On tuesday afternoon. And you can see why the Hurricane Center has decided on this track. The consensus of the computer models have shifted a little further west, back toward florida again today. As we always tell you, the forecast tracks change as well as the spaghetti models. We will continue to update you and watch the storm over the next several days. Back to you. All right, thanks steve jerve. A sarasota woman trying to turn in a stray dog dangerously skinny. But it turns out she was lying. A microchip proved it was her dog and she mistreated it. Newschannel8s john rogers joins us from Sarasota County with this shocking story. Reporter good evening, the girl repeatedly lied to authorities but eventually caved in and admitted she was too busy to care for the dog. When i spoke with her, she said she never meant for this to happen. Earlier this month, 20yearold alexandria drew brought in this dog to Sarasota County animal services. It was gaunt and shockingly thin. I actually saw the dog that day when it came in. It was skeletal. You could see the ribs. Looked like it had not eaten in months. And it wasnt in good shape. Reporter drew claimed it was a stray. But officials found a microchip that proved that she was the owner. His name is richter and she adopted him six months ago. Drew says his condition was not her fault, but eventually confessed that she kept richter locked in a cage. Couldnt find time to properly care for him. She did not want to take responsibility for the dog being in the was. Reporter drew was arrested and charged with animal cruelty. Richter is now in quarantine at the Humane Society and is recovering nicely. Im john rogers. Reporter i spoke with drew briefly by phone. She was apologetic saying her busy work schedule prevented her from spending time with the dog. She told me, i feel terrible. I was scared so i lied. Im taking responsibility. I dont deny anything. She then added i am not a bad person. This makes me seem like a put her in a cage and dont feed her and make her whine. I cant believe somebody would starve a dog. Theres just too many people who would love it. Why would you even have a dog if you were going to do that . Reporter thankfully, richter is expected to fully recover. Officials say if you ever have trouble caring for a dog, reach out to animal services. They have resources to help you out. Reporting in Sarasota County, john rogers, newschannel8. Early voting is underway in the state of iowa now. Hillary clinton made a stop there today in fact. Polls show donald trump in the hawk eye state. Trump spoke to a crowd in New Hampshire painting clinton as the establishment candidate. Next week, on the campaign trail, Vice President joe biden is coming to the bay area to stump for clinton. He will visit sarasota and orlando on monday. There are just 39 days until election day. Voters all over the country will hit the polls in what could be one of the most important president ial elections in decades. Hillsborough has worked to make secure. Newschannel8s ryan hughes got a look at the process. Reporter workers are testing more than 340 voting machines. One for each precinct in Hillsborough County just weeks before election day, the Hillsborough County supervisor of Elections Office is like a fortress. The machines that will count the votes are safe and secure. Craig lattimer says it must be run smoothly with flawless equipment. In or ballot s so we can always recreate the election to prove that the machines counted accurately and properly. Reporter 2000 was the year of the hanging chad. Florida was thrust into the spotlight. The outcome was not known for more than a month after balloting eventually settling in george w. Bushs favor by a few hundred votes. There were lost, misplaced and different type of voting machine since 2000. Technology is a large part of what we do. Reporter there has been talk on the National Level about voter fraud caused by governments like russia. That is not a concern here. Our Election Software server is not connected to the internet or to the intranet. It is a stand alone server that is in a confined area that is under in my case, under 24 7 video surveillance. Reporter tens of thousands of vote by mail ballots being printed, sealed, and mailed. And workers are checking voter machines to make sure they are in proper working order. They know they just have one chance to get it right. Im ryan hughes, newschannel8. More than 825,000 people are registered to vote in Hillsborough County. If you plan to vote, you have to register by october 11. Early voting begins on october 24 and election day itself is november 8. Well, a boy with special needs has always dreamed of scoring a touchdown. True. Coming up, we will meet the people who helped to make it a reality and captured the touching moment on camera. Grab the tissues. You may need it for this one. And we want to remind you that the 2016 heart walk is right around the corner. Newschannel8 is committed to raising 100,000. But we need your help. Every dollar you donate counts as two. The walk is november 12 at Raymond James stadium. You can go to wfla. Com heartwalk for more. Defense, offense, special teams, our team of the week was firing on all cylinders. Coming up, i will show you how they beat the number 12 team in the country. Well have that and more coming up. Youre watching newschannel8, the 2016 u. S. Olympic and paralympic teams paid a visit to the white house today. President obama and the first lady thanked the athletes for inspiring americans. The delegations presented the pair with surfboards bearing the olympic and paralympic symbols. Also today, Congress Passed a bill exempting u. S. Victory tax on medals and cash prizes. So, you wanted to have a pizza party with tom brady, matt damon and ben affleck . All you have to do is donate to charity. If you give, you are entered to win prizes. One of which, is a pizza night with the famous trio. There are 27 days left to donate. And enter the contest. Well, in front of the home the football panthers beat the Number One Team in the land making them the team of the week. Double a Anthony Allred introduces us to the squad. We are number one we are number one reporter in front of the home crowd of close to 4,000 fans, the plant football panthers were all jacked up and ready to take on the number 12 team in the nation. This is the reason why you came here lets go i love have not been scored on in two andahalf games but plant plays like this. Blowing up the defensive line, helped the panthers keep it close throughout the game. We knew we were going to score on this. So, that was out of the question. But, oh my gosh. Our game plan was to get them out there, try to point out what they do best. Make them go through the second plan. We got them out there. First plan. And made them go to plan b. Defense. Harassing the quarterback, running down sacks, beat their cross county rival for the first time in three seasons. It is a pretty great feeling because we are pretty small line as far as 7a standards go. And we were running some plays that just rotate the plays and it was just great to see everybody fighting every play. Reporter football panthers, holler at me yeah reporter special teams kicked the 37 is goal. The offense opened up holes big enough to drive a school bus through yeah reporter and, the defense got an interception that won the game. Yeah reporter it was a total team effort. And that is why you guys are newschannel8s team of the week. [ cheers and applause ] reporter congratulations to the plant football panthers. Newschannel8s team of the reporter on the prowl with the plant panthers, Anthony Allred, newschannel8 sports. [ cheers and applause ] they are riled up. Well, be sure to watch tomorrow night for your High School Football highlights. The friday night blitz with dan lucas and paul ryan kicks off at 11 15. Well, tonight pure joy on the gridiron. Dreams come true for a four yearold little boy in lakeland. He is found to a wheelchair but spent his scoring the winning touchdown. And this weekend, it happened. Our Melanie Michael joins us live from bryant field in lakeland. Hey mel. Reporter hey guys. Good evening to you both. This is the exact spot for the incredible moment happened. And while you may not see it on sunday night football, or sports center, it could be the most important play you will see all season. [ cheers and applause ] ask any Football Player and they will tell you this is sacred ground. Glory. For kelan hagans, football is his world. At the tender age of four, he has one dream. To score a touchdown. But, his love for the game is seen from the sidelines. And while his tiny body may be confined to a wheelchair, hes got the heart of a quarterback. He is always talking about playing football and wanted to be on the football field. So, his dream came true. Reporter his mom describes this as the greatest her life. The day her fouryearold scored the winning touchdown surrounded by his older brothers teammates, the lakeland lumber jacks and the opposing team, kelan was escorted all the way to the end zone. [ cheers and applause ] reporter a dream come true for a little boy who was born weighing just one pound. To the 20, to the 15, to the 10, to the 5. When he scored there was a touchdown. Everybody, everybody clapped. Reporter so they did the play by play. They did. They got the play by play. It wasnt a dry eye in sight. Reporter indeed, this is a place where magic happens. Yard by yard. Where those who love the game find pure joy in a single touchdown. Your run boy. He is my quarterback all time. Any time i need a quarterback, we will have him score the touchdown. Never let your child down. Whatever dreams your childs have, let them dreams. Reporter oh my goodness josh and jen. I got to tell you, when i saw that video today, it brought tears to my eyes. Write want to tell you kelan, we are saluting you. And we will always be cheering at you from the sidelines. Josh and jen . All the little guys with their hands extended to wish him well. What a heartwarming story. Thank you very much, mel. Nice story. All right, well a group of sky divers pulled off a pretty impressive stunt in the sky recent lyrate earn. They created a massive swing in midair using two hot air balloons. It was in an effort to have the longest swing. They are waiting on official approve to see if they were successful. Pretty bold. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the Northern Lights lit up the skies over iceland last night. And it created a spectacular spot. Someone snapped this amazing photo of the green lit sky. People in the area were asked to keep their homes dark between night so everybody could get a clear view at this amazing natural phenomenon. Well, our morning sights might include the possibility of seeing showers. The on shore flow will bring coastal showers. Dry air to the north with a cold front staying far north. We will going to stay in the humidity. Slightly drier air may try to work its way far south enough to maybe feel it in citrus county. Be the average temperatures you see it right there. There is the view from freedom we have seen scattered showers on and off throughout the day in many different locations around the area. But, these kinds of amounts are sort of usual. I guess, to what we have seen around the area today. Friday night blitz, going on tomorrow night. 82 degrees in that football spirit. Scattered storms still warm and mug gift 80 degrees at halftime. Maybe some lingering showers. Partly cloudy. Some of the shower activity will be ending here later into the evening. North to south, a few scattered showers north of brooksville. South of inverness there, progressing off to thunderstorms, too. Kind of embedded in here. A few showers continue in sections of polk county. Looks like just east of downtown tampa in the east bay area south of brandon right now, scooting off to the east, and also, a few showers and thunderstorms offshore. Manatee, sarasota, bradenton seeing some showers there moving east as well toward hardy, de soto, high lands county. A great shot from peter in bradenton. A lot of rainbows here the past couple of days. I dont know if there are more great photographs from folks. 82 degrees this evening. A few scattered thunderstorms. 76 at 8 00 a. M. You can see downpours east of i 75. Temperatures right now, mid 80s , odessa. 84 brandon. 84 clearwater beach. Palm harbor, 84 degrees. Mid 7 0z out in lakeland. 73 degrees in bartow. We are talking cooler conditions largely because we are looking at the thunderstorms helping to drop some of these temperatures. Quite a few clouds remain around the area from west to east, you can see the thunderstorms racing in that direction. Which has been the flow today. Quite a bit of dry air here to the north of us. That will continue to settle north, very nice conditions for them. This is hurricane matthew. 70 miles an hour winds moverring north, eventually with the turn as we see, lifting in that direction. That position is about 450 miles to the southeast of the city of miami. Sitting across the atlantic. A big trough in the upper atmosphere lifting to the north. But, matthew will continue to move to the north around the western side of the system. So, the area of High Pressure should allow matthew to continue turning to the north and we are seeing that reflection on the computer models. As for the wind sheer, when you have higher wind sheer, it lowers systems. Lower wind sheer allows the system to strengthen. You can see with the brighter colors in green and blue indicating higher wind sheer. It will be the next couple of days. Still in a pretty decent atmosphere to strengthen and turning to the north as we show you in the models at the top of the newscast. You can see it on satellite imagery. Pretty impressive system that could interact with land. That plays a small part in helping to weaken the system overall. For friday, 87 degrees. A 40 chance of showers and storms. 30 saturday. You can see sunday, a 40 monday and tuesday, a rain chance. 40 tuesday. We are talk above normal rain chances. And then, long term, if the forecast track works out for this tropical system, it may play a part in helping to pull drier air into the state of florida. We might sample some drier air as a result of the system. Still too early to say that for sure. We will have to continue to watch the forecast. This is definitely one to watch. Indeed. Thank you. Streets underwater, power cut, and schools closed. We have the latest on the flooding in north next. Also, kidnapping caught an come on camera. Good news in the case. You can join jenn holloway, Julie Phillips and me on newschannel8 at 8 00 on great 38 from 8 00 to 9 00. Ahead for us, this evening, the latest in a deadly commuter train crash outside new york city. And the technology that might have prevented it. Why american officials are now convinced the russian government is behind hackers targeting the u. S. Election. And the appeal of slow tv. Vo we asked women in Pinellas County to describe congressman david jolly in one word woman 1 dangerous. Woman 2 backwards. Woman 3 outoftouch. Woman 4 thats 3 words. Vo david jolly shares Donald Trumps backwards agenda for women. And deny women access to basic Health Care Like mammograms and cancer screenings. Woman 5 i have 3 words for david jolly. Not for women. Vo House Majority pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. Now to is making headlines across america. Heavy rains and flooding an some business and homes were damaged by water. Dons of roads were closed due to flash flooding and several weather related accidents have been reported. A california woman is back home safe and sound after going through a terrifying ordeal. She was kidnapped from the gas station where she works by a man who had been stalking her. You can see the man grab her, drag her out of the store and force her into his car. He took her to a cemetery where she was able to escape. The man was arrested a short time later. Ac planning the strike for the second time this year. The Chicago Teachers Union leaders set a strike date of october 11 if an agreement on teacher contracts cannot be reached. They are also protesting cuts in special education programs. And, librarians. A woman driving in new jersey had an unfortunate accident when her car hit a deer. More upsetting, the deer hit back. Police dash cam caught the whole thing on camera. The woman pulled over to check on the animal. Look at that. Across the road and attacked her. The driver is okay, but the deer did not make it. My goodness. Newschannel8 at 6 00 is coming up next. Keith is here with what we are working on. A new storm is brewing in the caribbean. But some folks are still cleaning up from hurricane hermine. The assistance now available to help get them back to normal. Plus, when a snack craving hits during your work hours, you are typically left with what is left in the vending machine. To make sure its people have healthy options. Coming up, a new deal is on the table that could finally allow uber and lyft to operate legally in Hillsborough County. An unbelievable crime here at alonzo high, someone steals a Jose Fernandez jersey the same night as a vigil in his honor. Those stories plus your storm team 8 forecast and sports with paul ryan, coming up on newschannel8, station right now on newschannel8 at 6 00. Uber reaches an agreement with the hillsborough ptc. But, the battle is not over yet. And 8 on your side looks a thief strikes during a touching tribute to a hometown allstar taken too soon. Priceless mememto stolen. Im keith cate thank you for joining us tonight. Im jennifer leigh. Hurricane matthew is now the fifth named storm of the season. But the big question, where is it headed in chief meteorologist steve jerve joins us now in the forecast center where the latest. Reporter you see the forecast track here shortly advisory when it was upgraded to a hurricane. 70 miles an hour winds still undergoing wind shear, but likely, it will strengthen over the long haul. You can see the bright red color indicates the cooler cloud tops on the infrared satellite imagery. It is south of the Dominican Republic and will continue on a westerly track. The Hurricane Hunters were in there today and saw 91 miles an hour wind gusts. So clearly, this is much stronger than it was 24 ago. As we look at the advisory. 67. 8 west. Latitude, longitude. 75 miles an hour winds. Pretty Fast Movement there at 17. It will go east of jamaica. Keeping in mind the stronger side ever the storm is just to the east or the right of the center of it. Haiti would probably feel the worstover this particular scenario. In this scenario passing over the eastern part of cuba, of course, we are watching the cone of air which may make contact with the florida east