it's 7:00 and the station that's on your side is on your schedule, 8@seven begins now. good evening. a hillsborough high school student is behind bars this evening charged with bringing a gun on a school bus and loading it as the bus made its way to school. chip osowski joins us live from the alternative school with the details. do we know exactly what that student may have had planned? >> reporter: well, jen, that's exactly what hillsborough county sheriff's deputies are trying to figure out at this hour, but the bottom line is this. common sense rules in this

bring your gun to school and secondly, you don't load it on the school bus on the way. 18-year-old jamarcus sims is in a heap of trouble this evening, another student on the bus saw what was going on and took action. sheriff's office initially got the call around 8:35 from a relative of a person on the bus. the student texting that relative about sims and the handgun. the bus was located at the intersection of u.s. 301 and harney road at the time. the bus continued on, the student keeping in constant contact with the relative via text. the relative giving 911 dispatchers a play by play to get deputies in position. deputies eventually stopped the bus at the intersection of u.s. 92 and county road 579. they evacuated the other students safely and confronted sims. >> and found exactly where the witness said the things were hidden, that's where they located the 9-millimeter

rounds and a black ski mask. >> reporter: sims is a student at brandon alternative school and sheriff's and school district officials credit his classmate with keeping a cool head and helping to bring the situation to a nonviolent ending. and sims is currently charged with possession of a firearm on school grounds carrying a concealed weapon and drug possession. deputies are holding him at the hillsborough county jail on a $4500 bond. reporting live in hillsborough county, i'm chip osowski, news channel 8. police are treating the death of a shoplifter outside a bay area walmart as a homicide. as josh thomas shows us it is possible some store employees could face charges. >> reporter: 64-year-old kenneth wish died in less than 12 hours after being chased by walmart security. they claim he stole nearly $400 worth of dvds from the store. >> at some point his pants

to the ground, he was apprehended and taken into custody shortly thereafter. they noticed he wasn't began cpr. >> reporter: he was rushed to later. the medical examiner's autopsy revealed he did not die from a previous medical condition like a heart attack. wayne cole worked at that same lakeland walmart for eight years. he told me loss prevention officers have strict rules to follow even when it comes to catching shoplifters. them. they are supposed to go out there and try to stop them but they are not supposed to use any kind of force at all to stop them. if they get away, they leave. they are not supposed to chase them. >> reporter: but that apparently is not what happened outside this walmart in lakeland, josh thomas, news channel 8. tonight police are giving us a look at the guy who returned a glass sculpture that was stolen from spurring chihuly collection. the mystery man returned the

take a look at detectives narrow down his i.d. they are looking for another person who happened to walk by and strike up a brief conversation. that person have not in trouble. police want to find out what he knows. sarasota police have put the brakes on a massive car burglary ring. they arrested four people who went on a spree hitting 40 cars within a 24 hour period but as john rogers shows us, they need help trying to locate all these victims. >> reporter: if you've been spending time in downtown sarasota lately, you could be a victim of a crime and not even realize it. police say on monday and tuesday, 18-year-old matthew gunn and three other teens skipped school to go car hopping. the crooks wandered through parking garages and they would pick at door handles until one opened up. they would then rush inside, search the car and take anything they could find. >> we are making this easy by leaving these car doors open. in this instance it's what they did did.

garage to parking garage stealing from more than 40 cars. so far not a single victim has come forward. if you've been downtown lately check to make sure you're not a victim and this story serves as a reminder to always lock up in sarasota, john rogers, news channel 8. tonight police say they have talked to a person of interest in last weekend's deadly shooting at club rain. two people died, six others were wounded in that shooting at the trip club on nebraska avenue. it happened saturday morning. late this afternoon detectives told us they identified their person of interest and they did interview him as well. well, a st. petersburg taxi driver found himself staring down the barrel of a gun from a man demanding cash. that driver was in no mood to be a victim. >> reporter: it was supposed to be a routine call here in south st. pete but for key joseph sylvia it turned out to be anything but.

had to make a decision? >> yeah, yeah. that's all you had was a split second. >> reporter: it was a six minute cab ride that ended with a heart pounding 60 seconds, sylvia had to decide whether to hand over a few hundred bucks or turn the tables on this guy, 18-year-old d'andre foster. >> pulled the gun, cocked it, pointed it at me and says give me -- >> he pulls a gun at you? >> yeah. >> reporter: you're not scared. even with the threats and the gun right in his face, sylvia said no. >> the look on his face when i told him no was priceless. >> reporter: he thought you were not going to fight back? >> yes. >> reporter: you do realize police say don't do that? you did it -- >> it's cowardless. >> reporter: paul mueller, news channel 8. wildlife workers had to rescue one of south florida's most famous eaglets, the bird known as e8 ended up tangled in some fishing line. e8 is a recent hatchling from harriet and m15, the residents

day through live streaming video online. vets say e8 was dehydrated and had lost weight but should make a full recovery and be returned to the nest in a few days. chief meteorologist steve jerve joins us now. i'm particularly fond of that eagle because it's eagle 8. did you notice that, eaglet 8? >> i like that. we will follow his progress, hopefully he will do fine. he looked great. >> yes. >> he's been working out. take a look at the warning we have for tonight. very cold temperatures, a frost advisory here colored in purple up in pasco county as you can see away from the coastline in pinellas county, virtually all of pinellas outside the frost but that doesn't mean you can't see cold areas in pinellas or potentially frost in pinellas. take the precautions tonight. sumter in the freeze warning, 3:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. the area of risk.

low 40s in inverness, 47 brooksville. upper 40s winter haven and lakeland and low 50s in bradenton, st. pete. clear skies, light conditions lead to this and this is important too because the winds are basically lighter than they were even a couple of hours ago. they are really dropping off as an area of high pressure moves over us, lighter winds lead to radiational cooling and that's the big reason we have the freeze warning in place. temps look great for the weekend really and we will have that forecast for you coming up shortly. still ahead on 8@seven. >> two of three speed bumps still remain in this pasco neighborhood. coming up, i will tell you what the county plans to do to slow cars in this area. tonight we ask the d.o.t. why they hired the company that abandoned ulmerton road construction. >> we will have that and more coming up. you're watching news channel 8,

changes are coming to a port richey street where neighbors had their own speed bumps installed. one bump vanished after our story last week and soon the other two will be ripped out. as peter bernard shows us, pasco county traffic engineers have a plan to make the roads safer. >> i think these are good. >> reporter: exasperated by speeding cars traveling up and down this 10th of a mile road, wayne mcdermott appreciates the do it yourself speed bumps one neighbor had installed. one speed demon in particular is a repeat offender. >> 60 to 70 miles an hour. every day we have to yell at this kid to slow down. >> reporter: this is what james street looked like last week after cooper paving finished laying down three speed bumps without any permits. >> hi. looking for somebody from cooper paving, please. >> reporter: i called the company out of pennsylvania to

take out what remains, a spokesman hung up on me. but a solution is on the way. >> being that that road is actually of substandard width we are looking at reducing the speed limit along that road and having that as a posted. right now it's a nonposted road so the speed limit is to 30 miles an hour and should go down to 20 miles an hour speed limit. >> reporter: that's news to neighbors fed up with the raceways in front of their homes. the county is going to post a 20-mile-per-hour speed limit sign on this road. do you think that will help? >> yes. >> reporter: if drivers continue to want to speed down this road, the pasco county sheriff's office will be handing out very expensive reminders. in port richey, peter bernard, news channel 8. >> and the pasco board of county commissioners have to approve the reduced speed limit to 20 miles an hour. the county is responding to a request from a blind person who lives in the area and worries about those speeding cars. well, there is social media shake-up that could change your tweeting experience. we will have those details coming up.

driver in a driverless car? the feds just cleared a few

awall street today, the dow dropped 99 points, the s&p was

the nasdaq gained 14. adding to the recall list. volkswagen is recalling 680,000 cars made between 2006 and 2014. daimler and mercedes-benz are also recalling 840,000 cars and vans due to defective air bags. just that recall alone will cost daimler and mercedes $380 million. 100% driverless cars could actually be a reality some day now that federal regulators have given google a very important green light. the feds say google can move forward building a car that has no steering wheel and no gas or brake pedals. of course states can still pass laws requiring cars have the ability for a human to jump in and take control in an emergency. but on the federal level, that's no longer a requirement. regulators suggest that the computer that's controlling a self-driving car should be legally defined as a driver.

something to tweet about. today it rolled out a major change to everyone's time line. it hopes to show more relevant tweets at the top of your feed instead of displaying everything in chronological order. when you activate the new feature you will see popular tweets related to people you follow first in your time line, followed by the traditional realtime list. for now you need to activate it to see it but at some point twitter will likely turn it on for you and then if you hate it, you will have the option to turn it off. it's almost time to upgrade your phone once again, get ready for a couple of big smartphone announcements in the coming weeks including a new s7 from samsung. it's supposed to be officially unveiled february 21st but images of the phones have already leaped online. venture beat reports the s7 will have a 5.1-inch screen, the s7 edge will have a 5.5- inch curved street. both models will have a bigger battery than the s6 models but the battery is not removable.

lower resolution but they will have a better lens and both phones will have a micro sd memory chip slot. we know a new phone coming from lg. the company posted this teaser on twitter which promises the new g5 will have a screen that's always on, although it's not really clear exactly how they will pull that off. this phone should also be unveiled on february 21st during the mobile world conference in barcelona. our investigation last night on the contractor who abandoned the omarton road construction job stirred up a lot of viewers and tonight investigative reporter mark douglas takes a closer look at how the state d.o.t. hired that contractor in the first place to work on the road some motorists now call orange barrel boulevard. >> reporter: after four years of construction, this is what connell vs u.s.a. has left behind, motorists face

this busy stretch of ulmerton road. last night frustrated motorist dede told us heads should roll. >> somebody should get fired. >> clearly she was frustrated but essentially the contractor is off the job now. the job. the company abran donned -- abandoned it three months ago. the company still brags about the ulmerton road project and two other d.o.t. jobs it has also abandoned due to a lack of resources. the d.o.t. insists that when conalvisa pre qualified as a bidder four years ago it passed the financial sniff test. >> all of the guidelines were followed. >> reporter: the d.o.t. says they had a proven track record back then and has submitted company financial statements to show viability every year since then. the bottom line is when they submitted the $23 million low bid back in 2011, this job was

>> you don't have any choice? >> we use the low bid method for construction, that is correct. >> reporter: a new contractor hired by the insurance company expects to finish the job by the summertime at the earliest. it was supposed to be done last month. in largo, i'm mark douglas, news channel 8. and the d.o.t. tells us no matter how long it takes to finish widening ulmerton road it will not cost taxpayers any more than the original project. if you're looking for a great place for some extreme snowboarding, how about fenway park. well, right now you can find a 140-foot slope standing right over center field at the iconic ballpark in boston. some of the best snowboarders will slide down the ramps, some hitting 40 miles per hour during the big air at fenway event thursday and friday. who knew? hit one out of the park, wow.

so we have some cold weather of our own here in the bay area, prompting a freeze warning we talked about, citrus hernando, sumter county frost. manatee, sarasota, the western parts of hillsborough county, largely due to the water temperature here but we could definitely see patchy frost even in those spots so take those precautions tonight. temperatures largely in the upper 40s, falling quickly under the clear skies, light wind conditions. the winds have really fallen off, not just because it's the evening but also because we are seeing an area of high pressure move over us. overnight low temperatures dropping into near 40 degrees but obviously that's going to mean near freezing temps in some of the northern spots. 50 at tampa international, 52 at the airport in downtown spurring so it's -- st. petersburg so it's chilly out tonight but the winds at least lighter. cold front down to the south as we know, the erosion of clouds has been continuing from north to south across the bay area and of course you can see the freeze warnings in place that

on the rpm computer forecast model, mostly clear skies with this area of high pressure settling over us, cold conditions for tomorrow morning to start the day but should end up fairly nice, bright blue sky, lots of sunshine, a slow warming trend that will carry all the way into the weekend, still keeping temperatures below our average but certainly warmer than today's 58 for a high. friday morning still chilly with clear skies, here comes another cold front that will slide in for saturday, maybe add a few clouds for us but basically keep our temperatures below our average, average high about 72 degrees this time of year. 69 for friday, 68 degrees for saturday, rain chances are low, they kick back in later monday into the early part of tuesday so overall the weekend is looking good including valentine's day there at 62 degrees, combine a cool air mass with some warm florida sunshine that we will see a bit more of on sunday, that should make for a very nice day. the next couple of days look lovely. >> sweet weekend. >> late next week get into the

trend. we will be right back. stay with us. and don't forget you can tune in tomorrow night as our own jeff patterson heads to cuba. he's following congressman kathy caster in a delegation of lawmakers of havana. you can watch his reports beginning tomorrow night at 11:00 only here on news channel 8. plus love is in the air. here's what you will see tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. >> love is in the air in the animal kingdom. i'm news channel 8's gene ramirez and i will show you how our animal friends are dating and mating just in time for valentine's. >> love is in the air all this

if diamonds are a girl's best friend let me introduce you to your new second best

ever found has a name, called the la seedy la rona. it happened last november and the 1100-carat stone is too big for estimators to determine its value so 92 price set yet. what do you do with a bad goat who has been breaking the law? you lock her up. at least that's what they do in india. babbly the goat is officially under arrest because she picked the wrong lawn to inadmissible on. a local judge caught her munching on his flowers and other florals. charged with trespassing and destruction of property and could face a two-year prison sentence. >> when goats go bad, what can you say? any goat story is always welcomed in this newscast. >> that's a fact. >> taking off the goat network. >> is there a goat network? >> there is, 24 hours. >> on youtube?

i could think about that all day. that's it, i think we are out of time on this show. >> we will killed the weather. >> we will be back at 11:00. dawn of the brain dead. the donald destroyed on the front page. >> trump gets in the last word now on "extra." just call him the teflon don. trump unshakeable today as he's targeted in the new york papers, and spoofed by johnny depp. >> the only thing with more brass is my balls. >> are you the favorite to be the next president of the united states. >> his new interview, plus melania posing poolside inside trump's megacountry estate. new video, kish kardashian today revealing her post-baby body.

defense of bill cosby today. only on "extra," usher's first interview about his secret wedding. >> congratulations, because you -- >> get out of here. did joe giudice cheat on theresa while she was in prison. >> i saw them. >> what was in her bed when she first checked in? in the "extra" feed, gwynneth's booty call, her super sexy new photo shoot. plus jen and justin, kendall jenner, owen and ben. aj's there as the "zoolander 2" crew crashes new york fashion week. now on "extra" from universal studios hollywood, the entertainment capital of l.a. [ cheers and applause ] welcome to "extra," i'm mario lopez, coming up, gaga, taylor swift, rihanna, i'm in on a giant grammy surprise, details coming up. also coming up, the

and what she was out celebrating