Also responsible. Family members of melissa hugginsjones cried as the jury read their verdict. Smith showed no emotion. The defense did not call any witnesses, nor did they put on any asset evidence in the testimony phase but ours expected to do now in the sentencing phase which could take 2 to 3 days. The jury will have to decide to send him to prison without the chance of parole for the rest of his life, or convict him and sent him ultimately to die for his crimes. It has been an emotional trial, tara lynn, live in raleigh. A fayettville woman will appear in court accused of stabbing a man to death. Monica holt is charged with Second Degree murder of 67year old thomas mcnair. The two were acquaintances. The incidenthappened during a fight at ellis street yesterday. Neighbors say he was a fixture in the neighborhood. I just know that he was her and help her out. Its unfortunate in the process, him being nice, this had to happen to him. He did not deserve it. Holt is currently being held in the Cumberland CountyDetention Center without bond. Prosecutors dropped charges against one of the suspects in the death of a 1yearold in chapel hill. The ta says he dropped the attempted murder and Assault Charges against Shaquille Davis because of conflicting evidence. He was one of three suspects accused in the Christmas Day driveby that killed mealeah williams. Davis is serving a 90 day sentence for a probation violation. This morning were working to learn the name of the victim at the center of a Death Investigation in raleigh. Police found a mans body along South Wilmington street yesterday afternoon. The initial call was for a drowning in a creek and running trail nearby. The surrounding area is mostly industrial. An autopsy will determine how the man died. The results should be available in a few days. Wake County School leaders fix ways that students are disciplined. Africanamerican students are more likely to get suspended or arrested in wake County Schools. Well suspensions rose last year, the fiveyear trend shows improvement. But there are other concerns. Africanamericans are less than a quarter of the student population but accounted for 63 of suspensions last year. And they were involved in 70 of cases sent to the criminal justice system. School leaders are looking at possible solutions such as improved alternative program instead of the suspending students. It could be months before we learn a decision in the fight between Property Owners and state department of transportation. The lawsuit is being heard in the Supreme Court. The case involves a Forsyth County man that could affect thousands of Property Owners across North Carolina. His lawyers argue a law that allows the state to put a hold on to landowners property for overreaching and some Property Owners say they have been in limbo for 20 years. They say they cant develop their land and no one will buy it because of restrictions in place. Attorneys for the state argued the law benefits all north carolinians by keeping the cost of building roads down. Apple plans to fight a federal magistrates order forcing the company to break the encryption of the San Bernardino shooters iphone. The ruling orders apple to disable the security feature in the phone of syed farook that automatically erases all data if an incorrect pass code is entered 10 times. This comes two months after farook and his wife launched a terror attack in San Bernardino that killed 14 people. In a statement this morning, apple ceo, tim cook, argued that disabling the passcode would create a backdoor that could potentially be used on other devices. Cook talked about it in a the reality is if you put a backdoor in, that backdoor is for everybody, good guys and bad guys. A federal judge looks at it as what is in the best interest of safety. They look at it in the circumstances of, apple, you need to help the fbi out. Apple has five days to respond to the ruling. The fbi hopes the phone will help them figure out why the and if they had any help. Syed farook and his wife, tashfeen malik, died in a shootout with police after the attack. Very interesting debate. Its going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Why couldnt apple quietly help them out . We will continue to follow that story for sure. As we continue to track our somewhat quieter weather. Thats right. A few sprinkles that did not add up to much. And there. Take a look at the raleigh sky cam, the rain is over for now. We are seeing the skies clear and the sun peeking through the clouds in downtown raleigh. In durham, 40, 41 in cary and holly springs, 49 in zebulun, 39 in wake forest. Close to freezing but still not down to 32, nothing freezing out there even though the roads are camp from last night rain. 43 in goldsboro, 23 in southern pines. In your planner by lunchtime, 48, high of 52. That is cooler than yesterday but we expect plenty of sunshine for the rest of the day today. Colder night tonight and cool day tomorrow, but quite weather, we dont have any rain in the forecast for now, all the way into early next week. Hopefully thatll help hour commute for now to the rest of the week as well. I hope so. It has been not so bad so far. Lets take a look at wade avenue out at 440 this morning. We have a minor accident on the couple of vehicles on the right shoulder. You want to scoot over and give them room to work. No police on the scene or a tow truck or anything like that. Looks like a minor affair on the west side of raleigh. Lets take a look at other delays, swollen 40 westbound leaving wade avenue heading up the hill toward harrison avenue and beyond. Not adding too much to the overall trip. By the time you get out to the airport exits, traffic moving well on the westbound side of i ready. Gets congested heading into south durham but overall not a backdrop, six minutes from wait to 540. Take a look at the life commitment, we have a couple of minor accidents. There is one accident with injuries reported at rock quarry road and bridge bridge drive, south of i40, the interchange there. Otherwise it has been pretty quiet overall this morning. Early delays through gardner have. Up nicely. Right now we are tracking backups through the fortify work zone from 440 out toward by the time you get to us1, traffic moving well. Slow this morning with congestion on the northbound side of freeway between alice road and downtown. Its not adding too much to your overall trip, not enough to consider using 55 westbound as an alternate route. Good news, no sun glare delays this morning on 40 eastbound, that trip from chapel hill to the park, ausmus, six minutes from 54 to the durham freeway. It is 8 08. President obama trades jabs with gop president ial candidate, donald trump. The war of words grabbing headlines. The president s message to the senate as he prepares to fill a vacancy on the nations highest court. Time again for the battle of the blues. We are live in chapel hill where tonight, round one between duke and carolina tips hey, i like that music. Just days before the South Carolina primary, donald trump is fending off a direct attack from president obama. Don champion shows us trumps response and tells us how democratic contenders are stumping for votes from a crucial South Carolina sector. Reporter donald trump took aim at president obama in South Carolina tuesday night moments after the commanderinchief said this. I continue to believe mister trump will not be president. And the reason is because i have a lot of faith in the american people. Youre lucky i did not run last time when romney ran because you would be at one term president. Commanding lead, he and his rival matched ted cruz for being dishonest. I have never seen a human being why so much. Didnt tell the truth about ben carson in iowa. Reporter the texas senator fired back. They dont respond, they just screen, liar, liar, liar. Reporter on the democratic side Hillary Clinton is trying to maintain her lead in South Carolina. Tuesday, she and Bernie Sanders courted minority voters. Its not enough for your economic plan to be break up the banks. You need a plan to address the generations of underinvestment and neglect. We need to provide substantial help to hbcus that have done a great job. Reporter South Carolina holds their primary a week from this saturday. Don champion, cbs news. Yesterday the president refused to say whether he intends to endorse clinton or sanders, saying he will have an there are new concerns over the safety of takata airbags. What one lawmaker says needs to happen now following the recall he was born in brooklyn but grew up in wilmington and there. His name . Michael jordan. H . 53 today. Really . Happy birthday, mj. Probably a good sign for North Carolina that they are playing duke tonight to celebrate Michael Jordans birthday, the tar heels. What a present that would become his old team. He will see how it plays out. Anything can happen. Exactly. We have had some Winter Weather around some of those games, so they were debating on whether to cancel it or not, but it is nice to know we dont have to worry about that for now all the way through the weekend. Now next week, we will take that as it comes but right now, it looks like we have at least five or six days of fairly quiet weather. Lets take a look. Earlier this morning we had a few showers at walter through, the radar picture showing that starting at about 4 15. A little bit of patchy light rain from raleigh northward. We got into the 6 00 to 7 00 over and done with now. We are starting to see a few breaks in the clouds. Heres a look at fayettville, still some cloud cover but in spots in the clouds and increasing sunshine as we get through the day today. The temperature officially at the airport is 40, hour winds are calm, dewpoint 38, humidity and 93 . 37 in south hill. We did dip down close to freezing in roxboro, but not close enough for any slick roads this morning. 40 in rocky mount and raleigh. Talbot town, 41 smithfield, 39 sanford, 42 degrees in fayettville. Temperatures have not had a chance to warm up too much with cloud cover, these clouds continued to dissipate getting closer to lunchtime. There is another cold front that im watching back to the north and west. This sweeps through the area tomorrow. It will be close enough tonight the temperatures drop down below freezing and we get a push of cold air that comes in. High tomorrow will be in the 40s. Were not talking that conditions that we saw over the weekend with highs only in the 30s, talking upper 40s and not likely to be too cold but little colder than today. Heres lunchtime, we are seeing plenty of sunshine across most of the region, maybe a little bit of lingering cloud cover down south and today we feature partly cloudy skies. On thursday, that front coming through will be dry, not expecting precipitation along with it. It will be nice and bright thursday and friday, two, into the weekend as well. Some pretty weather in the forecast. Yesterday. That front coming through will help to bring us a push of cooler air tomorrow. High of 48. We start the morning at 30. It will take a little while for the air to start to warm up back again. Still below normal friday, starting at 29, we will see high of 51. We still have a glorious weekend in the forecast, High Pressure builds in and starts to bring us more of a southwesterly flow. Midsixties saturday and sunday, sunday maybe a little cloudier, during those above freezing. Track a bit of a pattern change. We will have more disturbances me through helping to bring us a chance of showers. Right now it looks like just rain monday and tuesday but looks like we could have a shot of cold air by the middle of the week. And if there is any precipitation lingering, which there may be, we could have some issues, but that is a long way off. Meantime, im just thinking about this weekend. It looks so pretty. Same here. He will get out and enjoy it. That trip to the coast, wont that be nice . Yeah. We could all use a vacation. Thank you. President obama says republicans have no constitutional grounds to refuse to vote on a Supreme Court nominee to replace the late justice, antonin scalia. The president challenged his political foes in the senate to rise above, cold, the venom and rancor that has paralyzed judicial nominations. Senate judiciary chairman Charles Grassley says he might be open to president obamas yet to be named nominee. Bundy, must stay behind bars. He was denied bail been called a danger to commute. He was arrested in oregon from charges stemming from a standoff with federal officials. His two sons were arrested last month for leaving a group that occupied a National Refuge and protest in federal land policies. The u. S. Residents heard from resident doing with the water crisis in flint, michigan. Doctors listened as they shared stories of lead contamination in their water. He said help is on the way the he admits it is not nearly enough. Meanwhile, the governor revealed that the state Health Department will be investigated for failing to warm the public about the engineers disease outbreak in flint. New overnight, u. S. Is making a show of force against north korea. F22 stealth jets flew over south korea this morning. Those jets capable of slipping past radar landed at an airbase near seoul. The fight came the day after the south korean president nuclear path. There is a new deal to begin commercial flights between the u. S. And cuba. Leaders from both countries signed the deal in havana. It allows flights which have american carriers can bid on routes for as many as 110 u. S. To cuba flights a day. A florida senator is urging the national Highway Safety administration to recall all takata inflators in cars after a South Carolina man died due to an airbag inflator that was not under recall. The concern is that tens of millions of americans could be at risk of injury from protected airbags. Automakers have recall 24 million vehicles to replace inflators which could rupture in a crash sending shrapnel at the driver and passengers. There could be as many as 50 million takata airbags incars that have yet to be called back for repairs. A committee to make sure new downtown Outdoor Dining rules do not interfere with raleighs appearance meets for their task is to review the use of signs, furniture, and those velvet rope barriers called stanchions. The word of the day. The committee could list recommendations at the end of the meeting which starts at 3 00. The rules on Outdoor Dining were put into place last summer to reduce light and noise. Stanchions, arent they in the movie theaters . I did not know what those were. Wha it is 8 25, im renee chou with your top stories. The jury that convicted Travion Smith of firstdegree murder will be back in court to hear testimony about whether smith should live or die. He was found guilty in the death of melissa hugginsjones in her north hills apartment. Parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors dropped charges against one of the suspects in the death of a 1yearold in chapel hill. The da says he dropped the attempted murder and Assault Charges against Shaquille Davis because of conflicting evidence. He was one of three suspects accused in the Christmas Day driveby that killed mealeah williams. Davis is serving a 90 day sentence for a probation violation. Cooler start this morning than yesterday morning, its shaping up to be a Beautiful Day today. Elizabeth . What a difference. Temperatures are cooler but yesterday we were doing with severe weather, windy conditions, trees downnd all of that. It is much quieter. Not seeing a whole lot of sunshine at the moment looking west across wake county. But we will see more and more of that as the day wears on. You can see that pic deck of clouds, it has quit producing any rain and the radar picture the area. And from your we become more some into the afternoon. 40 degrees in rocky mount. Talbot town, 43 in southern france, 42 in fayettville, 46 degrees in roxboro. Our high of 42, down from 60 yesterday. It was a glorious afternoon yesterday, that will run cooler today. An extra shot of cooler air tomorrow brings highs back down to 48. And our morning low will be back down below freezing. 51 on friday, but our temperatures are still on track to skyrocket over the weekend into the mid 60s. And we will see a good bit of sunshine on saturday. 8 27. We have a minor accident on the line. This is on 440 westbound at new bern avenue, as those perks go by you can see flashing lights and Raleigh Police on the scene of that crash over the media not causing trouble, not blocking any travel lanes. As part of the states move over law heading westbound on 440, stay on those center and right lanes. For safety. Take a look at the life commute map and also cameras on the durham freeway. We had backups on on northbound side. Right around tw alexander drive toward ellis road, you can see traffic crawling along. Apparently there is an accident on the northbound side of the freeway, somewhere between there and mangum street because were also seeing stop and delays on the durham freeway. Northbound trip up to 40 minutes. If you need to for that, consider using 55 westbound as an alternate route. And also if youre coming in from the westbound side of durham on the southbound durham freeway, take main street. That is something that will follow as our news continues on fox50. It is one of the biggest next on fox50, the buildup to ilp tts. Tba e almorthi d by mithertywinee inor. Tllivrythe ke cettwue hey oried lethh tonit ra ndhe me 1 wel ell thoad anan say tl t titibey y adersaidindithnoch not vi c wn je th se constitutional. Onjucol n tsocesth as asrs ot wwand jobeo it h. Rt akay e ntt thd huprva. Lo, mal kn d nola as omwnas we womwier arisy ar itasinr onayesayld that roh. We an rn, er nicqumo at s th ye o. Aseen e nd uheur aro forest, n n d feowat h nit. 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Eabsithono t is th in the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight in the jungle, the giant jungle the lion sleeps tonight heard that some years and years ago. That was the coolest harmony in the world. That high part is what still sounds like every morning when he comes in. Im just kidding. I do like that articulate falsetto. And of course, that is a nod to the lion king. Which is at the dpac and we will be talk about the stars of that show coming up here. How cool to have them in the studio. This is so cool. I have season and i have seen the lion king before , not at the dpac but it is fantastic. The kids will love it. Its on my list. It is way up there. We will get a sneak peek at the coming up in just a few minutes. But certainly, we are doing with so much, whether this morning. Lets take a look at our radar picture. We had some showers overnight last night. We kick off the radar at about 4 45 this morning. We had showers mainly from raleigh northward and northeastward. Here. We are still dealing with a little bit of cloud cover in some places, but the rain is over and were looking at a nice dry period from now all the way until maybe monday of next week. Temperatures will be kind of all over the place but at least it will be dry. This is a look at the Wilson County courthouse. You can see gray skies behind the courthouse there in wilson. But, there are some places that are seeing a little bit of sunshine. It is still cloudy at the airport in raleigh, 40 degrees, and is calm, dewpoint 38, humidity 93 . It is still cool and a little bit of dampness because of the rain last night. 36 in roxboro, town by town, 43 in rocky mount, 43 tarboro. Heading south, 43 in sanford, 43 southern pines, 32 satellites on that disturbance mean through overnight and clear skies behind it. This will feel a bit like yesterday, minus the wild weather that we saw yesterday but we have skies gradually clearing through the Morning Hours with sunshine by lunchtime. We will see similar timing to the clearing that we did yesterday. And then another front back up to the north and west brings batch of cold air for us, thursday. But were not likely to see any precipitation with this, our temperature tonight extend below freezing. We will see below freezing temperatures again friday morning. Not dramatic, upper 20s to about 30 degrees. But we are going to be watching some colder air coming in for next week. We will talk about what its going to happen between now and then. Cooler thursday and into friday, even this afternoon. The watch all of this warm air. We get into the green and yellow contours, back to the west. And we see that warm air moving in just in time for the weekend. A big jump from thursday and friday to saturday and sunday with highs in the 60s. But then that cold air to our north gets all ramped up and starts to dig south again. Wednesday and thursday of next week. And with this dip in the jet stream, but also tends to mean the potential for a front for the generation of a low pressure system. That along with some of that cold air could mean that it will get interesting for us again by the middle of next week. It is way too early to tell, but just to let you know, we have that on our radar. We will see increasing sunshine this afternoon with a high of 52. 30 to start with tomorrow morning. We had that drive front that comes in and brings cooler air for a high of 48 thursday and 51 friday. But then the weekend rolls around. Morning lows above freezing, afternoon highs will be about 10 degrees above normal. High of 66, compared to 56, our normal, and 75, the record. And that record set all the way back in 1939. Just last year we were doing with wintry weather. Look at that, 26, the coldest High Temperature for saturday. And, that was set back again last year. Monday and tuesday, a little bit wet, but temperatures stay above freezing. Fabulous. Fantastic. Thanks. You can now watch mister president and the first lady as they eat, sleep, and feed their young. Okay, were not talking that president obama in the first family, were talking about this pair of bald eagles. They are in a tree in washington dc. This is a live look from the webcam located at the u. S. National arboretum. This is the first bald eagle pair to nest in this location since 1947. The American Eagle foundation launched the Bald Eagle Nest cam so that we could watch eagles live. We are watching them hover over a pair of eggs, they are expected to hatch midmarch. The foundation says the birds raise one eaglet last summer. Disneys the lion king comes to the triangle for a limited fiveweek engagement. It is a story we all know, simba, mufasa, and the wicked it is the number one musical that has been seen by more than 80 Million People worldwide. The lion king opened last night at the dpac and runs through march 20. Joining us this morning is Gerald Ramsey and drew hirshfield. So delighted to have you with us today. I mean, you guys are stars. This is getting up early this morning, i know youre working hard. Gerald, tell us about your role, and mufasa. I know that this has got to be a demanding role for you. This is my first major production, so it is a huge role to step into. Especially as a leader, you end up being the leader in the show itself, and also kind of backstage in the company. There is a lot of responsibility. Someone sonu. But everyone has been so great and so wonderful. Its great. You have a great voice. Through, you played the uptight but dignified zazu. How do you like that role . Its a wonderful role. Not only am i an actor, but im a puppeteer. When you come see the show, there is radically made puppet that i am a part of. How much stuff to you bring from location to location . I saw it about five years ago. It was simply fabulous. There is just so much incredibly colorful, beautiful stuff that goes into this production. I think it is about 25 to 30 trucks that move our production from city to city. Quite the production. Do you guys ever get a day off . You are going all the time. Ideally, monday. Unless we are traveling from city to city. About three days off a month. I love the dialects, gerald. I know you grew up in american samoa, you are educated on the big island in hawaii at the university there. What drew you to this . A friend of mine, we were the north shore in oahu. The lion king came about and had open auditions and she kept pushing me to audition. I felt like it was not for me. I have never been a musical theater person. But when she offered me free lunch, i was like, lets do it. Drew, how about you . Im originally from the San Francisco bay area. An interesting tidbit, in college when i was studying acting, i grew up and watch jeff hoyle who originated zazu around the bay area and now im stepping into the role that he created. Did you dream of that . I dont know if that specifically but it is a great connection. We are so excited to have you here for five weeks. That is a long run. 100,000 people you are expecting . We hope so. It is going to be awesome. The lion king running through march 20. For tickets, visit dpacnc. Com or call the Ticket Center at and gerald and drew, just delightful guest on our morning news, we are so thankful to have you here today. All of the best to you and your great run. Thank you so much. Renee, back to you. So great to have them, and have tickets to tomorrow and, when gerald talks, it is now 8 55. Good morning, im bill leslie. Im renee chou. We begin with traffic troubles on the durham freeway. Whats the problem . Horrible delays in both on both sides of the durham freeway at briggs avenue. At the start on the southbound side. There is an accident blocking the southbound side, down to one lane crawling through downtown durham. Those delays on the southbound durham freeway begin about toward briggs avenue. Very slow drive on the southbound side of the freeway. Consider using mainstreet as a way to get to downtown. On the northbound side, a couple of accident. One they have been able to push over to the right shoulder but we have an accident blocking that left lane of northbound durham freeway at briggs. When you take a look at the sensor readings, they are awful. 51 minutes to make the trip from i42 mangum street which tells you that it is stop and call all the way up to briggs. Consider using 55 westbound as a good alternate route. Right now the trip from i42 mangum street will take you 10 minutes. And if youre heading out until 10 00 or so, i would not be surprised if you are still seeing the delays on the freeway. Back to you. We could learn more today about plans to redraw the states congressional maps. The committee on Congressional Redistricting decided to not consider race and to maintain the republican partys advantage well redrawn maps is ordered by a federal court. Maps could be made public as early as today. And now elizabeth with the weather. We had showers overnight last night. Picture. Those have all moved out and we are doing with cloud cover. 2 00 a. M. And it was out of here by 7 00. We have lingering clouds raleigh. To the east, you can see cloud cover but if you thin spots. The front west you go, the more sunshine we are seeing. The entire area partly cloudy as we head closer to lunchtime. 37 in roxboro, 40 in south hill, raleigh and rocky mount. 44 in erwin, 42 in fayetteville. Temperatures are cool but we never did drop below freezing in any part of the viewing area. This afternoon, high of 52 with partly cloudy skies. Now thursday and friday morning, we will drop down to or just below freezing, but we forecast all the way into the weekend. Our temperatures a little bit below normal tomorrow at 48, 51 friday but highs in the mid 60s thanks. Apple says it will not help the fbi break into the home front of one of the San Bernardino shooters. Today, why the government says apple owes it to the victims families. Plus, vinyl record sales are now at the highest since cds began to dominate the music market. Today at 4 00 on fox50 we examined the interesting trend. After the 1999 columbine shooting, Police Change the way rampages. Tonight at 5 30 on wral, we examined whether that change officers to use deadly pain from your day can haunt you at night, dont let it. Advil pm gives you the healing sleep you need, helping you fall asleep and stay asleep so your body can heal as you rest. Itoffeud giory g ] s how e yote veuch. 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