Disparity. Johnson countys program is called ladders, and it started last school year. Through that program and others many are working to make sure kids have a bright future. Nats of dancing its not hard to find happy kids at the dream center. Here at the dream center we have homework support, we have mentoring, we have a performing artscademy. Frederick newell, who started the nonprofit, says its all about education and giving youth more opportunities. We are creating programs here that kind of help with making sure people dont get involved in the system. His organization isnt the only one striving to help kids. The ladders program is a team effort in Johnson County that includes law enforcement, the school l district, the Juvenile Court system and the county. It focuses on the offense of disorderly conduct, which often comes with fighting. Instead of getting charged kids go through the program, which includes a Mental Health evaluation, Community Service and a writing assignment to think about so hopefully the goal is to modify that behavior so we dont see those juveniles again and at the end to keep them from committing offenses that would get them incnccerated as an adult. Just this week the Iowa City Police department expanded the program to include another charge fifth degree theft in hopes of keeping even morere youth out of the system. 7 59 16 i dont know if well ever solve the disparity, but i definitely think we can make it better. Newelsays ladders is a good step, but says more more needs to be do. 8 20 30 i just felt like if somebody would hold onto them and tell them what their potential is then maybe that in themselves, a change in mindset would help our youth not to get into things that would lead them into a system like the criminal justice system. Iowa city police say if students already have a prior crimil offense on their record of if theyve been through the ladders program, they will get charged with those two crimes. The chief justice says the Johnson CountyPilot Project has reduced the number of school 61percent. Bruce and beth . Thanks, jill. As we mentioned, another one of those programs is in linn county. The Cedar Rapids School district, police, Juvenile Courts, and Big Brothers Big Sisters rolled that one out this school year. Theyre focusing on finding 25 mentors for africaca American Children who could face a troubled future. Right now we have five active matches meeting out in the community doing things together. The majority of them got matctcd in november or december so we havent had quite enough time to see what difference that has made, but we are hearing positive things. School leaders refer students to big brothers, big sisters based on their absences, grades and other patterns of concern. The students to work with mentors to interrupt that pattern and turn things around. Meteorologis t joe winters. Joe, were getting a little break from the extreme cold. What a nice change as the cold weather has moved east for a couple of days. Lows tonight stay in the 20s and with a partly cloudy day on thursday we ould see some middleleo upper 30s throughout eastern iowa. As our next storm approaches thursday night, some light mii could develop with light snow showers possible friday. Cold arctic air then pours into the region for the weekekd and sticks with us for the early part of the week. Have a great night tonight partly cloudy low 2026 winds sw 510 tomorrow partly cloudy high 3642 winds s 515 back to you. An edgewood man was killed during an attempted robbery last weekend in memphis, tennessee. Police say 48yearold Lonnie Ludvigson died from a gunshototound saturday and killed him while trying to rob him. His obituary says ludvigson was a trucker for an internet site. He graduated from Edgewood Colesburg high school and served overseas as part of a medical unit in the us army. Some people in cedar rapids are defending their right to carry weapons. It comes after president obama announced a series of executive actions aimed to reduce gunrelated deaths. The executive actions expand background checks on some gun sales, including those made online and at gun shows. The president also called for more funding to increase access to Mental Health care. Kcrgtv9s Sarah Mccarthy explains how one group is supporting the Second Amendment in an unexpected way. In iowa, talking politics in gas stations or pizza places isnt uncommon, especially in the weeks leading up to caucus night. But the Iowa Conservative Union says the conversations happening here, in this cedar rapids godfathers arent necessarily about whos chasing the white house. Hi, what can i get for you. Between phone calls checking permit dozens of eastern iowa gun owners packed into this small, backckom. And theyre not shy about the weapons strapped to their side. 21 57 57 if we dont use your right to carry, you lose it. If we all just left our guns at home, we wouldnt have the freedom t t protect ourselves at home. Its a monthly meeting meant for conversation about conservative ideas. Wita sharp focus on the Second Amendment. 21 52 05 maybe you have your permit and youre new at it. Heres a place you can have your gun on your hip and you can carry. When youre around a bunch of people it becomes normal. And while sharing pieces of pizza isnt meant to serve as political platforms. 21 33 30 you can talk about politics, but keep in mind you are all armed so we talk nice. This close to the caucuses the conversation does come up. 21 44 16 the key is people i that room may only care about this issue, and in politics you have to look at more than one issue. He says night like this, facilitate those talks. Members message for customers who see these signs and feel unsafe. 21 50 02 if a crazy guy walks in theres nothing we can do, but those people back there will save lives. It is, right now, the safest restaurant in the country. The group says while theyve held this opop carry event for about three years, theyre hoping to expand membership in 2016. If youre interested in getting involved, weve put a link to the groups Facebook Page under this story on kcrg dot com. In cedar rapids, Sarah Mccarthy, kcrgtv9 some nonprofits are receiving thousands of dollars in grant money to encourage volunteering. The Iowa Commission on volunteer Service Oversees the volunteer generation fund. The fund is distributing 99thousand dollars. To five non profit organizations here in eastern iowa. One of those is united way of the dubuque area its receiving 35thousand dollars to help support says even though volunteers work for free, it doesnt mean they dont cost anything. Some non profits pay for meals and transportatio n, or they reward volunteers th small gifts. Nonprofits also need money to help recruit and train new volunteers. Putting out ads or getting people engaged sometimes does cost some money to do that. So there i ia cost involved. The united way of dubuque says it will use some of the money to hire a part Time Employee to help connect volunteers to the charities that need help. 1point5 billion d dlars. Thats how much someone may have just won in the Powerball Jackpot drawing that took place moments ago. Here are the winning numbers. 82734419 and the powerball is 10 lottery Officials Say people selected more than 85 pepeent of possible number combinations. All those purchases gave a boost to businesses selling lottery tickets. Stuff, buying more groceries, theyll just come in and say im going to get something while im here. If nobody won in tonights drawing, the estimated jackpot for saturday will increase to around 2 billion dollars. A North Liberty homeowner is out of thousands of dollars after a sewage clog. Hear how socalled flushable wipes caused a costly problememn the citys pipes. First heres a look at the most popular stories today on kcrg dotcom. Stay with your 24 hour a North Liberty homeowner will pay thousands of dollars in cleanup costs after a clogged pipe caused extensive damage in his home. Brent smith says flushed baby wipes were to blame for the sewer backup in his basement. Kcrgtv9s brea love reports on how those nonflushable items are causing problems for the city. Over the past two years North LibertyOfficials Say more and more wipes are clogging the sewers. Brent smith is dealing with that first hand. He was on his way from work when his wife called about a small amount of water in the basement. By the time he got home it became a big problem. The sewage was already just boiling up through the drain in our utility room. Smiths b bkflow preventer, a piece of Equipment Installed in homes to prevent these sewer friends and neighbors came to help flush the water, wpile the city rushed over to investigate. The city opened the sewer main and found the problem. As soon as it broke loose the plug a lot of white tissue type paper and wipes came through the line. They actually float and dont have a chance to break down, they catch on things. To demonstrate how items break down, we took two bowls of water. We placed toilet paper in one, and a wipe in the other. Then let them sit for two minutes. As you can see the toilet paper falls apart instantly. But, i had to pull hard on the wipe to get it to break apart. These large pieces are what can clog pipes colony says residents need to be careful of what they are flushing, and get their backflo preventers serviced annually. Smith hopes others will learn from this, so this wont happen to them. In North Liberty, brea love, kcrgtv nine news. Ted cruz is on the defensive ahead of the gop president ial debate tomorrow a new report says he didnt disclose a major loan when he ran for senate in 2012. What a nice change as the cold tonight stay in the 20s and with a partly cloudy day on thursday we 30s throughout eastern iowa. As our next storm approaches thursday night, some light mix could develop with light snow showers possible pours into the region for the weekend and sticks with us for the early part of the week. Have a great night tonight partly cloudy low 2026 winds sw 510 tomorrow partly cloudy high 3642 winds s 515tomorrow night chance of light mix low 2430 winds s 515friday chance of light snow high 32 low 27 saturday light snow late high 9 low 9 sunday sunny and cold high 1 low 5 monday chance of snow late high low 8 tuesday partly cloudy high 20 low 4 wednesday partly cloudy calling on Bernie Sanders to release specifics on several of his proposals. And donald trump, ted cruz, and the rest of the republican president ial field are preparing for their debates tomorrow. Abcs bazi kanani has the latest on the race for the white house. Hillary clinton. No longer holding back. Less than three weeks until the first votes are cast she told gma its time to go harder after Bernie Sanders. We have spent the beginning of this campaign for months now where ive been laying out my policies, where ive been meeting with people, listening to them about what they want the next president to do. And now were is time to draw a contrast. Clinton. Pressing sanders for specifics on his health care plan. Even enlisting her daugher, chelsea, in the fight. Senator sandee wants to dismantle obamacare. Wants to dismantle the chip program. Dismantle medicare. Sanders . Frustrated by the attack. That is factually incorrect. And i hope the Clinton Campaign stops saying that hes hitting back at clintonwith her own words circulating this video clip from 2008. Sot sanders since when do democrats go after each other on universal healthcare . Sanders. Ith a stunning lead in iowa. 49 percent to clintons 44. The shifting iowa polls numbers. Also putting pressure on donald trump. With ted cruz taking the lead there. Trump is hammering his canadianborn opponent over whether he can legally serve as us president. Tweeting today there is no way that ted cruz can continue running in the republican primary unless he can erase doubt on eligibility. Dems will sue cruz. Now firing back. Sot sen cruz the past couple of elections we saw the democrats thrilled that they got the nominee they wanted general election and seems the hillary folks are very eager to support donald trump and the attack that is are being tossed my direction. Bazi on camera tag as the republicans prepare for their next debate tomorrow night in south carolina, trump is warning his opponents, if hes attacked, hell hit back much harder. Ted cruz did not disclose a major loan that he took out when ran for senate in 2012. Thats according to the new york times. The loan was from goldman sachs. He did not report it in Campaign Finance reports a potential violation of election rules. Tonight, the Cruz Campaign acknowledged the mistake but called the issue a matter of semantics. There are casualties after multiple explosions and gunfire in indonesias capital, jakarta. The Agence Francepresse reports at least three people have been killed. One of the explosion went off inront panthers this season up and down and all over the place. Uni at indiana state tonight and they got off to a great start. Bennett koch with the flush for 2 of his team high 18. And Matt Bohannon had the hot hand from behind the arc with three triples and he finished with 11. Uni led by as many as 12 in the first half. But it was a tail of two halves. It was all sycamores in the second half they hit 12 3s and the panthers did not have an answer for Brenton Scott who torched uni for a game high indiana state win. The panthers fall to 23 in the valley and 108 overall. Bluders bunch was trying to snap a two game losing streak tonight in madtown. And the hawks came out firing on all cylinders in the first half. Ally disterhoft with the baseline drive for two of her game high 18. Allycat was 89 from the field. And iowa led 3025 at the break. And a good start to the second half kali peschel connects from behind the e c and iowa led by as many as many 16 in the third quarter. Wisconsin came back and cut the lead to two but iowa holds on for the 5754 win to raise their record to 32 in the big 10 and 134 overall. The iowa men will head into the lions den tomorrow night at Michigan State where they havent won since 1993. The spartans with one loss on the year and that was to iowa so o u know they will be fired up to play the hawks and they have their star denzell vallentine back. Valentine is one of the better players in our league so it presents a challenge for us it is going with him the lininp as a player you want to play against the best guys and he is one of them. They have a lot of different weapons but sometimes you take a key guy out it forcrc other step up a little bit and now valentine comes back a i think they are much better team as a result. They are going to after us we have to be ready to fight that is all there is. That place is tough to play anybody that beat Michigan State at Michigan State that is a big time win for them. It is going to mean a lot and we have to be ready. Sot 48 oc gonna be ready j. C ball tonight kirkwood hosted dmac in a double header. Josh has the highlights from johnson hall. Ladies first, kirkwood was on its home floor for the first time in a month. We start in the 3rd quarter, dar rapids prairie g gd Cyerra Hutchins twirls in the a threepointer to give kirkwood a quarter, nice dish down low to dominique jennings. Eagles still lead by 22. Closing seconds of the third quarter. Hutchins drives, and she gets the favorable bounce. And kirkwoods offense doesnt slow down. 4th quarter, Caitlin Sudduth gets help from the iron gods on this threepointer. She had 16 as kirkwood wins 7257. On the mens side, kirkwood was hoping to extend its winning streak to four games. The eagles were feeling it from threepoint range early. Hunter rhodes drains one on the far side. Then its former kcrg tv9 athlete of the week and jefferson grad jacob olson from the corner. Bingo. Eagleu lead 168. Still in the first half, rhodes with the floaoar, but Cristen Wilson is there for the putback jam to give the eagles a six point lead. But then kirkwoods offense goes on a run. Nick richards launches a three and hits it. Kirkwood crushes dmacc, 10049. Josh christensen tv9 sports. One last look at the forecast, joe. What a nice change as the cold weather has moved east for a couple of days. Lows tonight stay in the 20s and with a partly cloudy day on thursday we should see some middle to upper 30s throughout eastern iowa. As our next storm approaches thursday night, some light mix could develop with light snow showers possible friday. Cold arctic air then pours into the region n r the weekend and sticks with us for the early part of the week. Have a great night tonight partly cloudy low 2026 winds sw 510 tomorrow partly cloudy high 3642 winds s 515 thanks joe. Thanks for joining us for kcrgtv9 news at 10. We hope to have you here again