of iowa's some of youngest people. >> representative gave support to allowing childn under 14 to hale revolvers and pistols. chris hall voted against the bill. he joinsns me on that and other sues still up for debate in des moines. plus other issues,s, and we'll get started next. in sioux city, iow join us we as dcuss the hot topics in "this week in siouxland." good morning, we're glad that you're with us this week. in may nebraskans go to the polls to vote in the 2016 primary, but democrats in the state are kicking off this week, hosting their ownwn version of a caucus. while it may not draw attention,, it really is a bigeal. the party will hold caucuses

unlike in iowa where sites d't open until thevening. the state hosted itsirst caucus back in 2008, but this year marks the first time that all 93 counties in nebraska will participate.25 delegates are up for grabs in the stateith five more super delegates added later. vince powers is the chair of the nebraska democratic party, and he joins us this morning viaia skype to talkbout what's ahead. vince, thanks so much for being with us this sunday morning. >> thanks very much for having us and taking time to discuss the nebraska caucus. >> nebraska's primary is coming up may 5th. i guess, tell our viers what inspired the democrats to go thisoute whe you will be back to the polls in may.. >> we wanted to move primary up to mid february.

to be two -- the end of george sh's second term. it was an open seat, and we thought it would be good for nebraska replicans andnebraska demococrats to have anopportunity to help select the nominee, but the republicans did not want to move it from up mid may, so the only way we could do it without passing a state law was use our party mechanics of having a caucus. gosh, everyone watching this in iowa knows this very well that the caucus is run by the statete party. we make the rules, we can set the time, provided it's approved. one to keep the status quo or go to a caucus. there are differences i the so called caucuses. and you're getting a lot from your absentee ballot.

an said, look, i have very good friends that will be working on saturday. they've been democrats their whole life. why shouldn't their opinion matter? some someo else would say, i've got a friend who couldn' attend because of health reasons, so we have a rule thatt simply says, if you cannot attend the caucus you may participate by absetnee card. people have questioned us about what thihis? we're a lot like iowans across the river. we start with the proposition that nebraskans are honest and end with the proposition that nebraskans are honest. frankly it's been -- it has overwhelmed us with how many people have sought absentee requests this cycle. >> it's my understanding you will not be releasing the tally

is that rt of the reason or why are we not going to see those rults? >> no, we are. numbers. it's a horse race. we're going to say candidates, we're going to say secretary clinton received this many votes, and senator sanders got that many votes. what we may not do is release th number of delegates of the 25 because we want to make certain that we get those numberers correct, but most pepeople, espeally in the campaign, they want t know whowon, and dellegettgates, and there's formulas, but we will release those numbers and you'll kw who won, and that's important. [ overlapping speakers ] >> if somebody doesn't win. >> those results will all come at the end of the night. not during the process, per se. >> right, the offial results will come at the end, but

unique is that unlike in iowa where there's one set time across the state we can start -- some counties will caucus at 10:00 a.m., douglas county, for example. lancaster will go at 6:00 p.m. any time from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. central-standard time. we did that because there are differt counties. some of our counties had basketball tournaments thatnight, and our whole focus was, how can we have a system that allows the most democrats to participatate? >> we have 93 counties, and we recognize that not every county's the same, and there are certain local issues that can affect the timin so there will probably be -- it wouldn't surprise me if unofficial results are coming out. it's a free country and someone might say i just left hker

>>nd we'll be passing along some of those local caucus sit and times later this morning. one other question before i let you go. nebraska does haveve a pmary as well.. are you concerned at all that participation in this caus by theemocrats will conclude them or make it any less interesting to get involve >> not at all because remember there's nothing exciting in 2004 about going to ve for j john kerry. he already won, so that didn't drive up the vote. the nominee is ected by -- [ indistinguishable ] and that's going to happen by both parties again. most importantly in 2004 we had a little over 70,000 democrats voted in.. 2008 in our first caucus we had almost 100,000. 20,000 democrats or more vote inside '08. in 2008 we had great success. it was one of our better years.

say that the primary wins the nominees alrea been selected drives the numbers. and so the mai thing that i keep emphasizing is this caucus is a volunteer activity. it's not perfect, b it's going to be great. >> what type of numumbers doouou expect at thend of the night as far as participation? >> we had 38,000 in. 2008 i think we'll be at 50,000. there's tremendous interest. we've had the 38,000 came from a 10-day campaign by barack obama. then senator clinton did not campaign. we've now had both campaigns for about a month. working it hard. [ laughter ] >> like i said itt will not be perfect, but it's going to be great. >> it's part of the process and that's what's most important. we appreciate you taking time to join us this morning and good

powers of the chair of the nebrasaska democratic rty. thanks for having me. have a great sun day, bye-bye. >> if you've got questions you can goo nebraskacaucus 2016.org and here's a rundown of the nearest counties where you can plan to go caucus in nebraska dakota county, the courthouse beginning at 2:00 p.m. blackhawk a 6:00 p.m. the hardington plic library in cedar county at 10:00 a.m. the wayne county courthouse at 10:00 a.m. and dickson county and church of christ wl hold voters beginning at 2:00 p.m. those are just a few of our local sites. earlier this week john gayle set the slate of presidential candidates that will appear on the ballot. ted cruz, john kasasich, marco

democratic side, hillaryry clinton and bernie sanders. candidate withdrawals and campaign suspension. what could end up being t biggest single day of the 2016 campaign comes up on tuesday. that's when 12 states and one territory, most of them in the south, voat on what is known as "super tuesday" because of a large number of southern states, 's often referredo as the sec primary ting a note from the southern eastern conference. ted cruz'ss home ste of texas and bernie sanders's home statate of vermont, there's speculation as to whether or not they'll win their own state. a list of big-winner take all states all go to the polls. marco rubio and ted cruz werere in attack mode thursday

in houston for their latest debate. front-running donald trump was hammered by both men.. >> are you the only person on the stage t that's ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projes illegally? >> there's another issue on which donald and i disagree a sharply. >> i'm beating him in the poll. >> but you'r're not beating hillary. >> republicans take the stage march 3rd in detroit. we'll see how many candidates are still standinghen. here' the latest poll numbers arched by real clear politics. again, these are national arches. donald trump with a 13-point mar begin over ted cruz. marco rubio is third, four points back of cruz and kasich and carson in siningle digits. the democrats are closer with hillary clinton maintaining her advantage on bernie sanders by five points.

two concerns in siouxland this morning. considering the future options and that incncludes a look at io's fourth district ngressiol seat held by fellow republicans. >> i think that anyone knows me knows i went down with a pretty aggressive list, and i feel like i'm slowly whittling away at thatist. i'mm strongly consiring it. i'm excited about the opportunity. i think maybe it is time to giveiowans a cice. i've been working on ts anywhere f from fouro sixmonths. when the data tells me it's time to go in the next few weeks it's going to be pretty exciting. >> meanwhile two orange city republicans hope to win elections to district 4. both 54-year-old jeff and 22-year-old tyler are from orange county. a professor and tyler will be on

john will leave offe after one term. yo may remember he won a special election to fill the opening left by the sudden passing last year of duane. stay with us this morning. still to come after the break. state representative chris hall joins me for an update on the top issues still facing the iowa legigislature.

in siouxland" with tim seaman. we're back witith more "this weeksiouxland" with tim seaman. welcome back. we're going to turn our attention to politics here in the state of iowa and most importantly at the statehouse in des moines where one o our local representatives has been able to join us, chris pal. >> great to be here. >> let's talk about medicai the federal government in thepast few days gave its approval april 19. the rollout will begin. your thought have you seen somome good signs since we had this discussnn with problems -- [ indistinguishable ] >> wel i think we've started to get more answers.. we're seeing that a lot of provers, whether it's hospitals or private companies have beg to sign contracts with these managed care companies, and so knowing that the federal government has approved those contracts and we're going to move forward on april 1st dust give you some

i think fromere forward we need to be discussing oversight -- it's a huge contract that's $4.2 billion of state taxpayer dollars, and they're going to b given to three companies. we want to make sure those three companies are using the dollars issued. we want to make sure that they're still providing the same types of treatment and care to people they've come to rely upon, and it's important to realize that medicaid typically es toward the state's disabled, elderly, single mothers and children, and so these are people who really do need reliable services if we' going to move forward we need to have oversight over the e system. >> some of those pictures we just recently -- we were seein from recently sessions in des moines wre the senate hadseveral hearings. we had a hearing where folks said that we need to make sure we keep some type of oversight? would that be more of an administrative formula that would take a look at the

that medicaid program? >>ell, because of the nature of the system and really th dollars, and they're still large in their magnitude that we'd like to have legislature in oversight. we need to make surure that those dollars on an annual basis are being used well.i think the biggest concern you see right now is medicaid over the last few years h been very efficient. medicaid usually has an administrative cos of about 4%-5%, and these companies are projecting their overhead and administrative costs could jump to about 12-15%. so if these companies have a profit motive we need to make sure that they're not profiting at the expense of people who need those services instead. >> something we'll connue to keep an eye o that's for sure. ashe session continues you really have to get some big pieces of the pie put in place when you talk about dollars before that kikind of trickles down to some of the newer pieces of legislation that perhaps may come along.

weavenen't heard much talk this year s far about ecation. we know there's been discussions, but at this point give us an update. are we close to possibly moving something forward there? i know one of your specific colleagues, ron, is involved on things. >> education is really thehelargest piece of our state's budget, and so getting into budgetary discussion, which is typically how we spend the latter half of session is really on. right now we're halfway into the session. we know that education funding in the debate between house and senate has been stalled out. we're starting to hear signals from leadership there may be an agreement announced earlyly next week. you'll remember at the beginning ofhe session the house advocated for 2%. the senate advocated for 4%, and i think that you'reerobably going to see some supplemental

that wouldn't surprise me if we see some signals early next week, and e legislature needs those numbers to start moving forward on the budget. >> and part of that education discussionomes back to what the governor proposed in the interim for the -- indistinguishable ] that was to extended the -- infrastructure. that's still ten years dow the road oro, but taking part of that money to go towards water quality in the state. is t that something that' likely or would we see a difference inn the package dealing with that infrastructure? >> infrastructe for school districts is very important topic. urban and rural advocating for an extension of that state-wide penny over the last few years. you have school districts like ours here in sioux city that have bonded up to their current capacity. so we have schools that need to be replaced, but they aren't

right now we do have thr competing poems -- prosals to extended the penny. one would be to extended it 20 years as it is.the governor's proposal would siphon dollars for water projects. i get the sense from republicansns and democratats it's a proposal that falls flat and may not move forward. the best potential, written by ron. that would give school districts more flexibility in how they use those dollars. if you're a districts that need construction you can put the dollars towards transportation costs in thease of a rural school district or property tax and equity toward schools like sisioux city that would beimportant to have flexibility to have. >> i w want to talk about guns here in the state.

debate this the house this week in d des moines. there was a vote that the house went ahead and passed it that allowed chiren 14 and youngerto be in possession of pistols and firearms as long as there's a parental oversight. and you were one of our view from our local delegation that voted opposed to that bill.l. >> i d. >> tell us why. >> well, that is a debate on wednesday of this past week, and there were five proposals dealing with expansion of gun rights. i vote inside four of the five bills. when i looked at the issue, and i i think the debate alsoo really shed some g good light on it, there are some important things that we do to protect our state's children. we have seat belt safety laws. we don't allow children to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes underage, and that's geared at

interest is followed througheven when parents might consent to their children doing their activities. if you look at giving handguns andd revolvers to children it's not something that fits with the second amendment rites. it will say the right to i guguess, or order to preserve a free state we need to also be able to maintain militia andnd preserve and protect the right to bear arms. but there's very little that has to d with preserving a militia when you'r tking about toddlers. if you're giving handguns and revolvers to a one, two or three-year-old it's not going to preserve the ability of our free state and maintain militias. >> i was going to say during thatiscussion from the house chambers i heard one of the members says this all well and good if every parent exercises parental control, but we know

>> we know there's plentnty of stories in the case of a 14-year-old girl down in arizona, she was at a shooting range with at automatic rifle and she ended up accidentally killing the instructor she was with because she couldn't maintain the rifle in a manageable way. if you thinknk of a toder holding a handgun, first of all pretty good odds that their hands aren't going to fit the trigger safety inhe first place, but sond of allheyy don't have the decision-making skills norhe strength to operate a firearm that's consistent with the principles. >> real quickly, the cannabis debate came up again. seems to be there is some progress. a chance that mightht move forward before we're done? >> i think you'll see a lot of legislators hoping. there's debate in the republican caucus right now. you have the speaker of t

progress on the issue comes from a background that i think is generally opposed to it and some of her more conservative issues s don't wa to see the issue move forrd. in order to try and move it forward republicans did qhit -- whittle the bill back. it's really an issue of compassion, and you're starting to see conservate republicans says this something we should look at when we're talking about end of life care, cancecer a epilepsy, and it's something that is starting to grain broader appeal. >> we'll continue to follow thatt one as well, i think. thks for being with us this morning, and good luck back at the statehouse next week. >> thanks, tim. we'll bee right back. this week's ne t things to know. don't go anywhere. stay tuned for more "this

break. now, we're back with more "ts week in siouxland".lkmvpyp and thanks for staying with us. before we let you get into the rest of your sunday. nine%w* to know. couple of sporting nes this

kershal will be saturday, march 5th. a big country sger from the days gone by. lots of fish fries this time of year, and the city's nights of columbusus will ho theirs sunday, march 4. [ indistinguishable ] campus student artrt s show coming up this saturday, february 5th. it runs through the first weekk of march. the musketeer are at home today at 3:00 against madison. and lamb psents the ten women of theatrical productio it runs for several weeks as well. 59th annual siouxland home show ends today at theonvention center. doors open at noo the cable tennis tournamt comes up this coming friday at the sergeant blu's community center the sub state basketballl 7:00 each on monday and tuesday night. and topping our nine things to know, it's oscar night. the oscar celebration thiss

here on abc9. nna and bruce will headline our coverage which begins at 5:30 and continues until the last statue is handed out. thanks for being with us this week. we'll see you again next sunday. captioning provided byaption solutions, llc www.captionsolutions.com (music) >>sabrina: governor branstad gets his way. medicaid is going private. but who are we watching to make sure those patients don't lose out? plus, a familiar face reemerges in state politics. and it's not just another tuesday. it's super tuesday. we look ahead at this monster day in politics. thanks for joining us for this week in iowa. i'm sabrina ahmed. well, it's official. iowa's medicaid program will change from state run to be managed by three private out-of-state companies. the federal centers

gave approval to the governor this week. but they've bumped back the deadline to april 1st. this change affects 560,000 people. that's one in five iowans who are on medicaid right now. now a statement from governor branstad explains why they're doing this. quote iowa is ready for a new system that provides access through more doctors and will create a more sustainable medicaid program for taxpayers. so now all the people who didn't want this to happen in the first place are turning their attention to another goal. they wanna make sure there's proper oversight on the new way medicaid will be run. on wednesday, a senate subcommittee that's looking at how to oversee the program had a packed house in its meeting room. dozens testifying about their concerns including the fact that the changes are happening so quickly. (background talking) >>sabrina: as karen muters talks to one of her three kids she brought with her to the capitol, she has one thing on her mind. >>karen: there isn't anyone that has been able to give us concrete answers.