good evening i'm josh benson. >> i'm stacie schaible now to your vote and the night everybody has been waiting for. in about three hours hillary clinton and donald trump will face off on the debate stage for the first time. one of the big talkers of this debate has been the issue of fact checking. >> it sure has. hillary clinton's camp is calling on lester holt to fact check everything donald trump says. trump says clinton is trying to sway the debate. news channel 8's rod joins us live from hofstra university. there is going to be a lot of eyeballs watching this tonight. >> reporter: you know what, there really are. >> let me tell you what riding over on the media bus the first thing i heard was out this issue of fact checking. let me tell you there's so much media here. down the row there all of the media outside and then insiders a lot of media, as well. i talked to a political analyst about this issue and the senior

presidential debates about it for the student at hofstra it seems like more of a party atmosphere than a debate but what happens inside is going to st. petersburg the future of the country and determine who leads it. an issue that a lot of people have talk about should the moderater fact check. hillary clinton supporters want him to. >> i don't think that the moderatedder's job is to fact check. >> reporter: political analyst told me that moderater shoulded not. >> moderater's job is to facilitate, to k opponent wants to refute what one has said let the opponent do it. >> reporter: neither candidate knows what questions will be asked and the presidential debate commission says it's completely up to holt. >> we try to focus this format on big discussion sections. so there will be a 2 minute question with a 2 minute response. a response from the other candidate and then a 10 minute

checking, we talked to them about that, too. >> our role is to make sure the candidates get the same number of questions, the same amount of speaking time. in terms of hour-by-hour forecast the moderater accomplishes that, it's really up to the moderater. >> reporter: and again, this starts in less than three hours. >> expect it to be 90 minutes uninterrupted. i can tell you this, though it's expected to be history making. it comes on a history making day, it september 26 that the first televised presidential debate took place. that, of course, you'll remember was between john f. kennedy and richard nixon. a history making debate taking place here at hofstra. >> great stat. lester holt's got an interesting job and a front row seat. so what kind of questions are we expecting to hear tonight? >> reporter: interesting is one way to put it.

lester holt tonight you. read any articles. we don't know what the questions are. they're really up to him. we can tell you what the themes are. they're prosperity, security and the direction of our country. so it's going to be a very interesting, very lively debate to say the very least. >> we will all be watching. rod carter live tonight. and rod will continue to bring us live reports from hofstra university throughout the evening. be sure to stay with news channel 8 after the reaction and analysis from new york. government inaction about this contaminated sinkhole exposed by an news channel 8 investigation sparking emergency action by the governor. he ordered no more secrets like the big one about a sinkhole contaminating the aquifer. >> we learned that tampa bay water is keeping pumps near

senior investigate reporter steve andrews found that they provide water for the public water sly. >> reporter: that's a whole another kettle of fish here. the governmenter claims it just doesn't make sense to not immediately inform the public of a pollution incident. well governor, tell that to your department of environmental secrecy. for 19 days mosaic and the florida department of environmental protection kept this from the public. a sinkhole million gallons of radioactive contaminated water. it dumped it into the aqua fer. on thursday i grilled the governor about dep's dirty little secret. how ab sem ability to you is the that dep sat on information. >> within 24 hours they started the investigation. >> reporter: they didn't notify the public. >> they started doing their investigation immediately. >> reporter: are they getting special treatment? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: two business days

changes from now on within 24 hours, dep, general public such as people living close to this must be note filed of pollution by all responsible parties. the public must be notified within 48 hours of any potential risk to health, safety, or welfare. meanwhile until the sinkhole is plugged hydrogeologist told me via skype contamination of the aquifer will continue. >> every time it rains there's more material going down there. >> reporter: dep estimate contaminated plume is moving at 1000 feet per month. tampa bay water confirms 2000 eastern most poms in the well field bordering the area are off and will stay off to protect the public water supply. tampa bay water is drawing 14 and a half million gallons ady from this well field. >> if they're pumping that much water to guarantee you that plume is moving out of there a lot feaster. >> reporter: he told me if

into the fractured limestone. they've had three sinkholes out there the contamination can go in any direction, very quickly. kit understand have made he says made it to the nearest wells within two weeks. that's five days before we exposed the story to the public. >> timeline becoming even more important. so back to this new emergency rule does that mean the the dep will disclose pollution within 24 hours, as well? >> no, it requires implement strict 24 hour notification rules for others. >> the rule does not seem to apply to the florida department of environmental secrecy. >> continues to be a layer after layer this whole story. >> reporter: he's going to take a tour of this place tomorrow. we're going to have more questions for him and the dep secretary. well the request to water test mosaic there's the number on the screen give it a call. (

our website at wfla.com. and right now police in tar pun springs are trying to find a man accused of touching a 6- year-old in a tj maxx bathroom. the man in this surveillance picture inappropriately touched him. a 90-year-old woman is recovering from serious injuries after a car came crashing into her pinellas park home. she was when the car slammed into it. neighbors heard the loud bang and ran to help. >> we got her out other car. my next door neighbor and i but miss vice was pinned inside. we got 911 they said don't touch her. >> the woman in the house is in the hospital now with a leg injury. the 78-year-old driver was not seriously hurt and police do not expect charges to be filed. we have new information in

radio host dave mckay. he died from a ceo cane overdose. he was discovered dead inside of his apartment back in august. and cutting edge technology on the road will soon be tried out in the bay area. >> coming up where this multi- million dollar test track is being built and how the newest state university is getting involved. >> plus one of baseball's brightest stars being remembered in the bay area. you'll hear from jose fernande high school. >> wit use hot day before the thunderstorms started. 90degrees, shortly after noon at the international airport. as i showed you there are some thunderstorms and they'll continue to be around probably

first they said they were closing and then announced that spaghetti warehouse tells us they are closing for good. the owners say despite the overwhelming support from the community business just hasn't gotten better. the restaurant is now set to close for good october 2nd. high tech transportation test site is coming to florida's newest state university. fdot is teaming up with florida poly tech nick university to build sun tracks. it is a $41 million state of the art transportation facility. it will be used to test

automated and connected vehicles. >> you want to be able to test these in real world conditions which is what this will allow us to do. we have a lot of sun pass customers and tolling here in florida. it's important to get the transactions correct. >> sun tracks will be built next to the campus. >> construction is slated to begin next spring. over the weekend an ace piper for the marlins tragically killed in a boating accident. >> jose fernandez started his career right here and coming up how his high school coves knew back then he was something special. -- school coaches knew back

i wore a badge for 38 years knowing how much you trusted us to keep you safe. yet when a officer was killed in action florida was not doing enough to give their families the help they desperately needed. dana young understood. that was wrong, so we changed that law. to ensure these families get the benefits they are entitled to and the honor they deserve. dana young has our back and she has yours.

c'mon in, pop pop! happy birthday! i survived a heart attack. i'm doing all i can to keep from having another one. and i'm taking brilinta. for people who've been hospitalized for a heart attack. i take brilinta with a baby aspirin. no more than one hundred milligrams as it affects how well it works. brilinta helps keep my platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. brilinta reduced the chance of another heart attack. or dying from one. it worked better than plavix. without talking to your doctor since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. don't take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. tell your doctor about bleeding, new or unexpected shortness of breath, any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. >>talk to your doctor about brilinta.

members of a lob sew high school baseball family are mourning the death of jose fernandez. >> the player who would become a major leak phenomenon honed his skills there. peter bernard joins us with more. >> reporter: he knew these fields well. the cuban born american played out here for three years from 2008-2011. his coaches remember him happens the guy who always had a smile and a sprang passion for the game watching current members wrap up a quick practice you can't help but wonder if another jose fernandez is among them. the 24-year-old pitcher died early sunday along with two other men when the boat they were riding in hit a

talent. >> first day he showed up here, i knew he was special. i remember telling one of my assistant coaches he said he's going to be a first round pick. >> reporter: he would some day be a hall of famer. his former pitching coach choked up talk about the young man and worked hard to fine tune his skills. >> to us he was like a comet that we were able to harness for three years and then we let go for the rest the world to see. >> reporter: o most of these young players don't know him personally. some did because he would work out with them. >> he's a hard working guy. he loved the game. and he had a passion for it and he put his mind to wanting to be the best. >> reporter: daring to escape cuba to pursue his dream, jose fernandez made it to the top respected and admired by teammates and not afraid to show his emotions

we're going to miss him. >> reporter: and here's where it all started. there will be a candelight individual it out here 7:30 on wednesday night. all are invited. >> peter such a sad story. is there any new information about the cause and why this happened with this crash? >> reporter: not a lot of new information. we're learning that that boat was likely going very fast. possibly at full throttle when it hit the rocks. the fwz the commission is investigating. a great view from the beach as always. saint pete beach. 82degrees. no rainfall. a little bit but not that significant. that's a nice view from the lake club lakewood ranch. 79degrees. temperatures cooled down from nearby showers and storms. if you did not see actual thunderstorms. >> freedom plaza in sun city

temperatures are lower. rain continues across sections of citrus hernando, pasco counties. thunderstorms lining up off shore. so we'll leave the chance for the early evening. most of this rain you can see all the way over to lake county the central chinks of pasco county and central portions of polk county, as well. thunderstorms a few of them off shore, then kind of stretching across the southern part of pinellas county although weakening but moving across into northern and to the central portions of manatee county, sea breeze stuff mostly. strong thunderstorms south of north port and continue to rumble around that area. southern manatee and all wait out to highlands county. desoto, west of lake placid a few strong thunderstorms. could have been some hail. we had reports about pea-sized hail around that area.

long-term drier air. >> slightly drier air building in that should stabilize the atmosphere. and possibly give you drier feeling air, too. wouldn't that bow nice? temperatures mostly in the 70s. palm harbor 7 of. macdill 77. 70 lakeland. 84 lake placid. 83 crystal river. visible satellite imagery thunderstorm blowing up. you can see here spinning away the upper low. that tends to add cooler led to that hail that we saw for today. satellite shows a lot of thunderstorms you can see off shore here. just kind of cycling into the keys at this point. also across the northern part of the state. watching the tropics as always. about a 90% chance to develop into something. we kind of curious obviously for that reason when the computer models spin these up into potential tropical storms and hurricanes. most of the computer models

to the storm as a trough of low pressure long-term emerges. >> of course, we'll continue to watch it. especially if it strengthens very unpredictable. quiet overnight. before noon shower heads up there. scattered storms and push inland through the day and then later into wednesday, wednesday morning rather extra clouds around, maybe a stray shower still possible earlier in the day. with that light westerly flow in place, moisture around to create an above formal rain chance at 40%. now, long term as i mentioned a cold front will actually have a small impact helping to lessen the rain chances long term. people rail of really want to know is when's it actually going to dry out. computer models hunting around the 9th, tenth or so. stay tuned that's not a for sure thing. we're always looking at head this time of year. when, when, when, will it dry

>> yes, we earned it. >> thanks, steve. well, the tampa bay heart walk is coming up and we want you to sign up to be part of the wfla team u. auto walk every year because heart disease runs in my family. it's simple to join the team go to wfla.com/heart walk. our goal, again, to raise $100,000 or mr. with your help. and fuccalo kia is matching the first 50,000 so every dollar crew donate is worth two. the walk is november 12 raymond james stadium. and coming up next in sports dan lucas sits down with bucs head coach for the exclusive monday chat. >> they look back at a very disheartening loss to the rams.

there are losses that are hard to take and the bucs 37-32 defeat to the l.a. rams certainly falls into that category of this afternoon in the exclusive chat with bucs head coach i asked him what went minute drill and epointed a finger at himself. >> reporter: your time reads itself on two -- prizey yourself in 2 minute drill. it was a beautiful thing in atlanta. what did you see when you reviewed the end of the game yesterday what went wrong in your mind? >> well, you know when we had the weather delay we went in we thought we were degree to get the ball back around the 35 yard line with one timeout. the way the came unfolded we actually had two timeouts. when we got it back e. woo went

we threw the pass in the flat to sims. we still had two timeouts left. california absolutely made the right decision to try to make that guy miss and go for more yards. as most people know i have a coach in charge of clock management. he was doing exactly what he was supposed to do. he was right in my ear telling me timeout. we had kind of been saving a play we thought might be able to hit a home run. and so i ignored telling me to call timeout. i went with my gut that we had the right play. we didn't hit it. have i second guessed myself on that particular instance, of course. >> reporter: the end goal play there wound up being the final play. put the blame on himself really for the end of the game. >> when epopped up through the line i know it look today everybody like he could have run it in.

17 yards, they were three or 4 yards deep. had he committed it would have taken a superhuman effort to get past the 5 yard line. the thing we talk about all the time is give yourselves a chance. even if you throw an interception at that point give ourselves a chance zer and finally you mentioned sunday and i know it's an emotional time right after games but the culture of the team and kind of describe what you meant by that and guys aren't walking around with their heads down. we see them all during but define culture and an attitude that seems to breed winning. >> well, i can only define culture as i see it. and when i brought up the whole culture thing, i wasn't talking about the burks organization. i'm not talk about one buc place not the burks fans. i'm talking about the players and the coaches inside our locker room. the guys that come to work every day and are charged worth figuring out how to win games.

think maybe a lot of your viewers have either rooted for a team on been on a team where they all acted as one. everybody knew what the other guy was going to do. trusted the other guy to do his job. when winning teams have that, man, it's elusive. you got to grab onto it. when losing teams or teams that have lost, don't have that it's a hard thing to grab by the tail. >> reporter: incredible stuff today. after dinner get on wfla.com talked about detective fence, as well. who found work today? austin seferian-jenkins. irony after abashings loss. burks had a good tight end yesterday. played very well. >> i love the coach likes to talk. eel talk about the game airports ends. >> took the blame if you were telling call time out yesterday, somebody else was in coach's ear. >> nightly news is next

tonight this is it. donald trump is hillary clinton meeting face to face in their first presidential debate, a live 90-minute showdown between two very different candidates with everything on the line. the critical question. can the t unpopular people ever to run for president chan some minds tonight? a record audience of over 100 million expected to tune in. who will walk away the winner in this first crucial contest? "nightly news" begins right now. this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. substituting tonight and reporting from the campus of hofstra university, savannah guthrie.