topic? this issue isn't going away, even with these bill appearing to be dead. iowa's speed limit of 70 is on the slower end nationally. and some drivers say it needs to change. "i think given how flat and straight these roads are, 75 would be acceptablele" gabe richardson is in the midst of a cross- country drive, and he says iowa's speed limits lag behind the what he's seen out west. limits of 75 - 80 even 85 miles per hour on the interstate. "we've been going 70 pretty steady, but we're still getting passed by people going 75-80, i think 75 would be good, then push it a little further to 80. " while safety is a big concern for some -- representative gary worthan says if safety were the only factor that went into crafting the speed limit, the world would move a lot slower. marlin hein drives a semi across eastern iowa twice a week. "if they passed a law make it 75 and make it stick, you know? don't be having all this s lerance to it, , affic will flow. "

increasing the limit to 75 would actually be safer because traffic will be less likely to stack up because cars and semis would spend less time driving side-by-side. "it's stacking traffic yp, so it doesn't flow, what happens is you get a couple trucks going side by side for miles andnd traffic backs up. " johnson county sheriff lonny pulkrabek says now is not the time to be worried about the increasing the speed limit. he says now is the time to be focusing things like tightening texting and driving laws. in iowa city, mark carlson,

let's turn now to meteorologist joe winters. joe, we're seeing a lot of snow disappppring across eastern iowa. as the snow melts away the weather warms. stronger south- southeast winds push drier and warm air in from the south keeping the milder than normal weather with us into the weeke. highs jump into thth 40s on thursday and the 40s and 50s on friday. it would not be out of the realm of possibilities to see some 60s across outhern iowa. early next week we do s s cooler, but still above normal weather, with highs close to 40. we also appear to remain dry for the next seven to ten days. have a great night! tonight: partly cloudy low: 25-31 winds: se 5-15totorrow: partly cloudy, milder high: 42-48 winds: se 15-25 bruce and beth...

after a report of gunshots earlier today. police had responded to a burglary call in the 14- hundred block of sixth avenue southeast around 9:50 a-m. while they were there, officers heard gunshots a block over. when they investigated they chased several people and found a weapon. police say they're trying to figure out exactly who s involved. a mobile home fire earlier this week in cedar rapids has now claimed two lives. 76 year old karen jacobs died last night at university of iowa hospitals. her husband, 76 year old ronald jacobs died at the scene of the fire on monday. their mobile home was at 3701 16th avenue southwest. investigators determined the fire started on a couch in the living room, and smoking materials were probably the cause. an iowa city man faces several charges after police say he videotaped a woman in the shower at a university of iowa residence hall.

robert hightower late last night. police say hightower told them he snuck into burge hall and stole a key to a women's restroom from a dorm earlier this week. then, police say he returned and recorded at least one woman showering. the university of iowa says hightower is not a u-i student, nor is he affiliated with the school in any way. faculty resignations at the university of iowa went up more than 36 per cent last academic year than in the year before. the iowa regents' most recent faculty report shows 66 faculty members resigned in that number jumped to 90 in 2014- to 2015. the for faculty says exit surveys showed that salaries were one of a the resignations. university president bruce harreld recently asked the legislature to approve a four and a half million dollar increase in state funding for faculty.

iowa's three public universities. the gazette reports that iowa, iowa state, and u-n-i will be asking the regents to approve price hikes at their next meeting. i-s-u's most popular room and board package would go up three and a half percent. similar packages at u-n-i and iowa would go up two point nine percent.' that translates to increases of 150 to 300 dollars, depending on the school and the plan. 2-shot wam it's a busy week in des moines as lawmakers work their way through a number of bills ahead of friday's funnel deadline. non bget bills that haven't passed at least one committee in either the house or senate won't go any further. one bill that's still alive would require iowa schools to teach new topics in high school human growth and development classes. it passed a committee earlier this week. the bill would require those health classes to teach... dating violence and also what it means for affirmative, conscious, or voluntary consent to engage in sexual activity.

joins us now. forrest, do lawmakers expect this bill will be controversial? every bill is controversial to someone. but proponents say this one has bi-partisan support. it passed the education committee unanimously. iowa senator rob hogg is one of those supporters uching for this veryryimple one l le bill. he quouod a national statistic that one in five women are sexually assaulted in their lives. hogg says this bill would provide age appropriate, research- based information to students, to start the conversation at a young age. the hope, that it will help guide their futures. " give our young people an opportunity to talk about it, so there's a s se place to talk about it and get introduced to these concepts. if we don't do it in high school when are we going to do it? " hogg said the bill was thought up by students in the youth advisory council. he said he expects it will be scheduled for debate in the senate sometime in the next two weeks. when it will be in those next two weeks is

right now they're focused on n tting bills past the funnel. bruce and beth? the f-b-i says it needs help hacking into the i-phe of one of the s bernardino shooters. but apple says it won't do it, because it could put other phones at risk.

as the snow melts away the weather warms. stronger south- southeast winds push drier and warm air in from the south keeping the milder than normal weather with us into the weekend. highs jump into the 40s on thursday and the 40s and 50s on friday. it wwld not be out of the realm of possibilities to see some 60s across

we do see cooler, but still above normal weather, with highs close to 40. we also appear to remain dry for the next seven to ten days. have a great night! tonight: partly cloudy low: 25-31 winds: se 5-15tomorrow: partly cloudy, milder high: 42-48 windnd: se 15-25tomorrowowight: p/cloudy, breezy low: 42-48 winds: s 15-25friday: m/sunny, windy, mild high: 57 - low: 45 saturday: mostly sunny, mild high: 54 - low: 37 sunday: partly cloudy high: 49 - low: 32 monday: partly cloudy high: 40 - low: 29 tuesday: mostly cloudy high: 39 - low: 26 wednesday: mostly cloudy high: 37 - low: 24

two health insurance companies are giving up their fights to help manage iowa's medicaid program. they dropped the suits after a judge ruled against their efforts to overturn iowa's medicaid

a judge is ordering apple to help the f-b-i crack the code of an i-phone belonging to a shooter who killed 14 people in december. but apple is appealing that decision. stay with your 24 hour news source, kcrg-tv9. iowa farmers and businesses

some more help improving their environmental performance. that's because the u-s department of agriculture recently awarded nine point five million dollars to the midwest agriculture water quality partnership. farmers and landowners also plan to invest 33

conservation efforts to keep water clean. and iowa will be one of the beneficiaries. iowa is also dedicating an additional four point 75 million dollars to help farmers implement technology that reduces nitrogen and phosphorous run-off. the iowa department of agriculture says the initiative will focus on the middle cedar and upper cedar watersheds, among others. last year, iowa taxpayers gave less to the state's fish and wildlife fund than they did the year before. taxpayers can donate by checking a box near the end of their state tax forms. radio iowa reports last spring, 75-hundred iowans donated a collective 132-thousand dollars. that's down about three percent from the year before when donations totaled nearly 136 thousand dollars. two healthcare insurance providers say they're ending efforts to gain contracts to manage iowa's medicaid program. iowa terminated a contract with wellcare in

wellcare later joined a lawsuit with meridian health plan that said the state's bidding process was flawed and should be reopened. a judge rejected the suit monday. spokespeople for both companies say they're not planning to appeal. apple says it will not help investigators break into the i-phone of one of the san bernardino killers. a california judge ordered the company to help the f-b-i get into syed farook's phone. however, a letter signed by apple's c-e-o says the company would have to build a back door into the phone to comply with the order. he says technology like that would make tens of millions of devices vulnerable to being hacked. today, the new york police department commissioner urged apple to comply. " i think terrorist threats and criminal threats threaten their customers much more being quite frank with you. this is the crux of the issue." farook and his wife killed 14 people in december before dying in a shootout with police. investigators have the farook's phone, but it's locked with a passcode they can't crack.

unsuccessful attempts to unlock it. a lizard that someone left to die in the cold is now alive and well. "we both were kind of on our seat, like, is she alive or dead?" and it has two dubuque county sheriff's deputies to thank. hear how they made the unusual save, still ahead on your 24-hour news source,

two dubuque county sheriff's deputies are getting credit for saving the life of a nearly frozen lizard. last month, the deputies found the one-year-old bearded dragon along a county road near rikardsvle. kcrg tv-9's dubuque bubuau chief katie wiedemann reports the deputies' quick thinking helped nurse the lizard back to health. this beaded dragon named daenerys

survival. "it was really cold. it was like zero degrees that night. " deputies ryan kettman and dan kearney responded to a call about a lizard left alalg the side the road, covered by a blanket. they assumed the lizard was dead, but decided to call dr. robin mundt for help. "when he was holding her he was like stiff as a board. literally stiff as a board. " heater nats the deputies cranked up the heat in the squad car and raced over to dr. mundt's house. she got a good look at the 18 inch reptile. "we still weren't sure if she was exactly alive. she had a little movement in one foot, but when a lizard passes, it's kind of like a human. you can have a weird little twitching. " but after warming her up with heating lamps for about an hour, she started to move. "it took about an hour before she could just kind of do this with her head. " by the next morning, was back to her old self. "it needed to go down just as it happened and had there been a delay or they waited any amount of time, as cold as it was

instead, she's alive and well, hanging out with dr. mundt. and they all have a couple of sheriff's deputies to thank for it feet sounds tv-9 news. dr. mundt plans to keep with her at her office at pet-med in dubuque. she's planning to use the dragon owners how to care for exotic animals. now here's a look at some of what you'll see at 5:30 on a-b-c. breaking news tonight. the new poll, is donald trump no longer the front-runner? also tonight the surprise in south carolina just days before the crucial primary. and the alleged imposter posing as a doctor for more than a month, examining patients.

damme to vehicles across the u-s. hear about the plan to fix some of these pot holes cedar rapids. and a dubuque sporting goods store has decided to close its doors.

recapping today's top stories, cedar rapids police took one person into custodod after a report of gunshots this morning. police had responded to a burglary call in the 14- hundred block of sixth

gunshots nearby. when they investigated, , they chaseseseveral people and found a weapon. police are still trying to figure out who all was involved. an iowa city man faces several charges after police say he videotaped a woman in the shower at a university of iowa residence hall. university of iowa police arrested 23-year-old robert hightower late last night. the university of iowa says hightower is not a u-i student, nor is he affiliated with the school in any way. despite a push to raise the maximum speed limimion iowa's interstates, it'll probably stay where it is. three speed bills didn't make it through committee today. and they probably won't beat friday's funnel deadline when non budget bills must pass a committee in either the house or the senate to stay alive. let's go back to joe now for a final look at tonight's forecast. as the snow melts away the weather warms. stronger south- southeast winds push drier and warm air in from the south keeping the milder than normal weather with us into the weekend. highs jump into the

the 40s a a 50s on friday. it would not be out of the realm of possibilities to see some 60s across southern iowa. early next week we do see cooler, but still above normal weather, with highs close to 40. we also appear to remain dry for the next seven to ten days. have a great night! tonight: partly cloudy low: 25-31 winds: se 5-15tomorrow: partly cloudy, milder high: 42-48 winds: se 15-25 thank you for joining us for kcrg-tv breaking news tonight. the new national poll. is donald trump no longer the front-runner? also, late today, the south carolina surprise. just three days before the high stakes republican primary, the major endorsement. could it sway the race? governor haley is not for donald trump. also developing, the fbi standoff with apple. after the terror attack in san bernardino, the fbi desperate to break into the gunman's iphone. a judge now demanding apple help the fbi. apple refusing. under fire. the two officers trying to

he pulls out a gun. their quick action in the moments that follow. the alleged imposter accused of posing as a dococr for more than a month, undetected, examining patients. the sting right here tonight. and, lucky couple. winning hundreds of millions, bhau they revealed after being handed the check. good evening. and we begin tonight with breaking news in the race for president, and it comes just three days before the high stakes republican primary in south carolina. a new national poll moments ago showing someone other than donald trump leading nationally. and south carolina's hugely popular governor, nickykki haley, just moments ago, endorsing someone else. haley making it clear she wants senator marco rubio to be the republican nominee. and that new national poll tonight showing senator teded cruz ahead of donald trump, 28% to donald trump's 26%. a statistical dead heat, but