right now on news channel 8 at 7:00. good evening, a sumter county man tells news channel 8 he was protecting horses on his property when he shot and

that alligator then attacked his stepson. news channel 8's jeff paterson shows us now he's facing criminal charges. >> i don't know if he came out of that pond, there's another one over there by the fence. >> reggie is 74 years old and has lived in florida all his life. he knew something was wrong when horses in this field started acting very strangely. >> i took my gun with me when i went out there. because i didn't know what the heck was out there. >> reporter: he saw an alligator just a few from the horses. >> i think he was after the mini horses. >> reporter: he took out a nine millimeter and shot him. >> i shot at him four times and they said i hit him three. >> his son and law arrived and walked over close to the alligator. >> it was just a surprise. >> reporter: the gator clamped down on his leg. the next surprise came later when a deputy arrived arresting them, a report from the florida

sites blanton for unlawfully killing the alligator. blanton hired an attorney and he believes he has the right to protect his horses. jeff paterson, news channel 8. a librarian is laid to rest one week after a police officer accidentally shot and killed her. officer lee cole shot her during a citizen's academy today. today a group of friends, family, and city officials held her inspirational figure who worked out for the community. officer cole is on administrative leave while the fdle investigates this case. a new criminal charge today in a teacher tragedy. the man accused of drunk driving and crashing into two teachers was back in court after one of them died. bryce mcleod is now facing a dui manslaughter charge. investigators upgraded that charge after music teacher caroline sign died yesterday. mcleod ran a red light and hit

boulevard sunday morning. >> we're in 2016, there's too many other ways for you to get home, whether it's uber, taxicab, friend, family, something. but this is the end result. and i want people to be aware of that. >> sign's boyfriend, sean hen convince remains hospitalized in critical condition. a judge set bond today for two people accused of neglecting five children living in their tampa home. they received an anonymous tip about barbara boon colon. the children were quoted to will be living like animals in a cage. the children are between 8 and 17 years old. we drove by the house and the judge says the home has no electricity and is infested with rats and spiders. if the couple bonds out, they're not allowed contact with the children. now a classroom crisis, doors opened this week at a new school in polk county. but students are being told there's no more room at citrus

angry parents. >> what's today? tuesday? tuesday my kids don't have school. >> jaclyn sanchez is beyond frustrated. for weeks she's been trying to get her son enrolled at citrus ridge academy. today she learned there's not enough room. >> they're like now we're not accepting any more students. so i was like so where do i go from here? because school all ready started. the new school in davenport is 120 students over its 1400 school spokesperson to get answers for these parents. >> we apologize. >> we're told school add min stay tores are trying to figure out what to do next, the problem, nearby schools are also over crowded. we also found out the superintendent will be meeting with other administrators on thursday to discuss what to do with all of these extra students. one of the ideas they are tossing around is adding portable classrooms. in davenport, melissa moreno, news channel 8. tonight the hair care

going bald. they all claim they used a popular shampoo and now as melanie michaels shows us, congress is trying to get tougher laws on the books that could give the fda more power to pull products. this brooksville mother of two has been heart broken for the last ten months after losing chunks of hair. she began going bald she tells us after using the popular shampoo, wen. >> when you brush your hair, you can literally hear the ha coming out from your scalp. >> 8 on your side has followed tina's case closely. she recently received a letter from the fda as the agency is now investigating 21,000 complaints across the country from women who have used wen. >> obviously there's a problem. if it's 21,000 claims, that's a lot. >> bobby russell is a certified

women. she treats hair loss cases in women daily. delving right down to the scalp. she welcomes the proposed changes that would allow the fda to crack down. >> i do agree that we need to have regulations that let us know what's going on our bodies. that at least we're confident that what's being sold is safe. >> in tampa, melanie michael, news channel 8. chief meteorologist steve jervy joins us now. i was telling you earlier that when i wa work, it was ominous, black, lots of lightning. i managed to dodge it the whole way here. you drove from lake land. you saw the shower. the storm coming from east to west across the state. you stayed ahead of it. >> i managed to out race it. of course going the speed limit the entire time. >> i don't believe that. >> this is awkward. >> we'll just leave it at that. space station fly over tonight. there are going to be a lot of clouds left over.

it's 8:42 tonight. should be visible for four minutes. we showed you this 24 hours ago. this one's longer in the sky, if the skies will allow here quite a few clouds left over. moving from the north to the eastern sky, reaching a high of 17 degrees. but this is 8:42, look in the north, if the skies are clear enough. good luck on that one. andrew got a great shot tonight of a lightning strike. quite a few of those today passing over pinellas, hillsborough county, the storm jen was i came through that on the way to work today. it was a down pour, traffic slowed. a lot of lightning strikes, i think i measured 1,000 there in one short period of time as it moved in the western part of pinellas county. right now that's all moved offshore. that's that red clump you see. well offshore now. a few light showers. current temperature, 82 degrees in the downtown area. rain cooled. that's nice.

a local man is counting on the kindness of strangers to help him take flood aid to his hometown of springfield louisiana. i'll show you what you can do to help, coming up. today on better call behnken i got a call from a resident tired of looking at this. it's so dangerous the county put up this fence. so i want to know why is this house still here?

having no clear retirement plan financial planning office when i meet with someone new. it's extremely rare that someone comes in and has a clearly defined income plan for his or her retirement. so if you don't have a clear retirement plan, then be one of the first five callers and you'll receive a free complete planning review. there's no obligation. and there's no cost if you've saved at least $250,000 for retirement. here's what you'll receive, a free report to sort through

tailored plan to guard your investments. a tax analysis to reduce the liability and increase your cash flow. and a custom income plan to boost your retirement. plus you'll receive a budget assessment to help manage your cash flow. so call now for your free no obligation financial review. closed captioning is sponsored by stadium toyota. remember every stadium toyota is backed by stadium advantage. for real savings go to stadium toyota.com. as nightly news showed us much of louisiana remains under water tonight. more than 20-inch of rain fell in and around baton rouge and more may be on the way. so far 10 people have died since friday. and more than 40,000 homes have some kind of water damage. tonight as anthony shows us, a louisiana man who lives here in the bay area is headed home to

>> the floods from louisiana, that's where i grew up. it's the epicenter of where all the damage is is where i went to middle school and high school at. >> the lady that owned the thrift store actually brought this. >> michael is on a mission to help save the people in his hometown. >> it's rough. it's hard. that's where we grew up. we used to jump off bridges and play in mud. it's tough looking at it. >> after watching all the flooding that was going on in louisiana, micah said he couldn't take it any more. so he rolled out this trailer and he's counting on the kindness of strangers in the area to help him take aid to his hometown. melissa stopped by to drop off nine shopping bags full of supplies. >> i realized oh i have some clothes that the kids don't fit into any more. i had some dog food. i have lots of baby wipes. i figured let me take it up

>> reporter: the plan is to fill this trailer and have these clothes, food, and shoes in the hands of the people who need them by the weekend. >> if i have to get another trailer or maybe rent a u haul van, i'll make it happen, in brandon, anthony alred, news channel 8. coming up, you may be surprised to find out why the federal government is suing an airline. and check this out. it's like that street. one of these things is not like the others. we'll show you why. and check this out too, a look at the current medal count in the 2016 rio summer olympic

i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. how do we make the economy work for everyone? hillary clinton's plan starts here... by making big corporations and those at the top finally pay their fair share in taxes. and those companies that move overseas? then she'd use that money to make the largest investment in creating good paying jobs since world war ii. millions of jobs. you can read the plan here.

y2377y yy6y my son has meningitis b. but how did we end up here? his mom thought he had the flu and that he was covered by the meningococcal meningitis vaccine he had received. until 2014 there were no vaccines for meningitis b in the u.s. now there are. while uncommon, meningitis b can lead to death within 24 hours. trumenba is a vaccine for 10 through 25 year olds to help prevent group b meningococcal disease. trumenba should not be given if you had a severe allergic reaction after a previous dose. most common side effects were injection-site pain, fatigue... headache, muscle pain, and chills. ask your doctor or pharmacist about all the risks and benefits of trumenba and tell them

ningitis b can be spread by typical sharing like... a drink... a spoon... a kiss. it all started here... it might have been prevented with trumenba. ask your doctor or pharmacist about trumenba. stocks slid today as investors continue to cell phone company and utility shares. the dow fell, the s&p 500 is down 12, and the nasdaq down nearly 35. the more you love money, the more money you lose apparently that's according to a new study from state street center for applied research. it found nearly 60% of investors who score high on a

prioritize saving or contribute to retirement plans. those who love money the least, apparently make better investment decisions. a giant health insurer is quitting most of the affordable care acts public exchanges. etna claims its losing hundreds of millions of dollars because policyholders turned out to be sicker and costlier to ensure than expected. etna will only remain on exchange in four states, virginia, this is the first major health insurer to make a decision like this. u.s. government is suing united airlines for failing to provide sick time. the airline is accused of violating a pilot's employment rights. the pilot is a reservist called to active duty by u.s. air force. at the time of his deployment, the pilots continue accrue sick leave during military deployments. if you need to renew your passport, do it.

and that very likely will mean massive wait times. right now the u.s. government claims it could take six weeks to get your passport renewed. that's all ready longer than usual. hey, this is pretty cool. audi is planning to roll out cars that electronically communicate with traffic signals. the car's instrument panel will display a red traffic light and countdown until it turns green. the car will also communicate with bridges and help navigate blind turns. the technology hits google is going up against face time. today the company launched a free new video calling service called duo. it allows users to make cams between ios and android devices. something face time can't do. it also opens with a split screen view of your front facing camera so you can see what you look like before you place a call. google is expected to launch a new text messaging app in a few weeks. if you think electric cars

this out. in a quarter mile drag race, this etna electric work van smokes a dodge viper and a bmw i 8. the video posted by an electric auto maker shows the cargo van pulls 0 to 60 in less than three seconds. the company is working on a sedan which it believes will perform even better than the van because it weighs a lot less. if you've been cheated, when you need help, she's on your side. better investigator shannon behnken is working to help residents dealing with an abandoned home that's falling apart. the house is not only an eye sore but neighbors claim it's dangerous and now has rats. >> reporter: living next to this is no fun. >> just imagine living here and looking out everyday at something like this. deterioration of property value going down fast. >> reporter: residents along

are at the end of their ropes. they want this abandoned home fixed up or demolished. >> i see rats and animals climbing in and out and sometimes kids that are hopping the fence. and they're up to no good. >> this house has been empty for five years. and now it's falling apart. >> i keep calling the county and getting the run around. >> pinellas county put up this safety fence about a year ago. but then nothing. >> i think it's unrepairable. so they should demolish it and if they want to build something else up here, that would be wonderful. >> the hoa had no luck tracking down the property owner either. so residents cammed me for answers. and i found a homeowner and shared her old neighbor's concerns. >> they're really upset they have to live beside that everyday. >> yes, i know. they were supposed to have that

rights a year ago. so the county could tear down the house. i just assumed that they would take responsibility for tearing the property down like they said they would. >> do you think it's up to the county? do you think it's their responsibility to take care of this? >> i think that the time it took to patrol the situation, they told me no longer to enter the property. >> a spokesperson from the county said they're ready and willing to but because the home is in forclosure they have to have permission from bank of america. and so far they don't have that authorization. shannon behnken, 8 on your side. here's a view in hillsborough county and sun city center, 82 degrees at freedom plaza at the moment. you can see a patch of blue. a little hope for clearer skies. maybe seeing that passage of the international space station. 3/100 lake land.

but at least the temperature is cooler in polk county. and here at frenchies 82 degrees. forecast down in rio, 4:00 p.m. tomorrow, 90 degrees. not much in the way of showers and storms down in south america. it looks like it's going to be a hot day. 94 degrees tampa international. 97 the record set back in 1960. so a long time ago. the radar shows a couple minutes ago, i showed you this, a few thunderstorms offshore. otherwise things have we're not expecting much in the way of rain. temperatures have really dropped as a result of these thunderstorms that passed over. a few hot spots though. otherwise most areas have really seen the temperature fall this afternoon. everything's been east to west. that's been the flow, deep flow carrying all the showers in that direction. the sea breeze is on the west coast. it's been held off as a result of the easterly flow. but perhaps close to the coast. that's why i think in part, i always saw the thunderstorms erupt as it got to pinellas

wave, a 90% to develop in the next five days. we'll watch that one. that's it on the water vapor imagery. dry air to the west. a tropical wave, another one off the coast of africa will continue to move to the west over the next 24 hours. but for us, rain chances remain similar at 40%. that's for weather and traffic on the 10s, same in the forecast for thursday, high temps remain near or above normal. as i mentioned today, 94 degrees for a high, 30% rain chance for saturday and sunday, afternoon and evening hours. so we'll see a bit sunshine, perhaps less widespread shower activity but i think over all we'll see very classic summer weather as that eight-day forecast shows you. check out this little guy. it's not a squeak toy. it's a tiny, living, googlely eyed stubby squid. >> is that the scientific name? >> yes, it is, that's latin. >> a team spotted off the coast of california nearly 3,000 feet

animated movie. >> i feel like he's staring right through us. >> i can't look away. >> don't blink. don't. >> i think we're going to win. no, he'll do that all day long. >> do you think so? >> it's hard to believe something like that is real. >> did you get that from the internet? that might be fake. >> no, from ginger or producer. >> oh, then it must be true. we'll be right back. googlely eyes and all. we're on your side to help get the kids back to school. here's what you'll see tomorrow on news i'll show you which app students are using to balance homework and after school activities with a limited amount of time they've got. get schooled tomorrow morning on news channel 8

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work, too. these are beautiful ties. they are great ties. the ties are made in where? china? off-camera voice: ?china.? letterman: ?the ties are made in china." [ audience laughter ] having no clear retirement plan is a mistake i see a lot when i meet with someone new. it's rare that someone comes in

income plan for his or her retirement. if you don't have a clear retirement plan, then be one of the first five callers and you'll receive a free complete planning review. there's no obligation and there's no cost if you've saved at least $250,000 for retirement, here's what you'll receive, a free report to sort through your current advisors cost, a tailored plan to guard your investments. a tax analysis to reduce the liability and increase your cash flow. and a custom co boost your retirement. plus you'll receive a budget assessment to help manage your cash flow. so call now for your free no obligation financial review. what is tampa bay saying about news channel 8 today? during the summer olympics

what's happening in the games and share stories from olympic athletes. we call it the olympic zone. and dan lucas is here now with a preview of what's ahead at 7:30. before the olympics is over, i'm going to get the delivery of that, the olympic zone, i'm going to nail it. >> the olympic zone. >> exactly. >> tonight we're going to visit the sandy beaches of rio. and really get to enjoy them. we're also going to check in on athletes from the state of florida, more than 35 of them. and we're going to meet the first le -- he's a decathalete. one's u.s. and one's canadian. let's check in one more time with steve. >> but they both like hockey i bet. >> she's canadian. >> oh yeah, oh, eh. >> let's take a look at the forecast. we don't have time for that. it's a great forecast.

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al guard. he was sent to iraq to be a gunner on a humvee. a car pulled up in the driveway and three soldiers got out, and the sound of their boots as they came up those stairs will, will stay with me the rest of my life. you have moments when you really don't want to live anymore, it's a fate that i would not wish on anybody, not anybody. when i saw donald trump attack another gold star mother, ...wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably... i would like to tell donald trump what it feels like, the sense of emptiness, that only losing a child can bring. those people should be honored and treated with kindness for the rest of their life, and i don't think that donald trump will ever understand that.

special coverage of the summer games in rio on news channel 8, this is the olympic zone. good evening i'm dan lucas, this is the olympic zone. we'll take you to nbc's prime time coverage on news channel 8. this is the final week of the summer games. team u.s.a. still leading in the medals. but it was a flip and a slip that led surprising third place finish in the balance beam. the netherlands took home the gold medal. but lorrie hernandez managed to grab the silver. >> a couple years ago i used to tell my coach, i'm too nervous, i can't stand on the beam. being at the olympics and having my own silver medal individually, i think that's amazing. >> simone biles will have one more chance for a fourth gold in rio during the floor routine finals. track and field star alison