production...presi dent macri scrapped export taxes on commodies such as corn, wheat and beef. he also reduced the export tax on soybeans from 35 percent to 30 percent. that 5 percent dip....creates huge savings opportunities for argentina...which is the world's third largest soybean exporter. however, experts say.....cuts to export taxes in argentina could also drive down grain prices in the u-s. "there is a lot of talk that you'll see argentina shift more acres into corn just because of that reduced [tariff] and wheat as well. the export tax overhual comes after a decade of tariff increases in argentina....that farmers in that country opposed. tonight at 6...i'll have more on the possible... long-term

market here in the u-s. reporting live in studio...deborah souverain abc 9 news. jenna: for the first time in almost a decade, the federal reserve today announcece an interest rara increase. that means top federal officials think the u-s economy is strong enough to be weaned off of the extraordinary support it's received sce the great recessio lauren lyster has more from new york. " interest rates affect how much it costs to finance a home or a car [nat of car driving or credit card swiping?]... and how much you're charged to borrow on a credit card? the federal reserve's decision today means those costs will be on the rise. sot - kevin o'leary "mortgage rates will go up as the fed raises rates, credit rds will go up" the central bank has decided to start hiking its benchmark rate, which impacts the cost to borrow money. that rate has been kept at near zero for the last seven years. here's d chair janet llen... sot - janet yellen, fed chair tbd

to stimulate the economy and restore confidence in financial markets. mere rumors of fed rate hikes in the past have resulted in huge selloffs?[nats opening or closing bell] so, about the decision to begin raising them? sot - o'leary you know, the thing is, it's good news. . the reason the fed is rates could go up, the housing market could initially benefit, according to shark tank's barbara corcoran. sot - barbara corcoran "it will kick people off the e who have been procrastinating and jump into the market immediately." and both sharks say the move is no reason to fret? sot - o'leary: "i think the key here is now that you know the world is changing, lock down your costs" sot - corcoran "itit doesn't pay to get scared - figure out what the interest rate is and what it might be and get over it" lauren lyster tag also, financial experts expect rates to rise gradually and to remain very low through the next year as the economy continues to recover. lauren lyster, abc news, new york. " jenna:

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 t ts year than last. and that gives american consumers about 130-billion dollars more to spend. jenna: the state of nebraska has announced their latest appointment to the state department of economic developent, and she's from norfolk nebraska. courtney dentlinger (det- lin-ger) will be leaving her post as the director of the norfolk area economic development council to take the possition. jenna: passengers trying to get to atlanta out of sioux falls today sat on a delta plane for seven hours before their flight was able to take off. delta flight 2167 was suppose to take of a little after 6:00 a-m. they finally departed just after one in the afternoon. according to rules implemented

department of transportation, an airline must return to the gate if a plane is waiting to take off more than 3 hours. but delta says that rule doesn't apply in this instance. a few passengers did get off the plane and were re-booked on different flights. delta says they are apologizing to customers for the delay and will be offering them a goodwill gesture. nna: the judge has declared a mistrial in the case of baltimore police officer william porter. he was the first officer to face trial for freddie gray's death. e mistrial came after jurors said they were deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the four charges against porter, including involuntary manslaughter. prosecution and defense attorneys were instructed by the judge to appear thursday to set a new trial date. five other officers still face charges in gray's april death. he died from injuries that occurred while he was in police custody. jenna: a nebraska school was placed on lockdown today,

were made. according to authorities in newman grove nebraska, the high school declared a lock down after a threat was made on facebook. police searched the buidling after the superintendent of the school says a "direct threat was made against the school". four students were taken into custody. the lock down was lifted after police cleared the school. jenna: last night, the last gop of 2015 debate focused primarily on national security following both . the paris and san bernardino attacks and the scare in los angeles jeb bush went on the attack against frontrunner donald trump for his proposal to ban muslims from entering the u-s. there were also heated exchanges between marco rubio and ted cruz over immigration. political analysts say trump still looks like the minant front runner - but a couple of f other candidates made their mark as well. matt dowd: the two breakout people in this debate were marco rubio - he's always good at these debates, he's probably won every single debate in the

and i think chris christie did himself some good, contrasting to everybody else on stage. the problem is, can anybody take a place of donald trump in the course of this race, and i think that's the question we don't know. ted cruz spoke the most with over 15 minutes. ohio gov. john kasich spoke the least with just 9 minutes. the last democratic debate of the year will be saturday night on abc. jenna: one republican presidential candidate took no time to hit the campaign trail here in iowaight after the debate this morning florida senator marco rubio was in ankeny at the courtyard marriott to speak to voters. she said if the country plans on remaining a global power we need to invest into our military. "how are you going to defend yourself against them if you have an army that's smaller than it's ever been since world war ii? how are you going to keep our country safe with a navy that is smaller and older than any time since 1915?" rubio had d busy day of travel coming off of the debate. he also made a

new hampshire today. rubio intendu to visit muscatine and knoxville iowa tomorrow. jenna: hillary clinton picked up a hefty endorsement on her first campaign trip to nebraska. clinton was introduced on stage by wall street mogul warren buffet, who also announced his support for clinton's white house bid. the relationship may seem odd given clinton's push to raise taxes on the rich... but buffett says that's exactly why he's backing clinton. the presidential candidate outlined why she says it's time to even the nation's economic playing field. (hillary clinton/(d) presidential candidate): "there has been too much that has led to the wealthy getting wealthier at the expense of hard- working families, middle-class families, young people and that's not the way we're going to keep america going and growing. you see, i disagree fundamentally with lead republican candidate, i think america is great and it's up to us to make sure we make it greater." buffett also took a shot at

donald trump. after saying that many of the presidential candidates are smart, the investor added, "one of them tells you every five minutes how smart he is." jenna: the iowa department of education's school report cards came out today. it's an online web source you can use to find out just how well your local school is doing in several departments including their curiculum, class size, extra curriculars, general safety and other catergorieie to see how your local school did on their report card. visit siouxlandmatters dot com. jenna: public safety officers in eastern iowa spent the majority of their morning trying to corral almost one hundred pigs that escaped after their carrier tipped over. the "road hogs" scurried about between highway 30 and northbound interstate 3-80 near cedar rapids iowa officials estimated 180 hogs were on board at the time the semi overturned, about half of which escaped and gan walkinin along the e opes

ramp thiowa department of transportation said a semi overturned , around 9:30 this morning. students and employees of kirkwood community college assisted in groing up the pigs the driver of the semi was not injured. still to come... there's just one day left in our operation toys drive! we'll head out to bomgaars to see how the collections are going. fred: (fred) cold weather will continue, and breezy winds will make it feel even cocoer! but the weekekd will be warmeme your forerest is after the break. stay with us! " " fred: jenna: tim: (jenna) fred, what is the forecast in a word? (fred) cool.

no snow left. most of us had light snow of a half inch or less, but snowvision shows that there was a narrow band of 1-5" of snow that stretched from pierce county nebraska to sioux falls. here's something interesting: sioux city saw 0.17" of rain early this morning before we swtiched over to snow. the fast freezing of this

some slick spots. the port neal welding company skycam hd shows cloudy skies from the ho chunk centre in downtown sioux city. the almanac shows a high of 41 and a low of 28. in sioux city, the temperature is 30 with a dew point of 20. local temperatures are in the 20s and 30s. that's about 5 to 10 degrees cooler than this time yesterday. winds are nonohwest at 15 to 25 miles per hour. resulting wind chills are in the single digits and teens. looking west, there's more cool air headed our way. the satellite and

low pressure system moving east. cloudy skies linger. a winter weather advisory remains in effect for much of south dakota and northern minnesota. the stormcast hd shows quiet weather, reinforced by high pressure friday night that will result in some cool temperatures. your forecast for tonight is for a low of 18 and mostly cloudy skies with breezy winds. tomorrow, the high ll be 30 with eezy winds and partly cloloy skies. the 7-day forecast shows that friday will be our coolest day at 28, the down

above-freezing highs will move in saturday and remain for several days, and there are no additional chances for snow over the next week. so, our chance of a white chirstmas is looking slim at this point. fred: tim: jenna: (jenna) thanks, fred. (fred) you bet! jenna: we're now 9 days away from

away from christmas, but just one day is left to paicipate in this year's "operation toys" tim joins us live from one of the drop off locations... with an update. thanks, jenna... folks still have time to drop off a new and unwrapped toy at any bomgaars location in sioux city... including here at the hamilton blvd store. lots of options if you're already

but you can just stop by to drop a toy off as well... after tomorrow.... workers from the salvation army will be picking the getting ready for distribution... nene week parents get the chance to handpick toys for kids that otherwise might not have quite as merry of a christmas. this is the payoff for making a easy donation to operation toys...

this is what you need to look for at any local bombaars, salvation army or at the abc9 studios at 625 douglas st. but need to get there tomorrow... jenna it's just that easy. back to you is surgery always the answer when it comes to appendicitis? we find out more when we return.

appendicitisist can be troubling for worried parents, and surgery may be more alarming than the actual diagnosis. dr. timothy johnson.has more on an alternative treatment. "abdominal pain and fevers... they may be the symptoms of appendicitis... a condition that strikes 70,000 children a year in this country and if you're a parent... the very mention of it may worry you. most parents think appendicitis always requires surgery, but this may not be the case. researchers at the children's hospital in columbus, ohio looked at more than 100 children who had uncomplicated acute appendicitis. some got surgery, others were treated with

found that the children who received only antibiotics did just as well as the children who underwent surgery. in fact, in some ways, they did better... spending fewer days in the hospital and getting back to normal sooner. of course, some cases of appendicitis absolutely require surgery... including when the appendix has ruptured, a true medical emergency. but for other cases, the message to parents is: maybe consider antibiotics first. it may all you to get your children back on their feet. with this medical minute, i'm dr. timothy johnson. " after the break... the eventful year is winding down but what was the most googled thing in 20-15? find out when we return. jenna: no one has allllhe dear future, please help. the present is kind of a scary place. i have no money, no job, no clothes. i feel completely helpless. but i hear good things about you, future. like i'll have hair, and friends,

and the popular online search engine had one crazy year it seems. jeremy roth breaks down who was searching what in 2015. "what do americans do when they need to know something?..

and in 2015.. movies and celebrities made up most of the most googled topics. lamar odom was the number one google search in 20-15. the former n-b-a star.. and husband of reality star khloe kardashian.. was fo unconscious at a vegas brothel in october. he's now recovering in l-a. number two and three were the popular movies jurassic world.. and american sniper. and like number one.. the number four most searched topic in 20-15 was a famous athlete turned reality star.. caitlyn jenner.. who made a very public transition to a woman. and rounding out the top five was m- m-a fighter ronda rousey. she's been called a pioneer.. and a beast. she calls herself 'the best fighter in the whole world.' people also turn to google for burning questions.. the most searched 'what is' question.. what is zero divided by zero?.. and the most searched 'how to' question.. how to use the new snapchat update? beats me.. ask google! " tim:

of our forecast.

tomorrow, the high will be 30 with breezy winds and partly cloudy skies. the 7-day forecast shows that friday will be our coolest day at 28, the down to 12 friday night. above-freezing highs will move in saturday and remain for several days, and there are no additional chances for snow over the next week. so, our chance of a white