dead birds have been washing up across the bay area. why sewage dumps may to be blame. >> today was supposed to be the day the public transportation commission votes on controversial rules for ridesharing companies but that vote is called off. we'll explain why and what could still happen today. good morning, thank you for joining us on abc action news. we're following breaking news from usf. a car has crashed into an apartment building. >> james tully is on his way there. a few minutes. first let's check the forecast with ivan cabrera. new information on the latest tropical storm. making number three so far this season. colin, hermine. this one won't have as much impact. nowhere near it. across jacksonville, the latest advisory from the national hurricane center, it's just a big rain event. 40 mile-an-hour sustained winds. some wind gusts across the coastal area of georgia and south carolina but really it's big rain.

on the back side will continue to move in. by the way this is the track, not much track. this is the forecast for tomorrow night. it's still over the same area. so just giving you an idea of how long the rain is going to last there. for us, the rainfall has already begun it's not torrential or widespread but there are a few pockets of rainfall, longboat key getting in on that and even 75 will be wet on the southern side. widen out the shot and you see everything moving quickly so. you'll be in and out of the showers in no forecast as we take you to the next few days the tropical stays with us today. and we have to wait for the dryness in time for the weekend. that looks good. for this morning, take it a little slow across the southern counties. for most of us no problems but i checked the maps to see where we're seeing the wet roads and potential for ponding. it is south as ivan said, sarasota, a little ponding

driving those roads, just use extra caution this morning. otherwise should be a smooth ride for you. unfortunately we do have a serious crash, someone was killed in the crash in pasco overnight. eastbound ridge road is completely blocked now at airway boulevard. keep it in mind, investigators are trying to figure out exactly what happened. a lot of flashing lights, avoid that area if you can. i'll let you know as soon as it clears here and on twitter @tampabaytraffic. as for the interstates, we're in great shape. that construction cleared, i- 275 through downtown tampa looking great this morning. 5:0 2. protesters angered by sewage dumping interrupted a meeting last night in st. petersburg. they say sewage is killing birds. this morning wildlife officials are testing several dead birds after dozens ended up dead along the beaches over the last week. lorraine margison with florida shorebird alliance says 45 juvenile black skimmers have

she and other ecoscientists in the bay area currently suspect the deaths could be connected to the more than 70 million gallons of sewage officials say they've had to dump into tampa bay since hurricane hermine. the birds may have caught salmonella from the waste water. today's controversial vote to regulate ridesharing companies like uber and lyft is cancelled. according to the tampa bay business journal the hillsborough county public transportation commission called off that vote. ptc chairman victor cris because the public didn't get enough notice on the meeting. members still plan to discuss the issues, that starts at 9:00, it includes controversial fares, that uber says will leave the county if it passes. madeira beach ferry and water taxi should start running next month. the project experienced several

today from city hall to jungle prada, treasure island and johns pass. hubbard's marina and tampa bay beaches chamber are also involved in the project. george zimmerman is on the witness stand again, this time describing the moments he says when a drier threatened him with a gun. >> -- a driver threatened him with a gun. >> i saw the silver barrel of a gun, then i -- i didn't see -- i heard him. >> which direction was the >> at my face. >> police say matthew apperson fired at zimmerman during a traffic incident in seminole county last year. zimmerman had several highly publicized incidents since he was acquitted of killing trayvon martin three years ago. just last month zimmerman got into a fight at a bar. we have an update on a ongoing death investigation in south florida.

people found dead in a lauder hill home last week were murdered. officials say 42-year-old dwight brown, his son, 21-year- old denzel brown and a 50-year- old woman were shot multiple times. right now police say the victims were targeted and the community at large is not in danger. there is a $3,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest. testimony resumes today for a man accused of trying to kill an armored truck driver in altamonte springs. marcus rivera last october outside of a crowded publix and snatched the bag he was carrying stuffed with $5,000. in court yesterday the victim didn't watch the surveillance video of the robbery. instead he stared at his accused attacker. he later described how he was ambushed from behind. he says with no time to grab his done.

mcgee's cell phone where he searched local news sites for stories about the robbery. they say he checked one news story 12 times. a that state attorney's office will investigate the death of lavonia riggins. his death triggered several protests. the deputy who shot riggins says riggins was reaching for something. riggins pe unarmed. worshippers will go back to the fort pierce mosque for the first time since the arson sunday. there's a reward that leads to the arrest of the person that set the fire. officials have gotten tips about the arson but none have led to a possible suspect. southwest airlines added a new perk for its a-list and a-

it allows members to do this for same-day flights but only in two hours of the scheduled departure time of their original flight. previously travelers had to pay applicablefare difference if they wanted to switch to a different flight. princeton again holds the top spot as the best university in the country. "u.s. news & world report" released its annual best colleges rankings, the sixth year in a row that princeton is ranked number one. number two is harvard followed by the university of for the 14th consecutive year williams college in williamstown, massachusetts has been named best national liberal arts college. talking to your kids about the birds and the bees? it can be awkward but new research suggests you can't rely on schools to give your kids the sex talk. new research shows students complain their sex ed classes carry a negative tone, make assumptions based on outdated

bisexual or transgender issues. and it's believed young men are feeling pressured to exaggerate their knowledge about sex and young women not participating in class out of fierce of sexual harassment -- fears of sexual harassment later. and there are other problems as well. you may soon be able to get groceries and caffeine fix at the same place. publix is adding starbucks kiosks to some of its kiosks. so far no word on other locations. tropical storm julia took out a gas station awning near jacksonville. families there are worried about the possibility of flooding. ivan has more. i think we're going to be ok as far as the heavy rainfall. that is going to be moving away from them but you can see the damage with the thunderstorm in the afternoon for our area here. any time in the summer there.

45, 50 plus mile-per-hour wind gusts along the coast. that was of course yesterday and into this morning, we have julia along the southeastern part of georgia here, beginning to move away but still impacting our weather, on the back side of it still showers coming in. nothing terrific but still enough to kind of wet your morning commute. so we'll continue to track these, nothing severe at all as they continue to head to the north and east. more where that came from. we'll talk more about the futurecast, extended 7-day forecast a woman opens a purse what she believes caused it, coming up. >> a strange story from ohio. a heart is found in a bag in a field. what authorities are doing now

5:13. breaking news near the usf campus. a car crashed into an apartment building. abc action news anchor james tully just arrived on scene. wh is happening out there? >> reporter: the good news, nobody's hurt. you said this suv crashed into the apartment building. more like hit it. let's show you what happened. i just spoke with the woman who lives here. you can see there's a pretty clear mark in this wall. you can see clear through into the apartment, pieces of the wall on the floor and everything else. le woman says it's where her children usually sleep.

the car, all i can say is i'm still looking at them. they are here. matt, show this. the suv's that was involved. police here as well. they didn't flee the scene. they are here. we have not seen sobriety checks or anything like that done. police still questioning them. we'll find out what charges they may face shortly. you can see the damage is pretty clear. not the way you want to get woken up at 5:00 in the morning but everybody's ok. again apartments, a little damage. i'll tweet out more pictures on twitter. so look at that. we'll stay here and talk to the woman in a moment and be back next hour. live in tampa, james tully, abc action news. u.s. air force central

capabilities in iraq. that served as headquarters for the terror organization. as of now the pentagon doesn't know for sure what chemicals were being developed at that facility. police in ohio now trying to figure out why a heart was left in a baggy in a field. they think it's a human heart but have no idea how it got there or who it belongs to. ems crew found it in late august, that heart was in good condition they say and only just started to decompose. no indication it was part of a vi from the heart to see if it contains any preservatives. and a veterinarian is trying to rule out if that heart came from an animal. caught on camera -- in new jersey, that is a woman's purse on fire there. you can see a cloud of smoke pouring from her back. keep watching there. people in the mall thought it just caught fire spontaneously but mara mckearny thinks the spare battery for her vape cigarette device in the pocket

she said it melted everything inside. according to vape store workers if a vape battery tapes to something with positive and negative sides it can overheat. she said she heard a loud pop and looked in the bag and poof, smoke comes out. >> scary stuff. ivan with florida's most accurate forecast. another update on julia. >> yes. are you surprised we have a julia? >> yes. >> surprised a lot of people. >> we went om of this forming yesterday -- though if you were with us yesterday morning we have been talking about how well organized the wave was. really got things going here. this is extremely unusual. the hurricane folks will go back and see if we actually had a depression come on shore or whether this thing actually formed over land, but very unusual. only 2% of tropical cyclones can form over land. just basically is unheard of here. so there it is.

so 40 mile-per-hour winds, that's the latest advisory. you can see the rain is pushing towards the georgia coast and into south carolina. but for us, it's just a little moisture left over from the gulf. that is enough to bring us showers on and off today as -- and thunderstorms. by the way we've had damage with julia, with significant wind gusts here in excess of 45 and actually had a tornado report in brevard county but nothing in our area and this will be the lesser affected storm for us as far as rainfall, or significant wind from what and with hermine a few weeks ago. so showers still ongoing at this hour. nothing blinding here. we've seen worse through our morning commute but just keep in mind it's not going to be as dry as we've had the last couple of days. you'll need the windshield wipers as you head up on 75. rainfall potential for today, thinking upwards of an inch so it's not going to be a huge widespread rain i don't think but we're going to see and get

afternoon climbing up into the mid and upper 80s. much as we had yesterday because of the cloud cover. that is one bonus, not as hot. by the way the rain chances still holding at 50 today and tomorrow but friday we'll get back to 30% and 40% and heading into the weekend as well with temperatures both weekend days around 90 degrees. let's check in on the relatively wet for some wednesday morning commute. >> wet for some, dry for most. i looked for w cameras, couldn't find any. some wet roads around sarasota, bradenton, once you get to st. pete on 275 at gandy you'll hit some dry roads. looking great there between the sunshine skyway and the howard frankland. we're still watching this serious crash in pasco, a fatal crash closed eastbound ridge road at airway boulevard so expect that to be closed for quite some time. let's talk about construction in south tampa. this is affecting westshore boulevard today through friday.

north of bay-to-bay. so both lanes of traffic have to share just one lane. this could get pretty messy. it's from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., you may want to avoid this. take bay to bay to lois to work your way around that. back to you. 5:19. a magistrate issued an arrest warrant for a university of north carolina football player who has been accused of rape. 21-yea including misdemeanor sexual battery. the victim says the attack happened on valentine's day and she has been pushing for the charges for months. she held a news conference yesterday. the victim admits to drinking but accuses the universities of not supporting her. she says investigators asked her what she describes as demeaning questions. coming up -- why a homeowner in texas believes a child is behind a recent break-

defending themselves after hackers accessed their medical data. what they are saying about the russian hackers' allegation

5:23. russian hackers released what they say are medical records for some of team usa's highest

star venus williams. the world anti-doping agencies confirming its datessabase was hacked -- data base was hacked and anti-doping agency in may released some information on russians banned. biles said she was taking medicine for adhd and not ashamed to admit it. the americans who were hacked say their use of medications were under doctors' oer police in houston are working to figure out if children are behind a home break-in. the suspects in the burglary left notes behind that appeared to have been written by children. the homeowner says the thieves busted in his back door, took off with his playstation and controllers. when he realized he had been robbed he started to look for clues, when he says he found notes left behind. one read "i stole your stuff because my brother told me to steal." >> just heartwrenching to read

that this is somebody that, just made the wrong choice. somebody who just decided to kick over somebody's door and take stuff and thought it was a good choice. >> he filed a police report, also beefing up security at his home. police are telling others in the neighborhood to make sure their homes are locked until the suspects are caught. 5:25. coming up -- a burglar caught on camera taking a snack break in someone's home. you'll never believe how many times you broke into the same ho >> hurricane hermine took its toll on the bay area. ahead we'll show you the damage that storm caused at one popular local beach. >> good morning. we're keeping an eye on the roads. this is live look at the howard frankland bridge, looking great.

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deputies in pinellas county sending out a major warning, lock your car door. this after a rash of crimes involving teens. ahead in a live report i'll detail exactly the warning they are sending out to keep you and your family safe. troubling news for women.

few extra pounds could take a toll on your career. a lot of folks will talk about that. >> not fair. good morning, thank you for joining us on abc. it's not fair. >> it's not. it's a wednesday, it's not fair i only have a three-day workweek. >> it's definitely not fair. let's update traffic and weather together. >> no big issues. a couple of potholes, or sinkholes. we'll talk about that coming up. >> sinkhole capital? >> yes. in these parts, minnesota gets bedrock there. 40 mile-per-hour winds. what do you have here? a tropical storm, named julia and continues to impact with georgia and into the carolinas. that is where the heaviest rain is going to be, that is where the gustiest winds are going to be, for us still residual impact on the back side of it. we will be clipped on and off throughout the day. this is a big rain event for them.