. it's a sad story but the ends don't always justify the means. >> tammy: a rutherford county employee has been fired. what that employee is accused of could end up costing his form employer hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> larry: tonight, a look at how the temperature is impacting the flea and ticks here in the mountains. now from western north carolina's news leader, this is news 13 at 11. >> larry: a very active night for weather. we had a tornado warning in rutherford and mcdowell county just a few hours ago. and we are under a flood watch right now. it will be in effect for most of the week. >> tammy: let's check in with chief meteorologist jason boyer

>> jason: we still have that flash flood warning out until just past midnight. 12:15 in the morning for these locations. really? locations. they've already had two plus inches of rain on top of what has fallen in the past week. creeks, streams and rivers as runoff. just around cashiers, highlands, lake toxaway. now the heaviest are goingo ssft off to the east. brevard getting some of that heavy stuff, too. closer view of that flash flood warning that's still out past midnight. still plenty of it to come in the central blue ridge. along 26 in the next couple of hours. all of this is going to shift east. it's not just the rain, it's the

wind also we're dealing with. duke and their power outage source on the web here. a lot of folks without power across the mountains. we have plenty of rain falling in the southern mountains. flood watch until 7 o'clock thursday morning. because we have another round of rain coming on wednesday. and the temperatures are so different. look at the 70s up to the northeast of asheville. 70s south. unbelievable. temperatures in the 50s in the morning. the rain is long gone. i'll show you how warm we get in the afternoon coming up in just a bit. >> tammy: what's now costing hundreds of thousands of dollars has gotten an ems employee fired. >> larry: what kind of documents, jerrika, are we talking about? >> jerrika: it's a form that

but a now former employee who was once in charge of non-emergency transport is accused of forging signatures. rutherford county officials blew the whistle for an internal investigation after learning that documents filled out might not be authentic. pcs forms allow non-emergency transport that are medically necessary to be covered by medicare. county officials said in a press release that an ems employee had copied and pasted and forged doctor's signatures on forms. county officials say that employee fell behind on submitting billing requests. >> if it wasn't saving lives to bend the rules, then i don't think he should have done it.

considered "fake pcs forms" make what that former employee did "illegal." >> his intentions were good but he did it illegally. >> jerrika: what's upsetting to the county is properly getting those forms instead of creating those fake ones would have prevented the county from paying. now the name of that employee has not been released. and federal and state authorities have been notified so charges could be pending. now it's out of the hands of county officials. reporting live in rutherford county, jerrika insco, news 13. >> tammy: police have named a suspect in a drive-by shooting that happened last week. we're looking for trey bradley. bradley was dating a girl who

gotten in to a fight. police say they've seen no signs of bradley since. >> the fear of this guy brandishing a deadly weapon in the community, running around without any kind of police protection was a little, yyh, was fearful for us. >> tammy: if you have any information about this case, call the hendersonville police department. a christmas eve car wreck in waynesville sent three people to the hospital. one of those hurt was the wife of mayor gavin brown. police say a car driven by jackie brown collided with a pick-up truck. police say they're looking in to whether alcohol was involved. >> from the minute i was made aware of the investigation, i spoke to the highway patrol supervisor on the scene. we agreed to work the crash in conjunction with each other.

i immediately called the district attorney. made her aware of the crash. how the crash was being investigated. >> tammy: all three people involved were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. no charges were filed. authorities are awaiting the toxicology results. >> larry: an update tonight on a kidnapping case that began with an amber alert yesterday for two small children. one of four suspects, trena weaver of asheville had her court appearance this afternoon. she's accused of kidnapping harlee and elijah joyner. >> i didn't see the children leave. but we saw the children being taken in. >> tammy: by the woman? >> mm-hmm. >> larry: charges have not yet been released by investigators. >> tammy: if you haven't yet checked your pets for fleas and

ticks, you might want to. because of the warmer weather, they're seeing fleas and ticks. aaron. >> aaron: this time of night here at the emergency animal hospital they would only have the most severe cases from fleas and ticks coming across these tables. but normally in december they would never be seeing any problems from ticks. >> making sure they're tick free as well as flea free. >> aaron: here's a tick one dog owner recently found. a reach vet said this tick had been feeding. >> in the years that i've done this, it's pretty uncommon to see ticks in our area this time of year. >> aaron: ticks are most common here in the spring and early summer. >> ticks like this part of the year because on the inside of the year there's less hair.

make sure you get the whole thing. >> the mouth pieces that move in to the skin. and if you remove a tick and you have any concern that you didn't get the whole thing, you should maybe let a veterinarian check it. pull this hair back here, it's very common place to find the flea. >> aaron: search above the tail and the belly. she says using a flea comb helps to uncover what she calls flea dirt, which is a black peppery substance. and if you find it. >> you know your dog has an active flea infestation going on. >> aaron: she recommends the product is vet approved. >> we see a lot of animals come in that has had over the county flea medicines. especially cats. we've seen very, very sick cats from some of those.

>> aaron: fleas live and reproduce indoors. while the fleas may be more common, the problems from ticks are more severe. aaron adelson, news 13. >> larry: a business in west asheville is closing its store front and going online only. rhetorical factory began as a way to recycle second hand clothes. the new online version of the store will sell jewelry and art. the owner says she's been working on her next endeavor for months. >> i'll have a home work shop. it's a community of people that have been getting closer over time. and the creativity will just continue. >> larry: ms. adams says she hasn't ruled out opening another brick and mortar store in the future. an exhibit is allowing art lovers to look in to the eyes of people who are struggling with something that's very hard to conquer.

giving hope to recovering addicts. >> tammy: and later, how much are you willing to pay to see

of the . >> larry: you know, you could see so much of what people have gone through just by looking at their face. >> tammy: tonight, news 13's john le shows us why the body of work may offer a flicker of hope. thank you so much. >> john: we never really know when art w wll speak to us. and when it does speak, who knows what it might say. >> opening up that dialogue. >> you're right here. >> reporter: artist douglas lail says it's complicated. >> really an emotional thing.

i really, really like it. >> yeah, it's beautiful. >> gees. >> john: there are 28 pieces in the exhibit called "hello, my name is --" putting a face on addiction and recovery. all with hand written profiles filled with pain and hope. nat cohen has been in recovery for 26 years. >> oh my goodness. >> thank you. >> there is a way out. >> john: every portrait is personal. >> we meet with the participants at least three or four times before we actually do the shoot. > john: white charcoal on black paper. >> emerging out of the darkness of addiction in to the light of recovery. >> john: the eyes tell us all we need to know.

that's what i see it as. it tells us where they've been. and what's inside there. >> john: our introduction to richie richie. >> method am feetphetaminesamphetamines. r what i see is a person who didn't have any hope. this is me getting baptized in prison. >> folks that stay here in the pathway center. >> john: richie has been in recovery for nine years and now has his children back. >> it's done more than just changed my life. >> john: richie is among the pour trailts of possibilities. going face-to-face with himself

is heavy. gazing in to his own eyes with clarity. >> what i see is exactly what he's trying to do. and that's to bring the recovery to light. >> it's hard for me to watch people because i always get tied up and emotional about it because -- >> john: only one place to turn. >> there's a difference between the tears of sadness and the tears of joy, man. >> john: this is douglas' self-portrait. in recovery for almost two years. creative sparks are often ignited by something deeply personal. >> that's what's going to make this a success. >> it's hard because i connected with so many people when i was in addiction just because i was drunk most of the time. >> john: now the connection is real.

to an artist on so many levels. something in there that speaks to me that tells my story as well. >> john: in asheville, john le, news 13. >> tammy: the hello my name is exhibit was sponsored by the asheville area arts council. >> larry: well it has been a very busy evening with the weather. we've got a tornado warning in rutherford and mcdowell county just a few hours ago. >> tammy: a few of our counties are under a flash flood warning right now. >> jason: that's right, guys. the set up is very odd. of course it's been very warm lately. i'll show you all the detail of why i think this is a process in the making here. 56 on the low. that was a record warm start.

almost 2/10 of an inch of rain today. almost 7 inches for the year surplus. wow, it's been wet. we'll talk about the wind as well. stick around. >> larry: and later, a look at

course of the season for now your news 13 skywatch weather.

certainly do not need, more wind and more rain. that wind is knocking down trees causing power outages and causing the closure of highway 441 between cherokee and gatlinburg. wait until folks can get out there and clear the roads. they won't be able to do it until the light of day. rain right through the heart of the blue ridge. very heavy rain south of asheville. still a flash flood warning out for those folks out in oconnee county, jackson, rabun, that's where we've seen rivers and creeks go over the banks already. the rain should be done pretty soon. we have a cold front stretching out here and warmer air over running this cold front. the cold front has actually helped spawn some of the severe weather. that causes rotation.

rotating pretty good causing a tornado warning to be issued. we haven't seen any reports of anything in terms of fatalities. . many elevations above 3500 feet. gusts to 50 miles per hour. then you get in to the high wind warnings. high elevations of the smokys, areas over the north carolina border. once this rain moves out tonight, dryer tomorrow. we're right back in to the thick of it, folks. another half inch of rain. and finally we can breathe a sigh of relief in the new year. 63 degrees. downtown asheville, though, is only in the mid 50s. that cool air already infiltrating there. we have a humidity of 90%. it's just a very saturated atmosphere.

there's the cold front on to the east. once it moves east, we'll dry out. then we start to see the rain return on wednesday. the timing is still up in the air. could see it earlier in the day. it could be sooner than that. especially for our mountain counties south and west. here's your future cast after midnight. rain is well east of us tomorrow morning. we'll see pockets of sunshine yesterday in the afternoon briefly. then we cloud up tomorrow night. there we go. rain showers moving in again. low temperatures tonight dropping down fl to the 50s pretty much area wide. even these temperatures in morganton likely cooler. 60s and 70s. look at this. more 70s for you in the upstate. temperatures will cool down more noticeably on wednesday. thursday we get back to 50s for

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your family and your wallet will be glad you did. so head to walmart and see what you could save with their every day low prices. hey! this holiday, u.s. cellular's giving you 15 gigs of data for just $70! but i wanted a pony. [ gasps ] you're getting data. pony-sized data? u.s. cellular sized data. 15 gigs of good, strong data you can actually use because it works in the middle of anywhere. i'd like $100! you're getting $400 in promo cards! yes! switch to u.s. cellular and get 15 gigs of data for just $70. plus $400 in promo cards. >> larry: a driver is facing a long list of charges tonight after police say he caused a crash that sent a city bus in to a church. it happened in raleigh this morning.

the bus hit a power pole. several people were taken to the hospital but they're expected to be okay. investigators say the driver that caused the mess was driving drunk and tried to run from the scene. >> tammy: yesterday's loss may have been heartbreaking for panthers' fans but it is not having an impact on skyrocketing ticket prices. ticket prices have spiked. back in august, you could get a ticket for about $28. it will cost you $225 against tampa bay this saturday. >> larry: for one airline passenger, it was not a typical arrival. that man, larry kendrick from mississippi walked off with fanfare.

the grand prize, two round trip tickets and a new car. >> tammy: the carolina day girls

the best this year. >> luke: the carolina day girls basketball team continues to be

record of 11 and 1. hoping to make it 12 and 1. the wild cats anabell schultz. carolina day leads big, 54-21. later in the game, knocks down the triple for the win. carolina day increases the lead. carolina day beats hickory grove 72 to 31. >> we played pretty tough competition in the month of december. and next two days will be tough as well. and hopefully we'll be a better team for all this. >> we don't blow the ball down. >> luke: it's working for them. carolina day improves to 12 to 1 this season. the carolina day boy team also taking on. buries the three. wild cats take a three point

lead. later in the game tai gieger nice layup in transition. then it's gieger again. the great bounce down low. carolina day beats southside 69 to 45. in chapel hill tonight, the tar heels play their final non-conference game of the season. looking for victory number 11 of the year. marcus paige stops, pops and drops the triple. three of his 14 points. paige takes it to the rack. both high off the window. tar heels lead 26 to 11. thumbs up there. johnson had 16 boards. 96-63. it's certainly been a magical season for clemson this year. the tigers will take on oklahoma

with a spot in the national title game hanging in the balance. tigers have found ways to win every game of the schedule this season. desean watson has been one of the top players. he'll be ready to play on new year's eve. >> we want to be balanced. if we can do that, it will put a lot of pressure on defenses. now they choose what they want to stop first. >> luke: clemson and oklahoma will kick off. i think we know who larry wants to win. >> larry: i'm for a team. >> tammy: a team? for the winning team. he's for the winning team. i'm ready for some dry weather. >> jason: i think we all are. we get a break. then we get cool and down right chilly for the new year. highs in the 40s. >> larry: thank you for joining us.