More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Iowa Department of Transportation reports (via 511ia.org), that roads in parts of southwest and western Iowa are either partially or completely covered with snow/slush this morning, and bridges may be icy.

Roads i light blue are partially covered w/snow-slush; Roads in pink are compeletly covered

The completely covered roads include:

• Highway 6 (Whitepole Road) from I-80 to Highway 48
• Highway 71 from Templeton to Grant
• Highway 92 from Griswold half-way to Winterset
• Highway 173 from Highway 83 to Kimballton
• Highway 83 (Marne Road) from Atlantic to Marne
• Highway 48 from Highway 6 south, to Essex
• Highway 34 from Emerson to Creston
• Highway 59 from Henderson to Emerson
• Highway 25 from Bayard south to Highway 2

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) –  Democratic White House hopefuls are campaigning in the more than two dozen Iowa counties that went from supporting Barack Obama in 2012 to supporting Donald Trump in 2016. They hope showing up in counties Democrats lost will help prove they can take on the Republican president this year. Their visits may also help Democrats win back these counties in November by energizing Democrats and engaging disaffected Republicans. And they hope to win some delegates by focusing on these counties across the state. Iowa is home to more counties that pivoted from Obama to Trump than any other state.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb (AP) – An Iowa woman has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide for fatally striking a pedestrian in northeast Nebraska’s Dakota County. The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal reports that Maria Gonzalez-Diego, of Sioux City, Iowa, entered the plea Tuesday. Prosecutors dropped a charge of failure to stop at the scene of a fatal accident. Her sentencing is scheduled for March 10. South Sioux City police have said Gonzalez-Diego’s northbound vehicle hit 62-year-old Antonia Lopez De Ramirez the night of June 24 as she walked across a street. Police say Gonzalez-Diego’s vehicle continued north. A Sioux City, Iowa, officer later found Gonzalez-Diego and arrested her.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – The Waterloo City Council has postponed action on a proposal to permanently shut down the shortest of the local airport’s three landing strips. The airport director has recommended closing the runway because of safety and liability concerns. Federal officials have said they won’t provide any money because the airport’s other two runways can handle nearly all of the traffic. But several pilots told the council Tuesday that the runway is important for companies that use smaller aircraft to shuttle workers to other locations. The runway also is a safe alternative when high winds make it harder to access the two primary runways.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) —  A driver faces several charges stemming from what authorities say was a hit-and-run in the parking lot of a bar in Linn County. County court records say 30-year-old Bret Klima, of Urbana, is charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and with other crimes. His attorney didn’t immediately return an Associated Press call Wednesday. The crash happened around 1:30 a.m. Dec. 1 in the parking lot of Bully’s North in Center Point. Authorities say 50-year-old Kimberley Swore died at the scene. She lived in Center Point. Another pedestrian suffered minor injuries.

(Radio Iowa) — Investigators are looking into the crash of a University of Dubuque helicopter that injured a student pilot in northeast Iowa, Tuesday afternoon. The crash happened near a hangar at the Independence Municipal Airport around 4:15 p.m. Independence fire officials say the helicopter sustained significant damage. They also reported that the hanger was damaged in the crash.

University of Dubuque Public Information Director Stacey Ortman released a statement after the crash confirming that the accident involved a university helicopter and a student pilot, who was not identified. She also confirmed that the student suffered non-life-threatening injuries and taken to the Independence hospital for treatment. The Federal Aviation Administration has been called in to investigate the crash.

(Radio Iowa) — An Iowa Senate Committee has given its approval to new fines for drivers who loiter too long in the left lane on an interstate or four-lane highway. Senator Zach Whiting of Spirit Lake has been given the task of steering the bill through the senate. “I think it is an identifiable problem for a lot of drivers and it’s just a dangerous thing — the efficient flow of traffic being impeded by people camping out in the left lane.”

Whiting travels both Highway 20 and Interstate 35 on his commute to the state capitol and sees drivers who fail to yield the left lane to faster-moving vehicles.  “I always smile because when I’ve got my cruise control set and I see somebody coming really fast on my left, there’s always somebody coming faster behind ’em,” Whiting says, “and so just move over, get over.”

If the bill becomes law, Whiting expects it will include a requirement that the D-O-T use its digital signs or add some highway signs to alert drivers to move out of the left lane if they’re not passing. “Sometimes laws change and we just want t make sure that we put people on notice,” Whiting says.

Last year, a bill that would have established a one-hundred-dollar ($100) fine for drivers who linger too long in the left lane stalled in the Iowa House. This past summer, the ILLINOIS State Police deployed unmarked vehicles to catch drivers misusing the left lane and handed out tickets that carry a one-hundred-20 ($120) fine.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) — Democratic White House hopefuls are campaigning in the more than two dozen Iowa counties that went from supporting Barack Obama to Donald Trump in 2016. They hope showing up in counties Democrats lost will help prove they can take on Trump this year. Their visits may also help Democrats win back these counties in November by energizing Democrats and engaging disaffected Republicans. And they hope to win some delegates by focusing on these counties across the state.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Defense lawyers for the man charged in the killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts are asking for his trial to be delayed. Lawyers for Cristhian Bahena Rivera say they need to delay the Feb. 4 trial date so they have time to appeal a judge’s ruling that allowed key evidence to be used against their client. The Iowa Supreme Court will consider whether to take the appeal before trial. Rivera’s lawyers also say they want to depose several individuals recently added to the prosecution’s witness list, including Tibbetts’ boyfriend at the time of her July 2018 disappearance.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Iowa regulators have gone beyond their counterparts in North Dakota by requiring owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline to provide expert analysis to back up the company’s claim that doubling the line’s capacity does not increase the potential of a spill. Energy Transfer wants to double the capacity of the pipeline to as much as 1.1 million barrels daily to meet growing demand for oil shipments from North Dakota, and is seeking permission for additional pump stations in the Dakotas, Iowa and Illinois to do it.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Less than two weeks before the first voting contest of the 2020 primary season, virtually every Democratic presidential contender is trying to rally their supporters behind a decidedly optimistic theme: unity. Despite their consistent efforts, however, unity has proved to be a fleeting concept. Hillary Clinton slammed Bernie Sanders in an interview published Tuesday, representing the latest — and perhaps, the loudest — flash point in the Democratic Party’s high-stakes nomination fight that has exposed dangerous divisions based on gender, race, age and ideology that threaten to undermine the urgent quest to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020.