When it comes to keeping highways clear from snow and ice, the Indiana Department of Transportation says it starts preparing long before the first flakes fall. INDOT Northeast District Public Relations Director Hunter Petroviak says training and planning start early in the fall, and crews constantly monitor weather forecasts once winter arrives.

Road salt can reduce car accidents on icy winter days. But it often doesn't stay on the road — and that runoff can harm aquatic life in rivers and lakes as well as damage plants and soil.

Sen. Liz Brown will no longer chair the Indiana Senate’s Judiciary Committee after she earlier quit a Republican leadership position in protest of the congressional redistricting plan’s defeat.