now all new at 6:00 we're always investigating and asking tough questions of our leaders. and tonight we learn there's still more than 450 open cases of pothole claims, some from three years ago. >> that means the city has yet to decide whether they will pay drivers who want to be reimbursed for pothole damage to their car. kristin volk got her hands on the records. kristin, you tried to ask the city why this is happening. >> reporter: i did darks knit that, and they would not tell me. they did not respond to my request for an interview. the news comes as we are learning about the startling costs of these craters and just how much damage they do to drivers' wallets every year

and now that includes drivers like james peterson right here in cleveland. >> i've been hitting plenty of potholes for weeks and weeks. >> reporter: this is not where james peterson wanted to spend his friday afternoon. but his '07 saturn ion needed help. >> you could hear the roaring coming from the wheel, the right side of the car. >> reporter: the steering wheel started to vibrate, and he told me it's because of these. >> maybe that long or longer. that wide, that deep. >> to do the repair we'll have to pull the tire, take the axle nut off, maybe tear down the brakes. >> reporter: a repair will cost nearly $300. he plans to file a claim with the city of cleveland, just like thousands have done. our team has been following the trail of complaints for the past three years. check out these numbers from

people have submitted pothole claims. so many more drivers denied reimbursement, then paid out. and surprisingly, 451 cases still open from 2013. 242 open cases from 2014. years later, and drivers are still waiting to find out whether they will get paid back. meanwhile, peterson is just about to start his claims process. >> me, i don't know who to go to or what to go to, to get information. >> reporter: there is a claim form on the city of cleveland's website as well as instructions on what to do. the city tells me there were eight crews out here patching potholes like these, and aaa estimates the annual cost of pothole damage to u.s. drivers is 3 billion. live in cleveland, kristin volk, newschannel5. if your car has hit a large pothole, let us know.

your smartphone, open up our app and fill out our pothole patrol form. now a check on our weather. a high wind advisory is in effect. >> if those winds quiet down the temperatures will move in and get everyone out of the house tomorrow. chief meteorologist mark john with important information to help us get through the evening. >> here i am. how are you? yes, it's mid-february, and we're in the 50s to near 60 degrees. you know what it takes to get warm air this warm into northern ohio in the middle of winter? it takes a lot of wind, and that's what we're seeing. 54 cleveland, 52 in akron. dover new philly at 57. a lot of wind. it will continue to be blustery. in the overnight we have our wind advisory. erie, huron, ashland, richland, counties west towards the state line until 9:00 p.m. but it will remain blustery

current wind gusts, mansfield, norwalk, 29 miles per hour. 26 miles per hour wind gusts in wooster and elyria, 24 for ashtabula and cleveland. 31 the high spot right now in the fremont area. definitely a windy evening. so wherever you're going you can enjoy some warmth with temperatures slowly falling into the 40s, and they'll stay in the mid-40s all night long, but you've got the wind to contend with. notice mainly cloudy skies by 9:00 p.m. cleveland is at 51. how about akron and canton? 48. that is still very mild. just a sweater. warm up tomorrow, then a big cool-down for sunday. it's kind of a big contrast in our weekend. we'll talk about that coming up. new tonight at 6:00, $50,000 worth of hair extensions stolen from a euclid shop. police say these two suspects broke into natural beauty hair boutique. they rummaged through a back

walking out with the stolen products. anyone who may have any information about who these suspects are, give euclid police a call. two people have been indicted on 150 charges of rape, kidnapping, and trafficking. andrew boyton and annika george. in addition, 19 counts of kidnapping and seven counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. the indictment also says the sexual acts involved four boys under the age of 13. a complaint from a parent about a bizarre foot fetish led investigators to put him behind bars. megan hickey, it all started with a complaint from a first grader. >> reporter: right. she said tack her to a separate ram, then asked to take pictures of her bare feet. the u.s. attorney's office says that is not a crime but the mother's claim sparked an fbi

child porn on jacob garlock's personal computer. he has been sentenced to five years in federal prison. investigators stress the pornographic images were not of overland students but taking photos of the students' feet was clearly inappropriate. >> the activity in the school is clearly exploited these children. he was admittedly take pictures of their feet for his own sexual grat if i indication. whether it's a crime or not, it's clearly inappropriate. >> reporter: the school district came under fire for not immediately notifying parents as soon as garlock pleaded guilty. the superintendent tells me he was immediately placed on administrative leave after that complaint. live from the fbi headquarters, megan hick key, newschannel5. a divorce lawyer is on the other side of the law tonight as police say he interfered with a client's death investigation. gregory moore wayns court today facing charges that he lied to police during their investigation.

outside of his office in 2013 one day before her divorce trial was to begin. police say moore sent text messages to sherman that he was in his office. however, cleveland police say witness accounts and phone data shows that's not the case. police are still looking for the person would stabbed sherman. one of three former rta dispatchers accused of abusing the service was also in court today. pamela mason is charged with theft in office, tampering with records, and identity fraud after the county prosecutor's office says she used the service to provide rides to family and friends. the service, which is federally sun is i divides, is used to provide transportation to the disabled and elderly. voters in south carolina will head to the polls in the morning to cast their vote. >> polls show donald trump with a strong lead looking to accept the nomination here in cleveland this summer. john kosich is live. today marks a milestone leading

>> is it all gets underway in cleveland in 150 days. five months from today cleveland will be the center of the political uni verse. while the host committee desist part to prepare cleveland for just about anything there's one thing that's beyond their control. that's the possibility of a brokered or contested convention, absent which no candidate comes forward to cleveland with enough delegates to secure the nomination. that's something that could possibly extend the convention. so could the local hotels handle that? the folks at the new 600-room hilton say yes. >> if it goes into a brokered convention, bankly the convention will be extended two more days. and we do have the availability during then. so we would be able to carry over, and we'd be happy to welcome them for another two days. so we did kind of buffer that in, anticipating with all this kind of craziness that's going on. >> super tuesday results 11 days from now will give us a

john companies sir, newschannel5. >> the fight to figure out who will take the main stage here in cleveland heating up with the key south carolina primary tomorrow. >> while the democrats are focusing on nevada we decided to track their stops on the stump. so we begin with our governor, john kay sir, who held two town halls today. kasich is still banking in his viral moment when a supporter asked for a hug during an event yesterday. there it is. despite the positive press he is still struggling to catch up to the front runners. >> right now those are donald trump and ted cruz. the men are polling strongly in that case. both held events today. trump took the stage alone, cruz appeared with phil robertson from ""duck dynasty"." bush held two rallies. rubio greeted supporters in three different locations. >> hillary clinton is in nevada

south carolina congressman jim clyburn who is the highest ranking african-american in congress is throwing his support behind her. >> and hillary clinton is far and away the best one to reform our criminal justice system and restore the voting rights act to its rightful place. >> the south carolina democratic primary isn't until next saturday but nevada's democratic caucus is tomorrow. clinton is neck and neck with bernie sanders there. still ahead on newschannel5 at 6:00, could there be a simple solution to stopping wrong way drivers? >> one fire chief believes. so he says installing stop sticks could help save lives. we'll explain how they work. plus, new legislation could make it easier for you to protect your child's credit. how this legislation could put coming up. and remember, if you see

all new tonight, three northeast ohioans have died after drivers drove the wrong way into traffic. now one fire chief tells us he has a simple solution that would prevent these crashes from happening again. lee jordan live in the newsroom. lee, you have a look at the plan. >> we got a copy. here is why that's important. nearly 4,000 people nationwide have died in wrong-way crashes over the past decade. here in ohio dozens of deaths are blamed each year on wrong- way drivers. and we've seen two examples in just the past month. so emergency officials from across the state have proposed a number of options to reduce the number of deaths including new signs, brighter lights at ramps, pavement sensors, and now stop sticks. solon's fire battalion chief says those sticks would have

>> can we engineer the problem out? i think we can. i think if we use spikes where you can go over one direction, but if you go in the opposite direction it's going flatten your tires. >> this proposal comes almost a week to the day after a 20-year- old college student was killed on her way to work. we did some dig and found that 70% of all wrong-way crashes happened during the hours of 6:00 p.m. to 559 a.m. so if you have to be on the road during that time, be very careful. danita. new at 6:00, $97 million in federal funding is being made available to the state to rid our neighborhoods of vacant buildings. the money is coming from a fund that aims to help states hit hardest during the housing crisis in 2008. a second phase can make an additional $250 million available if there is still a need. there is a bill that is making its way through the state house that could protect your child's identity and credit.

state house today and heads to the state senate. would it give parents the ability to create a credit record for their child and then freeze it. identity thieves have been targeting young children not only because of the clean record, but also it can go undetected for years. >> if you are venturing out on icy waters this weekend be careful. rain, winds, and above-freezing temperatures are expected to bring melting and weakening ice to the region. the coast guard warns ice thickness can vary even in small areas. of course be careful. mark, we should see a lot of melting this weekend. >> a lot of melting right now. my wife and i went to portage county a week ago when it was warm, and there were folks ice fishing on one of the little ponds there. >> can they do that tomorrow? >> no, no, don't do that at all. there's not enough. the fluct you the wanings our temperatures this winter -- >> too much.

look at this sunset pic from cleveland. that almost looks like spring. it's feeling like spring out there. how about akron? let's show you summit county. come on, there's the button. notice quiet weather there, quiet meaning no rain. still blustery everywhere you go. 57 degrees in downtown cleveland right now. it doesn't feel that warm to us because of the wind, but look at these temperatures. at hopkins we've got mid-50s. lower 50s for medina and wooster. 57 currently in ashland. we've finally seen the warm front move into ashtabula. fremont is at 60 degrees. wind gusts still above 20, above 30 miles per hour, depending on where you are. the winds are going to calm down slowly but surely through the evening. it's still going to be blustery, breezy all evening long, all night long, and even through your day tomorrow, you

we've got erie and huron county, ashland and richland counties in it and all points west to the state line. nothing here for cleveland and akron. lake county, we've seen gusts all day long above 30 miles per hour. so it's going to be blustery everywhere you go. cloudy, yep, we've had clouds in and out through day. now, here's the funny thing. we're actually going to see a cold front arrive overnight. you're thinking, a cold front, say good-bye to the 50s, say hello to the 30s and 40s, right? no, wrong. through. it may stir up an ace late sprinkle but the winds are still out of the southwest front. so warmer air here will still be pushed into our region. we could easily be two or three or five degrees warmer tomorrow are today. go figure. today's high at cleveland hopkins 54 degrees.

so tomorrow we could do 57 to 60 degrees. nice. 46 tonight. an isolated sprinkle still going to be blustery, still going to be mainly cloudy out there. tomorrow i'm going to pull the trigger. we'll go general al range of 55 to sit, mainly sunny, still breezy, mild. all right, should not be as windy tomorrow as it's been today. that's good news. 45 tonight for akron-canton. 58 to 60 tomorrow. breezy weather. then there's sunday. we get a real front coming in sunday. it's going to bring in a little wintry mix mainly during the afternoon. i'm not expecting any huge amounts but it's all about a front dropping in. there you go. 45 for a high on sunday. so 60 to 45. 60 is your day to get outside. 32 tomorrow, or 32, i should say, on monday, then tuesday into wednesday we're back 40s and 30s. still undecided about if we're going to get any major wintry weather for tuesday night into wednesday. it's still on the table. there will be a winter storm nearby.

still way too far away to worry about at this moment in time. but 60 tomorrow, that's close. and we're going to enjoy it. >> be sure to catch a brand-new edition of academic challenge saturday night at 7:00 p.m. right here on newschannel5. watch teams from nordonia, north, and walsh. lauren brill in talk hoops. >> cavs making a trade yesterday prior to the deadline. now what are they going to do with their latest edition? i'll have that and more after

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the cavs coming off a win last night over the bulls. today at practice shumpert was out, coach saying he tweaked his shoulder, also joe johnson still going to play if he gets back. cavs clearly trying to do whatever they can to improve the roster in an attempt to win a championship in the immediate future. to do so they need to compete

golden state and san antonio. tyronn lue saying he's excited about the new addition. >> shannon, i think is an underrated post defender. having a seven-foot guy who can stretch the floor, think about if you put shannon and kevin in the corner and run pick over lebron. there's a lot you can do. we just need to learn how to use him in different ways so we can be effective. also, don't forget the cavs game sunday against the oklahoma city thunder is right here on newschannel5. tip-off is at 3:30. we'll have plenty of post-game coverage including more on the cavs' latest addition. check it out. cavs not the only one in town adding to the roster. juan uribe has an agreement in place to sign with the indians. reports say uribe is set to

little less than 5 million assuming he passes the physical. there are reports that he's also having visa problems. he spent last year with the dodgers, braves, and mets. he's a 15-year veteran so he adds plenty of veteran experience. >> all right, lauren. just a note if you're expecting anybody home on i-90, i-90 east is backed up, a standstill there. take your time. we'll have the latest on our app. we'll see you back here. >> traffic headaches on a friday. >> nobody wants that on a friday. by the way, juan uribe, he's still good for coming in, bottom ninth, for a three-run homer. >> mark johnson, everybody. >> we've got 60 tomorrow, 55 to 60, in that range, still going to be breezy, and then sunday, another front dropping in. that will stir up some rain showers here and there, maybe even a wet snowflake. 45, then it's back to winter.

32. 41 tuesday, but again, we're watching our computer model guidance products to tell us -- give us a little better idea of wednesday. there's a winter storm brewing somewhere between ohio and let's say central pennsylvania. so it's very undetermined as to where this thing is going to go. i know a lot of you via social media are seeing some wild pics on facebook and twitter. don't believe that. stay with your trusted source. >> this guy right here. >> that's right. >> mark's the one. we'll see you tonight at 11:00. have a good one.

tonight, the showdown in the south just hours away now. donald trump after taking on the pope, taking on another giant, apple. apple firing back. the showdown in nevada. hillary clinton and bernie sanders.