>> made in georgia and radar shows a disturbance spinning in the northeast corner of siouxland. a winter weather advisory continues until 3 pm for southeast south dakota. the wind is strong gusting near 40 miles per hour. here's the planner where temperatures will keep descending this afternoon. your full forecast is coming up - your news starts now. "announcer: "now live from kcau-tv in sioux city, iowa... this is abc9 news this midday.... " "

good morning and thanks f joini us this midday. i'm jessica rae. yesterday, a terror threat forcibly shut down schools in los angeles, california causing chaos for hundreds of thousands of familes and in new york a similar threat but with a much different reaction abc's matt gutman has the latest " threat - warning of a swarm of jihadists descending on los angles schools came in email to an la school board memeer 5am tuesday? what followed?a swift decision 90 minutes lalar to close every one of the city's schools?.. cahrlie beck 20;55;24;36 we have suffered far t many school shootings in america to ignore these kind of threats the cost: an estimated 29 million dollars?. about 650,000 students shut out..... gfx lausd robocall: the superintendent has directed all schools to be closed today, tuesday, december 15th, to ensure the safety of all students. scrambling. k: mg: were your employers understanding?

new york city officials received same email to keep schools new york's police blasting la's decision?.. 12 20 11 bill bratton: to disrupt the daily schedules of a half million school parents new york police was that the alleged threat, involving a secret jihadist terror cell, nerve gas agents, , gh- powered weweons and mass casualties, seemed remarkakay similar to the plot line of the tv series homend. commissioner william bratton: the instigator of the threat may be a homeland fan. basically watching homeland episodes that it mirrors a lot of recent episode on homeland. police said the message sent to new york read in part: something big is only are there nerve gas agents set to go off at a specific time: during lunch hour. mayor bill deblasio: outlandish and school systems

continued, with a conspicuous typo: me, and my 138 comrades will die tomorrow in the name of allah, with a lower-case a in the new york version. commissioner william bratto that would be incredible to think that any jihadist would not spell allah with a capital a. matt tag whoever did this could face 20 years in jail ? " jessica rae: all ieyes will be on the federal reserve board this afternoon that's because the board will anounce whether it will be raising the key intere rate for the first time in nearly 10 years. most analysts expect it will happen. rates have been near zero since december of 2008, when the u-s housing market collapsed. such a move would suggest the federal regulators are feeling confident about the economy. jessica rae: last night in las vegas nevada, big stakes, as the rebpublican candidates took the stage going head to head i ithe last g-o-p debate, addressing the big g sues making headlines this campai cycle. here are some of the more

higlights of the debate "ted you support legalizing people who are in this country illegally "lindsey graham:isil would be dancing in the streets, but they dont e in dancing" "rand paul: trump says we ought to close thatt thing" "ben carson: it's actually ml if you go and finish the job instead of death by a thousand pricks." "donald trump: virtually the entire early portion of the debate is trump this trump that, in ordrd to getetatings." in their fifth debate face-off... almost every on national security for the 9 leading candidates..... with trump's proposal to ban muslims from entering the u-s --at the forefront. jeb bush and donald trump wasted no time getting into it, sparring over foreign policy. getting after wall idea, which trump says' 25 million dollars to build a wall on

united states prevent illegal entering the country sot rubio: "i am personally open, happened and after ten years in probationary status, card." elected?.we will works and i'll get for it," sot trump : "i'll build it." trump and cruz are currently polls ininowa trump is boasting big numbers throughout the debate, ththtwo kept things freindly one candidate who wasn't mincing words was new jersey governor chris christie who took the chance to jab at senators while also speaking on past executive experience sot christie if your eyes are glazing over like mine this is what it is like to be on the floor of the united states senate. some presidential candidates are already on the campaign trail again this morning florida senator marco rubio is in iowa today, making a stop in ankeny thihi morning. jessica rae: with the last debate of the year in the books and just 48 days until the feburary iowa caucuses, abc news political analyst cokie

to see who were the big winners and losers of last night's republican debate. good morning cokie: good morning jessica. jessica rae: cokie, last night we saw two of the candidates, senator ted cruz and donald trump, playing very friendly on the debate stage, is it a good political strategy for the two to not butt hds this early in the campaign? and could it suggest a politcal alliance between the two? jessica rae: also, cokie, last night we saw jeb bush quarrel with gop frontrunner donald trump. trump has recently boasted last night we saw

donald trump. recently boasted about how historically whoever comes after him sees a drop in polling numbers, nationally with bush's lull in numbers do you think last night'showing will hurt or help the jeb campaign?

carson last night make a statement suggesting the u-s quote "finish the job" overseas, which took some criticism by moderator wolf blitzer do you think the carsononampaign capitalized on last n nht's debate? and how do y y ththk the moderators did overall? jessica rae:

director is moving to lincoln for a new promotion. here's paul hughes with more. " norfolk's director of economic development has been named the new director of econonic development for the state of nebraska. gov. pete ricketts announund tuesday, thatatourtney dentlinger is his pick to succeed brenda hicks-sorenson, who was fired after about eight months on the job. dentlinger has built the city of norfolk's economic devetopment department from the ground up. members of our savior lutheran church in norfolk will have to wait a little longer to find out if they can move their church to the former eagle distributing property behind walmart. norfolk city administrator shane weidner says vulcraft has appealed a city determination that the property in question, is designated as commercial property under the city's comprehensive development plan. a new lease for barnstormers restaurant in norfolk is on hold pending a report from the attorney y general's office on some concerns raraed by the state auditor. at monday night's meeting of the airport authority board, city attorneclint schukei recommended waiting for that report before proceeding any further with renegotiating the lease. those and more stories can be heard on news talk wjag, lite rock 97.5 and 106 kix .

jessica rae: still to ce... americans saved big this past year on gas. see how much when we return . on gas. see how much whene return . scott:

scott: good morning siouxland. a winter

morninin here's a chececof the radar where we have snow continuing to pull away from the region. a winter weather advisory is the north this morning. here's a check of the radar where we h he snow continuiui to pull away from the region. a winter weather advisory is in effect for northwestern

look outside on the port neal welding company skycam hd. visibilities are being reduced associated with falling precipitation and fog in the region. temperatures are currently in the 30s throughout most of the area. we've got

weather advisoes painted to the northwest. the regional satellite ananradar displays the system continuing to pass to the east with precipitation currently falling in minnesota and points to the northeast. going through the

threat of precipitation is going to wind down by the middle of the day. then it'll become blustery with gusts near 40 miles per hour. then we'll see cold temps as we approach the weekend. today's high is 32. the overnight low is 20. tomorrow's high is 30 with partly cloudy skies. here's the 7 day forecast. jessica rae scott: jessica rae: it seems americans

when it comes to gas the oil price information service says u-s gas prices averaged about two-dollars, 40 cents a gallon this year. that's down 94 cents from 20-14. to put that in perspective, a driver buying about 11 gallons of gas a week spent about 550- dollars less at the pump thiyear than last. and that gives american consumers about 130-billion dollars more to spend. jessica rae: after the break... a holiday salad just in time for christmas.

side dish for your holiday party? well howard has a salad recipe that will be the talk of the table. check it out! "we've been whipping up all sorts of recipes this month so you'll have plenty of choices for hohoday entertaining, or for hosting those big dinner parties. and with all that, we realized we haven't shared with you any salads that

that is until now. we start off by washing a bag of mixed baby greens and spinning them dry. even though they come prewashed, i think that salad greens taste fresher if we rinse them first. it's like splashing water on your face when you wake up. ok, to those we toss in some dried cranberries, and a handful of roasted pumpkin seeds. and you can find them at the market next to the nuts. in goes some chopped red ion and a good amount of goat cheese that wewee crumbled. and now for the part that makes this so incredible, we combine some raspberry preserves, balsamic vinegar, a good amount of dijon mustard and black pepper. once that's mixed together, we whisk in some olive oil and a splash of water. come dinner time, drizzle on the dressing and dig in. this is just as welcome as a side salad as it would be if we hearty it up with some shrimp or grilled chicken. i do hope you'll go online and g the recipe for what we call, "reindeer crunch salad," along with a free "holiday helpers" ecookbook, which is perfect for this time of year. i'm howard, with our little reindeer kelly, in the mr. food test kitchen, where today we found a "lighter and briger way" for you to say . "ooh it's so good!!" jessica rae:

we take a look at how some siouxland organizations are giving back this holiday.

care. and support siouxland soldiers organized "holiday for our heroes" to say thank you to local service men and women. veterans expressed gratitude for events like these where their service is appreciated. by the time the event actually started... the director of the projects said they had served about 500 people dinner.

have been disrupted. it's a whole different system for them, so we need to honor what they have done for us... the times they have given, many of them are injured, and they still come to these events just to have comradery with everyone" says sam hacker, community director of support siouxland soldiers. jessica rae: dinner and dessert, holiday music, and plenty of toys to go around as the big man... that's right, santa.. was there to check the children's wish list and send them off with an early christmas present. "clapping" jessica rae: more than 200 sioux city boys are going home with brand new bikes before an anonymous donor paid for the bicycles for takes part in programs at the boys club of sioux the boys had no idea ahead of time and were excited to be measured for the bike to fit for ernesto, it's exciting that he'll bike again. ernesto hernandez, 13, says, "i thought it was pretty awesome, but it broke." valentino, 10, says, "i was really

jessica rae: just last week the same anonymous donor gave bikes to all the girls at sioux city's girls' inc, too. jessica rae: and if you want to help out a family in need, you can donate to the salvation army's operation toys. there'e'just one day left to donate. what you need to do i idrop off a new, unwrapped toy at any sioux city bomgaars, the sasaation army, ordowntown here at the abc9 studio. the salvation army will collect them on thursday and then parents get to come pick out christmas present for their kids. jessica rae: scott's up next with a final check of our forecast. stay with us. jessica rae:

what's coming up on the show today. "today's show is filled with information that is good for you. with so much to do, we sometimes forget to take care of ourselves during the holidays. and that's why we're starting off with the all-natural fix for your mood, energy and sleep. we got the one thing you need more of so you can enjoy the season. and, he's cooked for some of the most famous people in the world, including justin timberlake and president obama. he shares some of his best tips for holiday entertaining." jessica rae: again that's coming up today on dr. oz at 4 o'clock right here on abc9.

scott: it looks le our threat of precipitation is going to wind down by the middle of the day. then it'll become blustery with gusts near 40 miles per hour. then we'll see cold temps as we approach the weekend. today's high is 32. the overnight low is 20. tomorrow's high is 30 with partly cloudy skies. here's the 7 day forecast. it looks like our threat of precipitation is going to wind down by the middle of the day. then it'll become blustery with gusts near 40 miles per