>> a 9 foot long burmese python found near a high school? my favorite story of the day. >> yes. [ laughter ] >> good morning. it is a snake. >> exactly. >> it is a pretty good sized snake only in florida, right? we have traffic and weather together. you agree with me? >> yes, i do. no snakes. >> traffic is looking good. what's the weather like? >> the weather's good. good morning. love the humidity and that's why they live there. a lot of them were brought in. 35 mile-per-hour winds between now and the last time we spoke, we have a new national hurricane center advisory. we no longer have a tropical storm. julia is now a depression, right? not that well organized. we see, in fact, the heaviest of the rain displaced to the east, which is good news for our friends at south and north carolina. not quite over for them.

pulled back in. for now, a break. yesterday we had temps in the upper 80s and the 90s. a couple of showers offshore. we'll watch those as they continue to migrate east. by the time we get into the afternoon, woo el have inland p.m. thunderstorms. factor in the humidity as it will be another steamer. >> it is quiet the roads are dry so most of you won't have any trouble getting where you need to be. we have one crash in brandon. we have a crash state route 60 or brandon boulevard right before parsons. again, traffic indicators are all in the green so not seeing any delays from this crash. let's go ahead and take a look outside. this is what it looks like driving through st. pete i-275 right at gandy. up to speed in both directions.

your drive at i-4 looking great as well. 22 minutes to get from here to downtown tampa. this morning, investigators in two counties are trying to track down a bold jewelry thief. this guy has hit high end stores during business hours. abc action news reporter rodney dunningan is live now at gulf view square mall. we're getting a better look at this guy this morning. >> deiah, that's right. the pasco county sheriff's office surveillance photo this morning. this guy has hit two local malls. the m.o. is the same. he walks into the store, requests to see the most expensive thing they have. once he gets his hands on the item, he'll simply run out. investigators are hopeful that someone out there watching knows who this guy is and will report him. this morning, the hillsborough county sheriff's office started

store at the brandon town center. in that case, the employee chased after this guy. he got onto the hood of the get away car and flew off as the thief sped off. the pasco county sheriff's office believes the same crook hit the crown diamond jewelry store in august. investigators in the brandon case say the employee this morning is in serious condition in the hospital. that get away car is believed to be a silver two-do case or maybe you know who the guy is, contact either the pasco or hillsborough county sheriff's office this morning. rodney dunningan, abc action news. bay flight coming under fire this morning after the faa hit the company that operates the helicopter ambulances with an $892,000 safety fine. the faa says air methods corporation, which is contracted out by bay care health was careless, reckless,

after a routine inspection in november of 2014. investigators say air methods did not replace a piece of corroded equipment that measures the helicopter's speed. the report allegations the company did 51 trips before replacing the part. since 2014, abc action news found air methods faced $3 million for alleged violations. the company released a statement that reads in part "air methods is further investigating the allegations and the cooperation in the matter. we take safety seriously and the safe return of our crew and the patients we serve is and always will be the highest priority at air methods. "a spokesperson tells us they'll look into the allegations this morning. police are searching for the driver you see behind me right now. that driver is shown plowing head on into a parked suv. keep watching and you'll see it

woman's brother who woke her up in a panic early in the morning. you can see them slamming right into the parked suv. the driver simply backed away and drove off. the suv was damaged so badly, the engine shifted and can't be driven now. this damage could cost her brother more than just the vehicle. five new travel-related cases of yesterday one right here in hillsborough county, another in polk county. several bills to fund the fight against zika have failed. the latest because democrats say it would have cut funding to planned parenthood clinics in puerto rico that do not screen for it. a lost of the children born

money to fight the virus could run out by the end of the month. >> this is $1.1 billion. we need the federal government to come up with a vaccine. we need more research dollars. we need more support. this isn't just a florida issue. we're the tip of the spear. we have over 60 people now with local or nontravel-related zika. this is going to be a national issue. >> another key deadline is september 30th when a deal on the federal spending must pass shutdown. a scary scene in a south florida wal-mart. an employee killed a would-be robber right there in the parking lot. the armed man came up to the employee who was sitting in his car and the two got into a fight and the employee shotted man. >> my brother works hard to take care of him and his child, at the end of the day. >> police believe the shooting

starting a fire at a mosque and faces charges that could put him behind bars for 30 years. it's believed he targeted it because the pulse nightclub shooter was a member there. they may be adding hate crimes after finding anti-islamic posts on his facebook page. fort pierce police arrested him yesterday. a subway employee who gave a customer a free cookie man. she said she'd seen the guy before. he came in once to buy cookies, which she gave him for free. another time he came in to complain about the cookies. a man accused of ripping off a boy scout. this happened in ocala. this man bought trail mix from a boy scout during a fund- raiser. he slipped the scout a phony

woman's purse while she was paying for gas. they released his image hoping somebody will recognize him. pinellas county commissioners are taking action to solve continuing sewer system issues. a board initiating a county wide storm water task force. the decision comes on the heels of recent severe weather that flooded the city's sewer system. pass course will come one solutions including the potential need for increasing the system. take a look over my shoulder there. you see what those officers are holding? that is a 9 foot long burmese python found near a florida high school in an area where students walk every day. the teacher says it surprised him during a less on on

getting away. that's too much for me. speaking of florida fish and wildlife officers, they plan to rescue four stranded manatees. >> hurricane hermine left them stranded. they seem to be doing just fine in the pond since the storm, but they need to get them back to their natural habitat. so at 9:00, they will be moved out of the pond and checked out if they under good health, they will be released back into the wild. here's what we need to it do. just bring one of those as the pet of the week on friday. >> oh, that won't happen. >> ivan, i thought you were my friend. >> i want to help you get through thisp. >> we're not even going to discuss this. >> i've been trying for 13 years, ivan. nothing works. the bus stop forecast look goods. by the afternoon, we'll talk

tropics. we'll have that in a couple of minutes. >> thanks, my once former friend. still ahead, one of the most expensive divorces in history. >> we'll tell you how much money one tech tycoon has been ordered to pay to his ex. it comes with a lot of zeros. >> plus, a man caught trying to sell a teenager for sex. a few years ago it would have been hard to send the man to

13 minutes after 5:00 on this thursday morning. deputies in tennessee caught a man they say tried to sell a 15-year-old girl online for sex. the man you just saw, brocket lane advertised the teen run away services on backpage.com. detectives met the girl and said lange forced her into prostitution. he is charged with trafficking a child for a commercial sex act. he faces up to 12 years in prison thanks to a before the law passed, it would have been a misdemeanor. the girl is now in child services custody. starting the school day with the pledge of allegiance is an american tradition but the constitution guarantees students have a right to stay silent or sit it out. one student in california says a teacher docked her grades for

second grade. it's never been a problem until this year. her teacher docked her participation grade for sitting. >> she told me i was being disrespectful. i was pretty mad because she was being disrespectful towards me, also, in saying that i am making bad choices and i don't have the choice to sit down during the pledge. >> thompson is one of two students who sat during the pledge. they have been switched to a different class but haven't said yet what will happen a chinese couple is in the middle of one of the most expensive divorces ever. the husband is a tech tycoon and being forced to give his ex- wife stock worth more than a billion dollars. he made headlines after buying the gay dating app grinder. he and his wife are worth an estimated $3.5 billion together. the bay joining court ordered

billion. >> wow! >> by the way, they've been together since they were this elementary school. so it's only fair. >> oh, yeah that's true. i good's that makes sense. right, ivan? >> it certainly does. $1.2 billion? >> $1.3. >> a fraction of that would be nice. let's talk about julia here. we have the feature here that begins to spin up. we'll talk a and storms. if you are in south carolina or north carolina, most of that rain displays to the east. the storm is going to hang out in the next few days until moisture will get pulled back in there. for us, it is quiet. so far, a couple of offshore showers. we'll keep tracking those. they eventually will. i just don't think they will be here. we'll be in good shape for the remainder of the morning.

by 9:00, 10:00, during the 9:00 hour, we should be able to track showers here. then eventually, we'll turn into thunderstorms. again, the coverage is not all that impressive. it's just the tropical air mass will have the potential. nothing severe. here's julia. this organized depression is no longer an organized tropical storm. over the islands is storm karl. that is the forecast as it heads west. look at the forecast. this is by tuesday early morning, 45 mile-per-hour winds. still minimal tropical storm as it approaches the lesser antilles. it will be a big rain event. we'll see if it tries to get better organized. upper 80s this afternoon will feel like 95-plus. it's quite humid as you would expect with the tropical air

be ongoing. although, the beach will be later today as opposed to the morning. sunrise is still two hours away. we have plenty of time to get your eyes ready to go for the sun. it will be 40% coverage, about i the way. friday and saturday, lower. we can deal with that and that continues into the early part of next week. i am waiting for the first cold front. i know a lot of folks are. that will feel first cold front here? >> octoberish. >> a long time away. if you are heading out the door, we are looking at good roads out there. we have one crash to tell about you. this is going to be in bradenton right at state road 70. traffic indicators are all in the green so we're not seeing think delays. i'll keep my eye on it to let

on, on the west shore bay to bay. both directions will be using just one lane from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. it's best to avoid the area if you can. back to you. all right. thanks, janelle. it's 5:19 now. animal rights activists are celebrating a new law in california to make at the time first state to ban breeding and holding killer whales in captivity can only be used for educational presentations. hero san diego is ending its breeding programs and phasing out theatrical killer whale shows. coming up, a hacker released a second batch of medical records for olympic athletes. >> also ahead, you don't always get what you don't pay for.

>> first, the galaxy note 7 recall might be just the tip of the iceberg for samsung. a different phone is being investigated for possibly causing a fire. abc's kendis gibson and diane macedo have more on today's tech bytes. >> hey there. are there more battery problems for samsung some. >> the federal government is looking into incidents involving phones other than the galaxy note as police in florida ar investigating whether a galaxy s7 caused a car fire. >> in a statement, samsung insists the battery problems are only for the note 7 and no other model. twitter is expanding its video streaming content. >> tonight, it will share the first of ten thursday night football games. you need to download the new app. a pizza-maker in silicon valley is using robots to help

added soon. the robots are being used so more money can be spent on high-quality ingredients.

good thursday morning to you. we're learning much more about

records and released medical information on american olympic athletes. they just released a second batch of records. this time on 25 athletes from ten countries, including the u.s. the hacker group known as the fancy bears and cozy bears are being linked to russian secret services, but the kremlin is denying that. they have hidden their digital trail but plenty of circumstances is tying them to the russian government. >> those are linked to the hack of the democratic party e- hack attacks on russia's volatile neighbors georgia and ukraine. coming up, a crazy roommate story that starts long before students moved into a college dorm. you'll never believe the demands one girl had for her college roommates. >> what the clinton campaign released and what donald trump

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now at 5:30, a woman accused of attacking rehab workers say dozens of police officers in san francisco took advantage of her.

>> a hidden crime caught on camera but it's what the cameras didn't catch that may make this a hard crime to solve. good rng, i'm deiah riley. >> i'm dan shaffer. >> looking great out there. roads are clear. so far so good. >> i didn't get the "red" memo. [ laughter ] >> stand over there. >> oh, no. >> that's all right. we'll mix it up carolinas. 35 mile-per-hour winds will bring rainfall. it looks like it's moving away, but it will pull back a little. for us, showers will continue to develop. they'll do that rather early with the tropical air mass. it won't take long before tropical storm as long the coast and everything inland.