>> on the new tampa bay today, sea world's killer whale responsible for the deaths of three people is now dying him. what is killing him and howell spend his last day -- and how he will spend his last days. scary video. don't worry. he is okay. we are getting a look at how dangerous florida roads are for pedestrians. plus, also right now a hole opening up in the middle of busy bruce downs. something you can smile about and share with your friends. the local babies going public.

bay. you're about to see a phoenix, arizona. not one that we usually see. you see the man on the motorcycle. apparently the motorcycle is stolen but they're doing a police chase by air. there are no cop cars on the ground right now. you see he has been in and out of traffic and is about to go into on coming traffic right now --on coming. there he goes right there. we're trying to figure out what happened with this one. as soon as we get more information, we will bring that to you. all right. well, right now a university of tampa professor sitting in federal court in handcuffs answering to disturbing charges this afternoon, trying to arrange to meet a young girl for sex. clifton french joins us outside of the courthouse in tampa. clifton, how did this arrest

>> reporter: according to court records, mattson was talking to a police agent via text messaging after responding to an ad. it was placed in a newspaper known for prostitution. mattson responded to the ad. he agreed to pay $140 to have sex with a 14-year-old girl. according to the university of tampa, he has been an assistant visiting professor of music since 2014. he is now on administrative leave. he was also the director of the ut orchestra. we talked to one man who used to play with mattson. here is what he had to say. >> i'm extremely disappointed. i think he served as a mentor to a lot of students. i had a lot of respect for him. as a community leader, i feel it's disappointing. >> reporter: mattson has a hearing today in federal court. coming up at 5:00, we will explain what happened inside. for the new tampa bay, i'm

in the last hour on the stand in the hulk hogan sex tape case against gawker, they just got back from a break. before that jurors heard the deposition of the man who gave gawker that sex tape he is suing over. they just entered a news segment into evidence, going into the history of gawker and the founder nick denton. he says his only role is when he started the website is that nothing was off limits. before a lunch, hogan was on the stand for a second day attorneys. he is suing the website for publishing a sex tape. gawker attorneys point out that hogan was not shy about talking about his size of -- well, you know. the tan line on his rear end,

virginity. all of that was talked about in court today. hogan says the sex tape humiliated him. >> i was concerned because there were people who thought i might have something to do with this. we even had calls from vivid entertainment who does these pornographic films and said there's an open checkbook. we will pay you as much money as you want. >> jurors have to decide if gawk erin raided hogan's right to privacy. the orca whale that was the focus of black fish is very sick. he has a bacterial infection and is not responding to treatment. with that, veterinarians are saying he is an aging whale and are now just trying to make him comfortable. he has been with sea world for 23 years now and blamed for the death of three different people. in the meantime at sea world in san diego, there is still a

there as they try to expand their park. well, severe weather whipping through parts of texas today. from above, you can see, well, just look at that. the flood waters is no match to the car right there. this is a gas station. you see the pump toppled over by the winds and the rain in the area. power lines also down. >> you couldn't hear the tornado sirens because the wind was so loud. >> you couldn't see anything but debris flying. >> there was a possible tornado southwest of fort worth that destroyed six mobile homes. two people had injuries from all it. more rain is expected through tomorrow. denis, is any of that weather system headed our way? >> it is. by the time it makes it here, there won't be much left, nothing close to what they're getting right now. you can see the yellow boxes. those are severe weather watches across parts of texas

for us locally, things are beautiful. just look outside. there you see it out from the main sail with mostly sunny skies. distance. they are completely rain free. when you look at titan doppler radar locally, everything is southeast wind. that will give us warmer temperatures and every now and the east coast. i don't think they make it into our neck of the woods. if you take a look at futurecast now through this evening, skies should be mostly clear with very little chance of any rain. however, by the time we roll into later on this week, that's when the front arrives and i will let you know how that impacts your weekend coming up. the veterans expressway at waters moving better than it was a couple hours ago. this picture coming from one of our viewers just after a tractor-trailer hit a gear railed and overturned and burst into flames.

be pulled out by rescuers. we are trying to find out an update of that person's conditions. you see the charred remains afterwards and traffic getting by in one lane. also right now, lawmakers are calling on phone companies to offer new ways for you to be able to block robocalls. they also want the federal trade commission to pressure companies to integrate technology to do that directly into new cell phones. there are more than three and a half million complaints to the ftc about robocalls. new technology makes it easier to call more numbers at once and making it harder to track them. home depot is agreeing to pay you if you are part of its data breach back in 2014. it is setting up a $13 million fund to reimburse its shoppers and spending $6.5 million for a year and a half identity

holders. it's also promised to improve data security, hiring a chief information security officer to oversee the work. still ahead on the new tampa bay, we see exactly what it's like to take a 100-foot dive off an overpass and live to tell about it. we're watching the breaking news out of phoenix, arizona. that's a live picture. the chopper even has a hard timekeeping up with the guy. they're not chasing him from behind rather from the air. there. motorcycle. chase right now. as soon as we get more information, of course we will bring it to you. before we go, verizon getting hit by a fine for tracking customers more than they should have been. here is our partners over at newsy with that. >> reporter: verizon has agreed to cough up a small fortune to

violated subscribers privacy using zombie cookies. the $3.5 million slap on the wrist is not much for a company that made more than $34 billion in revenue last quarter. what hurt the company more was cutting back on the super cookies. they're much like internet cookies. small text streams stored in whatever device is doing the web browsing. when it is sent to a phone or computer, the web browser store that's cookie. if the same device visits the device again, it returns the cookie to the server. in this case, subscribers never agreed to letting the zombie cookies create numbers for devices. while a user can clear cookies from a browser, verizon's cookies kept coming back, hence the zombie with nickname. it was reported last year that the tracking number could be used by any website that users visited with their phone, what

verizon had already agreed to make the zombie cookies an opt- in program, that means that people are not being tracked by default anymore but they are still using zombie cookies. the ftc settlement has done a lot for privacy but it doesn't include aol ad network. that makes up 40% of the websites. remember you can watch newsy on your tv with your favorite

>> we're going to keep following that breaking news out of phoenix, arizona right now. you see that man on the motorcycle there. these are live aerial pictures. apparently the motorcycle is stolen. the chase started about 45 minutes ago. we just got this update about 20 minutes ago. phoenix police say they have no intentions of stopping this guy. they only have the police chopper in the air. no cop cars behind it.

affiliate there to keep their chopper out of site. we're going to continue to follow it as long as we can. we're not sure what started all of this. but we know that the cops are saying that the motorcycle is stolen. we will continue to follow this and bring you the latest. also follow us on twitter for up to the minute updates at the new tampa bay. the video that you have to see to believe. now we've got video to show you. fhp releasing the dramatic video of the moments that the driver smith loses control of the truck and then drives off that overpass. you see that, falling 100 feet off. and then crashing below. the truck in a million pieces at the bottom. smith was taken to the hospital. thankfully survived and even has been released. still no word on what exactly

>> obviously it was chaotic and confusing. >> watching that video gives me chills every time. a tv crew out in san francisco nearly became the news this morning, jumping out of the way crashing into the live shot. just in time getting out of the way. thankfully the photographer and reporter are okay. check out this incredible crash video. >> what are you doing? come on. [crying] >> come here. your car is on fire. >> oh, my gosh. okay. so the man in the reflective yellow suit is a california

he happened to be driving past that car when the fire started. the adults in the car look stunned. don't know what to do. he has to jump into action and save the two kids you see there, both screaming and crying. once the firefighters showed up, they had to treat the kids for smoke inhalation. thankfully everyone is okay. today maria sharapova has lost three of her major endorsements on the heels of announcing she failed a drug test. all distancing themselves from the highest paid female athlete in the world after testing positive for meldonium, a drug she has been taking for a decade. that drug was added to the banned substances list this year. sharapova has taken full responsibility saying she failed to read the full list like she was supposed to this year and now other tennis stars are reacting.

think most people were surprised and shocked by maria. at the same time, i think most people were happy that she was upfront and very honest and showed a lot of courage to admit to what she had done. >> now, sharapova has been put on suspension until the world tennis federation finishes their investigation. well, on this international womens day, let's take a look how we women are doing when it comes to workplace equality. florida isn't doing that great. 37th in the nation according to a new bloomberg study. based on the female versus male pay ratio. women's labor participation rates, college degree holders and poverty. our state is fairing better when it comes to women in leadership better. we're in the middle of the pack there at 24th.

though, for the first time. the federal government is giving nearly $18 billion in contract work to small businesses owned by business, which is about 10 million now in the u.s. the now's tanya rogers talked to a lady entrepreneur about why now may be a good time to go into business for yourself. >> reporter: when you log into shop 561, you know you'll be there for a while. mugs. you think six total. >> reporter: the creative and personalized items are done by artist. janelle left the corporate world to open this store more than two years ago. >> decision-making is great. schedule. though usually it's a lot more hours than you would put in. but it gives you freedom and flexibility. things. so if something doesn't work, i can start a whole new direction if needed and just do whatever i feel is best for my business. >> reporter: for janelle and other business owners, it's a

according to a survey of more are doing well. 80% have grown over the past few months. the businesses don't rely as much on exporting goods compared to larger companies. technology. business. huge for us. we're focusing on that. >> reporter: what started out as a vision for janelle is now growing and she says there are plans to expand the business. >> it's exciting and scary. but we definitely are to the point of if we don't expand, the business is not going to be profitable to what we desire. so we know we need a bigger location. >> reporter: no matter how much the business grows, customers like the hometown feel win in the store. >> it's pleasant shopping through smaller venues than

>> reporter: for the now, i'm tanya rogers. >> thank you, tanya. there's a solar eclipse tonight. unfortunately the way that the earth is set up and whatever, whatever, we're not going to be able to see it. whatever, whatever. but nasa has got you covered today. they're streaming it while it happens which is again 8:30 and 8:42 tonight. i already posted a link for you to watch that on our facebook page. just search the now tampa bay. by the way, the next time that we will be able to see it in person, august 21st of next year. denis, i'm super excited about that. >> we can't see it in florida. it will reach totality in southern illinois. you can see part of it but you won't see the point where it's completely blocked out in florida next year. >> field trip. >> so we're going to illinois. which i actually -- i may just do that actually. it's once in a lifetime deal. it may be worth the road trip. of course we would get there and it would be cloudy and you

wouldn't than our luck. no clouds out there today. it's going to stay beautiful right on through the couple of days as temperatures are right back in the low 80s. and over the next few afternoons, we will be in the mid 80s and even upper 80s as you get away from the gulf. which our gulf temperature is still in the mid 60s. areas significantly. there's a look at the satellite picture. definitely a little bit of cloud cover out there, no more than any typical summer day. a lot of sunshine. and with clear skies tomorrow morning, we're looking for temperatures only to drop down to the lower 60s. even some mid 60s closer to the big. pollen is a big issue. if you have allergies, you don't need me telling you that. i don't see any changes until later this weekend when we have rain in the forecast. we will talk more about that rain, whether we think it's going to arrive in a couple of minutes.

remember the firefighter suspended when they drove a dying girl to the hospital? they got good news. but why the battle is not over

>> we're going to keep following that breaking news. still following that police chase is what we're calling it. you see that guy on the motorcycle right there. okay. so apparently this motorcycle is stolen. the cops are already telling our abc affiliate in phoenix, arizona that they are not chasing this guy by ground. so there's an air chopper up. but that's all we know so far. he has been going for more than an hour now. so we're starting to wonder how long is it going to be until he runs out of gas.

we're not sure what happened before he stole the motorcycle. he has been on the highway going high rates of speed. it's hard for the chopper to stay up with him. we will let you know what happens as soon as it does. we're happy to update you about the virginia firefighters who throughout the rule book to save a child's life. today they have been reinstated after being suspended. 8 no people joined the facebook page hoping to help them out. they were suspended for taking a dying 18 month old to the hospital in the fire truck which is against policy. they're supposed to wait for the medics to get through but the captain says it would have taken too long and the girl was already blue. they survived. >> it's just amazing how the community came together to support us through all of this. we couldn't as a department be

>> and the toddler's dad releasing a statement saying the dedication represents a dedication to the mission and a deep concern for doing the best of the people they are serving. in our eyes, they are heroes. the fire department is still investigating the incident. right now we're watching a traffic mess by usf. this depression opening up today. you will see it in a minute. we will find out if this is a one or two-day event.

>> all right. right now you're looking at what will make for a traffic mess this afternoon. as you see there, slow and go. that little hole causing a lot of traffic down on bruce b downs. right now hills hills county officials are trying to figure out what caused it and how to repair it. that's where we find ashley yore right now. what can you tell us, ashley? >> reporter: drivers do not want to see traffic building in their rear view mirror like you're looking at right now. also don't want to see traffic up ahead. drivers i spoke with say they have one word to describe driving on bruce b. downs today. >> it's frustrating. >> frustrating. >> it's very frustrating. >> reporter: sums up how

turn signals work overtime trying to steer clear of bruce b. downs. hillsborough county officials say this depression opened up. they filled it in for now but they're trying to figure out how to fix it for good. on either side you can see unrelated storm damage that needs to be fixed. >> when you lose a lane, it makes everything horrific. >> reporter: people in the area are familiar with traffic trouble. diane cuts through a parking lanes. >> we have a difficult time getting out without taking our lives in our own hands. we have accidents all the time. >> reporter: and now just five lanes here until that depression is fixed. an inconvenience. >> sitting here 10, 15 minutes. >> nobody is courteous nowadays and let's you purge over. >> reporter: and purge -- merge over.

may have accidents on their hands. >> reporter: to give you an idea of the size of the depression, it's five feet wide and double that, ten feet deep. i spoke with the county and they don't know when this is going to be repaired. so that lane is going to stay closed for the foreseeable future. make sure that you're aware there are going to be workmen out here trying to fix that problem. reporting live, i'm ashley yore, the now tampa bay. we have breaking news to show you right now. the man has gotten off of the motorcycle in phoenix, arizona and he is on the run. this is a live picture. hopefully we can get that. you will see the chopper shadow just went through. unfortunately -- does anybody know where he went to? producers in the booth? okay. so you see that covered parking there at the top of your screen?

he is hiding. you see him in the blue jeans and black shirt. there are two people running. those might be officers. we have been watching this for more than an hour. the man stole a motorcycle and has been leading police on the chase. but the cops were only in the chopper, not on the ground. apparently he abandoned the motorcycle while we were in the last story and he is now just hiding from the police. hopefully we will get a picture of that in a moment. we're waiting for the police to find where he is. and we have no idea why this all started in the first place. we just know the second we looked up and we got with our affiliate in phoenix, arizona, he was already on the run. do we have video of that? now they have zoomed in. you see the police officers on the outside. it looks like an apartment complex to me. so they're just kind of waiting out there.

motorcycle. so he turns. again, there were no police officers right behind him. gets off the motorcycle and bails. just starts running into this. again, it looks like it's an apartment complex. there. and then that's where he ran into. and i guess we haven't seen him since then. get more information. again, this is live. you see the cops out there waiting outside of where this man may have run into. so as soon as we get -- hopefully in the booth they will watch this for us. as soon as we have something on this, we will bring it to you. again, the man in phoenix, arizona has gotten off of the motorcycle and is now hiding at this time. did that siren get your attention? you have to see this police

believe it. that's a 15-foot-tall tree. from behind it, it looks like it might be sticking out of the sunroof. no. it's lodged in the front grill. in all seriousness, the driver with dui. we're not quite sure how they going. this happened two months ago but police in illinois just drink and drive. coming up, what one mom found on the baby formula shelves at a florida target making her kids sick. how does breakfast for dinner sound? free. free pancakes until 7:00 tonight. customers are asked to make a donation for children's miracle network while you're there.

>> right now, we want to show you live pictures of that clean- up from yesterday's train derailment because of a mudslide near san francisco, california. take a look at that. crews working to remove mud from the tracks. trying to remove the cars that went off the track before they get to the car in the mud. it could take days to clean this up. 124 passengers were on board. 14 of them were hurt. well, a huge indoor and outdoor flea market catches on fire in chicago. take a look at that. you see the smoke and flames coming from the roof. luckily only one person needed to be rescued. luckily no one was hurt. cars parked on the building's deck actually fell into the building when that roof collapsed. well, do you ever check the expiration dates on your food before you buy them? let this serve as a warning. you should probably start.

baby formula at a south florida target but unfortunately learned about it the hard way. her 3 month old daughter got extremely sick from it so they went back to the store and listen what they found. >> 2015. 2014. look at that. 2014 milk. october. >> all of them were expired. every single one of them. not one had 2016. i'm not just to sit back. i feel for the babies drinking that expired formula. >> so she told a store employee about it and the products were taken off the shelves and replaced. target released a statement saying they do have a system to monitor freshness and they are looking into what happened. donald trump says if elected he is going to build a wall between the u.s. and mexico. but what would that actually take? we will take a closer look. that's what i need, denis. bring me that fruit.

there we go. when you see the bruised fruit at the store, you probably pass on it. right? we will tell you what grocery stores are saying we're going to have a section that sells cosmetically bruised fruit and why it could help you.

>> all right. breaking news right now. we have just been told, you see right there on your screen in the middle of your screen, the guy who was being chased by the cops in phoenix, arizona on the motorcycle has finally been arrested. this was two hours long. our affiliate in phoenix says their chopper was following it for about two hours. he stole the motorcycle, got on it and started running. we have no idea what happened before that.

that he was actually arrested. i think we have that for you next here. all right. check this out. so this is when he bailed. so he turns off. looked like he knew where he was going. it looks like he was going to leave it behind and bail. he runs out into the apartment complex and runs underneath the carports. that's where he was hiding for three or four minutes before the cops were able to catch him. again, the guy has been arrested. as soon as we find out what he did, we will definitely let you know as well. right now super tuesday 2 happening with voters in four states making their presidential picks. tomorrow evening is the deadline to request your primary ballot for tuesday. 150 gop delegates are at state. democrats are voting in michigan and mississippi with more than 160 delegates up for grabs there.

repeat on his dominant super tuesday performance. a new national poll showing little bit. trump now has support from 34% with 25%. that is less than a lead than two months ago. support is one thing. but like is quite another. just about half of republicans say they actually like donald trump as the nominee. that's much less than cruz at 65% and rubio at 62%. mitt romney is also continuing his push against trump, sending out robocalls for the other candidates. >> hello, this is mitt romney. and i'm calling on behalf of marco rubio for president. i believe these are critical times that demand a serious thoughtful commander in chief. >> romney goes on to say that he is convinced that donald trump would lose to hillary clinton. he is also robocalling for john kasich. he didn't endorsing either

anyone but donald trump nominated. also right now marco rubio is about 15 minutes away from another rally in sarasota. he is on day two of a trek across florida. earlier today he stopped in kissimmee taking tough questions about whether he should get out of the race before our primary. >> it's totally false and completely debunked. it's embarrassing shameful journalism and it is ridiculous. >> no. that's politics. when you run for president, it's hard. harder. if running for president is too >> both democratic presidential candidates bernie sanders and hillary clinton will be in tampa this thursday. sanders is coming to the the afternoon. you can get into both events for free but you should go to their campaign websites to register. this is of course after they

count on us to be there every step of the way. all right. we have heard him say it over and over and over again. if elected, donald trump is going to build a wall between the u.s. and mexico. the now's todd walker is looking into what it would actually take to build said wall. >> reporter: first of all let's talk about the cost of this thing. it's going to be gigantic or as donald trump says, huge. the cost is between 10 to $12 billion. we already have a fence that runs along part of the mexican border. estimates for that which is 650 miles is about $7 billion to build this thing. that doesn't include the maintenance and the upkeep. safe to say anything that runs more than three times the distance is going to cost at least three times as much to build it. donald trump says he will get the mexican government to pay for it. the former mexican president

then there are environmental and logistical concerns. there are trees along the area. so any wall would actually have to be built inland on u.s. soil. and this fence that we've got was held up several times during the george w. bush administration from environments who say it would threaten endangered species who live in the area. just a few hurdles that this project faces if donald trump gets elected. and if he wants to build this wall that has been blasted by republicans and those in the national security administration. for the now, i'm todd walker. >> i'm going to say you're welcome for the cutest video of the day. two rare clouded leopard cubs over at the zoo. only a week and a half old. the species is facing specific threats right now in the homeland of southeast asia to poaching.

on my facebook page. just search the now tampa bay. from cute to just downright strange, visit st. pete clearwater for the strangest and going viral because people like strange stuff. best friends getting away and doing all that you do on a florida vacation but they're yettis. their vacation ends with them getting engaged during their vacation. a little viral story getting good buzz for our area. and then, look, from yettis to this. >> to gators. >> i will let you have this. >> throw a picture of a gator on facebook and you will get a million views. this is the mama gator, i think. there are the baby gators. this was in the west palm area. these are florida ducklings.

we get closer to easter, we have our version in florida. those are those baby gators. look outside. temperatures in the low 80s. a lot of sunshine from the apollo beach area. in fact a lot of sunshine everywhere. usually this time of year when we see blips on radar, a lot of times that's controlled burns or brush fires going on around the area. we could use a little rain. by saturday or sunday, we see rain chances bumped up. temperatures radioet now in -- right now are in the 70s and 80s. it's 4 degrees warmer in bartow than this time yesterday. there's the satellite picture. a little bit of cloud cover coming in. winds coming in out of the southeast. if you're tapping air down into the more tropical area, you have to figure there's a little more moisture to it and warmer which is exactly what we're seeing. now, down the road, if you're making plans for the weekend, we are dry until thursday and

then all of a sudden later saturday and sunday, we have a chance for rain. a little too early to pinpoint the timing. the gfs says saturday. by the way, speaking of saturday night, you will lose an hour of sleep. it's already spring forward this saturday night. you get more sunshine in the evening but less sleep that first night. temperatures in the 70s right now. cooling off into the mid 60s by tomorrow morning under mostly clear skies. here is a look at your four-day forecast. through saturday, rain chances begin to increase. then another chance of rain by sunday. we will pinpoint the timing of 5:00. >> thank you, denis. right now we want to show you the pictures on that arrest that we were telling you about of the guy who had stolen that motorcycle. all of this happening in phoenix, arizona. again, he was suspected of stealing that motorcycle. chased for about two hours

to arrest him. it looked like it was an apartment complex. he had kind of dove into. again, that man has been arrested and we're waiting to hear what the charges will be. it goes without saying that technology is a powerful tool. it helps the cops solve all kinds of crimes. they can go through your text messages and e-mails. apparently there is another tool that they can use that knows a lot about you. your car. >> you can do online searches on google. >> reporter: if you use the internet, you have most likely left a digital footprint behind. it's the one that you leave while driving that helps law enforcement solve crimes. >> they can store everything from gps information, navigation data, such as saved destinations, previous destinations. you can tell what phones have been connected to them. there's events that they record. things like doors opening and closing and gearshifts and whether the headlights were on or off. things that can really help law

happened before, during and after a crime. >> reporter: burla corporation in maryland is a pioneer in cyber security. they started downloading data from gps systems much as cars grew more advanced, so did the technology. >> what we found out is basically gps data is present in modern day vehicles but there's so much more data as well. >> reporter: they pull out the data and de code it. the product only available to law enforcement hit the market in 2013 and can be used to decipher roles like in this home invasion. >> when we dump the car, what we were able to see is the car did pull up in front of the house. we saw that, you know, three doors opened. the one that didn't open was the driver's door. we saw that, you know, the car sat in front of the house for about five minutes and pulled around the back about 25 minutes later you see those three same doors open but you don't see the driver's door open.

>> reporter: the data disproved the driver's story that he was alone and because they were able to see that he never left the car, they leaned on him to give up the other suspects. >> the guy who was doing the driving wasn't necessarily the main focus of the investigation. he was just the driver. >> reporter: as resourceful as it can be, it's personal data that can raise concerns about privacy. that's why he has mostly kept his company under wraps. >> it's not a simple process. it's a tool that only law enforcement has. so it's something that we really struggle with of how much do we say and when do we say it. >> reporter: in most cases law enforcement must obtain the proper permission or court order. without the technology, the average person, not even the car's manufacturers can get the data. the amount of information also depends on the car's age and system. >> sometimes you're talks months and years worth of data. >> reporter: since testimony that's are becoming more technologically advanced every

burla has thousands of clients and agencies across the world that they actually help. they started with just 80 car models that they were using. now they have grown to 4600. all right. well, one day you may be watching nfl games on facebook. executives with the social ned work site are in a bidding war to live stream thursday night football. some of the other competitors are amazon and verizon. last month abc and nbc agreed to pay 4 and a half million dollars combined to air on thursday nights. we don't know how much the streaming feature will cost. but i'm sure once we see who wins we will see how much that person had to shell out. major grocery chains give this a lot of thought. for years they kept ugly produce off shelves. now whole foods is bringing it back.

will buy fruits with bumps and bruises. >> reporter: this produce is ugly. yeah. it's ugly. >> people will not buy it. we're spoiled. americans are spoiled. we like everything perfect. >> reporter: but imperfect food is making a come back. starting next month, whole foods is cutting back on waste. a handful of the california stores will start selling the not so cute fruit and vegetables. >> it's okay to me if it's not perfect as long as it looks good. >> if it was cheaper, people would go for it. if you could have perfect and cheap, that would be great. but in this world it's not going to happen. >> reporter: when it comes to waste americans throw out 133 billion pounds of food every single year. 10% comes from grocery stores. now there's a social media push

hinting there could be a market here. >> bananas and apples. >> reporter: what remains to be seen is if stores will cash in or if it's a passing fad. for the now, i'm anne mcnamara. >> thank you, anne. giant eagle started selling imperfect produce in stores nationwide. we don't have any in our area. maybe soon. the prices are marked down. a 4-pound bag of imperfect oranges cost $2 less than the better looking counter part. i'm laura harris. thank you for joining us on the now tampa bay. abc action news at 5:00 starts right now. >> i haven't been able to get back up and be who i was before. >> hulk hogan getting personal on the stand odd.

how the infamous sex tape changed his life forever. three highlands county teachers are waiting to hear their fate accused of inappropriate contact with students. i'm wendy ryan. >> and i'm jamison uhler. the teachers have been off the job after accusations surfaced that she had sex with a 14-year- old. now two other teachers are accused of sending or receiving naked pictures of students. >> sarah rosario was there as the sheriff weighed in and explained the law to the school >> reporter: yeah, wendy. strong words from the sheriff minutes. i just walked out of this meeting here at the school board where the sheriff is telling leaders that they need to do a better job reporting. is stacie hooks. she is in hot water for sexual relationships with students. now the highlands county

district's feet to the fire by not reporting suspected child abuse. hooks is facing child pornography charges after pictures of the student she is accused of having sex with were found on her phone. trouble. report inappropriate relationships with students gardless if you work for the school system or not. >> once people cannot trust us to police ourselves or protect those that we are charged with protecting, very often your trust level deteriorates. >> reporter: and for now, stacie hooks is still in jail. coming up tonight, the school board will decide whether or not she will stay a teacher. reporting live in highlands county, sarah rosario, abc