boulevard. >> construction on omerton road for years. now we have learned the property. that company based in columbia is going broke and now construction weary motorists will suffer longer because of the money woes. mark douglas join us us live in largo with the latest. hi mark. >> reporter: good evening to you stacie schaible. what a headache this has become. the dot said the orange barrels would be gone by january. now, we are talking about next summer. and that's just a maybe. back in november, dina asked us to find out what the heck was going on with ulmerton road. >> are you kidding me? >> reporter: a road she causes

the dot promised completion by january. >> he essentially walked away from the job. >> reporter: that's right. $19million into a $23 million contract, they just quit. the company also walked away from two other dot projects in arcadia and north port and left all of the orange barrels behind. >> there is a shocker. >> reporter: on january 15, the contractor served official notice it was defaulting on the contract and abandoning the job but the insurance company has already hired another company called prince. and thank goodness. they have brought more cones. no one at prince construction could tell us exactly how long it is going to take to pick up the pieces of this project. and the dot can only guess. >> they are doing some night work. one or two crews right now. we have been told by next week, they will be bringing in more crews.

running out of hope. >> orange barrel boulevard need to go away. who is getting fired? somebody could get fired for something like this. >> reporter: now you can't fire the guys who quit the job. at the very least, chris larson says they cannot bid on any more state road contracts. >> so mark, any assurances that this new contractor is going to be any better than the old contractor? >> reporter: we spent some time looking into that. prince has hundreds of millions of dollars of road projects in florida. it is based in tampa. the other company, the parent company at least, is based in columbia. and its financial troubles spread from here to panama so there is some confidence in that, but a lot of the motorists calling us about this

have created a facebook page just to share their gripes about orange barrel boulevard. boy will they have something to talk about tonight. >> it will be nice when the nickname goes away. thank you douglas. country's first presidential primary of 2016 is about to be in the history books. candidates spent the day selling themselves to voter who's are still making their way to the polls. candace mccowan joins us now live from manchester. candace, most polls will be closing at 7:00. some close a little later. we should have an answer soon after that. what have you seen from the candidates today? they have been very busy as have you. >> reporter: they have gotten around a lot. we are at a marco rubio celebration party that is not expected to start until much later but he is not the only candidate having a party like this this evening. several parties are having a

a reason to celebrate. earlier today, we were at the polls where it was high turn- out, the candidates are all hoping they show up in third place or higher. each day has been full of stops for many of the candidates. jeb bush tells us he thinks he got the job done. >> we have a really strong campaign. we worked hard. and i feel good about the movement that we have had over the past month. my strategy is to take a nap. i'm exhausted. keeping up with kasich is hard work. >> reporter: yeah, back here at this party, this evening, it is expected to begin around 7:30. like you said keith, many of the polls close at 7:00. some don't close until 8:00. we will have results soon there after and hopefully some reaction from the candidates. we will know more about what is going to happen as we move forward. >> jeb bush makes a good point. keeping up with john kasich

moving ahead in the polls as have a few others and jeb really needs to finish on top of the other governors. way. you also have ben carson. last time in iowa, they say he moved on. release. what was he saying today? >> reporter: yeah, there was a lot of controversy when he went home to florida to wash and change clothes and ted cruz said he dropped out. he sent out a press release to set the record straight that he is moving onto south carolina. he has not dropped out. there is a party for him here in new hampshire. he is not here, he has moved onto south carolina where he will be campaigning there. >> it is a race for second place. and hillary clinton and bernie sanders going at it. but looks like bernie will have this one. it is just about how much big bigger is his margin going to be. candace mccowan, thank you very

will have more reports from candace this evening including a break down of the results. sailors tossed into the choppy water off of clear water beach are back on dry land tonight. gusty winds today caused several boats competing in the sailboat races to capsize. for a time, there were concerns about hissing crew members but everybody got out just fine. 330 sailors are here for this event which continues through sunday. tampa police are asking for help identifying a man who was seen near the scene of a strip club shooting. police are not calling the man a suspect, but they would like to speak with him because he club rayne. night. two people died. christopher houston died from his injuries earlier today. racetrack is taking shape in downtown saint petersburg. minutes.

what bay area mosquito control is doing and what you can do too. >> plus, a case of dog discrimination. a family gets an eviction notice and it is because of their service dog. >> not bad today. 62 degrees well below our average. but cool temperatures, very much in place with clear skies. a bit more sunshine. but, upper 50s for highs. we will talk about your weekend forecast coming up. >> we will have that and more coming up. you're watching newschannel8. the station that is always on

>> now to an 8 on your side health alert with 16 cases of the zika virus in florida. they will give weekly updates on the situation. in pinellas county, officials fielded questions on the zika virus. there are not cases in pinellas county, but hillsborough has three. a mosquito expert tells us they are keeping a close eye on the kind of bugs that can transmit this virus. >> there are two mosquitoes we are mostly focused on. they have an amazing ability to breed in manmade containers so these are pretty abundant through the area.

populated as well. >> it is recommended you get rid of any standing warter where they could breed. have been acquired locally. they do not include pregnant women. >> the track for the fire stone grand prix is coming together in downtown saint petersburg. the first block along bay shore drive. this course is 1.8 miles long with 14 turns. mayor creissman say this is a special one for the drivers. >> we talk to the drivers. it is really a competitive track. there are tight turns. >> we have listed roads that will be closed by the race on wfla.com. another milestone for the saint pete clear water

the airport had its busiest january in history. more than 124,000 passengers traveled through airport that month. that is a 14% increase over last january. the numbers are due in part to ali january's nonstop flights. still to come tonight, a dog named ammo helped a disabled bay area woman get through the day. >> but he may have gotten a family kicked out of their home. coming up next, a battle of words between the owners and the landlord. 8 on your side get to the bottom of this. >> that, plus the forecast coming up.

>> nowen an 8 on your side investigation. >> state and federal laws give service goings protection. it is illegal for them to refuse to rent to someone because they have this kind of dog. >> a tampa couple called 8 on your side when they were told their service dog was a violation of the lease. shannon behnken joins us now to explain. >> reporter: this landlord not only said this was a violation, he also filed for eviction.

otherwise. >> it is a medical device as opposed to a pet. >> reporter: for pam clark, her german shepherd ammo is a lifeline. he is a highly trained medical service dog. pam, who has severe post- traumatic stress syndrome can barely function without him. >> the chemical changes that happen in your body depending on the different medical events, he will smell and be able to alert me to long before i even know about it. >> reporter: pam was awarded am mmo from guardian angels who trains service dogs and pairs them up for people with disabilities. this text message came from their landlord. the dog is a breach of the lease. >> the ada has law ins place to

the fact there are loopholes people can find to get around it, it is unfair. >> reporter: that loophole? the landlord evicted them for failure to pay rent. >> did you evict them because of the service dog? you know that is against the law. >> reporter: carol warden from guardian angels is outraged. >> there is no question that these people do need proper housing. they do qualify for service dog. and they do in fact have a properly trained service dog. >> reporter: but for now, ammo, the best thing in pam's life, threatens to leave her homeless. i'm sad to report that pam says she could not handle fighting this eviction and moved out. she and james are staying at a

looking for a new apartment where a landlord will accept this medical service dog. again, as required by law. >> if it is illegal, how does the landlord get away with something like this? there has v to be penalties or something in place. >> reporter: there could be penalties like jail time, fines. but it is difficult in situations like this when the landlord muddies the water by saying they didn't pay the rent. you know. so it becomes a he said she said and makes it difficult. >> all right, thank you shannon. uh-huh. if you have been outside, you know it is windy. check out this video of massive waves at sand key. this is the day to go out there because you don't usually get waves like this on the west coast of florida. more often on the east coast. but today, they were able to take advantage of the waves here. a little choppy. not bad for the west coast. still going on. stronger winds, rip currents

and do any swimming in this weather. 59 degrees. you can see a little clearing coming from north to south. so, this evening 53 degrees, windy. the clouds will continue to erode from north to south. 45 degrees for tomorrow morning. breezy northwest winds. even colder it looks like in the forecast. and then colder the next night. 58 degrees tomorrow afternoon. bright blue sunshine back in the picture. and again, windy. still chilly in the region. that will set up a very cool morning as you will see. 69 degrees friday. 63 thursday. so a slow warming trend. there is our average ladies line of 72 degrees. weather app. a few clouds around as you will see in the satellite coming up. we are headed into more of a zone, we will see a lot more days. 58 degrees now. clear water beach.

brandon, river view, treasure island. 60 saint pete. bartow, 58. and again, the winds continue strong straight out of the west. these are sustained winds but the gusts up to 31 miles an hour in tampa. 24 in saint petersburg. 25 in plant city. same in lakeland. it is a ripty night windy night tonight. just off to the northeast of florida, this dip in the jet stream indicates cold air southward. that affects us here in the sunshine state and all over the south. much colder temperatures. the cold front has passed the area. we are seeing the clouds start to go away further to the north as drier air aloft building from north to south. freeze advisories to the north. not for the bay area. chilly conditions needless to say. the rpm picks up on some of

northwesterly wind, you cannot rule out these clouds moving in that direction from north to south. clouds will linger but more sunshine by the afternoons a we talked about. still windy and cool with the reenforcing air. cold conditions thursday morning. this is the coldest morning because high pressure will settle on top top of us. some of the northern areas could be close to the freezing mark. in the afternoon, thursday, very dry, a lot of nice weather carrying into friday as well. not a bad rest of the week. the weekend looks pretty good too. not much in the way of rain chances here. as compared to last saturday which was kind of a miserable cold and wet day. saturday, 68 degrees. sunday, temperatures look pretty good. upper 60s . still below normal. but still very pleasant range of temps. allows folks to get the true florida winter a lot of people like to experience.

dressing room and she said yeah. you get to go through the whole winter wardrobe. >> that is a rarity. >> apparently. >> getting your attention. thank you steve. coming up next in sports, stephen stamkos takes issue

(donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to

our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates. enough talk. give us a plan. >> the hockey world is buzzing again over stammergeddon. the toronto maple leafs made a major deal today to free up salary cap space. naturally, they must be making

they need a turn around in montreal to wipe out the memory of monday night's loss to ottawa. the bolt haves company at 62 point ins the standings with boston and detroit. so no panic from the head coach john cooper. no panic unless his team plays better. >> you are not going to picasso every single one. but a lot of the things we do as a team, that is our trademark. first and foremost, our work ethic. our speed, our temperature ins tenacity. >> and of course, with stamkos hanging out in canada, every move is monitored. we will assume he is trying to have a little fun with this sleazy tmz wannabe. he called it a little creepy. later a montreal based hockey

tweeting a picture of stamkos at the same scene. give the guy a break canada. by the way, with this nhl trade deadline drawing near, this kind of garbage will only escalate for stamkos. all right, they partied today in denver. we are talking big time party. thousands of bronco fans lining the streets for a super bowl victory parade. they went down there in fire trucks. check out the crowd here at the denver city and county building. i don't know if they will be able to count the number. by the way, peyton manning did not tip his hand about his future. while that was in denver, the carolina panthers were cleaning out their lockers. cam newton's smile returned but his defiance on the super bowl walk-out remained. he addressed the topic and said if you didn't like his behavior, too bad. >> you know, if i offended

but i know who i am and i'm not about to conform for anybody's expectations. >> we have all these people that are condemning and saying oh man, he shouldn't have done this. i mean, i have been on record to say i'm a sore loser. who likes to lose? you show me a good loser andly show you a loser. >> time will heal it for him. he will be able to handle it which he did today. that's the fair thing. >> there you go. i think the issue is not we think you are a loser or not. >> we thought it would be classier if you stayed there. >> be a professional. >> sounds like something donald trump would say. >> you made a good point. >> jim kelly went through this four times? >> chip kelly. yeah, he's in the hall of fame. >> dan moreno, a few other guys. >> i don't think cam is a bad guy.

>> nightly news is next. >> have a great night. we will be back at 7:00 and