among republican voters. we'll tell you who's on top, and how the other g-o-p contenders stak up this morning. plus - a driver loses control, injuring nearly a dozen people. how an animal helped cause the craah, but it might not be what you think. we'll explain coming up... and a dad comes he, giving his son an early christmas present. we'll hear from the family this morning. i'm ally crutcer. jerry has the day off. let's check on your weather now with storm track 7 meteorologist eien loan. good morning the winds have died down but th are still 5 to 15 mph this morning from the south. that is keeping temps in the mid 50s to

have some clouds trackckng in from the west and they will be with us all day. they may also produce a few showers, but that may be tough to get oing over most of the area with the very d airmass sitting over us. if you get a shower today, you may also hear a rumble of thunder. with the low to mid 70s. as the temperatures cool this week, we# minutes. decision 20-16 covererge this morning. donaa trump is holding onto his lead as ben carson edges closer. a new poll shows trump with his biggest lead yet. tracie potts is in washington this our new poll shows 25 percent of likelyrepublican primy voters favor donald believe it, yea we're e oing greret." "i love his bluntness. he just tells it like it is." his numbers, up from support when you combine first

and far ahead among candidates republicans could see themselves supporting. marco rubio's a solid third. "we can't have another four years like the last eight years." carly fiorina - who got a bump after the first debate - slipped four points this month "i will ot falter andi will not shrink from this fight." analysts say she failed to keep the momentum. as for the democrats, hillary clinton's off the campaign trail for a few days, preparing for her testimony here thursday before the benghazi committee. tracie otts, nbc news, washington. when asked who their second choice candidate would be.. g-o-p voters chose carson more than any other candidate, followed by trump and rubibi

democratic residential candidate jim webb may continue his run as an independent. he'll make an announcement later toy that he's considering makinghe switch. the former virginia senator colained during last week's democratic debate that he didn't get enoughhtime tospeakk he also claimed the debate was mostly focused on hillary clinton and bernie sanders. today, attorneys will argue the verdict against foer minnesota governor@jesse ventura. he won a case @ast year against the estate of one- time sniper d auttor chris kyll. ventura said kyye defamed him in his best-selling book, 'american sniper.' a jury awarded ventura one-point- eight millionollars. lawyers for several news corporations are hoping to overturn the verdict. also today, two people charged in thehedeath of a toddler known as "baby doe" will appear in court. the body of the child- now identified as bella bond- was found on a boston beach i june. a nationwide effort took place to identify the two-year-old girl. bella's mother along with another man will appear in court for a hearing.

four people are taken to the hospal after a crash involving a bus. it happened at the intersection of highway 281 and fairbank-amish boulevard in buchanan county yesterday. authorities say tte driver of the car failed to obey a stop sign -- causing the bus to hit it. two passengers were on th bus "this is large scale... you know require a much resources as when you have a bus because you don't kkow how many are on." the peoppe hurt are expected to survive. one pefson is dead after a major accident in mississippi. authorities say three tractor- trailers collided on an interstate. it appears a broken down vehicle disrupted traffic... and caused one of the tractor-trailers to rear-end another one. one of the trucks rst into flames. one driver did at the scene, anoer driver ssfered oderate injuries, and the third driver was notot hurt. a spider is the cause of a

reaction crash that left eleven people injured. this happened in kansas. a teenaged driver lost control f her vehicle after being distracted by a spider, slamming into another car and causing four vehicles to crash. those injured were taken to the hospital for treatment. continuing coverage this sorning... a man who crashed into a school bus and a pickup truck -- sending a pregnant woman to the hospital -- will spend 15 years in prison. james surrett also recently pleaded guilty to several unrelated meth and o-w-i charges. you cn see the aftermath from the crash here i cedar rapids. deputies tried to stop surrett because he was driving without a license. surrett apologized in court yesterday and asked to be placed in a residential facility instead of prison due to a mental illness. however - ajudge denied tat requeut. people living in a maion apartment buildign are concerned after police find a meth lab in one of the units. this is at 210 ridge drive. they city requires landlords to test the apartment where

the meth wasound. if chemicals are found, all apartments shahaing a wall wwh the contaminated unit must also be tested. however -- the owners of the building - - kelley property "sharing a two-by-four and some dry wall . . . it's kind of scary. how close to death i was living next to." the city ordinance does not give a deadline for landlords to complete the tests - - however an e estern iowa city council is addressing concerns that they don't do enough to keep the public safe. this yea-- we've seen five homicides and more than 20 confirmed reports of shots fired in dubuque. kwwl's brad hanson tells us those numbers aren't going unnoticed. dubuque has seen 18 but five this year have many on edge--and many questioning if the city is doing enough. those concerns addressed by dubuue's city councilat a special

((ike van milligen, dubuque city manager) "the city council has always made public safety their most important priority, focus has been the city's effort to obtain more cameras and light@ up the streets with l-e-d lilits. camera's re instrumental in the arrest of helmon betwell, the man who murdered a 62-year-old woman because he said he had nothing better to do. and now plans are in place to make those videos much more accessible to police. ark dalsing, dubuque chief of police) "through the approved funding mostecently, we'll be able to put 2 monitoring systems much like the one you see that is in the dispatch center, and we are overwhelming them withhequests to see the video." (brad hanson, @bhansonkww) "while more underway here in dubuque to improve the content of these trouble neighborhoods, and stop crime before it starts." becaue, while crime is partiall a policing problem, it

neighborhood development specialist) "safety is a community wide concern, and requires broad community involvement." that wa brad hanson reporting. dubuque's city council also apprved the addition of more than 2-hundre streetlight. antoday, work will start to install those. the f-a-a announcing new plans that would require drone users to register their aircrafts. the f-a-a says the number of incidents involving drones flying where they shouldn't b -- including the white house --continues to rjse. and the number of sightings near airplaas and airportssas nearly tripled since last year. the f-a-a plans to get registration rules in place before christmas -- as 700-thousand drones are expected to be sold during the holday season. it was the surprise of one boy's lifetime.

he expected his father. an air force tech sergeant... to return home during the christmas holiday. instead, his father surprised this is a moment to watch over and over again. "how nearly 7 montts that air force tech segeant gerry taylor has seen his son jason. jason's 6th grade class assembled in the gym at haine middle school - to talk about veteran's day. little did jason know who the guest speaker was - veteran jerry taylor, i got up and i ran, as fast as i could." "i have spent the last six and half months away from my family, tech sergeant taylor has been deployed overseas in southwest asia...... while his family has been adjusting o moving from new jersey to a new school in cranberry. jason wasn't expecting his dad to be back until closer

"i've been on pins and needles the past couple of/weeks. i've rprise. i was just really happy that he's home." applause from hhs classmates... and lots of hugs from dad. it's coming up on today in iowa -- the blue jays are soaring in the a-l- c-s. highlights ahead... and how this slip n slide landed in the record books. we'll tell you where, coming up. it won't be qqte as windy today, althououh we will still have some gusts to 20 mph at times.... we wil also be mild with a few showers tracking through. a better chance of rain

from the kwwl stormtrack 7 weather team. see the screen for your complete weather information. here is additional forecast information from the kwwllstormtrack 7 weather team: burn bans continue i many counties of the viewing area d we may see a few more added before we getnough rain... we have a chance of a few showers today and tomorrow, but it doesn't look like a lot of moisure will trackthrough. stormtrack7 live weather network cameras

catch some of those rain showers today with the really dry air ovee us. tempeeatures are still mild... we are in the mid 50s to mid 60s in our area, with a few upper 40s in the northwest. we are mainly about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday with a bit of a cool down in the nrthwst as a front approaches. the front will be mainly north of us, so we continue with southerly winds and they are still 55o 15 mph. clouds are tracking

and a few showers and thundestorms are tryingo hold together as they move into southwestern iowa heading our way. it is pretty isolatd, though and the already dry air over us, may be hard t t overcome. we will see a few showers today through tomorrow as the system tracks to our north dragging the cool front into the state. rainfall amounts will stay light with only about a tenth inch or (mainly) less expected. while ii our highs in the low to mid 70s. better chance of rain tracks in even a little below normal on

windy weather yesterday lead to quite a few field fires -- includdg this one in fairbank. people who live near this field say a farmer riding some machinery hit a rock, causing it to spark. a lot of the field is burned but fortuantely, no one was hurt. it's @oming up on today in iowa.... an eastern iowa sheriff's office gets a new a adition. helping to fight a growing problem in the area. plus... things are alive and well in the dead sea. including a record-breaking water slide. we'll take a look in just a few minutes. you're wahing kwwl. we've got you covered in mononn bernard, keota and all of eastern iowa.

over the visiting kansas city y royals. the blue jayssended up scored nine runs through two innings and went on to win their first game of the series... the series is now 2-1 royals. toronto has a shot at tying the series before it heads back to kansas city. game four of the a-l-c-s takes

as drug issues grow in one iowa county -- the sheriff's office gets a new tool to fight the problem. meet jarvis. he's the@newest member of the blackhawk county sheriff's department. this is the second dog for the department. wittin two hours onnhe job, jarvis made his first drug arrest...ending with three people charged with possession of meth, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia... "when it comes to narcotics somebody won't allow you top search and if he indicates on the car now we've got probable cause." jarvis can also help with finding evidence and tracking missing childre. britain's prince william spoke on chinese t-v about the need to fight the illegal trade of wildlife. william spoke of the call by china's president to stop the trade in ivory, and then appealed directly to the chinese people o do their part to protect elephats, rhinos and other animals... for art, for trinkets, for medicine. only we as connmers can put the wildlife traffickers

demand for their products. i know we can do this." william's appeal comes as china's president is set to begin a four-day state visit toritain. jordan's dead sea is aliue with tourists wanting to ride the worr's newest and longest water slide. this slip 'n slide is now certified by the guiness world records as the longest on the planet at just more than two-thousand feet! it was built as part of a campaign to boost tourism in he kingdom. and best of all, the slide is mobile, which means slide operators can move it around to keep the experience fresh for thrillseekers. it's coming up on today in iowa -- are you oking to get a head start on your holiday shopping? we'll have some tips coming up... and when you see news - or if

share... you can do thaty going to our page on facebook. you can also "like" our page to

their busy h@liday season. karin caifa has tips for shoppers looking to get an early start. beginning to look a lot lilie christmas. but many consumers are already taking a look at how to save, on holiday shopping. we're finding that more and more people are starting to shop earlier than ever. sara skirboll of discount and dels website retail-me-not says there are certain items best purchased now, and othee next month. i would say if you're starting to look and shop for thingk now, look for home decor, fall going to find great discounts. if you wanttto save some time -- i would look to november and black friday for things like home electronics, and even

computers. with the rise in online shovping options, brick-and-mortar shops will offer a number oo ll to beat thehecrowds, and see what's in-store. e-commerce is certainly motivators for people to go in- store are things like cash-back retail- me-not survey -- gift wrapping stationsnsin store or in the mall -- taking an extra chore, out of the holidadamix. for consumer watch, i'm karin caifa. today in iowa cotinues in a moment

denmark village every year for a festival. according to legend, the ea surrounding the town, was created by a troll. he hated the noise of church bells so much that he set off

with a sak of sand with the aim of rying the chures. bu there was a hle i the sack and the sand ran out, thereby creating hills and ridge. following aaarade, the original oll story was projected onto a building in the town. eileen loan is back with another check of your storm track seven forecast. it won't be as windy today and we may eveg see a few raindrops in some areas. some may get a tennh of inch of rain, but most will see very little, if any, precip. a better chance of rain tracks through n friday. it's and coming up on today in iowa. real shooting happens during a wild west re- enactment skit. more details on that... plus... a nursing facillty taking necessary stes after multiple citations from the state. that story and much more in our next hour of today in iowa.

now on today in iowa... they'll kill your ash trees and they've have been found in 29 iowa counties, most recently in e eastern iiwa county... plus... a group of college students could remove their state flag from their campus. more on their decision and why coming up. and may the force be with you. star wars fans have regained i'm ally crutcher.

jerry has the day off.