Sky will rapidly clear. Given temperatures in the upper teens to lower 20s and a good portion of the day turning sunny, most of the overnight snow should melt itself away. Plan on a chilly evening if you are heading out to ring in the new year with midnight temperatures around 10 degrees. Wind chills will likely be near zero during the evening as well. Plan on a nice new years day, with a decent weekend also still on track. Have a great day today becoming sunny high 1925 winds w 515 alo 19 dbq 22 iow 24tonight partly cloudy low 612 winds w 515 alo 8 dbq 9 iow 12tomorrow mostly sunny high 2026 winds w 515 alo 24 dbq 24 iow 27tomorrow night mostly clear low 713 winds w 515 alo 10 dbq 11 iow 13 thanks kaj. Auto repair shops are wrenching their way through a lot more cars today after mondays winter storm. Repair in marion say theyve seen a steady number of customers since the storm ended. Shop owner mike hubbell says the cold temperatures break down cars faster. So, mechanics are hard at work fixing brakes, alternators, and replacing tires, they all deteriorate in the cold. Hubbell says its very important to keep up with maintenance on your car during winter. You want the dependability of the car, so when you go out in the morning go to work or wherever the car will start and run, but the other thing is you dont want to be stranded on the road. So the other thing is for you to keep your car in good repair so you can trust it to go where you want it to go. Hubbell says now that the cold temperatures have started, the shop will be busy through spring. State auditors say administrators of the Ambulance Service fund in garwin misspent more than 13thousand 500 dollars over five years. The report shows improper cash withdrawals and spending. Garwin is a town of about 500 people in tama county. The audit shows karen boege, the Ambulance Services former secretary, made payments to her husband, steve boege, who was the services president. The state audit also found personal purchases at walmart and a tama florist. The boeges resigned in february after garwins mayor requested a state audit. More than 500 people across the state have reported having shigella this year. And at least half of those cases were in linn county. Shigella is a bacterial disease that spreads from person to person, typically lasting four to seven days. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever, nausea, and abdominal cramps. Heath officials in iowa say flu levels are relatively low throughout the state, compared to recent years. So far this flu season, roughly 20 people have been hospitalized, and two people have died. Officials at the state hygienic lab in coralville say this flu season could be milder for a number of reasons. One is the milder winter. Cold Weather Forces people indoors, where the virus can thrive. The state told a local official a lot of iowans have been hospitalized with flulike symptoms. But many of those cases were not the flu. Its too early to tell if the low number is partially due to this seasons vaccine. Attorney general tom miller says he believes e cigarettes are a safer option than cigarettes. He supports the idea the devices can help current smokers kick the habit of tobacco cigarettes. People are responding to millers statement, some agreeing with him and others did not. Miller says he just wants people to know that e cigarettes are not as bad for people and therefore the government should not regulate them as harshly. Theres some dispute about how much less harmful. But in the rhetoric of some people, they really equate the two and thats wrong. Thats a mistake. A recent Harvard University study found that vapors from e cigarettes contain a chemical that can cause lung disease. Retiring after 31 years as a prosecutor. 63yearold chris corken worked on a number of highprofile cases during her tenure. Sometimes, those cases put her and her family in harms way. In 1988, she says someone fire bombed her home as she worked on cross burning cases in dubuque. During the past three decades, corken put hundreds of criminals behind bars. Some of those cases were successfully prosecuted through jury trials, others through plea deals. She says she still carries with her the cases where the victims were small children. And cases where she believes justice wasnt served. Corken says her greatest successes came from cases that didnt grab a lot of attention, but those where she changed peoples lives. Ill get a note from someone saying, thank you for keeping me in jail for a few weeks longer and letting me clean up. Thank you for making me do this because ill neve to be able to keep my kids, if i hadnt those were big wins for me. Big big wins. Corken says after retirement, shell loras college. Getting a parking ticket isnt fun. But this holiday season, people in cedar rapids could settle their debt and have a positive impact for those in need. Kcrgtv9s Forrest Saunders joins us live in the newsroom this morning. Forrest, how is all this possible . Well nicole, it is called the forget the fine supply drive. And here is how it worked. From november 23rd until december 23rd, people with parking tickets could give blankets, Hygiene Products and more equaling the value of those fines, and have them disappear. For example, a seven dollar ticket would become seven dollars worth of stuff for those in need. After the month long effort, park cedar rapids collected more than 27 hundred dollars worth of stuff. That 237 tickets forgiven. Organizers came up with the idea after trying something similar with blood donations in the summer. We just wanted to come up with a way to really give back to the inherently negative. But, an important function of any parking department. We just figured it could be a good way to promote how were connected to the community. The stuff donated will be going to three nonprofits. Horizons, waypoint and the willis dady emergency shelter. Organizers thought the effort was a success. They think its likely forget the fine will return again next year. Good news, cause ive got tickets. Nicole. Thanks a lot forrest. Hawkeye fans are flooding los angeles with the rose bowl just one day away. 15 to 20 thousand fans decked out in their black and gold rallied together yesterday at the hawkeye huddle at the Los Angeles Convention center. Lots of former hawkeyes took the stage and hyped up the crowd. Ottumwa native and proud hawkeye fan, tom arnold got the most applause at the rally. He says he loves seeing all the black and gold around la. Fans like marty polka are proud to show off its a halloween costume. I normally have lights on it. In indy i had lights on it but maybe a once in a lifetime going to the rose bowl. First time in twenty five years, i had to put roses on it. The hype continues today with a pep rally at the battleship uss iowa. Admission is free for anyone with an iowa id or a university of iowa student id. The rose bowl game is tomorrow. The hawkeyes face the Stanford Cardinal with kick off shortly after four pm, iowa time. You can see the game on espn. And dont miss tv nines countdown to kickoff. The hourlong special airs at 9 tomorrow morning, right here on kcrgtv9. Today is the last day of the year, which means most of us will try to stay up until midnight. But for those a little younger who wont be staying up late, they can still sky will rapidly clear. Given temperatures in the upper teens to lower 20s and a good portion of the day turning sunny, most of the overnight snow should melt itself away. Plan on a chilly evening if you are heading out to ring in the new year with midnight temperatures around 10 degrees. Wind chills will likely be near zero during the evening as day, with a decent weekend also still on track. Have a great day today becoming sunny high 1925 winds w 515 alo 19 dbq 22 iow 24tonight partly cloudy low 612 winds w 515 alo 8 dbq 9 iow 12tomorrow mostly sunny high 2026 winds w 515 alo 24 dbq 24 iow 27tomorrow night mostly clear low 713 winds w 515 alo 10 dbq 11 iow 13 the young ones who may not be able to stay awake until midnight can still celebrate the new year today. Lots of places will celebrate noon years eve today. This is video from last years Noon Years Eve Party at the downtown cedar rapids Public Library. Its hosting another party today. The Iowa Childrens Museum in the Marion Public Library and the ely Public Library all have celebrations, too. The Environmental Protection agency is taking a closer look at pesticides. In todays agribusiness report, a look at the new rules it wants states to follow. But right now, heres a look at todays opening farm markets. Good morning good morning this is the agribusiness report. Im david geiger. The agencys turned its attention to pesticides. And has some place over how states and training rule is intended to get stronger standards for pesticide applicators that use riskier use. Its goal is to reduce harm from misapplication s and get consistency across the Iowa Department of agricultures Pesticide Bureau says the rule would apply to pesticide applicators across the u s. So itd be anyone whos going to be using restricted use pesticides on a National Level and in iowa our certified pesticide applicators are ones that operate commercially and use general use pesticides in addition to restricted use pesticides. So it does hit a Larger Population in iowa. So, about 14,000 pesticide applicators affect nearly a million applicators nationwide. The certified and training rule is still in a Public Comment period. And it requires applicators to renew certifications every three years. While increasing the time of those classes. Another rule that was just finalized by the epa also deals with pesticides. They say it will help two million agricultural workers. Its called Worker Protection standard. One of the new aspects is it puts in place. Is a minimum age requirement of 18 to pesticides. Paluch says in iowa. Worker protection will cover a diverse landscape. She says theres a number of different pieces written in. And it could change how people apply pesticides. Theres a little bit of change in the structure of whether or not you have a central posting area notification, and then theres been some talk about some of these pesticide exclusion zones. So when you apply a pesticide, being aware of people around you, anyone thats working in that area. Communication, information exchange, all of those are big ones that i think are very good for people to stay up to date on. Paluch adds there are some training and Record Keeping aspects of Worker Protection as well. Cattle are still rallying. And hogs are following along. In grains. Beans are getting some support from dry areas in brazil. Northeaster brazil , which is a heavy bean producing area, has really been or 40 days. So some concerns. There has been a little rain that has materialized now in the last week and some forecast for some more. Probably some damage done, some of the people we listen to that are well versed in whats happening in south america have already begin to trim down their brazilian bean estimates. By no means a crop disaster but you know, less than 100 million ton mark, which some were predicting. The cattle on feed report came in positive here a week ago. Really you got us to gap away from the down and dirty areas that we were out or had really driven into leading up to christmas. And i think it was probably enough to shake that bearishness out of there. The hogs have done a nice job of bouncing away from lows of a couple weeks ago here. Right now i think its showing signs we want to try and push up and through that area. Seasonally we probably came through a low. That hog market has really been fairly sideways of a base in the foundation that we could ideally maybe push back up at least into the mid60s area here again, as we move out in toward the spring. And that wraps up the show for today. Thanks for joining. See you tomorrow well post a video every day in the agribusiness section of kcrg. Com. Youll find it under the news tab. Im david geiger with the agribusiness report. Trt 3. 49 oc webtease a retired National ParkService Employee will serve probation and will publicly apologize to native american tribes for stealing ancient remains. Thomas munson, the former superintenden t of the Effigy Mounds National monument north of macgregor, is expected to plead guilty to embezzlement next week. The plea agreement recommends that he pay 108thousand dollars to cover the cost of the governments investigation. In the plea deal, he admits he took two boxes of prehistoric human remains in 1990 from the national monument. If you buy a house, car, or any other big ticket item, you usually do a lot of research to make sure youre making the right choice. But when you have surgery, a have that much information. Now, one doctor is making a change. After some overnight snow shower activity, the sky will rapidly clear. Given temperatures in the upper teens to lower 20s and a good portion of the day turning sunny, most of the overnight snow should melt itself away. Plan on a chilly evening if you are heading out to ring in the new year with midnight temperatures around 10 degrees. Wind chills will likely be near zero during the evening as well. Plan on a nice new years day, with a decent weekend also still on track. Have a great day today becoming sunny high 1925 winds w 515 alo 19 dbq 22 iow 24tonight partly cloudy low 612 winds w 515 alo 8 dbq 9 iow 12tomorrow mostly sunny high 2026 winds w 515 alo 24 dbq 24 iow 27tomorrow night mostly clear low 713 winds w 515 alo 10 dbq 11 iow 13 investing a lot of money, but when you go into surgery you are essentially going in blind to your options and cost. So a surgeon in utah gave appendectomy patients and their families information and control, which changed what was happening in the or. Martie salt reports. When maria isom was 16, she was rushed to the hospital with appendicitis. It was pretty scary because it was my First Time Ever having surgery, so i was a little freaked out. Marias mom, nancy, wasnt. Doctors gave her choices and information, including costs. I thought it was great because um wed been through some financial problems and so giving us a choice um of an option that might be a little less expensive was very beneficial to us. For example less expensive open surgery instruments can be reused. A laparoscopy requires expensive instruments and technology, and disposable equipment. Open procedures cost about 200dollars. Laparoscopic three thousand. The other difference laparoscopic scars are smaller. Surgery outcomes are the same. Doctor eric scaife found that twothirds of informed parents chose open surgery. Surprisingly, 20 percent of parents who werent told about the cost still picked the open option. It was all sorts of interesting things like my brother has this, my dad has this scar and i want to have this scar. you know, open operations are cool. the study changed things for doctor scaife , too. The year before we did the study, i did zero open appendectomies. And after we did the study, almost half of the operations i did were open. And doctor sciafe says parents overwhelming ly liked being involved in the decision. Im martie salt reporting. Trt 1. 31 oc std. The temperatures are decreasing, so homeless shelter numbers are increasing. After mondays snow storm, the shelters their emergency plans. A daycare in eastern iowa is being praised for its work with special needs children. Stay with your 24 hour news source, kcrgtv9. Its. Youre watching kcrgtv9. Now, source, this is kcrgtv9 news Early Morning news. Safe at home. An eastern iowa agency that helps victims of Domestic Abuse is grateful for a new state program. Forget the fine. People are benefiting from donations that get them out of paying parking tickets. And hawkeye hype. People in eastern iowa are making plans for the big rose bowl game and picking up some last minute gear. Youre looking live on our city cam this morning. Finally, no snow, but some frigid temperatures outside. First, meteorologis t kaj omara alert forecast, kaj. After some overnight snow shower activity, the sky will rapidly clear. Given temperatures in the upper teens to lower 20s and a good portion of the day turning sunny, most of the overnight snow should melt itself away. Plan on a chilly evening if you are heading out to ring in the new year with midnight temperatures around 10 degrees. Wind chills will likely be near zero during the evening as well. Plan on a nice new years day, with a decent weekend also still on track. Have a great day today winds w 515 alo 19 dbq 22 iow 24tonight partly cloudy low 612 winds w 515 alo 8 dbq 9 iow 12tomorrow mostly sunny high 2026 winds w 515 alo 24 dbq 24 iow 27tomorrow night mostly clear low 713 iow 13 a Cedar Rapids Agency that helps Domestic Abuse victims is launching a new safe at home program tomorrow. This year, state lawmakers passed legislation that allows Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault victims set up a legal post Office Box Address for government records. Waypoint Services Says the program will provide more anonymity for victims who are trying to hide their information from abusers. One of waypoints victim advocates says clients often need help with longterm plans to relocate. 48 26 37 especially when you think about how often you put your address down on applications, different programs, resources, community buildings, that sort of thing, that have your address on file. The iowa secretary of States Office started accepting applications for the safe at home program last week. Investigating an Armed Robbery at a gas station on the northeast side. They say someone with a gun robbed the bp station on first avenue shortly before 9 oclock last night. The robber arrived. No one was hurt. Temperatures feel more like they should this time of year. That means homeless emergency plans more often. Shelters initiated emergency plans during mondays winter storm. The three shelters in cedar rapids and one emergency location provided places to stay for a half dozen people. Willis dady executive director phoebe trepp says everything went as planned. She says its important for the shelters to Work Together during the frigid temperatures. Its heartbreaking to see people outside with nowhere to go when its so cold, and its so dangerous to be sleeping outside with the wind and the snow, and the ice. It problems, and fatalities, and thats really what were all trying to avoid. Trepp says before the next storm, theyll find volunteers for the overflow location, and get the word out to those who need services. People in need have more supplies, and drivers in cedar rapids got out of parking tickets. Its a winwin program to forgive tickets for a donation to a shelter. Kcrgtv9s Forrest Saunders joins me at the desk this morning. Forrest, this program worked pretty well . Forget the fine lived up to its name. But if you really want to get a sense of how well it worked, look at this. What your looking at is a massive pile of blankets, kids clothes, Hygiene Products and a lot of other stuff. In all, more than 27 hundred dollars worth of donated stuff for people in need. All of that is equal to 237 forgiven tickets. Heres how it worked. From november 23rd to december 23rd, if you had a parking ticket, youd donate an equal amount of goods and the citation would disappear. For instance, a seven dollar ticket becomes seven dollars of help. Do it again next year. I think so. I think that this was successful enough program. We also wanted to display our strong connection to the community, community partnerships. I think its something that we will entertain again in the future. The items donated went to three different nonprofits. The willis dady emergency shelter, waypoint and horizons, a family service. This isnt the first time that park cedar rapids has tried Something Like this. Over the summer, the group offered to forget tickets if people donated blood. Unfortunately, i didnt think to give it a try. Nicole . Yeah. Thanks a lot forrest. A proposed ordinance in iowa city would require landlords to provide recycling services to tenants. Right now, the city only provides recycling pick up to buildings with less than four units. But about 45 percent of apartments are in larger buildings. Most of those drive recyclables to dropoff centers if they dont want to throw item away. City workers say a 2012 Pilot Program shows the rule would be inexpensive. And it would help divert more than five thousand tons of trash from the landfill each year. 06 41 01 i was so wrong about the cost of this, and thats been something weve talked about for decades its going to be really expensive for apartment owners to go to the system, but in the Pilot Project it was actually only 2. 57 cents per unit. Right now, the ordinance is still a draft. Jordan hopes to present the proposal to council in early 2016. The Housing Market in cedar rapids is healthier now than it was a year ago because cedar rapids has had fewer home foreclosures. And more homeowners are making their mortgage payments on time. Data from corelogic show the citys foreclosure rate in october was zero point nine percent. Thats down from october 2014, when the foreclosure rate was zero point 94 percent. Corelogic data also shows the 90day delinquency rate was just over two percent in thats down from more than two and a half percent a year earlier. A Daycare Program in tipton that includes children with special needs is Getting National attention. Tipton adaptive daycare began working with kids who have special behavioral or physical needs 10 years ago. Last year, the daycare moved from a home setting to a larger commercial building in tipton. Child care aware of america picked this program as the National Child care provider of the month for november. Director Deborah Vandergaast , who is also a registered nurse, says many visitors might not know of the special needs focus. This is not meant to look like a hospital or a special education classroom its supposed to be integrated so they can participate in the program at their best ability with their non disabled peers. Vandergaast says this daycare stocks more medical supplies than at a regular daycare. About one third of the children at the daycare have special needs. Its the last day of 2015, which celebrating the new year tonight at midnight. And the iowa state patrol is prepared. Authorities say they will have extra troopers out for new years celebration safety. Through the weekend, the extra troopers will crack down on intoxicated drivers. You can almost feel the excitement in the air when youre surrounded by hawkeye fans. Theyre ready to see a win during the rose bowl in pasadena, california. 4 53 40 i dont really care about any other sports team. Im not huge into any other sports. But iowa football is just like religion. Some are watching with family or friends while others are still making lastminute trips to california. As part of the preparations many are searching for the perfect shirt to wear. Stores in iowa city say theyve been packed with people looking for rose bowl merchandise. A pair of sisters visiting iowa city say its pretty quiet near the university. 4 46 40 iowa fans travel well, so they are all out in pasadena. And we would have been there if the tickets were the rose bowl game is tomorrow with kick off shortly after four pm iowa time. The 12and1 hawkeyes face the 11and2 Stanford Cardinal. You can see the game on espn. And dont miss tv nines countdown to kickoff earlier in the day. The hourlong special airs at 9 am, right here on kcrgtv9. A popular ride Service Company has hit a major milestone just before the new year. The lucky rider and driver are raking in the floodwaters have completely taken over some st. Louis suburbs close to rivers in the area. Forecasters predict that the Mississippi River in st. Louis is expected to crest this evening at 13 feet above flood stage six feet below the 1993 cord. Many people have been highways are closed in the area. After some overnight snow shower activity, the sky will rapidly clear. Given temperatures in the upper teens to lower 20s and a good portion of the day turning sunny, most of the overnight snow should melt itself away. Plan on a chilly evening if you are heading out to ring in the new year with midnight temperatures around 10 degrees. Wind chills will likely be near zero during the evening as well. Plan on a nice new years day, with a decent weekend also still on track. Have a great day today becoming sunny high 1925 winds w 515 alo 19 dbq 22 iow 24tonight partly cloudy winds w 515 alo 8 dbq 9 iow 12tomorrow mostly sunny high 2026 winds w 515 alo 24 dbq 24 iow 27tomorrow night mostly clear low 713 winds w 515 alo 10 dbq 11 iow 13 thanks kaj. Its the last day of 2015 and street has one more day to make some gains. Otherwise investors may be seeing red going into 20 stocks ended lower yesterday heading into the last trading day for the year. And at least two major indeces will probably end the year below where they started in january. The dow jones lost 117 points yesterday. Close. Putting it in jeopardy of closing lower than last year. Spot this year. Is up seven percent for the year. At and t will stop offering twoyear contracts to purchases. Its the only major us carrier that still offers such plans. Customers will now only be able to get new phones by paying full price or paying in installments over time. And uber says it has booked one billion rides since 2010. A rider in london hailed the one billionth ride on christmas eve. The lucky rider will get a years worth of free rides. The uber driver will get a free vacation to the uber city of his choice. Its heres a live look at . . . On sky will rapidly clear. Given temperatures in the upper teens to lower 20s and a good portion of the day turning sunny, most of the overnight snow should melt itself away. Evening if you are heading out to ring in the new year with midnight temperatures around 10 degrees. Wind chills will likely be near zero during the evening as well. Plan on a nice new years day, with a decent weekend also still on track. Have a great day today becoming sunny high 1925 winds w 515 alo 19 dbq 22 iow 24tonight partly cloudy low 612 winds w 515 alo 8 dbq 9 iow 12tomorrow mostly sunny high 2026 winds w 515 alo 24 dbq 24 iow 27tomorrow night mostly clear low 713 winds w 515 alo 10 dbq 11 iow 13 thanks kaj. Temperatures are going to be frigid today. Auto repair shop workers say the cold temperatures make cars break down faster and its very important to keep up car mechanics are hard at work fixing brakes, alternators, and replacing tires which all deteriorate in the cold. The cold temperatures also mean that emergency cold weather homeless shelters are in place. The three shelters in cedar rapids and one emergency location provided places to stay for a half dozen people during the winter storm this week. Shelter workers say its important for shelters to Work Together. Tonight is new years eve and the iowa state patrol wants you to be safe with your celebrations tonight. More troopers will be on the roads checking for drunk drivers. Remember to designate a driver and buckle up. Kirk ferentz has been the head coach at iowa for 17 years. Defensive coordinator phil parker has been on his staff all 17 years. Scott saville joins us live and has more on parker. Phil parker is a fiery coach and his players say they feed off that energy. He does a great job of inspiring you on the sidelines. The fire he brings to the game is unmatched by any coach i have ever had. Parker is in 17th season at iowa and their is not a place he would rather be than iowa city. It has been great working for coach ferentz. It has been really good for me here. I have had a good job. Phils defensive philosophy all started with his predesessor the late norm parker who phil thinks of often. I think about norm a lot. A couple of times in games. I thought he was looking over smiling. Last time i was here i was here with norm in the rose bowl. I was a ga for him 1988 it brings a lot of memories i know is looking from above and wife linda is here. Parkers been rock solid this season and has done a much better job of eliminating big plays. I think are more focused on what we are trying to do. It all goes back to studying and preperation. Eliminating big plays and trick plays will be huge against stanford. And this iowa team is built to do that because they play assignment football. Everybody has an assignment if everybody takes care of their job that eliminate trick plays. To the wrestling mat, its the championship round of the midlands championships. 125, iowas Thomas Gilman with the early take down for two points. He defeated ronnie rios of oregon state, 51 for his 2nd midlands championship. 133, Northern Iowa josh alber went into overtime in his match against Emilio Saavedra of old dominion. Saavedra gets the takedown to win 31. 149, iowas Brandon Sorensen facing northwesterns jason tsirtsis. This also went into ot. Sorensen gets over the leg for the takedown and the win for his First Midlands championship. 165, iowa States Tanner some trouble. He gets pinned by chad welch of purdue. 197, iowas nathan burak defended his title against nebraskas derek white. Grabs the leg for the takedown. Burak wins the match 51. College basketball, iowa state men taking on coppin state in their final nonconference game. The cyclones were able to score at will. Montre morris lobs it up to jameel mckay for the flush. Mckay had 15 points. Cyclones up 4118. Later, in transition. Deonte burton gives to abdel nader who finishes. Plus hes fouled. He had a teamhigh 21 points. Six players fnished in double figures, including monte morris who sinks the baseline jumper for twoof his 10. Iowa state cruises to the 10484 victory. Uni mens basketball with their conference opener versus bradley on kcrg 9. 2. Bennett koch got things going early. Banks it in off the turnaround. Plus one. Panthers up 229. Later in the first half, koch crosscourt pass to iowa morgan. Hits the triple. Panthers up 13. Closing seconds. Paul jesperson lets it go in the corner and buries it. Panthers led 4628 at halftime. They kept their foot on the gas in the 2nd half. Wes wasphun bounce pass to koch. He stuffs it. He had 15 as uni wins 8044. Linnmar grad marcus paige had a big night for the tar heels in their conference opener against clemson. Here he drives and scoops it high off the glass. Then, he drives again, draws contact and somehow gets that bucket to fall. He had 18 points, tar heels win 8069. To the ice, roughriders hosting bloomington. 1st period, jack achan moves into the offensive. Fires from a sharp angle and scores. Roughriders take the early 10 lead. Bloomington came back with two goals. But the roughriders go on to win 64 thanks scott