impacts its casinos not just in statement. coming. jobs. >> reporter: 3700 jobs hinge on >> these particular individuals, people that are buying houses and cars and children in school do not know where they stand. and i take that responsibility very seriously. >> reporter: the table games in october. and the tribe ignored the state's request to stop the card games. in addition, the tribe even filed a federal lawsuit claiming bad faith negotiations by the state. the tribe's gaming ceo says allowing the games will also create 15,000 more jobs by investing 1.8 billion dollars in tourism in tampa and hollywood, florida. >> i think they should leave them. a lot of people play them. that's why they come. >> reporter: senators asked questions about how much the state would get and what it means for other casinos. if jobs are not the line,

>> don't make any bills that people are going to lose jobs. >> reporter: and of course there are ai lot of other terms in the contract that lawmakers took issue with today. this was just the first of several hearings that the senate will be listening to within the coming weeks. of course we will continue to follow this bill as the legislative session continues and we will keep you updated. >> thank you, sarah. a retired tampa police detective in the fight of his life right now landing in tampa for emergency cancer treatments. >> jose's family desperately raising $30,000 to fly him from puerto rico to tampa bay in an air ambulance. we told you about this on monday. michael paluska is live at tampa's executive airport where they just landed. michael. >> reporter: laura and wendy, this is a great day for the family. they have been trying to get

they had to raise $30,000. they did that in the past three days from a go fund me account. here. he is going to be transferred from the brans to the cancer at that point he will start to get assessed for the gastric he was diagnosed in october. there are pictures of him that you might see on the screen from some of the things that he officer. these are pictures of him doing drug busts, going through and hanging out with family. a very adventurous man with a great spirit. he has lost close to 100 pounds according to his nephew who spear headed this effort to get the money raised. hopefully he can get better treatment than he was receiving in port rick e he just flew in from puerto rico. he is now and will go to the cancer center. tampa general will take him as

taken care of. we will have more tonight at 11:00. we are live at the international airport, michael paluska, abc action news. >> thank you, michael. a man is facing eviction from his mobile home park because he refuses to remove this religious sign from his van. why he may have no choice in the fight to save his home. >> we were actually in siberia. >> reporter: this former missionary has solved problems all over the world. now michael's biggest battle is here at home. >> allow me to have the right to believe. >> reporter: community managers may force him out because he refuses to remove these words from his van. his mobile home park is enforcing new rules, not allowing temporary signage to be displayed. michael uses his van to provide food to the hungry and homeless. >> there's flour and aloe. >> reporter: he gets calls for help every week because people

he got a phone call from a young hernia detective before our cameras started rolling. >> here is a young woman who has no place to turn to and she has to read the phone number off of the side of a van. leaders off camera. they don't have a problem with what the sign says but they don't like the way it looks. instead they want it to be professionally done. we spoke to an attorney who says that michael likely has little recourse since he doesn't own the land. >> everybody reads my signs. it is totally different. >> reporter: for now he has no plans to leave until force touchdown. lauren rozyla, abc action news. >> now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> how are you doing, everybody? this morning the coldest morning of the season for some folks. upper 20s across the northern counties. no rain to speak of. and temperatures have slowly warmed back up into the 60s.

low 70s this time of year. tomorrow, i this i with he get back there as we see temperatures about where we should be in the lower 70s for afternoon highs. tonight, skies will be partly cloudy to clear. but the winds will railroad coming -- are already coming around. we will see temperatures warmer tomorrow morning. don't get me wrong. we're not talking freezing. with temperatures downtown expected to dip into the upper 0s. low to mid-40s up north. no threat of a freeze tonight. but by the weekend, it's back. we will talk about that weekend forecast coming up in a couple of minutes. developing right now, a professor at kent state university in ohio is under fbi investigation for potential ties to isis. abc's kenneth motin has the latest from washington tonight. >> reporter: kent state university assistance professor under investigation for

the fbi probe came to light after the editor of the student newspaper broke the story. federal agents interviewed her as part of their investigation into the professor. >> i had written a couple of articles about the professor a couple semesters ago. they wanted to try to get more information on him. >> reporter: the school newspaper posted the interview online. he denies supporting the terror group. >> i have not broken the last i don't advocate that anybody breaks the last i haven't been served any papers. >> reporter: a convert to islam has not been charged with a crime. in october 2011, he made headlines after shouting death to israel at a public lecture given by a former israeli diplomat visiting the campus. >> everything that i have done is perfectly legal. i fulfilled my duties as an american citizen on issues that some people find controversial.

cooperating with the ongoing investigation. and the fbi has assured the school there is no threat to campus. kenneth motin, abc news, washington. >> the u.s. attorney general is defending president obama's latest move to tackle gun violence. today loretta lynch testified at a senate appropriations hearing. earlier this month, the president put new gun control policies in place and providing more funding for the fbi and the atf. republicans have called into the legality of the orders say they will do little to curb gun violence. the topic of guns and mass shootings has local companies taking action to keep and you your family members safe. today almost 50 bay area businesses attended a free active shooter seminar at the s2 institute which is a security training facility in the area. representatives from freedom

even the church of scientology were there. teaching them how to run, hide and fight. it has business owners thinking about safety strategies in a new way. >> maybe hardening entrances that are already under security cameras and secured access into certain areas. i think it's best that everyone in the office knows what to do. >> now, every business owner left the seminar with a checklist for their employees who weren't there so they too know how to prepare. a bay area food truck is missing some cash. and they need your help to catch the guy responsible. take a look here. deputies hope someone recognizing this man. he is accused of breaking into a food track in tampa and stealing cash. there he is there. it happened early monday morning. hillsborough county deputies saying he is in his mid 30s about five-eight with full facial hair.

call crime stoppers. 19-year-old de shawn montreal jones is facing charges in a 2015 home invasion. deputies say jones and another suspect shot off a man's finger in front of the victim's infant son. jones is charged with burglary and robbery with a firearm. authorities have not arrested the second suspect in the robbery. next at 5:30, sarah palin hits the campaign trail. the one thing she is bringing to donald trump's campaign that no one else has. two unsolved murders, six years apart, now closed. the connection between the two and the long-awaited relief for

>> with less than two weeks to go before iowa's caucuses, candidates are pulling out all of the stops. in some cases letting their message. >> reporter: donald trump back on the trail solo after his big

the white house or bust for him. >> even if i won the nomination and didn't win, i would consider that a major loss. >> reporter: the former alaska governor later joined trump in oklahoma. >> are you all ready to work to make america great again. >> reporter: political analysts call the endorsement extremely valuable. >> sarah palin is more popular than any republican candidate running for president right now. >> reporter: on the democratic side, bernie sanders with a nearly 30-point lead over hillary clinton in new hampshire. and another shocker, 91% of new hampshire democrats view sanders favorable. for clinton, just 65%. the vermont senator is within striking distance in iowa. >> i believe we have the momentum. and i think we stand a good chance to win in both states.

there is a real possibility we could lose those contests. >> the real issue is who can win the election, who is prepared to do the job. >> reporter: clinton urged supporters not to worry. he always knew the race would be competitive. abc news, washington. >> pet owners in highland county could soon face penalties if they don't get pets vaccinated and registered. it was approved 4-1 last night. each new code specifies a $50 fine for pet owners for first offenses. $500 for every violation after the third offense. i want you to take a look at this. marijuana plants as far as the

and it's all legal and approved by the government in chile. it opened on monday to serve 4,000 patients across the country. it is the largest in latin america. organizers hope to harvest 3,000 pounds of marijuana between march and may, all of it under the supervision of the government. when it comes to the shape of the kit kat chocolate bar, courts say give me a break. nestle. bar. they have failed to trademark the shape in the u.k. since 1935. so this morning you were complaining about the cold temperatures. take a look at that.

people in iowa an awesome site along lake erie. this photograph was snapped off of the peer. arctic air is blowing across lake erie that hasn't frozen over just yet. >> when the wind comes through, the waves get big and splashes up into the air, which then coats these wonderful light posts that we have and we get these nice ice sculptures. >> and when the wind changes direction, so do these cool designs. also icing over. geese that didn't fly southeast enough. a number of areas on the shore are closed due to concerns of falling ice. now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> okay. i used to live in cleveland, born and raised there. that can be pretty but it is really cold there. >> yeah. and remember how warm december was. >> yes. >> the warmest decembers ever. >> yeah.

massive blizzard in the mid- atlantic this weekend. two, three feet of snow. all of the ice. beautiful sunset right there. in spite of all of the chilly temperatures for our area. i know there are a lot of snow bird that's are mocking us saying, it's not that cold. you know what, when we dip into the 20s, it's cold. we dipped into the 20s and 30s this morning. you can see as far south as mulberry, there was frost this morning. there was a lot of frost from citrus and hernando and pasco counties. that has ended. for now. saturday night in sunday and again on monday, winter weather will return. this is that roller coaster of el nino that we will be riding for a couple of months. titan doppler radar is rain free with temperatures in the low to mid 60s. we didn't hit 70, 71 which is about right for this time of year. tomorrow we will.

by friday morning. checking in at partly cloudy and 62 degrees. so you have to figure if the wind is coming in from the south as opposed to the north, the temperatures will warm up a little bit. they have. still below normal. year. the record high a balmy 85 back st. pete right now checking in the winds are calm. the dew point 42. forecast. when you start seeing winds out of the east and eventually out of the south, those temperatures are going to rise. tomorrow night. satellite picture, we had clear we had calm winds. and everything set up informer that frost to dip all the way down into south central hillsborough county. that won't be an issue tomorrow

coming out of the east and south. not nearly as cold. yes, it's still going to be chilly. you will need the sweatshirt and the jacket tomorrow. most folks in the 40s. but you won't have to worry about scraping the windshields like early this morning. then by thursday evening, then all of a sudden we start to see clouds roll in. friday morning, it's going to rain. now, the question is just how much and is there a severe threat. well, there's a slight threat of a couple of severe storms. at this point not nearly as active as what we had fortunately on saturday night into sunday. but you still have a front coming in. it's still el nino. so you have to at least throw in the possibility of a couple of stronger storms. once it's gone by friday afternoon, we're good to go. and then temperatures drop. and they keep on dropping saturday, saturday night and into sunday. but it could be worse. you could be in the mid- atlantic right now. if you're considering going to d.c., baltimore or philly on friday or saturday, forget about it.

they're going to get a couple of feet of snow. maybe more. probably top five overall snowfall totals for one particular storm coming up this weekend in the d.c. and baltimore area. this will not be a rain event. it will be snow. for us, it will be rain that gets colder behind the front this weekend. for the boaters southeast winds at 5 to 10 knots. light chop out on the bay. the water temperature is 64 degrees. sunrise 7:22. sunset one minute after 6:00. a nice day tomorrow. then the rains roll in by later on thursday night into friday. looking at our 7-day. rain chances a solid 70% on friday. and then by friday afternoon, it's over. for the kids parade on saturday, you're going to want to bundle them up. they will need the woollies. it will be in the 50s.

wendy is shaking her head racquel. a good chance of a freeze both >> yeah. long. next at 5:30, a hernando county man is behind bars for resisting arrest. what he did before being put in line. a hollywood actress wants to cancel black history month.

>> welcome back. a hernando county man is facing charges tonight accused of exposing himself to an officer.

did next that really crossed the line. according to reports, he urinated on a deputy while resisting arrest. investigators were responding to a call about a suspicious person standing outside of a house with both his hands in his pants. when deputies afrothed him, he refused to put his hands behind his back. so the deputy tried to subdue him. during that process, he urinated on the officer. he will be back in court next month. well, clueless actress stacie dash wants to do away with black history month. >> yeah. the 49-year-old woman trending comments she made during a cable news interview. she says there should be no month recognizing black history because there's no white history month. dash also suggests getting rid of channels like bet and dumping the bet awards and the naacp image awards saying they

her comments today adding to the nationwide debate over the lack of diversity at the oscar awards. this year no black actors or actresses are nominated. here is a look at what is happening at 6:00. >> soon thousands will pack tampa for the festivities. the one thing that police do not want to see this year. the family of this murder victim waited eight long years for justice they finally got it. how investigators cracked two unsolved murders on the same day. payday never came. coming up, how a local program

>> live from the station taking action for you. this is abc action news. >> gearing up for the parade. the biggest event of the year. now at 6:00, the one difference in security that you will see this year. i'm laura harris in for jamison. >> and i'm wendy ryan. thanks for joining yous. paris and san bernardino, two cities with terrorist attacks that have people thinking about their safety. an uptick in weapons since the attacks. with the children's parade this weekend, we're finding out what police are doing to protect your family.

it is the third largest parade