be able to do anything, because while the let efrs raced with racial slurs, there's not an actual threat. >> that letter was stoent the family's home in port st. john. they've lived there for years and never had about pros before. channel 9's jeff deal spoke with the father today. he's most worried about his kids. >>reporter: he has three daughters, they love to play out in the neighborhood every day. and he says for him to get a letter that's filled with racial slurs, and calling the children ugly, has him concerned about their safety. it was a plain envelope addressed to tenant, sent through the u.s. mail to david fuller's port st. john home. what was inside has him outraged. >> i was floored. you know, when i saw it, i was like, i didn't though what to say, what to do. >>reporter: david is married to a white woman. they have three children. this is the letter. says the most ugly n-words and n-word lovers live in the house

values of every house on the street. please don't have anymore ugly kids. >> i feel sorry for them. racism shouldn't be around gnome. >>reporter: after he posted the letter on the neighborhood watch facebook page, neighbors wallied in support of the familiar -- rallied in sort of the family. >> it hurts me that someone feels that way about them because they're the sweetest people i know. >>reporter: the family has contacted the brevard county sheriff's office and filed a report, but says they were told there was nothing that could be done since it doesn't contain an actual threat. for david and his family, this is clearly hate mail. he feel threatened by the nature of the let e and more than anything, they worry about their reference to their children. >> it concerns me a lot because my children play around a lot. >>reporter: and fuller is the actual homeowner, he is not a tenant, and he says, despite the let e he says he loves this community, and he doesn't have any plans to leave. reporting live in port st. john in brevard county, jeff deal, channel 9 yns news.

just one day away, and now that it's getting down to the wire, presidential candidates have your vote. today, we heard from donald in melbourne. and now channel 9's ty russell takes you inside of hillary clinton's efforts in winter park where the next few hours, former president bill clinton will rally on her behalf. >> democratic hopeful hillary clinton is the depending on florida voters to help her win most of the 291 delegates up for grabs and tonight, her husband is scheduled to help her out. crews are still putting the finishing touches on the stage for former president bill clinton where he's expected to speak at rollins college. this is a young demographic. earlier, he spoke in jacksonville and tallahassee. clinton has depend theed on blacks to help her win in the south. her husband is expected to talk about race and also hoping to

talking about college loans and finding that first job. now, tonight's event is scheduled to start at 7:45. and clinton starts speaking, you can watch it live on wftv.com. meanwhile, the former president made a campaign stop for his wife in tallahassee, where he spoke stoefrl hundred students at florida a & m university. >> we can't wait to make change. we can't wait to deal with these challenges. we can't wait to seize these opportunities. the young people have too much at stake. >> clinton talked about his wife's stance on increase in minimum wage, hillary clinton is trying to win over many of florida's youngest voters who will be participating in their first election. this year. we have been sifting through documents which show that 73 private employees at 40 airports across the country were flagged

>> and one of them worked at orlando international airport. those employees were allowed to work, because the tsa, didn't yet have access to all of the terrorism related databases. that awe loued them to get -- that allowed them to get credentials into secured areas. >> if anyone gets caught at a tsa check point, we failed on so many levels, it will be catastrophic. >> none of 273 private employees -- 73 private employees was on a terrorist watch list. tomorrow, one of the former baggage handlers at orlando international airport accused of stealing things from people's luggage will be in court. daniel diaz the, allegedly stole a laptop from a passenger's bag, another employee posed as a lookout. diaz sold the computer and the other items. they face grand theft. building a new k-8 school in place of -- one step closer to becoming reality. the city of orlando has just approved a 3 acre land swap with

this would allow kids to go to the existing school, while a new school is being built. parents have raised concerns about the traffic and troiz the new school could -- noise the new school could bring. the plan to build a new valencia college campus in osceola county is one step closer to reality tonight. state lawmakers approved the final 12 million dollars if funding. the project is expected to cost a total of 27 million and take shape off pleasant hill road near rooefz road. osceola county donated the land. that new campus could open by the fall of 2017 if approved. the daytona international speedway lost the fight with state lawmakers over tax money. the speedway wanted 3 million dollars per year in sales tack rebates. -- tax rebates over the next 30 years. lawmakers did not include that in the budget. the money would have helped offset the $400,000 daytona rising project, which is already complete. speedway officials say they'll try again in the next legislative session.

looking for shelter because their homes have been submerged or washed away by flood waters. since last week, at least four deaths have beened related to the severe weather. certified chief meteorologist tom terry has been following the weather system causing this devastation. that water is still rising. >> yeah, very slowly, day by day. now, louisiana, the national guard has had to evacuate more than 3,000 people because of this flooding. and submerged roads, cars and hopes in mississippi, texas, alabama are forcing residents to pick up what they can and flee. >> from extreme flooding, to dangerous tornadoes, the south is getting rocked by severe weather. across texas, streets and highways have turned into rivers. hundreds of homes under water. for miles. the flood waters here are expected to break records as they continue to rise. overnight, families packed up what they could. those who refused to leave are now pleading to be rescued.

going to go back in, keep doing this, get them out. >>reporter: many are turns to sheltders for -- shelters for help. >> several weeks. >> in louisiana, four people have been killed, nearly 5,000 homes damaged. >> if you get in it and you're gone, it's over. >>reporter: the national guard has stepped in to help. as the waters start to recede in some neighborhoods. this north carolina, weather is being blamed for this massive pile up involving more than 130 vehicles. 25 people injured. >> wow. well, those southern states aren't the only ones battling heavy rain, on the west coast, several families had to evacuate their homes because of a mudslides, brought on by el nino's heavy rainfall, martha. on world news tonight with david muir, we'll have more on the deadly floods, after eyewitness news at 6:00. a cocoa family is stuck paying high vet bills after their special needs son's backyard. >> police are now trying to find

it happened on saturday night at a house. this 3-year-old chow mix, named riley, suffered damage to his paw. riley's family says the dog helpss 8-year-old jonathan, communicate. >> the dog was in the backyard and someone shot two shots, they missed him the first time, and they shot him the second time. in the back of his foot. >> the family isn't sure if the dog's paw will have to be amputated or repaired the uber driver accused of killing 6 people and injuring two others in kalamazoo, michigan told the investigators he was being controlled by an uber app through his cell phone. police say jason dalton carried out those shootings while still driving for uber, on february 20th. in the report, dalton told the police, quote, he is not a killer. but he knows that he has killed. the professional race car driver accused of hitting a daytona beach police officer is afshging a judge to drop his charges.

today where the judge did not decide on dropping those charges. he pushed the the officer after the officer tried to detain him after an altercation with a woman. he is a 2-time champion of the daytona 200, suspended from racing this past weekend. investigators in kansas, say they're trying to figure out if a car crash may have damaged some railroad tracks, and caused an amtrak train to derail this morning. 32 people are recovering from injuries tonight. after the crash, caused by a bent rail. the train was going about 75 miles per hour when the engineer hit the brakes. the investigators say the damage to the tracks does not look intentional. clermont police are warning people tonight be on the lookout for a fake cop. >> all new at 6:00, what he did that made him so convincing enough to pull over a woman near a crowded restaurant at night. >> ahead, why the state department is using millions of your tax dollars to pay for a service they say they don't want. >> this local woman thought she won 2.5 million, then paid

>> i'm angry for myself for falling for it. >> next, tracking down sweepstakes scammers, targeting central florida victims. >> well, heat reached to record levels across parts of central florida earlier today, i'm updating tomorrow's run towards 90 degrees, how close we'll get to that and more on the next chance for rain and (donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense.

when it comes to we need more than our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates. enough talk.

a kissimmee woman fell victim to a $14,000 sweepstakes scam. >> instead of winning 2.5 million dollars, she spent thousands in fees to collect a jackpot that just didn't exist. action 9 tracked down the bad guys and shows us how they target their victims. >>reporter: the call came after kathleen tiffany entered a mail sweepstakes. kathleen heard she won 2.5

i thought, oh, answer to my prayers. >>reporter: first, she had to pay insurance fees. kathleen wired $1,000 to the kost to ta rica headquarters, she -- costa rica headquarters. the money was on its way. >> this is richard -- calling to schedule our delivery. >>reporter: she was told that the courier's van broke down. >> every day it was delivered, there was another storage fee. >>reporter: her kitchen table filled with receipts to pay more fees over two weeks' time that totalled nearly $14,000. her first serious warning came as a publix. >> western with union questioned it. >>reporter: costa rica and jamaica are two hot spots. bad guys target prize office r offers. >> you are throwing your name

sweep takes that are going to put on the hard press. >>reporter: they use fake federal agency names. >> i'm calling about kathleen. why don't you give her her money back? >>reporter: he hung up. the say guy that conned kathleen and her husband out of so much. >> i thought of them as someone i could trust. >>reporter: if he calls again tomorrow, and wants more money, what will you do? >> nope. i'm done being stupid. >>reporter: kathleen is contacting the federal trade commission, since 2012, authorities arrested 3 u.s. citizens. after one victim lost $800,000. martha. >> oh, my, todd. you can warn others about these sweepstakes scams, share this post from the action 9 facebook page. unbelievable. >> it is. scammers pretending to be with the irs are on the rise in central florida.

high number of phone scams lately, in which the scammers demand money and they use fake phone numbers which makes them harder to track down. officials say the irs will never call you to ask for payment. if that happens, hang up the phone and report the call to the treasury inspector general. unfortunately, some people are falling for this, we've had several cases in which people have transferred thousands of dollars to these folks, or given personal financial information. >> the matter has been turned over to the department of the treasury. and its criminal investigators. do celebrities have a right to privacy? that's one of the questions with hulk hogan. hogan is suing the website gawker for publishing a sex tape of himself without permission. today, an editor for the site admitted that the tape has limited news value. >> it didn't really matter whether or not it was a morbid and sensational prying into someone's lives, they didn't matter to you, did it?

>> hogan is suing gawker for 100 million dollars. drivers in volusia county will see another lane shift along i-4 tonight. the eastbound lanes of i-4 between state road 44 and u.s. 92, will shift tonight, starring at 8:00 p.m. part of the i-4 ultimate project to widen the highway from 4 to 6 lanes on a side. the westbound lanes will remain unaffected tonight. seems like we went to having the doors open and the breeze, and the ac's are cranking across central florida. >> all of this around the fire pit. did you have a fire pit this season? >> a couple, that's it. i expecting something better than this for fire pit weather. a lot of people come here to florida for this time of the year for the warm rer temperatures. we have 87 degrees. our high today was 88. officially downtown. officially, 87 at the international airport. that's our reporting station for orange county.

90 was the record high for today. daytona beach, you hit your record. 89 degrees, ridiculous for this time of the year. 12-13 degrees above average. melbourne, you also came in just shy of your record. sanford, also went through the record books for you, you're 88 today. was shy of your record of 91. it was your hottest temperature so far this year until perhaps tomorrow that may be hotter or as hot as today. right now, we're still 88 up in sanford. 85 downtown. at the airport, rather, 84 new smyrna beach. daytona, cocoa beach. an offshore wind giving us a very warm day today. still have the heat index of 90 in sanford. this is not compared to the summer, the dew points and huptd will go sky high once we start getting the rainy season kicked in. we're in the dry season officially now. there's the wind gust, the

day for the spring breakers, 87. what a day tomorrow is going to be as well. from the low to even upper 80s along the beaches. water temperature 66 in daytona. getting in there. 73, though, warming up at cocoa beach and a low risk for rip currents. just doesn't get much better spring break week. earlier today. behind a weak front that kind of fizzled, get that southwest wind, that's why we've been so darn hot today. really the next three days, we'll keep it on the hotter side. we desperately need rainfall. that will start late thursday into friday. baldwin park tonight, temperatures in the upper 60s, for that nice two mile jog around lake baldwin. kissimmee, st. cloud, temperatures hugging close to 70 degrees. and a quick warming trend tomorrow. orlando, 80 degrees at noon. 89 at 4:00. one of the forecast models showing 89 for about 3 hours in

90. for a daytime high for tomorrow. cocoa beach, we'll cool you down, but still very warm, 84 degree. 90 in kissimmee, very close to it tomorrow. another near 90 for sanford. daytona, 86 in leesburg, and tomorrow. 2 degrees shy of a record. daytona beach could be day two of record breaking heat for you and close to the record in melbourne tomorrow and a hot week ahead, the average 70 degree, we'll keep it very warm, and until we get towards the upcoming weekend, that's when we start to even the playing field, with a better chance for some rain and i'm updating the forecast models. more on that and the timing in the next half hour. the five-day forecast with your weekend always in view, temperatures staying on the warm side, with near record heat tomorrow and wednesday. there's that upped rain chance, 50% rain coverage on friday, scattered storms into saturday. thank you.

vote in the presidential primary, marco rubio is crossing the state. why he must win florida tomorrow. plus, four students were caught with weapons at three schools in just the past few week, at 6:00, we are asking what's being done to keep weapons off school campusess. and a teenager is shot and killed just walking down a sidewalk. . >> why haven't we heard the word gang used? >> what 9 investigates found out when he asked the orange county sheriff whether gangs could be

if you're doing everything right but find it harder and harder to get by, you're not alone. while our people work longer hours for lower wages, almost all new income goes to the top 1%. my plan -- make wall street banks and the ultrarich provide living wages

ensure equal pay for women. i'm bernie sanders. i approve this message because together, we can make a political revolution and create an economy and democracy that works for all

a government contract that went sour is costing 33 million dollars a month.

department tried to cancel their contract with the defense contractor because of poor performance, but they couldn't. now, channel 9's justin gray found out the cost of the contract could add up to a billion of your tax dollars. >>reporter: if you've ever had trouble cancelling a cell phone contract or a gym membership, you know how tricky contracts can be. and when the federal government is involved, it means hundreds of millions of dollars. a major government defense contractor, and for years, they have provided aircraft and aircraft maintenance, planes and helicopters for the state department, all around the wormd. but in 2014, the state department decided to cancel the contract. after a series of internal government audits found problems with the performance. >> in the private sector, if somebody is doing a bad job with a contractor, they get fired. and the federal government, they're a bid protests, delays, there are other things that go on over time.

those bid protests are legal, but costly. since cancelling the contract, the state department has been forced to award what are called bridge contracts to the company they no longer want to do business with, delaying hiring a new contractor. at 33 million dollars a month, it adds up to nearly 600 million taxpayer dollars, for a service the state department wants to cancel. a spokeswoman tells me they aren't stalling any way to keep this work, she says they bid successfully in the work in the past and glad to do so again. she says the time line is in the federal government's hantds, not -- hands, not theres. justin gray, channel 9 eyewitness news. winter park city commissioners are discussing how to pay for a piece of land where a bowling alley used to be. winter park's city redevelopment agency agreed to pay 1 million dollars to pay for the land.

step to address the country's growing doctor shortage problem led by u.s. senator bill nelson from florida. a bill was flieled allowing -- filed allowing hospitals to open residency training for doctors. neighbors say gang violence could be to blame for a teen's death. >> is it kind of like getting involved in the wrong crowd kind of thing? >> precisely. >> new for 6:00, we asked the sheriff if there's a gang problem in orange county. >> less than 24 hours before central florida decides who will be in the race for the white house. >> there is nothing we can't fix. >> a woman says she was pulled over by somebody (phone ringing) you can't deal with something, by ignoring it. but that's how some presidential candidates seem to be dealing with social security.

and pay into it. so our next president needs a real plan to keep it strong. (elephant noise) (donkey noise) hey candidates,

channel 9 eyewitness news continues right now at 6:00. right now, at 6:00, we are less than 24 hours from central florida helping decide who will run for president. from the front-runners. >> because we can't continue to go on like this. >> to the underdogs. >> we cannot afford another four years like the last eight years. >> we looked at how your votes could drastically change the race for the white house. more than 1 thousand degrees are up for grabs. but it's the 99 delgs here in florida, that -- delegates here in florida that have all gop eyes on the sunshine state. if rubio wins, a huge upset. even though rubio is behind in the polls, he's not giving up. >>reporter: senator rubio

behind in the polls today, he said he was concentrating on the primary here in florida, and was >> [ chanting ] . >>reporter: on the eve of florida's presidential primary, senator marco rubio didn't carry himself like a man trailing trump in the polls. he spoke with opt misism. will not win. >>reporter: from that little restaurant in melbourne, also a stop during the 2010 senate campaign, rubio urged his supporters to rally for him this tuesday. >> he's a good guy, we like him. >>reporter: even as rubio covers the home state, the supporters are concerned he won't win the state's primary. and rubio who once said he would support donald trump, if he was the republican nominee, now has strong words for the candidate. >> i think he'll splinter the