Hillsborough county Public Transportation commission has been battling Ride Sharing Services like uber and lyft. Even issuing expensive tickets. Now we are learning the head of the ptc used cab drivers in sting operations that busted uber and lyft operators. It gives the impression of inappropriate activity and inappropriate relationships and literally puts all of our current reporter victor crist believes kyle cochran crossed the line. The perception is very bad. It gives the impression that the best practices were not followed. That the Regulatory Agency was operating far too close and in concert with some of the companies that it regulated. Reporter when i started investigating kyle cochrans relationship with Cab Companies for july of 2015. The reason . He wasnt doing ptc business that day. He was in palm beach advocating for the Cab Companies. To retro actively change it gives the impression of deception. Reporter state senator jeff brandis was shocked when i told him about the email. I think there is collusion all throughout this process. Reporter brandis ptc. We are the regulated industry. It has taken over its regulator. The taxicabs absolutely control the ptc. An every should know that. We have known it for years. Reporter yeah, kyle e mailed us today about our stories. Some of the questions we have. It is common Law Enforcement practice to use lawabiding companies in sting operations but promises he wont do it again. Over the last couple of days are being taken out of context. Keith . Well jeff, this was not look good for the head of the ptc. You are raising a lot of questions here. Is he offering to resign by chance . Reporter well, you know, when we first started investigating his actions last april, he did offer to resign. Although he said it has nothing to do with our reports. Now, he is not offering to resign. However, commissioner victor crist is independent investigation to look at our actions and he absolutely thinks cochran should resign. Jeff patterson reporting live. Thank you jeff. The man accused of slamming into a lakeland home and killing a woman inside faced a judge today. We are told ryan tallant was absolutely wasted behind the wheel when he lost control early thursday morning. 76yearold janice folds who was in her home at the time marino has the story. Reporter loved ones of jans are heartbroken. In court today. Ryan mitchell tallant. Reporter a judge setting bond for tallant with conditions. Wear a gps monitor. Follow a curfew. Or not drink. To not possess in any bar or lounge and random breath testing. I pray for that man. Because, everything is against him. Reporter newschannel8 spoke with a neighbor who her husband heard the horrific crash and ran to help. He heard the explosion. And, he said he heard tires screeching. Reporter jan and her husband, reverend wyatt folds had just woken up when the truck plowed through the room where she goes to say her prayers. Instantly, she was gone. All of the things we can have can be gone in a flash. After the crash, tallant tried to leave. Her husband made sure that doesnt happen. Another neighbor joined up and they had him stay where he was. Reporter despite everything, instead of anger, she prays for tallant and says jan would have done the same. He has a whole life to turn around and make it bet ever or keep going down a wrong road. Reporter tallant is facing a number of charging including dui manslaughter d more criminal history with a dui in 2009. Melissa marino, newschannel8. The driver accused of hitting a Hillsborough High School student, killing her and leaving the scene is now blaming the victim for her own death. Nikolaos konstantinou is facing a charge of leaving the scene of an accident involving death. He was released from jail after posting a 15,000 bond. He tells us that the victim, 17 yearold Ashley Perdomo darted in front of him in the dark. Well, all i know is it was dark. Apparently, the girl must have ran into the busy highway at nighttime. It was dark. Hardly any lights in the area. I didnt see her. Nikolaos konstantinou pulled over a few blocks away and then called his insurance company. An insurance adjustor saw the car and contacted the highway patrol. A body found in a Saint Petersburg parking lot now, police are searching for the shooter responsible. We now know the man at the distton Place Apartments is johnny brown. Police responded to 55th street north. No word on my suspects in this case. Recognize these guys . Investigators want to talk to them about some purchases they made at publix. Apparently, the cards they used to pay for their goods were stolen from a car parked outside Florida Hospital back in september. If you know who these people are, you are asked to call the Hillsborough County sheriffs office. Help. Plus, left to wait in line for years. 8 on your side investigates the system that leaves our veterans fending for themselves. And bomb threat at legoland. An 8 on your side look at how the park is helping the people who had their day cut short. And we are looking at a fairly warm weekend ahead. What about the rain chances . All the details coming up in stopping thieves from stealing your personal information. North port police found a skimming device at a mobile gas station on toledo boulevard this week. The good news is this device was not blue tooth enabled and investigators removed it before the criminals could retrieve it or steal anyones personal information. Now they are looking for the person who put it there in the first place. And people forced out of leg bomb scare will either get a full refund or a bomb check. A threatening note forced the evacuation. The Winter Haven Police gave the all clear. Police are still investigating whether that note was or rather where that note came from. Lego land is helping each guest reschedule their visit and offer refunds if they cannot reschedule. 8 on your side has information tonight on two help centers open for hurricane hermine victims. The first is in Hillsborough Recreation Center in lithia, another is open at the west side Government Center in spring hill. Appointments are not necessary. One of the busiest intersections in the bay area is about to get a little safer for pedestrians. Preconstruction plans for an overpass are in the works for bay shore and gulf to bay boulevards in clearwater. People we spoke with say it is a needed addition because the trail stops. And crossing the street at the end it has just gotten to the point where i want to ride on a tail where i feel safer. I dont want to struggle with cars getting so close to me. Engineers are working on a design. The money to build the overpass will come from a 1. 4 million grant awarded to the city by the Florida Department of transportation. The skyline has the green light from the tampa city luxury condominium power. This 24 story highrise will be built at the former site on bay shore boulevard. The units will go up for sale within a few months. Faced with a never ending nightmare, a war hero turned to newschannel8 for help. Coming up, see how Senior Investigative reporter Steve Andrews helped one veteran move to the front of the va i became active in the Republican Party to elect ronald reagan. I thought i would be able to support whoever the republican candidate was. I always have. But with trump on the ballot, i just cant. He does not hold my values, or the values of the party. Hes unfit, hes unqualified, and i see Hillary Clinton as someone whos had the experience nationally and internationally to be our leader. Investigation. Never ends nightmare. Like so many others, this veteran hung in limbo for years until 8 on your side took up the fight. The appeals process for veterans seeking disability benefit is just plain broken. Yeah, 450,000 veterans are actually caught up in the quagmire in which they wait years for years for their cases to be heard. But the wait is over for one pinellas veteran. At least the wait shorter. Reporter a lot shorter. It took you steve. Reporter the vas appeals process is just archaic. It is inefficient. Lengthy, unacceptable. Veterans are left languishes for years. As one congressman recently put it, a disabled veteran deserves more than a place on a waiting list. Tom jenkins spent 20 years of his life defenning america. Some of that time in the air vietnam. The military sprayed agent orange on vegetation around the perimeter. Photos obtained by 8 on your side show air force barracks with screens for walls close by. They talk about this, you are standing in agent orange, but dont worry about it. It is not toxics. It wont hurt you. Reporter studies link it to several cancers,hearted disease, ands other medical conditions deaths of thousands of american servicemen exposed to it. Toms dealings with the va didnt get off to a good start. 50 pages of proof he provided disappeared. I dont trust these people. Reporter in april, we told you the va rejected a claim that his painful neuropathy was tied to agent orange. He asked for an appeal hearing in washington. It could take anywhere from five to ten years. Appeals stood in front of his. In your mind, did you expect that you would live to see that day . No. Uhuh. Not the rate that they are going. Reporter in august, 8 an your side reached out to congressman david jolly and the va. Tom just received the letter to the va. He got his wish. Will take his fight to washington now that his case was moved to the top of the waiting list. The exposure newschannel8 on your side with Steve Andrews really helped me out a lot. Thank you. Reporter the current va appeals process is complex, confusing, and crippled. Too many are forced to wait too long generally around five years to get answers. Steve, what are the odd congress can actually pass some of of a law that would streamline this process . Reporter are you a bething man . The odds are long. One passed in the house, but that contained a clause that the rights veterans had. It is stalled in the senate where another bill has been introduced. Red tape. Across the board it is unacceptable. Reporter it is just so sad. These people give so much and all they are getting is a place on a waiting last. Unacceptable. Thank you steve. If you have a problem you think needs to be investigated call our help line at 1800338 0808. Now, max defender 8. The worlds most porf meteorologist julie phillips. And, really a fantastic friday evening around. You can see on max defender 8 radar, not tracking any showers or storms out there. Another very quiet evening for us. Rain chances staying at less than 10 for the rest of tonight. 84 degrees out at the plantation on crystal river. With winds fairly light. No rain at this location. Dry like most places. Out at the lake club in so, for your friday night blitz, excellent football weather. Rain chances staying small. Most of the game should be just fine. Low 80s at kickoff and it becomes a little more comfortable by the end of the game. We are dropping back into the mid 70s. Really just a few passing clouds around. Nice quiet night for you. Waking up tomorrow morning, it will kick off the weekend with temperatures in the low 70s. Topping out in the low 80s tomorrow afternoon. That is where we have been the last couple of days. Temperatures have creeped back up humidity as well. Mornings are very nice at this point. Temperatures, currently, sitting in the mid 80s. 86 in bradenton. 83 in apollo beach. 81 in zephyr hills. In clearwater, we are at 82 in saint pete. Dew points, they were in the low to mid 60s earlier this week. Now, we are creeping back up more into the mid to upper 60s. Even 70 in a few spots. That is when it starts to feel a little more humid. Atmosphere, that is keeping us dry. You see the bright red on the water imagery. That is the reason why. Because of the drier air around. So, we will keep our rain chances low for the rest of tonight. We have the northeasterly breeze that we have been seeing all week long. That brings a few extra clouds to our region. By tomorrow morning, a few clouds around, already warm though, by the afternoon hours, we will top out in the upper 80s. Bring up the rain chances a bit. Notice the forecast model and storms saturday afternoon and saturday evening. The rain chances will be a little bit higher than we have seen. But still, not bad. Sunday morning, dry start to the day. And then about a 20 chance of showers and storms developing into the afternoon and the evening. If you are planning to head out, the weather will cooperate, red tide still an issue. Parts of pinellas, manatee, and Sarasota County beaches. A few we looked up today that so, just keep that in mind. That is still something we are dealing with. Throughout the weekend, see plenty of sunshine, warm temperatures back up to 88 tomorrow. And to next week, the pattern continues. Temperatures at or a little bit above average. Mornings are pretty nice. An then, by the end of the week, we increase the ryan chances and that is because we are track a potential cold front. We love to hear that this time of year. And so, maybe by next weekend, we could see the temperatures drop back further than that. That would be ce for florida. A little break. Thanks julie. Well, the 2016 heart walk is just around the corner. Newschannel8 is committed to raising 100,000. But we need your help. Fuccillo kia is again matching the first 50,000 we raise. The walk is november 12 at Raymond James stadium. You can go to wfla. Com to join stacies team or donate. Coming up next in sports, we are live at the friday night blitz game of the week. A battle between two teams ranked at the top five in the state of florida. Night win. Find out the secret to success next. After an obscene amount was spent building this controversial courthouse, the state learned the contractor had overspent on framed photos that were never used. When the state refused to pay, bob buesing sued. Demanding taxpayers foot the bill, including his own legal fees. Bob buesing profitted from government waste and abuse . All right, theres still 81 me season. Keith cate is counting. But, lightning fans had to be thrilled with what they saw thursday night. A 64 win over division rival. And lets call him the playoff rival, detroit red wings. The bolts were happy. They raised two different two goal deficits and they cashed in on power play chances. Three power play goals to be exact out of six attempts. Last year, the bolts finished man advantage. Well, i think we have been working on a lot in the preseason. We stalked about it. We had to have better execution. I thought we did a pretty good job. When you had two units you can roll out there, and they are both dangerous, it is pretty potent. Three goals on the power play is huge for confidence. We thought we were moving the puck well. Getting nights that schools have circled on their calendars. The friday night blitz features three huge district matchups. Two of them are a battle between teams ranked in the top ten in the state of florida in class 7a. All right, anthony allred, is at our game of the week in venice tonight. The fifth ranked indians are going to take a chance to hopefully knock off number two season. Once in the regular season to win the district. Once to knock them out of the playoffs so the head coach john peacock is ready to see his indians have a little revenge. We are excited to play in this one. They were able to get us twice last year. An win our district. This is going to be a huge mapup tonight. And it is going to have a lot to say who wins the district. Our kids are our focus. We had two weeks to prepare. We had a great job in practice. I think we are ready. So, river. Lakeland, winter haven. A little rivalry. Plant city. And durant. They play for a trophy. We know about the bragging rights. District. These are huge games. I cant wait for the blitz tonight. That sounds amaze. It starts at 11 15. Thank you. Finally, dreaming of saying in january of 2017, people will be able to get married in front of cinderellas castle in the dark after the park has closed and celebrate with a reception at fantasy land. It will cost you a minimum, 180,000. I was just going to ask. I wonder what that will set you back. A house . [ laughter ] as i was reading that, i saw the Magic Kingdom . I nodded until i saw the price. You were being told you have to do more weather. Is that it . Is it something you need to share with the crowd . Yes. We are headed into the weekend. The forecast is great. That is what she is sharing. [ laughter ] what is she doing . And, you can see that we head into tomorrow morning it has been fairly nice again. Low 70s. Then it is the afternoon hours. A little bit warmer once again. Thank you julie. Thank you. Thats going to do it for us. With jennifer leigh. What if one of the Biggest Challenges we face down here. Could be solved. Simply by looking up there . What if unlimited, clean power was at your fingertips . What if it was good for consumers, good the economy and good for florida . Its not a what if. Its whats next. Solar power for the sunshine state. Vote yes on amendment 1. Breaking news tonight, its an nbc news exclusive. Russian revenge. Nbc news has learned the cia is poised for a major unprecedented operation, targeting putin. Embarrass the russian. Also breaking, more accusers say they were sexually assaulted by donald trump, including a contestant from the apprentic apprentice. He began my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively. Trump calling his accusers liars looking for fame. Also a doctors outrage. Why an African American physician says a delta attendant
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