WASHINGTON – Three people died when a driver tried to pass a snow plow Monday morning in Washington County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2002 Buick Park Ave was traveling southbound on Highway 1 toward Washington when the unidentified driver tried to pass an Iowa DOT snowplow. The vehicle collided head-on with a 2013 Nissan Rouge in the northbound lane. The drivers of both vehicles were killed, as was the front passenger of the Nissan. One-to-two inches of snow fell across the state for the first measurable winter precipitation for many of the new season, causing crashes all over the state.

IOWA CITY – The father of a Waterloo woman killed in a fatal crash last year verbally confronted the man who is responsible for her death. The Gazette reports Matt Russell read a victim impact statement on behalf of his late daughter Jennifer, a 22-year-old killed when Elijah Seals crashed into her vehicle while drag racing in Coralville in 2023. Seals was charged with involuntary manslaughter, homicide by drag racing, and homicide by excessive speed. Seals received an Alford plea bargain and a suspended 10 year prison sentence, which prosecutors say was due to him being 17 years old when the crash occurred. Seals has been ordered to pay the heirs of the estate of Jennifer $150,000. The only man accused of racing, Kesean Ford, is scheduled to go to trial in February. The Russell family is upset with the Johnson County Attorney’s Office for the Alford Plea, according to the report.

DES MOINES – A statewide panel has certified Iowa’s 2024 election results, according to the Des Moines Register. The turnout didn’t quite meet the 2020 high mark, but on November 5th and the weeks leading up, 1.67 million Iowans voted in the general election, or 74.2% of registered voters. The state’s board of canvassers, made up of Secretary of State Paul Pate, Governor Kim Reynolds, Treasurer Roby Smith, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, and Auditor Rob Sand, met in a conference all to approve the results on Monday.