DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The state of Iowa says it would damage public safety if the state were forced to refund traffic fines and remove wrongful convictions from motorists’ records. The state made those assertions in documents made public Wednesday as it asked the Polk County District Court to reject an effort to certify as a class action a lawsuit against the state. The lawsuit cites a judge’s October ruling that the Iowa Transportation Department didn’t have authority to issue a speeding ticket to a 16-year-old driver.

The state is arguing in part that district court decisions aren’t binding to other district courts. The lawsuit seeks an order barring the department’s officers from issuing tickets. A 1990 Iowa attorney general opinion said the officers’ authority is limited to drunken driving and commercial vehicle regulations.

Red Oak Police arrested two men on separate charges, overnight Wednesday into early this (Thursday) morning. At around 9-p.m., Wednesday, 23-year old David James Zwerk, of Red Oak, was arrested on a Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charge. Zwerk was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $300 bond. And, at around 12:17-a.m. today (Thursday), Officers arrested 33-year old Kirby David Stoneking, of Red Oak, on a Montgomery County warrant for Trespass. Stoneking was also being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $300 bond.

Investigators are continuing to try and figure out the circumstances of a crash which resulted in the deaths of three Osceola teens. The three: 16-year-old Elaina Critz, 16-year-old Lauren Barker and 19-year-old Jesse Robinson, were found dead Tuesday morning inside a car that had gone off a road and into a creek. Iowa State Patrol Sergeant Nathan Ludwig says the weather this past weekend has potentially made the investigation more difficult. He says it rained during the weekend and that could have washed away some of the evidence that is available to the technical investigators.

Ludwig says little information is known at this time, including who the driver was and when exactly the accident happened. The State Patrol is working with the Osceola Police Department to look at a lot of things to try and determine the exact time of the accident. Ludwig says they are trying to find out when the teens last had contact with other people, when they were last on social media and those types of things to try and find out when they went missing.

Right now, Ludwig can confirm that three teens did lose control on Country Club Road two miles southeast of Osceola in Clarke County. After losing control, the three ended up in a creek down a deep ravine. Sergeant Ludwig says if it weren’t for the road maintenance worker seeing the car Tuesday, it may still be a missing persons case today. “I guess had that person not been there in that point in time sitting high up in a vehicle — that could still be a mystery today. And who knows how much longer had they not saw where the car was,” according to Ludwig.

Ludwig says investigators are continuing to work to try and find answers to the questions surrounding the accident.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials say details on the transition of power at the Iowa capitol “will be forthcoming,” but whenever Governor Terry Branstad leaves to become U.S. Ambassador to China, Iowa Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds will become the first woman to serve as Iowa’s governor. Joni Ernst — the first female from Iowa to be elected to the U.S. Senate — says she is thrilled. “I could not think of a more appropriate person to take on this responsibility,” Ernst says. “She has served Iowa in so many ways and has been such a strong and graceful leader.”

Reynolds has been Iowa’s lieutenant governor since 2011. Reynolds was elected to four terms as treasurer in Clarke County before winning a seat in the state senate in 2008. Branstad asked her to be his lieutenant governor runningmate in 2010. Ernst says Reynolds has been a “wonderful advocate” for HER political career. “We began corresponding when I was serving overseas with the Iowa National Guard during my deployment and she was encouraging me to run for county office and she provided a lot of wonderful guidance for me,” Ernst says. “All through my career she has been very, very helpful to me.”

Reynolds and her husband, Kevin, live in Osceola. Iowa Senator Ernst says Branstad’s opportunity is good news for Iowa. “I know that he will excel and give this new role all of his full attention and provide a great line of communication between our two countries,” Ernst says. Senator Chuck Grassley says Branstad’s “reputation as a straight shooter” will serve the U.S. well and Grassley predicts Branstad will get senate confirmation to the post of ambassador “very easily.”

Economic Development Authority director Debi Durham of Sioux City, shares a Des Moines apartment with Reynolds when they are both at work in the capitol city. “As someone that knows the lieutenant governor very well, not only from working with her on so many initiatives that she has led, but obviously being a friend, I can’t be more pleased,” Durham says. “I don’t think we’ve had someone more ready to be governor from day one than Kim Reynolds.”

Durham says Reynolds “has been involved in every decision” made in the Branstad Administration over the past six years. “When Governor Branstad recruited her to run with him, he told her from the beginning it was going to be a partnership,” Durham says, “and it truly has been.”

Durham has been in New York City this week, with Branstad, prospecting with businesses that might expand or relocate in Iowa — just as President-elect Trump’s team revealed Branstad will be the next ambassador to China.

(Radio Iowa)