in the silver thorn community there. investigators tell us there is no danger to the community now. now to our other top stories. years of physical and sexual abuse but the survivors of the dozier school for boys is doing something that people never expected. they're for getting. >> that's right. carson chambers is explaining how this decision is happening. >> in this building behind us on the tampa campus the remains are being held until the state remains. in the meantime survivors are never before, forgiveness. >> i pray now and then and i prayed to god and i said take this out of my heart and rabelais it with forgiveness. >> reporter: bitterness isn't easily let go, especially when the beatings, the torture, the sleeping at night.

>> reporter: he is a white house boy, one of hundreds of grown mentortured inside this dungeon. men who fought for years to shed light on the dark truth but who are now reconciling. >> we were beaten, you know, molested and everything else in between. but most of the school didn't have anything to do it. >> reporter: lawmakers trying to reconcile the past too, moving legislation through first committees today to reassure -- reimbursing families for funeral costs. >> we must have a monument, something that people can go up to, read the names of the people or the boys that were there. >> reporter: former florida governor bob martinez also in tallahassee to show support for the legislation. >> it's something that the state needed to do. put some sunshine in the dark period of our history.

undo the past. but he feels that gestures like it help him and other survivors move forward. and forgiveness is giving him freedom. >> it is better to extend the hand than raise a fist. forgiveness is only for the strong. >> reporter: and the white house boys also say they want to see the remains being housed here at usf buried away from the property. live in tampa, i'm carson chambers, abc action news. tonight it's looking more doubtful that the mysterious disappearance of a clearwater woman will ever be solved. deputies confirming their only suspect in the case has died. cable vanished in december of 2013, 18 months later deputies named her then roommate, jerry gaskin a suspect in the case. deputies tore through the home they shared back in july looking for evidence but didn't find anything concrete. deputies now tell us that

the v.a. hospital from various health issues. student athletes and administrators in tampa defending their religious liberties saying their speech is being sensorred. cambridge christian school says they were denied the right to pray over the loud speaker before playing in the citrus bowl in orlando. they thought the state would grant their request because they were playing another christian school. now the players are asking for a formal apology from the florida high school athletic association within 30 days or they are threatening a federal lawsuit. >> when we were told we couldn't pray, we were just like why? >> in an e-mail to the school before the game, the state's athletic association said because the facility was paid for by public dollars, they could not grant permission. as we speak, clearwater parents are being asked to keep their children out of school for up to three weeks. this after a chicken pox

they have confirmed eight cases so far. if your children have not been vaccinated you need to keep them home. there are 38 cases of chicken pox reported in pinellas county during all of 2015. tonight a high speed ferry is inching closer to running routes across the bay. the final approval was given today. today they agreed to add the $350,000 price tag to the 2016 budget. the commission have already given their approval as well. if all is approved, the pilot program would run from october 2016 to april 2017. now the most accurate weather team in florida. abc action weather. >> good evening, everybody. temperatures today upper 70s to near 80 degrees. we've had clouds roll in.

benign as this looks pretty unimpressive. this is still coming this way. there's even a little bit of energy down around it. so i think late tonight into tomorrow morning, whatever is left of this will be giving us some rain showers. even a couple of heavier areas of rain. i think the bulk of the weather that could go severe will be later on tomorrow. with temperatures in the 70s, the clouds will thicken and the rain not far behind. we will take a closer look at that and update your gasparilla weekend forecast coming up in a couple of minutes. now to manatee county where bradenton has just named its new police chief. melanie bevin is now in charge of tackling crime. take a look. in the city that saw an increase in murders last year and a recent spike in violent crimes as well. rodney joins us live with how she plans to keep the city

>> reporter: an air of confidence from the newly named police chief melanie bevin. >> i am honor and excited to have been selected by the mayor to be the next chief of the city of bradenton police department. >> reporter: the announcement comes as the city sees a surge in violence. just last week, 38-year-old carl tuxford gunned down in broad daylight. it's a trend that continues from last year when the city saw a rise in homicides. bevin says she is ready for the challenge. >> i've got a lot of ideas. but like i said, i think it would be irresponsible to come in and say we're going to do this and this and this without seeing what really works and what might work best. >> reporter: she has a long history in law enforcement

starting back in '86, eventually rising to assistant chief. her experience makes her a perfect fit. >> she got the job because she is the best candidate, not because she is a female. >> reporter: her work with the st. petersburg police department will serve her well as she tries to clean up the street right here. and she also says she will officially get to work in about three weeks. she plans to immediately get to work meeting the new officers and also connecting with this community. for now reporting live in news. >> thank you, rodney. pinellas county deputies asking for your help to track down two men wanted for a take a look. deputies say these two guys dangerous. their alleged crimes happening in pinellas and sarasota if you know where they are, call crime stoppers right away. your tip could be worth a cash reward.

designer drugs on the streets they have names like molly and continue to plague many communities in south florida. before it becomes a larger problem here at least one city is getting out ahead of the issue. >> reporter: the city of madeira beach and other communities here in pinellas county seeing periodic spikes of abuse in the designer drugs, landing several people in the er from overdoses. now they're taking action and saying it won't be accepted here. on the gulf's beaches, you probably think of sunshine and sand. but cities along the ocean like madeira beach are getting worried about the growing prevalence of dangerous designer drugs. >> the dealers buying it a lot of times don't know what the actual drug is and then the end users who are using it at some point don't even know what it is. it's all toxic. >> reporter: drug makers mix up

the designer drugs legal. that's why madeira beach wants to beef up its local laws, all these kinds of substances. we have a passion. we don't want loved ones and friends going to the hospital and ending up dying as a result of a preventible consequence. >> reporter: the lieutenant says stiff fines have proven successful in other communities. minimum fine of $2,550 per package of drugs that someone is caught with. >> it's not something that we just slap their hands and they walk away. >> reporter: they are hoping it will stop designer drugs from becoming a major problem here. if it's passed, that it sends a message to anyone trying to pedal these kinds of product -- peddle these products. >> reporter: the mayor is asking letters of support be sent to crack down on these designer drugs and drafting an

already on the books in gainesville to make a dent with synthetic drugs here. >> hollywood mourning an icon tonight. abe died tonight at his home in new jersey. he was best known for his roles in barney miller and the godfather. he was 94 years old. >> i wasn't expecting him to pull out guns and open fire. gunshots in a crowded parking lot. the minor violation that quickly escalated, making florida officers shoot at a teenage driver. a refund headache tonight. a woman's week's long struggle and the one place that you can go to get your money from companies that don't pay up. it started off sunny this morning. now the clouds are rolling in. and with the clouds, we've got some rain.

and who sees the heaviest

>> new video showing intense moments playing out in an orlando parking lot. officers opening fire on a teenage driver. first we want to stress no one was hurt. take a look. >> shots fired. shots fired. >> police were trying to stop the 17-year-old driver of this white car for a seat belt violation but he refused. officers broke out the window before the car drove right at the officers. witnesses nearby thankful no one was caught in the crossfire. >> thanking god that i'm alive. i have four children that need me. they could have took my life trying to kill someone else when i was just trying to go to the store. >> officers caught the driver later on and it turns out that car was stolen. it promised to be the trip of a lifetime.

plans. what the travel company did next prompted her to call our taking action reporter jackie callaway for help. >> reporter: the tour included stops in holland, france and scissor land. travel documents show jean paid $429 for trip insurance. but then health issues forced her to cancel. >> i mean we started before thanksgiving. christmas is already passed. >> reporter: after five weeks, jean says no one returned her call regarding a refund. >> i was getting nowhere. >> reporter: so i contacted may flour tores and asked for an explanation. >> i had a phone call from the woman from the travel agency. she called me three more times that day and by the end of that day, she was crediting me back my full money. >> reporter: in an e-mail, mayflower tours told us that

it was something being worked out between our company and the insurance company. your contacting us did not persuade us to refund her. >> one phone call from you settled six weeks to deal with. >> reporter: you can contact the florida department of ag and consumer services. we have a phone number for you and a link as well as instructions on how to file a complaint. just go to abcactionnews.com and then click on taking action. i'm jackie callaway, taking action for you. >> well, tampa beware. the mayor refusing to turn over the keys to the city today to a downtown. their arrival announced by the noon. and since the mayor refused to peacefully turn over the keys

forcefully take over during the gasparilla invasion. >> just head to abcactionnews.com for more information. >> certainly going to be fun out there on saturday. first we have to get through some wet weather here. >> it's going to be warmer on saturday. >> for the children's parade it was chilly. >> can't imagine being on a boat in weekend if it was as rough as last weekend. it will not. we are going to have to dodge storms. a lot of clouds are rolling in. for the time being, they're not bringing us any rain. the key words for the time being. because by tomorrow morning, they will. and we've got a pretty decent chance of thunderstorms as well. temperatures have cooled into the low 70s. but still what a day today. right. upper 70s. mostly sunny skies early on.

79 brooksville. st. pete 72. look for temperatures staying in the 70s. do think we will be looking at some rain rolling in. and we will take a closer look at that in a second. right now tampa, 74 degrees. partly cloudy skies. clearwater and st. pete have cooled into the upper 60s. but by tomorrow morning, most everybody from around i-4 rain roll in. this is the way i see it. now. we're looking good. this evening no worries. it will be nice with temperatures warm. partly cloudy skies but no rain. overnight tonight, especially around 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., that's when i think we start to see those changes. in fact let's go ahead and go through time. with a look at futurecast. now, notice what we're looking at. i'm going to show you two different models. okay. this is what we call the rapid refresh model. clearly by tomorrow morning,

in. that's 6:00 a.m. now, if we look at another one of our models and we have a dozen that we look at literally, this one not nearly aces active -- as active with rain until lunchtime. we blend the two together. use our experience and that tells us, okay, maybe not so much 3:00, 4:00, but 7:00, 8:00, the rains roll in and the heaviest rains come in mid morning to late afternoon. the storm prediction center says there's only a slight chance this goes severe. not zero but low. i do think we will get decent rainfalls totals out of it, continues again on thursday. not nearly to the degree that we will have tomorrow. we're not going to clear out once we do. that sets us up for a very nice weekend. here is as i mentioned the severe outlook for tomorrow. this is from the storm

marginal risk. a 2 to 5% of an isolated tornado. it isn't 0 but nothing that we're too worried about. on the national scene, there it is. the energy cranking as it has all season long. that is coming our way. temperatures right now. well into the 40s up north. a lot of melting going on quickly from d.c. up to new york. miles per hour. look at the water temp clearwater. 57 degrees. your upcoming tides. sunrise and sunset. the most accurate 7-day. rain chances are solid tomorrow. it's going to rain. especially across the southern counties. then the rain lingers on thursday. friday we clear out. then the rest of the weekend into next week looks good. cooler over the weekend but it will be sunny. hello. there is trade talk out there tonight that involves jake

as much as i would hate to see him leave this could help a scoring runs last season. this is the trade brought up by mark of the tampa bay times. it's mcgee for corey dickerson. dickerson batted .304 last season. bigs. often for my liking but mcgee wasn't injury free in 2015 either. it plays into the race priority in the off season. silver man talked about it in the end of the season press conference back in october. >> i think given the pitching that we have, we're going to be next year. just by the nature of our give up that runs. the challenge is finding ways to score more runs. runners in scoring position, it

conversation. we would have won more games and not having this press conference today. the lightning can relate to the rays. if they didn't have such a scoring slump for a month, they wouldn't be in a free for all for a spot in the playoffs. in the top three. now out of the top three in the first wild card spot. with the new jersey win tonight, they could fall to the last wild card spot. it's that tight. so the bolts need to come out swinging tomorrow against toronto with andre in net. no bishop. >> our guys are well aware after the meeting today of the importance of the game tomorrow and the importance of rebounding from a bad game regardless what happens after that. and deal with thursday on thursday. but tomorrow night we need the two points. >> here you can see how close the playoff race is. 5 points separating top to bottom in the atlantic division. truth be told, the bolts need to beat toronto and get on at

and finally clippers star blake griffin reportedly broke his hand punning an equipment staff member after dinner at a restaurant. that equipment staff member is believed to be the one on the far left next to griffin. we're expecting a statement from the clippers tonight. bizarre. we're back in a minute and

>> we have continuing coverage of the top stories on abcactionnews.com. >> and we will see you right back here at 11:00.