Sidewalk has been arraigned. 24year old Lakeisha Holloway faces murder, hitandrun and child abuse charges. She stood in shackles in court this morning and did vot enter a plea during her brief court appearance. She barely spoke and nodded to acknowledge that she understood shell remain in jail while both sides investigate the crash sunday that killed a woman and injured dozens of people. The Prosecutor Says more charges are likely. Activists are planning a black lives matter demonstration that they say could bring hundreds of protesters to minnesotas mall of america this afafrnoon. The protest is aimed at drawing attention to the Police Shooting death last month of a black minneapolis man, jamar clark. The 24yearold was shot by Police Responding to an assault complaint. The mall sought a court order blocking the planned protest. A judge barred three organizers from attending, but said she doesnt have the power to prevent others from showing up to demonstrate. Predicted this year than ever before. This was the scene this morning at one of the nations busiest airports chicago ohare. Triplea projects the number of yearend holiday travelers will top 1010 million for the first time on record. The biggest reason . Prices are way down. N the air and on the road. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez reports. Gonna go to texas. The more hectic holiday hustle. Driven by rising incomes. And low gas prices. For the first time in six years. Regular unleaded. Averaging under. Two dollars a gallon. The lowest. In lubbock, texas. A dollar64. The highest. In orange county, california. Tw oninety. Less out of my pocket thats for sure. Airfares. For the top 40 domestic routes are. Six percent lower. This holiday season. Averaging 174 dollars roundtrip. But the price of hotels. And rental cars. Is. Up. Lightly. Clouds will be thick on our tuesday with the chance of a wintry mix of precipitation thorugh most of the morning as a low Pressure Center passes to our south. Depending on how Cool Temperatures stay, we may see the mix linger into the afternoon. Once that system moves out, things stay pretty quiet through our Christmas Eve. Weather adlib sioux citys first female firefighter is being laid to rest today. Funeral services were held this morning for jeanne vakulskas, who served with the department from 1985 until 2007. She died at her home on sunday at the age of 63. A visitation friends and family remembered vakulskas as a trailblazer. But her son has a different take. Mom has always been very modest about what she accomplished, said jerry plathe, vakulskas son. And i know as a young boy growing up, she was just mom. You know she wasnt this figure that i you know that i realized what she accomplished later in life. Well have more on how jeannes s iends and colleagueeare rerembering her tonight on news four. Its the season of giving, and the Salvation Army is helping hundreds of siouxland families again this year. As ktivs tiffany lane shows us, its all possible thanks to the generosity of siouxlanders. Been an important part of the work of the Salvation Army to make sure that children have a Merry Christmas and that their families can gather together around the table on Christmas Day, major von vandiver, Commanding Officer of the Salvation Army of siouxland said. Su for many families here, they say christmas just wouldnt be the same without the kind donations from the Community Like this one. Its been hard this year, said kayla waite, a resident of sioux city. My husband was injured and so were struggling a little bit. And its nice to have people that help and so my kids will have a good christmas. A three Year Old Girl maybe, books. Parents chose gifts for their children from all types of toys thatatere donated by tristate residents and organizations. S. The Salvation Army also purchased food from its red kettle donations. It shows that a lot of people care and you know they like to help out the ones, when youre down and out, you need an extra hand helping you, said steve hanner, a sioux city resident. A message that leaves positive cheer during this time of giving. Thank you. Merry christmas. In sioux city, tiffany lane, you can still help out. The Salvation Army red kettles will be in front of stores through tomorrow, Christmas Eve. Ccindustries has given 37 thousand dollars to help upgrade Woodbury County emergency services. The donation will be put toward three projects keynote speakers for the fire and ems conferences in the spring, the Regional Hazardous Material Team vehicle and anhydrous ammonia detectors for each Fire Departments in the county that doesnt already have one. It helps us. It helps reduce the amount of money we have to ask for from the tax payers. It gives us new, modern equipment to work with and in the case of the safety speakers, its an opportrtity to come back and re emphasize how important safety is for everything we do, sasa Woodbury County dirrctor of emergency services, gary brown. Performance contractors donated onethousand dollars that be used to upgrade facilities at the Climbing HillPublic Safety center ted cruz says a Washington Post cartoon depicting his 5 and 7yearold daughters as should be offlimits in campaigns. The cartoon, which criticized cruz for using his children in a tv ad, depicted cruz as an organ grinder dressed as santa and his daughters as dancing monkeys. The newspaper pulled the cartoon yesterday from its websbse. Cruz told reporters in tulul today that he has thick skin but the cartoon, in his words, ticks me off. Last night in the western us, a mystery in the sky that lit up social media. People from las vegas to california caught a glimpse of something mysterious streaking across the sky. And it wasnt reindeer. Nbcs willie geist reports. Nevada and california overnight. Social media lighting up like the sky. From the scared. Tweeting, i thought it was a missile or something crazy looked like a plane on fire to the supernatural. Ufo in las vegas . . And just santa on a test flight. Sot dr ed krupp Griffith Observatory these days people want to find a conspiracy in everything when in fact the universe itself is pretty much a marvel. In this case, the truth. Was. Out there. Us Strategic Command confirming the light show came from the remains of a russian sl4 rocket body after mondays supply launch from kazakhstan. After soaring across the sky, its remains eventually broke apart on reentry into the atmosphere. Somewhere over arizona it comes just a month after another Missile Launch created a mysterious streak across the western sky. Its just one of 16,000 objects stratcom is tracking in nearearth orbit. Sot dr ed krupp Griffith Observatory we see Something Like this in los happen all around the planet every day. Light rain has been falling in parts of siouxland. Will there be ice or snow . Stay tuned for the forecast from meterologist tj springer, up next. Currently with announcer one candidate tough enough to take on the bully. Jeb bush donald, youre not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency. Thats not going to happen. applause announcer one candidate tough enough to take on isis. Jeb will destroy isis. And keep america safe. Jeb bush the United States should not delay in leading a Global Coalition to take out isis with overwhelming force. Announcer tested and proven adership matters. Jeb bush. Right to rise usa is responsible for the content of this message. Paris theres a lot to do on a dairy farm. Nobodys gonna do it for you. You have to get out there and do it yourself. Bernie sanders is a wellknown friend of family farms. Bernie cannot be bought out by big money. Its time for our next president to get in there, roll up his sleeves, take off the gloves, and take on wall street, take on big business, take on big money, and get the working class back to where they should be. Hehe a rock. Sanders im Bernie Sanders and i approve this message. Tj, parts of siouxland have seen weather makeer. A system is expected to move out of the four Corners Region towards us on Christmas Day and yet again, gives us a chance of that mix of rain and snow during the day. As conditions cool, we could see some light snow from friday night into saturday. Then our more active weather pattern continues with another chance of snow coming our way from sunday night into monday and that one may be the biggest of the systems over the next 7 days. Farm markets are coming up, plus a look at wall street. And responsible eironmental stewardship. Or corporate welfare . Theres a debate over billions of dollars in tax breaks for companies that produce energy the feferal budget just passed by congress includes 600 billion dollars in tax breaks for a number of industries. Companies to Sell Crude Oil overseas in exchange for tax breaks on solar and wind energy. But some in washington say we can no longer afford 14 billion in tax breaks over the next ten years for wind energy. An older technology. Tracie potts has more. Hannah hunt American Wind Energy association that includes jobs in construction in development in maintenance and also in cons ah in manufacturing. One group that advocates for limited government calls the tax break corporate welfare. christine harbin Deputy Director federal Affairs Americans for prosperity theyre spending millions of dollars lobbying congress in order to slip these extensions of the wind production tax credit into these end of year deals. Terry and bonnie doran live close to a wind farm in pennsylvania. They worry about the impact on property values. Terry doran save our allegheny ridges most people came here for quiet solitude they didnt come for an industrial site. Weighing the need for more renewable energy. Against added taxpayer costs. And the impact on neighbors. Tracie potts nbc news. Stocks opened higher today, led by big gains in oil and Gas Companies as the price of crude moves higher. Still ahead on news four at noon. A warm, feel good story for the holidays. A 94year old man who served his country decades ago and who lives all alone. Learns there still are a few caring people out there. Heres a live lolo at west lake okoboji skycam. In california, what started out as a welfare check on an elderly man. Ended with an outpouring of Christmas Kindness the World War Two veteran says hell never forget. Kimberly cheng brings us this heart warming story into his apartment, where they found him safe and well. The World War Two veteran has trouble hearing and told them he didnt realize anyone was worried about him. officer abel torres lapd he told us that you know not too many people stop by anymore. The officers left. But something about mr. Perry stayed with them. officer natali nunez lapd hes a vet, a woror war ii vet, hes 94 years old. Hes here alone. His familys across the country. He could be anybodys grandpa. And when they passed by this tree lot at the end of their shif they had the same idea. officer natali nunez lapd we just felt like he needed some holiday cheer. It was one am. The lot was just about closed. officer natali nunez lapd we started yelling out to the employees in there and they came out to the gate, to the fence. They let us in. When the owner heard the story. officer abel torres lapd the gentleman gave us a Christmas Tree and two sets of lights, some mistletoe and candies. ] the officers drove the tree to mr. Hermans kimberly chchg reporting then they came back monday armed with presents donated b bother ofofcers. nats one more. Thank you. Police calls dont always end up like this. officer natali nunez lapd it was just nice to be able to do something nice for a vet. officer abel torres lapd and hopefully we can give him something that shows that you know hey, youre loved. Youre cared about. Memorable. Lifechanging. For all the right reasons. herman perry world war ii veteran i will never forget this. That was Kimberly Cheng reporting from venice, california. Still ahead elf on a shelf. Only, its not an elf; its a principal. And its not a shelf; its a roof. Its been her fight for twenty years. Something is wrong with our Healthcare System and it needs to be fixed. Then, it was about Health Reform and getting eight million kids covered. Now, its about stopping republicans from repealing obamacare, and taking on Insurance Companies to bring down drug prices. Im not going to let any family be deprived of healthcare. Im not going to let the republicans rip up obamacare and throw it away. Can come in and make that donation and make it very quickly. The blood center here in sioux city is located right next to hobby lobby in the southern square complex x t there. We are open every day from 7 am until 6 pm. Were even going to be open on Christmas Eve until 2 30. If you have a little lull in the morning you can come in and donate blood and give that gift of life, the best gift you can give this christmas. We also have our blood mobiles go out every single day around siouxland. You can check our website lifeservebloo dcenter. Org to see when were going to be in your town or workplace. You did my job for me, she gave you the website. Heres the phone number 8002874903 for life serve blood center. Claire thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for joining us around siouxland. And finally today, this image from sheldon, iowa, where East Elementary School has its own elf on a shelf. Or rather elf on the roof. Principal Jason Groendyke is getting into the Christmas Spirit by supervising from the roof. Making sure all the boys and obviously, principal groendyke claire thank you for what