First we begin with a developing story weve been following all morning. Authorities investigating what caused a deadly crash on i275 earlier this morning. It happened between 75 and bearss avenue when a semi slammed into a disabled van before midnight. Kelly devore posted a photo on its here. It shows the impact. Killed this. Violent crash spread debris all across lanes northbound and southbound that forced a complete shutdown of the entertate this morning. The van was stopped without lights on. Well send a push alert as soon as we get new information. It may be hard to believe but a lot of young kids in florida dont get recess anymore. A growing movement to bring back recess now has the attention of state lawmakers. They are debating a bill this mandatory for young students. Abc action News Reporter adam winer is live with more on this debate, thats expected to start any minute now. What happened to recess in florida . Reporter great question. In a lot of schools, even in some Elementary Schools recess has been entirely phased out to make more time for these mandated state academic requirements. Schools have to teach a certain amount of minutes on different subjtslike reading. So some School Districts cut recess to create more time for teaching. House bill 833 would change. That its getting a lot of support from parents here in the tampa bay area. The bill would make recess mandatory for k5 requiring 20 minutes of play time everyday. I asked teachers why they think recess is so important at a rally. When they are not getting fidgety in the classroom. I see a lot of social issues in the classroom. And the children, if you listen they will tell you that they need brain breaks. Reporter not everyone is convinced this is a good idea. In fact some School Administrators claim they would have to make the School Day Longer if it passes. There are parents, including some in tallahassee for the meeting today testifying in support of this bill that would that meeting of course set to begin any minute now. For now live in tampa, adam winer,tion. Deputies say suspects traveled to meet someone they thought was a minor for sex after chatting online. Turns out the minors were actually investigatessors. The sheriff says this serves as a warning to parents you need to watch what your children are doing online. When the kids dont like the fact youre checking their e mail, their text messages, checking their instant messenger, checking instagram, checking all the web sites they are using too bad. Investigators say the suspects range in age from 20 to 47, in one one drove three andahalf hours to meet what he believed was a 13yearold girl. Investigation underway to determine what sparked a fire at an assisted living facility in tampa. Fire crews say they got this fire at the estate at hyde park under control in 10 minutes containing it to the laundry room. People in surrounding rooms were evacuated and no one was lets check with meteorologist shay ryan for the warming up a little. It is. Im loving this. So much more comfortable heading out the door this morning than it was yesterday at this time. Check out all these 60s im seeing now in hillsborough county. Fishhawk 61. The same in plant city. Tampa 58. Even to the north in Citrus County temperatures are in the mid to upper 50s now. Were looking great as were heading through the first part of the day. A little bit of cloud cover mixed in with sunshine but no problems for the morning or the afternoon drive. As far as weather goes. Of course we know if youve been checking in with janelle on air or at tampa bay traffic there have been quite a few problems. How are things looking now . Things are Getting Better in areas but still a lot of congestion across the bridges. This is the tampa side of the Howard Frankland bridge. Its taking about 20 minutes to get across the Howard Frankland. On the gandy its taking about 20 minutes also. The gandy is usually our sure bet. A lot of congestion, a lot of people trying to avoid the Howard Frankland and moving to the gandy. So now at this moment the 10 minutes is your quickest bridge across. Average speeds from the Wesley Chapel area, 47 your average speed on 275 southbound, pushing 70 now on i75. On the veterans, things slowly getting back to normal, 25 minutes now from 54 to 275. Today Madeira Beach is looking into a designer drug problem. Pinellas Authorities Say its become a huge issue at the county and the beaches. Were told some of the biggest offenders are flacka and kradum. Flacka can be so intense users are high for days and cradum is an addictive psychoactive drug that cant be detected in drug tests. Today a new ordinance will be introduced leaders hope will put a dent in the issue. The goal is to avoid a problem that has come up in other ordinances become unendorsable. Overdose reversal kits are available for any high school that wants to carry them. Thanks to a new Initiative Announced yesterday by the Clinton Foundation and the drug manufacturer. It contains narkin, that helps with opioid overdoses. Officials hope it will open a dialogue amongst students and teachers about the risk of opioid overdose as well as save a few lives. Breaking news from yesterday. Serious crash that shut down a campbell for hours. Tampa police say a driver was likely drunk when he hit another car in the westbound lanes early monday and tried to run from the crash. Against that driver, 18year old adrian doth. Hes in the hospital now. An uber driver apparently puzzle a gun on a passenger. 76yearold patrick mcdonalds rider became sick saturday night and when mcdonald told him to get out of his 75,000 car and find another way home. They started to fight. Then mcdonald pointed a gun at him. Uber says it will help deputies look into what happened. Pinellas county commissioners could approve 350,000 to fund a ferry pilot tampa. The money would come from st. Pete settlement money from the beep oil spill if a the bp oil spill. If approved the Pilot Program gets underway in october. The coast guard does a rescue. This is a photo of the 106 foot long see recenta 3 minutes before it sank off fort Authorities Say the yacht before 6 00 last night. Less than two hours later that the amount of water that was taking in, and how quickly it sank not much could have been done about it. Only a few items like a life raft and jet key were salvaged. The families of 10 sailors lost at sea during a hurricane last year are finally getting closure. We have just learned each family who lost a loved one on board the el faro will receive 500,000 in settlement money. The cargo ship lost engine power after setting sail from jacksonville during Hurricane Joaquin last year. 33 people told on board, no one found alive. Lawsuits involving the other families who lost loved ones still pending. A special navy deep sea exploration found reckage recently but the data recorder is still missing. Health alert. Health experts are raising new concerns about the zika virus. The World Health Organization north america. Florida. The virus already ravaged brazil with more than one far. Its also thought to be linked to a birth defect that leads babies to be born with be a normally small heads be anormally small heads. A new bill is making its way through talis now. The measure to make all abortions illegal. The only way to get one is if two doctors say its needed to keep the mother from dying or becoming seriously hurt. However, even those who back this measure say it violates the florida constitution and Supreme Court decisions so it likely wouldnt survive a court challenge. 9 10. Schools are closed for a second day in a row where the weekend blizzard covered cities like dc, baltimore, philadelphia and new york, in feet of snow. Air travel could still be troublesome, more than 2 500 flights cancelled or delayed 2,500 flights. In addition to schools federal offices will stay closed in washington today. As of this morning at least 42 deaths are now being linked to the blizzard. Folks died in car crashes from Carbon Monoxide poisoning or from heart attacks while shoveling snow. We have an incredible story a woman rescued from her car after three days of being trapped in there, buried under the snow. It happened in maryland. The narkd showing up to rescue they say she was trapped since appears she will be ok. Shes recovering in a hospital now. Maybe heading to the beach today . I think its a great idea. This is going to be one of the best beach days well see for a little bit. 73 degrees as the high, mostly sunny skies. A bit warmer than we were yesterday. Winds are still on the light side and rainfree until sunset, after that we are going to see those rain chances going way up. And i have an updated look at our timing for tomorrows rain and storms. Floridas most accurate 7day forecast. Also still ahead are you worried about how you will be able to retire one day . President obama wants to help ease those fears. How he plans to help americans save money. Next. Energy drinks are growing in popularity but not everybody should drink them. The Health Scares that doctors are seeing all across the a Police Officer in afghanistan turns his weapon on his fellow officers killing 10. It happened at a checkpoint in southern afghanistan. Reports claim the shooter killed his fellow policemen while they were sleeping and stole all their weapons and ammunition and took off. The taliban has claimed responsibility for that attack. Back here in the United States thousands gather in Salt Lake City to honor the first Police Officer killed on duty this year. Officer Douglas Scott barney was shot and killed this month a shoot utwith police. Officials say barney, an 18 year veteran and cancer survivor was working an overtime shift to help pay for medical expenses when he was killed. He was 44 years old. President obama is set to propose new legislation to help more americans save for retirement. This is part of the 2017 budget that hell submit to Congress Next month. The legislation will offer credits to Small Business thats automatically enroll employees in a retirement plan. It would also require companies to offer retirement plans to part time workers. The Administration Officials think this plan will give 30 million more americans access to retirement savings. The president is also moving to ban solitary confinement for juveniles and low level offenders in federal prisons. He made the decision after a review by the Justice Department determined that sl solitary confinement reduces the chances of prisoners being brought back into society. They argue that solitary lasting mental toll. A woman who maintained a peace protest outside the white house for more than 30 years has died. The Washington Post says consension pachoto died this morning. Her 30year demonstration is thought to be the longest political protest in political history. She was believed to be 80 years old. Police in tennessee are investigating now, trying to see if a teenaged boy died after drinking racing fuel while getting high with friends. 16yearold Logan Stevenson died thursday morning. The night before he was with a friend who was rushed to the hospital. A third boy told police it was a group of teens that drank soda mixed with racing fuel which has a very high alcohol content. Stevenson was found dead in his bed the next morning. Police are now warning other teens that racing fuel can be deadly if consumed. What were trying to put out if youre doing it to just get the high or get the drunkenness on a report from a medical examiner to determine exactly how stevenson died. Updating your forecast. Warming up nicely today but they sure are. In fact today im liking the dont know about you. Im good with them too. Excited about. Lets talk about what is going on, on the futurecast. The changes this morning with the warmer temperatures certainly making it more comfortable as you head out the door but watch as i spin this forward. You can see how the clouds start to thicken around 8 00 at night. Now in the latest update on this model it is showing were dry at 8 00. I still think we might see a sprinkle or light shower, better chances though as we get towards midnight, then 7 00 in the morning now, so that is pushing the chances for rain a bit later. We start to see more widespread heavier downpours moving in this is around the middle of the commute in the morning. 7 00. Then we get the heavier downpours that move north and this is where the thunderstorm chances really start to amp up. Across tampa bay and our major roadways. So around 7 00 to 9 00 in the morning. As far as the Storm Prediction Center is concerned theyve put us all in green here from pasco county on south, and from east towest across the state. What that means, we have a marginal risk, about 5 risk for severe storms. The main threat being damaging winds but cant rule out an isolated tornado. My timing earlier today was any time after 3 00 a. M. , and after this most recent update it looks like we may be able to push it back until about 6 00. We do get these updates a couple of times during the day. I want you to check in with us later this afternoon. And you can also check with us when well fine tune the timing and intensity. At least right now we have that marginal risk for a severe storm, starting overnight tonight, very early tomorrow morning. And then continuing throughout the day. Then were going to see more showers and storms on thursday as that front lingers on top of the state, in an area of low pressure working across the gulf. That is pretty high chances of rain the next two days. Into the weekend though looking fabulous. Especially for gasparilla. Dry from beginning to end and were going to see highs that are pretty comfortable for this time of year. Thats floridas most accurate 7day forecast. Back to you. New study revealing the dangers behind Energy Drinks and the threat they pose for children too. It finds more than 40 of all energydrink related calls to Poison Control Centers in the u. S. Are for kids younger than 6 years old. Many of the kids suffering serious side effects, impacting their nervous system and heart. The risks get even higher for kids who already take stimulant medications for things like adhd and older kids that might mix those Energy Drinks with a can or bottle of an energy drink could have as much as 500 millie grams of caffeine, that is equal to about 14 cans of soda. To prevent your child from accidentally drinking an energy drink she says keep the drinks locked up. 9 21. Could you eat mcdonalds everyday for free for the rest of your life . If you answered yes there is a new social media post going viral that is trying to help you do that. Before you click theres a catch. John matarese explains so you dont waste your money. This . Food for life . Thats what a new viral social media post is claiming. But, before you click here, enjoy mcdonalds . Youll enjoy even more if you win a lifetime pass for free food, to celebrate its 61st anniversary. Before taking the survey and its another survey scam to get information from you and possibly infect your pc with malware. Went viral last fall for half stores. Some offers to avoid in freebies that require you to take surveys. Really from that store or restaurant. Dont ever share credit card information or your facebook friends Contact Information with a third party you dont know. Bottom line, as promoting free food for life like the half priced coupons to kohls and other stores, too good to be true so take a pass so you dont waste your money. 9 22. Still ahead when you gotta go, you gotta go. This dog went for it, for 13. 1 miles. How she ended up running a Half Marathon with her owner nowhere in site. Im lisa campos with your positively tampa bay. Fans too, the polo classic needs you, details and more coming up on positively tampa 9 25. This weekends huge blizzard inspired a lot of creativity with snow. One virginia reporter covering the snow had a rather unique stroke of inspiration. A slurpee. I go outside. I grab me a cup. Take some right there. Got a coke here. Oh, yeah. Pour it in. Right here. Youve got a cocacola slurpee. Yeah. That reporter, john burkett did wind up drinking that slurpee. He said as a kid his mom wouldnt always buy it during winter. He admitted his wife will probably get mad if this concoction makes him sick. A dog in alabama getting a round of a paws after unknowingly ran a Half Marathon. The dog escaped from her home earlier this month and wound up at the starting line of the race. This is the dog, her owner says she broke away during a potty break one night and went on the adventure of her life. When the runners started to run so did she. 13. 1 miles and she finished in 7th place. You go her owner is not a runner. Didnt even know about her celebrity dog until a friend called and filled her in. The dog was presented with a medal and she then went home and we assume she took a long nap. The International Olympic committee making a major change for this summers olympics. The new rule regarding transgender athletes, coming up a fiery crash overnight leaves one dead at i275, shut down for hours. The latest on what caused that wreck, coming up. Then two children missing in florida could be in grave danger right now. Been taken by a suspected murderer. It was the last chance for democrats to make their appeal to voters before mondays iowa caucuses. What they said in last nights town hall. Coming up. First at 9 30 we update you on a developing story weve been covering since very early this morning. I275 back open now after a deadly crash overnight. Corey dierdorff has been on the scene for hours, joins us now with the details on what led up to the crash. Corey . Reporter good morning. Were at one of the closures here at bearss avenue and i 275, it was closed for hours this morning as fhp investigated that deadly crash. You can see behind me traffic conditions back up to speed and flowing nicely as the shutdowns pushed into the Early Morning rush hour. Look at this video from the scene of this violent crash overnight. According to fhp just before midnight a van was disabled, stopped in the center lane of southbound 275 just north of livingston avenue. That van had no lights on. Southbound at full speed also in that center lane slammed into the back of that van with the driver still inside. According to witnesses that impact instantly caused the van to burst into flames, the van and semi both crossed over the center lane through the guy wires and came to rest facing oncoming traffic. That impact killed the male driver of the van. The area was shut for hours. The name of the driver of the van that perished in the accident has not been reload by fhp. The driver of the semi was from out of state. Were going to bring you updates on air and online as soon as we get them. Live in tampa, corey dierdorff, abc action news. Coming up florida officials need your help to find two missing children that could be with a suspected killer. Fdle issued this missing child gamez and his younger sister, lizeth gamezflores, Vero Beach Police believe edward, their father is believed to be with the children. Well post their photos on facebook so you can share them. Lets look at some of the temperatures across the area now. We have been warming up really nicely out there, in fact in Pinellas County temperatures are in the upper 50s near 60 degrees. Indian rocks beach at 60, st. Pete and st. Pete beach at 59. Oldsmar at 56. As we look at polk county, temperatures are in the upper 50s to near 60 in polk. And we are looking at fort meade now at 61. Were all looking good. As i mentioned were going to be warmer from starttofinish today. So this afternoon making it to highs in the low to mid70s inland. Really nice with a nice mix of sun and clouds. No rain until after sunset tonight. And intensity of the storms for tomorrow coming up in floridas most accurate 7day forecast. 9 34. Were trying to find out when two men accused of murder in bradenton will return to the bay area. Were told daniel matt and james hardy were arrested in tallahassee monday afternoon. They believe the pair killed Charles Leonard over the weekend in a Lawn Equipment businesss parking lot in manatee county. The motive appears to be drugs. The officers got a drug the men may be involved after releasing surveillance pictures of the suspects. A man accused of two murders will go to court in manatee this afternoon. Dwayne cummings was charged with killing a man last week. A second suspect, Frederick Douglas is charged with armed kidnapping. The citys police chief announces his retirement the department for than 13 years. The city has been looking for his replacement since june. Democracy 2016 a town hall Shows Hillary clinton that her lead is shrinking. Last night the audience was able to ask questions to president ial hopefuls bernie sanders, Hillary Clinton and martin omalley. Each candidate sat down for a oneonone with the audience. Sanders talked about raising taxes, clinton focused on her prior experience. Will. With you also let us be clear, chris, because theres a little disingenuity out there. We may raise taxes but we are also going to eliminate private Health Insurance premiums for individuals and for businesses. Ive been on the front lines of change and progress since i i have been fighting to give kids and women and the and the people who are left out and left behind a chance to make the most out of their own lives that brand new poll shows clinton at 52 , sanders behind her at 38 among democratic voters. That is the closest its been since the field went down to three candidates. Omalley is in third with support from just 2 of democratic voters. The republican president ial candidates will also spend time in iowa before the caucus. The next gop debate will be held there thursday at 9 00 but the frontrunner might not be there. Donald trump said yesterday he was not 100 certain that he would participate in a debate cohosted by Fox Newschannel because he didnt think the moderator, megan ankle m megyn kelly could treat him fairly. Fox newschannel says even if hes President Trump has to learn that he cant pick the trump accused of network and kelly last august of asking him tougher questions than ones she asked the other candidates. For the first time in buccaneers history a rookie cornerback is headed to the all star game. Jameis winston will join four teammates in honolulu, nfl made the announcement yesterday. Winston is taking the place of new England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady who has elected to not play in the game. The pirates are offshore on their ship, the jose gasparilla. Word is they are planning to invade tampa. Weve learned a meeting set for high noon to discuss the advantages of surrendering the city. Youre invited to watch as the pirates throw beads and march a resilient mayor buckhorn at Gas Light Square park. They demand he hand over the key to the city to avoid a long and costly battle. The mayor we know is already probably going to refuse. Pirates will invade during the historic gasparilla. Coming up highly acclaimed military schools rep after troubling photos of its cadets dressed as kkk. Photos hitting the internet. How are officials responding . A daring and brave group of women make history, how they risk their lives to save 9 41. New information about last years deadly shooting rampage in San Bernardino, california. Officials say a bomb left behind by the couple responsible for the december attack failed because it was poorly constructed. Officials say after the bomb failed to explode syed farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik drove around San Bernardino after the shootings that killed 14 people. According to reports they were apparently trying to set off that remote controlled bomb. Investigators also say the couple crushed their cell phones to erase their digital footprint and their computer hard drive still hasnt been found. The Citadel Military College in South Carolina is punishing 14 cadets for appearing in a photo wearing pillow cases on their heads, appearing to look like kkk members. This picture went viral in december, the cadets claim they were trying to dress as ghosts of christmas past. Suspedded or receiving off campus punishment. The National Action network is calling for changes including removing the Confederate Flag from the chapel at the citadel. The time has come to take the flag out, the same way you took it off the dome, in front of the building and in front of the monument, lets take it from inside the holy place quote unquote at the citadel. The citadel now creating a task force that will work on advancing diversity, that panel will include members of civil Rights Groups and the local community. Theres a possible major milestone in olympic history now to tell you about. Transgender athletes might compete in this summers Olympic Games without having surgery. Medical chiefs with the International Olympic committee change. An anatomically male competitors must prove their testosterone levels had been below a certain level for a year. The change will also allow female to male transgender category without restriction. Transgender has been allowed in olympics since 2004 but only after surgery and two years of hormone therapy. I think were all on board with the slightly warmer temperatures. Definitely excited about today. The weather goes downhill after today so lets embrace it while it lasts. Yeah, 58 degrees now in tampa. 61 in zephyrhills. 61 in brandon and in ruskin. 64 already in bradenton. Were off to a really nice start. Much warmer than where we were yesterday and were going to be warmer through the afternoon. Clouds will continue to increase and thicken throughout the day. After sunset well start to have a chance of rain. Our front though, the next one that is going to give us widespread soaking rains that not only start tomorrow but continue into thursday, its way out here, its going to take a little time for it to work into the area, then stalls out on top of us, giving i think a little less coverage thursday than what well see wednesday and theres been a little variation in the models for thursday so lets watch that. I did bump up the rain chances for today. Well keep an eye on that for thursday. Again for tomorrow, almost certain youre going to see rain at some point, heavy bands at times and again there will be a chance for strongto severe storms but this all clears out on friday making way for a gorgeous weekend. Of course we all know saturday is gasparilla and from start to finish were looking at a dry day, were not looking at the windy conditions at least right now, it doesnt look like it will be real windy pointed the front. Behind the front. In fact temperatures remain cool friday, warm up saturday and that continues into early next week. The best thing to do to prepare for the chance of severe storms tomorrow, damaging winds, maybe a brief tornado, that would be to make sure your patio, everything there is nice and clear. Also make sure you have stormshield on your mobile device, that way you can be alerted even if we do have any warnings early in the morning when you might still be sleeping or throughout the day when youre on the go. That is floridas most accurate 7day forecast. Find me on facebook and twitter. How far would you go to raise money for a good cause . A group of women from the uk made history raising money for their favorite charities. They did this by becoming the first allfemale rowing crew to cross the pacific ocean. The team of six left san francisco, california, in april of last year. They just arrived in australia on sunday after traveling more than 8,500 miles and spending 257 days at sea. They traveled unassisted rotating in twohour shifts with a 90minute break for sleep. The only stops with hawaii and samoa for a week each. The goal was to raise more than 3350,000 for walking with the wounded and also Breast Cancer charities. Raised just over 50,000 instead but still an incredible feat. Still ahead big horses and even bigger hats. Four local charities. Well explain coming up on 9 49. Breaking news just in. Police on the scene of a shooting in tampa. Our assignment desk just got off the phone with police who say the shooting wagon reported in the area of east chelsea street. Unclear how badly the person is injured or if officers are rights now searching for a suspect. We have a crew on the way and well bring you updates as we get them. Good morning. Switching gears now to positively tampa bay. Video aficionados, fans of polo or hat lovers, heres your valued at 1,600 to the charity winning prize for the person producing the best 30second video for this years polo local nonprofits. It should go to charitypoloclassic. Com. We have craig, the president of the charity polo classic and patty oleary, director of the Childrens Cancer center, one of the beneficiaries. We have deiah and shay salivating over the hats. Its in its fifth year but growing rapidly . Yes. Were extremely excited. This would never be possible without our sponsors. They do a great job for us. If you can think about the best possible event it has the best catcher, acropolis this year. Then we have three bands. One of the best parts of the event is the divot stomp. You literally during halftime, were going to have a band out there as well. Also. The event continues to grow, our vip sponsor tables. Those are gone. Were capping the event at 900 because we want it intimate. Sore crazy to say intimate at 900. Probably after this segment, this set will be completely sold out if you are thinking of tickets now. We will be sold out. Even if you dont like polo, its a beautiful afternoon. Patty, how does this event help you at the Childrens Cancer center . We would not bible to execute our mission without the community. One of the things you said before, it gives you a chance to connect with new people who perhaps may not be familiar with all the services that the Childrens Cancer center provides. But goes to the event because they like the event itself. Its such a unique way. Its a fun way to be philanthropic. It really changes the landscape of fundraising to come out there. Thank you so much for coming in. Good luck. This tie is so cute. Looks like its made out of wood. It is. Its made out of one of our sponsors. I promise ill take lots of pictures of the great folks in great hats. And post them on facebook. Event. Starts 11 00 a. M. At the di polo field in plant city. But you need to get your tickets now before they sell out. The pig fest kicks off january 29th. The final round of tampa teen idol is down to 10 contestants, set for the 31st at 3 00 p. M. Admission just 15. Tickets on sale now for the cattle baropons ball at a new im laura harris on the now. Your chance to win daytona 500 tickets, ive got the clues at 4 00. I dont have that on my schedule. Not you dan shaffer. 73 is the high today. After sunset we start our rain chances, it will start as hit or miss showers, then gets heavier very early tomorrow morning. Again there is a marginal risk for severe storms, the biggest concern is going to be damaging winds. Why did the sloth slowly cross the road . Are trying to figure out after a bizarre rescue mission. He got trapped in the middle of it. According to a Facebook Post by ecuadors transport commission. The sloth was clinging to a guardrail. It had somehow made it halfway across the street, decided to just take a breather. Highway workers said on facebook they rescued it, brought to it a vet. And after a cheap bill of health was given clean bill of health was given it was returned to the wild. So cute. I hear they smell bad. What ive heard. Continuing coverage of the abcactionnews. Com. Fab life next