bridge all the way through downtown. you have multiple small accidents to blame for this tonight. so you want to avoid this area if at all possible. also tonight, college football crowns a champion. now we're counting down to the next college football championship game. city leaders here are already hard at work. >> raymond james stadium will be the site of the big game. even if you don't plan on attending the game, having a game in town means upgrades to the sitly. >> it sure does. rodney joins us live from the stadium to tell us how it benefits more than just football fans. >> reporter: jamison, the city tells me that next year's college championship game will be on par with the super bowl. meaning there will be plenty of work to get the city ready. believe it or not, you do not have to be a sports fan to reap the benefits. fans who pack university of

arizona monday night were treat today a classic. among those in attendance, a delegation of 30 from tampa getting down to work, prepping for next year's event. >> all of downtown will have activity. but our vision is to build it around the river walk. >> reporter: a board member with the tampa sports commission says the group wanted to do last-minute research, meeting with city leaders in glendale as well as members of the college football championship committee, ensuring they have the information to put on a good show for visitors next year. >> you have to take a look at what they do. talk with their event planners and organizers about what has gone well and maybe what we could improve upon. >> reporter: the city of tampa has been undergoing prep for months. >> we plan in advance. the republican convention, we worked on that for a year and a half prior to the event. >> reporter: in tampa, we will

the stadium will undergo a renovation with major upgrades planned before the big game. around town the emphasis is will be on the urban parks. many parks will be used as event spaces for game-related activities. >> rehave a very experienced team. from start to finish, whether that is the planning all the way to the guys in solid waste after the event, make sure that everything is put back together like it was before. >> reporter: all of the prep work and effort to shine a positive light on the city. and if you want to mark your calendars now, the game will be held monday, january 9th of 2017. now, starting next month, the college playoff committee will actually be holding a series of meetings in the tampa area. they will be visiting once a month until the championship game. as you can imagine, there is plenty of work to be done before game night. reporting live outside raymond james stadium, abc action news. >> thank you, rodney.

their push for raising the minimum wage across the state. today community members and local leaders gathered in st. pete demanding that the state expand access to affordable health care. supporters are asking for $15 an hour. critics say that's too much for a fast food worker. but one man says they would think differently if the shoe was on the other foot. >> i would say put yourself in their shoes when they're not able to feed their families or pay their rent and they work 40 hours a week. it should be a livable wage so they can succeed as well. >> the group says raising wages will boost local families and create a better economy. governor rick scott focuses on job creation in florida. he is asking for a billion dollars in tax cut incentives for businesses. what this means for people

>> reporter: the gong is getting plenty of action the blue gray logistics. they handle shipping across the country and they are growing. >> it runs the gamut. we have positions from sales to customer service to franchise support. >> reporter: they have gone from less than 40 employees to 185 and they plan to add another 100 in the next couple of years. officials credit the florida tax incentives with making growth possible. >> we have seen a definite improvement over the last ten years i think in the state in terms of the overall workforce. and the incentives that the county and state provide are helpful. >> many of you know that my favorite three topics are jobs, jobs, and more jobs. >> reporter: in tallahassee today, governor rick scott says that florida has seen a million

he wants to keep cutting taxes to keep that going. >> with state revenues we have the opportunity to diversify the economy and help our small businesses grow by cutting taxes by $1 billion. [applause] >> reporter: tampa mayor buckhorn was at the capitol today and among those supporting the 250 million enterprise florida fund for businesses to relocate or expand in the sunshine state. eric waxler, abc action news. now the most accurate weather team in florida. abc action weather. >> how are you doing, everybody? we had a frosty start to the area across sumter county. we think there will be another very chilly start with the chance of some frost up north.

cloud cover out in the gulf will roll in overnight. maybe bump temperatures up a bit compared to this morning, which was 33 in brooksville and 34 at crystal river. and 40s across the rest of the area. the cloud cover will not bring us rain. but it will by friday. the chance of strong maybe one or two severe storms in the forecast by friday. not right now. clouds will build. that will blanket out the temperatures a bit. not allowing them to drop too close to freezing for most of the area. we will give you a closer look at that coming up in a couple of minutes. >> thank you, dennis. clay allred was expelled after pleading guilty for threatening a gas station clerk and shooting a gun in the air. the college was urged to

to ptsd. they replied saying expulsion is permanent. he can appeal within the next ten days. happening right now the hillsborough county school board is making a move to ease serious school overcrowding in the southern parts of the county. they are approving a massive expansion of east bay high school, adding an extra 20 classrooms, providing space for 500 more students. district leaders are also approving funding for brand-new elementary school near the triple creek subdivision. the new school will relief pressure on surrounding elementary schools. both projects will be ready by the 2017-2018 school year. a new attempt to recover e- mails from hillary clinton is now dead. a federal judge tossed out the effort to force the federal government to get the e-mails. conservative groups are demanding that the government sue clinton and obtain the e- mails sent to her personal account. the judge calls the issue moot and says agencies have already

right now investigators in south florida are trying to figure out what caused seven shelves to collapse at a party city store with customers inside. three people suffered minor injuries. firefighters along with a police dog combed the scene for other hazards. the company want to provide a safe environment for customers and are investigating the incident. a man on board this plane was charged with being unruly. other riders say they heard a woman scream and they saw the man get physical with the flight attendant. >> he shoved her. somebody come here. somebody -- somebody help. >> you see that he was arguing with people. he was using bad language. and then the steward came and he was rude to him. >> the man ran to the back of

a sky marshall was able to detain him until the plane landed in miami. passengers also saw a bottle of liquor fall out of the man's pocket. he is now in jail. you can now fly from the bay area to new orleans for as low as $39 each way. it starts june 3rd. with the new flights they will operate 50 routes into st. pete clearwater. well, still ahead, a woman in labor left on the side of the road. >> that's right. the reason an uber driver denied her service and charged mace. the reason that more fans are with weapons. 2015, one of the deadliest years ever for bicyclists and pedestrians on tampa bay area roads. the efforts underway right now

>> welcome back. security telling us that they have seen an increase in weapons since the terrorist

surprising things that people try to get past security at lightning games. >> mary, what are we looking athe here. >> we're looking at a collection of items that we have discovered in our search coming in to any event in the building. >> reporter: all of this is from the past year. >> we're averaging about 20 knives per game. >> reporter: mary has been working at the arena for 16 years. she heads up security and says recent terrorist attacks have more people bringing guns to the arena that are not allowed, even for off-duty law enforcement. >> so since paris, you have been seeing an increase. >> reporter: absolutely. more than a dozen guns were spotted by check point screeners. an additional 12 games have been discovered at lightning games since december. >> since paris, people are concerned for their safety. and you're seeing more and more

personally. >> reporter: since september at lightning games, security confiscated more than 500 knives. >> we're seeing a plethora of knives. knives in every shape, capacity. >> reporter: including clandestine knives like this one. >> it fits in your wallet like a credit card. >> reporter: but when it is folded, it becomes a knife. screeners have seized 200 canisters of pepper spray. >> we're seeing tin cats or a new version of brass knuckles. >> reporter: since the paris attack, mary beefed up security and law enforcement throughout the building. more bags are being searched at entrance metal detectors. >> everybody goes through a check point here. >> yes. no matter what the event is, we always search. >> reporter: some of the other security measures you won't

the office is strategically placed near the loading dock so they can see what vendors are doing and who is coming in. they are monitoring vehicles and even the media more closely. mary is constantly making adjustments behind the scenes. >> because at the end of the day, we all want to go home and enjoy our families and enjoy living in this great community. >> reporter: we're posting all items that are not allowed on abcactionnews.com. i'm investigator jared holbrook, taking action for you. >> well, uber is facing criticism tonight after a driver refused to service a woman in labor. now, according to fortune magazine, the new york city driver told the woman's driver she couldn't get into the car because she threw up on the sidewalk. the driver ended up charges the couple $13 for lost time. uber eventually refunded the money and sent another car to take her to the hospital. now the issue of public

uber after a disabled passenger sued the company and the competitor lift for denying service to those with wheelchairs and service dogs. new tonight, health officials are warning about a mosquito-born virus that just hit texas and it's not west nile. it has been confirmed in the houston area. latin america, southeast america and africa have all reported cases. symptoms of the virus including fever rash, joint pain that usually lasts several weeks. officials say the virus was discovered in a woman who recently traveled to el salvador. a federal panel finalizes new guidelines on when women should get mammograms but they clash with other groups. take a look at the comparison. the breast cancer screening is recommended for women ages 50 to 74 every two years. others say athey should start in the 40sand do them every

the groups will meet later this month to try to find a consensus. researchers are calling on volunteers for a ground- breaking alzheimer's study. they need people 65 years and older with a family history of the disease. the initial screening process is five days of memory test and a brain scan. if you qualify, you will test a new drug that could prevent memory loss. >> for me, i'm more afraid of the disease slipping up on me than i am finding out. >> if you qualify, you will be compensated for your time, not to mention the free medical care. now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> well, dennis, we had to bundle up with the scarves and the jackets. >> yeah. frost up north. we will see more tomorrow. then we have to worry about storms on friday. the weather will be changing.

but in florida you usually see this, a beautiful sunset even with the clouds out there. a great shot out there off of the island. temperatures started off in the low to mid 30s. we rebounded if you can call this rebounding. upper 50s to lower 60s right now. typically we should top out at about 70 this time of year. it seems like we're 10 degrees above normal or 10 degrees below normal. the winds are still an issue. they have been gusting out of the northwest at 10 to 15 miles per hour across much of the area. over the next several days, we will see a little bit of everything, including the possibility of a bit of severe weather on friday. although i do believe those chances may not be as high as this time yesterday. wow. look how dry the air is. the dew point, 21. the humidity 21%. it's about as dry as you will ever see our area this time of night.

dew point of 21 at 5:30. we hit 67 today. normally 70. this time last year we were at 76 though. and the record is 83. this morning we dropped down to 45 degrees. and normally quite a bit warmer than that. st. pete, 61 and mostly sunny. the dew point 25. in sarasota, also skies are clear. 62. dew point 38. the winds out of the north at 6 miles per hour. all right. satellite picture. beautiful day. clear skies. northerly drain. we had that this morning which is one of the main reasons we had the frost. now, you can begin to see a little bit of cloud cover coming in from the gulf. this is something that we have been talking about for weeks. with an el nino situation like it is, everything seems to move fast. it's almost like the weather patterns are going downhill. so what is in the western gulf one day is quickly in the eastern gulf the next. it usually takes longer for that to happen. the reason i say that is because there's cloud cover out in the western gulf and the

showing the cloud cover rolling in tomorrow. remember how low the dew point is, how dry the air is. that's why it doesn't concern me too much that the models are showing sprinkles tomorrow. i don't think the atmosphere can juice itself up enough for a shower tomorrow. but i think we do begin to see clouds. at 11:00 tonight, we will see if the models differ on that, if there's a chance of an isolated sprinkle. tomorrow it will be cloudier than today. high clouds. not overcast. the kind that can give you a ring around the sun. then the cloud cover continues on thursday. then it thickens a bit. when it does, our rain chances return on friday. now, with that, yes, there's an isolated thunderstorm or even the possibility of severe weather out of it. we will have to pinpoint the timing. too early but friday morning into the early afternoon if it happens.

this is significantly higher than what you would expect with a frost. i am bumping up the temps a bit in the northern counties. officially the weather service has the frost advisory in effect for the northern counties. mid 40s across the rest of the area. 50 closer to the coast. moderate chop in the bay. gulf temperature 67 degrees. there's your upcoming tides. your sunrise and sunset. florida's most accurate 7-day forecast. clouds thicken tomorrow. more clouds than sunday on thursday. friday, rain showers and potentially stronger storms. we clear out on saturday. then another chance of rain on sunday. and next week, we cool off again. so the fast-moving weather pattern continues. still ahead, a muslim community is asking the fbi to step in after someone hacked their website. next at 5:30, the reason that hackers are sending the wrong message about terrorism.

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>> tonight police in one illinois city are looking into a website that has the muslim community on alert. >> this is the islamic center's actual website. this is a fake one. a closer look reveals disturbing topics. a child holding a weapon and what looks like an isis flag. they are asking the fbi for help. >> we want to try to put these radical images through this fake impersonation meant to hurt the community and the center. >> the fake site praises the

bernardino attacks and also calls wheaton college administrators crusaders. and now here is wendy ryan with a look at what is coming up at 6:00. >> a new warning for all of the powerball hopefuls out there. the scam now preying on your dreams and the warning signs to look for so you don't get fooled. more and more cars are crashing into each other at this intersection. coming up, why the spike in accidents. plus, what the county is willing to do about it. a deadly year for pedestrians and cyclists. the most common mistake you're probably making that might save your life. he came to deliver bacon. but the head lock he handed out instead may have saved lives.

>> live from the station taking action for you. this is abc action news. >> there would be several people alive today if they looked at it years ago. >> a dangerous intersection. a man warned pasco county leaders for years but nothing was ever done. tonight the major change to affect families coming just as we started asking questions. first we're closely monitoring a traffic alert on 275. this is the backup heading