A lot of headlines recently for its high crime rates. As of early september, the city had more than 500 total homicides in 2016, according to the chicago tribune. That outpaces bigger cities of la and new york. Combined, those two had about 100 fewer homicides through late august. The sgt. Can recall hearing Horror Stories from visitors to cedar rapids. A few months back, i met a family that was in town. Her children werent allowed to go play in the front yard for fear of what may happen to them, for theres little doubt that chitown crime is troubling. But is it really troubling cedar rapids, which, by car, is fewer than four hours away. Police chief wayne jerman recently weighed in on the question. Is there an influence, sure. And were aware of it. Its hard to pinpoint exactly how much of an influence, though. Arrest records may offer some insight. Data from crpd shows last year nearly 16 percent of those arrested were born in illinois, the same for the two previous years. The pd says its the second highest number of arrests behind those born in iowa the majority of arrests. Other states were negligible. Weve got to point out the data has two big holes. One we dont know if all the people arrested were from chicago specifically just that they were from illinois. We also dont know how long those arrested had been in cedar rapids. Ultimat ely, though, police think theyre seeing a chicago crime influence for a couple reasons. Metros always have at least some kind of impact on crime in nearby towns. Minneapolis, kansas city, st. Louis, detroit. Weve seen and arrested people from all those cities as well. People relocate. They come here and they bring some of those lifestyles with them. Another reason. This stuff. Heroin. Cedar rapids, like many communities across the country is seeing upped numbers of heroin overdoses as the drug becomes more and more available and affordable. Dea agents call it an heroin found on cedar rapids streets that the community is a destination city for drug dealers. Chicago, since its a major metropolitan area, its technically the source area for the heroin and what theyre doing is transplanting people to the area to distribute that heroin. When it comes to fighting back the chicago influence dea agents say theyre focused on finding the primary suppliers who bring heroin into the us. Cutting them off will trickle down to communities like crimes, like gun violence cedar rapids has turned to a new program called the Police Community action team. It doesnt focus on curbing chicago crime specifically, its much broader. Pcat is a Flexible Team of officers that are sent to patrol atrisk parts of town. Officers work in cars are on foot, for varying hours, depending on what a situation dictates. Theyre there to get to know people and their problems. Theyre establishing relationships, positive offenders and their families to give them alternatives sgt. Doyle is one of the pcat officers and a big believer in the program. He thinks its already having an impact since its inception about a year ago. Data suggests it could be. In september, the crpd reported overall Violent Crime in town was down slightly by about a percentage point, compared to the same time the year before. Nat officer when it comes to chicagos influence, sgt. Doyle only has anecdotal evidence. But, the way he sees it former chicagoans are mostly coming here for one commit crime. Theyre truly trying to escape what there is in chicago. I think there is a lot of good people that come from chicago. I think some crime comes from chicago but a lot of it comes from cedar rapids. Even though info is limited, the stats seem to agree. In cedar rapids, forrest saunder, kcrgtv9 news. Theres now a onethousand dollar reward for information on the person who put this note outside the home of a sudanese american go home now followed by derogatory remarks and hashtag trump. Police are investigating this as a hate crime. Iowa city issued a statement today. It read, in part, we celebrate our communitys diversity, and we welcome all residents who live here, regardless of their national origin, color, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Lets go to meteorologis t joe winters. Joe, well see temperatures dropping tomorrow . After new record highs across portions of eastern iowa a cold front heads east. As the front moves through the wind shifts to the west northwest and starts a temperature drop that lasts into saturday morning. The winds will be strong from 2040 mph and gusty. Make sure you take a jacket to work and school on friday as you will be glad you did on the way home. Highs for the weekend remain in the 30s and 40s with overnight lows in the teens and 20s. Have a great night tonight partly cloudy and mild. Showers and falling temperatures. Wind w 2040. High 62 back to you. Iowa democrats are figuring out their next moves after disappoi election. Andy mcguire is the chair of the Iowa Democratic party. She says shes still processing the results, which included voters reelecting republicans in nearly all of the races for federal offices, and gaining control of the iowa senate. She says there are some weaknesses the party needs to work on. I dont think were in shambles do we need to rebuild . Absolutely. You can see that we have a problem with rural voters. Ive been to 99 well. Today the Iowa Supreme Court selected mark cady of fort dodge to continue serving as chief justice. Voters retained him on the States High Court last week. Iowa gaming officials expect more than one proposal to build a casino in linn county. They have set a midfebruary deadline for applications. Wild rose entertainment will likely submit one. It wants to build a boutique casino across cedar rapids. Clayton county has given the final ok to a company to expand sand mining there. Thats despite Health Concerns from people who live near the site. This week, a county board approved the proposal from pattison sand company. It means pattison will be able to do underground sand mining on nearly 750 acres of land northeast of garnavillo. The company says the sand will be used for fracking in other states. Fracking is the process and has led to earthquakes in oklahoma. A new mobile app that the go cedar rapids Tourism Group developed aims to help expand peoples food and drink horizons. They call it thecrale trail. For 30 dollars a year, people can sign up and have exclusive access to deals at area breweries and restaurants. Go cedar rapids says the intention is to get people out to try new things. 09 14 06;14 not just visitors wh importantly the residents of the cedar rapids area in eastern iowa as they come to cedar rapids, get them into a different neighborhood than their used to, different restaurant that they havent tried just to showcase what we have here people interested in the cr ale trail can buy the pass at any cedar rapids hyvee or online. We have a link under this story on kcrg dot com. The university of iowa isnt calling alumni, or asking for a grant to get money for one instead, its going online, and its asking for the publics help to make the project a reality. First heres a look at the most viewed stories today on kcrg dotcom. Stay with your 24 Hour University of iowa is turning to crowd funding to help fund a new diorama at the museum of will display a lion and lioness that may have once spent time together at the former zoo in city park, but their true origin is still unknown. Kcrg tv nines Samantha Myers explains that the university is using a website similar to go fund me to help raise 10 thousand dollars. In the museum of natural history, youll find glass cases full of exotic animals. One exhibit stands out from the rest. 08 48 26;03 they are one of our most popular exhibits not for its unique colors two taxidermied lions standing alone in a bare display. 08 48 26;03 we think its time they had a proper exhibit of their own. Project liorama is one of three crowdfunding projects the university of iowa launched wednesday. 09 07 47;16 many of our researchers particularly perhaps in the medical sciences have large federal grants that are available to them, but the goldrush platform really allows us to target much smaller over the years visitors of the museum who have come to visit the museum have asked about the the museum wants to use some of the money it is raising through goldrush to be able to pay a student to do research on the lions history. 08 48 57;21 theres so many stories floating around about the two lions and we dont really know which stories are true and which arent. A proper exhibit fit for a king of the jungle. In iowa city Samantha Myers kcrgtv9 news. The University Says it will soon open the gold rush website to students who are interested in it will review applications before putting them onto the website. A former president ial candidate who has criticized donald trump is now under consideration for a top cabinet position. The two are expected to talk about that job possibility during a meeting this weekend. Changes are heading our way. Iowa a cold front heads east. As the front moves through the wind shifts to the temperature drop that lasts into saturday morning. The winds will be strong from 2040 mph and gusty. Make sure you take a jacket to work and school on friday as you will be glad you did on the remain in the 30s and 40s with overnight lows in the teens and 20s. Have a great night tomorrow windy with isolated showers and falling temperatures. Wind w 2040. High 62 tom. Night a few sprinkles flurries are possible, staying windy. Wind nw 2040. Low 29 and much cooler. High 40 alo 29 sunday mostly sunny and seasonably cool. High 41 low 21 monday partly cloudy. High 45 low 23 tuesday showers. High 47 low 34 wednesday chance of showers. High 45 low 40 thursday partly cloudy. High 45 low 34 friday partly cloudy high 46 low 30 changes are heading our way. After new record highs across portions of eastern iowa a cold front trump has offered the job of National Security adviser to retired Lieutenant General michael flynn. Theres no word on whether flynn has accepted. And trump is set to meet with mitt romney this weekend, with speculation that hes under consideration for secretary of state. Abcs maggi rulli reports. Its another full day for trumps Transition Team . And while there are rumors that thi president elect himself tweeted today that the team is fantastic. As president elect donald trump prepares for his new role in the white house were seeing him mend fences with old rivals. Sources tell abc news that trump is considering governor mitt romney for secretary of state. Shocking news when you consider romney recently had this to say of trump sot romney think of Donald Trumps personal qualities, the misogyny, the absurd third grade theatrics. The feeling clearly mutual sot trump i mean, mitt romneys made a total fool of himself. Also up for secretary of state . Another former foe Govenor Nikki Haley of south carolina. She orginally supported marco rubio now a change of heart . The two meeting in trump tower today part of a full day of meetings mainly focused on Foreign Policy and National Security including trumps first face to face with a foreign leader Prime Minister abe from japan. Nats the meetings continue yet so does the backlash. Democrats still up in arms over trumps choice of Stephen Bannon as white house counseler . House elect mike pence today to talk to trump about rescinding the appointment over bannons ties to the alt right and White Nationlists also under fire . His relationship with son in law jared kushner. Its against the law for trump to appoint a Family Member for a job at the white house . But the Transition Team is reportedly looking into kushner serving as an unpaid advisor . Claiming its been done before i know the bush sons were very involved in their fathers administration ; one became president of the United States o c close when asked when we would be hearing more when other president ial candidates also made their first choices. Maggie rulli abc News Washington coming up next in sports, scott will feature the athlete of the week. And hell also have highlights from the hawkeyes and panthers in their games tonight. Stay with your 24 hour news seton hall. The hawks off and running early nicolas baer with the nice look to tyler cook for the flush. And iowa took a 1512 lead on the baer trey from the corner. And then checkout the feed from peter jok to the freshman then jok dials up the long ball and iowa led 4442 at the half. And what a second half for the freshman cook with the spin move and the left handed throw down for two of his points. Another look wow what an athlete. But too many breakdowns for the hawks defense and seton hall outscore iowa. Uni took Arizona State in orlando and they go right inside to bennett cook to get them started and from behind the arc. The pride and joy of western Dubuque Spenser Haldeman connects and then former iowa city west allstarter Jeremy Morgan for 3 of his game high 20 and it was raining threes checkout the rainbow bomb from haldeman to beat the shot clock. And the former tv 9 athlete of the week was 33 in the first half and the panthers led by 8 at the break. More of the same in the second half Klint Carlson for three of his 19. And then haldeman with back to back points and uni beat Arizona State 8263. They will play at 6 tomorrow against oklahoma. Its championship week at the unidome. Josh starts our coverage with the 8 man title game. First up, don bosco was hoping to win its 2nd state title in School History facing harrislake park in the 8 man title game. First drive for the dons, Brandon Bagby finds Kendall Becker who does his best david tyree impersonation of the helmet catch. What a grab. First down, and it would 2nd quarter action, Austin Svoboda takes the snap. Looking for a hole on the outside, he somehow breaks free and hes off to the races. He takes it 45 yards to the house, its his 3rd touchdown of the game. Don bosco took a 2414 lead at halftime. What a day for svoboda, 180 yards rushing and four touchdowns. This one seals the deal as don bosco wins the 8man title with a 4821 victory. I remember the feeling when my the same thing. Its incredible. Theyve had a taste of the championship when they were freshman, then last year they had the bittersweet taste. Obviously, the offseason is a big testament to these guys. In class a, Gladbrook Reinbeck looking to repeat as state champs, facing bishop garrigan. Hunter lott on the quarterback keeper. He bounces off some tacklers and scores. Gladbrook takes a 1413 lead. That would be the score at halftime. 4th quarter, rebels down 1914. On 4th and 7, lott throws a perfect ball to Matt Johannsen for the 23yard touchdown. Gladbrook with the lead up 2019. The defense forced a turnover on downs. And on another 4th down, lott hits erik knaack for the first down and to take a knee and repeat as state champions winning 2019. Thats awesome. I went to all the juniors and everybody else that was playing that wasnt a senior and just told them, thank you for letting finish my season like that because thats awesome. from the uni dome in cedar falls, Josh Christensen tv9 sports. And finally its time for another edition of the kcrg tv9 athlete of the week sponsored by cedar rapids toyota. Hudson 64 senior kiley deberg led the entire state of iowa in kills with a whopping 698. She also led the state in aces with 112. Title game and will play for illinois next year. 698 kills thats mindboggling how do you get to that number down i have to rely a lot on everyone else that plays like a defense hit the ball to our setter to have a settable hit and it helps to be 64 right yes now they know youre going to get the ball a lot of times how do you get in around the blocker . Being tall he and then being smart because i have played how many years now being able to place the ball where people arent helps lot. What is it like to play in the state volleyball tournament its crazy down there at its unbelievable like doing this i senior year is really incredible and all the memories are made with it are really awesome. Since youve got probably a foot on me were going to try a serving challenge youre the best in the if i can beat you alright okay. It was the dumpster challenge first one to serve it in the dumpster wins and i thought it won right here. Youve got to be kidding me. And i new kileys next serve chanching. I just whipped a shirt old man thanks scott. One last look at the forecast, joe. Changes are heading our way. After new record highs across portions of eastern iowa a cold front heads east. As the front moves through the wind shifts to the west northwest and starts a temperature drop that lasts into saturday morning. The winds will be strong from 2040 mph and gusty. Make sure you take a jacket to work and school on friday as you will be glad you did on the way home. Highs for the weekend remain in the 30s and 40s with overnight lows in the teens and 20s. Have a great night tonight partly cloudy and mild. Wind s 1020. Low 59 tomorrow windy with isolated showers and falling temperatures. Wind w 2040. High 62 thanks joe. Thanks for joining us for dicky from hollywood, its Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight billy crystal. From how to get away with murder, alfred enoch. This week in unnecessary censorship. And music from jeezy featuring french montana. Now, stay right where you are. Heres jimmy kimmel . [ cheers and applause ] jimmy hi, everybody. Welcome. Im jimmy, im the host of this ho show. Thanks for watching