. good evening i'm jen holloway. >> i'm keith cate thank you for joining us. tonight we have lost one of our favorite tv moms. >> florence helped son she has passed way at the age of 82.

work going far beyond carroll brady. >>reporter: to her family friends and countless fans around the world florence henderson was by all accounts a lovely laid she was already a star of broadway and tv when she landed the role that played her american cultural icon. carroll brady upbeat mother to 6 children in a blended family. the brady bunch aired for just 5 seasons but reruns spin offs and specials. s her big tv break came in 1959 on nbc's today show when she was hired as the first ever today girl doing weather reports and feature stories. henderson was also the first woman ever to guest host the tonight show before jonny carson took over. in a recent tv interview she credited hard work for her success. >> 99% sweat, determination and 1% talent.

have the talent you have to be willing to work and pay your duce. >>reporter: bare williams who played greg brady honored his co-star and friend. >> there's so many things i respected about her i loved the way she treated people. she treated people very respectfully. she was very respectful of her fans. >>reporter: as news news of her death spread across los angeles from the brady's tv home to her star on the hollywood walk honoring her life and impact on theirs. florence henderson was 82. nbc news new york. >> it looks like the votes will be recounted in three states critical to donald trump's electoral win. jillstein has raised nearly $5 million to pay for recounts in wisconsin, pennsylvania and michigan all states where donald trump won by small margins. today a green party official said it would meet today's 5:00

recount count in wisconsin. stein believes voting systems may have been hack. president-elect donald trump has filled two more positions in his administration. trump has selected kathleen k. t. mcfarland to serve as national security advisor. she has also served nixon ford and reagan administrations. trump's transition team also announced that campaign attorney donald mcgann will serve as white house killed in syria. u.s. officials say the service member was killed by an improvised explosive device. this happened apparently north of the city of raqqa which isis considers to be its capital. operations to retake the city are planned and should start very soon. as many as 300 service members are currently operating in syria.

looked like a war zone. this chaos was captured on cell phone video from the upper level of the mall in a safe place. but as you can see people were punching and kicking and just simply going at it. it's still not exactly clear what sparked this chaos but eventsly mall security broke up the fight. l. it started with a text that went to a wrong person text included an invitation to thanksgiving dinner. turns out though having a stranger over for turkey day is no problem. check out the guest showed up. >> oh, yeah. perfect. >>reporter: a bird in the oven, guests arriving from out of town. it's the family social event of the year. but this year thanks to social media the table i set for a thanksgiving unlike any other. her big family growing by one more thanks to a text message

that grandma wanda decided to extend to jamaal hinton anyway. >> this is our home and let's go do some eating. >>reporter: a simple gesture that gave everyone the feels and won over the internet. #can i get a plate. #everybody's grandma. #. >> grandma's the goat. >>reporter: no one's more thankful than these two thank full for a lesson in kindness. >> she welcomed me into her of a person she is. >> it's come from god above that he's using us as tools and vessels to bring a message to others. >>reporter: two strangers that made the world smile with their selfie, now standing together smiling over a friendship that's sure to last a lifetime. >> what a great story. >> next year another thanksgiving get together i bet. the toys you put under the tree this year could possibly make

recommendation for toys that will simulate their minds without breaking your budget. stay with us. >> high temperature today 83 degrees. well above seasonal norms it does look to be a touch cooler for the weekend. we'll take a look at that full weekend forecast and we expect

the holidays are certainly a great time to quip the laboratories of our little scientists. thankfully their lot of toys on the market right now encouraging kids to pursue learning about stem science technology engineering and of course math. >> stem toys are all about

are the good news none will break your budget. >> this christmas wrote butts rule all. they give children of all ages hands on experience with robotics technology. tin can robot on amazon's top stem toys list for kids 8 and up is 13 bucks. you can get kids started programming early the 60-dollar fisher-price is a toy for kids as young as 3 and 50-dollar circuit board recommended by -- connects were you computer to anything conduct tough. >> you can create a banana piano. you can create a game controller. >>reporter: building sets combined helping nearing technology, math and art. also on amazon's top toys list

kids and up is $30. sets for younger kids boost fine motor skills and problem solving. science sets allow kids to construct engineer, explore, experiment also on amazon's list scientific explorer, my first mind blowing science kit. it's for children ages 6 and up and it's $10. mike scopes are a great idea. this one connects big screen exploration. it's bigger investment at $130. >> it's a great tool and it will grow along with the child. >>reporter: a few additional tips from anthony at mosi read product reviews learn how to use the toys and if you're overwhelmed visit a science center like mosi for a quick refresher. >> that's a thinker. that's stuff that makes you think right there.

that's embarrassing. i have actually gotten things. i don't know how to put this stuff together. >> meantime a teddy bear can make a bad situation a whole lot better. >> that's exactly the idea behind the rough you ride earth john winter teddy bear roundup. jeff patterson joins us live from tampa with more on this exciting event. >>reporter: good evening i am with my rough rider buddies and they are spending a lot of time december 19th collecting teddy bears that they take to people all year long none would be possible without the generosity of news channel 8 viewers. it's all about put a smile on a child's face and even sometimes a senior citizen. just about everybody loves a at the time teddy bear it's all volunteer effort by the rough riders to make it happen. >> we have a tremendous amount of commitees that collect these

>>reporter: tony is the teddy bear chairperson. he lights up when he handout a teddy bear. >> we take them from children's shelters to senior homes. we do anything that's asked of the community for us and we try to give them to anybody that needs a smile. >>reporter: fellow rough riders collect teddy bears on kind necessary day and pick them up from schools. the students at steinbrenner high school have bears over the years. making it possible to the rough riders to bring the bears to sic children in hospitals all over the bay area. >> we cover pretty much every hospital in the tampa bay area we go to st. pete we go down to bradenton. any hospital that invites us in we'll give them a bear. >>reporter: you know actually the students at gaither high school strawberry crest high school, a bunch of schools collecting teddy bears from children at avon park

to accept a brand new teddy bear. for a complete list of drop off locations you can go to wfla.com and find out where a drop off location is near you we're in a regions bank and there's lots of regions banks. we're trying to make it as easy as possible for you to donate a teddy bear. >> they are all waving at us. thanks jeff. >> you bears any time here at our news center but don't forget this year's kindness day is coming up in just a couple of weeks. our kindness day will be accepting teddy bears for the rough riders toy donations for toys for tots. food donations for feeding america and tampa bay. and blood donations for one blood. now again that's all coming up on our news channel 8 kindness day december 9th right here in the news center in downtown tampa. during the holiday season

chilly temperatures all of that can throw your regular work out routine for a loop. kim hundreder son shows us a few simple steps anybody can take to fit in holiday exercise time. >>reporter: sticking to our work out routines can be difficult over the holidays. here are some tips for staying active during the season. when you're out doing your shopping across a parking spot far from the advance and do a little extra walking before you begin. if you're shopping in a mall make one full lap around the mall befyo size and allow you to window shop before you make your press. if you are around small children take advantage of their energy. play with them, go for a walk, even chase them around the house. you'll be squeezing in some exercise and the kids will put you in holiday spirit. since they are around why not plan activities with your family go caroling or take a walk to check out holiday lights. be realistic sometimes people have trouble sticking with

intensive work out that's okay as long as you don't let it go too long. to today's health minute i'm kim hutcher son. . foes folks out shopping this afternoon it was an extremely warm day by november standards. your afternoon hyatt tampa international airport all the way to 83 degrees. that is 7 degrees above the average at 76 he we are starting to transition from to this weak la nina pattern we showed you this a few weeks ago. reminder typically as we start going towards december, january, february with la nina pattern we typically expect a warmer than average trend. that's what they are calling for friends a climate prediction center with polar jet stream to the north. temperatures here locally expected to be warmer than average over that three month stretch and it's been dry as of late and long term the outlook

sunshine state as when. no big surprise considering the pattern we've been stuck in as of late. we've actually had a couple of sprinkles throughout the afternoon actually forming in extreme eastern portions of polk county. northern portions of highlands county as well. they have been very, very small here and they are sort of fizzling out. rain chance is less than 10%. there's another rainer about that teddy bear roundup all in fact our forecast starting to fill up. we missed sunset at hula bay restaurant. 73 degrees in tampa. east winds. little bit of a stronger breeze on the area beaches looking from don cesar. this evening keeping it 72 mild. the bills still slightly above average not quite as warm today thanks to a frontal pa sank. patchy morning fog and stray

today the flamingos enjoying this nice friday beautiful start to the day. josh trip sending us that photo. gorgeous sunrise and sunset. 78 for machining dill 72 in palm harbor general mix of 70s. warm are for bartow and sarasota. both locations at the 80-degree mark. those dew pointss have been slowly coming up zoo the 60s for most areas. a little bit of an increase in that low level moisture. and with nearly calm winds we expect that mp point to come fairly close there will likely be areas of patchy dense fog nothing too widespread into tomorrow. overall the pattern still fairly dry. surface moisture increase but there is still a very large supply of mid and upper level dry air above us. so that's what's going to keep our rain chances at a bear minimum despite this cold front that slides in for saturday only about a 10% chance of

sets the stage for absolutely gorgeous day. whatever outdoor plans you have on sunday it's looking great if you don't have any outdoor plans i would suggest making some. 77 and sunshine those temperatures start rise big monday and tuesday. that will be ahead of our next cold front and that front looks to bring us a better chance of seeing some scattered rain here. so, may want to dust off those umbrellas. it's been so dry you may have forgotten where you placed your umbrellas. you may need them by wednesday and thursdayne thank you ed. some artists in ukraine have proven they have a whole different kind of key boarding skills. three it students control although deleted dozens of cokes. they escaped from their usual studies anding time around just to insert all of these keys

places. let's hope they can keep it capps locked up in case someone tries to break in. apple officials saw their hard work and decided to give the portrait a new home in california. have we hit every word on the keyboard? i think so. yeah. we've got them all. that's pretty impressive right there. >> good job. just climbing the stars stairs to the top of the skyscraper ace a pretty big chalng with keith tonight and julie no ed's going to be with us. cast of characters tonight. >> we'll be on great 38 for news channel 8 at 8:00. so join us tonight we'll see you there. . ahead on nightly news full coast-to-coast wrap up of black friday and why so much is banking on it. just how close did france come to another terror attack. we have frightening details of

time. if you're told you're allergic to penicillin will hold

. here's a look what's making headlines across america tonight. a california mother who was missing for most of the month

she's okay for the most part. sherry pa by any went missing while jogging this northern california on november 2nd. investigators believe she was held hostage yesterday her captors released her. and with her hands still bound she was able to flag down a passing car. there's no known motive yet but investigators are looking for two women in a dark suv. in philadelphia investigators say a 4-year-old shot a 2-year-old with a large cal burr gun. the boys were cousins they been playing together when the gun went off. the two-year-old was in critical condition at last report the parents are facing charges. authorities in new hampshire blame a drunk driver for killing a man who rask was trying to get list grill out of the road. the 72-year-old man was driving with his son near the main state line when their grill came out of the back of the pick up. they got out of the truck to get the grill then another driver came along and hit the plan. the driver faces a dui charge.

12 people in custody on suspicion of arson following massive wildfires sweeping across the counsel. the fires forced some 80,000 people out of their homes firefighters from several countries palestinian firefighters have been called to fight though flames. the fires of mostly under control but at least 700 homes have been damaged or destroyed. a man from france known as spiderman went for a climb today. he went right one of barcelona's tallest skyscrapers he did it without any kind of safety harnes. the 54-year-old made it to the top of the 38 story building using the paynes of glass. made it up and down just about an hour. >> boating mishap in pinellas

slammed into dock causing a big mess. plus. a young boy injured in a hit-and-run accident gets the surprise of a lifetime at one buc place. busy shopping holiday season is pong us and so are those thieves who will be lurking around the parking lot looking through your windows but there's a good thing

. it is a swashbuckling surprise. watch ace young boy injured in a hit-and-run accident is able to meet some local heros.

cops are. the extra effort to keep you safe. >> plus a holiday favorite is moving locations. where you can attend christmas lane this year. good evening i'm keith cate. >> i'm stacie schaible thank you for joining us. tonight tampa police are still trying to track down a hit and run driver who ran over a young boy and left him in a pool of blood. it happened off hannah avenue a couple of weeks ago. rod carter is live at tampa police h surprise for that young victim today. hi rod. >>reporter: i did check in with tpd today and they told me they don't have any new leads in this case. they are still trying to find the person who hit that 12-year- old. meanwhile that young man got out of the hospital on wednesday the day before thanksgiving very thankful he could be at home to eat some of grandma's cooking on thanksgiving day. today he got something else to