 1:00 tonight for vi of the area. that transition is going to happen and we're not going to get a whole lot of snow out of this now. in we see an inch, that would probably be the topper as we get through tomorrow. here's the time line for you tonight. some rain through about 10:00. then around 10:00, it looks like it's going to be cold enough in a lot of areas as we start to see a little mixing to maybe changing over to snow as we get to 1:00.

most part as we head through the overnight and into your morning community. there could be some areas around the grassy spots, other locations that may have a little light covering. i think quite frankly the ground is going to be too warm and of course we're talking about temperatures that are going to be floating right around that 33, 34. not a good spot to be making know and having it stick. we'll take you through the rest of the day for your thursday and what's ahead for the week as we come back. so we want to take you back outside to a stretch of columbia parkway. it's been plagued with mud slides. >> one westbound lane is closed there due to a morning. that's on the parkway near william howard taft and torrance parkway. that will remain closed until tomorrow morning. by 10:00 this morning, crew had cleared truckloads. it's a similar scene to what we saw this month.

if there are no more problems, it will reopen at 6:00 a.m. our college campus on alert. students and faculty at the university of cincinnati on lookout for a man. we are live at uc. reporter: >> reporter: a uc sexual alert reminded students to be more aware. >> it's a wakeup call and i should be more looking out in the future when i'm going outta loan. reporter: according to police, the reported offense occurred inside one of uc's academic buildings around 3:00 a.m. friday, february 5. police wouldn't say which building or elaborate on it. the victim says she has seen the suspect several times on campus last semester, a thought

campus. it's people you know and you go to class with. that's honestly very scary. reporter: the public safety director says it's their mission to help students more aware of their surroundings. >> the best friend in person al safety is your self. having some self awareness of have or any risks that you may business. encourages other resources through technology like the report any crimes they may see. proactive. many of the buildings are equipped with swipe access like this that require proper id. >> if someone else is trying to get in and grabs the door is says i forgot my id, report that. don't allow that to occur. reporter: according to the association of american universities, sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes on college campuses, but some uc students say that's not compromising their idea of safety. >> this is a very safe area. police presence is here.

be on edge a little bit because stuff like this can happen. reporter: the suspect in white male, five feet ten he's described as having brawn hair and rectangle glasses and years old. if you have any information, live from uc. the now cincinnati. number one verses number 5. veil nova tonight and the excitement is building. 9 on your side is live at the center now with students who come. they've been lined up in the rain since before noon. >> well, that's correct. these are the extreme fans. the one who want to be first in the student row of seats behind the bren much right now. -- bench right now. the doors don't open until 5:30. they've come up with creative ways to pass the time.

their day long wait at the center. good thing since rain pelted them several times during the day. the two sov mores studied a bit, wrote papers and checked their phones. >> we're pretty diehards. we go to every game, student section. so we knew we had to get in and get our usual eats. wet to get here early to do it. >> they have basketball in her blood. she wasn't about to miss this nationally televised game. >> my whole family went here. i've been seeing basketball since i was born. reporter: some people tossed the football back and forth. others played a game with a frisbee. michael did studying because he was playing hooky. >> i did a little -- i'm skipping a few crosses. i feel guilty not doing some work. so i'm making did up early in the day. reporter: the line was long, but the spirit undenyable and the payoff is seeing them try

to villa nova. >> the biggest regular season game. there's nothing like it. we've been having a great season and looking fortiesing on the cake -- icing on the cake. tonight. coming up new on 9 on your on the basketball court is translating to dollars for the school. tom mckey 9 on your side. i hope they get tickets. why is tonight's game a big deal? why is everybody in town talking about it? our sports director with a little perspective for us today. you know, it's not march madness yet. this is february frenzy. it will have a tournament feel when number five takes on number one tonight. so what is the big deal you ask? first of all, number one doesn't come to town very often. everybody wants to knock them off and tonight is their chance to beat the number one rated

been a spectacular season, this is what's happening in the first meeting with villa nova in december. star freshman sumner got hurt. they lost it by a bunch. third of all, it is one of the top teams jockying for a position in the tournament. collection sunday is is a couple weeks away. a victory adds to an impressive resume. the last time two catholic schools met ranked in the top five was 1985. in fact, yahoo! sports said this is the biggest catholic school basketball game since villa nova beat georgetown. that was 31 years ago. so it is very special. yeah. no wonder they're all lined up. thanks for the inside. check out. a water main break left homes in liberty township flooded again for the second time from a few weeks. kristin was there for the clean-

reporter: butler county crews are wrapping up the work they started before 3:00 a.m. for the people who live in this part of liberty township, problems with water began weeks ago. >> nothing i can do about it. i mean, i'm at the point now where i'm laughing. i don't think it can get any worse, but i've been wrong. reporter: you can say doug loved. >> it's not like we can go to a hotel. reporter: to keep from crying. >> we're stuck here. reporter: and one good look at what happened to his cars. >> two and a half feet through the whole lower level snipes. reporter: tells you he's had enough to last a lifetime. a water main break on this block has cost him thousands for the second time in a month. >> two furnaces, two sets of washers and dreyer's -- dryers, water heaters. reporter: the county is covering any costs incurred

within two weeks. for the now, cincinnati. i'm sure that can't come soon enough. thank you. the faulty pipe that caused the water main break was installed back in the 19 70s. coming up here on the now, a warning to check your bathroom shelves. next, a common household powder is being blamed for a woman's death and it is costing johnson & johnson millions.

johnson & johnson says it stands by the safety of its products. that's after a jury ordered the company to pay $72 million in damages connected to the death of an alabama woman. jackie died from ovarian cancer. her family sued saying it was caused by the company's baby powder and other products that

possible risk but did not inform exercise of -- customers. the company is appealing the ruling. it faces 1200 additional lawsuits over the same issue. this is the first time a jury has awarded damages over the claims. we already know health insurance is expensive and now we could be hit up for more because of fraud. 9 on your side is here with the numbers. john. this is amazing, fraudulent building is the biggest issue according to the accountability office.

people are actually eligible for the benefits they are receiving. you know, we're talked about millions of applications here and hundreds of thousands of people who have been approved for benefits. health care can approve application that's have documentation issues and problems. you get around three months to straighten out the paperwork. the report shows the issues

here's the look ahead as we go forward. i'm looking for some pretty mild conditions right through 10:00. now, some spots in the tri- state might be colder than 36. as we head to the overnight through midnight, we might see a little snow he is special knee southeast indiana. but as we head toward morning, we'll see some snow hours developing for tomorrow. again, i don't see a lot of real stick on the ground. warm ground, a lot of wet weather around. maybe some of the grassy areas gets a little coating. this area of low pressure continues to drive warm air toward us now and we're going to back into that cold air for tonight. the story in the future radar shows that as we head to the overnight we're going inform see light snow and snow hours scattered around the area. i want to show you, here's a good example. notice there's a little deeper blue here indicating snow hey be -- may be coming down good. again, i don't see it necessarily sticking for a lot of areas. which will see wet roads and

down to 33 in cincinnati and colder in some spots especially northwest. then as we go through the day tomorrow, we're going to have temperatures that are going to be just above freezing. i think what's going to happen really is there's going to be snow floating around but by the time it hits the ground, that's about it. so as we go forward, the story is this. into friday, mostly cloudy and 38. we're looking for a good weekend though. 40s and 50s coming up. >> looking forward to it. the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails is back in the headlines today. a federal judge is threatening a subpoena to get personal e- mails clinton and one of her top aides have withheld. it's all tied to a lawsuit by a conservative watchdog group. clinton said she's not concerned. >> the facts are that every that every single time somebody has put these charges against me, which

this is no different than that. >> the issue focuses on whether she risked national security when she used her personal e- mail server while working at secretary of state. the state department has been investigating this since last spring. the fbi confirmed its own on going investigation earlier this month. coming up, a big win in nevada. donald trump is steam rolling his way towards super tuesday. there? i hope left for the other candidates? we break it down. reporter: right now he's taking that nevada momentum and running with it he leads polls in almost all of the super tuesday states and now this gop conversation seems to be shifting toward who'll come in second. donald trump didn't just win nevada. he dominated. >> we won with young. we won with old.

i love the poorly educated. reporter: he felt right at home under vegas' bright lights get getting almost 46% of the vote. >> you know what i really am happy about? 46% with the hispanics. 46%. number one with hispanics. reporter: coming in second and nowhere close, florida senator marco rubio got 24% of the vote. this third, iowa caucus winner ted cruz received more than 21%. >> nobody has ever won the combination without winning one of the first three primaries. there are only two people who have won one of the first three primaries. reporter: what about all those other republican candidates? ohio governor john kasich is expected to stay in the running at least through his home state's primary march 15th. though a new poll shows he's trailing trump. as for dr. ben carson. >> very enthusiastic crowds and i believe that things are starting to happen here. reporter: political reports

strong showing on super tuesday. after march 1st, a man the republican party saw as a joke could be getting the last laugh and the title gop nominee. >> we're winning the country. reporter: for the now. now, trump is making one campaigning in virginia today. he'll be in oklahoma, arkansas,

we have breaking news. as you look over the ohio river, the flood watch has been dropped, but you don't want to

it is just five minutes away and there's snow coming. who wouldn't love having a better chance to win the powerball? i would love it. >> i would, too. >> get this. the group that runs the game could have made the odds better. they decided not to. they revamped powerball in october changing the price of a ticket to $2 to build bigger jackpots. they coffin creased your odds

you hover over the like button there. there they are. another change you may not like with the new emotions, more adds targeted to you -- ads targeted to you. they can get an insided in for you. >> we're going to collect this out. if you don't like t you should. we have a new cartoon up about xavier's battle tonight and if you want to add feelings to it like you saw, click on like. >> see that? >> then you can go -- love it. >> wait. love it. >> you can do it next. more rain and snow, some are cleaning up from this

weather come back to the now cincinnati. we just updated you the flood watch has been canceled, but that does not mean we are in the clear just yet. our chief meteorologist is tracking what comes next. steve. we're going from rain to snow. as we head into tonight, julie, it looks like that transition will happen late tonight into the overnight. lets give you the lay of the land of what's happening. you mentioned and it bears repeating because we've had

it is now canceled for all of the tri-state. the reason why is we're now not going to be seeing any real strong pockets of heavy rain. it looks like we could see some light to moderate rain tonight but generally things are tapering off. after about 10:00, we're going to see rain to snow for tonight and then we're talking about snow showers. that's the overview. the area of low pressure that's driving the rain toward us now starting to lift to the north. as it begins to november northeast, that colder air is going to wrap in. it's going to take some time for that cold air to get here. it's out around indianapolis now so it is going to take a little while to really change our forecast. you'll notice right at present we've got a line of heavy rain around oxford. we could see some heavier rain tonight, but most folks won't see it as this line moves off, the colder air will start filtering in and the temperature will drop quickly.

some rain, a possible thunderstorm but probably not likely. after 10:00 we're going to see a little rain-snow mix. into the overnight, we'll see some snow hours. morning commute more of the same with the light snow ending as we get to 5:00. now, i don't expect much, if any, in the way of accumulation. warm ground, wet ground, it's just not going to happen. maybe some of the grassier areas. slick spots with possible. i'll show the winds to you and how i think thursday is going to play out in just a couple minutes. a lot of clean-up tonight after a round of powerful storms early this morning. >> one mother and her two sons had to find another place to stay after an 80 foot try came crashing down on her home. they were all sleeping when this happened. reporter: you have to feel sorry for this them left to pick up the pieces after the

back here, this house now has thousands of dollars worth of damage to the rooftop and deck. we can show you the massive tree that came crashing down early this morning. this is what it look like when 9 on your side arrived on scene. the ground was so soaked from the rain, the tree was ripped from its roots and this tree was large much we're talking about an 830-foot tall red oak tree that came crashing -- 80- foot tall red oak tree that came crashing down. it crashed through the bathroom ceiling. >> my son called, mom. we got up at the same time because we didn't know what it was because it was such a loud boom. then we heard the water coaching into the bathroom. >> as far as the back porch and the rooftop, all of these things are replaceable. the good news is that she and her boys are just fine right now and they do have renters

for the now. all that damage and we didn't even see a tornado like those in the south did last night. this is pensacola, florida, one of the hardest hit areas. today you can see homes torn apart at least three people died in two states and more than 30 were hurt. 7 critically. 20 tornadoes were reported although not all confirmed just yet. look at what is left in parts of louisiana. the storm ripped apart more than 100 motor homes west of new orleans. in a nearby community, the away. shelter. one man ran on the treadmill as the storm hit. >> i had to flag him down and was like, hey, the roof is gone. you might want to come over here. >> the owner says he plans to

nonstop and have it back open for business hopefully by monday. take a look at the storms ahead. this is a video shot from a hotel lobby. string wind ripping it sideways. this is just the beginning. this is just some of the damage left behind in that city. an overturned rv, roofs ripped off and here is the storm as it rolls in st. james parish, louisiana. many of the southern states where storms hit, they were already in the top ten for insurance claims and damage caused by tornadoes and high winds. ohio is up there, too. >> state farm says in 2015, they paid more than 11,000 wind and tornado claims alone in texas. ohio came in 4th with more than 5600 claims. 7 tornadoes in ohio just last year. speaking of wind, our chief meteorologist told us earlier that a combination of gusty winds and snow might reduce

make sure you wake up with our meteorologist on good morning tri-state for up-to-the minute information on the conditions outside and you can also download the app to get information right there on your smartphone. we have breaking news to bring you. an arrested in middletown mother brittany russell. she was found dead in her car in dayton two weeks ago. moments ago, the prosecutor said police have arrested a man named brandon carr. they've charged him with murder. we are at the news conference. we'll have a live report at 5:00 5:00. a new push from ohio lawmakers might better protect transit workers here in cincinnati. we hear about drivers being attacked all the time and this is video from a public bus in cleveland last month. only people who attack a school bus -- public transit workers,

a bill could sponsored by representative teen he's would make them a felony no matter what. the southwest ohio tranceert authority received 12 reports of assault last year. he was once in charge on ohio's prisons and its execution program. six years after retiring, he's changed his mind about death row. he oversaw 33 executions during his time with the ohio department of rehabilitation and corrections, but in a column written just for us, he says the program is costing taxpayers too much and there is always a chance a wrong person will be executed. he says he's not alone. other former policy makers agree with him. to read who else in ohio wants to abolish the execution policy, check out collins column on our website, www.wcpo.com. we all make mistakes, but when it come to your income taxes t cannot only cost you time but a whole lot of money, too.

minimize mistakes on our tax returns. reporter: taxes can be confusing. so i'm going to make this story simple. cpa larry friedman says there are three big mistakes we make when filing the tax returns. one, forgetting about contributions you made throughout the year. >> it's important to remember you're only supposed to pay the right amount of tax. reporter: two, forgetting to report income. reporter: it's about completeness making sure you have them complete. reporter: not getting documentation for large donations for the greater good. if your contribution exceeds $250, you need a letter from the organization as a form of proof. does this look familiar? experts say the key is being organized and it's really simple. it's not too early to start for next rear. what you want to do is grab a folder like this and file all

documents throughout the year. start preparing for next year right now. and to the big question, how do avoid being audited. although specifics are not made public, the irs looks at analytics to determine who it's going to focus on. >> for example f your income is at a certain level, they may look at deductions and say it doesn't make sense that you're making, say, $50,000 a year but are contributing $20,000. reporter: remember, take the time to do it right the first time. slapping it together can cause you a penalty and leave you

a fire fighter is dead after walking into on-coming traffic on a busy highway. investigators say she was a

their car, crossed three lanes of traffic, jumped a barrier that's when she was hit. her family says they believe it was a mistake and not suicide. a growing number of teachers in ohio are now packing heat. that is according to the buckeye firearms foundation. new numbers just released claim 400 teachers and administrators are trained to carry a son seal weapon. they are stationed in 152 districts around the state. in fact, 66 of the state's counties have one a doll armed in schools. buckeye firearms foundation launched a program to train teachers to be armed. the entire program it funded through donations. covering ton puts plans to re-- a change was presented to city leaders. the design incorporates the riverfront.

of engineers to approve stabilization and infrastructure improvement plans, funding was already approved back in september of 2015. do you ever wonder how the oscars avoid spoil era letters? next on the now, we're going introducing longhorn' s big, bold, steaks. the only way to make em' better was to make em' bigger. our new center cut 10 ounce filet. our perfectly seasoned 16 ounce t-bone. and our fire grilled

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the oscar goes to, those five words keep oscar viewers on the edge of their seats every single year. >> the process of determining who wins an award, it's not easy. the vote counting is highly involved and surrounded by intense security. reporter: they are the best secret keepers in hollywood. they are set to carry those famous briefcases again. >> and the oscar goes to. reporter: holding the names of this year's oscar winners.

reporter: for 82 years, pricewaterhousecoopers has counted the ballots. 6 -- the voting members on paper and online. >> we control everything from the time they go out indicated with security codes and those come back to us. we have those in a secret location. reporter: security is tight. there's a specialized alarm system biometric locks and no internet access where a small team counts all 24 categories by hand. >> it's up to brian and i to then consolidate everything and mange sure we're going through the piles counting that and recounting that. they will stuff the envelope, close t seal it with the red. reporter: those 24 winning envelopes and a duplicate set are lowered into two briefcases like this one, both are locked in a vault until os sar sunday when they enter their code and take their briefcase. each then traveling a different

>> no matter what happens, at least one of us will get there. reporter: do you have like 007? >> a little bit. reporter: last year there was a support that carried a third briefcase that was used by the neil patrick harris and backstage they only hand the envelope to the presenter just seconds before the announcement. >> is this the hardest secret to keep. >> it's a big important secret. le eatity is, there's a secret we keep forever, and that is reporter: abc news, los angeles. i never thought about that. >> me neither. here a couple other facts, did you know there have been six ties in oscar history. the most recent in 2012 when two tied in the sound editing cat gore glee -- category. >> they print a card for every nominee and then pricewaterhousecoopers puts the

>> the process is insane. have you heard about this come back store see if -- back story? a lot of you are going to keep your eyes on sylvester stallone. it has been 40 years since rocky won best picture, but back then he was nominated in the best actor category. he didn't win. now he's in the supporting actor column. while it is a favorite -- he has stiff competition. he'll have to beat out five others. the oscars are on sunday night. chris rock is the host. it starts at 7:00 and may i mention that steve, craig, and myself will be here for you at 11:00. taking a live look, it's windy out there and steve has

door, we're looking at gusts up to 35 miles an hour with blowing snow that may be a bigger aspect as we go through the day with visibility issues. the winds come down slowly into the afternoon and to the nighttime as we drop back down

watch the timing now in our future radar. we see the rain coming in and about 10:00, we see light snow mixing around here and then continuing overnight. now, you'll also it's not one big snow shield. we're talking about it scattered around and the possibility of maybe seeing some bursts of heavy snow. certainly there as we get out the door in the morning and that may be the bigger issue as posed to the accumulation. so rain to snow tonight. temperatures down to 34. we won't move much tomorrow. we're looking at snow showers and windy conditions. a temperature of 37. as we get to tomorrow night, cloudy skies. i think we may see some flurries and cloudy skies on friday. just a little bit colder. the good news is the weekend. i have temperatures climbing back up into the 40s and 50s. check this out. it is literally one of the hottest places on earth. despite the conditions, death

expression of life. visitors are making sure to get a good look at this year's super bloom. it's an explosion of wild flowers that have taken route. thanks to a lot of rain and el nino. >> we only get two or three inches of rain a year and we got that much within a month. that kind of sets a stage and then the el nino season kicked in which means we've gotten additional rain in the months since october. reporter: the -- >> the park says the flowers won't be around for too much longer. they will stake around until mid-march. look who's across the way from me. it's craig. >> we have a lot coming up. our investigative reporter is on top of the latest developments in the murder of brittany russell, the mother found shot to death with her

what he is uncovering in just a couple minutes. the balanced bandit strikes in the tri-state. he's pinpointed across the midwest and now he's taken nearly $1,000 of hair growth product from a store. does it go beyond growing hair? what police are saying tonight. >> he might use it.

my job, including fingerprinting - frequent fliers don't have to do that, now there's a push to make sure they really are low-risk passengers to make sure they don't pose a security threat to the rest of us.frequent travelers would have to pay for tsa precheck. when so far they haven't had to.. but the process would get easier and tsa would be mandated to come up with automated ways to check documents instead of by hand.this is still being considered by congress.. but if passed would fully implemented within a year.todd walker for the now." now." the house has already approved this measure. measure. frequent fliers would have to provide biographical information in addition to fingerprinting. get ready to hear more about the "madison valleywood project." it is the latest effort to fight the terror group, isis. isis. it's a group of

silicon valley, and hollywood. they're workin on a strategy to stop isis and other extremist groups from recruiting people using social media. secretary of state john kerry met with top hollywood execs about this issue last week and even tweeted a photo. they're supposed to develop an action plan for the next 1-hundred days. today -- a first look at the uber driver suspected in that deadly rampage in michigan. security video shows in him the hours before that shooting, which killed six and hurt two others.that video is of jason dalton checking out firearms at a kalamazoo area gun shopthe clerk says he didn't buy a gun but he did buy a tactical jacket. :18 jonathan southwick/gunshop owner the person that was in here was friendly, talked to us was smiling joking around police say less than three hours later -- dalton was picking up uber passengers and shooting in between fairs. among those killed was a 17 year old boy and his father.a 14 year old victim is now in

at one point her heart stopped. more than a year after a 19 year old mississippi woman was set on fire and left for dead -- someone has been charged. charged.you may remember this case.jessica chambers was burned over 98 percent of her body after the attack in december 2014.she told first responders *something when they arrived to help her.but now -- 14 months after she died -- a 27 year old man, already in jail in louisiana -- has been indicted with her murder. the district attorney says chambers knew the man charged -- but won't say how. that's it from the now cincinnati. cincinnati.9 on your side at 5 starts right now. breaking now - a man arrested in the murder of a middletown mother.police just spoke with 9 on your side.who they say pulled the trigger. heavy rain turns to snow.we're tracking the timing of what's ahead. plus - the major road affected by sloppy weather. heroin in a hospital room.the baffling discovery that forced police to take a child away from her parents.

battle. talcum powder linked to a woman's ovarian cancer. we're on your side - asking tri-state doctors if the product is safe to use.9 on your side at five starts now! breaking now - an arrest in the murder of a middletown mother.a man now behind bars - accused of killing brittany russell.9 on your side digs into what led to this arrest. but first - a sloppy weather day for everyone in the tri- state.the rain falling now - will soon shift to snow. snow.nine first warning chief meteorologist steve raleigh is on your side - tracking the timing for you - steve? steve? wet snow will begin overnight into thursday morning. not much, if any, will be on the ground for the morning rush. while we could see 1" - 1.5" of accumulating snow, a substantial amount of snow will not accumulate because of the wet and warm surfaces. it's mainly on elevated surfaces like your roof, mailbox and roof of your