"i think it's a great idea it's helping me a lot personally, so. " expanding student options is a bonus. but the real reason to expand is to cut costs. washington has 65 classroom teachers now and might have had to eliminate five positions based on current estimates of proposed new state education dollars. but making class time shorter so the same number of teachers can handle more classes in a day should save the district a million dollars a year. "our strategy is to look at what we can currently modify in the structure and not look at reducing programs." the district's new schedule won't impact teacher contracts because it still allows prep timend fits into an eight hour school day. still, one teachererays there's been mixed reaction. "teachers up in arms to teachers who understand where this is coming from... this is more about inappropriate funding levels than anything else."

will need to make up one and a half to two million dollars in the budget because state education dollars will fall short of the need. they expect changing the schedule to make up half that amount. live in cedar rapids, , ave franzman kcrg tv9 news. the school district is also considering other changes to the schedule for the next school year. that includes starting classes later on every monday so teachers could use the time for professional development. schools would provide supervision for students who arrive early on those days. but after feedback from parents and teachers at a meeting last week, the school board tabled a decision on whether to put that plan into action. turning now to the forecast... it's starting to calm down after our winter storm. joe, what does this mean for temperatures overnig?

moves east tonight allowing the winds to diminish. we have already seen dropping temperatures through the day and by morning we are expecting lows in the singles digits in many areas. thursday remains a quiet winter day with a slight chance for some light snow developing late friday. an early peak at the weekend remains quiet with highs in the ddle to upper 30s. have a good night. tonight: clearing out, colder low: 6-12 winds: nw 5-15tomorrow: partly cloudy high: 26-32 winds: sw 5-15 back to you. a fire burned all the election paperwork forr franklin county sheriff's deputy running for office. chief deputy linn larson had the papers, including collected signatures, in his pickup truck. but it caught fire monday afternoon at his home west of coulter and everything was destroyed. larson will run for sheriff in franklin

the paperwork during the caucus. now he has to collect signatures ain. "although today i will suspend my campaign for presidency,y, willl continue to fight on for liberty, for the constitution, for justice in the united states senate." today kentucky senator rand paul dropped out of the republican presidential race. he's the third candidate to quit since the first in the nation caucuses in iowa monday. he finished fifth in the iowa caucuses. he says he's going to focus on his senate re- election. staff members for republican rick santorum say the former pennsylvania senator will also be ending his campaign. they say santorum will make the announcement tonight, and he'll endorse another republican for president. santorum won the iowa caucuses in 2012, but he finished eleventh on monday night with just one per cent of the vote. today we asked iowa senator chuck grassley about the iowa caucuses winnowing the field of republican presidential candidates.

s other advantages for being the first in the nation. "because iowans are very civic minded, they take their political responsibilities very seriously, and you see that, and you see that both at democratic rallies, and republican rallies. in addition to that, you can campaign on a shoestring and poskibly become president of the uhited states." grassley said he was not surprised ted cruz won the epublican caucuses s onday, and he said cruz has an outstanding organization working for him. he went on to say hillary clinton was a clear loser, even if she won t`e democratic caucuses. patience and cooperation. that's what linn county supervisor linda langston says she's learned in 14 years as a public servant. langston announced tuesday she won't be seeking reelection in november.

know when you've had a job long enough. and one more thing... " it's also good to step aside and make sure that other people have an opportunity to do public service. i felt like it was that time. " langston said she has an idea what hehenext step will be. she just isn't ready to announce that yet. johnson county is looking at making changes and facility improvements to better handle the homeless and people with mental healthth issues. the goal is to cut down the number of people in jail. last week sheriff's deputies, police officers, and other county officials traveled to san antonio, texas. authorities there take people with mental health and substance abuse issues to a behavioral health center instead of to a hospital or jail. johnson county authorities say they want to better train officers to handle mental health issues. there's also a possibility of adding a behavior

"we're looking at those things, bringing the partners to the table, we're going to have a meeting later on in february where everybody who has been down to san antonio is going to come together and say, what did you see? what stood out to you? what seems like a pressing need here? what model here? what t ght some of those initial action steps? " johnson county authorities say they've been working hard to combat mental illness over the past couple of years, but there's more work to do. the iowa lottery could see lawsuits start to pour in related to the rigging of the hot lotto ge. today a des moines law firm filed a lawsuit for larry dawson. he won a nine million dollar hot lotto jackpot five years ago. the lawsuit claims he should have won three times that amount because the previous jackpot was fixed. 's related to the case against eddie tipton. he's a former lottery security worker who secretly installed software on machines to learn winning numbers in advance. investigators say he'd then get people to collect the money in other states. t t iowa

criminal investigation says tipton may have had access to jackpots in as many as 37 states. today lawson's attorney said the odds to win the lottery y e hard, and if you win, you should get your prize. "the question that our lawsuit poses that we think should be very easy to answer is, if you can't trust the lottery to pay you in full wheheyou win, why would you ever play?" tipton was sentenced in september to 10 years in prison for two counts of lottery aud in iowa. doctors confirm more cases of the zika virus in the u-s, and the disease has led to a health emergency in parts of florida. we'll explain how researchers the university of iowa are preparing to take the f fht against the mosquito carried virus head on. stay with tv9.

soon play a role in the fight against the zika virus. the lab expects to begin testing in the near future. right now the centers for disease control is the only organization approved to test for the virus, but state labs are preparing to help. zika virus is linked to birth defects ininrazil, which causes babibi to be born with smaller than normal heads. today, florida's governor declared a health emergency in four counties after people traveled to other countrs and contracted it. yesterday health officials confirmed a person in texas contracted it through sex. kcrg-tv9's iowa city bureau chiefark carlson

could play in the fight against zika. "we've had people contacting us, oh my gosh, should i go here? well i can't tell you go, or don't go, you've already scheduled your vacation or trips and stuff, i think people are very concerned because something like this is very new and we don't know much about it. " at the state hygienic laboratory on the university of iowa's oakdale campus in coralvle -- officials say they're closely watching the spread of the zika virus. while they won't make any vaccines here -- the facility could play a key role in monitoriri the future spread of zika by testing for it. right now the c-d-c is the only place certified to test for zika, but that could change soon. "if this is something that continues to o of great concern, we will definitely request to be able to preform that test." while there have been no confirmed cases of the zika virus in iowa... the lab has been contacted by the state's d dartment of public

two specimen's of potential zika virus to the c-d-c. "we've had specimens that they'vwanted us to submit out, so we said, okay we'll get them out and when we get our results back we'll forward that information. " officials say they don't know how long it could take to determine whether or not the specimen's are positive for zika. that's a key reason why they hope to begin testing here in the near future. in coralville, mark carlson, kcrg tv nine news. high school athletes sigigd papers today, committing themselves to play for certain colleges. and that includes many in eastern iowa. we'll hear from them about their decisions. stay with your 24 hour news

the prolonged storm system moves east tonight allowing the winds to diminish. we have already seen dropping temperatures through the y and by morning we are expecting lows in the singles digits in many areas. thursday remains a quiet winter day with a slight chance for some light snow developing late friday. an arly peak at the weekend remains quiet with highs in the middle to upper 30s. have a good night.

low: 6-12 cloudy high: 26-32 winds: sw 5-15tomorrow night: partly cloudy lolo 15-21 winds: w 5-10friday: chance of snow high: 32 - low: 18 saturday: partly cloudy high: 36 - low: 21 sunday: partly cloudy high: 39 - low: 25 monday: chance of snow high: 28 - low: 22 tuesday: chance of snow high: 19 - low: 11 wednesday: partly cloudy

signing day for college football

the country. lets start off with the hawkeyes who scratched where it itches today. josh has more from iowa city. 24 players from 10 states signed on the dotted line to play at the univeristy of iowa. an area of emphasis was defense with five linebackers, five e fensive lineman, including four-star defensive end cedrick lattimore out of toirt, and four defensive backs. "i think we have some players right now where we're not sure where they're going to end up, and that's probably a good thing in my mind. three guys for sure we have targeted at linebacker, a couple of other guys might be tight ends, linebackers, defensive ends. so we'll l t that play out as it goes along. but i think it is fair to say that defense was an emphasis in this class." the hawkeyes also signed two running backs, toren young and toks akininbade out of brownsbubu, indiana who had offers from indiana, purdue and michigan. "he's got really good speed. i think he's really versatile back and do a lot of

thth toren's a more physical, stronger r ck. it's amazing how many yards and carries he had this past season, his durability. we're really excited about both those guys." most of this class committed in the summer, but just today, io picked up alaric jackson, an offensive lineman from detroit who had an offer from michigan as well. "i like the fact that he plays basketball. he does a lot of different things. when we evaluated him, we thought he was a guy that had potential to be a good offensive lineman. he's very athletic and has great size." in iowa city, josh christensen tv9 sports this was the scene at kennedy ttay as a ton of athletes in a lot of different sports signed letters. including the two future hawkeyes dalles jacobus who is a prefered walk on and shaun beyer who picked iowa over nebraska and north dakota state. dream come true going to all of those games when i was a young kid finally being able to play out on that field better feeling, they said they are

tight end but they said they also like me at the leo position at outside lineback type. we played in the back yards hawkeyes. we would act like dalles clark heheas my favorite player then. :24 oc: "favorite player then " new iowa state coach matt campbell hustled his tail off and landed a top 50 recruiting class. cacabell singed players s om 19 different states including a familiar name. 6'7 tight end chase allen from nixa missouri signed with the cyclones. his dad terry allen is the former head ccch at uni and assistant coach at iowa state. coach campbell said he tried to sell a blue color football program. this is going to be aattitude baseball football program. we are really simple and up front and probably to up front in the recruiting process selling that because i want guys who love the game of football and when things to get tough ththy have the ability y overcome adversity.y. sot : 16 oc: "ability to overcome adversity " the uni panthers signed 28 players today including some big time local athletes. the fastest high schooler in

prairie faxed in his letter of intent to cedar falls. rima's grampa gary rima is the long time voice of the panthers.. and jalen can't wait for gramps to call one of his touchdowns.@ i can't wait for that i am excited a aut it i can't imagine what he might say when i score a touchdown. i have a lot of history with uni. they want to he to return kicks and punts and they want me to play wide receiver. sot :22 oc: "that is what they want me to play reciever " three football signings at wash today including isiah nimmers who put his name on the line for northern iowa. nimmers played two ways for the warriors but is listed as a defensive back for the panthers. " that was the goal. i went to their camp for defense and they told me i would be playing defense. that is fine with me. " and finally wash athletic director paul james

from his ad job. but he would still like to coach the football team. we will have more with paul touorrow night on the kcrg tv-9 news.

we'll be right bact joe winters for your final forecast. the prolonged storm system moves east tonight allowing the winds to diminish. we have already seen dropping temperatures through the

expecting lows in the singles digits in many areas. thursday remains a quiet winter day with a slight chance for some light snow developing g te friday. an early peak at the weekend remains quiet with highs in the middle to upper 30s. have a good night. tonight: clearing out, colder low: 6-12 winds: nw 5-15tomorrow: partly cloudy high: 26-32 winds: sw 5-15 thanks for joining us for kcrg-tv9 news at 6. we hope you'll be wth us again tonight at ten. have a greret

what are you working on? can't talk. in the zone. do you know what he's doing? could be anything. last time he was like this, he figured out electron transport in graphene. time before that, he was making a list of who's allowed i ihis tree fort ifife ever gets one. still can't believe i didn't make the cut. uh, sheldon, you want to take a break? your food's ready. no, no, what are you doing? he's both happy and quiet. it's like seeing a unicorn and bigfoot at the same time. sorry we're so late. bernadette got stuck at work. great news! a raccoon virus just crossed the e ecies barrier

why is that great news?