right now on news channel 8 at 5:30. good evening, i'm jennifer leigh. >> i'm josh benson. thanks for being with us tonight. >> recent mass shootings have renewed the discussion over whether students should be allowed to carry guns on campus for protection. it's even being discussed here in florida. josh thomas is live in lakeland with more on the story. >> reporter: good evening, well

a topic that's been debated inth florida legislature -- in the florida legislature, and today bay area students joined forces to call attention to the issue. >> people are not able to bring their gun to defend themselves. >> reporter: florida sophomore want toss bring a gun to school for protection. he's with students for concealed carry. but the florida senate recently struck down a bill allowed them to carry on state university campuses. >> it's not about arming the student population, it's about safety and crime prevention, and most of all about our receive rights to be -- civil right toss defend ourselves. >> reporter: they use other campus shootings as an example, but the university thinks allowing students to be armed, even if permits, is a bad idea. >> we're committed to campus security, and believe that would threaten the safety of student, faculty and staff.

told me having students with guns on campus would pose a challenge in a crisis situation. >> post-columbine everything changed. we can't get in fast enough, and don't know who the good guys are or bad guys are. >> reporter: some question whether it makes to sense to bring a gun on campus for self- protection. >> i've never felt unsafe on my campus. i've been her almost a full year now, and i worry that if they do bring guns on campus that would change. >> reporter: the organizers of today's event told me even though the concealed carry bill didn't make it to the legislature this session, he's confident that it will in the back to you. >> why is he so confident the measure will eventually pass? >> reporter: well, one of the reasons he's confident it will pass in the next legislative session is because the senate will have a new president

confident that particular through. >> thank you josh. thieves caught on camera stealing bottles of booze from a local liquor store. it shows five people walking into the store in largo. a woman hides a bottle of vodka in her purse, then the men put bottles in their pant. if you know who they are call the sheriffs office. and a miami woman is in a coma after being attacked by a craigslist. the 23-year-old was attacked on valentine's day, and has been in a coma ever since. her roommate is being held on attempted murder charges for beating and cutting the woman. defense after jones came after him with a knife. >> self-defense would be a black eye, a broken nose. pounds, he's athletic.

not only did he admit in the original police report to banging her head against the floor and choking her, but the mutilation on her face, i think it's the mo of a serial killer. >> doctors believe she has serious brain damage, but the family is hoping for a full recovery. orlando international airport is taking steps to stop the spread of the zika virus. they're stepping up the mosquito spraying process, and encouraging travelsers to bring insectary -- travelers to bring insectary fell atlanta. a bill requiring sensors in all new home elevator installations in florida homes was approved today. the legislation is named for a 12-year-old bradenton boy crushed to death search forking his pet hamster -- searching for his pet hamster.

point out the lack of sensors in home elevators. church members were devastated from a statue of mother mary vanished almost a week ago, and many prayed for its return. peter bernard has good news though tonight right pieter? >> reporter: good evening, indeed some good news. there is where the statue used to stand and greet people coming into the church. now it's just an empty pedestal, but the good news is that this morning someone found the statue on the side of the road and returned it. in the garden-like setting of the catholic church in bradenton, 14 statues greet visitors, but one sits empty. somebody made off with the five foot high mother mary statue. the church was upset. was it a heart break to you? >> oh my god it's like what on

>> reporter: almost a week after the statue disappeared, a road crew saw it hidden here almost a mile away. >> one of them spotted it and said there's a saint in the bushes here. >> reporter: undamaged and in the same weather worn condition sat. >> they said mary can't be in a bush, so they retrieved her and when the authorities explained where it was from, they brought her to us this morning. >> reporter: church members are relieved the statue is back. >> thank god we found her, oh my gosh. >> reporter: happy about that? >> yeah, i love the blessed mother. she means a lot to me. >> i don't know why anybody would do something like that. crazy world now days. >> reporter: your reaction now that it's back? >> really bad. >> reporter: they figure the thieves found out the bolts rusted after rocking the statue.

>> reporter: she'll undergo refurbishment and soon be back welcoming visitors to the place. and just to be clear, that was an effect we did. the father thinks the whole theft was a prank and doesn't plan to press charges if they catch the thieves. >> >. thought you had some serious religious power, but did everyone know the statue was gone from the church? >> reporter: yes, announcement weekend, and said if you see anyone with it don't confront them. they didn't want a bad situation, but the good news is it was found. >> all right, happy ending. thanks for the update. a lakeland boy on a mission to end bullying is being recognized for his good deeds. jaylen is being featured in an

he was bullied regularly due to tourette's, but he started a no bullying campaign and has reached a world wide audience. >> i think this is going to help spread the message by the masses, even bigger than before because a lot of kids watch teen nick, so i feel like it's an amazing opportunity to have the message in the show and on the channel. >> over the years he's gone around the country giving presentations and workshops and how people can stay stop it. he's a great kid. he spent part of our saturday evening together at a charity event, and he's a young man doing a lot of great things. coming up, many seniors don't want to be forced out of their homes. >> and there is a way to keep your older loved ones engaged during the day and keep them at home. the new trend in tampa bay.

the dark side of the moon. listen to new audio tapes from the apollo10 mission. nice weather carrying over into monday. we are getting a little humidity, changes though, storms and cooler weather, that's coming up. we'll have that and more coming up. you're watching news channel 8,

(donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference

(tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to social security, we need more than lip service. our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates. enough talk.

welcome back, losing independence is one of the most difficult hurdles of aging. many loved ones don't want to go into a nursing home. >> we did some digging and

>> reporter: there's a new trend called aging in place. so these fine folks come here during the day, but at night they're in the comfort of their own home. any given day you'll find the lovely ladies playing a mean game of dominoes or see amaze art. the sewing queens are busy. i wasn't expecting to see so much action. >> oh, yes, that's what we do, we got out and do what we got to do. >> reporter: this is a lot like a day care for our senior loved ones, sometimes called aging in place. this is a new trend spreading nation-wide, but right now there's no other place like in tampa bay.

mother and her dementia situation. before she just sat at home and stared at the tv. >> reporter: from activities to health care, pace is all encompassing, even covered by medicare and medicaid, but most importantly it keeps our family members happy. >> isolation is a big risk for health problems. isolation and loneliness for your seniors. >> reporter: gayle guyardo. >> you can pay for pace out of pocket if you're not eligible for medicaid and medicare, and many do that because you're not forced to fork over co-pays for doctor visits or prescriptions. and kesha has gained another supporter that her fight against her producer. taylor swift gave $250,000 as a show of support to kesha. she claims her manager abused her physically and sexually for

she wants to cut ties with him, but a new york judge is refusing to release her from her contract. and you've probably seen this by now, a 106-year-old woman dancing with president obama. less than one minute into the meeting she got so excited she began dancing with the presidential couple. and donny walberg is endorsing marco rubio for president. he says he's never voted for a republican before, but rubio changed his mind. he's full of florida right now. he and his brothers just opened a restaurant in orlando last week. and now to a preview of our news at 11:00. our investigation into shoddy construction resulted in millions of dollars in repair, and shannon behnken found another builder with similar problemmings. i almost can't believer it.

>> yes, it that has look of kb homes all over again, and we were there last week as engineers tore off stucco and found big problems, appearing to be code violation, and i couldn't help but remember the same thing happening in bradenton, and that was two years ago. and in that case the builder came in and ripped off part of the outside of every single building, and that was the only way to fix it, and now here we are, these years later, more residents turning to 8 on your side desperate for help. >> but again just to clarify it's not kb home we're talking agent, so is this a widespread >> it seems to be. there are a lot of people with on your side. this is not kw, i'll hold back on the rest, tune in at 11:00 to find out, but if you bought a home in the past ten years pay attention. >> thank you. you can see the results of shannon behnken's story, construction fail tonight at

some new audio tapes on the apollo 10 mission reveal an eerie experience on the dark side of the mood [ inaudible ] >> you hear that? that whistle sound? woooo. >> yeah that, would be creepy. the conversation was between two astronauts. they believe it came from interference between radios on the spacecraft. topped out at 78 today, a warm high temperature. great view getting closer to sunset. still 70 on clear water beach. got a full moon, call it the snow moon, don't typically have a full moon, roughly happens every 19 years.

february being the snowiest month. florida has the most lightning casualties, we're in severe weather awareness week, and lightning is what we're focusing on today. struck by fishing, in a parking lot, or picking berries outside, so keep that in mind. florida the light thing capital of the united states -- states. and picking up more clouds, lower level tomorrow. 64 tomorrow morning. clouds, little bit of sunshine, maybe a physios, slides in from the south. warm temperatures again tomorrow, and a couple of showers possible inland with a lot of clouds about. forecast for the mid-week storm, talking wednesday, especially the first half of the at a. right now the -- day. right mow the timing about 6:00

morning. right new the disturbance is moving rapiddedly from the southwest, so maybe download ore weather app, and will give you voice warnings, from me actually, even if it's in the middle of the night, and there's a potential for high winds and the outside chance of tornadoes, so download the free app from the store, the apple store. 74 at noon, sun and clouds, probably quite a few clouds tomorrow, especially by the second half of the day. 77 in the afternoon. like today, another warm one. a lot of humidity. temperatures in the 70, even a few 80, 70 current temperature in crystal river. more cloudiness in that part of state. miami 77. good block of rain, our first area of low pressure across the south, mississippi, alabama, back here into lose lieu, a miserable -- louisiana, a miserable cloudy day.

tomorrow giving a decant chance of severe thunderstorms in the general region. the low pressure here, the clouds stream on ahead of that, and this little disturbance off the southwest coast of florida lifting north. rather odd, but could still provide a lot of clouds, and the possibility of seeing a few light rain showers. that's the doppler radar. north, so we'll leave the slight chance in the forecast, this evening. partly cloudy sky, maybe a few light showers sliding from south to north as i mentioned. in the overnight much of the shower activity to the north. partly cloudy with a light shower possible. for tomorrow amp, a mix of clouds and -- afternoon, a mix of clouds and sunshine, and mid- 70s. most of the showers east of i- 75, that's for wednesday morning. the timing on this likely will change a little bit, but that's what the rpm is calling for, then it sweeps through for the morning hour, then by the afternoon it's out of here with a cold front.

trend for the rest of the week. highs in the 60s throughout the rest of the week, so it really changes the temperatures and brings the chance of severe weather wednesday morning. thursday, 66 for a high. chilly high of 62. about this time of year you start thinking ability spring, the base -- about spring, the baseball player windshield spring training -- players with spring training, but highs in the 60s is not exactly springtime for us. a man uses an app to track his stolen cell phone. >> coming up next how his decision to on front the thief

now to what's making headlines across america. murder in alabama appears to be kicked to his stolen cell phone. when the man confronted the

the police say if he'd called them, he'd still be alive. and the mayor of flint unveiled a new pipeline mapping and, but the governor -- and, but the governor cautions taking out pipes too quickly could have unintend consequences. and a series of crashes sent a moving truck over a guardrail in cal cam. it fell 30 -- california. it fell 30 feet and trapped the driver inside. okay. coming up next. on. thanks, a gun fired in a popular park, and the shooter was a child. >> that weapon was found in a diaper bag of all places. we'll tell you who the gun belonged to, and who they tried to do -- what he tried to do with it with the police shows up. and video shows the moments

and big changes in a south tampa neighborhood. what transportation fishes want to do to -- officials want to do. and the building official is still playing hide and seek with us, a month after we discovered he doesn't have the credentials to do his job. those stories plus your storm team 8 forecast and sorts coming up on -- sports coming up on news channel 8. the

right now on news channel 8 at 6:00. packing a pistol in a diaper bag, ail child got his hands on it and pulled the trigger. a deadly liquor store shoot out. the robbers firing, but the clerk was ready for him.

credentials, enabling inspector is playing -- building inspector is playing hide and seek with us. i'm keith cate. >> i'm stacie schaible. a gunshot in the middle of a crowded park, the trigger pulled by a 6-year-old boy, and he got the gun out of his mother's diaper bag. thankfully no one was hurt. the mother's boyfriend owned the gun and is now facing charges. judd chapin, this is scary stuff for those visiting the park. >> reporter: yes, it is. i've been to the park before with my family. normally a peaceful place. it was a beautiful day saturday, and very crowded, so it was shocking when a shot rang out action and even more shocking to find out who fired it. >> >. we started talking agent how to be friends with people. >> reporter: 9-year-old bella was in the park in an organized group of friends.