elizabeth, brian, d our live drive 5 crews are on the road with what we need to know. plus, the travion smith trial continues. we might hear from witnesses today. the latest on the search for the new supreme court justice. good morning, thanks for joining us. i'm renee chou. >> and i'm bill leslie. it is warm d windy, a total reverse from what we had yesterday. we have a number of stories we are covering including severe weather, power outages in school delays. we have got em all. >> personal to the school delays in power outages. durham public schools delayed two hours, franklin and unt -- granville county schools only two hours, mecklenburg county virginia schools are close. >> a two hour delay for northampton county, orange county, person county, vance county and one county schools, all the way by two hours. see all of the closings and delays on www.wral.com. they are also closing on the

>> now the wer outages. >> wind being the big story, 35,000 customers without power in wake county, 1200 and durham county. >> 3700 and granville county which is seen the most problems but it is a crazy morning out there with the severe weather. >> blustery wind and all of the rain ming down. >> that's right, we have not had a lot of lightning but a squall line has much from west to east across the viewing area and kicked wind. we had just been wral's just gusts in fayetteville of to 50 miles per hour on custom of places of 45 miles per hour. we start out with e radar, the squall line is beginning to weaken a little bit. 15 minutes or so we had eight or nine counties under a severe thunderstorm warning, much of that has expired but we zoom into the counties that are still affected. that would be wilson county and

johnson unty affected. prceton and kenly, your single rain right now and most tuxedos strong gusty winds of those bands of rain. so let's take a look at who is likely to see this and the timing on workload with this. the warning itself expires at -- let's try that again. the warning expires at 7:15, we can track this system, and these storms are moving at about 50 file -- 55 miles r hourup with the storm at 7:06, fremont at 7:08, pikeville at 7:08 as well, black creek at 7:10. what you're going to be seen is this creating wind and power outages, in fact in effect until about 7:15. the rest of the area still seeing rain but not us ck around moore counties spinning to taper off, we will see the end of this rain coming up shortly. it would be nice if we could

before the morning commute ends but we are still seeing heavy rain around the triangle. likely to be tapering off significantly over the next hour. of course all this heavy rain and windy conditions have created problems on the roads. the roads are very wet responding, brian will talk about that coming up in a w minutes. wind speeds are down, especially in the triangle, 5 to 10 miles per hour and the wind gusts are confined to the eastern part of the state. another big story, warmer temperatures. 58 wake rest, 59 holly springs, 54 in fayetteville, 51 at goldsboro d clinton. temperature stay warm all day, skies clearing today, sunshine in the afternoon with high temperature 60. brian, you set a little while ago but there was a report of flooding up the line and glenwood. what's going on? >> there are reports that a storm drain is called leading to flooding. this is on 440 w. on the fourth glenwood avenue interchange. right now while the police have walked would appear to be to

coming run from six forks road toward the glenwood, screwed considerably. a good backup starting to build on the westbound side, that something will watch this morning as they try to t that unclogged and get the water flowing again to the storm or a -- storm water runoff clear. that heavy rain came to wake behind rain. we're still seeing significant rainfall with what roads at the northbound side of road, capital and durant inbound lanes building. also seen significant delays through garner on 40 westbound from the clayton bypass up to 440, 70 minute drive. something to watch carefully this morning. let's head out to durham live drive 5, mikaya thurmond has been on the roads braving the squall line. it was pretty hairy there for a while.

but right now, i want to give you a live look. we are off of lling pines where it appears as though there has been an obstruction in the road. from here, it appears to be a tree that has fallen. we actually arrived about five minutes ago with the crew that is going to be working here to get it moved out of the way. i can tell you that a portion of this world has been blocked off but it is primarily residential. so getting around it won't be too much of a traffic issue, but again, this happened within the last 30 minutes. but it's the seventh issue we are expecting to see throughout the morning. is the rain mixed with wind gusts that are knocking down nearby trees. the good news here is that everyone appears to have power, almost every home nearby has the lights on. but i can tell you again this is the type of thing we're going to see a reoccurring throughout the triangle, as we break the ather. brian? >> i acted surprised as people

more reports of downed trees and road closures. certainly seen power outages this morning. going to have signals out. mikaya thurmond and live drive 5, appreciate at. i will be back in another few minutes with an update. after two weeks of testimony, the case against travion smith will go to the church today. 's prosecutors say that murdered melissa huggins-jones in her north hills apartment in 2013. wral's tara lynn joins us in the newsroom, closing arguments are set for this morning, they were supposed to occur yesterday. >> reporter: that's right. we had that winter weather so they were delayed until today. prosecutors say that travion smith was breaking into cars with two other people the night of melissa huggins-jones'4 murder. they say he and ronald anthony peter chapter in the murder. 8-year-old daughter found her kids up covered in blood the next morning. ronald anthony has already pleaded guilty and it's a

during ening statements, the defense told jurors that was anthony that was the ringleader and that he implemented travion smith into participating in huggins-jones'. closing arguments are set for 9:30, you can watch them on e website. if convicted, travion smith could face the death penalty. a man wanted for murder in fayetteville is in jail in another state this rning. and damien boyd was arrested in lake county, florida. he is awaiting extradition on charges of first-degree murder and robbery. he's accused of shooting d killing heiney byrd. investigators have not reported a motive for the shooting it. today, a lawsuit will be heard about property owners living in the potential path of the i-540 i-547 group. they are otecting the corridor policy. this is the policy hold them hostage. they can grade.

has made them an offer, but notable by. the state maintains that each property needs to be handled individually and it does t merit class-action. it may be several weeks before the supreme court rules on the tenure of teachers. those 2013 state law that requires teachers to surrender due process rights in order to get raises and multi-euro contracts. last year, a divided court of appeals ruled the gislation unconstitutional. yesterday an attorney for the state argued that stripping veteran teachers of tenure rights is legal. president obama could submit an on a need to place justice training next week, e possibility, loretta nch. democrats are looking to reclaim the senate majority of media accused republicans of

of nstitutional responsibilities. the next stop in a primary fight is south carolina, for republican and democratic presidential candidates and their holding no punches. the accusations made by trumping cruz and another former esident steps back into the spotlight to help him remember gain votes. time is running out to

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i don't believe e weather. >> isn't it crazy? >> it is crazy how warm it is outside. >> we've got ice out there. >> and elizabeth did tell us this, there was a lot going yesterday. >> we tried to talk a little bit about today, but there is so much going on yesterday, it is hard to recover everything that was going to ppen today. >> it was crazy, it is going to happen tomorrow. we will start off tomorrow morning with a little bit of rain. nothing like ght now. we take a look at the radar, of course a minute or so ago, our

that was for wilson county and wayne county. we will take a look first white view of the radar, and then resume around and show you what's going on. we are going to head back over to rocky mount and wilson. we can see that the line rain, or the squall line has certainly weekend. now, not so down in goldsboro. it is a little stronger there, but the warning s expired. as this has moved eastward, it has not been producing winds quite as strong as it did when his father to the west. in fayetteville, we had winds reported just say, 45, almost 50 miles per hour. this line itself sounds like 55 miles per hour so it's getting ready to that of the viewing area, but southern springs at 7:26, and lagrange 7:31. out ahead of this, expect to see strong gusting winds hind it. winds have not really been as strong. this is moving on by, there is still some rain behind that very strong line, but behind it

down a little bit. as a matter fact, pittsboro, the rain arting to lineup. let's take a look at moore county, no rain on the radar, maybe just a little bit of drizzle, that things are starting to improve. we will actually see sunshine by lunchtime. maybe not even before that, maybe lunchtime that we begin to see sunshine out there. here's a look at what's going on with our forecast. of course, looking at some improvements. during the day, the rain moves out of here, we check the rain starting at about 3:18 this morning and roll that through, watch the squall line coming across the area. that is the one that produced those a strong sty winds. some of the strongest winds toward fayetteville up to the triangle area. a number of reports of power outages for durham county, wake as this moved eastward summative start to weaken. the warnings in effect for now,

starting to move across the triad area. here's roxboro, it does not look like it's pouring. of course this time yesterday we were looking at white ground injured two. what a difference the day makes, certainly. 54 degrees at the airport, still have rain. southwind at 9 miles per hour. dewpoint at 54, 0% relativity. and it's danceable warmer than it was yesterday. 54 in raleigh, 56 in south hill, 50 in fayetteville. these temperatures are 25 to 35 degrees warmer than they were yesterday. we still have some wind out there but not as strong and gusty as it was, south southeast wind at 5 to 10 miles per hour. lingering gusts in south hill in clinton of about 20 25. here's what's going on. we have a low-pressure system and cold front that starts to lift across e area. behind that, this actually does not cool down too much so we get to hang on to warm air. we get to the clearing for the

tonight, we see that the end of precipitation that rolls through bringing us a chance of rain. even before lunchtime we start to clear the skies out. we have a nice rm afternoon officially compared to yesterday. here comes up with a brain overnight, maybe lingering, if you're out early tomorrow but then skies clear and wednesday look beautiful. a little cooler thursday, we drop back down to 50 degrees on thursday as we have another drive front that comes through. once that comes through we're looking at very quiet weather into the weekend. saturday and sunday, high temperatures in the mid-50s under partly cloudy skies. even though the squall line and heavy rain has moved through there is still plenty of rain out there causing issues. that looks like a mess on the belt line. >> there is actually good news. those two lanes where we have flooding has eared up. they were able to unclog the trains, i suppose, got the drano out on there, and not traffic is flowing freely through the glenwood avenue interchange. however we have slowed traffic

right now the 40 lit on wade avenue taking twice as long as he usually takes. let's take you have to new hope where we have an accident that just popped up, i believe that is going to be the southbound side of new hope ad approaching new bern avenue, they have just gone to the scene, looks like an accident with injuries. stay on the left bound plane as you are approaching new bern avenue this morning. over in durham, still seeing rain although a lot lighter than it was this morning. that is 15-501 on llsboro road. we can still see a lot of spray up, that means you need to take it easy. i want to show you this live picture from live drive 5, mikaya thurmond and terrell pryor on the scene of that rolling pines avenue situation, feeding in some video from now it looks like a tree fell on power lines. and we could have a problem

especially as people get out and drive around, we will get more reports of downed trees. certainly seen power outages around the triangle. there is the road weather index, the blue is where the heaviest rain has fallen. likely seen ponding on the roads. everybody at least seeing what roads this morning. back you. xico is hitting volkswagen with an $8.9 million fine for its emissions cheating scandal. mexico says volkswagen sold more than 45,000 vehicles for the 2016 model year without certificates proving they standards. mexico buys a range of brands from the volkswagen family including vw, audi, and porsche vehicles. mexican authorities are investigating the sale of vehicles between 2009 and 2014. the naacp may call for civil disobedience over the water crisis in int, michigan. the association's president spoke to craft and cities yesterday and gave the michigan governor, rick snyder, 30 days to come up with a timeline for

he also wants snyder to say how much the repairs will cost. the drinking water has been found to have elevated levels of lead. the city is majority black with the poverty line out 40%. naacp says more would be done to fix water problems if residents were healthier. the omputer malfunction affected gas prices, prices at one station went to $.27 and dropped even further. those customers were able to get a for a penny gallon, trying to get other stations to compete.

i'm bill leslie with your top stories and they really consist into categories. weather and traffic. let us begin with izabeth gardner. >> we have that all eyes on radar as we better squall and come to producing strong wind, knocking down trees and power lines and caused issues for power outages and some messy conditions. we had several severe thunderstorm warnings issued earlier this morning from, say, 6:32 out 7:15. the last of those have expired as the squall line is beginning to weaken, especially around rocky mount and wilson. heavy rain and gusty winds that we are talking out gustsup to 20 to 25 miles per hour and set of 40 to 45 miles per hour like we had earlier. the strongest portion of the squall line coming around goldsboro but the rain is letting from durham and raleigh, and really tapering carthage.

skies start to clear as we get closer to lunchtime, ending with a pretty nice day even though it has been messy this morning. looking at the sky cam, raleigh has been what, we continue to have rain for at least another hour in the triangle area. 89 rocky mount, 54 fayetteville, 61 d goldsboro. temperature skyrocketed early this morning. we see skies clearing with sunshine and 60. what a comparison to yesterday. it remains pleasant. 60 ck wednesday, with a good bit of sunshine minus a few showers tonight. 7:27. as we check 440 and wake forest road, the westbound side really backed up. we held -- excuse me. that was a ttle -- [ clears throat ]. we did have an accident but that is cleared up and traffic is flowing really through glenwood avenue. however, we're looking at 40 minutes to make the ip from 440 out to glenwood and wade avenue. there's a look at the road

in many spots. we have a couple of accidents on 440 eastbound not directly affecting traffic but eastbound along six forks road and wake forest rose, allow extra time. a 23 minute drive to garner westbound. back to you, bill. we do have power outages. wake county , ,000 -- newly

(donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to social security, we need more than lip service. our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates. enough talk. give us a plan. state lawmakers have until friday to redraw voting maps and time is running out. >> lawmakers will meet today

at the w districts. wral's tara lynn is live in the newsroom. certainly a lot of different factors come into play here. right? >> reporter: they have til friday for the district maps, this is all unless the supreme court weighs in. a judge ruled at the districts are unconstitutional because the race if ters is determining boundaries. so far, though, lawmakers have not released any new or us maps. 60 people attended six state yesterday. this morning, a redistricting committee will go over feedback those people provided. again, we could possibly see them also unveil some new proposed maps. the state has appealed the case to the supreme court but now with the death of justice antonin scalia, many think it is unlikely that the high court will hear the case.

rush to be this iday deadline. they would have to call a special session in order to approve those new districts. so, about that has to happen this morning. the meeting is set for 10:30, you can watch and on our website. >> thanks, tara lynn in the newsroom. the weather is just absolutely crazy compared to what we d yesterday, we've got warm temperatures and the wind. >> another yucky morning but a different kinds. [ laughter ] >> completely different an yesterday. yesterday was about freezing rain, sleet, i think emissions and big mess there. today, it's like moved to a different part of the country. it's warm out there but we've had our first lightning strikes show up on radar picture all morning. they are just outside of the viewing area. we will zoom in and talk about who is seen this, just on the outskirts of the viewing area south of goldsboro. the weather service issued a new warning. pink hill, kingston, this is the area that will be involved in this morning.

gusty winds and a couple of lightning strikes. in our area we are starting to see this weekend. heavy rain across goldsboro and wilson but the threat of damaging wind has certainly lessened. rocky mount testing the line, especially heading north along i-85 toward roanoke rapids, that squall line has weakened a good bit. we still have fairly heavy rain over around roxboro, even the eastern part of wake county. western wake county, chapel hill, durham, pittsburgh, southern pines, that rain is starting to lighten up and will continue to do so as we get through the morning. we take a look at the big picture of radar and starting of course is morning, we had that squall line coming through, some gusts from time to time, up to 45 miles per hour but it is weakening across the viewing area. boy, that band of heavy rain is coming down in wilson. this is the same band that we saw across the triangle area earlier. they are doing with gusty winds

our temperatures are certain amount of this morning, 50 in fayetteville. it does stay mild. we see skies continue to clear and some drawing from the west, sunshine by lunchtime, high of 60 this afternoon with sunshine. i can't wait for that, especially with the mess we are dealing with. >> the positive things about all of this is we get a free >> i need that. >> same here. 7:33. let's take you to the cameras around the triangle to see how wet weather is affecting the commute. we are going to start off a new hope road and new bern avenue. an accident blocking the southbound side of new bern avenue in a little bit of a slowdown around there. stay in the left lane country that intersection. take a look at 540 at six forks road, very busy, slow from six forks all the way to create more road. allow extra time there. also seeing heavy delay some 440 westbound this morning, those backups beginning around

continuing to work glenwood avenue. we had flooding earlier on the glenwood creating backups on eastbound side. a couple of accidents around road areas. let's head out to durham and check in with mikaya thurmond in live drive 5. i know that you have already seen one pollen to be this morning. >> reporter: that's exactly right, brian. i want to give you a live look. this is a residential area but this is a symptom of what we are seeing throughout the triangle. right now, there is a crew that is working, but just a few minutes ago, photojournalist darrell pryor hopped out of the light truck give you a closer look of that tree that has fallen across the road. now commit happened earlier this morning, i want to say just about two urs ago. and, it has stopped traffic

does not seem to be a complication impacting lot of people, most of the people living around here seem to be going around. but the good news here is that it does not seem to have affected power lines, simply traffic. at this time, good news. but i did see crews kind of looking at the right hand corner of your screen. and the other trees that could possibly come down. because as the wind picks up, as rain continues, more incidents like this could happen. of course, brian, you have been on it all morning long. i want to give you a high five for being so as in this morning. >> to it one more time. hang on. did you get it? okay. trust me, it works. there is no sound. >> nailed it. hang on. all right, mikaya thurmond in live drive 5 this morning. we will get another update from her in a minute. another update in 10 minutes. >> gh-fives in live drive 5. the durham maher presented the 14th general state of the

this time he opted for a sitdown format with a moderator. he says a recent resident satisfaction survey with the county shows the image of durham has improved by 27 7% -- 27 percentage points since 2005. when asked to name the biggest challenges he said affordable housing, transportation and crime were top of mind. >> when i came into office in 2001, we looked at instances crime for 100,000 people, we have seen a consummate go down until the year 2013. then we saw an uptick in 2014. as you indicated in 2015, that was the year where violent crimes really peaked from viewpoint. >> the mayor says violent crime numbers consist of aggravated assault, robbery and homicide. he point out homicide make up the smallest portions of those four categories. durham city leaders also heard comments about police body

one recurring theme, the public should have access to video recorded by the cameras. three council members agreed. mayor bill bell moved to play the body cameras approval until march 7 so that those councilmembers have time to make suggestions about video access to the city manager. the wake county school board will discuss discipline when members today and the previous school year, short and long-term suspensions were up over the ars before. but they were down overall in the past five years. by far, most of suspensions were connected to rican- american students. is a 7:37.

historically black colleges. 7:40. state lawmakers are considering big changes for fayetteville state university. it is one of ur schools under consideration for a big cut in tuition. under the proposal, tuition at the four schools were dropped to $500 a year for in-state students, $2500 for t-of- state students. fayetteville state is a historically black university. alumni are concerned that the plan would change the composition of the student body. there is also talk of changing the name to unc fayetteville. other schools being considered are elizabeth city ate, pembroke. the town of bambara wants help as it works to require -- temp worker started proceedings over the lonial in. the town is taking bids from groups that can help them with

recording ivate investors. the time want to take the 1838 building into a museum or educational center. if you like to physically crack open a good book you're not alone. data from the u.s. census bureau shows bookstores are again on the rise. bookstore sales rose by 2.5% last year, the first year-over- year increase for the industry since 2007. publishers weekly first reported the figures, ting many saw a decline in e-book sales last year as print sales went up. 7:41. the biggest night in music takes over hollywood but not without controversy. who wowed the crowd at the grammys and took home the most goals, and what everyone is talking about this morning.

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