it's 7:00 o'clock, and the station that's on your side is on your schedule. 8 at 7:00 begins now. good evening, where is allison huffman? tonight her car is recovered and shows the snow and rains of crash that killed a -- shows the scars of a crash that killed a tow truck driver early this morning. new the search is on for huffman. we're dicking into your -- digging into your background

>> reporter: roger perez was crossing the bridge and came across motorists in distress. >> he was just pulling over because he saw somebody stuck on the road. >> reporter: the two motorists were safely tucked away inside his truck, when an eastbound hit and run driver slammed into perez. >> he was a fantastic person. >> reporter: hours later the suspect's car was covered at the crown plaza hotel in tampa at the foot of the bridge. the driver is believed to be allison huffman. a woman with a really bad driving record. she had a history of four drunk driving arrests from 2002 to 2014. police say after she dumped her car, she took a taxi to the hard rock casino, and tonight

>> reporter: i'm john rogers in sarasota, the florida highway patrol is seeing a large spike in hit and run crash, so they're putting out a warning. >> as soon as you decide you're going to flee the scene, you've turned yourself into a criminal. >> reporter: the damage is long lasting. just ask mark. he was hit by a driver on the interstate, and now he's relegated to a back brace and constant pain. >> they stole my dignity and pride, and everything i do every day is kind of impacted. >> reporter: if you leave a crash with an injury, you face five years in prison, but fleeing from a deadly crash is a lot worse. you could face up to 30 years behind bars. troopers say if you cause an accident, stop, provide help, and call the authorities. in sarasota, john rogers, news channel 8. a lakeland woman who live streamed video of herself apparently behind the wheel and drunk has reached a deal that allows her to avoid jail time.

last week, and in exchange she'll serve probation, community service, and her license is suspended for six months. a police officer caught this woman getting on interstate 4 headed the wrong way. the officer pulled her over on the i-4 exit ramp at 21st street, and she's charged with dui. a change in the law in lakeland allows alcohol sales on sundays before noon, but that's bad news for business owners in the county. they claim they're losing money since some people are passing them by to instead by alcohol in the city limits on sunday mornings. they've sent a petition to county commissioners asking for a change in the law to give them a more level playing field. >> i would like the county commissioners to give me the same rights as the city of lakeland. i have a lakeland address, but

>> they need to extend the laws for the whole county, i'm hoping for that. >> the commission agreed to hold a workshop to discuss the issue march 15th. if you want to vote in florida's presidential primary, make sure you register before it's too late. tomorrow is the last day to register, and make sure your registration includes your party affiliation. if you want to vote for a republican you have to be registered a republican and the same goes for the democrats. >> i don't really follow any particular party, but the person i like in the republican party is enough to make me change to make sure i vote in the primaries. >> you have until tuesday, tomorrow, at 5:00 p.m. to drop off the voter registration or party change, or mail it in as long as it's postmarked no late ore than -- later than tomorrow. a brave bay area woman that lived her life as an

away yesterday an valentine's day. michelle began her fight against brain cancer almost two years ago. we told you her story after diagnosis. she battled cancer and became a strong advocate for brain tumor awareness and research, and her incredible attitude and proclamation to be the good spoke to so many. >> she leveraged her voice to advocate for brain tumor awareness, you know, through the outlets like brain tumor alliance and other organizations, she really leveraged the following that she had by the inspiration that she was with the message that she was putting out there. >> during the past two years, michelle raised nearly $200,000 to fight cancer. there's a celebration of life being planned for family and friends. well, tomorrow the us transportation secretary will

commercial airlines to travel to cuba. some us lawmakers are already there, and so is our own jeff patterson as he takes a look at the raptly changing communist country. >> reporter: i'm standing in front of the oldest forts in havana, where it all started in the 1500s, and this is where things are changing. thousands of tourists are coming to locations like this to see the historic beautiful parts of havana, and now with the us signing a new agreement with cuba to allow commercial flights to return to the country for the first time in decades, things will change dramatically. the flights will bring many more tourists in the country. how does that change the game with commercial flights allowed in. >> oh, it's going to open the flood gates. a lot more flights, a lot more cities involved. you still need to come under a

hasn't changed. you can't come for tourism, but the options are more expanded. >> reporter: so we've seen a lot of americans that want to see cuba, but the problem is, is cuba ready for the americans? right now hotels are hard to come by, so if you want to come, it will take some planning. jeff patterson, news channel 8. >> and 8 on your side is the only television station bringing reports from the cuba on the trip, and jeff patterson will continue to bring us stories from havana all week, including tonight at 11:00. chief meteorologist steve jerve is here now, and there's no complaining about the weather we're having, when, are they calling it a polar vortex? >> just cold weather. >> it seems terrible for some people. >> boston, and new york, that's pretty extreme cold, and you know some major imth pas to the cities -- impacts to the cities up there, but for us 70s. 74 today. >> shucks! >> i know. nice weather the rest of the week, but there is a possibility of overnight

that line moving across alabama, mississippi, reports of confirmed tornadoes in the area, in fact also a tornado warning for the northwest part of florida, that's north of pensacola earlier. a lot of this rain is lifting on ahead of the line of thunderstorms and the cold front itself, and that's the risk for thunderstorms, generally coming after midnight. that box you saw, that was a tornado watch, and that does not include us, we'll continue to see if they'll extend that watch to include other parts of florida, but for now the local radar picking up a few showers, and maybe a little thunderstorm in the eastern part of hillsborough county, so a few little downpours moving fast along with the rest of the flow at the surface. the temperatures mild. mostly 70s. looking more at the forecast for the rest of the bay area and timing and intensity of the stops for tonight coming up -- storms for tonight coming up. still ahead. a reckless driving stunt

law enforcement warning you about the dangers coming up. >> reporter: take a ride as we give you a real spectacular meeting its fate with a demolition crew. that and more coming up on

it's becoming a dangerous trend among young drivers, doing doughnuts on purpose in the middle of traffic. it was done over the weekend in person park and caught on -- pinellas park and caught on camera. >> reporter: it's the video that's catching the attention of drivers everywhere.

you see in a movie. >> they're watching fast and furious. >> reporter: this man takes this street every at a and he says he's glad he wasn't on the road when this white car pulled out in the middle of traffic and started doing doughnuts, he does a full spin, burning rubber and bringing traffic to a screeching halt. >> they could kill themselves or somebody else in a moment. >> reporter: and it's not only happening here. hundreds of videos posted on youtube show reckless drivers doing similar moves across the country, and all done for fame and bragging rights. >> if this is a new craze, i can assure you that law enforcement from across the state will do everything they can to immediately eradicate that type of behavior. >> reporter: detectives say this happened right in the middle of the day during peak driving hour, and definitely want to find this person and take them off the road before they pull another stunt like this. jamel lanee', news channel 8.

the driver, and want to hear from you if you know who the person might be. would you be more motivated to get up and exercise if your company threatened to take money away from you? that story coming up. also ahead, our first look at the features on some new phones

we're going to get a look at the new smart phones in the next week as the mobile phone conference approaches. lg released two new models ahead of time, the xkm and x screen, and one puts the emphasis on a good camera, the other on display. one has two rear facing camera, can be a fronted facing selfie cam, and -- and a front facing selfie cam, both phones will go on sale in certain markets starting next month. computer maker lenovo also posted a couple of teaser images of their new smart phone announced next week. they're promising the phone will be gorgeous and say there's been engineered from scratch. it also appears to have dual speakers and surround sound.

some new photo editing software. google is ending support for picasa and hoping to move people over to google photos. march 15th they'll end the support. if you've already downloaded it you'll still be able to use it, but not get updates, and update albums through google photos though. and apple musics is gaining ground on spotify. they have 11 million subscribers in less than a year. spotify has double that, but has been around since 2011. does your employer want you to get more exercise? a new study suggests they can motivate you by taking money away from you. researchers found work program that is reward employees with cash for getting a certain

vat anybody, but if they -- anybody, but if they gave them the money up front and threaten to take it away, it's 50 percent more effective. and cnbc reports the irs is also receiving an onslaught of fraudulent tax returns. this is due to many of the data breaches last week. >> reporter: in many cases they're e-filing massive amounts of return, and know a lot of them are going to get caught by the irs or rejected. >> the experts say the best defense is send in your tax return before the identity thief sends one in under your name, so early. it's a slow process in pinellas county as a developer demolishes the white queen of

it's coming down, and today our drone 8 got a look at the deadly weapon licks. peter has more -- demolition. peter has more. >> reporter: for anyone that visited the hotel, the sight now is quite a change. the owners of st. petersburg allowed drone 8 to fly over the project in the middle of transformation. large sections of hotel are already gone, and they have plan for new buildings where it stood. >> we'll have four condominium buildings, 104 homes, 28 carriage homes, and then we'll have the boutique hotel. >> reporter: here's a look at what it looked like in 2014, damage bid water leaks and time, efforts to save it proved to be too expensive. artist renderings show the new buildings will have historical designs. >> >. we'll render it back to the original look as much as we could.

westward portion of the building where carriages and trains once pulled up. >> we're actually keeping part of original hotel built in 1897 and just renovated it, so it will look similar to the early days. >> reporter: this section will be moved about 500 feet east, and serve as the hotel. the front section that looms over the parking lot is coming down to make way for the renovated section. the project is called biltmore place. would henry plant be proud? >> he would be very proud. >> reporter: ground breaking for amongst of the construction is this -- most of the construction is this summer, eventually it will take three years for the total build out of the entire project. peter bernard, news channel 8. there's no question, a

an outdoor cat. jasper is gaining fame on social media bake he likes outdoor -- because he likes outdoor activity, where it's skiing or hiking or some other adventure. he has just slightly fewer likes on facebook than i do right now. i would imagine by the end of the day he'll have twice as many facebook likes. he's a good looking cat. he deserves it. temperatures upper 60s, you can see the rain chances, there are a few showers popping up here in hillsborough county and pasco county. temperatures milder today thanks to a southerly flow at times, helping the lift the humidity. in the overnight is when the possibility of thunderstorms exists as we were mentions a couple of -- mentioning a couple of minutes ago. it's moving across the bay area from north to south, the rain chances highest around 3 or 4:00 a.m. and then it's out of here, sun moves back in.

the next best chance of seeing rain. most areas in the 70s, upper 60s in frost, 70 in inverness and brooksville. and the winds southeast and south at times. not too bad at this point, but once the line of thunderstorms approaches we could see strong wind gusts with the squaw line itself, north of bay especially. area of low pressure, cold front very typical for this time of year to get this kind of system setting up, but we're seeing tornado watches in place, in fact tornado warnings, a very fast jet stream, a low level jet creates wind sheer, so there's the slight possibility of seeing a tornado in the overnight, but currently no watches in place. back to the west showers, developing showers racing northward, north and around plant city, mostly west of lakeland.

zephyrhills or dade city. 3:15 not mornings, there -- in the morning, there could be stronger thunderstorm, and move quickly through, so midnight to 8:00 a.m. for the bay area, if you're farther east, probably later, about 7:00 o'clock in the morning. temperatures warm, 70, look at the forecast. once this area of rain and thunderstorms is through, that's it for the week essentially, and you can see the temperatures near 70 by the end of the week. there's a ridge of high pressure building in, meaning possible mid and upper 70s by the weekend. >> i love that on a monday, you are already looking ahead to the weekend. >> oh, yeah, that's my job, that's why the forecast. >> oh, not just the saturday and sunday for people that have saturday and sunday off. i thought it was personalized for me. >> >. no, a lot of people have tuesdays and wednesdays off. >> right now, this time of year?

>> reporter: there will be a lot of new shoes on the race route, how metropolitan ministries is benefits from the

you know how it is, you're driving along late at night, and suddenly there's a dinosaur in the road in front of you. there's no warning sign for this road hazard. a driver snapped this off mainland britain. apparently someone or a few someones maybe thought it would be a hoot to pick up the dinosaur and move it from its regular spot outside a pub. >> oh, a pub. >> key word pub. i think you know how this all happened.

will get a new home soon. someplace like behind a fence. >> maybe a few ales were consumed? >> i'm not judging, just suggesting. friends don't let friends move dinosaurs drunk. gwen sitting on blake's lap. katy and orlando confirming they're dating. breaking couples news from grammy weekend. >> now on "extra." >> gwen and blake. katy and orlando. avril back together with chad? it's grammy couples palooza. >> love you. >> a.j. and tracy inside all the parties. >> best of the best. plus, a mega music wedding. guess who tied the knot in front of guests, including oprah and stedman? leo di kap

kiss cam as he dominates the oscars of britain. >> i am absolutely humbled. >> all the candid moments from the oscars before the oscars. then, kanye's money woes. >> why he's out $53 million and hitting up the facebook founder for cash. then, hours after the ugliest, nastiest debate yet -- >> i'm in south carolina with senator marco rubio. >> only for "extra." >> mario is all over the map, backstage with britney at her sold out show on the strip. >> it lights up with fire and i pray to god, i have so much hair spray. >> her confession about toe sucking? >> daddy issues. >> oh, okay. >> and her mega dare for mario. >> i love you! >> now, on "extra" from universal studios hollywood, the entertainment capital of l.a. >> hey, everyone. welcome to "extra." i'm mario lopez and i'm on the campaign trail in south carolina with marco rubio. coming up, a sneak peek at my

>> also coming up, mario, lady gaga going for a pre-grammy night tattoo of a rock legend. details coming up. from gaga to gwen stefani to katy perry, music's biggest names are here in l.a. for tonight's grammys. and a.j. and tracey hit up all the parties. >> music's it couple, when exes collide. hot pics. hotter gossip. major pda. kicking off a grammy valentine's weekend to remember. gwen stefani and blake shelton sharing a seat. gwen sitting on his lap all smiles on their first valentine's date together at clive davis's legendary party as she hypes the debut of her new song "make me like you." >> a few a-listers going solo at the sold out adele concert. j-law, emma stone, and woody harrellson singing along to "rolling in the deep." also in the crowd, katy perry and orlando bloom making their