and up to 45 minutes or departures. council speaker melissa mark-viverito gave her state of the city address today and the proposals about criminal justice is already causing controversy. dick brennan has the story, speech an reaction. >> reporter: that's right. the speech targets criminal justice reform. the speaker wants to shrink the size of the rikers population and is pointing a new commission to track the entire criminal justice system. >> today, i'm announcing a new independent commission chaired by jonathan lippman. >> reporter: the city council speaker wants what she calls fairer penalties for low level quality of life offenses and warrants. >> spending the night in jail on a 10-year-old warrant for being in the park after dark senseless. >> reporter: mark-viverito proposes to create a system to clear some of the 1.5 million summons for those who spent years or decades out of the idea has the support of brooklyn d.a. ken thompson. but warrant amnesty is getting fierce opposition from the police. pba president pat lynch said densely populated cities like ours requires that everyone act in a civil manner or our neighborhoods will be cesspools. lack of enforcements of quality of life laws endanger the health and welfare of everyone and makes the city a less attractive place to live, work or visit. >> it comes to a point where law enforcement is stuck between bad policy and bad politics. >> reporter: this former sergeant says outstanding warrants can be a strong investigative tool. >> these are individuals that have committed other crimes or will commit them in the future. this is how police can found out what they are doing. >> reporter: mark-viverito says as for the warrants that stay on the books there should be outreach to help people address the situation without jail. critics say it would be for them to pay the fines. >> thank you. firefighters are battling a huge fire in new jersey. black smoke can be seen billowing into the sky from an warehouse in hillsboro an industrial area in somerset county. route 206 is closed in both directions at camplain road because of the fire. no reports of injuries as of now. police arrested five people today for the gas explosion that killed two people and destroyed three buildings in the east village last year. the building's owner and others were charged with manslaughter. cbs 2's tony aiello live at manhattan criminal court. >> reporter: maurice, the four defendants charged with manslaughter were slapped with million-dollar bonds. they will likely spend tonight in jail. the prosecution says the owners of the buildings that were destroyed were so eager to get tenants and collect a total of $24,000 a month in rent, that they cut corners and, quote, let loose a hell storm on the east village. >> reporter: the accused were portrayed as cold-hearted unconcerned about public safety. the property owner and her son, a contractor and unlicensed plumber, investigators say they conspired to rig an illegal and dangerous gas feed to the buildings on second avenue and when coned caught them, doing it again in a hidden room, causing the fatal explosion and seven-alarm fire. this video shows the interior collapse the firefighters narrowly escaped. >> if you remember the chill it sent throughout the city, the mayor spoke about this, are people safe in their homes? it is going to be -- this is a monumental case because this sends a message that we're not going to tolerate this garbage. >> reporter: a fifth defendant, a master plumber, allegedly signed off on plans submitted to the city without ever reviewing them or even visiting the scene. >> when greed guides a decision and respect for human life doesn't, this is the result. the result is death, injury and the potential potential >> reporter: given the heartbreak and anger at the injuries and death of defense attorneys are raising concerns about getting a fair trial. >> it's not helpful listening to mayor de blasio slam the defendants that can hurt a fair trial for sure. >> reporter: the scene is filled with memories of the tragedy and the two young lives lost here. locals were pleased to learn of the indictments. >> justice needs to be served and people especially new york where there's people who do shady dealings all the time, you can't get away with it. >> reporter: in addition to the two dead there were many injured including a 22-year- old tourist who was blinded in one eye and two fire department battalion chiefs who can no longer answer calls because of injuries to their lower bodies. a lawyer for one of the defendants called the explosion, fire and deaths a tragic accident. not a crime. reporting live in lower manhattan, tony aiello, cbs 2 news. a long island driver has been found guilty of vehicular wasn't behind the wheel of the car that actually killed a nassau police officer. the mother of james ryan shielded her face as she left the courtroom this morning. ryan was convicted in the 2012 death of officer joseph ol vary. ryan was drunk when he crashed on the long island stretch. officer olivieri was killed in another crash responding to that accident. prosecutors say ryan's actions set in motion the chain of events that led to olivieri's death. day 2 of deliberations in the trial of an nypd officer accused of killing an unarmed man. no verdict. jurors are trying to determine the fate of officer peter liang asking for items including the nypd firearms guide. officer liang is accused of shooting akai gurley in the dark stairwell in a housing project in 2014. liang says it was an accident after being startled by a noise. but prosecutors maintain he did little to help the dying man. called heroes for saving more than 20 students on a school bus. it was traveling on a new jersey road when the students noticed something was wrong with the driver. cbs 2's christine sloan has the story new at 6:00. >> reporter: three students grateful to be standing in front of us to tell their story of survival on this school bus that went out of control on route 22 in bridgewater, new jersey, when the substitute driver had a medical emergency. >> his eyes were fluttering and the bus kept swerving continuously. >> reporter: three students on the runaway school bus heading to the somerset county vocational and technical school when the nightmare unfolded. >> it was like past the exit and he said what exit? and we were like the exit to get to school. >> reporter: all three went into action to save themselves and 24 other kids on the bus. motorcycle accident eight years ago and costello a boy scout rushed to driver. >> kept trying to calm himself. he kept taking the hands on his wheels and putting them on his chest. >> reporter: their plan to stop the bus at the red light. >> he almost started going again past the red light through the red light. that's when i jumped up and put the car -- pushed it into park. >> i told everyone to just, you know, just get out. get out the bus. >> reporter: what did the kids stay to you after you did this? >> they said thank you and all this stuff. >> reporter: wright's mom heard the commotion because kayla's phone accidentally dialed her. you must have been terrified. >> i was terrified. >> i am proud of all of them. i think it's a great story that teenagers who all did the right thing and were, you know, at the right place at the right time. >> reporter: their schools closed why we weren't able to get information on what happened to the driver but we know because of their heroic efforts their classmates are okay. in north plainfield, new jersey, christine sloan, cbs2 news. coming up, trapped in her burning home. flames were closing in. >> losing a pet can be devastating. so should companies allow time off for people to mourn the loss of a pet? >> coming up on the "cbs evening news," two miscarriages in the u.s. related to the zika virus. >> scott pelley joins us now live with that. scott. >> reporter: maurice and kristine, great to be with you. we are going to be continuing our expanded coverage on zika virus. dr. john lapook was in brazil all week last week at the epicenter of the outbreak. we'll also be looking tonight at whether u.s. olympic athletes headed to brazil are in any danger. all of that and the latest campaign news just ahead on the "cbs evening news." >> thank you. >> and a bit later at 6:00 he is a former fitness model trying to make it as a football player in the nfl. and he has the pedigree. cousin. here in the city, parking is hard to find. seems like everyone drives. and those who do should switch to geico because you could save hundreds on car insurance. ah, perfect. valet parking. here's the keys. and, uh, go easy on my ride, mate. hm, wouldn't mind some of that beef wellington... to see how much you could save on car insurance, go to geico.com. ah! (car alarm sounds) it's ok! an elderly homeowner confined to a wheelchair had no idea her bedroom was filling up with snow cover and flames. >> two good samaritans risked their lives to save her. cbs 2's jennifer mclogan introduces us to the heroes. >> reporter: the eatons neck home on a bluff overlooking almost inaccessible. an sos call from a outside caregiver, no heat and wires sparking. the 88-year-old wheelchair- bound homeowner helen morris frail and in bed was helpless. >> i ran upstairs and found the bed engulfed in flame, ran downstairs, grabbed some pots of water and i tried to put it out. but the smoke was just too much for me. >> reporter: oil burner repairman had just arrived to fix the heat and stumbled into a life-and-death situation. >> when you got to the edge of the bluff and looked down you could see the roof of the house which had smoke billowing out and as you started going down the stairs you could see in the windows, you could see the flames in the second story bedroom. >> reporter: suffolk officer matthew funaro also ran into the choking smoke. both men now worried the roof would collapse on to the senior citizen. >> the hole was through the [ indiscernible ] on the floor and i was worried about anything coming through the floor and right on top of her. >> we realize we weren't going to get over the threshold so we picked up the wheelchair brought her on the deck, got as far on the deck away from the house as we could. grabbed some more blankets. >> because of officer funarr and mr. cartelli a woman is alive today. >> reporter: mrs. morris a cancer survivor is recovering tonight. her family filled with gratitude for the heroism shown by total strangers. jennifer mclogan, cbs 2 news. the fire department says morris' house is destroyed. the cause of the fire may have been electrical. if you have lost a pet it's heartbreaking, it's hard to imagine going to work right away and be a functioning employee. hazel sanchez shows us how some companies are giving people pet bereavement days. >> reporter: when erica lost her dog chief she says word can't describe the amount of pain she felt. >> chief was the best dog. i was heartbroken. allowed her to take a day off to help her son understand the tremendous loss and herself to regroup. >> so, so important to me. >> reporter: the pet bereavement days aren't required under any law, we found several national companies are now allowing mourning pet owners time off to grieve. software company vmware and maxwell health give employs ee flexible days off. kintton hotels and restaurants allows three days away from work and a pet insurance company gives employees one paid pet bereavement day. >> they allow people to actually do the grieving process. i think you need closure when you lose a pet and it's important to have the time to do that. >> reporter: with 30% of pet owners surveyed saying they felt grief and sadness of for at least 6 months after losing an animal, zimmerman says it's critical grieving pet owners be given time off. >> it's really very, very difficult to function. so if you can't function, you certainly can't function at work. you're not the same person you were before. you need time to get back to >> reporter: some question where to draw the line. if it's okay to allow time off for the death of a dog or cat, what about a fish or reptile? lee says she is thankful for the time she had and the support she had from her employer. >> this should be the norm for many businesses if not all. >> most grieving pet owners need a few days to a week to deal with the initial shock. hazel sanchez, cbs 2 news. >> pets are clearly part of the family for mean of us. study show people experience the same numbness, shock, disbelief, guilt or anger when grieving another person's death. so it's tough. >> very true. >> it's real, right? >> think all of us that had dogs as a kid and when you had to say good-bye, worst day ever. >> very. lonnie quinn is here with our exclusive forecast from cbs 2. and lonnie, what's it, 23 and we're only going to get lower? >> so much colder. [ laughter ] >> and look, there's no way you can say it's anything but really cold outside right now. talking about has winds that are gusting over 25. feels like about 13 degrees outside and this is going to be a hot spot over the next few days. it's going to get colder. temperatures right now everybody below the freezing mark. you go well below freezing as you head -- i got a 12. who is giving me 12? this is scott woods in nappanock. temperatures are going way down. really, just as cold as it ever was during last winter. the colder point last year was 2. we could see that this type of reading this weekend. high clouds, temperatures will get lower than they are now. the winds will get higher than they are now. that's a brutally cold combination. you're not going to enjoy it. it's all going to come together early on valentine's day morning with the worst of the worst. the record low temperature for valentine's day, 1916 we morning in 1916, way back when, at 2 degrees. right now i'm forecasting 4. that's down from yesterday's forecast when i said about 5 because now we are getting indication it's going to be colder than first thought. i may have to adjust that more. that record is in sight. it's going to be feeling a lot colder than 2. we are talking 30, 35 to 40-mile-per-hour gusts feel like 15 to 25 below zero. north of the city 20 to 30 below zero will be the wind chill. the weekend it's not just this little time period of sunday morning. it's the whole weekend is painfully cold. saturday and sunday, a sun/cloud mix throughout. the winds will be blowing for the whole weekend. it will be a 19-degree high temperature reading for saturday. the same reading for sunday. factor in the winds, it will feel like about zero. it will be cold. vortex satellite and radar, we are seeing a little band of snow showers. we are catching some reports right now not snow showers. it's actually our radar picking up debris in the air from a fire big fire in somerset county but you could see snow showers out there. then the next big storm you have to go way out west. this is a good sized storm but it's rain right now around seattle. and it would get here about tuesday. and take a peek at what tuesday's high temperature is going to be. mid- to upper 40s! the next storm looks to be rain, believe it or not. could start as some snow late monday night. but here are the numbers across the board. 27 friday. 19 for saturday and sunday. monday 32. then tuesday 45! some of you could be closer to 50 on tuesday. it's a real up and down. >> thank you, lonnie. otis livingston joins us know for a look ahead at sports. otis. >> kristine, mets captain david wright anxious to get the season started coming off a worlds appearance. >> there may be another beckham on the way to the nfl. breaking cousin's. the centers for medicare and medicaid services recently asked patients to rate the quality of over 3.500 hospitals. fewer than 6% received 5 stars. among them was cancer treatment centers of america in philadelphia. time for sports with otis we were saying the mets off season was so short doh playing in november! >> excitement going into this spring. some of the mets continue to get their work in down in port st. lucie before next week's official start of spring training. the longest tenured met is definitely looking forward to a solid 2016 campaign. david write coming off the roller coaster season in which he missed 115 games with spinal stenosis. many feared his career was over. he returned and hit a homer in his first game back on august 24 and david wright played a vital role in the post-season. he homered in game 3. >> the back thing and having to work my way through that, it was satisfying. i think, you know, gratifying is a good word also that you know you put in that type of time you put in that amount of work, and you see the benefits of it by going to the play- offs and playing the world series. >> try to go back to back. the mannings may be the first family of football now odell beckham, jr.'s cousin is turning pro. he is turning heads. >> reporter: beckham is one of the biggest names of the game. this beckham had to be discovered at a vertical jump competition. >> who are you? where did you come from? what planet are you from? >> kevin dunn is the ceo of test football academy of new jersey. he identified beckham as a natural. this is the las video of beckham playing. it's from high school. beckham decided to move before his senior year to relieve financial stress on his family. >> i want to take as much pressure off them as much as i can. so even if it means my own sacrifice. >> reporter: he was then forced to leave college football and start a new life in new york where he became a trainer and fitness model. now they are going to pull up some pictures of you. >> they are doing it now. >> you're getting a taste of it now. >> reporter: after 5 years this 23-year-old man is now shot and so far he is breaking records. his bench press is 42 reps at 225 pounds. the record for a running back is 32. and in front of us without shoes on he jumped what would be an nfl combine record 45" vertical. what's an nfl team going to get if they bring you on. they're going to get a workhorse. you know? they gonna get marshawn lynch and ap transformed. [ laughter ] >> reporter: now he will get his shot at the combine in indianapolis. steve overmyer, cbs 2 news. >> by the way, he was bench pressing 405 pounds in front of him. his cousin odell beckham, jr. was doing some heavy liftving: he was on code black here on cbs 2 and he had to dig deep to find the motivation of his character. >> i let 'em all know that i would never be here without you. you teach me how to have courage, play with grit, stay persistent, we need to get this done. trying to talk his old high school football coach into having surgery and after a speech like that, of course, the coach went under the knife. >> odell beckham, jr.'s second career. >> i bought it. i felt something. [ laughter ] >> but yeah, i mean, he has another career going. >> commercials. >> what's that? >> the facial hair, was it all real? [ laughter ] >> on o'dell? >> yeah. >> he think he is gluing it on? >> i don't know. i couldn't tell. [ laughter ] >> all right. thank you, otis. >> i like the jacket. >> back in just a minute. i've been a turkey farmer my whole life... and i raise turkey for shady brook farms . we don't use growth-promoting antibiotics, that's just the way things should be done. my name is glenn, and i'm an independent turkey farmer. (female announcer) shady brook farms . no growth-promoting antibiotics, just honest, simple turkey. early detection is critical in fighting cancer. a misdiagnosis or other errors can have serious consequences. for almost 40 years jacoby & meyers has successfully represented thousands of clients. winning them the money they need to take care of themselves and their families. you fight the cancer. coming up on cbs 2 news at 11:00, valentine's day just around the corner and if you are looking for fuller more kissable lips there's a new way to get them that's not so extreme. and it may look small but this dog saved an entire family from a fire. why the long island pet is now about to get national attention. >> wow. up next on the "cbs evening news with scott pelley," behind the scenes at the tsa training academy. >> thanks for joining us here at 6:00 . we'll see you at 11. good evening. stay warm. comments@captioncolorado.com >> pelley: a key endorsement for clinton and a warning about nominating trump. >> we're going to be destroyed in the general election. >> pelley: also tonight, will u.s. olympic athletes be endangered by the zika virus? a rare one-on-one interview with the head of the c.i.a. isis has access to chemical artillery shells? a college president's scheme to rid his school of struggling students. and a story brings sheer joy to a child. not the words, it's the voice. >> then elsa accidentally hurt anna and both girls rushed... >> this is the "cbs eveni captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: a new national poll shows how critical tonight's democratic debate is.

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