Coming up on Fox News at 9, we're just hours away from Election Day, but votes are already
being counted in Polk County.
We'll take you there.
It's not a poll, but it's a good indicator going into Election Day.
We'll show you the ultra-tight numbers in the Iowa electronic market.
And first on Fox tonight, as millions here in Iowa prepare to cast their votes, both
sides make their final stop in Iowa.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us.
I'm Tiffany O'Donnell.
Udicide 2004 may be nearing an end, but not before a whirlwind dash through a handful
of battleground states, including right here in Iowa.
Candidate supporters and countless others are working around the clock as time is running
out to find support for their candidate.
Complete coverage of Udicide 2004 is first on Fox.
Tonight, we begin with Cal Woods live in the newsroom.
Cal.
Tiffany, the president brought an upbeat campaign to Des Moines today with a country band, his
family, and even some extended relatives.
It's one last chance for the president to leave a positive image in the minds of Iowa
voters before they head to the voting booth tomorrow.
No question who most of these folks support at a final Bush rally at the state fairgrounds,
but the battle isn't over these folks.
It's over voters like Samantha Phillips, one of the few yet to make up her mind.
Right, I don't want to see what George had to say, you know, and kind of decide I'm still
leaning not sure where I'm going to go with this.
Senator Grassley introduced the president with an optimism that Republicans can change
Iowa's tally from four years ago.
It's just one day before we go from being a blue state to being a red state.
And the president resumed some familiar themes, his unwavering vision and self-deprecating
humor.
Sometimes I mangled the English language.
I get that from my father.
But at all times, whether you agree with me or not, you know where I stand, what I believe,
and where I'm going to live.
And did the president win over at least one in the crowd yet to be won over?
I was leaning towards Kerry and then today come here and I decided to lean, you know,
I'm kind of leaning more towards George.
So I don't know.
We'll see.
And Iowa was just one of several of the battleground states the president and his family visited
today.
But it is important, as one of the Bush daughters mentioned, they had been in Iowa earlier this
morning, then they went up to Wisconsin.
They came back to Iowa this afternoon.
A busy day for the first family.
Tiffany.
Not a moment to waste.
Cal Woods in the newsroom.
Thanks Cal.
Meantime, vice presidential candidate John Edwards was asking volunteers for one more
day as he made a quick campaign stop in Des Moines today.
Fox News at nine, Susie Robinette continues our team coverage and reports while the stop
was quick, it's what volunteers say they needed.
It's a whirlwind tour of several states for John Edwards today.
A chance for him to thank the thousands of volunteers who have been working hard to get
out the vote and ask just one more thing.
We need to ask you to work one more day through tomorrow.
Edwards said he and John Kerry have learned a lot from Iowans, especially since both candidates
spent so much time here leading up to the Iowa caucuses.
Edwards spoke to the packed room for only about three minutes, just enough time to get
them fired up.
Because one thing that I am sure of, that I am sure of, and these are my last words
to you today, tomorrow I was going to send John Kerry into the White House.
All of us together, thank you.
For the volunteers working the phones, the quick rally was enough.
That gives you a real good feeling to have your senator here, to have him shake your
hands.
I've been working here for 45 days and I think we've got to win this election for John Kerry
and John Edwards.
We can't stand another four years of Bush.
We all know the election on Tuesday will be very close.
For that reason, John Kerry needs your vote.
So as the final hours are ticking down to election day, the phone calls continue and
they won't let up until the polls close tomorrow night.
Suzy Robinette, Fox News at 9.
From Iowa, Edwards went on to campaign in Ohio.
Both are considered swing states in this election.
Governor Tom Vilsack and Senator Tom Harkin are about to wrap up a three-day 17-city Iowa
tour as the campaign comes to a close.
Supporters waited at the Steelworkers Hall late this afternoon as U.S. Senate candidate
Art Small warmed up the crowd.
Harkin and Vilsack planned to visit every corner of the state in two separate tours
and converge in several cities as part of the final get out the vote effort.
Volunteers are preparing to count early ballots in Polk County.
More than 60,000 absentee ballots have been transported from the Polk County election
office to the convention center.
Today, paid volunteers could only remove the outer envelope.
Workers will begin counting the ballots tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow, Americans will elect the next president of the United States and one way to track
the winner is right here in Iowa at the University of Iowa.
Fox News at 9's Tauna Rathy joins us now with what the futures market is saying about
the future.
Tauna.
Well Tiffany, the Iowa electronic market allows traders to buy and sell futures contracts
based on who they think will win the presidential race tomorrow.
And historically, the IEM has been right at predicting presidents.
On the eve of the election, the Iowa electronic markets show the line is very fine between
the presidential winner and loser.
So it's just about as close as you can get.
In fact, University of Iowa associate professor of finance, Tom Reitz, says this is the closest
it's ever been.
Reitz is also a co-director of the school's web-based electronic markets.
What you do is you deposit between $500 and $500 in an account with us and you can use
that money as your trading account in any markets that you have access to.
The school is running two markets for the presidential race, a winner take all market
where the trader earns a dollar if the candidate they choose wins, and a vote share market
where payoffs are based on the percentage of the popular vote won by President Bush
and Senator John Kerry.
At 6 o'clock tonight, John Kerry had 50.1% and President Bush 49.9%.
The best forecast of what it's going to be tomorrow, according to our research, is whatever
it is today.
The Iowa electronic markets have been running since the 1988 presidential election with
a 1.37% average prediction error.
Reitz says the IEM is different than the fast and fluctuating polls that come out every
week.
We ask people to forecast what everyone will do on election day and that's different than
pollsters who ask you who you will vote for if the election were held today.
So our traders have to forecast what's going to happen in the future.
Second, they have to put their money where their mouth is in trading and polls, there's
no real incentive to tell the truth.
The Iowa electronic market is the only place you can legally bet on a presidential race
in the U.S.
And it's legal because it's used for research and educational purposes.
The trading will continue throughout tomorrow, however the markets are closed to new money
investments at this point.
Tiffany?
Tana Rathy, live in the studio.
Thank you, Tana.
Well, a lot of eyes on the weather tomorrow.
We know that can sometimes keep people home if it's going to be bad.
Talking to all those volunteers at the polls, they want to get people out there and it looks
like the weather won't keep anybody away.
Although today has been a rainy and gray, cool day out there.
The rain lifting out of central Iowa, it does look like it will dry off overnight tonight.
And the sea temperature is dropping to the upper 30s.
Clouds to start the day but we'll have the sunshine by the afternoon, looking for highs
in the low 50s.
Coming up in your forecast, we'll see if we can keep that sunshine around.
It's been a while since we've had a week where we've been able to do that.
It has.
Thanks, Ryan.
Yeah.
We have particular homicide charges after a passenger in his car was killed in an accident.
The story tops a look at news across Iowa tonight.
Officials say 27-year-old Brian Caffrey smashed into a stopped car in Boone.
Tests later found meth in his system at the time of the accident.
14-year-old Kirsten Hoeksema of Baxter was killed in that accident.
An Iowa City man is dead following a farm accident, apparently crushed by a cow.
37-year-old Eugene Casper of Iowa City died on Saturday after he was apparently pinned
against the wall by at least one animal.
An investigation into the accident continues.
A Lynn County landfill has been shut down as county officials hope to make the best
of new rules.
The county closed the landfill so that another site could be filled in case new rules forced
them to shut it down at a later date.
Still to come tonight, a rainy and cool day across the state, but that has nothing to
do with what some out west are dealing with.
Feudalist Brian Burchett updates our Foxcast and shows us some dealing with old man winter
a little bit early.
And later, flu shots in one Iowa town.
We'll show you in Fox Family Health.
This is Fox 17 News at 9 with Tiffany O'Donnell, meteorologist Brian Burchett, Andy Garman
with sports, and the Fox 17 News team.
Voters have a-
Sounds like even Mother Nature is into this presidential election.
She's going to make it easy for people to get out.
All eyes are on it and it does look like the weather is going to cooperate tomorrow.
We got all the yucky stuff out today as we saw temperatures only in the upper 40s to
near 50 for our highs.
Temperatures only moved a couple degrees today and some fairly substantial rain in parts
of the state where it's just been going on all day long.
And the setup right now, low pressure off to our south and east has been wrapping the
moisture up around it, bringing it into Iowa and the cool air filling in behind it as well.
We've been getting rain though back to the west in parts of Colorado off to the south
into New Mexico.
Snow, as a matter of fact, look at some of these pictures from the Denver area where
they picked up over a foot of snow this weekend, even closing Interstate 25 for a time.
They're still dealing with a little bit of snow in parts of Colorado as it pushes its
way out of the state to the south, but Denver is drying off now.
They'll get a chance to dig out from it.
Just a sign of things to come, I guess, but not soon.
Don't worry.
We are going to clear off.
The moisture is moving its way up out of the state right now.
We do still have some showers in Iowa, but they are starting to taper off.
We'll likely have some drizzle out there over the next couple hours.
By about 2, 3 a.m., the rain should pretty well be out of the state completely and we'll
be able to dry off a bit.
Temperatures, well, they haven't moved much.
Many of us saw highs in the upper 40s.
We're still in the mid 40s.
46 for Iowa City, Des Moines, 45 in Carroll, Ames, Fort Dodge, Harlan, 44 in Cedar Rapids.
The temperatures are cool across most of the Midwest.
On the warm side of this system off to the south and east, some warmer temperatures,
but you can see that cool air filling in.
And where we had the snow, look at this in the 20s right now in Denver, Scotts Bluff,
Rapid City.
Overnight tonight, that moisture lifts on out of here.
We'll start the day off with clouds tomorrow.
We'll be a great start, but the clearing line quickly moves from west to east as the day
goes on.
By midday, we'll have the sunshine back and clear skies tomorrow night will spell a cool
overnight.
Many of us will be off into the 30s for our lows by Wednesday morning.
Highs are going to stay a little cooler.
It is November now, after all, looking for highs right around the 50 degree mark tomorrow
and more of the same as we head through to Wednesday.
But for tonight, dropping into the upper 30s, those showers lift on out of here overnight.
We'll have clouds to start the day tomorrow, clearing as the afternoon goes on, sunshine
to look forward to, highs in the low 50s.
And then tomorrow night will remain clear, dropping to the mid to low 30s, as likely
we'll have a frosty start to the morning.
The Foxcast over the next five days has another chance for some light rain in here on Thursday,
but the gray skies won't stick around long, should have the sunshine back Friday.
But the big change in this forecast is that we're looking at staying in the upper 40s
to low 50s for our highs throughout the next several days.
Considering we saw 80 degrees on Friday, this is going to be a little bit of an adjustment
for us.
Reality check.
Yeah, no kidding.
Thank you, Ryan.
Still to come tonight, voter turnout is expected to be high, but another high turnout event
this year has been flu shot clinics.
We'll take you to one at Fox Family Health and later, Arnold for president, something
you would like the chance.
But does he?
That and more later in the Fox light.
It's your real estate professional.
Salon services for Fox 17 News at nine are provided by Signature Mail, Bella Salon and
Serenity.
Welcome back.
Both malls in Cedar Rapids were packed today, not with shoppers, but with patients.
One thousand flu shots were distributed at the first of two flu shot clinics at both
Lindale and Westdale malls to those classified as high risk clinics were held from nine to
three.
But by eleven thirty, they had already given out vouchers for all available shots.
It was a big crowd when we first walked in at nine o'clock.
People had been waiting for a few hours.
So it was a little bit testy at first until we got our number system going and such.
And then we moved them through very quickly.
For those who weren't able to get a shot today, there will be another clinic Wednesday from
nine to three at Lindale and Westdale.
Still, health officials recognize they probably won't have enough doses for everyone wanting
a shot for all the ups and downs in the world of business.
Here's Fox's Daga McDowell.
A cautious session on Wall Street ahead of a too close to call race for the White House.
Let's get straight to the numbers.
The Dow Industrial is climbing twenty seven points, the Nasdaq adding five while the S&P
500 inched up fractionally.
That would have been higher if not for Merck, the blue chip falling on a published report
suggesting Merck downplayed the health risk of Vioxx.
The arthritis rugged recently took off the market.
That stock sliding 10 percent oil prices diving in Monday's trading, taking crude below 50
bucks a barrel for the first time in almost a month.
Energy analysts saying a win for John Kerry could mean lower crude prices.
Looks like Americans are out there buying again.
For spending jumping six tenths of a percent in September after slipping in August.
Personal incomes moving higher also up two tenths of a percent in September.
Finally, Delta Airlines landing a five hundred million dollar funding deal with a unit of
General Electric.
As the struggling airline scrambles to avoid Chapter 11.
The latest round of funding comes as Delta pilots begin voting on a cost cutting package
that would save the carrier about a billion dollars a year.
That's business.
I'm Daga McDowell.
Jared Aarons up next with sports.
But first as always, your Fox stocks.
Tonight's Fox stocks are brought to you by Denny Elwell Company.
Real estate and development.
Jared Aarons in for Andy Garment and some accolades for you and I player.
You know, it's one of the oldest adages in sports.
Once your team starts winning, your players start winning awards.
And as for you and I wide receiver Justin Cerensi, well, he got a lot of firsts in Saturday's
game against SMU.
First game with double digit receptions, first game with over 160 receiving yards and now
his first ever offensive player of the week award from the Gateway Conference.
Cerensi, a junior, hauled in 10 catches for 190 yards and two touchdowns against the Bears
this weekend.
Right now, he ranks first in the league among wide receivers with six touchdowns, second
in yards per game and fourth in catches per game.
Now, in his previous two seasons with Northern Iowa, Cerensi had a total of 14 catches for
144 yards and just one touchdown.
He surpassed almost all of those numbers in just one game on Saturday.
The Iowa State Cyclones didn't didn't garner any player of the week awards from their 13-7
win over Kansas, but they did move into second place in the Big 12 North division.
And that sets up a showdown for first place this weekend against Nebraska.
But one player that very well could have won player of the week for the defense is defensive
tackle Brent Kirby, who returned a fumble 30 yards for a touchdown.
This is second fumble returned for a touchdown in two weeks.
It put the Cyclones ahead 10-0 in the second, much to the delight of Coach Dan McCarney.
Yeah, he is.
He's an athletic guy, he's a tough guy, he's relentless and he's a playmaker.
It was a great play.
Forcing the fumble and then scoring and getting on defense.
Obviously, it was a difference in the game.
The Iowa Hawkeyes still don't know how long they'll be without fullback Aaron Mickens,
who was injured on this play early in the first quarter of Saturday's game.
Take a slow-mo look.
He was hit helmet to helmet by Illinois' Morris Virgil.
It's legal though, and he suffered a mild concussion.
Mickens was taken off the field in an ambulance as a precaution.
Coach Kirk Ferentz has not set a timetable for his return.
So redshirt freshman Tom Busch will be the starting fullback for next weekend's game
against Purdue.
The Hawkeyes aren't the only team dealing with injuries right now.
Before this season has even started, the Drake basketball team has suffered its first owie.
Sophomore guard Nick Grant will be out eight to ten weeks with a broken right foot.
The injury occurred in practice when he stepped on teammate Nick Richie's foot.
Coach Drake, Coach Tom Davis calls it a freak injury.
So injuries already starting all over the place for the Hawkeyes.
They're now down to their seventh string running back.
All over the backfield, people are going down like flies.
It's an epidemic.
Thanks so much, Aaron.
Jared, Jared, Jared, Aaron.
Still to come tonight, he is delighted and frightened fans of the series of books.
And then on the big screen, now it appears Hannibal Lecter isn't gone yet.
We'll explain in the Fox light.
We haven't heard the last from Hannibal Lecter and some downtime for David Hasselhoff.
Bill McCuddy has that and more in the Fox light.
Hollywood types probably wish we were a little less up close and personal.
Wish you Fox light.
No more sex on the beach for David Hasselhoff, at least not the drink called that.
The Baywatch star is off to an alcohol treatment program.
There's a nice one in Malibu, David.
All this after pleading no contest to drunk driving.
Would you pay a little over six million dollars to see supermodel slash Uber wave Kate Moss
naked?
That's what Christie's auction house says it'll cost you and she won't even be there.
A painting of a naked and pregnant Moss by one of Britain's leading artists is expected
to go on the auction block.
Arnold Schwarzenegger says even though he supports an amendment to the constitution allowing
foreign born Americans to run for president, he's not interested in the job.
Has he told Maria she doesn't get to be a first lady?
Oh oh.
Eminem claims fame makes him feel like he's living in a cage and that he never knows whether
a woman is interested in him or his success.
Trust me, Marshall, it's your success.
Finally, ever wondered what made Hannibal a cannibal?
The answer will come when Thomas Harris' new novel about the serial killer Hannibal Lecter,
Behind the Mask, is published next year.
Foxlight thinks it's obviously because Sir Anthony Hopkins enjoys chewing the scenery.
That's the latest action from Hollywood and I did all my own stunts.
I'm Bill McCuddy, Fox News.
The Fox cast not so scary.
No, it's looking much less scary over the next few days.
As we get that sunshine back, it is going to be cool, but folks, it is November in Iowa.
The chances for rain by Thursday, but for the most part, looks to be a nice week.
The most important thing is that we have a nice day for election day so we don't have
any, no excuses to get out to the polls.
The weather is going to cooperate.
Absolutely.
If you haven't voted already, which just thousands of Iowans have really taken advantage of that
absentee voting, but if you haven't done it yet, make sure you get out there.
It's going to be a good one, folks, and we'll be there watching all the action from strategic
points in and around the area.
So tune us in as well.
Sure.
We're out of time.
Thanks for joining us and we'll see you right back here tomorrow night for your News One
news or we're only on Fox.