>> westbound bryan dairy or 118th is closed now while crews are out there working. they are also making sure that support beam on u.s. 19 is secure but while they are doing that u.s. 19 is open. so u.s. 19 is open, westbound bryan dairy its closed, so take 49th street street and take old meren to, you can take 66th back down to bryan dairy or go further to belcher. either way leave time to make that detour. this is a fatal, with a lot of debris, so this could be like this for a while. make sure you plan for this for the next few hours or so. i'll keep an eye on it and let you know as soon as it clears. there's construction on 275 northbound around the westshore area, that's the flashing lights you see here. not causing delays because it's still early in the morning. still just six minutes to get from the howard frankland to downtown. so so far it's been a pretty busy morning with the traffic but the good news, the weather looks very nice.

for today. in fact temperatures nice and mild like we had over the weekend. the difference will be a few more clouds but certainly nothing terrible. maybe a light jacket if you're sensitive. not as cool by any stretch like we had on saturday morning and on sunday morning. a little too cool for most of us then. we recovered nicely as we'll do today but we'll have less to recover from as we have mid and upper 50s now. 60 in tampa. as we check in with a few more clouds, low to mid-70s between then 64. it is leap day. by the way, if it's your birthday i understand dan shaffer is buying cupcakes for everyone watching. i kid. that would get me in trouble. we're going to come back and talk about the next front that is bringing a couple of showers. in a few minutes. it's 5:31 now. today the florida department of education is holding its collective breath hoping not to see a repeat of last year's

the florida standards assessment test. first round of testing today after changes were made in hopes of making the process go smoother. abc action news reporter rodney dunigan is live now at hillsborough high. plenty of districts had issues with this testing last year. >> reporter: that's right. that's why a number of parents are concerned about this year's testing process. in fact the state department of education actually requires students to go on-line to the web site and take a number of practice tests to probably, maybe figure out any problems before they get to them. reviews of the system were also put in place to try to avoid some of the issues and problems from last year. the state says the florida standards assessment or fsa testing company has upgraded their defenses against cyber attacks. last year's test was plagued with technical problems including a cyberattack with a system overloaded and students had trouble taking the exams. students between the eighth and 10th grade will begin the

test today. in protest of the stakes tied to this test as well as possibilities for technical problems. some parents and students are actually choosing to opt out or refusing to participate in this year's testing process. school administrators believe parents should trust that problems have been corrected. >> we have to change the system the way it works right now. it's not in the best interest of children. >> their criticisms are being based on what happened last year. how we get beyond that is every year going forward, the system becomes -- more streamlined, less problematic and that doesn't happen by accident. it happens by the state and the district working together. >> reporter: the state department of education is sending a warning out and message to students this morning, if they run into any trouble while they are testing. they should report those problems immediately, administrators say reporting those problems and hitting the issue head on is the best way

experienced last year. of course we'll continue to monitor this throughout the day and week and bring you issues as we hear them. for now reporting live at hillsborough high school, 5:34. new developments, an army staff sergeant assigned to the pentagon is held without bond now in a virginia jail. ronald hamilton is facing murder charges after police say he shot and killed his wife and officer. officials say he killed officer ashley guindon as she responded to a domestic violence call at his home. she was a rookie officer killed on her first day on the job. she was a graduate of emery riddle rid yeurvet in florida. one of her professors was heart broken on news of her death. >> i go to certain news sights. one of them had the headline

i complicated on it and -- clicked on it and tragically i saw it was ashley. saw her picture and name. i immediately recognized ashley as one of my students. and, i -- it took the wind out of me. >> two other officers were hurt, they will be ok. police say hamilton's wife was shot and killed before police arrived. his 11-year-old son was home at the time. he's now with family. police say ashley guindon and two other officers responded to the shooting saturday night when hamilton opened fire. a south florida woman is in jail now, charged with kidnapping a baby over the weekend and now we're learning about her connection to the baby. stephanie augustin is headed to court in a few hours in broward county. family members say she's the cousin of the baby's mother. 2-month-old taraji kemp went missing from her fort lauderdale home friday night and triggered a statewide amber alert. detectives found that baby safe

also this 4-year-old montana girl who went missing friday is being checked out now by doctors. she was found yesterday on an indian reservation a few miles from where she was reportedly abducted while playing in a park. authorities found her almost two days after witnesses say she was taken by a young man. a suspect is now in custody. it's still unclear when a factory in a small kansas town will reopen four days after a deadly workplace shooting that left four dead including the gunman. hundreds packed a gymnasium to mourn the death and even lit a candle for the shooter. a central florida man is dead after a woman driving with a suspended license and fleeing from deputies slammed into his car yesterday morning.

garic was wrapping up his first day delivering pizza for domino's when hit. police say 23-year-old cindy st. sire ran a red light while fleeing from deputies who tried to pull her over. justice. >> she got a couple of scratches. my son is gone. i want her to be in jail for the rest of her life. >> she's already scheduled to go to trial in april on charges of fleeing law enforcement and driving with a revoked license during an incident in november. garic was a single father to a 2-year-old. we're tracking some bombshell new developments in the flint water crisis. it reveals the state could have helped thousands of families deal with the poisoned water supply more than a year before state officials actually decided to take action. just released e-mails now show aids to the michigan governor knew something was wrong with the water as early as october 2014. that is just six months after

as a cost-cutting measure. in the end it caused lead to leach into the water supply. it's dangerous to young children, can cause learning disabilities. that metal wound up showing in children's blood in dangerous levels. democracy 2016 -- the final hours now before super tuesday. >> republican presidential candidate donald trump and democrat hillary clinton are hoping to cement their statuses as frontrunners. clinton is running on momentum after her huge win saturday in south carolina. yesterday she rallied several hundred supporters at a historically black medical college in nashville. clinton is looking past sanders in a return to her early campaign strategy when she was the clear primary frontrunner. with sanders lagging in delegates and likely facing greater losses on super tuesday clinton's team is turning their focus to unifying the party. they don't want to risk alienating sandsers backers because clinton will need their support when it comes to winning a general election.

sessions joined donald trump at a rally in alabama saying this is not a campaign, it's a movement. the republican senator said "nobody's perfect but at this time in american history we need to make america great again." florida senator marco rubio disagrees, in virginia yesterday he got his crowd fired up and laughing when he took a minute to talk about trump. >> he now says well first of all -- he says i'm sweating all the time. it's hot in here, am i sweating now? no. all right. he doesn't sweat, he doesn't sweat because his pores are clogged from the spray tan he uses. [cheering and jeering] >> he's not going to make america great, he's going to make america orange! >> rubio vowed to "never let the republican party and conservative movement be taken

meanwhile, ohio governor john kasich says he's still relatively unknown to voters but is confident a win in ohio will help him gain momentum. he's hoping to sail past marco rubio expecting that marco rubio will lose in florida. early voting begins today in hillsborough, polk and desoto counties. we have all the information you need to get started on our abc action news app, open it on your phone to see how to vote, the dates, times and locations. early voting for most other counties will start up in a few days. still nice today but a few more clouds streaming in from the gulf. we'll warm up nicely into the 70s. i am tracking another cold front. in fact a couple of fronts moving through this week, i'll have the defails on that in a few minutes in my next forecast. >> it was awful. it was awful. it was awful.

middle of service. authorities trying to uncover why his own brother may have done this. >> it's a terrible thing. i don't understand why kids have lost all respect. >> then a student prank turns into a life-threatening episode for one teacher. >> plus, stealing the show, the pint-sized stars who made a big splash at last night's academy

welcome back. happy monday. following the oscars.

watching parts of the show. continuing our oscar coverage. if you couldn't stay up late some of the best moments involved kids. >> chris rock brought his daughters on stage. he says because of the long hours preparing for the oscars he's missed most of the girl scout cookie season so his daughters and troop sold to the audience. box. he later came out to say the girls raised over $65,000. two other kids made a splash while introducing the film. >> they needed a little help to reach the microphone. 9-year-old jacob tremblay and abraham attah couldn't reach

able to reach the podium. and in darth vader socks and cufflinks. when asked his opinion of the red carpet little jacob said "i see lots of legs." for a complete wrap-up of the oscars including photos from the red carpet, full list of winners and more check out abcactionnews.com/oscars. you can also find it all on our free mobile app. i am awake because i did not stay up for the oscars. i knew i would get a nice update from dan and deiah. 50 degrees this morning. mostly clear skies. a few more clouds later today than we've seen the last couple of days. great weekend, temperatures in the 50s and 60s. let's break down the 7-day forecast and see what is going on. in fact we'll go ahead and talk about monday as we check in on leap day here. 75 for the high.

as the hour by hour. a few more clouds and temperature in the upper 60s by 10:00 a.m. then low to mid-70s for lunch. we'll take it outside, not expecting rain today, just partly cloudy skies. tuesday a little warmer for us. the next shot of rainfall i think will be wednesday with a very weak front that moves through. that is just going to bring us a couple of showers, nothing more than. that certainly not severe weather. we dry off as we head through thursday. i'll leave with you that. this is my pick for thursday. that is your winner there. sunny and mild and comfortable humidity. we're going to have dew points in the 30s and 40s. it's going to feel fantastic. that my friends will set us up for another front on friday. a couple of showers with that. the weekend looks fantastic with highs in the 70s. plenty of sunshine so we're looking pretty good. here's janelle with the latest on the crash. we have breaking news. a fatal crash in the pinellas park area. bryan dairy road at the underpass -- overpass to u.s.

support beams and burst into flames killing one person in the car. you can see a lot of activity still out there on the scene. closed now. this is a very busy road for the morning commute. you want to pay attention if area. we have a crash -- it's 118th avenue north where it turns into bryan dairy so right underneath u.s. 19. u.s. 19 is still open even though they are checking those support beams to make sure they are secure. in the meantime u.s. 19 is open, westbound bryan dairy is closed. so take 49th street north to old meren to -- olmerton and then take 66 or belcher to get back to bryan dairy. either way you have to leave yourself time. and expect this the next few hours because it is a fatal crash and takes a long time to investigate. i'll let you know as soon as it clears.

smooth in both directions. new information about the shooting death of a pastor in ohio. police say his own brother killed him in the middle of church service. now we're hearing from the people inside the church when it happened. authorities say 70-year-old reverend william schooler was shot in the pulpit yesterday as the choir sang. he died at the hospital. his younger brother, daniel schooler now has been charged with murder. the congregation describes the terrifying moments. >> i heard two shots and i got everybody out of the church. and a witness kept hearing shooting. bang, bang, bang. >> daniel schooler is expected to be in court today. three middle schoolers in volusia county are facing felony charges accused of spiking their teacher's can of soda.

deltona middle school, investigators say tuesday two of them poured crushed red pepper flakes in their teacher's mountain dew while a third distracted the woman. the 53-year-old teacher took a sip, started choking and had shortness of breath. they were sent to juvenile detention. neighbors say they are getting what they deserve. >> they have to be held responsible for their actions or they are never going to stop. >> investigators say one of the students was mad at her teacher for sending her to the principal's office for pouring

temperatures around 60 degrees by 8:00.

over the weekend but staying dry and comfortable. back to low to mid-70s. a cold front does arrive mid- week. we'll talk about that in the next hour. 5:54 now. this morning we're now hearing from the university of virginia student detained in north korea. he was arrested in january for stealing a political sign from a hotel where he was staying. he was presented to the north korean media where he confessed to the crime. >> i have been very impressed by the korean government's humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself. and of their very fair and square legal procedures in the dpr korea. >> former north korean detainees often recant what they say after release. the government says he was encouraged by the u.s. government to steal the sign. he said he took it as a trophy nor a church that offered to pay for it. a boy checks off one more thing from his bucket list over

came together to make it happen. eric pyburn from land o' lakes needs a heart and lung transplant. one dream of his is to have a big birthday bash. so old mcmickey's farm stepped up to host his 9th birthday party. >> some of these just came out of the goodness of their heart. found us on facebook, heard about the event and they are just here. they don't even know us. that's just huge. >> eric's mom says it was something for him to look forward to throughout the hospital stays and treatments. eric already had four surgeries. all the party supplies and entertainment all donated by area businesses. meanwhile, if today's your birthday get free pizza from pizza hut. >> today's leap day. the pizza chain says the true joy of celebrating your birthday on this day is only once every four years after all. by showing a government-issued picture id to prove you were born on leap day, today you can

pizza for carry out. >> pizza hut says it's good at all participating locations. by the way the chain has more than 50,000 locations in 97 different countries. still ahead -- a show of support that may backfire for the gop frontrunner. his surprising reaction that trump's opponents say could make him unelectable. you'll never believe the reason a man took a tumble off a 20- foot cliff. the item he was hoping to find before that fateful fall. >> i'm corey dierdorff, breaking traffic alert from pinellas county -- bryan dairy

we have team coverage this morning on the breaking traffic alert that level a major

>> westbound bryan dairy road is closed while crews investigate a deadly accident. let's go to corey dierdorff, he's on the scene with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. westbound bryan dairy road still shut down just before u.s. 19. i'm going to step out of way. we're about a half-mile back as police told us it's just a very violent scene down there. and they are in the middle of their investigation. so keeping us kind of far back. here's what we know so far -- according to pinellas park police single car was traveling under the u.s. 19 overpass when it struck one of the support pillars for u.s. 19. that car quickly burst into flames, pinellas county fire working quickly to try the save person inside but that person died. it's believed there's only one person in the car but not exactly sure due to the severity of the crash. a representative from the department of transportation is now headed to the scene. to check to see if there's any damage to the u.s. 19over pass. right now eastbound traffic as they -- it comes towards 275

frontage road and then back to bryan dairy, and 118th. this is where the two road names really combine. right now westbound shut down to all traffic, as this investigation continues. and janelle, as we head into the rush hour, it's 6:00 now but as we head further into the rush hour, they are expecting this to be closed for some time. it's going to be a traffic mess. what are the best workarounds you see from the studio. they are predicting several hours for this closure. if you're heading westbound on 118th which becomes bryan dairy you're going to want to take 49th street north, they will ulmerton to 66th our even dairy. you want to leave extra time to make that detour. i'll keep an eye on it and that clears. elsewhere in pretty good shape. this is what it looks like at the tampa side of the howard frankland, up to speed in both