jamel lanee is looking into how this is going to work and she joins us live from tampa international airport. hi jamel. >> reporter: good evening rod. before the wheels can go up, tampa international airport has to beat out several other airports for the commercial flights, especially traveling people want to go. georgiani chavez is going to cuba for the first time. like most americans she charted her flight. but that could soon change. several airlines hope to offer commercial flights to the island soon. >> i think it will be great. it is easier for us. >> reporter: several u.s. carriers applied to the u.s. department of transportation for u.s. flight lines. jet blue and southwest airlines would have several flights a day if approved. >> we have the third largest cuban american population in the united states. >> reporter: out of 110 daily flights to cuba, only a few carriers from chosen airports to let to fly to havana. >> it will be a competitive environment for winning the flights. there are only 20 slots allowed from the united states to cuba. and there are dozens of from the un

as jamel lanee explains, he has quite a past himself. >> i standby everything i said. >> reporter: associate superintendent of operations greg rivers, the one who accused katherine leroy of sexual harassment is under fire. rivers was the subject of an internal investigation in 2006 while employed at the university of florida. he admitted to having sexual relationships with three of his employees. school board member lynn wilson says he was shocked. >> it was problematic for our school district and for him personally. i'm sure that is what led to his resignation. sexually subjective gifts to women. school staff say they did a background and reference check on rivers. on his application, he xed no when asked if he was ever the subject of an investigation, but xed yes when asked if he resigned in lieu of discipline. >> this is the greatest tragedy. >> reporter: reporting in polk county, jamel lanee, newschannel8. >> 8 on your side has been telling you about long lines outside the irs office in tampa. the way. we went back there today, but arrived yet. many folks came at 8:00 a.m. for a chance t

jamel lanee joins us live and about this. >> reporter: they are. patience. this part of the highway is a nightmare during rush hour, so come monday, this part will be closed down meaning delays and detours will take twice as long. u.s. 41 is a major thoroughway through lutes. but come monday, it will be jam packed. >> all i know is it is going to be two weeks and everybody better be prepared. >> reporter: be prepared for the delays and detours when fdot closes down the road to work ton railroad crossing. >> a six-lane highway is closed when the next largest road to the east is two lanes? >> reporter: that means almost 30,000 commuters will find residential streets to maneuver through tieing up two-way lanes. just how long will that take? well, we tested it. from u.s. 41, we turned on crystal lake road, then south on delmavery high school and then van dike road putting us back on u.s. 41, 17 minutes later. and that is without traffic. >> that impact with that traffic on those roads, there's kids, vehicles, safety, police, all those. the delay in time is going

newschannel8's jamel lanee spoke to bay area hotel guests about the type of security measures they hope to see in the wake of the case. >> reporter: linda is in tampa on business from new york. her constant traveling keeps her in a hotel. >> as a preferred member, a lot of the hotels, i kind of leverage that to make sure i'm in a secure part of the hotel >> reporter: for her, the erin andrews trial was an eye opener it. >> it makes you think of the possibility of what can happen. >> reporter: not only does she consider her safety, but the safety of her lieutenants who she is responsible for booking rooms for. guest satisfaction is a top priority. >> we have to now retrain our employees employees to know this is the one time it is okay to say no to a guest. >> reporter: jamel lanee, newschannel8. >>> florida lawmakers are working to protect people from thieves using skimmers. a bill headed to governor rick scott's desk increases penalty for stealing credit card informations and putting security devices on gas pumps. >> this bill cracks down on criminals by increasing the penalties in tra

tonight, jamel lanee showstous scary momements. >> reporter: christopher conti had no regard for human life as he sped through the streets of new port richey. >> there could have been a family coming home from practice, from picking up the kids at the day care and this individual would have absolutely destroyed them. >> reporter: it started around 6:30 when fhp tried to pull him over. deputies joined in as conti kept running. this deputy tries to stop him but gets hammered by his truck. deputies finally swarm the truck when stop sticks take out his tire and they wrestle him >> you have a person drugged out of his mind driving a 5,000- pound vehicle. that is like somebody running through a mall with a gun waving it. >> reporter: conti is facing several charges including aggravated battery, fling, eluding, and drug possession. nobody was hurt during this incident miraculously. jamel lanee, newschannel8. >>> this picture was just sent in by billll phillips in treasure island showing the fog. here is the picture from boc a cega bay. kind of a cool picture. so we will have the fog kind of h

jamel lanee joins us live from downtown tampa. so, leaders say this is a move in the right direction. >> reporter: that's right, josh. you know what? the tampa city council leaders say this is not about legalizing marijuana. what they say is people who violate this ordinance will basically just have a lesser punishment. this is pretty much to help young people so they are not criminalized in the future an again, the people who oppose this ordinance, well, they disagree. >>>> we have an opportunity to o what is right. what's good. >> reporter: with the 5-1 vote, tampa city council members decriminalized marijuana. the intent of the ordinance is to help young people who make >> what we are attempting to do is put a stop to that pipeline to prison that affects so many of our young people, especially young people of color. >> reporter: before you were charged with a misdemeanor if caught with 20 grgrams or less, faced jail time or lost your license. now you pay a citation instead. ticket. >> i don't feel what we did today is different

jamel lanee joins us live from little road in new port richey. some dramatic but scary video as well. >> reporter: keith, very scary indeed. christopher conti has a very long rap sheet. 30 pages long. and he obviously was not trying to get caught. >> g got him! >> reporter: chchristopher conti had no regard for human life as he sped through the streets of new port richey yesterday. from six different angles. >> there could have been a family coming home from practice, from picking up the kids after day care. and this individual would have destroyed them. >> reporter: they tried to pull him over and pasco county sheriff's office joined in as conti ran wildclocking speeds up to 6060 miles an hour. >> i saw the suspect's vehicle swerving, driving wrecklessly. >> reporter: deputy paul reagan was part of the pursuit. watch as he tried to stop conti but gets hammered by his truck. >> i see him looking forward and his eyes, they got pretty big to where he knew he had to either come back onto the road or he was going to go into the ditch. i saw him rip o

jamel lanee joins us live. the story just keeps getting more and more outrageous. we have been on it for weeks now. >> reporter: well, stacie, the details just keep coming out. board members here, they are shocked to learn that greg rivers was investigated himself for having a sexual relationship with several of his former employees at the university of florida. >> i standby everything i said in my complaint. >> reporter: associate suspect of operations greg rivers, the one who accused katherine leroy of sexual harassment is now under fire. rivers was the subject of an internal investigation in 2006 while employed at the university of florida. 8 on your side obtained documents where he admitted to having sexual relationships school board member lynn wilson says he was shocked. >> it was a problem for our school district and for us personally. >> reporter: he gave sexually suggestive gifts to women as well. leroy supporters are fuming asking how the district could ridicule her. but never look into rivers past during their investigation. >> what they always brought u

jamel lanee joins us now. she is live in polk county. the most baffling part about this story is the student apparently climbed through a window to get out the bus. and then he hitchhiked not ten, not 20, but 30 miles home. >> reporter: exactly jenn. the details in this story are mind-blowing. can you even believe that we just learned this student even told the bus driver the attendant, that they left him on the bus the first time this happened. it happened again days later when they didn't believe him. watch the surveillance video on this polk county school bus. the bus attendant and driver are packed up ready to go home after dropping students off on a morning route. but wait. a sleeping student emerges from left behind. >> the attendant walked right by him on march 2. the driver paid absolutely no attention when she left the bus. >> reporter: and could you believe it happened again days later to the same student? >> but what wasn't functioning, the brains of the driver and the attendant. it is like, are you kidding me? do you hear wha

jamel lanee joins us now live in downtown tampa and i know this case has some people thinking twice. it is a story a lot of people are talking about. >> reporter: jenn, it has a lot of people talking. many of these travelers are looking at this story and keeping it in the back of their head when they are booking these hotel rooms from now on. hotel managers say if this trial has done anything, it has reenforced the policies in place to make customers feel safe like they were before. from new york. her constant traveling keeps her in a hotel. >> as a preferred member of a lot of the hotels i try to leverage that to make sure i'm in a secure part of the hotel and set my expectations. >> reporter: for her, the erin andrews trial was an eye opener. not only does she consider her safety, but also the safety of her clients who she is responsible for booking rooms for. she says this goes to show anyone could be watching you. >> like in the erin andrews case, they knew her. it could be someone who sighing someone in the lobby with nice jewelry. >> reporter: guest safety is always the top pri

. >> jamel lanee live. >>> a jury found gregory whitaker guilty.y. he was arrested last year. someone at a walmart caught him taking a picture under a young girl's skirt. he m must register as a sex offender. >>> a norovirus is causing 140 students to stay home. accord to go the school's principal. another 40 was sent home because they showed a company has been cleaning and san tieing that cool. >>> mididdle schoolers are learning about guns. mr. a group called pro project apple seed and the nra. they want to replace the fear of guns with knowledge and respect. >> i think that it's better for them to have a respect for it, know how to handle it, not that they should, but they are aware about the firearms. it's not what is this? what can we do with this? >> the gun safety course included a full day on a colorado shooting range. >>> because of this new story, we'rere asking you your thoughts. what do you think of such a hand's o on gun lesson in school? would you want your child to take one. you can like our page by a fire. you can see the flames shooting out in cocoa beaeach la

. >> reporter: jamel lanee, newschannel8. >>> steve jerve, you know what today is right? >> it is leap year? the beginning of the strawberry >> good guess. through. minds. we decided biscuit. >> seems like quite a debate. some were saying cheesecake. >> cheesecake with sounds delicious. 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, a few clouds around this evening. we are not expecting rain. it looks sort of rainy. off the gulf. 73 degrees at 3:00 p.m. there is a possibility tomorrow morning. probably before 10:00 a.m., of seeing a shower associated with a coal front moving on through, but i think the sun comes back in the afternoon an the evening looks good if you are headed out to plant city. a nice shot from gandy beach this morning. obviously quite a few clouds there. storm team 8wfla on facebook. comfortable temperatures. mostly cloudy skies. a light southwesterly breeze bringing in a bit more humidity ahead of the cold front that will pass tomorrow morning. we will talk more about the weekend forecast. it looks good, coming um. >>> still ahead on 8 at 7:00. >> we are out at the strawberry f

jamel lanee joins us live. we are told one of the sky drivers was trying to catch up to the other one when they had a midair collision. >> reporter: that's right. actually, he was going just a little too fast. like a car that was speeding trying to catch up to a car that is already moving pretty slowly. a fun day of sky diving turned scary in a matter of seconds. two sky divers badly injured after they collide in midair tuesday afternoon. both were wing suit jumping with sky dive city. >> one of them was flying on his back, the other flew down and collided with him. >> reporter: one diver was asia to pull his main parachute and but the other jumper ended up on county road 54 a mile away. >> his chute was up in there. and both chutes. the emergency chute, the regular chute. >> reporter: pat and her friends saw the diver fall from the sky. they raced over to help. pat says he had blood all over him. >> blood was coming out of his mouth and nose and he hid a big bump here. >> he hit really hard. >> reporter: linda

in pinellas county, jamel lanee'. >>> erin andrews took the stand this evening in her $75 million lawsuit against the man that filmed a nude video of her and the hotel where it happened. she told the court about how she first heard about the video and called her father in tears, telling hem what happened. she said -- him what happened. she said it took weeks to figure out where the video came from, and she wished the hotel alerted her about the man that requested to be in the hotel room next to her. this could have been stopped, the nashville marriott could have just called me and said we're putting this man that requested to be next to you, is this okay, and i would have called the cop, and we would have gotten him. we could have stopped this, and i'm so angry. i'm so mad. >> michael barrett, the man who spent 30 months behind bars for filming that video of andrews testified today by video about how he was able to call the hotel and find out where andrews room was. the hotel maintains it did nothing wrong. >>> pinellas county efficients want to make sure beach -- efficients want to make

jamel lanee joins us live. the story just keeps getting more and more outrageous. we have been on it for weeks now. >> reporter: well, stacie, the details just keep coming out. board members here, they are shocked to learn that greg rivers was investigated himself for having a sexual relationship with several of his former employees at the university of florida. >> i standby everything i said in my complaint. >> reporter: associate suspect of operations greg rivers, the one who accused katherine leroy of sexual harassment is now under fire. rivers was the subject of an internal investigation in 2006 while employed at the university of florida. 8 on your side obtained documents where he admitted to having sexual relationships

jamel lanee joins us now. she is live in polk county. the most baffling part about this story is the student apparently climbed through a window to get out the bus. and then he hitchhiked not ten, not 20, but 30 miles home. >> reporter: exactly jenn. the details in this story are mind-blowing. can you even believe that we just learned this student even told the bus driver the attendant, that they left him on the bus the first time this happened. it happened again days later when they didn't believe him. watch the surveillance video on this polk county school bus. the bus attendant and driver are packed up ready to go home after dropping students off on a morning route. but wait. a sleeping student emerges from

jamel lanee joins us live from downtown tampa. so, leaders say this is a move in the right direction. >> reporter: that's right, josh. you know what? the tampa city council leaders say this is not about legalizing marijuana. what they say is people who violate this ordinance will basically just have a lesser punishment. this is pretty much to help young people so they are not criminalized in the future an again, the people who oppose this ordinance, well, they disagree. >>>> we have an opportunity to o what is right. what's good. >> reporter: with the 5-1 vote, tampa city council members decriminalized marijuana. the intent of the ordinance is to help young people who make

jamel lanee joins us live and about this. >> reporter: they are. patience. this part of the highway is a nightmare during rush hour, so come monday, this part will be closed down meaning delays and detours will take twice as long. u.s. 41 is a major thoroughway through lutes. but come monday, it will be jam packed. >> all i know is it is going to be two weeks and everybody better be prepared. >> reporter: be prepared for the delays and detours when fdot closes down the road to work ton railroad crossing.