>> breaking news. new cases of the zika virus in florida. some in the bay area. >> some are dragging their feet to get things done. why a sink hole cannot wait. i'm josh benson. >> i'm stacie schaible. thanks for joining us tonight. >> a so-called patriot with pipe bombs is in a lot of trouble tonight after his arrest in tampa yesterday with explosives, tear gas, and smoke grenades. michael vincent ramos is in jail awaiting a hearing. mark douglas spent time looking into his background. he is live outside the pinellas jail with more. hi mark. >> reporter: hi josh. and good evening to you. he is in the pinellas jail. we should explain, though he is a tampa resident. because he is on hold for federal marshals. he is a self-style militia man who makes bullet blocking vests.

that is why he is in jill tonight. and tonight, we have an exclusive interview with that man. >> patriot armor is a law- abiding company. >> reporter: ken o neil and his brother insists they have a legit business selling body armor to anyone who can legally buy bullet blocking gear. 25-year-old michael ramos is president of the company and their partner. but o'neal says when he spotted pipe bombs inside his tampa duplex two weeks ago, that changes everything. >> we cannot be associate requested someone involved in a legal activity. >> reporter: he lured ramos out of the duplex monday so federal agents could arrest him and raid the apartment without any violence. agents say inside, they found eight homemade pipe bombs, and ak-47. tear gas, smoke grenades. his landlord lives right next door.

here and said there were pipe bombs in there, you must have been shocked. >> definitely. >> reporter: o'neal claims ramos' fiance is making debt threats against him and his brother so they spent today filing injunctions against her. ramos told federal agents he is associated with a group called the u.s. patriot army and voiced antigovernment feelings after his arrest. o'neal insists he likes ramos but turning him into the atf was the right thing to do. >> i had to make a tough choice here. >> reporter: o'neal told me that his greatest worry was that somehow ramos would die in a gun battle with the atf if things went wrong. despite his concerns about the pipe bombs he really like it is guy. he is kind of fond of him he says. >> an interesting scenario there. had to be tough on both sides.

>> reporter: well tomorrow, he will appear in front of a federal judge who will decide whether he can get bail to get out of jail and how much that bail should be. should be a very interesting hearing, especially since ramos has rejected a public defender so it is not clear who is going to represent him at that federal hearing at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon in tampa. >> an antigovernment sentiment. we will look forward to seeing more on this story. mark douglas, thank you. we have breaking news tonight. the number of zika cases in florida has gone up. and there are now nine statewide. two in hillsborough county. miami-dade, lee, and santa rosa counties have cases. none of the cases involve pregnant women. two weeks ago, the count was one case in hillsborough, and only three statewide. well, we begin now with an 8 on your side investigation.

major sink hole activity has them afraid to live in their own homes so we have been working to get action for them. now, looks like the city of tampa is getting ready to make a move. >> they went out to sinking apartment building today and shannon behnken was right there with them. they are finally going to do something about this. >> reporter: they are working on it. everyone here agrees this is dangerous sink hole activity. the property owner is busy fighting in court to get more money from his insurance company to fix it. but city officials fear it cannot wait. 8 on your side exposed a 100- foot sink hole so dangerous city officials are taking action. they have a plan to inspect buildings and consider moving residents out. they don't buy the property owner's excuse that this is tied up in an insurance court battle. >> those are money deals. we are not talking about money here. we are talking lives.

charlie miranda is working with tampa city code enforcement to determine what should be done. >> what are we going to do with them? we are not geared up to move people out. >> reporter: city officials should have been notified seven years ago when an engineer working for citizen's insurance described one building as so dire that "any attempt to grout or underpin could trigger a massive collapse of the terrible with catastrophic results." nearby buildings are also in danger. >> the fact is even if you make an attempt to fix it, it is going to result in a disaster. that concerns me. >> reporter: 8 on your side dug through documents and demanded answers from property owners. we are told nothing will happen until a judge awards enough money to stabilize all of these apartments and demolish the one billing that puts the whole place at risk. but the city won't wait.

complex tomorrow with a demolition team. a city attorney and an expert engineer. >> we are not involved in money. we are involved in trying to save somebody's injury or death. >> reporter: this court battle is all about money. the insurance company wants to fix this but the property owner wants a more expensive medduation method. they say safety is a priority and they welcome inspections from the city. >> so who questions. how quickly could the city act and where do the residents go? >> they could act as early as tomorrow. they are able to do that. but this will be really tough. until something happens, the red cross can't step in. so they have to figure out first if they need to do this and where the residents are. >> thank you very much.

>> the department of juvenile justice suspended four workers at the facility that the teens broke out of. antny bays and anthony cooke escaped over the weekend and they are still on the run. a spokesperson tells us their investigation raises questions about if staff members followed procedure. residents are supposed to be supervised there 24 hours a day. but it took more than an hour- and-a-half for workers to discover the teens are missing. a litter of puppies thrown away like trash. >> the heartbreaking way a good samaritan found them and what vets are doing to save them. >> plus, cleaning up all the mess left behind by the pirates. what is being done about the trash after gasparilla. >> it was a beautiful day on this ground hog day. 82 degrees for a high. very close to record high temps. possible storms and much cooler. that's coming up. >> we will have that and more

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>> a litter of puppy is recovering at the humane society of tampa bay after a good samaritan rescued them from the side of the road.

discovered and each suffers from extreme mange. it will take four to six weeks for them to make a full recovery and the road will be a long one given the shape they are in. >> these babies would have died surely. without fail. no question whatsoever. because they were too far gone. she looks like she has a little fat tummy because she has been filled with good food and vitamins. >> the humane society is asking people to spread the word because dumping pets is a crime. turning to the iowa caucuses. a lot of eyes are on marco rubio who had a good showing. though rubio came in third, he did much better than polls predicted. momentum on his side, other candidates are taking strikes at him as they ramp up campaigning in new hampshire. jeb bush pulled in a dismal 3%

>> who would you say who critics saying he is dead in the water? >> absolutely not. the track record there. it is a process, a journey, we are in it for the long haul. >> donald trump was quiet on twitter much of the day. but then tweeted the media has not covered his long shot great finish in iowa fairly. he came in with 24% of support. the candidate sites are now set for new hampshire. and 8 on your side's candace mccowan is traveling to the granite state for the primaries. she will be covering the races and how they affect voters right here in the state of florida. you don't want to miss our special your vote coverage live from new hampshire. a chance for young people to learn about careers in one of the highest demand industries in the bay area. construction. kids got to chat with workers at the build tampa bay event. the channel site is growing

skilled work force to continue the growth. >> there's billions of dollars in the city of tampa alone. there is so much construction work. we will have a shortage on skilled labor. not anyone can build a building like this. >> the students learned about fields ranging from architecture and engineering to plumbing and masonry. well picking up after the pirates. >> yeah, there's still a lot of trash left after gasparilla. how the city of tampa is handling it and what is being

>> the bay area's biggest party was a big success. but after the crowds cleared out, the mess remained and somebody has to clean it all up. >> it was quite a party. the city is now making good progress on the cleanup. but there is a lot of trash. >> 8 on your side's jeff patterson joins us live along bay shore boulevard in tampa. >> reporter: the pirates are gone, but getting all of the tents, fencing, port a potties and the trash out of here is a huge effort. >> argh! >> reporter: they inand before

but the pirates crews say the people who come to watch the parade leave a lot of trash behind. >> reporter: we found them a little frustrated by what has been left behind. >> i was riding by thinking they do this all in 12, 15 hours. it tooks them a week to get it down. >> reporter: but the effort to clean it all up begins early. >> we actually planned on weeks in advance. >> reporter: mark will cox is the head of the solid waist department. this year, cleanup crews removed 45 tons of trash so far. volunteers pick beads out of trees and trash on the ground, but the garbage in the water worries some. >> i noticed some when we came out there. there was wrappers and paper and things like that floating in the water. >> reporter: the florida aquarium helps to coordinate volunteer to cleanup along the waters edge because they know

>> it can definitely affect the wildlife out there. the beads can be eaten by animals. animals can get entangled in it. and it causes a lot of problems. >> reporter: so there is still some trash out in the neighborhood. city crews are working to clean that up. but just this morning i saw a truck removing a row of port a potties so progress is being made even if it seems slow at times. >> thanks jeff. our own keith cate is a pro at covering politic sos the biggest challenge he faced in iowa this week was the ride back to the airport. keith is behind the wheel here navigateing the snowy streets. photojournalist jim took this image as the crew headed home. safe travels guys. good to have you back and great

primaries in iowa. current temperature 73 degrees in the plantation. a beautiful night here. northwest winds at 2. record temperatures, 82 the high today. 84 degrees the record set in 1990 so it was a warm day needless to say. still have this going on. five planets before sunrise. sunrise around 7:17. as you can see, mercury, venus, saturn, mars, jupiter lined up in the southern sky. first week of february. should go on hire. southerly flow for us. a stray shower is possible. a very light shower. we saw a little one earlier. at 9:00 p.m., 73 degrees. 69 degrees at 7:00 a.m. 80 at 3:00 p.m. a slight chance of rain through this period, fog possible. probably not as thick as this morning but still a possibility. 74 fargo. fargo? largo. 80 degrees in brandon. 80 temple terrace.

you know that is not fargo. 73 crystal river. venice, 78 degrees. a big area of low pressure across the northern part of the countriment warm air in the central part of the u.s. you can see the snow is falling from wisconsin, minnesota, back into the dakotas and all the way back into nebraska and iowa. further south, in the warmth and humidity, instability, showers and thunderstorms. a very fast jet stream have led to tornado warnings. mississippi now into alabama. tornado on the ground. you can see this patch of red right here. right in that area. it is a ponder warning northwest of tuscaloosa. and sections of mississippi still under a tornado warning as well. so some dangerous weather. this is going to stay to our north. we are not expecting tornadoes. all of that is well to the north closer to the area of low pressure. a few break-out showers and a few clouds remain back to the west. we enhanced this a little bit

fog is located. we had a lot of that overnight as well. so the forecast continues to southeasterly flow. a good amount of fog possible for form including sea fog. as our rain chances improve as we get into the afternoon hours. and into the evening hours into thursday, really though, that is when the cold front approach it is area with mostly rain, but a possibility of seeing a thunderstorm mixed in here. that front will arrive with a few showers and continue to push southward. that should open the door to the north and then, a beautiful day for friday, certainly much cooler. especially compared to the 82 we had today. 80 tomorrow. a few more clouds around later in the day. northern spots the best chance of rain. but a 70% chance of mostly rain. but an isolated thunderstorm possible too here. thursday. that is when the cool stuff starts. once that front pushes south, we see another disturbance push across the area. and we changed the timing on this a little bit. later saturday into sunday now. looks like the timing with another round of cooler air being yanked southward.

puts us back in the 60s into the early part of next week. >> far low and largo. that's about the game. >> i worked there when the movie came out. they were not huge fans of it. >> no, no, no. we don't talk like that. >> oh no. >> they hadn't been made fun of before. nice people up there. >> absolutely. >> of course. welshing coming up next in sports, a nascar sprint cup driver injured driving an atv. >> and the lightning are back to work. the players tell us about the challenge of making that final

>> the nhl all-star break is over and the boston bruins played the toronto maple leafs. if the bruins win, they will leap over the bolts in the second place in the atlantic division. welcome to the nhl playoff push. in the madness known as the atlantic division, the lightning, red wings, bruins, canadians, senators, everybody, separated by just five points. multiple losses at this point could be deadly. this morning head coach john cooper jolted his team a bit for the tough practice. after five days off, cooper thinking his team is ready for a critical game tomorrow against detroit. >> you can tell. fresh legs, fresh minds. i know it is only four or five days off. but ... much needed regardless. you know. people say one nine of 11.

>> we try to jump back into it. work on some systems. start right away with the big divisional game against detroit. >> practice today included those all-stars. stamkos and bishop. stamkos admitted he was a little fatigued after participating in nashville. but it was an experience that neither bolts player will forget. >> yeah,overly, the new format was i think better, more competitive. nashville was a fun city. probably one of the better ones i have been to. >> you see them all the time. play against them all those years. i get to know them on a personal level. it was nice. >> now tomorrow is one of the great days for college football. fans and boosters as well. the fax machines get dusted off

among the many big names up for grabs in the bay area. nate craig-meyers will not announce his choice until tomorrow morning but we believe we have the final three. auburn, ole miss, and north carolina. we have a lot of players going to sign tomorrow. we do every year. nascar sprint driver tony stewart suffered a back injury from an all terrain accident. they confirmed that new this afternoon. said stewart was able to move all extremities. it was very early. the daytona 500 is in less than three weeks so let's hope this is a quick recovery and not very serious. >> yep. >> all right. >> let's get a quick look at the forecast. >> nice for the evening. if you will be out, keep in mind it will be mild. only a slight possibility of an inland sprinkle. enjoy this one. we came up with 82 for a high.

>> sounds good. >> don't go anywhere. nightly new is coming your way next. >> in just 30 minutes. we will be back.