3. 7 million to improve school facilities. Nearly 345 million towards funding roads with certain stipulations. This whole budget takes into account what we said last year, which is doing the ten cent gas tax increase and the two percentage income tax reduction. Reporter the governors spending plan is dependent on the General Assembly. But shes hopeful they can work together. I always look at the budget as a template to sayu look, here is how we do it. We want to support you in how to do this. That. Education. I expect them to work great with us on Domestic Violence and i hope they work with us on roads. Reporter the governors spending budget includes funding for fighting Domestic Violence and additional Correctional Officers and bus drivers. Jennifer ready, abc columbia news. Thanks so much, jennifer. Three judges has been selected for candidates to if ill the vacant seat on the south those are ralph anderson, john field and Harris Williams of columbia. The vacancy was created by the retirement of jean told. The General Assembly will elect the new justice february 3rd. And the dust may have settled after last nights debate but that hasnt stopped the political fireworks here in South Carolina. Jeb bush picks up a key endorsement. Eric weisfeld joins us live with todays developments. Eric. Reporter he jumped out of the race last month and now hes backing a president ial candidate in danger of falling out of contention himself. This morning, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham endorsing former Florida Governor jeb bush. At a News Conference in charleston this morning, graham says he thinks bush is the only candidate ready to be president. I have concluded without any hesitation, without any doubt one to be a commanderinchief worthy of the sacrifices of the 1 who have been fighting this war. Reporter jeb bush needs all the help he can get. According to the most recent polls, the brother and son of two former president s is only polling at around 5 . Donald trump taking no time to take to twitter to respond to senator grahams endorsement and, in true trump fashion, one tweet says, senator Lindsey Graham embarrassed himself with his failed run for president and now further embarrasses himself with endorsement of bush. In another tweet, donald trump says jeb bush who did poorly last night in the debate and whose chances of winning are zero just got graham endorsement. Graham quit at zero. Trumps main sparring partner from last nights debate ted cruz made a stop here in the midlands this afternoon. Cruz took mark in a president ial forum series. The texas senator discussed the constitution and potential supreme court. I think we have an opportunity. How do we win the general election in 2016 . I think we fight for hardworking men and women across this country who want to believe again in the promise of this country and we run against the bipartisan corruption of washington. Reporter and most polls have cruz either tied with or just behind frontrunner donald trump. In the studio tonight, im eric weisfeld, abc columbia news. The republicans took to the stage in the low country last night. Sunday its the democrats turn. Hillary clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin Omalley will participate in a debate at charleston at the gillian center. According to the most recent poll, clinton has a commanding lead in South Carolina with more than 60 of support among like little democratic voters. From charleston, the candidates will come to columbia for king day at the dome. To protest the Confederate Flag at the at the time glue off the statehouse dome. Since then, the rally has become a way of focusing on issues. Now its tradition for the candidates to attend. Tonight, firefighters are looking into what sparked a blaze in columbia at an apartment complex. Officials responded to this building on doris street off of north main street just before 2 30 this afternoon. Investigators say the fire shows signs which indicate it may have been caused by an electrical malfunction. A pennsylvania dog owner is thanking his lucky stars tonight after one of his beloved pups had a close call on a frozen river. The dog had to be rescued after falling through the ice. Kelly brennan has the story. Reporter chance is 7 years old and in this family, hes known as the adventurous and curious one. But after todays adventure, its times like this that you hold your breath. You know its a risk, breaking through 20 feet of ice, swimming 200 feet into frigid water and then the moment. The moment 7yearold chance can finally stop fighting to stay above water. There you go, dave. For that dog it was unbelievable. Twice a week, ray takes his three dogs for a walk in Beaver County. Today, chance chased a deer. Both animals went through the ice. Im calling him and hes trying to get out, hes trying to get out. Im picturing in my head that hes going to die because i couldnt get him. The deer died but he could only watch hopelessly watching from on shore. I had a gun at my hip and i thought about putting him out of his misery. He couldnt. He hung on. Reporter he called 911 and the Beaver CountyWater Rescue Team didnt waste time. Someone has to set up rigging everything is tethered back to shore. If he gets in trouble, we can pull him back out. After two hours and 36 degrees of water. Hes exhausted. He certainly earned a right to rest. I want to tell them thank god there are men like that in this world and theyre heroes. Everybody called me a hero, but these are my babies. Bless his heart. That was Kelly Brennan reporting. What an amazing story. Up next. Stay with us. Cracking down on food stamp fraud. Plus, your Neighborhood Walmart could be shugin its doors for good. We hope you stay with us for more abc columbia news at 6 00. Were live from main and gervais. From main and gervais, this is abc columbia news with ben hoover, alicia barnes, weather farley, and sports with tim hill. 6 00. Thanks for staying with us tonight. Attorney general alan wilson says the state will recover more than 330,000 in food stamp fraud. While the attorney general says the money is the result of the first year of a partnering targeting abuse i should say, a Partnership Targeting abuse of snap. Wilson says in 2015, there were of 855,000 south carolinians who received snap benefits. Well, that is one tenth of 1 americas largest retailer is closing hundreds of Stores Across the world, including one here in the midlands. The walmart announced a mass closing of 269 Stores Worldwide closing their doors. 154 of those stores are in the u. S. , including the super center on highway 321 in winnsboro. The company says approximately 16,000 employees will be impacted by the closings. Its a temporary restaurant shutdown. Chipotle will close all of its its locations next month to hold Staff Meetings about food safety. The chicagobased company has more than 1900 restaurants, including 17 outside the united states. The company has been in a hot seat this past year since chipotle was tied to a series of disease outbreaks, including up next, john farley has a look at your 7day forecast. Its all live right here from main and gervais. Live from main and gervais. Welcome back. Before we get going on our forecast here, what i thought id do is give you a look at what was going on in the atlantic. Yesterday, we had a hurricane in the atlantic in the middle of january. Crazy. Let me show you whats left of that thing now. As we get out here, look at this. Here is the circulation. Tropical. Meaning it no longer has tropical characteristics so its no lononr a tropical storm. I will tell you yesterday at this time, it was bearing down or about to bear down on the azores right there as a category 1 hurricane in the middle of january. Now, that doesnt happen all that often, and i did a little research. Best i could tell, the last time there was a hurricane in the atlantic in january was 1938. So this is very, very unusual. Needless to say, this thing is going to continue to die off as very crazy. Lets talk about our weather. Here is the rain. About an inch and a half. The rest of us less than that. Here in columbia, we got about. 7 of an inch of rain. So a pretty good soaking. Thats going to do it. We wont see rain in the come. We got to 60 after a low of 34. That 60 pretty warm. Tomorrow, in fact, were going show you whats going on here in terms of the headlines. Clearing this evening, warmer tomorrow. Sunday. When i say morning shower, sometimes in the Weather Department we cover our rain gauges, if you will. Really the rain is going to be near the coast. We might get a sprinkle or two. Its going to be cloudy primarily, but just maybe a shower early sunday and then it story. So lets give you a look at whats going on. Heres the rain. Its pushing quickly out of the midlands and quickly off to our north and east and clearing plenty of it behind there. Thats where were headed. That said, another storm is going to get going in the gulf. This thing is going to travel and start on saturday, but its going to track off of our coast on sunday. What it will do is it will track a few showers near the beach in the morning. For us, it will bring in cooler air behind it. So thats really what were going to notice, some clouds on sunday morning and cooling sunday afternoon and that will into next week as well. Here is the future clouds and radar. This is midnight, early sunday morning. As you see, the clouds come in, but notice the green, its o or year, near the beaches. Yes, maybe a sprinkle or two out of this thing. There we have it, at noon things are clearing out nicely. The rest of sunday looks just fine for us as we go through the weekend. Here you go, overnight tonight, there you have the temperatures, mid40s. Clearing out and staying relatively warm. Theres a look at your saturday, delightful. How about that . Middle of january, mid60s, a little wind out of the southwest. Pretty nice. Here is the extended forecast and you will see next week it does cool off. That leading edge of cold air that gets here sunday, it really settles in the early part of next week. Well be down into the mid20s monday night Tuesday Morning and recovering schroll over the rest of the week. Thats a dry 7day forecast. Thats a january forecast. Thank you so much, john. Coming up, gamecock basketball gets ready for a big weekend of sec hoops. Piece of its defensive sports is next. One big defense a position will have to fill. Clemson tigers making it official. Theyre heading to the nfl early. Lawson and dodd from up front, one big man in orange will be back for his senior season. Red shirt d tackle carlos watkins, big number 94 announcing today he will be back next season. Anybody to bring down derek henry by himself is a bad man. All acc selection lastteason had 76 tackles 67 for the clemson d. Carolina footballs best player makes it official. Cooper off to the nfl. He had ten more catches than the rest of the Wide Receivers combined last season. Hooper doing eight all for the sky has done it on defense at usc. Hes the threetime leading tackler for carolina. Originally was going pro early. The linebacker ended up changing his mind, will be back to play in a redefined role next season. Coach mike houston, the man who led the upset against the gamecocks this year might be headed out of the state of South Carolina. Reportedly interviewing to be the next coach at james madison. Well have more details on him as they become available. Nfl news, panthers not practicing today because of a bad knee, officially listed as questionable for sundays home playoff game against the seattle seahawks. Cam newton will play sunday. Well see. Game time set for 1 00. At home against missouri, the coach will speak to the crowd at halftime. Carolina hoping to bounce back from the worst game of the season. Coming wednesday night in tuscaloosa 7350. Frank martin in company taking on missouri tomorrow. Those tigers considered to be the worst team in basketball in the sec this season. Clemson looking for another top 10 upset in the acc. Coming off the big win over at duke. Miami coming to greenville tomorrow. The tigers with backtoback wins against ranked teams for the First Time Since 1989. The gamecock women with a big top ten win last night keeping their perfect season going. Angel wilson making it a sweet 16on the year. They had to come back in lexington to beat the wildcats. Wilson ended up two block shots away from a tripledouble. Shes the big reason why carolina is still perfect on the season. Despite last nights deficit, dawn staley said she never doubted her team. I trusted whatever deficit, point in the game. I just feel like we always got a shot at coming back because hes familiar territory for us. And the gamecocks play five straight ranked teams. They host texas a m on sunday afternoon. So certainly a big basketball weekend for carolina. Absolutely. Thanks so much, tim hill. Up next, john farley has one last look at your 7day forecast. Hope you stay with us for more abc columbia news at 6 00. Gervais. The rain is ending. Youre in great shape heading out this evening. No problems at all. Tomorrow beautiful. Look at that, mid60s, a lot of sunshine. There will be clouds on sunday, but basically any focus of the rain will be at the beaches morning to early afternoon. After that it clears out and gets a little cool next week. It will be a big sports weekend. Good weekend to watch football or basketball. Youve been watching abc columbia news at 6 00. We thank you for making us your choice for news. Stay tuned for world news tonight with david muir. Breaking news at this hour, sound of explosions erupting at