se just before 9 p-m last night. when officers arrived on scene, they didn't find any victims, and no one has come forward with injuries. but police tell us, they did find evidence of gunfire in the area. with less than 4 weeks left until the iowa caucuses, we all see the candidates flocking to iowa. each trying to build support to get iowans to head out on february 2nd to caucus for them. retired neurosurgeo n ben carson is making stops throughout eastern iowa today. the republican presidential candidate will meet with people at the isaac newton christian academy in cedar rapids at 10:30 in the morning. and then at the national motorcycle museum in anamosa. that's at 12:30 p-m. jeb bush is bolstering his team by adding 100 additional people to prepare for next month's caucuses. his campaign said the list includes current and former elected officials and other activists. the former florida governor is planning a campaign trip through iowa next week. the iowa republican caucuses winner in 2008 is continuing his tour across sigourney and oskaloosa this morning before heading to central iowa. the former arkansas governor has yet to recapture the moment of 8 years ago... " everything she touched, she made better. " former president bill clinton is campaigning in eastern iowa today -- for hillary clinton.. the 42nd president will be at the national czech and slovak museum and library in cedar rapids at 12:45 p-m. he will then meet with voters at the hotel julien in dubuque at 5pm. former secretary of state hillary clinton is of democrats, both iowa and nationally. upperclassmen at prairie high school will participate in a mock caucus this morning at the college community concert hall. will be discussing the critical issues of the day and also talk about their favorite candidates. the goal is to teach students about the real caucuses and why they're important. after serving 10 terms in the u.s. house, former congressman tom latham says he has cancer. the 67-year-old republican says doctors he said he is confident he can, in his words, "beat this and be back to full speed soon." voters first elected latham to congress in the republican wave of 1994. due to reapportionm ent, latham's central iowa districts shifted on him from the 5th to the 4th to, finally, the 3rd district for his final term. latham retired in january of 2015. the powerball jackpot... escalated quickly. now the prize is the highest it has ever been. no "jackpot winner" in wednesday's drawing -- that means saturday's jackpot will be worth about $675 million f while the jackpot winner will, eventually, bring home quite a haul -- some of that money doesn't go for prizes or the administrative costs. 25 cents of every dollar in iowa goes to the state's general fund. that fund goes toward different departments including education, law enforcement, and the iowa veterans trust fund. the state has controlled lottery operations since 1985, and has granted $1.6 billion to these causes. untoward organizations, think organized crime, they certainly weren't using the money for good causes. so states stepped in and said if this type of organization is going to exist for good not bad." with an eye-popping jackpot from yesterday, it's for the "powerball players". the odds remain the same, the big prize. in cedar rapidsdsake a moment to dream... "what if". "my winning ticket, hey!! what would i do? i would make sure all the people that are out here with signs have nice warm blankets and nice shoes for the winter." ticketsre two dollars, and the drawing is on saturday. that powerball jackpot would also bring in about 7 million $100 ills... yet cedar rapids police are telling people to "watch for fake $100 bills" that they've seen passed at week. city police bills. iowa city police showed us examples of the fake money. they say there are simple ways to identify a phony bill, such as with a black light. lieutenant mike brotherton says peop can also use special pens with ink that turns brown on fake money, and yellow on real money. "if there's no way to check it and you're uncertain, you should call the police department. we'd be happy to come check it out. we can certainly decipher if it's a counterfeit bill or not." lt brotherton says iowa city police will work with cedar rapids police, reviewing surveillance video from businesses where the bills have been used. he hopes that will lead them to a suspect. a black hawk county man faces up to 20 years in pornography. reinbeck admitted yesterday he had at least 7,000 images and 23 videos of child pornography on his computer. he said he received sexually explicit pictures of children under age 12 from 2001 to prison. a trench collapse near des moines killed a worker on wednesday as crews needed hours just to reach him. police in altoona say 30-year-old justin jorgensen died when the 12-foot deep trench he was working in collapsed around him. investigators say jorgensen was in the trench while another man was working with an excavator when the trench collapsed. "once we got here, we got here, the rescue crew for the altoona fire department got here, we could tell. we just made the visual ques that this was going to be a recovery not necessarily a rescue. we checked and did what we needed to do initially. but we were able to maek that determination." jorgensen worked for j-r-s excavating of st charles . state investigators will now look into how the accident happened. a north liberty jeweler says the current immigration system is keeping him from visiting his dying mother. harold van beek owns jewelry by harold and has been trying to become a u-s citizen for more than a decade. van beek says his e-2 visa lacks a stamp, which doesn't allow him to travel to see his 86-year-old mother. she was for heart failure on new years day in the netherlands. van beck says he would need to re-apply for a new visa before coming back to the u-s, putting his business at risk and forcing his wife and son into illegal status. van beek says he's losing hope in the immigration system. "i don't think i ask too much, the only thing that i am asking, let me come back in the same status that i am in right now just to say farewell to my mom, that's the only thing that i am asking." van beek says it appears the only way he will be able to see his mom one last time is if a federal lawmaker writes him a special bill. linn county public health is running out of space. so the county supervisors plan to discuss what to do about it on monday. a leading proposal includes putting up a new building on a vacant, county- owned lot on 7th street se. it's the site of the options of linn county building that the 2008 flood destroyed. some students at the university of iowa may have invented the future of brain surgery. if you're a fan of robots, listen up. kcrg-tv9's forrest saunders joins me at the desk this morning. forrest, what these incredible? yes, it is chris. and it will save doctors a lot of pain too. these students put it together for a senior project. though it's just a prototype, it could be the cutting edge when it comes to being under the knife. if you haven't seen the new star wars film, this droid bb-8 stole the show. a real cool robot, even if he's science fiction. "we thought getting it to move would be like the easiest part. but, it was pretty tough." this one isn't, though. you're looking at the creation of three ui computer engineering students. they built this bot for a senior project. the idea came from an ui doctor who said for years brain surgeons have faced a major annoyance in the or. "they use these big microscopes. they have these head pieces up here. when they're looking at the brain, they have to strain their neck and look through it."sometimes docs have to do that for up to ten hours. plus, surgeons have to try not to look away, for fear it would change what they're viewing. "this was definitely something that was needed. they're using very, very old microscopes." the robot is designed to replace all that. it's got cameras that can track example. the images are sent up into a headset, which the surgeon can wear, meaning whe doctor can move his or her head and not worry about losing what is being looking at. ct scans or mri images can be placed on top of the camera feed. and, here's the other cool thing, a hands free controller which allows the doc to adjust the bot without touching it. "they don't have to take their gloves off to move the robot around. it's all in the computer." these guys put it all together and wrote the computer code in a matter of months. now, that it's complete the prototype is good enough that patents have beee filed. no longer science fiction. this droid is science fact. "i've never heard of anything like this being done before. hopefully it helps people in the future." if you're a fan of video games, noticed a piece of tech in that story. the goggle headset the students are used is called the oculus rift. it's a virtual reality device for gaming that costs around $600 retail. it'll be available to the public later this year. kind of cool to see if this device catches on. yes, it's a neat invention . thanks a lot forrest. rth korea is sticking by its claim that the country tested a hydrogen bomb on tuesday. international leaders are concerned about those claims, and what the consequences would be if it was a hydrogen bomb. but right now, here's a look at good morning! plan on areas of fog and drizzle in theherea this morning, with a steady rain developing in the afternoon hours. rainfall amounts will generally be in the quarter to half inch range with temperatures holding steady in the mid-30s in many areas. we'll be seeing more rain on friday with a transition to light snow later friday night into at least the first accumulation s continue to look minor for saturday, though the wind will temperatures air of the season is on sunday morning with wind chill values as low as -20 in some locations. today: showers, areas of fog high: 33-39 winds: se 5-15 alo: 35 dbq: 36 iow: 36tonight: showers, areas of fo low: 30-36 winds: se 5-15 alo: 33 dbq: 32 iow: 34tomorrow: rain likely high: 34-40 winds: e 5-10 alo: 36 dbq: 37 iow: 39tomorrow night: rain/snow likely low: 24-30 winds: nw 5-15 alo: 26 dbq: 29 iow: 30 thanks kaj. plan on areas of fog and drizzle in the area this morning, with a steady rain developing in the afternoon hours. rainfall amounts will generally be in the quarter to half inch range with temperatures be seeing more rain on friday with a transition to light snow later friday night into at least the first half of saturday. at this time, accumulation s continue to look minor for saturday, though the wind will be picking up and the temperatures will be dropping. the coldest air of the season is still set to arrive on schedule on sunday morning with wind chill values as low as -20 in some locations. today: showers, areas of fog high: 33-39 winds: se 5-15 alo: 35 dbq: 36 iow: 36tonight: showers, areas of low: 30-36 winds: se 5-15 alal 33 dbq: 32 iow: 34tomorrow: rain likely high: 34-40 winds: e 5-10 alo: 36 dbq: 37 iow: 39tomorrow night: rain/snow likely low: 24-30 winds: nw 5-15 alo: 26 dbq: 29 iow: 30 a major department store is eliminating more than 4,500 positions. executives says its all part of a restructurin g plan more on that coming up in hydrogen bomb test, and those claims are being called into question. this as s international l leaders claims on the best way to deal with one of the world's most secretive societies. abc's lana zak has spent korea-- not likely a hydrogen bomb...that's the latest word from the intelligence community-- shin kyung-min, assistant administrator of the intelligence committee of national assembly " . this south korean lawmaker saying a hydrogen bomb should have registered at least 50 kilotons of power-- sot: joe cirinccione /it looks like this was more around 6 or 7 kilotons. it's far too small to be even a failed h-bomb. here's why...a hydrogen bomb is a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki. it has never been used in war. still the north korean government was celebretory on the eve of north korean leader kim jung un's birthday-- nats the international condemnation was swift--the un security council holding an emergency meeting and even their closet ally, china, rebuked north korea. the u-s immediately launched "nuclear sniffer" and surveilance planes, to help determine - what was tested... and how the us should respond "we will continue to work -- believe it or not -- with the chinese and the international community... but it is clear that even if not an h-bomb, this is the fourth time north korea has tested a nuclear device since president obama is promising to veto a bill that would repeal the affordable care act. the republican- led house passed the bill yesterday that would undo the health care law. republicans have tried more than than 60 times to pass the bill. but unlike past efforts, they used a special parliamentary move so senate democrats could not block the bill. this allowed the legislation that would repeal what is often referred to as "obamacare," and also defund planned parenthood, to reach the president's desk. now for a quick check on your weather with meteorologist kaj o'mara. plan on areas of fog and drizzle in the area this morning, with a steady rain developing in the afternoon hours. rainfall amounts will generally be in the quarter to half inch range with temperatures holding steady in the mid-30s in many areas. we'll be seeing more rain on friday with a transition to light snow later friday night into at least the first half of saturday. at this time, accumulation s continue to look minor for saturday, though the wind will be picking up and the temperatures will be dropping. the coldest air of the season is still set to arrive on schedule on sunday morning with wind chill values as low as -20 in some locations. today: showers, areas of fog high: 33-39 winds: se 5-15 alo: 35 dbq: 36 iow: 36tonight: showers, areas of fo low: 30-36 winds: se 5-15 alo: 33 dbq: 32 iow: 34tomorrow: rain likely high: 34-40 winds: e 5-10 alo: 36 dbq: 37 kely low: 24-30 nds: n5-15 alo: 26 db w: 30 c's kendis gibson and kayna itworth have this morning's america's money. good morning. topping "america's money" -- new concerns overnight about the floebl economy. >> the main chinese stock exchange shut down today. e second time this week because china's central bank again devalued the the currency. >> u.s. stock futured were dragged down. is a that wasn't very good the macy's. so the country's largest department store chain is cutting three dozen stores. >> they blame the strong dollar for disappointing holiday sales. yesterday's plunge in crude oil prices might be good news for you. with crude oil at its lowest point since the recession, analysts expect gas to drop another ten cents. >> the national average is holding steady. >> have a great day, everybody. sfx: rocket blasting off (ding) (dong) (ding) (ding) (ding) (ding) (ding) (ding) sfx: (countdown) 3, 2, 1 (ding) (ding) (ding) rocket eat up, buddy. you'll get it this time. yeah ok not too quick don't let go until i say so. i got you... start strong with the lasting energy of 100% it's a little more fine tuned than inspector gadget. and this robot helps doctors instead of police thanks to u-i students. a law going into effect next school year may force thousands of third graders to repeat the gradad it's meant to help raise students to the reading level in the state. a windstorm damaged a library in a small town in eastern iowa forcing the city to rebuild. now it's finished all thanks to the hard work of a few. good morning! it's 5:30 on thursday, january 7th. here is a live look at . first, meteorologis t kaj o'mara has your first alert forecast, kaj... plan on areas of fog and drizzle in tharea this developing in the afternoon