gary and marty.. marty- we've had a roller coaster of a week... but sounds like this weekend is going to be beautiful. downgraded to a category three this morning... but there's no shortage of harsh winds and driving rain in florida as hurricane matthew makes itself known. early this morning...the national hurricane center said matthew was moving parallel to and just offshore florida's east coast... still - they say even if there's no direct landfall - matthew will still bring a devasting impact. our partners are out around florida as the storm comes and in haiti - 300 people are confirmed dead after hurricane confirmed dead after hurricane matthew tore through the poorest country in the americas. officials there say some of the hardest hit areas - are still impossible for rescuers to reach. one city has confirmed 80 percent of the buildings have been leveled... water and temporary shelters as hundreds of thousand of people are in need. hurricane matthew - is making itself known on the campaign trail today. both candidates have temperarily closed their offices in florida. both are urging people there to heed the warnings and evacuate. matthew is their focus days before they meet for the second presidential debate. here's nbc's tracie potts.. 9news will be hosting a debate between the state's senate candidates. democratic incumbent michael bennet and republican challenger darryl glenn - will debate live on 9news on october 11th. political reporter brandon rittiman and kyle clark will te. it starts and 7 - it will be on channel 20 and on 9news dot com. colombian president juan manual santos... is now a nobel peace prize winner. this morning - the norwegian nobel committee awarded santos "for his resolute efforts than 50-year-long civil war to an end." solving crimes...or invading privacy... the denver police department has new software - that allows it to track social media posts from any location. it is legal. but - the aclu wants clarification - on how police plan to use it. dpd says - they use the software to find posts - that could help prevent violent criminal activity. the aclu says that's fine - they just don't want dpd to label people as threats without probable cause. we are learning more about the man police say brought a knife that looked more like a sword that had recently been discharged according to a source close to the investigation, a woman was sitting in her car when simmons walked up and scrawled references to the ten commandments on one of the vehicle's windows. then - he went inside a building next to the football field. officers found him there in a stairwell. police say they shot him after he refused to drop his weapon. they have not said whether simmons has any ties to the campus. if you spend a month in the hospital... the staff is recover enough to leave... thursday - douglas county detective dan brite left parker adventist hospital - and got quite the send-off. brite has been hospitalized since september 2nd - when he was shot while on duty. hospital workers gathered to send him off to craig hospital... he'll continue rehabilitation next week... even with all the crazy weather changes - it's about that time - to start protecting yourself - from some common about "winterizing" your home... clear the gutters, check pipes and make sure doors and windows are properly sealed... later this morning - tarhonda thomas will have more on all the things you can do - to make winter a little more bearable for you and your the pueblo county sheriff says - an excavator doing routine work in pueblo county - somehow started the beulah hill fire. the machine's operator was moving a rock on monday - when he noticed the fire. he tried to put it out before calling 911. still - the sheriff says - they don't know exactly how the machine started the fire in the first place. governor hickenlooper has declared a "disaster emergency" in the area - freeing up more money to fight the fire. as of this morning - the buelah hill is 75 percent least eight homes - and burned more than 5 thousand acres. some residents are able to go back home... and the sheriff's office says - they will give 5- thousand dollars in emergency stipends - to those who st everything in the fire. the train that crashed into a new jersey terminal last week-- was going twice the speed limit when it hit. federal investigators also say - the engineer hit the emergency brake less than a second before impact. a woman standing on the platform was killed...and more than 100 data recorders show the train heading toward the platform at 8 miles an hour... but it sped up to 21 miles an hour - just before the crash. the speed limit - is 10. from now on - the new jersey transit system says a conductor will be required to join an engineer whenever a train pulls into the hoboken terminal or atlantic city station. the engineer in last week's crash was alone - and says he has no memory of the incident. one week later - the wreckage from that crash - has finally been removed from the terminal. the n-t-s-b says - they have good information about the crash from a recovered data recorder - and a forward facing camera at the front of the train. those items should help them discover what happened. the i-phone 7 - has officially been out for a month now.. and if you're still looking to get your hands on one- or any other fancy new phone... tech experts say there are a few things to know - before you upgrade. later... google says we've made progress - that's how far google's self- driving cars have gone... and it's helped the team develop better self-driving technology... but the project leader says - a computer driver - isn't even close to a human one. there have been a handful of accidents involving google's self- driving cars - most of them due to if you're ready for a new phone... trading in your current one - could get you the best deal - depending on where you go - and what steps you take. experts say - make sure to know your phone's model name, storage space and security features... check to see what kind of condition it's in... and make sure to erase all your personal data - resetting the phone to factory settings. another tip - explore trade in options. online trading sights - could be more lucrative than making a trade in the store. in front of the classroom.. a new documentary - is introducing viewers to a colorado man who just wants to help teens avoid the same path - that he originially took. hispanic heritage.. and we want to introduce you to a man who left a life of violence - for a life of good will. now - he spends much of his time in metro denver - trying to keep kids fr he was pretty quiet about it. but then - someone noticed and put him on the big screen. 9 news reporter vicente arenas shows us why. lopez went on to get his associates he now brings his message to five different schools. the documentary "clever" was recently shown to a sold out crowd in denver. and later this month - it will be part of an international film festival in mexico. z24qmz zvpz lot of different things... including - one couple's big day! jessica and shane kindsford got married yesterday...it was supposed to be today... they both live on pawleys island - just off the coast of south carolina - and right in hurricane matthew's path. they aren't rushing to leave town though.. shane is a firefighter - and jessica volunteers with the department - so they'll be delaying they're honeymoon one company is saying no to the 'pink tax' -- the tax on feminine products that ranges from seven to nine percent. how they're 'think pink' initiative can save you some money, coming up in our five a-m hour. that's going to do 4:30... but we have a lot more news and winds... driving rain... hurricane matthew ... is hitting florida right now. this is a live earthcam picture from fort lauderdale. the storm weakened to a category three storm overnight... but the danger for millions of people along florida's coast remains. the rain was falling sideways... in vero beach, florida... street signs were shaking... and trees were whipping around. this morning... the national hurricane center is warning the eye of the extremely dangerous storm is getting closer to land. they call themselves hurricane hunters. they take flights through matthew... to measure the strength of the storm. this video just in to the newsroom... the national weather service says the storm surge from matthew could be much stronger than the rush of water that took out parts of the