. a gay couple opened a why they believe they were targeted by someone in the neighborhood. request evening i'm jennifer lee. >> i'm josh benson thanks for being with us tonight. a gayle gaye couple in spieth says they were targeted they were sent what they are calling hate mail which referenced their election signs and rainbow flag. jamel lanee' joins us from st. pete police department where they are asking for the public's help on this. >>reporter: yes they are. they believe someone out there

letter that was sent to he and his husband they believe it came from someone in the neighborhood. john gas could it still can't believe someone sent him this letter saturday. >> i'm frustrated people think this is okay. and what a coward move it is. >>reporter: the anonymous writer starts off attacking gas could it and his husband. talks about the over you lost on all costs. the clinton web and amendment one science still advertiseed in his yard then it startle his sexuality. >> to then put into the letter all this personal stuff that's what makes it disturbing. >>reporter: gas could it thinks it could be a neighbor. >> it mentions that when our porch light is on or off it mentions trash day whether we

and it mentions christmas lights irk police are asking flynn with any information to come forward. >> it's a mean letter it uses derogatory language and it's certainly not something anybody wants to receive but it's not a crime at this point. >>reporter: he says the letter will not break his spirit. >> who do you think you are? you know. how tiny are you that you have to send an anonymous letter instead of walking up knocking on my door say hey it's time >>reporter: police tell us that there's simply nothing that they can do about it unless somebody comes forward with some type of information. >> jamel, the couple they are saying they are going to warn the neighbors; is that right? >> . >>reporter: they are. they feel this is a safety issue so they want to go ahead and talk to other neighbors about this just to tell them to be careful. josh. >> that's a frustrating situation. jamel lanee' live for utter in feet. thanks. if you've been watching

herald our traffic reporter leslie lacey talking about overnight construction on i-75 university parkway. there are some new developments on that one of a kind project and leslie has the update. it's called the diverging diamond interchange the name itself strikes up can you remember yo estimate with construction over halfway complete i hit the road to see when our sarasota commuters will be one step closer to a construction free ride on i-75 at uniit 75 lanes are now open on what will eventually be florida's first diverging diamond interchange. >> how is it going to help out drivers? >> it's going to help tremendously because we're increasing our capacity weary eliminate a lot of conflict lanes which are the left turn movements majority of the accidents happen. the diverging pattern is more right turns than it is the left turns. >>reporter: at this point

reconstructing 75. but what is next for drivers? where i'm standing is the new southbound i-75. but now they have to build the northbound side. so before christmas that bridge here with vehicles traveling across it will temporarily change directions and they will start bidding the northbound lanes. drivers will eventually see university parkway temporarily shift. the goal of this 75 million- dollar facelift is to have it operational before the world finished? >> completely finished we're home hoping to meet the july deadline. >>reporter: for added incentive there is a 5 million- dollar contractor bonus for finishing a month early. >> when complete this diverging diamond interchange will be the largest in the nation. the interchange has additional safety features. it's going to be more pedestrian trendly with shorter crossings. entering ramps the wrong way is going to be a very difficult thing to do. aside from a few weather delays, the project is running

so by the end of next summer the diamond pattern should be established. i'm leslie lacey news channel 8. you heard leslie mention dolt officials are else sexually dangling a car right turn in front of the contractor. if they finish early they get more taxpayer money. coming up mark douglas explores just how much they are getting as an incentive because you paid for it. over the past few months red tied has ravaged the tampa bay area. even now miles from pinellas county to south florida. a sarasota scientist has made a groundbreaking discovery that could lead to a solution to this problem. john rogers joins us live from sarasota to explain. >>reporter: good evening josh. the scientist said that rivers could be to blame and humans could be accidentally playing a role in this as well. sue when a large red tied bloom forms beachgoers can easily

stain the beautiful gulf waters. closer to shore miles and miles of dead fish can line the beach. visitors often suffer respiratory problems. >> it seems to be a continuous problem. >>reporter: the bloom naturally occurs every year. cindy luck duck low has had enough. >> i used to live about a block away from the beach and we had to move to north port because my lungs could not handle it. >> why is it so hard to figure out what causes red tied? >> it believers local rivers could be contributing to this mess. he says the rivers and estuaries are dumping iron into the gulf of mexico. and iron stimulates the creation of red tied. >> the best thing we can aim to do is really try to understand the system, provide better prediction. >>reporter: says it's possible that the iron is coming from our stormwater run off but it's too early to tell. starting next month he'll conduct long term experiments taking soil samples in local

that seeps into the water. if he's successful scientists will soon be able to predict when blooms will for and find ways to stop it. >> eventually we're going to get it. >>reporter: maybe thanks to his work. red tide will be a thing of the past. these beaches are too beautiful to be spoiled by red tie. dr. beck letter has received a $76,000 federal grant to help with this project marine lab is constantly monitoring the beaches. visit beaches.org. back to you. >> mice reminder how beautiful the place that we live in behind you that scene is pretty nice. john rogers live for us thanks so much. state of florida has set a record for tourism despite two hurricanes and a zika virus outbreak. governor rick scott announced today 85 million tour its visited the state during the first 9 months of 2016.

credit to visit florida the state's tourism marketing arm. some state lawmakers have questioned that organization's funding. ten years ago floridians voted on amendment aimed at taking a stand against spoke smoking and it's working. tobacco free florida was created using money from tobacco settlements to campaign against smoking. you'll has gone down 15.8% of adults are lighting up. if your home or business was damaged during hurricane get federal hem. you have 7 days left to ply for federal disaster assistance. now the deadline is next monday the 28th. eligible counties in the bay area include citrus, hernando, hillsborough, manatee pasco and pinellas. just head to fema's web site in order to apply. how much are you really saving during these much hyped holiday sales? >> is it really worth it to battle the crowds? coming up 8 on your side digs into some what some experts are calling black friday's dirty little secret.

hospital on vacation. but it happens more often than you think. we've got tips on how to be prepared. . it started out chilly this morning 29 degrees in brooksville and frost in some of the more than spots. we'll showly make it mile here actually fairly quickly. not as chilly as this moral we'll talk about the forecast warm up for the weekend coming

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. ix. >>don't stop taking brilinta 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.

astra zeneca may be able to help. if you're heading off on vacation the last thing you want to think about is some sort of medical emergency. but a new survey finds a

sure you are prepared. experts advise you take important medical info with you like a list of allergies prescriptions and recent x- rays. be sure to refill all prescriptions before the trip and don't try to power through if you don't feel well. no matter how delicious thanksgiving dinner is, don't over do it. >> people who do the excesses and have maybe gastric problems because of over eating or beginning to have vomiting and diarrhea issues because of the different types of foods they >> kind of a downer isn't it. one more tip if you are sick before you leave and you wouldn't go to work that day, then you should probably stay home from vacation as well. tonight the top 11 singers on the voice take the stage for a two hour live show and the season goes on. the stakes are getting higher as is the production value. tonight you're going see more staging lights and more fan fare. the remaining 11 artists are expected to take risks with

shot to continue. the voice live starts at 8:00 tonight right here on news channel 8 followed by timeless at 10:00 then stick around for news channel 8 at 11:00. . black friday big sales are almost here for the holidays but there are times when a sale isn't really a sale. the wall street journal once called it the dirty little secret of black friday. on your side's jeff patterson is here with helpful information so you know when a sale is a bargain. hey jeff. >>reporter: good evening jen. you know for some people black friday is a big tradition. come to the mall, look for a big bargain, but some stores emphasizing some stores may be playing games with those deep discounts. is ready set shop. at wal-mart and other retailers they are offering big sales on black friday. >> every department in the store will have something in the ad that actually will be cheaper than buying it

stores that big deal may be a mirage. nerd wallet.com has studied black friday pricing, and found some retailers increase prices before sales to make their discounts look bigger. >> i think people know that retailers play tricks sometimes. >>reporter: wal-mart maintains they don't do that. >> at wal-mart we actually have a baseline on everything like that. so our prices are true savings on the items. >>reporter: but some retailers have faced fines for price fixing. others skirt the letter of law by his than g an original price or comparable price that dome doesn't really exist. >> i think these kind of pricing tricks still per sift so it's something that consumers need to be wear of. >>reporter: here's how you can fight back as a consumer. the web site's camel camel camel and slick deals.com track pricing on a wide variety of items. they will even give you a chart with a price history. that way you know before you shop what's a true sail and

a simple google search. you'll often see the same product selling at several different stores, but each store has a slightly different price a slightly different original price. >>reporter: good rule of thumb is do your homework before you shop so you don't buy more than you bargained on jen. >> buyer beware i guess. we have seen some pretty big discounts on electronics and tvs for those black friday deals. those are still deals aren't a number of web sites and a lot of these helping web sites list tvs and electronics are big deals but again do your homework black female you shop soap you know what the regular price is and what the sale price can be. >> jeff patterson listen for us tonight thanks jeff. early very dry atmosphere

look fairly dry. by wednesday can't rule out a sprinkle possibly some of the inland areas right now max defender 8 we are expecting dry conditions to hold with us throughout the rest of the evening hours. so plan on that. 60 degrees at st. pete beach lows down cesar after sunset you saw the view from john's live shot. what a gorgeous view in sarasota. hyundai new port richey breeze not much. 59 degrees overnight temperatures could be ten degrees below normal. famous taste in brandon look how clear that sky is 61 degrees our current temp. the relative humidity at the surface relative to saturation which is a hundred percent obviously saturated atmosphere. 27% here at freedom plaza so again we're looking agent very dry conditions for the rest of the evening 61 degrees. finally in lakeland same story as well. 62 degrees with that northwest wind. so our count down 3 days to thanksgiving. hard to believe. it's coming up so quickly.

winter and 34 days to christmas. this year did go quite fast. november rainfall not much the way to sum it all up. if we look at the total for november .01 inches. big downpour there on that wednesday. letter carrier toy drive coming up. this is exciting on december 3rd someone sent us a picture as a thighs reminder. this is what you leave a new unwrapped toy folks from toys for tots will pick this up. this is picks up a lot of their toys for the season. so thanks tagetes he for reminding us december 3rd, letter carrier day new unwrapped toy out for the postman. 48 degrees at 7:00 a.m., 75 degrees at 4:00 p.m. lots of sunshine but chilly this evening. certainly if you're going to be out definitely a jacket. 63 degrees at tampa international. now keep in mind temps falling after sunset the sun has already set. even cooler in st. pete dew

wachee. 63 degrees st. pete. also out in frostproof. 63 wimauma. 68 sarasota. around the rest of the country. not too bad we've been talking about snow and there has been some across the upper midwest the great lakes and now the northeast. but the temperatures outrage usly cool st. louis 478. 64 los angeles. 52 in seattle. the airport delays appear to be laguardia and new york city. thanks to the snow and busy travel season. we didn't see anywhere else around few rain showers out west but other than wise snow showers across the northeast. this has been problematic especially for the western sections of new york. probably some lake effect going on with scattered snow showers in sections of new england otto believe it or not atlantic hurricane season still after it. could potentially become a category one hurricane way down in the southern portion of the caribbean. the waters are much warmer down here. so tropical system is not impossible to form.

chilly. forecast low 48 degrees a little over 10 degrees below our average. then you can see by wednesday we're right back to our average of 59 for a low wednesday morning. few clouds in for wednesday as well. then for thanksgiving just a nice warm day temperatures above normal. 81 degrees for a high temperature. they are making a run for it they don't have many days left. nowhere to hide. nowhere to run to where are they going to go? >> in our bellies. >> eventually sure yeah. >> thank you steve. raging river this morning. >> coming up next the dramatic rescue was caught on camera as four people were nearly swept away. >> remember you can join jenn holloway julie flip phils lips and me every night from 8:00 to 9:00. >> . ahead tonight we'll have late word on a story breaking a massive earthquake in japan near the site of the 2011 nuclear disaster. why black friday may soon be s

old who just made college football history when we see

to what's making headlines across america. four children are dead after a house fire in indiana. we're told a gut who tried to rescue the children suffered

hospital burn unit. a police officer who also responded had less serious injuries. the children's mother was also hurt. four people had to be rescued from a rushing river in los angeles this morning look at this. you can see the rescuers in a raft at the time they areed with rope. they get the stranded people into the raft and are able to take them to safety. another dramatic rescue off the shore of new this 72 boat started taking on water you see it's sinking in pretty choppy seas they were able to get all 6 people onboard to safety. nsa is facing an audit as two senior officials call for dismissal of the man charge. pentagon is looking into the agency's effectiveness. u.s. defense secretary and director of national intelligence have asked president obama to determine nature admirable michael rogers. michigan truck driver is lucky to be alive after the tanker

flames. it happened when the truck rolled as the driver took an exit ramp too quickly. three people pulled the man to safety after he was he jerked from the cab of the truck and the fire broke up. the tanker itself was reduced to nothing the driver is okay. news channel 8 at 6:00 is congress up next. >> stacie and keith are here with what we're working on. >> more violence against police. >> tonight a families. charles condeck, jr. opens up after losing his son. >> how much damage this guy is accused of doing in a matter of minutes. . >> two people are behind bars after a girl is found in these woods badly beaten and crying for help. hear from the man who helped save her life. if this dot project wraps up by july the contractor gets an extra $5 million that you

. saved from situation. how the man who found an abused victim in the woods helped save her life. >> connected by grief. a message from the father of a fallen hero to other families sharing the same heartbreak. >> plus should taxpayers shell out more to speed up construction crews? mark's on it because you paid for it. good evening i'm stacie schaible. >> i'm

news channel 78. a teenager who almost didn't make it. >>reporter: that's right she made it about a mile from her home before collapsing. thankfully someone heard her cries. >> she said can you help me. that's what i remember her saying can you help me. >>reporter: cries for help. at first michael thought it was a joke until he got closer. >> she was laying in the bushes tangled up. >>reporter: in the woods across from his house lay a small tell. >> she got stabbed by something and her feet are all messed up she has no shoes on she's really dirty. she said she can't go back to where she came from. >>reporter: chris and melissa peters are behind bars accused of some of the worst abuse and neglect inside this home in dundee. >> it has shaken our most experienced detectives to the soul. >>reporter: according to court