northside of the city. tim: rachel ramos, gives us more insight on why that might be happening. rachel: the sioux city police department has recorded a sudden increase in stolen vehicles. i spoke to charles richer, a resident of the morningside area and a victim of car theft. " " nat pop- car sounds "i don't trust anyone. but now this gives me a reason to trust hardly anyone," said charles richer, victim of car theft. charles richer ofmorninside got his car stolen last week when he left his car keys inside his vehicle parked in front of his house. he says that a potential suspect is a member of his own personal community whom his wife recently gave a ride home to. richer says he now takes full precaution by locking his doors and keeping his keys inside the house at all times. local law enforment agrees and has opened a few doors to a couple theories on why people have been chosing to steal cars more recently. "we have people who have been stealing vehicles for financial gain and then we're also having people stealing vehicles for joyriding purposes," said detective jeff harstad of sioux city police department. and this isn't the first time they are

occurence within the community. often times, owners of stolen vehicles don't get their cars back in same condition they once were. a stolen red nissan altima was traveling at a high rate of speed on tuesday when it rammed the front of an s-u-v that was backing out of a driveway. shane stapleton, owner of shane's towing, has towed many stolen cars found in bizarre places, "i actually had to take a payloader to get it out of there.it was in like a twenty foot hole.so we had to push about 3 trees out of the way and then hook up chains to it and just start pulling it out," said shane stapleton, owner of shane's towing. this truck was found by the police with stolen plates. stapleton mentioned that he gets calls almost every day to have stolen vehicles towed. rachel: if your vehicle has been stolen

has been burglarized, please notify local law enforcement to have a report filed immediately. live in the studio, rachel ramos, abc9. tim: another election day is winding down, and locally woodbury county auditor pat gill says he expects only about 3- thousand people to cast a ballot. sioux city has about 47-thousand registered voters. voting officials we takled with said activity has been slow over all. a lack of races may have something to do with the low numbers. "i was like ohh, there is no one else running for mayor. interesting. so it's almost kind of pointless." "i figured bob scott is a very good mayor and everybody else must think so too." "when thyere is more competition there is more excitement in a particular race but it shows that people do care about the election process" voting continues through 8 oclock

hear from the winners and take a look at a few important issues being decided around siouxland tonight at ten. jenna: voters in sioux center are being asked to weigh in on a highway expansion project that's been in the works for sometime. tim: today, folks there are being asked what they think about a plan to widen highway 75 through town.. from three lanes, to five. elisa raffa was in sioux center today and has more... elisa on cam a controversial issue for some time.... the city says the expansion has safety and efficiency benefits but some residents don't think the city has done enough to explore other options. today, they get to vote on the issue. the expansion of highway 75 between 7th and 9th streets in sioux center has been a controversial topic since the late 90s. on tuesday, residents got to vote on the four million dollar project. a 60 percent majority could have the city planning construction with the department of transportation or in another period of waiting until more residents are frustrated with the highway. the city, which supports the project, says the improvements would enhance center lane

traffic and attractiveness, efficiency of the roads, and safety of pedestrians. "there's always confusion with people, pedestrians, trying to cross our highway and we feel we can make it safer, and that's what this project is really about. the enhancements that we've looked at have an led lighting system that flashes on the inside and the outside lanes. it also has some that it's embedded in the roadway, so when somebody approaches and gets into that crosswalk somebody is in there" city manager. safety are it's some residents think the expansion will serve other pulling revenue through their largest artery. "for traffic flow and all that, i think there's just better ways and other ways to do it than just one single artery through the middle of town" says randy widbin, resident along hwy 75. residents are also concerned about the livelihood of those who live along hwy 75. the city says they will work with residents whether they are willing to sell their property or rather be relocated.' "are we a community that cares for economic advancement but also for people who are a part of the community. and i think that seems to be more the issue than just the tax money issue, although that's certaintly part of it" says randy widbin, resident along hwy 75. elisa on cam polls were busy

recieve the results... votes should be in by 9pm. reporting live in studio, elisa raffa, abc 9 news. tim: elisa, thanks ... after talking with folks in sioux center.... did you get any idea how the vote may fall on this issue ? elisa: everybody i talked with said they expect a very close vote... folks are solidly lined up on both sides of the issue... of course we'll find out for sure after the polls close at 8 tonight. tim: ok thanks for that tonight. tim on cam there are mayor and council elections across siouxland.... and here are a few other issues we're keeping an eye on. sheldon hotel/motel tax asking 2 % increase onawa hotel/motel tax asking to set at 7%

1 cent tax forever iowa house dist 5 charles holz set to replace chuck iowa house dist 5 charles holz set to replace chuck soderberg jenna: it was a standing room only crowd at the iowstate capitol today. people were lining up to share concerns over governor terry branstad's plan to tranfer the state's medicaid program over to managed care organizations. there's a committee of lawmakers that's been set up to oversee the privatization of medicaid. they heard concerns from the community today. one of the top concerns voiced... the timeline to get everything done. there are 560- thousand iowans on medicaid and the roll out date for the new privatized plan, is january first. kelsey 1:04:33 we get a little nervous that when too much is transitioned too quickly, mistakes get made, errors get made, details get overlooked. enrollment

packets for medicaid recipients are starting to be mailed out... but so far provider networks aren't yet in place. there are only 39 business days between now and the start of the new year. jenna: u-s senator joni ernst took to the senate floor today to congratulate her friend and senior colleage senator chuck grassley for casting his 12 thousandth vote as a united states senator. there are only 17 other senators in u-s history who have accomplished that feat. ernst had some fond words for the senior senator. back home in iowa, he travels all 99 counties every single year and he has done this for 35 years - 35 wonderful years. and today, his travels across the state to all 99 counties have a name. it is called the "the full grassley," so that is something that our elected officials and even the presidential candidates that visit iowa - it's something they try to complete as well on top of his feat, grassley also has the longest

streak in congress. jenna: if you've been outdoors today... you probably noticed it doesn't feel quite like fall. tim: in fact, temperatures are near record highs for this time of year. deborah souverain joins us now... to tell us how the warm weather.. is helping speed up construction projects in the area. tim d jenna. it felt more like a spring day....rather than fall... however, the high temperatures are making life easier for construction workers. it was a sunny...73 degrees today. that's about 20 degrees above normal for this time of year.... and because the warmth...some construction projects around town are being fast tracked. a construction manager i spoke to says the high temperatures....al low projects to continue during a time that they would normally

would be postponed. "it's a lot easier out there, you don't have to be as bundled up," said chris winkel, concrete manager for knife river corp. "things are a lot easier to get done and with concrete work you don't have to cover it with a burlap and the blankets so things are just a lot easier and a lot more pleasant." due to heavy rain over the summer...constru ction was haulted in some areas. however, the late fall heat is helping get things back on track. so how long is this warm weather sticking around? our meteorologist fred hexom...will tell you what you can expect this week. reporting live in studio deborah souverain abc 9 news. tim: still to come well have some ways to help combat the stress of the holidays (fred) warm weather is expected again

comes thursday. a cooldown will follow. your forecast is next! "

fred, we'll take more days like today! (fred) we have one more in store, before things change by the end of the week. fred hexom fhexom@kcautv.c om (fred) the port neal welding company skycam hd shows a quiet scene from the ho chunk centre in downtown sioux city. 72 was our high today after a low of 42. the king's pointe skycam hd in storm lake shows a nice looking scene. the allergy report today shows low pollen levels yet again! it appears that our high pollen readings may be over for the season. highs over western and 70s. it was the eastern nebraska south dakota. 69 is sioux city. local temperatures are in the 60s and 70s. winds are still fairly breezy, out of the south at around 5 to 15 miles per hour. local visibility is fine, but patchy fog is possible late tonight and early tomorrow. if we zoom out, we can see push through northwest. the

and snow along that front. we will be warm enough for all-rain when the system arrives in siouxland. the stormcast hd shows the front getting closer tonight and tomorrow, so we will stay breezy and warm, and with partly cloudy skies. the cold front will move through on thursday, with a chance of showers. cooler weather will follow. your rain forecast shows 0.1" to 0.4" of rain. your forecast for tonight is for partly cloudy skies and patchy fog late. the low will be 53. tomorrow's high will be 72 with breezy winds and partly cloudy skies. tomorrow's record high is 76 from 1975, so while we will be close, it appears that record is safe. the 7-day shows 60s thursday and 50s friday. saturday and beyond will bring 50s and 60s. the northern lights may be visible again tonight, even though there will be a few more clouds than last night. it's hard to say exactly when, but overall, midnight to 2 am tends to be the ideal viewing time. tonight's ask fred prize is 4 tickets to the super latke brunch-lunch-dinner this sunday at

to enter, email a weather question to me or post one on our abc9 news facebook page. jenna/tim/fred (tim) thanks, fred.

you bet. want to bust that we ask a mind- and-body coach

how to do it! coming up

but there are ways to relieve some of that physical tension. holly firfer explai in today's health minute. " " (nats) "we're going to start with the breath and the reason we're going to do that is that it's the most direct way to interrupt stress" for more than 30 years... dennis buttimer has worked as a mind and body coach helping people manage their tension. that stress usually creeps up higher than usual during the holidays... with shopping, traveling, and family gatherings. but dennis has some ways to keep that stress level to a minimum. first, just breathe. (dennis buttimer, mind body coach) "what we're going to do is a yoga breath so we're going to inhale through the nose and we're going to fill up our stomach like a balloon, and then let your chest rise up. and on the exhale, you just squeeze the stomach gently." then, create a relaxation response. (dennis buttimer, mind body coach) "i'm going to ask you to tap alternately on the opposite end of your shoulders or with your index

finger just alternately tapping on the outsides of your knees. "and now, imagine a source of this holiday stress for you. it could be pressures, it could be expectations, it could even be grief. "when you tap the right side, it's actually tapping more so on the left side of the brain and vice versa so it's hard to hold that upset state that you're in." for today's health minute, i'm holly firfer. jenna: dennis says you should take a few minutes everyday to get rid of stress because it can help improve your quality of sleep, reduce headaches, lower blood pressure, and release muscle tension. coming up in sports...four siouxland teams can clinch trips to the state tournament tonight. we'll preview those matchups up ahead. plus...iowa state is coming off a huge win over texas...but the cyclones have to turn their attention to oklahoma. we'll have a report from ames

first time in ames--iowa state beat texas on saturday. but the cyclones don't have much time to celebrate as they gear up for a road test at oklahoma...jon schaeffer has more from ames. jon schaeffer--"the confidence level for this iowa state team is now through the roof after a 24-0 victory over texas. now their attention turns to oklahoma who has the number one passing defense in the big 12. they have 30 sacks this season. so the plan? do what's been working and that's running the ball with mike warren. paul rhoads--"we gotta work hard to establish the run game and mike is obviously the big piece of that as far as carrying it goes. we got a piece of our play action pass that goes quickly improved if we get that accomplished so if we can't run the ball and we get forced into a passing game against this defense we'll be in trouble" jake campos--"oklahoma has a very physical front they're big guys. they're very fast very explosive and they're very dangerous in the pass game so we gotta establish the run early get them on their toes kind of on their heels thinking run all the way and then transition to the passing game really set that up." joel lanning--"it's going to be huge we gotta get him, the run game going obviously that's been a big part of our game since we started playing the season i guess so we gotta keep that going hopefully bring up some line backers get on some

routes in there." mike warren--"just goes back to the o- line if they play good then we all play good we just feed off of eachother then if the holes are there than they're there if they're not then we just have to find a way." chris: this evening, four siouxland teams battle for three spots at the state volleyball tournament in class 3a, 4a, and 5a regional finals. in class 5a, east makes the trip to ankeny centennial in search of their first ever state volleyball appearance. the jaguars are the defending class 5a

for its 17th trip in the last 18 seasons when they take on carroll in schaller this evening. and in class 3a, siouxland is guaranteed a team at state as 11th ranked sb-l takes on number 10 spirit lake in sheldon. we'll have highlights from all of these games for you tonight at 10. the iowa high school football playoff field is down to 8 teams per class after last night. on friday, nine siouxland teams will square off in 6 games with the winners advancing to the uni dome and the losers getting ready for basketball season. here's a look at the pairings...in 3a...8th ranked sbl hosts undefeated and number four webster city. in class 2a spirit lake hosts central lyon glr in a rematch of a regular season won that 42-8. try to avenge its only loss of the season as they battle western christian. the wolfpack routed the blackhawks 42-17. and west sioux hosts akron

rematch...the falcons won the first, 42-14. finally in 8- man...the finally in 8- man...the defending state champs from newellfonda host colo nesco and mmc looks for its third trip to the dome in 4 years when they host mmc. after the royals won their first world championship, you knew the celebration would be a big one and kansas city didn't disappoint. an estimated 500 thousand fans--keep in mind the kc metro population is 470 thousand--took to the streets to celebrate the royals 4-1 world series victory over the new

" " it's time for our facebook fan photo of the day. today's picture comes from... jeff carlson. this is his family enjoying the beautiful fall weather. he says is this heaven? no, it's iowa. if you're like to submit a facebook fan photo, just post it on our abc-9 facebook page.