Had, i was progressively spiraling down. Derek wittenbergs Second Military enlistment included a tour in afghanistan. And his return to civilian life two years ago was not what he planned. Its kind of hard to relate to that. It wasnt like it was before. I wasnt the same person. This time, he was homeless. The situation was different for henry frank. He served in the army more than 30 years ago. When i went in i did my tour at ft. Stuart, georgia. I stayed there pretty much the whole time, even though we did desert training; never saw combat, but his life changed dramatically a couple of years ago when financial problems left him with no home, no money, and no prospects. You show obvious signs of being homeless, its very difficult to get a job. Hacap says 40 per cent of iowas homeless are veterans and their families. Thats a startling statistic that hacaps Operation Home strives to eliminate. The whole sole purpose of the program is to end veteran homelessness. So we prioritize helping veterans who are under bridges, sleeping on benches, and we find a lot of folks sleeping in their car many are even harder to locate. Were sleeping on our friends couch. Were sleeping in a garage. Some of us that are in close groups go on what we call camping trips. and theyre just going from place to place to place. And its hard to track them. And its not always easy to convince homeless sometime your pride gets in the way, especially if youve never asked for help before. Thatd be the thing. Youve worked all your life, and youve done things, then all of a sudden you have to ask for help. Yes, thats hard. If we find someone whos out on the street and resistant to any type of services, our case workers and our outreach workers go back, and they go back, and they go back and begin to form a seen as a threat, but a possible source of help. Help for problems than can include substance abuse, money management, mental issues, and much more. Dealing with those is important, but Operation Homes priority is housing. 0;02 we operate under the philosophy that we get em the house first, and then we wrap the services around them. And this federally funded program is working, serving about 200 Homeless Veterans in eastern iowa each year. A year later about 80 per cent of the folks that we serve are still in permanent housing, which is really a great number, and, i think, a testament that this approach does work. I really cant thank them enough, because i never really had to go through this before. This was a first time issue for me, going to a shelter like that, and saying i really needed the help. And for it to turn out the way it did, it was great. Bruce aune, kcrg tv nine news. Tonight the Home BuildersCommunity Gala in cedar rapids. Bruce served as the mc for this event thats also a fundraiser for Operation Home and its goal of ending homelessness among veterans. Lets go to meteorologis t joe winters. Joe, there will be veterans day ceremonies across eastern iowa tomorrow. How does the weather look . A clear days and it looks to continue through the start of next week. After a chilly start to saturday, with lows in the upper 20s and lower 30s we jump to near 60 on sunday. Dry weather and above normal conditions continue through next week. Have a great night. Tonight mostly clear. Wind nw 515. Low 39 tomorrow mostly sunny. Wind n 1020. High 54 back to you. Protests are continuing for a the white moines, where dozens of people gathered near the state capitol. Tonight, trump responded to the demonstrations. He said he had an open and successful election, and the media was inciting the protests, which are unfair. Meanwhile, trump is working to make sure he hits the ground running. Today, he talked with president obama at the white house in what was their first face to face meeting. Later in the day, he also met with House Speaker paul ryan. In both meetings, trump says discussed domestic and foreign policy. We discussed a lot of different situations. Some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel at the capitol, ryan showed trump the platform under construction where he will take the oath of office in january. The highway 965 bridge over the iowa river in john the county says the contractor working on the bridge finished repairs earlier than expected. But it still needs to do touchup work that could force one lane to close during the day. The bridge has been closed since september after engineers found structural issues earlier this year. One intersection on a busy street in cedar rapids has new technology to help make crossing the road safer. Its 42nd street northeast at marilyn drive, right across from pierce elementary school. Last year decided to change it up. Kcrgtv9s jordee kalk is live at the new crosswalk. Jordee, why does the city think this is safer . So the old crosswalk is now removed from the intersection right behind me. The city says this helps with safety because pedestrians dont have to worry about traffic from turning lanes. Now this especially and after school hours. Nat 55 18, im going to have you walk your bikes alrightcan you do that . Steve nelson has worked as a crossing guard for pierce elementary for about two years. Nat 56 43, hey how are you, how was school today these kids are what keeps him coming back, each day. Nat 56 04, hang on just a second here. Their safety is his main concern. Nat traffic nelson says traffic gets popping right around around the day youll notice it a lot more. Thats why he was thankful the city installed this new technology. Its called the pedestrian hybrid beacon. 49 27, safer, safer is definitely the word. For pedestrians its similar to a normal crosswalk, but its a little different for drivers. John witt assistant city traffic engineer35 12, the beacon when someone first starts pushing the button itll start to go yellow then solid red then after that it well go to a wig wag red flash. And drivers can go through the red flash if all of the pedestrains have gone through it cont and studies show it results in fewer crashes. 34 49, it reduces pedestrian crashes by 69 and reduces regular crashes by up to 29 . Nat 57 09, okay kids already, nelson says he feels safer at his own job. But more importantly, he feels better about leaving his post, when hes done for the day. 49 30 it makes it easier for the kids to cross even if there isnt someone here to operate it. This intersection is the fourth there are pedestrian hybrid beacons. The city says the goal is convert all pedestrian crossings to this technology in the near future. Live in cedar rapids, jordee kalk, kcrgtv9. Some communities in linn county are opting out increase. The wage is set to go up a dollar a year until it tops out at 1025 an hour in 2019. Ely voted to opt out of the wage increase at a meeting last month. Alburnett passed an ordinance that keeps the wage at 725 at its meeting tonight. Robins has already passed two readings of a similar ordinance. A third reading is scheduled later this month. A cedar rapids man says hes not taking any chances with his washing machine that could explode. And the fix isnt coming fast to repair his washer that could explode. Samsung issued a voluntary recall of nearly three million top load washers made between march 2011 and now. The company says the drums in these washers may lose balance, triggering excessive vibrations and resulting in the machine breaking apart. Kcrgtv9s Samantha Myers joins customer whose machine is under the recall . mike gray says he has had his samsung washing machine for three years and hasnt had a problem with it yet. But after hearing about the recall, he just wants to get it fixed. Samsung gives people with the washers two options. The first is a 150 loyalty incentive toward a new washer. The other option is an inhome repair. Gray chose to have the repair and says he made an appointment with samsung, took time off called National Service alliance come out, but they never showed up. 15 58 12;28when the time came, no one showed up. So i contacted their Corporate Office and the Corporate Office told me they had no idea why samsung was setting up these appointments through National Service alliance because they were overwhelmed, they had received hundreds of thousands of telephone calls and they still dont have the Replacement Parts from samsung he says he just wants to spread may be affected dont waste time setting up an appointment. Gray says he is now expecting a phone call from National Service alliance in the next week or so to finally set up that appointment when they get the parts. I reached out to samsung and it says it will reach out to gray to try and help. Beth . Thanks, samantha. A coffee shop in cedar rapids is donating all of the profits it made today. Giving the money to a family going through the sudden deaths of two young sisters. A clear sky has been i the cards through the start of next week. After a chilly start to saturday, with lows in the upper 20s and lower 30s we jump to near 60 on sunday. Dry weather and above normal conditions continue through next week. Have a great night. Tonight mostly clear. Wind nw 515. Low 39 tomorrow mostly sunny. Wind n 1020. High 54 tom. Saturday sunny. High 52 low 28 sunday mostly sunny. High 59 low 35 monday mostly sunny. High 57 low 39 tuesday partly cloudy. High 59 low 41 wednesday mostly sunny. High 60 low 40 thursday partly cloudy. High 62 low 42 friday chance of showers. High 52 low 49 for the past several days and it looks to continue through the start of next week. After a chilly start to saturday, with lows in the upper 20s and lower 30s we jump to near 60 on sunday. Dry weather and above normal conditions continue through next week. Have clear. Wind nw 515. Low 39 tomorrow mostly sunny. Wind n 1020. High 54 tom. Night clear and colder. Wind light. Low 28 saturday sunny. High 52 low 28 sunday mostly sunny. High 59 low 35 monday mostly sunny. High high 59 low 41 wednesday mostly sunny. High 60 low 40 thursday partly cloudy. High 62 low 42 friday chance of showers. High 52 low 49 a clear sky has been i the cards for the past several start of next week. After a chilly start to saturday, with lows in the upper 20s and lower 30s we jump to near 60 on sunday. Dry weather and above normal conditions continue through next week. Have a great night. Tonight mostly crash that happened in linn county. And its all thanks to a couple of local coffee shops. 100 percent of todays profits from all cedar rapids scooters locations went to jennifer perezs family. The family was in a crash last week that killed two and scooters management say they just wanted to find a way to help the family. And workers say their customers were also eager to help. 44 17, its been pretty crazy busy but all and all its so worth it. And just like i said just the Community Pulling together to help each other out i think it really does show theres a lot of good people out there each year, scooters chooses a family or an organization and donates a ful were accepting nominations for our annual nine who care program. Once again, tv nine and our show you care sponsors will honor nine outstanding volunteers whove made a difference in their communities. To nominate someone, just go to kcrg dot com slash care. And stay with your 24 hour news source, kcrgtv9. Coming up next in sports, scott will feature the athlete of the week. And he will also have highlights from the state volleyball semifinals and football semifinals. Stay with your 24 it was number one pella against semifinals at the unidome. Both teams came in undefeated. And its xavier who strikes first. Bryce schulte on the quarterback keeper. 70 saints. Then xavier getting it done on defense. Pell as pass is tipped and picked off by john rocca. He returns it out near midfield, but the saints couldnt turn that into points. After pella ties it early in the second quarter, Maliki Wilson changes that as he rushed for 180 yards in just the first half. 147 xavier. But pella would tie the game again at 14 and then the dutch grab the lead on this drive as nick finney fires deep to ryan van wyk. Pella scores on the next play to make it a 2114 game. Then with 3 seconds to go before the half, shane scott drills a field goal to make it a 2117 game. 8 man semifinals midland and don bosco and midland playing without their 65 starting qb alex martens collarbone. And it was all don bosco. Austin svobodo with a huge game the nice cut back and he can do it all at 62 200 pounds showing off the wheels for the 16 nothing lead and they were just getting warmed up Brandon Bagby hooks up with a wide open cale tenold for six more. And i love that face paint. And back to that guy svobodo checkout this amazing run. Gets outside breaking. Tackles the nice stiff arm and he cuts it back and almost more. Wyatt sawvell straight up the middle for the touchdown and don bosco cruises to the 72nothing win. The dons will face harris lake park in the 8 man title game. Other football news. According to jeff johnson of the gazette. Linn mar head football coach bob forsyth is stepping down after 9 seasons and a 5037 record. Class 1a took center stage tonight at the state volleyball tournament. Josh has semifinal highlights. First up in class 1a, springville going up springville grabs the early lead. Riley menster with the ace to give the orioles a 1712 lead. It tightened up at the end, but no panic by springville as setter madi wagaman catches the defense off guard. Orioles take set 1, 2523. But hudson comes right back in the 2nd set as annie klenk smashes the return. Pirates even up the match 11 with the 2519 win. Pretty close in the third set, but the orioles had no answer for kiley deberg. The future fighting illini 2523. Fourth set, springville trying to rally back. Menster floats one into the corner. Springville down 1816. But deberg takes over for hudson scoring three of the final four points. She had 34 kills as hudson wins 31 to go to the championship. The pirates will face the winner of this match, janesville versus holy trinity. Jansesville won the first set. Set two, Gillian Gergen gets the scoring started for the wildcats with a kill off a couple of defenders. All tied up 11. Later in the set, gergen the double block. Wildcats had to fight hard in the 2nd set. Match point, victoria hazard with the fastball. Janesville takes set two 2521 and wins the match 30. Wildcats will defend their title against hudson tomorrow at 7. Go to kcrg. Com for the semifinal highlights we ran at 6 00. And finally its time for another edition of the athlete of the week sponsored by cedar rapids toyota. What a senior year it has been for iowa city west 61 sought after receivers in the country. Martin a three sport standout has over 11 hundreds yards receiving and 15 td grabs leading his team to the 4a semifinals tomorrow night against wash. A lot of bombs you got a lot a long balls is that something you enjoy . I like it the long balls more than the shorter routs me and coach try to game plan before games during the week and i was always joke with him about throwing long balls mo your body right to go up and get the ball i try and do my best to get behind him at first and then if it comes down to it you try to lean into them a little bit and put yourself in the best position to catch it over them how much pressure has their been on the outside of football with the recruiting i try and focus on the team during the weekends then maybe talk to coaches and go on visits. It will be a touch decision wont it . I got some decision your sister one of the top swimmers in the world can you be here in a race i can in a sprint i can beat her looking forward to tomorrow night and playing in the dome oh yeah definitely a thats been the goal one of our goals this season is to make it to the dome so weve achieved that goal. Thanks scott. One last look at the forecast, joe. A clear sky has been i the cards for the past several days and it looks to continue through the start of next week. After a chilly start to saturday, with lows in the upper 20s and lower 30s we jump to near 60 on sunday. Dry weather and above normal conditions continue through next week. Have a great night. Tonight mostly clear. Wind nw 515. Low 39 tomorrow mostly sunny. Wind n 1020. High 54 thanks joe. Thanks for joining us for kcrgtv9 news at 10. We hope to have you here again tomorrow. Dicky from hollywood its . Jimmy kimmel live . tonight matthew broderick, from the los angeles rams, William Hayes and tip. And now, heres jimmy kimmel . . Jimmy hi, everybody. Thanks for coming. Thats very nice. I appreciate it. Im happy to see you too. You know, it was another interesting day in america today