investigators say the suspect was armed with a rifle and threatened the children in the home. police have not identified the officer or the suspect. in south carolina, the jury has the case of a white police officer accused of shooting and killing a black man. officer michael slager shot and killed walter scott after he ran from a traffic stop in april of 2015. during closing arguments yesterday, slager's defense team told the jury a guilty verdict would send the wrong message to law enforcement. scott's family's attorney says that's not the "everybody knows that 90% of the officers out there are brave and doing their job, bravely in the community every day. but until we get guilty verdicts when we all know it is murder, the community is upset if they don't get justice. " slager says he shot scott because he feared for his life. an early morning chase in black hawk county reached speeds of 100 miles per it started around 2:45 this morning in the area of dunkerton road and raymond road -- east of waterloo. the driver took off and led officers on a pursuit through rural parts of black hawk and buchanan counties. the black hawk county sheriff's office says the driver even reached speeds of 75 miles per hour on gravel. the chase ended after the driver tried to avoid stop sticks and drove into a field. sheriff's deputies arrested 34-year-old troy postel vargason. he's facing several carrying weapons charge. no one was injured and no damage was done to any vehicles during the chase. a passenger in postel- vargason's vehicle was not charged. friends and family are raising money for the man a cedar rapids police officer shot earlier this month. they held a benefit for jerime mitchell. early in the morning on november 1st, officer lucas jones pulled over mitchell for a traffic stop near coe college. police say the two men got into some kind of altercation. mitchell, who was still inside his car. those close to mitchell say the shooting paralyzed him. a grand jury will determine whether officer jones will face charges. mitchell says he's incredibly thankful for the support he's received in a video call, he praised the nearly 300 people who showed up to the fundraiser. the group was so large, it pushed the capacity limits for the event space. mitchell's loved ones say his medical bills are piling up. money raised at the benefit organizers collected donations and held a silent auction for those who showed up. mitchell's brother says the evening all about support. "00:02-14"we never wanted it to ever be about black vs white or anything like that. really, it's just about people being good people and supporting each other. if you look around, it's everybody in that room. it's all walks of life."" a go fund me page created after the incident has raised nearly eight thousand dollars. meteorologist justin gehrts has alert forecast, justin... welcome to the first day of meteorologic al winter! it sure will feel like it.a stray flurry may be possible early this morning; otherwise we're dealing with cloudy skies once again today. temperatures will start off in the low 30s, but warm into the middle to upper 30s again today. winds will also be strong again today, blowing out of the west at 10 to 20 mph. the clouds will stick with us throughout the evening hours, but the winds will start to die down out of the west at 5 to 10 mph. low temperatures will drop into the upper 20s. conditions won't change much for the rest of the week and into the weekend. the dreary skies will remain and high temperatures will stay in the middle to upper 30s. for snow arrives back into the forecast. today: cloudy and cool. wind: w -20. high: 38 alo: 38 dbq: 38 iow: 39 35o1night: clou: recountsnrway thisrning in wiscn a recount is underway this after last month's presidential election. president-elect donald trump won that state in a close race with democrat hillary clinton. election workers in 72 counties across the state started recounting ballots at 9:00 this morning. the workers have until next thursday to finish counting. green party candidate jill stein requested the recount in wisconsin as well as pennsylvania and michigan. she raised millions of dollars to hold the recounts in the those states. political a difference in the results from november's election. meanwhile, the president-elect continues to build his cabinet. yestedray, vp-elect mike pence met with iowa governor terry branstad. pence sent out this tweet yesterday, saying he enjoyed his talk with the long-time governor. abc's kenneth moton reports on the transition of power. president-elect donald trump's campaign promise... sot - trump 3/19/16 it is not presidential for the president of the united states to call up the dont' care. today, trump...taking a victory lap in indiana after he struck a deal with carrier to save 1000 jobs from going to mexico. in the state where vp elect mike pence is still the governor, a source told abc news a regulatory incentive was a factor. sot kipp glenn: he's not even been sworn in yet and already showing us he is a worker workers thrilled but washington democrats are asking for the details of the deal. one of the biggest critics...senator elizabeth warren who was on cnn. sot/warren ac360 - the things you learn when talk about the deals is let's read a senator bernie sanders said the company that owns carrier took trump hostage and won. sanders wrote in a washington post op ed trump has endangered the jobs of workers who were previously safe in the us. he has signaled to corporations that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for business friendly tax benefits and incentives. nats trump's thank you tour comes on the same day wisconsin starts its first presidential election recount in 16 years. the costly recount initiated by green party leader jill stein...not expected to change the outcome...trump won wisconsin by less than a percentage point. ohio tonight for a campaign trail style rally. kenneth moton, abc news washington today people around the country and in eastern iowa will mark the 28th annl the goal is to make people more aware about preventing h-i-v and aids, as well as the advancements in treatment options. health officials say more than 2,000 iowans are infected with h-i-v. today, university of iowa students will read aloud names of people who lost their lives to aids. this is video from a past reading of the names event. the johnson county public health department is also offering free h-i-v testing today. that's going on right now and goes until 3:30 p-m at the eastern iowa is seeing a growth in urgent care centers. that's part of a national trend according to the american academy of urgent care medicine. a new urgent care center opened in cedar falls yesterday. and another will start serving patients next week in dubuque. they are part of the 50 to 100 urgent care clinics that open each year in the u-s. and more than 9,000 centers have opened in the u-s since 2008. the center say the goal is to give more people an alternative to going to the emergency room. but they say that - even afe year - the same number of patients are still going to the e-r. the hospital says more patients want urgent care because it's faster. when unity point finley opened this urgent care clinic back in august, they did not see a drop in the number of patients visiting the e-r. breathing is something we all do without thinking. but doctors say thinking about and practicing deep breathing can be beneficial first alert forecast. stay with tv9. welcome to the first day of meteorologic al winter! it sure will feel like it.a stray flurry may be possible early this morning; otherwise we're dealing with cloudy skies once again today. temperatures upper 30s again today. winds will also be strong again today, blowing out of the west at 10 to 20 mph. the clouds will stick with us throughout the evening hours, but the winds will start to die down out of the west at 5 to 10 mph. low temperatures will drop into the upper 20s. conditions won't change much for the rest of the week and into the weekend. the dreary skies will remain and high temperatures will stay in the middle to upper 30s. it won't be until sunday where the chance forecast. today: cloudy and cool. wind: w 10-20. high: 38 alo: 38 dbq: 38 iow: 39 35 to 41 tonight: cloudy. wind: w 5-10. low: 30 alo: 29 dbq: 30 iow: 30 27 to 33 tomorrow: turning mostly cloudy. wind: nw 5-15 high: 38 alo: 36 dbq: 37 iow: 39 35 to 41 tom. night: mostly cloudy. wind: nw 5-10 low: 26 alo: 25 dbq: 26 iow: 26 23 to 29 saturday: mostly cloudy. high: 36 low: 26 sunday: chance of snow. high: 37 low: 29 monday: mostly cloudy. high: 37 low: 28 wednesday: chance of snow. high: 37 low: 25 thursday: chance of snow. high: 29 low: 24 friday: mostly cloudy. high: 25 low: 18 thanks justin. welcome to the first day of meteorologic al winter! it sure will feel like it.a stray flurry may be possible early this morning; otherwise we're dealing with cloudy skies once again today. temperatures will start off in the low 30s, will also be strong again today, blowing out of the west at 10 to 20 mph. the clouds will stick with us throughout the evening hours, but the winds will start to die down out of the west at 5 to 10 mph. low temperatures will drop into the upper 20s. conditions won't change much for the rest of the week and into the weekend. the dreary skies will remain and high temperatures will stay in the middle to upper 30s. it won't be until forecast. today: cloudy and cool. wind: w 10-20. high: 38 alo: 38 dbq: 38 iow: 39 35 to 41 tonight: cloudy. wind: w 5-10. low: 30 alo: 29 dbq: 30 iow: 30 27 to 33 tomorrow: turning mostly cloudy. wind: nw 5-15 high: 38 alo: 36 dbq: 37 iow: 39 35 to 41 tom. night: mostly cloudy. wind: nw 5-10 low: 26 alo: 25 dbq: 26 iow: 26 23 to 29 saturday: mostly cloudy. high: 36 low: 26 sunday: chance of snow. high: 37 low: 29 monday mostly cloudy. high: 37 low: 28 wednesday: chance of snow. high: 37 low: 25 thursday: chance of snow. high: 29 low: 24 friday: mostly cloudy. high: 25 low: 18 do in improving your overall health...just practice deep breathing. reports, deep breathing is one way the elderly are strengthening and conditioning their bodies. doug beavers is not one to hold back? "i'll tell it like it is, and that's the truth" the world war two veteran is 97 years old--- and loves riding horses. they exercise you. not much has beavers had his second pacemaker put in this year. last march- beavers' wife nudged him to join the "better breathers club" at texas health stephenville. he's 97 and he's in here monday, wednesday and friday three days a week, trainers from tarleton state university guide beavers thru a full body workout-cardio, weights, walking and his heart-- blood pressure and pulse. brian andrews / respiratory therapist usually we use what's called a 6-minute walk test - that gives us a baseline of how far this person can actually walk in 6 minutes" 3119 when you breathe, your diaphragm expands and contracts, moving air in and out of your lungs. the muscles within your rib cage-- up into your shoulders are secondary "helper" muscles. 3257- "people who have difficulty breathing, the body has to compensate and it compensates by using these accessory muscles- well, by accessory muscles, that helps the body to compensate better" 3309 since joining the "better breathers club" -- beavers-feels better than ever. 1528- "when i came here, i couldn't walk- i had to hold onto something just to move around. and now i can walk across the room." 15:40 he's already looking ahead to his 100th birthday celebration. i wouldn't be surprised." trt oc it's been about a month since the first reports of a bird flu outbreak in europe. in today's agribusiness report, we have the over ten cou welcome to the agribusiness facing an outbreak of bird flu.. the world organization for animal health reports the highly pathogenic avian influenza h-5-n-8 in austria.. croatia.. denmark.. germany.. hungry.. the netherlands.. poland.. about a month since the first reports of this bird flu outbreak.. animal health officials in sweden report culling two hundred thousand laying hens.. some nations like hong kong and the ukraine have launched bans on poultry and its products from some of the affected nations. ---- there might still be life in the trans-pacific despite president- elect donald trump's intent to withdraw.. american farm bureau trade adviser dave salmonsen.. says the 12 nation deal could be resurrected if trump eases up.. because there's a precident for saving flawed trade deals.. he says renegotiating a deal with multiple countries is harder than bilateral deals.. and the bigger question is if t-p-p partners like japan wil even renegotiate.. "do you walk away from the whole exercise, which took place over these many years? or will potential is to not move ahead at all in the u-s be more willing to revisit certain areas?" officials from japan are still determined to save the trans pacific partnership.. they hope trump can still be persuaded to back off from his opposition.. they are urging canada to join the fight against u-s trade protectionism. . ---- there's a rebound in the livestock markets.. but that's not carrying into the grains.. market analyst john heinberg with stewart-peterson has more.. "we've had a pretty volatile week here as we get to the end of the month, i think had some position squaring, bean market obviously, we've had a strong push in that bean market." "just seeing some pullback here in that regard. typically this time of year, we've seen a little bit of a maybe walk back, especially since we've had a bit of a run. just kind of working ourselves sideways. starting off corn, pretty quiet day today, pretty rough day yesterday, did hold trend line support this morning as well so corn futures kind of hanging in there." "i'm cautious here historically we part of december wouldn't surprise me if we see as this market's kind of overbought i think that's some of the reason why we're not really stretching today. but on top of that too though, retail values have firmed up again this week, we're a little more positive at midday today as well, so that gives the packers a little bit more money to spend so we'll have to see how that plays out. i like this area if you've got some cattle to hedge to probably get some things put together." "the hog market has been choppy. we continue to deal with the large we've had a pretty good little run here. maybe get a little top heavy in this window, we'll have to see." ---- mexico.. could be ready to modernize the north american free trade agreement.. wanting to restart a guest worker system.. in an interview with arizona's daily star newspaper.. mexico's ambassador to the u-s carlos sada says there isn't a need to fight each other.. the comments are a response to president elect donald trumps pledge to renegotiate nafta.. according to mexico.. citizens of both countries on the agreement.. sada says the movement of workers across the border must be reinstated.. he says circular migration of the past was broken.. which is what has caused problems.. ---- and that wraps up the show for today.. thanks for stopping by.. i'll be back here again tomorrow. ---- we'll post a video every day in the agriculture section of kcrg.com. i'm david geiger with the agribusiness report. trt oc: standard what are your holiday plans? december, plenty of options to truly take in the season... the gazette's diana nollen will take us through the week's best bets for arts and culture, from the fire & ice parade... to the nutcracker. stay with kcrg-tv 9. switch to centurylink and get up to 40 megs of high-speed internet for just $20 a month. that's the speed you need to stream... ...game... ...connect on social media... learn, shop and more with fast in-home wifi. so call 844-565-link. get up to 40 megs of high-speed internet for just $20 a month for one year when bundled with a qualifying home phone plan. speed may not be available in your area. call today. wonderful time of the year", you'll probably see that with all of the holiday events that await us. this makes the week's "best bets" with diana nollen from the gazette and hop bets dec 1 2016 fire & ice festival saturday, dec. 3 holiday flair will be swirling in the air through downtown cedar rapids, with saturday's annual fire & ice festival. affiliated events begin even earlier, with the lighting of christmas trees around the city core, "miracle on 34th street" film at 6 p.m. friday at mikulas celebration at 6:30 p.m. friday in czech village. on saturday, activities include a very cherry holiday open house at the cherry building in newbo from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; merry tubachristmas concert at 2 p.m. in the cedar rapids public library; not so silent night caroling competition at 4 p.m. and the tree lighting ceremony at 5 p.m., both in greene square; followed by the holiday delight post-parade party at hazzard county at 7 p.m. fire & ice festival 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. saturday downtown cedar rapids; free admission, cedarrapids.org/events/fire -ice https: emanuel ax tuesday, dec. 6 emanuel ax will soon get to play the steinway grand piano he helped select for the new hancher hancher, he will perform a recital of works by schubert and chopin. ax, a naturalized american citizen, was born in poland, and began studying piano with his father at an early age. his family moved to canada, then to the united states in 1961, where he studied at the juilliard school in new york, winning the young concert artists award. he went on to major in french at columbia university in new york city, and captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first arthur rubinstein international piano competition in tel aviv. more awards followed to launch his 7:30 p.m. tuesday , hancher auditorium, 141 e. park rd., iowa city; $10 a festival of trees is celebrating the holidays in central iowa. one tree holds special meaning for police officers in urbandale. wildfires. but those storms are making a mess for others in the region. a vigil tonight will remember a man killed in a crash on i- 380 in cedar rapids over the weekend. and a well-known new bohemia restaurant wants people to know it didn't close for good after flooding -- even if the front door can lead to that assumption... you're watching kcrg-tv9. now, from your 24 hour news source, this is kcrg-tv9 news at midday. a popular tourist region in eastern tennessee is battling through deadly wildfires all week. this photo shows what's left of a resort in the smoky mountains. thousands of evacuees are trying to figure out when they'll be able to go back to their homes. this morning, gatlinburg's mayor said that could be as soon as tomorrow. overnight storms helped put out the wildfires, but they also left plenty of damage across tennessee and other southern states. at least 13 elizabeth hur reports. the view from the air.. showing piles of debris and wood.. all across this neighborhood.. once home to families in alabama.. "we were all holding onto each other crouched down on the floor - dear god please let me live through this!" this.. is all that's left of a daycare.. and the town of rosalie.. hit hard.. so many homes and businesses here.. leveled. in mississippi.. the aftermath.. equally devastating.. and residents are beginning to pick up the -- "a tornado warning!"the florida panhandle.. also hit with powerful waterspouts off the coast.. - "siren"and in georgia.. strong winds ripped this large chunk of metal.. off the roof of this recycling center and tossed it.. a quarter of a mile away. over in tennessee.. displaced residents.. are surveying the damage from the wildfires.. woman crying: "everything is gone" the rain helped put out some of the flames.. but with smoke still smoldering.. and the dolly parton who is from the area is ready to help. youtube: dolly parton "i've always believed charity begins at home.. "we want to make sure that the dollywood foundation provides $1000 a month to all those families that have lost their homes until they get back up on their feet." elizabeth tag: president obama has also reached out to the governor and we are told federal assistance is also on the way.. this as search and rescue for the people still missing.. continue today. eh, abc news, ny. police in tacoma washington are releasing more details on a deadly overnight standoff. the standoff started shortly after someone shot a police officer responding to a domestic violence call yesterday afternoon. the officer later died at the hospital. police say the suspect was using two children in the home as human shields. the kids were ages 8 and 11. standoff and killed the shooter. "we negotiated through the night. the negotiations failed. we went in, took one of the kids when we had a chance. he grabbed the other kid and one of our officers felt he had a shot and took it. " the standoff ended about 3:30 this morning, washington time. investigators say the suspect was armed with a rifle and threatened the children in the home. police have not identified the officer or the suspect. carolina police is recovering after a shooting in raleigh. it happened during a report of a home invasion at an apartment complex yesterday afternoon. both the officer and suspect were injured in an exchange of fire. the officer suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries. the suspect is listed in critical but stable condition. state authorities are now in charge of the investigation. a vigil tonight will remember a 21-year-old martrell watson and his passenger, 22-year-old kaitlyn hall, died in the crash early on saturday morning. tonight's vigil is for watson and his family. it will start at 7 at 1119 3rd street sw in cedar rapids. watson leaves behind a 5-year-old daughter. kaitlyn hall's mother says watson and hall were also expecting a child together. cedar rapids police say the watson was driving an s- u-v when it hit the center guard rail on the s curve early saturday morning. the vehicle then rammed into the back of a police s- they'll decide on his funeral services at a later date. an urbandale christmas tree has special meaning for police officers. the tree inside the urbandale police department honors the five iowa officers killed in the line of duty over the past year. blue, black and silver ornaments are next to badge numbers. tara mcfarling, the wife of a des moines police officer, came up with the idea. "that blue family is my blue family. when they lose an officer it affects all of us. it affects the community, but it definitely police department, the tree was a part of the festival of trees and lights at blank children's hospital. it won fist place for people's choice. meteorologist justin gehrts has your first alert forecast, justin... welcome to the first day of meteorologic al winter! it sure will feel like it.a stray flurry may be possible early this morning; otherwise we're dealing with cloudy skies once again today. temperatures will start off in the low 30s, but warm into the middle to upper 30s again today. winds will also be strong again today, blowing out of the west at 10 to 20 mph. the clouds will stick with us throughout the evening hours, but the winds will start to die down out of the west at 5 to 10 mph. low won't change much for the rest of the week and into the weekend. the dreary skies will remain and high temperatures will stay in the middle to upper 30s. it won't be until sunday where the chance for snow arrives back into the forecast. today: cloudy and cool. wind: w 10-20. high: 38 alo: 38 dbq: 38 iow: 39 35 to 41 tonight: cloudy. wind: w 5-10. low: 30 alo: 29 dbq: 30 iow: 30 27 to 33 oelface charges this morning for a pipeline protest in des moines. the des moines register says jessica reznicek and travis o'brennan face a trespassing charge. police say they refused to leave the iowa utility board gave dakota access permission to build the bakken oil pipeline through iowa. the protesters demanded a meeting with board members to address their concerns over possible violations of construction permits. "none of us want to do this but this is apparently what we have to go through just to have a meeting with publicly appointed officials. " the spokesperson for the board says they're in the middle of a lawsuit over the pipeline. he says that's why they won't address the "the board issued their final decision and order on this case back in march and that's being litigated, so we can't comment on ongoing litigation. " the board says it responded to questions by the end of the day, but protesters still want a face-to-face meeting. both of the protesters arrested were fasting and holding signs in front of the i-u-b offices for the last ten days. after flooding more than 2 months ago, a cedar rapids restaurant still has boards on its wants its customers to know it's still open. the restaurant's owner in the newbo district says the plywood boards over a front door and main windows have given people the impression he closed. he's actually installing period glass and doors to restore the original look of the building. he planned to do it during the down time while cleaning up after basement flood damage. but construction was delayed. "we've been putting the open flag out front, the sign out front but we can't put any lights out because...we and evenings tuesday through saturday. he'll reopen with lunch hours as soon as the glass and door are finished and that could happen in a day or two. nearly 50 shops in oelwein are working together this holiday season to bring more shoppers downtown. last year, the oelwein chamber started a marketing campaign called "shop oelwein" to highlight the shops that make up this downtown in fayette county. deb howard with the chamber said she expected about 10 shops to join in. instead, 49 businesses decided to pool their money together for the marketing campaign. "19:49:53;14the shop oelwein is just a small piece of promoting our town we have new jobs we're going to be filling, we have a lot of expansion going on so we're gonna need a lot of workers a lot of existing people living in town, " there are several "shop oelwein" events coming up in december. the first one is called olde tyme christmas and run from 4 to 8 this friday night. you can see a full list of these events under this story on kcrg.com known singers... plus, drawing praise for her role as the first lady of the 35th president... plus, a symbol of the season in midtown manhattan... the christmas tree at rockefeller center in new up in your first alert forecast. stay with tv9. meteorologist justin gehrts joins us now. welcome to the first day of meteorologic al winter! it sure will feel like it.a stray flurry may be possible early this morning; otherwise we're dealing with cloudy skies once again today. temperatures will start off in the low 30s, but warm into the middle to will also be strong again today, blowing out of the west at 10 to 20 mph. the clouds will stick with us throughout the evening hours, but the winds will start to die down out of the west at 5 to 10 mph. low temperatures will drop into the won't change much for the rest of the week and into the weekend. the dreary skies will remain and high temperatures will stay in the middle to upper 30s. it won't be until sunday where the chance for snow arrives back into the forecast. today: cloudy and cool. wind: w 10-20. high: 38 alo: 38 dbq: 38 iow: 39 35 to 41 tonight: cloudy. wind: w 5-10. low: 30 alo: 29 dbq: 30 iow: 30 27 to 33 tomorrow: turning mostly cloudy. wind: nw 5-15 high: 38 alo: 36 dbq: 37 iow: 39 35 to 41 tom. night: mostly cloudy. wind: nw 5-10 23 to 29 saturday: mostly cloudy. high: 36 low: 26 sunday: chance of snow. high: 37 low: 29 monday: mostly cloudy. high: 40 low: 28 tuesday: mostly cloudy. high: 37 low: 28 wednesday: chance of snow. high: 37 low: 25 thursday: chance of snow. high: 29 low: 24 friday: mostly cloudy. high: 25 low: 18 of the world's most well known singers is moving shoes... lots of them. lauren lyster has today's showbiz wrap... during the election, singer katy perry was an active supporter of hillary clinton. but helped her find her voice. perry: and i'm so grateful for this season, this political season for all the things that i learned along the way, and for the woman that i want to be in the future. the pop star was honored by unicef with the audrey hepburn award at their annual snowflake ball in new york. perry has worked for unicef as a goodwill ambassador. guests at the star-studded event included host octavia spencer and perry's boyfriend actor orlando bloom. academy award winner natalie portman is generating serious oscar buzz for her portrayal of jacqueline kennedy in "jackie". the movie is set in the days immediately following kennedy's assassination in 1963. portman said she worked hard to voice. portman: well, i watched a lot of footage "jackie" opens in theaters on dec. 2. she's a top selling singer and an actress. and now rihanna is an award- winning shoe designer. the 28-year-old's fenty puma creeper was named shoe of the year at the 30th footwear news achievement awards. rihanna appropriately wore a pair of the shoes to the event. she paired them with an all-black ensemble. sot: creepers. and that's what's happening in hollywood. i'm lauren lyster, abc news, los angeles it's officially christmas in new manhattan for the christmas tree lighting in rockefeller center. mayor bill de blasio and some stars from saturday night live helped ring in the holiday season by lighting up the tree. the 94-foot norway spruce is one of the tallest to ever grace the popular tourist neighborhood. it comes with about 50 thousand colored lights. while april 15th is the deadline to file taxes, the true "tax season" is also coming up quickly -- w-2s and making sure your budget doesn't get kcrg-tv 9. family service alliance, is here to talk about tax season -- as adriane moline from horizons, a family service alliance, is here to talk about tax season -- as 2016 ends in a month.,.. the tax forms are also coming. exercise specialist will guide us through a plan to stay healthy as winter hits. stay with your can return home as soon as tomorrow. overnight storms helped put out several wildfires in the smokey mountains. the wildfires killed seven people and destroyed several buildings in the tourist town of gatlinburg. now, one last look at this morning's weather, welcome to the first day of meteorologic al winter! it sure will feel like it.a stray flurry may be possible early this morning; otherwise we're dealing with cloudy skies once again today. temperatures will start off in the low 30s, but warm into the middle to upper 30s again today. winds will also be strong again today, blowig out of the west at 10 to 20 mph. the clouds will stick with us throughout the evening hours, but the winds will start to die down out of the west at 5 to 10 mph. low temperatures will drop into the upper 20s. conditions won't change much for the rest of the week and into the weekend. the dreary skies will remain and high temperatures will stay in the middle to upper 30s. it won't be until sunday where the chance for snow arrives back into the forecast. today: cloudy and cool. wind: w ? >> announcer: today, we're talking tinsel and giving your dishes merry meal makeovers. clinton's in the kitchen with "top chef's" gail simmons. mario's cooking up a tasty twist on your holiday ham. and carla's solving all your plating problems. get ready to get merry, right now on "the chew." ? [ cheers and applause ] hey! you startled me there for a second. welcome to "the chew." are you guys feeling very merry and very bright, but also very hungry for some festive new dishes? >> yes! >> well, you have come to the right place of course.