, will not hold hearings on any supreme court nominee until after our next president is sworn in on january 20, 2017. -- 2017." stacey: senator grassley says statements made by vice presidents joe biden back in 1992 show why the senate should not take up a nominee. vice president biden action on a : supreme court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over. senator grassley in his heart of : hearts he understands why this senate must do what he said it must do in 1992. stacey: roosevelt high school now the first school in the city of des moines with bathrooms for transgender students. steve: kcci's emmy victor is live at roosevelt. and emmy, why did the school to make the change? emmy: administration here at roosevelt high school tell me that this is a part of a widespread effort to make both -- effort to try to make a more acceptable place for both students and staff members feel -- members. what once served as two separate faculty restrooms can now be

>> it shows them that their identity is legitimate. emmy: the idea sparked from student zoey wagner who says that students there come from all walks of life. >> there is a transgenger population here, and there is a population here that don't adhere to the gender binary in one way or another. emmy: the single unit rest rooms are privately located in the library for staff to monitor the students that use it. >> this isn't like if you are transgender, you have to use just a second option . emmy: but not everyone who uses the space is on board with this just yet, saying it will take time to get used to. with transgender, so to say so i -- just different. that if the change can make an impact on even one person, then it is worth it. >> we have a responsibility to make sure that as the adults in this building to make sure that our students feel included, feel safe. and i actually felt ashamed that we hadn't thought about this

emmy: students here magician for this change back in november. they have already ordered a new sign for the restroom. steve: lawmakers in nearby south dakota have passed a bill requiring transgender school children to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender at birth. the governor is still considering whether to sign it. while in charlotte, north carolina, the city council has voted to allow trans-gender people to use which ever public restroom corresponds to their gender-identity. stacey: the waukee school board wants the high school to start having students say the pledge of allegiance. the board decided on the policy after a parent asked why waukee students stopped saying the pledge after the 9th grade. elementary students say the pledge daily. middle school students say it once a week. steve: new information tonight about a drug bust in centerville where agents found the poison, , cyanide.

have now charged 38-year-old police department have now charged 38-year-old raymond lee rhodeman, and 43-year-old melissa renee zanders of centerville. the fbi joint terrorism task force, the iowa national guard's weapons of mass destruction team, and the state fire marshal's office, were all called to a centerville home yesterday, when potassium cyanide was found at the suspected drug house. the centerville police department says it doesn't believe the public was exposed to the poison. the cdc says exposure to potassium cyanide can quickly cause death by interfering with the body's ability to process oxygen. potassium cyanide is used commercially for fumigation, electroplating, and extracting gold and silver from ore. stacey: a plea agreement today allowed former iowa legislator kent sorenson to avoid a domestic abuse trial tomorrow. warren county prosecutors charged sorenson in connection with an incident at sorenson's home back in july of 2015. sorenson waved his right to a trial by jury and planned to

steve: opening statements got underway today in the murder trial of a boone man. the trial was moved to decorah because of pre-trial publicity. prosecutors say alexander fazzino killed his wife in their boone home in january of 2012. they claim fazzino feared losing his job with the fareway food stores if she divorced him. emily fazzino's grandfather founded fareway. stacey: several bills pass the iowa house today expanding gun rights in iowa. as cynthia fodor shows us, one controversial bill allows children of any age to use any guns with their parents' supervision. cynthia: lawmakers opposed to children shooting guns debated the bill for nearly an hour. >> logically, having a three-year-old hold or shoot a handgun does not make sense. logically, this bill is completely ridiculous. cynthia: those in favor of dropping the 14-year-old age requirement for handguns say its about giving rights back to the

>> me i want to take my , daughters out and teach them proper handgun safety along with proper long gun safety. i should be able to do that simultaneously. cynthia: nathan gibson's girls have been shooting since they were 5-years-old and fighting to change the law. they were ecstatic to see it pass. >> my kids aren't curious of guns anymore. they know what it does and they aren't going to play with it. we have taken that curiosity factor away. cynthia: the bill now moves on to the senate. stacey: other gun bills approved today include allowing loaded firearms on snow-mobiles and atvs, legalizing the use of suppressors on guns, and allowing people to use their guns in a state of emergency. also at the statehouse the iowa , senate today passed to so-called right to try bill. now goes to the iowa house for it -- and now goes to the iowa house for debate. ripplethe bill would allow terminally ill patients to try medications under research, but

by the fda. steve: a relatively-mild winter means big savings for the city of des moines. a typical winter brings us 33-inches of snow costing about $3.2 million to plow that snow. so far, the public works department has plowed 30-inches of snow and has spent less than $1.8 million. plow drivers have also refined their technique, using less than half the salt they used in the past. that saved more than $500,000. a couple of weeks ago, i don't know if we would say this was a relatively mild winter. kurtis: a lot of those 1-3 inch snow was. right now, we have melted a good portion off. still some snow cover to the north and northwest, although it is starting to get some pockets. slowly working on out courtesy of above freezing temperatures, although it was colder where they have some snow. grinnell, 44. marshalltown, 45.

it is going to get a bit colder tonight as winds move out of the north. highs tomorrow, 41. i think we could see some gusts around 25 miles per hour. when your hand colder on thursday with highs around normal, but then it is a big warm up, especially on saturday. sunday 50 and some 40's next week. steve: with the warmer weather, melting ice jams continue to create problems in northern iowa. kcci's vanessa peng live in fort dodge. and vanessa, how bad is it out there? containing we had -- vanessa: we have been watching this ice jam over here at hydroelectric park. this jam finally broke. at 5:00, we saw huge visuals. huge chunks of ice, some the size of a car, going over the edge.

breaks up and eventually melts as a heads down south on the des moines river. earlier today, this ice jam was up north, creating some flooding problems. chunks of ice pepper yards on riverdale drive after an ice jam crashed through here. water was up beyond toby harp's riverside summer house monday. right up against it, a huge ice jam was stuck out on the des moines river. an ice jam is like a dam made out of ice. it happens when ice builds up on the river, keeping water and ice back. monday night, it broke free, crashing tons of ice and water downstream, causing some flooding. >> my brother lives up at riverdale and they were really bothered by this yesterday. and it broke up last night about 6:00. he gave me a call and said it was just like they pulled the plug on the bathroom drain, it went right on out. >> is a mess out here. vanessa: a few moments ago, we

there is still a huge jam, so only a part of this broke off. we heard from emergency management that some of these ice shops -- ice chunks are up to 20 inches thick. stacey: federal officials approve the plan to privatize medicaid in iowa. the centers for medicare and medicaid services postponed the state's original plan to start january 1, but have now given the ok to start april 1. the $4.2 billion medicaid program will then be run by 3 private companies. a remarkable rescue of an iowa man found lifeless in a semi truck teetering off a busy highway overpass. kcci's kim st. onge is in studio to explain what happened. kim: the driver says he felt lightheaded and knew he needed to pull over sunday evening. the next thing he remembers he's in the back of an ambulance with the two people who saved his life. this 18-wheeler was inches from sliding down the highway 5

traffic. >> it could have t-boned many cars if they would have been right there at the wrong time. kim: 57-year-old jeff ronek was inside the semi. not breathing and without a pulse. emt kayla schark and paramedic jason kling took a different way home, heading back from a des moines hospital, when they stumbled on the wreck. they pulled him out of his semi onto the side of the highway and , started cpr. >> we thought we regained a pulse at one point, went right back out. kept shocking him. kim: on the 6th shock, they got a pulse and rushed him to mercy medical center. >> he asked if he had hurt anybody. i said, no your semi was in park. you put it appropriately where it needed to be. kim: ronek wasn't up for an on-camera interview, but released written thank you to the people who saved his life. "i knew i was gone and these guys brought me back. they didn't have to stop but they did. if they hadn't, i wouldn't be here." >> humbling is the best word for it, i think. kim: these life or death instances often make us question whether everything happens for a

>> definitely. kim: you might too, if a wrong turn put you in the right place at the right time. >> whether you know what that reason is at the time or whether whatever is happening at that time is bad, but down the road at some point, you're put in certain situations or certain positions because that's just the way it's supposed to be. kim: remarkably, ronek is in good condition tonight at mercy medical center. doctors believe his irregular -- believe in the regular heart beat caused his episode. ronek has never had a heart problem before this incident. steve? steve: another road loss last night for the cyclones. straight ahead, what the players and the coach say went wrong at

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announcer: this is iowa's news leader. this is kcci 8 news at 6:00 with steve karlin, stacey horst, chief meteorologist john mclaughlin, and sports director andy garman.

stacey: students in des moines public schools' aviation program are in control of the new educational tool. that tool is a flight simulator $60,000 that has been in use since the beginning of this school year. steve: kcci's marcus mcintosh got behind the controls and joins us now to show us just how realistic the flight simulator is. marcus: i have never flown in airplane, and after trying the hit of the simulator it is clear , i should never try. i've never had any flight training. >> that's all right. we will teach you. marcus: before getting their hands on the controls of the flight simulator, students in the des moines public schools aviation class go through classroom training, aka ground school. at the new aviation building on the southside near mccombs middle school. >> it is pretty realistic, i mean you have all your controls, your up and down, left and right. marcus: tim harmer teaches the

takeoffs to landings. >> nice and easy. >> they can learn to fly an aircraft, learn the environment the aircraft fly in. marcus: that means from snow to clouds just about every scenario , they could possibly face in the cockpit. skills that prove valuable before they ever officially take flight. >> the faa has recognized that and because it is such an advanced flight simulator they actually allow us to log up to 72 hours of free flight time. marcus: but it is not for everybody. squeeze right through the controls. marcus: for students in this program the sky is the limit. , and the hope is this program will have them on solid ground toward a career as a pilot. any future flying for me will be as a passenger. the hydraulics are to come next year. when installed, the simulator

stacey: i am glad that you're are not a pilot after seeing some of that. kurtis: marcus, i will fly with you anytime buddy. cloudy skies out there. temperatures in the 40's. wind-chill, 36. north-northwest winds at 13. still some snow on the ground in mason city. mason city, 38. waterloo, 44. even with the cloud cover, we are well above normal. wind-chill, mid 30's. 7:00 p.m., not a lot of wind. 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, north winds already pick up. temperature 28. it will feel cooler for your wednesday and it will only slowly cooled to about 41

it is breaking up a bit over in western iowa. a fast-moving system to the north. configure system going to school bias over to the east. chicago, detroit, indianapolis. kansas city, 47. here's our system to the north. watch this system move in from the south. a band of snow. north winds funneling a high to the west and a low to the east. you might get some sunshine tomorrow, but clout -- but partly cloudy skies. into wednesday evening, a little system will slide down the missouri river with some snow showers. the winds pick up on thursday and we could even see a couple

no great chance of precipitation over the next few days. tonight, down to 28 with north winds 10-15. tomorrow, mostly cloudy and breezy. north winds could gust into the mid-20's. winds stronger on thursday. friday, i think we'll see some sunshine. the big day is saturday. sunny skies, high in the upper 50's. near 50 sunday. a system late sunday and 40's next week with a system next

stacey: announcer: from iowa's sports leader, this is kcci 8 sports. andy: watching a team play and lose that west virginia can be a frustrating experience. bob huggins preaches physical basketball it makes things difficult on anybody that comes to morgantown. isu is no exception. last night, the cyclones shot 58% in the first half and still trail by 8 at halftime. a nice run to start the second half. it even took the lead before less virginia fouled away and took it away down the stretch. they have plenty to work on ahead of kansas state this

>> we have to figure out a way to bottle that up. probably the second half. we have to continue to get better of the defensive end. >> guys make shots tonight. they contested a few of them. as a team, i feel like we are a good defensive team. andy: cyclones try to get back in the win column on saturday when case they comes to town at 5:00. is this the biggest moment for hawkeye basketball of the mccaffrey era? certainly feels that way. iowa is looking to make a run down the stretch over the next few games, which would lead to a big ten championship. hawkeyes play wisconsin, a surging badgers team on

the final three after that will likely decide the postseason future. >> guys on the bench, how we're going to get ellingson going. those guys are guys that can make threes. we need them to do that. andy: jok and uthoff can't carry the whole load. dealing ball tonight. energy post the raptors at night: 05. today, more state bowling. plaza lanes, an absolute party for the high school coed state bowling. the urbandale jayhawks bring home the hardware. the 2a title in making some history. >> urbandale's first trip to the state tournament. it is awesome. we have been working all year

andy: congrats to the jayhawks for the first team title ever. 3a is tomorrow. on the girls side, waterloo east

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kurtis: a little colder air moving in the next two days. stacey: extra joining us. we'll be back at 10:00.

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