building as a precaution. the freezing temperatures made it difficult for crews to fight the flames. ktiv's tommie clark is on the scene for us this afternoon. a northwest iowa man has been sentenced to two years in prison for having sex with a teenage girl last year. 43-year-old danny barnes, of sioux center, was sentenced yesterday on a charge of assault with intent to commit sex abuse. authorities say barnes had sex with a 14-year-old girl at a park in august of 2014... despite her attempts to get away. family. barnes will be required to register as a sex offender after he is released. winter weather is causing problems for travelers across the country today. in new england, it's the first significant winter storm to slam the northeast this season. boris sanchez reportrtfrom just outside of boston. cautious and be prepared as this sleet that's falling now transforms into rain and then later tonight when it goes back to snow. now the storm we're seeing here in massachusett s is the same storm that swept through texas this weekend, killing dozens of people with tornadoes hitting that area. and it's important to note the recovery effort there is going to be stunted at least in parts of texas, like dallas, because of freezing temperatures. so mother nature not relenting on those that were hit by tornadoes over the weekend. also very difficult to move around and airports -- we know of dozens of cancellations and delays. boston is a main focus, as ll as detroit and in icago as well. that city's two airports dealt with more than 16- hundred cancellations over the weekend, and problems will continue as this storm keeps moving east." >> near boston. more snow fell in siouxland this morning. but the sun is out starting to melthat away. here's meteorologis t t.j. springer with the first look at our forecast. > after a snowy and messy monday, snow will begin to taper off later this morning with just some lingering light snow and snow showers. as this system pulls away, winds will die down but will continue to usher in colder air right out of canada. high temperatures around siouxland will barely make it out of the lower 20s today with low temperatures tonight in the low teens. >> many siouxlanders were out enjoying the fresh snow. sledders climbed the hills at grandview park in sioux city, yesterday afternoon. the sledding area was busy as kids got out to enjoy the snowfall on their winter break. with another week of winter break for most students, kids are doing what they can to keep themselves occupied until they have to head back to school. "this is my first time sledding this year," said sledder, vishakha kanwar. "my goal was to go sledding every single day, so that's what i'm going to try to do." and with the fresh snowfall this morning, the good sledding conditions will stick around for a few days. republican presidential candidate marco rubio is back in iowa today. the florida senator has a campaign stop planned for sioux city tonight the town hall style meeting will be held at the holiday inn on gordon drive at 6:45. if you want to attend, you have to do that you can go to our website, ktiv dot com and find theheink in this story. and republican penenylvania senator rick santorum has a campaign stop planned fofotomorrow in holstein, iowa. the presidential candidate will speak at noon at leonard limousin and angus farm at noon. a light lunch will be served at the meet and greet. it's free and open to the public. stay tuned for the forecast from meterologist t-j springer coming up next on news four at noon. here's the live view from our skycam in spencer, iowa, where it's and degrees meterologist ben dorenbach is back. --------- swinnthrough the rrion wednesday morning yielding yet another chance for some light snow but little accumulation is expected. our cold stretch of weather will continue to right through the new year with the sunshine returning. we then begin a bit of a warming trend with highs nearing that freezing mark just in time for the weekend. >> when you're done with your christmas tree, instead of just throwing it out, you can recycle it. the woodbury county conservation board and dorothy pecaut nature center are collecting undecorated christmas trees to be chipped for the nature center's trails. you can drop off your used tree at the nature center until january 10. trees should be clean with no ornaments, tinsel, lights, price tags, stands or plasasc bags. trees should be placed in the lower parking lot. do you check and double check your packing list? why you might want to starting in the new year. and it was a popular gift this holiday season... hoverboards, but a consumer advocacy group is warning about the dangerous today. (and correct pron), address and telephone number along with their pictures to ktiv. please make sure to have all the information printed and send it in at least two weeks in advance. if you would like your picture returned please include a self addressed stamped envelope. happy birthday and happy iowa plans to lift the state ban on bird exhibitions imposed in may as bird flu spread thrhrgh the state's turkey and chick the iowa department of ag says lifted on friday. agriculture secretary bill northey says the announcement is good news and another sign that the state continues to recover from the devastating animal health emergency. the department says been confirmed in iowa since june. the bird flu hit iowa particularly hard this spring and summer. producers in the state lost nearly 32 million birds, most were egg-laying chickens. stocks are sharply higher in early trading on wall street, bouncing back after two days of losses. this morning's gains have moved the s&p back into the black for the year. the consumer product safety commission is now investigating 22-reports of hoverboard fires in 17-states. with the hoverboards, overheating batteries are the main concern. the most recent incident happened on yesterday, when a hoverboard caught fire in a texas mall. no one was hurt. several u-s airlines have banned hoverboards from checked and carry-on luggage and amazon has stopped selling some brands. with the allure of free two-day shipping just before christmas... amazon says more than three million new members signed up for its prime december alone. new subscribers to "prime" get a free month trial of the service. no telling how many of those new members will continue the service after that trial period. amazon says there are "tens of millions" of prime members.. but have not given a more exact number. if you're traveling this new year's day, there are some things you don't want to forget to pack. like your necessities. tripadvisor has announced its travel trends for 2016 and found the three top things american travelers won't leave home without. topping the list is toiletries... 77 percent will be sure to pack their own toiletries. second on the list is... of course... a smartphone to stay connected. and 57 percent will be sure to pack a camera to capture the memories. still ahead on news four at noon... a cancer patient and single mother who has already been through so much is working to help others with a little paris: there's a lot to do on a dairy farm. nobody's gonna do it for you. you have to get out there and do it yourself. bernie sanders is a well-known friend of family farms. bernie cannot be bought out by big money. bernie's opinion cannot be purchased. it's time for our next president to get in there, roll up his sleeves, take off the gloves, and take on wall street, take on big business, take on big money, and get the working class back to where they should be. he's a rock. here's a live look at west lake okoboji from our okoboji skycam... a single mother of three in north carolina is battling stage four breast cancer... and focusing her efforts on helping others. this woman... spends her time helping others shine... literally... as she goes through chemo treatments. michelle boudin shares her story. (nats) "woohoo" to turn robyn adams (nats) "good morning" into the so called sparkle lady (nats) "my name is robyn and i have a project called sparkle and id like to have you choose a piece of jewelry today if you'd like" (sot: frank adams, father) "i don't know where she gets the strength from" the single mother of three battling stage four breast cancer with her own unique flair (nats) "good morning ladies!" a year and a half ago robyn started her first chemo treatment dressed comfortably. (sot: robyn adams, cancer patient) "what i decided to do was not come in my sweatpants anymore and come dressed up and wear my jewely and sparkle because cancer cant take that away. it can take a lot of things away but it cant take that away" she decided to spread the sparkle. (sot: robyn adams, cancer patient) "so i had my friends and family gather jewelry up to give to all the patients in the area" robyn plays santa at every one of her treatments (nats) "i think its great its your attitude, you've got to really fight and have a really good attitude" (sot: robyn adams, cancer patient) "i just wanted to bring a little sparkle to everybody makes us feel a little bit better when were here" we agreed so we called towne and reese - a jewelry line sold in stores across the country. (nats) "we were so incredibly touched by your zest for life and your love for others and positive outlook that we wanted to do big boxes filled with sparkle for robyn to give away.. (nats) "i cant believe it, daddy i cant believe it" (sot: frank adams, father) "shes changing lives here and its incredible" (nats) "that is amazing! oh my gosh, thank you so very much you're welcome. oh my gosh that's amazing" amazing indeed. (sot: robyn adams, cancer patient) "spreading the sparkle and not losing it and not letting cancer take that away from you" >> need more in pep in your step for that work out? grab a cup of joe before hand. researchers at the university of georgia say they have found that drinking coffee can enhance your endurance. the group tookok closer look at previous studies on caffeine, coffee and sports. they found significant improvements in endurance performance and that coffee reduced perceived exertion. researchers say that based on their reviews of these studies... there is moderate evidence that drinking coffee improves endurance... specifically in cycling and running. up next... more siouxlanders may qualify for help paying their heating director with the community here in sioux city. what we're talking about today jean is an important program, the low income home energy assistance program. liheap is what most people know it by. there are two key changes to this program that people will need to be aware of. that's true. those changes mean that there will be close to 6,000 families in woodbury county alone that will now be eligible for this program. i appreciate you having me on today. the first change is that the income e guidelines moved from 150% of the federal poverty level up to 175%. if you had applied last year and you were really close to getting energy assistance but you didn't quite will want to make sure you apply. the second change is that the state of iowa in their plan has included a way for families that have thousands of people lined up at a botanical garden in australia to take a whiff of a flower that really stinks. the "corpse flower", went on display in adelaide. the plant took almost a decade to grow and produces flowers every one thousand days. those flowers only last a day or so before collapsing. but when they bloom, the flowers release an odor that some have been described as resembling a dead animal or a pile of rotten garbage. experts say the odor helps the plant survive in the wild. the plant itself is an to grow. people who have been in a bad accident usually suffer head trauma. now there's a new drug that can improve your recovery. and a there's new scam involving play station 4's. we'll show you how you can avoid