we are wdbj7. good evening, i'm melissa gaona. after a long week of weather that featured snow, ice and power outages, the weekend is finally here. meteorologist robin reed gets us started tonight with a warmer first alert forecast.

of richmond are looking for a missing mother and her nine-year-old daughter tonight. chesterfield county police have released these pictures of c'ere lewis and her daughter, sesha hill. they were last seen last night in a silver, four-door early 90's model toyota corolla with virginia license plates x-t-m 7-6-0-6. the 15-year-old who caused this crash last week after a police chase, faces five charges tonight in roanoke county. the crash sent four teens to the hospital. we've learned he was arrested tuesday in roanoke

without bond. state police say the 15-year-old walked out of a low-security juvenile facility in eastern virginia two-months ago. february is teen dating violence awareness month. it's a problem in the u.s. a study from the cdc found one in 10 teenagers report being physically abused in the year before they were surveyed. the family services of the roanoke valley works with hundreds of teens through an outreach program. it's geared toward helping them recognize the signs and patterns of an abusive relationship and signs of a healthy one. sarah jane lawrence/family services prevention program manager: "help them discover in themselves what they want as far as where their boundaries are in a relationship and who they would go to for help. do they have a trusted friend and adult whether its through the teen outreach program and the mentors they have here with us here at family service or a teacher or a counselor or a parent." find out more on the teen outreach program on wdbj7 dot-com. pittsylvania county deputies continue to guard the campus of

academy tonight, and will continue until further notice. officials are actively investigating after a threatening message possibly connected to isis was sent directly to the school through social media. investigators aren't saying what the message said, but they believe the actions taken this week have prevented anything from happening over the weekend. this is the aftermath of airstrikes carried out overnight by u-s warplanes on an isis camp near libya's capital. it likely killed a top isis terrorist linked to several deadly attacks. the bombing comes as the white house and its allies struggle to contain isis. it's estimated there are more than 5- thousand islamic state fighters operating in libya. a brief lockdown today at joint base langley-eustis in newport news. the base confirmed on twitter shots were fired outside of a building this morning, but no one was hurt. we're waiting to find out more on the

presidential candidates on both sides are making their final pushes in two states tonight. republican donald trump leads the polls ahead of the republican primary in south carolina tomorrow. while democrat hillary clinton leads in a national poll, nevada is up for grabs this weekend. the presidential primary in virginia is just a couple weeks away. before the polls open on march 1st, one college wants to make sure your voice is heard. wdbj7's christian heilman joins us with more on the statewide polling going on right here in our region. roanoke college is in the middle of its presidential primary polling. they say their polls are one of only a handful looking at how our state is thinking. "do you have just a few minutes to help me with a brief survey? "what about marco rubio? " "ted cruz" "would that be very likely, somewhat likely, not very likely " these are the people on the front lines of public opinion in virginia. nat "and i'm calling from roanoke college, how are you this afternoon?" no matter what,

the people she talks with are passionate about their politics. center supervisor "they start laughing basically. both ends of the spectrum. " dr. harry wilson " it's a time there are reasons that we're in the field for four, five, six sometimes seven surveys. " they'll work through the weekend -- and hang ups -- to talk with about 800 likely voters in virginia. " do you lean more toward the democrat party, or the republican party? " which republican and democrat virginians like best. the director of the insitute for policy and opinion research at roanoke college says these polls are even more important now because there's no clear democratic frontrunner anymore. dr. harry wilson "i mean, it's important to us because it's the only way we can gague wheat people are actually thinking." they're about halfway through. while harry wilson won't say who's leading so far, he is noticing a pattern with everyone's responses. dr. harry wilson "there seems to be a significant amount of anger on that. and we're picking up on that in some of the phone calls. " in six hours on friday, the call center completed

amelia and her team need a few hundred more... and hope people will think twice when they pick up the phone. amelia glaser, call center supervisor " i wish we had a big message we could send out to not hang up -- don't hang up on us! that's the only way we're going to be successful." one of the interesting things we learned tonight -- a computer randomly generates the phone numbers -- so you could get a call on your cell phone. they'll be making calls until next tuesday. the poll is expected to be released sometime late next week. christian heilman, wdbj7. a study from the virginia public access project says folks across the commonwealth donated more than seven-million dollars to presidential candidates last year. the group says hillary clinton and jeb bush received the most cash. clinton got nearly three-million dollars, while bush received around one-point- three million. bernie sanders brought in more than 260-grand, and marco rubio received more than 665-thousand. the town of blacksburg is

about criminal history from government job applications. leaders say concern of discrimination against otherwise qualified candidates led to the change. the town will still do background checks, but only after the best person for the job is found. new tonight, some businesses in lexington might be getting a new look. w-d-b-j-7's khiree stewart tells us why some think a new program will help bring more people into the shops downtown. melissa, business owners say a sign for a new store or restaurant can be expensive. that's why city leaders are helping owners improve the look of their business. signs, signs, everywhere those signs. they're all over downtown lexington. "it's like a visual soundbyte. in one image, you get a whole sense of what that business is about and that's what people take away. we're visual creatures." amenie hopkins is getting ready to open a new cafe downtown and says getting a sign is a huge component that usually gets put on the back burner. "especially with a

unexpected up and suddenly at the end, there's not enough to put a new sign up." that's why she's hoping to get help making her sign through a new program through the city. and you get approval you'll need from the architectural review board and then you go out and will match the funding that you pay up to 300 dollars for a sign and 600 dollars for an awning." stephanie wilkinson is the executive director of main street lexington. the organization received a two thousand dollar grant from the city to fund the project. wilkinson says it will help get 5 signs up plus a couple of awnings. "if you don't have a sign or if your sign isn't great looking, that can affect whether people come into your shop or not." wilkinson says around 5 businesses have already expressed interest in the project. that shows the impact this project will have on the businesses here. "this program is an amazing boost. not just to new businesses like mine, but to existing businesses." wilkinson says they plan to continue the project next year if it is successful this year.

tonight, the latest legal developments for "affluenza teen" ethan couch. a huge honor for a man who's been a literal life line in the nrv for decades. can your waste help determine the size of your waist? sounds like a bad joke, but it's serious science and a new

next month. teen" ethan couch

adult court. a texas judge made that ruling today. the 18-year old could now face 120- days of jail time for the 2013 drunk driving wreck that killed four people. at the time, couch was sentenced to 10-years probation. he and his mother fled to mexico in early december, after video surfaced of him at a party where alcohol was being served. authorities say that was a probation violation. they were caught several weeks later. the judge's ruling today means couch's probation will now extend past his 19th birthday. his probation was previously set to expire under the state's juvenile justice statutes. closing arguments in the kevin quick murder retrial are set to begin monday morning. that's according to our cbs affiliate in charlottesville, who credit the daily progress. a charlottesville judge declared a mistrial last year, and the retrial was moved to roanoke. today, the defense finished presenting its case to the jury. six alleged

goon syndikate" gang are charged with abducting and killing the waynesboro reserve police officer. throughout the night, people lined up outside the supreme court to pay their respects to justice antonin scalia. he served nearly 30 years on the bench before passing away last saturday. president obama and the first lady also stopped to pay their respects. obama is not attending scalia's funeral tomorrow, despite some criticism. vice president joe biden will be there. the white house says the decision is a "respectful arrangement" given the president's security and biden's personal relationship with scalia's family. the justice department is going ahead with its legal fight with apple. leaders filed a motion today forcing the tech giant to comply with a judges order to help the fbi unlock the iphone belonging to one of the san bernadino shooters. a hearing is scheduled in federal court for march 22nd the university of virginia announced

for the 2016/2017 school year. the board of visitors agreed to a three-percent average increase for undergrads. the price is going up by roughly the same amount for housing, meal plans, and mandatory fees. a new study beginning next month in texas could revolutionize weight loss. shern-min chow from our affiliate in skinny from the experts on a down and dirty subject. bad food is bad for you in so many ways...including certain bacteria in your intestines. manufacturing plant for all kinds of chemicals that send messages to your brain....like hunger. dr herbert dupont, director of the center for infectious disease at uthealth school of public health, studies fecal bacteria transplants. ------ if you take those bacteria from an obese person and put it into a mouse, the mouse gets fat. if

thin person, the mouse becomes thin. ------------------- the ut health team points out "bad" gut bacteria or flora is linked to all kinds of health issues. ------------- whether increasing appetite, whether its depression, whether its a seizure disorder, patients with parkinson- all have abnormal flora. --------------- even more intriguing? -------------------------- (produced stand up w mouse) scientists studied 4 sets of identical twins, one lean one heavy. they transplanted their intestinal bacteria into mice. mice which got the lean twin's bacteria, stayed thin. mice which got the heavy twin's bacteria - became heavy. ---------------------------- ---- an upcoming study being done at mass general asks intriguing questions. ------------- can you forget diet? and just reverse the

process by putting diverse healthy bacteria in the human intestine? we think it may have an impact. ---------- and by the way, healthy poop donations are filtered, so only the bacteria remains and is then processed and put into pill form...so no patients are not eating sh--tool. ------------- all the middle school jokes are gone...well they're not gone, but they should be gone.. -------------- that was shern-min chow from our affiliate k-h-o-u reporting. inbody is the newest tool carilion wellness trainers are using to get people healthier from the inside out. the scan is quick and painless. it can help with getting in shape, losing weight, even recovering from injuries. in 60 seconds it breaks down exactly what your weight number means, the

the inbody also measures visceral fat - that's the fat around your organs. dr. priscilla tu "so if we know about visceral fat, we know about this is where you're kind of holding the fat then that's helpful in saying ok well you really need to work on your diet and we can talk about your cholesterol numbers and putting all that information together." inbody is great for athletes to learn their muscle to fat ratio and where they need to strenghthen. you can find more information on the inbody on our website. a christiansburg man who has answered thousands of emergency calls is getting special recognition long overdue. kelly walters was honored during yesterday's general assembly session for his 52 year career as a volunteer and paid rescue squad professional. he was the first full- time paid captain at the christiansburg rescue squad. now at 79, he's still responding to calls and making plans for expansion at the riner volunteer rescue squad. walters has witnessed many horrific accidents. he says staying