Alicia im alicia barnes. Columbia Housing Authority is asking the city for 1 million as a demolition budget for the gardens. Ben grace joyal has their story. Grace . Grace this complex was built in 1940. Thousands of families have passed through its walls. The walls show their years. The feds say its time to knock them down. I got to meet a pair of twin sisters tonight who say this is bittersweet. They see this as an opportunity to find newer housing. Theyll certainly hold tight to the memories theyve created in this place. Its not where you live but how you live. Thats what row landda sanderland told her 17yearold son, a sttighta student at Ac Flora High School after he told his friend he lives in gonzalez gardens. He has actually showed them his i. G. With the address address i. D. With the address on there for them to believe he lived out here because they carried themselves the way he did lived in an area like this. Grace the Public Housing complex, one of the oldest in the country, has developed a violenceriddled reputation over four years. After years of living here, sanderland says that doesnt reflect her familys experience. I hope my children remember to tell their children one day about living here. Thats what its all about, the memories we created here; however life goes on. Grace onto a new home in 2016 for she and her sister. Its a bittersweet moment. It really is. Grace the feds approved demolition of the 280unit complex. Relationships here, thats what means the most, but, of course, im in love being in a better place and buying a better home for my son. Grace columbia Housing Authority is interviewing each family and will give them relocation options based on their needs. Off good schools and an easy transition for the kids. You have to do what you got to do and make do with what you have so you can do better. Grace for sanderland it might be t t jumpingoff point shes been waiting for. Lifes happened since ive been here, but it never stopped me from getting and trying to achieve better than here. I looked at it as a stepping stone. Grace to finally own a house of her own. Cha has been budgeting for this but they do need some help covering the 3 million demolition. The mayor, steve benjamin, says it will need 1 million for the city in early 2017. Theyre hoping to have all residents placed and demo underway by the end of the year. Live in the newsroom, grace joyal,. Back to you. Ben thank you, grace. Council met in regular session tonight hearing testimony from concerned neighbors. Developer estates and companies has agreed to sit down with the public before the vote. Now, the site in question is the lot that sat empty for decades at the intersection of meeting and state streets. Alicia to Richland County politicians were charged with not paying their taxes. Ben the report was stemming from Richland Countys use of sales tax money. For now, here is jennifer ready. Jennifer Dequincey Newman pleads guilty for failing to file tax returns for two consecutive years. Are you guilty . Yes sir, your honor. He admitted he made a mistake. We all do that we all make mistakes. Jennifer newman tells the judge he thought he filed his returns in 20122013 but during a separate investigation by the department of revenue into the countys Penny Tax Program, the agency found he never did file his taxes. They were looking into everybody in the political arena he was on city council. They did a search of his name and it popped up that he hadnt filed for two years. Jennifer attorneys for newman say although the charges arose into the investigation from the Penny Tax Program, theyre completely unrelated. I think the bottom line here is hes not involved in the penny sales tax investigation. He plead straight up too two counts of failure to file tax and what its telling us theres no plea agreement if he was involved in some conspiracy they were still investigating, there would have been a plea agreement that would have been provided for him to cooperate. Jennifer meanwhile Richland County councilman kelvin washington is facing three counts of willful failure to file a tax return for three consecutive years in a statement Richland CountyCouncil Chairman torrey rush says the matter is being dealt with by authorities. If theres any required actctn by Richland County council, were prepared to call a meeting and act accordingly. Abc columbia news, jennifer ready. Received two years of probation. Ben that time will be reduced to six months after he pays 11,000 in taxes owednd court costs. Those arrests are putting the Richland CountyPenny Tax Program back under the microscope. Alicia for the latest on that investigation, here is abc klum bee years columbias Beth Rousseau. Beth regardless, one county councilmember says the immediate action is necessary so hes stepping up. Rebuilding confidence in the Penny Tax Program is a top priority for councilman seth rose following a troubling report from the d. O. R. I cant think of anything more important than installing trust in this program and making sure any wrongs are righted going forward. Beth according to a letter from Department Director rick reams, those wrongs include instances o o corruption, fraud and illegal activity found during a d. O. R. Review of the program. Immediately, i knew that beth changes that rose has translated into three motions, the most important of which would give added power to the Citizens Oversight Committee allowing the chairmen to be an exofishial member of the penny council committee. One, theyd have a vote at the committee level. Two, that would allow them to be privy for all documents. Beth his plans include reimbursement on penny tax collars dollars aimed at at Small Businesses. Penny should be used for penny Small Business projects projects. Beth additionally, rose is calling for a a revamp of the process used to approve Companies Selected for carrying out penny projects. Theyre not the only fixes that will have to take place with county council but three major stepepin the right direction. Beth roses motions will appear on the january 12th theyll be presented to the appropriate committee for vetting. Im Beth Rousseau for abc news. For every family that never imagined their loved one would be taken from their lives by a gun, every time i think about those kids, it gets me mad. Alicia president barack obama getting emotional as he unveils executive measures to tighten gun control. The measures include expanding background checks on firearm sales. President obama calls his proposals common sense safety measures. Gun lobbyists and some republicans say obama wants to make buying guns nearly impossible. Obama responded by saying the the issue of gun violence in addition to expanding and bolstering the background check system. Administration is expected to provide more funding for Mental Health treatment, f. B. I. Staff and the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives agents. The president s announcement has you talking. Ben of course, this has two sides. Some of you fully supporting the president s views and his actions but others believing hes just shooting blanks. Here is eric weisfeld. Eric business appears to be booming at shooters choice in west columbia. While the Stores Manager doesnt want to speak, his tightlipped. Pete sour begs to differ with our commanderinchief. My father told me many years ago during prohibition, it was illegal to own a machine gun and no outright good citizen owned a machine gun but every criminal owned a machine gun. I feel im entitled to my Second Amendment rights to own a gun im a legal person. Theyvv done background checks on me. But i think hes going way over and beyond. Eric this columbia resident who doesnt want to be identified says not so fast. President obama has a valid point, he says and is getting his vote for tighter control. Im a gun owner and, um, i agree with the president. There should be some restrictions on how guns are traded and sold. Second amendment does allow us to possess guns and im in full agreement with that. There are some situations in some instances where there are individuals who really shouldnt have weapons in their hands. And weve seen some of the various incidents around the country and in this state which may or possibly could have been prevented after stricter controls were put in place by who are allowed to have weapons. Eric midlands opinions are varied. Many have an important issue and want to be heard. In west columbia, im eric weisfeld, abc news. Attorney general, issued a response to the president s executive order saying in part that the president cannot criminalize conduct through executive fiat. Whether at the federal or state levels, criminal laws can only be enacted or amended through action by the legislative branches. Someone should remind president obama that america is not a monarchy. Another bitterly cold night in the mitt midlands. Just how cold can in the midlanteds. Just how midlands. Just how cold can it get out there . Alicia we go to our meteorologist, john farley, who joins us from the Weather Center with our current brisk, cold conditions. John . John columbia is the only place in the midlands where the temperature is above freezing. Everybody else is below. Sumpter down to 25. I got an email from g. Miles in cedar greek, at her house at 10 40, it was 24 degrees. Temperatures are going down tonight. Check out where we are as sumpter is 9 degrees cooler. Columbia coming in 3 degrees cooler. The temperatures will drop a little bit more than they did last night based on this and what else is going out there in terms of the weather. The lows tonight come in, yeah, about as cold as it gets. Certainly. 19 degrees in wins breaux and newberry winsboro and newberry. Coco one tonight. Getting the kids out to the bus stop tomorrow morning, the warmest winter coat will do. Itll be belowow freezing. As we go through the day tomorrow, we recover a little bit. Afternoon highs close to 50. And this is the beginning of a trend, so if you really dont like the cold, stick around. Well talk about that in the sevenday forecast. Ben remember you can stay connected to the frigid temperatures in your neighborhood with our free abc columbia app. Its available in the app store and on google play. Alicia look at that all right, well, someone could possibly become very, very rich ben sadly, i know who youre talking about. Coming up, the Powerball Jackpot sores to 450 million plus another year, another great turnout. Results of this years annual thats next. Another big powerball welcome back. Another big Powerball Prize is up for grabs tomorrow night. The drawing will be f f an estimated jackpot of 450 million. It was initially set for 400 million. But lottery Officials Say the surge in ticket sales caused an increase. The jackpots cash value is now at 275. 4 million. This is the sixth largest jackpot of any u. S. Lottery game on record and the fourth largest Powerball Jackpot. Ben president obama is set to give his final state of the Union Address next week and shortly after that address, South Carolina governor nikki haley will give the republican response. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell call halle one of the popular most popular governors in america. Shes South Carolinas first alicia abc columbia wants to thank those of you who stopped by today to donate blood in our annual blood drive. Ben the red cross collected 66 pints of blood today. If you cant make it out today today if you couldnt make it out today, you can always give your donation at the headquarters on bolt street. Alicia you gave blood today . Ben i did. They shove pizza in your hand on your way out the door to make sure youre replenished. Alicia our meteorologist has details on rain in the sevenday john another cold day will turn into another cold night for us. Probably in the range maybe even the coldest so far this year with temperatures settling way down in the 20s, probably even a few teens coming in. The warming trend starts tomorrow, and by the time we get to friday, well be back in the 60s, but lets start you off with a peak of what is guess on on out there. As you can see, the temperatures pretty cold. All the way down to 25 now in sumter. Still columbia the only spot thats above freezing on this whole map so itll be a very cold night. A night like tonight, dont forget your pets outside, because thisll be pretty cold. And if youve left your plants out, at this point, it could be a problem. You should protect them. Lets talk about what is going on in terms of the winds locally. Its blowing decently in columbia. As the winds die off overnight, thats when the coolest airs will settle in. Thats going to allow our temperatures to drop. Whats caused our Colder Weather here . The humidity this time of the night, its low. We have room to go down. The air, if you step outside right now, its dry. Really dry. The temperatures, again, will be allowed to go a little bit cooler than they are right now. Whats caused it is this high up to our north of the weve had the cold air spilling down the eastern side of the appalachian appalachians. Weve got the shallow air in place. The wind tonight will subside enough to allow the temperatures to drop yet even more so by the time we get to morning. Now, what will happen here . Here we are, tomorrow morning. Theres a lot of cold even down to the panhandle of florida. Watch as we go forward. Youll see by tomorrow afternoon we start to see more green on the map. Green, were looking at widespread 50s. For us here in columbia, probably more like upper 40s but watch what happens. As we go on into thursday, theres a lot more warm air that works its way in from the south. Thursday afternoon, the yellows worked in. These are plenty of 60s. By the time we go to friday, the 60s will make it all the way in here as well. Lets give you the forecast here for the next several hours. The time we get going. 24 or 25 here in columbia. The colder spots will be fiveish 2 degrees colder than that. There is thursday, probably late showers. When i say late, im talking after sunset. Then more meaningful rain friday and the temperatures continue to stay pretty warm right through the weekend. The next shot of rain is sunday. After that, things do cool off as we go into next week but average high for this time of the year will be around 54 or 55 somewhere in there. We were below that today. Well be above that by the time we get toward friday and saturday. Over to you, two. Ben all right, john. Thanks. Have you heard about this . Chickfila will soon say byebye to its beloved coleslaw to instead serve a super food salad featuring kale. They did throw all the cabbage lovers out there a bone. They did. Alicia you can say kale, yeah. On the company web site, they provided the recipe to their famous law is. Itll take its final bow january the 18th. I like the coleslaw at chickfila. Ben i put it on top of my sandoway which. Sandwich. All right, big night of basketball. Clemson goes to o. T. In syracuse. Alicia gamecocks go on the road to start sec play. Sports. Ed. Looking for a strong start in sec play, hi, im tim hill. Number under carolina. Looking for the first win in the sec opener. These are the highlights tonight from auburn. Usc going into the ball game, one two of teams in the country still undefeated. First win against a ranked team since 2008. Frank martin likes big guards. P. J. Dozier is there. He gets the easy look to thornwell for the easy bucket. Hes showing off the range, too. 13 points at half for him usc up at 13 at the break. Second half, thornwell keeps it going. Gamehigh 22. Auburn battles back from down 18 18. Brice brown, big three from the freshman. That cuts the carolina lead down to five. Martin has been riding the senior big man like kevish hard lately. The lithuanian responding in the clutch in the conference opener on the road in the tipin. Every time auburn cuts into the lead, the gamecocks answer. The highlights of the night, thornwell no look. Again, 12 points, 10 rebounds. The gamecocks win it 8169 the final. Usc ups its record to 140 and wins its first sec opener since 2012. Vanderbilt will come to vandy at arkansas tonight. Oh, doesnt look good for the commodores. Antowain bell with the three in the final second for arkansas putting the razorbacks up two. Vandy has to o go the length of the floor with 2. 2 second. Dame jon jones, have you ever seen that, beats the buzzer with the dunk. Check out the replay. Just does beat the buzzer to send this one into overtime. At last check, arkansas will go onto win with a few seconds left 9085. Thats cool. One more sec score for you tonight, surprise, lsu knocking off kentucky 8567. Brad and clemson looking to make it backtoback wins in syracuse. Theres the alleyoop to jerron. Clemson with a dunk contest of their own. Gabe devoe getting in on the action. The tigers took the eightpoint lead at the break. Second half, blossom keeps it going. He scores a teamhigh 20 points. Syracuse coming back. Less than a minute, up one, Malachy Richardson near impossible three from the corner. Oh, the carrier dome going nuts. Syracuse up by four. Final seconds, clemson down three. Nice ball movement. Devoe open look. Clutch. Devoe, 11 points sends this one to overtime. In o. T. , landry, the big fella, 19 points and 10 rebounds for clemson. The tigers up by o o with the ball. Final second, syracuse gets the steal. Looks like clem slon get it back but the orange got a wideopen look. Clemson, though, somehow survives. The tigers now winners of four or five all timegainst syracuse. Clemson gets the big 7473 win in o. T. And clemson football meeting with the media today in tiger town. Our Mike Gillespie filed this report. Mike the week has finally come, were six days away from the clemson and Alabama National championship game in glendale, arizona. Arizona friday morning. Clemson and alabama facing off for the first time in post season history as the number one and number two teams in the country and the tigers would lili nothing more than to dethrone the king of College Football. This is what its all about they represent the best. Theres really no way you can argue with that. Mike sweeney building a College Football program like alabama has been a dream since day one at clemson. Seven years ago, that was my goal. And i said that then, were going to win a National Championship again. That championship could come on monday night against the alabama crimson tide. The moddoll model of success everywhere. Touchdown. We hope to become a team like alabama that could compete in that top 10 consistently. Because, again, if youre in that mix, you got a chance every year. For us to be the best ever, we got to beat the best and last alabama has been the best, pretty much the best in College Football. They earned that right. They have our respect. Mike completely earning the respect of alabama and the College Football world starts with winning another title on monday night. We got a lonely trophy sitting down there in that case. They got a family of trophies in tuscaloosa. Mike of course, with sweeney being from the state of alabama, many of his friends and family members are fans of the crimson tide but sweeney saying today if they want free tickets, they know which team to root for. In clemson, Mike Gillespie, abc columbia sports. John texas a m announcing today ericyman stepping down as the aggies athletic director. He left usc for texas a m in 2012. Thatll do it for sports