DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Officials say some drivers have been stuck along parts of Interstate 80 for hours as progress to clear the roadway has slowed due to heavy snowfall. The Iowa State Patrol said last night that drivers in a 10-mile stretch between mile marker 187 and 197 were grid locked in both directions.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) —Republicans have nominated a candidate for a special election in a northeast Iowa state House district. A special nominating convention chose Dennis Litterer for the January 22nd special election in House District 52.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Police say a Council Bluffs man was shot in the chest while taking a car for a test drive. Twenty-five-year-old Charles Duncan told police he had stopped the car in a Council Bluffs parking lot Wednesday morning. Duncan says when he got out of the car to switch seats with his sister, someone in a black car with Nebraska license plates fired two shots at him. Duncan says he doesn’t know the assailants.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Senator Tom Harkin is refusing to say whether he played a role in securing donations for his namesake university institute from a South Korean businessman and his Iowa-based company. Harkin was asked yesterday on a conference call whether he was involved in obtaining $500,000 in contributions that PMX Industries and CEO Jin Roy Ryu gave to the Harkin Institute of Public Policy at Iowa State University. Harkin would not answer the question Thursday.