it's 7:00. and the station that's on your side is on your schedule, 8 at 7:00 begins now. good evening, it was a simple task of unloading the groceries. but it sooned turned terrifying as a man became the victim of an armed robbery and nearly lost his life. mary maguire joins us live to explain what happened here, mary? >> reporter: good evening, jen, it's something that we all do all the time, just unloading your groceries from the back of your car.

a simple trip to the grocery store turned in to a fight for his life. >> i was putting in groceries. i was finishing up. one grabbed my arm and pointed a gun at my face and started trying to usher me away from the house. >> reporter: a quiet night spent preparing for the start of a new week was anything but for 38-year-old enrique alonso. >> i pushed them away. and ran away from the house. and the second i could, i drew at them. >> that's when the bullets started flying as he first tried to grab the robber's gun then his own. >> i have an eight round revolver, i shot seven times. >> alonso was left with a minor injury to his thumb. authorities believe alonso was life.

we don't urge people to get into a fire fight with criminals. don't try to grab the gun away from someone, don't be james bond. >> reporter: officials don't believe this was a targeted attack. but rather a random act of violence. live in temple terrace, mary maguire, news channel 8. 8 on your side's your vote coverage. the iowa caucuses with keith cate live from iowa. >> tonight is the night and the caucusing is about to begin. let's send it to keith in des moines. good evening to you, keith. >> hello, jen, good to talk to you again. we are in des moines iowa. and this is the heartbeat of what's going to take place tonight. you're sitting in the media center where we'll see on the screen behind me the votes come in. we'll know who will be the victor of iowa, the caucuses begin in less than an hour. i want to bring in our political analyst from the

want to start with marco rubio, we've witnessed ourselves the strength that he has shown and the surge he's had in iowa over the past few days. >> absolutely. if he comes in second, it'd be huge news. leaving here second gives him tremendous momentum. if he wins tonight or gets better than expected, let's say number two, it will be because of younger voters and republicans and women voters. and because of his ads and people saying he's the candidate they feel could better win in a general election than some of the other candidates. >> we saw his workers, he brought a lot of people from florida in his campaign headquarters that we were at the other night. let's switch to jeb bush. we did a report the day. he's struggling in the poles. i think he's fighting his heart out. he's more impressive in person. and we heard people tell us that today. they wanted to see and hear from jeb bush. >> he will continue on because what he has to do tonight to

to beat kasich and christy, the other governors. because this is all about beating expectations, the iowa caucus, because new hampshire is a totally different kind of state. and jeb bush is all ready poling pretty well in new hampshire. >> but this election has been turned upside down. it has been for months since businessman donald trump attended the race. we attended one of his rallies, we saw the enthusiasm there. donald trump is ahead in the poles. there's a concern that people might be complacent and say he's so far ahead, i don't need to caucus. is there a danger trump won't perform as well as expected? >> there's always that danger but a bigger challenge is will all these people that say they'll show is show up? 40% of the people that vote for him will be newcomers, maybe people who changed from democratic to independent. but i think most people think he'll generate at least a little bit higher turn out which should help him. >> and it might help bernie sanders. a high voter turn out.

sanders has been a phenomenon. i'll be honest with you, a lot of people in this camp, you look at bernie sanders, and you say he's in there for show for the democratics that this is all about hillary clinton taking the nomination, not the case. she's fighting at this point just to stay ahead. just barely. but it really is neck and neck. >> right. and the same phenomenon is going on there. the outsiders, people who don't like politics as usual they don't like hillary clinton they like bernie sanders. older democratic women want hillary. they say it's her turn and that she would be a great person her expertise and so forth. it's neck and neck. >> they say she has the ground game in iowa that maybe bernie sanders doesn't have. he haupt been here as long. but we've seen the differences between a hillary clinton rally and a bernie sanders rally. >> there's within the democratic party two splits generational split. the young for sanders and the

women more for hillary and men for sanders. >> we'll see if sanders can go on. he'll do well probably at least in iowa. he'll do very well in new hampshire. we'll see what happens after that. they say south carolina is the fire wall for hillary clinton. that she could move on from there. but she'll have a bumpy ride. i'm going to stop for now. i want to get out and see some of these caucuses for myself and give you a live report at 11:00. this is an interesting process. we've been here for five days. we've seen a lot. we've heard a lot. the people of iowa have been terrific. so it should be an interesting outcome tonight. and we're going to bring it to you live at 11:00. >> we're really looking forward to it. thanks to dr. mack as well. we appreciate it. as keith mentioned, he'll join us at 11:00 with another report from the iowa caucuses. tonight there's some resolution in a school board battle between two high ranking officials. polk superintendent's name has

shows us, the superintendent responded in her own video. >> reporter: polk county school superintendent katherine was the target of an investigation sparked by one of her subordinates. associate school superintendent greg rivers lost a complaint against la roy claiming he felt he'd been sexually harassed by his boss. >> i've come to realize that what others describe as an out going personality can be misinterpreted by some. i regret that. and i have learned from it. >> reporter: in the complaint, rivers was hired by la roy. claims the relationship soured when he refused her sexual advances. rivers isn't speaking today. but school board member kate fields talked to reporters by phone. >> this has been a distraction. i'm hoping and praying that we'll be able to put this behind us and go forth. >> in bartow, josh thomas, news channel 8.

left behind a big mess, keep tampa bay beautiful tells us 152 volunteers helped clean up the mess saving the city more than $10,000 in wages. volunteers filled 82 trash bags with 1.2 tons of garbage. and they stuffed 64 bags with a ton of recyclable items. plastic bottles and aluminum cans. i don't think they were all soda cans either. i'm just saying. >> i'm guessing that's a pretty good stab at that one. >> it was a great day. and we invoked your name several times and gave you lots of credit. it was perfect temperatures. high milky clouds. so it was sunny but not blazing sunny. morning. the weather was great for the parade. and the weather warmed up today. 78 degrees for a high. we added moisture back in the atmosphere. february. we look at the average temperature of 73 degrees. average low of 55. and the average rainfall of almost 3 inches of rain.

climate prediction center is cooler. and wetter. and certainly it has been wetter in january. but now we'll see how february turns out. of course this is the el nino phase. i've read that potentially el nino may have peeked. maybe headed on the down slope on that one. we'll see. showers continue off the southeast coast of florida. otherwise mostly clear skies continue. very dry air aloft. off to the west coast, that light colored cloudy area, probably that's sea fog forming. and some of that will come on shore and be with us here probably before midnight in areas. 70 degrees in the upper hills now. 70 in venice. 70 in clear water. temperatures are mild. a great night to get out if you've been wanting milder air to enjoy more floridaesque weather. this is the evening. the forecast includes cooler weather and rain. possible storms too. we'll talk about that coming up. still ahead on 8 at 7:00.

school employee is off the job after police say he was involved in a irs scam. rod fletcher is all ready in jail, but the way he's going it looks like prison straight ahead for him.

a st. petersburg man is facing a felony charge tonight. he collected thousands in an irs scam. his arrest maybe the beginning in a scheme that extorts money by threatening people over the phone. >> security camera video from the gulfport branch of wells fargo shows her smiling and chatting with a teller as she counts out almost $6,800. lees partners in crime threatened an elderly denver

>> somebody called them and pretended to be an irs agent and told them if he didn't pay up they'd have his parents deported. deported to greece. the crooks were good at what they do. >> i have the money, i'll pay it. and as i was doing it. i was like you know there's doubt. these guys were so good. >> he's suspended without pay from his part time after school program ymca job at mt. vernon elementary school in st. petersburg. in the bank video, he's wearing his blue ymca shirt as he collects the cash. he'll be fired. the victim is upset he fell for it. he's facing a grand theft charge. that will likely change and additional charges could go up now that the fbi is on the case. in st. petersburg, peter bernard, news channel 8. right now he's out of jail on bond charged with grand theft. but the fbi is working the case as peter said.

well, it might finally be time to give chipotle another try. the encouraging news from the cdc coming up. traveling across country at 7 miles per hour in a tube could be a reality in a couple years. ahead, the next big step that just happened in making hyper

on wall street today, the dow was down 17. the s&p 500 dropped a fraction of a point. and the nasdaq was up six points. uber riders in chicago will get free rides that are guaranteed to make them think about heading south. visit saint pete clear water launched a campaign with uber in the windy city including warm up wednesdays. uber users will be able to enter a code to request a free ride in a car decorated with the saint pete clear water logo. the campaign includes signage on the streets and in elevators. if elan musk has his way we'll crisscross the country in levitating tubes at 7 miles per hour. and we're getting a look at what the hyper loop might look like. competing teams of students gathered to explain their concepts. mit's hyper loop team received the best over all award with

22 teams of students will test their design prototypes in california including the gator loop group from the university of florida. flying is getting just a little bit better. snacks are back on the biggest u.s. airlines. starting today, united is adding free snacks on its flights and american airlines announced snack service is resuming soon along with more free entertainment options. delta is the only major airline that kept snacks throughout the lean post 9/11 years. america's favorite nut by might get cheaper the price of almonds has been climbing for the last seven years at one point they cost 4.70 a pound. that was wholesale. the price is half that. thanks to the number of farmers who joined the almond game. almonds surpassed peanuts in popularity in 2014. chipotle's e. coli out break appears to be over.

sickness linked to the restaurant chain started on december 1st. the out break sickened people in 14 states sending 22 of them to the hospital. investigators were unable to find a single food item or ingredient that could explain the out break. a suspected swindler we first exposed in an 8 on your side investigation is sinking deeper into trouble tonight. investigative reporter mark douglas tells us robert fletcher faces 31 criminal charges with more on the way. robert fletcher is no longer running away from responsibility like he did the first time we met him last april. >> we'd like to talk to you about your business deal. >> fletcher can't run from anything now because he's in jail. from his jail cell, he's written the judge in his case 14 pages of apology letters since january. they lay out various plea deals

prosecutors have filed 31 charges against fletcher for crimes ranging from fraud to grand theft, bad checks to unlicensed contracting. martin is one of fletcher's alleged victims. >> he also has absolutely no remorse. >> he claims he lost thousands. more than he wants to talk about in one of fletcher's numerous investment schemes. we first met him last april in front of fletcher's home where he was trying to collect his debt. before that day was over. other victims were standing in front of fletcher's home trying to recover their money too. he loved to flash cash and brag about huge pay offs his fictional investment schemes would bring. >> i got ten grand cash, i'm all set for the deal. there's no exception. there's no problems. >> in the end, the only one who saw a profit was rob fletcher. that ended when he landed in jail. that's where prosecutors say he

inmates and their relatives in still more fraud schemes. >> my only hope is he doesn't come out and get the opportunity to do this to anybody else any where else. >> almost a year after rob fletcher went to jail, his troubles keep getting deeper and a prison term seems more likely. at the pinellas county jail, mark douglas, news channel 8. you still have an opportunity to check out five planets before sunrise through the first week of the month here, mercury, venus, saturn, mars, and jupiter, skies should be clear for tomorrow morning. we'll pick up a few more clouds as we head into wednesday. temperatures are mild this evening as we talked about. still in the 70s in some locations. generally upper 60s at the moment. not too bad. 67 degrees at 1:00 a.m. temperatures over night are milder. the fog that we talked about could be thick in spots. including along the coast, 72

brandon, temple terrace, 67 seminole. treasure island, 67. 72 lake land. bartow, 75. brooksville 69. high above in the atmosphere, dry air, part of the reason why that pass of the international space station around 6:30 tonight was very visible by so many folks, beautiful clear skies only last a couple minutes but if you're lucky enough to see it, an area of low pressure emerging out of the west, means snow possibilities. high pressure is the big feature. bringing us southeasterly wind and the main reason we're seeing a milder atmosphere. but more moisture in the atmosphere. it just feels a bit warmer. . dense as i mentioned in fog. the forecast goes into the afternoon. some coastal fog pushing into the gulf of mexico. but we may see a few scattered showers. we did report a little shower around sea bring. one of our facebook viewer

highlands county. wednesday. thursday is the day for the best shower and thunderstorm chances. that's the day to plan for that. behind the front, cooler temps. possible storms here. rain chance, 20%. another round of storms possible on sunday. these could potentially be degrees. we stay cool all the way through the weekend any way. we do warm up nicely. it's been chilly. it's nice to be reminded it can be warmer. i'm sure the tourists loved it today. >> this is chamber of commerce weather. >> upper 70s. come on. in february. yeah. well, we'll be right back, in the mean time, don't forget, follow me online, find me on

features florida shrimp and clams. first saut\ olive oil, vegetables, and sausage, simmer until ready. now add the fresh florida shrimp and clams. things are getting delicious! once the shrimp is ready and clams have opened, add the final touch of creamy butter and juicy tomatoes; garnish with parsley and serve over rice. and that's how easy it is to create a seafood delight. visit freshfromflorida.com for more recipes. remember, delicious is always

are you hungry for an education? the university of kentucky has the perfect class for you. they're serving up a class called taco literacy. public advocacy and mexican food in the u.s. south. the professor says the class is less about the food itself and more about the social connections people are making with the food. by the way, i feel obliged to mention this is just some file video. this is not actually pictures of the class or students in said class. but don't worry, in general, restaurant reviews and taco tours are part of the real homework. and you're required to instagram your dinners as proof that you did the assignment. that's almost too much. social media, your food, who would take the time to do that?

since i attended. but that food looked good. >> we had to do math and english and stuff. >> just instagram your food. >> once again, i'm doing it wrong. >> see you at 11:00. on with the show just hours after losing her dad. vanessa goes on with the show hours after losing her dad. >> an incredible night on grease live. i'll take you behind the scenes with my video diary, now on extra. "grease" mania takes over america. how the cast rallied around vanessa hudgens, the near weather disaster seconds before air, taylor swift singing along. mario has all the moments you didn't see. and why danny zuko's short

then, leo, sophia, viola and bree. >> does your boyfriend know how lucky he is? >> carissa, renee, terry, and our fashion guy adam glassman with all the crazy confessions. >> i just love the smell that his body generates. >> the giant spoilers. >> binge on that. >> the candid moments. >> look at that! >> plus, why teresa gee dis's cell was the boom room. >> sarah moments after her face-off with matt. >> usually i say poles are only good for strippers. >> now on -- >> extra, extra. >> from universal studios, hollywood, the entertainment capital of l.a. >> hello, everyone, welcome to "extra" on an extremely windy day in l.a. i'm mario lopez. tracy is off today. carissa is going to have our coverage from the sag awards in just a bit. but first, if you thought