It’s Thursday, January 2nd – and NBC 6 has the top stories you need to know for the day.
No. 1 – Weather wise, a perfect start to Thursday is in the forecast before warm temperatures arrive in the afternoon ahead of a hot and rainy start to the weekend. Keep your NBC 6 app handy for push alerts on any severe weather as well as First Alert Doppler 6000.
No. 2 – A vigil will be held Thursday as family members and friends continue to seek answers after a high school football star was struck and killed by a train earlier this week in Deerfield Beach.
Police say 17-year-old Bryce Gowdy was struck just after 4 a.m. Monday near the intersection of Southeast 4th Avenue and 10th Street before being rushed to the hospital, where he later died. Gowdy was a star at Deerfield Beach High School and was scheduled to attend Georgia Tech, where he signed a scholarship before his death.
No. 3 - A group of fishermen got a pleasant New Year's Day surprise when a great white shark latched onto their bait off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.
Ten people on board a charter boat - ironically named "Out of the Blue" - had not caught anything for almost three hours until the 13-foot great white latched onto the bait they were using to catch fish. It took an hour and 20 minutes for the group to wrangle the shark in - it was estimated to be about 1,000 pounds.
No. 4 - Officials at the U.S. State Department issued a warning Wednesday saying Americans should not travel to Iraq after the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was attacked earlier this week.
Local
The travel ban specifically cited terrorism, kidnapping and armed conflict in Iraq as possible threats to Americans. Iran-backed militiamen withdrew from the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Wednesday after two days of clashes with American security forces, but U.S.-Iran tensions remain high and could spill over into further violence.
No. 5 - Over a dozen cars were shot at while driving along Interstate 4 and Interstate 95 in Central Florida, authorities say.
NBC affiliate WESH-TV reports at least 13 cars were struck during the New Year's Day incident that spanned two counties. No injuries were reported and the damage by the Wednesday shootings appears to have been caused by a BB or pellet gun, according a statement by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
No. 6 - The New Year’s holiday gave three families a reason to celebrate – as they had the first babies of 2020 in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
In Broward, Layla was born at 12:19 a.m. Wednesday at Memorial West Hospital in Pembroke Pines. Miami-Dade celebrated its first baby of 2020 when first-time parents Katherine and Alexis welcomed baby boy Liam, weighing in at 7 pounds and 5 ounces.
