business correspondent ashley webster live in spring hills, florida. and ashley, it is the calm before the storm where you are in spring hill right now. it is indeed. good morning, steve. it s a very mild, pleasant morning. but that s going to change quickly over the course of the next 48 hours. i m in front of a gas station here in spring hill. we are about 50 miles north of tampa. everything looks fine, right? not so much. this gas station ran out of gas about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. you can see the sign no gasoline of any grade, including non-ethanol. in fact we were noticing the last person to use this particular pump managed to squeeze out 18 cents. but it s not just the gas that s a problem and the shorts damage as we see people driving around early this morning looking for a pump that actually has gas. but the supplies are starting to go down. batteries, flashlights and water in particular. it s hard to find right now. you can t find a isca of water anywhere. i wan
The sheriff. they need to get out of town. but, you know, a lot of goofed goes on through these events. neighbors are helping neighbors. people out of state. call your friends in florida. encourage them to go shelters. uber is advertising. this is really cool, brian. i her heard of this. uber is advertising that they will take people free to registered shelters. take your pets with you. many shelters here are pet friendly. businesses like ultra pure water huge manufacturing businesses. they have opened their doors up to sell wholesale water to help people in tampa bay. lots of good going on. brian: all right. we will follow that let s change gears if we can and talk about the number one issue it seems as we get closer and closer to the midterm is crime. one story that stood out that get me in florida. this guy rakeem steven tate decides to go into convenience store in florida and has a rifle with him and says okay i m going to start stealing stuff. it turns out the convenience
White claw and all the clerks could do is yell at the guy. they are told not to confront the shoplifters in case they turn violent. new progressive manhattan district attorney has created a task force to study shoplifting. the report, get this, won t be ready until may. critics say bragg s refusal to prosecute shoplifting gives criminals a free pass. alvin bragg is on the wrong side of the fence. we elect a district attorney to uphold the rule of law. we don t have bernie sanders or alexandria ocasio-cortez as the district attorneys. we elected someone that would withhold the rule of law and it is not happening in the county of new york. 26,000 shoplifting cases in new york city. the highest level since the 199 0 s. the massive amount of stealing stuff in stores is forcing some
Here s a video of a guy i talk i saw stuffing items in his back at his local drugstore. he walked out. the clerks said they couldn t do a thing. the district attorney, alvin bragg, spokes for the new york county lawyer s association. he says he will target opportunists that go from store to store stealing stuff. he admits there s a crime crisis and doesn t want new york to return to the high crime rates in the 80s and 90s. and major adams is a former police officer himself and testified before the state legislature demanding that the democratic-controlled assembly and state senate change the laws. he wants them to scrap some progressive policies like bail reform. critics say the policies are soft on crime. you know, the democratic leaders refuse to budge. reducing crime will require
Invention someone may copyright or patent, a long-standing demand from president trump because the chinese are accused of stealing stuff from us. the deadline to end the tariff is looming. kitty london has more. reporter: trade talks with china start on monday with the u.s. hoping to persuade china to change some aspects of how they trade with america. the ultimate aim is a trade deal with china with no new tariffs on chinese imports. the latest rounds of talks in january concluded without a deal. the white house says officials are now preparing to press beijing on reforming trade practices which it see as unfair for american businesses. the u.s. wants to prevent practices such as stealing end intellectual property and forcing american companies to share their technology. but china says it doesn t use these methods to do business. despite the differences, the u.s. and china are hoping to hammer out a deal ahead of a march 1st deadline. after that, if no agreement is