lauren rozyla was there when the flight landed. they didn't even know what happened until they got back here to the u.s. is that right? >> reporter: it's an incredible to think about. yes, they were on that flight for about nine hours, having going on. many of them just having to turn on their phones to figure out exactly what had happened over in belgium. now, they were finally able to come through these doors to greet family members after now, immediately after this plane touched down, law enforcement arrived searching it at the tarmac. and all of this took nearly an hour. if you believe it, the passengers didn't even go to the gate and they were bussed to the terminal for more extensive security checks. now, they just say they're grateful to be on american soil. >> we're okay now. we're just happy to be home. >> i felt blessed because where everyone was saying it was happening, i was right there. it could have been something like i missed a ticket or my bag needed to get checked again and i could have been in that situation. >>

. >> lauren rozyla is live outside the pasco county sheriff's office where she found out that he has had several complaints on the job before. lauren. >> reporter: that's right, guys. we looked into his work history and we found he has a past record of abandoning his post, leaving the building vulnerable and being late. no indication of child abuse former pasco county sheriffs deputy ryan ferguson's life on facebook looks like that of a loving father and boyfriend. but sheriffs deputies say he beat a 7-year-old little girl so badly she could barely breath as her 4-year-old brother watched. a complaint affidavit says that he put liquid soap in her mouth as a punishment for lying and threw her on the couch and slapped her according to the report. investigators say he then hit her in the face repeatedly. the girl says he choked her, holding her down as she gasped for year. ferguson denied all of this saying that she was hurt after a shopping cart fell on her. the doctor told investigators there was no doubt that her injuries were from a violent and severe beating. >> justice needs to be

. >> lauren rozyla is live at the airport where one of the last flights to leave the brussels airport landed just a few hours ago. lauren, what can you tell us? >> reporter: that's absolutely right, guys. yeah. i want you to take a look right now. huge police presence at orlando sanford international airport. they have been checking in with passengers and doing huge security checks. i also want to talk a little bit about the flight that touched down today immediately after it landed. tons of law enforcement officers showed up and they started searching the plane. off for more than 40 minutes. and now we have learned that many of them had no idea that these terror attacks even happened until they turned on their phones. desperate moments of waiting for orlando mother jackson. she had no idea where her son was in the brussels airport as the attacks were happening. he was traveling there for work. >> i want to see him and touch him. it's scary because you just don't know. >> reporter: then text messages came through saying that his plane touched down. officers boarded the plane before th

lauren rozyla is with the hillary clinton will be right here at the convention center in west palm beach. behind me. this venue holds about a thousand people. the clinton campaign expects it to be a full hoes for her remarks tonight. clinton spent the day campaigning in north carolina. here she is at a polling location. one of the big things she is expected to talk about in florida is raising american incomes through tax cuts. she wants it to be easier for small business owners to get credit. it will push businesses to compete over workers. she also touched on republican candidate donald trump. despite his growing popularity, she doesn't believe that he appeals to most of the country. >> luster and bigotry and bullying that he is exemplifying on the campaign trail is disturbing to the majority of americans. >> reporter: so far today clinton hasn't commented much on her fellow candidate in the democratic race for president, she seems more focused on defeating donald trump, calling him dangerous. hillary will take the stage tonight around 9:00. but the doors open at the convention center r

in pasco county tonight, lauren rozyla, abc action news. >> lauren, thank you. >>> abc news is keeping track of all of the open jobs in the tampa bay area. facebook page or our actual page at abcactionnews.com. in the top right corner you will see tampa bay jobs. just click on that and it will show you all of the different lists of jobs by category. >>> now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> all right. even though we have seen temperatures in the mid-80s throughout the afternoon, they're starting to come down some now. 79 in tampa at the moment. brooksville coming in at 84. bartow at 81. longbow key at 71 degrees. still under plenty of sunshine. about an hour before the sunsets. we're starting to see the temperatures come down. they will come down more after sunset tonight. we remain on the warm and dry side, especially for this time of year. no rain in sight this evening. right through midnight, we will see very nice conditions to be out and about. i'll show what you is ahead though with our next rain chance and where we're likely to see the heaviest rai

lauren rozyla has the very latest. >> reporter: this evening, hillary clinton will be right here in west palm beach at the convention center. you can see all of this setup that is happening right behind me. now, this venue holds about a thousand people. and today the clinton campaign has told me they expect it to be a full house for her remarked tonight. clinton spent the day campaigning in north carolina. one of the big things she is expected to talk about in florida is raising american incomes through tax cuts. she wants to make it easy for business owners to get credit. that will push businesses to compete over its workers. and today she also touched on republican candidate donald trump. she said she doesn't believe that he appeals to most of the country. >> luster and bigotry and bullying that he is exemplifying on the campaign trail is disturbing to the majority of americans. >> reporter: so far today, clinton hasn't commented much on her fellow candidate in the democratic race for president, bernie sanders. she seems much more focused on defeating donald trump, calling him dangerou

and lauren rozyla is in west palm beach tonight covering the hillary clinton campaign. we have live coverage of all of >> we start closer to home. michael is live at clearwater country side library. michael, voters have just two more hours left to get out the vote. how is the line where you are. >> reporter: you can expect a lot of people getting off of work. the line is not too bad. a steady line of voters coming in today. so far so good in pinellas county. that has not been the case in other parts of the state. 52 precincts had ballot shortages and. election officials asked the governor to extend their voting times from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. but as we mentioned, not here in pinellas county. turnout here has been good and steady and of course they have plenty of supplies here at the clearwater country side public library. people have been coming in and out all day. with two hours before the polls close, this is the time that it will start to pick up a lot. there haven't been a lot of issues and that is good. some people had registered as independent. that meant that t

lauren rozyla joins us live to explain there are very few places for victims to go once lauren. all of the nail salons in pinellas county like this one are displaying these posters. you can see the help number for victims. survivors say this is a great thing but they're concerned because they say the shelters for the victims are running out. edie ray has lived through the unimaginable. trafficked by her mother's boyfriend from the age of 10. she was sold for sex for most of her childhood. >> i tried to portray that normal lifestyle. you're a normal kid. but inside, i was dying. >> reporter: she spent most of her adult life advocating for survivors through her church's ministry where many victims have been brain washed by the traffickers. >> they feel like they're loved and adored. and they're not. >> reporter: while florida is third in the nation for human trafficking cases, she says there are only a dozen beds available for survivors who escape. there's no other place for them to go. but now edie is working to raise money to open her own shelter. >> just seeing a little bit of

as lauren rozyla reveals how you can get one of these in demand jobs. but pharmacists say there is plenty of room for advancement. crystal jordan always new she loved health care. >> i like helping people and i want to go into the medical field. >> reporter: she knew starting this training program could be the first step to getting a very in-demand job. >> it is comforting to know that you're going into a field that will actually need you. >> reporter: local training schools like concord say baby boomers are aging and bombarding pharmacies with prescription needs. >> it's almost a constant wave of a need for more pharmacy technicians. >> reporter: struck tores say it's a career with lots of opportunity to grow. >> pharmacy technicians can grow into lead technicians. especially if you're hospital facilities, they become shift managers. >> reporter: local pharmacists dealing with longer patient lines and more demand say these new techs can't get to work fast enough. >> i wish we could spend more time on the patients. >> reporter: they help handle pills an

lauren rozyla, abc action news. >>> now the most accurate weather team in florida. abc action weather. >> good afternoon. if you've been watching since 4:00 when the now was on, we south of melbourne. brush fires are an issue this we haven't had much rain. the only rain in the forecast is in the latter half of the weekend. until them, a lot of warmth. winds have been gusting through the afternoon. that makes fighting a-- a fire even more difficult. look for partly cloudy to clear skies. another beautiful day in store for thursday. then changes by the weekend. we will tell you which day is expecting rain coming up in a couple minutes. >>> thank you, denis. >>> in three hours, hillary clinton and bernie sanders will face off in a democratic debate in miami. one day after sanders' shocking victory in the michigan primary. sanders trails clinton here in florida and ohio according to the latest polls. tonight clinton leads sanders 61 to 49% in florida. she is looking to regain the momentum after last night's loss. carson chambers is live for us in miami with what we're e

i'm lauren rozyla for the new tampa bay. >> lauren, thank you. speaking of lead, today we spent the day with a grandmother in flint to see what it's like to have to ration your bottled water. we were only there for a day. these people have been dealing with this for months. >>> the chief meteorologist is in for us today, in for shay. beautiful weather to forecast. >> yes. did you hear the rain last night. >> i didn't hear a drop. >> a lot of rain and lightning. you were crashed at 3:00 a.m. but by 6:00, a lot of it actually pushed on through the area and led to a nice day. clear skies. a little cooler and breezy, especially across the northern counties where temperatures are in the upper 60s to low 70s. now, everybody is going to be cooling off at least over the next day or so. in fact, if you notice, quite a bit cooler right now than it was this time yesterday under mostly clear skies. again, the rains that we had early on are long gone. look for partly cloudy to clear skies this evening. temperatures cooling off to the 50s and maybe even the 40

lauren rozyla, abc action news. >> lauren, thank you. >>> now to a crisis in pasco county with rent prices going up, affordable housing is even tougher to find. >> abc action news reporter eric waxler is showing us how it's impacting those in need. >> if i had a place of my own, i would move everybody in. >> reporter: james knows what it's like to be homeless. he was on the streets of pasco county for three years. now he is living in a shelter community resource center in hudson. >> out in the streets it was getting bad. and i feel sorry for these people who are homeless. they have nowhere to go. >> reporter: some are homeless because of addiction and mental illness. some just can't afford rising rent costs. today commissioners passed the extremely low income housing program. they will spend 2 and a half million dollars in grants to buy or fix up 20 homes a year for the next five years. some will be foreclosures or ones that the county already owns. the homes will cost about $20,000 a unit and will be decent places to live for those median income. they say that's the hardest group to help

lauren rozyla is taking action tonight to tell you what to do to protect your family. >> reporter: these are the kinds of homes that are most these are homes built before 1978. those pre-war homes. but now the sun coast safety council is recommending that you use these lead testing kits in your home to check for lead before you renovate. maurice is working day and night to get the home ready. his mother is coming to live after his father's death. >> i'm doing this so she feels comfortable. >> reporter: it's no small task. safety experts say it could leave them at the risk for lead exposure. >> it gets in through the food. >> reporter: ed mawer is warning people about the everyday dangers of lead. lead is most often found buried beneath layers of paint in older homes. >> make sure that the home is kept clean. especially on the high wear areas where lead paint was used like window stills and door frames. >> reporter: when homes are

. >> lauren rozyla is live outside the pasco county sheriff's office where she found out that he has had several complaints on the job before. lauren. >> reporter: that's right, guys. we looked into his work history and we found he has a past record of abandoning his post, leaving the building vulnerable and being late. no indication of child abuse

the now's lauren rozyla is here. lauren, can he really do this? >> he is certainly going to try. cornell believes that this de means teachers. he wants to give lawmakers a taste of their own medicine. >> it's insulting. it's offensive. it implies that teacher are not smart and are not good enough. and really the problem is not our teachers. the problem is our legislators. >> reporter: st. petersburg city council member cornell says soon he will introduce a resolution forcing state lawmakers to show their high school sat and act scores. council members wanted to know if he was serious and cornell says he is. he says if state lawmakers think it's a good idea to tie teacher bonuses to scores from years ago, then lawmakers should have to go through the same thing. over the last 15 years, education and this is not fair to public school teachers. >> i think it's embarrassing. how many business people, go to the chamber of commerce and let's ask them how many people want to tie their salary to thr act scores from high school. come on. that has nothing to do with it. >> all right. so in

lauren rozyla has his story. lauren. >> reporter: ashley, this is where collin had to say good- bye to his parents. imagine having to say good-bye as a huge police presence is at he lives in orlando. they were visiting him on vacation from belgium. he says the people who he talked to in belgium today are scared and devastated. >> very sad. i think everybody is very sad. if you talk to people there, if you see people, even on facebook, all my friends, everybody is very sad. couldn't believe it. >> reporter: and there were so many more law enforcement officers out here today. and we did see a flight arrive from brussels. so police and law enforcement immediately arrived on the tarmac. that plane never even made it to the gate, immediately searching the plane. back out here live, we have people who are still coming through from that belgium flight. they have been waiting in some cases more than three hours to be able to get their bags. we talked with some of them today and they say many of them had absolutely no idea