the abundant sunshine! here's the dayplanner where temperatures will slip later today. your complete forecast is coming up - your news starts now. "announcer: "now live from kcau-tv in sioux city, iowa... this is abc9 news this midday.... " " lukas. good morning and thanks for joining us this midday. i'm lukas voss today is the last republican debate before the iowa first in the nation caucuses on monday and trump is still set on boycotting the debate and hosting his own event right here in iowa " "

hours away from hosting his, quote "special event" to veterans at drake moines --the televised affair prime-time debate. presidential have going is a movement, it's not a normal situation." but, the gop front runner's decision to stick it to fox by dropping out is not without irony. (donald trump/(r) presidential candidate) "i was not treated well by fox." trump appearing on the network last night -- fox news anchor bill o'reilly failing to coax trump back to the stage. (bill o'reilly/fox news) "just want you to consider it. you owe me milkshakes, i'll take them off the ledger if you consider it. (donald trump/(r) presidential candidate) "i told you upfront don't ask me that question because it's an embarrassing question. (overtalk) (bill o'reilly/fox news) "but i'm not going to listen to any political person telling me don't ask me anything." asking trump to (bill o'reilly/fox news) "i'm asking you to reconsider it, if you don't want to it's up to you." texas senator ted cruz -- running number two in the pushed center now cruz is doubling down on his challenge for a one on one debate with his biggest rival. (sen. ted cruz/(r) presidential candidate) "i'm going western iowa tech saturday night sioux city. we already have cruz's super pac dollars to vets groups if trump agrees. and carly fiorina "upping the ante" - offering 2 million dollars to debate trump at drake. the media spectacle rubbing the rest of wrong way. (sen. rand paul, (r)

think that he'll be missed. in fact, i don't think donald trump's a conservative." (sen. marco rubio, (r) presidential candidate) "90% of their coverage is on this whole thing. this is not a show. this is serious!" lukas and coming up a little later in the show we'll be joined by coki roberts, abc political analyst to dive more into what might take place during the debate tonight. lukas: and here's a look at the iowa caucus media center. 16-hundred journalists and crews from around the world

des moines for the big day. getting there days in advance to be prepared for the hectic night. our very own tim seaman will be in des moines rerting live from the headquarters beginning friday. lukas the president is signing a presidential memorandum today (thursday) to create a white house task force that will tackle curing cancer. vice president joe biden, who lost his son beau to cancer, will lead the panel. the president pledged in his final state of the union address to initiate a government-wide push to cure cancer, comparing it to the effort in the 19-60s to send a man to the moon. the vice president has said he plans to seek out both private and public resources. the panel is expected to meet for the first time on monday. yesterday afternoon ... russell roberts jr. was found guilty of vehicular homicide in the death of tiffany schmitt... as well as two counts of driving under the influence resulting in serious bodily harm of two of the other passengers. according to court documents, intoxicated and speeding which caused him to

the car crashed and overturned in rural dakota county schmitts family was in the courtroom awaiting roberts sentencing. "he has not appologized accept for today, it was nice to hear but i think it's just the beginning" lukas: roberts was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prision and his drivers license is revoked for 15 years. lukas: it may quite possibly be a first in iowa, a juvenile detention center in linn county is using yoga as a form of recreation a volunteer ... allison ordman ... started teaching yoga classes at the detention center, teaching both juveniles in custody and staff it's been going so foundation awarded the thousand dollar more instructors program. those in custody say at first they but now see the class. down if i'm frustrated some times. "i've had kids tell me when they're in their use this to fall

with anger control issues use this to calm themselves down."> ordman teaches what's called trauma informed yoga, which emphasizes breathing control, stress relief, and emotional calming. lukas westside elementary school administrators, teachers, staff members and students celebrated their 2016 national title 1 distinguished school award tuesday. " " the norfolk city council will meet in special session friday morning, and among the items on the agenda is a $1- million incentive for oct pipe that would come from keno funds. the amount would be in addition to the $3.6-million in lb840 money committed to the natural gas line project. the special city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:15. westside elementary school administrators, teachers, staff members and stududts celebrated their 2016 national title 1 distinguished school award tuesday. title 1 schools have high percentages of children from low- income families and receive financial assistance to help ensure children meet state academic standards. westside students have dramatically improved their reading and math scores in the last four years. westside principal angie baumann will accept the national honor later this week at the national title 1 conference in houston. you'll have to wait another week for the super bowl, but the norfolk arts center has soup 'r art this sunday. area restaurants and caterers will serve up their best soups and desserts, while the region's top artists display their creations and give live demonstrations.

it's set for 11 to 3 sunday at the lifelong learning center. . those and more stories can be heard on news talk wjag, lite rock 97.5 and 106 kix. facebook is making more money off of you than ever before. the social media site reported wednesday it made more than one and half billion dollars in profits just in the last three months of 2015. facebook has more than one and half billion people who use the site each month. the amount that the company makes per person has grown 33- percent globally. in the u-s and canada... facebook makes more than 13-dollars per user.

an exciting update to a your health matters story we shared with you a couple months ago. jack, miltenberger, a two-year-old from elk point, is finally healthy enough to come home after spending most of his life in a special hospital in ohio. jack was born several weeks early and has had trouble breathing on his own. but, ...there's still one thing standing in the way of jack's homecoming. abc9 news anchor jenna rehnstrom has an update on his journey. jack is learning to crawl. becky, the physical therapist, says, "his arms are a little bit week to hold his whole upper body up." through some careful physical therapy, jack is making improvements during his time at lifescape in sioux falls, which serves kids and adults with disabilities. "big, big boys!" becky says. it's been a long road for the miltenberger family. earlier this month, after two years in the hospital, jack was strong enough to leave a facility in ohio to come home. but, he's still not quite there. erin miltenberger says, "there's just certain steps we have to climb to get there, and we're down to one." that final hurdle is having a team of nurses in-place to work with jack at his home in elk point. jack needs care 24/7, and with nurses in high-demand, filling that need is proving to be a challenge. heather robinson, a clinical nurse

is working with jack's family to make it happen. she's a has experienced the rewarding impact home health has for patients and nurses. heather says, "the benefit of home health is that you do interaction with to make a tangible difference in that them groro" wonder pets... yay!!!" heather says in addition to personal care and managing jack's breathing equipment, a lot of his needs will be met through some good playtime. that will meet the needs of jack's parents, too. they just want their family together... ben miltenberger says, "it'll be nice to just walk downstairs [and have him there], and not have to travel anywhere." erin says, "i'm really looking forward to going to bed and knowing he's under our same roof." lukas and when we come back , we'll be joined by an

explain why tomorrows tomorrows could be crucial .... scott: " " scott: scott: welcome back! here's a look outdoors on the

highs yesterday ballooned into the 40s throughout most of the region. currently, we are still enjoying some nice temperatures stationed in the 30s. we have a breezy northwest wind at 15 to 25 miles per hour.

like it's in the teens up! the satellite and clouds dipping in from north to south. the stormcast hd shows that we have a weak undary parked nearby. a wind from the sse turns and with less snow coverage, we should see temperatures into the upper 40s. saturday despite increasing clouds. under partly cloudy low is 23. 47 with mostly sunny peek at your 7 day forecast. jessica rae

republican debate taking place

we turn to abc political analyst cokie robinson to give us some insight on the debate, thank you for joining us today my first question n r you is how important is it really that donald t tmp is staying away from this debate? cokie roberts response.................. ....... lukas now with that being said with ted cruz ... still now with that being said with ted cruz ... still

ted cruz ... still behind trump ... can this debate be a turnaround for the iowa caucusus, espically with trump out of the race? cokie roberts response.................. .......................... lukas question for you..what does a

to the caucus mean ... especially with such a wide gop field? cokie roberts response................. lukas alright well thank you so much for joining us this morning. lukas after the break... we'll take a look k at what howard has cooking for us in n e mr. food kitchen

your recipes a little extra kick. howard is here in the mister food test kitchen with a skillit dinner that you will love. "today we're revealing the secret ingredient that makes this rice dish so incredible. what do you think it could be? have you ever eaten something, loved it, yet you couldn't quite figure out what made it taste so good. was it a certain spice or how it was prepared? well, today's recipe has a secret ingredient that turns an ordinary side dish into an extraordinary one. and let me tell you ... as always it's really easy. while cooking some long grain rice like we would normally do, we saut some garlic in a bit of olive oil for a couple of minutes just to bring out the nutty flavor. then we toss in a couple of tomatoes that we've chunked up and cook it until they start to break up. now all we do is add the rice to the skillet along with some sliced salt and pepper. once that's all mixed, we add our secret ingredient - some ranch dressing - and once it's mixed through, we're done. you see the dressing not only gives this lots of flavor, it also makes it creamy. and when this for the first asking, "what's in this that makes it taste them . it's our little secret. i do hope get the recipe for skillet rice," so everyone will love thanks to our secret ingredient. i'm howard in the mr. food test kitchen, and we'll see you back here tomorrow

it's so good!" " lukas coming up after the break... fighters in this the cage, stay with us lukas fighters in this saturday's king of the cage, stay with us

welcome power in the studio this morning ... i am joined by nick rogers and jeremy gabel of

fitness this morning ... what's up guys? - from a trainers perspective ... why is the sport so popular right now? - both of you have popular right now? - both of you have been doing this for some time now ... jeremy what does it take to make that walk into the octagon? -what's preparation like? fullscre en -this saturday - january 30th -at winnevegas

january 30th -at winnevegas casin in sloan, ia -doors open 4:30 - fights start at 6 p.m. -for tickets call (712) 428-9466 lukas scott's up next with a final check of our forecast. stay with us.

39 under partly cloudy skies. the overnight low is 23. tomorrow's high is 47 with mostly sunny conditions. here's a peek at your 7 day forecast.today's high is 39 under partly cloudy skies. the overnight low is 23. tomorrow's high is 47 with mostly sunny conditions. here's a peek at your 7 day forecast.today's high is 39 under partly cloudy skies. the overnight low is 23. tomorrow's high is 47 with mostly sunny conditions. here's a peek at your 7 day forecast.today's high is 39 under partly cloudy skies. the overnight low is 23. tomorrow's high is 47 with mostly sunny conditions.

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