>> and planning to trade with cuba. what that could mean for port tampa. i'm jennifer leigh. >> i'm keith cate. thanks for joining us tonight. first, a break in two cold case murders. these have been open for years but now they have been solved. >> reporter: police are crediting the public for helping to break this case. lake land police are taking pride in finding the killers of two men, one that dates back nearly a decade. while a no-snitch culture exists in some communities, the public played a pivotal role in pointing out the suspects. earnest allen senior is talking about the arrest of two men in his son's murder. alex jr. was gunned down in

all these years later, the cold case is solved. >> i was so happy i didn't know what to do. i couldn't believe it. i thought nothing was going to turn up. >> reporter: police say the suspects were both teenagers when they committed the murder. weapon net had been a person of interest since the death. >> bennett had such a reputation on the street his street name was cut throat and it seem to be well taken with him and it is some sort of pride he takes. >> reporter: bennett was also apparently the intended target at a shooting at a gas station that ended in the death of jamal flemming. >> people in the community know these people are an issue. >> reporter: police are crediting the community with providing key information in both crimes. >> there is nothing we wouldn't want people to come forward and tell us.

>> reporter: while the arrest has brought relief for earnest allen's father, it doesn't take away the pain of losing his son to violence. >> i go to bed thinking of him all the time. all the time. >> reporter: now lakeland police tell us they have also several leads in several other cold cases but they didn't want to reveal any of that information on those cases today. >> and there are several of them aren't there josh? how many cold cases are we talking there? >> reporter: there are 30 open cold cases they are working on right now and again, they say they have some leads on some of those cases but they are always asking for the public east help to solve them all. >> thanks josh thomas live in lakeland. today a judge sentenced the mother of baby chance walsh to 25 years in prison. christian burrey pleaded no contest.

husband beat and choked their nine month old son chance. they buried the child in a wooded area. her parents spoke out in court. >> by her actions she made the decision to let my tiny grandson chance die a horrible death. she chose her husband and drugs over the love of her own child. >> reporter: as part of her plea deal, she must testify against her husband. joseph walsh is awaiting trial for second degree murder. we heard two murders in manatee county are related. they believe that he shot someone or at least someone shot and killed him. then someone found the body of jordan finland in bishop harbor road. investigators believe finland knew her killer.

was going through a difficult time and had no place to sleep. a drunk driving arrest could get more expensive in the state of florida. a proposed bill could increase the consequences of refusing a breathalyzer. >> reporter: more than 80% of floridians arrested for driving under the influence refuse breath tests according to a national highway safety study. senator david simmons' bill aims to discourage that hitting drivers with a minimum $500 fine and six months of probation on top of a suspended license for refusing a test. it was set for a hearing wednesday but that was put on hold. a dui attorney we spoke to says if you are pulled over you have every right to refuse the

questioned if the bill was even constitutional. attorney fred conrad says people busted for dui cannot even speak to a lawyer before their license is suspended. this would take away the only choice they have. >> it flies in the space of the spirit of the fourth amendment you could be pulled over and forced to give evidence against yourself. >> reporter: it could make it a misdemeanor for someone to refuse a breath test if they are arrested again. the bill sponsor says he expects it will be taken up again within the next week. in tallahassee, matt galka, newschannel8. a repeat offender would be required to have a breathalyzer device installed in their vehicles and would need to pass in order to drive their car under the new bill. well, the future is looking bright for port tampa bay. the president of the port today

up but the number of cruise ship passengers is down. stim, 8 on your side wanted to hear how the port is preparing for increased trade with cuba. jeff patterson is joining us now live from the port with the update. hello jeff. >> reporter: good evening keith. before the embargo when trade was allowed between tampa and cuba, tampa was a key player between shipping between here and there. now, the question is with change on the horizon, what is this port doing about it? good. >> reporter: paul anderson is bay. in his annual state of the port for growth. >> we have some of the most available land to grow this port of any port in our nation. >> reporter: some of the growth in tampa may be coming from our south. in havana. >> port tampa bay is in the most strategic position when it comes to trade with cuba.

congresswoman kathy castor is convinced trade opportunities are coming with cuba. she sponsored a bill in congress to lift the embargo. >> once that happens i think port tampa bay and this community will be able to supply telecommunications equipment. construction materials. agricultural equipment. it is important they build the relationships now so we are prepared for the jobs and that business. >> reporter: paul anderson believes the port is ready whatever happens. >> we are prepared for cuba. it is when cuba decides to open up trade with u.s. companies. >> reporter: anderson told me it will be up to the shipping companies that do business here for increased trade with cuba to impact this port. >> port tampa bay has great infrastructure, fully prepared to support our customers who will be the ones doing business with cuba. >> reporter: yeah, i also spoke

artinez about this. he says if the embargo is lifted, trade opportunities will be slowed because the cuban government simply doesn't have the money to pay for a lot of things so they can't have a lot of trade. >> it is difficult, but we are strategically located. we would have to be in the drivers seat if it came to that. did mr. anderson give you any specifics on how we are getting ready for cuba? >> reporter: i try today ask him about that. but he doesn't want to give away their exact game plan because he doesn't want to give the competition a leg up. >> jeff patterson, thank you. a terror attack on a university in pakistan left at least 20 people dead. islamic militants stormed the school triggers a gun battle with security forces. 18 teachers and two students were killed. dozens of others were wounded. a taliban spokesman disowned the attack calling it unislamic.

apologized for the water crisis in flint. the city's 100,000 residents have not had safe water to drink since 2014. singer cher donated thousands of bottles of water to the city and it arrived today. the city's water was contaminated by led leeching from old pipes. a plunge in the price of crude oil sent stocks falling on wall street. it fell to $28 a barrel. the dow was down more than 500 points. it ended the day down 249. don't look at your 401k today. >> do not. >> wait a new days. all right, still to come tonight, a family feared their treasured memento was destroyed. >> how tornado victims put pieces back together. >> preparing for a wintery wallop.

>> after sunday's deadly duet tornado, people came out of the woodwork to help the victims. people found a frame floating in water. they refurbished it to give it back to the family. rod carter joins us live in story. it warms your heart after all this family has been through rod. >> reporter: it really does. it is a great example of neighbors helping each other. two people here in sarasota

their day trying to ease the pain of loved ones lost in the deadly storm. katrina christianson and karl corey made a big difference in the lives of a family devastated in sunday's storm. after the tornado hit, the two headed to duet to help steve and katie wilson's family literally pick up the pieces of their scattered lives. >> i'm a friend of a friend of the neighbors. >> reporter: they had never felt the family but felt they had to help. they came across a frame. >> karl and i found in the water in the ditch, it was all four pieces were intact. couldn't tell you if it was from a picture or a mirror. >> reporter: though they didn't know what the frame was originally for, they could picture its importance in the family's life so they took it home. >> it was pretty battered and beat up. myself and katrina, we sanded it down, smoothed it all out. added some custom paint work.

new meeting and new hope for a of minutes. emotional. and thankful that somebody did something like that. especially a stranger doesn't even know the family at all. >> reporter: before they gave the frame back, they painted on it a very simple message. >> it was just a personal message that our thoughts and prayers are with them. >> reporter: karl and katrina say it is going to be used in a memorial service for the family this weekend. >> all right rod carter, we appreciate that. thank you. a massive winter storm will take aim at the eastern seaboard starting tomorrow. people in north carolina were stocking up today on shovels and propane. the national weather service is predicting perhaps crippling

not the best day for a drive starting thursday, kentucky, tennessee, and arkansas are expecting ice and freezing rain. as you can see it is already snowing in clarksville. winter storm warning advisories are in effect for that area and in washington dc. the old nation's capital. 2,000 volunteers stand ready to disabled residents. each volunteer is assigned a neighbor that needs help. early computer models say they could have a historic snow event this weekend. i was showing jen some of the still snowing. >> it is a blanket of white. >> it is quite beautiful, but no one is on the roads. >> even when you are inside looking out at it. get to work in it. >> we are fortunate here, but they are going to get blasted. flights.

for us, we didn't necessarily have snow, but we had a little frost this morning. we had some frost. some folks sent us photos. this was taken in brandon from lisa capturing the frost. we see just seldomly throughout the wintertime months here in the tampa bay area. in tampa, we only drop down officially to 41 degrees. other areas got close to freezing. a few spots dropped into the 20s in the early morning hours today. so, that was kind of the peak of the cold temperatures warming up from here on out. and this evening does look fairly nice. if you have outdoor plans this you need. temperatures will generally be evening. and then as you wake up tomorrow morning your weather forecast will show you it is going to be chilly, but not as cold as this morning was. temperature ins the upper 40s to start the day with a partly cloudy sky. an really warming up into the afternoon hours. our winds shift more out of the

we will reach into the low 70s . not going to last too long. tomorrow. so it is really going to be a gorgeous day for you. currently just tracking a few clouds. high pressure shifting east away from us. seeing snow like you saw in the east coast. but this is just a taste of what is to come. check out this low pressure system that is still off to the west. this is going to continue to push east bringing more snow again, potentially record amounts falling across parts of the east coast. for us, the cold front moves through bringing us a chance of storms and some cooler weather as we head into next weekend. because we will be affected by that storm system as well. for us, tomorrow morning, more of a southerly flow so this helps moderate our temperatures. not as cold. upper 40s to start the day. as we head into the afternoon hours, southeast flow continues. and, we are back into the low 70s . quite a change, but notice our high clouds do start to build throughout the day.

but yes, a little bit more cloud cover by the later portions of the day. then there is the cold front we are watching. showers an storms may start up by the morning hours. not the early morning hours but probably after the morning commute we will start to see some rain. the area of low pressure looks to stay further north of us. we will see showers and storms, possibly an isolated severe storm. we will watch it closely. not going to be widespread. as we head into saturday, the cold front has moved through. we have mostly cloudy skies. behind the system, it will be windy and cooler as well. so with highs only in the 50s by saturday, when you factor in the strong winds it will be chilly. jacket weather. could see a couple of sprinkles but otherwise pretty quiet saturday. as we head into this weekend. here is a look at the snowfall

nashville, up to a foot of snow. higher snowfall totals in dc. one to two feet of snow in the forecast as we head into the end of this week. and into this coming weekend. so yes. quite an event going onto the north of us. 62 in tampa. 64 in crystal river. you take a step back, you can see some areas really dealing with the winter like temperatures. 24 in chicago. 21 detroit. 30 in boston. so for us, a real quick warmup is headed our way. we are in the 70s the next last long. on friday, the cold front that brings us the high storm chances will also be bringing us back to the cooler air. temperatures will be falling saturday. slim rain chances and as we head into next week, we are tracking the next storm system that should move through on wednesday. so enjoy this nice little warmup. not going to last too long. >> blink and you miss it right?

we are getting excited for gasparilla, 2016. next saturday, january 30, the pirates invade. newschannel8 will carry the gasparilla parade of pirates live. i will cohost our coverage along with josh benson. our coverage starts at 2:30. we are streaming it live on wfla.com as well. walt disney parks resorts announced a major recall of baby clothing. >> why parents should return these onesies as soon as

>> netflix has 75 million subscribers across the globe. it says at the end of december, it had 78.4 million subscribers. it predicts it will add 6 million more by the end of march. it has been fueled by netflix's expansion into virtually every country except china. uber has scored an exclusive deal to pick up and drop off passengers as superbowl 50. ticketholders can use uber to get to and from levi's stadium. it will be the first time they will be able to. in the past, superbowl officials had banned ride sharing companies. microsoft is recalling power cords for the surface pro tablets versions one threw three. if they get pinched or twisted they can overheat. microsoft will release details on how to get a free replacement. a warning for parents tonight.

is recalling about 10,000 infant onesies due to a choking hazard t. it involves two styles of infant one piece body suits. the snaps can detach and pose a choking hazard to young children. consumers can return the item to disney for a full refund. and security firm splash data has released its list of the 25 worst passwords. topping the list, 123456. that is actually a password? password. and qwerty. new to the list, princess, solo, and star wars. the report is compiled using 2 million passwords leaked during the year. >> qwerty. it is right in a line. i like password.

>> what is your password? >> who is on third? any way, josh ben son is here for a look at what is coming up. >> a missing elderly man found alive after spending a freezing night outside. we will have his reunion at 5:30. and can adding fat to water help you lose weight and feel healthier?