my sickle stop is -- now the conversation is going national. mixing humor and social media to solve crimes. it's a winning combination for one police department. good evening, everyone. i'm jenn holloway. >> and i'm john -- he's calling on congress to give that nominee a fail shot at the job. fofor more on this announcement, let's go to dc bureau and chief national corespondent jim osman. it's like game on now, isn't it. >> indeed it is, game on in dc and there was a lot of scuttle in washington. the president had -- garland is 63-year-old. he's a moderate with an ivy league education who didn't add much diversity to the court, but may force the hand of the republicans who

president obama's nominee. and wait for the next president. garland clerk for the late supreme court justice william, president's no, -- president nominee -- garland was touched. >> thank you, mr. president. thisis is the greatest honor of my life other than my wife mamarrying me. it's the greatest gift i have received and there's birth of our daughters. >> now, some of the republicans in the senate voted for mayor garland when he was placed on the court of appeals, but that doesn't matter because the gop says it't's about the principle of waiting for the president to what's interesting,

the next president, let's say a president hillary clinton or president donald trump, the republicans may not like either one of their choices, and so we'll have to wait and see. reporting live in washington, jim osman, news channel 8. >> before you go, now begins the public opinion on both sides. the president wants con fwres to act, but it's do you think -- will this be pushed back until november? >> well, keith, we were talking about this. the majority of americans want the senate to have a hearing and vote on this nominee. but then you have districts i in this country and states where maybe the republicans don't, mayaybe democrats do, really it's in the competitive state. i was looking at new hampshire, kelly, a

race and i think president obama and his ali's will visit new hampshire and put up ads in new hampshire to put pressure on senators to hold a hearing. > pressing on allll sides. jim, i hate to cut you off, but we've got to run. thank you for that. new tonight, rick scott officially endorsed donald trump. in a statement on facebook page, governor scott said republicans must come together to win the general electionn in november. the pat of the nomination seems clear for trump. he won last night's primary -- his opponent rubio dropped out after losing. a debate in salt lake city has been cancelled. trump refused to participate in the march 21 because of a speaking engagement.

as well. cruz -- after donald trump's win, questions remain whether the gop establishment will give him its support. >> i think the democrats would like to keep the republicans going after each other. it's something we talked about with political heavyweights during our election coverage at 11:00. state representative and house speaker and daryl providing great analysis for us last night. when pushed for predictions, only one was gun-- i think -- >> i think the tone age he uses is dangerous and it's scary, and the guy could be o our nominee. >> you're talking about your nominee. let me cut to the chase. who is going to be the nominee? >> it's likely going to

>> you've supporting rubio -- can you support trump. >> he hasn't earned my vote. > i'm going to -- secretary clinton is going to be the democratic nominee and it will unite the party and we'll go into this thing ready for boom. >> if you have that boom, is it going to be trump, hillary and of those two, who wins? >> who wins? >> i think this is the concern of the republicans, right. the base is telling us they want donald trump. >> by default, daryl wins that. >> i can't make an argument that donald trump wins in november against hillary clinton with the t things he's done and said. i really can't. >> and there in lies the rub. republican party leaders want to win the general election, but they don't want to support the best candidate of winning the gop -- which they're

believe this may have to be decided at the convention and others think probobably not. no one knowsws how it's going to play out. the grand old party isn't what she used to be for better or worse. democratic clinton seems to be on her way to the nomination. she won all five primaries including florida. sanders is not giving up. he predicts victory when the primaries most west next tuesday especially in arizona. news outside of politics. questions remain about the treatment of african american bicyclist within the city of tampa. the naacp held a news conference to tackle this problem. rodd carter joins us live. rod, tell us the latest on this. >>reporter: here's the deal, jenn, the president of the naacp and the vice president are going to meet on civil rights and have a meeting on friday. the

released new numbers on how many people were stopped and or ticketed on bicycles. many people believe this is an all too common sight. an african american being ticketed. they say this man -- the guy walkining away was asked by the suspect to keep it. >> this addresses the issues of biking while black. >> the naacp held a news conference about this issue and announce a trip to dc to meet face-to-face with the u.s. commission on civil rights. >> the rights of the naacp has been involved with the united states justice department since they came down in july. >> the tampa bay asked them to came down -- african american on bikes were ticketed at a higher rate than others. the report has not been released yet, tampa police gave me numbers total number of

from november 2014 to january, 2015 -- from november 15 through january of thiss year. that's a 54.5% drop. bike citations are down as well. 47.5%. those here today say it may be down, but it's a huge problem and it goes well beyond the bikes. >> annie sen. shl component is high -- an essential component is high relationships between the public and law enforcement. >> these folks say it does not go far enough and needs to be replaced. >> the members of the civilian review board are resespected and well meaning, but the board is run by the police department. >> and there is a lot of criticism about that civilian review board. namely about mayor bob he's the person who appointed

and naacp says it entire community of tampa bay and they say the mayor call them a fringe group and they took extreme offense to jenn. >> let's get passed the fact that this tampa board has to take a trip to dc to deal with the what did the mayor say? >> absolutely nothing. i tried to talk to him, but his staff said he was unavailable. tampa for justice is putting together a petition to get an amendment on the november ballot which would change the city's charter and if they do that, the first thing they want to do to do that is create another citizen review board more representative of the community and has some teeth. >> rod carter live in tampa tonight. still to come, social media iss not just a way to complain about

the police department is winning the social media game. why they're up for an award. credit card information stolen at an rv park. dozens of people possibly impacted. we'll have that and more coming up. you're watching news channel 8, the station that's

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trophy for fran's mother. america's second largest subway section, the dc metro will be closed until 5:00 tomorrow morning. the closure frustrated commuters who had to take the bus or clogged up the roads. power cables have to be inspected. the police department is using a tool to fight crime. believe it or not, it's not what you might think. it's social media. news channel 8 john rogers joining us from north port to explain this. tell us more about this award. >>reporter: yeah, it certainly is a big deal for the folks here. it's called the golden post reward. they're the finalist among 200 agencies across the country. this award is given out to those agencies who use social media to solve crimes. if you've seen the north port police department's social media pages, josh taylor is the man behind it and around here, he's just as important as any detective.

few months, at least a dozen cases have been solved thanks to social media. some posts were humorousus like this one frfrom -- he said he wasnsn't in a galaxy far away. he was soooon arrested. >> if we put out we're looking under person, please help us, it doesn't resonate with folks. we looook for something that's g going to get their attention.. >> taylor put up a post about a person using -- >> we call him captain american thief. >> not a super hero. >> super zero. >> these post have saved life. in february, the department was looking for a missing elderly woman. they put up a small facebook post. within five minutes, a viewer found the woman in the woods. police officers sees social

>> some folks may be scared or apprehensive talking to a law enforcement officer and this will open up that communication to it. >> the department is proud that in just a short time, these pages given them national recognition, but they're more proud it's helping to bring the community together to fight crime along side them. >> guys, this happened in a really short amount of time. just a year ago. they only had 30 followers on twitter and in facebook was non existence and they have thousands of people following them and helping them fight crime. >> when do they find out if they win this award. >> next month. it's being handed out next month. wish them luck. >> the city of north port. john rogers north in sarasota county. today, we're getting a look at the wild weather that went through the midwewest. in illinois, a massive storm cell was caught on

look at the clouds. all of northern illinois and some parts of illinois were in the path of strong storms. hail caused damage to homes and cars. gulf pullibled the windshield. the rain may have stopped, but the flooding is a problem across the louisiana and texas. flood waters from the river closed interstate 10 and -- they're putting drivers 6 hours out of their way. that's some tough weather. >> boy, extremes too. they had a severe drought specifically texas, but now the lake in austin texas is back to normal levels. that's the good side, but that's the tough side. we're dealing with a comfortable range in tampa bay. >> the humidity is high. >> coming by? >> which i is why we're getting fog in the morning. we have fog rolling back into thehe coast. we love the

you can see what's happening outside. this is the lows. 72 degrees. somemetimes during the day, the sea fog goes into the gulf of mexico and sits there as the peninsula heats up, but as the day goes along and temperatures cool, it rolls back in. that's going on right now. we have a northwest wind at 5 miles-per-hour. a little cooler. plaza, 80 degrees with north -- a few high clouds remain. blue skies too, but a warm day because of the humidity being high. it's uncomfortable for us. st. patrick's day, i can't believe it. wasn't it just christmas. we're talking about this already. 8:00 a.m., 71 degrees. inland fog. largely because of the higher dew points i was talking about. 81 degrees at 3:00 p.m. 75 degrees at 5:00 p.m. and they're dying the river green on saturday. a

dropping off monday with cooler air. temperatures will be mild thihis evening. again, largely because the humidity is back in the atmosphere. a normal low of 56 to 58 degrees. we're looking at 70 for a low, and of course the morning fog possible, including a thick sea fog. it has been several days. 71 degrees at -- 79 degrees in largo with the fog along coastal areas. treasure island, 75. warm inland. brandon cucurrently, 84 degrees. it's warm too. out in bartow, seabring, upper 80s with high humidity. this is a warm feeling day for some. less on the coastal areas with an onshore flow and the fog. fog forecast is fairly high. even for this evening, before midnight, you can see visibility and miles dropping as we head through the overnight period at 3:30 in the morning and carrying on until the mid-morning hours along coastal areas. that sea fog can be persistent. cold front to the north and high pressure north of

the high clouds across the skies. a few isolate showers did pop up today. there's the sea fog along coastal areas. you can see it on the satellite imagery. you can see this along coastal areas. that's moving back onshore all the way down to the sarasota and manatee too. the showers were spotty -- someone said we got rain. that's possible tomorrow too. pop up shower, a brief shower, but they can occur. we have a rain chances at 10%. the fog over night. that's what the computer model is saying, fog, fog, fog. kind of like this morning. susunshine, clouds, warm day. great for the outdoors and an apapproaching front to our north. maybe an early morning shower. as we get into saturday with this cold front sinking into the area, area of low pressure developing along that boundary, that helps to enhance the rain chances up to 60%.

spring. feeling more springish around here especially with the pollen in the air. i was on my roof cleaning off leaves. i was looking at the oak tree and you can see the pollen. >> don't do that? >> what? >> don't go on your roof. there's a point where you have to stop going up there. >> you slip right -- that's what we need, steve jerve sliding. higher the pros. the release of a virtual reality gadget has been delayed. >> that story is next. plus uber test out a new food delivery

amazon found a patton to allow customers to pay for selfie. the amazon system wouould ask users to take one photo to prove their identity and take a second to prove they're a physical being by smiling or moving their heads. many companies like master cards hahave systems currently in the works: sony corporation is -- the maker of the playstation says it will release its headset for $399. sony promised gamers for a release in june. it allowed -- uber launched a stand alone app for its food delelivery service called uber eats. it will be available in la, san francisco, houston and chicago. not in tampa bay. several cities are including new

they'll get their service soon. looks like starbucks is celebrating the soon of spring with a limited edition drink called the cherry blossom frappuccino. it's white chocolate sauce and macha drizzle. it's available at participating stores through march 20th. >> hum. >> yeah. >> i don't know aboutut that. we'll see. try it and let us know what you think about that. >> here's josh benson wiwith a look as what's's coming up. testimony in the hulk hogan sex tape. there's intimate details of her married life. and young students get gun education in the classroom. why instructors think it's

good evenining. i'm jenn holloway. >> and i'm -- the -- she gave many details about her open sex life with the well known radio personality. news channel 8 jeff paterson joins us live from the st. pete courthouse. jeff, it sounds like the jury found out a lot today. >>reporter: maybe a lot more than they wanted to find out, josh. this is crazy stuff. heather admitted in court she had an open relation with bubba. he knew she was having sex witith other men and he approved itt and video