and democrats working together on a bill aimed at changing the mandatory minimal sentencing on certain crimes. our national correspondent has more.*(wear red day)and it's national wear red day..building awareness of heart didiase in women. 3 the dinnertime ru took on a different meaning at one sioux city fast food restaurant this evening.thanks for joining us tonight, i'm jetske wauran, larry and diana have the night off. 3 3 and tonight that story is first on fox. 3 crews were called just before 5 o' clock to a grease fire in the mcdonald's store on sunnybrook drive in morningside.when they arrived... the fire was mostly already out thanks to automatic sprinkler systems in the restaurant, but the store was still filled with smoke. firefighters say the cause of that fire is unknown at this hour. 3 "we had a fire in the kitchen, unknown origin at this time, fire has been extinguished. we are waiting for the fire prevention bureau to show up, to do an investigation. at thahatime

cause is. and we will turn the building back to the owners and they can start clean up process to reopen the building."everyone in the store evacuated safely before firefighters arrived.at this time... damage appears to be confined to the store's fryers. 3 members of the iowa army national guarmounted up this morning and headed into sioux city.their mission? helping out homebound seniors.our siouxland news reporter jaclyn driscoll got to ride along as the soliders surprised the seniors. 3 sioux city's meals on wheels organization is giving the term "boots on the ground" a new meaning. the volunteer- based group that delivers hot meals to homebound seniors says they are struggling to find people to help especially during the winter months. "many of our volunteers are seniors. i think the average age is in the seventies, so when the conditions are slick like this for either the vehicles or their feet they don't feel

volunteers required meals on wheeee to call in some backup. humvees roared into town, filled with active duty soldiers ready to receive their assignment. "they're having the younger guard members deliver meals throughout the city. the parking lot is full of humvees and they are grabbing right now their hot bags and cold bags to take out to the homebound seniors." dressed in uniform, the national guard delivered over 160 meals bringing enough members to complete all 17 routes and issuing a challenge to other community members to get involved."volunteering itself gives you a good personal satisfaction. it could be your mom, your dad, your uncle, eventually you that's snowed in, stuck, so make time an hour a week to help out with something."and while it may not have been their most dangerous mission, these soldiers helped bring nutrition *and smiles* to

3 if you would like to volulueer with meals on wheels, you can contact connections area agency on aging. we have a link in this story on our website at siouxland news dot com. 3 3 city crews continue to work on clearing the streets following tuesday's snowstorm. 3 while most plows are now working on residential streets... some crews are still working to fully clear the downwnwn.one of the city's three "snowblaster" machines was at work on 6th street... clearing the windrows left by the plows.that snow is sucked by by the massive machine and blown into the back of trucks to be hauled away. 3 3 tonight, tempertures cool to near 15 degrees and clearing skies. for the weekend, temperatures will be warming up into the upper 30s saturday and sunday.despite the warmer weather on sunday, we will again see a chance for light snow to close out the weekend

is also a blizzard watch in the northwestern areas of siouxland associated with the strong wind and light snow. for early next week, it appears that the trend will be for more quiet weather to settle into the region. 3 3 missouri river historical development is working to increase the quality of life in sioux city. 3 the organization distributed more than 200- thousand dollars in grants and scholarship awards this afternoon.40- thousand dollars goes to the city of sioux city... making mrhd a sponsor of the n- a- i- a national volleyball, womemes basketball and softball tournaments.

really key times for the business community and a lot of the businesses have come to rely on this extra income during these key periods of time and so we want to keep bringing them back to provove that extra economic generation during those key periods."15- thousand goes to sioux gateway airport... and a total of 150- thousand was distributed to 4 area colleges to support scholarshihi for siouxland students. 3 3 bishop heelan held a staff appreciation luncheon as part of the catholic schools week.the school honored 24 teachers at the luncheon... including mary kay augustine who has been a high school english teacher at heelan for 35 years. she says despite the many years she's been at heelan... she still enjoys coming to work each day. 3 "i am a heelan grad and it's like coming back home. you have families that you've gone to school with. you have now

children's children. i'm into the third generation."augustine has taught for a total of 40 years and says her passion comes from her students. 3 iowa congressman steve king says he regrets his role in the controversy over ted cruz's campaign implying that ben carson planned to drop out of the race during monday's caucuses and asking campaign volunteers to pass that rumor on to carson supporters.king put out a series of tweets monday night after c- n- n reported carson's campaign would not travel to new hampshire or south carolina immediately after the caucuses suggesting carson was leaving the race, and expressed hope his supporters would switch to cruz... who king had endorsed... instead.this morning... he spoke with our jacob heller about what went into his decision to send those tweets."so i'm thinking 'what if the results of this caucus are tainted becucue there's

indicates carson is likely to suspend his campaign?' all that evidence said that and so i took the cnn tweet and retweeted that out with a comment that said 'this is what it looks like.' i put that out there because i wanted to get it out of my hands. if i had held that information in 3 me and, lets just say it had been a photo finish between trump and cruz, then the allegation would have en, 'well, steve didn't release information' and the trump campaign would've said if they lost that the carson people would've gone to trump. the cruz people would've said if they lost, then the carson people would've gone to cruz."king says he's spoken to carson about the issue and expressed his regret.you can hear more from congressman king throughout the weekend on siouxland news... and we'll also be posting his entire interview online at siouxland news dot com. 3 the war on terror continues overseas tonight.michelle

a plane bombing in north africa in tonight's terrorism alert desk update. 3 from the terrorism alert desk in washington, i'm michelle marsh the top german spy agency says isis is sending ghters disguised as refugees. the head of the domestic intelligence agency made the comments friday. he says isis militants disguised as refugees are a huge problem for his agency.and new developments, related to tuesday's explosion on a plane, in the sky above somalia.investigators now say a laptop computer may have concealed the explosives that blew up the plane. an initial analysis of residue from the plane shows a military grade of the explosive -- tntand, an overnight drone strike killed a top al qaeda leader in yeman. that leader had a $5 million dollar u.s bounty on his head. from the terrorism alert desk in washington, i'm michelle marsh.

33 still to come tonight on siouxland news at nine... bad news for honda drivers... as the airbag recall gets even bigger. that's coming up in tonight's fox means business report... 3 but first... it's the rare issue that's unitiing politicians from across the political spectrum: criminal justice reform.what both sides are hoping to accomplish... coming up after the break. 3 "siouxland news at nine on fox 44, with larry wentz, diana castillo and siouxland's chief

3 overcrowded prisons, long sentences and skyrocketing costs are just some of reasonon politicians of all stripes have joined forces to try to solve the problem of reforming the criminal justice system. it's putting conservative

on the same team as president obama.but as our national corresponent kristine frazao tells us, it's far from a sure thing. 3 you could call it a washington anomaly - democrats and republicans working together. sen cory booker/d-new jersey/oct 2015"i have a level of gratitude for the republicans that are behind me."the legislation focuses on reducing the mandatory minimum prison terms for some non- violent offenders. it prohibits solitary confinement for juveniles in most cases, and alsocreates new minimum terms for domestic violence that results in murder and for those who support terrorsen. john cornyn sot"i think sometimes we tend to treat our criminal justice system as an assembly line." sakira cook is with the leadership conference on civil and human rights, which backs the bill."the fact is the majority of people in prison are there for low level non-violent offenses."e and others also point to the high costs - courtesy of the u-s taxpayer, and the negative impact incarceration has on young people.sen rand paul/r-ky

mistakes with drugs and then by the time they're 25 or so they grow up and they quit doing those things but i don't think they should have a permanent blemish on their ability to get a job or to vote."kristine frazao "despite the widespread support and the president's promise to sign the legislation, some republicans now say they want to prevent it from reaching his desk, creating a divide in the party which could stop it from even being brought to the floor for a vote."sen. tom cotton/r-arkansas."this legislation is based on a myth - the myth of mass incarceration of non-violent low level drug offenders in federal prison."senator tom cotton says the plan would endanger society and is picking up susuort from some lawmakers, adopting a tough on crime stance,including presidential candidate ted cruz who once favored it.sakira "election season does bring out some interesting ideas from folks "a cause that brought both sides together for now stopped in its tracks. i'm kristine frazao siouxland news.

3 taking a live look out arnold's park tonight on our great lakes countertops and kitchens skywatch camera... siouxland's still digging out from tuesday's snow storm...

kayla's forecast is next.3 "first alert weather with meteorologist kayla novak." 3 3 kayla and jetske talk about today's weather and the upcoming forecast. 3 tonight, tempertures cool to near 15 degrees and clearing skies. for the weekend, temperatures will be warming up into the upper 30s saturday and sunday.despite the warmer weather on sunday, we will

snow to close out the weekend sunday night into monday.there is also a blizzard watch in the northwestern areas of siouxland associated with the strong wind and light snow. for early next week, it appears that the trend will be for more quiet weather to settle into the region. 3 3 still to come tonight on siouxland news at nine... we'll look at how both of

come 3 tonight on siouxland news at nine... we'll lookokt how both of sioux city's biggest hospital's marked "wear red day" to bring awareness to women's heart health. 3 willis says: "fat tuesday. a three pound burger. it. is. on. i'm gerri willis with the

3 honda's airbag recall continues to grow.... but the economy is making strides...

in tonight's "fox means business" report. 3 it's the recall that keeps growinghonda pulling back 5.7 million vehicles worldwide, because of faulty airbags made by takata.to date... 14 different automakers have recalled around 25 million vehicles with those airbags. but if you're driving a car that's working... it's still costing you less to fill it up. the national average for a regular unleaded is now $1.76 a gallon.prices have come down just about every day this year. meantime, the economy adding 151,000 jobs last month. that's fewer than expected. most of the new jobs coming at retail shops, bars and restaurants.wall street not impressed... the dow falling more than 200 points.and nothing says fat tuesday... like a fat hamburger.and onon fefeuary 9-th at fuddruckers, you can order a three pound burger and a pound of fries... for 20 bucks.if you finish in less than an hour... you get two free meals and a t-shirt. it's all to help celebrate

required.that's business. i'm gerri willis. 3 3 siouxland's two biggest hospitals took part in wear red day events.doctors and staff at mercy medical center hosted sioux city mayor bob scott's announcement of the "wear red day" proclamation this morning... with members of the american heart association on hand.following the mayor's proclamation... attendees heard from a mercy cardiologist about the importance of heart health awareness. 3 "it very important for woman because most of the times they are the primary care gigirs. and they tete to put themselveson the back burner as opposed to following up. they will push their husbands, and their children to go get checked. as the same time they may be having some atypically symptoms that maybe representing heart disease they didn't know about. "unity point health st. luke's also held a wear red day event this morning.mayor bob scott made an appearnce here as well... followed by heart- healthy activities, information and refreshments. 3 "wear red day is so very

bringing more awareness and education to our siouxland communities. one and three woman will die from cardiovascular disease this year. and we cannot emphasis that enough ."also in attendance at the st. luke's event was 2016 mrs. iowa rosanne plante of hinton... who is an instructor at western iowa tech.while serving as mrs. iowa... plante will be touring the state promoting the health benefits of home and school gardens. 3 kayla's got a final check of the weekend forecast coming up

3 3 tonight, tempertures cool to near 15 degrees and clearing skies. for the weekend, temperatures will be warming up intotohe upper 30s saturday and sunday.despite the warmer weather on sunday, we will again see a chance for light snow to close out the weekend sunday night into monday.there is also a blizzard watch in the northwestern areas of siouxland associated with the strong wind and light snow. for early next week, it appears that the trend will be for more quiet weather to settle into the region.

have a great - so that's three of our delicious homemade cupcakes. nope, can't. you touched them. sorry, flu season, no health care. - you realized i replaced that purell with k.y., right? - max, please say you're kidding. - of course, i'm kidding.