Cloudy high 4248 winds s 510 alo 45 dbq 42 iow 45tonight partly cloudy low 2935 winds s 510 alo 31 dbq 32 iow 34tomorrow olated pm showers high 4652 winds sw 515 alo o 7 dbq 46 iow 49tomorrow night chance of showers low 3137 winds w 515 alo 34 dbq 34 iow 34 thanks kaj. In 3 and a half weeks, all medicaid insurance in the state will be under private company control. For some, that deadline is too soon, and so a group of about 60 eastern iowans will go to des moines for todays legislative Oversight Committee meeting. Governor Terry Branstads plan to privatize calls for four outofstate companies to manage iowas medicaid system, january 1st. The states 560thousand users have until december 17th to sign up for one of the four plans within the new system. The governor said increased medicaid costs, which have gone up 73 percent since 2003, are driving the switch. Branstad says the change could save the state 51 million in the first six kcrgtv9s Forrest Saunders is live this morning in the truenorth parking lot. Forrest, this group is upset about the change . Concerns our stance e delay. As medicaid members we havent had time to consider what managed care really is because the information timeline is ridiculously fast and reckless. Lets delay this and take time to have the necessary discussion we should have had when he brought this up i ifebruary. It doesnt help that despite obvious and vocal concerns being expressed by many iowans each week governor branstad says weekly there is no reason to delay and providers are using scare tactics and misinformatio n. He has never even acknowledged we have valid concerns. Or maybe, hear your but i disagree. He wont even acknowledge we medicaid beneficiaries exist. Were pawns in his proposal and he doesnt listen to us. Our phrase is vulnerable not voiceless. Doing in des moines were attending the legislative oversigig Committee Meeting on the totoc. Our group is so large the capitol staff has had to make special arrangements for us. Were being seated in the first floor rotunda with equipment for a in a room just a few feet away but will only h hd about 20 in the audience. There are many people statewide very angry over this. It will be attending room only. Several legislators have expressed a desire to speak with us briefly too. Goal to demonstrate we do have a voice. This is our healthcare and governor branstad is suppose to be acting on behalf of all iowans, not just the ones he seems worthy. We will be showing through numbers this is a big problem and people are mad. Some of the states most vulnerable iowans are willing to do a 12hour day to say this is not okay. This trip was my brainchild during the november 10th first cms listening post teleconference the chaotic one. I ordered a charter bus knowing we had to get to des moines for this meeting. It was too expensive for us. I approached a donor and they agreed to fund these buses and pay for lunch for us. This donor hes been instrumental in allowing us to use ouroices this is a ragtag grassroots effort that came together in three weeks. All pulling together over a common bond. To give you an idea how crazy this is. I got my longg promiseseenrollment packet this monday. I was autoenrolled into amerigroup. There is a pretty and colorful one sheet flyer on each mco. The first two special perks of being with amerigroup is a free boys and girls Club Membership and a few phone for qualified members with 250 minutes to call friends, family, and doctors. The office so comes with a whhpping 100 lifetime minutes. I called to Club Membership is free in cedar rapids or at very mos 12 a year and anyone who qualified for medicaid automatically qualifies for a free cell phone through government programs. This is the kind of smoke and mirrors branstad and the mcos are ppaying. Were sick, not stupid yet, ranstad doesnt see this as miscommunicat ion. You can not judge a book by its cover and this is no different. As you open this proposal up and look at it it is a mess branstads rush is to avoid iowans being able to have time to open it up and uvderstand it. That is wrong on so many levels. ll be talking with anottr member of this Group Heading to des moines in r next half hour. Guys back tou. S foest sauers. Thanks a lot. Thories two cedar rapids n died in a crash on interstate 80 in nebraska. E nebska state patrol says tworks crashed around 2 30 yesterday morning near the city of cozad. They say mtrucied to exit at a rest aree, t couldnt, and then mergeeback into traffic. 25 year old rn carrillo was driving a truckndrearendedthe semi. Carrilla his passenger,yrlroberto rciagonzales,th dd in the crash. A cedar falls man faces a 1stdegree arson charge r setting a fire that damaged three vehicles and a garage. E waterloo cedar falls uereprts nicholala kollasch is accused of setting a d dtached garage on fire behind 615 iowa street early thanksgiving morning. Investigators say a van parked near the garage was also on fire. Flames also spread to two cars nearby. Police say kollasch walked up to officers who were there and told them m d been in a fight with a person earlier in the day. They set the fire. Construction crews are closing two streets starting g day for the upper bebe Branch Restoration project. They are closing east 22nd street between prince and kniest street. And east 24th street between elm and wasasngton street. Those streets will be closed starrng at 10 this morning until friday evening. Parents of a st. Pauls Methodist ChurchChildrens Program in cedar rapids are asking for help. The parents day out Program Offers child care four hours a day, four days a week, at an affordable price. It gives parents who work parttime or stay at home the chance for a break. With talk of new renovation plans for the church and a lack of funding, there might not be an area to house the children during the next school year. The changes would affect more than 125 families. Now the parents want to let others know to see what can be done to keep the program going. It might seem like we have some time, but in reality when you are signing your children up for a preschool program, or this have about three weeks totoecide do we try to sign them m for a program that may or may not be there. St. Pauls has formed a task force to he address the situation. Those members are working on a recommendati on to present to the Church Council by the end of january. Santa knows exactly what some kids in eastern iowa want for christmas this year. This was lindale malls caring santa event yesterday. Itss quieter and more controlled environment to meet santa. The event is especially helpful for families who have kids with autism or other disabilities. It was perfect for the waseen familys oldest daughterer audrey, who was diagnosed with autism at age three. It was nice to come in before it got crazy. It was nice to to kind of not have to worry about losing audrey in the crowd; she tends to wander, so its kind of of nice to have it quiet. Hosting caring santa. An iowa city woman is devoting her later years in life to volunteering. 86yearold betty adams rarely misses a day of volunteer work at alexander elementary in iowa city. Shes been volunteering in the district for more than two decades. As kcrg tv nines Iowa City Bureau chief mark carlson explains, betty adams is not your typical volunteer. Im 86, i never realize im 86 until somebody asks me or i look in the mirror. Betty adams loves kids, and they love her too. He rarely makes it down a corridor without being stopped for a quick hug. At my age you like to be hugged, and its just priceless, its just priceless. Miss betty as they call her at alexander elementary has been volunteering in schools in Johnson County for the past two decades. I have very few people my age for friends because when i get home i i exhausted, so i dont go out. She doesnt go out because she has to be up in the morning. 5 days a week here. Helping kids to read one at a time literally picking them up and d delivering them to and from her designated space in the school. I give them a ride on my walker, and its funny, even the older kids who i dont read with want a ride on my walker. And even, ive given teachers rides. It just brings joy and a smile to our hearts every day, you see her walking in the door she just brings a smile to your face. Fromomtaff to students miss betty is a huge part of this school. But she says she wants nothing to do with this publicity all she wants is to inspire more people to volunteer. If just one person would say, i want to volunteer, and you dont have to go all day, if you just give an hour it means so much to the kids. And even though after 20 years of work, shes yet to collect a penny. Betty says she wouldnt have it any other way. This way i can do what i want to do. Because im free big laugh in iowa city, mark caason, kcrg tv nine news. Around this time of the year, many people take a break to be with family. Families facing cancer got a much needed break from their added stssors at a well need to watch for fog out there this morning. Some spots will see visibility reduced down to a quarter mile. Keep yourself visible with low beams and watch for wildlife. We will have more mi air for this week with highs mainly in the 40s through wednesday. There is also a small shower chance late tuesday into tuesday night. Plan on highs to return into the 50s for thursday and f fday with our next larger system moving in this weekend. This one should be mainly rain, but given cooler air and a pattern change coming, some wet snow is days away, the allimportant details cannot yet be resolved, and its important to stay tuned moving into next weekend in regardsso rain and or snow amounts. Temperatures should return to normal by next monday. Have a great week today am fog, partly cloudy high 4248 winds s 510 alo 45 dbq 42 iow 45tonight partly cloudy low 2935 winds s 510 alo 31 dbq 32 iow 34tomorrow isolated pm showers high 4652 winds sw 515 alo 47 dbq 46 iow 49tomorrow night chance of showers low winds w 515 alo 34 dbq 34 iow 34 well need to watch for fog out there this morning. Some spots will see visibility reduced down to a quarter mile. Keep yourself visible with low beams and watch for wildlife. We will have more mild air for this week with highs mainly break. Thats thanks to Mercy Medical centers hallperrine Cancer Centers annual Holiday Party yesterday. Guests enjoyed prizes, mes, food anana visit from santa. The night ended with a tour of the lights throughout town. This is the third year the Cancer Center has hosted that event. Looking back on the year,r,ost farmers in iowa had a good year for harvest. In todays agribusiness report, the state climatologist says there was just one abnormal month this year. But right now, res a look at todays opening farm markets. Good david geiger. Last week was the last for weekly iowa crop progress reports for the season. So i wanted to see how the overall year looked in terms of weather. And things for the most part have gone pretty well according to state climatologist harry hillaker. A fairly warm and dry spring allowed for timely planting. A fairly distributed rain fall during the summer with little excessive heat. Then a really long dry spell in the fall helped farmers with drying and harvesting crops. But overall a relatively wet year. And just a little on the warm side. Hillaker says the most abnormal part of the season was nonomber. It was an unusually wet month, also an unusually warm month. Ranks 10th warmest november in 143 years of records. Also, have to go back to 1992 to find a wetter november than what we just came through and yet in the midst of an unusually warm november we had a major snow storm back on november 20th, which was actually the biggest snow event weve had so`early in the season in iowa going all the ay back to 1957. The mamakets this week saw a good jump for grain traders. But the livestock side continues to shrink. I got a week recap from analyst jamey kohake. Weve seen a nice rally in the grain sector, led d mostly by the soy complex. Weve surged back to 9 dollars in the nearby contracts. I think youre probably going to see an increased level of farmer selling probably next week ahead of the monthly supply and demand report and see producers take advtage of that. Support has been coming from steady export business we had a fresh sell this morning to unknown destinations. But i think a little further higher push down corn and beans youre going to see a lot a lot of rmer selling as we finish a year off here. Its still a bloodbath, these lower prices surprisingly havent attracted a whole lot of new business yet. Hopefully that will occur. But theres just no traction in this thing, the packers have complete control of the market right now. Hopefully kind ofofet this fleshed out in here over the weekend. And just signal to the market that all we did this week was narrow the basis pretty much down to zero thats all. We started to see some Short Covering in the hogs finally despite not a whole lot of fresh bullish news at all. But theyre getting drug down with it obviously they still have big weights, big supplies right now but terribly oversold as expected. The food and agricucuure Organization Food price index dropped again in november according to the united nations. It averaged a hundred 56 point seven points in november. Down one point six percent from october. Except for sugar prices. All commodities dropped under the pressure of a strong dollar and since 2014. The overall price of food has dropped 18 percent. With meat hit hardest dropping by nearly a quarter percent. The senate followed house action last week. Passing the highway funding bill. In a 83 to 16 vote. The five year. Three hundred and five billion dollar measure aims to fix highways and transit across the country. It also includes a fix to three billion dollars in Crop Insurance cuts. President obama says he will sign the bill when it gets to his desk. A a that wraps up the s sw for today. Thanks for joining everyone ill see you again 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. 37 oc webtease copd is an incurable pulmonary disease, but for people who have it, managing your symptoms could be just a phone call away. In todays healthy life report, we take a look at a unique way some patients are improving their dayto well need to watch for fog out there this morning. Some spsps will see visibility reduced down to a quarter with low beams and watch for wildlife. We will have more mild air for this week with highs mainly in the 40s through wednesday. There is also a small shower chance late tuesday into tuesday night. Plan on highs to return into the 50s for thursday and friday with our next larger system moving in this weekend. This one should be mainly rain, but given cooler air and a p ptern change coming, some wet snow is also possible by sunday. Given that the system is still 57 days away, the allimportant details cannot yet be resolved, and its important to stay tuned moving into next weekend in regards to rain and or snow amounts. Temperatures should return to normal by next monday. Have a great week today am fog, partly cloudy high 4248 winds s s 10 alo 45 dbq 42 iow 45tonight partly cloudy low 2935 winds s 510 alo 31 dbq 32 iow 34tomorrow iow 49tomorrow night chance of showers low 3137 winds w w15 alo 34 dbq 34 iow 34 more than 11million americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or copd. But an estimated 24 million may have it and not know it, because they mistake some of the symptoms as signs of aging. There is no cure for co pd but doctors are testing out a new way of managing the disease. Fortyfive years of smoking have taken their toll on harold ridgeways health. At 76 yearsold he is learning to live with copd an incurable disease found mostly in smokers. Symptoms are similar to bronchitis. And even though they usually worsen over time, ridgeway is actually starting to feel better. I probably feel a whole lot younger than my 76 yearsold. Thats because he was one of 14 patients who took part in a uab Research Project to improve symptoms of copd. We thought, since we know ththt rehab and exercise improves functionality of the patients and reduces readmission rates, lets take the exercise program to the patients houses and try to make a difrence there. Doctors sent patients home with a smartphone. They used skype to coach them through simple pulmonary ercises while monitoring their blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation. A day, three days a week, for three months. You cant quit like you could if you were doing it on your own and got tired. They have totoo this two to three times a week. K. O for a majority of our patients thats a huge time and financial constraint which we can easily overcome by having them do this at home. In general, about 20 percent of people with copd are readmitted to a hospital within 30 days. But that wasnt the casfor any of the 14 patients in the study who, like ridgeway. Saw significant improvement in their symptoms. Im martie salt reporting. Trt 1. 38 oc std a couple of republican president ial candidates took on the topic of terrorism in cedar rapids. These spepehes came a day before president obama spoke to the nation about his plan for isis. Stay with your 24 hour news source, kcrgtv9. Its. Youre watching kcrgtv9. Now, source, this is kcrgtv9 news Early Morning news. What we can do and must do is make it harder for them to kill. President obama addresses the nation from the oval office on terrorism and guns. Medicaid debate. Eastern iowans arere headadg to des moines to bring their concerns with medicaid privatization to the governor. And smelling the roses. The hawkeyes are heading to the rose bowl on new years day to go headtohead against stanford. And heres a live look on our city cam this morning. Could be a foggy start to your day, depending on where you are in the viewing area. First, meteorologis t kaj omara alert forecast, kaj. Well need to watch for fog out there this moing. Some spots will see visibility reduced down to a quarter mimie. Keep yourself visible with low beams and watch for wildlife. We will have more mild air for this week with highs mainly in the 40s through wednesday. There is also a small shower chance late tuesday into tuesday night. Plan on highs to return into the 50s for thursday and friday with our next larger system moving in this weekend. This one should be