>> right now on newschannel8 at 5:30. >> eight years ago, the caylee anthony was found in orlando a mile from her home. a bay area man want to make sure a memorial he put up at the site continues to honor the toddler's memory. >> i'm jennifer leigh. >> i'm josh benson. today, caylee would have turned 11 years old and a sarasota man is ensuring that the slain girl is not forgotten. wally goodno created a memorial

vandalized so he built a new one to commemorate her birthday. he has no connection to the girl at all. he was just touched by her story. >> i have 12 grand kids and i could never imagine my kids doing anything like that to my grand kids. the children are the future. and to have one of them snuffed out at three years old, it is crazy. >> tonight, wally and some volunteers will go to the site in orlando and release balloons in caylee's memory. search crews have now found the black box of freighter el faro. now, that ship sank near the bahamas during hurricane joaquin. the national transportation safety board retrieved the ship from 15,000 feet of water. that is roughly three miles down. search crews actually found the recorder in april, but they couldn't remove it then. the ntsb will begin processing the data when crews return from sea and that should be by the enof the week. now, at 5:30, 8 on your side is helping you to get schooled as the new school year

that are nervous. lindsey mastis shows us an experienced teacher and what she is going through as she gets ready to face the class. >> reporter: well, teachers are finishing unpacking and putting on the last minute touches on their classrooms. but what they are really concerned about is that first day. what kind of impression they are going to make. >> good morning! >> reporter: georgia butler is getting her room ready as she begins her 23rd year tell you the truth. >> reporter: she is excited to see her new fifth graders in pasco county. but she still gets butterflies in her stomach. >> teachers are always nervous. sometimes more so than the students and a lot of times when you let kids know that, it tends to really bear inside you a little bit. >> reporter: she has other tricks up her sleeve as well. >> big smile. big smile. because kids really tune into

>> humor, humor is so important. >> reporter: plus, she will keep the kids busy. >> is there going to be home work on the first day? >> yes. [ laughter ] >> what kind of homework? >> reading, always reading. but a book of their choice. >> reporter: in new port richey, lindsey mastis, newschannel8. >> now for some of you, tomorrow is the first day of school. before your child steps in the classroom, they will step on the school bus. our series get schooled continues with school bus safety in 8 on your side's ryan hughes tagged along as one driver familiarized herself with her new route. >> reporter: students return to school in hillsborough county tomorrow morning. before they do, bus drivers took to the road to make sure they know where to pick up every one of them. jackie everheart has been behind the wheel of a school bus 30 years. >> yeah, you want to keep going until you get to the end. >> reporter: every year kicks off the same way. all district drivers take part in a run through to learn the

places where they will pick up the kids. everhart and a guide use a rundown. >> we are doing just a dry run of what is expected of us tomorrow. so we don't get lost or the kids are not in the heat. >> reporter: her bus is equipped to pick up children in wheelchairs. she has to make frequent stops and notes some drivers have no patience for the red lights and stop lines. >> everything to pass us. they don't want to stop. >> reporter: others are distracted and dangerous meaning she must remain on alert at all times. focus is the keyword. the run through helps things run smoothly as a new year gets underway. >> so if we check back in, in a month, you could do it with your eyes closed? >> yeah, in a week. we are just that good. [ laughter ]

than 500 routes here in hillsborough county. more than 90,000 students attend classes. i'm ryan hughes, newschannel8. >> and we cannot forget the college students out there. your next semester could be a little cheap for you land a job with chipotle, they are giving employees the chance to earn college credit and pursue undergraduate and graduate employees can pay as little as $250 per year to go to college. new tonight, the results are in from florida's back to school sales tax holiday over the weekend. the shorter tax free period this year meant less money taken from the state's bottom line. matt galka crunches the numbers for us. >> reporter: jenny and her daughter are two of the millions of customers who got in on the back to school sales tax holiday this weekend. >> i was like good.

>> reporter: the usually annual break from sales tax is a big hit with floridians and the state budget usually takes a hit because of it. so this latest back to school sales tax holiday cost the state around $28 million. now that is way down compared to last year's ten day sales tax holiday which economists say put the state in the red around $56 million. the florida retail federation says even though the holiday was shorter this >> there was a lot of traffic with listen lines. >> reporter: the hope for many is that the holiday keeps the customers coming back. >> many businesses offered additional savings on top of the sales tax discount. it was a savvy move. >> reporter: last year's ten day sales tax holiday was called the exception and not the norm. the state usually opts for the

galka, newschannel8. >> and the holiday ended just in time. tomorrow is the first possible day districts in florida can start classes and 40 of them opted for the early start. and, some information now on the sudden death of local radio persianalty dave mckay. his station is holding a celebration of his wife. doors open to the mcfaffey theater at 4:30 and the event gets underway 59:00 o'k. public are welcome. tonight, michael phelps could win his 20th gold medal. >> coming up, we are taking you live to rio for a wrap of today's event and a rundown of cant miss events coming up. >> plus, a florida sports favorite eyeing a return to professional sports. where tim tebow cants cant -- wants to take his talents. >> clouds and showers held our high to 81 degrees. that's nice.

wrapping up to the northwest. rain chances are dropping

>> welcome back. this fall there is a ride opening up in new jersey that might give the ones we have here at busch gardens a run for the money. >> it is called rage of the gargoyles. it's the world's first interactive gaming coaster.

virtual reality goggles. you become a fighter jet pilot and you have to battle off attacking gargoyles. you can lock on a moving target by moving your head. it opens september 24 at six flags great adventure. quite a bit of rain in the camera location. hyundai of new port richey, 1.78 inches of rain midnight. 78 degrees. they department see much rain out there. but hopefully, you have the last 24 hours. not quite a half inch at freedom plaza and sun city center. overcast conditions. almost four tenths of an inch of rain. temperatures held down because of the clouds in the showers. high rain chances in the forecast through thursday, we will start to ease off a bit though and perhaps get back into more of that typical morning sunshine pattern by

aloft. we will see lower rain chances. that will come with warmer temperatures. it is one benefit of the clouds and showers. stronger thunderstorms on the east coast. stronger activity in highlands county. avon park. back to the west you can see showers moving on shore. northeastly light activity at the moment pushing toward the coastlines. areas that don't need any more rain that are still seeing flooded neighborhoods. further south, rain moving on shore. pinellas county. and manatee and here. a few showers in some of the inland areas. not seeing much in the way of lightning strikes. that is not still impossible. we are just not seen widespread thunderstorms today. the area of low pressure across the gulf is driving a lot of this instability today. 84 degrees at noon. in the downtown area, northeastly cloudy skies, 79 degrees. dew point 75 degrees. without the rain, the temperature calling up a bit so

80-degree ranges. 70 at saint pete. 82 weeki wachee. upper 70s in zephyr hills and lakeland. this area of low pressure is dropping a lot of precipitation. the westerly breeze here and the showers generating over the warmth and the moisture out there in the gulf of mexico. gulf temperature ins the 80s there. so lots of instability and rain moving west deeper atmospheric moisture. bright green color. the forecast water vapor calls for that to continue around the area. probably until the end of the week where as i mentioned we will see lower rain chances into the weekend. high above in the atmosphere working some drier air in here, that combined with more of an east and southeast flow will get us back into more of a kippal pattern. morning sunshine, afternoon showers and thunderstorms focused near the sea breeze. our wrap model, high resolution model in the short term and long term.

possibly developing around the area. that includes coastlines. certainly for the morning hours there is a chance of seeing showers develop. carrying on here in the rpm forecast model. there is the morning chances favoring north of pinellas county as we have been saying here. as this area of low pressure is driving a lot of this. as it continues to move away from us, it will carry the higher rain chances especially coastal areas away from us. good news. with the heating of the day if we get sunshinea activity in the afternoon will be in some of the inland areas. that is what our rpm forecast models are indicating. a blowup of showers and thunderstorms in the inland areas tomorrow. we are starting to see this transition take place getting back into more of that typical pattern. we will keep it fairly high because of the atmosphere irk moisture for thursday. 40% chance for friday. and then by the weekend, saturday and sunday, rain chances running about 30%. morning sunshine, afternoon storms and potentially we will see late weekend into the early

breeze close tore us on the west coast of florida. >> thank you very much steve. >> all right. now, 8 on your side special coverage of the rio olympics. >> night four of the olympics games in rio promises to be packed with entertainment. michael phelps and katie dedeckey are going for the gold. jared smalley joins us live frio superstars for team usa, this is probably the most star- studded night we will have. if you take away men's and women's basketball teams, perhaps the four west known u.s. athletes are competing for gold medals tonight. the women's gymnastics team could do it in a route. >> i'm very pleased of just overall the performance and the experience has just been amazing so far. and just everything coming back. i have no regreets.

douglas will not defend her gold medal from london, she will likely earn another one tonight. the u.s. ladies have a ten point lead. >> we deserve to do our best. everyone deserves to have their best meet. we work so hard. i'm feeling very excited. i'm confident. and i think we are just ready to go out and compete. >> reporter: and in the water michael phelps continues to grow his legend not only could he add a 20th career gold medal, he is also inspiring a his intense phelps face from last night. focused and loverring it here. >> i'm enjoying what i'm doing again. and, you know, i think i'm to the point where, you know, whatever is left here, i think i will be able to turn the page and you know, say i was able to finish my career how i wanted to. >> reporter: and the other

a katie ledeckey. the medals keep coming and we know the women's gymnastics if you are on facebook or twitter on social media, you are probably seeing some spoilers. yes, that competition has wrapped up. if you want to watch it for real, we will not tell you the results. but yes. it is wrapped up. we will see how it plays out in prime time tonight. >> you have to shut the devices off and wait for the real thing. that is probably the best bet for sure. >> right. >> let's get back to michael phelps. he may mp medals. is that right? >> reporter: yeah, they could pick him for the four by 200- meter relay. if phelps feels good after his initial swim tonight, they might call on him to go back in the pool and try to win another gold medal. so let's say if he wins gold tonight, that is number 20 in his career, he could get to 21 by tend of the night. phelps is making the records as he goes. >> leaps and bounds above everybody else. all right, thanks so much for that report.

tampa bay buccaneers first preseason game is coming up thursday on newschannel8. your official bucs station. we will bring you the preseason game. number one from philadelphia. we will broadcast that game on great 38. it will start at 7:00 p.m. again, this thursday night. speaking of football, remember tim tebow? of course you do. he is a household name especially here in florida. today, he is back in the conversation but not for the nfl. th t in baseball. according to espn, the former florida gator is planning to work out with major league tames tames later this month. he did play the sport in high school. every mlb team can watch him work out. we will see what will happen. the tonight show and saturday night live will soon appear on snap chat. nbc universal has a new deal to deliver custom episodes to the

the first entertainment offers on nap chat will include the voice and e news. right now, you can find a bunch of rio olympic content inside that little area. the pilot fire in california is nowhere near contained. >> plus, a family rocked by sorrow getting a much needed break. coming up, the celebrity donor offering to pay for the funeral of twin baby girls killed after being left in a hot car. >> and, remember you can join jenn holloway, julie ph on great 38. >> good afternoon, ahead for us, what did he mean by that? donald trump's comments about second amendment people and what they can do about hillary clinton's judicial picks. the new controversy and new details in a deadly health

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news, virginia. someone fired gunshots at the building. staff not injured however, several wipe does were damaged. security damage on the outside of the building showed a gunman on foot when the shots were fired. they are looking for additional evidence. tyler perry is offering to pay the funeral costs of twin girls who died in a hot car in georgia. one-year-olds ariel and alaina died after their father left them unattended in a hot car. r time. he is now facing charges. perry who is an atlanta based actor and producer and screen writer reportedly wanted to pay for the funeral after seeing an interview with the girl's mother. new evacuations odderred in san bernardino county. the pilot fire continue to burn near silverwood lake. those liveing in 375 homes were given very specific direct orders to leave. the fire is now blamed for

contained. it even shut down schools today. newschannel8 at 6:00 is coming up next. >> keith and stacie are here with what we are working on. >> a sophisticated south tampa crime ring claims another victim. >> plus, a tampa by swimmer getting ready for her big moment in rio. hear from melanie before she gets her chance at gold. >> more an removed from this polk county animal rescue for abuse. we will show you the video that

in florida, people are working hard, just to get by. "republican senator marco rubio has the worst voting record in the u.s. senate." marco rubio stopped showing up for work. let us down. i'm patrick murphy and enough's enough. i'm proud to work with president obama. to protect social security and a woman's right to choose. and grow this economy so it works for all of us. i'm patrick murphy and i approve this message

>> right now on newschannel8 at 6:00. >> allegations of horrific neglect. the undercover video that led investigators a polk county animal sanctuary. >> crooks target yet another south tampa home. how something they did might help police catch them. >> and the new trend that is changing the way we shop. good evening, >> i'm stacie schaible. thank you for joining us. well, the wet weather continues for tampa bay. and, more than two dozen streets in pasco county remain heavily flooded after the rain continued today. county crews have been out since yesterday pumping water hoping to relieve some of the impacted areas. and, this is what it looks like in sarasota today. crews had to close some lanes on bee ridge road near 41 because of flooding. chief meteorologist steve jerve joins us now from the forecast

steve? >> yeah. for the short term absolutely. it is definitely improving the next couple of days. a flood watch has been dropped by the national weather service. doesn't mean we can't see flooding or are seeing flooding but additional flooding from additional heavy rain is unlikely though showers are still possible. light to moderate rain is possible. look at the totals at frenchy's. had some heavy rain rolling off the gulf of mexico. showers are still quite heavy at times. that is occurring across th county. most of it occurring off the gulf of mexico and directly to the east. light to moderate activity. some showers moving toward crystal river. a lot of it drying up before it arrives on the shore itself. you can see some thunderstorms actually develop. haven't seen a lot of activity but that is still possible in the inland areas. keep that in mind. the rainfall totals are