but referred us to a recent article in the register. 6:24. in that article, it said that des moines had reached out to waterloo and a principal and a teacher had given a positive reference. but in the article, waterloo school leaders say they never received a formal reference request from des moines. at the time, districts were not required to conduct criminal background checks of new hires. that changed in 2014. but the iowa board of educational examiners - which licenses teachers in the state - can't legally share criminal backgrounds with districts. and the board only revokes s aching licenses for certain criminal convictions, which is why madson was able to still teach after pleading guilty to trespassing. that's why referevce checks are so vital. waterloo schools provided kcrg-tv9 with its two-page document for how administrator s screen potential candidates. but few districts are willing to talk about such a sensitive topic. " i thinkhwhere we've seen problems, in education in general and, maybe across iowa, is when people don't do their reference checks." leaders with iowa city community schools shared their process for screening job candidates. a " we actually call, at least 4 references, for every certified staff member and we've been known to take site visits for some directors and superintendents positions.`we adhere to a very strict hiring process a a i think process is important. " yet honesty and being forth-right on a reference check. " sometimes it's what they dont say...or don't ask..." can be offset by a district's need to protect itself, legally, if offering a bad reference regarding an employee. cedar rapids attorney john jacobsen acknowledges that, for a reference, protecting the district can be the first priority. " what information can be given to a prospective employer? what were the terms of the dismissal or the termination of employement? was there a non-disclosure agreement? there's a lot of things you may not know about that that determines if a school can or simply won't give you any further information on theheasis or terminal orr dismissaamay be. " pedersen says, unlike should be up front -- and he believes they are. " we're fortunate in that, in our profession, we do get reliable information from other principals and other superintendents and ototr administratorr because they want the same in return." behavior from school employees to students that does not lead to an arrest. " one of the things we struggle with as a staff isis undedetand where you cross the line into the world of work and personal life." amid facebook, twitter, instagram and texting, the superintenden t said the iowa city district encourages staffers and students to use e-mail when communicating outside of the classroom. that's up to 14,000 student email addresses, district-wide. " we think it's fairly well worth it in terms of having thatt conversation take place where we archive the messages. " school leaders also stressed that, with their reference checks, they will go through an applicant's twitttt, facebook and instragram accounts -- stressing that "nothing is really private any more". many disciplinary protected from open records - meaning the public may only learn of an incicint if criminal charges are filed. what makes reference checks even more important is for non- licensed positions in schools... people like janitors or support staff... when a less rigorous criminal background check is required. chris earl, kcrg tv 9 news. meteorologist joe winters joins us. joe, we need some sunshine tomorrow. as a major winter storm moves east across the great lakes and ohio valley our weather remains gray, but quiet. highs pressure moves in from the plains into the upper midwest later on thursday. this allows our winds to diminish later trsday and sets us up for a great s srt to the weekend. sunshine is still in store for saturday as highs rebound well into the 50s. have a super night! tonight: partly cloudy, windy low: 22-28 winds: nw 15-30tomorrow: partly cloudy, windy high: 33-39 winds: nw 15-30 back to you. johnson county officials want jail diversion campus. today the sheriff, county attorney, area police chiefs and other officials discussed the proposal. the campus would include a shelter, psych units and a sobering facility. there are no projections on cost or location. the county attorney says the campus is better than locking them up in jail. "it's beneficial to the law enforcement officers and agencies in terms of saving money and the amount of time they spend dealing with people who are intoxicated, dealing with mental health crisis, having the collaborative approach is a really great way to go for everyone." the county also hopes to add crisis intervenenon teaea of law enforcement to respopo to people with mental health issues. dubuque wants local colleges to help pay for the city's late night public bus program. the le offers rides to downtown area on friday and saturday nights. in 2013, the city got a grant from the state to cover the costs, but that money is running out. and the city says sincece5 percentntf the riders are college students, the colleges should help pay. " but as we've gone forward, they really are the heavy users. so it really makes sense that they would pay the bulk of it. rather than the e xpayers would pay based on what they use." dubuque says students from loras college and the university of dubuque tend to use that night ride more often than clarke university students. many areas of cedar rapids are expanding and changing. but that growth also brought its own growing pains. mayor ron corbett addressed d e growth during his state of the city speech today. he says a big part of the city's 'arts, culture and entertainment district' expansion is due to the newbo neighborhood. what started as a few restoration projects and programs snowballed to become the ever-growing community. kcrg t-v nine's jill kasparie has its pros and cons. even on a cold day you'll find people spending time in newbo -- from getting a cup of coffee to getting a haircut. " 4:30:55 things are just constantly changing down here." "4:38:48 every time you come down to newbo, it seems like there's a new building going up or an old building that's being renovated." it can be hard to even keep up with all of the projects. "4:51:45 the newbo station project will be finishing up shooly." the main street office is definitely marking all of the progress. "4:52:09 the depot behind the city market is well underway and will bring another opportunity for some additional retail units, as well as, some office space and some additional housing. " but just as more people come into the newbo area, one salon is leaving. redhead salon is closing and the team is moving to luxe salon in hiawatha. owner morgan holtz says she enjoyed the change. she's especially looking forward to more parking. "that will be really convenient for clients to be able to not have to battle the parking down here with new things coming in - that't'just something that comes with it. " " mayor corbett says parking is a growing pain - one the city is keeping an eye on. " when flood protection is done and we are going to start seeing some work this summer down in the newbo area, that's going to open up some additional properties for development and we are going to incorporate parking when it comes to forecasting those develment needs. " they're needs that keep coming along with all the people as development continues. "it's really become a destination not for just cedar rapids residents to have something to enjoy in this community but also for visitors from afar. " that was kcrg t-v nine's jill kasparie reporting. main street office says newbo city market brings in about 3-hundred- thousand people each year. lawmakers are trying to get to the bottom of troubled teens in iowa. we look at the steps they're taking to learn what happened in keokuk. badgers and hawkeyes tangled in a tough fight on the court at carver hawkeye arena. we've got highlights from the iowa - wisconsin game in sports. stay with t-v an investigation is now underway into alleged child abuse at a former iowa boarding school for troubled teenagers. and today the house e vernment oversight committee said it'll look into why the school operated without any state oversight. the school was recently closed after allegations a staff member sexually assaulted a student. authorities raided the school january 28th and d e investigation expanded to other possible criminal activity and abuse. "in the past, often when there is an investigation going on, there are sometimes we can't talk to who we want to because they are under investigation by other authorities and so we get what we can take and try to put it together through that." lawmakers will also interview the iowa department of human services and the iowa department of education. former governor chet culver shared his concerns today about iowa's transition to a privately managed medicaid system on april first. "right now it costs about 130 million dollars, or only 4 percent of the medicaid budget for administration. under the contracts this administration has signed, we're culver spoke with lawmakers in des moines. he's also concerned that there's no oversight in place yet for the new medicaid system. yesterday, the federal centers for medicare and medicaid services approved iowa's move to private management of medicaid, but it delayed implementation another month till april first. a bill to protececbike riders on roads is moving to the iowa house. today the senate passed the measure that would require motorists to change lanes when passing a bicycle. it would be the same as a vehicle passing another vehicle. but it would not apply when a bicycle is in a specific bike lane. iowa is known for wrestling, and people get excited when big events come to wn. d that excitement's really big for the big ten wrestling tournament and the u-s olympic trials so, let me get this straight -- u.s. cellular has the phone you're looking for, a network that's built to give you coverage way out here where the other guys don't, and 6 gigs for only $40 a month. so, why on earth would you ever go with one of those other guys? switch to u.s. cellular now and get 6 gigs of data for $40 a month plus get $300 back. snow and blizzard conditions made for ttvel nightmares today. this is video of the mess along i-74 in danville, illinois, near the border with into the ditch. in chicago, airports cancelled more than 11 hundred flights. and the high winds kicked up strong surf along lake michigan. winds remain brk both tonight and tomorrow, still comimi in at 15 to 30 mph from the northwest. we ought to see more sunshine tomorrow, though, along with cooler highs in the 30s. we're back around 40 on friday, with 50s ahead for the weekend. saturday looks lili the pick day with more sunshine before more clouds roll in on sunday. we'll cool down again early next week. tonight: partly cloudy, windy low: 22-28 winds: nw 15-30tomorrow: partly cloudy, windy high: 33-39 winds: nw 15-30tomorrow night: low: 21-27 winds: nw 5-15friday: partly sunny high: 40 - low: 24 saturday: mostly sunny, mild high: 58 - low: 29 sunday: mostly cloudy high: 54 - - w: 44 monday: partly cloudy high: 44 - low: 29 tuesday: mostly cloudy high: 40 - low: 28 wednesday: chance of rain/snow high: 40 - low: 28 thanks joe. while the weather was calm here today, deadly tornados hit parts of the south. up next we'll hear from a man who survived a deadly tornado in virginia. and a shootout in cllorado claims the life of f sheriff's deputy. find out why authohoties say this likely stems from a federal lawsuit. "it's a tragic day. a clark county sheriff's deputy has a community in colorado is remembering a 13 year veteran of the park county sheriff's office. a homeowner today when he and other deputies tried to serve him an eviction notice. it happened in bailey, colorado, about 45 miles west of denenr. authorities say the shootout left another deputy in critical condition. the third was not seriously hurt. the homeowner, martin wirth, also died. authorities s y wirth filed a federal lawsuit against colorado's governor, attorney general, and a judge, saying state foreclosure laws are unconstitutional. a judge dismissed the lawsuit in septembebe the national weather service says storms spawned tornados in some southern states today that killed at least six people. that includes three in waverly, virginia, where this video is from. virginia state police say they found a two year old and two men, ages 50 and 26, about 300 yards from their mobile home. one man explained what it was likikwhen the tornado hit. "the wind actually picked the car up and dropped us down and all i could do is hold on tight and tell my uncle i love there also were reports of possible tornados in florida and north carolina. wrestling tickets are going quickly for two major events coming to iowa city. the e iversity of iowa athletics department said sales are going great for both the big ten championships and u-s olympic team trials. fewer than 25 hundred tickets remain for the collegiate tourment on march h and 6th. as for the trials, ticket sales are ahead of schedule compared to when they last held the event. these are pictures from e 2012 triaa. this year's event is april 9th and 10th. still ahead, this was senior night in cedar falls for the panthers. and the hawkeyes were back home against the badgers. stay with your 24 hour to co off the red hot badgers tonight at carver. jarrod uthoff playing against his old team came out firing with the nba trey for three of his 11... and how bout peter jok with steal on defense and that triggers break and jok trailing the play wide for the triple to give iowa the lead. but wisconsin with big time talent inside like ethan happ... i don't you stop that.. and then pete started to go off and he is so streaky he scored 17 of his 21 in the first half but wiscy led by one saddled with foul trole in the first half and he beats the shot clock buzzer with the bomb to give iowa six point lead...but the badgers came storming back to regain the lead.. kahlil iverson with the double pump throw down.. almost brought the hoop down.. iowa answers woooo with a career high 18 rebounds to clemmons to give the hawks the lead. but it was all wisconsin down the stretch nigel hayes for three and iowa with some costly turnovers and the badgers beat the hawkeyes 67-59.. iowa falls out of first in the big 10 at 11-4. it was senior night in cedar falls. the panthers hosted indiana state and honored 3 big time players. josh has more. matt bohannon, wes washpun and paul jesperson have helped uni in 105 overall contests in the last five seasons... and they went out in style in their final game at the mcleod center early first half action, paul jesperson does what he's done his whole career at uni... buries a deep three to put the panthers up 7-5 then uni starts some back door cuts... bennet koch throws it down with authority to fire up the crowd... then it's iowa city west grad wyatt lohaus with the reverse layup... panthers up five then wes washpun starts to heat up... he drives the hoop, loses the ball, but he gets it back and knocks down the step back jumper... closing seconds of the first half, wes drains the long two... the cedar rapids washington grad had 16 points as the panthers led 34-19 at halftime 2nd half, linn-mar grad matt bohannon gets the hot hand... 3-ball corner pocket is good... then he makes it two in a row... this is why he's uni's all-time 3--point leader, he hits three consecutive triples.. he had 14 as uni wins 66-44 to send the seniors out with a win the uni niors have been fun to watch. first class guys on and off the court. they have a new athletic director at uni. david harris will replace troy dannen. harris was the asssociate ad at iowa state and he knows he will face some financial challenges in cedar falls. we have to build those relationships in the community and then look at strategically what our plans our going to be. we are going to have revenue in order to make some decisions. we probably won't be to do everything we want to do but we will have to set some priorities. sot :20 oc: "priorities " bluders bunch on the road state 81-68, ally disterhoft the led the hawks with 21. and the iowa state women lost k-state 68-53. thanks scott. one last look at the forecast, joe... as a major winter storm moves east across the great lakes and ohio valley our weather remains gray, but quiet. highs pressure the upper midwest later on thursday. this allows our winds to diminish later thursday and sets us up for a great start to the weekend. sunshine is still in store for saturday as highs rebound well into the 50s. have a super night! tonight: partly cloudy, windy low: 22-28 winds: nw 15-30tomorrow: partly cloudy, windy high: 33-39 winds: nw 15-30 thanks joe. we're just days away from the red carpet here on kcrg-tv9. and you can take part in our oscars contest. go to kcrg dot com to register for our "movie madness" and choose who will take home an academy award. you'll even compete against kcrg t-v nine anchors. then watch the oscars sunday night at 7. thanks for joining us for we hope you'll be with us again tomorrow. and now abc's "j"jmy kimmel live." >> dicky: from hollywood, it's "jimmy kimmel live"! tonight, chef gordon ramsay from "underground" jurnee smollett-bell and music from wolfmother with cleto and the cletones. here's jimmy kimmel! [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: i'm jimmy, i'm the host. thank you for watching. thanks to all of you for coming. welcome to hollywood.. home of the oscars, which are right across the street. home of the walk of fame which is right in front of our building. home of dozens of homeless spider men who live literally on those stars. are you paying attention to the elections? how can you not? it's dond trump against all reasonable expectation -- he's now the no kidding around favorite to become the republican nominee for president. he won the nevada caucuses last night. he didn't just win, he destroyed.