first, meteorologis t kaj o'mara has your first alert forecast, kaj... plan on thick clouds to be in the region today. if we are lucky enough to get a break in cloud cover this morning, thth'll fill right back in. a few scattered flurries may fly around as well, but no issues or accumulation s are expected with those. on wednesday, clouds main thick and a f more flurries may be in the air again, too. the big story of the extended forecast is warmer conditions for friday and especially into the weekend. overall, we are in a classic el nino pattern, and this tends to lead to a mild december at the very least. in addition, there are no major storm systems for the next 7 days that will impact iowa. perhaps this weekend is your weekend to get the christmas decorations out! have a good day!today: windy, scattered flurries high: 32-38 winds: sw 15-25 alo: 35 dbq: 37 iow: 37tonight: chance of flurries low: 25-3-3 winds: w 10-20 alo: 28 dbq:q:8 iow: 29tomorrow: cloudy, scattered flurries high: 33-39 winds: nw 10-20 alo: 36 dbq: 36 iow: 38tomorrow night: mostly cloudy low: 22-28 winds: nw 5-15 alo: 24 dbq: 26 iow: 28 thanks kaj.

looking into a racist comment that someone carved into campus property. president bruce harreld says they found it in a bathroom in the spencece labororories - which contains faculty offices and research labs. he says crews immediately sanded down the bathroom door to remove the comment. harreld told students, faculty, staff that quote "the act is o oensive to our community and will not be tolerated." late last year, an assistant professor put this statue resembling a k-k-k member on the pentacrest. the professor said it was meant as a protest to the violence against black people. but some students found it offensive and authoritieremoved it. today voters in black haw county will make the final decisions on some key city elections. they will choose mayors in waterloo and cedar falls. councilman quentin hart and former mayor tim hurley are both vying for the seat in waterloo. and mayor jon n ews and businessman jim brown will

crews recently announced plans to step down and urged people to vo for his challenger. polling in the e n-off elections is open from m this morning until 8 at night. the polling places are the same as they were in the city election in november. republican presidential candidate jeb bush will be talking to voters in eastern iowa today. he first will attend a coffee and donuts event at the university of dubuque. that will be in the heritage center at 8:30 this morning. then the former florida governor will go to waterloo for a town hall meeting. that event will be at the sullivan brothers iowa veterans museum at noon today. another republican presidential candidate is just now leaving the state after campaigning in iowa for a few days. the latest quinnipiac university poll showed ted cruz in a statistical titi with republican front runner donald trump here in iowa. yesterday, the texas senator told supporters at the kirkwood regional center

trump because he d dsn't think trump will win the g-o-p nomination. he also talked about how he doesn't think any of the presidential campaigns are talking about the right issues. "i believe the cennal issue of the 2016 election is re-igniting the promise of america, getting back to that fundamental commitment that our kids will have a better life than we do and their kids will have a better life than we do." all but one female, democratic senators are officially supporting hillary clinton after a fundraiser in washington d.c. one key senator was missing from last night's stumping event. elizabeth warren, who liberal organizers failed to draft into a presidential campaign in 20-14 and 20-15, did not attend. warren signed a letter urging clinton to run in 20-13, but hasn't yet endorsed her. warren's spokeswoman did not respond to questions about why the senator did not attend. governor terry branstad says ttre is no

operation to private management. this comes after a judge recommended the state throw out one of four contracts awarded to companies to run the program. the governor says the state always planned to have between two and four companies running the program. but he says the state has not decided how to move forward. the iowa medicaid program is set to shift to private management starting january 1st. the 250 preschool students going to class in the lili-mar school districtct could one day be under one roof. as kcrg-tv9's jill kasparie reports district leaders want to make the change, but have not decided where. ststt of jingle bells frfr practicing music to learning health-- these kids and their teacher are busy! nats of food conversation teacher melissa bray recently took on another assignment. she joined other parents and administrator s as part othe preschool advisory board. "ththcommittee was formed in order to makakan educated decision on what we think would be best for our district whether it would be to have preschool classrooms stay in elementary

a center-based program. we cammto the conclusion that a center-based program would be our recommendation the district says that could become a reality in the next three to five years. with so much d dand, there just isn't enough space in the kindergarten program. "linn-mar is a big, growing district and our preschool is growing at the same te, and we always have largegeaiting lists." the district says while centralized preschool would also help with space issues in elementary buildings, school leaders say they wanted to make this decision based on what's best for the kids. "we have about 20 percent of k students with zero preschool experience a a those are the kids that we want to reach." "i think it'll be great as far as the teachers having collaboration with each other, we hope to also have adequate space, the use of new technology, families to have a central location to go toto they want to keep these kids busy and learning for a brighter future. "in a one horse open sleigh hey!"

with that report. the district says it plans to work out the details - such as location and cost - in the future. an after-school program now has a better way to help students get to and from that center. an anonymous donor gave the dubuque dream center two school buses which volunteers can use to transport students enrolled in that program. the dream center director says the after- school program help kids who need some structure when class lets out. but it's s so away to engage and improve the neighborhoods. "for there to be a change and for people to understand one another. we need to build relationships with the families and the people who live in downtown dubuque. " the dream center is a non-profit

that runs only on grants and donations. directors say the two buses are something they never would have ever been to affordrd without thth donation. the city council in iowa city will hold a public hearing in two wees to go over plans for a controversial fifteen-story high rise building. according to the iowa city press citizen, the city council voted 5 to 0 to hold the public hearing to talk about extending the chauncey project's deadline. two lawsuits attempting to block the e oject are in the appeal stage. they have significantly slowed down construction. the meeting will be on december 15th. starting today, people can use a new online datababa that showcases all the historic propepeies in cedar rapids. the site has information on where they are and what characteristics the properties have. the city will hold two informational sessions today at the downtown library at noon and 5:30 this evening. a saint luke's employee's dream

thanks to her co-workers' efforts. more than 50 people raised enough money to send resa collier to disney world. she is a custodian at the hospital. friends say she brings joy to all of her co-workers and patients. afafer collier's father recently assed away, they wanted to do something to bring that joy back into her life. "the emotion, the happiness, they were my family because i had just lost my father, so they were my new family and they had been with me through thick and thin theres j jt no describing how much love i felt." she plans to take thehell- expepees-paid trip with her husband in october. someone caught the entire surprise on camera, and it's been shared all over social media. mercy medical c cter in cedar rapids is making sure all mothers are able to give breast milk to their babies. the hospital has started a new donor milk program. it

milk to newborns who need the supupemental milk when their mothers can't produce it. the program has no income requirements, and it's free to all mothers. the hpital has purchased the milk from university of iowa health care's "mother's mililbank" of iowa. people in cedar rapids are starting out the month of december with a 2 and a half-ton christmas tree in the city. a large crane pulled the city's new 35-foot christmas tree into its designated spot on mays island yesterday. a family donated the colorado spruce from their property in southwest cedar rapids. city arborist todd fagan estimates ththtree is about 30 years old. "you don't always see trees flying through the air. it's a different thing to do. it's always kind of a neat process" more than a dozen workers helped to stabilize the tree with cables. they also decorated the tree with 11-hundred l-e-d light bulbs. the city is planning to light the trere on friday at 5:300

a former chicago cop charged with murder is out of jail, for the time being. and the protests continue after dashcam video released showed the officer ooting a black teen 16 times, killing him. the boston marathon bomber is asking for a new trial today after he received the death sentence in june. but right now, here's a look at today's opening farm markets. good morning!

plan on thick clouds to be in the region today. if we are lucky enough to get a break in cloud cover this m mning, they'll fill r rht back in. a few scattered flurries may fly around as well, but no issues or accumulation s are expected d th those. on wednesday, clouds remain thick and a few more flurries may be in the air again, too. the big story of the extended forecast is warmer conditions for friday and especially

classic el nino pattern, and this tends to lead to a mild december at the very least. in addition, there are no major storm systems for the next 7 days that will impact iowa. perhaps this weekend is your weekend to get the christmas decorations out! have a good day!today: windy, scattered flurries high: 32-388 winds: sw 15-25 alo: 35 dbq: 37 iow: 37tonight: chance of flurries low: 25-31

cloudy, scattered flurries high: 33-39 winds: nw 10-20 alo: 36 dbq: 36 iow: 38tomorrow night: mostly cloudy low: 22-28 winds: nw 5-15 alo: 24 dbq: 26 iow: 28 thanks kaj. it's like 25 days of christmas

month early. 3 and a half weeks of falling gas prices have people celebrating. that's coming up in today's

the former cop charged with killing a teenager in chicago is out of jail, after posting bail. andrew spencer reports protests have continued, as the city's mayor moves to create a new task force. former chicago police officer jason van dyke

surrounded by apparent supporters. they escorted him past the reporters waiting outside. van dyke made bail... ...hours after a judge set his bond at one-and-a-half- million dollars. van dyke faces a first-degree murder arge in the killing of laquan mcdonald during a confrontation with police in october 2014. an autopsy showed van dyke shoho mcdonald 16 times. sincecehe dash cam video o was released to the public last week, protests have been a steady reality in chicago. those demonstrations have remained mostly peaceful, as leaders urged people to stand together. "use your voice and shout it out: it's all about unity." "it's all about unity."chicago mayor rahm emanuel is now calling for the creation of a task force on police accountabilit y. his office says it will review the kinds of oversight police officers get and how the city trains them. the move comes as emanuel finds himself amid a political f festorm over the city's handlininof the shooting. protesters question why the video was

than a year, and why murder charge only came after a judge orderer the video released. many protesters have called on emanuel to resign and for the chief of police to be fired. i'm andrew spencer, reporling the man known as the boston bomber is asking for a new trial in a different venue. dzhokhar tsarnaev's lawyers will appear in courtrtoday to argue the motion. the same judge who presided over the trial will hear the arguments. in june, tsarnaev was sentenced to death for his role in the bombing. his lawyers say 15 of his convictions are n n in question because the june ruling was based on the legal definition of "crime of violence" the bombing left three people dead and 260 people jured in april of 2013. now for a quick check on your

meteorologist kaj o'mara.

are lucky enough to get a break in cloud cover this morning, they'll fill right back in. a few scattered flurries may fly around as well, but no issues or accumulation s are expected with those. on wednesday, clouds remain thick and a few more flurries may be in the air again, toto the big story of the extended forecast is warmer conditions for friday and especially into the weekend. overall, we

this tends to lead to a mild december at the very least. in addition, there are no major storm systems for the next 7 days that will impact iowa. perhaps this weekend is your weekend to get the abc's aditi roy and kendis gibson n ve this morning's good morning. topping "america's money" -- a reco-setting cyber monday. >> analysts say shopperer spent nearly 12% more than last year. >> all too much for target's website which was down for a time yesterday because of abnormally high customer traffic. evidence of more recordrdetting sales when the autoindustry announces its results for november today. >> those numbers expected to show last month was the best november ever for auto sales. iven by strong dememd for suvs. and another drop in gas prices making it 24 consecutive

>> national average is now $2.04 drivers i i more statas are now seeing prices at $1.50 or below. >> a twitter user posting a

money." at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason.

you're w wching kcrg-tv9. now, from your 24 hour news source, this is kcrg-tv9 news early morning news. a family in waterloo is thanking their carbon monoxide detector for saving their lives during a close call this weekend. agencies across eastern iowa serve thousands ofofeals to senior citizens who need help. and now they need your help to make that happen. an eastern iowa mayor is in paris this week representing the midwest and the mississippi river a athe world climate summit.

december