Also [ applause ] iphone users supporting the company on the decision to fight an order from the federal government. The fight could take apple as far as the supreme court. The feds want app toll unlock terrorist Syed Rizwan Farooks iphone and right now, we are live on facebook. The its a new feature thats gaining popularity here in the bay area and all over the world. A look behind the scenes here on news news is about 11 minutes away. Well, good thursday morning and welcome to news channel 8 today. Im gayle guyardo. And im gene ramirez. Its going to be a Beautiful Day here in the bay area. Leigh joins us with the forecast. We are getting spoiled. We have this long stretch of great weather. This morning, not too bad. We are a little cool in inverness, 46, might need the light jacket. Polk county, right at average which is great. 52 in lakeland. 54 in plant city. During the morning hour, a light breeze from the north. And now this is a forecast for the winds through about 7 30. Toward lunchtime, you will feel that north wind even more at about 10 miles per hour. And let me warn you, by the time you head home from work and school, a northeast breeze will be coming in, 15 to 20 miles per hour. 73 at the average and a comfortable night tonight dropping down to 53. In weather and traffic on the 8s at 5 08, i take you hourby hour through the day. But leslee is here to get through the morning commute. What i want to talk about is out of the way in the spring hill. Pond circle at pinehurst drive the. Injuries involved and taking up lanes there. And ongoing is the overnight construction on the veterans expressway. All the northbound lanes are diverted off at gunn highway so take lynn road up to ehrlich and hop back on. And also traveling on ehrlich, you wont be able to pass you will need to go down to gunn highway to do that. And this should be wrapped within an hour. I will let you know when it happens. Thats a look at weather and traffic. Back to gene and gayle. Leslee, thank you. A major Traffic Alert that could impact your weekend plans big time. A huge construction project is set to get underway this weekend in clearwater. And now it will cause headaches for drivers trying to get to clearwater beach. The work will close the main artery to get to the beach starting tomorrow morning through sunday night. And news channel 8s ryan hughs is live on court street for us this morning. Ryan, this is going to take two weekends and this is a busy time of the year for clearwater beach. Reporter it is, gene. Good morning to you, too. Drivers have two options, wait in traffic or seek alternate routes. One is roughly four miles to the south and the other is eight miles to the north. And construction is set this coming weekend and the weekend traffic will be affected from friday morning after rush hour until sunday at 11 00 p. M. And now court will be closed from south myrtle avenue to south Fort Harrison this weekend. And next weekend, chestnut will be shut down from south Fort Harrison to south myrtle avenue. And now this is video of horrendous traffic during spring break a couple years ago. It shows what a mess it can be on the roads this time of year. Some drivers fear this weekend construction will make things a whole lot worse here. And now 8 on your side is asking question, specifically two weekends . Once we get the answer, we will let you know. Live in Pinellas County, ryan thank you. I have been stuck out there on. Happening today we are expecting to learn more about to cuba. We are tracking all of the updates for you on this historic visit. This is a big deal because a sitting president has not visited the island nation in mar than 80 years. Pedersen is live at a cuban restaurant in west tampa gauging reaction for us. Good morning, adrienne. Reporter good morning, gayle and gene. Well, employees just started showing up here just a few minutes ago. So were going to go inside and in a second and try to talk to some of them about what they think about this. In the meantime, lets go ahead and try to put a big decision in perspective here. The last sitting president to visit cuba was calvin cooldidge back in 1928. We know that at this point, the trip is happening next month. And this announcement is coming after the u. S. And cuba signed a deal restoring commercial air travel tuesday. Of course, thats a big deal. And our very own Jeff Patterson is in cuba right now. So he will be getting reaction on this throughout the day. In the bay area, continuously, bringing you updates. And in the next 30 minute, no surprise here, republican president ial candidates are weighing in on this. I will share what they have to say coming up. Yeah, its like a staple in tampa. A lot of interesting conversations always being held there. Cant wait to the hear what people have to say. Thank you, adrienne. Questions are swirling about the reliability of the Pinellas County 911 system after an outage left some calls in limbo. Its because of a routine hot fix on their services. Its like those long loading updates on our smart phones. Those can be frustrating. Well the system at the Public Safety building crashed leaving a four minute gap of downed lines before the backup plan finally kicked in. Reporter is there a backup plan when updating technology . There is. Reporter did it work today . The contingency plan worked today. Police department. It failed after a Lightning Strike in 2014. Unanswered this time around. Happening today, the judge will get an update in the case. You will remember the bradenton mom accused of killing her 11 yearold daughter and then stuffing the little girls body in a freezer. Now a Case Management hearing is scheduled this morning. Thomas is facing first degree murder charges. A walgreens visitor is being called a hero this morning after he stopped a pharmacy thief in his tracks. You got to the listen to the details and look at the take down. It was all caught on surveillance video. This was at a bradentons walgreens. David west was visiting his girlfriend at the farm. And i unlucky for the criminal, west is also a trained fighter. He did some damage here. When he saw the thief trying to steal the medication, he jumped into action. Down the wouldbe robber until the cops arrived. This is exciting, more big changes at Tampa International airport today. Its the grand opening for two food companies, bay coffee and tea company and aunt anns will open. The new restaurants are part of a 1 billion expansion project at the airport. So exciting to see the airport grow like that, isnt it . It is. And one of my favorite airports in the world. It is so efficient and now we have local companies that you will be able to eat, love it. 5 08, comfortable. One of the reasons people might be coming into our airport because our weather is so great the this time of the year. 51 degrees at 8 00 a. M. We warm up to 67 quickly by lunchtime. And 73 at 3 00 p. M. And now after 3 00, i think thats when the winds get stronger. So there will be an evening breeze out of the northeast. And nice stretch of weather. It is nice to be spoiled by mother nature. Mid70s through the weekend. Tuesday into wednesday. Check this out, 73 today which is average. 74 tomorrow. A pleasant saturday and sunday. And here at 5 08, we will check on traffic on the 8s. Weve got a decent drive. Noise drive across the waterways no. Delays on the skyway bridge between waterways. No delays on the skyway bridge. And Howard Franklin only six minutes across. Hernando county, up to speed in brooksville. We have a collision at pond circumstance and will thats tying up lanes. And again, on the veterans expressway, northbound right at gunn highway, theyve got a lot of construction going on. They have been diverting traffic off. And you can pick it back up if you go back up to ehrlich. You cant go underneath the veterans expressway on ehrlich. You can access the veterans expressway but you cant go underneath it. To do that, you have to go back to gunn highway. Just overnight construction. Thats a look at weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. A frighten time for parents and students. Smoke and flames consume a school bus. Coming up, what the bus driver did to keep the children alive. R i dont know what im doing. I cant find anything p just when i think its just not going to work. P this woman that works there comes over and asks can i help you . And he was so happy, to do it amazing right . R i never would have expected would have thought that anyone would find that do that. Make that go out of their way for me. Right then, right there i couldnt believe it he was so helpful i know its such a small thing little thing. Simple thing made me happy made my day share your story. R publix. Where shopping were back. Its 5 12. 8 on your side wants to take you behind the scenes of the news live. Yeah, many of us are using the new Facebook Live feature to show you what goes on behind the cameras which is sometimes is more interesting than whats on the camera. Its fun for sure. And news channel 8s tech guru Lindsey Mastis is here in studio. You are a pioneer and you are live on Facebook Live right now. Live right now. Wave everybody. Hey. And all you need is to log on to facebook. You can see behind the scenes. We will show you a different perspective just like this and even answer your questions. Its time for Facebook Live. Reporter from the weather center. We are live on facebook right now. Reporter to the anchor desk. Get prepared for the live shot. Reporter even out in the field. These are my notes. Reporter and especially for big news. Thousands of people watched news channel 8s live facebook broadcast at the trump rally at usf. I am behind the desk. Reporter to get notified, like our facebook pages and make sure notifications for the phone are turned on. And you can scroll through posts. Facebook will let you know when they are live now or if if one of us was live. We will even answer your questions. Dan, jeff, hey guys. Thanks for tuning in. Reporter just write them in the comment section. And we are not all business behind the camera, we have been goofing off all morning. And for those viewing the live streams this morning, you know we like to have fun. And i will even play piano sometimes. Play with your cats, i like that. When i get to chat with gayle in the makeup room. Its great, thank you, lindsey. And we hope you get on there and follow us on our facebook pages. You can find us wfla gene ramirez. Wfla gayle guyardo. And you can click a button, it will say subscribe and that way you dont miss a broadcast. And you can see it live. And if you missed it, you can get it after the fact. Thats me. Theres a delay on our oh, wow, this is too neat. We have to play with that during the break. Its 5 15. Another step toward lifting the cuban embargo and cementing this new relationship between the u. S. And cuba. President barack obama will make a historic visit to cuba next month according to a Senior Administration official. Today the white house will plans. And now this is the first time, listen to this, in more than 80 years that a sitting u. S. Get that, more than 80 years. Now not everyone thinks the good idea. Our senator marco rubio is totally against it. The republican president ial candidate explain idea at a town hall in south carolina. And ill tell you the problem with the cuban government, its not just a communist tick at a or theship, dictatorship. And now they have access to billions of dollars in resources that they didnt have access to before this opening. And texas senator ted cruz also slammed the trip. Some american businesses though are in support of the new relationship with cuba. News channel 8s Jeff Patterson is the only bay area tv reporter in havana right now. This morning, hi shows us how lifting the embargo could profit American Companies but ready. Reporter from a distance, cuba has incredible beauty but just about every traveler that been here notices one thing, cubas crumbling buildings. Obviously things seem run down quite a bit and lack of maintenance but the people are extraordinarily nice. A lot of crumbling buildings. A lot of place where is its shored up with fourbyfours. Reporter what are your observations about the buildings . Beautiful but dilapidated, fall ago part. Reporter there are some other areas of old havana that have already been restored. This is one beautiful example of how things can look here. Steve has been bringing american tourists to cuba for more than 20 years and he sees opportunity here for American Companies to take part in the rebuilding. We talked about it in the back of a 56 pontiac while driving through some of havanas old neighborhoods. Theres going to be a lot of people interested in getting a little share of the market because eventually, this country once the embargo is supplies from us. Reporter so some may see only decay and ruin but others see opportunity in the very near future. In havana, cuba, Jeff Patterson, news channel 8. Thank you so much. And news channel 8 is the only television station bringing you reports from cuba right now. Jeff will have more on the president s planned trip to cuba beginning with first at 4 00. Investigators in mobile, alabama are trying to figure out what caused a school bus to catch fire. You have to take a look at the video. You can see the flames actually shooting up from the bus. 15 students were onboard at the time. The driver got them out safely through the back door. This is what the door. This is what the bus looked like after firefighters put out the flames. A charred mess. The driver reported some smoke coming from the engine compartment right before he saw flames. The annual list of the best beaches in america is out and two local spots are on the map, of course. Clearwater beach is number one. Wow. St. Pete beach not too far behind there at fourth place. The rankings are a big deal because trip adviser is the Worlds Largest travel site and Summer Vacation is just a few months away. So it might inspire a lot of people to come to the area. And siesta key was also in the top 10. No wonder people come here, beautiful beach, great weather this time of the year. Get a break if the snowy frigid conditions anywhere else. 51 degrees this morning. And we are saying thats a bit of a chill. Other parts of the country says springtime. 67 at noon. And 37 with a breeze at 3 00 p. M. And just a little cool again, 46 in inverness. 51 lakeland. And a little milder near the coast like 57 in bradenton. Wendy in brooksville, she has 49 degrees. My weather watcher there. And the long range forecast, its so nice in the shortterm. That leads to clear skies across the southeast through today, friday, saturday. A little bit of a return of some tiny humidity into sunday. And im holding off any rain chances. Look at this, longrange into tuesday night before the best rain chance. So great weather until then. All right, looking at traffic right now. We have a good drive. If youre headed across the bay here. Only six minutes to cross the Howard Franklin. Campbell causeway. All the bay area bridges look good. Pond circle at pinehurst, trying to wrap up the collision there. And overnight construction still going on. Northbound on the veterans expressway, if youre leaving the house soon, you might be diverted off at gunn highway by the time you get there. If thats the case, you can go to sheldon or lynn road and get back on the veterans expressway northbound at ehrlich. And now if youre coming from ehrlich, you wont be able to that should clear in the next half hour or. So you will need to come down the to gunn highway. Again, it should wrap up in about half an hour. Thats a look at weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. All right. Thank you. A new truck, maybe a massage . Right now the lucky melbourne couple who won the Powerball Jackpot are not giving too many details away about how theyre planning to spend the money. But their story is getting a lot of clicks. Thed this couple from tallahassee. They explained they bought just one ticket for the january 13th ticket. She bought the Winning Ticket at a publix. And day the winning numbers were unvailed, his coworkers expected something was up. The first day i arrived late to work, they all suspected i won. So i had to say i didnt purchase a ticket. So i didnt lie. Hmm. The two are married and he now plans to retire early. The couple set up the socalled nickel 95 trust to manage their money. Such a cute couple. Got married in the 80s. And she had been playing those numbers for a longtime. Yes. And when she heard the numbers while they were broadcasting, she said wait a second, those are my numbers. Finally like 30something years. Still ahead, getting up to speed on a new way to pay. The Country Apple pay is apple Just Launched apple pay in china. Apple pay started in the u. S. In 2014 and has since spread to Great Britain and canada. The company is working with chinas stateowned credit card processor union pay so card holder cans make payments from apple devices. Creditcards. Com released a study showing 25 million credit card holders havent changed their goto card in 10 years. And 25 million have never changed it. You could be missing out on signup bonuses and rewards are americans favorite credit card feature. Its worth it to shop around those cards. Love those rewards. Yes. Weather and traffic on the 8s is three minutes away. Plus, the Traffic Alert you need to know about before you make weekend plans for the beach. An interesting perspective on the battle between apple and v ugh. v does your carpet everr feel rough and dirty . Dont avoid it,t resolve it. P our formula with a special r conditioning ingredient, softens your carpett with every use. T its resolve, so you knowr it cleans and freshens. R but it also softens. Resolve. A carpet that welcomes you. And to clean pet messes, all right, sending the kids to the bus stop, a light jacket might be needed at 51 degrees. But in the afternoon when it is 73 and sunny, emoji man says this is a winner of a day, leslee. Yeah, hes not going across the veterans expressway right now. Thats because all traffic is taken off at gunn highway. This should clear up between 5 30 and 6 00. Good thursday morning. Welcome to news channel 8 today. Im gene ramirez. And im gayle guyardo. In our top stories this morning, an important Traffic Alert for beach goers this weekend. These are live pictures of the Railroad Crossing on court