>> it is 7:00. the station always on your side is on your schedule. 8 at 7:00 begins new. >> good evening. a miami police union is urging a nationwide boycott by law enforcement labor organizations of beyonce's upcoming tour. tampa's police association is

chip osowski, is this going to affect security for her event? april? >> reporter: not at all jenn. a tampa police spokesman says there will be some officers who do not volunteer for security detail out here. but others will. it was beyonce's controversial super bowl performance that ruffled law enforcement feathers nationwide after her super bowl per spore mans dressed as 1960s black panthers. they say the father tampa police association is disgusted with her new video. they do not support any artist who spreads an antipolice message. the statement goes onto urge

boycott the purchase of her music. and the purchase of tickets to her show. >> there is some controversy about this. officers may feel that her songs are antipolice. >> reporter: a department spokesman tells me that doesn't mean officers are refusing off duty jobs. and security details like the one out here at raymond james stadium pay pretty well. more than $30 an hour. even if officers are upset at the beyonce situation, passing up on that chunk of change may be quite difficult. reporting live in tampa, i'm chip osowski, newschannel8. well, there is one bay area boat owner who won't be hitting the water this weekend. check out this fire this afternoon just across the bridge from bay pines. bruce lives nearby and saw the fire and grabbed his camera. >> what was it like to see it?

some of the neighbors were a little afraid. so was i because they said it could explode. >> one person went to the hospital to get treatment for smoke inhalation. the burned outed boat has been removed. last night at 11:00, the parents of a pinellas 12-year- old girl told us about rerentless bullying that has her afraid to go to school. less than 24 hours after 8 on your side got involved, this bullying is getting some new attention. >> reporter: in this bullying case, the writing was an the wall scrawled across a girl east bathroom at john hopkins middle school and this is just one example of bullying. they are exasperated by no replies. >> everybody has now contacted me from the superintendent to the board of directors. they called and said they are investigating. >> reporter: 8 on your side wanted to know why nobody from the district responded to the parent's e-mails.

some kind as far as communication goes? >> unfortunately, we did discover a break down. some of the e-mails were trapped in an e-mail serve our because of some of the language used. >> reporter: the mother is pleased her daughter won't have to deal with bullying anymore and she is thankful to 8 on your side. peter bernard, newschannel8. tonight, another bay area teacher has landed in trouble accused of an inappropriate relationship with one of her students. today, a judge ordered stacy hooks held on $625,000 bond. investigators claim the 38-year- old had an ongoing relationship with a 14-year-old in her class at hill gestat middle school. this bill passed the state

night, but senate education john lead from pasco county is blocking the bill from being heard in the senate. he says the bill is too rigid and local districts should be the ones to decide on recess time. law enforcement officers in manatee county are busting heroin dealers an locking them up. as john rogers shows us, a year of work has paid off in a significant change in the heroin trend. >> reporter: in the past 18 months, local, state, and federal officials have conducted a massive operation to get these drugs off the streets. >> we are coming after you. we are going to put you out of business. >> reporter: detectives confiscated a quarter million dollars worth of heroin. three kilos of cocaine. 28 weapons and 320 grand in cash. 15 people were busted for drug trafficking and more arrests are on the way. >> these law enforcement officers are not going to underestimate these drug dealers. they are the ones who need to

>> their hard work is paying off. they are seeing a sharp drop in heroin calls. while 2015 had 77 heroin related deaths, so far this year, there have been none. the suspects each face up to 30 years in prison. but officials say they could face even more charges. reporting in manatee county, john rogers, newschannel8. >> today, the movie race opened in theaters nationwide. hundreds of bay area students got the chance to see it. 500 students from jefferson high school in tampa got to walk over to the theater at west shore mall to learn about the once fastest man in the world, jesse owenss. it is all part of black history month and teaching history in a different way. >> it makes students really connect with what they are learning in the classroom outside of the classroom. >> the third year the students at jefferson have done this. last year, they went to see selma and before that, red

8 on your side warned you about a big traffic tieup this underway. csx is replacing the railroad crossing at court street and clear water on route 60 westbound. the main route toward clearwater beach. we found plenty of traffic following the detour around the work zone. the work should be done by monday morning. next weekend, eastbound route will be shut down for a similar project. chief meteorologist steve jerve joins us now. we just can't get out of here fast enough for me. because this weekend is going to be so awesome. >> yeah. today was 76 degrees. and you know how nice the air felt. >> it has been amazing. gorgeous. hard to come to work everyday because i want to hit the beach. >> this weekend, you can do that. saturday and sunday will be very similar. we will see a few clouds in the afternoon like we saw today, but very dry air aloft. so a lot of the clouds have dissipated. 75 degrees for saturday. loads of sunshine headed out

same on sunday. we will see some afternoon clouds but overall, sun and nice shot. this is actually a sunrise this lakeland. is that lake jackson? anyway, a beautiful view there. temperatures now 67 degrees temple terrace. upper 60s in lutes. everywhere within three degrees. the winds, they were pretty strong earlier today. but they are much lighter. that combined with the dry air aloft has allowed them to dissipate. we will talk about the weekend forecast and rain chances next week and cooler temps coming up. still ahead ... >> this time of year, we are usually buried in berries so where are all the strawberries this year?

>> a rabies notification after a cat attacks a man in citrus county. i'll tell you where. >> we have that and more coming up. you're watching newschannel8. the station that is always on

>> if you have been trying to buy strawberries, you know they have been hard to find. as josh thomas reports, you can blame mother nature on the shortage. >> reporter: these strawberry pickers are picking like crazy, but that was not the case a few weeks ago because of our unseasonably warm weather the last two months of last year. >> the strawberries need the cold weather. they need just the right amount of cold. and it has been super hot. >> reporter: that means it is taking longer for them to full by bloom leading to shortages of the fruit.

with the warmer weather. they were worried at the berry festival as well. >> i think we will have more than enough now. most of the farmers put us on a priority list. every morning they bring hundreds of flats in to the saint clements and they start stemming, every single day they make their berries fresh. >> reporter: people enjoying the berries here in plant city say they are willing to pay a little more if they have to. >> when you can buy a good box of berries like this and you know every berry in the box will be a dessert, it is absolutely well worth the price. >> reporter: in plant city, josh thomas, newschannel8. >> while the shortage of strawberries has led to higher prices now, that should change as more berries hit the markets so stay tuned. ben and jerry's is making ice cream without the cream. but will you love it just as much? that story is coming up. plus ... you may never need to push in

one car company uses its self- parking technology the bring

>> on wall street today, the dow jones dropped 21 points, the s&p unchanged.

if you are making plans for a spring great get away, now is the time to buy your plane tickets. fare compare made this prediction. last minute ticket prices could be 30% higher than they are right now. so if you want the fly somewhere, get your tickets now. apple has a fix for error 53 for those turning their iphones into a useless brick. that is for anyone who had their touch id sensor replaced at a nonconfirmed shop. apple has released a new operating system update which fixes the new problem. you will need to connect your phone to your computer and use itunes to install the update. if you own a drone, today is the deadline to register it with the faa. the rule was announced before

were given as gifts over the holidays. any drown weighing over a half pound has to be registered. it costs $5 and lasts for three years. when you sign up you receive the rules to fly by. >> we want to raise public awareness. for many hobbyists they may not be aware of what the rules are. >> you are flying a drone, you have to be mindful of the people around you. they could be dangerous if they actually hit somebody. >> an unregistered drone could report in civil penalties up to $27,000, a criminal fine up to $250,000 and possible imprisonment. federal regulators are saying what we already knew. hover boards are unsafe. they are notifying manufacturers about hover board safety standards and asking all makers an seller to neighboring nonul compliant hover boards

be certified as safe. well, ben and jerry's is taking the cream out of ice cream and those who have tried it say it is still pretty good. the ice cream maker is introducing four nondairy flavors. two are new recipes for old favorites. chunky monkey and chocolate fudge brownie. the other two are exclusively nondairy. visitors to the factory in vermont got to sample the flavors. >> it is really good. just as good as i was expecting. i came up here just for this. i have been trying to find it everywhere. >> they should be in stores in two to four weeks. if cars can park themselves, what about the chairs at work? the engineers at nissan decided to focus on the persistent problem of office chairs in disarray. they came one this.

around the room to locate the chairs and communicate with them wirelessly telling them where to go. they are also working on ten autonomous cars they hope to release by 2020. well, a rabid cat attacked and bit a neighbor. the animal was killed in the attack. they are mobilizing to spread the disease. >> reporter: rabies notifications went out to schools, businesses, and homes in citrus park. a cat tested positive for rabies bit someone. the health department's brian mill. >> when animals have ferocious rabies, they attack anything that moves. >> reporter: a preschool is close by. sierra handed the notification out to parents.

away from all animals. >> reporter: the health department confirmed the animal was rabid on tuesday. >> on wednesday morning, one of my inspectors came out to the area and dropped a number of flyers in the vicinity. >> reporter: at least three people i spoke with received no notification. >> we haven't received any notification. >> reporter: 8 on your side learned that while staff was alerted, the principal did not send the notification home to parents. i went to the school to ask about that. the school district leader said the information is going home today. >> was there a suggestion to the principal he didn't need to send this home? >> not that i'm aware. >> reporter: this is the same area where a couple of years

>> what about other animals like raccoons? >> we don't routinely have them go out and do that type of testing. >> reporter: steve andrews, newschannel8. >> if the test results come back positive on the cats that were trapped and euthanized, they may entertain the idea of trapping and euthanizing more animals. you can't see this everyday in yosemite. for just a short time every february, the sun aligns perfectly with the park's horse tail phallocratting the illusion of fire streaming over the mountain. absolutely incredible. i would love to see that some day myself. a great shot. great shot. eight-day forecast here for us. we had beautiful sunsets again tonight. looks like we will have them again this weekend too.

73 degrees the average. we are in a very nice range of temps. we fall off a bit long term. highs back in the 60s late next week. but for now, the 60s are mostly here this evening under mostly clear skies. a few clouds left around. precipitation. sets up a mostly sunny day to start and we will add clouds as the day goes along. 70 current temperature. tampa international airport makes for a beautiful night this late february. 47 degrees on the dew point which is a very comfortable range. a little hennier saint pete thanks to the easterly wind off the bay. 66 degrees a little cooler. high pressure continues off the east coast of the united states and influencing florida in the way it is moving clouds toward the east coast. a few of those continue to roam inland. we will leave those in the forecast especially inland. as the winds become lighter this will be less of an influence. we are looking for a lot of sun to start the day. could be patchy fog. low clouds in some of the inland spots where temps are cooler.

sunday. tomorrow morning, sunny starlet to the day. patchy fog. sunshine in the afternoon. a few clouds return warming into the mid 70s . a stunning day as we were talking about. the same for sunday with temperatures warming up in the mid to upper 70s . rain chances approach the area into monday, but especially tuesday with a warm southeasterly flow. and then by wednesday, we are on a cold front looking for cooler temperatures end of next week. but there you go. the weekend. let's think about that. 75, 76 degrees. same for monday. into the late part of next week. thursday and friday. high temperatures mid to upper 60s with some sunshine returning. but, the rain chances for tuesday and for wednesday, a bit unsettled with the chances of showers each one of those days. light chances on monday and thursday. so, we will be up and down a little bit. but for right now, wow. we are right where we need to be. >> yeah. i was going to say i don't care about all that. >> who cares. >> tomorrow, and sunday. sweet spot. yes.

>> plus, here is what you will see monday morning on newschannel8 today. >> many seniors don't want to be forced out of their homes. >> my mother has a terrible fear of nursings homes. >> i'll show you the new trend in tampa bay to keep your older loved ones engaged during the day and still living at home. >> and weather and traffic on

>> a guy whose life revolved around coffee has an appropriate final resting place. renato's cremated remains will spend eternity in a coffee pot.

it made for an unusual funeral, but renato probably would have approved after all that success. if one mama goat could talk, she would say you have get it? get it? she just gave birth to poland. i wouldn't kid. that is a big deal because goats usually only have one or two kids. the mom i'm thinking is probably tired of all that. >> we have all our goat news right here at 7:00 p.m. if there is a goat that has over it. >> news you can count on here. >> if it is goat news, we will have it for you. >> thanks for joining us. more on your side news at 11:00. in the meantime, have a great >> goodnight. the passion of the trump. can donald recover from his unholy war with the pope?

the controversy, now on "extra." donald trump branded the antichrist. does he now regret picking a fight with the pope? >> with the pope, does it give you pause? >> from morning tv to late night, trump's very bad friday. >> and donald said, of course i'm a christian. do you know how many carpenters named jesus i have working for me? >> plus, what hillary clinton is doing with britney. kris jenner versus kanye. why jenner is dropping the hammer on kanye's wife after the tirade. shannen doherty in tears. her new confessions about her breast cancer battle. >> for me, that was the hardest part.

didn't catch it early. then, new photos. patrick dempsey vacationing with his ex-wife. are they officially back together? plus, why michael strahan is on a crusade to get a.j. a raise. >> this dude is putting in the work. don't nobody work for free. just saying. >> now on "extra," from universal studios hollywood, the entertainment capital of l.a. hey, everyone. welcome to "extra." i'm mario lopez. carissa is off today. here to help us out, my lovely wife courtney lopez. >> thank you, honey. coming up, the ageless sharon stone's sexy new photo shoot. and why she's giving a shoutout to j-law and her best friend amy schumer. >> also coming up, guys, lady gaga's catwalk debut at new york fashion week. >> but first, donald trump speaking out today about his headline making feud with the pope. now, the big question, does the donald think he went too far? that will be a first. jerry has the latest.