and her recovery. thank you for joining us. >> well tonight's the night the first presidential debate of campaign 2016 republican donald trump and democrat hillary clinton are neck and neck and 8 on your side is in new york as they face off for the first time this campaign season. a lot is riding on this debate. all three, really. >> the big question at hand do voters have their minds made up already? rod carter for us tonight. >> reporter: when you say a lot is ride on this, this is an understatement. this is just the media filing station here. i was trying to pin down a number of how many media people credentialed for this debate and all they would tell me were thousands have done that. but there are journalists from everywhere including china, japan, the ukraine. just a few minutes ago a lot of

100million people expected to watch this debate tonight. >> before presidential debate begins traditionally 75% other voting public knows exactly who they're going to vote for. but this election is anything but traditional. >> more of those people, more than wet 5% who are still waiting to see. >> reporter: he's the university of south florida professor of department of government told mean that number may be higher and that is why tonight's debate is so important. this particular are people that are just -- i talk with them everydy. a flip of the coin. i don't want to vet for hillary clinton but i can't vote for donald trump but i got to vote for somebody. >> reporter: so he says more than change someone's mind this may just confirm what the voter already believes. >> so where is the debate maybe it will only sway a few people, the debates help a voter confirm, yeah, i was going to support clinton, i was going to

picked the right person. >> reporter: and again, the tonight right here at hofstra university. it's 90 minutes long uninterrupted. nbc's lester holt will beat moderater. >> well, rod getout crystal ball and tell us what are we truly expecting? is there any way to know? junior no, not really. this political season has been anything but traditional. no one what to expect but i will tell you there are certain themes brought up tonight from my understanding we're going to hear about prosperity, security, we're going to hear about the direction of our country. and tonight at 6:00 i'm going to talk about another controversy a lot about fact checking has been talked about here at this debate, as well. >> all eyes on the debate tonight for sure. rod carter live in new york thank you very much. news channel 8 is on your

live reports from hofstra university throughout the news casts. then after tonight's debate news channel 8 will have reaction and analysis from new york. democratic vice presidential nom tee tim kaine spent time in lakeland this afternoon. kaine hammered on donald trump and hillary clinton. news channel 8's jeff patterson is the only local reer interviewed senator kaine. and donald trump's right- hand man spent the day rallying support in new hampshire. mike pence met with voters and held a rally in millennialsford. newhampshire is a key battleground state. hillary clinton is scheduled to be there visiting on wednesday. a pulse nightclub shooting survivor thanked the nurses and doctors who helped her. amanda grau spoke with other patients and live at the florida hospital in tampa, it

speech we have to imagine. >> reporter: emotional indeed, josh. you know, she just wrapped up here about an hour ago at the hospital. she just said that she is lucky to be standing here. >> you are my heroes and i thank you very much for everything you've done for me. >> reporter: pulse nightclub shooting survivor amanda grau almost comes to tears as she thank it's the hospital staff that helped her recover. >> i had to go through walking, bathing, >> reporter: she transferred from orlando health to the florida hospital after. shooing for rehab. she had to have three surgeries after being shot. >> my mind set now is just to still try to move forward and tie to get beer. i still go to therapy for my right arm, as well. so i still live through things every day like nightmares and everything. >> reporter: she and other rehab patients spoke about their struggles during an annual rehab reunion luncheon.

>> it's a very humbling feeling to come here and be here and being as i am i. did away with the cane two weeks ago. so it's just a blessing and to know that it all started here. >> reporter: she now working to help other orlando shooting victims. she's been raising money at several charity event throughout tampa bay. >> as a survivor it's hard. you go through things that shouldn't go through as a person. but like i said, support of your family and fr get a little bit easier. >> reporter: so, again, she said that she's getting stronger every day. so far equality florida has raised more than $9 million for the pulse shooting victims, josh. >> all right. live in tam parks thanks so much. storms are moving across the bay area. chief meteorologist steve jerve joins us with the details. we have a veer thunderstorm

pasco and northern pinellas. the thunderstorms were severe around the western part of polk county. it's this area here that is now severe until 5:15. probably some small hail around keystone and northwest of caro wood. east of palm harbor. this could possibly be seeing small hail. so that's warning until 5:15. from north to south along the sea breeze some showers develop all wait up to citrus county through hernando county. farther south a few scattered showers south of pinellas county and say and sara sew ta county. that's in effect until 5:15 we'll watch that hail especially with this but strong wind gusts lot of lightning,

any time by using our storm team 8 weather max app free to download in the app store. members of the alonso baseball high school family are remembering jose fernandez. he died early sunday along with two other men when their boat crashed into awe jetty. investigators are still trying to figure out what happened. now they i believe of believe the men died instantly. he attended alonso high between 2008 and 2011 the ravens. peter bernard spoke with his coach at the high school today and will have more on this situation coming up on news channel 8 at 6:00. we new know the name of the man who opened fire on a strip mall in houston. police senate injured nine people when he started firing inside a shopping center in southwest houston. houston's mayor says he was ally disgruntled with his law firm because either the firm was breaking up or he

taken to the hospital where edied. the fbi is helping with this investigation. tonight protesters are demanding change in the wake other deadly police shooting of keith scott in charlotte, nort carolina. as the state investigates the shooting some are calling for the city's mayor and police chief to resign. they're criticizing those two for how they handled the situation and the protests that followed. >> we're making sure everybody's registered to vote here. we need change and leadership. >> the charlotte city council meets tonight for the first time since tuesday's shooting. protesters are expected there, as well. two former wells fargo workers who say they were fired for doing the right thing are now fighting back. they filed a class action lawsuit against the bank seeking $2.6 billion. they came they were force today choose between keeping their jobs and opening unauthor arrived accounts. earlier this month the bank was

and credit card accounts. and some tense moments caught on camera in san antonio watch as firefighters work to safe a man trapped on top of a car in flash flooding. land. inally able to get onto b he told rescuers he just moved to san antonio from out of state. that his gps led him straight into the flooded area. >> wow. still ahead she lost her husband weeks ago but hasn't been able >> the holdup a doctor's signature. she decided she better call behnken. see what she uncovered. >> call it thrill ride therapy the painful problem one doctor says can be cleared up by

i'm really good at war. i love war in a certain way. including with nukes, yes including with nukes. i know more about isis than the generals do, believe me.

the washington monument will remain closed indefinitely due to ongoing elevate ser issues. the national park service made the announcement today. >> it was shut down in mid- august when a cable broke loose on the elevator that takes visitors on high ride. repairs were expected to be over in mid-september but have taken longer than expected. if you are suffering from kidney stones, if of a few rides at an area theme park may be what the doctor ordered. >> a doctor noticed something interesting. they managed to pass their kidney stones after being jsoed around by roller coasters. so that doctor tested the theory and discovered that more than 60% of the time roller coasters do actually

he found it's most effective if you ride in the back seat. wow. okay. well, the 2016 heart walk is right around the corner and news channel 8 is committed to raising $100,000. every dollar you donate count as two. that walk is november 12 you. can head to our website w fla.com/heart walk for details our to join stacie schaible's you have your eye on it. >> absolutely strong thunderstorms developing. feels like summer. but one of those days but there might be a little actual drier air in the midweek. lower humidity, in the longer outlook. palm harbor you can see a good view of the showers and storms to the east. very dark clouds obviously moving just to the east. 75degrees probably dropping

activity. lakeland had good downpours. and here at famous tate out in brandon looks like nearby showers, too. there we go. 78degrees got a freeze frame there but you get the idea. cloudy skies in this spot. lots of sun at plantation crystal river. 88degrees with a north wind. shays that severe thunderstorm warning expired but still a pretty good area of thunderstorms starting to harbor. not moving stationary. so maybe picked up an inch possibly more than that of rain in some spots. heavy downpours in lakeland still raining there. this main area is pushed south ward into hardee county. this is all west afros so pretty good storms out there. 9:00p.m. 769 degrees. maybe lingering storms for the early evening.

much quieter. 7:00a.m., 76 degrees. 89 at 4:00 p.m. 84 clearwater beach. 85 seminole. 90 at apollo beach. 87degrees new port richey. some rain cooled numbers all the 70s as i mentioned you don't have to ski a rain shower at your house. >> you can see the cooler air that falls off of the thunderstorm tops that 40,000 feet plus and tend to drop the temperature pretty quickly as we saw out there in in is brook. quite west coast sea breeze blotting out the west coast sea breeze. plenty of clouds there. broader view shows the thunderstorm activity central and western florida. that's where most of it's happening now. plenty of heating of the day and of course, high humidity. we're watching the tropics closely the next couple days. we have invest 97 l a 90% chance of development. this is pretty far south. that's south america.

of this area. it's forecast to move off to the west and responding to an upper level trough. this can change but we see a lot of the computer models want to turn this directly north. hard right turn really is what most are doing. responding to an upper level trough coming in long term. so that's what we hope will happen but we'll continue to watch this thing over the long haul. as for the short term, yes, still a pocket of seeing quite a bit of lightning and thunderstorms through the early evening hours. as we get to later evening things are much quieter. few clouds. overnight hours quiet can't rule out the slight possibility with a light westerly flow of a morning shower. slight possibility of seeing that happen. rain chances are at seasonal levels main a little bit lie for wednesday 40%. a front to the north. that front may have a slight impact on the feel of the air by the end of the week. northern spots might feel slightly lower humidity.

rain chances that go higher for tuesday but beyond that maybe less than two weeks we might see some cooler drier air. it's hard to imagine a manatee county man collapsed in the grocery store and died more than two weeks ago. but his wife can't lay him to rest all because of a problem with a doctor's signature. not even funeral home officials seem to be able to hel call behnken. shannon behnken joins me now. two weeks sound unacceptable to me. >> she wrote me over the weekend i lad to drop everything to try to help her u. auto can't imagine being in this scenario. she had to have a celebration of life for her husband even without his remains and no one can tell her why. it has been 16 days since her husband todd dropped dead while buying milk at publix.

looked at him 5-his eyes were wide open and i said tom. i expected him to just kind of look at me. and there was just nothing there. >> reporter: cathy is trying to fulfill todd's wish to be cream made. >> people go their whole lifetime and don't have the love that we did. >> reporter: but his body is still being held at the funeral home in bradenton and the only explanation she gets is that her husband's doctor will not let's a cause of death on his death certificate. >> everybody's like i'm so sorry. they're trying, you know. they're trying. everybody's trying but they can't get him to cooperate. >> reporter: funeral home officials tell me the same thing that none of the doctors involved will sign the right paperwork passing it off on each other. even though the hospital released the body saying the cause of death was natural. but for cremation that cause has to be in writing. so i went to todd's doctor, he tells me he listed cause

>> i cannot make a diagnosis and put down a probably cause of death when it's not known to me. >> reporter: okay. that's understandable. but what now? i went to the medical examiner's office and finally called state officials who oversee vital statistics. >> yeah, iman, they're just taking this thing all around. >> nobody's stepping up to make a decision and it's unclear whose responsibility it is. >> reporter: an autopsy would be fine. meanwhile cathy is ft pleading with her husband's doctors for help. >> i'm hoping that this doctor will do what he's supposed to do. and quit prolonging my pain. >> reporter: everyone involved o told this widow her husband died from cardiac arrest and hospital doctors saw no need for an autopsy. typically this type of paperwork takes just a few days. in this case the doctors involved won't sign and won't pick up the phone and talk to one another. >> i just can't even imagine

life without any remains. >> my heart breaks for her. what about the state officials that you called? >> well, they feel bad for her, too. they're concerned. they say the doctors need to sign off on this or do an autopsy. they can't leave her in this situation. they did agree after all of my questions to make some phone calls themselves. i'm hoping once they get the calls from state officials hopefully somebody will step up. >> you'll be turning up the heat as we wait. >> reporter: extl if you have a problem that needs solving the number is one- 855-behnken. we'll show you the travel

10 items or less could be less of a rule and more of a suggestion in the near future. some grocery stores are changing the wording on the express lane signs adding the word about as in about 10 items. chains like kroger and food lion have already made the changes. ebbs% say they don't want to pressure customers into buyi well, want to record a snapchat video and don't feel like holding the phone. you're in luck. look no further than the snapchat expect comes. they can record video, 10 seconds at a time with a tap of a button and the video is uploaded to the memory section sort of app via bluetooth or wifi. they will be available in the u.s. very soon for $130. >> life is such a struggle isn't it. looking to take in a last

>> . next few weeks called shoulder season the most wonderful time of the year for travelers. >> fall is one the best times of the year to travel if you're on a budget. >> that is because vacancies aren't being filled so airlines, hotels and cruise ships are willing to offer bargains making short weekend getways much more affordable. trading in crowns for capes. more kids will be direction as their favorite superhero. according tour it national retail federation's costume survey princess costumes have fallen to the number 2 spot. they found that most adults will don a witch or pirate costume and most pets they will be dressed as pumpkins. >> will you dress your dogs? >> they're too crazy u. auto won't get them to sit still for 52nd. >> tear going as dogs. >> they're going as black labs. medical marijuana is back on the ballot. millions of dollars are being spent to have it passed this time around. so coming up we'll hear from both side of the heated battle.

manatee counties. we'll tell you what's causing this and how long it could

good evening i'm jen leigh. >> i'm josh benson thanks for being with us. first storms are moving across th let's check in with meteorologist steve jerve for the latest. no severe thunderstorms they're very strong. we've seen thunderstorms likely with hail. radar, the strokes area was across the northern part of pinellas to hillsborough. that's sinking south. there are more storms developing. it reminds you that the atmosphere can produce strong thunderstorms near the sea breeze there a round lakeland that's all rain the western