>> the boondoggle that should not be pursued by the state. >> major pushback, why some are saying the proposed changes on the tampa bay expressway could hurt the bay area, not help it. thank you for waking up with abc action news on this monday, first day of february. >> monday after gasparilla, a beautiful weekend. wow. let's talk about the monday forecast and traffic too. maybe these warm temperatures will put a smile on your face for a monday? >> i think so. some folks kind of like the cooler temperatures this time of year but you'll get some of that again at the end of the week. for now we're definitely on a warming trend to say the least. the rivergate tower tampa camera right now showing nice dry conditions over harbor and davis islands. and downtown tampa if you're stepping out the door now in citrus county this is where it's the coolest, not all that cool for this time of year.

in pinellas county temperatures closer to the beaches are in the mid-60s. palm harbor 65 degrees, pinellas park at 63. in hillsborough county also looking at the low to mid-60s. we are going to be ending the day today in the mid to upper 70s. yeah, talk about warm. and we've got a lot of cloud cover this morning. we'll get a little more sunshine in the mix through the day but there will be a chance for a brief shower, nothing too heavy, nothing too widespread, so janelle, that means good news for the morning as well as the afternoon commute when we reach that high of 76. maybe you can get out and enjoy it a little bit. how are the roads? here's a live look at 275 jefferson street. no crashes or breakdowns. just six minutes from here to

a live look now at 275 around 31st street, the ramp there, again no problems here in the pinellas county area. checking some of the drive times, in pinellas county -- >> checking drive times now, veterans expressway, so far so good. still all in the dwreeb. -- green. 5 : 3 -- 5:32. three dangerous carjacking suspects on the run and a tampa police officer is recovering in the hospital after the high- speed chase over the weekend. injured after crashing into a utility pole. abc action news rodney donegan gathering information on the story, he's live at the corner of north talefero avenue and

>> reporter: good morning. it's really a miracle that didn't turn out worse. this officer actually crashed in front of this church only feet away thankfully no one was outside at the time. the officer smacked right into this utility pole. this pretty much shows you the extent of the damage. this is where the car actually jumped the curb. to show you the massive power of the crash, poles ripped wires from the ground. at last check that officer was recovering, expected to make a full recovery. if we can let's toss to the video of the scene we got here. police tell us the armed carjackers crashed their car as well but were able to get away. friday night the three suspects away from here. police say that stolen car was

robberies since the carjacking. back out here live, again, just to show you the massive damage here, thankfully, at the time no one was standing out here and again that officer expected to make a full recovery. the investigation continues, at this point detectives tell us they will be back out here in this neighborhood canvassing this area throughout the morning trying to gather facts or clues they can about the three suspects. of course anyone with information should contact tampa police. reporting live in east tampa, rodney donegan, abc action news. abc action news will be in court today watching for bombshell testimony in a deadly child abuse case. carroll connell accused of abusing his girlfriend's 3-year- old son so badly the boy died. she's expected to testify against him. investigators say the child had bite marks, bruises, possibly a broken arm when he died in 2010.

other purpose, than to "injury and cause pain." a major proposed highway project could impact tens of thousands of tampa bay commuters. the tbx project is designed to create extra lanes on the major interstates. you pay to use them based on traffic volume. the goal would be to cut down on commute times but opponents who met this weekend said the lanes won't do much to help reduce traffic jams. they also worry that the project would cut off historic flaibdz and business districts which are -- historic neighborhoods and business districts which are now just seeing revitalization after destruction 50 years ago. >> to have a program like this put upon us now by fdot after all the effort and investment people put in the community is really a kick in the face. >> the stop tbx group is hoping to have a large presence at tomorrow's metropolitan planning organization meeting. they are also holding a protest saturday.

bay area on a pending deal with the seminole tribe. the governor signed an agreement to expand an expired gambling deal. card games. governor scot says the seven- year proposal would create 4,800 new jobs and 14,000 more casino properties. it should bring $3 billion to the governor is holding a impact. the deal is now awaiting approval from the state senate. a massive search continues in the hopes of finding the person who killed a florida toddler in a drive-by shooting. the mayor of jacksonville is now devoting $1 million for officers' overtime to find the shooter. we kept you up to date on this since aidan mcclendon died friday. we're told the drive by is linked to gang violence and the little boy wasn't the intended target. he was sitting in a car when shots were fired into it at a nearby house. the mayor has strong words for

>> anybody that thinks that they can move across our city and spray bullets into a car, into any car, particularly a car with children or a child in it, i echo what the sheriff said, we are resolute and determined to come after you. >> four people died in drive by shootings in just the last week in jacksonville. overall mcclendon is the 13th person murdered in the city so far this year. there is a $20,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in that child's death. police say they will start going door-to-door to try to get anybody that may know something to speak up. it's 5:37. an update now out of virginia after a 13-year-old was killed, a second college student arrested in this case. police charged 19-year-old virginia tech student natalie keepers, accused her of helping to get rid of the body. fellow student david eisenhower faces abduction and murder charges. police say they found the body

she disappeared thursday. the remains are now with the medical examiner for an autopsy. back here in florida -- grief counselors are talking to students at the university of florida after a fellow student died there over the weekend. gainesville sun newspaper reports that 20-year-old chance wald was killed after falling six stories from an apartment complex near campus early sunday morning. police say surveillance video shows the student leaving an elevator, then accidentally falling over a waist-high glass barrier. he was rushed to the hospital where he died. no foul play is expected and authorities haven't said if drugs or alcohol played a role. abc action news is staying on top of a scandal now involving one of the polk county school district's top administrators. last week abc action news learned an employee's accused associate superintendent greg rivers of being verbally abusive. they say they were afraid to go to work and feared he could

did act inappropriately and the superintendent wrote a formal reprimand letter but it was never signed and may not have ever been delivered. rivers also filed a complaint against the superintendent just a few weeks ago, it's unclear what it is about. we could hear more from polk county schools as soon as today on this issue. the new police chief for lake hamilton starts his official first day on the job. michael teague will be sworn in at the council meeting scheduled for tomorrow. he was previously a police officer in lake alford in haines city. the tampa bay community gearing up to celebrate the 40th anniversary of black history month. there are events across the country to mark achievements of african-americans. things kick off in st. pete this morning when the mayor

that is 8:30. going to be a beautiful day. >> it's going to be a really nice day. we've got a lot of cloud cover out there. and there is a slight chance for a brief shower but most of the day is going to be perfectly dry and warm with a high of 76 degrees. great day for hanging out in the backyard taking the kids to the park after school or, whatever enough mind to do outside. looking really nice for it. and we have even warmer temperatures ahead this week. just ahead of our next cool front. i'll tell you more about that, timing out the rain and cooler air that is going to move in pointed it, coming up -- behind it, coming up in florida's most accurate 7-day forecast. 5:40. still to come, isis claiming responsibility for a deadly attack, who they targeted in a triple bombing leaving dozens dead. >> ripping roofs, downing trees, more of this, the latest video after a round of terrible

5:44. thank you for joining us on this first day of february. early monday morning, i-275 moving well through downtown. it's mild this morning, overcast at 66 degrees in tampa. traffic and weather details coming up in a moment. this morning the death toll from a triple explosion in damascus is rising, 45 people so far have died in the blasts which supporters of isis say

the explosions came as the united nations envoy tried to launch peace talks between the syrian government and the country's rebels. u.s. secretary of state john kerry is urging both sides to end that 5-year war. saying a ceasefire would allow everyone to focus on defeating the islamic state group. the world health organization is holding an emergency meeting in geneva today to decide whether to declare a global emergency over the mosquito-borne zika virus. it's linked to brain abnormalities in thousands of babies in south america. health officials say the virus is spreading explosively through the americas. since it was first detected in brazil in may of last year it spread to more than 20 countries. zika is spread through mosquito bites and an official announcement on whether it constitutes a global emergency is not expected until tomorrow. 5:45. strong storm in southern california blamed for knocking over this large tree right on to a street and killing a driver. powerful winds, heavy rain

yesterday. a woman was found dead in her car. firefighters responded to calls about a tree that fell on four vehicles actually, the other three cars were found empty. that same storm system downed dozens of trees, power poles and ripped off around rooftops. by this time tomorrow colorado could see up to a foot of snow. major systems caused crashes along major roads. fortdly there are good samaritans that are stopping to help. here they are helping a woman with a baby whose car spun out overnight. 5:46. shay ryan, we're talking a warm- up for the bay area? >> yeah, significant warm-up. in fact highs today are going to be in the mid to upper 70s. we're starting off this morning in the low to mid-60s. and even though we have quite a bit of cloud cover especially early in the day we'll get more sunshine this afternoon. there's only a slight chance for a brief shower, nothing that should cause much of a problem.

with wet pavement for the morning or afternoon commute. it may just be some drizzle or quick sprinkle that you happen to encounter. don't want you to think it will get nastier than that. not until thursday that is. take a look, at how high the temperatures go, tomorrow with a high of 80, we're not meeting or breaking records but we're certainly well above the average of 71 for this time of year. about 10 degrees above the average low. so this continues right up to wednesday and then our next cold front moves through on thursday. it will give us a good chance for some soaking rains, for a period of time, again this is not going to be an entire day with rain. it's not the way it looks now but we'll also have rain overnight and into early friday morning. through the day friday that cooler air moves in from the north. it will be quite noticeable especially because of how much warmer we are ahead of this front than what we will be behind it. but the temperatures only dropping to the mid and upper

weekend. so i call that pretty comfortably cool especially for this time of year. this is florida's most accurate 7-day forecast. you can find me on facebook and on twitter if you have questions again we're monitoring the intensity and timing of those storms that will roll through with that front on thursday. and we'll let you know if it does look like we have any risk for severe storms. as far as the roads go, how are things looking? >> so far so good if you're heading out the door maybe to work or school. if your morning drive takes to you the gandy this is your drive, pretty light now. only 8 minutes to get across the bridge in both directions. your other two bridges looking great as well, i just checked, less than 10 minutes to get across the howard frankland and courtney campbell causeway. we have a gravel spill in hillsborough. this is on busch boulevard just east of 56th. i guess a car spilled some gravel and there's a lot of debris on the roadway. two westbound lanes blocked at busch.

however still in the green that shows me cars can still get through. fowler also looks good. you may want to take that, avoid this messy situation there. i'll keep an eye on it and let you know if this causes any delays as the morning drive pushes on. let's check i-275 around bearss, traffic starting to pick up as you can see. let's check the drive times. so you can see how long it takes to get to the downtown area on 275. >> if anything happens on the roads to slow you down make sure you follow me on twitter. i'll let you know all about it @tampabaytraffic. goodbye gasprila. hello mountains of trash. nearly 200 people crowd out of bed early yesterday morning to make sure the streets got

they picked up thousands of plastic beads, bottles and nearly 1,000 cigarette butts. >> it's a good way to do it by picking up as much trash as we can from a major event so it doesn't go into the bay and impact the marine life. >> last year volunteers picked up 1.3 tons of trash and debris. the city collected another eighttons. we're still waiting to find out how much trash was collected this year. this morning the mystery of who stole an r2d2 canvas print from a columbus, ohio, pizza parlor deepens. it was returned friday night by a man in a motorcycle on a bike wearing a storm trooper helmet. the workers near he pushed the alarm system. >> he didn't take off his mask. i think sometimes you get a little nervous in those situations. >> employees think their tongue in cheek social media plea to get the painting back helped. the storm trooper returned the

note signed by darth vader himself apologizing for the theft. pizza parlor says it may now frame the note as well. 5:50. coming up -- some of the freshest ingredients at your fingertips. we're going to tell you where to find easy ways to get florida's finest produce on to the dinner, maybe breakfast

just about 5:54. if you're looking at the rivergate tower tampa camera now you can see we're nice and dry and the camera isn't shaking at all. we have light winds. quite a bit of cloud cover and that has acted like a blanket keeping us a little warmer this morning. most of our temperatures are in the low to mid-60s and as you look at titan doppler radar the last through hours you see the bits of green moving across the area? that was sprinkles, a few areas of drizzle, nothing that is going to cause a problem or slick roads or anything like that this morning. if you're planning on heading off to the beach today, also looking great for that. 73 as the high at clearwater beach. water temperature now up to 60 degrees. we could see a light shower out there but most of the day is going to be nice and dry. i'll have the 7-day forecast with a look at the next cold

most accurate 7-day forecast. polk county man put to the test on a new reality tv show. andrew santiago pushed his physical limits on "broken skull challenge." the navy vet, now firefighter and personal trainer from lakeland was featured in last night's episode starring former wwe wrestler "stone cold" steve austin. he didn't get the top spot but of eliminations. he told us the hardest part was the challenge, the fact that he couldn't actually talk about the prerecorded results. of florida orange juice now with florida-grown strawberries in your cereal you're making that's exactly what the florida to you do. today the agency is starting a new campaign to get more people to eat produce grown here in here. you'll be seeing the fresh from

abc action news station during "good morning, america." "dancing with the stars" and even the academy awards. some of the ads feature easy-to- make recipes using florida- grown produce. find the recipes at freshfromflorida.com/recipes. one of the leading candidates in the iowa caucuses, new controversy. what he sent to voters some are calling dishonest. plus, the reason a florida woman followed a police officer and honked at him until he

right now on the run. how two teams managed to spring

facility and how you can help put them back behind bars. >> decision day one in democracy 2016. with the field of candidates about to shrink we're breaking down which race is the tightest and why one candidate's last push to get people to the polls may be backfiring. >> that and more coming up. thank you for joining us on abc action news on this monday, first day of february. >> what a beautiful weekend for gasparilla. couldn't have been any better. how's it looking today? >> it's warmer. that is good for some i think. some are just not so happy about it. i love it. take a look at the rivergate tower tampa camera and you can see we're nice and clear and dry at the moment. we had a few light sprinkles that moved through earlier, nothing to cause you problems for the morning commute. look at the temperatures, the extra cloud cover keeping us fairly toasty for this time of year. we're in the mid-60s now in tampa. 65 brandon. 64 plant city. let's look at hernando county, temperatures also are in the low 60s.

hernando beach 63.