Construction will soon begin on permanent flood protection in cedar rapids. Rapids. Cbs 2 News ReporterStephanie Johnson johnsonis live in cedar rapids this morning to explain where the city plans to start the project. Good morning . The city will soon build a levee that will start here at the African Museum and stretch all the way to tenth avenue where the alliant sub station is located. The city broke ground on the 14million dollar project on tuesday. The levee will be thirteen to seventeen feet high. The city wants to build it high enough to protect from flood levels seen in 2008. The project will also include a fouracre catch basin and new pumping stationsos dollars. For now, mayor ron corbett says the sinclair levee will cover just the east side of the river, near newbo. Were starting in the lowest lying area first so this is the lowest area, its the first place to get flooded so the work that is done today will actually have impact tomorrow and then well go to the next lowest area which will be the Czech Village area and well keep making improvements. 12 foot bike trail and walking path on top. Federal block grants will cover most of the projects costs. Costs. Again, this levee will give protection for just the eastside near the newbo area and should be completed by the end of 2017. Covering the corridor Stephanie Johnson cbs 2 news. Coralville is also installing permanent flood protection after the devastating floods of oh8. Right now the city is building a three foot one of the last pieces of the citys flood defense system. It should be done by next year and it lets crews add temporary walls on top of the permanent structure. It will stretch from the first avenue bridge to where the creek meets the coralville strip. Those were important locations at the corner of highway six and first avenue, the busiest intersection in Johnson County and if we werent able to protect that and the businesses werent going to be able to come back, it would be a desolate place. Place. Hayworth says crews are then they can get started on the wall next spring. Cedar rapids has approved a contractor to remove sandbags from residential areas. Areas. The 420 thousand dollar deal is with Quality Construction services. Utilities director Steve Hershner expects pick up to start in the citys northwest neighborhood near ellis park. They think itll take about three weeks to finish so theyre asking residents to stay patient. Theres a lot of material out there people will actively use those sandbags which we encourage them to do and going to take us a little time to get them cleared up but were going to be working on them with our contractor and hope to see some results here as we get moving after this aggressively in the next few we. Weeks. Disposal of the sand is part of the contract. The city has requested that it be reused for other projects. The Cedar Rapids City Council has approved the buyout for a wellknown cedar rapids hotel. Coopers mill hotel and restaurant shutdown during the flood evacuation and will not reopen. The Council Approved a Purchase Agreement the property and all of its contents. The city plans to demolish the building next spring as part of flood protection efforts. The city is still picking up sandbags but its also hoping to pick up struggling businesses. This morning leaders will discuss a new effort to give Financial Support to area shops that suffered financial losses because of the flood. Most businesses didnt get any flood damage but many still had to shut down for a week or more. Hurricane matthew is still causing trouble for thous of people. North carolina residents are still evacuating areas due to flooding from rising rivers. More than 31 counties in the state are now considered federal disaster areas. And the death toll continues to rise North CarolinaOfficials Say 18 have died because of the storm. That puts the us death toll at 33 while haitis death toll has surpassed the one thousand mark. President barack obama collaborated with North Carolina governor par mccrory 00 00 2500 00 32 weve learned of one more fatality in columbus county, and two more in robertson county, all due to drowning. 00 00 4300 00 51 but we also want to let this be known so we can prevent any future deaths as the water rise especially the tara river and the noose river riverfema has transported over five million meals, over three million liters of water and 72 thousand blankets were positioned before the storm. Theres new information informationin the case of the un police last month. Month. Oklahomas medical examiner says Terence Crutcher tested positive for pcp when he died. Officer Betty Jo Shelby was repsonsible for shooting crutcher after officers heard reports of his car braking down. Shelby was later charged with first degree man slaughter. Prosectutors say she reacted unreasonably after crutcher disobeyed orders. Police are now actively looking for a suspect in a stabbing that happened happenedon the last day of the iowa state fair. State troopers around 10thirty on august 21st. The victim suffered two stab wounds but did survive. Survive. Now the iowa dci believes 21yearold craig hunt is responsible. Hes facing an attempted murder charge but is also being investigated for several shootings in the des moines area. Police say he goes by cnote and is considered armed and dangerous. One person in central iowa has now been arrested for dressing up like a clown and chasing people with a baseball. Bat. 18yearold now facing assault charges. Police say they took multiple calls about a man dressed as a clown chasing people with a possible machete. Officers found a metal baseball bat instead and the clown mask that had been used. Donald trump is responding to the highranking republicans shying away from his campaign. On tuesday trump tweeted out that the shackles have been taken off. Off. He later described the shackles as some of the establishment people in his own party and mentioned House Speaker paul ryan by weak and ineffective leader. Last night trump said he was tired of not getting support from the gop. Trump is also taking aim at his opponent Hillary Clinton. Clinton. Tuesday wikileaks released more hacked emails that they say are from one of her top aides Campaign Chairman john podesta. The emails show a clinton spokesman talking with the department of justice about a lawsuit in 2015. A lawsuit in 2015. Today we learned that the doj fed information to campaign about the email investigation so the campaign could be prepared to cover up her crimes. Crimes. Podesta talked with reporters last night and he said the fbi is investigating a criminal hack of his emails. He wouldnt confirm if the actual emails were authentic but said theres a reasonable chance the Trump Campaign was contacted by wikileaks and tipped off about the release of the emails. Trumps runningmate indiana central iowa speaking in newton. His speech focused on attacking Hillary Clinton and president obama. Pence did say he was proud of his running mate for apologizing for the lewd remarks in the tape that was released last week. He says he and trump have Top Priorities one area is the future of the supreme court. Mike pence 25 01 the importance of everything we said so far may pale in comparison to this issue that person will setthe course of the direction of the United States for the next pence also spent much of his time discussing whyin his viewHillary Clintons economic plans would continue to weaken the country. He also said the country needs to work harder on strengthening National Security and defeating isis democrat and former president bill clinton will be back in iowa today campaigning for hillary. Clinton is scheduled to make stops in indianola this waterloo at 545. He will also be holding a rally in cedar rapids tomorrow. Its and right now in its degrees. Degrees. After the break. The latest way a string of scary clowns is impacting halloween. And a new craze on social media is worrying some parents. Parents. Tom mustin explains why one mom in colorado says she wont give out candy to people dressed as clowns. Clowns. Susan dibartolomeo is worried about clowns this halloween. Susan Dibartolomeo lone tree mother its going to desensitize kids from clowns, the lone tree mother of two says because of the recent creepy clown scare, shell place a sign on her house banning trick or treaters in clown costumes from receiving candy. Susan Dibartolomeo lone tree mother to be a tough one to word, but were definitely going to put something up. For the past few months, fiendish clowns real and imagined have been reported across the country, including here in colorado. Susan is worried halloween night could be the perfect opportunity for clowns with bad intentions to blend in with others, and cause problems. Susan Dibartolomeo lone tree mother a lot of its a hoax, i agree with that, but theres going to be people that dont find it a hoax and are going to use it for something thats not a good thing. Two doors down, home for halloween. Brett says susans anti clown sign goes too far brett mill neighbor i think shes entitled to put up the sign, but dont take the spirit out of halloween. As luck would have it bretts sixth grade son ryland will dress as a clown for halloween. Ryland says the recent hysteria has made the clown costume extremely popular at his school. ryland mill neighbor as soon as someone started making scary stuff about clowns everybody started joining in. Prepares her anticlown sign, ryland mill has a message for his fellow neighbors. ryland mill neighbor stay safe and its now on this morning. Morning. And if youre in its degrees. Degrees. Coming up next. The mindset for the iowa hawkeyes while they go into this week heavy favorites but needing a win. Win. Ajust checking my free credit score at credit karma. What the . . . Youre welcome. I just helped you dodge a bullet. But i was just checking my. Shhh. Dont you know that checking your credit score lowers it just be cool. Actually, checking your credit score with credit karma doesnt affect it at all. Are you sure . Positive. So i guess i can just check my credit score then . Oooh check out credit karma today. Credit karma. Give yourself some credit. Welcome back its now were taking a look at your . . . . . . . Your . . . . . . . Heres a look at some of eastern iowas top stories on this morning. A twentyfive year old iowa city man was the pedestrian killed last week along highway 218. It happened just before the interstate 380 80 inter change killed last sunday when he was hit by three cars. Right now authorities are investigating what exactly happened and why he was on the highway in the first place. A Fayette County man is fighting for his life this morning after a motorcycle crash. 38yearold larry seurer was driving his motorcycle when he lost control yesterday morning and was thrown into a ditch. Seurer was first taken to a local hospital before being flown to la crosse, wisconsin with life threatening injuries. The the crash. Some iowa farmers will get a helping hand from another continent. More than two dozen farmers from sweden will travel to iowa to help with this years harvest. The european growers have already wrapped up their work at home and want to come to iowa to learn how farmers operate here in the midwest. It wont be all work for the foreign farmers. Theyll also get a chance to do some sightseeing here in iowa and neighboring illinois. Favorites, points spreads, all that stuff. And i have no idea what it is for this game, but i do know this those are good for people who arent competing. What our guys need to understand is we need to get ready to play. I mean we havent really done anything yet. So if we want to be a Good Football Team we have to push forward here. In case you are wondering iowa is a 12 and a half point favorite saturday the hawks have won three straight in their series with the boilermakers and havent lost in west laffette since 2007 in fact they its a streak of 8 straight wins away from kinnick whats their secret on being road warriors well the hawks just love life on the road. Its something to look forward to when its your guys, your brothers against everyone else and theyre loud theyre dog cussing you and all that kind of stuff and it kind of fuels you a little bit. Bit. It really makes you want to step up your game. You know bring it because they are going to bring it, their fans are going to be road is a good time. Like the hawks, the cyclones are on the road saturday iowa state heads to texas to mess with the longhorns a team theyve only beaten twice but that could change even though they are winless inthe big 12 isu is trending up a play here or a play there late in their last two games and its a hole different story in ames and its one that Matt Campbell cant wait to write. Write. The competitor in me says yes we are really close, our kids you win stuff like that in the offseason. You make those make those catches, you make those tackles. You do that because of repetition. I do feel at times we are playing catch up a little bit because we are still teaching and instilling a program, but youre seen these kids make so much stride in such a short amount of time. Big news in the ifl the cedar rapids titans announced today that former Hawkeye Marvin Mcnutt has been named the new head coach of replaces mark stoute after 4 seasons who coached the team to 4 straight united conference championship games. Any time xavier and kennedy get together theres always a lot on the line tonight it was bragging rights on the Volleyball Court in the battle for 42nd streetthe cougars have won the last 4 times theyve metfirst set saints on the attack Charlotte Richards hammers one down the line xavier would take the first setbut kennedy would battle back off the serve the cougars set up kayla joyner and she it 4 sets to win 42nd a fatherdaughter duo hit the jackpot during their first visit to crater of diamonds state park in arkansas. Arkansas. Dan and Lauren Frederick were there for less than an hour when they spotted a twocarat rock on the ground. Ground. The state park in arkansas is the only diamond producing site in the world where anyone can come look for the gems and keep whatever they find. They nicknamed their find lucky diamond. No word yet on how much the stone into the park. Good morning again its now right now its degrees in after the break. The three corridor girls fighting back against one debilitating diseas. Disease. Youre watching cbs 2 this morning covering the right now on cbs 2 this morning. The developing investigation into how money was accounted for at the cedar county jail. The latest information about how much help cedar rapids says it needs to renovate collins road. Sending chicago to the next round of the post season. Welcome to cbs two this morning. Im kevin barry. Barry. And im kelly dambrosio. Dambrosio. Lets get a check of our cbs 2 the state Auditors Office is investigating how money was hand handledat the cedar county jail. Jail. Auditor mary mosiman says former jail administrator Daron Wilkinson failed to deposit more than 35thousand dollars in inmate room and board and work release fees. Wilkinson worked at the jail from 2013 through 2015. Mosiman says they cant track where the money went but its their responsibility to hold officials accountable. Mary 11 18 45 people who are, whether they are are appointed or they are hired, they have a responsibility regarding public resources, tax dollars and assets. They have to do their job appropriately to take care of the taxpayers money, take care of the taxpayers dollars. Dollars. As of right now no charges have been filedbut the report is now part of a dci investigation cedar rapids is asking the state for money to work on collins road. Road. The gazette reports that the city is asking for one traffic headaches on the busy r. Road. Right now nearly 40 thousand vehicles drive on collins every day and traffic is expected to keep inc. Increasing. The city is looking to spend up to eightand a half Million Dollars to deal with congestion as well as biking and pedestrian amenities. Amenities. Earlier this year plans were scrapped to widen collins and create an underpass near lindale mall. The city tells cbs 2 news they were concerned with the impact that kind of major project would have on businesses and drivers. We made the decision pull construction. Take a look and see what we could do to shorten the construction timeframe and bring those costs down. Down. The city says it is asking the Dot Commission to reauthorize that funding for another year. No word yet on when a decision will be made. A digital mapping firm is working to transform one of the busiest sections of intertate380 into a self driving haven. The dot is teaming up with the mapping firm to turn a 30mile stretch selfdrivingvehicles. The plan is to retrofit the interstate between iowa city and cedar rapids with a network of cameras and sensors to better handle automated vehicles. Iowa could be the first to look at selfdriving vehicles and trucks on highways. How do you feel about selfdriving cars or trucks on i380 . Join the conversation on our Facebook Page just search cbs 2 iowa. The largest county in the state has officially approved a plan to raise the minimum wage. Polk county which includes Des Moines County to make the move. Move. The board of supervisors voted last night to pas