steady stream of citizens are casting their votes. some believe it is much easier then waiting until election day. >> it went well. i knew what i was coming in for. i looked at my sample ballot and knew what i was coming in for. and i was all decided by the time i got here. >> it is supereasy. it took five minute to do it. it was my very first ti ordeal. but it was super easy. >> reporter: the supervisor says many are taking advantage of early voting. >> people's lives are busy. we encourage you to come out and vote. if you are going to early vote. come out and vote. as this comes on, you will face larger crowds and possibly lines. >> reporter: do your homework before you show up to vote. there's three sides to it. so look at it. read the amendments so you are prepared when you come in to vote. it will make your process a lot smoother. >> reporter: gertrude momtero wishes she had. >> i didn't understand the last part about ... there's a lot of questions there that i was not familiar with. >> reporter: the supervisor of elections website is your one stop shop to answer all of your questions and in hillsborough county l is a certain polling locations and i have to tell you josh, they have not had a line here, but it has been a steady stream of voters this afternoon. >> that is pretty nice. nobody likes lines. but what about the status of early voting in counties other than hillsborough? >> reporter: early voting is taking place in most areas except for highlands, hardy, and pasco where early voting begins tomorrow. counting down. chip osowski live for us in hillsborough county. thank you chip. well, after an emergency hearing, a federal judge said today he is satisfied that is state is doing everything it can to verify more than 106,000 voter applications. they were submitted after the judge extended the deadline by a week because of hurricane matthew. 21,000 of the new applicants or applications are still pending. 15,000 of those have been sent back to the state's elec missing information. many may never be verified. >> the supervisor will contact the individual whose application was deficient. obtain the information if possible. if the voters will be cooperative. sometimes the individuals don't care to respond and those will never get processed. >> reporter: applications without problems take between 12 and 24 hours to verify. bound for miami caught fire just before takeoff at chicago's o'hare international airport this evening. the plane experienced an engine malfunction. that caused the fire and look at that. a whole lot of smoke. the pilots aborted the takeoff. minor injuries are reported at this point, but that fire shut down the runway. they will continue to bring you more information as it becomes available. a lee county man is arrested him in connection to a major fraud scheme based out of india. he and other steves stole at least $300 million from more than 15,000 victims. they would call the victims and threaten arrests if they didn't hand over personal information. now, to a breaking news update out of hillsborough county. investigators now believe the motorcyclist involves in a crash had some kind of fight truck just before the accident. this is a look at the view from eagle 8 hd. the crash itself is at 19th avenue northeast and 30th street. 19th avenue remains closed in both directions and if you travel that area, you may want to avoid it. newschannel8 has a crew on the way and we hope to keep you updated. clearwater officials are clamping down on nuisance properties not up to code. today, police and code enforcement officers reached out to residents who may help cleaning up. jamel lanee joins us now. and what did they find? >> reporter: well, they didn't find too many issues. many of these homes just needed some paints or debris removed but basically, today's message by code enforcement was to help them before they find them. bobby palmer is not sure what to do about the tree hanging in his backyard. area. living space. this is out of control. >> reporter: even though it is not his tree, he is still responsible for the overgrown limbs that have destroyed his fence. a clear city violation. code enforcement officers let him know this could have been a potential fine. but instead, informed him. >> i'm glad they are coming around here. i want to clean this mess up. absolutely. >> they are a little taken aback when i come on the fix some things. >> reporter: code enforcement, police, and waste staff went through the bell view neighborhood to let people know of any nuisances. a cleanup effort for people who have been fined in the past. >> sometimes they don't want to do anything. so we have to try to help the tenants and the rest of the community to beautify. >> some were not happy, but house established and be clean and neat. there are properties around this area that need to be cleaned up. >> reporter: so, as you can imagine, many of these people were more appreciative that they came through to help them and at least tell them what was wrong before they handed out the citations. >> yeah. that is always better than geting the fine right off the bat. but how long is make these improvements before they do see the fines? >> reporter: so officials tell me basically, they are going to give residents a couple of weeks. and, if they see them making an effort, they will extend that time period for them. jen? >> all right, jamel lanee, thank you. it is a surprise we never get tired of seeing. >> an emotional reunion between an american hero and his little girl. newschannel8 was there. >> and, the pig racers are underway here at the greater hillsborough county fair. coming up, we will tell you what other events we are looking forward wad to this friday night at the fair. >> a windy night. you can see with the stronger easterly wind at 13 miles an hour. we will have your forecast for the weekend coming up shortly. >> we'll have that and more coming up. you're watching newschannel8, the station that is always on >> welcome back. a surprise of a lifetime for a pasco county kindergarten student. this little girl has not seen her dad for months since he is in the air force. >> that all changed at hudson elementary school. ryan hughes was there for the today is friday october 28. >> reporter: the day started how it always does in miss snyder's kindergarten class in hudson. kiley ate breakfast and then joined her classmates for the morning alphabet lesson. she doesn't know it yet, but she is about to show her class the unconditional love between a dad and daughter. her dad was employed with the air forc with his five-year-old girl. it is a moment the family will cherish and remember. >> i love you. >> i love you too. >> i haven't seen her in six months. it is always amazing having the feeling. >> reporter: cavarro is in the medical field and just completed his second deployment. his first required him to help sick and injured kids in bad times overseas. he knew he had to make his return this time memorable. the staff sergeant wanted to surprise his daughter and he thought there one no better place but her school first thing in the morning. >> she is my love, my everything. >> reporter: when these two are reunited, the passage of days, of months doesn't matter. >> want to go to the park? >> reporter: rt ryan hughes, newschannel8. >> the staff sergeant tells us he is home for good. he will be based at macdill air force base in tampa. the father and daughter by the way spent lunch together and they plan to watch movies tonight. >> great plan. good to see him back. well, they have been the lovable losers at the bottom of the standings for a combined 176 years but the chicago cubs and cleveland indians are on it shifts tonight to wrigley field in chicago. both teams try to make a little history. going to be fun to watch. and it is football friday. and our friday night blitz crews are covering some of the best high school football games in the state. tonight, the newschannel8 game of the week features the undefeated hillsborough terriers versus the armwood fighting hawks. anthony allred is at the stadium. so, the two head coaches are actually friends right? so how is this rivally stack up? >> reporter: oh josh, it's a good thing you asked that. i have to tell you, these guys are such good friends that last year, when coach callahan got married, coach garcia drove all the way across the state for the wedding and then drove back for the daytona 500. i talked to them about the mutual respect they have for each other and the program. >> i have great respect for shawn. people think that we are rivals off the field and that is not the case at all. we respect each other. we have a relationship week. that is the only week of the year that we really don't talk to each other. >> i love to beat shawn, especially for this year. it has been since 2012 since we have beaten him. it is our turn. we love to compete against the very best. and we have been among the best of the state of florida for a decade. >> a lot longer than me, he has been a staple here. he has coaches. i am an earl garcia guy. of all the coaches he has had, i have the most wins of all the earl garcia coaches so we had a chuckle over that. >> reporter: if you didn't catch that, coach callahan is a disciple of coach garcia. but, tonight, the gloves are coming off. and our high school football game of the week. we will see what happens. all right, aa live for us tonight. thanks so much. friday night blitz start to night at 11:15. dan lucas, paul ryan, and anthony allred will be there with all of your high school football action. check it out. the weather doesn't get much better for the final four days of the hillsborough county fair. there is something for everyone in the family to enjoy there. storm team 8 meteorologist ed bloodsworth is at the fair right now checking out the sights and sampling the messaged me and he said you cannot use his expension account apparently. >> reporter: oh, well, he is going to hate to see the bill when it comes back later next week. [ laughter ] guys, i just had probably the best corn dog i have ever had in my life and i can't wait to get the deep fried or owes. we just watched the pig races. the winner of the race, snoop they are going to get set tonight at 7:30 for the big truck and trailer pull. that is happening at 7:30. the gates opened a few hours ago. they will stay open until 11:00 p.m. tonight. so much to do. live entertainment. all the livestock shows as well. the midway, the rides are in full swing right now. we will go back over to midway coming up in just a few minutes but just let you know, adults get in for $7 tonight. and for children k-12, that is five dollars. and then, $4 for kids five and under get in for free. this goes all the way through sunday at the hillsborough county fair. just, in dover, if you are in hillsborough county. guys, back to you. >> all right, ed bloodsworth reporting live for us. thank you ed. >> now, max defender 8. the world's most powerful radar and your storm team 8 forecast with meteorologist steve jerve. should be a fantastic beach weekend for us. 82 degrees. the loews don cesar. the trees are moving around. the winds won't be as strong. here is a view from innisbrook and palm harbor. got a few more clouds looks like around the northern partover pinellas county. here at famous tate in brandon, 80 degrees. the traffic not too bad. right along 60 with an east wind of 13 miles an hour. it is halloween. time to start thinking about a costume for your cat and dog. children too. they can get involved too. 82 degrees 5:00 p.m. and, it stays dry for the trick or treaters. weather similar to today. 7:00 a.m., 70 degrees. 80 degrees at noon. 86 at 4:00 p.m. breezy, warm, sunshine mixed with clouds. the dew point, 58 degrees. that is pretty comfortable. the temperatures are warm, but the dew points are low. 79 degrees in saint pete. a little high, look at that wind coming across the bay. you are in downtown saint petersburg. the winds continue to be strong. and you can see from the arrows we are seeing a clear northeasterly flow. 24 miles an hour gust in tampa. 28 miles an hour gust up in brooksville. and, 28 in sarasota. so, still kind of windy. we will carry that into the evening hours. quite a few clouds to the south of us. especially across south florida. it was a real rainy day across sections of the floridakeys. for us, just a few high clouds, mid forecast. because of that trail of moisture down in the south of cuba. 0% chance of development in the tropics according to the national hurricane center. a lot of folks headed out to the friday night football games. 80 degrees at kickoff. temperatures falling through the 70s . could be breezy in some areas. comfortable conditions there with above average conditions. this is a game being played tonight in tampa. navy is in town to play the bulls. 79 degrees. and, the bucs playing the raiders, 82 degrees. after playing the jaguars. been here all week. mostly sunny skies. warm for this one sunday at 1:00 at raymond james stadium. rpm computer model. you can see clouds like we saw on the satellite. this is the forecast you are looking at here. all the way through the evening hours, a few clouds streaming across the area. very mild conditions for us. saturday afternoon, maybe a few clouds, pleasant. and a warm us here this evening. 70 degrees. as we head throughout the overnight. that is our low temperature. tomorrow, a few clouds around. breezy with a northeasterly wind. saturday, at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon. looks like a very nice afternoon overall. 86 degrees for our high temperature for saturday. sunday, too, very similar kind of feeling day. temperatures will be in the upper 60s for lows and we will stay that way all the way through halloween. thank you very much. >> well, a bully makes bank. >> the amount a teen is younger boy may shock you. but, the high school senior says police have it all wrong. hear his side of the story. >> and, remember, you can join jenn holloway, julie phillips, and me for newschannel8 at 8:00 on great 38. we'll be back. he's gus! he's gus! he's gus! he's gus! gus bilirakis. gus bilirakis! gus is for us. for us. all of us. and he gets things done. and he gets things done. gus stood up to his own party... to stop flood insurance hikes. he's protecting our veterans... gus is for us. gus is always for us. gus is for us. for us! all of us! vote gus bilirakis for congress. >> now to what's making headlines across america. an indiana man is in jail charged with murder after his live-in girlfriend says she did not want to get married. according to police, this man pulled out an engagement ring and got down on one knee. but when his girlfriend said no thanks, he pulled out a gun and shot her to death. then called the police to tell them what happened. incredible. two freight trains collided head on today on a stretch of track just south of officials say both trains were moving at the time of the accident. two people were injured. they are working to find out what happened. a texas teen is facing charges after he bullied a classmate out of nearly $7,000. over five months the teen intimidated a younger boy into stealing money from his parents and giving it to him. but he insists he didn't bully the other boy and they were actually partners. >> he was taking money from his parents to give it to me so for him to share. >> he says they used the cash to buy video game consoles and junk food. purchases the other boy wanted to hide from his parents. it came crashing down when the other boy confessed to his parents. newschannel8 at 6:00 is coming up next. >> stacie and keith are here with what we are working on. >> they were students beloved by the entire community. >> tonight, two teenagers are dead killed in a crash on the way to school th investigation. and what classmates are doing to remember them. >> plus, we are going to bring you an update on some breaking news. an american airlines plane bound for miami catches fire. so, how is this impacting air travel now that the flames are out? >> what is the delay? what are they hiding? a florida congresswoman want to know why government in the sunshine is keeping us all in the dark. >> a sand hill crane was found shot to death in the middle of a parish neighborhood. investigators are determined to find out who did this. >> those stories plus your storm team 8 forecast and sports with with dan lucas coming up on newschannel8, the station thiazols on your side. in my job, i see a lot of fires that could've been stopped before they started. that's why florida's firefighters support amendment 1. amendment 1 does solar the right way, commonsense safeguards amendment 1 means more solar, safe solar, for the sunshine state. vote yes on amendment 1, for the sun. i served under president bush and obama. i fought the taliban. i was asked to form a global coalition to counter isil. when someone makes the comment that they know more about the islamic state or isil than do the generals, it implies a complete ignorance that the islamic state poses to the united states and to the american people. and i believe she understands how to wield american power to ultimately defeat this threat and to keep us safe. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. i moved on her like a [bleep]. i'm hillary clinton you can do anything. grab them by the [bleep] we have to make sure that donald wins this election. no we don't. marco rubio stands by trump and failed to show up for florida. here's what i believe in. the aisle to get things done. protecting social security. and building an economy that works for all of us. i'm patrick murphy and i approved this message >> right now on >> another tragedy on a tampa bay roadway. this time, two teenagers are dead. how classmates are paying tribute to them. >> and, questions that have gone unanswered for way too long. why won't the state hand over records about a sink hole secret? >> and a cruel act that has angered wildlife officials. why the person who shot this crane could face a stiff penalty. good evening, i'm stacie schaible. >> i'm keith cate. thanks for joining us tonight. brother and sister on their way to school. jorge and melanie laura were not far from school when they were hit and killed. this accident happened here at highway 27. >> reporter: it is really heartbreaking keith. the accident happened right over here in this intersection. and we have learned it doesn't appear that either driver was speeding or distracted. it is just >> mother heard the crash. she came out and saw the vehicle and went up the street. when she saw what had happened she passed out. >> reporter: two of their children's lives ended tragically. brother and sister. 18-year-old jorge and his sister 15-year-old melanie. >> it is horrible. it is just horrible.