good evening i'm jennifer leigh. >> and i'm josh benson. we're tracking breaking news of

there were 34 children on the school bus. we will be sure to bring you any more information as soon as it becomes available. it's supposed to help veterans get help quickly but a veteran and his wife are asking people to steer clear of the veterans choice program. >> senior investigator reporter steve andrews has heard from vet after vet who has had it with veterans choice, steve. >> reporter: this veteran and wife feels as though his country

on this day, jim was not moving so well. not like the days he served on world war ii. >> he wasn't jumping, running, doesn't anything. it just fell apart. he fell to the ground. >> reporter: he endured two more corrective surgeries. >> after that, he was in constant pain. >> reporter: the va referred jim to the veteran's choice program. >> that's when i was introduced to health net. >> reporter: health net assures that vets get high access quality to the help they need. >> it was horrendous. >> reporter: health net set up a mid-november appointment. but when they got there, they found out health net had not sent an authorization.

aging in front of my eyes. it was bad. >> reporter: with good reason, when he finally got in to see a doctor they scheduled a procedure which was later cancelled because health net did not submit the authorization. >> my husband went ballistic. he literally went ballistic. >> reporter: jill spent the next week on the phone. the next week still no authorization so she put it all on her credit card. >> they're spinning their wheels, they're wasting people's time. and they're wasting the taxpayers money. the moreno's say they have had it and will never use the program again. how sad is this.

>> what does health net saying about this. >> reporter: pretty much what they've been saying, it's growing past and if a veteran does not receive care quickly, it apologizes. they seem to be apologizing a lot. >> doesn't do much for the process. >> i think we'll be hearing on this again. part of the highway was recently realigned as part of a construction project. that dropped it from four lanes to three. and as you can imagine, that caused significant back ups. but as 8 on your side shows you, there is some relief in sight. >> reporter: as you can see, it's bumper to bumper right now which is the case on most mornings. drivers get their day started

the morning commute for hundreds of people has turned into a nightmare just after 6:30 p.m. lights. >> reporter: chopper 8 went over it and got this look of the cars bumper to bumper. the ongoing traffic jam was caused after workers with the florida department of transportation removed an auxillary lane. >> definitely cuts down the space and time that people have to merge. >> reporter: this stretch of highway has shrunk from four lanes to three. but the department of transportation anticipates a fourth lane will open and cut down on the back ups. >> it has not been good. it's-- i live if st. petersburg, it's extended my drive over here by about 30 minutes.

department of transportation hopes to have everything cleared up right here by mid- february. reports on i275 in tampa. i'm ryan hughes, newschannel 8. are you looking for a job? the tampa international airport is hiring. among those hiring are restaurants like auntie anne's, and shops like the cnbc and news link newsstands. there will be more hiring opportunities available as additional concessions open as well. >> reporter: thousands of rape kits are sitting untested.

is potentially keeping criminals on the streets. senator lizabeth conelisto says she wants to prevent this in the future. >> i want to make sure the kits are tested in a timely manner. >> reporter: her bill cleared the justice committee on mondays. >> i just thank you for the opportunity to move this bill forward and to send a very strong message to victims. that their evidence that will bring their victimizers forward.

how many of the kits will be analyzed. the kits cost between 250 to $300 to be tested. it could take up to eight years to complete. a time line that some lawmakers have called unacceptable. in tallahassee, matt gelka newschannel 8. testing of the kits would have been completed within four months of receiving them. also two bills designed to protect your property from being seized by authorities are moving forward. those bills require law enforcement to compile reports of civil forfiture. the american civiles union is backing both bills. a second safe has been found at the former home of 1980s colombia drug lord escobar. the current owners of the waterfront property say they found the safe in a foundation

no word on what's in the safe. another safe belonging to crews last week. over. >> and a new ship went from dream to reality. all happened coming up. >> rallying hope and support for the people of saturday night live. jimmy fallon's challenge to other celebrities. we're going to be seeing higher rain chances coming up

a week to go before the iowa caucus and some politicos think that it'll be helpful for cruz. >> i want to be the number one governor. >> all the noise, everything that's passed 177 hours and iowa will speak. >> reporter: the polls looking ahead to new hampshire show it's john casick surging to third, even second place. one poll showed sanders with a slight lead over clinton. chris rock is rewriting his oscar's script. the median finished his monologue but he scrapped it. we're going to see what he comes up with when the curtain rises on the 88th annual academy awards which is on february 28th. there's a new favorite in

the big short has been named big picture of the year. last eight oscar winners for best picture have taken the pga top prize. the trailer for the newest installment has been released. far more dangerous than ever before. that film opens on march 18th. >> nearly a year after he left one direction, zane mallock is back. he went on twitter to announce his new album. pillow talk will drop this friday. jimmy fallon is donating $10,000 to the community foundation of greater flint. and he challenged 10 of his friends to match his gift. high levels of lead have been detected in flint's water prompting a state of emergency. the mystic crew of gasparilla has been putting on a parade of pry rats since

this year they're rolling one of the most complex floats that has ever participated in the event. newschannel8's jeff patterson shows us how it all came together. >> it's something isn't it. >> reporter: rex sparrieor is this year's captain of gasparilla. standing on the most complex and greatest float. the float began with a design concept of a skull and cross bones and grew from there. >> this was the concepts that we started original about 12 months ago. we presented this to our captain. >> reporter: his father then built it. they start with a pair of axels and wheels. then with iron, medal.

material, they create the rest. >> reporter: a waterfall and smoke, lots of smoke. >> yeah it's going to have water that comes over the teeth. and recycles back into chamber. and it'll be blue water and then in addition to that, we've got, induction fans that are going to blow a lot of smoke into the crowds. >> reporter: the crowds will not be able to miss the smoke. it. them. we want them to be a part of the float as it rolls by. >> reporter: they credit the family for building this monster and getting it ready in time for parade season. >> these guys are great. we enjoyed a great partnership putting it together. we had a lot of fun. we hope the folks out there in the community can appreciate gasparilla for what it is and we appreciate how much we're doing. >> and fun is what gasparilla is all about.

newschannel 8 will carry the gasparilla parade live. you can find everything you need to know on our website. and after a very chilly start this morning. temperatures still on the cool side this afternoon. officially topped out at 66 in tampa. currently out at the lakewood ranch 67 degrees. you can see high clouds around. but over all a fairly nice afternoon. and we're going to see a brief warm up in the forecast over the next several days. look for highs into the 70s. but it's not going to last long because we are tracking our next cold front. set to bring us pretty high rain chances wednesday and into thursday of this coming workweek. and good news is though, all this clears up just in time for the gasparilla. not going to be as cold as last

temperatures generally in the upper 50s. so you will want a light jacket if you're heading out earlier this evening but not going to be too chilly in the evening hour. your weather max out forecast will show you a few clouds to begin the morning. then we're looking at partly to mostly cloudy skies. not going to be seeing any rain around. and no rain expected for tomorrow. it's wednesday, that we're really starting to focus in on. because this is the system that we're tracking off to our west right now. high pressure still in play for us. we have that southeasterly flow around that area of high pressure. that will allow temperatures to continue to warm. as we head into tomorrow and into the mid-70s. that cold front will move through as we head into wednesday bringing up our rain and storm chances significantly. for this evening, really going to be lovely for you. temperatures slowly falling back. not nearly as low as they were in the evening hour. not going to be the case for

as we head into tomorrow afternoon, we'll top out near 70. we'll see showers and storms moving in with the next cold front that sweeps through. and it could get hung up. we're going to keep showers and storms on and off throughout the day. isolated areas could see even more. we are tracking that slight severe chance with showers and storms on wednesday as well. be watching that very closely for you. as far as temperatures go, the warmth will be brief. so as we head into the end of this week we fall back into the mid-60s below average but by the time we head into the weekend, temperatures start to go back up just in time for gasparilla. it looks a little better for this coming saturday.

make sure you have the layers on. definitely dress warmly to begin with. we'll top out in the mid-50s. no rain, less wind. shouldn't be too bad. as things wrap up we'll still be in the mid-60s. a fairly pleasant gasparilla in store. already down into the 50s in our northern spots. it's 59 in weeki wachee. 59 in crystal river. in barto 64 in tampa. some of that cooler air to the north. for us one more quiet day. we start to warm up and just as we do that's when the cold front moves through. some very high rain chances. we're pretty certain we're going to be seeing scatter showers and storms throughout the day on wednesday. these will likely linger into much of thursday for us as temperatures start to fall back. friday we get back to normal. temperatures in the mid-60s and this weekend really looks great if you have some company in time for festivities.

upper 60ings. low 70s. mostly sunny skies and unlike the children's parade we won't have that chilly wind to deal with. >> thank you, julie. a police chase turns into a rescue mission. >> coming up next, why two men

now to what's making headlines across america. a fight in a prison may have been staged to help two men escape. two fugitives hiding from police were forced to call 911 after it started snowing. these men jumped out of a car and ran into the el dorado national forest in california then they ran down a canyon and crossed a river. wet and cold they ignored law enforcement warning to surrender with a winter storm in full force. by nighttime, they were freezing so they called 911. >> we knew based on the weather conditions that there was a high likelihood they would not survive very long.

to jail because they knew they were going to be dry and warm. a teen died in a sledding accident. he was on a sled being pulled by an atz when he was hit by a pickup who hit them and ran. look at that. nearly 38-inches of snow there fell over the weekend. the weight of the snow that accumulated on the church roof just caused it to cave in. good news though, nobody was injured. newschannel 8 at 6:00 is coming up next. >> keith is here with what we're working on. >> thank you, a mass gunman terrorizing store clerk in the bay area. coming up terrifying firsthand account of six hold ups and how investigators are hoping to

plus a settlement between fsu and james winston's accuser. how much she's getting and why her attorneys are getting even more. the case of the missing bird is solved. hector is home and he's happy. >> because of our 8 on your side investigation, truckers who lost their license at no fault of their own now get a

fearing for their lives while just doing their jobs. clerks being targeted by an armed robber. florida state agrees to a big settlement with jaimes winston's accuser.

not getting the most money.