I have an up hill climb and ill climb as hard as i can. I want to make my case to the people of New Hampshire. After a tight race in iowa, democrats Hillary Clinton and senator Bernie Sanders will come face to face at a debate tonight in New Hampshire. It is going to be a gloomy day for the bay area. Keep the umbrellas handy. The rain is to the north but it is coming our. Was lets go straight over to meteorologist leigh spann to see what we can expect today. If youre just leaving the house on the early commute heading to school early, things are dry. Which is great news. All of this rain will slowly sink to the south. Notice, clouds already further to the north, north of i4, what ive done is moved into a forecast mode today. If you can find where you live and watch where the rain makes it here. Cloudy skies between now and 7 30. Maybe a stray light sprinkle. It is after about nine, 10 00 hernando see a consistent rain and they make their way to the south. Places like hillsborough, pinellas and polk county start to see some of the showers, heavier downpours all day will be north of i4. Things will be lighter further to the south and it will make it further south later in the day. Highs today at 76. With weather and traffic on the 8s at 6 08. Ill let you know how much rain im expecting today and leslee is here to let you know what to expect on the roadway. It is a decent drive. Dry right now. Enjoy that while you can. Lets look at tam fachlt is not perfect. We have issues going on. 78th street at eagle palm drive. We have a collision. I want you on the look out for that. I75 looks good as well as i4. Clearing up here as well as the one over on u. S. 19 which is 34th street right at 54th avenue north. Moving down to sarasota, still that is a look at weather and traffic. Right now a Health Emergency here at home. Governor rick scott is getting ready to address the zika virus and the impact on us later today. The emergency impacts four florida counties including right here in hills bureau. Ryan hughes is live hillsborough. Right hughes is live. The governor is taking pretty big steps with this crisis. Reporter good morning. He is. He will be joined by the state Surgeon General around 1 30 in the afternoon to discuss the states action plan. What they plan to do, if this virus gets out of control. We know the virus is most dangerous in pregnant women because it causes birth defects. 8 on your side talked to a tampa woman whos son was born with microcephaly. She remembers being bitten by mosquitos while she was pregnant two decades ago and her son was born with the condition. And her family to this day. Absolutely devastated. I cried and cried for. Especially in the past six years weve gotten really, really close, and i mean, i would do anything for him. It is at the point where i look do anything. Hes basically become my. Reporter the family is much more happy now that there is more attention on this virus to bring the virus and the issues surrounding it to light. Again, Governor Scott and the state Surgeon General will be here at the Health Department around 1 30 in the afternoon. You can count on 8 on your side to be here and have the latest on first at four this afternoon. Gayle, back to you for now. You hear that story. This is so alarming. Than ryan. Brazils president is ordering state employees, even get rid of the home and offices. The country is working with the United States to develop a zika vaccine. The move comes as brazil counts down to the 2016 summer olympics. Lots of people will be there for that. As zika concerns increase there, are some things you can do around your house to protect yourself. Get rid of all of the standing water that only attracts more mosquitos and gives them a breeding ground. Empty out all potted plants with a water vez voir underneath. Dont forget about rain barrels and clean out your gutters. For more prevention tips, head over to our website, wfla. Com. That is where youll find detailed information about the zika virus. Happening today, Tampa City Council will get an update on the bike tickets controversy surrounding the police department. Tampa police are expected to present a report on out reach programs related to enforcement of bike laws. It stems from an investigation that revealed 79 of the agency africanamericans. The Tampa City Council will also get an update on how the Red Light Camera Program is working. They will share new statistics on the number of tickets issues and the fines collected. Family man arrested for having eight pipe bombs in his home is expected in court today. Federal investigators raided his home and found the explosives along with an ak47, a pistol, and ammunition. New this morning, a Hillsborough County deputy is recovering after this crash. It happened over on gunn highway and anderson road. Investigators arent releasing many details but it appears the deputys cruiser suffered damage to the rear bumper. Paramedics transported one person to the hospital. We dont know that persons condition but as for that deputy, investigators believe he will be okay. An alabama deputy shot in the chest is recovering this morning. Serving officials explained the deputy was serving papers for a mental evaluation when the owner opened fire. The deputy rurped fire. The deputy is returned fire. The deputy is recovering from a spleen injury. No word on the home owner. Look at all of this damage in davidson and randolph county. Winds gusting up to 50 miles an hour are blamed for blowing apart buildings and sheds. The storms are blamed for downing power lines. At 1,200 people were without power. This morning, terrifying video of severe lightning in sydney ausz raila. Two friends capt australia. Two friends captured a bolt. Dont go outside. Im not as one friend told the other not to go outside, the bolt came out of nowhere. The men described feeling the take a look at this. It is an upside down water fall in scotland. What . The water is actually flowing up instead of down. The phenomenon is caused by high winds forcing this stream of water to go backwards. I feel like someone is pulling our leg with that one. It is individual kwoe going in reverse it looks like video going in reverse. That is Mother Nature pulling the springs there. Can you imagine how strong the winds must to be make the water fall go up instead of down . Crazy. Well see rain going down later today. It is dry and the rain chances only slowly go up between now and mid morning. Well be warl and humid staying in the low to warm and humid staying in the low to mid70s. 60 rafr 11 this morning after 00 this morning after that notice how the line starts it will start to get cold quickly after this rain heads out of here. How much rain can we see . Not much between now and 10 avment citrus, hernando c, you can see light rain. Coastal pasco county, this is a quarter inch of rain and it takes it through the evening before we start to see the rain in the hillsborough, manatee, Sarasota County area were not expecting much rain from a kaur inch to 3 4 of an inch. Get the reign for the gasparilla classic this morning when it it is mostly dry. The rain will be possible through tonight, only a few spots of heavy downpours and very little in the way of strong storms. The bigger news after today will be the colder air, ill run that down coming up. First, check the roadways this morning, theyre dry. That is good news. It is good. I like the warm air. I like being able to go out by the pool. I guess not so much right now. You had it yesterday with the 80 degrees. Lets look at traffic at this here is what is going on in tampa we have a good drive through downtown. It is not a perfect situation. We have fender benders, 78th street at eagle waum drive. Keep that in mind. Also off to the shoulder, sligh avenue at 22nd street and heading over to pinellas at 54th avenue north. Got word of a collision. U. S. 301 at university in sarasota. Ill have more coming up in my next report. Back to gene and gayle. Things are heating up in the race for the white house as the two Top Republican candidates lash out at each other. I wake up every day and laugh at the latest thing donald has tweeted. Because he is losing it. Look, we need a commanderinchief, not a twitterer in chief. Coming up, the new feud between texas senator ted cruz and donald trump and who else is involved april. The state fair opens today and someone argued the food is the best part. It is 6 13 this thursday morning. Donald trump insists he chieted and wants a cheated and wants a do over. Lindsey mastis joins us live with the morning alert. After trump found out he came in second in iowa, he congratulated cruz and tweeted his experience in iowa was great but now is changing hesitate tune completely accusing senator cruz of stealing the election. Trump has been on twitter nonstop. He insists that senator cruz did something criminal. Earlier senator cruzs campaign apologized to carson for telling voters that carson planned to quit the race. They claimed they got the report from cnn. It reported that carson would not go to New Hampshire or South Carolina but he would remain in the race. Now, here is dr. Carsons tweet. He called it shameless tactics and dirty political plays linking to an article that makes it clear he is not happy with senator cruz. Trump is bringing this back up senator of more dirt accusing the senator of more dirty politics. It is his latest tweet saying what he insists is a voter violation certificate sent to voters. He calls this fraud. He tweets he wants either a new election or for cruzs results to be nullified. Senator cruz is no aggressive but says he is having a trumper tantrum. Donald finds it very hard to lose. He finds that very difficult for him. But at the end of the day, the iowa people spoke. Senator cruz may be brushing it off but trump is not backing down. Coming up on the today show, a closer look at the allegations of voter fraud. Gene . I look forward to seeing that, thank you. You can follow our morning facebook and twitter. Search eight alert. In an 8 on your side investigation this morning, while florida fights to get a handle on credit card skimmers, now there is a new threat to worry about. Crooks are staying one step ahead of authorities and now theyre cloning credit cards the kicker . This happens in florida more than any other state. Investigators do everything they can to stay on top of these crimes but some believe crooks will always have the upper hand. It is very, very difficult for them to solve the crimes. What is more likely is they will catch the criminal in some other violation. 8 on your side reached out to Cyber Security experts from threat identity. Com. They claim to be tracking 20,000 credit card thieves every month throughout the world. It is 6 16. Happening today, a tasty and entertaining annual florida tradition kicks off. In a few hours, the Florida Business in Hillsborough County. News channel 8s Adrienne Pedersen is getting a sneak peek for us this morning. Good mo gene and gayle. You asked for more food and got it. It is breakfast and ma means bacon. I have greg shockly with shocklys food service. All i can see is bacon. Tell us about this. This is the bacon bomb burger. It starts off with an lattice work of bacon. Ground chuck, roll it up in this bacon lattice, slide it in the smoker cook it for two and a half minutes. Slice it and serve to order. Bacon in every bite. Bacon in every bite. Ill have to test that out. I also want to know, this just won an award. Peoples choice. Ill be the judge of that. Tastes like bacon. So who is this for . Bacon lovers, anyone else . Savory. Anyone. They need to try it. It is never too a early to have a bacon burger. What do you have cooking . Fresh cubans, philly cheese steaks. Things of that nature. I love that it has the bacon lattice. The red neck burger, this is a classic. We have the beans here, the shoe strings on top. Ill save tagsz this one for later, guys. I dont know about the beans. That could get dangerous. Bacon is one of those food items that transcends the day. You can have those any time of the day. Thanks adrienne. You have a little more than a week to get your fill of bacon and other goodies at the fair. It opens today at 10 a. M. And you can enjoy it all through september, february 15th. Today if you go to the fair, today will be one of the wetter days in the next several days. But were still going to go out and enjoy the food. The rain is to the north. There are lightning strikes off of the coast of cedar key. Were all dry this morning. Lets me take you on the weather wheel. Only a 20 chance before the sunrises and once i bring that up to a 40 chance at 8 00 a. M. Im talking about far Northern Areas. As the day progresses, a 50 rain chance by 10 avment 60 at noon and 70 at 3 00 p. M. Now, later in the day is when we see the best coverage of rain. It is warm out there. Upper 60s to near 70. Betty in plant city says she is at 68 degrees. Notice, extra clouds through 8 00 and the first few showers as early as nine, 10 00 this morning. Most of us dry as more of the rain pushes to the south. Here it is at 3 45. Pockets heavier downpours way south of i4 by the evening. Everything clears out after midnight and that is when it gets cold down to 48 tonight. Cool, breezy and sunny at 62 tomorrow. How about traffic on the 8s. Aside from fender benders out there, we have a pretty good drive. Lets look at what is going on starting off in tampa. Hillsborough county area. This is clearing out but sligh avenue. You can get by. Traffic is not impeded by the crash. U. S. 19 at five 4e9d avenue north. Youll see 54th avenue north. Youll see the crash but you can get by. 301 at University Parkway at sarasota jumping back to bradenton, that is a look at weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. Thanks so much, leslee. Ahead, how you can turn your baseball dreams into a job. Well explain the job fair that is hitting home runs today in the bay area. Taylor swift is making your the pop stars new venture coming soon to the smart phone or tablet. Happening today. This is for the baseball fans. A job fair for you. The Toronto Blue Jays are holding a spring training job fair. They need people to work concessions, on the grounds krefrp and box office. They must be able to work all 16 spring training games. It is taking place at Florida Auto Exchange stadium in dunedin. Pop super star taylor swift is shaking things up with her new venture hoping to develop a mobile gaming app. She made at announcement on her website. Her name game is set to come out sometime later this year. What will she do in the game . I dont know but im sure my kids will know all about it. The kardashians shop in the game or something. Weather and traffic on the 8s is three minutes away. And new in the next half hour, a problem with filing your taxes, well explain what is happening to an irs Computer Program creating a delay. The new caramel macchiato from dunkin donuts. Let handcrafted layers of espresso, milk, and a caramelflavored swirl uplift your mood. Indulge in a hot or iced macchiato today. Six . It is 6 28. When your send your kids off to the bus stop it will be include whaechlt they come home, that is when we have the best rain chance at 70 . Still warm at 76. After, that were below average in the next week. Leslee, lets check on traffic on the 8s. Moving across the Howard Frankland bridge it is nice it will only take you six minutes to cross it. 10 across the Courtney Campbell can you see way. Eastbound to drshgs cause waechlt eastbound to gandy bridge, it is a sevenminute commute. Sky way bridge up to speed and in bradenton, heads up. Cortez boulevard, we have an. Good morning. Welcome to news channel 8 today. Im dpeen gene. Im gayle guyardo. Im gene ramirez. Im gayle guyardo. Growing concern about the zika virus in our area. A public Health Emergency is in effect in our areas including right here in hillsborough. This afternoon, governor rick scott and state Surgeon General dr. John armstrong will be in tampa to update us on the steps the state is taking to avoid the spread of the virus. One person is recovering Hillsborough County sheriffs cruiser. You can see the damage to the bumper. The deputy will be okay. The condition of the other person, however, is not known at this time. And the countdown is on for the state fair. Well officially kickoff the state fair in a few minutes. Well show you how you can get in on all of the fun. Lets check in with meteorologist leigh spann. It looks like it will rain on the first day of the fair. Not all day. But if you are heading out to the fair, grab the rain jacket for sure. It is all to the north for sure. Well get a closer view to it. Patchy clouds here. The rain up in levy county actually. The first areas that would see rain, further to the north. What ive done is is put this into a forecast model so you can find where you live and see where the rain is coming in your direction. Not a lot of rain between 8 and 9 00 this morning. Be a slow moving system pushing to the south. Places like citrus, hernando, pasco, Northern Areas could see rain by midday. As the day goes on. The heavier downpours will be further to the north and well get lighter rain further to the south. Through the afternoon and evening it could be on the wet side. It will be cooler though, 82 on tuesday, we tied a record at 82 wednesday but well be colder at 68. I have an eightday temperature trend you want to stay tuned for. Leslee is here to explain what to expect on the roads. We have a new crash on i4 through ybor city. Lets look at the travel times through ybor to 275, were up to a 12minute commute. It is all about this accident not far away from the fair grounds. We have a good drive that remains southbound on the veterans expressway. That is roughly an 11minute you can seat slow down. It is past 50th street. We have the middle lane blocked and left lane taken away. Lets take a live look at traffic out there. There it is, folks, really putting on the brakes especially in the left lane. It is backed up to hillsborough. Keep that that in mind. At 20 minutes early, it tying up two lanes westbound on i4. That is a look at weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. Thanks. Right now, an Emergency Declaration from the governor here in Hillsborough County all over the zika virus known for causing birth defects. Later today, governor rick scott will be in tampa to address how the state plans to tackle this outbreak on our door step. A public Health Emergency is in place for four florida counties. Ryan hughes is live at hillsborough Health Department. This is a widespread problem america but it is hitting close to home. There are confirmed cases. Nine confirmed cases in all. It has grabbed at tension of governor rick scott. He will be here later today. I want to stay informed with what the cdc is saying, if there are things we need to be doing, fortunately right now, we only have cases of individuals that have travelled to other countries and have come to our state. I want to make sure were ready and prepared. Governor rick scott will be joined by the attorney general when they visit the Health Department. The governor signed an executive order which declared a Health Emergency in the four counties i listed. The order says it is important to take action to ensure the residents of florida remain safe and healthy. The governor wants his staff to educate the public on the virus spread through mosquito bites and can have adverse effects on babies in the womb. Governor scott will be here at you can certainly count on 0 your side to be here. Well have the latest on first at hadthis afternoon. Back to you for now. Well keep keking back with more on this story. For more information about the zika virus. Join us online at wfla. Com. Well have information on how to protect yourself and your family. Right now the state fair is kicking off at the fairgrounds in Hillsborough County. That is where state officials are flipping the switch on the ferris wheel. Youre looking at a live picture. The lights are on. The party is ready to rock and roll. It is early to head out over there. The fair opens at 10 tavment runs through february 15th and as adrienne and been showing us. Lots to eat and lots to see and do over there like riding all of the fun rides. Lots of people out there this morning. All right. Now to your vote at 6 35. Bernie sanders will take debate in New Hampshire after a tight race in iowa. Clinton and sanders will go head to head in front of New Hampshire voters. The twohour debate will take place at the university of New Hampshire in durham. Coverage begins at 9 00 p. M. At our sister station. Meet the press Moderator Chuck Todd and rachel madol will operate. Republican field is lighter this morning, kentucky senator rand paul and former pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum are out of the race for the white house. Both candidates had disappointing showings in the iowa caucuses. He is endorsing our senator, marco rubio because of his experience on National Security and isis. I wanted experience in this area and that is why we decided to support rubio. Republican Mike Huckabee and omalley withdrew monday night. Starting today, eight is on your side for all of the developments of the new Candace Mccowan is on her way to New Hampshire later today. Look for her updates tonight at 11 right here on news channel 8. Today in florida. Lawmakers will look at the possibility of allowing the use of experimental drugs in some cases. State legislators will revisit amendments being considered last year that would allow terminally ill patients the right to try marijuana. Lawmakers will take on a bill that looks to protect Good Samaritans who save animals or people from hot cars. Under the bill, the Good Samaritan would not be liable for damage done to a vehicle to help save a child or animal. Disney world is dealing with a rash of thefts at a resort. The Saratoga Springs resort and spa has reported 20 burglaries. Deputies believe the burglars are sneaking in through sliding doors and stealing electronic devices. The search is on in the orlando area for the so called batman robber. He got the name after wearing a batman mask and robbing 2 stores Surveillance Video from one store shows the robber with a gun. He ordered the clerk to fill the back pack with cash and took off. Coming up this thursday morning, a wet day in store for us. Vaently. Exactly. As many of russ heading off on the morning commute at least right now it is dry. Lets take you through the rest of the day toe to see what you can expect. All of the rain well north of the area. The rain chance only slowly goes up to 40 and it is mainly for areas well north of i4. Later in the day, after 11 00. That is when i expect to have heavier downpours to come in. 60 rain chance through your lunch break and it is up to a 70 chance through the early and middle afternoon. That is when the best coverage will be and well start to taper the rain chances back up and well see the temperatures drop significantly after sunset. It is sunny and dry on friday. Dont get too worried about saturday. The 30 rain chance comes late in the evening and overnight with the second cold front. Look at eightday temperature trend. Emoji man is looking at the thermometer. They were in the low 60s into the weekend and through next week. Lets check in on traffic on the 8s. It is dry this morning. We can be thankful for that. Yes. We cannot be thankful for this crash on i4. This is what youre looking at, folks, youre stacked and packed here. This is around 301 hillsborough. Why is it like that . There it is. This is good news. It is off to the shoulder. A moment ago it was tyi the 2 right lanes. It looks like they got part of the exit on the right shoulderwill i bit taken away. Shoulder, a little bit taken away. This is good news. Lets go ahead and look at the travel times. It is usually like seven minutes. Ybor, 301 to 275, leave the house a little early. Were getting busy on the veterans expressway southbound. That is weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. Losing weight may be as simple as cleaning. Come over to my house. Ahead, new research that may have you reaching for a sponge. An irs malfunction during tax season. Coming up, an 8 on your side alert about what has gone wrong that may keep you from filing your taxes. The ferris wheel is lit and the Florida State fair is about to open. Im Adrienne Pedersen and ill i dont know what im doing. I cant find anything just when i think its just not going to work. Can i help you . And he was so happy, to do it amazing right . 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 but it made me smile made me happy made my day share your story. An 8 on your side alert. You need to hear this before you start filing your taxes. The irs is experiencing major trouble accepting tax return s. This is one of not popular stories on wfla. Com. A lot of people are trying to file their taxes. Now the agency hopes to get everything working again later today. Lindsey mastis is join aug us now in studio. It is frustrating to file your taxes and now this. Absolutely. And one of the features not working is the wheres my refund feature and despite these issues, the irs believes 90 of taxpayers will receive the refunds within 21 days. The irs is calling this a hardware failure. Theyre in the process of making repairs and during this time you can work on the returns. You can not submit them until these problems are fixed. You can send them to an e file provider. They will hold them until the irs starts accepting them again. If you filed them before the computer problem begins, youre fine. The irs website is up and running this morning. I checked and so far it looks like they are still experiencing some issues. The deadline to file tax returns to most of us is april 18th aet. Lets hope that all of the problems are worked out before then. Another reason to file early. People want their refunds. Thank you, lindsey. A hover board is blamed for starting a house fire in ohio. My son plugged one of the hover boards in and it exploded in our house. That is josh putman describing what happened at his house. Sparks from the scomploeting hover board caught the carpet scomploeting hover board caught the exploding hover board caught the carpet on fire. It caused 1,000 in damage. 6 45, researchers in minnesota may have found the fountain of youth. Listen to this. They discovered a new way to extend the lives of lab mice. Clinic seems to eliminate damaged cells that no longer dwight. The result is a 17 longer life span, health yesterdayer looking organs and healthier looking organs and a younger heart. There are lots of things that can impact your weight but what about a mess. Having a clean kitchen could help you lose weight. They organized two groups of stressed out women, one group was put into a messy kitchen, the other in a clean kitchen. Both kitchens had a bowl of cookies. Listen to this, the women in the messy kitchen ate twice as many cookies in 10 minutes. That is because a messy kitchen can stress you out. Youre probably looking for stuff. Every time you go by the cookie jar you grab one. In just a few hours, the Florida State fair opens at gates in Hillsborough County. Were getting a sneak peek of news channel 8s adrienne news channel 8s Adrienne Pedersen is live at the fair grounds. Hey, adrienne, good morning reporter good morning gene and gayle. Weve talked about the food. Ive shown you the a doorgs animals one thing the adorable animals. One thing we havent talked about are the rides. I have terry with me. Talk about the ride options that people have ha is a big part. As the first state fair, we get to debut all of the brand new rides. This year we had some really fun rides. We have the stampede, we have the disco, we have the super cyclone. We have the hurricane, which is kind of like the tilta wheel on steroids but we dont have all big rides for adults and teenagers. We have a lot of new family rides, too. So that is really exciting. But we also have a new program this year which is our Access Program and you can buy a gold access on the weekend. It gets you special access to off select discounts. You get a vip pass. Youll get this, and that will go in addition to your arm band you purchased. Great rides. We hope everyone comes out and we have family rides, we have kiddy rides and the big super spectacular rides for the adults. Something for everyone. When i come out to the fair, i need to bring my dremamine. It gets questionable. Ill do the disco ride. I just want to go vip. That seems like that is the way to do it this year. You have a little more than a week to get your fill of the fair. It opens at 10 a. M. And runs through the 15th. And at 6 48. And like so many years, it gets kind of rainy on the first of the fair. It is amazing. The first or second day you get a lot of rain. Today will be the one day. Most of the rain will hold off later in the afternoon. Notice it is well to the north. This morning, the rain will be beginning as early as 11 00 in the tampa area maybe earlier further to the north. But muggy, 75 degrees. At 3 00 p. M. That is when i expect to see the best coverage of rain. The rain chance is at 70 . When the kids get off school, theyll be dealing with the rain. During the evening, the rain starts to taper off but the temperatures start to drop. Well go from a raincoat to a winter coat at fair tonight. 70 in tampa 68 st. Pete and clear water. Warm now, in fact, temperatures will stay relatively steady all day as this front continues to ever so slowly push to the south. Notice here at 11 25, most of the rain north of i4, here is around 2 30. Some pockets of heavier rain. We could end up with places a little more than a half inch of rain. By 6 00 and 8 00. The rain pushed further south of i4 and lighter rain. That is when the cooler air comes in. Tomorrows high only 62 degrees despite the sunny skies. And then well see another cold front coming come through saturday night. How about traffic on the 88s . Were moving at slow speeds on i4, folks. Youll be hitting the breaks and it is due to a crash. Ybor city. 301 to 275. Lets go ahead and it a live look. Everything is off to the side of the roadway. It is not tying up lanes but we have activity on the left and a little bit on the right. What does that mean . People tend to slow down and check out what is going on. Lets look at back up. It is still slow all the w 301 which is hillsborough avenue. On the veps expressway. 16 minutes. Getting heavier southbound. Here is the back up there. Also, southbound, on i75 c away, bradenton, we have a collision westbound tying up heavy traffic here, bearce down to i4, 20 minutes. A woman from china may be the luckiest Airline Passenger around. She ended up on a flight alone. Lucky her the woman posted pictures online of her solo flight. She was flying home for the new year holiday when bad weather delayth plane. The woman patiently waited. When the flight took off. She was the only passenger. You would think they would let her go to first class. I feel like she could go to any seat she wanted to. Sometimes the flight attendants. No, you have to stay in your seat the New Hampshire primary is on the horizon, candidates are pointing fingers. Straight ahead, what is behind the accusations of voter fraud against senator ted cruz. And the zika Health Emergency for florida. The way the governor plans to address it today right here in. A Health Emergency is in effect for four counties in the state of florida including hillsborough. Today the governor will be in the bay area to discuss how the state will prepare. Ryan hughes is live at the hillsborough Health Department. Good morning, governor rick scott and the state Surgeon General will be here at the Health Department around 1 30 in the afternoon to discuss the zika virus and the states plan. The governor just signed an executive order which officially declared a Health Emergency in hillsborough. The order says it is important to take action to ensure the residents of florida remain safe and healthy. The governor wants his staff to educate the public on the virus which is spread through mosquito bites and can have adverse effects on babies in the womb. The governor will be here at 1 30. Well be here as well. Im ryan hughes. News channel 8. A hills Bureau County deputy a Hillsborough County deputy is recovering after a crash. The deputys cruiser suffered damage to the rear bumper. Paramedics transported one person to the hospital. Investigators believe the deputy will be okay. After a tight race in iowa, democrats Hillary Clinton and senator Bernie Sanders will come together for a debate tonight. The 2hour debate will take place in New Hampshire at nine. Our Candace Mccowan is headed to the state today to help follow the lead up to the primary there early next week. Catch her first reports beginning tonight at 11. After praising senator ted cruz in iowa. Donald trump is accusing him of stealing the election. The finger pointing began over members of senator cruzs campaign tweeting that ben carson was out of the race. They claim they got that information from a cnn report. Cnn says it report thaed carson would not go to New Hampshire or South Carolina but that he was still in the race. Carson and cnn but not to trump. I wake up every day and laugh at the latest thing donald has tweeted. Because he is losing it. Look, we need a commanderinchief. Not a twitterer in chief. In just a few minutes, the today show will take a closer look at all of the accusations of voter fraud. The Florida State fair is kicking off today. 30 minutes ago, state officials flipped the switch on the ferris wheel. The gates officially open at 106789 the fair lasts through february 15th. Now. 70s. We wont warm up too much through the day topping off in the mid70s. All of the rain is in the gulf and to our north along i10. It will head in our direction. What we can expect through the rest of the day . Rain still basically to our north at 80. So in the next hour intoshgs expect to see much rain. It will stay cloudy as the rain chances go up at noon and by 3 00 p. M. That is when i expect the best even some heavier downpours. Although thankfully not a lot of strong storms. Tomorrow, a lot of the kids are going out to the fair and that is when it will be cool and sunny. Cant wait to check out the ferris wheel. 25 minutes, folks, slow appeared go, 275, southbound, bearce avenue to i4, typical for this time of the morning. Lets talk about i4, ybor, a 16minute commute. And then southbound on the vets, 21 minutes to 275. Why is ybor so slow . We have a crash at Martin Luther king. Lets go to the film so we can actually see a little bit of action as we move to the cameras. Slow and go. This is it. Hillsborough to downtown. A crash to the shoulder but heavy. Thank you for joining us. Well have the updates all morning long during the today show. Captions by caption colorado, llc 8007757838 email