just days after the start of school in pinellas county a local teacher fighting to recover after being hit by a drunk driver. ahead in a live report, why it turns out that driver has a long history of trouble with the law.

session but a few more counties have their first day of school today. if you're waking them up for school, your kids, we're waking you up with team coverage. >> we'll check in on summer construction that went on right down to the wire. plus a new curriculum that will have kids using their own cell phones and tablets to learn. thank you so much for waking up with abc action news. >> first to kick off the first day of school in pasco and polk counties, janelle and ivan with traffic and weather together. >> you wanto it will take a little longer to get there with the buses but no real issues out there now. >> next week of vacation, do they leave later in the summer? that's turning it around, right? good for you pasco and polk. >> shortening up the year. right. looking murky out there. checking with ryan, reporting a little fog on the ground. i don't think it will be a huge deal but patchy fog not out of the question for eastern pasco

7:01 sunrise. so it will be dark for a while. upper 70s. by pickup time umbrellas required, showers and storms, though sometimes storms difficult with the umbrellas and the winds as they get gusty. by 11:00, 12:00, looks good, a few sprinkles and showers and storms, then really getting going by the time we get to 3:00 and the bulk falling between 4:00 and 8:00 later this evening with this easterly flow we had developed here. our temperatures by the it will feel like it's in the 100s later this afternoon. so another steamer of a day out there. >> don't let the kids wait there too long after school. >> good point. corey dierdorff driving for us on i-4 around 301, no crashes or breakdowns on i-4, really checking all the way back to lakeland into downtown tampa. we have cameras all along i-4

fhp is reporting a crash in manatee county, this is southbound i-75 just past 275, this just came in so we're not sure if there's any roadblock with this. traffic indicators seem to be in the green so not a huge slowdown. i'll let you know if we start to see slowdowns, but in the meantime just watch for that. this is i-4 just east of i-75. again i-4 looking great. no issues there, no crashes just about seven minutes to get from 75 to 275. and on 275 southbound from the apex, 13 minutes to make that drive and down there at the bottom just five minutes to get from i-4 to the howard frankland. 5:33. a big morning ahead in polk and pasco counties. students head back to class and we've got you covered with team coverage. >> we begin in polk won't --

its new school. ryan reyes live in davenport with more. >> exciting day for students in polk county, especially the ones coming here to polk's newest school called the citrus ridge academy in davenport. if you're not familiar with this part of the county, we're about five minutes away from disney world. that is how close we are to the theme parks out here in davenport. last week i got a sneak peek of this school. it looked like an active construction site, just four daysag to be done but they assured everyone it would get done and this morning it is. the school is a little different than what you may be used to. it's a civics academy. the theme is taking action, participating in government and becoming a leader. the district decided to build the new school because davenport is growing and a school was desperately needed. >> we're at capacity at this point. we've had parents coming and

last couple weeks so we need to make sure everyone is patient as we're registering students, as we speak. >> reporter: there are about 1,400 students enrolled at this citrus ridge academy. that is a k-8 school and students should be arriving in the next little while. exciting day for them. and all the students in polk county. this bears repeating all morning, there will be about 500 buses on the roath making 8,000 stops so if you're traveling out here today give yourself extra time as they get used to the new routes and new stops. at least give yourself five to 10 minutes if area driving out here in polk county this morning. and watch out for children. live in davenport, ryan raish, abc action news. we continue tower back-to- school team coverage in pasco county where students are encouraged to bring their cell phones to class.

bayonet point middle school where they are unveiling big changes this morning. james, tell us about this. >> reporter: i don't think you'll find too many cell phones confiscated here. it's a method of learning that we're told is only in a few places in the sixty one. it's -- places in the country. it's a s.t.e.m. magnet school. you might hear this term more -- infused classrooms. learner. teachers are encouraging students to bring their tablets or cell phones to class. the principal using that term "level up learning." for the same reason they think kids can get engaged in mobile games for hours a day. i'm sure you've seen kids play pokemon go for hours on end. they think it's because of the progress they kneel making it to the -- feel making to it

>> we're going to translate that to the classroom. we wants them to level up. once they get hire, now what? learning doesn't stop. learning is ongoing for our students. >> reporter: the magnet school has an emphasis on technology but want students to work in an area they are interested in, at a pace they can handle. live in pasco county, james tully, abc action news. new road in pasco county and you can jump on board for free today. this is video of the new wheels. they will be used on a new route connecting to route 54. the county used an fdot grant to pay for the buses. they are offering a free round trip on this route for today only. you can board at any of the stops along the route to take part. today there's a ribbon- cutting ceremony for the first

families, provides catholic preparatory education along with real world work experience. network officials say it has a proven track record of ending the cycle of poverty for many students. the tampa locations near the seminole hard rock casino, ribbon-cutting set for 1:00 this afternoon. a weekend into the pinellas county school year a music teacher is nearly killed in a drunk driving wreck >> she and her friend are fighting to recover this morning. the other driver facing charges. abc action news reporter rodney dunigan live at sexton elementary school this morning. >> a tough day for students there. >> reporter: according to the school's web site that is a music teacher at the school. this will be a very difficult day for students and staff. especially with school just starting last week. this is a picture of the man police say is behind it all. 36-year-old brice macleod accused of driving drunk. of course pinellas park police

early sunday morning. he ran into that car driven by 34-year-old caroline sine, sine along with the passenger in the car, her boyfriend, 36-year-old sean hankins were both serious low hurt. at last check both in critical condition at bayfront hospital this morning. brice macleod is charged with two counts of dui, serious bodily injury. if either of the victims' dies the charges will be upgraded. we also ar something else we learned, turns out that brice macleod has been arrested numerous times in at least two other counties for dui. of course much more on that side of the story this morning at 6:45. in meantime friends and family of that teacher, caroline sine, they've started a gofundme page to pay for her medical expenses. for now reporting live in pinellas county, rodney dunigan, abc action news. meanwhile we're learning more about a wrong-way driver in hillsborough county.

after he started to drive southbound in the northbound lane of anderson road. one person suffered minor injuries, another was sent to st. joseph's hospital. authorities arrested mendez for dui. we're told this case was one of three wrong way driver cases in the bay area over the weekend. today officials are checking out local efforts to bring tech businesses to the bay area. u.s. senate candidate patrick murphy and mayor bob buckhorn will stop by and visit an organization calle and launch and grow the breakout companies that open up here. we'll let you know if they make any noamghts later this morning. florida's primary election is not until august 31st but hillsborough county can begin voting. it's the first in the bay area to offer early voting. every bay area county will start early voting by saturday. we made this easy for to you

abcactionnews.com/democracy2016 you can find this article right here that lists early voting times, dates and locations, for all 11 bay area counties. later this morning a new pet loss center will open in tampa. 6091 johns road set to open 9:00 this morning. it's a 6,000 square foot facility that offers pet owners and vet clinics pet loss services including cremation, memorialization and grieving support. a staff encourages anyet time during business hours. the facility's phone is answered 24/7. orlando has been named the most pet-friendly city in the nation. wallethub.com ranked orlando at the top because of its large number of veterinarians, pet businesses and animal shelters. tampa is ranked a respectable third on the list, st. petersburg 17th. tico is warning tampa residents you can see low- flying helicopters like this in

inspecting tampa's electric transmission lines. work is scheduled to start at 89:00 a.m., will continue for several weeks. inexpectedors may also work on the weekend. all the work should be done by mid-september. >> them start using drones -- they could start using drones. upper 70s. warm and muggy with a few clouds. we'll talk about when the days, in a few minutes. a car on fire as protests take a violent turn in milwaukee. what else happened in the streets after a police-involved shooting that has the state on standby to demoi the narkd? -- deploy the national guard? >> it's a big campaign day for trump and clip.

overnight helicopters from tv stations and police flew over milwaukee neighborhoods for the second night violent protests occurring in that wisconsin city after a black officer shot and killed a black man over the weekend. police say that man was running from a traffic stop with a gun and turned toward the officer. overnight one officer was

cruiser's windshield. a second officer was injured after being hit by a thrown object. at least one car was torched overnight. as you saw it exploded on live tv. the violence overnight wasn't as bad as saturday when six businesses were burned to the ground. police forced to use an armored vehicle to reach an 18- year-old man shot overnight. the milwaukee mayor is pleaseding with parents to keep their kids away from the protest area in an effort to calm down his city. what a scary situation ryan lochte. yesterday morning people posing as armed police officers pulled over the taxi they were in with a gun pointed at lochte's head. the man demanded the americans hand over money and wallets. lochte tweeted he appreciated fans for the support he received adding the most important thing is he and his teammates are safe and unharmed. isn't that true? while the swimming events are

medals put the u.s. at the very top. >> we're not just leading in the overall medal count, we have 69 total medals but also leading in the gold medal count -- yesterday alex nador became the first american man to meddle on the pummel horses since the boycott of the 1994 games in los angeles. ended up winning the bronze. max whitlock of great britain took the gold. in the first olympic golf tournament in 112 years american matt kutcher shot a 63 yesterday, good enough to win bronze. he said he's never been so happy in his life to finish in third place.

birdied the 18th hole by a single shot. over sweden. good morning on our monday, looking pretty good. here's what's ahead the next few days, lots of sunshine through the early part of the day and then the afternoon storms will fire. of course the movement through the early part of the week will be east-to-west. we'll see the storms last along the coast, across the interior and continue to develop. hot today, 90 and 59 in the upper 70s now. titan doppler radar tight quiet so the morning commute will be dry. patchy fog, nothing widespread. and notice the shower activity to the south from southeast to northwest. that is the prevailing pattern here as far as the wind flow where we have showers and thunderstorms developing along 95 and everything pushes towards the beaches as we head through the latter part of the day. so between 4:00 and 8:00 that is when we'll see the storms firing last, but already by

then look east and see the cloud cover thickening up and storms developing and heading in our direction, again between 4:00 and 8:00 i think that will be the range to see the strongest storms as far as heavy rainfall and frequent lightning. temperatures before all that happens, 90 to 95, it will be hot today with the temperature a little above average and then more cloud cover the next few days. we'll have temperatures back to 91, 92 but really these numbers, again, with the heat index feeling much hotter than that. rain coverage 40% to through the end of the week and heading into the upcoming weekend. so nothing unusual, nothing organized, in pretty good shape. let's head to the traffic center. i think most people heading out the door now won't have any trouble getting to where they need to be. we're watching one crash in manatee southbound i-75, this is going to be just past 275, reports of some roadblock in the southbound lanes and i am seeing some slowdown as you can

if you're heading that way through manatee you may want to give yourself extra time, we'll keep an eye on it and i'll keep you updated here and on twitter @tampabaytraffic. elsewhere across the bay area, looking pretty good across the bridges. no issues out there. this is what it looks like, tampa side of the courtney campbell causeway. let's go ahead and check drive times across all three bridges. still under 10 minutes for each. 5:51. coming up, what you could be doing while you're sleeping that could end up with you in

in democracy 2016, a big campaign day for the republican and democratic presidential nominee. >> both in must win swing states. hillary clinton in pennsylvania, ohio. trump plans to outline his foreign policy plans, his main focus, destroying the islamic state group and other terrorist organizations. he'll argue the country needs to work with anyone who shares the same mission regardless of other disagreements. trump is also expected to propose a new immigration policy and new test for admission to the country. meanwhile clinton and vice president joe biden will be in scranton, biden's hometown. and today will be his first campaign rally for clinton. biden plans to declare trump

presidential nominee in history. biden's office says he'll argue that trump is less prepared on national security than any previous nominee. biden will praise clinton with offering solutions for the middle class on jobs and education. 5:55. dentists say this is something you should think about. when you first wake up. >> we're talking about teeth grinding. it's not uncommon and can be very harmful to it can be brought on by stress or anxiety. experts say talk to your dentist who may recommend a mouth guard to protect your teeth from grinding during sleep before it gets worse. a brand new school done just in time for the first day in polk county. next at 6:00 -- the unique theme at citrus ridge academy. >> if kids can play mobile games and stay engaged for

the same thing in the classroom? teachers at a middle school in pasco county think they found the answer. details coming up. >> we're in pretty good shape as we head to the bus stop for pasco and polk, looking good. upper 70s but by the afternoon you need the rare gene, showers and storms firing up once again. we'll talk about that in the

two more bay area counties heading back to school this morning. >> here's a live look in polk county where there's multimillion-dollar improvements this year. thank you for joining us for waking up with abc. >> let's get you out the door with a look at traffic and weather together. whether you're dropping kids at class or heading to work, a little patchy fog out there.

early. we have a couple of crashes. we'll get to that in a minute. >> it's not a huge deal but fog is patchy and visibility still over three miles so i think we're ok as temperatures are in the upper 70s. dew points in the 70s. quite steamy. of course it's august. middle of the wet season. but titan doppler radar pretty quiet. we have a southwesterly flow, that gives us morning showers. but that is not the case. a southeasterly flow will favor late-day thunderstorm activity. much like yesterday and the day before. though little higher than yesterday. we had a lot of clouds yesterday early precluding the development here especially across tampa and st. pete. so polk county, pasco, looking pretty good through the middle part of the day and then by the time we get to 2:30 we begin to see isolated showers and storms popping up. but won't be until 4:00 and 5:00, 6:00 we really get going and that is when we're expecting temperatures to peak out before that happens. by the ray around 93 for a daytime high, making it feel like 100s. and then from 4:00 to 7:00

chances and -- right through the neck few days. no big changes as i see it until we get to thursday and friday. at least the roads are dry so no issues there, corey dierdorff is watching things for us behind the wheel of our live drive cam. on bruce b downs now. some cars on the roads but no crashes or breakdowns. off smooth ride all up and down bruce b downs. we have a couple of crashes that we want to talk about. the first one, in hillsborough county, in tampa, northbound westshore around gray street, before you get to 275. reports of roadblock there. that's what happens when fhp gets word of the crash after we do. that there are some delays there, possibly so give yourself extra time. further south we're still watching this crash in manatee county, so if you're driving through palmetto on i-75 heading south we're seeing some delays from a crash here just after 275, so definitely give