mayor rick kriseman claimed he never saw that report nor the e- mail. now he is calling for an independent investigation. this report came before the city dumped millions of gallons of waste water into tampa bay during and after hurricane hermine. now 8 on your side jeff patterson is digging into this could be a cover-up. jeff? >> reporter: yeah good evening, stacie. these e-mails come from the chief operator of one of the city's waste water treatment plants. they contain a clear warning that the public safety is at risk. in e-mails dated in july of this year, craven askew the chief operator of the waste water treatment plant warns that the city is having spills directly related to the shutdown of the albert whited waste water treatment to look at public exposure to harmful pathogen bacteria. instead of passing these warnings along, his manager responds, do me a favor and don't copy everyone on these types of discussions. >> it was ignored. >> reporter: the e-mails were sent long after former mayor bill foster left office. but foster maintains the city

and yesterday mayor rick kriseman will join the tour at their stop today. they will hold a joint news conference outside city hall. the event is expected to begin around 11 a-m. : victims from the pulse nightclub attack... are finally getting funds, from the "one orlando" charity. the payments range from 65 thousand to more than three ?hundred thousand. it depends if you're a survivor or a family member. the group has raised more than 29 ?million dollars for survivors, and families of those killed. and another 800- thousand dollars was just presented to the fund last night. it was a special reception for some of the first responders who handled the tragedy. the florida restaurant and lodging association hosted this awards ceremony. governor rick scott and other orlando city leaders were there to pay tribute to all those heroes: 49 people were killed that night back in june, along with the shooter. community is on alert for a potentially ?deadly problem. and they're now warning parents... before they send their kids trick-or-treating next month. central flor

pete mayor rick kriseman has also pledged to spend more than 100 million dollars over the next ten years to fix the problem. a bizarre story is developing in polk county. where a man has been ?arrested... accused of being a ?fake expert witness. he's charged with lying under oath... ?pretending to be a computer expert in child porn cases. and now... that arrest is raising questions about all those men he helped convict. polk sheriff grady judd says 57-year-old "chester (kwa-tow-skee) "kwitowski" lied about his education, his certifications and believes most of what he's said on the stand has been bogus. he testified in ?dozens of trials deputies say many of the cases involved child porn or child sex crimes. kwitowski was typically a witness for the defense--helping prove his clients were ?not guilty. and criminal defense attorney anthony rickman tells us chester could have affected cases ?without even going to court. he could have submitted reports that resulted in the state dropping cases. and for those who were convicted--the fairness of their trial could now be challenged: the polk sh

mayor rick kriseman and african american community leaders want tbr petersburg. the idea is to increase convenience and voter turnout. it's a minority community, and primarily democratic. but pinellas county supervisor of elections, deborah clark... who is a republican... refuses to do it. she says there's already five early voting locations throughout the county... and 41% of registered voters use the mail- in addition to kriseman, the other community leaders pushing for this polling station are ?also democrats. minority voter turnout could be a deciding factor in this presidential election. and... since his run for president didn't work out... former florida governor jeb bush has a new job. harvard announced that bush will be a lecturer at the ivy teach a program on education policy and governance. this isn't an everyday teaching gig. instead-- the university says bush will make multi-day visits as a guest instructor and presenter. he will also participate in education research and study groups. "seaworld orlando" has several ?new reasons... for guests to come

but moving foward..they plan to have a say..council -- along with mayor rick kriseman wants $58 million dollars set aside in next year's budget to try and fix the city's aging sewer system..so they can better handle heavy rainfall..but residents say..that fix needs to be a top priority right now..?not building a new pier.. emerson: "without cleaning up as for the ?real focus of that meeting ..city architects plenty of watefront viewing areas on the land side of the new pier. they are planning two more public input meetings for the pier... including one tonight. it starts at six p-m at the j-w cate rec center. at least one of last night's protesters vowed to be there as well. it's happened again. another local man has seen his tech gadget... burst into flames. this time... it was a laptop computer. and it could have burned down his entire house. thankfully "gil sanderford" was standing right when it happened... and was quickly able to put out the flames. but if he was in another room... sanderford fears it could have been a lot worse. the trouble stemmed from the rayovac battery sanderfo

rick kriseman addressed st. pete pier. the protestors are demanding an independent study to verify the city's water quality. the mayor said he would discuss that with city staff today. the mayor also said water quality has improved to the point where the city was able to remove warning signs that had been posted near some parts of the bay. a similar protest broke out tuesday night during another pier meeting. but this time... the mayor spoke with the protestors in a separate room: several other cities in stormwater overcame their systems as well, sending nearly 175 million gallons of sewage into the bay. one pinellas county commissioner wants to launch a task force so they prevent it from happening again. an update now on a mosque arson in south florida. police say they've now caught the man... who started it. police say evidence found inside the home of 32-year-old "joseph michael schreiber" -- linked him to the arson. they say "schreiber" is the one seen in surveillance video moments before the fire broke out. police say

receding i will tell you mayor rick kriseman just got in truck. he is surveying neighborhood we when he comes back see what he has to say shore acres. yeah. okay. thank you, charley. all right, guys. see you in a bit. okay okay. we will take break. when we come back governor's press conference. governor rick scott. ? ? ? ? hey guys, i'm going to tell you what it's like to be a fireman. ? st. bright house networks. ((laura/2sh)) hermine made landfall as a hurricane overnight. it's now a hermine made land fall a hurricane overnight now a tropical storm storm mover over george joo right now. still affect ths governor scott will be holding a news conference any time now. and we will take it as soon as he begins. meantime though, wind from tropical storm hermine is fueling a big fire in indian shores. wow, that, that is an example of when you mix a storm and a fire how bad it looks. the condo building on gulf boulevard caught fire early this morning. the wind is making it very difficult for crews to fully put out these flames. a police officer who arri

. >>> saint petersburg mayor rick kriseman facing tough questions about the city's waste water problems. he answered questions about the dumping of sewer watt severe the bay. the public works administrator admitted to council members that closing the albert whiten >> the southwest plant should have been expanded before alfred was closed. that is my stance. that is my opinion. in looking at the data, it is clear to me that decision should have been made. >> he is considering a number of temporary fixes so that sewage won't be dumped into the bay. in the next major storm. >>> authorities have busted three people accused of as tico employees to rip people off. we reported on these scams too. and, now, they are finally caught. these folks apparently used prepaid cards in an attempt to avoid detection. >>> tampa police are searching for a man who stole a bag of money from an armored truck guard. you can see the suspect, he walked into the wawa where it happened wearing a reflective vest and the hood. the guard was servicing an atm inside when the thief grabbed >>> and a heist worth more than

mayor rick kriseman says there's no guarantee the city won't have to release waste-water again.. but steps are being taken to solve the problem. a strange and disturbing trend across the country.. has seemingly made it's way to the bay area.. a teen in largo the pinellas county sheriff's office is now taking this report ?very seriously.. they say that while it isn't illegal to have a clown mask on.. it is illegal to harrass other people.. deputies are asking parents, if their kids are planning on wearing a clown mask for halloween to talk them about what's appropriate -- and legal -- behavior. though some clown reports around the country have been deemed hoaxes.... they say if you see anything suspicious, don't hesitate to call them. three pasco county high school students took dress up day a little too far . the wiregrass ranch students are suspended for wearing what appears to be k-k-k hoods and robes. the students were supposed to dress up as characters for homecoming week thursday. some of their friends snapchatted these pictures. they spread quickly... and as you can imagine

(mayor rick kriseman/st. petersburg, fl): "quite candidly this is one of the worst we've seen in this city in a long time. on the hard-hit island of cedar key -- storm surge devastated parts of the community (chief virgil sandlin/cedar key, fl police dept): "the majority of the businesses don't have a front anymore. the water come through the back door and went out the front, just tore everything to pieces." but hermine isn't done with her path of destruction. (dr. rick knabb/meteorologist & director, national hurricane center): "a system because that means whatever rainfall is occurring could happen for not only hours, but days in some spots." the storm is expected to impact much of the east coast throughout the holiday weekend. (cathy haynes/chief of operations, charleston co.): "our biggest concern is people getting out on the roadways that really don't need to be out there because they don't understand the seriousness of these things because they have never been through this before." in apalachicola, flor

. >> reporter: the current mayor rick kriseman claims he never sought e-mails or report. kriseman refused to talk to us on camera today, but did issue this statement. included is a consultant report, which i believe has never been shared publicly with my office or city council. >> reporter: mayor kriseman is now calling for an independent investigation of this. jeff patterson news channel 8. >>> it is a small victory over mosquitoes and the zika virus. miami's wynwood neighborhood now appears to be zika free. the centers for disease control lifted its strongest warning against travel to the neighborhood. just a couple months ago local it's been 45 days since anyone came down with zika in that specific neighborhood. earlier today governor rick scott credited aggressive mosquito control efforts and now says it is time to get wynwood back to normal. >> we need to come to the restaurants, we need to come to the galleries, we need to do it as quickly as possible. so many of these businesses have been impacted. >> zika in wynwood seems to be under control for now. just last wee

saint petersburg mayor rick kriseman is facing tough questions from residents and city council members about the huge waste water spill into tampa bay. he is talking to council members about the spill and solutions. newschannel8 has obtained exclusive video that shows a major problem going on during ic waste water. tonight, we brought that video and the problem to the attention of saint petersburg city council members. jeff patterson joins us live from outside of city hall. i bet the reaction was something to behold and you were face to far with them. >> reporter: yeah, good evening keith. this is video i was able to obtain exclusively from a source and it clearly shows a problem. because it is one thing to tell you about a sewage spill into to you. as it happens. as hurricane hermine passed saint petersburg, 15 inches of rain fell on the city in four days. water infiltrated the city's waste water lines and this is the impact. video shows water pouring out of the top of a holding tank with the force of a large fire hose. >> what do you think when you see that? >> i think we made a huge

rick kriseman the cheese was melting the smart box, uses an algorithm to adjust the heat an airflow. >> is such that same experience the restaurant. >> a timer on the site gives th , so far they have made a but could play a key role to expand the companies reach.. we believe in what we're doing, just a matter of giving us a try and i think that you'l be convinced.ag >> right now these boxes are used for catering orders within working on smaller versions tha would enable al individual deli orders to stay just as fresh, for more on the story go to the podcast, talking about the melt download that on itunes and google play o favorite applicationsan you can find a link at richontech.tv, there is one more week of september but never too late to celebrate national chicken love plenty of time to get your hand on some deliciousus chicken, our friends from mr. chicken or making it possible to have locations all across northeast ohio. they have locations in twinsburg, parma and great support local places everything here looks great, make sure to support your local places. right now we're in th

mayor rick kriseman called for an independent investigation yesterday. the government and others are now getting involved. paul mueller joins us live now from st. petersburg city hall. paul, this keeps getting bigger and bigger. very controversial vote taken here by the council at city hall back in 2011. this was in around to closing the albert -- was in regard to closing the albert whitted wastewater treatment plant. it shut down last year and some say things have never been the same since. >> i think the second we started discharging at the northwest plant the next second we should have been notifying the media and public and letting them know. >> reporter: st. councilman steve cornell sounds off to 8 on your side saying he's done everything he could disappointed by the recent dumping of nearly 150 million gallons of sewage into the bay in the wake of hurricane hermine. >> these overflows wouldn't be happening because they were clearly caused by this closure. >> reporter: that closure? the albert whitted wastewater treatment plant. cornell said there's

(jen/ mayor rick kriseman addressed the angry group during a meeting last night that was supposed to focus on the new st. pete pier. but the protesters shifted the attention to the city's water quality. they want an independent study, done on that. the mayor said: he'd discuss that topic with city staff today... and kriseman also said: water quality has improved to the point where the city was able to remove warning signs that had been posted along parts of the bay. a similar protest broke-out ?tuesday night, during ?another but this time, the mayor spoke with demonstrators... in a separate room. "could we get a commitment from you that an independent study will be conducted, within these next few days to verify this to give the community additional comfort this is a priority for you?" "the problem is, the frustration i share as much as those folks do, is i can't flip a switch and fix everything even if i had unlimited dollars. it just takes time to do some of the several other cities in pinellas... including largo and clearwater... have said stormwater overcame their systems as well

. >> and mayor rick kriseman is standing by his administration's spill chr crisis, but says it wl cost millions and take years. >> that is not what folks want to hear is that it will take years. >> this is the reason they are still so frustrated and discouraged. and this was exacerbated in part by the decisions made by city are having trouble trusting the fact that the city is going to be able to fix this problem. >> the water actually came up to about this point here in our driveway. >> that was three weeks ago during hurricane hermine. >> it come down here and smelled for weeks. how would you feel if the reason that your house flooded was center decided to dump wastewater into your neighborhood? >> more than 150 million gallons gushed from the city's wastewater plant during and after heermine. >> the bottom line is we have to fix this. >> mayor kriseman is taking a lot of heat. >> i think they were frustrated and i think we have a right to be. >> and questions linger about more contaminated than the mayor let on. >> it was treated and not clean water, but it was not a health risk. >>

saint petersburg mayor rick kriseman is facing tough questions from residents and city council members about the huge waste water spill into tampa bay. he is talking to council members about the spill and solutions. newschannel8 has obtained exclusive video that shows a major problem going on during ic waste water. tonight, we brought that video and the problem to the attention of saint petersburg city council members. jeff patterson joins us live from outside of city hall. i bet the reaction was something to behold and you were face to far with them. >> reporter: yeah, good evening keith. this is video i was able to obtain exclusively from a source and it clearly shows a problem. because it is one thing to tell you about a sewage spill into

"(mayor rick kriseman, st. petersburg, fl): "quite candidly this is one of the worst we've seen in this city in a long time." " thousands of people don't have power, and you can see there is a lot of damage left behind. the storm isn't over yet. hermine has been downgraded to a tropical storm, and it is headed up the east coast. forecasters warn the storm will be dangerous and it will affect millions of honeybees are dead in south carolina... after an aerial pesticide spray was used to control mosquitoes that might be carrying the zika virus. "i was angry that day. i mean, it just didn't make any, i just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that we spray poison from the sky." beekeepers say they were not warned about the spraying...and that they're devastated from the loss. the e-p-a warns those concerned should bring grills...pets...and kids toys indoors during the sprays. idea the pesticides were going to be sprayed. honeybees are the world's most important pollinator of food crops -- and they are dying at a

. >> >>> rick kriseman will talk in a couple of minutes. we have a lot of damage in the area of snell isle and shore acre. >> lesley has been talk about that. it's famous for flooding any time there's weather but when you work in so much rain, what's happening is the water is going up to people's homes and they shut down several roads and they're warning people to stay in place if they can't navigate streets. if you're going to go outside, be careful because you don't know if there are downed power lines and also tree branches. st. pete police is reporting at least 62 trees down in the past 24 hours so even though we didn't get the brunt of the storm, there was definitely lots of rain creating the flooding and some wind in parts of pinellas county as well. >> all right, let's go to st. petersburg mayor rick kriseman -- >> i want to thank you guys for being he from joint oopation center that we convene at the main fire station during the storm. they're working to provide services to our residents throughout the night. these folks have been b

>>russell: while rick kriseman insists the water is back to normal, residents want long-term assurances that the water is safe. >> independent study will be conducted. it could be done within these next few days to verify this, to give just also the community additional comfort that this is as those folks do is that i can't flip a switch and fix everything, even if i had unlimited dollars. it just takes time to do some of the repairs that we have to do. >>russell: mayor kriseman says the city will spend millions to expand the treatment capacity the next several years. st. pete is not alone in dealing with this problem. hermine overcame systems throughout pinellas county, sending nearly 175 million gallons of sewage into the bay. commissioner justice wants to create a task force to determine what needs to be done to prevent this from happening again. >>laura: we have a better look at the man who hillsborough deputies say robbed a jewelry store sending an employee to the hospital. he carried out a similar heist in port richey and no one was hurt but deputies say a jewelry store employee j

mayor rick kriseman said he would discuss that with his staff later on today. in a new video he address infra structures challenge and storm wa >>> we expect noticeable improvements to our system within two years. but it will take at least that long before we see major changes in how our waste water is treated and extreme situations. >>> several city and pinellas county including largo and clearwater said hermine overwhelmed their systems as well. sending nearly 175 million gallons of sewage into the bay. >>> all right. china. whoa. look at that, jim typhoon winds caused giant inflatable moon balloon to roll through the streets. i bet a lot of people were freaked out. blew away from where it was tethered into a mallpart installation to a celebrate mid autumn moon festival at that takes tomorrow. run away moon did not cause any injuries. >> maybe a few neck injuries people are like what just went by. can you imagine driving up to intersection, here comes, you see that coming towards you. first thought, i don't know. >> yeah. more afternoon thunderstorms. yeah. w

mayor rick kriseman has maintained the water discharged into bay was safe. even though it a worker on the inside and other politicians questioned that kriseman will one council man told fox 13 there has ab lot of information from sewer department. >>> but what i will say there's a clear pattern of a sdeps. culture of miscouncil. people are talking about responsibility right now, a lot of people are saying well who's going to take responsibility. but what public wants us to do is take responsibility for solelying this problem. >>> well that meeting gets under way in just bn an hour and a half. we have a drew there and we'll keep you updated throughout the day. >>> new at noon, tampa's moffit on back and lot of cash with it. governor rick scott was in town for this big announcement. national cancer institute just renewed move is sdegs naying a comprehensive cancer? a highest destination moffit can get. with it comes a grant of big one, $17 million. >> it bringing equipment we may need, packages for these best of brightest that we're bringing in here. allowed u

pete mayor rick kriseman swaps jobs with jerry for the day. >> so glad to have you taking over the show today. and you know what? i'm having a ball at your desk here. this is fun. >> plus where exactly does kate mckinnon keep her emmy? >> i can't reveal where, but i'm looking forward to getting it back home. and i don't know. looking at it while i eat breakfast. >> all that and more because "daytime" starts right now. ? [drumming] [drumming]